by Ted Pedersen
A BLAST TO THE PAST!
Jake Sisko is wondering where life will take him next … and the answer is the past!
Chief O’Brien has promised to deliver a gift to a physicist, Professor Jonathan Vance, and Jake and Nog are allowed to accompany him to France. Vance show them his “time machine”, the first one ever to control time jumps with accuracy. When his assistant, Kruger, attacks him and steals the control device, Jake, Nog and O’Brien leap through the portal after him. They find themselves in Normandy, France, in 1944 during the middle of World War II. With Kruger joining the ranks of the Third Reich as a colonel, history is about to be changed forever. Can they stop Kruger from informing Hitler that a secret invasion will happen in Normandy?
Cover art by Alan Gutierrez
Interior Illustrations by Todd Cameron Hamilton
“He’s opening the portal!”
Directly behind where Professor Vance was standing, Jake saw the temporal portal materialize—first as a small pulsating dot that hung in midair, then rapidly expanding until it became a human-sized rectangle.
The portal flickered for a moment, but the Changeling Vance adjusted the remote device, and the portal stabilized. “Now I have the only key that unlocks the door to the past.”
With that, he turned and stepped into the portal.
And then he was gone.
“Where’s he going?” Jake asked.
“Wherever it is, we’ve got to stop him!” Nog yelled, running toward the portal.
“Nog! Wait!” Jake shouted. But it was too late. The Ferengi had already entered the vortex.
Jake hesitated only a moment. The portal was shrinking. It would close in another moment—with Nog and the Changeling trapped on the other side. Jake had no idea where he was about to go, but he knew he couldn’t desert his best friend. He ran into the vortex—and vanished.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Cover art by Alan Gutierrez
Interior illustrations by Todd Cameron Hamilton
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To Brandy and all her friends
STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE
Cast of Characters
JAKE SISKO—Jake is a young teenager and the only human boy permanently on board Deep Space Nine. Jake’s mother died when he was very young. He came to the space station with his father but found very few kids his own age. He doesn’t remember life on Earth, but he loves baseball and candy bars, and he hates homework. His father doesn’t approve of his friendship with Nog.
NOG—He is a Ferengi boy whose primary goal in life—like all Ferengi—is to make money. His father, Rom, is frequently away on business, which is fine with Nog. His uncle, Quark, keeps an eye on him. Nog thinks humans are odd with their notions of trust and favors and friendship. He doesn’t always understand Jake, but since his father forbids him to hang out with the human boy, Nog and Jake are best friends. Nog loves to play tricks on people, but he tries to avoid Odo whenever possible.
COMMANDER BENJAMIN SISKO—Jake’s father has been appointed by Starfleet Command to oversee the operations of the space station and act as a liaison between the Federation and Bajor. His wife was killed in a Borg attack, and he is raising Jake by himself. He is a very busy man who always tries to make time for his son.
ODO—The security officer was found by Bajoran scientists years ago, but Odo has no idea where he originally came from. He is a shape-shifter, and thus can assume any shape for a period of time. He normally maintains a vaguely human appearance but every sixteen hours he must revert to his natural liquid state. He has no patience for lawbreakers and less for Ferengi.
MAJOR KIRA NERYS—Kira was a freedom fighter in the Bajoran underground during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor. She now represents Bajoran interests aboard the station and is Sisko’s first officer. Her temper is legendary.
LIEUTENANT JADZIA DAX—An old friend of Commander Sisko’s, the science officer Dax is actually two joined entities known as the Trill. There is a separate consciousness—a symbiont—in the young female host’s body. Sisko knew the symbiont Dax in a previous host, which was a “he.”
DR. JULIAN BASHIR—Eager for adventure, Doctor Bashir graduated at the top of his class and requested a deep-space posting. His enthusiasm sometimes gets him into trouble.
MILES O’BRIEN—Formerly the Transporter Chief aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, O’Brien is now Chief of Operations on Deep Space Nine.
KEIKO O’BRIEN—Keiko was a botanist on the Enterprise, but she moved to the station with her husband and her young daughter, Molly. Since there is little use for her botany skills on the station, she is the teacher for all of the permanent and traveling students.
QUARK—Nog’s uncle and a Ferengi businessman by trade, Quark runs his own co
mbination restaurant/casino/holosuite venue on the Promenade, the central meeting place for much of the activity on the station. Quark has his hand in every deal on board and usually manages to stay just one step ahead of the law—usually in the shape of Odo.
Historian’s note: The events of this series take place during the first and second seasons of the Deep Space Nine television show.
PROLOGUE
Deep Space Nine, Alpha Quadrant
Just talking to them makes me feel guilty,” Jake Sisko said while waiting anxiously in the commander’s office on the Ops deck of Deep Space Nine.
“Don’t worry about it, Jake. They’re only here because a report has to be filed. Nog will be going through the same process back at Starfleet Academy.” This calm reassurance from his father, Captain Benjamin Sisko, commander of the Bajoran space station, did little to quiet the butterflies in Jake’s stomach.
Jake knew there was nothing to worry about, but the prospect of being interrogated by the Department of Temporal Investigations was still emotionally unsettling. He should be feeling like a hero, but instead he was acting like a kid about to face the principal for disciplining.
“Relax,” the elder Sisko said. “This will all be over in less than an hour.”
At that moment, Sisko’s commbadge chirped. “Yes?” he said in response.
“They’re here,” answered the voice of Major Kira Nerys, the Bajoran liaison to the station and Sisko’s second-in-command.
“Send them in.”
Jake watched the door to the office slide open and two of the most straightlaced, expressionless Starfleet officers he had ever seen enter. They looked as if they had been cloned from the same mold.
“I am Dulmur,” the slightly taller one on the right said. “This is Lusly,” he added, indicating his partner. They both took seats without waiting to be invited and opened their identical thin black briefcases.
“Welcome to Deep Space Nine,” Sisko said. “If there is anything—”
“We would like to talk to the subject in private,” Dulmur interrupted.
“I’d like my father to stay,” Jake said.
“If that’s all right,” Sisko quickly added.
The two temporal policemen exchanged expressionless glances. “No. it’s not all right,” Lusly said.
“Standard operating procedures. No one not personally involved in the temporal displacement is allowed to be present during debriefing.”
“But I am his father, as well as commander of this station,” Sisko argued.
“I’m afraid in this situation we outrank you,” Dulmur said flatly.
Sisko was about to argue, then looked over at Jake, thought better of it, and smiled. “I’ll be in Ops if you need me.” He patted his son’s shoulder and left.
When the door had closed behind Sisko, the two temporal policemen turned their full attention to Jake. “In your own words, tell us exactly what happened.”
“It will take some time,” Jake said.
Lusly looked at Dulmur. “Why do they always say that?”
“Perhaps an attempt at humor,” Dulmur said.
Then he looked at Jake and almost smiled. “We have all the time in the world. Please begin.”
Jake began to tell his story, “It started on Earth, right after the Changeling threat and the near takeover of the Federation by a radical group of Starfleet officers.”
“We’re well aware of the failed coup by Admiral Leyton,” Dulmur said.
“What we want to know about are the events that happened afterward,” Lusly added.
“I’m getting to that,” Jake said. “If you’ll let me.”
“Sorry,” Dulmur said. “Please continue.”
“I guess the best place to start is in New Orleans, at Grandpa Joe’s restaurant. It was the weekend, and I was having lunch with Nog….”
CHAPTER 1
Earth, New Orleans, Three Weeks Earlier
Your grandfather serves the best tube grubs on Earth,” Nog said, munching down the wriggling morsels with obvious relish.
“He serves the only tube grubs on Earth,” Jake replied, doing his best to look away while his Ferengi friend crunched on his lunch. Nog might be his best friend, but Jake was still uncomfortable with Ferengi eating habits. “Careful not to get any of those on your uniform.”
Nog wore a freshly replicated Starfleet Academy cadet uniform and was being extremely careful to keep it that way. It was apparent that being in Starfleet, even though he was only halfway through his first semester, had made quite an impact on Nog. He seemed a lot more grown-up.
But then, Jake thought, they were both older and wiser since those early days on Deep Space Nine when Nog was always getting into trouble and Jake was the straightlaced son of the station’s commander.
Fraternizing with a Ferengi was something Jake’s father had firmly opposed. Nog’s father held the same low opinion about Nog’s association with the human boy Jake. But being the only kids of their age on the station, it was only natural that they would start to pal around together.
In the beginning they hung together as a form of rebellion against their fathers, but it didn’t take long for them to become real friends. Over the years their friendship had grown, and now both fathers reluctantly admitted that the two boys had been good for each other.
Which was why Jake had been both sad and happy when Nog sold off his childhood possessions—as Ferengi do to raise capital when they are about to embark on their life’s career—and left the space station to attend Starfleet Academy on Earth.
Deep Space Nine was an isolated island in the Bajoran star system, and without someone Jake could share his experiences with, it shrank even more.
While Nog hit the books, or whatever it was that first-year cadets did at the Academy, Jake found himself spending less time in the Promenade and more time hunched over his PADD. The adventures the two boys had shared became grist for Jake’s burgeoning writing career.
“So what new story are you into now?” Nog asked, swallowing the last squiggling tube grub. “Going to write about how I saved Earth from the Changelings?”
“My father and Odo did that,” Jake replied.
“With my help. I was the one who made them realize the plot was actually coming from inside Starfleet.”
“You did help,” Jake had to admit. “But there are still Changelings on Earth.”
“Only one or two,” came a deep voice with an Irish brogue from behind them.
They turned to find Deep Space Nine’s chief of engineering, Miles O’Brien, standing there. Like Jake, O’Brien had remained behind on Earth while the rest of the station’s contingent, including his father, had returned. O’Brien was overseeing repairs to the Defiant and would take the starship back to Deep Space Nine when they were complete. Jake would return with him.
But first, there was another mission to be accomplished. O’Brien had promised to deliver something to one of Jadzia Dax’s former teachers who was working on an advanced physics research project in France. He invited Jake and Nog to come along—an offer they readily accepted.
“I can’t wait to see Paris,” Jake said.
“We’ll beam over there as soon as I eat,” O’Brien said, sitting down. “I’ve heard your grandfather serves the best Cajun crawfish in New Orleans.”
“I won’t deny that.” Jake’s grandfather, Joseph Sisko, had come out of the kitchen with a platter of grits for the next table. He smiled at the trio as he passed. Jake loved his grandfather, who was well into his seventies but moved with the energy and enthusiasm of a man half his age, but he hated it when the old man put him to work in the kitchen.
Although he enjoyed preparing meals for himself and his father on Deep Space Nine, Jake was of the opinion that cooking without a replicator was something they did back in the Dark Ages.
“Cooking is not something to be relegated to machines,” his grandfather argued. “It needs a human touch.”
That human touch usually meant Ja
ke ended up chopping vegetables in the restaurant’s kitchen or waiting tables, neither of which made his list of the top ten things to do while on Earth. But going to Paris, now that was another matter.
“I’ve been reading up on France,” Nog said. “It sounds really interesting.”
“It is,” Jake said. “They call Paris the City of Light. Artists and poets from all over the Federation still go there for inspiration.”
“I’m afraid we won’t be there long enough for much inspiration,” O’Brien said. “I’m just going as a favor to Dax. Promised to deliver this bonsai tree from Iszm in person to her old Starfleet professor, Jonathan Vance.”
“I’ve heard of him,” Nog said. “He used to teach advanced spatial physics at the Academy, until he left to do research on temporal anomalies. He’s a brilliant scientist.”
“I suspect he is,” O’Brien said as he tasted his crawfish breakfast. “Me, I’m more of a tinkerer than a thinker.”
Jake looked at the tiny tree that was Dax’s gift to her former Starfleet mentor. Or one of her mentors. Dax was a Trill who had shared the lives of eight hosts—Jadzia being the most recent—so she/he probably had several mentors in past lives.
The tree was a miniature oak from the planet Iszm, which was famous throughout the quadrant for its exotic plants.O’Brien carried the tree in a small translucent stasis field. While the oaks on Iszm grew to massive proportions under the planet’s light gravity, this oak was barely nine inches-tall. Yet it was perfect in every way and had the gnarled look of a tree that had lived for generations.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” O’Brien said, with the same admiring tone Jake had heard him use when describing a well-running turbo generator. “I was going to clone it in the replicator for Keiko, but she said it was unique and shouldn’t be artificially duplicated.”
“A wise decision,” Joseph Sisko said as he joined them. “There are things that aren’t meant to be replicated.”
