IT'S OMAKE TIME!
Know Your Foe
To know your enemy is a comforting feeling. It grows over time, as you read their mail, watch their habits, study their skills. It has benefits beyond the obvious knowledge of what they can do. A known enemy, like a known factor, is one that troubles the mind less; in planning there is a greater inclination to hope and belief in the possibility of victory, in conflict less fear and more certainty, a willingness to consider the aggressive rather than the conservative. Conflict is rarely won by the timid, after all.
Usually. Not always. This idea is premised on the belief that the enemy is broadly alike in power and skill. For the Cardassian Union, this was becoming a large problem now. The aggressiveness of Rachael Ainsworth had worried them, but been considered manageable. They knew less about her replacement, though T'Lorel's public career was definitely cause for concern. Anyone who had managed to get a reputation for orbital phaser strikes greater than any living Cardassian admiral in the effete Federation was surely a person to be wary of.
The old familiar Kumari, an opponent of years now, to be treated with caution-and then a bolt of lightning from a clear sky. ka'Sharren was here. There was no reprimand when the Jaldun captain didn't even try to shadow the Federation dreadnought. The commanding admiral considered it lucky he got the ship back at all. The fact the Kumari had altered course and come straight at them the moment they were detected should probably have been enough to tip them off in the first place. Not even Ainsworth was that aggressive.
Any other Starfleet commodore or admiral would be a danger, at most. But not ka'Sharren. ka'Sharren was a thing they knew in intimate detail, but did not understand; her capablities remained a closed book despite their knowledge, being only "more than we have seen, but how much we do not know". Her legend had only grown with her time away from the Cardassian front, with the Obsidian Order have greedily sucked up every detail about the Battle of Ixaria Approach and the death of the Arcadian Emperor. Aggressive patrol schedules were restricted. Civilian craft were called to port. Plans to expand were abandoned. The defensive perimeter contracted.
So might a Vulcan step back from a debate, discovering that Surak was their opponent; a Romulan withdraw from battle, discovering the enemy fleet was commanded by Valdore; a Human general concede the field to Alexander. Sometimes knowing your enemy merely tells you how much you should be afraid.
