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“Addison” seated herself on the couch and leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest. “Captain, you hide your feelings well, for a solid. But when I saw your face as you looked at the padd just before putting it down, I knew that someone had exposed me. I assure you, at that moment, if I had wanted simply to escape, I could have done so in any of a hundred ways. If I had wanted you, or any of your senior staff, or all of you dead, it would already be done.

“But what I wanted to do was talk, which is why I chose to follow you into what could well be a trap.”

“This room is sealed with force fields.”

She smiled. “Indeed, and if it comforts you to believe that will keep me in, then so be it.” Her expression turned serious. “Understand this, Picard. You think, because you have intelligence provided by our lost foundling, Odo, that you know the full capabilities of a true Founder. You do not. You think you know how to detect us, or contain us. You do not. There is a reason we’re worshipped as gods throughout what you refer to as the Gamma Quadrant. Any sense of safety or superiority you may feel is an illusion. That you live, that your ship has not yet been destroyed, is only evidence of my benign intent.”

“Forgive me if I remain unimpressed. Despite your claims, it seems that we have contained you quite successfully. If you could have left the ship while we remain this close to the Mira variable star, I believe you would have done so.”

She smiled again. “You have me then, Captain, but it does not invalidate what I said before. It only leaves it subject to interpretation.”

“And what of the U.S.S. Samson and the two hundred and twenty lives aboard her? Did you destroy her as a demonstration of your benign intent?”

“And if I did? First, Picard, our people are at war. Second, it was a regrettable accident not of my doing. While studying the Samson’s weapons systems as part of my mission, I discovered that certain components in the modern pulse phasers were incompatible with the old ship’s drive plasma. A coupling was slowly dissolving, contaminating the drive plasma.”

The Changeling shrugged, a slight, dismissive smile playing across her lips. “Of course, I did not report this, nor did I do anything about it. I am, I admit, guilty of inaction. But I had no reason to believe the problem would do more than disable the Samson. It simply made it urgent that I get off the ship before it became stranded and that I move on to a more valuable intelligence objective.”

Picard was suspicious. Some or all of the Changeling’s story could be false. “What about Lieutenant Addison-the real one. Did you murder her?”

“She died in an accidental fall on Vulcan while I was in her company, impersonating a Vulcan guide. I took the opportunity to hide her body and take the place of a Starfleet officer. It was, if you’ll forgive me, a happy accident.”

“You hid her body and stole her blood. Oh yes, that was what gave you away. Mr. Hawk located the vials of blood in your quarters.”

She laughed. “I thought he might be a problem. That’s why I tried to seduce him. It didn’t work, by the way.”

It was Picard’s turn to laugh, as much from a small sense of triumph as from amusement. “You are not nearly so perfect as you imagine, nor do you understand the nuances of humanity as well as you think.”

“If that is so, then maybe the conflicts of our people are based on misunderstanding as well. I came to talk, Picard. If you prefer armed conflict to negotiation, then call your security people to crash in here, and we’ll see what happens.” She gestured at the door. “Go ahead. Let’s do it.”

He stepped around the end of his desk and slid into his chair. “If this is to be a negotiation, then I assume you won’t mind if I make myself comfortable.”

“Not at all.”

“Then, antagonism aside, what does the Dominion have to talk with us about?”

She grinned lopsidedly. “You make the assumption that all members of the Great Link are the same,