Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Sorry, I'm a little hyper today. And I don't even know why. Hmm. . . maybe it had something to do with the five bars of chocolate, two liters of soda, and three frosted sugar cookies I ate. Just kidding! My mom would never let me eat all that!

Chapter Eleven: Give It A Shot

Dax

There was a stunned silence, and for once, even Dax was lost for words. Eventually, people started to shift uncomfortably in their chairs and Commander Sisko said, "What was that?"

"I said that I would go in the changeling's place," Odo reiterated.

"I know what you said!" Sisko strained his voice to a frustrated but controlled tone. "Elaborate for us, if you will."

"Certainly," Odo complied. He looked around at the awed faces peering at him across the table, then back to Sisko's calm one. "It could be very useful for us to have a changeling prisoner. And how would the Cardassians know the difference between the Founder and myself? I would play along for enough time so that they would Deep Space Nine and then find a way to escape and get myself home."

"How?" Dax asked, intrigued.

Odo paused. "I don't know. I'll think of something."

"Well, that's reassuring," Dax said sarcastically.

"Dax." Sisko stopped her before she could get going. "Frankly, I'm not sure if I like this plan of yours," he added. "We'll need our security chief."

"And I will be back," Odo assured them. "I promise you that."

"It's too dangerous," Sisko said. "We'll have to figure out something else."

Odo was taken aback. "But, sir--" he began.

"That's enough, Constable," Sisko insisted. "Are there any other ideas?"

There was complete and utter silence. The hum of the station buzzed quietly in their ears as they all racked their brains for a solution to this giant puzzle. They could find no way out.

"The way I see it," O'Brien put in, breaking the silence, "we have two options. Either we give the Cardassians their changeling back, or we stick to Odo's plan."

"And we don't want to give up the changeling," Bashir pointed out. "It could have valuable information."

"That leaves us with one alternative," Dax reasoned. "No matter how unappealing it may seem, I think we should give it a shot."

All eyes were on Sisko, who stared back at his crew. Their intense simultaneous gazes made him look away and back again. He really did not want to send Odo off, but what choice did he have? Open fire on the Cardassians? They were maneuverable, not to mention powerful, ships. And there were a lot of them! Plus, Odo could take care of himself. That much was definitely true. Sisko sighed. "All right," he succumbed. "But I want you back here as soon as possible."

Odo's smile was but a weak, thin line on his face, but it was there. "Yes, sir. I wouldn't have it any other way."

Sisko did not smile, but just said, "Dismissed."

Sisko

After all his officers had left (AN: I figured it out! It's called the Wardroom!), Sisko heard these words out of nowhere: "Johnson to Sisko! We've captured the changeling."

"Excellent," Sisko responded. "Make sure it stays contained. I'm on my way."

He knew he had only a few minutes until the Cardassians would become restless and wonder what was taking them so long. But he wanted to just see the real changeling that had caused so many problems for his station before he gave up Odo instead.

Bashir

Once he stepped through the Infirmary doors, Bashir had stepped into chaos. Doctors scrambled about, ordering help for the new patients they had received. None of the doctors or nurses were in a particularly good mood. Many beds where full of wounded security officers, although some were occupied by other people. Bashir caught a nurse's arm as she rushed by him. "What happened?" he demanded.

She pried her arm free and snapped, "They found the changeling, that's what happened!" Then she bustled off to another patient.

"It must have been in a bad mood," Bashir thought aloud. Then he ran to help one of the unattended patients. He was a Starfleet officer who had taken a strong blow the head with something heavy. Bashir reached for a tool that would slow the internal bleeding and ran it along the cranium until he started improving.

Then Bashir turned around and found an unconscious girl in the same condition. Taking the same actions as he had with the other patient, he calculated how much time they had left before the half hour was up. Six minutes, at the most. He hoped Odo would be ready in time.

Odo

There was little he could do to prepare, so Odo paced the perimeter his office, thinking. How would he escape the Cardassians? Think, think, he told himself. You have to have some sort of plan!

Suddenly, Odo had an idea. Then he reached for the computer in search of a special species of animal on record that he could turn into, something small that didn't have to breathe.

So the other day, Dad and I were watching a DS9 episode, called "Far Beyond The Stars" or something, that had almost ALL the actors in it, although they weren't playing their usual characters. They all played humans; they didn't have a ton of makeup on so that they would look like aliens. Most of them, we could figure out. I recognized Worf, Odo, Martok, and Quark right away. Then a scene came where Sisko was confronted by two policemen. I knew one was Weyoun, but I couldn't figure out who the other one was until Dad told me; it was Dukat! Then Dad said, "Man, Dukat is butt-ugly without all his makeup!" (It wasn't exactly a lie... an exaggeration, and rude, but not a lie.)