And she remembered too what the Iconian—if, indeed, it had been an Iconian—had warned: do not forsake the journey for the destination. Whatever was going to come to pass, and despite the Attainder, Kira had a role to play in the scheme of future events, a path the Prophets had paved for her, one she was not only willing to walk, but eager to walk. She had endured much anguish in her life, but so many of her people had endured so much more. The time had come to move past that. One day, she hoped, Bajor would become a beacon to the rest of the quadrant—even to the rest of the galaxy—that shined the way to freedom and faith and love. And Kira would do whatever she could to help make that happen.

The airlock warning signal pulsed in the small room atop the docking pylon, and Kira looked through the hatch window to see a giant standing in the inner compartment. A moment later, the alert ceased, and the circular hatch rolled open, its toothed circumference meshing along its matching track. A rush of air hissed briefly as the atmospheres in the airlock and the receiving bay equalized. Then the hatch retracted into the bulkhead, fully revealing the largest human being Kira had ever encountered.

She assumed he was human, anyway. He wore a Starfleet uniform with an admiral’s insignia—five pips framed in gold, she saw, a fleet admiral—and stood at least two and a quarter meters. Even taller than the Hirogen,Kira thought. Not as tall as the Iconian, but larger. The man’s physique rivaled his height, with a broad chest and shoulders, and a torso that did not taper as it fell to his waist. His legs looked as wide as tree trunks, easily three times as big around as her own. He appeared fit, neither overweight nor overly muscular.

“You are Colonel Kira?” the man asked, the timbre of his voice rich and deep. A vague accent she could not place tinged his speech.

Kira raised her eyes to look at the man’s face, and only then realized that she had been peering at the rest of his body, struck by his considerable presence. She felt discomfited, but if the man noticed the accidental indiscretion, he gave no indication. He had no doubt elicited such reactions before, she concluded.

“Yes,” she answered. “I’m Colonel Kira Nerys. Welcome to Deep Space 9.” She moved forward toward the hatch, her right hand extended in the traditional human greeting.

The man stepped over the threshold separating the airlock from the receiving bay, and then down the steps, ducking as he did so. Kira could not tell if his head would have connected with the upper bulkhead, but she supposed the movement had been a practiced one, born out of necessity. “How do you do,” he said, his measured words sounding formal. “I am Admiral Akaar.” He pronounced it Aka-ar,and rather than shaking Kira’s hand, the admiral raised his right fist to the upper left portion of his chest, then opened his hand and held it out away from his body, palm up. “I come with an open heart and hand.”

Kira withdrew her hand, caught off guard by the greeting. She felt clumsy for having breached this protocol, despite being unfamiliar with it. Akaar must have perceived this. “A traditional salutation among my people,” he explained.

Perhaps not human, then,Kira thought, although she recognized that not all Earth customs were uniformly practiced by all humans. “Well, welcome to Deep Space 9,” she said.

Akaar inclined his head in acknowledgment. He met her gaze confidently, almost forcefully, with brown eyes so dark that they verged on being black. His face was pale and soft, Kira saw, almost doughy, with lines etched deeply into his features. His hairline began high up on his forehead, his hair steely gray and long, pulled backward into a knot behind his head. It put Kira in mind of Lieutenant Commander Worf— Ambassador Worf,she reminded herself, though she still had trouble envisioning the fiery Klingon as a diplomat—but Akaar’s hair was not nearly as long, ending just a few centimeters below his neck.

“Do you have time to speak with me, Colonel?” the admiral asked. Though phrased as a question, the request sounded very much like an order. “It will require perhaps thirty minutes.”

“Of course,” Kira said. “May I ask what this is about, Admiral?” She wondered about the early arrival of Mjolnir,and about the presence on board of an admiral.

“I am headed to Bajor,” Akaar said, “to assist with the resettlement of the Europani, and to observe the labors to send aid to Cardassia.”

“I see,” Kira said, curious about the need for a Starfleet admiral in either endeavor. She also realized that he had not actually answered her question. “Excuse me, Admiral, but I wasn’t asking why you’ve come to Bajor; I was asking why you’ve come to DS9.”

Akaar seemed to consider the question before answering, though his eyes remained on Kira. “Councillor zh’Thane will be accompanying me to Bajor,” he told her. Charivretha zh’Thane, the Andorian representative on the Federation Council, had been visiting Europa Nova prior to the gateways crisis, and she had subsequently been evacuated to the station. “And I wanted to speak with you,” he added.

“All right,” Kira said, taking a step toward the turbolift. “The wardroom is closest, or we can go to my office—”

“If you don’t mind,” the admiral said, not allowing her to list all of their options, “we can use a conference room aboard Mjolnir.”Akaar moved aside and motioned back toward where the starship sat docked at the end of the airlock.

“All right,” Kira said. Again, she felt uncomfortable, as though she had somehow tripped up with the admiral. She tapped her combadge, a quick burst of electronic tones signaling its activation. “Kira to ops.”

“Ops, Nguyen here,”came the immediate response. The words carried the slightly hollow quality of a transmitted voice.

“Chief, I’m going to be in a meeting on board the Mjolnirfor the next half-hour,” Kira informed him.

“Acknowledged,”Nguyen said. “Should I consider you unreachable, Colonel?”

Kira looked to Akaar for an answer, but while he returned her gaze, he offered no suggestion as to his wishes. “Yes,” she finally answered, slightly frustrated at her seeming difficulty in communicating with the admiral. “I’ll check in when I’m back on the station. Kira out.” She deactivated her combadge with a touch. She did not have to tell Nguyen that she should be contacted if an emergency arose.

Akaar turned and stepped back into the airlock. As Kira followed, she realized that she still had no idea why the admiral wanted to see her.

The conference room sat far forward in Mjolnir’s primary hull. The outer bulkhead angled dramatically inward toward the bow of the ship, giving the room an essentially triangular shape. A third as big as DS9’s wardroom, it held a table that could accommodate eight people— Fewer,Kira thought, if they were Akaar’s size.Great floor-to-ceiling windows lined the entirety of the outer bulkhead, and a large viewscreen was set into the long inner wall.

Akaar sat down at the conference table, his back to the windows. The chair actually creaked beneath him as he settled his enormous bulk. Kira felt a moment of embarrassment for the admiral, but he gave no sign that he felt similarly.

“Will Captain Hoku be joining us?” Kira asked as she sat down opposite the admiral. Past Akaar, she saw the tips of two of DS9’s docking pylons reaching upward into view like great metallic fingers clawing at the heavens. In the distance, a Bajoran transport drifted lazily outside their grasp.

“No, she will not,” Akaar said. He rested his forearms flat on the reflective black surface of the table. “I must inform you, Colonel,” he said, “that Mjolnirwill not be standing in for Defiantwhile it explores the Gamma Quadrant.” He did not have an accent after all, Kira decided, but a tendency to overpronounce his words, enunciating with a slow, cautious clarity. “Gryphonwill instead substitute for Defiant.”