Troubleshooting Page 3

  “Nothing repeatable over an open comm system.”

  “Understood. Is he able to repair everything?”

  “He’s got an excellent team under him. In fact, I have a fix-it wiz named Ajit Ross who would be a credit to your team. He’s tackled most of these and everything he’s touched has stayed fixed.”

  Gold was somewhat amused at the praise since most commanders think they have people good enough for the S.C.E., but just because they can fix a starship or starbase doesn’t always mean they have what it takes for the sheer variety of problems his people handled. He was proud of his own team and for a moment he wasn’t sure when was the last time he had said that out loud. His veterans like Stevens and Blue knew the opinion, but the many newcomers over the last year might not be aware of his feelings. Something for later.

  “…and I want you to consider this seriously.”

  “I’m sorry, can you say that again?” He hadn’t realized he wasn’t listening to the commander anymore.

  “I said, Captain, after six months I think this is more than manufacturing defects. I suspect someone is out to distract us from our job.”

  “Sabotage?”

  “Can you rule it out?”

  “No. What about your security chief?”

  “He has no solid evidence but agrees the sheer volume is starting to look suspicious. Can you come back for a more extended look?”

  “We have a currently scheduled mission; let me see what I can do,” Gold said noncommittally. He signed off from Kesh-Mara and asked Gomez to join him in his cabin.

  Minutes later, Gomez walked in and was invited to sit. She had an expectant look on her face and Gold quickly filled her in on the conversation.

  “Sabotage?”

  “On the surface, it sounds pretty drastic,” Gold admitted.

  “Sir, sabotage would disable the entire station at a critical time. These are, well, just a large number of glitches. I suspect the contractors were hurried, given the amount of rebuilding still going on across the Federation.”

  “Could be.”

  Gomez’s eyes widened at the comment. She shook her thick, black hair in disbelief. “You’re not coming around to his way of thinking?”

  “No, not quite. I am, though, thinking we need something simple to investigate after the moral quagmire on Mariposa.”

  “If it is sabotage, then it could be dangerous.”

  “I thought I’ve seen it all,” Gold said quietly. “My instincts say these are all too random to be something intentional but there’s no overt threat. Let’s complete the mission to Bundinal and see what happens.”

  “Aye, sir, but I think you’re looking for gremlins where none exist.”

  “Gremlins?” Gold asked, cocking an eyebrow at his second in command.

  “A technical term, sir,” she replied, keeping her expression straight.

  CHAPTER

  4

  Now

  Kesh-Mara escorted Corsi, Lauoc, Tev, and Pattie to the station’s command center. Similar to a starship bridge, it was round but had three levels and four massive viewscreens. In the centermost tier stood an older man, a white-haired Andorian, impossibly thin, hands gripping the sides of a console. His antennae snapped to life before he turned his head and then studied the group approaching him.

  “Lieutenant Commander Fesoan, this is Lieutenant Commander Corsi from the da Vinci.”

  “And you’re here, with a guard no less, because—?”

  “Because your commander thinks the sabotage aboard the station has gone on long enough,” Corsi said. Already she could tell Fesoan was not going to be a joy to work with. The cold tone of his voice said that by stepping onto the station, she was invading his turf. Despite Gomez’s words, they never extended to security officers. This was his station.

  “And you will find something I have missed?”

  “I’m not suggesting that at all. Our ship is here to fix the mechanical problem. While here, my captain thought we might lend assistance.” There, that should please Gomez, Corsi thought.

  “I see.” He wasn’t budging.

  “I’d like to review your security logs dating to the beginning of the current problem and a workstation where I can be out of your way,” Corsi said, forcing herself to maintain a light tone.

  “Whatever you require,” Fesoan said, although the sarcasm in his tone wasn’t missed by anyone. He snapped his fingers and from an upper tier, she heard boot steps approaching.

  “Duglos?”

  Corsi turned first to see Lauoc smile, an altogether rare sight, and then swiveled to see what brought on this uncharacteristic expression. Reaching their level was a red-haired woman, some years younger than her. Appraisingly, she noted how well the woman filled out the uniform, but everything seemed toned.

  Lauoc then strode forward and lifted the slightly taller woman into the air in a hug, eliciting a happy squeal.

  “Ahem,” Corsi said pointedly.

  “Sorry, uh—Commander Corsi, let me introduce you to Duglos Orna. We trained together.”

  The Andorian said, “Orna, escort the lieutenant commander to Security Office Bravo 1 and provide her access to whatever she desires.”

  “Aye, Commander.”

  Corsi turned to speak first with Pattie, but her Nassat colleague was already across the cavernous operations center speaking with a Bajoran woman. She quickly surmised this must be the contractor representative, Kesla Randu. Corsi thought it interesting the woman was back aboard the station during the current crisis. Filing the notion away, she followed Orna to the nearest turbolift, noting it was one of four serving the center.

  “How long have you served here?” she heard Lauoc ask.

  “Since we opened for business,” Orna replied. “But what about you, I heard you got assigned the Abraxas, but that’s all.”

  The soft whine of the turbolift’s motion filled the small cabin as the Bajoran fell silent. Corsi knew why and suspected he’d rather discuss this with his old friend in private. Feeling for him, she spoke up instead. “I stole him about ten months back and we’ve been pretty fortunate to have him.”

  “I bet. Have you ever seen him take on more than one opponent? He’s always preferred steep odds.”

  “That I have,” Corsi said with a smile.

  “We used to take bets on how many he could handle at once,” Orna added.

  That caught Lauoc’s attention. “You did?”

  “Once we twigged to your predilection for trouble,” she said. “The whole time we were training, I never once paid my own bar tab.”

  Before entering the environmental systems, Tegor, Gomez, Conlon, and Lense paused to don clean suits, all a brilliant white with clear faceplates. They were snug outfits and Gomez marveled at how pregnant Lense was suddenly looking. She was fairly certain children weren’t in her own future and always suspected the same about Lense, but the doctor was keeping the child, conceived with a man from another universe no less. A small Sabre-class ship was no place for a family and clearly this meant Lense had some decisions to make. Her second trimester was winding down and as Gomez reviewed her basic biology, the last trimester could prove the most difficult one. Lense’s effectiveness on away missions would be compromised and should the ship ever come under attack, Lense could prove a distraction to the captain, conscious or not.

  More and more, it seemed like Gold did the right thing by being proactive and recruiting Sarjenka to come aboard. She was coming to like the Dreman, based on the way she handled things on Betrisius. She made a mental note to have a meal with the young doctor when this was over.

  “Everyone ready?” Tegor’s deep voice came clearly through the small speaker by her ear.

  After agreements all around, they opened the airtight door and entered the environmental control center. While mainly automated, it had one or two crew members normally on duty. They had been relocated to one of the eateries, per Kesh-Mara’s instructions. All that was left to greet the quartet was bank after
bank of controls, mostly flashing reds or ambers. The few green telltales were scattered on the schematics. Tegor led them slowly by each bank of controls, allowing Conlon or Gomez to pause and study the readouts. Lense was testing the air with her medical tricorder and remained silent.

  “The filters have totally failed,” Lense said, her voice grave. “Within seven hours everyone needs to be on masks or off the station.”

  “Understood,” Gomez replied. “Nancy, what do you make of it?”

  “Signals are flowing in, but the commands aren’t triggering the filters to function. I’ll need to trace things, possibly signal by signal.”

  “What about your backups, Tegor?”

  “They never activated and seem to be locked in a diagnostic loop. I’d have to pull out the entire unit and rebuild it, which will take more than seven hours.”

  “Nancy, get started on the trace. Elizabeth, something scrambling this many signals indicates intent. But let’s be thorough. I want to check the gas tanks, make sure this wasn’t a distraction to further poison the population.”

  “You have a suspicious mind, you know that,” Lense said.

  “Experience,” Gomez said. “You study the Jem’Hadar and Dominion atrocities, you understand what people are capable of doing.”

  “I’ll get right on it,” Lense said.

  Gomez paused, hesitating, and caught the doctor’s eye. Lense narrowed her gaze and seemed to be silently questioning whatever the first officer was not saying. Gomez was hesitant, but absolutely convinced what she wanted to say was the right thing. It just wasn’t going to win her any points.

  “According to the station plans I studied before arriving, accessing those tanks means using narrow corridors. Plus a lot of climbing ladders. In fact, to be thorough, there’s going to be some crawling going on.”

  “So? I’ve been crawling since I was seven months old.”

  “I’d prefer it…I’d rather if Sarjenka did the crawling this time. She’s smaller than you and could do this more easily. Plus, she’s had more experience in tight confines than you.”

  “Is this how it’s going to be from now on?”

  They glared at each other in silence until Gomez, feeling less than thrilled with the exchange, spoke up. “No. But today, right now, that’s how it needs to be. I’ll have her beamed over. You can monitor from the command center.”

  “Fine.” Without another glance or word, the doctor stomped to the door and exited as quickly as the mechanism would allow. Gomez believed she made the right call but also recognized that making tough calls was going to get harder in the weeks ahead. She activated her clean suit’s combadge and issued the order for Sarjenka to come to the DS10. Next, she contacted Corsi.

  “I want Lauoc to accompany Sarjenka in the examination.”

  “You expecting trouble in the tank storage?”

  “Expecting? No. But I’m not entirely sure what we’re dealing with nor am I certain how experienced she might be with booby traps. Better he go with her.”

  “You sure you’re not a mother hen?”

  “Domenica, this is hard enough with Lense feeling betrayed or replaced. Let’s leave motherhood to her alone.”

  “He’ll meet her at the tanks. Corsi out.”

  She looked up, hoping to avoid discussing her actions with either Conlon or Tegor and was happy to see them ignoring her. In fact, they were practically whispering between themselves, digging through the circuits. Watching in satisfaction, she took a step forward to lend her assistance, then recognized there really wasn’t a place for her. Instead, she’d best report back to the command center herself, even if it meant sharing space with the less-than-happy Lense.

  “Just get his butt up here and we can settle this!”

  “We have no grounds for disturbing him from his job.”

  “It’s just a few questions. Was he planning to blow something up today and would we be disturbing him?”

  “It’s not my habit to interrupt people while they are conducting their business.”

  Corsi’s voice carried better than Fesoan’s, she knew, and she was hoping the vehemence of her words would be heard by Kesh-Mara before they actually got in front of him to argue the next step. As they climbed down the steps, the two tiers to reach the core, the argument, which had begun levels below, continued. Corsi watched as various personnel turned their heads in amazement to see anyone arguing with their security chief. Once they saw it was a fellow officer, but not a DS10er, they returned to their work. Kesh-Mara, though, had put down a padd and seemed to listen intently as they approached.

  “Have you learned something?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Not yet.”

  He looked at Fesoan, which was only right and proper, even though it denied Corsi the ability to make her case in her own words.

  “Commander, the security logs show no one tampering with the environmental controls. A careful study also shows the logs have not been altered. We are no closer to apprehending anyone.”

  “Then who does Commander Corsi want to interrogate?”

  “The lieutenant commander wishes to question Win lorin Ren, a trader.” Corsi was rapidly growing to dislike Fesoan’s habit of stating her full rank rather than the accepted “commander,” but this Andorian seemed born with the rule book already memorized.

  “Has Ren done something to merit questioning?” Kesh-Mara asked Corsi directly. Finally! An opportunity to plead her case.

  “I had cross-referenced the personnel manifests corresponding to each incident. Since the number of anomalies was slight, I turned my attention to those passing through the station. There, I found the reverse, a small number of people here during most of the incidents. And only Ren was here just before or during each and every occurrence. I want to ask him some questions to clear him from consideration.”

  Kesh-Mara turned to his security chief and, given his limited facial expressions, seemed to indicate it was Fesoan’s turn to explain the objection.

  “Coincidence is not sufficient to question someone,” he said diffidently.

  “Or it could be the link,” Kesh-Mara said gently. He paused, thinking, and Corsi wished she could read his body language. Still, she sensed her point had not been ignored but wished she could be given a free hand to act. Sometimes it was easier for her to do her job on some foreign world, away from fellow officers.

  “One man, and one man alone, does raise questions in my mind,” Kesh-Mara said. Corsi let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Fesoan merely frowned. “A few questions could solve our problem and it’s worth pursuing. But I want Fesoan to ask the questions since the station is his responsibility. Commander Corsi may observe as a courtesy.”

  Corsi now felt herself frowning, matching her counterpart.

  “As you wish,” she said as evenly as she knew how. Fesoan, still unhappy, went to make the arrangements. The station commander returned his attention to the padd in his hand and that left Corsi feeling adrift. She stepped away from the station’s center and contacted the ship to bring Gold up to date.

  Gold asked a question or two and then agreed with Kesh-Mara over the course of action. She suspected he had to support the station commander at this point but it didn’t mean it changed how she felt.

  “I have new information for you now,” Gold said after a moment’s pause.

  “Go ahead.”

  “It’s Shabalala,” a new voice said over the comm. “We’ve taken very detailed sensor sweeps of the area and are detecting trace particle emissions that match Breen vessels.”

  “Breen?” Corsi was immediately incredulous. “They’re not the subtle type.”

  “I agree.” It was Gold again. “Still, I want you to check the station’s own sensor sweeps and see if it picked up any Breen related to the other incidents.”

  “Will do, although my gut says this is a wild-goose chase.”

  “Be that as it may. I want this done by the book so we get this settled without
anyone saying my crew missed something.” Even he was feeling the Us versus Them tension growing. Interesting, but not helpful.

  “Captain, I just want to point out if it is the Breen, the da Vinci isn’t the right ship for a battle.”

  “Noted and agreed. Do your homework and let’s see what you find.”

  “Not a problem, sir. Corsi out.” As she tapped off, her mind wandered back to when she first started taking Deep Space 10’s problems seriously and wondered if she should have paid attention sooner.

  Two Months Ago

  Nancy Conlon was enjoying a break from an engine inspection, sharing coffee with Domenica Corsi, who was just coming off shift herself. It was quiet in the mess hall and they chatted about nothing in particular, enjoying it.

  “Gold to Corsi.”

  Eyebrows turning into a frown, she tapped her badge.

  “Deep Space 10 is having more troubles and I think they’ve cried wolf long enough.”

  “Sir?”

  “Come to my ready room,” Gold asked.

  Nancy tapped her own badge. “Sir, it’s Conlon. May I join you?”

  “The more the merrier.”

  “What’s going on?” Corsi asked, grabbing her mug and bringing it to the recycler.

  “You remember,” Nancy prompted. “We’ve been there a few times already and ever since the place opened, they’ve had all these low-level glitches. A few weeks back, Commander Gomez began to think it was sabotage.”

  “Sabotage?” That seemed to get Corsi’s attention, like waving raw steak before a wolf. Nancy chuckled at the notion of how easy Corsi was to put on the scent.

  “Yeah.”

  “Has anything happened?”

  “Nothing serious yet. The operative word being yet.”

  “I hear you.”

  Moments later they were in the ready room and Conlon was not surprised to see Sonya already waiting with the captain. Neither seemed thrilled over the latest turn of events. As they took their seats, Gomez continued to fill the security chief in on the litany of problems.