JMJ

Chapter Thirty-Two

Stiff Limbs

Lek was not alone. The Ferengi with him was also holding a gun.

Immediately, Nog recalled that two people were meant to pretend to kill Meegs and rescue the prisoners, but he thought that Meegs had said that they were Human. At the moment he still was not certain of anything, still somewhat dazed. What was real and what was not was all muddled in only a very slowly thinning fog. The silence and wariness of his civilian companions proved that they were wondering much the same thing about these intruders, but Meegs did appear to be truly dead. No sound emanated from him but the sagging of idle interior tissue.

These two did not appear to be acting according to any sort of plan if they were the two designated to come or not as they seemed just as shocked as everyone else by the procedure. One of them had a distinct resemblance to the supposedly dead Belongo besides, and it was Belongo more than Lek that looked and sounded like he had more going through his mind than doing something according to any sort of plan.

Had their Keeoopii also been driven out of them?

It still did not all make full sense, but Nog kept recording everything calmly. "Hear all, trust nothing, Rule Number 190" he could almost hear his uncle saying it; though perhaps it was because his uncle's voice had overwhelmed the room for some time before going silent. Even Nog's voicing of Lek's name did not seem to arouse either Ferengi towards him. It was almost as if he had not spoken at all and that the phantom of Quark's chanting still reverberated indefinitely.

Lek made a quick scan of everyone in the room first thing, but no one, not a single guard was in any condition to fight back. They were all sprawled on the ground similarly to Zof. There was some moaning and grunting, but most everyone seemed like they would much rather go to bed or run away under one in the presence of these fully armed and ready Ferengi.

It could all be fake still, but Nog was beginning to doubt the possibility.

The little girl Netil remained sobbing as Lek's attention reverted to her; though Belongo's attention had never left there since he looked at her first. Lek looked at Belongo staring. Then Belongo closed his gaping mouth. Taking his own pistol he fired near Netil's ear.

Nog jumped despite himself, and he felt the apprehension of his companions.

The girl barely moved from the event except to squeak and shudder a little.

Lek eased the tension of the room just a little as he turned to Belongo and smiled at him wryly, but he still said nothing. It appeared that Belongo had just disintegrated the parasite that had been struggling back for the child's ear.

But Belongo did not share Lek's more carless mood. After a further silence, Belongo's insides swelled. He dropped his weapon and ran to the girl. If it was indeed Belongo, the girl would be his granddaughter.

Instinctively, Lek picked up Belongo's weapon for him and tucked it into a well-supplied, multilayered holster among a few other weapons and sheaths below a long coat that was more of a duster than a Ferengi-styled piece of clothing.

"Netil?" breathed Belongo kneeling gently beside her.

The girl only laid down and coiled into herself like a shrimp pried from a shell and was still alive to writhe from the nakedness and the pain. She, like the parasite, had never been parted. Even if he had not experienced it firsthand like his father and uncle, Nog figured that the withdrawal she must be experiencing had to be more painful than a child should endure. In fact, in some ways, according to all Dr. Bashir had said, it should be impossible. The event should have killed them both.

Then Nog recalled his uncle. His uncle was lying motionless on the floor; though even from where he was he felt he could hear him breathing. Tears were swelling up in Sharlezeed's whole body as she knelt upright from where she had been sprawled on the ground as she followed Nog's gaze.

"Alright," said Lek, at last breaking the spell like a stone thrown into a glassy pond.

Everyone looked at him as Lek removed the barrier keeping the trio caged in that tight space.

"Let's get going. How's Quark?"

Belongo was in the process of scooping up the little girl into his arms, and he did not pause in the action even if he did turn to Quark.

"I don't think he's de—"

Sharlezeed was already collapsed at Quark's side. Bennar like Nog was still somewhat dazed as they looked at each other stepping away from their now free corner. Quark's wife grabbed him and shook him. Nog felt a choke rise up in himself as well as Sharzee began to cry on him and kiss him all over his face and head.

"Quark? Quark, are you alright? Are you there? I can hear you. Please. Please wake up."

"You better not wake him if he's alive." The voice of Zof came out hoarse and weak as he sat himself upright into a somewhat dignified position with hands on his knees. He looked awful like one who had just been tossed about in an ancient Human washing machine.

Nog swallowed his choke and before either Belongo or Lek could speak, though he was sure they meant to, he snapped, "How are you involved in this?"

"A Keeoopii, what else?" said Bennar.

"But it's still a good idea that Zof, here, explain what's going on and have the others locked up just in case," said Belongo.

The girl was still resisting him, and he sighed miserably.

Lek killed a few more Keeoopii wriggling about from their unwell hosts. He moved to kill each one in turn with cool precision, except one, which he wasted no time in cupping into a bottle he had with him.

"I don't think the rest will be a problem now that they're free," remarked Lek. "We should just get back to the skiff and leave as planned."

"No," said Nog. "We should stay. The Defiant will be here soon, and we should all meet up together in this."

"I don't care for Starfleet," remarked Lek.

"Regardless," Nog said defiantly himself. "It will save time if we all speak together in this. Then we'll all go to Ferenginar at once and…" he paused. "And see what's left of it."

He clenched his fists to his sides trying not to listen to Sharzee's sobs, trying not to think about his uncle being near death and the idea that if he woke up, he could die of a heart attack just like his father almost did. He tried not to think about the idea that his father might be in danger again on Ferenginar. Hopefully, they were hiding, but he could not count on that. He could not count on anything, and besides that, he still had not recovered from all he had experience just now and that he still had to sort out.

What had happened? The impossible had happened, or at least the improbable. He did not know what to think. He did not know what to do.

Lek huffed.

"A little shaking up isn't going to end Ferenginar," he said simply. "In fact, I'd say if all works out, it'll be good for us."

"Nog," said Bennar suddenly before Nog could answer.

Nog turned sharply to the man who might have been a peer in age, but certainly in nothing else. A life completely different from his despite being a Ferengi. A boy who had grown up in a Hidden Profiter family hiding on his home planet like a refugee with a father who had been tricked through deceitful use of the Rules of Acquisition before rescued by another Hidden Profiter. Well, perhaps that part was similar to his own father's experience, but his rescuer had not held it against Bennar's father for years as Rom's brother had, and Rom's brother, Nog's uncle, Quark had joined such people as Noi.

Quark believed it with all his heart. That was evidence enough, but belief alone could not have kept him going for so long chanting in that way he had. It was a spiritual thing as though he had been floating preserved on the River— that River he had tried to keep believing in as a Starfleet officer just as Warf tried to remain a Klingon.

Nog knew that his belief in the River had waned so much during his short years in service to the Federation, despite how he stubbornly clung to it as a sort of nostalgic identity like a person may keep a toy from childhood, but in the end did he still believe in it even in a normal Ferengi sort of way? Of course not, because he had not adhered to the meaning of it in acquiring profit of any kind, being part of the Federation. But in the end was not what he wanted also the spiritual acquiring of the Hidden Profiters? Neither the lofty goal of godhood of the Federation, nor the "holy greed" of the soul of Ferenginar that he had always known like he remembered in his uncle to be all through his childhood growing up in that bar.

Had Quark really discovered the truth and had become one even for a moment with the Great River as the Hidden Profiters saw it? As a sort of Divine Current of the Dayitela…?

He breathed out as though trying to exhale out a puff of smug accidently inhaled.

Bennar cleared his throat. "I mean, Lieutenant."

Nog shook his head violently as he turned to him.

"You're a friend now, Bennar. We're hardly on duty at the moment."

"I see you've done some maturing since last we met," smiled Lek crossing his arms.

Nog allowed a smile to Lek. Then clearing his throat, he turned to Zof once again climbing onto his feet.

"There is a medical wing here, isn't there?" he demanded.

"Of course," whispered Zof.

"Are you in any condition to treat my uncle?"

Zof swallowed hard. He obviously was not.

"Can't you just put the pyrocyte back into him?" asked Bennar.

Zof shook his head. "It did not just drain the pyrocyte, it already distilled it for poison that Meegs kept stored." He paused unsteadily as though he felt very faint. "I don't have that kind of tech to undo the process. Maybe… Starfleet does? It's… it's a miracle he's still alive at all…"

"Right," muttered Nog. "A miracle."

"What's wrong with that?" demanded Lek suddenly.

Nog turned to Lek again with a rather childish scowl.

"We saw everything," said Lek. "Everything that we caught from Meegs' 'show'." He chuckled and shook his head. "Your uncle may be foolhardy in his courage, but he has no training in utilizing pain to keep pain from overcoming you. I've met people who've had that kind of training, and even them I doubt would be able to do what that bar tender just did."

Nog's face tightened harder.

"The fact that he's still alive and sounding more asleep than in some coma even now," said Lek. "Listen yourself. It's proof enough for me. We even scanned the whole place to see if something was fake. Nothing here is fake. Not one thing, except Meegs' self-righteous cause that fortunately died with him."

"What about the two people that were supposed to rescue us?" demanded Nog.

"Still unconscious where we knocked 'em out to get more weapons," said Belongo rather absently without looking back.

He was stroking Netil gently now, and at last the girl opened her eyes upon him. She relaxed at last, more likely from exhaustion than true acceptance of this person she did not know. But she hugged him now around his neck sobbing quietly wanting so desperately to be comforted from her pain. He gently petted her head and kissed it so very tenderly.

Nog felt another choke himself. He did not know why, except that he felt like he wanted Leeta there to hug. Then he went back into a work-mode to set everything in motion for the arrival of his captain. He turned off the recording now, but the beacon was still set.

#

The Defiant had arrived before Traymak's Vital. They were met by the Defiant's crew before they met anyone else.

"What about Quark?" Rom kept asking, and hardly allowed anyone to answer until discovering he was in the Defiant itself with Dr. Tenniel.

Her work with him was not to be disturbed, except by Dr. Bashir. Bashir had not asked, but they made it clear that Tenniel had wanted Bashir to come.

"Why?" Rom begged. "What's wrong? Is it really bad?"

Bashir did not answer. He tried to be calm, but he could not help the fear that Quark was dying or even dead. After what he had seen recorded by Nog, he felt that in some ways he should feel more optimistic, especially since right before Nog turned off the recorder, they said he was more asleep than comatose, and there were many others who should have died from the length of time they had been merged with their Keeoopii hosts and had not.

Miracles?

Did Bashir believe in them?

Well, he had not called it that, but his own continued existence in mortal life had no explanation, but the emotion of fear was always a strong one. After everything he had done to preserve Quark, the idea that this preservation had been only meant for him to show his courage and die, was something that Bashir was not sure he could handle. He had lived longer than he should have by how Meegs had treated him once drained of his pyrocyte. The events with Rom were still fresh in everyone's minds. During the witnessing of what Meegs had done, Rom himself had crumpled and given his brother up for dead long before Quark's odd chanting.

The haze that had overcome Rom watching the chant had been broken only when he had been pried by his wife to come out of the ship when they arrived at the Paradigm's Haven. Leeta herself was only out of the haze for the sake of her son first and her husband second. Arkos was still in his haze and did not seem to know what to think of anything anymore with his staring eyes filled with awe rather than fear or sadness. Ishka had been completely silent and still was, and even Zek was uncharacteristically quiet. Traymak was the only one who seemed himself, though Bashir had heard a strange sob from him during the chanting part that no one had dared bring attention to.

Now Bashir had left them, and he had not spoken except to quietly greet the Defiant's captain and crew before being led away to Dr. Tenniel.

What was the point of this? He had flashed about this before. He had what seemed like an age ago seen the dark center of the Paradigm's Haven. He had seen Meegs' assistant doctor more than he had seen Meegs directly. He had seen Nog, Bennar, and Sharzee faintly, but what still did not make total sense was that he remembered the flash with Quark being simultaneously outside. Somewhere that was not very clear to him but the sense of rain and rivers and trees.

Was that a sign that he would live and that his mission was not yet over?

The place Bashir had seen, though he had not seen it with clarity, had not been Ferenginar. At least he did not think so. Similar, perhaps, but not anything he had ever seen personally… it was like… well, it had been so brief, though Quark had been very much alive in it. What he had done after facing Meegs, Bashir had not the slightest idea, but Meegs was the one certainly dead, so he could not face him again, and Quark was probably hanging by a thread.

The door to sickbay opened, and Dr. Tenniel was there instantly to greet him. Her deep brown eyes were puckered with confusion and uncertainty.

"Dr. Bashir! I was so glad to hear that you're here. It's been too long."

Quark was on the biobed motionless but alive as the vital signs showed. It only took an instant to see that, although perhaps not ideal, they were not precarious.

Bashir turned to Tenniel. "I'm glad to see you too, but I'm sure you didn't call me here to catch up."

He motioned to the patient.

"Yes," agreed Tenniel. "I don't know what's going on. I'm hoping that since you have far more experience with Ferengi that you might be able to explain it to me. According to the medical records on Ferengi he should be dead, but he's not. In fact in trying to save him, I almost killed him."

Bashir made a face.

"Okay, now you're going to have to explain this to me very carefully," he said.

Tenniel nodded and brought the doctor further into the room.

"He has no pyrocyte," said Tenniel; she paused. "The funny thing is, it's stranger than the other patients who should be dead or at least brain damaged from being so long with the Keeoopii parasites, especially the little girl. She was apparently infected with them her whole life, but she…"

"Go on," Bashir pressed trying not to be impatient himself.

"She's perfectly healthy."

"I've been with her more than him, but I… I administered his own pyrocyte back to him after reverting it to an acceptable state," Tenniel explained looking away very uncomfortably, despite her professional tone. "When that didn't work, I tried with Nog who instantly offered to be a donor, in case there was something wrong with the pyrocyte that had been taken from the patient, but it was the same result."

Bashir turned again to Quark and began to inspect the readings himself more thoroughly. "What was the same result?"

Even as he asked his question he went back through the patient's history on the biobed to see exactly what the young doctor had done, and even as she answered he was figuring it out himself.

"He was poisoned with it as though he was not a Ferengi. His body won't accept it. When I gave him the full amount that a Ferengi needs to stabilize the body the first round with his own pyrocyte, he almost died. The allergic reaction was worse, from what I understand, than in most humans. He was puffing up like a dead fish right there on the table before my eyes. His heart almost gave out, and he all but suffocated. I barely started using what Nog donated before I stopped the process again. The patient was only stabilized just before you came and meanwhile I have tested only a small amount of his blood with the pyrocyte." She motioned to the rather pinkish blood still in a tiny vial in one stand and the pyrocyte in another. It was the same."

Quark still did look a little swollen even with the biobed at work on reserving that affect.

"And it is only a mild sedative keeping him asleep," muttered Bashir.

Tenniel paused to consider whether or not Bashir was asking a question or not. She pursed her full lips and then asked, "Are you going to risk waking him up?

"It may be the only way to know for sure…" Bashir went on even more absently than before.

He thought he knew what the answer was, but he did not want to have any false hope even for himself.

Tenniel had probably not seen the abuse that Meegs had dished out. According to the record on the biobed, Quark had not even been installed to the equipment as injured as he should have been. With or without pyrocyte involvement, Quark should have been far more critical and he had been far more critical in the past. It did not look like Quark had entered the biobed much more than worn out and sore.

"Dr. Bashir?" asked Tenniel.

"Yes," said Bashir gently. "We should allow him to wake up."

#

He heard the doctors before he saw them. He heard the equipment and smelled the sterile environment. He knew the biobed too well, but he did not feel ashamed of it this time. He did not feel anything but gratitude, even if he did feel unnaturally heavy and bound. He had felt so light and free not long before, though his mind was so muddled that he was not sure when or how he had felt those things.

Taking a deep breath, he blinked his eyes open and saw the two Humans watching him and his vitals with care. Slowly, he registered the memory of Meegs. He recalled Zof draining his blood thin. He recalled the kicks and the shoving and his racing heart and his dizzy, spinning, throbbing skull.

He felt a little stiff and a little fuzzy, but he did not feel pain. He must have been out a long, long time to be this recovered, but all that mattered to him was that he was recovered at the moment. How long it took was an afterthought. He had nothing to say to either doctor, and so he closed his eyes again with a satisfied sigh.

"Quark?" asked Bashir.

"Mmph?"

"How are you feeling?"

"Uh, I don't know. Alive in the physical world, I guess," said Quark, and he smiled weakly, though his lips and tongue felt a little funny as though they had been numbed previously; it made his voice come out a little muddled. "Couldn't let anyone else take care of me by themselves, huh?"

He nodded just a little to Dr. Tenniel.

"You're not feeling dizzy or stressed?" Bashir asked.

"His cardiovascular system is still normal, Dr. Bashir," said Dr. Tenniel as if that was a very peculiar and unnerving thing.

"I'm not feeling dizzy, though I can't help but feel just slightly pressured," Quark remarked though still relatively weakly. "What's wrong with me? Is the pyrocyte having trouble integrating back into me or something? And please don't tell me to calm down or I'll probably do the opposite. I can tell that sound of your hesitance."

He still was not really freaking out, nor did his tone suggest it, but he was quietly insistent if anything.

The doctors looked at each other and back at his vitals.

"Nothing dangerous is happening," said Tenniel.

"Good."

Quark closed his eyes and waited patiently. He knew that Bashir would tell him eventually.

"Could you sit up for me?' asked Bashir. "Is that too difficult?"

Quark opened a suspicious eye but nodded. "Sure, Doctor, sure."

They removed the healing beam above him and gave him room. The air, although plenty warm, felt a little more chill than usual after being removed from its direct warmth. Maybe it was the dryness that he didn't like. He had been spending so much time on Ferenginar and in Ferengi ships that he had become unaccustomed to the environment usually used on Human vessels.

He was a little stiffer than he thought he was as he pried himself into a seated position. It was more than being unused to the environment. He had been numbed, hadn't he? Or something. Had he been dead? Well…

He considered harder what he last recalled, and as he recalled it, his eyes slowly widened. It had not been a dream, had it? He did not think so. He had not woken up with somebody strangling him to find himself in his own bed.

He gaped at Bashir as Bashir simply scanned him once more with a tricorder this time.

Quark did not want to be impatient, but impatience was growing.

"Now, can you stand up?"

"I… think I can," said Quark. "Y'know you're not usually so set on people being pushed out right after a near death."

"I don't think you were ever near death," said Bashir.

"Well!" Tenniel cut in.

"Well, we'll talk about that in a bit, but, yes, yes, you're right, Dr. Tenniel."

Quark shook his head and obeyed the doctor's orders. He felt a little unsteady as his bare feet came in contact with the cold floor. He winced. It was so cold and dry and hard, especially without a firm and comfortable foot bed, but he had a feeling that even in his favorite boots he would have felt some discomfort after having stepped upon that soft, warm bank upon which he had been walking so short a time ago. He took a few steps. They were a little wobbly, but he did not lose his balance.

He put his hand on the biobed after a turn around it and then faced up at the tall doctors once again who trying not to look so grim. In contrast he really was quite content. More content than he had been for quite some time. It was still just that slight discomfort and the impatience with his Human doctors. He also rather it had just been Bashir. Then he would have explained his experience as well as he could, but he was not sure he was ready to have his experience called-off as feverish hallucinations by the other doctor right now. Maybe after he had recovered a little more.

Now it was Dr. Tenniel who did the scanning to his bare chest.

"He should be rupturing his heart by now," she said looking at Bashir unhappily.

Quark held his breath. He looked at Bashir and then back at the young doctor before looking again at Bashir.

"I think it's safe to tell you now without risking anything further to your system," said Bashir.

"There's no pyrocyte in me," Quark said simply.