Life in Exile After Abdication

"Goooooooood morning, brother!"

Rom cheerily stepped through the doorway and into Quark's bar. The dabo tables were empty; so was the bar itself.

Quark was seething. "Moogie and Leeta are going to put me out of business with that cafe of theirs."

"Relax, brother! It's the weekend brunch special. You *know* that Moogie makes the best tube-worm omlettes in the Alpha Quadrant!"

"*Their* weekend brunches are cutting into *my* profits. And the worst thing is, it's *legal* for them to do so. Now that females are being allowed to leave Fereginar, they're all setting up off-world businesses. You know what I saw? Two Ferengi women running a souvenir stand on Station Beta 12, right outside Ferengi space! Talk about brazen!"

"Leeta's started investing in the stock market using profits from the cafe," Rom added.

"Oh. Like you two aren't destitute enough."

"She bought stock in an Orion orchid farm--and you know what? Orion orchids have been found to have amazing medicinal properties--including a possible cure for Doric syndrome! You know what this means!"

"The value of the stock went through the roof. That's very nice, Rom," Quark grumbled. "Say, I've heard . . . stories. Stories of a changeling on this station? Can you confirm or deny, Rom?"

Rom held his breath, not sure whether to respond.

"I take your hesitation as a yes," Quark said slyly.

"I really don't know enough to talk about it," Rom said blankly.

"You haven't . . . seen this changeling, have you, Rom?"

"O'Brien has. I haven't. Um, brother, I wouldn't say anything about it if I were you."

"Why not?"

"Well, we don't want to . . . scare anyone."

"Starfleet and their security paranoia. The war is over, we won, and there's no more Dominion. You can't imagine what a relief it is to have a normal humanoid security officer for a change."

"You're lucky Commander Kira doesn't catch you saying that."

"She doesn't like me anyway. Now what about this baby changeling?"


Dax was comparing the baby changeling's DNA samples against Dr. Mora Pol's files. It was ironic and quite sad that the man who pioneered changeling research had--despite Odo's brave efforts--been killed in the Dominion/Cardassian war.

When Odo first arrived in Dr. Mora's lab, he was little more than a bucket of gelatinous goo. This odd fluid mass fascinated and perplexed Mora, who ran a series of tests to determine if it was in fact a sentient being.

As it turned out, not only was the lump of goo sentient, but it also felt humiliated and degraded by the constant scrutiny, the incessant testing. As soon as Odo was able to take on humanoid form, he did his damndest to put as much distance as possible between himself and Mora.

But out of that bitterness and misunderstanding came reconciliation and, later, the foundation for future studies. Thanks to Mora, this changeling could--hopefully--learn to comprehend its new surroundings and respond to humanoid communication.

She remembered Kira's words. She wouldn't let it down.

She studied the baby changeling's genetic makeup against the original research conducted not only on Odo but on samples taken from other changelings.

"This is very interesting," she thought. She tapped her combadge.

"Dax to Sisko. There's something you might like to see."


Kira was once again on the Defiant, headed for what had once been Cardassian space.

She thought about the baby changeling, who would never have a home to go back to

.
~Nerys, I guess I've come full circle. I'm a man without a people again.~ ~Odo, oh Odo, I'm sorry so sorry. . .~ ~You were there when. . .my homeworld was destroyed.~ ~I saw it on the viewscreen. All I could think of was you.~ ~That's very kind of you, Nerys. I'm. . .appreciative.~ ~Odo, talk to me! Don't walk away!~


They entered the Lanthos system, which was deep within what had once been Cardassian/Dominion space. Most of the planets were class-L worlds, with a couple of class-M planets that had housed auxiliary Jem'Hadar troops during the war.

"Commander, I'm picking up alert frequencies from Lanthos VII," Nog said.

"Locate the source of these frequencies," Kira replied.

Nog's fingers darted over the console. "I'm picking up a Jem'Hadar base."

O'Brien looked up, troubled. "The Jem'Hadar are *dead*! Who could be sending out comm signals?"

"That's for us to find out," Kira declared. "Nog, Chief, you're with me. We're going down to the surface to check it out."


The Jem'Hadar base stood in the middle of arid grassland surrounded by large, gnarled trees. The wind was strong yet balmy; insects buzzed through the air and birds twittered from knotty branches. The orderliness and calm around the base made it seem all the more forbidding.

"Set phasers to kill in case we actually *do* meet a Jem'Hadar," Kira told Nog and O'Brien.

~Of course,~ she thought, ~the chance of a Jem'Hadar jumping from out of nowhere is totally unlikely . . . unless there's a hidden supply of Ketracel white somewhere that we don't know about.~

Phasers drawn, Kira, Nog, and O'Brien crept up to the base.

The doorway was still open; they stepped into a dimly lit room littered with skeletons, all wearing Jem'Hadar uniforms.

Nog studied his tricorder. "Commander, I'm picking up a life form."

Kira stiffened.

"It's a Cardassian."

"Okay, we could have True Way here on this base," Kira replied. "Reduce phaser settings; if we do get a True Way terrorist, we want to take him in, not kill him."

"Whoever sent the comm signal could've been trying to contact other True Way fighters," O'Brien added.

She then tapped her combadge. "Kira to Defiant. We have evidence of possible True Way activity on this planet. If you see any True Way ships, beam us up *immediately*."

They stole down the hallway, following the source of the comm transmission, until they finally came to what appeared to be a small, dark control room. On the far side of the room was a door whose light still blinked red.

Huddled in front of the door was a dark, shuddering figure.

The figure wept and mumbled under his breath as he fiddled with the controls.

"Open please open you're in there you murderers don't sit there all proud and mighty duplicitous murderous you're in there and you won't leave this planet alive and you'll pay and you'll die I swear and I swear you'll pay..."

The voice was familiar. Kira sucked in her breath.

"Damar."

The figure turned around. He sized up Kira.

"Maaaaaaajor Kira," Damar sneered, his voice quavering. "You're one of them now. You're Starfleet." The last word came out like an epithet.

"What's on the other side of the door?" Kira asked calmly.

"Why does that interest you?" snarled Damar, his old boneheaded arrogance starting to show.

"It must be very important to True Way."

"So you know about me and True Way."

"That you were plotting with True Way to undermine Dominion presence on Cardassia? Come on, Damar. That's old news."

"And we almost *succeeded*!"

"Doesn't matter. Step away from the door."

"NO!"

"Damar, you heard what I said! Get away from the door *now*."

Damar let out an insane yell and lunged at her. She fired before he got within six feet and he dropped like a stone to the floor.

"Kira to Defiant. One True Way operative to beam straight to the brig."

The unconscious Damar dematerialized in front of them, and they stepped up to the door. Kira aimed her phaser at the lock, adjusted the setting, and fired.

Kira, Nog, and O'Brien entered, phasers drawn. In the hazy light, they could make out what appeared to be a sort of greenhouse...a nursery...

A nursery consisting of row after row of flasks containing fluids of different colors: copper, gold, silver, metallic blue, metallic rose, pewter gray.

O'Brien ran his tricorder over a flask of silvery fluid.

"It's a changeling, all right," he said.

"As a matter of fact," Nog added, "these are *all* changelings. Infant changelings."