Chapter 5

“No one told. We didn’t give up.” Kail’s voice was raspy, shaking a little. Pride rivaled the pain in his eyes. “You see? They can’t beat us, Mother.”

“No, they can’t beat us,” Moran murmured softly. She lifted another anointed bandage from the bowl beside her and laid it carefully over one of the cruel slashes lacing across his back. “Just lie quietly, now, Kail. You were very brave.”

Kail nodded, smiled again. Then his eyes closed and he was still. Yes, he was brave. Moran was brave, tending to her beaten son with only a few tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. All through this horrible night, every Bajoran in town had been so courageous, so proud, so brave.

And the beatings and interrogations had gone on for nearly an hour. Kail and the others had been a mass of blood and welts by the time the Cardassians had given up in disgust. The young girl’s beautiful face would carry the scars for the rest of her life. The old grandfather was dead. From where she lay on her mother’s bed, Lise heard the bravery in Kail’s voice, in Moran’s voice — so very, very brave — and wanted to scream, clamp her hands over her ears until she couldn’t hear it anymore. A feeble sob was all she could manage.

A rough, cool hand brushed her forehead at the sound, and Lise opened her eyes. Tana leaned over her, hazel eyes concerned. “Does it hurt very much, Lise?”

Lise blinked back tears, but smiled. The wound on the back of her head throbbed painfully. But no. That didn’t hurt quite so much. Physical pain was easy to handle at this point. “I’m fine,” she said. She hated how weak her voice sounded. “It’s just a bump.”

Tana rolled her eyes slightly. “Leave it to you to act like nothing’s wrong,” she muttered. “You’re very lucky. That blow could have killed you.”

Lucky. Right. “That was the idea, wasn’t it? Kill the stupid Bajoran that went out of her head. But Cardies never finish what they start, do they? Lucky me.” Lise stopped and closed her eyes. Talking so long left her dizzy and short of breath.

“Lise.” Moran’s voice held a quiet warning. “Don’t talk that way. You’re alive. Thank the Prophets for that.”

She snorted. “The Prophets had nothing to do with it. Cardassian soldiers can’t aim worth….”

“Lise,” Tana interrupted sharply. “Stop it. Think of Kail.”

Tana’s anger was painful in Lise’s ears. She did think of Kail. Every moment of every day since the day he was born. And he’d come much closer to dying than she had. She turned her head away from his swaddled form and tried to block the image out of her mind.

There was silence for a moment. When Tana spoke again, she was gentle, apologetic for being sharp with her. She untangled Lise’s long matted hair with her fingers as she talked, careful not to put any pressure on the cut in her scalp. “The sun will be up in an hour or so. We’ll have to go to the mines soon.”

Amazing. Life was scheduled to go on as normal. Lise frowned and moved to sit up. “Wait for me. I’ll go with you….”

“No you won’t.” Tana pushed her back down to the bed with an experienced air. “I can cover for your share this time.”

Moran smiled gratefully at her. But Lise scowled. “I can’t let you do that. You’ll kill yourself trying.”

Tana scoffed. “Are you implying that I’m not up to it, Emyn Lise? I can probably do my share and still get your part done early, you waste so much time.”

Ah, humor. That bravery again. Lise’s heart wrenched painfully. “Fine. Do what you want.” She squeezed her eyes shut, ending the conversation, feigning sleep even though she knew that Tana wasn’t fooled for a second. She heard her friend hesitate next to her, then sigh and walk away.

Moran’s robe rustled as she finished ministering to Kail and got to her feet. “Thank you so much for your help, Tana. Sona will be right behind you. I’ll have to report to the kitchens, but Kail and Lise will both be fine here for a while.”

“As soon as I can get away from work I’ll come back here, make sure everything’s okay,” she assured Moran.

“Tana.” Sona’s voice reached out from the darkness of a far corner, the first time he had spoken since the assembly. “You know we were scheduled to deliver supplies to the Olan this morning.” It wasn’t a question, or a rebuttal. Just a fact.

“I know,” Tana replied after a pause. “And they’ve already missed one shipment — we can’t just not go.”

Moran’s voice dropped to a cautious whisper. “But that’s exactly what the Cardassians are expecting, don’t you know that? Why else would they even let us out of our homes after last night? They want one of you to try to reach the Olan, so they can follow you and flush them out.”

“Then they’re making a silly mistake,” Tana said quietly, confidently. “None of the Cardassians know this land half as well as we do. The Prophets willing, we can get at least one person out to the cell and back without being caught.”

“That’s what we thought yesterday,” Moran retorted. “And someone was caught.”

“Then we’ll just have to be more careful,” Sona insisted. “There are still some supplies hidden in the eastern tunnels. Someone can get to the outside from there and then hide in the gorge until the patrols pass. You’ll be working near those tunnels today, won’t you, Tana?”

“Yes.” Tana took a determined breath. “All right. I’ll go.”

“Good. Mother?”

After a moment, Moran nodded. “I’ll try to send a message if I hear anything today — watch for the water deliveries — I’ll send word with one of them.”

As soon as the decision was reached, all conversation stopped, as if there was nothing left to say. Moran and Sona moved about the room preparing for the day’s work, brisk and businesslike. Lise heard Tana pause by her bed on the way out the door, felt her gently tug the blanket more securely around Lise’s shoulders. Before she could turn to leave, Lise opened her eyes and curled her fingers around Tana’s wrist.

“We’ve already lost two people. The next time someone is caught, they’re just going to start killing, and they won’t stop,” Lise whispered. That much she knew with inexplicable certainty, and for one of the first times in her life her voice sounded vulnerable, pleading.

Tana looked down at her for a long moment, then smiled. “Then we’ll just have to make sure there isn’t a next time.”

“That’s not good enough.” Lise’s hand tightened desperately over Tana’s. “If you try to go through with this — if any of us go through with this — you’ll die. I know you will.”

“No, I won’t,” Tana insisted. “I’ll make it.”

Lise shook her head in disbelief, her voice breaking. “How do you know?!”

Her friend looked away for a moment and Lise thought that she couldn’t find an answer. But when she did reply, her reason only made Lise’s heart sink. “Faith, Lise. We aren’t fighting alone. We just have to trust that the Prophets are on our side.”

Lise’s throat tightened and she couldn’t answer her. But the Prophets have always been “on our side.” And where were they when the Cardassians came pouring into Bajor like locusts? Where were they when our people were reduced to slaves digging in the dirt? Where were they when Kail was nearly beaten to death? She felt her doubts and fears sweep over her and found it impossible to understand the peace in Tana’s eyes. She couldn’t trust that faith would protect her friend, any more than it had protected Kail, any more than it had protected Bajor.

Tana touched Lise’s bright hair briefly with her fingers, met her eyes with a strong smile. Then she turned away and walked out the door into the gray dawn, followed closely by Moran and Sona.

Kail continued to sleep peacefully; Lise was completely alone. Abruptly her face crumpled and she turned her head into the pillow, letting the tears overflow. Shaking with fear and despair, she wept freely, unable to keep a brave front up any longer. In that moment, it felt like everything was lost and slipping through her fingers like sand.

But by the time the sun had cast its first rays through the shutters of the window, she had deliberately wiped the tears away and lay very still, determined to get a few hours of sleep. What she could not trust the Prophets to do, she would have to do herself, and she’d have to be thinking clearly when it came time to act.

* * * *

Dav slipped back to the Li’s Run through the nearly-empty corridors. Nearly everyone was on the Promenade; he managed to avoid anyone else.

The woman. He couldn’t stop thinking about her, the one the colonel called the constable. The one he’d seen the night before, if his blurred memories could be trusted. Had he even heard a name?

Tall. She was tall, red-haired…. And with gray eyes … gray eyes…. He’d seen her before, somewhere, he knew it. In Jalanda? No, there were no women like her there, tall, pale, and red-haired…. She could be from the Janitza Mountains, there were a lot of redheads there — had he met her during the mountain campaigns? No, the mountain tribes weren’t that tall….

So where—

Ralinte!

Her!

He fell against the wall, fighting for breath as the bitter memories came back. She had betrayed them, all of them, all the brave souls that risked their lives fighting for Bajor. She had betrayed him, and he had almost lost everything.

And now she was here, on the station. She was one they trusted to protect the very gate of the Celestial Temple. She stood escort to the vedek who’d fled from their embattled home to cower in the protection of an uncaring Federation. She would protect the minister who supported treaties with the Cardassians and made no secret that he welcomed the Federation.

He found the strength for a deep breath.

It could not be allowed. He had known that before, but this only strengthened his determination. No one else was willing to stop them. But he was. He would do it, no matter what the cost. He would stop them all.

For Bajor.

* * * *

It took a few minutes to finish calming the near-riot and disperse the crowd. Then they were able to start cleaning up the nearby shops. Kira took charge of that while Emyn and several of her deputies apprehended and escorted the instigators of the fight to security holding cells. The child and the woman were taken to the infirmary to be checked out. With the colonel glaring at them grimly, and the vedek reappearing to stare at them contemptuously as if across a great chasm, the chastened personnel quickly cleaned up the mess, with no more muttering or complaints.

With the vedek then safely in the shrine for his required solitary prayers, and several security guards and about half a dozen monks standing watch at the entrance, Kira nearly raced back across the Promenade to the security office to confront the constable.

“All right, who started that?” she demanded furiously, a little out of breath, more with emotion than exertion. She brushed the last bits of stone out of her hair.

Emyn was still scanning the arrest reports for the people in custody, gray eyes narrowed. “These four were the main ones, the ones who were fighting and the one who started throwing things, but there was another man, too. Bajoran, older. I saw him talking to people in the crowd. I didn’t see where he went when things exploded.”

“Do you know who he was?” Kira felt a little better — they had most of the trouble-makers who’d started the whole ruckus, and if they could find this last one.…

Emyn tapped the surface of the desk with the PADD she held, frowning. “I don’t know his name — but he was involved in the fight at Quark’s last night too.”

“But you don’t know his name?”

“One of the station personnel, a woman, vouched for him, said that he wasn’t part of the fight. She said he only wound up on the receiving end of an overturned chair, and that she’d make sure he got home. Maybe she lied. Maybe she was wrong.”

“Who was she?” Kira asked crisply.

“I haven’t been here long enough to know everybody; I don’t have a name yet.” Emyn couldn’t quite keep her emotions from her eyes — she wasn’t pleased that someone might have lied to her, and she didn’t like not knowing that person. “I planned to run through personnel records as soon as we finish taking statements. But you probably know her, if she’s been here long. From her uniform, I think she’s in Maintenance; she’s young, a little shorter than you, dark brown hair braided up around her head, brown eyes — her earring has a pair of shimmery t’lutz stones.”

Kira thought for a second. “Sounds like Sonn. Technician Sonn Y’rtana. She’s in Maintenance, all right.”

“Where’s her duty station?”

“Mostly external and bay maintenance and repair.” Kira grimaced in annoyance. “But today she’s over in the Gamma Quadrant, helping retrieve whatever’s left of the old relay.” She considered. “Because of the testing and security concerns, we can’t contact her until they return through the Wormhole. Should be tonight.”

The constable nodded decisively. “I’ll talk to her when she gets back.”

“We’ll both talk to her.” Kira paused, weighing emotions, thoughts, possibilities. There were things she wanted — needed — to go over with Emyn; it couldn’t be put off any longer. She steeled herself. “In the meantime, I suspect we could both use a bite to eat, before the Vedek finishes at the shrine. Care to have a quick lunch?”

Emyn seemed to freeze up right in front of her. Her voice was distant as she replied, “I’m afraid I have some priorities to attend to, Colonel.”

“Another time, then.”

“Another time.”

Chirp.

“Kira here.” She welcomed the interruption in the suddenly uncomfortable silence.

“Colonel, Minister Shakaar’s shuttle will be docking in the next few minutes, at lower pylon two.”

“Docking…. Why didn’t you tell me sooner? At a lower pylon? Didn’t you keep the docking ring open?”

“They didn’t notify us until now. And they requested the change in docking location.”

Not notified…? A lower pylon? By request? She shook her head in disbelief. “On my way.…”

* * * *

Security was finishing up on the Promenade, and Emyn was keeping a few extra deputies on duty there, just in case. Between that and the lack of notice, Kira met Shakaar’s shuttle all but alone. She managed to snag a pair of junior officers and a couple of pylon maintenance and freight handling personnel, but felt that was a poor welcoming committee for the First Minister of Bajor. It was quite a change from the arrival, two hours previously, of Vedek Carn.

The shuttle docked without incident. Three people disembarked. Kira didn’t recognized the woman or the younger man, but she knew Shakaar. He looked tired, she thought, and was dressed in somewhat more casual clothing than she would have expected for an official visit.

“Minister,” she greeted.

“Colonel,” he smiled back broadly, taking her hands.

Behind him, the woman murmured something to the other man, who kept glancing around the bay as if expecting someone to appear through a wall. Both were in the new blue uniforms of the Bajoran militia. Both had the tense, wary look she had come to associate with members of the Resistance, during the Occupation.

“I’m sorry I didn’t have a more appropriate welcome prepared,” Kira apologized. “I didn’t hear that you were arriving until a few minute before you docked — and we had planned to have you disembark along the docking ring.”

Shakaar waved it off. “I didn’t give any more notice. On advice of my security officer. Who also suggested the change in docking location.” He glanced at the woman.

She was taken aback. “What?”

“Colonel Kira Nerys, let me introduce my new security chief — Colonel Rig Saldys.”

“Colonel.” She studied the woman — a little taller than she was, well-built, with a kind of coiled strength in her stance. Her dark hair was pulled back from her stern face; her equally dark eyes were grim and direct. There was something ageless about her, Kira guessed she was older than she looked.

“Colonel,” Rig nodded back brusquely. “Could we get out of this bay, please? It’s a little more exposed than I care for.”

“Uh, certainly….” She looked at Shakaar questioningly.

He shook his head, still smiling. “She tends to go a little overboard.”

“The First Minister before your predecessor was assassinated,” Rig reminded them. “I would prefer not to see that bit of history repeated.” She continued to scan the bay, and stepped closer to the other officer to give some low-voiced instructions.

Kira blinked. “Assassinated…? Well, I know, of course we don’t want … but….” She focused on Shakaar. “What is it, Edon?”

He leaned closer to speak more privately; now she could see the tension around his eyes. “We’ll talk, Nerys, privately. I promise. We’d better go now, before Colonel Rig starts questioning the supply crates about why they’re bound for Prophet’s Landing and what they’re going to do when they get there,” he finished in an attempt to be flippant.

Kira dismissed the staff and crew in the pylon with a wave, then led Shakaar out of the bay, Rig and her deputy in step behind them.

Behind them, the freighter crew watched, most with respectful attitudes and eager curiosity.

One watched with thinned lips and anger in his eyes.

Chapter Six

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