Title: To Go Where No Bucket Has Gone Before

Spoilers: None that I know of.

Rating: G

Summary: Odo's bucket takes a trip.

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek Deep Space 9 or any of it's characters. Don't bother suing me. I have no money.

To Go Where No Bucket Has Gone Before

Miles O'Brien walked through the Promenade with a dreamy smile on his face. "Hi, Odo," he said brightly to the shapeshifting constable who was walking toward him. "Isn't it a great day? I beat Julian at darts last night and Keiko and Molly came back from Bajor. Life is perfect."

"Yeah. Maybe for you," the constable growled.

"What's up?" O'Brien asked sympathetically.

"The stars," Odo shot back sarcastically and stormed toward the turbolift.

"Missing Kira?" O'Brien called after him. Odo didn't answer and disappeared into the crowd.

The next minute someone screamed "It's a spider!" and everyone bolted. O'Brien thought he heard Quark's high pitched squeal among the scramble.

"Alone at last," Odo sighed leaning back in his chair finally able to have a moment alone. So far his day had been awful. Shapeshifting into a spider had been a last resort. He hadn't known people were so afraid of spiders.

Just as Odo was getting comfortable Commander Benjamin Sisko walked in.

"I need your help, Constable," he said.

Odo stifled a groan. "What?" he asked.

"There's a murderer loose on the station," Sisko said.

Odo reached for his combadge, hoping to dump the problem onto someone else.

"No! Don't!" Sisko said quickly. "This has to be kept quiet. Starfleet doesn't want a big deal made out of this."

Odo sighed. "What do you know about him?"

Five hours later after Odo had scurried, flowed and ran through almost every section of Deep Space 9 and finally caught the murderer, he went to his office to regenerate.

He looked everywhere for his bucket but couldn't find it. He sat down in his chair for a moment and thought about where he might have left it. Then he looked out at the stars and saw something floating by. It was shaped like his bucket.

Quark had finally done what he'd been threatening to do for the past few months. He'd thrown Odo's bucket out an airlock.

"QUARK!" Odo yelled.

THE END