[Medical Bay to Doctor Kira.]
As Markos comes back to the present, he taps on his communicator badge and replies "Kira here."
[Doctor, just thought I would remind you that you have an follow up appointment with Ensign Beckett in one hour.]
"Thank you for the reminder, Kira out." replies Markos as he rises from his daydream state. Youth. Unpredictable, adventuresome, tireless, and bound for trouble. A slight smile crosses Markos' face as he realizes that he isn't much older than young Beckett. Ensign Beckett was among the list of crew that the USS Knight had picked up while docked at Deep Space Nine. As the story was related to Markos, Beckett, having not even assumed his position aboard the Knight, was apparently in the mood for some adventure prior to accepting his assignment. So, on the day before his scheduled duties began, he jumped aboard a transport to the Gamma Quadrant headed for one of the first colonies started after the end of the Cardassian-Dominion war. Upon arrival on the planet, he began to explore the surface and stumbled across the remains of a Jem'Hadar base camp. Apparently, one Jem'Hadar soldier was alive and still trying to defend his position against what he perceived as an attack from the Federation. Some cross fire ensued and Beckett was the only one left standing. He had sustained multiple phaser burns and severe injuries to his arm, torso, upper leg, and upper shoulder as a result of the fire fight. Fortunately, Markos had just returned from his trip to Bajor and he, Bashir and Haakon worked on his injuries for three solid hours. The weapons of the Jem'Hadar always pose a threat to their victims due to an anti-coagulant that is transmitted along with the phaser beam. Where most phasers instantly cauterize a wound and stop the bleeding, these particular weapons actually encourage further damage as the victim begins to loose massive amounts of blood in the affected areas. It was fortunate for Beckett that the weapons charge of the lone Jem'Hadar was not at full strength, otherwise the outcome would have been much worse, or even fatal. The young Ensign was placed on Medical Leave for at least two days to recover from his injuries, but he insisted on trying to assume his tactical position on his first day of duty. Markos agreed to the situation with the stipulation that Beckett be placed on light duty. After all, he wasn't back to one hundred percent.
As Markos looks out of the window in his quarters at the last location of the space station and Bajor, he pauses once again to reflect on the last couple of days. Markos could only hope that all of his memories in space would be as enjoyable as those he experienced.
"You did WHAT?" announced an amused Colonel Kira Nerys as she and Markos were sitting down in front of the controls of the Rio Grande in preparation for departure to Bajor.
"I modified my bioelectrical field to make Julian's medical tricorder think that my genetic material resembled a warm cup of tea. You should have seen Julian's face when the tricorder displayed the test results!" replied Markos with an excited look on his face.
"That I would have paid to see." says Kira as a smile crosses her face, followed by a couple short bursts of laughter. Their conversation is cut short by a voice over the communication system.
[Ops to Colonel Kira, Rio Grande, you are cleared for departure when ready.]
"Thank you, see you in two days. Rio Grande out." replies Colonel Kira. Now with her attention placed on piloting the ship, the atmosphere changes from laughter and merriment to simple conversation, as Nerys concentrates on maneuvering the runabout through the space traffic that continually moves about the station. "So, are you ready to see your parents?"
"Yes and no." says Markos as he tries to concentrate on his most recent journals received from Starfleet Medical.
"What do you mean, 'yes and no'?" queries Nerys, as she moves the runabout away from an advancing Correllian Freighter.
"On one hand it will be great to see all the family, but....." trails Markos' voice as he pauses to move on to the next page of information.
"But what?" answers Nerys.
At this point Markos puts down his PADD and begins to concentrate his attention on Nerys. Fortunately, the Rio Grande had just cleared the station's high traffic area and was preparing to jump into warp. As Nerys turns to face Markos with her full attention, Markos begins to explain.
"After your aunt and uncle found me, they tried to find out where I came from. Granted, I had lost most of my memory due to being in shock, but I did regain it prior to going home with them. I withheld the truth about myself to them, even though they took me into their lives. Now, that they have heard the truth about who I am, I wonder what they will think about me keeping my past and my abilities a secret."
"Markos, they still love you, if that is what you're worried about. But we all want to know why you kept your abilities a secret. Do you realize how many lives we could have saved if you had used your capacities even once in awhile?"
"There are reasons Nerys. One of them is fear. Fear of hurting people. Fear of not being able to control the energy I absorb. Fear of causing another space time rupture that might cause me to end up floating out somewhere in space. When our family found me I was barely alive. It took me weeks of treatment to recover from the energy depletion and rigors of space/time travel. I made a vow to myself at that point to never use my powers again. Not until I could control them. Plus, what would the Cardassians have done to me if they had captured me alive? On either side I would have been used as a weapon. I couldn't risk exposing myself to that. So I kept silent, and tried to forget about what I could do and where I came from. I started the process of beginning a new life."
Markos paused to let that last statement set in. He had been thinking about this moment for a long time, knowing that one day it would come. It was one thing to disappoint your superior officers, Markos could handle that, but to disappoint your family, that was something entirely different.
Nerys was the first to break the silence between them. "What happened to you out there Markos. Don't tell me what was in the official reports, I know about that. What really happened."
Markos pauses a moment to gather his thoughts and then begins to relate what had happened. "We had just entered the Badlands when suddenly the ship's sensors went wild. A rupture in space had opened up right before us and sucked the ship into it's vortex. People have always been telling stories about how ships always get lost in the badlands, well now we know that they're true. Everyone aboard was knocked unconscious throughout the trip through space. I think that I was among the first ones to regain consciousness. As I moved about the ship in search of an explanation, I had an eerie feeling that I had felt something like this before. I think I knew what had happened before the bridge crew figured it out. As fate would have it we ended up being transported millions of light years away to the Andromeda Galaxy, right into the laps of the Kelvans."
"The who?" responds Nerys as she looks over to check on the navigational computer array.
"Kelvans. A race that is bent on total universal domination. They have dominated hundreds of thousands of species throughout their galaxy and have been seeking a route to expand their influence. Starfleet had their first contact with them nearly 100 years ago. Captain James Kirk of the USS Enterprise was in command when a small group of Kelvans was found marooned on an isolated planet. Somehow that small group was able to overpower the away team and take over control of the Enterprise. Their plan was to modify the ship to take them back to their galaxy and then bring back reinforcements to take control over the Federation. Needless to say, they weren't too happy to see another Federation ship after what Kirk ended up doing to the group of Kelvans who commandeered his ship."
"Sorry to interrupt, we have thirty minutes to arrival. I'd better let them know that we're almost there. Keep going, what did they do?" says Nerys as she begins to send a message back to their family to prepare for their arrival.
"They demanded unconditional surrender. We weren't in a position to do anything about it either. Our Captain was dead and our ship was barely functional. To top it all off, many crew members were injured or dead after the trip. We were hours away from an unconditional surrender when I was asleep in my quarters. I had a dream of sorts. It was more like a waking nightmare. In it I saw our ship floating through space, dead and lifeless. Peppered throughout space were the remains of crew members who had tried to fight the Kelvans and had lost. I knew that this was more than a dream. It had to be from the Prophets."
"I've heard of the Prophets speaking through dreams before, are you sure that it was from them?" queried Nerys as she continued to pilot the runabout around the moons of Bajor.
"When I was younger I used to have many dreams of that sort. Dreams so realistic that they left an impression on your mind for years to come. I still have the vision of the Ilion in my mind. I knew that if I chose to remain silent that our fate would be what I saw. At that point I came up with a plan. The area of space surrounding the anomaly that brought us here was bound to be weak from the space/time tear. If I absorbed enough energy from outside sources, such as the ship's warp core, I could reopen the tear in space and get us hopefully closer to home. Somehow I managed to convince the Captain of my abilities, and she agreed to let me try. Nerys, it was frightening how much energy I consumed to create the disturbance. There was so much energy in my body that I literally was glowing a brilliant blue. I couldn't contain it all at once. If I lost any control over my body, a blast of energy would escape and literally blow away anything in it's path. The bridge didn't look like a bridge by the time I was done with it."
At this point Nerys was just staring at Markos in shock. "Do you know how much energy you can contain at once? What are we talking here, more than a warp core?"
"More than a couple of warp cores, I could literally power a ship if charged up. All that power running through my systems. That's scary. Now I have to tell my parents that their son has the capacity to create a warp core breach? Nerys, I'm not Human, not Bajoran, not anything. At least I look human, and before I could be seen as one. Now, I'm not sure what anyone is going to think of me."
The runabout was strangely quiet for the next couple of minutes as both Markos and Nerys thought about what was said. Nerys continues to devote her attention to guiding the runabout while Markos returned to the data PADD that he had been studying.
"Markos."
"Yes."
"Have I ever told you about Odo?"
"Not much. Only that you loved him."
"For a long time Odo never accepted himself for what he was. He never felt like he was going to fit in. But he did. It just took time. Besides, you don't have to worry about the family. Because no matter what happens to you, no matter what you become, remember this: you are always going to be my little cousin, my uncle's favorite son, and Paul's hunting partner. Nothing will change that."
"I know."
"For now, let's go see your parents. Besides, Paul is going to be there too. Let's just relax for the remainder of the time we're here and we'll leave in the morning."
Staring out of the windows of his quarters once again, Markos realizes that it's nearly time to go check up on Beckett. Nerys was right, of course. The rest of the family was overjoyed to finally see Markos after so long. They didn't make him feel awkward, and he didn't feel out of place. The rest of the evening was spent by telling stories about what each family member was doing, playing with the younger children, and spending some 'quality time' with Markos and Nerys. As morning came to the household, Markos and Nerys were sent off by all the family and blessed by the traditional phrase "May you walk with the Prophets."
Perhaps the Prophets had placed Markos here on the Knight for a reason. Although he didn't know if that was true, or why he would be here of all places, somehow it all didn't matter anymore. At last everyone knew who he was. The secrecy was over.
Well, that's enough daydreaming for one day, I better go check up on Ensign Beckett. Who knows what the day will bring with that one on the ship.