Chapter Two: Missing in Action

Dax sat working on some research at her science station in an almost boringly quiet Ops. She missed Kira's presence, the major having gone on extended leave to Bajor due to the illness of an old friend.

She glanced idly at the chronometer; Sisko would come on duty in a little under an hour, giving her at least someone to talk to.

Not that they would talk; they had been friends too long to need conversation every minute. But his presence would at least relieve the almost palpable silence that hampered her ability to think until she thought she might scream.

She jumped slightly when the silence was shattered by the beep of the communicator, then laughed at herself as she looked up almost eagerly in response.

"Sisko to Ops," the computer voice announced.

Dax hit the reply button. "Dax here, Commander."

But instead of the commander's voice she heard Jake's, frantic with fear. "Dax, Dad's gone — he disappeared —"

"Calm down, Jake," Dax interjected smoothly, wondering why she had thought boredom was a bad thing. "Just breathe; now where are you?"

Jake drew a deep breath that was almost a sob, then spoke a little more calmly. "In the holosuite. Some kind of portal opened up, and Dad was pulled in when he shoved me back."

"Stay where you are," Dax instructed him. "I'm coming down to you as soon as I call someone up to watch Ops."

"Thanks," Jake whispered hollowly.

Dax ended the communication, then pressed the button again to call up the nearest on-duty officer.

"Trouble, sir?" he questioned.

"Maybe," Dax admitted, unwilling to say more until she had further details herself. "Just watch the station, and call if there's any trouble."

"Will do, sir," he agreed easily, sliding into the seat and leaning back comfortably.

Dax left Ops quickly and strode rapidly through the station, tapping her combadge as she went. "Dax to Bashir."

"Bashir here," the doctor's voice responded instantly. "What's wrong?"

"I just got a call from Jake on his father's combadge in the holosuite; Commander Sisko seems to have disappeared."

"He what?"

"That's what Jake said; I don't know any more about it than that. I'm on my way there now, and I'd like you to meet me there. I don't know what kind of state Sisko's going to be in if we find him, and Jake sounded like he might need something for shock."

"Understood; I'm on my way. Bashir out."

oOo

Dax, Bashir, and Miles O'Brian converged on the promenade just before Quark's, and Dax looked at the engineer in some surprise. "Did Bashir call you?" she questioned.

O'Brien shook his head. "Quark called; said the power's out to his whole bar. Why; what's wrong?"

"I got a frantic call from Jake in one of the holosuites; apparently Commander Sisko has disappeared."

"The power going out to a holosuite couldn't make someone using it vanish, could it?" Bashir questioned.

"More likely the other way around; whatever made him vanish also shorted out the power."

They had been walking as they spoke, and now encountered a flow of patrons being ushered out by Odo over Quark's protests that the lights would be on in a few minutes, if everyone would just sit down and have another drink while they waited. Dax didn't question the chief constable's presence; Odo seemed to have some kind of sixth sense as far as trouble at Quark's was concerned.

Dax pushed her way against the flow of traffic with murmured words of apology, and Quark pounced on O'Brien as soon as he spotted him in the dim emergency lights. "Chief! Tell Odo everyone can stay; you'll have the lights back up in just a minute."

"I'm afraid I have to ask O'Brien to help investigate something a little more important than your lights, Quark," Dax cut in.

"What? But my profits — if I don't have any customers —"

"Frankly, I couldn't care less right now about your profits or customers; Commander Sisko has disappeared."

For an instant, Quark was stunned into silence. "Disa-disappeared?"

"Yes. Now, if you will be so kind as to show us which holosuite he was using…"

"Of course," Quark murmured, subdued, glancing uneasily at Odo as he frantically wondered how to avoid implicating himself. He silently cursed the stranger who had gotten him into this mess in the first place.

He led the way to the holosuites, stopping in front of one of the doors. As Dax hit the switch to open the door manually, Quark sidled toward the control panel.

"None of that!" Odo exclaimed, grabbing his arm.

"I was just —" Quark began, faltering to a stop and glancing wildly from side to side as he realized he had no idea what to claim to have been doing.

"We don't want any settings changed until we find out exactly what happened," O'Brien said sternly.

Barely noticing the brief dispute behind him, Bashir had run into the room as soon as Dax had the doors open. Jake sat crumpled in the middle of the floor, rocking slightly back and forth and clutching his father's combadge.

Bashir hurried to kneel at his side, one hand on Jake's shoulder, his tricorder already out in the other. "Are you all right?"

A brief movement of Jake's head in Dr Bashir's direction was the only sign that he had heard or was even aware of the doctor's presence.

Bashir glanced at the tricorder. The readings confirmed his initial diagnosis of shock, but showed nothing that required immediate treatment. Slipping the instrument back on his belt, Bashir wrapped an arm around Jake's shoulders, pulling the boy against him. "We'll get him back," he vowed softly. "I promise you, we'll get him back."

Jake drew a long, shuddering breath and then reached up to clutch Bashir's uniform, burying his face in the doctor's shoulder as the tears began to flow. Bashir wrapped his other arm around him as well and held him tightly as he wept.

Dax waited perhaps five minutes before stepping forward. Crouching in front of them, she put a hand on Jake's shoulder. "Jake," she said softly, loathe to interrupt what she knew to be a necessary step in Jake's processing of what had happened, but needing also to find out exactly what had happened as soon as possible.

Jake lifted his head, swallowing hard to control himself as tears still streamed down his face. "I-I'm all right," he said huskily, wiping his sleeve across his face.

Bashir gave his shoulder a final squeeze, then gently eased him to sit upright on his own.

"Here," Miles said, offering the rag that hung at his belt and had only been slightly used to wipe grease off his fingers.

"Thanks," Jake said, taking it and blowing his nose. He held it out, and with a slight grimace Miles accepted it back, in the same gesture grabbing Jake's hand and pulling him to his feet.

"Can you tell us what happened?" Dax questioned as she and Bashir also rose.

Jake half unconsciously took a step closer to Bashir, taking comfort in the feel of human warmth beside him. Reaching up, Bashir rested a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Go on," he encouraged softly.

"We came to use our baseball program," Jake explained a little shakily, "but Quark said he had another program he wanted us to try — for free — and he was going to charge us double for the baseball unless we agreed."

"Quark?" Dax exclaimed, spinning around. But the Ferengi had disappeared as surely as Commander Sisko had. "Odo —"

"I'll find him," the constable promised grimly.

Dax turned back to Jake. "All right; go on."

"It was an observer-only program, but Dad said that might be a good thing, because it looked like the Old South, and we're black. It was boring, though, and we were gonna shut it down and go on to our baseball program. But when Dad told the computer to end program, it didn't, and that's when the portal showed up."

"Portal?" Dax questioned.

"Yeah…it was weird. These glowing green letters showed up that said, 'open portal,' and I can't explain it, but it was like I couldn't not touch them. When I did, the portal opened, and you could see that it was…different on the other side."

"Different, how?" Dax questioned.

Jake shrugged. "I don't know; I can't explain. It just looked more…real. I still felt like I had to go through it, but Dad pushed me back. He got too close, though, and it-it caught him." He gulped back another sob, and Bashir squeezed his shoulder.

"He was pulled in, and that's when the power shut off. Only-only his combadge didn't go through." Jake's fingers clutched convulsively at the little insignia.

"O'Brien, how long until you can get the power back on?" Dax asked.

O'Brien shrugged. "Depends what the problem is."

"Get on it," Dax ordered. "Bashir, let's get Jake down to the bar to wait."

Bashir nodded, turning to usher Jake from the holosuite as Dax tapped her combadge to call security to send up a guard to ensure nothing in the holosuite was disturbed.

"Here, have a seat," Bashir encouraged gently.

Jake wordlessly took a seat on one of the barstools, resting his elbows on the counter and leaning his forehead in his hands.

Bashir walked around the counter and began going through the bottles underneath, sniffing their contents until he found the nonalcoholic lemonade Quark used as a mixer. Taking a glass down, he poured a generous amount and set it in front of Jake. "Drink that," he told him, the firm tone of his voice leaving no doubt it was doctor's orders. "You need to get some sugar and fluid in your system." He looked up as Dax came down the stairs from the holosuites. "Want a lemonade, Dax? On the house."

Dax smiled faintly as she took the stool beside Jake with a sigh. "Sure. And I won't tell Quark you're playing bartender, either. Thanks," she added as he placed the drink in front of her.

Bashir poured another for himself, then came around the bar to sit on Jake's other side. "Drink, Jake," he reminded him.

Bashir's and Dax's glasses were nearly empty, and Jake's half so at the doctor's continued urging, when the lights in the bar flickered suddenly. Jake jerked his head up; staring directly at one of the lights, he was forced to close his eyes against the sudden brightness when the power came on fully several seconds later. "Let's go get Dad!"

"I doubt it's going to be that simple, Jake," Dax warned, blinking herself at the rapid adjustment from the dim emergency lights. "We'll go up and see if we can find out what we're dealing with, but I don't want you doing anything without my permission, understand?"

Jake nodded but seemed barely to have heard, and Dax shared a look with Bashir. Nodding acknowledgement of her unspoken command to keep an eye and, if necessary, a hand on the boy, he drained his glass and stood up. "Come on, then, Jake," he urged with false cheerfulness. He was sure Dax was right; getting Sisko back wasn't going to be a simple matter.

Next 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. Thanks for your understanding! Barbie