Ahn of Deep Space Nine

A fan-novel, based on Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery and STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE.

DISCLAIMER: This was written solely for the sake of fun. No money is being made here, and no copyright infringement is intended. Takes place after "What You Leave Behind," the final episode of Deep Space Nine.

- - - - -

EPISODE XV
A Good Imagination Gone Wrong

Seasons of change had come once more to the planet Bajor. In the northern continents, winter gave way to the beautiful, capricious spring, while in the south, summer merged into fall with gentle breezes and bright orange sunsets. These changes did not go unnoticed on Deep Space Nine. In the Arboretum, the arbak bushes were sprouting , with little yellow blossoms pushing up from pale green buds. Further down the way, the Vulcan wildflowers blossomed out, blue and fushica stars of sweetness under their brown leaves. All the school girls and boys had one golden afternoon gathering them, coming home in the evening with arms and baskets full of flowery spoil.

"I'm so sorry for people who live in places where there are no live flowers," said Ahn. "Becky says the replicated ones never die, but there couldn't be anything better than the real thing, could there, Mr. Quark? And Becky says if they don't know what they are like they don't miss them. But I think that is the saddest thing of all. I think it would be TRAGIC, not to know what real flowers are like and NOT to miss them. Do you know what I think Vulcan wildflowers are, Mr. Quark? I think they must be the souls of the flowers that died last summer and this is their heaven. But we had a splendid time today, Mr. Quark. We had our lunch near a tiny lake... such a ROMANTIC spot. Shane Wilson dared B'Toreth to jump over it, and he did because Klingon warriors have no fear. No one else in the school would've done it. These, days, it is very FASHIONABLE to dare. Mr. Kretak gave all the flowers he found to N'arelta and I heard him to say 'beauty for beauty.' He got that out of an old Bajoran book, I know; but it shows he has some imagination. I was offered some flowers too, but I rejected them with scorn. I can't tell you the person's name because I have vowed never to let it cross my lips. Everyone made wreaths with their flowers and put them on their heads; and when the time came to go home we marched in procession down the Promenade, two by two, with our bouquets and wreaths, singing. Oh, it was so thrilling, Mr. Quark. Everyone just stopped right where they were to look at us. We made a real sensation."

"I'll bet you did!" was Quark's response.

That evening, Ahn made a necklace from her flowers. The next day, she wore it to school. As she made her way to her desk, reverent eyes gazed at her along the way.

"These days," she told Becky, "I don't really care whether Ev- whether anybody gets ahead of me in class or not. But there are times when I wake up and I feel that I care as much as ever. There's such a lot of different Ahns in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Ahn it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting."

One late afternoon in the summer, when the arbak bushes were fully blossomed, and the air was full of the savor of Andorian clover, Ahn was sitting alone in the Arboretum. She had been studying her math by the little pond, but her eyes had grown tired. She had fallen into a deep reverie, gazing deep into the pond, where the goldfish were darting about.

Presently Quark came briskly in. He spotted her, and walked over with a short sigh. He had had one of his earaches that afternoon, and although the pain had gone he felt weak and "depleted," as he expressed it. Ahn looked at him with eyes limpid with sympathy.

"I do truly wish I could have had the earache in your place, Mr. Quark. I would have endured it joyfully for your sake."

"I guess you did your part by working and letting me rest," said Quark. "You seem to be making fewer mistakes than usual. Of course it wasn't exactly necessary to polish UNDERNEATH the counter! And most people when they store live tubegrubs they place it in a refrigeration unit instead of leaving them on the table. But that doesn't seem to be your way evidently."

Earaches always left Quark somewhat sarcastic.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," said Ahn penitently. "I never thought about the tubegrubs from the moment I put them on the table till now, although I felt INSTINCTIVELY that there was something not quite right about them. When I went to set things up, they weren't very "lively." I was firmly resolved, when you left me in charge this morning, not to imagine anything, but keep my thoughts on the facts. I did pretty well until I came to the tubegrubs, and then an irresistible temptation came to me to imagine I was an enchanted princess shut up in a lonely tower with a handsome knight riding to my rescue on a coal-black steed. So that is how they came to be left on the table. I didn't know I wasn't supposed to polish underneath the counter. All the time I was working on it I was trying to think of a name for a new asteroid Becky and I had spotted with the school telescope. It's the most ravishing thing, Quark. There are two huge craters on it and a trail that is shaped just like an arrow. At last it struck me that it would be splendid to call it the Scholar's Asteroid because we found it while we were at school. Both Becky and I are very loyal to our school. But I'm sorry about that counter and those tubegrubs. I wanted to be extra good today because it's an anniversary. Do you remember what happened this day last year, Mr. Quark?"

"No, I can't think of anything special."

"Oh, Mr. Quark, it was the day I came to Deep Space Nine. I shall never forget it. It was the turning point in my life. Of course it wouldn't seem so important to you. I've been here for a year and I've been so happy. Of course, I've had my troubles, but one can live down troubles. Are you sorry you kept me, Mr. Quark?"

"No, I can't say I'm sorry," said Quark, who sometimes wondered how he could have lived before Ahn came to the station, "No, not exactly sorry. If you've finished your lessons, Ahn, I want you to run over and ask Dr. Bashir if he can give me something for my ears."

"Oh...it's...it's too late," cried Ahn.

"Too late? Why, it's just now turning into evening. And goodness knows you've run about the station often enough in the evenings."

"I'll go over early in the morning," said Ahn eagerly. "I'll get up at dawn and go, Mr. Quark."

"What's gotten into you? I need some medicine. Go NOW."

"I'll have to take the turbolift down at the other end, then," said Ahn, rising and picking up her things reluctantly.

"And waste fifteen minutes with all that walking?"

"I can't take the turbolift, Mr. Quark," cried Ahn desperately.

Quark stared. "What in the name of the Nagus is this about?"

"It's the 'Haunted Turbolift' ," said Ahn in a whisper.

"Ridiculous! There is no such thing as a 'Haunted Turbolift' anywhere. Who's been telling you this?"

"Nobody," confessed Ahn. "Becky and I just imagined the turbolift was haunted. All the places around here are so...so... COMMONPLACE. We just got this up for our own amusement. We began it last month. A haunted turbolift is so very romantic, Mr. Quark. We chose that one because it's so gloomy. Oh, we have imagined the most harrowing things. There's an unhappy borha that just makes the most horrifying cries. It appears when there has been a death on the station. And another one haunts the corner up by the Infirmary; it creeps up behind you and tightens its cold fingers on your neck- so. Oh, Mr. Quark, it gives me a shudder to think of it. And there's a headless man that stalks up and down the corridor and skeletons glower at you from the corners. Oh, Mr. Quark, I wouldn't use that turbolift for anything. I'd be sure that white things would reach out from behind the grates and grab me."

"Oh, I've never heard anything so stupid!" exclaimed Quark, who had listened in complete amazement. "You mean to tell me you believe all this?"

"Not believe EXACTLY," faltered Ahn. "At least, I don't believe it in daylight. But after dark, Mr. Quark, it's different. That is when the borhas walk."

"There are no such things as borhas, or any other kind of spirit, Ahn."

"Oh, but there are," cried Ahn eagerly. "I know people who have seen them. And they are respectable people. Rislan Dana says that her grandmother saw her grandfather in the fields one night after he'd been buried for a year. Now her grandmother wouldn't tell a story for anything. They say she's a very religious woman. And William Toliver said his brother was pursued home one night by a bolt of fire. At the time he said he thought it was the spirit of his friend and that it was a warning he would die within nine days. He didn't, but he died two years after, so you see it was really true. And Leslie Brooks says..."

"Ahn," interrupted Quark firmly, "I never want to hear you talk like this again. I've had my doubts about that imagination of yours all along, and if this is going to be the outcome of it, I won't have it. You'll go to the Infirmary, and you'll use the turbolift right over here. Let this be a lesson and a warning to you. And never let me hear a word out of your mouth about anything haunted ever again."

Ahn might plead and cry as she liked - and did, for her terror was very real. Her imagination had run away with her and she held that particular turbolift in mortal dread. But Quark was inexorable. He marched the shrinking spirit-seer down in front of it and ordered her to step into that retreat of wailing borhas and headless specters beyond.

"Oh, Mr. Quark, how can you be so cruel?" sobbed Ahn. "What would you feel like if a white thing did snatch me up and carry me off?"

"I'll risk it," said Quark unfeelingly. "You know I always mean what I say. I'll cure you of imagining things. Now move."

Ahn moved. That is, she stumbled into the turbolift and turned around, shuddering as the doors closed tightly shut before her. Ahn never forgot that ride. Bitterly did she repent the license she had given to her imagination. The goblins of her fancy lurked in every shadow about her, reaching out their cold, fleshless hands to grasp the terrified small girl who had called them into being.
A whoosh of air made her heart stand still. The sound of metal clanking brought out the perspiration in beads on her forehead. The quick flickering of lights were the actions of unholy creatures. When the doors slid open, she fled across them as if pursued by an army of white things, and arrived at the Infirmary so out of breath that she could hardly gasp out her request to Nurse Slocomb for the medicine. Dr. Bashir and Nurse Peters were not present, so she had no excuse to linger. The dreadful return journey had to be faced. Ahn entered the turbolift once more, with shut eyes, preferring to take the risk of dashing her brains out running into the door than of seeing a white thing. When she finally stumbled out she drew one long shivering breath of relief.

"So nothing caught you?" said Quark unsympathetically.

"Oh, M-M-Mr. - Quark," chattered Ahn, "I'll b-b-be contt-tented with c-c-common, everyday places after this."

- - - - -

EPISODE XVI
A New Departure in Flavorings

"Dear me, there is nothing but meetings and partings in this universe, as I remember Vedek Moriel always saying," remarked Ahn plaintively, putting her data padds down on the living room table one day after school and wiping her red eyes with her sleeve. "Wasn't it fortunate, Mr. Quark, that I wore a dress with long sleeves to school today? I had a presentiment that it would be needed."

"I didn't you liked Mr. Kretak enough to need a sleeve to cry on," Quark said.

"I don't think I was crying because I liked him," reflected Ahn. "I just cried because all the others were. It was Rislan Dana who started it. She always said she hated Mr. Kretak, but just as soon as he got up to make his farewell speech she burst into tears. Then all the other children began to cry, one after the other. I tried to hold out, though. I tried to remember the time he made me sit with Ev - with a, boy; and the time he spelled my name with too many letters on the blackboard; and how he said I was the worst dunce he ever saw at interplanetary history and laughed at my spelling; and all the times he had been so horrible and sarcastic; but somehow I couldn't, and I just had to cry too. Sitan Atla has been talking for a month about how glad she'd be when Mr. Kretak went away and she declared she'd never shed a tear. Well, she was worse than any of us and had to borrow a handkerchief from B'Toreth- of course Klingons don't cry...because she hadn't brought one of her own, not expecting to need it. Oh, Mr. Quark, it was heartrending. Mr. Kretak made such a beautiful farewell speech. The conclusion, 'Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end,' was very affecting. And he had tears in his eyes too. Oh, I felt dreadfully sorry and remorseful for all the times I'd talked in school and drawn pictures of him on my padd and made fun of him and N'aralta. I can tell you I wished I'd been a model pupil like she was. She hadn't anything on her conscience. Most of the children cried all the way home from school. Ayla Krel kept saying every few minutes, 'Every new beginning...' and that would start us off again whenever we were in any danger of cheering up. I do feel dreadfully sad, Mr. Quark. But one can't feel quite in the depths of despair when vacation is but only three months' away. And besides, we met the new teacher and her husband coming as they stepped out of the airlock. For all I was feeling so bad about Mr. Kretak going away I couldn't help taking a little interest in the new teacher, could I? They are both Trills, and her husband is very handsome. Fashionably handsome, some would even say. Dr. Bashir remembers that back when Mrs. O'Brien was teacher, fashion wasn't much of an issue. He said that Chief O' Brien practically LIVED in his uniform. Our new teacher's husband was dressed in a dark green suit with embroidered sleeves and shiny matching shoes. Rislan Dana said she thought the shoes looked too worldly for a teacher's husband, but I didn't make any such uncharitable remark, Mr. Quark, because I know what it is to long for lovely things. Besides, he's only been a teacher's husband for a little while, so one should make allowances, shouldn't they? They are going to stay in the visitor's suite until their quarters are set up."

Reda and Nami Chel were a young, pleasant-faced couple, still on their honeymoon, and full of all good and beautiful enthusiasms for their chosen lifework. Deep Space Nine opened its heart to them from the start. Old and young liked the frank, cheerful Trills with their high ideals, and with them both Ahn fell promptly and whole- heartedly in love. She had discovered two more kindred spirits.

"Mrs. Chel is perfectly lovely," Ahn announced one afternoon. "She's just a splendid teacher. She said right away she didn't think it was fair for the teacher to ask all the questions, and you know, that is exactly what I've always thought. She said we could ask her any question we liked and I asked ever so many. I'm good at asking questions, Mr. Quark."

"I believe you," Quark's emphatically replied.

"Nobody else asked any except Nio Bridel, and he asked if there were to be a school picnic again next fall. I didn't think that was a very proper question to ask because it hadn't any connection with the lesson...we were working on Vulcan history...but Mrs. Chel just smiled and said she thought there would be. Mrs. Chel has a lovely smile; she has such EXQUISITE dimples in her cheeks. I wish I had dimples in my cheeks, Mr. Quark. I'm not half so skinny as I was when I came here, but I have no dimples yet. If I had perhaps I could influence people for good. Mrs. Chel said we ought always to try to influence other people for good. She talked so nice about everything. I never knew before that history could be such a cheerful thing. I always thought it was kind of melancholy, but Mrs. Chel isn't, and I'd like to be a teacher if I could be one like her. I wouldn't want to be one like Mr. Kretak."

"Don't talk like that about the man!" said Quark severely. "Kretak Baron was a fine customer."

"I'm sure he was," agreed Ahn, "but he didn't seem to have any joy in life. If I could, I'd dance and sing all day because I was glad of it. I suppose Mr. and Mrs. Chel are too busy to dance and sing and of course it wouldn't be dignified for a teacher and her husband. But I can just feel they'd be glad to do so even if it put their reputation at stake."

"I suppose we should invite them to dinner soon," said Quark reflectively. "Afterwards, maybe I could introduce them to the Dabo wheels. Let me see. Tomorrow evening would be excellent. But don't say a word to anyone else about it. I'm sure Commander Kira and the others have been filling their minds with all kinds of exaggerated and untrue stories about my humble establishment. Now is the time to dispel them."

"I'll be as secret as the dead," assured Ahn. "But oh, Mr. Quark, will you let me make a cake for the occasion? I'd love to do something for them, and you know I can make a pretty good cake by this time."

"You can make a cake," promised Quark.

That day, great preparations went on at the bar. Having the new teacher and her husband to dinner was a serious and important undertaking, and Quark was determined not to be eclipsed. Ahn was wild with excitement and delight. She talked it all over with Becky after breakfast, as they walked across the Promenade.

"Everything is ready, Becky, except my cake which I'm to make this afternoon. I assure you, Becky, that Mr. Quark and I will have a busy day of it. It's such a responsibility having a teacher and her husband to dinner. I never went through such an experience before. You should just see the bar now. It's a sight to behold. There is a huge cheese tray and a jumja basket. We will also have Chicken Picatta, then Bolian ochre salad and Klingon Blood Pie. We're to have two kinds of drinks, fruit punch and Romulan ale. Mr. Quark says Trills have a high tolerance for liquor, but I don't think the Chels has been drinking long enough for this rule to apply. I just grow cold when I think of my layer cake. Oh, Becky, what if it shouldn't be good! I dreamed last night that I was chased all around by a fearful spirit with a big layer cake for a head."

"It'll be good, for sure," assured Becky, who was a very comfortable sort of friend. "I couldn't get enough of the one you made for lunch two weeks ago."

"Yes; but cakes have such a terrible habit of turning out bad just when you especially want them to be good," sighed Ahn, stopping long enough to watch a comet pass. "However, I suppose I shall just have to trust the Prophets and be careful to put in the flour. Oh, look, Becky, what a lovely view! Do you suppose the spirits will come out after we go away and ride upon it?"

"You know there is no such thing as spirits," said Becky. Becky's mother had found out about the 'Haunted Turbolift' and had been decidedly angry over it. As a result Becky had abstained from any further imitative flights of imagination and did not think it prudent to cultivate belief even in harmless spirits.

"But it's so easy to imagine there is," said Ahn. "Every night before I go to bed, I look out of my window and wonder if they are really sitting here, combing their locks with the stars for a mirror. Sometimes I look for traces of them them in the dust clouds. Oh, Becky, don't give up your faith in the spirits!"

Ahn returned to her quarters two hours later. She felt some slight swelling in her sinuses which had came about from building snowmen in the holosuite the preceding evening; but nothing short of absolute paralysis could have quenched her interest in culinary matters that morning. She proceeded to make her cake, and when she finally shut the oven door upon it she drew a long breath.

"I'm sure I haven't forgotten anything this time, Mr. Quark. But do you think it will rise? Just suppose perhaps the baking powder isn't good? I used a fresh package, but these days, what does that mean? Dr. Bashir says you can never be sure of getting fresh food nowadays since everything is so adulterated. Dr. Bashir says the Government ought to take the matter up, but he says we'll never see the current officials doing that. Mr. Quark, what if that cake doesn't rise?"

"We'll have plenty without it" was Quark's unimpassioned way of looking at the subject.

The cake did rise, however, and came out of the oven as light and feathery as golden foam. Ahn, flushed with delight, clapped it together with layers of Vulcan root jelly and, in imagination, saw Mr. and Mrs. Chel eating it and possibly asking for another piece!

"You'll be using the second-best dishes, of course, Mr. Quark," she said, following him to the bar.

"Can I fix the table with ferns and wild pansies?"

"I think that's all nonsense," sniffed Quark. "In my opinion it's the food that matters and not a bunch of ridiculous decorations."

"The tables at the Replimat are decorated," said Ahn, who was not entirely guiltless of the wisdom of the serpent, "and Mr. Chel made an elegant compliment. It was simple, but he said it was a feast for the eyes."

"Well, do what you want," said Quark, who was quite determined not to be surpassed by the Replimat or anybody else. "Just leave enough room for the dishes and the food."

Having abundance of wild pansies and ferns and a very artistic taste of her own, Ahn made that bar table such a thing of beauty that when the Reda and Nami Chel sat down to it they exclaimed in chorus over it loveliness.

"It's Ahn's doing," said Quark, grimly just; and Ahn felt the approving smiles were almost too much happiness for this world.

All went merry as a marriage bell until Ahn's layer cake was passed. Reda, having already been helped to a bewildering variety, declined it. But Quark, seeing the disappointment on Ahn's face, said smilingly:

"Oh, you must take a piece of this, Mrs. Chel. Ahn made it just for you."

"In that case, I MUST sample it," laughed Reda, helping herself to a plump triangle, as did also her husband and Quark. Reda took a mouthful of hers and a most peculiar expression crossed her face; not a word did she say, however, but steadily ate away at it. Quark saw the expression and hastened to taste the cake.

"Kor Ahn!" he exclaimed, "what in the universe did you put into this cake?"

"Nothing but what the recipe said, Mr. Quark," cried Ahn with a look of anguish. "Oh, isn't it all right?"

"All right...it's horrible! Don't anyone try to eat it. Ahn, taste it yourself. What did you put in this?

"Vanilla," said Ahn, her face scarlet with mortification after tasting the cake. "Only the finest vanilla, straight from Earth. Oh, Mr. Quark, it must have been the baking powder. I had my suspicions of that bak-"

"Baking powder my lobes! Go and bring me the bottle you used."

Ahn fled to the pantry and returned with a small bottle partially filled with a yellowy brown liquid labeled, 'Vanilla.' Quark took it, uncorked it, smelled it.

"Ahn, you've flavored that cake with MY EARACHE MEDICATION. I broke the bottle by accident and had to pour what was left into this old empty bottle here. I guess I should've told you, but for Nagus' sake why couldn't you have smelled it?"

Ahn dissolved into tears under this double disgrace.

"I couldn't...I had such a swollen nose!" and with this she fairly fled to her quarters, where she cast herself on the bed and wept as one who refuses to be comforted.

Presently a light step sounded on the stairs and somebody entered the room.

"Oh, Mr. Quark," sobbed Ahn, without looking up, "I'm disgraced forever. I shall never be able to live this down. It will get out...things always do get out on Deep Space Nine. Becky will ask me how my cake turned out and I shall have to tell her the truth. I shall always be pointed at as the girl who flavored a cake with ear medicine. Ev- the children in school will never stop laughing about it. Oh, Mr. Quark, if you have a spark of pity in you don't tell me that I must go back in after this. I'll return to clean up after the teacher and her husband are gone, but I cannot ever look them in the face again. Perhaps they think I tried to poison them. But that ear medicine isn't poisonous. It's meant to be taken internally, although not in cakes. Won't you tell them so, Mr. Quark?"

"Suppose you jump up and tell her so yourself," said a merry voice.

Ahn flew up, to find Mr. and Mrs. Chel standing by her bed, surveying her with laughing eyes.

"My dear, you musn't cry like this," Reda said, genuinely disturbed by Ahn's tragic face.

"Why, it's a mistake that anyone could make."

"Oh, no, it takes me to make such a mistake," said Ahn forlornly. "And I wanted to have that cake so nice for you both."

"Yes, we know, dear," Nami added. "And we assure you that we appreciate your kindness and thoughtfulness just as much as if it had turned out all right. Now, you mustn't cry any more, but come down with us to enjoy the rest of the dinner. Quark tells me you laid out all the decorations. I want to know how you did it, for I'm very much interested in flowers."

Ahn permitted herself to be led down and comforted, reflecting that it was really providential that the Chels were kindred spirits. Nothing more was said about the medicine cake, and when the guests departed Ahn found that she had enjoyed the evening more than could have been expected, considering that terrible incident. Nevertheless, she sighed deeply.

"Mr. Quark, isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?"

"I'll bet you'll make up for it soon enough," said Quark. "I've never seen anyone with a streak like yours."

"Yes, I know," admitted Ahn mournfully. "But have you ever noticed one encouraging thing about me? I never make the same mistake twice."

- - - - -

EPISODE XVII
Ahn Comes to Grief in an Affair of Honor

Almost a month had passed since the cake episode, time enough it seemed for Ahn to make whole new sets of mistakes, such as dropping a tray full of wine glasses in the bar and slamming into the abdomen of the Klingon Ambassador while turning the corner wrapped in an imaginative reverie.

Then at school, there was news of another party.

"Small and select," Ahn pointed out to Quark. "Just the honors students in our class."

They had a very good time and, on the way home that evening, the students found themselves on the third level of the Promenade, full from all the cake and candy, and ripe for any enticing form of mischief which might present itself. This presently took the form of "daring."

Daring was the current trend among the youth of Deep Space Nine. It began that spring among the boys, but soon spread to the girls, and by the end of the year the records of ridiculous things that resulted was enough to fill a library.

First of all Rislan Dana dared Leslie Brooks to hop on her left leg once down the circular path without stopping once or putting her right foot to the ground. Miss Brooks gamely tried to comply, but gave out on the third attempt and had to confess herself defeated. Then Shidra Cadai dared Lee Han to eat a plate full of Klingon Serpent Worms. He did, albeit in mortal dread of the slithery long creatues who seemed to have neither a beginning nor an end.

Lee's triumph being rather more pronounced than good taste permitted, Ahn dared him to ride the turbolift down while standing on his head. Now to ride a turbolift down while standing on your head with a full stomach requires more skill and steadiness of head and heel than one might suppose who has never tried it. Yet before Lee could answer to her challenge, a far more daring one had been posed.

After looking to his left and his right, Alojza Schumann climbed on top of protective railing that bordered the edge of the Promenade. With both arms outstretched, he then took five steps forward. All the while, the expression on his face seemed to imply that a little thing like that wasn't even worth a "dare." Reluctant admiration greeted his exploit, for most of the other children could appreciate it, having suffered many things themselves in their efforts to balance. Alojza descended from the railing, flushed with victory, and darted a defiant glance at Ahn.

Ahn tossed her red braids.

"I don't think that's such a very wonderful thing," she said. "Anyone can walk a straight line."

"I don't believe it," said Alojza flatly. "I don't believe just anybody could walk a railing that high. YOU couldn't, anyhow."

"Oh, really?" Ahn blurted.

"Then I dare you to do it," said Alojza defiantly. "I dare you to climb up there and walk the top of that railing five steps."

Ahn turned pale, but there was clearly only one thing to be done. She walked toward the edge of the Promenade. After making sure no one else was around, she slowly climbed to the top of the railing. All the children said, "Oh!" partly in excitement, partly in dismay.

"Don't do it, Ahn," Becky Peters cried. "You'll fall and break your neck!"

"I must do it. My honor is at stake," said Ahn with determination. She looked down, then quickly looked back up.

Even Tared Evron could not stand to see what was happening. "It isn't a fair contest, Ahn. Alojza's family is in the circus. He's been doing this since he could crawl!"

"I shall walk those five steps, or perish in the attempt. If I am killed then let it be said that I'm not a coward."

Ahn stretched out both arms, then took the first two steps amid breathless silence. After a pause, she took two more, balancing herself uprightly on that precarious footing. She was dizzily conscious of the fact that walking railings was not a thing in which your imagination helped you out much.

Just as she was about to take that final step the catastrophe came. In one quick movement Ahn swayed, lost her balance, stumbled, staggered, and slipped. All the children could do is give a simultaneous, terrified shriek.

If Ahn had fallen straight down, every bone in her small body would have shattered upon impact with the ground. But as she fell, Ahn had somehow managed to get caught in one of the huge cloth banners suspended from the ceiling. She dangled a few seconds by the waist before the fabric gave way, but the fall therefrom was a much less serious thing.

Nevertheless, Becky, Evron and the other children rushed frantically to the lowest level - except Alojza Schumann, who remained as if rooted to the ground - they found Ahn lying all ashen and limp among the swirl of torn fabric and wires.

"Ahn is dead!" shrieked Becky, falling on her knees beside her friend. "And now, she will haunt the Promenade!"

To the immense relief of all the children, who, in spite of lack of imagination, had been seized with horrible visions of a future branded as murderers, Ahn sat dizzily up and answered uncertainly:

"No, Becky, I am not dead, but I think I am rendered unconscious."

"Where?" sobbed Rislan Dana. "Oh, where, Ahn?"

Before Ahn could answer a security team appeared on the scene. At sight of the officers Ahn tried to scramble to her feet, but sank back again with a sharp cry of pain.

"Are you kids crazy?" demanded one of the officers.

"Oh my legs," gasped Ahn. "Sir, please contact Mr. Quark and ask him to bring me home. I know I can never walk there. And I'm sure I couldn't hop so far on one foot when Leslie couldn't even hop across the Promanade."

Quark was in his quarters, adding up the day's profits, when Dr. Bashir summoned him to the Infirmary.

As he entered, Security Chief Jackson and a whole procession of school children were crowded in the waiting room. The atmosphere was one of grim silence. At that very moment, Quark had a revelation. In the sudden stab of fear that pierced his heart he realized what Ahn had come to mean to him. He would have admitted that he liked Ahn - rather, that he was very fond of Ahn. But now he knew as he rushed into the treatment area that Ahn was more valuable to him than anything in this universe.

"What's going on here?" he gasped, approaching the first bed. In it, Ahn lay, eyes closed and still. Her face was bruised, and there were casts on both her legs.

Dr. Bashir pulled him to the side. "It seems that Ahn here fell from the third level of the Promenade. She's banged herself up quite a bit. She suffered a concussion, and she's broken both her legs."

Quark let out a low moan. Just then, Ahn's eyes flew open. "Oh Mr. Quark," she whispered.

"Please don't cry. I will be all fixed in no time. We must look on the bright side of things. At least it wasn't my neck."

"I should have known that you'd go and do something crazy," said Quark, drawing away in relief and disgust.

All of a sudden, Ahn went completely limp. Overcome by the pain and embarassment, Ahn had fainted dead away.

When Quark came to bring her home the next morning, a plaintive voice greeted him from the bed.

"Aren't you very sorry for me in the least?"

"It was your own fault," said Quark, folding his arms incredulously.

"And that is just why you should be sorry for me," said Ahn, "because the thought that it is all my own fault is what makes it so hard. If I could blame it on anybody I would feel so much better. But what would you have done if you had been dared to walk the railing?"

"I'd have stayed on good firm ground and let them dare away. Anyway, it's not like they offered you any money to do it!" said Quark.

Ahn sighed.

"But you have such strength of mind," Ahn said. "I haven't. I just felt that I couldn't bear everyone's scorn. This would have hung over me all my life. And I think I have been punished so much that you needn't be very cross with me. It's not very dignified to faint, after all. And it hurt dreadfully, even after Dr. Bashir fixed me up. I won't be able to go anywhere for three weeks and I'll miss the new teacher. She won't be new any more by the time I'm able to go to school. And Evr- everybody will get ahead of me in class. Oh, I am an afflicted mortal. But I'll try to bear it all bravely if only you won't be angry with me."

"It's not that I'm angry," said Quark. "It's just that...oh, forget it. Let's go."

"Isn't it fortunate I've got such an imagination?" said Ahn. "It will help me through splendidly, I expect. What do people who haven't any imagination do when they break their bones, do you suppose, Mr. Quark?"

Ahn had good reason to bless her imagination many a time and oft during the tedious twenty-one days that followed. But she was not solely dependent on it. She had many visitors and not a day passed without one or more of her classmates dropping in to bring her flowers and books and tell her all the station happenings.

"Everybody has been so good and kind, Mr. Quark," sighed Ahn happily, on the day when she could first limp across the floor. "It isn't very pleasant to be laid up; but there is a bright side to it. You find out how many friends you have. Why, even Vedek Moriel from the asylum sent me a message, and he's really a very fine man. Not quite a kindred spirit, of course; but still I like him and I'm awfully sorry I ever criticized his prayers. I told him how hard I tried to make my own little private prayers interesting. He told me all about the time he broke his ankle when he was a boy. It does seem so strange to think of Vedek Moriel ever being a boy. Even my imagination has its limits, for I can't imagine THAT. When I try to imagine him as a boy I see him with gray hair and wrinkles, just as he looked when I last saw him, only smaller. Now, it's much easier to imagine Commander Kira as a little girl. She has been to see me three times. Isn't that something to be proud of? When the station commander has so many claims on her time! She is such a cheerful person to have visit you, too. She never pointed her finger or said I was to blame for anything. Nurse Peters kept saying that when she came to see me; and she said it in a kind of way that made me feel she might hope I'd be a better girl but didn't quite really believe I would. Even Evr- even Evron came to see me. I received him as politely as I could, because even he tried to warn me. If I had been killed he too would have had to carry a dark burden of remorse all his life. Becky has been a faithful friend. She's been over every day to cheer my lonely pillow. But oh, I shall be so glad when I can go to school for I've heard such exciting things about the new teacher. The girls all think Mrs. Chel is perfectly sweet. Becky says she wears her hair in the most fascinating ways. Oh, and she has the class to write and put on plays. Oh, it's just glorious to think of it. Now, Becky's mother says she never heard of such goings on, but I think it's splendid and I believe even more that she is a kindred spirit."

"One thing's for certain," Quark concluded as Ahn went on, "the fall hasn't injured her tongue at all."

- - - - -

EPISODE XVIII
The Play's Not the Thing

Once Ahn returned to school, she did indeed find in the new teacher another true and helpful friend.

Mrs. Chel was a bright, sympathetic young woman with the gift of winning and holding the affections of her pupils and bringing out the best that was in them mentally and morally. Ahn expanded like a flower under this wholesome influence and carried home to Quark glowing accounts of schoolwork and aims.

"I love Mrs. Chel with my whole heart, Mr. Quark. She has such a sweet voice. When she pronounces my name it is almost like a song. We had recitations this afternoon. I just wish you could have been there to hear me recite my scene from Shakespere's Hamlet. I just put my whole soul into it. Becky Peters told me coming home that the way I said the line, 'For in that sleep of death what dreams may come; when we have shuffled off this mortal coil; must give us pause,' just made her blood run cold."

"Well, maybe you can recite more of it after the bar closes," suggested Quark.

"Of course I will," said Ahn meditatively, "but I won't be able to do it so well, I know. It won't be as exciting as it is when you have a whole schoolful before you hanging breathlessly on your words. I know I won't be able to make your blood run cold."

"Chief I'tanij said it made HER blood run cold to let you children come into Engineering for a tour last week," said Quark. "I guess Mrs. Chel encouraged Commander Kira to sign for it."

"She thought it was a good idea for us to learn more about how the station works," explained Ahn.

"That was on our field trip. Field trips are splendid, Mr. Quark. And Mrs. Chel explains everything so beautifully. We have to write reports on our field trips and I write the best ones."

"It's very vain of you to say so then. You'd better let your teacher say it."

"But she DID say it, Mr. Quark. And indeed I'm not vain about it. How can I be, when I'm such a dunce at calculus? Although I'm really beginning to see through it a little, too. Mrs. Chel makes it so clear. Still, I'll never be good at it and I assure you it is a humbling reflection. But I love writing reports. Usually, Mrs. Chel lets us choose our own subjects; but next week we are to write a report on some remarkable person. It's hard to choose among so many remarkable people who have lived. Mustn't it be splendid to be remarkable and have reports written about you after you're dead? Oh, I would dearly love to be remarkable. I think when I grow up I'll be a doctor in the Medical Corps and go with the soldiers to the fields of battle as a messenger of mercy. That is, if I don't go out as a missionary. That would be very romantic, but one would have to be very pious to be a missionary, and that would be a stumbling block. We have physical education every day, too. Mrs. Chel says that proper exercise makes one graceful and promotes long life."

"Promote my lobes!" said Quark, who honestly thought it was all nonsense.

But all the field trips and recitations and physical education paled before a project which Mrs. Chel assigned the next month. This was that the scholars of Deep Space Nine should put on a play and hold it in the Ampitheatre, for the purpose of uplifting station morale. The students one and all took graciously to the plan, and the preparations for a program were begun at once. And of all the excited performers-elect none was so excited as Kor Ahn, who threw herself into the undertaking heart and soul, hampered as she was by Quark's disapproval. He thought it all unprofitable foolishness.

"It's just filling your head up with nonsense and taking time that should be spent working," he grumbled. "I don't approve of children making so much effort with no profit being gained."

"But there is profit," pleaded Ahn. "Not in money, but in spirit. This concert will cultivate good-will."

"Ha! There's little good-will in the thoughts of any of you. All you want is a good time."

"Well, when you can combine good-will and fun, isn't that just fine? Of course it's real nice to be putting on a play. It is called "The Warrior King" and it is based on an ancient Andorian fairy tale. There will be five acts and Rislan Dana will be the director. I'm one of the actors. I just tremble when I think of it, but it's a nice thrilly kind of tremble. I'm going to go practice my lines in my room. Don't be alarmed if you hear me groaning. I have to groan wrenchingly in one of them, and it's really hard to get up a good artistic groan. William Toliver is angry because he didn't get the part he wanted. He wanted to be the warrior king. That would have been ridiculous, for who ever heard of a warrior king as short as William? Warrior kings must be tall and broad. B'Toreth is to be the warrior king and I am to be one of his ministers. William says he thinks a red-haired minister is just as ridiculous as a short warrior king, but I do not let myself mind what he says. I'm even to have a long robe. It's necessary for ministers to have long robes, you know. We are going to decorate the Ampitheatre with banners and we are all to march in two by two after the audience is seated, while Becky plays a march on the piano. Oh, Mr. Quark, I know you are not so enthusiastic about it as I am, but don't you hope your little Ahn will distinguish herself?"

"I just hope that you behave yourself. I'll be glad when all this is over and you settle back down. You're no good to me while your head's stuffed full of dialogues and groans."

Ahn sighed and went on with Quark as he locked up for the evening. " I guess it's going to be a big event," he said, turning off all the lights. And I know you'll do fine," he said, smiling down into her eager, vivacious little face. Ahn smiled back at him. "It'll be a wonder though," he thought to himself. "if after this your tongue won't be completely worn out."

- - - - -

EPISODE XIX
Quark and The Deal With The Dress

Quark was having a bad time of it. He had come home after work, with the intention of having a quiet night's rest, only to find Ahn and a bevy of her schoolmates having a practice of "The Warrior King" in the living room. Presently they were marching around the room, laughing and chattering gaily. They did not see Quark, who quickly shrank into the shadows beyond. He watched them quietly for the next ten minutes as they put on their capes and picked up their swords and talked about the dialogue and the concert. Ahn stood among them, bright eyed and animated as they; but Quark suddenly became conscious that there was something very different about her. And what worried Quark was that the difference impressed him as being something that should not exist. Ahn had a brighter face, and bigger, starrier eyes, and more delicate features than the other; even the usually unobservant Quark had learned to take note of these things; but the difference that disturbed him did not consist in any of these respects. Then in what did it consist?

Quark was haunted by this question long after her schoolmates had gone, and Ahn had returned to her books. He didn't think he could talk with Nog about it. Besides, he'd probably say that the only difference there was between Ahn and the other girls was that they sometimes kept their tongues quiet while Ahn never did. This, Quark felt, would be no great help.

He mulled over it for several hours, with the help of some beetle snuff and a few glasses of Sorian Brandy. Then, in a flash, Quark arrived at a solution. Ahn was not dressed like the other girls!

The more Quark thought about the matter the more he was convinced that Ahn never really had been dressed like the other girls- never since she had come to Deep Space Nine. While he went about in expensive, brightly-patterned suits, Ahn's attire consisted of dull-colored dresses all in the same unvarying style. He recalled the cluster of little girls he had seen around her that evening- parading around in outfits of red and blue and pink and white and all sorts of patterns in between. He began to wonder why he had been keeping her so plainly and soberly garbed for so long.

Of course, Quark's reasons were at first practical. He did not know he was getting a female, and he did not know how long she would stay. But it was well over a year now, high time to get the child a new wardrobe - dresses and boots like Becky Peters always wore. Quark decided that he would do this as a surprise. The play was only a fortnight off, and this would make a nice present for a job well done. Quark, with a sigh of satisfaction, went to bed, while Ahn studied in her room a few hours more.

The very next morning Quark contacted several stores inside and outside the station. After much cogitation, Quark resolved to go local. In contrast, the Peters always had always ordered from Blair's Outfitters on Earth. But Quark held catalogs and sub-space ordering in mortal dread. Everything was done from a distance, there were no live clerks, and absolutely no negotiation over price. No, in matters such as these, requiring explanation and consultation, Quark needed to deal with a real live person behind a store counter. So he went to Hardeth's on level three, where the Bajoran owner or his son would wait on him.

Alas! Quark did not know that the owner, in the recent expansion of his business, had hired a new lady clerk. She was a Klingon and a very dashing young person indeed, with wild wavy brown hair, and a most extensive smile. She was dressed with exceeding smartness and wore several bangle bracelets that glittered and rattled and tinkled with every movement of her hands. Quark was covered with confusion at finding her there at all; and those bangles completely wrecked his wits at one fell swoop.

"What do you need, Ferengi?" the Klingon inquired, briskly and ingratiatingly, tapping the counter with both hands.

"Have you any...any...any...self-sealing stembolts?" stammered Quark.

The Klingon looked somewhat surprised, as well she might, to hear a man inquiring for self-sealing stembolts in a clothing store.

"In case you haven't noticed," she replied bluntly. "this is a CLOTHING store."

"I'm well aware of that," Quark shot back. "Ships stores are clean out. Would you happen to have some?"

"We might have a few we could part with," she said, "but they're in the stockroom. I'll go and see."

During her absence, Quark collected his scattered senses for another effort. When she returned with the bolts, she grudingly asked if there would be anything else. Quark took his courage in both hands and replied: "Well now, since you suggest it, I might as well... take...that is...look at...buy a...flux capacitor."

The Klingon had once heard people refer to Quark as 'odd.' She now concluded that he was entirely crazy.

"We are NOT a tool shop," she growled. "We are a CLOTHING store."

"Oh, certainly...certainly...just as you say," stammered unhappy Quark, seizing the bolts and making for the door.

It was several hours before Quark felt he was his own man again. It had been a gruesome experience, but it served him right, he thought, for committing the heresy of trying to buy children's clothing. When he reached the bar he tossed the bolts into a box behind the counter.

"Self-sealing stembolts!" exclaimed Nog. "What do you need with those?"

"Thought it might come in handy sometime," said Quark, making good his escape.

When Quark came to think the matter over he decided that a younger mind was required to cope with the situation. To his nephew he turned accordingly, and he promptly took the matter out of his harassed uncle's hands.

"Pick out a wardrobe for Ahn? Sure I guess. But I don't know why you just don't let her do it herself. Well, anyway, I'll see to it when I get off duty tomorrow. Have you something particular in mind? No? Well, I'll just go by my own judgment then."

"Well now, that will be fine," said Quark, "and- I'd like- from what I've seen, girls like wearing things with all kinds of bright colors. If it wouldn't be asking too much- better get something bright."

"Sure, Uncle Quark. I'll get all the latest fashions," said Nog. To himself he added when Quark had gone:

"It'll be nice to see her wearing something decent for once. The way Uncle dresses her is a real shame, and I've been dying for him to do something about it."

The day before the play, school was dismissed early. Ahn returned home to find an array of new outfits fanned out on her bed. At first, Ahn went from item to item, looking on in reverent silence. Oh, how pretty it all was - a fuschia print dress with ruffles and the gloss of silk; another dress embroidered at the collar and the edges; a purple jumpsuit for climbing and playing; even a warm velvety coat for trips away from the station.

"That's a present for you, Ahn," said Quark almost shyly. "Well, don't you like it?"

For Ahn's eyes had suddenly filled with tears.

"Like it! Oh, Mr. Quark!" Ahn ran to him, clasping her hands. "It's perfectly exquisite. Oh, I can never thank you enough. Oh, it seems to me this must be a happy dream."

Ahn went to hug him, but Quark quickly diverted her. " Well...uh...I'd better let you get ready for the play. "

The play was performed that evening and was a pronounced success. The Ampitheatre was quite crowded, and all the performers did excellently well. Though Ahn was not the lead actor, to Quark, she was the bright particular star of the occasion.

"Oh, hasn't it been a brilliant evening?" sighed Ahn, when it was all over and she and Becky were walking home together.

"Everything went off very well," said Becky practically. "I guess we must have made an impression on everyone. Jake Sisko even said that he would put a good review in the paper."

"Oh, Becky, will we really see our names in print? It makes me thrill to think of it. Your score was perfectly elegant, Becky. I felt prouder than you did when we were encored. I just said to myself, 'It is my dear bosom friend who is so honored.'"

"Well, you just brought down the house, Ahn. That dying scene of yours was simply splendid."

"Oh, I was so nervous, Becky. When Mrs. Chel motioned for me to go on I really cannot tell how I ever got up the courage. I felt as if a million eyes were looking at me and through me, and for one dreadful moment I was sure I couldn't begin at all. Then I thought of all the gifts I have received. I knew I had to live up to those gifts, Becky. So I started in, and my voice seemed to be coming from ever so far away. I just felt like a parrot. It's providential that I practiced my lines so often, or I'd never have been able to get through. Did I groan all right?"

"Yes, indeed, you groaned lovely," assured Becky.

"Dr. Bashir led a standing ovation when the curtains fell. It was splendid to think I had touched somebody's heart. It's so romantic to take part in the theatre, isn't it? Oh, it's been a very memorable occasion indeed."

"Wasn't B'Toreth's dialogue gripping?" said Becky. "And Tared Evron was splendid. Ahn, I do think it's awful mean the way you treat him. Wait till I tell you. When you stepped out on the stage during the third act, one of the pins fell out of your hair. I saw Evron pick it up and put it in his breast pocket. There now. You're so romantic that I'm sure you ought to be pleased at that."

"It's nothing to me what that person does," said Ahn loftily. "I simply never waste a thought on him, Becky."

That night, Dr. Bashir stopped by Quark's quarters after Ahn had gone to bed.

"Well now, Ahn did a spendid job this evening," he said.

"Yes, she did," Quark proudly replied. "She's a bright child, and she looked real nice too. I've been kind of opposed to this play scheme, but I suppose there's no real harm in it after all. Anyhow, I was proud of Ahn tonight, although I'm not going to tell her so."

"Well now, I was proud of her and I did tell her so before she went home," said Julian. "You know Quark, you really should start thinking more about her future. Soon enough, she's going to graduate from the station school. What will become of her then?"

"There's plenty of time to think of that," said Quark. "I suppose when the time comes, she can get her own quarters here on the station and work for me full-time. If not, she may want to go one of the Bajoran universities. She could get a scholarship."

"Or maybe she'll join Starfleet," Julian added.

Quark shot him a deadly glance. "There's really no point in thinking about these kinds of things right now. Hard enough thinking about tomorrow as it is."