ENEMY THINE, AU2

But in the universe in which Bashir was not on board with Garak and O’Brien….

“I’ve never felt so vulnerable in my entire life,” the human told him tremulously.

“I would venture to say that that’s because you’ve probably never been so vulnerable before in your life,” Garak speculated sardonically.

“This isn’t funny!”

“What exactly are you asking of me, Chief?”

The blond extended a trembling, pleading hand up to him, and reluctantly, Garak indulged the injured human and took it.

“Please don’t hurt me; don’t let them hurt me! Please protect me!”

“You’re attempting to put me in a most untenable position. They are, after all, my fellow Cardassians.”

“But I’m helpless!”

“While I’m aware that in your species’ philosophy, that condition is supposed to elicit instant mercy in all other parties; you must understand that in my species, it encourages automatic opportunism.”

“You mean, kick a man while he’s down,” O’Brien surmised bitterly.

“Or, strike while the iron is hot,” Garak countered with a human homily of his own.

“You know of my horrible past experiences with your people! How can I not be afraid? Please help me!” O’Brien struggled against increasingly insistent desperation. He broke off abruptly at the sight of Dukat and Damar returning from their surveillance of the surrounding area, in search of a sheltering cave.

“There’s an impressive amount of fear in your eyes, O’Brien,” Dukat commented rather blandly.

“I’m sure that we’ll find a way to use that to our advantage,” Damar suggested confidently.

O’Brien turned his face away desolately. “Please. I’m injured.”

“And outnumbered,” countered Damar. “Things don’t appear to be going well for you, do they?”

This time, O’Brien remained silent, except for long, shuddering, labored breaths.

“Let me guess,” said Dukat to Garak. “He’s asked you to protect him from us.”

The blond turned his eyes back to them. “How did you know?” he quavered.

“It’s the human thing to do,” Dukat replied matter-of-factly.

O’Brien again turned away from them in misery, and this time kept his back hopelessly to them for a long while.

Hours later, inside of a warm cave where the fire cheerily burned, the human finally slept.

Dukat watched him for a moment, and then addressed Garak, “Amusing and ironic in the extreme that he appealed to you for protection and comfort.”

Garak kept his tone mild, and responded, “I certainly know what you’re getting at, Dukat, but O’Brien simply knows me the best.”

Dukat taunted, “So do I! And that is precisely why you are the last person to whom I would turn for compassionate treatment.”

“Let’s just say that he knows me in a very different context than you do.”

Damar summarized, “Well, you know what he’s afraid of, of course. Torture. He’s just one of the many who assumes that all Cardassians routinely torture, and he appeals to the only genuine such expert among us for consolation and succor. Dukat’s right; it is rather funny.”

“Surprising that he hasn’t thought through the fact that we simply have no reason to do so,” Dukat remarked. “It’s not as if he were a high-ranking Starfleet officer, or even in line to ever become one. As such, he has no real Federation secrets.”

For once, Garak agreed with Dukat, “And I know as much as he does about the current mission that we were on when we shot you down, and you shot us down; oddly enough, I was on the mission with him. And it’s over now, anyway; we failed.”

Dukat slowly nodded along with his frequent nemesis.

Damar put in, “Still, …it’s fun to tease this human and pretend that we might hurt him. It’s the only entertainment that we have on this boring world. So, …let’s not tell him.”

“That he’s in no danger from us?” Dukat regarded Damar in surprise. “Of course we won’t tell him.”

Garak nodded. “Indeed. Why spoil it?”