THE TERMS OF OUR AGREEMENT by Cam Burnell

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DISCLAIMER: Trek and all it's characters belong to Paramount. We fanfic writers just take 'em out and play with 'em for awhile.

THE TERMS OF OUR AGREEMENT

by Cameron Burnell
(camster@rock.com)

This story is set entirely in the Mirror Universe, and begins twelve years before Kira and Bashir first "Crossover."..

[Somewhere, somehow, somebody must've kicked you around some...]
Tom Petty "Refugee"

"You asked to see me, Co-Intendant?"

This was the first time Co-Intendant Kira Nerys had ever heard the shapeshifter's voice. She had seen him before, but from a distance, although she doubted he'd remember that meeting, but she did. She recalled now that the demonstration arranged by Professor Mora Pol at the research center on Bajor had bored her; she had not truly wanted to attend it, but the Alliance Council-- or-- the other half of the co-"Intendancy" of Terok Nor had insisted she attend, so she did.

The babbling scientist had talked on and on, covering thirty-five years of work in what seemed like the same amount of time. Then he had finally presented his pupil to the select audience-- the shapeshifter which he had named Morpher. The Cardassians had laughed hard at this crude name.

Kira had yawned. She had decided to hide her boredom by turning to the Terran slave she brought with her and ordering a drink. While she sipped her chilled tulaberry wine, the poor shapeshifter had been put through his paces. First, his natural state.

"A'gantei! Ghe'sso odo'ital!"

The Co-Intendant sighed as Elim Garak, the processing plant supervisor loudly announced that the poor creature, who had liquified into a large, clear beaker on the laboratory counter, looked like so much nothing. Many of the Cardassian guards laughed uproariously at this pitiful joke. In contrast, her Klingon guards maintained a rigid, wary silence which Kira strongly approved of.

As the Co-Intendant sipped reflectively at her wine, the demonstration, really an exercise in degradation, continued. Morpher slowly changed into a beaker identical to the one he had been resting in. Then he flowed into a snakelike form, then into a lizard which slithered along the counter.

"Ghe'tiss Ahn'vh odo'ital! V'dahskk kh'gan Elim'zh'tei, odo'ital s'su'rii p'ei!"
[Translation: "Even less than nothing! It looks like your ex-wife, Elim! A big nothing on short, stubby legs!"]

"Dh'ESS odo'ital d'gha l'rha'ci'khet!"
[Translation: "YOU are nothing, you pus eruption!"]

The Co-Intendant realized the men had forgotten her presence and they didn't care if the shapeshifter could understand their vile words. While this mildly offended her, she kept her silence; it was more important to note which men had grown so easily distracted by Morpher's demonstration. With their names firmly in her mind, she could look forward to that evening's discipline session. The man laughing loudest was Elim Garak. Kira smiled a deadly little smile.

Then the shapeshifter had abruptly metamorphosed into a Bajoran razor cat and leaped over Mora's head. Even the scientist had been startled. The Co-Intendant's boredom had changed to amusement.

Professor Mora had been terrified, she recalled. This had obviously not been part of their prearranged demonstration. Considering the man and his dubious methods, Kira thought he probably had good reasons to be scared of the temporarily out-of-control Morpher.

As the razorcat had started swatting at the Bajoran scientist, with Mora smiling nervously, the Co-Intendant stood and left the room. This was prudence, combined with the fact that she had seen enough. She had all the information she needed and the Co-Intendant had never forgotten what she saw.

Now, the recently liberated Morpher stood before her, and she was intrigued. Kira was certain it was Garak who was gaining illegal access to the station's computer files, and she hoped the shapeshifter would be a powerful ally in her quest to expose the Cardassian. He looked to be far more interesting than she had imagined; his voice had sounded deeply- layered. Kira wanted to hear it again.

"I beg your pardon?" she inquired, pretending to be distracted, although she had heard him the first time.

The shapeshifter tilted his head slightly, giving her a quick and wary, blue-eyed look that made her stomach clench slightly. The Co-Intendant almost frowned, then sat straighter, deciding to appear as if she were coming to full alertness.

Morpher's voice dropped to a harsh whisper of sound as he repeated, "You asked to see me, Co-Intendant?"

"How are you, Morpher?" she inquired, ignoring his open-ended question.

Two blue eyes blinked at her. They held an expression that surprised Kira: embarrassment. It just a flicker of emotion, though, then his gaze dropped to his boots. His voice was low.

"I'm fine, Co-Intendant...thank you for inquiring about me."

He did not look up and she wondered why he seemed so ashamed. She looked now at his boots, too. She wondered if they were real boots or if he had formed them out of his own shapeshifting body. *What a powerful skill*, she thought, excited at the thought of it doing her bidding.

What she said, though, was, "Are your boots real?"

He looked up at this question, surprised. Then his expression grew even more ashamed, but he responded anyway.

"I haven't been able to form articles of clothing yet, Co-Intendant," he hesitated, then added, "I am working on it." A hint of boldness, perhaps even defiance colored this statement, despite his hesitation. Kira tilted her head and considered this odd creature more carefully. She found her interest piqued.

"Why do you think I brought you here, Morpher?"

He frowned as if disgusted and for a moment, the Co-Intendant thought he was going to complain that it was all a waste of his time and storm out of her office. Oddly this disappointed her; she had expected he would be a much more commanding man than the usual officers she dealt with, but she didn't think he would be conceited. Now he'll be petulant, she thought.

To her surprise, he straightened and said, "I assume you want for me to...'demonstrate' my metamorphic abilities, Co-Intendant." His eyes looked beyond her now, his back ramrod straight. Clearly, he was uncomfortable.

It was Kira's turn to frown. She had not intended to make him demonstrate his talents, she already knew what they were, but why would he be upset at using his formidable talent? Or was it something else that upset him? "I understand you are working very hard in mining operations-- prospecting for veins in the smaller, airless areas of the mines?"

The shapeshifter nodded. "I have found many large veins of useful metals, precious minerals."

"And you've saved the alliance a great deal of time and money," she informed him, adding decidedly, "but your talents are going to waste down there, my friend."

The shapeshifter stiffened and Kira frowned. She'd been praising his efforts and he reacted as if she'd put him down. Perhaps he was afraid of losing his job?

She assured him, "You're not in trouble, Morpher, that's not why I called you here."

He nodded, but still looked uncomfortable and she finally stepped up to him and asked, "What is it that's upsetting you so much? Are you so uncomfortable to be here in my presence?"

He met her eyes then, for a moment, then looked away. The expression they held shocked Kira; he was scared and a little ashamed. His voice was small.

"Forgive me, Co-Intendant, but I was told never to correct you."

"Correct me?" Kira frowned. "Correct me about what?"

"Morpher," he said. "That's not my name any more."

The Co-Intendant considered this, then shook her head, half-amused, half-disgusted. Her reputation grew by leaps and bounds among the enlisted men, men like the ones the shapeshifter worked for. Doubtless he had been told she was easily insulted and would punish him on a whim-- which would be true if he was not as useful and intriguing as he was.

"I had no idea," she replied, "What is your name, my friend?"

He blinked, then met her gaze directly for the first time. The Co-Intendant was fascinated. She had not seen him up close during that long-ago demonstration, now she noted the smooth planes of his face. Taking on a humanoid form was obviously difficult for him.

His face was unlined, a virgin territory without laugh lines or worry wrinkles. A pair of vivid, sky-blue eyes were deeply sunken into angular planes and his lips were a thin line above a sharp-jawed chin. To her surprise, the Co-Intendant found herself wondering what it would be like to touch that incredibly smooth skin--to kiss those thin, even lips. Is he warm or cold to the touch, she thought and she wondered what he would do if she laid a hand against his cheek and stroked it to find out.

He was not immune to her gaze, either, she noted. His thin neck had a prominent voice- box, or seemed to and he appeared to swallow now, which fascinated the Co-Intendant. She watched the knobby projection bob beneath the "skin" of his throat as his eyes looked down, another flicker of distress in them.

"What's the matter?" she asked him now, disturbed by the evidence of the defeated spirit within the tall, slender and fascinating individual before her. If he could look so humanoid, yet not be...what other skills might he possess?

He glanced up, then noticing her intense gaze, swallowed yet again. When he did not respond right away, she added, "I didn't mean to stare, but you are very interesting- looking. I've never seen a shapeshifter before."

The shapeshifter shrugged slightly, admitted, "Neither have I. I'm used to being stared at, but no one has ever cared to know my name or if I had one. The mine overseer and the Klingons just call me Prospector."

Kira frowned at this, disturbed. It was not right that any person, particularly one with such useful abilities, be subject to ill-treatment or the boorish behavior of the Cardassians and Klingons she had in charge of the mines. She would have to get after the men.

"I...I haven't chosen a name," the shapeshifter suddenly said, forcing the Co-Intendant's attention back to their conversation as he added, "But I've made several Cardassian acquaintances. They all call me odo'ital. I, uh...I'm not sure what that means."

The Co-Intendant's expression firmed even more. Her nostrils flared with remembered outrage as he continued in a soft voice, "I heard the name the first time a few years ago during--"

"The demonstration Mora conducted at the research center," Kira finished for him.

"Yes, how would--" his voice suddenly caught and to her chagrin, his gaze once again drifted down to his footwear. His voice grew ashamed as he answered his own question. "You were at the demonstration."

Kira was furious, although it was not at the poor shapeshifter. She wanted Elim Garak's head on a platter! It was he who had started the name trend at the demonstration, ensuring the ill-treatment of the shapeshifter on the planet. He had been all but crushed by Mora's treatment and this extra abuse added on had made him useless to her. Taking several calming breaths, the Co-Intendant turned and began to pace, rethinking what she was going to ask of him.

She had intended on offering him a job on the station, something he was well suited for, then she would slowly indoctrinate him to become her ally in the power-struggle on Terok Nor. She had not expected to find the shapeshifter so utterly humbled. She thought Morpher would stride into her office, haughty, even arrogant with his awareness of his capabilities. She thought she would have to tear him down a peg or two to let him know his place within her organization, then offer him a job only if he remained loyal enough to keep it. Instead, this being who could shapeshift himself into a powerful and deadly beast of prey was so crushed of spirit he could barely meet her eyes. This was not good. The Co-Intendant wanted, needed the man she thought he would be, not this timid person. Kira made a decision.

Her job as Co-Intendant occasionally required her to train or prepare someone for a job she needed filled. She would simply have to work on him. When she was done, this man would never cower before anyone, not even her.

************************************************************************ Five days after her first face-to-face meeting with the shapeshifter, the Co-Intendant stepped off the turbolift onto the Habitat Ring. Two Klingon guards waited for her, holding a cowering Terran between them. The shapeshifter, who the Cardassians persisted in calling Odo'ital, stood by them.

"You called me, Investigator?" Kira asked him formally, stressing the title. She refused to call him by the insulting term, odo'ital, but she had not stopped her men from doing so; since he didn't seem to know what it meant, she didn't want to be the one who told him. One of the Klingons stepped up, even as the shapeshifter was about to speak.

"Co-Intendant," the Klingon guard said briskly, proud of what she had to report. "Odo'ital caught this slave accessing the computer illegally!"

The terrified Human cringed as she stepped up. Her eyes, however, were on the shapeshifter. Kira's anger at hearing the disrespectful term only momentarily shadowed her pleasure at seeing him. He was looking down, as he tended to do, yielding his right to answer her for himself.

Disregarding the Klingons and the slave, Kira said in a deceptively mild and irritated voice, "I asked the Investigator to tell me what happened, Druza, not you."

The Klingon frowned. What had she done to earn her superior's displeasure? She bowed her head. Her voice was a tiny growl.

"Forgive me, Co-Intendant."

"Done," Kira replied, not looking away from the shapeshifter as she continued, "Now, Investigator, tell me how you managed to catch this sneaky, little Terran thief."

To her private gladness, the shapeshifter looked up at her, meeting her eyes directly. Those incredibly blue eyes were large with surprise and his voice was halting, uncertain.

"I, uh...was watching for someone in this office. Normally the assistant engineering chief works in here and, uh, my investigation narrowed down the illegal computer access was taking place either here or in the Assay office on the Promenade," he paused and Kira could almost taste his nervousness, but to her satisfaction, he managed to continue his story.

"The last illegal entry to the computer took place at oh-two-hundred yesterday. The Assayer insisted he stayed in his office until oh-two-forty and he saw no one use his terminal. According to the records, the Assayer doesn't have the computer expertise needed to access the type of records being downloaded, so I figured whoever was doing it would show up here," the shapeshifter suddenly looked at the cowering Terran and to Kira's immense pleasure, a tiny smile edged the corners of those smooth, thin lips of his. His tone was pleased and he nodded proudly as he finished his explanation.

"I asked for a Security detail to wait outside the door. This Terran man came through the conduit along the baseboard less than an hour after I started to wait."

The Co-Intendant smiled herself, well pleased. Now *this* was closer to the man she had thought the shapeshifter would be. Perhaps a long way yet from what he could be, but already better than what he'd been, and certainly not a cowering contrite crony. She didn't need another one of those! The Co-Intendant smiled; she thought her work had gone very well indeed.

"Excellent work, Investigator," she assured him. Then she turned and nodded to the waiting Klingons. "Strip the Terran, search him for contraband, give him a full interrogation, then send him on the next transport heading for Kran Tobal Prison."

"No, Co-Intendant!" the man cried out, horrified. To her displeasure, the shapeshifter flinched at the sound of terror in the Terran's voice. To her relief, he did not say anything. She sighed; it seemed she would have to show him the right way of carrying himself around these Terran slaves.

"Shut up," she ordered mildly, ignoring Druza's slap to the man's face. Kira had learned long ago that her Klingon officers required outlets for their hostility, otherwise they quarreled all the time and caused her unending headaches. A few cuffs or kicks were a small price to pay for harmony and, privately, she felt the slaves probably deserved them.

"You were caught committing sabotage, Terran," she told the man. "You were shown mercy by not being executed immediately. You will be able to work your way back to your current Lambda rank, after serving the next five years at the Prison Mining complex...assuming you live, that is."

She gestured and the guards began to drag the sobbing man away. The Co-Intendant smiled up at the Investigator, saying, "My current Supervisor would have killed him, but I don't think that's necessary. Do you?"

This question surprised the shapeshifter. He blinked, then shook his head. "No, Co- Intendant. It would mean one less member of the work force, less productivity."

"And one less mouth to feed and body to clothe," Kira added sarcastically, mouthing Garak's old arguments with wry humor. Her voice grew cheerful and confident. "Really, I was more than generous."

The shapeshifter nodded politely. "Yes, Co-Intendant."

She frowned at his quick agreement. It could either mean he truly believed what she said else he was still uncertain in her presence, and was just saying what he thought she wanted to hear. She would have to give him another little job, a little more hardening and training before he was ready for what she truly needed from him.

*****

[it's all hate and money and there's a canopy of greed holding me down...]
Blind Melon "Tones Of Home"

Elim Garak lay back against the chair, allowing the slave to massage his feet. Another slave was preparing his dinner and yet another was waiting for him in the bedroom. He was looking forward to a nice, quiet dinner, followed by a taste of the latest in Terran pleasure slaves.

A whole ship of new slaves had arrived just that morning on Terok Nor and he had sent a subordinate to hand-pick the liveliest one for his personal use. Now, as the slave kneaded a particularly painful spot on his heel, his commbadge signalled. He tapped it with a scowl; he hated being bothered off-duty.

"Yes, what is it? This better be important."

"Oh, I think it is," the Co-Intendant's dangerously amused voice made him sit up, swatting away the slave at his feet. He scowled even more, but his tone stayed polite.

"What is it, Co-Intendant? I made quota today, in fact I surpassed it."

"By a mere three ingots of silver," Kira said. "I'm calling to let you know that the little Terran toad you let sneak away from your work detail was caught breaking into the computer by my new Investigator."

Garak stood now, alarmed. His voice, however, sounded completely innocent. "Co- Intendant, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"That Terran was accessing personal files, not shipping lists to escape, or the ration adjustment to get more food or goods. He even accessed my files," Kira informed him.

Garak's voice grew even more mindful. "That's terrible, Co-Intendant. A true breach of security. I had no idea one of my work detail was sneaking away and performing unauthorized activity."

"Spare me, Garak," the Co-Intendant said, "He confessed you were involved. I've sent him to Kran Tobal and reported this inexcusable breach of conduct to the Alliance Council. I just thought you'd like to know. Kira out."

As his commbadge went dead, Garak sputtered. He fumed, he cursed, his face darkened to a nasty shade of dark umber, then finally he stalked out of his room, leaving behind several grateful, if trembling slaves.

*****

[Falling...falling...gonna drop like a stone]
Talking Heads "Sax & Violins"

Two weeks after her new investigator had uncovered Garak's spy, the Co-Intendant stepped from her personal yacht onto Bajor's northern hemisphere near Hedrikspool province, an area rich with precious metals and valuable minerals. Several mines were sprinkled throughout the area and it was for this reason she had sent her new investigator here.

He stood at attention to meet her now, with two Cardassian soldiers beside him. His blue- gray miner's suit was incredibly dusty, but his stance was straight and his eyes didn't waver. For a moment, the Co-Intendant felt a piercing sensation within her-- sharp and poignant. To her amusement, she realized she felt almost *motherly* toward this shapeshifter. Well, she reasoned, she had practically adopted him, taken him under her wing, so to speak, like a mother bird protecting a featherless hatchling.

Still she could not deny the other feelings she had toward him, feelings which she held back. They surprised her, these feelings--she had never cared much for hesitant men, but in this case, the shapeshifter was not timid due to any personal defect. Years of constant degradation had battered his self-esteem, making him hesitant. Kira did not begrudge the time it was taking her to erase it from him.

As she stepped up now, he stepped forward and met her eyes firmly. To her surprise, he smiled at her, a pleasing expression on his normally somber face.

"Co-Intendant," his voice was equally pleased. He was obviously proud and Kira felt proud for him, and of him.

"Tell me, Investigator. What have you discovered for me?" she asked.

"An entire wing of the Terran's Maverick resistance cell," he informed her. Reaching into his dusty jacket, he pulled out a PADD and handed it to her.

His fingers touched hers as he gave it to her and to her surprise, she found that they were incredibly warm and smooth. She held them for a moment, between PADD and fingertips and she wondered what they would feel like stroking her skin. When he frowned slightly and pulled his hand back, she hastily focused her attention on the PADD.

The PADD's panel showed a laser-light schematic of the mine. Several small light cones blinked in one section and he pointed a lean and tapered finger at that section, almost shoulder to shoulder with her as he spoke.

"This morning, I confirmed the presence of nearly fifty Terran slaves concentrated in this region. As you suspected, the resistance cells were using the heavy mineral deposits to shield their activity from standard scans," he paused, then continued, "I found a small group in a cave on my first reconnaissance, but I waited this long to contact you because I wanted to capture as many as possible."

Kira nodded her approval of this and he added eagerly, "In anticipation of your arrival, I gathered two platoons of mixed troops with full body armor and split them to cover that entire region of the mine. They are arresting the Terrans as we speak, Co-Intendant."

This last was spoken as she looked up at him, into his eyes and to her surprise, she got her first faint whiff of him. The shapeshifter had an interesting smell, reminding her of moist, freshly-turned earth, steaming in the summer sun. She smiled at its unaccustomed familiarity; it was a warm and sensual aroma. She felt surprisingly powerful tingles of desire and made a hasty decision.

"My congratulations, Investigator. You've pleased me beyond all expectations," her lazy smile grew wider, her gaze intent. She gestured at the Cardassians and ordered over her shoulder, "Give me a progress report at end of day."

"Yes, Co-Intendant!"

She turned back to look directly into the waiting shapeshifter's clear, blue eyes and smiled again, for him alone. "I have...business...with the Investigator."

*****

[Nothing to win..and nothing left to lose.]
U2 "With Or Without You"

"What do you mean she can hire her own investigator? I thought it didn't matter if she was in charge of Terok Nor, so long as the Alliance is administering to the station?"

Garak strained to keep both his temper and voice calm. His coded transmission to the Alliance Council two weeks ago was not responded to as he would have liked and now he was required to attempt a direct transmission. Apparently the faceless bureaucrats on the council had no idea of the logistics of running a space station properly. Now if *he* was in charge...

The Alliance Council was made up of Klingons, Cardassians and Bajorans, as well as allied telepathic races such as the Betazed, Deltans and Kaarn, who functioned as the eyes and ears of the Unified Planetary Alliance. The council valued its peace, so no Alliance-wide decisions were made with any swiftness. The council also valued its privacy and communications were usually voice-only and scrambled. Only a command cipher, voice code and retinal scan could even access their communications array, and direct transmissions were rarely "direct." Usually the council member's voice was disguised via an encoded computer-interface.

"Technically, the station is Bajoran, Elim," the mechanized voice responded via his panel.

Garak approved of all this secrecy, in theory anyway. Once he was elected to the council, he vowed to make sure his trusted aides and those who helped him would be able to contact him directly, without scans and codes. Those who had slighted him, however, would regret ever getting in his way. This thought brought him back to the present.

"So what if it is?" he demanded. "The Bajorans were slaves of the Terrans, good only for copulating until their revolt when they joined with us. Why were they placed in charge here? It's not right that this red-haired slut be in charge while I, a veteran of the Terran Revolutionary Conflict..."

"Shut up."

This flat, mechanized order made Garak fume. It reminded him of the Co-Intendant and her constant off-hand dismissals of him. He wasn't stupid enough to complain, however, since he didn't know if he was speaking to her greatest ally on the council or merely some mind-raping Betazed bureaucrat.

"Your complaint is noted, but the Co-Intendant's last report indicated that productivity in your section is dropping. We verified this. Her report also indicated that a recent security breach was instigated by one of your workers. This was also verified. Last, she has requested you be removed from your post."

"What?!" Garak could not believe his ears. *That slut! That disease-ridden daughter of a slovenly whore!* His jaw clenched so tight that he could feel his back teeth begin to grind into powder.

Before he could vent his outrage, though, the flat computerized voice said, "We are planning to approve her request to remove you from your current post."

"NO!"

Garak could not help his wild, anguished cry. His feelings flip-flopped from outrage to fear to distress. His voice contained all his feelings.

"I've done my best for the council! I swear I have! After all, who has provided you the reports regarding the excesses of the Bajorans? Who told you about the workers on Terok Nor that coddle Terrans? Who informed you about the workers who refuse to punish slaves and keep private files illegally?"

The mechanized voice sounded amused, although this was probably just his interpretation of it in his current state. It replied calmly, "Elim Garak, you are not being reprimanded, censured or discharged. In fact, the issue of your promotion is being voted on later this week."

"My promotion?" the Cardassian could hardly believe this. Was this a trick? He asked the inappropriate question. "Who are you?"

To his surprise, the communication did not end suddenly as he expected, as it *should* have. Instead the voice resolved into a nasal tone that sounded familiar to him, but he could not place it.

"Elim," the voice became clear and warm with fondness. "My brother."

Garak's mouth dropped open. He'd had no idea! Slowly a smile grew on his face, from spontaneous delight to deeper awareness. Then it darkened to something more profound, more evil--ambition. His own voice filled with grateful joy.

"Enabram...I've missed you."

************************************************************************

The Co-Intendant flew the shapeshifter back to the station in her personal yacht. She had tried to get him to eat a sumptuous meal with her, which he had declined more than once. He finally, reluctantly, explained that he did not eat. This had led to an interesting question-and-answer session which did not finish until they had returned to the station.

As they walked out of the airlock, she abruptly realized that she was still hungry, having barely eaten while listening to the Investigator; his quiet explanations had been fascinating. So she asked him to accompany her to her quarters.

Kira fully intended on disclosing her real reason for having him performing these odd jobs for her. He seemed more than ready to take on the more challenging job she had in mind.

*****

"Am I to be given a position on the council?"

Elim Garak was already imagining the slights against him he would be able to repay. He was no longer angry, strutting around his cabin like a Terran rooster. His self-important question made his brother laugh, however, which made him frown and ask angrily, "What is so funny about my being on the council?"

"Nothing. It's just your arrogance at thinking that your tiny efforts would be so well- thought of by the council. That *is* funny, Elim," Enabram replied. He no longer disguised his voice; there was no longer any point to it.

"Arrogance? I'm not the one who rose to position by stepping on the backs of his own family," Garak snapped.

"That isn't arrogance, Elim, just good business sense and that's what you need to have if you want to be on the council. No, I don't think you will ever find yourself on the council."

Garak sneered. He would see about that. "You won't keep me from my rightful place, Enabram, no matter what false stories you've spread about me. I have friends on the council. Good friends."

"The same ones that got you your current job as Terok Nor's processing plant supervisor?"

Garak scowled. "Then what is my promotion to be?"

"Assistant Cardassian Liaison, third in command of Terok Nor. That Bajoran bitch is crafty. She uses every trick in the book to justify any problems or shortcomings she or the station has," Enabram informed him, half-admiringly, half-angrily, then added, "I think you could learn from her, Elim."

Garak could not find words with which to respond to this. The position was far better than the one he had. He had very little choice in taking it either, even if he felt his talents could be used better somewhere else. The Alliance had decided and he would do what they bid.

His continued silence was broken only by the sound of communications being clicked off by Enabram. Tain had not signed off. He did not have to. He trusted his point had been well made and that both of them knew it.

*****

[I want to hold the hand inside you...]
Mazzy Star "Fade Into You"

"You want me to work for you on Terok Nor?" The shapeshifter was astonished.

The Co-Intendant frowned. "Of course. I wouldn't allow a man of your skills to languish in some dark, dusty mine. I mean just look at your clothes!"

He blinked and looked down at his suit. It was very dirty. He shrugged apologetically. "The mines are dusty, Co-Intendant."

"Exactly," Kira declared. "You've no business working mindlessly down there when you can work up here." She almost added "with me," but managed not to.

"But I already had a job, Co-Intendant."

"It's beneath you," she insisted, adding, "There will be a supervisory opening soon and I'd like you to take it. I trust you. I like the way you work. I like the way you think. I think you could do things for me no one else could... around the station, that is."

Kira cursed herself inwardly for almost revealing her attraction to him. He's a shapeshifter, remember that... She scowled at this thought. Shapeshifter or no, she had spent a long enough time with him to know that he was also no less a man and a very attractive one at that.

He had come so far from when she first saw him that it made her proud to know she had brought him to where he was. If only he could see that! He should be demanding better work from her, not having her beg for him to take it, but there was no way for her to say that so he wouldn't resent it. She looked up now at him and found his expression was both confused and doubtful, even a touch suspicious.

"What's bothering you?" she asked, but his expression grew nervous, shifting away, as it had during their first meeting.

**What is he worried about? He should be delighted, but he acts like I'm punishing him or maybe taunting him. Wait, maybe he does think I'm just teasing him like the damned Cardassians! Holding out the job like a prize waved under his nose, then snatched away on a whim. Mora is a vicious bastard in the scientific community, too. He probably hasn't ever been able to say what he's thinking out of fear of being disciplined or taunted or worse.**

This thought made her respond sympathetically. Without thinking about it, she stepped up and took his hand in hers. His fingers were warm and smooth like she remembered from the planet. She squeezed it, brought it to her heart and held it there. He watched her, eyes wide with uncertainty.

"You can always tell me anything. Anything at all. I want you to feel free around me. Free to say exactly how you feel. Do you understand?" To her surprise, he began to tremble, but he nodded anyway.

She whispered, "Then tell me that you do, Investigator."

He swallowed. "I...I understand, Co-Intendant."

"Good." She smiled at him, then let his hand go and turned to her desk.

Kira had felt a growing pull toward the shapeshifter in the moment he had started to tremble and it had taken a lot of effort to release his hand, to not reach up and stroke his cheek as she'd been wanting to do since she first saw him face-to-face. The intensity of her urge bothered her. *I need to maintain proper distance. You need an ally, not a bed partner, Nerys.*

She almost sighed. She also did not wish him to feel she expected anything more from him than what she'd provided so far-- work and the freedom of the station. At least not until he felt more sure of himself; timid men weren't her taste. The hidden strength she could sense in him, the awesome potential she knew he had were what was causing her to respond to him. That was the man she was responding to, she told herself. It didn't help much when she looked into his clear blue and innocent eyes.

There was something, the Co-Intendant decided, to be said for innocence of spirit. It was so rare in the Alliance that it should be priceless, but everyday some form of it was sacrificed to the good of

the state. She had done more than her share of sacrificing, she admitted to herself. She turned away from him, cleared her mind, then her throat, before speaking.

"I take it that I can enter your resignation from your posting at Hedrikspool Mine and enter your acceptance of a supervisory position within Terok Nor's processing operations crew?"

When he didn't answer, she turned around to find him watching her with an expression she had never seen on his face before. It was not quite wary, not really knowing, but managed to convey a bit of both. He said nothing, though, and his silence began to bother her.

"What is it?"

He swallowed. "What...what would my duties be?"

*Of course, he needs to know what to expect up here...* "I would expect you to learn the general station operations at first, then ore-processing operations, the security details and once I was satisfied you had grasped the basics, I would assign you a specific duty post," she replied.

"And...where would I, uh...stay while I'm stationed here?" he asked, his voice a touch uneasy.

The Co-Intendant nodded; she thought she understood the reason for his uneasiness now and said, "Don't worry, you wouldn't have to stay in a storage room or in Community quarters. I would secure you your own room."

"My own room?"

Instead of pleased, he looked even more troubled and Kira thought he wanted to ask something, but didn't dare. She sighed, feeling disappointed that he could have grown greedy so fast. Or had he? She didn't think it was possible, but he had proven he was a very quick study... maybe he had become greedy.

"I could even assign you," she added in a testing tone of voice, "a slave or two?" To her satisfaction, he didn't seem thrilled with this offer, but he didn't reject it, either. To her confusion, he turned away from her, eyes down. His rough voice grew even more gravelly and low.

"And would there be anything else you would...expect of me, Co-Intendant?" he asked her, adding, "That is, if I accept this offer to work up here."

Kira frowned, wondering what bothered him so much about working on the station. She considered her words before answering. He would make an excellent supervisor, trustworthy and loyal, and she was glad her instincts about bringing him to the station were working out. She knew that once he was in position, he would grow into his authority. Perhaps he would even grow into the strength she knew was within him, a strength more than equal to her own. She smiled as she recalled how well he had accomplished the special projects she'd given him so far. She nodded.

"Yes. From time to time, I'd expect you to work with me on, uh, well, special projects." To her relief, her admission seemed to decide for him. He turned and looked up at her now and she smiled at him, expectantly. His expression was unreadable.

"I'll consider your generous offer, Co-Intendant," he said. Her smile dimmed at this, but he only asked, "May I have your permission to leave, Co-Intendant?"

She frowned now, bewildered by his sudden change of mood and lack of enthusiasm for the incredible opportunity she had just offered him. Unable to ask the questions that were filling her head, she finally just nodded at him.

"Dismissed."

*****

[I'm the one, natural one, take it easy...]
Folk Implosion "The One"

Benjamin Sisko, the most wanted Kappa-class Terran slaves in the Human underground on Bajor slid another lump of plastique deep into the cavern crevice under Hedrikspool province, below the mining area of the Cardassian-run labor camp above known as Gallitep.

"Ben, hurry that up!"

This warning made him glance briefly down at his fellow rebel. Beverly Crusher was the finest chemical expert he knew. She wasn't bad at field medicine either in this private war that he and his compatriots had been waging as long as he could remember. She was his most serious love interest to date. He knew she had other lovers, but for now, their casual encounters had increased their understanding of one another. It was enough for him. Now he smiled at her with a nod to let her know he was almost done.

As he climbed carefully down from the cavern wall, laying out fusing wire as he went, he considered how he had come to this point in his life. He was a very much wanted criminal to the Bajorans, simply because of his desire to do as he wished, because he valued his freedom. It all seemed wrong. He knew it hadn't always been that way. Humans had once been mighty and proud and he longed to return to those days. Now wouldn't that be something? Ben Sisko, perhaps fighter pilot? Perhaps a ship mechanic or an engineer.

Ben Sisko, fugitive Kappa-class Terran slave, that's what he was. That's all he was. He frowned at this and looked to Bev. Her red hair glowed, even in the dimness of this cave and he swallowed. *You're a lucky man, Benjamin Sisko, that's what you are...*

She turned to look at him then and he gave her a warm smile, but her blue eyes were deeply worried. Her voice was low and what she said made him tense.

"Ben, I think someone's coming."

************************************************************************

[May be factual, may be cruel...I ain't lying]
Aaron Neville "Everybody Plays A Fool"

It was quiet in Terok Nor's Bajoran temple. It was the only private place the shapeshifter known as odo'ital had been able to find in which to think.

After a brief, curious look at him, the temple monk had shrugged and told him if he required spiritual assistance, he could be reached at the station Replimat. The shapeshifter had nodded at him, glad he could be alone somewhere quiet. He needed to think, to gather himself. He felt horribly ashamed, terribly disappointed.

Throughout his three weeks of exciting and fulfilling work, he had been waiting for the Co-Intendant to make known what she expected of him. When she had done nothing more than give him more work, he had allowed himself to hope that things were not what they had seemed to be, what others had told him they were.

He was not the ignorant fool Elim Garak and some of his Cardassian friends made him out to be. He had heard the many tales of Co-Intendant Kira Nerys and her...appetites. It was rumored that she knew the sexual requirements for every species of being in the Alliance, that she craved new and unknown experiences.

Upon receiving her summons, he had expected her to request a demonstration of his own sexual prowess, with a slave or perhaps with the Co-Intendant personally. The mine Cardassians had laughingly informed him that was the only reason she would have for calling a creature like him to Terok Nor and he believed them. So many rumors must have some basis in truth, he thought.

He had arrived in dread, expecting indignity and fearing the worst of her. He had told himself over and over that even if she did demand a demonstration from him it would be no worse than the similar experiences which the hateful Mora had inflicted on him.

The scientist had kept him continuously monitored in order to keep him from practicing shapeshifting into dangerous forms, into things Mora had not pre-approved. In his degrading years as Morpher, Mora's pet project, he had worked hard every private moment he could manage to steal, despite frustration and discouragement, on his shapeshifting until he was able to successfully shift his shape into a deadly form that Mora had not been able to stop.

He had confronted the disgusting man and gained his freedom, but he still sometimes felt he was treading the lip of a snare that led back to the laboratory...and the indignity of performing various bodily functions for the benefit of Mora's curious eyes and the endless, hateful monitors.

To his surprise, he found himself shuddering uncontrollably now, on the verge of melting with his fear and anxiety. **Now in exchange for a better position, she wants me...sexually. She paid out the loops of the snare and I stepped right into it. Would it be so bad to trade favors in order to work here on this clean, pleasant station?**

He could have his own quarters instead of finding a place for his bucket and hoping it remained undisturbed by drunken Cardassians in search of sport. Or worse, the hateful Klingons who would empty him onto the ground, where in his liquid vulnerability, he would be forced to endure the trampling of dusty boots, laughter as he reformed.

A sound of torment escaped him and he shut his eyes. **I have no choice. I risk her anger if I deny her. I risk my life in the mines if I deny myself, but I don't want to be in her debt forever. Perhaps I should set out the terms of our 'agreement' before I...before I perform for her.**

"Investigator?"

Kira's soft voice was louder than a gunshot in the quiet of the room. He jumped, then steadied himself and turned to look at the Co-Intendant as directly as he could manage.

*****

Sisko pulled his homemade cross-bow up and ready, hanging onto the wall with one hand and two very shaky footholds. Despite the gravity of their situation, he noted Bev's graceful position by the cavern entrance. She was ready to do whatever it took to get the intruder into position where he could skewer him. He hadn't been known as "on-sight Sisko" in his youth, for nothing.

As the person entered the cave, Bev simultaneously relaxed and stood straighter. Her posture told Ben to relax as well, but he maintained his hold on the cross-bow and watched her move forward, sleek as a leopard in her dark jumpsuit. *She is one tall, leggy, classy woman, too,* he thought with pride.

"It's me...it's Jean-Luc..." this weak and thready voice hardly sounded like the friend he knew and Ben jumped from his position, headed for Bev and the new person in their camp, his Human friend and mentor, Jean-Luc Picard.

He was bald, hazel-eyed, older than Bev and Ben, but infinitely more cunning and with a streak of luck even the blessings of the Prophets the Bajorans believed in couldn't have explained. It appeared that his luck had finally run out, though. Sisko could hardly believe it.

A massive phaser-burn extended down and around his left-side and when Ben slid behind him, he noted the burn covered half his back as well. Despite this, he had been standing as straight as possible until he caught sight of Bev.

"Bev..." the smile he gave her was warm and grateful, despite his slow slide down to the cave floor. Sisko got the horrible feeling he was looking at a dead man.

He asked worriedly, "What happened, old man?"

"Ben, he's hurt!"

"I know, but we need his report first, Bev," Sisko told her. To his gratitude, Jean-Luc nodded.

"'S true, Bev. Co-Intendant...new spy...looking for us. All the Mavs taken. Only...only I escaped..." his head lolled.

"All of us?" Sisko could hardly believe this; those caverns were secure! Bev had insisted the heavy mineral deposits shielded them better than any device. He glared at her for a moment, angry despite his love for her, when Picard grabbed his arm.

"Not...not her fault, Ben. New spy. Incredible..." Jean-Luc's breath was growing raspy and Sisko knew then that the man was going to die. He hoped he would get an answer before then.

"Tell me about him."

"Ben!"

Sisko shook off the desperate Beverly Crusher and turned his attention on Picard. If he did not find out what he could, then he and their few remaining friends in the lower caverns would not survive and if that happened...there was little hope for the Terran rebellion.

"Tell me, old man," he insisted, almost pleading despite his stern tone. Jean-Luc nodded weakly.

"There's...a new spy...he was the wall...never...never seen...anything like it."

Sisko frowned. "What do you mean 'he was the wall'?"

Picard ignored this. "He sent troops...dangerous..."

"Where is he? Did he follow you?" Ben demanded. Picard shook his head, really more of a slow roll as his gaze drifted, then returned to his worried rebel friend and partner.

"He's a shapeshifter...a shapeshifter, Ben! On Terok Nor...Co-Intendant's new eyes...new spy...Beverly?"

Sisko frowned at this, then realized the man was turning his last bit of attention to something more important than his mission. He swallowed and stood back and let Beverly kneel beside their dying friend.

"I'm here," she told him, taking his hand in hers, cradling his head in her lap. Her blue eyes were filled with tears.

"Will is dead," he told her, his eyes filling with tears of his own. Beverly nodded understanding. Will Riker had been a very good mutual friend, a quiet hero among the Terrans.

Jean-Luc thought of him as a son, practically raised him since Kyle Riker, his father, had abandoned him as a child to turn traitor. Kyle Riker had become a Theta-class slave for the Alliance council while his quiet, studious son had grown tall and lanky among the rebels, a bookish man educated by his adopted father and surprisingly fearless in a fight. Bev had first seen him to treat him for broken ribs gained in a confrontation against some Klingons.

"I'm sorry, Jean-Luc," she said.

"Me, too. I...I loved him very much," Picard admitted. She nodded and he smiled wistfully, reached up a hand which fell, then said softly, "I loved you, too."

This last was said on a mere breath of air, his last. His head lolled again, but this time Picard's gaze was sightless. He was dead.

Beverly sniffed, then sobbed and cradled his face between her hands to kiss him gently. Her voice was very soft.

"I know, Jean-Luc. I know."

Sisko merely swallowed tightly, filled with anger. It wasn't at discovering Bev's other love interest, he was not an exclusive man. It was at a good man's death and this new information he had sacrificed himself to bring them. It was anger at the need to change their plans and anger at the universe for placing him in such a situation.

He left the grieving Bev beside their mutual friend and looked back up at the explosive he had placed in order to detonate and close off the chamber to the deeper levels beyond the chamber in order to make good any escape in the future.

The cavern was directly below the mine above. Above them, thousands of Terrans were made to carve and dig out raw material for processing on Terok Nor. More importantly, there were Cardassians and Bajorans there, too. If the young, new escapee--a scrappy long-haired adolescent boy named Julian Bashir--was right, then they were just below the interior complex.

There was an administrative center filled with Alliance officials, according to the skinny Human boy who had made his escape, thinking he was to die in the endless caves. He had been stunned to have been found by the resistance fighters. According to Bashir, the mine's administrative center was the entry and exit into the facility and an effective and economical way to keep track of the slaves.

Bashir had made his escape through an exhaust conduit and suffered several painful burns from the heated steam that was vented in a parallel duct. It was how Sisko had come to know him; he had been brought to Beverly by Jean-Luc. Sisko looked down at his friend and scowled, feeling a sense of outrage that threatened to make him lose control. Instead, he swallowed and began to think, assessing his work of earlier.

The lump of plastique was well situated, it would bring down only enough of the rock to seal this chamber and the tunnels leading to below. It would probably shake the complex, but cause little damage. Sisko frowned, suddenly struck by inspiration.

If he got enough plastique and set it off, it would rip the complex and bring it smashing down and into this cavern. It would put a stop to the mining for a long time and if the remainder of his cell below was ready, several slaves could be freed from their Bajoran and Cardassian captors.

Sisko got a wide, wicked smile on his face and nodded. Without a pause in his continuing plans, he went to stand beside Bev and gently stroked her flame-red hair. She looked up at him, then stood and buried her face in his shoulder and Ben Sisko continued plotting as she cried and clung to him for comfort.

************************************************************************

[He lives in the yard.
He keeps himself hard.
He keeps himself homeless and heartless and hard.
He sleeps on the stairs
Alone with the heirs
Of nothing and 'nothing' means no one who cares...]
Belly "Stay"

The shapeshifter called odo'ital by most, looked at Kira Nerys with a steady gaze. His voice was quiet and respectful.

"Did you...need me for something, Co-Intendant?" he asked now, only a slight quiver to his voice revealing his anxiety.

"I need to know why you're hesitating to accept my offer," she admitted. "I want to know if it's got anything to do with any of the personnel here."

He shook his head. "No, Co-Intendant."

"Then is it the Terrans? Would you prefer to not have the responsibility of supervising them?" she persisted.

"No, Co-Intendant," his voice grew smaller as the fear within him grew; he needed to talk to her about the terms of their possible agreement. He didn't like it, but he had to.

"Is it the work? I can assure you it wouldn't be any more difficult than what I've had you do so far, in fact," she smiled reassuringly at him, "I can practically guarantee that it would be a whole lot more...pleasurable." He merely nodded now, miserable and afraid and hating the entire situation, but he was glad she had finally touched upon their work arrangement, if there was to be one. Kira frowned, then stepped up to him. He looked down and away.

"Talk to me, odo'i--just talk to me," she urged him. Without thinking she had almost called him odo'ital, which filled her with self-disgust. She refused to think of him as the Cardassians did. He wasn't a joke, he was a person and she no longer considered him just a worker. The feelings she had for him had grown deeper and deeper as the days went by.

She took his hands in hers now, a gesture of apology for what she had almost said, even though he didn't know what it meant. Her eyes showed her anger again at Garak for having started using the term odo'ital.

To the shapeshifter, her expression was steel--disapproval at his hesitation in accepting her offer and he swallowed, worried. Her eyes watched him, waiting, and he suddenly wanted to just melt beneath the floor and away from her gaze which seemed to burn into him.

"Co-Intendant," he began, but he found he could not finish whatever statement he started to say. This decision of his was fast becoming impossible to avoid. He did not want to make it under duress. *What am I to do?*

Kira found she could no longer just accept his silence. She tipped his cheek toward her. His eyes were opened, but downcast and she suddenly wondered if he had discovered what odo'ital meant during his brief stay in the mining complex and was upset that she had almost used it.

This thought troubled her and she gave in to her sudden impulse and kissed him, gently, savoring the sensation. The warm, comforting smell of him, combined with the intense liquid warmth of his mouth, filled her with desire.

""Kira..." he gasped, stunned at this sudden and unexpected act. His strangled whisper slipped between their joined lips and she pulled back.

He closed his eyes, considered the fact that even if he said no, this woman could still make him do anything she wanted. It was, perhaps, what she was telling him with the kiss. Then she would have gotten what she wanted from me and I would have nothing.

He opened his eyes then, looked briefly at the room around them and made his decision. His voice was hushed, but Kira could easily hear it in the stillness of the temple chamber.

"Not here."

*****

"This is Doctor Mora Pol, with whom am I speaking?"

Mora Pol looked at him from the monitor. Garak had hailed him after some lengthy consideration following his talk with Enabram. Next logical step, he decided, was to speak with the expert.

"My name is Garak, Elim Garak of the fourth order, calling you from the mining station Terok Nor. I'm calling to inquire about the shapeshifter that left your care nearly two years ago."

The Bajoran scientist looked at him almost craftily. His head tilted and he asked shrewdly, "I've heard of you. What exactly is your interest in Morpher, Supervisor?"

Garak nearly corrected him, almost snapped that the shapeshifter was called odo'ital by all and sundry, and declared that he was now third in command of the station and not a mere supervisor, but checked himself in time. He smiled.

"The Co-Intendant hired him."

"The Co-Intendant?" Mora's tone was surprised. "How interesting."

"How so, Doctor Mora?"

"You didn't answer my question, Supervisor--what is your interest in Morpher?"

Garak reassessed the Bajoran carefully before saying, "Very simply, Doctor, I want to know more about this new ally the Co-Intendant has taken it upon herself to, shall we say, 'foster'?"

"Very simply, Mister Garak, I want to know why you have a sudden interest in my opinion. It's well known that you, shall we say, 'despise' Bajorans?"

Garak sat back. His face was expressionless. His tone was gushy with what he imagined to be sympathetic warmth.

"Not at all, Doctor Mora. In fact, it's rumors like that about other people that I believe are the main reason things don't get done as they should in the Alliance. Trust, I've always said, is the key between Cardassia and its Allies. In any case, I didn't wish to waste your valuable time. A small stipend would be delivered in exchange for your esteemed help."

The doctor's eyes narrowed. "Exactly what do you want to know, Mister Garak?"

Elim Garak smiled. "Anything at all about this shapeshifter you studied for so long."

"Morpher, you mean?"

"Just so, but you should be made aware that the Co-Intendant has made him her new Investigator on Terok Nor."

"Really?" Mora sounded surprised. His voice grew distracted as he added, "I see the rumors are true then."

"Rumors?"

"Yes, I understand the Co-intendant has an interest in, shall we say unusual experiences?" Mora asked.

"Yes, is this significant?"

"No, it might be nothing, but it's just that Morpher never seemed to care much for the females I procured for him," the doctor admitted with a frown.

"Females? Are there other shapeshifters?" Elim was appalled. "No, no, he's the only one discovered so far. I meant Terran females, some slaves that I procured in order to...train him in the ways of humanoid sexual behavior."

It was Garak's turn to frown. "You trained him in that?"

"Well, of course. He wasn't a slave. Despite his blank face, Morpher held many of the same feelings as humanoids; I demonstrated that in various studies of him. Having discovered this, I wanted to make sure he wasn't a danger."

"A danger?"

"You see, Supervisor, there is no telling about an alien life-form's method of mating and some have violent, even dangerous cycles," Mora insisted. "I had to be sure no alien mating urges created a danger to anyone. I made sure he was provided with a few Terran females so he could safely relieve any such urges."

The Cardassian's face remained utterly impassive, although he was filled with disgust. It wasn't at the thought of the shapeshifter with a female; it was the sudden, certain knowledge that this Bajoran was lying. Every Bajoran he knew was preoccupied with sexual matters. This disgusting man, scientist though he was, had put his biological specimen through sexual activity not for any reason he was now quoting about safety or even out of kindness, but simply in order to obtain some perverted sense of gratification from it by watching. He probably did it under the ruse of monitoring the shapeshifter.

"Very clever, Doctor," was what he said though. Mora frowned at this, uncertain of Garak's meaning--which was just what Garak wanted. "Pray tell me then; it was possible for him to...function in this manner?"

The doctor nodded unthinkingly, "Yes, of course. His humanoid form may appear unfinished, but his facility with imitation is incredible."

"I see."

Garak said nothing more, considering this new information and adding it to what he knew of the current situation on the station.

"Mister Garak, was there anything else? I really do have some research to finish," Mora said.

"Yes, of course, Doctor. Thank you for your time. I will probably contact you in future. Rest assured the payment I proffered will be transferred through the Mercantile Exchange to your account."

Without waiting for the Bajoran's response, Garak turned off the monitor and sat back, deliberating as he weighed what he had learned with what he already knew.

*****

[I am the son...
I am the heir...
of a shyness that is criminally vulgar...]
The Smiths "How Soon Is Now?"

Morpher-cum-Odo'ital's voice was hushed, a rough whisper in the dark of the Co- Intendant's sumptuous quarters.

"I don't know what you've heard, but...I'm not heavily experienced," he admitted.

Only the Intendant's bedroom viewport provided light from the glowing sphere of Bajor which slowly turned below Terok Nor.

The shapeshifter found the dark soothing. It calmed him. He had been fearing bright, invasive lights, like the kind at the research center, but to his surprise the Intendant had insisted on quiet and darkness. Perhaps this would not be so bad a thing, he considered.

For her part, the Co-Intendant was amazed at how quickly their tryst was taking place. She had been hoping that when enough time had passed, as he accepted more responsibility and grew into his position and the power that came with it, he would come to make his own advances toward her. It seemed she had been more successful in bolstering his confidence than she expected.

"What have you experienced?" she asked him softly, sitting beside him on her bed. She had already removed his jacket and was touching his back through the thin under-tunic he had on. "Tell me about it."

Despite the fact she had kept the room dark, her interest in him, her stark curiosity reminded him too much of the research center, of being watched. Without being aware of the meaning of his action, he turned and hid his face in her neck. His reply was muffled, ashamed.

"Mora studied me with...Terran females. They were afraid of me. It wasn't very pleasant."

Kira slid her arms around him without thinking, responding to his action. She made a mental note to confront Mora about his disgusting treatment of his research subjects. He should have filled this shapeshifter with confidence, encouraged his abilities, not trounced him down like a boot-wiping rag. Anger filled her at what she learned, but she kept tight rein on it.

Co-Intendant Kira Nerys was not so impulsive and moody as others said, although she did not fight the rumors. She liked her troops to feel she was unpredictable and indecent and mean; it kept them in order. She pulled back now and made him look at her.

"I'll deny it if you tell anyone I said it. but Bajorans aren't all that much different than Terrans," Kira smiled, adding, "At least, in this area they aren't."

He nodded, feeling miserable and afraid, but hiding it well. An inner voice urged him to be worried that the Co-Intendant would withdraw her job offer after they were through. Another inner voice warned him that if he asked her to confirm her offer right now she might get mad enough to send him back to the Research center. He would be forced to disable her and escape the station somehow. He was confident he could, but he didn't want to harm the Co-Intendant or anyone.

She was like he, a creature formed by the circumstances around her, she couldn't help being vicious or occasionally ugly. The entire universe was vicious and ugly; that much he had learned. Despite her habit of using copulation as an amusement, despite the fact that her current object of interest was him, the fact remained that Kira Nerys was still the first one to treat him like a sentient, feeling person. Anyway, he had long ago learned to accept the method of operating in the Alliance...and the Alliance was the best alternative for him in a world where the allies were more treacherous than the enemies.

He swallowed. "What...what would you like me to do?"

Kira frowned. She could tell he was anxious again. "Tell me truthfully--have you changed your mind?"

He shook his head, intent on going through with his decision. "Not unless you have."

The Co-Intendant, shook her head. "Not at all. I've been curious about you since you came to Terok Nor," she admitted with a smile, adding, "as for what I want you to do, I want you to relax. This isn't anything like what Mora had you do. It won't be just sex."

"It won't?" His voice held an edge of concern.

"No," Kira assured him, "If I wanted simple sex, there are over a hundred Terran Beta- class pleasure slaves on the station. No, my friend. You and I are going to make love."

He frowned now. His voice was puzzled. "What is the difference?"

The Co-Intendant merely smiled.

************************************************************************

"You'll kill or hurt a lot of Terrans, too, Benjamin," Beverly argued.

"It can't be helped," Sisko murmured, absorbed in his work.

He barely paid attention to what she was saying. She had been arguing against his decision since they had returned to the warren below in order to inform the remaining members of their group of the new developments. He had outlined his plan, asked for a volunteer and been amused at the boyish confidence of the teenaged Julian Bashir.

The boy had jumped at the opportunity to help his newfound benefactors, telling them what little he knew of the shapeshifter he said the Cardassians called odo'ital. Sisko conceded the boy's knowledge of the mining complex would be invaluable.

Now Julian was carefully paying out fusing wire to him as he laid it out from the many lumps of carefully placed plastique that were now bulging atop the small ledge above the overhang he had first placed the single handful earlier. *It's going to make one hell of a bang,* he thought with a smile.

"Benjamin, you're scaring me."

This made him stop his careful wire placement down the cavern wall. He looked down at Bev, his dark face shiny with sweat and he sighed. The boy merely waited, pretending to ignore the exchange between the two adults.

"I'm sorry, Bev, but I should have done this long before. If the old man was right and the Co-Intendant has some shapeshifter working for her, we'll all be captured. This way, in the confusion, some of us will get away."

"What about our wounded and the pregnant women?" Beverly demanded. Ben liked that about her; she took care of the sick and injured rebels, helped the birthing women and any sick babies. In another world, she might have been a damn fine nurse or perhaps even a doctor.

"You'll go down deep after Bashir and I get more supplies for you, extra parts for that smiley fellow, O'Brien. You'll watch out for them." he told her with a gentle smile.

"Smiley fellow? I never saw him smile," Julian said.

"It's just a nickname," Sisko said. "I like teasing the people I like."

"I thought I was going with you," Crusher said.

"No, I'm taking Julian," Sisko replied, smiling at the boy who stood straighter at this.

Beverly frowned, then spoke sotto voce. "Ben, he's just a boy."

Before Bashir could respond, Sisko said, "So is Wesley, Bev, and he's flying around with that no-account father of his, tracking down people like us for the Alliance."

This finally made her stop objecting and he finished his work, then slowly climbed down and over to her. She looked worried. Bashir waited impatiently, but Sisko ignored him for now.

He took Bev's face into his hands, then bent and kissed her deeply. She responded readily, without inhibition. This is what she always did, glad for his touch, but Ben knew that this time it was because she was afraid for him, for them both...for them all.

*****

[If we take the time to lay it on the line
I could rest my head just knowing that you are mine...all mine]
Guns'N'Roses "November Rain"

"Perhaps we should discuss the terms of our...agreement," the shapeshifter said quietly, cautiously.

He knew he had three hours before he reverted to his liquid state, but the last hour and a half had been somewhat tiring and despite the fact he was far from his limit, the urge to revert to liquid was already growing. Normally he needed to revert to a liquid every sixteen hours in order to rest, but when he took an uncustomary physical shape or performed strenuous physical activity, the strain forced him to rest that much sooner.

"Agreement? You mean your job?" the Co-Intendant murmured sleepily.

He nodded. He didn't want to leave her hastily, but he didn't want to stay with her while he underwent reversion. He was afraid it would disgust her. The Co-Intendant sighed heavily now, seemingly annoyed, and he worried that he might have spoken too soon. Her voice was resigned.

"I suppose I'd better enjoy you now while I still can," she agreed wearily. He frowned. "What do you mean?"

Kira had been very generous, very understanding during this, their rather awkward initial coupling. As she had stated, he had not found it to be anything at all like the humiliation Mora had put him through. He had even decided that if she required this of him on an ongoing basis he would consider it. This statement from the Co-Intendant, though, seemed to indicate she expected their relationship to end, perhaps once he accepted her position. He was surprised to discover how disappointing that possibility was to him.

"Everyone I've placed in the position I intend for you grows...well, let me just say they become rather arrogant and demanding," Kira admitted, then gently stroked his cheek, brushed back his hair. It was so fine and silky, almost like running her hands into a sheet of water.

She kissed him and very slowly began to enact the gentle, sensuous gestures which he had learned meant she intended to re-engage him physically. He felt a sense of dismay, but responded nonetheless. It was only thirteen hours, there was still time for one more tryst before he had to revert. *I can wait...*

"What...what position do you mean?" he decided to risk asking. He needed to know.

Kira pulled back to look at him. His eyes were incredibly, beautifully blue. It was a rare color among Bajorans and she wondered why he had chosen that color when he could make his eyes any color he wanted. She smiled.

"I've requested the Alliance remove Mister Garak from his post. He's grown somewhat fond of it, too fond, if you ask me." She began kissing him gently along the jawline, up the side of his face.

"But...isn't he in charge of ore-processing?" he asked, trembling more from the need to revert, than from her actions, although he could tell she was pleased at his reaction.

"That's right," she nodded, moving to touch her forehead to his and hold him to her. "Once he's out of there, I'll need a good man in that spot. Someone that knows about mining and ore-processing, like you do. Someone that will keep the slaves in line without destroying them needlessly, someone I can trust will do as I've ordered." She kissed him again.

He considered this, kept on considering it as she slipped her arms around him and began to stroke his back. Before he could say anything, she added, "Of course, I'd expect you to work with me on...special...projects."

He closed his eyes. His voice was even. "Like this, you mean."

This disappointed her...no, she realized with surprise. It actually hurt. That he would actually think--but then, her reputation had grown without her feeding it. *No wonder he's been so nervous--he thought he had to do this. Prophets forgive me...*

"Is that what you think? What you thought?" She asked. After a moment of hesitation, he nodded.

Kira drew in a deep breath, sighed. "It's my own fault. My reputation seems to grow every passing season."

She rested her head against his shoulder, then to his surprise she began to laugh, a flat, humorless laugh. After a moment, he realized she was actually crying, which filled him with dismay...but he held her anyway when she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in the hollow of his shoulder.

*****

[Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage!!]
Smashing Pumpkins "Bullets With Butterfly Wings"

"Did you find the food?"

Sisko's voice was barely audible, but the boy nodded almost immediately, then tossed down a large bundle atop the transporter pad in the room. Despite his skinny frame, the boy was strong. There were five other bundles of various configurations already on the pad.

"Enough E-rations to last for at least five months, sir," he said excitedly.

"I'm just Ben, Julian," Sisko reminded him. He finished entering the coordinates into the console and gestured the boy back. Bashir stepped down from the pad and looked at the dead Cardassian guard that had been the only occupant of the room. After entering through the duct, Sisko had killed him quickly, then he and Bashir had invaded the complex and scavenged what they would need.

"Finally. I think I got it."

Sisko pressed the controls and the supplies disappeared. Then without a moment of hesitation, he pulled his phaser and fired at the transporter control panel, destroying it and any chance of the Cardassians or Klingons or Bajorans discovering where they had sent the goods. Almost immediately an alarm sounded.

"Take the grill off the duct," Benjamin ordered. Julian nodded and pried open the casing to a conduit beside the smoking transporter terminal, then watched as his leader took the dead Cardassian's fully energized plasma rifle, then set his own phaser on overload and dropped it on top of the unlucky guard.

"Let's go! Thirty-four, thirty-three..."

The boys eyes widened as Sisko dived headfirst into the conduit and began scuttling away at top speed. With a single parting glance at the dead Cardassian, he jumped into the conduit as well and followed the path the ingenious rebel strike team commando had taken.

************************************************************************

[There is so much a man can tell you...so much he can say.]
Seal "Kiss From A Rose"

"Co-Intendant?"

"Call me Kira," she whispered thickly, head still on his shoulder, her cheek pillowed on his upper chest. "I told you--you don't have to call me by rank in here."

Her beautiful brown eyes regarded him as he tipped her head up to look into them and try to gauge her for sincerity. Kira had grown accustomed to this idiosyncrasy from him. Nearly forty years of being treated as a display thing had left him very little trust. She could understand that. Now she smiled at him, rubbing her cheek against his warm neck.

"I've never had an equal lover. Never. Everyone expects so much from me, but you're the first one who's had the right to and yet I scare you," she whispered. Her voice grew sympathetic, sensual.

"You should be smug, don't you know that? You can become anything you want, have any position and you came in here... you came to me because you thought you had to do this?"

He nodded as she snuggled against him, still unused to this expression of his worth, of the worth of his feelings. No one had ever cared what he thought or felt. Not even Mora, who had only cared about his scientific journals and what new reaction he could draw from him.

What bothered him now, aside from the fact that it was too close to his time to revert, was that he wasn't sure if this affectionate display was for his benefit alone. The Co-Intendant was a far more complex mystery to fathom than any other problem she had brought to him for solving, and he didn't know if he could ever trust what she said. He only knew he should enjoy what he had, what he'd been given.

Yet a part of him wanted so much more. Was it possible that she could be a lover, as she put it, equal to him, giving and taking, not just expecting more of him or on whom he would grow dependant?

"Please," Kira's voice jolted him back to the present. Her eyes spoke to him of her contentment. "Tell me what to call you. Give me a name to cry out when you fill me with joy."

He shrugged. "A few Cardassians still call me odo'ital. I've grown used to it. I don't really care."

"Do you know what that means?" she asked him now, suddenly serious.

He shook his head, but admitted, "I assumed it was some sort of joke. They laugh when they say it. Garak says it like a curse. But it doesn't matter what it means, at least to me. It's just too long a name. Why don't you just call me...Odo?"

Kira swallowed again. "That doesn't change its meaning...Odo."

He didn't know what to say. After a moment, he decided he didn't want to say anything. He only cared about how the light from her viewport seemed to glow in her auburn hair. It was very beautiful. He had not seen much beauty in his life and he appreciated it where he found it.

Her dark eyes also appealed to him, their expression of desire filling him both with anxiety and longing, keeping him frozen with a strange dismay. He had no idea what a female of his own species might look like. He didn't know if there were any, but he doubted they would be like this one...and they hadn't given a damn about his welfare. If they had, they would have looked for him by now. So what he was left with was a woman who found him intriguing. If it was because he was unusual, so be it, at least she had asked him. It was more than anyone had ever done before.

Suddenly he bent his head and kissed her. He felt like it and so he did it. Kira looked at him, surprised, then decided to say something she had been wanting to say for the past few weeks.

"The position is yours. Whether we do this again or not. Whether you've pleased me or not. It was yours all along. When I first called you to my office, it was yours."

Odo frowned at this. He almost didn't ask, but then his mouth opened and the question sprang free.

"Then why didn't you tell me before now?"

Before she could answer him, the commpanel sounded in her bedroom. The gruff tones of Sub-Lieutenant Worf, her Klingon communications officer at Ops, filled the room.

"Co-Intendant, there is an emergency communication from Gul Dukat at Gallitep Mine in Hedrikspool. There's been an explosion."

*****

"Almost there, Julian, don't stop now."

Sweat fell from the boy's thick, normally wavy hair as he nodded at Sisko's command, unable to speak. It hung limply against his shoulders, slick with sweat. It ran freely down his scalp and plastered his thin shirt to his equally thin torso. His breath came in rapid gasps that Sisko could almost hear over the sound of the trumpeting Cardassian alarm.

"You did real good back there," Sisko said, encouraging the boy to move a little faster. "But we'll have to do even better where we're going." Julian frowned at this. He nearly stopped, but then continued jogging alongside the larger Sisko.

The two had worked their way out of the conduits into a large cavern where the air circulation system to the mining complex ended. The overloaded phazer had ripped the transporter room apart, effectively hiding their escape route. Bashir realized the Cardassians and Bajorans would assume they had simply transported out before the explosion. Sisko's ingenuity amazed him; he had already decided to model himself after the innovative man.

"Where are we going?" Julian managed to ask.

"Below. We're bringing this whole damned complex down."

*****

Odo followed Kira to Ops from her quarters, still uncertain as to how he felt about her earlier announcement. They hadn't spoken of it and now he watched as Kira effortlessly took command.

"Get me Dukat on screen now!"

"Yes, Co-Intendant."

"Order a company of mixed troops from the provost center in the province to report to the mine. Alert the medical center at Hedrikspool that casualties may be arriving."

"Right away, Co-Intendant."

As Kira drummed her fingers on the center console, a young Cardassian officer finished entering the necessary code and activated the main viewscreen. Gul Dukat, the Cardassian overseer at the main mining complex looked at her impassively.

"Co-Intendant, I regret to inform you that there has been an explosion in one of our transporter rooms. Some supplies appear to be missing and I believe a few Terrans might have escaped. I have my men performing a count of the slaves as we speak."

"I'm sending a company in to assist you. Was anyone injured?"

Gul Dukat frowned. "I appreciate the assistance, Co-Intendant. Sadly, one of my men is missing, a transporter engineer, I believe he was killed by the Terrans then they escaped by the transporter, there was a momentary surge right before the explosion."

"Did you pinpoint the transmission?"

"Regretfully, Co-Intendant, that particular transporter chamber was used for the transportation of heavy equipment and the like. It has no standard transportation schedule, unlike the others. My office clerk, Marritza, believed it to be a supply transport so the activity was not logged."

Kira's face grew dark with disgust. "From now on, Gul Dukat, all transports will be logged. Understood?"

"Yes, Co-Intendant."

"Co-Intendant?"

She turned to look at the shapeshifter who stepped forward, his form taut with expectation. She nodded. "Yes, Investigator?"

"If I may inquire of the Gul," he asked her and after receiving a curt nod, he turned to the monitor, "Gul Dukat, is there a way to determine the size of the energy surge?"

Dukat frowned, "Perhaps, why?"

Odo ignored this, asking, "Did it use more than 70 kiloquads of generator power or less?"

Dukat turned away for a moment and conferred with an aide. In a moment he turned and nodded, "Less, it was a 28 kiloquad transport."

The Co-Intendant looked to the shapeshifter and asked now, "Is that of use?"

Odo nodded. "Only humanoids require 70 or more kiloquads of generator power in order to transfer the complex neural patterns, Co-Intendant. Anything less would indicate that the slaves did not transport out."

Dukat frowned at this. "How would you know about that, odo'ital?"

The shapeshifter straightened. His eyes were resentful. "I have a title, Dukat. I would like it to be used.

Kira smiled. Her eyes revealed her pride, and something more, in Odo. He merely waited for a response.

Finally Dukat nodded his head, his eyes cold, but he only said, "Excuse me, I was unaware of your new post, Investigator, however, you did not answer my question." Odo appeared to relax. "During my stay at the research center, Gul, there was little else for me to do between scientific tests other than read. I retain everything I study."

He turned then to Kira, "Co-Intendant, it is likely that the escaped slaves are still within the compound."

She sighed somewhat regretfully, then said, "Investigator, much as I will miss your presence on Terok Nor, I believe you have more work cut out for you on Bajor."

************************************************************************

[I was thinking to myself--this could be heaven or this could be hell...]
Eagles "Hotel California"

"Put me down for thirty Bajoran leet'has on the shapeshifter, Quark!"

The Ferengi bartender winced, hoped the Cardassians hadn't heard the Klingons drunken announcement. While there were no regulations against it, getting caught making wagers meant he had to pay a percentage to the Alliance. He kept his wagers very quiet.

"Worf, keep it down please," he begged.

The Klingon scowled. "You make enough on your numbers games to pay tribute, Quark. Don't get greedy."

"Easy for you to say. You're a Klingon."

"The Ferengi aren't exactly suffering. You little toads are efficient at your concessions. You don't have to put in a hard day at your job," Worf pointed out.

"I'd no idea torturing Terrans was so straining."

"Watch your tongue, Ferengi," the Klingon scowled. "I might be tempted to find out for myself if Ferengi meat is as stringy as my brother said it was."

Quark's eyes grew wide. Worf was not grinning; his statement was no idle boast and he scurried down to mark the thirty-leet'has on his secret wagering board. He noted the large amount of wagers placed on the shapeshifter, the odo'ital, that had grown in the few hours since he had shuttled down to Bajor.

"The odds on the shapeshifter are better than even," he pointed out. "I mean, after all, he can change his shape. He's dangerous."

Worf snorted. "He's no more dangerous than any other wet stain on the floor, perhaps not even as slippery."

Quark could not understand why Worf's silent-to-now Klingon friends suddenly joined him in crude and deafening laughter.

*****

"The whole cavern will collapse on top of us!"

The boy's voice had slid two registers higher in his fright. Sisko smiled at him as he carefully attached all the fusing wires into a single hand-sized phosphorus tablet.

"That's the idea, boy."

Bashir blinked, looked as if he was about to bolt down the cavern. Instead he re-assessed his previous plan of making Sisko his role-model. The man may be a genious, but he was also crazy!

"All right, once I strike this thing, we've got maybe seven minutes."

"Maybe?" Julian was appalled that the man did not calculate more carefully.

"Well, that's the low estimate. We might have as much as eight, but either way, we're going to have to run for it--straight down to below, past that tunnel Bev calls the bowel of Darkness--you know the one?"

The boy nodded. "The one with those bat-like things?"

"That's the one," Sisko smiled, "If we get there, we should be safe. We'll still feel it, but we should be safe. And Julian?" "Yes, Mister Sisko?"

"You'd better like how those bat-like things taste if I did this too well."

With a wicked grin, Sisko abruptly tapped the tablet with his knife. Instantly, it flared and began burning brightly in the dark cavern. Bashir was already half-way down the lower tunnel by the time Sisko turned around.

*****

Dukat watched as the shapeshifter he still thought of as odo'ital carefully removed his hand from the duct. The grille was shattered on the ground, twisted by the blast and the conduit end was nearly sealed shut by the crumpling of metal. The Investigator had merely slid a hand against the metal, then oozed his hand within.

The Cardassian frowned as the arm continued, impossibly long, to uncoil from within. After a moment, a small tendril appeared, not a hand, which made Dukat scowl. A small patch of fabric was held between two tiny bud-like appendages and the shapeshifter waved it under the Gul's nose.

"Coarse-weave, standard wear for Terran mine slaves."

"So they escaped by way of the conduit? But why?"

Odo frowned, began to pace. "A 28 kilo-quad of power could transport a great deal of equipment, supplies...you said some were missing."

"Not enough to raise suspicion, it might have been a miscount," Dukat said quickly, adding, "Even if they did, why didn't they transport on board with them, then destroy the transporter?"

"Because they didn't transport to some ship. Gul Dukat, your trouble lies in thinking that all Terrans desire escape. They do not," Odo contended, his expression hard.

"Investigator, you surprise me with your performance everytime we meet," Dukat said as if goading him. "First your demonstration at the research center, now this. What do you mean?"

The shapeshifter's expression did not change, but his eyes grew a cold, icy blue, as if he was putting the Cardassian's face into his memory for all time before he answered.

"I mean that some Terrans, like those in this resistance movement of theirs, desire freedom, not for peaceful purposes, but to act out grand schemes of theft and destruction. They were conquerors longer than they've been slaves. They don't escape to leave slavery, they escape to leave the drudgery of slavery. Simply put, it's not exciting enough for them."

"You must be joking, Investigator. I am unfamiliar with this form of humor though--is it irony?"

"I'm not joking. These Terrans are playing a game with you, Dukat, one you don't know you're playing. In order to win, you'd better start learning the rules of their game."

Dukat frowned at this, then shook his head. "And how does this help now?"

Odo almost smiled. "I know they left through this conduit. I will follow it. You will alert your men to post guards at all the airway ducts." Without bothering to see if the Cardassian would obey him, he bent his head as if to look into the narrow metal stricture which was all that was left of the opening.

Dukat watched with fascination as the shapeshifter went liquid and slid through the tiny opening. His expression changed from curiosity into a scowl, then he went and did as the Investigator had bidden him.

*****

[The cheap thrills always seem to fade away...]
Toad, the Wet Sprocket "When Will We Fall Down?"

"Anytime now."

Julian did not stop running. Although he and Sisko were well-past the tunnel Beverly Crusher called the bowel of Darkness, they had continued running, trotting really, since both were exhausted. It was just past seven minutes and Sisko's quiet pronouncement made the boy's stomach clench, but nothing happened.

Eight minutes passed and still nothing happened.

Sisko finally stopped, turned to look back the way they had come. He frowned. What could have gone wrong?

If for some reason, the Alliance figured out that they hadn't transported out or if they figured out where the transport had gone to, then they were finished. If the shapeshifter had spotted them, Sisko felt that surely he would have cornered the two of them already, after all he had managed to kill over fifty of his friends. Or perhaps something had deactivated their crude bomb, although it hardly seemed possible. The Alliance troops had barely enough time to even find that particular cavern in the maze beneath the mountainous region above and only he and the rebels knew that maze.

Both the Hedrikspool and Dahkur provinces of Bajor were riddled with mountains and caves, but the Bajorans had never bothered exploring them, they were far more interested in their sexual and spiritual pursuits, something Sisko was grateful for all the time. Many times he had used this weakness of theirs and turned it to his advantage.

Julian noticed his leader had stopped and stopped as well. The boy turned to him and frowned. He noted the time, then swallowed, worried.

"Could they have found the bomb?" he asked.

As Sisko turned to answer, the world convulsed around and beneath them and a thick belch of dusty air suddenly blasted past them both from the tunnel behind them, covering them with gray, flinty particles of grit.

************************************************************************

[Take your time.
Hurry up.
The choice is yours.
Don't be late.]
Nirvana "Come As You Are"

The Co-Intendant waited while Gul Dukat gave his account of the fiasco at Gallitep to the Alliance. She and Dukat were in her office and the council had authorized a rare subspace conference on the matter. Perhaps it was not so rare, she thought, since nearly one hundred and fifty mixed Cardassian and Bajoran troops had been killed, and over a hundred officers had been injured. It was amazing Dukat had survived. And unfortunate, Kira mused.

He had stormed onto the station, coughing and filthy from the rubble he had clawed his way out of. Almost eight hundred Terran slaves had also perished, but the Co-Intendant was unconcerned with that; she was concerned that no one had seen or heard from Odo since he had disappeared into the mine shaft. However she could not tell this to the council.

They were upset at the fact that security had been so lax in the mine, and with something else. "We understand you have procured an investigator for the station, Co-Intendant?"

"Yes, and she foisted him on me down at the mine," Garak spat angrily. "I find it highly suspicious that he disappeared down the shaft to an area which our investigation indicates the explosion took place."

Kira's eyes narrowed. She did not bother to hide her anger or her knowledge. "I find it suspicious that you know so much about the explosion when you claim you barely escaped and came right to Terok Nor to report."

"Co-Intendant, it has not escaped the council's attention that you have been giving this shapeshifter a great deal of freedom and authority around the station. He found a spy for you, as well as a large number of fugitive slaves."

"He must have joined forces with them, Councilor, that is what I think," Dukat quickly added.

"Give the Co-Intendant time to explain herself," the mechanized voice responded, making even the smirking Cardassian quickly bow nervously, even though the council member wasn't present.

"I see you're still receiving transmissions from Supervisor Garak," she began with a scowl, to Dukat's surprise. She smiled at him, glad to learn he was scared of the council.

"Mister Garak won't be Supervisor much longer."

"Really? Well, I'm glad to learn some of my requests are being paid attention to."

"Elim Garak's promotion was approved this morning, Co-Intendant."

"What?!"

"He is your new assistant Cardassian Liaison officer, third in command of Terok Nor."

"You must be joking," Kira muttered, filled with disgust at the thought.

"We don't joke. However, we are waiting for your response to Gul Dukat's claim that the shapeshifter is a counterspy for the Terran fugitives."

Before she could answer, Dukat suddenly jumped and shouted, alarmed. The Co- Intendant moved without thinking to the exit, but he merely threw down his holstered gun. As they watched, the gun went liquid, then slid to Dukat. The Cardassian scuttled back.

"What is happening, Co-Intendant?" Kira smiled, watched as the shapeshifter became a large snake, wound his way around Dukat's legs. "My new investigator appears to have made it to the meeting, Councilor."

"Get him off me!"

The Co-Intendant gestured to the two Klingons by the door to train their weapons on Dukat. He frowned.

"Take off your pants, Dukat," she ordered.

"What?"

"You heard me."

The Cardassian scowled, then unbuckled his large belt and let his pants slide down, the snake went with them and he kicked them both aside, then started to say, "I heard of your sexual appetites, Co-Intendant, but--"

"Don't flatter yourself, Dukat," Kira interrupted him, then addressed the snake with a smile. "You can reform, Investigator."

The snake slid within the pants, then surged up and into the shape of the Investigator. Soon he stood in her office, bare to the waist and glaring at Dukat. The Cardassian scowled back, furious now.

"You blame me when you were the one who has been providing the Terrans those supplies, Dukat."

"You're insane!"

"I didn't follow the conduit, I followed you," Odo told him. "You ordered the guards I asked you to, then you went to your office and accessed the computer."

He turned to Kira and said, "When I asked about the missing supplies, Dukat was a little too quick to insist it might have been a miscount. I saw him change the inventory records. Why?"

"He's lying, Co-Intendant! I swear!"

"I have no reason to, Dukat. You revised the records so it would seem as if only a few items went missing, but it was a larger number than you let on. After you changed them, you contacted the Alliance council and requested this very meeting. That was 13:42."

"We confirm this," the console suddenly spoke up, making Dukat cringe and Kira jump; she had nearly forgotten the council's silent presence.

"Why? You knew what was going to happen. The bomb detonated at 13:45. Then you went to the hangar, the safest place it turns out, from the blast. Someone wants you alive. Who is your contact with the Terrans, Dukat?"

The Cardassian's eyes widened. He shook his head. Kira scowled at him. "Councilors, I submit a request to interrogate the gul."

"Granted."

This pronouncement made Dukat lunge up, but the Klingon's grabbed him and dragged him, pantless, out of her office. Kira smiled. "I will contact you again, Councilors, once I have obtained further information as to this situation."

"We concur, Co-Intendant, and look forward to your report."

"One more thing, gentlepersons," she smiled at Odo, eyes warm and very sensual. "I request the vacant position of Supervisor in Ore Processing be given to my investigator."

*****

[Don't tell me you don't know the difference between a lover and a fighter...]
Elvis Costello "Everyday I Write the Book"

"They seem to work best when kept hungry and are concerned for their own worthless hides," Garak explained to the new, strangely silent Supervisor as he led him through the slave community, several weeks later.

This shapeshifter, this...odo'ital was nothing like he expected. For one thing, his features were disorienting, too smooth, like a pebble plucked from a brook. There were no wrinkles or laugh lines. This made him look like some sort of mannequin, which bothered Garak, but not for the same reason it bothered others.

The Terrans pulled away from him, he noted now as they both walked by. That would undoubtedly make it easier for him to do the job. *Maybe that's why this odo'ital was chosen for this spot, for her bed.*

He looked again at the shapeshifter, but he found his eyes could not stay on that oddly smooth face. Garak had worked hard to get out of his uncle's shop and into military service. Even though he had 'the eye' for fabric and the talent to create wonderfully unique clothing, he had no desire to be a simple tailor. As a boy he had spent many hours playing amidst mannequins, though. This living mannequin before him reminded him way too much of that time.

There was also the fact that all the men the Co-Intendant had chosen for her pleasures in the past were nothing like this man, either physically or in his ability to adapt to his new surroundings. Did the fact that he could change his shape so easily make him more able to also change his mind set, Garak wondered. It was probably why the Co-Intendant had yet to tire of his presence in her very unpredictable bed, too. At least that was what he had wagered at Quark's.

Odo'ital had seemed innocuous, yet his incredible speed in learning new skills and his equally incredible and unanticipated strength of will had given Garak and several others pause. All jokes aside, the simple fact that the Co-Intendant had continued their affair had gained him more than a little respect among both Klingons and Cardassians alike.

After Dukat's interrogation and the revelation that he had sent a young Terran boy as a spy into the resistance, she had allowed odo'ital to return to Bajor to oversee the continuing round up of Terran fugitives from their hiding places in the underground tunnels and mine shafts. He had found many more and although some had managed to escape, the grudging respect for the shapeshifter had turned to admiration and few called him anything other than Supervisor now. This was a development that Garak knew pleased the Co-Intendant and displeased him if for no other reason.

Garak had thought, as did everyone else, that the shapeshifter simply wanted to remain in his lover's good graces, but now, having worked with him for the last few days he started to wonder if that was his only reason. The man actually seemed to believe in the Alliance's goals, the deities help him!

Worse, he had taken his place on the station, meaning Garak had not been able to place one of his own men in the position. However, Garak had been officially commissioned as third-in-command of Terok Nor, and none of Kira's protests had worked, thanks to Enabram.

The fact that several of the surviving Bajorans and Cardassians had developed a terminal illness due to their exposure to the inhaled mineral powder after the explosion at Gallitep was all the extra they had needed to be able to justify ignoring her protests. Someone had to take the blame for the lax security and while Dukat had been the guilty party, it had been Kira that initially placed him.

In the meantime, the Bajoran physicians had named the deadly disease Kalla-Nohra and their projected disease symptoms were appalling. Dukat had the worst case of it so his incarceration would not be as long as the Co-Intendant had decreed; the disease would take him within a few months. So, thanks to the rebel uprising and Dukat's plotting, Garak knew nothing could take his own position from him, and that he could only grow in power while Kira fumed about it. He found a delightful irony in the situation.

A smile plied his lips now, but as soon as those unsettling blue eyes settled on him, he found himself sobering, wondering if perhaps the Co-Intendant and he weren't playing some game he was unaware of. A game in which this shapeshifter would prove to be a deadly opponent. He would have to find some way to rid himself of odo'ital, or else befriend him. Garak cleared his throat.

"Do you understand why we have this area set up, then?" This was a rhetorical question. He had asked only in order to be able to give one of his favorite lectures on the appropriate way to treat Terrans. To his surprise, the shapeshifter merely tilted his head.

"It makes little sense to allow them to return here to this area for sleeping, when they sleep huddled together on the floor anyway," he said. "Why don't you let them stay in Ore Processing? They could sleep in the hall to the main entry. It isn't used by the crew and would eliminate a great deal of currently wasted time."

Garak smiled thinly. This was a good idea and he said, "That is a truly excellent idea, Supervisor. I'll be sure to inform the Co-Intendant of it." And take the credit he thought.

"Don't bother," the Supervisor sighed, moving on past the huddled Terrans who crept out of his way. "I mentioned it to her last night. She already approved the idea. I'll move them once I actually assume the post."

Garak stopped now, infuriated beyond reason at the shapeshifter's offhand dismissal. It was too much like the Co-Intendant for his self-control.

"Don't think I don't know what you're doing, odo'ital!" he shouted unthinkingly.

"What do you think I'm doing, Garak?" the Supervisor asked, as if only mildly curious.

"You just want to stay in the Intendant's good graces and I don't blame you because that is a good place to be, but no one...no man, no woman, no creature that is able to rut stays in her good graces. Remember that," Garak spat angrily.

To his sudden panic, he found himself facing a huge, slavering Cardassian horae-beast. Gasping Terrans huddled behind his armored body for cover. The horae-beast flicked a claw at his chest, standing atop a pile of clothes Garak recognized as those of odo'ital. He scowled and the horae-beast slid down into the clothing and then slowly changed back up and into the lean figure of the Supervisor. He watched him with an expression that was almost smug.

To his disgust, Garak realized that the man had known precisely what he was saying and doing all along. He had been playing him like a puppet. The new Supervisor had swerved the conversation to make him say something that would allow him to demonstrate his shape-changing skill before these slaves that he would be in charge of and he had done it effortlessly. What was worse is that Garak could not say for sure if the shapeshifter had done it all himself or been coached by the Co-Intendant.

"I hope," the Cardassian managed to say breathlessly, partly out of rage, partly out of admiration, "That skill of yours doesn't get you into more trouble than you know how to deal with."

*****

[I thought nothing could go wrong, but I was wrong. I was wrong.
If you...if you could get by
trying not to lie,
then things wouldn't be so confused
and I wouldn't feel so used
But you always ruin the view...]
The Cranberries "Linger"

When the Co-Intendant finished laughing softly at his description of the look on Garak's face in the slave quarters, she buried her face in Odo's shoulder. He let her.

"I'm so proud of you, Odo," she murmured. "You learn so fast and do exactly what needs to be done. And you've helped me so much! You seem to know my needs and wants before I do."

He suddenly nodded. "This reminds me, I think one of the Terrans from the underground might be of use on the station. He is highly intelligent. His name is O'Brien. He was keeping their equipment operational, fixing things. He's no a rebel, just a lost slave. The rebel leader 'rescued' him from a slave freighter and kept him underground because of his skills."

"You can bring him if you like, I have no objection. Just make sure he gets trained." Odo nodded, and she added, "Do you know, when you came to my office the first time--I knew you could be everything I wanted, needed in a supervisor, but you couldn't even meet my eyes. Oh, but look at you now, my love."

He frowned. This was not an area he wanted to think about. His voice was even. "I recall you were quite confident I would adjust to your...needs."

"I knew you could do the job, Odo, but I wanted you to feel, just as strongly as I did, that you not only could do the job, but that you deserved it, before I let you take your place."

He met her gaze then. This issue had been troubling him since she had first admitted that the position of Supervisor was his whether they continued their affair or not. His mouth opened, but the words that slipped out were not what either of them expected.

"So all we've done together in here has been to 'train' me?"

For the first time since they had met face-to-face, Kira heard the spark of anger, of resentment in his voice...and it was aimed at her. She shook her head. Her voice was filled with dismay.

"No. No, I didn't. I thought you wanted this as much as me, I swear it!"

To her chagrin, he pulled free of her, twisting from the covers and sitting on the edge of her bed. His tone was disgusted.

"You will excuse me, Co-Intendant, if I don't believe you."

"Odo!"

He turned and she reached out, then pulled her hand back, not quite touching him. His blue eyes were dark with anger and betrayal and she swallowed.

"Make any request of me. Ask anything at all," she insisted, adding, "I'll give you anything to prove what I feel. I swear on the Prophets, Odo."

"What are your Prophets to me?" he demanded, "I'm not Bajoran. I'm not Klingon or Cardassian. So what place is there for me in this station, in your world, except whatever I can manage to make for myself? Even if I stay, you know as well as I, that your officers consider me amusing, a joke. That is all I've ever known. That and the laboratory where the last time I 'made love', as you like to call what we do, Mora watched, with his monitors and bright lights..."

His voice tightened so much, it disappeared and finally he managed to whisper savagely, "If there are Prophets, Co-Intendant, then I don't want to know them, since they obviously don't give a damn about me."

Kira swallowed down her tears. Her eyes closed and she finally managed to whisper, "I'm so sorry...I never meant to...to remind you." It was all she could say, but her thoughts betrayed her.

I love you...and I need you. I wish you knew how much... After a long pause, she opened her eyes to find him looking at her, expressionless. At this, she did begin to cry, but she tried to talk anyway.

"I know you won't believe me, but--"

"I do believe you, Kira," he said.

She held her breath, looked at him and he finally shrugged, uncomfortable, but no longer outraged. He had sensed her sincerity despite the deceitful behavior on her part. More, he couldn't say that what they had shared, been sharing, was unpleasant.

It was soothing and fluid, completely unlike the 'demonstrations' Mora had put him through and while it didn't give him pleasure, it had also not hurt either him or the Intendant. He didn't even know if he was capable of feeling that type of pleasure; the only time he felt joy or pleasure was when he was a liquid. He had never said that to anyone...and before meeting Kira he had not known that he could be in a relationship where intimacy wasn't expected on demand, but was actually wanted by both. He didn't say this however.

"I've always been despised or feared. I think I just realized that . . . so have you.... Nerys."

Her indrawn breath was loud in the room. For a moment he feared he had offended her beyond any hope of remaining in her good graces. Then she smiled and it was surprisingly anger-free. She was amused now, through her tears.

"I thought of that when we first met, my love." Then she brought him to her and kissed him deeply.

He allowed it, slipped his arms around her, lay against and beside her, feeling her against him. Despite the fact that his hold on his humanoid shape was beginning to slip, he felt the abrupt desire to lose himself within her once more. It was his only means of expressing the words he couldn't say.

Just one more time... he goaded himself, but his body betrayed him. It was not thirteen hours or even fifteen. The argument had made him lose track. He was out of time.

""Kira..." he managed to breathe out, feeling his legs become pliable, then slowly start to spread over hers. His eyes were ashamed as he apologized, "I can't...hold this shape...I--"

He finally just tried to pull free of her and slip away, but she drew him back, clutched him to her, ignored his cry of alarm.

"It's all right. I want to know you," she smiled, then stretched her legs beneath his liquefying form. Her voice was gentle. Her whisper was the last thing he heard before involuntarily spreading over her with his gelatinous body.

"Cover me, my love."

She thought now of how sweet and piercing lovemaking with him was. She had realized when he spoke so angrily that until she had made love to him, he had never felt a lack of prejudice, never felt nurtured. She refused to allow him to go on feeling that way. She wanted him to feel accepted, that he would always have a place by her side. She wanted him to feel as powerful as he really was.

As powerful as she had made him.

************************************************************************

[Will you stand above me? Look my way, but never love me?
Rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling down...down
Will you recognize me? Call my name or walk on by?
As rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling...down...down...]
Simple Minds "Don't You Forget About Me"

Ten years later...

The guards snapped to attention as Kira Nerys strode off the turbolift and into the ore- processing plant. Almost immediately, a fine sheen of perspiration filmed her. It was nearly 120 F in the room. The Terran slaves were slimy with grime and oily sweat. Only one figure in the room was neither perspiring nor befouled with the filth that pervaded the room and the rest of its inhabitants. The Co-Intendant stepped over to him, to the Supervisor, the shapeshifter.

He still did not know his origins or what race he hailed from. He had told her during the two year-long romance which had followed his induction to this position, that he did not care to learn about them. Odo felt that whoever his people were, they had abandoned him to his fate, so he would make his own way in the galaxy and Kira could not blame him for his bitter attitude.

Oh, but look how far he'd come, she thought now as she walked toward him, filled with a tender sense of pride in this once-lover of hers. Unfortunately, their affair had been broken by the damnable Terrans. She had hardly seen him or Terok Nor for the last several years, having been called upon to help fight the insurgency war the Terrans had started. On the front lines, something always seemed to keep her too busy, too tired to even send him a message.

Besides messages weren't her style. She had decided to wait until her return and she spent many nights planning their eventual reunion. To her joy, when the Alliance forces had finally beaten the rebel Terrans, she had been given the title of full Intendant and was permanently posted to Terok Nor as reward for service to the Alliance.

Unfortunately, Garak had also served aboard an Alliance military vessel and returned ringed with glory just like her. To her disgust, the Council had made Garak her second-in- command and Nerys had known that the Prophets liked practical jokes. Stuck with the situation, she watched every move Elim Garak made, certain he would try to kill her and he had.

In what should have been their reunion, she had needed to ask Odo to monitor Garak. He had readily agreed, readily found what she needed, but even direct evidence of Garak's treachery hadn't moved the Alliance Council when Kira had shown them the proof Odo had obtained for her. The exact wording of their response had been: "This new development should serve you as an excellent exercise in surveillance and discretion, Intendant Kira."

If only she had time, she sighed. She wished only to be with Odo, but duty and Garak's machinations continually kept them apart. As she stepped up to him, she suddenly realized that it had been several months since her return. *Where did the time go?*

He had called her here to speak with her about a particular type of slave that she had asked him to locate. If she was to keep up with the well-heeled Garak, then she needed the funds to do so and she had developed a plan to obtain them. She was going to organize a band to collect tribute for her. She smiled now at the simple genius of her idea.

Odo watched her approach, saw her smile. Through Kira's rise in the Alliance, he had made his own place in ore-processing as permanent as the constellations in the sky. No one could replace him, no one could even conceive of someone else in his position.

He had kept the plant on schedule, kept up with the ever-shifting demands for processed ore, during the entire war. He had earned himself a rare, permanent posting to his position and he never asked for more or seemed to want it, although Kira and he both knew a higher position could be his if he asked.

She finally stepped up to face him now. She sighed at the sight of her old lover and pitched her voice low, so as not to carry to anyone but him.

"How are you, Odo?"

After ten years on Terok Nor, with the station Klingons, Cardassians, and Ferengi calling him nothing but "Supervisor," this recollection of the name he had given the then-Co- Intendant to list on his documents was jarring.

"I'm fine, Intendant," he assured her, his voice formal. He disliked informality in his work- area; everyone called him Supervisor. The Terrans called him "sir" and insincerity was punishable.

"I understand those Rules of Obedience you set up are working splendidly, Supervisor?" she asked now, in a more formal tone. He nodded, but said nothing and she allowed some genuine admiration to color her voice as she asked, "Where did you get the idea for them?"

To her surprise, a slight smile tilted the edges of his mouth. "I borrowed them from Professor Mora, in fact," he admitted, hands loosely clasped behind his back as he spoke with her. His gaze no longer even so much as glanced down at his boots...highly polished boots.

He did not look at them, because he knew they were perfect. He had made them, after all, made them from his own liquid body. He had not worn clothes in over eight years, however Kira had no way of knowing this. She only knew what she saw; a man who stood straight and tall. His poise and stance made Kira's heart swell with pride and desire.

**This is the man I wanted to see ten years ago. Well, here he is, Nerys. What did you want to say to that man that you can say to this one? Oh, Odo...of all the lovers I have ever had, you're the only one I keep recalling, the one whose face I see above me. Why didn't we return to our relationship after the war?**

She knew the answer; it was his own withdrawn aloofness that had kept her away. She thought it was because he had another, but had come to learn that the Supervisor did not engage anyone for sexual favors, not even the slaves he had assigned to him.

Suddenly he inquired, "I understand you were looking for a slave or two for 'specialized' work, Intendant?"

"Yes. To collect tribute. I need a strong back to keep other slaves in line, a clever mind to help weasel out of fixes without my having to step in," Kira said, looking about the pit, doubtful of finding anyone among these poor wretches that would fit her description.

"I think I know who could help you," the Supervisor said quietly. Kira looked up at him in surprise and he continued, "His name is Sisko." He sighed, then admitted, "He was among the last group of Terrans I hauled out of Hedrikspool Mine nearly ten years ago. He eluded me for over a year, but I sent him to Kran Tobal myself. He will be released soon."

"If he evaded you for that long, he must be terribly clever," Kira noted.

"Indeed. And he is insolent, arrogant and dangerous. He killed five Klingon guards during his internment."

"And he wasn't sentenced to die for that?" Kira demanded.

The Supervisor scowled. "Apparently, he traded favors with the guards. He had information that made him more valuable alive than dead. In any case, he can fly small interstellar craft, as well as fight, and he's quick, just like you requested."

Kira nodded. She smiled. "You know me so well. You know my needs and wants sometimes before I do. I'm sure he'll do well."

She meant this as a compliment, but to Odo this statement was too similar to those she used to make when he'd first arrived on the station over ten years ago...back when she had shown an interest in him. Doubtless, Kira Nerys would find sport in acquiring this incorrigible Terran slave as her lover. Just another in a string of them, a string he was part of.

He drew himself to his full humanoid height and locked his eyes over her head. His voice was cold and distant.

"Will that be all, Intendant?"

Kira's eyes filled with tears as she saw this change in the man she loved, a man she suddenly realized she'd lost. "Odo?"

Ignoring his formal stance, she stepped even closer and whispered, "Are you happy here, Odo?"

His clear blue eyes met hers and she found herself swallowing at his look. He was neither impressed by this display of concern nor moved by her question regarding his well-being. He felt nothing but disdain and a touch of disgust at himself for the overemotional sentiments he could not help but recollect.

Where were you, Kira Nerys, when I hungered for your touch like a child? During those dark days of war when a simple message would have filled me with joy, what were you doing? Yes, you fought, but so did I. Your absence was hard, but your neglect was even harder, especially after you returned. When you proved to me you were more concerned with your position, than with what we had together.

What we had kept me from feeling lonely in your absence. What we had still fuels my imagination, but I was just an interesting experience to you, wasn't I? Well, I am no longer that simple creature you knew. No longer the intriguing lover you cast aside for other, more interesting sport. I am my own advocate now and I answer to no one. Not even you. If we have anything further between us, it will be of my choosing...mine.

"My status rarely changes, Intendant," he informed her. "I'm satisfied with my job. It suits me. No one else could do it with my facility. I have a position, my own quarters, even a Terran slave that attends to my few needs."

Kira nodded at this, unsatisfied, but accepting what he said, then he pointed out, "In fact, Intendant, I have all the things you promised me so long ago...under the terms of our agreement."

Kira was stricken. "Odo..."

"Please address me as Supervisor within my section, Intendant. I would rather the slaves not hear my given name," he requested coldly, although the nearest slave was over fifty feet from them and could not have heard her gasp of sound.

Intendant Kira Nerys nodded. She stood, her back ramrod straight. Her voice dropped to a whisper of sound as she swallowed her feelings down and said, "I understand, Supervisor. And I thank you for your recommendation."

She met his eyes then and the shapeshifter nodded at her. Then she turned and strode from the heated room, where everyone but the Supervisor perspired...and herself, chilled to the bone as she was by the steely coldness of her ex-lover.

- the end -

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