The Mist by Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch Page A

your problem was restricted to your own space."
    He smiled at me, but there was no laughter in the smile. And with that look I distrusted him even more.
    "The Mist have no desire to expand," he said, "but we do have need of room for growth beyond our five systems."
    "Oh," I said, not liking where this was heading.
    Victor held up his hand for me to wait. "Two hundred years ago," he said, "we found another three systems that were uninhabited, in an area just beyond the Bajoran system. Since they were uninhabited, and no race seemed to be claiming them, they wouldn't be missed."
    "You shifted them," Dax said.
    "Exactly," Victor said. "We shifted the systems and began colonization."
    "And you have had trouble with the colonies," Worf said. He sounded as coolly skeptical as I felt. Luring us away from Deep Space Nine, shifting us into their space, and then not giving us proper warning about the effect of the Klingon ship hadn't warmed any of us to Captain Victor.
    Captain Victor glanced at Worf as if his question were rude. Worf glowered back, as only a Klingon can.

    "We do not glower," Sotugh said.
    Several patrons shushed him. Sisko suppressed a smile.
    "It is a moody word," Sotugh said. "Klingons are not moody."
    They shushed him again.
    "Well," Sotugh muttered into his blood wine. "We are not."
    Sisko forced himself to continue before he laughed. "It seemed that Victor did not like what he saw in Worf's face."
    "Better," Sotugh said. "No human should like what he sees in a Klingon face."
    "So," Sisko said, "Victor ..."

    ... looked directly at me. "There were no troubles," he said, and then he sighed. It seemed as if some of the energy left him. "Until this last generation of colonists. Over half of the colonies' populations were made up of the descendants of ships like my ancestors. There are humans, Cardassians, Jibetians, Bajorans, and a dozen other races on those three colony systems."
    "All living under the Mist system," Dax said, "but growing tired of the Mist rules."
    Captain Victor nodded. "It would seem that way. Under the leadership of a human named John David Phelps Jackson, the colonies have been demanding more and more."
    I crossed my arms. "You brought us to help your side?"
    Captain Victor shook his head. "Not really. We lured you here to get you, your fine crew, and your ship away from Deep Space Nine."
    I had not liked this conversation from the beginning, but now I hated it. I felt O'Brien stir behind me. Worf leaned forward on his console. Dax clenched her teeth, making her jaw seem quite firm.
    Dr. Bashir took a step forward and asked the question we all were thinking. "And why would that be?"
    "Because," Captain Victor said, "Jackson and the Mist colonists are about to shift Deep Space Nine into our reality and take it over."
    "What?" I came up out of my chair. "They have no right to our station. You have no right to our station."
    Victor stood calmly before the screen, as if he had expected my reaction.
    "Of course we don't," he said.
    I turned to Dax. "Is the station still there?"
    "Yes," she said. "It's still in normal space, and still acting like we've gone missing. But ..."
    She bit her lower lip and looked up at Victor. The look she leveled at him should have caused him to quake in his boots.
    "But?" Bashir asked. He, too, seemed unnaturally calm, something he had learned in his days on Deep Space Nine. He had learned to mask the strong emotions his anger behind a veneer of calm.
    "But," she said, "now I count twenty Mist ships taking up positions surrounding it."
    I turned back to face Captain Victor. "It would seem," I said, "that by luring us here, you are helping them."
    "Oh," he said, shrugging, "your presence on the station would have done nothing to stop the takeover." He sounded as if this sort of thing were routine.
    Worf growled behind me. If I hadn't seen Victor's nervous glance at the commander, I wouldn't have realized that Klingons made him uneasy. But he went on as if he were