This is Another Fine Mess...

The door to sickbay wooshed open and Sorripto walked in followed by his security escort.  Although it was apparent the crew trusted the Cardassian protocol required the escort until the Captain's reports with Starfleet were filed.  As Sorripto walked into medical one of the medical staff approached him.

"Commander Sorripto what can I do for you."

Looking over to the enclosed medical bed where Sisko lay still in his educed coma Sorripto nodded towards him with his head.

"I came to see my friend, if that is ok?"

Looking as Sisko and then back at the Cardassian towering over him several times the medical crewman looked at the young security officer behind Sorripto.  The young officer nodded as if to grant approval while at the same time silently assuring the medical staff everything was ok.

"I guess there is no harm.  I have heard stories of you two working together to build that nano technology on the borg really interesting stuff."

Smiling Sorripto waved his finger gently at the medical crewman.

"Tell you what you give me an hour in here and I will meet you coffee and tell you all about it."

"I guess I could step out for a bit."

Walking towards the door the medical crewman gestured for the security officer to follow the officer glanced at Sorripto and stood firmly.  Looking up at his escort who, while just doing his job, was clearly taking things too seriously Sorripto laughed.

"Come on now I am harmless.  I mean be honest if I wanted to escape from you do you think you would still have me in custody or even know where I am?"

Taken aback slightly by the brashness by the Cardassian the young officer stepped back and almost acted as if to reach for his phaser.  Continuing to laugh Sorripto smacked the security officer.

"I am kidding come on now.  You are intimidating you really are seriously I am quite scared to try anything."

Finally getting the joke the young security officer laughed softly and nodded to Sorripto stepping out of sickbay leaving just Sorripto and Sisko.  As Sorripto pulled up a chair next to the bed Sisko was laying in Sorripto patted his shoulder.  Reaching into his pocket Sorripto pulled out a small vile the type that fits a hypo spray.  Looking at the vile and then back at Sisko shook his head.

"Well my friend this is the part of the mission where if I did not think you could be saved I was supposed to kill you."

Throwing the vile against the wall it shattered at the greenish liquid dripped down the wall collecting into a small by the broken glass.

"Honestly by that many pages into my orders everything got so boring and I did not read much more after that.  Just between you and me I did not read most of those orders I just kind of went with the flow after I figured Reichman for the traitor." 

Putting his feet up Sorripto leaned back in his chair and continued.

"I want you to know something Joey that I have never told anyone before not even you.  I owe you my life.  You saved me from myself and what could have been.  Through the academy I had Dean O'Brien but he told me outside of the academy life in the fleet would be very different.  I thought getting through the academy was tough nothing prepared me for how much the fleet, and people who had actually fought in wars with my people were going to reject me.

It was there on Starbase 10 that a young bajoran who had been out of the academy just as long as me stepped in and saw an Engineer and a man with ideas and not just a Cardassian.  When I found out the borg were coming and the people who were going to need me to save their lives still hated me I had reached the end of my rope.  You showed them and more importantly me that my blood is the blood of the Federation not just the blood of a Cardassian.  All for one as they say right?

We have been best friends since we met, but when I saw the chance to save you I owed you that much not just because I know that somewhere in that child washed mind of yours is the great man I met, but because you saved my life and no self respecting Cardassian ever forgets a life debt."

Sitting up in his chair Sorripto leaned into towards Sisko.

"I have heard stories of aliens in the Federation who want to be better because of it well I want you to know that I am better because of the doors you opened for me.  The scary part is that I actually kind of like this kinder me, well minus the fact that I killed a few thousand people to save you, but they were all bad so I shed no tears... now where was I oh yeah I would say call us even but there is still the matter of the new me."

Letting out a deep sigh Sorripto shook his head and slowly began to smile.

"Well this is another fine mess you have gotten me into... so what do we do now?"

--------------------------------------------

The dream was so vivid. Sisko could detect the familiar scent of freshly mowed grass from Kendra province on Bajor.

It was his childhood home, he realized, sprawled out in the valley below him. He stood on the hill and breathed in the sweet air of the pristine countryside.

At the bottom of the hill, also admiring the homestead stood... himself? Confused, he called out... he wasn't sure why. "Don't let them take you!" he shouted. He was strangely fearful of unknown entities that could not have been on Bajor. But he felt this warning of the non-corporeal entities that had taken him into the pocket Universe of the Azimuth Horizon needed to be shouted.

I could stop it this time! he thought. This time would be different...

The figure turned at the sound of his shouting. And all the sudden he realized his fallacy. The smiling face that looked back was not his own... he automatically placed his fingers lightly on his nose and rubbed the subtle ridges as he stared down at the figure that looked like him, but did not have the feature.

Joseph Daystrom Sisko slowly descended the green hillside and approached the figure warily. He looked like Joey, but not quite. The initial defined difference in the nose gave way to subtle differences in the facial structure. His head was also completely bald, unlike Joey's close-knit style. Also, the face was not old... not much more than his own... but it was full of years of wisdom.

Joey's approach was like a child's but not of one running to the safety and familiarity of a loved one. Instead he was like a child approaching a great but unfamiliar hero. He knew him, but not personally. He was a figure from history books, not to be spoken to or touched or held.

Nonetheless the figure beamed with a smile as wide as the valley they stood in. He held his arms out and Joey said one word... "Grandpa" before falling into the comforting embrace of his father's father.

After the initial emotional euphoria wore off, his fear and doubt began to flood back in, and he pushed the man away.

"I'm... dead?" he asked, suddenly realizing the implication of meeting his long-lost grandfather.

"No, son," Benjamin replied, with a chuckle. "Not exactly."

"Then this is a dream..." Joey replied.

Benjamin shook his head. "I can't... qualify it... for you. It's not a science experiment."

He sighed. "Look. Everyone has a certain destiny that they have to figure out for themselves. No one else can do it for you... or even explain it to you. It took me a long time to figure that out..." He drifted off and stared back at the house he had commissioned to be built for him and his son before he was lost.

"At one point, I thought that was my destiny," Ben said, pointing at the house. "My ultimate goal to retire to this land and live out the rest of my life here. I realize now that I was wrong. It was to build a life for your dad and you... and to sacrifice my own so you could have that life."

Joey just shook his head. He still didn't understand where he was or why he was there when there were things happening around him. Battles to be won or lost. A whole Universe in peril. If he were dead he could accept that. There was no way to do his part and he could move on. If he were dreaming, he would need to wake up.

"Is it the prophets that have done this... who have brought me here?" he asked, still trying to find the answers he sought. His father had always told him stories of Benjamin's last act in service of the "wormhole aliens" as he called them. His mother always rolled her eyes and said "prophets" when he did that. Regardless of their belief, they both thought that Benjamin was still alive in some form or another, and he always believed it too.

Ben shrugged. "It's possible... I'm not even sure if it was them who brought me here."

He motioned for Joey to follow him and they started walking side by side toward the house.

"I like to think so, son. Maybe it's my reward for helping in their struggle against the pah-wraiths."

Like a child, he protested vainly. "Then why couldn't they have rewarded you by just sending you back?" Joey asked. "They could've given you your time with dad... with me." Again like a child, he dropped his head in stubborn self-pity.

Ben reached out and pulled his grandson's chin up to match his gaze. He smiled. "They would say that time is irrelevant. They really didn't even have a concept of time until I explained it to them. I think maybe... I was sent here to wait for you."

Joey was shocked at this realization. He was thinking how being sent somewhere for almost thirty years to wait for one thing meant that it was his fault Benjamin was there. If he hadn't gone with those aliens to the other Universe, Benjamin wouldn't have needed to be here for him. He could've been sent back to Jake and his life in Starfleet.

But when he turned to apologize, he saw the smile on his grandfather's face and read the pure joy and contentment that it represented. Also, the fact that he wasn't aged that much maybe meant that it hadn't felt like thirty years for him at all.

Time is irrelevant, he thought. Maybe so...

He could relax, he realized, and enjoy his time there, however long that was.

After many cups of coffee and over a light dinner of homemade bread and marmalade, they were able to catch up and enjoy some conversation. Many were about Jake when he was young, and Joey was sure his father would be embarrassed to know he was finding out about them.

When the sun set in the made up or imaginary place they were in... whatever dimension or heaven it might have been... Joey began to wonder again why he was sent there and what was so important that the prophets would've needed to send Benjamin there to wait for him.

"Well son," Benjamin. "I don't know how long it will take before our questions are answered, but you must be tired." He got up to clear the dishes. "You can sleep in your old room... I'll get you some..." he faded off and Joey turned to see what he was staring at. As shadows fell across the threshold of the open doorway near the kitchen they were sitting in, the answer was finally made clear to him. A dimly lit figure stood in the doorway. This time Joey noted that the face did look exactly like his, except that the eyes pierced through him with a bright red fire.

"We will not abandon our children!" he seethed. "Let the will of the Preservers be done!"

Without hesitation the figure raised a hand containing a phase pistol. Shouting "No!" Benjamin leapt over the kitchen table and pushed his grandson to the floor. As the figure fired the pistol, Benjamin was struck in the side and fell next to his grandson near his feet. The motion caused many dishes from the table to fall to the floor, including a long sharp kitchen knife that they had been using to cut the bread.

With his last few breaths Benjamin crawled up to shield Joey from several more phaser blasts that the figure fired. His now lifeless body protected Joey until the figure growled in frustration and descended upon them. The dark copy of Joseph Sisko let his guard down for just a moment to roll Benjamin away.

Joey used that opportunity to grab hold of the knife. His combat training kicked in and, without hesitation, in one swift motion, he drove the knife directly into the neck of his duplicate. The eyes remained open, but the red faded away as the blood spilled from his neck and the lifeless body fell with a thud beside his grandfather's.

He tried to resuscitate the old man, but the wounds were too severe, so as the world around him faded away he sat with his arms around Benjamin and wept, repeating "Grandpa, I'm so sorry."

On the bio bed in the McKenzie, when Sorripto was done speaking, Sisko began moving about. His forehead was soaked in sweat as he fended off some sort of imaginary foe. Then he cried, saying "Grandpa, I'm so sorry" over and over, before finally opening his eyes.

"Sorripto?" he asked, after seeing his Cardassian friend. "Why are you in Kendra?"

It took a few moments before he fully noticed his surroundings and sat up quickly. "By the prophets, Grandpa!" he shouted, in a pained voice. Crying out again, he grasped his head, quickly realizing there was a physical pain to also deal with.

He looked around. "What is going on? Why am I in the McKenzie? Where are the Horizon aliens?" He spurted out each question in quick succession until Sorripto calmed him down.

Grabbing Sisko by the shoulders Sorripto kept a firm grip and relaxed it slowly as Sisko began to calm down as the apparent shock of his surroundings began to fade.

As he stared deeply into Sisko's eyes trying to read their intention Sorripto saw a calm silence and the familiar face of his friend that he had not gazed upon in a long time.  Leaning back slightly Sorripto smiled.

"Joey?  So you were in there somewhere.  Glad to see you again my friend.  Hope the head is alright you did take quite a beating these last few weeks."

Walking over to the replicator and getting a glass of water and large glass of Bajoran Sweet Tea Sorripto walked back towards Sisko, who was now fully seated upright, and handing him the glass of water sat back down.

"You look like a man that has more questions then could ever be asked and with all that yelling about a granpa and aliens I am afraid I have developed a few of my own." 

Leaning in to touch glasses together Sorripto put his feet up again and leaned back.

"Tell you what you just tell me what you remember of the last year or so and I will fill in the blanks."

Shocked and confused, Sisko turned to Sorripto and said, "A year?! Last thing I remember I was volunteering to escort one of those non-corporeal aliens that had taken control of me back through the Azimuth Horizon. They were going to destroy the Spectre, I had to do something."

As he continued to think about it, certain experiences began returning to his mind. "They wanted to study me. I remember being in a laboratory... it wasn't anything like we're used to, in terms of matter and energy. It was like they were reversed in their Universe... or used differently. It's hard to explain. I guess they exist of pure energy and they consume matter directly. Not through eating it like we do..."

Sisko stumbled around to try to find an analogy that would represent the process and finally his face brightened for the first time since he woke up. "More like a plant's photosynthesis!" he said, excitedly when the realization hit. It was good for him to begin thinking scientifically again as it pushed away the emotions.

"I remember they returned me to our Universe and I was happy. Somehow they kept me alive in space, but it was so painful. It was cold... I was picked up by a cargo ship... then after that it's very blurry until I woke up in Kendra province. It must've been a dream... my grandfather was there and he saved me from some evil impersonation of me..."

Sisko's mind wandered as he tried to recall everything, and he muttered, "Children... Preservers... what children?" he asked suddenly, turning to Sorripto as he said it. He knew it was important, but wasn't sure what it meant.

Looking at Sisko it became apparent to Sorripto that his friend had no recollection of how long he had been gone or his time with the children.  Thinking for a moment as if to soften the blow Sorripto knew he was never one for breaking things gently, so he decided that bluntness would be the best course here.

“Well Joey there is no real easy way to put this, so I will give it to you straight.”

Sighing at the task before him Sorripto continued.

“After your time with those aliens you came back and were, well for lack of a better word possessed or taken over by something evil.  It reminded me a lot of the story Dean O’Brien used to tell me about when his wife was taken over by a Pa-Wraith.  It was you, but it was not you… I hope you understand that.”

“Either way after the new you, that is the controlled you, came back from your time with those aliens you were taken in by a group calling themselves the Horizon’s Children or something like that and they accepted you as a kind of prophet.  Well under your prophetic leadership they fought to keep open the Azimuth Horizon and making no attempts to close the rift caused even worse instability in space and nearly destroyed the universe.”

Seeing Sisko taken aback by the story Sorripto quickly tried to turn his explanation of things into a bit of a higher note.

“The fact is that all of Lotus Fleet came together to stop the children and seal the rift in order to save the universe.  Well that was their plan anyway.”

Leaning in slightly Sisko asked slowly.

“But not yours I take it.”

Laughing Sorripto could not help but have an almost bragging tone as he told his friend about his role in all of this.

“Oh no not by a long shot you know me too well.  I was recruited by some old friends at Section 31, who are trying to clean up their act a bit apparently, and I was tasked with destroying the children and killi… er a bringing you back.”

“It was quite genius actually I built myself up as a traitor and after some unfortunate sabotage I got myself to your ship and beamed you to the McKenzie, destroyed the attacking children’s fleet, and then fitted their remaining ships with a power fault that would destroy them the second they went to warp.”

Finishing his glass of sweet tea Sorripto put the empty glass down and slowly sighed as the rest of his story was not as happy.

“Well after a few battles with the Klingons, Romulans, and Undine Lotus Fleet managed to seal the rift and with the cost of only a ship and a few in the yards we came out of it with minimal loses and all objectives met.  Hell I even heard some rumblings that we made peace with the Undine.”

Leaning in Sorripto pointed his finger into Sisko’s face and his eyes filled with a lifetime of being hated told a story of their own.

“You have to understand one thing Joey no one knows what you did while you were their prophet and leader and since I sort of killed off all your witnesses no one really ever will.  But frankly it is better that way because that man that evil spirit that you told me about is not you, was not you, and never will be you.  The only reason some of us are alive is because somewhere in your head was conflict and that conflict gave us opportunity to escape once and gave me the inspiration I needed to convince some people you were worth saving.”

“I pray that you do not blame yourself for anything you might hear or might remember.  The good inside you won out and in the end of the day that is all that matters.  Sad that you missed such a great mission though it would have made a hell of a story for your Father to write about.”

Sisko nodded repeatedly while listening to Sorripto's reassurances and then looked long and hard into the Cardassian's face as if analyzing something.

Finally he said, in mock anger, "I'm just astounded you're not in shackles after all you said you did out there. What the hell were you thinking!? I bust my hump trying to dissuade people of the typical stereotype of the scheming, spying Cardassian and you go and do something like that!"

Then he grinned and said, "Well at least you'll have one friend at your board of inquiry or court-martial or whatever. I don't suppose they'll take the word of someone who's missed out on the last year of his life, but I'll do what I can. It's... it's the least I can do."

Getting the obvious point that he had missed before Sorripto agreed with the irony and started laughing.

"I had orders from Section 31 and Starfleet Intelligence the worst they can get me on is that I did not quite follow them... come to think of it I did not follow them at all."

Snapping his fingers Sorripto chuckled as he continued.

"I did single handily wipe out a fanatical terrorist organization that has to count for something."

As the two laughed the medical crewman and security officer reentered sickbay and walked towards the sound of laughter.  Seeing Sisko upright in his bed and laughing the medical crewman gasped while fumbling for a medical tricorder.  Standing up Sorripto smacked the medical crewman on the shoulder so hard it nearly knocked him off balance.

"He is fine, see I told you everything would work out."

Pointing towards the broken glass and pool of liquid that had formed from the vial Sorripto smashed earlier the Cardassian chuckled as he walked towards the security officer at the door.

"Oh and I spilled some poison that you are going to have to clean up... I would put some gloves on before I touch it."

Extending his hands towards the young security officer the smile on Sorripto's face only grew.

"Well my shift in Engineering is over shall I go back to jail then?"

As the security officer escorted Sorripto towards the door the Cardassian turned towards Sisko and pointed.

"You are going to speak at my hearing if I have one.  I am going to hold you to that."

Sorripto winked as he stepped out the door.

"Oh and Joey... good to have you back."