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]

His explanation made more sense than previously and she pressed her lips tightly together but nodded all the same. Logical beings had very little use for deception. She should know. And without any proof otherwise, she had no reason to doubt him further in regards to these shapeshifters of his.

The readings on the scanner, however, were another matter, and she stared at them a long time before speaking. "Temporal shifting," she murmured, eyes scanning the data. "It is not exactly the same, but the results are similar. "A phase shift would perhaps better explain the phenomenon. It is common amongst my kind when we are in close proximity. It is an alignment of sorts between ships. But I have no idea what would cause such a thing here, assuming it is either option. Though perhaps..." She trailed off, rubbing her temple. "Perhaps we are not alone on the ship after all." There was no real sense in keeping her theory to herself at this point and she sighed. "Perhaps we have shifted out of phase. It is not that we are alone on the ship; it is that we exist outside normal space-time."

But even if that were the case, it didn't explain how.

[argentembers]

Dukat's expression grew grimmer. "That...makes the most sense in the face of what we've experienced thus far. I may know...well, not precisely how it came to be but what could be responsible. We have known for some time that there is a race of aliens living inside the wormhole. Accounts are vague and often couched in the religious claptrap of the Bajorans. However, there is enough measurable evidence to indicate they are quite real.

"I can pull up the files we have on them for you. It doesn't explain why you would be here, or why I'd be the only one of my crew out of phase. Perhaps those two facts are somehow related." It could just as easily be coincidence. For as rational as the Founders were, the wormhole aliens by all accounts were the polar opposite of that by linear reasoning standards, their motives beyond the grasp of time-bound minds. "If they are responsible, we should be able to find a way to reverse the effect." He was no engineer or scientist, but the files in the ship's databanks were extensive. They should be able to find some reference of such occurrences in the past and how the problem was solved.

[hisoldgirl]

"Creatures inside the wormhole?" This was news, and exciting news at that. Wormholes were unstable my nature; anything existing within one would have to allow for random, chaotic fluctuations. The Vortex was the exact opposite -- stable and eternal -- but to find creatures that existed in perpetual chaos? The TARDIS couldn't imagine a more intriguing find. It was enough to quell her unease at their situation as she sidled over next to Dukat to better see what he was inputting.

She did have to wonder at why they would remain near such a rift when they knew chaotic entities existed inside it. "I assume they have caused you trouble in the past, that you are so certain of their existence?" she asked, filing away all the data he pulled up. Data could only be trusted so far when dealing with beings that broke the laws of reality. "And it is possible the phase shift is related to my appearance. If what happened to us on the island is real, then it is a physical manifestation of myself somewhere along the time stream. It would be simple enough to pull that version of myself into existence during a phase shift. Why it pulled in only you is speculative at best, though our previous experience together may have ensnared you in a net not meant for you."

[argentembers]

"Yes, the Bajorans call them the Prophets. They have an entire religion that revolves around them, much of it stemming from items they call 'orbs'. We Cardassians had the opportunity to study them for a time. They are composed of a material that defies categorization. At times they are completely inert. At other times they produce...hallucinations...for lack of a better description. Brain scans of affected individuals show elevated levels of specific chemicals."

He took an empty data crystal and inserted it into a port, fingers once more flying over the display to pull up unclassified files on the orbs for her perusal. He continued to speak. "You could say they can be problematic," he said a little vaguely. "Mostly because the few times they have interfered with Cardassians there has been little to make of it.

"On the files I'm pulling up for you, you will read of a case of a Cardassian scientist, new in her career, brilliant by all accounts, who was once exposed to an orb in storage. She had a complete alteration of personality, eventually got herself in trouble with the Obsidian Order, and for all intents and purposes disappeared. However...well, I can get into the rest of it after you've had some time to read."

[hisoldgirl]

It did not take her long to read through the material provided, eyes scanning the data and processing it at speeds a human brain could never match. Nor could it match her normal processing power, but she would have to deal. Dukat's additional information helped speed the process along somewhat and she made an indelicate noise at the religious implications. She would never understand the need for gods or deities, not when the universe was beyond such simplistic notions.

"Is this physical contact or proximity?" she asked, finishing up reading what he'd provided before glancing at him askance, trying to read his expression as he discussed these "Prophets." The Cardassian had never been an easy read for her even on the island, and here in his element she expected it to be even more difficult, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to try.

[argentembers]

"Both. One doesn't always have to touch an orb to suffer an effect, and many have touched them and experienced nothing whatsoever." It was a frustrating puzzle for various reasons, some of which he had no intention of telling her about as they involved more classified information regarding Cardassia and Bajor.

He also transferred files on time displacement, much fewer in number, then removed the crystal from the port and pocketed it for later. He decided to try something else, too, inputting a quick message to Damar dated for delivery both at a time prior to their current and ahead. He hoped that his First would catch onto what was happening and find a way to get word to him, too. He didn't know how out of phase they were but believed it couldn't be too far given the time the scan was begun and how closely it coincided to the engines' working better.

"Let's go to engineering and see if we can find anything odd there," he suggested. "I believe we've accomplished as much as we can from the bridge."

[hisoldgirl]

"Curious," she murmured, happily digesting this new information, both spoken and read. She couldn't help feel there was a distinct similarity between these Prophets and the Eternals; were they one in the same, or were chaotic elements such as them existent in all universes? Could they break the boundaries that separated realities, or speak through them? It wasn't something she expected to find an answer to yet, but she tucked it away all the same, her thoughts returning to Dukat as he suggested visiting engineering.

Without so much as a nod of agreement, the TARDIS was all ready making her way toward the lift, her excitement overly apparent. The prospect of seeing how this ship worked, of examining her heart, was more than enticing. It was a borderline obsession, one she wasn't sure Dukat would be able to understand. She had the schematics of the ship memorized from her time with the command console, but it wasn't the same as being there, in the core. The TARDIS all but bounced on her toes in anticipation.

"Yes, hurry," she commanded impatiently. "I want to meet your ship."

[argentembers]

"They are indeed a mystery," he agreed. They had caused him no end of trouble during the Occupation, a fact he still found terribly distasteful on the whole. If he could ever discover a way to harm them, he would. He believed he owed it to them.

Ah, there was the imperious creature that had greeted him his first day of awakening on the accursed island. Dukat smiled very slightly to himself as he moved at a more dignified pace toward the lift. "Has no one told you that good things come to those who wait, TARDIS?" he asked, the same way he often used to tease her when he intended to give her what she had asked, just not in the time frame in which she had demanded it. A pleased light shone in his pale eyes. How could he ever have forgotten this association? That, too, was a mystery.

[hisoldgirl]

His response was met with stiffened shoulders and feigned disgruntlement, the ship taking on as condescending an air as she could when she was only half the size of the man she was attempting to impress. Appearances had never truly registered with her, after all, and why should they, when she was generally impervious to harm and bigger on the inside? Not to mention doted on to a degree that couldn't possibly be healthy. The TARDIS was used to getting what she wanted, and facing down a Cardassian to get it was not beyond the scope of reason.

On the other hand, he'd often done this to her on the island and so she couldn't take true offense to his dilly-dallying. So instead she huffed.

"When one exists in all times, one need not wait for much," she chided. It wasn't exactly true, but time had always been different for her than other species. "And I doubt you want to remain in this state for longer than necessary. Hurrying only benefits you, Cardassian." She rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet like a child. "You do so love benefits, do you not?"

[argentembers]

"When you couch it in terms of self-interest, it becomes so much more appealing." He grinned outright, a sharp flash of teeth. He had enjoyed their back and forth quasi-bickering most of all, and he was not so stubborn that he couldn't concede a reasonable point.

He didn't rush precisely, but he did pick up his pace to the lift. "Engineering deck," he said. It whirred into smooth motion, and he stood at parade rest while waiting. If everything else was going smoothly, he didn't expect to find anything particularly anomalous or wrong with the ship. His crew was competent. They didn't need him there to handhold them through a crisis. Still, seeing for himself had always been his preferred method of operation.

[hisoldgirl]

The TARDIS didn't even attempt to hide her elation at Dukat's increased pace, stepping into the lift and looking about as he took a more relaxed stance. She was ever curious and took the time to study what she could of the interior before the lift came to a gentle, if abrupt, halt at engineering, pneumatic doors sliding open to admit them to the core of the ship.

She didn't bother waiting, intent on 'meeting' the Rotarran whilst Dukat did whatever it was he came to do. The ship doubted he'd find anything of note, though she kept close just in case, ignoring the computers for the moment to simply look and feel, closing her eyes and running her hands against the walls and floors as though she could feel whatever had been ailing the ship through touch alone.

[argentembers]

Dukat emerged after her. Before heading over to a console, he gave a fairly cursory but attentive visual inspection of the warp core, deuterium fusion reactors, and inertial dampers. External gauges were all within normal parameters. He saw nothing out of the ordinary or that shouldn't have been there.

It was eerie knowing that other members of his crew could be very close at hand, in the same space with them but out of phase from them. He supposed it was preferable to the thought that they had all been abducted or vaporized. He made his way over to the main controls and noticed that a diagnostic was in progress there, too.

Pulling up the reports, he saw that the scan had been ordered because at first the engines had stopped functioning altogether, and when they had come back online, they were calibrated incorrectly. Fixing the issue hadn't been much of a challenge. Discovering the cause of it seemed to be an ongoing process. He imagined Weyoun fluttering about his crew petulantly demanding answers in his piping voice and scowled without being fully aware of it.

[hisoldgirl]

While Dukat availed himself of the computer files, the TARDIS continued flitting about the room, all but tinkering with things herself. She couldn't sense anything wrong with the engine itself and it sounded relatively well-balanced, but something had to have set it off-course. She just didn't know what.

Eventually she found her way back to where Dukat stood, pausing in her tracks when she noted his expression. The Cardassian had always been good at masking his emotions; that they showed now was curious. Had he seen something in his perusal to upset him? Something she'd missed during her walk-about? The ship moved in next to the other man, glancing at the data he'd pulled up. "Everything seems fine," she said, fingers whisking over controls to bring up the rest of what he'd found. "What troubles you so?"

[argentembers]

He tapped his index finger on the side of the panel, equally irritated that he had allowed an unguarded moment. The past several days had been trying with the Founders becoming more strident and unreasonable about the war efforts on the whole. He didn't want to get into all of that, so he kept it to his surface irritation.

"If we're brought back into phase, you'll see for yourself," he said a little flatly. "An obsequious little vole of a creature called a Vorta. I was just thinking that he's likely plaguing my crew as we speak, interfering, and getting in the way with his ridiculous questions. If he wasn't...valued...by our allies, I'd have jettisoned him out of an airlock at the first opportunity." He might yet, he thought, if Weyoun irritated him enough. Let his clone come to them with that memory to chew on.

[hisoldgirl]

Without context, she couldn't know he wasn't being entirely upfront, and so the TARDIS took what he said at face value, though it came with its own concerns. Not only because any creature that irritated Dukat so fully was worrisome to her, but because the possibility existed that she might, indeed, have a chance to meet him. Being out of phase did not necessarily translate to being in a body, and solving one was not guaranteed to solve the other.

It was an unpleasant thought, to be certain.

"There is no if," she said finally, struggling to keep the worry from her face. It was etched into her features, however, no matter how hard she tried not to dwell. "I will return you to your crew so that you might jettison him as you desire. We need only find the source." She drew herself up to full height, fingers dancing over the console with familiar ease. "I want to see that fluctuation spike again. Perhaps we can pinpoint where it manifested. From there we should be able to find the source of the anomaly and restore the phased components. That should be our priority."

[argentembers]

The fact that she wished to seem certain was enough for him. She had proven herself to him well enough before for him to know that she didn't need his reassurances or coddling. Whether she fully believed her own words, there was determination to see it through. He had no concern that she would quit halfway through the puzzle. She was very like a Cardassian in that respect.

He keyed up a temporary access code for her. "This will allow you access to anything on the ship not classified. It won't allow you to log directly into any of the systems to affect a change, but only because if the crew isn't aware of us and we start trying to control things from here, they will assume the worst and put the ship on full lockdown. That would needlessly get in our way and cause them anxiety if we had to keep developing workarounds. I'm hoping we hear back from Damar soon."

[hisoldgirl]

"You sent him a missive, then?" It wasn't really a question and her focus was almost exclusively on the data she was currently keying up, eyes flicking back and forth as she soaked in the information. From what she could tell, the spike occurred roughly a half hour local time before her appearance on the ship. Whether that meant Dukat was sucked into the anomaly first or pulled in when she arrived could not be ascertained, but it did appear to be caused by a minute fluctuation in the engine core.

Pressing her lips tightly, the ship brought up the ship schematics, then the engine details, flicking through pages swiftly searching for what she needed. "Have you had any issues lately with the ship? Maintenance, a momentary hiccough in the daily operations? Any breach of any kind that could have introduced a foreign particle into the engine core?" If he hadn't, it didn't dismiss the possibility. It simply meant it had happened in the subspace between her universe and this.

[argentembers]

"Yes, pre and post dated since we can't be sure in which direction we've been shifted," he said with a nod. While she poured over her reports, he brought up his, largely tracking what progress he could see of the crew.

"Unfortunately, Damar would be the one to ask about all of that. He has been taking the ship out more regularly than I. I have been on the station coordinating the war effort. If there was anything like that to report, it would be in the records. Nothing is too insignificant to note." That was a lesson anyone in Central Command learned well before their final days in training.

[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?"