3
Quark found Bashir at one of the tables in the mezzanine, enjoying a drink after his duty shift had ended.
"Doctor," the Ferengi said, sitting down opposite of the human and resting one arm on the table. "I think Captain Kira's going to be looking for you."
"How do you know," Bashir asked.
"Because I just put through a call to her office from an old friend of yours," Quark said in a low tone.
"Right," Bashir said, and left his half finished drink. He hurried to ops, resisting the urge to stop at the infirmary first and check on the girl. Tareina was still there; in fact, she refused to leave. Bashir hoped that Dax had agreed to talk to the girl once her shift was over; he hoped she'd get further with Tareina than he and Kira had.
"Good timing, Julian," Kira commented once Bashir had been admitted to her office.
"Quark gave me the heads up," he replied, to which Kira nodded knowingly.
"What do you have for me?", the captain asked, addressing the question to her comscreen as Bashir circled behind her desk. Garak was already there, and nodded at Bashir, who returned the greeting.
"An old friend of mine was able to provide me with some information I think you'll find quite valuable," Garak replied.
Bashir raised an eyebrow.
"Is this friend a former agent for the Obsidian Order?", he asked.
"Why, doctor, I have no idea what you mean. I didn't ask how this information was obtained."
"That isn't important right now," Kira insisted. "We need the information you have, Garak."
"I'm sending it right now," the Cardassian replied. Kira picked up a datapad and cleared it to receive new information. When it was downloaded, she handed it quickly to Bashir, who set himself to reading it. When he was finished, he looked up quickly, eyes wide.
"Are you certain this is accurate?", he demanded.
"I have no way of telling," Garak replied. "Certainly I've never heard of this before, but that doesn't mean anything. I assume with your medical expertise, you can figure out if this is the case."
"I hope so," Bashir said grimly, rising and handing the pad to Kira. "Captain, I've got to get back to the infirmary now."
Kira nodded quickly, wondering with a sinking feeling what was on that pad. Bashir was out the door almost before she had dismissed him.
"Garak, what's going on?", she demanded, turning back to the comscreen.
"I intend to explain, Captain," he assured her. "Because there's something you need to do for me."
"Read this," Kira said to Dax as the other woman stepped into her office.
Dax accepted the report Garak had sent and read it quickly, looking up at the captain in shock when she was finished.
"Does Julian know about this?", she asked.
"He's already down in the infirmary, working on it. I wanted you to see it first, before you went to talk to her. Come on. We're both going down there to see what's going on."
"Right," Dax said, her jaw set grimly, as she handed the pad back to Kira. The Bajoran woman took it and kept it with her, reluctant to leave it in her office on the off chance someone else found it. The less that was known about Tareina Adat's background, the better.
The two women arrived in the infirmary and found Bashir hard at work. Kira noted that Bashir was wisely staying out of Tareina's sight. She didn't blame him. The idea that a fourteen year old– no, seven year old could break a grown man's arm was chilling.
"I take it you've read Garak's report," Bashir said to the former counselor, looking back over his shoulder at her.
Dax nodded curtly.
"Have you found anything?", Kira asked.
"Unfortunately yes, I have. Whoever Garak's contact is, he knows what he's doing."
"So she is a Jem'Hadar," Kira said.
Bashir shook his head quickly.
"No. Not really. At least fifty percent of her genetic structure is Cardassian, but I can't give you an exact percentage, not yet. And the Jem'Hadar don't have females. I think she was specifically designed to look and be Cardassian in almost every respect."
"And the Jem'Hadar DNA? Why weren't your scans able to pick that up right away?"
Bashir tapped the console and an image of Cardassian and Jem'Hadar DNA appeared.
"Because, somehow, someone devised a way to make the Jem'Hadar DNA biomimetic. It looks like Cardassian DNA. It acts like Cardassian DNA when examined. But it is not Cardassian DNA."
"That would explain why her reproductive organs are missing," Kira said grimly.
"You're right: it does. You wouldn't want someone like her breeding. She was made to be a soldier."
"Obviously something went wrong," Dax said, shaking her head. "Because she's here, and she doesn't seem as aggressive as a Jem'Hadar."
Bashir looked at her.
"She broke my arm," he reminded her.
"I know. But she was frightened and taken unawares. I'm not saying she isn't trained as a soldier, but the Dominion demands unwavering loyalty from its soldiers. If that's what the Cardassians were after, they didn't get it right in her case."
"I'll say," Kira muttered, almost under her breath. "No wonder the Cardassian government wants her back. If she doesn't work they way they wanted her to, they'd need to destroy her."
"Captain, we cannot give her back to the Union," Bashir insisted.
"Believe me, I have no intentions of doing so," Kira replied. "But I don't think the Federation is going to refuse to allow the Cardassians to come get her."
"Can't you talk to them?", Bashir asked. "Let them know what was done to her?"
"It wouldn't do any good," Dax said, shaking her head. "Prime Directive."
Bashir frowned.
"You could try and convince the Federation to offer her political asylum," he pointed out.
Kira nodded.
"I'll do my best, but no guarantees. The Federation isn't eager to be back on Cardassia's bad side, and trying to keep one of their military secrets here probably wouldn't go very well for them."
"She's a person, Colonel," Bashir said.
"I know, Julian," Kira replied. "I have no desire to hand her back over. She got herself all the way here, and she should stay here. Going home would be a death sentence."
"She wouldn't even get home," Dax said. "She'd be dead before she left Federation space."
"I'll do what I can," Kira sighed. "Dax, go talk to her. Julian, keep working on this. Find out as much as you can."
Ezri Dax was certain that the girl had heard her coming, even through the Trill walked softly. Tareina was sitting alert, watching the door, when Dax stepped through it.
"Who are you?", the Cardassian – Ezri couldn't think of her any other way – demanded.
"My name is Ezri Dax. I'm a trained counselor."
Tareina looked offended.
"I see. You were assigned to talk to me because your position engenders trust."
Dax approached the bed and stopped with a comfortable distance between them.
"No. I'm no longer the station's counselor; I'm the strategic operations officer now. It's the fact that I'm over three hundred years old, so I know a thing or two about talking to people."
Tareina gave her an evaluating look.
"And I know that you're only seven," Dax continued.
"So your doctor isn't a complete fool," the girl snapped. "What of it?"
Dax clasped her hands behind her back.
"We were able to find out who you are. And what you are. Now the question is, why did you come here and what do you want?"
The girl gave Dax a long, slow, calculating look.
"How did you find out?", she asked.
"We have a contact in the Cardassian government," Dax replied.
"What!" Tareina exploded. "Your doctor said you hadn't contacted the Cardassian government! Now they'll know I'm here!"
"They already know," Dax reminded her. "The Cardassians are trying to get permission from the Federation to come here and get you."
"Ha!", Tareina snorted. "I knew it. So why did you tell them?"
"Captain Kira has no intention of handing you over. We're trying to get you asylum here, and our contact is trying to help us with that. Not everyone in the Cardassian government knew about you and your trip here."
"Who's your contact?", the girl snapped.
"Elim Garak."
Tareina stared at Dax.
"Garak?", she spat.
"That's right."
"He's the head of the government! How could he not know? You said the Cardassians were trying to get access to your space! He'd know about that!"
"You would think so, yes. But apparently, the leader of the Union was left out of the loop on this issue. That means that other people have been too, Tareina. So not every Cardassian is out to kill you. And if you want us, and the people in the Union who can help you, to be on your side, there are answers you need to give to us."
"How do you know he's you telling the truth?", she demanded.
"Garak's an expert liar," Dax said. "But I've known him for thirteen years, and if he wanted you dead, you would have been dead by now. Under his order, you certainly would never had made it this far, and he wouldn't be willing to provide us with all the information he has on you."
"That's comforting," Tareina said and Dax realized there was no sarcasm in her voice. It probably was comforting to realize that a potential enemy had made no move against you and therefore was not likely to do so.
"We need your help, Tareina," Dax stressed.
Tareina looked wary, but asked:
"What do you need to know?"
"Why did you come here?"
"Because they were trying to kill me," the girl replied flatly.
Dax nodded slowly.
"They weren't trying to kill you because you ran?"
Tareina gave a vehement shake of her head.
"No. No. They'd killed all the others, or were almost done killing them. They would have killed me, too, but I saw it was coming. So did some of the others. We planned to escape."
"What others?", Dax asked gently.
Tareina eyed her.
"You said you knew what I was," she accused.
"Yes. Doctor Bashir was able to isolate your biomimetic Jem'Hadar DNA."
"Then you think I'm the only one? Do you think that this was some side experiment? The Cardassian government was trying to make more adept soldiers, ones they could have ready within a few years, rather than decades. The entire Retros system is made up of scientific outposts. We're why. There's nothing out there to study, but it's so out of the way that no one knows that, and wouldn't question a bunch of scientific colonies."
"But the experiment failed," Dax said.
"Yes. What they didn't realize is that masking the Jem'Hadar DNA decreased its efficacy. And it only represents twenty-five percent of my DNA, in case your doctor couldn't get the precise number."
"How did you know that?", Dax interrupted.
Tareina rolled her eyes.
"Because the DNA is biomimetic, Counselor. It's deliberately difficult to tell the proportions. But because there's so much Cardassian DNA there, we turned out to be, surprise, Cardassians."
"You don't have unwavering loyalty they expected."
"No," Tareina replied.
"You said there were others that planned to escape."
"Yes."
"What happened to them?"
"I don't know. They were caught and killed, probably. Destroyed in their ships. I have no idea."
"Why did you come here?"
"Because it's the closest Federation outpost I could get to from Retros, and it's twice been reclaimed from the Cardassians. It seemed logical that you people would be able to help. You've dealt with them before."
Dax nodded.
"What you just told me will give us more leverage to help you," she said.
"It won't be long before the Cardassians secure permission to come here," Tareina warned. "They'll tell the Federation I'm a great threat."
"And are you?"
Tareina glared.
"Not to the Federation."
"But to the Cardassian government."
"Only because I didn't work they way they wanted!", she snapped. "And if this kind of failure leaked out, it would weaken the government's position. No one wants to be remembered as having ties to the Dominion, and that's exactly what I represent. And with Dukat dead, the people in charge now will be the ones who get blamed. The Cardassian people will want to put this on someone."
"Dukat?", Dax asked, raising her eyebrows.
"You knew him?", Tareina asked.
"Oh, yes," Dax replied.
"Well, it was his idea," Tareina said.
Who else?, Dax thought, feeling no real surprise. That was more ammunition for Kira to use with the Federation. Dukat had essentially sentenced this girl to death the moment he conceived of the ill-fated plan.
It was a good thing that the Federation didn't have to honour Cardassian death sentences.
"Why don't you come with me for a tour of the station?", Dax asked, changing tactics slightly, aware that Tareina might soon get frustrated with being so forthcoming. She was already frightened enough as she was, and doing a good job masking it with anger. Dax didn't want to push that.
The girl looked wary.
"No one's going to hurt you."
"That's what your doctor told me," the girl replied. "I find that hard to believe."
"Why?", Dax asked.
"It's a space station, Counselor," the girl snapped. "There could be any number of spies here. They don't have to be Cardassian to sell information to the Cardassian government."
She's right. Although a little paranoid, Dax thought.
"You have the head of the Cardassian Union on your side, Tareina. If any information gets sold, it will go to him. He knows you're here. "
"Do I have to go?", she asked.
"No one's going to force you to," Dax promised. "But I can't imagine you'll want to stay in the infirmary forever, and if you're going to stay on the station, people are going to want to get to know you."
Tareina looked surprised again.
"Stay here?", she asked.
"Of course," Dax said, slightly puzzled. "Unless you had planned to go somewhere else in the Federation."
"I– hadn't thought that far ahead," Tareina admitted.
"Well, as long as you're here, why not get to know the people here? I'd be glad to show you around."
"All right," the girl agreed reluctantly.
Dax nodded and smiled slightly.
"Then come with me."
"I have good news," Bashir said, entering Kira's office. The Bajoran woman looked up at him expectantly.
"What is it?", she asked.
"I think I've figured out a way to slow down Tareina's aging process. I won't be able to get it back to normal, but close enough so that it will be difficult to tell."
"Good," Kira said shortly. "Because I have bad news."
"Oh no," Bashir groaned.
"Come with me. We're going to meet Nog and Ro."
Bashir accompanied her to the briefing room, where the security and engineering chiefs were already waiting. They rose from their seats when Kira came in, and sat back down as she and Bashir claimed seats of their own.
"I just finished speaking to Admiral McCull, and they've already decided to let the Cardassians come to DS9."
The group looked dismayed.
"The Admiral says he understands the grounds for political asylum, but Starfleet is under orders from the Federation Council not to rescind their decision. The Cardassians are coming. We have about three or four hours before they get here."
"We can't let them take her back," Ro insisted, and Kira was surprised at the conviction with which she spoke. She felt the same way, but it was heartening to realize a fellow Bajoran was behind her belief that Tareina needed to stay here.
"What about Garak?", Bashir demanded.
Kira gave him a sharp look.
"He's working on things on his end, but it's up to us to figure out a way to keep the Cardassians en route from getting her. There's nothing Garak can do right now. Not without betraying that he knows about this, because someone's obviously gone to great lengths to keep it from him. We need a plan."
"When she first woke up, she asked me to destroy her ship," Bashir said. "What if we did that, and dampened her life sign here so that the Cardassians think we destroyed her?"
Kira shook her head.
"They already know she's here and that we brought her on board. Why would we do that?"
"So she escaped and was firing on the station," Ro suggested.
"I doubt that would convince the Cardassians," Kira sighed. "They'd want to come aboard and look for her themselves."
"Dammit," Bashir muttered.
Nog snapped his fingers and the other three looked over at him.
"That won't work, but something else might," he said. "Doctor, if you worked with my engineering teams, we could make her ship broadcast a false life sign, so the Cardassians would think she was on the shuttle if they scanned it. And we could still dampen her life sign here, so they wouldn't pick her up on the station. And they will destroy the shuttle if they think she's on it and she's firing on them."
"How do we get an unmanned ship to fire on another vessel?", Kira asked.
Nog turned his eyes to her.
"I've been working with bastardized Cardassian technology here for seven years, Captain. I can set up her computer system to fire remotely. Some of the weapons are on line, and that's enough. All we need is one phaser bank for this to work."
"What about her, though?", Bashir asked. "Are the Cardassians really going to believe that we let her back onto her ship? To what end?"
Kira shook her head.
"They don't have to believe that. She's a soldier. She knows that she's on the verge of being captured. If the Cardassians were coming after me, I'd run, too. We'll have security stage a fire fight through the station, toward the docking bay."
Ro nodded.
"That could work," she said.
"Let's hope it works," Kira sighed. "I can't order any of you to do this; it goes against our instructions from Starfleet. If it doesn't work, we'll be in a lot of trouble, on more than one front."
Ro shook her head.
"I'm a Bajoran before I'm a Starfleet officer, and I'd rather be court martialed than see another innocent person slaughtered by the Cardassians."
"I can't condone handing over a patient to be executed," Bashir said.
"She doesn't deserve this," Nog put in. "This isn't the way to fix a mistake. They just want to get out easily. It doesn't work that way."
"Good," Kira said. "We'd better get going, we're going to need all the time we have to pull this off. Cortez, get your teams working with Julian. Ro, alert your security staff and have them ready for a fire fight. Julian, get Simon to establish the dampening field. I'll get Tareina."
"She's with Dax," Bashir said.
"Good," Kira said. "She can probably do something to help."
Dax took Tareina down the promenade, grateful that it was evening and there weren't many people about; they were either in their homes for dinner or on duty. As it was, enough people were staring at the Cardassian girl to make even the Trill uncomfortable, so, to distract Tareina from the attention, Dax had provided a detailed history of the station. She talked about everything they saw, from the security office, where Dax told Tareina about Odo, to the Bajoran temple. Tareina was mildly curious about that, but refrained from going very close to it, held at bay by the looks she was receiving from the Bajorans who were on the promonade.
Tareina had been very reluctant at first, but Dax was well over three hundred years old and had a wealth of experience dealing with reserved people. She kept up most of the conversation herself, learning only a little about Tareina in the process. But perhaps there was little to know about her. Certainly her life hadn't seemed to hold more than training and testing up until the time she had fled Retros less than two weeks ago.
Dax had learned, however, that the girl had no parents, no real family. Someone had contributed the DNA for her conception, of course, and it had then been spliced with Jem'Hadar DNA to produce Tareina, but whoever the donors were, Tareina had never even learned their names.
Dax was disgusted.
Several hundred Cardassian children raised by scientists as laboratory experiments. In a culture that held family to be the strongest tie, the most important thing in life, she was appaled that so many of their own children had been raised the way Tareina had. As experiments. It was no way for a Cardassian to live.
She showed Tareina the tailor's shop, now run by a woman from Bajor who had moved to the station shortly after the war had ended. Tareina listened attentively to the story Dax told about Garak having lived on the station for seven years, and having established the tailor's shop himself. She couldn't tell if Tareina believed her or not; it was impossible to read her expressions if she chose not to show them. She was too well trained.
Dax was in the middle of trying to decide whether or not to take Tareina to Quark's when her thoughts were interrupted by Kira's voice over the com system:
"Kira to Dax."
"This is Dax. Go ahead, Captain."
"Bring Tareina and come up to the briefing room. The Cardassians are on their way, and we think we have a plan to keep Tareina on the station."
Dax looked over at Tareina, who was standing still, her expression blank.
"Understood, Captain. On our way."
Tareina stood in the examination room of the sickbay, with the doctors, two security officers, and Dax. Doctor Bashir was attaching a small device to her sleeve.
"All right," he said. "When you get there, there will be an engineering team waiting for you. You've got to go inside the shuttle. Once you're there, activate this by pressing here. That will alert your ship's computer to activate the false signal, and dampen your own life sign at the same time. When you're off the ship, Lieutenant Nog will begin controlling it remotely."
"I understand," Tareina said. She could see the look of displeasure in the human's face; he was uneasy with this whole thing. So was she, but she remained calm, her heartbeat normal, her breathing controlled, as she was trained to do.
"Let's go," one of the security officers, a Bajoran woman named Ro, said, gesturing slightly with her phaser rifle.
Tareina nodded and joined her. The two officers stayed on either side of her and Dax as they hurried through the station. She hadn't been given a weapon, but Dax had, and the three of them fired random shots from time to time, missing each other by wide margins.
They took the lift, and got off seven floors later, as planned, Dax firing at the controls to disable them believably. Another security team came out from around a corner and fired above their heads. Tareina ducked instinctively, her fingers itching for a weapon. Dax gripped her arm and pulled her back upright, and she fought the instinct to slam the Trill woman aside.
"This way," Ro said.
Tareina jogged along behind the Bajoran until they reached an access way. Ro went in first, with Tareina following her, Dax behind her, and the other security officer coming last. The three people with weapons slung them across their backs in order to crawl quickly. This route would work, Tareina had argued with Kira, because she was a Cardassian soldier and knew the lay out of standard Cardassian stations.
They came to the end of the access tunnel, and when Tareina clambered out, Ro was already climbing the ladder to the next level. Tareina followed quickly, concentrating on her breathing as she scaled her way past each level.
They took another access tunnel back to the main corridors, and were two decks below the docking ring. Ro led them toward another lift, and they were "surprised" by another security team. They exchanged weapons fire, doing some minor damage to the walls and ceilings, while Tareina was forced to wait for them to finish. Ro gave her a nod and she ran after the security chief, into the lift. It took them to the docking ring, where they were greeted with two more security teams. The falsified exchange lasted longer this time. Tareina was certain the approaching Cardassian ship was scanning the station, and detecting the internal battle.
It was difficult for her to stay still and let them carry out the charade; she had been trained her whole life for combat situations. Although she had rejected her upbringing, a lifetime, however short, of battle preparation did not fade overnight. Tareina forced herself to stay steady and calm, and wait out the staged fight, ignoring the instincts screaming at her to seize a weapon and defend herself. The Jem'Hadar DNA was well honed for this sort of situation, but the Cardassian DNA was stronger, and she fought herself, winning with some effort.
When the two teams pulled back, she ran along the corridor behind Ro until they reached port four. There, a team of engineers were awaiting her, a human female and a Vulcan female.
"You know what to do," Dax said in a low voice, gripping her upper arm lightly.
Tareina looked up at the Trill, giving her a confident nod.
"Yes," she said.
"We're ready for you," the Vulcan said.
"So am I," Tareina replied, and Ro fired a shot at the docking port release panel, disabling it for her. Tareina slipped through into the airlock, which Dax and Ro forced closed again behind her. The second hatch open and she hurried into her ship, activating the engines and powering up what weapons she had left. Then she pressed her thumb against the small device on her sleeve and heard the near silent hum of the ship's new program jump to life. Without a glance back, she hurried into the airlock and let it seal behind her.
She saw the Vulcan engineer tap her combadge and speak, presumably to Nog in ops, turning control of the ship to him. Tareina turned and watch the ship shudder slightly as the docking clamps disengaged. It pulled back slowly from the station and she saw the blackness of space appear around the edges, and the bright pinprick lights of the distant stars. Her ship, crewless, spun away from the station and the impulse engines powered up.
Tareina turned away as ro and Dax forced the door back open. She hurried out, Dax lending her a hand, and looked at Ro.
"Nog has the ship," the Bajoran confirmed for her. "Ops says they're picking up your life sign on it, and not here."
"Good," Tareina nodded. She could still see her shuttle, just barely, through the airlock doors.
The next several minutes were tense, as the small group gathered in the corridor waited for any sign from opps. The security guards held their phaser rifles too tightly, the human engineer fidgeted, ready to fix the damage deliberately wrought on her station, but unable to do so yet. Tareina and the Vulcan stood stock still, Tareina barely breathing. This wait was worse than standing through the mock fire fights; she was essentially waiting for her own death.
The sound of Nog's voice over the com sliced the taut silence:
"Nog to Ro. They bought it."
Everyone sagged and Ro tapped her combadge.
"Acknowledged," she said.
"Captain Kira wants you to get Tareina back to sickbay."
Ro looked over at Tareina and nodded.
"Right away," she said.
"Get those Cardassians on screen!", Kira snapped.
"Yes, sir," the com officer replied, and, a moment later, Gul Tekar's face appeared.
"Captain," he said calmly.
"What the hell did you do that for?", Kira demanded, stalking around the com console to get a better view of the screen.
"She was firing on us, Captain."
"She had one tiny shuttle! The weapons systems were barely operational! You could tell that!"
"Adat's fate is non of your concern. She had already been sentenced to death. The only thing this changes is now she won't have the trial."
"Your trials are shams!", Kira said.
"I'm sure we all appreciate the Bajoran perspective on our legal system, Captain, but the fact remains that Adat was a wanted Cardassian criminal, and Cardassia was granted permission to retrieve her from Federation space. The manner of that retrieval is of no consequence to you."
"She was only fourteen years old!", Kira raged.
"To be sure. Nevertheless, our justice has been carried out. I'm sure that if you dispute the results, Starfleet Command would be very happy to let you file a complaint. I must remind you, however, of your Federation's Prime Directive. This was clearly a case of a Cardassian incident dealt with by Cardassian authorities."
"In Federation space!"
"With their approval. I do not see any merit in debating this any longer. Pass on our thanks for the hospitality to the Federation Council, will you? Good day."
The screen returned to its normal view of space and stars.
"Well," Kira said, smiling over at Nog. "That couldn't have gone better. I'll be down in the infirmary if you need me. You have the bridge."
