Author's Note: Set during episode 3.15 'Destiny'.

Reaching: shallowness

Nerys wakes from her dream with a start, but the vision of the vipers slithering towards them remains with her though her eyes are wide open. They were like no vipers she ever saw in real life, their scales a pale Cardassian gray. Wide of girth, they were more serpents than anything else.

She reaches out to her side, but even as she moves, she realises he's not there. Bareil Antos was rarely in her bed at the station, and she's woken from many nightmares alone. But the knowledge that she can't talk to him later or seek his advice on the prophecy bites, sharper than any snake, real or dreamed could.

She sits up, breathes deeply, refusing to cry, and cycles through some soothing drinks she could order from the replicator. She tells herself that it probably wasn't a good idea to read the prophecies last thing before bed, but Vedek Yarka's criticism had stung. There were so many passages unread while she and Bareil talked of other things, laughed together and made love. She does not regret anything but thinking they had more time.

Still, Kira knows that in what reading she's done, she's shirked the prophecies relating to the Emissary. She knows why. Sisko was in her dream, under threat from the all too literal vipers her brain called up.

But in a few hours, Nerys will have to put on her uniform as Major Kira Nerys, following Starfleet Commander Sisko's orders and assisting three Cardassian scientists. She will have to use the word 'wormhole' calmly. So, Nerys puts the dream and the emptiness of her bed aside, and pads over to her replicator.