Deep Space Nine is property of Paramount.
"Sisko to Dax."
Jadzia Dax cracked an eye open. She moaned softly as she blindly started to try to find her combadge. All she kept thinking about was that the remaining fifteen minutes of her sleep was interrupted. She finally located the badge and smacked it.
"Go ahead, Benjamin," she mumbled.
"Could you please report to Ops?"
Jadzia blew out an annoyed sigh, but she knew Benjamin better than anyone and if he needed her, there had to be an important reason.
"On my way," she said before she smacked the combadge again cutting off the link. She sat up and stretched her arms before slipping out of the bed and putting on her standard-issue black and teal jumpsuit. She put her hair into its usual ponytail and walked out of her quarters and entered the turbolift.
"Ops," she told it, not bothering to stop by the Replimat for her usual raktajino.
The lift shuddered slightly as it began its decent. She leaned against the wall of the lift and stifled a yawn. Yeah, she had only fifteen minutes of sleep left, but she had learned to take advantage of any and all sleep you could get.
The lift stopped and Dax stepped into Ops, where she saw her old friend, Commander Benjamin Sisko, sitting at the situation table, looking slightly more awake than she.
"Benjamin?"
Sisko looked up at her and gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry about waking you, Lieutenant, but we detected something you'd find of interest. Ensign, put it on screen."
The circular holographic display that overlooked Ops came to life and showed a swirling, golden-colored streak; almost like a tear in the fabric of space.
Dax was immediately awake and went to the science station to do some scans. Sisko walked over to her station and stood beside it, waiting for her analysis.
"It appears to be a temporal fracture on the outskirts of the Bajoran system," Dax reported.
"How did it get there?" Sisko asked, staring at the screen.
"Unknown."
"Can you tell me anything more about it?" Sisko asked, turning to her.
"Not from this far. If I could take a runabout, I could get a more detailed scan."
Sisko sighed. "Fine, be ready to leave in an hour."
Dax smiled and nodded as she got up. She walked to the turbolift, finally glad she could get her raktajino.
----
Dax carefully nursed the hot mug of the klingon coffee as she walked into the infirmary for the usual pre-away mission physical. She heard a couple of voices arguing, so she peaked around the corner and saw Chief Miles O'Brien and Doctor Julian Bashir yelling at each other. Dax had obviously came at the end of the argument because O'Brien suddenly stormed away and out of the infirmary.
"Doctor?"
Julian turned around, saw Dax, and smiled. Dax knew he had a crush on her, and she had to admit it was kinda fun.
"Well, Jadzia, what can I do for you today?"
"Physical," she simply answered.
"Away mission?"
Dax nodded, setting her mug down on a console and hopping onto the biobed. Bashir took out a medical tricorder and began scanning.
"Heart rate good, blood pressure normal," Bashir said, scanning her. He then concentrated the tricorder around her stomach. "Symbiont healthy. Dax, you are in tip-top shape."
Dax chuckled, "As always."
"Have fun on the mission," Bashir said.
"You know it," Dax answered as she grabbed her coffee and left the infirmary.
Right as she stepped out, Major Kira Nerys was walking by. "Morning, Major."
The Bajoran woman stopped and looked at her. "Lieutenant."
"Going to Ops?" Dax asked, walking beside her.
"Yes."
"Mind if I join you?"
"No."
Dax nodded and they continued towards the turbolift, neither saying a word. They stopped outside the door of the lift, waiting for it to arrive. Dax knew that Kira was uncomfortable with Starfleet, and she hoped that Kira would overcome her discomfort. The lift doors finally opened and they stepped onto it, Kira telling it to go to Ops. The two woman stood in the turbolift in silence until if finally reached Ops. Kira stepped out first, followed by Dax.
"Lieutenant, your runabout is ready," O'Brien told her.
"Thanks, Chief," she turned to Sisko, "Permission to disembark."
"Granted. Good luck."
Dax smiled as she got back onto the lift.
----
The runabout Segura cruised toward the anomaly. Dax continually ran scans of it as she got closer.
"How's it going, Dax?"
"Well Ben, it's definitely a tear in the space-time continuum and I'm not sure how it formed or why it's here," Dax responded, studying the sensor readings.
The runabout suddenly lurched, as Dax grabbed onto the console to keep herself from being thrown about. The runabout continued to shudder as Dax tried to figure out what was going on.
"Dax to DS9, I've been hit by a gravimetric sheer! I'm being pulled into the tear and need an emergency beam out!"
"Chief!" Sisko yelled.
"I'm on it," O'Brien said as he tried to establish a lock. "Sir, I'm getting interference from the tear."
"Chief, my impulse engines are gone! So, now would be a good time to beam me out of here!" Dax yelled over the sound of her runabout being torn apart.
"I'm still having difficulty locking on to you; I can't get a lock over the massive temporal interference," O'Brien said over the comm.
"Chief, I'm out of options!"
"I'm tying the targeting scanners into the long-range sensors," O'Brien said as his fingers flew across the console, inputting commands faster than anyone thought possible, "Attempting to reestablish transporter lock…I'm locked on, Lieutenant!"
"Energize, Chief!"
Jadzia felt the sensation of the transporter beam as she felt herself dematerialize from the runabout. However, this transport felt different than normal, almost like she was being pushed through water. She finally rematerialized, but it was in one of DS9's corridors. She looked around, wondering why she didn't materialize in Ops. She then figured that the anomaly had deflected the beam, causing her to materialize in a different location.
She started walking, but was struck with dizziness and had to stop and lean against the corridor hall for support. Definitely not a usual side-effect of transporting. While she rested against the wall, she looked around, trying to figure out where she was.
"Computer, location?"
"Habitat ring, level 12-delta," the emotionless female voice answered.
Jadzia sighed and pushed herself off of the wall, the dizziness having passed. She slowly started walking towards the turbolift in hopes of getting to Ops. She passed a crewmember, and she noted the funny look that he gave her. She also had noted that the uniform that he was wearing was not the standard black jumpsuit, but was more like a black and gray-purple business suit. Her immediate thought was that they had released new uniforms, but she dismissed it since the uniform she currently wore was less than a year old.
She finally stepped into a turbolift, but decided to go to her quarters first.
"Habitat ring, section 25-alpha," she instructed it.
The turbolift immediately started to hum as it descended. She thought about stopping by the infirmary after her stop to Ops, just for a checkup. The lift stopped and Dax stepped out and briskly headed towards her cabin. She finally reached it, and walked into the doors, because they didn't open automatically. Her brow furrowed with confusion as she reached over and punched in a security code on the small panel next to the door.
The panel beeped and the doors hissed open. She stepped inside and immediately stopped. The room was empty.
What the hell?" she muttered to herself.
She walked back to the bedroom and noted that the bed was still there, but everything that belonged to her was gone.
Someone's idea of a practical joke, she thought darkly.
There would be hell to pay if she found who did this. She turned around and stalked out of her quarters and stopped. She had an idea that it was possibly Bashir, so she figured she would turn the tables on him but causing a system or two to malfunction in the infirmary. However, she could only pull that off from Ops, so she started towards the turbolift again. As she turned a corner, she collided with a much shorter woman with short black hair.
"I'm sorry," Dax apologized as she grabbed the woman to steady her.
"No, it was my fault," the woman answered as Dax let her go.
Dax nodded and started walking towards the turbolift again when she heard the woman gasp behind her.
"J..Jadzia?"
Dax stopped and turned to face the woman. Dax was able to get a good look at her now. She was very young, possibly only a year out of the academy, and she was a Trill. However, Dax didn't recognize her.
"I'm sorry, I can't say I know who you are," Dax said.
"My name's Ezri Da…er, Tigan and I'm the station consoler," the young woman said.
"Oh. I didn't know we had a new consoler," Dax answered.
Ezri nodded her head. "I'm fairly new."
"I see. Well, I must get to Ops, if you will excuse me," Dax said as she turned to continue to the turbolift.
"Wait! That isn't such a good idea," Ezri called to her.
Dax stopped and faced her again. "Why?"
Ezri sighed. "It's a long story."
She hit her combadge, "Ops, we have someone who would like to come up."
Jadzia heard Kira's voice filter from the badge, "Who is it, Dax?"
Dax? Jadzia thought.
"You'll see," Ezri answered, signing off.
"Dax?" Jadzia repeated.
"Another part of the long story," Ezri answered, as she gestured for them to continue to the turbolift.
Jadzia was beginning to wonder what the hell was going on.
To be continued...