Explanations:

Stardate: "This time system adjusts for shifts in relative time which occur due to the vessel's speed and space warp capability. It has little relationship to Earth's time as we know it. One hour aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise at different times may equal as little as three Earth hours. The star dates specified in the log entry must be computed against the speed of the vessel, the space warp, and its position within our galaxy, in order to give a meaningful reading." Therefore star date would be one thing at one point in the galaxy and something else again at another point in the galaxy." – memory-alpha

Chapter 7

"Assuming you're not a spy... then maybe you're an outcast."
"Or maybe I'm an outcast spy."
"How could you be both?"
"I never said I was either."

- Garak and Bashir in 'Profit and Loss'

Garak stared at the illuminated sign on the gate. He looked back at his device and shook it a few times.

"Damn thing," he cursed but continued walking into the city. He came to a typical Bajoran market place but instead of the column that he had seen before his travel, there was a huge metal sign with the emblem of the Alliance on it.

Not good, he thought. Not good at all.

When he continued walking he came to a little bar which had still opened. He entered and was glad that he had decided for the coat with the hood that covered his face. He heard loud laughter of a drunk Klingon warrior group, passed some boozed Cardassians who seemed to have biggest fun with the Bajoran waitresses and some Bajoran soldiers who all wore the emblem of the Alliance on their backs.

Garak walked over to the counter where a Bajoran was filling glasses of Kanar and Blood Wine.

"What can I offer you?" she asked and tried to look under his hood.

"Which Stardate is it?" he asked and knew how ridiculous that must sound.

"What?" the waitress asked confused.

"You heard me," he answered impatiently.

"52347.9," she said.

"Thank you very much," Garak said with a light tone of sarcasm and hurried to disappear out of the bar. He had never really liked the Federation method to count time in 'Stardate' but he needed to sort what this meant. He remembered the joining of the Romulans into the Dominion War at Stardate 51721.3, of course, in his universe, Nog's addiction to the holosuite at 52235.7, Ezri trying to rescue Worf at 52576.2. So he must be somewhere between Nog losing a leg and Ezri was soon be captured by the Breen. Great, he thought but despite all, he needed to leave this mirror universe. He looked up into the stars. The station was not in sight but it was definitely up there. He needed to get to Terok Nor.

The last thing he remembered was that Quark had claimed to have been in this universe, talking something about a cloaking device. That part must have been true as Martok would have nearly disassembled Quark's bar. He walked to the service sector and was surprised to see the same runabout station that he knew from his universe. He smiled. Perhaps this 'mirror' wasn't that much different than their existence.

Keeping his head low to avoid any recognition, he entered the next runabout to Terok Nor. Bajor was still fighting for its independence and that Terok Nor belonged to the Terran Rebels now didn't really made it easier. However, Garak was glad when the runabout finally started and headed toward the space station. It took a while until they arrived and although it was the mirror universe, Garak was so lucky to see DS9/ Terok Nor again.

He felt remembered to all the depressing and dark days he spend there, either tailoring for Bajoran slaves or arrogant Cardassian rulers or for Starfleet people who only knew peace and wealth, or he was meeting up with Ziyal or Dr. Bashir. He missed those days although they have wasted what he had been meant and trained to: Being a spy, a killer and a liar.

He felt again a tear on his cheek. He was really becoming sentimental on his old days. The runabout docked and with the other people Garak entered the station. Terok Nor looked like Deep Space Nine in its early days now, the light was so bright and it was cold again. He was glad that nobody yet had realized his Cardassian identity and he wondered if there were any Cardassians working for the Rebellion. He continued thinking. The transporter he needed was technology the Alliance used. He needed to get into contact with them.

But first of all, he left the Pylon and walked to the Promenades. It was very crowded and he was glad that he didn't attract any attention. He wandered across the Promenades and stopped from time to time to get a better image of the station. He noticed that someone was standing behind him when this man started to speak: "You try to hide it but you're Cardassian. Who is your sympathy with, the Alliance or the Rebellion?"

"What would be wiser to say?" Garak asked and hoped for a true answer.

"There are some representatives of the Alliance aboard the station," the man whispered with a voice of mystery.

"How can I contact them?" Garak asked hoping that the man belonged to them.

"In twenty minutes in Morn's bar, the upper level. Sit down at a table and I'll join you," he said and Garak waited before he turned around. Enough time for the man to disappear. He sighed but continued wandering around the deck before he finally walked into Morn's bar.

It was the same as Quark's, he realized but without dabo tables it looked a bit empty. He went to the upper level and sat down at one of the few empty tables. Most of the people were Earthlings, some were Bajoran or Vulcan and he could bet that he managed to spot at least three or four Trills.

He recognized Leeta at the bar, filling some Terrans' glasses. But she seemed much more confident and her smile was more insidious. A mirror-Leeta, definitely, he thought. He waited for about five minutes and was already becoming a little bit impatient. He didn't like to wait, he had done it too often before and has been betrayed too often as well. But this time he wasn't disappointed. A Bajoran man, he seemed to be in his forties, sat down opposite to him. Garak dared to look up into the astonished face of his opposite.

"Gul Garak," he whispered with obvious respect in his eyes.

"Not really," Garak whispered, beware of that he was giving away a perfect camouflage. "I'm from the other universe," he explained.

"I understand…why are you here?"

"I need to get back to my universe. I had a transporter accident."

"I heard that it could happen," the Bajoran explained. "Unfortunately, the technology of multidimensional transporters is only known to the Alliance."

"Therefore I need to get aboard their ship. The one where Intendant Kira is on."

"Why that?"

"My counterpart will be on the ship as well. And as much as I can trust my source, he is about to die soon. I need to prevent this."

"How do you know?" the man asked with doubts.

"I can't explain."

"Why not?" he asked impatiently and nervously looked around.

"This could create temporal paradoxes. And believe me, I have told you already more than enough."

The man's eyes widened. "You're not only from the other universe, you're also from the future!"

Garak nodded. He thought about how much he should give away and although he had a lot of Terran friends, he only thought about Bashir in this moment, he decided to go for it: "If I were you, I would watch out. The Terrans will soon win a victory against the Alliance. You should manipulate the Defiant as much as possible. But I am very sorry that I can't tell you more. And please understand me, I need to get to the Intendant's ship as soon as possible."

The man nodded slowly. He hesitated but then said: "Alright. I know a runabout that's soon leaving for Bajor with supplies for the Rebellion. Two of our Alliance's men are already on it. With you as well, you can mutiny the ship and head for Alliance space. You can warn the Regent."

"Regent?"

"Regent Worf."

"Ah…"

"Who is he in your universe? A part of the Rebellion?"

"We have neither a Rebellion nor an Alliance. The Terrans and Bajorans are friends and we Cardassians stay the enemy. Mr. Worf, although he's Klingon, is working with the Terrans."

"Seems to be a funny universe you have," the Bajoran said with a smile and stood up again. "Be at the upper Pylon 2 in four hours. Your runabout is docked at docking station 6. There will be three Bajorans, two Trill and two Earthlings. The female and the younger Bajoran are of the Alliance. You can trust them and you'll help them to get in control of the ship. And don't be afraid to kill the others."

"I'm sure, I won't," Garak said with his smile and watched the Bajoran disappear in the crowd of people again. So the next hours Garak got to know more about the foreign universe and what he learnt made him keen on not spending the rest of his life here.

Eventually, he arrived at the Upper Docking Pylon and met the other people of the 'Rebellion'. They seemed to have been informed about his presence and he helped them while trying not to reveal anything about himself. Finally, they left the station. It was a small runabout and he was sitting next to the female Bajoran and behind the others.

Then he felt a soft touch at his side and she was giving him a little Terran phaser. He nodded and the other sympathizer of the Alliance turned around. Unobtrusively he counted with his fingers to five and all three pulled out there phasers at once and shot before the others knew what was happening.

The male Trill was fast enough to elude the beam and fired back at the same moment. The female Bajoran flew backward but before he could fire again, Garak shot him and made the Trill fly on the consoles and dropping lifelessly to the ground.

"Good shot," the Bajoran male said and felt the pulse of his colleague. "She's dead. Help me getting the corpses to the back of the runabout. There is already so less space."

Garak, for the first time safe to pull away the hood, started to help him.

"You're Gul Garak!" the man suddenly said in the same surprise like the other one had.

"As I explained before to your friend on the station, I'm not. I'm just a very similar-looking man who has a desperate need of getting to the Regent's ship," Garak explained.

"You're his counterpart, right? From the other universe!" the man said excited.

Garak nodded eventually and they stored the bodies out of sight. He felt like being in the Order again, helping to hide bodies of the government's enemies or of people who have been traitors or just in the way. He knew he should feel bad about what he had done, but it was his job and he had been trained to do so. To be honest, he had a very objective view on the many crimes the Order had committed to make the Cardassian government to function as (they) wished.

They sat down and the man changed the course into the opposite direction. "I received the meeting coordinates about an hour ago. The Regent's ship will be awaiting us."

"I'd like not to attract any attention."

"You can hide yourself here in the runabout. I won't tell anybody about you but you'll be on your own."

Garak nodded silently. After some time they shut down the engines and waited for the Bird of Prey to arrive. They nearly thought that they've been betrayed when the long range sensors picked up some strange readings. Silently, Garak nodded to the Bajoran and went to the back of the runabout to hide. He waited until they docked at the ship and the Bajoran left in company with some angry Klingons. As if Klingons ever were in a good mood.

He waited for another twenty minutes until he crawled out again and entered the huge Bird of Prey of the Alliance. There was nobody in the corridor and he was hiding his face under the hood. He went to a control panel and typed in some commands. He found out the current location of 'Gul Garak' and headed toward him, of course, with highest caution not to be seen or recognized.

He was lucky. He managed it to the upper Pylon without being seen and the few Klingons who did, didn't ask any questions but ignored him with a typical grunt. With a Tricorder that he had unobtrusively ripped off a Klingon, he scanned the inside of the quarters. It seemed to be night at Terok Nor therefore it was so empty in the corridors. There was only Gul Garak in the room, so he sighed and decided to ring. "Come in," someone said and Garak was confused to hear his own voice.

He entered and saw himself staring at him.

"Who are you?" the opposite said, with his voice, but it remembered him more on a Klingon matter than on a Cardassian. He was impatient and the cruelty could be seen in his eyes, without the insidiousness he was so famous for.

Garak took back his hood and stared into the amazed face. This is what I look like when I'm surprised, he thought with interest.

"Who are you?" the Gul asked and his face changed to mistrust.

"Oh, I assume this must be the expression on the face you had when you saw the double Colonel Kira, isn't it?"

"Colonel Kira?"

"I mean Intendant, of course."

"You're from the other side!"

"Indeed I am," Garak said, eyes widened.

The Gul nodded. "Why are you here?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm not here on purpose. Actually, it was an accident," Garak answered and started to move around the quarters. It was flavorless, a few tables, a sofa, a dark picture of Cardassia on the wall, PADDs were lying around as were bottles of Kanar. His mirror-self remembered him a bit on Damar, at least in the perspective of their love to that tasty beverage.

"What happened? I should call the security," the Gul asked.

"To do what? Get me, actually yourself, arrested?" Garak said with a smile. "I need to get back into my universe," he added and waited for a reaction of the other him.

"Why?"

"I don't think your universe is ready for two of us, especially not Worf," he said. He knew that the Regent made him, or rather his counterpart, responsible for the loss of Terok Nor. "Do you help me to get back to my universe?" Garak finally asked and stepped closer to himself. They had exactly the same height and Garak was fascinated how he focused on himself and what his face looked like in moments of surprise and second thought.

The Gul just laughed. Garak smiled and with one hit against the counterpart's nose, the mirror-he stumbled backward and fell against the wall. He stood up immediately but didn't think for Garak's quick reaction who pushed away his arm and made him fall onto the ground. With a certain hit on the Gul's neck, he lost consciousness and Garak stepped over him.

"I hadn't thought you'd help me anyway," he muttered and began to remove the clothes to step into the role of his counterpart.

About five minutes later, Gul Garak lay in underpants in his own bed and seemed as if he was sleeping. To be sure, Garak disabled the communication for his quarter and locked the door with a phaser beam on the relays. He hoped it would take the other him long enough to get that open. He felt like a new person when he stepped out on the corridors again and looked around. It was confusing that this station looked like Terok Nor but it had its differences.

Moving over to the lounge of the ship, which, although it was around four o'clock in the morning, was full of people, Cardassians, Klingons, Bajorans and other species, he noticed that his counterpart was a much respected person. Some people greeted him, some nodded and some looked down to the floor while passing him. He tried to hide his usual continuous smile and tried to get an overview. Suddenly, he saw a familiar face. A few meters away, a woman was arguing with a tall and heavy Klingon officer.

He took a closer look and was absolutely sure that this Trill remembered him on Ezri Dax. Funny, he thought. It must be shortly before she travelled to his universe. Perhaps this would be the perfect chance to persuade her to take him along. If she planned a multidimensional transport, why not taking him along?

When he saw that the Klingon disappeared and Ezri sat down at a table, he decided to walk over. He sat down opposite to her and studied her face. "What do you want?" she asked confused and a bit annoyed.

"Your Ezri Dax, right?" he asked and bent over to her.

"My name is Ezri Tigan," she answered her eyebrows rising.

"Ah," he said. This must be her name before being joined with the Dax symbiont. "However, I assume you're going to travel to the other universe very soon, right?"

"Why should I tell you about that? It's a thing I do for the Intendant and the Regent…I heard you were blamed for the loss of that station?"

Garak hesitated before answering but then decided for the risk. He bent more forward and made sure first that nobody was listening. "To be honest, I'm not the Gul Garak you heard of," he whispered.

"Well, you pretty much look like him," Ezri answered unimpressed and looked around if anybody really cared for their conversation.

"I'm actually from the universe you plan to go soon," Garak continued. "I could help you. Deep Space Nine is more different than Terok Nor than you think."

She looked at him for a while, thinking about his offer. "Where's the catch in it?"

"No catch. I may accompany you and I'll tell you everything you need to enter DS9 without being caught and also leave it."

She hesitated but then nodded. "Agreed. Meet me in Cargobay 2 in one hour. We'll beam directly from here as we're close enough to Terok Nor…how do you know about my plan?"

"Oh…long story and you wouldn't believe me anyway," Garak said and thought that he shouldn't believe her either. When had he last time told someone the truth? He immediately had to try to wipe out Palandine's face off his mind.

He stood up and turned around to leave the lounge again. He had an hour to spend as his counterpart and he wasn't very keen on meeting people of this universe. He returned to 'his' quarters to make sure that Gul Garak stayed where he should. The door was still locked and he heard no noise from inside. His hit must have been very hard. He shrugged and sat down on the couch. He hadn't had much rest in the last few hours but he didn't want to sleep either. He needed to stay awake and his continuing fear of failure was keeping so.

Time passed slowly and he felt like asking the computer every five minutes for the time. He was glad that it was night and that nobody requested him nor did he have any duties. So eventually, he went to the Cargobay for meeting Ezri there.

She was already waiting for him, fixing something with a tiny sonic device, obviously the transporter. She turned around when she heard him coming in. "Garak," she stated. "Before I take you along, I need your word. Tell me what you know about Terok Nor."

"You really don't trust in anybody, do you?"

"Just in money and information."

"How much is the Regent paying?"

"It's the Intendant who asked me to do this," she answered shortly avoiding the question.

But he could see a glint in her eye that remembered him on his last night with Palandine. What was it that she always popped into his mind when he was confronted with a nice lady?

"As far as I know, you're going to search a Ferengi named Quark. You want a cloaking device from him and in return, you'll release their Grand Nagus Zek, right?"

She didn't nod but he knew his was right.

"Clothed like this you'll attract attention so you should avoid any contact. Quark's quarters are at the outside Habitat ring, deck 8, section 26. You can best go there using Jefferies tube 56 down to deck 14, then get into the other one across the corridor and crawl down to level 8."

"How do I know you don't lie?" she asked and couldn't lose her unimpressed face. Perhaps part of her job, he thought, whatever her job was.

"You don't. You have to trust me, which, I assume, is something very new for you and me. But none of us have a choice."

"You'll accompany me," she stated and he nodded. He had to take this risk, travelling back was most important and this might be the only chance he had. And he wouldn't count on Quark's next attempt to leave this universe. "Hold my arm," Ezri said and activated the transporter.

Only a few moments later their reappeared. It was still a Cargobay, but definitely on Deep Space Nine.

"It has worked," he said, a bit enthusiastic. He has finally managed to arrive where he wanted and it make him breathe freely again.

"Lead the way," she muttered, having fulfilled her part of the deal. He nodded and led the way out of the Cargo Bay, then noticing that he still wore the Gul's uniform. He should better not attract any attention either. They entered the Jefferies tube and started crawling. He cursed the architect who didn't design those things bigger.

He also had no idea, why he had adapted the Federation's name 'Jefferies tube' as those channels here were designed by Cardassians and not by this guy 'Jefferies'. But it didn't matter right now and he started climbing downward. They arrived on deck 8 with no problems. Garak opened the door a bit and looked aside. He nodded to Ezri and let her pass.

"Good luck," he whispered but already knew that she would succeed. She had already left when he remembered that what he knew, didn't necessary had to happen. He had already changed the timeline of the mirror universe and he had no idea which consequences this may bring. But as long as it brought him here, it was it all worthy.

He sighed when he saw Ezri walk away. She was much more interesting than the Ezri Dax of this universe. Garak crawled back to the ladder and started climbing toward the deck of his quarters. He needed a change of appearance. He managed to get into his room without being noticed and checked that he was alone. Quickly he dressed with one of his favorite clothing and sat down on the couch. Should he wait until his former he arrived? What should he say? Should he only give him the information he needed to alter the time line and then travel back, trusting his younger him to be capable of doing this? Or should he knock out the other Garak, replacing him and then disappear after the end of the war, so that the other one could take his role again? Whatever he thought of, it only gave him the worst headaches since his pain stimulator had malfunctioned and been shut off.

Garak had nearly fallen asleep when his sensitive ears heard footsteps nearing. He was awake immediately and hid next to the door. A moment later, it opened and he saw himself entering.

He breathed deeply, he knew that what he was about to do, didn't only break a lot of Federation and Cardassian rules but would also alter the timeline with unforeseeable consequences. But he had to do it. Suddenly, the other Garak stopped and turned around. Both Garaks held their breath for a second, none of them knowing what to say.

"Hello," the Garak from the future then decided to say and started to smile at himself.