Captain Benjamin Sisko looked up at the time. Two minutes to the end of his watch. He settled back into his chair. "Computer," he called, and the computer beeped in acknowledgment. "Record Captain's log."

"Captain's log, stardate 49273.6. I've taken the Defiant through the wormhole to probe the Dominion's borders. This research will be vital if we ever intend to keep the Dominion out of the Alpha Quadrant. We are currently proceeding under cloak along the border, hoping the Jem'Hadar are unable to see us if we keep our distance."

Sisko looked up again. The watch was over. As the new watch took the bridge, Benjamin left it and walked to his quarters, yawning. It was unexpected good luck that they had found no resistance so far. He hoped it would last.

Miles O'Brien laid down in his cramped bunk. The Defiant's quarters were certainly a long shot from those of the Enterprise or Deep Space Nine, but they were adequate. He could always count on that with the Defiant. Everything was functional, with minimal streamlining or gloss or beauty. But she worked.

The chief engineer was looking forward to a rest. He'd been on watch for hours and was glad to finally leave the engine room. His eyes were beginning to sting.

His combadge beeped. "Bashir to O'Brien."

He sat up on his bunk, grimacing. He took a moment and gathered his thoughts. "O'Brien. What?"

Julian's laughter at O'Brien's tone carried through the com line. "Good night. Bashir out."

Miles let himself fall back down with a sigh of exasperation. "Good night," he muttered, smiling. "Rascal."

Benjamin Sisko was almost thrown out of his bunk by a tremendous jolt. He steadied himself. The inertial dampening fields should have prevented this kind of shock. Before he could begin to theorize, his combadge beeped. "Kira to Sisko."

The captain stood, smoothing his shirt with one hand and answering with the other. "Sisko here."

"Captain, you'd better come to the bridge."

In moments, he arrived, replacing Major Kira Nerys in the command chair. "What happened?"

Commander Eddington turned from his console. "We just gave off an electrical discharge. It was absorbed on the inside of the shields, but it caused a momentary failure in the IDF."

Sisko frowned. This had never happened before, and surprises were never good in the Gamma Quadrant. "Check the sensor logs. How did we get the energy for this discharge?"

Lieutenant Mincai, the science officer on duty, stared at his console. "Unknown, sir. The entire ship was just – ionized. All at once."

"No other unusual readings?"

"We also took a light dose of beta radiation at the same moment."

"Beta radiation? Don't our shields reflect that?"

"Yes, sir. I…I can't explain."

"That can't be a coincidence. Any idea how they were related?"

Mincai hesitated, holding his breath. After a second, he exhaled heavily. "No, sir."

Sisko opened the shipwide intercom. Clearly he'd need more experienced officers to explain this. "All senior staff to the bridge."

Worf was in a foul mood. His rest had been interrupted by a tremor that had knocked him out of his bunk, a clear sign of weakness to his bunkmate. He had been angry when he had discovered a small wound on his cranial ridge, but now he would have to display and explain it in front of the entire senior staff. He stormed onto the bridge, barely keeping himself from shoving his counterpart out of his seat. He shifted uneasily as Major Kira explained the occurrences and correlated them with the sensor readings. He kept his head bowed over his console to hide his bleeding.

The captain turned in his chair as Kira finished her debriefing. "Doctor," he called, beckoning Bashir with a gesture. "Is the radiation anything to worry about?"

Julian took a quick glance at the sensor readings and turned back to Captain Sisko. "It's nothing. Barely more than background radiation, certainly no cause for worry. But what about the ionization?"

Jadzia Dax glanced back at Bashir before turning to Sisko again. "Medically, no problem. It discharged and didn't even touch us. Otherwise, I don't know. There's no indication what caused this."

"Not even theoretically?" Benjamin was beginning to worry. With this little information, he was contemplating dropping to impulse until they understood what was going on.

"I read about something like this," O'Brien piped up, "predicted with warp field flux. It was in an analysis of articulated warp nacelles, for the Intrepid-class."

"How could something like that happen?"

"I have no idea. For the effect to hit the ship itself, we'd have to have a serious frequency discrepancy in our nacelles, but I'm reading alignment well within safety limits."

"Or," Dax offered hesitantly, "another warp field inside our own."

"From another ship?" O'Brien asked. "Impossible. We would've seen them on sensors."

"They couldn't be cloaked," Kira reasoned. "We'd still detect them moving at warp."

"Wait…" Odo's gravelly voice exclaimed. "This can't be."

"What?" Kira was the first to respond.

"The center of the warp field would have had to be inside the Defiant."

"What? How?" Sisko stood up and turned to face the changeling.

"I don't know, but that's what these calculations show."

Benjamin shook his head and sat back down. "Maybe we're going about this the wrong way. Are there any other explanations?"

Dax shrugged. "I can't think of any."

"Some kind of weapon?"

"I doubt it." Worf looked up. "It would have had to come from outside our sensor range, and remain undetectable during its entire flight."

"Could that have been cloaked?" Kira asked.

"Possibly, but how did it get through the navigational deflectors without being noticed?" O'Brien said.

Kira shook her head in puzzlement. Dax puffed out her cheeks and deflated them again. Worf simply sat still, and suddenly turned toward Sisko. "I have an explanation."

"A phasing cloak? I suppose it's possible, but… I didn't know anyone had made one." O'Brien looked at Worf. "I missed more than I thought in the Enterprise's last years."

"Could it be the Dominion?" Sisko asked.

"I don't think so. If they had had cloaking devices like that, they would have used them before." Odo replied.

"All right, then. Someone – something else. What? Why? And is it a danger to us?"

"Good question," Jadzia sighed. "Wish I had an answer."

Kira looked up. "Sir, a general hail on a low frequency. Can't pinpoint the source."

Sisko thought for a moment. It could be a Dominion trap, or it could be the answer to their questions. He looked around him. The Defiant was a fast, strong ship. If it was an ambush, she could take it. "Acknowledge. On screen."

The major hesitated a moment, then turned back to Sisko. "Audio only."

"All right. Put it through."

A voice came through the audio projectors on the bridge, calm, almost monotonous, almost dead. "Drelgar to unknown hidden ship. Identify yourself." Despite its tranquility, the voice was slightly rough.

Sisko took a deep breath. "This is Captain Sisko of the Federation Starship Defiant. You seem to be in Dominion space."

"You are of the Dominion." The sentence was as much accusation as question. Somehow it reminded Benjamin of the Cardassian courts, where the defendant was convicted before the trial began.

"No. We are probing its borders."

"We shall see."

"Sir, a ship uncloaking above us. It's… the size of a runabout." Worf tensed, as he did every time an unknown vessel appeared.

The voice addressed them again. "You will show yourself and follow."

Sisko hesitated. He could be putting his ship in danger. He took another breath and spoke. "Uncloak and raise shields. Turn to 004 mark 96. Match the other ship's speed."

"Aye, sir." Dax acknowledged. "Proceeding at warp 5."

"Warp 5?" Doctor Bashir sighed. "This is going to be a long trip."

Four hours into the voyage, Ensign Philips at the helm turned to Commander Eddington, the officer of the watch. "Jem'Hadar ship on long-range sensors. Approaching at warp 8."

Eddington tapped his combadge. "Arm weapons and raise shields. Captain Sisko to the bridge."

A few moments later, Sisko reappeared. "What's the matter, Commander?"

"Jem'Hadar ship approaching at warp 8, sir. Weapons are armed. The alien ship has cloaked."

"Drop shields and cloak. Cut power to all non-essential systems. Drop to impulse."

The continuous humming of the warp core dropped, both in pitch and volume, as the Defiant faded from view. "Cloaked." Ensign Philips reported. "Impulse power."

"What's the Jem'Hadar's ETA?"

"3 minutes, sir. Sensors are limited. We're in a nebula."

"All right."

"Sir! The alien ship has decloaked. It's less than a minute from the Jem'Hadar."

"What the hell are they doing?" Sisko was surprised by his own shout. "That ship's too small to stand a chance against the Jem'Hadar."

"The ship's recloaked." Ensign Philips paused, then turned so fast he almost threw himself off his chair. "Sir, the Jem'Hadar ship was destroyed."

"Destroyed? How?"

"I don't know, sir."

Sisko let out a deep breath. Too many mysteries were accumulating. He hoped that a few of them would be resolved before they were driven off, or killed. "Uncloak and disarm weapons. Hail the alien ship."

"Responding, sir. Audio only."

"Put them through."

The voice, just as it had been before, reappeared. "Yes?"

Sisko shifted in his seat nervously. "What happened to the Jem'Hadar ship?"

"It was destroyed."

"Did you destroy it?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"We have no time for this. Follow."

The alien ship uncloaked and led them on.

The trip was complete after another half-hour. The Defiant orbited the eighth planet of a red giant star. Dr. Bashir had overestimated the trip, but he still felt tired. He could only imagine how O'Brien must have felt, staying up an extra three hours before giving up on detecting the phased cloak. He was relieved when Sisko only called Dax, Odo, and Worf on the landing party. He turned control back to the medical officer on watch and went to sleep.

Odo walked to the transporter room. He stepped on the transporter pad, waiting for the others. They weren't long in arriving. Sisko grinned at them and nodded at the transporter operator. "Energize."

Worf started when they rematerialized. The four of them were surrounded by tall, black-armored humanoids with spherical helmets. They stood in a small, flat, gray area in the midst of a gray city. It would've been a park if it weren't for the lack of vegetation. Odo immediately turned to liquid and slid down into a drain, a seemingly involuntary act. Dax turned, startled. "Odo!"

The aliens stood motionless, yet managed to seem deadly and threatening. Worf took advantage of the moment to analyze their armament. Each was armored with a thin, flexible material, and rigid metal casings around their forearms and backs. The casings were irregular and complex, probably to confuse enemies as much as to serve many purposes. On their backs, they carried long tubes reminiscent of personal missile launchers, and they held what was probably a phaser rifle in their hands. Finally, one of the armored figures stepped forward and spoke. "You are of the Dominion."

Worf stepped forward, baring his teeth at the slander. "No."

The figure continued, seemingly oblivious to the Klingon's comments. "You travel with changelings."

"But –" Dax interjected, but was cut off.

The alien raised its phaser rifle towards Dax. "You will die."

The first thing Odo felt when he materialized was an overwhelming nausea. He couldn't help but melt into his liquid form, and he felt himself pour down a drain. By the time he recovered, he was in a force-field-sealed holding cell. The room was pitch black, and though he could feel the force fields, he didn't know how large the room was. There was even a force field as a floor – so he couldn't be sure it was a room. He soon had little choice but to sit in a corner and wait for his friends to find him. He hated this helplessness. Living with humanoids so long, he was used to being more mobile and stealthy than anyone could anticipate. His entrapment frightened him, though he was loath to admit it. The best he could do was hope for Sisko to find him soon.

Sisko stepped in front of Dax, his arms extended parallel to the ground. "Wait. Listen."

The alien paused, then lowered its rifle. "Speak."

"We are enemies of the Dominion, who were probing its borders when we found your ship. It led us here."

"Yet you have a changeling in your midst. Did you not know this?"

"We did. The changeling is not a Dominion spy – he was sent out as an infant to gather information on other areas of the galaxy. He has no love for his kind."

"He cannot be trusted on your word alone. We will transport him aboard your ship when you depart. Until then, he shall be kept prisoner."

Sisko grimaced, but he knew he had no choice. "So be it."

The alien turned around and began to walk down a street. "You will follow."

The three officers reluctantly complied, and soon found themselves in front of a low, rectangular building. The door opened and they proceeded past two columns of twelve guards each before finding another armored alien standing at the end of the corridor. He didn't budge as he spoke. "I am Hekkat. I am told you oppose the Dominion."

Sisko smiled slightly, happy that they finally understood. "Yes. I take it you do as well."

"Yes. These comrades of yours can be trusted?"

"They can. This is Lt. Commander Worf, my strategic officer, and Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax, my science officer."

"You, too, are able to conceal yourselves."

"True, but before we get to technical details, I would like to know who you are."

"We are Kredaile."

"Kredaile?"

"The Predators."

Barely half an hour had passed before the planet began to shake from an orbital bombardment. The Kredaile leader rushed back to his military readouts. Looking back up at the visitors, he said only one word. "Jem'Hadar."

Sisko leapt up, tapping his communicator. "Sisko to Defiant, three to beam up!" He paused for a moment. Nothing happened.

The alien leader straightened. "We have a jamming field in place to prevent Jem'Hadar from beaming in. We will send you in a shuttle. La'kec, take them."

One of the guards turned and took off at a lope, with the three visitors in tow. Almost as soon as they had left the building, Jadzia paused. "We can't leave without Odo. I'll get him and catch up with you at the shuttle." She turned to their guide. "Which way?" He pointed diagonally behind himself and she dashed off.

As Sisko and Worf continued towards the shuttle, they could see, off to their left, the orbital bombardment closing in on them. The Klingon was puzzled as the buildings fell much more quickly than he would have guessed, until he saw one collapsed a few blocks away. It was fake. He admired these Kredaile – their ingenuity might save them from the relentlessness of the Jem'Hadar. However, he had to take care of Sisko and the Defiant first.

Suddenly, he caught sight of small craft flying in towards the city, glowing bright purple. Even without the color scheme, their shape and focused speed identified them. He pointed them out to his guide and took cover behind a building. "I will distract them. Get the Captain to the Defiant." He drew his phaser and took aim.

Sisko and his guide continued alone, running through the streets with the Jem'Hadar and their airships close behind them. They reached the shuttles, and the alien leapt into one, followed by Sisko. The guard paused. "We wait for your comrades."

Sisko was about to agree when he looked up and saw the airships above them. "No, we go!" The craft took off, barely avoiding a carpet of bombs that destroyed three more landed shuttles. "Take me to Worf. He's in the most danger."

The pilot brought the shuttle to a quick but smooth stop on top of one of the false buildings. Worf was fighting in the street below. Benjamin stepped out of the shuttle and fired his phaser into an attacking Jem'Hadar, shouting, "Worf! Up here!"

Worf turned and leapt up the building, digging his fingers into the soft walls and climbing. The Kredaile soldiers gave him covering fire, seemingly unconcerned about their own safety. The Klingon reached the shuttle and it took off again, passing under the airships headed in the opposite direction.

Captain Sisko didn't sit down, instead standing behind the pilot. "Release the changeling who came with us. We need him back." The pilot banked and flew towards the holding cell.

Odo heard part of the force field cell deactivate and quickly reformed himself into humanoid form. A light turned on from a corridor, and he could see an armored alien and Lt. Commander Dax standing in it. He quickly walked out on Jadzia's beckoning, and she nearly ran out and up to the street. Odo followed her just in time to see Jem'Hadar airships pass overhead and send a stick of bombs down on the building next to her. It buckled and fell, blocking her way.

The changeling could see a shuttle coming in for a landing behind the building. He ran to the wreckage and seeped through it, reaching the shuttle. The shuttle pilot glanced up, noting a squadron of airships closing in. "We must go."

Sisko looked at the building's rubble, then back at the pilot. "But – Dax!"

Jem'Hadar began to land around the shuttle's position. The pilot looked up again, pressing the urgency of the situation without breaking her calm. "We must go or we will be destroyed."

Benjamin gripped the back of the pilot's seat. "Give her one chance!"

As Dax rounded a different corner and came running towards the shuttle, Odo spotted too late a Jem'Hadar sniper aiming at her. He called out a warning, but none of the shuttle's occupants had time to act. The sniper fired.

A passing soldier swept his arm and clipped Jadzia's legs, sending her to the ground at the last instant. The sniper's shot dispersed harmlessly on the ground less than a meter from the Trill's feet. The alien helped her up with one arm, firing on the Jem'Hadar with the other.

The shuttle pilot took off, barely evading a stick of bombs and twisting tightly through thick crossfire. "We go. Now."

Jadzia took cover behind a building, and signaled the soldier to follow her. As he flattened against the wall, phaser rifle pointed diagonally at the floor, she drew her phaser. "I need to get to Hekkat," she said, lunging forward to shoot a Jem'Hadar rounding the corner.

"Very well. Follow." He ran around another corner of the building and fired, clearing the way for a few seconds. Dax came up behind him and they ducked into a door next to the building. It contained a turbolift, which led them under the decoy buildings and across the city to an enormous cavern.

The structure was clearly artificial, and the surfaces plated and polished. If she hadn't felt their descent, Jadzia would've said they were inside a building, or perhaps a starship. Her companion stopped and looked over his shoulder at her. "Welcome to the city of Kzar."

Hekkat, distinguishable by a small green circle on his helmet, stepped out of a doorway. He nodded at the Trill. "You must be returned to your ship."

"Yes," she replied. "If you lower the jamming field for just a few moments, I –"

"The jamming field will remain. Find another way."

"Well, I could use a shuttle to –"

"The Jem'Hadar would shoot you down."

"Or a cloaked ship –"

"The ships are not ready."

Dax exhaled, slumping her shoulders. "All right. Another way. Tell me about this jamming field."

Hekkat nodded at the soldier who had brought her, then turned and reentered the building from which he had emerged. The soldier led her off into the city.

Captain Sisko stepped onto the Defiant's bridge, followed by Worf. Major Kira looked up and, for a moment, was surprised Dax was missing. Then she remembered what Sisko had reported as his shuttle had approached: "Dax is stuck down there. There might not be a way out."

There was no time to worry, though. The Jem'Hadar were closing, and the Kredaile shuttle was vulnerable. Sisko was giving orders, making up for the time lost in retrieving him from the shuttle. "Send the shuttle to the far side of the planet. Kira, keep tabs on all the Jem'Hadar ships. Let me know if any get close to the shuttle. Ensign Philips, attack pattern omega."

The Defiant swerved upwards and flipped, descending on the tailing Jem'Hadar ship with phasers blasting. The attack caught them off guard and the ship erupted in a ball of fire. Two quantum torpedoes flashed out of their launchers as the Defiant passed the remainder of the six-ship hexagonal formation and flipped again to face the lead. The two torpedoes struck the second ship in the formation, one on its weapons, and the other on one impulse engine. The shock forced the ship out of formation, sliding dangerously close to the other ships. The squadron broke formation just as the Defiant passed, firing on the lead ship. The intensity of fire overloaded the ship's shields and cracked it in two.

Sisko released the breath he'd held throughout the maneuver. "Leave orbit and cloak, then come around the planet to the shuttle."

Kira looked up. "Sir," she exclaimed, "the shuttle's returning to the surface."

Sisko paused. The jamming field around the planet had probably already enveloped the shuttle. "Maintain orbit." He tapped his communicator. "Sisko to Odo. I need you on the bridge."

"On my way. Odo out."

When the shapeshifter arrived, Sisko gestured for Worf's attention. "We can't just leave Dax down there. Odo, assemble a rescue team. As many people as you need. It's at your discretion entirely. Worf, I want a plan. Again, use your discretion. Go."

Worf spun and marched off the bridge with an approving growl, happy to be doing something. Odo followed him out calmly.

Jadzia Dax exhaled sharply, bracing herself with both hands against the computer console. "I don't see a way to cut through this field." She looked over at the soldier who had accompanied her. "May I have the honor of knowing why I'm stuck down here?"

The Kredaile turned. "You do not understand Dominion transporters. If we were to drop the field or weaken it, their transporters would be able to send thousands of Jem'Hadar to the surface in a few seconds. That is unacceptable."

"Isn't there some other way of blocking their transporters?"

"It is possible to use directed interference. It will last no more than ten seconds."

"That's enough. Get me to the surface, and let's do it."

The turbolift doors snapped open, and the soldier entered the commands on the lift's control panel, nodding to Dax. She stepped out of the doorway, tapping her combadge. It beeped acknowledgement.

"Dax to –" she was cut off, ducking under Jem'Hadar phaser blasts. The Trill quickly took cover behind the rubble of a building and tapped her badge again. "Dax to Defiant. One to beam up." She shimmered blue and began to fade.

The interference field snapped on automatically, blocking Dominion transport. Jadzia's transporter beam began to pulsate, then finally rematerialized her on the surface. As she recovered from the shock of a failed transport, a Jem'Hadar fired. She barely ducked out of the way, but the resulting blast threw a large metal fragment into her shoulder. She cried out in pain and fell down.

In an instant, the soldier was by her side, dragging her to cover. He began to inspect the Trill's wound when he heard the sound of a bouncing grenade. Looking up, he saw a white-glowing Dominion grenade adhering to the ground two meters from Jadzia. It had less than a second before detonation. He leapt on top of it, shielding her from the blast.

Jadzia looked across the rubble as the soldier's body flopped along it like a doll. She shivered. Despite her Starfleet training, it was never easy to watch someone die at close quarters. But there was no time to think. She didn't know whether he was dead; his armor had seemed impenetrable just moments before. Dax hauled herself up to her feet and dashed over to his body, keeping the Jem'Hadar's heads down with a few phaser bursts. She rolled the soldier onto his back and noticed that his armor was torn. It left much of his upper torso unprotected, and had caused a crack in the helmet, which had fallen off. She caught her first glimpse of a Kredaile face, and was struck by its resemblance to humans'.

The soldier glanced over towards the turbolift, but the grenade had wrecked it. He detached a grappling cable from his arm and fired it into the air. Far above them, it hooked onto the wing of a Jem'Hadar airship. He handed the cable to Jadzia and slumped down into the rubble. "Go."

Dax looked at the cable and knew she had to think quickly. She took the device and then grabbed the soldier by the torso with her unhurt left arm. Before he could react, they were whipped into the air. She swung back and forth two times, then flipped over and on top of the airship, landing on the cockpit. Using her phaser to blast the door off, she fell in as best she could. The Kredaile seized the pilot and threw him out the door as Jadzia shot the copilot. The two cleared the cockpit and took control of the ship.

The Trill winced as she steadied the ship. "So where are we going?"

"Kzar's shuttles were destroyed. We will fly to Plektag. It is a small city which the Jem'Hadar will not yet have bothered with. They will have shuttles."

"All right," Jadzia said, again wincing as she tried to sit back in her chair. "But let's get our wounds taken care of."

The Kredaile quickly engaged the autopilot and removed the emergency medkit from the cockpit ceiling. Despite Dax's protests, he insisted on treating her first. She had to grit her teeth to stay still as the soldier removed the shrapnel. He spoke as he treated her with a dermal regenerator. "I… I must thank you."

Jadzia paused. In the hours she'd spent discussing, researching, and fighting with the Kredaile, not once had any of them stuttered. Nor had they ever expressed thanks. This was obviously an unusual situation. "Why?"

The soldier took a deep breath. "You saved my life. Any Kredaile would have left me behind as a burden. When I leapt on the grenade, I knew I was condemning myself to death."

"Then why did you do it?"

"Your life was more valuable. I am simply a Kredaile soldier among millions. You are a senior officer on the Starfleet installation closest to us. Your Federation's friendship was worth more than another blade and phaser."

"Why wouldn't your friends have saved you? If I could with a wounded arm, I'm sure it would've been easy for them."

"You do not understand the Kredaile. We are soldiers. We cannot have friends in the ranks, or we risk compromising operations with personal feelings. My comrades would not have saved me because I would not be worth the risk." He pulled on his armor to show his torso. A fragment of the grenade had pierced through the thick, scaly skin on his upper chest and punctured something. A large stream of blood pulsed over the shrapnel, dying it pink. "My right heart is dead. I am a Var'dek – a fragile soldier. Fragile soldiers are too cautious. I cannot fight, so I am useless to my people."

Dax frowned, concerned by the parallels she saw with Klingon culture. If this man had been Klingon, he would have asked for a ritual suicide to ensure his death was honorable. She could only hope Kredaile beliefs were less draconian. "So what will you do?"

"I can no longer serve my people directly. Perhaps I can assist by association, through your Starfleet."

"Despite your… uselessness? In my experience with warrior races, the useless tend to die, by their own hand or others'."

The Kredaile shook his head. "You still do not understand. We are an efficient people. If there is nothing to be lost in letting me live, I live. I even believe there is still something to be gained through my existence."

"So you intend to return with me to the Alpha Quadrant."

"I do."

"It will be an important event, bringing a new ally back. Could I at least know the name of this event?"

"I presume you mean my name."

"Yes."

The Kredaile lifted Dax to her feet and handed her the medkit. "Ervan."

Within a few minutes, the hijackers reached Plektag. They landed the ship and asked the town leader for a shuttle. He agreed after warning them of the Jem'Hadar ships still in orbit. "The other ship cloaked an hour ago. It hasn't been seen since then."

"They'll be there," Dax asserted. "Waiting for me."

"Very well. Take shuttle three. Good luck."

The shuttle took off, and emerged from the atmosphere on the other side of the planet from the Jem'Hadar. Dax hailed the Defiant, but received no acknowledgement. After a few tries, she stopped transmitting, afraid of attracting the Jem'Hadar's attention.

Ervan, his armor replaced, widened the shuttle's orbit. "I presume the best course of action is to return to the wormhole," he said, "but this shuttle has neither the range nor the speed to make that possible. We will need to take a fighter."

"Where can we get one?"

"We could dock at the station, but it is unarmed. To drop the cloak would be to invite a Jem'Hadar attack."

"Isn't there some way to keep them busy?"

"Our raiding parties could destroy the Jem'Hadar. They are on their way back, and will arrive in another half-hour."

"So we have to hold out until then."

"That will not be so simple." Ervan pointed at his sensor screen. The Jem'Hadar were coming around the planet. "They've found us."

As the Kredaile powered the shuttle to evade the Jem'Hadar, Dax began to input commands at her station. "What's our armament?"

"Light armor, navigational deflectors, lasers against meteor showers."

"Lasers? We don't stand a chance!"

"They will not destroy us."

"Why not?"

The soldier inflated his chest proudly. "The Dominion has never captured a Kredaile. They have never even seen inside our armor. They will want to study me, given we can put up little resistance."

"Will they transport us?"

"No, our hull is opaque to their sensors. They would use the tractor beam."

"Would. You don't intend to let them."

"I would rather die than become a prisoner of the Dominion. You would not?"

"I don't know what they do to prisoners."

"You'd rather not find out." Ervan pressed a button on his armor and his helmet retracted into his backpack. He grinned at Jadzia as he flipped the shuttle down towards the planet. "But they'll have to catch us first."

The navigational deflectors surged as they sliced through the planet's atmosphere, leaving a sonic boom in their wake. Ervan had to shout over the noise. "The jamming field should disrupt their tractor beam lock."

Dax nodded, cautioning, "We can't get too low, though, or those airships will be all over us."

The shuttle dodged and swerved over the planet's surface, using the Jem'Hadar ships' huge size and inertia to outmaneuver them. True to the soldier's prediction, they never fired a shot. Twenty minutes into the chase, Jadzia shouted, "We have to leave the atmosphere! Navigational deflectors are going to fail!"

Ervan simply nodded and pulled up into space. As the Jem'Hadar ships emerged from the atmosphere, light blue gas rolling off their shields, they accelerated. They had regained the advantage. The Kredaile explained. "Our jamming field stops their transmissions as well as it stopped yours. They couldn't coordinate while in the atmosphere. Up here, though, they can use their numbers against us. I'll do my best, but they'll catch us eventually."

"If 'eventually' is ten minutes from now, it doesn't matter."

"I'm not confident about more than eight, but it won't do any good debating it." Ervan engaged full power to the engines, skirting the atmosphere and trying to hide behind the planet.

The Jem'Hadar deployed in a tetrahedral formation, moving to try to trap the shuttle. The Kredaile kept it out of their grasp for seven minutes, but he eventually found himself in the middle of a cage whose bars were tightening. The destroyers, scarab-like and threatening, closed upon them as predators. "Dax," Ervan said, calling the Trill's attention away from the frightening sight. "Listen carefully. On my signal I want you to give me white noise on all subspace frequencies. That might interfere long enough for us to escape, for a minute or two."

"All right. I'm ready."

The soldier took a deep breath and exhaled it sharply. "Now!" The shuttle lunged forward, slipping through one face of the tetrahedron. However, before he could make good his escape, one of the destroyers seized him in a tractor beam. As they felt the lurch, Ervan slumped forward in defeat. He stood up and began entering commands to the engine behind them.

Jadzia looked up from her console, asking, "What are you doing? We can't just give up!"

"We aren't," Ervan replied, "but we have to be ready for the worst. I'll wait until we enter their shields. Then I will set the reactor to detonate."

"That gives us another 20 seconds. Maybe 30."

The Kredaile seized Jadzia by the shoulders. "Dax," he said, "I'm frightened." He squeezed her shoulders a little. "May I?"

Jadzia paused a second, then realized what he meant. She smiled as best she could and stood. "Of course."

Ervan grasped her to him, closing his eyes. "Thank you."

The Trill thought she felt a tear soaking into the shoulder of her uniform when a sudden jolt rocked the ship. Immediately both of them were back in their seats. "The destroyer released its tractor beam."

The Kredaile smiled, pointing out the viewport. Two dozen craft not much larger than runabouts were uncloaking. "It's the fighters." He flew the shuttle through the fighters' formation as they began to swarm the Jem'Hadar.

As soon as it became clear that the fighters were keeping the Jem'Hadar busy, a large, obtuse cone rippled into view. Ervan wiped away what Jadzia was now sure had been a tear. "The station. We're safe."

The Kredaile landed the shuttle in the station's main shuttlebay, and opened a channel to the surface. The Jem'Hadar ships had been destroyed, allowing the planet to drop its jamming field. He spoke to Hekkat. "The Starfleet failed to retrieve Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax and their ship has disappeared. In my opinion, we should take her through the wormhole."

Hekkat nodded. "She will take a fighter. A squadron or a heavier ship may be too conspicuous. The mission will require experience – Ka'rech is to assemble a Class 1 crew."

"I will volunteer."

"You are qualified, but why?"

"I believe both we and the Starfleet could benefit from better understanding. I propose to become our representative and expert in the Alpha Quadrant."

"Why should we use a Class 1 pilot when any of us would be sufficient?"

"I am no longer a pilot. I am a Var'dek."

Hekkat bowed his head. "How?"

"I shielded the Starfleet's officer from a grenade. Shrapnel to the right heart."

He sighed. "Very well. Proceed."

As Ervan turned back to Dax, she looked at him with a smug grin. "Are you sure that's the only reason?" He raised his eyebrows slightly and smirked, bowing his head in silent concession. She chuckled lightly, amused. "I thought you said you couldn't have friends."

The soldier crossed his arms in front of his legs, his left hand grasping his right wrist. "Perhaps I… exaggerated. We do have emotions; thus, it is unavoidable to make friends. But we keep them as far as possible from our work. It is expected for Kredaile to avoid military assignment with friends."

"But you volunteered for assignment with me."

"That is – a different matter. I am no longer a soldier."

The Trill could no longer help but laugh at his obvious discomfort. She put her hand on his shoulder. "It's not as different as you think."

The two soon arrived at the airlock to their assigned fighter, the Zadt. The ship was cramped, tapering from a standing height at the rear gunner's station to a reclined sitting height at the helm, four meters away. The ship was barely 2 meters across, but the passageway between the pilot and rear gunner was only one meter wide. It was flanked on either side by bunks, engineering access panels, and doors. One led to an escape pod, which contained the airlock, and the other to a lavatory. Ervan opened the door, beckoning Dax inside. "This is a three-person ship. Our last crewmember will arrive in half an hour, and we will depart. The trip will last two days. From the medical libraries transferred from your ship, we believe everything you will need is here, but if that is not so, it can be corrected."

Dax glanced around. "It looks adequate."

"Good."

"Now," the Trill said, closing the airlock, "since we have some time alone, I have a question to ask."

Ervan nodded. "Certainly."

She sat down on one of the bunks, waiting for him to do so as well before continuing. She looked him up and down, bemused. "Don't you ever take your armor off?"

"Only when sleeping, and even then only when we're safe."

"Why would you wear it on naval missions? Your shields serve you better than your armor."

"It is traditional. We do not show ourselves to enemies."

"I think you're safe taking it off. You should be more comfortable without it, and you must admit it serves little purpose here."

Ervan's shoulders relaxed, but his face still showed concern. "It is not frequently done."

Dax shrugged, smiling. "So? Try something new. You've already done a few unusual things today."

"Very well." Ervan sighed, standing up and pressing a release button. His armor unsealed along his right arm and peeled off. Underneath, he wore a thin, powder-blue tunic and pants that seemed to inflate as he released them from the armor's tight fit. He set the armor in his bunk and sat down, visibly relaxed. "I don't believe that was your question."

"No." Jadzia paused, as if bracing herself for something. "Back on the shuttle, when we were taken by the tractor beam, your actions surprised me."

"Ah?" he tilted his head slightly. "You did not object to my actions."

"No, but they don't fit my experience of warrior races."

Ervan looked puzzled. "I would predict almost any warrior race would do the same in my situation. We were going to be taken prisoner."

"Most of them would try to look brave."

"And not do what they could to continue fighting? It seems to me almost any soldier would rig the reactor under similar circumstances. You have nothing to lose, but you can rob your enemy of their prisoners and, possibly, their ship, simultaneously."

"No, no – that's not what I meant."

The soldier paused. For a moment, he simply sat with his brow furled, unmoving. Then his eyes widened slightly. "Oh. The embrace."

"Yes. I haven't met a single warrior species, from the Klingons to the Jem'Hadar, who would show fear at such a time."

"But… from what I understand, they are susceptible to emotion. Is fear an exception?"

"No. They feel fear, but they do not show it."

"Why not?"

"They see it as a weakness. They feel it would keep them from glory."

"Glory? What is that?"

Jadzia was surprised. She thought for a moment, puffing her cheeks out and letting her breath slowly leak out. "It's difficult to explain. It's a feeling of… pride, and honor… associated with skillful victory. But it's more complicated than that."

"In what way?"

"Easy victories are not glorious; they have to be hard-won. In addition, there is personal glory, which increases as more of the battle hinges on your decisions. However, it is also felt that personal involvement, engaging the enemy directly and not through command, is more glorious."

"I see. And this is important to them."

"Yes. Klingon culture, for example, centers on glory."

"They must make pitiful soldiers. If all the Klingons want to be heroic captains, no one will be left to guard their conquests or plan logistics or… fix the engines."

"They've often encountered such problems."

"That's not surprising."

"So you have no reservations about your fear? None at all?"

"No."

"And your actions?"

"I had come to the conclusion that there was nothing further I could do at the moment, but I was frightened. I decided I needed to do something to lessen my fear in order to be able to respond quickly if necessary."

Jadzia tried in vain not to smile. "So it had nothing to do with me. It was simply logical to hug your copilot."

He looked down, again caught off guard. "No, I – I also supposed that you, with similar emotions and different training, would be even more frightened. Also, you are a… a comforting individual. Both in appearance and in action."

The Trill smiled. "Is that a way of telling me I'm beautiful?"

Ervan bowed his head, conceding the point. "Yes."

"Thank you. I've never heard it in quite that way before."

"We still have a great deal to learn from one another." He laid down in the bunk, still looking at her. "Tell me… about peace. How does it feel? What do you do?"

"You've never been at peace?"

"Not in my lifetime. The Dominion has been here for centuries and isn't about to go away."

"Well, what we do is up to us. Each of us does what we want to."

"But there are still duties to be done. Are there people who want to do everything?"

"No, but they get done anyway. Since there are things that no one wants to do, we make them worth people's while by paying them."

"Paying… yes, I've heard of this kind of activity in the Dominion. Money is an odd thing to my people. It seems to be as bad for peace as glory is for victory."

"Sometimes, but usually we can get along peacefully with it. There are few who would really break the peace for money."

"I see that if I intend to live in the Alpha Quadrant, I have much to adapt to."

"I'm sure you'll be able to. You'll probably stay at least a few days on the station when we first go through the wormhole. While you're there, I'd be happy to help you adjust."

Ervan smiled and relaxed. "Thank you. I'm sure your help will be invaluable."

Jadzia laid down on her bunk, but before she could close her eyes, she heard the hiss of the airlock. Both she and Ervan got up, letting the soldier pass.

The Kredaile turned to them, and Dax noticed she was female. "I am Gesp." She looked almost blank. "I will be pilot. Ervan will be front gunner, and… Dax, rear."

Ervan nodded. "Very well."

"Rest." Gesp gestured at the bunks. "I will pilot first."