Scorched Earth

It had been a heated argument, lasting well into the evening, and they were all privately glad to have stopped for a while. When they reconvened, it proved to be a very brief session. Tain thanked them all for their contributions and told them his decision - that the Obsidian Order would continue to support the military's current evacuation policy on Bajor. And then he invited them all to move to the dining room.

The library emptied quickly. Korinas had a broad smile across her face. Brun hesitated for a moment, glancing back at Garak, before shaking his head slightly and leaving. Garak himself stayed in his seat, tapping one finger against the side of his glass. Tain, halfway through the door, saw him, and moved back into the room, closing the door behind him.

'You seem unhappy, Elim,' he said.

Garak looked up at him bitterly. 'If you had already made up your mind, why did you bring me back from Bajor? It seems rather a waste of time for all concerned.' He turned his attention back to drumming the glass.

Tain raised an eye ridge. 'You are unhappy.' He moved closer to the other man's seat. 'You had the chance to put your case, like everyone else. Korinas did a better job of it.'

'Korinas,' Garak snorted. 'If her ambition were any more palpable we'd be wading in it.'

Tain chuckled. 'That's a little disingenuous coming from you, wouldn't you say?'

Garak's eyes flashed. 'You know very well that my first priority is always what's best for Cardassia - '

'Well, make sure you keep it that way,' Tain cut through.

Garak looked up at him sharply. 'What precisely do you mean by that?'

'What you did on Bajor vastly exceeded your authority - which, by the way, is why I brought you back. I don't like having to face the Central Command and explain away lapses of judgement on the part of my senior officers.'

Garak laughed shortly and without humour. 'A 'lapse of judgement' - is that how you see it?'

'It's preferable to seeing it as a question of your loyalty,' Tain said coolly.

'A question of my loyalty..?' Garak pushed back his chair and stood up, facing the older man in astonishment. 'Enabran, my loyalty is to Cardassia, the same it's always been!'

There was a chilly pause. 'I was rather hoping you'd say it was to me,' Tain answered mildly.

Garak stiffened. 'That goes without saying.'

'I see.'

Garak leaned in towards Tain, gripping the table hard with both hands, his voice low and urgent. 'Please, Enabran, listen to me. This is a bad mistake. If we reduce Bajor to rubble, the Federation will step in and take over. A stable, independent Bajor means less Federation influence on our borders. That can only be good for Cardassia.'

'It's very odd to hear an Obsidian Order agent arguing the case for an independent Bajor,' Tain replied, his voice again deceptively calm.

Garak knew the other man too well to be fooled, but he kept on talking. It was too important not to. 'Bajor is lost. This is pointless revenge. Every day we delay the Resistance takes the chance to attack another troop convoy. We should get those men back home as soon and as safely as we can and leave them to it. The Bajorans aren't the enemy any more. The sector's changing - we have the Federation to think about.'

'And what sort of message does it send the Federation, if we pull out of Bajor without a fight?' Tain responded, his anger clearly mounting. 'That Cardassia is weak, perhaps? That we can't even defeat an inferior race..?'

'Perhaps they'll see that we're shrewd enough to leave behind a defiantly independent nation that will react very badly to any suggestion of Federation influence!' Garak calmed down, shook his head. 'This problem has been waiting for us since day one. We were already over-extended when we went into Bajor. We should never have invaded in the first place, and now we should just get out.'

'You might do well to recall that it was I who orchestrated the annexation of Bajor, Garak,' Tain said softly.

There was a long silence. Garak rubbed his hand across his forehead. He breathed deeply, and made to reply, his hands raising in a placatory gesture. Before he could say anything, Tain spoke, his voice still soft.

'We lost - are still losing - countless lives thanks to that ridiculous Resistance of theirs. And you want that to go unpunished?' His voice was rising with his temper. 'How does this constitute patriotism? How can this be 'good for Cardassia'? And when did you develop such grossly sentimental opinions about our colonies? Do I now have to suffer listening to officers that I nurtured spouting treason?'

Garak didn't answer, just looked down at the table, and Tain calmed himself down slightly. 'Since you appear not to have understood what I said only five minutes ago, let me repeat myself in plain language. The withdrawal from Bajor will continue as the Central Command has planned - with the backing of the Obsidian Order. You will stop this misguided and bizarre one-man crusade and fall back into line with this policy. Is that clear?'

Garak swallowed then nodded. 'Yes, Tain.' He turned to go, rather shaken. It had been a very long time since he had received such an unequivocal reprimand. As he reached out to touch the door handle, Tain spoke again.

'Don't do anything you might regret, Garak.'

He turned back to look directly at him and smiled. 'Have I ever?' he replied, trying to lighten the mood between them.

Tain came towards him, and Garak could see the glittering of the old man's eyes. 'After today, I rather suspect I wouldn't know.'

Garak opened the door and, as always, stepped back to let Tain through first.