Twilight

With Bashir gone and the nurse busy, Vaughn paced over and stood beside Pry

Vaughn closed his eyes and issued a long sigh, an expression of exhaustion and relief, he knew, but only somerelief. From the moment he had seen—had thought he had seen—Pry

And yet he also knew that it might be beyond his ability—perhaps now more than ever—to change their circumstances. His previous efforts to reconcile with his daughter—he had made several attempts through the years—had all been vigorously rebuffed. Just a few weeks ago, after the surprise of finding himself assigned to the same post as Pry

Strange,he thought, the way things sometimes work out.After living a turbulent life for so many years, Vaughn had recently dispatched many of the burdens of his decades of work, had seen into himself and then chosen to look back out in a new direction. He had wrestled a lifetime of difficult, sometimes painful duty, and won himself a reprieve. He had arrived at Deep Space 9 almost a new man, intent on finding his way to a life lived for simple joys, and not just for professional obligation. And when he had done that, he had found Pry

If only it had been the work,he thought. If he had neglected his daughter in favor of his career, he could, even at this late date, atone for it. But his work had not been the problem; the problem had been what he had done.

The enormity of what Vaughn had brought down on Pry

At last, he stepped away from the bed and walked over to where the nurse had continued working. She looked up at his approach, and as he had when she had examined him earlier, he noticed her eyes; a distinctive blue-green, they stood out, complementing her pale complexion and her reddish blond hair, which she wore in plaits that joined behind her head.

“Nurse,” he asked, “do you know what Ensign Tenmei will be able to remember?”

“About the accident, you mean?” Richter asked, and Vaughn nodded. “Probably nothing at all. When she was awake earlier, she didn’t know why she was in the medical bay. It’s possible she might eventually recall being on the bridge, but the accident…” The nurse shook her head from side to side.

Pry

“Thank you,” Vaughn told the nurse. He walked to one of the room’s two exits, the doors sliding open before him. He stopped and looked once more toward Pry

As Vaughn headed for his cabin, he knew that he would have to determine a new course of action, that he would have to figure out what to do, for himself and for Pry

Only one mission in his life had been more important. And more difficult.

5

The rain fell cold and hard. Kira reached the boulder at a dead run and threw herself down behind it. Her hands pushed into the sodden ground as she landed, mud oozing up wetly between her fingers and engulfing them. She rolled quickly onto her side and pulled her hands free, then regained her feet and crouched behind the great rock.

Why did I agree to this?she asked herself, not for the first time. She hated the holosuites. Seeking a setting in which to meditate was one thing, but this was another. Simulation or no, she was miserable. The temperature must have dropped fifteen degrees during her descent from the top of the ravine, low enough now that her breath emerged into the air in a white plume. Her uniform, soaked through two hours ago, added at least ten kilos to her frame. And the rain, misty and relatively warm at first, now plummeted down as though it had been hurled at the ground, as though the fat drops were themselves weapons in this battle.

Kira paused, catching her breath after her last dash. Around her, the unrelenting rain struck the saturated earth with a sound strangely reminiscent of applause. I ought to take a bow and end this right now,she thought. The holosuite safety protocols ensured that she would not suffer serious injury during the course of the program, she knew, but nothing prevented her from being wretchedly uncomfortable.

Lightning flashed overhead, illuminating the scene with an unca