Chapter Six

"Constable!" The voice echoed to him from across the Promenade. "Constable, wait up!"

Odo turned around, the permanent scowl on his face growing deeper at the sight of the Ferengi. Quark ran through the throng of people, the lights from the Promenade glinting off his green and silver checked tunic. He stopped when he reached the waiting Constable, his breath coming out in sharp, hitching gasps.

"I'm busy, Quark," Odo said, peering down at the smaller man. Quark looked up at the shape shifter, a pained expression on his rodent-like features.

"This is important," Quark squealed around pointy teeth. "I need to report a missing person."

"I already have a growing list of missing people, thank you. What happened, lost another customer in one of your holosuites again?" Odo asked.

"No, it's my brother, Rom. He hasn't shown up for his shift." Quark grabbed Odo by the arm. "He's three minutes late and it's costing me money."

"Three minutes is hardly an emergency, Quark," Odo growled.

"It is to me," Quark snapped back. "I have well paying customers walking out. Now I demand-" he began but never finished his sentence. Odo's hand shot out and grabbed the Ferengi by the throat.

"I have bigger things to worry about than your missing brother, who's probably just fallen asleep on the job again and is lying curled up in some conduit. Now if you'll excuse me-" Odo began but the rest of the sentence never made it. There was a slight rumble along the floor of the Promenade, and then suddenly all the lights went out.

-----

"Benjamin, check this out."

Sisko walked down and stood behind Dax's station. "What have you got for me, old man?" he asked, laying a hand across the back of Dax's chair.

"I've downloaded the DNA sample from Doctor Bashir into the computer and routed it through the station's sensor net. The station's computers are now able to identify these life forms. With any luck, we should be able to pinpoint exactly where these creatures are."

"Good work, Dax," Sisko said. He was about to ask her to bring up the sensor scans when the lights around Ops flickered once and then blinked out. A moment later the consoles blinked back to life, and the lights slowly came back up around the room.

"Report," Sisko said, watching the readings flood across Dax's screen. The Trill's fingers flew over the console, trying to keep up with the scroll of information pouring over the screen.

"One of the power transfer conduits for the reactor core just went off-line," Dax said. Sisko frowned. There were six fusion chambers in the station's reactor core. Each chamber was connected to a transfer conduit that fed power directly into the station's EPS grid. When Starfleet took the station over from the Cardassians, the Corps of Engineers went over the reactor with a fine-tooth comb, and found two of the chambers structurally unsound for operation. As a result, the station ran on only four of the six fusion chambers. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but when one went off-line it caused a dangerous power drain on the system.

"We've still got three conduits working, but there was a system wide disruption when the power transferred over," Dax said. "I'll get a maintenance crew on it immediately."

"Belay that," Sisko said. He reached over and patted Dax on the shoulder. "I'll go down there myself. If my station's going to fall apart, I need to be the one doing something about it."

Sisko turned to the Klingon standing off to the side. "Mr. Worf, you're with me. Dax, have Odo meet us on the Promenade." Jadzia nodded as Sisko and Worf headed onto the turbolift and out of Ops.

-----

The Queen settled into her place against the side of the wall. The shards of the broken structure behind her scrapped across her exoskeleton but she paid it no mind. The pain was insignificant. She had found a warm, dark place in which to hide her children; soon now, her offspring would be born and the cycle would begin. Already she had found three hosts suitable for her offspring and more would follow. Sudden pain gripped her midsection, a wracking spasm that ran from her abdomen to her thorax, but that also was insignificant. It just meant that more of her children were ready to be born. One of the hosts along the far wall howled in agony. It was the rodent-like one with the sharp teeth; the other two had long since expired. She was amazed at the hosts' resilience; most creatures wouldn't survive this long. Still, it didn't much matter. Soon the hosts' would be dead and her children would once again be free. And then the hunt could begin.