A few hours later, the senior staff had gathered in the expansive workplace of Captain Sisko, with the addition of the replicants. Located just off Deep Space Nine's nerve centre, Ops, the office was decorated with keepsakes of the captain's life and career, from model starships to African artefacts, and even an ornate alien clock that he had built whilst under the influence of a strange non-corporeal entity. At the moment, Sisko was seated at his wide desk, framed by a large eye-shaped window that looked out onto the stars. He spent a second looking at the faces of his command crew: from Kira to Worf, Dax to O'Brien, Constable Odo the Founder, and Doctor Julian Bashir, the station's chief medical officer. They all displayed various expressions of anticipation, apprehension, and curiosity. He couldn't blame them: last time the Borg had staged an offensive on the Federation, a substantial portion of Starfleet's vessel complement had been destroyed or assimilated, and the lone cube that had so easily penetrated their defences had very nearly laid waste to Earth.
"We all know why we're here," he began. "But in case you don't, here's the compressed version. Early this morning, a temporal rift opened up in the Denorios Belt. Our three wandering parallel crew members came through on a runabout almost identical to the Rubicon currently sitting in the habitat ring. They informed us that they were from an alternate version of our reality: one in which the Federation is waging a near-hopeless battle against the Borg Collective. We encountered a Borg vessel from that reality during our investigation, and they managed to launch a probe through the anomaly before we could destroy them."
The replicant of Kira stood up, and Sisko nodded. "Here is our duplicate of Colonel Kira. She has prepared a short presentation to inform us about what their universe is like." He swept a hand in front of him, beckoning her to take the stage, so to speak. She hesitated a moment, then walked to a panel on the edge of his desk and slid an amber-coloured isolinear rod into a slot. "Lights," she said to the computer, and the office went dim, the lighting replaced by a shimmering three-dimensional hologram that hovered above Sisko's desk. It was a map of the Alpha Quadrant, with the territories of the Federation, the Klingons, and the Romulans highlighted. She pointed to the map with one long finger and started speaking.
"This is what your quadrant looks like right now. The Dominion may have some presence here, but as I understand, the war in this part of the galaxy is nearing a conclusion." She tapped a control on the desk, and the hologram highlighted the three main powers of the Alpha Quadrant, zooming in until they filled a substantial portion of the airspace above the desk. "Well, this is what my galaxy looks like." The Kira-replicant pressed another button, and suddenly the blue, red and green glows of the Federation and the Klingon and Romulan Empires shrank. A flicker of sadness washed over the Bajoran's face as a harsh grey presence overran the majority of the quadrant that was visible, and she zoomed back to the original perspective so the crew could get a feeling for the amount of invaded space.
"Here is the Alpha Quadrant of my universe," she said, somewhat bitterly. "We suspect that our universes diverged when the starship Enterprise was destroyed near Wolf 359. Captain Picard was fully assimilated as Locutus, and the Borg went on to attack Earth. It took three years before they took the last pockets of Federation resistance: things disintegrated pretty quickly after that. Earth fell, and suddenly, the Federation was left without a focal point. It's been a while since then, and over seventy percent of Federation space has been overrun." She paused when she caught Worf's inquisitive stare. "The Klingons and Romulans haven't been doing much better. The Empire have about forty percent of their space under Borg control. The Romulans aren't letting on much, but we think they've lost about thirty percent." The Kira-replicant pressed another control, and a series of icons appeared on the mostly-grey map. "We made the decision to merge all our fleets together in an effort to more effectively take on the Borg. The Triumvirate, or the Alliance, operates under joint control across a series of decentralised tactical staging areas. Starbases and other heavily-concentrated outposts have proven inefficient, so we've been forced to work with smaller installations, some as remote as bunkers on distant worlds."
The Kira-replicant sighed, and watched as the holographic star chart morphed into a vessel that was familiar to everyone: a Borg cube, hovering menacingly near a smaller DS-Nine. "This was the last image we got as we left. One Borg vessel had overtaken the station, disabling our weapons and shields in a relatively short span of time. Only a handful of personnel were assimilated when we made our departure, but DS-Nine wasn't exactly packing any form of firepower that was really effective against the Borg. All our experimental technology is under wraps at secret testing stations scattered across the quadrant."
"Experimental technology?" asked Dax, enthused. "You mean devices that are geared to counter the Borg's adaptation speed?"
The Bajoran woman from an alternate universe shook her head helplessly. "I don't know. Only key staff are informed of the nature and location of the technology: if anyone on the front lines knew about it, the Borg would as soon as they assimilated them. It's all a very big secret."
Sisko was staring intently at the image. There seemed to be something in the hologram that intrigued him greatly. He spoke slowly, "What was the Borg's method to overrunning the station? How did they break through our shields?"
"They used a combination of weapons," growled the Worf-replicant. "I am unsure if the Borg have developed shield-draining weaponry in this reality, but in our case, they fired energy pulses at the station that soaked up the shields." At Sisko's nod, he continued. "They also had a modified tractor beam that caused interference with our shield integrity. All in all, it only took them a few minutes to puncture our defences."
He bowed his head a little in thanks, then waggled a finger at the hologram above his desk. "If I'm right, the Borg won't pass up an opportunity to overrun this much space. Think about it: a whole new Alpha Quadrant to conquer. We cannot run the risk of a Borg fleet coming through that temporal anomaly. Chief O'Brien, are we carrying any more self-replicating mines?"
The Irish Chief of Ops shook his head and leaned back a little in his chair. "One or two, but from what I've seen of this passageway between dimensions, there isn't enough matter to gather for self-replication. Besides, who knows what a mine blowing up will do to it?"
"Mmm. Dax, any results on our anomaly out there?"
"Almost all the tests are inconclusive," the Trill science officer replied. "But I did get some interesting spectroscopic readings. This isn't just some kind of rip between one universe and another." She took a breath and forced herself to slow down. "I think this is a form of artificial passageway that can cross the barriers between realities. An interdimensional wormhole, of sorts." With a hand that quivered with excitement, she ejected the Kira-replicant's isolinear rod and replaced it with her own, watching the bright blue-and-pink holo-graphic information dance above Sisko's desk. "Do you know what this means, Benjamin?"
Sisko contemplated the display, then shook his head. "Nope."
"If we find out how this passageway was constructed, we may be able to modify the technology and use it to fold space! We could be looking at a mode of travel that leaves warp drive behind with fuel-combustion engines!"
Trust Dax to always see the optimism, Sisko mused. He watched Dax's image of the interdimensional wormhole rotate slowly near his head and furrowed his brow. "Well, now that we know what this thing is, our first order of business is to find out who built it." He looked to the three replicants expectantly. "I assume this is as much a mystery to you as it is to me?"
Three slow nods were all he got as responses. The Dax-replicant shrugged her shoulders and pointed towards the hologram. "We haven't had time to experiment with propulsive and locomotive technology, only our weapons and shielding. DS-Nine…our DS-Nine…wasn't carrying any form of device that could generate this kind of thing. And as far as I know, the Triumvirate isn't working on space-folding or reality-warping mechanisms. I'd have to guess that this is the Collective's doing."
"But why?" Colonel Kira asked. "Why go to all that time and energy, making a tunnel between your dimension and ours?"
Her own doppelganger answered her question. "Look at these readings, Colonel. There's material coming through our end and out yours: it's like some great transdimensional siphon." She paused for emphasis, then continued: "I've known the Borg for quite a long time, Captain Sisko. I think we can safely assume that this is some kind of elaborate tactic of theirs."
"But for what purpose?"
"I don't know for sure, but I have an awful feeling that…computer, I want to run a hypothetical simulation, based on the data currently on the desk holographic display. Ready?"
"Working," said the usually-uncooperative Cardassian computer, in a deceptively calm human female voice. "Ready for input."
The Kira-replicant stood up and wandered around the room. "According to Lieutenant Dax's spectrographic analysis, this temporal passageway is actually drawing particles of matter through from the far end. Does the flow rate increase proportionally to the passage's size?"
There was a short pause as the computer processed the Kira-replicant's input, then finally beeped and said, "Affirmative. The flow rate is proportional to the physical size of the passageway."
"Okay." She gestured to herself as she struggled to find the right phrasing. "Assuming that the passage will continually increase in size, predict an outcome for the siphon effect, in context with the various energy flows and oscillations in both the temporal rift and the Denorios Belt."
"Working: calculated analysis and hypothetical outcomes will require additional sensor data. Estimated time to completion is approximately one hour, fifteen minutes."
She glowered a little. "That's too long. Factor in decoded information from the alternate universe runabout Rubicon, as well as pertinent records from the Defiant. Ignore additional sensor data and predict an outcome."
"Working. Estimated time to completion is approximately four minutes, thirty seconds."
"It's a start," the Kira-replicant said to herself as she plonked back down in her chair. "When you're thankful for each additional day of unadulterated individuality, you learn to make the most of everything, including time."
Speculations began to bounce around the office. The Daxs both agreed that the anomaly would not just continue to shunt material from one reality to the next: quantum physics and the multiple-worlds theory had equations that would prohibit that. They believed that there was most likely a critical-mass point where something spectacular would happen, but they couldn't be sure, seeing as this was the first rift of its kind ever found in either universe. Sisko, O'Brien and Bashir, whilst not as knowledgeable about this branch of science, thought that perhaps it could somehow be reversed to induce such an effect, namely the implosion of the passage. Worf and Kira just sat and watched the discussion, nodded and shaking their heads at appropriate intervals. They knew the rift existed. They wanted it gone. The rest was just details that led to their ultimate goal.
Finally, the computer sounded a triple beep and everyone went quiet in anticipation.
"Hypothetical simulation completed."
The Kira-replicant broke the silence. "State the most likely outcome, and the percentage probability of it occurring, assuming that the current parameters remain unaffected."
"Most likely outcome: the temporal passageway in question will reach critical flow point in approximately nine days. At this point, particle flow into this reality will rapidly increase exponentially. The varying quantum resonances will result in severe disruptions within this reality. Without resistance, this critical flow point result will overrun this reality. Probability of occurrence: sixty-one-point-zero-one percent."
A tension fell over the officers like a heavy blanket. Worried gazes met worried gazes as the holographic display sped up and altered itself to show the complete reconstruction of Deep Space Nine and, eventually, the entire galaxy. It was an almost unthinkable event. Unthinkable, Sisko reminded himself, to individuals. The Borg would not be quite as vexed about the overtaking of this universe: more drones for them, as well as a whole new Collective to integrate. Sisko's head began to hurt as soon as he wondered what would happen to planets (such as Earth, for instance). Would the two worlds merge, or would they appear side-by-side? At any rate, he knew that he had to stop that happening, whatever the outcome. This was a completely new kind of physics, and while the computer could not ever predict the results accurately, its best guess was as good as his, and he couldn't allow the Borg to get their collective feet in the door to their reality.
"I don't suppose anyone has any ideas on how to close this thing?" he asked, feeling a headache beginning to build. He was not surprised when his senior staff, even the redoubtable Chief O'Brien, were silent. "Alright. Dax, O'Brien: I want you to oversee the debris-sifting operation. If you find anything — computer data, drone parts, equipment, anything — that could give us a clue, call me down to the cargo bay. Dismissed."
