Chapter 5 – Position Shift
"Kira to O'Brien. Sorry Chief, but we've just lost half the internal sensors again."
The call from Ops was just one more irritation in a day which had started badly and had just got worse. The station, especially the security systems, was riddled with minor computer problems after Internal Affairs had gone over our systems looking for evidence of sabotage. They had removed chips for evidence, replacing them with systems clearly not designed for the Station's Cardassian computers.
"Be right there, Major" I acknowledged. calling "Ops" to the turbolift.
The journey was short, and gave me a chance to take a few deep breaths and calm down. I still felt the shock, though, of walking into Ops and not seeing Jadzia at her station. No-one on the senior staff was used to her not being there, it had only been a couple of weeks since her memorial. I got to work on the offending console, and within a few minutes the incompatibility problems had been fixed.
"How's that now, Major? Should be online now, it was a 'sabotage.' " This was our new word around DS9 for any problem caused by Sloan's people and their "evidence gathering."
"OK. coming on line. How is the sabotage situation?
"Getting better, Major" I replied "But we're still losing random secondary systems, the chips are just blowing out whenever systems are activated. Bloody Internal Affairs!"
The Major glanced up and smiled, obviously she had heard my curse.
"Chief, why don't you take a break, go down to the Replimat. grab a coffee for five minutes? You've been working all day"
I thought about it, and decided it was a good idea.
"Thanks Major, call me if you need me" I said, and walked into the turbolift.
A few minutes later, I was standing in front of the replicator, looking forward to a coffee and a slice of lemon cake.
"Coffee, Jamaican Blend, double strong, double sweet. And a portion of lemon cake" I commanded the replicator.
It whirred into life, before giving me my order. I sat down in a far corner, eating quietly, enjoying the break. I couldn't help thinking, though, about the events of the last few weeks. Not just Jadzia's death, though that had hit us all very hard, but Julian's arrest and how Internal Affairs had removed any trace of him from the station. It was strange, we had a new CMO, all of Julian's things had been destroyed or taken away for analysis and people had stopped talking about him in public. It was like he had died, though people still talked about Jadzia a lot. I missed Keiko, who had not been allowed to return from Bajor until Internal Affairs had finished interrogating the senior staff. She was due back tomorrow, the first transport she could find space on.
"Odo to O'Brien. Chief, the monitors in the security office have all gone down again." Odo's voice echoed out of my comm badge. I sighed, another break cut short. I gulped the last mouthfuls of coffee.
"O'Brien to Odo. Constable, I'm on my way"
Picking up my lemon cake. I walked to the security office.
I left the security office three hours later, having gone through practically the whole security net trying to fix one problem and finding at least four others as I worked. Internal Affairs had gone over all security with a fine tooth comb. I asked the computer for the time; 20:48 hours. I had been pulling ten and eleven hour shifts every day this week, trying to get the station back up and operational. I was just setting off towards our quarters, looking forward to a good meal and the sonic shower when my communicator bleeped.
"Sisko to O'Brien. You are receiving a secure communication in my office. Are you free to receive it?"
"O'Brien to Sisko. I'm on my way up now." I replied, curious.
I could think of no reason why I might receive a secure transmission, unless it was from Internal Affairs, in response to the complaint the Captain had made about the state of the station.
I was still thinking about it as I stepped out of the turbolift into Ops. I walked into Sisko's office apprehensively. It was stupid, but walking into his office always made me feel like I was back at school on Earth, about to get in trouble for some misdemeanour.
"Chief" Sisko greeted me "we received this message a few minutes ago. It's from Internal Affairs and for you only, so take it in here where it is secure. If a problem. I'll be in Ops."
"Yes sir" I replied, reaching forward to enter my access code and open the channel.
An Internal Affairs screen came up, followed by a list of instructions. They were all related to what I could and could not say to the person I was about to speak to. I assumed that someone from the front line was contacting me. Internal Affairs had placed restrictions on what could be said to those in the midst of the fighting. I thumb-printed them as requested, and waited to see what happened next.
Suddenly Julian's face appeared on the screen. His face was gaunt, with dark shadows under his eyes. and his hair had grown longer, emphasising his cheekbones. What shocked me most about his appearance, though, was the rash which spread across his neck. He wore a black jump-suit, with a low neckline, and this rash seemed to spread out from the base of his neck down onto his collarbones.
I perched on the end of Sisko's desk, facing the screen, waiting.
"Chief" Julian whispered. then coughed and tried again "Chief" he said, bolder this time.
"Julian" I responded "what's happened?"
"All I'm allowed to say is that I've been arrested for anti-Federation actions. They say I'm responsible for giving the intelligence on the Betazed attack, various convoy attacks and basically everything bad which has happened to the Federation in the war. I'm not even a member of the Federation any more."
I was shocked. The only things I could think to say was
"What did you do? And what's that thing on your neck?"
"Nothing. I've done nothing. You've got to believe me. Hell, I made mistakes, we all did, but nothing to justify this. Everyone who serves in Starfleet does, I'm no different. The thing on my neck is my tracker. It can't be removed and they'll always be able to follow me with it there. I'm innocent, but they all think I'm guilty."
I could scarcely believe what I was hearing. Was Starfleet really an organisation which tortured people. and which locked innocent people up? Was Julian innocent?
"But they've been here, though. Internal Affairs have been at the station for the past three weeks, stripping every major circuit for evidence and taking every opportunity to tell us that you are guilty. So much has happened at the station since you left. What about the Constitution? What about any of it? I don't know what I think of it, I'm sorry, that's the best I can do."
"You have to believe me. Miles" Julian replied.
I had not really meant to sound so harsh, but alter all the experiences both of us had with false imprisonment. I could barely believe that Starfleet itself would do the same thing.
"When you were arrested by the Argrathi. I stood by you. I believed that you were innocent. I still do. Please do the same thing for me. Please believe that Starfleet can make a mistake, if you believe me then you support me, and if you support me, then I'm not alone. Sloan is making this up, I swear to you!"
"Then Sloan's responsible." I said to myself not intending Julian to overhear. I had reckoned without his genetically engineered hearing, though.
"I know he is, he is responsible for all of this. I just can't find a way to convince him that I'm right and he's wrong about me." Julian replied.
I took a deep breath. That was not what I had meant. I decided that Julian had a right to know about Jadzia. They had been friends for years. since his first day on board.
"Julian" I began "That's not what I meant. I said that things had changed here on the station, and they have. I've got to tell you something else. Jadzia was killed, about two weeks after you.."
I paused. not knowing what to say
"After you left. She was in the temple when the Orb kind of exploded. According to Kira, she was praying for a baby. She was killed by the energy discharge"
Julian was silent for a long time. Finally he croaked
"what about Dax? What about the symbiont?"
"It died too. The replacement doctor couldn't save it, he said that the synaptic links were too badly damaged. The doctor said after the post-mortem that she was pregnant. You'd done it, you'd given her and Worf the child they wanted, it's just she never got to know. If she'd known, then maybe she would be here now. I'm sorry" I felt my own voice falter and break.
Julian sat for a long minute. He brought his hands up to rub his face, and I was shocked to see that he wore restraints, he seemed so used to them, as though he barely noticed they were there. He saw my reaction, though, because he laughed wryly and, raising his wrists to give me a good view, he muttered
"Enemy of the state and all that. They probably think I might pollute you and turn you to the Dominion just by talking to you"
"Don't even joke" I replied, sensing that Julian was attempting to block out Jadzia's death to avoid embarrassing himself by showing weakness in front of the guards.
"They've been here for nearly a month questioning me. I think they're convinced that you already have"
Suddenly Julian became intense again. Leaning forward, he said to me
"Tell Sisko what I've told you. And, tell him I'm innocent. I didn't do anything consciously and I don't have repressed memories."
"I will" I promised him. "I will tell him."
With that, a voice out of sight of my viewscreen called
"Time"
and Julian reluctantly said goodbye and rose, ending the communication. I sat staring at the blank screen long after the communication had ended, just thinking. Then, standing up. I hit my communicator
"O'Brien to Sisko. Sir, can I come and talk to you? I've just had a message from Julian."