A/N: Remember, reviews are what keep the things we write readable! Please provide your feedback on both the story and the mechanics as without your review, I cannot improve! Thanks again to Straitjackit and Encrypted Psuedonym for their work Betaing this piece!

Obsession

1

"Ezri! Wake up!"

The insistent voice stabbed through the fog that coated her mind. Groaning, she pushed her head deep under the pillow to block out the noise. Unfortunately it was too late.

"What is that pup up to now?" Curzon groused.

"Whatever it is, it better be good." The husky voice of Jadzia, Ezri's immediate predecessor groaned.

"Curzon, should I start a book on the subject?" The Dax symbiont slyly inquired.

"I'm in for an hour on Section 31 research." Jadzia jumped in.

More of her symbiont's former hosts began trying for a piece of the action. Giving up on getting any further sleep, she Relegated the banter of the multiple personalities that resided inside of her to a back corner of her consciousness.

Groaning even louder, Ezri sat up and looked around. Out the windows, she could see the lights of a fair sized city under a starlit sky. The was room bathed in a bluish glow from the terminal screen on the desk.

She looked away from the figure sitting hunched over at the desk and instead took in the rest of the room. The large bed, two plush chairs and fancy entertainment holoprojector pretty much cinched it that she was in a hotel room. Temporary Starfleet quarters would not have had the fancy model of the holoprojector, and while the chairs would have been comfortable, they would not have been patterned on Twentieth Century designs.

Finally, she looked over to the rooms other occupant.

"Lights, low." Ezri stated to the room system.

As the dim yellow glow filled the room, the rumpled stated of the rooms other occupant became visible. Doctor Julian Bashir was still the excitable and sometimes awestruck kid who had fallen head over heals for the Dax symbiont's previous host. Twelve years out of the Starfleet Medical program, he was cultivating gray hairs at his temples for the distinguished and mature look they gave him. It was clear from the dark circles under his eyes and way his back was hunched that he had not yet gotten any sleep.

Ezri glanced at the chronograph on the nightstand. The conference they were to be attending began its first sessions in six hours.

"Julian, right now Curzon and Jadzia are arguing over who gets to wring your neck for waking us up." Ezri grinned to take the sting out of the words, then looked worried. "Have you slept at all tonight?"

"Not important, I think I've found something." Julian flicked his right hand dismissively then motioned her to join him at the computer.

Pulling the blanket around her like a robe, she walked over and stood behind him. "Sleep, is always important." She yawned. "Is it an error in your presentation later today on the flu outbreak at the Cetlick colony?"

He glanced at the time then up at her as she stressed 'today'. His excitement shone through his fatigue. "No, Section 31, I think I've figured out when they were founded."

"YES! Pay up boys!" Jadzia's exultant shout tumbled into her conscious mind.

To have a part of her own mind be that awake and happy at such an hour of the night added an extra bite to her reply. "You stayed up all night to figure that out? Why?!"

"Know your enemy, my love." He spun his chair around to face her. "To destroy them, you must understand them."

She noted the slightly wild look in his eyes. Combined with his recent behavior of spending every free moment running computer searches through the vast number of Federation databases, Ezri was beginning to become professionally worried. During the Dominion War he'd had his duties, both as a Doctor and as head of sector intelligence to keep him busy. With the coming of peace, his life had become much more quiet and dull.

"Julian, as a Starfleet Counselor, I must inform you that your interest in this organization borders on an obsession."

"That may be dearest, but answer me some questions before locking me in the padded room." He reached out an took her hand. "If you do, I promise I'll come to bed."

"And sleep?" She asked.

He nodded, looking very much like a little boy making a deal with his mother.

Ezri sighed. "Okay, first question."

"After Worf took the Defiant to battle the Borg near Earth, do you remember what he told us about following it back in time?"

Closing her eyes, Ezri consulted with the Dax symbiont to confirm the events. "Yes."

Turning, Julian grabbed the terminal and slid it across the desk so it was closer to her. "I've uncovered a pre-Federation Starfleet report regarding the discovery of a crash site containing bodies with 'cybernetic' enhancements." He pointed at the line on the screen. "One report indicating the breadth and scope of the crash site, and then the entire thing drops completely out of sight."

She was distinctly unimpressed. "So? They found the Borg Sphere's crash site. I would have been surprised if they hadn't."

He minimized the window about the crash and brought up several windows showing newspaper articles from the same time period. "At about the same time, the United States Government formally disbanded the last of its intelligence services, namely the Central Intelligence Agency."

He slid the window aside on the screen and pointed to a second one. "In addition, two weeks before the Congressional vote to dissolve the CIA, one of it's top administrators, the Deputy Director of Operations, Mr. William Donovan, resigned and took the position of special assistant to Admiral Christine Janke, chief of Starfleet Intelligence."

Ezri skimmed the article on the screen. "Sounds like a smart move to me."

Julian stood up and stretched. "Too smart."

He walked over to the window and looked out at the lights. "With his history and background, one would have expected to see a marked improvement in the intelligence capabilities of Starfleet at that time, after all, he was the proverbial 'pro from Dover'." He turned around and pointed at the terminal. "Instead, for the entire time he is listed on the staff, the Intelligence Division shows only the incremental improvements of an organization following a normal development curve, not the quantum leap Mr. Donovan could and should have brought them."

Ezri picked at the connections he had made. They fit, but so did at least a dozen other explanations.

"Sounds circumstantial." She answered.

Julian pulled off his uniform. Wearing only his shorts he climbed into bed. As Ezri climbed in beside him, he leaned over and kissed her then lay back on his pillow.

"Circumstantial is all this organization has or is going to leave behind." He said.

2

The chair creaked as the officer leaned back from his desk. Carefully he stretched the muscles of his back. Rolling his neck to relieve the stiffness there, he stared at the chronograph ticking along on the monitor in front of him. Six hours until the conference started, eight until the session he was interested in began.

The only light came from the screen on his desk. In the muted blue glow, his shadow dominated the rest of the room, flowing across the small bed, along the floor and up the opaqued window. A muted chirp sounded from the unit on the desk.

His skin looked gray as the light reflected off his knuckles as he toggled open the connection. "Report, Sedgwick." The man in the shadows said.

The monitor's speaker, gave Sedgwick's voice a metallic sound. "The unit is in place."

"Very well." The shadow replied. "Execute overwatch, rendezvous option echo. Out." He reached out and broke the connection.

He leaned forward, the light from the monitor playing across his weathered features. "Okay, Doctor. Time for Mr. Sloan's appointment." He reached out and plunged the room into complete darkness as he switched off the monitor.