The Alpha Centauri Mystery - Part 5 By Ben Versteegt
Summary: On a planet in the Alpha Centauri system, after the Dominion War, a Cardassian with a phaser threatens to kill the Ferengi bartender Zaag, if he doesn't help him. He wants Zaag to steal some samples. The next day, Starfleet Ensign Sandra Burke has to examine these strange, unknown samples. Zaag then asks Sandra to steal those samples for him. She decides to set up a trap for the Cardassian, using Zaag and the samples as bait. The plan seems to fail, though, as the Cardassian takes Zaag hostage and threatens to kill him. Just as it looks like he's going to get away with the Ferengi and the samples, he lets Zaag go and runs away, after a signal from his ship's computer. Sandra then stuns him; the Cardassian is apprehended. Just as they begin to relax, they are startled by a huge explosion: the Starfleet compound is destroyed, by a yet unknown foe...
And now the continuation...
"What... what just happened?" Zaag asked. All this commotion just couldn't be good for business.
"Our base has just been blown up, that's what happened." Sandra answered softly. She turned to the security officers. "Keep our Cardassian friend here under constant surveillance. I'll go to the compound and see what I can do." She grabbed the case containing the samples. "And I'm taking these with me." She started to run, but then stopped again, and turned around to Zaag. "You coming?"
After running for a while, the two arrived at the compound, or what was left of it. Small fires consumed whatever they could, and huge pillars of smoke filled the sky above them. Starfleet personnel was running everywhere, trying to stop the fires from spreading, or to get the wounded outside of the building. Medical personnel were working hard to save all the wounded.
Sandra looked around for a while, taking in all that happened here. The blood on the wounded, the damage to the structure, the panic... it was all becoming too much for Sandra to look at. She took a deep breath and started looking for someone she knew. There, on a biobed, in an area outside the structure that had to be an improvised sickbay, she saw Lieutenant Graves. The entire left part of his face was covered with plasma burns, as well as his right leg and parts of his arms. Sandra walked towards him with lead in her boots.
She cleared her throat. "Sir? Are you all right?"
"No Ensign, I am not all right." the Lieutenant said with great difficulty. "I'm sure you can see that."
"What happened?"
"We were..." He closed his eyes, as if he was trying to hide the excruciating pain he was in. It didn't work very well. "We were attacked."
This came as a shock to Sandra. This hadn't been an accident. A Starfleet base had been attacked, on a planet in the middle of Federation space. She swallowed. "Attacked? By who?"
"We didn't know." Graves said. "There were no warnings, no indications that they were going to attack..."
"That who was going to attack? Who, Sir?"
"We didn't get a clear look at them at first, but the weapons they used... According to the sensors, they were... Romulan."
"The Romulans?" Sandra said surprised. "Why would they be attacking us?"
"They knocked out our main power generator with a single shot." the Lieutenant continued. "Then they started to fire at the Science Labs... There were plasma fires everywhere." Graves paused, as he struggled to ignore the pain. "Romulans then started to beam in, and shot everyone in the labs. They tore the place apart, literally. They were looking for something, but when they didn't find it, they beamed back."
"What... are you suggesting?"
"The samples... It's the only thing that wasn't in the labs at the time of the attack. That must have been what they were looking for."
Sandra was stunned. She realized she hold the case containing the samples more tightly, as if she was afraid somebody would take it from her. "The samples?" she asked. "Why would anybody..."
A doctor interrupted her. "This patient needs to rest." she said. "I must ask you to leave."
Sandra nodded. "Get well soon, Sir." she said and started to move away.
"Don't let those samples out of your sight!" he yelled after her.
After walking around the compound for a while, she and Zaag decided there was nothing either of them could do to help. They had asked those in charge of the rescue operations if they could be of any assistance, but they told them they were just in the way. The human and the Ferengi now sat down in the shade of a tree.
"It looks like the Romulans - or whoever it was that attacked us - were after these samples." Sandra told Zaag."
"Then those samples are very popular." Zaag replied. "That Cardassian also wanted them. He was even willing to kill me for that!" He paused to think. "Maybe we can sell them to the highest bidder. We could split the profit. 50-50?"
"Zaag..."
"Okay, okay, have it your way. 60 - 40?"
"No, Zaag. I'm not interested in selling the samples. I want to find out why the Cardassian and the Romulans want to get their hands on them."
"Humans..." Zaag sighed. "Why don't you ask the Cardassian himself? You have him in custody."
"Good idea, Zaag. I will." She stood up.
"Where are you going?" the Ferengi asked.
"To interrogate the Cardassian of course, as you suggested."
Zaag didn't feel very comfortable about that. He sighed and looked away.
"Why?" Sandra asked. "What's up, Zaag?"
"Well..." Zaag replied, a little nervous. "I just thought... why leave? This is such a romantic place, under this tree, the sun in my face..." he looked Sandra in the eyes. "a beautiful woman besides me..."
"A burnt-out Starfleet complex only a hundred or so meters from here..." Sandra added with a bit of irony in her voice.
"Okay, so the view could be better." Zaag said. "It doesn't matter. As long as you're here, everything's perfect."
"Why do I get the distinct feeling that you're trying to come on to me?"
"Because I am." Zaag said with utmost conviction. "I am, Sandra. You are the most lovely, most beautiful female I have ever seen. I... What I'm trying to say is..." he paused for a moment, at a loss for words. "I love you, Sandra."
Sandra, who wasn't used to this at all, took a step back. "Zaag... You're scaring me." she was used to the greedy, ruthless (when it comes to money) Zaag, not to a poetic, lovesick one.
"But it's true!" Zaag shouted. "I love you, Sandra. I know it sounds silly, and it goes against everything I know to be right, but... I do love you."
"Do you?" Sandra said skeptically. The devious Ferengi might just as easily fool her to accomplish some other plan he had. He may have even wanted to seduce her, and then take the samples to sell them to the highest bidder, as he had suggested. "I'll give you a strip of latinum if you stop this and just come with me." she said finally.
Zaag looked shocked. "Sandra!" he said. "I'm serious! I really am in love with..."
"Two strips."
"Make it three and it's a deal." Zaag had said it before he realized it. "Stupid stupid stupid!" he thought. He wished he could recall those words he had said, but his Ferengi business instinct was apparently stronger than his love for Sandra. At least for now. But he knew his love for the hew-mon was real, and eventually, it would even be stronger than his instinct for business.
"I thought so." Sandra said briskly. "Now let's get going."
After a while, they arrived at the place where they had left the security team. The team was still there, as was the Cardassian. He was awake now, and restrained by some members of the security team. He looked Sandra in the eyes. Sandra had the urge to look in another direction; anywhere but to the Cardassian. However, she forced herself to keep looking at her near-killer.
"I have a few questions for you." She said.
"I thought you might." was the reply.
"Did you know anything about this attack?"
"No.
"You're sure?"
"Positive." He came as close to Sandra as the security officers allowed him to. "If I wanted to blow up the Starfleet-compound to get those samples, I would have done it already. Why would I blow up your precious base if I had already arranged for the samples to be delivered to me?" He looked at Zaag. "I didn't expect treachery from a cowardly Ferengi, though." He turned his look at Sandra again. "Besides, blowing up your compound would attract a lot of attention. That's exactly what I don't want."
"Well, you got it anyway." Sandra replied. "Fine. I believe you have nothing to do with the attack on our base... for now, at least. Now, what do you know about those samples, and why do you want them so badly?"
"You really think I'd tell you?"
"I suppose not... Not now anyway. But you'll talk. Eventually."
"Are you threatening me?" His eyes were flaming; a burning rage directed at Sandra, who had the guts to threaten him... Him, of all people! "If you only knew who you are up against..." he warned Sandra.
"Care to elaborate?"
He didn't answer, but his eyes said enough. The pure hatred that was being directed at Sandra terrified the Starfleet Ensign.
"I didn't think so." She said, only a slight hint of fear in her voice. It was enough for the Cardassian to pick up.
"You're afraid of me, aren't you?" The Cardassian yelled, as if it was a revelation to him. "Yes, I can see it. You are absolutely terrified!" He laughed out loud. It was a horrific laugh, one that gave Sandra the creeps. She felt it through her whole body. "You are afraid of my power, aren't you?"
"This is pointless." she sighed. "I'm not getting anywhere here."
She was about to turn to some other methods of interrogating, but was interrupted by a familiar voice through her comm badge.
"USS Aquinas to Ensign Burke."
Astounded, she tapped her comm badge. "Uncle Pete? Is that you?"
There was some giggling on the other end of the channel. The person who was talking to Sandra scraped his throat. "Sandra, I thought I told you not to call me that."
"I'm sorry Captain. My apologies..." There was a pause. "Why are you calling me, Sir?"
"Listen carefully, Sandra. You are not safe on Alpha Centauri. Not while you have the samples."
"Sir?"
"I can't explain right now, but it is imperative that we get you on board the Aquinas immediately."
"What... why?"
"I told you, I don't have time to explain."
"But Captain, if I want to find out what happened here and why, I'm
going to have to stay here."
The Captain sighed. "You don't have a choice here, Ensign. I'm giving you a direct order: stand by for transport."
Now it was Sandra who sighed. "Uncle Pete, if you're going to beam me up, could you at least transport the Ferengi Zaag and a Cardassian prisoner to the Aquinas too? Zaag has been very helpful, and the prisoner might have some vital information."
"Very well. We're transporting the prisoner to the brig."
The Cardassian cursed in colourful Cardassian as he was beamed aboard.
"Now, prepare for transport."
Sandra took one final look at what had been her home for a while. Now it was destroyed. "I Only wish they could transport my belongings to the Aquinas too..." she murmured. She looked at Zaag.
"I'm ready." he said. "I'll go anywhere you go. I'll never leave you, Sandra. Besides, you owe me three strips of gold-pressed latinum..."
With a smile, Sandra tapped her comm badge again. "Burke to Aquinas..." She took a deep breath, for the last time breathing in the fresh air of the planet.
"Energize."
The two disappeared in a blue haze, leaving behind the destroyed Starfleet-compound; the damaged and burnt-out gray structure seeming out of place, amidst the lush green valleys of Alpha Centauri III...
