It had been a long time since Markos had visited Deep Space Nine. During his testing on Bajor he was confined to the research station on the planet. He hadn't been able to visit his adopted family during that time and missed them terribly. However, one family member, a cousin of his, was right here on the station. After learning that he would be aboard the station for a couple of days, he made arrangements to meet with his cousin and then the both of them would continue on to Bajor to see the rest of the family.
As Markos exits his temporary quarters on DS9, he checks himself in the mirror to make sure that he looks presentable. After all, he had been promoted during his one year hiatus and wanted to look the part of a young Lieutenant. After being assured of his appearance, Markos continues on his way towards his meeting. It has been slightly more than a year since he last was aboard this station. Although much has changed for him, the station seems to have changed very little. As he climbs aboard a turbolift Markos announces his destination to the computer systems.
"Computer, Ops."
As the turbolift whisks him away to station operations, Markos tries to calm the nervousness inside of him. He hadn't seen this particular cousin in quite awhile and still felt a little intimidated every time he had to visit. As the lift doors open, he pauses for a bit to get his bearings. In front of him is the large operations center of Deep Space Nine. So many things have happened aboard this station, most of them centered around this particular location. Finally noticing that the lift was about to move again, Markos exits the lift and begins to move towards the center of the room towards the tactical station, where his cousin is concentrating on some information displayed on the panels.
"Lieutenant Junior Grade Kira Markos reporting." says Markos in an official sounding voice.
At that statement, the person who was concentrating on the panels turns around to reveal Colonel Kira Nerys, the Bajoran Liaison Officer to Deep Space Nine. As she looks up to see who uttered the comment, a smile crosses her face. "Markos! I wondered when you were going to get here!"
The Colonel rises from her chair and moves towards Markos embracing him in a tight hug. "It's been so long since I've seen you." Releasing him from her hug, she pauses to look Markos over with a more careful eye. "Look at you, they finally made you a Lieutenant. The whole family has been wondering how you have been."
"It's good to see you too Nerys." says Markos as he begins to feel his nervousness subside after seeing Nerys' reaction to seeing him. "I'm doing well, I guess. I've just been posted aboard the USS Knight a couple of weeks ago. I'm hoping that this time my mission won't be as short as the last time I stepped aboard a star ship." says Markos with a slight smile.
"We can talk about that later. Have you eaten yet?" queries the Colonel.
"No, I haven't. I was busy moving my things to my temporary quarters, so I didn't have time to eat." replies Markos.
"Good, because I'm starving. We have at least six hours before we need to leave to Bajor, why don't we get something on the Promenade?"
"Sounds good to me, what are you in the mood for? And it better not be jumja sticks, those things are too sweet." says Markos with a slight smile.
"What?!? I haven't had those in at least two years, Markos!"
"Calm down, I'm just teasing. You know how you used to like them. I still remember that story that Paul told about you eating ten of them at one time and getting so sick that you could hardly stand the sight or smell of daumb-ja sticks for at least a month."
"Is anyone ever going to let me forget that?"
"Family, the keeper of old and forgotten secrets." says Markos with a quirky grin. "Remember, Nerys, 'We're here for you.'"
With a slight moan Colonel Kira rolls her eyes back slightly, smiles, and just nods her head. "I guess not, huh?" Stopping for a moment to place her station in order, she says "Well, we better get going before something on the station breaks down and I have to be made aware of it. Are you ready?"
Markos nods his head and the two of them proceed towards the turbolift doors. Just as the turbolift approaches they are surprised to see who is on board.
"Colonel, we were just on our way to see if you had lunch yet." says one of the passengers aboard the lift.
"We wanted to get together before you left to Bajor." says the other passenger, who looks to be a young trill in her mid 20's. "Who is this with you?" queries the young woman.
"Julian, Ezri, I would like you to meet my cousin, Lieutenant JG Kira Markos. Markos, this is Doctor Julian Bashir, our Chief Medical Officer, and this is Lieutenant Ezri Dax, the ship counselor. Markos has just been assigned as the Chief Medical Officer aboard the USS Knight." says Colonel Kira in one long breath.
"You're Dr. Kira Markos?" replies Bashir, "I had no idea that the two of you were related. I've heard so much about you from Starfleet Medical."
Markos could see by the light in Bashir's eyes that he was excited to meet him. It reminded him of the look that a child gets when surrounded by candy in a candy store.
"I see that my reputation precedes me once again. Nice to meet you Doctor." As Markos extends his hand in greeting, he pauses to look at the young woman next to Bashir. A puzzled look crosses his face as he asks "Dax, why does that name sound familiar? Are you by chance related to Jadzia Dax?"
The young woman smiles and says "Sort of, Jadzia was the Dax symbiont's last host. My name is Ezri."
"I'm sorry, Nerys mentioned Jadzia Dax in a few of her letters a long time ago, I thought that the name was familiar."
"I get that a lot, Jadzia was quite notorious in her days, even though she was so young." replies Ezri, "Don't worry about it though."
"Markos and I were just on our way to the Promenade to grab something to eat, you're welcome to join us," says Colonel Kira as she turns to face Markos, "if it is fine with you, of course?"
"Since when do you ask my opinion Nerys? Of course it is fine." says Markos with a smile. "Shall we go then?"
"Well that's settled. By the way Doctor," says Bashir to Markos as the group boards the turbolift, "I've been wondering about some of the findings that were published about your recent treatment on Bajor. I wondered if you would be interested in coming to the infirmary later on to let me examine your cellular structure. It's not every day that you get to see the first of a new species discovered."
As the doors close around them Markos looks towards Colonel Kira, and gives her the patented "deer caught in headlights" look. She just smiles at him and responds "Doctor, we leave for the planet in six hours. If you promise not to keep him occupied all day, then I'm sure that Markos would be glad to donate some of his time to your study." As Markos gives Nerys a look that says WHAT?!?! she gives him a wry smile that says Got you back.
Markos gives her a look that only the two of them would understand, forces a slight smile, and then says "It will only be a short time, but I'm sure that I can come for awhile." All the time he is thinking to himself Well, I did bring up the daumb-ja stick incident....
Lunch turned out to be a pretty fun event with the three senior officers talking about their experiences aboard Deep Space Nine after the end of the Cardassian-Dominion war. Bashir, Dax and Kira had been through a lot of things together and had formed a strong friendship. He made a mental note to come and visit DS9 as often as possible. It is a rare thing to find good people. Given enough time he could foresee himself becoming friends with this tight knit group.
As lunch finished, and everyone was getting up to clear their trays, Markos realized that he was looking forward to the time to spend with Dr. Bashir. He had been absorbing energy in preparation for a little "exhibition" that was sure to pique his interest. During the past year Markos had come to terms with his abilities and actually enjoyed using them to catch people off guard at times, especially when he was in the mood for a good joke. Julian wouldn't know what hit him.
A slight tap on the shoulder brought him back from his plotting. Colonel Kira motioned for him to hunch lower to her as she whispered "I know that look, I've seen it too many times, whatever you're planning just remember, BE NICE." Markos whispered back, "I will, I just want to give him a tiny fright. He'll be fine." Knowing that Markos was planning one of his practical jokes always placed Nerys on edge. But she knew who it was going to be directed at, and knowing Markos, it was bound to be funny. She knew that she would be hearing about this later on in the week sometime over lunch with Bashir and Ezri. "Tell me what you did later, when we're on the Runabout, I don't want to know about it now." Markos gives her his all too common -don't worry about it- look and places his tray in the replicator.
"I'll see you at 1800 hours then Lieutenant, we're taking the Rio Grande to Bajor. Meet me at docking pad 'C.'" says Colonel Kira as she and Ezri head back towards the direction of Ops.
"Aye, ma'am." Markos says with a smile. As he and Dr. Bashir make their way towards the infirmary Bashir queries "If you don't mind my asking, what were you two whispering about back there?"
"Oh nothing really. Nerys and I have always been close. It was her aunt and uncle that found me on the Dahkur Hills. She and I were just about the same age and after my recovery we became close friends. It's funny how we slip back into those old habits after so many years." replies Markos, hoping not to sound too nervous. After all, the prank was soon to be in progress and he didn't want to alert any suspicions.
"I never had any close relatives, so I'm not sure I fully understand the relationship. I do have a very good friend at the Academy, perhaps you know of Chief Miles O'Brien?"
"Doesn't he teach Advanced Engineering?" queries Markos, relieved that Bashir had seemingly changed the subject.
"Yes he does. He was posted here prior to getting his position at the Academy. While he was here he and I were very close and always were talking in hushed tones and glances at board meetings. Anyway, once we arrive at the infirmary I want to start by doing a complete genetic scan of your DNA. After that a full bio-spectral analysis, perhaps by concentrating on the cellular level we could perhaps shed some light on how you store all that energy."
"Sounds like a plan." replies Markos as he ponders his next move. I wonder how long it will take him to realize that I'll be messing with his tricorder readings?
Unfortunately, Bashir wasn't fooled for long. Markos had overdone it when he had caused his cellular structure to be read as resembling a cup of rich Tarkallean tea. As the results bounced back to Bashir, he looked at Markos with a somewhat bewildered look.
"This can't be right, did the previous research show this...." his voice trailed off to the distance as he saw that Markos had a smile that stretched from ear to ear. "Wait a minute... have you been...?"
At this point Markos began to hum the tune of "I'm a little teacup."
"Looks like I resemble Tarkallean tea, eh?"
At this last comment Bashir broke up laughing, which was music to Markos' ears. Laughter at his actions always caused Markos to further plan episodes of jesting in the future. "Didn't Kira warn you? I take extreme pleasure in the art of the practical joke." says Markos as he laughs at his own joke.
Relieved and still laughing Bashir says, "So that's what you two were discussing earlier? Did the Colonel know about this little stunt?"
"She said that she didn't want to know what I was planning, it was safer that way." says Markos from beneath his own laughter, "you know, 'plausible deniability!'"
As the two laughed some more, and began to calm down, Markos spoke up and said "Here, no more tricks, if you want to do a cellular scan I'll have to release some energy first. Otherwise the energy will interfere with your readings in a slightly similar way. The first thing I learned to do during the study was to block sensor readings around me with the energy stored within me, that way I could get out of having to do these scans. Later on, I learned how to cause any sensor reading to show up, as you just saw with the faulty tricorder readings." At this, Markos jumped off the exam table where he was sitting and moved to the center of the room.
"If you want I can make the energy release be in the form of visible light, it's more fun that way. If you had really studied the report you would have noticed that I am experimenting with creating photonic light." replies Markos.
"The same energy source that holodecks use, correct?" says Bashir as he prepares his medical instruments to record the process.
"Yes, however, I won't do that now, it takes too much concentration. I will give you a bit of a light show for fun. You may want to stand back and shut off the lights. It's more theatrical that way."
"Of course," replies Bashir, "Computer, lights off." As the lights dim down he looks at the glowing instrument panels to make sure that they are recording every aspect of what is going to happen. Finally he looks up at Markos and gives him a nod and says "Ready."
With calculated practice, Markos begins to release the energy stored within his system. Within scientific circles this demonstration is unofficially called "the light show." As the process begins and ends, Dr. Bashir pauses every couple of moments to check the readings that the lab instrumentation is recording. The whole process lasts less than ten minutes. As soon as Markos has eliminated most of the foreign energy from his system he dims his own external light source and announces to the computer systems, "Computer Lights."
As the lights turn on in the infirmary, Markos looks up to see a very happy Dr. Bashir. He really does look like a kid in a candy store. "Did you get what you wanted?"
"That and more. Thank you." replies Bashir.
"Now, when you do the cellular scan, you should be able to get more accurate readings. This time I promise not to emulate a warm cup of tea."
"That would be much appreciated." says Bashir with a slight laugh.
As Bashir finished his tests and scans he and Markos chatted some more about the station's business with subjects ranging from childhood memories to old friends that both men knew. Wondering how much time he had spent with Bashir at this point, Markos asks for the time.
"Computer, what time is it?" <The time is 1630 hours.>
"Already?" asks Bashir. <Affirmative.>
"I have to be going, Doctor. I have to meet the Colonel in one and a half hours and I still need to get ready to leave for Bajor. I must say, for being a test, this was fun. I hope you have enough data to keep you busy for awhile."
"More than enough. Once again, thank you Lieutenant. Perhaps if you are in the area we could get together again, I know it would drive Ezri crazy having another doctor on board, but that would be part of the fun."
"I look forward to it, Doctor. Until then..." replies Markos.
As he leaves the Doctor to his new data, Markos wonders what the next couple of days are going to be like. He hadn't seen his family in so long. Plus, there would have to be a lot of explaining to do. At least he was going to have some time with Nerys prior to having to deal with the whole family. Wait until she hears about the tea. With that last thought, Markos enters his quarters and begins to pack for his trip. It was going to be an interesting time for the next couple of days. Somehow, he was looking forward to it.