(kira sighing) is all thihi really necessary? the klingon invasion has all but destroyed the cardassian health system. they're suffering outbtbaks of all kinds of diseases and in epidemic proportions. besides, you've only got 12 inoculations to go. twelve? sorry, but if you want to go to the conference... i don't want to go. i'm no diplomat. going to some obscure cardassian outpost share bajoran intelligence about the klingons i don't know why i even agreed to go in the first place. you agreed t tgo because it was a personal request from the first minister of bajor. oh, it was a personal l quest, all right. shakaar took me to my favorite restaurant in jalanda city poured me glass after glass of spring wine and then took me to his home and gave me a massage with kolaish spice oil.

with his constituents. it wasn't fair. i mean, i would have said yes to anything at that point. (groaning) ah... what is it? i'm seeing spots. big, green swirling ones? the size of alvinian melons. is the room beginning to spin? yes. goododthe vaccine's beginning to work. everything will settle down in a moment. major, may i speak with you? uh, i'm not going anywhere. this one makes yououeel a little queasy. you'd better make it fast. the federation has some concerns about your upcoming meeting with the cardassians. so do i. there are certain technological advances that we have shared with both bajor and the k kngons that we would prefer to keep out of cardassian hands. such as? photon torpedo guidance systems... long-range sensors... enhanced warp core overdrives. this is a complete list.

a lilile disappointed. undoubtedly. is that all? yes. oh, good..i'll be r. i'm glad i'm not going to cardassia. (door chime) come in. hello, major. dukat... what are you doing here? you're commanding thegroumall? thanks to you. if you had not convinced me to bring my half-bajoran daughter back to cardassia i'd still be chief military advisor to the detepa council. they demoted you. (chuckling): exactly one week after my mother disowned me and my wife took our children and left.

llowing your advice i have been relegated to ferrying freight. and, occasionally, various foreign dignitaries such as yourself. look, if it makes you feel better to blame me go right ahead. no, no, no. i blame no one-- but myself. i was indiscreet. i compromised myself and have been pununhed accordingly. sly i would do the same thing to him. besides, i assure you this is only a temporary setback. everything i have lost i will regain. it's only a matter of time. now...

[captioning sponsored by the u.s. department of education

(door chimes) come in. ziyal... i didn't know you were on board. hello, major. oh, please, call me nerys.

k out very wel l. i wasn't exactly welcomed with open arms. there were some cardassians who could see past the bajoran ridges on my nose, but not many. i'm sorry. i know it must have been very difficult for you. the only good thing about living on cardassia was being with my father. i'm glad the two of you are getting along. he's been wonderful. and so brave. he never tried to hide me away or acted ashamed of me. and now that he's bebe exiled? wherever he goes, i go. he's the only family i have. and this is the only home i need. your father isn't the only one who's brave. (alarm sounds) what's that? hter it a battle drill. ?

n. engineering and tactical ready. waiting on weapons, sir. what's taking so long? the phaser banks are still charging. i want those weapons on line now. dadar: phaser's ready. lock on target. target set. fire! time. three forty-sesen. (sighing): that's pitiful. lers could do better than that. select another target. we'll do it again. this may be a lowly frfrghter, major but it still a military vessel and will be run in military manner. you know... you could speed up your phaser recharge tim by routing perhrough an anodyne capacitor. thank you, major.

had an anodyne capacitor, we would use it. but we don't. major... (sighing): please forgive me. i do appreciate your suggestion. any anger i may have expressed is due to my... frustration over the complete inadequacy of this... vessel. i hope you'll allow me to make it up to you. what did you have in mind? i was hoping we might have dinner together. on for the commanding officer of a ship to entererin his guests.

this is bajoran spring wine. my last bottle. it's one of the things i miss most about bajor. i talked to ziyal. she's a lovely girl. i'm very glad that you convinced me not to kill her despite everything that's happened? you may not believe this, major, but when it comes to ziyal i regret nothing. it's good to hear that. by the way, major what i ithis i hear about you and shakaar? i don't know what you've heard. first it was vedek bariel and now it's the head of the bajoran government. you do like powerful men, don't you? first of all, shakaar's an old friend.

me to regain my... former position. it's good to see you haven't lost your sense e humor. i must say i've always admired shakaar's success with women. the intelligence file i kept on him during the occupation is filled with reports of his conquests. in fact, if you remember correctly youwere the only female in his resistance cell at least until now. is that what you kept track of during the occupation? no wonder you lost. (chuckling) more wine, major? (alalm sounds) another drill? i didn't schedule one. sir, we're approaching the outpost on korma-- or what's left of it. what are you talking about? from what we can tell, it's been attacked.

s? there are no life-signs. then we have to assume that everyone at the outpost including the cardassian and bajoran dignitaries is dead. sir, i'm reading a subspace distortion at bearing 001, mark 15. on screen

they're scanning us, sir. fufu power to forward shields. at this distance your shields won't mean much. sir, they've stopped scanning us. what are they doing? nothing, sir. ey don sm toe aur t donyinabt . they don't think we're a threat, dukat.

ing vessel . they didn't know what it was, so they hid. now they know and they're unconcerned. the klingon ship has lowered its shields. they're moving off at one quarter impulse. they'll pay for their arrogance. charge phaser banks. what are you doing, dukat? you can't go up against a bird of prey. must i remind yoyo major they just murdered your people as well as mine? i know that but getting all of us killed isn't going to change that. i'm not going to let these klingons escape unchallenged. you attack them, and all l u're going to do is give them target practice. they'll blow us to pieces with their first shot. phaser banks charged. lock phasers on target. dukat! at least lock on to the underside of their hull. it's their weakest spot. you heard the major. target set.

their shields were down and we didn't penetrate their hull. divert all power to forward sheilds. aye, sir. they've gone to warp. well... lucky for us. i suppose from their point of view... there's no honor in destroying a worthless freighter.

n operating behind our lines with impunity. someone has got to stop them. (sighs) someone else. how close is the nearest cardassian warship? probably in the dopa system somewhere. that's almost three days away. by the time they get here the klingons will be long gone. we can go after the klingons. a moment a a you were advising caution. bebeuse a moment ago we were in no position to fight back. i have no intention of letting them get away with what they did. now, you said scanners showed that the outpost disruptors were disabled not destroyed, right? correct. dukat, do you think you'd be able to repair

i doubt we could lure the klingons back totohe outpost. maybe not, but there's no reason we can't make a few alterations to your ship. what kind ofalterations? here? in the cargo hold? why not? well, because the outpost's planetary defense weapons are system five disruptors. they were never designed to operate aboard a moving spacecraft old them. dukat, you are going to have e stop thinking like a cardassian military officer. more like you? more like a resistance fighter. make use of what you have. if you need a hammer and you don't havevene use a pipe. and you really think we can make those weapons operatatnal on this ship? it's worth a try. i suppose if we disable the tractor beam

of the disisptors but those weapons are huge. get rid of it. all of it? i realize it's traditional for a cardassian captain to take a percentage of the haul but you are going to have to shed a lot of traditions if you are serious about fighting the klingons. some traditions are hard to break. you'll get used to it. you... never cease to impress me, major.

tataet at 500,000 kilometers. system five disruptor on line. open cargo bay doors. doors opening. telemetry lock confirmed. are you ready? diverting all power to your station. 200,000 kilometers and closing. fire! very impressive, major! don't be too impressed yet. we still have some problems. firing the disruptor rupturur power relays and plasma circuits all over the ship. we have small plasma leaks in levels two, four and five. i want those leaks fixed immediately. we're going to haveg about that recoil. major, i'm confident you'll have that disruptor running so smoothly it wouldn't wake a sleeping child.

i suppose it's because of my overwhelming charm. but you must admit it is rather amusing. when we do destr thatoy bird of prey for i it will no doubt go a long way toward restoring my reputation t. i'm trying not to think about that. major... why are you so reluctant to face the obvious? we make an excellent team. kat and we have nothing in common. i'm only helping you because those klingons killed 15 bajoran diplomats. there were cardassians at that outpost too. maybe. but all you care aboutuf in the eyes of the cardassian government. you have seen an opportunity for advancemenent and you are grababng it. you judgme too harshly. maybe iamseeking to regain my former position

dedication, and sacrifice. but redemption is not my sole motivation. and i don't intend to allow the klingons to get away with murdering them. i'm a much more complicated man than you give me credit for. well, if that's true i suppose i prefer simpler men. like shakaar? it amazes me a woman as intellgent and sophisticated i anwh cldrz e r]o > y rzpoib tk our? atumri f&ldan rbisheir misrr > bajor and he knows m me about how to talk to me than you ever will. how can you be so sure? after all

and if you want to keep working with me i suggest you stick to business. i didn't mean any harm. i was only making conversation. damar set another target. we'll test our new weapon as soon as the major's ready. let's see if we can't work out our problems at least the ones we're having with the disruptor. this is a standard-issue cardassian phase disruptor rifle. it has a 4.7-megajoule power capacity three-millisecond recharge, and two beam settings. how do you know so much about cardassian weapons? we captured a lot of them during the occupation. it's a good weapon-- solid, simple. you can drag it through the mud and it will still fire.

federation standard-issue. it's a little less powerful but it's got a lot more options. 16 beam settings. fully autonomous... recharge... multiple target acquisition... gyro stabilized, the works. it's, umuma little more complicated so it's not as good a field weapon. too manynyhings can go wrong with it. i can see why my father likes having you around. i think, um... he cardassian rifle. it's smaller, easier to use and if we get boarded i don't want you to have to think too much about the weapon you're using. you don't like my father very much do you? no. i don't. i understand. he did some very bad things during the occupation. yes, he did.

does it? very much. he talks about it sometimes. he'd never admit it to anyone else but he thinks the occupation was a mistake. somehow i don't think he'd say that if the cardassians had won. maybe not. but maybe losing made him a better person. then a lot of innocent people died for his education. i know. i think about that a lot. but when i look at my father i have a hard time seeing a murderer. when i look at him you're his daughtete my father says that the two of you have a lot in common that you both did things during t t war that you regret. that's why he cares so much about what you think of him. ziyal, what your father wants from me is forgiveness. that's one thing i can never give him.

i think we should concentrate on getting you comfortable with this weapon. what about the cardassian base on the fourth moon of rakal? it's subterranean. it's much too fofoified to be a viable target for a bird of prey. it would takeea vor'char to do any real damage. how about the station on amleth prime? no, the amleth system's located inside an emission nebula. thklgon clki dic wod ule. i knowhe ty' gne-- that's on the other side of the sector. a long way from the cardassian fleet. from what it says here loval is mainly a civilian outpost with a small subspace relay station.

what it says there is not exactly true. loval is also a weapons research installation which is supposed to be a closelelguarded secret. now, considering the targets the klingons have hit so far i think we've underestimated their intelligence network. sounun like a choice target. loval it is. the question is... even if we're right, can we s sp them? all we need is one good shot with the new disruptor. which won't be easy to get considering they'll be cloakak. we don't have to find them. we have to make them come to us. lure them in. make them think that we're a helpless freighter. we have to make them think

d? i can get damar to modody the subspace transceiver array to emit a false dilithium signal. now, if i know the klingons they'll lock their tractor beam on us and try to take our cargo. we'll have a surprise waiting for them. yes. not bad. i told you we make a good team, major. you are as insighthtl a woman as you are intriguing. i thought we agreed to keep this strictly business. major, is it my imagination or do you have a hard time accepting compliments? i have a hard time accepting compliments from you. well, i'll try to restrain my enthusiasm but i can't make you any promises.

set a course for loval. maximum warp. loval system within scanning range, sir. any sign of them? no, sir. if they're not there now they'll be there soon enough. begin modifications to the subspace transceiver array. we soldiers spend a lot of time waiting don't we, major? trouble concentratin it's not easy to keep your mind from drifting. g unless i'm being distracted. lately, when my mind wanders i find myself thinking more and more about...

do you know him? very dashing. one of cardassia's rising stars-- graduate of the cardassian military academy... smooth-talking junior member of the detepa council... and like your friend shakaar... quite a ladies' man. especially with other officers' wives. including yours? hmm. a year ago you wouldn't have dared, but now... i think the first thing i'd do when i'm restored to power will be to demote him assign him to the cardassian embassy on breen. (chuckling) i hear it's bitter cold on breen.