Star Trek: Typhon Pact: Plagues of Night Read online

  Picard looked to his officers, and then back at the image of his exec on the monitor. “Four to beam aboard,” said the captain.

  14

  When Sisko walked into the cargo bay, a sudden sense of déjà vu bloomed in his mind, claiming his attention like an almost-remembered song lyric or a not-quite-recognized scent. He stopped abruptly at the sight of the hold loaded with shipping containers of various shapes, sizes, and colors, with Brathaw and Pardshay apparently confirming the delivery against a manifest. As Kasidy emerged from Xhosa through the circular hatchway of the airlock, the eerie feeling of reliving an already experienced moment seemed complete.

  Is this the same cargo bay where we first met? Sisko asked himself. He couldn’t recall the designation of the hold he’d visited after Jake had pushed him to make Kasidy’s acquaintance. With Deep Space 9’s many bays, though, it seemed unlikely to him that—

  “What’s wrong, Daddy?” Rebecca asked, breaking Sisko’s spell.

  “What?” He turned and squatted down to face his daughter, her small hand still clasped in his larger one. “Nothing’s wrong, honey. I was just looking for Mommy.” He allowed himself the fib, wanting to avoid describing a happy, significant time in his relationship with Kasidy, concerned that Rebecca might ask questions. While he and Kasidy had admitted to their daughter that they would continue to spend their marriage largely apart from each other, they had chosen not to tell her precisely why, instead cleaving to the justification that Starfleet needed its experienced officers to help protect the Federation. They did not wish to lie to Rebecca, but neither did they want to frighten her with the actual reasons Sisko had left Bajor. And so, for the present, they settled on a lie of omission. Because of that, they also elected to delay their divorce—Sisko withdrew from the Adarak court his petition for the legal dissolution of their marriage—fearing that word of their official separation would become public and that their daughter would eventually hear about it in school.

  “Mommy’s right there,” Rebecca said with her visible six-and-a-half-year-old sense of exasperation. She dropped her hold on the antigrav sled she towed along behind her, and on which she had insisted that Sisko place her carryall. He had picked it up in his quarters aboard Robinson, where he and Rebecca had been staying, but she’d wanted to manage the bag herself. In the hold, she pointed toward Kasidy, who saw them and started in their direction.

  Sisko stood back up and turned to greet Kasidy with a hug. She wore a two-toned, formfitting brown coverall, with a blue shirt beneath. The outfit accentuated her attractive curves. “Hello, Kasidy.”

  “Hello, Ben.”

  Since he had first returned to Bajor seven months ago to visit Rebecca, he and Kasidy had achieved a rapprochement of sorts. While she remained hurt and angry about his leaving and continuing to stay away, she also understood his reasons for doing so—although she believed him completely wrong. For his part, Sisko recognized and concurred with her reasonable demand that he play an active role in his daughter’s life. He also suspected that she thought that seeing her regularly would tug at his heartstrings and perhaps eventually drive him back home for good.

  About Sisko’s longing for her, Kasidy could not have been more right. But he also could not dismiss the Prophets’ admonition to him, or overlook all of the terrible events that had occurred before he’d left Bajor and that underscored the verity of the warning he’d received. Despite Kasidy’s pain and his own, as well as the impact on Rebecca, Sisko could not allow himself to falter in his resolve to safeguard his family. He continually reminded himself that what he did, he did for them.

  To Rebecca, Kasidy said, “And how’s my big girl?”

  “Hi, Mommy.” She took her hand from Sisko’s and held her arms up to her mother. Kasidy bent and picked her up, offering a grunt as she did so. “Oh, my. You’re getting too big for this.”

  Though still below the average size for her age—she weighed just twenty kilos and reached only a hundred fifteen centimeters—Rebecca continued to develop at a healthy pace. Since he’d begun visiting his daughter, Sisko could see her growth. He thought that was probably due to the fact that he only got to see her every couple of months, though they did send each other subspace messages every few days.

  “So how did you like Deep Space Nine?” Kasidy asked. Ever since Sisko had given Rebecca the models of Robinson and Xhosa, she had become fascinated with space travel. She had pleaded with Kasidy to take her aboard her freighter, and after making that first journey, Rebecca asked to visit both Robinson and Deep Space 9, the latter of which she had learned about in school. When Sisko’s orders brought his starship to the station, there seemed no better opportunity. While Kasidy made a shipping run aboard Xhosa, Sisko spent a week on Bajor with Rebecca, and then three days on Robinson and DS9. Having completed her job with a final stop at the station to offload shipments in transit, Kasidy would take Rebecca home from there.

  “It was great, Mommy,” Rebecca said. “Daddy showed me ops and the giant docking arms and the airlocks and I went in a holding cell—”

  “Wait,” Kasidy said, cutting off Rebecca’s excited narrative stream. “You went where?” She peered past their daughter at Sisko.

  “We were on the Promenade, and Miss Rebecca wanted to go through each and every door,” Sisko explained. “The new security chief, Blackmer, was gracious enough to give us a tour of his office. Since there was nobody in any of the holding cells, he very generously offered to lock our daughter up.”

  “‘Generously,’ huh?” Kasidy said, with an inflection that indicated she didn’t know whether or not she approved. “And how was that?” she asked their daughter.

  Rebecca appeared to think for a moment, and then said, “I liked it and I didn’t like it.” She hesitated, then added, “It was neat to see the force fields, but it was like when I was taken and couldn’t go anywhere.”

  Sisko felt his blood run cold. He saw a look of dread pass over Kasidy’s face, which she quickly hid away. Rebecca’s abduction had taken place three years earlier. After the ordeal, she met regularly with a counselor for a couple of months, but mercifully, at not even four years of age, she seemed to suffer no ill effects from the experience. She’d said nothing about remembering any of it during her time in the security office, and as far as Sisko knew, she had not spoken about her kidnapping outside of her counseling sessions, nor even made reference to it, since it had taken place.

  “Did that make you feel bad, honey?” Kasidy asked.

  Rebecca shrugged, a movement that seemed to involve most of her small body. Then her eyes grew wide as she appeared to recall something. “Oh, and I got to go to Earth in a sweet hollow.”

  Kasidy’s brow wrinkled in confusion, but Sisko laughed loudly, his emotions swinging quickly to the other end of the spectrum as his daughter delighted him. “We were talking about where you and I came from,” he told Kasidy, “so I decided to show Rebecca. Quark has some Earth programs, so we visited a—” He reached forward and playfully squeezed his daughter about the middle. “—holosuite.”

  “Oh,” Kasidy said with a smile, clearly amused by their daughter’s malapropism.

  “Mister Quark wears clothes that looked like I colored them in my coloring books,” observed Rebecca.

  “He certainly does,” Kasidy said. “And what did you think of Earth?”

  Rebecca shrugged again. “It was good,” she said. “Kinda like Bajor, but different. I liked it, except the baseball was boring.”

  “Daddy took you to a baseball game, did he?” Kasidy said. She looked at Sisko. “Ebbets Field?”

  “Dodger Stadium, actually,” Sisko said. “I was going to show Rebecca one of your brother’s games too, but … well, she’s young. We’ve still got plenty of time to teach her the game.”

  “Ugh!” Rebecca said, and she buried her face in Kasidy’s shoulder.

  Kasidy snickered at their daughter’s reaction. Then she asked Sisko, “So when do you leave?”

  “Tomorr
ow at oh-seven-hundred,” he said. “The crew is finalizing preparations right now.” After an absence of more than six years, Starfleet would finally resume its exploration of the Gamma Quadrant. Since Elias Vaughn and the Defiant crew had completed a three-month journey of discovery on the other side of the wormhole, numerous events had conspired to prevent a return there: the emergence of the Eav’oq from subspace on Idran and the relocation of that world’s planetary system to the Gamma Quadrant terminus of the Bajoran wormhole; the arrival of the Ascendants, led by the crazed Iliana Ghemor; the Even Odds disaster; the calamity on Endalla; and ultimately, Starfleet’s decimation by the Borg. But with the Cardassian Union and the Ferengi Alliance joining the Federation and the Klingon Empire in the Khitomer Accords, the influx of starships and crews to protect the four powers, coupled with Starfleet’s rebuilding efforts and Cardassia’s recovery from the Dominion War, freed up resources for an increase in the number of exploratory missions. When Starfleet Command had proposed six months of exploration in the Gamma Quadrant, Sisko had utilized his experience in the region to lobby for and win Robinson’s assignment to the mission.

  “Are you still excited about it?” Kasidy asked.

  “I am,” Sisko said. When the prospect for the mission had first arisen, he’d spoken with Kasidy about it before putting in his request. Since he had begun visiting Rebecca every two months, something he would be unable to do for half a year if he took Robinson to the Gamma Quadrant, he wanted to consult with her before pursuing the mission. Since they could easily and honestly explain Sisko’s longer absence to Rebecca, and since he would still exchange messages with his daughter every few days—even though it would take longer for each message to reach the communications relay that carried messages through the wormhole—they had agreed that he should go. “After my time on Deep Space Nine, and after everything that’s happened since, I’m anxious to do something actively constructive,” he said, “rather than just trying to help avert destruction.”

  She peered at him with an expression of sadness. In it, he could see her love for him, and her sorrow over their separation, but more than anything, he thought he saw pity in her eyes. The look touched him and scared him at the same time, though he could not say exactly why.

  “I really hope you find what you need out there, Ben,” said Kasidy.

  “Thank you,” Sisko said, because he could think of nothing else to say—at least nothing safe. “Are you going right back to Bajor?”

  “Yes,” she said. “I want to get home again early enough so that Rebecca can get a good night’s sleep before going back to her regular school.” While she had been with Sisko aboard Robinson and Deep Space 9, Rebecca had attended the station’s school.

  “Have a safe trip back,” Sisko said. “And you—” He nuzzled his face against the curve of Rebecca’s neck. “—be sure to mind your mother and do well in school.”

  Rebecca looked from Kasidy to Sisko and back again. “I want to stay on Deep Space Nine.” She elided the name of the station and ran the words together: DeeSpayNine.

  “Don’t you want to go home, honey?” Kasidy asked gently.

  “No.”

  “But you’ll be going on Mommy’s ship again,” Sisko reminded her.

  “Oh,” Rebecca said, gazing over at the airlock hatchway. “Right.” Kasidy set her down on the deck, and Rebecca grabbed her antigrav sled and raced toward Xhosa.

  Kasidy looked to Sisko and rolled her eyes. “I’m not sure where she gets all her energy.”

  “She’s definitely got a miniature warp core somewhere inside that little body,” Sisko said. “She wore me out. I’m looking forward to the Gamma Quadrant mission just so I can get some rest.”

  Kasidy smiled at the jest, but then her mien grew serious. She reached up and placed her hand on Sisko’s upper arm. “Be careful out there,” she said. “Rebecca needs her father.”

  “And I need her,” Sisko said. “I’ll be careful.”

  Kasidy dropped her hand, and the two hugged once more. Then she caught up with their daughter, who stood waiting in the hatchway. Sisko waved. “Bye, Rebecca. I love you.”

  “I love you too, Daddy,” she said, waving back. When Kasidy reached her, she took Rebecca’s hand and led her into Xhosa.

  Sisko stood there motionless, peering after his wife and child. After a moment, movement caught his eye, and he turned to see Xhosa crew members Brathaw and Pardshay looking at him from where they worked over the cargo they’d just offloaded from the ship. Suddenly self-conscious, Sisko nodded curtly, then quickly headed out of the bay.

  Sisko waited until later that night to leave the confines of Robinson again. Three days earlier, after he’d returned with Rebecca from visiting her on Bajor, he’d spent much of their ensuing time together showing her around the ship. His daughter also wanted to see Deep Space 9, though, and he needed to take her to school there as well, so he hadn’t been able to stay away from the station completely.

  But he’d wanted to stay away—and still did.

  As a lift whisked him down from where Robinson had moored to the top of one of DS9’s docking pylons, he examined his reticence to walk the familiar corridors of the station. He had spent seven years there—seven years that, while filled with challenges and even tragedies, had proven the most satisfying time of his life. His son grew into a man during that period. He met and married Kasidy, became a captain, successfully defended the Federation against the Dominion, and positioned Bajor for its eventual admission into the Federation. He initially resisted becoming a religious icon for the Bajorans, but came to accept and even embrace his position as Emissary.

  Sisko did not fear or dread being on Deep Space 9 again. Since leaving the station after the end of the Dominion War, he’d been back a number of times. Nor did he shrink from the possibility of running into old friends and colleagues; indeed, so many of the people he knew best—Kira Nerys, Worf, Miles O’Brien, Odo, Ezri Dax—had long ago departed DS9. Of those who remained, Sisko might not necessarily enjoy catching up with them because he would not wish to discuss his personal life, but the last couple of years had made him adept at deflecting uncomfortable questions directed his way. When Robinson had first arrived at the station, he’d reported in person to Captain Ro without experiencing a moment of discomfort.

  What is it then? he asked himself as the lift carried him through a crossover bridge toward the central core. He could not deny that during Rebecca’s stay with him, he had resisted showing her the station, and when he had shown her, he’d done so in a way that mostly allowed him to see as few of its residents as possible. In reserving a holosuite to show Earth to his daughter—Robinson’s holodecks had been powered down during preparations for the ship’s upcoming mission—he even communicated with Quark via the comm, rather than in person.

  The lift changed direction, and so too did Sisko. Maybe I am afraid of something, he told himself. If so, that still left him with his unanswered question: what was it that troubled him about returning to the station?

  When the lift slowed to a stop, Sisko stepped out onto the Promenade. Most of DS9’s social, entertainment, and services hub lay in the dim lighting and the resultant quietude of the station’s simulated night. Farther down from where he stood, though, bright lights shined from the entrance of Quark’s and bathed the deck in multiple colors. Sisko also heard the general hum of a crowd, interrupted by the raucousness of a few revelers, doubtless from around the dabo table.

  It’s nice to know there are some constants in the universe, Sisko thought. He smiled, despite his downbeat mood. The urge to head over to Quark’s rose in his mind. He could have a glass of grosz and listen to Morn spin one of his endless tales—during his tour of the station with Rebecca, the only person Sisko had run into whom he knew, other than Ro Laren, had been the loquacious Lurian. Afterward, Sisko could even take in an old baseball game in one of the holosuites, perhaps revel in the daring play of the great Jackie Robinson.

  First things first, S
isko thought. You came here for a reason.

  He made his way to the infirmary. Also shrouded in the shadows of the station’s virtual night, the outer compartment contained only two medical staffers, one Sisko didn’t recognize, and one he did. Both looked up as he stopped just inside the main doorway. Standing at a lighted cache of equipment, a tricorder in hand, a med tech said nothing, obviously waiting for the officer on duty to address their visitor. Seated at a workstation, a woman with long, reddish blond hair and blue-green eyes looked surprised when she saw the captain. Krissten Richter had been assigned to Deep Space 9 perhaps a decade earlier, during Sisko’s own tenure on the station. Pushing away from her console and rising to her feet, she said, “Captain.”

  Sisko moved farther into the room. “Lieutenant Richter,” he said, reading the rank insignia on her uniform. She had been promoted a grade since he had last seen her. “How have you been?” he asked.

  “I’m well, sir, thank you,” Richter said.

  “And how is Ensign Etana?” he asked, recalling the identity of Richter’s romantic partner.

  The question elicited a wide smile from Richter. “Very well, sir,” she said. She reached up to her right ear and pointed to the piece of jewelry she wore there. Bajoran in origin, the earring attached to her lobe, and two connected chains draped from there up to the top of her ear. Indicating the second loop by taking it between her thumb and forefinger, she said, “We got married.”

  “That’s wonderful,” Sisko said, offering up a genuine smile of his own. “Congratulations.”

  “Thank you, sir. We’re very happy,” Richter said, stating the obvious. “How is Captain Yates? And your daughter?”

  “Both doing well,” Sisko said. Before Richter could inquire further, he quickly added, “I don’t have much time, but before I depart aboard the Robinson tomorrow morning, I wanted to visit Captain Vaughn.”

  Richter’s smile wilted. “Of course,” she said, lowering her voice. “He’s in one of the secondary-care rooms. Right now, he—”