Star Trek
Deep Space Nine
"Distortions"
NOTE: This story is a sampling of my early work. I was 15 when it was completed.
Benjamin Sisko was exhausted.
He had been asleep for less than an hour when the station pitched sharply, throwing him from his bed and erasing any remnants of blissful sleep from his mind.
Groaning, he climbed to his feet. The quaking of the floor made it difficult to stay upright as he stumbled towards the wall-mounted comm panel in his quarters.
Major Kira's voice came through the unit before he reached it.
"Kira to Sisko. You'd better get up here, commander."
As Sisko reached for the panel, the station pitched again. He lost his balance and was thrown into the wall with jarring force.
On the bridge, Kira frowned and waited for him to speak.
"Major..." There was a soft groan. "What's happening up there?"
"Are you... all right, captain?"
"Yes, Major," he replied in a pained voice. "Please continue."
"The wormhole just started emitting some sort of graviton pulse," she began. "We haven't figured out what's causing it yet, but Chief O'Brien is working on it."
"Understood." he replied. "I'm on my way. Sisko out."
Sisko was suddenly glad that he'd been too tired to undress before collapsing onto his bed an hour earlier; he was still wearing his uniform.
He turned away from the panel and started into the corridor, then stopped suddenly as he remembered Jake. Turning in alarm, he ran back into the quarters that he shared with his son.
"Jake!" he yelled as he ran into the adjacent bedroom. His son was on the floor with one hand clutching the side of his head. He looked disoriented and confused.
"Are you all right, Jake?" Sisko asked, grabbing Jake's hand so that he could see his face more clearly.
To Sisko's relief, Jake appeared uninjured.
"What's going on, dad?" Jake asked.
"I'm not sure, Jake," Sisko replied. "I'm going to ops. Just wait here." He moved to stand, but paused and turned to face Jake again.
"If I give the evacuation order, I want you to get off the station, all right?" Sisko held his index finger in front of Jake's face for emphasis.
Jake nodded, mumbling "all right" as he staggered to his feet.
"Don't forget!" Sisko yelled as he ran out of their quarters.
"I won't!" Jake called back groggily.
The station groaned and shook violently as Sisko stumbled into the corridor. Caught off guard, he lost his balance and fell backwards. His fall was unintentionally interrupted by one of his bridge officers, Commander Worf, and they both tumbled to the ground.
"Excuse me, sir," Worf said awkwardly. He righted himself and helped Sisko to his feet.
Sisko realized, with surprise, that Worf was embarrassed. His face was contorted into the Klingon equivalent of a blush, with both eyes widened and mouth frozen in a straight line.
Trying desperately not to be amused by the expression on Worf's face, Sisko tersely dismissed the incident and started down the corridor. Swallowing his discomfort, Worf followed him a moment later.
Only a few seconds had passed before Worf's commbadge let out a beep. Tapping his own chest reflexively, Sisko realized that his badge was still somewhere in his quarters.
"Kira to Worf. Where are you, commander?"
Worf tapped his commbadge with one smooth motion. "This is Worf. I was..." He took a sidelong glance at Sisko. "...detained."
"Are you near captain Sisko's quarters? The computer insists he hasn't left them."
"I'm here, Major," Sisko interjected, trying not to sound out of breath.
"Oh, Captain - I think you should know..."
"Yes, Major?" Sisko asked, instinctively addressing Worf's chest.
There was an awkward pause. "...Kai Winn is up here."
Sisko muttered something under his breath.
"Captain?" Kira asked, frowning.
"Understood, Major," Sisko snapped. Then, regretting his harsh tone, he added quietly: "We'll be there shortly."
"We are entering the turbolift," said Worf, tapping his commbadge at a signal from Sisko. "Worf out."
Ops was in chaos. Smoke from several extinguished fires clouded the room, and two crewmen were working frantically to quench an active blaze at one of the auxiliary science stations.
Waving smoke away from his face, Sisko scanned the room for Major Kira, and located her just as another pulse slammed into the station. To his dismay, she wasn't alone; Kai Winn was with her, and the two were arguing heatedly. Sisko grabbed a handrail for support and made his way over to them.
"Kai Winn," Sisko interrupted, sensing that Kira's short fuse was about to burn down. "We will keep you informed on this situation as it develops, but as Starfleet Captain and Emissary of the Bajoran people, I must ask that you leave command and allow us to do our jobs."
The Kai would not allow herself to be brushed aside so easily.
"Emissary, though I do not doubt the abilities of your unquestionably competent crew, I must insist that I be a part of this situation. I remind you that, although you hold a position of great importance to my religion, you are not Bajoran. As Kai of the Bajoran people, I feel that I must be involved in the crises that occur on Terok Nor."
"Let me remind you, Kai Winn," Sisko returned forcefully, "that this crisis is rapidly escalating. I can't spare the time for-" he gestured helplessly. "For this right now." She tried to break in and interrupt him, but he raised his voice slightly and continued. "Now if you will excuse me, Kai, I have considerably more important things to attend to."
"Emissary, I-"
"Oh, and, Kai Winn? 'Terok Nor' is a Federation station, now. It would do well towards your negotiations if you made it clear that you weren't confusing us with the Cardassians."
Kai Winn bristled, and looked as though she was about to speak, but a pulse slammed into the station before she had the chance. The impact forced her into the guardrail, and knocked the wind out of her temporarily. Sisko took the opportunity to escape to the science station where Jadzia was studying her console's readouts grimly.
"Old Man, what's happening?"
The tall, female trill turned her chair slightly to face Sisko. "The pulses are definitely being generated within the wormhole." She paused. "My only question is 'What's causing them?'"
"Unfortunately, Dax..." Sisko leaned over the console to see the image on her display more clearly. "I was going to ask you the same thing."
After pausing to study the read-outs, he turned back to her. "What's our status?"
"Shields are at 96 percent," she replied. "We're not in any immediate danger, but if the severity of the waves increases by a sufficient margin, this could become a dangerous situation very quickly."
Sisko tapped his chest where his commbadge should have been, forgetting that it was still somewhere in his quarters. Regrouping, he touched a panel on Dax's console. "Bridge to Engineering. What's happening, chief?"
After a few seconds, O'Brien's reply came through. "I have a theory, captain."
Sisko cast a glance at Dax. "Let's hear it."
"Well, sir..." O'Brien continued. "Normally, distortions like these would be caused by a warp detonation of some sort. A starship, or even an ejected core, could cause a wave like this if it detonated in our vicinity..."
"Go on," Sisko said.
"But that's not the case here," O'Brien continued, "because, if it were, there would be no explanation for the fact that the pulses are repeating, and increasing in speed and violence."
"Wait, chief," Sisko interrupted. "You mean that these things are getting stronger?"
Dax looked up from her console. "He's right, Benjamin," she said gravely, not giving O'Brien a chance to reply. "There's no question that they're increasing in strength."
"How much stronger will they get?" Sisko asked.
She sighed. "There's no way to be certain."
Sisko didn't reply; he was obviously turning something over in his mind.
"So there's no doubt," he asked finally, "that the waves will continue to increase in speed and power?"
Dax shook her head solemnly, then added a more formal "no, sir" as an afterthought.
Sisko thought for a moment. Then, he nodded to himself slightly and spoke.
"Evacuate the station."
Dax seemed surprised, but said nothing. Major Kira, however, was more than willing to argue with Sisko's decision.
"Captain, are you sure that's wise?" she asked.
Sisko didn't respond to her directly, but continued detailing the evacuation. It was made clear to everyone - with the obvious exception of Major Kira - that the decision had been made.
"Dax, inform the captains of all docked vessels of this situation. None of them are to be allowed to leave the station until they have a full compliment of passengers. Is that clear?"
"Perfectly, sir," Jadzia affirmed.
"Captain," Major Kira interjected. "Most of those vessels are trading ships, and therefore not under Federation control. If we order them to remain in the path of possible danger, they could turn on us very quickly."
"I'm aware of that, Major, but it's our obligation to remove as many civilians from this station as possible if there's even a chance of its destruction."
"Sir?" Chief O'Brien was still on the comm.
"What is it, Chief?" asked Sisko.
"As I was saying, sir, the pulses are virtually identical to warp detonations..."
"I remember, O'Brien."
"Well, sir, I think that a warp detonation inside the wormhole could have caused something like this. The chances of a warp pulse causing such a reaction are slim, but I believe it would be possible if the blast occurred at exactly the right time and place. The wormhole could have acted as an amplifier for the pulse, repeating it and increasing its power.
Sisko didn't get the chance to comment; he had barely opened his mouth when a graviton pulse slammed into DS9.
The floor began to shake violently as it was caught in the grip of the wave. Everyone in ops reflexively grabbed the nearest object, anchored or otherwise. (One of Kai Winn's aides found himself in the awkward role of guardrail when she started to fall forward and clung to the poor man for support.)
After a few more seconds, the wave passed.
"Please continue, Mr. O'Brien," Sisko said, trying to shake off the dizziness.
"The wormhole's axis has been bent, captain," O'Brien continued. "Each time that it makes a revolution, we experience a number of distortions along the pattern of the anomaly."
Sisko didn't respond, so O'Brien used an analogy to clarify the explanation.
"Essentially, sir, the wormhole has... 'hiccups'."
Dax and Sisko turned to look at each another, each wondering if they were the only one who hadn't understood the reference. As Sisko opened his mouth to ask, the turbolift slid into place and they heard Bashir's questioning voice.
"What's going on up here? Are we under attack?"
Sisko and Dax ignored him, both speaking into the comms unit simultaneously.
"Hiccups?"
Odo emerged onto the maelstrom of activity and noise that was the Promenade. In the chaos, no one seemed to notice his emergence from the safety of the security office. Descending onto the main deck, he quickly blended into the swirling mass of aliens.
Increasing his height by a few inches to see above the crowd, Odo surveyed the chaotic Promenade. Farther down the thoroughfare, Odo could see Quark desperately trying to coerce customers back into his restaurant/casino.
To Odo's delight, he didn't appear to be having much luck.
Odo walked down the Promenade toward Quark's bar, easily slipping between the confused masses of people. In the entrance to the restaurant, Quark was frantically blocking Morn's exit and trying to convince him to go back to his customary position at the end of the bar.
"How's business, Quark?" Odo asked, making less than an honest effort to conceal his sarcasm.
"There you are!" For a moment Quark almost seemed relieved to see him. "What is going on up there, Odo? My customers are scared, and a scared customer does not eat, drink, gamble, or otherwise spend money. I am losing business, Odo."
"Right now I know as much about this situation as you do, Quark," Odo said as he watched Morn vanish into the crowd. "I'm going to ops. I suggest that you tie anything valuable down. If it doesn't get broken in this chaos, then the," Odo snickered, "fear-crazed looters will try their luck." The Changeling smirked inwardly as Quark's eyes widened with panic. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to ops."
Turning briskly so that Quark couldn't see his victorious grin, Odo began walking back up the Promenade. He'd only gone a few feet when the blaring alert klaxons muted, to be replaced by Sisko's voice.
"Your attention, please; this is the captain. I have ordered a mandatory evacuation of Deep Space Nine. All non-Federation personnel are to proceed to the nearest docked vessel. The commanders of all docked vessels have received orders to transport you off the station. Please do not panic; this is merely a precaution."
There was silence for a few seconds, then a voice somewhere let out a yell. Three seconds later, the floor of the Promenade seemed to be alive with a twisting mass of people, all trying to crowd into the corridors that led to the docking ring.
"Well, Quark..." Odo said - almost gleefully - as he surveyed the chaotic scene. "It looks like no one's going to be eating in your restaurant today."
The Ferengi looked sick.
"My store of Romulan Ale..." Quark muttered to himself, then turned and almost ran back into his bar.
"Romulan Ale, Quark?" Odo taunted as the Ferengi scuttled away. "I'm obliged to investigate that statement."
Quark didn't reply, but Odo saw him stumble slightly, then continue on at an even faster pace.
Grinning smugly, Odo continued on his way to Ops.
"...It's a diaphragmatic contraction," O'Brien was saying. "They used to call them 'hiccups,' sir."
"As interesting as that is, Mr. O'Brien, I believe that we were discussing something of considerably greater importance?"
"Uh... Yes, sir." O'Brien returned.
He paused for a moment, then began.
"Based on the data we've collected, I believe that a warp detonation on our end of the wormhole might counteract the distortions we're experiencing." O'Brien paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. "If we can detonate a runabout directly inside the mouth of the wormhole, it should reset the inversion and return the wormhole to its normal state."
"Isn't that a bit..." Sisko paused, searching for the right word. "Simplistic?"
"It's the best guess I have at this point, sir. I can't give you anything better without a little more time, which is-"
"Which is something we don't have," Sisko finished. "Launch a shuttle."
"Nog! Hey, Nog!" Jake called.
"Jake?" the Ferengi yelled back, trying to get around a crowd of Tellarites. "Are you leaving, too?"
"Yeah..." Jake returned, making his way over to Nog. "How about you?"
"My PADD says that there's a Bolian ship preparing to leave..." Nog paused to study his surroundings. "...that way." He pointed. "That's where I was going."
"I think I'll stick with you," Jake replied. "You're the first person I've seen that I know."
"Okay," Nog replied. "We'd better get going."
The two started down the Promenade, then turned off into a corridor and began moving through the station towards the Bolian ship.
It wasn't easy to keep up a brisk pace; the corridors were crowded with frightened clumps of people. They all seemed confused and unsure of where they should be going.
"Jake?" Nog asked, suddenly, as they picked their way through the milling crowds. "Why are you leaving?"
"What do you mean?" Jake called back.
"Well, I mean... You're the captain's son... Aren't you supposed to stay on the shrinking ship with him?"
Jake raised an eyebrow. "It's 'sinking ship', Nog. 'Sinking'."
The conversation was interrupted when the two split away from each other to give some Klingons a wide berth.
Jake didn't answer Nog's question until a few seconds later when they could walk side-by-side again. He had to raise his voice; the noise of the crowd was becoming more agitated.
"Of course I'm not supposed to stay on the 'sinking ship'," he began. "My dad's told me a thousand times that I'm supposed to evacuate, just like everybody else, when there's an emergency. He reminds me all the time, like he thinks I'm going to forget... I don't think I could if I tried."
Nog laughed.
"What about your dad and uncle, Nog?" Jake asked suddenly. "Where are they?"
Nog's expression turned to a mix of annoyance and worry.
"Uncle Quark won't leave his bar, and my father won't leave Uncle Quark..." Nog sighed. "So they told me to go ahead and board a ship."
"Oh," Jake said softly.
The two ran in silence for a moment.
"I wouldn't worry about it, Nog," Jake volunteered. "I don't think anything's going to happen to DS9."
Nog nodded, but looked unconvinced.
After a few seconds Jake added. "And, if I know anything about your uncle, he's got a way to get off the station in a hurry if he has to."
Sisko watched the strangely-curved runabout rise into space on his monitor. It was a new addition to DS9's shuttle inventory, sent to replace a destroyed predecessor. Now it seemed that the short life of the Esvaltes would end violently.
"Esvaltes is free of the docking ring, Captain," Dax said, spinning her chair to face him.
"Transfer her to my control," ordered Sisko. "Mr. Worf, I'm bringing Esvaltes to the inner edge of our shields. Bring them down on my command, then reactivate them as soon as the Esvaltes is clear."
"Aye, sir," Worf replied in his usual deep monotone. "Preparing to drop shields."
They only had to wait a few seconds for the next wave to hit.
Even though Sisko had been waiting for it to happen, he still wasn't fully prepared for the ferocity with which the wave would strike. The impact was far stronger than any before it; Deep Space Nine shot upward as if she had been rammed from below, then slowly regained her equilibrium.
Alarmed by the strength of the wave, Sisko didn't waste any time.
"Now, Worf!" he exclaimed.
Worf, quite literally, punched his console. "Shields are down!" he roared.
Sisko gunned the runabout's engines, and it blasted across the expanse that separated Deep Space Nine from the wormhole.
Not bothering to watch its progress, Sisko whirled to face Dax. "What the hell just happened?!"
"Structural integrity is at 68 percent!" she shouted. "Something's wrong, Benjamin..."
He started towards her.
"...The wormhole's destabilizing!"
No one spoke. Their eyes were fixed on the twisting image of the wormhole. It seemed to breathe as if alive, expanding and contracting in awing, but deadly, beauty.
Then, the shining image exploded.
The station heaved upward sharply before rebounding and plunging downward. As the floor dropped out from under them, Sisko and the others were suspended in mid-air for a fraction of a second. Then, the gravity returned and they all dropped to the floor.
Sisko jumped to his feet, then whirled to face the viewscreen. "Where's Esvaltes?!" He looked down at his console in alarm. "She's off my viewer.
"I have her!" exclaimed Kira from behind him. "28 degrees, Grid 035... She's listing; heavily damaged."
An explosion caused Sisko to snap his head around, and he saw that Jadzia's console had burned out, exploding with sparks and flame. She lay on the floor beside it with blood trickling down her arm.
"Why do these consoles always do that!?" he cursed. "Bashir!"
The doctor was already on his way to Jadzia's side.
"Major..." Sisko paused for a moment, sighing deeply. "How badly was Esvaltes damaged?"
"She's not responding... Weapons; off-line, shields; off-line, sensors; off-line, main impulse drive-" She paused, then turned towards him gravely. "...off-line."
"Can we launch another shuttle?" asked Worf.
"Not unless you want to blow open the hanger doors," Kira answered. "I've lost remote control of that section of the docking ring."
"We may not have to go that far..." Sisko mused. "Do you still have maneuvering thrusters and warp drive?"
Kira looked down at her console for a moment. "Yes, sir, but-"
"We're going to play a game of pool, Major."
"Sir?"
The spatial vacuum outside the station's hull was rapidly filling. Ships of all sizes were swarming away from the station like rats from a sinking ship, desperately trying to outrun the waves of force that chased behind them. But, like an undertow in rising waters, the waves that lapped at the escaping ships strove to pull them back towards the swirling vortex.
Because of the tremendous interference caused by the graviton pulses, the vessels escaping from Deep Space Nine had discovered it was impossible to generate a stable warp field. They were thus required to limp away from the station at sub-light speed until they reached a distance at which they could safely enter warp.
Packed into the cargo hold of one of the smallest of these ships - along with some hundred other refugees - were Jake and Nog.
Having found shelter between two large crates of some unknown merchandise, the two friends rode out the vicious shakings that plagued the ship's flight. They clung to the locking bars desperately as pulse after pulse pummeled the small transport, and they treasured their shelter as they saw other, less fortunate, souls being thrown to and fro across the bay.
Finally, the shaking lessened.
Jake sighed, and loosened his grip on the locking bar.
"Nog?" he asked, turning to his friend. "You all right?"
The Ferengi was still gripping the locking bar with all his might, and his eyes were clamped shut, but he did manage to mumble "I'm all right" in reply.
"I think," he added after a moment.
Believing they were out of danger, Jake released his grip on the locking bar entirely. He walked out of their "shelter" and into the cargo bay where the beaten and battered masses were just beginning to pick themselves up off of the floor of the cargo bay.
It was an action he would later regret.
Without a hint of warning, the shuttle jerked downward. There was a split-second delay before Jake realized that his feet were no longer on the floor. Then, he was thrown into the shuttle's viewport, and collapsed to the floor.
Groaning, he slowly opened his eyes. Blinking away the haze that surrounded his vision, he found himself facing the wormhole through the open viewport.
"What... is happening...?" he breathed.
The glistening image was in chaos.
"So you're just going to point her in the right direction and press 'go'?" Bashir asked, running a tricorder over Jadzia's arm.
"It's not that simple, Julian," Dax answered, apparently not realizing that the question was directed at Sisko. "We're going to... to..." She was struggling to keep her eyes open. "...We're going to use the maneuvering thrusters to... unh..." Her eyes flitted shut and she trailed off.
"How is she, Bashir?" Sisko asked, watching her head slump forward.
"She has a mild concussion, and her arm is broken..." he returned, staring intently at the tiny screen built into the tricorder. "She should be fine, but -" he turned to Sisko. "- She should be in sickbay."
"I'm sorry, doctor," Kira said. "Site-to-site transporters are off-line. You'll have to do what you can here."
"How long until the next wave?" Sisko asked, turning to face Kira.
"No way to tell," she replied. "After its initial destabilization wave, it stopped emitting graviton pulses."
"O'Brien?" Sisko asked, pressing the comm. "What's going on? Why did the waves stop?"
There was no answer for a few seconds. Finally, Sisko heard the engineer's voice.
"I'm not certain, sir..." O'Brien began, gravely. "But I think that the wormhole has destabilized its Gamma Quadrant opening."
Sisko frowned. "What does that mean?" he asked.
"It means," O'Brien replied, "that the other end of the wormhole might not be in the Gamma Quadrant any more. One of its openings might now be unanchored."
"Like the Barzan wormhole?" Sisko asked, for clarification.
"Yes, exactly." There was a short pause. "Sir, the other end of the wormhole is no longer stable, and, in about ten minutes, this end is going to destabilize, too."
After a deep sigh, O'Brien finished. "The wormhole is useless, sir, and when it destabilizes, it's going to emit a pulse that will destroy the station, the escape vessels, and anything else within a couple of light years."
No one spoke. Time seemed to stop as the stunned quiet permeated Ops for that one surreal moment in time. Then, after a lifetime, the moment passed.
Finally, Sisko spoke.
"So, what are our options, Mr. O'Brien?" he asked.
"I think we should go ahead with our first plan; destroy a shuttle in the mouth of the wormhole."
"So that would stabilize it?" Sisko asked with a glint of hope.
"No, sir." O'Brien replied. "The best we can hope for is to seal the wormhole; to send it into subspace permanently."
"What about interference from the wormhole? Will we be able to use the warp drive without causing the shuttle to self-destruct?"
"Using the warp drive will destroy the shuttle, but not right away. We'll only need warp speed for an instant."
Sisko didn't respond for a few seconds, so Kira took the opportunity to raise a concern of her own.
"What about the Prophets? What happens to them if we destroy the Celestial-" she paused, realizing that she was lapsing into the religious terms of her people. "...the wormhole, sir."
"I don't know, Major!" Sisko snapped, once again speaking more harshly than he'd intended. "...But there's nothing we can do."
"Sir?" Worf asked, interrupting as politely as he could. "The Esvaltes, sir."
Sisko nodded. "All right, Mr. Worf," he said, moving over to a console. "Dr. Bashir was essentially correct; we're just going to use the Esvaltes' maneuvering thrusters to point her towards the wormhole, then gun her warp engines and hope that she makes it inside."
He tapped his console a few times. "Major?"
"Aye, sir," she replied, with a hint of hesitation. "Plotting a course."
"Emissary..." Kai Winn said, suddenly.
Sisko turned. He had almost forgotten that she was there.
"Emissary," she continued. "I do not think you realize what you are asking Kira Nerys to do."
"With all due respect, Kai Winn," Kira replied, breaching protocol by speaking out of turn, "I will follow my orders." She turned to face Sisko. "Course set, sir."
Kai Winn looked at Kira disdainfully. "You should have been born to a human, Nerys."
Kai Winn turned and walked past Kira. Ignoring the enraged expression on her face, she closed the distance that separated her from Sisko.
"Emissary..." she began, quietly. "You must not destroy the Celestial Temple."
Sisko replied with the same quiet forcefulness. "We don't have a choice, Kai Winn."
"Emissary!" she exclaimed. "Even if what you're suggesting didn't threaten an end to our religion, the destruction of the wormhole would still be the cause of countless political repercussions within Bajor and your own Federation!"
Sisko matched her tone and volume. "And doing nothing would result in the destruction of this station! I will not - "
Sensing that the situation was out of hand, Sisko bit his tongue.
"Kai Winn..." he began, struggling to keep his voice under control. "I am the commander of this station and, as such, my priorities are clear. This is the only way to save the countless civilians, many of whom are Bajorans, who will die if this end of the wormhole destabilizes."
"You've already evacuated most of the station, commander! The civilians are already gone!"
"The escape vessels can't use warp drive, Kai Winn!" Sisko yelled angrily. "They'll never get far enough on impulse power; they'll all die too!"
She looked at him bitterly for a moment, trying to think of some way to stall him.
"The Prophets!" she exclaimed victoriously. "Yes! The Prophets would not allow the destruction of the Celestial Temple; we must trust them."
"I will not place the fate of this station on the shoulders of your Gods, Kai Winn!"
Sisko immediately realized his mistake.
As he watched a malignant look of victory spread across the Kai's face, he knew that she realized it as well.
"Our Gods... Emissary?" she whispered, softly taunting him.
The realization that she'd trapped him made Sisko all the more angry.
"No, Kai Winn! Not 'Emissary'! I am 'Benjamin Sisko', the commander of this station, and that is how you will regard me!"
Kai Winn said nothing. She simply glared at Sisko, her breathing uneven and labored.
"Very well, Commander." came her soft - but acidic - reply.
"All right," Sisko said, breathing heavily as well. "Mr. Worf, prepare to activate the runabout's warp drive."
He turned back to the Kai.
"I hope that I won't be forced to have you removed from the bridge."
"No, Emissary..." she replied, after a long moment of hesitation. "You will not." Then, she turned away from him and clasped her hands together as if in prayer.
Sisko didn't doubt, for a moment, that she was.
"Captain!" Kira yelled, suddenly. "The wormhole's energy output is increasing!"
"Is it destabilizing?" he called back, running over to her console. On the display, many colored patterns and shapes were fluctuating wildly. Sisko wished that Dax were there to tell him exactly what they meant, but he could get the general idea on his own.
"All right," he said, joining Worf at the tactical console. "Mr. Worf, charge the Esvaltes' nacelles, and re-check her heading. As I understand it, she has to detonate precisely inside the mouth of the wormhole, or we'll just make the problem worse."
"Captain!" Kira shouted. "There's an energy build-up! I think something's happening!"
Sisko rushed back to her console.
"Another wave is forming!" yelled Worf.
"Mr. Worf!" Sisko shouted. "Activate the Esvaltes' warp drive! Send her into the wormhole!"
Worf slammed his index finger into the tactical console, and Sisko turned full around to look at the wormhole on the main viewer.
It was changing; the wormhole was beginning to warp into an oblong shape. It was a burning, twisting, writhing thing, and tendrils of energy snaked about it and licked at the dark space and stars, reaching outward towards what they could not touch.
And then it all stopped. Instantly. The spinning tendrils were gone, and in their place there was only a pulsing, golden-white light that swelled outward into space.
It was in that instant, with the spinning maelstrom of light dancing in his memory, that Sisko found himself plunged into complete darkness.
Then, as it seemed had happened so many times before, the floor of Ops pitched downward, and Sisko felt only air supporting him. For a split second, he felt like he was hanging, motionless, in the void. Then, he hit something cold and hard, and felt himself alone in the quiet dark.
Crumpled against the viewport, bruised and disoriented, Jake Sisko found himself to be hypnotized by the swirling insanity of the wormhole. He couldn't take his eyes away from it; it was a presence that he could not ignore, and he was captivated by its lethal beauty.
It was, he noted absently, a strangely beautiful thing to fear.
Suddenly, he noticed something hanging in space next to the spinning ball of fire. Was there? Yes, there was; he could see it, now...
Just visible outside the ring of light was a small shuttle - perhaps a runabout - that seemed to be hovering, lifelessly, in space.
As Jake watched, its warp nacelles began to glow. The blue light slowly increased until Jake could easily see the small vessel against the backdrop of stars.
It was preparing to go to warp.
Then, there was a tiny flash of light and - alone in space, far from the chaos of the wormhole - the shuttle exploded.
Jake didn't have time to ponder the possible significance of its destruction, for, an instant later, the wormhole erupted into a fury of swirling light. Tendrils of energy snaked around it, and it seemed to be growing in arrhythmic bursts like a naked heart beating its death rhythm.
And then it all stopped. The tendrils of light disappeared, and, in their place, there was only light. It was a bright, golden light that grew in intensity and rolled outward into space like a tidal wave of pure energy.
Jake closed his eyes and braced himself.
The wave rolled on.
Benjamin Sisko - for a few brief seconds - thought he was in Hell.
Indeed, Ops looked like such a nightmare when he finally awakened to it.
The red, emergency lights had been activated, and smoke from burned-out equipment filled the room. The combined effects of the smoke and the eerie, red glow gave a rather unsettling, gothic feel to the environment.
Within the haze, Sisko perceived shadowed forms; shapes that moved like wraiths and spoke in hushed, disembodied voices. As the mental fog began to lift, Sisko realized that the shadowed forms were actually his crew.
Disoriented, he tried to raise himself to a standing position.
"Are you all right, captain?"
The deep voice was Worf's.
Sisko turned his head to see the Klingon crouched on the floor next to Bashir and the still-unconscious Jadzia.
He limped over to them.
"Is she all right?" he asked.
"I think so," Bashir replied. "The broken arm is nothing to worry about, but her concussion is fairly serious... I'd like to get her to sickbay as soon as possible."
The primary lighting hummed on without warning. Not expecting the sudden brightness, Sisko squinted and covered his eyes.
"We have power back!" yelled Kira from the engineering console.
"Good work!" Sisko called back, unsteadily to his feet. "Can you give me a reading on the wormhole?"
"Just a moment, sir," Kira replied. "Bringing sensors online..." She tapped at her console furiously. "Got it! ...activating the viewscreen."
At first, Sisko thought the viewscreen wasn't working. Then, points of light began to appear on it, and Sisko realized that he was gazing at a star field - an empty one. Where the wormhole had been, there was nothing but an endless void.
He turned back to her.
"Did it work? ... Did we seal the wormhole in subspace?"
She tapped at her console, stared intently at it for a few seconds, tapped it a few more times, then looked back up at him.
"I'm sorry, captain." She said, holding her hands up helplessly. "I'm having trouble with the sensors... Until I reactivate a few major systems, I can't give you anything more than that."
He nodded, then turned back to Worf.
"Any reports from the rest of the station?"
"No, sir." Worf replied. "The internal comms are down."
"How about the escape vessels? Any word from them yet?"
Ship-to-ship comms are also off-line."
Sisko nodded, sighing.
"All right... Tell me as soon as they're working, again."
"Yes, sir."
Worf turned rigidly and walked away. Sisko's eyes followed him for a moment, but his gaze was diverted when he saw Kai Winn.
She was leaning against the guardrail like an old woman, staring despairingly into the empty space on the viewscreen. She looked very old and very tired, and her eyes were hollow with defeat. Sisko realized, with quiet surprise, that he was feeling sympathy towards her.
Then, he realized what had caused her to fight with such fire. It hadn't occurred to him until that very moment that she had been fighting for nothing less than her religion.
And she had lost.
Sisko had to force himself to lock eyes with her.
That's when he noticed the blood on her face; there was a streak of it, from her left temple to her chin. It looked like some kind of primitive warrior's battle paint.
But the Kai either didn't notice, or didn't care. Her cold stare remained fixed on him. Sisko could not ever recall having seen such an enraged, despairing, murderous look as hers was in that instant. And, as he became suddenly aware that he - no less than the Emissary of her religion - had struck down her gods, he found it hard to return her hatred.
They remained like that for a few seconds; just staring at each other wordlessly.
Finally, disturbed by her gaze, Sisko turned away.
To his surprise, he found himself facing Chief O'Brien.
"O'Brien." he said, in surprise. "How did you get up here so fast?"
O'Brien held up a PADD. "I thought you might want to see this."
"What is it?" asked Kira, who had walked up behind Sisko unnoticed.
"Data on the wormhole," O'Brien said, moving over to the nearest console and plugging the PADD into it. "According to this, the Esvaltes never got anywhere near the wormhole before it destabilized."
The display hummed softly as it uploaded the data. Then, a three-dimensional image of the wormhole appeared on the screen, with a small dot representing the Esvaltes in the foreground. Off to the left, a tiny model of DS9 was visible.
"O'Brien..." Sisko began. "I saw Worf activate the Esvaltes' warp drive before the pulse. How could it have detonated so far away from the mouth of the wormhole?"
"At the time, we didn't know that interference from the wormhole had made warp drive completely inoperable. All you did was blow the runabout apart."
O'Brien touched the tiny dot on the viewscreen with his finger, and the image enlarged.
"According to our sensor logs," he said. "Something like this would have happened."
He gestured toward the viewscreen. On the display, the runabout was rotating to face the mouth of the wormhole. A moment later, its nacelles began to glow brightly as it charged for warp. Then, there was a bright flash and the shuttle crumpled inside its own warp field.
The screen went dark.
"So... What does that mean?" Kira asked, hesitantly. "If our plan failed, why aren't we registering any energy run-off from the wormhole?"
"We're receiving a transmission!" shouted an ensign.
Kira turned.
"From where?"
"The transmission is coded from 'NCC-8916 B'."
"Put it through," Sisko said, apparently recognizing the registry number.
The disturbingly empty star field on the viewscreen was replaced by the image of a bearded man. Behind him was the bridge of a Galaxy-class starship.
"DS9, this is Captain James Campbell of the U.S.S. Orion. Please respond."
Sisko gestured to Kira, instructing her to put him through to the Orion.
"We're receiving you, Jim," he said.
"Hello, Benjamin," Campbell returned, indicating that the two captains knew each other. "Has anything ... strange ... happened over there?"
"Actually, we have been having some problems..." Sisko began, understating their situation severely. There was a pause before, with a curious tone in his voice, he asked, "Do you mind if I ask where you are?"
"We're holding position outside the wormhole's Gamma Quadrant opening. We hailed you because the wormhole disappeared from our sensors a few minutes ago, and we wondered whether you'd registered anything unusual."
"Wait..." Sisko said, holding up his hand. "You're in the Gamma Quadrant? ... And you're sending this signal through the wormhole?"
"That's right," he replied. Then, in a questioning tone: "It reappeared a few minutes after it vanished, and now it seems to be behaving normally."
After a moment, he added, "Do you mind if I ask why that's such a surprise to you?"
"That's something of a long story, captain." Sisko replied. "Do you mind if I take a few moments to consult with my staff?"
"Not at all. Orion out."
The star field returned to the viewscreen.
Sisko walked back over to O'Brien.
"Chief?" he asked.
O'Brien looked frustrated. He was frowning at the readings on the display.
"I don't understand, sir... but he's right. The wormhole has returned to normal."
He touched the console, and the spiking readings that they'd gathered from the wormhole a few minutes earlier appeared on it.
"Here, it's on the verge of a complete destabilization..."
He tapped the console again, and a normal-looking image of the wormhole replaced the previous one.
"... and here, it looks like nothing was ever wrong."
He pressed a button and the screen went dark. Turning to Sisko, he continued.
"In between these two readings, there was a several-second sensor gap, (that would've been when the last pulse hit us, sir,) and I can only assume that something happened to stabilize the wormhole during that period."
"And you're sure that the runabout we detonated had nothing to do with it?"
"Almost positive, sir" he replied.
"Then again," he added, shrugging, "I have no idea what it was that did cause the wormhole to stabilize, so... Anything's within the realm of possibility, I suppose."
Sisko nodded, then walked back to the center of ops.
"Put me through to the Orion, Major." he ordered.
"Aye, sir" Kira responded.
Captain Campbell appeared on the viewscreen.
"Oh, Benjamin..." he began, turning his chair to face Sisko. "My science officer would like to take some readings from your side, and she assures me that traveling through the wormhole is safe at this point. Do you have any objections to our joining you?"
"Actually, we would welcome the assistance," Sisko replied. "We have a lot of disabled escape vessels in the vicinity, and we could use some help collecting them."
Campbell nodded.
"Any luck figuring out what happened?"
"None so far." Sisko replied. "The wormhole appears to have been acted upon by an outside force of some sort. We'll transfer the data to you when you get here."
"See you in a few minutes, Ben." Campbell returned. "Orion out."
The captain's image vanished, and was once again replaced by the empty star field.
"O'Brien," Sisko said, turning. "Fix our sensors on the wormhole, and keep scanning. Make sure that nothing unexpected happens while the Orion is coming through."
"Aye, sir." O'Brien replied.
Sisko slowly made his way to the back of ops, and leaned against the guardrail with a sigh.
He was tired. Now that the crisis - and the accompanying rush of adrenaline - had passed, his lack of sleep was starting to register to both his body and his mind.
"The Orion is coming through the opening," said O'Brien.
Sisko looked up at the viewscreen just as the wormhole appeared, spinning and glistening in space. Sisko had almost forgotten what it looked like when it was stable; a pool of light swirling quietly in space, and looking welcoming and peaceful after its prior fury.
It really is beautiful, he thought.
Sisko turned to his left and saw Kai Winn raising her hands above her head in an offering of prayer to the Prophets. Following the religious customs of her people, she believed that it was the Prophets who had intervened to save them.
Looking at the slowly spinning vortex, Sisko could almost believe that she was right. Maybe she is... he thought to himself as he watched the Orion slowly emerge from the wormhole's cavernous mouth. Perhaps the Prophets are the "outside force" that intervened.
Sisko pushed himself away from the guardrail. There was work to be done, and it would be at least another hour before he could turn command back over to the night shift and go to bed.
Sisko's movement drew Kai Winn's attention away from her prayer, and he saw her glimpse at him briefly.
He realized that this incident was going to change the way that she regarded him. She had never truly viewed him as the Prophets' Emissary, but he doubted that she would ever see him as anything more than a Starfleet captain now. How could she? He was supposed to be The Prophets' representative, and yet he had been willing to destroy the Celestial Temple itself.
Of course! They didn't want us to seal the wormhole in subspace!
The thought suddenly came to him.
Yes! That's why they didn't do anything for so long; they didn't find it necessary to take action until they were threatened!
Sisko shook his head in disbelief.
"You only did it for yourselves, didn't you?" he mouthed quietly at the viewscreen.
His only reply was the wormhole winking shut.
Sisko sighed heavily.
"Well, thank you just the same," he mouthed.
There was no reply this time; the wormhole was gone.
But he was tired of looking at it, anyway.
It was nice to see the stars.