Danny Amor's Online Library/Danny Amor's Online Library - Volume 1.iso/html/startrek/old-incomplete/shadow-thedarksideoftheforce

Text File | 1995-08-20 | 33KB | 589 lines

                      Dark Side Of The Force (pt1)
                      **********************
                                by
                         Raymond N. Cooper



   "Bloody Starfleet engineers..."
   The mutter came from within a service hatch inside the starship USS
Defiant's port warp nacelle.  A spanner and a section of a shut-down warp coil
followed it quickly.  Chief Miles O'Brien stood up from the hatch, cursing
loudly.
   "They could've done a better job of it."  His Irish accent accompanied a lot
more cursing, complimenting it in ways O'Brien could not understand.  The
Defiant was a heap of scrap, everyone but the Commander knew it.  And it was
left up to O'Brien to fix it everytime the Commander wanted to play starship
captain against some alien species.  Usually the Dominion.
   Now it was being readied for a possible conflict between Deep Space Nine and
either a Romulan warbird, or a planetful of non-corporeal beings.  If they were
anything like Q, who used to pop in and out of the Enterprise, O'Brien's last
assignment, they would be like the Devil himself to beat.
   And it seemed like they may be.  First, they had taken Kira to the
future,then they attacked Bashir, brought Commander Sisko's wife back from the
dead,did something to Lieutenant Dax to make her request a transfer, and the
latest...!  They had an innocent Bajoran executed just to make the Security
Chief, Odo, feel bad!  Worse yet, the shadow that had been behind that had
posed as a Starfleet officer, unknown to both Major Kira and Odo at the time.
   If that wasn't enough, one of them, or one like them, to be more precise,was
trying to help the DS9 crew to stop these shadows.  She appeared and
disappeared all the time, knowing what was going on, but not doing much about
whatever was going on.
   Now, a meeting with the senior crew was being held in the ward room.  The
senior crew - without O'Brien.  He had been told to work on the Defiant, no
matter what.  And, as a matter of fact, the announcment of the meeting told him
that he was excepted from the meeting.  Great.
   He noticed a flash of red in the Jefferie's tube.  It dogded in and out of
clear sight for a moment, getting closer, closer, closer...
   The red streak resolved into the girl in red Starfleet uniform everyone had
been seeing lately.  Brown, shoulder length hair, brown eyes, incredibly good
looking... this was the girl everyone had been seeing, all right.
   O'Brien decided to ignore her, and ducked back down into the hatch.
   "Nice weather we're having, isn't it?" she asked.
   No reply.  She leaned down into the hatch.
   "I said `hi'."  Still no reply.  Sighing, she snapped her fingers,  and
O'Brien found himself outside the Defiant, out in space, with the girl with
him.
   "Don't panic," she said cheerfully.  "You're being held in an oxygen bubble.
 Breathe deeply, don't hold your breath.  Do you think I've helped everyone
else, just to kill you?"
   "I've met a Q," O'Brien muttered, risking breathing.  "I know what
non-corporeals are capable of.  I don't trust them."
   "Good, neither do I."  The girl settled down into a comfortable sitting
position.  "I think we can get on a first name basis, what do you think?"
   O'Brien nodded mutely.
   "Right, I'm Sasha.  You're Miles.  I'm cute.  You're not.  Glad we got that
settled?"
   O'Brien stared at her, wishing this girl would get on with whatever she was
doing.  He had to get back to the Defiant, after all.  One miracle was enough
for O'Brien to work on without being interupted by an N-C.
   "I won't keep you long.  I just have to tell you a couple of things.  And
the effect of appearing to Bajoran Vedek's becomes boring after a while.  My
descendants are readying an assault on you.  They want to use mental energies
to raise themselves into ascendancy into... N-C's, as you put it.
   "Do not let them provoke you.  I need time to get help for you all, I know
you'll need it.  Your Defiant won't be ready in time for transport, but I have
some... family - distant cousins, really - on the other side of the wormhole.
I'm trying to get them to come here, but its going to be a long argument. I
would like you to stay on your Defiant, and keep working on that - no matter
what.
   "The other thing is, tell your Commander that I'll be away for a short time,
perhaps a day or two.  Oh, and tell him that that Warbird will be here in one
day, not four and a half, as he seems to think."
   Sasha disappeared in a flash of light, and when O'Brien could finally see
again, he found himself in the Defiant, working on the warp coils in the port
warp nacelle...
                                ******

   "Well, people, we have three problems, as I see it."
   Commander Benjamin Sisko sat at his seat, and glanced at each of his
officers in return.  His gaze lingered on Dax for a moment, which she
caught,and returned with an icy glare.  Sisko shuddered slightly.  He didn't
know Dax could do that to anyone - before now.  Now he had proof.  She was
still holding the affair with 'Jennifer' lately.  He would have to tip-toe
around the subject then.
   "Number one," he continued.  "We have a Romulan warbird in the area.  I
don't know whether we should panic about this: there have been no other
detections of any subspace - or other - distortions, namely graviton
distortions, which led to the Warbird's discovery in the first place.  I have
O'Brien looking into how much maintainance the Defiant will need before it can
be classed battle ready.  He thinks it's hopeless.  I think he can pull off a
miracle.
   "Number two, we have our old problem with the shadows.  We don't know where
they'll strike at next, nor who at.  Constable?"
   Odo cleared what passed for a throat.  "I don't know, Commander.  All I know
is that 'Tuvok' claimed that O'Brien and... Quark," he forced the word out with
some difficulty, "were left to be... used.  Take your pick,Commander."
   Sisko hmmed.  "Number three, the Cardassians have informed us, as good
neighbours, of course, that a shuttle carrying Cardassian diplomats has been
forced off course by an unknown entity.  They have been deflected towards us,so
I suppose we can prepare for the worst.  I have no reason - as yet - to believe
that all three events may be connected."  Sisko leaned back in his chair,
waiting for comments.
   Dax answered first.  "These events may have more in common than you realise,
Commander.  I believe that the entity that has pushed that shuttle towards us
may be the very entities whose moves we are trying to guess now."
   "In that case, then, Dax," the Commander interupted, "the Warbird may have
been directed at us."
   "That would be a logical conclusion, Commander."


   Please note that, while some characters and settings are copyrighted
   to Paramount Pictures (Or whatever it is these days), the events in
   this story and some of the characters (Sasha Wren, N'Col, the N'tChells,
   the shadows, etc...) are copyrighted to me.  I don't care where this
   story gets to, just as long as I am credited as the author, this
   copyright blurb remains on here, and NO ONE FROM PARAMOUNT PINCHES MY
   STORIES!!!!!!

Raymond N. Cooper
17 Belton Crt
BEERWAH  QLD 4519
AUSTRALIA


Path: tivoli.tivoli.com!geraldo.cc.utexas.edu!cs.utexas.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!news.moneng.mei.com!uwm.edu!msunews!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!nntp.brisnet.org.au!softtech!au!org!brisnet!closer!william.gracie
From: [e-mail] (William Gracie)
Date: 10 Jan 95 09:46:46
Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative
Subject: DS9-altered shadow arc:obrien2
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: Soft-Tech [phone]
Lines: 124
Xref: tivoli.tivoli.com alt.startrek.creative:4368

                      Dark Side Of The Force (pt2)
                      **********************
                                by
                         Raymond N. Cooper



   Sisko wished Dax would stop calling him Commander, and go back to Benjamin.
He was used to that, and used to calling Dax 'Old Man'.  He couldn't call her
that now.  Not if her transfer was something that he had in fact started.  He
needed her here, he realised.  The station wouldn't be the same without her.
Would he be able to get up every morning to face work without her?
   He thought not.
   Sisko was about to dismiss his senior staff, right up until the power in Ops
and the surrounding levels went out.  The station shook, barely effective
inertial dampers stopping the massive sideways push, making it instead a
sickening sideways shunt.  A support strut fell from the ceiling, capturing Dax
underneath it, trapping her body beneath several hundred kilograms of solid
metal.
   "Sisko to Ops!" the Commander called, tapping his comm badge.  No burble. No
sound from his comm badge at all.  The only light inside the room was star
light, from outside, and long ago.
                                ******

   The shuttlecraft moved to within four hundred metres of docking pylon four.
Jasad had no control over the small vessel now; he just hoped he wouldn't lose
his life.  He had been ordered not to go anywhere near Bajoran space, in case
the attack his Cardassian superiors were planning might fail because the
Bajoran Provisional Government had some warning.
   Again, he trien switching controls from automatic to manual.  It didn't
work.  He was really in the Gerekk this time.
   His passengers had become strangely silent, too.  That might bear
investigating - as soon as the shuttle stopped.  Just then, it did, rattling
Jasad's teeth in their sockets.  He heard - not really believing, but he heard
- the shuttle's transporter whining as it did when over loaded.  Its maximum
safe transport was nine Cardassians.  Ten was over loading the system,
straining it as it had done when the passengers were brought on board.
   He checked, and found his suspicions to be true: his passengers had beamed
somewhere.  The only place within transporter range was the old Cardassian
mining station, Terek Nor.
   Jasad corrected himself.  Deep Space Nine.
                                ******

   Jake Sisko walked around the Promenade of DS9, following an incredibly good
looking young woman.  She looked Bajoran in some lights, Vulcan in other,and
she even had the Trill spotting around her temples and neck!  A really mixed
breed, but it turned Jake on.
   She glanced back at him for about the twentieth time in a minute, making
sure he was still following her, then ducked into a turbolift, and held the
door.
   "Do you want a ride?" she called out to Jake.  He hurried into the
turbolift.  Before the door could shut, however, it was ripped out of its
sliders by a Cardassian, and an angry one at that.  The girl pulled Jake down
to the ground, dodging a fist by centimetres.  Both young people felt wind
whistle past their heads, and they felt through the floor rather than heard the
fist connect with the rear wall.  Jake grabbed the girl (whose skin felt rather
dry and crinkly, Jake noted), and pulled her out of the turbolift.
   Outside, three other Cardassians that Jake could see were ripping into the
Promenade.  Garak's shop's front  window was smashed, and the little tailor
beaten sensless when he tried to defend his wares.  Quark was on hand,
literally throwing latinum at mercenaries to fight to defend his bar. And no
security officers came to stop the rucus.
   That seemed, to Jake, the strangest thing of all.  At the very least, Odo
should be here, throwing Cardassians around.  Then his world turned upside down
as the girl took hold of him, saving him from being squashed by the turbolift
door.
   They ducked into a service tunnel, exposed in the battle.  They watched with
bated breath, to see who would win.  Neither wanted to leave.  Neither did.
   A Cardassian batted a pipe at an exterior porthole on the upper level
repeatedly.  The material shattered, drawing a hapless Bajoran shopkeeper out
into space as the air in the Promenade shot out through the hole.  Jake felt
himself drawn to the hole, until he felt the girl's fingers tighten around his
forearm.  Claws sprung out of her skin, which was splitting off,much like a
snake's when its skin is too small for it.  The girl seemed to be a
shapeshifter, but Jake didn't care.  By then, he had been hit on the head by a
piece of loose metal.  He wouldn't worry about anything for a little while.
   Emergency containment procedures sprang into place, sealing off the hole
with a forcefield.  Cardassian quick hard-drying foam covered the hole, filling
it in, while atmospheric generators churned new gases into the Promenade.
                                ******

   Miles O'Brien heard alarms go off on one of his devices.  He glanced out a
nearby porthole, and caught a glimpse of gases spurting out from the Promenade.
 Around the gas were several figures, all gesturing wildly.
   Racing to the Defiant's transporter room, O'Brien scanned for life forms.
There were several, but fading rapidly.  He programmed quick general
co-ordinates into the transporter, and wished for a miracle.  It came true.
Four life forms materialized on the pad, all lying on the floor.
   After a rush job of transporting them back to the Infirmary, O'Brien set the
co-ordinates for the school, quite close to the affected section of the
Promenade.  He leaped into the the transporter beam, not knowing what to
expect.  He knew very well that his wife, Keiko, and his daughter, Molly,would
most likely be safe from any depressurisation.  God knew the Cardassians
weren't very good with prisoners, nor had very good manners, and didn't have
the slightest notion of the words 'user-friendly', but when it came to
emergency procedures, the Cardassians were second to none.  A breach of the
atmospheric bubble, and forcefields sprung into life while foam filled the
breach.  It may have taken half a minute, and several lives may have been lost,
but the structure held.
   Most likely, his wife and daughter would be all right, and waiting for
him,or for anybody to come along, and tell them it was safe.
   Most likely.
   The transporter beam faded from around O'Brien, as he came to his senses in
the classroom his wife ran.  Yes, his wife and daughter were safe in here, he
knew he was right.  But Keiko was looking at him with horror.
   Not at him, but behind him... O'Brien realised, as the hundred-plus kilogram
weight of a Cardassian smashed him into a wall...
                                ******


   Please note that, while some characters and settings are copyrighted
   to Paramount Pictures (Or whatever it is these days), the events in
   this story and some of the characters (Sasha Wren, N'Col, the N'tChells,
   the shadows, etc...) are copyrighted to me.  I don't care where this
   story gets to, just as long as I am credited as the author, this
   copyright blurb remains on here, and NO ONE FROM PARAMOUNT PINCHES MY
   STORIES!!!!!!

Raymond N. Cooper
17 Belton Crt
BEERWAH  QLD 4519
AUSTRALIA


Path: tivoli.tivoli.com!geraldo.cc.utexas.edu!cs.utexas.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uwm.edu!msunews!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!nntp.brisnet.org.au!softtech!au!org!brisnet!closer!william.gracie
From: [e-mail] (William Gracie)
Date: 10 Jan 95 09:47:26
Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative
Subject: DS9-altered shadow arc:obrien3
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: Soft-Tech [phone]
Lines: 124
Xref: tivoli.tivoli.com alt.startrek.creative:4369

                      Dark Side Of The Force (pt3)
                      **********************
                                by
                         Raymond N. Cooper


   Sisko determined that the beam pinning Dax down could be moved.  Not
entirely certain he could lift it, Sisko placed his hands under one end of the
metal strut, and smiled down at Dax.
   "Soon have you out," he grunted, heaving at the beam.  He glanced over at
Bashir and Odo.  "I'd appreciate a hand."
   Together, all three managed to lift the beam off Dax, and Major Kira helped
her out from under it.  Partial power came back on, just enough to charge the
communications net.
   The station-wide intercom came on, spluttering into life.
   "Fellow Bajorans, this is Kai Winn.  I thank you for your prompt sense of
justice with Jadda Mor; however, I asked you to bring him to me.  I give you
one last chance to redeem yourselves."
   "What's she up to?" Kira muttered.
   The Kai continued.  "Cardassians have invaded this station.  As forgiveness
for your earlier sins, I order you to lay down your weapons, and moved out of
their way.  You will only be harmed if you attempt to stop them from their
purpose."
   The intercom closed off.
   Sisko tapped his comm badge.  "Sisko to Ops!  What's happening?"
   A male voice came on the channel a moment later.  "Sorry, Commander, we seem
to have lost all power in this level, and the one under us.  There's no way in,
and no way out, unless a transporter from another ship can -"
   "Thank you, ensign.  What about the communicators?  Why are they working
now?"
   The ensign paused for a moment.  "We have no... idea, sir.  We didn't do
anything, except stumble around in the dark." He spoke to someone else, the
words breaking in softly into the comm channel.  "The Cardassians must have had
a secondary power supply somewhere, Jase.  Look over there."  He spoke to Sisko
again.  "Sorry sir, we're just trying to find a different power source."
   Several minutes went by, as the senior staff waited for a restoration of
power.  They needed medical equipment for Dax, and even though the station's
doctor, Julian Bashir, wqas in the room with them, he couldn't check the unique
join that Trill host and symbiont shared.  That could be irrepairably damaged
for all Bashir knew, and he wasn't going to risk a judgment on Dax that wasn't
fully backed up by a tricorder.  He cursed himself for leaving his in the
Infirmary.
   "Ensign Umhal to Commander Sisko," Sisko communicator badge pinged,startling
everyone.  "Sorry sir, we can't get the emergency power supply to work.  It's
as if someone or something was cutting the power off before it got to these
levels."
   "Okay, ensign.  We'll try to get out of here some other way.  Can you locate
security?"
   "That's the funny thing, Commander.  No security personal is answering our
calls.  Communicator breakdown?"
   Sisko pondered a moment.  "I have a way of verifying that, ensign.  I'll get
right back to you."  The channel closed, and Sisko tapped his comm badge once
more.  "Sisko to O'Brien..."
                                ******

   "Sisko to O'Brien."
   O'Brien woke to his comm badge buzzing in his ear.  He tapped it to shut it
down.  "O'Brien here."  His head felt like it was squeezed in between two
bulkhead doors, closing for decompression due to a hull breach.  He shook his
head, and immediately regretted it.  "What's up?"
   "We trapped in Ops, we have no power, and we can't locate any security
personal anywhere on the station.  Where are you?"
   O'Brien looked around, acutely aware of the pain thumping away in his head.
The classroom was still here, albeit wrecked.  He heard Keiko faintly, and
realised his hearing was fading in and out.  That Cardassian must have done
something to him, something serious.  "I'm in the school room, Commander. Do
you know there are Cardassians on the station?"
   "Yes, I'm aware of the situation, Chief.  However, we can't find any
security personel, nor can we get out of Ops.  Kai Winn has ordered all
Bajorans to lay down their weapons, and stop fighting."
   "Yeah, well, the Kai has a self-sealing stem bolt out of place, that's for
sure."  O'Brien tapped his badge, trying to remember that nice security
officer's name, the one with the cute...  "O'Brien to Manisha."
   Nothing.  He tried again.  "O'Brien to Lieutenant Manisha."  Nothing.  The
channel remained clear.  He went back to the Commander.  "I can't find any," he
groaned.  He staggered to his feet, and leaned on the nearest wall.  His
hearing buzzed back into operation, and he heard Keiko scream from around the
corner.  He peered around the corner, and saw the Cardassian that struck him
down threatening his wife and child.  His vision covered in red, and he saw no
more.  Later, he was to remember nothing, but when his vision cleared, Keiko
and Molly were hugging him, and the CArdassian lay in a puddle of blood on the
floor.  A large gash down the side of his torso dripped a reddish liquid,
staining the floor something serious.  Molly's eyes were wide open,gazing at
her father with surprise.  Keiko just hugged him.
   "How... how did that happen?" he wondered aloud.
   "You did it," Keiko whispered.  "You started... punching him and kicking
him, and you saved us.  He was going to kill us, he told us what he was going
to do, and you saved us.  He was just about to kill Molly, when you charged him
from behind, and knocked him off balance.  Then you smashed him in the jaw..."
O'Brien could feel his fists numbing, and he looked at them.  They were covered
in blood, the knuckles ripped open on Cardassian bone ridges. "...he punched
you back, but you dodged, and he went down under a flurry of punches and kicks
from you.  He didn't stand a chance."
   O'Brien began to feel pain again, his throbbing head, his numb fists.  He
felt sick to his stomach when he saw another Cardassian enter the classroom. He
was injured, bruised and bloody.
   "They did it for no reason," Garak muttered before passing out on the floor.
 O'Brien pulled him into a sitting position, and waited for medical staff to
arrive.
                                ******

   Jake Sisko sat up, and hit his head in the cramped space of a crawlway. The
girl sat next to him, tending to a large bruise he had on his head.  He noticed
blood on her clothes.
   "You're hurt," he whispered, not knowing where he was, nor caring.
   "It's not my blood, it's yours," she replied, matter-of-factly.  She wiped
his forehead with a damp cloth.  "I'll have to get you back to the Promenade
soon, or someone will begin to worry about you."


   Please note that, while some characters and settings are copyrighted
   to Paramount Pictures (Or whatever it is these days), the events in
   this story and some of the characters (Sasha Wren, N'Col, the N'tChells,
   the shadows, etc...) are copyrighted to me.  I don't care where this
   story gets to, just as long as I am credited as the author, this
   copyright blurb remains on here, and NO ONE FROM PARAMOUNT PINCHES MY
   STORIES!!!!!!

Raymond N. Cooper
17 Belton Crt
BEERWAH  QLD 4519
AUSTRALIA


Path: tivoli.tivoli.com!geraldo.cc.utexas.edu!cs.utexas.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!math.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!msunews!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!nntp.brisnet.org.au!softtech!au!org!brisnet!closer!william.gracie
From: [e-mail] (William Gracie)
Date: 10 Jan 95 09:48:04
Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative
Subject: DS9-altered shadow arc: obrien4
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: Soft-Tech [phone]
Lines: 128
Xref: tivoli.tivoli.com alt.startrek.creative:4370

                      Dark Side Of The Force (pt4)
                      **********************
                                by
                         Raymond N. Cooper



   Jake nodded, realised it hurt his head, and stopped.  "I don't even know
your name," he muttered lamely.
   "I... don't have a name as such.  You can call me N'Col.  I'm a N'tChell."
   "Nicole?"
   "Yes?"
   "What's a Nutshell?"
   Nicole grinned sadly.  "A species near extinction, due to the Dominion.
We're from the Gamma Quadrant, originally an early space power civilisation. We
were developing a Faster Than Light engine - a Hyperdirve - when the Dominion
attacked us.  We were... in deep trouble then.  Only a million of my race
managed to get off the planet, and escape into deep space.  I came here, in a
stolen Jem'Hadar shuttlecraft."
   Jake nodded again; the pain in his head was dissipating rapdily.
   "A race of shape-shifters?" he guessed, remembering the claw.
   Nicole nodded.  "Come.  I've got to take you back now." She held out a hand
to Jake, who took it hesitatingly, and she lead him out of the cramped tunnel.
                                ******

   The nine remaining Cardassian attackers suddenly dropped their assault on
DS9.  They stared around, gazing in shock at the damage they had caused,
secretly enjoying the pleasure of what they did.  Then the diplomats began to
wonder what the Union thought of this.  They didn't want an attack on Bajoran
space now - the scheduled attack may now fail!
   They were surprised when their world turned inside out, and found themselves
back on their shuttle.
   Jasad found that power and control had been restored to him, and, with
muttered apologies at the space station, he turned, and headed for Federation
space at top warp.  This wouldn't go down too well in the coming peace talks
between the Union and the Federation.  Could they claim it was the Cardassians'
version of the Marquis?
   Probably not.
                                ******

   Power was restored to Ops, givng Ensign Umhal a small scare.  He hadn't done
anything, and neither had the engineering staff on the level.  No one had been
able to determine the cause of the power failure, and everyone had been hoping
it would right itself.
   Apparently, it did.  Lights came on, the turbolift hummed into life, and
numerous consoles flickered, running through start-up routines.
   In the ward room, Sisko opened the door for Bashir.  For some reason,
although the locks had opened, the door hadn't moved.  The doctor staggered
under Dax's slight weight, and managed to bump her head on the door frame.
   "Here, let me do that for you," someone outside the door muttered.  Bashir
and Dax disappeared in a flash of light as Sasha stepped into the room.
   "Sorry I was so late in getting back here, but as O'Brien told you, I was
getting you help."  She noted the looks on everyone's faces, and groaned. "But
he didn't... did he?"
   Kira shook her head, and looked at Sisko.  "No, he didn't," he replied.
   "Did he stay on the Defiant?"
   Sisko shook his head.
   "Damn it, why do you Terrans never do what you're told?  I spend time
getting help for you all, but you can't even delay your enemies, like I told
him to!" Sasha slammed her fist into a wall, her hand passing through the solid
object.  She closed her eyes for a moment.  "Oh, sorry, I can see why he left
the Defiant.  No security?"
   Sisko nodded.  "We haven't been able to find them - any of them."
   "No wonder.  And at your level of technology, I think it's very unlikely
you'd ever find them."  Sasha waved a hand, and every security officer that had
disappeared reappeared in Ops.  "There, I've done that, now we just have to
wait a moment for our allies to get here.  I suggest we go to Ops."
                                ******

   On the shadows' home planet, far from Bajoran space, four watchers sat and
concentrated.  The effort of distance viewing was important, but taxing.  It
was easier to just travel there, but the viewing was an important teaching tool
for lower stage ascendants.  The shadows hummed a random tune, riding the
time/space continuum, seeing all there was to see on Deep Space Nine.
   A senior shadow drifted up to the group, and linked into the
mini-collective.  Images rushed through his mind, and he saw everything.  He
saw Bashir re-knitting broken bones; he saw O'Brien crying softly to himself in
guilt and shame over releasing his rage; he saw Kira in Ops, staring out a
porthole, thinking of her Bareil, waiting in her quarters for her; he saw Dax
struggling with herself, trying to find Jadzia's separate mind, the one that
had fought with her, not realising that was a shadow; he saw Odo cleaning up
the mess on the Promenade, keeping an eye on Quark while thinking about his
recent failure; he saw Sisko, biting his fist, waiting for something to
arrive...!
   What?  What was arriving?  His people had time-travelled to be here and now,
when there was enough mental energy to use for ascendancy, and they knew
everything that happened.  But this had never happened.  No help was supposed
to come to DS9, not now, not this close to full ascendancy!
   Disconnecting from the mini-collective, the senior shadow hurried
away,calling for a full meeting.  He waited until the senior shadows were
assembled, then he began to speak.
   :::We have a problem:::
   {{Speak}}
   :::The human's space station is gaining help - from outside our
perceptions:::
   <This cannot be allowed to continue.  We must attack now, in force>
   +|Negative.  We must wait and continue our ascendancy pattern.  It is much
too late for them to do anything now.  We have nothing to fear from true
corporeals|+
   The discussion continued for a minute before the original shadow halted the
conversation.  :::This is an unknown variable.  We will take steps, but we
shall also continue with planned ascension.  That takes precidence above all
else:::
                                ******

   Sasha smiled sweetly at Sisko.  He was much nicer here than in her own
world, where he had not only lost his wife to the Borg, but also his
Federation.  Nothing remained of the Federation, other than the name, and the
history books.  "They're almost here, Commander."
   She savoured his face and body, until she realised he had noticed her looks,
and was staring back at her.  She looked away, just in time to see a burst in
the tachyon and neutrino ranges.  The wormhole.


   Please note that, while some characters and settings are copyrighted
   to Paramount Pictures (Or whatever it is these days), the events in
   this story and some of the characters (Sasha Wren, N'Col, the N'tChells,
   the shadows, etc...) are copyrighted to me.  I don't care where this
   story gets to, just as long as I am credited as the author, this
   copyright blurb remains on here, and NO ONE FROM PARAMOUNT PINCHES MY
   STORIES!!!!!!

Raymond N. Cooper
17 Belton Crt
BEERWAH  QLD 4519
AUSTRALIA


Path: tivoli.tivoli.com!geraldo.cc.utexas.edu!cs.utexas.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!news.moneng.mei.com!uwm.edu!msunews!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!nntp.brisnet.org.au!softtech!au!org!brisnet!closer!william.gracie
From: [e-mail] (William Gracie)
Date: 10 Jan 95 09:48:44
Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative
Subject: DS9-altered shadow arc: obrien5
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Organization: Soft-Tech [phone]
Lines: 48
Xref: tivoli.tivoli.com alt.startrek.creative:4371

                      Dark Side Of The Force (pt5)
                      **********************
                                by
                         Raymond N. Cooper



   "Neutrino burst, Commander - something's coming through the wormhole!"
   "Thank you, Ensign."
   The wormhole flowered into life, blues of every imaginable hue exploding
from a central point of white.  The doorway to the Gamma Quadrant was opened.
Inside, a ship took form, re-entering normal space.  It gained solidity, took
shape, mass, size.  Then it was out, and the intergalactic flower snapped shut.
   "Identify that ship, Ensign," Sisko ordered.
   The computer spat results out at Umhal.  "Mass - approximately one hundred
million metric tonnes, length - 2.451 kilometres.  Shape - cube..."
   "A Borg ship, Ensign?"
   "Aye, sir.  That's a Borg battlecube."
   Sisko turned back to look out at the cube, entering a docking orbit.
   "Raise shields!  Sound red alert, and inform Starfleet.  I want them to know
what's happening out here!  Also, inform Bajor.  They may like to know thay
have several thousand or more deadly killers on their doorstep."
   "Aye, sir.  Shields up and holding."
   Sisko turned around to Sasha, who had a wicked grin on her face.
   Her words before the explosion were: "Let's get dangerous!"


                         Is it the end for our valiant heroes?
                         Could be...
                         Check out
                          `In the Hands of the Profits' for the
                          answers!


   Please note that, while some characters and settings are copyrighted
   to Paramount Pictures (Or whatever it is these days), the events in
   this story and some of the characters (Sasha Wren, N'Col, the N'tChells,
   the shadows, etc...) are copyrighted to me.  I don't care where this
   story gets to, just as long as I am credited as the author, this
   copyright blurb remains on here, and NO ONE FROM PARAMOUNT PINCHES MY
   STORIES!!!!!!

Raymond N. Cooper
17 Belton Crt
BEERWAH  QLD 4519
AUSTRALIA