Part 16 (2/2)

”This can't be right,” he said. ”He just got over the plague.”

It was enough to start a stampede to the door. Quark grabbed at customers. ”Don't believe them,” he said. 'Tm sure they misunderstood. Maybe he had been misdiagnosed. Surely”

But no one was listening to him. They streamed out as if they were afraid they would suddenly topple over backwards, their skin a lovely shade of lime green. Even the Dabo girl had disappeared. ”Brother,” Rom said.

Quark held up a hand. ”Don't say a word to me. I don't want to hear it.”

He headed back to the bar. It had taken five hours to fill the place up again, and only two minutes to empty it out. Except for the Carda.s.sian on the floor. Moaning. ”Call a reed team, would you, Rom?”

Rom gaped at him. ”But brother, last time you made us-”

”I know what I did last time,” Quark said. ”There was no one in the bar then. Unless it was my imagination, we had a full bar this time. There's no hiding this one.”

”All right, brother.” Rom let his tray drop as he stared at the Carda.s.sian.

Quark stared at Rom.

More specifically, Quark stared at Rom's ear.

On the lobe was a s.h.i.+ny pimple, with a whitehead that looked as if it could burst at any moment.

”Tell me, Rom,” Quark said slowly. ”A Carda.s.sian dumped a case of Jibetian beer on your head.”

”No, brother,” Rom said, turning to him. ”Well, not since the last time. No one has dumped anything on me.”

”Then do you want to tell me where that pimple came from?” Quark asked, pointing.

Rom clapped a hand over the offending lobe. ”I was trying to tell you.”

”You were trying to tell me in a full bar. Now we have an empty bar. How did you get that-pustule-on your ear?”

Rom shrugged. ”It grew there.” ”Like hair.” ”Or skin.”

Quark nodded slowly. ”And you're comfortable with that?”

”No,” Rom said. ”It itches. I was going to ask you if you had any cream left.” ”I have some cream left,” Quark said. ”I would like to borrow it,” Rom said formally.

”And after you've applied it to your ear, you'll what? Sc.r.a.pe it off so that you can return it to me?”

”No,” Rom said, obviously fl.u.s.tered. ”I mean, I would~” ”You want me to give it to you,” Quark said.

”Yes,” Rom said. ”But not all of it. Since you need it too.” ”I don't need it,” Quark said. ”Yes, you do,” Rom said.

”No, I don't,” Quark said. ”I healed days ago. That's why I'm wondering what happened to you.”

”The same thing that happened to you, brother. It came back.”

Quark reached both hands up slowly and clapped his ears. Beneath his right hand, he felt a lump. A pimple.

A pustule. ”What did you do to cause this?” Quark asked.

”Nothing,” Rom said. ”Maybe the cream didn't work.”

”Obviously the cream didn't work,” Quark said. He sank into a chair. ”Not that it matters.” He stared at the moaning green Carda.s.sian on his floor. ”No one will ever come here again.”

Rom stared at him for a moment, then sat down beside him. ”Things are bad, aren't they?”

Quark nodded. ”And they're getting worse.”

Chapter Twenty-two

PULASKI WAITED UNTIL KELLEC and Narat were seated in the small medical office's only two chairs. Governo and Marvig stood against the wall, and Ogawa was just coming in. The room was hot and stuffy, like almost everything on Terok Nor. With six of them, it was going to do nothing but get worse before this short meeting was over.

”Leave that door open,” she said to Ogawa.

”Thank you,” Governo said. Pulaski could see he was already sweating.

She had called this meeting the instant she got back to the medical area with the information from the Enterprise. It had taken fifteen minutes for them all to gather from different parts of the station, enough time for her to go over the data quickly. She didn't like what she saw, especially the final conclusion Dr. Crusher had put in the notes after the crisis was over. ”Ready?” She glanced at everyone. ”Do it, Katherine,” Kellec said.

She nodded to him. In all the years she had known him, she'd never seen him this worried. Or this tired. The human faces around her all had deep worry carved in them, and Narat was now starting to look more afraid than anything else. But Kellec looked so strained she would have thought him seriously ill if she hadn't known what he had been through,, ”Here's what the Enterprise was dealing with on Archaria III.” She brought up the information supplied by Dr. Crusher on the screen in front of them. The three-dimensional image of a virus slowly spun, showing all its sides.

”That's very different from what we're dealing with,” Kellec said.

And it was. Its shape bore no resemblance at all to the viruses she had spent the last week studying.

”Completely,” Narat said.

”At a glance, I agree,” Pulaski said. ”This particular virus would be harmless to any Carda.s.sian or Bajoran or human, for that matter. This one wasn't designed for Carda.s.sians or Bajorans or humans. It was designed to strike at cross-species breeds.” ”Designed?” Narat asked.

”Designed,” Pulaski said, ”just as the virus we're dealing with was designed.”

”Did they ever discover who created that one?” Governo asked. ”No,” she said. ”They didn't.”

”Too bad,” Marvig said.

”So why is this important?” Kellec said. ”I see no possible connection.”

Pulaski knew when her ex-husband was getting impatient and might just rudely leave.

”I'll get to that in a moment, Kellec,” she said. ”There is a tie, believe me.”

He made a face, but remained in his chair.

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