"And you believe she can help us?"

The shapeshifter known as Odo regarded the Vulcan captain of the Sarekar across the table of Deep Space Nine's ward room and watched her nod. They were, of course, discussing Ensign Laraque. With a possible Borg invasion being whispered over in the halls of the station, Odo was finding as many sources of help as he could. "She is an engineer. Young and inexperienced, but she displays high levels of intuition," the woman across from him remarked. "She escaped from sickbay and from the Borg. It is likely that she is intimately familiar with technology from her reality. At the very least, Ensign Laraque could assist with preparing the station for combat duty."

Odo nodded. He would never admit it, but he was becoming quite worried about the Defiant and it's absence. Every second they wasted was one more second towards the critical flow point of the dimensional conduit (whatever that was), and one more second towards a Borg cube popping through to devastate the station. It happened once in the alternate reality, and Odo had no intentions of giving the Collective a foothold in their own universe. He knew that Laraque was currently resting, so he did not press the point any further. Instead, he activated the wall display and watched sensor data flow across it, sensor data collected by the Sarekar during their brief time in this parallel universe. It appeared relatively ordinary at first. Then he saw readings for Jeraddo, and Bajor, and DS-Nine. They were all eerily similar in some fundamental way, but entirely different. Jeraddo was a class-M moon. Bajor was crawling with Borg. DS-Nine, a Borg stronghold. He shook his head slowly. "The Defiant is still overdue," he said, more to himself than to his associate, "by more than three hours now. While it is possible that they have been destroyed or assimilated, I'm not willing to accept that just yet. Odo to Ops: prepare a runabout for immediate departure, search-and-retrieve mission configuration." He paused. "Choose the best staff for the job. But…they will possibly have to face the Borg, and that means self-destruction rather than assimilation if they're cornered. Make sure they know that."

"Acknowledged, constable," the voice of some officer replied. "The Mekong will be ready to launch in four minutes. I'm informing Lieutenants Havaar and Murphy to report to runabout pad one. I'll brief them accordingly."

"Thank-you. Odo out."

He folded his arms again, a peculiarly-human gesture that he had never quite understood for himself. "I can arrange accommodation for Ensign Laraque right away."

"I do not believe that will be necessary," T'Svara replied crisply. "She is currently sleeping in guest quarters aboard my ship. And…" she hesitated, then plowed ahead, "she is adapting to the concept of an assimilated DS-Nine in her own universe. Giving her quarters here may provoke undesirable psychological reactions."

"Of course. You'll keep me posted?"

"Yes. Likewise?"

"If anything turns up, I'll let you know."

The Vulcan got out of her chair in one smooth motion and marched out of the ward room. Odo watched her leave, then keyed the controls on the central table and watched as the wall screen became dark and switched itself off. He had to think of a plan. DS-Nine was under threat, and their captain and his warship were missing in action. On top of that, there was also a Starfleet woman from another reality who lost her home. The only way out he could see was to find a way to collapse the conduit as soon as the Defiant returned.