And Ezri discovered that many hate-infused faces directed their venom at her. Seeing contempt and mistrust wherever she looked, she hoped the leadership had a plan to protect her, just in case she was mobbed. Thinking she could even attempt something of this magnitude was such a mistake. Have you lost your mind Ezri? This is crazy!

And then she remembered. A crumb, a fragment of a memory and she rooted around for the rest of it.

…Lela felt their hostility, their scorn, as she made the long trek from the door to her seat. As if being a woman, being young and being her symbiont’s first host weren’t enough to prejudice them against her, she knew she had a controversial proposal to make. Most of her colleagues would vehemently disagree with her idea, and it stood little chance of passing, but she knew that she had to make the proposal anyway because she couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t. Further, she knew that she would deserve their sneers and mocking whispers if she couldn’t stand on the courage of her convictions. She knew that courage wasn’t the absence of fear, but rather, acting in the face of fear. Rising from her desk, she lifted a hand, requesting the president pro tempore’s attention and when he refused to see her, with a shaky voice she said…

“…I am here because I believe in the cause of peace,” Ezri began. “Because I believe that my unique perspective gives me the ability to see through the thick forest of rhetoric and rivalry and find the clarity that lies beyond the dark and shadowed path.” And as Lela’s words flooded back to her, Ezri’s confidence increased, her voice ringing out more clear and strong, striking a chord with the quarrelling Yrythny until gradually, they settled down, resumed their seats and prepared to listen.

Of course I can do this,she thought triumphantly. I’m Dax.

6

“What is this, the eleventh time you’ve searched Jake’s quarters?” Ro observed, the door hissing closed behind her.

Sitting on the couch in front of a storage box, Kira looked up from the antique book she perused. “These items were transported from B’hala. I think I’ve only looked through them three or four times.” She took a sip from a mug sitting on the coffee table. “A fifth time can’t hurt.”

Ro sat down in a chair across from Kira. “Nothing new, I assume.” In the course of her duties, she, too, had examined the contents of every box stacked against the walls. Anything he’d left behind had been systematically analyzed and catalogued. Though foul play wasn’t readily evident in the circumstances surrounding Jake’s departure, Bajoran and Starfleet security were treating the disappearance like a criminal investigation.

“I thought maybe knowing Jake’s frame of mind when he left might give us some clues. I’ve been thumbing through the book the investigators found on his nightstand, but so far,” she paused, examining the spine of the novel and reading aloud, “The Invisible Manhasn’t proved to be much help.”

“The forensic behavioral specialists from headquarters combed through his personal logs, his books, his schedule, who he was eating dinner with—his diet even—and they didn’t draw any conclusions.”

“But I knowJake. I should be able to see nuances that the experts might not,” Kira said, dropping the book back into the carton. Replacing the lid, she pushed the carton aside and moved on to open another numbered container. She examined an insert listing the carton’s contents. “Looks like work clothes and family pictures in here.”

The depth of Kira’s loyalty never ceased to astound Ro. To her, it appeared that Kira spent every minute she could spare from her regular duties focused on solving the mystery of Jake Sisko’s disappearance. Ro didn’t find fault in Kira’s single-mindedness. Jake’s vanishing coupled with Captain Sisko’s mysterious disappearance and Odo’s departure made for a major string of losses. Kira’s behavior was more than justified to Ro’s way of thinking.

“I’ve followed your updates throughout the day and the situation generally appears to be under control. I’ll send a strongly worded memo to the Klingon ambassador reminding him that docking on Deep Space 9 is a privilege, not a right.” Kira reached into the box, flipped through a pile of photos, and pushed aside a neatly folded sweater before removing a padd. “What did you think of Ambassador Lang and Gul Macet?”

“Lang surprised me,” Ro confessed, smiling as she remembered. “We started talking—even had a few laughs—and we’re meeting for drinks in a few hours. I think she’s curious about what’s going on around the station…to see if anyone from the old days is still around.”

“You know about her history with Quark?” Kira circled her hand two or three times to indicate “the rest of the story.”

Ro shrugged. “Quark doesn’t kiss and tell unless it gives him more room to maneuver. The look on his face when I walk through the door with Lang should be pretty revealing.”

“I imagine it will,” Kira said dryly. “Anything else come out of Macet’s presence aboard the station that I should know about?”

“Minor accidents. An unfortunate incident with a jumjastick when Macet made an unexpected appearance near the arboretum.”

Kira winced. “Prognosis?”

“Dr. Tarses said a few sutures and an analgesic would cover it. A fainting here and there. An irate prylar who swears we’re seeing the second coming of Gul Dukat—based on an obscure passage from the Larish Book of Prophecy.”

“Macet…” Kira said, absently tracing shapes on the coffee table with her finger. “Do you have any thoughts?”

“Yeah. I want to run my own DNA tests because it’s too bizarre to be believed.” Ro had been eager to say those words aloud since she met Macet. Standing face-to-face with the physical reincarnation of Dukat had catapulted her thirty years into the past. From her days on Bajor, she recalled waiting in the soup line, staring at the screens bearing the prefect’s holo, wondering if the image was of a real person or something the Cardassians invented to scare their slaves. The way Bajoran mothers would invoke the pah-wraithsto warn their disobedient children. Ro never bought the folklore about the pah-wraithsanymore than she now accepted what she’d been told about Macet.

“Ro, your reaction’s understandable, but—” Kira said, doing her best to sound like she believed what she was saying.

“Colonel, there have been no confirmed sightings of Dukat since your own experience with him at Empok Nor,” Ro stated emphatically. Believing Kira was about to protest, Ro pressed on. “And I know the rumors about the fire caves. Without concrete confirmation, they’re just that—rumors. Dukat could be anywhere, doing anything,” Ro argued. “He’s insane! Who’s to say he hasn’t developed some alternate personality and it’s this Macet.”

“Akellen Macet was known to the Federation even before the Occupation ended,” Kira said patiently. “Starfleet Command sent me his file right after I notified them of his role in the Europa Nova evacuation. And Alon Ghemor transmitted the gul’s DNA records as well as his own personal assurance of Macet’s identity.”

Why Kira insists on sticking to the official party line, I don’t get,Ro thought. But I suppose being in charge means you have to appease the brass. That doesn’t mean I have to.“Asking Gul Macet to submit to a station security ID verification wouldn’t be out of line considering our current alert status.” Ro wanted her shot at him. Have him in her office on her terms.

Kira’s eyes drilled into Ro’s. “While I have no doubt that Macet would agree to it, I won’t authorize it. Consider this issue closed, Lieutenant.”