by Mel Gilden
“You boys want a demonstration?” Jake and Nog were his best customers for these games. They were granted special privileges because of that, and because they were a good indicator of how well the games would sell.
“We sure would,” Jake replied. Nog was already inside the shop.
In their rush to preview the new game, they momentarily forgot about Babe.
Left on his own, Babe began to investigate the Promenade.
At first the sweet smell of Algorian spices lured him. Then he lingered for a while in front of a vendor hawking Orion chanting crystals. The entire Promenade was a carnival of strange scents and colors, each beckoning the creature a little farther from the hologame shop.
Finally Babe’s wandering took him to the less crowded far end of the Promenade—where he suddenly stopped short. His horn quivered as he sensed danger. Quickly Babe turned and started back the way he had come.
But the hulking form of Darm stood directly in his path. He faced the little creature like some deadly predator confronting a defenseless victim that has strayed too far from the safety of the herd. Babe backed away.
“Going somewhere, my furry friend?”
Babe may not have comprehended the words, but their intent was crystal clear.
Suddenly, as though driven by panic, the little rhinolike creature dashed toward a side corridor. But the corridor came to an abrupt end at a bulkhead. Babe was trapped.
Darm stood at the entrance to the corridor and slid the restraining collar out from under his tunic. “This is going to hurt you more than it does me,” he said with a smirk as he stepped forward.
Like a trapped beast left with no other choice, Babe desperately rushed toward his attacker.
Darm swung the collar like a lasso, but he mistimed the speed of his target. Babe dashed between his legs, spinning Darm off balance and sending him sprawling onto the floor.
“You’ll pay for that,” Darm cursed. He scrambled to his feet, his face twisted by a raging anger.
Babe found his way blocked by the crowd and darted toward a shop, but the door was closed. Babe pawed frantically at the door.
“That’s as far as you go,” Darm said as he approached Babe. “There’s nowhere to run.”
Babe did not try to run, but instead turned to face his adversary.
Darm seemed to take this as a signal of surrender. He moved forward with confidence.
Suddenly, between Darm and Babe, a monster appeared on the Promenade. It roared up in front of Darm, black horns shining, red tail whipping from side to side.
The spacer screamed, and he wasn’t the only one. The single scream multiplied. People saw the raging purple monster and ran.
There was mass panic on the Promenade, pure and simple, as the crowd began to run in all directions, tripping over one another in their hurry to escape.
The commotion brought Jake and Nog rushing out of the holoshop.
“Babe!” Jake yelled. “Where is he?”
“There!” Nog pointed down the concourse, past where the purple monster raged at the crowd, to where their furry friend was running for the stairs, dodging between the legs of fleeing patrons.
Jake started to run, but a security guard stepped in front of him. “No. Let me handle this, son.”
The security guard pushed Jake aside. He commanded people to get out of his way, then stepped into the middle of the concourse and pointed his phaser. He fired a single blast at the monster.
And the monster vanished.
Then, as Jake frantically looked around, he realized that Babe had disappeared, too.
CHAPTER 5
A search of the Promenade turned up nothing. Babe was gone.
Jake and Nog were worried. Their pet was frightened and had probably found a hole to hide in. He could be almost anywhere on the station.
Jake’s aunt on Earth had a cat. When Kitty got scared, she could crawl into the smallest and darkest of corners. If Babe had that ability, they might never find him.
“He’ll come out when he gets hungry.” Nog was certain that food could tempt anyone into anything, but Jake had his doubts. In the almost two days he had known Babe, Jake could not remember seeing the creature actually eat anything.
“Maybe Babe doesn’t eat,” Jake guessed aloud.
“Of course he eats,” Nog insisted. “Everyone has to eat something.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Trust me. The Ferengi know food.”
Jake suddenly had an unwelcome thought. “You don’t suppose Darm got him, do you?”
“Let’s have Odo check.”
Unfortunately Odo was otherwise occupied when the boys found him outside Quark’s. He was trying to sort out the affair of the vanishing monster, and from the tone of his conversation it was clear that Odo believed the Ferengi merchant was somehow involved.
“How can you possibly suspect me?” Quark demanded, doing his best to seem outraged by the mere suggestion of impropriety.
“Because,” Odo replied, “you have been doing everything in your power to make a profit during the wormhole celebration.”
“Of course I am. No Ferengi would ever let such an opportunity pass without participating in some meaningful way.”
“So you admit it?” Odo asked.
“I admit nothing,” Quark answered. He pointed at the sparse crowds on the Promenade. “Why would I do something that would drive my potential customers away?”
Odo reluctantly had to agree that the monster’s appearance had not increased Quark’s business.
Seeing that Deep Space Nine’s security chief was finished with Quark, Jake and Nog seized the opportunity to ask for Odo’s help in finding their missing pet.
Jake explained that Darm had been on the Promenade when Babe disappeared. Nog added that they were certain the spacer was involved.
While Odo sympathized with the boys’ concern and even agreed that Darm might be mixed up in Babe’s disappearance, he had to finish this current investigation before starting a new one.
“It’s very likely that Babe is just hiding,” Odo tried to reassure them as he left to talk with other pedestrians who had seen the monster.
Except, if Darm really did kidnap Babe, Jake was afraid that they might already be too late. With all the adults busy with what they considered to be a more important problem, Jake and Nog were on their own.
“We need to play detective,” Jake said.
“Like in Sherlock Holmes and the Cardassian Corpse?” Nog asked. “That holovid we watched last week?”
Jake nodded. Both boys sat down on a bench and tried to think of what Sherlock Holmes and his companion, Watson, would have done.
“If he does have Babe, then he’ll try to sell him to that alien fellow he was with at Quark’s,” Jake guessed.
“Then let’s find the alien and ask him.”
“He won’t tell us anything,” Jake warned.
“He will if we ask him right,” Nog said. He used the broad Ferengi grin that meant he had a plan. And that usually meant trouble for someone.
The alien, Nog had discovered from his uncle, Quark, was a Xaranian merchant who went by the name of Forsh. They found him half submerged in a mud bath in the Bajoran health spa across from Quark’s. Actually, he wasn’t alone. A dozen swamp slugs wriggled in the blue-green muck along with him.
“They cleanse the body,” Forsh told them. “you should try it sometime.”
Jake was doing his best to look somewhere else. While he knew taking a slime bath was not a totally uncommon alien practice, he still preferred old-fashioned soap and water.
“Let me get straight to the point,” Nog said, kneeling down next to the turtle-necked alien.
“Please do,” Forsh answered. “your uncle Quark has quite a reputation. I suspect that his young nephew may have an offer worth hearing.”
“It’s the alien creature—”
“The one that the spacer Darm tried to sell me,” Forsh interrupted, “but forgot to me
ntion that he did not own.”
“Yes. The creature, Babe, belongs to us.” Nog indicated that Jake was his partner in this potential deal.
“And you wish to sell him?”
“If the price is to our liking, we would consider such a transaction.”
Jake bit his tongue. What was Nog agreeing to do?
Forsh leaned back in the mud. His tongue flicked out and snagged an unwary whisper fly that had ventured too close. “The little creature would make a welcome addition to my collection.”
Forsh turned his head and gave Nog a hard look. “I will not haggle,” he told him, “but the price would be to your liking. That I guarantee. When can you make the delivery?”
Nog rose to his feet. “Tomorrow evening—if we decide to sell.”
“I look forward to your decision. I trust it will benefit both of us.” Forsh leaned even farther back and submerged himself completely into the muck.
When they were outside the spa, Jake asked Nog, “What was that all about?”
“If Darm had stolen Babe, he would have already made a deal. Forsh wouldn’t be interested in us.”
“Maybe he isn’t. Maybe he just wants us to think he is so we don’t get suspicious.”
“Maybe. But I don’t think so. Ferengi have an ear for negotiations. Forsh definitely wants to make a deal.”
“Then Darm doesn’t have Babe.”
“Not yet.”
Jake thought about it, then wondered aloud, “If Babe was scared, he’d probably go back to where he came from.”
“But,” Nog argued, “how would he get back to the Gamma Quadrant?”
“No. I don’t mean his home planet. I mean the starship that brought him through the wormhole—the Ulysses.”
They found the Ulysses in docking bay two, which was in the oldest area of the station. The air in the corridor that led to the airlock was musty with the stale smells from a thousand starships that had anchored here when Deep Space Nine was still a Cardassian mining station. Jake thought the odors gave the place a mood of romance and adventure. Nog complained that it simply stank.
Captain Pavlov was in his cabin going over the cargo manifests on his compupad. In contrast to the spit and polish of a Starfleet vessel, the Ulysses was old and pitted with age. The captain’s quarters were even more cramped than Jake had expected.
“Life in the merchant fleet is quite different from being on one of your father’s starships,” Pavlov remarked as he read Jake’s expression.
“I didn’t mean—” Jake started to explain.
Pavlov brushed the air with his hand, as though cleaning away invisible cobwebs. “Don’t apologize. The Ulysses is old and probably should be retired. We both should be.” He tugged at his red beard. “But neither of us would last long if we weren’t roaming the spaceways.”
Pavlov leaned back in his chair, which creaked under his shifting weight. “But what can an old space dog do for you young lads?”
Jake told him about the disappearance of Babe.
The captain listened patiently, then spoke. “I doubt that the creature would return here. I’m sure his time with Darm was not pleasant.”
“But if he’s frightened, this is a familiar place,” Nog said.
“Aye. There is that.”
Captain Pavlov swiveled in his chair and punched a code into the wall computer. Jake was startled that he didn’t speak to the computer like everyone else did.
“I hate machines that talk. I’m old-fashioned that way,” Pavlov commented while he read the display.
“Since we’re under Federation contract, I have to maintain a log of everyone and everything that comes on or goes off the Ulysses.” He paused while the data continued to scroll on the screen. “Your creature didn’t come back here to hide. There would be a record in the computer.”
“He couldn’t have sneaked aboard?” Nog asked.
“Or been smuggled on?” Jake added, thinking of Darm.
Pavlov shook his head. “No. Since we spoke in the commander’s office, I turned up security a notch or two. Anything coming aboard the Ulysses is now logged automatically.” He switched off the display and turned his attention back to Jake and Nog. “Sorry, lads. You’ll have to look somewhere else for your pet.”
But where? Jake wondered.
“Shouldn’t you be doing your homework?” Commander Sisko asked his son as Jake and Nog entered Operations. It was suppertime and the normally hectic nerve center of Deep Space Nine was almost empty. Only Vork, the Bajoran maintenance trainee who was currently assigned to Chief O’Brien, was there running some tests at the engineering console. Major Kira was seated across from Sisko at the Operations Table, where they had been writing some of the monthly Starfleet status reports that the commander dreaded.
“Babe’s missing,” Jake told his father.
“Odo informed me. But I thought you two detectives would have found him by now.”
Jake shook his head. “We’ve looked everywhere.”
“Maybe he went back to the Ulysses,” Kira suggested.
“No,” Nog replied. “We asked Captain Pavlov. He hasn’t seen him.”
“I’m sure he’ll show up,” Sisko said.
Jake understood his father was trying to be sympathetic, but he had already formed a close attachment to the alien creature in the short period they had been together. He wanted his father to do something.
“Can’t you scan for him?” Jake asked as he stepped up to the Operations Table.
“If he were wearing a communicator. But otherwise there’s no way for the computer to locate your pet.”
“Can’t you have Odo’s men search for him?”
“Odo is busy with these strange apparitions.”
“Apparitions?” Nog asked.
“He means ghosts,” Jake told Nog.
“The visual hallucinations that have been popping up on the Promenade,” Kira explained. “They’re driving Odo crazy.”
“They’re beginning to have the same effect on me,” Sisko said.
Jake knew that his father was uncomfortable with anything he couldn’t explain in rational terms. Another time and Jake would have wanted to be involved in solving the mystery. But now he had a more urgent need. They just had to find Babe.
Kira studied the faces of the two boys. “Couldn’t we post a description of Babe throughout the station?” she suggested, looking up at the commander. “Anyone who sees him report to Operations?”
The idea seemed reasonable enough to Jake.
“Do it,” Sisko told Kira, obviously agreeing.
But before the Bajoran major could enter the information into her computer terminal, she was interrupted by a beep.
“Something coming through the wormhole,” Kira said as she analyzed the readout that was displayed on the Operations Table.
“What do you mean, something?” Sisko asked.
“I’m not sure.”
“Not sure of what?” Sisko stepped up next to Kira to see the readout for himself.
“If it’s a ship,” Kira said in disbelief, “it’s big. Very big.”
“Put it on the viewer. Let’s get a look at our visitor,” Sisko ordered.
Major Kira ran her fingers over the control console. “Viewer on.”
The large overhead screen switched on and displayed a three-dimensional view of the Bajoran star system. Because the image was a hologram, the same perspective was visible to everyone in Ops.
“Magnify. Let’s see the wormhole.”
The image of the Denorios asteroid belt expanded. The screens still showed nothing but the empty starscape.
“Where is it?” Sisko asked.
Kira looked down at her control screen. “It should be visible—now!”
The wormhole suddenly blinked into existence. It was like some cosmic eye that opened as it awoke. The familiar multicolored tunnel spiraled out of the black void.
Then the ship came through the wormhole.
It was big.
> It was very big.
Jake had seen a lot of starships come through the wormhole. But never anything that big.
Nog’s mouth dropped open in amazement.
Kira finally broke the silence. “I didn’t think anything that big could get through the wormhole in one piece.”
“I’d agree with you, Major,” Sisko said. “Except for the evidence on our screen.”
It was a starship. Jake could see that. But it was not like any starship he had ever seen before. It was a sphere and it pulsated with strange, hypnotic colors. It reminded Jake of a big soap bubble. But the way the colors throbbed, this bubble seemed to be almost alive.
Behind the strange starship the wormhole closed. Once again there was only empty space. Except now the giant sphere blotted out the starfields and everything else. It filled the holographic screen with its gigantic presence.
And it was coming straight toward them.
CHAPTER 6
For a long moment no one in Operations moved. It was as if they were part of a holosuite drama and the program had been frozen, except that this drama was all too real. Jake noted that for once even Nog was speechless.
The giant sphere that had come out of the wormhole continued on a collision course with Deep Space Nine.
Sisko was the first to react to the potential danger. “Shields up,” he called.
Kira quickly punched the necessary codes into the Ops terminal. “Defensive shields raised.”
“Protection will not be necessary. For the moment.” The voice boomed out of nowhere, exploding in their ears.
All eyes turned to the main viewscreen. The spherical starship had stopped and hung in a threatening position uncomfortably close to the station. Now that image was replaced by a face.
Or was it a face?
Jake had never seen anything quite like it. Where he expected to see the being’s head, Jake saw a much smaller version of the throbbing energy bubble that had come through the wormhole.
