In the command room, O'Brien is elbow deep in the inner workings of the Universal Translator, tools spread out before him. An ensign is assisting him, but Julian has been unable to find out her name, due to the malfunctioning translator.
Julian isn't entirely sure what's wrong with the device- He's pretty sure O'Brien had attempted to explain earlier, but due to the malfunction, he hadn't understood a word of it- but right now it's translating is rather more specific than universal, turning everything into German regardless of origin or intent.
"Gibt mir den Schraubendreher," says O'Brien, pointing at the tool he wants. The ensign quickly complies, handing him the screwdriver that's lying by her side. Julian is almost certain she speaks German, as she doesn't seem to have any issue with understanding the translators' output even when it's not accompanied by gestures.
Julian mentally recites the words a few times in his head, trying to stick each one to it's meaning. The translator has been malfunctioning for two hours already, and there's no telling how long it will be down yet. So far he's fairly confident he could name any of the tools, if pressed, but the other words are harder to pin down, without knowing how O'Brien is phrasing his requests.
He's still theorizing about what word order is most likely when O'Brien says "Scheisse," and jumps back from the panel just in time to avoid the shower of sparks that it throws out. The Ensign moves towards it as if to try to fix the still-sparking panel, but O'Brien stops her with a yell of "Lass das!"
"Es ist sehr kaputt," says someone- Julian's not sure who; he thinks it's Dax, but everyone sounds slightly different in this new language, and it might have been the Ensign- and then everyone is moving, spurred into action by the small explosion.
Julian moves forward to check O'Brien for injuries, and then moves on to the Ensign when he finds no damage to O'Brien.
When he's done checking her over, he turns around and sees Sisko performing a very intricate set of hand gestures at O'Brien. There's some waving involved, and what looks like an attempt at playing a non-existent piano, and clearly Sisko should never take up charades as a hobby, because Julian can think of about five different ways to interpret his gestures, and none of them seem like they would be much help in this situation.
Eventually Sisko comes to the same realization, and drops his hands back down to his sides. Somewhat reluctantly, he turns to the Ensign, and relays an order that Julian doesn't understand. The Ensign does, however, and nods rapidly, before walking back over to another panel and making a series of adjustments.
"Fertig," she says, looking up at Sisko, "Sprechen, bitte?"
"I don't know any Ger- good job, Ensign." He nods at her, and turns towards O'Brien and Julian.
"It's not fixed," he says, "Just off. I'm going to contact Supply and see how quickly we can get a new unit sent here. Until then, we're just going to have to get along without it."
They both nod, and Sisko dismisses them, turning towards Dax and starting up an even wilder set of hand gestures.
…..
The infirmary is easier to deal with than Julian had expected. Most of his staff is Bajoran, so while none of them had been able to understand each other during the brief bout of German, they're communicating fine now, at least with each other.
Julian himself is still just as lost as before, though, and it's not even a quarter of an hour into his shift when one of the nurses leads him gently out of the way, and sticks a padd into his hand before pushing him into his office.
The padd is displaying what appears to be a Bajoran picture book, with labelled cartoons of objects intended to introduce new vocabulary to small children. Or, in this case, to Doctors in their late twenties.
With his enhancements, he has an easier time memorizing the words than someone else might, but Bajoran is an extremely complex language, with much of the meaning derived from tonal inflections and pitch shifts, so being able to put a written word to an object isn't nearly enough to be clearly understood.
His efforts are further complicated by the fact that Bajoran seems to require sounds that human vocal chords aren't capable of even approximating, and soon enough he's being herded out of the infirmary entirely.
He's learned enough to know that Doctor Pove has promised to take good care of it in his absence.
Well, that, or she's promised to take good care of some goats. The two words are separated by a single tonal shift, and it's difficult to hear her clearly over chatter of the promenade.
"pa'vo yIjaH!"
"pa'Daq yIjah!"
"pa'vo!"
Julian walks quickly past the arguing Klingons- the fight looks about two sentences away from turning physical- and ducks into Quark's, not wanting to be too far from the infirmary in case he's needed in an emergency.
Inside, there's a wide variety of languages spoken, blending into and clashing against each other in a way that Julian is unused to hearing.
"Qu'est-ce que vous me..."
"Svededno mi je…"
"Puhutteko…"
" نوشیدنی من کجاست "
"Co se to tady sakra…"
The place is packed with speakers of more languages than Julian can identify by sound alone, but despite the confusion, Quark still seems to be managing to serve a steady stream of customers.
When Julian gets to the front of the line, he follows in Sisko's footsteps and makes a gesture that he wants to be read as 'food', but probably looks ridiculous to everyone watching. Quark seems to understand anyway, though- most people ordering drinks have just been pointing to what they want- and soon enough they manage to complete the transaction.
Well, a transaction. The meal Quark hands him isn't actually what he'd been trying to order, but he takes it anyway and finds a table near the door, where anyone looking for him will be able to find him easily without having to try to ask if someone has seen him.
The food is good, and he'll have to remember to ask Quark what it's called after the translator has been replaced. He listens in to more of the conversations around him as he eats, trying to figure out the words that come up regularly with the help of the rarely-accessed dictionaries programmed into the padd. When the two Klingons who were arguing earlier come in and sit down at a table nearby, having apparently resolved whatever they were arguing about, he opens up a Klingon-Standard dictionary, and focuses on listening to them.
"jaghpu'lI' DaghIjjaj." Something about enemies, he thinks.
"tlhonchaj chIljaj." Or… noses? He checks the dictionary again, and decides he must have misheard.
