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October 9, 1995
RUNTIME
45 minutes
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175
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2024-09-13 04:01:25
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SUMMARY
Stardate: Unknown. Melanie, an aspiring writer, wants to know why Jake Sisko stopped writing at 40. Jake tells how his father died in an accident and then suddenly reappeared.
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TRANSCRIPT
[House]
(It is dark and stormy in the bayou, and the camera is looking around the room. There is a picture of Ben and Jake Sisko in a frame, a baseball on a stand. A hand reaches into a box, takes out a hypo and Tony Todd gives himself an injection. The doorbell rings. There's a soaking wet young woman outside.)
JAKE SR: May I help you?
MELANIE: I'm sorry to bother you. I just er been
JAKE SR: You're hurt.
MELANIE: Yeah, I must have scraped myself on a branch.
JAKE SR: That's what happens when you go tromping around the bayou in the middle of the night. Come, 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?
MELANIE: I'm a writer. At least, I want to be. And the truth is I was looking for you.
JAKE SR: Oh?
MELANIE: You are Jake Sisko the writer?
JAKE SR: Yes.
MELANIE: I can't believe I'm really here talking to you. You are my favourite author of all time.
JAKE SR: You should read more.
MELANIE: I mean it. Your books, they're so insightful.
JAKE SR: I'm glad you like them.
(He regenerates the graze away)
JAKE SR: There. Good as new.
MELANIE: Thank you.
JAKE SR: I didn't realise people still read my books.
MELANIE: Of course they do. A friend recommended Anslem to me and I read it straight through twice in one night.
JAKE SR: Twice in one night?
MELANIE: 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.
JAKE SR: Not much to show for a life's work, is it? I'm going to go get us some tea.
MELANIE: I savoured 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.
JAKE SR: There's only one first time for everything, isn't there? And only one last time too. You think about that such things when you get to be my age. That today might be the last time you sit in your favourite chair, or watch the rain fall, or enjoy a cup of tea by a warm fire.
MELANIE: Can I ask you something?
JAKE SR: Of course.
MELANIE: Why did you stop writing?
JAKE SR: I lost my favourite pen and I couldn't get any work done without it.
MELANIE: You're joking. You weren't even forty when you stopped writing. I've never understood why you gave it up.
JAKE SR: It's a long story.
MELANIE: I have time. Tell me. Please.
JAKE SR: 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 eighteen 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.
MELANIE: I know. I read a biography about you. It said that you stopped writing so you could conduct scientific research?
JAKE SR: 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 and it was making me miserable. I suppose my father saw that I needed a break.
[Jake's room]
(Jake is reading file 4747 on his PADD - The Commodore by C S Forster.)
JAKE SR [OC]: Because he insisted I come with him to the Gamma Quadrant to watch the wormhole undergo what they call a subspace inversion.
SISKO: Jake-o, let's go.
JAKE SR [OC]: Of course what he didn't realise was that I could hide away on the Defiant just as easily as I could on the station.
[Jake's cabin]
(Doorbell)
JAKE: Yeah.
SISKO: Jake, this only happens once every fifty years. You will never forgive yourself if you miss it.
JAKE: Yeah, I'll be right there.
SISKO: That's what you said ten minutes ago.
JAKE: I just want to get this last paragraph right.
SISKO: I thought you were going to put that aside for a while.
JAKE: I tried, but it's all I can think about.
SISKO: Well, I'm no writer, but if I were, it seems to me I'd want to poke my head up 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?
JAKE: Deal.
(Tilt, red alert)
SISKO: Sisko to Bridge.
[Bridge]
SISKO [OC]: What happened?
DAX: The wormhole's gravimetric field is surging.
SISKO [OC]: Pull us to a safe distance.
DAX: I'm on it, Benjamin, but we've got another problem. The power output from the warp core just jumped off the scale.
[Jake's cabin]
SISKO: Sisko to Engineering. Engineering, report. Dax, I'm going to find out what's happening down there. Stay here, Jake.
JAKE SR [OC]: Most of the time, I knew enough to do what my father told me. But that day, for some reason, I didn't.
[Engine room]
SISKO: Sisko to Sickbay, I need a medical team down here right away.
DAX [OC]: Dax to Sisko.
[Bridge]
DAX: The warp coils are locked into a feedback loop. You've got to realign them or the core's going to blow.
[Engine room]
SISKO: I'm on it. (spots his son) Jake, I need an interphasic compensator.
COMPUTER: Warning. Warp core breach in forty seconds.
SISKO: Dax, better stand by to eject the core.
DAX [OC]: We can't.
[Bridge]
DAX: The ejection system's offline.
[Engine room]
(Jake is frantically going through boxes.)
SISKO: Jake, where's that compensator?
JAKE: It's not here.
COMPUTER: Warning. Warp core breach in thirty seconds.
(Jake finds the tool in the hand of an unconscious engineer)
JAKE: Got it.
SISKO: I'm going to try shunting the excess power out through the deflector array.
COMPUTER: Warning. Warp core breach in twenty seconds.
SISKO: Just a little more. There.
(Sisko takes the compensator off and hands it to Jake. As they are both holding it, a shock knocks Jake down, energy wraps around Sisko and he disappears.)
JAKE: No!
[House]
JAKE SR: He was gone.
MELANIE: I'm not sure I could ever get over losing somebody like that, right in front of my eyes.
JAKE SR: People do. Time passes, they realise that the person they lost is really gone, and they heal.
MELANIE: Is that what happened to you?
JAKE SR: No. I suppose not. There was a memorial service aboard the station.
[Promenade]
(All the levels are crowded)
JAKE SR [OC]: People came forward and talked about my father, what they remembered most about him why and they would miss him.
KIRA: 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.
JAKE SR [OC]: 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.
[Sisko's quarters]
JAKE SR [OC]: 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.
[Quark's]
JAKE SR [OC]: After a few months things started returning to normal, for everyone else, that is.
NOG: Jake, I'm almost done. We have holosuite three for half an hour.
JAKE: Great.
QUARK: Nog, get down to the storeroom and bring up five kegs of Takarian mead.
NOG: Yes, Uncle. Sorry, looks like we're going to lose our holosuite reservation.
QUARK: 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.
NOG: Are you sure?
QUARK: Go, now, before I change my mind.
[Corridor]
NOG: Next time we go ion surfing, remind me to keep clear of those whip curls.
JAKE: I don't know if I really want to try it again.
NOG: You know, Jake I'm going to be gone soon. We probably won't see each other for a while.
JAKE: I know.
NOG: So, what are your plans?
JAKE: Well, I was thinking about taking that deferred admission and going to Pennington in the fall.
NOG: That'd be great. We'd both be on Earth together.
JAKE: 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.
NOG: Okay.
[Jake's bedroom]
(Jake is tossing and turning when there's a blue light. Jake wakes up to see - Sisko lying against a chair.)
SISKO: Jake?
JAKE: Dad?
SISKO: What happened?
(Sisko disappears again)
[House]
JAKE SR: 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 his 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 felt. Dax and the others were worried about me.
[Airlock]
JAKE SR [OC]: 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 defence 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 Nine was going to be on the front line.
[Promenade - upper level]
KIRA: Jake, where are you going ?
JAKE: I thought I'd watch the ships leave from one of the upper pylons.
WORF: You should be on one of those ships.
JAKE: I don't have to go, do I?
KIRA: No. It's a voluntary resettlement, not an evacuation.
WORF: But it would be prudent that you leave at this time.
JAKE SR [OC]: I suppose I wasn't feeling very prudent that day, because I ignored their advice.
[Upper pylon]
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. Even if this sector weren't on the brink of war, I would like to see you leave the station.
JAKE: I'm not going anywhere.
KIRA: Oh, Jake. I could order you to go if I wanted to.
JAKE: 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.
KIRA: 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.
[Corridor]
(A blue light flickers back round the corner. Sisko is there.)
JAKE: Dad?
JAKE SR [OC]: It wasn't until I actually touched him that I knew this wasn't a dream.
[Infirmary]
(Sisko is on a biobed)
JAKE SR [OC]: 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.
DAX: Benjamin, what's the last thing you remember?
SISKO: I was in Engineering on the Defiant. It feels like a few minutes ago.
JAKE: Dad, it's been over a year since the accident.
SISKO: 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.
BASHIR: According to these readings, unless we can realign your temporal signature, you'll be pulled back into subspace again within the next few minutes.
O'BRIEN: Maybe we can set up some sort of containment field.
DAX: We're going to have to reconfigure the field parameters.
SISKO: Jake, they'll have me fixed up in no time. How are you doing?
(Jake nearly bursts into tears.)
SISKO: It's all right. Everything's going to be all right.
JAKE: I thought it was a dream.
SISKO: What was?
JAKE: When I saw you in my quarters I should have felt you were alive. I should have known it.
SISKO: It's not your fault, Jake. I'm here now. That's what matters.
(Sisko fades out and back.)
DAX: We're losing him.
SISKO: Look at me. I need to know you're going to be all right.
O'BRIEN: His temporal signature is fluctuating.
BASHIR: I need that containment field now, Chief.
O'BRIEN: Right away. Field active.
(Sisko flickers again. Dax holds Jake back.)
BASHIR: It's not working.
SISKO: Jake.
JAKE: Dad!
O'BRIEN: I'm going to try locking onto him with the transporter beam.
JAKE: Don't leave me.
(But he does)
JAKE: Don't leave me.
[House]
JAKE SR: 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.
MELANIE: I can't imagine what that must have been like for you.
(Jake struggles to breath.)
MELANIE: Can I get you something?
JAKE SR: No, nothing.
MELANIE: Telling me all this is hard for you. Maybe I should come back some other time?
JAKE SR: No. There won't be any another time. You see, I'm dying. You must understand, when 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.
MELANIE: If that's what you're up to you shouldn't have bothered. You have my attention already.
JAKE SR: You're a good listener. That's important in a writer.
MELANIE: I'm not a writer yet.
JAKE SR: Sound like you're waiting for something to happen that's going to turn you into one.
MELANIE: 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.
JAKE SR: I see.
MELANIE: So what happened? With your father, I mean. Did you ever see him again?
JAKE SR: 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.
[Runabout]
JAKE SR [OC]: 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.
[House]
MELANIE: Did the Klingons ever contact Starfleet to say that your father had reappeared?
JAKE SR: No. I was left with no choice but to try to 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.
MELANIE: 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.
JAKE SR: Grandpa was always showing off his famous grandson. He was just as proud of me as my father would've been.
MELANIE: You wrote Anslem in this house, didn't you?
JAKE SR: At that desk, right over there. It came out to generally favourable 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.
KORENA [OC]: I'm back.
(Not quite as far in the future. Korena is an artist and Nog is in red TNG uniform and Tony is out of the age makeup.)
KORENA: Nog. I didn't realise you were here already. I was trying to finish a painting before the light changed and I guess the time got away from me.
NOG: It's good to see you.
KORENA: You too. Did you start the grill?
NOG: What are we having?
KORENA: Blackened redfish fresh from the bayou.
NOG: Fish? When these woods are crawling with perfectly good slugs?
KORENA: I suppose you're going to ask me to chew your food for you?
NOG: I have to admit I've been more popular with women since I stopped asking them to do that.
JAKE SR: I tried to tell you that twenty years ago.
NOG: I'm a slow learner.
KORENA: I'm going to get some champagne.
JAKE SR: I'm glad you're here, Nog.
KORENA: 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 forty.
JAKE SR: Last time we talked you mentioned you might be heading to the Bajoran Sector.
NOG: 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.
JAKE SR: Did you see the station?
NOG: I'm sorry to say it's looking a little run down these days. But you'll never guess who's still there.
JAKE SR: Not your father?
NOG: 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!
JAKE SR: Talking his customers' ears off and drinking himself out of business, I'll bet.
KORENA: Well, why don't we get to the point of today's little celebration.
NOG: 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.
(A tea cup smashes and we're back to the future again. Jake's breathing is getting more difficult.)
MELANIE: Are you all right? Do you want me to call a doctor?
JAKE SR: No. I'll be fine.
MELANIE: You should rest.
JAKE SR: No. You came a long way to find out why I had stopped writing and you deserve an answer.
(Back to the near future again)
JAKE SR [OC]: 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.
KORENA: Coming to bed?
JAKE SR: I'm not tired.
KORENA: (taking the pen from his hand.) Neither am I.
JAKE SR: You know, I wanted to ask you something. How would you feel about designing the cover to my new book?
KORENA: Do you mean it?
(There's a blue light.)
KORENA: What was that?
(Sisko is lying behind the couch.)
SISKO: Jake?
(After the break)
JAKE SR: Did you get through?
KORENA: I talked to someone at Starfleet Science. They're going to get a team here as soon as they can.
JAKE SR: This is Korena, my wife.
SISKO: Your wife?
KORENA: I never thought I'd have the pleasure of meeting you.
SISKO: The pleasure is mine. How long have you two been married?
JAKE SR: Seven years.
SISKO: Do I have any grandchildren?
JAKE SR: Not yet.
KORENA: We were married in New Orleans, in your father's restaurant.
JAKE SR: He insisted. Just about everyone came. Dax, Kira, O'Brien.
SISKO: That must've been something.
JAKE SR: I got to go call Starfleet.
SISKO: 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.
KORENA: I have a feeling you might want to see these. They're Jake's.
(Korena takes two books from a shelf - Anselm and Collected Stories.)
SISKO: You did it. I always knew you would.
(Jake is crying.)
SISKO: Oh, Jake.
(Korena leaves them alone.)
JAKE SR: I'm sorry.
SISKO: What for?
JAKE SR: For giving up on you.
SISKO: No one could be expected to hold out hope for this long.
JAKE SR: I should have just kept trying to find you. I just went on with my life.
SISKO: And I'm proud of what you've accomplished.
JAKE SR: None of it matters now that I know you're still out there, lost somewhere.
SISKO: 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.
(Blue flicker and fast forward)
JAKE SR: Within a few seconds, he was gone again.
MELANIE: I don't know what to say.
JAKE SR: You don't need 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 realised that the accident must have created some sort of subspace link between my father and myself.
MELANIE: That's why he always appeared somewhere near you even if you were hundreds of light years away from where the accident happened.
JAKE SR: We also realised that there was a pattern to his appearances. They were governed by fluctuations in the wormhole's subspace field. Dax's calculations also showed that the next time he appeared, I'd be an old man. And so I decided to put aside my novel and try to find a way to help him. At the age of thirty seven, 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. By the time I had entered my doctoral programme, 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 fifty years, and the wormhole would soon be undergoing another inversion. There was only one other thing I needed.
[Bridge]
JAKE SR [OC]: 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.
(Everyone is in Future uniform as seen in All Good Things, and plenty of wrinkle makeup.)
NOG: Take us out of warp.
DAX: I think I remember how to do that.
BASHIR: I haven't worked a two-dimensional control panel in a long time. How did we manage?
DAX: We always seemed to muddle through somehow.
NOG: Look.
(DS9 floats onto the viewscreen)
BASHIR: Maybe after we've got Captain Sisko back, we can all stop by Morn's for a drink for old time's sake.
[Engine room]
JAKE SR [OC]: I'd designed a subspace flux isolator and we set it up in Engineering.
JAKE SR: Are you ready over there, Dax?
DAX: As ready as I'll ever be, considering the replicators were just about the only things still working when we came aboard.
BASHIR: It's a lucky thing too. Dax isn't any good to anybody these days without a cup of coffee in her hand.
DAX: It's the only thing that's kept me awake while you prattled on about your latest paper, or your new backhand, or your kid's science projects.
NOG: We're picking up temporal distortions in the subspace field.
JAKE SR: The wormhole's beginning to invert.
NOG: According to our readings, it's going to kick out a gravimetric wave like the one that almost destroyed the Defiant last time.
JAKE SR: Don't worry. I've modulated the shields to channel the wave's energy into this apparatus.
DAX: 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.
(Shudder.)
NOG: I'd better get back to the bridge. Good luck.
JAKE SR [OC]: The wormhole wouldn't undergo another inversion for decades, so this was my only chance.
DAX: Subspace field fragmentation is beginning.
BASHIR: It's working.
(Jake's device is making a hole in the air.)
DAX: I think I've got the captain's signature.
(Sisko's faint image appears.)
DAX: Something's happening. I'm losing him.
(Jake becomes faint too)
BASHIR: We're losing them both. They're being pulled into subspace.
(Sisko and Jake go into)
[Limbo]
SISKO: Jake. How long has it been?
JAKE SR: Fourteen years. What is this place?
SISKO: I don't know
JAKE SR: 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 hear me, try to lock onto my signal.
SISKO: Look at you. You're older than I am.
JAKE SR: Damn it. Why can't they lock on to us?
SISKO: 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?
JAKE SR: Korena and I, we're no longer together. She left me.
SISKO: I'm sorry.
JAKE SR: I shouldn't have let her go, but there was so much I had to do. This has taken years of planning.
SISKO: What about your writing?
JAKE SR: Dax, try boosting the carrier amplitude. Maybe you can
SISKO: Jake, what's happened to you?
JAKE SR: This is the last chance I'm ever going to have to help you.
(Jake flickers)
JAKE SR: No!
SISKO: Jake, it's over. It's not going to work.
JAKE SR: It has to.
SISKO: 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!
[Engine room]
(And Jake comes back alone, crying. Dax goes to comfort him.)
[House]
(The sun is out, the rain has stopped and the birds are singing.)
JAKE SR: I want you to see something. Go over to my desk. Go ahead.
(There's a pile of paper with a pen on top)
JAKE SR: It's a collection of new stories. I decided to honour my father's request and try to rebuild my life. Writing these stories was the best way I knew to do that. I'd like you to have a copy. Let me get you one.
MELANIE: Can I have these instead?
JAKE SR: Well, if you'd like, but those have handwritten notes all over them.
MELANIE: I know. I want to study them so I can see the changes you made.
JAKE SR: Because you want to be a writer someday.
MELANIE: Can I ask why you haven't published these?
JAKE SR: Well, I was tinkering with the last story just this morning. Besides, if you publish posthumously no body can ask you for rewrites. I was hoping to finish another two stories, but there isn't enough time.
MELANIE: You keep on saying there's no more time.
JAKE SR: 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 go taut enough to yank him forward into my time. But only for a few minutes. I realised 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.
MELANIE: Your father's coming here, isn't he? Soon.
JAKE SR: Yes.
MELANIE: You're going to cut the cord, aren't you?
JAKE SR: I want you to promise me something.
MELANIE: Anything.
JAKE SR: 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.
MELANIE: And you can miss it if you don't open your eyes.
(Jake sits down.)
MELANIE: Thank you. For everything.
JAKE SR: It was a pleasure meeting you, young lady.
(Melanie gathers up her things and leaves. Jake gets up, takes a manuscript from a shelf and the baseball from it's stand, and sits again. He dozes until)
SISKO: Jake.
JAKE SR: I've been expecting you.
SISKO: I'm glad to see you're still in this house. You seemed happy here. And this. I can't tell you how good it makes me feel you got back to writing.
(Jake wheezes.)
SISKO: Jake, what is it?
JAKE SR: Read at the dedication.
SISKO: To my father, who's coming home. Thank you, but I don't understand.
JAKE SR: 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.
SISKO: Jake, what are you saying?
(Jake looks over at the desk. Sisko goes and picks up the hypo.)
JAKE SR: It won't be long now.
SISKO: Jake! No!
JAKE SR: When I die, you'll go back to where this all began. Just remember to dodge the energy discharge from the warp core.
SISKO: Jake, you could still have so many years left.
JAKE SR: No. We have to be together when I die.
SISKO: Jake, you didn't have to do this. Not for me.
JAKE SR: 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.
SISKO: Jake. My sweet boy.
[Engine room]
(Sisko is about to take the tool out of the device. Instead, he dives to the side taking Jake with him. The discharge hits the wall.)
SISKO: You okay?
JAKE: How'd you know that was coming?
SISKO: I guess we were just lucky this time.
JAKE: You okay, Dad?
SISKO: I am now, Jake. I am now.
2024-09-13 04:01:25 -
Pike:
Added the transcript.
