CHAPTER 28

THEY MET AT the second-floor safety railing, where they always had met, where they had bedeviled Odo, played too many pranks, shared their dreams and their secrets, planned their futures, and watched the stars.

The awkwardness lasted only a moment, and then they hugged. Not as friends, but as brothers.

That was how Jake felt. And he knew Nog felt the same.

“It's stupid,” Nog said as he stepped back to lean against the railing, “but it feels like you were gone for years.”

“I was,” Jake said.

“But it was only a minute to us.”

Jake nodded. “Ten days for us. Not that long.” Only a lifetime, he thought.

They both leaned forward on the railing, watching the crowds pass below. There were many more Starfleet personnel than usual. Jake had heard the rumors that a major new offensive was being planned, to take the war to Cardassia.

“I saw Commander Worf,” Nog said. “Dr. Bashir says he'll be good as new in another day.”

“Helps to have two hearts,” Jake said.

“Dr. Bashir also says you're a hero. He says you saved Commander Worf's life.”

Jake frowned, thinking of the technicians from Deneva. “I had help,” he said.

Nog pursed his lips, bobbed his head. Silence returned.

“How is your father?” Nog asked.

Jake thought about the question. “Different. He's going to Bajor tomorrow with Major Kira. He says . . . well, he says he's almost got everything figured out.”

Nog suddenly thrust out a package Jake hadn't even noticed he'd been carrying. “I got him this!”

Jake smiled, took the package. “Great.” It felt like a book.

“You can open it,” Nog said eagerly. “See if he'll like it. It's one of Chief O'Brien's favorites.”

Jake slipped the paper wrap from the object inside. It was a book. An old hardcopy of an Academy text from the Starfleet Institute Press.

He read the title. “On Time Travel: Three Case Studies in Effects and Cause.” He read the author's name. “Admiral James Tiberius Kirk. Oh, my dad likes him.”

“I know. Chief O'Brien likes to quote him.” He put a hand on Jake's arm. “Do you know what James T. Kirk's first rule of time travel is?”

Jake shook his head.

“Don't!” Nog grinned.

Jake shared the smile. “I think my dad can appreciate that.”

The silence returned. Jake wrapped the paper around the book again.

“You met me, didn't you?” Nog asked at last.

Jake had been expecting the question for the past two days, dreading it, but he was relieved now that it had finally been asked.

“I . . . really can't talk about it,” Jake said. “All the civilians had to sign all these security oaths about not revealing future technology and politics.” Jake had been surprised to learn that even Vic had come under the exacting scrutiny of the unsmiling agents from the Federation Department of Temporal Investigations. Like every other machine-based system on the station, Vic had emerged from the red wormhole in perfect operating condition, which in his case included a complete memory of meeting Odo in a nonlinear future. But for all the intriguing possibilities that fact raised about the nature of time, of the wormholes, and of Vic, himself, it was a detail that Jake and the others were specifically enjoined against discussing. “Basically,” Jake said in frustration, “if I say anything about what happened, I could end up spending the next ten years in New Zealand, you know.”

“I am not interested in future technology,” Nog said. “And that future you saw, it won't come to pass now, correct? Because . . . because the station's still here and . . . the red wormhole's gone . . . and . . . and like that.”

Jake was puzzled by how much of the story his friend already knew. “Who've you been talking to?”

Nog squinted at Jake in confusion. He tapped a finger to an ear. “I'm a Ferengi. I hear things.”

Jake sighed. He couldn't avoid it forever. “Okay, I met you.”

“Well . . . what was I like?”

“Pretty much the way you are now. A big pain in the lobes.”

“Jake!” But Nog laughed along with him. Until the silence returned. “Seriously.”

Jake knew the promise he had made to Captain Nog of the future. But he also knew the demands of his friendship with Nog in the present.

“You were a great man,” Jake said. “You worked at the highest levels with one of the greatest heroes of our time. You were brave. Hardworking. If we hadn't come along, you would have been the guy who saved the universe.”

Nog stared at Jake as if he had forgotten how to speak.

“And I really can't say more than that,” Jake told him.

“Just one more thing,” Nog said, moving closer like a salesman about to close a deal. “Was I happy?”

Jake knew that was always the question. Bashir had told him that Garak's past self had asked the same of his counterpart. Jake wondered that about his own life. The details of what was to come weren't important. But the emotions were.

“No one was happy,” Jake said, skirting the truth without really lying. “It was pretty grim. But you were good at your work. People knew it. And . . . and you were the best.”

“Was I still in Starfleet?”

Jake almost started to laugh again. He wondered if Captain Nog had made him promise not to tell his past self about his future just to play one last trick on his human friend. After all, who could withstand relentless Ferengi persuasion for a lifetime?

“Nog, just this once. Just this one thing, all right?”

“Of course.”

“You, yourself, made me promise not to tell you where you worked or what your job was, because you didn't want your . . . um, you in the future didn't want you in the past to make decisions about your new future based on what the old future . . . this makes no sense.”

“But it does,” Nog said. “Basically . . .”

“Yeah?” Jake said with a grin. “Basically what?”

“Basically, I didn't want to spoil the surprise for myself.”

“Exactly,” Jake said.

“But . . . did I happen to give myself any investment advice?” Now Nog laughed.

“Yeah,” Jake said. “You told yourself always to be sure to pick up the check when you have lunch with me.”

Nog poked Jake in the ribs as he pushed away from the safety railing. “Yeah? Well, today you're buying,” he said.

Jake fell into step beside his friend, heading for the stairs that would take them down to the main level.

“Did I mention that you'd put on fifty kilos and your ears had fallen off? Very attractive.”

By the time they had reached the stairs, they were both giggling as if they were twelve again, as if nothing had changed or ever would.

Then Nog stopped with his hand on the stair railing. “When the evacuation started, I was in Ops. I . . . I thought I saw you. Like a ghost or something. I thought you were trying to talk to me or something.”

Jake put a hand on his friend's shoulder. “Nog, you have to start getting out more often.”

But Nog, shook his head, smiling. “No, I don't.” He looked all around the Promenade. “I like it right here.”

Jake knew what he meant.

For now, at least, the future could wait.