Team DS9 - 7

Posted on Sun Oct 19th, 2025 @ 6:27pm by Commander Jenna Ramthorne & Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Commander Dean House & Lieutenant JG Micheal Stevens & Lieutenant JG Ameila Montana & Ensign Kitiuas Thenis ie-Jia'anKahr & Commander Jennifer Baldric

2,274 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: For Bajor!
Location: DS9
Timeline: Next Morning

The next morning, the Sunfire team gathered in the Replimat, having all been released from the Infirmary at varying times over the last 12 hours. Dean had only just been released, and if Baldric knew the man at all, she knew he would be craving one of his famous Deanwich sandwiches, apparently a meal for any time of day and any occasion. She had gathered the team to debrief and also to strategise, trying to determine who did this and why. The coffee was hot, and Baldric was determined.

Kit came into the Replimat gingerly. Her lungs still hurt, and her backside hurt as the newly regenerated skin pulled at her muscles. She was also dead tired; it took all night to get Astraea to calm down, feed, and go to sleep. Her mother, sister, and herself taking turns calming Astraea. The psychic link she had formed with all three of them would not allow them to do otherwise.

Kit knew she looked like something the cat dragged in, as the Earth saying went, but she could use a good cup of hot Vulcan Mocha and a medium rare steak and loaded baked potato, not caring that it made a strange breakfast.

Tears dried up. Dress recycled. Plans to visit Earth scrapped. Bonnie had also gotten very little sleep, but she was dressed in her uniform standard and ready to face whatever the day had in store. There was one thing on her priority agenda, hitting Dean for getting hurt and making her worry. In the back of her mind was that voice, that threat, and that virus, each in turn causing her insomnia.

She walked through the docking port, across the promenade, pulled up a seat, and plopped down into it with a thud. It felt weird to have a 'meating' at the replimat where former DS9 officers used to come and contemplate during the Dominion War, but she was here and ready for the day to begin.

Baldric sipped her coffee as the others arrived. They all looked spent, and she wondered if she was pushing them too hard. Would it be so bad to have a recuperation day? Then again, whoever had tried to sabotage the station and then kill them was still on the loose and the local security teams had no new leads to work on.

She cast her eyes around the battered and somewhat broken team and felt both bad and determined all at once.

"Alright, team, I know yesterday was a bit of a doozy. Today, we gather intel and recuperate. We scour the computer core for any evidence. Do we have any leads so far?"

Kitiuas looked up at the group, "My father has contacted my cousin's Cajun. As we speak, they are 'extracting' information" here Kit did air quotes. "from a local Nausicaan raider group. They will have a rundown of who the Nausicaan was and who employs him."

She then looked at Commander Baldric, "And before you say anything, Commander, you do not want to get involved with the specifics of Orion Cajun. Let's just say my step-father is extremely angry and upset."

Bonnie glanced over at Kit, but tried to maintain focus on the Commander. This was a Starfleet matter or so it felt. Having other forces acting on their behalf didn't sit right. But then having the help wasn't all that bad of an idea either. "They were going for the weather satellite backup data. I stayed up most of the night trying to reconstruct as much of it as I could. " She had managed to salvage 25% of the data before the power grid was compromised. "Um... how's Dean?" she blurted out, her mind clearly resting on her sleeve.

"You feeling ok, Bon? He's right here. A little banged up, but they released him a short while ago." Baldric said kindly, wondering if the trauma was affecting Bon more than she had realized. The fact that the Orions had one of those who had attacked them, a Nausicaan no less, was concerning, but there was little that could be done about that. "So there was a Nausicaan. Did he or she have any accomplices? I can't remember how many there were after they clocked me," Baldric admitted. Everything after that point had been fuzzy and blurred.

Kit looked at Commander Baldric. "I know there was the Nausicaan as we tangled with each other, and he managed to grab and escape with a female. I believe she was in charge." Kit scrunched her face as she tried to recall the incident.

"Nausicaans, and a woman. I wonder if the station's security cameras or passenger manifests have a record of them coming on board. A Nausicaan would be pretty easy to spot?" Baldric mused, keen on finding whoever this was that was with the Nausicaan.."Can you remember anything about this woman?"

Suddenly, not sure if her reality matched everyone else's, Bonnie's eyes and ears perked up. She hadn't seen Dean, nor heard his voice. Could she have been so oblivious? Her head was still in a tizzy with the lack of sleep; maybe that was it. "I'm fine." She lied.

"Guess I... anyway, there was also another. The one who sounded like, well, like me only... different." Bonnie admonished. "There was also a mention of Terrok Nor, the old name for the station. Why would they have specifically called it that when it's been Deep Space Nine for so many years?"

"Terok Nor did you say?" Baldric’s blood ran cold as she considered the two options for the use of that word. Both bad. "So we're either dealing with time travelers, or the Mirror Universe." She verbalised and then hated herself for doing so when she saw the reactions of the team.

Both were equally worrisome, but one fit what they knew better than the other. "How do we tell one from another without being able to scan them?" Bonnie asked, earnestly.

That's when a call came through, "Ramthorne to Baldric. Thought you'd like to know, the Captain called to say they were onto a lead regarding the drought on Bajor. And I can safely say the weather report suggests steady rain is currently falling over most of the continental plains. She also asked if you would check in, once I mentioned what happened to Mr. House and Ms. Thenis."

"I'll give her a call shortly," Baldric replied, knowing she should have reporting yesterday's events to the Sunfire's Captain as soon as she had been able. The call was gonna suck; her team had been baited and blown up, barely escaping with their lives, with the only possible lead being a Nausicaan and possibly an incursion from the Mirror Universe. She took a long drag of her coffee, praying for strength.

"I will contact you if I hear anything further. Ramthorne out."

Feeling the conversation had gotten distracted and off the rails, Bonnie squeaked, "So, um, what do we do now? I mean, besides, um, review the security logs and the Computer records?" She was apprehensive and feeling out of her element. "Dean, didn't you say something about Commander Coy? Was she the woman Kit fought?"

"Commander Coy? How is she involved? She's the Trill, right?" Baldric hoped the coffee would kick in soon. "Shuttle transport logs, we need to find out who this woman is. We can also go over he computer core room, see if there was any evidence the station team could have missed." Just as she spoke, there was a call from the security chief on the station. "Commander Baldric, I think we have a vision of the trio who blew up the computer core. They weren't very thorough in covering their tracks."

"Righto, send it to my PADD," Baldric replied and waited for the 5-second clip to appear. The image was grainy as was the want of the old Cardassian technology they were working with. She paused as the faces of all three looked directly at the camera and smirked. This was deliberate, and they want it to be known who they were.

Kit stopped when Bonnie mentioned someone sounded like her, but different. "Commander Durnell, I believe you mentioned someone who sounded like you but different. When did this occur?" Kit was already formulating a way to rule out time travelers; she would need Bonnie's version of the individual who sounded like her but different.

Bonnie didn't even have to think as the scene flooded through her mind in a flash, "Um, after, after the explosion. The medics had rushed in and were placing you and Dean, um, and the Commander on hover sleds. I was trying to get out of the way." She shuddered as she still felt the imagery in her head of her friends injured and bleeding. "She was behind me in the corridor, or around the corner. But when I turned, she was gone. I assume she transported out."

"So there should be a transport log as well. You're thinking Mirror Universe Kit?" Baldric mused, setting her now-empty coffee cup on the table before them, and considered replicating another. "If it's Mirror Bonnie, she's got all the smarts but the innocence replaced with the exact opposite," she shuddered at the thought. "She would be one hell of an adversary."

Kit smiled, "I believe we run a scan for trace particles of tachyon particles or their residue within the area Commander Durnell states she heard the voice. This will allow us to reduce it to either someone using a transporter within that area or if a temporal distortion occurred. From there, it is a simple matter to look at the residual pattern mixed into the tachyon particles to determine whether it was a transporter or a temporal distortion. If the latter, it is most likely dealing with time travelers, the former mirror universe, or actors in our timeline."

Ears perking up at something Bon was familiar with, she thought about Kit and Kit's injuries, "I can do that, or help with that if, you know, if you're not feeling up to it. I don't want to assume or anything." Bonnie said with her usual trepidation. "I can do that when I go back to the CORE and see if I can get any other residuals off the code, or whatever."

Kit smiled at Bonnie and replied in sincerity, “That would be great, Commander. I will also assist you with the core. Should be an easy task, core not so much.”

Dean blinked out of staring off into space. Haha. In his thoughts, but he was listening the whole time. Shifting the cane across his lap, which in true Dean form, also hid a sword. If necessary, then he would be caught empty-handed while he healed. Definitely not at 100 percent. "It was definitely Coy when I got there and fought her as well. Before, well, you know. I've got to go with Mirror Universe. The only ones with any ounce of intelligence, except for Cardassians, call it Deep Space 9, not Terok Nor, except for...."

"We have a start, that's more than we had an hour ago." Baldric smiled, proud of how the team always managed to pull together and find a way forward. "I need to brief the Captain on what's going on. Dean, did you want to go with Bon and Kit? I can catch up with you all there."

Dean raised an eyebrow for just a moment. "I can hobble."

"Hobble at your leisure," Baldric smiled, thankful he was on the mend again. She had to talk to him privately about the surge of energy she had felt in the Infirmary...was it him, or her, or both of them? Since then, she had felt different, no better nor worse, just different.

Suddenly reminded, Bonnie's face scrunched up in a frown. She half stood up and stretched over to where Dean was sitting, balled up her fist, and punched him in the arm. Her wrist and knuckles made an audible pop upon impact, and she recoiled quickly. "That's for getting hurt, again."

Then she smacked him open-handed, "And that's for making me worry that you were dead." She then fell back into her seat with a plop, arms crossed, wrist throbbing.

"Ouch," Jen couldn't help but laugh and also empathise with Bonnie. The computer tech and Dean shared a complex but friendly relationship that Baldric had never been able to quite put her finger on. Turning to Dean, she smirked, "That was for me also."

Kit winced when Bonnie punched him and then smacked him. She shook her head and smiled. ~What a crazy adopted family I have chosen.~ Kit thought.

Before anyone had a chance to speak further, the alarm klaxon on the station began blaring. In a breath, everyone going about their business froze in place, expecting the worst. The shields around the station went up. Then a single ship, relatively small in size and Nausicaan in design, flashed past the promenade viewports.

Everyone turned to look. It wasn't out of the ordinary for someone to buzz the station, fly past the command spires, out for a joyride, but this was different. This was someone malicious trying to get the station's attention, and whoever it was, had it.

The small ship turned under a pylon, then flew past the viewports again, closer this time, then sped off towards Bajor in a hurry. Minutes later the Master Weather Warden Satellite erupted in a ball of flames above the planet.

"Kira to Commander Baldric, you'd better get to ops, we have a situation," rang the call.

TBC

 

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