Here's Garak!

Chapter 4: Petri Dishes

Being the CMO of a station was no easy job. Julian Bashir was in charge of most injuries and maladies that cropped up on board, and as he was just discovering, he was also the station's most qualified forensic pathologist and coroner.

He'd had the Bajoran, Drisek Zel, taken up to the stasis room and was conducting an autopsy. There really wasn't anything new that he could see. The man had been stabbed to death, which was evident just by looking at him. He had been stabbed in five places, and the wounds were not clean. The edges of the cuts were ragged and bruised as if he had been stabbed with some force.

Despite Odo's assertion that he would have the knife looked at, Bashir had decided to take it with him. When he was certain of Drisek's cause of death, he turned his attention to the knife. Hopefully, there was something more promising here.

The knife was suspiciously clean of prints and microscopic DNA. Someone had wiped the handle clean before placing it back near the body. All Bashir could find on it was the Bajoran's own blood. Disappointed, he placed the knife back into a stasis chamber. If he'd missed something, then it would remain undisturbed until Odo chose to reexamine the weapon.

There was one last thing Bashir wanted to do before he placed Drisek's body back into stasis. There was a possibility of him finding prints or DNA on the body itself, and it was, therefore, a good idea to run a diagnostic.

Running his tricorder up and down the body, Bashir found three sets of DNA particles. The organic material was not difficult to locate. Carefully extracting it, Bashir set his clues in Petri dishes to begin a proper examination.

On the Bajoran's shoulders and back he found skin particles, likely the man's own dandruff. A quick test proved the theory.

There were some particles of Ferengi DNA dusted on parts of Drisek's sleeve. The amount that would be expected if he'd shaken hands with or even just stopped to talk to a Ferengi. This suggested that Quark knew more than he was letting on.

And oddest of all, under the Bajoran's nails he found some skin and a bit of coarse black hair. His tests showed a strand of DNA that suggested the owner was a Klingon. What was a Klingon doing talking to Drisek Zel, and more importantly, why was his DNA under the Bajoran's nails?

It was time to talk to Odo.

...

Odo had left the Commander's office feeling more anxious than he had been when he'd entered. He couldn't go back to Quark now, not when he was this agitated. Quark would know something was up, and he'd try to help. Maybe he'd say something incriminating in his efforts, or worse yet, confess.

Odo would never suspect him of murder under normal circumstances. Petty theft, smuggling but not murder. However this time his proximity to the murder as well as his flimsy alibi made Odo suspicious. Perhaps he'd misjudged the Ferengi, maybe he really did have it in him to kill.

The alibi was not as ironclad as Odo wanted it to be. Quark had been in one of the holodecks when the murder had taken place, the records showed that he had entered and had stayed in there until the moment of discovery. But records could be changed, and something didn't add up. Earlier that day he had told Odo that he had a "private event" set up for that afternoon.

What "private event" would end with murder? And what was the absinthe for? There were so many loose ends, and they, unfortunately, all seemed to lead back to Quark.

Odo decided he would find out how Drisek had gotten to the station. That was a line of questioning that should take him away from Quark and the bar.

The docking rings were bustling with life today. They were full of traders and passenger ships unloading goods and people. There was no way Odo could find the ship by questioning each one, it would take hours, instead, he made a stop in his office to check station logs. Drisek Zel had arrived that morning on a Bajoran trader, he had evidently expected to return to Bajor as his departure was scheduled for the following day.

Odo hurried down to the airlock with the intention of speaking with the freighter captain. This was a safe line of questioning. There was no way that this could incriminate Quark, and if it did then Odo wasn't sure what he'd do. Before he reached it, his combadge chimed with the sound of an incoming message.

"Bashir to Odo, I think I've found something."

"Go ahead."

"Could you come to the infirmary? I've found some evidence that I'd like to show you."

Odo turned and began walking back through the station towards the infirmary. "I'm on my way." He responded. He wasn't sure what Bashir had found, but if it implicated Quark then he should intervene before the doctor could connect the dots.

He didn't make it there before cries from the airlock he'd been approaching drew his attention back to its former focus. Three Bajoran civilians came running out before the ship that was docked there began to fire up its engines.

Bashir and his clue were forgotten as Odo ran towards the airlock door. He had to shut it before the ship moved away.

12 meters away and he could hear the freighter's engines.

9 meters, the docking clamps began to disengage.

6 meters, the ship's thrusters fired up.

3 meters, the ship began to pull away, a sucking sound could be heard as the seal between the side of the ship and the side of the station began to break.

Odo slammed his hand down on the buttons that closed the door as the ship pulled away from the station. The door closed at the last second, and Odo reached for his combadge.

"Odo to Ops. There is a Bajoran freighter disembarking in an illegal manner."

"Understood. Locking on with a tractor beam."

...

"Hail them," Sisko commanded, taking a seat in his chair.

Dax looked up at him, a slight frown on her features. "They're refusing our transmission."

"Open a channel." Refusing a transmission and leaving the station in this manner could only mean they had something to hide. On the heels of a brutal murder, it was far too suspicious to let them get away with it. "This is Commander Benjamin Sisko. You are violating Station protocol. Unless you can explain to me why you disembarked without observing the proper procedure, then you are required to bring your ship back into port."

"Still no response, Commander. I can hold them in the tractor beam until we can assemble a team to beam over."

"Are their shields up, Lieutenant?" Sisko inquired. "If so, then we may have a little difficulty getting a team across."

"It's a freighter. Defences are minimal. I'm sure we can get around them, but we'll need more time than we've got. If they keep their engines running then their ship is in danger of ripping itself in half."

"Try to hail them again," Sisko commanded. "And have a security team report to a transporter pad immediately. If we have to release the ship from the tractor beam I want us to be ready to board them before they're out of range."

...

Dr. Bashir was running another examination on the DNA samples that he had collected when Garak had entered the infirmary. As was usual, he crept up silently and only made himself known when he was within a couple feet of an unwitting Bashir.

"Garak! Can I help you?" Bashir asked, whirling around as the Cardassian tailor cleared his throat conspicuously.

"I just overheard something that you might find quite interesting." Garak gave Bashir a knowing smile. "About Drisek Zel."

"What about Drisek?" Bashir asked, quickly glancing back down at the DNA samples that he had lined up in identical Petri dishes. He began rearranging them aimlessly in an attempt to appear disinterested. "Do you know something?"

"Yes." Garak's eyes were practically twinkling. "About Drisek's Klingon friend."

"Klingon?" This could be the lead Bashir was waiting for. The link between the organic material under the Bajoran's nails and his unfortunate demise. "What about a Klingon?"

"I've heard that Drisek's ship just departed in a hurry. Under very odd circumstances." Garak was eying the Petri dishes now too. "The ship left every member of its crew behind in the docking ring."

"What do you mean?" Bashir shifted himself slightly to stand in front of the evidence. "Surely someone piloted it out."

"Yes, someone did. Ships rarely abandon their crew, my dear doctor."

Bashir smiled at the affectionate title. He shook himself slightly, trying desperately to stay focused. Somehow, even a brutal murder happening under one's nose wasn't nearly as interesting as Garak. "Drisek's friend." He managed. "The Klingon."

"Excellent, Doctor. The Klingon whose hair is in that dish right there." Garak nodded towards the DNA samples. He was smiling outright at Bashir. It would have been rather unnerving if Bashir hadn't been utterly captivated by it.

"I'm not following. What's the link?" Bashir asked absently. It didn't make sense. Why would a random Klingon's DNA be under Drisek's nails? Why would that Klingon steal Drisek's ship?

"Think about it, Doctor." Garak's unwavering eyes held Bashir's own amber ones. "It's right under your nose."

The DNA, the nails, the ship, the murder, Drisek Zel. Of course. "A Klingon killed Drisek," Bashir said slowly, eyes widening. "That's what you're trying to tell me, isn't it? That a Klingon did this?"

"Is that what I was saying?" Garak asked, mock confusion in his face. "Goodness. How terribly disturbing."

"Yes. But the question now is who did this?" Bashir was contemplating the DNA again. "Did Drisek have a Klingon companion with him when he arrived?"

"That, my dear Doctor, is precisely what you must find out." Garak went quiet following this statement, and when Bashir finally looked up from the petri dish, the Cardassian was gone.

"Thank you," Bashir said softly, a small smile spreading over his face. "Thank you, Garak."