—- Pangangar, Near the Cardassian Base —-

Ensign Vanessa Constable flipped her tricorder closed. She’d captured as much data on the attack as was present. It had been a rather ineffective attempt to damage the Cardassian base, given that the base was much more resilient than the explosives would have been able to handle.

”Well,” the Cardassian officer who had been nominated as their chaperone for the day said, or asked. 

“Matches the design of old Maquis explosive devices,” Constable said glancing at her security team. Neither Lieutenant Junior Grade William Hume or Lieutenant Sesi Oari had phasers or weapons of any kind, so Constable was not sure how much help they were meant to be. Particularly since the Cardassians guarding them all kept looking at the Bajoran Oari anxiously, nervous about her being there.

”There’s no old Maquis left really,” Hume observed.

”Whoever it was then either learned from them or wanted to look like them,” Constable said. Logically it was the kind of attack that the Cardassians might have launched on themselves, but the planet’s native species the Janinar had identified humans as the culprits. The New Marquis seemed the reasonable and natural assumption.

”New Marquis,” Oari said.

Constable shrugged, “There’s nothing in the explosion or its after math to say either way. The explosives are common, used for mining and clearing out rock. Farmers might have access to it, but so would construction workers, basically any one could be behind it.”

The Cardassian nodded, Trooper Legar was his name, “So the people we arrested are guilty.”

”Well this doesn’t tell us either way,” Constable said. The Cardassians seemed anxious to close the case and get the Federation offworld. As far as Constable could tell the only purpose of this instillation was tracking and reporting on Starfleet activity in the region, it had large communication satellites, and oversized sensors to watch everything that went on in the region. The reality was they likely had no interest in either the human farmers or the natural Janinar population. Had the Janinar not been killed and demanded punishment of the humans the Cardassians probably would have just ignored the attack to avoid drawing Starfleet’s notice.

Chief Diplomatic Officer Lieutenant Diya Acharya nodded, “Thank you for your cooperation. We’ll be going.”

”Next time don’t bring that Bajoran scum around here,“ the Trooper said and gestured to indicate Lieutenant Oari.

Hume looked threatening, like he wanted to start a brawl. Acharya shot a look at the Assistant Chief of Security that told him to stand down. She instead smiled, “Bajorans are a member of the Federation, and Starfleet is made up of all kinds. Infinity Diversity in Infinite Combinations. Lieutenant Oari is an important member of our crew and may join any mission the Captain or our Commander sees fit.”

“Whatever,” the Cardassian grumbled and the guards pointed their rifles closer to the Starfleet officers. Seeing their welcome being rescinded Acharya nodded and turned to leave, walking back towards the Captain’s Skiff. She had said her piece and did not press the point. She would need to return with the two advocates to speak with the arrested farmers, so there was no point in pressing the issue now.

—- Pangangar, Captain’s Skiff —-

Captain Adriana Cruz frowned on the screen, “We have both runabouts out and searching but honestly the local populations of the region aren’t being helpful. This New Maquis is well hidden, and nobody is saying anything.”

“The Cardassians have a ship on the way. If we don’t arrest someone by the time it gets here they’ll send the farmers to Cardassian space we won’t see them again,” Commander Olivia Carrillo said, knowing that there was nothing that the Captain could do about that. This was mostly just venting at this point.

”Undestood Commander Carrillo but we can’t find the Maquis currently. We’ll keep searching, but you need to find evidence to support their innocence,” Cruz said.

”Forensic evidence is a dead end. The Janinar keep calling all of us Commander Maddison, and we’re getting nowhere,” Carrillo said, adding, “The legal team met with the detained farmers, but they’re not even saying anything and don’t have alibis. It was late at night and they were all sleeping, but nobody can confirm that beyond immediate family.”

”Don’t start a fight with the Janinar or the Cardassians. Keep the two civilian lawyers alive. Unfortunately our hands are tied here, there’s not a lot we can do,” Cruz said and sighed, “Okay we’ll keep searching. Cruz out.”

—- Pangangar, Captain’s Skiff —-

It was later at night, after a day worth of digging and investigating. Commander Carrillo sat at the long dinning table that was doubling as a briefing table and looked at the wall screen which was currently displaying the evidence they had. Mission specialist and lawyer for the accused farmers Matthis Bernard sat down at the table blowing across the top of a freshly replicated mug of tea. 

“So there’s no chance that the Janinar are wrong,” Carrillo asked him.

”No chance,“ Bernard said, “The Janinar don’t lie, they just don’t consider it because they’re a collective like the Borg.“

Seated at the table was Lieutenant Lambert who was on the evening shift watching the Skiff and thus unlike most of the rest of the crew still awake, “Could it be someone in disguise? I read a file that Kirk ran into a Klingon that looked human due to plastic surgery. He tried to blow up a space station with an explosive in a tribble.”

Bernard shook his head, “They’re telepaths, they’re senses are just as much mental as they are visual, it was humans that night.”

Carrillo though, “Lieutenant Kolem said that when she spoke to the farmers she sensed they were holding something back. The Cardassians built their base on a popular spot for fishing. When they returned the farmers couldn’t use it anymore.”

”Which gives them a reason for blowing up the Cardassian base,” Bernard said.

”No there’s lots of spots still for fishing, this was more annoying than anything,” Carrillo said, “Not worth killing people over, Cardassian or Janinar.”

”The colonists here, they use animal waste as fertilizer right?” Lambert asked.

Bernard nodded, “Yeah we saw that when we visited the colony, mostly cow manure.”

“My grandfather was killed on a ship, these are the early days of flight. His ship was transporting manure and there was a build up of methane gases,” Lambert said, “In those days they didn’t have the sensors or safety devices your modern ships have, so a fire in the cargo hold was it for the ship.”

”Farmers know how to handle manure to avoid that,” Bernard said.

”But what do the Cardassians want?” Lambert asked, “They want to be left in peace right?”

”Sure,” Bernard said.

”Human colonies create unwanted attention to the base,” Lambert pointed out.

”Okay,” Bernard conceded, not sure where this was going.

”Carrillo, what Constable say about the explosives used,” Lambert said.

”Maquis design,” Carrillo said, “And nobody knows more about the Maquis design of explosives than Cardassians at this point.”

”So the Cardassians plant explosives in the manure used to fertilize the soil,” Lambert said, “Make it Maquis design to point elsewhere if discovered. They figure fertilizer is flammable, so if something happens the farmers will assume it was carelessness. If they destroy the fertilizer the crops fail and eventually the farmers find greener worlds.”

”But how do the explosives get to the Cardassian base,” Bernard asked.

”As you say the farmers are annoyed, but not that mad at the Cardassians. They just want to make a mess, so they sneak out and spread some cow poop on the outside of the base, assuming the Cardassian soldiers will have to clean it up. Juvenile, and dumb prank. But they don’t realize explosives have been set in the poop until they go off, with the manure spread on the base. It kills the Janinar, who know the humans planted the bombs by way of smearing the poop,” Lambert said.

Bernard and Carrillo were quiet as they considered the theory. It held up, but the question was how would they get the Janinar to agree with it, and could they find evidence.

”See if you can get the farmers in Cardassian custody to admit to vandalizing the base with manure,” Carrillo said to Bernard, “I’ll have Constable run tests on the manure that the farmers still have, and the base looking for traces of fertilizer.”

Bernard nodded, “Thank Kirk we got a theory now.”