Greatly depressed by his unpleasant work, and separated from his family, he began to see Sharon as a substitute for his daughter, and showed her very small signs of favor. When his superiors found out, they changed her torture regimen, and instead of dropping random insects and reptiles into her coffin-like cell as they had been doing, they instead dropped a large and mildly venomous serpent. The spectacle of her constant pain and terror made Tarks suicidal, and unable to take any more, he helped her escape, hoping that his superiors would kill him. Instead, his actions brought the Alliance down on the base, and he was offered amnesty in exchange for defection from the Hegemony, which he took.