Duty, Dragons and Dabo.



Disclaimer: Paramount owns 'em; The Blue Goo, Dr Megalomania and Elvis own the Dragons. We're just seeing what happens when you mix Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and our sick twisted minds.

We'd also like to include various TV series and feature films for inspiration.

Author Note's: We'd also like it noted that we own the various red shirted ensigns and would like to assure the reader that *no ensigns were killed in the writing of this story, horribly maimed or transported to another time and place maybe but killed? No!*



Part 2: One miniscule error . . .

. . . Silence. You could have heard a pin drop. You could even almost hear the various possible courses of action being flattened underneath a weight of suspense.

//Um. . . excuse me? Is this the meeting place? Eh. . . . . ?//

The apparition had spoken, and as its sentence petered out, captain Benjamin Sisko stepped in. With the Starfleet command uniform and dark skin in sharp contrast, he struck an imposing figure - and one not to be ignored. Was this some sort of a joke? This creature, although no apparent threat to his station, had violated several laws of space-time in the space of an instant. He had to determine its intentions as quickly as possible.

"I am captain Benjamin Sisko of the federation space station, Deep Space Nine. Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

//:- Ahaha...Right. Where did you say I was?//

"Space station Deep Space Nine in the alpha quadrant. You'll forgive me for the reaction to your entrance-"

Several of the crew had recovered with creditable speed to train their phasers on the interloper. All three clawed, winged, scaled metres of it.

"-But we happen to be in the middle of a war, and I would appreciate it if you could tell us why you're here!"

// Oh man, oh terrific, one miniscule error in the spatial-temporal continuum and I end up in another universe! Man, I'm sorry. This was an accident. . .//

"Then maybe you could explain how this 'accident' occurred?"

Behind the quadruped intruder, someone else had entered the conversation. The creature arched its neck round like a piece of nervous elastic, and appraised the speaker. His face was different from that of his fellows - less well defined, and the voice was rougher - right now with an edge to it.

// Uh, yeah, um . . . have you ever heard of multispatial transversion?//

A blank. It tried again:

// Transdimensional relocation?//

Another yellow-collared officer assumed an intrigued expression, leaning over slightly. "Transdimensional relocation? I've heard of some theories, but. . . how does it work?"

The newcomer shifted its attention, and fidgeted uncomfortably.

// Well. . . its kind of hard to explain. . . like cutting across universes in a different timescale - so you can 'snap back' to the relative location on your own. . . sometime in the future. It lets you travel anywhere almost instantly . . .//

Sisko cut off what would probably have degraded into a theoretical debate about transporters and returned to the matter in hand.

"You come from another universe?"

//Yes, that's right. Well, um, sort of. I'm not meant to be here, actually. . .//

"So we gathered," dryly. "Where are you meant to be, exactly?"

About to answer the one with the odd face, the being which had appeared so precipitously in the middle of Ops pitched forward.

// Whoa! Weird gravity - there's no side-pull!//

Sisko glanced to one side, but O'Brien shrugged: he didn't know what the creature was talking about. Neither did anyone else. However, if its claim - that this was an accident - was true, and it posed no threat to the station, he could ask the question everybody was dying to venture.

"Then what are you?"

From its vantage point in the sunken middle of the room, amidst the bright consoles and other schematics laid out, it paused.

// Uh, well, my uh. . . whatdyacallit. . . species, is. . . well, you don't exactly have an analogy for it. . .//

It stopped fidgeting, a more intense stillness than even when it had first materialized, that was followed by a projected image - a projected mental image - into the minds of everybody in the room. Sisko could taste-touch- smell-hear-see what this entity's 'race' meant. . . but had no hope of addressing their visitor by it.

Jadzia Dax - the station's science officer, was standing beside him and made her suggestion:

"How about we call her a Dragon."

On a quiet aside, he quizzed her: "'Her?' A 'Dragon'?"

"Yes - a creature from ancient earth mythology. . . she looks like some of the old pictures."

"She?"

Dax made no comment except a grin, further lightening the mood, by now receding from its initial fear and tension. Sisko had not been lying about the war - and they had been expecting a surprise attack when this mysterious 'Dragon' had appeared out of thin air, and another universe. He could already see discreet scans being made to verify the Dragon's story.

"The question is, what are we going to do about her?"



Boredom, he looked around, he thought he spotted something of vague interest but a second look proved it wasn't.

'Bored, bored, bored!!' he thought to himself in disgust. He thought about playing with his son, but realized he would be spending the day with the ol' ball and chain. He thought about visiting a few friends. . . his mind took a liking to this idea. . . "Hmm, who shall I grace with my presence?"

Jean Luc? No... he couldn't think of anything new to play with the ol' boy. . . "Hmm. . . think. . . think, think. . ." Sweet Kathy? No. . . old chuckles and the rest of her crew would bundle around her and start snarling like a bunch of Toskian dogs, all except Mr. Twoblock who would logify him to death and that 'hollow' graphic doctor, he shuddered. Thank goodness that one had an off-switch!

"Whom haven't I visited in ages. . ." he stroked his chin. Which gave him an idea. "Of course!"

He clicked his fingers, and in an instant, was at his destination, peering into main ops.

He chuckled. "Strange predicament we're in here, aren't we?" but soon lost his smile as he realized this was a creature he'd never encountered before.

"Hmm. . . Transdimensional relocation? I've never heard that one before. . ." His curiosity had been piqued

While the puny humans milled about, trying to figure out what to do about a three meter long reptile, which was sitting in the middle of the main operations, Spots made some comment about it being a Dragon. . . 'Preposterous!' he though to himself but he was intrigued.

The person, whom he planned on visiting, the original subject of his attention, uttered a typical human question.

He leaned in closer, chuckling darkly. "Indeed!"

He clicked his fingers again.