I was watching Star Trek Deep Space nine for the second time (as one does), and this story popped up in my head. Having never written anything in the Star Trek fandom before, this is a first but hopefully not that last. Star Trek has a huge history and lore, it all felt rather daunting to even try and begin a story, but still I felt the need to at least try (and hopefully succeed) with writing one.

Just a heads up.

English is not my native language, but considering the amount of stories I've written so far on this site, It's not too appalling anymore.

If you spot any mistakes with regards to Star Trek lore (or any other kind of errors), please, feel free to let me know.

With that said,

Engage!

Chapter 1 - The Aurora

The Bajor-B'Hava'el system, 2373

What should have been a quiet day soon turned out to be one filled with excitement and a whole load of mystery. Dukat was certain he would remember this day for many years to come. He walked over to the screen and looked at the vessel currently locked in their tractor beam. It was something he had never seen before and if it hadn't been for Damar, he would have for sure destroyed the weirdly looking object. The unfamiliar ship had come out of nowhere, at least according to their sensors, nearly crashing into them. Oh, it had hit his Bird-of-Prey, but the by just a smidge, leaving the damage to be minor and easily fixed.

"They're not responding to our hails." Damar had said.

"If they're unwilling to respond, then we simply nudge them out of the way." Dukat had replied.

Damar had stayed quiet for a bit, his fingers rapidly hitting a couple of buttons on the console, until he eventually turned around with his chair to face Dukat.

"I'm not reading any lifesigns."

Dukat had frowned at the unexpected piece of information. "None at all?"

"Might I suggest going on board, before getting rid of it?"

He was allowed to make the suggestion and Dukat had agreed to it. Him being the one leading the investigation party into the vessel, of course, while Damar would make sure they could be transported out of there as soon as they were done.

Within mere minutes, Dukat was walking inside the alien ship. But immediately he noticed more than one familiar thing about the interior. He had been in in quite a couple of crafts. Bajoran, Klingon, Cardassian, Breen, Human. And this one felt incredibly similar to the latter. Was this a Federation vessel? If it was, it looked incredibly outdated compared to all of the others he'd ever been in. Dukat ordered one of his man to go ahead to the bridge and find some logs which hopefully held some information on this ship. Meanwhile he'd sent another to engineering, see if he could find how much of the ship still functioned properly. All of this was incredibly odd, how could a vessel like this be abandoned when at the same time it appeared to be perfectly intact?

Thankfully, it didn't take long for Dukat to find some form of life onboard. Behind one of the doors labelled, Cryo Chamber, he found over two dozen pods standing upright against either walls. He wasn't sure what was inside of them until he stopped at the one closest to his left and he pressed one of the buttons right below the oblong window. Whatever he had done, had been both the right and not right thing to do. A loud hissing sound came from the pod and before Dukat knew what was happening, it popped open revealing a person.

Dukat leaned in and looked at the creature. It was an alien species he knew all too well. Smooth skin, dark facial hair, a round face and a nose with no ridges. This was a human. They'd found a Terran vessel. However none of the Starfleet ships he knew looked like this one. How peculiar. Dukat lowered his weapon and placed a hand against the man lying in the pod. But as soon as he touched him, the body began to disintegrate. Dukat quickly retracted his hand as the human crumbled to pieces until there was nothing left but gray and white ashes within the bottom of the pod.

For a couple of seconds he stared at it, pretty sure that was not what should have happened. Whatever was going on here, this was way out of his league and for a minute Dukat was contemplating on what to do next. Leave the ship floating in space and salvage whatever he could find? Claim the ship for himself? But compared to his Bird-of-Prey, this vessel was probably not worth having. The only other option he could think of was to take the ship with him to Deep Space nine. Surely Benjamin Sisko would be able to figure out where this thing had come from or what it's purpose was.

But what could he, Dukat, gain from that?

Still, his curiosity was getting the better of him. There must be something beneficial in it for him? He had nothing to lose. It wasn't as if he had done anything to this ship other than discovering it. Perhaps he had done a good thing by accidentally bumping into it? Yes, taking it back to Deep Space nine seemed like the most rewarding thing to do for now.

Before transporting back to his ship, Dukat walked past each of the pods to see if all of them were filled with humans. He found out that some of them were empty, a few pods contained skeletons. in the end, apart from the one he'd accidentally destroyed, there were about six pods left with normal looking humans. Four men, two female from what he could gather on first sight.

And now here Dukat was, on his way to Deep Space nine in his Bird-of-Prey, with an Earthen ship in a state of death and decay. The station was already coming into sight and the Cardassian signaled for Damar to contact Sisko, hoping the captain would be filled with just as much excitement as he was.

Deep Space Nine

Kira's stomach dropped the second she noticed the Klingon Vessel on her screen. But when the hailing signal sounded and O'Brien mentioned it was Dukat, she got even more nauseated. Immediately multiple scenario's went through her mind. Why was Dukat here? What did he need from them this time?

But then she spot the object that was locked in the tractor beam. There was another ship, and a rather weird looking one at that. She rushed towards Sisko's office and told him Dukat was here and that the matter was urgent. With a exaggerated sigh, Benjamin Sisko got out of his chair and headed down the steps towards the large screen.

"Good day, Captain." Dukat greeted him with a broad smile. "I'm awfully sorry to disturb you like this,-"

"Oh, I doubt it." Sisko muttered under his breath. "What can I do for you, Dukat?"

"I believe I've found something that might be of interest to you."

Benjamin narrowed his eyes. Suspicion rising to the surface as quickly as boiling milk. Whenever Dukat used the word interest, chances were more than likely it meant trouble. There was also no doubt that this so called, interest, had to do with that clunky looking vessel floating behind the Bird-of-Prey.

"Do tell. What have you found?" He eventually asked.

Dukat leaned closer into the frame. "Something worth your while. Or my while, at the very least. Why don't you beam aboard and see for yourself? Oh and do that your engineering friend with you."

After a couple of minutes, Benjamin did just that. Along with O'Brien and lieutenant commander Worf. He met up with Dukat, who was still looking at him with a ridiculous broad smile.

"As you can see we have to hold the vessel in our beam, otherwise there's no telling where it might float off to."

"Why didn't you ask permission for dockage?" Miles asked as he hoisted his tool bag over his shoulder.

Dukat shook his head. "We have no idea on how to make that thing work. The computers, the consoles, they're all incredibly barbaric. Even Damar couldn't make any sense of it." He turned his eyes to his officer.

"I wasn't able to retrieve any of the data. The entire ship is completed outdated, so much that it's not compatible with our Cardassian or Klingon systems. The computers are unable download anything and we didn't want to risk damaging the ship." Damar explained.

"See, I think that you might be interested in its cargo." Dukat grinned at Sisko.

"Must be something you won't be able to get any use out of, otherwise why be so generous?" Benjamin asked with an arched brow.

"Captain, must you always think so badly of me?" The Cardassian replied, obviously feigning innocence.

"What is this cargo, exactly?" Miles frowned, not really in the mood of being here for far too long.

"Well, at least one of you is interested. Follow me. Be prepared to be surprised!"

Dukat called for immediate transportation to the unidentified vessel and once arrived there, quickly guided them towards the chamber where he'd found all the pods. Along the way, he talked about how he'd come across the ship and how he'd almost decided on destroying it. Adding that Sisko should really thank him for not doing so.

"You're being incredibly secretive about all this." The captain noted. "Frankly, I don't understand it at all."

The Cardassian halted abruptly. "Don't tell me you haven't noticed anything familiar about this spacecraft? Why, even I noticed some of it."

In all honesty, Benjamin had not really taken the time to look at his surroundings. It seemed like a normal kind of ship. Sure, an old one. Minor damage. But there were mostly pipes, tubes and cables running alongside the wall. Most of the Earthen ship had those. At least, the older ones had. Suddenly he furrowed his brow and looked at Miles.

The Irishman's face was frowning, just as he was. But Miles was looking the structure now. He tilted his head back to look at the ceiling, then back to the walls and next was the floor. He rubbed his chin. Unexpectedly it was Worf who opened his mouth to speak.

"You know, this reminds me of the time that Data and I checked out this ancient Earthen capsule. Admittingly, this design looks a bit more,- polished, despite being in a state of obvious decay. The outside looks nothing like that one did."

"The one the Enterprise encountered back then, resembled a satellite shape. This one looks more like a large runabout. You're right about one thing though, this is ancient. Nothing modern. It must be from a different time." Miles then turned to Damar and Dukat. "Was there a name written on the side of the ship?"

"Not that I noticed." Damar answered as Dukat turned his attention back to Sisko who was shaking his head.

"I cannot believe you didn't mention this the minute you contacted us. You found a spaceship from Earth."

"And ruin the surprise? Frankly I'm a little disappointed it took you this long to realize it hails from your home planet." Dukat clapped his hands and started walking again. "But, I'm sure I'll get a better reaction when you see what's hidden behind door number,- three."

The five of them eventually stopped at the end of the corridor in front of the door with the sigh Cryo Chamber. Benjamin and Miles exchanged glances immediately. They knew that word well enough. Dukat easily spotted the flash of surprise and confusion crossing both men's faces. It was safe to say that it pleased him greatly. He'd managed to shock them well enough. Quickly, he opened the door, revealing all two dozen upright standing pods in a neat row on either side.

Alas the first pod was not a pretty sight to behold, but the rest of them most surely were. The Deep Space nine crew slowly made their way through the chamber. Benjamin immediately started to take note on how many humans he spotted who were still 'sleeping' in their crib and which ones were either empty or, unfortunately, deceased.

"Surely now you understand why I brought the ship to you?" Dukat said as soon as Benjamin returned to him. "I have no use for these humans. Who knows if they're even alive? That one fell to pieces as soon as I opened the damn thing."

"Never thought I'd say this, but you did the right thing, Dukat. But before we do anything, we need to know more about this ship. Where did it come from and how long has it been floating in space." Benjamin nodded at Miles. "Can you find a way to download the ships data?"

O'Brien smiled happily. "Leave that to me, sir. Give me two hours and I'll have all the data we need."

"You have one hour." Sisko retorted to which Miles replied with an, 'aye, aye, sir.'

Sisko then pressed his combadge. "Sisko to Dax."

"Dax here."

"We've got six cryo pods with human occupants onboard the unfamiliar vessel, any chance there's some space for them in Cargo bay number 8?"

"I'll have it ready within half an hour."

"Thank you." He tapped the badge again, this time to contact a different member of his crew. "Sisko to Bashir."

"Go ahead, captain."

"In thirty minutes, six cryo pods will arrive in Cargo bay 8. Have a medical team on standby. I don't know what to do just yet, but make sure you're present there."

"Understood."

Now that that was arranged, the next step was to transport all the pods carefully. There was no telling what effect it might have on the pods, but what other choice did they have? But there was no way he was going to leave them inside the ship. Not while Dukat was in the neighbourhood. He might say he had no interest in the humans or the pods or the ship, but in the end you could never tell with the guy.

The other thing he had to do was contact Starfleet as soon as possible, at least once Miles had discovered a bit more about the ship. He turned his head to look at Dukat. Miles and Damar had already left the cryo chamber and were on their way to the bridge. He didn't like the way the Cardassian was looking at him. Intensely. It seemed as if he was rather enjoying the fact he had discovered something of human interest.

"Would you allow me to stay at the station for a couple of days? I am rather curious to see what you might find out. As well as protecting my interests. After all, I am the one who found the ship." Dukat said and then he crossed his arms. "Who knows, I might have discovered something of great importance to your people. Does Starfleet hand out medals for this sort of thing?"

"I didn't know you were interested in that sort of thing. But if it doesn't interfere with your busy schedule, you're welcome to stay at Deep Space nine."; Benjamin replied before nodding at Worf that it was time to head back to the station.

A short introduction to the story. I do hope you liked the beginning.

Next chapter, the crew of the unfamiliar ship will be waking up.

I would love to hear your thoughts and if there's anything you'd love to see happen!

Until next time.