The Mist (7 page)

I turned back to face Captain Victor. "It would seem," I said, "that by luring us here, you are helping them."

"Oh," he said, shrugging, "your presence on the station would have done nothing to stop the takeover." He sounded as if this sort of thing were routine.

Worf growled behind me. If I hadn't seen Victor's nervous glance at the commander, I wouldn't have realized that Klingons made him uneasy. But he went on as if he were fine.

"Imagine having twenty ships suddenly appear out of nowhere around your station."

"The station would be able to defend against twenty ships," Worf said.

"Maybe," Victor said, "but not as well with hundreds of men with weapons beaming in beside every member of your crew, before they had time to even react."

"Just as you beamed in here with our shields still up?"

"Exactly," Captain Victor said.

"They beam through shields?" Prrghh asked. "I hadn't understood that before."

"You should have been listening more carefully," Sotugh said, and belched loudly. He got up without excusing himself, moved around the end of the bar, and disappeared through the doorway leading to the bathroom.

"The captain mentioned it," the middle-aged woman at the bar said, "when Victor beamed in."

"I know," Prrghh said. "It's just the juxtaposition of details ..." Then she smiled and held up the tiny glass of blue liquid she had been sipping from. "... or perhaps it is the nectar of Honeybirds." And then she laughed, a warm throaty sound.

Sisko smiled at her. He didn't feel as if he'd had too much Jibetian ale, although he could do with more than fruitnuts. "Do you have a kitchen?" he asked Cap.

"We serve some things," Cap said. "What would you like?"

"Let's see your bar menu," Sisko said.

"What about the story?" the bristly creature asked, lifting his snout off his chair.

"He was waiting for me," Sotugh said, adjusting his clothing as he walked. He was not walking quite straight.

"I am hungry," Sisko said.

"But the story"

"I'm still thinking about beaming through shields," Prrghh said. "Can you do that, Sotugh?"

"Do you think I'd tell you if I could?" he asked and sat down heavily.

"What about your station?" the Trill asked. The question sounded more like a prompt than a need to know. "Did they take it over?"

"That's what we were trying to find out," Sisko said.

My crew, except for Dr. Bashir, were huddled over their stations, trying to discover exactly what was happening on Deep Space Nine.

"Captain," Dax said, her voice showing the worry she felt, "two Mist ships are shoving a large asteroid directly at the station."

"An asteroid?" I asked. I had not expected that. "How long until impact?"

"Two minutes and ten seconds," Dax said.

"Cadet, send a warning on all channels. See if you can send something slightly out of phase, if you can send a message from our reality to theirs."

"Captain, communications aren't really my"

"Do it, Cadet. Dax, help him." I knew it was a long shot, but I wanted to try everything. "Chief, see if you can shift us back. We need to warn them. I will not just sit here while someone tries to destroy my station."

"Don't worry, Captain," Victor said in a voice that was much too smarmy for my liking. "The asteroid has been shifted into this reality. Its only function is to pass through the station."

"To disorient everyone," Worf said.

"Exactly," Captain Victor said. "After the asteroid passes through the station, they will shift the station and then beam in and take it over."

"Continue sending messages, Cadet. Chief"

"I am, sir."

"I know," O'Brien said, huddled over his console.

"So," I said to Victor, "as far as any of the ships guarding the station, and the wormhole, are concerned, the station will suddenly disappear."

Captain Victor nodded.

I faced the Mist captain. "And just what do they plan to do with my station?"

Captain Victor shifted his gaze for a moment back to the viewscreen, then looked me right in the eye and said, "They plan on using it to conquer the Mist homeworld."

Seven

"YOU HAVE NACHOS?" Sisko asked, interrupting himself as he stared at Cap's bar menu. "Chicago-style pepperoni pizza? Jambalaya? And dirty rice?" The selection was simply amazing. He was shocked.

The patrons around him groaned. "Captain, please, continue," the bristly alien said.

"And you have heart of targ," Sotugh said, leaning over Sisko's shoulder. The smell of blood wine mixed with bregit lung was nearly overpowering.

"This is an extensive menu," Sisko said.

"Captain, please," the bristly alien said, slapping its fingered paw on the chair.

"If you see something you'd like, I'd suggest ordering it quickly," Cap said. "You don't want to see a Quilli get mad. At least not in here."

The bristles on the little creature were standing on end. "You have abandoned the story at a good section," it said, climbing on the slats of the chair's back. The chair tottered precariously. "I demand that you continue."

"I will," Sisko said. Those bristles did look like quills, and if the Quilli could shoot them, like so many bristled creatures could, it would be bad. Very bad indeed.

"Now!" the Quilli growled.

"Are your nachos real?" Sisko asked Cap.

Patrons began moving away from the Quilli. Some ducked under tables. Others headed toward the door.

"Yes," Cap said, edging toward the bar, his gaze on the Quilli.

"Good," Sisko said. "I'd like a large."

"Captain, I demand to know what happened next!" The Quilli's bristles were trembling.

"What happened next?" Sisko said, looking at the small creature. Its chair was wobbling. The Trill got up and steadied it. The Quilli simply climbed higher.

"I put my entire staff on finding a way to get us phased into our own space."

"That's all?" The Quilli's little voice was rising.

"No," Sisko said. "That's not all."

"Keep broadcasting warnings," I ordered Dax and Nog. "Try anything. Chief, find a way to get a signal across."

My crew moved swiftly. I was furious. I took a step closer to Captain Victor. I wanted nothing more than to force him to return us to our home. But I knew his agenda was greater than that.

He looked amused. His blue eyes were twinkling, although he was not smiling. Not quite. "I'm afraid that you won't be able to get any signal between the two realities. Nothing crosses from this way to the normal universe. However, we can listen in on anything going on in the normal universe."

"Captain, I can't find the phase variance, let alone break it," O'Brien said. "Not in this amount of time."

"He's right, Benjamin," Dax said. "Miracles simply aren't possible at the moment."

I crossed the bridge. I stopped in front of Victor. He was my height, except for that silly yachting cap. I wanted to yank it off his head, but I didn't.

"Take us back," I said.

"Captain, really," Victor started.

"Take us back," I said again.

He shrugged. "If that's what you want, but warning your crew will only cause undue bloodshed."

"Shift us back. Now."

"Fine." He took off the cap himself and stuck it under his arm, like those old nineteenth-century paintings of Napoleon. I almost expected him to put one hand in his shirt. "But if you want to come back across, simply return to this point and my ship will bring you here."

"We will not want to come back," I said.

"Don't be so hasty in your predictions, Captain," he said, and chuckled. Then he tapped his foot, and disappeared.

"That was a quick transport," O'Brien said.

"Maybe he was never actually here," Dax said.

"Check the logs later, people," I said. "Right now we have to warn the station."

At that moment a line in space seemed to form in front of the Defiant, widening and growing with a thin, white mist. It swept over the ship from front to back almost instantly and then was gone.

The Mist ship had disappeared.

"The Klingon ships and the station are hailing us, sir," Nog said.

Home. I hadn't realized how much I missed it. And yet I hadn't been out of sight of it.

"How long until the asteroid hits the station?" I asked.

"At the speed the Mist ships were pushing it," Dax said, "we have less than one minute. But I can no longer see it, or any of the Mist ships."

"Put the station on screen," I said. "Make sure the channel is secure."

"It is," Nog said.

"Secure, Captain," Dax said, at the same time, obviously double-checking the cadet on such an important order.

"Captain," Major Kira said as her face appeared on screen. "Where were you? We were"

"Major," I said, "you have exactly thirty seconds before an attack on the station. Go to red alert. The first sign of the attack will be dizziness; then a hundred or so armed troops will beam into the station even though the shields are up. If you can't hold Ops, disable anything you can, especially shields and weapons. Do you understand?"

"Aye, sir," Kira said. She had already started to turn away, to issue orders, as the screen went blank.

"Dax," I said. "Move us two hundred meters closer to the station and hold that position."

Silence filled the bridge of the Defiant as I sat and stared at the screen.

"Captain," Nog said, breaking the silence. "The Klingons are insistent, sir."

" 'The Klingons are insistent,' " Sotugh mocked. "Of course we were insistent. You appeared out of nowhere, in a position that we had just flown through."

"Shhh," the Quilli said.

Sotugh turned. Half the patrons ducked again. "Don't shush me, you pointed pipsqueak."

"You are interrupting the story," the Quilli said. Its bristles slowly rose.

Sisko wondered if he should duck. That small alien seemed to make most of the patrons nervous.

"I am part of the story," Sotugh said. "I want to make sure Sisko gets it right." He leaned over his chair and waved at Arthur, the kid behind the bar. "Where is my heart of targ?"

Arthur looked at Cap, who rose from the back bar, holding a blue bottle. "I don't recall you ordering any," Cap said.

"Of course I ordered some," Sotugh said. "When Sisko ordered his neshos."

"Nachos," Sisko said quietly.

"The story!" the Quilli shouted.

"Did you know," the Trill said, crossing his arms and smiling, "that stories are the most important form of commerce on the Quilli homeworld?"

"Are you saying I'm trying to steal this one for a profit?" the Quilli snapped. Its bristles were shivering.

"Of course not," the Trill said. "I was merely explaining your insistence. Humans can be sloppy storytellers, especially when they're drinking. Sometimes they begin a story and never finish it. Sometimes they start in the middle and insist on an audience. Sometimes they tell a story that's too long for everyone to follow. With humans you never know what you might get."

"And sometimes they are filled with their own importance," Sotugh said.

"Are you saying," Sisko asked, slightly offended, "that I am a sloppy storyteller?"

"You do allow a lot of interruptions," the Trill said.

"If he were a better storyteller, there would be no interruptions," Sotugh said.

"You comprise the bulk of my interruptions," Sisko said.

"See? I am here to make certain of your accuracy," Sotugh said. "And obviously you are not accurate enough."

"He is a fine storyteller," the Quilli said. "In fact, he is an excellent storyteller and the story is entertaining me. I object to the interruptions. I want them to stop."

"I don't think that's possible," the Trill said, "given the mixture of customers here." He smiled as he glanced around the table. "But then you should know that. How many stories do you leave here with, anyway?"

The Quilli whirled so fast that Sisko almost didn't see the movement. One bristle stuck out double the length of the others.

"Any more insults, Trill," the Quilli said, "and you will lose an eye. Is that clear?"

The Trill held up his hands. He did not stop smiling. "No harm meant."

The bristle slipped back into place. "None taken," the Quilli said. It turned back to its position. "Captain, I believe you had just gotten a message from the Klingons."

Sisko cleared his throat. "Yes," he said. "Right." He smiled impishly at his audience. "I had Dax put the Klingons on screen. Captain Sotugh appeared. He looked younger then"

"Didn't we all?" Sotugh mumbled.

" and quite dashing in his uniform."

"Enough of the flattery, Sisko," Sotugh said. "Go on with the story before the warthog decides to blind us all."

Sisko's grin grew. "You'll let me tell this part?"

"I am waiting for my heart of targ," Sotugh said.

"I take that for a yes," Sisko said. "Well, Captain Sotugh appeared on screen and said, without preamble ..."

"Captain Sisko, we know you just sent a message to the station. What kind of trick is this? We demand to know what sort of cloaking device you are using."

"It is no trick," I said. "Train your sensors on Deep Space Nine and stand by."

"I cannot see why I"

I told Nog to cut the communication, and he did. Now, remember, this is during that recent period of hostilities between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. I knew that I was taking a risk

"Yeah, you know, I was wondering ..." A chalk-colored alien rose from his spot against the wall. Sisko tried not to blink in surprise. He had thought the alien was a line of dirt until he moved. "If you had hostilities, how come you let one of their number on your ship?"

"Worf always was different," Cap said.

Everyone looked at him. Sisko wondered how he knew Worf.

"I don't care!" the Quilli said. "It's not relevant to the story. Will you please do something about these interruptions?"

"Actually, the question is slightly relevant," Sotugh said. "But of greater relevance is the risk that Sisko took in cutting me off. I followed his instruction any good commander would, just to see what kind of trick he was playing but I also raised my shields and gave an order to power my weapons. If we had not seen"