Garak sat alone at his usual table in the Replimat. This was the day he had lunch with the doctor. Or did. Not being senior staff, or staff at all, of this station, Garak had not seen the sensor logs, but news traveled on a station like this. So, he knew Julian had died. For good this time. Nearly everyone who spoke of it repeated those four words. For good this time.

Garak couldn't help but hope they were all wrong, and that Julian would come up behind him, apologizing for his tardiness, a smile on his lips and a shine in his eyes. But the pain he felt in his chest told him that wasn't going to happen. Not this time.

It shouldn't have hurt this much. He'd seen many people die, or killed them himself. Some of them he'd known or even called friends. Only family hurt like this. Ziyal had hurt like this. To him, she'd felt like a younger sister. Tain, well, Tain had not felt like anyone else. But Julian wasn't family. But Julian wasn't family.

Garak was never one to lie to himself. That was exactly why it hurt so much. With Julian alive, the fantasy had been enough. He would never force or trick Julian into going where he wouldn't go willingly. With Julian dead, the fantasy warped from 'someday maybe' to 'definitely never.'

Well and one could argue that he'd never have gotten the relationship he wanted with Julian. He would argue that he had the relationship he could have. Julian enjoyed his company. He smiled in Garak's presence, indulged his interests in Cardassian literature, and accepted that he might never know the truth of this friend.

And once a week, when Julian was here at the station, or Garak was with him on the Defiant, he had him all to himself for the span on one meal, prolonged by conversation. For Garak, it had sufficed.

There was that other time, when Section 31 had faked Julian's death. But Kira hadn't believed it and that had given Garak enough reason to doubt it as well. Deaths, after all, could be faked. Even with bodies. He had called on everyone he could think of who might have had even the tiniest chance of knowing a hint of Julian's whereabouts. To no avail. Until, of course, Enterprise had found him marooned in a cave on a dead world.

Kira wasn't here to doubt Julian's death this time. For she was dead as well.

Garak sighed and stabbed his meal with a fork. As he brought the bite to his mouth, he heard someone approach from behind.

"Is this seat taken?" The Irish accent gave it away.

"Not anymore," Garak told him and waved a hand to the seat across the table.

O'Brien didn't speak further but he sat and started eating. Garak looked back to his own plate. They'd both nearly finished by the time the engineer spoke again.

"I never understood his friendship with you," he said. Then he lifted his glass. "But you were his friend. And he was mine. We both lost him."

Garak lifted his own glass. O'Brien's eyes were shining with unshed tears. Garak had none. He had appearances to keep up. "To Julian Bashir," he offered in toast, "our friend."

They both took a drink then finished their meal in companionable silence. Then O'Brien rose to attend to his work, and Garak retired back to his shop. He had clothes to mend.

Kira took his arm and led him back to the lab. "Pack a bag," she told him. "We're leaving while they're caught up in the consequences of that ceremony." She turned her back to him and started to change into her yellow cloak from the time with the biologists.

"I still only have this one," he told her as he grabbed his medical tricorder, the dermal regenerator and a few other things.

"Maybe that will work in our favor." Her voice was muffled as she maneuvered the new cloak over her head. "The whole palace here knows your purpose, and that it's done, but out there? The further we get the less they'll know. You have power in that cloak. I'll look like your helper."

Once dressed, she stuffed her purple cloak into a bag, then grabbed a PADD from one of the crates. He knew what was on it. The plan to keep him alive.

Kira checked the door then stepped outside, waving for him to follow. Bashir knew the way to the throne room, the leader's quarters, and the tunnels he came in through, but Kira now led him a different way, to the right and then up a flight of stairs. He kept expecting a red-cloaked figure to appear from the next corner, but the palace was unusually quiet. No priests or priestesses, no guards, no workers. Finally, Kira stopped in front of a door then opened it slowly. It was pitch black beyond except where the light from the corridor reached. She held out a hand to him. "Watch your head," she whispered.

Bashir kept his free hand held up in front of his face to detect low ceilings and let Kira lead him. He tried not to think about the leader's host, to think of her dying the way Jadzia had died. Or the way that first Trill here had after crashing. Choking on her own lungs while her abdomen was cut open and her closest companion was taken, though willingly, from her. How lonely she must have felt in her last moments!

He shook his head. He was trying not to think of her. He focused on following Kira and guarding his head. His hand felt a rock, and he had to duck, but he kept going. After a few more minutes, Kira dropped his hand. He froze and for a moment he feared she'd left him to be lost in the darkness.

But he saw a crack of red light and the silhouette of her shoulder. The door opened wider and he could see the color of her cloak and red-leafed trees beyond. She hurried him out and then eased the door shut behind them. Bashir just stood, taking in the smell of the trees, the brightness of the light. He hadn't been outside for days.

Kira joined him, pointing toward a thin path to their right. "That way leads, eventually, down to the village," she said. "They might know too much there, being this close. I think we need to go around. Nardinosti is that way." She pointed to her left. "Three days, you said."

"That was hundreds of years ago," he reminded her. "They have better technology now. She has to change, but they can probably heal the wound."

"Alright." Kira nodded. "How much time do we have?"

He knew what she meant. He'd been keeping track. "Two days, seven hours and thirteen minutes for me. You woke up after me, about an hour."

She nodded again. "This stuff inside us keeps us from feeling pain, from needing to eat or drink, from suffocating on this air. I'm thinking we can probably run for hours without getting tired."

"I haven't been tired since I woke up on the Gindarin." But he agreed with her. And they had to go fast. It was a long way to Nardinosti, and they still had to get all the way to DS Nine. They couldn't afford even one wrong turn.

"This way then." She turned and started running. "If you see something that looks like a fluffy little bear, run faster." She had a small black rod in her hand. Bashir followed sweeping branches away from his face and hoping he wouldn't meet that little bear or the snake that liked nuts. Occasionally he felt a tap on his boot and looked down to find he'd stepped on a flower.

They couldn't run particularly fast in the dense forest. They could still make out the position of the sun, and they kept it over their shoulders as they pushed on. After three hours they found themselves on a high plateau with the sun hiding behind the mountain. Bashir could see for kilometers down into a valley. Large animals grazed there. They had long necks and equally long tails. Had he been on Earth, he would have thought they were sauropods from the Jurassic. But where they were there were no trees to require those long necks. Kira had told him that they used their necks to dig deep into the ground for plants or roots.

"The train." Kira pointed back to the southeast. There was a small village there and the train was stopped. "Maybe we can catch it."

Bashir saw it start speeding off to the west. There had to be one going east at some point. He ran to the south-eastern edge of the plateau. There was a drop of at least twenty meters. Might not kill them, but they couldn't run on broken legs.

Kira started looking, too. The best they could find was a two and a half meter drop down to a platform that led downhill and to the south. "I'll lower you down," he suggested, dropping to the ground with his shoulders over the edge. She sat then took both his hands before swinging off the ledge. It was a short drop, for her, after that. Bashir got up and turned his feet to the edge and scooted himself back toward it until he was holding on by his forearms, then his hands. Kira held his thighs loosely as if to steady him for the landing. He let go and fell a few feet. They dusted themselves off then followed their new ledge southward and back into the trees. The sun now would be fully behind the mountain.

By the time they reached the foot of that mountain, the sun was heading below the horizon. The sky had taken on the color of blood. Kira marveled that she wasn't tired or sore given the hours and distance they had crossed. Julian had gotten to see a few of the animals she had encountered foraging with Tarlingen. She'd had to use the spear a couple of times. Tarlingen had not wanted to stay out past night. But if they wanted to get to Nardinosti with enough time to get to DS Nine, she and Bashir had to keep going, even at night.

Kira wondered now if the yellow cloak would draw attention where Bashir's purple one might blend in better. But Tarlingen had worn black, and still, she was wary of a night in the wilds. So maybe it didn't matter.

Kira spotted a large rock and pointed Bashir toward it. They needed to choose their next move. She hadn't seen the train again. There was a chance it didn't run at night.

She dropped behind the rock and leaned her back against it. "It's getting dark."

"I've noticed," Julian said as he dropped down beside her.

"Tarlingen hadn't wanted to be out in the dark," she told him. "I don't know what's out here at night. The spear may not be enough."

"Do we have finrittors?"

Of course. The energy weapon. She nodded and set her bag down to fish into her pockets. "Well, not this one apparently." She was glad now that she had stuffed her purple cloak into her bag. But first, she reached over to Julian's chest. "Allow me? It will be faster."

He hadn't taken the time to inventory his pockets the way she had. He nodded. She reached in, careful to steer clear of that rather squishy part of his chest and found the weapon. She handed it to him, then found her way into the right pocket of her bagged cloak. "They won't kill Gidari people, but maybe they'll work on predators." She looked around the rock in the dimming light. "Which way now?"

Julian stood for a few moments. "That way." He pointed to their right. "I can just make out the last of the sun's light. We need to keep it to our backs, do we not?"

Kira stood and nodded. There was an open field in front of them and it was getting darker by the minute. "Can you see better in the dark?"

"Than who?"

"Than other non-enhanced humans?"

He shrugged. "Maybe, never tested that."

"If the sun is down, can we forego the hoods?"

He shook his head. "Moon could reflect the infrared light, and the radiation may still be present. We probably shouldn't." Still, he pulled the tricorder from his bag. Kira rather enjoyed its familiar chirpings after nearly a week on Gidar. "Maybe in a few hours." He snapped it closed. "It's kind of beautiful here."

Kira agreed with that. Like the Gidari people, the planet was stunningly beautiful, but also like the Gidari people, it could be extremely dangerous. "You know, she said they would have taken you alive. You'd have had to wear a helmet to breathe and they'd control what you could see."

He turned to look at her. "Really? I suppose they would have killed me after so I couldn't tell anyone what I had seen."

Kira chuckled. "No, she said they'd would've taken your memories."

"Well, that's better than killing me. I suppose we should get back to it."

Kira threw her bag over her shoulder and kept the finrittor in her right hand. "Let's go."

It got very dark at night on Gidar. Bashir was glad for Kira's biologist's cloak. He could just make out her silhouette running beside him. They were making a better pace now that the forest was gone and the land was mostly flat. They'd decided to skirt wide around a little village they'd seen from the plateau, which put them nearer to the large sauropods in the valley. Most of them were curled up asleep, but a few sentries had their long necks up to keep watch. Bashir could occasionally just make out a sparkle as the starlight reflected in their eyes. Still, it was so dark now, he could have been a meter from one's bulk and not seen it.

But he could hear them. Their huge lungs drew in liters of air then pushed it out again. But there was another sound. Something at the far side of the herd was agitating them. The sound was like thunder coming near as they reared up onto their legs and thrashed their tails. What kind of predator could take down one of these behemoths? The answer was one he didn't want to meet.

Kira must have felt it, too, as she put on a burst of speed. Bashir matched her but the thunder now had become a rushing wave. They were stampeding closer and fast. Bashir and Kira ran on, hoping the beasts would pass behind them and not trample them. And Bashir hoped whatever had upset them was successful in its hunt and wouldn't decide two humanoids were an easier meal.

Something straight and tall rose up in front of them suddenly. In fact, he hit his left shoulder hard on it, hard enough to knock it out of the socket. The object was hard and rough and didn't move. A tree. He quickly maneuvered behind it, relieved to hear the herd did not come closer. He could still feel them in his boots as they shook the earth.

"That sounded painful." Kira's slightly bright form appeared in front of him.

"Fortunately not," he replied. Still, it felt awkward and unpleasantly familiar. And he knew just how to reduce the dislocation. He set the bag down beneath his feet then performed the maneuver. There was a satisfying pop as the ball slipped back into the joint.

"There are definite advantages to having this stuff in our veins."

He agreed wholeheartedly. "We seem to be safe from the herd. I don't want to stick around to attract whatever scared them."

"We still going the right way?"

"Hmm." Bashir picked up the bag, stepped away from that tree and felt his way around a few more until he was in a clearing again. He looked up at the sky. He studied the stars for a few minutes, calculating and taking into account their circular movement through the night sky. "Yes," he said. "This way." They started running again. As the sound of the herd faded in the distance behind them, he thought he felt something else. Thought he heard it. It was coming closer. He could smell it. Deciding that whatever it was, it was not a Gidari humanoid and was definitely a carnivore, he raised his weapon and turned his torso to see it and fire. In the beam of light from the weapon, he saw the reflection of a pair of eyes and some very sharp teeth. The beam hit it and it screeched.

"What the—" Kira stopped and turned.

Bashir grabbed her arm and pulled her along as he kept running. "I hit it. Didn't kill it."

Its footfalls had been near silent before, but he could hear it now as it limped. But it was still behind them, still coming.

"Maybe it thinks we'll get tired and have to stop," Kira commented.

"I'm more concerned it might hunt in packs."

It stayed behind them for another half hour. But it was tiring. Bashir could hear it breathing hard from the exertion and the pain of its wound.

And then Kira fell. She rolled with it but the beast pounced. Bashir couldn't shoot without possibly hitting Kira.

"Spear!" she shouted. "Left—sleeve."

There were several things hidden in this left sleeve. He gave up on one pocket then found another. Finally, his fingers felt the round stick he'd seen Kira with earlier. He pulled it out and fumbled until it finally activated. He had to focus where the beast blocked his view of her yellow cloak. He jabbed it in the leg, hoping to distract it.

It growled. And with that, Bashir knew right where its head was. The spear went right through the bone into its brain. The beast fell limp onto Kira's body.

She pushed and Bashir pulled until she could get out from under it. But now Bashir could see her very well. Because here and there she was leaking the glowing fluid.

"It bit me a few times," she told him, her voice calm. "Claws got me, too."

"Well, fortunately, I'm a doctor." He set his bag on the ground and knelt beside her. "Lay back and let's have a look." She pulled a glowing stick from her cloak and handed it to him before laying down.

The stick glowed blue and he recognized it as being like the one Tarlingen had used in the caves. With it, he looked her over carefully. The tricorder told him what he still couldn't see well. She had puncture wounds to her arms and a slash to her abdomen. "I think you're going to have to go purple."

"You can fix it, though?"

Bashir set the tricorder down, open, on the ground by his knees. He used the light to find his dermal regenerator. "Abdomen first," he told her, "but you'll have to take off the top."

"Radiation?"

Bashir checked the tricorder. "Still present but at lower levels. Should be fine if we're quick." As she worked her torso out of the cloak, Bashir retrieved the purple one from her bag and draped it over her shoulders anyway.

He took off his gloves, reasoning that they'd been in the dirt and grime, leaving his bare hands clean. Not sterile perhaps, but under the circumstances, they'd have to do.

He ignored her bared breasts and focused on the large gash just to the left of her navel. The tricorder told him the wound wasn't deep, but it was wide and certain things were trying to push their way through it.

"Oh, that looks—"

"Then don't look," Bashir told her. "At least it doesn't hurt." He quickly used two fingers of his left hand to push the intestines back inside then started knitting the skin back together with the regenerator. When he pulled his last finger out and finished up, her torso began to jiggle.

Bashir turned his attention to her arms, just as she started laughing in full.

"What is so funny?" he asked as he closed the puncture wounds in her left arm.

"This whole situation," she choked out. "Here we are, dead on an alien planet. We were nearly trampled by a herd of giant animals that could have squashed us into mush, and now I'm sitting here half-naked after some cat-like animal just tried to eat me."

"Dead and glowing," he corrected, reaching for her right arm. "And you won't be half-naked for long. Now, can you dress in the dark or do I need to hold the light?"

The laughter faded but she was still grinning as she sat up. "I'll try the dark."

Bashir found himself smiling as he turned off the light. It was all rather ridiculous. Well, what other two dead people ever had such an adventure?

"A week from now," she was saying, "you and I will share a bottle over this in Quark's bar."

He wiped his hands on her discarded yellow cloak, and didn't reply. A week was a long time and the odds were not in their favor.

She must have guessed his thoughts. "We're going to make it, Julian." She found his shoulder and squeezed. "Or we'll try until the last second. Deal?"

Oh, he wanted it. No matter how many times he'd given up before, in Auschwitz, in that last detention camp or on the prisoner transport ship, he still wanted to live now. "Deal."

Kira took the light from his hand and switched it on. "What did I trip over anyway?" She took the light over to the beast and gave it a good look. "It's so puzzling here how smaller things eat the bigger things."

She was right. He'd seen haftha take down a larger mammal and a water bug pull a full-grown man into the water. This animal was cat-like but no bigger than perhaps a bobcat back on Earth. "Be glad it wasn't bigger." He pulled the spear free and wiped it off on the discarded cloak before shrinking it.

Kira moved on, looking for the obstacle that had given the cat the opening it needed. "Julian! It's the track!"

He joined her and looked down. The light only illuminated about a foot of it, but it was enough. This was the track the train used. "We only have to follow it."

The call came very early in the morning. Sisko hadn't even gotten out of bed yet. But Necheyev was just as alert as ever. "Sorry to wake you, Benjamin. But I thought you'd want to know as soon as possible."

"Know what as soon as possible?" Sisko was awake now. Nothing good had ever been prefaced with those words.

"A representative of the Dominion is coming to Deep Space Nine under a flag of truce."

That was not at all what Sisko had expected. "Are they wanting to surrender?"

"If only it were that easy," she said. "They're not coming to talk to us. They're coming to talk to the Gidari."

Sisko rubbed his forehead as he tried to make sense of this. "Why here?"

"The Gidari requested it as a neutral place."

"We're not neutral," Sisko insisted. "Not to the Dominion. What do the Gidari want?"

"Who knows what the Gidari ever want?" she asked in return. "What we don't want is for them to join forces with Dominion."

"They wouldn't have to come here for that." It didn't make sense. "They could go to Cardassia."

"Or maybe they want to ally with us against the Dominion."

Sisko shook his head. "The Gidari consider anyone who isn't Gidari irrelevant at best. They would never admit to needing us."

"But we could use an ally like them," Necheyev said. "They'll be there in forty-eight hours. Maybe you can find out."