A/N: I'd like to point out this is one of the episodes where the distance vs warp speed is completely misrepresented by the original show and I am 'keeping it real' instead.

Harry flew the Bruce back to Deep Space 9, transferring his guest on the way. The entire ship's crew seemed to relax once the blonde woman was gone.

Harry commented, "Remind me of this the next time I offer to play host?"

Dawkins chuckled, "Aye, Cap'n." He paused and said, "She wasn't so bad."

Harry gave his XO a look. "That's because you go for that type. You like a take-charge type of woman."

Dawkins shrugged. "I can't deny that. I'm certain knowing my ex-wife gives you some idea of my type."

Harry grinned. "Yes. It's too bad you two can't live together without killing each other, at least according to your daughter. Otherwise you and Cheryl are perfect for each other."

Bill couldn't deny it. But he had a question. "How do you know my daughter?"

Harry smirked. "When she heard both of you were hired to work on the Bruce, she messaged me directly to make certain you weren't together again. She couldn't take it if you were."

Bill laughed sheepishly along with the other (non-Vulcan) bridge crew.

When the Bruce arrived back at the station, Harry immediately went to see Sisko.

Major Kira greeted him as he exited the lift. "Hello, Sir Harry. Welcome back."

"Thank you, Major. Is the Commander in?"

"Yes. But he's seeing a guest."

Harry saw Dax fighting a smirk. "A guest?"

Dax said, "Yes. Commander Riker from the Enterprise. The Major here was quite appreciative when he showed up."

Harry watched as the women needled each other. "That's fine. I can wait. I just wanted to speak the Commander Sisko about my trip with the Admiral."

Dax asked, "How was it?"

Harry considered that. "Well, we verified our earlier findings, or at least as far as we could tell. Our interactions … well, it was a unique experience."

Dax and Kyra looked at each other. Kira said, "I'm sure it was."

Harry was quite willing to stand there and shoot the breeze while the Commander was tied up.

Finally, the door to Sisko's office opened and Harry recognized the man exiting with Sisko. "Sir Harry," Sisko said. "Welcome back."

"Thank you. I wanted to talk about the trip and what we determined. If you're free." Harry looked at the guest.

Sisko said, "Commander Riker and I were just talking shop. You've met Commander Riker?"

"Yes. On Enterprise, just after I arrived."

Riker put out his hand. "Sir Harry. How have you been settling in?"

Harry shrugged. "Matters a far cry from arriving with a trunk full of materials and no understanding of how things worked here."

Riker smiled, "I'm sure. I heard you own two ships now."

"BSS Bruce and Griffon." Harry tried to maintain his conversation but was struck by something being wrong. Harry decided to try something he learned from his time back home from Moody. "Commander. I was wondering if you could answer a question."

"If I can, I will," he said pleasantly.

"How would you suggest I transfer technology from my home timeline to Federation standard?"

Riker paused. "What do you mean?"

As Harry spun his line of crap, he noted that Sisko had recognized what Harry had just done. When Harry had arrived William Riker had overseen Commander Data's assistance in transferring the computer data on old Earth hard drives to Federation computers. The man Harry was talking to apparently didn't remember that fact.

Kyra looked confused but Dax recognized Sisko's expression. Finally Harry turned to Sisko and said, "We really need to …" While looking at Sisko, Harry cast a wandless confundus charm, a spell Stolel had made him practice until he could do it at will.

Everyone noted when Riker became confused. "I just cast a confundus charm – he'll be confused for a minute."

Sisko's new Starfleet security officer, Eddington, happened to be away from the station at the moment. He was about to call Odo. Harry had a thought. "Check the map first."

Sisko considered that. "I'll do that."

The entire group trooped into Sisko's office and activated the Marauder's Map for the station. Riker had been pulled out of the charm by the time Sisko had the map up. "According to this, he reads as Riker and not a doppelganger."

Harry looked at the map and back to Riker, who was attempting to look innocent. "Your map says I am who I say I am."

Harry looked at him. "The problem is, you should have remembered overseeing Data's work to help me when I arrived. Your responses indicate you were bullshitting your way through. Somehow, despite what the map says, you're not the same William Riker I met when I arrived."

Even as Riker proteste d that, Sisko peered at him. "I think I have an idea." Harry looked at Sisko. "Computer. Call up the service record of Commander William Riker, specifically referencing his accidentally created twin."

Harry glanced over and saw the look of defeat flash across the man's face.

When Harry suggested pulling out Veritaserum, Riker finally admitted it. "Fine. I am not the William Riker you met."

Sisko asked, "What reason did you have for the subterfuge? According to the records I have, you resigned your commission late last year."

Riker hesitated. Harry asked, "You resigned last year, when a large number of other Starfleet officers also resigned. Might I guess you have sympathies for the Maquis cause?"

Riker looked at Harry for a long moment. "I do think the Federation acted in bad faith as regards the treatment of its citizens when it comes to the Cardassian treaty."

Sisko understood. "You're Maquis."

Before he could answer, Harry interrupted. "Don't answer that." Sisko looked immediately disagreeable. Harry asked him, "Is it illegal to belong to the Maquis?"

Sisko replied, "The Maquis members are widely considered to be traitors."

Harry immediately disagreed. "The Maquis is a resistance to Cardassian oppression on Cardassian controlled worlds. How is that treason against the Federation?"

Sisko replied, "By arming the non-Cardassian residents, they are threatening the treaty between the Cardassian Empire and the Federation."

Harry said, "These people have been effectively given over to a foreign power's control. Legally, they are not in Federation space. Despite the protestations of the Cardassian Empire, the Federation isn't responsible for them anymore."

Sisko said, "But they are committing crimes when they sabotage ships in Federation space. Legally, that makes them pirates. When they steal technology from Federation vessels, that is also piracy."

Harry nodded. "I can agree with that. Is Thomas Riker currently wanted for any such crimes?"

Sisko replied, "no. But he misrepresented himself to the command staff of this station."

Harry replied, "Sure. But has he actually done anything illegal that you know of? Considering he was born William Riker and could theoretically claim that name."

Sisko considered that for a long moment. Finally he said, "Not that I know of." He was unhappy that the deception could not be penalized directly and his tone showed it.

Harry replied, "Good. Now." He looked at Riker who was waiting semi-patiently, as well as the other two command staff present. "Theoretically … what could you have done as William Riker and why? And don't fucking lie because I'm already burning a lot of good will by keeping your arse from the brig. Whatever illegal acts you might have been planning have failed. Accept it. What are you trying to accomplish?"

Riker looked at Harry, Sisko, Kira, and Dax, and then sighed slightly. "Theoretically … I was hoping to get into a position where I could borrow the means to bring proof to the Federation that the Cardassian Empire is building a fleet of ships in secret to be used in a new offensive against the non-Cardassian residents of the Demilitarized Zone."

Sisko immediately stood up and he looked angry. "You were going to steal the Defiant?"

Harry could see this was about to explode. "Can I suggest that we remove to a neutral location? I offer my ship. He'll be freer to give details and you'll be more certain of what he says. If there's a threat, I want to know about it, and I'd like to do it without allowing anyone to commit a crime."

Sisko said, "I want an answer to my question."

"Which he won't give if he thinks you'll kill him – which is what you look like right now."

Sisko immediately realized that he had lost some emotional control. He consciously relaxed. "I'll allow this if you promise not to release him back onto my station without me being alerted beforehand."

Harry said, "I agree. And I'll get him to get his planned accomplices to leave as well – because there is no way he could fly the Defiant alone."

Sisko realized that Sir Harry was right. Riker maintained a certain stoicism at the comment.

Harry called Dobby and asked the elf to transport Riker to the security offices on the Bruce. Harry looked over at the DS9 crew and said, "Well, come on. Let's figure out what the deal is."

Thomas Riker was sitting on a comfortable chair that Harry had conjured. To make it less intrusive, he had recreated a sitting room type of setup rather than an interrogation setup.

"So. Thomas. If that's not too familiar …?"

Riker replied, "Thomas is fine."

"What exactly are you trying to determine?" Harry asked.

Riker appeared to think for a moment, and after looking at the attentive Starfleet observers, said, "I resigned my commission is Starfleet because my goals are to be as different as possible from William Riker. The Maquis are only trying to protect themselves and I believe in that goal."

"That's fine," Harry said, "but what is the threat you are attempting to prove or to combat?"

Riker took a breath. "We've received intelligence that the Cardassian Empire is building an attack fleet in secret. That fleet will be more than sufficient to destroy the non-Cardassian residents of the DMZ in one coordinated operation, before the Federation," and his use of that word showed extreme distaste, "could even respond. If they would. As you pointed out, legally, the non-Cardassian residents were given over to Cardassian control."

Sisko spoke. "You cannot believe that the Federation has no interest in your well-being. The Federation might want to prevent going back to active combat against the Cardassians, but Starfleet has tried to look out for them. When the Maquis start committing acts of piracy in Cardassian and Federation space, it becomes difficult to convince the Cardassians that they should respect their rights."

Harry didn't want to involve himself in the intricacies of the political situation. "Where are these ships being built, according to your intelligence?"

Riker replied, "The Orias system."

Harry looked at Sisko who volunteered, "That's in the center of Cardassian space. About 22 light years from Deep Space 9."

Harry asked, "How long would it take for the Defiant to reach that system?"

Sisko looked at Dax who replied, "At warp 9.2, about 4 and a half days."

"And how long would it take at warp 8.2?"

Dax did the mental math. "6 and half days."

Harry thought about it hard for a long moment. "So if I took the Bruce in under cloaking wards, I would be 13 days in Cardassian space plus whatever time to investigate."

Everyone looked at him in surprise. Dax said, "That's right."

Riker asked, "Why would you do this?"

Harry replied, "I might not agree with the Maquis's radical stance on what should be done, but I do think that the Cardassians are taking advantage of Human nature. I am willing to go look because someone has to and I'd rather not get the Federation accused of culpability, which would happen if Defiant was used." He sighed. "It's too bad Griffon isn't here. It can go as fast as Defiant for that distance. Defiant is faster over the short distances, but Griffon's got the stamina."

Sisko looked at Harry for a long moment. "If I was informed of such a plan, I would have to officially submit a protest through the King of Great Britain. So I would prefer if I was not informed ahead of time." He paused and said, "I would however, like to give my second-in-command two weeks off to follow up on information important to the Bajoran government. Perhaps you could give her … a lift."

Harry replied, "I can do that."

Sisko stood up and looked at Riker. "I suggest you take the time to message your compatriots that you have an alternate transport. If station security catches them, it will be much less pleasant for them."

Thomas stood up. "With my host's assistance, I will take care of it."

"Good." Sisko looked at Major Kira. "I'll be expecting word."

She replied, "I'll let you know ASAP."

"Good." Sisko turned to Sir Harry. "By the way – the results of your test?"

Harry sighed. "Voyager is about where we already calculated. You can ask HQ what they plan to do."

"I'll do that. Have a good trip." Sisko left the ship.

Harry turned Riker over to Ramirez and Stolel to ensure he got his people off the station and then called for a meeting of his senior staff.

Harry looked at the group. It included Dawkins as XO, Martinez for Astrogation, Blake as Chief Engineer, his Vulcan CMO T'Kol, Ramirez as Crew Operations Chief, Stolel for Security, and Selene Lovegwood as Chief Researcher.

Riker had been placed in a set of quarters and was being monitored.

"Okay. I've called everyone together because I plan on doing something impulsive and I want to get any objections taken care of now."

Dawkins had the most experience with Harry directly. "What's the plan, Boss?"

Harry sighed. "The Maquis have intelligence that the Cardassians are building a war fleet in secret. Their information is solid enough that they were planning on stealing the Defiant to go and look and get proof. Well, I stopped that plan. But now I want to go look myself."

Stolel asked, "And where is this possible war fleet being created?"

"The Orias system, which is as close to the center of Cardassian space as you can get. It's almost a shock that it's only supposed to have an unused class M planet."

Dawkins called up the holographic display for everyone to see. Then he whistled. "That's a fair piece inside Cardassian space with no backup. Are you sure you wanna have us do this?"

Harry replied, "No. But I think I have to. I plan to cloak the Bruce, move halfway to Amleth, and then reset to Orias from that direction. After passively scanning whatever we find, we'll return on a similar course."

Martinez asked, "Don't we want to avoid Amleth? Cloaking devices don't work around that type of nebula."

Harry shrugged. "We're only going partway. Besides, wards are not devices. Magic actually masks our presence in real space differently." Martinez nodded in acknowledgement.

Stolel peered at the images and did calculations. "We will be able to reduce the distance we travel in Cardassian space if we move an extra six hours in this direction." He highlighted a route.

Harry stood up and checked the readings. The three dimensional holograph did show that it would reduce the distance in Cardassian space to only 19 light years. "How much extra time total would this take?"

Stolel paused for a split instant and replied, "11.4 hours."

Harry nodded. "And it has the advantage of being from a completely unexpected direction." He looked at his people. "Anyone have any strenuous objections?"

Ramirez asked, "Why us and not an actual Starfleet ship like Defiant?"

Harry sighed. "I'm a free agent. And while it would cause the Empire to get upset if they knew I was doing it, I haven't signed any agreements about not going there. Worst case? My wards give out and I have to create an incident to ensure I don't get imprisoned. But I trust my wards most than I trust a cloaking device borrowed from the Romulans. The risk is minimal. Any other objections?"

No one said anything. "Okay. One hour to verify we're in shape. And then we do this."

"Aye, Commodore," echoed out from the rest.

The BSS Bruce was two thirds of the way through when Dawkins found something. "Cap'n. We've got something."

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"We're reading an increase in tachyon energy."

Harry considered that. "According to a report I heard, Romulans under cloak were detected by setting up a tachyon field and recording the disturbances." Necheyev had talked about it with her people while attempting to scan for the Bruce. "Our wards are set to ignore the tachyons. They should pass through and react as though we're not here."

Dawkins peered at the readouts. "You're right. They are moving consistent to the wards."

Harry commented, "It is possible they have a spy which informed them that we're on our way, or they are just taking precautions by putting up a field which would detect almost anything traversing it. What do you think, Stolel?"

Stolel had linked in to the main sensor readings as soon as the tachyons were reported. He looked up. "Without further data, I cannot calculate with certainty. I do believe that the stability of the field and the source being what appears to be precisely laid Cardassian probes would indicate that the field was not created in haste. It is likely that it predates any supposed mission to observe the Orias system from the direction we came through."

Harry replied, "Okay. Well, both of you keep an eye on it but otherwise, maintain course."

"Aye."

Six and a half Bajoran days after entering Cardassian space, the BSS Bruce was set to slip into the Orias system. Riker and Kira were both on the bridge.

Dawkins reported, "Long range sensors are picking up activity near to Orias II, the M-Class planet of the system."

"Can we see anything from this distance?"

"Not clearly."

"Martinez, set course to a point .5 AU above Orias II's orbital plane, half impulse. Let's not get too close until we have to."

"Aye, Commodore."

It took a bit of time but the small starship was soon hanging above the planet. Dawkins reported, "Orbital platforms detected."

"On screen."

The main viewscreen clicked several times until a wide image was showing. And what was shown did appear to be a ship-building yard. Harry asked, "Are we recording this?"

"Aye, Cap'n," Dawkins replied.

He looked over at Kira. "Do we get closer?"

She considered it. "We could see more detail."

"Move us .2 AU closer to the planet and then stop."

"Aye, Commodore," Martinez answered.

They recorded what could be recorded from passive scanners for thirty minutes. Riker said, "This needs to be sabotaged. We can't just ignore a fleet of war ships whose most likely target are innocent civilians."

Harry huffed. "We don't know what they are doing or why. But I'm sure Major Kira there will work to get this shut down – Bajor has no love for Cardassian military power or aggression. But let's find out what we can find out. Martinez."

"Yes, Commodore?"

"Move thirty degrees over on the celestial plane so we can record from that angle."

"Aye, Commodore."

With their sensors having to remain passive, the only answer to achieving resolution was to move from angle to angle until the details could all be filled in. This, unfortunately, was a tedious process. Harry also ordered Dawkins to gradually increase the scanning beam to a point which was consistent with background radiation and no stronger. Hopefully a more active scanner at low level would tell them more.

Seven hours into it, Dawkins called out. "Boss! We've got something!"

"On screen."

The image changed and suddenly a new vessel was visible. Harry asked, "Is that just me or is that a Romulan Bird of Prey?"

Dawkins replied, "That's what I have too."

"Get Riker and Kira back on the Bridge."

It took only three minutes and the two guests saw what Dawkins had brought up.

Kira asked, "What are Romulans doing here?"

Riker said, "This makes no sense. The Maquis have no conflict with the Romulans. So why are they here at a secret shipyard?"

Dawkins said, "According to the low level sensors, there has been a transport of equipment and personnel. I can't scan with more details without alerting them."

Harry then noticed something. "Stop image." The image stilled. "Play back the last thirty seconds, concentrating on the lower left hand corner, magnified 4x further."

Dawkins did as ordered. All saw what he had seen. One of the new ships shimmered and disappeared.

Kira asked incredulously, "Cloaking devices? They're giving the Cardassians cloaking devices?"

Harry said, "I think we have to assume that it's not the Maquis these ships are for."

Kira turned and asked directly, "What do you mean?"

Harry sighed. "What government is opposed to the Cardassians and the Romulans – both Alpha Quadrant species?"

Everyone on the bridge got it almost immediately. Riker said it. "The Dominion."

"Yeah. I think this fleet is meant for something no one is assigning resources towards: Attacking the Dominion. And it's possible they are planning on targeting something specific."

Major Kira asked, "What could they be targeting?"

Harry sighed. "I don't know."

Riker peered at the shipbuilding in front of them. "I want to deny that. For the Maquis, we see the plans are always against us. But this number of ships is complete overkill for the Maquis. If the Cardassian decided to kill all of us, it would take only five or six Galor-class ships. And the Romulans wouldn't be targeting such a small section of Federation citizens far away from the center. They have no reason to assist in operations against the Maquis or DMZ settlers. There appear to be about thirty ships under construction. This can't be for targeting the Maquis."

Harry said, "I think you're right. But if they are targeting the Dominion, they are going to stir up a hornet's nest. I think it's time we left. We turn this over to Benjamin Sisko and see what the hell he wants to do with it."

Both guests nodded. "Martinez. Set course out of here, Warp 8.2."

"Warp 8.2, Aye."