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  "With respect, Commander, we do not need these"—the monk held out his hands—"so much as we need these." He touched his head, then his heart.

  Sisko tried to give the monk a reassuring smile. "Dr. Bashir's people are well trained. They can monitor life-sign readouts and maintain any prescribed treatments very efficiently."

  "But can they determine which treatments need to be prescribed?" Before Sisko could answer, Brother Gis went on: "I have already told you that we have no name for the sickness that is devastating our people. We need a healer, one who can give it a name. To name your enemy is the first step toward defeating him. Can your Dr. Bashir's assistants do that?"

  "They're not diagnosticians," Sisko admitted reluctantly.

  "In the desert, if water leaks from a vessel through invisible cracks, you do not need someone to mop up the water that has already spilled so much as you need one with the skill and wisdom to find the cracks themselves and make the vessel whole. We need this Dr. Bashir, not his assistants."

  Sisko had learned it was best to make the hardest pronouncements quickly and clearly. "He can't go. I can't spare him, Brother Gis. That would leave DS9 without a—a healer, and that is something I can't risk."

  "The Prophets will not leave you unprotected if you permit yourself to share your healer's skills with us," the monk said.

  "The Prophets are … generous as always, but we're talking about the overall security of Deep Space Nine. I'd need a better reassurance than their promised protection before I could let Dr. Bashir go. He's needed here."

  "The need for him is greater on Bajor," Brother Gis calmly maintained.

  Sisko set his jaw. "I'm sorry. But as for the rest—" He laid his hand on the monk's list.

  The Bajoran monk folded his hands and bowed slightly to the commander. "May the Prophets show you a better path," he said, and departed.

  No sooner was Brother Gis gone than Kira whirled on Sisko and blurted, "Why couldn't we spare Dr. Bashir?"

  Sisko's lips tightened. "I think I gave my reasons. Obviously you don't think they were good enough."

  "No, I don't," Kira said, expressing herself in the same blunt, direct way that worked against her more often than not. "There's a medical crisis on Bajor! There's nothing remotely resembling a crisis here. Why couldn't he—?"

  "There is no crisis here at the moment. Commander Sisko stressed his words carefully. "You've served aboard DS9 long enough to know how quickly that can change."

  "Commander, there are children dying!" Major Kira persisted desperately.

  "Do you think I didn't hear a word Brother Gis said?" Sisko snapped. Then, in a calmer voice: "We'll do all we can for the children on Bajor, but not at the risk of the children here."

  "Of course not," Kira muttered to herself. "They're not Bajorans."

  Her words were not soft enough for Sisko to miss. May I remind you, Major Kira, that the majority of the children aboard Deep Space Nine are Bajoran?" He turned his chair away from her. "I'll tell you one of the most important lessons of command: Sometimes the right decision isn't the easy one."

  "Sometimes the hard decision isn't the right one," she countered.

  He spun his chair around sharply to face her. "Maybe so, but it is my decision to make. Now, let's get to work doing what we can for Brother Gis and his people. Dismissed."

  Kira looked ready to say something more, but apparently thought better of it. Her mouth opened, then shut and tightened. She acknowledged her commanding officer's order with a crisp nod and marched out of his office. The air felt several degrees chillier after she left.

  Sisko folded his hands over the list Brother Gis had left behind. He knew he had made the only possible decision as far as the question of Dr. Bashir went. Deep Space Nine was calm now, but for how long? Could he predict accidents at the docking bays, incoming starships with medical emergencies aboard, unforeseen major injuries to any one of Mr. O'Brien's people brought about by working with dicey Cardassian equipment?

  "I'm not one of the Prophets," he murmured. But he was the commander, and it was his responsibility to look after the people under his command as he deemed best. That did not include depriving them of their chief medical officer's knowledge and skill for an unspecified period of time.

  He began to work on Brother Gis's list. If he worked hard enough, he hoped he would not think so much about the children.

  CHAPTER 2

  CHIEF OF SECURITY ODO was outside Commander Sisko's office when he encountered the Bajoran vedek who had been Brother Gis's companion on the runabout. The man was acting strangely, ignoring the device that would announce his presence and instead tapping the locked door with a peculiar-looking tube. Odo moved swiftly to place himself between the monk and the door.

  "May I help you?" he asked, though his tone turned the polite inquiry into the demand Who are you and what are you doing here?

  "How does it work?" the vedek asked.

  "How does what work?" Odo replied testily.

  "This." The vedek gave the closed door a substantial rap with the tube, making Odo flinch in spite of himself.

  "You need to know how a door works?" The shapeshifter could not help sounding amused.

  "Not a door," the vedek responded with equanimity. "This door."

  Odo gave a little snort of half-suppressed laughter through his not-quite-perfectly-formed nose. "I fail to see the problem. A door is a door."

  "Here." The vedek dipped his free hand into his sleeve and quickly tossed an object right at Odo. The shapeshifter's reflexes did not fail him; he snatched it from midair and stared at the object.

  "What's this?" he asked, slowly rotating the small, rubbery cube.

  "A ball." The vedek smiled. "Go ahead and roll it across the floor if you don't believe me."

  "Roll this?" Odo snorted again. "I don't think so."

  Still smiling, the vedek extended his hand for the cube. The shapeshifter slapped it into his palm unceremoniously. The vedek gave it an odd flip and the cube went bouncing down the corridor on its edges in an erratic, wandering course.

  But it did roll.

  "A ball is a ball," the vedek said, picking it up when it finally came to rest. "And a door is a door," he concluded in triumph.

  By now, Odo was out of patience. No matter how much he owed the Bajorans, he could never bring himself to like their vedeks' roundabout way of making a point. "Is there something I can do to help you? Besides playing ball in the corridors?"

  "I am here to see Commander Sisko," the vedek announced, holding the tube to his chest with both hands.

  "Is Commander Sisko expecting you?"

  "Commander Sisko is a man who has walked with the Prophets. Who can say what he expects?"

  "The Prophets again …" Odo muttered to himself in disgust. He liked straight answers to straight questions, something he never got whenever a Bajoran brought up the Prophets. "Do you have an appointment?" he asked.

  "I have a mission." The vedek's wrinkled face was creased by an expression of pure bliss. He cradled the tube tenderly.

  "If that's a message for Commander Sisko, I'll give it to him." Odo stuck out his hand.

  The vedek scuttled backward, clutching the tube. "It was entrusted to me," he protested. "I cannot let it be seen by any eyes but his."

  "You'll still have to let me examine it. I'm in charge of security. I can't permit any suspicious objects to be taken into Commander Sisko's presence."

  The vedek backed away even farther, shaking his head violently. Odo sighed. "You have my word of honor that I won't read it; I'll just look at it. I won't even need to open it if it scans as something harmless. I only want to make sure that it is what you say it is. Then I'll personally escort you in to see Commander Sisko, all right?"

  The vedek gave Odo a long, suspicious look that reminded the shapeshifter a lot of himself. Finally, though, the tube changed hands. Odo ran a small sensor over the length of it and found nothing to excite speculation. He passed it back to the vedek, whose h
ands closed around it as if he'd never expected to get it back at all.

  "There. That didn't hurt much, did it?" Odo said dryly.

  "Would you also like to scan this?" the vedek asked.

  Odo looked down at the rubber cube and grumbled, "That won't be necessary." He touched his communicator. "Commander Sisko, Odo here. There's someone to see you."

  "I'm very busy right now, Odo," Sisko voice came through. "I don't want to be disturbed. Tell whoever it is—"

  "He appears to be a Bajoran vedek."

  "He's back?" The commander's voice betrayed surprise. "Hmmmm, just as well. I have some good news for him from Starfleet Command. The medical supplies are on their way, and I'm working on the other phase of the problem. Bring him in." There was the sound of a lock being disabled and a muted hiss as the door to the commander's office slid back to admit Odo and the monk.

  Sisko looked up from his desk to say, "Brother Gis, we were lucky; there are three Federation vessels in the vicinity able to—" He stopped when his eyes lit on the Bajoran's face. "You're not Brother Gis."

  "With respect, no." The Bajoran made a shallow bow. "I am Vedek Torin, of the Na-melis Order. I live in service to the Kai Opaka."

  Sisko frowned. "The Kai Opaka is gone."

  "We are all diminished by her absence," Vedek Torin responded. "And yet, she remains among us, if we find the eyes to see her."

  "More nonsense," Odo muttered.

  Vedek Torin gave the shapeshifter a searching look. "My friend, I sense a certain bitterness about you. Although my order is small, we have mastered a number of remarkably effective techniques to achieve personal harmony and set the pagh at rest. When I have discharged my mission with Commander Sisko, perhaps I might share some of these with you?"

  "What sort of techniques?" Odo asked irascibly.

  The rubber cube arced into the air between them. "Well, we play ball a lot."

  "I'd take him up on it if I were you, Odo," Sisko said, secretly enjoying the nonplussed expression on the normally unflappable constable's face.

  "I don't need personal harmony!" Odo snapped so sharply that Commander Sisko had to smother a chuckle.

  "No?" Vedek Torin sounded disappointed. "Then perhaps you would prefer to apply our techniques as a means to rise above your skeptical nature? The mind that doubts everything often finds the answer to nothing. A person in your line of work needs answers."

  "With respect, Vedek Torin," Odo said, biting off the words, "I don't think your mission here was to teach me spiritual exercises."

  "That is true," the vedek averred. "Commander Sisko, I must ask you to come with me to the temple. I have a message for you from the one in whose service I will ever be."

  "From the Kai? But—"

  The vedek forestalled his objection. "Reserve your doubts until we have spoken, I beg of you. Come to the temple."

  "Can't you just give it to him here?" Odo demanded.

  "If I could, why would I ask him to accompany me to the temple?" Vedek Torin asked with such quiet reasonableness that Sisko could almost hear Odo's teeth grinding together.

  "I can't leave the station," Sisko said.

  "That is not needful. I speak of the temple here. Will you come?"

  Sisko rose from his chair and was about to leave the office in company with Vedek Torin when Odo stopped him. "Commander, I don't like this. Why the need for all this—this hole-and-corner secrecy?" He glared at the Bajoran, who returned a beatific look to him.

  "Do you have any hard reasons to suspect this man of deceit, Constable?" Sisko asked. Odo was forced to admit that he had none. "Then don't worry; I'll be fine."

  Odo followed Sisko and Vedek Torin out of the commander's office. In the corridor, Sisko and the vedek turned in one direction and Odo went in another, continuing his rounds. He had not gone twenty steps when he heard a short, penetrating hiss. He looked to one side and saw Major Kira Nerys motioning for him to join her.

  "Is something the matter, Major?" he inquired.

  "Nothing, Odo. I just have a little free time and I was wondering if I could buy you a drink at Quark's Place. The two of us haven't had a nice, friendly chat for a long time."

  "A nice, friendly chat, is it?" Odo was amused, in his own reserved way. "A nice, specific chat, if I know you."

  "Odo, I'm hurt!" she exclaimed, giving him a look to match the words. "You don't think I'm your friend?"

  "I know you are. I also know you." He gave her a searching look that had extracted confessions from more than one would-be malefactor aboard DS9.

  Major Kira raised her hands in surrender. "You've got me, Odo. All right, then; let's have a nice, specific chat over something cool."

  "You know I don't drink," he reminded her.

  The Bajoran rolled her eyes. "Fine, then can we have our chat without the drinks? I'll owe you one."

  "You may wind up owing me more. What's on your mind?"

  "I want some information."

  Odo smiled sardonically. "I thought as much."

  "Who was that vedek I just saw leaving Commander Sisko's office? I saw him earlier, when I went to greet Gis at the runabout docking bay."

  "Hmmm …" Odo grew thoughtful. "You know, Major, information moves smoothest when it moves both ways. We can trade."

  "Trade?"

  "My answer for your question, your answer for mine: Who is this Gis you went to greet?" He watched with interest as the color of Major Kira's cheeks heightened slightly.

  "Gis came to see Commander Sisko at my suggestion." Her unwillingness to share this knowledge was obvious. "He works in one of the refugee camps."

  "What was his business with the commander?"

  "Isn't it about time for that trade you mentioned, Odo?" Kira asked innocently. "Who was that vedek?"

  "He calls himself Vedek Torin of the Na-melis Order."

  "Na-melis!" Kira echoed in amazement. "They were the personal assistants of the Kai Opaka."

  "So he said."

  "But the Kai is gone. What could possibly bring one of the Na-melis Order here?" Kira mused. "And what would he want with Commander Sisko?"

  "I'm afraid that you will have to go elsewhere for that information," Odo said. "Vedek Torin was decidedly closemouthed on the subject. What about your Brother Gis?"

  Major Kira only smiled.

  "I see. Very well, if that is all—" He tried to proceed on his rounds. Kira stopped him with a gesture.

  "Maybe you don't have that information at the moment, Odo, but it's only a matter of time until you do. I believe in you. You make it your business to know what's going on aboard this station. If you don't know what brought Vedek Torin aboard—yet—you won't be ignorant for long. When you do find out, share the news with me. We'll trade again."

  "Is that an order, Major?" Odo asked.

  Kira's smile was set to disarm. "Just a request. From a friend who's helped you do your job once or twice. And one who now owes you one." The smile faded abruptly. "I'm not asking you to spy for me, Odo. As first officer, it's my duty and in the best interests of this station for me to be aware of Commander Sisko's whereabouts at all times. It's a matter of security. You do understand that?"

  "Perfectly." The corner of Odo's mouth twitched slightly. "When last seen, Commander Sisko and Vedek Torin were heading for the station shrine. If I learn more, I will make it a point to pass that information on to you. All in the name of security, of course."

  "Thank you," Major Kira replied with dignity. "I'd appreciate that."

  As she left, Odo remarked to himself, "There goes the only person I know who could out-trade a Ferengi." He uttered a short, sharp bark of laughter at the thought of how annoyed Kira would be to hear herself compared to Quark, then resumed his rounds.

  The Bajoran shrine aboard Deep Space Nine was a place of silences and mysteries. Although Benjamin Sisko had made it his business to acquaint himself with every aspect of the station as soon as he had settled into his new posting, his familiarity with the shrine relied more
on floor plans and schematics than personal experience. He was not a frequent visitor to this outpost of Bajoran mysticism, and those few times he had set foot across the threshold, he had been too preoccupied by other matters to truly notice his surroundings.

  He followed Vedek Torin through the main area of the shrine, breathing deeply the soothing scent of old incense and pausing impatiently while the monk lit a fresh cone of perfumed gum in one of the many delicately carved braziers. As they went on, Sisko saw several Bajoran worshipers in the shadows. He recognized them—shopkeepers and servicepeople from the station. There was Kova Dilvan, who ran the refreshment stand where Jake spent so much of his time and nearly all of his allowance. Sisko was used to seeing the squat, dark-haired Bajoran full of bounce and energy, an aggressive salesman fit to give even the Ferengi some hard competition. Now he stood in quiet contemplation before an abstract sculpture on the shrine wall, the picture of tranquillity.

  They left the public area and passed through a doorway hung with ornaments like those peculiar to adult Bajorans' earrings. The crystal strands chimed softly as the curtain closed behind Sisko and Vedek Torin, leaving them in a small, extremely private chamber. It was unfurnished except for a smooth, cylindric pedestal holding a glimmering golden dish of oil. Vedek Torin murmured a few words, then kindled the wick floating in the oil. It was the only light in the chamber, but it was sufficient.

  "Now we may speak," Vedek Torin said.

  "Are you sure?" Sisko cast his eyes back to the crystal curtain. It did not seem like a substantial barrier to potential eavesdroppers.

  The vedek was unperturbed. "It will suffice. I bring you a message, Commander, from the Kai Opaka herself. It is a message whose secrecy must be guarded absolutely. If you do not have the skill to preserve secrecy where there are no doors, you will do no better behind a hundred locks."

  Benjamin Sisko regarded the vedek closely. "How did your order receive this message? No one has heard anything from the Kai since her departure." He was sure of that. If anyone had had word from the Kai, there were half a dozen political opportunists on Bajor ready and willing to transform the message so that it would be all to their advantage.