by Kem Antilles
“Hah! You want me to do your dirty work for that? Not good enough!”
Quark glanced over at Rom, who was bungling drink orders for the Klingons. “Shhh—not so loud! We don’t want word about what you’re doing to accidentally leak out, do we?” He turned back to the Ferengi boy. “Now, what sort of compensation did you have in mind for the simple little favor I asked?”
“Sixty percent of whatever profits you make from the information I provide,” Nog said brashly. He felt his pulse racing with the excitement of the business deal. This was fun!
Quark made a choking sound. “Be reasonable!” he whispered.
“I am being reasonable. I’m doing all the work, and getting only a little more than half the profit.”
Quark tilted his head, considering. “How about forty percent? Without me, the information you gather is useless. Knowing how to use that information is worth at least sixty percent.”
Nog shook his head, blinking at his shrewd uncle. “Fifty-fifty,” he said. “Otherwise, no deal.”
Quark grimaced and slapped his forehead. “You’ll ruin me! But … all right,” he finally said. “Deal.”
Nog couldn’t keep from smiling. For once, he hadn’t come out on the short end of a negotiation with his uncle.
“Come on.” Jake heard Nog shout down the long corridor. “Kwiltek’s waiting! The sooner we get started, the more credits we’ll make.” Jake’s Ferengi friend raced across the shuttle bay to where the birdlike alien stood in the doorway of the mining company shuttle that had come to pick them up.
“Not so fast,” Commander Sisko said, putting a firm hand on Jake’s shoulder.
Jake paused, anxious to catch up with Nog, who was already boarding Kwiltek’s ship. The last week of school had taken forever. Jake couldn’t wait to see what Kwiltek had in store for them.
“But, Dad, I don’t want to be late my first day at work,” Jake said, turning to look at Sisko.
Sisko nodded “Good I’m glad to see that you’re treating this as a job, and not just another simulation game. Remember that, and you’ll do just fine.”
“Thanks, Dad.” Jake sighed. His father was always telling him things he already knew.
Sisko put out his right hand. “I guess I’ll see you in a week. Good luck.”
It felt a little awkward to shake his father’s hand. But it felt good, too, as if Jake had gained additional respect in his father’s eyes. He could tell that Commander Sisko was proud of him.
“I’ll miss you, Dad,” Jake said.
Sisko released his hand, then drew his son into a hug. “I’ll miss you, too, Jake.”
Jake glanced nervously at the waiting shuttle. Kwiltek and Nog had disappeared inside. “I’d better get going.”
“One last thing,” Sisko said sternly.
Jake looked up at his father. “What, Dad?”
Sisko smiled. “Have fun. That’s an important part of doing a good job.”
Jake grinned. “Don’t worry, Dad, I will!” Then he hurried off to the shuttle, where Kwiltek and Nog waited for him.
The mining company’s huge mothership was a two-hour trip beyond the point where the Wormhole dumped them into the Gamma Quadrant.
The ship was enormous, like an industrial city in space, consisting of a series of long cargo sections with docking ports. Peering out the shuttle’s viewport, Jake could see some kind of automated cargo container landing on a platform—probably one of the ore haulers that Kwiltek had mentioned, arriving from the surface of the planet
The big, round planet below was misty white with pale lavender showing through the cloud cover. To Jake, it looked like a habitable class-M planet.
“On the contrary,” Kwiltek said after Jake had mentioned his observation. “It’s very hostile. There are rough mountains and deep canyons, as well as jagged forests of crystal that are almost impossible to navigate. You can even see some of the terrible lightning storms that rage across the surface from up here. Absolutely deadly. You’ll get a better idea of what it’s like when you actually get to the telepresence simulators. But don’t worry—it’s not dangerous for you.”
“I hope it isn’t boring,” Jake said.
“Ah!” Kwiltek held up a leathery hand. “We have done everything we can to make your job more interesting. I think you’ll particularly like how we spice up the routine drudgery of the mining work by staging simulated attacks. You’ll find it to be similar to some of your video games.
Jake and Nog looked at each other in delighted anticipation.
Working the controls smoothly with his horned hands, Kwiltek guided their shuttle toward the front section of the mothership. The docking-bay door opened like a giant mouth, revealing a yawning, dark hole into which they flew. It took several minutes for the bay door to cycle shut, and then they had to wait for air to be pumped in.
“Please put these on,” Kwiltek said to the boys after they had disembarked from the shuttle. He handed each of them a tiny metallic disk emblazoned with the company logo.
“What is it?” Nog asked. He squinted at the metal disk, examining it more closely, as if it might be valuable.
“Life-support badges,” Kwiltek said.
“Lite-support? What do we need these for?” Jake said uneasily. He didn’t like the sound of it.
Kwiltek’s beak bobbed up and down. “In case there’s an emergency on the facility. We want to be sure everyone is protected.”
“You said we weren’t in any danger,” Nog said, quickly pinning the badge to the front of his shirt. “If we are, we expect to be compensated for hazardous duty.”
“I assure you, it’s quite safe. There’s nothing to worry about.” Kwiltek turned abruptly, his scale-feathers glittering in the dim light as he strode to a door on the far side of the shuttle bay.
“Let’s hope not,” Jake muttered under his breath as he and Nog followed.
“Please hurry,” Kwiltek said with a nasal whistle. “We are behind on our production schedule, and we can’t spare a lot of time to train you.”
Jake and Nog glanced at each other as they hurried down a corridor after Kwiltek. The lights in the narrow, curving hall flickered eerily, reflecting from the metallic walls. Water dripped from a broken seal in one pipe; rust spotted the walls and floor. Everything looked old and in a bad state of disrepair.
Jake could see why Kwiltek had given them life support badges. The mothership was in almost as bad shape as Deep Space Nine had been when his father had taken over command of the space station from the departing Cardassians. The Cardassians had stripped the station bare and even sabotaged some of the equipment. It had taken Chief O’Brien a lot of time and hard work to get the station livable.
Nog wrinkled his nose. “It stinks in here,” he said in a low voice.
“Yeah.” Jake was beginning to wonder if perhaps his father was right, that working here wasn’t going to be as much fun as Kwiltek had made it out to be.
Jake’s heart sank again as he saw the telepresence room. It was twice as big as the Arcade on Deep Space Nine, but the simulators looked a lot less sophisticated. About a hundred of them were crammed into the huge, gloomy room.
The simulator stations were partially enclosed control consoles with two pilot chairs set in front of a heads-up display. Pairs of kids worked the controls together. Jake watched the pair closest to him—a Bajoran girl about his age and a Benzite boy. Wisps of whitish gas rose from the breathing apparatus attached to the Benzite’s chest.
The Bajoran girl’s hands darted across the controls with amazing agility. Jake had never seen anyone that good in the Arcade. He wasn’t sure he could match the speed with which she maneuvered the image of the flyer on the screen.
“Awww, we have better graphics than this in the Deep Space Nine Arcade,” Nog whined.
A warble that might have been a sigh escaped Kwiltek’s nostrils. “We have discovered that better simulators are not cost-effective. They do not increase productivity as much as better mining equip
ment does. We would rather invest credits where the return will be the greatest. You can do your job with these.”
“That makes sense,” Nog said, baring his teeth in agreement. “Cost-effective.”
Jake walked over to the nearest empty simulator station. The display screen was blank, but the controls on the console glowed in readiness. Jake’s fingers twitched in anticipation. He turned back to Kwiltek.
“When can we get started?” He was anxious to see if he could match the Bajoran girl’s skill.
“Right now,” Kwiltek said, gesturing toward the seats with one hand. “Sit down, and I’ll do a quick run-through to familiarize you with the procedure and the controls. It’s really quite user-friendly.”
“They look pretty simple,” Nog said eagerly. scrambling into the seat next to Jake.
Kwiltek ran them through a quick training simulation. The mining machines had two separate components that worked together: an excavator-processor that moved on treads across the ground, and a finder-pulverizer that flew ahead, locating ore deposits and uncovering them with disrupter blasts.
Both machines had phasers to defend against the simulated attacks from fighters, missiles, and land mines that added excitement to the work. In addition, there were physical obstacles to be avoided: mudslides and hidden pits. The terrain was a digitized schematic, relayed from the surface, that showed what the real ground looked like. Possible ore deposits were displayed as different-colored areas on the screen.
As soon as the remote-controlled excavator was full, the ore would be unloaded into a hauler for eventual transport up to the mothership.
“The goal,” Kwiltek said, “is to excavate, process, and unload the greatest amount of ore in the shortest time, while sustaining the least amount of damage to your equipment.” His beaked face showed no expression, though by his mannerisms he seemed to be smiling. “The team with the highest score at the end of its shift doubles its pay.”
Nog’s eyes widened. and he fidgeted impatiently. “What are we waiting for?” he said. “Let’s get going, Jake! We’ve already lost a lot of time to everyone else here.”
“Don’t worry,” Jake said confidently. “We’ll catch up.” He glanced at the other kids, especially the Bajoran and the Benzite, whose score was already higher than everyone else’s. From the look of things, he and Nog had a lot of work to do.
“I hope you’re right.” Nog said. “If we can earn twice as much as my father and uncle counted on. I might get to keep the half they didn’t anticipate.”
“Hey,” Jake said encouragingly, patting his friend on the shoulder. “We’re the only ones who ever completed the ‘Escape Through the Wormhole.’ remember?”
Nog grinned.
“Good luck, you two,” Kwiltek said. “I’ll check in later, to see how you’re doing.”
“I’ll operate the flyer,” Jake said when Kwiltek was gone. That was what the Bajoran girl had been operating. “You take the excavator.”
Nog made a face. “How come I always get the dirty work?”
Jake shrugged. “Maybe because you’re so good at it?” He laughed.
“Very funny,” Nog said. Then the two of them set to work aiming for the highest score.
CHAPTER 4
Working the simulator controls, Jake circled his flyer low over a thick cluster of jagged lines that represented the huge crystal forests covering the surface of the planet.
The flyer was a crude, oblong blip on the display screen. Nog’s slow-moving excavator showed as a long rectangle beneath it. To his right, the jagged outline of a mountain range rose like a series of pyramids above the horizon.
The overhead view gave Jake the exact location of rich deposits of titanium, gold, and duranium. Though it was only their second shift on the job, Jake already had become quite familiar with the way the system worked. The titanium was color coded blue, the gold yellow, and the duranium red. Just about every other valuable mineral he could imagine was represented on the screen in a different color. Despite its hostile conditions, this was a rich world indeed—and the simulated attacks added plenty of fun to the hours of tedious work.
“Let’s head for that canyon over there,” Nog said. “Look at all the ore deposits in it.”
“Yeah, but look at how dangerous it might be,” Jake said. Rough terrain meant a bigger chance of ambush from the simulated enemy flyers. It also would be harder to pilot a flyer between V-sloped canyon walls than to control an excavator with treads.
“Nothing risked, nothing gained,” Nog said. “Do you want to end up like we did this morning?”
Jake shook his head. “You’re right, Nog,” he said. “If we’re going to come in in first place, we have to take chances.”
The skilled Bajoran girl certainly did, and Jake had heard that she achieved the highest score most of the time. Jake was determined to beat her, though. At least he and Nog hadn’t come in in last place in their first session—but they hadn’t been close to winning, either.
Jake had stared at their score posted on the big screen at the end of their first shift. He lowered his head, disappointed, while the Bajoran girl and the Benzite boy calmly congratulated each other. It looked as if they were used to winning.
Nog hadn’t made it any easier with his grumbling. “If you had come back to help me navigate out of that mine field, we wouldn’t have had so many points deducted for damage.” The Ferengi boy shook his head and hissed in disgust.
“If I’d come back,” Jake countered, “we wouldn’t have had time to get that last deposit.”
“A lot of good it did us when I couldn’t even get there!”
They had argued about it until the Bajoran girl came over, and embarrassment had silenced them both. “You didn’t really expect to win your first time out, did you?” the girl asked.
Jake shrugged, then smiled sheepishly. “I guess I thought we’d do better than we did.”
“I felt the same way when I first got here.” The Bajoran smiled. “My name’s Dobb, by the way. We didn’t have time for introductions this morning.”
“I’m Jake. This is my friend Nog. We’re from Deep Space Nine.”
“How long have you been here, girl?” Nog said, pushing past Jake to talk to her.
Dobb had long brown hair tied in a ponytail, and beautiful brandy-brown eyes. A stylized silver ear cuff with dangling chains was fastened to her right ear. She seemed a little thin to Jake. He wondered if she had come from one of the refugee camps on Bajor.
Jake tried to imagine what it must have been like to survive the Cardassian occupation of her planet. The war had devastated that world and its economy. He could see why she was working for Kwiltek now. It was probably the best way Dobb could earn a living.
“I’ve been here a little less than three months,” Dobb said. “So has my partner, Tandon. We’ve had a lot of practice.”
“Any tips on how to win?” Jake asked.
“None that I’m going to tell,” Dobb said—but she smiled when she said it.
Jake shrugged. “Oh, well, it was worth a try. I guess we’ll just have to beat you without any help.”
“Hah! You may be good, but you’re not that good,” Dobb said.
“We’ll see about that, girl!” Nog sputtered. “I’ll wager we’re just as good as you are. Better.”
Dobb had shaken her head with a laugh. Jake remembered her words clearly from this morning: “It’s been a long time since anyone’s scored higher than we have. We’re the best.”
Not if I can help it, Jake now told himself, concentrating on the screen in front of him. He tightened his grip on the flyer controls, determined to prove her wrong.
A volley of simulated surface-to-surface missiles streaked toward Jake’s flyer. He jerked the controls to one side, barely avoiding the warheads spreading out around him, then locked his phasers onto the missiles and fired. Explosions blossomed across the screen.
“That was close!” Nog shouted.
Jake wiped his brow. “S
orry.”
“You should pay better atten—” Nog yelped in surprise as another explosion dislodged a huge rock from the cliff above. The Ferengi boy pulled back on the control stick, bringing his excavator to a halt. The boulder came to rest just in front of the big excavator, wedging between the narrow walls of the canyon.
“I’m not the only one who needs to pay better attention,” Jake chided.
“Now what?” Nog asked, frustrated. “It’s too big to fit inside the excavator. We’re going to lose valuable time. And time is money.”
“Use your phasers to break it apart,” Jake suggested.
“Oh, yeah … sure. I knew that.” The excavator backed up, and its turret turned, bringing disrupters to bear. The rock vanished from the screen, broken up into chunks too small to register.
Jake risked a quick peek behind him at the simulator station where Dobb and Tandon were working. The score above their display screen read several hundred points higher than the tally in front of Jake. He and Nog didn’t have much time left, less than an hour. If they didn’t do something spectacular fast, they were going to come up short.
He watched the Bajoran girl execute a nifty maneuver that put her in position to take out two simulated missiles that were about to strike Tandon’s excavator, which was burrowing into a duranium-rich deposit.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw three triangular needle-nosed attack fighters appear out of the exotic crystals below. The sleek craft angled sharply toward him, closing distance faster than he expected.
“I’m being tracked!” Jake said. He yanked the control stick back. His flyer darted skyward. One of the fighters fell away, deciding to go for Nog’s excavator.
“You’ll have to get that one yourself, Nog,” Jake said, focusing on the two fighters still tracking him.
“I’ll get it!” Nog said, working his own controls furiously.
Jake twisted his swift flyer to the right, then dove. The tops of the crystals rushed up at him with dizzying speed. At the last possible instant. Jake leveled the flyer out, grazing the crystal canopy.
But the two attack fighters mimicked his maneuver perfectly. If anything, they had gained on him.
