Chapter Text
The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 3: Yours Is No Disgrace
Scene 2: The Legend of Dolnok Nor
Lost in summer, morning, winter, travel very far…
3.2
The Legend of Dolnok Nor
“So it looks like our intrepid businessman will be joining us for the foreseeable future.” Captain Skip Howard gestured toward Pel.
Captain Rhonda Carter (and her cousin, Major Janet Carter), the U.S.S. Beagle’s Dean, Sakura Nakamura Holland, and General Krank were in the Beagle’s large conference room, along with Commodore Yui Song. The U.S.S. Escort’s director of engineering, Lt. Ki Kresid, was also present.
“Pel is wrapped up in whatever is drawing us to Dolnok Nor - and thence to we know not where,” Skip Howard continued. “But wherever this adventure takes us, we won’t be back in Federation territory any time soon. So if Pel comes with us to assist with this investigation, and hopefully, achieve some peace from these astral projections, we will not be able to easily return him to the sanctuary we promised within the Federation.”
Commodore Yui looked to Sakura. “I think we will need a contract. Trader Pel has a right to conduct business, but while using our resources and traveling with representatives of the Federation, I think we will need to establish some guidelines and guard rails. Sakura, do you have any lawyers on staff?”
“Five of them, all members of the United Federation of Planets diplomatic corps,” the Dean of ship responded. “And the UFP has developed contracts with ferengi before - there are a lot of pitfalls that the diplomatic corps has encountered and developed workarounds for. They have a boilerplate to work from…”
“Next order of business,” said Yui Song. “Given the star chart that Captain Carter and the trace map that Lt. Kresid were able to provide, largely from memory, we have a rough idea where Dolnok Nor might be located. It is still a small needle in a haystack about 15 light years in diameter. I assume Beagle’s probes can map that area and hopefully find our abandoned cardassian space station?”
“Dutchie is programming the search protocols as we speak and the probes should be ready for launch within the hour,” Skip Howard reported. “I tried to locate the two survivors from the Dolnok Nor construction and also asked the new Cardassian Union government for any documentation, but it appears both were lost in the war. Even third- and fourth-hand accounts are hard to come by. The Cardassian Union is not thrilled about the Federation launching an expedition to Dolnok Nor, but they are not in any position to oppose it. Their only ask in the matter is that we return any artifacts retrieved from the station to the Cardassian government.”
“We will return their cultural treasures at our convenience,” Yui said coldly. A little too coldly, she realized, and made a mental note to have a long think about how much blame she placed on the cardassians for the war and the murder of her family. Later. Much later. She took a deep breath, then: “Skip, you seem to be a collector of strange stories… Tell us the strange story of Dolnok Nor - at least what you have gathered about it.”
Skip Howard smiled. “I do have a fondness for ghost stories and stories of a haunted space station, well, it’s kind of irresistible. My version comes from a bajoran who had formed a friendship with her cardassian captor - which is a fascinating story in and of itself - who heard the story from the estranged wife of the commander of the division responsible for building the space stations.”
Howard paused for a drink of some clear, but fizzy beverage, then continued. “The cardassians would build each space station next to an existing space station. So Dolnok Nor was constructed next to Empok Nor, which was, in turn originally constructed next to Terok Nor. The cardassians would then tow each newly constructed space station to its designated location, then complete hookup in situ. Dolnok Nor didn’t make it to its designated location because of some subspace instability. None of the three towing barges made it back to normal space. There was some attempt to bring the station online, but it was abandoned due to something haunting the station - something that killed all of the workers and nearly all of the soldiers.”
“Apparently, several more cardassians and some of their bajoran slaves were murdered in a mad scramble to try to take the shuttles out of that space - none of those flights made it out either. The two cardassians who did survive managed to get off the station, onto one of the tugs, which was also haunted, and cannibalized it to build a small ship that got them out of the area and ultimately back to Empok Nor…”
3.2