DS-NINE WAS NO LONGER in the immediate danger of destruction. The bomb, still attached to the empty pod, was safely in a blast-containment chamber where, if it was detonated, it would do no real harm. There it sat, visible through the monitor, deceptively harmless-looking.
Berat felt slightly nervous surrounded by so many Starfleet officers—and even worse, Bajorans. The female major's expression was almost hostile, and alone among them she hadn't congratulated him on removal of the bomb. He couldn't help remembering he was still a prisoner here, in the hands of those who had been his people's enemies for generations.
"Time is still the consideration," Major Kira was saying. "Whoever set this thing is still expecting it to go off on schedule. We have that long to catch them."
"But in the meantime"—Dax glanced at the bomb through the monitor—"we have this to work on. It's evidence. I'll want to scan it for DNA analysis. And we can compare it to the fragments recovered from the other explosions. If we can find where it came from, that will be a start."
"Then it'll have to be disarmed," said Odo.
"Mr. O'Brien," Commander Sisko ordered, "disarm it if you can. But don't disable it permanently unless you have to." Then he asked, "Mr. Berat? Do you think you can help us again?"
"I have some experience with devices like this," Kira put in.
"Fine. Then you can help Berat and O'Brien."
Kira frowned. That wasn't the reply she'd been expecting.
Berat himself said nothing. He had started to wonder, earlier in his stay on DS-Nine, whether the Bajoran terrorist wasn't largely a myth created by Cardassian propaganda. But here stood Kira, not a meter away from him, admitting to "some experience" with bombs. No question how she had obtained it, who her targets had been.
O'Brien felt the tension. As Sisko and the others left the monitor room, he turned first to Berat, then to Kira, as if trying to force goodwill between them. "Well, let's have the computer scan this bloody thing and tell us what it finds."
"Unless the scan sets it off," Berat added pessimistically.
But it didn't. Instead, the scan image started to appear on the screen. "No timing device," O'Brien noted. "Must be remote control."
"Radio receiver. There." Berat pointed to the screen. Now that he was observing the device more closely, it seemed quite familiar. Almost too familiar.
Kira was staring fiercely at the screen. "So whoever's planning to set this off must be still on the station! They'd have to be, to send the signal. It's not too late!"
Once the scan was complete, Berat explained where it would be safest to drill through the case of the bomb and set a pin that would hold the arming switch in place. Although painstaking, the operation was simple enough, using remote controls under the computer's guidance. Berat stood just behind O'Brien, watching him manipulate the probe. From time to time, he flexed his hands and tried to hold them steady without a tremor.
"There, that's done!" O'Brien said at last, leaning back and exhaling in relief. The pin was in place, the arming switch no longer capable of detonating the bomb. He looked at Berat with appreciation. "You must have done this kind of thing before."
"I have," he said slowly. "In combat engineering school. That … that bomb is a Cardassian model."
"You're sure about this?" Sisko asked him.
Berat hesitated. Then, "Yes. The device is Cardassian. It isn't a model that I recognize. And the serial numbers were burned away. But the basic design … is Cardassian."
Kira said reluctantly, "During the resistance, we got a lot of our supplies, ordnance, that kind of thing, from raids on Cardassian armories. This doesn't prove the terrorist is Cardassian. I wish it did, but—we can't afford to make mistakes in this situation."
"Mr. Berat?"
This was hard. How much should he admit? Was he betraying his homeworld? Had he already done it, deactivating the bomb? Identifying it?
But if there was a plot to destroy DS9, to wreck the peace between Cardassia and the Federation, then he knew who was behind it: Marak. Marak and the whole Revanche party, the ones responsible for his father's execution as a traitor. It was all part of the same plan.
Sisko tried to assure him, "We won't try to force you to disclose any information you think you shouldn't. But the station's safety depends on knowing who's behind these attacks. So we can stop them before they try it again."
Slowly, "I think … the reason I didn't recognize it at first is it's a very recent model. There was a new series developed after I was out of engineering school. That was after we withdrew from Bajoran space. I don't see how … Bajorans could have gotten hold of them."
The station's officers all looked at each other. Then Sisko said, "Thank you, Mr. Berat. That's all the information I think we need. The security officer will escort you back to detention. For your own safety, you understand. As long as the Swift Striker is docked at DS-Nine. Gul Marak has made … a number of threatening remarks.
"But I want you to know that we appreciate what you've done today. All of us do."
They waited until he had left the room.
"I don't know," Kira said, "about trusting him."
O'Brien didn't like that. "He risked his life down there in that reactor."
"Either he's lying now, or he's betraying his own people."
"I don't really think so," said Sisko. "There may be more to the situation than we can understand. But that's not our concern right now. Major, it looks like you were right. The Cardassians are behind the attacks. They meant for Bajoran terrorists to take the blame when the station was destroyed."
"And Gul Marak would be on hand to claim the wormhole," Kira added.
"Well," said Odo, "as far as Gul marak—or anyone else—knows, the explosion still set to go off in …" He checked the time. " … twenty-one hours."
"Or whenever they send the signal to detonate," Sisko corrected him. "Remember, all we have to go on is that one poster that said seventy-two hours."
"But they can't set off the bomb while their own ship is still docked here. They don't want to blow themselves up along with the station," O'Brien added. "So we have until the Swift Striker undocks, at least."
"If it is the Cardassians," Dax warned. The results of her DNA scan were so far inconclusive.
Kira glanced at her with a troubled expression that none of the others seemed to notice.
"But then what happens when there's no explosion? What will they do next?" Odo asked.
"A good question," Sisko said. "We'll have to do something about that. Unfortunately," he went on, "even without destroying the station, this plot has already done enough harm to Bajor. The trade negotiations are completely disrupted. None of those worlds are going to vote for Bajoran membership in the Federation now, after what they believe has happened. They're all convinced that the Bajorans are fanatics and terrorists."
"But we have the evidence!" O'Brien protested.
"One piece of evidence. And no way for us to prove we didn't plant it to place the blame on the Cardassians."
"Berat saw it."
"And the Cardassians would point out that he's a known traitor who's taken Federation asylum. No, we need to have the Cardassians discredit themselves. Publicly. In front of as many witnesses as we can find."
Sisko looked at all of them, one by one. "And to do that, we have to make them believe their plan is working. We all have to carry on exactly as if we hadn't found the bomb. I see no other way to force their hand."
"What about the evacuation?" Odo asked. "The level of panic on the station …"
Sisko frowned. "We can't force people to stay. For one thing, we don't have the security forces to prevent every ship from undocking, if it comes to that. And we can't reveal that we've removed the bomb. But we need witnesses. As many impartial observers as possible."
"We can't order the delegates to stay, but we can't guarantee their safety if they try to leave," said Dax.
"Exactly," Sisko agreed. "And with the last two incidents, that's no idle threat. I'll speak personally with all the remaining ambassadors and trade delegations."
He turned to Kira. "Major, there still are some loose ends we have to tie up. Assuming this is a Cardassian plot, they must have had an agent on the station before the Swift Striker showed up, to plant that first bomb. I want whoever that was. And I want to know how they got that thing past our security to plant it on the containment pod."
Sisko looked back at the monitor, at the bomb. "But I still don't trust our Cardassian friend Gul Marak. I think Odo asked the right question a few minutes ago. What's going to happen when he sees that his bomb hasn't gone off? What does he do then? If the Cardassians were originally prepared to blow up the station one way, they wouldn't hesitate to use a Galor-class warship to get the job done."
Kira clenched her teeth. "And Bajoran terrorists would take the blame."
Odo agreed, "Everyone else who knew the truth would be dead."
"Exactly. That's what we have to prevent." Sisko looked at O'Brien, then at the bomb. "And this thing is what we're going to use to do it."