Author Note: I am really, REALLY sorry I haven't updated this in forever. The plot bunnies were striking the wrong stories. So here is the next chapter. Sorry again.

---

Odo and Barien walked across the Promenade. Odo was uncomfortably aware of the stares many gave the girl, but he chose to ignore it. Barien for her part seemed unaffected. She walked calmly down the Promenade as if she had done it every day of her life.

She may very well have, Odo thought to himself as he looked at her. Again he marveled at the girl's striking similarity to Major Kira. He could not, of course, forget her assumed ability to morph or the blue eyes that seemed clearly to be his.

Finally working up enough courage he said, " You claimed to have trouble morphing," he said, "Why is that?"

" Genetic sequencing," Barien replied frankly. She pulled her hands behind her back in a very familiar gesture.

"Julian was the first person, really being, to figure out how to combine the DNA. When you and mom...um."

" Had you?" Odo offered.

" Yeah," Barien replied, " When you first tried it didn't work out so well. Changling DNA isn't very susceptible to had to slightly mutate it to make it compatible for Bajoran DNA."

" Mutate it!"

" Sorry, sorry wrong choice of words," Barien replied, " He had to use some...some sort of...ahh, I don't know what he called it, I'm an engineer not a doctor."

Odo stopped her.

" Your an engineer!" he said confused and suprised.

" Yes," Barien nodded, " I help O'Brien with the station. The point is...Oh, Crap!"

" What?" Odo demanded worriedly.

Barien smacked her forhead, " I shouldn't have told you that. It could corrupt the timeline."

" I believe you've done that enough."

" No, you don't understand," Barien replied, " I can be here and the timeline will remain the same. If I start telling you what's gonna happen, then there will be damage."

" What sort of damage?"

" Complete annihaltion of certain individuals," Barien replied seriously.

" But you just told me how you come to be. Doesn't that mean it has altered what's going to happen to you?" Odo pointed out.

" Possibly," Barien agreed, " But considering I'm still here, not likely."

At Odo's confused expression she explained, " You see by telling you I have altered my future a little. Not enough to be completely off, but there are certain changes. If you told Dr. Bashir what I said there would be many changes. In Gerhard's Theory of Alteration it explains that the universe of time creates an invariable loop process. If someone were to go back in time and talk to someone essential to the future events of the time traveler's birth and pushes them of the wrong path the peron will inevitably disappear forever. With this disappearance we create an alternate loop in which the person is always being born and disappears due the encounter. Now if they talk to the same person and put them on a path slightly altered there will not be an altered loop, but a parallel path to normal time," She paused at Odo's blank expression, " Oh, sorry, Ido this to you a lot. Basically by telling you what Bashir will do I still have not altered the decision to the point that the process will never be done."

" I see," Odo replied.

" That is a fascinating theory," a voice said behind them.

Barien and Odo turned in suprise to see Jadzia Dax standing behind them.

" Where did you say you learned it?" she asked kindly.

" Learned what?" Barien answered defensively.

" That brilliant theory."

" What theory? Who are you," Barien demanded gruffely.

" Me," Jadzia joked, " No one important. My name is Jadzia Dax. And You are?"

" Barien," Barien replied, " Did you say Jadzia Dax?"

" Yes," Jadzia nodded, " Is something wrong?"

Barien visibly paled and backed away.

" It's not possible!" she breathed.