DEEP SPACE NINE: "Doctor Bashir... " - REV. 1/6/97 - ACT FOUR    45.

50   CONTINUED:	(2)

					O'BRIEN
			Then it's true? You're...

					BASHIR
			The word you're looking for is, 
			"unnatural." Meaning "not from 
			nature." "Freak" or "monster" would 
			also be acceptable.

	Bashir can't meet his eyes and sits down heavily on the 
	couch. The jig is up and there's no running away from 
	who he is any longer. The words come tumbling out of 
	Julian -- it's a story he's never told anyone, but 
	always thought he might, and once he starts, there's a 
	rushed anxious quality to the tale as if he's glad to 
	finally say it.

					BASHIR
			I was six. Small for my age. A 
			bit awkward physically. And... 
			not very bright. In the first 
			grade, while the other children 
			were learning how to read and 
			write and use a computer... I was 
			still trying to tell a dog from a 
			cat and a tree from a house. 
				(beat)
			I didn't really understand what 
			was happening... I knew that I 
			wasn't doing as well as my 
			classmates... there were so many 
			concepts they took for granted 
			that I couldn't begin to master... 
			but I didn't know why. All I knew 
			was that I was... a great 
			disappointment to my parents. 
				(beat)
			I'm not sure when they made the 
			decision, but just before my 
			seventh birthday we left Earth for 
			Adigeon Prime. 
				(beat)
			At first, I remember being excited 
			at seeing all the aliens in the 
			hospital. But then they gave me 
			a room... and started the 
			treatments... and my entire world 
			began to change...