Major Kira leads a desperate rescue mission deep into Cardassian space, Doctor Bashir in tow! Commander Sisko meanwhile must be prepared to face a ravening horde of hungry babies, intent on eating the station!

This story has a good characterization of the Horta Mother, I like it when they make aliens 'alien'.

Another Bajoran weirdness happens, the wandering Moon called the Prodigal passes by, causing a spontaneous outbreak of tourism.

Dax confides to Kira that a part of her (the symbiont!) finds Bashir...attractive. "Attractive? That?" Kira is less than impressed (jealous, maybe?).

Nog and Jake break in to get a peek at the Horta eggs. Nog uses a picklock he swapped some Eiauoan pornography for. He's not upset about getting rid of the porn, because - "I'm not into felines." The kids accidentally release the baby Horta (they steal one and try to sell it - forgetting to reset the force field round the others), and considering that one of the Horta dies as a result, their 'punishment' of helping to repair the station seems pretty light.

Odo questions Garak about why the Horta leave his shop uneaten, Garak says he has only natural fibers, nothing inorganic or synthetic. "Convenient," Odo observed. Garak shrugged. "Perhaps I can interest you in an 'I Saw The Prodigal' T-shirt?"

Quark watches an entire case of commemorative 'Prodigal' medallions (manufactured on the sly in Dr. Bashirs replicator) disappeared into the Horta's maw. How did he get at Julian's replicator? Was it the infirmaries replicator, or Julian's personal one?

Julian gets to fight alongside Kira when they land on the Cardassian mining planet where the Horta is being held. There they find - captive Bajoran freedom fighters! Nerys is wary of using the 'untried' doctor, but -

That only left Bashir. When she looked at him, he drew his phaser. "I'll be at your side, Major," he said to her surprise, "whatever the outcome." - And on the count of three Julian gave a war-whoop and leaped forwards, phaser ready. Julian later rescues Kira and gains the respect of the Bajoran freedom fighters.

Kira can't help coddle him though. "Stun grenade!" she shouted, and instinctively she threw herself on Bashir. She gets hurt doing this, orders Julian to leave her but Julian carries her to safety instead, after she 'passes out'. (Bashir says she fainted, but Kira insists she has never fainted. Julian actually knocked the stubborn woman out with his trusty hypo spray so that he could rescue her.)

He commandeers a Cardassian ship and gets off the planet, Horta, Bajorans and injured Kira and all. Luckily Dax is floating round to rescue him from the command chair.

Note just at the end he agrees to let the Bajorans lower the force field thing keeping the atmosphere in the mining area. It collapses, the ship takes off and a lot of Cardassians die as a result. He feels bad about this, but basically had no choice.

We find out that Cardassians enjoy having body oils rubbed into their scales as foreplay. Ferengi children play with 'anatomically correct' action figures. And Odo finds the Mother Horta's amorphous body attractive!

And by the way, the baby Horta doesn't really die, he was just in a coma. When all the Horta are reunited, they go to live on the Prodigal Moon.

When Dr. Bashir tries to stop gambling a warship appears to force him, and Quark, to continue. Dax and Kira go off world, meet weird people, and come back to the station* with a dancing sculptor.

The gambling woman decides to lose gracefully to this hunk of a man (the dancing sculptor. Don't ask.), and all is well. Everyone acts out of character, and talks in a stilted manner. For the teens, methinks. Yuck.

Dr. Bashir - "Why not, I'll admit I'm ignorant of most games of chance, though I played a little poker in collage." Well, he played in collage, but he also played in 'The Big Game' - see #4.

Quark - asked he has any objections to the non telepathic Bashir standing in for the woman who is mildly telepathic- "None whatsoever, Doctor. I know you're no telepath. On the contrary. You can't even read your own mind." "Beg pardon?" Bashir said. "Never mind."

At one point Julian asks Miles to make him an anti winning device. What he comes up with involves spring-loaded needles and an electric current. It doesn't work, anyway.

"I had Garak take in my uniform a while back," Bashir said. "I think he took in a bit to much." So, it looks like Julian did let Garak take him back "...to my shop and let me dress you properly." (#9 Proud Helios)

And I really had to dig to get those quotes for you. Now I must go lie down with a damp cloth over my eyes for awhile. Don't say I never do anything for you!

A story of leaders, of a great man (um, Cardassian) finding himself in another time^TM, and Sisko's readiness to be the equal of any Cardassian assault. But I loved it any way.

Especially love the beginning bit where they find the tomb. Odo and O'Brien find it first, and they bust in, Miles landing on one shoulder and two cheeks, each at different ends of his body - ouch! The hall they've come down is full of non lethal-ish booby traps, and Doctor Bashir manages to cut himself on the way down. : A sound, a crackle and a bump in the tunnel made O'Brien turn round. He'd been waiting for this, knew it was coming; and reached through the craggy opening to help Julian Bashir stumble through. "I knew it." O'Brien muttered as he drew the Doctor in by one arm.

...he blinked and groaned "Bit stuffy in here isn't it?" "Sit down." Sisko scooped up the doctor's good elbow and maneuvered him to a place where he could sit. "You're losing blood, remember?" "Oh...yes." Miles sees to his wound.

Then Garak is called down to the tomb: O'Brien gave in to the reflex to stand a little in front of the injured doctor - he didn't trust Garak.

But, he needn't have worried. Because Garak likes Doctor Bashir, which nearly proves his undoing later on when he pops round to give the Doc a friendly warning. The 'High Gul' (one of the revenants from the tomb they found, an ancient great leader of the Cardassian people.) asks Garak for information about the station, and the tailor almost tells him everything. When asked if Sisko has any family on board : The answer popped instantly into Garaks mind, a skinny human boy..."No," he said. "No children." Then asked if: there is any aboard that they shouldn't kill. "Well, " he admitted after quite a few moments, "no, I suppose not." I think they would have used anyone he named against him.

Odo is laid low by pellets of dissolved Element One-ten that will explode if he reverts to liquid whilst they are still in him. Why didn't they use this against the changelings later on? Besides the threat of blowing themselves up at the same time, of course. oh.

Then there is the best scene, several pages worth of smarm candy. Garak turns up at Julian's infirmary and tries to trick him off the station before bad things happen to it. They discuss duty. Garak does a little misleading, a little info gathering. Julian tells him how helpless he feels about not being able to help Odo with his dissolved explosive problem. Garak tells him to forgive himself. Then tells him he has a message that Sisko wants him to leave the station. Julian sees through this. Garak thinks: He had accepted the High Guls mystique, and now as he looked at Bashir, the one person on the station who approached him without suspicion, he accepted his doubts. They talk of friendship, and Julian asks if he wants him to leave. "Let's just say I have an intuition," he admitted. "I'd rather you weren't on the station anymore."

Security - "Are you Armed?" Sisko - "A phaser, two fists, and a lot of teeth!"

The High Guls old enemy (the one who stuck him in the tomb on DS9) turns up, determined to destroy him, and DS9 if he has to. He has something to make the High Gul give himself up quickly - a hostage.

This is when we meet the High Gul's wife, grab the hankies. ;"Have there been birds in your life? Ornamental grasses?"..."in all our years of spirited life together, I never made a single decision for her. The woman will chose for herself what to do." She chooses to die rather than be a hostage. Then the Gul and his enemy fight and die.

O'Brien saves Odo from exploding (Centrifuge style). Author calls Bashir 'boyish' all through the novel. And does a synopsis on Garaks character halfway through that was very interesting.

Nerys tells Dax her "hair and eyelashes are gloating." You had to be there.

A good plot to it, a bit technical at times. Julian and O'Briens friendship is explored a bit. Has: O'Brien glanced at Bashir. He sat up in a chair, and looked like a piece of Renaissance art. Ooolalah!

'No thanks!' say the Bajorans. Their hastily assembled military fleet doesn't stand a chance against the awesome power of the Hive. Unless Captain Sisko can penetrate the Hive's defenses - and discover their most closely guarded secret - all of Bajor faces extinction.

The aliens in this book have a lot of time devoted to them, but they still come off a little stiff at times. All but a few of the armor-plated aliens have never looked outside their ship and have acute agoraphobia. The main characters are the female Sahna and her to-be-One, Tork. Sahna gets a tour of DS9, and makes some amusing observations about these strange unshelled 'aliens'. She sees Morn, and asks what kind of alien he was. Sisko says he doesn't know, Morn is the only one of his kind he has ever seen (he's a Laurian). Sahna decides to help the Bajorans, even against the wishes of the Hive, or even Tork!

Next they go to Bajor to negotiate, and terrorists kidnap them, Kira, Dax and Sisko. The Cardassians plan and plot as well. Tork meets the Wormhole aliens and has a revelation, which he shares with Sisko. The Hives main directives have been altered generations ago, they were never meant to strip planets with populations living on them. The fact that people were killed in the last planet they stripped is made public to the rest of the Hive (they didn't know). They revolt!

And they create a new planet using a dead one and the power from the Hive ship. They then share the new planet with the survivors from the planet they destroyed.

Not a bad book. Definitely a Julian / Jadzia orientated love story. Julian sacrifices all, several times! Has a good take on the Dax symbiont, which is often left as a silent voice in stories. Hint of a Julian / Dax (the slug) romance, but not a big one.

Dax, Sisko and Bashir are called away to a secret location by Starfleet. "Admiral, forgive us..." Julian Bashir broke in with such polite bafflement that Sisko guessed he must be emulating Garak's unctuous demeanor.

"-actual records-" It took Dax a moment to realize that those unexpected words had been spoken by Julian Bashir. The elegant human accent was unmistakably his, but the grim tone was not.

It is indicated that Julian uses abbreviations for the members of the crew in his medical files on the Defiant. Wonder what he uses for Garak? G for gorgeous? Teehee!

Jadzia exchanged speculative looks with Sisko. For all his youth, there wasn't much that could shatter Julian Bashir's composure when it came to medical matters. ... The young physician looked up with a start from where he leaned over one of his two sickbay stasis units, as if he had forgotten that he'd summoned them there. The glow of thin green emergency lighting showed Dax the unaccustomed mixture of helplessness and self reproach on his face. He has found the Dax symbiont, which thousands of years ago his time wrecked other self had placed in stasis to bring a warning into the future.

He absent-mindedly tries to keep in contact with the symbiont physically, (Bashir realized with a start that he'd slipped his hand into the stasis field again) and stands up to any one trying to hurt it, including an Admiral. Admiral Hayman believes doctors only earn their MDs because they haven't the stomach for regular military. She also thinks Julian fights so hard for the symbiont because its current host is a pretty woman. (The Admiral - Judith Hayman - once slept with Curzon.)

They try and talk him into un-thawing the symbiont when he believes that it would be too dangerous. Dax caught his gaze with hers...like a mother reassuring her child. She says its what the symbiont wants. The Admiral says it's what she wants. "Judith don't! I won't have him blackmailed into doing this." Reluctantly Julian agrees it's what the symbiont stayed alive all this time in stasis for, and wakes her.

As they suspected, there was/will be a fight, and the Defiant gets/was thrown back in time. Only Julian and the symbiont survived. Julian lived for seventy years, and became close to Dax, talking to her, showing her how to cook. He had jury-rigged the stasis unit to keep Dax alive, using some of the Defiants plating to work with. The plating had some numbers on that he had put in upside down. He obviously hadn't thought about the positioning when he fitted that piece into place. He wished he had. Staring at those switched around numbers every day for more than half a century must have driven him crazy.

He had a better chance of making Hayman do what he said if she thought he was speaking from the head, not the heart. Still, he'd never been very good at concealing his feelings. This was a hell of a time to start. He gets to bring the symbiont out of stasis his way, slowly. In the process he is relieved to find he'd left Dax a suicide switch, so that if she had changed her mind during the long wait, she could have ended it all.

The stasis is lifted. Inside the tank, a bracelet of ripples patterned the water's surface as the symbiont shuddered, and a weak lightning bolt of energy splattered the side closest to Bashir. He pressed his palm against the tank in unconscious reply. The symbiont tries several times to communicate with him this way, electronically, as she would with another symbiont in the mating tanks.

The Admiral presses for an immediate interrogation, but Bashir insists they take it slow. Bashir: "She is obviously used to getting what she wants." "She's a rear admiral," Sisko said dryly. "There aren't many people in Starfleet who can say no to her." He didn't add "except you," but Bashir heard the words anyway. He felt his face tighten in renewed embarrassment, and bent his head over the symbiont's tank to hide it.

Jadzia hops into a chilly tank to talk to the old Dax symbiont. She nodded seriously, then ruined the image ...with a theatrical wince..."Julian, I'm going to cut your hot-water rations for a week for this!" He smiled despite himself. "I guess I'll just have to shower at your place."

The old symbiont links with and talks through Jadzia. "Julian?...It...is...you" lifting one unsteady hand from the milky brine, she stopped just short of stroking his face. "...so beautiful...so young...Julian, you did it...!" ...This time when she reached for Bashir across the fluid, he took her hand and held it tightly...Jadzias eyes danced across Bashir's face with frantic attentiveness. He recognized with a chill that Dax was telling this to him - and only him- after more than five thousand years of painful waiting. For the first time, he wondered precisely who this message was from. Well, Dax, of course! She's the one who loves him; Jadzia is just some science nerd with a thing for big strong himbo's. That's why she married Worf!

The message Dax gives is clear, but she is terribly disorientated after all this time, and her warning is given as a repeating distress signal. The lights are on, but nobody is home, so to speak. She starts to deteriorate and Julian is desperate to get her back to Trill for proper care. The Admiral, certain he is only doing this to impress the lovely Jadzia, refuses to allow him to move her.

"Wait! Let me ease it around the replicator - that's it....Now bring it back - Back! Back! Jadzia, what are you doing?" "Trying to think of a good reason not to hit you." They steal the symbiont and the brine tank she's stuck in. With some effort they smuggle her aboard the science vessel Sreba, Captained by the Vulcan T'Kreng. Jadzia - "I've never done anything like this before" Bashir smiled..."You've never kidnapped yourself?" Jadzia says no, not personally, but "She's actually rather proper and dull compared to most of Dax's other hosts."

Sisko turns up and Julian remembers why he never did anything like this before either, he tends to blush and stammer when caught. Sisko says he wants to know where Dax is, Jadzia says "I'm here, Benjamin," ...The dark burn of Sisko's glare never left Bashir's face as he said, very plainly, "Not you." They are caught out!

 Julian tries to get the Vulcan Captain to do the side trip to Trill, but she refuses. He pleads with her, Sisko tries to pull him back but Bashir pulled his arm away from Sisko's hand before the captain could turn his warning touch into a grip.

Has this cute bit of dialogue. Sisko :"I want to make sure anyone else who might be curious about what we beamed in doesn't decide to drop in and pay poor Julian a visit. "Garak, for example." Bashir said wryly. O'Brien snorted. "Or Quark." So Garak would make a house call if Julian was sick (provided it wasn't catching!) But why would our match making Ferengi? Hehehe. Quark pesters Kira to let him hold another gambling tournament. She says no, because "...the Bajoran Trade Commission wrote up a four-page complaint about shoplifting...and Morn filed sexual harassment charges against no less than six of your players."

Julian designs and builds a DNA scanner (weighs 14 kilos) to screen out changelings, which they use at the peace conference. Some react uneasily to the test, including the Valtusia who go away to discuss it before submitting.

Worf said sharply, "They are hiding something." "I felt that too," Odo said. So, the security team thinks alike! Bashir's mother has a Valtusia clock, which tells the time using musical tones. Thought you would want to know that

Cardassians come to the conference and Bajorans want one of them as a war criminal. A Vedic comes and way-lays Bashir. Werron's short brown hair had been swept back over his scalp, and when he smiled, showing perfect white teeth, the image that leaped to Bashir's mind was that of a hungry tiger catching sight of breakfast. The Vedic wants a meeting with Sisko.

Has Julian 'more paranoid when dealing with them than ever.' about Cardassians since coming to DS9. Really?!

Has Worf distressed over wearing a loose fitting gray tunic with a hood, the mission far outweighed his own fashion sense. But he'd still take a good uniform any day. Worf, fool for fashion, who'd a thunk. He, Odo and Kira go to the Gamma quadrant, in their ship (cobbled from two ships, one brought from Quark, by Miles O'Brien).

The Marquise arrive, and their representative Twofeathers tries to scam some money from Bashir at darts. Julian and Miles have been playing, Julian with a three night winning streak. Miles (well, Quark really) sort of instigates a riot, spoiling Twofeathers plan. Julian hides from the fight under a table, convinced the participants would need his undamaged help later!

Odo escapes when their ship is caught, and helps Kira and Worf too, meeting up with a fellow changeling to do it. Finds out more about his peoples 'peace by conquest' mentality.

Sisko has Julian sneak a DNA scan of Vedic Werron, knowing the doctor liked to play spy, He'd heard quite a tale about it while the Cardassian tailor was letting out his uniform a bit the other week. Now was the time for Bashir to use those finely honed skills in real life. What had Garak been saying? Not bragging a little about his darling doctors skills, surely!?

Worf befriends Snoct, a scavenger in the belly of the Jem'Hadar ship they find themselves on. He helps them hide on another ship they intend to hijack, a ship that Odo and the changeling just happen to get on as well! Hey, why doesn't anybody notice they are there? Extra weight, oxygen usage, carbon production - something should have tipped someone off! Oh well.

Julian is on his mission, trailing Werron, when he bumps into Garak. The tailor tries to talk him into an Oslan silk suit, green with large holes cut in the sides and front. "It's perfect for a doctor," Garak said with a smile. Bashire - "It's so...revealing." Garak - "All your patients will see how healthy you are...give them greater faith in your medical abilities." Hmmm.

Garak eventually gets Bashir to tell him he's got the secret new DNA scanner under his arm and what he plans to do with it, but the spy doesn't believe him! They play their mind games, and Julian asks how Garak would get a cell sample from someone. Garaks plan unfortunately involves Rom, so it doesn't work. Julian tries his own plan and nearly starts a riot.

Then he tries another of Garaks plans (just go up and take a sample!) and gets caught! He has to tell the truth or get in trouble, luckily they believe him. Werron gets him to talk Sisko into re testing all the peace delegates, which they do. They get ready, Sisko thinking how Julian has matured into his job. Three years ago he would have giggled nervously and made a joke. Sisko really didn't like Julian, or give him a break back then, did he?

The Valtusia turn out to be the changelings. Oooh! But Werron still has a few surprises to play, setting off a bomb, kidnapping one of the Cardassians (Mekker, who isn't who the Vedic thinks he is, but a loyal, innocent Cardassian diplomat. A case of mistaken identities.) They take the prisoner to Bajor, with Kai Winn's help. There Mekkar stands trial, defended by Sisko. Things aren't going well when Bashir claims to have the real Cardassian they want on line from Cardassia.

In reality, Julian has got Garak to do a little 'dress up' and pretend to be who they want. "How did I do?" Garak asked behind his make up. "Fine," Bashir said. "I think you saved the day. See you when we get back. I owe you a drink." "You owe me more than that," Garak said. "I have an Oslan suit here with your name on it, Doctor." Please, some body write the fitting scene for this 'revealing' suit! Send me a copy!

The Cardassian prisoner is free, Odo proves his loyalty and saves Kira and Worf, they do their thing for the mission. All ends well.

First, Defiant, the giant shuttle craft? This is the 'bare minimum, not even room for a medical facility' battle ship we are talking about? And in a middle of a war, they get the commander of the key space station to jaunt off with his command crew to commission a new ship? Riiight!

Fire Frog fell asleep here.

Fire Frog fell asleep here.

Remember the kid Varis Sul who was a tetrarch and Jake and Nog had a crush on? Well, she grew up bad! She buys replicators and raw material to put in them on the black market to feed her starving village, and they are the source of the initial run of the virus. In a spooky foreshadowing of mad cow disease, they replicate contaminated food to give the cattle, and things go bad from there.

Looks at Miles being lonely without his wife and daughter (and a bit resentful, too) as they trot off to Bajor yet again.

Julian identifies the raw material, and not the replicators, as the source of the virus. Dax says the material came from the Orions and the search is on.

Ro Laren turns up in a Maquis ship, bearing food and medicine for Bajor. She talks them into using her 'knowledge' of the black market to help track the contaminated raw replicator material. She and Kira head off to find out what they can. The Bajorans go smuggler hunting on Bajor; Sisko and Quark take the Defiant and do the same thing in space.

Dax acts distracted. Varis tries to obtain a cure via the black market, sells her body for it, gets a dud cure in return, meets Kia Winn, whines guiltily a lot. Sisko swaps a hot slug sauce recipe for smuggler info. With Quark gone, Rom takes over the bar, re naming it Rom's Pleasure Palace.

Dax get's a clue, a rather sad one. Lela, her first host lost a daughter to a virus the same as this one (called 'wrath of the Prophets', hence the books name.) The memories were buried deep, and included what was eventually used to make a cure. Julian does his thing and gets to work on replicating the cure strait away.

Regarding Julian finding the cure - "Good idea," he (Sisko) agreed. "Incidentally, if this works, the Bajorans may name Bashir a Prophet." Dax laughed softly. "Just what he needs to sooth that fragile ego of his."

Miles figures out how to deliver it to Bajor (where Keiko and Molly are) and Kira and Ro don't get on, save each others lives, rescue Varis from a slave auction, bicker, make up, find the dirty bastards behind it all (with Sisko and Quarks help) then part.

Plus there are some phantom space ships and a phantom planet floating round in the Gamma Quadrant. Jake takes a young female friend for a ride in a run about, and accidentally gets catapulted through the Wormhole and into the middle of things. The planet turns out to be a generation ship, causing doubles of things to mimic and learn from them.

I liked Klarn the Ferengi buyer in his Marauder trading ship. And that is about that.

Nicely done, with lots of Bashir/Garak/O'Brien dialogue, believable characterisation and even a good plot! Author loves calling Julian thin for some reason. Julian looked pensive, arms folded over his slender chest... The stylus thin doctor (twice)...I'm sure that skinny bastard Bashir is having a grand old time...They use Julian's higher rank for once!

O'Brien get's called the 'Master Chief.' Author goes to some trouble to use correct descriptions of things (i.e. how zero g affects people) so this is probably his actual rank now. We find out Keiko is on Bajor, attending a 'vertical gardening' conference with Molly.

The plot starts with the Defiant crew going on a space walk to examine the broken wreck of a Federation (science?) ship. The occupants have been smeared into invisible residue all over the ship, and the only thing they can recover is the medical log.

"Do you generally describe the station's current mission in your own logs, Doctor?" Bashir managed to blush and preen simultaneously; quite a feat while floating on your head! Thought Sisko. "Well, of course, my own log entries are hardly typical. I'm a very thorough doctor." Then he gives advice on how to remove the log, as if his specialized knowledge of medicine automatically extended to all electronic devices ever used by doctors.

O'Brien tries to decipher the medical log, with a little help. The chief would have preferred to work alone; failing that, he would have rather worked with anybody than Doctor Bashir. ... Bashir leaned forwards, peering over the chief's shoulder; O'Brien felt the doctors breath on his ear..."Julian, if you don't mind?" "Eh? Oh, terribly sorry, Chief. I was just trying to see what you're doing." "What I am doing is scanning the edge of the spool pack to find sections with the property parity; that's the only spot we're likely to decipher." "Ah, yes. Of course." Bashir nodded vigorously. "You don't have a clue what I just said, do you?" "Certainly I do. Well, no I don't; not really."

The author talks up the tension caused by the talkative and inquisitive commissioned officer Bashir, and the non-comm O'Brien, who has to be polite to the young pup due to his higher rank. The message they decode from the medial log implies that Dominion and Klingon vessels are training together, indicating they have formed an alliance.

Sisko, Dax, Odo and the pregnant Kira head off to investigate this allience, leaving an annoyed Worf in charge. "Worf," she (Dax) added, "Benjamin needs you here. Who's going to defend the station if Gowron attacks again...Julian? Quark?" Oh, but how they underestimate Julian! And Quark!

As soon as the Defiant goes, Klingons decloak and blast away the subspace emitter, then board the station. The Klingon snarled something unintelligible that O'Brien assumed was Klingon for "eat flaming red death!" He is wrong, the Klingons are merely stunning people and hauling them away for incarceration.

This is partly due to the head Klingon being Worf's blood brother, come to 'defend with might' the entry to the gamma quadrant. They don't trust the weakling Federation to do it properly. Worf agrees to aid taking over the station in order to prevent casualties and find a way of hindering the take over as well.

O'Brien escapes, and looks for an extra pair of hands for some scheme he's got. "Next stop, Saint Julian's Infirmary." The Klingons beat him there, and stun everyone but Bashir, who plays possum. You know, it never would have occurred to me in a million years to stock the infirmary with phaser rifles. He's figured out about the Klingons only stunning people, when Miles drops in from a ceiling vent and stands over him. He listens in as the engineer, believing him dead, says a few words over his 'body.'

Miles has a coronary, then recovers to hurl curses on Julian's head. Alas, Bashir missed the performance by talking over it, a terrible breach of swearing etiquette. "You heartless bolt tightener! Is that the best you can do? I wasn't a bad sort? I got on your nerves? And what exactly did you mean by saying my friendship made up for a lot of things? What things?" They calm down, Julian asks "Friends again?" Miles says yes, if he promises not to tell anyone. Julian says yes, then smiles and winks. Miles isn't comforted! They crawl away into the air ducts.

Sisko and crew work out they've been mislead, and attempt to return to the station. "Doctor Bashir -" Odo said the name as if he suspected the good doctor was not the quadrant's most reliable witness to anything - "Doctor Bashir reported finding Levavian remains aboard." But there should have been bits of bodies from that kind of explosion, not just the vaporized mist of DNA..."..What we've been doing, (is) chasing a green puffin." (Kira) "A green puffin?" Demanded Dax. "A snipe, a red herring, whatever." They meet with Klingons instead.

"Your not planning on inviting that doddering old fraud, are you?" Miles isn't happy when Julian declares that he wants Garak's help. "Old? He's no older than you!" retorted the doctor. "Well, he acts like a grandfather...All right. Then I don't want to involve us with that middle-aged, competent, but totally untrustworthy Cardassian spy!"

Meanwhile the Ferengi wind up in a cargo bay. Rom says he was warned about the invasion by listening to Ops, which had mysteriously had its sound re wired to a public rest room.

Miles is having difficulty in the stations crawl shafts, the extended scuttling is killing him. But he won't complain in front of Bashir. The kid was thinner than O'Brien had ever been, and wiry enough to slither like a snake. Julian thinks Miles is nimble as a spider, he's torn his uniform and is working on the skin. It's also damned hot, and he decides to start chatting about it, which urks Miles, who tells him to "kindly shut the hell up? Sir." Then when Julian does, he feels guilty.

"Garak's shop is just ahead, Julian, if you're still interested in that wash-up." O'Brien continued in a gentler tone. "I think he sleeps there too." So, a mystery solved, Garak lives 'over the shop' or maybe out back of it.

Julian says Garak will have left a clue for him to find out where he went after the invasion. Miles asks how he would have had time. The doctor theorises on a bug in Ops, so he can listen in and be warned of things happening. The shop has been turned over, and Julian starts looking. "All right, my clever, Cardassian friend, what devilishly brilliant hiding hole could you have-" But sure enough, Miles finds the clue first. It is tricky, too.

And encrypted so Klingons can't decipher it. How? "Tie it to a carrier-tribble?" suggests Miles. Julian figures it uses a sense of humour, which Klingons don't have, but Cardassians love to pull intricate, complex gags on their friends and enemies..." so Garak will have thought of it.

Sisko muses aboard the Defiant. Dax and Worf were now an item...Kira and Odo had been friends for years...Then there was the puzzling and absurd coalition between Dr. Bashir and Garak, former member of the Cardassian Obsidian Order. Give 'em something to talk about, boys!

The Defiant cripples the Bird of Prey it's fighting, and heads home.

Jake picks a lock and breaks into the cargo bay the Ferengi are hiding in. They panic, do a 'take him, no, take 'him'! routine, then calm down. Next, Garak finds them, stepping unexpectedly from the shadows. The Ferengi repeat their panic performance, and Jake hits him in the face. Blinking, Garak remarks that humans have weird greetings for fellow freedom fighters.

Garak then relates 'The Tailors Tale', in which he escapes capture by having inadvertently 'overheard' Ops while attending to every day matters in the public wash room to which it's communications had been accidentally been piped. He gets involved in a fight, and using his 'schoolboy' training (I know what Dr. Bashir thinks, but he is rather a romantic soul...) he defeats a Klingon in hand to hand combat, and 'liberates' the warriors communicator. "I only wish the good doctor had been there to witness it. It amuses me to feed his charming fantasy about the Obsidian Order...And that is my tale. And if Quark does not immediately cease rolling his eyes so rudely, I shall surely do him an injury!"

Miles and Julian are still making their way to the cargo bay. They pass along a turbolift catwalk. Bashir asks, wont they be seen if someone goes by in a lift? Miles says, don't worry, what are the odds on it happening? Truer words were spoken every day and twice on Federation holidays. There are Federation holidays! By an incredible stroke of inevitability, a lift does go by. There is nowhere to hide, until Julian thinks of going outside, where the forceshield around the station is a little loose. As it's his idea, Miles makes him go out first. He doesn't like it. Doctor Bashir clung to the handholds, looking frightened and more than a little sorry he had ever thought of the idea. But it works.

Worf leads the group looking for them, he spy's Miles peeking through the port hole, but doesn't give them away. He is at first puzzled were they have gone, from the report Miles and some other person, probably a female, judging from the physique (teehee) had been in this walk way. He's having a lot of moral dilemmas in at the moment, too. I should enjoy it (his life)...it is a Klingon opera!

Miles reports that Worf is leading the Klingons, and may have seen him. Julian thinks he is being coerced. They argue. O'Brien looked down at the thin, wiry doctor, once again feeling the pang of jealousy at everything Bashir had that the chief didn't: good looks, thin waist, a license to cut and paste, women dripping off of him. But he didn't have Keiko...or Molly either. And they're worth fighting for.

So his suspicions remain in place and they crawl back onto the catwalk. (Miles) turned to help the doctor, but Bashir whipped himself up and vaulted inside, landing on his feet. O'Brien glared, but said nothing. They locate a weapons locker, the chief is disgusted to find that it's codes have been changed, Bashir was expecting that they would be. "Of course"...the chief paused for a beat, then lunged at the door, yanking on it and hissing obscenities that made the gentlemanly Bashir blanch and put his fingers in his ears. It was of course a weapons locker: built to take a knocking and keep on locking. Julian...fingers in his ears...cute...what? You want to hear more about the book? But...cute...Julian...<sigh> okay.

They reach the cargo bay. Garak stepped from the shadows in which he had secreted himself. Welcome, Doctor! I see you got my message." Stunned, Miles stares at them "That really was a message from you?"

Everyone looks to Bashir for leadership. Why me, he asks "Because, my dear Julian, you are the highest ranking officer..." says Garak.

Jake gets bored and starts writing out a story in his head. The story he ends up with is the plot for Fallen Heroes (book #5) which happened awhile ago, and everybody lost their memories of it.

Klingons close in, and our heroes hide in a storage locker. Garak and Miles do the 'after you, No, after you' thing, until an exasperated Garak picks the chief up bodily and hoists him into the hole. Julian then watches Garak leap into the hide away and thinks /Ah, the advantages of Cardassian musculature./ and sighs. He is so checking Garak out!

The Klingons scan the cargo bay, but Garak uses a device he has in his pocket to shield them from the scan. Then Garak teases Julian, "I'm not an intergalactic spy" He leaned close, whispering conspiratorially in Bashir's ear, "or am I?"

When it is safe, they decide to send a coded message to Worf, saying they will shut down the gravity and void the air, so he'd better get the prisoners safe under an air tight force field. They once again use humour, this time a pun (what, another one?) so all the Klingons but the human tolerant Worf will be unaware of the message. Jake, their wordsmith, comes up with the code, Garak - who hates speaking in Klingon, does the talking.

They leave for engineering, and climb down the antenna-well ladder, the doctor, the tailor and the maintenance chief. They make it and turn the gravity off. Garak grimly clutched a chair hooked into a track...Bashir had drifted close enough to a railing to grab hold, where he fluttered gracefully, a flag on a blustery day. O'Brien found the movement disturbing enough that he began to hyperventilate.

At last by sheerest mischance, O'Brien drifted face first into Bashir's boots. He grabbed hold with both hands, climbing along the lieutenant in a successful, if disturbingly familiar, drive for the railing. Julian is anguished about turning off life support, but O'Brien talks him into it. When he decides to do it, however, he takes full responsibility "Yes," said Dr. Bashir quietly." "Julian?"... "What Worf said about the station atmosphere...make it so."

Bashir found a solid railing with his feet. Grace under any condition, including zero-G, came easily to the doctor, always had...Garak followed closely on his heels. They meet Klingons who didn't make it to enviro suites, and while Julian is tempted to try and save them he has a command to uphold, so leaves them to die.

Meanwhile Kira spots a way to 'see' the cloaked Klingon ship. "Its the air-the steam-I mean, frozen water droplets in the venting atmosphere, and they look like steam, fog, and the damn Klingon ship is swirling through the fog! I can see it! I can target it!" What a silly goose she is. Later, while determined to do something foolish, she holds herself back from it - Kira started to protest, then realised that Miles O'Brien might very possibly be dead, and if that were so, what Kira carried would be all that Keiko had left of her husband.

  Liked this story lots. Has a bit of Ferengi bashing at the end, not sure why they like doing this. Seems out of character for the 'enlightened' Starfleet era.