DEEP SPACE: "THE Search, II" - 07/18/94 - ACT TWO         28.

31   CONTINUED:	(2)

					ODO
			Why?

					FEMALE SHAPE-SHIFTER
			The solids feared our metamorphic 
			abilities.  We were hunted, beaten, 
			killed.  Finally we arrived here.  
			And here...
				(a beat)
			... safe in our isolation we made our 
			home.

					ODO
			Tell me... why was I sent away?

					FEMALE SHAPE-SHIFTER
			Because even in our solitude we 
			desired to learn more about the 
			galaxy.  You were one of a hundred 
			"infants" we sent off to gain that 
			knowledge for us.

					ODO
			But how could you be sure we'd find 
			our way back here?

					FEMALE SHAPE-SHIFTER
			You had no choice.  The urge to return 
			home was implanted in your genetic 
			makeup.
				(smiling)
			And now, thanks to the passageway, 
			you're the first to return to us.  
			We were not expecting you so soon.

					ODO
			When were you expecting me?

					FEMALE SHAPE-SHIFTER
			Not for another three hundred years.

	Each revelation seems to cut deeper into Odo.