"I thought I told you to cancel that order." "What am I supposed to do with 5,000 wrappages of Cardassian yamok sauce?" "They're the only ones who could stomach it." " Are you playing?" " You're going to pay for it." "I'll take half your pay cheque every week for six years!" "From now on, no more Cardassian food in here... ever!" "Come on, Nog, it's your turn." "5,000 wrappages." "That's a lot of yamok sauce." "Take your turn or I win." "It'd be a shame to waste it." "That's it." "Game over." "I'm getting a tingling in the lobes." "When a lobe tingles, it means only one thing-opportunity." " What are you talking about?" " Gold-pressed latinum." "Maybe four or five bars." "I thought you were talking about yamok sauce." "You've got a lot to learn about opportunity." " Come on." " Where?" "Station Log, Stardate 46844.3." "With the help of the Federation," "Bajor is about to commence its first energy transfer - the tapping of the molten core of its fifth moon, Jeraddo." "Magma pressure's remained constant." "Subsurface movement is at 0.3%." " Is that good?" " They'd tell you otherwise." "Why is that light blinking?" "We're in normal standby mode." "Then we're not expecting any surprises?" "We don't like surprises either." "Minister Toran, these people are professionals." "Forgive my nit-picking, but we need Jeraddo to heat a few hundred thousand Bajoran homes." "And with that in mind, we're due to make our next inspection." "So there I was, sitting in Quark's, when Morn comes over and invites me for dinner." "Grid square 12-delta reads clear of life-forms." "Morn?" "Are you serious?" "Beginning scan of grid square 15-delta." " So what did you say?" " I said I was busy." "But you know those seven or eight little wiry hairs that come out of his forehead?" "What?" "They make him look kind of cute." "That's odd." "Sensors read a humanoid presence in 15-delta." " Could be a project thermologist." " Not in 15-delta." "Look for yourself." "The inhabitants were supposed to be evacuated." "I'd better beam down there, take a look around." " Ready to transport." " I won't be long." "STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE" ""PROGRESS"" "The problem is they don't like uniforms." "Neither do I, but it comes with the job." " Which is?" " Do we talk or do they attack?" " You're halfway pretty." " So can I come in?" "No, I don't like uniforms either." "I'm scared of them." "We had our fill of uniformed bullies." "I'm no Cardassian." "You should be gone." "I only know this farm, girl." "You want proof, just look at my crop." "I'd rather you didn't call me "girl"." "It's mostly katterpod beans, but you won't find better ones." "My father always said you get bigger katterpods with chloribicrobes." "That could be." "Your family's farmers, then?" "No, but if I need to get on your good side." "Pretty eyes like yours deserve a meal." "You come on in." "I'm afraid we don't have time." "You were overlooked in the evacuation." "You have to go." "We'll talk about that over supper." "Come on." "There he is." "220, bottom price. 220." "Excuse me, sir." "Are you the Captain of the Lissepian cargo ship?" " That's right." " You trade with the Cardassians." "Why not?" "Cardassians pay their bills." "I've heard." "I've also heard they love yamok sauce." "If you're trying to buy yamok sauce you're wasting your time." " I'm not carrying any." " We're selling." " 5,000 wrappages of it." " Original, not replicated." " Where would you get all that?" " We have connections." "5,000, you say?" "And they could be yours for five bars of gold-pressed latinum." " That's a lot of latinum." " That's a lot of yamok sauce." "Look..." "I'm not carrying any latinum but I'll trade you something for it." " We were counting on latinum." " Hold on." " What would you trade?" " 100 gross of self-sealing stem bolts." "A Bajoran ordered them and now he can't pay." " Self-sealing stem bolts?" " Top-grade merchandise." "You won't find a better stem bolt." "I don't think so." "We deal strictly in latinum." " Nog, are you sure?" " What will we do with stem bolts?" "What will we do with yamok sauce?" "Sir, I have discussed it with my partner and you have a deal." "Good." "I'll meet you at cargo bay nine at 2100 hours." "We'll make the trade then." "The question is, what are we going to do with a hundred gross of self-sealing stem bolts?" "And how do we get your uncle's yamok sauce?" "At least you won't dispossess a man on an empty stomach." " Wouldn't dare." " Good." "These roots will take three hours to soften." " What?" " You wouldn't want to eat your roots hard." "I'm in no hurry." " Kira to Ganges." " 'This is Dax." "Are you OK?" "'" "A man with a talent for delay has invited me to supper." "I'll have a thermologist bring me back." "Enjoy supper." "Dax out." "Wash it off first then scrape the skin off." " You don't talk much." " They don't talk." "The Cardassians." "They escaped up to this moon 18 years ago." "I've been here 40." "We did real well together." "Oh." "Get out the plates and utensils like a good girl." "That cupboard right over there." "You look real good, even from this angle." "But you know something?" "You walk like a carnivorous rastipod." "Now, look..." "You're trying to make me mad." " How am I doing?" " Not well enough to get rid of me." "Damn!" " What do they call you?" " I'm Major Kira." " I'm in charge of evacuating..." " Your given name." "Nerys." "Nerys." "I'm Mullibok." "These roots will really take three hours so you might as well relax." "It's going to be tasty." "They begin tapping the core of this moon in seven days." " I know." " You are only three people." "This project is going to benefit hundreds of thousands." "I made myself unconcerned with that 40 years ago... when I escaped from a Cardassian labour camp on your precious Bajor." "What we're trying to create now is what you weren't allowed to have then." " It can be your Bajor, too." " This is my home." "You can have a home on Bajor with people to welcome you and your friends." "Life will be different but it will be fine." "Really." "No, it won't." "I told you, my life's here." "If I leave here, I'll die." "So I'd rather die here." "Dabo!" " Uncle Quark!" " You." "Last night, that dabo player who dropped his drink?" "I saw you get him another one without charging him." "I warned you about picking up your father's habits." "It'll never happen again, Uncle." "I was trying to find some storage space for the lokar beans that are due tomorrow." "Can I stack them on top of the yamok sauce if I can reach?" "Don't talk about yamok sauce." "Do you want me to take it to the matter reclamation unit?" "Anything." "Just get it out of my sight." "Nog... you're a good boy." "I stowed away aboard a Cardassian survey vessel which was stopping all through the Bajoran system." "They were looking for mining sites." "When we got here to Jeraddo I overpowered the crew and I stole whatever I'd need to build a life." "You overpowered the crew?" "Yourself?" "There was only six of them." "That was fortunate for me because I was somewhat weakened." "Here I was, the first person ever to settle on this moon, and I didn't have any kind of farm implements." "So once again I faced starvation." " I'm not boring you?" " No." "I want to hear who won." "It was mind over matter." "Every 26 hours I'd tighten my waist belt another notch so my belly didn't know it was shrinking." "Excuse me?" "You asked me how I got started here." "Will you let me finish?" "I assume you found some food." "Are you telling the story or am I?" "By all means." "I can't wait to hear how it ends." "Obviously, I had to plant and harvest a crop." "So I did what any person would do who had to build a world." "First, I rolled back and forth on the ground till it surrendered." "Then I got down and started to plough, using nothing but my fingernails." "I ploughed every furrow in that field straight as a plumb line." "Now, that is inventive." "If I came across mineralised clay" "I'd grind it up in my teeth to enrich the soil." "Baltrim, how about some of that wonderful wine here?" "What I'm telling you, Major..." "I tamed this place." "Me." "I believe you." "You look like a bit of a fighter yourself." "On Bajor, we had to be." "To get rid of the Cardassians?" "Mindless butchers." " We paid them back." " I bet." "They probably didn't know what hit them." "I'm sorry I missed the fun." "Fun?" "Must have been like spearing kandippers." "Wait a minute." "Are you serious?" "You know the Cardassians." "We didn't stand a chance against them." " How did you beat them, then?" " We beat them because..." "Because we hung on like fanatics." "Hung on like fanatics." "I got to remember that." "Mullibok, listen." "One of these days I'll have to finish up that kiln." "Then I can temper my baking pots, put some colourful lids on them." "That'd be nice." "I appreciate you're trying to hang on." "I sympathise, but you can't stay here." "Tapping the crust will release carbon and sulphur." "It will make the air unbreathable." "The Cardassians probably told you you didn't stand a chance either." " Did you surrender?" " No." "Why do expect me to act any different than you?" "They can start cracking this moon when they're ready." "I'll be here." "I'll tell them." "So that's a stem bolt." "A self-sealing stem bolt." "There's a difference." "You're sure about that?" "What's important is that it's top-grade merchandise." "You can't get a better stem bolt in this sector." "And we have a hundred gross of them." " That's a lot." " Excuse me." "Anyone know what this cargo's doing here?" "It belongs to my Uncle Quark." "They're stem bolts." "Will you tell your uncle we're getting a little weary of him bypassing import procedures?" "I'll do that, sir." "It's just that my Uncle Quark really needed some stem bolts." "You mean self-sealing stem bolts." "That's right!" "Self-sealing stem bolts." "He sure needs a lot of them." "It's top-grade merchandise." "You can't find a better stem bolt in this sector." "I don't doubt it." "What does he need them for?" "The usual." " The usual?" " You know." "Why does anybody use self-sealing stem bolts?" "I wouldn't know." " I've never used them." " Never?" "I've never even seen one." "Then how do you know they're self-sealing?" "I read it here on the manifest padd." "I thought he'd know what they were." "We should have asked that freighter captain." "I know who could tell us what self-sealing stem bolts are." "The Bajoran who ordered them." "His name's got to be on the shipping codes." "Sirco Ch'Ano." "It has his address and everything." "He'll be mad that we have his stem bolts." "He couldn't afford them." "Remember?" "But we'll offer to sell them to him at a discount." "I'm glad you finally made it back." "I was worried." "Is he alone?" "I think Minister Toran is in there." "Even better." "I don't understand." "There were 47 other people on that moon." "They all left willingly." "How do we know?" "They just obeyed the order to leave." " So will he." " You haven't met him." "Is there anything that might make him leave?" " Not a thing." " Would a postponement help?" " Give us time to work something out." " We can't!" "And if he stays he'll be committing suicide." " We'll have to beam him up." " If we do we'll be killing him." "I refuse to allow three stubborn holdouts to jeopardize a project that will benefit so many of our people." "If there was anything else we could do we would have." "But there is another way." "We can use phased energy retrieval." "We agreed that would take too long." "It would mean waiting a full year before we can extract enough energy." "We don't have time to be more delicate." " So instead we'll act like Cardassians." " Easy, Major." "I resent that." "You've developed a feeling for this man." "Fine, I can accept that." "But if you're not comfortable with completing this assignment," "I'll find someone else who is." "That won't be necessary." "Mullibok?" "What about the other two?" "They have a cottage 35-40 metres through there." "These people were victims of the Cardassians." "They don't speak." "They're very frightened of uniforms." "Understood, Major." "If you find them working in the fields, just gather up their clothes and supplies." " Without permission?" " We're not going to get their permission." "Just be very careful with everything." "You plan to use that?" "Protocol." "I'll help you pack your things." "You sent those two uniforms after Baltrim and Keena?" "I'm doing what has to be done." "Me, too." "Don't make us take you by force." "Please." "I promise you, it won't be so bad." "You can plant whatever you want." "Stay by yourself if you want to." "Take some seeds for those terrible roots of yours." "Just listen to reason." "Listen to yourself, Major." " Tell me what you hear." " What do you mean?" "You sound like a two-headed Malgorian I knew when I was a boy." " You ever talk to one?" " This is no time for a story." "A two-headed Malgorian can never figure out what it wants to do, and that can be confusing." "You're going to have to deal with this." "And my Malgorian friend had all kinds of problems and he couldn't solve them." "So he'd always come running to me so I could solve them for him." "Mullibok..." "You know what I finally said to him?" "I said, "Fellas, deal with it yourselves. "" "Fine." "I'll pack your things myself." "Major!" "They're crazy!" "This man stuck me with a farm implement." " And she attacked me!" " Let her go!" "No!" "You!" "Beam up to the runabout and get Dr Bashir." "Move!" "'What did you say your name was?" "'I'm getting some kind of subspace interference. '" " My name's..." " We're the Nog and... the Noh-Jay Consortium, and we have some stem bolts." " We were wondering..." " 'You have my stem bolts?" "'What would you want for them?" "'" "We'll let you have them for... five bars of gold-pressed latinum." " 'Five bars!" "'" " Four bars." " 'I... '" " Three bars." "'Lf I had latinum, I'd already have the bolts." "'Would you consider an exchange?" "'" "I would consider one bar of latinum." "He doesn't have any latinum." "Let's exchange for something." "I don't want something." "I want latinum." "'I can't hear you." "Can I interest you in a piece of land?" "'" " Land is good." " For what?" "It's nothing but dirt." " How much land?" " 'I can let you have seven tessipates. '" "Seven sounds good." "First yamok sauce, then stem bolts, now tessipates." "And still no profit." "We're getting closer." "I can feel it." " You can?" " I think so." "'Do we have a deal?" "'" "We'd have to see proof of ownership." "'You'll get the transmission on that by 1200 hours. '" "You just bought yourself some stem bolts." " Land!" " Dirt." "Just rest easy." "A phaser blast punctured your peritoneum." "It's serious." "If you move around, you'll make it worse." "Another uniform." "Dr Julian Bashir, Starfleet." "Major Kira sent for me." "You're backwards, Nerys." "I told you." "With me unconscious she could have swept us all off with no trouble." "My friends Baltrim and Keena?" "They've been evacuated to Bajor." " I'm taking you back to our station..." " No." "I stay here." "He refuses to leave." "Really?" "He's got to be cared for." " I'll take him without his permission." " No, you won't." " He needs close attention." " I'll be here." "There's no medical facility." "Leave the instructions and whatever medication he'll need." "She didn't offer an explanation." "She simply removed her uniform tunic and started building." "She stands a pretty good chance of being out of uniform permanently." "I'm going to tell Minister Toran that she's remained temporarily on Jeraddo at your request." "But, sir, that isn't true." "Make it true, Doctor." "Now, please." "I'd advise that Major Kira remain on Jeraddo for humanitarian reasons..." " How long?" " A day or two." "For the next day or two, sir." "Thank you, Doctor." "I will consider that request." "Dismissed." " What's that?" " It's for deep bruises." "Don't ask me why it works." "I'm not the doctor." "What will they do to you for staying?" "Probably the same thing they're going to do to you." "I don't really know." " What are you so angry about?" " I don't know." "When I was small, there was a tree right outside my window." "It was the ugliest, most gnarled old tree I'd ever seen." " Even the birds stayed away from it." " But you loved it?" "Hated it." "Because it had grown so huge its branches blocked out the sun for kellipates and its roots buried themselves so deep nothing else could grow there." "It was a big, selfish, annoying..." " Nasty..." " Nasty." "Nasty old tree." "Sounds to me like it had a lot of character." "A lot." " So did you cut it down?" " I don't know yet." "'Sisko to Kira. '" " Commander." " 'I'm preparing to beam down. '" "I don't think that's a good idea." "'Major, either I'm coming down or you're coming up. '" "He doesn't have much faith in you." "Nerys." "This is still my home." " What?" " I'm here to see Major Kira." "We don't want to see you." "Wait a minute." "Don't speak for me." "You're causing a lot of trouble." "I'm delighted to hear that." "How many uniforms are you going to send after me?" "40?" "50?" " It won't come to that." " Do you want me out?" "Mr Mullibok, I'm here because I'm concerned about my First Officer." "What about her?" "By staying here, she's jeopardising her career." " Go back to bed." " Quit telling me what to do." "Major, can I see you outside for a minute?" "Talk to him as long as you want." "Tell him about your tree." "Be quiet." "There was this big, ugly tree..." "Go on." "Never mind." "I can see why you like him." "What can I do for you?" "You and I have a material subsistence report to finish." " I won't be able to." " It's the liaison officer's job." "I don't like the prospect of having to break in a new one." "You have a job to do here, Major." " It's not that simple." " I'm saying it can't wait." "Look..." "I understand you're used to sympathising with the underdog." "You've spent your life fighting to overcome impossible odds, just like he's doing." "But you have to realise something, Major." "You're on the other side now." "Pretty uncomfortable, isn't it?" "It's awful." "When I first met you, Major," "I thought you were hostile and arrogant." "But I was wrong." "Bajor needs you, and I need you." "I like you and I don't want you to be hurt." "So, as a friend, I'm here to remind you that his fate is already decided." "Yours isn't." "Thank you." "There will be a runabout standing by." "One to beam up." "Mullibok." "Mullibok." "No!" "You're hurting her." "Let go." " Easy." " Lussilla..." "I told you... take your hands off me." "That's right." "It's OK." "Everything's going to be fine." "It's you." "You were having a bad dream." "Not just a bad dream." "Bad memories." "I didn't say anything, did I?" "No." " You thirsty?" " No." " Hungry?" " No." "Leave me alone." "Go back to sleep." "Where you going?" " I'd like to get some sleep, too." " Fine, bring the chair over here." "Are you my nurse, or not?" "Is this better?" "Are you going to talk all night?" "Let me sleep." " Nog, I'm waiting." " I'm thinking." " About what?" " Latinum, and how we don't have any." "All we have is dirt." "How many times must I tell you?" "It's not dirt, it's land." "What are we supposed to do with it?" " Sell it." " To who?" " Think for yourself!" " We should have kept the stem bolts." " Land is better than bolts." " Why?" "You can build things on land." "You can't build anything without bolts." "Just throw down a card." " They're based on the station?" " Correct." "The Noh-Jay Consortium?" "Never heard of it." "Why do you ask?" "I was contacted by a government official." "They want to build on a strip of land owned by four different people." "Three have agreed to sell but the government can't reach the fourth, this Noh-Jay Consortium." "The government can't build without that piece of land?" " Apparently not." " What a wonderful opportunity for profit." "I told you that land was better than bolts!" "You think I'm part of the Consortium?" "I think very little goes on here without your knowledge." "True." "This time, however, someone has failed to include me." "Are you telling me you're not involved?" "Not yet, but that will be remedied." "You can tell the Bajorans" "I'll be opening negotiations with them shortly." "Who on this station is clever enough?" " Uncle Quark?" " Not now." " But..." " Go sweep the floor." " It's important." " All right, make it fast." "I have a business opportunity that might interest you." "It'll only cost you five bars of gold-pressed latinum." "Nog!" " Any pain?" " Just a little sore." "I was starting to think you'd sleep all day." "I was taking care of you all night." "I don't recall asking you to do that." "I can handle this." "Go get something to eat." "There isn't time." "You're finally leaving?" "Last one." "I didn't think I'd ever finish it." "It's finished." "Nothing to do but fire it up." "What's all this?" "You've finished your work." "I have to finish mine." "But you don't want to." "I could use a friend." "I'd like it to be you." "As long as that cottage is standing, I stay here." " What the hell are you doing?" " Saving your life." "So you chose your uniform over me after all." "No." "My time here with you has meant so much, but it's over." "It's time we went on with our lives." "You say you're my friend." "Prove it." "Use that weapon on me." "I can't." "If I leave here, I'll die." "No, you won't." "I won't let you." "Two to beam up."