5
Dax slipped into the quiet infirmary room, pausing a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dim lighting. Bashir was asleep on the bed, on his back. He had even more red spots covering his face and hands, but Tarses had assured her that was a normal symptom and the welts would not scar.
She approached the bed softly; the ability to tiptoe had developed when she'd had her first child, all those lifetimes ago. In her arms, Renzia squirmed and waved her small hands at nothing. It must have been the baby, Dax thought later, because she had been moving so silently that even Bashir's genetically enhanced hearing shouldn't have picked her up. His eyes fluttered open and he groaned, turning his head toward her.
"Hi," she whispered, sitting down on the chair beside his bed, easily adjusting her daughter's weight in her arms.
"Zia, hi," Bashir replied. His voice was stronger today, but still much weaker than it should be. "Where's Worf?"
Dax frowned.
"Worf? What's a worf?"
Bashir stared at her in confusion, then shook his head.
"Probably something I was dreaming," he sighed. He raised the head of his bed slightly, and his pale, tired face melted into a smile when he saw his baby. Dax helped shift Renzia into his arms and the infant broke into a bright smile upon seeing her father.
"She'll be okay?" he asked.
Dax nodded.
"Simon said she probably couldn't catch it, and he vaccinated her just to be on the safe side."
Bashir sighed.
"I miss her. Maybe I can convince Simon to let me go home and recover."
"Oh no!" Dax protested. "I'm a science officer, not a doctor. I'm not nursing you back to health, taking care of Renzi and dealing with all the preparations."
"Wasn't there something in our vows about 'in sickness and in health'?"
"We have infirmaries for sick people, Jules," Dax said tartly. "You aren't leaving until Simon gives the okay without being pressured."
Bashir gave a dramatic sigh.
"Of all the people I could have married, it would have to be a three hundred year old Trill with an ego the size Bajor."
"Hah!" Dax snapped, but did so smiling. "And who else would have had you?"
"I don't know. What about that dancer? The French one?"
"She never would have given you the time of day, my love," Dax replied, running a hand through his damp and slightly greasy hair. "You need a shower. Or a bath."
He gave her a wicked grin.
"A sponge bath is usually appropriate for someone in my condition."
"Simon's job, not mine," Dax said. "Or one of your nurses."
Bashir sat the baby up on his chest, taking care to support her head. The infant gurgled at him and he stared back, a faint frown on his face, his eyes distant. Dax watched him carefully, worried he was weakening and might drop their daughter, but then he turned to her, a guarded, uncertain expression touching his features.
"Tell me something," he said.
"Yes?" she asked.
"Did I have a dream about attacking Admiral Dukat, or did that really happen?"
Dax sat back in her chair slightly and Bashir groaned. Renzia waved her hands at him vaguely.
"I did, didn't I?"
"You were hallucinating, Jules," Dax said patiently. "And you didn't hurt him."
Bashir closed his eyes and leaned his head back.
"I thought it was only a dream…" he muttered. "What the hell was I thinking?"
"You may have been thinking that pink fairies were giving you orders, Julian," Dax said. "You're sick. Your fever was higher yesterday than it was today. It's no wonder you were delusional."
He opened one eye, regarding her.
"All these genetic enhancements are supposed to help guard against that kind of thing," he muttered.
Dax leaned forward, putting one arm on the bed, resting her weight on it.
"Enhancements or not, my dear, you are still human. Humans get sick. Everyone gets sick. And there wasn't any harm done. The admiral said you startled him more than hurt him, and Nerys assures me he's fine."
Bashir opened his other eye, sighing.
"Speaking of everyone getting sick, Captain Sisko talked to your parents earlier this morning."
Bashir's eyebrows went up in surprise.
"He did?"
Dax nodded.
"Your mother said that you did have the chicken pox, when you were four."
Bashir frowned.
"Before I was enhanced. That would explain why I don't remember it. But that doesn't explain why I have it now."
"Like I said, I'm a science officer, not a doctor. Simon said he'd look into it, but suggested maybe your enhancements wiped out the immunity effects from the first time you had it."
"Does anyone else on board have it?" he asked.
Dax shook her head.
"No, but that doesn't mean anything. On a station this size, this busy, Jules, you could have picked it up from anyone passing through."
Bashir sighed, then rubbed his eyes with one hand, taking care to keep his hold on his daughter.
"Now, I need to go, because Legate Garak will be here in less than an hour, and First Minister Shakar is arriving later this afternoon."
"Garak…" Bashir muttered, almost to himself.
"What about him?"
Bashir shook his head and the twinge of confusion that had touched the edges of his eyes and the corners of his lips vanished.
"Nothing," he said. "Here."
He handed Renzia back to her mother, who settled her against her shoulder. Dax leaned down and placed a kiss on Bashir's warmer-than-normal lips.
"I'll come by later," she promised.
Bashir gave her a wry, tired look.
"I'm not going anywhere," he sighed.
"Benjamin says your orders are to get better so you're on your feet when the Trisepat gets here."
A smile twitched momentarily on the doctor's pale lips.
"I wouldn't miss that for the galaxy," he said.
Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax resisted shifting her position uncomfortably and forced herself to remain relaxed and smiling. It was rare that she felt so fidgety, but right now, there was no place she'd rather not be than right here, waiting outside an airlock for the Cardassian legate to arrive. Everyone else present, and that included Sisko, O'Brien, Eddington Kira, Odo, and Admiral Dukat, seemed at ease. Dax stole a glance at Sisko and wondered how he was faring; but then, she realized, Jake was being released later that afternoon, before First Minister Shakar arrived, and Tarses had said he was making a remarkable recovery. Young and healthy, Dax thought. She reminded herself that Bashir was young and healthy, too.
Nonetheless, she felt she could be spending time with her sick husband, or their daughter, or in the science lab analyzing this subspace disturbance orbiting Bajor's sun at the edge of the system. She had only had time to run preliminary analyses, enough to know it wasn't anything she'd seen before, at least not at first glance.
But now, she was getting the opportunity to meet Legate Garak. He'd been to the station before, but that had been prior to it becoming an official Starfleet outpost. She had never met him, and, of course, he'd been only a child when Curzon had helped negotiate the merger of the Alliance and the Federation. The legate back then, a man named Letnar, had been hard but intelligent, willing to comprise but utterly unwilling to let his people, or the Bajorans, be dragged into something that would be detrimental to them. Dax had admired him greatly, and had been saddened when he had died. The negotiators for both sides had been more than Curzon had hoped for; they had actually been willing to listen to one another. But then, it wasn't like negotiating with the Klingons, who were more interested in conquest. The Alliance had had a strong and fairly peaceful trading history with the Federation.
She drew her shoulders back slightly, the easy, welcoming smile still on her face as the airlock door rolled back. Two younger Cardassians dressed in the traditional silvery-grey and black military uniforms stepped out: one man and one woman. The Alliance military, of course, had merged with Starfleet, but the legate's personal guard still wore the old Cardassian uniforms.
The legate himself stepped out then, and Dax was surprised to find he looked younger in person than in photographs, and much more pleasant. He radiated an air of superior good humour, topped off by a small smile on his lips and a glint in his pale eyes that suggested he knew something no one else did, and that it was highly amusing. This wasn't reflected in the eyes of his guards, who looked alert and suspicious. With ease, Legate Garak stepped past them, toward Dukat.
"Skrain, my old friend!" Garak said, as, grinning, Dukat shook his hand warmly.
"Elim. It's been too long."
"Indeed it has. How is that lovely wife of yours?"
"She's looking forward to seeing you," Dukat replied with a smile.
Garak turned to Sisko, who nodded.
"Ah, you must be Captain Sisko. The Emissary of the Prophets, if I'm not mistaken."
Dax knew that Sisko was much more comfortable in that roll now than he had been when it had been thrust upon him – it was disconcerting, to say the least, to see the man she'd always known suddenly become a religious figure for billions of Bajorans and Cardassians. While most Bajorans were believers in the Prophets, not all Cardassians embraced the religion. But had been pervasive enough in Cardassian culture before the wormhole had been discovered. Afterwards, there had been a drastic increase in the number of Cardassian followers. Garak was among the Cardassians who wore the traditional Bajoran earring, as was Dukat.
"Legate, it's an honour to meet you," Sisko said. "May I present the station's senior staff? My staff: Commander Kira Nerys, my first officer, Commander Miles O'Brien, my chief of operations, Commander Dax, my chief science officer, and Commander Eddington, my chief of security. And this is head supervisor Odo, who the processing center administrator."
Garak nodded at each one of them in turn, then looked back at Dax.
"It is an honour to finally meet Curzon Dax's successor," he said, and shook her hand.
"Thank you," Dax said warmly. "Curzon was very proud of the work he did with the Alliance."
"He had every right to be," Garak replied. "As do you." He turned back to Sisko. "Captain, it's been a long journey, and I'd appreciate it if you were to show my staff and I to our quarters."
"Of course," Sisko said, smiling. "Right this way."
He gestured to his left and Garak, his guards, Sisko, Dukat, and Eddington all headed away, leaving Dax, Kira, and Odo standing near the airlock. When they were out of sight, Kira let out a deep sigh and leaned against one of the bulkheads. Odo looked toward the ceiling wryly, then back down.
"Frankly, I don't understand why I need to show up at every greeting," he commented.
Kira crossed her arms loosely and gave him a sidelong glance.
"Because you head the ore processing center, which is the reason this station exists in the first place. Believe me, Odo, I don't want to be here any more than you do."
"Neither do I," Dax said with a smile.
"And it's just going to get worse over the next few days," Kira said. "You know, when I joined Starfleet, I never thought most of my time would be spent greeting dignitaries from all over the galaxy. I just wanted to do something constructive for Bajor."
"And the wormhole and the trade with the Trisepat haven't been constructive for Bajor?" Dax asked with a smile.
"I'm not saying it isn't," Kira replied. "It's just not what I was expecting."
"I don't think it's what any of us had been expecting," Dax replied with a smile. "Come on, I'll walk with you back to ops."
"Right. I think we have a few hours before Shakar gets here anyway. I might as well catch up on my paper work."
"Ha," Odo muttered under his breath. "Starfleet paperwork. It's a wonder you people get anything done with all the reports you have to file."
"We muddle through," Dax replied.
"Somehow," Kira added.
They reached the promenade, which was busier now than it had been the day before. A lot of people were showing up at the station; many in the Alpha Quadrant still hadn't met anyone from the Trisepat, and even getting a glimpse of the Gamma Quadrant aliens was something to be sought after.
"I'll leave you ladies here," Odo said.
"All right, but don't forget, coffee at seventeen hundred at the Replimat, before the reception."
Odo rolled his eyes at the mention of the reception planned for Legate Garak and First Minister Shakar, as well as whatever other diplomats and ambassadors and representatives had already arrived.
"I'll be there," he promised.
"I'll bring Renzi," Dax said. "She loves you."
Odo gave her a rare smile.
"I'm glad," he said. "Say hello to Doctor Bashir for me, and wish him well."
Dax nodded.
"I will."
The Changeling shouldered his way through the crowd and Dax and Kira found the nearest turbolift. Mercifully, it was unoccupied save for the two of them as they traveled up to ops.
"How is Julian?"
"Better," Dax said. "Not much, but a bit. Jake's getting out this afternoon, too."
"Oh, good," Kira replied with relief in her voice. "And how's the analysis of that anomaly?"
Dax shook her head.
"If I could get a minute in between introductions to all these political types, I'd be able to tell you something. As it stands, I don't know what it is. It doesn't look like anything on record, but I've barely had a chance to look at it."
"Well, do your best. It doesn't seem to be in a hurry to do anything but orbit the sun, so maybe it will wait until after the Trisepat have come and gone."
"I can only hope," Dax replied, shaking her head, giving Kira a rueful smile. The Commander grinned back.
"Just think of this," she said, gesturing around them, to indicate the coming days, not the turbolift, "As a great adventure."
"I'll do my best," Dax replied with a smile as they stepped from the turbolift into ops.
An hour later, she hadn't made much progress. The anomaly was like nothing she'd ever seen, and the scans she was running at this distance were giving her nothing but inconclusive results. The only thing she had been able to determine with any degree of certainty is that there was no chronoton activity in the anomaly; it was therefore not a temporal disturbance. It seemed stable enough, for a subspace anomaly, and didn't seem to be inclined to do anything but orbit the sun.
"Commander, I can't do any more analyses from here," Dax said, looking up and meeting Kira's gaze. "I need to take a shuttle out there and study it at close range."
Kira nodded.
"All right, but not today. First Minister Shakar is going to be here in just over an hour, and we enough traffic coming and going today as it is."
Dax nodded. She had intended to ask to go the following day anyway. Her shortened shift was just about finished, and she wanted to pick up her daughter and make sure her husband was all right. She ran a final scan, without much hope of getting anything.
For a mind numbing moment, she felt as if there were two of her, standing in the same place, doing the same thing, thinking the same thoughts, but bringing a slightly different point of view to the problem. She looked down at her hands; they were indeed only one set of hands, but they seemed different somehow, not quite hers. There was a sickening moment of confusion, then it passed as suddenly as it had come. Dax looked up sharply, but everyone else was focused on their work, and had not seemed to notice anything. She did a quick scan of the anomaly again, got no new readings, then ran a sweep of the station, looking for anything unusual. Nothing showed up on internal sensors.
With a sigh, Dax drummed her fingers on the console. Then she shook her head, saved her work, and left to find Kai Bareil and her daughter.