Quark’s lobes went cold. But then he realized that what the Jem’Hadar had said made no sense. What possible interest could the Founders have in a Ferengi bartender? And then the answer occurred to him. “Odo sent you here,” he said.
“The Founder sent me, yes,” the Jem’Hadar said.
Two things immediately became clear to Quark. First, his concerns about the Jem’Hadar were baseless; Odo would not have allowed the soldier to come to the station if any real chance existed of something bad happening. And two, even ninety thousand lightyears away, the constable still wanted to be a thorn in his side. “Odo told you to keep an eye on me,” he said.
“Yes.”
“And you believe the Founders are gods,” Quark said.
“The Founders aregods,” the Jem’Hadar insisted. He resumed operating the panel, and the door to the holosuite glided open. Quark could see the holographic emitter system in the walls beyond. The Jem’Hadar walked through the doorway.
“If the Founders are gods,” Quark blurted, “then how could they have lost the war?”
The Jem’Hadar stopped just inside the holosuite and turned back toward Quark. “The Founders did not lose the war. The Jem’Hadar failed them. The Vorta, the Cardassians, and the Breen failed them.”
“Of course, it’s never the leaders’ fault, only their minions’,” Quark said, and he actually took a step forward. “You know, I knew Odo longer than anybody on the station. I knew him betterthan anybody. And I never once thought of him as a god.” It rankled him, he realized, that anybody did.
“That demonstrates nothing about the Founder,” the Jem’Hadar said. “It only demonstrates something about you.”
“It demonstrates that I’m observant,” Quark said.
“It demonstrates that you court death.”
Quark stepped back now, unsure whether to accept the statement as a joke or a threat. Somehow, he did not believe that a genetically engineered soldier would have much of a sense of humor.
“You needn’t worry. I won’t hurt you,” the Jem’Hadar said. He turned toward the panel just inside the door, raised his hand, and slipped the isolinear rod into a slot. “Because the Founder instructed me not to.”
“How nice of him,” Quark said. “What else did Odo say about me?”
“He said you were a lawbreaker, scurrilous, loutish, avaricious, deceitful, devious, and short.” The Jem’Hadar touched a control, and the holosuite transformed from a dim, empty room on a space station into a bright, sprawling beach on the edge of an amethyst lake.
“There, you see?” Quark said. “He was wrong, so how can he be a god?”
“I am sure the Founder was not wrong,” the Jem’Hadar avowed, still peering at the panel.
“Well, I am short,” Quark allowed, “but a lawbreaker? Scurrilous and loutish? And those other things? Please.”
“I’ve observed nothing to suggest the Founder’s description of you is inaccurate.”
“All right,” Quark said, warming to the opportunity to prove Odo something less than a god. “Let’s say that he was right, that I am all those things. You know that Odo was chief of security on the station when he was here, right?”
The Jem’Hadar looked over at Quark now, apparently curious. “Yes,” he said.
“Well, if I’m a lawbreaker, then doesn’t that mean that Odo should have arrested me and put me in prison?” Quark argued. “But here I am, free. Which means either Odo was wrong and I’m not a lawbreaker, or he was right, but he wasn’t a good enough chief of security to catch me. Either way, I’d say that doesn’t make him much of a god.” I should’ve been a Vulcan,Quark thought, dazzled by his own display of logic.
The Jem’Hadar said nothing.
“Well,” Quark said. “All right then.” He started to leave.
“Wait.” To Quark’s surprise, the word sounded more like a request than a command. “The Founders created the Jem’Hadar. Createdthem. We exist by their providence. Is that not a characteristic of divinity?”
“I wouldn’t exist if not for my mother,” Quark said. “I don’t lose sleep over it.”
“But your mother did not create the entire Ferengi species,” the Jem’Hadar said.
“Listen, with enough latinum and the right scientists, you can create just about anybody or anything,” Quark said. “So what?”
The Jem’Hadar said nothing again. Then he turned and paced deeper into the holosuite, his boots kicking up puffs of white sand as he neared the edge of the bluish purple water. Quark, enjoying being able to confound this genetically engineered soldier, walked forward and through the doorway.
The Jem’Hadar stopped and turned back toward him. “What do you most want?” he asked.
“What?” Quark had not expected such a question.
The Jem’Hadar strode back across the beach until he reached Quark. “What is it that you most desire? Wealth?”
Quark laughed, a response combined of amusement and anxiety as he peered up into the Jem’Hadar’s intense eyes. “Wealth,” he confirmed. “Of course.”
“If a Founder chose to, he could become a brick of gold-pressed latinum,” the Jem’Hadar said. “Or ten bricks. Or a thousand.”
“That’s not exactly the same thing as having wealth,” Quark contended. “They couldn’t spend himself.”
The Jem’Hadar stepped around Quark and moved back to the panel inside the doorway. He touched a control, and the scene around them gained substance. The lake began to undulate, the gentle waves nipping at the shore. The crisp smells of vegetation floated through the air, carried along by a caress of breeze. The pacific nature of the holoprogram seemed at odds with the character of the Jem’Hadar. “And why do you spend?” he asked.
Quark shrugged. “To acquire things, of course.”
“But the Founders do not need to acquire anything,” the Jem’Hadar said, moving past Quark again and heading back across the beach toward the water. “The Founders can be anything they wish to be. They are free from the need for wealth, because they already have everything—they already areeverything—in the universe.”
“Yes, but…” But what?Quark wondered, his gaze drifting downward. He had never considered Odo’s nature in quite the way the Jem’Hadar had just described it. Odo had never quite been like that, reveling in all that he could become, although Quark supposed that he could if he chose to. In a sense, the Jem’Hadar was right; Odo could have just about anything he wanted, because he could bejust about anything he wanted. Of course, in all the time Quark had known him, the constable had only wanted three things: to serve the cause of justice, to have Kira love him, and to return to his people, all things that he could not have simply by shifting his form. But then, Odo had nevertheless managed to acquire all of those things. He had meted out justice for years, Kira had come to love him, and he had finally gone back to live with the Founders.
Odo has everything he ever wanted,he thought. The truth of that astounded Quark. Odo was no longer with Kira, of course, but that had been his choice.
“Computer,” the Jem’Hadar said, “begin program.” Quark looked up. He thought that the holoprogram had already been running, but obviously the Jem’Hadar had only activated the setting parameters up until now. At first, Quark detected no change in the holosuite, but then a deep vibration reached his ears. The sound increased in volume, originating somewhere behind the Jem’Hadar. Quark peered out at the surface of the lake and saw a mass of water being displaced, churning upward. As the rumble grew louder, the movement of the water grew more violent. Quark looked at the Jem’Hadar’s face. The soldier was smiling.
The lake bubbled upward in a frenzy. With a crashing sound, the surface broke, and a huge shape burst out of the water. Quark saw a creature out of a nightmare, with a rugged, black hide, two golden, vertical slits for eyes, and a gaping maw that held enormous triangular teeth. The beast bellowed, an ugly, angry cry. The Jem’Hadar turned to face it. Quark turned and raced from the holosuite. Even though this was only a simulation, he had no desire to witness this sort of thing.