"I'm getting communication," Tenmei reported, glancing over her shoulder at Sisko as the turbolift doors opened to admit Doctor Bashir onto the bridge. She turned back again as Sisko pushed himself from the captain's chair, crossing the tiny bridge to stand beside the lieutenant. "It's on a secure Cardassian channel," Tenmei continued, frowning slightly. "One side is coming from the fourth planet and the other– There's definitely a cloaked ship out there."
"I'm picking up a disturbance," O'Brien confirmed and Sisko cast a glance at his chief engineer. "Fluctuations from a warp engine, I think. I'm trying to pinpoint it. I've never seen a cloaked ship emit this kind of signature before. It's a dead giveaway that it's there."
"You've never seen a cloaked Romulan ship before," Bashir replied and O'Brien looked up.
"How'd you know it's that?" he asked.
"Guessing," Bashir replied, shaking his head. "Maybe they don't have the benefit of Trisepat cloaks."
"If they did, they wouldn't be showing up on our sensors," O'Brien replied.
"Commander, can you tell how many there are?" Sisko asked.
"Looks like just one sir, unless it's two small ships, but with a warp signature that strong, I doubt it. Got it."
"On screen," Sisko said and was presented by a view of black space.
"Not visible to us, though," O'Brien said.
"I doubt these Romulans would be communicating with their people on the surface by secure Cardassian channels," Sisko said, then glanced around the bridge. On the basis that Klixa was Betazoid and therefore knew a lot about telepathy, Sisko decided she'd make the best impromptu bridge medic at the moment. "Julian, tell Klixa how to operate those neural inhibitors, then take Ezri and Nadir down to the surface. Tenmei, get the coordinates for that communication and give them to transporter room one. Michael, I want you to go with them. Ro, pick one of your people to go with the captain, but you're staying here."
Everyone nodded curtly and Ro rose from her station to join Eddington in getting the team prepare. Reth followed her, calling Nadir over the com, and Bashir approached the auburn-haired Betazoid, giving her a ten-second run down on using the neural inhibitors before pushing the med kit into her hands.
"Julian! Let's go!" Ro snapped and he glanced up to see her holding the door open. He hurried over and joined the small crowd.
"Good luck," Sisko said as the doors hissed shut.
"I've got it, sir," Sren said and Reyal nodded.
"Transmit the coordinates to transporter control. Reyal to Vepil. Get down there."
"I'm picking up communication from the surface!" Nog said. "I don't recognize the frequency. It's secured."
"Ezri, I need coordinates for it. Whoever's transmitting might be the ones in trouble," Kira said.
"I'm on it," Dax replied, nodding, her fingers dancing over her controls. "Captain, there's a slight distortion in subspace. It looks like a cloaked Romulan ship."
"Romulans!" Kira barked. She should have known. "Nog, is the frequency Romulan?"
"I don't think so, sir," Nog replied, shaking his head. "We're up-to-date on the frequencies of all the secure Romulan channels. It might be people from that other universe."
"If there's a cloaked Romulan ship here, it gives me a pretty good idea of who opened that rift," Kira growled. "Julian, Ro, you're going down there. Ezri, you, too, once you get me those coordinates. If someone not Romulan is on that planet, they're definitely going to need us. Nog, get me a fix on that Romulan ship."
"Working on it, sir," the engineer replied.
"I just sent the coordinates to the transporter room. It's coming from the same place our distress signal came from," Dax reported.
"You have four minutes until we arrive. Go suit up. It's damn cold down there. And be careful."
The three officers nodded as they made their way from the bridge.
Bashir could find no difference between the surface of this alternate planet and the one in his universe. He, Captain Eddington, Ezri Reth, Amia Nadir and Tyler Benson, a young human security officer, materialized on a wind swept plain and immediately adjusted the settings on their visors. Bashir looked around, pulling out his tricorder, scanning the area. He wasn't picking up anything now, and checked the coordinates in his tricorder against the coordinates Shar had determined from the distress call.
"This way," Eddington said, pointing south. "Everyone, weapons out and fan out. Let's go."
The others drew their phasers and tricorders and spread out, boots crunching across the icy snow. It was a sound that made Bashir's skin crawl. He wondered what Eddington thought of this: pulled away from vacation on Bajor and sent to another universe. The captain, after having commanded his own ship very successfully for several years, had been granted a high ranking Starfleet security position on Betazed. Bashir knew that Admiral Dukat was angling to get Eddington assigned to his sector and that the human would be more than happy to go back. Bajor had a way of captivating its visitors.
A shout from Reth made Bashir look over and he expected to see an escape pod or shuttle, but, instead, three figures were materializing on the surface.
"Cover!" Eddington yelled and Bashir dropped behind the nearest boulder, less than a meter to his right. He poked his head up, phaser aimed, and was presented with the sight of three aliens who were obviously Romulans. Bashir could see their faces through the faceplates of their silver EV suits. Eddington fired first, catching a young looking man and knocking him back into the snow. One of the other hit her arm and appeared to be yelling something as she took cover. A shot returned to them, narrowly avoiding Reth, who threw herself into the snow. She sat up again quickly and fired blindly before ducking out of sight again.
"Julian, go around them to the right. Benson, to the left. Stay low," Eddington's voice said over the com.
"Understood," both the doctor and the security officer replied. Bashir crouched and moved along the icy plain, trying to stay behind the black boulders as much as he could. He threw himself down on the ground when he heard the hum of a transporter beam settling more Romulans on the surface to join the fire fight with the Starfleet officers. He muttered a colourful curse in Trill.
"I heard that," Reth said.
"Keep moving," Eddington added.
Bashir leaned against a boulder, arching his head back and peered up. He saw six more Romulans had joined the two still standing, making eight against five. Eddington evened the odds by one and dodged a very close shot which left Bashir's heart pounding too fast. He kept going.
Shit, shit, shit, he thought as he caught sight of a half-buried escape pod.
"Captain, I see the pod!" he said into the com, confident that only the Starfleet officers could hear him.
"How far?" Eddington demanded and Bashir could just see him crouched behind his sheltering boulder.
"Two hundred meters, give or take," Bashir replied.
"Can you get to it?"
"They'll see me."
"We'll cover you," Eddington said and darted up to fire again. Bashir started to run, diving behind the nearest boulder which barely covered him, holding back a startled cry when chips of rock flew off above him and clattered across his helmet.
"Eddington to Quicksilver! We've located an escape pod and we could really use some reinforcements."
"We have our own problems up here, Mister Eddington!" Sisko's voice returned. "And…" Bashir felt his blood run cold when the captain's voice died away.
"And what, dammit, Benjamin!" Eddington hollered.
"Another Starfleet ship, it seems," Sisko said slowly.
"What?" Eddington yelled, but it was ignored. "Dammit," he swore over the com. "Julian, keep going."
"Uh," Bashir said as he turned away to move again, only to notice another group of people being deposited, weapons drawn, on the surface. "I think we have more company."
"There!" Tenmei yelled, pointing at the view screen as a ship decloaked momentarily.
Sisko stared, frozen for a fraction of a second, looking at the utterly unfamiliar green ship. It reminded him of a giant predatory bird.
"By the Prophets," Ro muttered and Sisko yanked himself back to reality.
"Why did they decloak?" O'Brien asked, his voice tinged with disapproval.
"They beamed three people to the surface," Klixa reported.
"Decloaking to beam?" Sisko asked.
"The Klingons used to have to do it," O'Brien replied, sounding as if he had only remembered that. It seemed like such a primitive technology now that the Trisepat had shared their cloaking techniques with the Federation.
"Scan for Cardassians!" Sisko snapped and Shar's fingers flew over his console.
"Eleven of them," he said. "And I'm reading weapons fire on board."
"Putting up a fight, are they?" Sisko asked. "Take us in closer, Lieutenant Tenmei. Try hailing them."
"Channel open sir," Klixa reported as Tenmei began piloting the ship toward the Romulan vessel, which was now fading out of view.
"This is Captain Benjamin Sisko of the United Federation of Planets," Sisko said. "I know you have kidnapped Cardassians on board. Drop your cloak and return the prisoners to us."
There was no reply but Klixa gave a short, sharp laugh. Sisko turned to her, an eyebrow raised inquisitively.
"You've got their attention, Captain," she said. "You scared the hell out of them. They have no idea where we are."
"Let's keep it that way, shall we?"
"I'm picking up another ship out there, sir," O'Brien said. "It's giving off the same distortion as that Romulan ship."
"Back up?"
"I can't tell. I'm trying to trace its flight plan."
"Eddington to Quicksilver! We've located an escape pod and we could really use some reinforcements."
"We have our own problems up here, Mister Eddington!" Sisko's snapped back, but gestured at Ro to send two more security officers.
An energy beam shot through space suddenly and Sisko braced instantly, shocked when he realized the weapons fire had hit the cloaked Romulan ship. The cloak on the other ship began to shimmer and dissolve and Sisko saw it sailing toward the Romulan vessel, firing repeatedly. The Romulan ship took the defensive and began firing back.
"And…"
"And what, dammit, Benjamin!" Eddington hollered.
"Another Starfleet ship, it seems," Sisko said slowly.
"What?" Eddington hollered but Sisko ignored him, knowing the additional security was on the way.
"Miles, can you identify that ship?" he demanded.
"I think it's the Defiant, sir," the engineer replied.
"The Defiant? How did it get here?"
"Not our Defiant," O'Brien said.
"Sir, the Romulans just beamed down more people. And so did that other– the Defiant," Shar reported.
"Drop our cloak. Take us in. Let's give our compatriots a hand, shall we?"
Bashir barely had time to register the fact that three more Starfleet officers had materialized ten meters away from him before more Romulans and then two more security officers were deposited on the surface. The fire fight was in earnest now and the doctor had dropped behind a larger boulder, trying to quell the adrenaline rush that was urging him onward. The pod was now approximately one hundred and eighty meters from him. It might as well have been a light year.
"Julian! We'll need your help!" Eddington called out over the com.
"Right!" Bashir replied, knowing it didn't matter now that they people in the pod needed his help, too. He couldn't do anything for them if he was dead.
"Eddington?" he heard his own voice, from somewhere else, ask in disbelief.
"What is it, Julian?" the captain snapped back.
"That– wasn't me–" Bashir said, then turned in shock to look at the three Starfleet officers who had beamed down closest to him. One of them was looking back, but he was too far away to see clearly behind the face plate. "I think we just encountered some of the locals," Bashir told his superior. "Including the other Bashir."
"What?" Eddington asked, then swore under his breath in very convincing Betazoid. Bashir took position and began firing at the Romulans who were just as well covered as he was, trying to catch one of them, even with debris from their rocky shelters. "How are we on the same com frequency?"
"We're probably not," Bashir replied. "But close enough."
"Who the hell do we have out there?" Eddington demanded, not pausing between shooting.
"Lieutenant Ro Laren, Doctor Julian Bashir, and Lieutenant Ezri Dax," Ro's voice replied.
"Ezri Dax?" Bashir and Reth both said at once.
"Yes," a female voice which sounded exactly like Reth's replied.
"Let's sort this all out later, shall we?" Eddington suggested. "I'm Captain Michael Eddington, Starfleet Security, and someone from your group needs to tell me what the hell you know."
"We received a distress call from this area and ran into a Romulan warbird when we got here. I'm Lieutenant Ro Laren, chief of security on Deep Space Nine."
"Which, to you, is Terok Nor," the other Bashir's voice said in Bashir's helmet.
"They're Cardassian terraformers from our side," Eddington said. "We came here to get them back."
"Then let's do that," Ro said.
"Julian, get to that pod," Eddington said. "The rest of you, get the hell over here, except you, Benson."
"Which one?" the other Bashir asked.
"Call me Jules, Michael," Bashir replied and began moving again, as Benson provided some nice fire cover across from them. The others were moving, already closer to the main group than he was. Bashir heard the sound of rock shattering near him and picked up his pace, scrambling into a small hollow and then out again, dragging himself behind a less-than-satisfactory rock. He heard a yell across his com and instinctively moved toward the sound of pain coming from Reth– or maybe the other Ezri.
"I've got it!" the other Bashir yelled and Bashir was thankful that someone knew him so well. He turned back toward the pod just in time to see two figures in thermal clothing scrambling out, brandishing phasers and scrabbling for footing on the pod's slippery surface.
"Captain, the other ship is hailing us," Tenmei reported. She was now wearing a neural inhibitor, as were Ro and a few other members of his crew on the bridge.
"On screen. Adjust for the frequency variation."
Tenmei nodded and the screen jumped to life, revealing the bridge of a ship very similar to the Quicksilver's and a woman who Sisko realized with a start was Kira.
"Captain!" he said.
"Captain!" she replied with equal surprise. Sisko gave his head a shake to clear it; there were obvious differences between the Kira Nerys he knew and this one. Starting with the uniform, which was distinctly different with its grey padded shoulders. And the fact that the Kira he knew wasn't commanding another Starfleet ship.
"We came to get our people back," Sisko said.
"Who are they?" Kira demanded. She certainly spoke like the Kira he knew.
"Cardassian terraformers on their way to Telios-Celan," Sisko replied.
"How many?"
"Eleven on board that ship," Sisko said. "I don't know how many on the surface."
"We need to get their shields down and beam aboard."
"Agreed," Sisko said, glancing at his officers, noticing that some of them were staring at their counterparts in open shock, while others had no counterparts or didn't seem to care.
"I'm sending you an attack pattern and information on where Romulan shield design is weakest."
"We'll follow your lead," Sisko said, nodding to her. "End communication, Lieutenant," he said to Tenmei, who nodded. The screen jumped back to the view of the Romulan ship.
"Ro, read that info. Tenmei, get us into position and let's go."
"Aye, sir," both women responded at once and Sisko watched as the Defiant began to move and felt his own ship move along with it.
Ellik kicked out a hatchway panel and dropped into an occupied cell. One of her crew, an exobiologist named Laresel Ket looked up in surprise, pushing himself to his feet.
"Doctor Ellik!" he cried, relief evident in his voice and eyes.
"Here," Ellik said, pushing a phaser rifle into his hands. "It's pretty basic. Come on. There are nine others."
To his credit, Ket shouldered the weapon and didn't ask questions. Ellik crawled back into the passageway, Ket following her, and led him back to the main corridor. She hadn't wanted to confront any more guards on her own, but with someone backing her up, she felt more confident. They scrambled into the dim lighting of the hallway, staying low until they heard nothing.
"This way," Ellik hissed, then nearly dropped her phaser when a warning klaxon went off.
"I think they've figured us out," she said, gesturing for Ket to hurry, which he did. She pressed herself against the wall, moving that way, as quickly as she could. Rounding a corner nearly brought her face to face with a phaser blast and she jerked herself back, returning fire and hearing the satisfying thump of someone hitting the floor. She motioned for Ket to take up position opposite her and he darted across the hall, aiming his weapon around the corner and firing. Ellik nearly swore but kept herself silent, reminding herself that neither of them were soldiers. Two more shots went past them in quick succession and Ellik spun around the corner, focusing quickly and shooting the other Romulan guard.
A jolt through the whole ship made her stumble.
"What the hell was that?" Ket demanded.
"Our reinforcements, I think," Ellik replied.
"What? Do they know we're on this damn ship?"
"I hope so," the doctor muttered, gesturing for him to keep moving. They scooped the weapons up from the two dead Romulans and crept through the corridor, then came to a cell door. Without preamble, Ellik shot the locking controls and forced the door open, peering inside. She was immediately bashed over the head with a thin metal tray.
"Dammit!" she swore, backing out into the hallway.
"Doctor Ellik?" a surprised voice said from inside.
"Yes!" Ellik replied, rubbing her head. Another of her team, Neema Maglik, limped out through the door. Ellik's heart ached when she saw the other terraformer: Maglik's face was a map of bruises and she had restraining marks on her forearms and wrists.
"I am so sorry!" Maglik said in a slightly hoarse voice.
"Lar, give her one of those phasers," Ellik growled, trying to will the pounding in her head to subside. She screwed her eyes shut and then opened them again, giving her head a shake.
"Are you all right?" Ket demanded.
"It won't kill me," Ellik replied. "Come on, before they get to us."
As if cued by her words, three more Romulans appeared behind them. Ellik dodged a shot and spun, staying low, to fire. She caught the Romulan female in the shoulder and then the stomach but didn't stay to watch her go down. She heard it as she ran in the other direction, Ket ahead of her, Maglik somehow keeping step despite her limp.
The ship rocked again, twice. Ellik had to grab Maglik's arm to keep the other woman on her feet but didn't let them slow down.
"All hands," said a cool Romulan voice over the com, "We are under attack by two Starfleet vessels. All hands to battle stations. Security to the detention area."
Ellik glanced back to see that Ket had crouched down and was waving them on. Grimly, she left him behind, and it was only seconds before the sound of weapons fire came from behind them. They reached another cell, forced it open and stood back, neither of them willing to fall victim to another tray to the head. When no one emerged, Ellik stepped in and then out again, quickly. She shook her head to Maglik.
"Keep moving," she said and the other woman didn't question. Ellik didn't want to say that the person inside had been Doctor Elies Krem, the mission's commander. They forced open yet another door and then threw themselves to the floor when a shot came from behind them. Maglik managed to roll over and shoot in the direction of the approaching Romulan soldier. The shot missed him and both women scrambled away from the open cell, yelling at the occupant to stay inside. Ellik turned back when she judged it safe enough and shot twice, missing by a wide margin the first time and catching the Romulan square in the forehead the second. She knew that had been a lucky shot and hoped for more like it. They both scrambled back to the cell and dragged out the person inside, a soil scientist named Hulin Madson. He was half-human and half Cardassian, but had grown up on Cardassian Six and had the misfortune, as Ellik now saw it, of being selected for this doomed mission.
Maglik had grabbed the fallen soldier's phaser and shoved it into Madson's unresisting hands. Neither of the women mentioned that Ket hadn't come back. Madson seemed stunned for a moment, then his Cardassian discipline reasserted itself and he nodded at his commanding officer, following her down the hallway. The ship continued to shake at intervals and a particularly violent shock threw them all against a wall, nearly sending them stumbling into a Romulan guard. Ellik and the guard regained their composure at the same time and he moved to fire, but the Cardassian swung her phaser rifle's butt into his chin, knocking him back. Adjusting her grip on the weapon, she slammed him over the head and relieved him of his rifle, slinging it across her back.
"Come on," she said, breathing heavily. The ship shuddered again and Ellik heard the unmistakable whine of transporter beams. She and her tiny team aimed their weapons, waiting for the Romulan guards to materialize. In a split second, Ellik realized they weren't Romulans, they were Starfleet, but her reaction time was better than Madson's. He fired at the person closest to him and a Bajoran officer went down. Another security officer, a human, fired back and Madson hit the ground with a grunt, having only been stunned.
"Hold fire!" Ellik and a Bajoran at the same time. The Bajoran planted herself between the two groups, one hand held up to each side. She turned to Ellik.
"I'm Lieutenant Ro Laren. We're here to rescue you."
"We've been shooting at Romulans for awhile," Ellik said. "And you might be able to tell we aren't in the greatest shape."
"I can see that," Ro said. "But I have a deputy dead now. And we need to get you out of here."
"There are others," Ellik insisted.
"Then we find them." She tapped her combadge. "Ro to Quicksilver, beam Tore's body back. We're got three free Cardassians here and we're going after the other prisoners."
"Understood, Lieutenant," said a low male voice from the other end. "Keep us informed. Sisko out."
Ellik noticed that two of the five security officers were wearing uniforms that didn't match Ro's, but she didn't question it. Starfleet seemed to be constantly updating its uniforms and who was she to argue with their rescuers?
"Come on," Ro said. "Let's move."
"Stay down!" Bashir yelled into his helmet, waving at the two figures scrambling across the pod, shooting indiscriminately into the melee. He realized they couldn't hear him and whipped off the helmet, taking a lung-searing breath of freezing air. "Stay down!" he yelled again.
"Dammit, Julian!" Eddington's voice came from the helmet Bashir held in one hand, sounding small and tinny. Bashir moved to duck when a blast from a Romulan caught him across the shoulder. He grunted, his helmet falling from his hand, and another shot hit him across the back. Bashir fell, catching his temple against a rock and landing face first in the icy snow. He groaned, trying to push himself back up, his eyes having difficulties focusing on the ground. The snow was turning red and he realized he was bleeding from his forehead. He smacked a hand over the wound, wincing, and heard the rock protecting him shatter with another shot. A piece of the debris cut his neck and Bashir yelled, barely audible over the din. He sagged, rolling onto his back, breathing in air so cold it burned his nose and lungs. He fumbled with his med kit and managed to get a sealing patch on his neck, but had no idea if he'd set it right. He dragged the helmet over his head again.
"Need help," he managed.
"Nadir, get the hell over there!" Eddington's voice came. Then: "Dammit! Get these idiots down!"
Bashir wondered what had happened but could not force himself to sit up to see. He lay in the sparse shelter provided by the boulder and wondering if he would die before Nadir could get to him.
Julian Bashir cursed to himself as he knelt next to the woman named Ezri Reth and kept himself low to avoid the fire. She was cradling her left arm, wincing. It was wrenching; she looked almost exactly like Ezri Dax and Bashir's heart cried out against what his brain saw as such a good friend in pain.
"You'll be all right," he promised her, trying not to think about the fact that this wasn't his Ezri, nor was she Dax. Another symbiont, which meant that maybe Jadzia Dax was still alive, over there.
He could see that her EV suit had been compromised and knew that he couldn't have her beamed to the Defiant; his ship would already be in confrontation with the warbird.
"I'm going to take off your helmet so I can give you an analgesic, all right? It will be cold, but you can breathe the air."
"Okay," Reth agreed, nodding quickly. Bashir unlocked the latch and pulled the helmet off. Reth's face screwed up as she took a breath of the minus thirty air. Bashir worked fast, injecting her and putting the helmet back on. Looking at her like that had given him enough time to see the few subtle differences in her face. She didn't have the same look of hard won confidence Dax had. She still seemed confident to him, but perhaps she hadn't dealt with the same shock of joining, or Reth was an easier symbiont. He had no idea.
The EV suit slowed down his dermal regenerator, and it was nothing better than a patch-up job, but it would have to do. Bashir sealed the hole in the arm of her suit with a magnetic band.
"You'll have to stay down and out of the fighting," he said.
"I'm right handed. I can still shoot," she said through gritted teeth. There was a big difference; Ezri Dax was left handed.
"Doctor's orders," he said.
"Are you as good a doctor as the Julian I know?" she inquired.
"Yes," Bashir said, having no idea if it were true.
"Right then," Reth said.
Bashir looked up fast when he heard his own voice yelling from across the plane. With some despair, he saw the other Bashir with his helmet off, yelling at two people who had emerged from the half-buried escape pod. He yelled himself when he saw the other doctor go down from two shots, then Eddington – Eddington of all people! – was ordering the Nadir from the other universe over to help him.
"Benson, get to those damn kids!" Eddington snapped. Bashir saw the skilled security officer take down another Romulan – they were down to six now – and start toward the two young people. Bashir saw the shot almost before it happened: a Romulan ducked low and spun around, firing first at the young man, who fell backward immediately, then at the woman, who had the sense to move out of the way, but not fast enough. Benson, Bashir saw, rose from his cover and fired, downing two Romulans in quick succession and drawing the attention of the other four away from the Cardassians.
Bashir moved to go around to help the youths but Eddington grabbed his arm, staying him.
"I've already got one doctor down!" he snapped. "We need to get these Romulans out of the picture. Move!"
Bashir nodded, pushing aside the strangeness of following orders from a man who, in his universe, was a dead Maquis leader. He raised his rifle and fired, spraying rock debris into the Romulan soldier's midst. They returned with fire of their own and Bashir waited until he got a clear shot and took one down with an accurate hit on the chest. He saw Ezri Dax follow suit quickly and another Romulan went down. Benson, who had moved a bit closer to the attackers and toward the pod, popped up, fired, ducked back down again, then repeated the motion after a shot had passed his head. Eddington took out the final Romulan and then the air seemed so still as to be oppressive.
"Right, now, Bashir," Eddington said. "And you, Dax, and Ro, go with him. Get those damn kids."
Bashir didn't have to be told twice, nor did Dax or Ro. They were up and running across the ice, which crunched beneath their boots, both women with their phasers out and ready in case any of the Romulans were bluffing. Bashir made himself stay between them, but had eyes only for the two wounded Cardassians.
"Nadir, how's Julian?" Eddington demanded and Bashir almost replied that he was fine.
"We need to get him to sickbay. Now," the nurse's voice came back and Bashir felt his blood run cold.
"Eddington to Quicksilver," Eddington said. "We need emergency medical evacuation."
It was Tenmei's voice who replied and Bashir was certain he heard a suggestion of satisfaction when she replied:
"We're on our way, Captain."