Cerulean Stars - Chapter 142

Chapter 142 - Destiny - Part 1

Stardate 48543.6 - July 18, 2371 - 09:56:09

With local subspace conditions in an oddly permissive mood, the trip back to Deep Space Nine had only taken them three days. Which meant they had managed to arrive back on the exact day the pair of Cardassian scientists were set to arrive on the station to help with the wormhole communications project.

Thankfully Raine’s position meant that her presence wouldn’t actually be needed on that particular project until time came to take the Defiant to the Gamma quadrant. And that was good, because she still had the D’Vana situation to deal with.

“I didn’t expect the station to be this dark.” D’Vana murmured as she looked around the promenade. 

“Cardassian design.” Raine said, pausing in her step to give the girl a few seconds to take it all in. “We keep meaning to refit the lighting to something closer to the Starfleet standard, but it’s pretty much on the bottom of the maintenance list.”

She’d abused her power as Keiko’s friend to convince Miles to replace the lights in her own quarters, but that had just been a small extra alongside the general security refits she’d insisted on for all the officer quarters after her promotion.

“Truthfully,” She continued as she started walking again. “I'd rather we replace the station entirely with a Spacedock type, but that's probably not going to happen unless Bajor actually joins the Federation.”

Stopping at the entrance to their destination, she motioned to the giant sign. “And this is Quarks Bar. Owned by Quark, head of Quark Enterprises.”

It was early enough in the day that only a handful of guests were in the bar, and Raine waved to Rom as she walked over to where the man was wiping down one of the tables. “Any chance Quark's in?”

“Brooks…” Rom stuttered in surprise before straightening up and turning to her with a somewhat fake grin. “You're back?”

Normally Raine would have been tempted to run with the opening the Ferengi’s questioning tone provided and make a joke about being a changeling. But with Rom there was too much chance he'd take her seriously so the Asari just nodded. “Yup, and I have some non-Starfleet business I need to talk with Quark about.”

“He’s in the back…” Rom began, eyes darting towards the somewhat hidden doorway that led to the storage room and small office. “But ah… I’m not supposed to leave the front when he’s not around.”

“Then use the com panel by the bar.” Raine said, pointing over at the aforementioned communications system.

Rom rubbed the back of his neck in clear embarrassment. “Right… Sorry… It’s just with everything going on lately I’ve been having to work a lot of double shifts, and I’m sure you know how that can be.”

“Not especially.” Raine admitted, moderately amused at the thought that he would believe a senior Starfleet officer had anything even approaching a set schedule. “As a member of Starfleet the only time I’m not on call is when I’m out on vacation.”

“Oh…” Rom muttered in seeming disappointment.

The door to the back slid open and Quark walked out, the older Ferengi staring at Rom for several seconds before shaking his head and stalking over. “When someone important asks you to get me, you get me, you don’t stand around chatting them up.”

“Sorry, brother.” Rom cringed, grabbing his towel and running off to another table.

Quark turned to Raine with a toothy grin on his face. “Commander, welcome back.” His eyes flicked to the silently standing D’Vana before his smile deepened slightly. “I take it your surprise trip to Orion was more than a little successful?”

“More or less.” Raine agreed with a nod. “Though there were a few snags in the end.”

“And I take it this lovely little lady is one of them?” Quark asked suavely as he focused on D’Vana.

Raine’s eyes narrowed slightly. “That’s Saya’s cousin D’Vana, she’s fourteen.” She put extra emphasis on the last, taking a brief moment of pleasure at the cringe that flashed across Quark’s features.

“Hi.” D’Vana gave a small wave.

“And the reason I was hoping to talk to you.” Raine continued. “Because I was hoping you could provide her with a secure line to Orion.” 

“To Orion?” Quark repeated, looking over D'Vana with a contemplative gleam in his eyes. “You know, that's not exactly a cheap favor given the attention it risks.”

The glare from earlier returned as an unamused look settled over Raine’s features. “The Grand Nagus tripped into my boobs, four times, you owe me Quark.” 

“Now now.” Quark held out his hands in a clear attempt to placate her. “I had nothing to do with that. However even if I did, it wouldn't be enough for me to risk Odo getting it into his head that I have Syndicate connections.”

D'Vana cringed as Raine shot the Orion teen a somewhat amused glance.

“I think that's going to be unavoidable at this point given that dance troupe you brought in for your grand opening.” Raine teased. “But Odo already knows the reason for this, and believe it or not has actually given his word not to hold it against you.”

Even if he didn't really like them that much due to their generally chaotic nature, Odo did have something of a soft spot when it came to kids. So he thankfully hadn’t been too put out about letting D’Vana try and arrange for a safe ride home.

Quark steepled his fingers together as he seemed to consider the request. “All right.” He nodded and held up a finger. “But a direct com link to Orion's not cheap.”

“Oh,” D’Vana perked up. “I can handle that.” She cringed slightly. “Or well, my family can.”

“And they would be?” Quark probed as a calculating look appeared in his eyes.

“The Tendi family.” Raine interjected, taking a small bit of pleasure in the way Quark’s look turned sour.

“You know what,” The Ferengi quickly recovered, offering them both a faux grin. “How about I just say you owe me a favor, Brooks?”

“As long as it’s not something illegal.” Raine agreed, not even bothering to argue given Quark could and would continue badgering her until he got something out of this.

“Come on then kid.” Quark turned back towards the bar and began to walk, motioning for D’Vana to follow only to pause after only two steps and glance over his shoulder at Raine. “Might be a bit, why not order something while you wait.”

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Glancing up from her half eaten hasperat as D’Vana returned, the young Orion fidgeted several seconds under the Asari’s stare before offering a wane smile. “So… I was able to get in touch with mom…”

Raine let out the breath of relief she had been holding, honestly more than a little worried that she'd unintentionally butterflied the overthrowing of the Tendi family.

“But it's going to be at least a couple weeks before they can send a ship to come and get me because Aunt Jellaa was able to escape and they're all currently busy trying to hunt her and the rest of her faction down.”

Groaning, Raine dragged a hand down her face before offering D'Vana a tired look. “Rember this when you're older, D'Vana. Don't date swashbuckling rogues, it's really not worth the headaches that follow them around.”

“Er…” D'Vana began hesitantly as an awkward look flashed across her features. “I already kind of figured that out…”

“Not that there's anything wrong with swashbuckling rogues.” She hastily added in. “I'm just pretty sure they're not my type.”

“That puts you one up on me.” Raine grumbled, well aware her own tastes had taken something of a dangerous turn since her impromptu transmigration. “But I'm sure you'll find a nice eccentric engineer someday who will sweep you off your feet and into a jefferies tube.”

“That’s…” D’Vana hesitated, clearly a bit unsure of just what she wanted to say. “Oddly specific.”

“It sure is.” Raine grinned at her own inside joke before patting the empty bar stool next to her. “Now come on, take a seat. It’s lunch time so might as well grab something here before we head back to my quarters and get you settled in for a bit.”

“Er?” D’Vana glanced from the bar stool to the hasperat wrap uncertainly. 

“Don’t worry,” Raine reassured her with a smile. “Bajoran foods can get a bit spicy, but they’re all perfectly safe for Orion’s.”

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Stardate 48544.1 - July 18, 2371 - 14:18:57

The door chime rang, dragging Raine’s attention away from the pile of backlogged reports on her desk.

“It’s open.” Raine announced, and moments later the door slid open to reveal Kira.

The Bajoran woman's eyes flicked around the room, quickly zeroing in on Raine before her way over with a bemused look on her face. “Do I want to know?”

“Backlog from when we were out of communications.” Raine gave a flippant wave to one of the piles, only to have to desperately steady it with a hand when that ended up being enough to make it wobble precariously. “Just finished reading through the one about you, Odo, and the Changeling?”

Kira grimaced. “Odo thinks it was some sort of morality test.”

“Probably.” Raine nodded in agreement, her mind going back to her meld with the link. “They might have joined with him, but the psychological effects of that probably did a good job of drowning out the deeper facets of his personality. So I can see them wanting to follow up on the subject in a way that would more clearly show just what type of person he has grown into.”

An odd look flashed across Kira’s face. “Surprised you’re not more worried given our run-in means we have confirmation of Changelings being in the Alpha Quadrant.”

“I never really thought we didn’t.” Raine shrugged, as always leaving out the main reason of just why that was. “And while the Medusan Ambassador we sent to the Dominion might have only been able to wrangle two meetings with an actual Changelings so far. Just talking with the Vorta has been enough to confirm that they have at least several active information sources in our quadrant.”

Which the Asari was moderately sure the Dominion had wanted them to know as part of their general plan to sow paranoia in the Quadrant.

“I’ll never understand why they’re so against just talking.” Kira muttered with clear exasperation in her voice.

“Xenophobic species are always a pain in the ass like that.” Raine agreed, grimacing slightly at the memory of just how many of such species there actually were in the galaxy. “Thankfully most just shut themselves away on their homeworlds once they find out the rest of the galaxy has people in it.”

Which historically tended to result in said Xenophobic species being wiped out when they inevitably encountered a species like the Klingon’s who just didn’t care what they thought.

“Too bad the Cardassians didn’t do that.” Kira grumbled.

“Is there a problem with our guests?” Raine guessed, the way the Bajoran woman had said the last, suggesting a bit more immediate concern with the species than her more historic dislike.

Scowling, Kira nodded. “That’s actually why I wanted to talk with you. There’s a prophecy, and I was hoping you could help me convince Commander Sisko of its seriousness.”

Raine straightened up in her chair. “Which prophecy?”

“Trakor's Third.” Kira put forward. “I don’t know if you’ve read it, but–”

"When the river wakes,” Raine began reciting before she could finish. “Stirred once more to Janir's side, three vipers will return to their nest in the sky. When the vipers try to peer through the temple gates, a sword of stars will appear in the heavens. The temple will burn, and its gates shall be cast open."

“All right,” Kira gave a wry grin as the Asari finished. “I guess you do.”

“I made sure to read any that looked like they had something to do with the celestial temple since,” Raine motioned to the window. “We’re kind of right in front of it.”

There had been a couple that she was pretty sure were warning about pah-wraith escape attempts, and at least one that talked about a ship of fools that she had the oddest suspicion was referencing the Cerritos. But other than that it had proven remarkably difficult to piece together the almost random seeming metaphors that filled Bajoran prophecy into a cohesive picture. 

“But anyways, what's so serious about the prophecy that you need to convince Sisko to take action?”

“The temple will burn,” Kira repeated, holding forward her hands to add extra emphasis to her words. “And its gates shall be cast open.” 

Turning away from her desktop display Raine focused fully on Kira. “Fire associatives in the context of Bajoran prophecies tend to hold three general positions.” She held up a hand and started counting on her fingers. “Actual fires, things that could be mistaken as fires, and not so oblique references to the Pah-Wraiths.”

“I'm aware?” Kira agreed, clearly unsure where Raine was going with this.

“We can rule out the first pretty easily, and while the third is theoretically possible, snake imagery has never been associated with the Path-Wraiths. Which really just leaves us with the middle option, something that was mistaken as a fire.”

In the context of spaceborn anomalies that descriptive was actually surprisingly far reaching, though it was unlikely Kira was aware of that given her limited space traveling experience.

“While in most connective contexts to the celestial temple that would be moderately worrying, the second part of the sentence actually removes the idea that the celestial temple is in any actual danger. Because it's not saying something like the gates shall never again open, but that the gates shall be cast open.”

And even without knowing what she already did about what was going on with this specific prophecy, there wasn't a lot of interpretive wiggle room there.

“With the Bajoran definition of the word cast in this case being, to force open. Which is pretty much exactly what this experiment is trying to do, force open the mouth of the wormhole a tiny bit so we can send a communications signal through it.”

Kira opened her mouth, then closed it for several seconds before a scowl found its way onto her lips. “Vedak Yarka believes there will be a great disaster if we proceed.”

“And what does Kai Bariel think?” Raine asked, heavily doubting Kira had actually called him up given the fact she was here at all.

A slightly guilty look flashed across Kira’s face. “I didn’t want to bother him with it given how much work he put into the peace treaty.”

Raine gave an expectant hum that was enough to make Kira fidget slightly. “All right, I’ll have a word with Sisko about the whole thing.”

Kira blinked, her body language all radiating confusion. “What?”

Rolling her eyes, Raine took a moment to stretch before rising to her feet. “I might disagree with what you think the end result of the prophecy will be. But assuming the rest of the facts fit, Sisko should at least attempt to contact the Prophets and make sure we’re not about to mess up their home.”

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Author’s Notes: I always felt it was a bit odd that the writers had Starfleet consider the Prophets to be just “wormhole aliens” yet never really attempted to treat them as Starfleet usually treats newly discovered aliens.