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

sir."
    Captain Victor's face filled the screen. He was grinning, his teeth impossibly white against his skin. He still had his cap off, and his dark hair was sticking up in tufts. Behind him, I could barely make out Councillor Näna, his strange face staring unblinkingly at me through his huge eyes.
    "All right," I said. "We are back. But we are here to retrieve Deep Space Nine. I expect your assistance, and I expect it now."
    "Captain," Victor said, spreading his hands. "We have done nothing but assist you."
    "You have done nothing but play games with us," I said. "And the games are over. Now. The loss of Deep Space Nine will cause a crisis of unparalleled proportions in the Alpha Quadrant. We must recover the station before word of this gets out."

    "Too late," Sotugh said. "Word of it was already getting out. Within a minute of your second disappearance, I was picking up distress beacons from several ships."
    Arthur swooped by with a platter heaping with nachos. The shredded beef smelled spicy. Jalapeńos and black olives mixed with several cheeses and tomatoes on top. They were covered with homemade guacamole and real sour cream.
    Sisko's mouth watered. He reached for a chip, then pulled back as the grease burned his fingertips. The nachos were too hot to eat.
    "The story," the Quilli said, and tilted its chair toward Sisko.
    "Oh, relax," the Trill said, putting a foot on the chair's rung, and slamming it to the floor. The Quilli fell backward, its bristles sticking in the nearby tabletop, breaking its fall.
    "On Quilla," it said, "you would die for that."
    "On Quilla," the Trill said, "I would never do that."
    Sisko sighed softly. He would have to wait a moment anyway to eat the nachos. He might as well continue.
    "Where is my heart of targ?" Sotugh yelled.
    "Coming," Arthur said, and scurried behind the bar.
    "Captain Victor did not seem to care about the problems Deep Space Nine's disappearance was causing in the Alpha Quadrant," Sisko said.

    "I need to know what information you have about my station," I said to him, "and I need it now."
    Victor's grin faded as I spoke to him. Apparently, in that instant, my return had ceased to be a joke to him.
    He glanced at Näna, whose head moved up and down in time to his opening and closing mouth. That seemed like a nod to me, but I might have been anthropomorphizing.
    "We've intercepted some colonist transmissions," Victor said, smiling. "It seems the colony forces met with more resistance than they had expected and some of the station's equipment has been damaged."
    They were fighting then. Trust the major to respond to such a command with quick, sure strokes.
    "What kind of equipment?" O'Brien said, in a voice that had an edge of fatherly panic.
    I raised a hand to silence him.
    "My first officer responded quickly to my message," I said. I wanted Victor to know that my people were competent, even on the station. I still did not feel as if I could trust him. I wanted to warn him in as many ways as I could about provoking me.

    "It seems to me that he had done a good job so far, and you had done nothing," Sotugh said. He reached for the nachos, pulled out one, and ate it, then spit it out. "Bah. Tastes like plastic field rations. How could you order this, Sisko?"
    Sisko took a chip. The cheese formed a string as he pulled and he had to break it with his fingers. He licked them off. These were excellent nachos. He had ordered them because he was picky about his jambalaya. Now that he knew the nachos were a success, he might share them, and then order jambalaya.
    "These are the best nachos I have had since I left Earth," he said to Cap.
    Cap nodded. "We have a captain who comes in here regularly who loves them."
    "Aren't you going to answer the Klingon's point?" the middle-aged man at the bar asked. "I kind of agree with him. I don't think you responded well to the challenge at all."
    Sisko smiled. "I'm not a Klingon. I do not respond aggressively to every attack. I like to