Bajor: The Secret Base "
By: Clarice, Orphan , [RNPC]
Jonathan Wright, Executive Officer, [PC]
Margaret Rose MacAlister , Marine CO, [RNPC]
Sister Moira , Clinic Director , [NPC]

Stardate: 58207.07 1800

==Bajor - Kalkyra, Rakantha Province==

Major Margaret MacAlister wasn't dressed in a Maquis Marine Uniform, but she might as well have been. Her civilian dress, although slightly different in color and design, was every bit as functional and utilitarian. Green cargo pants were tucked into high top boots and a complimenting green long sleeved shirt was tucked into the belted waistband. On top of that she wore a slightly different colored green vest. There were pockets everywhere, and she not only had a pack belted around her waist, she also sported a small backpack with coiled lengths of rope and climbing hardware attached to it. She had a knife attached to her belt along with a holstered pistol.

She wore her red hair braided tightly and tucked in on itself so it didn't get in the way, and there was a hat perched on top of her head. She looked like an explorer who was getting ready to go mountain climbing; and indeed climbing and spelunking had both been on her To Do list when she came to Bajor. She carried a telescoping walking stick tucked under one arm, and she was holding something in her hand as she approached Wright.

"Doctor," she smiled as she strode up and stopped before him. "I have a PCU I'm going ta leave with ye. If I could get ye ta wear it?" she asked, holding it out to him in one hand. It was a small, functionally designed, state-of-the-art communication unit. It clipped onto the ear with a small ear bud speaker and a slender transparent boom mic. She indicated the one she wore. "I want ta be able ta keep in touch with ye," she announced.

Wright looked at the marine with a confused expression, "I thought communications were blocked?"

"Communications *are* blocked," she agreed with a smile. "Normal communications.. The subspace frequencies are all being blocked. But this uses strictly old radio frequencies. No processors, no power modulation enhancers or boosters, no antenna arrays, and no transmission relay systems," she explained. "'Tis strictly LOS and if we get out of range from each other, we lose contact. This type of technology hasn't been used as a stand alone system for..... eons," she smirked a little because that was bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. "We can talk ta each other, but ye cannae contact the station, or a ship, or anyone who doesn't have another one of these units using these specific frequencies," she told him. "'Tis what the Boys and I use when we're on maneuvers. Or... doing things we dinnae want anyone ta know about..."

"Ok," said Wright taking the device and putting it on. "How does this thing work?"

"Here, let me..." she spoke softly as she stepped in beside him to make some fine adjustments with the unit. The fingers that touched his ear were warm and slightly calloused, but quite, and perhaps surprisingly gentle. Her voice was quiet as she explained how to operate it, ending with a smiling, "'Tis very user-friendly, as she stepped back.

Wright touched his hand to his ear. The device felt awkward and a little uncomfortable. "Clarice went to change clothes. She said she would meet you out in front."

"Well, and then I better get cracking, hmm?" she smiled.

"Good luck Mac," said Wright

"Aye. And dinnae be getting in trouble while I'm gone, doctor," she told him with a wink and a two fingered saluting gesture before turning on a heel and striding purposefully from the clinic to meet Clarice.

Wright watched her as she left and then turned his attention back to his work. He was getting closer to isolating the mysterious Cardassian gene that would end this while nightmare.

****

It was dark now, the sun of Bajor having set a good hour ago. Clarice and MacAlister had already searched five caves, with no results and were just finishing the sixth.

"How many more are there, lass?" Madge asked as they crawled out of the cave and stood besides its opening. The major tucked the flashlight under her arm and pulled out a couple bottles of water to offer one to Clarice along with an energy bar. It was late and the tall redhead, for one, was hungry.

"Thank you Major MacAlister," said Clarice wiping her dirty hands off on the legs of her pants and taking the bar. "There are a lot of caves around here," she replied. "I am skipping the ones that I have already been in. If there had been a secret Cardassian base in them, I think I would have seen it."

"Aye, I'm sure ye'd have noticed," Madge chuckled a bit. "And call me Mac, lass," she added with a smile. "Now. And how far ta the next cave?" She finished off the energy bar and took a drink of water.

Clarice beamed a smile at Madge. "It's not too far," she said also finishing of her water and leading Madge out of the cave into the cool Bajoran night. "Over there," she pointed with her right hand at yet another cave complex.

Madge pulled a pair of binoculars from her pack and raised them up to her eyes, switching them into night mode as she scanned the area Clarice pointed to. "Aye, I see them..." she told her as she continued to scan the surrounding area. She had done the same thing at every cave complex the young girl had led her to, quietly explaining in the beginning that she was looking for anything unusual or anything that might indicate a defense system was in play.

Clarice watched as Madge scanned the cave complex. She had never ventured near those caves so she felt a small bout of excitement.

"Here now.. and what is this...." MacAlister adjusted the glasses a little and peered closer at an area that was quite a bit further south than where Clarice had indicated. "Do ye ken what is over there, lass?" Madge took the glasses down and pointed to where she'd been looking.

Clarice looked into he binoculars, which to her surprise showed the Complex as if it were bright daylight out there. "Wow," she exclaimed, taking the binoculars away from her eyes as if making sure that it really was dark out, "This is amazing," she said.

"Night Vision," Madge smiled at the girl's excitement. "Now look again, lass..." she urged her. "And pay attention ta the lay of the land and ta the growth pattern of the foliage..."

Clarice looked again. It looked as if there was a rock slide a while ago. New plants had grown over the rocks, however, there was something wrong. In the middle of this large vegetation incrusted rock was a pristine rock face. There was no new plant growth at all. "It doesn't look very natural does it?"

"Nae, 'tis not," Madge agreed. "We need ta investigate it. If my suspicions are correct, 'tis a holographic camouflage covering the verra thing we're looking for. 'Tis standard operating procedure when ye are wanting ta hide something in plain view," she added.

"I don't recall seeing anything like it when I have been out here before," she said as they started moving towards the caves.

"'Tis the glasses, lass. Ye see things with a different perspective," Madge explained as she tucked them back into her pack. "Ye probably cannae see it with the naked eye during the daylight. Unless ye are looking for it."

Clarice shook her head, "No, I mean that I do not think that new rock face was there before. It's new."

When they got to the hologram, Madge scanned the area with her tricorder. "Let's make sure 'tis not being booby trapped," she smiled over at Clarice before finally passing her hand through the hologram when she found it to be safe. "Now then, shall we see what's behind it?" She motioned for Clarice to let her go first and stepped through the hologram with her tricorder still taking readings.

Clarice reached out and tried to touch the rock face. Her hand slipped through the illusion. Feeling somewhat reassured she stepped though.

What they found behind the camouflage was the vegetation covered rocks missing from the original hologram. "There should be an opening here somewhere," Madge told the young girl as she scanned the area with her tricorder and pushed around some of the foliage.

Clarice began looking over the rocks but could not see anything that looked like an opening. Looking at the ground, however, she started to laugh, "Mac, look at this," she said pointing at the ground. It looks like someone was here and tried to hide their tracks." She laughed again, "Lyrr is such a loser."

Madge crouched down and examined the ground, chuckling along with Clarice. "Aye, and wasn't it nice of the lad ta show us right where the door is." She stood in Lyrr's tracks and moved the foliage away to show a small cave opening. "We'll have ta thank the lad when we get back," she grinned and scanned the opening before slipping through. "'Tis safe, lass.." she called back and waited for Clarice to enter the cave before the two began exploring it.

Clarice looked around , "What's next?"

"We find where Lyrr discovered the weapons," Madge answered. "Then we see if we cannae find the culprit for what's making everyone sick." Madge used her tricorder to scan the inside of the cave, looking for any signs of an entrance or any security. She pointed to the ground and Lyrr's footprints. "Let's follow the lad then."

"After you," said Clarice. She followed Madge very closely. She did not know what was going to happen next and felt safest with the Major.

"Off we go...." Madge led the way, shining her light on the cave floor as the two followed Lyrr's tracks.

Clarice stuck close to Madge as they approached the doorway leading into the facility. It stood open, apparently having been damaged as some point while the base was dormant. Entering the facility, the first thing Clarice noticed was a large computer display mounted on the wall. It displayed what appeared to be a map with writing she could not understand. The room also contained several workstations, also with computer consoles.

"I think we found it Mac," said Clarice.

"Aye, t'would seem so," Madge agreed as she looked around and then stood quietly as she studied the largest computer display.

Clarice walked around the workstations in the room. She could not read anything displayed on them, "It's all gibberish," she said.

"Nae lass, 'tis Cardassian," Madge corrected.

"You can read this?" asked Clarice. "What does it say?"

"Aye, I can," the Major nodded. "'Tis a map of their hidden bases on Bajor," Madge pointed to the display as she talked. "This is where we are, and these other bases are marked as 'unable ta communicate'," she explained and then frowned deeply. "Here now, and what's this..." the Marine turned her attention to a chart that showed the progression of the infection. "'Tis monitoring the spread of the infection. And right now it covers the entire village." Madge automatically pointed, showing Clarice what she was talking about.

"Dr. Wright, do ye copy?" the Major activated her comm. unit and called to the doctor.

Wright nearly jumped out of his skin when the communication device that Madge had given him earlier came to life in his ear. Pulling himself together he replied, "Yes Major, I am here?"

"Good, Good. But I need ye *here*, Doctor," the Major told him. "Clarice and I have found an abandoned Cardassian base. We're looking at a screen now that is monitoring the spread of the infection," she went on to explain as she moved about the room and checked the other workstations, pausing to read the displays. "I dinnae want ta proceed without ye, doctor." Then she went on to explain how the display also showed several other hidden bases and their error messages.

"Excellent Major, I'll be right there," said Wright. "Umm, where are you?"

"We're located underground about three clicks from yer position," she told him and gave him the map coordinates. "If ye like I'll send Clarice ta fetch ye," she offered. "I'm going ta check out the rest of the compound," she told him and headed for one of the other doors off the main room.

Wright chuckled at her use of the word "clicks" and took note of the map coordinates she had given him. He activated the comm unit she had given him again, "I'll be right there Major." He placed the samples and work that he had already completed into his case.

Wright ran thought the clinic, pausing only to tell the sister where he was going. He needed to hurry because several of his patients were in very bad shape, including the young Lyrr.

While Wright was packing his bag up and heading out of the clinic, Madge and Clarice activated one of the doors off the main room to find a storage area. "I think 'tis safe ta say we know where Lyrr got his weapons," Madge indicated some of the opened cases and discarded weapons. "Let's check out these other cases and see if there's anything salvageable, hmm?" she smiled over at the young girl.

Clarice poked around in several off the storage cases. She found mostly weapons. Lyrr had a whole arsenal to himself here, she thought as she opened another box. Inside this box was what looked a lot like the things doctors used to give medicine. Clarice held one up for Madge to see, "There is a whole box of these doctor tools."

Madge went over to check out what Clarice had found. "'Tis a good find," she nodded. "The clinic can surely be using these. Let's move them all into a separate pile so we can retrieve them more easily later."

When they'd accomplished that small task, Madge and Clarice moved back through the main room and proceeded to check out the other room off it. Madge let out a soft, low whistle when the door opened to expose a science lab with three large storage tanks. "Saints be praised..." she murmured as her blue eyes took in the room and settled on an active computer terminal display that seemed to be going through some form of counting process.

"Doctor, how close are ye?" Madge activated her comm to contact Wright.

Wright half ran and half walked towards the map coordinates that Madge had given him. "I'm here... I think, where is the entrance?"

"Ach, hang on a wee second and I'll have the lass show ye," Madge comm'd back and motioned to Clarice to go show the good doctor the way inside.

Wright smiled as he saw Clarice's head pop out of the rock wall in front of him. He moved quickly toward her.

Soon her hand popped out of the rock as well and waved at him, "Hello Doctor John," said Clarice's head.

"Hello," said Wright. He stopped in front of the holographic wall. "Do you have any idea of distressing it is to see our head and arm stuck in a rock wall?"

"Never mind that," she said, "come in here and look at what we found." She waved again and then disappeared behind the wall.

Wright pushed his way thought the hologram and found himself inside a small cave. At the back of the cave was another entrance. Wright followed Clarice through the entrance and into a large control room.

"Come on Doc, it's got a lab," she said leaving the control room and entering another room.

Wright followed her into what appeared to be a fully equipped lab. In the center of the lab were three cylindrically shaped containers. The equipment in the lab looked to be slightly outdated but it would help him get the job done. In front of the containers was a long work table. The work table was divided into three work areas, each with a computer station. "Wow," said Wright, walking over to one of the work stations.

Wright could make out a graphical representation of the three containers on the display. There were Cardassian symbols next to it that Wright was not able to read. "Can either of you read Cardassian?" asked Wright pointing to the display.

"Aye," Madge nodded and moved over next to Wright. "Glad ye made it doctor," she smiled at him. "This.." she pointed to the symbols next to the graphical representation of the containers, "Is a running rate of nanophage production," she explained, telling him what the level was at now.

"I was just looking through the last files accessed on the system," she motion to another terminal. "And I found some that look like someone tried ta delete them," she told him.

Wright looked at the logs, "We will have to let the Bajoran authorities deal with that." He returned to the other station. "First, we need to stop this from making more nanophages." Wright looked at Madge, "Any way that you can see to shut it down?"

"Looks like it requires some clearance ta get into the control program," Madge told him as she sat at one of the work stations and began operating the controls. "Let me see what I can find. There are project notes...." she mused and began rifling through the computer files, reading Wright anything she found that even mentioned the nanophage and trying to hack into the system.

While Madge worked Wright opened his medical bag and removed the tools and samples that he had brought with him. Even if they got the system to shut down they still needed to find a way to stop the infection.

"T'was engineered by Cardassian military scientists," Madge read out loud from some of the project notes she'd found. "Meant ta be a final solution for dealing with the Bajorans when the Cardassian's left Bajor," she continued. "Or if there was some sort of civil uprising..." There was a pause and when she spoke again a frown in her voice. "They built the wee buggy and tested it in this lab using real Bajoran test subjects."

Clarice frowned. A sadness filling her inside.

Wright sighed and shook his head.

Madge continued to relay what she was finding. "Once the nanophage was perfected they built several smaller satellite stations ta help distribute the nasty thing. The Cardassians protected themselves though. They built a self destruct into the bug that triggers when it encounters a cellular structure that is found in Cardassians but not in Bajorans."

Wright looked from Madge to Clarice, "It is a good thing they did that," he said. "We can use that to help destroy it." Wright moved over to another piece of equipment, one that he recognized as a medical replicator.

"The system in this lab created, programmed and distributed the nonophages," Madge continued to relay the information she was finding to Wright. "Oh here now... I found the technical information on the nanophages in the database," she grinned over at him and before she could relate any of the data to him, she let out a soft 'hoorah'. "I'm inta the main control program," she told him. "Give me a minute ta see if I can get this nasty bug shut down."

Wright looked up from the medical replicator that he was trying to program with the sample he had made back at the clinic. "See if you can find a way to reset or sanitize the nanophage production equipment. We might need to use it to distribute our cure."

"I'll see what I ken do for ye, doctor," Madge nodded.

Wright placed the medicine sample he had been developing into the replicator and activated the unit. The machine engaged and after a few moments a door opened and Wright took out a container of 50 copies of what he hoped would trigger the self destruct in these nanophages. Wright picked up his tricorder and tested them to make sure they matched his original exactly. "Great, these are ready for an initial trial."

Wright frowned. All of the replicated doses had been made in Cardassian vials. He could plainly see that they were not going to work in any hypospray that he had. "We are going to need to find some Cardassian style hyposprays," he said.

Clarice looked at Madge, a smile spreading across her face. She dashed from the room and came back a few moments later holding three Cardassian hyposprays. "We already found a whole bunch of them."

"Very nice," he said. Wright filled each hypospray and placed them back into his bag. He then put the rest of the medicine into the bag as well along with his tricorder. "Take this back to the Sister," he said. "Have her give Lyrr a dose."

Clarice nodded.

Wright handed her the bag. "Have her monitor the level of nanophages in his system. If this works, they should start dropping right away. It won't cure the damage already done but it will stop new damage from happening."

Clarice nodded again and then left.

Wright turned to Madge, "Maquis Medical is not going to approve of my testing methods, but Lyrr is almost dead."

"Ye did what ye had ta, doctor," Madge smiled a little in understanding. "They'd probably like it less if ye just let the lad die," she added. "I think I found a way to shut down the equipment," she announced after a moment. "Although I have ta tell ye that it could be booby trapped if I dinnae shut it down correctly. The Cardassian's are sly little buggers," she added the warning.

"Please be careful then," said Wright. "Can you see anything that would open up communications again?"

"Aye. Once I've infiltrated the system I'll be able ta access security and communications," she told him as her fingers moved lightly and carefully over the controls. Her face was contorted in deep concentration as she broke through the computer's security and accessed the system's control panel. She finally looked over at Wright. "Keep yer fingers crossed, Doctor," she told him with a small wry smile.

Wright kept his eye on the monitor, hoping the nanophage level would begin to decrease. He could not read the numbers, but he knew this type of display well enough to interpret what was going on. So far, nothing had changed.

Then after several tense moments the indicator started to drop. Wright heaved a sigh of relief. The people of this small village now had a fighting chance.

"Now let me see what I ken do about commun---." she started and then let out a low whistle. "Here now, and what's this?" she peered at the screen.

"What do ya got?" asked Wright.

"M'in the security logs," she explained and began reading a few passages. "There's an old entry that says they caught and were holding one of their own, a Cardassian, and a traitor. They suspected him of trying to sabotage the experiment. M'nae seeing a name though," she told him. "The last entry is the command being given to start the infection. 'Tis the end of the log. And that's when the whole station suddenly lost power."

"It appears that there is at least one Cardassian with a moral compass," observed Wright.

"Aye and with some success. I'll see if I can get the comms up now," she nodded and accessed the communications grid. "It should be coming back up any moment now, Doctor," she told him.

"Very good Mac," said Wright, "I hope that they are having the same good fortune back at the clinic."

****

"Come on," snapped Clarice as she watched the tricorder readings over Sister Moira's shoulder. They had administered the first dose of Doctor John's medicine to Lyrr and were now watching the nanophage levels, looking for a decrease. So far it had not budged.

"Have patience," said Moira.

"Maybe he needs another dose," suggested Clarice.

The nun shook her head. "That was not part of the doctor's instructions was it?"

Clarice shook her head.

"We must stick to his instructions. Have faith child," said Moira.

Clarice let out a frustrated sigh just at the tricorder beeped. Her eyes locked on the display. "The nanophage levels are dropping," she almost shouted. Clarice was surprised at her level of excitement. She wondered if Dr John felt this way every time he saved a life. It was a good feeling. The readings had dropped, slowly at first but soon they began to plummet. "Lyrr is going to be ok."

The old woman nodded, "I think you are right," she said with a smile. "Come one child. Let's get things ready. When the doctor gets back I am sure he is going to treat everyone."

"Just tell me what you need me to do," said Clarice smiling.