Chapter Three

The House of Cards Falls.

"Bring them to the Briefing Room." Sisko ordered tonelessly, eyes locked on Ezri Tigan. The girl's expression was haunted. "Dead? Jennifer and Smiley are dead?" She looked away. "What other lies have you told us?"

"My vote is for every word out of her damned mouth." Dax said bitingly.

"Well, before they get here, is there any part of your story you'd like to change?" She shrugged.

"What would be the point?"

"Your choice."

The door slid open, and Jennifer Sisko walked in. She looked exactly as she had when he'd seen her last, wearing now a beige jacket and skirt. Over her left breast was an image of the Earth's western hemisphere. It was a finer piece now, represented in more pride, smaller but in full color. Miles O'Brien wore an identical emblem on the left side of his maroon jacket. His eyes, for a moment, fell on the Ezri he had come to see, then sought out the Chief. "Hello, Miles."

"Hello, Miles. Seems strange to say."

"Tell me about it."

"Jennifer, Miles," Sisko started. "It's good to see you both again. We were just talking to your friend."

"Huh, no 'friend' of ours."

"Really, and you've traveled all this way to see her."

"Not see. Collect. For execution."

Sisko had managed to get everyone seated, those on his left moving down two. Jennifer sat closer to Benjamin, at the head corner of the table, subtly establishing her position without calling undue attention to it. Captain O'Brien deferred to the Professor.

"You should know," Sisko began, "that Ezri Tigan has appealed for Asylum."

"Well, you certainly can't be planning to grant it." Jennifer said dismissively.

"Actually, we haven't decided." His tone made it clear that he would not be pushed. Jennifer stared at the man who looked so much like her late husband.

"You're serious! Do you realize what you're going to do?"

"Perhaps not. I'm hoping you can enlighten me. Ezri's explanation so far has been - imaginative."

"I've no doubt of that!" O'Brien laughed. "The Queen of Lies herself."

"In my business, lies are just as useful as the truth. It just depends on who you tell them to."

"And what is your business. You called yourself an 'Operative' for the Intendant."

"That's right." Jennifer agreed. "She was a spy."

"And a very costly one." O'Brien pointed out accusingly.

"We are at war. I am a soldier of the Alliance. I worked under the Intendant, but for the Alliance. I did my job to the best of my ability."

"How is Bajor?" Kira asked suddenly, seemingly irrelevantly.

"All right." Jennifer told her, distracted.

"And the people? Happy?"

"They're getting along, adjusting to a new government. Why is this?"

"She told us that Bajor was wiped out, that there was no one alive at all."

O'Brien gave a bitter laugh. "And you believed her."

"We had no evidence not to." Sisko told them.

"Did you lie to us about everything?" Kira demanded of Tigan.

"Not all. Quite a bit. I had to tell you what I thought would get your help."

"Well, you just blew all of that!"

"Not necessarily." Sisko said. "What's to happen to her now?"

"She will be tried for espionage. And when found guilty, she will be executed."

"Is there no alternative sentence?"

"For some there is. Not for her." O'Brien maintained.

Sisko sat back in his chair, silent for several moments. Finally, he made a decision. "The appeal for Asylum is granted." Ezri looked like she was going to collapse in relief, Jennifer was on her feet in an instant.

"What?! You can't do that!"

"I'll admit," he agreed, "that the law is being stretched to galactic lengths, but you'll find that I can. When a request for Asylum is made, if in the judgment of the commander refusing that request would lead to grave consequences - you've said she is to be executed - Asylum can be granted on the grounds of extreme circumstances."

"That's outrageous!" Captain O'Brien declared hotly.

"Not at all. When we were in your universe, we played by your rules. You are now in ours."

"And what do your rules say about getting her back?" Jennifer demanded. "We demand extradition!"

"Well, that's where it gets tricky. There is no extradition treaty between your universe and ours, and I doubt there ever will be one. But waiving that, I can call an extradition hearing to get all the facts out, so that we can decide the case."

"Then convene your hearing!"

"Captain," Odo pointed out, "there is no way to obtain certifiable evidence to support anything that either side may say. The entire case would be reduced to hearsay."

"That will be a problem." He admitted with a wry smile. "I suppose we just can't limit either side to telling the truth."

"The truth is no problem for us, Captain." O'Brien declared. "For her, however -"

"There are two sides to every truth! Maybe once you know mine - ."

"Hah! I'm looking forward to being the one who pulls the trigger!" Sisko held his hands up for silence. He was actually surprised that he got it.

"This is not the hearing. I am convening the hearing in the ward room at ten hundred hours, some eight hours from now. You can all present your arguments in a calm and reasonable fashion then." He turned to Ezri Tigan. "Federation law permits you your choice of Counsel, to speak on your behalf."

"Thank you, Captain. I choose Ezri Dax. I think of all people she is best qualified to understand my motives."

"What?! No. I refuse. I'm rooting for the Executioner."

"Dax!"

"I said 'no', Benjamin!"

"What about Garak?" Bashir asked. "He was a spy as well; he can express the professional side." Odo gave a bitter laugh.

"Elim Garak and Ezri Tigan in the same room would raise obfuscation to heights undreamed of in the annals of espionage."

"What about you, Odo?" Kira asked. "If anybody knows law and can be impartial -."

"It's Odo." Sisko finished. "That's why I am appointing you as Judge."

There was a long, deafening silence.

"What?" Captain O'Brien asked mockingly. "Out of two whole universes, you don't have even one supporter?"

"I will speak for her." Worf's basso profundo voice broke through the room.

"What?" Dax's voice held barely concealed outrage.

"Worf," Bashir began, "she isn't Jadzia. She isn't even Dax-."

"No. She is Ezri Tigan, and everyone is aligned against her. She may not have an ally, but she will have a Defender."

Worf, Bashir and Ezri Dax escorted Ezri Tigan to a holding cell in the brig. In the large room behind Odo's office, there were four alcoves, enclosed on three sides by durasteel and on the fourth with an invisible force field. A uniformed deputy, this time female, would monitor the prisoner. "If I am going to help you," Worf told her outside the cell, "you must tell me the truth in all things." She smiled up at him.

"The truth does not come easy in my job. Sometimes I think the job has taken over."

"Nevertheless, I must have it."

"There are more than two sides of truth."

"We are interested in only one side." He directed her to step across the threshold, and when she did the force field flickered into place between them.

"Worf, I thank you for your help. You are much nicer than the Regent is. But no matter what happens, at least now they won't kill me."

"Why do you say that?" She patted her abdomen, looking directly at Bashir.

"I'm pregnant now with your child." She smiled. "That's why I came today. Why I did this. In these 44 hours, two Trill days, I am ovulating and at the height of my cycle. They have their own brand of honor; inherited, no doubt, from the Klingons. They will not kill a pregnant woman.

"There is a planet, Sacaro Three; primitive, no technology. People are beamed there and there is no technology to ever get off again. The Confederation uses it as an exile colony. No matter what happens, I am going to live and have Julian's baby." She looked at Ezri. "I may never be joined - that part I told you about Trill is true - but I will know the sensation you do, of having a life inside me."

Julian shook his head sadly. "I am so sorry."

Her smile collapsed. "Sorry? What? What sorry?"

"You're not pregnant, you can't be, at least not from any man on this station."

"What?!" Her voice was barely a strained whisper.

"Everyone here, unless actively seeking to have a family, takes a monthly injection. I can give you detailed medical information; suffice it to say that fertilization is impossible."

Ezri's face went dead white. Her knees gave way and she sat down hard on the bed. She stared straight at them, but they could tell she was not seeing them.

"Would you excuse us please?" Worf asked quietly. "We have much to do." They want out slowly, Dax still watching Tigan's face. She was white, unmoving, and it seemed as if her universe had just collapsed around her.