The enormous space station know as Deep Space Nine hung silently in space, overlooking the beautiful alien world of Bajor. In its long history, the station had been a symbol of the Bajors oppression, its new freedoms, its enemies and its allies. A perfect slice of galactic society as it stood in the 24th century. Like all focus points of great historical events, it was inevitable that it would eventually attract travellers, curious of its significance in the galaxy...

Inside the promenade of the station, Quark stood over his bar. He carefully picked through a handful of Latinum strips, lifting each one up, inspecting it, and dropping it back into the pile. Satisfied that each one was indeed a genuine strip, he gathered them into his hand, turned, and locked them away in a small vault. Humming happily, he rubbed his hands together with a satisfied, toothy grin.

There was nothing better than a good days profit!

Turning back to close up for the night, he shrieked and fell back clumsily.

Sitting at the bar stool behind him was a tall man. With the large sensitive ears that all Ferrengi possessed, he should have heard someone entering, but somehow this...human?...had appeared from nowhere.

"Hello there!" the man beamed with a large, friendly smile.

Quark snorted angrily and pulled himself up. Dusting himself off he looked at the human and for the first time realised just how oddly he was dressed. Most humans wore the Starfleet uniform, or if they were off worlders, perhaps a simple federation civilians outfit. Not this man! He sported a mop of curly hair, a broad brimmed hat, and a long multi coloured scarf. If he was here to play one of Bashir and O'Brians ridiculous games he could jump out of an airlock.

"If your here to use the holosuite its open at the hours we advertise' he grunted, pointing at the door. Much to his annoyance, the strange man just looked to the door then back to him, smiling again.

'Holo technology? ...Fascinating! No, not my thing though...'

Quark was becoming very annoyed. This man didn't seem like the type to carry Latinum much less spend it. Quark made a point of avoiding those kind of people.

'Look, unless you're going to buy a drink, would you kindly GET OUT. I'm closing for the night!'

'Ah' the man beamed, his eyes seeming to wander off into some distant trance. Leaning in close he practically whispered 'In that case, I'll have a glass of Romulan Ale!'

Quark snickered, turned and retrieved a glass of the Ale he had shipped in the previous week. This human was either drunk or mad! A glass of Romulan Ale could knock a Terren out in a single sip. At least then he could have Odo drag him away for being drunk and disorderly! He poured out the smallest glass he could manage and placed it front of the man, whose eyes seemed to have wandered off again.

After a few second, he coughed impatiently and held out his hand. The human snapped back.

Oh yes...payment! Tell me, what year are we in?'

Quarks ears flushed angrily.

'2375 by Earth Calendar, now pay up or I'll have you thrown out!' he snarled, gritting his pointy teeth. The man didn't seem to notice his annoyed tone and reached into one of the pockets of the long coat he wore.

'2375...fascinating year...Latinum is the galactic currency around this time isn't it?' He said, half questioning half rambling. He pulled out his hand and pressed it to Quarks.

The stunned barman nearly fell over again. An entire Latinum brick for one drink! He squeeked and turned to stuff it into his vault, not bothering to point out that the Ale barely cost two strips.

'Yes, yes, terrible what happened once they found those Latinum deposits a few years from now... wiped out all the value of it overnight...shocking business really'.

Quark hadn't bothered to listen. Maybe he would still be able to get the loon to buy another drink before he passed out! Spinning back he noticed the glass was now empty and the man had vanished again.

'No no no no no!' Quark whinned, thinking he had vanished again! Then he saw the tip of his hat leaving through the door.

'Wait' he yelled as the human vanished into the hustle outside, but it was too late. Frustrated, he closed up and rushed back to his vault to stare at the lovely Latinum brick sitting in there!

Odo stood in the cargo bay utterly baffled by the strange blue box in front of him. It had appeared a couple of hours ago from nowhere. It wasn't on any shipping manifests, and no other ships had docked with the station for nearly a day. Normally he would have chalked it down to Quark smuggling more junk onto the station, but as far as his security detail could tell, it just arrived out of thin air!

Nothing seemed to penetrate it either. His team had tried prying it open, using industrial phasers, even a few blasts from a Klingon rifle they had confiscated did nothing. It didn't seem dangerous, but Odo didn't like things coming aboard he couldn't explain. He briefly considered contacting the captain to suggest evacuating this part of the station when someone burst in through the cargo bay door.

'Ah, you been keeping the old girl safe for me have you?' beamed a bizarrely dressed human, striding past the security detail and patting his hand on the strange box. 'Good to know that 24th century security is as robust as it's ever been!'

The security detail were apparently too stunned to react, but Odo kept his calm. Obviously this strange man was responsible for the boxes arrival, and he wanted some answers.

'And who are you exactly?' Odo demanded in stern manner.

'I'm the Doctor my good man.' He looked fondly at the box then turned to Odo. His smile grew even larger as he saw him. 'A shapeshifter! How marvellous!'

Odo was taken aback. He had never been called a shape-shifter with such enthusiasm before, and before he could speak, the man had grabbed his hand and was shaking it furiously.

'One of the great link! It's so nice to meet you! Your people are normally so good at hiding it's rare to see one standing around like this.' The man fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a crumpled bag.

'Jelly Baby?'

Odo stared, dumbfounded once again. He took a moment to regain his composure.

'Guards, hold this man!'

The guards dropped their bewildered looks and grabbed the human firmly by the arms.

'If you didn't want one a simple 'No thank you' would have sufficed...' the man said, his smile shrinking.

'I don't know how you got onto my station' Odo said, pointing at the blue box 'But you have something to do with this crate. Now who are you?'

'I already told you, I'm the Doctor' the odd man said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. 'And really? A crate? I know the old girl has seen better days and all but...'

Odo was used to arresting troublesome criminals, but there was something about this human that he couldn't put his finger on.

'This station has a Doctor! Dr Bashir is currently in sickbay attending to his patients. I asked for you name!'

'Just 'Doctor' if you don't mind. Perhaps 'The Doctor' or even 'Mr Doctor' if you prefer?'

Putting his hand to his head, Odo decided he had had enough.

'Guard, please take 'Mr Doctor' to a holding cell until I can work this out. Keep this bay quarantined until we can work out what's going on here!'

The human looked surprised, but didn't put up a fight as he was escorted out. Odo took one last look at the blue box and left. The man seemed relatively harmless, as did his strange cargo, but better safe than sorry. Perhaps a night in a cell would make him come to his senses a little.

'Enter' Benjamin Sisko muttered, responding to the gentle bleep of a visitor to his office. A woman entered and stood upright, in a tight respectful manner.

'Captain, General Martoks ship has entered the system and will dock with us within the hour'

'Thank you Kiera' Sisko replied frostily. Unlike a lot of Federation captains, Sisko rarely made a point of hiding his feelings. His crew knew that he hated being a bureaucrat, and listening to Martok and the Romulan representative shout at each other for the rest of the day wasn't something he was looking forward to.

Kiera nodded and paused. Sisko looked up from the data pad he was working on.

'Something else to report?'

'Just one thing sir. Odo has arrested a man in connection with some strange Cargo located in dock four.'

Sisko sighed. 'If Odo wants to shake down Quark for information about another smuggled case of Romulan Ale then...'

'Actually sir' Kiera interrupted, 'they don't know what it is, or how it got there, or who the man is they have in custody.'

'Fine then' Sisko sighed, again, 'have Chief O'Brien take a look at it, and have Doctor Bashir take a look at this man their holding. I want to know what it is they've got down there. Until then seal off the entire dock. We can't risk any security breaches with the war planning this afternoon.'

Kiera gave a small nod and left. Sisko re-routed the security feeds of the bay to his datapad. Immediately he recognised what the strange cargo must be. It was a tall blue box, its design and markings were obviously Earth based, but other than that it was unremarkable. Rewinding the feed he saw the camera buzz with static as the box vanished, then appeared. Perhaps a camera fault meant they missed its being unloaded? Or worse, sabotage.

Still there was no reason to panic just yet. One of the few perks of Deep Space Nines Cardassian design was that an explosion in any of the docks would automatically eject the section off the ship and away before any serious danger. When paranoia runs so deep through a races veins they tend to be prepared. Shutting down the datapad, Sisko left his office to summon the Romulan Ambassador, and to prepare himself for the long day of politics ahead of him.

Odo sat in the security office inspecting the contents of 'Mr Doctors' jacket. Picking up each one, he'd study it with his typical thoroughness and move onto the next one. So far there was a strange metallic object. The small cylinder didn't seem harmful, perhaps it was some kind of tricorder? A small paper bag filled with something his scanner had identified as being gelatine and sugar with next to no nutritional value, a collection of tiny keys, a box he'd been unable to unlock, and finally, a small piece of paper with '42' scrawled onto it.

He was perplexed, and being perplexed didn't suit him one bit. Putting the final object down he clenched his fist and closed his eyes. There was no record of the mans face in any of the databanks, and without a name there wasn't much else to go on. The door to his office slid open and Dr Bashir walked in, his usual overly cheerful charm didn't help his mood much.

'You wanted to see me Odo?' Bashir beamed.

'Yes doctor, I have a man in the cells I'm having a bit of trouble with. He's not being very co-operative and there are no records of him on file, so if you wouldn't mind...' He stopped as Bashir gave an enthusiastic smile and snatched up one of the gelatine chunks from the prisoners things and popped it into his mouth.

'I didn't think you'd be fond of Jelly Babies Odo!' Bashir said, giving Odo a full view of the sweet rolling around in his mouth.

'Doctor?' Odo said in his sternest voice normally reserved for Quark.

'Oh sorry, Jelly Babies, you know?' Reading the security officers blank expression he continued.

'They're a sweet food from earth, very popular in one of the old nation states called 'Britain'. Their quite hard to come by these days. Replicated ones never quite taste the same since they're programmed not to use non-nutritional synthetics but these are lovely. I'm guessing you imported them from Sheffield?'

Odo stared at Bashir, though he'd heard every word of the long winded explanation he quickly got to the point.

'Those belong to the prisoner. If he's walking around with those does that mean he's from Earth?'

'I imagine so' Bashir said, casually reaching for another.

Odo took the bag before he had a chance and directed him towards the cells.

'Please go and give the prisoner a full medical scan. And next time I ask you here please refrain from eating my evidence!'

Bashir gave a sheepish nod and wandered off towards the cells. Odo put the bag back on his desk and stared at it. Peering in at the 'Jelly Babies', he wondered how anyone could find eating pulped sweet shaped like offspring appealing...