JUDGEMENT CALL

Content:
Het
Odo/Kira
No Sexual Situations
No Violence

With thanks and apologies to Paramount, and proceeding under the assumption that forgiveness is easier to ask than permission....

This story takes place following "The Rapture" and before the next new episode The Powers That Be see fit to serve us, whichever one that turns out to be.

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together

I AM THE WALRUS ~ John Lennon, Paul McCartney

~~~

... wake up, young one....

Who...?

You know who I am.

... yes ... yes.

We have much to talk about, and very little time.

Tell me.

The planet below ... the Defiant has been here before. There was....

... an accident....

Yes. And the flow of time was altered.

NERYS!

It's all right ... not yet. But she will die.

No....

It's all right.

Sisko and the others ... they have been told?

Yes.

Then, they will prevent this accident?

No. There are eight thousand descendants of the crew living on this planet. Sisko and the others mean to reenact the crash, to save those lives. Even though it means that they will never return to Deep Space Nine, and that....

... Nerys....

Yes. But we are not going to allow that to happen. We can change their flight plan, and prevent the crash.

But that would mean ... changing the time line.

Correcting the time line. Restoring to Deep Space Nine those who are meant to return there.

You have no way of knowing what the correct time line is! How can you make that choice?

Nerys' life, against lives that were never meant to be? The Alpha Quadrant saved if an avoidable accident does not occur? What other choice could we possibly make?

She will never agree to such a plan.

You're right. She has decided that she must die ... she believes it is the path the Prophets planned for her.

Damn the Prophets! She's gone through hell, and her cursed Prophets never protected her....

... as we have. As we must protect her now.

But at the cost of thousands....

Think, young one. Sisko and the others are short-sighted. Our people will come through the wormhole, and soon.... With Deep Space Nine crippled by the loss of the Defiant and its crew, and Bajor without the Emissary, the Alpha Quadrant will fall. How many lives will be lost if that happens?

Would you add eight thousand lives to those I have already allowed to die?

I would save lives that were meant to be, not mirages created by a science officer's miscalculation and an unintended crash.

You can't do this.

I can, and will. I decided long ago that I would not sacrifice Nerys' life, and the future of the world she loves, to preserve the futile destiny of this timeline.

She will believe I made her betray her faith....

But she will know that I did what I did out of love for her. I have told her how we feel, young one. I have told her....

... that I love her....

Yes.

... aaahhh....

I was still in stasis when she died. I never had the chance ... to make things right between us. You will have that chance now. I want you to tell her that I was the one who changed the Defiant's flight plan.

She will never forgive me.

Perhaps not. But she will not die, and there will be no more secrets between you. Promise that you will tell her.

I promise.

Time is short . I have tried, as we have always done, to do the right thing. Nerys will live, and we will have a chance.... Goodbye, young one....

Goodbye....

~ 30 ~

~ Return to "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" ~

~ Return to The Library ~