The four of them stood just outside the docking bay doors waiting for Raynor to emerge. Sisko regretted that he didn't have time to change into his dress uniform but he can only do so much when the situation itself didn't give him much time, for now he would just have to hope they are satisfied with his normal uniform. Though somehow he doubted Raynor would care.
As the door slowly opened the first thing Sisko saw is Raynor flanked to his left by Horner, a man who looked to be about the same age as Raynor, however he was clean shaven, his fancy black and gold shirt and pants were well tailored and ironed, and he carried himself far more professionally than Raynor. Behind him however, grabbed his attention the most as the hulking men in blue powersuits were carrying huge rifles of some kind. Sisko had to swallow his first instinct to assume this was an attack and go ahead believing this was a misunderstanding.
“It's a pleasure to meet you, commander.” Raynor said with a full smile, his hand extended to Sisko. Sisko knew immediately that this was not a slight and he now had the daunting task of asking Raynor to disarm.
“It's a pleasure to meet you as well, I’m planning on having all three heads gather in our boardroom as soon as everyone arrives, but…” Sisko hesitated to ask about the marines. However Raynor noticed and spoke up first.
“Oh them? Some of my boys were worried and decided to run protection detail is all, nothing to be worrying about.”
“I can appreciate that, but my station is not a military outpost but a civilian one. If you were to bring those weapons onto the station I’m afraid some people might begin to get the wrong idea.” Sisko said trying his best to be diplomatic about it. There is some slight hesitation from Raynor before he concedes.
“Understood captain, we are on your home turf after all.” He said before turning around to the Marines. “Armaments back boys, there ain’t gonna be no fight here anyhow so might as well get cozy with the local constabulary.” Raynor turned back around to face Sisko.
“Acceptable?” Raynor said no hint of malice in words.
“Much appreciated, I’ll ensure the constable overlooks the powersuits you bring aboard.” Sisko said both playing into Raynor’s words and referencing Odo’s own nickname at the same time.
“Oh, this is my first officer Major Kira Nerys, my chief scientist Jadzia Dax, and my Chief of Operations Miles O’Brien.” Sisko said just realizing that he got too caught up in the disarming process that he forgot to introduce his officers. “Mr. O’Brien will be checking over your ship to figure out what kind of repairs you will need if that is alright with you.”
“Fine by me, he is welcome aboard, just look for Swann, he’ll point you to the problem.” Raynor said as he looked over to O’Brien.
“Very good sir, I’ll get to work right away.” O’Brien said with a nod to both Raynor and Sisko.
“This here is Horner, he just came to make sure I keep my head on straight.” Raynor said with a small laugh.
“Sir.” Horner groans at Raynor’s bad joke. He then extends his hand to Sisko himself.
“Admiral Horner, pleasure to meet you.” Horner said with a smile. Sisko firmly took his hand and shook it.
“The pleasure is all mine.”
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At first O’Brien thought that it would be a cinch to find the engine room, despite how big it was, however he found out very quickly that while the ship was full of long hallways and vast corridors, it was not easily navigable without someone directing him, luckily he found a few people to help him navigate around and finally arrived at the engine room.
“Excuse me?” O’Brien said loudly to be heard over the sounds of the mechanics working on everything. “I was told to look for Mr. Swann.” Moments after O’Brien said that a man wearing greasy orange coveralls and a mechanical left arm came out to speak.
“Eh, just drop the Mr and call me Swann.” Swann said coming out from behind a support strut he was working on and offered his hand, covered in dirt and grease to O’Brien. He thought nothing of it and shook his hand readily.
“I was told you had some engine problems?”
“Yeah, 9 of the 12 Fission-Fragments are burnt out, 5 of the warp drive generators are fried, and the fusion reactor keeps jumping in between stable and close to meltdown. So far I’ve been doing what I can to keep it from tearing itself apart but without any replacement parts there’s not much I can do.” Swann said while he took a towel off a workbench nearby and wiped his hands a little.
“Well, lead me to it and I’ll take a look, I may not know much about Fission-Fragments but I certainly know my way around a warp drive.” O’Brien said as he followed closely behind Swann through the room.
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“Let me be the first to welcome you to Deep Space Nine, circumstances aside, it's always a pleasure to meet new people. Starfleet's mission is to seek out new life and new civilizations after all, and I certainly think this qualifies.” Sisko said with a smile to the leaders in the boardroom. Among whom are Sisko, Kira, Dax, Bashir, and Worf representing Deep Space Nine.
For the Hyperion it is Raynor, Horner, and the two marines who came with them.
Artanis came with Selendis, a female Protoss,with much thinner features and wearing significantly less clothing than Artanis but with the same kind of golden design. Karax, a slightly larger protoss with a more bulky clothing design as well as a red and gold robe overtop his shoulders that went all the way down to the floor. Lastly Vorazun, another female protoss wearing clothes that could almost be described as ancient arabian, thin purple cloth and light armor. Since Talandar was a bit too big to freely roam the halls of DS9, and Alarak, in his own words “wanted no part of this farce.” Neither showed up to the meeting.
Finally representing the Swarm, Kerrigan only brought along Stukov since she felt that any negotiation that might be necessary he might be the most helpful. Introductions had already been made so all that was left was discussions. Raynor seemed to be getting into the spirit of cooperation already, looking far more relaxed than he did before, a glass of synthehol whiskey in his hand. Artanis was still feeling quite out of place but very glad that this “Captain Sisko” was a friendly man who does not have any xenophobic tendencies. However Kerrigan was not in the mood to play diplomat and that showed in her expression.
“Allow me to cut right to the chase.” Kerrigan said, not feeling comfortable playing buddy-buddy with strangers. “I do not currently possess the strength necessary to bring us back to our universe. Are you able to?”
“You mean you can go back on your own if you are strong enough?” Sisko asked, confused by her words.
“Perhaps.” Kerrigan said as she balls her hand into a fist. “My connection to the swarm is cut off but I can still feel the pull of the wake of the wave that brought us here, like an echo in a chamber. I can still access it, however I do not possess the strength to tear a passage open.” Sisko was caught off guard, playing with celestial forces like that was the realm of the gods… no, the realm of the Q. However he quickly shoved that out of his head for the moment and moved on.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Does that mean you can pinpoint exactly where the wave that brought you here is?” Sisko asked, trying to get a feel for the depth of her abilities.
“I believe I can, but it is still moving around this system, in the time we have been here it has already made two full rotations through the entire system so pinning it down is difficult even for me.”
“That may be good enough.” Karax said quickly. “Much of the systems on board the Spear of Adun are functionally properly but running at 50% output for reasons I have yet to discern. If you can get its exact location down for me I might be able to direct a psionic blast powerful enough that it should rip open a hole.”
“Were you not listening, Karax? I said I can’t pinpoint its location, just a general one.” Kerrigan responded sharply.
“No, that might be enough.” Dax interjects. “If you can give us the general location we might be able to rig a buoy to ping us everytime the wave passes by. Of course getting such a precise shot when the wave is moving so fast might give some problems of its own.” Dax said trailing off as she began to think of the technical difficulties.
“That may still suffice, the timing would need to be precise but if I can get the Spear of Adun to fire the blast slightly before the wave hits the buoy it might be just enough to rip a hole back to our universe.” Karax said, thinking right off Dax’s suggestion.
“Will that give us enough time to get all of our ships out of here?” Raynor asked, giving voice to a genuine concern.
“No, the blast would only open a corridor for a few microseconds, unless we manage to squeeze in that window it would still be for nothing.” Karax responded back realizing that this too might be a dead end.
“No wait… what if we were to force it to stay open?” Dax said, looking back up at the room. “If we outfit the Deflector Dish to give off antiprotons in the direction of the hole we might be able to hold it open long enough to let them through.” Dax said now excited that there seems to be a viable plan.
“Wait, wait, wait. So let me get this straight.” Kira said, interjecting this moment before it flies off the wall. “You want to send out a buoy to ping the moment the wave passed, have the blast fire just moments before the wave will cross the area, and then send out antiprotons to keep the hole open. Even putting the practicality of the plan aside, I gotta ask, are you guys going to be able to close that hole or do we know for a fact that the hole will close itself?” Kira said skeptical on all levels that this plan will work. The room fell to silence as the minds thought over the validity of the plan again.
“There is a possibility of the hole not closing even after we end the beam from the Deflector Dish.” Dax said a bit deflated.
“The psionic residue left over from the blast might actually backfire and stabilize it, especially if you are using anti protons.” Karax adds in.
“Then Bajor can’t condone this, I’m sorry but between you and Bajor I gotta think about the planet’s safety here. I can’t risk opening a hole to another dimension right in Bajor's backyard. Especially so close to the wormhole, the Prophets…” Kira stopped when she looked over to Sisko who was just staring at her, he had not said a word nor did his look convey any meaning but she knew it was time to shut her mouth.
More silence filled the room as the plan seemed to finally have hit a wall. That is until Bashir spoke up.
“A suture.” Bashir said almost out of nowhere. “In medicine when you have a wound too big to heal naturally you force the wound closed with artificial means to help it speed up the natural healing process. Can the same not be applied here?” Bashir asked the room, unsure whether or not his idea is sound.
“Wait, doctor, let me get this straight you’re suggesting we… sew up the hole in space?” Raynor said skeptically.
“Maybe not exactly so, but yes I am.” Bashir said back, still unsure if the idea will work.
“Well I’ve never dealt with Psionics before,” Dax hesitantly began. “But if you want to close a hole like that you want to flood the area with leptons, the problem is the amount of power needed to close the hole would need the Deflector Dish again, but that will be burnt out just by forcing the hole open in the first place.”
“What if we were to let the Leptons go in our wake?” Karax said, jumping back in. “If we were able to release a cloud of Leptons behind us as we enter the hole the leptons might gravitate to the edges of it and pull it closed.” Karax said before adding an addendum. “Of course this is all in theory, there is no way to know for certain if any of this will actually work.”
“Well I think it's our best shot to get you home, what do you say Benjamin?”
Sisko looked around the room, imagining how he would feel if he was in their situation but he could only think of one thing. Jake. And how if he never made it back how his son would have to grow up without a father. And that is a scenario he doesn't want to imagine.
“We will go ahead with the plan, but I want you to ensure that all necessary precautions are being taken.” He said to Dax and Karax.
“Of course, Ben.”
“I promise you I will be as thorough as possible.”
“Good then I think we have a plan to go forward with.” Sisko said, standing up a little.
“That’s all well and good but I still have not heard how long this plan of yours will take to complete.” Kerrigan said a bit forcefully, finally speaking up after a long silence. She looked to both Dax and Karax to confirm.
“I’m not sure, the deflector dish modifications will take some time to complete and I’d need to talk to the Chief to find out how long that will take.” Dax said with a shrug. “I'm no engineer, but I’d guess a month? Really depends how long the Chief needs. Besides that it just comes down to us being able to learn to track the wave and actually hit our target.”
“I’d venture to say that assessment would be accurate, with the Spear of Adun operating below peak efficiency it will take time to charge the psionic blast needed to open the hole, but I believe within a month I can have a few shots ready.
“Then the plan is set, I shall offer the full support of the phase-smiths and any other resource you may need to complete the project Captain Sisko.” Artanis said standing up.
“I can’t offer much but me and my boys will do whatever we can.” Raynor adds in.
“Just tell me when you are ready to track the wave and I shall use the full extent of my powers to assist you.” Kerrigan said to Dax, which she returned with a smile.
“Good then, I believe we know what we are all doing, now we just need to-” Sisko said before being cut off by a chime from his communicator.
“Odo to Captain Sisko, do you read me?” Odo said, a bit more annoyed than usual. Sisko paused for a moment looking around the room deciding if it was fine to answer the call here. After no more than a moment’s hesitation he responded.
“Yes Odo I read you.”
“Captain, I have a vedek here who goes by the name Jevian. He said he needs to meet you urgently.”
“Vedek Jevian? I know him.” Kira said more surprised than anything. Benjamin looked over to her. “He’s a bookworm, spends all day in the temple studying and praying to the prophets, I don’t know the last time he left the monastery.” Benjamin just looked at her quizzically and then responded to Odo.
“Can it not wait Odo?”
“Apparently not, he said he was sent by the prophets to give you a message, and he brought an orb.” Odo said with a small scoff. However this was anything but a light remark to Sisko, he knew full well how the orbs were treated as the highest of holy objects on Bajor. Each one is heavily guarded and kept deep within the monasteries across Bajor. There is of course the one on the station, but besides that they are very rarely brought off-world since the Cardassians stole them during the occupation. This had just become a much more serious matter.
Sisko looked around the room once more and decided that his work here was done and he had a new task to complete.
“If you pardon me it appears that I’m needed.” Sisko said as he hurried out of the room. Seeing the situation and knowing that not only as his first officer but as a man highly respected in her faith Kira decided to pick up now that he was gone.
“Alright, it seems we have the plan so lets go about getting this thing done right. The captain has arranged quarters for all of you if you wish to stay, but you are more than welcome to return to your ships. In addition if any of your men want to come to the station for relaxation it is permitted. We just ask that you respect our policies and do not carry any weapons on the main decks, including the promenade. One of the officers outside can lead you to your rooms if you wish, otherwise we will remain in close contact, feel free to get in touch with us if you need something.” Kira said, finishing the discussion in Sisko’s stead.
