Part 4 (1/2)
”Well,” she said in that slow way of hers. ”I wanted to tell you that I am no longer on the Enterprise. If you need to reach me, I'll be on Deep s.p.a.ce Five for a short time. I'll let you know when I go elsewhere. I haven't gotten my new duty a.s.signment yet.”
So that was her ostensible reason for this contact. Brilliant, Katherine. ”Thank you,” he said. ”I always appreciate knowing what's happening with you.”
She smiled. He loved that smile still, and missed it more than he wanted to admit. ”Please,” she said. ”Take care of yourself.”
And then she signed off. He sat in front of his system for a moment and forced himself to breathe. The Carda.s.sians would find nothing amiss with that message, and yet he heard an entirely different conversation than the one they had in words. That was the benefit of having once been married; he and Katherine had a language all their own.
What she had really done was ask him about the plague. She had heard it was on Bajor, and was surprised he wasn't there treating it. He told her that it was bad, and that it wasn't just affecting Bajorans. The Carda.s.sians had it too, which was why he was on Terok Nor. He also told her, as best he could in that limited conversation, that he had no solutions. Katherine was an excellent physician. She would know what that meant.
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. That might be the last time he talked with her. Ever. If he got this thing.
But he couldn't think that way.
He didn't dare.
He stood. What he wouldn't give to have her here, now. She was the best researcher he knew, and she was up on all the current information. Her position at Starfleet gave her access to medical information from almost everywhere. He knew that the Federation had dealt with this sort of cross-species contamination, but he didn't remember where, and he didn't have the resources to find out. Katherine would.
She had one other a.s.set that he couldn't discount. The most important one. She was one of the most creative physicians in the quadrant. She had discovered and neutralized all sorts of alien viruses, and she had a knack for discovering the right solution at the right time. If Katherine were here, she would look at that virus and the way it affected Carda.s.sians versus the way it affected Bajorans, and she would know the detail he was missing. She would know, or she would do everything she could to find out. Just as he was doing.
He sighed. Even if Narat wouldn't meet his terms, he would go to the Carda.s.sian medical section. He had to. Discovering how to neutralize this virus was the only chance they had.
And maybe the only chance his people had.
Chapter Seven
DUKAT CONSTANTLY LOOKED at his skin. It was still gray. But he was rubbing it all the time. It had been crawling since the last time he had been in the medical area. He wasn't sick yet, but he had a hunch he was infected. He had a hunch they all were.
He didn't want to return to the medical area, but he had to. Narat hadn't reported since Kellec Ton had made his demands. Lower production. Eight-hour sleep schedules for Bajorans. Kellec's people were strong. They didn't need such precautions. Kellec Ton was taking advantage of Dukat, and Dukat was letting him.
It wouldn't last long. When this disease was cured he would make the Bajorans work double and triple s.h.i.+fts to make up for the lost production. He had to. He had quotas to fill. If he fell behind, he would lose his position here on Terok Nor. And that was the last thing he wanted.
The second-to-last thing. The last thing he wanted was to be the gul who watched an entire s.p.a.ce station succ.u.mb to an incurable plague.
He stepped inside the medical area. It was jammed with patients. All the biobeds were full. Carda.s.sians and Bajorans lay side by side, apparently not noticing each other. Bajoran and Carda.s.sian medical workers examined the sick, carrying pads, studying readouts, administering pain medication.
The stench in the area was worse than before. Dukat put a hand over his mouth and nose. He couldn't help himself. The smell was so powerful, he doubted it would ever leave him. He would have to destroy his clothes.
If the odor was that strong, did that mean the quarantine fields weren't working? The crawling sensation in his skin grew worse.
He was a soldier. He had seen death countless times. He could handle this as well.
But he knew, deep down, that this was different. This was the kind of death every soldier feared. Impossible to resolve. Death by weakness, by illness, not in the course of battle, not for some important cause, but because something microscopic managed to defeat the body because the body wasn't strong enough to handle it.
Dukat made his way through the rows of moaning people to the office. He stopped at the door. Narat sat at one terminal, Kellec Ton at another. Above them, holographic images of the virus spun in slow circles. Computer readouts scrolled on each side, one readout in Carda.s.sian, the other in Bajoran. The office was dark except for the light near the terminals themselves and whatever light was given off by the holographic image.
Dukat stared at it for a moment. Enlarged, the virus looked like an alien species, vibrant and alive. He didn't know much about biology-he didn't know the terminology for the p.r.o.ngs, or the fat center of the thing, or the ladder-like connectors on the sides. All he knew was that he would see the thing in his dreams. If he ever had time to sleep again. ”Are you finding anything?” he asked.
Both men jumped. Neither had heard him arrive. At least they were working hard. Narat turned to him. Kellec took another sample vial and placed it in the scope. He didn't bother to turn at all. ”Not enough,” Narat said. ”We have found several things,” Kellec said.
”We're just not finding out what we need quick enough,” Narat said.
Kellec still hadn't turned. Dukat closed the door. ”What things?”
”Well,” Narat said, even though Dukat had directed the question at Kellec. ”We have been able to confirm that this virus was created.” ”Created?”
”By someone,” Kellec said. ”It doesn't occur in nature.”
”We had suspected as much when we knew that it affected both Bajorans and Carda.s.sians, but the virus's structure confirms it,” Narat said. ”See the-”
”I trust your opinion,” Dukat said. ”What does this mean?”
”Someone created it,” Kellec snapped. ”Someone targeted us intentionally, either both of our peoples or one of them.”
Dukat suppressed a sigh. He had sent word to Central Command and to his contacts in the Obsidian Order. No one knew the cause of this virus, or if they did they weren't admitting it.
”If we could find who did this,” Narat said, ”we'd probably find a solution.” ”But we don't have any time,” Kellec said.
”I know,” Dukat said. The casualties throughout the station were growing. ”No, you don't know,” Kellec said.
Narat put a hand on Kellec's arm, but Kellec shook it away. He faced Dukat.
”This virus is extremely lethal.” Kellec slid his chair back and pointed to the image above him. This time it showed small round blobs that appeared to be floating in something. ”These are normal Bajoran cells. Now watch what happens when I introduce just one virus.”
The virus was darker and flatter than the cells. It had a nonsymmetrical shape, accentuated by the precision of the cells themselves. It looked like a scout for an invading army.
Dukat stepped farther into the office, fascinated in spite of himself. The virus latched on to the nearest cell. Then the virus destroyed the cell and moved to another. If a cell happened to divide, the virus did too. The process was repeated cell by cell.
”The incubation period, at least in Bajorans, is fairly long for a virus of this type,” Kellec said. ”We don't know how it's introduced to the body, but we do know that once the virus has infiltrated the system, the disease progresses very rapidly.”
Very rapidly. As Dukat watched, the virus destroyed the last remaining healthy cell. He shuddered.
”I don't know if we can reverse the virus's path,” Kellec said. ”It completely destroys any cells it touches. But I suspect that we could stop it in the incubation phase-if we could only find it.”
”This is the Bajoran version,” Dukat said. ”What about the Carda.s.sian?”
”The virus seems to be the same, with slight differences; but it reacts the same way to Carda.s.sian cells,” Narat said. ”It's as I told you before. Only the symptoms are different. But I am having no more luck than Kellec in discovering the way the virus is spread.”
Kellec turned in his chair. His face seemed thinner than it had before, and he had deep shadows under his eyes. The disease was taking something from him as well, and he wasn't even sick.
”Actually,” he said. ”We're not being entirely accurate. You saw what happened in my sample. If I were to take the virus and touch you with it, either through fluid or saliva, you would get sick and die within the day. That is happening to some of our people. But they are not the ones who hold the secret. The ones who hold the secret are the ones who have incubated the disease for days or weeks. We do not know how many people are incubating it now. I'm testing my own blood to see if I am, but so far I have found nothing.” ”We do know,” Narat said, ”that the virus itself can be spread by touch and through bodily fluids, but not through the air. But it has moved into too many people to be spread simply that way, so something else is spreading it. We just don't know what.”
Dukat tensed.
”We have been cautioning everyone, but I suspect it's too late. We must not allow anyone to leave Terok Nor, and no one should come here.” Narat bowed his head. ”We have to remain completely isolated until the disease has pa.s.sed.”
Dukat straightened his shoulders. He had stopped all departures from Terok Nor already, and he wasn't allowing most arrivals. But the ore s.h.i.+pments continued, and he had been planning to allow the ore s.h.i.+ps that were docked, waiting for processed material, to leave when they reached their quotas. To fail at this would mean admitting to Central Command that Terok Nor was crippled.
But it was crippled perhaps dying.