Angle and Plane

Part Five: The Escape

..the link...the link...the link...the link...

...........odo do you feel do you think do you remember who is odo oh that is what the solids used to call me who are you now i am one with the link that is all good you are one of us we are one the link is one the link is all we are the link what of the solids what of your friends they were never my friends they are merely solids {{no!!}} they cannot understand the link is life the link is all we are the link you are home you are with us you will never be apart from us again {{i can't get out i can't escape them}} you are contented here i am contented here i have no wish to leave the link is one the link is life i am one with the link we have much to do you wish to help our plans move forward there is much for you to learn much to know we know much about the solids they have no idea you have missed much i am ready tell me i must know i must help i am one with the link {{nerys i'm sorry...they're too strong for me...}} the link is all the link is life...........

* * * * * *

For a moment, all Kira could do was stare. She'd been here before, standing at the edge of the Great Link, and it had been overwhelming then too...but she'd had Odo with her, and the awe had been tinged with the excitement of discovery. This time the awe was colored by anger and fear, and she didn't think she was just imagining the hostility she felt radiating off the Link.

She was also unsure just what exactly she was supposed to do. He was there, in the Link, she was certain of it...but how was she supposed to help him get out? She couldn't very well dive in as she had in her Orb vision. She turned around to speak to Briggs, then froze in mid-breath. Standing a few feet behind her where Briggs had been a mere moment ago was the gigantic protector figure from her vision. Kira's mouth dropped open and she blinked, and in that instant the giant was gone and Briggs was back. She was looking at Kira questioningly. "Now what?"

Kira felt the blood pounding in her ears and the pulse beating in her neck. It was a sign from the Prophets, that was the only explanation. It hadn't been a hallucination, she knew what she'd seen. She didn't stop to think but acted on instinct. She turned on her heel, marched to the edge of the Link, cupped her hands around her mouth and screamed his name with all her strength. The shout echoed across the rippling golden surface and bounced back, oddly amplified. Kira waited with held breath, for what she was not sure. She was getting ready to shout again when there was sudden movement at the edge of the Link. Startled, she scrambled back a few steps, then lost her balance and fell. Nora was bending to help her up when a Changeling detached from the Link and flowed towards them. Both women froze. Kira scarcely dared to hope that it would be him...surely it wasn't that easy. But it was not him...it was *her.*

The Foundress looked down upon the two women with a mixture of pity and condescension. "You have no business here," she said in her calm, even voice.

Kira jumped to her feet. "I've come to take Odo home," she said through clenched teeth.

The Foundress gave them an indulgent smile. "He is home, Major. Leave him be."

The thought suddenly burst into Kira's mind that she had to be careful. She must not give away that Odo had come here with a secret agenda. Even if he were under the Link's spell, the Changelings must not find out that he was trying to fool them. Assuming, of course, that they didn't already know. "He doesn't really want to stay here," she managed.

"Oh? He came to us ready to rejoin his people. Nothing you solids could offer him was strong enough to overcome that pull. The Link is where he belongs."

"That's not true!" Kira cried. "He belongs with me!"

The Foundress arched a nonexistent eyebrow. "With you?"

"You told him I could never love him...well, you were wrong! I *do* love him and I won't leave without him!"

She shook her head, infuriatingly calm in the face of Kira's desperation. "Your ephemeral emotions are insignificant compared to the power of the link, Major. Whatever he may have felt for you no longer matters. He is one with the Link, and he will never be apart from us again. He is a Founder now...just as he was always meant to be."

Kira's mouth opened and closed soundlessly. Her "ephemeral emotions" were rendering her speechless with too many things to say...and paralyzed with the fear that the Foundress was right, that her Odo had forgotten her, his mission and everything he'd said he cared about as soon as he rejoined the Link. "I...I don't believe you," she finally managed. She gritted her teeth together. "I won't allow you to take his soul, not now after he's finally begun to find peace."

"The arrogance of you solids is a continual surprise to us," the Foundress murmured. "You think you can give him what we can give him? You think that your shallow, verbal affections can replace the total harmony of the Link? He doesn't need you anymore, he's found his peace here with us." She saw Kira's disbelief but continued, unperturbed. "If you need proof...he knows you're here right now, as do we all. He asked us to give this to you." The Foundress drew her hand from the folds of her dress and held it out. Kira staggered back a step and was steadied by Briggs' hand on her shoulder. Dangling from the Foundress' fingers was her Orb charm. Kira reached out with a trembling hand and grasped the charm, closing it into her fist and pressing it to her heart, her eyes closed in dread. "Goodbye, Nerys." Kira's head snapped up and Briggs gasped...it was Odo's familiar, gruff voice issuing from the Foundress' ersatz lips. "You should go home. I am one with the Great Link now." The Foundress nodded to them, then her form melted back into the Link and was gone, leaving Kira standing motionless on the shore, her breath tearing in and out of her throat. She opened her fist and stared down at the necklace glittering on her palm.

Nora stepped up next to her. "Are you all right?" she whispered.

"No," Kira replied. She looked up at Briggs, her eyes flat. "How do I fight that? I don't know what to do," she said.

Briggs took a deep breath. "I don't think there's anything we can do, Nerys."

"He would have kept it," Kira said, fingering the necklace. "If there were any hope, if he were himself at all...he would have kept it." She sighed shakily and squeezed her eyelids shut. "They've won, Nora. It wasn't enough, *we* weren't enough."

Briggs felt a nagging suspicion in the far corners of her mind, but she knew Kira was probably right. "Come on, let's get out of here."

"Give me a minute," Kira said. Nora nodded and moved a few feet away. She watched as Kira went to the Link and knelt on the ground by its edge, bowing her head. Nora sighed. No one should have to go through this, she thought, silently cursing the Founders and their damned self-importance. After a few moments Kira rose and walked back, her face a study in misery but her eyes dry. "Okay. Let's go." Briggs signaled the runabout for beamup. As the transporter beams engulfed them, she saw Kira clutch the necklace again and her lips formed silent words.

"Goodbye, Odo. I love you."

* * * * * *

The Link stretched for many kilometers across the surface of the unnamed planet. On one edge of the vast expanse of linked sentience, Major Kira Nerys was kneeling in the dirt saying goodbye to a man she believed lost. On the opposite edge, a solitary changeling was moving stealthily through the Link towards the shore. Suddenly, the surface heaved once, twice, and three times, sending huge ripples spreading through the substance. Something was moving deep within the Link, rushing towards the world outside, and with a burst of effort Odo broke the surface and took the shape of a bird that streaked away through the sky as fast as its wings could carry it. Violent shudders ran through the Link at this unexpected and traumatic defection, darker ribbons of color swirling through its shocked consciousness.

He landed a few kilometers from the Link, reassuming his humanoid shape, then collapsed to the ground, spasms wracking his body. His form fluctuated wildly as he struggled to maintain control. Like a drug addict in rapid detox, he was almost completely debilitated. He pressed against a large boulder, needing a connection with any solid object. The Link was calling him, it was a very powerful urge. His mind was a muddle of disjointed thoughts and images and broken threads of the Link's thoughts. The last moments replayed themselves in his mind...

He had been in the Link, and content to remain so. Nothing mattered but the Link, yet there were alien thoughts in his mind that he would not allow them to see, though he could scarcely remember why they had to be kept secret, only that they had to be. He knew all that the Link knew, he was one with his people and it was paradise. Then...an image came to him through the Link. A woman, she was there on the shore. She shouted one word...it sounded so familiar, *she* was familiar. I know her...do I know her? You knew her. I remember...she is a solid that I knew, from before. Before the Link. She is...and then a slight twinge, not an emotion but a faint shadow of emotion, the faded sepia-toned memory of a feeling. But...the Link is sending her away. She kneels on the shore and I see...her face. I know that face.

He'd sensed something he'd forgotten to do, something he *had* to do...get away, I have to get away. But why? The Link is life, I am one with the Link.

A ripple passed through him, through his mind, as he watched Kira get up to leave.

He remembered...not really who she was or what she meant or how he felt, just that somehow, some way, he had to get free of the Link. He didn't know why, he could scarcely remember his name, but this was an imperative he couldn't ignore. He felt the shock and horror that shot through the Link as he made his move. Shock that he was escaping, and horror that he'd fooled them...and that he had knowledge he could use against them.

Odo moaned as his humanoid form slid and shifted, almost beyond his control. The Link...there is peace in the Link...he took three staggering steps back towards the Link and each step seemed to grow easier as he came one step closer to returning...see, it's easy, just come back, come to the Link, come home the link is life become one with the Link...

"Nooooo!!!" he screamed, and wrenched himself around, throwing himself at the boulder, away from the Link. I've got to get away, they'll be coming for me...but not for a little while, they're too shocked and confused right now. He tried to shift into a swifter form but he couldn't maintain control. With a shudder he collapsed into his natural state, pooled around the boulder, unconscious.

* * * * * *

Briggs piloted the runabout away from the Founders' homeworld with a heavy heart. Kira sat silent and still in the pilot's chair, turning her Orb charm over and over in her fingers.

"I'm here, Nerys," Briggs said simply.

Kira managed a slight smile. "I know." Her head fell back against the headrest and she swiped one hand across her eyes. "I've just come up against a bit of experience, Briggsie."

"What's that?"

"Love is a booby trap. The things that make it great are the same things that make it hurt. It makes you do things your intellect would never do." Nora said nothing, letting Kira spin her thoughts. "If he were just another officer I might say to hell with your Link and find some way to pull him out...but because I love him, his happiness is more important to me than my own. If he's found paradise in the Link, then I want him to keep it, even if it means I'll never see him again." Her voice cracked over the last words.

"Then you believe what she said?" Nora asked carefully.

"What else am I to believe?"

"That's entirely up to you."

"I can't reach him now."

"You sound resigned to losing him."

Kira let the necklace fall to the console. "Maybe I am. Maybe I started resigning myself as soon as I realized he really meant to take this mission."

Briggs' gaze fixed on the necklace. Something wasn't right, but she didn't know what...not yet. "Then why did you come all the way out here, Kira?"

Kira stood up and began to pace restlessly. "My Orb vision, I..."

"Don't give me that. You would have come out here even if the Orb had told you to go to Quark's and play tongo. Why?"

"Because!" Kira shouted. "I came because I felt helpless, I came because the need was flowing through me, I came because I didn't know what else to do!" She stopped and pressed a hand to her eyes, fetching a deep sigh.

"Nerys, I'm sorry..."

"No, it's all right." She smiled wearily. "You seem to have a knack for dragging the truth out of me, Nora, but it's a tiring business. I think I'm going to go in the back and meditate."

"Good idea." Briggs watched Kira disappear into the rear portion of the runabout, then she pounced on the necklace that was still lying on the console. Let's see what we can see, she thought, placing it in the analysis chamber.

* * * * * *

Odo snapped awake in a state of half-panic with no idea of how long he'd been unconscious. It couldn't have been very long, the sun hadn't moved appreciably in the sky...but he did feel a bit more in control of himself. He solidified into his humanoid shape. It was reassuringly familiar.

Memories were coming back to him in disjointed snatches. The woman who'd come here {{Kira her name is Kira}} Kira had come here and she'd...he broke off and raised his hand before his eyes, unsure of what would happen but helpless to do anything but follow the impulses that were washing over him. He concentrated, searching for something he knew he had, and then his eyes widened as a bulge appeared in his palm...and then an object broke the surface. A dry sob burst from his throat at the sight of it, and if he'd been able, he would have cried for her and for himself. The Orb charm dangled from his fingers, telegraphing little rays of light off its surface. He looked through it and saw Deep Space Nine, the place he'd almost forgotten, and the face of the woman who had saved him even if she didn't yet realize it. The memories...*his* memories...cascaded over him in a numbing tide that blocked out all conscious thought. He clutched the necklace in his fist and fell to his knees, quivering under the onslaught. His head fell back and a cry tore from his throat...and he was only marginally aware that he was screaming her name.

* * * * * *

"Kira!" She was jerked out of her meditation trance by Briggs' sharp exclamation, soon to be followed by the woman herself tearing around the corner.

"Prophets, what is it?"

Briggs grabbed her wrist and pulled her to her feet. "You need to see this." She dragged Kira to the scientific analysis station, where her Orb charm lie in the chamber.

"My necklace, what..."

"Shh. Watch." Briggs, a strange light in her eyes, pushed Kira close to the station and typed in a few commands. Before Kira's stunned eyes, the Orb charm melted like so much wax and became a small puddle of the familiar golden liquid of a Changeling. Briggs looked up at Kira...never had she seen such an expression of fury on a humanoid face.

"It's a Changeling," she hissed.

"Not quite. More like a proto-Changeling, a less evolved form that can be easily manipulated. It looks like they treated it with some sort of quantum radiation to lock it into this form. Once I isolated the resonance it was easy to counteract the effect."

Kira gaped at Briggs. "How did you know?"

She shrugged. "Just a hunch. She was separated from the Link, and yet she had the necklace right there immediately when she needed it to drive home her point. It was a little too convenient for me."

"So they pawned a phony necklace off on me to convince me he was lost and I just bought it," Kira said through clenched teeth. "Well, we'll see about that." She straightened up and put her hands on her hips, her eyes flashing like a thunderstorm. "Change course," she growled. "Take us back, Briggsie."

"Aye, sir," Briggs said with a grin, taking her station. Kira laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Thank you," she said. "I wouldn't have thought to examine the necklace."

"Yes, you would. Eventually."

"That might have been too late."

"It's never too late, Kira," she said, looking up at her.

Kira's face looked alive for the first time since they'd left the Founders' homeworld. "Let's hope not."

* * * * * *

Odo strode along the blank surface of the planet, maintaining his humanoid form for the moment because it was so familiar and reassuring to him. He needed some time to sort out the confusing thoughts in his mind before he could decide what to do. His recollections of his life on DS9 were intact and once again familiar to him, but his memories and knowledge of the Link were more difficult to understand. He knew many things, things he hadn't known before he'd joined the Link...things they wouldn't want him to know. They will be after me, he thought. They won't kill me, but they'll try to bring me back. The thought of going back to the Link still held a good deal of appeal, but he was quickly learning to put it out of his mind.

The blue man, I need to find the blue man. The blue man can help me, he can help me find the others. He didn't know who the blue man was, but he was someone whose image he remembered well from the Link...and he knew *where* he was. Araf Galnac. He was on Araf Galnac. What that was, he wasn't sure. He knew the Ganges had been destroyed...but the blue man can help me get home, the blue man has all the answers.

He stopped for a moment and tried to clear his head. He raised a hand to his chest and clasped the Orb charm. It helped. He was horrified that he had almost forgotten Nerys, almost forgotten the woman he loved, whose presence had been the only thing that could have given him the strength to leave the Link, and now she probably believed him lost to her forever. I'll make it up to you, he thought grimly. I promise...there's just a few things I have to take care of first.

He scanned the landscape. It was familiar to him though he'd never been here before. He knew its canyons and rock formations just as he knew there was a Jem'Hadar ship docked about a hundred kilometers away. He smiled to himself as that particular fact breached in his mind like a sunken ship raised to the surface. Of course...the Vorta must have to visit regularly to obtain orders, pick up Founders bound for distant worlds...and in this case, provide an getaway for a shipless escapee. He leapt into the air, his form shifting into an indigenous bird, and took off in search of transportation.

He sensed the presence of the landing facility before he saw it. The terrain surrounding it became more and more familiar...the Link must have many memories of trips to and from this place. It was an aboveground terminal able to support a number of Jem'Hadar landing transports at once. At the moment there was only one docked there. He considered his options. I could be bold and take humanoid form...simply waltz on board, announce myself and demand they take me where I want to go. There's no way they could know I'm the fugitive or even that there *is* a fugitive...but sooner or later the Founders will come after me and that's the first place they'll look. Best to sneak on board and make like a piece of the architecture.

He landed near the shuttle and shifted into a small winged insect. By the look of things the shuttle was preparing for departure. He slipped inside and headed for the bridge. Seemed his newly acquired Link-knowledge extended to familiarity with Jem'Hadar ship layout and technology...he was beginning to think Starfleet had known exactly what they were doing when they suggested this mission. He'd barely scratched the surface of the things he'd learned in the Link and it was already proving extremely useful.

He waited patiently on a wall of the bridge while the ship's pilot prepared for takeoff...and was relieved to note that he appeared to be setting the ship for automatic piloting and docking. He stood a good chance of finding the bridge unattended for at least a brief period. The transport's engines fired to life and he felt the ship leaving the ground. The pilot set course to rendezvous with their orbiting vessel and left the bridge.

Odo landed on the computer interface terminal and reassumed humanoid shape, keeping an ear cocked to the door. His fingers flew over the keypads...orders, orders, they must have their new orders...ah, here they are. Proceed to such and such colony, execute such and such imperatives, et cetera et cetera. He did a quick search in the main computer for any reference to an Araf Galnac...ahhh. It's a spaceport on the other side of the Denorious Belt. He scanned the available information. Not a very nice place according to this. Let's add a little stopover at Araf Galnac to their new orders...good place to...oh, let's see...pick up a status report from the local garrison, rotate some personnel...perfect. He entered the access codes and updated the orders. He quickly shifted back into insect shape as the transport began the docking sequence with the much larger Jem'Hadar warship in orbit, and not a moment too soon. The alpha Jem'Hadar reappeared on the bridge and completed the docking sequence, finishing by uploading the new orders. No one noticed the small bug that accompanied the Jem'Hadar sqaudron off the transport and immediately flew off to find a nice corner to hide in.

Odo reverted to his liquid state as he felt the ship's engines thrumm into warp. He let his thoughts drift to Nerys. A profound sadness washed over him at the thought of her returning to DS9 thinking him gone forever. I didn't let go, Nerys. I made it...we'll be together again soon and I swear I'll never leave you again. He settled in to regenerate en route to Araf Galnac...and the mysterious blue man.

* * * * * *

"Entering orbit," Briggs said.

Kira immediately initiated a scan of the Link. Her brow creased in frustration as she studied the readings. Briggs felt a sliver of fear slide into her belly as the minutes ticked by and Kira said nothing. Finally she slammed a hand on the console. "It's not there," she cried, frustrated.

"Are you sure?"

"See for yourself! No traces of latinum or iksarium present. The charm is g..." She broke off as she realized the implications. "Briggs...the charm is gone!"

"That could mean..."

"...that he's not in the Link." They stared at each other, hope dawning in Kira's eyes. "It's the only explanation. That necklace is not in the Link."

"Scan the surrounding area," Nora suggested.

"Can we use your...um, changeling detector? Can it detect a solitary changeling in the presence of so many others?"

"Boy, I'm on the ball...it sure can. Hang on a second." She leapt for her pile of tools as Kira kept scanning for the charm.

"It's not within several hundred kilometers of the Link," Kira reported, excitement creeping into her voice.

Briggs plugged the detector into the ship's scanners and pressed her face to the readout. "Scanning..." She shook her head. "I'm not picking up any Changelings except the Link."

Kira's brow furrowed. "He couldn't have...wait." She pulled up the sensor logs from their previous orbit. "According to this, when we were here before there was a Jem'Hadar warship in orbit on the far side of the planet and a transport on the surface. Both are gone."

Briggs' eyebrows shot up. "Could he have gotten off the planet on that ship?"

"It fits," Kira said, trying not to let her enthusiasm affect her interpretation of the evidence. "The only real clue we have is that necklace. If it's not in the Link then it must have been taken out of the Link, and who would have taken it out but Odo?"

"Which means he must have been able to free himself."

"Right. So if it's not on the planet...which it's not...then he must have gotten off the planet." She turned back to the sensors. "I'm picking up a residual ion trail from their engines, see if you can plot a course."

Briggs bent over the computer, plugging the sensor readings into the navigational array. "Reading course...217 mark 78," she said excitedly, turning to Kira with a big grin on her face. "By the subspace displacement the ion trail is four hours old."

Kira reached out and grasped Briggs' hand. "Plot a pursuit course and engage at maximum warp, Lt. Briggs."

"With pleasure, sir."

Kira sat back as the runabout warped after the Jem'Hadar ship, her heart in her throat. Never had she experienced such a wild fluctuation of emotions as in the last six hours, and it left her feeling a bit giddy. She tried not to let herself get her hopes up too far. She could still be wrong about any number of things...but this felt right to her, and she'd learned to trust her instincts. She smiled, deciding that it was okay to let herself hope after all.

Part Six: The Blue Man

Araf Galnac Commercial Spaceport and Docking Center (known colloquially as Ags) was a study in wild contrasts. Its designers had chosen the scenic countryside at the base of the towering mountains of Setlos IV, an uninhabited Class M planet, as the setting for their creation...but their large buildings and towering arrays of technological excess blocked most views of the surrounding landscape. The streets and strctures were shaded by hundreds of trees...yet they went virtually unnoticed by the populace. The facility was home to 10,000 lifeforms, yet nearly twice that many passed through on a daily basis, transitory citizens who constituted their more permanent counterparts' sole source of income. The architecture and layout of Ags was orderly and efficient, but the only constant there was chaos. There was no law on Ags. The closest thing to real authority was Docking Control, and their only concern was preventing orbital collisions, regulating the surface-to-air traffic and monitoring transporter activity. Although Ags was under titular Dominion control, the Founders' sporadic attempts to establish some semblance of order were mere piccolos in the raging, Sousa-marching brass band of lawlessness that was Araf Galnac. The Jem'Hadar were hopelessly outnumbered and inexperienced at dealing with the sorts of problems that plagued such an environment and were so ineffectual as to be viewed by most as objects of ridicule, even pity.

A Jem'Hadar landing transport docked in one of Ags' hundreds of bays. Fifteen Jem'Hadar and three Vorta trooped out, accompanied by an unnoticed insect which flew off through the congested streets. Odo had never seen so many widely varying lifeforms together in one place at the same time, and all of them seemed to be shouting at once. Bartering for goods, services, crew replacements...their relentless commercial clamor blended into a constant background roar that settled into Odo's mind, making it throb like a rotted tooth.

He soon observed that his usual humanoid form would be no more or less conspicuous than any other he could choose, so he flew into an alley and walked out again, clothing himself in a long cloak with a hood that he pulled over his head to shield his face from the casual glance. The blue man, I have to find the blue man...the recurring thought was just as persuasive as ever. I don't know where he is...or do I? He paused for a moment, lowered his eyes to the sidewalk and started walking, keeping his mind carefully blank and letting his feet take him where they might.

* * * * * *

The cloaked runabout warped through the Gamma Quadrant in pursuit of a blissfully ignorant Jem'Hadar warship. "Can you project a destination yet?" Kira asked for the thirtieth time.

"Checking," Briggs said patiently. To her surprise, this time the computer was able to give her an answer. "Looks like they're headed for Setlos IV. They should arrive in half an hour, we'll be ten minutes behind."

Kira was at her side in a flash. "What do we know about it?"

"Class M, uninhabited. One outpost...the Araf Galnac Commercial Spaceport and Docking Center, no less," she announced.

Kira grinned. "They must be headed there. I want to see the spaceport's dockcomm," she said, referring to the standard automated signal sent by most facilities of this kind (including DS9) to all incoming spacecraft.

Briggs' fingers worked over the keypads for a few moments, her brow creased in concentration. "Welcome to Araf Galnac," she read off the screen. "Transporter access unrestricted. Inquiries regarding orbital docking and surface-to-air traffic to be directed to Docking Control. Beamdown coordinates, blah blah blah. The usual windbaggage."

"Good. Odo will be looking for a way to get back to the Alpha Quadrant, I hope. Prophets, I wish we had a way to contact him! This would be so much easier if he actually knew we were here!"

"Once we beam down we can use the detector to help us locate him."

Kira was bouncing her knees up and down. "Can't we go any faster? The warship will have ten minutes head start on us!"

"Relax, Kira. If we go any faster we risk detection, even through the cloak. See if you can access the spaceport's computer. Forewarned is forearmed."

Kira set up the computer link, disguising her signal as a background tachyon wave, and began rummaging through their records. She spared a glance at Briggs' Starfleet uniform. She herself had changed into suitable civilian clothes hours ago. "You planning to beam down like that?"

Briggs stood up, unfastening her uniform jacket. "Hardly." Kira busied her self downloading pertinent documents into a PADD, watching surreptitiously as Briggs outfitted herself. "That certainly makes a statement," she finally commented. It was a disquieting transformation. In her Starfleet uniform it was easy to forget who Nora really was and just think of her as Briggsie. Kira could tell that this was...her *other* uniform, and it was one that looked like it meant business. It was black, of course, consisting of a bodysuit made of a tough-looking material Kira didn't recognize, knee-high jackboots and a tight turtlenecked vest that zipped up the front and came past her hips. Around her waist was strapped a gunbelt lined with small pouches and clip as well as a pair of holsters that held her guns not at her hips, but at the small of her back, one over each kidney. She made a quick check of each gun's ammunition clip before slipping it easily into place. "What's that for?" Kira asked, pointing to a small pouch sewn into the bodysuit at the side of her right thigh.

"This," Briggs said, taking a flat, compact dagger with an extremely short blade out of her weapons case.

"You'd have to get pretty close for that to do much good."

In the way of responding, Briggs held up the dagger, then pressed a small recessed button in the handle...and almost faster than Kira's eyes could reg ister the blade silently slid out to about three feet in length, gleaming and lethally sharp. Kira's eyes widened as Briggs pressed the button again and the blade retracted. She slipped it into the pouch, which had clearly been made to fit.

"What's the worst thing that's ever happened to you on the job?" Kira asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. Briggs thought for a moment as she fastened instruments and tools to her belt. An undefinable expression floated across her calm features and then was gone.

"The worst thing. Well, I was once captured by the Obsidian Order." Kira's jaw dropped. One did not usually live to say that sentence. "They...*interrogated* me for six days." She said this as if she were giving the results of a sensor diagnostic.

"Six *days*?!?"

"Yes. For the first few days, I was terrified they would kill me. After that, I was terrified that they wouldn't."

"What did they ask you?"

"Not a thing. They knew who I was and the kind of information I had. Just about anything I'd give up would have been useful."

"But you didn't, did you?"

"I wouldn't be here if I had."

Kira turned back to the computer. "You're lucky to have escaped alive." That statement earned a decidedly derisive snort in return. Kira looked at her companion, dreading the answer but helpless not to ask the question. "What did they do to you?"

Briggs looked up from refastening her boots and sighed. She held up her left hand as if she were asking permission to speak. "See this arm?" she said neutrally.

Kira closed her eyes and turned away. "Sweet Prophets," she murmured.

"Oh, don't be melodramatic. A few weeks of physical therapy, I was good as new. Better, in fact...the old one did have a distinctive birthmark on it, rather inconvenient in my line of work. True, it would have been less extreme just to have it removed..."

"How can you make jokes about it?" Kira exclaimed.

"It's that or wake up with screaming nightmares every night," Briggs retorted. "Not that I don't have my share of those," she added under her breath. She shrugged into a black thigh-length coat that had clearly been tailored to hide her weapons. "Kira, I doubt what I've gone through is any worse than what you went through during the Occupation. You lost your entire family, I only lost..." She broke off abruptly and looked away for a moment. "But enough about my misadventures. We have a mission to plan, do we not, Major?"

Kira smiled, glad to drop the subject. "We do, Lieutenant."

* * * * * *

Odo stared at his feet. He was walking at a steady pace, scarcely looking around, unconsciously clutching the Orb charm in one hand. When he came to an intersection, he didn't stop to think or analyze, he just went in the first direciton it occurred to him to go.

The blue man, the blue man...the thought was becoming rather annoyingly persistent. I'm close to him, he thought. But who the hell is he?

His walk took him through a maintenance area, a long crowded street packed with bars and houses of ill-repute, and finally into what could only be described as a residential district. The "homes" were really just small sections of large, monolithic structures arranged in a rabbit warren of narrow passageways and staircases. Odo walked on, undeterred when his steps took him into the shadows between two of these buildings. He turned down of the passageways and walked past door after door until he came to one and stopped.

Is he here? he thought. I don't know how I got here, can I trust myself? He examined the door. It was no different than any of the others, with no outward indication as to the identity of the person who lived behind it. He couldn't see anything that might have signaled him to stop here, yet he was sure he was right. With an inward shrug he reached out and knocked.

After a few moments the door was opened. Odo fell back a step...it was him. The blue man. Well...he wasn't blue, per se. In fact, his features looked human, although Odo had never seen a human quite like this. He had small metal objects sticking through various parts of his face...his nose, his eyebrow, his earlobes were especially adorned, yet even these odd ornaments were not his most striking feature. That distinction went to the man's hair. Odo had never seen a human with electric blue hair until now, and it stood up all over his head in a wild halo of spikes that seemed to defy gravity. That hair drew the gaze until it filled the entire field of vision...and it was this that Odo remembered from the Link. The blue man, indeed.

He had no idea what kind of reaction to expect, but nonetheless he was shocked by the reaction he got. The blue man looked at him for a moment, his head cocked thoughtfully, then his lips curled into a smirk.. "Ah. You must be Odo. I've been expecting you." He stuck out his hand. Odo, stunned into speechlessness, shook it. "Nam Dietzbader. Nice to meet you. You'd better come in before someone sees you." The blue man grabbed Odo's arm and dragged him inside, shutting and locking the door behind him.

* * * * * *

"Assuming geosynchronous orbit," Briggs said conversationally. Kira watched as she scanned the outpost, her face tight with anticipation. "Picking up one changeling on the surface," Briggs said, a smile flirting about her lips.

"Can you pinpoint his location?" Kira said excitedly.

"Unfortunately this thing's only accurate to within three kilometers from this distance. We'll have more luck on the surface. And forget the necklace," she said, heading off the question that she could see forming behind Kira's lips. "On the Founders' planet it was the only object of its kind but around here we'll never zero in on it." She plugged the detector into a tricorder and slipped it into its pouch on her belt.

Kira bent over the sensors. "Let's find a nice secluded area to beam into."

"Why not the central transport station?"

"You don't think they'll be suspicious when we beam in without a ship in orbit?"

"Fair enough."

Kira found what she was looking for. "There..that'll do nicely." She fed the coordinates into the computer. "Ready?" she said, looking up at Briggs.

"Let's go get him," she said. Kira stepped to the transporter and they vanished in a shimmer of dematerialization energy.

* * * * * *

Odo stared at Dietzbader, who stood there with his arms crossed over his chest, looking for all the world as if Odo's confusion was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. "How...who are you? How did you know who I am?"

Dietzbader laid a finger aside his nose. "I have my sources. This..." he said, picking up a small instrument from the table, "told me you were on the surface. Caught a lift on the warship, did you? Good thinking. I suspected you might come find me. And I told you who I am. Nam Dietzbader," he said tapping his own chest. "Call me Dietz."

"Are...are you human?"

Dietzbader shrugged. "Depends on your definition of human."

Odo was gradually regaining his composure. "I'm..."

"Odo, yes, I know. The Changeling from the Alpha Quadrant. Listen, pal, you may have been Mr. Authority over there but from where I sit you're a fugitive and we don't have much time. They'll be sending a hunter after you and trust me, you don't want him to find you."

"A hunter? You mean they'd..."

"Kill you? No way. His job will be to bring you back. Before it was all nicey-nice, am I right? A lot of sweet talk about how you belong in the link and yadda yadda yadda? Well, you fooled 'em good this time and they're pissed. Besides, you know too much."

"So I gathered," Odo said dryly, sinking down on one of Dietz' few articles of furniture, a wooden chair. "How do you know so much about the Link?"

"I used to do grunt work for the Vorta. You hear things, and with a little creative computer work you can get a look at a lot of their comm traffic. I still got a few friends in the garrison office. The bulletin about you came in an hour ago. I'd say we got about three hours before the hunter gets here." He picked up the instrument he'd referred to before. "This little jobbie can read a changeling's bioelectric signal. It means we can find him, but he's got one just like it which means he can also find you...unless we make you invisible." He put down the detector and rummaged in a drawer, finally coming up with a small flat disc about two inches in diameter. He handed it to Odo, who just stared at it.

"What's this?"

"It's a dampening interference field generator. It'll mask your Changeling energy signature so he can't find you. Nice, huh? Friend of mine designed that. All you gotta do is draw it into your chest...the one problem is that while it's in there you'll be stuck, so we gotta decide what shape is best...let's see..."

Odo stood up. "Listen, Mr. Dietzbader..."

"Dietz."

"Yes, Dietz...clearly, you have some sort of agenda here that I'm not aware of. You must have been expecting me for some time to have all these plans in place. Now, I don't know what it is and frankly, I don't care. All I care about is finishing my mission so I can get back to the Alpha Quadrant with the information I have and get on with my life!"

Dietzbader nodded appraisingly. "And what do you need to complete this mission?"

Odo sighed. "A ship, mostly...an unobtrusive, fast ship that can get me around the sector and then back through the wormhole."

"And how did you plan to procure such a conveyance, may I ask?"

"I'll thank you not to sneer. And I really hadn't thought that far ahead. My first order of business was to find you."

"And so you have...and it just so happens that I own a ship that should suit your purposes." Odo started to speak, his face alight with excitement, but Dietzbader cut him off. "No doubt that's why you sought me out. The Link knows me...much to my chagrin...and through the Link you know me too whether you're conscious of it or not. But you gotta understand...I've been waiting for someone like you for a long time," he said, stepping closer and speaking in low, conspiratorial tones. "Do you think that resistance to the Dominion is limited to your little quadrant? None of us are in positions to do any real harm, but you are. I'll take you anywhere you want to go, Changeling, on one condition."

"What's that?"

"You take me with you, and any...associates that we pick up. Back to your quadrant. Beating them there is the first step to beating them here."

Odo thought for a moment...but only for a moment. What choice did he have? "You've got yourself a deal, Dietz."

Dietz clapped his hands together and grinned. "Great. Now. Shape. Umm...can you give me a good Jem'Hadar?"

Odo rolled his eyes. "They're so detailed." He shut his eyes and shifted carefully under Dietz' critical eyes.

"Shorter. No, too slender. Umm...the head spikes are too close together. Now fix the eyes...don't forget the White dispenser...there! Hold it!" He grabbed the interference disc out of Odo's hand and pressed it to his chest. "Take this now, carefully." Odo drew the disc into his substance, feeling a very slight electric sensation emanating from it. Testing Dietz' words, he tried to shift and found that he couldn't...well, at least I don't have to worry about losing the shape at an inconvenient moment, he thought. Dietz picked up his changeling detector and ran it over Odo, nodding and murmuring to himself. "Great...you don't register at all." He snapped the detector closed and beamed a wide smile. Odo was less amused.

"Why a Jem'Hadar?"

"This way we can walk around freely and it'll look like you have me under arrest. I'm not the most popular guy around here. The Vorta suspect I'm in the resistance but they haven't caught me yet. Chasing dissident 'solids' isn't exactly priority one for the Founders."

"Of course not, they'd consider it insignificant."

"You got it."

Odo looked around. "Now what?"

"Now...we wait."

"Wait for what?"

"For the Hunter to get here. We can't make a break for it while he's so close, he knows my ship, he'd be on our tail the entire way. We've got to take care of this one first. The Founders won't be able to send another one for a few days, and by that time we'll be long gone."

"Take care of this one?"

Dietz sobered. "How far are you prepared to go, Odo? I know you killed a Changeling once."

Odo's head snapped up. "That was self-defense! He would have started a war!"

"Well, this is self-defense too. He'll take you back. Is that what you want?" Odo said nothing, just sat and stared at Kira's necklace. Dietzbader watched him, curiosity bubbling in his mind, but he held his tongue...for now.

* * * * * *

"Dammit! I lost the signal!" Briggs hissed.

Kira pulled her to the side of the roadway. "What do you mean you lost the signal?"

"Did I stutter? I'm not getting a reading anymore. I told you this thing was sensitive to interference..." She scanned the rooftops and the sky. "All these transmitters, it's bound to screw things up."

Kira spread her arms in frustration. They were standing at the mouth of a small alley between two restaurants. Kira had initially been concerned that they, a Bajoran and a human, would raise suspicion seeing as they weren't Gamma Quadrant natives, but that worry had soon proved baseless. One could walk around here spurting blood from every orifice and no one would spare a second glance. "Great. That's just great! Now what do we do?" Kira couldn't help the note of agitation that was creeping into her voice. They couldn't fail now, not after being so close...he was here, in this spaceport, Kira could almost feel him.

Briggs put the detector away. "The important thing is not to panic," she said. "Who's panicking?" Kira chewed on a knuckle, thinking. "Well, I guess we do this the old-fashioned way...split up and search."

"But we don't even know what form he'll be in! He couldn't risk walking around looking like himself, any Vorta or Jem'Hadar might recognize him!"

Kira paced back and forth restlessly. Briggs watched her, hoping she'd have a brilliant idea, because she herself was fresh out of brilliance. Kira stopped pacing and fixed Briggs with a thoughtful stare. "What we need to do is think like Odo," she said.

"Well, you'd be better at that than I would."

Kira pulled out the PADD and began paging through the information she'd downloaded from Ags' central computer earlier. "The Jem'Hadar warship he arrived on wasn't originally scheduled to stop here," she said thoughtfully. "According to these records their visits are planned weeks in advance but this ship just showed up with only a few hours' warning."

"Jem'Hadar making an unscheduled stop?"

"Unlikely. Their orders must have been altered at the last minute to include a trip here."

"You think Odo altered them?"

"If you were searching for passage to the Alpha Quadrant, where better to look for it than here? He must have disguised himself as a member of the crew so he could have access to their bridge." Briggs pulled out her tricorder and made a surreptitious scan. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to locate the landing party. If he's passing himself off as a Vorta or a Jem'Hadar he'll probably have to stick pretty close with them so they don't get suspicious. They're not known for striking out on their own."

"If I know Odo...and I know him well...he'll find a way to make discreet inquiries."

"It could take him months to work his way back to the Alpha Quadrant this way," Briggs muttered. "And...he might not make it before the Founders find him."

"All the more reason for *us* to find him before he succeeds and leaves the planet for Prophets know where."

"I'm reading...fifty-seven Jem'Hadar and nine Vorta on the surface. Forty-nine Jem'Hadar and six Vorta are at the garrison headquarters, the others..." She peered at the readings and tightened the scan. "I think I found our landing party. Seven at the garrison office, eight near the transport terminal."

"How can you tell which are which?" Kira asked, mystified.

"By the ketracel. As you know, no two batches are chemically identical...fifteen of these Jem'Hadar are being supplied from the same batch, the other forty-two from a different batch. Logical conclusion."

Kira smiled. "Not bad, Briggsie."

"Elementary, my dear Kira."

"What's that mean?"

"Have Odo explain it to you sometime. Now what?"

Kira looked in one direction, then the other. "I'll take the garrison, you take the transport terminal."

Briggs held out a hand. "I'm not sure it's such a good idea for us to split up."

"You got a better idea? We don't have all the time in the world! We have our communicators, we can stay in contact. If he's with the landing party he's bound to see one of us." She met Briggs' dubious look. "Nora, please. We can each take care of ourselves. We've got to find him before he leaves this planet."

Briggs sighed, relenting. "All right, all right. You be careful," she cautioned as Kira turned to leave.

"Hey...just because you're the trained killer doesn't mean I'm a wilting haspe flower." She clasped Briggs' hand briefly and shot off through the crowd. Briggs turned and went the other way, pushing aside the feeling that this was a bad idea.

* * * * * *

Odo shifted his weight from foot to foot, uncomfortable in this strange form. Behind him, Dietzbader (he was having to remind himself not to refer to him as "the blue man") was tinkering with some instrument or another...he certainly had a lot of instruments. It only cemented Odo's suspicion that Dietz was a practiced criminal, no matter how honorable his motives. Honorable motives or otherwise, he was a criminal whose help Odo desperately needed.

"So Odo," he finally said cheerfully. "Tell me a story, compadre!"

Odo spared him a sidelong glance. "I'm not here to entertain you, Dietz."

"Ah, but I suspect you have so *many* interesting stories."

He sniffed. "I don't suppose you want to hear 'The Three Brothers Who Go to Jo'Kala.'"

Dietz paused. "Huh?"

Odo waved a scaly hand at him. "Never mind. It's a story that Nerys likes to tell to..." He trailed off. Dietz was onto him like a bloodhound.

"Nerys, huh? Who's this?" Odo didn't answer. "Can this be the person who helped you get out of the Link?"

"Who says anyone helped me?" Odo snarled.

Dietz didn't back down. "No one could escape the Link on their own, Odo. You'd need something to hang onto from outside the Link, something to escape for." Odo sat down dispiritedly, for the first time grateful for his near-expressionless Jem'Hadar features. "The eyes still give away much, Odo," Dietz said, as if reading his thoughts. "Who is this Nerys? Who is she that she makes your eyes look off to somewhere far away and makes you study that necklace like it holds the key to the universe?"

Odo sighed and began speaking, some part of his mind wondering why he was confiding in this near-stranger...and yet, he felt so much like he knew this man, like there was some connection. Through the Link, no doubt. "Kira Nerys is the first officer of Deep Space Nine, the station where..."

"I know what DS9 is. Go on."

"Well, Kira is...very important to me."

Dietz leaned forward eagerly. "How important?"

Odo glanced at him, his unchanged blue eyes flashing. "She is my...my..."

"Your girlfriend?" Dietz said, incredulous.

Odo smiled and shook his head. "Such an inadequate term to describe our relationship."

"It is, isn't it?"

Odo held up the necklace. "This is hers. She gave it to me before I left. It's very precious to her, so she made me promise to return it undamaged or she'd exact a severe penalty."

Dietz chuckled. "I think I like her already."

"You'd be in good company, most everyone does. She's not like me at all. She wears her passion on her face, she keeps nothing back. Everything she does or feels or thinks or believes, it's with her whole being." His eyes were far away as he spoke of her. "She's the better part of myself," he said softly, almost forgetting Dietz was there. "I can still scarcely bring myself to believe that she loves me."

Dietz sat back, a dreamy expression anachronistic on his cynical, oft-punctured face. "Imagine. A Changeling in love."

"You sound surprised."

"I am a bit. Changelings aren't known for their meaningful social attachments. The Link is their ultimate, anything else pales in comparison."

"Given the evidence that my love for Kira was enough to overcome the power of the Link, perhaps they should reassess that attitude."

Dietz laughed and clapped his hands together, delighted. "Well put! Well put! I like you, Odo. You're not like any Changeling *I've* ever had any contact with."

"I expect not. Have you had contact with many?"

"More than I wished to, I can tell you that. They represent everything I hate. Their smug superiority, their arrogant tyranny over everything they can see...their callous, casual cruelty towards anything not like them and most of all their total and utter dismissal of anything they don't understand." Dietz' words were filled with anger...he stopped and looked a bit embarrased, realizing he'd made a bit of a speech.

Odo nodded. "You're rather eloquent for..." There was no way to finish the statement without insulting Dietz, who spared him the trouble.

"For a petty, common, unsavory character? I suppose I am. I wasn't always a petty, common, unsavory character, you know. " He picked up the instrument he'd been fiddling with. "But enough about me, I want to hear more about Kira! What does she look like? I'll bet she's the kind of woman to make you believe in the Almighty!"

Odo chuckled. "You don't give up, do you?"

At that moment a soft alarm went off. They both froze and Dietz grabbed the detector. He pushed a few controls, then raised his eyes to Odo's.

"It's the Hunter. He's here."

* * * * * *

Part Seven: The Chase

The Jem'Hadar scout ship glided into its assigned docking port, its passenger ramp sliding quietly to the dusty ground. Flanked by two Jem'Hadar in front and in back, the Hunter calmly strode out of the ship, his face serene and nearly featureless, even more so than Odo's regular face. Only the barest suggestion of eyes, nose and mouth gave any indication that he was condescending to humanoid form in grudging acquiescence to his bipedally biased surroundings.

He held out a hand to the nearest Jem'Hadar, who placed a small, sleek instrument into it without beign asked. The Hunter took a few readings then returned it. "I cannot read him from this distance," he said in unnaturally even tones. "We must scout the facility to be certain."

The Hunter and his escorts moved away from the ship and into Ags' busy thoroughfares, given a wide berth by all who saw them. The Jem'Hadar alone were hardly cause for deference but a Founder...that was a presence of which to be cautious.

* * * * * *

Nora Briggs was aware of the Traxian following her a few minutes after he started doing so. He was keeping rather obviously to the very edge of the busy marketplace...hoping to be inconspicuous but actually accomplishing the exact opposite...and every time she stopped and glanced in his direction he would studiously look the other way. Amateurs, Nora thought with silent disdain. Amateurs or not, this was cause for concern. Traxians were notorious as stooges of the Jem'Hadar and they always worked in groups. They were usually conscripted by the Vorta to tag along with Jem'Hadar squads to watch for snipers, spies...or followers, like herself and probably Kira as well. They were moderately skilled hunters and fighters, but Briggs' skill was greater.

She knew where the Jem'Hadar landing party was, they were up ahead in the transport terminal, but she couldn't go any further with this annoying Traxian on her tail. She stopped and made a rather big show of glancing in his direction. True to form, he turned away, ostensibly studying a featureless wall. When he turned back she'd vanished. The Traxian's eyes widened a bit and he darted forward, seeking the black clothing and sleek brown head of his prey...but she was nowhere to be found. He pushed forward through the crowd...then froze as he felt a sharp, short blade pressing into his back. "Let's go," came the low command from behind him, two fingers on his neck pinching his dorsal nerve bundle painfully.

She guided him through an alley to a vacant backlot behind the stores, then slammed him up against the wall, her forearm pressed across his neck and her knee wedged firmly in his abdomen. "Why are you following me?" she demanded in her best predatory growl, known to strike fear into the hearts of Breen.

"You were following them," the Traxian managed in his native, oddly whistling tones.

"Did they tell you to follow me?"

"No! We're supposed to watch for any unusual..."

"Did you tell anyone?"

"What...I..."

She punctuated the request with a sharp upthrust of her knee. "Did you TELL anyone?"

"Let him go," came a new, similarly whistling voice. Nora didn't have to look around to know it was the rest of the Traxian's cadre. Damned pack hunters, never a fair fight. She relaxed slightly and her prisoner wriggled out from underneath her. She turned to face them, her mind registering seven Traxians. "You're far from home, human," said the tallest Traxian...the leader, therefore, by default.

"I'm touched by your concern."

"Why are you following our masters?"

"Wouldn't you like to know."

"Yes, I would," the Traxian said, oblivious to her sarcasm.

"Too bad."

The Traxian glanced at his cadre and drew his batrel (a sort of weighted billyclub) out of its sheath. "You will tell us, human."

"No, I won't."

"Then you'll die."

"Okay." The Traxians stood there for a moment, puzzled at her lack of resistance. Finally, deciding that it wasn't any of his business why she didn't mind dying, the lead Traxian signaled two of his cadre to move in. Briggs stood stock still in a supplicative posture as they advanced, the excitement of an easy prey in their slitted eyes. They rushed her, batrels raised. She waited till the last possible second, then her left hand flashed out and clamped around the bigger one's wrist, stopping his batrel in mid-swing as her leg pistoned out in the opposite direction, planting her foot in the other one's chest with enough force that she felt his ribs break under her boot. She twisted the big one's arm up behind him, the batrel falling from his fingers, then drove her elbow into the hollow of his throat. He dropped like a stone. This took about 1.5 seconds.

She slid her dagger out of its sheath and faced the other six Traxians, who'd scarcely had time to react. Two rushed her from either side...too easy, really. She stepped out from between them and let them collide, raising her dagger to a third as he started forward. It looked too short to reach him and he kept coming. Nora pressed the button as she flicked the dagger almost casually in a flat arc at neck level. The long blade whickered through the air, quickly retracted so as to almost be invisible. The Traxian stopped short, appearing shocked but uninjured, and by the time his head toppled off a few seconds later Briggs was on to other matters. She stepped over the two who'd collided...one was unconscious from the impact, the other from a quick chop to the back of the neck as he got to his feet. Five down, three to go. Eight seconds had elapsed since the first two had attacked her.

One of the remaining three Traxians grabbed her from behind, reaching for her throat with his sharp-nailed fingers. Briggs whipped her head back, cracking her skull into his nose while she relieved him of his batrel. He immediately released her, staggering backwards with his hands to his face, and was efficiently dispatched with a tight back spin kick to the jaw. She whirled around, swinging the batrel forward to meet the leader's mere inches before it would have connected with her forehead. He backed off and swung it again. Nora faked a thrust then ducked and rolled behind him, lightning-quick, and swung the batrel in quick succession against the back of his neck and the backs of his knees. He made an impressive "thud" when he hit the ground. She turned and faced the last Traxian, a big lumbering specimen, who stood a few feet away, batrel raised. She grinned and beckoned him forward with two fingers. He dropped the batrel and ran.

Dammit, I can't have him alerting his little buddies, she thought...they'll be all over me like the plague. You couldn't have just beat the crap out of him, you had to be all cutesy...and I'll never catch him, damn Traxians are like antelopes. Her hand flashed to her waist with eerily liquid speed as she drew one of her guns and shot him. She sighed, the cold-bloodedness of that act casting an oily sheen over her mind. Shoot an unarmed Traxian in the back...good one, dimtwit. Very heroic. Be sure to include that in your report, Kira will be impressed. She reholstered her gun and crouched next to the leader. It wasn't the first time she'd done something distasteful and it wouldn't be the last.

"Wake up, you," she said, breaking a small capsule of ammonia under the Traxian's nose. He gurgled something and rolled over, recoiling as he saw her.

"You can't be human," he managed.

"Wanna bet?"

"What do you want?"

"I want to know if the Jem'Hadar asked you to follow me."

He shook his head weakly. "We're always supposed to watch for anyone following them."

"You're lying," she hissed. "If that were true you'd have taken me away for interrogation, but you were going to just kill me without reporting it." She leaned on his chest to impress her urgency upon him.

"Okay, okay! The Vorta said to be on extra lookout for two women, one human and one Bajoran!"

"And they said it was okay to kill the human?"

"Yes! Yes!"

"What about the Bajoran?"

"I don't know..." Briggs reached back and squeezed his dorsal nerve bundle. "Okay! Okay! If we see her we're supposed to take her to the garrison solitary cell!"

"Where's that?"

"Just behind HQ!"

Briggs let him collapse back onto the ground, her mind racing. First order of business...make yourself scarce. She quickly counted Traxians to make sure none had escaped to sound the alarm, then slipped into the shadows and was gone. The streets were too risky now...she spied an iron ladder running up the side of a building and swung herself up, quickly scaling to the roof. She crouched at the edge where she could survey the street unseen...from here she could see the transport terminal. She pulled out a small visual scanner and zoomed in on the crowd. Sure enough, there were the Jem'Hadar. One...two...three...she counted eight Jem'Hadar and two Vorta, the same as her tricorder readings indicated. Odo wasn't with them. If he were, there would be an extra Jem'Hadar or Vorta who didn't register as such. She pocketed the scanner and headed towards the garrison HQ, moving as fast as possible from rooftop to rooftop, keeping low. She pulled her combadge out of her pocket and tapped it. "Briggs to Kira," she hissed into it. "Kira, respond...urgent!" No answer. "Bloody hell," she muttered, and picked up the pace. Teach you to ignore your instincts, dimtwit.

* * * * * *

Kira proceeded as casually as possible towards the garrison headquarters...as casually as possible, that is, while she was having to hold herself back from blasting her way into the building, phasering everyone inside and demanding to know where Odo was. The road leading up to the long, low structure was a crowded business thoroughfare and it was easy to blend in as she made her way forward.

Her failure to notice the Traxian tailing her was probably the result of several factors. Under normal circumstances she would doubtless have become aware of her not-so-subtle shadow, but these were hardly normal circumstances. She was singularly focused on her objective to the point that it blotted out almost everything else, and her underlying, growing desperation to find Odo before he could slip away...perhaps never to return...was like a low-grade fever that dulled the senses and numbed the instincts. Perhaps the steady roar of the crowds deafened her. Perhaps the distracting dapples of bright sunlight through the trees blinded her. Perhaps her fear of losing the man she loved so soon after finding him muddied her thinking. Perhaps the stars and planets were misaligned and all the gods in the heavens had decided that Kira Nerys was overdue for a little bad luck.

Whatever the reasons, she was unaware that she was surrounded by a cadre of nine Traxians until one of them grabbed her and dragged her into a nearby alley. She stamped on his foot reflexively and when he let her go in pain, she turned round and swung a left hook at his jaw. Her aim was as accurate as ever but adrenaline made her overthrow the punch and she lost her balance momentarily...but it was enough for three more Traxians to pile on top of her. Despite her struggles, she was gagged, manacled and knocked unconscious to be carried away by the cadre, whistling to each other at their victory.

* * * * * *

"Hold your gun up higher, you'd never pass inspection."

"Interesting advice seeing as it doesn't function."

"We're only concerned with appearances here, Stretch."

"Good, because this weapon's only use at the moment is as a blunt instrument."

Odo and Dietz had perfected the art of talking out of the sides of their mouths without moving their lips as they walked nonchalantly through the streets of Ags. Dietz was handcuffed and Odo had him firmly by the arm, the subject of this discussion cradled in the crook of his elbow.

"Where exactly are we going?"

"To a friend's. He has a terminal he cobbled together, I can use it to access Docking Control and find out where the Hunter's ship is docked."

Odo had stopped wondering hours ago if Dietz was too good to be true...now he was just wondering when he'd find *out* that he was too good to be true. "If the Hunter can't get a reading on me, perhaps he'll assume I'm no longer here and leave."

"That's exactly what he'll do, especially since the ship you came in on left an hour ago. I can rig an explosive device that'll destroy his ship right after takeoff."

Odo stopped, forcing Dietz to stop as well. "Is that really necessary?"

"Odo...we've been over this already. We can't leave while he's in the system."

"Can't we just wait until he's far away?"

Dietz sighed. "That Hunter is a lot smarter than you're giving him credit for. He'll leave, but it won't take him long to figure out that you gave him the slip. He'll be back, and I'm the first person he'll think to focus on. We have to eliminate him if we don't want to be running from him for weeks...and if we run, he *will* catch us. Maybe not tomorrow or the next day or the next...but you can't wear that disc forever, it's not good for you. He'll catch us, he'll kill me and he'll take you back to the Link and this time no one will be there to help you get out! You'll forget everything you ever thought was important, you'll never complete your mission and you'll never see your Kira again!" Dietz had been steadily leaning towards Odo, his words becoming more and more heated as he spoke. Odo just stared at him for a moment. He's right, a part of his mind whispered, you know he is. That Hunter would see you back in the Link and Dietz dead, as well as anyone else who got in his way. Your mission is too important, you can't do it with that Hunter on your tracks, always looking over your shoulder and wondering if he's one step behind you...or ahead of you. You have to get back to DS9...for the first time, you have something to get back *for.* It was perhaps that, more than anything, that made him agree...the memory of holding Kira in his arms and the thought that he might never do so again.

"All right," he said quietly. "Let's go."

* * * * * *

Kira woke up in a cell. Boy, if I had a lita for every time I woke up in some kind of cell I could retire, she thought, rubbing her pounding head.

She sat up, panic flooding her as she realized where she was and what had happened. Her cell was small, with three solid duranium walls and one made of bars through which she could see a medium-sized room with a desk and a terminal. She peered through the bars, trying to read the chronometer...then sagged, relieved. She'd only lost about fifteen minutes, hopefully not a fatal delay. Lucky for me Bajorans have thick skulls, I haven't been unconscious very long, she thought. She fumbled for her combadge but it was gone, as was her phaser.

Those Traxians were after *me,* she thought. This is bad. They're probably on the lookout for Briggs too...hopefully she'll have better luck than I did. Why didn't I see them? Stupid, stupid...she berated herself as she considered her options, what few there were. She rattled the cell door fruitlessly...it wasn't locked, it was the type of door that was sealed and had to be reopened with a chemical agent. She dropped to the ground and hugged her knees to her chest, despair flooding her pagh in spite of herself. They've got Nora too, her mind whispered. Perhaps she's dead....and you would be responsible, you dragged her out here. Without her help you've no real hope of escape. They'll keep you in here for days, Odo will be gone, then they'll kill you and the Founders will catch him and take him back to the Link. Kira let her forehead drop to her knees and sighed. It wasn't like her to be this fatalistic but the situation didn't inspire optimism. Oh, Odo...I wish I could just see you one last time, she thought. One last time to feel your arms around me and hear you say my name in that way you have that makes my spine tingle.

And what would he think if he could see you now? another voice in her mind spoke up. Sitting on the floor of your cell feeling sorry for yourself, cowering like a frightened animal. Kira jumped up, gritting her teeth. We'll see who's cowering. She grabbed the cell bars in her manacled hands and shook them. "Hey!" she shouted. "You can't keep me in here! I demand to see who's in charge!" She shouted the first things that popped into her mind. All she really wanted was to find out if they'd captured or killed Briggs. If not...there was still hope.

* * * * * *

Briggs crouched at the edge of the roof over a gambling establishment. Directly across the road was the garrison office, and just beyond it a smaller building with its own security system. As she watched through her visual scanner, several Jem'Hadar came and went. She pulled out her tricorder and confirmed one Bajoran female inside the structure.

On a sudden hunch, Briggs took out the changeling detector and started a scan. A short, surprised laugh escaped her throat as a clear reading came up. She tightened the scan...definitely changeling lifesigns, about half a mile from here, moving in the direction of...she quickly switched off the scanner. The changeling was moving towards the docking area. If he'd found transport off the colony, they were definitely running out of time. Her immediate problem was one of how to get herself to Kira as quickly as possible. She couldn't jump to the ground, it was too far and too conspicuous. If she retraced her steps till she found a ladder she'd end up blocks away. Her eyes scanned the street below...then locked onto the towering deciduous tree in the middle of the roadway. It was chancy, but...

Briggs tucked the tricorder back into her belt, her eyes fastened upon a large, sturdy-looking branch that curved towards her about eight feet away. She backed up a few paces, gauging the distance, then ran at the edge and flung herself off, her hands reaching through the dense foliage towards the branch. For a split second she was sure she'd misjudged and that she'd missed the branch. She waited for gravity to overcome momentum and pull her to the ground where she'd soon be so much scarlet sludge on the pavement...but then her hands fastened securely around the branch and she was swinging herself up. She scampered through the tree, unseen from below through the broad, green leaves. The garrison HQ loomed before her but she couldn't chance leaping onto its roof, it was probably wired. A solution soon presented itself in the form of the next tree. She swung herself into it and proceeded along the side of the building, moving as quickly as she dared from branch to branch, until she'd made her way behind the building. The solitary cells were just beneath her. She lowered herself to hang from a low-slung branch, then dropped silently to the ground in the shadows of the narrow passageway behind the building, drawing one of her guns.

* * * * * *

"He's moving towards the docking area," Dietzbader said out of the corner of his mouth. He was hunched in a corner, pretending to answer the call of nature but in actuality scanning the area with his changeling detector. "I...I think he's heading back to his ship, but we're way ahead of him. Plenty of time."

"He certainly gave up quickly," Odo muttered. He was standing with his back to Dietz, gun raised, apparently guarding his indisposed prisoner.

"A bit of a Founder failing...excessive faith in their technological superiority. You don't show up on their scanners, ergo you're not here. The idea that their scanners could be fooled wouldn't occur to them."

"Typical."

Dietz turned around and they resumed their course towards Docking Bay 35T where the Hunter's ship was docked, according to the Ags central computer. "So, Stretch...you were going to tell me more about Kira?"

Odo spared him the merest suggestion of a glance. "This is hardly the time or place."

"But I'm dying of curiosity. I'd think you'd be thrilled to talk about her!"

Odo allowed himself the barest hint of a smile. "I suppose I can't deny that it's a subject in which I do have more than a passing interest."

Dietz chuckled. "So we're agreed then. What does she look like?"

"If you're this obsessed with surface details it's no wonder you're still single."

"This coming from someone who can look any way he likes! Okay, I'll make it easy on you. What color is her hair?"

"Red."

"Ooh, I love redheads."

"Dietz, I refuse to engage in this...cataloguing of Kira's physical characteristics. Suffice it to say that she is very beautiful, inside *and* out. I'm sure you'll meet her eventually and your curiosity will be satisfied."

"Oh, you're no fun at all."

"So I've been told." He paused. "This explosive device your friend gave you..."

"Most reliable, I assure you."

"What's the trigger?"

"Altitude. When they reach 1000 meters it'll blow. No more Hunter."

Odo glanced at him. "Won't that endanger the civilians here?"

"Oh no. The outpost is covered by a security force field, any debris will be vaporized as it hits the field." He examined Odo's Jem'hadar features. "You still don't feel right about this, do you?"

"It just seems...extreme."

"Odo...if you're going to be a renegade, there is no halfway. Either you reject the Founders and will do what is necessary to protect yourself and your mission, or you accept them and return to the Link. You can't have it both ways."

Odo didn't speak for several moments. "I know. But I don't have to like it."

Dietz smiled. "No...you don't."

* * * * * *

Kira backed up till she hit the wall. Two...four...eight Jem'Hadar, one Vorta, and three Traxians. She cleared her throat and addressed the Vorta. "Why the cocktail party?"

The Vorta smiled at her with that infuriatingly serene way they had. "You are dangerous, Major."

She shrugged. "Well, you've got me locked up, I don't think I pose much of a threat."

"*You* don't, no."

Kira's heart leaped. Briggs was free. "I don't follow."

"You came here with a human companion, she was with you at the Great Link."

"I don't understand your interest in my activities. Surely you know why I was there. I just want to go home..." She looked away. "...since I failed in my mission."

The Vorta nodded sagely. "The renegade Odo, of course. But then you came to this outpost with your companion and immediately began surveillance of some of our soldiers. Why?"

One of the Traxians, a furious expression on his furred face, stepped forward. "The human murdered many of my brothers! She must be..." One of the Jem'Hadar shoved him back with the butt of his rifle. Kira suppressed a grin. That'll teach you to mess with a Starfleet assassin.

As if on cue, every monitor in the terminal went blank. The lights flickered once anddied, replaced momentarily by the dim emergency lights. The Jem'Hadar looked around, startled. The Vorta went to the terminal and began trying to re-establish contact with the garrison while the Traxians cowered in the corner. Not known for its grace under pressure was the Traxian species...especially in the dark, of which they were nearly phobic. Kira, forgotten for the moment, watched the open door into the hallway. She saw a very brief flash of pale skin and the glint of an eyeball, then it was gone.

An instant later Briggs stepped into the room, her arms spread in a wide T shape, her eyes facing forward. Kira heard three odd spitting sounds, the agent's arms repositioning themselves (seemingly without any visual aiming) after each spit, and then they made a sort of a shrugging motion back to her waist...reholstering one of the guns, Kira realized. She blinked...six Jem'Hadar were on the floor, a round hole in each of their foreheads. What she'd heard had been *six* gunshots, two at a time, aimed from the brief glance Briggs had snuck around the doorjamb before entering...and the whole thing had taken less than two seconds. Prophets, she thought...Section 31 doesn't kid around.

By this time the remaining two Jem'Hadar had had time to react and raised their guns to shoot this unexpected interloper. Briggs dropped into a crouch and spun one leg out, knocking one Jem'Hadar down as she raised her gun and shot the other one from the floor. The first one got to his knees and lunged at her...and Kira's jaw dropped as Briggs grabbed his head and yanked it fiercely around, breaking his neck. The Vorta faced her and made a half-hearted swing with his fist. Briggs sniffed. "Don't make me laugh, weenie boy," she snarled and grabbed him. Holding him fast with one hand over his mouth, Briggs scanned the room. Kira knew immediately what she was looking for.

"There! On the wall! Stun net!" she said, pointing.

Briggs nodded curtly and plucked the cumbersome net launcher off the wall. She socked it against her hip and fired it at the mewling Traxians. A weighted net shot out of the muzzle and pinned them against the corner in which they crouched, stunning them into silence. She dropped the launcher and then pressed her fingers to the Vorta's neck. He slumped to the ground, unconscious.

"Nice Vulcan neck pinch," Kira said.

"There's a trick to it," Briggs said with a wink, stepping to the door of the cell. "Where's the damn keyhole?"

"It's a sealed cell, we need the desealer!"

"It's not here, I saw the bottles in the control room. I can't go back there, it sealed itself when I cut the power." She and Kira stared at each other through the bars. "Kira...I found Odo. He's heading for the docking bay."

"He's leaving!" She reached through the bars and grabbed Briggs' arm. "Leave me here, go and get him."

Briggs shook her head. "I can't do that! They'll be busting in here any minute, I'll never get you back before they kill you! I can't fight off the entire garrison!"

"It doesn't matter!"

"It matters to me," Nora said firmly. Kira blinked, hearing the echo of Odo in those words, spoken about another time she had been protected from execution. Briggs sighed and seemed to come to a decision. She reached to the Vorta's belt and tossed Kira the keys to her manacles. "Stand back, I'm going to try something. This might not work. I need you to stay very, very still." Kira, mystified, unlocked herself and did as Briggs asked.

Nora planted her feet firmly and wrapped her fingers around the bars. She lowered her chin and stared fixedly into the cell, through Kira to some other place in her mind. Kira watched as, for a good thirty seconds, Briggs stood stock still, not moving a single muscle...and, she realized with some alarm, not breathing. She was starting to worry when suddenly, Briggs uttered a sharp, deafeningly loud cry of effort and pulled the barred door of the cell right off. Kira jumped, her eyes almost bugging out of their sockets. The cell door fell from Briggs' fingers and she screamed again, this time in pain. "Oh, son of a BITCH that hurts!" she cried. Kira rushed out and bent over her.

"Sweet Prophets, are you all right? How did you DO that?"

"Come on," Briggs croaked, heading in a half-crouch towards the door, her arms dangling limply from her shoulders. "We've got to get out of here." She moaned and staggered against the wall.

Kira grabbed Briggs' arm, ignoring her cry of pain, and pulled her through the corridors. There were a number of dead or unconscious Jem'Hadar in the passageways...she found herself following Briggs' trail of violence out of the building. Briggs stopped her as they emerged in the shadowed, narrow passageway behind the building. It had been no more than four minutes since the power had been cut.

"Wait...I dislocated a shoulder, help me put it back in." She knelt. Kira grabbed the arm and lifted it, socking her knee into Briggs' armpit.

"Ready?" she asked.

Briggs nodded, her lips pressed together. Kira yanked on the arm while pressing with her knee and felt the joint reconnect. Briggs grunted but didn't cry out. She stood up, rotating both arms. "Well, I'll feel that tomorrow."

"How did you do that?" Kira repeated as they slunk towards the street.

"Another old Vulcan trick, actually. It's really a state of self-hypnosis where you gain partial control of your autonomic systems. You can learn to pump certain muscles full of adrenaline and focus your strength...the powers of the humanoid body are simply amazing, when the will is invoked." She rolled her shoulders again. "I'm actually not that good at it, and it certainly takes a physical toll. Frankly, I'm amazed it worked." They drew up short of the mouth of the alley and peered around. The solitary cell building was swarming with Jem'Hadar and their Traxian gofers. Kira scanned the street.

"We need to get to the docking bays quickly," she muttered.

"Let's just get away from this place first, then worry about transport." Kira nodded and they strode quickly out of the shadows, heading by tacit consensus to the relative obscurity of the shaded, crowded throughfare...but not quickly enough.

"There!" came the shout. They turned to see five or six Jem'Hadar bearing down on them. Briggs gave Kira a hard shove towards the street.

"Go!" she barked, turning to face the onslaught, her dagger and gun in her hands. Kira ran, her eyes flicking over the city street...then she veered towards the front of what looked like an eating establishment. Tied in front of it was a large, four-legged animal that somewhat resembled the Terran horses in one of Dax' holosuite programs, except with horns and long shaggy fur down to the ground. It had some sort of riding tackle mounted on its back...Kira hurriedly untied the animal, grabbed the reins and hauled herself up. Of course, the animal's owner picked that moment to come out of the building.

"Hey! You can't..." he cried, running up as Kira yanked on the reins, steering the animal away from the sidewalk.

"Sorry," she said, and kicked him away. Dashing off a silent prayer, she jabbed her heels into the thing's side and was rewarded as it burst into a gallop. She hunched low and hauled on the reins. The animal steered like a Ribalian heavy cruiser but obeyed her commands. She soon had it thundering back towards the garrison. "Briggs!" she cried. The lieutenant was attempting to hold off the Jem'Hadar and Traxians but it was clearly a losing battle, especially with her arms operating at about half-capacity. She turned when she heard Kira, then with a burst of energy broke away from two Jem'Hadar who were holding her and ran into the street, facing the galloping whatever-it-was with her arm held up. Kira didn't slow her unsteady steed but leaned down and reached towards her companion. It was quite a jolt when Briggs' hand clasped around her forearm but she managed, with the help of the animal's momentum and Briggs' lower body strength, to haul her up and onto the animal's back behind her. Nora held onto Kira's wa ist as she guided the creature into the street. "Outta the way! Get outta the way!" Kira yelled needlessly...the civilians were scattering before the animal's thundering approach like so many dust motes before a tornado.

"Well, at least we're not conspicous or anything," Briggs said into Kira's ear as they galloped towards the docking bays.

Ahead to Parts 8-10

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