At the edge of the final frontier.—"No Time Like the Present" is a DS9 comic story that was the headline feature in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Ultimate Annual anthology of stories. Cardassian agents covertly return to Bajor to retrieve an ancient artifact hidden when the occupation came to an end. When touched, the artifact emits waves of temporal distortion, creating disturbances across the Federation and alerting the artifact's creators, an ancient race eager to reclaim what was once their most feared weapon.
Description[]
Solicitations[]
- An alien artifact abandoned by the Cardassians at the end of their occupation of Bajor has been reactivated, sending waves of temporal distortion through DS9. This causes the crew to experience leaps into alternate timelines and alerts the Cardassians and the artifact's creators of its whereabouts. It's a race for control of the very fabric of time!
Summary[]
In 2369, a Cardassian gul is shown a mysterious artifact buried under the surface of Bajor. With the Occupation ending, the Cardassians seal the mine until they can return.
In 2371, O'Brien is visiting Keiko on Bajor when a Catdasian ship lands nearby. The Cardassian team unseal the mine shafts and locate the artifact, but it emits a shockwave of temporal radiation. O'Brien fibre himself on the Rutledge during the Cardassian Wars. Aboard a runabout, Kira experiences her life if she was a vedek administering religious relief to Cardassians, while Jadzia Dax experiences the death of both Curzon and the Dax symbiont.
The temporal shockwave hits DS9, and Sisko experiences a reality where he left Starfleet after the Battle of Wolf 359 to teach at a university. Jake admonishes his father for burying himself in his work. Quark experiences a reality, where he works for his brother Rom, who rubs shoulders with Grand Nagus Zek and Dukat.
Bashir discovers that chroniton particles have saturated the station and Sisko realises that the crew are not experiencing hallucinations but temporal shifts. Kira and Dax's runabout arrives at the station and Dax is admitted to the Infirmary as the symbiont is ill. Jadzia is concerned that both she and Dax will die like Curzon and the symbiont died in her temporal experience.
The Karg race detect from the temporal disruptor, their technology, and they launch a warship to recover it from Bajor. Tartek, the leader of the Cardassian recovery team has meanwhile become unbalanced by his experiences and kills one of his team members, before leaving with the artifact. He comes across O'Brien and Keiko, who are suffering from radiation poisoning. Tartek tries to shoot O'Brien but misses and Tartek escapes. O'Brien realises that the artifact that Tartek has is causing the crisis.
The temporal shifts continue occurring - Keiko experiences kissing Hikaru Sulu, Sisko sees Khan giving his victory speech in 1995, while Bashir experiences Julius Caesar doing the same.
In space, the Karg warship engages and defeats a Cardassian ship and continues towards Bajor. O'Brien reports his discovery to Sisko, who launches the Defiant. The Karg ship passes the station passes the station on its way to Bajor, as does the pursuing Cardassian ship.
O'Brien retrieves the temporal disruptor, but a Karg crew seize it from him. The Karg themselves are confronted by a Cardassian away team, but are all stunned by a low energy phaser blast from the Defiant. O'Brien deactivates the device.
The situation resolved, the DS9 crew administer the radiation poisoning antidote. Jadzia relates how three thousand years ago, the Cardassians and the Bajorans united to stop the Karg and sent the temporal disruptor one million years into the past to put it out of the Karg's reach. Sisko briefly considers that the device could undo history for the better, like making sure Wolf 359 or the Occupation of Bajor did not happen. Sisko decides against that and send the temporal disruptor back into the past.
References[]
Characters[]
- Julian Bashir • Julius Caesar • Curzon Dax • Jadzia Dax • Dukat • Kayden • Kira Nerys • Malbret • Benjamin Maxwell • Morn • Keiko O'Brien • Miles O'Brien • Pelek • Quark • Rom • Sebarr • Khan Noonien Singh • Benjamin Sisko • Jake Sisko • Hikaru Sulu • Tartek • Zek
Unnamed characters[]
- unnamed Cardassians • unnamed Deep Space 9 personnel • unnamed USS Defiant (NX-74205) personnel • unnamed USS Rutledge personnel • unnamed Karg
Locations[]
- Referenced only
- Cardassia • Gaul • San Francisco • Troy • Wolf 359
Starships and shuttlecraft[]
- Cardassian shuttlecraft • Danube-class • USS Defiant (Defiant-class) • Galor-class • Karg starship • runabout • USS Rutledge (New Orleans-class) • USS Saratoga (Miranda-class)
Races and cultures[]
- Referenced only
- Horta
States and organizations[]
Ranks and titles[]
- captain • chief • commander • dictatrix • Emissary of the Prophets • general • Grand Nagus • gul • lieutenant • lieutenant commander • supreme commander • vedek
Technology and weapons[]
- Cardassian disruptor • cloaking device • deflector shield • DNA • drill driver • plasma generator • phaser • shields • sonic drill • temporal disruptor • transporter • warp drive
Other references[]
- agrobiology • chroniton • dollar • doughnut • Eugenics Wars • Federation-Cardassian War • hell • hyronalyn • jumja stick • moon • norep • Occupation of Bajor • pergium • plasma • radiation • sculpture • temporal distortion • time • uridium • vole
Chronology[]
- Includes alternate timelines.
- Ancient Rome
- Julius Caesar declares himself dictator of the Roman Empire, as witnessed by timeshifted Bashir.
- 27 October, 1995
- Khan declares victory over the civilized world, as witnessed by timeshifted Sisko.
- Late-23rd or early-24th century
- Captain Hikaru Sulu becomes the lover of timeshifted Keiko Ishikawa-O'Brien.
- 2350s
- Miles O'Brien is timeshifted, and finds himself a commander in the first Cardassian War under the command of Captain Benjamin Maxwell.
- 2369
- During the Cardassian withdrawal, miners discover the temporal device. They seal the mine, intending to recover it later.
- 2372
- The O'Briens visit a camp on Bajor near the abandoned mine. Gul Tartek's team lands nearby.
Appendices[]
Related media[]
- Sisko mentions the events of "Past Tense, Part I" and "Past Tense, Part II," while Kira mentions the events of "Crossover."
- DS9 episode: "Emissary"
Background[]
- This story did not explicitly state a time frame for the primary, unaltered chain of events, however, it seems to have taken place in early 2372, sometime after Sisko was promoted to captain in "The Adversary", but before the arrival of Worf on the station in "The Way of the Warrior".
- The artist depicted two of Bajor's moons in some panels but it wasn't specified which of Bajor's multiple moons these were.
Images[]
Connections[]
Timeline[]
| published order | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous comic: First story in book |
DS9 Stories Ultimate Annual |
Next comic: The Nagus's New Clothes |
| chronological order | ||
| Previous Adventure: not yet placed |
Memory Beta Chronology | Next Adventure: not yet placed |
External link[]
- No Time Like the Present article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.