Lieutenant Commander Dax snapped her head around when she saw the alarms light up along her controls. "They've dumped their warp core. Breach in five seconds," she reported in clipped, precise tones.
Sisko thumbed the intercom toggle and clamped his hands to the command chair. "All hands, brace for impact. Dax, emergency transport…!" But by the time he had spat the last part of his sentence out, there was no more time left. The tiny glowing rod of the core flashed once, then lit up in a fiery explosion of matter and antimatter, engulfing the Rubicon and buffeting their own ship with a shell of burning plasma. To Dax's credit, she managed to pirouette the Defiant around to minimise their profile. The shields glowed fiercely as they absorbed shock wave upon shock wave. Finally, though, the ship righted itself, and they were left staring into the anomaly, freshly disturbed by the violent warp core breach.
"Dax," Sisko ordered. "Run a scan for the runabout. Did they survive the explosion?"
"Checking. Wait…negative. Most of it was destroyed, but it looks like the cockpit section is still intact. I'm activating a tractor beam," said the science officer.
The captain narrowed his eyes at the vortex-like anomaly on the viewscreen, but his brooding thoughts were interrupted by the triple beep of the intercom. "Transporter room to bridge," said a masculine voice. Sisko rubbed his eyes tiredly.
"Bridge here," he said.
"Sir, I…well…are Lieutenant Commanders Dax and Worf present?"
He tilted his head slightly. "Yes."
"What about Colonel Kira?"
"Yes. Is there a problem?"
The unfortunate transporter operator stopped for a moment, as if considering his choice of phrasing, then threw caution to the wind and said, "I think you'd all better get down here, captain."
By that time, everyone had their eyes firmly fixed on the captain. Sisko arched an eyebrow, then motioned for Worf, Dax and Kira to follow him to the turbolift. As they waited for it to arrive, the colonel finally broke the quiet. "Captain, do you know anything about this?" She hated being impatient, but the transporter operator hadn't exactly made anything clear in his short conversation with the captain. It irritated her, to say the least. But Sisko just shrugged. "I know as much as you, Colonel."
They arrived seconds later, and it was only a short walk to the transporter room. Much like most of the Defiant, it was considered to be smaller than usual by Starfleet standards. There was one cylindrical alcove set into the wall that sheltered the transporter pads. Three humanoids stood on those pads now, each in varying states of confusion, trying to figure out where they were. Even Worf, who was extremely difficult to surprise, let his eyes widen in shock as he recognised the three survivors of the runabout: one by one, Sisko, Worf, Dax and Kira shook their heads and tried to come to grips with what they were seeing. The uniforms were slightly different save for the comm badge, but still recognisable as Starfleet and Bajoran; the countenances fatigued; the stances the same. It was impossible, but at the same time, it was horribly, horribly real.
"Behind me!" shouted the Worf on the transporter pad as he drew a phaser. Captain Sisko had spent a lot more time around weapons thanks to the Dominion War, and while it looked vaguely like the type-two hand phasers he was used to, it was also wildly different. The handle was longer, for one thing, and there must have been extra devices in the front, because it was bulkier. But this Worf seemed to know how to use it, as he pointed it right at Sisko's head. The captain held his hands up.
"What?" he said. "Who are you, and why did you come here?"
The second Worf snarled angrily. "You are nothing but a Borg illusion! I will destroy you before you can assimilate us!"
Now it was Dax (the one standing with Sisko, that is) who appeared disoriented. "Borg illusion? We haven't heard from the Borg in a few years. How can you think that Captain Sisko is part of the Collective?" As she said this, the other Dax stood up from her slumped position and dabbed at her wet eyes. Eyes, Sisko noticed, that were lined with stress and worry, and loss.
"I think we have a lot of explaining to do," she said through a stuffy nose.
He nodded. "I think we do."
