“Is that…”

“I don’t know!” Julian said, taking the man’s arm and pulling him up.  “We’ll have to confirm his identity.  Help me take him to a bio bed!”

As they both took an arm and hefted him up, Julian wondered what this might imply.

If Ben Sisko is back…what’s coming?

Vendar paused at the door to his quarters, not quite sure what to do.  Earlier, Chris had rushed out of Quark’s bar.  The look on his face had been almost indescribable.  It looked like great surprise, and even fear.  Two traits he did not often show together, let alone with such intensity.

Finally, she nodded to herself and pressed the door chime.  She stood there waiting for a moment, but when there was no reply, she pressed the button again.

“Come!” Chris said through the door.

She pressed the starfleet delta on the top of the door panel, causing the doors to swish open.  Vendar popped her head inside and looked around, finding Chris on his couch, facing the starboard side window.

He looked back at her, but did not smile as he usually did.  “Vendar.  Can I help you?”

She paused a moment, then walked the rest of the way into his quarters, letting the door close behind her.  “Yes.  You can talk to me.”

His face didn’t change, it simply kept its seemingly expressionless features.  He shook his head and looked back down at his communicator, which was on the coffee table in front of him.

Why is his communicator off?  She moved to the back of the couch and placed her hand on his shoulder.  He responded by taking in a big breath and letting it out as a sigh.

“You’re never going to believe who I saw on the station,” he said, his voice shaky, as if at any moment he would start crying.

She narrowed her eyes and frowned, moving around the couch to sit down next to him.  “From the looks of it, you saw a ghost.”

He shook his head slowly, his face never changing.  “No…close.  Rather…”  He clenched his eyes shut, a small tear forming.  “Rather a ghost’s parents.”

She frowned again, then felt her face go to surprise as she realized what he was talking about.  “My god.  You mean…you mean Sarah’s parent’s?”

He clenched his eyes harder, nodding once.  “Yeah…”

Her jaw fell, a sudden feeling of sadness gripping her heart.  She felt tears starting to form in her eyes as well as memories of Sarah flashing through her mind.  She hadn’t thought about her in a long time.

She put her arm around Chris and leaned against him, trying to let him know that she was there for him while, at the same time, she was crying.  For a few minutes, they sat there together, both weeping silent tears.

Vendar knew how Chris must have felt.  If she felt this way at knowing they were here, he had to have been hurting.  She remembered just how much they loved each other, how much he cried when she died.  She also recalled just how long he’d stayed in his quarters after her death.  Three months wasn’t it?  He never came out…

“I sent them a message,” he said, his voice scratchy, the words coming out in spurts as he tried to keep his breathing steady.  “After we got back, I told them what happened.  Every detail of her death, which wasn’t as difficult to do as I thought it would have been.  What made it difficult later…was that they never sent a reply.  I haven’t heard from them at all.”

She nodded, understanding now.  “And after such a long time of not even having thought about it, they suddenly appear and remind you all about it.”

He nodded his head twice in quick succession.  “Exactly.  I mean, I still think about it every day…but now that they’re here.”  He shook his head once.  “I remember every detail I put in that letter…and then I see it all in my head.  The shot that hit her, the wound…the life slipping from her eyes, as if I could see her spirit leaving her body, expanding…until she encompassed everything.”

She nodded once, understanding entirely.  Tears continued to slowly stream down her face, as they did his.  “What frightens me most is that I might not be able to face them.  Now that they are here, and there is an opportunity, I might not be able to do it.”  He slowly shook his head back and forth, his eyes distant, frightened.  She knew she was one of the few to ever see him like this.

She thought for a moment about how to help him, then thought of something obvious.  “You know, if you are as afraid as they are…”  She looked into his eyes, narrowing her own ever so slightly.  “Think about how they feel.”

He frowned slightly, moving his head back in surprise.  He sat there for a moment, staring into space.  Finally, he looked into her eyes, equally narrowing them.  “I never thought about it that way.”

She smiled and slowly nodded once.  “That’s what friends are for.”

Lieutenant Commander Thomas Halkrat frowned as he stared at the readings.  The console on the side of the bridge was slowly scrolling sensor data from the battle from the bottom of the screen to the top.

He looked over at Vendar and frowned, the look on her face somewhat blank, distracted.  “Either you are multitalented and can concentrate on more than one thing,” he began, “or something’s stopping you from concentrating on this.”

It was half a joke, half a critique.  They needed to concentrate on the data from this battle so that the Captain would have enough information to present a case to the Romulans.  She, however, simply looked at him with her blank look.

“Sir?”

Frowning slightly, he said, “You’re drifting, Commander.”

She frowned herself, then suddenly shook her head, closing her eyes for a moment.  “Uh, sorry.”

He narrowed his eyes to small slits, wondering what was bothering her…wishing he could find out.  “Normally, I’d ask what’s wrong, but we have a job that needs to be done.”

She nodded her head.  “I know, and…”  She glanced at the screen.  “There’s something to help.”

She keyed in a command, stopping the flow of information.  Tom looked at the screen, narrowed his eyes…then felt them go wide with surprise when he read the information.  I guess she is multitalented.

K’Taul placed the data PADD on Kira’s desk, the Romulans eyeing it with curiosity.  “It’s not a Federation weapon that had done the most damage to the nacelle,” he said, glaring down at the seated Romulan Ambassadors.  “It seems that they had an even more severe battle with another Romulan ship before it’s battle with the USS Sovereign.”

Rauss frowned hard, the heavy brow covering more of her eyes.  “A Romulan ship?”

K’Taul nodded, his face showing his anger.  “Yes, you attacked  your own ship for some reason, then had that ship attack Federation starships.”  He slowly moved back to the couch where Chris sat, noticing that his stare was distant.  Ignoring his absent mindedness, K’Taul spun around to look at the Romulans and continued with his only conjecture.  “You sent your own people to die so you could start a conflict with the Federation!”

Looking taken aback, Rauss quickly shook her head.  “That’s preposterous!  Why would we want to send our people to die just to start a conflict with our allies?”

K’Taul moved towards the Ambassador quickly, a remark about Romulans and their lack of honor on the tip of his tongue, but before he could, Kira raised her hand to stop him.  “Captain, she’s right,” she said, staring at the data PADD.  “That wouldn’t make sense, the Romulans are far more intelligent than that.”

A matter of opinion, K’Taul commented in his mind.

She presented the PADD to Rauss, who leaned forward for a moment to take it, then leaned back and started analyzing it.

Her eyes seemed to widen when she finished reading the information.  She let one of her colleagues read it, then she stood up, followed by the other two.  “Colonel Nerys, though we are anxious to resolve this…”  She hesitated for a moment, her mouth open with her request on the tip of her tongue.  “I would like to ask for one last recess.

Kira frowned at the request, as did K’Taul.  When this had begun, they had been screaming about how long it had taken this to even start, now they were asking for another postponement.

“What is the purpose of this?” she asked.

Rauss looked to her colleagues, then back at Kira.  “We wish to consult with our superiors on some of the sensor data collected.  I have a theory about it, but I’d like to confirm it before I say anything about it.”

Kira hesitated for one last moment, then finally nodded her head.  “All right, you can send one secure transmission from DS9 or as many as you like from your ship.  We’ll reconvene at your convenience.”

She bowed slightly in thanks, then lead the other two Ambassadors out, the security detail outside of her office following.

Kira looked at the Federation ambassadors and then at Chris and K’Taul.  “I know none of you probably agreed with my decision to let them, but if they have an explanation, I’d rather have a clear one rather than one of only speculation.”

K’Taul nodded his head, noticing the Ambassadors do the same out of the corner of his eye.

“Again, we’ll reconvene at their discretion.”  She stood up and nodded her head at them all.  “Until then, we are in recess.”

Chris had basically zoned out the entire session, catching only the last part about the Romulans wanting to talk to their superiors.  He stood up to follow K’Taul out, his mind still wandering.

Knowing Romulans, they would be a while…perhaps now would be the best time to talk to Sarah’s parents.  Then again, he had no idea, Romulans did like to stall for time, but they also could be unpredictable.

When they left Kira’s office, he suddenly stopped as a group of individuals just outside caught his attention, all Bajorans.  That wasn’t what really caught his attention, it was the fact that he knew all of them, one in particular.

“Kailar!”  He almost couldn’t believe it!  Kailar Nerissay and the major representatives of the Bajorans the Dragon had rescued from the Kalium Galaxy, all of them here.

“Captain Harriman!” he said with equal surprise.

Chris shook his head and pointed to his rank pips.  “You must not have heard, but I was demoted to Commander.”

A look of sympathy crossed Kailar’s face, his soft, intelligent eyes communicating even more than that.  “I do apologize if we had any cause.”

Chris smiled and shook his head, wondering what part of the past would show up next.  “What brings you to DS9?”

Kailar seemed surprised at the question, frowning deeply as if Chris should have known the answer.  “Why, searching for answers, of course.”

Chris frowned, then realized what he meant.  The Prophets has deposited a small group of Bajorans in the Kalium galaxy long ago, but their reasons had not been explained all that well.  So now they were here, at the wormhole, searching for answers.

“Commander, I was wondering…”  He hesitated, his next request seemingly difficult to ask.  “I’m still not very familiar with Starfleet and its protocols.  We’ve been summoned to the station commander’s office, and I was wondering if you might accompany us.”

Chris was surprised at the request, but then considered it for a moment.  He looked to K’Taul, who was waiting for Chris on the lift.  He simply nodded to Chris and pressed the command to begin the lift’s decent into the station.