37:[1,#b],68:[1,#b]
      DEEP SPACE NINE: "Afterimage" - REV. 08/11/98 - ACT FIVE     48A.

37B  CONTINUED:

					EZRI
				(cutting him off) 
			Don't call me that! I'm not the 
			old man. I'm not Curzon. Or 
			Jadzia.

					SISKO
			No, you're Ezri. Ezri Dax. 
			You've been given eight lifetimes 
			worth of experience -- I know 
			it's confusing right now, but in 
			time you'll see it's a wonderful 
			gift.

					EZRI 
			It's a gift I don't deserve.

	Sisko slams the PADD on his desk --

					SISKO 
			If that's the way you feel, then 
			go back to Trill. Talk to the 
			Symbiosis Commission -- maybe 
			you can convince them to take the 
			symbiont out of you.

					EZRI 
			I wish they could. But removing 
			the symbiont would kill me, you 
			know that.

	Sisko stands and moves around his desk.

					SISKO 
			If you're leaving Starfleet, 
			you're going to have to find 
			something to do. Maybe you could 
			be one of those people who takes 
			care of the symbiont pools? It's 
			quiet in those caves. No one 
			around, no one expecting great 
			things from you. You could spend 
			the rest of your life 
			underground, in the dark, 
			stirring mud. Eighty or ninety 
			years of that might be just what 
			you need.
				(beat) 
			And as for Dax? That symbiont's 
			had eight amazing lives -- so 
			what if the ninth is a waste?