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CHAPTER THREE


"What?" Hannah practically screamed. The idea that she would have to save someone's life scared her. Her best way out was denial; it had been the easiest so far. But her conscience told her that she would go, if need be, and risk her own life to save those people.

"We have to go. The longer we wait, the less chance we have of making it." Anja set her jaw against her own fears and stood up.

"I'm vith you," said Frau, and stood also. Hannah nodded and followed their example.

Anja realized that Frau and Hannah were counting on her to lead the way, so she looked around to get her bearings and headed toward a computer panel. "Computer, locate Captain Sisko."

"Captain Sisko is right behind you," came a voice, much deeper than the computer's, from a few paces behind Anja.

"Captain!" she said, spinning around. Sure enough, there was Benjamin Sisko, looking exactly as he had on "Star Trek."

"Now, what did you want to see me about?" The Captain had a glint of fun in his eyes; he didn't expect anything at all serious.

"Captain," Anja began, suddenly at a loss for words. "I . . . uh, my friends and I have come to the station under the most unusual circumstances."

The Captain was smiling now. Anja felt her face turn red. Evidently, he thought he had heard all of the "unusual circumstances" there were to hear. He was mocking her. She decided to be blunt. "We've come from the twentieth century through a temporal fissure. Captain, I think you will find this strange, us being from the past and knowing your future, but something's going to happen to the wormhole tomorrow and we think, well . . . we can help." Anja saw the Captain's expression grow grim as she stammered out that last statement.

"Follow me," said the Captain, and motioned at Anja and her companions.

He led them through a maze of corridors Anja could only barely recognize, but she was able to deduce that they were headed for Ops, or more likely, Captain Sisko's office. Her suspicions were confirmed when they reached their destination, walking through Ops to reach the office.

Once inside, Captain Sisko turned to face the three time travelers from behind his desk. "Now tell me again what you were saying."

Anja repeated the story, adding how they were captured by the Ferengi and then released. She didn't add that events were beginning to happen as they had in her book. She left the reason she knew how the wormhole would phase into a time warp unrevealed.

Captain Sisko mulled over what she had said for a few minutes. "Your friends," he finally stated. "They're from the twentieth century, and they know about this, too?"

Anja glanced at Frau and Hannah, who had remained silent throughout the whole conversation. "Yes, they are, and they do." She turned her head again to face Sisko. She wasn't sure whether or not he believed anything she had said, but she was sure that he didn't trust her completely. She hadn't expected him to.

"You've gotten here only today," he said. "You need someplace to stay." He pushed a button on his desk and said, "Ensign Darvey, report to my office."

The man, who had probably been just outside at Ops, stepped inside the door. "Sir," he greeted, and waited for instructions.

"Mister Darvey, escort these people to one of our guest quarters. Notify me as to where you put them."

Darvey motioned for Anja, Hannah, and Frau to follow him. As they left, the Captain said, "I'll keep an eye out for what you told me." The doors closed behind them.

Quark mulled over what he had heard, wondering if he should tell Yugin at all. Information this intriguing was to be bought at a high price. Imagine: knowing the future! The girl Anja had said that events were proceeding as she had written in her book, which meant that if he could somehow capture her, she would be able to tell him what would happen next. The other two were merely tokens. They were mindboggled by the thought of time travel in and of itself, although the girl Hannah did seem to know a little.

But Quark had heard a piece of the future already, and it had promise. He would see that he would be on the Defiant also. After more consideration, Quark decided that he should tell Yugin some, but not all, of the information he had gathered. He typed in the access code to his personal computer but remembered that Odo had removed his secret comm link. He would have to pay Yugin a visit in person. He put a reliable employee in charge of the bar until his return.

Once he reached the airlock where Yugin's ship, the Greed, was docked, he typed in his access code and strode through the airlock as the bulkheads rolled away. He found his way through the dimly lit corridors to Yugin's office and activated the door chime. Soon the doors opened to reveal Yugin sitting at his desk.

Quark stepped into the room and greeted, "Yugin, my friend."

Yugin's shrewd Ferengi face showed a small smile. "Quark. I hope you've come with information, because if you haven't, I have more important things to do than to waste my time talking with you."

So much for being old friends, Quark thought. "I do have some information for you. Your spies aren't really spies at all, merely misfortuned time travelers from the twentieth century. If you still want them, though, they're going to be on the Defiant tomorrow as it makes a trip through the wormhole. I have a feeling they might know a little more than they're letting on."

Yugin tapped his fingers together. "Yes. The far side of the wormhole would be an inconspicuous sort of place to hijack a ship."

"Hijack? The Defiant?" Quark was surprised at such a foolhardy plan.

"Now, Quark," Yugin chided, "you forget the capabilities of this ship. I'm not your normal weak Ferengi."

With a glare, Quark assented. Yugin had fared well in both the pirating and smuggling circles. Perhaps it was not such a good idea to hitchhike aboard the Defiant after all. As Quark turned to leave, he took one final glance at the smug Ferengi and wondered if Yugin's success hadn't corrupted his friend as well.

Once they reached their quarters, Frau, Hannah, and Anja promptly set to work falling asleep. Between time traveling, being captured by Ferengi, and their conversation with Captain Sisko, it had been a long day.

The next day the three discovered the joys of replicated scrambled eggs. "They just don't taste right," Frau muttered throughout the meal. Once through, though, she decided she would be content just to find a laundry room to wash her one outfit. She was wearing clothes fabricated by the station's systems, and they didn't agree with her, making her want to have her own clothes clean and on her body as soon as possible. She asked Anja and Hannah about it.

Hannah laughed. "I don't think there's a laundromat," she said. "You just put them in the station's automatic system, and it washes them for you." Anja agreed.

Frau thought of the special washing instructions for her outfit, grabbed it, and set off looking for the laundry room she knew had to be somewhere.

Captain Picard had just been visited by Q. Like always, the Captain had tried to pry some information out of the annoying being, but Q had revealed nothing, except that which drew more questions than answers. Picard had asked how it was that Q had come to visit, and there were no disasters of any sort.

"Oh, don't get impatient, Jean-Luc," Q had said. "You'll see soon enough." After that, Q hadn't bothered to stay and tell what there was to see.

Contrary to popular Trekkie opinion, Frau was able to find a laundry room in one of the nearly abandoned service hallways of Deep Space Nine.

"Guten Morgen," she said to the large black man with a furrowed brow that was also in the room.

"Guten Morgen," returned Worf. Evidently, the universal translator had established German as Frau's first language.

As she loaded her clothes into the washing machine, Frau asked, "Who are you?" The universal translator switched gears.

"I am Worf," the man stated.

"My name is Elizabeth Boggess, but you can call me Frau." the machine whirred as the wash cycle began. Frau was now in her element. She looked again at the man's forehead. Which alien was he?

Noticing Frau's questioning glance, Worf explained, "I am Klingon."

Frau glanced over, or rather, under his shoulder at the bundle of clothes he had just put in the dryer. Cling on?

"Because you don't use fabric softener?"

Worf strode away from the laundry room, his warrior's tunic in hand. Even now the thought of Frau's unsuspecting pun made his already dark face redden. He knew that the woman had meant no harm, but she had unknowingly dented his honor. Imagine! The noble Klingon name defaced to a point where it was level with fabric softener. He shook the thought off, knowing it was nothing.

He turned into the corridor leading to his quarters. Once inside, he carefully tucked away his warrior's tunic and paused to get a glass of prune juice from the replicator before heading to work.

Halfway between his quarters on the Defiant and Ops, an alert sounded. He hurried his steps so that he could help sooner.

Once at Ops he realized what had caused the commotion. On the viewscreen was the wormhole, standing open, but instead of its usual icy blue color, it was now a vivid tangerine. Beams of light shot out of it at all angles, apparently harmless, though DS9 had its shields up anyway. Dax worked frantically at her station, every once in a while telling Captain Sisko a new piece of data. Worf read through the numbers and Dax's explanations. She didn't know what was happening.

Worf manned his station, although he felt that most of the work to be done now was the science officer's. He checked his own sensor data. From his years at tactical, he surmised that the wormhole's dilation was of no immediate threat to the station. The alarms had now quieted. Everything rode now on Dax's calculations.

"Captain, I'm reading a slight temporal flux," she announced. "Wait. It just disappeared. The wormhole seems to be returning to its normal state."

All eyes watched as the wormhole slowly, but surely, closed.

Dax checked her sensor data again. "I'm not picking up any more anomalous readings."

Captain Sisko nodded, his expression grim. "It could be the Dominion," he said.

Dax frowned. "But how?"

Worf spoke up. "It could be the result of the test of a new weapon."

The Captain took in what they were saying, but he didn't really believe it. He thought about what Anja had told him. "Spies," he muttered under his breath.

"Captain?" said Dax.

The Captain shook his head. "Nothing." How could he explain it?

Worf grunted and turned back to his station. Usually in one of these unofficial brainstorming sessions everyone voiced their ideas, no matter how ridiculous. Whatever the Captain thinks must at least have some grounds to it, thought Worf, or else he would have said it. Captain Sisko was onto something.

Worf turned back to his task. Such speculation would have to wait. For now there were sensor records to review.

When Frau returned to the room, Anja and Hannah were waiting by the door for her. "It's begun," Anja stated.

Frau seemed to understand. She threw her outfit on her bed, not even bothering to change back into it.

Together, the three headed toward Ops.