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The Visitor

( rain pattering )

( thunder rumbling )

( door chimes )

May I help you?

I'm sorry to bother you.

I just, um... been...

You're hurt.

Yeah, I must have scraped myself on a branch.

Ah, that's what happens when you go tromping around the bayou in the middle of the night.

Come on, warm yourself up by the fire.

Now, I have a first aid kit around here somewhere.

Where is it?

So, what are you doing out here anyway?

I'm a writer.

At least I want to be.

And the truth is...

I was looking for you.

Oh?

You are Jake Sisko, the writer?

Yes.

I can't believe I'm really here... talking to you.

You are my favorite author of all time.

You should read more.

I mean it.

Your books, they're so... insightful.

I'm glad you like them.

There.

Good as new.

Thank you.

I didn't realize people still read my books.

Of course they do.

A friend recommended Anslem to me, and I read it straight through twice in one night.

Twice in one night?

It made me want to read everything you'd ever written, but when I looked, all I could find was your Collected Stories.

I couldn't believe it.

I'd finally found someone whose writing I really admired, and he'd only published two books.

Not much to show for a life's work, is it?

I'm going to go get us some tea.

I savored those stories.

I read them slowly, one each day, and when I was done,

I wished I hadn't read them at all.

So I could read them again like it was the first time.

There's only one first time for everything, isn't there?

And only one last time, too.

You think about such things when you get to be my age.

That today may be the last time you sit in your favorite chair or watch the rain fall or enjoy a cup of tea by a warm fire.

Can I ask you something?

Of course.

Why did you stop writing?

I lost my favorite pen, and I couldn't get any work done without it.

You're joking.

You weren't even 40 when you stopped writing.

I never understood why you gave it up.

It's a long story.

I have time.

Tell me.

Please.

If you had shown up yesterday or the day before or a week ago,

I would have said no and sent you on your way, but here you are, today of all days, and somehow it seems like the right time for me to finally tell this story.

It begins many years ago.

I was 18, and the worst thing that could happen to a young man happened to me.

My father died.

We were very close, my father and I, partly because we'd lost my mother several years earlier.

I know.

I read a biography about you.

It said that you stopped writing so you could conduct scientific research.

Ah, it's not quite that simple.

You see, just before my father died,

I was working on a short story.

I don't remember what it was about, but I do know that I was taking it very seriously.

I worked on it night and day for weeks, and I wasn't making any headway.

It was making me miserable.

I suppose my father saw that I needed a break,

because he insisted

I come with him to the Gamma Quadrant

to watch the wormhole undergo

what they call "a subspace inversion."

Jake-o, let's go.

Of course, what he didn't realize

was that I could hide away on the Defiant

just as easily as I could on the station.

( door chimes )

Yeah?

Jake, this only happens once every 50 years.

You will never forgive yourself if you miss it.

Yeah, I'll be right there.

Well, that's what you said ten minutes ago.

I just want to get this last paragraph right.

I thought you were going to put that aside for a while.

I tried, but it's all I can think about.

Well... I'm no writer, but if I were, it seems to me I'd want to poke my head up every once in a while and take a look around, see what's going on.

It's life, Jake.

You can miss it if you don't open your eyes.

Now... what do you say you come up to the Bridge with me and we'll watch the wormhole do its thing.

And then I'll read what you've got, and we'll talk about it.

Deal?

Deal.

( alarm blaring )

Sisko to Bridge.

What happened?

The wormhole's gravimetric field is surging.

SISKO: Pull us to a safe distance.

I'm on it, Benjamin, but we've got another problem.

The power output from the warp core just jumped off the scale.

Sisko to Engineering.

Engineering, report.

Dax, I'm going to see what's going on down there.

Stay here, Jake.

OLD JAKE: Most of the time, I knew enough

to do what my father told me,

but that day, for some reason, I didn't.

Sisko to Sick Bay.

I need a medical team down here right away.

Dax to Sisko.

The warp coils are locked into a feedback loop.

You've got to realign them or the core is going to blow.

I'm on it!

Jake, I need an interphasic compensator.

COMPUTER: Warning. Warp core breach in 40 seconds.

Dax, better stand by to eject the core.

DAX: We can't.

The ejection system's off line.

Jake, where's that compensator?

It's not here!

COMPUTER: Warning. Warp core breach in 30 seconds.

Got it.

I'm going to try shunting the excess power out through the deflector array.

COMPUTER: Warning. Warp core breach in 20 seconds.

Just a little more.

There.

( yells )

No!

He was gone.

I'm not sure I could ever get over losing somebody like that right in front of my eyes.

People do.

Time passes, and they realize that the person they lost is really gone... and they heal.

Is that what happened to you?

No.

I suppose not.

There was a memorial service aboard the station.

People came forward and talked about my father--

what they remembered most about him

and why they would miss him.

Benjamin Sisko was more than my commanding officer.

He was the Emissary to my people sent by the Prophets, but most importantly, he was my friend.

OLD JAKE: I didn't step forward.

I couldn't.

I felt that no matter what I said about him,

I'd be leaving so much more out,

and that didn't seem right.

I'd never felt more alone in all my life.

Everyone went out of their way to look after me,

especially Dax.

She was my father's closest friend,

and I guess she felt responsible for me.

After a few months, things started returning to normal...

for everyone else, that is.

Jake, I'm almost done.

We have Holosuite 3 for half an hour.

Great.

Nog, get down to the storeroom and bring up five kegs of Takarian mead.

Yes, Uncle.

Sorry, looks like we're going to lose our holosuite reservation.

Uh, you know, Nog, things seem to be slowing down a bit.

I'll get someone else to bring up those kegs.

You and Jake go and have some fun.

Are you sure?

Go now, before I change my mind.

Next time we go ion surfing, remind me to keep clear of those whip curls.

I don't know if I really want to try it again.

You know, Jake, I'm going to be gone soon.

We probably won't see each other for a while.

I know.

So, what are your plans?

Well, I was thinking of taking that deferred admission and going to Pennington in the fall.

Ah, that would be great!

We'd both be on Earth together.

But maybe I'll just stick around here.

I don't know. I haven't decided yet.

It's late.

I think I'll turn in.

Okay.

( electric crackling )

( whooshing )

Jake.

Dad?

What happened?

( whooshing )

I told Dax about what had happened-- how it felt so real, not like a dream at all.

And she very kindly obliged me and did a very thorough scan of my room.

I felt vaguely ridiculous, like a child insisting his parents check under the bed for monsters.

She tried to tell me it was probably just a nightmare, and I did my best to put the entire episode out of my mind.

I puttered around the station for the next eight or nine months.

Nog was off at Starfleet.

My stories stubbornly refused to write themselves.

I filled my time playing dom-jot and tried not to think about how alone I really felt.

Dax and the others were worried about me,

but before long, they had bigger things to worry about.

Tensions with the Klingons were continuing to rise.

My father was a kind of religious figure

to the Bajoran people, and when he died,

they took it as a sign from the Prophets

that the Federation wouldn't be able

to protect them from the Klingons.

Eventually, Bajor entered into a mutual defense pact

with the Cardassians,

and the Klingons didn't like that at all.

The station's civilian population

was leaving en masse.

They knew that if war broke out against the Klingons,

Deep Space 9 was going to be on the front line.

KIRA: Jake.

Where are you going?

I, uh, I thought I'd watch the ships leave from one of the Upper Pylons.

You should be on one of those ships.

( sighs )

I don't have to go, do I?

No.

It's a voluntary resettlement, not an evacuation.

But it would be prudent that you leave at this time.

OLD JAKE: I suppose I wasn't feeling

very prudent that day,

because I ignored their advice.

KIRA: Jake...

I wanted to talk to you about something.

I spoke with your grandfather, and he told me that he asked you to go live with him.

( sighing )

Even if this sector weren't on the brink of war,

I would like to see you leave this station.

I'm not going anywhere.

Oh, Jake...

I could order you to go if I wanted to.

Please don't make me leave.

Not yet.

This is my home.

When my dad and I came here, this place was just an abandoned shell.

He turned it into something.

Everywhere I look, it's like I see a part of him.

If I leave...

I won't have anything left of him.

Oh... all right.

You stay a while longer if you want to, but you have to promise me, when the time comes and I tell you to go, you'll do it.

( whooshing )

Dad?

It wasn't until I actually touched him

that I knew this wasn't a dream.

But something was wrong.

I didn't understand everything they were saying,

but Dax and the others seemed to think that the accident

had somehow knocked my father's temporal signature

out of phase.

Benjamin, what's the last thing you remember?

I was in Engineering, on the Defiant.

It feels like a few minutes ago.

Dad, it's been over a year since the accident.

A year?

How could that be?

O'BRIEN: We think the warp core discharge pulled you into subspace.

If we're right, that would explain why you didn't experience the passage of time.

According to these readings, unless we can realign your temporal signature, you'll be pulled back into subspace again within the next few minutes.

Maybe we can set up some sort of containment field.

Jake, they'll have me fixed up in no time.

How are you doing?

It's all right.

Everything's going to be all right.

I thought it was a dream.

What was?

When I, uh, when I saw you in my quarters,

I, uh... I should have felt you were alive.

I should have known it.

It's not your fault, Jake.

I'm here now.

That's what matters.

DAX: We're losing him.

Look at me.

I need to know you're going to be all right.

O'BRIEN: His temporal signature is fluctuating.

I need that containment field now, Chief.

O'BRIEN: Right away.

Field active.

It's not working.

Jake...

Dad!

O'BRIEN: Going to try locking on to him with the transporter beam.

Don't leave me!

( whispers ): Don't leave me.

I didn't think anything could be worse than losing him that first time on the Defiant, until I was standing there, staring down at his empty bed, knowing he was alive, yet trapped somewhere that existed outside of time.

I can't imagine what that must have been like for you.

( gasping )

Can I get you something?

No... nothing.

Telling me all this is hard for you.

Maybe I should come back some other time.

No. There won't be any other time.

You see...

I'm dying.

You must understand that when a person my age says he's dying, he's only admitting to the inevitable.

Besides, we old people need to remind everyone to pay special attention to us.

If that's what you're up to, you shouldn't have bothered.

You have my attention already.

You're a good listener.

That's important in a writer.

I'm not a writer yet.

Sounds like you're waiting for something to happen that's going to turn you into one.

I'm not waiting.

I'm doing a lot of reading, you know, to see how it's done, and I'm still trying to figure out what it is I want to write about.

I see.

So what happened?

With your father, I mean.

Did you ever see him again?

For the next few months,

Dax and O'Brien tried to find a way to locate him.

They even considered recreating the accident, but that was impossible since the wormhole wasn't going to undergo an inversion for decades.

Eventually the situation with the Klingons came to a head, and the Federation decided to turn over control of the station to the Klingon Empire.

There was nothing I could do.

I had to leave my home of five years

and give up whatever hope there was

of seeing my father again.

Did the Klingons ever contact Starfleet to say that your father had reappeared?

No.

I was left with no choice but to try and get on with my life.

I went to Earth, drifted around, and eventually ended up studying writing at the Pennington School.

After graduation, I settled here in Louisiana so I could be near my grandfather.

He had a restaurant in the French Quarter, you know.

I've been there.

It's still called Sisko's.

And on the wall, there's a copy of the letter your publisher sent you when he accepted your first novel.

Grandpa was always showing off his famous grandson.

He was just as proud of me as my father would have been.

You wrote Anslem in this house, didn't you?

At that desk, right over there.

It came out to generally favorable reviews, and little by little,

I began to think less and less about the past.

After a while, I met a woman... fell in love, we got married, and for a while, this house was a happy one.

WOMAN: I'm back!

Nog!

I didn't realize you were here already.

I was trying to finish a painting before the light changed, and I guess the time got away from me.

It's good to see you.

You, too.

Did you start the grill?

Mm-hmm.

Oh, what are we having?

Blackened redfish, fresh from the bayou.

Fish?!

When these woods are crawling with perfectly good slugs?

I suppose you're going to ask me to chew your food for you.

( laughs )

I have to admit I've been more popular with women since I stopped asking them to do that.

I tried to tell you that 20 years ago.

I'm a slow learner.

I'm going to get some champagne.

I'm glad you're here, Nog.

I see you've got another pip on your collar.

You keep that up, you're going to make Captain by the time you're 40.

The last time we talked, you mentioned you might be heading back to the Bajoran sector.

( sighs )

The Klingons agreed to let Starfleet send an expedition through the wormhole.

They said it was in the spirit of scientific exchange.

But I think they were happy to have us test the waters in the Gamma Quadrant after all these years.

Find out how the Dominion would react to ships coming through.

Did you see the station?

I'm sorry to say it's looking a little run-down these days.

But you'll never guess who's still there.

Not your father?

No, no. He and my uncle left years ago.

Quark finally got that little moon he was always talking about, and my father, as usual, is making sure it doesn't fall out of orbit, but Morn is still there, running the bar.

Talking his customers' ears off and drinking himself out of business, I'll bet.

Well, why don't we get to the point of today's little celebration?

To my dear friend Jake Sisko-- winner of this year's Betar Prize for his Collected Stories.

May the years continue to be good to you, may your muse continue to inspire you, and may someone make a holoprogram out of one of your stories so you can start raking in the latinum.

( all chuckling )

( gasping )

Are you all right?

Do you want me to call a doctor?

No.

I'll be fine.

You should rest.

No, you came a long way to find out why I had stopped writing, and you deserve an answer.

Later that night, after Nog had left,

I stayed up working.

My new novel was going well,

and when it's going well, you don't want to stop.

Coming to bed?

Um...I'm not tired.

Neither am I.

You know, I-I wanted to ask you something.

How would you feel about designing the cover of my new book?

Do you mean it?

( whooshing )

What was that?

Jake?

Did you get through?

I talked to someone at Starfleet Science.

They're going to get a team here as soon as they can.

This is Korena, my wife.

Your wife?

I never thought I'd have the pleasure of meeting you.

The pleasure is mine.

How long have you two been married?

Seven years.

Do I have any grandchildren?

Not yet.

We were married in New Orleans in your father's restaurant.

He insisted.

Just about everybody came.

Dax, Kira, O'Brien.

That must have been something.

I got to go call Starfleet.

Whoa.

They'll get here as soon as they can.

Talk to me.

I've missed so much.

Let's not waste what little time we have.

I have a feeling you might want to see these.

They're Jake's.

You did it.

I always knew you would.

( crying )

Oh, Jake.

I'm sorry.

For what?

For giving up on you.

No one could be expected to hold out hope for this long.

No, I-I-I should have just kept trying to find you, and I just went on with my life.

And I'm proud of what you've accomplished.

None of it matters now that I know that you're out there lost somewhere.

Of course it matters.

You have a wife, a career.

And don't think because I'm not around much that I... don't want grandchildren.

OLD JAKE: Within a few seconds, he was gone again.

I don't know what to say.

You don't have to say anything.

Just listen, because there isn't much time, and there's so much more for me to tell you.

I consulted with Dax, and we realized that the accident must have created some sort of subspace link between my father and myself.

That's why he always appeared somewhere near you, even if you were hundreds of light years away from where the accident happened.

We also realized that there was a pattern to his appearances.

They were governed by fluctuations in the wormhole subspace field.

Dax's calculations also showed that the next time he appeared,

I'd be an old man.

So I decided to put aside my novel and try to find a way to help him.

And at the age of 37,

I went back to school and started studying subspace mechanics.

At first, Korena was very patient.

She supported what I was trying to do, but I got so caught up in my work,

I didn't notice I was losing her.

By the time I became a graduate student, we were no longer living together, and by the time I had entered my doctoral program, it was over between us.

But I pressed on with what I was doing, and one day years later, it hit me.

I figured out a way to recreate the accident.

It had been almost 50 years and the wormhole would soon be undergoing another inversion.

There was only one other thing I needed.

The Defiant.

Nog was a Captain by then,

and he helped me round up the old crew

and get the ship pulled out of mothballs.

Worf threw his weight around with the Klingon High Council,

and they gave us permission to enter the Bajoran system.

Take us out of warp.

I think I remember how to do that.

I haven't worked a two-dimensional control panel in a long time.

How did we manage?

We always seemed to muddle through somehow.

Look.

Maybe after we've got Captain Sisko back, we can all stop by Morn's for a drink.

For old time's sake.

OLD JAKE: I designed a subspace flux isolator,

and we set it up in Engineering.

Are you ready over there, Dax?

As ready as I'll ever be, considering the replicators were just about the only things still working when we came aboard.

It's a lucky thing, too.

Dax isn't any good to anybody these days without a cup of coffee in her hands.

It's the only thing that's kept me awake while you've prattled on about your latest paper or your new backhand or your kids' science projects.

NOG: We're picking up temporal distortions in the subspace field.

The wormhole's beginning to invert.

According to our readings, it's going to kick out a gravimetric wave like the one that almost destroyed the Defiant last time.

Don't worry, I've modulated the shields to channel the energy wave into this apparatus.

Once subspace begins to fragment, we'll try to locate the Captain.

BASHIR: Since the accident created a subspace link between him and Jake, there'll be a path of bread crumbs to follow.

( rumbling )

I'd better get back to the Bridge.

Good luck.

OLD JAKE: The wormhole wouldn't undergo

another inversion for decades, so this was my only chance.

Subspace field fragmentation is beginning.

It's working.

DAX: I think I've got the Captain's signature.

Something's happening.

I'm losing him.

We're losing them both.

They're being pulled into subspace.

Jake... how long has it been?

14 years.

What is this place?

I don't know.

We could be inside some sort of subspace fragment.

Sisko to Dax.

Can you read me?

I brought the Defiant back to the wormhole.

We're trying to rescue you.

Dax, if you can read me, try to lock onto my signal.

Look at you.

You're older than I am.

Damn it.

Why can't they lock onto us?

Jake, they're doing the best they can.

There's nothing we can do from here.

It's been so long.

I need to know what I've missed.

What about those grandchildren we talked about?

Korena and I are... We're no longer together.

She left me.

I'm sorry.

I shouldn't have let her go, but there was so much I had to do.

This has taken years of planning.

What about your writing?

Dax, try boosting the carrier amplitude.

Maybe you can...

Jake, what's happened to you?

This is the last chance I'm ever going to have to help you.

No!

Jake, it's over.

It's not going to work.

It has to.

Let go, Jake.

If not for yourself, then for me.

You still have time to make a better life for yourself.

Promise me you'll do that.

Promise me!

( whooshing )

( Jake sobbing )

I want you to see something.

Go over to my desk.

Go ahead.

It's a collection of new stories.

I decided to honor my father's request and try to rebuild my life.

Writing those stories is the best way I knew to do that.

I'd like you to have a copy.

Let me get you one.

Um... can I have these instead?

Well, if you'd like, but those have handwritten notes all over them.

I know.

I want to study them, so I can see the changes you made.

Because you want to be a writer someday.

Can I ask you why you haven't published these?

Well, I...

I was tinkering with the last story just this morning.

Besides, if you publish posthumously, nobody can ask you for rewrites.

I was hoping to finish another two stories, but there isn't enough time.

You keep on saying there's no more time.

You see, Melanie, after the last attempt to rescue my father failed,

I spent months trying to figure out what went wrong.

Eventually, I came to understand the nature of what was happening to him.

It was as if he was frozen in time at the moment of the accident, and the link between us was like an elastic cord.

Every so often, the cord would grow taut enough to yank him forward into my time, but only for a few minutes.

I realized that if my motion through time came to a stop, the cord would go slack, and he'd be lost in subspace forever, but if I could cut the cord when the link was at its strongest-- while we were together-- he'd return to the moment of the accident.

Your father's coming here, isn't he?

Soon.

Yes.

You're going to cut the cord, aren't you?

I want you to promise me something.

Anything.

While you're studying my stories, poke your head up every once in a while.

Take a look around.

See what's going on.

It's life, Melanie.

And you can miss it if you don't open your eyes.

Thank you... for everything.

It was a pleasure meeting you, young lady.

Jake.

Mmm...

I've been expecting you.

I'm glad to see you're still in this house.

You seemed happy here.

And this...

I-I can't tell you how good it makes me feel you got back to writing.

( gasping )

Jake, what is it?

Read the dedication.

"To my father... who's coming home."

Thank you, but I...

I don't understand.

It was me.

It was me all along.

I've been dragging you through time like an anchor, and now it's time to cut you loose.

Jake, what are you saying?

It won't be long now.

Jake, no!

When I die, you'll go back to where this all began.

Just remember to dodge the energy discharge from the warp core.

Jake, you could still have so many years left.

No.

We have to be together when I die.

Jake, you didn't have to do this... not for me.

For you and for the boy that I was.

He needs you... more than you know.

Don't you see?

We're going to get a second... chance.

Jake... my sweet boy.

( quiet sob )

You okay?

H-How'd you know that was coming?

I guess we were just lucky this time.

You okay, Dad?

I am now, Jake.

I am now.