oOo
"Major, I asked you a question. How did you convince Dukat to assist us, when you and the others have indicated that he originally had no intention of doing so? At least, not without demanding some sort of concession from us first. That is certainly the impression I received from Dr. Bashir."
"Couldn't he have changed his mind?" Kira hedged. She was back in the commander's office, this time facing its current occupant and not one who merely coveted that position. And Commander Benjamin Sisko was not in a good mood.
"That is not an answer and you know it," Sisko snapped, as expected. "You are not telling me something, and I would like to know what that is." The Cardassian vessel carrying Dukat had vanished well before Sisko managed to make his way back to Ops, and the reports he'd received from Dax and Bashir left him with more questions than answers. Kira had refused to tell either of them, or anyone else, for that matter, what had gone on during her private meeting with Dukat, merely set to work restoring order. The other two had, reluctantly, dropped it.
Or rather, Dax had. When Bashir tried to push for an answer, Kira had apparently avoided the issue by reminding him that he had at least one patient to deal with, if not more. He had been sufficiently distracted by her words to drop the question and bustle Dax off to the Infirmary, but it had been the first thing he brought up in his verbal report to Sisko a few hours later. And even if he hadn't said anything, Garak would have been more than willing to take up the slack. He was positively bursting with the desire to share his suspicions with Sisko, but had, in the end, been forced to admit that was all they were: suspicions.
Not that Sisko didn't have suspicions of his own, based not only on the reports he'd received once he, his son Jake, and Chief O'Brien had dug themselves out of the rubble and made it back to Ops, but on his personal knowledge of Dukat. Never under any circumstances Sisko had witnessed or heard about had Dukat willingly given up the advantage. Never. He'd been forced into doing so, occasionally manipulated into doing so, but willingly? Without some sort of profit to the Cardassian Empire or himself? Sisko found that difficult to believe.
"Sir." With a barely visible start Sisko returned to the present as Kira responded to his demand. "Isn't it enough to know that the station was saved with no lives lost and at no political cost to either the Federation or Bajor? Can't you just leave it at that?"
Sisko was startled to hear what he could swear was a note of barely restrained panic in his first officer's voice, and that was enough to make him hesitate. That, and the growing belief that Garak and Bashir were right, that there was more going on here then met the eye. Kira was placing a shade too much emphasis on the word "political." That decided him; he would do as she asked and drop it. For now. If what he was beginning to suspect was true, badgering his second-in-command would get him nowhere. He needed time to think it through, to decide on the correct approach to take. So he nodded in response to Kira's desperate plea and allowed her to leave without asking any of the hundred or so questions that jostled for attention in his mind. But they wouldn't be ignored forever.
Neither would he.
Kira repressed a sigh of relief as Commander Sisko nodded slow, reluctant acceptance of her words. She hated the pleading note that had somehow crept into her voice, but she desperately needed her commanding officer to accept what she told him at face value. And it had been the truth, every word; the deal she'd struck with Dukat was private, had nothing to do with the Federation or Bajoran politics, had nothing to do with anything or anyone on this station.
Except herself. Nodding distractedly at Sisko's dismissal, Kira made her way from his office, across Ops, over to the turbolift, all without saying a word. Sisko watched her go, one hand toying with his baseball, which had apparently fallen to the floor during the upheaval. There was definitely something going on, but for now he would respect the major's right to privacy. At least, he would until he and his conscience could agree on how to get around that little stumbling block. He even toyed with the idea of ordering her to tell him exactly what had transpired between them, then dismissed it as being too heavy handed, especially in such a delicate situation. Officially, he had no say in the personal lives of his crew, doubly so for the Bajoran nationals under his command. Even his position as Bajoran Emissary didn't give him the right to simply trample over someone's expressed desire to keep something private. Not unless he could prove there was harm being done. And right now, the only harm he could prove was the physical damage to the station and various personnel around him.
Kira would simply have to wait.
oOo
As Kira made her way down the crowded corridors toward the main Promenade, she went over and over her conversation with Sisko. He wasn't the type to give up so easily; she'd seen the desire to press her for more details, for answers, seen it clearly in his eyes, but he'd acceded to her own desires, at least for the moment. And that, she supposed, was the most she could ask for. If he came back with more questions, she would find another way to put him off. But she couldn't worry about that now, only if and when it happened later. For now, she had other worries, Dukat being the biggest. When she reached her destination, however, she forced herself to drop it. She'd spent far too much time brooding on Dukat and his crazy demands. Their agreement was for "after clean-up" and although part of her wanted desperately for that clean-up to take, oh, about a thousand years, the practical side of her was busy calculating that it would actually take about a week to get the station fully operational.
Or as fully operational as it ever got; according to Chief O'Brien, the chances of Deep Space 9 ever being "fully operational" by Federation standards were vanishingly small. But a week was a safe estimate. And a week should be plenty of time for her to figure out how she was going to handle Dukat's next visit.
She hoped.