Guinan stood near the back of the conference room and watched as Traejen stood near the front wall screen, Sisko, Kyra, Dax, Bashir, O'Brien, Worf and Odo seated around the table. Traejen was nervous, but Sisko told him to relax and take his time. It seemed to help.

"I represent a small order that has dedicated itself to the physical study of the orbs," Traejen explained. "We believe that by studying the orbs themselves we can divine the nature and will of the Prophets. Not all clerics share this view, but we have been responsible for much of Bajor's scientific advances. We take our name from the Orb of Ages. This particular orb has been on Bajor since before the dawn of civilization, and is unique in many respects. For one, it can not be moved from its location; even modern technology like tractor beams can not move it, and transporters can not get a lock on it. Initial scientific studies show that although it is floating in place, it's mass is the equivalent of the masses of the Milky Way, Andromeda, and Triangulum galaxies combined. Not surprisingly, our monastery grew around it. Cave art near the site associate it with something called The Route of Ages - hence its name - and some believe it is somehow connected to alternate universes, although that matter….well, if our findings are correct, that might not be up for debate anymore."

"It's linked to other universes?" Dax asked.

"Perhaps a multitude of universes," Traejen said. "But I am getting ahead of myself.

"The other unique thing is that other than defying gravity, the orb is totally inert. No emissions of any kind in normal space or subspace, and no heat production; it is at room temperature. Or at least it was inert until a month ago, when it began emitting radio signals."

"Radio signals?" Sisko asked. "Ordinary electromagnetic radio signals?"

"Yes-again, it is subspace dead," Traejen said. "Initial analysis showed it to be a binary transmission, so the origin was clearly artificial, but other than that, we had no idea what we were dealing with. We had to string together five universal translators and consult with the Daystorm Institute to finally decipher it. We uncovered a data stream and I/O protocols from an extremely sophisticated computer network. We were able to decipher and convert the image."

Traejen tabbed a control on the desk and the wall screen lit. Several rows of information appeared. Sisko read the names at the left side of each row:

D. Hunt CO

B. Valentine XO/Pilot

S. Harper Engineer

T. Anasazi Inactive/Discharged Pending Charges

T. Rhade Visiting/Temporary Acces Granted

T. Gemini ES/CMO

Next to each name was a box with what looked like a double helix in it, although the box next to "T. Gemini" was empty. The remaining fields were filled by statistics and wavy lines. "The stream periodically repeats itself," Traejen explained. "We think the signal is caught in a time loop, or periodically bounces off something. It could be from the past or the future or right now. We don't know. But we realized very quickly what the data is."

"Vital signs," Bashir said. "Pulse, blood pressure, brain activity…but what's with …. Gemini? It shows ambient temperature and nothing but brain activity, if that is brain activity."

"We don't know," Traejen said. "It could be a malfunction in their system, a corruption of the data, or it could be from an individual from a completely unknown species unlike any the Federation has ever encountered. There's no way to tell. In any case, initially, the most interesting thing was the genetic information in the other streams, which is apparently used as file identifiers. They are all from human beings, but only S. Harper's shows no signs of genetic engineering. And these two, Rhade and Anasazi, show more engineering than the others but in identical ways."

"A universe where the Eugenics Wars ended differently?" Bashir asked.

"I'm more interested in the logo in the upper right corner," Sisko said.

"Yes," Traejen said, and he read: "'Systems Commonwealth High Guard Cruiser XMC 10-284 Andromeda Ascendant.' We believes these individuals are the officers or crew of some kind of military vessel, and this data stream is medical information being relayed through their computer network; we're seeing it by accident."

"Signal leakage?" Dax asked.

"Probably," Traejen said.

"How does this merit my attention?" Sisko asked.

"Because starting a month ago, another signal came through, again repeating itself. We had to clean up and combine several iterations of it, and as you like to say, it blew our socks off. We think it is intership communication during some sort of confrontation." He tabbed the desk control. "I apologize for the quality."

A static filled image appeared on the screen, and the image was split: On the left-hand side was a brown haired man in a blue suit with black shoulder pads; the only indication of any military rank was a small pin on his collar. The room behind him reminded Sisko of a hotel, but then he saw the more metallic corridor in a door behind the man. 'Something like a Galaxy class ship,' Sisko thought.

The other image was filled with the face of a black man with a beard and mustache, hair shaved down to stubble, in a leather vest. The space behind him was far more mechanical, utilitarian. It reminded Sisko of one of the private cargo ships that came through DS9.

"The map is all I want," the black man said without preamble.

"I want to talk with Beka," the brown haired man replied.

'No identifiers,' Sisko thought. 'So they know each other and are at odds. Lovely.'

"She's with me, now," the black man said.

"Prove it."

Over the black man's shoulder, they saw a blonde woman in a leather jacket. "It's true, Dylan," she said. "I'm with Tyr for one reason." She drew a pistol and aimed it at the black man's head. "One only. Dylan, the portal is a way to control the abyss. And you've got to get out of here. The entire Nietzschean army is headed this way to destroy you."

"Beka, make sure-" Dylan started.

"Listen," Beka went on, "the Magog are close, only months away. We don't have as much time as we thought."

"We'll get you out of there."

"Yeah, well, you'd better hurry. I have one angry Nietzschean on the end of my barrel."

Tyr grimaced. "Not angry." Then that side of the screen went blank.

"Beka!" Dylan said. "Tyr!…Andromeda!"

Another woman appeared in the right side of the screen. She had long black hair, olive skin, pouty red lips and brown eyes. Behind her was what must have been a screen filled with data files and readouts.

"Get them back!" Dylan ordered.

"I'm sorry, Dylan," the woman said. "Transmission has been cut."

("They're not talking about beaming," Dax noted. "Maybe-" "Shh!" Kyra hissed.)

"Well, try and hack your way…" Dylan trailed off as he watched something. Sisko could see the alarm break through the military discipline.

"Andromeda," Dylan said, "status on the *Maru.*"

"The Maru's engines are at full," Andromeda answered. "All directional thrusters also at full."

"Beka's thrown it out of control." Dylan turned and headed away from the camera. "Match their course."

"Acknowledged."

Dylan's side of the screen blanked. Andromeda looked down, then looked up again, eyes searching. "Who's there?" she said. "Who's listening to this? I am the Commonwealth starship *Andromeda Ascendant* under the command of Captain Dylan Hunt. Identify yourself." She waited. "Signal lost. Source: Route of Ages. Lovely. I have *got* to get dry dock time when all this is over. And some place nice, not one run by Harper's 'buds.'" She vanished.

"That's it," Traejen said.

"Was she aware of you?" Dax asked.

"We're not sure," Traejen answered. "After much debate, we transmitted signals on the same frequency but received no reply. There's no telling if she was responding to our signals *before* we sent it, or was just somehow aware of our equipment."

"That-that-that-" O'brien stammered. "Captain, that ship, the *Andromeda,* she has to be a sentient starship!"

"With full self awareness and emotions," Dax said.

"That's been the holy grail of starship design for a hundred years," O'Brien went on. "No matter how many advances in computer science we've made, we've never been able to crack it. The Federation's finest minds have been looking at Data for years and we still don't know how he and his brother work! And yet, in that universe, they talk to a sentient ship like it's nothing." His eyes went dreamy. "What I wouldn't give for an hour with that system."

"Down boy," Kyra said. "Remember, you're married."

"Huh?" O'Brien said. "I was just admiring the technology, Major."

"They use radio waves," Dax said, "and neither Dylan nor Andromeda made any mention of beaming Beka out of that situation. Maybe some of our technology doesn't work in that universe, and vice versa."

"Very probably," Traejen said.

"Well, Captain D-for-Dylan Hunt must have some interesting crew relations problems," Odo growled, "if I am correct that Mr. T-for-Tyr Anasazi is a former crew member who became an enemy."

"Tyr has no honor," Worf boomed. "That much is obvious."

"And that Beka must be an armful," Kyra said. "Talk about an attitude with legs. If Dylan is the straight-laced military type he appears to be, then the Prophets have mercy on him for having to deal with her every day."

Sisko stared at Kyra.

"What?" Kyra asked him.

"Nothing." Sisko turned to Traejen. "I'm more worried about some of the things Captain Hunt mentioned that sound like existential threats, the Magog and the Abyss."

"We wondered the same thing, Captain," Traejen said. "There's no reference to them in any ancient texts. Our military liaison said no one has heard of them either, and that includes Starfleet Intelligence. We can hope those threats are specific to the other universe and not this one."

"Then why is this important?" Bashir asked. "It doesn't seem like there's anything we can do about it. These signals could have been bouncing around the multiverse for a million years or more, and these people could be long dead."

"Two things," Traejen said. "First, this morning, this started happening to the orb." Traejen tabbed the desk. The wall screen showed an image of a black sphere floating above a stone alter, surrounded by lights and scientific equipment. But although the sphere appeared to be ebony stone, there seemed to be light *inside* it, as if it was a hollow sphere, light in the form of nested cubes twisting and turning around each other.

"That looks like a 3-dimensional projection of a tesseract," Dax said.

"Cave writings associate that with the Route of Ages," Traejen said.

"What's the other thing that happened?" Sisko said.

"At the same time that image appeared," Traejen answered, "we began to receive a new set of signals with…with Tyr Anasazi's vital signs, and these new signals are getting stronger."

"I see," Sisko said as he stood up. "You were absolutely right to bring this to my attention. Major Kyra, prep one of the runabouts for launch. You, Dr. Bashir, Dax, and Worf are with me." Then he remembered the figure standing at the back of the room. "Guinan," he said, "would you like to accompany us?"

Guinan smiled. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."