"Worf...can we talk?"

"I don't want to talk"

"Sorry Worf, but I'm afraid that this time that won't work, I'm too worried about you, and besides you don't necessarily have to talk, just listen if you want"

"About what?"

"Odo, before you came to the station full time, though admittedly the first story almost had a very sad ending"

"What do you mean?"

"We almost lost Odo to his own people in a very bad way, you see one day Garak asked to see Odo at his shop but it turned out to be a non security matter and as such Odo started to leave when...when suddenly according to Garak he cried out in pain and parts of his body temporarily went into a gelatinous state, Odo actually passed out at Garak's shop forcing Garak to call for medical help. His condition became worse to the point that we had no choice but to go to the Gamma Quadrant and ask the Founders for help, one of them came onto the Defiant and stabilized Odo's condition, though Odo confirmed to us later that if we had not gone to the Gamma Quadrant he would have died. We went to the Founder's home world where he was judged and made solid, he had a hard time adjusting as you might have known but he managed"

"I...was unaware of how that came to be, but if you think this will get me to talk..."

"Colonel, I think the two of us should leave Worf alone"

"Understood Ezri"

And so the two start walking towards a turbolift when suddenly they both stopped in their tracks and turned around rapidly, only to then look at each other in confusion

"Did...did you see what I saw?"

"I don't know, I might have but..."

"Sisko"

"Agreed"

They go to Ops and then immediately go to the office knowing that Sisko was still there

"What can I do for you two?"

"Sir it's...there may or may not be an incident soon"

"What for?"

"Ezri and I thought we saw Odo and Lt. Commander Data on the Promenade"

"What?"

"I know what that sounds like sir, as such Bashir may be reporting this to you as well about sightings of those two, we just don't know yet"

"Keep me informed as best as possible"

"We will"

"Dax, are you absolutely sure about both of them?"

"Yes, Odo of course is well known to us, but I memorized what Lt. Commander Data looks like from his official Starfleet file since Worf and O'Brien both never had any pictures of him lying around"

"I'm willing to bet the Ezri in you has been asking them about that"

"Oh yeah, the Jadzia in me talked to Worf about his service on the Enterprise a few times but even then I...she never saw a picture outside of official Starfleet photos"

Over the next several days several people not only reported sightings of Odo and an unknown Starfleet officer but Worf started to open up about his memories regarding Data when they served together on the Enterprise. When he thought he saw them both he actually fainted because while he had heard the rumors he had deliberately decided to ignore them as best as possible and when he had no choice but to not be so ignorant he had chosen not to believe the rumors, he woke up with a headache and Bashir, Sisko and Ezri near his bed

"I thought I saw Odo and Data, but that cannot be"

(Sighs) "I'm afraid that you're not the only one with possible sightings, it's where the rumors you've been doing your best to ignore are coming from"

"I see...what are we to do about these sightings?"

"For now nothing primarily because there's nothing that can be done, the sightings are all way too brief to try and confirm if it's actually them or not"

"I see, if possible I would like to try something that may help"

"I'm open to suggestions Worf, but not right now"

"Understood sir"

"I know that you want to get started immediately Worf, but I can't allow it for a very simple reason, there's going to be a training session executed in a few hours and we don't know how long that session will last due to the fact that there are Academy Cadets involved in said training, if the two officers are alive they may need treated for injuries for Odo and as for Lt. Commander Data who knows what damage might need fixed and we don't have Lt. Commander Geordi LaForge here to help yet, the Enterprise is due here an hour before the training session happens because they're also going to be part of it"

"But if they were to suddenly show up during the exercise..."

"There seems to be a pattern regarding that and it's likely that they won't show up for at least two days"

"That is if the pattern holds"

"Yes, that is indeed if the pattern holds"

The training session ultimately took a day and a half because while the majority of the people training turned out to be Cadets they were some of the older Cadets and took to training more quickly than a younger Cadet would have, the rest were Starfleet officers that had lived through the Dominion war

"Alright Worf, what is your plan?"

"That we flood the entire station with Anyon emissions for at least ten minutes unless we get indications otherwise"

"Of course, I read that report I should have thought about that myself"

The emissions though don't actually work, at least not as well as they might have otherwise because what had happened to Odo and Data wasn't just similar to what had happened to LaForge and Ro where they had been phased instead they had been full on cloaked by the mixture of the transporter and an explosion right as they had been beamed off that had affected the Klingon's cloaking device for a full three minutes, the sightings that had been reported were the result of the cloaking effect being temporarily turned off in a way and even that had taken three months to happen in the first place. There was also the fact that the Empire was keeping things secret from the Federation and also Worf because of the fact that Martok wasn't sure if he would continue to pursue the technology they were testing which would give them the ability to attack while cloaked, there was also the fact that neither side was aware of Section 31 interference who had wanted both Data and Odo out of the way because both were more than a little...difficult to control in their minds in getting what they wanted done (Data and Odo had found out about Section 31 being involved during the three months it took to uncloak, however they had unfortunately been forced to forget what they had learned by Section 31 on the way to DS9). Worf was naturally upset that his idea hadn't worked and he almost reverted back to when Bashir was considering putting Worf in a medical coma, but fortunately he was also quickly pulled out of that by those that had known him during his tour of duty on DS9

"You tried Worf, that's all anyone could have asked of you, is that you tried"

"But I failed!"

"Worf...in some ways you may think you failed but you actually haven't, yes the Anyon emissions didn't reveal the two presumed dead but might not actually be officers, but that just means that they aren't phased or cloaked, or if they are cloaked it's not in a method that can easily be undone"

The station would continue to have the occasional sightings for another two months, during which time Odo finally managed to get a brief message out via his office (he and Data both knew that time was extremely limited and had already agreed on four short words each time, though what those words were would be decided nearing the timing of their temporary uncloaking because of the fact that while they technically could touch things while cloaked they did not want to risk messing up the technology since they were unsure of what the cloaking actually did to said technology)

"Sir...there's...there's a message from security"

"What's the message?"

"All it says is four words. Alive, cloaked, Klingon, Federation...what does that mean?"

"I think I might know, though I don't know how it will be confirmed, our two people that have had sightings are alive but cloaked due to a combination of something happening on the Klingon ship and our transporter system most likely, I recently received the final report from the Klingon High Council and the Melbourne, it turns out that the Klingons were testing a new cloaking device that would allow them to fire their weapons while still cloaked, ultimately they have decided against that technology, but apparently that was one of the consoles that exploded just before transport which messed up their cloaking system, that combined with the known transporter issues regarding messed up cloaking devices means that our two officers were cloaked and not killed like believed"

"You know it could be more complicated than that but okay let's say that you're correct Captain, what now?"

"Now we try and figure out how to get them uncloaked so that they can resume their normal lives, in the meantime we need to contact Starfleet Command and let them know that our officers are alive and not dead"

"They won't consider this message as proof though"

"Hm...you have a point regarding that, as such we'll have to uncloak them first and then let Starfleet Command know that the two officers are in actuality alive"

"I guess we're contacting the Klingon High Council and the Melbourne"

"Looks like it indeed"

It would take a week for both to get to the station while in the meantime another message was sent

"Sir it's another message, this time it's...well I don't know if you can infer anything out of this one but here goes. Earth, Enterprise, danger, many"

"Okay...that one has me confused as well, but we'll alert both Earth and the Enterprise to possible danger, if they ask where we heard this, make something up that doesn't involve Odo or Lt. Commander Data due to the fact that we have no proof of them being alive at the moment"

"Yes sir"

Once the Melbourne and the Klingon High Council representative was at the station they worked 24/7 in trying to figure out how to reverse what had happened, but after three days they succeeded in uncloaking the two officers, even without the Enterprise there for LaForge to be there for Data it was decided that they had been lost long enough, plus it turned out that an Engineer on the Melbourne had studied Bruce Maddox's notes and had talked with LaForge and Data before and as such would be able to handle any issues. The solution was done in sickbay just in case Odo at the least needed care and when the cloaking was undone Odo was in his gelatinous state and Data was also unconscious