Odo stopped talking as he stepped on the transporter platform. He was reviewing the latest security details with a slightly-bored but nevertheless polite captain Sisko. Odo knew the Federation man trusted him to do everything right and was more than happy to entirely delegate the daily stuff that needed no special authorization, but still, reporting to your senior officer was the required thing to do, so he did it. He waited for the few seconds it took the transporter beam to scan and demolecularize him, and as soon as his being was coherently reproduced on arrival, he took a breath (at least, he faked it out of habit) to resume his report.

But Sisko wasn't next to him. Or more accurately, he wasn't next to Sisko. This was definitively not DS9 command bridge. It wasn't any part of the station either, nor any ship, but a planet. Strange, considering that the station was orbiting the Gamma Quadrant wormhole way too far from any M-class world to directly teleport over. And this was no holodeck simulation either, Odo's senses were much too accurate to be fooled by that technology like the humanoids were.

He tapped his combadge. "Odo to ops". No answer. "Odo to Sisko or Major Kira". No answer. "Broadcast security override, authorization Odo Alpha-2 - Odo to any Federation ship or structure." Yes, that was a big step up, but something didn't felt right. The fact that there was no answer to such a wide call was particularly strange. He quickly checked his transmitter but it seemed in working condition. Maybe some dampening field then? More likely something else entirely. Gloomily remembering some weird past mission report he'd read, and since he had nothing better to do right now, Odo set out down the road towards the very old-looking building he glimpsed over there. Maybe there would be people with answers, or at least a functioning mean of communication.

Odo kept his strange face completely blank, which was aided by the fact that he always had to voluntarily mimic any emotion he wanted to show anyhow.
"Thank you, that is a rather specific information, one I didn't even had to ask for, for once. Now would you mind explaining why you brought me here - without my consent, I might add?"

Odo's feelings were mixed. But he knew better than to blame someone just because they happened to know what was going on. After all, he usually knew most of what was going on. "A drone, eh." At least, the technology was not as antiquated as the building. "I may be able to help you with that, or do some recon myself, but I need to know more. What is this place? It looks like... well, some patchwork of human architectures, possibly old-earth. Are you from this dimension or were you abducted as well? You said people, who, how many?" He had a million more questions but had led enough interrogations to remember to leave the woman at least some time to answer.

The changeling took some time to ponder over the information. "That makes no sense." He finally said. "While we have many documented instances of alternate universes and timelines - though with few actual evidence and no complete understanding of the physics involved - while would a single reality plane act as a magnet for random individuals? That can't be a matter of coincidence, and I have an idea about who might be behind it all. Please, do show me the place, I have an investigation to lead. I'm Odo, by the way, from the Federation station Deep Space Nine, stardate 46380.2, I think that's about year 2372 of the old human calendar."

Odo gave her a look which could have meant anything, but in this case meant that at least, no matter how old the building and strange the situation, at least there were some people here with their head screwed on right and some decent scientific knowledge. He found that at the same time oddly reassuring, and quite worrying if they were still as stuck as he was.

"The United Federation of Planets is..." he started. "Never mind, it probably doesn't even exist here, or not yet, or in such a different way than the one I know that anything I could say would be irrelevant at this point." Then he gave quite a good imitation of a frown (that facial expression he practiced a lot). "You said that there were less than fifty individuals here, yet you have several law enforcement people? That is also either very weird or not that random. And it adds to my theory that this is all orchestrated by someone with a deep disrespect for any kind of order. Lead the way please, I'm curious to see more."

As he walked with her, he pondered over her words. "You are right, I have to learn how to think pan-dimensionally. The society I come from, more accurately the one I've been living in for the past few years, needs only a few guardians of the law for a large population. But I know it is not and was not always the case. Maybe less advanced or lucky civilizations need a lot more enforcers, and are more likely to exist?"

He stopped as they stepped inside to take in the surroundings. He was not used to ancient-Earth buildings, but from what he could tell, this one seemed at the same time eccentric and disappointingly ordinary. Aside from light bulbs and a few simple devices, no real technology was in sight. But there were several people around, all humanoids but not all humans - which was nothing new to him - some of whom were paired with one seeming to explain things to the other, like Kitty was doing with him. "Are these other newcomers?" he asked, with another of his famous frown.

"Now that's another layer for this mystery." Odo said, metaphorically scratching his head as he was too distracted to actually mimic the gesture. "A recurring pattern for intersection with other universes, like a quantum pulsar, could be envisaged, but based on the human calendar cycle with its irregularities and awkward attempts at synchronization every other month and few years? I'm sorry, I can't buy it. Then again, I'm afraid I'll just have to play along for now, as you seem to do."

He forced a smile, not always the most reassuring sight on his wax-mask of a face but the intent was good. "I'm sorry, I'll try not to interrupt. Please show me the next step, since you are obviously used to it. How long have you been here?"

"I see... Actually, I do know of an 'obscenely powerful entity' who would probably be able to do that. And who happens to have sort of an obsession with ancient human cultures. And your list of solutions misses the most likely motivation for it: fun. Anything to get away from the infinite boredom of being all-powerful. The... creature I'm talking about has been known on several occasion to kidnap an entire Federation ship, or some of its senior crew, merely to toy with them. He once threaten to make humanity as a whole disappear, not by killing them all, but by preventing their evolution from the dawn of time. You were only saved after captain Picard pleaded for your very existence in a mock trial... in which several other beings were present, that he described as 'organic versions of a computer simulation. Ring any bell?"

"In my limited experience, the motivations of such powerful beings are always risky to guess. Whatever the name or the actual entity, it might do this just to have us wonder about their motivation. Or possibly to get us out of the way of some other scheme, like a storage dimension, but I'm not that important, I don't see why me, I'm not in charge, nor even an actual officer." He paused, looked at the pretty young human as the realization came down. "What do you mean, 'nothing to do'? Is trying to get out not enough, or that pointless?"

That was a lot to process at once, and he plainly said so, raising a lack of eyebrow. "I'm no technician, but I know that time and dimensional portals require huge amounts of power. Even the biggest dilithium-powered Federation ships wouldn't have enough on their own, and they run on anti-matter conversion!". He looked around once more, feeling more depressed than ever.

"You seem to have a pretty good grasp on technology yourself", he suddenly added. "Yet you speak of magic. Do you mean, actual, supernatural magic? I always thought of it as simply a form of technology more advanced than the viewer's comprehension. In any case, if it didn't work either..."
Trapped. He was trapped all over again, more than he was on his Bajoran test-tube, more than he ever was on a space station. More than on any single planet. He used to have the entire galaxy opened before him, and now the universe was reduced to a crappy human building and a bunch of random solids as trapped as he was?

"Please keep an eye on this for me", he said to kitty as his abdomen - clothes included - suddenly swelled and opened to reveal a strange-looking... bucket? he carefully put at her feet. "It's dear to me but I can't hold it with the surveying shape I need." That said, without a care in the pocket-world for what other people might see or think, he turned into a four-winged scaly creatures, akin to a mythological dragon - if fact a pretty efficient Klingon eagle - and flew out the door and into the dusty sky.