AN: I always thought that Quark seemed as if he was more than we saw in the show. His people couldn't have become so powerful without being great warriors as well. I changed a few things about the storyline. Dax and Worf meet differently, and there are a few aspects of Ferengi and Klingon culture that I've changed slightly. It's AU, but close to cannon.
"I demand a lawyer, or mediator," Odo yelled, but the guard just laughed as he passed his cell. He sat on his cot and tried to ignore the other prisoners yelling various curses at the guard as he left.
Odo didn't adjust well to captivity, and the humiliation of being treated like a criminal had him fuming. His cell was small and squalid, with the smell and refuse of multitudes of prisoners that had come before him. He wasn't surprised to smell stale urine, but he was concerned by what looked a large blood stain on the floor near the entrance.
His mind was more active than it had ever been, trying to put together the pieces of yet another puzzle that the universe liked to throw at him occasionally. He usually enjoyed the challenge, but at the moment he would have settled for anything or anywhere else.
He searched the dingy cell, looking for any way out, and tested the strength of the bars, which were old-fashioned steel - ages behind the technology of DS9, and he thought of that place as an artifact, but his careful scrutiny revealed nothing.
Odo had seen more than most of his friends would have thought possible, and he'd gathered little bits and pieces of skills along the way. One of which was that he could spot the most obscure details. He'd never made any sort of proper study in detective work; it just came natural to him.
He searched the small cell, but the only two exits were the door - which wasn't useful with guards on the other side - and the small window, set so high that it was almost at the ceiling, and the glass was so dingy it let in only a bit of light - definitely not enough to see by.
He leapt up and grabbed the ledge under the window with the edge of his fingers, and he instinctively tried to stretch them so he could find a better handhold. His frustration when his fingers refused to bend to his will only made his anger worse.
Why did they have to turn me into a solid? he thought, but he knew that their judgment was something he couldn't fight. He had killed one of his own kind, and the court of shape shifters knew how to torture him best.
He slipped from the ledge. I couldn't have done anything with that anyway, not in this shape. The stone walls might as well have been ten feet thick and made of steel in his current state. The worst of it was that it would have been so easy before his punishment. The small scratches near the window didn't escape his attention. Someone had tried to dig around the window, obviously with their fingers. The slight marks were bloody.
"Just change shape already," he heard from the only bunk in the room. "Why are you wasting time?" The raspy voice brought his attention back to his other problem - Quark. Quark, as usual was adding to his difficulties, and he would have given almost anything for him not to be here, and not for the usual reasons.
Why him? he wondered. Of all the people to be trapped with, why him?
"You know I can't," Odo said. "We'll just have to find another way out of here."
"We?" asked Quark.
"I'm not leaving you here," Odo said. "I can't."
Quark laughed and then groaned and let out one of those high-pitched Ferengi sounds that drove Odo mad. He held his hand to his bandaged head. "Don't make me laugh. It hurts. What do you mean you can't? Do you want to arrest me so badly you're breaking me out of jail so someone else can't do it?"
"As much as I hate to admit it, you're innocent in this situation, and it wouldn't be just to leave you here."
Far down the corridor of cells they heard a scream, which echoed through the stone halls. Odo shuddered. "I won't leave you behind to be tortured. I'm sure that's what they're doing."
"I know you can change shape," Quark said. "Your scheme was good, but it's time to let it go. I never believed you anyway. It's just another way for you to try to trap me."
"Do you really think you're that important?" Odo asked. "You're a two-bit criminal."
"Then why did you follow me through the worm-hole?" Quark asked.
"That's my business," Odo said. "I never said I was following you. I have my own interests, you know. They just happened to coincide with the time you left the station."
A door opened near them, flooding the gloomy twilight of the cells with blinding light. A guard walked past them, dressed in a simple brown uniform with a green jacket and a few patches on it. Odo didn't recognize the chevron or the other symbol shaped vaguely like a four footed beast of some sort. When the door closed again they were plunged into near darkness, and Odo needed a few moments for his eyes to adjust enough to see the outlines of the cell.
Odo ran to the bars."Wait!" he yelled as the guard passed. His voice was drowned out by the other prisoners with their own questions, protestations of innocence, and curses. The guard popped a plastic stick, allowing a bright light to shine from it, and Odo saw a long line of similar cells, with hands reaching out to the guard, who ignored them all until he unlocked one cell and removed a Romulan prisoner.
He pushed the man ahead of him, and as they passed Odo could just make out his words over the cacophony. "You won't get anything out of me!" From what Odo knew about Romulans he doubted they would.
Quark tried to sit up and sank back onto the bed with a groan. Odo saw his eyes roll back as he passed out, again.
"We need a doctor in here!" Odo yelled, but the loud metal thunk of the door sounded final. Silence fell with the darkness, and then the sound of men and women weeping.
Odo crouched by Quark, touching the side of his neck and feeling for a pulse, but he felt nothing.
No, that's for humans and Cardassians, he thought. Bajorans had a pulse in their arm just above the elbow, but Ferengi?
Those huge ears must need a lot of blood, he thought. Somehow the thought of Quark dying made him feel like he would be losing something. He didn't know what, just a bit of himself that he needed, like a knife needed a whetstone.
He touched the fleshiest part of the ear near the bottom, and at least it was warm, but no pulse. It was hot, actually, and he wondered if that was normal for Ferengi or if Quark had a fever, if he was even alive. Odo ran his finger around the perimeter of the ear and then pressed his finger into the skin just under the eyebrow ridge, running it under the ridge and finally feeling a pulse just below the middle of Quarks ear.
Quark's eyes opened. "If you're going to do that I should at least buy you dinner first. You're really not someone I want Oo-Mox from." In the near darkness Odo saw the sharp teeth as Quark grinned at his own joke.
Odo pulled his hand back quickly as he remembered that touching a Ferengi ears was a sexual advance. He unconsciously wiped his hand on his tunic. "I was checking for a pulse. I thought that such large ears must need a lot of blood."
Quark took Odo's hand and moved it under his chin, where Odo felt a strong, fast pulse. "Don't touch my ears again," Quark said.
"I don't intend to," Odo said "How long were you awake, anyway? You might have said something sooner."
"I thought you were Dax," Quark said. "I heard her voice. It was the best Oo-Mox I've ever gotten, and it had to come from you. Where is Dax? I know I heard her."
"No, it's just me and you," Odo said. "You must be delirious. I don't know anything about Ferengi medicine. What do I need to do?"
"Keep the wound clean and change the bandage regularly," Quark said. "This isn't my first concussion. I'm sure I'll be able to move around by tomorrow or the next day if I don't get an infection."
Odo pulled the "bandage" up, looking at the large wound just above Quark's brow ridge. He could see a couple patches of pale bone underneath where Quark's skull had been exposed. The damage must be under the skull too, he thought. He had torn a strip of fabric from the bottom of his tunic and put it over the wound until the bleeding stopped. Without any way to clean the wound there was dirt and grime mixed in with the dried blood.
"I didn't have any bandages," Odo said. "I had to use part of my shirt. It isn't sterile. That's probably why you have a fever - I guess. I don't know how high a Ferengi's temperature should be."
"Do you have any water?" Quark asked. "It' so hot in here."
"No," Odo said. "I tried to get the guard's attention, but everyone else is too. I'm sure they'll bring some when they feed us."
"Probably," Quark said. "Genoans are known to keep their captives alive, until they kill or torture them.
"You know where we are then?" Odo asked.
"Near Ferenginar," Quark said. "I don't know how we got here, but that guard was Genoan. They don't like to leave their planet. We aren't at war - technically, but they don't like outsiders. Romulan invasions made them xenophobic. We have a lucrative understanding with the Romulans, so we stay out of their clashes. Most of what we know about the Genoans is from centuries ago."
Quark's eyes closed and then jerked open as he struggled against losing consciousness. "I've been here before," Quark said. "Make up a name if they ask about me, or we're both dead."
"Let me guess, you swindled the locals?" Odo asked.
"You really think I'm not capable of anything but crime, don't you?" Quark asked. "I served in the merchant marines for a few years, and that's all you need to know."
"I can believe it," Odo said. When they had stepped out of the runabout into the unfamiliar desert landscape they were immediately attacked by a group of soldiers. Odo had been shocked to see Quark throw off three trained military men and injure several others in hand-to-hand combat before the blow to his head took him down.
And he was good. It didn't fit anything Odo knew about him. He wasn't surprised to see a Ferengi fight like a demon, even if they didn't all squeal like demented demons. For all their scheming and obsession with profit their compact bodies were perfectly built for what humans would call judo. He was surprised to see Quark, who he'd always thought of as a coward, display such bravery and skill.
Merchant marines, he thought.
"That explains what I saw before they captured us," Odo said. "I wondered where you learned to fight like that."
"You held your own," Quark said. "There were just too many of them."
Odo remembered the final kick that Quark had delivered, a powerful roundhouse kick to the chest that had incapacitated one man and pushed him back into another, effectively taking down two enemies at once. His opponent was about two feet taller than Quark too, but that hadn't stopped the Ferengi from an amazing jump that Odo never would have credited to him if he hadn't actually seen it himself.
Quark gulped. "I need water," he said. "It feels like my there's sand in my throat."
"Is that bad?" Odo said.
"Yes," Quark said. "It's bad. I'm dehydrated. I must have lost a lot of blood."
"Head wounds bleed a lot," Odo said.
"Ruined my new suit," Quark mumbled.
Another guard entered the prison, and Odo jumped to the bars, hoping to make himself heard before they were passed by.
"We need a doctor and water!" he yelled. "My friend is dying!"
Friend? he thought as the guard moved on, but the word fit. There were people who respected him, and Kira was close to him, but Quark knew him like no one else.
He reluctantly admitted to himself that Quark was probably going to die. He was sleeping again, but the color had drained from his face, leaving him sickly beige that Odo had never seen on any Ferengi, or on anyone from any race, for that matter.
Odo turned his mind back to escape, but unless he could get someone to open the door there was no way he could think of to even attempt it. He studied the bars absently until he heard Quark stir.
"Odo?" Quark asked weakly.
Odo crouched by the cot. "I'm here," he said.
"I thought you left," Quark said. "I don't want to die alone."
"I told you, I won't leave you here," Odo said.
A metal panel set into the stone in the back of the cell slid upward with a sharp screech, revealing a wooden box inside it, with two tubes and two large plasticine cups.
Odo felt the urge to slip through into the delivery system and cursed as he felt his body refuse him again.
The left tube spit out a pink, texture less mass that coiled into the cup under it, while the right tube poured precious cold water into the other cup.
Odo took the cups, and the panel snapped shut again.
"Quark?" he asked, but Quark didn't answer. He was breathing slowly and evenly.
Odo put the cups down nearby and touched Quark under the chin, finding a pulse that was slower than before, but steady. I have no idea what's normal for him, he thought.
"I have food and water," Odo said.
When Quark didn't move Odo put a finger in the water and touched Quark's lips, hoping to wake him. He sat on the edge of the cot and put an arm under Quark's shoulders, lifting him enough that he could place the edge of the cup against his lips and just let the water touch his mouth.
Quark's eyes opened slightly, and he drank a bit, waking as the water revived him. He lifted a hand toward the cup, but then let it drop again. It seemed to Odo as if he hadn't the strength to even move his hand anymore.
When Odo took the water away after a few frantic gulps, Quark followed the cup with his eyes, trying again to move his hand toward it. "More," he said.
"We need to ration it," Odo said. "I don't need any, but I don't know when they'll send us more."
There were no utensils, so Odo slipped two fingers into the sour smelling pink mush and pulled up a small amount of it. He put it into Quark's mouth, being careful not to cut his fingers on the sharp teeth. After what he'd seen when Quark fought he wondered if the filed down teeth were only for looks.
Quark gagged slightly on the food, but he managed to swallow it. "What is that?" he asked. "It tastes like sour fish."
"It's a nutrient solution that will keep you alive," Odo said. "That's all that matters."
Quark managed several mouthfuls before he told Odo he couldn't eat more, and Odo allowed him a few more sips of precious water before laying him back on the bed.
"I'll find a way to repay you," Quark said.
"It isn't necessary," Odo said. "I'm just doing the right thing."
"I don't want to be in your debt," Quark said.
"Don't worry about things like that right now," Odo said. "Just lie still and try to regain your strength. You're going to need it."
Odo ripped another strip of cloth from his tunic and put a small amount of water on it. He put it on Quark's forehead, and Quark sighed with relief as he fell into a more natural sleep.
Odo didn't even bother looking when the door opened again. He was sitting by the cot and staring at the ground, watching a beetle move around the room while he tried to think of any answer to his problems.
He heard the click of keys and looked up to see a guard unlocking the door, which swung inward with a groaning metal sound. He stepped aside for a woman, a long leggy type that humans would call platinum blonde. Her long hair was tied back into a simple pony-tail, and her light blue skin marked her as from a race unfamiliar to Odo. Her uniform was more complicated than the guards', with medals across her chest and five studs on her sleeve. Even before she spoke Odo knew she was whatever passed for an officer among her people. There was something in the cold, scrutinizing look that she gave Odo that let him know this was the person to impress if he wanted to live.
She pulled out a light-stick and shone it so that Odo was practically blinded. "So we do have two prisoners that aren't Romulan," she said. "You don't look like any race I've ever seen. What race has joined the Romulans this time? You should tell me now and save us both the trouble of having you tortured. They'll never take us."
"We came here by accident," Odo said. "I'm not even sure where we are."
"That's a weak story," she said. "I'm too busy to spend much time here, but the interrogator can spend all the time with you that's necessary. I'm not going easy on any of the Romulan prisoners this time. We had just entered discussions about creating a truce, and I'm going to send a message. Unless you want to be part of that message you'd better start talking, now."
"He's telling the truth," Quark said, his voice sounding stronger after food and rest, but still weak.
"Oh, your friend is awake then?" she asked, moving the light so that it shone on Quark's face. The light stick wavered as her hand shook. "Quark?" she asked.
"You," she said to Odo. "Get to the corner over there and don't move. Guard, keep an eye on him."
She knelt by the cot and shined the light full into Quark's face. He managed to lift an arm across his face to shield himself from the light, but she pulled the arm away and left him blinking blindly into the light.
"It is you," she said. "After all these years I find you here."
"You're thinking of another Ferengi," Quark said. "I've never been here before."
"As if I'd forget your face," she said.
"Guard, get the other one out of here. I'll deal with him later."
Odo protested loudly, but the guard used an electric prod to guide him away from Quark and down the row of cells until they came to one with a lone, bloody Romulan huddled in the corner. The guard left Odo there, and Odo was sure he'd never see Quark again.