[Commander Lataro and Lieutenant Valdago, please report to my ready room.]
Lataro and Valdago left their consoles and entered the newly decorated ready room. Maruu had recently found some time to add two holoemitters to the room, displaying an aquarium with rare Bajoran aquatic animals, when Nori had been kept busy on off hours due to the unexpected assimilation of an engineer who stuck his hand into the nanoprobe solution Nori was making to create a new transwarp drive.
Lataro walked in and looked at the fish. "Nice aquariums, Captain."
"You like? They're Tosundis. Kind of like goldfish on Earth but with larger and longer fins."
"Bajoran?"
"Of course!"
Lataro smiled. "So how can we help you?"
Maruu passed Lataro a PADD. "I have a mission for you. You're going to die."
Valdago gave him a hard look. "What?!"
"When we meet the Dominion forces, I am going to tell them that you two are dead. You will be going on a mission to Jeor. The PADD is a map or the quickest route. It keeps you away from the Kirusan planets, stations, colonies, and ships."
"Why are we going to the Jeorri home world?" asked Valdago.
"He wants us to have a backup in case the Dominion alliance doesn't work," deduced Lataro.
"Very good, Commander," said Maruu. "However, it's more than that. There are five opposing parties here: the Federation, the Jeorri, the Kirusans, the Resistance, and the Dominion. When the Federation leaves this part of space, I want the Kirusans and the Dominion to have fallen. The only winners here must be the Resistance and the Jeorri. Even if the alliance works, we can't allow the Dominion to control the Jeorri as the Kirusans have. Besides, when the Dominion finds out about the Jeorri, the Shahtar themselves told me, they will destroy the entire race. They won't keep them secluded in the Taboo Sector like the Kirusans have. They will wipe them out."
Lataro and Valdago both agreed to take the mission.
"Now we have to work on a plan to kill you two. It will hurt K'Lara terribly, but it must be done."
"They're transporting," Tara stated. "There are Dominion officers on Decks 13, 12, 10, eight, five, four, two, and..."
Two Jem'Hadar soldiers and a Vorta ambassador materialized on the bridge.
"...one."
"Ah, Captain Maruu," began the Vorta. "Your reputation precedes you."
Maruu forced a smile. "Why, thank you..."
"I am Jorail. I will be your ambassador for the remainder of the war with the Kir'vusans. Leiyon has business to attend to on the station so he won't be joining us."
"Alright, that is my Chief Tactical Officer, Lt. Javier Tara. That is my Chief of Security, Lt. Benton. That over there in
Commander K'Lara, my helmsman. And this is my..." Maruu paused. "Computer, where are Commander Lataro and Lt. Valdago?"
<Both officers are in Shuttle Bay One.>
"What is going on, Captain?" queried Jorail.
Benton yelled, "Captain, we have a breach in Shuttle Bay One. The Lambda Flier just blew the shuttle bay doors open!"
Captain Maruu yelled, "Tara, hail them."
"Channel open, Sir," said Tara.
"What are you doing, Commander?!"
[Your an idiot, Stephen!] yelled Lataro. [Allying yourself to the Dominion is the stupidest thing any captain could have done!]
"Commander, turn that ship around or I will fire."
[Go to hell!] replied Valdago.
"Tara, lock a photon torpedo and fire."
Tara looked at him. "But, Captain..."
"Jonathan has betrayed this crew. Shoot or I will!"
Tara stepped away from his console. "I can't."
"You coward." Maruu tapped a few buttons on his own computer. A photon torpedo flew from the Virgo and hit the Flier just as it entered the wormhole. There was a small explosion. The Flier's position in space was replaced by debris. It had been destroyed. Maruu looked at Tara coldly. "You are relieved of your duty as a Starfleet officer." He removed his pips. "You are confined to quarters."
As Tara left the bridge with an armed escort, K'Lara stood up and punched Maruu in the face, causing him to bleed. "You son of a..." Benton fired a phaser shot at K'Lara. She fell to the floor, unconscious.
Maruu stood up and moved towards Jorail. "The Dominion caused anxiety amongst our crew. Forgive me."
Jorail smiled. "Do not worry. You run your ship well."
After discussing certain aspects of the Kirusans and their tactics, the Dominion and the Federation signed their temporary agreement of peace. They were now allies. By the end of the day, the USS Virgo and 100 Dominion ships left Dominion space through the wormhole and entered the Kirusan Breadth. It would be three weeks until their arrival at Kirus where the Federation and the Dominion would go to war against the Kirusans.
Among the things that were not discussed with the Kirusans and much of the crew were: the Jeorri alliance, the plate of titanium alloy rigged with an explosive which was allowed to float behind the Flier so that the photon torpedo wouldn't even scratch the ship and still give the light show necessary of a ship's explosion, the transwarp technology being adapted to the Virgo, the half-Kirusan who is on his way to Jeor to conduct the alliance, and the Kirusan vessel hidden in one of the cargo bays. No doubt the Federation would come out winning this war, as long as everything goes according to plan...