After the war, Section 31 want Julian to work for them, but no matter how many overtures they make, they just can't seem to persuade him.
So they turn to the old tried-and-tested method of using an alternate holosuite reality.
They start in the real world, sending an operative to ask him for something small - they just want access to all the medical files concerning DS9's inhabitants, they believe there's some sort of security threat. He refuses: it's medically unethical. The back-and-forth continues over some days - he says that if they let him know what they're looking for, he'll check for it himself. They say they can't let him know unless he agrees to join Section 31. He says fine, don't get your information then.
The pressure ramps up: they're now asking him to destroy any samples of X chemical he has, to stop a Bajoran vaccination programme, along with some other equally non-sensical things that he of course rejects just as vehemently because they still refuse to tell him why these things are important.
At some point, this business stops being conducted on DS9 and moves to the confines of a holosuite - not that Julian knows this. Other details are added in: a surprise visit from the O'Briens; Kasidy subsequently making the trip to say hello; a family meal, of sorts in Kira's quarters with her guests, and Quark, and Nog, and Jake, and Julian.
That night, Julian is woken up by explosions rocking the station. He reaches for his combadge, just as he is surrounded by a transporter beam, materialising onto an unfamiliar ship. He is stood by a window, looking down onto Deep Space Nine, helplessly watching as everything he loves is destroyed below him.
"We got you out just in time," someone says. He does not respond. He can't.
They take him to unfamiliar quarters on this unfamiliar ship. The room is empty, bare, unlived in. He sits on the bed, numb, his mind refusing to comprehend the enormity of what he has just lost. In his haze, he turns to reach for Kukulaka.
Kukulaka is not there. Kukulaka will never be there again.
The damn bursts, and he weeps for his bear. In the coming days, he will also cry for the loss of his home, his friends, his family, but for now, thinking about them is just too painful. First, he will spend this night mourning Kukulaka, focussing all his grief on the memory of his oldest companion.
The next morning, he will be debriefed. Section 31 is too professional to blame him directly, but as the other officers discuss the explosion, putting together piece by piece a picture of how it happened, Julian will easily be able to read through the lines. An unstable patient. Theft of medical chemicals. Piece by piece he is shown how if he had just co-operated from the outset, his home would not be a bruning wreck among the stars of Bajor.
He cannot let this happen again. No-one else will lose their homes, their family, because of his failure to act.
When Section 31 offer to take him back to Earth, he refuses them once more.
"I think it's about time I stepped up, don't you think?"
