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“You have the goods?”
“Everything you asked for. All hidden inside a shipment of self-turning screws.”
“Perfect. No one will ever suspect it. And I won’t have to pay any of those pesky vaccination fees.”
From his hiding place in the vents, Jake watched the two men shake hands. Then he heard a sound he’d only ever heard in a holosuite.
“Did that sound to you like a moo?” Jake whispered.
Nog shifted on his stomach beside Jake. “A moon?”
“No, a moo! The sound a cow makes,” Jake said, laughing.
“What was that?” one of the men said down below. “Did you hear something?”
The other man looked around, lingering on the very grate Jake and Nog were hidden behind. Where his left eye should have been was a smooth, silver ball that spun and spun in his head. Jake shivered. He felt as if the man could see straight through to his bones. They were surely caught.
But the silver-eyed man turned back to his companion. “Probably just the solar wind. I heard the weather’s worse this close to the wormhole.”
The men shook hands again, and walked away down the hall. Jake sighed. “That was close!” he said, and then started to crawl back to where they had climbed into the vent to begin with.
“Where are you going?” Nog said. “We didn’t get to see the vulcan princess yet.”
Jake smiled at his friend. “No, but we saw something better. Don’t you want to figure out what those guys are illegally shipping?”
“What do we care?”
“We could spy on pretty girls any day. How often do we get to bust an illegal trade deal?”
Nog shook his head, but Jake could tell by the way his left ear twitched that he was considering it. “Do we get anything out of it?”
“Nothing right now,” Jake said. “But think of it as an investment—we get a reputation around here for solving crimes, and we could start our own private detective agency.”
Nog smiled shrewdly. “I see, diversifying the Noh-Jay Consortium’s services. Now you’re talking like a businessman.”
Jake took off through the vents, Nog crawled along behind him. The evildoers of Deep Space Nine had better watch out.
***
The next day, Jake and Nog were hanging out on the Promenade, dangling their legs over the ledge and wolfing down replicated cream cheese and jelly sandwiches. Jake had introduced them to Nog when they first started school, and both boys were very fond of them, although eating lunch up on the ledge had resulted in dripping jelly on more than one innocent victim below.
When a Bajoran man down below stopped in his tracks, Jake assumed that was what had happened. He elbowed Nog in the side. “Be careful! We don’t want to get in trouble again.”
“That wasn’t me,” Nog said through a mouthful of sandwich.
Jake looked down again and saw that the man still hadn’t moved. He started to cough violently and fell to his knees. Jake kept watching, paralysed, wanting to help but not sure how. A passing Starfleet officer patted the man on the back, and Jake heard him radio for Doctor Bashir.
“Did that sound familiar to you?” Nog said.
“What?”
“That cough. I’ve heard that before somewhere.”
Below, Doctor Bashir produced a vial of blue liquid from his bag. Before he tipped it into the man’s mouth, he coughed once more. Jake and Nog looked at each other. There was no mistaking that sound.
In the middle of his coughing fit, the man had mooed.
Nog said, “Do you think he got sick from what that silver-eyed man was importing?”
“He said he didn’t have to pay for vaccination.” Jake nodded. “That guy probably got cow disease or something!”
“What do we do?”
Jake stood up, pulling Nog with him. “We have to tell Odo.”
“Tell Odo what?” Jake’s dad had snuck up on the boys.
Jake faced his father, feeling more than a little sheepish. He opened his mouth, and then closed it again.
Over his dad’s shoulder, Jake saw Nog shake his head fervently. Jake didn’t know what to do. They would definitely be in trouble for sitting on the ledge, not to mention crawling through the starship’s vents. Jake was sure his father would ground him for at least a week. But he knew that the Bajoran man would probably not be the only one afflicted with this strange cow disease, and he had overheard Doctor Bashir telling Major Kira that the patient would only get worse until they could figure out the cause of the disease.
There was only one thing to do. Jake met his father’s eyes. “We know why that guy is sick.”
Jake and Nog followed his dad to his office. Jake was nervous, but also a little excited. They might get in trouble, but they had solved the case! He wasn’t sure if Nog would see it that way, but Jake considered this a victory for the Noh-Jay Consortium’s private eye arm.
Talking to Benjamin Sisko, Starfleet Commander, instead of Benjamin Sisko, his father, always made Jake nervous and squirmy. If he felt that way, Nog must have been terrified. But he and Nog sat as calmly as they could in the high-backed chairs in front of the desk and told Commander Sisko everything.
When they were done with their story, Commander Sisko sat back in his chair. He smiled. “Thank you for your honesty, boys.”
“You’re not mad that we broke the rules?”
“If I ever catch wind of you climbing around the vents again, I will be.” Sisko nodded. “But no, Jake, I’m not mad. You knew you could get in trouble, but you still chose to do the right thing. You and Nog here probably saved a man’s life.”
Commander Sisko tapped his combadge to update Doctor Bashir, and Jake and Nog turned to each other. It was times like this that Jake was really glad he had taught Nog the high-five. There was no better way to react to the situation.
***
It was not long before the rumor of Jake and Nog’s sleuthing spread around the ship. On more than one occasion, Jake heard his father tell people to stop gossiping, but Jake could see his eyes twinkling with pride.
Jake and Nog were dangling their legs over the Promenade, eating their cream cheese and jelly sandwiches later that week when a Ferengi girl about their age tapped Jake on the shoulder. “Hey, you guys investigate things, right? My necklace was stolen last night. Can you help me get it back?”
Jake smiled at Nog. “We’re on it.”