A/N: Takes place after Volume 1 Chapter 26. DS9's point of view from the Trouble with Tribbles, and Trials and Tribble-ations. Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey :) I've been sitting on this for like two years. See why I couldn't post this till I started Vol 2?
Sisko offered the DTI agents chairs, settled back into his own chair. "Are you sure you don't want anything?"
"Just the truth, Captain," Dulmur said crisply.
"You'll get it. Where do you want to start?"
"The beginning," Dulmur said, and right on cue Lucsly said,
"If there is such a thing."
"Captain, why did you take the Defiant back in time?"
Sisko winced. "It was an accident..."
He kept his retelling as factual as possible, trying to match the no-nonsense attitude of the agents. "So of course, we shadowed Captain Kirk, trying to get a lead on the explosive tribble. And then we met a girl."
Both DTI agents winced. "Not Kathryn Janeway?" Dulmur demanded.
Sisko blinked. "No?"
"Oh good. Talk about headaches. Who was it?" Lucsly asked with a sigh.
"She didn't give a name. She said she was classified, that she wasn't a temporal agent, but she wanted to say hi to us, and asked us to give her greetings to everyone else on the station. She named Major Kira and Odo as well, who were not present." Sisko watched them exchange a glance, avidly curious.
"What'd she look like?" Dulmur asked, frowning like he already knew the answer.
"Uh, a young teenager, rather short, long black hair."
"Hazel eyes? Tribble under her arm?" Lucsly asked. "Incredibly irritating?"
Sisko raised both eyebrows. "Not irritating, just confusing. She seemed to know exactly what was going on."
"Irritating," Lucsly said firmly.
"Who is she?" Sisko asked.
"Her name is Elle Wilcott. She has more temporal violations than Kirk. Swaps centuries on us from time to time. If you see her again... well. Try not to get involved."
"Is she some sort of criminal?" Sisko asked, alarmed. She'd seemed to be on close terms with members of the Enterprise. Odo had said she'd been shopping with crewmembers on the station as well.
"No," Dulmur said grimly, "Just out of our paygrade. Not our division. Continue please. What happened next?"
Sisko finished retelling the story, escorted the two DTI officers to their turbolift, and joined his officers on the balcony.
"Did you tell them?" Odo asked.
"They didn't ask. I'm open to suggestions, people."
"We could talk to the Vulcans," Dax suggested. "They're the only planet that seems to have been spared from the, uh, Klingon vengeance."
Sisko sighed. "Do you have any contacts, old man?"
"Of course I do, Benjamin," Dax said, amused.
"Did they say who the other time traveler was?" Odo asked. "The girl who recognized us?"
Sisko sighed. "They didn't say much, but they implied she was some sort of rampant time traveler who was above their paygrade. Said if she ever showed up, to stay out of her way."
"Did they give you a name?" Dax asked.
"Elle Wilcot?"
Dax frowned. "Elle... Wilcott... I feel like I know her..."
Worf came over, trailed by O'Brien and Dr. Bashir. "What did you say?" Worf demanded.
"The name of our time traveler was Elle Wilcott," Sisko said.
Worf and O'Brien both gaped. "What," Worf demanded. "Small, dark haired, incredibly irritating-"
"You know who she is?" Odo asked.
"She was on the Enterprise-D with us!" O'Brien said.
"I taught her self-defense!" Worf said. "We fought in battle together! She warned us against the Cardassians before we even knew there was a problem-"
"She was a bridesmaid at our wedding!" O'Brien added. "She was there? That year? We missed her, Worf!"
Worf growled. "I would've liked to see her-"
"How is that-" Sisko answered his own question. "Time travel. Of course."
Jadzia frowned. "I don't think... you haven't mentioned her, have you Worf?"
"No," Worf rumbled, "I would not mention her to anyone else besides O'Brien. Her existence is highly classified."
"Yeah, that's what the DTI said," Sisko said.
"I'm sure I've heard that name," Jadzia said, shaking her head. "Wait. I do know her! Curzon met her! She made it a point to come over to me and say hello. I wonder if she knew..."
"Most likely," Worf said. "She was present for many dealings with the Klingon and Romulan empires. She would have known about the Trill."
"But what do we do about the tribbles?" Odo asked.
"Can we lure them with food?" Sisko suggested.
Jadzia's contact on Vulcan turned out to be a former Star Fleet commander who'd served on the USS Intrepid. "We will take your extra tribbles, gladly," he said. "Where did you acquire so many?"
Jadzia winced. "Space station K-7?"
The elderly Vulcan raised an eyebrow. "I see." He glanced off-screen. "My colleague will come to Deep Space 9 and collect the tribbles."
"Thank you, S'task."
"We live to serve."
Keiko kept a tribble. "For childcare reasons."