I ran into the burning bar. The far wall had a large smoking hole in it. Quark was lying on the ground, and a gold coin was under his feet. I dragged him out of the bar, and pocketed the coin.

  In the episode, Quark survives the attack only because he bent over to pick up the coin. I picked it up, for two reasons. One, wanted some leverage over Quark in a future conversation about doing business with Ferenginar. The second reason was: if you save a Ferengi 's life, don't do it for free. Doing something for free puts them in your debt, and that builds resentment. They will wonder how you are going to screw them over. Taking the coin keeps us even. Also I got a cool coin.

  [ Currency acquired Bolian Credit Token: 12 Bolian credit value ]

  Nice. I have no idea how much that is worth, but it makes a great souvenir.

  I had dragged an unconscious Quark out onto the open deck of the promenade. The station's fire suppression systems extinguished the fire once we were out of the bar.

  My guess is safety systems wait until there are no life signs before sealing the area with a force field and removing the oxygen.

  Station Security soon arrived. Men and women with the same uniform and haircut as Odo, secured the scene. A few had tricorders, a portable scanning device, out and were scanning the area as part of their investigation.

  Dr. Julian Bashir arrived a few seconds after the security team holding his emergency medical kit.

  The unconscious Quark was gripping his Nagus staff, and kept a hold of it as Bashir scanned him and then woke him with a hypospray.

  When Quark awoke he flailed his arms and Bashir nearly was hit with the golden idol on top of the gnarled wooden cane.

  Bashir finished initial treatment of Quark and the doctor and his ensign nurse took him to sick bay.

  Quark was not seriously injured, but he shouldn't have been injured at all. In the episode, he is missed completely by the explosive drone.

  Odo and Benjamin Sisko, the station commander, and Miles O’Brian arrived shortly after Quark was taken away. Odo looked at me with a surprise and then a scowl.

  “Mr. Egman, stay where you are until one of my officers can escort you to security.”

  “My pleasure constable.” I replied with a large genuine smile. I was going to see the security offices. I might even get thrown into a cell! What a cool day. I can't wait to tap the forcefields and see how they feel.

  —

  Inside Quark's bar, Odo sighs and looks at Sisko. “ Do you see what I mean? That man looked thrilled to be taken to security. That's odd. He acts like he knows something. He also just so happened to be around when a bomb goes off. I don't like it.”

  “There are witnesses saying he ran in and carried Quark out. Odo, he hasn't done anything wrong” replied Sisko. “Get what information you need about this incident, but if he hasn't committed a crime you can't hold him.”

  “Hrmph, when this station was under Cardassian control, suspicion was all I needed to interrogate anyone.”

  “It's not under Cardassian rule anymore, constable. Until someone commits a crime we won't treat them as a criminal. Continue to check into his records if you wish, but no interrogations until you have evidence of a crime. Even then I will want to have a chat with him first. Citizens of Earth who aren't in Starfleet can be a bit naive.”

  “Hell, Commander, even some of the officers in San Francisco wouldn't know a warp nacelle from a eps conduit.” O'Brien chimed in. “You two have a look at this. You see the discoloration around the impact perimeter?” Senior chief petty officer O'Brian directed attention to the hole left in the wall from the attack.

  *These are sorium and argine traces.”

  “Aren't they Ferengi explosives?” questioned Commander Sisko.

  “Exactly, what we have here is a Ferengi locator bomb, designed to lock on to a target's pheromones.”

  “You mean they are attracted to body odor?” questioned Odo.

  “Very deadly and very accurate, but this one had something a little extra. My scans picked up something odd, so I had the computer do a simulation.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  There is a mysterious compound added to this that made the explosion larger than the simulation says a normal locator bomb would be. If Quark hadn't lowered his head at just the right moment, there wouldn't be anything left of him at all.”

  —

  The answer to my biggest question about the security holding cells is that the forcefields feel like touching a CRT television glass after it has been running for many hours. For those young enough never to experience this. The static field pulls on your finger just a bit, then an arc of static electricity moves from the glass to your finger. The forcefield was similar, but the arc of static electricity was less of an annoyance and more of the feeling when you hit your funny bone on something. It was a body quaking jolt that while not debilitating, is so unpleasant most people would hesitate to do it again.

  I was left alone in holding for an hour. The contents of all my pockets were in a box on a shelf outside the cell. So I touched the field 4 times. Yes, it hurts every time, but so does a Carolina reaper. The last time I touched it was with my tongue. That… that was a mistake. But I did taste purplish green for a second, then everything turned purplish green.

  So I woke up in the sickbay. My arms were restrained to the table, and two security officers flanked my bed as Doctor Bashir waved around the medical tricorder in front of my face.

  “ Ahh, we are awake Mr. Igman. Tell me how does the security force field taste?”

  “Purplish-green doctor and its pronounced Egg-Man”

  “Egg Man?”

  “Koo koo kachoo doctor.”

  “Nurse lets get set up for a deep neurological imaging, I think there are signs of brain damage.”

  While I don’t mind the attention, I resented the accusation of brain damage.

  “Doctor. It's from a song. The Beatles. 1967. I may be dumb enough to lick a forcefield, but I'm pretty sure all my loose screws are where they need to be.”

  “That very well may be, but let's just check to make sure nothing got fried during your taste test. Then we will take some bloodwork and finish your station onboarding exam.”

  Something like an Ikea bedside table crossed with a helmet was rolled over to the exam table and placed above my forehead. There were some flashing lights, and I was told to stay as still as possible.

  Five minutes went by and soon a hypospray was pressed against my arm and a vial of blood began to fill.

  “Good news Mr. Egman, your neurological system is perfectly healthy. Once we have the results of your bloodwork and can confirm that you don't have any pathogens, we will be all done here.”

  “So I'll be free to go then?” I did jazz hands while my wrists were still restrained to the table. I shot the doctor a pleading look.

  “That isn't my call, I'm afraid. You were in a security holding cell before self-inflicted harm sent you to me.”

  “I didn't mean to hurt myself, I've just never interacted with a force… Anyway, so can I just answer whatever questions Odo has for me here to save some time?”

  “If he gets here before we finish, sure. Meanwhile I have a question for you Mr. Egman. Why do your medical records not have any vaccinations listed? Why don't you have a translator implant. How have you managed without one and do you want one?”

  I needed a convincing lie. And as I would like to avoid getting space pox perhaps asking for a few vaccinations while I'm here would be a good idea.

  “Well, not everyone believes in them, I'm not saying I'm against them, just never had them. While I'm here, why don't you go ahead and load me up with whatever is needed, except for the implant. Don't need one. I’ve always been a fast study with language. We are probably a lot alike Doctor, you are so young you must have a gift for medicine.”

  Doctor Julian Bashir was hiding a big secret. He was genetically engineered as a child to increase his intelligence. He might have his suspicions about my system ability for language, so I am giving him an answer he will be encouraged to keep quiet about. Especially if he thinks I know about him.

  Julian paused and then gave me a question withing a question.

  “You haven't had any vaccines?”

  Which meant 'have you been genetically modified?'

  “I'm pretty sure I had the baby ones” I responded and meant ' Yes, when I was an infant.'

  “Riight. Let’s just see what your bloodwork says.” Bashir looks down and reads then re-reads his padd. “According to this your blood is clean, very clean. You do have some trace amounts of plant material, Crataegus Rosaceae, in your system. Not enough to be toxic, but still odd. Is there any reason for extinct Hawthorne tree particles to be in your blood?”

  “Nope, the last thing I ate was moba fruit. Back on Earth, I did have some Hawthorne trees in the backyard, perhaps starfleet botanists never got along to catalog my house?”

  “Thats amazing, I could just send a message to Daystrom and get some botanists out…”

  Whoops that lie got too big, time to prune it back.

  “It's a little late for that Doctor. The house and property burned down years ago those trees are just a pile of ashes now”

  “Well that's a shame. You are missing several vaccines, I’ll give you what I can now, but I'm going to need to order the rest from Starfleet.”

  Another small cart was pulled up to the bed. On top were 20 small cylinders of different colored fluid.

  “So I just need to get shots with all of those?

  “Goodness no,”

  “Phew”

  “We have the ones in the cryostat too.”

  —