
The young Ferengi chuckled and relaxed for the first time in a week. While no words to the effect had
been spoken, Nog knew that no one was entirely sure about whether or not he and Shar could get the
job done. After all, from the time the station was turned over to Bajoran and Starfleet control by the
Cardas-sians, over seven years earlier, the responsibilities of science officer and chief of operations had
belonged, respectively, to Jadzia Dax—a Trill scientist with three centuries' and eight lifetimes' worth of
experi-ence—and Miles O'Brien—aStarfleet veteran of over twenty years. They'd now been replaced
by a recent— albeit brilliant—graduate ofStarfleetAcademyand a junior-grade lieutenant who owed his
rank to battle-field commissions rather than full Academy experi-ence. Nobody had forgotten mat, when
Chief O'Brien first took over, Nog was a child being arrested by Odo for stealing from the assay office.
From the conn position, Tenmei said, "Entering the wormhole."
Nog looked down and made sure that all the ship's systems were within expected parameters for a trip
through the wormhole. Most of the time, they were, but more than one such trip had been fraught with
danger, from Kira and Dr. Bashir's unexpected jaunt to a parallel universe to the aliens who resided in the
wormhole causing an entire Jem'Hadar fleet to van-ish. Nog didn't want something like that to happen to
them now because he was too busy ribbing Shar to notice an anomalous reading.
However, everything seemed to be fine. Nog set the viewscreen on his console to show the wormhole
as they passed through it.
For a long time, Nog had thought of the wormhole solely as the thing that brought Uncle Quark all the
new business. Then it was something they talked about in school occasionally. But he'd never really
looked at it until Jake Sisko dragged him to the cat-walk over the Promenade to watch the wormhole
open and close one afternoon. It was then that he truly started to appreciate it. He hadn't admitted it to
Jake—nor to anyone else—at the time, but it was the most glorious sight he'd ever seen, and he wanted
to know more about it Nog often suspected that that moment, when he found his mind flooded with
ques-tions about the wormhole, was probably the first step on his journey to the Academy and Starfleet.
Studying the wormhole in school didn't prepare him for seeing it, and seeing it didn't remotely pre-pare
him for what it was like to go through it.
His studies told him that the streams of white and silver light were verteron particles and silithium streams
and various other bits of particulate matter, but that only mattered to Nog when duty required it of him.
Times like this, he liked to just sit back and watch the dance of lights as the ship shot through seventy
thou-sand light-years in a matter of minutes.
As they emerged from the Alpha Quadrant mouth of the wormhole into Bajoran space, Shar spoke up,
apparently not willing to let the subject die just yet. "It's actually quite intriguing the way you keep doing
things that don't match the specifications. Especially since you're always right."
Nog chuckled. "Well, notalways.But when I'm wrong, I've gotten very good at making it seem like it
was what I meant to do all along. I met Captain Montgomery Scott recently, and he said something
great." Shar didn't seem impressed by the name-dropping, so Nog added, "You've heard of him, right?"
"Oh, sure, I know Scotty," Shar said.
Nog felt his jaw drop open. "You call him 'Scotty'? I don't think I'd ever have the lobes to do that."