Excision Marks the Spot

[Sorehl 0]

Sorehl squinted his eyes against the brisk, cold air that swept along the remains of Okrand Plateau on Cardassia IV.  Given the extent of the ecological damage, he observed, Okrand Gorge was a more appropriate name.  Instead of a natural valley, however, carved over an erosive process taking millions of years, this pit had been clawed out by more technical mechanisms in mere days.  

 

    Although an Aegis team had already assessed a similar site, the Cardassians had wanted to see the damage for themselves; they were here now, picking their way through the cavernous scar in the landscape.

 

    Descending a little further, the Vulcan captain noted the rough-hewn texture of the remaining soil.  This had not been an elegant or precision operation, like the Borg excision at the New Providence colony.  It was, as the Ferengi junior officer had noted back on Aegis, as if the invading aliens had simply beamed up huge swaths of land en mass, taking the ore and the surrounding strata with it.

 

    It was now abundantly clear that kelindide had been the intended target.  Of the six sites they had visited, five had been early sources of the mineral used by the Cardassian shipbuilders during the massive military escalation of the 2350's.  One had been a source of less-versatile toranium ore.  The scale of removal at this site, however, was certainly the greatest - possibly because this stockpile had been virtually untapped.

 

    Sorehl steadied himself against a rock, crunching against its frost-covered surface.  He wondered if the climate, unpleasant by both Vulcan and Cardassian standards, had deterred early military-era mining.  Over the past three decades, resource-poor Cardassia had plundered its own archaological treasures and seized the wealth of other worlds to support itself.  It was a curious aberration to imagine them keeping a strategic reserve untouched so close at hand.  

 

    "Captain," called out a uniformed Cardassian, astride a massive riding hound several meters below him.  Sorehl watched the mastiff pick its way up the slope, bringing the officer to his level.  "Gul Dergo instructed me to bring you to his location at once," he reported.

 

*      *      *      *      *

 

    A few minutes later, Sorehl slid unceremoniously off the backside of the riding hound.  Brushing off stray dark hairs, he expected to hear a characteristic taunt, but Gul Dnalge Dergo was striding towards him, obviously intent on something else.   The gul shoved a dumbell-shaped tricorder into the Vulcan's hands.  "Look at this," he insisted.

 

    Sorehl examined the scans, not understanding.  "None of these readings are particularly remarkable," he observed.  "Kelbonite deposits are not uncommon in kelindide ore-bearing strata; this  merely appears to be an unusual concentration."  It was not even a particularly useful mineral, Sorehl noted.  What did Dergo think he'd found?

 

    "But look at what's deeper," Dergo urged.

 

    Sorehl adjusted the scanner.  "Unfortunately, kelbonite is a refractory metal.  This tricorder isn't sophisticated enough to penetrate such interference."    

 

    "Yes," Dergo agreed, slanting his head back to observe him in that distinctively reptilian manner.  He tilted his head toward a carved-out section of the slope.  "Come and see what the tricorder doesn't..."