The Long Night by Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch Page B

to walk through them and map them, and Chief O'Brien will pat you on the head and tell you how good you were, and no one will thank me."
    "Sure they will," Jake said.
    "No, they won't," Nog said.
    "They will if I tell them you did all the work."
    "You'd do that?" Nog asked, his mood clearly brightening. Jake was always amazed at how surprised Nog was whenever anyone offered to do something nice for him.
    "Sure. Because I don't want to do this by myself." Jake turned the flashlight toward the tunnel. "Come on. Let's see where this goes."
    About three meters ahead, the tunnel ended in what appeared to be just another empty room. Jake pulled himself up and into the tunnel.
    "Wait," Nog said.
    Jake could see Nog's light from behind him as they crawled through the dust. The dust coated Jake's face. He was sweating. The air was close in here and smelled dry and ancient, as if it hadn't been used in a long time. But that couldn't be. All of the station's systems were hooked together, or at least, that was what the chief once told him.
    Nog coughed at the dust Jake was kicking up into his face. "On the way back, I lead," Nog said. "Hurry up before I choke."
    Jake crawled quicker, kicking up more dust. The tunnel opened up into the new room at floor level. Jake shined his light around the dust and gray walls until the beam stopped on a metal door. A moment later, Nog joined him.
    Then he saw where Jake's flashlight beam was pointing and stopped. "Don't you wonder what all these rooms were used for?" Jake asked.
    "Something secret," Nog said, "Or else they would be on the schematic."
    That was what Jake had thought. Nog's voice finally held the same excitement that Jake had felt from the moment he discovered the panel.
    "Yeah, real secret," Jake said. "But what?"
    The two crossed the dust-covered floor and stopped in front of the metal door. It was the first door they had seen in nearly an hour of climbing and crawling through room after room of dust.
    "I wonder where this goes to?" Jake said, noting that the door handle had the standard Cardassian latching and didn't seem to be locked, at least from this side.
    "Let's find out," Nog said. He reached for the handle and pulled it down.
    Suddenly Jake wanted to stop him. Maybe the door was a trap. Maybe it was wired to explode. Chief O'Brien had warned him about such things. But it was too late. Nog had already opened the door.
    And nothing happened.
    Except for the blinding light. After all that darkness any light seemed bright. Jake blinked, waiting for his eyes to adjust.
    There was no dust on this floor. The room was the size of his bedroom, yet seemed bigger because three more tunnels led off in different directions.
    The light came from small ventilation grates spaced near the ceiling around the room. Only it was clear from this side of the grates they had never been designed for ventilation. Small steps lead up to each so that someone could stand on the top step and look out through the grate.
    Three chairs, Cardassian design with metal backs, were spaced around the otherwise empty room.
    "What is-"
    "A spy hole," Nog whispered. "I've heard about rooms like this. Keep your voice down." He climbed the nearest stairs, but even standing on his tiptoes he couldn't see through the grate.
    "Why is everything on this station built for tall people?" Nog whispered.
    "Maybe because it was designed by Cardassians," Jake whispered back. He climbed the same set of steps and looked through the grate. And choked.
    He could see into the back room of a shop on the Promenade. He couldn't tell which one, because he hadn't been in the backs of too many of them.
    "What do you see?" Nog hissed.
    Jake stepped down and moved to another grate. This one looked out into the main area of the Promenade. Laughter filtered through as two ensigns walked past arm in arm.
    "Who's laughing?" Nog whispered.
    "No one," Jake whispered back. He frowned. The cleanliness of this space bothered him.
    "Well, someone was