DETAILS REVEALED

 

 

Those who prefer action to conversation will not find this story satisfying.

In one of the AUs with no Ziyal, and therefore in which Dukat shared basement seclusion with Damar, Garak, and Kira, many confessions were heard. Remember, under these circumstances, Jadzia would not have been killed.

 

 

The life of a terrorist was very similar to how Kira had often heard O’Brien describe starship duty: long periods of boredom interspersed with major danger and furious activity. During one such occasion of down-time, conversation was the only thing that took an interesting turn.

“Kira?” Damar addressed her. “Now that it no longer makes one bit of difference, and since none of us probably has long to live in any case, will you satisfy my curiosity about a few things?”

“If I can,” she responded agreeably.

“When we were…working with the Dominion, and we temporarily retook Terok Nor….” He broke off as his saw her rueful sneer at the sore-spot term. “Excuse me, I mean DS9,” he diplomatically corrected. He was pleased to see her appreciative nod at his concession, but simultaneously tried not to see Dukat’s mildly irked look of disbelief, or Garak’s entertained amusement at everyone else’s expression. Damar continued, “When I arrested you and Leeta and Jake Sisko and Rom: just how guilty were you? Or were you guilty at all?”

She favored him with a more tolerant smile than he’d ever seen on her, more tolerant than he’d ever expected to see, in fact. “Guilty,” she conceded. “As charged.”

He smiled affably, completely unoffended, and pleased to have been proven right.

Dukat, however, was somewhat surprised – he had had his doubts about Damar’s suspicions – and even a bit annoyed. “Do you mean that all of the time that you were ostensibly working with us and with Weyoun to keep the station running smoothly, you were operating behind the scenes to undermine that efficiency, contrary to your own government’s nonaggression pact with the Dominion?”

“That’s right.” Kira was undaunted, matter-of-fact about it. She couldn’t help but grin at Dukat’s baffled disgruntlement.

Long moments passed, and then Damar tactfully suggested, “Dukat, you have always wanted to make her into something that she’s not.”

He ruefully nodded. “Yes. I wanted to make her into her mother.”

Kira speared him with a cold stare for a moment, and then apparently decided that taking offense just wouldn’t be worth the bother, and simply said, “And I have way too much of my father’s stubbornness in me for that.”

Either to change the subject, or far more curious regarding a different detail, Garak inquired, “But Rom?? He was a terrorist in your underground resistance cell???”

Kira grinned even more broadly in agreement with his astonishment. “As a matter of fact, he declared himself a spy for the Federation upon the moment of its departure and your people’s arrival.”

Now Garak was struggling not to laugh aloud. “A spy?? Rom???”

“I can…see why you’d find that amusing. But actually, he was quite good.”

“Really!” He was obviously fascinated, even delighted with these intriguing new facts.

Kira eyed Damar and Dukat carefully, back and forth. “Damar, …we might live through this, and if you ever see Rom again, I….”

He understood at once. “I won’t harm him. I won’t even threaten him. I can’t promise that I won’t tease him, though.”

“Fair enough. But you, too, Dukat; I need your guarantee as well. This is likely to make you quite angry.”

Dukat was staring in utter amazement, but he readily concurred.

The Bajoran nodded acceptance. “Okay, then. Remember that…brawl…in Quark’s, between Cardassian soldiers and the Jem’Hadar?”

Their eyes popped. Damar said, “Are you saying that Rom somehow engineered that??”

Kira’s expression was emphatic. “Oh yeah!”

“How??” Damar demanded. “I lost that padd….” He broke off as he saw her shaking her head.

“You didn’t lose it.”

“Rom stole it???”

Her raised brows were her clear reply.

“And gave it to the Jem’Hadar???”

“Well, …not exactly gave…. He just managed to lose it outside of their quarters.”

Garak absolutely guffawed, both at the thought of such a bold Rom, and at the looks on the faces of both of his fellow Cardassians.

When the laughter subsided, Kira went on, “Also, you know that it was Rom who tried to sabotage your efforts to bring down the minefield; after all, you caught him at it. In fact, it was Rom who invented the self-replicating mines in the first place, even as he planned his own wedding to Leeta.”

Tediously Dukat said, “Yes, and how did Rom know what we planned, in order to attempt to sabotage our efforts?”

She hesitated. “Now I need your word not to retaliate against someone else.”

Nearly immediately, Damar gave his, and soon after, Dukat grudgingly added his own.

“From you, Damar.” She looked him in the eye. “Quark got you drunk.”

Garak’s previous laughter was as nothing compared to this, and Kira couldn’t help but join in, given the outraged expressions of her two involved listeners.

“Quark???” Dukat bellowed. “Was a member of your resistance cell??!!”

Trying to maintain a poker face, Kira added, “He was also the one that broke us out of jail.”

That brought boisterous laughter from all four, until only very gradually they calmed.

“This is ridiculous! Insufferable! The Ferengi!!” Dukat said with remarkable disdain. “The Ferengi defeated us!!!” It took him a few moments to simmer down from that outstandingly humiliating realization, and then he said, “And Jake Sisko was really in on it, after all.” He shook his head. “I had hoped that Damar was wrong about his involvement. That would have put me in a serious bind if circumstances had proceeded to execution. I gave Benjamin my word years ago that I would never harm his son. I’m a little surprised, Kira, that you would’ve allowed someone so young, and your commander’s son at that, to take such a grave risk.”

She nodded reluctantly. “Odo and I tried to talk him out of joining our group, but he insisted.”

“Odo!” Damar and Garak both burst at once.

Damar grinned triumphantly. “I knew that that shapeshifter was in on it, too!”

Dukat nodded. “That’s why I urged Weyoun to subtly aim the female Founder at him, to distract him and keep him out of it, and prevent a conflict between us and the Dominion.”

But Kira was looking at Garak for his very differently-toned outburst. “What??”

He appeared resigned. “Now I don’t feel as guilty for torturing him.”

“What!!” Kira was aghast.

“Do you mean that he never told you?”

She was affronted. “How dare you?!”

Garak briefly, sadly, explained how Tain had required it, finishing with, “If I had refused, a Romulan would have done so instead, and I would’ve been in trouble, too.”

“In other words, you decided that he was better off betrayed by a friend and ally, rather than a stranger??” Kira retorted bitterly. “Admit it, Garak, you only cared about yourself!”

Dukat and Damar watched this exchange in fascination.

Kira went on, “And I suppose that you would’ve treated me the same way?? Or O’Brien, or Sisko, or even your friend Bashir???”

Garak sighed.

“Besides, Odo was working with our resistance against the Dominion, as we are now, so you should feel more guilty, not less!”

Garak’s own temper rose. “But at that time, he was also working against my people, who were then allied with the Dominion. Just because I’ve been exiled, does not make me disloyal to Cardassia!”

“Oh for the…!” She turned her back and folded her arms.

“You tortured Odo!” Dukat marveled. “I’m sorry to have missed that! It had to be a unique event!”

“Yes!” Damar urged, “Tell us how it could even be done.”

“You-all are disgusting!” Kira stormed.

Pointedly ignoring her, Garak described the procedure, following which Dukat and Damar exclaimed in admiration. But at Kira’s continued huffs of exasperation, Garak finally turned and eyed her severely. “In case you didn’t notice, Odo and I formed a bond of sorts right after that. He understood my reasons.”

“Well I don’t, and I would never forgive such an atrocity!”

“If you keep on behaving as you are, I may just have to put that rash statement to the test!”

Kira silenced abruptly, and just stared pop-eyed. Dukat and Damar couldn’t help but chuckle mildly. Gradually, Garak began to relax and smile slightly as well.

Casually, the men conversed trivially for a while, waiting for Kira to calm and to join in with them.

When she did not do so for an extended period, Damar at last said, “Come on, Kira, lighten up and get over it.”

She observed him bitterly for a time, and then said very quietly, “I guess that this is what I get for throwing in my lot with such barbarians.”

The three regarded her carefully for a long moment.

Slowly becoming unnerved by their expressions, and starting to doubt the wisdom of her insulting words, the Bajoran accused, “Garak, after committing such a despicable act, how could you then work with him and me here, where he would still be, if not for the Founders’ disease sending him back to DS9??”

Calculatedly nastily, he replied, “In fact, the symptoms of the illness that he has now remarkably resemble the effects of his torture.”

Kira seethed at his obvious dig.

He seemed to relent slightly. “Look, Kira….” Garak leaned toward her, as if to better make her understand.

Instantly, she froze and assumed a defensive posture.

Garak stopped and blinked at her. “Are you afraid of me?”

Her eyes narrowed. “I’ve lost trust in you, for the moment.”

“That…doesn’t answer my question.” Suspicion of her apparent fear glinted clearly in his eyes.

Kira glowered at him resentfully.

Then he mildly smiled lopsidedly. “Or perhaps it does, actually.” He couldn’t quite banish a bit of smugness from his face and tone.

“I wouldn’t give you the satisfaction!” she fumed, and then, seeing that the other two men were also enjoying Garak’s implication, her venomous expression raked them as well.

“What did we do???” Dukat demanded exaggeratedly.

“You think that this is funny!”

“Well, you have to admit that it’s entertaining to hear of such a pair of amazing improbabilities coming true: Kira afraid and Odo tortured, both of which I would have thought utterly impossible!”

Damar couldn’t help but chuckle.

“After all, Kira, I’ve known Odo longer than you have,” Dukat insisted.

“I know you have,” she admitted grudgingly, automatically.

Dukat was about to go on, but then he stopped short. “Wait a minute. Exactly how do you know that?”

Irked at being caught off-guard, she ruefully confessed, “You first assigned him to investigate the Vatrick murder. And I was the prime suspect for a while.”

Dukat stared at her, more and more attentively. He realized in astonishment, “Yes!! You were that long-haired girl that he questioned in his office, and whom I grabbed by the arm when you tried to leave!”

“That’s right,” she responded carelessly.

“Odo decided that you were innocent.” As he studied her, a subtle flicker in her eyes widened his own farther. “But he was wrong, wasn’t he? You were guilty, weren’t you??”

Kira rolled her eyes. “It was self-defense. I was only there to get the list of collaborators that Vatrick had hidden in the wall. But he walked in on me. Anyhow, who cares? He was a collaborator, too!”

His expression becoming diabolical and his tone more intense, Dukat continued, “But what were you and your terrorist friends going to do with such a list anyway, if not kill those collaborators including Vatrick, all the same?”

“I suppose.”

Damar had a different thought. “How did you convince Odo that you were innocent? He’s quite observant, and hard to fool.”

She sighed. “I confessed to being a member of the underground, and took credit for an explosion set off by a colleague, thus giving myself an alibi.”

Garak said sharply, “So you betrayed Odo, too!”

Kira turned on him. “At least I didn’t hurt him!”

“There are different kinds of hurt.”

“I lied to survive!” she snapped.

“And I tortured to survive.”

“Which is infinitely worse!”

“In whose judgment?” Garak’s eyes flashed.

“Careful, Kira,” Damar remarked almost conversationally. “Garak’s looking tempted again to demonstrate his skills on you.”

Dukat put in, “Do you realize, Kira, that if Odo had declared you guilty of the murder, Garak’s talents would likely have been your punishment? Garak was there at the time, on Terok Nor, and I might indeed have turned you over to him, for having killed one of our valuable collaborators.”

Dukat’s and Damar’s comments deflated her. She sagged, and regarded Garak bleakly, nonbelligerently. He in turn studied her dispassionately.

Dukat remarked, “You didn’t even bristle this time when I called it Terok Nor.”

“I can only fight one battle at a time,” she replied wearily.

“Oh you poor dear,” Damar teased.

“I wish that all of you knew what it was like to be ganged-up-on once in a while,” she complained, drawing a tired hand across her forehead.

“Oh well now that we didn’t do,” declared Dukat. “Although we could. Damar and I could join Garak on your punishment. We could do so right now.” His eyes twinkled, though whether with humor or with unsavory intentions Kira was unsure, and it made her uneasy. Worse, Damar’s eyes were sparkling similarly. She sagged dismally.

Perhaps in an attempt to make amends, Garak reminded her, “Now you know very well that there was a time that Odo let you down; he was, after all, no paragon.”

She stared. “How did you know about that??”

He stared back, just as surprised. “Because I was involved.”

“You weren’t even on the station!” she retorted.

Garak blinked at her as if she were out of her mind.

Damar quipped, “Why do I get the impression that they’re not both referring to the same event?”

“It would seem not,” Dukat agreed. “First, Kira, what do you mean?”

She glared at Dukat, irked. “The time that you meant earlier: when you aimed the female Founder at him. It did indeed distract him from doing his part in our resistance; it nearly broke up him and me permanently.”

Dukat’s brow ridges rose. “Nearly, hmm? Then it ‘nearly’ worked well enough.” He grinned his lecherous grin at her, and earned an even blacker look in response.

Then, Kira turned to Garak. “Now your turn to explain.”

Unruffled, he replied, “I of course am referring to the time that Odo’s guilt over his own past fallibility dragged Sisko, Dax, and me into a link with him, and we had to relive a rather ghastly episode during the Occupation as Bajorans.”

“Horrors,” she returned sarcastically. “Now you know how the other half lived.” But she also nodded in remembrance.

He persisted in reminding her, “You were quite disappointed in Odo afterward.”

“Yes, yes, I remember now.”

“What’s this??” Dukat was clearly very interested.

Kira sighed heavily while Garak elaborated. As he finished there was a twinkle in his eye. “I must say, Dukat, you were quite realistic and consistent. You took Jadzia Dax as your comfort woman.”

Dukat began to preen, and Kira harrumphed in disgust.

“Jealous, Kira?” Damar taunted.

Her eyes shot figurative needles into him, and he grinned at the point that he’d made.

Meanwhile, Dukat was still daydreaming smugly. “How I wish that that event were true, instead of just Odo’s hallucination. Jadzia Dax would indeed be a charming little handful.”

“Dukat! Do you absolutely have to make a grab for every mammalian woman that you see??!”

“I was right!” Damar seemed startled at his own apparent accuracy. “She is envious of your successful experiences with others of her kind.”

Recklessly throwing away any urge to hold back, Kira exploded, “And did one of them absolutely have to be my mother?!!”

A long moment of silence ensued, and then Dukat said quietly, “Well, at least now I know that you believe me.”

Kira’s biggest explosion followed. “I was Luma!!!”

Dukat stared at her motionlessly. Damar and Garak sat unmoving because Dukat did; they evidently sensed that something momentous was afoot, that some revelation even larger than any other yet, still loomed before them.

It took several long moments, but when at last Dukat had recovered himself, he said in an awed voice, “You were your own mother’s contemporary best friend.” He then explained briefly to Damar and Garak what he had meant by that seemingly preposterous statement, after which Kira revealed just as succinctly how she had accomplished such an improbable task. All three of the Cardassian males were suitably impressed by the lengths to which she had gone to uncover the true fate of her late mother.

After an appropriate interlude spent marveling at the unlikely revelations, something more mundane eventually had to follow, and Damar said it. “You were a comfort woman. During the original Occupation.”

Kira snorted rudely. “Of course I wasn’t!”

Dukat blinked. “I remember now. I saw you chosen by a legate at the party.”

She laughed humorlessly. “Aha, but you didn’t see me choose him!” She quickly outlined how she’d gotten him drunk enough to escape his plans for her.

The three men shook their heads at her, comically almost as one.

“Is there no extreme to which you won’t go to avoid being bedded by a Cardassian??” challenged Dukat.

Kira didn’t like the wide-eyed inquiring looks that any of the three were giving her. “Nope!” she blurted emphatically. “And don’t any of you look at me…well, the way that you’re looking at me!”

Garak inquired shrewdly, “Kira. We’re probably all about to die within days. Aren’t you the least bit curious?”

“No!” Her temper flared.

“You have three willing volunteers,” offered Damar.

Kira made a disgusted and disgusting sound, and turned her back on them.

 

When she finally turned back toward them and spoke, her volume was such that they had to strain to hear. “All along I’ve dreaded this subject. I knew of course that it had to arise; there really was no way to avoid it, was there? And I’m certainly aware that you three are easily more than enough to overpower me. Is that your intention?”

Dukat could scarcely believe what he was seeing. Unmistakably, Kira was actually shaking. From the looks of astonishment on the faces of Garak and Damar, they saw it, too; it was not his imagination.

“No,” Dukat replied, nearly as quietly. “We have no similar need to satisfy our curiosity about your kind.”

Garak agreed. “We have all had more than ample experience with mammalian females.”

Damar said, “It is you who are missing something, and maybe dying with an unknown that you could have solved.”

“Then I will take that unknown with me to my grave.”

 

Days later, Kira truly lay dying in their arms. Her last words were: “I’m…sorry. I should…have….”