They were created to be killing machines. Highly intelligent, resourceful, and deceptively complex, the Jem'Hadar are a species engineered for war and programmed at the genetic level for one purpose: to fight until death as soldiers of the sprawling stellar empire known as the Dominion. No Jem'Hadar has ever lived thirty years, and not even their masters, the shape-shifting Founders, know what such a creature is capable of becoming were it to be freed of its servitude.
One Founder, however, has dared to wonder.
Appointed by Odo himself to learn peaceful coexistence aboardDeep Space 9™, Taran'atar, an Honored Elder among the Jem'Hadar, had for months been a staunch, if conflicted, ally to the crew of the station, ever struggling to understand the mission on which he was sent . . . until something went horrifically wrong.
Consumed by self-doubt and an ever-growing rage, Taran'atar has lashed out against those he was sworn to aid. While Captain Kira Nerys and Lieutenant Ro Laren both lie near death aboard DS9, their assailant has taken a hostage and fled into Cardassian space, pursued by Commander Elias Vaughn on theU.S.S. Defiant. But as the hunt unfolds, Taran'atar's true objective becomes increasingly less certain, as the rogue Jem'Hadar leads theDefiantto a discovery even more shocking than his crime.Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9) focuses on the twenty-fourth century adventures of Captain Benjamin Sisko on space station Deep Space 9, an outpost situated near the mouth of a stable wormhole on the far reaches of explored space. Although Sisko commands Deep Space 9, the station actually belongs to the inhabitants of nearby Bajor, who requested Starfleet's protective presence after Bajoran freedom fighters put an end to the brutal Cardassian occupation of their world. Approximately a sixth of the station's 300 permanent residents are Starfleet personnel; there is also a sizable Bajoran militia presence. ThlĂ-