ALTERNATE CROSSOVER
Apparently,
Kira had been just too irresistible in her slinky slip of a lavender dress.
Now, she struggled not to let her shakiness show. This diabolical, supremely
evil version of Garak would undoubtedly exploit her fear in some way, if he but
saw it. She risked a glance at him where he sat next to her in the “borrowed”
shuttlecraft. Borrowed, in the sense that he had made off
with
In true Cardassian form, Garak missed nothing; he caught her look, and returned a dangerously pleased grin of his own.
Unnerved and desperate to hide it, Kira forced a gruff demand, “Where are you taking me?!”
“I doubt if you know of the place, so nothing would be accomplished by my telling you.”
“Then, what are you up to; what’s the point of this?!”
“I suggest that you change your tone. I can be less than pleasant when my prisoners become demanding.” His own tone was still casual, but there was a slight edge to it that Kira wisely decided that she’d rather not continue to hear.
More evenly, she asked, “Then, would you please tell me why you’ve taken me?”
“That’s better. I’ve lost faith in the likelihood of your helping me to eliminate and replace the Intendant, since I happen to know that you’ve already indiscreetly spoken of my plan. So I’m finding another use for you.”
Kira’s heart began to race and her palms became clammy. Who had told on her? Sisko? How much did Garak know of what she’d said to the self-centered human, how angry was he, and what was he going to do to her?? Trying to feign a calm that she didn’t feel, Kira asked quietly, “What sort of use do you mean?”
Garak regarded her as if he couldn’t believe that she’d asked such a naďve question. “Let’s just say that we’ll have to have that dance that I told you to save for me under less public circumstances.”
Forcing a soft volume that no longer felt natural, she said tensely, “If you think that I’m going to let you…!”
Garak leaned close to her, and with the most diabolical eyes that she’d ever seen, he said, “My dear, I can make you feel very good…, or I can make you feel very bad. Now which would you like???” Supremely confidently, virtually making a playful game of it, he ghoulishly awaited her response. When she made none, evidently not trusting herself to speak, he remarked conversationally, “Thanks to my listening devices in the Intendant’s quarters, I heard you tell her that you were ‘a little afraid of’ her. Do you expect me to believe that you fear her and not me??? Do you have even the slightest idea of what I’m capable of, when provoked?? Need I remind you of the tragic fate of the poor late lamented Quark??”
Tightly, but still with forced politeness, Kira replied, “Well, you just go ahead and kill me, then, because that’s the only satisfaction you’ll get.”
“Apparently, your memory still needs refreshing. I did far more than simply kill Quark.”
Gripping the arms of her seat, Kira managed a stronger retort than she truly felt. “Well, I’ll hardly be the first Bajoran tortured to death by a Cardassian. In my universe, that sort of thing is routine. I’ve always known that I would probably end up that way.”
“Such brave words!” He was grinning. “We’ll see if you’re still so bold when the hypothetical becomes reality.” When he saw that no reply was forthcoming, he leered at her. “Besides, as I indicated, even if I eventually do torture you to death, I still have even more interesting plans for you first. And before you tell me again of your little fantasy that you will refuse my advances, I’ll point out that I never intended to give you a choice.”
“You won’t be the first Cardassian to try to rape me. And you won’t be the one that succeeds. My avoidance record will remain perfect.”
“My my my, you’ve never been with a Cardassian??? How delightful! I didn’t know that I would actually have the privilege of a virgin! And how amazingly different from the Intendant that makes you! Her sexual demands on me, and on many others of many species, frankly become tiresome!”
Infuriated at how vulnerable he had made her feel, she allowed herself to reveal personal information that she would otherwise have deemed none of his business. “Never having been with a Cardassian hardly makes me a virgin, and I’m not!”
His grin became more wicked than ever. “My dear, you really haven’t heard much about Cardassian men sexually, anatomically, have you??? If you’ve never been taken by one of us, then for all intents and purposes, you are still a virgin, as far as how you will feel to us, and how much it will hurt you!”
Heart thundering, Kira kept her eyes straight ahead and refused to look at him. In fact, she had heard such things from other Bajoran women, victims who had not escaped as she had. She’d always somehow hoped that they were wrong, that they’d exaggerated, that their attackers’ violence as well as the victims’ fright had given false impressions regarding size and prowess.
By now, Garak was grinning positively lethally. “Ah, so you have heard such details after all, doubtless from other Bajoran women.”
“You’ll still have to overcome me first. And, like most of your men, you’ll probably underestimate how well I can fight.” Inwardly, Kira cursed herself for the tremor that she could hear in her voice.
Garak chuckled. “I’m not worried.”
“And that will be your undoing.”
It wasn’t until he’d landed the craft on an unknown, obviously uninhabited planet that he bothered to reply. Garak said quietly, “Will you be as confident, I wonder, when you see that I will not be your only rapist?”
Kira stared in horror. Just outside of the now opening shuttle doors stood two other very familiar Cardassian men. Her mind reeled as she realized that she had no chance. She sat riveted to the chair. Garak prodded her, humor still dominating his features. But she refused to rise, refused to exit the craft and walk toward them. It turned out not to matter; the two nightmarish newcomers were entering; she’d not been expected to go to them after all; Garak had merely wanted her up out of the seat. Kira clung to it, even while fully aware that she’d soon be dragged from it, and that she had no hope of prevailing against such overwhelming numbers. Three Cardassian men??? Even this maniacally desperate freedom fighter wouldn’t be able to defeat those numbers. She felt sick. She was sure that if she tried to stand now, she’d disgrace herself further by collapsing in a faint. Even still sitting, her vision clouded ominously, and her hearing was dominated by a foreboding, telltale buzz. And the lurid expressions of the new two left no hope for deliverance or mercy.
Kira could scarcely manage to produce more than a whisper. “Dukat?! How can you be evil?! Your alternate in my universe is the ultimate evil incarnate! People here are the opposite of people there! Even the two Quarks are opposites!”
Dukat smirked. “Does that mean that your universe’s Garak is an angel???”
She was brought up short. “Well, …no, not exactly. But compared to this one, yes, maybe he is.”
“Compared to this one: good enough.” He was still grinning.
“Besides.” Garak took up the cause. “I overheard your Terran ‘friend’ Bashir tell our tinkerer O’Brien that he was a good man in both universes, so I would suppose that Dukat could be an evil one in both, perhaps to balance out the two O’Briens.”
Hopelessly, helplessly, Kira turned to the other all-too-familiar Cardassian. “Damar? Is it possible that you’re the good opposite of our evil Damar??” She carefully did not mention the grudge that her universe’s Damar bore her.
His savage grin provided all of the answer that she needed.
By the time that her living-nightmare ordeal was over, Kira had learned to appreciate her universe’s version of all three of the men, and to see that they were not so evil as she’d always thought, after all.
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