Chapter 1: The discovery

The wrist light illuminated the dripping wet, pale grey stone of the underground tunnel as a man dressed in a white EV-suit cautiously made his way trough the cramped space. He kept peering at the tricorder in his hand with a confused look in his eyes. "How can there be a power signature down here? No one has ever been here..."

The tunnel widened in a spacious cave after a sudden sharp turn. He shone the light around. First it only illuminated pale grey rock and more rock, but suddenly it caught on some strange equipment. "What is that doing here?" Taking his phaser into his other hand he set about exploring the chamber.

After ten minutes of exploring he found the source of the power signature. It was a coffin-shaped object. It was totally opaque, except for a small, dusty window. With one hand he wiped the dust away.

When he saw the humanoid inside the stasis tube, he immediately signaled: "Riker to Rio Grande. I need a team down here, including medical support."

The cavern was now crawling with EV-suited Starfleet en Bajoran officers. Some were checking the equipment left behind, two others were setting up pattern enhancers around the stasis unit and Doctor Bashir was running a tricorder over the unit itself.

A new person entered the chamber. "Report."

Bashir looked up from his tricorder readings. "The person in the unit has been here for a couple of years."

"Do we have any idea who it could be?"

"The unit seems to be shielded from most basic scans. I am reading that the person is a female and there are traces of Bajoran and Cardassian DNA present. On the station I will be able to perform a more advanced scan."

"Lieutenant Nog, do we have any idea what kind of technology this is? And what its purpose is?"

"Yes, Colonel." he said. "It appears to be a kind of Dominion laboratory equipment. It is all completely inactive though, except for the stasis unit."

"Colonel, permission to beam the stasis unit aboard the Defiant?" One of Nog's aides asked.

"Are you finished, Doctor?" At his nod, Kira said: "Go ahead."

The tube dissolved into blue light and disappeared from the cavern.

When the Defiant docked, Bashir, Kira and Nog were greeted at the airlock by the new Chief of Security Lieutenant Ro Laren and the new First Officer of Deep Space Nine, lieutenant-Commander Sam Lavelle.

"Report."

"Ensign T'Rea is searching all the data we have about Dominion activity in the system for a possible explanation what was happening on Derna, Colonel." Lavelle reported.

"A cargo bay has been secured and has been placed under continuous guard for the equipment. The reserve chamber in the infirmary has been similarly outfitted for the stasis unit." Ro reported.

"Good work."

Bashir hit his combadge. "Bashir to Defiant. Beam the stasis unit to room 02-682E."

"Yes, Doctor."

Kira moved of to Ops, Bashir headed to the infirmary and Nog, after asking Lieutenant Ro which cargo bay had been set aside for the Dominion equipment, went that way. Only Ro was waiting. Other personnel were leaving the Defiant. Finally a tall man with dark hair and beard came out.

"Thomas, I need to take your statement since you were the first to find the cavern."

He nodded. "Of course. In the security office?"

With that Ro Laren and Thomas Riker head to the security office.

With careful movements Bashir set about opening the lid of the stasis unit so they could get a look at the occupant of the tube. Nurse Jabara was standing by with a tray of various medical equipment they might need.

When the lid finally opened, Bashir's eyes widened and Jabara's mouth fell open.

"Bashir to Colonel Kira."

"Yes, Doctor?"

"You might want to come down here, Colonel."

"Doctor?"

"I will explain it when you are here, sir."

"On my way."

That finished Bashir gazed once more at the occupant of the unit. He took a tricorder from Jabara and started running a scan.

In the unit, under a softly pulsing green force field, was the serene form of a young Bajoran-Cardassian hybrid woman named Tora Ziyal.

When Kira entered the infirmary, Bashir was giving instructions to Jabara. "Run a complete comparison of this DNA sample with the samples taken during post-mortem 6231."

Jabara nodded. "Right away, sir." She headed towards the main area of the infirmary.

Kira nodded to her as she passed. "What is going on, Doctor?"

Bashir turned towards her with a look in his eye she couldn't quite describe. It was shock, but also a kind of... pity? "It is probably easier just to show you. Could you come over here, Nerys?"

Noting the informal use of her first name, Nerys stood besides the doctor and looked down at the closed stasis unit. "Julian?"

Julian shook his head and hit a few buttons on the lid of the unit, which rose once more. "This is what I wanted to show you..."

As the lid rose and Nerys saw who was in the unit, her eyes widened. Shocked she put a hand to her mouth. Ziyal looked like she was sleeping. She was wearing the familiar blue-grey dress with bare feet and her long, black hair tumbled loosely around her shoulders.

Julian placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Are you alright, Nerys?"

"I am alright... What is going on here?"

"I don't know. I am currently comparing several scans with data we have on file from several years ago."

Nerys looked down again. Her eye suddenly caught a small silver necklace that Ziyal was wearing. "That necklace... Dukat gave it to her while the station was occupied... That must mean that... Kira to T'Rea."

"Yes, Colonel?"

"Specify your search for Dominion activity to the period Deep Space Nine was occupied by the Dominion."

"Of course, sir. Specifying now."

She sent her thoughts back to that very bittersweet day almost most two years ago. Yes, Dukat and Weyoun had finally been gone from the station. But it had come at a huge price and among that had been the loss of Ziyal, whom she had come to see a younger sister. Once more she looked down. There was something nagging her...

Suddenly her head shot up and Nerys turned back to Julian. "Was she wearing the necklace the day she died? I seem to remember she wasn't wearing it."

Julian picked up a PADD and accessed the files. "There is no record of it."

"But she wore the necklace almost always, since it was a gift from... from her father... Can you wake her up?"

"Yes, I can. But I wouldn't recommend it. We should wait until we have found out what exactly is going on here." Julian glanced outside the door. "If you wish you can stay here. I have to work on those scans."

Julian left the room and Nerys pulled up a stool. Sitting down, she looked again inside the unit. "If you are the real Ziyal, who did we bury then two years ago..." she softly murmured.

"Mommy!" the little girl flew into her arms. Two black pigtails flew around.

"Hello Loral. Did you have a nice day?" Ro Laren lifted her daughter up.

"Hmm. We play princess." Loral twisted in her arms, looking. "Where is daddy?"

"Daddy is picking up Neelas." she said as she started to head to their quarters.

"You had nice day, mommy?" The tot asked.

"Mommy had a very nice day."

"Daddy!" Arriving at their quarters, Loral wrestled herself from her mother's arms and ran towards her father.

Thomas Riker lifted her up. "Hello, my princess. Give daddy a hug."

Laren, shaking her head and laughing at her families' action, had lifted the five month old Neelas from his crib and headed towards the couch to nurse him.

"Loral, are you going to help daddy make diner?" Thomas asked as he let his daughter down on the floor.

The tot nodded and they headed towards the replicator. While the table was set and the baby nursed, they quietly discussed the day's events, theorizing about the weird plans of the Dominion.