Show: Deep Space: Nine Title: The Child Of The Wormhole Author: Charon Style: Slash Rating: PG Dates Written: April 5 to April 6, 2004 Feedback: Would it be too obvious if I said I was a Feedback Ho'? So if you do wanna Feedback, feel free to send said Feedback to kwaigoncainejinn@yahoo.com Codes: G/B Warnings: After much deliberation, I decided to call this a PG rated thing. But if anyone has any disagreement with that and thinks that I should move it up to PG-13 just because it involves the mention of a marriage between a gorgeous male human and an equally gorgeous male Cardassian please feel free to let me know. Episode Spoilers: Nope, not a one, nada, nothing! Disclaimer: Yup, me again, using Paraborg's creations without permission, but I'm afraid if they sue me all they'll get is a huge pile of other fandoms that I've used without permission! :-D Answers Challenge: AU; Use any Faery Tale and re-write it using Garak and Bashir. (Prisca Banks) Author's note: This is based upon an American Indian Fairy Tale called 'The Child Of The Evening Star', and were I to tell you any more you wouldn't need to read the story, but if you refer to the Feedback part of this description you'll find out why I'm going to make you read the story! Ha ha ha! ...unless you don't want to read the story, in which case I'll cry. Complete And Total Fantasy Deep Space Nine The Child of the Wormhole By Charon Started: 04-05-04 Completed: 04-06-04 Based on the American Indian Fairy Tale: The Child of the Evening Star Once upon a time, on the orbiting space station of Terok Nor, there lived a Captain who had ten handsome and beautiful young wards, and they were certainly the most beautiful of any of the races they represented: Bajoran, Trill, Human, and Ferengi, and their intelligence, resourcefulness, and strength were unmatched as far as he was concerned. Thus it was that many suitors came to court them – brave and beautiful young beings straight as a laser beam, fleet as a Runabout, and who could travel from quadrant to quadrant without fatigue. They were the sons and daughters of the stars, wonderful beings who could fly a ship at warp speed without worry of mishap or fear of danger. They could catch a raging Klingon, tame him, marry him, and make him wonder how it happened and why he was happy. There were also those who came from very far galaxies, in small ships that amounted to no more than escape pods, navigated and steered only by the strength of their own minds and hands. All of them brought presents with which they hoped to gain the Captain's favor. Feathers from the Golden Eagles who were brought back from extinction on Terra, furs from the Sehlats of Vulcan, skins from the vicious Gorn, claws of the Vulcan desert predator the Le'matya, gems of many planets, and bars of gold pressed latinum – these and many other things they brought. One by one, the charges were wooed and married, until nine of them had chosen spouses. One by one other quarters around the habitat section of the station were assigned to the wards so that instead of one large, single family dwelling, there were enough little adjoining quarters to almost make up one entire corridor all their own. Food, entertainment, and adventure were plentiful, and life was good. There remained, though, the most frustrating of the Captain's wards, Julian Bashir – the fairest of them all as far as Humans were concerned. Gentle as he was handsome, none was so kind of heart. Unlike the other proud and talkative other wards, Julian was shy and modest and spoke but little. He loved to wander alone in the darkened corridors and the holosuites with no company but the voles and his own thoughts. What these thoughts were one could only guess, but from his dreamy eyes and sweet expression, one could suppose that nothing selfish or mean or hateful ever crossed his mind. Yet, Julian, as modest as he was, had a spirit all his own. More than one suitor found that out. More than one conceited young being, confident that they could win him, went away crestfallen when Julian laughed at them. The truth is Julian seemed hard to please. Suitor after suitor came – handsome, tall young men and women, the handsomest and the bravest in all the Alpha Quadrant. Yet this fawn-eyed male would have none of them. One was too tall, another too short. One was too thin, another too fat. At least, those were the excuses he gave after he sent them away. His proud fellow wards had little patience with him. In their minds, he seemed to question their own taste, for Julian, had he said the word, might have gained a spouse more attractive than any of theirs. Yet no one was good enough for him, and, since none of the others could understand him, they despised him as a silly and unreasonable boy. The Captain too, who loved him dearly and wished him to be happy, was much puzzled. "Tell me, Julian Bashir." He said to him one day. "Is it your wish never to marry? The most beautiful young women, and even the handsomest young men, in, and out of, the quadrant has sought you in marriage and you have sent them all away – often with a poor excuse. Why is that?" Julian looked at him with his large, dark eyes. "Captain Sisko." He said at last. "It's not that I'm willful. But it seems somehow as if I have the power to look into the very hearts of beings. It is the heart of a being and not the face that really matters. And I have not yet found one being who, in this sense, seems really beautiful." Soon after, a strange thing happened. There was discovered on the station a Cardassian named Elim Garak, many years older than Julian. He was naught but a poor tailor, and quite ugly too . . . if the others on the station were to be believed. Yet Julian married him. How the tongues of the others did wag! Had the spoiled little thing lost his mind? They asked. Oh, well! They always knew he would come to a bad end, but it was pretty hard on them as a whole. Of course, they could not know what Julian had seen at once – that Elim Garak had a generous nature and a heart of gold, that beneath his outward ugliness was the beauty of a noble mind and the fire and passion of a poet. That is why Julian loved him. Knowing, too, that Elim Garak needed his care, Julian loved him all the more. Now, although Julian did not suspect it, Elim Garak was really a handsome man on whom an evil spell had been cast. He was, in truth, the godson of Mila, Great Cardassian Intimate to the Prophets of the Wormhole – the stable channel that allows ships to cross from quadrant to quadrant unharmed, whose mouth shows splendorous and glorious colors of every hue of blue imaginable every time it opens. Sometimes, it opened so brightly, that little children would reach out their hands thinking they might catch some of the light before it disappeared into the darkened, spacial skies and be gone forever. Little did the others know that poor, ugly, Cardassian Elim Garak had really lived in that wormhole for a time. And when he too stretched out his arms toward it and murmured words the proud wards could not understand, they all made fun of him. There came a time when a great feast to celebrate peace between the quadrants was prepared on the other side of the Wormhole and Captain Sisko and all of his wards, as well as their spouses, were invited to attend. They set out for the shuttle – the nine proud fellow wards with their spouses walked in front, much pleased with their themselves and their Starfleet dress uniforms and other finery, and all chattered like a flock of some sort of noisy birds. But Julian walked behind them in silence, and next to him walked Elim Garak. The proud ones wanted as many beings to see them as possible, and they traversed corridor after corridor on the station, some of them none of the others had ever walked before. While they were in one of the darker corridors, the Wormhole opened up and its light bathed them. Elim Garak stretched his hands out to the light, as if he implored some kind of pity. But when the others saw him, they all made merry, laughed, joked, and made very unkind remarks. "Instead of looking at the wormhole." Said one. "He had better be looking at the ground. Or else he may stumble and break his neck." She grinned back at him, and she continually mocked him as they came to a large pipe in the middle of the corridor. It was a very large, obviously very old pipe that had innumerable years worth of with moss, lichens, and other fungus on it, and, for some reason, either end bore a metal door. "Look out! Here's a big pipe with closed doors on either end! Do you think you can manage to climb over it?" Elim Garak did not answer, but when he came to the pipe, he paused again. There was one thing about the pipe that the others hadn't noticed. One of the pipe's doors was open a crack, and the other hung slightly off one hinge, while the pipe itself was big enough around for a man to walk inside from one end to the other. But Elim Garak didn't pause because he was unable to climb over it. There was something mysterious and magical in the appearance of the old pipe . . . at least to him. He gazed at it a long time, as if he had seen it in once in a dream and had looked for it ever since. "What is it Elim?" Julian asked, as he touched his spouse on the arm. "Do you see something I can't?" But Elim only shouted aloud, and it echoed through the corridors as he pushed one of the doors off it's hinges and leapt into the pipe. Then, as Julian, a little alarmed, waited for him, a man came out of the other end. Could this be Elim Garak!? Yes, it was he, but how transformed! No longer bent, ailing, and ugly, but a beautiful Cardassian – vigorous, straight, and tall. His enchantment was at an end. But the evil spell had not been wholly lifted, after all. As Elim approached Julian, he saw that a great change had taken place in his loved one. Julian's glossy black hair had turned white, deep wrinkles lined his face, he walked with a feeble step, and leaned weakly on what had been Elim's staff. Although Elim Garak had regained his regal stature and beauty, Julian had suddenly grown old. "Oh my dearest one!" Elim Garak cried. "The Wormhole has mocked me in letting this misfortune come upon you. Better far had I remained as I was. Gladly would I have borne the insults and laughter of your friends rather than you should be made to suffer!" "As long as you love me." Answered Julian. "I am perfectly content. If I had the choice to make, and only one of us could be young or fair, it is you that I would wish to be beautiful." Elim Garak took his Julian into his arms and caressed him as he vowed that he loved him more than ever for his goodness of heart. And together they walked hand in hand as lovers do. When the proud wards saw what had happened they could scarcely believe their eyes. They looked enviously at Elim Garak, who was now far handsomer than any of their spouses and far superior in every other way as well. In his eyes shone the palest blue light of the Wormhole, and when he spoke all beings turned to listen. But the hard-hearted others had no pity for Julian. Indeed, it rather pleased them to see that he could no longer dim their own beauty and that knew that no other being would ever sing his praises into their jealous ears. The wards and their spouses finally made it into the shuttle and flew through the Wormhole to where the feast was held. All made merry except for Elim Garak. He sat like one in a dream, and didn't eat or drink. From time to time he pressed Julian's hand and spoke a word of comfort in his ear. But for the most part he gazed through the door of the feasting hall at the darkened night sky. Soon a silence fell on all the company. From out of the night, from the dark, mysterious surroundings of the planet that no one in the contingent had ever been to before, came the sound of music – a low, sweet music that was like, yet unlike, the song by the Vulcan lyres played in twilight. It was magical music such as none had ever heard, and it came, as it seemed, from a great distance, and it rose and fell through the quiet night. All those at the feast wondered as they listened. And well they might! For what to them was only music was to Elim Garak a voice that he understood, a voice from the sky itself, the voice from a loved one in the Wormhole. These were the words that he heard: "Suffer no more, for the evil spell is broken and hereafter no Gul or Legate shall work you harm. Suffer no more. For the time has come when you shall leave the ground and dwell here with me in the heavens. Before you is a dish on which the light of the Prophets has fallen, and they have blessed it and given it a magic virtue. Eat of this dish, Elim Garak, and all will be well." So, Elim Garak tasted the food before him, and behold! The hall that he and the Terok Nor gathering were assembled in trembled, and rose slowly up into the air; up, up above the treetops – up, up toward the stars. As it rose, the things within it were wondrously changed. The kettles became bowls of silver, the wooden dishes were giant shells, while the thatched roof and the walls that supported it were transformed into some glittering kind of metal. Higher and higher it rose, and as it did, the nine wards and their spouses were changed into beautifully plumed birds of each planet they represented: Bajor, Trill, Earth, Klingon, and Ferengi. Elim Garak gazed at Julian. Would he, too, change into a bird and be lost to him? The very thought of it made him bow his head with grief. Suddenly, as Elim Garak looked at Julian, he saw that the human's beauty was miraculously restored, while the colors of his garments were of such astounding colors that they could only have come from where the dyes of rainbows were made. Again the hall swayed and trembled as the currents of the air bore it higher and higher, into and above the clouds. Up, up, up – until at last it entered the Wormhole itself. Elim Garak and Julian caught all the birds and put them in a great silver cage where they seemed quite content in each other's company. Scarcely was this done when Elim Garak's godmother, the Great Mila, came to greet them. She was attired in a long, flowing robe, and her long white hair flowed about her shoulders. "Welcome." She said. "My dear children. Welcome to the reward that has always awaited you. The trials you have passed through have been bitter, but you have borne them bravely and now you will be rewarded for all your courage and devotion. Here you will live happily. Yet of one thing you must beware." She pointed to a little winking light in the distance – a little winking light that was hidden from time to time by a cloud of vapor. "In that light." She continued. "Lives an evil Gul named Enabran Tain. He has the power to dart his evil, like so many rays, at those he wishes to injure. He has always been my enemy. It was he who changed Elim Garak into an old man and cast him through to Terok Nor. Be careful that his light does not fall upon you. Luckily, his power for evil has been greatly weakened, for the friendly Prophets have come to my assistance and formed a screen through which his rays cannot penetrate." The happy pair fell on their knees before her and kissed her hands in gratitude. "But these birds." Said Elim Garak, as he rose and pointed to the cage. "Are they also the work of Tain?" "No." Answered Mila. "It was my own power, the power of love, that caused your hall to become a ship and that bore you hither. It was likewise by my power that the envious wards and their spouses were transformed into birds. Because they hated you and mocked you, and were so cruel and scornful to the weak and the old, I have done this thing. It is not so great a punishment as they deserve. However, here, in the silver cage, they will be happy enough, proud of their handsome plumage, and they can strut and twitter to their hearts' content. Hang the cage there, at the doorway to my, for want of a better word, dwelling. They shall be well cared for." Thus it was that Elim Garak and Julian came to live with the Prophets and the Great Mila in the Wormhole, and as the years passed by, the little winking light where Tain lived, grew pale and paler and dimmer and dimmer until it quite lost its power to harm. Meanwhile too, a little son was born to Elim Garak and Julian, and he made their happiness even more perfect that it was. He was a charming little boy with the dark, dreamy eyes of Julian and the strength and courage of Elim Garak. It was a wonderful place for a little boy to live – close to the stars and the planets, between the quadrants, the skies so near they seemed a kind of curtain for his bed, and all the glory of the Wormhole that was before his tiny eyes. Sometimes, however, he was lonely and wondered what Terok Nor was like – the space station where his parents had come from. Sometimes when the Wormhole opened and if he tried really hard, he could see it, and it looked no bigger than an orange to him. And sometimes he stretched out his hands toward it, exactly as the children did on Terok Nor who stretched their arms out toward the Wormhole. His father had made him a small phaser, and this was a great delight to him. But still, he was lonely, and wondered what the little boys and girls were doing on Terok Nor, and whether they would be nice to play with. His Parent Julian had told him many stories of that strange, faraway station, with its corridors of metal, its multitude of different sounds, smells, and tastes, and the beings of many different races. Terok Nor must be a good place, he thought, with so many beings living on it. The birds, too, in the great silver cage had come from Terok Nor he was told. And there were thousands just like them, as well as others even more beautiful on the thousands of other planets that surrounded the station and that were on either side of the Wormhole. What wonderful birds they must be! Sometimes, he sat near the cage, and tried to understand the language of the feathered creatures inside. One day a strange idea came into his head. He would open the door of the cage and let them out. Then they would fly to Terok Nor and perhaps they would take him with them. When his parents missed him they would be sure to follow him there, and then . . . He could not quite see just how it ended. But he found himself quite close to the cage, and the first thing he knew he had opened the door and let out all the birds. Round and round they flew. And now he was half sorry, and a little afraid as well. If the birds flew back to Terok Nor and left him there, in the Wormhole, what would his Prophet-Mother say? "Come back, come back!" He called. But the birds only flew around him in circles and paid no attention to him. At any moment they might wing their way to Terok Nor and he'd be left behind. "Come back, I tell you!" He cried as he stamped his tiny foot and waved his little phaser. "Come back, I say, or I'll shoot you!" Then, as they would not obey him, he aimed his phaser, and let loose a shot. So well did he aim, that the light ray sped through the plumage of a bird, and feathers fell all around. The bird itself was a little stunned, but not much hurt, and it fell to the floor. A tiny trickle of blood stained the ground where it lay, but, suddenly, right before his little eyes, the bird it was no longer a bird. Instead there stood in its place a beautiful young woman. Now, no one who has ever lived in the Wormhole was ever permitted to shed blood, whether it was that of a man, beast, or bird. So, when the few drops fell upon the floor, the boy suddenly sank slowly downward, held up by invisible hands, and he grew ever closer to Terok Nor. Soon, he saw the tall spires as they rose up and surrounded the station, he saw the ships of the other planets his Parent Julian had told him about, connected to the spires, and he saw the windows of the station as they glinted in the light of the opened Wormhole. At last, he finally sank into the station itself and rested in what his Parent Julian had called an airlock. He looked up into the sky, and watched as the ship he had lived in, in the Wormhole as it slowly descended to the station as well. Down it softly drifted until, just as the other ships had, it connected to the station. The airlock opened, and there stood Julian and Elim Garak – returned to Terok Nor, to live once more among the beings there. They had been charged by the Prophets of the Wormhole themselves, to teach the beings on the station how to live, for they had learned many things in their life in the Wormhole and the beings of Terok Nor would be better for that knowledge. And, as the three of them, Elim Garak, Julian, and their little son, stood in the Promenade of Terok Nor, all the enchanted birds fluttered in from the airlock. As each one touched down, the birds changed. But they didn't change into the proud beings they had been. No, they changed into beings of legend from each of their various planets – and all were happy, mysterious beings who were from then on seen by only a few as they capered about the station in the darkest corners. In fact, it was only the janitors and other kinds of beings who worked very late on the station who would catch glimpses of them as they danced in the light of the Wormhole whenever it opened. THE END!