Return to Chapter 10
Star Trek Chapter 11
Bondo Fag wasn't feeling very well. Something in the breakfast hadn't agreed with him and he was regretting trying whatever that squid like creature had been at the buffet. He should have known that food meant for an overgrown insect wouldn't settle well on his stomach.
He was never comfortable when he traveled in Cardassian space. Officially, Centari was part of the Federation, actually a founding member having been one of the "Aligned Worlds" back during the Shadow Wars. Earth had barely survived the aftermath and it had been Centari expertise in other race's biology that had saved them. Of course, the fact that that expertise had been developed in the search for bio weapons and poisons to use on other races was conveniently ignored. Also ignored were the rumors that the Centari were still doing research in that line.
There was no question that his lab would be shut down, and he put on in a show trial, if the Federation ever discovered what he was doing. The existence of Centari two part bio poisons was only rumored. These were viruses that could be given to a person-and they'd be completely unharmed and unaware. The virus would find its way into the subject's bones and there go dormant. Then, years later, another substance, this time a carefully engineered amino acid or enzyme, could be given to another group. Anyone who had been exposed to the earlier virus would die-everyone else wouldn't be affected. This way you can preselect your target, then, by treating the punch at a party he's attending years later, kill him.
The Centari had first developed such poisons for themselves, of course, and they'd played a role in more than one palace coup or change in party leadership. Then they'd been developed for the Narn, then Klingons, Dothracki, and Vorgons. Currently Bondo was working to develop one for humans- and he needed test subjects. Of course, his customer, the Cardassian Intelligence Services, intended to use it against Federation targets but the pay mitigated any feelings of guilt. He was entering the final testing phase and needed a consignment of humans for subjects. If everything went well, he'd be back on Centari in a couple weeks to complete his research.
That is what had brought him into Cardassian space. The Cardassians would tolerate Centari, but just barely. He was not trusted and was watched closely. He assumed his hotel suite was under surveillance. It was a minor inconvenience but the Cardassians were the only source of human slaves for sale. Typically the Federation would stop at nothing, including going to war, to stop the trafficking of member species but, in the case of the Cardassians, the Federation's military advantage was tenuous at best. The ongoing limited war against the Romulans and the smoldering cold war with the Klingons made peace, even a very tense one, with the Cardassians necessary.
The humans had not known that the Cardassians existed when, before the creation of the Federation, they had started mining some planets that the Cardassians considered theirs. This had resulted in the disappearance of three commercial mining vessels along with their crews. It wasn't until a colony had been established that the first sighting of a new alien spacecraft had been reported. That was too late for the 457 humans on Vira 5.
Early contacts with the Cardassians always ended in combat-combat the Federation ships were poorly equipped to fare well in. That changed with the discovery of temporal phasers. A short time later the Cardassians had launched a full scale offensive. After the annihilation of five human colonies and two Cardassian battle fleets a boundary had been agreed upon.
This had also resulted in the establishment of the Federation of Planets-not a real federation-really just an agreement by six species to form a joint military. Those six-Earth, Minbar, Centari Prime, Vulcan, Delta, and Mog had now grown to 17. This included, much to the Centari's consternation, the lizard race-the Narn.
The Federation had been born from the weakness left in the aftermath of the Shadow War. When Humans had encountered the insectoid Cardassians, they assumed they were dealing with an off-shoot of the Shadows. Not a bad guess as they are a daughter race but the Cardassian's had been completely ignorant of the Shadow's return from Zahadoom. Apparently, the Shadows had forgotten about their daughter. This was good, the newly formed Federation was having enough problems with the Drakh, the Vulcan's cousins, the Romulans, and then the Klingons.
Bondo's communicator chimed, the screen held a Cardassian name that he did not recognize.
"Yes, what?!" he answered in the usual Centari impatient voice, a voice intended to put down the caller and establish Bondo's authority.
"I send a message from Elim Talic. You are requested to meet with him at his Kargettal Space Port offices at 1430."
Bondo barely had time to recognize the caller as a Cardassian insect before the screen went blank.
"Damn these Cardassians," Bondo muttered, "they manage to be even ruder than me."
Chapter 12Table of Contents