I was planning on finishing a chapter of another story before writing a new one for this one, but... I've hit a wall with them, and I have good ideas for this one, so I decided to put that off a little longer. Another reason I waited to write another chapter is that I didn't get ANY reviews for the last chapter! I was so sad to see that! I hope that I get some reviews for this one. That would make me so happy! Like this clown smiley face! :o)

Chapter Sixteen: The Changeling Has Escaped

O'Brien

"So, what do you think?" O'Brien asked his wife after explaining his plan.

"I think it's a wonderful idea, Miles," Keiko responded. "And I think it'll brighten everyone's mood."

"My thoughts exactly," O'Brien agreed. "Quark said he'd provide food and things of that nature. Will you help Dax decorate?"

"Well, of course," Keiko agreed. "And I'll talk to some of my friends. We've got to have it ready before Odo comes back, and who knows when that will be? It could be a day or two weeks!"

"I'm pulling for the first choice," O'Brien admitted.

Keiko's face suddenly became serious. "Miles, you didn't bet on that, did you?" she asked, her eyes boring into him. He would always tell the truth when she did that.

"Well," O'Brien shifted under his wife's peircing gaze, "yes, but--"

"Oh, Miles," Keiko sighed, standing.

"What?" O'Brien asked innocently.

Odo

Odo sprang up, still in his gelatinous state, and oozed through the vent before the guard could grab him. He swam along as swiftly as he could, hearing more force fields appearing behind him. Apparently, they didn't know exactly where he was, or they couldn't keep up with him. Either one would be good news.

Odo didn't really know where he was going, exactly, but he hoped to find out soon. Her emerged at the end of the vent and immediately shot upward to avoid the phaser discharges that were aimed at him.

Now that he had the room to be an elephant, he was. He stapeded himself down the corridors of the ship, knocking Cardassians left and right. When he came to a hallway that was free of soldiers, he changed himself into a clear, paper-thin sheet to cover a wall. This gave him time to think. He knew he needed to see a layout of the ship to find a shuttle bay, or maybe something smaller. Either way, he needed to know where he was.

"This way!" called a Cardassian who had just come into the hallway with two others. They ran right past Odo, to his relief. As soon as they had cleared the corridor, he moved again, more stealthily than his elephant self had.

He looked everywhere to find a console, but he soon realized that he had two options: go to the bridge, or go into a room. A room seemed safer, so he transformed into a Cardassian soldier and "rang the doorbell", so to speak.

"Yes?" a harsh voice rang out from behind the door.

"You are needed at your station," Odo said. "The Changeling has escaped."

The doors instantly slid apart, and as soon as the man came into sight, Odo landed a punch square in his jaw. The man stumbled back, and Odo swung once more, this time in his gut. The wind knocked out of him, the Cardassian hunched on the floor, unable to stop Odo from accessing his computer console.

Odo worked quickly, and saw that he was very close to a vacant cargo bay that could easily be opened. He could escape through there.

Bashir

Kira's new medication seemed to be working, seeing as she was no longer delusional and her fever was slowly receding. This was good news, of course, and for once, she was sleeping peacefully.

As Doctor Bashir finished mending a little Bajoran boy's broken arm, Kira stirred on her bio-bed. With strict orders to use that arm as little as possible for the next hour, Bashir sent the boy on his way and walked to Kira's side.

Her eyes opened, but her gaze was extremely unfocused. "Good morning," Bashir greeted her, smiling smugly. "Sleep well?"

Kira rolled her eyes and immediately wished she hadn't. Her hands flew to cover her face as she grimaced in pain. "Shut up, Julian," she responded testily. "Mmm. . . what happened?"

"Now, that is the question, isn't it?" Bashir said, distractedly scanning his patient with a tricorder.

"Julian," Kira warned as her cold eyes threatened him. She was still not feeling particularly well and, therefore, was not in a particularly good mood.

"Well, we don't know everything, but you got hit by a phaser blast in Garak's shop, that's for sure," Bashir started. "You've been in the Infirmary for days, but it looks like you're going to be all right, after all."

"You don't know anything else?" Kira asked. "Isn't Odo on the case?"

"Uh, he was," Bashir said awkwardly. "He was so worried about you--"

"Doctor," Kira said impatiently, "I'm going to say this slowly. Where. . . is. . . Odo?" she asked.

"All right, I'll start at the beginning, then," Bashir said. He pulled up a chair and started to recap all he knew of the recent events on DS9. "There was an explosion on the Promenade, which was traced back to Garak's shop. There, we found you and Garak, unconscious, and blood on the walls. When Garak came around, he claimed not to remember anything about the incident.

"We matched the DNA in the blood to Gul Dukat -- let me finish --" Bashir wanted to conclude the story before Kira could comment or ask questions, as she had just tried to do, "but we had no idea how that could be. You woke up and told us about the Changeling, just in time for the Cardassians, led by Dukat, to visit, demanding we give it back to them. We captured the Changeling, and it is still contained here, on the station. We owe that to the constable, who volunteered to go in its place." By the last sentence, Bashir was staring at his feet, and Kira's eyes were wide.

"How did he convince Sisko to let him go?" Kira demanded.

"He didn't have much choice," Bashir pointed out. "It was either fight a battle that could not be won, hand over the Changeling, or put Odo's plan into action."

"What exactly was his plan?" Kira asked.

"Uh, to get on their lead ship and somehow find a way to come home from there," Bashir said, realizing how hopeless that seemed.

Kira huffed a hot breath out of her burning lungs. "Are you kidding me? Is this some kind of joke?" she asked, exasperated. "Because if you are, it is not funny."

"I'm afraid not," Bashir said with the same distraught look he had whenever he shared bad news with a patient.

"Well?" Kira asked expectantly.

"What?" Bashir said quizzically.

"Well, what are we doing about it?" Kira said as if it were obvious.

Bashir considered sedating her for a brief moment but eventually decided against it. "We're trusting Odo to handle himself."

Kira once more covered her face with her hands. She laid, just like that, for a while. Then, when she trusted herself not to scream, she said, "Doctor, I think I can fill in some holes in your story."

I was reading all the reviews for this story the other day, and I was so super sad to see that there weren't any for Chapters 11, 12, or 15! :( But I will not be hindered, and my creativity will not cease its flow! Hehe! Anyways, I have just finished Physik, the third Septimus Heap book, and I've started the first Maximum Ride book too. Oh my gosh, it's really good! But coming from a book with 49 chapters and 550 pages and going to a book with 134 chapters and 400 pages is kind of odd. It's a lot easier to just sit and keep reading, convince myself to read just "one more chapter". So anyways, until next time, good-bye!

*Sorry guys! I didn't realized I hadn't posted this yet til I was halfway through the next chapter! AH! Well, better late than never, I suppose! Hope you liked it!*