Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Soul Key by Olivia Woods Page A

to me? Where did I go?”
    “You didn’t go anywhere,” Shing-kur told her. “You just…froze where you were sitting for a few minutes. You didn’t blink. I’m not sure if you were even breathing.”
    Iliana jerked her hands away from Shing-kur and stumbled away from the table. She forced herself to look again at the artifact on her wrist, but the Orb fragment now seemed as inert as any ordinary piece of jewelry.
    “She’s coming for me,” Iliana whispered.
    “Who?”
    Iliana felt her panic slowly giving way to anger. “This place…this place needs to go on high alert, effective immediately,” she said.
    The vermilion in Shing-kur’s eyes intensified. “What?”
    “Tell our people! There’s a dangerous Cardassian woman on her way to Harkoum, an assassin. Put a bounty on her head, promise them anything—just make sure everyone knows she has to be stopped before she gets anywhere near Grennokar!”
    Iliana paused, glancing at her palm again. “I have to make my move,” she told the Kressari. “You have to put pressure on the Intendant, Shing. Tell her she’s running out of time, that it has to be soon.”
    Shing-kur’s eyes had yet to change to a calmer hue, but she didn’t question her orders—even though she must have known they meant that she and Iliana would necessarily be parting ways sooner than planned.
    “I’ll take care of it,” the Kressari promised. “But then I want you to tell me exactly who is coming after you, and how you know about it. Will you do that for me?”
    Iliana nodded. It didn’t even occur to her to refuse. It was first time Shing-kur had asked her for anything. And it would likely be the last.
    “What about Taran’atar?” asked Shing-kur.
    Iliana smiled. “It’s time we brought him home.”

PART TWO
DEEP SPACE 9

4
    G hemor ran through the Habitat Ring, on the hunt.
    It was clear to her that her target was taking steps not to be found. Maybe he knew she was on him, maybe he didn’t, but his movements through the station during the last fifteen minutes were decidedly evasive. Back on Terok Nor, this wouldn’t have been a problem. But the very limited access she’d been permitted to the labyrinthine recesses of Deep Space 9—however familiar this station seemed—meant that she needed to find her target before he found refuge in some part of the station that had been denied to her.
    Instead, he found her.
    “Is there something you want from me, Ms. Ghemor?”
    Iliana shook her head and turned, momentarily unable to believe that he had out-hounded her. It wasn’t the sort of skill she’d expected from a human.
    “How did you do that?”
    Benjamin Sisko arched a nearly nonexistent eyebrow at her from the jutting bulkhead against which he’d concealed himself. “I picked up a few tricks over the years from a Cardassian who used to live here. He was good.”
    “He’d have to be,” Ghemor said.
    Sisko stepped out into the corridor. “Now do you mind telling me why you’ve been following me around the station?”
    “I wanted to talk to you.”
    “That much I’d gathered. What about?”
    “When we were in ops earlier, Captain Kira was ready to take me back to my universe, to help my people against my counterpart. Commander Vaughn changed her mind, convinced her to take him instead. I want to know why.”
    Sisko shrugged. “You’ll have to ask Commander Vaughn.”
    As if that were an option now! “I’m asking you, sir.”
    “I’m afraid I can’t help you, Ms. Ghemor,” Sisko said as he started to walk away.
    “You mean you won’t help me,” Ghemor countered.
    Sisko stopped and looked at her.
    “I saw the look Vaughn gave you before he beamed out,” she continued. “I’m well trained at reading people’s faces. He was acting at your behest. So I’ll ask you again: Why?”
    “Let me ask you something, Ms. Ghemor. Why this sudden preoccupation with returning to your universe? Considering all the trouble you went to to get here, you seem