She moved into her bedroom, changing into her nightclothes, then sliding into her bed. Imperiously, she ordered the computer to douse the lights. After a tiring day, she was ready for sleep.
She awoke three hours later. It was the dead of night; the palace was silent. It was also incredibly cold. Servalan sat up and wrapped her covers around her.
"Computer, lights," she ordered, first in her normal tone, and then with more urgency. The lights did not respond. Panic now began to take hold of her. She stepped off the bed. A strange white mist swirled around her ankles. Still, she could see very little. There was nothing to indicate that she was, indeed, in her own quarters. Then, away in the distance she saw a dot of light; a strange, cold white light. It seemed a tremendous distance away, but it grew ever closer. Soon she could distinguish individual features on the light; it was a face, but a face of monstrous size. Panic became stark terror when she recognized the face looming at her out of the Stygian gloom; it was that of Phineas Magus!
She turned and began to run; now she could hear the apparition calling after her, but it was not in the soft Scots lilt which had been familiar to all since the Twentieth Century; it was the sort of voice you would expect to hear calling the dead from their graves for the Day of Judgment: a deep, booming voice, a voice like the world cracking in two. As the face approached nearer and nearer, she could make out what it said; it repeated two words, in a language she could not understand, but strangely, in a detached part of her mind, she knew that it was Latin. The two words went on and on...
"Dies Irae (Dies Irae)!"
The grim spectre drew nearer and nearer; Servalan ran harder and harder, but she could not stay ahead; the unearthly light began to fall on her; at last, in stark terror, she began to scream, as the vision caught her!
She awoke with a start, drenched with sweat. It did not appear that anyone had heard her screaming; just as well, such a dream could be taken as a sign of guilt. It certainly had been a very bad dream; for a moment she thought that perhaps she might be tottering on the edge of madness.
Far away, in his study on the Time of Legends, sat Phineas Magus. He smiled as he heard Servalan's thoughts.
"Ah, my dear!" he mused. "Madness is not for you! You will wish soon enough that it was!"
As Major Kira walked along the balcony that overlooked the Promenade, she soon found the man she was looking for. Constable Odo stood motionless, gazing out into space, gazing out at the stars.
Kira was soon standing by his side. "Odo! I've been looking for you everywhere!"
"You don't have to do this, Major. I don't need to be consoled like you humanoids!"
"I wasn’t trying to. I've just been speaking to the First Minister. He wants you to go on this mission to the Gamma Quadrant as the Bajoran Government's official representative."
Odo turned his gaze away from the stars and stared at Kira.
"And what about you? Aren't you serving that role, Major?"
"But the government wants you to come along."
"I can see right through your game, Major. Sisko put you up to this, didn't he? An attempt to make the shape-shifter feel better. Tell Sisko there really is no need."
Kira was shocked by this. In all the years she had known Odo, she had never known him to act in this way.
"You're right, as always. But just consider this. When Starfleet first came aboard, who was the one man who kept this place safe, who stopped all the looting? It was you. If you turn your back on this station, on us, you'll be throwing away everything you've ever worked for!"
Kira then left Odo alone to brood, as the shape-shifter continued to stare out into the void of space.
At full impulse speed, the U.S.S. Voyager entered the area of space known only as the Badlands. The plasma storms in this region provided the perfect cover for the Maquis' ships, and it was these storms that made searching for the missing Maquis ship all the more difficult.
"Beginning initial scans," Kim reported. "So far, the only thing I'm managing to detect are the plasma storms."
"The Cardassians could have destroyed the ship, as they said," said Paris.
"We would still pick up the trace from their warp engines," replied Janeway.
Then, Kim’s sensor panel sprang to life.
"Captain, we are being scanned by a coherent tetryon beam."
"Source?"
Kim checked the sensors.
"Unable to determine, but a massive displacement wave is coming towards us. Impact will occur in forty seconds."
"A displacement beam could disperse the wave," said Cavett.
"Make it so," Janeway ordered.
Cavett raced over to the Tactical station, and began the process. Seconds later, the displacement beam was fired at the wave.
"No effect!" Cavett shouted.
"Impact in twenty seconds!" Kim reported.
"All decks, this is Captain Janeway. Brace for impact."
And then the displacement wave hit them like a ton of bricks hitting a piece of paper. They were taken off their course, flung through space, and they could do nothing about it.
All was ready, as Commander Sisko sat in the center chair of the U.S.S. Defiant. As he sat surveying his surroundings, his officers reported in. "Ops and Navigation are ready," Dax reported.
"All engineering systems ready," said O’Brien.
"Tactical ready," Kira said.
"Then contact Ops and clear us for departure," Sisko ordered.
Then, O’Brien looked at his control panel.
"Wait, Commander! There's someone in the airlock!"
O’Brien checked his sensor panel.
"It’s Odo!"
Sisko activated his communicator.
"Sisko to Odo. Are you coming along for the ride, Constable?"
"I have been asked to accompany you at the request of the Bajoran Provisional Government as their official representative."
A smile appeared on Kira's face.
"Welcome aboard then, Constable. I'll assign quarters to you right away."
"I'll see to that," said Bashir, getting to his feet. "I've got to go down to what is laughingly called a Sickbay anyway."
A short time later, Quark sat in his quarters when suddenly the door opened. He was surprised to see Odo and Bashir standing in the doorway.
"Are these the only quarters you have?" Odo asked.
"I'm afraid so," Bashir replied. "This was all we could do at short notice."
"Then it will have to do."
Quark seemed alarmed at having to share his quarters with his number one nemesis. However, he did not let it show.
"Good to see you, Odo! Although I never thought we would be on this trip together!"
Odo placed his pail in one corner of the quarters, and because his back was turned to Quark, the Ferengi could not see that his useless banter was angering Odo, although that was not the only reason.
"You know, this could be the start of a new friendship!"
That was enough for Odo. He sharply turned on the Ferengi and stared him straight in the eye.
"I have been holding this shape for nearly sixteen hours!" he boomed. "And I need to return to my normal state, and I do not have the time for this useless banter! So kindly turn around!"
"Turn around? Why?"
"Because this is a private thing for myself! Now do as I say before I turn you into a Ferengi blood pie!"
Scared half to death, Quark did as he was told. With his back now turned to him, Odo returned to his natural state, and entered his pail for his regeneration cycle. Quark now knew where he stood.
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