Author's Note: I would like to thank all my reviewers, especially the regular ones. You guys rock. SpaceRoses: I'd really like to say thanks for your review of A Dagger I See Before Me, too. I tried to email you about it, but I don't think it worked. Also, if anyone is interested in being a beta reader, I don't have one, and I think I'd like one for this story.

3

The transporter deposited them several meters from the river's edge, on a sandy bank. Narayan had her tricorder out almost immediately and was scanning the area as Bashir looked around, gauging their situation.

"One hundred and sixty-eight kilometers, roughly," she reported.

"Good," the doctor said.

"We'll stick to the banks where we can; where we can't, we'll follow any game or pack trails. There's bound to be some running along the river. You should walk in front. With your eyesight, you'll be better at picking up the trail and keeping us on it. And picking up anything else I might not see. We'll walk until an hour before dark, then break and make camp so we have enough time to find food," Narayan said, then looked suddenly shocked. "I'm sorry, sir, you're the senior officer. I shouldn't be giving orders. Our path is, of course, up to you."

Bashir glanced around, gesturing widely with his arms in an attempt to capture the vast landscape.

"I think we don't need to hold much with rank here," he said. "You seem to know what you're doing, so I'm happy to follow your lead."

She nodded, looking satisfied, and Bashir found himself wondering about her. A pilot? She seemed more like a survivalist. He would have been able to keep himself alive, of course, and probably made it to the settlement as well, but Narayan seemed completely in her element here. How many pilots, he wondered, were so used to being in the middle of nowhere? He realized he knew almost nothing about her, not even her age. It was disconcerting to be so dependent on such an utter stranger.

"Shall we?", Narayan asked, breaking through his thoughts.

Bashir nodded, adjusted his pack slightly, and set off in front of her, heading downstream. They walked all day, stopping only for a lunch of cold river water and Starfleet rations. Bashir stayed in front the whole time, setting their path. He had a feeling Narayan wasn't keeping him in front just because his eyesight was better. He felt as if she wanted to keep an eye on him. Well, he thought with an inward sigh, Maybe I can't blame her. There was a time when a woman wasn't necessarily safe with a strange man. So he headed up their tiny expedition without complaint. The walking was difficult in some areas, where the banks of the river were steep and they were forced to retreat to the uneven forest terrain. At other times, it was laughably simple, level and right alongside the rushing water.

Narayan called a halt about an hour before the sun set, just as she promised. Gratefully, Bashir let his pack slump to the forest floor; they had decided to camp in the trees so as to be less exposed to the elements and any predators.

"All right, let's set up first," Narayan said, and Bashir noted to himself how easily she took charge. Perhaps it was the pilot's training, with the need to be in control of a ship, or perhaps it was just how she worked.

She felled five small trees with her phaser, and then set him to work helping her strap the trunk of one of the downed trees to the trunks of two larger, standing trees. Completing that, they strapped the remaining four trunks to the vertical pole, at each end on either side. Then Narayan threw the tarp over the structure, tying it down with easy, familiar movements as Bashir gathered rocks to hold the base of the tarp to the ground. It was larger than they needed, so the edges were tucked under, protecting the inside of the make-shift tent from the ground.

"Starfleet survival training has nothing on you," Bashir joked, giving her a grin.

"Starfleet survival training has nothing on growing up in a colony," she replied, securing the last of the tarp lines.

"Ah," Bashir said, nodding. "That would do it. What colony?"

"Lionus Four," she replied, ducking her head into the tent, then coming back out, appearing satisfied. "I was born en route, actually, so I was the youngest person to land there." She looked up, flashing him a smile, and Bashir realized with some shock it was the first time he had seen her smile.

"I would have guessed you were from England," he said. "With the accent."

She shook her head.

"My parents were, which is why I have the accent. Are you?"

He nodded.

"Let's get some firewood and get a fire going."

They did so quickly, then Narayan gave Bashir a PADD with her list of edible berries, plants and roots and sent him out to gather some. She herself went off hunting, clutching a phaser in one hand. It took Bashir longer to find what he was looking for, and when he returned, Narayan was just starting to roast some small animal over the open flames. It already seemed delicious, and Bashir's mouth watered.

"I'll go to the river and get some more water," he said, putting down the plants he'd found beside her. She nodded distractedly, focused more on her task than on him. He fetched the water and came back, handing a flask to her, which she accepted with thanks. Narayan took a swig of the cold water and sighed, staring at the flask.

"What I wouldn't give for a glass of milk," she said.

Bashir laughed.

"Milk?"

"Yes, milk. I happen to like milk. Why? What would you have?"

"Oh, tea or raktajino, I think."

Narayan made a face.

"I don't like raktajino. It's too bitter. Tea would be nice, though. Anyway, here you go." She handed him a bit of meat and Bashir took it, eating grateful, then scarfing down some of the berries, tasteless leaves and roots. The roots were sweet, tasting almost candied, and he had to temper that with some of the meat. He examined the PADD as he did so; Narayan was so organized she'd included the nutritional value of each of the plants.

"All right," she said when they were done. "I'll take first watch. You need to get some rest. I'll wake you up in six hours."

Bashir nodded, deciding not to argue. He looked up at the dark sky through the canopy, and saw the pinpoint lights of the stars, although none of them were familiar to him. Six hours would get them through the middle of the night. The planet had a rotational cycle of twenty-seven hours and thirteen minutes compared to an Earth day. Bashir would adjust to it easily, he knew, given the station's twenty-six hour day, but he wondered how Narayan would fare, coming from a twenty-four hour day ship.

He crawled into the tent shuffling under the two blankets. Narayan had chosen this spot in part because the forest floor was softer here, covered with thick mosses, and she had added to that by putting the branches from a pine-like tree under the tarp. Bashir pounded the tiny pillow once, then drew the hood of his thermal jacket over his head, tying it as tightly as he could so that only a small part of his face was exposed. He wrapped his hands in his gloves and curled up, closing his eyes. He could hear the crackle of the fire from outside and Narayan's soft footsteps as she moved about the camp on some chore. With a sigh to himself, Bashir turned his attention away from the sounds and surrendered himself to sleep.

"Julian? Julian! Can you hear me? Julian!"

"Doctor!" the second voice cut through his mind and Bashir sat up quickly, before he was fully awake.

"What? What is it?", he demanded, then his eyes adjusted to the darkness and he saw Narayan in the tent's entrance, watching him with concern. He had pulled back his hood sometime in his sleep, probably because the tent was warm, the tarp keeping in his body heat.

"What's the matter? You were yelling," Narayan said.

"I was?", Bashir asked.

She nodded, slipping into the tent and crouching at the door.

"What was I yelling?", he asked.

"You said: 'Miles, dammit, I can hear you! Miles!'"

"Oh," Bashir said, with a sinking feeling in his stomach. "I must have been dreaming." He sighed, shaking his head. "Probably dreaming someone was searching for me. You didn't hear anyone else, did you?"

Narayan shook her head.

"Believe me, Doctor, if I'd heard someone's voice on your combadge, I'd have done something about it. Who's Miles?"

"A friend of mine, from the station." Bashir felt the familiar guilty feeling. His best friend, to whom he had kept the truth for so many years. Yet O'Brien had been so understanding, not judgmental, when the truth had come out. "What time is it?"

Narayan shrugged.

"Sometime past midnight, I think," she replied. "It's hard to tell."

"How long have I been asleep?"

"Over six hours."

"All right," Bashir said, crawling out from under the blankets. "Your turn to sleep."

Narayan traded places with him and Bashir bid her good-night before slipping from the tent. In a few days, he knew, those blankets were going to stink to high heaven, and they didn't really have the luxury of stopping to wash them in the river then hang them to dry. But they would keep them warm and dry at night, and that was really mattered.

He headed toward the fire, putting the phaser down beside him and added a piece of wood to the low fire. Then he sat down on the block of wood Narayan had cut for a stool and peered into the night, listening. It wasn't quiet; there were the sounds of nocturnal creatures going about the business of living, but it was mostly insects and birds, with the scuttle of a few small animals here and there. No predators that Bashir's sensitive eyes and ears could make out. He could hear Narayan shifting around inside the tent, too, then there was silence, so she must have fallen asleep.

He watched the flames, keeping his ears open to the forest around him. It was so disorienting being here. Two days ago, he was looking forward to being home, now he was stranded and had no idea if he'd ever see home again. All the people he would miss… All the people he had lied to. Would they be worried about him? Did he deserve that concern? It bothered him that he might be making his friends, especially O'Brien and Dax, fret over him, when he had done so little to merit their care. He remembered how angry Sisko had been when the truth had come out; the captain had not yelled at Bashir, but had been quietly angry. It was worse than yelling, Bashir had thought at the time. It was still worse. Sudden anger past quickly; Bashir didn't know how long Sisko would hold this against him. Or even if he still did. Perhaps no one would bother searching, on Sisko's orders. This would be an easy way to get rid of a nuisance, after all…

He sighed, looking back at the tent. How strange to be here, of all places, against all odds, with someone else like him. Bashir wondered how Narayan had fared with her genetic enhancement, how people reacted to it. But, he reminded herself, she was honest about it. He had not been. And having gene therapy to correct a defect was not the same as being genetically enhanced, at least, not to the extent that Bashir was. She had come straight out and told him when he had asked; she had told the Starfleet doctor when she had her entrance physical. He had only told one person before the truth had come out on the station.

So perhaps Narayan was not at all like him. She had not lived a lie, or broken Federation law simply by existing. He was willing to bet no one had gone to jail for restoring her hearing and making it better than it should have been. An accident. Well, Bashir doubted that, being a doctor himself. But one sense, out of five main ones, one little thing out of an entire person.

No, not like him then. Not even close. Her life was validated; she was not living in shadows and secrecy. He was as he had always been, a freak, a mutant. Narayan, on the other hand, was a normal human being. He rubbed his eyes, feeling sickened by himself. To think he had presumed some sort of affinity between them… He was different, he always would be, and her enhancement was just a sharp reminder that he was an outsider, more than human and so, therefore, somehow less.