Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Millennium: The War of The Prophets by Judith Reeves-Stevens & Garfield Reeves-Stevens

Author:Judith Reeves-Stevens & Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books

CHAPTER 14

“Y OU KNOW HOW stardates work,” Commander Arla Rees said.

“Of course.” Sisko nodded, distracted, wondering about what was beyond the windowless hull of the small travelpod they were riding in. It reminded him of a two-person escape module, though he could see no indication that it carried emergency supplies or even flight controls. According to Weyoun, transporters were not permitted to operate anywhere within the Bajoran system—though he had provided no explanation why—and all travel here was carried out by pod, runabout, or shuttle. Thus, the survivors from the Defiant had been sent off from the Boreth’s hangar deck two by two, in these tiny pods with no means by which to observe the somehow restored Deep Space 9 as they neared it.

“Seriously?” Arla persisted. “You’ve actually looked into how the stardate system was devised?”

Sisko looked across the cramped pod—or down the pod, or up it. There was no artificial gravity field, and no inertial dampeners either. Essentially, he and the commander were the only passengers in a gray metal can with two acceleration seats with restraint straps, a pressure door, and four blue-white lights, two at their feet and two at their heads. Sisko even doubted if the simple vessel had its own engines or reaction-control system. He guessed they were being guided from the Boreth to DS9 by tractor beam.

“I’ve studied timekeeping.”

Arla frowned. “When? They don’t tell you a lot in the Academy.”

“Actually, I had reason to take an extension course a few years ago. I even built a few different types of mechanical clocks on my own.” Sisko tried to lean back in his acceleration seat, but of course there was no gravity field to aid his maneuver—only the two chest-crossing straps that kept him from floating out of the seat.

“Did your course deal with how the system got started?”

“Some of it. As I understand it, Commander, the impetus behind devising a universal—or, at least, a galactic— standard time- and date-keeping system was primarily religious.”

From her seat beside him, Arla nodded her head in agreement, though Sisko didn’t understand the reason for the odd smile that accompanied that nod.

He continued, not knowing what she was looking for in his answer. “There’s certainly precedent for it. Many of the religious festivals and holy days celebrated on Earth are tied to the calendar.”

“More often than not the lunar calendar, I believe,” Arla said.

“That’s right,” Sisko said. Though he still didn’t know why they were having this conversation, it seemed harmless enough. He decided to run with it. The commander would give him her reasons when she was ready, and that was fine with him. “Now if my memory serves me right, when the first outposts were set up on Earth’s moon, since everyone lived underground and the moon is less than a light-second from Earth, timekeeping wasn’t a problem. But when the outposts on Mars were established, and it was common for people to spend years there with their families, I recall learning that it became awkward trying to reconcile Martian sols at twenty-four-and-a-half hours with Earth days at just under twenty-four.

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