2. A Cardassian Twilight.

AROUND eighteen hours after they had set course for Amleth Damar announced that they were receiving an inbound transmission that was pegged for Dukats ears only "Sir, the message is originating from Cardassia Prime. It's for your ears only. Do I break radio silence and let you receive the message, or should I ignore it, continue on with our silent running?" Dukat headed towards the captains ready room just off of the bridge. "No Damar it is ok, I'll take the message in my office. Please patch it through to my console there." "Yessir" said Damar who was plainly surprised Dukat would be taking calls during a self imposed blanketing on radio transmissions that he himself had ordered. Dukat entered the cramped ready room his last glimpse of the bridge was his confused looking XO putting the call through for him. Dukat knew who the caller was before he picked the message, although he was surprised to be receiving a call here and now as no communications had been prescheduled.

Dukat answered the hail and saw the face of his old friend Legate Turkino who now unenviably had Dukats old job of being chief military advisor to a Detapa council seemingly determined to shun any military advice whatsoever, Dukat knew that despite the excellent salary the position offered, Turkino found it as unfulfilling and frustrating as he had done. "Skrain! Sorry to disrupt your ongoing mission to be the galaxy's number one scourge of the Klingons, but I have a little mission for you if you're interested. We picked up sensor readings that the IKC Gespagh, one of the Klingons Negh'Vah class command ships was seen in orbit of the third moon of El-Gatark 6. It appears that the command ship appears to be coordinating some sort of fleet exercise where it is deploying some kind of weapon on the surface of the planetoid in question. It doesn't look like the ship is so far engaged in combat operations, but we'd like to check out what the Klingons are up too in greater detail and that, my friend is where you come in. Our ships can't get too close to that cruiser without risking destruction or severe damage, let alone the danger of being spotted performing espionage. The Gespagh; she packs a mean punch after all. Not to mention that she is supported by other vessels as well. A Cardassian cruiser wouldn't fare too well against odds like that. But if, say we had a rogue Cardassian officer, who had happened to chance upon a bird of prey with its functioning cloaking device. Well he could sneak in and get an up close and personal view as to what our foreheaded friends are up to in that sector."

Dukat frowned a little at this. The El-Gatark system was located in a roundabout way on their current flight path to Amleth, although it was out of the way enough that it would heavily delay blasting those freighters and their weapons which would be used against his own people. You didn't get too much of a window of opportunity on attack missions. Distractions like this were not welcomed. "We were on our way to deal with some freighters shipping battle weapons to the front. Can't we deal with those first and then find out what the command ship is up to once our original mission is done?"

Turkino nodded at Dukats frustration. He'd have felt the same if their roles had been reversed, but he went on to explain "I understand how this puts you out old friend. However the Gespagh is one of the largest and most senior capitals ships deployed in the invasion forces. If she cloaks or suddenly departs then we've lost our window of opportunity to find out what she's up to. She's too dangerous to ignore. Your our eyes and ears Skrain. I'm sorry to put a dampener on a soldiers combat lust, this has to come first."

Dukat glumly nodded in acknowledgement. He supposed Turkino was correct but he was still annoyed that his mission had been disrupted. It was the strange chain of command structure that existed between Dukat and the Cardassian Union and his ambiguous status as a "rogue" officer, that he considered Turkino to be the senior officer he "reported" to. Officially the Detapa council and the military denied that Dukat had gone rogue in a captured bird of prey and was out there pursuing his private little war against the Klingons. Indeed the invading Klingons considered this rogue bird of prey that was supposedly flying around, was in fact a semi myth; possibly just a Cardassian trick to wrong foot them, or the misinterpreted post hoc end result of a series of sneak attacks. Unofficially, friendly elements of the military covertly supported Dukat - albeit in a hushed up manner and provided them with intel and secret supplies. Many in the military command Dukat had discovered, were aghast at the spinelessness the Detapa council showed in dealing with the Klingons. Thus proving they were the useless civvies they had always thought they were. The Detapa council for their part, had three reasons for not trying to rein Dukat in. Firstly by him destroying Klingon invader,s he was lessening a real threat to the Union territories and for all their cowardice in the face of invasion, they weren't stupid enough to not realise that. Secondly the rumours of the rogue bird of prey and of renegade Guls (it was rumoured that Dukat had spurned on others to pursue their own private little wars too.) went down well with the public who were much more hard line in how to deal with the Klingons than their political masters seemed to be. From a PR perspective what Dukat was doing went down well and so he was tolerated. Lastly he knew that many in the civillian and military circles were happy to see Dukat do his Cardassian duty, as long as those duties were as far away from Cardassia and themselves as possible. So here he found himself reporting to his friend Turkino in these totally unofficial and unreported briefings about sorties that officially never happened in a nonexistent captured Klingon ship.

Dukat saw that Turkino was sat in the office that he himself occupied when he had briefly held that role himself, though Turkino had added his own home furnishings since then including the wall tapestries his wife was so fond of making. He also saw that Turkino was troubled about something, something that he hadn't let on about yet. It must have been some seriously bad news for him to be holding back. Turkino was usually pretty earnest about how Cardassia was shaping up in his briefings. That was why they were not always pleasant affairs despite Dukat enjoying his friends company whilst he was out here. Dukat attempted to try to probe it out of him "Cheer up Turkino. My crew and I will get to the bottom of what those bastards are playing at in El-Gatark. What do you think the odds are of one bird of prey against a Klingon command ship? A victory like that might make even those Detapa clowns take more active steps to defend our territory!" Dukat was half joking, as a bird of prey wasn't any kind of a match for such a vessel, but a man could dream could he not? Turkino, however looked crestfallen, and almost seemed to be having trouble meeting Dukat eye to eye. Turkino finally responded his voice filled with such sadness that he sounded haunted. "I don't think even that would make a difference. Not after what I was told today."

Dukat felt a knot in the pit of his stomach. What had those fools who ran things these days been playing at this time around. "Turkino. Whatever is wrong. What have you heard? You sound like someone has died" Turkino continued. "Something has died my friend. Cardassian dignity and honour has. Our government says they are proposing radical steps to deal with the aftermath of the Klingon invasion. Would you like to hear what they are?" Turkinos voice was full of bitterness and contempt for whoever had proposed these "steps" Dukat knew this was going to be bad, he was dreading to find out what Turkino knew but find out he must.

"The Detapa council has decided that the Klingon invasion has rendered the Cardassian outposts and colonies in the four sectors affected by the theatre of battle both unsustainable and undefendable. As the trading routes and supply lines around them have been effectively interdicted and rendered unmanageable by the fighting, and as our merchant shipping and essential infrastructure such as health and power have all but collapsed in the afflicted regions, it has left them with no choice but to surrender all claims of sovereignty to these regions and yield them to the Klingon empire. The council has no choice but to abandon the colonies and evacuate the colonists from their homes and livelihoods. Any who wish to stay or refuse to move will effectively have to submit to Klingon rule as the Cardassian Union can no longer effectively defend them. They will lose citizenship as their homes no longer fall under the jurisprudence of Cardassian law. In addition the proposed independence of the colonies deeded to us by the Federation in the DMZ is being mooted, as the empire simply doesn't have the resources to commit itself to fight the Klingons and to simultaneously deal with the terrorist campaign being waged by the Maquis insurgents in that region "

Dukat sat there totally stunned. He knew the civilian government was utterly useless, but this! It was the sheer scale of it all. They'd effectively decided to give a third of the empire away to an aggressor who had launched an unprovoked invasion over territory they had absolutely no basis to stake any sort of claim over. That their once mighty empire was going to bend to the guerilla actions of a bunch of nondescript colonists even the Federation wanted rid of! If these "submissions" went ahead his people would be the laughing stock of the quadrant. How could the Cardassian soul ever survive this sort of capitulation and humiliation on this level? Dukat shook his head."That can't be possible Turkino! Not even that lot could be so spineless as to hand a third of the union territories to the Klingons just like that."

Turkino sighed at this and with that brief gesture Dukat knew that all this was more than mere worst case scenario bureaucratic hot air. "The plans to provide ships for the evacuation of the colonists have already been drawn up I've seen them with my own eyes. You know how indecisive this civilian administration can be. How everything is constantly bogged down in procedure and bureaucratic meddling. If they've been able to draw up plans as advanced as these work it out how prepared they are to follow through with it."

Dukat found himself uncharacteristically out of words at the news he had just received. As he regained a little of his composure he said "Turkino you have to speak to them make them see sense, as much as one can make that lot see sense! Our reputation as a species will never recover if this is allowed to proceed. You must tell them that despite the difficulties we face a Cardassian does not just up and run in the face of adversity. Our collective morale is at stake here. They cannot continue with this plan. It; it .. absolutely cannot happen."

Turkino's image looked a little shocked on the viewscreen, it was not often that one saw Gul Dukat lose his carefully cultivated composure like this. Dukat hadn't been able to suppress the exasperation and shocked outrage in his voice and it wasn't a facet of his temperament that had been seen by his friend before, however understandable it might have been under the circumstances. "I wish I could old friend. They are adamant that those worlds are all but untenable, that Cardassia must tighten defences around a new and smaller rump empire if she is to survive. So much for me being a military adviser to these people! They never listen to a word I say." Dukat tried to shake out the despondency he heard inb his friends voice. He'd hate to think the governments defeatism was now starting to infect Turkino as well.

Dukat spat "If they think that by shrinking our borders and running that we can buy off our safety, they're in for a shock. It will just embolden the Klingons to make further attacks into our territory. To make increasingly more outrageous claims on our lands! A first year cadet could tell these idiots that giving into an aggressor just makes them bolder. Fools to a man all of them! They aren't fit to run a bath let alone what was the greatest empire in the Alpha Quadrant, no thanks to them!"

Turkino let out a mirthless laugh tinged with wry bitterness, he said "Do you actually know that the Federations ambassador came to visit me personally after he got wind of these plans. He wanted to verify that the council was serious as he found it hard to believe that such a capitulation could even be proposed. That tells you how far we have fallen when even the Federation peaceniks think you've gone too far." Anyway, enough of all this bad news. The mission, can you be in El-Gatark in twenty hours? Get in scan them and report back my friend. I know you can do it. It's good to know that there are Cardassians out there who still have what it takes. Perhaps there is hope for us all yet." Dukat was quick with his response though his unspoken inner feelings belied the superficial certainty of what he was about to say "Of course there is Turkino! Our people have faced worse in our history you know Cardassian spirit may have taken a beating but I am sure it is not permanently broken! All we have lost we will regain. It is just a matter of time and seizing the opportunities that present themselves. The martial spirit just needs rekindling again and I'll see to that for our people."

Turkino nodded in appreciation, he may have found the sentiments a bit on the ambitious side for Dukats part, but he appreciated them none the less and with that he terminated the link leaving the screen blank save for the backlit Klingon trefoil emblem. "All we have lost we will regain" It was noble words Dukat thought, but words was all it was at the moment. He just wished he had a concrete way of making good on his promise. He sighed and patched through to Kendro to change course to El-Gatark 6c, which the Dalin did dutifully, if a little confused sounding at this strange request from his Gul. A Gul was a Gul after all, and his orders were not questioned if a subordinate knew what was good for him. It was time to acquaint themselves with this Klingon flagship.