17

Commander Vaughn found Kira in the Bajoran shrine just off the Promenade. When he stepped into the temple’s entrance, he didn’t see her at first, and wondered if the computer had steered him wrong. The shrine itself was lovely, the complete lack of ornate or lavish trappings adding to the atmosphere of faith and good feelings. A light scent of incense and candle wax lingered in the still air.

Vaughn took a few more steps inside and saw the colonel, sitting on the back pew to the far left, where she’d been blocked from sight by the entrance wall. Her eyes were closed, and he realized she

was meditating or praying, her still face tilted upward slightly. Not wanting to interrupt, Vaughn started to back quietly out of the room, thinking that he could approach her about the XO position later.

Kira opened her eyes, turning to look at him. Her

features were relaxed, but somehow not serene, as though she’d just woken from an unhappy dream.

“Hello, Commander.”

Vaughn smiled. “Sorry to interrupt-perhaps we could meet when you’re finished …?”

“That’s all right,” she said, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear. “I’m having a little trouble concentrating, anyway. Have a seat.”

Vaughn sat down, shifting around to face her, wondering what was wrong. She definitely seemed tense, and perhaps a little sad. Kira didn’t strike him as someone who would be comfortable sharing her emotions with a virtual stranger, so he didn’t ask.

“I never got a chance to thank you, for what you did last night,” she said. “If you hadn’t been there, a lot of people would have died. You were instrumental in saving the station.”

“I really just helped you save it,” he said, and took a deep breath. “Though as long as you’re thinking well of me, how would you feel about keeping me around? I noticed you have an opening for an executive officer, and I’d very much like to fill it.”

Kira hesitated, then slowly nodded, smiling a litt le. “That would be great, assuming Starfleet is agreeable… . You’re overqualified for the position, if you don’t mind me saying.”

Vaughn grinned, feeling as though the last piece of a puzzle was fitting into place. “I’ve already worked that out, actually. My, ah, superiors have agreed to it, as long as you’re not opposed to the appointment.”

Kira looked a bit puzzled. “I was under the impression that your background is primarily tactical… .”

“It is,” Vaughn said. “But I had an experience

recently that made me want to try something else. An Orb experience, actually.”

Kira’s eyes widened. “Captain Picard told me you found the Orb, I can’t believe I forgot to thank you—

you have no idea how much this means to my people.”

“Actually, maybe I do, a little,” Vaughn said, smiling. “Did the captain tell you that when we found it, the ark was open? Everyone on the away team was affected. For me, it was … it changed me. It made me realize that I didn’t want to be doing what I was doing, which is a big part of why I want to be your second.”

Kira was nodding, a look of real understanding on her face. It was a look that made Vaughn feel safe to tell it all, a look that told him she knew the power of the experience.

“I don’t want to fight anymore, Colonel,” Vaughn said. “I want to be here. I want to be a part of the changes that are happening, here and now. When I was on that freighter, remembering who I once wanted to be, reliving experiences that I worked so hard to forget … I saw that it wasn’t too late for me.”

“The Orb was on a freighter?” Kira asked. “A Cardassian freighter?”

Something in her tone gave Vaughn pause. “That’s right,” he said. “The Kamal. It was trapped in a conflicted energy mass, had been for it least three decades.”

“Were there Bajorans on board?” The look on Kira’s face told him that she was more than simply curious.

“Yes.”

“Did you …” Kira took a deep breath and blew it out. Her expression was almost fearful.

No, not fearful. Awed.

“Did you find the Orb in a cargo bay? With Bajorans and Cardassians?”

Vaughn nodded, wondering if Picard had mentioned it, knowing already that he hadn’t. “Yes.”

“I dreamed it,” Kira said wonderingly. “The day that the Jem’Hadar attacked the station. I dreamed that I was in a lost freighter, in a cargo bay. And all around me were Bajoran refugees, and their captors, and they were dying-“

“-asphyxiating,” Vaughn said.

“-and there was a light in the back of the bay-“

“-and Benjamin Sisko was there,” Vaughn said, taking a chance. He hadn’t told anyone else, but she knew already, not a trace of surprise on her face as she nodded.

They stared at one another, Vaughn not sure what it meant, not sure that he had to know. He remembered telling Jean -Luc only a day before that strange things happened, things that might never be explained.

There might never be an answer to how it had happened, but Vaughn thought he knew why.

“I was meant to find it, and bring it to you,” he said, knowing that he couldn’t back it up, that there was no proof beyond the dream of one woman and the exceptional experience of one man. It didn’t matter. It was true, and Kira knew it as well as he did.

“Welcome to Deep Space 9, Commander,” Kira said softly, and although he hadn’t been assigned quarters, hadn’t even seen a quarter of the station or met more than a handful of people, Vaughn thought that he was probably home at last.

When she was alone again, having sent Vaughn to ops to introduce himself around, to find quarters and get situated, Kira went to the private room where the Orb of Prophecy and Change sat on its low pedestal. She closed the door behind her and went to the storage cabinet where the Orb of Memory was hidden, still waiting to be given back to the people.

Kira gently lifted the precious ark out of the cabinet and placed it on the floor, kneeling in front of it. The Prophets had been trying to tell her something, all along, and she hadn’t understood-but she understood now. Vaughn was right; he’d been meant to find the Orb, and she’d been meant to receive it. And the only way for her to find out why was to open the ark, to let the Prophets speak to her, if They saw fit.

She closed her eyes for a moment, silently reciting a prayer of thanks for all of the gifts They gave, and opened the ark, the beautiful light of the Prophets filling the room, the room disappearing until there was only Their will, Their strength.