Disclaimer: While the attempt has been made to be medically accurate, some artistic license has been taken, and statements made by Dr Bashir are not to be regarded as authoritative.

The Tresselian and Jeburite races and the planet Idimion Twelve are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to the names of canon Star Trek races/planets is unintentional. Recognizable characters and plotlines are the property of Paramount and Viacom; all original characters and story © 2015 FemaleChauvinist.

Do not post without permission. Do not copy/print without including the above disclaimer in its entirety.

A/N: "Season" given for timing reference only; see my profile for the alternate history used in this story. According to my timeline, this story takes place soon after Bashir's enhancements are discovered. Jadzia now believes that he truly does love her, and so is beginning to respond to his advances. Barbie

Season Six

Prologue

A small, secret smile played at Tairvaul's lips as he answered the questions the Department of Temporal Investigations officer put to him; amusement at the endless grilling he believed to be unnecessary.

The Department of Temporal Investigations existed on the premise that it was of paramount importance that those who found themselves in the past do nothing to change the timeline. Tairvaul believed that whole premise to be wrong; believing instead in what he called the integrity of time — that once something had happened, it couldn't be changed. He was willing to admit that if someone went into the past, he could affect events around him, but maintained that had the time-traveler researched those events carefully enough before going into the past, he would have seen his own actions recorded "before" he did them. If someone went into the past with the intention of changing history, Tairvaul believed he would find himself thwarted at every turn, until he was forced to watch it play out as it always had.

He wondered also why it was felt that, assuming history could be changed, the way it had originally happened was the right way and mustn't be tampered with. He could see how it would be wrong to go into the past and start a war; what he could never understand was that it was deemed just as wrong to go into the past and prevent one. If he did believe history could be changed, he had often thought it would be a man's duty to go into the past and undo atrocities that had been committed. But if the original timeline really was such a sacred thing as they made out, then he thought that was all the more reason to believe it could take care of itself.

But what really made Tairvaul secretly laugh at the Department of Temporal Investigations was the fact that if time could be and had been changed, only the one who had been in the past at the time could ever possibly know it. Everyone else would be "rewritten" along with the events, and have no memory of the way things had gone "before."

But he knew to attempt to make them see his point of view now would only make them believe he had indeed altered some momentous event in history, and it was never a good idea to suggest to an official that his job was completely unnecessary. So he answered their questions as patiently as possible, in the end satisfying them that their precious timeline was still intact.

But unknown to any of them, the effects of his trip through time were soon to engulf an entire planet.

First chapter coming next week!

I proofread all my stories at least once before posting, but if you see any mistakes I might have missed, please let me know!

Please note that I have internet access only once a week, and may not have time to respond to all reviews/messages. If you have questions regarding my Deep Space Nine alternate history, check my profile first to see if they're answered there. (I also have a chronological list of my stories, so you can see where they fall on my timeline.) Thanks for your understanding! Barbie