Cardassians ( episode ) Garak and Doctor Bashir investigate abandoned Cardassian war orphans on Bajor . Summary . Teaser . Doctor Bashir sits down at his usual table at the Replimat with Garak , and once again tries to figure out if Garak is a spy on the station with some thinly - veiled language about his clientele . Garak laughs it off , as he always does . When a young Cardassian boy , wearing a Bajoran earring and escorted by a Bajoran man , sits down near them , Garak cannot resist commenting on it . He goes over to the man and says what a nice boy he has . The boy bites Garak ' s hand , and shies away . Act One . After making sure Garak ' s hand is not severely damaged , the doctor reports to ops , and tells the senior staff about the incident . Everyone is baffled ; then Gul Dukat calls on subspace to ask about the incident . When Commander Benjamin Sisko skeptically asks Dukat how the news reached him so quickly , Dukat changes the subject . He says the boy is one of the many war orphans left behind when the Cardassians left Bajor . He asks Sisko to investigate this incident , since he is trying to get the orphans returned to Cardassia . Sisko agrees . First , Sisko talks to the father , Proka Migdal . He is initially agitated , thinking that Garak filed a complaint and they want to arrest him . When Sisko explains they just want to talk , he relaxes slightly . He wishes that the Cardassians would have paid as much attention to his boy then as they want to now . He insists that he adopted Rugal so that Rugal wouldn ' t have to suffer for the mistakes of others , and that Garak should have minded his own business . The doctor points out that the boy was terrified of Garak , and that he was probably raised to hate Cardassians . The father agrees that Rugal hates Cardassians , because the facts alone would – and should – make him hate Cardassians . He loves his son , just as if he were his own flesh and blood , and considers him a Bajoran . Continuing the investigation , Doctor Bashir talks to Zolan , a trader who knows the family well . He is evasive , but when the doctor presses him , he explains that he had visited the family a few times when the father was looking for a new job . He tells Bashir that Rugal is being raised in a terrible way – being told every day that he is horrible for being a Cardassian – and that the parents are taking out their revenge against all Cardassians on the boy . When Sisko and Bashir confront Proka , he is outraged , saying he has done nothing . Sisko accepts his word , but has Rugal stay with the station ' s school teacher Keiko O ' Brien for the time being . Rugal says he didn ' t do anything wrong when his father brings him out . He is nervous , but finally goes with Sisko and Bashir when the father says they won ' t hurt him , because they ' re Human , not Cardassian . Act Two . Back in the infirmary , Doctor Bashir heals Garak ' s hand , and mentions Gul Dukat ' s attempt to resolve the war orphan predicament . Garak laughs and begins a line of questioning of his own . He plants in Bashir ' s mind that Dukat ' s story should not be believed : Dukat was in charge of the withdrawal from Bajor , therefore it is his fault that the children were left behind , so why is he trying to get them returned home ? Back in ops , Sisko is explaining to Dukat that it may not be very simple to send Rugal back to Cardassia . When the doctor arrives , Sisko asks Dukat to look up the boy ' s DNA to search for any surviving relatives , in case he does decide to send him home . Dukat agrees , then Doctor Bashir interrupts . He asks Dukat why he chose to leave the children behind . Dukat is not pleased , and explains that he was ordered to do it by the civilian leadership of Cardassia and had no choice . Bashir corrects him , and states that the civilian leaders do not have such detailed control of the military . When Dukat asks where he got this information , he admits it was from Garak . Dukat tells Bashir to tell Garak he had no choice , and cuts off the viewscreen . Sisko asks why the doctor presumptuously interrupted his conversation with Dukat . Bashir explains that Garak thinks Dukat is lying – which he had to deduce , since Garak doesn ' t actually tell him anything . Sisko is not pleased , but lets him off with a rebuke . Meanwhile , in the O ' Briens ' quarters , Chief O ' Brien is initially uneasy around Rugal given his own experiences with Cardassians , and is aghast to learn that Keiko allowed Molly to play with him . Keiko warns him that she doesn ' t appreciate his prejudiced attitude . Later that night , Rugal is unable to sleep and Miles takes the chance to talk to the boy ( who denies being abused ) about his situation . O ' Brien asks if it ' s hard on him being Cardassian . Rugal becomes defensive , saying he was born that way and it isn ' t his fault . The chief rephrases his question : " " Isn ' t it hard to live with people who hate you ? " " Rugal answers that his parents hate other Cardassians , not him , and they have done nothing wrong to him . When he asks what Miles thinks of Cardassians , the chief explains that he can ' t generalize an opinion about an entire race – he has met Cardassians he didn ' t like , and Cardassians he did like . Rugal doesn ' t understand how the chief could feel that way , since the Cardassians killed ten million Bajorans , and wishes he were Bajoran . Act Three . In the middle of the night , Garak sneaks into Bashir ' s quarters and says that they need to go to Bajor now . The doctor wakes Sisko up and tries to explain , not very coherently , that he and Garak need a runabout right away to go to Bajor for something important , which Garak won ' t tell him . At the same time , Ops informs Sisko through the com that there is a communication for him from Gul Dukat . He informs Sisko that the boy ' s DNA has identified him as the son of a prominent politician , Kotan Pa ' Dar , who is still alive – so the boy is actually not an orphan . Pa ' Dar is heading to the station to reclaim him . Sisko repeats that it ' s not that simple ; the boy wants to go back to Bajor , and he won ' t send him to Cardassia against his will . Pa ' Dar will have to wait for the investigation to finish . Bashir points out that Garak ' s urgency , the trader who made the accusation of abuse vanishing , and the news about Pa ' Dar can ' t be a coincidence , and Garak must know something . This convinces Sisko to give them the runabout . Garak and Bashir head down to an orphanage for Cardassian children and ask about Rugal . The person in charge says that since Rugal ' s adoption occurred eight years ago , when the Cardassians were still in charge , she probably doesn ' t have the information . Garak responds with a correction that Cardassians always keep meticulous records , and if they would let him use their computer , he might be able to find the file . When she says that the government hasn ' t had the resources yet to repair her computer system , he offers to fix it himself . After repairing the computer , Garak downloads all the provincial records into a data clip . This again makes Bashir skeptical that Garak isn ' t a spy . The wind is taken out of Garak ' s sails , however , when he spots a couple of Cardassians watching him , with a young girl asking if he ' s there to take them back to Cardassia . Garak has to regretfully inform them that , no , he has not come to take them home . Act Four . When they are in orbit , Dr . Bashir gets tired of being strung along . He has the computer shut down the runabout ' s engines and demands that Garak give him some information . Garak explains that Dukat had to leave behind the children , as orphans have no status in Cardassian society . This isn ' t enough for Bashir , who demands some answers or they will sit there until they rot . With that ultimatum , Garak plays another round of twenty questions . He helps Bashir put it all together : Pa ' Dar was one of the most notable civilian leaders at the time , and was involved in the decision to end the occupation and evacuate Bajor ; Gul Dukat lost his job as prefect when that happened , so he hates Pa ' Dar ; and now , mysteriously , this boy turns up , and Dukat coincidentally finds out it is Pa ' Dar ' s long lost son . Pa ' Dar shows up on the station , and Chief O ' Brien talks to him before he sees Rugal . He explains that the boy hates everything he is , and probably won ' t react well to see him . Pa ' Dar insists that he is the boy ' s father , so all of that will change . He explains that on his son ' s fourth birthday , a bomb blew up their house , and the father was convinced he was dead . Family is very important to Cardassians , he says , and he has come here despite the disgrace it will bring him ( because there is no excuse for " losing " a member of his family ) for that reason . When Rugal walks in , he is scared and stunned . He doesn ' t remember his father ' s face , and wants nothing to do with him , despite his father ' s pain and explanation of what happened . He says his father deserved his pain , and that his son is dead ; he will never go back to Cardassia . The next fight is between Pa ' Dar and Proka . Pa ' Dar demands that no Bajoran court rule on the custody hearing . After some loud words , Sisko suggests an arbitrator , and both suggest him . Pa ' Dar accepts , and then Odo informs him that Gul Dukat has just arrived on the station . Act Five . Dukat explains he has come to observe the hearing , because there is great interest in the case at high levels of the Cardassian government . He wants to see Rugal reunited with his father . He says the disagreements between him and Pa ' Dar are not relevant ; it is the children who are important . Since Sisko is trying to stall for time to give Bashir and Garak more time to search the files , he asks Pa ' Dar to again revisit the events from eight years ago . The doctor and Garak , however , aren ' t having any luck . Garak soon realizes it is because Dukat probably purged the file on Rugal , since there was something in it he didn ' t want anyone to see . So , he looks for – and finds within seconds – the person who created the file , Jomat Luson . While Sisko asks Rugal what he remembers about his adoption and gets nothing , the doctor and Garak talk to Jomat . She remembers Rugal well , because his case was very unusual . Bajorans usually brought in the Cardassian children from the streets , but Rugal was turned in by a female Cardassian military officer who was attached to Terok Nor . Also , the officer knew the child ' s name . Garak helps the doctor put together the last pieces , and they go to the hearing . With Sisko ' s permission , Bashir asks several questions . He gets O ' Brien to reiterate the humiliation Pa ' Dar is feeling , and when asked , Pa ' Dar says it will be the end of his career when it is revealed to the people . Not only that , but the timing is very bad , considering there is an inquiry about to begin concerning an attempted military " coup " on Bajor . It just so happens that Dukat is one of the key witnesses in that inquiry . Dukat objects , and says it is irrelevant . Bashir quickly changes his line of questioning , and asks Dukat if he has ever been to the orphanage center where Rugal was adopted . He says no . That center , he explains , is located where Pa ' Dar was living eight years ago . Rugal was brought in by a female Cardassian military officer , who seemed to know the child . Perhaps she knew he wasn ' t an orphan . When Dukat says he knows nothing about that , Bashir points out that the female officer was attached to Terok Nor , which was Deep Space 9 ' s name under the Cardassians . The question for Dukat was : who was the commanding officer of Terok Nor eight years ago ? Dukat walks out ; he was that commanding officer . Pa ' Dar thanks Sisko for salvaging his political career ; Dukat will not make these events public , so this is a stalemate instead of a great loss . With a few words of encouragement from Miles O ' Brien , Rugal goes with his father , hesitant , but willing . When the doctor asks Garak why he helped to defeat Dukat , he is evasive , as usual . If you can find all the details , he says , you can put it together yourself . Memorable quotes . " " Really , doctor , must we always play this game ? I am no more a spy than you are a . . . " " " " . . . a doctor . " " " " What exactly does " [ Garak ] " think is going on ? " " " " I ' m not sure . He doesn ' t actually tell me what he really thinks . . . I sort of have to deduce it . " " " " Ah , so you deduced that Garak thinks Dukat is lying about something you ' re not sure of . And you proceeded to interrupt my conversation to confront him about whatever that might be . " " " " I ' m sorry , commander . It just seemed an opportune – " " " " Don ' t apologize ; it ' s been the high point of my day . " Don ' t " do it again . " " " " I wish I wasn ' t Cardassian . " " " " I assume this couldn ' t wait until morning . " " " " No , sir . I need to use a runabout . " " " " . . . I ' m waiting . " " " " It ' s Garak , sir . He wants to go to Bajor . " " " " Bajor . For what ? " " " " He wouldn ' t tell me . " " " " Well , by all means . Will one runabout be enough ? " " " " I was in the underground . " " " " Really ! Perhaps we " have " met ! " " " " I believe in coincidences . Coincidences happen every day . But I don ' t " trust " coincidences . " " " " Truth is in the eye of the beholder , doctor . I never tell the truth because I don ' t believe there is such a thing . That is why I prefer the simple straight line simplicity of cutting cloth . " " Links and references . References . arbitrator ; Bajor ; Bajoran ; Bajoran transport ; Bajoran underground ; " " ; button ; Cardassia ; Cardassian s ; Cardassian law ; Cardassian military ; dabo ; Detapa Council ; district ; DNA ; exarch ; Federation ; foster parent ; Fredericks family ; isolinear data subprocessor ; Klingon s ; medical report ; ; ; Occupation of Bajor ; politician ; prefect ; Proka ' s wife ; Promenade ; Prophet s ; Quark ' s ; record keeper ; replicator ; Replimat ; Rokassa juice ; Rom ; Rugal ' s mother ; runabout ; sewing ; social volunteer ; spanking ; spy ; swimming ; Tarkalean tea ; Terok Nor ; Terok Nor female officer ; Tozhat Province ; Tozhat Resettlement Center ; Zabu ; Zabu stew