“It really is a kind of miracle, Ben,” Kyle said.

Benjamin Sisko nodded gravely. “Yes. Definitely a miracle. I just ... I can’t even begin to find the words that describe what I’m feeling right now.”

“You don’t need to, Ben. I’ve been in your shoes.”

Ben nodded again and they stood in silence for a few moments, watching the mother and child sleep. But while they observed quietly, Kyle heard voices out in the hall. The one that caught his attention belonged to Dr. Trbovich, but instead of his usually folksy self, his voice was raised in something like alarm.

“Surely this can wait,” he said insistently. “The patient is resting after a very serious incident. I don’t want him disturbed.”

Kyle glanced up at Ben, catching his eye. Ben shrugged but both men kept quiet, listening.

“I’m sorry, Doctor,” another voice said firmly. “We need to take custody immediately. We have medical facilities in the brig if he’s still in need of treatment.”

The brig?Kyle wondered. Why... ?

“You can’t just walk in and take away one of my patients,” Dr. Trbovich declared. “I won’t have it.”

“This warrant says we can,” a third voice chimed in. “Now, where is Kyle Riker?”

Chapter 4

Ben Sisko walked over to the room’s doorway, and Kyle’s heart jumped in his chest. The man was going to turn him in! But instead, Ben spoke in a soft voice. “Close.”

The door slid shut, and Ben turned to Kyle, his expression curious. “What’s this all about, Mr. Riker?” he asked in an anxious whisper.

Kyle blew out the breath he’d been holding. “I’m not sure, Ben. There’s some sort of ... it seems ridiculous to say ‘conspiracy,’ but that’s what it’s looking like ... against me. A couple of nights ago a Starfleet crewman tried to kill me in my apartment. Ridiculous charges have been leveled against me by some anonymous source, who went straight to the admiralty. And tonight someone beamed a bomb into my place, nearly finishing the job. I know I haven’t done anything to merit being arrested by Starfleet Security, so I have to believe that if I let those men in the hall take me away, I won’t be coming back.”

“But ... that’s crazy,” Ben said. “Starfleet doesn’t just make people disappear. There are rules, procedures. Due process.”

“Normally, I’d agree with you,” Kyle told him. “This isn’t normal, though. There’s something going on, something that isn’t right. I don’t know what it is or who’s behind it. But whoever it is wants my head.”

He watched Ben carefully as the younger man processed this data. Out in the hall, they could still faintly hear the security officers arguing with Dr. Trbovich.

“Ben, you don’t know me that well, but I hope you know I’m an honest man,” Kyle pleaded. “I just want to stay free of all this until I can figure out what’s going on. Even if they don’t kill me, if they lock me up I won’t have a chance to defend my name. But since there have been two attempts on my life in the past two nights, both seemingly with Starfleet participation, I think killing me is the likeliest outcome.”

Ben glanced at the door. The voices had faded away down the corridor. He looked back at Kyle and nodded his head. “You’re right, Mr. Riker. I don’t know you that well. But Curzon has spoken highly of you, and I’ve learned to trust the old man. So I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt here.”

Kyle let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. He’d only met the Trill ambassador a few times, and was now very grateful that he had left a good impression on him.

“It sounds like you’re being railroaded,” Ben continued, “and I can’t go along with that. I’ll do what I can to get you out of here, and then you’re on your own. Fair?”

“More than I could ask for, Ben. I won’t forget it.”

“I have temporary quarters nearby,” Ben said. “I’ll grab you a uniform from there. Then together we can walk out, and maybe you won’t be spotted. Just wait in here till I get back—no one’s going to disturb a sleeping mother and baby.”

“I’ll be here.”

Ben turned and went out the door, leaving Kyle alone with Jennifer and young Jake Sisko. He turned down the light, so that anyone who peeked in would have a harder time seeing the unexpected visitor inside. As he waited, he watched Jennifer Sisko sleep, her arms gently cradling her son, even in sleep her maternal instinct to cherish and protect kicking in.

He had felt like that, in the days after Will had been born. The delivery had been hard on Annie, Kyle’s wife, and for the first several days after the boy’s birth Kyle had needed to take care of both of them. He had risen to the task, though, tending to everyone’s needs, throwing himself into the job wholeheartedly. Even after Annie was feeling better, he stayed home with them, happy just to be in their company. Nobody got much sleep those first few weeks, but he didn’t care. Even the cries of his son had been magical to him. Kyle watched young Will carefully, not wanting to miss a moment of his development, as the boy became able to sit up, then to crawl, and finally to take a few steps on his own. He had exulted in his son’s first words, and then his first attempts at whole sentences.

But as time wore on—especially after Annie got sick again, and Kyle’s primary focus had to be on caring for her—the luster of having a new son faded. Daily life got in the way, Kyle had decided. He still loved his son, but other parts of life kept interfering, and that pure paternal bliss was diluted somehow. He wondered, now, how that happened. How the sheer joy of looking at his son’s face changed, through familiarity, into something different, something lesser.

He wondered if it happened to all fathers, or if it was just a failing in him.

He had not reached any conclusions when Ben Sisko returned with a bundle in his hands. As soon as he was inside with the door closed, he tossed it to Kyle. “They’re still out there,” he said. “Scurrying around the corridors looking for you. The doctors aren’t helping them, but they aren’t stopping them anymore, either. I ran into one of the nurses, and told her I was bringing Jennifer some spare clothes. I think she bought it.”

Kyle looked at Ben, and then down at his own body. Ben was considerably larger than he was. Instead of taking off his own dun-colored jumpsuit, he pulled on the uniform over his clothing. “I appreciate this, Ben,” he said, tugging the oversized tunic down over his head and shoulders. “I really do.”

“I know,” Ben said confidently. “And I want you to do one thing for me in return.”

“Name it,” Kyle said.

“Let me know how this works out. When you’ve got it all settled, I mean.”

“I will,” Kyle assured him. “Hopefully it’ll be all cleared up before you’re a captain someplace.”

Ben laughed. It was a sound that, under other circumstances, Kyle thought, might be very intimidating. “I don’t know if there’s any big hurry, then,” he said, “but we’ll call it a deal.”

With Kyle fully dressed in Ben’s spare uniform, Ben opened the door and the two of them strode confidently into the hallway, as if leaving a conference room or an officer’s lounge instead of a recovery room. A nurse passed them in the hall without a second glance, even though, to Kyle, the bad fit of the uniform seemed like a beacon.

They didn’t slow when they reached the corner, but instead made a sharp right turn and kept going. When they passed another intersection, Kyle caught a glimpse of the two security officers coming toward them. He tensed, felt himself sweating beneath the extra layers of fabric. But he kept Sisko’s bulk between himself and them and continued on. The security team didn’t seem to think twice about them. But then, they knew Kyle Riker was a civilian, so two officers in uniform would not raise a flag.

One turbolift and two minutes later, and the two men were outside the building in the cool night air. A gentle breeze felt good on Kyle’s flushed face. “There you go,” Ben said. “I’d better get back to my family.”