Beka fired the *Maru's* retros, bringing it to a halt just short of the still-invisible wormhole. Dylan and Rhade looked on from the rear consoles, Olma, Trance, Worf and K'Elyr standing at the railing.
"Ok, DS9," Beka said. "I'm in position."
"Right," Miles O'Brien said from the monitor above Beka's canopy. "Now, Captain Hunt, I want you to keep your eyes on two things: Your antimatter containment and Captain Valentine's hair."
Dylan's eyes flicked up from the flight engineer's station. "Her hair?"
O'Brien nodded. "You use nanotechnology a lot more than we do, so that'll be our canary in the coal mine. If anti-matter containment goes…we have matter/energy transportation. We'll get you out of there if the *Maru* blows."
"It won't," Beka groused. "Anything else?"
"No," O'Brien said.
"In that case," Beka said, "here we go."
Beka hit the throttle. The wormhole opened in front of them. The ship plunged into the tunnel of light and color, but Beka couldn't spare it a glance - her attention stayed focus on the head's-up display and the bright point of DS9's signal source. The *Maru* shook and rattled around them, then orange light flashed in through the canopy.
"Beka-" Dylan said.
"I saw it," Beka said. "Too busy flying. Looks like we're getting close to the end. Hang on…"
Another jolt and the wormhole fell behind them, revealing a star field. Beka recognized the same constellations she had seen on the other side, then looked to her right and saw the bronze rings and arches of Deep Space Nine.