Cathedral by Michael Mangels (ebook reader color screen txt) 📕

the last person I’d expect to encounter, Dax said. Here or anywhere else.

“You see what you want to see, Dax,” Joran said. “You always were a master of repressing whatever parts of yourself you’d rather not face.”

“It’s pure denial,” Ezri said, using her best counselor-to-patient tones.

“Why have you been holding back?” Tobin said.

Holding back? Holding back what?

Jadzia spoke up. “Your nightmares, Dax.”

Dax recalled the post-Lela visions of slashing jaws, and the terror and the helplessness that had always accompanied them.

And it remembered something else as well. Something that Dax hadn’t considered since Audrid’s lifetime—something it never wanted to consider. The part of Dax that was Ezri wondered, just for a moment, if its persistent apprehension regarding the pools was indeed somehow bound up with the events of that horrible day so long ago. If it bore any relationship to the tenebrous, obscene nightmare that had swallowed poor Jayvin Vod whole and had riven Audrid’s life and family for so many years…

Then Verad’s cold rage welled up from deep within. How dare his old hosts dredge such things up? My nightmares are my own affair.

“You couldn’t be more wrong,” Curzon said. “Soon, half the galaxy will be living your nightmares.”

“Unless you rejoin with Ezri,” Audrid said. “And warn everyone.”

Why Ezri?

“Because we’re both aboard the Defiant,” Ezri said, her anger palpable. “Look, I don’t like this joining thing any better than you do. But we’re a long way from home. And we can’t afford to wait until a better match turns up.”

But your thoughts are so…jumbled. Disorganized. Unsubtle. I am better off without you.

“Ibid and op. cit. what I just said, slug,” Ezri said. “But I’m willing to take one for the team if you are.”

Tobin laughed, but without any evident humor. “‘Unsubtle thoughts’ ought to be an asset this time, Dax. It seems to me that too much subtlety is what created our mutual problem in the first place.”

“Or at least allowed it to remain hidden for so long,” added Curzon. “Perhaps past the point where it can ever be dealt with. But we gain nothing by waiting.”

“You know what you have to do, Dax,” Audrid said. And with that, all nine of them broke away, swimming in leisurely fashion back into the depths, dwindling and finally vanishing entirely from Dax’s sensorium.

Lost in troubled thought, Dax failed to notice the approach of a multitude of other shapes until they were very close. This time, there were dozens. More naked humanoids, none of whose faces Dax recognized. Among them were many Trills of both sexes, as well as members of various non-Trill species. From what little it could glean of their specific morphologies, Dax concluded that humans, Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites, Rigelians, Orions, Ferengi, Romulans, Klingons, and even Vorta, and Jem’Hadar were among the bizarre press of flesh. There were also scores of others, from inside and outside the Federation. Members, allies, and enemies, as well as species Dax did not immediately recognize.

And all of them were dead, their bodies shredded and torn by forces Dax had seen on only one previous occasion, long ago. It could scarcely bear to think about it.

A body stirred among the corpses, then swam rapidly toward the symbiont. Dax wondered briefly if its predatory nightmare had finally returned for a day of reckoning.

Then he recognized the approaching being as Ezri Tigan. She had returned.

“So how about it, slug?” she said.

Acceding to the rational impulses of Curzon and Jadzia, Dax came to the decision that it knew could be put off no longer. The time for concealment is past. We will confront the old lies directly. Together.

Ezri’s answering smile was lost in a spray of bubbles as the universe suddenly turned inside out.

22

Ro Laren couldn’t recall a time when she’d been more tired and on edge, at least since she had left the Maquis. Just as in those days, sleep came in brief snatches, and the rest of her time in bed had been spent pondering her future, her evolving relationship with Quark, the religious schism on Bajor, the political rift between Bajor and Cardassia, the upcoming Federation signing, the health of Dizhei and Anichent, the whereabouts of the missing Jake Sisko, the flirtations of Hiziki Gard, and the effect she knew her announcement had had on Kira Nerys. Small wonder that slumber did not come easily.

Still, knowing that today’s proceedings were probably the most significant events she would ever witness, Ro found her body buzzing with energy. She made sure to press her back-up dress tunic, in case the one she was already wearing got stained or damaged. She even carefully styled her hair and applied a modicum of makeup, something she was generally loath to do.

Her morning had so far consisted of three security meetings. The first was the private briefing, held in her security office, that she had promised Hiziki Gard, who somehow managed to be charming despite the horrendous earliness of the hour. The next meeting was held in the wardroom, where she gave a final briefing to almost all of the guards and deputies serving on the station; those who were on duty and could not attend the meeting were given earpieces and a holofeed to enable them to follow the presentation. Sergeants Shul and Etana were tremendously helpful, and she knew she’d be able to rely on them implicitly.

Ro’s third meeting—also held in the wardroom—was with the various security contingents and representatives from the visiting dignitaries. As she surveyed the room, she saw the true diversity of the Federation and its allies; present were Vulcans, a pair of Bynars, two burly Klingons, a jovial-looking Bolian woman, a transparent-skulled Gallamite man, a voluminous female Denobulan, two diplomats from Skorr—and the ever-attentive Gard. Ro was surprised that no Cardassians were in attendance, but given the current impasse in the peace negotiations between her world and theirs, perhaps they were deliberately maintaining a low profile.

The representatives had asked a wide variety of questions, all