The Mist Read Free Page B

Starfleet," Sisko said, "and they approved of the mission. I ordered the crew, along with our doctor, and several others, to be on our starship, the Defiant, within the hour. I left the station in Major Kira's capable hands."
    "Very interesting," the catlike woman said. Perhaps it was better to describe her response as a purr. She leveled her bright green gaze on Sisko and smiled at him. "So that is what the Federation was doing. Yet you said this happened near the Klingon border. What were the Klingons doing?"
    The dozen bar patrons sitting around the large double table shifted their attention from Sisko to Sotugh, waiting for him to answer. Cap leaned against the outside of the bar near the table, smiling. Sisko got the sense that, even though the catlike woman had directed the comment at him, she clearly had meant it as a jab at Sotugh.
    But her question did seem to spark a lot of interest. A human couple, who had taken seats above the table at the bar to listen to the story, leaned forward. The woman watched closely while sipping from a cup of hot tea. The man, however, had abandoned his dark, carbonated beverage on the bar. "Yes," he said, with genuine interest, "did the Klingons hear the distress call?"
    Sotugh nodded. "We did. And we understood its ancient language and message. But as Sisko said, there was nothing there. A waste of valuable time to investigate."
    "Yet," the catlike woman said, still looking at Sisko, "you criticize the captain here for improperly using his equipment. What of yours?"
    "We did not have time to chase ghosts in space," Sotugh said. "We trusted our readings and our equipment. Nothing was there to investigate."
    "You didn't think that later," Sisko said, setting down his bottle of Jibetian ale.
    "Things changed later," Sotugh said. "You are not telling everything, Sisko."
    "I would, if you'd give me a chance," Sisko said evenly, making sure he was smiling.
    In disgust, Sotugh downed the last of his blood wine. With a wide sweeping motion that almost caught the side of the Jibetian woman beside him, he handed his cup back to Cap, who without missing a beat slid it down the bar to Arthur, who was standing behind the bar. Obviously the young-looking Arthur was functioning as the assistant bartender.
    "Please go on with your story, Captain," Cap said. "It seems clear that something was sending out that distress call after all."
    Sisko raised his bottle of ale in a motion of agreement. "Oh, there was a ship sending out the distress call, all right. But our instruments, and Sotugh's, were correct. There was nothing there."
    Sisko smiled at the puzzled expression on Cap's face before taking another long drink and going back to his story.

Three
    THE DEFIANT IS the toughest starship in the Federation. It is sleek and streamlined, yet has more power than the Galaxy-class starships most people think of when they hear the word "Starfleet." The Defiant can run efficiently with a minimal crew. It is also the first Federation ship to be equipped with a cloaking device, a fact that we have relied on greatly in our current conflict with the Dominion.
    I must be honest with you: As much as I like running the station, I love captaining the Defiant. When I sit on the command chair in the center of that bridge, I feel the way I always imagined I would feel when I was a boy dreaming of a career in the stars. Captaining the Defiant, even when we take her out on a routine maintenance spin to see if her parts are in working order, is like I imagine captaining an old seafaring vessel would have been. Sometimes I think, as the docking clamps release and the ship heads out into the blackness of space, There be dragons here.
    I know that Dax shares my feelings, for whenever she and I stand on the bridge together, she gives me a look filled with mischief and awe. In her eyes, I see old Curzon and hear his lusty laugh as we are about to embark on yet another adventure.
    There are adventures on Deep Space Nine, often more