"It's a trick." "Of course, it's a trick, but how did she do it?" "She probably beamed the egg directly into her mouth from one of the transporters." "Actually, one of my previous hosts used to dabble in the sleight of hand." "Was it Tobin?" "That's right." "Ah, he sounds like the right type-- painfully shy, introverted, a slight lack of confidence-- just the kind of person who might want to dazzle the world with his magical abilities." "She swallowed the egg before she came into the bar and then regurgitated it on cue." "Quite disgusting, actually." "Wrong again." "Sisko to Dax." "I'd like to see you in my office, Commander." "On my way, Benjamin." "Don't worry, Quark." "You'll figure it out eventually." "What?" "No wonder you can't figure it out." "Your head's full of latinum." "Ladies and gentlemen, the amazing Jadzia Dax." "Have a seat." "A Trill science team is coming to the station to conduct field tests on experimental techniques for creating artificial wormholes." "It sounds interesting." "It's an important project, and I've agreed to let them use the Defiant for their experiments." "But I thought you would want to know that the leader of the science team is Dr. Lenara Kahn." "Lenara Kahn." "That's right." "Look, you've got about three months of leave accumulated." "Why don't you take some of it?" "We can afford to do without you for a while." "Am I that dispensable around here?" "We'll never notice you're gone." "No." "I'll stay." "I can handle it." "You're sure." "I'm sure." "I've never let my past lives interfere with my job and I'm not going to start now." "I'll be fine." "Okay." "But... thank you for giving me the option." "Anytime, old man." "I'm Dr. Hanor Pren of the Trill Science Ministry." "I'm Major Kira Nerys and I'd like to welcome you to Deep Space 9." "This is our Strategic Operations Officer, Commander Worf and this is our Science Officer, Commander Dax." "Allow me to introduce you to our team leader" "Dr. Lenara Kahn and her brother, Dr. Bejal Otner." "Major Kira" "Commander Worf and Commander Dax." "It's been a long time." "Yes, it has." "If you will come with me, I will show you to your quarters." "You know that woman." "I know her." "She used to be my wife." "So let me get this straight." "Dax's first host was named Lela, right?" "I think so." "Lela Dax." "That's right." "Then Lela dies and the Dax symbiont goes on to a man named Tobin and after Tobin dies, then it's on to Emony then Torias, Audrid..." "No, no." "Audrid, then Torias." "Sorry." "Audrid, Torias, Joran, Curzon and then eventually, Jadzia." "Right." "And this, uh, Dr. Lenara Kahn person was once married to...?" "Torias, but, of course, in those days, she wasn't Lenara." "I knew it couldn't be that simple." "And the Kahn symbiont, which is now joined to Lenara used to be joined to a woman named Nilani." "And it was Nilani who married Torias Dax." "But Torias was killed in a shuttle accident." "And Nilani became a widow." "Years later, when Nilani died the Kahn symbiont was joined to Lenara." "And now, Nilani is Lenara, and Torias is Jadzia." "So that makes Lenara Jadzia's ex-wife." "It's a little more complicated than that, Quark." "I'm sure it is, but to be honest," "I'm sorry I brought the whole thing up." "It's giving me a headache." "It must be all the latinum rattling around in there." "Oh." "I thought so." "You really should have that looked at." "Get back to work!" "If you'll excuse me..." "Dax teach you that?" "Next time, I'm going to pull a rabbit out of his ear." "The one thing I don't understand is why Dax and Lenara can't just pick up where they left off" "I mean, if they're still in love with each other." "Ah, now there's the rub." "Even if they do harbor feelings for each other it's strictly against the rules of Trill society for them to acknowledge it in any way." "Rules?" "Well, it's more of a taboo, really." "Having a relationship with a lover from a past life is called a reassociation." "And the Trill feel very strongly that it's... unnatural." "Unnatural?" "How can it be unnatural for a married couple to resume their marriage?" "Well, the whole point ofjoining is for the symbiont to accumulate experiences from the span of many lifetimes." "In order to move on from host to host the symbiont has to learn to let go of the past" "let go of parents, siblings, children, even spouses." "I don't understand how two people who have fallen in love and made a life together can be forced to just walk away from each other because of a taboo." "No." "There must be some Trill who have reassociated with people from their past lives." "I asked Dax the same question." "It seems there have been a few." "And what happened?" "They were exiled from the Trill homeworld." "That means the symbionts would never be joined to a new host." "Exactly." "So when the hosts die, the symbionts die with them." "So, you see, even if Dax does harbor feelings for Lenara, she can't take that risk." "For a joined Trill, nothing is more important than to protect the life of the symbiont." "Nothing." "Come in." "I had the feeling you weren't going to be ready." "Curzon was never on time in his life." "He was even late for his 100th birthday party." "You're never going to let me forget that, are you?" "Do you know how long it took me to plan that party?" "Three months." "I know." "You still have time to back out of the reception, you know." "Oh, you know how I hate to miss a party." "I'm serious." "I know." "And I appreciate what you're trying to do but I'm going to be working with Lenara for the next week." "I have to get used to being around her." "Stop worrying about me, Benjamin." "I'll be fine." "So, in the spirit of friendship, we welcome you to Deep Space 9 and wish you success in the creation of the galaxy's first artificial wormhole." "Hear, hear." "I understand you'll be commanding the Defiant during our research." "Yes." "You must be very excited." "I mean, to be part of a potentially history-making project." "I am..." "looking forward to it." "I think Mr. Worf is less than enthusiastic about heading a research mission." "It's not exactly what every Klingon dreams about." "What do Klingons dream about?" "Things that would send cold chills down your spine and wake you in the middle of the night." "No, no." "It is better you do not know." "Excuse me." "I can never tell when he's joking." "Maybe it is better that we do not know." "Well, this looks wonderful." "Mm-hmm." "I take it most of this is Bajoran." "Hasperat." "Uh..." "No." "Hasperat." "Moba fruit and veklava." "Of course, I'm not the least bit hungry." "Neither am I." "But I suppose we should load up our plates since the whole room is watching us." "Quite an audience." "Seems a shame to disappoint them." "Maybe we should do something." "Well, we could get into a screaming match and start throwing things at each other." "Not bad." "Or I suppose we could throw ourselves at each other profess our undying love for each other in complete disregard for Trill society." "Dr. Pren would probably have a heart attack." "Forget about him." "My brother's head would explode." "He's been a nervous wreck ever since we arrived." "I know the feeling." "Well, I'll tell you what I told him." "We're both mature adults, and we can handle this." "I agree completely." "It'll be fine." "They're watching us again." "I know." "I guess we'll probably have to get used to it." "Well... thank you, Commander Dax." "I appreciate your insightful commentary on Bajoran cuisine." "My pleasure, Dr. Kahn." "After we launch our target drone the Defiant will have to generate a subspace tensor matrix in the 25,000 to 30,000 Cochrane range." "Then the drone will send out a magneton pulse which should react with the matrix to create an opening in the space-time continuum." "How long will we have to keep generating the matrix?" "Two minutes, maybe less." "Once the wormhole forms, we could shut down the tensor matrix." "We'll have to reroute the preignition plasma from the impulse deck down to the auxiliary intake to generate that much power but I think we can do it." "Excellent." "We'll also need to download our parameters for the matrix into one of your computers." "I think we'd better use the main computer, Chief." "I don't think the Engineering computer can handle it." "I agree." "If you'll follow me, I'll take you up to the Bridge and we can begin downloading the data." "All right." "Everything looks good here." "Dax?" "The backup navigation program is still showing some calibration drift." "I think some data may have been lost in the start-up routine." "Possibly." "Well... that explains the seven percent falloff in AFR ratios I keep seeing." "Must be a problem in the diagnostic subroutines." "I have a recalibration unit in my quarters that might solve the problem." "I'll have someone bring it here." "Oh, no, no, I need a break anyway." "Now I'm getting a drop-off in the triple-R output." "We might have a bigger problem than the diagnostic subroutines." "Don't panic yet." "It could just be transtator failure." "It happens all the time." "I wasn't panicking." "It's just an expression." "Sorry." "No, I'm sorry." "Forget it." "You know, it's just that you always used to..." "I mean, Torias always used to tell Nilani that she was panicking about things making a big fuss about nothing." "Well, Torias used to be insensitive at times." "But you have to admit" "Nilani did do her share of overreacting." "That's because you were a pilot and it made me nervous..." "made her nervous." "Torias being a pilot made Nilani nervous." "I've never had quite this much trouble sorting out my feelings from those of a past host." "I know what you mean." "Probably another good reason why we're not supposed to spend much time together." "We'd probably just get lost in the past." "Let's try running the transtator diagnostic again." "Okay." "Nilani wasn't panicking the day before Torias died." "No?" "No." "Torias should have listened to her." "The shuttle was not ready for a full impulse test but Torias had to do it anyway." "And he was wrong and whatever part of me is still Torias... is very sorry... and wishes he'd listened to you." "Well... we have a lot of work to do." "Right." "Right." "Would you be interested in dinner?" "I mean" "I'm having dinner with some friends and I thought you might like to go along." "Oh, l-l wouldn't want to intrude on your friends." "Actually, it's not that big of a group." "It's just me and..." "Julian." "Dr. Bashir?" "Sure." "That sounds great." "Great." "Okay." "Dinner, tonight." "At Quark's." "Great." "Tonight?" "I can't." "I have plans." "Cancel them." "I mean, if you can cancel them, that would be really nice." "Nice." "Yeah." "Because...?" "Because I invited Lenara out for dinner and..." "And it would be less awkward if you had a chaperon." "Exactly." "Will you do it?" "Something tells me that I should say no but you know I won't." "What time?" "2200 at Quark's." "Thank you." "I owe you one." "No, it didn't have a red awning." "It had a big ratana tree or something out front." "Well, you don't mean the Barros Inn?" "Yes, that's it." "Curzon was kicked out of the Barros Inn." "That's one of the wildest bars in the whole Rigel system." "What did he do?" "He sort of set fire to it." "Sort of." "All right, he set fire to it but it wasn't deliberate." "It was part of a bet." "But that's another story." "Curzon was certainly... different from most joined Trills." "Yeah, he liked to do things his own way." "He used to say there was an exception to every rule and he usually went out of his way to find it." "I'm actually glad we never met." "We probably wouldn't have liked each other very much." "No, he wasn't that bad, really." "I tend to exaggerate his rebellious qualities." "But you may have a point." "Curzon never had much use for scientists." "Well, that's interesting, considering what you do now." "Curzon would be horrified to know that I'm a scientist." "Oh, the very idea of doing research made him ill." "Torias wasn't much different." "I can remember talking to him about my wanting to study theoretical quantum physics and his eyes glazing over." "The irony is, you and I have more in common than Torias and Nilani ever did." "That's right." "Infirmary to Dr. Bashir." "Um, Dr. Bashir here." "Go ahead." "I'm sorry to interrupt you, Doctor but Ensign Tyler has broken his leg and..." "Oh, I'm on my way." "Um, I'm sorry." "Uh, I must go." "Duty calls." "That's all right." "Thanks for coming." "It was nice to see you again." "Now that's a good friend." "I mean, he sat here all night" "listening to us trade stories of our former hosts and never once complained." "I think he enjoyed himself." "Mm-hmm." "Maybe not." "No." "I'll make it up to him." "Yeah." "Those are Klingon, aren't they?" "Yeah." "How did you know?" "Curzon." "They're beautiful." "Yeah." "They were given to me by a, uh, Klingon scientist." "He wanted to give me one of the swords they carry around, but I refused." "Keep them." "Really." "I'm not very Klingon." "Thanks." "Well?" "They suit you." "It's really good to see you again, Dax." "Oh, that sounds so strange." "I mean, I'm looking at a different face hearing a different voice... but somehow it's still you." "I know." "Every time I start to think of you as just Lenara, you'll smile, or laugh and suddenly it's you." "I'm really glad you're here." "Me, too." "Defiant Log, Stardate 49195.5." "Lieutenant Commander Worf reporting." "We have arrived at the coordinates to begin preliminary tests for the artificial wormhole project." "Target drone is in position, Commander." "Full scan." "No ships in sensor range." "Bridge to Engineering." "Are you ready, Mr. Eddington?" "We're ready, Commander." "Dr. Kahn... you may proceed." "Energize the focal array and stand by to initiate the subspace tensor matrix." "This AQF sequencer is always causing me problems." "Plasma coil interlocks are in place." "Deflector grid is charged and standing by." "They're very friendly today." "Hmm?" "They had dinner last night... alone." "What are you trying to say?" "I shouldn't have to say anything." "Then don't." "We're ready to generate the tensor matrix." "The drone is standing by." "Initialize the focal array." "The tensor matrix is forming." "Activate the drone." "The drone is sending out the magneton pulse." "It's reached the matrix." "I'm picking up a subspace distortion." "The distortion's becoming coherent." "It's working." "The magneton pulse is causing a feedback loop." "It'll destroy the drone in a few seconds." "A few seconds is all we need." "The drone's been destroyed." "But you did it." "Congratulations, Doctor." "Thank you." "That was only the first step but what a step." "I'm so proud." "Thank you." "I'm so proud." "...the subspace field data, the quantum readings-- all the telemetry checks out." "The wormhole was open 23.4 seconds and during that time, it was completely coherent." "You couldn't ask for a better beginning." "But it all comes down to the next test." "We have to be able to send an object through the wormhole to prove that it's stable for space travel." "Oh, that reminds me." "Dax thinks we should use a class-4 probe to make the actual run with." "She says that the class-4 shielding will give us a better idea of how the wormhole will affect a real ship." "I didn't know you'd talked to Dax since we got back." "Yeah, I saw her last night." "Where?" "She came by my quarters." "How long did she stay?" "Is there something you want to ask me?" "I don't want to ask you anything but I'm beginning to wonder if I should." "I don't believe this." "Believe it." "People are starting to notice." "People?" "Dr. Pren saw you holding hands at dinner the other night." "I thought he was overreacting but then I saw the way the two of you were acting on the Defiant." "Lenara." "Lenara." "Lenara." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." "Look, I'm your brother." "You tell me nothing's going on... then nothing's going on." "I just want to hear you say it." "There is nothing going on." "All right?" "All right." "Come in." "What's wrong?" "I just had the most unpleasant conversation with my brother." "He... he thinks that there's something going on between us." "Oh." "And what did you tell him?" "Well, I told him that that was ridiculous." "That there's nothing going on between us." "That you and I are just friends." "Well, then, that should settle that." "Maybe we shouldn't see each other." "It'll just give people the wrong idea." "Or give them the right idea." "I don't think we should have this conversation." "Would it do any good?" "Would it change how either of us feels?" "No." "But it would be easier." "You've never been one for the easy way out." "That's true, but in this case..." "I'm not the only one involved." "I don't want to do anything to hurt you." "I did that before." "I climbed into a shuttlecraft and I made you a widow." "I knew you were a pilot when I married you." "I knew the risks." "I went into it with my eyes wide open." "And what about now?" "Are your eyes open?" "Do you know what the risks are?" "I thought I'd..." "I thought I'd gotten over you." "It's been so long and so much has happened." "And now I know I haven't." "Shh." "Shh, shh." "I've missed you." "I've missed you so much." "I'd better go." "Yeah." "I don't know what to do, Benjamin." "What do you want to do?" "Throw myself at her profess my undying love and my complete disregard for Trill society." "A joke Lenara made at the reception." "It doesn't sound so funny anymore, does it?" "Not really." "You don't think I should pursue this, do you?" "No." "Okay." "Why?" "Because I remember what Curzon used to say about reassociation that it didn't matter whether he agreed with the taboo or not because the price for violating it was too high-- exile." "I know what Curzon used to say..." "and I'm not Curzon." "And you're not Torias either." "You're Jadzia Dax and you have a responsibility as a joined Trill to never..." "I didn't come here to hear a lecture about my responsibilities." "You came here for advice from a friend and that's exactly what you're getting." "You're right." "I'm sorry." "I know this is difficult for you." "I know how you feel about Lenara but I want you to think about what will happen if you pursue this." "If you're exiled from Trill there will be no further hosts for your symbiont." "When Jadzia dies, Dax dies." "That goes against everything you were taught during your initiate training." "You've told me again and again that each host is only a link in a chain... and that the life of the symbiont no matter what happens, must go on." "I know that... and I believe in that." "But I also know..." "I love her, Benjamin." "I know you do." "If I were in your position" "I'd probably be just as ready to throw away everything for the person I love." "But I would also want to be sure that I was ready to pay the price." "You're right." "I need to be sure." "But if you're sure... if this is what you really want..." "I will back you all the way." "I've lived seven lifetimes and I have never had a friend quite like you." "Eddington to Bridge." "We're ready to generate the tensor matrix." "Understood." "Stand by." "Aye, sir." "Commander Dax." "Subspace field stress is within normal parameters." "Probe's ready to launch." "Target drone is in position." "Bridge to Engine Room." "Initialize subspace matrix, Mr. Eddington." "On my mark." "Acknowledged." "The tensor matrix is starting to form." "Activate the drone." "Wormhole neutrino readings are stable." "Subspace field stress is up by 15 percent but still within safety margins." "Launch the probe." "Report!" "No helm control!" "There's a hull breach on deck five." "Emergency force fields are in place." "I'm reading a massive plasma leak in the Engine Room." "Bridge to Engine Room!" "Mr. Eddington!" "Dr. Kahn, can you hear me?" "Have a damage control team meet me down there." "Stand back." "It's out of control!" "We can't put it out with those!" "We'll have to vent the entire compartment out into space." "No!" "Lenara might still be alive." "There's no way to get to her." "How long will a level-A force field last in here?" "Not long with that plasma fire." "Ten, 20 seconds at most." "I think I can get to her." "Dax, if we don't contain this thing now it's going to set off the warp core." "I know, just give me ten seconds after the force field goes off and then vent the compartment." "I need to reconfigure the field geometry." "I'll try to keep the field stable as long as I can." "Oh, Dax..." "I thought I'd lost you." "Oh, so did I." "I don't want to lose you." "Not again." "Not again." "Never again." "Never again." "Never." "Come in." "How are you feeling?" "Much better." "She's almost fully recovered." "My brother, the nurse." "I want to thank you for what you did." "Lenara means a lot to me." "To both of us." "Yes." "I'll leave you two alone." "Risian perfume." "Do they know what happened to the wormhole yet?" "Our best guess is that the tetryon field reacted to the probe's shielding, producing a massive graviton wave." "The important thing is no one got killed and we brought the ship back in one piece." "Oh, the ship-- how badly was it damaged?" "Chief O'Brien says he'll have it good as new in two weeks." "Now stop torturing yourself." "It wasn't your fault." "It was my project, my theories." "And you shouldn't forget that your project and your theories produced the first artificially created wormhole in history." "It's a huge achievement." "You're right." "I am being a little self- indulgent, aren't I?" "Yes, you are." "Well, I guess I'll have a lot of work to do when I get back to Trill." "Analyzing the telemetry from the probe alone will probably take months." "Probably." "Why not do the work here with me?" "With you." "The two of us together, you know what that would mean." "I know exactly what that would mean... but I think it's worth the price." "That's funny." "Bejal just spent the last half hour trying to convince me that it wouldn't be worth it." "He wants me to go back to Trill with him, tomorrow... try to forget about you." "Well, at least he's consistent." "Don't be too hard on him." "He's only trying to look out for his big sister." "Everyone is trying to look out for us... protect us from ourselves." "But in the end... all that matters is how we feel and what we do about it because either way we're the ones who have to live with the consequences." "That's the tricky part, though, isn't it?" "Living with the consequences." "When you're not with me when you're not around... it's like a part of me is missing." "I want to be with you more than anything but I don't think that I can do this." "Dax, I am not like you." "I don't have a little Curzon inside me telling me to be impulsive, to ignore the rules to give up everything that I've worked for." "Can you really walk away from me?" "From us?" "After all this time we're together." "Don't throw that away." "I don't want to!" "Maybe I need more time." "Maybe if I go back to Trill for a while" "I-l'll think it over." "I..." "I can always come back later." "I wish I could believe you." "But ultimately it comes down to this-- if you feel about me the way I feel about you you won't go on that transport tomorrow and if you do leave, I think we both know... you're never coming back again." "Good-bye, Commander." "Thank you."