BUTTON, BUTTON, WHO HAD THE BUTTON?
In an alternate universe not so terribly different from our own, Bajor never signed the mutual nonaggression pact with the Dominion, and the changeling that had replaced Martok was not exposed by the officers of DS9, thus allowing the doppelganger to play the megalomaniac Gowron right into the Dominion’s hands. So when the combined might of the Dominion and its Cardassian allies came roaring aggressively out of Cardassian territory, the Vorta and Jem’Hadar were sent to occupy the Klingon Empire, leaving Bajor and DS9 solely to the tender mercies of the Cardassians, who chose not to bother to warn Starfleet away from DS9, nor give it time to evacuate. Thus it was that the entire senior staff, plus Quark and Rom, found themselves in their own holding cells.
Dukat, once again Prefect of Bajor, swaggered in to gloat, followed loyally by Damar and a newly pardoned Garak.
Barely controlling his rage, Sisko demanded, “Where’s Odo?! What have you done with him?!”
Dukat chuckled. “Unfortunately, Constable Odo had to be confined in a medical stasis chamber. One of these cells would never hold him.”
Worf demanded, “Why don’t you just let him be your chief of security again? I understand that you’re the one who appointed him to that position in the first place.”
“We considered it. But we decided not to take the chance that he might just be tempted to free you.”
Damar commented, “You’ve corrupted him with your Federation values.” He was disdainful.
O’Brien challenged, “What’s the matter: afraid all your soldiers couldn’t handle us if we got loose?”
The three overseers laughed, unruffled.
“Not at all,” Dukat assured him confidently. “However, I am afraid that you might provoke them to kill you, and I want you alive, for now.”
“Your concern is touching,” sneered Bashir.
“How long do you plan to keep us locked up in here, Dukat?” Kira’s voice dripped with contempt.
“Ah, Colonel, charming as always. Actually, some of you will spend more time in there than others. You, for instance, Kira, will accompany me one day soon, after we get things a bit more settled in around here.”
Her eyes darkened with suspicion. “Why?”
He smiled malevolently. “We’re going to get to know each other better. A lot better.”
“I don’t think so!”
“That decision is no longer yours to make. I’ve been a patient man. But my patience is at an end. I will have you willingly…or unwillingly. That much is up to you.”
She gritted her teeth. “You’d better be ready for a fight!”
“I love a challenge!” he responded zestfully.
Garak spoke up cheerfully. “And, Doctor, you’ll get some time out of the cell as well. I’ll fetch you one day soon.”
“Why?” Bashir stared blankly, resentfully.
“So that we can have lunch, of course. A change of administration doesn’t lessen my enthusiasm for our delightful chats.”
“You don’t honestly expect me to still socialize with you, after you sold us out like this!”
Garak smiled, unconcerned. “I’m sure that after some time cooped up in that cell, you’ll be glad for a change of scenery.”
As soon as the three had left, Sisko turned to Bashir. “Doctor, I sympathize, but I want you to go with Garak when he asks. In here, we’ll have no idea what’s going on, and Garak will be a source of information, however unreliable.”
“Yes, sir.”
Everyone began to notice Kira. Now that the Cardassians had gone, she’d dropped her belligerent pose, and sat down with her face turned to the wall. All of the men looked at each other uneasily, and some shifted their feet restlessly. Jadzia went and sat beside Kira, and put her arms around her. They were quiet for long moments.
When Kira finally trusted herself to speak, she murmured, “It’s ironic. All through the Occupation, I managed to avoid being raped. And now….”
Dax held her tighter.
O’Brien muttered awkwardly, “It was especially nasty of that monster to tell you in advance, too, so that you’d have to sit here and worry about it.”
Dax added pointedly, “Not to mention telling her in front of all of you men, so that she’d be even more uncomfortable.”
Sisko said, “I understand, but Colonel, please don’t feel embarrassed that we know; we’re all friends here, and we have nothing but sympathy.”
Bashir supported him. “We’re all as sorry as we can be.”
Kira forced a faint smile. “Thanks.” But she still couldn’t look them in the eye.
Dukat gave her two days to dread it. He and his guards had to stun the Starfleeters to get to her.
Hours later, Damar roughly dragged her in, threw her into the cell, and left.
Dax ran to her where she’d landed on the floor, saw the prodigious amount of blood, and cried, “Julian!!”
He was instantly there with his tricorder and medkit, which they’d let him keep. “My god!! He’s torn you apart!!!”
“Not just he, they,” Kira mumbled. “I was yelling insults at Dukat, and Garak and Damar were in the next room and heard, and they ran in and made a gang-bang out of it.”
“No, no, relax; don’t try to sit up yet!”
“You’re right. I’m dizzy.”
“I don’t doubt it; you’ve lost a lot of blood.”
Once the immediate crisis was past, Bashir gently took Kira’s shoulders, and asked, “Did you say that Garak was part of this??”
She nodded.
“That’s it!!” His eyes flamed.
Sisko cautioned, “Doctor, remember what I said. We need whatever information we can get. I understand how you feel, but you’ll have to put your personal feelings aside.”
His “Aye, sir” was filled with reluctance.
Bashir’s summons was the very next day. His eyes smoldered as Garak led him out of the cell.
His friend was not oblivious. “Doctor or not, you are in Starfleet, so I suppose that I should give you this warning.” He stopped walking, and took Bashir’s arm to halt him as well, forcing his friend to look him in the eye. “Julian, don’t make me hurt you. You know enough about my past to know that I can. You wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“Like Colonel Kira didn’t stand a chance?” the human demanded tightly.
Garak did look somewhat rueful. “Look, I am sorry about that. But when I heard her shout, ‘Spoonheaded, cobra-necked, Cardie bastard,’ I lost control, and so did Damar.”
Bashir blinked. Kira had done her feisty worst, at that.
Garak went on, “We didn’t plan to be part of it. Dukat didn’t plan to hurt her, either. He told us later that he’d been trying to be gentle despite her struggles. But when she yelled that, he just rammed her. As did we, as soon as he moved aside.”
Bashir was determined to show no sympathy for the Cardassians’ point of view. “Dukat had no right to take her in the first place. And she was badly hurt.”
“I trust that you were able to repair the damage?”
“The physical damage, yes. But the emotional damage….”
“The emotional damage, she brought on herself. Now, I can see that this disturbs you greatly, so I will remind you to behave yourself.”
“I’m a doctor, not a fighter.”
“See that you remember that. Let’s speak no further of that unfortunate business, and enjoy each other’s company.”
They talked warily, stiltedly to each other, but the lunch went relatively smoothly, albeit in the privacy of one of the offices in ops, until a surreptitiously spying Damar saw Bashir try to stick a “bug” onto the underside of the table. Fast as a striking snake, he rushed in, dragged Bashir from his seat, and savagely twisted his left arm up behind his back, the listening device still clutched in that same hand. Bashir’s scream brought Dukat on the run.
“Well, Doctor, a surveillance device.” Dukat examined it. “Who gave it to you? O’Brien? Rom? Quark? Sisko? Dax?”
At each name that Dukat guessed, Damar yanked upward on the arm.
The human gritted his teeth to stifle his yells. “What’ll you do to him if I tell?”
“That’s not your concern.”
“Oh, but it is. As a doctor, I can’t sacrifice someone else to save myself.”
“Well, Doctor….” Damar gave another yank. “When I break your arm, who will doctor you? Last chance.”
Bashir saw in Dukat’s eyes that Damar had his consent to proceed. He turned pleading eyes to his “friend,” and said, “Garak, please!!”
Sternly, Garak replied, “Don’t mistake my fondness for you for leniency, my dear Julian. And after all, I did warn you.”
He turned desperately back to Dukat. “Just please promise me that you won’t kill him!”
“No promises,” said Dukat firmly.
“Then no deal.” Bashir winced in anticipation. He tried to steel himself, but Damar made him shriek anyway when he snapped the arm.
Garak was shaking his head at the human’s foolishness. “How long do you think that you can hold out against us? What will it accomplish? You certainly know that we can break you.”
“Literally, as well as figuratively,” Damar said, as he horrified Bashir by quickly exchanging one arm for the other. “So the question is: just how many bones do you want broken?”
Dukat said, “Will you surrender after one arm? After two arms? One leg, two legs? Because you will surrender; make no mistake about that.”
Garak said pointedly, “I’m sure that we don’t need to tell a doctor how many bones he has in his body.” He looked at his poor, brave, naïve little friend. The human’s face was white as the snows of Breen; he looked close to passing out from the pain and fear.
With an agonized expression, Bashir whispered, “Worf gave it to me.”
They threw Bashir back in the cell, and took the Klingon.
“Oh, Julian!” As a science specialist, Dax did her best to repair the damage.
“What happened?” Sisko demanded. “Why’d they do this??”
“They caught me trying to plant the bug, and wanted to know who gave it to me.”
O’Brien, Quark, and Rom all looked at each other, and incongruously, comically chorused, “Uh oh!”
Sisko scratched his head. “So why’d they take Worf???”
“I didn’t know what else to do. I had to name somebody, and I thought that he’d be best able to take it, whatever they’re going to do to him. Besides, it was technically the truth, since he picked it up and handed it to me, after Miles dropped it.”
Jadzia laid a gentle hand on the newly mended arm. “It’ll still be sore for a while.”
“That’s my line, ‘Doctor’.” He gave her a faint smile.
Presently, Worf was shoved back into the cell with a battered face and both arms broken. Quark was yanked out by an ear, screaming all the way.
O’Brien muttered quietly, “Bloody hell! Quark’ll break right away!” Rom was quaking with fright. Dax and Sisko exchanged a worried look.
“That’s why they took him!” Worf rumbled triumphantly. “Because I didn’t break! They called me a thickheaded Klingon swine, and said that I was a waste of their time! They said that they would exchange me for an easy victim!” He grinned savagely.
Bashir was repairing his injuries. “I’m sorry, Worf. I had to name somebody, and….”
“On the
O’Brien swallowed hard, and Rom whimpered, “Moogie!”
Meanwhile, Quark was backing away in terror from Dukat, Damar, and Garak, his hands out to feebly present the illusion of a protective barrier, and confessing loudly, frantically, before they could even touch him. “It was O’Brien’s idea! He said that he wished that we had a bug that Bashir could plant, but that he didn’t!” The Ferengi’s voice dropped to a whisper. “I…um…had one.” His volume rose again. “But all that I did was hand it over; I swear! It wasn’t calibrated! Rom calibrated it!”
“Why Rom, instead of O’Brien?” demanded Dukat.
“It was Ferengi technology! Rom was more familiar with it! O’Brien could’ve done it, but it would’ve taken longer! Please don’t hurt me!! What’re you going to do??!”
Shortly
after, they exchanged a slightly battered Quark for a terrified
Sisko tried to intervene. “Blame me! I’m in command here! I gave the order!”
The Cardassians didn’t agree that command automatically made him guilty, rather than the one who had actually done the deed, and they left with their second screaming Ferengi.
They returned Rom beaten as well, but informed a pale O’Brien that they weren’t going to punish him, because he hadn’t actually done anything; in their eyes, he was no guiltier than Sisko.
Bashir tended to the injuries of the two wailing Ferengi.
The next day, the three Cardassians in charge again arrived outside of the cell.
Sisko demanded bitterly, “Now who’ve you come to assault?!”
When they grinned lecherously and named Kira, she turned her face away in misery.
Jadzia Dax walked boldly up to the forcefield. “Take me instead.”
The three stared at her, astonished and intrigued.
Her offer brought Kira’s head up fast. “Jadzia, no!”
Dax turned to her. “I can take it. And you need a break; you’ve had enough for a while.”
“I can take it, too! I did!” Kira protested feebly, her pride perversely ruffled.
“Yes, you paid your dues,” Dax told her firmly.
“The Cardassians are the Bajorans’ problem, our curse! Others shouldn’t be dragged into this!”
“I’m not going to let you get hurt again like that, this soon.”
Dukat wore a huge grin. “Ladies, please, don’t fight over us.” He was in his element.
Dax turned to address him. “Have a heart, Dukat; she’s still recovering.”
Reluctantly, clearly wishing that he could protect both, Bashir agreed. “She’s right. This is too soon. You still have a lot of healing to do,” he told Kira.
Predictably, Worf stepped forward, and reminded Jadzia, “But you are my par’machi!”
Expecting the protest, she smoothly turned to him, and said, “And I still will be after this is over, but we are in a survival situation, and I will do the honorable thing; it is my duty.”
She’d chosen exactly the right words to stifle Worf’s protest.
When they ushered Dax into the room ahead of them, she walked several paces away from them, turned, raised both hands, and said, “Wait. Listen, please.”
Dukat leered at her. “You have our complete attention.” He was in full predator mode.
“I’ve always had, shall we say, broad-minded, unconventional taste in men: Klingon, Ferengi, Gallimite….”
“Gallimite???” Damar blurted. “The ones with the transparent skulls???”
She nodded. “Captain Boday.” At his revolted expression, she said, “For whatever it’s worth, Kira agrees with you. She once told me that my taste in men scares her.”
That brought mild smiles.
“Anyway, unlike Kira, I have no reason to hate your people, and I don’t.” She walked slightly closer. “In fact, I find Cardassian men exotically attractive, especially you three.”
With a stunned smile, Garak said, “Why, my dear, you’re just full of surprises.”
“So, you don’t need to get rough.” Jadzia Dax closed the rest of the distance, slipped her arms boldly around Dukat’s neck, and said, “I want this.” She kissed him. Passionately.
Quite a while later, she returned to the other prisoners, calm and completely unharmed. At their looks of amazement, she said, “They didn’t hurt me. I didn’t fight.” She even smiled.
Their eyes began to widen, in fact, as they noticed the unmistakable glow in her cheeks.
O’Brien looked revolted.
Jadzia’s eyes sparkled. “Sorry, Chief.”
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