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Mission Within Author: Sara Notes: With many thanks to Jerie for doing an amazing beta and for everything that came after. The O'Briens' quarters were quiet. Not silent, but remarkably still for a family with two small children. "Miles, when does Julian get back from his conference?" The doctor had been gone for three days, and Mrs. O'Brien knew that her husband would be craving some adult conversation outside of hypo spanners and isolinear chips. "I can't imagine he'd be more than a week, even including travel time." Miles was fairly certain Julian's actual itinerary didn't include a medical conference. The fact that he beamed Julian, along with a rather generous portion of medical supplies, to a ship with strange readings, the Beyond Antares, was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to Julian's actual destination. But perhaps we'd better start at the beginning. Back before the doctor reminded the chief of letters that would need to be sent in case; before there was talk of Odo's new talent and before Miles spent several late nights examining sensor records. * Odo had never been that successful at copying the form of solids. His standard appearance lacked the distinctive lines and features of most humanoids. After a great deal of rest, he could sharpen them a bit, but he never understood why he should bother. This softened face was how everyone knew him; people respected him in this guise. And he appreciated the species-neutrality it gave him. Captain Sisko came to visit Odo in his quarters that evening. "Please, sit down," Odo said, gesturing at the small couch, formerly Major Kira's, he had acquired for his rare visits from humanoids. "I'd offer you something to drink but I haven't yet seen the purpose of having a replicator." "I'm fine, thank you," Sisko replied as he made himself comfortable. "Recent events, mostly those involving the founders, have lead Starfleet in general, and myself more specifically, to be curious about the extent of your abilities when it comes to shape shifting. About whether or not you could learn to emulate a specific humanoid." "I am able to sharpen my face slightly, for example to look more Bajoran." As he spoke, Odo appeared to scrunch his nose slightly. For a few seconds, slight ridges appeared. However, the effort required was obvious, and he returned to his normal appearance quickly. "I believe that, even through diligent practice and training, I will not be able to significantly progress beyond my current abilities. You cannot teach an old dog new tricks, perhaps?" "And that is what I indicated to Starfleet. However, Admiral Ross postulated that perhaps with something akin to a template or mask, you could, for short periods of time, convince the general population that you were someone else." "Perhaps." Odo was not sure how his matrix would respond to such an intrusion. "I will have to experiment." "Dr. Bashir and Chief O'Brien will be made aware of this project, and will be able to help you with any materials or expertise you will need." Sisko rose from the couch as he spoke and began to make his way to the door. "Yes, sir. I would like to get started on this as soon as possible. I will contact Dr. Bashir after my shift tomorrow." "I'll make sure he's expecting you," Sisko replied and then exited Odo's quarters. Although Odo was not surprised by this request, he still did not understand why this talent would be of much use to Starfleet. With modern surgical and make-up techniques, most humanoids could be made-up to look as though they were of another species or even another individual of similar build. And since he wasn't a member of Starfleet, there was little they would be able to do to convince him to use this ability, if indeed it worked, to infiltrate anything. In short, his curiosity was piqued. * It was a morning just like any other, except that on Deep Space Nine, the ordinary is extraordinary and if things seem normal, it's only temporary. Worf and Dax were pretending to argue with each other, as she gently rearranged his sash and he tried to make them all think he didn't appreciate the attention. O'Brien and Kira tried to contain their amusement together. Well, not together, but they were working on getting the communications relays optimized as they tried not to laugh. O'Brien noticed a red flash on the incoming panel, and then there was the standard klaxon of a mayday call. "Deep Space Nine, Deep Space Nine, respond please. This is the freighter Beyond Antares. We have a medical emergency aboard. Respond please." He quickly stopped the diagnostics and got to work on boosting the signal as best he could. "Beyond Antares, this is DS9. What is the nature of the emergency?" Dax asked. "We're not sure. It's the damned doc who's ill - we think it's Simna's Fever. We've got the doc quarantined off as best we can, and one of the crew volunteered to tend to him, but he's not doing so well." The freighter captain, or whichever crewmember they were communicating with, sounded a little rough. Rougher than O'Brien expected for what appeared to be a respectable little ship. "Beyond Antares, this is Dr. Bashir. I'll get into a quarantine suit and beam over in five minutes. Give your coordinates to Ops." At this point, O'Brien was merely listening in as he configured the sensors to find out exactly what it was about the Beyond Antares that struck him as odd. He started with a standard scan: energy signatures, life signs, and weapons capability. Nothing really made sense, unless of course the crew were actually felines and Vulcan-type ruminants. "A problem, Chief?" Captain Sisko asked. O'Brien hadn't even heard him come out of his office. "Look at these readings, Sir. They're all over the place," he replied as the Captain looked over his shoulder and O'Brien tried to clean the results up so they were more manageable. "Beyond Antares, this is Sisko, Captain of DS9, we have some ... curious readings here." "Yeah, I'm sorry about that, Captain. We're carrying a cargo of selenium and it's screwing up everyone's sensors. We nearly got blown out of the sky two days ago by some trigger-happy Klingon. You can see my manifest if you're worried." Sisko gave him a questioning look. The results were consistent with selenium interference, except that the average stochastic measure for the energy readings was lower than he expected for selenium; not impossible, just not likely. Since he didn't have any other possibilities, he nodded cautiously at the Captain. "No, that won't be necessary. My CMO is beaming over now." O'Brien sent out the request for the transport operator to beam Bashir directly from sickbay as soon as he was ready, and then got back to trying to understand the odd readings. If selenium was causing the unexpected sensor readings and Klingons had attacked them, there might be other issues that would require his attention. "Major, I'm afraid we'll have to delay the work on the communications array until perhaps tomorrow. There's something not right about this ship, and then I've got a meeting with Odo later." "Not a problem, Chief, as long as it gets done in the next day or two." Their conversations at work lacked the familiarity that had developed between them, and O'Brien found he missed it. While Miles coaxed the computer into giving him the base sensor readings and then into independently analysing them rather than depending on the output parameters, he received a call from a work crew in waste processing. "Sir, we're going to need another hand down here. Two if you can. There's computer backlog, and we don't have enough people to maintain the system and deal with that problem." After pulling up the duty roster, he replied, "I'll send Ensign Tuvak for the duration of his shift. Let me know then if you still need more help. O'Brien out." He contacted Tuvak at the transporter station and sent him to waste processing, then set up his console in ops to allow him to monitor the transporters. Detailed scans of the Beyond Antares continued to come up clean. Not too clean, either. Except for a niggling feeling that something was wrong and the fact that things weren't quite random enough for selenium, everything appeared normal. He'd been able to scan around selenium interference before, but that was using the state of the art sensors on the Enterprise. He was proud of his work on DS9 but some things weren't quite at the level of the flagship. Not that he wouldn't be able to work around that, just that it might take a little time and involve a few procedures that didn't fall under "standard operating." While he worked his way around the protocols he'd so carefully set up, a communique came in. "Bashir to DS9." "Go ahead," Miles replied. "Two to beam directly to sickbay. And Miles, if you could alert the captain to our visitor?" The Captain must have seen the message come in, because by the time Bashir was ready to be transported, he was standing across from O'Brien's station. "I'll come to collect a report once your patient has been stabilized, Doctor." "Thank you, sir." A reminder scrolled onto O'Brien's workstation: his meeting with Odo was in ten minutes. He quickly set up the computer to perform a detailed analysis that would likely take a couple of hours and made sure that there was someone on duty monitoring the transporters. * It had taken O'Brien a few more minutes than he'd anticipated to get out of Ops, and as such was running late. Luckily, he'd already taken the latest template prototypes to the cargo bay where he, Odo and Bashir had been meeting for the past few weeks. They still hadn't been able to find a material that was both convincing and comfortable for Odo to wear as what amounted to a mask under a thin layer of his own matrix. Imitating body size had, thankfully, been much easier. Even hands, although they had taken a bit of practice, now gave Odo no difficulties at all. O'Brien had decided early on that he didn't really want to know the implications of what Starfleet would use their research for. There were definitely some days, though, that he wouldn't have minded having a double. Surprisingly, he ran into Odo just before he reached the cargo bay. "Chief, I would apologise for running late, but it appears that we are both a little behind this afternoon. Captain Sisko asked me to run a detailed security check on a ship that arrived earlier. He mentioned that you had noticed something unexpected about it." Miles responded as he entered the cargo bay and walked towards a small carrying case near a service area with a bench. "The Beyond Antares? Not so much unexpected, but there's something that just doesn't sit right about it. Haven't figured out what, though. Did anything come up in your security check?" "Not yet. I will keep you informed." "The templates I've got this time are all organo-metallics from the list of compounds that Julian confirmed would not irritate your matrix. Why don't we start with this one? Transamylated aluminium chloride," he said as he pulled out a translucent, flexible sheet, moulded into the form of a face and neck. He handed it to Odo, who placed against his face. A thin layer of his morphogenic matrix swirled around the template as his hair morphed from blond to dark brown. Miles watched the process carefully, taking note of how Odo subtly altered his height and build to match the face. After only a few seconds, it appeared that Julian Bashir in Odo's uniform stood before him. "Odo, your uniform?" And in the blink of an eye, he wore a blue Starfleet uniform. Odo walked over to the full-length mirror they had set up in the corner and preceded to make various facial expressions at himself. It would take a bit of practice, but as a keen observer of the people around him, Odo was already able to do a convincing job of smiling, frowning, and concentrating like Bashir. "Can you talk in this one?" The last model that had at first appeared successful was not flexible enough around the mouth for Odo to talk properly. Tentatively moving his mouth at first, he then said, exactly as though it were Bashir speaking, "I've prescribed rest because it's hard for a doctor to go wrong with that one." O'Brien smiled widely, and wished that Julian could have seen this one. Odo then proceeded to do an absolutely perfect imitation of the doctor's laughter and then followed that up with a smug grin. Once the two of them managed to contain themselves, O'Brien asked, "Is it comfortable? We can try the other ones if it isn't." "It is not as uncomfortable as your previous attempts. We should try the others, however." So, for the next hour or so, Odo tried on three other templates, the most disastrous being one made of a heterogeneous mixture of acrylosulphide and dicupric ethanol salts. Odo's morphogenic matrix refused to stick to that one, causing it to look like Bashir was losing his face, as it slowly slipped down the Odo's front. O'Brien put the unsuccessful models back in the case and gave Odo a smaller protective covering so he could take their success home to practice with. Shortly after Odo left, Major Kira walked in. "Chief, are you ready to go yet?" she said from the doorway. Kira had obviously been asked to make sure he got off duty on time for an early dinner. He smiled and gathered up his equipment and the case of failed templates. "I just need to stop in at the infirmary for a new lotion Keiko wants to try on Yoshi." "I know. She wants you to invite Dr. Bashir to dinner, as well." As they walked out the door, O'Brien figured there were probably too many people keeping an eye out for him, but decided he didn't really care. "There's a new recreation supply stall coming up," Kira mentioned as they walked through the promenade towards the infirmary. "They have a great selection of educational toys that Molly would love." "I'm sure she would," Miles said, intrigued that Kira knew about it. "She'd probably like to bring half of it home, too." "Perhaps Keiko should take her then," she responded, and then laughed. Before O'Brien had a chance to respond, they had reached their destination. "Miles, Kira. Keiko told me you'd be by," Julian said as he rushed from the surgery back to a biobed. "I'm going to be a little late for dinner but if you'd like, the salve for Yoshi's on my desk." "Dr. Bashir, Dr. Ngamwah isn't responding and is beginning to slip out of consciousness." Kira looked puzzled when she didn't recognize the name. "The patient from the freighter," Bashir supplied. "On second thought, Miles, I don't think I'll be able to make it out of here in time for dinner." He was already halfway across the infirmary by the time he finished talking. "It must be a big freighter for them to have their own doctor," Kira said as they left. They walked a reasonable distance apart. "It isn't really, although I suppose they could do long-distance trading." As Miles spoke, a young woman looking rather out-of-sorts walked between them, and he had to step aside as she barely even noticed them. * Molly was delighted to see that Nerys had come for dinner. She immediately dragged her to her bedroom to show her everything that had changed since Yoshi was born. A few minutes later, though, Miles appeared in the doorway. "Molly, it's time to wash up." As she scurried off, he laughed and then asked as they walked into the living room, "Can I get you something to drink?" "Some of your iced tea, perhaps," she replied. As Miles went to the replicator, Kira headed to the table that Keiko was setting and gave her a hug, then attempted to take the rest of the cutlery and finish the job. "Nonsense. Why don't you see Yoshi for a few minutes?" Kira just laughed and walked to the cradle in the corner of the room. She was always so impressed that he could sleep through most anything; sometimes it even felt like he slept better when there was lots of noise and commotion. It wasn't until after a lovely dinner, though, that she was able to have a visit with him. He snuggled up against her shoulder, carefully protected by a soft cloth, and she stroked his hair. Even though she tried to see him as often as possible, she couldn't believe how quickly he was growing. Some of the things she'd read about infants showed that they often went through a stage where they rejected people they didn't see very often. Every time he drooled on her neck, she thanked the Prophets that she'd been able to avoid that so far. It might never happen since they did have an intimate bond, but she knew she would have to do everything she could to keep it that way. "Molly, I think it's probably time for bed," Miles said. Molly looked up from the desk where she was busily coloring and gave him her best well-behaved daughter look. A glance from Keiko, though, was all it took for her to start packing her things up. She came to the couch where Kira sat and curled up so she could give Yoshi a kiss on the cheek. "Goodnight," she whispered to him. "Goodnight, Nerys." "Night, Molly. Sweet dreams." Molly quickly said goodnight to her parents and was able to persuade Miles to tuck her in and read a story. "Mommy doesn't do the voices as well," she whispered in the loud way only a child can. Kira bit her lip so she wouldn't laugh. Molly dragged Miles by the hand out of the living room. "I should probably go too, actually," Kira said as she carefully stood up, trying not to disturb the baby who was almost asleep. "I'll go put him to bed first, though." Keiko checked that he didn't need changing and then said, "Thank you. It'll give me a chance to get things organized for the morning." Yoshi was already in his pyjamas, so Kira simply moved his small stuffed targ, a present from Worf and Jadzia, and gently placed him down. He looked up at her for just a moment, but quickly fell asleep. He'd probably be awake again in a few hours, but he looked so peaceful and perfect just lying there. With one last touch on his cheek, she quietly left the darkened room. With a quick goodbye and thank you to Keiko, she was out of their quarters before Miles finished putting Molly to bed. * Molly had taken a little longer than usual to get to sleep. "Please, Daddy, just one more story?" It wasn't until he heard the door open and close that he got firm, put the book away, and asked, "Arms in or out?" He didn't say anything about missing Kira when he finally emerged from Molly's room. "Sisko to O'Brien," he heard, accompanied by the familiar chime of the comm system. Miles stepped to the corner of their quarters farthest from where his children were sleeping. "Go ahead, Captain," he replied, already resigned to the fact that he'd have to leave. "I've got a bit of a mystery on my hands here. It's nothing urgent, but I was wondering if you might have time to look at it tonight." "We've just put the kids to sleep, so I'll be there shortly." "Thank you, Chief. I'm in my quarters. Sisko out." While he spoke to the captain, Keiko had approached him, anticipating his departure. He hated that he had to leave his family again, but sometimes nothing could be done about it. "Try to be back before they wake up, okay," she said, understanding and accepting. He knew, however, that Molly especially would not like him to be missing in the morning. He kissed her goodbye. "I'll do my best. If I'm not, I'll make sure I have some time to spend with her after school." He'd learned not to make promises he couldn't always keep. * O'Brien entered Sisko's quarters to see the captain and Odo gathered around the desk, watching what appeared to be blank playback of the security records in the captain's quarters. "Chief, thank you for coming by so late." Odo nodded with his head slightly tilted. "Not a problem, Captain. This wouldn't have anything to do with our mystery ship from earlier, would it?" Judging from the agreement on Odo's face, O'Brien figured that Sisko had already filled him in on what little they knew of the Beyond Antares. "I had a visit earlier from two of its crew members who, like their ship, are not what we might expect." Miles assumed that if the information weren't classified, Sisko would have elaborated further. "I assume they didn't come through the front door, then," he replied. "They were here when I arrived. Considering they wish to borrow one of my crewmembers, I'd like to know what expertise they would have needed to get in here without alerting security," Sisko said, obviously irritated by this turn of events. "Odo and I have reviewed the security records, but they appear to have been overwritten with records from earlier in the day, when my quarters were unoccupied." "I'll just take a quick scan around, see if I can pick up any residual transporter traces," he said, with his tricorder already in hand. "If the files weren't deleted, but instead just overwritten, I should be able to find them somewhere. It'll be a little trickier if they were deleted, but there should still be residuals somewhere." Sisko went back to the computer, leaving O'Brien to wander around his quarters and speculate. The captain was being decidedly vague about what had transpired, although O'Brien figured that it had something to do with Julian, simply because he was the only officer they had met. Maybe they needed someone to replace their doctor for a while. They obviously hadn't had many dealings with Starfleet, though, if they thought breaking into the station commander's quarters to see if they could borrow his doctor would be effective. "Sir, I believe they transported either in or out of this area," O'Brien said from a corner of Sisko's living area that was clear of furniture but in the shadow of a rather large indoor plant. "And it appears to be quite an advanced transporter signal." Definitely not what he would expect from a refitted cargo ship. "They beamed out from that area, also." He quickly finished off the rest of Sisko's quarters but didn't find any further transporter signals. "Odo, perhaps we might be able to find out how they were able to exit without alerting anyone," Sisko suggested. "Miles and I can go to the main computer and see if we can find the security files." Odo nodded sharply and O'Brien replied, "Yes, sir" as he gathered up his tricorder and small tool kit. The three of them exited Sisko's quarters. Odo went to the left, headed for his office, and the others went to the right. A few hundred meters away there was a junction where O'Brien would be able to easily access the source files and scour them for the remaining data. Seeing Sisko easily defer to his expertise on this matter, O'Brien asked him occasionally for tools or an extra hand. Sisko mainly sat on the sidelines, and relayed occasional progress reports between their project and Odo's. O'Brien quickly found himself absorbed in the project. He worked like a sculptor, removing (or in this case simply ignoring) material that didn't look like the solution. Less than an hour later, Odo called. "Sir, I believe I have found something of interest but I require your authorization to confirm it." Sisko excused himself unobtrusively. It didn't take long for O'Brien to lose track of time. It wasn't until he found what appeared to be the proper files, and then decrypted and tidied them up that he thought how late could be. "The time is 0426," the computer stated. Molly would probably be up in an hour and a half, and Keiko would probably be up with Yoshi around then, too. He sent the files over to the padd, and quickly double checked that they looked like the right ones. He was mindful of the fact that they might contain classified information, so didn't really look at them. He couldn't however, miss the fact that both of the captain's visitors wore uniforms, or the fact that the female looked strangely familiar. "Sir, I've found the files and am sending them to you know now," O'Brien said over the comm system. "Excellent work, Chief. You should also know that Dr. Bashir is leaving shortly for a viral conference, and I know there is a shipment of medical supplies to the Beyond Antares that will need to be organized." O'Brien hoped that this would be a straightforward visit with the doctor. He was hoping to be home, coffee (or juice) in hand when his family woke up. "Also, Chief, you should probably mention the success you had with Odo's project today." "Yes, sir. I'll see you in ops later. O'Brien out." * "Hi Julian, Captain Sisko has told me he's let you go off for a few days to that Viral Conference on Tavosa?" As Miles entered, he saw Julian with an open bag on the bed in front of him and a few scattered clothes around. He didn't appear to be making much progress getting them all in the same place. "Um, yes, that's right." "And he also mentioned that I should beam some medical supplies across to that freighter with the strange sensor readings, and to come to you for any special instructions before you leave." "Um, yes, that's also right. The supplies are down in Cargo Bay 4 ... and there'll be a person to beam across with them." Miles raised an eyebrow at that, mainly because he was surprised that Julian was so casual about all this. "Uh huh, and you'll be taking the DS transit across to Starbase 121 in a couple of hours?" "That's the plan," Julian replied, not at all convincingly. Miles considered for a moment how he could best throw in the other information needed. "So, I hear Odo's getting very realistic with his impersonations after his experience as a solid." "I certainly hope so," Julian replied with a wry smile. "By the way Miles, it may seem a little melodramatic since I'm just going to a conference, but in case anything happens while I'm away, there are some final letters in my personal database. Directory Vale, password Pallas." Miles wasn't at all surprised by this request, but even after so many years of doing the same back and forth requests just in case, he still wasn't used to it. "Well, like you say they shouldn't be needed but I'll remember anyway. Have a good trip. Don't do anything I wouldn't do." "This from the man who's in the infirmary more often than I am!" Miles was concerned about Julian's grim tone, but decided there really wasn't anything else to say. Without a glance back, he left Julian to his packing. * Miles went home to his family, and left Julian to head off to the unknown in the middle of the night. He wasn't exactly jealous, although he did sometimes miss the times when he could just up and leave in the middle of the night to do something important. He walked into his quarters; the half-lit stillness of his home in the middle of the night had long-ago ceased to disturb him. Molly's half-finished drawing of the wormhole sat on the table. He was surprised to see Keiko on the couch with Yoshi snuggled on her chest. They were both sound asleep and between them making up a deep-breathing symphony. He promptly forgot all thoughts of wanting to be able to go on secret missions as he carefully picked up Yoshi and reluctantly woke Keiko with a kiss. "I'll go put the baby to bed." "What time is it?" Keiko asked sleepily. "0500 or so. Why don't you go back to sleep? I'll get Molly off to school in a bit since I'm not working until later." "Did you solve the captain's mystery?" "Sort of," he replied in a whisper from Yoshi's crib. "I would have been back earlier, but Julian's leaving for a medical conference shortly and I had to organize a medical shipment with him." "How long is Julian going to be gone for?" "He's not sure yet. A couple of days at least, I think." Miles was careful not to hint that Julian's destination could perhaps be somewhere other than the obvious; Keiko had a lot of practice at picking up on those things and, considering the circumstances, Miles decided it would be best to delay her worry. "Do you still have work to do?" Keiko asked from near the replicator. "There are a few things from earlier that I should look at. If you're not too busy, maybe we could have lunch together later." He snuck up behind her and pulled her close. "I thought you wanted me to go to bed," she said as he moved her hair aside and kissed the back of her neck. She leaned forward slightly to place a steaming cup on the table. Miles took advantage of this to turn her around. She surprised him, though, by moving in to kiss him first. What started as a quick, playful kiss soon turned into a passionate one as Keiko moved her hands to Miles' face and he responded by pulling her closer as his hands explored her back. "I'm glad you're staying this time," she whispered. * Things continued in this way for a few days, with everyone accepting that Julian was at an important medical conference. Sometimes Miles even believed it, but then an analysis result would come back from his scans of the Beyond Antares and he would be reminded, despite of the busy schedule that allowed him to put it out of his mind most days. It wasn't until Keiko asked him straight out that he really had a chance to consider what Julian's actual destination might be. He'd gone off in a strangely refitted cargo ship. Their ion trail was impossible to track because they'd followed heavily trafficked shipping lanes, at least while they were within sensor range. After dinner that evening, Miles pulled up their initial course headings and their registered flight plan. Keiko kissed him on the head before she went to bed. "Don't stay up too late." "I'll be quiet when I come to bed. And I'll look after the baby. You need a good night's sleep." She put another cup of raktajino on the table beside him before she went to bed. He also pulled the sensor array's record on wormhole traffic. If he could somehow combine their scans with the last known trajectory, he could check to see if they went through the wormhole, at least with some degree of confidence. Since he was already fairly certain that they had, it seemed to be as good a place as any to start. He sipped the hot coffee carefully. Keiko always remembered to order it extra-hot so that by the time he remembered to drink it, it would still be warm. He felt like a pattern was about to emerge as he rubbed his burnt tongue on the roof of his mouth. Their trajectory sent them into a shipping lane headed in the complete opposite direction of the wormhole, which would not be out of the ordinary under normal circumstances. But then there was an errant signature coming out of that shipping lane. He couldn't be sure it was the Beyond Antares because its ion trail wasn't indicative of a particular ship anymore, but there was just something askew about it. Normal cargo ships didn't just exit shipping lanes and head towards the wormhole. Shortly after the ship exited the shipping lane, its signature disappeared. Vanished, not like the ship had been destroyed, but like it had never been there in the first place. He switched the map to show him magnetic resonance scans, just in case the ship had been destroyed. Instead of seeing a displacement of the magnetrons, he saw a polarized magnetic disturbance. And it wasn't a point source, but it followed a swift course, backtracking to the wormhole. So, not only did the ship have selenium on board to cover up any weaponry and special modifications, but it also had a cloaking device. Not a very well maintained one, either, if Miles could detect a leak from its engine activity. According to the wormhole sensors, a slightly polarized disruption passed between them approximately three hours after the Beyond Antares left the station. A ship passed through the other side less than a minute later. With that success, moderate and speculative as it was, under his belt, he drained the rest of his coffee and went to join his wife. * Miles had plans to meet Odo at lunch in Quark's about a week later. He remembered not to be surprised when Dr. Bashir walked in. For most people, Dr. Bashir was back from his conference, but taking some time out of treating patients to get research done. Odo could look and talk like Dr. Bashir, but drew the line at doing his job. As Dr. Bashir approached, Miles stood up and moved upstairs, turning to make sure that Bashir followed him. He figured they would be less in the way up there, and more able to have a conversation with Odo rather than Bashir. "How did your staff briefing go?" "Fine. I simply asked for suggestions and listened to any problems. I also made a recording so that when the doctor returns, my work won't have gone to waste." A waiter came by to take their order. "I'll have the soup," Miles said. "Make that two," Bashir added, in what he hoped was a natural manner. "Have you made any further progress on analyzing the security files from Captain Sisko's quarters?" "We established that the intruders beamed in and out of the station by manoeuvring a small escape pod-like vessel under our shields and then transporting out directly. Because of the extremely close proximity of the vessel, we were unable to get reliable scans of it, but does not appear that it was part of the original ship before it was converted." That piece of information certainly perked up Miles. Although, it did make him a little more concerned about their destination. At this point, he almost hoped that Julian had headed off to the Gamma quadrant with an official group, like the Marines, instead of what could just as easily be a private militia with less-than-reliable equipment. "Was it Federation origin?" Miles asked. "Most likely, although our data could have been skewed by the presence of a large Federation ship in the area. The pod did have a distinctive tritanium isotope ratio from our own." If the pod was from the Federation that would mean that all the equipment Miles had been able to find sources for had Federation or allied origins. This boded well for an official operation, but didn't change anything about his overall situation. Julian was still missing without any official word. "Quark commented earlier that our holosuite usage has dropped dramatically," Odo said in an attempt to switch topics. "Do you think he'll be able to figure anything out?" "Doubtful. We might want to be cautious and book one for after our shifts this evening." Miles was torn. On one hand, he definitely missed visiting the holodeck, re-enacting the Alamo or heading off on a wile kayak ride. On the other hand, he was enjoying being home most evenings with his family. He'd been able to read Molly's story nearly every night. And he knew Keiko appreciated having him around more often. And on the third hand, this wasn't really Julian; it was Odo, whom Miles knew despised the whole idea behind holosuites. "I said I would be home for dinner tonight, but we could always book it and cancel at the last minute." "A much better idea," Odo agreed. Miles saw their lunch coming up the stairs and mentioned it to Odo, who immediately tapped his insignia communicator. "Sorry about that, Chief, but I've got to go to the infirmary," he said for the benefit of the waiter. This scenario formed an integral part of most of the strategies they had developed for getting Dr. Bashir out of tricky situations that Odo couldn't handle. So, Miles found himself sitting alone at a table overlooking the lower floor of Quarks, where dabo girls and Ferengi waiters worked like there was no tomorrow, with two bowls of soup. He'd changed his plans with Keiko for this? "Chief O'Brien to Keiko O'Brien," he said with a smile. * It was nearly three weeks after Julian left that Keiko stopped asking when he would be by for dinner or if Miles was going to be meeting him in the holodeck. Maybe she'd decided that having him home, helping out with the kids, wasn't such a bad thing. He had been, surprisingly, enjoying it. And Miles hadn't even visited the Alamo during Julian's absence. Hadn't really missed it, even, although he did try to catch up with some research and strategizing. "Here, Daddy. You do your homework in that chair and I'll do mine in this one," Molly had said one evening while pulling him by the hand towards their dining table. It had quickly become a nightly tradition. Something that started when he and Odo were speaking about the origin of the ship's escape pod was built on as he idly flipped through the day's news. The uniforms he saw on the Marines shown finally allowed an idle piece of information, the clothes Captain Sisko's visitors had worn, to fit into place. It appeared that Julian had headed off into the Gamma Quadrant with the Starfleet Marine Corps, an entity he knew very little about. "Just curious," he'd replied when Captain Sisko had asked why he wanted clearance for those records. "I nearly joined the Marines myself, until I realized I would have to scrub the deck and wouldn't get an opportunity to play with the newest and most exciting engines, that is." Apparently, there were plans as of about a month ago, to send elite forces into Dominion territory. All actions will be undertaken with the greatest care for the preservation of life, on both sides of the conflict. The changeling threat cannot be eliminated at this point; therefore we must undermine their internal structure by learning as much as we can about their operations. Standard Starfleet rhetoric, really, but with a kernel of truth somewhere in there. Molly sat across from him working on her drawing of the wormhole. "Daddy, what color should the ship going through the wormhole be?" This time, the wormole was yellow and brown with a bit of pink around the edges. "What color was the ship you and mommy went on to visit Bajor?" Molly concentrated hard on that one and Miles returned to his reading. A simple intelligence mission was not quite what he expected the Marines to be doing but, with the threat of changeling impersonators ever-present, he wasn't so naïve as to think they would spell out exactly what was to transpire. He did know that the Dominion had prisoner-of-war camps, comprised not of those captured at in battle, but those taken strategically and carefully, so that they could be replaced and the Federation infiltrated. "Sisko to Chief O'Brien." "O'Brien here," he replied as he walked to the corner of their quarters and faced out the window. "The Beyond Antares is back, with some interesting information. I trust everything can be quickly arranged to accommodate for his return." "Yes, sir," he replied as he sent a predetermined message to Odo that would reach him either in his office, on the promenade, or in the infirmary. "Is there anything else you need?" There was a bit of mumbling on the other side of the comm, and Sisko replied, "Dr. Bashir would like you to meet him in his quarters shortly." "Thank you, sir. O'Brien out." He returned to the table to pick up his things. "Molly, can you do me a big favour? I've got to go see Dr. Bashir about something, so can you help get Yoshi ready for bed?" "Okay," she replied without looking up from her project. "Miles, did I hear you're going to be seeing Julian?" Keiko asked with a knowing grin. When he nodded she continued, "Perhaps you should invite him for dinner tomorrow? I'm sure he'll appreciate it, if he hasn't got other plans." "I'm sure he will. I'll try to be back before bedtime." * "You weren't too overwhelmed with baby stuff while I was gone, I hope." "I kept busy," Miles said. "So, did you enjoy your time at the conference?" "It was definitely interesting. I learned much more about the politics of intelligence missions than I was expecting." Miles decided not to ask for further elaboration on that one, although it did begin to confirm his suspicions. "Do you think you'll be returning next year?" "They'd have to ask first, wouldn't they?" "Julian continued to unpack. Miles caught sight of a rather beat-up pair of uniform pants as they got shoved into the replicator for recycling. He also noticed in passing that Julian had bulked up quite a bit. He'd likely be at a further disadvantage on their next holodeck mission. "I'd better get going so I'm home for bedtime stories. I'll see you at dinner tomorrow, though." "I'm looking forward to some home cooked food, you know," Julian said with a smile. "You won't believe how much Yoshi's grown since you left," Miles added, but then he realized that he and Julian didn't usually talk about his family details, especially now that they were back on the station. Even though it had never been by arrangement, it had always worked out, until now. Julian showed him to the door, and as Miles was leaving, he saw Odo approaching. "I assume you are glad that Dr. Bashir is back," Odo said. "Not as relieved as you are, I'm sure." Miles realized that he was glad to have Julian back, but he wasn't as excited or eager to get back into their usual activities as he'd anticipated. "Indeed," Odo replied as he waited outside Julian's quarters. Miles stepped into the turbolift and headed home, excited that there was a new chapter of "A Vulcan and a Bajoran on Alpha Centauri" to read and a wife to cuddle with when he got there. * end * Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to their owners/creators/copyright holders. 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