Cerulean Stars - Chapter 97

Chapter 97

Stardate 48343.8 - May 6, 2371 - 11:41:16

The past month had been rather reminiscent of attempting to ride a pugabeast, something Kira had attempted a grand total of once on a dare, and deeply regretted for the following weeks it had taken her broken arm to heal.

From the Orb Shadow experience she'd had when mind melding with Na'Tal, to discovering she had a twin, to finding out there was a lot more to her mothers story than she had previously believed. And now being held at gunpoint by an agent of the Obsidian Order who was giving them the same genial smile she often saw on Garak's face when he was adjusting one of her outfits.

“I'm really quite sorry about this Major Kira.” Entek offered apologetically as he held the bajoran phaser he must have stolen from somewhere on her, Iliana, and Legate Ghemor. “You must understand, until recently we really were hoping to sweep this whole situation under the rug with a minimum of fuss.”

“I wouldn't exactly call killing a dozen of your own people and forcing the evacuation of an entire warship a minimum fuss.” Kira offered in a careful tone.

An amused look flickered over Entek's face. “As useful as it turned out to be by forcing your hand like this, I'm afraid to say that wasn't us.”

Kira turned to Ghemor with an expectant look in her eyes, since if it hadn’t been him, that didn’t exactly leave a lot of other options.

“It wasn't my people.” He refused with a light shake of his head as Entek’s eyes momentarily flicked over to Kira in suspicion.

“Don't look at me.” Kira said. “I can assure you the Bajoran government just wants this whole mess over and done with.”

That was putting it mildly if Kira were to be honest, since as soon as they had confirmed she wasn't a Cardassian infiltrator, various officials had begun all but directly insisting she try and put this whole issue to rest as quickly as possible.

“Maybe Starfleet then?” Entek mused half to himself. “It would fit given everything else. Oh well, I suppose it really doesn't matter.”

“You can't believe you will get away with this Entek.” Ghemor stated as he glared at the other Cardassian, slowly inching his way as he did to place himself between Iliana and the energy weapons potential firing path. “Central Command will–

“Thank me for putting down a traitor before he could leak any secrets.” Entek finished for him. ”Or did you truly believe the Obsidian Order was unaware of the arrangements you were making to turn against the Union?”

“I’ll admit.” He continued with a mild grimace as keeping the weapon trained on them with nary a waver. “We had been hoping to take you into custody so as to route out any co-conspirators you might have. But finding out you had been setting the stage here to run off with your daughter to the Federation. Well, the Obsidian Order rightly decided we couldn’t risk it.”

“I what!?” Ghemor yelled out as his eyes bulged in outrage. “They will never believe that! I have never been anything but loyal to the Cardassian people!”

If Ghemor had been planning to turn traitor like that, Kira certainly didn’t know anything about it. Though she supposed Starfleet wouldn’t exactly have been rushing to tell her about such plans if they had been setting them up given everything that had happened the past week.

“A proper level of faux outrage at least.” Entek said as the corner of his lips quirked slightly in amusement. “But we intercepted the encoded transmissions you sent to Starfleet from the Kraxon. And they are quite damning in their details.”

“There's no way you get off the station after killing us.” Kira said as she moved to take a step forward only to stop dead still as the weapon twitched in her direction.

“Which is why it is your weapon Major that will be doing the killing.” Entek returned simply as Kira looked at the weapon he was holding with a new eye, noticing almost instantly now that she knew to look, the various distinguishing marks that confirmed his claim. “You really should be more careful with your weapon, leaving it out on the coffee table like that. Though I suppose I shouldn't expect proper weapon safety from a Bajoran of all people.”

Kira clamped down on any hint of a reaction to that as a sudden suspicion formed in her gut, because she always kept her weapon in the secure storage drawer next to her bed.

“I will kill them with your weapon.” He continued in an almost disinterested tone. “And then you with mine. Oh, I'm sure Starfleet will protest. Maybe even want to hold me. But I doubt the Bajoran government will want this investigated given the very real risk of war if it turns out there was even the slightest hint you were acting at their prompting.”

Prophets bless the Cardassian urge to pontificate, as everything Entek had just told them would make locking him away so much easier assuming she was right about what was coming. And if she was wrong, well, she really hoped for all their sakes she wasn't.

“Goodbye Tekeny.” Entek finally said as pulled the trigger, and Kira let out an audible sigh of relief as instead of releasing a beam of energy the entire weapon shimmered gold before expanding outwards into the stern faced form of Odo.

“That was quite the confession, Mister Entek.” The Changeling offered as he held both of the Obsidian Order agent’s arms in a firm grip, the man clearly straining to break free as he did. “Theft, espionage, and multiple cases of attempted murder. Though given I was investigating you for the assassination of Natrel Lorem, I rather suspect those may be the least of your crimes.”

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Stardate 48346.3 - May 7, 2371 - 09:35:16

“Garak.” Raine greeted the Cardassian relaxing comfortably in his cell for what would hopefully be the last time in this giant mess of a situation.

“Commander.” Garak returned as he pulled himself up into a seated position. “Is it time for our daily Kotra match already?”

Holding back a grimace at how the man had ended up making that an actual thing she looked forward to, Raine gave a nod to the Ensign on duty before walking over to the cell's control panel and quickly entered the code that would lower the force field.

“I'm afraid not.” She said as the blue energy field fizzed out, the man himself looking on in mild surprise as it did. “Because to my complete lack of surprise, you have been cleared of all charges and are free to go.”

A succinct lesson in never underestimating the sheer bloody mindedness of an Odo scorned. Because the Changeling had somehow managed to track down both a witness and security recording that put Garak on a completely different planet at the time of the assassination.

“I suppose you'll be handing me over to the Bajorans then?” Garak probed almost disinterestedly as he remained standing in the now open cell.

“No.” Raine drawled as she took a step towards the door and motioned for him to follow her. “You have also been cleared of that. And in related news, Quark is going to be receiving a Bajoran civil service award for that whole thing with Gul Toran last year.”

“I never liked him, you know.” Garak returned pleasantly as he finally moved to follow her. “Toran never really understood that you could often get better results with a few well placed words instead of more extreme methods.”

“For example.” Raine deadpanned as she began walking to the Defiants small transporter room. “Talking down terrorists who had seized a transport instead of just blowing it up.”

“Exactly.” Garak agreed in amusement.

Raine hummed softly to herself as they entered the room. “Given what happened with the Kraxon and Legate Ghemor though, I really have to wonder how much the Obsidian Orders standards have fallen as if late.”

Garak stopped dead in the doorway, and Raine turned to see the Cardassian giving her an odd look. “Something happened to Legate Ghemor?”

“Entek tried to kill him after discovering that Ghemor was planning to defect to the Federation.” Raine offered idly, still not sure if the Legate was being framed, or she was just on the uninformed side of a Starfleet Intelligence operation.

“Well now.” Garak mused as a rare bit of annoyance seemed to enter his voice. “That is several levels of unfortunate.”

“The Legate thinks so too.” Raine prompted, moving Garak several places down her mental list of likely suspects who had potentially framed the man. “He's been arguing with various members of Central Command almost non-stop since it occurred.”

It was a big part of the reason why Raine herself leaned more towards the idea of someone framing him. Because you didn’t go to the level of effort Legate Ghemor had unless you were honestly outraged about a claim.

“I see.” Garak murmured, and Raine could all but see the former spy’s brain trying to work through the problem. “Though if it has gone so far as to have Entek of all people try to kill him, I doubt this is something that he will be abv to clear up with a few words.”

“Did Entek survive the attempt?” He inquired as he finally began walking again, quickly covering the distance to the transporter platform as Raine gave a nod to the officer on duty.

“Odo caught him.” She offered with an amused grin. “He’d apparently been pretending to be a reflective surface in Entek’s guest suite when the order came down. Something about investigating Entek for the assassination of Natrel Lorem?”

The last was said with an expectant look to Garak, as there was no way the former spy hadn’t known exactly whose crime he was taking credit for when he’d made the claim.

“An odd coincidence I assure you.” Garak returned with a shake of his head before holding up a hand in pause to the ensign as he was moving to initiate transport and giving Raine an oddly intense stare. “Would you perhaps know who the Legate is blaming for his current circumstances?”

Raine gave a nod to the ensign as they looked towards her for actual permission to hold the transport. “From what Kira has said he’s leaning towards Enabran Tain. Though Iliana apparently keeps insisting that it has to have been Dukat. Which, well, we’re mostly chalking up to her still scrambled memories given it seems unlikely that Dukat would have the resources to set up a Legate like this.”

“Never underestimate Skrain Dukat’s abilities when it comes to covering himself.” Garak said as a brief flash of consideration crossed his face. “Though in this case I find myself siding with Legate Ghemor on the subject.”

“So you don’t think he actually did it?” Raine asked, idly curious to the former spy’s reasoning.

“Oh no.” Garak returned with a slow shake of his head. “Legate Ghemor may have had some small ties to the dissident movement, but he was firmly loyal to the Cardassian people. Not to say that might not have changed since my exile, but I like to think news that big would have made its way back to me one way or another.”

“You can energize Ensign.” Raine ordered as she lightly rolled her eyes at the Cardassians theatrics.

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Author’s Notes: And with that we have the last of Second Skin, sorry it got a bit long, but hey, 2 chapters better than House of Quark.