Worlds of Star Trek Deep Space Nine® Volume Three Read online

  Ro winced. How the mighty have fallen.

  The old man at the end of the table said, “We’re talking about Grand Nagus Rom, you senile old gree worm! He’s accused of breaking a contract!”

  “Well, he shouldn’t do that,” Zek said. “In my day, we’d never tolerate a Ferengi who would do that.”

  Brunt smiled. As always when he did so, Ro felt the need for a shower. “Quite right. And we still don’t, even in this so-called enlightened age.”

  “But Rom didn’t break a contract,” Krax said calmly. “Father, even you can agree that a forged contract is no evidence of anything.”

  “Well, of course it isn’t!” Zek snapped. Then he squinted and asked, “Isn’t it?”

  Krax held up a hand, and Quark handed over the padd Leck had provided. “I have in my hands the actual marriage contract between Rom and Prinadora, as retrieved from the contract archive.” Krax touched a control that sent the contract to all the terminals in front of each congressman. “If you turn to clause 47, paragraph 22, you’ll see that, in fact, the marriage extension had a limited term, and that the marriage is over. There was no violation of the clause when the Grand Nagus married again.”

  One congressman asked, “How do we know this is not a fake?”

  Nog said, “It was retrieved from the archive.”

  “How? No order was made to Glat to retrieve it, except the one on record made by Investigator Rwogo.”

  “That,” Quark said, “would be the same Rwogo who received a portion of a set of shares in Chek Pharmaceuticals right before she produced this contract?”

  Brunt scowled. “Females are allowed to buy stocks now. Perhaps she did the same.”

  Ro spoke up. “This job with the investigator’s office is the first one Rwogo has had that allowed her to support herself beyond room and board, and she hasn’t even reached her first payday yet. She doesn’t have the money to buy these shares. Besides, the stock buyer who negotiated the purchase, a gentleman named Nik, has already admitted to giving the shares to her on behalf of a third party.”

  At the mention of that name, several congressmen squirmed. Ro suspected that several of them had made use of Nik’s discreet services in the past.

  One congressman—whom Ro recognized from various advertisements as Nilva, the head of Slug-O-Cola—said, “What did you mean by ‘a portion of a set of shares’?”

  On the one hand, Ro was impressed that Nilva had the sense to ask the question. On the other hand, it meant that they were reaching the moment she—and her nose—had been dreading. She looked down at Nog and gave him a nod.

  Returning the nod, the young officer went to the door, opened it, and said, “Grandmoogie—bring him in.”

  As Ro held her breath, Ishka came in with Gash.

  Her arrival got Zek’s attention. “Sweetie-foot?”

  Before Ishka could reply to that, Brunt, now with an embroidered handkerchief over his nose, asked, “What is that doing here?”

  Quark smiled. “His name is Gash. He’s probably the best forger in the galaxy—and he’s confessed to being hired by Prinadora’s father Dav on behalf of Chek Pharmaceuticals, Eelwasser, and their Brunt for Grand Nagus Campaign to forge a marriage contract.”

  Ro gave Quark a look of annoyance. Gash was willing to cop to the forgery only if Ro was willing to look the other way regarding Quark’s Grisellan totem icon scam—which Gash had been sure to mention as soon as Nog tracked him down and brought him to the nagal residence. True, they already had Prinadora’s description of Gash going to Dav’s house, not to mention Nik’s admission that he gave shares of Chek stock to Gash, but neither of those would be as convincing as a direct confession.

  “That’s right,” Gash said. “Pretty damn complicated job, if’n y’ask me, but that Dav fella, he paid me in Chek stocks—good’uns, too. Went on about how it was for a noble cause an’ all, but I didn’t give two slips ’bout that—just a job well done. And I gotta say, I done right well on that one.”

  Nilva was now looking straight at Brunt, though he addressed Gash. “So you’re saying that the contract Brunt gave this congress—”

  “—is a damn fine piece’a my work, youbetcha.”

  Brunt stood up. Ro noticed that he avoided making eye contact with Nilva. “This is outrageous! Are we to believe the words of a female, a bartender, two Starfleet officers, and this filthy creature over a liquidator in good standing of the Ferengi Commerce Authority?”

  The old man at the end started to speak, then suffered a coughing fit. After a moment—during which Ro swore he placed the handkerchief he coughed into inside a specimen case—he spoke: “The phrase ‘liquidator in good standing’ is a contradiction in terms.”

  “The point is,” Brunt said, “we are Ferengi businessmen. Do we base our decisions on”—he gestured dismissively at Krax and those standing around him—“these types of people? A Ferengi contract has been violated!”

  Suddenly, a thought occurred to Ro. She was, at once, pleased with herself for thinking of it and angry at herself for not thinking of it sooner. “No, one hasn’t.”

  “Females have no place in this—”

  Fal cut Brunt off. “What is it you wish to say, Lieutenant?”

  “Let’s, just for a second, ignore the fact that we have a confession from the forger, corroborated by the man who provided his payment, and that a copy of the original contract was retrieved from the contract archive. Let’s say you all dismiss this overwhelming evidence for a second, and believe that Brunt here showed you the real copy of Rom and Prinadora’s marriage contract. Rom still didn’t violate it.”

  Several mutters went around the table, many expressing dismay at the inability of non-Ferengi females to understand finance. Even Quark and Ishka were looking at her as if she were insane.

  “Hear me out,” she said. “Rom didn’t break this contract, and the resason I know this is because I know your Rules of Acquisition—specifically the seventeenth one. More specifically, the clause you guys like to leave out when you’re dealing with offworlders. ‘A contract is a contract is a contract—but only between Ferengi.’ ”

  Brunt rolled his eyes. “What does this—?”

  “It has to do with Rom’s second marriage. If that marriage contract is in violation of the first contract, then you really should produce the contract for the second marriage to prove it, right?”

  The congressmen all looked at each other in confusion.

  Ro pressed her point home. “But you don’t have one on file, do you—because Rom’s second marriage was Bajoran, performed on a Bajoran space station, presided over by the Bajoran Emissary. And by your very own Rules, that’s not a legitimate contract, because it isn’t between Ferengi.”

  One of the congressmen said, “She has a point.”

  “Nonsense!” another congressman said. “I doubt that that was the true intent of Grand Nagus Gint when he framed the Rules.”

  “Who are we to presume what Gint meant?”

  “I believe—”

  Leaping to his feet, Brunt cried, “It doesn’t matter! The Grand Nagus has lost the faith of the Ferengi people! He must be removed from office immediately! And where is the Grand Nagus, anyhow? Why does he not come here to defend himself? Why does he send these lackeys to speak for him? I’ll tell you why—he’s a sham!” He pointed to Zek. “That man has been stuck on Risa, being miserable because the female he thought he was retiring with has been back here, doing the Grand Nagus’s work for him! He relies on females, children, and aliens to help him, but he himself is nowhere to be found! Why?”

  “Uhhh—I was busy.”

  Ro whirled around to see Rom standing in the doorway to the meeting room. His shoulders were slumped, and Ro feared the worst. Before she could ask, though, Brunt spoke. “Oh, so now you’re here. What do you have to say for yourself, contract-breaker?”

  “Well, for one thing, that I’m not a contract-breaker.” Rom slowly entered the room. “I loved Prinadora very much, and
I allowed myself to sign an agreement that gave Dav all my worldly possessions—all I had left was my son.” He looked at Nog and gave him a smile. Then he turned back to the congressmen. “When I took over as Grand Nagus it was in order to lead Ferenginar to a new era. Because the old Ferenginar wasn’t any good anymore. The Ferengi are the joke of the galaxy. Even Klingons treat their females better than we do. People see us as caricatures—worthy of making fun of, and maybe, maybe, doing business with, but only if there’s no other choice, because they know that we’re going to exploit them.

  “Well, maybe that was good enough before, but not anymore. Times are different now. This quadrant almost fell to the Dominion because the governments were all divided. But the Klingons, the Federation, the Romulans, they all came together and won the war. The Cardassians and the Breen didn’t, and look where they are now. If the Ferengi are gonna keep surviving, if we’re gonna be an important part of the galactic community—then that’s what we have to be, a part of it, not just its exploiters. And I believe we can do it. I believe that we can still earn a profit, but not do it at the expense of others. I believe that we can lead Ferenginar into a new age of prosperity.”

  Rom’s posture had improved with each sentence he spoke. But now, his shoulders slumped again. “Anyway, that’s all I have to say. I guess you’re gonna vote now.”

  Fal turned to Krax. “I’m afraid you’re all going to have to leave while the congress votes.”

  Krax nodded. “Of course.”

  As Ro exited the meeting room, she noticed that no one was looking at Brunt—except Zek, who said, “Wait a minute—you’re the one who tried to have me removed as Grand Nagus. Twice! Who let you on my congress?”

  Nervously, Fal said, “Uh, Grand Nagus—I’m afraid you’ll have to leave, too. The congress’s votes are done in private. If you wish to view them afterward, recordings are made available for a small fe—”

  Zek hobbled over to where Fal was sitting. “I know they’ll be on sale tomorrow—don’t teach your grandfather how to cheat Vulcans!”

  As soon as they all went outside and the door shut behind them, Ishka ran to the former Grand Nagus. “Zekkie, what’re you doing here?”

  “Hm? Uh, well, I was going to the beach when this nice young man named Gaila came by—said he was your nephew. Said that Rom was doing a lousy job and that it was up to me to stop him.”

  “Zekkie, Rom’s doing a fine job.”

  “But he violated a contract!” Then Zek’s mouth fell open and he squinted again. “No, wait, that female just said he didn’t. I’m confused—sweetie-foot, I need you to help me focus.”

  Ishka stroked Zek’s ears, an image Ro feared she’d never be able to get out of her head. “I know, Zekkie, I know. I promise, I’ll come back to Risa with you, and this time I’ll stay, so nobody can confuse you anymore.”

  “Good.”

  Nog looked at Ro. “I wonder what happened to Leeta and the baby.”

  The door to the meeting room opened. “We’re about to find out,” Ro said.

  Rom was the first one out, and he had a huge smile on his face. “Hello, Brother! Hi, Nog! Hello, Moogie!”

  “You’re in a good mood,” Quark said.

  “Why shouldn’t I be? I’m the Grand Nagus!”

  Nog pumped a fist. “Yes!”

  Ishka put a hand on Rom’s shoulder. “That’s great news, Rom.”

  Zek said, “I’m proud of you, son. I’m sorry about what I said in there—and back at the spaceport. But I thought—”

  “It’s okay, Grand Nagus.”

  “Hey—you’re nagus. I’m just Zek.”

  “Uhh, well, then, it’s okay, Zek. You had every reason to think it.”

  “What about the baby?” Nog asked.

  Rom’s smile, which Ro thought was as wide as possible on a Ferengi mouth, actually grew wider. “She’s just fine.”

  “Damn,” Quark muttered.

  “Quark!” Ishka snapped.

  “I’m sorry, Mother, it’s just—I had a boy in the raffle.”

  Ro laughed. “Well, I’m happy for both of you, Rom.”

  “Thank you. Leeta’s resting in the hospital, and so’s our little girl.”

  Krax let out a breath. “Thank the Divine Exchequer.”

  “What he said.” Quark indicated the first clerk with a wave of his head. “We were all a little worried.”

  “I don’t know why,” Rom said. “Dr. Orpax is the most expensive doctor on Ferenginar.”

  “What time was the baby born?” Krax asked. “For the raffle.”

  After Rom gave the exact time of birth, Ishka asked, “What about Brunt?”

  “He’s being voted out right now. I abstained from voting, but I don’t think it matters very much. He’s finished with the congress, I’m sure of that.”

  Krax was consulting a padd. “Well, he’ll have some small consolation.”

  Ro turned to the first clerk. “What do you mean?”

  Holding the padd display-out, Krax said, “Brunt won the baby raffle. He guessed a girl, today, only two minutes off from the right time.”

  A silence fell over the waiting area.

  Ro was the first to break it by bursting out laughing.

  Within seconds, everyone else followed suit.

  11

  Opportunity plus instinct equals profit.

  —RULE OF ACQUISITION #9

  Krax entered his home in a fairly good mood, right up until the point where he felt the sharp edge of a knife blade on his neck.

  “If you move,” said a deep voice from behind him, “I’ll slice open your throat.” A pause. “Well, start moving, already! I haven’t killed anyone in days.”

  Another voice came from in front of him. “Oh, don’t kill him yet, Leck. He has a few questions to answer first.” That’s Quark, Krax thought.

  This thought was confirmed a moment later when the lights went on, and Krax saw Quark and that Bajoran Starfleeter he’d brought with him.

  Leck’s presence also answered the question of how they got into his private residence. After all, if Leck could penetrate the Glat Archive, getting into Krax’s home, which was secure, but no more or less so than the average Ferengi citizen’s house, would be child’s play.

  “I’ve been suspicious of you from the start, Krax. Remember what happened eight years ago on the station? You tried to blow me out an airlock!”

  “Th-that was a long t-time ago, Quark.” Krax didn’t want to sound quite so craven, but that was difficult when a psychopath had a knife at your throat.

  “And yet, you haven’t changed a bit. You’re still trying to destroy the Grand Nagus. Then it was me—now it’s my brother.”

  “You—you’ve got me all wr-wrong!”

  “I don’t think so. You see, we’ve been looking into the ‘Brunt for Grand Nagus Campaign,’ and imagine my surprise when the trail led right to you.” Quark pointed an accusatory finger at Krax. “You were the one who arranged with Nik to have the Chek stocks given to Rwogo and Gash.”

  “I—”

  Quark wasn’t done. “Furthermore, Nog talked to his mother. She described the two men who came to Dav’s house to plot the contract-forging scam. One of them was Gash—the other one was you.”

  “I—”

  “You introduced Gash to Dav! You set my brother up!”

  “Yes!” Krax blurted out. “I set him up to win!”

  Quark and the Bajoran exchanged confused looks, then both regarded Krax. “What?”

  “Yes, I set this whole plan in motion, so Rom would come out on top.”

  Frowning, Quark said, “Once more, with clarity.”

  “C-could you get this lunatic off my throat first?”

  “No.” Quark smiled. Leck then tightened his grip.

  “O-okay, okay—he can stay, that—that’s fine.”

  “I’m waiting.” Quark folded his arms.

  Krax took as deep a breath as he could while in Leck’s duranium grip. “Dav has been
trying to bring Rom down ever since he became Grand Nagus. He’s invested hundreds of bars of latinum into Chek during its hard times.”

  “I didn’t know Dav had hundreds of bars.”

  Trying and failing to shrug, Krax said, “It was a good year for mold. Anyhow, Dav was the one who spearheaded Chek’s little meeting of businessmen in your embassy, he’s the one who brought Chek and Brunt together, and he’s the one who sent your cousin to bring Zek back here—he figured that Gaila’s family connection to Ishka would do the trick, and he was right.”

  “Nice way to fob the blame off on someone else. But we have—”

  “I’m not finished!” Krax cried, worried that Quark would tell Leck to slice him open. “I found out about what Dav was doing. It was a long-term plan, one that would give Dav and Chek and Brunt plenty of time to undermine Rom. They’d slowly build support and gradually sway people away from Rom’s camp. That’s when I brought myself to Dav’s attention—myself and Gash.”

  The Bajoran frowned. “I don’t understand.”

  Quark nodded. “I do. You gave them Gash and the idea of the broken marriage contract.”

  Grateful that Quark understood, Krax said, “Exactly! Instead of going long-term, I gave them this scheme which would necessitate accelerating their plan—not taking the time to build the support, but going for one big play. By doing that, their attack would be more intense, but also wouldn’t have the time to take root. So when Gash’s existence was revealed before the entire congress, they would be discredited in one fell swoop, and all their support would go away.”

  The Starfleet female held up a hand. “Hold on a minute—you mean that Gash’s confessing to the forgery was part of the plan all along?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did Gash know this?”

  “Of course! He didn’t care—he just wanted the challenge of forging a contract.”

  From behind him, Krax heard a wistful sigh from Leck. “So nice to see another artist who takes pride in his work.”

  Giving Quark a very nasty look that scared Krax almost as much as the knife at his throat, the Bajoran female said, “We’re going to have a long talk about that deal we made with Gash, Quark.”