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Once upon a time, when the great Hebitian civilization fought the climatic change that struck their world, there lived a Cardassian girl. She was the most virtuous girl on Cardassia Prime, she always did the right thing, her morality never wavered, she never lied and she never cheated. She prayed Oralius and firmly believed that all bad people should be punished.
In fact, she was so good that she had won three gold medals for her extraordinary moral achievements. The first medal said "Supreme Arbiter of Right and Wrong in the Universe", the second one was for "Impeccable Moral Integrity" and the third one stated "Always Right".
The castellan wanted to boost the morale of his nation by setting a positive example so he invited the girl to his palace. The girl put on her best Oralian robe, pinned her three medals to the front and headed for the palace.
On her way to the palace, she had to pass through a sparse wood (there were still woods on Cardassia at that time). A big hungry riding hound was lurking in the wood looking for food. The hound heard the medals clinking together as she was walking and caught a glimpse of her pinkish robe through the trees. The animal's eyes glittered with joy and it thought, "Lunch!"
The hound trotted after the girl, she saw the approaching predator but she could not run fast. Her medals were so heavy that she barely walked under the burden of her virtues. She could throw the medals away, run to the nearest tree, climb up and stay there safe until someone else passed by and chased the animal away.
But she did not. The girl had worked hard for her medals, she had denied herself all simple worldly pleasures, she had sacrificed her life to become a saint and she was not going to abandon them so easily.
The riding hound on the other hand was swift, wiry and starving, it had not eaten for two weeks. It had nothing to lose, it could only gain – weight mostly.
The carnivore got her and ate every single bit of her apart from the three gold medals which were not very palatable. When it finished, the animal licked its muzzle and dozed happily in the sun.
From that day on, Cardassians have stopped putting too much thought into their conscience and they have concentrated on their survival.
