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In the meantime, Tuvok had gone up to the entrance of the cave, estimating the time until sunrise, then returned. He and Sisko had walked in under cover of night, but there was no time for that now.

“You and Selar beam out first,” Sisko instructed him. “Zetha and I will follow.”

Carrying the Romulan transmitter as well as the datachips, Tuvok signaled the transporter on Albatross to beam them in. As the transporter beam engulfed the two Vulcans, Sisko took Zetha’s hands and gently pulled her to her feet. He wrapped his arms around her and she clung to him like a child. Her bones felt as fragile as a bird’s.

Hell, he thought, if I’ve caught the disease, it’s too late to worry about it anyway. And Selar seemed awfully confident none of us had. Guess I’ll know more once we get out of here. Not knowing what else to do or say, he rocked Zetha in his arms until the transporter grabbed them both.

“I was beginning to worry,” Uhura said a short time later as Sisko settled in at the controls and answered her hail. It was a little disconcerting seeing her as just a face on a viewscreen after so long using the fully dimensional holos, but the away team was in a bit of a hurry right now.

“All present and accounted for, Admiral,” Sisko responded as Tuvok locked into the seat beside him. He barely noticed Selar touching the hypo to his arm to draw blood. “We have a lot to tell you.”

“Hold that thought for now,” Uhura said crisply. “There’s a warbird in the vicinity, and Okinawa’s on her way. Curzon Dax is aboard. Okinawa will be looking for you. Rendezvous soonest.”

Sisko didn’t know whether to be elated or alarmed. Having Okinawa come to them meant he’d be reunited with Jennifer and Jake that much sooner, but he was disturbed at their being inside the Zone and potentially in harm’s way.

“Acknowledged,” he said, keeping rein on his thoughts. “Tell Okinawa we’re on our way.

“Easier said than done,” he said to Tuvok as soon as Uhura had signed off. His cough forgotten, the possibility that he might be infected with Catalyst forgotten, his main concern now was how to get the clumsy bird off the ground. “Recommendations, Mr. Tuvok? Tiptoe out the way we came in, or push the afterburners, go up like a rocket, and risk frightening the neighbors and, maybe, signaling our position to a warbird?”

Tuvok had been scanning for any energy displacement that might have been a warbird under cloak. So far, so good.

“I submit we cannot reveal our position to a warbird that is not yet here.”

“Agreed,” Sisko concurred, powering her up full. “Maybe the natives will think it’s just thunder…”

With a shudder and a roar, Albatross took wing.

Selar had gathered serum samples from everyone, Zetha last. The girl lay on her bunk, no longer weeping, but curled up into herself in stony silence.

“I will need your assistance with the next phase of the experiment,” Selar began.

“All those people-!” Zetha whispered hoarsely. “Everywhere I went, I carried it with me. Cretak, the crew of the ship that brought me, Admiral Uhura, Dr. Crusher and her son. Other ‘seeds’ may have started the outbreaks on Tenjin and Quirinus, but I must have brought it again to the domes we visited, the survivors in Sawar, Citizen Jarquin, the Sliwoni when I went into town to steal the adaptor… we wondered how it spread so quickly there…”

“You have not infected anyone,” Selar said. “Of that I am certain.”

Zetha sat up, rubbing the tears off her face with the heels of her hands. “How can you be sure? Thamnos said-“

“As with everything else, Thamnos was incorrect. Admiral Uhura is quite well. She and Lieutenant Sisko were in communication minutes ago. No one else on Earth has been infected.”

This seemed to give Zetha hope. “Then maybe the disease was still… incubating? Perhaps it’s only active now. But still, you and Tuvok and Sisko, even that madwoman on Renaga…”

“Lieutenant Sisko shows no signs of the illness. His cough, I believe, is psychosomatic,” Selar said.

“Psycho-What does that mean?”

“It means, and you did not hear me