Old Faces, New Places

[argentembers]

It had been days since Dukat had one of his troubling dreams, dreams of a place he couldn't recall--alarming in its own right for a Cardassian--where he knew he was trapped. He awoke from them feeling frustrated and out of sorts, to the point he saw a doctor for a sleep aid that he subsequently refused to use. He believed he was back to himself now, and there was still much to be done. The minefield left behind by the fleeing Federation personnel was proving to be extremely troublesome. Damar's insistence that it could be disabled at first was heartening. As time passed, he found it nothing but annoying, as he did any time he was promised results with no follow through.

He left the bridge of the Rotarran with a headache throbbing just behind his right eye ridge, instructing his second that under no circumstances was he to be disturbed unless they found themselves under attack. In the solitude and darkness of his quarters, he found some small relief but no rest. Perhaps the sleep aid wasn't such a bad idea after all? As he lay prone on the hard bed, he tossed the idea back and forth with no resolution, taking himself down toward what he sought without being fully aware of it.

How long he slept he couldn't say, nor could he precisely pin what awakened him. A sound? A feeling? Yes, there was something definitely off in the sound of the engines. He was intimately familiar with the ins and outs of his ship as any good commanding officer ought to be. He activated his wrist comm. "Damar, report," he said. He received no response. "Damar!" he barked. Still nothing.

Disconcerted, he snatched up his disruptor and stalked out into the corridor to access one of the ship wide comm systems. Nowhere that he hailed provided answer, not the engine room, the bridge, the infirmary, nor any of his senior officers' quarters. As he strode the corridors, it seemed as though he occupied a ghost ship. None of his personnel were where they were supposed to be, nor anywhere else that he could find. He raced to the bridge to find long range sensors giving nonsense readings and the view screen inoperable. After some adjustment of the controls, he managed a static-y picture of an unfamiliar starscape. Navigation was no better with all logs currently inaccessible.

Cursing under his breath, he attempted to get a reading of life signs aboard the vessel. There were two, his own and that of an unknown species. It was located in one of the cargo bays on deck six. Transferring tracking abilities to his wrist comm, he set out to find the intruder. If it was responsible for the disappearance of his crew, he intended to find out how and why.

Comments

[hisoldgirl]

He was nothing if not thorough and the TARDIS made an appreciative noise at his actions. He had always been attentive to detail -- it was what had drawn her to him in part in the first place. And if she were honest, it was also part of what frustrated her. She had never been good at hiding anything from the man.

"The issue then is if he is a thoughtful or capable as you to send it to different times should he respond," she noted, pulling up datalogs from the past month. Where before she'd flown through analyzing the information, this time she read carefully, looking for any detail that might help. "You speak of a station. Is that the same one you spoke of to me on the island? The one the humans had commandeered?"

No sense in spending her time focused solely on what she was reading. She was just as curious as to what Dukat had been doing. And this could take some time.

[argentembers]

"Damar is very thorough." He still had work if he was to become a good leader, but Dukat didn't waste time on anyone he believed to be incapable. He knew that if his First received the message, he'd handle things properly and find a way to contact him. They also had decent science officers who would jump at the chance to dig into a time anomaly.

"Yes, that's the one. It has been our most significant gain since the war began in earnest because of its location." It was...disappointing...that Bajor withdrew their petition to join the Federation when they did. He would have enjoyed finishing what he started there. Instead, the Founders were treating them as neutral parties. It wouldn't be the first time he was forced to wait longer than he anticipated for a much wanted goal.

[hisoldgirl]

She couldn't honestly be surprised Dukat would surround himself with others as capable as himself. It at least gave her a sense of assurance they would get out of this predicament. Or at least, one of these predicaments. Damar being thorough with communication and records would not necessarily restore her form.

"Do you suppose I will be able to see this station?" It was both an honest request and also a probing question to gauge whether he believed she'd still be with him long enough to see it. As much as she was enjoying his company, she wasn't sure she wanted to stay flesh.

And then she saw it. "Ah!" The ship's fingers flew over the keys, attention riveted on the computer. Seventeen days ago there had been a gravitational anomaly within the core of the engines. Not enough to drastically affect output, but enough -- just enough -- to open itself to subspace. It was only a matter of time, then, before it was shoved wide enough for something else -- something like her own Eye of Harmony -- to lock onto it, even for just a moment, and cause the spike he'd found. "Tell me what you think of this, Cardassian."

[argentembers]

"That will depend upon if bringing us back into phase returns you to your true form. It's premature to speculate. The two situations might not even be related." It was highly unlikely they weren't related in some way but not impossible. He touched her then, a very brief caress of hand down her hair. He recalled she liked that. "Should we come back to phase and find you still as you are, I will put a science team at your disposal to help you reverse the effects. I take no pleasure in seeing you caged in any way."

He drew closer and looked at the display over her shoulder, his lips slightly pursed. "Hmm. I think I know a certain engineer that has some explaining to do. This should have been attended at the time it happened. It's outside of allowances for this vessel, particularly operating so closely to the wormhole. Perhaps the wormhole aliens exploited it, although that doesn't explain your presence here."

[hisoldgirl]

It was strange. She'd forgotten the feeling of someone touching her hair -- or rather, of having hair at all -- and yet he remembered. Stranger still she continued finding comfort in the motion. The ship closed her eyes briefly, a soft hum echoing from her chest, before she returned her thoughts to what they were doing, shaking her head a moment to clear away the momentary lapse. "We can only know once we solve the puzzle before us," she murmured. "I appreciate your offer all the same, however. I am certain your scientists are trustworthy." She wasn't, and she inwardly paled at the idea of his shipmates having access to her data, but she wasn't about to express her reservations.

Mouth pressed tight, she ran a few more searches before turning to the Cardassian. "The anomaly opened itself to subspace. I have no doubt your Prophets extorted the breech, but my engines are powered by a black hole. The Eye of Harmony would have read the rift as a power source similar in nature to my own core. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that I was drawn here entirely by chance, at which point your Prophets decided to pull me through." The ship's expression grew darker. "It will not be simple to replicate the rift, but it can be done. We need to recreate the anomaly in both phases, however. Can it be done?"

[argentembers]

Dukat smirked lightly. "They are obedient. That is the important part." He would never go so far as to call any Cardassian trustworthy. Those who fell into the trap of such thinking very often regretted it. The fact that he often set such traps had no bearing on his overall views of the others.

"I see. We are quite adept at manipulating subspace. We do it frequently for communication relays. If we don't have the equipment needed for such here on the ship, we can either find it on the station or send off for it. The wait would not be ridiculously long. I believe bringing us back into phase will be easier than getting you back where you belong in your proper form."

He turned his attention to his wrist comm, typing in a few commands. It and the computer beeped at the same time. "I've synched my communicator to the main relay. We will receive updates any time a command level order is input, well...whenever said order reaches us in our current state. In the mean time, I want to read over what we have in the databanks on others in situations similar to ours. Our hands are somewhat tied until we can coordinate with Damar and the others."

[hisoldgirl]

Obedient. It wasn't the most satisfying of clarifications, but the TARDIS had little else save Dukat in this place. She had no real choice but to trust his judgment. "Scientists are curious by nature. You are certain their obedience will trump their desire to further inspect me should I remain with you?" The should was entirely unneeded: he'd made his opinion of her chances for release known. Another unsatisfying moment in their conversation, but it wasn't unexpected.

"I am certain we can make do with what we have," she murmured. "Either through design or improvements. So long as your crew does not react obtrusively to any possible changes I might make."

She sighed softly, running her hands along the console. It hummed beneath her fingertips. There was little she wanted more than to open the ship up and examine her properly, but that would have to wait. "Is there more of the ship you can show me, or would you rather remain here to word from your Damar?"