Vectors by Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch Read Free Book Online

although Dukat had been right when he said that Kellec would save a life before he'd take one. Any life, even a Cardassian life. No. His hesitation was more complex than that. He feared that his work with Narat would help the Cardassians at the expense of his own people.
    "Kellec," Narat said into his silence. "You are the better researcher."
    How much that must have cost the proud Cardassian doctor. To admit that he was less talented at medicine-at his job than a Bajoran. To admit he needed a Bajoran's help.
    "I tell you what," Kellec said. "If Gul Dukat is so set on needing my services then he must pay for them."
    "I don't have the ability to authorize payment," Narat said, just as Kellec expected him to. But Kellec didn't give him time to say anything more.
    "I want to move all of my people, both the sick and those who were exposed, to your medical area. I don't want them held in place like prisoners, although I do want quarantine fields so that we can do proper work. I want them to die with dignity if they're going to die, Narat, and if we find a way to save them, I want to make sure my people get treatment as fast as your people do. I also want my assistants up there, at my side, helping with all the work."
    "Done," Narat said. His answer was too fast. He apparently had been going to promise that anyway. Kellec paused. He wanted more. Some other concession, something that would make him feel like he wasn't being pulled by the Cardassians.
    "If Gul Dukat wants to keep his prisoners alive and working in uridium processing," Kellec said, "he needs to increase the food rations. And he can't keep up production at its current rate. We have too many sick down here, and if he pushes the remaining people, the illness will just get worse. I want a mandatory eight-hour sleep period for all Bajorans, and a decrease in production."
    "You know I'm not authorized-"
    "Yes," Kellec said. "I know you're not authorized. But Gul Dukat is. He's the one who makes the rules. Have him make this one. If he does, I'll come up."
    "I'll do what I can," Narat said. "But you're wasting time."
    Narat signed off.
    Perhaps Kellec was wasting time, but he didn't think so. He needed to take care of his people first. It would only take Narat a few moments to get Dukat to agree to the concessions.
    In the meantime, he stood and stretched. He needed some nourishment himself. He had some food and vitamin supplies in the tiny room the Cardassians had allotted him. It would do his people no good if he succumbed to this disease too. He had to do what he could to fend it off, and part of that was remembering to eat.
    He slipped out of the medical area, and hurried down the corridor to his room. He suspected his room had once been some kind of storage closet. There was barely space for his bed. There was no replicator, no real bathroom-only a makeshift one with an old and malfunctioning sonic shower and no porthole. Still, it was personal space, which was greatly lacking for Bajorans on Terok Nor.
    He reached into his kit for a supplement, and saw instead that his personal link was blinking. He felt cold. He had brought the system up from Bajor, and so far the Cardassians hadn't tampered with it. Or if they had, they hadn't said anything. On it, he kept all his medical notes, and an open line to Bajor itself, since he theoretically was not a prisoner here.
    His people on the surface were not to send him messages unless it was urgent. He had received several messages in the last few days about the plague, messages he had forwarded to Narat, partly as information, partly to prove he wasn't hiding anything from the Cardassians. Most of the messages requested that he return home. The plague had struck there, too, and was running through areas of Bajor the way it was running through Terok Nor.
    He had sent carefully worded messages back, saying that he would remain on Terok Nor. Gul Dukat might see that as a twisted form of loyalty when, in fact, it was prudence. Kellec