Chapter 2

The klaxons had been shut off by the time Nog returned to Ops, but the commotion was far from silenced. Crews scuttled about, trying to assess damage, write reports, recalibrate this module or take readings from that computer. Nog glanced about quickly, glad to see his staff had responded to the crisis efficiently. Then there was a hush, and all commotion stopped. Nog returned his staff’s look of seeming disappointment with one of confusion.

“Don’t mind them, Lieutenant,” called a voice to Nog’s left. He turned and saw Jensen standing next to Nog’s usual station. Pryen Maki stood nearby, her grimy face somber. Jensen’s face displayed no emotion, but his voice filled Ops with sarcasm. “They just wish you didn’t have to make their lives any harder.”

Nog’s face hardened as he made his way to the engineering pit. “What are you talking about?” he demanded.

Jensen’s face spread into a bitter smile. “We’ve had a problem, Lieutenant,” he responded. “The science table just blew out, and the entire defense grid went with it.”

“Again?" Nog was surprised at how defensive his voice sounded. "That’s not possible, we just fixed it!”

“Oh?" Jensen raised his eyebrows, then glanced over his shoulder. "Mr. Pryen?”

“Yes, sir,” Pryen Bennu replied. Nog whirled about and saw two long legs clothed in gray jutting out from underneath the science station.

“How’s it coming on the sensors?” Jensen asked deliberately.

Nog’s eyes widened. “What’s wrong with the sensors? I just got that system working this morning!” He flew to the science station, nearly tripping on Pryen’s legs. The panels had blown, the boards charred. The computer’s innards had spilled out around the table and on the deck. “By the Nagus....” Nog breathed. Then he looked up with sudden dismay. “Where was Lieutenant Kaoron when --”

Suddenly the science table sparked and sizzled, and Pryen let out a startled yelp. Nog jumped instinctively, tripping on Pryen’s legs as he scrambled out from underneath. The Ferengi fell to the deck, knocking the back of his head.

"Benn!" Maki darted across Ops, alarmed. Pryen hit his head on the table, hissing with pain, before he finally emerged. He dropped a burnt stabilizer; it clattered as it hit the metal plating.

Nog dragged himself to his feet. “Are you all right, Mr. Pryen?”

Pryen was clutching his left hand, trembling. It was bright red, except for tiny white lines that were starting to swell. He turned furiously to Nog, revealing similar burn marks on the right side of his face. Nog suppressed a gasp.

“Damn it, you...clumsy....” Bennu seethed. “It was your fault I was down there in the first place!”

Any sympathy Nog had disappeared. “Watch your tone, Mr. Pryen," he snapped. "I just fixed the sensors on the science table! We spent all night recali--”

“Yeah, and you charged the relay too much!" Pryen raged. "It caused a slow pulse burst with no outlet to release it, and the build-up exploded!"

By then Jensen had made his way down and was beside Nog. “Lt. Kaoron suffered similar burns when the science table first blew," he said coolly. "He’s being treated now. He’ll be all right. No thanks to you.”

Nog was speechless. He had had so much on his mind... could he have made that bad a mistake? He looked about the group for support, found none.

“The explosion reacted with the ODN relays, crossed over to the tactical relays,” Jensen continued, his voice gratingly cheerful. “The entire station is defenseless. If the war was still going on, the Dominion would have taken us with no problem.” Jensen passed Nog and took Pryen by the arm. “Lucky for you, only a few people got badly hurt this time. Come on, Bennu, I’ll get you to the Infirmary. We’ll see how Kaoron is doing.”

As they walked by, Pryen turned and whispered in the Ferengi’s ear. “It’s your fault.” Maki grasped her husband's arm and kissed him, Jensen took Pryen into the turbolift, and they descended toward the Promenade.

Nog looked at the destroyed science station. Your fault. You should have known better. Any second-year engineering student would have known to do that. Hell, they would have known to charge the ODN properly in the first place ....

He looked up toward Colonel Kira’s office and found her staring at him. Ensign Kuhlman had just left... more problems with communications in her office. The old story. After a few moments Kira disappeared from the window. Colonel, what are you thinking? Nog thought. I really let you down. You had such faith in me.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself, Lieutenant.”

Nog turned numbly toward Maki's voice. She stood with her arms folded, upset but trying to be sympathetic. “You’re young. In time, you will make a superior engineer. I just...." She stopped, then squared her shoulders as if determined to get this out into the open. "We just wonder if the pressures of running the station have made it too difficult for you to fulfill all your duties right now. Maybe you're just not ready to be Chief of Operations yet. In time, maybe...." She trailed off with a slight shrug.

He didn’t answer. He looked around at the other staff members, saw Kalcheb and Pedorina staring at him, waiting for an answer.

“Let's get back to work, everyone,” Pryen called out, and the crew obeyed.

Nog stood there for a long moment, taking everything in. Then he turned on his heels, careful not to trip over charred isolinear chips, and made his way to Kira’s office.

***

As the turbolift descended through the tube to the Promenade, Jensen felt a wash of accomplishment. Nog wouldn't last long, he was sure of it. Finally, proper chain of command would be restored. Ops would be run like a proper Federation facility, with experienced officers leading the way.

“I thought you’d like to know something.” Out of the blue, Pryen spoke. It had been the first time either of them had said anything since they had left Ops.

“Is it going to ruin my mood?” Jensen asked. “Because I’m in too good a mood to hear any bad news today.”

“That table was gonna explode no matter what Nog had done,” Pryen replied, almost apologetic. “There was an extra pulse there... I saw the residuals in the tricorder.”

Jensen stared at Pryen in confusion. “So? Of course it was Nog’s fault. Maybe he goofed on the recalibration.”

Bennu wasn't happy about saying this, but he had to be honest to Jensen, at least. “I wasn’t able to check that before the panel exploded again. But I don’t think so. My tricorder read two charge pulses. And there’s something else. The damage wasn’t as bad as it seemed. I probably could have fixed the station easily. I should have been able to. Something wouldn’t let me.”

Jensen shook his head, getting annoyed. “You’re in shock from the blast. Just relax, I’ll take care of it later.”

“I’m telling you," Pryen insisted. "There was something that didn’t want me to fix that computer.”

Jensen’s face reddened angrily. He raised his voice. “I told you I’ll handle it! Now be quiet.”

***

“Colonel, there’s an incoming message from Admiral Ross. He wants to speak with you right away, in person. He sounds... agitated....”

Kira sighed. "Thank you, Kuhlman. Patch it through."

Oh, great, she thought. All the little technical glitches Nog was dealing with, and now she had an “agitated” admiral on subspace. Hmm, maybe somebody was annoyed that the report on the Klingon freighter had been late. She couldn’t help a wry smile at that. The Klingon captain had not been at all pleased at his ship being caught in the crossfire, so to speak, of Alden’s drunken stunt. Of course, she hadn’t been happy about the Klingon crew brawling on the Promenade, either. And then the captain had tried to claim it was her officer’s revenge for the fight, and that the station owed him reparations....

Shaking her head, she settled herself behind the desk and activated the comm link. “Admiral Ross.”

“Colonel.” The admiral’s face glared back at her; behind the scowl, she thought she detected anxiety. “Would you mind explaining...” The image fizzled for a second; his voice turned into static. “...Bajor’s doing?”

"Admiral --" She shook her head. "I'm sorry, I'm not receiving --"

He fritzed out again, only to come back, saying, “...This was a joint...”

She jabbed at the controls. "Admiral, we're having some...technical problems here on the station at the moment. I can't hear you, you're --"

“I would hope.... established... on mutual trust and... tell me?”

“Admiral!” She spoke louder, as if that would make any difference.

The screen went yellow, then green. It suddenly screeched, then went completely dark.

The door opened; Kuhlman entered. "Colonel, we --"

“My comm just went down!” Kira thundered. “Get it back! Get Admiral Ross back!”

The officer retreated even more rapidly than he’d entered. Kira looked out the window at Ops. Crews were scurrying about, getting their jobs done. Kira focused on the science table, still charred, obviously not been repaired. In the middle of it Lt. Nog stood, tired, stressed... even sad?

Kira knew Nog was having some difficulties getting his crew to adjust to his new position, but elected not to say anything. Nog had to make his own way, it wasn’t her job to back him up. Besides, she always figured he knew he could turn to her. But it was better if he didn’t.

Getting back to the problem at hand, Kira paced around her desk. Ross had looked angry -- frantically so, if her sense of him was accurate. He was, indeed, agitated. Something about Bajor. And that agitated her. Why the comm system had to pick that moment....

Just then Nog stuck his head in . “Colonel, do you have a moment? I... need to talk to you...”

He looked frazzled -- more than that, he looked completely stressed out and thoroughly exhausted. The last thing she needed was her Chief Engineer having a nervous breakdown. Well, she couldn’t talk to Ross, so she had the time.

“Come in,” she said with a sigh.

He edged his way in, carrying a PADD. “I have a list of the current problems....”

She sighed again. “Go ahead....”

Nog began listing the system breakdowns and failures. Faulty communication links, malfunctioning ODN relays, the battered consoles of the science station, sensors out of sync and computer systems in need of upgrades. His voice rose as he went through the list, frantically jumping from item to item and getting more agitated as he did so, waving the PADD around. There was definitely something more bothering him. Something must have happened to put him in this agitated a state.

This, she guessed, was the time to play counselor for the young officer. Looking at him, she was afraid Nog would self-combust if she raised her voice to him. She took a deep breath and reached for Sisko's left-behind baseball. It had always seemed to help him get through tough situations.

"Lieutenant," she said calmly, rolling the baseball around in her hands. "Please sit down and tell me what happened." So far, the baseball wasn't doing much.

Nog obeyed and sat down. "Colonel," he said, taking a deep breath. "There's something I need to tell you."

"What's that?" she asked, looking up.

"I've been thinking it over, and these recent problems have proven it. I can see I’m not chief engineer material. So here is my resignation." He placed the PADD on the desk and slid it toward her.

"...What?" The lower tone of her voice now was due to shock rather than conscious effort.

"I'm... I’m resigning as chief engineer," Nog repeated. "As for my replacement, Jensen or Bilecki would be excellent choices, both very capable...."

At first, she thought maybe he was joking, making a somewhat juvenile effort to lift her spirits. But then she realized he was serious. She jumped to her feet and leaned over the desk, fighting the urge to hurl the baseball at his head. "What do you mean, you're resigning? Now? In the middle of this?!” She flung her arm wide to take in her office, Ops, the entire station, and every system and piece of equipment that had broken down in the last day. “Is that what they taught you at that Academy? To quit?"

He shrank back in his chair. "I-I'm sorry, but I-I...."

"You what?!" Then she stopped herself with an effort and took several cleansing breaths. She slowly circled the desk, thinking, remembering that while she was worrying about the station’s condition, he was trying his utmost to repair it. "Nog... I'm sorry," she said carefully, patting him on the shoulder. "It's just that I'm under some stress as well." She continued around and sat back down behind the desk. "I know things have been hard on you lately," she said after a pause. "I guess maybe I took out some of my frustration on you too."

"It's not you."

"Then what is it?"

"It's my crew,” he said, dejected. “They don't think I'm fit for the job. Because I'm Ferengi. Because I’m only a junior grade lieutenant. Because I’m too young. Take your pick."

"So? A lot of people thought that you weren't fit for the Academy because you're a Ferengi. But you've proven them wrong, haven't you?"

"I guess so."

"You guess so?" Kira sat up straight. "You're going to quit now, after all you've accomplished?" When Nog nodded, she leaned back in her chair. As she watched Nog shift in his chair, she got an idea. "Is that what you really want?"

“I....” He hunched his shoulders. “I don’t know...but if they won’t accept me....”

Kira stared at Sisko’s ball, and resumed flipping it back and forth, up and down in the air. He couldn’t help watching it; she had his attention, at least.

"There was an expression Captain Sisko had,” she said. “About life throwing baseballs at us.”

"Curve balls," he corrected automatically, then immediately flushed and hunched again.

"Curve balls," she agreed, smiling. She kept tossing the ball. "Sometimes you just have to forget everything, step up to the plate, and swing."

"And keep your eye on the ball," Nog replied, staring at the ball as if hypnotized.

“And sometimes you have to bunt. You do what’s best for the team, at that point in the game,” Kira returned, thinking of Nog’s father, Rom.

He paused. “Do you really think I can do it, Colonel?”

“You know that better than I do. But I do know I’d rather not bring in a... pinch hitter, just now. Not when my clean-up man’s at the plate.”

He looked up at Kira for a long moment. She waited as patiently as she could.

"Uh... Colonel?" he finally said, his voice already sounding more determined.

"Yes?"

"About my resignation...."

Kira leaned forward enough to shove the PADD back at him. "What resignation?"

Baring sharp teeth in a relieved smile, Nog caught it before it could slide off the desk. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. And why don't you take a day off."

"I would, sir," Nog said, "But there is --"

"I think your crew can handle things. You've been through a lot -- we all have. Take the day off, do some thinking."

"Yes, sir!" he replied, saluting her.

Sighing, she collapsed in her chair. Tossing the baseball into the air, she thought that maybe the captain was still there, in spirit, at least. How else would she have remembered those baseball terms off the top of her head? "Maybe it's not such a bad day after all."

Now if the comm system would just come back on....

Just then, the emergency lights flickered. "Here we go again."

Chapter Three

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