Intrigue

Political tensions rise on DS9 when Bajorans board the station with a supposedly orphaned Cardassian whom they have adopted.

Dr. Bashir is talking with Cardassian tailor Garak when suddenly a Bajoran man with a Cardassian boy enters the bar. Garak tries to approach the boy but he seems very afraid and bites him. Rugal is a war orphan left behind by the Cardassians after the occupation as many others and was adopted by Bajorans. Just a minute after Bashir tells Sisko, he gets contacted by Gul Dukat. He seems very concerned about the orphans on Bajor and wants to rectify the situation. He is concerned the Bajorans are manipulating them into thinking the Cardassians are bad and asks for an investigation. While Rugal's Bajoran father tells he's been treating the boy well and Rugal seems to prefer staying on Bajor, an alien, Zolan, contradicts that story. Meanwhile Garak thinks the situation is a bit too coincidental and starts his own private investigation with Bashir.—Arnoud Tiele (imdb@tiele.nl)

Doctor Bashir (Siddig El Fadil) and Garak (Andrew Robinson) are trading barbs at a replimat on the promenade when a Cardassian boy named Rugal (Vidal Peterson) comes in with an older Bajoran man. Garak introduces himself and compliments the boy who turns around and unexpectedly (and viciously) bites Garak's hand.

Within minutes, as Bashir is reporting the incident to Sisko (Avery Brooks), a message comes in from Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo) who seems to have gotten information about the attack even before Sisko did. Dukat explains that Cardassian children, presumably orphans, were left on Bajor when it was abandoned by the Occupation, and he claims to be starting a movement to get them repatriated. An alien businessman who claims to know Rugal's adoptive family accuses them of abusing the boy both verbally and physically, so Miles O'Brien (Colm Meany) and his wife Keiko (Rosalind Chao) are given custody of the boy until the truth is known. Rugal has been adopted and raised by a Bajoran family and despite unsubstantiated accusations, it appears that that Proka (Terrence Evans) loves his son as his own.

It's becoming clear that the Cardassian tailor is more than "just plain, simple Garak". He seems to know a lot about the circumstances on which the orphans were left on Bajor. That he has an rather animous relationship with Dukat should increase anyone's respect for him.

Miles O'Brien is a bit prejudiced against Cardassians, and he shows that by some insensitive comments to Keiko, who is rooming the boy, but he and Rugal make a connection (literally, actually) when they push the Cardassian meals that Keiko replicated away from them and their plates meet in the middle. Later O'Brien and a sleepless Rugal chat and it becomes apparent that Rugal wants to go back to Bajor.

When Garak wakes a sleeping Bashir, who in turn wakes Sisko to borrow a runabout to go to Bajor, Garak seems to have the knowledge of the boy's parentage before the urgent message to Sisko from Dukat, revealing that Rugal's father is in fact a prominent civilian politician, Kotan Pa'Dar (Robert Mandan). Bashir and Garak visit a resettlement center looking for information on Rugal's adoption. While there, Garak displays yet another talent - "dabbling with isolinear data subprocessors - a hobby of mine. It's no more difficult than sewing on a button, really." he says. With all the data they need, they prepare to leave and are met by a group of children who ask Garak if he's here to take them back to Cardassia. Garak looks stricken at the sight of these unfortunate children and says that he's afraid not.

On the way back to the station, Bashir slams on the brakes of the runabout, turns off the engine and basically says, "I'm stopping this car and we'll just sit here until I get some answers." The answers he gets point to some machinations by Dukat to ruin Pa'Dar's political career, since their disagreement led to Dukat's losing his position in the withdrawal from Bajor. It seems that the disgrace of apparently leaving his son behind on Bajor, despite the fact that he believed the boy to be dead, will ruin his career on Cardassia, which considers family to be an absolute top priority.

The reunion between Rugal and his father is both touching and heartbreaking as Pa'Dar explains the agony and despair when he lost his wife and believed his son dead in a Bajoran attack, and then Rugal saying it was his own fault, then calling his father a Cardassian butcher whom he will never forgive.

Sisko agrees to arbitrate the custody battle between Pa'Dar and Proka, when he gets the message that Gul Dukat has made an appearance on the station and will be attending the hearing.

Sisko is suspicious of the motives of Dukat who says his only interest is of the children left behind, and specifically to see Rugal reunited with his father, even though they've been adversaries in the past.

Bashir and Garak pore over the adoption records retrieved on Bajor only to find that they're missing. They eventually find the person who handled the intake when the boy was 4 and the last pieces of the mystery fall into place.

Bashir interrupts the custody hearing and Sisko (for the third time this episode, BTW, after being told "Don't let it happen again") and questions Pa'Dar and Dukat. Pa'Dar admits that once this news is made public, his political career will end, meaning he won't be able to participate in an inquiry concerning those involved in an attempted military coup on Bajor at which Gul Dukat is a key witness. Bashir explains that the social worker on Bajor remembers Rugal being brought in by a female Cardassian military officer who seemed familiar with Rugal and even knew his name. Bashir conjectures that the woman was ordered to leave the son of Kotan Pa'Dar at an orphanage by the commander of Terok Nor, now Deep Space Nine. Garak watches Dukat's increasing discomfiture with a look of pure glee (hard to do on a Cardassian face) as it's revealed that the commander on the station at the time was Gul Dukat who stares absolute daggers at Garak as he storms out of the hearing.

Sisko decides to send Rugal back to Cardassia with Pa'Dar who sounds more concerned about salvaging his political career than using his influence to help repatriate other Cardassian orphans.

Over coffee (or raktajino and fish juice) Bashir asks Garak to tell him why he exposed Dukat's treachery; what is the truth about Garak and Dukat? "Truth, Doctor, is in the eye of the beholder. I never tell the truth because I don't believe there IS such a thing. That's why I prefer the straight line simplicity of cutting cloth."

"You don't need me to tell you [the truth], my friend. Just notice the details! They're scattered like crumbs all over this table we regularly share. Until next time..."

(end credits)