Free Vectors by Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch Page B

couldn't."
    "Don't start, Kira," Corda said. "You're not here to criticize us."
    "And it's a good thing, too, because I think your campsite is too exposed you're putting your entire cell in jeopardy."
    "But you're not here to tell us that," Corda said sarcastically.
    "No," Kira said, "I'm not. I'm here because I'm supposed to confirm some rumors." "About the plague," Javi said.
    Kira went cold despite the heat. "They're calling it a plague now?"
    "Hundreds dead, Nerys." Javi's voice was solemn. "Everyone who comes in contact with this thing gets ill."
    "Everyone?" Kira asked.
    "In time," Corda said.
    "How have you gotten your information?"
    "Do you mean were we exposed?" Corda asked. "No. We've been getting it the same as you have, in messages sent through sanitary computers."
    Kira had never liked Corda. And the heat wasn't improving Kira's mood. "I'm not here to talk to you."
    "You get to talk to me whether you like it or not,"
    Corda said. "I'm the one who has been following this thing and reporting to Javi."
    Kira glared at her for a moment. Corda glared back, not at all intimidated.
    "This isn't helping us," Javi said. "We need to work together. Nerys has come to us for information, the kind, I believe, that isn't easily sent."
    "But Corda just said that you haven't heard anything that we haven't heard," Kira said.
    "I did not," Corda said. "We've gotten that, and we've gotten reports from other sources."
    "Others?"
    "Non-Bajorans. Some of the relief teams not tied to the Federation. They seem to be unaffected."
    The relief teams were from charitable organizations that went to planets they considered not as developed to help with basics: food, medicine, clothing. Sometimes Kira appreciated their presence, sometimes she resented them more than she could say. What she wanted was Federation intervention, to stop this occupation by the Cardassians. But the Federation had rules and regulations, things she had never bothered to understand, and those rules and regulations didn't seem to apply to Bajor, although some people were telling her to be cautious with her tongue, that some day the Federation might come through.
    She would believe that when she saw Bajorans move around unfettered on their own planet.
    "What are they doing to stop this thing?" Kira asked.
    "What they can," Corda said.
    "Most of them are volunteers, Nerys, with no more medical training than we have." Javi sounded tired. Kira wondered how much power he had ceded in this cell to Corda, and how long it would be before she took the group too far. "They provide comfort where they can, but they can't do much."
    "They are sure it's a disease, then?" Kira asked. "Shakaar wasn't. He thought maybe it was a Cardassian trick to get us focused in the wrong direction."
    "It's a disease, all right," Javi said. "But it might also be a Cardassian trick."
    Kira frowned. "What do you mean?"
    "The disease is too virulent." Javi's words hung between them.
    Kira's chill grew deeper. She wiped sweat off her forehead. "Not even the Cardassians would do something this monstrous," she said.
    "Do you actually believe that?" Corda asked.
    Kira wasn't sure. "If we're talking about a disease that infects everyone who comes in contact with it-"
    "We are," Corda said.
    "-then we're talking genocide." Kira swallowed. "The Cardassians have always made it plain that they see us as a lesser species, as people who 'benefit' from their rule, as slaves to work in their various mines and processing plants. But not as creatures to be wiped out of existence."
    "They've always wanted Bajor," Corda said.
    "Yes-but with its Bajoran population." Kira wiped the sweat off her face.
    "Get her something to drink," Javi said to Corda.
    "But-"
    "Now," Javi said.
    Corda sighed and got up, sliding past Kira.
    "I'm sorry, Nerys," Javi said. "I know you don't much like Corda. But you must listen to her. She has run this cell, for the most part, since last fall."
    Kira glanced over her shoulder. Corda was out of