Explanations:

Tacking into the Wind (episode): "Gowron begins reckless attacks against the Dominion; Kira and the Cardassians plot to steal a Breen weapon." – memory-alpha

Glinn Telak: "Glinn Telak was the executive officer of the Cardassian Galor-class vessel Vetar in the late 24th century. As trouble began arising among the colonists of Dorvan V in 2370, Telak was left in command of the ship while his commander, Gul Evek, attempted to deal with the situation." – memory-alpha

Calyx: "Calyx was a Cardassian male, the martial docent at the Bamarren Institute for State Intelligence. Calyx was a gnarled old man with one glass eye, it was rumored amongst the students that he had been a Gul but was demoted due to his insistence for fighting alongside his men rather than taking a privileged back seat." – memory-beta

Chapter 11

"Before you can be loyal to another, you must be loyal to yourself."
"And who can we thank for those misguided words of wisdom? Sarek, of Vulcan?"
"Actually it was Bashir, of Earth."

- Bashir and Garak in 'Improbable Cause'

(Tacking into the Wind) "Listen, Damar, I know it is hard for you–"

"You know? What do you know?" he said harshly. He turned to him and picked the PADD. "When did you lose a family member who was close to you?"

Garak did not respond. The death of Tain has been a relief on one hand but on the other hand it had also meant a loss. He had been his father, despite all he'd done to him or other people. But Damar had family he loves, his wife and one of his sons were now gone. It must be a bit like losing Palandine, Garak thought and had pity with the Legate. He was a vulnerable man and he had known that it would come to this long before he had decided to found this resistance group.

"I am sorry for you. And I promise you that Weyoun will get the punishment he deserves," Garak started again, knowing that he'd probably be the one shooting the Vorta. This is what the other Garak had told him. He had told him what to do, but would it really trigger the desired effect? What if he just made everything worse? There was no time to think about it, because right now, the doors were opening.

The Colonel stepped in and typed in some commands at the replicator, perhaps another Raktajino, Garak thought. "What's wrong?" she asked when she noticed the sad faces of the two Cardassians.

"One of our listening posts picked up a message. The Dominion has succeeded in locating Damar's family," Garak explained before Damar could start complaining again. After all, he had been the one killing Bajoran's family members, does he think about that?

"They're dead," he stated and left his immobility. "They weren't part of this rebellion. The Dominion knew that. The Founder knew that. Weyoun knew that. To kill her and my son, the casual brutality of it, a waste of life, what kind of state tolerates the murder of innocent women and children?"

Garak noticed that Kira wanted to say something and wished she wouldn't.

"What kind of people gives those orders?"

"Yeah, Damar, what kind of people gives those orders?" Kira asked ironically.

He should be reminded of it, probably it served their current purpose. Several thoughts of possible reactions crossed Garak's mind. But fortunately, Damar just left the room without any other word. Just like the 'other' Garak had predicted, until now, it all happened like in the other timeline, in the actual timeline. He could see that she was sorry for what she said.

"Oh, that was stupid," she cursed.

"Not at all," he answered seriously. "Damar has a certain romanticism about the past. He could use a dose of cold water."

"Nah, I could have picked a better time."

"If he's the man to lead a new Cardassia, he's the man we all hope him to be. And the pain of these news made him more receptive to what you've said, not less," he hissed and stepped forward to her.

She should really think about her words, especially as long as Rusot still was a walking man. She wanted to pay something back, but we heard the noise of the runabout's alarm and Odo announcing: "We've reached the rendezvous point."

=/\=

Palandine had waited for hours until someone entered the dark interrogation room. If only the light had been dimmed. It was far too bright for her taste and she betted that it must have been Weyoun who turned the light too bright and the temperature that cold. She looked up when the doors opened and she spotted a Cardassian military officer.

He seemed to be middle-aged, his ridges weren't very pronounced and his face was decorated with several scars and brandings. "I'm Glinn Telak from the Sixth Order," he shortly introduced himself and put down a box he brought on the floor.

He pressed a button and it opened slowly. "You are accused of knowingly acting against the state and union by affiliate a underground movement whose plan it is to overthrow the ruling government of the Cardassian Union and the Dominion," he muttered uninterested and picked up a little device from the box. It looked like a dermal regenerator but surely it had the opposite effect.

He walked toward Palandine and eyeballed her. "What a waste, you're such a beauty," he added and walked around her and loosened the handcuffs. She wanted to stand up but she underestimated his strength. He pushed her to the ground so that she could hardly move. "Not so fast," he hissed, his rough voice was lower and more warning now.

He grabbed her hand and held it in front of the device which he activated. The dark green rays appeared and Palandine felt an immediate pain in her right hand. She yelled loudly and pulled it away. When she regarded her hand, its skin looked slightly burned, dark grey. Before she could recuperate for a tiny moment, he held her hand again and nearly pressed the device on her hand. She couldn't pull it back and tried to push the man aside but despite the fact that he didn't seem to be the heaviest or most muscular Cardassian, he was too strong for her. She felt a tear in her eye and when the rays reached her fingertips, it ran down her cheek and dropped on the floor.

When she thought that she couldn't endure any longer, he switched off the device but the pain stayed. With her left hand she tried to stabilize her right one, but every touch was an increase of pain. She rolled aside and tried to control her breathing. This wasn't what she had been trained for. She wondered if Garak had ever had to endure pain and torture. How could he stand through all this? Couldn't she be as strong as he was?

She sensed how the Glinn pulled her shoulder fitfully but her back dumping on the floor was nothing against what he had done with her hand. He reached out for the box and picked up another device which looked like a little stick. "This," he held it right in front of her face, "is one of the older pieces…but still my favorite one. People would call it barbaric but it needs the most passion of all."

He moved a little button on the stick and a blade jumped out of it. With tears welling out of her eyes, she stared at the knife whose silver blade was shining and glittering in the light. "Have you been joining the meetings of a rebellion cell which planned to demoralize governmental authority?" Glinn Telak hissed and placed the blade right under her left ear.

"I'm not a member of–" she started to say but her last words converted into a loud scream as he pressed the knife into her soft, grey skin, right between to scales of her cheek-ear ridge. She tried to move away but it only made it worse and his hand clenched around her chin and held her tight.

"Don't lie to me," he hissed and his face nearly touched hers. "I know who you are, Legate Lokar. But I also know about your affiliation with a certain outcast spy and that you like to be rebellious. I have managed to associate you with a certain spiritual group, the Oralian Way. Fortunately for the other members, we don't have time to persecute this any further during the time of war but I can assure you…your friends will be hunt down and punished for their misdoing."

While talking, he slowly cut in Palandine's soft flesh and pulled the blade from right behind her ear, slowly in the valley between the two ridges down to her chin, leaving a deep scratch. The brown blood began to run down her neck and dropped silently on the ground. She tried to escape the knife but he held her far too tight.

"Are you in touch with any member of the rebellion?" he asked again and pulled the knife out of bleeding wound.

"No," she moaned. She could hardly speak with the pain in her cheek. Glinn Telak pressed his bare fingers into her wound and made her shout again.

"Nobody will hear you," he whispered and pushed his hand harder into the bleeding flesh.

"Y-yes," she managed to say.

He stopped and the pain became less immediately, although it was far from vanishing completely. "That's a beginning," the military officer answered relieved and sighed loudly. "How many people belong to the rebellion?" he asked.

Palandine looked up into the man's face that showed no pity at all. Tears were still running down her cheeks, mixing with the blood and shimmering on the floor. Her right hand still hurt and with its dark grey color and the little blisters that were calmly bursting open so that the blood could also run down her hand. I must look really miserable, she thought. What would Calyx think? She didn't want to remember anything from her past, she needed to concentrate on what lay ahead of her.

"How many people work for the rebellion?" the Glinn repeated.

Palandine kept silence. He just sighed and kneed down next to her again. He took the dermal regenerator-device again and grabbed her other hand. "I don't know," she answered quickly.

He stopped his movement. "You don't know?" he asked half-surprised, half-unbelieving.

"The rebellion…is divided into cells. Small groups, no names, changing meeting points," she whispered and coughed. She turned aside and puked on the floor next to her. She felt as weak as hardly ever before.

Her eyesight went blurry and she had the taste of blood and vomit in her mouth. She felt numb, only her hand and cheeks could feel, feel pain. She closed her eyes, opened them again. The light was brightly shining down on her, felt like cooling her skin down. It was so cold in here, the Vorta must have arranged this. All she wanted to do was sleep, she turned aside, tried to evade the light.

She heard the Glinn sighing. A second later she felt a pain in her waist, she looked up and his foot was hitting her hip. She didn't defend herself, or protect her ribs, she just let it happen. She was too tired to resist, too tired to protest, too tired to speak so that he would stop. She closed her eyes and everything went black. She finally fainted.

The Glinn snorted, now he would have to wait until the suspect woke up again.

=/\=

It was late evening when Dr. Bashir figured out that he was hungry. He had been working ten hours straight without noticing the time pass. He looked around and wasn't surprised to see no one in sickbay. He saved his work and entered the Promenades. It was empty here as well but at Quark's there was still some light. Hoping for something eatable he walked over to the bar. It was empty, of course, but Quark was doing what he could do best: counting his latinum.

"Hey, Quark," Bashir greeted and sat down on the chair where Morn usually sat.

"Morn would get furious if he saw you there," the Ferengi noticed without looking up from his bars and stripes of gold-pressed latinum.

"Do you…have something to eat?" Bashir asked tiredly. He noticed that even with his genetic enhancement, he couldn't skip two sequent nights of sleep.

"Do you know how late it is?" the barkeeper asked surprised and did look up.

"Come on, Quark. I've been working all day and night."

"I have some root beer left and I could offer you some human pancakes," he sighed and searched the food. "That smells awful," Quark commented on the pancakes while Bashir was already cutting it into pieces.

"This is wonderful, Quark. Where have you got this from?"

"My brother installed some new recipes to the replicator. If you ask me, he's spending too much time learning Bajoran food for Leeta and human food for Nog," the Ferengi complained and put his latinum into a safe box. "How's your research going on?"

"It depends. We have a plan."

"We?"

"Miles and I."

"You have a plan? I thought you were searching a cure for Odo?"

"It's a bit more difficult," Bashir said and sipped the root beer. "Thank you very much, Quark, but I think I'd have to go straight to bed right now," he excused himself and Quark nodded while watching him walk away.

The doctor took the turbolift to the habitat ring and entered the darkened corridor. Finally, he found himself in his quarter and felt too tired to undress. He fell down on his bed, his arm clenched around Kukalaka and he immediately fell asleep.

=/\=

The Cardassian ship docked at the space station. Odo looked impressed out of the window when he noticed a far bigger Jem'Hadar cruiser beside them. Were they really going to steal one of them? However, he didn't have time to think about it. He nodded and grabbed Kira's hands to form himself into the shape of handcuffs.

He tried not to tear himself too tight around her hands but was glad to feel the warmth of her skin. They stepped out into a corridor and a turbolift. It seemed to him like an eternity until there was finally more light again, the intensity was set, of course, for Jem'Hadar eyes. Not even the control of light and temperature controls have stayed in the hands of the Cardassians.

"We have a prisoner for the Vorta who commands this ship," Garak said as soon as the doors opened. He handed over the PADD with the false instructions to the Cardassian.

Although Odo was still suspicious about Garak and even distrusted him for most of the time of the past nine years, he had to admit that he must have been a most valuable member of the Obsidian Order. He was a perfect liar, had skills in the most strange fields of science or tactical and always surprised them with stunning performances like his unbeatable powers of persuasion. Now, he looked demanding at the Cardassian officer and fully ignored the armed Jem'Hadar guards to their left.

"Everything seems to be in order," the man answered and gave the PADD back to Garak. "But you'll have to leave your weapons here."

"Why?" Garak asked directly.

Odo wondered where his self-confidence has come from, after all he has heard and seen of Enabran Tain, he had been an abusive and dominant person and despite Garak's respect and loyalty to this man, he has never heard him talking positively about him.

"New orders from Dominion headquarters. No armed Cardassians allowed aboard Jem'Hadar vessels."

"Sounds like they don't trust us anymore," he answered despised and Odo just hoped that he knew what he was doing. Complaining about anything could bring them into unforeseeable danger but perhaps it was time to let Garak play his game and concentrate on his own mission instead of worrying about Garak's performance.

"So it would seem," the other Cardassian said what Odo wouldn't have expected at all. Perhaps the consequences of rivaling have reached this outpost as well. "I'm sorry but those are the orders."

"Oh, it's not your fault," Garak answered immediately, but Odo was sure that he already had the Cardassian officer where he wanted him. Leading an interrogation with him would have been a real honor, the shape shifter thought. Especially if they would have had the chance to interrogate Quark together, whatever crime he might have been accused of.

"Do as he says," Garak added commanding toward Rusot and Damar. "The three of us should be able to handle one Bajoran woman."

This sentence made Odo nearly smile. He felt the urge to do that but remembered that he had the wrong shape and that smiling handcuffs might look odd.

"Take them to the Bridge," the officer ordered while he gathered the weapons. Only now, the changeling noticed how silent and calm Damar had stayed all the time. Of course, it was necessary for the success of their mission that he wasn't recognized under any circumstances but only half a year ago, he would have never expected this from the once-right-hand of Gul Dukat. The former by-the-book soldier has developed into a true, already more disciplined resistance fighter who has realized what is needed to do and to sacrifice for the salvation of his home world.

Kira has already stepped through the door but Odo could still see how the officer held Damar's weapon longer. He feared that they would be exposed now but surprisingly Damar followed them only a few seconds later into the corridor.

Odo noted for himself to ask the rebellion leader about what happened later but right now, he had another difficult task to tackle. Kira stopped and Odo opened the handcuffs and fell to the ground. He saw Damar stepping over him and then started changing. It felt good and quite relieving existing in his original form again although it was only for quite a short time.

He dropped to the grid into the layer below. It was a small tube and he flowed until he saw a little door that opened and he found himself in a bigger tube that reminded him on the Jeffrey tubes, how the Starfleet officers called such tubes on Deep Space Nine.

He found it too stressing to already take the shape of the female Founder so he re-grew into his usual form, just an easier version to maintain. When he entered one of the corridors again he immediately changed to the female founder form as he heard two Jem'Hadar soldiers approaching.

He hid behind a panel and when nobody was to be seen, he walked into the direction the others have gone before. He took the turbolift to another level and reached the docking ring again. He tried to breathe heavily, as he had noticed the calming effect it had toward humans and Bajorans but he didn't notice anything. Perhaps he has really been a Solid for a too short time.

The doors opened and he entered the bridge. It seemed larger than on the maps and than in his memory but the bigger, the better, he thought and stepped forward.

"Founder," a female Vorta said and bent forward as soon as she recognized him. He would exaggerate if he stated that he was getting used to his treatment by the clones but he still found it quite bothersome to always been regarded as a God-like creature, as they had explained it to him. He didn't like the concept of a God at all and had already found it hard to accept the Bajorans' belief of the Prophets and the Celestial Temple.

"You honor us with your presence, I…had no idea you were in the sector," she added.

"My whereabouts are not of your concern," Odo said with the slow voice of the founder. He hoped that he had learned enough from Garak for a full imitation of the other changeling.

"No," she answered and submitted immediately to his authority.

He quickly made eye contact with Kira who still looked upset but it seemed that their mission was going as planned. "Have you begun the interrogation of this prisoner?" he asked with a suspicious tone in his voice.

"Not yet."

"Good. I will conduct the questioning myself."

"As you wish."

"Oh, I see the upgraded plasma rifles have been distributed," Odo noticed and tried to change the subject. They needed the Jem'Hadar off the bridge, the Vorta herself didn't seem to be a problem. They weren't trained to fight and she also didn't carry a phaser gun. "May I inspect it?"

The soldier handed him the rifle and he took a closer look at it before he turned it to Garak. It was better asking him to do this than Rusot who would probably use the chance to do anything that they wouldn't quite profit from at the end. After all, Garak was the Cardassian he still trusted most.

"Aha, an excellent weapon…What do you think?" Garak responded with the huge, typical smile on his face and took the gun gratefully. But all of sudden, he started firing and within seconds, five dead bodies were decorating the bridge's door. He stayed there standing with an open-dropped mouth while the Cardassians already organized the take-over of the ship.

He re-changed into his normal shape which already felt like a relief as well and walked over to Garak. "Was it necessary to kill them all?" he asked.

"We can't afford to be distracted by our prisoners," Garak answered quickly and Odo knew that he should have foreseen this. After all, Garak was a Cardassian and a former Obsidian Order member and Tain's favorite.

"We'll argue about this later," Kira answered busy with taking over control. "Prepare to flood all decks below the bridge with neurozine gas. Bring the Warp drive online. Align a course for the Federation."

"Colonel," Garak suddenly looked up, "they haven't finished installing the Breen weapon. We can't leave."

Kira's mouth dropped open as she regarded the amazed and worried faces of Odo and Garak turning at her direction.

"How long before they finish installing the weapon?" Odo asked.

"We can't wait!" Rusot pushed.

"We can't leave without that weapon," the Colonel muttered.

"There are three…no, four Breen working in the engine room," Garak read from the control panel. "Judging from the diagnostic I'd say, it'll take them thirty to forty-five minutes to complete their work."

"We don't have that much time!" Rusot argued. He was a typical Cardassian, Odo thought. Immediately aggressive and always acting after a plan. What they needed was a gut to improvise more.

"Yes, we do," Kira answered calmly although she already seemed a bit nervous as well. "No one even knows that we're on the bridge. All we have to do is sit tight, give the standard replies and wait until the Breen finish their work."

"Damar, this is insane!" Rusot turned to his leader. He was breathing heavily, he couldn't believe that the Bajoran woman was giving him orders. "She'll get us all killed."

"There's an incoming message," Garak interrupted suddenly but Odo continued examining Damar's reaction. He was calmer than expected and he hoped to interpret the right thing: That Damar was on their side.

=/\=

"And watch out for the environmental controls. The modifications reset every thirty-six minutes," O'Brien said to the Ensign.

"I'd be delighted to see it a bit cooler here," she smiled back and kneed down again.

He nodded and left the Jefferies tube. He closed the door behind and took another ladder downward. It really was cold, as hardly anybody worked in this part of the Upper Pylons. But right now, it was necessary. They couldn't enter the engineering room of the Jem'Hadar vessel before doing an intensive scan on the ship.

There were several traps still online and one of his men has already lost his life to them. He finally arrived at the habitat ring again and thought about the latest shipment of new officers. There have been some new engineers for him, most of them have just graduated from Starfleet Academy and were already sent to the front line of war.

Irresponsible, O'Brien thought and remembered the Ensign who was now performing the detailed scan. She was one of the most experienced Ensigns although she has joined Starfleet only four years ago to attend the Academy. The thirty-six minutes were already over and she crawled to the end of the tube. The air was cooling down abruptly and she sat down in front of the controls.

She regarded the display and set a temperature of minus 30 degrees centigrade. She sighed and enjoyed the coldness. Usually, it was around fifty degrees more in Starfleet vessels and stations but she was already used to everything between minus forty and plus sixty degrees.

Ensign Tallara Shran was born on Andoria, a moon orbiting the gas giant Andor. Her father had been an officer of the Andorian Imperial Guard and her mother a freighter captain. When she had been five years old, they had wanted to spend vacations on Betazed.

The transport, experiencing technical difficulties, had needed to emergency land on a small moon in the Cardassian sector. Only forty-seven of two hundred passengers had survived the few days until they had managed to establish a distress call and were rescued by Cardassian military officers of a city over two hundred miles away.

Due to disputes between the Cardassian and Andorian government, the survivors couldn't return to their home planet but were at least cared for in a hospital. Tallara, having lost her mother in the crash, had to watch how her father suffered to death in a hospital because the Cardassian doctors didn't want to help a military officer of a species who they were probably going to fight against soon.

However, it did not come to a war, they were first brought into a military camp. Most of them were able to return twenty weeks later when Cardassia had agreed to a non-aggression pact with the Andorian Imperial Guard as a war would include interaction with the Federation. Tallara, not having any relatives on Andoria, was brought to an orphanage on Cardassia IV.

Homeless children were regarded as outcast, it was a sin rejecting a family member. Being an alien only made it worse for her, but finally, a nice Cardassian had decided to adopt her. His name was Pythas Lok and despite the tradition of the society, he didn't have much family. It had taken her some time to find out why he was still seen as an honorable man on Cardassia, and when she was ten he took her with him to work. It turned out that he was a high member at the Obsidian Order, also a 'Son of Tain' and later on, she figured out that he had went to school with the son of his boss.

When Tallara turned sixteen, he sent her the Bamarren Institute of Cardassia where she had only been accepted because of her new "father's" influence and because Tain liked her like an own daughter. She had been the first alien at the Institute and was also treated like that. Her name became Ten Ketay and enduring the extreme heat and hard training the first three-year-period has been harder for her than any Cardassian else. She became Seven Ketay at Second Level until she had unsurprisingly reached One Ketay in level three.

At the age of twenty-five, she finished the Institute and was actually thought to start work for the Cardassian Obsidian Order. But contrary to Tain's wish, she wanted to join Starfleet and reunite at least partly with her people. Fortunately, Lok supported Tallara, especially her opinion on the weak Cardassia who has just lost the occupation of Bajor and retreated out of Bajoran and Federation space.

She knew that the Obsidian Order was doomed as much as the occupation had been and Lok smuggled her out of the Cardassian zone. Tain, angry about her escape, felt the need of returning from his retirement and tried to form a pact with the Romulans to not only wipe out the Dominion but also do something that Tallara would probably support and perhaps even bring her back as soon as he has succeeded. His mission failed but with the help of Lok's Obsidian Order contacts, Tallara was already accepted at Starfleet Academy.

Due to her graduation from the Bamarren Institute she was, of course, already trained perfectly for the Academy and after her graduation, she has been sent along other new-comers of the Academy to Deep Space Nine who has recently suffered a great loss and fresh station personal as much as experienced officers were all needed in combat situations these days.

Now, on DS9, Tallara was doing her engineering work, although she had stayed in contact with Pythas Lok as much as possible. They both were against the war and hoped for a consciousness of the Cardassian people. But despite the fact that she was on the front line of the Dominion war, she has also been sent to the origin of another, desperate fight for survival: Bashir's attempt to cure Odo.