Smiling, Chris looked to Kailar.  “All right.”

A security officer, who had entered Kira’s office earlier, came out and motioned to the group of Bajorans.  “All right, you can go in now.”

Chris immediately moved ahead of them before they could start moving, going straight to her office again.  He popped his head inside, catching her off guard.

“Commander?”

Giving an innocent look to her curious one, he said, “Hi.  The Bajorans you are about to interview asked me to accompany them.  Is it all right with you?”

She seemed surprised, but then nodded.  “Very well.  I take it you know them personally?”

Chris also nodded as he stepped inside, the Bajorans quickly following him.

“Yes, these…are the Bajorans from the Kalium galaxy.”

Once again, surprise crossed her face, but then it turned into understanding.

As half of them filed into a line next to Chris and the other half behind them, Chris suddenly wondered if these were the Bajoran’s Quark had mentioned.  I don’t know why I thought of that, he thought.  These aren’t the people to cause trouble.

“So,” Kira said, bringing her hands together and interlacing her fingers.  “Why were you causing trouble in Quark’s bar?”

An eye brow went up in surprise.  They were the ones?!

“I do so apologize for our behavior,” Kailar said, bowing his head slightly.  “It is generally not our way to be violent.”

Kira frowned questioningly.  “It’s nothing new to me, you’re Bajorans.”

Kailar shook his head slightly.  “Partially, you would be correct, but we were taken away from the Bajoran gene pool long ago and have evolved independently.  We do not generally succumb to violence.”

Kira eyed them curiously, skepticism ever-present upon her face.  “Right.  You still haven’t answered my first question.”

Kailar frowned, Chris seeing in his eyes that it wasn’t an angry frown or a confused frown, rather that he was trying to determine how to explain.  He remembered that it wasn’t often that Kailar didn’t know how to articulate emotions or motives behind actions.

“Since our return to this galaxy,” Kailar began, “we’ve been searching for answers from the Prophets.  Our search brought us here, to the worm hole and your station.”  Kailar paused, probably taking the time to choose his words carefully.  “Our kind has evolved a sense of what you might consider the super natural.  We can feel the presence of beings that are far more evolved than we are, including the Prophets.  Unfortunately, they are not providing us answers, only riddles to follow.”

“Riddles that led you here to the station,” Chris added for him.

“Correct.  When we were having a meal on your promenade, we all felt a sudden surge of energy from the Prophets, one which somehow shocked our systems.”  He sighed.  “I’m afraid that is why we became violent.”

Kira’s eyes didn’t necessarily show surprise, but instead showed concern.  “I see.  Well, I think I might have an explanation as to what the surge was that you felt…”  As she stood up, she said, “Mister Nerissary, please follow me.  I’m afraid your friends will have to remain here until I show you what it is I mean.”

Kailar stepped forward a step, hope edging into his eyes.  “Of course, any thing to help us understand our riddles.”

Curious, Chris also stepped forward.  “I’d like to accompany you two.”

Kira paused as she was walking around her desk and eyed Chris.  After a moment, she nodded.  “All right, you can come too.”

“All right, this doesn’t go past this medical bay,” Kira said, her eyes piercing into both of them.  “The only exception is your small group of Bajorans.”

Kailar nodded his compliance.  “Of course, Colonel.”

She then looked to Chris to make sure he understood the order.  He shrugged.  “As ordered, I’m a Starfleet officer.”

Kira eyed him curiously.  “That didn’t stop you when you were a cadet.”

Chris felt surprise over come his face as his stuttered for a moment.  “I…Does everyone in all of the Federation know about that?”

She let herself grin a little, then turned around and pressed the command into the pad by the door.  It immediately opened to show a closed off section of the bay…and someone he never expected to see again.

As Chris felt his jaw drop and his eyes go wide, he saw a very similar expression on Kailar’s face.  “The Emissary!”

“Ben Sisko!” Chris added.

Both rushed into the room after Kira, moving close to the bed, gawking.  Kira slowly followed them in, letting the door slide closed behind her.

“My guess is, his return was the surge you felt,” she said.

“That would be my guess as well,” Julian said, moving from a medical console to join them.  “His cells were saturated with neutrino particles that nearly match the wormhole’s.”

Chris frowned and looked at the doctor.  “How the hell did he survive that?”

Julian shrugged.  “He is the Emissary.”

“Can you revive him now?” Kira asked, staring down at Ben’s face.

Julian nodded.  “Sure, most of his cells have been cleared.  The rest of the particles should have already dispersed.”

He picked up a hypospray that he had probably prepared earlier and pressed it against Ben’s neck.  He paused for a moment and looked from Chris to Kailar to Kira.  After a moment, she nodded, and he pressed the button.

After the hiss subsided, he placed the hypospray on the tray.  A moment later, Ben’s eyes shot open.  He took in a large breath, paused, then slowly exhaled, his eyes moving back and forth.

“I’m back?” he asked, not moving anything more than his eyes and mouth.

Kira nodded, leaning over him and smiling.  “Yes, you’re back.”

He swallowed hard, then started to look around.  He saw Julian, then Chris, and then Kailar.  He frowned when he settled on Kailar.  “You…”

Very odd, Chris thought.  Kailar knows him…and he knows Kailar.  This meeting was most definitely not coincidence.

“Please,” Kailar said, leaning forward himself.  “I must know…I need…I need answers.”

Ben nodded once, solace on his face.  “The only answer I can give…is that you need to trust the Prophets.  Everything they do is for a reason, a purpose.  And they know what they are doing.”

Kailar was stunned for a moment, something Chris had rarely ever seen in him.  Finally, he nodded.  “I suppose I couldn’t have expected more than that.”

Chris frowned, tilting his head to the side.  “I’m sorry, I know this moment is all very important…”  Ben looked at him with a look of peacefulness and intelligence…something he often didn’t see in humans.  He’s a different man now…  “But I find it hard to believe that the Prophets only now send you back to give that simple answer.”

Ben nodded.  “I was told two other things.  One, to tell you that something from your past, Commander Harriman, would one day soon be upon us.  Something terrible.”

Chris felt his mouth go dry for a moment, wondering what it could be.  So many things from his past were terrible and were capable of causing trouble.  “And what exactly is that?”

He shook his head, probably the most movement he’d done so far.  “I don’t know.”

Chris rolled his eyes, unsatisfied.  “Why else did that send you back?” Kira asked, referring to his statement of there being two other things.

Ben rolled his eyes back to look at her, barely moving his head.  “They wanted me here before the storm…so that I could help fight this.  One person may not make much of a difference…but that difference could one day be integral…”

Everyone went silent with those last words.  They knew all too well the truth behind those words.  History had already shown many times just how important one person can be.

“Security to Colonel Nerys,” a harsh voice startled the group.

After a moment of pause, she tapped her comm. badge.  “Go ahead.”

“The Romulan ambassadors are in the outside medical bay demanding to see you.”

Her eyes went wide, immediately looking into Chris’s eyes.  “We’re on our way.”

“Romulan ambassadors?” Ben asked.

“I’ll explain later,” she said, moving around the bed and towards the door.  Chris quickly followed her to the door and through it out into the outer bay.

The Romulans seemed in a panic, quickly shoving their way past the security guards.  “Colonel!”

Rauss quickly moved up to Kira, stopping her in her tracks.  “We have a serious problem!”

“Slow down,” Kira said, backing away from Rauss.  “What’s going on?”

“I didn’t want to say it before contacting my people, before getting permission to tell you, but I think I know who attacked your ships.  And I think you need to know now.”

Kira looked at Chris, who raised his eye brows in surprise.  She looked back to Rauss and nodded.  “Go on.”

She suddenly hesitated, switching her weight from one foot to another.  “Several years ago, our research and development department began a program to modify two Warbirds, specifically modify their weapons and shields.  The results were phenomenal, the shields were stronger than ever.  The only draw back was that if one could get them down to, say, ten percent, it would take a long time to get them back.  The disruptors drew power from the power core directly, giving it immense power.”

Chris already knew the story before she finished, or at least the basic concept behind it.  He began to panic…

“Several months ago, a rebel faction, one specifically bent on starting a war with the Federation, managed to steal both ships…”

Kira frowned.  “You think one of those ships was the one that attacked the Dragon?”

Rauss stared at her for a moment, then nodded.  “Yes.”

Chris frowned, the other part of the story not out yet.  “You made it sound like you were unable to contact your superiors…”

Rauss looked at him with a worried look, then back at Kira.  “We tried, but our signal was disrupted a few light years from here.  We tried again, and our signal was disrupted once again…only at a source that was closer.”

Chris and Kira’s eyes both went wide.  “You mean they’re coming here?”

She nodded.  After checking her wrist chronometer, she added, “they should arrive within the next fifteen minutes at the speed we calculated.”

Kira suddenly looked at Chris, who stared back at her with an open jaw.