Interlude: Terok Nor; July 2368

To be in hell is to drift; to be in heaven is to steer.

Shaw, Man and Superman

Belar Marel woke with a start and panicked. It was not until she had checked the time and reassured herself that she was not late that her breathing steadied, and she calmed down. A critical mission, she had been told. The future of Bajor depended on it. It would be typical of me to sleep through the end of the occupation.

She slid out of her hidey-hole, one of many such places the Resistance were able to use to their advantage on Terok Nor, and started to make her slow way down into the bowels of the station to the rendezvous point. She was first there. She wrapped her ragged jacket around her more tightly, shivering. Down here, where the spoonheads never came, the station was bitterly cold. Two levels up and the heat was stifling. You were either freezing or boiling. Just part of the joy of Terok Nor.

She heard a noise behind her and swung round, reaching for her ancient phaser. Old gear, shipped in for a fortune from Tzenketh, and used and reused across decades in the struggle to free Bajor.

Too late. Two Cardassian soldiers - a glinn and a cadet, both with weapons trained on her. 'Put it down, and kick it away,' ordered the glinn.

She did as she was told, tears forming in her eyes. A critical mission... They should never have trusted it to me... But how did these two know I'd be here...?

A shadow moved and a figure stepped forward, a disruptor trained on her. She recognized him from the description she'd been given. Her contact. 'You set me up, you bastard!' she hissed.

He ignored her. The glinn and the cadet had seemed to recognize the other man also and were almost standing to attention. They kept her covered, she noticed. No chance of getting away and letting her superior know it had been a fiasco.

Her contact spoke to the two soldiers. 'You can put those weapons away. I have it all under control.'

They did as they were told.

'Do you have the data rod, Glinn Toran?' the man asked.

'Yes sir.'

'Then put it on the ground where I can see it.'

Toran did as instructed, putting it down about a yard away from the Order officer.  'Very good.' Then with one fluid movement, he trained his weapon on the two soldiers. 'Now drop your weapons.'

In stunned silence, the other three people in the room tried to take in their sudden change of fortunes. The cadet grasped it first and made a movement for his weapon. Garak's arm swung round to aim the disruptor directly at him. The two Cardassians stared at him in horrified silence.

'You're not going to kill one of your own people for a Bajoran woman, Garak,' Toran finally hissed.

Garak fired and the cadet fell to the ground dead. 'Does that make you believe I'm serious, Toran?'

The glinn blanched then threw aside his own weapon. Garak aimed his disruptor back at him, kicking the data rod towards Marel. 'Take that, and get out of here,' he said to her, his eye firmly on Toran.

Marel stared at him in confusion then whispered, 'Thank you.'

He spared her a swift, contemptuous look. 'My dear, you overestimate your appeal. I didn't do this for you. I did it for Cardassia.'

She couldn't quite bring herself to go. 'What's going to happen to you?'

'Something very unpleasant, I should imagine, not that it's any of your concern.' He jerked his head towards the exit. 'Get out of here while you still have the chance.'

Marel didn't need telling twice. She grabbed the data rod and fled. Garak sighed and turned back to Toran. 'I'm afraid I'm going to have to keep you here a while longer. That young lady needs some time to get back to her associates.' He waved his weapon at the ground. 'Why don't you sit down and make yourself comfortable? We'll be here a while yet.'

Toran looked back at him in astonishment. 'Don't toy with me! You're going to kill me, and we both know it.'

Garak pursed his lips in frustration. 'The Cardassian military suffers from the twin handicaps of no imagination and gross stupidity. I'm amazed we ever took Bajor in the first place. The fact that we've lost it is no real surprise. No, Toran, I won't kill you. I need you to inform your superiors of the breach in their security. Otherwise that young lady will cause the deaths of countless Cardassian soldiers and civilians.'

Toran looked back in confusion. 'Isn't that what you want?'

Garak's eyes blazed in genuine fury. 'What do you take me for - a traitor?'

'From where I'm standing, that's exactly what you are,' Toran shot back.

'Which just proves my point: the military never could understand anything more subtle than a weapon in the face. No, Toran: once I let you go, you'll be able to let Central Command know that their lunatic evacuation plans have been leaked to the Bajoran resistance. They'll have to devise an entirely new operation. I suspect they'll come up with one that's somewhat more directed and rather less bloody.'

'Who cares?' Toran snapped. 'They're Bajorans. Who cares if we wipe out the entire damn planet?'

Garak shot him a murderous look. 'I care,' he hissed back. He frowned. 'Because it affects Cardassia,' he added. He waved the disruptor again. 'Now sit down and shut up.'

Toran did as he was told, sitting down warily as Garak positioned himself opposite, the disruptor trained on him. He tried not to move, conscious of Garak's basilisk stare keeping him pinned down. After two long hours, Garak seemed to come to a decision. He nodded, stood up, and gestured with his weapon. 'You're free to go, Toran.'

Toran stood up stiffly, freezing cold, and sore from both lack of movement and the damage done to his pride. The Bajoran girl would be miles away by now, he thought bitterly, not caring to think through the implications of this for the Cardassian army. He stared in revulsion at the traitor opposite him, whose face remained as composed as it had been for the last two hours.

'You'll never set foot on Cardassia again,' snarled Toran and, before his eyes, Garak seemed to become old.

'I know,' Garak murmured. 'I know.'