"Did you hear the one about Kodos the Executioner?"
"Yeah," Jake Sisko said. "Psychotic dictator, had a ton of people killed in a eugenics plot?"
"Well, yeah," Nog agreed. "But that's not the end of it."
"I know. They thought he died, but twenty years later –"
"No, not that!" Nog said. "Everyone knows that. I mean, did you know that he haunts the galaxy now?"
"No way," Jake said. Jake didn't believe in ghosts. Much. Seventeen was too old to be scared of little kid stuff.
"Honest," Nog affirmed. "If you go into a broken holosuite and say Kodos' name three times, he'll appear."
"You don't really believe that, do you?"
"Well, no," Nog said. "But I bet Josie and Maureen will."
"I really doubt that," Jake said. Josie and Jake were sort of going out, mostly because they were the only teenage humans on Deep Space Nine; Maureen was a Dabo girl Nog had been trying to get friendly with for months.
"Maybe not, but it'll be fun to scare them, won't it?" Nog said.
"Are you nuts?"
"I'm serious," Nog said. "Uncle Quark says he rents as many scary holosuite programs as sexy ones."
"Because when the girls get scared, the guys are there to protect them?" Jake asked incredulously.
"Exactly!" Nog cried, eyes wide. "We tell the girls the story, and then convince them to sneak into the bar after closing time. We'll write a program that makes it look like Holosuite Two is broken, and it'll create Kodos when we chant his name. The girls will have a fit, and we'll be there with waiting arms to protect them!"
Jake wasn't as sure as Nog that it would work – not from the technical aspect, since Nog was a whiz with holoprograms, but rather that the girls would be all over them – but it sounded like fun, even for just a laugh.
Several nights later, the four of them snuck into the "broken" Holosuite Two. Maureen giggled on Nog's arm while Josie and Jake hung back, chatting. Even if Josie thought the gag was dumb, Jake decided that she'd be a good sport; if nothing else, it was fun sneaking around in the middle of the night.
Nog insisted that they ceremoniously stand in the middle of the room, hold hands in a circle (boy-girl-boy-girl) while they chanted "Kodos, Kodos, Kodos!"
The holosuite transformed from bare walls to an old-fashioned library with books on the walls, a fire in the fireplace, and a tall-backed chair facing away from them. Jake gaped – Nog didn't tell him he was going to write a program this involved. The chair turned around, and in it sat an old man with grey hair and mustache.
"Hello," the man said.
Maureen screamed, which caused Josie to scream, which caused Jake to yelp. Nog was silent.
"Welcome to my home," the man said. No one answered. "My name is Anton Karidian."
"Jake Sisko," Jake finally said. "This is Josie, Nog, and Maureen."
"I thought it was supposed to be Kodos," Maureen whispered to Nog.
"It is. After he escaped, he changed his name."
"Okay, nice trick, guys," Josie said. "Very funny."
Kodos looked at her curiously. "What's she talking about?"
"Okay, Jake," Josie said, "I get it. Very funny. Computer, end program." The program didn't end.
Nog looked confused.
"Would you four care for tea?" Kodos asked.
"Computer, end program," Nog said.
"Sure, tea sounds nice," Maureen said nervously. To Nog, she said, "You said the holosuite was broken," while Kodos poured tea for five.
"It isn't broken," Josie said impatiently. "They created a program to scare us." Josie rolled her eyes. "Cute, Jake," she said, "but it's the middle of the night and I'm tired, so let's turn it off, okay?"
"I didn't create this," Nog said.
"Nog, give it up. They didn't buy it," Jake said. "Computer, end program." The program remained. Kodos approached them bearing a tray with tea and smiling slightly. "Computer, delete the Kodos character," Jake said.
Kodos disappeared and the tray of teacups clattered to the floor. The four DS9ers jumped.
"Well that works," Jake said. "I wonder what else does, too. Computer, door." The door didn't appear.
"This isn't funny, Jake," Josie said, now officially annoyed. "Let us out now, or we're leaving."
"Where are you going to go?" Nog said. "We can't get out either."
The room suddenly went dark.
"Nog, that's it!" Maureen said.
"We aren't kidding," Jake said. "Really. We're stuck in here, too."
"We admit," Nog said, "The holosuite wasn't broken when we came in here."
"But now, apparently, it is," Jake finished.
"Well, go find the access panel," Maureen said.
"The what?" Jake asked.
"In every holoprogram," Nog explained, "there's a real access panel hidden somewhere, so you can manually shut off the program in an emergency."
"We're staying here by the fire," Josie said. "You guys got us into this, you can go bumbling around in the dark."
"Fine," Jake agreed. He picked up an old-fashioned lamp-thing that burned on some kind of clear liquid and he and Nog left the girls in the safety of the firelit library. "Do you have any idea where the access panel is?" Shuddering shadows danced on the walls from the heavy lamp Jake held in his shaking hand. Something thumped behind the wall – did Nog even add a thunderstorm to the program?
"It's usually hidden somewhere functional-looking, like the kitchen."
"All right," Jake said. "Where's that?"
Nog shrugged. "You're asking me? It's your holoprogram."
"Mine?" Jake said. "No it isn't. You programmed this."
Nog stopped so suddenly, Jake almost knocked into him. "No, I didn't. I programmed just Kodos to appear. I thought *you* expanded on it."
"It wasn't me," Jake said. A cold breeze slithered across the back of his neck.
The boys stared at each other in confusion for a moment before Nog said, "We better find that panel."
"And quick."
The boys followed the hallway from one room to the next, opening cabinets and closets, but finding no DS9 station panel. After some time, Nog began to notice something.
"Do you hear that?" Nog asked.
"I'm not the one with trumpets for ears," Jake said.
"It's following us."
"What is?"
"A noise. Like footsteps, sort of. On the other side of the wall."
"Your Ferengi hearing is probably just picking up noises outside the holosuite."
"I don't think so. It's always on the other side of the wall to our left. It's the same sound, no matter how far down the hallway we go."
"We aren't really walking down a hallway," Jake reminded him. "We've probably only moved about two meters in the actual holosuite."
Nog nodded reluctantly. "I guess you're right."
A thud so heavy it shook the walls echoed through the hall. Nog clapped his hands over his ears.
"Thunder," Jake said. "Just thunder."
"'It was a dark and stormy night. . . .'" Nog quoted grimly.
"It's just a holoprogram," Jake said, more to himself than to Nog. "I think I see the kitchen," Jake said.
The storm picked up as the boys searched the cupboards. Flashes of lightning gave tantalizing glimpses of tall trees and unruly bushes outside the window. The wind rattled the old windowpanes, and something kept hitting the side of the house.
"Nog," Jake said. "Have you ever heard of a broken holosuite only responding to *some* commands? Isn't it usually all or nothing."
"No," Nog said. "But then, I've never seen a holoprogram write itself, either."
"Maybe we somehow got into someone else's holoprogram," Jake said.
"Maybe," Nog admitted. But Uncle Quark kept the holoprogram chips under the bar. He turned around just as a flash of lightning cracked through the room, illuminating – "What the hell!"
Nog pointed. Kodos stood in the middle of the room.
"Where the hell did you come from?" Jake asked.
Kodos didn't answer. In a blink of lightning, the boys could see him open a drawer. It was then that Nog realized that Kodos was flat and slightly translucent.
"Looking for something?" Nog asked. "Teacups, maybe?" The lightning flashed again, and Kodos was gone.
"Where the hell is that panel?" Jake snapped.
As the boys searched the cupboards, they heard a piercing female shriek from another part of the hall. They both yelped.
"Josie?" Jake called. "Maureen?" No answer.
"Help me find the panel!" Nog cried.
Jake opened another cupboard and blessed DS9 technology appeared behind it. He hollered for Nog, who flew across the room and pounded the keypad so hard his fingers hurt.
The mansion dissipated to blank holosuite walls. The same shriek filled the room, much closer this time.
"Oh God – no!" Jake screamed.
Nog spun around to see, two meters away, Kodos, a knife to Maureen's throat, as she stood frozen, too frightened to struggle. Josie already lay on the floor in a pool of blood.
Nog and Jake leaped at Kodos, but they were too late – with a practiced,
sweeping motion, he dragged the knife across Maureen's throat. Blood sprayed
from her neck in a waterfall. She slumped to the floor. Kodos grinned at
the horrified boys, and disappeared.