~*~

ACT II

(A beach. Night is beginning to fall. DUKAT and STEBAN are huddled at one end, GARAK at the other. GARAK has assembled a large pile of firewood and is lighting it with a tinderbox he's taken out of his duffel. DUKAT and STEBAN have a much smaller pile and are trying, without success, to light it by rubbing two sticks together.)

STEBAN: This is how the Great Gul made the first fire on Cardassia. It must work.

DUKAT: Steban, that story is apocryphal. And in all my years in the military I have yet to see anyone actually get a fire going this way.

STEBAN: You're the ranking officer; you start the fire.

DUKAT: Have you got anything made of glass?

STEBAN: I'll look. (Rummages in his bag)

GARAK: (calling from the other end of the beach) The sun is too low; it'll never work. (DUKAT ignores him. GARAK shrugs and adds more fuel to his cheerfully burning fire. STEBAN produces a glass tumbler and they try to focus the sun's rays through its bottom onto the tinder. This does not work. After a few minutes of watching them snap at each other sotto voce while their tempers fray, GARAK stands)

GARAK: Dukat. (DUKAT does not acknowledge him. GARAK walks over to their campsite and stands between DUKAT and the pile of wood. DUKAT refuses to look at him) If you sleep through the night without a heat source you will not wake up. Even with the fire I can feel my body temperature dropping and it'll only be worse when the sun goes down. (DUKAT and STEBAN turn their backs on GARAK. GARAK sighs, squats down by their woodpile, rearranges it, and lights it with his tinderbox.) Now put it out, if you think it's tainted. But I'm not coming over here again. (Returns to his fire. DUKAT and STEBAN look at each other, then edge closer to the flames. GARAK extends his hands to his own fire and stares into it. An eagle descends from the sky and lands on the other side of the fire, then morphs into ODO.)

ODO: We're on an island, I'd say about 2000 kilometers square. The interior is thickly forested, but there are two rivers that seem to be freshwater. We should head for those as soon as we can. There are some meadows and cleared areas in the northwest quadrant and a string of pretty bleak cliffs going down the northeastern coast. Otherwise, the rest of the coast looks more or less like this--flat beaches leading into marshlands and then the forest.

GARAK: You didn't see any other survivors.

ODO: No. (GARAK nods, still staring into the fire. During the conversation he shivers occasionally, the shivers becoming more frequent as night falls) But inland the tree cover is so thick anything could be under there. I
don't suppose there's any sign of Quark.

GARAK: Fortunately, no.

ODO: Hmph. (Looks around) He's probably all right. His destiny is to be murdered by an irate business partner; I'm sure providence saved him for it. (Indicating DUKAT and STEBAN) I see they finally got their fire lit.
(GARAK nods.) With your help. (GARAK looks at him) I saw your little conference as I flew in. What I don't understand about you, Garak, is that under all your evasion and duplicity there seems to be this streak
of--well, I don't even know what to call it. Decency?

GARAK: Oh, please don't call it that.

ODO: All right then, I won't. (Glances around at his environment) It's not a bad little island. There seem to be plenty of fruit trees, abundant fresh water, and thriving vegetation. If circumstances were different this would
be quite pleasant. I've often thought I'd like to have a place like this for my own.

GARAK: (still preoccupied) What would you do with it?

ODO: (Sitting back and staring into the fire) I'd make it into a refuge for people like you and me. The orphans. (GARAK looks at him) All of us who have been cut off from our people. Who for one reason or another don't
belong where they came from and don't belong anywhere else either. People between loyalties and between home worlds. I'd open it up to everyone who fell through the cracks and they would all come here, where there would be no nation, no state, no family, nothing but the individual conscience. The only thing we'd have in common would be respect for each other's privacy.

GARAK: And the point of this would be...?

ODO: Maybe in a place like that things wouldn't...maybe choice wouldn't always mean picking the lesser of two evils. Maybe order wouldn't mean suppression and there could be more than one solution to a problem.
Maybe...it would be easier, there, to connect.

GARAK: Ah. (Pause) But I thought the point was not to connect. Individual consciences, all in their little individual skulls, keeping themselves to themselves.

ODO: Well, it was just an idea.

GARAK: No, it's a good one, Odo, but I'm sure you can see the practical problems involved in trying to build a community exclusively out of loners and iconoclasts.

ODO: The Klingons did it. (GARAK smiles briefly.)

GARAK: I'm afraid it wouldn't work, Constable. Especially not with you at the helm, you and your penchant for order. Order requires a leader. Where there's a leader, there is eventually a nation to support him, and once you create a nation you create exile.

ODO: But exile is what makes all the best people. Look at us. (GARAK doesn't respond) It's your turn for the sarcastic retort, Garak. I can't keep the ball rolling all by myself.

GARAK: I give you high marks for trying, Odo, but it's no use. Everything reminds me of him. (Pause) Up to now I've been so busy keeping myself alive I didn't stop to ask what the point is. Now I've got the fire going and you've found the water source all I can think of is how cold and hungry he must be, wherever he is. Or isn't.

ODO: With all that equpiment I bet he's better off than we are. (GARAK shakes his head) We'll find him. Tomorrow when it's light we'll start looking. It's not that big an island.

GARAK: Thank you, Odo. (Looks at him) I hate to say this, because I really do appreciate what you're trying to do, but I'd like to be alone now, and I can't leave the fire.

ODO: That's why I put my bucket back there in the grass. (Rises) I'll see you in the morning. (ODO walks into the grass and disappears. GARAK is now pretty much shiverng continuously and rubs his hands to get the circulation going. He puts more wood on the fire, which helps a little. After watching the fire for a few moments, he opens his bag. From inside he takes out the Julian teddy bear. Tears form in his eyes and run down his face as he looks at it. He hugs it to him and lies near the fire in the fetal position, sleeping.)

* * *

(We now move down to the other end of the beach. DUKAT is shivering and moving closer to the fire. STEBAN is wading in the shallows.)

DUKAT: Stop that, you'll make yourself colder. (STEBAN bends over, grabs a handful of silt from the bottom, and studies it. He laughs and returns to the fire)

STEBAN: Colder now...but we've got a very cozy future ahead of us.

DUKAT: Steban, our future is liable to consist of squatting on this beach trying to stay alive until we either evolve body heat or curl up and freeze.

STEBAN: Look. (Holds out a handful of rocks) I found these on the ocean floor. There's millions of them.

DUKAT: If we can't burn it or eat it I'm not interested.

STEBAN: It's dortite. (DUKAT shrugs) You're not a scientist, are you?

DUKAT: I'm a diplomat.

STEBAN: You're a soldier. It should interest you to know that dortite is the raw material out of which triblinium is made. (DUKAT looks at him) That's right, I thought that would get your attention. We're looking at a natural arsenal.

DUKAT: You mean this stuff is just lying around--

STEBAN: Carpeting the ocean floor. If we could get a refinery here it would be the cheapest, biggest source of weapons-grade triblinium Cardassia has ever had access to.

DUKAT: If we ever see home again, we'll have to let Central Command know about it.

STEBAN: Why should we?

DUKAT: I beg your pardon?

STEBAN: No one knows about this planet except us. The storms have always kept people away from it and there's been no reason to suppose there was anything worth looking for here, anyway. Don't you see what a windfall this is? There's enough firepower on this island to build an army that could match anything Central Command can muster at this point.

DUKAT: That's not saying much.

STEBAN: Exactly! Central Command has completely mishandled the Dominion affair. It's weakened itself by exposing and punishing its own members. The result is chaos. If Sisko hadn't extended the invitation no one would even have thought to try to evaluate the Federation response to this shakeup. Cardassia needs a strong leader, someone who knows how to get things done and has experience in running it like the military operation it used to be. Why shouldn't that person be you?

DUKAT: Do you know what you're saying?

STEBAN: We can build the army right here, in secret, without ever having to smuggle a thing into the empire. You know there are people who would support you. And with your Federation contacts you're the rational choice for a leader--they'll be less liable to panic and do something punitive with someone they know and more or less trust at the head.

DUKAT: What about...(nods in GARAK's direction) He'd have to be in on it. I don't think that's very promising.

STEBAN: In on it, or out of it. Completely. (DUKAT looks at GARAK) Don't tell me you'd have a problem with eliminating him. Coup plans aside, you've plenty of reasons to do it and besides, he has that camping equipment.

DUKAT: Where's the shape shifter?

STEBAN: In his bucket. Now's the time. We go over there, smother him quietly, and when the shape shifter comes back in the morning it looks like Garak's died of hypothermia. The body'll be cold enough. Then we can deal with the shapeshifter when the time comes.

DUKAT: Give me your jacket. (STEBAN does) This won't take long. (DUKAT approaches GARAK's fire.)

* * *

(GARAK is now asleep, still holding the bear and still huddled by the fire. DUKAT stands over him. He looks at the fire, back at GARAK, and appears to be having a moment of compunction. Then he gets over it and readies the jacket. As he leans down to put it over GARAK's head, GARAK disappears in a flash of light and Q replaces him, in the same posture but minus the teddy bear.)

Q: I wouldn't. (DUKAT staggers backward in shock. Q extends himself in a more comfortable position and looks up at him) Not that I care, you understand, for all it matters to me you're free to put into practice
whatever crude plots your atavistic lizard brain stems can devise. (Stretches out; yawns) In your position, I'd be worrying more about where my next meal was coming from than intergalactic domination, but that's why
I'm Q and you're an iguana with an attitude problem. (Stands up and pulls DUKAT closer to him. Hissing at him from close range) Stay away from this one. My master's saving him for something special. (He disappears; GARAK reappears in the same position. DUKAT stares at him, unable to believe that this has just happened. He gathers his wits and makes another try. Q appears behind him and has him in a headlock before he even gets started)

Q: Tsk, tsk, tsk. You don't believe I'm real, do you? (Throws him to the ground. DUKAT tries to rise; Q puts a hand out toward him and he is frozen in mid-movement.) I can leave you like that all night, you know. Eventually your muscles would spasm and start ripping themselves off your bones, but before that happened you'd probably pass out from the pain anyway. I'm going to release you, and you'd better go back to your own fire and behave yourself, because if you make me come out here again you'll wish you hadn't. (Q disappears; DUKAT collapses, then gets up slowly, staring at GARAK. GARAK opens his eyes.)

GARAK: What do you want? (DUKAT opens his mouth, but is unable to form a response) If your fire's gone out you can borrow the tinderbox. (DUKAT has been traumatized enough by his recent experiences to forget that he's pretending GARAK doesn't exist)

DUKAT: If I were you, I wouldn't let me do that.

GARAK: But I'm not you, that's your dearest happiness. I'm not you at all.  I'm the exact, total, polar opposite of everything you are. Isn't that why I'm heldek? (DUKAT turns his face away. GARAK rolls over with his back to
him) Take what you came for and leave me alone. I was having a good dream. (DUKAT stares for a minute, then walks back to his own fire empty handed.)

* * *

(We are now on another part of the island. CABALAN enters, collecting wood and muttering to himself.)

CABALAN: May he add himself to the flames and be done with it. May he and that witch daughter of his fall together into the darkest pit on the western border. (ROM, disoriented and disheveled, approaches erratically
through the trees. CABALAN sees him) Ah, he's heard me, and sent his lackey to punish me for it. (Looks around for a hiding place, and eventually drops flat and spreads the tarp in which he was collecting the wood out on top of himself. His feet and the end of his tail stick out one end. ROM approaches)

ROM: Brother? (Stumbles across CABALAN, who doesn't move) Brother! (Sees the tail) No. (Draws back) Too tall anyway. I wonder what it is. (Approaches tentatively, but backs away) What if it's fierce? I'm not good
with fierce things. (Feels his pocket) I don't even have any treats for it. (Stalemate; then ROM moves forward) Maybe it's dead. (Lifts up the tarp; CABALAN holds still) Must be. Too bad. He would have made an interesting exhibit in a...traveling show or something. "Rom's Traveling Bestiary And Tulaberry Wine Concession." Yes. I like the sound of that. And doesn't the 193rd rule of acquisition state...state...this is terrible. I've forgotten my rules. I've been here not even a day and I'm already reverting to a savage and uncivilized state. Let's see. "Once you have their money, you never give it back." One. Uh...(as he thinks, the wind rises and he shivers) I bet that sheet is a good windbreak, anwyay. (Gets under it) Pardon me, monster. (Covers himself with it. QUARK enters, carrying a crate of tulaberry wine and an open bottle which has obviously, from his demeanor, been partially consumed.)

QUARK: ROM!!! (Blunders into the clearing) I know you're in here, I'd know that pusillanimous whining anywhere. Come out, wherever you are! ROOOOOOOMMMM!!! (Nothing) Stop hiding from me, you lobeless toad, or I'll lengthen your nose for you when I finally do find you!

CABALAN: I'm here! I'm here! Don't torment me!

QUARK: That's not Rom. (Examines the tarp) Least I don't think so. I don't think Rom had a tail. I suppose he could have been keeping it in his pants pocket. I never checked. (ROM's head pops out the other end of the tarp)

ROM: Brother! Safe and sound! (QUARK is confused)

QUARK: In body if not in mind. Rom, have you grown a tail or does this tulaberry wine have side-effects we don't know about?

ROM: It's not my tail. It belongs to the monster. (He climbs out and they both lift off the tarp.)

QUARK: Oh, Prophets, is it ever ugly. What were you doing in there with that thing?

ROM: I thought it was dead.

CABALAN: I'll get the wood! Just leave me alone!

QUARK: Where the hell did he learn our language?

ROM: I don't know. Maybe he's visited the homeworld.

CABALAN: Don't torment me! I'll do it?

ROM: Do what?

QUARK: Poor thing, it's cold and frightened. Here, this'll warm you up. (Gives CABALAN the last of the tulaberry wine. CABALAN sits up and looks at QUARK with new interest.)

ROM: I think we've just made a customer. (CABALAN reaches for the bottle) 

QUARK: Uh uh uh! This stuff is expensive. Besides, this one's empty. (Takes out another bottle)

CABALAN: My master will not let me have money.

QUARK: But your master has it.

CABALAN: Aye. Strips of something bright, in a chest inside his house. (Realizing QUARK's greed is something he might be able to exploit) Give me the bottle and I'll take you there.

QUARK: Rom, I apologize for ever doubting you. This tulaberry wine is amazing stuff. (Opens the next bottle, takes a swig, and passes it to  CABALAN, who drinks from it) You should try it. You look cold. I've been
guzzling this stuff all afternoon and lemme tell you, I can't feel a thing.

ROM: I don't think so, brother. I don't want to use up all the stock.

QUARK: Suit yourself. (Puts an arm around CABALAN and hands him the bottle) Lead on, monster, and show us where the latinum is. (They exit)

END ACT II