445 Back To The Grind
After successfully waking up the second Tasha Yar and Ensign Hendricks, whom didn't freak out about not being dead because Chappel gave them a quick explanation about what happened, they were sent to a different resort on Risa to enjoy a week of relaxing and having fun.
We had also picked up Agent Keyla and her Chappels, the Chief Engineer, and Chief Medical Officer assigned to the new spacedock. They needed a break as well after working so hard. Captain Andreas had to decline the invitation, unfortunately. She was too new to her post to take so much time off so soon, so we promised to bring back holo-recordings for her to share with the rest of her command.
Being on the resort planet for a week was a lot of fun the second time, since we knew we were all going back into a kind of warzone to save as many Maquis and Bajorans as possible, without alerting the Cardassians, Starfleet, and the Bajoran government about it. We had to do it that way to stop our actions from gaining attention or changing the course of events too much.
You would think that saving so many people in the background would be noticed, except that was kind of the point. It was in the background and no one really paid any attention to the lives or the deaths of the low ranked troops.
As far as I could remember, there were several entire colonies of Federation citizens that were wiped out during the conflict, even after the peace treaty was signed, because they refused to move when told their planet was now inside enemy territory. Because the Cardassians didn't want entire planets full of rebels and dissidents, they had been quietly removed.
After our short vacation, we returned people back to their lives and continued on our own journey to Deep Space Nine. Lwaxana really was excited about shocking Quark by showing up with a crate of gold pressed latinum and rubbing it in his face.
Apparently, she had several bad encounters with Ferengi and held them in contempt for it, mostly because she knew they would act the same way as the one that was obsessed with her. That she also felt dirty after hearing their mental voices, might have made her feel a little vindictive, too. I couldn't blame her for it, since they really were quite difficult to deal with.
I still hadn't had the two Tasha's meet and I was in no rush for it to happen. They had been through enough and were recovering from that, so letting them know there was another her around, just seemed like too much to pile on top of their lives.
Although, Chappel did test the waters a little by letting both of them see multiple copies of her and asked how they would react if there was another of her around. The reactions were mixed. One Tasha commented that she could utterly trust herself and wouldn't be alone anymore, except it would be weird to have an identical her around.
The other Tasha hated losing her individuality and Data agreed with her. After he met Lore several times, he knew having a similar him running around had made him do things he never would have done if Lore didn't exist. His Tasha agreed with that and claimed she would become more reckless if she knew there was another her around to live her life if she died.
So, that meant keeping them ignorant of each other and I made sure to give them tasks that would ensure they never met or even heard about there being two Tashas onboard. Not surprisingly, Agent Keyla and the second Tasha Yar, along with Ensign Hendricks, had gotten along really well on Risa.
They shared a passion for protecting Starfleet from its enemies and both were considering transferring over to her operation. It was ambitious and they would have things to do for years, giving them opportunities for both advancement and to sate their need for action and saving people from an existential threat.
It also opened Tasha and Hendricks up to the thought of changing their appearance to hide in plain sight, just like Agent Keyla had. If no one knew who she really was, no one could ever get revenge on her by going after her friends and family. She could do her missions without worry of retaliation, because only she knew who she really was. It was an appealing offer and both considered it seriously.
Just before we arrived at Deep Space Nine, the crew and I had a lively debate over revealing it was really us in our ship or if we should camouflage ourselves and pretend to be another ship. Since we didn't want to give away that we were in the area, or reveal our mission to help save the Maquis and Bajoran people, we accepted Wesley's suggestion to look like a tramp freighter of a similar size carrying mining equipment to establish an asteroid mining business.
That would give us a reason to be out this far and wanting to spend money on such an out of the way station. It would also let us pretend to take a long time to try and find an appropriate asteroid belt to make a claim for it, since mining colonies usually had a lot of overhead to handle the processing of whatever ores and minerals the asteroids had in them. Establishing the business could take time and no one would question why we stayed around for so long.
Once we had a plan, enacting it barely took any effort and we flew into Bajoran space with what looked like a beat up cargo hauler. No one bothered trying to get us to heave to for an inspection or anything, either. Why would they? We were a working man's ship, not a warship.
We even managed to be assigned a nice parking orbit near the station and didn't have to physically dock. That gave us a lot of room to work with and using a shuttle to ferry only a few people over to the station at a time would work out perfectly.
Of course, Chappel couldn't help but suggest having a little fun teasing Odo about station security as she had herself and a few of her sisters appear in different parts of the station and in clear view of certain visual recorders at the same time, just to see how he would react. I laughed at them using his innate curiosity against him like that and gave my approval of the prank, as long as they weren't caught at it.
Lwaxana wanted in on that as well, so she would be the main subject and would make a small spectacle of herself on the main Promenade Deck, then enter Quark's Bar and do the whole rich woman having fun scene that she had planned to do anyway. It would definitely get Odo's attention as he investigated her and he was sure to find out about her appearing in so many other places around the station at the same time.
It would also serve as quite the distraction for me as I changed my appearance to Atlas and made my way to near the station's computer core to hack into it and find out as much information about the current conflict around the station as possible. We needed information and this was the best way to get it, assuming they still had the older computer core from when the Cardassians still ran the station.
I really should tap into Odo's security station as well. With a direct link to that, it might open up a few avenues of information we couldn't get otherwise. I just had to remember a few of my Odo's pass-codes and hoped this Odo used similar ones. It would make things a whole lot easier for me, that's for sure.
*
Odo wasn't sure what was going on. The station was nice, calm, and orderly all day and that was exactly how he liked it. He easily handled a few scuffles and returned to his office. However, a huge disturbance on the Promenade Deck had him rushing over to check it out, only to see a quite attractive humanoid woman wearing revealing clothing and throwing credits and gold pressed latinum around.
Since she wasn't actually breaking any laws, not even the noise ordinance ones despite the crowd loudly talking to her and about her antics, he could do nothing except stand to the side and watched as the woman tore through the stores and bought more things than she could possibly fit into her suitcases.
Odo did placate the crowd a few times to stop them from begging the woman for a few credits to spare or some latinum to spend. Panhandling was not allowed on the station before and he was not going to allow it now. He did notice her giving him appreciative looks occasionally, probably because he was doing his job so effectively, so Odo kept the crowd at bay for her while she shopped without a care.
When she told her attendant, a very tall humanoid named Mr. Homn, that he could return to their rented quarters with her new things, Odo thought the spectacle was over. Instead, the woman loudly proclaimed she was heading to Quark's Bar and would by buying a round of drinks for everyone.
Odo actually groaned out loud as nearly everyone on the Promenade Deck cheered and then almost caused a stampede as they rushed towards Quark's. The woman, whom he now knew was Ambassador Lwaxana Troi after she had introduced herself to Garrick, the Cardassian Tailor, gave Odo a knowing look and then told Garrick to close up and join her for a glass or two of Romulan Ale.
Again, Odo groaned at her flaunting the law right in front of him, since Romulan Ale was a controlled substance by Federation Law and was illegal to buy or sell. Lwaxana laughed at his reaction and whispered to Garrick, whom had accepted the drink offer and closed his shop, that she could drink what she had and could give as much of it away as she wanted.
This woman is trouble. Both Garrick and Odo thought at the same time.
Lwaxana laughed, because they both meant thought it for different reasons. Garrick's was with respect and for the entertainment value, and Odo was with trepidation and reluctant acceptance that it was going to happen.
She led Garrick and Odo to Quark's Bar and all of the patrons shouted and clapped when she entered. Quark gave the trio a calculating look and then his eyes widened when Lwaxana took out a full bar of gold pressed latinum from her bag and plunked it down onto the bar. The whole place fell silent and she grinned at the plan working so well.
“Keep the drinks coming for everyone until that's gone.” Lwaxana declared.
There was dead silence for several seconds, then the entire place erupted in cheers and yells. Even the dancing girls and Dabo girls joined in, since it made the customers all the more eager to spend their money on something other than drinks.
It took a moment before Quark realized she was actually going to pay him with the thing. He felt a little faint as he picked up the gold covered rectangular bar, then his heartbeat sped up to sound like a hummingbird and his enormous ears flushed with blood.
“Quark, are you all right?” Odo asked.
Quark didn't hear him, though. His vision started to fade a little and he took several shallow breaths as his hands gripped the large gold bar to his chest. It was his. It was all his.
“Quark!” Odo exclaimed and rushed around to grab his kind of friend by the shoulders and shook him. “Quark!”
Quark blinked his eyes at Odo for several seconds and let out a little growl. “NO! IT'S MINE!”
Odo was sosurprised by the outburst that he let the short Ferengi go and Quark stumbled back, turned around, and went into the back room. His brother Rom was suddenly shoved out and the door slammed shut, which was weird, because doors weren't supposed to slam like that.
“I... uh... will be taking over the bar for a while.” Rom said and took Quark's place as the bartender. “My brother will be... huh... busy. Yes, busy. For a while.”
The cheers died down and Odo walked back around the bar to look at the very smug face of Lwaxana Troi. He tried to glare at her and all she did was beam a smile at him, as if she had achieved some great goal. That was when he realized she actually did. She had left Quark speechless, nearly killed him with shock, and then forced the man to retreat with the most expensive version of his people's currency.
“You are a very dangerous woman.” Odo commented.
“Yes, I am.” Lwaxana said and took out a dark blue bottle from her bag.
Rom let out a squeak like a mouse that had just been stepped on, because he could clearly see the maker's mark on the bottle. As a bartender, he knew that was the most rarest and expensive bottle of Romulan Ale to ever exist. He pointed at it, made another squeak noise, and fainted.
“That's two for two.” Lwaxana said, proudly.
Garrick let out a low chuckle and sat down at the bar as one of the Dabo girls took over for Rom and handed them three empty glasses. Lwaxana poured a very small amount into each of them and the Dabo girl smiled and nodded, then she tended to the dozens of people waiting to be served drinks.
Odo gave his glass a wary look, then sat down beside Lwaxana and took a sip. He gasped and stared at the thing, then turned his head to stare at her.
“Very dangerous.” Garrick said and lifted his glass to tap his, then tapped Lwaxana's and took a sip. He smiled warmly at the taste and the three of them sat there in silence and enjoyed their drink among the loud ruckus around them.
People took full advantage of the offer for free drinks for however long the large bar of gold pressed latinum would last and that was exactly what Lwaxana needed to happen. Word quickly spread and more people showed up to take advantage of the offer as well.
*
I easily slipped into the security office and wasn't surprised it was nearly identical to my Odo's office. I disabled the security features and then sat behind the desk and tried the first password I could think of to unlock the computer console. It was the given name of the scientist that first found Odo and Kira Nerys' birthday.
I started copying everything onto a datapad and browsed through the information. It was pretty involved and also had access to the original Cardassian records as well. It made me wonder if he shared them with Kira, whom would have shared them with Commander Sisko, or if he kept their access solely for himself.
In the end, it didn't really matter. I would use this information to find all the little spots the Maquis were located and where the Cardassians could have secret bases or outposts, or worse, hidden prisons or interrogation facilities. They didn't have access to a local space station anymore, so they needed either a large ship posted somewhere nearby or something on a planet's surface.
With a little luck, we could track it down and take care of it, while also following the electronic trails back to wherever they would lead. Did they have infiltrators in the Maquis? It would make sense for them to install deep cover agents to feed them information. They couldn't let all of them go without being monitored, could they?
With that in mind, I was sure they had several agents in the middle ranks of the rebels to keep an eye on them. It was the best way to keep them from harming the Cardassians or interfering in their most important operations in any meaningful way. That's what I would do, anyway.
The proverbial light bulb just went off in my head and I almost laughed out loud at such a simple solution. With the data I had access to now, it would be child's play to pretend to be a Starfleet defector, just as Thomas Riker had before, and I would be brought into the Maquis command structure quickly to help them fight the good fight.
With that plan in mind, I waited for the rest of the data to be transferred to my datapad, erased my work from the console, and left the security office to put the protective measures back into place. I'd have to talk to Beverly about it and about keeping the ship nearby or even using it in a few missions. It would have to stay disguised, though.
We couldn't let anyone know the USS Retaliation was going to join the Maquis and it would make all the difference to the people the Federation would have to cut off when the treaty was signed.