2
The next morning, when Bashir arrived for his duty shift, the Cardassian girl was still unconscious. He had a brief meeting with Doctor Tarses, and then went to see his only patient. He checked her vitals quickly, then pulled out a medical tricorder and began to run another detailed scan to assess the extent of her recovery.
She was healing well. Bashir was pleased and considered how much longer he would let her remain unconscious before reviving her. In a few hours, she should be well enough to wake, he decided, and that would probably coincide with Kira's patience running out.
He was just about to turn away and put the tricorder back when something grasped his wrist so hard that he gasped and dropped his instrument. The hold tightened and Bashir looked down at the girl to find her awake and staring up at him, suspicion etched deeply into her features.
"It's all right!", he managed through the pain immobilizing his arm.
"Who are you?", she hissed.
"My name's Bashir, I'm a doctor–" he said through clenched teeth as, almost impossibly, her grip redoubled. "Please– Let my– arm go–"
"Where am I? How did I get here?"
"You're on Deep Space Nine," Bashir managed.
The girl growled and her grip on Bashir tightened threateningly.
"Don't play games with me," she warned.
"Believe me– I'm not trying to. I'm a human," Bashir gasped. "You wouldn't find me in Cardassian space."
Bashir felt the girl's grip release slightly, but only slightly.
"What's the name of the commanding officer here?"
"Captain Kira Nerys," Bashir managed.
"And tell me, " the girl demanded, "Has she contacted the Cardassian government yet?"
Bashir started to shake his head, but the girl gripped him harder and he stopped moving at all.
"No. She decided not to until she'd talked to you. A Cardassian ship fired on yours. She wants to know what's going on first."
The girl was still for a moment, then pushed Bashir away from her with a sure, sharp shove. He stumbled forward and grasping a console for support until he'd regained his balance. Then he gripped his arm carefully, holding it steady and looked down at his wrist. He was shocked to see it already turning black and blue.
"I promise you," Bashir said, looking back at the girl. "No one is going to hurt you."
She gave him a suspicious look, but didn't say anything.
"I need to fix this," the doctor said, indicating his arm.
She nodded curtly and he approached her, picking up his medical equipment with his left hand. With some difficulty, as he had no assistance, Bashir healed the bruises she'd induced and did not mention that she had cracked his radius.
"All right," he said, turning back to the girl. "What's your name?"
She gave him an angry, defiant look.
"I'll only talk to your commanding officer," she said in a voice that brooked no argument.
Bashir nodded, feeling relieved. Kira would probably be better at dealing with someone line this girl; they both seemed to have about the same degree of patience.
"All right." He tapped his combadge. "Bashir to Kira. Our patient is awake and she'd like to speak to you."
When Kira entered the small infirmary room, Bashir was already gone. The Cardassian girl was sitting cross legged on the biobed, gazing curiously at Kira as the Colonel took a seat.
"What is it?", Kira asked.
"I've never seen a Bajoran before," the girl replied.
"Well, now you have," the Colonel replied. "What's your name?"
"Tareina."
"Tareina?"
The girl's eyes narrowed.
"Tareina Adat. Where's my ship?"
"Your ship's docked safely here."
Tareina's eyes narrowed more, flashing.
"You have to destroy it," she said.
"Excuse me?", Kira asked.
With an easy, graceful movement, Tareina slipped down from her biobed and began pacing the room.
"By now, you must have examined the ship, because your doctor told me that you know a Cardassian ship fired on me," she said.
"Yes," Kira confirmed.
"They left me as soon as I passed into Federation space. But you could bet your station that they're sitting at the border, getting permission from the Federation to come here and get me."
"Why?", Kira asked. "What did you do?"
The girl spun on her, her black hair flying.
"Nothing. I did nothing. It's what was done to me."
"What was done to you?", Kira pressed, remembering what Bashir had told her the day before.
Tareina suddenly went silent and stood still, staring hard at Kira.
"I'm not saying anything else," she replied stiffly.
"I'm trying to help you, Tareina. I can't do that until you tell me what's going on."
"You can help me by destroying my ship and telling them I died in the explosion."
"I need to know why your people are after you first," Kira insisted.
Tareina's features went cold.
"They aren't my people," she hissed.
"What?", Kira asked. "Doctor Bashir examined you and you are a Cardassian."
"If that's what he thinks, then he's a fool," Tareina spat. "And you for believing him."
"If you aren't Cardassian, then what are you?", Kira asked.
Tareina crossed her arms, setting her jaw.
"I'm not saying anything else," she repeated.
"Fine," Kira sighed. "I'll do what I can, but if you don't help me, I'm not making any promises." She gave the girl a moment to say something more, but Tareina remained silent, and Kira strode from the room, heading for her office.
"Quark to Kira," the Ferengi's voice came over the com, interrupting Kira from her work in her office. She looked up at the wall and tapped her badge in response.
"Go ahead."
"There's a message coming in for you from Cardassia, on a secure channel."
"Can you patch it through?", Kira asked.
"I'm already working on it."
"Thank you. Kira out," she said as she tapped her badge again and turned on her personal comscreen. A secure channel notice flashed across the screen, followed by the Federation symbol. A moment after that, Garak's face appeared on the screen, and Kira was surprised to feel relief.
"Captain Kira," the Cardassian greeted. "I have some information for you that I think you'll find important. Is Doctor Bashir with you?"
Kira shook her head.
"No, but I can get him."
"Then I advise that you do."
Within a few minutes, Bashir was in her office, standing behind her, bent over to better see the comscreen, bracing himself against her desk with one arm.
"What is it?", Kira asked.
"I was able to find some information on the girl in question in our records. Her name is Tareina Adat, and she is indeed from the Retros system. You said that she's an adolescent, correct?"
Kira nodded.
"Captain, our records show that Adat is only seven years old."
"Seven?", Kira asked, then looked over at Bashir. He looked surprised, his eyebrows raised, his eyes glinting.
"Garak, I ran scans on her. Her bone growth indicators show that she's fourteen years old," the doctor said.
"You told me you found signs of genetic tampering," Kira pointed out. "What if her aging process had been sped up somehow?"
"But why? And by who?", Bashir asked.
"Captain, these are the only records I was able to access for Adat so far," Garak said. "But I must tell you that I know there are more records for our young woman. They are, however, locked. Any attempt I made to access them would have been picked up by someone else in Cardassian government and traced back to me immediately. It seems to me that is the last thing we want right now."
Kira stared at him for a moment.
"The Cardassian government's locked her files. She's seven years old, at least, we're supposed to believe she is. For all practical purposes, she's a teenager. Why would the Cardassian government need to restrict her files and try and kill her?", she asked.
Garak shook his head.
"I will continue making inquiries, Captain, but I cannot guarantee I will find anything."
"Someone's got to get her talking,", Kira sighed. "She won't talk to me."
"She broke my arm this morning," Bashir said dryly.
Kira tapped her fingers on her desk, frowning.
"It's times like this I wish Sisko was still here. He was always so good at this kind of thing. By the Prophets, it would even help if Vaughn weren't on shore leave. What about Mathias?"
"I'm not sure a half Vulcan is the best person to deal with Tareina," Bashir admitted. "She's afraid and upset and we don't know why. Philipa's good, but I'm not sure Tareina would respond to her."
"Then Dax," Kira said.
"I'll ask her," Bashir said. "But with the way Tareina's been reacting, I can't promise anything, even with Ezri."
"Just try," Kira sighed. "We've got to figure out what's going on. I was just talking to Admiral McCull at Starfleet Headquarters. A Cardassian ship is requesting permission to come here and reclaim an escaped prisoner."
Garak raised his eyebrows.
"That's certainly news to me," he commented. "I've had no reports of any Cardassian ships requesting access to Federation space for any reason."
"You'd think that your law enforcement officials would let the head of the government know if they needed to pursue an escaped criminal into someone else's space," Bashir commented dryly.
"Doctor, I assure you, the Retros system never contained a prison. I've checked with a contact of mine and it still doesn't. It is only scientific outposts. Nor did Adat's records indicate she had been in prison."
"Great," Kira said to Garak's image. "I'm not about to turn her over to you without knowing why I'm doing so."
"I don't blame you, Captain. I'd rather like to know why members of my government are so eager to have her back that they're willing not to let me know that they're pursuing her."
Kira sighed.
"Whatever else you could find out would be helpful, Garak."
"I assure you, I will find out everything I can. I have no intentions of seeing this girl die for reasons I don't know."
Kira nodded.
"Thank you."
"You will hear from me again soon," Garak promised before his image winked out and the screen went blank. Kira loked up at Bashir, who was looking back down at her.
"Doctor, Tareina said something about not being a Cardassian. I need you to find out what that means."
Bashir looked surprised.
"I'll do my best, Captain," he sighed. "But, as far as I can tell, Cardassian is what she is."
Kira nodded.
"Well, she doesn't think so. And she's the one with all the answers right now. If she won't give them to us, we're just going to have to find them some other way."
