Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Young Adult Books #9: Cardassian Imps Read online

  BORED STIFF

  Jake and Nog are looking for action—in all the wrong places. They’ve played all the family holosuite games—and the adult games are strictly off-limits. So when Garak, the only Cardassian on Deep Space Nine, suggests a trip to the unknown depths of Level 45, they’re ready to go. When they arrive on the musty, abandoned deck, they find a funny Cardassian toy that says “Moop” when activated. And then they discover the replicator button on the toy. Perfect! They can replicate enough “Moops” for a baseball game. But suddenly the figures that stand before them are all as tall as Nog—and they’re replicating themselves!

  Cover art by Alan Gutierrez

  Interior Illustrations by Todd Cameron Hamilton

  “I don’t know about this,” Jake said, suddenly afraid.

  He didn’t like the way the Moops were looking at them.

  “What?” Nog asked.

  “You might notice that we’re outnumbered.”

  “Don’t think of them as outnumbering us,” Nog advised. “Think of them as stock.”

  “I wonder how they think of us,” Jake said as the Moops circled round.

  “They think of us as—” Nog stopped when he noticed, as Jake had, that the Moops now surrounded them. Jake and Nog stood back to back.

  “Hi, guys,” Jake said, and waved in what he hoped was a convincingly friendly manner.

  The Moops stepped forward. They did not seem angry, or even evil. Their expressions were entirely unreadable. They were totally alien—their needs, desires, and intentions entirely unknown. They closed in, leaving the boys no escape.

  The first Moop suddenly spoke a sharp word. Not even Nog had time to cry out when all at once the Moops leaped at the two boys.

  Star Trek: The Next Generation

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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  Copyright © 1997 by Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

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  ISBN: 0-671-51116-5

  First Minstrel Books printing February 1997

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  Cover art by Alan Gutierrez

  Printed in the U.S.A.

  For the Gilden Girls—

  Julia and Beth

  because they’re boldly going just about everywhere

  STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE

  Cast of Characters

  JAKE SISKO—Jake is a young teenager and the only human boy permanently on board Deep Space Nine. Jake’s mother died when he was very young. He came to the space station with his father but found very few kids his own age. He doesn’t remember life on Earth, but he loves baseball and candy bars, and he hates homework. His father doesn’t approve of his friendship with Nog.

  NOG—He is a Ferengi boy whose primary goal in life—like all Ferengi—is to make money. His father, Rom, is frequently away on business, which is fine with Nog. His uncle, Quark, keeps an eye on him. Nog thinks humans are odd with their notions of trust and favors and friendship. He doesn’t always understand Jake, but since his father forbids him to hang out with the human boy, Nog and Jake are best friends. Nog loves to play tricks on people, but he tries to avoid Odo whenever possible.

  COMMANDER BENJAMIN SISKO—Jake’s father has been appointed by Starfleet Command to oversee the operations of the space station and act as a liaison between the Federation and Bajor. His wife was killed in a Borg attack, and he is raising Jake by himself. He is a very busy man who always tries to make time for his son.

  ODO—The security officer was found by Bajoran scientists years ago, but Odo has no idea where he originally came from. He is a shape-shifter, and thus can assume any shape for a period of time. He normally maintains a vaguely human appearance but every sixteen hours he must revert to his natural liquid state. He has no patience for lawbreakers and less for Ferengi.

  MAJOR KIRA NERYS—Kira was a freedom fighter in the Bajoran underground during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor. She now represents Bajoran interests aboard the station and is Sisko’s first officer. Her temper is legendary.

  LIEUTENANT JADZIA DAX—An old friend of Commander Sisko’s, the science officer Dax is actually two joined entities known as the Trill. There is a separate consciousness—a symbiont—in the young female host’s body. Sisko knew the symbiont Dax in a previous host, which was a “he.”

  DR. JULIAN BASHIR—Eager for adventure, Doctor Bashir graduated at the top of his class and requested a deep-space posting. His enthusiasm sometimes gets him into trouble.

  MILES O’BRIEN—Formerly the Transporter Chief aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, O’Brien is now Chief of Operations on Deep Space Nine.

  KEIKO O’BRIEN—Keiko was a botanist on the Enterprise, but she moved to the station with her husband and her young daughter, Molly. Since there is little use for her botany skills on the station, she is the teacher for all of the permanent and traveling students.

  QUARK—Nog’s uncle and a Ferengi businessman by trade, Quark runs his own combination restaurant/casino/holosuite venue on the Promenade, the central meeting place for much of the activity on the station. Quark has his hand in every deal on board and usually manages to stay just one step ahead of the law—usually in the shape of Odo.

  CHAPTER 1

  Jake and Nog were sitting on the floor of the observation deck, their legs dangling down into the air above Deep Space Nine’s Promenade. Behind them were big windows that showed the cold beauty o
f endless space. Below them, the passing parade of life continued.

  A creature twice the size of a human and covered with greenish hair lumbered along the Promenade carrying a tiny silver octopus on its shoulder. Jake thought the small creature was the pet of the larger one until the silver octopus lobbed a small brown chunk to the creature on which it sat, and the larger creature pulled it from the air with a pair of wildly curling tongues. As the big creature chewed, Jake could hear it purr all the way from where he sat.

  Something moved so quickly among the creatures strolling the Promenade that Jake did not know if he was seeing a creature or a machine. Perhaps it was a creature riding a machine.

  A crowd of translucent pink domes bobbed by, each trailing strands of goo that quickly evaporated. People avoided the goo and its smell. Jake got a whiff of it himself, and discovered that the smell was pungent and awful.

  Four birdlike creatures walked by bearing between them a quivering black ball the size of Jake’s head. Was the black ball a life-support canister of some kind, or was it somehow part of the four creatures carrying it?

  The runners, the walkers, the squeakers, the bellowers—all these plus the creatures who were more or less humanoid—passed below Jake and Nog. They were not impressed.

  “S.O.S.” Nog commented.

  “Yeah,” Jake agreed. “Same old stuff.” He could not remember being so bored.

  Neither Jake nor his father had wanted to live on DS9, but here they were, and both trying to make the best of it. Commander Sisko had dug in pretty well—he had made friends, and just recently had managed to adjust the replicator in their quarters so that it would make an acceptable version of cayenne pepper.

  Jake had made fewer friends, but that was because there were fewer friends to make. The permanent population of children on DS9 was limited—few of the kids who passed through stayed longer than it took to change ships. The only friendship that seemed to have stuck was with Nog, son of Rom, who was the brother of Quark, the Ferengi who owned the most popular bar and restaurant on the station.

  Despite his desire to be elsewhere, Jake’s first few months on DS9 had been exciting. There was always something new to see or to do. Quark’s bar itself had been something of a novelty, offering more exotic delights than were available on many starbases and on all Starfleet ships.

  But gradually, the novelty wore off. Aliens he had not seen before arrived at the station all the time—but an extra head, a compound eye, or an unusual skin color no longer excited him.

  “Uncle Quark just got a new holosuite program in,” Nog said.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s called ‘K’lshi: Klingon House of Terror.’” He watched Jake expectantly.

  “It’s an adult Program, isn’t it?”

  “You bet.”

  Jake pondered. He and Nog had been through every family holosuite program on the station. And while some of them were fun—the ones not having to do with fluffy animals and pink clouds—Jake was bored. He wanted a new and wonderful experience.

  He was certain that “K’lshi: Klingon House of Terror” was exactly what he was looking for. With a title like that, he would no doubt be required to slash and bash and even get dirty. Still…

  “I don’t know,” Jake said.

  “You’re worried about what your father would say.”

  “Well, yeah,” Jake admitted. Commander Sisko would probably not approve of such a holosuite program, and therefore would not allow them to rent it. And Quark never gave away anything for free. They might be able to get the entry fee from Rom, Nog’s father. But if Commander Sisko found out, things would go hard on Jake.

  “Let’s give it a shot,” Nog insisted. “The worst he can do is say no.”

  “I guess,” Jake said. “At least it’ll be something to do.”

  They ran to the lift that would take them up to Ops, a place that was officially off-limits to civilians. But Jake was the commander’s son, and that carried certain privileges. And Nog was the commander’s son’s best friend, so the privileges sometimes covered him too.

  When they arrived, the room was empty but for Dax, who was sitting at her science station watching information scroll past on the screen. Though he knew it was true, Jake found it difficult to believe that a lady as pretty as Dax shared her memories and her body with an intelligent, three-century-old worm.

  The two boys didn’t exactly sneak past her, but they tried to be quiet so as not to disturb her studies. She didn’t even look up.

  They climbed the stairs to the commander’s office. As they approached the doors, Jake saw his father look up from the PADD he was reading and put down the baseball he was turning in his other hand. He beckoned to them, and the doors slid aside.

  “Sorry to bother you, Dad,” Jake said.

  “That’s all right. Starfleet reports make me groggy. What can I do for you boys?”

  He looked so preoccupied that Jake almost regretted asking a question he knew would probably present a new problem for his already overworked dad.

  “You know how you said we should always be open to new experiences?” Jake asked.

  “Absolutely,” Sisko said. “How else will you learn?”

  “Exactly. Thanks, Dad.” He turned to go and dragged Nog with him.

  “Hold on, there, Jak-o. What’s this all about?”

  Jake faced his father again. “We just wanted your permission to have a new experience.”

  “What kind of new experience?” Sisko asked as he smiled. Jake knew that smile. It was an invitation for him to hang himself with his own words.

  “Uncle Quark has a new holosuite program,” Nog said.

  “Ah,” Sisko said. “What is the name of this program?”

  Jake knew that Nog had doomed them. Yet he also knew that they would have had to tell Commander Sisko eventually.

  “It’s kind of educational, actually,” Jake said.

  “And the name of the program is?”

  “K’lshi: Klingon House of Terror.”

  “I see. May I suggest that if you gentlemen are looking for something to do, you find Mr. O’Brien. He can always use a pair of willing hands.”

  Jake grimaced. He liked Chief O’Brien, but he did not relish the thought of crawling through maintenance tubes for the next few hours.

  “Or,” Sisko went on, “you could just read a book.”

  “Thanks for the suggestions, Dad.”

  “Any time.” Sisko picked up his PADD and his baseball and went back to work.

  Dax was still reading her screen when the boys walked down the stairs to Ops. They got back into the lift and descended to the Promenade.

  “I told you Dad wouldn’t go for it,” Jake said. He’d never really expected Commander Sisko to believe the educational angle, but that didn’t prevent him from being disappointed that “K’lshi: Klingon House of Terror” was beyond his reach.

  “The holosuite does not provide the only fun on DS9,” Nog said suggestively.

  Jake had only a vague idea what Nog had in mind, but he didn’t think his father would go for it any more than he’d gone for “K’lshi: Klingon House of Terror.”

  “Fascinate me,” Jake said.

  CHAPTER 2

  There’s always food,” Nog said. “I’m pretty hungry. How about you?”

  “I guess,” Jake said. “But we still don’t have any money.”

  “Do you like squarmash and queeble sticks?”

  “Love ’em.”

  “Then don’t worry about money,” Nog said. “I have a plan.”

  “Great,” Jake said without confidence. Still, he allowed Nog to lead him into Quark’s. Jake sat down at a table with certain misgivings.

  “This’ll be great,” Nog said as he settled next to him. Nog was a Ferengi, and as such, he occasionally made sweeping, enthusiastic statements that had no basis in fact.

  Jake felt that this was probably one of those times. “Explain it to me,” he said. “How can we buy squarmash
and queeble sticks if we don’t have any money?” Jake really loved squarmash and queeble sticks. Eating them for free seemed too good to be true. He suspected it was too good to be true.

  “We use credit,” Nog said.

  “You mean we’ll tell your Uncle Quark that we’ll eat now and pay him later?”

  “That’s right. Customers do it all the time. It’s called having a bar tab. Even Uncle Quark does it sometimes when he needs to buy supplies and he’s caught a little short of latinum.”

  “I guess it can’t hurt to try,” Jake said as Quark himself approached them, easily maneuvering around the crowded tables in a way that reminded Jake of dancing.

  “You boys staying out of trouble?” Quark asked in a friendly way.

  “Yes, sir,” Jake said.

  “If you’re taking up table space, I assume you want to make a purchase.”

  “Yes, Uncle Quark. We want two orders of squarmash and queeble sticks.”

  “I see. You have money?”

  “Not at the moment,” Nog said enthusiastically. “We were hoping that you might extend us credit.”

  Here it comes, Jake thought.

  “Credit, hmm?” Quark said, and studied them.

  Jake was surprised that Quark was considering Nog’s offer.

  “Yes, sir,” Nog said. “We are about to make a huge profit on a big business deal.”

  “What big—?” Jake began.

  “We are about to sell another crate of self-sealing stem bolts,” Nog said with much confidence.

  “Stem bolts are continually in demand,” Quark noted.

  “And these are self-sealing,” Nog said proudly.

  “All right,” Quark said. “It’s always a good investment to feed two hungry males.” He walked back toward the kitchen.

  Jake stared after Quark with astonishment. “How did you do that?” he asked, as if Nog had performed a magic trick.

  “I have the Ferengi talent for negotiation.”

  “This is great,” Jake said, anticipating his squarmash and queeble sticks.