A/N - This chapter is super short, I know. But I really wanted to get it over and done with tonight (or morning - It's 4 am) so I decided it was time to make the decision. I hope it wasn't too rushed. If so, I apologize. The next chapter is packed with loads of Quark, so hopefully it will be nice compensation. I'm also hoping this chapter wasn't too OOC for Quark. It's hard to decide on what I see him as and what he really is, lol.

Chapter Two

Lara didn't know what to expect the next day. She hadn't had the opportunity to do much sight-seeing on her walk to Ops. She'd seen many shops and little booths all along the Promenade, but she hadn't been able to see in detail what they were selling, or who was selling them. She was practically glowing in excitement by the time she found her way out of the habitat ring.

There were people everywhere, hundreds walking, talking, and browsing. Lara couldn't help but feel a little overwhelmed by the sight, but she was too happy to show it. She rushed to different shops, finding strange trinkets, foods, and other supplies. She could be looking at some sort of slimy food and just turn around to see a fluffy treat. All the people around her were strange as well, and she couldn't help but stare once in a while. She found a bald man with blue skin and lines on his head and down the center of his face. He had caught her staring at him and gave her an annoyed look and stomped off unhappily. She giggled quietly and went on her way, finding even stranger people.

She ended up walking by an opened area that seemed to lead to some sort of room. It had a strange symbol on the outside of it, like two ovals and a circle on the bottom. She walked inside and found a darkened room, lit by only candles and decorated with dark oranges and reds. The room seemed empty, but there was another symbol at the far end of the room. Suddenly, Lara got the feeling that she wasn't supposed to be in there, and backtracked out the door again.

Shaking off the strange feeling of intruding, Lara looked around at her surroundings. There were more shops and stores on either side of her, but a large doorway across the hall caught her eye. There were a lot of people going in and out and, upon closer inspection, it seemed fairly busy. Seeing this as an opportunity to see more, Lara cautiously stepped inside. The first thing she noticed was a group shouting, "Dabo!" She jumped, startled by the game's victory shout. She looked around the room some more to see quite a few tables and even more customers. There were people everywhere - eating, gambling, chatting. Lara found the atmosphere quite familiar. Her suspicions were confirmed as she scanned over a long counter, complete with stools and drinks; this was a bar.

Lara never was one for heavy drinking, but she did enjoy trying new flavors once in a while. So she sat down at the far end of the bar, where the counter met the wall, in hopes for a better view of the room. After about six or seven minutes of waiting patiently for service, a smaller alien walked over towards her. He had giant, outlaying ears with orangey skin and dark-ringed green eyes. He didn't seem to have any hair, but his head seemed to be shaped as if his brain had four sides instead of two. Although his appearance was not normal for her, she didn't seem to mind much. She'd seen much stranger sights recently, and she was growing more and more fond of his overall size. He was probably only about an inch or so taller than her.

"Can I get you something, hu-man?" the alien said dryly, as if he had been having a tiring day. Lara knew she should respond quickly to be polite, but she couldn't help but notice his teeth. They were unusually placed and were sharpened to tiny points. As much as this should have frightened her, it didn't. In fact, it only made her more curious. After a moment of silence, the alien spoke again. "Lady, it's a full house tonight. Either you order something, or I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Shaking her head as if to clear it, Lara finally looked up into the alien's green eyes. "What's the rarest thing you have?" Hey, she thought. I'm on a space station full to the brink with aliens way in the future. I might as well taste the local cuisine.

Looking a bit perplexed, the alien thought for a moment. "Well, we have quite a few rare drinks, but I think the hardest to get right now is kanar. But I don't think you'd like it. Most hu-mans don't."

Lara raised her eyebrow questioningly. Do we just not like it, or is it not healthy for humans to drink? "Do you have it or not, alien?"

The bartender squinted his eyes at her and leaned in slowly. "I do. Three bottles. Are you sure you want a glass?" When she nodded firmly in answer, he walked to the other end of the bar and fumbled under the counter for a while. It seemed he was having some trouble finding it. But after a couple of seconds, he dragged out a long, twisted bottle and dusted it off, pouring a little into a glass. He put the bottle back under the counter and handed her the drink. "Have fun."

After waiting for the alien to attend to another customer, Lara raised the glass to her lips hesitantly. She tilted, letting just a tiny amount reach her mouth before bringing it back down and tasting it. The flavor wasn't all around disgusting, like she had feared it might be, but it wasn't her favorite by far. She took another sip before deciding not to drink more, and set it on the counter gently. Lara sighed, looking around the bar once again and gently rested her head on the wall beside her.

Lara couldn't help but feel torn. She had been thinking about it all night and most of the morning, but she hadn't yet come up with a decision. How do you decide whether to live your dream or the life you were supposed to have, with the people you were supposed to be with? It might have been easy for some people to make such a life-altering choice, but Lara Hasting was not used to such a weight on her shoulders. Should she go back to the family and friends that she loves and cares for, or should she stay and take a once-in-a-millennia chance to travel in time to a place she's always dreamed about? When she thinks about where she is, it's obvious she should choose the latter. But then she thinks about the people and places she would never see again and it changes to the former. Just how was she going to figure this out?

She must have been sitting there for a long time because when she finally returned to reality, almost everyone who had flooded the bar - in what felt like only a moment ago - was gone. There were some more of the same species as the bartender cleaning up tables and floors, and maybe a couple chatting on an upper level, but the place was virtually empty compared to earlier. She sat up from the now uncomfortable position to see the bartender walking towards her. "Alright," he grumbled. "I appreciate a long-term customer, but you've been here for hours and only ordered one drink - " he looked at the glass. "And it's not even half empty!"

Lara looked at the alien apologetically. "I know, sir. I'm sorry, I really am. I've just been having some trouble..." she trailed off when she noticed a strange look coming from the alien. "What?"

He looked almost confused. "You're one strange hu-man. First you call me an 'alien', a term which people rarely use anymore, seeing as we're not really 'aliens' in the true definition anymore. Besides, we all know species and frankly it's a bit rude to generalize someone by calling them an 'alien'. You're basically saying, 'hey ugly, you're not my species!'," Lara looked as if she was about to burst into profound apologies, but the bartender kept going. "And then, right now, you called me 'sir', which means respect. As if it's weird enough that a hu-man's showing respect for a ferengi, it's a hu-man showing respect for me, which means that you're either new here, or you're just really stupid."

Lara's mouth opened as if to say something, but then just shut again with a click of her teeth. She seemed to stumble and fidget trying to get some words out, but in the end only managed a, "S-sorry." It didn't help that she was just confronted by an alien about respect, but it was even worse because she was becoming more and more attracted to this alien by the moment. How was she supposed to react to that? Was she supposed to apologize and walk out, or say something smart in return, what? Instead, she settled on another shy whimper. "I didn't mean to offend you, sir. I... it's just that... I'm not used to being around alie - um... non-humans."

The alien just shrugged it off. "Eh, I wasn't offended, I was just surprised is all. I'm not used to respect." He straightened up his small jacket, pulling it downwards and stretching his neck out proudly. "I kind of like it."

Lara couldn't help but giggle at the 'ferengi's' show of appreciation. The ferengi snapped his head towards her at the sound, silencing her quickly.

"What's so funny?" he asked accusingly.

She smiled at him. "Oh, nothing. It's just that you looked really cute right then." Her eyes grew slightly wider, not believing she'd said that out loud.

"What was that, hu-man?"

"Oh, uh... nothing, sir." Lara wondered if he'd actually heard the compliment or not. She hoped not. Lara never was good at dealing with romantic feelings and her talents were surely not going to kick in on an alien she only met today, right? "Um... so, 'ferengi', what's your name?" she asked awkwardly, trying to change the subject.

"Quark. You?"

"Lara."

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"I'm sorry, but we still have no idea how this all happened. It's beyond what I've seen before," the 'trill' from Ops, apparently called Jadzia Dax, explained. Lara was sitting in a room at a long table with what the commander had said were the commanding officers. The meeting was held to review what the officers had uncovered in the past couple of days. It seemed that nothing significant was discovered yet, and Lara oddly found that comforting. She still wasn't sure what she wanted to do.

"Are you positive there's been nothing similar to this?" Major Kira said from beside Lara. Lara had never met Kira personally, but she knew she was a bajoran, and she seemed... straightforward. Lara admired her.

Jadzia shook her head with a slight tinge of regret. "No. There have been rumors in the past of time travel, but that was to the past in the locations plotted, not light-years away on a planet we can't reach for a person we don't know. Besides, they are just rumors. We don't know if they're true or not."

Lara had her ears set intensely on the conversation at hand. She watched all the officers go back and forth with theories and ideas. There wasn't a glance in her direction, not a single question shot her way. Why didn't they want her thoughts as well? She was a scientist, anyway. So what if she was a 2012 microbiologist, she could still contribute somehow. Growing frustrated, she cleared her throat loudly to quiet everyone down. The debating slowed down to a stop and they all looked her way. She awkwardly cleared her throat and began to speak. "What if I don't want to go back?"

The room was silent as the officers looked at one another and back to Lara. She wasn't sure she had actually said it. Was she ready to give up her old life for this one? No, but she doubted many people would be. But she had made up her mind on that split second and it was there, out in the open. Exposed.

"Are you sure?"

It was her friend, the doctor Bashir. If anyone knew what she was thinking about, she thought, it was him. She nodded silently to the doctor and he turned to the rest of the room. He tried to come up with good reasons for her to stay, even though she could tell that Commander Sisko wouldn't have any objections. She could see that playful smirk on his face as the rest of the group bickered over morals. She knew she was going to be able to stay, and that was enough for her.

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