Star Trek
Deep Space 9
Avatar
Book One of Two
By S.D. Perry
LINEAR TIME
THE DISTANT PAST
• Over the course of ten thousand years, the people of Bajor discover nine mysterious artifacts that
sometimes convey prophetic visions. Called "Tears of the Prophets" or "Orbs," they are believed to have
originated in the Celestial Temple, the legendary home of Bajor's gods, the Prophets.
2328
• The Cardassian Union conquers Bajor. Eight of the nine Orbs are confiscated for study. The ninth, the
Orb of Prophecy and Change, is successfully hidden by Bajor's spiritual leaders.
2332
• On Earth, Benjamin Sisko is born, the child of Sarah and Joseph Sisko. Unknown to anyone at this
time, Sarah is actually the host for a noncorporeal entity from the as-yet-undiscovered Bajoran
wormhole, who has brought about the exact circumstances necessary for Benjamin Sisko to exist.
2345
• A liquid lifeform of unknown origin is discovered adrift in the Bajoran system's Denorios Belt. It is
later found to be a shape-shifting sentient being, and accepts the name Odo.
2346
• The Cardassians construct space station Terok Nor in orbit of Bajor. It becomes the seat of the
Occupation under Gul S.G. Dukat.
• To ensure the survival of her husband and children, Kira Meru becomes the comfort woman of Dukat.
She is never reunited with her family.
2347
• On Bajor, seven-year-old Ro Laren witnesses the torture and murder of her father by the Cardassians.
• Richard and Amsha Bashir subject their six-year-old son Jules to illegal genetic enhancement. The boy
later changes his name to Julian and keeps his enhancement secret for many years.
2354
• Ensign Benjamin Sisko meets joined Trill Curzon Dax at Pelios Station. Their friendship continues
through Dax's next two hosts.
2355
• On Bajor, twelve-year-old Kira Nerys, daughter of Meru, joins die Shakaar resistance cell to fight the
Cardassian Occupation.
• Jake Sisko is born to Benjamin and Jennifer Sisko.
2358
• Ro, after living all her life in Bajoran resettlement camps, attends Starfleet Academy.
2360
• Quark opens a bar on Terok Nor after spending eight years as a cook on a Ferengi freighter. Among his
staff are his brother Rom, and Rom's young son, Nog.
2364
• While serving aboard the U.S.S. Wellington, Ensign Ro disobeys orders during a mission on Garon II,
resulting in the deaths of eight members of her away team. She is court-martialed and sentenced to the
Starfleet stockade on Jaros H.
2365
• Odo comes to Terok Nor and begins arbitrating disputes among Bajorans, leading to Dukat recruiting
him for a murder investigation. In the process, Odo meets Kira, with whom he will eventually fall in
love, though he keeps that secret from her for many years.
• Dukat makes Odo me station's chief of security, replacing a Cardassian named Thrax.
2367
• The Battle of Wolf 359 between a Borg cube and forty Federation starships claims 11,000
lives -- including Jennifer Sisko. U.S.S. Saratoga first officer Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Sisko
and his son Jake both survive. Sisko is subsequently assigned to the Utopia Planitia Shipyards on Mars,
where he becomes part of the Defiant-Class Development Project, a Starship designed specifically to
fight and defeat the Borg.
• Curzon, seventh host of the Dax symbiont, dies. The symbiont is transferred to Jadzia.
2368
• Ro is freed from prison in order to cany out an illegal covert mission for Starfleet Admiral Kennelly
aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise. Instead, she exposes Kennelly's duplicity. At the request of Captain
Jean-Luc Picard, her rank is restored and she is assigned to the Enterprise.
2369
• The Cardassian Union withdraws from Bajor and abandons Terok Nor. As Bajor regains its
independence, a provisional government and an armed militia are formed. Bajor applies for Federation
membership, and invites Starfleet to administrate the station as a Federation Starbase with an integrated
Starfleet and Bajoran crew. Terok Nor is renamed Deep Space 9.
• Cardassian exile Elim Garak, former intelligence agent of the Obsidian Order, is left behind on the
station during the withdrawal. He remains an enigmatic station resident, living as a tailor.
• Commander Sisko is made commanding officer of DS9, with Major Kira reluctantly serving as his first
officer and liaison with Bajor. Lieutenant Jadzia Dax is assigned as science officer. Lieutenant (j.g.) Dr.
Julian Bashir becomes chief medical officer. Former Enterprise transporter chief Miles O'Brien is made
chief of operations. Odo stays on as chief of station security.
• Sisko meets Bajor's spiritual leader, Kai Opaka, who tells him he is the Emissary long foretold in
Bajoran prophecy, the one who will open the gates to the Celestial Temple.
• After experiencing the Orb of Prophecy and Change, Sisko and Dax discover a stable wormhole in the
Denorios Belt, linking the Alpha Quadrant to the Gamma Quadrant The wormhole is also found to be the
home of noncorporeal entities who exist outside of linear time. DS9 is moved to a position proximate to
the wormhole, and becomes a major center of commerce and the exploration of the Gamma Quadrant.
• The Bajoran faithful believe the wormhole is the Celestial Temple, and mat its inhabitants are the
Prophets. Sisko is hailed as the Emissary, a role with which he is never completely comfortable.
• Opaka is killed on a planet in the Gamma Quadrant. Nanomachines previously introduced into the
planet's biosphere revive her, but also make it impossible for her to leave.
• Ro leaves the Enterprise to receive Starfleet advanced tactical training.
2370
• Minister Jaro Essa and Vedek Winn Adami conspire to seize power on Bajor and oust the Federation.
The coup fails, and Jaro is disgraced, but Winn emerges unseamed.
• Kira and Vedek Bareil Antos become romantically involved
• Ferengi trade expeditions to the Gamma Quadrant first encounter rumors of a powerful civilization
known as the Dominion.
• The Federation and the Cardassian Union sign an historic peace treaty, leading to the creation of a
"Demilitarized
• Former resistance fighter Shakaar Edon is elected First Minister of Bajor.
• Sisko is promoted to captain.
• To save the Defiant and prevent the outbreak of a new war with Tzenkethi, Odo kills a Founder
impersonating a Federation ambassador. It is die first time that one changeling has killed another.
• Dax and Bashir are promoted to lieutenant commander and full lieutenant, respectively.
• On Cardassia, the civilian Detapa Council overthrows the Cardassian Central Command and what's left
of the Obsidian Order.
2372
• At the instigation of the Founder impersonating Martok, the Klingon Empire invades Cardassia. The
Federation objects, and in response the Klingons withdraw from the Khit-omer Accords, ending their
alliance with the Federation. Hostilities between the Klingons and the Cardassians, and between the
Klingons and the Federation, continue for over a year.
• Lieutenant Commander Worf, former security chief of die Enterprise, is assigned to DS9 as strategic
operations officer and commander of the Defiant.
• Bashir discovers that it is possible (though exceedingly rare) for a Jem'Hadar to be born without a
dependency upon ketracel-white.
• Nog leaves DS9 to attend Starfleet Academy.
• Fear of changeling infiltration leads Admiral Leyton to attempt a Starfleet coup d'etat. It is thwarted by
Sisko.
• While on Earth, Odo is surreptitiously infected by the autonomous covert organization Section 31 with
a virus intended to wipe out the Founders.
• Kira and Shakaar become romantically involved.
• Yates is arrested for smuggling supplies to the Maquis. She is convicted and sentenced to six months in
a Federation prison.
• A pregnant Keiko O'Brien is seriously injured. Bashir is able save the unborn child, but only by
implanting it in the body of Kira, who volunteers to carry the child to term.
• Odo is found guilty of murder by the Founders and, as punishment, is made a "solid." In the process, he
unknowingly infects the Founders' Great Link with the genocidal virus created by Section 31.
2373
• The Founder impersonating Martok is exposed and killed on Ty'Gokor.
• Worf and Dax become romantically involved.
• The Cardassians return the Orb of Time to the Bajorans.
• Bashir is abducted by the Dominion and replaced by a Founder.
• Cadet Nog returns to DS9 as part of his Academy training.
• Yates completes her prison sentence and returns to DS9.
• After suffering a neural shock, Sisko experiences visions that lead him to unearth the Bajoran city of
B'hala, lost for millennia. At the same time, premonitions of disaster compel him to persuade Bajor to
delay its imminent entry into the Federation.
• Kira gives birth to the son of Miles and Keiko O'Brien, who name the child Kirayoshi.
• Odo finds an infant changeling, but it dies of radiation poisoning. Upon its death, its remains are
absorbed into Odo's body, turning him back into a changeling.
• The Cardassian Union joins the Dominion after months of secret negotiation between the Dominion and
Dukat A massive Dominion fleet enters the Alpha Quadrant to assume direct control of Cardassia. The
Klingon Empire and the Federation renew their alliance. An attempt to destroy Bajor's sun by the
Founder impersonating Bashir is thwarted.
• Worf and Garak rescue the real Martok and Bashir from a Dominion prison in the Gamma Quadrant.
Martok becomes the Klingon Empire's official representative on DS9.
• Bashir's genetic enhancement is exposed, but he is allowed
to retain bis status in exchange for bis father's voluntary imprisonment
• Kira and Shakaar end their romance.
• Working together, the Cardassians and the Jem'Hadar exterminate the Maquis, leaving few survivors.
• Open war with me Dominion breaks out At Sisko's urging, Bajor signs a non-aggression pact with the
Dominion. As Dominion forces take DS9, all Starfleet personnel withdraw from the region. The station is
renamed Terok Nor and put under the joint command of the Vorta Weyoun and Dukat, with Kira, Odo,
and the rest of the Bajoran staff still intact
2374
• With the aid of a resistance group on the station led by Kira, Starfleet forces retake DS9. Dukat is
captured. At Sisko's insistence, the Prophets prevent Dominion reinforcements from coming through the
wormhole, but the entities warn Sisko that their intervention carries a price.
• Dukat's former aide-de-camp Damar is promoted to legate and made the new leader of Cardassia under
the Dominion.
• Nog earns a battlefield commission of ensign.
• Martok is made Supreme Commander of the Ninth Fleet.
• Worf and Dax marry.
• Dukat escapes Starfleet custody.
• Section 31 attempts to recruit Bashir. Although be refuses to join, the organization will continue to
consider him an operative.
• Betazed falls to the Dominion.
• With the aid of Garak, Sisko manipulates the Romulans into allying with the Federation and the
Klingons against the Dominion.
• Kira and Odo become romantically involved.
• Dukat makes a pact with the Pah-wraiths, the enemies of the wormhole entities. Using Dukat as their
vessel, they seal die wormhole, killing Jadzia in the process. The Dax symbiont survives.
• En route to Trill aboard the U.S.S. Destiny, the Dax symbiont takes a turn for the worse, necessitating
an emergency implantation into Ensign Ezri Tigan, a Trill who never intended to be joined, but
reluctantly becomes Dax's ninth host
• Kira is promoted to colonel.
2375
• On the planet Tyree, Sisko discovers the Orb of the Emissary and learns mat the wormhole entities
were responsible for his very existence. This previously unknown tenth orb also reopens the wormhole.
• Ezri Dax is promoted to lieutenant (j.g.) and is assigned to DS9 as a counselor.
• The disease created by Section 31 starts to manifest among the Founders.
• Ensign Nog loses a leg in battle on AR-558. The limb is subsequently replaced by a biosynthetic leg.
• Dukat has himself surgically altered to pass as a Bajoran in order to turn Winn against the Prophets, and
to use her to unleash the Pah-wraiths.
• Sisko and Yates marry. Shortly thereafter, they conceive a child.
• The Breen ally with the Dominion. Fearing for Cardassia, Legate Damar rebels against the Dominion
and forms a Cardassian resistance.
• Sisko sends Kira, Odo, and Garak to the aid of Damar's resistance. To help Kira gain the Cardassians'
acceptance, Sisko grants her a Starfleet commission with the rank of commander.
• The Defiant is destroyed in battle against the Dominion and the Breen at the Chin'toka system.
• Odo begins to manifest symptoms of the disease ravaging the Founders.
• Worf kills Klingon leader Gowron in honorable combat and names Martok the new chancellor of the
empire.
• Bashir extracts the cure to the Founder disease from the mind of Section 31 operative Luther Sloan.
Sloan commits suicide, but Bashir succeeds in curing Odo.
• The Defiant-class U.S.S. Sao Paolo is assigned to DS9 under Sisko's command. Special dispensation is
granted to rechristen the ship the U.S.S. Defiant.
• Bashir and Dax become romantically involved.
• Zek retires and appoints Rom bis successor as Grand Nagus of the Ferengi Alliance.
• Federation, Klingon, Romulan, and rebellious Cardassian forces fight to retake Cardassia from the
Dominion and the Breen. In retaliation for the Cardassians' betrayal, the Female Changeling orders the
entire planetary population put to death. Odo provides the cure for the disease and bis return to the Great
Link in exchange for the Dominion's surrender, but at least 800 million Cardassians have already been
executed.
• Dukat and Winn go to the fire caves of Bajor to unleash the Pah-wraiths. Sisko stops them, but at a cost
Winn is killed, and Dukat becomes trapped with the Pah-wraiths. Sisko joins the entities in the
wormhole, but promises to return.
• O'Brien transfers to the faculty staff of Starfleet Academy on Earth. Worf is made Federation
Ambassador to the Klingon Empire. Garak returns home to aid in the rebuilding of Cardassia. Nog is
promoted to lieutenant (j.g.). Kira returns to her Bajoran rank of colonel and becomes commanding
officer of Deep Space 9.
2376
THREE MONTHS LATER
PROLOGUE
At night, when the tunnels of B'hala were empty, dust swept through on tireless winds. The night breezes
were relentless in their irregular keening, the soft, lonely sounds trailing over heaps of dry and crumbling
soil, lingering in the corners and dark spaces of the long lost city. Like the gentle cries of shades and
spirits lamenting the daily disturbances of their tomb.
Sometimes, particularly at night when he couldn't sleep, Jacob Isaac Sisko thought he might like to write
about those ancient spirits -- a short piece of fiction, or even a poem -- but those instances were few and
far between. For the first time in years he had put aside his writing padd, and for the time being, at least,
he didn't miss it much. Besides, by the end of each day, he was usually too exhausted to do more man
eat, pull off his boots, and crawl into his cot, the sheets heavy with dust in spite of the air recycler. His
sleep was deep and
peaceful, and if he dreamed, he didn't remember upon waking.
Last night, though...
He wasn't quite ready to think about that; he concentrated instead on the small patch of dry and faded
earth beneath his fingers, on the feel of the brush in his hand as he carefully dusted. Behind him, Prylar
Eivos droned on about some of the recent discoveries in the southernmost section of the dig, his
ponderous voice seeming to draw the very life out of the tunnel's cool, recycled air. Eivos was a nice
enough man, but probably the most dreadfully dry of all the student overseers; the aging monk seemed to
be perfectly happy with the sound of his own voice, regardless of whether or not the content was relevant
to anything. Jake tuned in for a moment, still brushing at what would almost certainly turn out to be yet
another pottery shard.
"... but there was one figurine among the rest that was carved out of jevonite,.which is nothing short of
extraordinary," the prylar said, his tone suggesting that he'd devoted great thought to the matter. "As you
know, it has always been believed that jevonite could be found only on Cardassia..."
Jake tuned out again, paying just enough attention to know when to nod respectfully. From farther down
the tunnel he could hear the soft hum of the solids detec-. tors and the repetitive chunk of manually
worked picks and shovels. They were pleasant sounds, a bright counterpart to the nights of ghostly crying
from ancestors not his own....
He was feeling a bit on the poetic side lately, wasn't he? It was strange, unearthing fragments from an ancient
culture, and stranger still that the culture wasn't even his --
-- Dad's, though, in a way, and in the dream --
He shut that thought down before it could get any further, afraid of the concomitant feelings, afraid of
what he might uncover. And he realized that, beneath the soft bristles of his brush, a sliver of color had
appeared, a dull red against the lighter soil.
Jake waited for a break in Prylar Eivos's oratory.
"... but men, quantum-dating of the jevonite artifacts unearthed at the site proves indisputably that they
actually predate the First Hibetian civilization," the monk stated firmly, and took a deep bream.
"I think I've found it," Jake said quickly.
The prylar smiled, stepping forward and crouching, using the tunnel wall as a support. He pulled his own
brush from a fold in his robes and whisked the remaining soil from around the piece with practiced ease.
As Jake suspected, it was another broken clay shard. For every intact relic that was uncovered at B'hala,
mere seemed to be about a billion broken ones.
And they all have to be catalogued.
"Let's see what we have here... ah, very good, Jake!" The prylar stepped back, reaching for one of the
innumerable trays on the nearby cart. "And how gratifying -- it's kejelious, one of the most important
materials used during the Sh'dama Age. Have I ever told you about kejelious? I don't know if anyone
truly appreciates how versatile it can be, when the liquid ratios are altered..."
Jake nodded, smiling, seeing no point in reminding the monk that he'd already heard all about the virtues
of the stuff, twice. Eivos really was a nice old guy, and
seemed to be genuinely excited about the work -- though for the first time in all
his weeks at B'hala lake found himself feeling disappointed, gazing at the slender
fragment as the monk eased it from the ground.
Maybe because it's not what you came here to find, his mind whispered, and it
was another thought mat he pushed away -- but not so quickly as he might have
only a few days before. Things were changing whether he liked it or not, and
though he knew it was inevitable, had known for some weeks, a part of him was
still fighting to avoid the next step.
Acceptance.
When the prylar suggested that they break for a meal, Jake was relieved. He
hurried away, suddenly eager to be out of the tunnels where the dead were dust
and wind, where his father was a ghost that could only be longed for.
It was late in the afternoon before he thought of it again.
The dream, Jake. Last night.
He felt a tingle at the back of his neck, a subtle shiver of remembered
dream-reality -- something about the wormhole ...?
Jake sighed, still not sure he wanted to remember. Not sure he was ready, in spite
of the fact that he'd been having trouble concentrating for the last several days,
really. He was alone in one of the smaller catalog rooms, a constant, soft drone of
activity filtering in through several openings that had once been windows; he
leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, breathing deeply.
As far down as they were, second level up from the
tunnels, it was always pleasantly cool, and although a lot of the volunteers
preferred to work in the larger, climate-controlled areas, he liked the fresh air.
Usually it kept him alert, but he'd been daydreaming since lunch. Well, since
breakfast, technically, although working with Prylar Eivos would make an
android's mind wander. ...
Jake opened his eyes and returned his attention to the shard he'd been handling,
one of several from the area he thought of as the Kitchens, over at the northeast
end of the partially unearthed city. Number, 1601; Designation, C/Utensil. The
familiar numbers and keys of the database portable flew; he hardly had to look at
the container tag, knowing from the curve and distinctive blue color that it was
another one of (he goblet sets. He'd catalogued at least thirty of them in the last
few days, all from the same coordinates. Standard estimation comments from
Prylar Krish, noted date of extraction ...
... and had he been in the wormhole with his father? It seemed so distant, but he
thought that the dream had been about him and Dad, together, flying...
Jake set the piece of clay aside, knowing mat he had to stop dancing away from
the truth of things. Away from the gentle physical and mental repetition that his
time at B'hala had been about, and towards why he had come.
To accept the fact that I have to go on without him.
The hesitant thought, so simply worded on the page in his mind's eye, struck nun
as a little trite -- but no less true or powerful for mat. When no paralyzing sorrow
came, he allowed the thought again, accepting the
heaviness in his throat and chest For now, at least, he had to make a life for
himself.
It hurt, but there was also a forced quality to it. Or, not forced, but... deliberate.
He knew what had to happen, what he was supposed to do, but he didn't feel it
yet.
But Dax said that's normal, didn't she? That it could be a gradual thing, or all at
once. Ezri had been very straightforward about what he might experience, telling
him not to underestimate or belittle bis loss, and to keep his expectations to a
minimum. He'd talked to her a few times, before and after leaving the station,
carefully skirting any real conversation about his father. When he'd told her about
his intention to join the B'hala excavation, she'd suggested that not thinking for a
while might be exactly what he needed; in the almost nine weeks since he'd
...
nastekmj