Virtual Reality.

As they came out of the virtual reality units, the crew of the Defiant and Deep Space Nine found it almost impossible to distinguish fact from fiction. The virtual reality they had been shown and forced to participate in which showed the Dominion conquer the Alpha Quadrant without even lifting a finger on one of those weapons of theirs. Instead they used the Federation's desire for peace to gain concessions which were as bad as the treaty the Federation had signed with the Cardassians; many of the DS9 crew were supportive of the treaty especially since it drew in peace between the United Federation of Planets and the Cardassian Union, but a few of them were dubious about it, considering its effects on the Demilitarised Zone.

Jadzia Dax. Miles O'Brien. Major Kira Nerys. All three of those people had their own views towards the treaty, and none of them were flattering.

Jadzia Dax had the benefit of the centuries of experience contained within her symbiont, one of her previous hosts had been Curzon Dax, a lifelong diplomat, ambassador and diplomat.

Thanks to his long years in service, Curzon had gained a shrewd view of treaties and alliances which were problematic. To his mind, the alliance between the Klingons and the Federation had been the best of the lot, simply because he had personally seen it happen, and his own relationship and envy on Klingon culture, to say nothing of his friendship with Kang, Koloth, and Kor had given him a lot of appreciation for the warrior race.

But at the time the lengthy mess caused by the Betreka Nebula Incident which had lasted too long for the tastes of so many had distracted that blustering buffoon, Kravokh who was obsessed with recovering the wreckage of the Ch'gran he ignored the threat of the Romulans.

But it was Curzon's experience among others which had made Jadzia question if the people who'd negotiated the peace treaty had even bothered to think; the Cardassians were more direct than the Klingons in some ways, and there were no Organians this time around to enforce a peace treaty in the hopes a ceasefire, and nothing more than a basic skirmish would bring an appreciation for lasting peace. But Jadzia had to admit the Federation had willingly given away a lot to the Cardassians.

What made it worse was how the Federation had bent over backwards to accommodate the Cardassians, they had willingly handed over a number of worlds in Federation space over to the Union. No, actually, what was worse was how easily the Federation was depicted giving away so much, to appease the Dominion, in exactly the same way.

While he might have supported the Cardassian treaty to a certain degree, Curzon had seen a number of issues relating to it, and he had brought them up, but while many other diplomats and even the occasional Starfleet Admiral agreed with him, the majority of them believed the lives and livelihoods of a few thousand colonists was nothing to the bigger picture.

Curzon might have been a diplomat, but he and the Dax symbiont were both old enough and experienced enough to know when you gave away too much, you invited them to take more. However, Jadzia was not a diplomat despite the experience contained in the symbiont; she was a scientist, and if there was one thing she knew it was what she had done in the virtual reality… she would gladly do it again, damn the consequences.

She would have given her life, Dax's life, to ensure the freedom of millions.

In the simulation, the Dominion would have been given everything from Bajor, the wormhole, and from the sounds of it a large chunk of the Alpha Quadrant, while the Federation had just sat idly by.

In the simulation, she, Ben, Julian, and the chief had gladly blown up the entrance to the wormhole. In real life, the Dominion would have needed seventy years to reach the Alpha Quadrant.

But while her scientific mind was amazed, even awed and intimidated by how sophisticated and realistic the simulation was since with most virtual reality technologies, you had some degree of awareness of the artificial nature behind it, but the Dominion system was so advanced it had ben impossible until they'd been taken out of it for them to realise the truth behind it, Jadzia wondered what the results behind the simulation would do for the Dominion's strategists. She knew they'd be dissecting every single second, looking for weaknesses they could exploit, but what she was proud of was that while many in the Federation probably would bend over backwards until they were doing cartwheels out of the nearest airlock, there would be those who would not be willing to lose so much.

X

Miles O'Brien was still so sure he had been beaten up so badly by that Jem'Hadar bastard even though he was more than aware the whole thing was an illusion. The scope of Dominion technology had impressed him from the moment he had seen it in action, and while the first battle had resulted in the loss of the Odyssey, a Galaxy-class starship, which had been pummelled so thoroughly the ship hadn't stood a chance, he had gained a great respect for their technology; whoever had designed the majority of it had known what they were doing, but he would have been happier not to have been the catalyst behind the punch to the face, although he knew the simulation was designed to determine how the Federation, and other Alpha Quadrant powers would have felt concerning the Dominion moving in.

Well, Miles hoped they got what they wanted. He knew the Dominion would likely have to rethink their strategies based on what they had just found out, but he didn't care. He was glad the bastards had just been shown while the United Federation of Planets would prefer a peaceful solution, they were unafraid of fighting back whenever the situation felt right.

But what Miles had not liked was how it had reminded him of the treaty with the Cardies. He hadn't liked how the Federation had just thrown away so much in the name of peace without considering the costs. He had always felt a degree of sympathy for the Maquis although he was not sure their brand of fighting back worked for him, although that could have been a different story; if he had left Starfleet with Keiko and Molly and settled somewhere, and the Federation had handed over his home to the Cardassians, he would have fought back; he had fought against the Cardassians, witnessed the atrocities they'd committed on Setlik 3, and he knew the Cardassians were willing to do whatever it took to expand their Empire.

They'd proven their viciousness with what they had done with the Bajorans, but in the simulation the Federation had pretty much handed over so much to the Dominion on a plate. Miles still wasn't sure how brutal the Jem'Hadar were despite the experiences he'd had with them so far, he had no idea if the Dominion were as basic with their needs as the Cardassians, who'd looted Bajor of its resources to build up their fleet and their weapons.

Would the Dominion have done the same?

Would they have had something more in mind? Bioweapons research, other horrors? Miles probably would never know.

X

Out of all of the Defiant and DS9 crew when she had heard the story of what had happened in the virtual reality simulation, Kira Nerys was horrified by the implications that, in the name of a nascent peace, the Federation had committed the worst horror of all.

They had handed over her world to the Dominion on a platter, just for the sake of peace. Kira wondered if the Dominion had deliberately programmed the impression of the virtual peace treaty between the Federation and themselves to resemble the treaty between themselves and the Cardassians; it all seemed too similar for her tastes, but at the same time Sisko had noted after the destruction of the Odyssey and the brutal treatment of the Jem'Hadar the Dominion were more than aware of the Federation and other Alpha Quadrant powers; he'd noted they had more knowledge going into the Gamma Quadrant everyday, so they had a large amount of inspiration for their simulation.

She was hoping the Dominion hadn't based the whole thing on the Cardassian treaty and how the Federation had been willing to give away too much for the sake of peace.

And yet a nasty little voice in the back of her mind could not resist saying "I told you so."

But Kira shut it up when she had heard how Sisko, O'Brien, Dax and Bashir had been willing to destroy the wormhole to ensure the Dominion would never take over, and for that she was grateful, grateful they would never have turned their backs for something that would take the freedom away from so many.