Chapter Text

First Officer’s log Stardate 49094.8. I’m returning to DS9 after a brief trip to the Gamma Quadrant to escort a visiting dignitary home. Captain Sisko was concerned that the Dominion might not take too kindly to a Federation runabout skirting so close to their borders but I've had no problems so far. I had to do some emergency maintenance on the warp core containment field on the journey out but my repairs seem to be holding for now. It's hardly up to Chief O'Brien's usual standards but I'm hoping I'll be back at DS9 before it becomes a problem.

The red alert sounded almost as soon as she entered the wormhole. The warning light on the warp core containment system had been flashing the entire trip back, why couldn't it have lasted just ten more minutes before becoming a problem? Kira swore out loud as she jumped to her feet. Before she could even attempt to find out what had gone wrong this time the computer told her it was far too late for that.

Warning warp core overload, immediate shut down recommended, said the computer.

Kira swore again. She absolutely did not want her warp engine to go up while she was in the wormhole. Disregarding her own life, there was no telling what damage it might do to the Prophets.

“Computer, initiate warp core shut down,” Kira said, her heart hammering in her chest.

Unable to comply. Warp core now critical. Breach in five minutes.

She angrily punched some buttons, hoping to get the reaction temperature down before the overload, but every jab of her fingers was met with the dull bleep of an error. “Computer emergency shut down, command override Kira-alpha-delta-nine.”

Unable to comply. Command override lockout. Warp core breach in four minutes.

Kira kicked the console and growled.

She could eject the core. That might allow her to escape with her life, but there was no guarantee that the ejection procedure would prevent the core from breaching; if it detonated inside the wormhole it would almost certainly collapse it, sealing the Prophets in at best and wiping them out at worst.

At least they wouldn’t have to worry about a looming threat from the Dominion any more.

She had to try it.

“Computer, prepare to eject the warp core, authorisation Kira-sigma-nine-five.”

Warp core ejection systems enabled.

“Eject the core.”

Unable to comply.

“Why not?”

Warp core ejection systems malfunctioned. Three minutes to warp core breach.

“At current speeds would we be able to make it to the Alpha Quadrant terminus before the core breach?” Better to rock the station a little bit when the core breached than put her gods at risk. Saving her own life was a moot point at this stage.

Negative. Core will breach thirty seconds before reaching wormhole aperture.

She increased her speed to full impulse; piloting at such speeds inside the wormhole was not to be recommended, and the computer told her as such, but it was a risk she had to take. Adrenaline raced through her body as she attempted the most difficult bout of piloting of her life, and she’d run a rickety old impulse ship through a blockade of Cardassian warships before now. The computer sounded a warning every time she strayed too close to one of the verteron nodes, and it continued to count down to the breach, but apart from that the only thing Kira could hear was the pounding of her own heart.

Less than a minute from the wormhole exit the runabout clipped the edge of one of the verteron nodes, sending it into a violent tailspin. The inertial dampers failed, and Kira desperately tried to right her craft while being thrown all over the cockpit. The energy discharge from the collision shorted several consoles, and the air was thick was smoke and the smell of burned plastic.

She wasn’t going to make it.

Time seemed to slow in those last few seconds as she pushed the impulse engines well past their limits in a desperate attempt to save the Celestial Temple. The computer counted down the last few seconds and Kira braced herself for the end. All she could hear was the rush of her pulse in her veins, growing louder and louder with every beat of her heart.

Everything turned to white light and searing heat. Time stopped, and for a moment that seemed like an eternity, Kira thought she could see every corner of the universe. Then the cracks appeared, centred on where she knew her warp core had torn the wormhole apart. They spidered outwards, shattering the universe and reality as she knew it. Fragments of what had been her universe flew past her, through her.

With all of space and time shattered Kira could see in the shards memories of her life, glimpses of her possible future. But she saw as well things she could not possibly know; there she was at the Battle of Wolf 359, then somewhere in the Gamma Quadrant, watching Jem’Hadar soldiers beat some prisoners from a race she did not recognise. Reality shifted again and she was watching the Klingon home world as its moon, Praxis, tore itself apart. She knew this had happened a hundred years or more before she was born and had helped secure peace between the Klingons and the Federation; she could not possibly be watching these events unfold, and yet she was. At the end of the universe it seemed anything was possible.

The images flew past her, faster and faster until she could no longer tell one from the the other. They merged into one, becoming nothing but white noise and light, and still there was the searing heat that seemed to go on forever. And then everything slowed down even further. The heat abated and then there was only the light. Intense white light and the beating of her own heart.

Much to Kira’s surprise, her heart continued beating long after the last shards of reality had fallen from her vision. She felt like she was floating, and realised that although the blistering heat had gone, she still felt warm. It was comforting, like she was being cradled by her mother or father. She surrendered herself to the feeling, happily floating in the void.

The beating continued, and Kira realised that what she was feeling was the presence of a being she knew loved her. The Prophets! she thought suddenly. Somehow they must have survived the cataclysm she had wrought, or possibly hadn’t.

Maybe she hadn’t torn the universe apart; maybe this was what it was like to be in the Celestial Temple. Kira didn’t know, she’d never died before. There wasn’t a lot she could do in her currently state, so she closed her eyes against the light and let the Prophets come to her. Half an eternity later, she felt something change. She opened her eyes again.

Instead of being surrounded by light and warmth she found herself in her quarters on DS9. They looked just as they had when she last left them, except for the slight unearthly glow everything seemed to emit. She’d listened to Captain Sisko’s stories of his interactions with the Prophets to know that this had something to do with them, and that she could expect them to appear to her sooner or later. After all, time didn’t apply to her gods in the same way as it did to her. She felt a small frisson of excitement run through her—her body? her pagh?—she had no idea. But the excitement was there nonetheless.

Someone moved into her field of vision and she recognised the figure as Captain Sisko. Or someone wearing his face at least. This must be one of the Prophets. Another brief thrill rippled through her. The not-Sisko cocked his head, as though he could sense her inner thoughts and emotions and was curious.

“You feel… what is that? Elation, joy? Even though your linear existence has ended, how is this?” asked not-Sisko.

Her blood rushed through her veins to the pounding of her heart. Lub dub. Lub dub.

“Are you one of the beings from the wormhole, the ones the Bajorans call the Prophets?” Kira asked. Sisko nodded his head briefly in acknowledgement. “Then you have your answer. I have spent my entire life worshipping you and the other Prophets. I cannot help but be excited that I am finally meeting my gods, no matter the circumstances.”

“We do not understand, but there are many things about corporeal beings we do not understand. The Sisko has explained many things, but not all. For instance we do not know why you attempted to save the passage you call the wormhole. Had you reached your goal you would only have put other corporeal beings in danger.”

Lub dub. Lub dub.

“My faith is one of the most important things in my life. For so long all I had was my faith, and my home. What is it Sisko told me you said to him? ‘The Prophets are of Bajor’? Well Bajor is of the Prophets as well. We need you, and you are more important than this one Bajoran’s life. So I did what I could to save the Celestial Temple.”

“We still do not understand, but perhaps that is due to our different natures.”

“What happened when my warp core breached then? Am I dead and this is the Celestial Temple I always believed I’d end up when I died? Or did the universe really shatter like I saw?”

“That which you call the universe has been destroyed. Linear time is no more and all that remains is within this passage.”

Her breath hitched and the white noise in her ears grew more intense. Lub dub. Lub dub.

“What happens now?”

“We have the ability to restore what was lost, but we need the memories of a linear being as a reference point.”

“You need me.”

“Precisely. We have no way of knowing how it will affect you, but we suspect you are willing to try.”

“I am.”

The facsimile of her quarters disappeared, replaced by that warm white light that seemed to cradle her. She felt something—a presence—reach out and touch her, and she knew it was the Prophets. Kira allowed herself to enjoy the comforting embrace of her gods for a long moment, knowing that whatever was to come would undoubtedly be unpleasant. How could it not be? Having an entire universe rebuilt around you with your memories being the only fixed reference point. Something caressed her cheek, and she knew it was time. Kira braced herself.

All of a sudden everything went dark; the light shrank in on itself, collapsing into a single point. For a long time Kira was alone in the void, shivering as the warmth of the Prophets' love left her. Then everything exploded back into being, rushing outwards from that distant point. The universe was being reborn around her, rebuilt from the very beginning, and Kira would get to watch it all.

The heat returned as the new proto-universe expanded around her. It seared at her skin and clawed at her senses. Everything was chaos; matter colliding with anti-matter too fast for her to keep track. Kira closed her eyes and when she opened them there were stars. The galaxies had begun their eternal dance with each other. Her breath hitched in her chest—how was she still breathing anyway? she briefly wondered—as she watched the birth of her own star, B’havael, and the planets that endlessly circled it.

She watched the history of her planet unfold right from the first steps of the first humanoid proto-Bajorans. Kira watched her culture develop, her people war with each other, make peace and start the process all over again. It was only as she witness the unification of her people in the worship of the Prophets that she realised she had not seen the moment the Celestial Temple was formed. It puzzled her for a moment until she realises that since linear time did not apply to the Prophets, the place they resided must effectively have always been there.

I know people who would give up a limb to be able to see what I’m seeing, Kira thought as she watched the Bajorans take their first steps towards the stars. A feeling of cold dread settled over her as she watched the Cardassians make their first overtures to the Bajoran government. She watched them court powerful politicians who ignored their people’s suspicions and concerns as the aliens exerted ever more influence over Bajoran political decisions. And then one day they gave up the pretence of friendship and landed troops and military equipment on the planet’s surface, officially beginning the Occupation that had been the backdrop to Kira’s entire life.

She writhed uncomfortably. I can change this, she thought. She witnessed the building of Gallitep, and the start of the horrors that went with it. I can make it so that none of these people died.

“Stop! Stop!” she cried out to the Prophets.

The figure wearing Benjamin Sisko’s face reappeared off the side. “What is the matter? Have we done something incorrectly?”

“No, it’s not that,” said Kira. “The Occupation is unfolding exactly as I remember. But it doesn’t have to be. You can change this.”

“Change these events? But this will change the consequences for you, and for many others.”

“Precisely! So many people died because of the Cardassians, and now they don’t have to. More than fifteen million Bajorans, and those are just the ones that were recorded. Don’t you care about that? Aren’t you supposed to be ‘of Bajor’? Why didn’t the Prophets reach out and stop the Cardassians?” Kira spat angrily. The question had swirled around in her mind for years, tormenting her when things seemed bleakest. Why hadn’t the Prophets done anything to help their people in their hour of direst need?

“We cannot interfere directly” the Prophet said simply.

“Why not?”

The Prophet didn’t answer.

“Can you interfere now?” Kira asked as Terok Nor rose behind her in the skies of Bajor. “Can you make it so that the Occupation never happened? So that all those people never died?”

“Changing this will change many things for you, and for many others as well. Are you sure this is what you wish?”

Kira had never been more certain of anything in her life. “I am,” she said.

“Very well then,” said not-Sisko.

Far below her time seemed to slow, and then stop for a moment before it began running backwards. Kira watched the same events happen in reverse, accelerating as they approach the beginning of the Occupation. As the Cardassian ships lifted off from the surface of Bajor for the last time, Kira felt a searing pain in her head. There was a burst of white light that left dots in her vision. And then everything went black, and Kira knew no more.

Chapter Text

Sunlight filtered through the window as a light breeze lifted the curtains. Kira stirred from her sleep, at first confused and disoriented. Where was she? What had just happened? Then the last throes of sleep-induced fog slipped from her brain and she remembered; she was home, in her own bed at her parents’ house in Dakhur. Everything was alright.

The disorientation returned as she got out of bed. There was a moment of puzzlement at how she came to be at her parents’ house when the last thing she remembered was flying a runabout through the wormhole. Then everything clicked into place and she remembered; she had two lives now, two realities and two sets of memories.

In one life—the one she had chosen to give up—she was Major Kira Nerys of the Bajoran Militia, veteran of the Bajoran Resistance and bane of all Ensigns' existence. In this life she was Kira Nerys, moderately gifted apprentice sculptor, loving daughter, affectionate (if somewhat irritating) sister and doting fiancée. Being both at the same time was going to take some getting used to, she thought, before realising she had essentially spent her whole life trying to get used to it and she still hadn’t managed it.

There was a brief argument with the shower because it was real water and not sonic and she half expected to find her red miltitia jumpsuit when she went looking through the closet. Instead it was filled with simple but colourful garments and protective smocks. The hardest change to get used to was the face looking back at her from the mirror. Her cheeks were fuller, plumper; it was the face of someone who had never known starvation or malnutrition, of someone who had grown up happy and free instead of under the boot of an oppressor. Her hair was longer too, less military. In this life she’d never had to shave it all off to get rid of a nasty bout of lice.

It was everything she’d hoped her life would be.

Kira threw some clothes on and headed downstairs for breakfast. She could already hear Reon good-naturedly arguing with their mother about something; no doubt he’d been out far later than she would have liked last night. Again. Skirting around the battlefield Kira snaffled herself some alvas juice from the chiller before settling into a chair and stealing some of her brother’s moba bread.

“Hey, I saw that!” Reon protested with a grin. He wasn’t bothered that she’d pinched some of his breakfast, just as he wasn’t bothered that their Ma was griping at him again. Reon was far too easy going for his own good.

Kira just shrugged in response, her mouth too full of bread to grin back. Meru tutted at the pair of them and went back to what she was doing.

She didn’t think that she’d ever get tired of winding her brother up like that, or even just looking at him. In one lifetime she’d never gotten to know her brother—either of her brothers—as adults, and it was something she was incredibly grateful for.

Reon was leaning back in his chair recklessly, a broad grin on his freckled face. He looked so much like his sister that people frequently thought they were twins, though his face was more heavy set than hers, and bearded besides. He wore his auburn hair much longer than Kira ever had, and tended to pull it back into a scraggly ponytail. Of her two brothers he was the more practically minded, taking after their father and preferring gardening and farming to artistic pursuits.

Meru leaned her head out the window to shout her husband to breakfast. The four of them sat down to a hearty meal of flat bread, fruit, bean paste and pickled mushrooms.

“Is Pohl not joining us?” Kira asked, throwing a disapproving look at Reon who was already stuffing his face.

“Not this morning,” replied Taban. “He’s been in his study all night, writing furiously. Got ‘bitten by the bug’ again.”

“Poetry or prose this time?” asked Kira.

Taban shrugged. “I honestly have no idea. The last I saw of your brother was just after midnight when he raided the kitchen for raktajino. He gibbered something about having just had a brilliant idea before scurrying back into his study. I guess we’ll have to wait until he’s done and he chooses to resurface.”

Kira nodded, understanding completely. She wasn’t the most artistic of people, especially compared to other members of the family, but she sometimes got hit with an idea for a piece that wouldn’t leave her alone until she’d finished it. And where she was a fairly middling artist talent wise, Pohl was an absolute genius. It had been no surprise to find he’d inherited the family knack for artistry, but where Meru and Nerys made their art with paint or clay or other physical media, Pohl’s gift was for words. He had a way with language—and at the last count he was fluent in five of them, not including individual dialects—and was well on his way to being recognised the planet over for his gift.

But he was also the most sensitive of the family. Where Reon was affable and laid back to a fault, Pohl was wound tighter than a compressed spring. He fretted and worried about his work not being good enough, forever doubting his own abilities, no matter the praise heaped upon him. In fact the more praise he got the more nervous he got about his work. And he would go through periods of not speaking to anyone, forgetting to eat and drink and bathe to hyper-focus on whatever piece he was writing. The Kira family had had to learn—in most cases the hard way—that he was best left to it when he got like this. They’d be there to calm him afterwards, to make sure he remembered to take care of himself better.

After breakfast the Kiras all went their separate way; Taban and Reon out into the village to do some work for the neighbours and Meru and Nerys to the studio at the back of the property. Nerys spent the morning wrestling some fresh clay into a slightly abstract sculpture that had been on her mind all week; not that she ever produced anything much that wasn’t abstract in some way. Still life drawings and realistic reproductions were not this Kira’s strong suit. While she threw lumps of mud around and swore under her breath, Meru calmly painted the icon she was working on and sang softly to herself.

Pohl surfaced around lunchtime, his hair all standing on end and ink smudges across his ridges. He still looked frazzled from whatever it was that he’d been working on, and wasn’t much up to conversation. Nerys sat her brother down, got some food in him and then made him wash and change his clothes. Afterwards he seemed much better, and whatever creative madness had seized him the previous night seemed to have passed. He and Nerys spent the afternoon in the garden, he editing and she sketching ideas for new pieces. They didn’t talk much, simply content to share each other’s company until Reon got home and started chasing his sister around the garden with his dirt caked hands.

They were only interrupted when Taban walked up the garden and told them to stop behaving like children, but he had a twinkle in his eye as he lectured them for not acting their age. Pohl remained sat under the jumja tree writing as his siblings ran around the garden making fools of themselves but put his books away when his father turned up. Father and youngest son sat quietly talking under the tree while Reon and Nerys argued and generally wound each other up. Then Meru stuck her head out of the house and told them to all come help with dinner if they wanted feeding. The rowdy siblings piled back into the house for an enjoyable but chaotic evening meal.

It wasn’t until later, when she was settling into bed that Kira even thought about her alternate life again. The one where she would be curling up on an uncomfortable Cardassian bed on a space station half a system away right about now. She sighed into her blankets. Nerys missed her friends; Dax and Sisko and Odo and even Quark. On a good day she even missed Julian. She’d missed them every day for as long as she could remember, but giving up those friendships in exchange for watching her brothers grow up, getting to know them as men and getting to know her mother at all had always seemed like a fair trade. Her last thoughts as she fell asleep were of what her friends lives were like in this universe and whether she’d be able to track them down. But as always the thoughts drifted away as she did and were more or less gone by morning.

Much of the next morning was spent with her mother in the studio working on the finishing touches on the sculpture from the previous day. In the afternoon they headed to the nearest town so Meru could drop off the last batch of icons she’d finished and Nerys could see Edon.

Kira thought it was odd that they’d ended up together in this world; she’d never really thought of him that way in the other universe. In her other life he was a good friend, and an excellent cell leader, but the qualities that made one an excellent terrorist didn’t necessarily make you a good romantic partner. And yet here she was, greeting Edon—her fiancée—with a passionate kiss. Sometimes the reality of these dual lives, these dual memories was too much for Kira to handle; on these occasions she tended to simply ignore it. This was what was before her now, and she would live this life. Besides, Edon was a good man, a successful farmer and he was going to make an excellent husband. Just as soon as they settled on a date they could both agree on. But that was a conversation for another time. Right now they had a few precious hours to spend together and Kira didn’t want to waste them worrying about when—if?—they were actually going to get married.

They spent the afternoon on a meandering walk back to the Shakaar farmstead, enjoying the fine weather they were having and talking about nothing in particular. It was getting close to late evening by the time they made it back to the house, by which time the stew that had been slow cooking all day was just about perfect. Shakaar lived alone, and Kira wondered—not for the first time—why they hadn’t moved in together already. She spent enough time over here and there was no taboo against unmarried couples cohabiting on Bajor. Something had held them back. Maybe it was the same thing stopping them from setting a date for the wedding.

After dinner they retired to the porch, laying together in hammock and sipping a good bottle of springwine. Edon was just about drifting off when something in the distance caught Kira’s eye. A series of lights light up the darkening sky, starting close to the ground and heading upwards. It took Kira a few moments to realise what it was; the launch of several militia impulse ships launching from the provinces’ military base.

“That’s a lot of ships launching,” Kira commented.

Edon started awake. “Hmmm,” he said sleepily. “What?”

“Off in the distance,” said Kira, pointing the way with her chin. ”I’ve just seen ten, maybe fifteen, impulse engines light up for atmospheric escape. And there goes another bunch. I wonder what’s going on.”

“Probably just gearing up for a few practice exercises. You know the government likes the military to look like they’re worth all that money they spend on them. Why are you so concerned anyway?”

Kira hesitated, wondering what to tell him. She was concerned because somewhere in her heart she was still a militia officer who knew that that many ships taking off at once was likely a bad sign; far too many for a training exercise. And somewhere inside her was still a young resistance member who naturally distrusted large amounts of military vehicles in one place. Something was going on, and it almost certainly wasn’t good.

“I don’t know. I’ve just never seen anything like it before, and I’ve lived in Dakhur province all my life.”

Edon pressed a kiss to her temple. “I’m sure its nothing to worry about. Now, its getting chilly out. Are you coming to bed or are you going to make me sleep on this hammock?”

Nerys allowed Edon to take her to bed, but her sleep was troubled and her dreams unsettling. The malaise followed her over the next few days as she watched more and more ships launch from the military base, far too many to shrug this off as simply a training exercise. Something big was going on and their government wasn’t telling them anything, which made Kira extremely uncomfortable.

The people around her seemed to be determined to be as unhelpful as possible with finding out what was going on. Edon was content to trust their political class knew what they were doing; Reon shrugged it off like he did with everything; Pohl refused to engage with her, caught up in another flurry of activity on his current project. Neither of her parents knew what she was so worked up about and were convinced she was overreacting. No one had the slightest idea that there was anything to worry about. But Nerys had a sick feeling in her stomach; her gut was telling her something was wrong. Trusting her gut had saved her life more times than she could count andshe was inclined to trust it now.

The question was, how far was she willing to go to find out what was going on?

In the end it was a moot point; Bajor’s political leaders, in their infinite wisdom, decided to finally enlighten the populace. And what they revealed made Kira’s blood run cold.

The Dominion had come calling.

Chapter Text

Every morning for the next week, Kira woke up in a cold sweat. Her sleep was troubled, her nightmares filled with Jem’Hadar soldiers invading her homeworld; her days in a disbelieving half trance. All her life, this life at least, she’d known in the back of her mind that she’d sacrificed an entire universe to protective people from enslavement by the Cardassians. And now it looked like the Dominion might well be about to undo all of that.

It took her a few days to piece together the truth of what was going on. After all, she was a sculptor from Dakhur province, with no kind of expertise in breaking into protected computer systems and databases. And the Bajoran press certainly weren’t being open about the details. But she was also a former terrorist who had had to use every weapon she could lay her hands on to help drive off her people’s oppressor. And that young terrorist had then been given militia technical training and high level access codes. That was in another world of course but it was surprising how much transferred over to this universe.

She already knew that the wormhole had been discovered in the Denorious belt about five years previously, much as it had in that other lifetime. The difference here was that without the Cardassian withdrawal to oversee and a planet to get back on its feet, Starfleet had been nowhere near the system at the time. In this universe the Emissary of the Prophets was Skrain Dukat of all people. His ship had got caught in the Denorious belt while doing something that none of the Cardassians had ever been particularly open about. Damaged and without any engines the ship had drifted into the wormhole, where Dukat became the first person to communicate with the Prophets and return to tell the tale. They’d repaired his ship and sent him on his way and—being no less an arrogant, ambitious slimeball than Kira was used to—had wasted no time in arranging himself in a position of influence on Bajor.

The Federation had somehow managed to negotiate the rights to use the wormhole to gain access to the Gamma Quadrant for exploration purposes, despite having never been on particularly good terms with either Bajor or Cardassia. This universe had its own version of Deep Space Nine, built by Starfleet after the discovery of the wormhole and from which they from which they had launched multiple missions to the far end of the Galaxy. At some point in the last five years they’d done something to piss off the Dominion, who had finally come through the wormhole looking to knock Starfleet down a peg or two.

None of which sounded particularly positive for Bajor.

The latest reports said that there was a sizable Dominion fleet parked just outside the wormhole while they talked things out with the Federation. Kira would have been less nervous if the Jem’Hadar warships had been on the Gamma side of the wormhole instead of being practically in her backyard, but alas this wasn’t the case. The Bajoran system was getting pretty crowded with Dominion, Federation, Bajoran and Cardassian ships all floating out there in a bizarre kind of stand off.

And almost no one on Bajor knew a damned thing about it.

It was only through back channels and illicit computer skills that she found out that the Dominion were making suspiciously friendly overtures to the Bajoran government. To her eyes—and she was possibly the only person on Bajor who had any real experience at dealing with the Dominion—it looked like they were cosying up to Bajor in order to unsettle the Federation. It was well known that the relationship between the two Alpha Quadrant powers was rocky, and the Bajorans were the ones with jurisdiction over this end of the wormhole; useful allies for someone wanting to establish a military foothold in the quadrant. As far as Kira could tell, the negotiations were being well received by the First Minister, and there had even been the suggestion of posting Dominion troops to Bajor.

The latter prospect completely terrified Kira. She alone of anyone on Bajor remembered how the Cardassian occupation had begun, and there were startling similarities with what was happening now with the Dominion. The Cardassians had offered the hand of friendship at first, pretending to want to work together to better the lives of both their peoples. Over the course of years they had placed more and more of their people on Bajor, more and more troops sent “for their own protection”. And then one day they had simply given up the pretense of being friends and had forcibly annexed Bajor into the Cardassian union. It had taken the Bajorans more than half a century to drive them off. Of course that was in another lifetime, but the current situation resembled those events so closely that Kira knew the Dominion’s offer of friendship was simply the prelude to invasion.

She had to put a stop to it, at all costs, but she couldn’t do it alone. This was a job for the Shakaar. Edon unfortunately disagreed with her.

“You want to do what?” He splattered after she’d broached the idea of setting up a resistance cell. “Have you completely lost it Nerys?”

Kira huffed in frustration. “No I damn well haven’t!”

“Well then can you offer me another explanation for what I just heard? The military launches a few ships and suddenly you want me to start a resistance movement, a terrorist group, to combat a threat that may or may not exist? Forgive me if I’m being harsh but it sounds to me like you’ve completely lost your mind.”

“I’m not asking you to start anything Edon, I just think we should get the old gang back together. Just in case my worst fears are confirmed.”

“What the kosst are you talking about? What ‘old gang’?”

Kira’s heart thudded hard in her chest as she realised too late that she’d been mixing up her memories. It happened occasionally but never had the stakes been so high. She was the only one who remembered when the Shakaar were a force to be reckoned with, and the bane of any Cardassian in Dakhur. She was in too deep to backtrack now; she had to forge on, no matter the consequences.

“You know,” she said, striving for nonchalance. “Lupaza and Furel, Mobara and Lorit Akrem.”

“Lupaza and Furel from across the valley?” Edon asked, cocking his head in confusion. “But they’re just farmers like me. I don’t know this Mobara or this Lorit, and I don’t know how to do what it is you’re asking of me.”

Kira clenched her teeth together hard. “But I know you’re capable of it. I remember…” She started before realising she better not.

Edon’s eyes were wide with fear. “What is it that you remember? How can you possibly remember me being the head of a terrorist cell when I know I have never done any such thing in my life?”

“I wish I wasn’t the only one who remembered the Cardassian occupation,” she muttered under her breath, but not quite quietly enough.

“The Cardassian what?”

“In another world, another lifetime, the Cardassians annexed Bajor and oppressed our people for nearly sixty years. You and I fought against them, for fourteen years, using whatever methods we could get out hands on, and we eventually succeeded in driving them off. That occupation started with exactly the kind of political maneuvering that the Dominion is using on us now. Trust me, Bajor is in danger and our days as a free power are numbered unless you and I do something to stop them.”

By this point Edon looked truly frightened. “Nerys, the Cardassians never occupied Bajor-”

“Not in this universe they didn’t,” she interrupted.

“You keep saying things like ‘in this universe’ and ‘in another world’. You’re starting to scare me Nerys. How can you remember things that never happened?”

“They did happen Edon. I saw them with my own eyes. And then… then there was an accident. And I arranged things so they didn’t happen for anyone else but me. So that fifteen million Bajorans would get to live and we wouldn’t have to spend half our childhoods fighting them. Now I’m the only one who sees the danger the Dominion poses to us. And I may be the only one who can stop them.”

Edon was now wide eyed with horror. “Now you really are scaring me Nerys. What are you planning to do to stop an intergalactic government based on the the other side of the galaxy from doing what ever it is you think they’re going to do? What can one person do? You’re a sculptor, not a soldier. Assuming you’re not being just completely paranoid which, given what else you’ve told me is a distinct possibility, what possible difference could you hope to make?”

Kira hardened her heart and her face. She still remembered the atrocities of the occupation, even if no one else in the galaxy did. She remembered the liberation of Gallitep, and the raids on the Haru outposts. Kira still remembered every scream, every wound. She knew from bitter experience that the Dominion were capable of so much worse than anything that Cardassians had ever done to them. And she would do whatever it took, give up her freedom, her life to stop them.

She told Edon as much. “I’ll do whatever is necessary to keep Bajor safe. Whatever it takes, I’ll do it. And if you’re not going to help me then I’ll do it on my own.”

Kira made to storm out angrily, but Edon caught her arm. He looked desperate and concerned.

“Please Nerys, you’re going to get yourself killed. Promise me you won’t do anything stupid?”

His eyes pleaded with her to stay, to promise she’d stay, that she wouldn’t do anything reckless or foolish. She pulled her arm out of his grip and left without saying a word.

By the time Kira got home the weather had taken a turn for the worse which suited her mood perfectly. She was soaked to the skin and shivering despite the warmth of the falling rain. When she got in she went straight in the shower and then retreated to her room, refusing to come out or to talk to anyone. She tried to tell herself she wasn’t sulking, but that was exactly what she was doing. Her parents tried to get her to come downstairs for some dinner but she point blank refused. Reon barged in trying to cheer her up and she nearly took his head off. He beat a hasty retreat, his tail tucked between his legs.

She was sulking all right.

And try as she might to convince herself that it was Edon she was angry with, she knew full well her ire lay with herself. Her fiancé had reacted in a completely reasonable manner considering what she had asked of him. No, she was the one to blame, for momentarily forgetting that in a world where the Cardassian occupation never happened Edon was a just a farmer, and she was just an artist’s apprentice. She knew he had it in him to be a a cunning strategist, a resourceful fighter and a great leader. No matter what universe she lived in that would be true of Shakaar Edon, and perhaps that was what had attracted her to him. But he had never had to reach deep into himself and use those traits, and he evidently didn’t think he possessed them. Kira didn’t just need Edon’s qualities as a fighter and a leader, she also needed his experience. Experience that he was sadly lacking in this occupation-less universe.

She couldn’t do this alone, that was certain, but neither could she rely on her Bajoran friends and comrades to help. She needed Starfleet. She needed her friends from DS9.

Kira had put off finding out what had happened to them, where their lives had gone in this universe she had made for them. Partly she suspected that tracking down all the details would be beyond her computer hacking skills, but also because she feared that she had improved things for Bajor at their expense. Uncharacteristically, she’d let her fear get the better of her, and she’d never gone looking for her friends. She’d missed them all dearly, but she hadn’t been quite brave enough to go searching. Now it looked like she had few other choices. She needed help, and if anyone was going to believe her it would be a Starfleet officer.

She’d have started the search right there and then had her mother not come in and lay down beside her on the bed. Evidently it had been decided that Nerys’ temper was worth risking and that Meru was the best choice of emissary. That or she’d simply drawn the short straw. Nerys sighed and relaxed into her mother’s embrace, and embrace she had never known in that other life. Tears pricked at her eyes and the last of her rage bled out of her. Her whole body physically relaxed.

“I take it you’ve had an argument with Edon,” said Meru stroking her daughter’s hair.

“What gave it away?” Nerys replied, feeling more like a child than an adult of nearly thirty who was planning to get married sometime soon.

“A mother always knows what’s wrong,” said Meru sagely. “This isn’t the first time you’ve had a row with Edon. I’ve learned to recognise the signs. Was it bad?”

Kira sighed heavily before turning to bury her face in her mother’s hair. “It was awful.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Kira shook her head violently.

“I assume that the wedding’s off then? I should contact the vedek and let her know that my daughter won’t be entering into a sacred covenant with the Prophets after all?”

Despite her sadness and the bone weary exhaustion from being angry for hours on end, Kira couldn’t help but chuckle. “You have to actually have organised something for it to all be off, Ma.” She grew serious again. “But I honestly don’t know. I guess that’s up to Edon.”

Meru pressed a kiss to Nerys’ head and got up. “Don’t wait too long for him to decide. Edon is a good man, but you’re better. Don’t waste your life waiting for a man to commit if he doesn’t have it in him. You know where I am when you’re ready to talk.”

She left the room almost as quietly as she’d come in and once again Kira was alone. She couldn’t deny that she felt better for the visit. Her mother had always been able to calm her temper, ever since she was tiny. Nerys knew that it was because deep inside her Meru had the same heart of fire as she did. Her mother’s anger had been tempered by life, and she now had a control over her rage that Kira sorely lacked. If Meru was a precision torch, Nerys was a forest fire. Her uncontrollable rage had helped make her an effective guerilla fighter, and she may yet have a use for it in this universe.

But first, she needed allies.

It took some doing, and sorely tested her computer skills, but her knack for getting into places she shouldn’t be eventually paid off and she managed to track all of her friends down.

Odo she found close to home, at the Bajoran Institute of Science under the supervision of Dr Mora Pol, much as she expected. The major difference in this universe being that he had been discovered much later, around the same time as Dukat had stumbled upon the Celestial Temple. Without the occupying Cardassians demanding all scientific research have potential military applications, he’d avoided the cruel fate of being sat in a jar on a shelf for nearly fifty years. From what she could tell, he’d been acknowledged as a sentient life form much earlier than in her universe and his treatment was much better without Cardassian supervisors pushing Mora into all sorts of cruelty. At the same time, without his Cardassian overseers to label his jar, Odo wasn’t in fact known as Odo. Kira had never been sure if Odo was aware that she knew the origin of his name or not, but in this world it was moot anyway. Officially the wayward Changeling was known as Sample 47, but he had chosen for himself the name Kejal, which Kira found very telling indeed. On the one hand she was glad there was at least one universe where Odo hadn’t had to suffer the indignities and tortures he had in his other life. Whether his life in this world was better Kira couldn’t say, but reading between the lines she suspected Mora would have a hard time letting him go. The blasted man was Odo’s—Kejal’s—legal guardian, at least until he came of age according to Bajoran law. Kira strongly suspected Mora would manage to make the case that his guardianship should last even longer than that, something Odo wouldn’t take too kindly to, if the name he had chosen for himself was anything to go by.

Jadzia and Sisko were even easier to find than Odo. Starfleet were pretty open with most of their records and it was easy enough to find out basic information on most of their personnel with very little digging. Both of them were assigned to the same ship, the U.S.S. Mae Jemison, which by remarkable coincidence was currently assigned to the Bajoran system to help deal with the threat from the Dominion.

The Mae Jemison was Sisko’s command; it seemed that in this universe he hadn’t lost his wife at the battle of Wolf 359 and hadn’t run off to Mars for three years trying to escape his feelings. His career trajectory had continued as planned and he’d been made captain some eighteen months earlier after serving under her previous captain as first officer for less than than a year.

It took a little bit longer than anticipated to hunt down Jadzia owing largely to the fact that in this universe she wasn’t joined to the Dax symbiont. She’d finally tracked down a Lieutenant Jadzia Idaris, second officer on the Mae Jemison, an unjoined Trill about the right age. The picture confirmed she was the right person. Kira wondered if this Jadzia was still waiting for a symbiont or whether she wasn’t even in the joining program.

Her search of Starfleet’s active personnel records turned up no trace of either Miles or Julian, forcing her to dig deeper in less openly available databases. She soon wished she hadn’t.

Kira found Miles’ name on a list of casualties from the Federation-Cardassian wars. Instead of ending up the hero of Setlik III Miles had ended up one of the victims of the massacre. He had been in Starfleet and had earned several commendations for his conduct in the war. That didn’t make his death any easier to bear. Kira shed a tear for her friend and colleague, feeling somehow that his death was her fault.

Julian proved even harder to find, apparently having never enlisted in Starfleet at all. He wasn’t in any databases Kira could access; not on any census lists, travel manifestos or school attendance records. It was almost as though in this new universe of Kira’s, Julian Bashir had never existed. The truth was almost worse.

She only managed to find him by searching for records on his parents, Richard and Amsha. There was very little information on either of them either but there was a single record of them from about twenty five years preciously, when they were both jailed. The court records were sealed, but the records that did exist noted that they had been imprisoned on various charges of child abuse and illegal genetic augmentation. That served to explain why there were virtually no records of Julian; the Federation was still wary, almost paranoid, about the subject of genetic manipulation and engineering, despite almost four hundred years having passed since the Eugenics Wars. If Julian’s parents had had him augmented, whether the resequencing had been successful or not, Federation authorities would want him kept well out of sight, to discourage others from attempting the same with their children.

Strangely, knowing why his parents had been jailed made it somewhat simpler to locate their son’s records. The sort of places governments like the Federation kept their undesirables tended to be open secrets, and fairly easy to locate if you knew the right sort unscrupulous tricks and people. Kira found a Jules Subatoi Bashir being held at a high security institute along with a number of other victims of genetic tampering. According to the information she uncovered, Jules’ resequencing had left him with a brilliant analytical mind, advanced sensory perception, lightening fast reflexes and a callous disregard for the lives of non-augments that would have made Kahn Noonien Singh proud. Add to that vivid hallucinations and paranoid delusions and Jules Bashir was an extremely dangerous man. The records stated that his augmented state had been discovered after the then six year old murdered a teacher and half his class for ‘correcting’ an answer he’d given when he knew was right.

Kira couldn’t imagine any six year old doing something like that, and especially not Julian. The Julian she knew was sweet, a little naive and occasionally a pain in the ass, but was absolutely incapable of doing something like that. But in this world—the world she had created—he apparently was. Kira tried not to dwell on it too much. Instead she wondered whether his parents had had him augmented in her other world. If they had it had obviously left him with no untoward traits, save being an insufferable know-it-all from time to time.

For the first time in her life Kira began to doubt the wisdom of her decision to alter history. She’d managed to save so many lives but in the process had killed one friend and as good as killed another. Was erasing the occupation really worth what it had cost her friends? Kira didn’t know; she suspected the question—and the answer—would haunt her for the rest of her life.

Chapter Text

Guilt followed Kira around like a miasma in the following days. She tried to carry on with her life, but she did so mechanically, without really engaging in anything. Her family could tell something was wrong—she was quiet, distant and worryingly tired all the time—but they put it down to her argument with Edon and kept their distance.

She knew she’d be fine eventually; though they all happened in another lifetime, she still carried with her the guilt and horror of the things she had done fighting the Cardassians. In time this too would be simply another scar, another stain on her already tarnished pagh. When she wasn’t furiously channelling her feelings into her sculpture, she spent a lot of time in her room meditating. That was where she was when she heard Reon shout for her.

“Hey ’Rys,” he called, his voice full of worry and confusion. “You might want to see this.”

Fearful as to what could make her happy-go-lucky brother sound so concerned, she flew down the stairs and into the living area. The entire family, even Pohl, was stood watching the holoprojector, which was showing some kind of planet wide transmission. On the screen Kira could see the First Minister Oak, the Emissary Dukat and Kai Winn gathering to make some kind of speech.

Uh oh, she thought. It must be serious if they’ve managed to get those three to stand united. She didn’t think she’d ever seen the three of them in one place before.

“What’s going on?” she asked out loud. “Are we declaring war on someone?”

“No idea,” her father replied. “We got a message from the neighbours that there was going to be a big announcement and we should put the holoscreen on. Whatever it is, I don’t think it’s going to be good.”

A feeling of cold dread trickled down her spine; if even her father had picked up bad vibes from this announcement there was no way in hell it could be positive. It had even managed to knock Reon off kilter and drawn Pohl out of his study. Kira refused to jump to conclusions, no matter how fast her heart was pounding or how quickly her thoughts were racing. There was nothing she could do without command of the full facts, and wild speculation wasn’t going to help her formulate her next step.

On the screen the three most important figures in Bajoran politics had reached the podium, and a countdown to the start of the speech appeared on the screen. Pohl loudly shushed everyone even though the room was deathly silent.

“My fellow Bajorans,” said Oak all the way from the capital. The irritatingly nasal quality of his voice seemed to be amplified by the holo-transmission. “My colleagues and I have come before you today to bring you momentous news about the future of our beloved planet.”

Dukat stepped up to the podium. “Some of you may be aware that a few weeks ago, representatives of an interstellar power known as the Dominion came through the wormhole, the Celestial Temple of the Prophets, in order to deal with the repeated violations of their territory by Federation vessels.”

It is unfortunate that his voice is just as slimy in this world, though Kira. Seeing him in formal religious garb, wearing an earring had always made her feel slightly nauseous; he would always be the Butcher of Bajor to her.

Winn stepped up to the microphone. “As the nearest terminus of the Celestial Temple falls within Bajoran jurisdiction we were called upon to mediate the negotiations between the Federation and the Dominion.”

Oak took centre stage again. The way they were tag teeming this speech was getting on Kira’s nerves. Just get on with it, she thought irritably.

Reon echoed her sentiments.

“Stop blathering and get on with it you snivelling son of a pagh wraith,” he muttered under his breath.

Pohl hushed him.

“It gives me great pleasure to announce that the Dominion has offered to make Bajor and her colonies the first member states in the Alpha Quadrant. After much deliberation between the council of ministers, the Vedek assembly and other relevent parties it was decided that Bajor would accept the Dominion’s gracious offer. From this moment forth, we are all Dominion citizens, subject to her laws and under her protection. To that end, we are pleased to announce that Dominion troops will soon be landing on the planet to supplement our own militia forces during this transitional period.”

Every inch of Kira’s body went numb as her worst fears were confirmed. She felt like she’d been doused in ice water; her breath caught in her chest and a fierce trembling started up in her limbs. The speech continued, no doubt Dukat and Winn were talking about the glorious future Bajor had waiting for it as a lapdog of the Dominion, but she couldn’t hear a word of it over the roaring of white noise in her ears. Jem’Hadar troops would be landing here, on her beloved home planet. Every scrap of paranoia she’d felt over the last few weeks had just been justified. Bajor had been betrayed by those who were meant to have her best interests at heart.

Her spiralling thoughts were interrupted by Reon swearing loudly and most creatively.

“Language Reon!” scolded Taban.

“No, no,” said Meru, sitting down to cope with the shock of what she’d just heard. “I think he’s perfectly justified in using that kind of language.”

“Thanks ma,” said Reon before letting out another string of colourful invective. To everyone utter astonishment, Pohl added a few choice expletives of his own.

“How many years has the UFP been trying to convince Bajor to apply for membership?” Poll asked angrily. “And yet we’re taking up with these Dominion people after just a few weeks, with absolutely no consultation with Bajoran citizens. Something bad is going on here. Something very bad indeed.”

“You okay ’Rys?” asked Reon, nudging his sister’s arm. “You’ve gone white as a sheet.”

“I knew,” she said quietly. “I flakking knew something like this would happen. Soon as I saw how many militia ships they were launching I knew.”

“Is that why you’ve been so down lately? I thought that was because of your argument with Edon.”

“This was what we argued about,” Nerys hissed through her teeth. “I told him something was up and he thought I was being paranoid. Re, you know this is just an invasion by another name, right? This is just how it happened before.”

Reon looked confused. “How what happened before?”

“It doesn’t matter. Look Re, do you trust me?” she said urgently, keeping her voice to a desperate whisper. The other three were deep in a loud, angry debate over what the potential repercussions would be for Bajor; they couldn’t hear a thing.

“Of course I trust you ’Rys. What’s going on?”

“I have a bad feeling in my gut about this. The Dominion soldiers, these Jem’Hadar, they’re bad news. Sooner or later the Dominion will show their true colours, they’ll drop the pretence of being friendly and all of a sudden Bajor will be a planet under military occupation.”

“How do you know all this?” asked Reon, looking truly scared for the first time in as long as Kira could remember. She was pretty rattled herself.

“It doesn’t matter, but trust me, that’s what’s going to happen. When the coin flip comes, I need you to promise me that you’ll keep them safe, Ma, Da and Pohl. Gather some supplies and get them to the caves out in the hills. You remember the ones we got scolded for playing in as children.”

“I remember,” said Reon, his face pale and serious.

“Good. You get everyone there and you stay put until everything calms down, you promise? Promise me Reon!”

“I promise. But ’Rys, what about you? Where will you be?”

Kira paused. She wasn’t exactly sure when she made the decision, but she knew exactly where she would be; fighting the Dominion occupation with everything she had.

“It’s best you don’t know Re’. You just focus on keeping our family safe.”

Her brother nodded. Reon was clearly terrified, but she didn’t doubt he was up to the task she’d set him. In another world he had been spared this, having to fight for his planet and his people’s freedom. She wondered what the resistance would have made of him.

“How’d you get to be such a soldier ’Rys?” he asked, trying to crack one of his usual grins.

“It’s a long story, and I suspect you probably wouldn’t believe me. Now you be a good lad and distract everyone else while I make a break for it. I love you, little brother.”

“I love you ’Rys.”

They shared a brief, desperate hug before Kira disappeared back upstairs to throw a few useful items in a satchel. She had no idea what she might need, had no time really to plan; if she didn’t go now she knew she’d never again be able to work up to courage to leave her family. She’d have to make do with some basics: spare clothes, some food and water, sanitary implements and the hand phaser her parents didn’t know she had. Satisfied that she’d done as much as she could on such short notice she opened her bedroom window and escaped out into the deepening night.

Now that she was out in the rapidly cooling night air she felt her pulse slowing to something approaching reasonable. At the same time she also had the sinking realisation that she had no other plan than simply doing something. She could hardly take on the Dominion on her own, nor lead a guerilla war against them. Kira had no doubt that the Dominion could outlast even the most organised and well supplied Bajoran resistance in people and equipment; when you grow your soldiers in vats you tend not to mind using them as cannon fodder. But she had to do something, or she didn’t deserve to call herself Bajoran.

There was one thing she could do to make a difference; she could right the mistake she’d made in erasing the Cardassian Occupation from history.

As much as it pained her to consider growing up with her family, getting to know her mother and her brothers a mistake, she now knew that was what it was. The realisation had been growing inside her ever since she’d discovered the fates of her friends. She’d managed to mostly put it to the side; after all, when one was thinking in terms of saving fifteen million lives and improving countless others, what was a little misery for a small group of people? But this invasion by the Dominion, which was what it was, no matter what the politicians tried to call it, was going to be so much worse than the Cardassians ever were, of that Kira was sure. She had to find a way to undo her mistake, even though it meant giving up the family she loved so dearly.

She couldn’t do it alone though. Kira had known she’d need allies, and though she couldn’t rely on all her friends—she suspected she’d miss O’Brien’s engineering skills before this was all over—she did have three potential comrades within her grasp. Her first stop needed to be the Bajoran Institute of Science, to recruit Odo before the Dominion realised Mora was holding a Founder captive. Once he was on board with her less than well thought out plan they could worry about getting to Sisko and Dax.

Kira knew she should hurry; the Science Institute was across the other side of the province, and she strongly suspected it was going to get harder and harder to travel freely over the next few days. If she wasn’t defying some kind if curfew by the time she got there she would be very surprised. She started off down the road, setting a blistering pace for herself; she wanted to get into the hills and well away from populated areas by the time it got properly dark.

She’d only gotten a few kessipates down the road when an angry figure barrelled into her from the side. Whoever it was was taller than her, and their arms wrapped tightly around her, pinning her own arms to her sides. She kicked and struggled, but she was caught good. Kira kept struggling anyway, hoping to wear out her assailant. The more she struggled the harder her attacker had to work to keep her pinned.

After a few seconds of struggle, Kira realised she recognised their breathing.

“Edon!” she shouted, absolutely furious at him. “Get off me!”

“No,” he yelled back. “I knew you’d try to do something foolish as soon as I saw the news.” Kira tried to wiggle round so she could bite him. “For Prophet’s sake Nerys, what the kosst do you think you can do against something like the Dominion? You’re going to get yourself killed.”

She managed to kick him in the knee and as his leg gave way beneath him she snapped her head back into his face. Edon let go abruptly and she scrambled to put some distance between us. After a few moments to recover he started after her.

“Don’t you see Edon, I was right,” she said, fumbling in her pack for her phaser. Oh Prophets please don’t make me have to hurt him, Kira thought desperately. For her sins she did still love the man. “I was right Edon, there was something going on.”

“How? How did you know?” he shouted into the night. His breathing was erratic and there were tears running down his face. “A week ago I’d never even heard of the Dominion, but you had. You wanted me to start up a resistance cell to fight them, because somehow you knew that was what we were gonna have to do. People are rioting in the capital already. They’re talking about bringing more troops in than originally planned to help put down the dissension. Bajor is burning tonight and somehow you knew it would come to this. How could you possibly know that?”

“You know the answer to that Edon. I told you.”

“Other worlds! I’ve never believed in those sorts of things. Hell, Nerys it takes me all my time just to believe in the Prophets.” He shook his head sadly, anger cooling to bitterness. “And one person with the power to change all of it. I don’t know if I can believe that.”

“You should try working with Starfleet, things like that become normal,” Kira said dryly, her hand still gripped tight around her phaser.

“When you talk about it I can almost believe it. You certainly do.”

“Trust me Edon. If you have ever really loved me I need you to trust me now.”

He stepped a little closer, and Kira tensed. Edon put his hands up in a placing gesture. “What are you going to do Nerys.”

“I’m going to put things right,” said Kira. “No matter what the personal cost. I have to get to the Celestial Temple, convince the Prophets to intervene. They have to help us...”

Edon shook his head. “The Prophets have never intervened in Bajor's problems before, why should they start now?”

“Because this is my fault! Don't you get it? I asked them to create this world and now our planet is in danger. They might not do anything to help, but I have to try. I have to get to them.”

“So I’m supposed to just let you go, and risk losing you forever? Nerys there are a thousand ships between here and there. It's suicide.” He looked distraught. “Don't do it. Stay here with me.”

Tears pricked at Kira's eyes and she shook her head sadly. “I can't. I have to try; it’s the right thing to do Edon. I’ve always known you as a good man, in every universe. Don’t prove me wrong now.”

He lunged for her shouting “I love you! I can’t lose you.”

Kira reacted with all the speed of her combined resistance and military training, pulling out her phaser and shooting him; it was just a glancing blow to the thigh, but it was enough to momentarily incapacitate him. As the man she loved collapsed to the ground in pain, she looked down at him sadly. “I’m sorry for shooting you, but I have to do what’s right.”

She pocketed the phaser and strode off into the night, refusing to look back so he wouldn’t see the tears in her eyes.

Chapter Text

Five days later and the situation on Bajor had gone from bad to worse. The rioting in the capital had continued well into the next day and had spread from there across the provinces. The Bajoran people, it seemed did not take kindly to their political leaders accepting membership to an interstellar empire without consulting them first.

Everything had been thrown into chaos; it reminded Kira of the final days of the Cardassian Occupation when ordinary citizens had assisted the rebellion with the final push to retake power. The Cardassians had been considering pulling out from Bajor anyway and simply sped up the withdrawal of their resources. The Dominion on the other hand still had to consolidate their power in this sector and had responded by increasing the number of troops they were sending in.

Almost every hour like clockwork, new troop carriers arrived with fresh supplies of Jem’Hadar. Thus far the approach of throwing more and more soldiers at the problem hadn’t done anything to quell the violence and civil unrest, but Kira knew it was only a matter of time. Bajoran lives were far less disposable than the Jem’Hadar and sooner or later the latter would outnumber the former.

As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Kira was Bajor's best chance right now. She felt that particular burden weigh heavy on her shoulders.

She’d spent the five days moving through Dakhur province as stealthily as she could, keeping as far away from populated areas as possible. She’d made it to the science institute on the fourth day after the announcement, and she’d spent her time ever since scouting around for more information. As far as Kira could tell, the Dominion hadn’t yet discovered that the Bajorans were keeping a Founder captive at the institute; they had been too busy dealing with unruly Bajorans to bother looking into scientific matters. And as yet no Founder had come down to the planet, the politicians had done all their wheeling and dealing with Vorta representatives.

If she was very lucky, Kira might be able to snatch Odo out from under their very noses.

Observing the centre over the past few days Kira had noticed that security seemed to be fairly light. That made sense; this was an educational centre, a place of research and discovery, not the testbed for military advancements it had been under the Cardassians. That didn’t necessarily mean that getting in would be easy though. And the strange shape-shifting life form that called itself Kejal in this world was no doubt one of their most prized “possessions”; whatever security they had would be highest around the labs where they kept the changeling.

Kira was still struggling not to think of him as Odo, or indeed as a “him” at all. She had no idea how Changeling gender actually worked if they even had a concept of it at all. She knew that Odo’s humanoid form was merely a result of his close proximity to Mora for the majority of his early years. And he had been very much shaped by his circumstances in that other world. She had no idea how he would react when he saw her; if there would be anything she recognised of her friend in the poor being trapped here. Even if there was no resemblance at all between the Odo she knew and the Kejal of this world, the Changeling might still prove to be a useful ally. She had to take the risk.

But first she had to get into the centre. She waited until it was dark to make her move, simply because it would make her escape—whether she’d succeeded or failed—that much easier. How she was going to get past security was a question she had mulled over for whole minutes. Kira, being Kira, decided to take the most obvious and least subtle option available; she marched into the reception area and pointed her hand phaser at the security guard.

“If you stay calm I won’t hurt you,” said Kira matter-of-factly, “I just want to know where the shape-shifter is.”

The guard looked really rather surprised. He’d probably taken night shift expecting to avoid these kinds of things. “Uh, lab four-two-three, I think. Fourth floor, right at the back. Mora’s lab is the biggest one on that level, you can’t miss it.”

She smiled sweetly. “That wasn’t too hard was it? People normally make this sort of thing much harder than it has to be. Now one more thing, cut all the security feeds for the building.”

The guard hesitated a moment but then moved to do her bidding, no doubt swayed by the phaser that was still in Kira’s hand. She moved behind the desk to check the job had been done correctly. Once satisfied that all the security measures were out, she rapped the guard smartly on the back of the head with the phaser; he slumped forwards onto the desk, out cold.

“Sorry about that,” said Kira to the unconscious Bajoran. “Need to save my power reserves, you know?”

She followed the helpful directions to Mora’s lab and as promised, managed to find it without trouble. The lock on the door proved to be something of a hindrance, as it seemed to be on a separate system to the ones she’d had the guard disable. She sighed at the annoyance. While lock picking and code breaking had hardly been her specialty in the resistance—she’d been more of a specialist in blowing stuff up—she’d broken into tougher locks during the Occupation. It took her a while, but she managed to get it open with only a minimum of swearing and kicking the door. The indicator on the lock clicked over to green, and she was in.

The lab itself was a wide open space that managed to be oddly minimalist while full of all sorts of unnerving equipment. The air smelt faintly of disinfectant and someone had left bottle of various chemicals and reagents out on the bench. Kira had never been any good at chemistry that didn’t result in something exploding, and even she knew that was terrible lab protocol. One of the breakers, however, contained a familiar golden hued gel. Kira had only rarely rarely seen Odo in his natural state, and she wasn’t quite sure how would be the best way to get his attention. She knew she could simply make off with the jar he was resting in, but that would be kidnapping and, she suspected, counterproductive to what she wanted to achieve. Being a not terribly subtle person anyway, and wary of wasting time, she simply picked the jar up and poured its contents out onto the lab bench.

It had the desired effect; the golden liquid shimmered and rose upwards, reforming into a vaguely humanoid shape. As the finger details coalesced she saw that the person in front of her was shockingly similar to the Odo that she knew so well. The biggest difference was that in place of the familiar beige security uniform he was “wearing” a simple jumpsuit in navy blue. He sat on the edge of the bench, his legs dangling off the side.

“Hello,” he said. “You’re not Doctor Mora.” The familiar gravelly voice betrayed no emotion or surprise. Evidently the rasp was less do with Odo’s trademark cynicism and more to do with the way he formed his vocal chords.

“No, I’m not,” she said. “My name is Kira Nerys. You call yourself Kejal, don’t you?”

The smoothly featured face brightened a little. “I do. How did you know that?”

“You're pretty vocal about what you want people to call you when Mora bring you out on display. It's not difficult information to obtain if you're persistent and I'm very persistent,” said Kira. She didn't want to get into the extensive hacking and digital trespassing she’d had to do in order to find out more than the coldest of clinical details about Sample 47.

Kejal was certainly an interesting person. He looked and sounded like Odo, but there was something almost naive about him. The hard bitten cynicism the Occupation had beaten into Odo was absent in Kejal and he seemed more open and friendly. he was sat kicking his legs into the lab bench, looking at Kira with a curious and almost hopeful expression on his face. She wondered if he had the same need for order and desire for justice that Odo did. She certainly hoped so or she might not be able to get him to go along with the ridiculous plan she’d concocted.

He seemed curious of Kira, and yet completely unsurprised at her presence. It suddenly struck her that he might consider her another one of Mora's tests. He might have offered Kejal the chance at escape before and then crushed his hopes just to see how he’d react. She wondered what else the bastard had put him through in the name of “science”. She didn’t say any of this out loud

“How would you like to get out of here?” was what she actually said.

“Mora doesn’t let me leave,” said Kejal, his voice sounding calculatedly neutral.

Son of a pagh wraith has tried this trick on him before, she thought. “Well I won’t tell him if you don’t.”

Kejal looked conflicted, as though he was tempted despite his better judgement.

“Mora didn’t send me,” said Kira. Trying to reassure him. “And this isn’t some kind of test. It’s a genuine offer to get you out of here.”

He cocked his head to one side, considering her carefully. “Are you like me? A shapeshifter.” There was a definite spark of hope in him now.

Kira shook her head. “Sadly I’m just a Bajoran. But I think I can give you some of the answers you seek. I know what you are and where you come from, though you may not like the answers. And how I got the information is a little complicated.”

Kejal opened his mouth, presumably to ask how Kira got her information, but before he could say anything an alarm went off somewhere.

“Kosst!” Kira swore. “I knew I should have hit the guard harder. Do you still want to get out of here?” Kejal nodded. “Then we have to go, now! I can explain everything later.”

He jumped off the bench and Kira grabbed him by the shoulder, propelling him out the room. The corridors were now dark, lit on by the crimson glare of emergency lighting. They plunged towards the stairwell, Kira desperately hoping there would be an emergency exit somewhere. Her hand was firmly wrapped around her phaser; she was hoping she wouldn’t have cause to use it.

They made it to the second floor before they met with any resistance. As they thundered down the stairs someone threw a smoke grenade onto the steps between the second and first floors. Kira attempted to plunge through it, but it quickly became apparent she couldn’t breathe in the smoke. Kejal pushed her through her the door to the second floor corridor. They had barely made it halfway down when someone set off another smoke grenade. The corridor quickly filled with smoke, and through the haze they could see the the sight beams for high power phaser rifles.

The laser sights converged on Kira’s chest and in a few seconds it would all be over. She closed her eyes and braced herself. The rifles discharged, audible even over the blaring alarm, but she never felt the impact. Kira opened her eyes to find a shimmering golden force field surrounding her, protecting her; Kejal had taken the shot on her behalf.

“Odo?” she said tentatively, full of awe.

Kejal didn’t answer, instead he re-formed as a humanoid and surged forwards, taking the nearest sniper by surprise; the shots he’d just taken didn’t seem to slow him down at all. The efficient nature of the blows he was raining down on the soldier reminded Kira very much of the way Odo fought, and she wondered where he’d learned to fight. Then she shook herself and followed suit, taking out another of the armed guards. She scooped up the weapons they had dropped and used them to stun the remaining two, throwing the guns to Kejal and snatching the other two rifles as well. They made it to the stairwell at the opposite end of the building, thundered down the the ground floor and broke through one of the windows; Kira wasn’t going to risk going back through the reception area where there would almost certainly be another trap.

Out in the fresh air Kira took a deep restorative breath, finally clearing her lungs of smoke. Her eyes still stung and streamed with tears, but she brushed them aside and tried to ignore the sensation.

“We need to get into the Dakhur hills,” Kira crooked hoarsely. “I know a few places we can hole up.”

Shouting started up behind them as security realised what had happened, and Kejal gestured towards the nearest wall of the campus. The wall was far too high for Kira to climb, certainly in her current state, so Kejal formed himself into a ladder to help her over. Once over the wall Kira took off running, pushing her already weak and shaky body even further, trying to put as much distance between themselves and their pursuers as possible.

When the sounds of pursuit had died down a bit, Kejal insisted Kira rest and drink some water. When they got going again he took the form of a Tarkalean hawk and kept an eye out for trouble. It didn’t take long before it became obvious that Kira couldn’t go much further on foot so Kejal landed, morphed into the largest hara cat she had ever seen and insisted she ride on his back. It was an extremely surreal experience for Kira, but she couldn’t deny they covered much more ground that way. She snatched a couple of hours’ sleep just before dawn and then they were on their way again, finally reaching the caves Kira had mentioned just as B’havael peaked over the mountains.

Kejal kindly let her rest for a few moments as they settled into camp, though he hovered on the edge of her vision, nearly vibrating with his desire to ask questions. And she did owe him.

“I realised I never thanked you,” she said. “You didn’t have to take those shots for me.”

Kejal shrugged. “You have the answers I’ve wanted as long as I can remember. You wouldn’t have been able to give them to me if you’d been captured, and I couldn’t have escaped the institute on my own.”

“Still, you went above and beyond, and I appreciate it. And now you may ask your questions.”

“Do you really know what I am and where I’m from?” he asked, excitement creeping into the timbre of his voice.

Kira nodded. “Your people are known as Changelings, though they also call themselves the Founders, and they come from the Gamma Quadrant. That’s why you were found in the Denorious belt. You actually came through from the other side of the wormhole.”

“I had always wondered. You said my people are known as the Founders. What are they the Founders of?”

Kira swallowed hard; this was the question she’d been dreading. “The Dominion.”

Kejal’s hairless brow furrowed. “Isn’t that the name of the power that came through the wormhole a few weeks ago looking to pick a fight with the Federation? The one that Bajor has apparently just become a member of?”

“The very same. And I’m sorry to say the Dominion are not very nice people. What they’ve been doing to the Bajoran people should be proof of that.”

Kejal looked crushed. It was no less heart breaking than watching Odo discover the truth about his people on the shores of the Great Link.

“How do you know this? And why did you come rescue me from the science institute?”

“That’s a long and complicated story,” said Kira.

“Tell me anyway.”

So she did. Kira told the whole unbelievable tale, including everything about her life in the other world and how this one came to be. No details about the Cardassian Occupation were left out; Kira wanted to make it clear why she would choose to take her chances in a world where it never happened. She described the accident in the wormhole, and its disastrous repercussions, and how the world had come to be remade around her as a fixed reference point. Kira told him about Deep Space Nine, and her friends, and briefly outlined what had happened to them in this world.

She talked at length about Odo, and the kind of man he was, the kinds of things he did during the Occupation and how he had become a beacon of hope for the Bajorans on Terok Nor in the final days. How she and Odo had been kindred spirits in those early days on DS9, two otherwise lone bastions of reason against the incessant optimism of the Federation. She told Kejal how she and Odo had come to rely on each other, how she could tell him anything and that she considered him one of her very best friends. Knowing that he would want more information about his people, Kira told Kejal the full story of how Odo discovered his origins, from the first time he heard to word Changeling to the moment he turned his back on his people to save his friends.

Kejal said nothing as she talked, barely even pretending to breathe. He looked enraptured, eagerly devouring each new fact he was given, gluttonous for information after being starved for so long. Kira finished up by roughly outlining her plan, such as it was, for getting back to her world, and protecting Bajor from the Dominion.

“And you came to break me out of the science institute because you need my help with this… plan of yours?”

“Yes,” Kira said. “Although I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to. I’m not going to lie, I honestly don’t know if I have a chance of success without you, but you don’t have to help me. You are absolutely free to walk away from me right now if you decide you want nothing to do with this crazy half baked plan of mine. I won’t hold it against you.”

He was quiet for a long time, thinking hard about what he was going to do next.

“It sounds like you hold this Odo in really high regard,” he said quietly.

“I do. He’s one of the best people I know.”

More quiet thinking. “You came after me, knowing that Odo and I are different people, with different lives, trusting that we’d be similar enough that you could trust me. No one has ever trusted me before. No one has ever cared for me enough to give me the one thing I’ve wanted. I’ll do it. I’ll go along with this idea of yours.”

Kira’s face brightened; she’d honestly expected him to tell her where to get off. “You will?”

“I will. For you, for Odo, for me. Because someone has to stop the Dominion and it might as well be one of their own.”

Kira heaved a sigh of relief and they grinned at each other for a few moments.

“What happens now?” asked Kejal after a while.

“Now, I get some sleep. Later, we plan.”

Chapter Text

It took Kira and Kejal a few days to work out exactly what the next stage of their plan would be; it was all very well having a specific goal in mind, but quite another to work out exactly how one was going to get there. And it turned out that Kira hadn’t thought it through much further than rescuing Kejal from the science centre. After talking it through—with a minimum of arguing—they both agreed that their next move would be to get to Sisko and Jadzia, who were in a much better position to help them carry out their plan than anyone on Bajor. Actually getting to them, however, would be easier said than done.

The situation on Bajor had managed to escalate even further. Most of the resistance had been stamped out by the Jem’Hadar, and full martial law was now in effect. No Bajoran was allowed to travel without extensive paperwork proving they had permission and there was a curfew every night. Jem’Hadar had taken over all of the functions of the militia and the civilian security forces and they were absolutely everywhere you looked. Meanwhile, the people who had sold Bajor down the river sat in their sumptuous palaces toasting a job well done.

Information was hard to come by when you lived in a cave in the hills, so it took a while to put these facts together. Fortunately, Kejal turned out to be a dab hand at “acquiring” electronics components and Kira knew a thing or two about rigging up communications devices with a few pieces of wire and some hope. When they finally found out what had happened while they had been sitting in their cave they were completely floored.

“We have to do something,” said Kejal, absolutely distraught at events. It seemed that he was just as opposed to injustice as his counterpart in the other world.

“I know. And we agreed that we needed to get Starfleet’s attention. We’d be out there doing something already if we could work out how to get from this Prophets forsaken cave to the fleet hovering around the Celestial Temple. You can fly, but can you do it in a vacuum?”

“I have no idea,” said Kejal, calming down a little. “Before you rescued me the only forms I took were the ones Mora wanted me to. I am very good at being a chair though.”

Kira ignored the sarcastic comment. “We need a ship. Somehow we need to plough our way through Prophets only know how many Jem’Hadar and get us a ship, and then somehow escape orbit and get out to the Denorious belt without anyone shooting us down. Any idea how we do that?”

Kejal shook his head, and they were both quiet for a while, doing odd jobs that needed doing around the camp.

“Where is the nearest space port?” Kejal asked after the silence had stretched just long enough to be awkward.

“Jolanda city is the closest, but the security bulletins indicate that Jolanda is under heavy guard like the rest of the major population centres. We’d still have to get past dozens of soldiers to even get near a shuttle pod or runabout. And there’s still the orbital defences and Jem’Hadar fighters to think about.”

“Is there any way of disabling the orbital tracking systems from Jolanda?”

“I don’t– maybe. What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that if we disable the tracking systems then they’re not going to know where we are until it's far too late to stop us. If they don’t know where to point the orbital guns or send their fighters then they can’t shoot us down. It would be even better if we could somehow disable those as well.”

“I’ll pull up some blueprints of the space port, see what I can find out.”

It took the best part of an hour for Kira to even get into the relevant systems, and another two to navigate through the stacks of useless kosst in the transport authorities’ files to find anything remotely useful. She insisted Kejal make her some camp coffee to help fuel her through the paper work.

“Okay,” she said at last. “Looking at these schematics I think I can set up an overload that will take out the entire orbital tracking system provided was can get to the central control room. Which is going to be the most heavily guarded place in the entire space port.”

Kejal peeked at the screen over her shoulder. “That looks like a pretty complicated system,” he said. He seemed to doubt her ability to do what she’d claimed.

Kira scoffed at him. “You should try doing anything with Starfleet computer systems. Redundant backups all over the place, you never know if what you’re looking at is important or not. This will be a slice of Tuwaly pie compared to those systems.”

“Does this mean we have a plan then?”

“Yes. Get in, overload the system, steal a shuttle and run for the Denorious belt. Easy.”

They grinned at each other.

“Slice of Tuwaly pie.”

***

It turned out that getting in was slightly more complicated than they’d anticipated; they hit their first stumbling block almost as soon as they’d entered Jolanda city.

Kira’s face was all over the holoscreens.

" ‘Kira Nerys, of Dakhur Province,’ " Kejal read off the screen. " ‘Wanted in connection with a terrorist attack on the Bajoran Science Institute, including theft of extremely important research materials. Reward for any information leading to capture. Suspect is armed and highly dangerous. Maybe in the company of a shape shifting life form known only as Sample 47’. That is an impressive reward. You think I should cash it in?"

She punched him, despite knowing it would have little effect.

“I should have left you in that damn lab,” Kira hissed through her teeth.

“I suspect our plan might not go off as easily as we thought. Not only are the streets filled with Jem’Hadar, but they’re on high alert looking for you. Any suggestions?”

Kira stopped a moment to consider their options. They’d come too far to turn back now; she hadn’t lived in the wilderness for nearly two weeks to be put off by being a wanted person. She’d spent most of the Cardassian Occupation as a fugitive so this was hardly new territory. At least there was no mention of her family on the wanted bulletin; hopefully that meant that Reon had gotten them all into hiding.

Of course it could also mean they’d already been rounded up and shot.

She pushed the thought aside. “We still need a ship, extra security or not. Even if you did know how to take the form of a starship, you’d never generate enough thrust to break orbit. We stick with the plan and shoot our way out if we have to.”

Kejal grimaced. “I don’t like guns. You can do the shooting.”

Before Kira could reply, Kejal shifted into a Gunji Jackdaw and took off running, squawking as loudly as he could. Just as they’d planned, the commotion drew the attention of the security personnel and pulled them away from several key areas of the space port. Fortunately, security was still mostly Bajoran at this point; the Jem’Hadar were obviously too busy suppressing any problems with unruly Bajorans to have time to learn how to do their jobs. Kira took advantage of this and the confusion to sneak past a few “authorised personnel only” signs.

Things were going a little too according to plan when Kira heard a shout behind her.

“Hey, you! You’re not supposed to be here.”

Kira started walking faster.

The security guard chased after her. “Hey you there, stop! This area is off limits. Stop!”

She knew she would have to turn and fight if she had any hope of reaching her goal; the woman’s shouting alone was going to draw unwanted attention. Kira slowed down and let the guard catch her, watching out of the corner of her eye all the while.

“Hey I know you,” said the guard. “You’re the woman whose face has been all over the feeds. You’re meant to be dangerous, I think I’m gonna need back up.”

Just as the security woman moved to tap her comm badge for help, Kira turned and smacked her with the butt of her phaser rifle. The guard staggered backwards and while she was disoriented, Kira stunned her; she hit the floor with a muffled thump, completely out cold. Knowing that an unconscious guard would draw far too much attention, Kira dragged the poor unconscious woman into a nearby cupboard, liberated her of her comm badge and weapons and shut the door.

After that incident Kira managed to reach the central control room without further incident, successfully hiding from the rest of the security personnel she encountered. As anticipated, the control room wasn’t empty; three traffic controllers went about their business inside, directing all of the orbital and sub-orbital traffic for the province and surrounding area. Thankfully absent was the Jem’Hadar overseer Kira had been half expecting.

Kira whistled to attract the attention of the nearest Bajoran, stunning them when they got close enough. The discharge of the weapon and sounds of a body crumpling to the floor alerted the other two people in the room. Kira shot them both in quick succession before they’d had time to fully register what was going on.

Knowing that her time was extremely limited—air traffic could only back up for so long before someone noticed something was wrong—she got to work generating the overload. Kira disabled several safety protocols before setting up a feedback loop between the computer in the control room and the orbital tracking stations. It took several hair raising minutes during which Kira was certain she’d get caught for the feedback loop to overload the systems, and when it did so the console she was working at shorted out with an audible pop. There was a moment of silence and then the alarms sounded.

Kira let out a string of swear words. For some reason, it hadn’t occurred to her that everything might go according to plan and they might still set the alarms off. In hindsight, it made perfect sense that there would be some kind of warning for when the orbital tracking system was down but it had been the last thing on her mind when setting out the plan.

She didn’t have time to beat herself up about it right now; she needed to get out of there. As she turned to leave, she noticed that security were converging on the central control room via the only escape route, forcing her to dive for cover.

Kosst, she thought. I’m going to have to fight my way to a shuttle pod.

She fired off a few warning shots to force her opponents to find cover as well and prayed to the Prophets that there wouldn’t be any smoke grenades this time. If security had grenades with them they didn’t seem inclined to use them. In fact, they seemed to be content to remain behind their cover exchanging pot-shots with Kira. She quickly became suspicious; were they simply a distraction while another team moved to outflank her?

The control centre overlooked the main hangar bay and the comings and goings of the space port could be viewed through a transparent aluminium window above the computer consoles. Was it possible that security were planning on sending a team through the window? If they did that she was done for; there would be no way out of that pincer movement and she’d never get to a shuttle. Kira decided not to give them the chance.

She lay down cover fire as she moved backwards through the room, keeping her assailants firmly behind their cover. When she felt herself bump up against the computer console, she shot out the door mechanism, hoping it would take security some time to get through it. Kira then ramped up the power on her phaser rifle to maximum and vaporised the window. It blew out with a massive bang that half deafened her and made her ears ring.

Kira slung her rifle over her shoulder and climbed onto the console, struggling to keep her balance while her hearing recovered.

It was a hell of a drop from the control centre to the shuttle bay floor, but Kira had no other way out now she’d disabled the door. She had to try. She carefully climbed out the window and lowered herself down until she was hanging by just her fingertips. There was a walkway below the control room, about half way between here and the floor. Kira aimed for that and let go.

As she fell she managed to grab hold of the top railing of the catwalk but her momentum ripped it from her grasp. The same happened with the second rail. She finally managed to stop her descent by grabbing onto the walkway itself, though the rough surface ripped the skin from her fingers. Her hands bruised and bloodied, she managed to pull herself up onto the catwalk, her arm muscles screaming at her all the while.

Once up, she needed a moment to take a breath and since no one was actively shooting at her at the moment, she allowed herself the luxury. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a Gunji jackdaw running around the shuttle bay, being futilely chased by several frustrated members of the space port staff. At least Kejal is alright, she thought.

The quickest way down would be to take another jump, but Kira didn’t want to do that again in a hurry; her fingers were still stinging from her previous fall. She took off running down the catwalk, vaguely remembering from the blueprints she’d seen that there should be stairs down to the main floor in this direction. The alarms were still blaring even though it was muffled to Kira, her ears having still not fully recovered. She could just about hear them though, and knew that security would still be on high alert.

As she headed towards the top of the stairs, more security goons came charging up at her. Kira didn’t have time to pull her rifle back off her shoulder so she had to go in with her fists initially. She ducked the first blow that was thrown her way but one of the guards managed to ram the butt of their own rifle into her face.

The blow reverberated dully around her skull. Kira staggered backwards, dazed. She put her hands to her face and was vaguely surprised to find it covered with blood. She couldn’t tell whether her nose was broken or whether it was just a split lip. All she could see were stars. I guess that gets me back for earlier, she thought absently before shaking her head to try to clear the fog.

When she opened her eyes she saw that the guard was now pointing his rifle straight at her, finger firmly on the trigger. Time was short and her brain wasn’t quite firing on all cylinders. She did the only thing she could think of; she grabbed hold of the rifle and pulled hard towards her, kneeing the guard in the crotch.

The two goons behind him reacted quickly, pulling up their own weapons and she used the one who had hit her as a Bajoran shield, before pushing him down the stairs towards the other two. As they tried to jump out of the way of the falling body she tripped one of them, sending him after his unconscious colleague before shooting the third and final guard.

The rest of the way down the stairs was guard free, thankfully, as she didn’t think she was up to much more fighting in her current state; she was exhausted, her ears were still ringing, her fingers felt raw and she was pretty sure her nose was broken. Her ability to fight was severely limited at this point. She charged into the hangar bay looking around frantically for Kejal. He was on the other side of the room, still running rings around his would-be captors.

“Kejal!” she shouted, just as all the alarms ceased abruptly. Kira came to a halt, wonder what in the name of the Prophets was going on. Everyone else in the hangar did the same. “What the…” she said out loud.

There was a blur of movement in her peripheral vision that she recognised all too well. It was a Jem’Hadar shroud. This was not good, not good at all.

Kira shouted for Kejal again, running as fast as she could across the hanger. She was intercepted by one of the blurs and a Jem’Hadar unshrouded in front of her, pointing its weapon directly at her.

“Drop your weapons,” said the Jem’Hadar. Kira complied, setting her assorted guns on the floor and putting her hands above her head.

Across the other side of the room, the Bajoran personnel were doing the same. The large flightless bird they had been chasing was now stood looking at Kira with what could only be described as a quizzical look on its face.

“You, over there,” said the Jem’Hadar, prodding Kira roughly in the side with its rifle. They were corralling all the humanoids into the centre of the hangar; were the Jem’Hadar going to execute them or arrest them?

As one of the other Jem’Hadar approached the jackdaw to attempt to herd it with rest of the prisoners, it turned back into the familiar form of Kejal. The closest Jem’Hadar’s eyes widened in recognition.

“Founder,” it said reverently as it dropped to its knees. The rest of the soldiers immediately followed suit.

Kejal looked incredibly uncomfortable with all the attention. Meanwhile, all the Bajorans just looked confused. Kira shared a look with Kejal, and he nodded his head ever so slightly in the direction of one of the shuttles. Kira hadn’t known him that long, but the message seemed clear; get the hell out of here while I’ve got them distracted.

“Uh, loyal subjects. Er-” said Kejal, completely unsure of what he was doing. “Good job. You keep, er, doing what you’re doing. Go you.”

She sidled around the Jem’Hadar and the incredibly confused Bajorans, sneaking towards the nearest shuttle. She prayed that the airlock wouldn’t be sealed.

The Prophets were with her that day; she got into the shuttle no problem at all. Sitting herself in the pilot’s seat she stabbed at the console but only succeeded in covering it in blood. She wiped her nose on her sleeve and her hands on her tunic, covering herself in more blood.

After that she managed to get everything warmed up pretty fast; she wanted to get in the air as quickly as was Bajoranly possible. As the thrusters fired up the Jem’Hadar seemed to realise that their Founder was merely a distraction and started after the shuttle. They were too late, however; by the time they reached the shuttle it was already too high for them to reach.

Kira shot out the hangar doors and slipped out into the Dakhur countryside. She turned a hundred and eighty degrees to look back towards the space part to see if Kejal was coming after her. A few of the soldiers fired in her direction, but the shots bounced harmlessly off the hull. She saw what looked like a tarkalean hawk coming towards her and she opened the airlock again. Moments later Kejal was sat in the co-pilot's seat looking as uncomfortable as Kira had ever seen a sentient being look. She tapped the console a few times and headed upwards towards high orbit.

She looked over towards Kejal and wasn’t quite able to suppress a snicker.

“Don’t say anything,” he said tersely, and she wisely shut up.

She grinned half way to the edge of the atmosphere, and only the fact her face hurt too much to continue put a stop to it.

“Are you okay?” asked Kejal, sounding concerned. “What happened to your face?”

“The butt of a phaser rifle happened to it. It’s fine. I’ll deal with it later.”

Kejal didn’t say anything else, but he kept glancing back at Kira in concern.

There weren’t any signs of pursuit from the ground, so they could only assume that their sabotage of the orbital tracking system had been successful. As they broke atmosphere and came around the curve of the planet, Kira noticed a formation of three Jem’Hadar fighters.

“Uh oh,” she said, gesturing at them through the viewscreen. “Could be trouble. The orbital systems might be down but they still have fully functional sensors.”

“I am not doing the Founder routine again.”

She couldn’t help it; she burst out laughing. “Sorry, sorry,” she said, attempting to be contrite.

“Hrmph,” said Kejal, in a heart-achingly familiar way.

Kira had to suppress another snigger at his adorable grumpiness. She forced herself to take things more seriously. Their shuttle had no weapons at all; those fighters would blow them out of the sky if they caught up to them, Founder or no Founder on board.

“Well we’re not going to outrun them in this thing, so we need a plan.”

Kira already had a plan. Well half a plan; it was ill advised, risky and might end up getting them both killed. Much like everything else they’d done today.

Kejal could tell she had something up her sleeve. “What are you thinking?”

“This thing doesn’t have any weapons. Not that they’d be much use against three of those things even if we had. Our only option is to outrun them.”

“But you said we wouldn’t be able to do that.”

“Not at impulse speed we won’t.”

Kejal blinked at her disbelievingly. “Warp speeds? In a solar system? Really?”

“We only have to do warp one for a few minutes to get out to the Denorious belt. And we’d better do it quickly.”

The Jem’Hadar fighters had banked and were now converging on their position.

“They’re powering weapons,” said Kejal, glancing at the sensor console. “If you’re going to do this, you’d better do it now.”

The closest fighter fired off a warning shot that glanced off the shuttles’ practically non-existent shields. The energy surge caused a few consoles in the cockpit to overload and explode.

“Communications are fried,” Kira shouted, “but we still have warp power. I’m entering coordinates for the wormhole now.”

“You’re sure you’ve got them right?”

“Of course I'm sure, I know them by heart.”

Another shot hits the shields and they fizzled out entirely. More consoles sparked and the lights flickered off for a second. Kira gave everything a final, frantic check over. “Ok, here goes.”

She pressed the button and jumped to light speeds. The next few minutes were full of tense silence as they ploughed through the B’hava’el system towards the Denorious belt. Kira had plotted coordinates that would bring them up just short of the wormhole, giving them some margin for error. She breathed a sigh of relief as she pulled the shuttle back to impulse speeds.

“Well,” she said. “We’re still in one piece.”

Just then the comms console beeped.

“I thought you said communications were fried?” asked Kejal.

“Apparently we can still receive. Put it up.”

The familiar face of Benjamin Sisko lit up the screen. This is the U.S.S. Mae Jemison to the unknown Bajoran vessel. You have just warped into an actively hostile situation. Your presence here could escalated things further. Please explain yourself.

Kira stabbed at a few buttons. “Great,” she said. “We have no way of replying to them.”

The comm beeped again: Mae Jemison to unknown Bajoran vessel. Stand down or we will be forced to open fire. You have three minutes to comply.

Kira and Kejal looked at each other nervously.

“We’re dead.”

Chapter Text

“What do we do now?” asked Kejal frantically.

The first of their allocated three minutes had slipped by already, and with their shields out there was no way they would survive an assault by the Mae Jemison.

“Cut the engines. Shut everything down but the life support. We need to look completely dead in the water and harmless. With any luck, they’ll beam someone over to investigate rather than blowing us up.”

Kejal looked rather skeptical. “That’s a hell of a gamble, Nerys and need I remind you that we’re staking our lives on this?”

“What else do you suggest?” she snapped, before reign in her temper somewhat. “We don’t have much choice right now. Shut everything down.”

This time he did as he was asked without any quibbling. All that was left to do was sit and wait for their allocated time to run out. The third-minute mark came and went without the Mae Jemison opening on fire on them. It looked like their gamble had paid off; Kira prayed that this was the case and they were just giving them an extra few minutes before blowing them into their constituent atoms.

The five-minute mark came and went and still nothing happened. Neither one of them dared speak; Kira hardly even dared breathe. Her pulse was racing in her ears and she was half convinced they were dead already by the time she heard the familiar whine of a Starfleet transporter. Kira blinked and found herself standing in an immaculate transporter room; it seems they’d elected to beam them aboard the Mae Jemison instead of vice versa.

Captain Benjamin Sisko stood a few feet away from the transporter pad, a familiar sight for Kira’s sore eyes, despite the hand he kept firmly on his phaser. He was flanked either side by three security personnel, and even the transporter chief had their phaser out.

“Apologies for the delay in beaming you out,” said Sisko quietly, and Kira nearly burst into tears. She hadn’t realised until then just how much she’d missed his voice. “We weren’t entirely sure what you were up to when you powered everything down, and I wanted to run a few sensor sweeps to make sure you weren’t laying some kind of trap.”

“I take it you figured it out in the end, or we wouldn’t be here, sir,” Kira said.

Sisko hummed in acknowledgement. “Now that you are here, would you mind explaining just who the hell you are and what the hell you were thinking?”

Kira winced; she hadn’t missed the way Sisko could make you feel like you were getting the bollocking of your life even though he never raised his voice. Kejal stepped forward.

“I’m Odo Kejal,” he said formally, much to Kira’s surprise. “My friend here is Kira Nerys, an artist from Dakhur province. We were running from three Jem’Hadar fighters when we warped into the Denorious belt.”

“I can see why you’d want to stay as far away from those fighters as possible given the lack of weapons your ship has. The question is: why were they chasing you in the first place?”

Kira wondered how much of the truth she should reveal at this stage. After a slight hesitation, she elected to wait until there weren’t eight phasers pointed at her to tell the entire story. “They were chasing us because Kejal is a Founder.”

Sisko’s eyes widened in recognition. So, you’ve had some experience with the Founders, Kira thought. Or at the least heard the Vorta mention them.

“A founder with a Bajoran name. Why would a Founder be running away from the Jem’Hadar?” Sisko asked.

“The Dominion doesn’t take too kindly to defection,” said Kejal coldly. “Founder or not, I am now expendable as far as they’re concerned.”

Sisko turned a sceptical eye to Kira. “And just how did you get involved in all this?”

“Not everyone on Bajor is happy with our… induction into the Dominion, sir. There were several pockets of resistance; I was part of one of them” Stretching the truth a little there, Nerys. “I broke Kejal out of where he was being held in the hopes that he’d be some use to us. We stole a ship and came straight here.” There, that’s close enough to the truth.

“Captain Sisko, sir,” said the transporter chief. “Sensors confirm what they say. Three Jem’Hadar fighters are en route. Trajectory indicates they originated in orbit of Bajor itself.”

“So, you’re telling the truth. You came straight here from Bajor, to do what, exactly? You must have known that things aren’t exactly peaceful out here at the wormhole. We’re one wrong move away from a full-scale war between the Federation and the Dominion, and I’m afraid that you two arriving here might just be that move.”

Sisko was getting frustrated now; he could tell that he didn’t have all the details and was suspicious of their motives—rightfully so. And to top it all off he was undoubtedly worried about his crew besides. A stressed Sisko did not make for a very friendly Sisko.

And what Kira had to say next was likely to make him even less friendly. “We knew what the situation was, sir. We came to request asylum from the Federation.”

Sisko rubbed at his eyes, as though trying to ward off an imminent headache. “That’s a thing I could have done without. I will, of course, give your request the proper care and consideration. Until such time as I have made my decision both of you are to remain on board the Mae Jemison as guests.”

Relief flooded through Kira’s body at the news. All of a sudden she felt sick and dizzy, and her legs went weak and nearly gave way; she swayed so badly that Kejal had to grab hold of her to keep her upright. As the adrenaline drained from her, she was forcibly reminded of every strained muscle and nascent bruise. Her poor abused fingers began to burn and her head pounded furiously; she only now remembered that she probably had a broken nose. It suddenly occurred to her that she had no idea when she had last eaten, and it became a very real possibility that she might pass out if she had to stand much longer. Sisko observed all this with a steady, even gaze.

“Anders, Xarv,” he said, gesturing to two of the security guards behind him. “Please escort our guests to some suitable quarters, and make sure Kira receives medical attention.” He eyed Kejal suspiciously. “Make sure every nook and cranny is blocked with a forcefield as well, we don’t want our Founder here escaping and causing trouble. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have three warships to persuade to stand down. We’ll talk about your asylum request later.”

He turned smartly on his heel and left the transporter room. The human and Tellarite that Sisko had mentioned stepped forwards and raised their phaser rifles.

“This way please,” said Anders.

Kira didn’t remember much about the journey through the ship, she was far too busy trying to stay upright. Kejal spent most of his time holding her and fretting in a way that would have been adorable if she’d been in a position to appreciate it. She didn’t need his mothering right now, what she needed was a hot shower, some clean clothes and a dermal regenerator. Kira strongly suspected she’d have to make do with high frequency sonic in lieu of real water, but at least she’d be clean.

An Andorian in medical blues was waiting outside the quarters they were being escorted to. Kira assumed this was the promised medic.

“Doctor Thavoshrotia sh’Ivokress,” said the Andorian, extending a hand to help hold Kira up. “But you can call me Tia,” she said with a smile.

Tia helped Kejal guide Kira into the room ad set on the bed. She shooed Anders and Xarv away while she pulled out her medical tricorder and started waving it at Kira. Kejal hovered worriedly in a corner.

“Now let’s see what you’ve been up to,” said Tia. “Hmmm, that nose is definitely broken, and you’ve got a hairline fracture of the zygomatic bone, that’s your cheekbone if you’re not medically inclined. Some minor concussion, a partially perforated eardrum and some thankfully superficial damage to your hands. I bet that hurts like hell though. We’ll have you fixed up in no time and then you can get yourself clean.”

Tia was as good as her word; fixing Kira’s injuries took all of ten minutes. She gave her patient a shot of an analgesic, left instructions for contacting her in case Kira needed anything and then left them alone in their “guest quarters”. Kejal helped Kira into the sonic shower in the quarters tiny bathroom then left her to it. She felt much better once the pain killers kicked in and she’d scrubbed the blood off her, along with several days worth of sweat and grime. She pulled on the plain Starfleet standard issue jumpsuit that had been left out for her and went to explore the replicator options they’d been given. Sadly there were almost no Bajoran recipes on the menu, but she managed to coax a decent stew and some bread out of the replicator. Once she’d finished eating she recycled her dishes, grabbed herself a cup of ginger tea and sat down on the lower bunk. There was nothing they could do now but wait.

Kejal was pacing up and down the tiny room, obviously anxious. No wonder really, Kira had promised to free him and he’d ended right back where he’d started; in captivity. At least now he was in the hands of the Federation and not a potentially sadistic scientist.

“I’m sorry,” Kira mumbled sleepily. “I should have realised Starfleet would confine us to quarters while they decided our fate.”

“It’s alright,” Kejal said softly, coming to sit beside her on the bunk. “I can manage for a few hours. Anyway, it’s worth it for those few days I got to fly through the Dakhur wilderness. Thank you for giving me that.”

“You’re most welcome,” Kira said, yawning. “The Tarkalean hawk was one of Odo’s favourite form as well. Why did you decide to take his name as well?”

Kejal shrugged. “It seemed right somehow. You’ve told me enough about him that I feel like I’m a little bit of both now. I’m certainly trying to live up to your opinion of him.”

“You don’t have to do that, Kejal. You’re wonderful as you are.”

He made a non-committal grunt. “You should get some sleep, Nerys. You look exhausted. I don’t think anyone will be bothering with us for a while yet.”

Kira tried to protest but she was interrupted by another yawn. Kejal looked at her pointedly and she conceded, lying down on the bunk and closing her eyes. She must have fallen asleep because the next thing she knew she was groggily coming to to the realisation that something was purring. Raising her head she saw that she had been curled around a softly snoring kitten.

She smiled and attempted to extract herself without disturbing him. He’d taken to curling up close during the night while they’d been in the caves in Dakhur and she thought it was positively delightful. Kira wasn’t convinced he was actually sleeping but he wasn’t bothering her so she’d allowed it to continue. She couldn’t imagine Odo doing that in the other world, and was determined to enjoy the novelty while she could.

The door chimed and Kira finally realised it was that that had woken her up. She nudged Kejal in his little kitteny ribs and called for whoever was outside to enter. By the time the doors whooshed open Kejal was back in humanoid form looking as if nothing had happened at all.

Doctor Tia had come back to check on her patients’ progress; after waving her tricorder around for a few minutes she declared that Kira would have no lasting damage from her adventures the previous... day? Kira wasn’t actually sure how long she’d slept, and affable as she was, Tia didn’t seem t want to tell her. She bustled off after making sure her patient was fine and two new security guards came in; where Anders and Xarv were, Kira had no idea.

“We’re here to escort you to the bridge,” said one of the guards, a young Bolian wearing Lieutenant’s pips. “Captain Sisko wishes to see you now.”

Kira and Kejal were escorted back through the maze of corridors on the Mae Jemison by the Bolian and his Vulcan colleague. Neither of them were particularly talkative, so the walk was conducted largely in silence. Kira couldn’t help but wish they’d let her have breakfast—or whatever meal was due next—before they’d escorted her from their “quarters”. A rumbling belly would not make for the most pleasant of meetings with her erstwhile superior officer.

They were escorted into the ready room just as Sisko clicked off from a call with Starfleet Command. Whatever had gone on in his previous meeting, he didn’t look happy about it. It didn’t look like he’d slept in the last… however long it had been since they arrived on board; Sisko’s cheeks were covered in rough stubble and there were bags under his eyes.

“I hope both of you have rested well while I’ve been sorting out the problems you left behind you on Bajor. I’ve managed to get the Jem’Hadar off your backs for now, but your request for asylum has made things even more tense out here. Half of Command would like nothing more than for me to throw you to the wolves and be done with you, and the other half want me to see if I can make the most of having a Founder on our side. I’d like to hear your side of the story before I do anything. Sit.”

Kira and Kejal did as they were told, both perching rigidly on the the edge of one of the seats in front of the Captain’s desk.

“What do you want to know?” Kira asked tentatively when it became clear Sisko wasn’t going to ask any probing questions.

He leaned forwards and pressed his fingertips together. “You didn’t tell me the whole truth, back in the transporter room, did you?” The two fugitives shared a guilty look. “I thought not. Your Founder friend here wasn’t being held captive because he’s a dissident, was he? He was a science experiment! The Dominion had no idea that there was a Founder on Bajor until you two showed up at the Jolanda space port.”

“No, they didn’t,” said Kejal, his voice a cold as one of Andor’s moons. “And I didn’t know anything about the Dominion except that they didn’t come to Bajor to retrieve me. However I came to be separated from my people they obviously don’t care about me. They annexed an entire planet and butchered thousands of people for their own purposes and I want nothing to do with them.”

Both Sisko and Kira were taken aback by his vehemence. SIsko recovered quickly but Kira continued to look at her friend with pride in her eyes; he had come so far in just the short time she had known him. She hadn’t known him before, when he was in captivity, but she suspected he had benefited greatly from being a little more like Odo. And Kira also suspected that when, if, she ever got home, Odo would benefit from being a little more like Kejal.

“Which leads me to ask, if you weren’t seeking the Federation’s protection against the Dominion, why the hell would you warp into the Denorious belt and then stop? If you were running from the Jem’Hadar there are a million places you could have gone that would be better, even within that shuttle’s limited range. Why didn’t you head to Cardassia, or hide in the Badlands? Why here?”

“That’s where things start to get a little complicated,” said Kira. “We came out to the wormhole looking for you, sir.”

Sisko’s eyebrows shot upwards in surprise. “Me? Why? I had never met either of you before you materialised on my transporter pad. Wouldn’t any Starfleet Captain have done if it was refuge you were seeking?”

“No, sir. It had to be you.”

Kira went quiet for a moment then, considering very carefully what she wanted to say next. This was the crux of it; the reason she had broken Kejal out of the Science Institute. It was all to get herself out here, to where Deep Space Nine should be, to find her captain and her friend and find a way to stop the Dominion and get back home. She’d been so sure that Benjamin and Jadzia would be willing to help her, Kira had never stopped to formulate a plan B in case they didn’t.

“It had to be you, sir, because in another lifetime in another, I guess you could say parallel universe, you’re my commanding officer. You see, I don’t belong here, not really…”

“Another universe?” Sisko rubbed the stubble on his chin. “I should have read the reports on James Kirk’s visit to the other universe more carefully. Are you saying you have a counterpart here? That there’s another Kira Nerys running around somewhere and you’re trying to get home?”

“No sir.” Kira’s throat went dry as she though of the Intendant, and she was very glad the notion that she might be running around in this world hadn’t occurred to her until now. “This is a slightly different case. You see… there was an accident, and I changed the time line and I ended up here.”

Captain Sisko looked like he was about to have an aneurysm. He got up from his chair and went to the replicator for an extra strong raktajino. It was only after he had taken his first sip that he spoke again. “I think you’d better start from the beginning.”

So she did. Kira told Sisko much the same story she’d told Kejal, and he helpfully chimed in with anything she’d forgotten. Wormhole, accident, request to change the time line—everything.

When she was done Sisko blew out a breath of astonishment. “You’re telling me that your Prophets—the non-corporeal beings that live in the wormhole—you’re telling me they’re powerful enough to put the entire universe back together based on the memories of a single person.”

“Yes sir, that’s what happened.”

“That’s a lot to take in,” he said. “I’m not saying I don’t believe you. Hell, I’ve seen some damn strange things in my career. But what you’re saying is that these Bajoran gods have the ability to remake time and space. And that the only person who is capable of communicating with these beings, and having them listen, is now under the Dominion’s control. That sounds like a whole lot of not good for the Federation. We didn’t sign on to deal with such a powerful enemy.”

As he spoke the cadence of his words became more and more irregular, and Kira knew that Sisko was getting well and truly rattled.

“That’s why I needed to find you Captain. See, in my universe you’re the Emissary of the Prophets. If I can remember the other world then they must be able to as well, and you might be able to talk some sense into them.”

“Me? I’m the Emissary? What the hell was I doing out here in Bajoran space four years ago?”

“I told you sir, supervising the Cardassian withdrawal.”

“Ah yes. The Cardassian Occupation. The whole reason we are apparently in this mess.”

Sisko looked frustrated and Kira could see why. Everything she said was plausible, especially to someone who had been in Starfleet for early twenty years. The problem was she had no evidence. That’s why she needed to get him into the wormhole, to talk to the Prophets in person and let them convince him. And in the process maybe Sisko could convince the Prophets to fix things with the Dominion.

Kejal placed a hand on hers reassuringly. Kira started at the contact; she hadn’t realised that she’d been getting so wound up herself. She took a moment to do a few breathing exercises to slow her pulse.

“Captain Sisko is, I don’t need you to believe everything I’ve said. But will you please come with me into the Celestial Temple, talk to the Prophets yourself. See if that doesn’t convince you.”

Sisko rubbed at his eyes. “I will consider doing as you’ve asked. For now I can grant you the asylum that you requested. Who knows, having a Founder on our side might well serve to diffuse things with the Dominion a little.” Just then the comm beeped. “Sisko here, I’m in a meeting.”

I know you didn’t want to be disturbed, sir, said the voice on the other end. But I really think you need to see this.

Benjamin gestured for Kira and Kejal to follow him out on to the bridge, where a Bajoran news feed was showing current events in the capital. Kira looked at it mute with horror.

There was carnage everywhere; buildings half destroyed and on fire. People were everywhere in the streets; bleeding and screaming and dying. What on earth is going on? Kira thought. Some kind of natural disaster? But we haven’t had earthquakes in Ashalla for centuries. The camera shook as fire rained down from the sky, and Kira’s entire body went numb as she realised what was happening.

The Dominion had started shelling Bajoran cities.

“We picked up a planet wide transmission,” said the Ensign who had interrupted their meeting. “It seems the Dominion decided to make an example of Bajor after finding out they’d been keeping a Founder captive.”

Prophets, thought Kira, tears flowing down her face. This is all my fault.

“Casualty reports?” asked Sisko, his voice grave.

“We have very little information as of yet sit,” said the Ensign. “But unofficial estimates say the death toll may be in the millions already.”

All rationality fled; Kira started screaming. She started clawing at the air, desperate to do something to help those poor people down on the planet. Kejal tried to hold her back, but she fought him violently.

“Someone get those two out of here,” yelled Sisko.

Several mustard uniforms converged on Kira, one of them putting her into a choke hold. She continued to fight with everything she had, screaming until her voice gave way. Kejal kept yelling her name, calling out to her in an attempt to calm her down.

“Get her sedated for pity’s sake!” someone yelled.

Kira felt a sharp prick in her neck, and the hiss of a hypospray. Everything went dark.

Chapter Text

When Kira finally came to, however many hours later, she was back on the bunk in her enforced quarters. Her head felt like it had been turned inside out and her mouth was dry and claggy. She tried to sit up.

“Steady there,” said Kejal, rushing to give her a hand. “Doctor Tia said you would still be groggy when you woke up. She gave you some more sedative not long ago, just to keep you calm. How are you feeling?” He pressed a glass of cool water into her hand and she drank greedily.

“Tell me it was a dream,” she said desperately. “Tell me I’m not responsible for an attempted genocide on my people?”

“I wish I could tell you it was all a dream,” he said sadly. “But you’re not responsible for what is happening on Bajor. The only people who are to blame for that are the Dominion.” Kejal spat the name like it was a curse.

Kira wished she could believe him. The urge to scream and claw her way off the ship had been dampened by whatever was rushing around her bloodstream, but there wasn’t a drug in the universe that could deal with the guilt.

“How bad is it?”

A strange look passed over Kejal’s face. “Not good,” he said, which was almost certainly an understatement. “The Federation have done what they can to intervene, but they’re now outnumbered two to one out here in the Denorious belt. I hear reinforcements are on the way, but they might not arrive in time to help Bajor.”

She blinked back tears. “We have to do something,” she whispered fiercely. “I can’t just sit here while my people, my family are slaughtered.”

“What do you suggest we do?” asked Kejal angrily. Obviously he resented being cooped up just as much as she did. “Sisko didn’t want to help us before, and he’s far too busy now. We have no ship, no plan and we’re stuck in here so please tell me what we could possibly do to help?”

A strange cold feeling settled over Kira as she realised exactly what she had to do. It was almost funny, she’d known all along that this was how it would have to end, but she’d tried to bury the thought. While there might have been a way for her to get rid of the Dominion and still save her family she’d clung on to that. Now that chance had been taken away, and there was only one road left open to her.

“I have to fix it,” he said hoarsely. “I have to fix what I broke. I thought I was helping my people by making sure the Cardassians never came to Bajor, but the alternative is even worse. I have to get back to my universe, where I belong.”

“But that means…”

Kira nodded. “It does.”

Kejal swore. “And where does that leave us–me?” He covered his slip quickly, and Kira elected not to say anything. “What about me, and everyone else who has had a better life in this universe? Don’t we get a say in this?”

“What about all the people who have had worse lives because of my decision? Miles and Julian, all those Bajorans lying dead on Bajor? Shouldn’t they have a say too?” Kejal had no answer, he just looked at her sullenly. “I should never have presumed to meddle. It wasn’t my place. And what are a few changed lives if I can prevent this… this.. this atrocity?”

Kejal came to sit by her on the bunk. “I can see that there’s no changing your mind on this. Okay, I’ll help if I can, but we still need to work out how. We’re still stuck in our ‘guest quarters’ and I don’t think Starfleet is going to help us.”

Kira sat for a moment, deep in thought. “Dax might,” she said at last.

“Who?”

“Dax… Jadzia. She’s Jadzia Idaris in this universe. She’s a science officer on the Mae Jemison. We might be able to get her to help us. We still need to get out of this room though.”

Kejal stood up and started thinking and pacing, his hands held stiffly behind his back. For a minute he looked so much like Odo that Kira’s chest hurt. Giving up her friendship with Kejal would be one of the hardest things she’d ever done, but it was the right thing to do. She had to fix the mistake she’d made.

“We could jump the guards the next time they come to check on us,” he said at last.

Kira shook her head. “Too risky. Someone would end up sounding the red alert and that would be the end of that. Besides, we could be waiting a long time.”

Kejal growled deep in his throat. “I can’t even shape-shift my way out. Sisko had every crack in the bulkhead sealed up with a forcefield.”

“Did he manage to get every crack though?” asked Kira. “Have you actually checked to see if he left any way out for you?”

Kejal looked sheepish. “I haven’t, actually. I was working under the assumption that Sisko’s people are good at their jobs and would have gotten every possible escape route. I can check though.”

It took the better part of what felt like an hour—Kira had lost all sense of time at this point and no matter how many times she asked the computer refused to tell her the time. Neither would the replicator let her replicate any form of time piece. It felt like an hour, but it could have been an age for Kira knew, before Kejal finally found the way out. It was nothing, a tiny little stress fracture in the bulkhead, but it was enough for a canny shape-shifter to get though. And more importantly, it wasn’t covered by the network of forcefields surrounding the room.

“Okay, we found our way out.” He sounded elated that his natural abilities would be instrumental in any escape attempt. “What’s the plan for getting you out of here? Somehow I don’t think you’ll get out the same way as me.”

“Keep your head down when you’re in the corridors. Everyone’s on high alert as it is, we don’t want to make them suspicious. Can you replicate one of their uniforms?”

“I think so,” said Kejal, trying it out just in case. It took a few tries to iron out all the small details, but in the end he managed it.

“Okay then. See if you can get hold of a uniform for me and then draw the security guards away from the door.”

“What about the access code?”

“See if you can get it off them. If not you’ll have to find some surreptitious way to break the lock. Once I’m out we’ll go find Jadzia.”

Any more planning than that and things were bound to go wrong. They shared a brief hug before they parted. Kejal had to work his way through carefully, and it was slow going, but eventually he managed to escape into the Jeffries tubes. After that Kira had nothing to do but wait for Kejal to let her out. This was why she preferred being the active part of any plan.

Eventually the door opened and in stepped a human in a security uniform. The blue eyes gave him away as Kejal.

“You took your time,” Kira grumble good naturedly. “What did you do with the guards?”

“I managed to distract them with a little ventriloquism. They’re now sleeping softly in a nearby storage rack. Shall we?”

He threw Kira matching uniform which she hastily put on before making her way out into the corridor. Stage one of the plan was complete, now they needed to locate their target.

“Computer, current location of Lieutenant Dax?”

There is no Lieutenant Dax listed on the crew roster intoned the computer in reply.

“Kosst, I almost forgot. Location of Jadzia, Jadzia Idaris,” asked Kira, hoping she was pronouncing it correctly.

Lieutenant Idaris is in the science lab on B deck.

“Can you show us how to get there?” asked Kejal. The computerised voice didn’t reply, but a nearby panel lit up with an arrow.

Every corner they turned tested their nerves to their absolute limit; both Kira and Kejal were convinced that they would be discovered at any moment and dragged to the brig. Kejal had liberated the two guards of their side-arms and had handed them both off to Kira, not wanting to handle the weapons himself Kira had to resist the urge to go round every corner phaser first. they managed to get to the correct deck without being discovered; as organised and meticulous as Starfleet were, everyone was evidently too busy dealing with the Dominion to sweep the corridors.

At last they reached the science lab and Kira paused at the door; by this point there was a fifty-fifty chance that this encounter would go as she wanted, and she really wasn’t a fan of those odds.

“Computer” said Kira quietly. “Is there anyone in the science lab with Lieutenant Idaris?”

Lieutenant Idaris is the only occupant of the science lab.

“At least that means we don’t have to knock anyone out,” whispered Kejal.

They entered together, needlessly cautious. Jadzia had her back to the door, and was currently engrossed in… whatever it was she was doing. Kira had never been one for the sciences unless it was useful for making things exploded, and whatever Jadzia was currently working on was rather more sticky than anything else.

Kira cleared her throat. “Lieutenant Idaris,” she said tentatively.

Jadzia nearly jumped out of her skin. “Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t hear you come in, I was too engrossed in my experiment. What can I do for you you er…” Jadzia glanced desperately at Kira’s collar, trying to figure out how best to address her.

Kira hadn’t bothered to check what rank pips were on her uniform, and it was largely beside the point anyway. “My name is Kira, and I’m not in Starfleet, actually. I just borrowed the uniform.”

Jadzia’s eyes widened. “Kira? The Bajoran that Captain Sisko granted asylum to?” She turned to Kejal. “Then that means you must be the shape shifter that came with her?” She could barely contain her excitement at first, but then she seemed to realise she was being rude and toned it back a little. “Nice to meet you…”

“Kejal.”

“Nice to meet you Kejal,” said Jadzia. Then she frowned. “Shouldn’t the two of you be in—what did the Captain call it?—protective custody? I should probably call security.” She didn’t seem all that inclined to make that call, but Kira couldn’t take any chances.

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t,” said Kira. She allowed Jadzia to see the phaser at her side and then gestured for her comm badge, which the Trill handed over silently. “I really don’t want to threaten you. I just want to talk.”

“Why do you want to talk to me?” asked Jadzia, completely nonplussed. “I’m just a science officer. Not particularly well-known, clever or high-ranking. What could you possibly want with me?”

Kira paused. This was the moment she had grown to dread; when she told people the truth they would either believe her or run away screaming. Dax was pretty much their only chance of getting out to the wormhole now, and she couldn’t screw this up.

“How much did Captain Sisko tell you about why Kejal and I are here?”

“Me? Nothing. Why would he anyway? I’ve been on this ship almost a year and I think I’ve spoken to the Captain once, when he welcomed me on board. He wouldn’t tell me anything about high profile prisoners–I mean guests.”

Kira ignored the slip; her heart ached for her friend, and the loss of her relationship with Benjamin Sisko. Yet another stain on her guilty pagh.

“Because where I come from, Benjamin Sisko tells you everything,” said Kira.

“Where you come from? Oh, are you from some sort of parallel dimension? I’ve always wanted to meet someone from one of those.” Jadzia had to dampen her enthusiasm again. “In what dimension am I such good friends with Captain Sisko?”

“The one I’m from,” said Kira. “The one I need your help to get back to.”

Jadzia’s face crumpled; she seemed torn between her curiosity about Kira and Kejal and her desire to do her duty. “I shouldn’t,” she said, sounding absolutely heartbroken. “What I really should do is call for security, get you two back into your quarters where you can’t cause any more trouble.” She reached to snatch her comm badge back, but Kira handed it to Kejal, who swallowed it.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,” said Kira, resisting the urge to pull a weapon on her friend. “I need to convince you to help me. Aren’t you at least a little bit curious about what you’re like where I come from?”

Jadzia looked flustered, and more annoyed than anything else. “Oh, fine. What am I like in this parallel universe you’re from?”

Kira smiled, thinking about Dax… her Jadzia. Beautiful vibrant Jadzia who had pulled her out of her angry cocoon and stomped on it so she couldn’t go back. Jadzia Dax who had taught her how to smile and laugh again, and had gotten her into more trouble than she liked to think about. Jadzia who knows more about more things that Kira could ever dream of, who could rattle off numbers and technobabble like she was born to it? How does one sum up such a person?

“Jadzia is my friend. One of my very best friends in the world,” Kira said, unable to suppress her grin. “That’s why I came to you, why I need your help. Because somewhere deep inside you is the friend I miss.”

Lieutenant Idaris looked taken aback. Whatever she’d thought Kira might say, it evidently hadn’t been that. She recovered quickly though. “Tell me how I became friends with a trouble making Bajoran.”

Kira was used to this by now. She reeled off the pertinent information in just a few minutes. It was enough to get Jadzia’s attention though. She seemed fascinated by this other version of her, all the similarities and subtle differences. She kept asking questions, which led Kira on to telling some of her favourite stories about her friend.

“She sounds like an amazing person, your Jadzia,” said the Lieutenant wistfully.

“Dax is amazing. Occasionally irritating, but somehow I always end up forgiving her.”

“Dax?” said Jadzia, her brown furrowing in concentration. “But that’s a symbiont name. The Jadzia in your universe, she’s joined?”

“She is, and I’m told she’s an excellent addition to the Dax line of trouble makers. That’s how she became friends with Benjamin Sisko. The previous host, Curzon Dax, was a good friend of his.”

Jadzia reacted almost physically when Kira said Curzon’s name. “I’m told they’re good friends in this world too. I don’t know what the Captain sees in him. He’s a drunk and a troublemaker with too much of a taste for Klingon bloodwine. He had me thrown out of the joining program you know?” Kira did know, but Jadzia was building up a good head of anger and she didn’t want to interrupt. “All I’d ever wanted was to be joined, and he took my dream away from me. Said I wasn’t good enough–”

She faltered there, and Kira got the distinct impression she was fighting back tears. Kira put a reassuring hand on the other woman’s arm.

“The same thing happened to my Jadzia.”

“But… you said she was joined to the Dax symbiont?”

Kira nodded. “She reapplied. The Jadzia in my universe became the first person in Trill history to be re-accepted after being washed out of the program.”

“What?” Lieutenant Idaris looked astonished.

“They told her she wasn’t good enough, and she disagreed. She fought them on it and in the end she won. She was re-accepted and ended up with the Dax symbiont to boot. And that was all her—all you. Dax wrestled with some of the same demons I see you dealing with, but her greatest achievement happened when she was still Jadzia Idaris. That’s why I know you can help me.”

Jadzia sniffed and wiped at her face with her hand. “What do you want me to do?”

Kira and Kejal shared a triumphant look; this was the first time in a while that things had gone more or less according to plan.

“We need to get out the wormhole,” said Kejal. “Can you get us access to a shuttle?”

“My clearance level isn’t very high, but I do have access to the shuttle bays for prepping shuttles for science missions. I can get you into the bays, but getting out again is your problem. And there’s not much I can do about the Dominion armada between here and the wormhole.”

“Don’t worry about that,” said Kejal. “We have a few tricks left in us yet.”

Kira grasped Jadzia’s arm and looked at her earnestly. “Okay, in order to get back to my own universe I need to be able to recreate the accident that got me here in the first place. Can you do that?”

“Describe it to me.”

Kira didn’t remember too many details about the original accident, but she relayed what she remembered of the console readouts.

“Wait, wait, wait,” said Jadzia. “You’re telling me you want to detonate your warp core while you’re in the wormhole. But that will kill you!”

“Yes,” Kira said, her face grim. Kejal looked as though he had been trying not to think about that particular side effect. “And it will collapse the wormhole as well, cutting the Dominion off from their reinforcements and allowing the Federation to push them off Bajor. You won’t have to worry about invasion from the Gamma Quadrant for decades, if not centuries. The Alpha Quadrant will time to prepare.”

Jadzia was wide-eyed with shock. “You’ve thought this through haven’t you?”

“I’ve thought of almost nothing else since the Dominion landed on my planet and started killing my people. I didn’t want to have to destroy the Celestial Temple, but after they started carpet bombing Bajor’s cities, what other choice did I have? Can you rig up the warp core to blow on my signal?”

“Well… yes,” said Jadzia. “But what about the wormhole? There’s so much we have yet to learn–”

“None of that matters Dax!” Kira shouted angrily. “What the hell does your science matter when my people are being wiped out? Do you think the Dominion will stop with Bajor? When they’re done wiping us out they’ll move onto Cardassia, and Romulus and the Federation. They won’t stop until the Alpha Quadrant is under their control. As long as the route to the Gamma Quadrant remains open they are a threat and I will not stand for it!”

Both Jadzia and Kejal looked completely in awe of Kira then; neither of them had seen her in full rage.

“My name isn’t Dax,” said Jadzia quietly.

“I know,” said Kira, breathing heavily as she came down from her high temper. “But you look so much like her it’s sometime hard to remember. Prophets I miss her. I miss them all; even Julian.” Tears were running freely down her face. “Don’t you understand? This is all my fault. Because of me Miles is dead, Julian is in prison and you were never joined. I wanted to make things better; I thought it would be better if the Occupation never happened. But things turned out to be so much worse and now I have to put things right, even if it means losing my family. I need to fix things, make them how they were and I need you to help me do that.”

Kejal came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders; she leaned into him, drawing comfort from his presence as she fought to control her sobs.

“Will you help us?” he asked softly.

Jadzia opened her mouth to reply but before she could say anything, the red alert sounded.

Chapter Text

Benjamin Sisko’s dulcet tones cut across the blare of the red alert siren. All hands to battle stations. The Dominion fleet has moved to attack the flagship. We are engaging the enemy. I repeat—all hands to battle stations.

Jadzia froze, torn between the orders she had just been given and what Kira was asking of her. Kira dried her remaining tears, buoyed by the adrenaline that was a natural reaction to a red alert. She gave Jadzia a plaintive look.

“We still need your help,” she shouted over the siren.

“But what about my orders?”

“Listen to me Dax… Jadzia, those orders are suicide and you know it. The Dominion has you outnumbered in the Denorious belt and as long as the wormhole remains open their reinforcements can get here much quicker than yours. We have to get to a shuttle, its our only chance.”

She looked torn for a moment longer, the red lights briefly illuminating the frustration on her face before dimming again. Sisko repeated his orders for all hands to get to battle stations, and that seemed to sway her.

“Ok, I’ll do it!”

There was no time to revel in this small victory; they had to get to the shuttle bay as quickly as possible. The corridors were full of bustling Starfleet personnel, but thankfully they were mostly too busy trying to get to their stations to even look at anyone else. They managed to get down three levels before anyone even noticed they were there.

The first ensign who ran past simply nodded to Jadzia in greeting before continuing on his way. The non-com behind him, however, stopped in her tracks and turned to look at them.

“Hey, aren’t you–” she managed to get out before Odo flung out an extended appendage and knocked her out.

They didn't even have time to drag her unconscious form somewhere less conspicuous; they simply continued running down the corridor. The three of them barrelled round a corner and right into a squad of security staff. Kira didn’t hesitate; every single one of them would have been briefed about her and Kejal, and may even know about their escape. They were a threat to her objective that she couldn’t tolerate. Her phaser was out in a flash and the first one down before they had time to react. She’d shot the second and Kejal took down the third before they could even touch their own weapons. Jadzia apologised before throwing a punch at the last one that would have made a Klingon proud.

After that Kejal took to the ceiling as some sort of large lizard thing and scouted ahead, clearing a path for the two women. Occasionally they heard muffled thumps over the siren and would come across unconscious bodies shortly afterwards. He really was very efficient at point.

They made it to the shuttle bay with few problems, only to find that it was completely locked down due to the alert.

“My security clearance isn’t high enough,” said Jadzia desperately. “What do we do now?”

“Leave it to me,” said Kejal. He dissolved into a gelatinous golden fluid and squeezed through the gaps in the metal around the door lock.

“Is that what he looks like in his native state?” asked Jadzia, unable to contain her scientific curiosity.

“Focus!” Kira hissed. “We need to keep lookout while Kejal picks the lock.”

Jadzia forced herself to concentrate. Just time time as two ensigns in security uniforms came jogging around the corner.

“Lieutenant Idaris,” said the first, a young human male with a handsome face and dark brown eyes. “What are you doing out here?”

“Oh I just need to get into the shuttle bay to sort a few things out,” said Jadzia, trying for nonchalance and failing utterly.

“In the middle of a red alert?”

“Mmmhmm.”

“And who is your companion?” asked the other, a Vulcan female with even sharper than usual eyebrows.

“This is, er, Lieutenant, um, Arik. She’s new, but I need her to help me with er, the thing I’m doing.”

The two security officers shared a look; they clearly didn’t believe her. They reached for their phasers but Kira reacted before either of them got their holster undone. She punched the human squarely in the nose, almost certainly breaking it. He staggered back, dazed and she finished him off with a two hander to the back of the neck. The Vulcan was distracted with trying to wrestle Jadzia to the ground—and she was succeeding too—so Kira pulled out her phaser and stunned her. She fell to the ground in a undignified heap.

“You are such a terrible liar Dax!” said Kira, her chest heaving with exertion.

“They put me on the spot!” retorted Jadzia. She sounded annoyed but she was grinning. The brief fight seemed to have gotten her blood pumping and roused her spirit.

Behind them, the door to the shuttle bay opened with a soft noise and Kejal reappeared. He eyed the two unconscious Starfleet officers with an amused look on his face, but said nothing. They entered the shuttle bay and made for the nearest craft. As they approached their chosen shuttle the ship rocked with an impact hard enough to knock them off their feet.

“Looks like we’re on the front lines,” said Jadzia, her face grim.

“Better do this quick then.”

Soon enough, Jadzia was elbow deep in wiring and isolinear chips, rigging up a crude system that would let Kira detonate her warp core on demand. It wasn’t pretty, but it would be effective. In the meantime, Kejal sat down in the co-pilot’s seat and began running through the pre-flight checks.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Kira asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” he said haughtily, with just a touch of petulance. “I’m coming with you.”

“Oh no you’re not. You’re staying here with Jadzia, where it's safer.”

“A Federation starship in the middle of a battle is hardly safe.” The ship rocked again, as if to prove his point.

“I said safer, not safe. You know the plan, Kejal. I’m flying this shuttle into a spatial anomaly and blowing my warp core and I have no idea if it’ll achieve what I want. You could still have a life here when all this is over. Possible death on a starship is better than certain death in the wormhole; I want you to take those odds.”

Kejal turned in his chair and laid a hand softly on hers. “I promised I’d help you, and I will keep my word. I’ve made it this far in one piece, and I want to see it through to the end. I’m coming with you.”

Kira looked at him, her eyes brimming with tears. She had so much she wanted to say to him, but couldn’t find the words. Behind them Jadzia cleared her throat.

“Sorry if I’m interrupting your moment, but the warp core is rigged and ready to go.”

The Mae Jamison rocked with another impact, this one hard enough to make the lights and artificial gravity flicker. The shuttle rose a few inches off the floor and then crashed back down, knocking all three of them off their feet.

“I think that’s my cue to leave,” said Jadzia, looking nervous. “Good luck.” She shared a brief hug with both of them before hurrying out of the shuttle. Kira gave Kejal a look.

“I’m not staying behind,” he said stubbornly. He turned his chair back around and continued with the pre-flight checks. Annoyed and exasperated, Kira took her seat and began to help him.

“Internal shuttle bay doors closed and sealed. We are ready for launch,” Kira said.

“How are we planning on getting out of the external doors?”

Kira grinned at him. “The old fashioned way,” she said, powering up the weapons. She powered up the thrusters and gently lifted them off the ground before firing weapons. The photon torpedo took out a good portion of the shuttle bay doors and Kira quickly manoeuvred the shuttle out into space before the emergency forcefields could activate.

The boundary between artificial gravity and the microgravity of space was always an interesting experience, but that wasn’t what took Kira’s breath away.

Space was roiling.

Ships rushed here and there, bursting with gouts of phaser fire that criss crossed against the black. Everywhere there seemed to be an explosion, or dust or debris or organic looking parts. The sight before them seemed even more eerie in its silence.

“Prophets,” breathed Kira, momentarily frozen at the controls. “How am I going to navigate though this?” The normally empty vacuum of space seemed thick somehow, and the short distance they had flown so far had been like wading through soup.

“Nearest Jem’Hadar warship has locked its weapons on to us,” Kejal said, utterly calm and collected in the face of this madness. “No going back now.”

“Running evasive manoeuvres.”

Kira started forward, barely missing a brace of torpedoes that had been fired their way. It took her a moment to orient herself in the maelstrom and work out where the wormhole was in relation to their current position. Sensors finally locked on to the elevated neutrino count that signalled the wormhole’s position, and Kira accelerated towards it, skirting around a large chunk of what had recently been a ship and a pair of Jem’Hadar chasing down an Intrepid class vessel.

“Any signs of pursuit from Sisko?” asked Kira.

“I can’t even find the Mae Jamison in all this mess,” Kejal replied, frustrated. “Finding us is going to be nearly impossible.”

They picked up another tail, this time one of the larger Dominion cruisers. Kira sent a few volleys of photon torpedoes at them, but they barely dented their shields. She avoided their first few rounds of fire, but they took the third directly to the starboard nacelle. Most of the consoles exploded in a shower of sparks, forcing Kira to throw herself to the floor. The lights went off a moment, juddered and finally came back on. Somewhere, something unpleasant smelling was venting into the cabin.

Kira dragged herself back onto her seat. “They completely took out our starboard nacelle and we’re venting coolant into the cabin,” she yelled over the rushing of the expanding gases. She coughed, the coolant already damaging her throat and lung. “Photon torpedoes are offline and the shields are down to twenty two percent. We can’t take another hit like that!”

The shuttle lurched violently to the left as Kira desperately avoided a second volley; despite her best efforts the cruiser hit their mark. A bolt of phaser fire glanced off their shields, exploding more consoles and taking the last of their shields with it.

“Shields are gone,” Kira yelled to Kejal.

“Re-routing emergency power, but I can only get them back up to ten percent. Can you shake them off?”

“I’m trying!”

Kira wrestled desperately with the controls, trying to coax more speed out of their already strained impulse engines. Kejal managed to stop the escape of coolant, so at least she could breathe more freely. Her heart, however, hammered in her chest, marking every second she was sure they would be blown to smithereens.

“They’re powering their forward weapons array,” Kejal said.

Kira banked hard to port, hoping desperately that somehow their enemy would miss. The Prophets were with them that day; a volley of fire from behind had taken out the Dominion ship’s nacelle, sending them into a rapid spin. Kejal pushed the weapons systems a little harder and managed to fire off one more round of photon torpedoes. The Dominion ship behind them went up in flames, and Kira let out a brief whoop of victory. She was a little premature, however; the shock wave from the resultant explosion hit them full force, stripping away what was left of their shields. Emergency warning lights popped up all over the console, and Kira’s heart fell.

“We’re not going to make it,” she said sadly, as her plans for redemption seemed to evaporate in front of her.

“Not if I can help it,” Kejal said, setting his jaw determinedly. “Transport me outside the ship.”

“What!” Kira exclaimed, torn between the twin tasks of shouting at Kejal and trying not to get them killed. “Can you even survive in the vacuum?”

“That’s how they found me, Nerys. A golden blob floating in the cold emptiness.” He stood up and went over to the transporter pad. “Now transport me!”

“What the kosst do you think you can do, besides get yourself killed?”

“I don’t know, but I have to try. You have to get through. Nerys,” he said, softly, and she turned to look at him. Around them the battle seemed to slow. “Please let me do this. Let me give you a chance.”

His quiet earnestness and willingness to sacrifice himself stabbed at her conscience. What had she done to deserve such a good friend? In any universe, this was one shape shifter she didn’t deserve. Tears stung her eyes as she steeled herself to say goodbye.

“I can’t talk you out of it, can I?” Kejal shook his head. Even though it her heart was breaking, she rerouted enough emergency power to ensure the transport would put her friend a few meters off the shuttle’s port bow. “Okay, the transporter is good to go. Whenever you’re ready.”

Words unsaid hung between them, and now that it had come to it they found that neither of them knew quite how to say goodbye.

“The other Odo, the one in the world you’re trying to get back to,” said Kejal, his voice gruffer and deeper than usual. “Is there any chance you and he are more than friends?”

Kira shook her head. “Odo’s a good man, but he’s never seemed interested in that sort of thing.”

Kejal gave an odd, crooked smile. “He’s a fool then. Any man would be a fool if they didn’t notice you.” His smile took on a sad, bitter-sweet quality, and he shook his head gently. “Okay Nerys, I’m ready. Energise.”

Kira closed her eyes in a futile attempt to hold back the tears brought on by their parting and the strange half admission. She pressed the button to activate the transporter protocol and turned back to watch as her friend dematerialised. It seemed like the last thing she could see of him was his eyes, and the look in them would haunt her forever.

After Kejal had disappeared, Kira was pulled back to full awareness by the beeping of the proximity alarm; the shuttle was coming up fast on some large chunks of debris and she had to act fast to avoid the. She held her breath as her hull just scraped the underside of one of the chunks of metal and then bolted for the wormhole.

As she approached the wormhole's co-ordinates she counted down inside her head the seconds until it would open. Three, two, one.. And there it was, its whorl of blue pleasingly familiar to Kira’s eyes. Here she was at last, her long-fought destination, the Celestial Temple of the Prophets and the only possible way back to the universe she had so foolishly cast aside. The last time she had seen this sight had been just before her warp core exploded and set her on this path. Despite this, seeing the wormhole in all its glory, Kira found herself feeling hopeful, for what felt like the first time in days. She altered her course to take the shuttle in.

Before she entered the aperture, the sensors bleated at her, a warning that something was very wrong. She checked them quickly; an enemy fighter had noticed her and was on what could only be described as a suicide run to stop her. Collision was imminent. Panic flared in her chest; the shuttle wasn’t deep enough into the wormhole. If her warp core detonated now it wouldn’t set up the chain reaction their entire plan relied on. She desperately tried to avoid a collision, but the Jem’Hadar were too close—there simply wasn’t enough time.

The underside of the Dominion warship tore through the shuttle’s upper hull. Kira was thrown forwards into the console by the impact. She couldn’t make herself get up, she was too stunned and winded to move. For a terrifyingly hair raising moment it felt like she was going to be blown out into space, but then the emergency bulkheads activated. The inexorable pull towards vaccuum ceased and she hit the floor with a thump.

With the internal pressure stabilised debris fell from the ceiling instead of being blown out into space. Kira was forced to take cover as one of the main structural supports came crashing down and she was showered in shards of hot, sharp metal. Blood welled up from a dozen cuts of varying severity, and her stomach cramped with the pain of being thrown into the console; she hoped there wasn’t any internal bleeding. Wires were sparking all over the place and there was an acrid smoke filling the cabin, causing Kira to cough violently; something, somewhere was one fire, and the coolant leak that Kejal had sealed had started up again.

The shuttle was done fore, and Kira wasn’t in much better shape. With what was left of her strength she dragged herself up to look at the broken console. All she needed to know now were two things; was she far enough into the wormhole and was the warp core still operational?

A quick look through the transparent aluminium view screen revealed the familiar blues and purples of the wormhole’s interior passage; the warship that had hit her was nowhere in sight. It took rather more effort to coax any information of the shuttle’s flickering computer consoles, but Kira managed to confirm that the warp core was still on line. Thankfully, so was Dax’s jury-rigged detonator.

It was time.

She programmed in the sequence of command that Jadzia had shown her—impaired slightly by the rapidly non-functional console—and moved to activated the sequence. Kira paused with her hand hovering over the keypad, suddenly uncertain of her choice. What if this didn’t work? If the conditions of the accident were even slightly off, would they still achieve the desired effect?

Kira steeled herself, doubling down on her determination. Even if she didn’t manage to get back to her own universe, this was this the right choice to make. She could still collapse the wormhole and prevent the Dominion from bring in reinforcements. Her life was a small price to pay if it saved the Federation and what was left of her people. She took a few deep, meditative breaths and screwed up her courage.

She pressed the button.

Ten seconds to warp core breach, intoned the computer.

Seven.

Six.

Kira braced herself in a corner and closed her eyes.

Three.

Two.

One.

***

When Kira opened her eyes again, everything was white light. There was a loud rushing noise, and her pulse was pounding in her ears. She had been here before.

I did it! she thought triumphantly, before sobering a little. A lot of people had died because of her; she wasn’t here to gloat, she was here to right a wrong decision.

She blinked, and once more she was in her quarters on Deep Space Nine, the walls shimmering slightly with their unreality. Her heart ached; it had been a lifetime, and yet no time at all since she’d last seen these rooms. When was it exactly that a Cardassian ore processing station built by Bajoran slave labour had become the place where she truly belonged?

“You wish to return here? To this version of your linear timeline?” asked the not-Sisko, stepping out of the shadows. There was a curiously puzzled look on his ethereal face.

Kira nodded, feeling tears run down her face. “I do. I want to go home.”

The puzzled look on the Prophet’s face intensified. “I do not understand,” it said. “You were adamant that we alter the timeline so that the Cardassian Occupation would never have happened. You have changed your mind?”

“Yes! I thought nothing could be worse than the Occupation, but I was wrong. This universe, this timeline, is even worse for Bajor than the Occupation was. It took the Cardassians sixty years to kill fifteen million of us. The Dominion have killed many times that in just a few weeks.”

“And somehow you feel you are responsible for this?”

“I changed things and made them worse. Those people are dead because of me. I need to make it right, can you put things back how they were?”

The Prophet nodded. “We can, but it will be harder on you than it was before. If you survive you will still retain the memories of this timeline. Do you still wish to proceed?”

Kira didn’t hesitate. “I do. I would give my life to put things back how they were. What’s a few bad memories?” She’d deal with her own personal emotional fallout later.

Not-Sisko stood stock still for an indeterminable amount of time—here in the Celestial Temple with the Prophets, all time was indeterminable. Kira thought he was communicating with the other Prophets.

“We will do this,” he said at last.

Immediately as the Prophet said this, Kira felt an intense squeezing in her head. It hadn’t felt like this before and she was suddenly scared. Kira cried out once in agony and then everything was soothing blackness.

Chapter Text

Kira woke up to find herself on a hard Cardassian bed staring up at a hard Cardassian ceiling. A jolt of panic shot through her and she struggled upright.

“Steady there,” said a familiar voice near her ear. A warm, firm hand pressed gently on her chest, forcing her to lie back down. “Don’t sit up quite so fast, or you might pass out again.”

Memory slowly filtered back to her through her fogged brain and dulled senses and she finally recognised the owner of the voice. “Julian!” she exclaimed happily. She had never been more glad to see him in her life.

Bashir smiled at her. “You had us all worried for a while there,” he said, his quiet words underscoring just how bad her condition had been.

Kira struggled to remember. “What happened Julian?”

“Something went wrong with your runabout's warp core—Chief O’Brien is still trying to determine exactly what—and your ship exploded a few hundred metres from the entrance to the wormhole,” said Julian in his best doctor’s voice. “At first we thought you’d been on it when it went up, but somehow you managed to beam yourself off the runabout in an environmental suit. It was hours before we found you and your suit had run out of oxygen. I was able to revive you, but between that and the concussion you suffered, I’m not surprised you don’t remember anything.”

Something that felt like a memory flickered through Kira’s mind; a fractured image of the warp core breaching while she was still inside the wormhole, shattering time and space and reality as she knew it. She blinked the image away. Her head still hurt too much to worry about such things. A bout of dizziness overwhelmed her and she suddenly felt very nauseous indeed. She leaned over the side of the biobed and somehow Julian managed to get a bowl under her chin before she could cover the carpet in vomit.

“I told you you shouldn’t have sat up so quickly,” he said in gentle admonishment. He gently wiped her face with a cloth.

Kira grimaced at him even though she knew he was right. He was irritating when he was right though. “I guess I’m staying in the Infirmary for a few days?” she asked weakly.

Julian nodded. “I’m afraid so. You should make a full recovery but I have a few more tests I want to run before I let you out of my sight. And then of course Captain Sisko wants a full report on what you can remember of the incident. In the meantime I suggest you make the most of enforced bed rest.”

She pulled a face at him, which he studiously ignored. He put his hand on her shoulder. “It’s good to have you back, Major.”

Over the next few days she began to chafe at the confinement as Bashir ran his barrage of tests. Kira started feeling much better, despite the odd flashes of contradictory memories and strange dreams she was having. It seemed that almost every member of station staff stopped by to see how she was doing, and she would occasionally get strange looks when she mentioned something which she later realised was from one of her fractured memories. Almost everyone put it down to the head trauma and oxygen deprivation, however, and no one mentioned it again.

The memories themselves slowly began to coalesce into something resembling a coherent order, and by the time Julian was ready to discharge her she remembered everything. The accident, the alternate universe and recreating the disaster in order to get home. She hadn’t fully processed the emotional repercussions of these memories, but she felt enough niggling guilt that she needed to do something to resolve.

Before she left the infirmary, she pulled Julian into his office and asked to speak to him privately.

“What can I help you with Nerys?” he asked, his face full of doctorly concern. “Are you still having headaches because I can increase the dose of painkillers if you need me to.”

“No its nothing like that,” Kira said, twisting uncomfortably. “This might sound strange Julian but… did your parents have you… altered—genetically, I mean—when you were a child?”

All the blood seemed to drain out of Julian’s face and his eyes widened in shock. “How? How could you have possibly found out?” he said quietly, obviously troubled. “I thought I had been so careful in concealing the truth. What was it that gave me away?”

“Nothing,” said Kira, feeling guilty over causing her friend so much emotional anguish. “You didn’t do anything to give yourself away.”

“Then… how?”

“It’s a long story.”

Julian looked at her expectantly; he wanted to know just how she had discovered his most important and carefully guarded secret. And if Kira was honest with herself, he deserved to know.

“Do you remember when we went through the wormhole with a partial warp field and we ended up in the other universe? On Terok Nor with the Intendant?”

Even more panic entered Bashir’s face, if that was possible by this point. “You didn’t get stuck there again, did you?”

Kira shook her head. “No that universe, no, but a… different one. One where the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor never happened.”

“I imagine you found it difficult to drag yourself away.”

“You have no idea,” Kira said. “Well, when I was trying to escape, and get back to my own universe, I looked up you and Dax and Sisko, to see if any of you were in a position to help me. That was how I found out that you’d been—augmented is the word isn’t it?” Julian nodded in affirmation. “And I began to wonder whether or not the same was true in this universe.”

Julian sighed. “I’m afraid it is. As illegal and unethical as it is in the Federation, my parents did have me genetically altered when I was a child. I am the stronger, faster, smarter version of my self; Julian Bashir 2.0, certified free of any defects whatsoever.” His voice was sarcastic, attempting to cover up what was obviously deeper issues and trauma. Kira didn’t dare pry into whatever issues the young Doctor had as a result of his parents’ decision . “How did it become known in that other universe? Something went wrong with the resequencing, didn’t it.”

Kira remembered how she had felt when she’d discovered just what the other version of Bashir had done. She still couldn’t imagine this Julian—annoying, naive but oh so eager to please Julian—ever doing anything like that. “Yes. Something went wrong,” Kira said simply, carefully keeping her voice as neutral as possible.

“What happened?” Julian looked eager for details; a sort of morbid curiosity about what could have been and just what he had avoided.

“I think it’s best you don’t know.”

Julian grimaced. “It must be bad then.” Kira said nothing. “What will you do now?” he asked. “I would be thrown out of Starfleet, and have my medical license revoked if ever they found out. If we hadn’t kept it secret, I would never have gotten into the Academy in the first place. I’m ashamed to say, I do not deserve this uniform, and I essentially obtained it through false pretenses.”

Kira thought he was wrong. He did deserve that uniform; whether or not his enhancements were considered an unfair advantage, he had still worked hard to earn the right to wear it. And he was a good doctor, no matter how irritatingly optimistic and occasionally condescending he could be. She knew that the Federation had rules in place regard genetic augmentation for a reason, she felt it wasn’t her place to shop him.

“I won’t tell anyone,” Kira said quietly. Julian looked up at her, clearly surprised. “It’s not my place to reveal this kind of secret. Besides, you’re Starfleet, I’m Bajoran Militia. I might be your superior officer but I am under no obligation whatsoever to report this to anyone as long as I don’t think it will interfere with your duties.” She reached out to grasp his arm in a friendly gesture. “Your secret is safe with me, Julian.”

He looked immeasurably relieved. “Thank you, Nerys. I really can’t express how grateful I am for this.” The puppy-dog eyes were in full effect. Kira mustered up some mock-annoyance in return.

“If you want to thank me, you could try submitting your staff evaluations on time this month, Lieutenant.”

Julian pretended not to hear her. “So what else did you find out in this other universe?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” said Kira curtly before quickly leaving the infirmary so he wouldn’t see her grin.

Julian, however, got the last laugh as he saw to it that Kira was relieved of duty on medical grounds for the next week, which gave her plenty of time to write her report for Captain Sisko.

The actual writing of the report, however, was giving her a hell of a headache. She wasn’t sure just how much detail to put in. Should she explain how she wound up in the other universe in the first place? How much should she reveal about her family, whom she missed terribly? She’d been writing reports for Sisko for three full years now, and yet she had no idea how to write this one.

She said as much to Dax, one lunchtime in the Replimat.

“It wasn’t just a mission. It’s not even a matter of summarizing the experience of a few days, treating it like some kind of away mission,” Kira said, frustrated. “I have a whole other lifetime of memories to deal with and I don’t know how to deal with that.”

“Multiple lifetimes’ worth of memories is something I happen to have some experience with,” said Dax with a wry grin. “Maybe I can help.”

“Maybe.” Kira was uncertain, and it showed through in her voice. “I think it’s different for you. You have memories of being different people. I mean, Audrid and Lela and Torias were all Dax, but they were all separate people, with their own lives and their own sets of memories. It’s not like that for me.”

“What is it like?”

“Like there are two separate Kiras in my head. Both of them are fundamentally me, but they had very different lives. I mean, I vividly remember the day my brother Reon died.” Dax gestured to her to elaborate. “A lot of the younger children at the camp had gotten sick that winter, and Re was one of the unlucky ones. I remember holding his little body as he coughed until he was sick and then he coughed some more. And then he took a deep, raggedy breath and after that he didn’t cough any more.

“I clearly remember that, and yet… I also remember him as an adult. Chasing me round the garden with his dirty hands, chasing the young woman in the village. The young men too, for that matter. Both memories feel real, they both happened, but… My brother isn’t here, and I miss him so much it hurts. How can I summarize my experience in cold, clinical words when my heart hurts so much?”

Dax shrugged. “I don’t have the answer to that, Nerys. Just, focus on what you need to get down. How you got there, how you got back and why you decided to try to come back here. Keep the rest to yourself and treasure the memories.”

Kira nodded. “I know, you’re right. But the doing is so much harder than the knowing in this case. I'll be alright. I’ll work it out.”

“Of course you will,” said Dax. “You’re Kira. I’ve yet to see you fail do deal with anything that’s been thrown at you.”

Kira smiled to acknowledge the compliment.

Dax leaned forward in her seat, a smile on her face that Kira knew meant trouble. “So,” she said. “Tell me more about me. What was I like in this other world?”

Kira rolled her eyes. She had been expecting this. “You were… you,” she said.

“Oh come on Nerys, that’s the boring version. How was I different? You said Benjamin and I managed get to posted to the same ship? Were we still friends?”

“Not so much.” Kira said tentatively. “In the other universe you were unjoined, having been rejected from the program by Curzon. You resented him for that, and by extension Sisko. You knew Curzon was the one who got you the posting with Sisko as some sort of consolation prize.”

Dax let out an annoyed puff of air. “Sounds like I was rather petty about it. And I never got the Dax symbiont? I can’t imagine life without being joined.”

“You weren’t petty at all Dax. Curzon got you thrown out of the joining program, dashing the only dream you’d ever really had. I’m not sure why the other you decided not to reapply, though I can’t really blame her since the odds were stacked firmly against her.”

Dax huffed in acknowledgement. “I suppose you’re right,” she said.

“Besides, I was pretty impressed with unjoined Jadzia Idaris,” Kira said and Dax raised an eyebrow, her interest piqued. “I knew her for only a few hours, but in that time she showed she was willing to take a chance, and disobey direct orders to do what she felt was right. And she thought I was worth taking a chance on, that I was worth believing. Those are all traits you have, Dax, and they’re nothing to do with you being joined. And they’re all reasons I consider you my friend.”

Dax came as close to blushing as Kira had ever seen her at that compliment, but soon recovered. “I guess you must have been pretty persuasive to make timid old unjoined me take a chance on your ridiculous 'other world' story."

“I guess,” said Kira. “But don’t forget you were still a Starfleet officer in that universe; weird and ridiculous happens every day.”

Dax laughed and said something in reply, but Kira didn’t quite hear her. Her attention had been pulled towards the Security office, where Odo was having a word with one of his deputies. She’d managed to avoid Odo for the most part since she’d been released from the Infirmary, the only exception being a brief conversation in a corridor where he enquired about her progress. She hadn’t really wanted to talk to him, worried about comparing him to Kejal, but also because she hadn’t wanted to deal with some of the baggage Kejal had left her with. Odo seemed to have sensed her reluctance be around him and had obliged her. It was going to get awkward, and soon, if one of them didn’t do something about it, and Kira knew full well it was going to have to be her.

“Excuse me for a moment,” she said suddenly getting up from the table. Dax protested, but Kira was too intent on her target to notice.

Odo had finished talking with his deputy and gone back into his office. Kira managed to sneak in just before the doors rolled closed.

“Have you got a minute?” she said, catching his attention.

“I do for you, Major,” he said in his familiar gravelly tone. “I hope you are recovering well from your ordeal.”

“I’m doing alright thanks Odo. I seem to have been avoiding you though, and for that I’m sorry.”

“I assumed it would have something to do with my counterpart in this other universe,” he said. “Understandable that you might be a little uncomfortable. I was content to give you as much time as you needed to deal with it.”

She nodded her head briefly in thanks at his thoughtfulness. “I’m not sure this is the kind of thing that can be dealt with by giving me some space. It's more the sort of thing that needs to be dealt with head on.”

“Sounds like how you usually deal with things, Major.”

She smiled at that; Odo had always known her so well. “Meeting your counterpart in the other universe was strange,” she admitted. “Kejal was so different to you, and yet so familiar at the same time.”

“Kejal?.”

“No Cardassians, no Odo.” Odo looked a little surprised that she knew the origins of his preferred moniker, but neither of them said anything. “Kejal said some things to me before we parted. Things I’ve needed to process, and I’m and I’m afraid you’ve borne the brunt of that, Odo. For that I’m sorry.”

He grunted his acceptance. “What sort of things did this Kejal say to you?”

“He seemed very concerned about whether you and I were more than friends,” Kira said, her eyes fixed firmly on Odo’s face, watching for his reaction. “Apparently you would have to be some sort of fool to not notice me romantically—his words, not mine.”

Odo was quiet for a very long time; Kira took this as a bad sign.

“Have I said something out of place?” she asked, worried.

“No, its nothing you’ve said,” said Odo, his voice softer than Kira had ever heard it. “It’s just funny that things could be so different in that other world and yet some things remain the same. I would be a fool if I didn’t notice you romantically.”

Kira’s breath hitched in her throat. “I wish you’d said something earlier," she said. “I hate to think that I’d missed any hints you were giving me.”

Odo shook his head. “There weren’t any hints to notice. I didn’t want you to find out, but it looks like that decision has been taken out of my hands. Obviously I don’t expect you to reciprocate my feelings–”

“Is that why you didn’t want me to know? Because you didn’t think I could possibly return your feelings?”

Odo remained stiff and silent,which gave him away more completely than if he’d said anything. “Can you honestly tell me you do?” he asked softly, the sharp edge of pain just beginning to creep into his voice.

“No, I can’t,” Kira said, and Odo looked crestfallen. “Odo, listen to me. Before I met Kejal I didn’t realise it was a possibility. You’ve always been so vocal about ridiculing us humanoids for our mating rituals; I thought you couldn’t possibly want something like that.”

“There’s a phrase I keep coming across in my Earth detective novels, something about protesting too much. I think it applies in this case.”

Kira gave a small, nervous laugh. “I guess I can see how that would work.” She paused, thinking carefully about what she wanted to say next. “I wish I could tell you that I’ve always loved you and I didn’t realise it until now, but I can’t. Feelings just don’t work like that. What I can say is that I won’t completely dismiss the idea. There are some feelings that have been stirred up, but I can’t tell what is for you and what is for Kejal. I need to work that out or it's not fair on you. I need time, can you give me that?”

“For you, anything,” said Odo, and Kira believed him.

“Give it a month or two, she said. If the Klingons haven’t blown us to hell by then, ask me to dinner. I can guarantee you I’ll accept.”

Odo smiled. “In that case…” he said, sounding almost jovial for the first time in a long time. “You’re sure its not just lingering affection for Kejal that’s making you say that?”

“Right now I’m not sure of anything Odo. But I can say one thing: the world I fought so hard to get back to has you in it, not him.”

“Well, that’s something.” Tentatively he reached out and took Kira’s hand in his. “What do we do while we’re waiting to see if the Klingons blow us all up?”

“Same as usual I guess: have our Tuesday morning meetings, roll our eyes when Starfleet are being unreasonable and try to escape the ridiculousness of Bajoran politics. How does that sound?”

“Perfect.”

Kira smiled. “I guess I should get going. I still have to write my report on the whole debacle.”

Odo nodded and she walked out of his office, the strange weight on her shoulders somehow lightened but not lifted completely. Still not quite ready to face writing her report she went for a walked along the Promenade and inevitably found herself leaning over the railing on the upper level, watching people go about their lives below.

How many of these people had been on Bajor when the Dominion began their bombardment in that other world? How many of these lives were technically on her conscience? Rationally Kira knew that the decisions of others weren't her fault, in this world or any other, but it still stung that she was the once to change the critical fork in the road. But having terrible things on her conscience was something she was used to; the things she'd done during the Occupation still gave her nightmares but she'd learned to live with it. She'd learn to live with this as well.

Having memories of her family was harder to deal with.

She continued her walk and her feet inevitably took her to the temple during services. Kneeling in supplication to the Prophets Kira found a kind of peace she'd not felt since her return. Maybe... maybe she was thinking about this wrong.

Wasn't it a blessing that she'd been given a second chance to know her family? To know a Bajor free of Occupation? Yes it hurt to have to let that life go but this world was worth fighting for too. Perhaps the Prophets had always meant it to be this way.

That comforting thought bouncing around in her mind, she returned to her quarters, sat down at her terminal and started writing her report. The words came easier than she thought they would, but it was still hard. Oh well, her whole life had been hard. She would endure and thrive. In this universe, where despite everything she knew she really belonged. This was home and that meant everything.

Everything else would come with time.