Chapter Seventeen: Transporter Test

"Deep Space Nine to Cygnus," Dax sent the hail, one hand resting on the box Quark had delivered so exactly on the deadline that she suspected he had been ready sooner and wished to hide the fact. The latinum within was an assortment of bars and strips, Quark insisting that he couldn't manage all bars when he had had to call in a dozen or so loans to get the money.

Still suspecting he had had it all along, Dax hadn't felt it worthwhile to debate the point as long as the full amount was there.

"Cygnus here," Raddishio responded almost instantly.

"Mr Raddishio, you can tell your captain that I have agreed to his terms, and would like to speak to him regarding the details."

"Very good, sir," Raddishio said crisply, but with a slight note of relief in his voice. Dax knew he had been genuinely upset at Janderschmidt's initial refusal, and found herself liking the young man.

It was another fifteen minutes before Janderschmidt's face appeared onscreen, though Dax was sure he had been nearby the whole time. "So, you realized you have no choice, did you?" he asked, a touch of laughter in his voice that made Dax draw a deep breath to keep her calm composure.

"Indeed," she said coolly. "Is there a particular third party who would be acceptable to you?"

"Someone who isn't connected to Starfleet…I suppose a religious figure would be best."

"I could ask a Bajoran vedek," Dax suggested. The fact that Sisko was the Bajoran's emissary to the Prophets might make a vedek less disinterested than Janderschmidt would assume, but Dax had no intention of telling either of them who was missing.

"Perfect," Janderschmidt agreed.

"I'll have him on Ops in half an hour, if you're willing to beam over here?"

"I suppose that would be acceptable. And once he holds the money, your engineer may begin his vandalism of my ship — though I expect one of my crew to be in sight of the transporter at all times."

Dax nodded, determining at the same time to ask Miles if it would be possible to keep him in sight of the transporter without seeing who was transported. "Agreed."

Maybe it didn't matter if they knew who had been missing anyway, she mused; not once they had him back.

oOo

"Welcome to the temple of the Prophets," the vedek said, bowing as his even voice sounded soothingly in Dax's ears.

"Thank you," she responded, bowing in return. "Might I ask a favor of you, revered sir?"

"Of course. Come this way, please." He led her to a small room with several chairs that functioned as an office or study, gesturing for her to take one of the chairs as he sat in the other. "And now, what can I do for you, my child?"

Briefly, Dax explained their need to use Janderschmidt's transporters and the captain's condition. "Would you be willing to hold the money, and to observe when the transporters are tested?"

"By all means, though I think I would prefer to have some kind of guard nearby."

"That can be arranged," Dax assured him with a smile. "Thank you. Are you free to come to Ops for the transfer now?"

"I am," he agreed with the same calm composure he always displayed. "Just give me a moment to notify the acolytes of my absence."

Dax nodded. "I'll meet you there," she promised. "Thank you."

"It is my pleasure to serve you, my child."

Dax smiled briefly and got up to go ahead of him to Ops to contact Captain Janderschmidt and Odo.

oOo

Captain Janderschmidt nodded slowly, closing the lid of the box after inspecting the latinum. "Yes, that will be ample recompense if anything happens to my transporters." He held out the box to the vedek, who stepped forward to receive it.

"I will keep it in a safe place for you," he promised. He nodded to the security guard Odo had assigned to him, and the man followed him from the room.

"My engineer is waiting in our transporter room, if he has your permission to beam over."

Janderschmidt nodded magnanimously. "By all means."

Dax tapped her combadge. "O'Brien, you're cleared to beam over at your convenience."

"Understood. Energize."

oOo

The transporter room of the Cygnus was empty save for the youngish engineer, looking slightly worried as O'Brien materialized in front of him.

"Chief Engineer Miles O'Brian," he introduced himself, extending a hand.

"Frank Shandison," the young man responded. "I'm sorry if I have to make a bit of a pest of myself, but the captain told me not to let you or the transporters out of my sight…"

"Might be a bit difficult to accomplish both unless you can be in two places at once," Miles remarked with a wry half smile. "But no need to apologize; I understand your position. Anyway, I could use a hand, if you don't mind. That is, I assume you are an engineer."

"Yes, sir," Shandison responded, relaxing now that the Starfleet officer seemed not to mind the prospect of being guarded. "I've worked on these transporters a time or two. Never removed them completely, though."

"Well, according to the manuals it's supposed to be relatively easy; let's see how accurate they are, shall we?"

"Do we need a transporter pad as well?" Shandison questioned.

O'Brien glanced toward the round disks set in the floor. "We'd better," he decided. "We're trying something that's never been tried before and cobbling things together; better take every advantage we can to make sure it works."

"I've had those out before; I'll do that while you get started on the transporter. Let me know if you need help."

Miles nodded. "Will do. Though if you're removing a transporter pad, I don't see how you can be keeping an eye on either me or the transporter."

Shandison flushed. "What the captain doesn't know won't hurt him, and let's just say I trust Starfleet officers a little more than he seems to."

oOo

An hour later, the boxy transporter and a transporter pad stood by themselves in the center of the room. Pulling two round labels from his tool kit, O'Brien stuck one on each piece of equipment. "To make it easier to get a lock on them," he explained.

Shandison nodded. "I suppose it wouldn't really be practical to beam across at the same time as the equipment?"

"If it were anything but a transporter I wouldn't think twice about it. But I'd rather not have my transporter signature somehow transferred into your transporter instead of ours…"

Shandison shuddered. "I quite agree. I suppose it is safe to beam a transporter?"

"I should think so; it's just metal components the same as anything else." But the two engineers stood looking at each other, and O'Brien made no move to tap his combadge. After a moment he sighed. "You know, maybe a shuttle would be safer."

"Exactly what I was thinking," Shandison said in a relief.

"Well, next time say so; in Starfleet we don't mind hearing genuine concerns from subordinates."

"Yes, sir."

O'Brian tapped his combadge then. "O'Brien to Deep Space Nine Ops."

"Ops; Dax here."

"We have the transporter and pad successfully extracted, but we're having second thoughts about beaming it over; could we get a cargo shuttle?"

"Affirmative. Have Janderschmidt's people carry it to his shuttle bays, and we'll meet you there in twenty minutes."

oOo

"We'd better test the transporter itself before tying it in to the holosuite computer," Miles decided, looking at the transporter and its pad in the middle of the holosuite, power cables snaking to the station's hookups. "I'm almost positive no vital components were housed in the ship itself, but almost isn't good enough."

"I assume we don't want to run the test with a person, then," Shandison guessed.

"Not the first one, though these things have so many failsafes that probably the worst that would happen is nothing. But better safe than sorry; stick this label on a spanner or something."

Shandison obeyed, and a moment later O'Brien locked on and energized, the spanner appearing several feet away on the transporter pad. "So far so good. Let's get to work on that tie-in. I just wish there was a way to test that before we use it for real…"

"I guess we can't play it safe every time, sir," Shandison observed soberly.

Miles shook himself. "No…unfortunately not. Let's just hope to goodness I get this right first try."

The two engineers spent the next three hours working on the complicated tie-in between the transporter and the holosuite computer. If Shandison had even the slightest question about one of O'Brien's hookups, he would double and triple check until he was as sure as he possibly could be that no wires were crossed.

Finally each of them had checked every connection for the last possible time, and they looked at each other silently.

"I don't know how we can be any more sure, sir," Shandison said at last.

O'Brien sighed. "No," he admitted. "I guess the only thing left is to try…and hope we don't end up scrambling them." He tapped his combadge. "O'Brien to Dax."

"Dax here. How close are you, Miles?"

"We're ready to try," O'Brien told her.

"Excellent. Give me five minutes to get down there with a medical team."

"Acknowledged. O'Brien out."

Shandison chuckled a little nervously. "Does she have so little faith in your work?"

"On the contrary; she probably trusts it more than I do. But we have no idea what might have happened to the comman…crewmembers in that holosuite, and a medical team on standby is standard precaution in situations like this."

Shandison merely nodded, appearing not to notice O'Brien's near slip of the tongue.

Five minutes later everyone stood gathered in the holosuite, Shandison unobtrusively fading to the back.

Willing his fingers not to tremble, O'Brien set the transporter to retrieve previously stored signatures.

"Transporter signal retrieved," he reported, his mouth suddenly dry. He drew a deep breath, and felt everyone else in the room holding their breath as he threw the final switch. "Energize."

Next chapter coming next week! …hopefully. The library is closed due to the coronavirus threat, so I'm trying posting from my phone with the wifi at work. If I end up not having access to that (I don't think they'd close grocery stores, but some people are afraid they will), posting will be delayed until the library opens again.

I proofread all my stories at least once before posting, but if you see any mistakes I might have missed, please let me know!

Please note that I have internet access only once a week, and may not have time to respond to all reviews/messages. If you have questions regarding my Deep Space Nine alternate history, check my profile first to see if they're answered there. Thanks for your understanding! Barbie