Chapter Four: Laying Blame

"It really wasn't my fault!" Quark was whimpering as Julian entered Ops. The Ferengi seemed somehow shriveled as he cringed in Odo's firm grasp.

"Quiet!" Dax ordered. "We'll hear your side of the story, but I've had enough of your whining." She turned toward Julian as he slipped into his place. "How's Jake?"

"Sleeping," Dr Bashir responded. "I had to sedate him because he was going into shock as the adrenaline wore off, but he should be fine."

"Did you take him to the infirmary?" O'Brian asked.

Bashir shook his head. "I left him with Keiko; he shouldn't need medical monitoring or any further intervention, and when he wakes I think it will be better for him to be in a home environment. I'll check on him later, but the best thing for him would be to be able to tell him we have a way to get his father back."

Dax nodded and turned to Quark. "All right, what do you have to say for yourself? And don't just tell me it's not your fault; if that's really true I want to know who was behind it and exactly what happened."

Quark glanced around fearfully, but there seemed to be no hope for it. However the stranger might or might not be keeping tabs on him, any threat he offered was less immediate than that posed by Odo. Even as he considered, the shapeshifter's grip tightened on his shoulder, and Quark made a sound that was half whimper and half squeal. "All right! I'll tell you everything, just don't blame me!"

"That depends entirely on how much you were at fault," Dax said sternly. "Now talk."

"It was the stranger," Quark whimpered.

"What stranger?"

"I don't know; he never told me his name."

"All right; we'll leave that for now. It was this stranger who wanted Sisko to try the new holosuite program?"

"Yes! He said he would give it to me for free; the only stipulation was that Sisko had to be the first to use it…I didn't see the harm."

"Did you make any effort to find out what this program was about?"

"No…"

"That's a bit extreme, Quark, even for you; how did you know it would be worth anything?"

"If it wasn't, I hadn't lost anything," Quark pointed out.

"Maybe not, but did it never even occur to you that this stranger might have nefarious reasons for wanting Sisko to be the first to try it?"

Quark only shook his head mutely; to admit his later doubts would put more blame on him for following through on the stranger's condition.

"You said you didn't recognize him," Dax pressed. "Can you at least describe him; what species was he?"

"I don't know," Quark whimpered. "He looked sort of human." He waved a hand vaguely to include both races present in his use of the term.

"So humanoid, but not Terran or Trill…and I assume you'd recognize a Bajoran if you saw one, so we can rule them out as well. When was this?"

"About…a month ago?"

Quark must have had his own doubts, Dax mused as she turned toward the computer, to wait so long to try a potentially lucrative holoprogram. Tapping quickly through the screens, she called up a list of what species had officially been on the station roughly a month ago. Eliminating the ones whose appearance was vastly different from Earth human, she brought generic images of the others up on the screen. "All right, Quark; was it any of these races?"

"That one," Quark pointed out without hesitation.

"Manthracite," Bashir murmured, leaning to look over Dax's shoulder. "That explains why Quark didn't ask any questions, anyway."

"How do you mean?" Dax questioned, twisting to look up at him.

"Manthracites have the ability to increase whatever emotion someone is currently feeling. It would have increased his natural avarice, to the point of overriding whatever caution he had."

Quark looked suspiciously at Bashir, inclined to take it as a compliment because of the Ferengi view of profit, but unsure whether the doctor meant it that way.

"Fortunately, only one ship docked at the time had Manthracite crew," Dax murmured.

"That were reported," Bashir specified; it was not a requirement for a docking ship to report the race of every person on board.

Dax nodded acknowledgement but didn't concern herself with the truth of the statement; it was rare enough to have Manthracites on the station without speculating whether there might have been more than reported. "Unfortunately, that ship left — probably the very day our stranger talked to Quark."

"Coincidence?" Bashir asked sharply.

"I doubt it. He wanted to be out of here before Sisko used the program — just in case Quark talked."

Quark whimpered, and Dax looked at him with a mixture of impatience and disgust. "I can't see that you're actually guilty of anything this time, so you're free to go. You can open up the bar, but the holosuites are closed until further notice."

Quark's eyes widened. "But, my dear Lieutenant —!"

"Quiet!" Dax snapped. "Let me continue to believe that you wouldn't do anything to jeopardize our getting the commander back, or I may have to rethink whether you had anything to do with his disappearance in the first place. Odo, escort him back; besides keeping a guard at the door to that specific holosuite, I want one guarding the steps to the holosuites, and one wherever Quark might have access to the programming."

Odo nodded and led the still shrinking Quark away.

"You don't seriously think he'd sabotage our rescue efforts?" Miles questioned when they had gone.

Dax shook her head. "Not intentionally, no. But he's so concerned about his profits, he might convince himself that using the other holoprograms couldn't possibly hurt."

"He'd probably be right," Miles remarked.

"Maybe," Dax said grimly, "but you know as well as I do we can't take the chance he wouldn't be."

Next chapter coming next week!

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