So when a tall human man with very thick hair walked out of the stream of beings flowing steadily outside her windows and into her store, Lelti hastened out from the back, where she and her daughters had been eating breakfast, and gave the man a much livelier greeting than he would've gotten from many of her fellow Promenade merchants in that hour. She wasn't sure if she'd seen the man before or not, but she could hear latinum clinking in the bag he carried, and that sounded good and trustworthy.
Even if she didn't like the sound of his chuckle as much as she liked the sound of the latinum, or when he said, "Well, well, what fine woman do we have here? And did you make all of these beautiful things?"
"I did," she said, letting herself be proud of it. "I'm a Bajoran glassblower." She’d heard the word glassblower some time after hearing the word glass, and but long enough ago to be used to using it to describe herself around humans. Being able to translate her occupation like that, even beyond what the universal translator typically managed, was no end of useful.
She knew it had been when he said, "I can see that," in a dry amused tone. He considered her wares for a while, but as he looked and looked, Lelti, who had gotten very good in recent years at telling apart serious buyers and window shoppers, soon became convinced he was unlikely to buy anything that morning. Still, the more he looked, the more likely he was to talk about her shop to someone who might buy, so she stayed near him, ready to be of any service or answer any questions he might have.
Genin was the one who managed to really pique his attention, though, when, after quietly watching him for maybe about twenty minutes or so, suddenly asked, "Do you sell anything, sir?" For a moment Lelti though she should scold her for asking such a question, but then she saw the man actually looked pleased to be asked.
Not that he responded immediately. Instead he waited as she continued to look at him in that inquisitive way she had sometimes, until after half a minute he answered, "Yes, I do. Nothing as beautiful as your mother's creations, I'm afraid, but I flatter myself that my little computer gadgets will satisfy many a station resident. I've been here four days so far and sold quite a few already. You and your daughters should feel free to come down when you have a spare hour. Booth 02-581. I hope to see you there. Good day."
He left not long after that, and Lelti didn't believe then she'd have any reason to think any more of him. Men like that came back to buy far too little for her liking, and generally computer gadgets didn't interest her, especially not when they had merchants hawking them. Meanwhile, there was breakfast to finish, and she'd wanted to take twenty minutes or so to talk to Mara especially, but really all four of her daughters, about some of the history in her craft, a lecture she'd been preparing for days.
It was never easy giving such talks to them, of course. Genin was a loyal listener still, but she was now the only one. Mara had never been one, Liset was still too young, and as she progressed further into adolescence Terisne had started to show her restlessness and impatience when her mother tried to talk to her at any length about anything she didn't happen to be interested in herself. Lelti had given her a lecture or five about how Starfleet officers always listened when those in charge had something to say to them, but even that didn't always work.
That morning's attempt at lecturing didn't go so well. Mara kept interrupting to ask about that man and were they going to look at his "shiny things," Terisne kept then responding before she could, mostly remarks about how she didn't trust that man, and she didn't think Liset even stayed awake for all of it. Even Genin looked on the distracted side, though gadgets usually didn't interest her much either. By the end of it, Lelti was thinking she might have to take them to see him after all, though she held out hope they'd forget by the afternoon.
After breakfast, Terisne led her sisters off to their latest tutor-the educational setup on the station had'’t been consistent since the Dominion threat first manifested, and Lelti had a fairly unremarkable morning. She only made one sale, though at least it was of three items. It took a while to package them so the customer, whose species didn't have the highest amount of arm strength, wouldn't break them before she got back to her quarters. Her daughters didn't come back for lunch, but they often hadn't, recently, since Liset no longer got upset if they didn't.
She was nearly done eating by herself when Kolana came in. "I thought it was still your shift," she said in surprise.
"There was a medical issue at the Klingon place; I'm on my way back to the Infirmary. But I just wanted to ask you, did a human man who didn't give you his name stop by here this morning and invite you to sample the wares at Booth 02-581?"
"Why yes, he did," and alarmed, Lelti then asked, "Is the technology dangerous? Is he someone who's after me for some reason? Is he-"
"I don't know," Kolana interrupted, and something about that felt off to Lelti. But before she could think about it, she said, "But I know he's involved in some sort of fraud, and I've even heard something about him being connected to organized crime. You need to stay away from him, Lelti, you and your daughters, and if he approaches any of you again, you should tell me. I mean, you could tell the Security people, but I'm not completely sure they'd believe you were in any danger. They're sometimes..." She shook her head.
"All right," Lelti said, and found herself very much hoping her daughters will have forgotten about him by the time they came back.
Their tutor had them again after lunch, but she didn’t teach for very long into the afternoon; Lelti was expecting them back by about 1430 or so. When 1500 arrived with them not having shown, she normally wouldn't have worried; they often took their time on the Promenade. But now, remembering her friend's words, she commed Terisne, asking her, "What's keeping you? Did you go see that man who visited us this morning?"
Terisne, no doubt hearing how tense she was, said, "Yeah, we dropped by. Everything there's really expensive, though. Really, I don't know why he tried to get us interested. He must not have any idea how little Promenade merchants make if they're not selling something edible or something everyone needs to get sooner or later."
That might be true, but Lelti had a feeling something else was going on here. Suddenly not sure how much she wanted to say over the station's comms, she just asked, "Where are you right now?"
"We just got some jumja sticks, and we're sitting near that stand right now. We can be back in ten if you want."
Not wanting to sound too disturbed, she said, "You can finish eating you jumja sticks first, but then yes, I want you back here."
They came back about twenty minutes later, by which time Lelti had barely managed to conceal her jumpiness when a window shopper briefly came in. Her younger daughters all looked quite happy and contented, Mara and Liset still with jumja stains around their mouths, but Terisne had noticed her mother's anxiety, and now she asked, "Is everything all right, mama?"
"I hope so," said Lelti, because she did. "It's just I've heard something about the man that visited us this morning that makes me think we shouldn't have much to do with him."
"Is that something Storm told you?" Genin asked. "I think she believes all sorts of silly things."
Genin wasn't entirely wrong there, but Lelti still replied, "Wasn't her, dear; it was Kolana."
"Nurse Micent?" Now Mara didn't sound impressed. "I think she's kind of weird." She might still just be mad about having to get that shot, of course.
"She's probably right," said Terisne, very firmly. "Though what did she say exactly?"
When Lelti had repeated Kolana's words, Terisne readily agreed that they would keep their distance from him, and none of her sisters protested. Still, Lelti caught the contemplative look in her oldest daughter's eye. She had the feeling she'd want to talk to her later, when the others weren't around to hear them.
That didn't happen for the rest of the afternoon. The girls had been given a lot of homework, which Mara ended up needing help on, and with two more customers each buying once of her fancier works, Lelti was also busy working on more wares for the store's shelves. Terisne also went out for an hour right before they ate dinner. She often did that nowadays, when she completed her work early enough, and it wasn't something her mother worried about. She always came back to their quarters well in time.
Liset went to bed very shortly after that, and Mara not long after her. They shared a room, as did their two older sisters, and initially Terisne and Genin both went to theirs. But half an hour or so later, Terisne came out of hers. She stood there for several seconds, the way she often did when she was about to confess to something that would make her mother unhappy.
"Out with it," Lelti finally said to her. "No point in just standing there..."
"...you don’t get anything done that way," Terisne finished for her; this was what her mother had always said to them about situations like this. "Though I'm not really sure how to...I think there’s something weird about Nurse Micent."
"How so?" Lelti asked her, as she became aware that she didn't disagree with her daughter. One thing the life she'd lived had given her was a great respect for the insights of Terisne, even from when she'd been very young. Also, when she heard those words, her history with Kolana and the general impression she got of her suddenly appeared differently in her head, as she realized for the first time how little Kolana had told her about anything that happened to her after she had entered Starfleet.
Still, Terisne was silent for a moment or so, obviously thinking about it. Then she said, "She's always asking us to talk about ourselves, and she never talks about herself. I mean, I think adults still do that a lot, especially ones who've done ugly violent things they don't want our young ears to hear about, but she's done it even more than Olsad, and we both know what *he* did."
"You are right about that," her mother acknowledged. "Still, there are plenty of reasons while people don't want to talk about themselves sometimes. It's even possible she's not allowed to. I know you've done some research into Starfleet, my dear, so you know sometimes they aren't allowed to talk about large parts of their lives."
"Yes, but how would a nurse her age with her record have that much of her career be classified? Or even know who that guy was? Although I do think she's right about him. I thought him weird, too, even this morning. He was more looking through the wares than looking at them, and there were a couple of times when you weren't looking at him, and he was glancing at you like...I don’t know."
"Do you think Nurse Micent meant well, warning us about him?”"
"Yes," said Terisne, without hesitation. "I don't even think she means us any harm, necessarily. Why would she? Things aren't...like they were."
Lelti was no longer sure just how much her daughters knew about what their father had been doing. But it was obvious enough what Terisne was saying, that if Kolana had ulterior motives around them, it was probably less about them and more about him.
Terisne was also now old enough, and responsible enough, that perhaps it was time for her to have a say in decisions that could potentially impact all five of them. "So if you were me," she asked her, "would you behave differently around Nurse Micent?"
She likely realized exactly what her mother was thinking, and she was silent for a moment or so, before she said, "Maybe not necessarily. But just...be smart about her, watch what she says, what she does, and think about it."
That actually wasn't unlike what Lelti had often had to do with regards to her husband during the final years of his life. And she had already sometimes thought she should do the same with Storm. She wasn't sure how much that was stereotypes speaking, though, since the Nissian had never shown any real sign of being linked to anything shady.
"We'll both do that," she said. "And maybe I'll talk to Genin about it, too. Not Mara or Liset right now, though."
She had pretty much confirmed that they hadn’t tried to transmit it, which indicated a very certain paranoia. If Kolana was right, and she usually was in these scenarios, the data would be transferred in person in some isolated corridor at some late hour.
She was honestly tempted to anonymously tip off Constable Odo, and see if that would get him to investigate. She thought he would do so, and would be highly unlikely to get caught. But much as the psychological profile she'd made of him indicated he would, that was dangerous to rely on. Nor could she be certain any of her various methods for getting what she needed to know out of him would work. And there were more reasons, besides that, for Kolana to not want to ever involve Odo in the work she did.
Besides, she was good enough at navigating the Cardassian version of the station's Jeffries tubes, and Rotto was easy enough to tag and then to tail. Two nights after her conversation with Storm, he was trying to creep as quietly as possible through one of the lower levels, and she didn't even have to expend much effort to shadow him silently.
Of course, the person he was meeting with was another matter. But there at least she heard his footsteps well in advance, and between how heavy they were and that particular artificial scent, she immediately knew he was an Orion.
The two men were nearly on top of each other before Rotto realized that, as his reaction made clear. Presumably he still guessed he was whom he was supposed to meet with, but he made a very good impression otherwise, with his stammered exclamation of greeting and glancing around. Fortunately the Orion dealt with that nonsense pretty efficiently. He wasn't the one from the Replimat; Kolana had never seen him before.
He might actually have been more worried about the two of them being watched, even if he didn't necessarily have any reason to think it that night. She watched him take hold of Rotto's hands, and heard only his stern tone of voice as he spoke; she couldn't make his words out. The data was probably transferred then, though she was too far away and the lighting was too low for visual confirmation. A moment later he'd shoved Rotto further down the corridor the way he'd already been walking, nearly making him lose his footing, making another comment that was probably just tell him to mind where he was going, before he himself continued in his own direction. Most people would've seen nothing more than someone clumsy colliding into someone ill-tempered and getting upbraided hard for it.
Rotto was likely of no more interest. Following the Orion meant concentrating more on being silent, but Kolana carefully picked her way through the tubes, her keen vision taking better note of where things were getting loose or rusty than probably anyone had done before.
She'd been prepared for it not to come to much, if the guy just was going to go straight to sleep; she couldn't risk breaking into his quarters before she'd at least done a remote sweep for cameras. But instead he stepped into the turbolift and headed for the Promenade. Getting there after him wasn't too much trouble; if she caught another one within ten minutes, it would drop her in the same place with him still within her line of sight. The problem was going undetected. Men like him would notice if someone kept appearing within their vision. At the very least, she would need somewhere to duck out of sight for a significant period of time, especially if he hung around anywhere for more than a few minutes.
By the time she'd gotten into that turbolift, she'd mentally mapped out that section of the Promenade-which had been pretty easy for her, since it wasn't far from Lelti's shop. Which certainly would be all properly locked up at this time of night, while she and her daughters slept the sleep of those living the quiet life, and would very distressed if they discovered the next day that their shop had been broken into.
Her quarry wasn't immediately in sight when she reached the Promenade, where most of the evening-based businesses were at their busiest, though maybe the crowds weren't as big as they were at the height of the day. Walking to the sides threw her partly into the shadows when she walked past the closed ones, but when she did spot the Orion, he was at the entrance to one of those weird dens of substances that hadn't been around long enough to be outlawed yet. Not a well-positioned one for her purposes either. She couldn't stay in her current spot for the length of time it would probably take whoever he was waiting for to arrive. He'd spot her for sure.
Lelti's shop was a little far from him, but its exact position would provide a good viewing angle. The two shops adjacent to it would also be closed, and noone would spot her.
Kolana regretted it deeply, but she didn't hesitate. She even already knew how she could get in. Maybe she could fix it on the way out so none of the Ivals would notice. How often did they glance up at their ceiling anyway?
She had to do it as fast as possible. There was a thin alcove of space between Lelti's shop and the herbalist to her right, just wide enough for her to fit if she squeezed. The shopkeeper definitely kept surplus herbs out here, and the lingering scent-stronger from the ones he sold to the tourists than the ones he sold to the Bajorans, was more distracting than she would've liked, but when she got to the back, she managed to concentrate well enough that when she tapped the bulkhead hard, her ears picked up where in the ceiling there were the compartments the Cardassians had kept the spy sensors in. Those had all been long disabled, probably past repair, but the empty spaces were still there, and from them she could access more of the tubes.
The laser cutter she had in her boot got the bulkhead cut open enough within half a minute, and was clean enough that when she slipped it back in place it was unlikely anyone else would notice anything for days at the very least. Roughly Kolana squeezed herself through the spy device compartment and then was back in the tubes. She'd long known about their passing their way over Lelti's shop. The ceiling below them was thick, but she still got through it, and it had been less than two minutes when she crept to the front of the dark, silent shop and slid open the front spyhole that Lelti probably never used. Her quarry was still out there.
It was maybe half an hour more before he was finally greeted by a man whom Kolana recognized as Storm's dangerous clanmate. It was mildly surprising the way they did it; he just walked right up to him, making no attempt to hide that the two of them knew each other. They talked for a few minutes, seemingly unconcerned about anyone hearing them, and then the Nissian continued on his way, looking very cheerful. The Orion then went into the den, which was indication enough he no longer had anything important on his person.
Kolana had just about three minutes to decide on her next move when the decision was made for her by a taletell creak above her. She considered both her phaser and her knife, then ducked behind the shop's counter with the latter drawn; she wanted to avoid any damage the Ivals were likely to notice.
The creaking continued on, and Kolana caught a faint curse in Orion. It sounded like she might have a minute maybe, so she quickly retrieved her tracker from where she'd slipped into her sleeve, glad now she'd chosen to keep it with her. As she'd suspected, it was the guy she'd tagged in the Replimat.
Tagging someone also gave her a chance to get a very basic assessment of their size and likely strength. And knowing a thing or two about Orion's agility, or lack thereof, well, at least she might avoid doing this fight in her friend's store, though she might have a few tech issues over the next week or so.
She went back into the ceiling the way she'd come in. No way to avoid being heard, so she went for speed instead. As she'd thought, the Orion had just broken through the tube above the Promenade and gotten himself tangled up in a knot of cables he probably hadn't thought to look out for. It maybe gave her ten extra seconds.
The main problem, of course, was that she couldn't kill him. There'd be no getting the body away without someone discovering something amiss. And he didn't have the same problem.
She set her phaser to stun, but left it in place by her belt, instead pulling out the longer and more vicious-looking of her two hidden knives. With her other hand, she grabbed onto a spot on the side of the tube where a slight change in the coloration told her there was some loose paneling, and her fingers scrambled for the hold.
But she hadn't quite found it when the Orion got free, and when he threw a punch, it sent her hurtling back. She barely held onto the knife, and her first swipes with it went wild. Kolana had barely nicked him when he pulled from his own vest a tiny pistol that looked too much like a miniature disruptor for her comfort.
Which was when what they had both taken for a loose piece of wiring hanging behind the Orion turned a familiar gold, and Kolana found herself watching as Constable Odo sprung forth and wrapped quick binds around his chest. His strength didn't make him easy to keep a hold on, but she herself also grabbed their foe and landed a pair of punches to the head, and she knew where to hit to momentarily stun him, making him easy to subdue.
Odo waited until they had his arms bound up behind his back. When Kolana advised him to make sure the Orion's elbows were immobilized, he did so without comment. It was only when he was their captive secure that he inquired, "I don't suppose I can get an explanation for this?"
In theory, the prudent thing to do would've been to tell him no. She had the feeling she'd be losing the Orion to him in any case, but at least then she'd walk away with her secrets.
Except she was damn sure it wouldn't end there, that she would gain a stalker, and one that could make himself look like anything. When you were dealing with a shapeshifter, all the training in the universe could only help you so much when it came to detecting him.
And Kolana knew for a fact she'd be here for years, and that she always would've had to deal with Odo sooner or later. Better to give him just enough to allow for a working relationship, maybe find opportunities in the future to even deliberately engage him in her work. While she didn't know if it was possible to get him to keep everything about it to himself, he could probably be bought to view her more investigative work as something that should go uninterfered with until it was done.
She knew was her decision was when she pulled her phaser out and stunned the Orion. Odo actually smiled slightly; she was obviously planning to say something for his ears only.
"I can't tell you everything," she began, regretting it when she saw Odo's expression, but nonetheless continued, "But I might have ended up coming to you over this anyway." That was technically true. "I'm actually a special agent for Starfleet, assigned here with a few extra duties besides the nursing ones. We've been tracking some criminal elements that have come and circled around this station, mostly Orion Syndicate, but there have been some others involved, too. If you want, I can meet with you tomorrow to tell you more, but we probably shouldn't stay here much longer."
Odo was too smart to not recognize the procrasination, and he definitely didn't look impressed at all. But he didn't argue, just sighed, "Come early, please; I am busy in the afternoon."
"Until then," she agreed. "That guy may wake up earlier than most would."
"I'll handle him, don't worry. I may even hold off on letting anyone ask him any questions if you arrive early enough tomorrow."
Two could play, Kolana thought. Her respect for him went up.