Season 13, Episode 1: Unity

## S13, E1, Act 1: Needed Respite

Commander Kyril Vree and Lt. Commander Kindred Dakota

*USS Nightwraith* enroute to DS9

Cargo Bay

Stardate 1810.16

A day after they parted ways with the Intruder and the *Soulseeker*, the four of them took turns manning the bridge while the others got some down time. The *Nightwraith* was big enough to house 20 people, so for just the four of them, it was plenty of room for them to have some privacy.

Kin took advantage of that and practiced in the cargo bay. She'd been going through her routines with her axes, allowing her mind to enter the zen state of concentration and focus. Then before she was consciously aware of it, she was in the zone. That mental state of conditioning, practice, and focus on the fluidity and accuracy of her movements.

She imagined attacking foes as she ran through her routines again and again, each time the foe attacking with different aspects of weapons or styles. Then she imagined hearing a noise behind her and whirled around bringing down both axes in a parallel downward cross motion to take the opponent by surprise.

To her surprise, it connected with something with a clang, and that there was someone standing there. She leaped backwards and lowered her axes. "Spirits! I could have killed you! Don't sneak up on me like that."

Ky lowered both of his katanas and shrugged. "I just walked in and was going to ask to join you. I didn't know I didn't need to ask." He smiled and brought up his twin katanas. "Come on, let's go then."

They started sparring for a few minutes until both fighters fell into their own mental zones. Each one attacking and defending, pushing each other's boundaries harder and harder. Kin's mind went to a place she hadn't been for a long time. It was a box that she placed all her anger, frustrations, and disappointments into. She cracked open the lid and memories of situations and moments started pouring into her emotions.

Her father's disappointment with her for staying on Earth to go to Starfleet Academy. His distaste at her frequent trips to Trill and choice of friends. His asking her to rescue her brother then turning his back on her after she did. His stubborn refusal to take a simple treatment to cure his heart disease. Kin's parries and attacks became more aggressive with each memory as she pushed each thrust and slice, trying to get to the ever elusive and invisible foe that was now released.

Ky noticed the change in her fighting demeanor and kept up with her. He saw it in her eyes, the burning of hot emotions flared, making her moves cold and calculating. He was able to predict her moves and defended against them easily. Sometimes they would lock weapons and look into each other eyes, his mirrored her's as his concentration became more focused. Both knew they had reached a moment in their sparring and both decided to take it further. Both brought their best abilities forward, but Ky's well practiced moves and training frustrated her as she started to make little mistakes. Her emotions were starting to take over, and she became desperate and clumsy.

Kin parried and then stepped back, but Ky pressed the attack quickly and his blades began to blur from the speed. She tried to riposte, but her axe was knocked away, and his sword slashed close to her abdomen. Stepping to one side, she swung her remaining axe down on the opposing side, but was blocked by his other sword.

Just as the weapons connected with another loud clang, his other sword was already poised at her neck, and they both froze. Kin had a moment of fear when she looked into his eyes and saw the killer instinct he hadn't displayed in a long time. His sword was rock solid, and the blade touching her neck.  His reflexes hadn't atrophied at all; he was still very fast.

"I yield," she said with a heavy breath.

Ky took a step back and took a breath while lowering his swords. He wasn't even breathing hard. "You alright?"

"Yes," Kin said, bending over to retrieve her axes. "I read your report," Kin said, steering the subject. "You didn't tell us you had to kill two Naausican's when you picked up Tal'Aura."

"What is there to tell?" He said, sheathing his own swords in their scabbards strapped on his back. "We should have mapped that lab before we left."

She slowed her breathing and sat on the floor, closing her eyes. She could hear Ky sitting with her in front of her.

"Do you want me to go to Dorvan V with you?" he finally asked.

"I'm a grown-up, Ky. I'm not 16 anymore." She assumed a meditative position and ran through a breathing exercise to still her heart and lungs. After a moment she continued, "But I would be lying to you if I said that I was looking forward to it. The old man is something that I've put off dealing with for a long, long time."

Ky's eyes were also closed, but his voice came soft and meditative. "Sometimes the things we have to do for family are the hardest things to do, and to understand. I heard once that one of the most difficult things to do as a child is to love and understand their parents in their old age. Maybe, just maybe, your father wants an opportunity to be with you alone so he can explain his perspective to you. You don't have to understand it, all you have to do is remember he is family and has done what he thinks is right."

She harrumped. "He and Dez made sure that I would finally face him."

"He is your father, not a villain. You have a child now; you know the love of a parent can be overwhelming at times. You can make rash decisions thinking of their health and safety." Ky said patiently, opening his eyes to study her now mature face. "Wouldn't you want a chance to fix what either of you may perceive as being broken?"

"What he perceives? Colored by his own wants and desires?" Kin opened her eyes and found her friend sitting across from her like they had done many, many times in the last few years. The killer behind his eyes was hidden once again. "He never wanted me to join Starfleet. He was mad when I didn't stay to fight for Dorvan during the war. He told me to never return. He turned his back on me, and now, he's holding me hostage until I show up on DS9."

"Old baggage needs to be left behind. We are here, now, let this be the chance to change things. Whether he forgives you or you forgive him for all that's happened, don't let that forge the relationship you will have with him for the rest of your lives."  He added, "You know, you could start with making amends in your mind by calling him Father. You've been referring to him as 'he' or 'old man' the whole time."

Anger flared in her eyes again, "Natane Dakota is not a father. He doesn't deserve that kind of respect."

"Father is only a title, whether you believe in it or not. And he is your one and only father. Unless you want to take a trip back to the Mirror Universe and find their version of Natane Dakota, look at what Zac already has to live with. Count him lucky to have 'another' set of parents who love him just as much as his own did. But that is now. Say, hypothetically, Zac grows up and joins Starfleet."

"Given his family and upbringing, he probably will." she admitted.

"Now, imagine him embracing the ideals of Sarkonis III, and joins the Confederation, abandoning Starfleet's cause. What would you do then? Would you react the same way as Natane, or take a different path?"

Kin stayed silent for a moment. Ky always had a way of hinting at the future without saying it outright, but would Zac truly turn against a philosophy he had been raised to honor all of his life? Is this what she had done in her father's eyes? She had been raised to respect her Native American roots, but ultimately, like her mother, she had chosen to be a Federation citizen with a more global idea of society and culture. She was that way from a young age; her father was well aware that she was more like her mother than himself.

"I don't know what I'd do." She pushed back the wisps of hair that had fallen from her braid. "I hate when you have a valid point when I'm angry. I'll think about what you said." She stood in a smooth movement honed from calisthenics. Kin embraced Ky as he joined her. "I know I can always count on you."

"That's what family is for."

*Invidious*

In orbit above planet Rift

Stardate 1810.21

Captain Algo stood on the bridge in front of the deployment table that projected a floating three dimensional scan of what was left of the underground lab. Rift City was in black out ever since the destruction of a field emitter station that fed the dampening field generator the day before.

"Someone destroyed the generator, then assaulted the lab and vaporized everything inside with a large amount of high yield explosives." Her 2IC said, studying the sensor readings and residue of what was left. They had beamed up samples of the ash to analyze.

"Where are the logs for the day that are duplicated on a regular basis?"

He shook his full mane of hair on his head. "Unfortunately, the backup hadn't been processed yet for the day. We have no records, no visual logs, nothing of that day."

"Bring up the logs from the day before, I want to see what they were working on and how far the project had come along."

The man shook his head again. "The doctors were very secretive, they did not allow their research to be backed up or duplicated anywhere offsite. This Dr. Moses Casing, his profile indicates he was borderline paranoid schizophrenic, as the humans called it. He had refused treatment for it because he felt it would interfere with how he perceived his work. So he kept a firm grasp of his experiment results."

"So you are basically telling me the entire project is lost," she said with a slight growl. This won't make her bosses very happy.

"Yes, Captain."

"Did we also lose our contact in the base?"

"That we didn't lose. As soon as we announced our arrival, he contacted us. He is waiting for extraction."

"Who is it?"

"The Talarian, Fauest Agar."

"Beam him directly to here. I would like to speak with him."

The humanoid Talarian appeared on the Bridge in a brown vest worn over a dingy grey blue jumpsuit. His gloved hands gripped the sack he had looped over one shoulder. The ridges on this cranium looked like an ornamental crown if it wasn't the same color as his flesh.

"I am Captain Algo. You are on board the Invidious. The entire lab has been vaporized. How is it that you survived?" She asked, straight to the point. The tone of voice and directness did not faze the man. In fact, he responded likewise.

"Vaporized?" he said with a slight higher tone of voice. "I didn't know it was that severe. I was out running an errand for the doctors. They asked me to pick up some supplies from the night market."

"So you didn't see anything out of the ordinary before you left the lab?"

"Not in the lab. At the night market, I saw one of the experimental subjects walking through the center of the market and was apprehended by someone. The Naausican brothers followed them. I didn't think anything of it because they are usually very thorough and precise with their assignments. Until I found the two of them dead in an alley."

"Grang and Joug are dead?" She said with a slight shock in her voice. Those two were among the most dangerous Naausicans in the Consortium's arsenal of deadly hires. "Did you see what did this man look like?"

"Not his face. He was cloaked, twin swords on his back, and hooded. I don't even know what species he was, but he was humanoid."

"Describe to me the brothers' wounds," she asked carefully.

"Grang's arm was severed at the elbow, and his head was hanging half off his body. Joug had a large stab wound in the middle of his chest, and his head was fully severed from his body. Both bodies were stripped of all equipment and armor."

Algo nodded and made note of it. "The Board won't be happy to hear this news of the lab. If you saw this cloaked figure again, would you recognize him?"

The Talarian shrugged. "There are a lot of cloaked people on Rift. But the twin swords strapped on his back would make him stand out a bit."

"Why didn't you return to the lab immediately after you discovered the brothers?"

"The lab already knew. They had visual drones follow each experimental subject. There was no need for me to report it. And they usually don't like anyone interfering with their experiments."

"Tell me what happened after you found the bodies."

"A few hours later after I was done with my errands, there was a large tremor in the ground. I didn't think anything of it as the ground is always moving on Rift because of the magma flows. When I contacted the lab for entry, I received no response. I also hailed them on an open frequency and no one responded. I waited for hours, occasionally hailed them again hoping maybe their comm system was in repair. But nothing. I found billeting for the day and every few hours, I would return to the entry point and hail them again. I never received a response. Then it was announced that you had arrived and I contacted you."

Algo leaned forward on the table. It was a long shot, but she had to take the chance. "I want you to go back to where the brothers were killed and try to find that person who killed them. It may lead to the assault on the lab. Contact me when you've found something."

Commander Kyril Vree

Starbase Deep Space Nine

Stardate 1810.21

Ky was the first one waiting at the airlock as the atmosphere in between the *Nightwraith* and the station equalized. It was going to feel strange stepping foot onto DS9. He had lived on Terok Nor for over a year and to come on to the same station in their Prime universe was a strange sensation of déjà vu; but not really.

Bryce sauntered up behind him in his civilian attire. "Been a while since we've been here, neh?" he said, accidentally letting a Linea vernacular slip out.

"Longer for me," Ky said. "My doppelganger was here at the end of the war. The last time 'I' was here, I assaulted that Romulan senator on that Dreadnought mission."

Dakota had just joined them and over heard the last comment. "Are you serious? When did this happen?"

“The mission we did right before you joined us,” Ky said with a bit of anger in his tone. He still remembered it as if it was yesterday. Not only that the Romulans had betrayed Bravo Squad, a former member of Bravo Squad also did the same on that mission.

"He deserved it," Bryce added. "He had an ulterior agenda and lied straight to our face."

"Deserved or not, Admiral Ross doesn't like us being here. And Tom and Jerry did start a fight with some Klingons at Quark's and wrecked the place."

When the docking collar opened, they were surprised to see someone there waiting for them. Someone they've met before, but not someone Ky was too fond of. But Bryce beat him to the salutations.

"Ro Laren! How wonderful it is to see you again!" Bryce surprisingly leapt forward to give her a brisk hug. "I see you're still not with Starfleet," he said still holding on to her arms and making note of the Bajoran lieutenant's militia insignia on the blue uniform she was wearing."But now the station's chief security officer?"

Lieutenant Ro Laren received the hug emotionlessly and stepped back from him when he finally let go. "I can't believe I have to put up with my babysitter again." She said with a stern face. Apparently, she didn't seem happy to see them either, directing this towards Ky.

"Commander," she said coolly.

"Lieutenant." Ky responded in a similar tone.

Dakota, and now Reece who had joined them, saw the two differing exchanges of salutations.

"These are my other officers, Lt. Commander Kindred Dakota, and Lieutenant Antonia Reece," Ky rattled off in a monotone.

"Welcome to DS9. Captain Kira is expecting you. Not you specifically, but someone from your organization. Please follow me." She turned around as if to lead the way, then she stopped and turned around. "Please don't bring any weapons onto my station."

Ky shook his head. "We know the drill, Lieutenant."

Bravo Squad followed Ro out of the docking ring. Dakota whispered into her subvoc. “What was that all about? Another betrayal?”

The Trill commander nearly smiled. She really knew them. “You got that right. She lied to us too, on a different mission.”

Within moments, they reached the Promenade. It was the main hub of the station with shops and restaurants of all sorts; just what a weary traveler needed on long haul trips. Ky gestured for Dakota to be on her way to see her father and that he would contact her later. She gave him a nod and headed for the Infirmary. When they walked off the lift in to Ops, he paused for a minute to take in the station's heart. It looked so different from the one in the Mirror Universe, more polished and clean with working consoles. He briefly glanced at the lone transporter pad that just by itself triggered so many memories. It was the transporter pad that Ezri Dax had appeared on all bloodied and covered with Kira's remains.

He shook away the memories and reminded himself that that hasn't happened, and hoped it never would. He looked towards the office of the commanding officer and couldn't help but smile. He himself hadn't seen Kira since Bravo Squad's second visit to DS9 nearly eight years ago. But, his clone, the one who replaced him at the War's end, met up with Kira when he was found wandering in a field after the war ended that day on Cardassia Prime. Ky had only read what his clone said about that day, and he would have to play off that if the subject ever came up. Kira was a Colonel at the time. Now she was a captain ever since Bajor joined the Federation. They had kept in touch since then over subspace and messages to each other.

Ro chimed the door and when it opened, the first person Kira saw was the trill commander.

"Ky?! What are you doing here?" She exclaimed louder than she meant. "You didn't tell me you were coming."

The trio walked in, leaving Ro outside to close the door. Ky waited for the door to close all the way before speaking. "You had made a request to Starfleet for an away team to assist you on a mission. Bravo Squad reporting for duty, Captain."

Kira sat there with her mouth open. "I was informed they were sending someone, but I didn't know they were sending you." She got up from her desk and embraced him in a long hug and whispered into his ear. "Still with Starfleet Intelligence, I see."

He patted her on the back and whispered in return. "It's so good to see you too, Nerys."

After he introduced Bryce and Reece, she turned her attention to the Draconian. "Mr. Bryce, welcome back. Do me a favor and pay Quark a visit. I want the Prophets scared out of that Ferengi for a while. Even the mention of your name still makes his arm ache." She turned to Ky and gave him a smile. "It was fun to see him squirm a bit when your wife and daughter were here last month. They made a deal with Quark that surpassed even a Ferengi."

Bryce gave her a polite bow. "I will attempt to put the Fear of Bravo Squad into him, Captain."

Kira gave him a nod of thanks. "Ky can I speak with you privately first about what I want you to do here?" She looked to Bryce and Reece. "Please don't take offense; I want to brainstorm a little with your commander."

Ky gave both of them a nod. "Go to the Promenade and have some dinner while you're at it. We'll meet up again in the morning. And DON'T get into any trouble."

Both Bravo Squad members gave him an informal salute and left the office. Kira ordered a raktajino and a jumja juice from the replicator and gestured to the couch along one wall of her office. Ky sat down as she placed the drinks on the table in front of him.

"By the Prophets, it's been so long since we've seen each other face to face," she said, sitting down next to him and held his hands. There was nothing romantic about the act. There was a deep mutual gratitude and respect between the two that had grown over the years that transcended any romantic relationship. This was a side of Kira most people rarely see. "Since the end of the War; seven years."

"Seven years already," she said slightly wistfully. Times had been rough in those seven years for her. For some reason, she felt comfortable with him. Either maybe because she missed the companionship of a mature joined Trill, or the vast wisdom a joined Trill could have. She missed Jadzia terribly.

"Tell me what you need us for, and my team and I will help any way we can. We've been ordered to be at your disposal."

"Thank you for coming." Kira got up and pulled padd out from her desk drawer. "But I need to address something else first. As you know, we make regular sensor sweeps for Mirror space-time signatures on the station. About 10 days ago, we detected someone with that signature had come on board the station. He came on board with Commander Dezin Traela and two others. Traela claims he is waiting for Lieutenant Commander Kindred Dakota to arrive."

Ky frowned. The one place in this universe for Zac to be discovered at, and he had to come to DS9.

"I contacted his CO, an Admiral Jaegar, who assured me that a six year old boy is no threat to our existence and continuity in this universe. And Commander Traela also mentioned I can also discuss the issue with you."

"The Admiral is correct; Zac is no threat at all. And I can promise you no one like him exists, or will ever exist, in our universe," Ky said, carefully wording his comment.

"But you can see the danger he poses on disrupting the two timestreams. If they were to ever come too close together due to his quantum signature pulling on that universe close to ours..." Kira said with a slightly worried, but authoritative voice.

The trill could see where this was headed. Federation laws concerning security in their prime universe were created after the discovery of the Mirror Universe 126 years ago by the USS Discovery. Any incursion to their prime universe had to be seriously dealt with. But the technology to detect them took a long time to develop. She and Captain Sisko were the two who came up with the revised regulations regarding Mirror Universe displaced persons. And with the help of Smiley O'Brien and their own Chief O'Brien, they developed the sensor array that was installed on the station.

But even after he spent a few years on the other side, he had yet to have seen or noticed any disruption to either timestream. He had hoped this conversation would never happen, but he resigned himself to now having to make a decision as to how much to tell Kira.

"Let's have some dinner brought in. I have a story to tell you."

Lt. Commander Kindred Dakota

Deep Space Nine Infirmary

Stardate 1810.21

Kindred quickly walked into the infirmary in a swirl of skirt the deep color of a red garnet. She hadn't been in civies for a while, and she'd chosen something that appealed to her current mood. The bodice was figure hugging, but the skirts were layered chiffon that twirled and swayed with every move of her body. With her current speed through the throng on the Promenade towards her destination, she looked like she had taken flight. "Just the man I was looking for." she said when she finally found Doctor Bashir sitting in his office.

"My, my, my. If it isn't Kindred Dakota!" He waved her into his office as he came around the desk to embrace her. "It's been too long since your last trip here."

She nodded. Her transfer to Bravo Squad was the last time she had set foot on the station. Her time at Terok Nor in the Mirror Universe didn't count. It may have looked the same, but it was populated with a whole different group of people. "I'm glad to see you in good spirits even though you are dealing with my father." She remembered to use the term though she did hesitate before saying it.

"I've had difficult patients before, but he ranks right up there."

Bashir sat on the corner of his desk and pointed to the seat in front ofhim. "I've been trying for over a week to convince him that the treatment is sound, practiced medicine. There's no need for him to be ill or possibly die. Simply, no need a'tall."

"He's stubborn, and he lives a very holistic lifestyle. It took a lot of convincing just to get him off world and to DS9."

"I heard the little man was helpful in that regard." He crossed his arms and smiled. "A husband and a child. How life has changed for you!"

"I do enjoy the family life. It is a difficult balance between Starfleet duties and them, but I've made the time. And now I've made some time to be with the rest of the family. I'm on leave until I can see to his treatment."

"Well, once he takes the treatment, he'll be down for about two weeks recovering. In six months, he'll never knew he was ill. Three injections and he is cured." Bashir turned to take in the monitor on his desk. It was time for the Dakota's to come in for their daily argument. "They'll be here soon."

"And won't Natane be surprised." she murmured.

Commander Dezin Traela

Deep Space Nine, Promenade

Stardate 1810.28

She was here. Finally. It had been a rough week, but she was finally here.

Kindred Dakota leaned against doorway with her arms crossed and her foot tapping a steady beat. She was angry which meant she'd been waiting for at least the hour it had taken for him to convince her father to make his way to the Infirmary. He watched as his six year old son barreled into her body knocking her slightly off her feet. At least, she was relaxed. Her years of training would have absorbed the movement had she been on edge. Then again, she never let on to their son how vast her training had been. Zac clung onto her with the love only a child could produce, and Dez saw his lips go a mile a minute as he filled her in on what was going on.

"She's beautiful." a low voice said beside him. "She looks so much like her mother, Spirits bless her soul." Natane Dakota stopped beside him. Ahoté  and his father had trailed behind him as the little progression had made its daily trek to Bashir's office.

"And she grows more beautiful every day." She looked up then and caught his eye. His heart faltered for just a moment. She did that to him.

"Truly the sentiment of a man in love." Ahoté clasped his brother-in-law by the shoulder, and Dez gave an infrequent but heartfelt smile. "Shall we go to her or just stare at her for a while? How long has it been since you held your wife?"

"It's been a few weeks. The travel time to and back from the pulsar study and the study itself. Life on board a station is much different than life aboard ship. You don't see each other as often, but it's more stable and safe for Zac."

They made their way down the Promenade to her. She was still hugging Zac and had just placed a soft kiss on the top of his head. "I was wondering when you all would finally get here. Lazing away the day, Dez?"

She had opened her arms to him, and he slipped right in. Their fit was perfect as their bodies aligned for a perfunctory hello kiss. So, she was still a little angry at him for his role in getting her to DS9, but then she hugged him tightly to her so maybe she wasn't so angry.

"Ahoté, Father." she said by way of greeting as the two men finally made their way to the entrance.

"Sister! It has been too long." Ahoté opened his arms, and she reluctantly met him in a hug.

"Brother. I'm so glad to see you looking well."

Natane held out his hand to her, and she clasped his forearm in the ancient greeting, then he also pulled her into his arms for an awkward hug. "Daughter," he said a little choked up.

"Father." Kindred stepped back quickly and waved her hand towards the interior of the Infirmary. "You're late for your appointment, but I'm assured that Dr. Bashir still has time for you. Let's go see what he has to say about your condition and treatment."

Begrudgingly, the older man took the arm she offered and went inside.

Commander Kyril Vree

Captain Kira Nerys' office, Deep Space Nine

Stardate 1810.28

Ky and Kira talked all through the beta and gamma shifts. It took a long time for Kira to tell him what's been going on with her, the station, and Bajor since joining the Federation. There was a camaraderie between them even though they never fought side by side before. Her finding him on Cardassia Prime at the war's end bonded them somehow. Although he himself wasn't actually there, something had happened between Kira and his doppelganger that brought them close, and continued the friendship over the years through messages.

Throughout the gamma shift, Ky could tell in her eyes behind the banter and the lines etched on her face, of the stresses and hardships she'd been through since the end of the War seven years ago. He saw it, and she knew he saw it. The messages they'd been sending each other over those years only gave him a hint at what she'd been through. After a few long discussions, he got a sense of what's been happening on Bajor and her relationship with her home planet.

"Do you remember me telling you about five years ago that the Cardassians returned all the orbs they had seized during Bajor's occupation? You won't believe the number of temples that popped up overnight all over Bajor. It became difficult to all of a sudden decide where to place them on a permanent basis. The Vedek Assembly drafted a list of locations around Bajor to place the orbs and submitted it to the Bajoran Council. After the locations were decided, new monasteries were built to house each orb, designed for worshippers to come and consult with the monks and maybe even visitations with the orb itself.”

“It must have also been a time of celebration to finally have all the orbs back on Bajor.” Ky took a sip from his cup of some type of carbonated liquid he’d never had before. Kira had told him it was from a newly developed fruit on Bajor.

"The Orb of Unity was stolen,” she came right out and said. Then she paused for a moment. Ky could see how much it affected her. As a religious person and in command of the station, the responsibility befell upon her to resolve the issue. “It was housed in the Nikaran Monastery on the Eastern Province.”

Ky nodded with instant understanding in where this was all headed and the reason they were here. Bajor, nor Deep Space Nine, had the resources to perform a covert operation of this caliber.

“Fortunately for us, it was Ha'mara, the Bajoran holiday celebrating the anniversary of the arrival of the Emissary. During the celebration, the shrine was closed for consultations or visitations, and we discovered it missing. We fashioned a holoprojection of the orb before the shrine opened the next day. But have still closed it for private visitations. That was three weeks ago.”

“Do you know who took it?”

“Yes, we do. Someone inside the monastery helped them with the theft and we interrogated him. It was the Cardassian order, the True Way. Ever since the end of the war the True Way started to re-emerge. They want the Federation out of Cardassian space to allow them to return to the old Cardassian government. They don't want the assistance of the Federation anymore. They feel after they were betrayed by the Dominion during those last weeks of the war, they no longer want to be pawns of any empire. They stole the orb in hopes to force Bajor to secede from the Federation, allowing them to perhaps take over this sector.” Kira shook her head. “It would be the Occupation all over again. And I cannot, will not, let that happen again.”

“So you want us to find the orb and return it to the monastery.”

“Yes, and I want you to destroy that cell of the True Way.”

Ky hesitated. The resistance fighter in Kira emerged, the cold hearted warrior fighting for the freedom of her people and planet. “Are you sure? What if some of the cell members are bajoran? There is no turning back after something like-”

“They are a terrorist organization, and should be dealt with appropriately,” she said with an edge to her voice. Then the lines on her face softened. “We don’t want them to retaliate by doing something more drastic like going to another monastery and destroying an orb. Get the orb back, and wipe them out.”

“What’s to stop the other cells from retaliating?”

“The cells are compartmentalized. One cell doesn’t know what another cell is doing. If you eradicate that cell, no one may even know it even existed or what they had planned to do.”

“Except for the bodies we leave behind.”

“You’ll have to eliminate those too.” Kira gave him a hard look. “No signs of them are to remain.”

“So you want us to ‘disappear’ their encampment too.”

“That’s right.”

“How big is this cell?”

“From our orbital scans, they number about 40 of mixed races; most are Cardassians. They also may have hired a few mercenaries to help them too. We’re not entirely sure on that.”

“Why haven’t they taken it off planet? If I were them, I'd take it straight back to Cardassia." Ky watched Kira carefully, trying to gauge how much emotion is fueling her decision to eradicate this True Way cell.

She shook her head. "Our new defensive sensors surrounding the planet would have detected the unique energy signature if it did. And we would have dispatched every ship available to pursue it and bring it back. No, It's still on the planet, and we know where it is." She held up a padd and brought up a map of Bajor. She zoomed in on near the equator. "Rakantha Province. I need you and your team to go in there in stealth, recover the orb, and shut down that cell. They threatened to destroy the orb if any attempts were made to recover it. They have to know we know where they’re at. So I made the request to Starfleet for someone qualified to perform a mission like this. I don’t want to botch up the mission because I didn’t have qualified people performing the mission."

"What does it take to destroy an orb?"

“We believe only a Pah-wraith can destroy an orb. But they have been sealed in the Fire Caves ever since Captain Sisko sealed them there. The Caves have been well guarded every since. So we don’t know what the True Way has up their sleeves to destroy an orb.”

Ky's mind was in a whirl. Everyone has read the reports of what happened at Deep Space Nine near the end of Benjamin Sisko's term. It was one of those stories that were told and embellished about the now famous Captain who became the Emissary of the Prophets, destined to find the Celestial Temple, which was the Bajoran Wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant.

“Alright then. What's the closest settlement? Can we deploy from there?”

“It’s over a hundred kilometers away. The area is still poisoned during the Cardassian Occupation. Even the soil reclamators we sent there are taking a long time detoxifying it enough to grow crops. You can take a shuttle to the settlement, but you’ll have to make the hundred kilometer trek through desolate and poisoned land of all rock, dirt, and gravel. They’ll also see you coming if they have any sentries posted.”

Ky was already making plans. With their subspace translocation suits, they can make the hundred kilometers in due time. It might be tiring to do that many translocations, but it looks like it may be the only way. Any use of a transporter beam may tip their approach.”

“I’ll need a scan of the entire area in different spectrums. I need to be able to see what we’re going into.” In his mind, this will also allow them to map exact location coordinates to translocate.

“I can give you all of that,” Kira said, giving out a breath of released tension she’d been holding on to for weeks. “Can you really do it?”

“Well, we’ll certainly try. Is there a contact you can trust at the monastery we can bring the orb to since we can’t beam it off the surface without alerting anyone?”

Kira handed him a padd with a profile on it. “Kohi Bokan. He’s the ranking mylar monk at the monastery. He was the one who contacted me. Any equipment you need, I’ll get it for you.”

“We’ll need something to hold the orb in that will mask its energy signature. Maybe we can beam it site to site rather than beam it off the planet. If we can get a small ship with a transporter below the orbit of the sensor net, maybe we can beam directly to the monastery instead of trekking it over land.”

“I can lend you a runabout, but having a runabout hover in the atmosphere for an indefinite amount of time is suspicious.” Kira started tapping on her padd, making a requisition for an available runabout. And sending a message to Lieutenant Ro.

“Agreed. Then maybe you can have the runabout in orbit and upon our signal, bring it into the atmosphere and beam us out. I think that will work.” Ky's mind worked like clockwork, rattling off equipment they may need.

“I’ll have Ro man the runabout *Zhu Jiang*,” Kira said, and then saw a look on his face. “What’s wrong? You don’t like Lieutenant Ro?”

“Let’s just say our paths have crossed before and the meeting was not too...amiable.”

“I want to minimize the number of people privy to the missing orb, and Ro is one of them.”

Ky held up a hand. “We’ll use Ro. I’ll deal with my own problems with her. No need to involve you, let alone a mission of this magnitude. You already have enough on your plate.”

Kira just gave him a nod of respect. This was the first time she had to rely on him on a professional level. But from what she had heard through the Starfleet grapevine from Admirals Ross and Mancuso, this particular team was highly trained and skilled. But knowing Ky as she did, she knows he will try his best to help her. And that was already enough for her to be grateful that Kyril Vree was someone she called her friend.

Commander Kyril Vree

Deep Space Nine

Stardate 1811.01

It was close to the end of the gamma shift, and Ky had spent most of the night talking with Kira going over the final details of the mission. The conversations were sprinkled with other topics about life, work, and alot about her relationship with Bajor now that she was the CO of a Federation outpost. The discussions could have gone longer if they weren’t interrupted by a hail from Lieutenant Ro, requesting for Ky to report to the Infirmary. Deciding to finish up their meeting, they gave each other a hug before parting and Ky headed through the quiet station and to the Promenade.

Reaching the Infirmary, he did not expect, nor wanted to see what he saw. Lieutenant Ro was there with Bryce, along with Reece, and a ferengi.

Quark.

Ky stopped and looked at the trio and shook his head. “What are you doing in here?”

Quark was sitting on a biobed, pointed at Bryce with a finger and whined. “He started it!”

Bryce held up his hands. “All I asked was for a terran root beer drink.”

“Which you spilled on one of my best customers,” Quark rebuked.

“Who tried to avoid it and tripped and fell on Quark,” Bryce said. Then with a smirk, “and fractured his other arm.”

Quark let out another wail as a nurse tried to position his arm to allow the osteogenic stimulator to mend the fracture. Ky ignored the ferengi and walked over to Bryce and Reece, noticing some wounds of their own.

“Then what are these?” Ky pointed to a gash on Bryce’s head, and one on Reece’s cheek.

Bryce just waved him off while Reece looked on. “Oh this? Tis’nothing. Slipped on the spilt root beer, banged my head on the bar. Tried to grab Reece for support and took her down with me. Right, Toni?”

Reece gave Ky a frown and nodded silently. Ky didn’t believe a single word of it. But because the station’s security chief was present, he didn’t press the matter and let them stick to that story. He looked over to Ro as she stood by Quark.

“Is that what happened, Quark?” she asked, keeping an eye on Bryce.

“I, uh, don’t quite remember, Lieutenant.” He said carefully.

“You don’t remember?” Ro asked in a voice full of suspect.

“He doesn’t remember because he was too busy screaming and wailing on the floor,” Bryce said with a laugh.

Ky kept a tight lip to keep from laughing, which would be a bad move one way or another. Ro gestured with a tilt of her head to follow her to her office. Without another word, he followed obediently across the Promenade and closed the door to her office behind him.

“Captain Kira has informed me of your mission. I am ordered to be at your disposal. I’m to take you to Bajor in a runabout and wait for your signal for a site to site transport of the orb upon your mission completion. Is that right?” Ro said stiffly.

“And to bring us back here. Yes, Lieutenant. Are you going to have a problem with that? Working with us again?” Ky crossed his arms and stood there unmoving.

“No, sir. Are YOU going to have a problem with that, working with me again?” Ro said just as emotionlessly as he.

“Not unless you disobey my orders again.” He took a few steps towards her door and paused. “We’ll contact you on the *Zhu Jiang* in three hours to transport some of our equipment over from our ship. And make sure all the equipment I’ve requested from Kira is on board and checked.”

He walked out without waiting for a response and headed towards the docking ring. He opened a subvoc channel to Bryce and Reece. “Get done in the Infirmary and meet me on the *Nightwraith* for mission briefing. We are to then gear up and deploy in three hours.”

“Aye, on our way,” Bryce responded.

Lt. Commander Kindred Dakota

Commander Kyril Vree

Infirmary, DS9

Stardate 1811.01

Kindred sat on the biobed with her feet dangling off the side. She needed a break. It had already been a long morning of cajoling her father out of their quarters and into the Infirmary. He was still refusing treatment. No matter what anyone said, he kept telling them no. It was frustrating. It was irritating. It was insulting.

She heard someone enter the room and looked up to find Ky. He was still in his civilian attire and looked like he’d been up all night. The team was going on its first mission without her since she had to be rescued on Capella. It was an odd feeling.

"Leaving soon?" she asked.

"We leave in about 20."  He hopped up onto the biobed opposite her. "How are things going?"

She ran her hands over her face and tucked her long hair behind her ears. "He's more stubborn than I remembered. We have to cajole him into getting here, and then he argues with Bashir, and then he storms out. If he was waiting for me, then he would have agreed to the treatment by now. I don't know why I'm here."

"I don't think that's what he's waiting for."

She crossed her legs and arms. "If he's waiting for an apology, that will be a long time coming."

"Maybe he's just waiting for a conversation. Have you talked to him alone?"

"No. I can't bring myself to do it."

“Maybe he just needs to talk with you alone. You can start with one of the wonders of the universe right outside this station,” he suggested subtly to the wormhole DS9 was guarding.

“Oh, he’s seen it. Dez took him to see it with Zac. You know what he said? ‘What monstrosity created that ugly thing.’ she said, mimicking the elder Dakota’s voice.

Ky laughed. “Then the holosuite it is. Just don’t rush him. Take your time. Something that’s been going on for this long won’t be resolved overnight. I think both of you need to build your relationship anew. You’re older now,” this got him a deathray look from her, ”and he’s older now. Age changes all of us.”

“And the older he gets, the harder it is to reason with him.”

“Or maybe both of you need to be away from this environment.” He gestured to the tin can they were in. “He’s probably not comfortable not being able to see the sky. Take him to a holosuite, use a program that won’t cause any painful memories, bring up an environment that relaxes both of you. Quark has my old copy of Jarran Falls if you want to use it.” Ky smiled.

Kin sighed. “You’re eventually going to run out of ideas to help me, you know that?”

“Dear Kin-der-kin,” Ky’s eyes laughed. “I still have centuries of ideas to help you with. Starting with making sure that husband of yours doesn’t let Zac run his days. I know he’s very cute, and I think he’s beginning to know how to use that to his advantage.”

The thought of Zac always brought a smile to her face and warmth to her heart. Then she saw what his eyes were trying to tell her, and he gave her a nod.

“You can remind him why he needs to live. Tell him he needs to live long enough to see Zac grow up. Tell him that YOU need him to see that wonderful little boy grow up. Despite the travesties he’s gone through before coming here, only a few of us know exactly how special that child is. One who can't exist in this universe, but here he is.”

Ky’s chronometer chimed. It was time to go. He got off of the biobed and held Kin’s shoulders. “You take your time, find out what your heart and mind needs to do, and you do it. Trust your instincts without emotion, and you’ll find the answer there.” He returned her wry smile and kissed her forehead. “Good luck.”

She squeezed his arms in appreciation and a surge of confidence and encouragement filled her with determination. He had armed her with volumes of knowledge and emotions she could try with her father. And at this moment, this would really be the first time in a long while Ky won’t be on hand to help her. She had to rely on herself to use whatever resources he has given her, and solve the problem herself. She was almost sad to see him go.

“Good luck to you too.”

Commander Kyril Vree

*Nightwraith*, DS9

Stardate 1811.08

Bryce and Reece gave Ky a serious look. “Kill every last man?”

Ky returned the look. “Kira was very adamant about it.”

“Do you think that may have been a bit of an emotional decree?” Bryce asked. “I know Kira is very passionate about her people and the orbs, but to take out an entire cell-”

Ky held up a hand to stop Bryce from continuing. “This sounds like the resistance fighter in Kira. When your planet is on the line, you will do any desperate thing to ensure its survival. And from her point of view, stealing an orb shakes the foundation of the Bajoran religion. And the Bajoran people are very religious.”

Reece looked down at the scans of the camp from orbit. “We can’t just bombard them from orbit?”

“No, it needs to be done covertly. Anything that directs attention to it will require an investigation. And she doesn’t want this news to get out.” Ky zoomed out to the surrounding rocky mountain area. “We’ll beam down individually,” he pointed to several points around the camp, about 27 kilometers out. He created several waypoints on the map. “These areas will be screened from any ground sensors they may have put out, and far enough away. We’ll use the suits to move in on them.”

“At least they’re in a remote area,” Reece said, studying the area she would be transporting into.

Bryce was also studying the camp and overhead imagery. “I don’t see any vehicles, or air transports. How do they get around?”

Ky zoomed in and now saw it too. “Good catch. I don’t see any landing pads, nor any worn roads in or out of the camp.”

He then zoomed back further, and brought up a electromagnetic scan of the wider area. “Ground transporters.” He saw the enhancers strategically placed throughout the area between the camp and the nearest settlement 100 kilometers away. He pointed them out for the team. “They’re using these transporter enhancers to transport to the settlement. It’s also a way to hide exactly where they’re coming from.” He zoomed out even farther, and saw more enhancers reaching another settlement nearly 400 kilometers away to the north.

“That’s two points of travel. It must have taken them at least a month to get them all placed without anyone knowing. And they’re using a spectrum that’s widely used to mask their usage and locations.”

“We’re going to have to contain them to prevent them from escaping once we make our move,” Reece said.

Bryce numbered each enhancer. “What about taking out the enhancers at the outer rim and work our way in? That will close their escape perimeter.”

As the number of enhancers stopped at 62, Ky brought up the technical specs for them. “Do we have any cardassian explosives on board?”

Reece looked over to the compartment that held their explosive ordinance. “We have about 40kg of it, but most of it are in grenades.

Ky pulled out a padd and started doing some calculations. “That gives us about half a kilogram of explosives for each enhancer. That should be enough. We attach a magnet to the charge, so we can just beam it close proximity to this area here on the enhancer,” he pointed to a small metal box protruding on the side of the enhancer. “The magnet should attach the explosive charge to it. Then once we get into position, we wait for nightfall, then blow them all in a chain reaction.” He explained to them. “Once the enhancers are down, we go in with our personal holographic imagers set to look like Cardassians and take everyone out.”

Bryce and Reece looked over the camp again and the surrounding areas. “Sounds simple enough.”

With experience, all three of them thought otherwise. Their missions were rarely ever that simple.

"Gather the equipment we'll need, and I'll head over to the runabout to transport the equipment over," Ky ordered. "We leave immediately."

Lt. Commander Kindred Dakota

Deep Space Nine, Personal Quarters

Stardate 1811.05

Another day had ended without her father taking the treatment. After her talk with Kyril, she had started to devise a plan, and with Bashir's help she was about to enact it.

She passed the bowl of fry bread to her brother and accepted the dish of corn from Dezin. "After dinner, we should all go pack. We have an early morning tomorrow."

"Oh?" her brother asked?

"Well, since Father won't accept the treatments, I think it's time that we all returned to Dorvan. There's nothing to be done here." Kin passed on the dish and accepted the next as they sat family style around the dining room table. "Dez and I both have a week of leave due, and I think we'll spend them on Dorvan saying goodbye."

"Goodbye?" Her father dropped the dish he was holding onto the table with a thud.

"Without treatment, you know what will happen. Dr. Bashir has made the state of your condition painfully obvious. I think it's best that we return you home for your final days." She kept passing around the food until her plate was full. "I doubt we'll be able to stay until the end, but a week is better than nothing. Don't you agree, Dez?"

He felt her tap out a rhythm on his right thigh. They had perfected a way of communicating in short hand using SO signals and language years ago. It was always better than a kick in the shin. "Yes, I think it is for the best. Staying here any longer is not worth the time."

"Yea! I get to stay on a planet!" Zac said around a mouthful of food. "I've never done that before."

"No, sun. No sky. No Mother Earth beneath his feet. Kindred, I'm disappointed in you. You are keeping the boy from his heritage."

"We haven't been stationed planet-side since the adoption. We've been on stations or starships."

Natane Dakota snorted at the notion of adoption. It was clear as the nose on his face that the boy was his daughter's. Just another lie to add to the pile his daughter had told him in the past day. Pulsar study. Five year scientific mission. He still had contacts in the Federation, and he knew in his heart that his daughter was not as she seemed. A scientist would not have such hard edges to her. "It will do you both good to return home."

The room turned silent in a pregnant pause. Ahoté cleared his throat and spoke for the first time in several minutes. "Dezin, brother, I look forward to introducing you to the Spirits. Kindred tells me you are a Traditionalist Trill, and as such, you honor the old ways. We, too, honor the old ways. It will be a joy to show you and the boy our ways."

The conversation drifted away to topics of home and the family Ahoté had left behind to come to Deep Space Nine. Kin sat silent listening to their chatter with half an ear. The first part of her mission plan was accomplished.

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## S13, E1, Act 2: Differing Journeys

Commander Kyril Vree

Runabout *Zhu Jiang* in route to Bajor

Stardate 1811.15

Bravo Squad and Lieutenant Ro Laren sped towards Bajor on board the runabout *Zhu Jiang*, named after the 2200km long river on Earth. It was also known as the Pearl River, where pearl colored shells are found at the bottom. The extra gear transferred over from the *Nightwraith* and DS9 filled nearly a quarter of the available space inside the ship. But luckily the trip to Bajor was only several hours long.

The four of them stood shoulder to shoulder around the fold down table that doubled as a three dimensional projector. Ro stood between Bryce and Reece while Ky briefed her on their plan.

"So, you've made the 62 charges and we're going to beam them all down to each enhancer? You're talking about hours of prep and execution to-"

"We can do it in 15 minutes," Ky said. "I've calculated out seven waypoints that will allow us to beam them down to multiple locations with minimal stops. We'll do it in the dead of night, and in this order." He used a pointer to point out the sequence from the enhancers furthest away to the ones closest to the encampment.

Ro nodded. "That will prevent them from getting into any of the settlements as an escape. As long as they don't reach a settlement, we can track them and eliminate them."

"That's right. You'll take us down to the upper atmosphere and we can perform the transports. At each waypoint, as soon as the charges are placed, we activate them. The location and size of the charge allows it to be a very small amount, just enough to disable the enhancer." Ky brought up the schematics of the enhancers the True Way cell was using. Ro rotated the three dimensional diagram and also agreed. She was very familiar with this type, and was even a bit impressed that Bravo Squad was also intimately familiar with it enough to know exactly where a small explosion would disable it. The charge would only make a sound as loud as a hand clap.

"When the enhancers have been taken offline, we three will transport down separately around the camp and infiltrate the camp. We will search the camp until we have visual proof of the orb. We will secure the orb first before executing the rest of the plan." Ky said with a wave at the diagram to close it, and opened one that showed the layout of the encampment. "Kira gave me the energy signature we can use to find it with our tricorders."

"That encampment looks like it's going to have at least several dozen members of the True Way." Ro said, spinning the image around. "You're just going to go in and start killing everyone?"

"That was the original plan. But after another short conversation with Kira about that, I persuaded her on a less violent method of eliminating them. We'll be using these modified projectile weapons." He walked over to several crates and opened three of them. "Each clip in the rifle holds 20 isolinear tag darts. There are three clips per rifle. That should be more than enough. Once we start the second phase of the mission, we tag each person and beam them out."

"Beam them to where?" Ro asked.

Ky walked over to a larger crate that was sitting beside the transporter pad. "This is a mobile transporter buffer we'll connect to the transporter. Everyone and everything we beam up will be stored into this buffer. Then we clear the buffer."

Reece gave a shudder, even though they had already been briefed on the item, it still gave her apprehension that they were going to purposefully wipe a transporter pattern in a buffer. "Just make sure it's not hooked up when we're transporting up."

"What about the structures of the encampment? And all those enhancers?" Ro asked.

"We brought our own transporter enhancers for the structures. With the runabout's transporter, we'll transport everything in to oblivion."It shouldn't take us more than a few hours to do this."

"And I will stay in orbit waiting when the area is secured," Ro said.

"That's affirmative. We will also need you to perform a scan of the area to be sure there are no remaining life signs," Ky said. "Any questions?"

"It sounds like you have it thought out well enough." Ro said, and nodded to the container that would hold the orb. "Once you've located the orb, I'll bring the ship into the atmosphere, and beam it aboard and into the container. Then when you extract, we get into transporter range of the monastery and beam in the orb."

"And that should do it," Ky said.

Ro walked over to a navigation station. "I've calculated our arrival to coincide to your time table. We should be there in about four hours."

Ky acknowledged her. "Alright, let's get the buffer installed and then get some rest before we arrive."

Lt. Commander Kindred Dakota

Dorvan V

Stardate 1811.13

The minute they touched down on the planet, she had sent her family to settle in then walked the opposite direction. Kindred wandered through the settlement noting the changes that had taken place over the years. A few houses were missing. A few more had been constructed on a new street. The center of town now sported a fountain surrounded by effigies of the old spirits and the new spirits that had come to visit the Native North Americans since their establishment on Dorvan V.

She had found her way to a quiet rooftop garden and taken up residence on the edge of the building. The twin suns were setting casting a glom over the landscape. Red, orange, and yellow streaks of light danced across the desert floor outside of town. It was peaceful; something she desperately needed after the long shuttle ride from Deep Space Nine.

Dezin had insisted on flying the roundabout on the return trip. He had taken Zac to the cockpit and shut the door. His intentions were good, but the long haul had been filled with tension. Ahoté had tried to fill the silence with talk of home, family, and business. Father was on the Council of Elders, and his absence had been felt by those left behind. Urgent Tribal business needed to be conducted upon his return, and Ahoté and Natane discussed the communiques that had built up while there were at Deep Space Nine. A council meeting would be held the next morning to catch up on recent events. Her presence had been requested as well.

She didn't know why she was needed or even wanted by the Tribal Council. Kindred hadn't been an active participant in Dorvan affairs since her brief stay during the early years of the Cardassian occupation. Her brother had joined the Maquis and been captured before the outbreak of the Dominion War. She had taken a sabbatical from Starfleet to rescue him and ended up a prisoner in a war camp just like her brother. It had taken almost a year to free herself, her brother, and a few other members of the Maquis. It wasn't a pleasant memory and a time in her life she often chose not to acknowledge.

The first sun sank behind the horizon, and the brilliant sunset colors faded to blues and greens as darkness started to descend. She pushed the council meeting out of her mind. It could wait until tomorrow. It wasn't important now. A light coughing noise caught her attention so she turned to see who had disturbed her peace.

"I thought you might be up here. I remembered that you liked the view."

Her brother stood awkwardly waiting for an invitation to join her. With a quick flick of her wrist, she indicated the spot beside her. He straddled the wall hanging a leg to either side of the edge of the rooftop. "I suppose you have a plan?" he asked.

"You know me. I always have a plan." She chuckled at his nervous smile. "It's nothing illegal." She had briefly toyed with the idea of injecting her father with the first dose of the serum without his consent, but that was wrong.

"Father needed to come home. He didn't like being cooped up on a space station. He needs the soil beneath his feet and the sky above him. He would never submit to treatment on the station."

"So you brought the serum with you?"

Kindred nodded. "With Bashir's approval and instructions. I'm not a doctor, but I have enough medical training to administer the injections myself." At her brother's raised eyebrow, she continued, "I'm part of the ship's Emergency Medical Response Unit so I've had training over the years." The lie fell off her tongue easily.

"And just how are you going to convince Father to take the treatment?"

"I'm hoping between time with your children and mine, he'll change his mind."

Ahoté crossed his arms. "What about time with you? He's older now, he's facing his mortality." He paused. "You should talk. Heal what you can before it's too late."

She sighed. "I know. It's past time to heal old wounds, but starting...It's daunting."

"Just spend some time with him. Use the kids as a buffer. That will help. After that, it's up to the two of you."

"When did you get so wise, little brother?" She pushed at his chest in jest.

He laughed. "I blame my wife. She made me grow up when the children came along. But you, I suspect it came earlier. You weren't really studying a pulsar, were you?"

She was silent for a long moment. Her work with Bravo Squad was highly classified. Her cover story was that she served as a Science officer out of Starbase 003. "Don't ask questions that I can't answer."

Kindred climbed off the wall. "Now, how about dinner?"

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## S13, E1, Act 3: Deployment and Infiltration

Commander Kyril Vree

Runabout *Zhu Jiang* in route to Bajor

Stardate 1811.18

"We're in orbit," Ro Laren announced. Outside the front window was the looming view of Bajor. This was Ky's first time to Bajor, and he watched their approach passing the terminator to the dark side with appreciation. He'd seen the images of the devastation the Cardassians did to the planet during the Occupation. But ever since the liberation, Bajor's beauty began to return as some of the once poisoned land was now reclaimed and are yielding crops and vegetation again. And with the help of the Federation, more modern conveniences and building techniques allowed the main settlements to flourish into small cities as the Bajorans experienced peace and protection for the first time in decades.

"I finished the target solutions for all the enhancers," Bryce's fingers flew rapidly across the sensor console. As soon as they were in sensor range of the True Way encampment, he had already begun to tag each
one and set up a list of transporter coordinates. The area was very barren, still poisoned where no vegetation could grow. This was a good spot to have a secret hideout since there was no reason for anyone to come to this part of the continent.

"I've reprogrammed the transporter for burst beam transport at the
minimum industrial resolution needed for the charges," Ky said. "It'll speed up the cycling process. The transporter can be activated as fast as we can place the charge on the pad. When we're done, all we have to do is reset the resolution to its default value."

"I have the charges lined up," Reece said, standing beside the crates with the charges they assembled, ready to be taken out quickly and placed on the transporter pad.

Bryce sent the first waypoint to Ro's station, and she moved the runabout into position in the upper atmosphere. The sky below them had light splotches of scattered clouds above the darkened ground. This part of Bajor didn't have many ground lights as the land was too barren and desolate for any settlements.

"Approaching waypoint 1," she said.

Ky controlled the transporter pad, while Bryce entered the coordinates, and Reece placed the charges on the pad. "Once we begin, we don't stop until we're done with all the charges. Ready first charge."

Reece placed the first charge on the padd. "Ready."

"Three, two, one, mark," Ky counted off and pressed the stud to start energizing. As soon as the cycle completed, he said "next." At that point, Bryce would feed the next coordinates while Reece placed the next charge on the pad. And the routine would be repeated until every charge was done.

When they start moving towards the next waypoint, Ky would activate the charges for the first set and Bryce would confirm their detonation. The next waypoint approached and they repeated the process. And again for each waypoint. As soon as they were done, Ro took the runabout back into orbit and Bravo Squad beamed down one at a time.

Ro watched the precision Bravo Squad displayed; a team that functioned smoothly as one unit. She was the outsider here, and it made her think back to the mission she went with them to the Cardassian prison camp that many years ago. She was an outsider then too. Watching them in action again made her realized that nothing had changed. She was already out of her element within the Starfleet code of conduct. Now even more so in especially with these professional covert operatives.

She started thinking about her assignment here with them, and the reason Kira assigned her to it. Did she know Ro had worked with them before? Or was it just a coincidence? Kira didn't know Starlfeet Intelligence was going to send this particular team. It had to be just the way the universe rolled the dice. But she still couldn't help but to think the coincidence was too much of one.

True Way encampment

Bajor

Stardate 1811.16

Reece was the first one who arrived at the outskirts of the encampment. She slowly surveilled the large camp while she waited for Ky and Bryce to arrive at their positions. One thing that surprised her was how lived in and comfortable the camp looked. It was big enough to house maybe 70-80 people. That’s a fairly large cell. The camp was nearly a half kilometer in diameter with various tents and structures and equipment scattered about. In the center was a large meeting tent with the True Way symbol on each side of the front entryway.

The sun had set a few hours ago, and most of the inhabitants were preparing to retire into their tents. A loud laughing caught her attention and thought the sound was out of place in a camp full of True Way terrorists. With her NVVs on, she increased the magnification and turned towards to the sound. It was at that moment she realized why the sound wasn’t as out of place as she expected.

In the green tinted night vision projected through the visor, he could make out something that suddenly flew into view. It looked like a bouncing ball. Then he saw a small Cardassian boy run from behind another tent to retrieve the ball. He caught up with it and threw it from view. With a jump of glee, he ran back behind the tent. Just as she touched her subvoc controller, she could hear more laughter as now a whole gang of children ran into view. The Cardassians mingling around turned towards them and laughed at child’s play.

This was going to be a problem. She had to report this asap.

“Bravo Squad, this is 3,” Reece said with as calm of a voice as she could. “I have eyes on children.”

Vree, who was approaching the outskirts of the other side of the camp, quickly crouched down to a stop, and then slowly down onto this belly to blend into the rock strewn around. “Confirm there are children present?”

“Aff, Bravo 1. There are what looks like civilians here,” Reece reported, now seeing the standard garb of non-combatant parents. “Maybe families.”

Commander Kyril Vree

True Way encampment

Stardate 1811.22

“Kira failed to mention when she meant ‘every last man’, it really meant ‘every last man, woman, and child.” Bryce murmured.

Ky’s demeanor turned hard at the revelation Kira nor Ro had informed them of. His mind raced to the only solution they had still based on their existing plan. This new intelligence didn’t change the mission, just the parameters. “Proceed with the mission.”

“Come again, Bravo 1?” Reece questioned.

“You heard the order,” Bryce reprimanded lightly. “I think I know where he’s going with this. Make sure you tag them and try to not hurt any of them in the process.”

Ky touched his subvoc controller on his wrist, glad that Bryce had already caught on to what he was going to plan to do. “Bravo 1 to Overwatch,” he said, calling the Zhu Jiang.

“Overwatch here,” Ro immediately answered.

“I need you to set the mobile transporter memory buffer to stasis mode. We need to interrogate some of the members after we beam them up.” Vree said, making up an excuse to keep the memory buffer running.

“Acknowledged.”

“You sure she’ll follow the order this time?” Bryce asked, after the comm channel with the runabout closed.

“We’ll deal with that when we finish here. Let’s find that orb.”

Ky had to keep his anger in check as he silently approached the outskirts of the encampment. Kira knew how many terrorists were here, which meant she had to have known there were families present too. And her sending Ro with them meant she was here to be sure they accomplished the mission to the fullest. He wouldn’t admit it, but it pained him to think Kira had tried to deceive them into performing what most races would deem immoral and uncivilized act of murdering civilians and children. And with Ro in orbit above them, again, Bravo Squad was forced to watch her carefully like the last time they were ordered to take her on a mission with them.

By the time he had eyes on the camp inhabitants, he had already decided on their course of action. And it was going to be simple enough to execute, but it’s the sacrifice he was going to have to make for it.

“This is Bravo 1, I am in position. Bravo 4?” Ky asked.

“Bravo 4 is in position.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

He activated his tricorder to look for the orb’s unique energy signature, and sent the readings to his eyes. Once that was set, he switched on his personal camouflage and his physical identity was replaced by a holographic image of a Cardassian in civilian garb. Adjusting his rifle, he stood up and strolled in between two tents and into the fire light.

True Way encampment

Stardate 1811.22

The team had decided the best way to tag as many of them without raising any alarms was to tag everyone who were in tents first. This way their transport out would be masked by the tent and the ambient noise of the camp. They had also talked about using their translocation suits, or personal cloaks, which they all had in case they needed it. But the camouflage was the best way to walk around freely and not have to worry about hiding.

But they had to find the orb first.

Its unique energy signature hadn’t appeared on his tricorder scans yet, and neither Reece or Bryce reported finding it either. Vree could see the layout map of the camp in his artificial eyes and started a slow and deliberate walk in a standard grid search pattern. He strolled as if he had just finished dinner and wanted to get some air. He was able to overhear a few conversations, and to his surprise, the topics were rather mundane.

Too mundane for a terrorist cell.

He started to stroll closer to groups of people either huddled together around a fire, or groups walking by. He wanted to get an idea of the atmosphere of the camp by trying to catch some of the conversations. For the next 20 minutes, all he heard were normal conversations one would hear in any type of camp or settlement of peoples. He also made note of those Cardassians who had weapons, and those who didn’t. And surprisingly, he barely saw anyone with a weapon.

“This is Bravo 1, has anyone noticed something out of the ordinary about this terrorist group?”

“You mean other than the children and families?” Reece said.

“Remember back when we trained a cadre of Cardassians during the war? These people look and act nothing like them.” Bryce said. “This looks and feels like a normal village of Cardassian settlers.”

“A village of Cardassians who stole the Orb of Unity and threatened to destroy it if any attempts were made to retrieve it.” Just at that moment, the energy signal from the orb was detected in Vree’s tricorder. It was in the large tent at the middle of the camp. “The Orb is located in the large tent in the middle of the camp.”

“So the orb is here,” Reece said. “I was starting to have some doubts.”

“Let’s converge on the tent and take a look around,” Vree ordered.

As they casually altered their path towards the center of camp, a bell chimed from ahead of them; from the large tent. Everyone around them stopped what they were doing and started mingling towards it; some laughing, some moving with reverence as if preparing themselves mentally for some special service.

Vree had seen this reaction before. It was on DS9, right before a Bajoran prayer service. He watched all the people moving towards the tent bringing their children along. A fear inside him was starting to grow. These Cardassians were not terrorists. They were worshippers.

“Bravo 1,” Bryce said slowly over the subvoc, coming to the same realization. “I don’t like the look of this.”

“Let’s keep to the rear and see what happens inside the tent,” the Trill said, looking around and slowed his walk to arrive behind the people around him. When he reached the tent, he was nearly last with a few other cardassians. When they entered the tent, there was standing room only in the back. Every seat inside was taken.

Bravo Squad was able to confirm the orb was there. At the front of the tent, inside what looks like a rudimentary replica of a shrine in a Bajoran temple, was the irregular shaped container housing the Orb of Unity. The glow could be seen through the small window in the center top of the container.

A Bajoran wearing the robes of a prylar walked out from behind a curtain and addressed the audience with his arms wide open.

“I am eternally grateful to the Prophets for guiding you here. In tonight’s service, we will give thanks to the Prophets for bringing the Orb of Unity here. To us, so we may look to its wisdom and guidance in uniting believers together blind to race, background, and culture. Present are still the painful memories of the Occupation and only the Prophets can guide us to the way to begin healing the damaged relationship between the two peoples-Cardassian and Bajoran. In order for it to open the way for all believers to have the freedom to follow the will of the Prophets and their great divine promise of peace.”

Bryce’s voice came over the subvoc again, this time with a voice of impending doom for all involved. “We have a very big problem.”

Back to top

## S13, E1, Act 4: Not the True Way

Commander Kyril Vree

Cardassian encampment

Stardate 1811.25

“Bryce, when we get back to the ship, I need you to babysit Ro again.” Ky said in response.

“Affirmative. I was just going to ask you about that.”

“I think the True Way aspect of this camp is just a cover,” Reece said after giving the settings around them some thought.

Ky had to agree with her. “The threat to destroy the orb is just that, a threat. It keeps the Provisional government from taking any action against them even if there was the smallest chance they could really destroy the orb. It was prophesied 300 years ago that when the Orb of Unity is taken and then returned to the Bajoran people, it would unite the Bajoran people and pave the way to a new golden age of Bajor.” He recalled back to what Kira told him about this particular orb.

“And these people stole the orb in hopes to use it to unite the Cardassians and Bajorans after more than a half a century of brutal occupation,” Bryce said.

“More like looking for a way to bring the two peoples together. Or maybe they just want the freedom to be allowed to attend services like any bajoran could. It certainly sounds like they’re true believers in the Prophets too.” Ky thought back to another conversation he had with Kira. “I don’t think Cardassians are allowed in the temples of worship on Bajor.”

“That’s a bit discriminatory,” Bryce said.

“Considering who took the orbs away from them in the first place, how can you blame them for being protective of the orbs once they finally got them all back?” Ky responded thoughtfully as different plans started to form in his mind. It was out of the question they would kill these people. They went to all this trouble of stealing the orb, they weren’t going to just hand it over because a bunch of Starfleet officers asked them to.

“So what are we going to do?” Reece asked.

“There are no terrorists here. So this has become a religious and political matter, which is an internal matter.” Ky said. “But we are still obligated to recover that orb. So we’ll proceed as planned. We secure the orb, tag everyone here, store them all in the buffer, remove the encampment, and take them all back to Captain Kira to handle.”

“Do you think she knew they weren’t terrorists?”

“I don’t know,” Ky said honestly. “But I’m going to find out.”

Bravo Squad huddled together talking as if they were mingling after the prayer service was over. They were actually waiting for the bulk of the people to leave so they could see where the orb would be placed for safe keeping. But the container just remained at the shrine even after the prylar left. All that remained were some stragglers and four armed guards, two outside, two inside. When Bravo Squad left, they maintained surveillance a few tents away.

“We’ll wait a few hours. We’ll secure the orb first, use the imager Kira gave me to take its place, then we start tagging everyone. We got a good look of the interior, so we’ll translocate inside and quietly tag the two guards inside first. Beam the orb up to the runabout, wait for Ro to come back after delivering the orb back to the monastery, then we start tagging everyone.” Ky counted off on each finger. Simple enough plan assuming all goes well.

Lt. Commander Kindred Dakota

Dorvan V

Stardate 1811.26

 The Council of Elders convened a few hours after sunrise. Zac had been up since the sun so Kindred had been showing him the village in those precious hours before the meeting.

 She stood in a adobe hut that was decorated in a haphazard style full of colorful woven rugs and handmade baskets. The suns shone brilliantly through the arched windows that lined two sides of the main room. The hum of low voices filtered through the air.

 Most of the talk had been of local matters; the ongoing feud between two bakers, the storm damage to the irrigation system, the debate of the installation of a communal replicator. She had sat silently waiting for her turn, and it came just before the close of the meeting. Her name was called, and she went forward before the semi-circle of elder statesmen.

 The chief raised his hands in greeting and said something that Kindred was certain she would not hear since her last trip to Dorvan had been such a disaster. "Kindred Dakota, daughter of Natane and Elena, officer of Starfleet, your return is most awaited. You have aided us greatly on not just one but two occasions. We are eternally grateful for the return of our brother Ahoté some years ago and for the medical attention that you have arranged for your father. Welcome home, daughter of Dorvan."

 She stood in silence for a moment. A warm greeting was not what she had anticipated. She had been sure a reprimand was going to fall, and she would not be welcome in the village. "Thank you, sir. It is a pleasure to return home and introduce my husband and child to my family."

 "Ah, yes," another Elder replied. Like most of the Council, Kindred didn't know his name or recognize his face from her brief stay. "Your husband and child are most welcome here as well. We all look forward to greeting them tonight at a town fete. There is much to celebrate."

 "But, Father did not accept the medical treatment." She gave him a sharp look from her position at the bottom of the circle.

 "Never-the-less, you have returned to us, and our village has grown" the Chief said. "That is cause to celebrate. Meet us in the town square at sunset where will feast in your honor this evening."

 Flabbergasted, Kindred returned to her position in the audience. This was not at all what she had expected. Her father had been so cutting in their last meeting. He had, for all intents and purposes, disowned her when she chose to return to Starfleet shortly before the Dominion War broke out. Their argument had rung out through the village square causing doors and windows to open. Eyes had been averted on her progression to the shuttle that would return her to Deep Space 9. At the time, it had felt like a walk of shame, like she was running away, but that hadn't stopped her.

 In the years since, she had recalled it differently, like she was walking towards something instead of away from it. Shadow Operations had come calling shortly after her return to Earth pushing away the terror of the Cardassian prison encampment and her expulsion from her family. She rarely thought of her father's adopted home or the family she had left behind. Kindred rarely communicated with them. Even Ahoté had only spoken to her intermittently with big news of his life, like his marriage and the birth of his children. The time spent away on the Linea campaign had cut her off from them completely.

 After the meeting broke up, she wandered out of the Council hut. Her father would still be an hour of more as the Council broke into it's non-public portion of the meeting. She still needed to finalize the next part of her plan, and now was the perfect time to do it while he was busy. She just needed a few things, and Zac.

Lt. Commander Kindred Dakota

Dorvan V

Stardate 1811.29

The welcoming party had been an eye opening experience. The whole village had turned out to greet her and her little family. People she barely remembered had run up to her and hugged her. Strangers had clasped her forearm in greeting. It was a much different scene from the last time she had been with Indigenous North Americans when she had infiltrated the Crow Hammer. These were a peaceful people, a kind people, who just wanted to be left alone to practice the old ways and honor the old gods.

She learned against the window letting the mid-morning sunlight shine upon her. Her father's house was quiet. Dez and Zac had left earlier to explore the edge of town with the other children. It was awkward being in his home, much more so than when they were in close quarters on DS9. There were few distractions. There were neighbors here and there who would stop by to say hello. Otherwise, it was just the four of them. Ahoté had returned to his own home, his wife, and his children. Meals were filled alternatively with childish chatter and silence. Zac had a way about him that filled up a room, and it was hard to deny his presence. Yet, there were still awkward moments looming between father and daughter.

Kindred heard her father enter the room. His new cane tapped on the floor as he walked towards her. His breathing was labored like he'd run up flights of stairs. If he didn't start the treatment soon, his heart would fail him. "Good afternoon, Father."

He waved her hands away as she made a motion to help him to a seat in the living room. "I may be ill, but I can still get about. All be it with a little help." He laid the cane handle around the round arm of his chair. "Where's the boy?"

Zac had taken to Natane immediately. They had been near inseparable since their meeting only going other directions when Zac had a chance to be with other children. "He went to hunt lizards with the other children. He'll be back in time for supper and your evening walk."

"Are you going to lie to me about this adoption business once again or will you tell me the truth? The boy is obviously a Dakota. He resembles you, but not your husband."

"Leave it be, Father. He is not MY biological child. We adopted him officially after our marriage. That's all I will say about it."

She heard him harumpf. "Just another lie to add to all the others."

"My job is...complicated."

"Classified, you mean."

She shrugged her shoulders and took the chair opposite him. "I can neither confirm nor deny that, but Zac has a home with me and Dez, and that's more than he had before we came along. He's healthy. He's happy. That's all I can ask for. Rejoice in your new grandson, and leave it be."

"You aren't going to tell me what you've been doing all these years you were away."

"I'm a Starfleet Science Officer. I was once assigned to a couple of ships that had long-term missions. Now, I'm based out of Science Base 003. I go where they send me, and then I return to base. Dezin is on a desk duty rotation, but I expect him to be back onboard a starship soon. There was some talk about a short range duty ship that patrolled our section of the Neutral Zone."

"How long have you been at the base? It isn't far."

"Less than a year, but I've been steadily out on assignment." Kindred wondered how much longer this interrogation was going to last.

"You could have at least come home between duty stations. Your mother always had shore leave accumulated after rotations."

"Mom was a doctor. She worked long hours and built up lots of time. It's not like that for me. I had to scrape together days to get this leave." She lied easily. She had months of leave to spare. She just didn't want to waste them on Dorvan.

Kindred drummed her fingers across her thigh. That was a harsh thought, but true. Or was it? Was it a waste to visit her adopted home? To meet her family? To make peace with her father while he was still alive?

She turned the tables on him and redirected the questioning. "What's the real reason that you didn't take the treatment? Are you so ready to die? Ahoté was rather adamant that we do anything we could to help you. You travelled all the way to Deep Space 9. You stayed for weeks. Your situation is dire. Why won't you take the treatment?"

"No more questions. I'm tired." He wiggled in his chair in preparation to stand up.

Kindred reached out a hand and stilled him. It was really the first time she had actively touched him since their awkward greeting. "Father, please."

He stood up anyway. He took the cane and leaned on it heavily. "Not now, daughter. Can't you see I'm tired?" He hobbled off to the other room.

Why were things never easy, she thought.

Commander Kyril Vree

Cardassian Encampment

Stardate 1811.29

The camp was quiet. Only the crackling fire torches were heard throughout the still night air. There was a sudden sound of a slight wind that caused the torches to flicker for just a moment. But no one paid any notice to it.

Bryce tagged the two unconscious Cardassians who were guarding the orb and Ro immediately beamed them up while Ky and Reece set up the small portable imager to display the orb as if the case was still there. He looked over to the case on the floor that held the real orb just as Reece activated the imager.

With a slight flash, the three dimensional image was spot on, except the lighting was a bit off. Ky started adjusting the image after he gave Bryce the hand signal to contact Ro and get the orb to the monastery, and another hand signal to Reece to keep watch on the guards just outside the closed tent canvas doors.

They had waited a few hours for the inhabitants to go to slumber before translocating into the back of the tent, behind the curtain that the Bajoran prylar had appeared from. There was a rudimentary table that had several ceremonial items for a Bajoran prayer service.

Ky restarted the imager and the orb case was now showing an exact duplicate of the Orb of Unity. Just at that moment, the case holding the real orb was transported out.

“I’ll be back in 15 minutes,” Ro said, as she turned the runabout and headed southwest, keeping below the sensors in low orbit that would set off an alarm if it detected the orb’s energy signature leaving the planet.

“Acknowledged,” Bryce responded. Then he looked over to Ky with a smile. “It’s on it’s way.”

“You take position just inside the tent door with your personal cloak activated. Reece and I will use our imagers and stand guard as Cardassians in case anyone walks in.” Ky reached for the imager at his belt just as Reece activated her’s.

They stood there for only a minute or two when there was a voice that called out to someone outside.

“Check on the orb! I received a sensor notification that the orb’s energy signature is no longer detected.”

Bryce heard it loud and clear, but so did Ky and Reece. “We’ve got trouble,” Bryce said.

Ky thought fast. Ro had just left and she was still at least 10 minutes away from coming back. “We’ll need to sedate them quietly. Hypogloves, everybody. Take them on my command.”

The tent door burst opened. The Bajoran walked in with the two Cardassian guards in tow. They approached the orb case.

“Has anyone else been in here at all?” he asked.

Ky shook his head. “No, prylar.” He simply said with a slight bow of salutation.

“Stand aside and let me check the Orb,” he ordered.

Ky took a step aside to give the man room to open the case. Reece moved over to stand by one of the two Cardassian guards. Just as the prylar was about to touch the latch of the case, Ky gave the order to take the guards.

Reece touched the man next to her while Bryce injected the same sedative into the other guard. Just as the prylar’s hands went through the image, Ky grabbed his shoulder and injected the sedative. All three collapsed onto the ground.

“You two stand guard outside. Don’t let anyone in.” Ky pulled out three transporter tags and tagged them as Bryce and Reece stepped outside. He dragged the three inert forms behind the curtain and waited.

As good as her word, Ro was back within 10 minutes. “The orb has been returned to the monastery. I told him to keep a hold of it this time. They are working on placing it back into the sanctuary now.”

“Affirmative. Good work. Now start transporting up the activated tags. I’ve got three of them in front of me now.” Ky ordered and prepared his rifle.

“Aye.” And within a minute, all three were transported out.

“Stand by,” he ordered Ro. “We’re going to start Phase 2.”

“Ready,” Ro said.

“Bravo Three and Four, begin Phase 2. Translocate to your designated sectors and let’s clear out the camp.”

Back to top

## S13, E1, Act 5: Mission Accomplished

Commander Kyril Vree

Clearing out the encampment

Stardate 1812.02

Ky winced every time he tagged a sleeping child, knowing each time it could have been a deadly killshot instead of an isolinear tag. All along he was thinking about what he would say to Kira when they got back to DS9. But the more he thought about it, the more angry he became about what they were expected to do on this mission. But more so, the deception.

He finished his sector quickly without raising any alarms. Soon after, he met up with Bryce and Reece who were already at the center of the camp. Reece had discovered where the mobile transporter the Cardassians were using to transport to nearby settlements. She was just finishing disabling it as Ky approached them.

“Are we sure we got everyone?” Bryce asked.

Ky walked over to the large tent where the prayer service was held and he rang the bell a few times. They waited a few minutes for anyone to show up, but no one did. “Let’s do a final sweep before we start transporting the structures.”

It took a few hours, but when the the final structure was beamed out, dawn was rapidly approaching. Ro had already beamed up all of the enhancers the camp was using to travel to the nearby settlements while Bravo Squad set up their own enhancers around each tent and structure.  Ky looked around at the now vacant plot of ground where the encampment used to be. It was suddenly eerily silent when only a few hours ago, it was busy with people.

“Now comes the hard part,” Ky said to himself.

Reece and Bryce folded up the last of the enhancers and brought them over to his position.

“Who’d ever thought a memory buffer could be like a closet?” Bryce joked lightly.

“Bigger than a walk in closet.” Reece added. The mood this time didn’t match the mood when they usually finished a mission. They had forcefully removed a group of civilians without their consent.

Ky ignored the banter and opened a channel to the runabout. “Bravo 1 to *Zhu Jiang,* three to beam up.”

“Are we good to go? Ro asked as soon as they materialized inside the runabout.

“We are. Let’s get back to DS9.” Ky ordered.

“Aye, aye, sir.” Ro said. Ky noticed it was a bit out of character for her. She’d never responded to him that way.

“Did you know there were children and civilians down there?” Ky asked bluntly when Ro took the runabout out of orbit. He walked over to the crate and checked the status of the buffer. They were going to have to rig up a portable energy source to maintain the patterns so they can beam the crate off of the runabout.

“No, I didn’t know,” she answered quickly. Maybe too quickly?

“Since that piece of intelligence was missing from the mission briefing, I’ve changed the mission outcome. Instead of eliminating everyone in the camp, we’re going to take them back to Kira and let her decide what to do with them. We draw the line at murdering children.”

“Understood,” Ro said. “We should arrive at DS9 in about 4.5 hours.”

Ky nodded with satisfaction that the memory buffer was functioning. He gestured to the rest of the team. “Set up a portable energy module from the emergency systems to maintain the patterns in the buffer. We need the patterns to hold when we take the crate off the ship.”

“Do you want me to over engineer it?” Reece asked.

“Yes, there are 57 lives in there we need to keep alive.” Ky said, sitting down in one of the chairs. “After you get that done, let’s get some rest. Ro, wake us when we arrive.”

*Zhu Jiang*

en route to DS9

Stardate 18.1202

It was mission accomplished. Ro sat quietly for a few hours in the pilot’s seat watching the sensors on their way back to DS9. The computer was handling the navigation as it was a short trip and didn’t require any course changes. She turned to look at the Bravo Squad members. Each one was taking a nap after their away mission. Just like soldiers in combat, they grabbed sleep whenever they could. She got up and headed towards the rear compartment. The memory buffer was stored back in its crate with a portable energy module to maintain the patterns of all the people in the True Way cell.

No one but a Bajoran could understand the hatred they had for the Cardassians. It ran deep into their history and culture. They’d been occupied for far too long. Every cardassian should pay for what they did to her people. Their descendants should understand the sins of their fathers and should be expected to pay for their father’s atrocities.

As a resistance leader, Kira understood that better than anyone. And she knew Ro understood it too. That’s why she sent Ro on this mission with Bravo Squad; to be sure the mission result was the one she wanted. The one she demanded. Regardless who the cardassians were. Kira had told her this may be the most difficult thing she had ever asked her to do. This cell threatened Bajor’s harmony.

Ro quietly walked towards the crate and opened it. She located the control panel and the controls that would shut off the power, thereby erasing all the stored patterns there. Her eyes turned hard with determination as she reached for the panel that would end all of those lives.

Commander Kyril Vree

*Zhu Jiang* enroute to DS9

Stardate 1812,08

“Even after all these years, you haven’t changed,” a voice said quietly behind Ro. The voice caused her to hesitate before she lunged forward to shut down the buffer. Just as she was about to touch the panel, something held her wrist tight, causing her to stop with surprise. She looked down at her hand and a shimmering from a personal cloaking device revealed a gloved hand with a tight grip on her wrist. She looked over to who the hand was attached to and saw the sad look on Bryce’s face. He grabbed the scruff of her uniform and hauled her away from the crate, easily disarming her before she could get her bearing. She was turned around to face the Trill commander who was still sitting in his chair where she thought he was sleeping.

“My orders were very clear. We take the memory buffer back to Kira and let her decide what to do with them.” He got up to stand in front of her. “I only have one question for you, Ro Laren. Did Kira knowingly send us here to eliminate every man, woman and child at that camp?”

Ro kept a deadpan look on her face. “All I know is that everyone was to be eliminated, regardless of who was there.”

Ky nodded. The answer pretty much coincided with the orders Kira had given him. They had assumed everyone at the camp was a terrorist. So she must have known to give that specific order. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

Ro shook her head. “Just like the last time, you don’t have the stomach to do the really hard job. That’s why I will never return to Starfleet.”

Ky took another step towards her and stopped a foot from her face. “I draw the line at murdering civilian men, women, and children; any children, in cold blood.”

Her eyes turned hard and piercing. “Easy talk coming from someone who has NEVER lived under occupation when your aggressors tortured and killed civilian fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters without a second thought and for sport. They treated us like taking out the trash, or exterminating a pest. You don’t know sh-”

Ky had it with her. He hit her across the jaw so fast and hard that she fell halfway to the floor before Bryce reacted to adjust his grip on her to support her full weight. He lowered the unconscious bajoran to the floor gently and checked her with a tricorder. He looked up at Ky.

“You broke her jaw, her nose, and fractured her cheek. You could have killed her with that blow.” Bryce looked at the tricorder again and shook his head. Ky’s precision strike was so accurate that he probably didn’t kill her on purpose; one of the many skills he learned as the assassin Nelo. “You’re going to get hell for this.”

Ky took a breath before answering him. “This is nothing compared to what’s going to happen when I see Kira. Reece, how long before we get back to DS9?”

Reece took over the pilot’s chair and looked at their status. “About an hour.”

“Did Ro make any transmissions back to the station?”

“Not that I can detect.”

“Increase speed and get us there as fast as you can.” Ky turned back to Bryce. “I want you to stabilize her the best you can. Keep her sedated and monitor her closely. Once we arrive, I want you to transport with her directly to the Infirmary and tended to. Don’t tell anyone what happened.”

“And I take it you’re going to visit Captain Kira alone?” Bryce got up and got a medkit. “You going to do a repeat of the last time you beamed directly into that office?”

Ky ignored the question and addressed Reece. “After we beam out, I want you to dock the runabout and wait for my signal to transport the crate to my location. Then make a copy of all of the runabout’s logs, transport all of our gear back to the Nightwraith, and prepare the ship for departure.”

“We’re not going to wait for Kindred?” Bryce asked. “She sent us a message telling us she’s left the station for Dorvan V.”

“I have a feeling after my visit with Kira, we may not be too welcomed on the station.” Ky said, his demeanor started to soften as his anger began to ebb. In actuality, he didn’t want to be on the station any longer than he had to. He had no idea how Kira was going to react to what he was about to do.

“Maybe permanently, this time,” Bryce said.

“We’re going back to Umbra One then?” Reece asked.

“No, we’re going to Dorvan V first to pick up Kin.”

Lt. Commander Kindred Dakota

Dorvan V

Stardate 1812.03

Dezin had taken Zac to dinner at a local restaurant leaving Kindred alone with her father and brother. A simple fare was spread on the table, something Kin had prepared with the help of Ahoté's wife. The three had sat in silence for the first part of the meal letting the sounds of dinner fill the room.

Ahoté tossed down his fork in disgust. "Are we going to talk, or are we going to chew in silence?" her brother asked. "Will you two stop being so stubborn and just talk to each other?"

"There's nothing to say." her father grumbled.

"There's loads to say, but no desire to say it." she replied.

"Father," he pointed to the old man. "You are mad that Kindred decided to leave the planet and return to Starfleet." He pointed at her, "And you are mad that Father made you choose between your family and your duty despite your imprisonment and rescue of me and my friends. You spent a year in a Cardassian prison camp being tortured, and …" his voice failed him. He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry that I never thanked you. That Father never thanked you. That you were cast out from the family."

Her father's fork clattered to the table. "Is that what you think? That I cast you out?"

"Yes, Father. that's exactly what I think." She crossed her arms and leaned on the tabletop. "You stopped just short of cutting off my braids when I chose to return to my life on Earth. I made a promise to Starfleet. My leave was well past over. I'm surprised that they took me back, but I had sensitive information to give them. Eventually, the rest of the camp was liberated from my intel. I saved a lot of lives when I returned. Not just my brother's and his stupid friends'."

"You were wounded. You should have stayed here."

"I did!" She slapped the table to emphasize her point. "I stayed her for weeks to recover physically."

"You weren't ready to return mentally. Everyone knew that. It was obvious that your time in the camp had effected you more so than the others." Her brother tried to grab her hand to comfort her, but Kindred pulled away.

Her father looked her right in the eyes, "I could lose you too. Just like I lost your mother. Starfleet took her from me, and it was going to take you too. And I was right."

"A shuttle accident that no one could predict killed Mother." she replied.

"And you went back to Earth and never looked back." Her father pushed away from the table. He tossed his napkin across his plate but made no move to stand. "I knew if you left, that was it. Starfleet would get you in it's clutches, and you would never return. It has been years since we have seen or heard from you."

She followed his lead, but leaned back in her chair. "I'm here now. I'm here to see you wither away and die when there's no need to. I'm here when it counts, at the end. Isn't that what you wanted when you two contacted me?"

"That's not what I wanted." Ahoté said quietly. "I wanted you to return home and see to his treatment."

"He won't accept what needs to be done to save his life. He's made up his mind. Father, what happens when you are out walking with the children and have a heart attack? What if they see you die? None of them are prepared for that. None of us want you to go."

"Not even you?" the old man said in a whisper.

"Especially not me. Family is important. I've built a solid group of people who I can trust to see after Zac when we're not there, but it's not the same. You are his Grandfather. He wants to know you. He's been begging for months to see you. He wants to have roots, and he wants them here. Who will give them to him if you are gone?"

"I need to rest. It's been a long night." Ahoté moved to help his father stand.

She wanted the last word before the stubborn, self righteous man walked off. Kindred started to gather up the discarded dinner plates. "Just promise me that you will think about what I said. Zac wants an extended family. He's a special kid, and it would be a shame if you didn't see him or Ahoté's children grow up."

Commander Kyril Vree

*Zhu Jiang* approaching DS9

Stardate 1812.09

As the runabout approached DS9, they scanned Kira’s office to be sure she was alone before Ky transported in. The transporter materialization halo appeared in her office, took her by surprise and was about to draw her weapon when she recognized the the person materializing.

“Ky! I didn’t know you were back.” She said, getting up from her desk. “Did you find the orb?”

“Yes, we did, and we’ve already returned it to the monastery. You should be getting a message from Kohi Bokan confirming it.” He balled his hands into a fist, controlling his anger. “Did you know there were families in that encampment?” Ky came right out and asked without any other salutation. He was in no mood for niceties or subtleties.

His tone of voice stopped Kira halfway to him. Then she turned around and went back to sit at her desk. The air became oppressive, thick and palatable. And she let it lie like that, leaving that as the answer to his question.

“It would have been at least courteous to forewarn me that we’d be going in to kill members of the True Way including their families,” Ky said facetiously. At the moment, he couldn’t see the eight years of friendship, trust and bond between them. All he could see was a friend’s betrayal to ask him to murder civilians. “They aren’t even part of the True Way. But you knew that.”

“I’m sorry I had to do it this way, Ky,” she said shaking her head at how this ended up. “I gave you a mission we were unable to perform without serious repercussions if it were ever to be discovered we had any part in it. You have to understand. What they were doing could have destroyed all Bajor has built ever since the war. Chaos would ensue all over Bajor if we allowed them regular access to the Orbs and attend worship services.”

“And you sent Ro with us to ensure the job gets done.” Ky said, still unmoving from his beam in spot. His anger rose another notch at the revelation that she even knew they were civilian worshippers.

“Yes, I did,” Kira looked down at her hands.

Now Ky took a few steps towards the front of her desk. “That was a mistake. Ro should have told you how Bravo Squad worked and that we have no tolerance for deception and lies to manipulate the intelligence used for a mission. You were expecting Starfleet to do the dirty work and have their hands smeared with the blood of innocents while keeping your own clean. This is not what the Federation stands for. There is a code of conduct expected from a Federation member planet.”

Kira remained silent as he bombarded her with his moral values. He tapped his subvoc controller and sent the signal to Reece. The crate materialized beside him. He then charged around the desk, grabbed her by the arm and dragged her to the crate. He flipped open the lid so they could both clearly see that the buffer was still being powered by the portable energy module to maintain the patterns of all those lives.

“I will not drench the hands of Starfleet nor the Federation with the blood of civilians or children of any race. As soon as we discovered they were not terrorists, this became an internal matter for Bajor. We were only obligated to help you recover the orb.” He gestured to the contents. “There are 57 transporter patterns in there of men, women, and children along with all the equipment and structures from the camp. We stopped Ro before she could shut down the buffer. I’m leaving this here for you to end their lives demanded by your convictions. If you believe it is the will of the Prophets to kill some of their followers, it’s a simple thing by turning this off.”

Kira put both of her hands on the edge of the crate and just stared at the control panel of the memory buffer. Ky took a step away from her.

“Bravo Squad’s mission here is done,” he announced with a cold edge to his voice. “We found the orb, returned it to the monastery, and removed all traces of the “True Way” cell from that location. If there’s nothing else you require from us, Captain, we will take our leave of the station.”

“Ky, please don’t-” she started saying in earnest, but Ky already walked out of her office without looking back and headed straight for the Infirmary to retrieve Bryce. They were leaving the station immediately.

Commander Kyril Vree

Infirmary, DS9

Stardate 1812.09

Dr. Bashir demanded an explanation for Lieutenant Ro’s severe wounds. Ky took Bryce’s place and sent him ahead to the Nightwraith to help Reece prep the ship for immediate departure. In the private confines of Bashir’s office, Ky told him she was injured on a mission to Bajor.

“Is that what you want me to put on the report?” Bashir said.

“That’s good enough. She got hurt on an away mission. No other explanation is needed or warranted.” Ky said briskly with a tone of finality.

Bashir studied Ky’s face to try to read the meaning behind the words. He knew exactly what caused Ro’s wounds. The knuckle imprint on her face told him as much. But Ky was a superior office, and if that was what he want reported, so be it. But it won’t stop him from reporting his medical findings in her chart.

The doctor nodded and signed off on the medical report. “Are you leaving now?”

Ky got up and shook his hand. “As soon as I get to our ship. We are...needed elsewhere.”

“Take care, Commander.”

Ky was about to walk out of his office when he suddenly remembered he had prepared something to say to Bashir the next time he saw the man. “Julian, take care of Ezri. She loves her life here.” He said to him rather cryptically and walked out of the infirmary in a brisk manner.

He navigated quickly through the crowded Promenade without looking at anyone or anything. His focus was to just leave the station as soon as possible. He didn’t feel like talking with anyone else. But when he got to the docking collar of the Nightwraith, there was someone standing there waiting for him. At the very core of his being, he was elated and joyful to see his friend Lieutenant Ezri Dax’s smiling face considering the last time he saw ‘her’ was in the mirror universe. But he could see in her eyes the pain he was feeling. She held out a hand and he took it, gripping it with the desperate hold as if trying to keep the same grip on the friendship he had with Kira. She pulled him into a enveloping hug of understanding. Even after all these years of being apart, they could still read each other.

“She’s really sorry, Ky.”

Ky buried his head into her neck and whispered to her. “You need to get her back on the right track, and what it means to be a part of the Federation. She is also a Starfleet captain, and she needs to act like one. This I rely most on you, Zi.”

He could suddenly feel her shudder. When they finally pulled apart, her face was wet with tears of shame, but didn’t let go of his hands. It was partially her fault as Kira’s friend and counselor for not seeing how far Kira had strayed off the path. These past few years had been hard on Kira, more than she let on. And Ky unfortunately had to see the worse in her.

Looking into his soft pleading eyes, Dax spoke two words that gave him a measure of hope that he would someday be able to return to Deep Space Nine to find his friend again in Kira Nerys.

“I promise.”

Back to top

## S13, E1, Act 6: Dorvan V

Commander Kyril Vree & Lt. Commander Kindred Dakota

*Nightwraith* arriving at Dorvan V

Stardate 1812.13

Ky kept to himself during the whole trip to Dorvan V. He just sat in the chair at a rear station, brooding silently. He tried to put up the emotional and mental walls and bring back the hard personality he had lived with all that time as Nelo; even throughout the Linea campaign. But coming back home and being with family and people he trusted made him soft, something even Kin had helped to bring back to his personality. Now, it was to his disadvantage to feel this way, betrayed by someone he thought was a good friend. There was some small part of him that felt maybe it was partly his fault for not seeing the changes in her over the years since the war.

“We’re approaching Dorvan V,” Bryce announced from the copilot’s seat. Dorvan’s binary suns could be seen through the main window. “The southern continent is coming up.”

Ky opened a subvoc channel. “Bravo 1 to Bravo 2.”

Down on the planet, night had fallen hours earlier, only a few pinpoints of firelight illuminated the only settlement on the planet. and most of the inhabitants were asleep. The highly encrypted transmission on a high band frequency not used by standard communications was ignored by any sort of receiver except for one specifically tuned for their usage.

The soft chime and then the voice coming over her subvocal woke her up in the middle of the night. She was a light sleeper, so her eyes popped open as her senses became alert.

“This is Bravo 2, what are you doing here?”

Ky ignored the question. “Are you ready to leave?”

“No, not yet. I thought I’d give it a few more days.”

“That’s fine. We’ll wait in orbit. Contact us whenever you’re ready to leave. Bravo 1, out.”

Kindred could sense the tone in Ky’s voice and the abrupt message to know something was amiss. She sat up in bed and swung her legs over the side before deciding to open a channel directly to Bryce. “Bravo 4, 2, what’s happened? Why aren’t you on DS9 waiting for us?”

“The mission went down an unforeseen path. Ky’s lamenting over the loss of a friendship.”

“It wasn’t Ezri, was it?”

“No. It was Kira.”

Kindred pondered for a moment. “Is it bad?”

“It’s bad.” She could even tell in Bryce’s voice that the pain wasn’t just Ky’s.

She grabbed a silky robe and tossed it over her nightgown. She tied the red fabric at her waist nearly cursing herself for leaving the team short handed. If something had gone wrong on the mission, it could have been her fault.

“So that's why you're here instead of at DS9?"

"Bravo Squad won't be setting foot there again for some time." Bryce said with an audible yawn. “We’re here to take you and the family home.”

Kindred’s mind quickly ran through the obvious scenario. Since the team was here and she had planned on being here for a few more days, they might as well come down for a visit. It would be a waste of time for them to stay on board the Nightwraith just to wait for her. And it could give them some time to recover from this mission.

She sighed. “Alright, if we’re to go straight back home with you, I’ll make plans to have someone return our runabout straight away to DS9. But ask Ky if the team can get some shore leave for a few days and come down here for a visit.” She wandered over to the mobile comm unit that Dezin had set up just in case of an emergency. Apparently, his preparation was needed. She started it up and prepared a message.

“I don’t think he’s going to want to leave the ship. He’s not in the greatest of moods. He hasn’t said a word ever since we left the station.”

“Well, then you’ll have to work your charm on him, right?” Dakota bantered, but deep down, for Ky to be this affected, something big must have happened on DS9. That made her worried. The ever consummate and poised Kyril Vree depressed? It must be bad. “Ask him that you came all the way here and he doesn’t want to visit my home planet?”

Bryce nodded to himself. “That might do it.”

“Do what you can. I'll have to ask the Elder's Council for permission. I'll petition them first thing in the morning. You'll also each need a special gift from your home world, something of personal significance. You'll provide it during your formal greeting. It's archaic, but I'll guide you through it."

“I’ll tell them,” Bryce said, already thinking about his gift. “Not much we can do with only a replicator on board.”

"Oh," she added. "And no uniforms. Civilian clothes only, no visible comm badges. You'll already stand out enough as it is."

"I’ll contact you when I’ve...persuaded him. Bravo 4, out.”

She felt a hand on her shoulder. "What is it?" Dezin asked quietly. He didn't want to wake up anyone else in the little house. Zac was asleep on a mat across the room, and her father was next door.

"Sounds like their away mission didn’t go as planned. It sounds like they’ve exiled themselves from DS9. There will be a lot of explaining to do when we get back home. It doesn't sound good. Ky's never like that after a mission. Something must have went terribly wrong."

"Why the petition? I didn't have to do one to visit the surface."

She squeezed his hand. "You are family and welcomed as such. Outsiders have to seek permission. I'm sure it's just a formality."

"Five Federation officers here at once. That's bound to raise some eyebrows." He led her back to the bed and raised the covers for her. Sunrise was still a few hours away.

"Hackles more like it." Kindred settled back in beneath the sheets and snuggled into her husband. The quiet of the last few days had drawn them closer together. It was nice to just be a little family with no obligations, no missions, no duty. "We'll have to see how it goes. They won't be welcomed by everyone; that's for certain. Get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long day."

Lt. Commander Kindred Dakota

Dorvan V

Stardate 1812.16

The Council of Elders was being held again this morning. This time her Father sat in his place of honor near the center of the table to the right of the Chief. She stood before them getting ready to make an odd request.

"Chief, honored Elders, I have a special request for you this morning."

Her father wiggled in his chair, but the Chief motioned for her to continue. "Last night, I was contacted by my superior officer. He is requesting to be granted admittance to the planet for he and his crew of two."

"Who are these people?" one of the Elders asked.

"Commander Kyril Vree of Trill, Lt. Commander Jackson Bryce of Draconis IV, and Lt. Antonia Reece of Earth. I am currently assigned to the same detail at Starbase 003. They were out on assignment when orders came to return me to base."

"You're leaving so soon?" asked an elderly woman who claimed she was a distant aunt.

Kindred straightened her tunic and continued. "In a few days, yes, I'll be leaving, but first." She paused for a moment. "It's been a while since they've each had shore leave, and they'd like to beam down to the planet for a few days while they wait for me to finish my leave. I'd like to petition for their admittance to the planet."

"It's been years since Starfleet has had a presence on this planet."

"They would only be here in their capacity as private citizens of the Federation. No official business would be conducted, no uniforms, just three people who would like to visit their friend's home planet." Kindred smiled at the panel hoping her confident speech would sway the Council. It hadn’t swayed her father this morning when she shared the news she needed to leave sooner than expected.

Murmurs filled the chamber, but she couldn't make out the actual words from her position a few feet in front of the audience table. The Chief finally called for a vote. Five were in favor, but two opposed, including her Father and 'Aunt’. "The petition is granted, but only for three days time. You will be responsible for their actions while on this planet. Have them beam down to the town square at noon for the official welcome. You do remember the protocol?"

"Yes, sir. It's been a while, but I remember." Kindred hoped that Kyril and the others would understand. It was archaic, but it was they way of her people.

Lt. Commander Kindred Dakota and Commander Kyril Vree

Dorvan V

Stardate 1812.16

Kindred was waiting for the team at the beam in site. It was just off the town square. She saw their hollow faces and knew immediately that whatever had happened had affected them all deeply. She was worried when Ky barely acknowledged her. That wasn't his way. His eyes were on the ground, and he was nervously handling the box in his arms.

"Come this way." She twirled around. The beads on her buckskin dress tinkled and plinked as she walked down the alleyway. "The Elders decided to perform the formal ceremony since it's been a few years since they've had Starfleet visitors. Thank you for coming down in civvies."

Bryce waved a hand down his blue two piece jumpsuit. "It's been a while. I almost feel naked without my...usual garb.” Everyone knew he was fond of hiding various items in his clothes. But these civilian clothes were sparse of any pockets nor bulk to hide anything under. She still suspected there were at least a dozen weapons on him.

Reece chuckled softly and adjusted the collar on her leather jacket. She had a thing for retro 20th century garb and could pass for Amelia Earhart on most off days. Kindred noticed her nervousness. Something had truly gone wrong on Bajor. Reece wasn't even cracking jokes.

"Let's just get this over with." Ky grumbled halfheartedly. He adjusted the buttons on the black vest over his dark blue tunic, clearly still in a mood.

She led them into the open square and through the crowd of onlookers. The Chief was standing with the other six Elders at the foot of the effigy to Mother Earth. Like the others present, he was outfitted in full ceremonial garb. Eagle feathers surrounded his head like a halo, beads cascaded down the front of his tunic, and painted triangles in black, red, yellow, and white dotted his leather covered arms and legs. He raised his hands towards the guests and bid them to move closer.

"Welcome, honored guests of our Daughter. We understand that you have a request of us."

"Thank you, Great Father." Ky said as he stepped forward. "We formally ask permission to reside on your planet for a short stay while we await our friend's departure. In thanks and gratitude for granting us an audience, we present these gifts of thanksgiving. Each one of us has chosen an item of highly personal significance from our homeworlds." He gestured Reece to present her gift first.

Reece’s tall frame moved forward and presented a data chip to the Chief. "Antonia Reece of Earth. This is Top Gun. It's a holovid of my favorite 20th century Earth entertainment. It inspired me to become a pilot and to fly the skies just like they did."

"Thank you, daughter. We welcome you to our home. Will you show this to the children during your stay? It may be of some interest."

"Gladly. Movie nights are my favorite nights." She smiled and returned to her position.

The Chief smiled at her enthusiasm. "May your stay be pleasant."

"Jackson Bryce of Draconis IV." Bryce replaced Reece at the head of their delegation. "I haven't been welcomed home for a long time. Being here in Kindred's home reminded me what it's like to be surrounded by a community." He whipped off the covering over the spherical object in his hands. "It's a quantus ball. The children of Draconis IV play this game in the streets. I'd love the opportunity to teach the children here the game."

The Chief accepted the soccer ball looking object. "May this bring many hours of comfort and play to our village. Welcome, son. May your stay be pleasant."

When it was Ky’s turn to present his gift. Kindred saw her brother's eyes grow wide. She hadn't explained who would be coming to the planet. Ahoté knew of her close friendship to the Trill family Savien, but he wouldn't know enough to recognize one. No, that look on his face was for another reason. One she didn't want to think about now.

"Kyril Vree of Trill.” Ky stepped forward. “I am honored to be allowed to present to you a gift from my past. My species has a symbiotic host relationship with a long-lived lifeform on my planet. Because of my symbiote, I have memories of four other lifetimes spanning 270 years. One of those hosts developed a new orchid flower that many people on my planet now highly cultivate.” He opened the box and pulled out what looked like a potted orchid. “This is called Mavek’s Orchid named after the host Mavek. This is a replica of his very first successful bloom that has not existed since because I created this from memory. May its flowers bring joy, happiness, and tranquility to all who sees it.” He respectfully walked up to the Chief and handed him the pot.

“We are most humbled by your gift, Kyril Vree of Trill. To honor the past is to honor the present. May this orchid be a sign of peace and hope to all who see its fragrant blooms.” The Chief handed off the plant to another elder just as he had the previous gifts. “Welcome, son. May your stay be pleasant.”

He turned to take in the crowd, and raised his hands in invocation. “Let it be known to all that these are honored guests. Let them be welcomed into your homes. Let them be seated at your tables. Let them share in our joys and sorrows. Let them be at harmony within our village, and let them go in peace upon their leave taking. Welcome, brothers and sister.”

The crowd hollered and cheered at the invocation. They pressed into the visitors and clapped them on their backs. A child ran up to Bryce and excitedly showed him the quantus ball. Reece bowed her head to accept a beaded necklace from an elderly woman. Kindred tried to make her way to the group but was waylaid by a happy citizen greeting her. She didn’t see the small bounding bundle traveling at warp speed towards her team leader.

Ky had just finished bowing and receiving another necklace from a young attractive woman with a flower in her hair when he heard a young voice yelling and barrelling towards him.

“Uncle Ky!” He turned to see his ‘nephew’ run towards him and jump up into his arms. To Ky’s surprise he gave him a Trill familial greeting. Then the boy’s face changed to a sullen demeanor.

“You’re sad.”

Ky was taken aback. “Why do you say that, little one?”

“My first Dad used to have that same face whenever he was sad.” Zac said thoughtfully as if remembering an old memory. He put a hand against the side of Ky’s face.

“I’m okay, Zac. Thank you for asking.” He kissed the boy on the cheek and was about to turn the conversation away from Saavy, but the boy beat him to it.

“Did you bring me anything?” He asked.

“Zac!” Traela scolded just as he reached the pair. “Don’t be rude to your Uncle like that.”

“Dezin, how are things here?” Ky asked. Still holding on to Zac, he shook Traela’s hand. The look Traela gave him answered his question.

“Your arrival was unexpected,” Traela said.

“Unexpected always seems to happen to me,” Ky said with a wry smile. Then he put Zac down. “There’s a box for you in my bag. You go get it.”

“Something happen on DS9?” Traela asked, frowning at Zac’s enthusiasm tearing through Ky’s bag looking for his gift. The man always spoiled his godson.

“Self-exile.” Ky simply said, his smile disappearing.

“That...doesn’t sound good?”

“Believe me when I say It could have been alot worse,” Ky said just as Zac brought the box to him and put it on the ground to open. The wrapping paper flew, and out came a child sized replica of a standard Sovereign class starship.

“The Rwewenant?”

Ky knelt beside him. “It’s a toy. See, if you press different parts of the ship, a different holovid will appear. Press here.” He pointed at a section of the saucer section. Zac pressed it and a small three dimensional holographic video projected out to one side in midair and began to play out. It was a video of Zac playing in Lumana Lake on the holodeck.

“That’s me!”

Ky smiled at the child’s glee and got up. “Best I can do on short notice,” he said to Traela.

Kin finally broke away from the good meaning greeter and walked up to Ky. She pointed at him with her acid-phaser eyeballs look. “You, come with me.”

Ky sighed and waved to Traela and Zac before following Dakota away from the group. They walked out of the town square and to the edge of town in silence. She guided him to a rocky outcropping that looked down into a ravine created by thousands of years of flash flood waters carving into the side of the rock. It was quiet here. He could see for miles ahead of him, but he turned back towards the town. No one had followed them, and he had a clear view towards the only avenue that someone could attack them from. Kindred signaled to him that it was all clear before finally popping the question.

“So you want to tell me what happened?” she asked with concern. What she saw in the team so far made her nervous. Even throughout the dire conditions during the Linea campaign, she never saw them so emotionally distraught.

“That’s classified.”

“So help me, Ky-” Dakota threatened. She pulled him to the edge of the ravine then over the lip. They skidded down the side in tandem before landing at the bottom. They continued walking in silence while she waited for his explanation.

“Kira ordered us to murder a group of civilian Cardassian men, women, and children under the guise of eliminating a terrorist cell.” He followed her lazily not knowing or caring where they were headed.

Dakota stopped in her tracks and stared at him. “You’re kidding.” The slightly haunted look on his face spoke it all. “Ok, not kidding. You didn’t kill them.”

He slowly nodded his head. “And we also had to stop Ro from killing them too, who was following orders from Kira to be sure the mission’s final objectives were met.”

“I-I can’t believe Kira would willingly give an order to kill civilians.” She steered them towards a path that led them out of the ravine and up a hill.

“And they were also worshippers of the Prophets.”

Kin saw the enormity of what had happened. It was all too much. First of all, Starfleet would never send out a team of operatives to kill innocents. Kira had to have lied through her teeth to get operational command of a tactical team. Secondly, she was willing to kill other worshippers in the same congregation of those worshipping the very same Prophets she did. And thirdly, she had asked a Starfleet team to violate the Prime Directive on purpose by deceiving them to interfere with an internal religious matter.

“So you let Kira have it?”

“I did. And stormed off the station. How could she give us a mission to do something like that, and try to hide the true nature of the target from us?  From me?”

“Maybe she was desperate.” Kin wanted to think the best of Ky’s old friend, but she was having a hard time doing so.

“Maybe.” Ky took a breath and let it out.

“Did you file your mission report?”

“Not yet.”

“Do you think there will be any repercussions?”

“We did accomplish the mission though, minus killing everyone there.” Ky sat down on a big rock. “But I did hit Ro Laren.”

“Any broken bones?” Kin said jokingly referring to Bravo Squad’s inside joke about his and Bryce’s initiations for new team members.

“Just her jaw.”

She didn’t expect a real answer. “You broke her jaw.”

“And her nose. And fractured her cheek.”

“Spirits! How many times did you hit her?”

“Just once.”

She shook her head and sat down next to him on the rock shoulder to shoulder, leaning on each other as they had always done in the past; one way or another. The suns had passed their apex but continued to heat up their surroundings.

“I was fed up with her spewing at me.” Ky looked back out the vista from their vantage point. “We put all the Cardassians in a portable transporter memory buffer, and I left it in Kira’s office when I confronted her about the mission objectives. I honestly don’t know what she’ll do with them. We left immediately after.”

“Are you going to put that into your report?” Kin asked, kicking some gravel away. She was still in shock about what they were expected to do.

“I’m going to include everything.”

“That’s not going to look good for Kira.”

Ky looked down. “I know. And in case she tries to pin their deaths on Bravo Squad, we also made a copy of all the flight and activity logs from the runabout we used.”

“That’s walking a tightrope. She’s in command of one of the most important stations in the Federation, if not the entire quadrant.”

“I know. And that’s an even greater reason I’m not going to leave anything out of the report.” Then he gave her a frown, then looked back to the view. “If she isn’t fit to command that station, she shouldn’t.” His voice became bitter.

"Did you see Ezri?" Kin asked, thinking back to the awful experience the last time they saw her on the Revenant that ended with her suicide.

"Oh, right. Yes, I did see her. And I made her cry too." He folded his hands carefully on his lap. “How are things going here? Talk with your father yet?”

“Stop deflecting. I’m not done yet.”

“I am, Kin-der-kin. Let me seek some peace here.”

She weaved her arm through his just like they had in times long passed. She needed to stop pressing. “Father won’t submit to the treatments. The family is slowly coming to grips with the reality that he’s dying. Zac and Dez are spending a lot of time with him, with the other children too. Father’s acting like it’s just another holiday at home, but he won’t talk about what’s important. He just storms out or says he’s tired or changes the subject. So, no progress.”

“I’m sorry.” Ky rubbed his face with his hands. “I’m sorry about so much. I shouldn’t have let you stay away from your homeworld for so long.”

She pushed away from him. “You didn’t LET me do or not do anything, Kyril Vree. I made my own choices, and I’m the one who has to learn to live with the consequences. At least, Zac will have some short time with him. Some photos. Some memories. That’s more than he had before. And Dezin got to meet him.”

“That was important to Dez. He was always upset that he couldn’t ask your father for permission to marry you. He had to ask me to be the liyea'tai instead. That man likes tradition too much.”

“He is a traditionalist, Ky. Kind of comes with the title.” She smirked thinking of all the traditions that she had introduced to her husband in the last week. Every ceremony was made more special because of his enthusiasm and respect for her culture. He was happy here, and that made the trip worth it. Maybe they would come back more often after her father died. The thought sobered her.

“I bet he did ask your father at some point after we came home.“

“No, but he did apologize for not asking him.”

Ky tried to laugh, but it just came out a puff of air.

“So what are you going to do about Kira?” she asked.

“Write my report. Report what happened. Let the powers that be decide what’s to be done, if anything.” He said, seemingly to keep that idea clear in his head.

“I meant about you and Kira.”

Ky took a deep breath and let it out. “Let it lie and see how it plays out. I asked Ezri to keep an eye on her and, as her friend, to remind Kira she needs to act like a Starfleet captain. Whether or not the trappings of that rank should rule her own convictions.” He gave her a frown. “She blames herself for not seeing the signs.”

“A lot has changed since the War.”

“Wars tend to do that to people.”

Main Square

Dorvan V

Stardate 1812.20

That first evening’s meal was more of a celebration of some sort. Many of the villagers opted to have a large buffet feast in the main square for everyone in honor of their Federation guests, which included Kindred and her family.

Bravo Squad, Traela, and Zac all sat together surrounded by well wishers who asked questions about happenings in the Federation, and that of Earth.

It was a peaceful, pleasant evening. Not something that Bravo Squad got to experience together often. Children were running between tables and playing with replicas of the ball that Bryce had gifted to the town. He’d had to beam up the ship to make a dozen more after showing them the game. Reece was making plans with the women to roast dried corn over the flames tomorrow night then display the movie on the flat side of one of the larger buildings in town. Vree was still moping by himself away from the crowds just at the edge of the square where he watched Dakota thrive in the festive atmosphere. She was holding her son with one arm and showing him how to dance along to the beat of the drums.

It was too pleasant a scene for Vree who later slunk off into the shadows to be by himself. She made note of his location and occasionally checked to see if he had moved at all. And for over two and a half hours, he didn’t move from his spot. Not even when a young attractive woman approached him with a cup of tea. She recognized it was the same young woman who gave him a necklace earlier that day. And she also recognized the gleam in her eyes when she approached him. She smiled to herself. She had had that same gleam in her eyes for the Trill a long time ago.

But Vree was no longer paying any attention to what was happening around him. He was in his own little world of swirling thoughts and feelings. And those thoughts were of this past mission to Bajor. He was actually dictating his report through his subvocal directly to the computer on the Nightwraith. Since the events were still very clear in his mind, he figured he might as well start working on his after actions report.

Prior to beaming down, he had sent a message to Admiral Sorvek informing him they were going to be on Dorvan V for a few days before returning to the station. So when the *Nightwraith*’s computer informed him over the subvocal of an incoming transmission from Starbase 003, he didn’t expect anything out of the ordinary. And since he wasn’t at any communications terminal, the call had to be audio only. The call was from Lieutenant Commander Chalan, the Bajoran senior comm officer on Umbra One.

"Commander, we have a priority transmission for you from Starfleet Academy."

Vree perked up a little with concern but didn't show it in his face. "A priority transmission?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Standy by,” Vree said. He walked away from the town square and found a vacant alley before transporting up to the *Nightwraith*. As soon as he was on board, he quickly went straight to the bridge and reopened the comm channel at his command chair.

“Put it through. Thank you, Chalan."

The face of Commandant Harlan Wynter of Starfleet Academy appeared on the small main viewer. "Commander Vree, your name was on file as all of the children's first legal guardian. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news."

"What's happened?" He now sat down in the command chair. His thoughts ran to - "Mayla?"

"Mayla is fine. But there has been an incident with one of the other children. Neri was found dead at the base of the Battery Wagner in the Marin Headlands. It seems she had taken an evening walk, tripped and fallen off the hiking trail. Forensics indicate she died on impact 80 meters below. We didn’t find her until the next morning and were unable to revive her.”

Commander Kyril Vree

Dorvan V

Stardate 1812.20

Ky’s heart started beating faster. Neri had been one of the quietest of the Osiris children; always keeping to herself and only opening up to a very few people. “Have the rest of the children been told?”

“Yes, we told Mayla first. Then we interviewed the rest of the children and all of them last saw her last night. Neri must have left the dormitories in the night to take a walk along the Golden Gate View trail.”

Ky just nodded with a grim look on his face. He had never expected to lose any of them while under his guard. His head hung down a bit and his thoughts flew to how the rest of the Osiris children would be feeling. They had ‘felt’ real loss when the Gen 5 killing teams exterminated most of their Gen 1 sibko. Wynter took the act as if Ky was grieving, but it was more of guilt.

“On behalf of Starfleet Academy, I am sincerely sorry for your loss, Commander.”

Ky composed himself and sat back up straight in his command chair. “Thank you for contacting me, Commandant. I am currently away from the station at the moment, but is it possible to have Neri and the rest of the children transported to Science Base 003 for final services?”

Wynter paused thoughtfully for a moment before answering. “I will try to work something out with Admiral Sorvek.”

“I am grateful, sir. Can I talk with Mayla?”

Wynter nodded. “Stand by. And again, you have my sympathies.”

Ky returned the nod as Wynter transferred him back to the communication array department and in a few minutes, Mayla appeared on the screen. Her face was passive, but it was her eyes that showed her grief.

"I just heard about Neri, I'm sorry, daughter."

Mayla recognized the tone as belonging to his immediate previous host, Tayna. But she just shook her head indicating he didn't see the entire picture.

"I think she jumped to her death. Toshii told me she had been having difficulties adjusting to Starfleet and Federation life. She was too rigid with following a straight set of orders. When given the freedom, she didn't feel she had purpose. She wasn't strong enough." Mayla sniffed.

Ky shook his head. "No, Toshii wasn't strong enough to tell anyone else before this tragic event. I suspected something like this may occur. They are not use to this type of life and if we knew about how serious it was, we could have gotten her more counseling. Or reassigned." He suddenly realized that it wasn't their fault. It was HIS fault. He had allowed Admiral Sorvek to lock them into having to work for Shadow Operations in order to receive Federation amnesty.

Death was seemingly the only other way. And Neri took her own life as her only escape.

He turned his attention back to Mayla. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that. I just realized that we didn't give any of them any other choice of life other than Shadow Operations. We thought with their skill set, they would feel most comfortable staying within our organization."

Mayla slowly nodded in understanding. "Each one of them were implanted with the experiences of several prominent Linea leaders, and also absorbed their non-military strengths and needs. Maybe some of those leaders got lucky by earning their bloodnames, rather than by skill."

"Your sibko needs to learn and understand there are many different opportunities within Shadow Operations. They have that freedom of choice and they must be made to understand that. They don't have to choose to kill, even if it’s themselves."

“Or maybe all they want in life is to be in battle, and the strive for the ultimate goal of earning a bloodname.”

Ky shook his head. “We are not structured like that here.”

“I know. But that won’t keep them from wanting something they can never have.”

“We’ll talk about it more when I see you. Commandant Wynter is going to try to work something out to bring you all home for final services for Neri. Keep an eye on the others, and maybe you may need to start making regular log entries on them. We need to provide them what they need to survive in our society.” Ky said in a stronger voice now. He showed a strong determination to empower his daughter to do what she can to take care of her sibko.

Mayla felt like he was giving her orders and that confidence did in fact make her feel better. But Neri’s loss was the first time she felt the way Cale felt when half their sibko was eliminated.

“Should we all start packing then?” She asked in a small voice.

“Yes, but you’ll all be returning the day after the service. Ask Cale if there is anything in particular he wants in the service. Does he want a standard Starfleet funeral, or a Linea funeral. It’s up to him.”

“I will talk to him about it.”

“How is everyone else handling this?” Ky asked with a slightly worried tone.

“They are being strong.”

“What does that mean?”

“That means when a soldier falls, they soldier on. It’s in their DNA.” Mayla said with a slight huff in her tone.

“Understood. Then I’ll see you in a few days. Call me if anything comes up. I’m available.” He carefully said.

Mayla nodded, knowing by that statement that he was in between missions. Her face disappeared from the main viewer, and Ky sat in the chair for a few minutes before heading to the communications station and opened a channel to Linsayla.

Thirty minutes later, Ky beamed back down to the same place he beamed out in, and returned to where he stood watching the festivities. Just as he got settled in, Bryce came up beside him holding what looked like some sort of large piece of meat on a skewer.

“Where did you go?”

“Go? Go where?” Ky said with no intention of telling any of the team about Neri’s death during this time of healing and fun.

“I know you beamed back to the ship.”

“I just needed to send some messages and start on my after actions report.”

“So I guess the transmission from Starfleet Academy had nothing to do with the children? Is Mayla okay?”

“She’s fine. But we’ll talk about it when we leave here. This is no place for work. Go,” Ky gestured for him to go back to the festivities. “Play and be merry.”

Bryce shook his head with a smirk and gave him a salute before going back to the gaiety, leaving the Trill commander to his own thoughts and agenda.

Ky had alot to think about. Then right on queue, Dakota’s voice came through on his subvoc.

“Where did you go?”

He was just about to give her the same answer he gave to Bryce, but she already saw through the deception before he even said it.

“Don’t say to me you went back to the ship for work.”

He could put up with Bryce’s deductions, but her, she was his second in command, and should know the truth.

“I received a call from Starfleet Academy. Neri’s dead. Mayla said Neri was unhappy and thinks she killed herself.”

There was silence on the other end while Dakota ran through the feelings of grief in her mind. When she didn’t answer him, he continued.

“I've asked to have all of them transported to Umbra One for funeral services. The Academy is going to continue their investigation.”

“I”m sorry, Ky.” Dakota finally said.

“I didn’t want to tell anyone yet until we were on our way back home. I didn’t want to spoil our visit here.”

Commander Kyril Vree and Natane Dakota

Just outside the settlement

Stardate 1812.23

He watched lazily as Traela and Zac went off on another one of their ‘walks of discovery’ around the settlement. It was a good idea for them to spend as much time as they could outdoors because that was going to be a rare thing when they got back to the station. He smirked to himself. He should also that the same advantage too since they so rarely get any down time on any planet.

“May I interrupt your solitude, Mr. Vree?”

Ky looked up and squinted from the morning suns to see the elder Dakota, hobbling on his cane. He immediately got up and helped him to sit down on a flat rock.

“Never an interruption from you, Mr. Dakota. And please, call me Kyril, or Ky in a pinch.”

“How was your morning meal?”

Ky gave him a satisfied smile. “It was very good. I enjoyed it very much. We are grateful for the hospitality everyone has given us.”

“I voted against allowing you to stay with us,” Dakota said without preamble. His buckskin pants cushioned him as he settled down onto the rock.

“I’m sure you had your reasons,” Ky stiffly said, not sure where this line of conversation was going.

“It’s been so long since Starfleet has checked up on us ever since we seceded from the Federation. Then the end of the War came, and we still have not heard from the Federation to rebuild a relationship. Many of us began to harbor harsh feelings that the Federation did not want to have anything to do with us anymore.”

Ky nodded. “I understand. The Federation has been licking their wounds for the past seven years. Many people died, many worlds lost and occupied, and many starships were destroyed. We had to rebuild new treaties, alliances, and boundaries with every empire in the Alpha and Beta quadrants. War destroys quickly. Rebuilding takes time. Even relationships.”

Dakota gave Ky a sharp look, obviously taking the comment personally. But Ky’s face remained neutral as if they were discussing the weather. “If the Elder Council would like, Kindred and I can help you submit a request for a dialogue with the Federation Embassy on Earth. It would indicate to them you are interested in reopening relationships with them.”

Dakota looked away and changed his face to neutral. “I will tell the Council of your offer.”

“It will be a minor thing, since we are not here in any official capacity as Starfleet. We are just here visiting.” Ky gave him a smile and a nod. He looked around and took in the atmosphere and scenery around them. “After all these years, I’ve finally visited Kin’s homeworld.”

“What is it like on your own homeworld?” the older man asked, steering the subject.

“Trillius Prime is also in a binary star system. Lots of forests, purple oceans, snow capped mountains, your basic M class planet of flora.”

“I have never met a joined Trill. What is it like to have your mind filled with so much of the past, so much history, so many emotions, so much family?” He flitted with the toe of his cane. “And you remember all of them? Births, celebrations, weddings, funerals?”

“I remember every single one. But once the host dies, and the symbiote is transferred to a new host, it is forbidden for a new host to reassociate with anyone in a prior life.” Ky shook his head. “So I usually don’t have any connection with anyone from a prior host.”

“I see,” Natane said. “It allows you to start a new life without the baggage of a past life.” He frowned at the thought. All those memories, all that history at the forefront of your memory only to lose it to after the death of the host. Restarting one’s life every fifty to a hundred years did not sound like a task he would desire.

Ky nodded. “Something like that. But on the other hand, to make a long story short, I did marry Mavek’s granddaughter. And as it is with any long lived being, the memory of experiences could be as vast as the years lived.”

“And what of past misdeeds?” he asked.

“The new host also cannot be responsible for any actions done by a prior host. It’s a clean slate.”

“Where were you in 2150?”

Ky thought back to that time. “Vree was in its first host, Solias. A successful farmer on Trill. He was a painter and a poet. Went to a lot of school and was honored to become a scholar. Then he became a teacher.”

“So you wouldn’t know anything about the time when my ancestors wandered through the galaxy 200 years ago.”

Ky shook his head. “No, sir. I’m afraid not. That was even before Trill joined the Federation.”

“I see,” he responded with just a slight hint of disappointment. It was an opportunity to delve into a past history, but it wasn’t to be. “You are close to Zac,” Natane commented carefully. “His uncle?”

Ky’s mind treaded water and wove his words carefully. “He was my friend’s son. When he died in the line of duty, I took care of Zac for nearly a year until Kindred and Dezin adopted him. “‘Uncle’ is just honorific for becoming his godparent.”

“Your friend’s son?” Natane looked at him closely. He emphasized the word friend, not believing him.

“Yes.”

“Did he look like you? Was he a relative?” Natane voiced the question that the whole village was asking. The boy looked too much like this Trill to not notice the resemblance.

“What?”

“There is a resemblance of you in that child. It is hard to mistake.” There were probably holovids of Zac that could pass for Ky as a child.

Ky just laughed. “Maybe during the time he spent with me caused him to start mimicking me. I assure you, Zac is not the offspring of any relative of mine.” Which was technically true. Kyril Savien from the mirror universe wasn’t really a relative.

“Why didn’t you adopt him?”

Ky gave him a warm smile. “I currently already have a teenage daughter, twins boy and girl, and memories of dozens others. Although I love Zac as if he was my own, he deserves better attention with another parent whose never gone through the joys of parenthood. And he took to Kindred and Dezin so well, I agreed to let them adopt him.” He hoped this excuse coincided with whatever Kindred told him. “He brings much joy to them.”

“He is a unique child,” Natane said wistfully.

You have no idea, Ky thought to himself. “Yes, he is.”

“He talks about playing with Tylin and Nilani. Schoolmates?”

“And playmates. My twins. Both are about Zac’s age.”

“And someone called May-May?”

Ky chuckled at Zac’s nickname for his oldest daughter. “My teenage daughter, Mayla. She is currently attending Starfleet Academy.”

“And Nielle?”

Ky smiled. “That would be Jackson Bryce’s daughter.”

Dakota nodded slowly. So this group of friends his daughter associates with are close enough for their children to play together. But this Trill she was closer to than the others.

“And you are Kaylen Savien’s brother.”

Ky nodded with a smirk and slightly narrowing his eyes at this line of questioning. “Whatever Kindred has said about Kaylen, I was not responsible for who she is or her actions.”

“I was told stories of mischief between those two.”

The Trill laughed. “There probably are stories. But you should hear them from Kindred. It’ll be funnier that way. Then if you were ever to meet Kaylen, you can ask her for her side of those stories. It’ll be even funnier then.”

“Only you think those stories are funny,” Kindred said while coming up behind them.

Ky kept in his mirth and waved to her. “Like I said, it’s funnier from my sister’s perspective.” He looked up at her squinting and giving her a wink.

She kept her face straight and addressed her father. “There’s a matter the Council wants to talk to you about.”

The elder Dakota sighed and got up from the rock. “It was a pleasure talking with someone older than I. It does not happen often.”

“It was my pleasure.” He said, turning away from the suspicious look she was giving him.

Commander Kyril Vree

Dorvan V

Stardate 1812.30

Ky sat quietly in a corner of the festively decorated family common room that was now temporarily being used as a dining room. It was the largest room in the house, and the large lit fireplace on one side was surrounded by various pots of food that was being kept warm. With the front door left wide open, the room wasn't overly stuffy or hot. The soft glow of the fireplace lit up most of the room along with many candles without using many modern types of illumination. Even though he had his fill of dishes that were adapted to the native plants, animals, and fruits into traditional Native American cuisine, he still savored the sounds and smells of a home cooked evening meal the owner of this house insisted he, Bryce, and Reece join his family for.

Just outside was what looked like all the children of the settlement, and a crowd of adults, all congregated again to watch Reece’s holovid ‘Top Gun’ projected on the side of the tallest wall of the settlement for the second time. The portable holovid projector provided not only the visual imagery of the holovid, but created incredible life like sounds as the ancient piece of historical entertainment had been remastered over the centuries by many historians. Ky had watched the holovid before, many years ago when Reece had first joined Bravo Squad. She was never tired of watching it, so they had watched it several times to humor her. But he had to admit, he liked it too.

The house wasn’t large, but it also wasn’t small. The couple had four children, who were outside watching the holovid excitedly with the other audience all seated on the ground. The roar of the ancient Earth fighter jets trembled the ground and buildings around the scene.

The wife, Aiyana, with the help of a few other relatives, created a storm of various types of food, including some fire cooked corn she taught Reece how to make. She made enough for three times the amount of people there, and when it came to eating, Bryce couldn’t stop. It was the children that taught them how to eat the various types of food and with what condiments and in what order. It was a very enjoyable experience for all three of them, except for the previous mission outcome that was still fresh in Ky’s mind.

Ky had quietly settled into a chair in the corner and started his whittling with a borrowed knife and a few small blocks of a obsidian hardwood he found during a walk earlier in the day. He wanted to give the twins and Mayla a souvenir from Kindred’s home planet. He was carving the shape of a bird he saw earlier that day for Mayla. What looked like a rabbit was for Nilani. And what passed for a fox was for Tylin. He hadn’t whittled in decades. Actually, in a century. He had never whittled anything before. But a prior host, Mavek Vree, whittled often. Ky remembered seeing many items Mavek had carved when he first met Linsayla. She still had some in their quarters on display.

Bryce let out a loud sigh of satisfaction, and a certain audible complement to the chef. Aiyana's husband, Elan, gave out a large belly laugh and refilled Bryce's large mug of malted tea. After a few minutes to be sure Bryce was really done eating, the couple began clearing away the dishes and washing the dishware. Bryce at once jumped to his feet and helped while animatedly telling stories. Ky just watched out of the corner of his eye from the sidelines whittling his block of wood with a cup of tea beside him.

“You look troubled, friend.” Elan later sauntered over, dragging a chair with him and positioned himself next to Ky.

“Work problems.”

“Ha! Work problems. We all have work problems. Especially quotas. We are all self sufficient here, as long as sufficient enough work is done.” He said with a huff.

Ky gave him a smirk. “That’s a good point.”

“So tell me, Kyril, what do you do for Starfleet?”

It had been so long since he’d had a normal conversation with a civilian, that he nearly forgot what his cover story was. “I’m an astrometrics officer on Starbase 003. I study stars and planetary bodies.”

“That is impressive. That makes our planet here nearly insignificant in your professional scope of the universe.”

Ky stopped his whittling and looked at the man with surprise. The man gave him a hearty smile and slap on the shoulder. “I’m a stargazer.”

The trill laughed. “I think the universe makes us feel small because we can offer friendship and love that which the universe cannot, except for cold formulas and physics.” Ky returned to his whittling. “And this planet is abundant with friendship and spirit.”

Now the man laughed and gave his knee a slap. “Well said.”

Ky whittled a small piece from the ear and plucked off some dust so he could get a clearer view of the face of the bird. Then he noticed Elan fidgeting slightly in his chair, as if wanting to ask him something, but uncertain. He took a chance with his intuition.

"Elan, did you want to ask me something?"

The man frowned and shook his head at his simple foolishness at trying to hide his nervousness. "My deceased older brother's only child wants to see the stars. She's another stargazer like me, wanting to visit other planets and meet different races."

"That sounds like an admirable goal in life. It teaches one tolerance of the diversity of cultures and ideas," Ky said nearly absentmindedly. That line came straight from another former host, Tayna Vree, who was the Trill ambassador to Vulcan.

"Ever since she was a little girl, she had always had it in her mind to join Starfleet when she was old enough. Her heart was then broken when Dorvan V seceded from the Federation. I persuaded her away from billeting on a merchant ship or a mercenary ship. But she argued that was the only way she was going to be able to achieve her dream of reaching the stars." His head lowered with a sigh as if in sadness. "After her father died, I took it upon myself to make sure she does not stray from the path of safety and goodness. Joining a merchant crew, or worse, a mercenary bunch, isn't something a parent wishes their child to do. Her mother wants her to be happy. And the one thing that would make all of us happy, is for her to be able to join Starfleet. But in order to do that, Dorvan V must become part of the Federation again."

"I see." Ky responded carefully. "That would be up to the Council to decide, I don't have any influence on that."

"I'm not asking you to sway the Council in making any decisions. I am asking if you, as a Starfleet officer, would be willing to...uh...maybe sponsor her entry into Starfleet Academy?"

Ky stopped whittling. "Don't you think she would have a better chance if Kindred sponsored her entry? After all, her father is an elder here."

Elan shook his head. "It's for that very reason we cannot make that request of her. It would throw water into the face of her father and the Council in regards to whatever they may feel about the Federation."

"I understand," the trill nodded in response, thinking back to his conversation with Natane earlier that day. Having a relative in a statesman's position does have its advantages and disadvantages. And something like this would be riding on a knife's edge for the Dakotas. Ky knew, as a starfleet officer of rank, he could sponsor a non-Federation applicant to Starfleet Academy if she passed the six week preparatory course. "I will need to meet her and gauge her character first. And I will need to consult with Kindred to be sure something like this is alright for me to do. I do not want to offend the Council by making a decision like that. I am a guest here and do not want to disrespect them in any way."

"Duly noted, sir. But I have to try. It's the only way for her happiness." He said with a bit of a sad face on him.

Ky almost laughed out loud at the obvious ploy, but just gave him a nod.

A smile suddenly appeared on Elan's face. "I will go get her!" He nearly jumped out of his chair and hurried outside where the crowd was still watching the holovid. Within a minute, Elan came back through the open door followed by an attractive dark haired young woman clad similarly to those of her age in the village. She followed Elan respectfully until she was introduced.

"This is my niece, Shenandoah Sekani. Shena for short."

Ky put aside his whittling and stood up. He stood nearly a head taller than her and when she looked up, he recognized her as one of the young ladies who gave him a necklace of beads when he first arrived.

"Miss Sekani, I am Commander Kyril Vree of Starbase 003. It is a pleasure to meet you." He gave her a customary greeting as he well learned in the past day.

She returned the greeting. "I am honored to meet you, Commander Vree. I hope your stay here was a pleasant one."

"As I was just telling your uncle, this planet is abundant with friendship and spirit. It pleases and honors me to be accepted into this community for the duration. Please, sit down and let us talk." Ky gestured to the chair her uncle was sitting in.

Elan stood aside, but didn't leave. "Her name means 'daughter of the stars'." he said proudly.

Ky looked from her to Elan. "Really?"

Elan nodded with a smile. "I suggested the name when she was three years old. Her eyes were always looking up, babbling and pointing at the stars."

"Well, that name is very appropriate for you then," Ky said giving her a smile. He could see in her brown eyes the gleam of star flight. He'd seen that same look on his own face when he was younger; so long ago.

"What does the name Kyril mean?" She asked in a soft voice.

"Well, on Earth, it means 'proud'. But on my homeworld of Trill, it means 'starfarer'; one who travels the stars."

Shena smiled at that. "It seems we are kindred spirits, Commander Kyril Vree."

"Maybe so," he said, returning the smile. He looked up at her uncle. "May you excuse us, Elan? I would like to talk with this young lady alone."

Elan gave him a big smile and went to help finish up washing the dishware. Ky looked at the young woman who now seemed more confident in herself when her uncle wasn't present.

"Now, Shena, tell me about yourself and why I should sponsor you for admittance to Starfleet Academy." He asked in a neutral tone, even a bit icy to throw her off guard so he could see how she would react to the sudden drop in conversational temperature. For the duration of the rest of the evening, he asked questions about her childhood, her upbringing, her parents, her education, her extracurricular activities, her political views, and many scenario questions so he could disseminate the core character of this possible future Starfleet cadet.

Dorvan V

Stardate 1812.25

It was late at night, the peaceful sound of the stars filled the clear cloudless skies. Not a soul was stirring, not even a Dorvan mouse. Everyone was tucked away in their beds, as it was past the midnight hour. The streets were empty, not even a stir of wind or dust wafted.

Except for one lone silent shadow, unmoving and crouched on a rocky outcropping overlooking the settlement; watching. He was so still, he looked like part of the rock wall behind him.

A sound of bells, jingle bells, rang softly through the air from one end of the settlement. Each chime marked a transporter materialization in every house in the settlement like a wave across the village. Each transporter’s swirling halo appeared and disappeared, leaving wrapped boxes with bows and ribbon flowers adorning the outsides of gifts that promised endless play and fun for the children. And even joy for some of the adults. There was a soft whisper of a song that floated through the settlement, one that told of endless days of joy and celebration of family thanksgiving. It was a merry yuletide on Earth, but out this far out, it was just a day of celebration of life and the futures to come.

House lights began to appear, one after another, first with alarm, then with laughter and cheer. Doors opened and a few fathers and mothers took to the once quiet empty streets to exclaim what had just happened. Where did these gifts of enjoyment and comfort come from? Was it from the visitors? Someone needs to notify the Council!

The gift giving was completed in about 15 minutes and the soft bells faded away into the canyons of still night. The sound was replaced by sounds of laughter and play in the streets, overwhelming the sounds of parents trying to get their children back to bed.

“I knew I’d find you here.” The woman’s voice whispered over the subvocal, approaching the shadow just as quietly as he had.

“Best I can do on short notice.” The shadow gave her a slow smile, chipping away at his own wall of pain.

“You never forget.” She crouched behind him and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “ I recognize the song as one of Lin’s children yuletide whimsicals. Did you send gifts to the children at the Academy too?”

The dark shadow shook his head. “I felt it wasn’t appropriate at this time. I’ll give it to them after the service for Neri.”

The woman gave out a small sigh of sadness and nodded in agreement. A yell of glee turned her attention back to the settlement and she gave out a chuckle at the building noise.

“I hope I didn’t offend anyone for doing this,” his voice came low. “It’s just something I wanted to leave behind as a better lasting memory than a plant, a holovid, and a kick ball. Anonymously, of course.”

She gave his shoulder a squeeze. “You have, and of course. We are both currently asleep in our beds right now. And we should get back there before someone figures all this out.”

“Already got that covered.” He touched a command on his subvoc controller and the two shadowy figures disappeared in a transporter beam echoing a final soft chime of jingle bells into the night.

And to all, a good night.

Commander Kyril Vree

350 km north of the settlement, Dorvan V

Stardate 1901.03

Ky stood on the bluff with his arms across his chest, studying the lone figure running through the gully below, avoiding obstacles and jumping across streams in a sprint. In one hand he had a timer that was counting up the time it took for the young woman to reach his position.

He had given her only a map on a padd and a canteen of water, and told her to meet him at a specific spot nine kilometers distant. And to get there as fast as she can. Then he beamed down with her to her starting point, marked her start, and then beamed to the meeting spot to wait for her arrival. He had talked with Kindred Dakota earlier that morning about Sekani's request, and she said she would talk with her father about it and meet Ky there.

Dakota appeared behind him in a transporter beam, suddenly squinting in the noonday suns as she located him and started walking his way. He continued to watch Sekani navigate the course to get to his position a hundred meters above her.

"What's the word?" Ky asked when Dakota reached earshot.

"Officially, anyone leaving the planet can do anything they want. Even join Starfleet." She answered as she came to a stop next to him. She scanned the vista for the young woman, and not finding her.

"What do you think?" Ky asked, pointing out to Dakota where Sekani was and her progress.

"I think she's taken with you." Dakota said, watching Sekani, trying to gauge her navigational decisions.

"I meant about sponsoring her application." Ky reprimanded lightly. "And it doesn't matter to me if she likes me or not. I'll probably never see her again after we leave. My sponsorship ends as soon as she passes the mandatory six week preparatory course prior to the Academy." Ky said with a flat tone.

"Just saying, that's all." Dakota's lips widened a little to a smile and handed him a fresh canteen of water. "I knew her father when I was younger. Good man. Worked hard for the family. Never asked for much."

"Except for his daughter to be able to join Starfleet as a Federation citizen."

"There is that," Dakota said. "I think this girl already had you in her sights as soon as you beamed down. Wasn't she the one I saw give you a necklace?"

"Yes, I believe so," he said without an indication that it mattered to him at all. "But Bryce and Reece got one from her too."

"You probably don't know, but yours was the only one with a small sequence of red beads on it with a small carved heart shaped sandstone in the center." She gave him a big smile.

"I didn't expect it, I assure you. And I certainly didn't act in any way out of the ordinary."

"The Kyril charm still there, eh?" She bantered at first, then a fleeting thought flew back to his MIrror Universe twin and how that charm was more evident in that one. "Sorry. Just reminded me of Saavy for a moment."

Ky let out a warm smile, thinking about not only his mirror universe doppelganger, but also his friend. Which in itself was strange enough that they were physically the same person with the only difference was that he was joined and Saavy wasn't. "So you think I'm still charming?"

"Just saying, that's all." Dakota said with a smirk she tried to hide.

"I'll bet you didn't expect that part of me to still exist." He said wistfully. "Think that's where Zac gets his charm?"

"Oh spirits, I hope not." She said with a laugh.

They were interrupted by the sound of someone climbing up the cliff to their right. They remained motionless and watched Sekani haul herself over the edge, leap up onto her feet and sprinted the last 10 meters to them. Ky held up the stopwatch and clicked the stop key when she reached them. He showed the time to Dakota, who just nodded.

"That was satisfactory," Ky said. Dakota hid a smile. "Sit down, Shena." He waited until she sat down and took a few gulps of water before gesturing to Dakota. "This is Lieutenant Commander Kindred Dakota. She is going to explain to you the procedures you will have to go through and pass before even to be considered admission into the Academy."

Dakota spent the next 30 minutes explaining what the preparatory courses were for, what to expect at the admissions test, and then at that point when the Admissions Board will inform her whether her application has been accepted and approved. Then she went into how she was to get to Earth and how long it would take her. She also explained that the life of a Starfleet officer will take her to places she may not expect, and she may not be able to return to Dorvan V for a very long time depending on where she would be stationed.

The young woman listened attentively, and asked questions to clarify certain things. Ky watched her closely to study her reaction to the information Dakota was giving her. Occasionally she would glance over to him and give him a smile, but would immediately turn her gaze back to Dakota.

When Dakota was done, Ky took Sekani's canteen and gave her a new one. "Now I want you to go back to where you started and we will meet you there. Time starts, now." He clicked the stopwatch to start.

Sekani leaped up from her seated position and sprinted for the edge of the cliff. For a moment both Ky and Dakota thought she was going to jump off, but she stopped running and let her momentum slide her towards the edge just slow enough for her to turn around and fall off the cliff, catching herself on the edge with her hands. Then she disappeared below, intent on impressing the two Starfleet officers.

"Cocky young thing," Dakota said with her hand over her heart. "I have to admit, that scared me for a moment."

"Me too," Ky said, taking a deep breath and tightening his canteen against his back. "I thought I was going to be sponsoring a crazy person."

"She may still be. At least she's physically fit." Dakota said, pulling her own canteen strap tight. "Shall we?"

"Ladies first." Ky gestured to the cliff's edge.

The pair ran towards the edge in pursuit of the possible young cadet to be.

Lt. Commander Kindred Dakota

Dorvan V

Stardate 1901.06

The first sun was just setting as she parked the two seater land rover. The gloaming had just started. It had taken some convincing, and her brother had all but forced the two of them into the rover, but Kindred found herself looking out at the horizon with her father by her side. They were leaving early in the morning, and this was her last chance to make peace with her father. Natane had not consented to the treatments, and Kindred wouldn't be able to return for the last days of his illness.

"Days were that I could climb that plateau. Do you remember that Crusher boy? He cut steps into the side of it so anyone could enjoy Nuevo Acó. No more climbing harnesses needed."

Kindred didn't recognize the name. It must have been before her brief time on the planet. "That was nice of him."

"Penance for something if I remember. That boy worked night and day for weeks then disappeared shortly after he was done."

She unhooked her safety belts and settled into her seat. The second sun was drifting down towards the horizon, and the sky was lighting up a rainbow of colors. "People have a way of doing that."

Natane broke the awkward silence that had descended between them. "Do you remember when you were a little girl how I would take you out to watch the sunset on Earth and tell you stories?" He looked at her with misty eyes. "I think it is time that you return the favor. Honor an old man with something new."

Kindred sat thinking for a moment. There was only one story that her father wanted. Could she tell him? Should she tell him?

"There once was a ship." she began. "It could travel between universes. Some were like our own, just slightly different. One day, it made the trip, and the crew found themselves on a familiar yet distinctly different space station. It had seen a harder war in that universe, and it was about to see an even larger one before the trip was over. A woman met a man who looked exactly like her best friend, but yet, was different. His soul was one instead of many."

She shifted in her seat and faced her father. "She found out that he was married to a woman who looked just like her, but wasn't. They loved each other all their lives, got married, went to war, had a child, and were separated by death. The woman grew close to the couple's child. She loved him just as if he were her own, and when his father passed in battle, there was only one thing to do. When the war ended, and the ship came home, it did so with another soul on board, an orphaned child who would be adopted by the woman and her husband to live out his childhood in peace."

Her father grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "That was beautiful..." He paused recognizing the truth lying so plainly amongst her words. He didn't know what his daughter did for Starfleet, but he knew enough about the organization to know that she never told the truth about what she did for them. Why was a biologist always studying pulsars and travelling the galaxy doing everything but studying biology? It was just another story, but this time this story rung with truth, at least as much as she could tell him. "That was a beautiful story. Rather fanciful with the special ship, but I liked it all the same."

Kindred sighed. That was as close to the truth as she could tell him. It was what he wanted to hear. The truth. No, not just the truth. He wanted to be trusted. Their bond of trust had broken more than dozen years before when he banished her from Dorvan for putting duty before family. But, she had put family first. She had dropped everything to help Ahoté. She travelled half the galaxy to find him, she suffered trauma that still affected her to this day, and when she wanted to get back to her own life, her family abandoned her. Where was his gratefulness in having a son returned to him? Where was his thanks for her returning a group of teens who thought they were fighting the good fight against the Cardassian oppressors? Where was his faith that she would return to her family when needed? The trust had been broken irrevocably.

"I've always loved you, Papa. I never stopped." She tears dripping down her face. "I needed to get back to a sense of normalcy after what happened to me. I needed structure that was familiar. I wasn't going to find that here while still being surrounded by Cardassians."

He gently wiped away the tears that fell down her cheeks. "I did not understand that until I was too old to do anything about it. I have always loved you, daughter. I will until my dying breath. It is to my shame that you ever thought otherwise. I was so angry at the time. I wanted you both here where I could protect you. I could keep a watch over you. I had hoped you would settle down, raise a family here, grow old with me."

"But I did all of that anyway, without you. I'm sorry." She choked on her next words. "Now it's too late."

Natane held her hand in silence weighing his thoughts. He juggled the pros and cons that his children had been telling him for the past few weeks. "Make me a promise."

"Yes, Papa."

"Come visit us more often. I want to know my grandson. Even if he is adopted, I want him to know our ways. I want to teach him myself. I want to take him to this spot and tell him stories. I want him to know his cousins." He rebuckled his seatbelt indicating it was time to return home for the evening meal. "Having a family of the heart is not the same thing as blood. His blood is here, and Zac should know it."

"What are you saying?" She followed his actions and started up the rover. She made a wide turn then pointed the vehicle back towards the settlement.

"I'll take the first treatment before you leave in the morning. I am certain you have briefed the local shaman on how to administer it."

She grinned broadly for the first time in days. Happiness was sinking into her bones. "I might have done that upon arrival."

"You are just like your mother." he harrumphed.

They sat in peaceful silence for the rest of the trip. It had been a long time coming, but peace had finally filled both of their hearts.

Bravo Squad

Nuevo Acó, Dorvan V

Stardate 1901.06

Ky sat at the edge of the precipice, feeling the slow cool breeze waft up from the canyon below him. He sat on a blanket with one knee up and an arm draped across it, settling in to the quiet solace of the moment. The suns were setting behind him, pushing streaks of purple, orange, red, and pink across the cloudless sky, the mountains, and even splashing into the canyons below in a vista setting in front of him. The air was peaceful. The coming evening was quiet with an occasional call from a native bird. The scene and environment was mesmerizingly addictive to allow focus on his inner self. It even provided clarity of thought and precision of future mindsets on current troubles.

"I heard you're sponsoring someone for the Academy," Jackson sat down next to him and took in the scenery.

"Yes, Shenandoah Sekani."

"Also heard she's smitten with you," he said with a smirk.

"Why is that the only thing everyone wants to talk about?" Ky waved the subject as finished. The pair sat for a few minutes in silence.

“I know I’m not supposed to say this, but Ro deserved it.” Jackson said with a empathetic voice. “We’ve killed civilians before.”

“Never on purpose.”

“What’s the difference? They’re still dead. And they were still civilians.”

“Then don’t you think we’ve already done enough of killing civilians? That one mission killed four and a half million people and nearly wiped out an entire planetary continent because I used a flashpak.”

“There was no way we could have anticipated the Crow’s Nest to fall out of orbit like that, and you know it. It was just bad luck.” Jackson put a hand on Ky’s shoulder. “And we didn’t kill any civilians on this mission.”

“If Kira decides to end the lives in that memory buffer, we are just as guilty.”

“Difficult times, my friend. We come home hoping Starfleet and the Federation would reign us in after being on our own for so long. But the Federation may have changed while we were away; evolved. We are becoming outdated, you and I."

"We will adapt," Ky said. "We have to."

"I don't know. These new generations of personnel in Starfleet have different outlooks of what Starfleet and the Federation should stand for. Change is coming. It’s in the winds.”

At that moment as if in warning, a chilling breeze blew up from the depths of the canyons, wiping away the warmness of the air on it’s routine march across the plains and beyond. Footsteps crunched in the gravel behind them.

“Always the doomsayer, that one is,” Toni’s voice came from behind.

“I think he should get some counseling when we get home,” Kin said, also joining them on the ground. “Or open a shop to read people’s palms to gaze into their future.”

Silence settled in with the camaraderie the four felt together. “You did the right thing, Starfleet is not in the business of murdering civilians.” Kin said after a while. “And even if it was any other tactical team assigned to her, they would have done the same thing you did.”

“When will we not get into some type of trouble every time we go to DS9?” Jackson said.

“And it always starts in Quark’s Bar,” Ky said. “It’s as if one of us gets into a fight there, we’re bound to leave the station on bad terms.”

“Who got into a fight?” Kin asked.

Ky gestured with both hands, one pointing at Jackson and the other pointing at Toni.

Jackson put up his hands. “All I asked for was a root beer.”

“And that’s how it always starts,” Ky chuckled.

“Maybe you should order something else next time,” Kin piped in with mirth.

The team laughed together for the first time in a long while.

The last of the light disappeared, leaving a muted palette of colors that started to fade. Kin got up and brushed off the dust. “Come on, it’s time for our last evening meal here.”

Everyone but Ky got up and brushed themselves off before starting the short trek back to the settlement. Kin saw that Ky hadn’t moved, still sitting there in his reverie. Just as she was going to gently bring him out of it, he spoke.

“If we’re leaving tomorrow, did you talk with your Father?”

She nearly broke down with joy and happiness. She kneeled beside him. “Yes, we are both at peace. He has agreed to go through the treatments.”

Ky didn’t make any indications that he heard her at first until a slow smile came to his face. “That is good, Kin-der-kin. I am happy for you.”

She put her arms around him and gave him a hug. “Thank you for helping to bring me to this place in my life.”

“You should thank yourself. Captain Dakota told me to tell you to come. I was just the messenger.” Ky turned to her and gave her a mysterious smile. After the few days here on Dorvan V, the haunted look had started to leave his face and he was ready to get back to work. Not only did their visit here heal her old wounds, it started to heal his new wounds. Even with Neri’s recent death.

“You’ve always had a small hand in it, my friend.” She gave Ky one last squeeze and got up. “Let’s go, Commander. Dinner time.”

“Aye, aye, Commander.” With one last look to take in the myriad of dissolving colors into the geography, he finally got up and folded up the blanket. He and Kin walked after the rest of their team, looking forward to their last meal together on her homeworld.

Commander Kyril Vree

Dorvan V

Stardate 1901.13

"Zac, be still." Ky said, holding on to the child's hand while they waited for Dakota and Traela to perform their honorific departing ritual with Natane Dakota. He smiled as he watched the short ritual and saw Shenandoah Sekani in the crowd who gave him a shy smile and a nod of thanks. Ky returned the nod.

"I can't believe we're leaving already," Reece said from behind him. "It was quite relaxing here."

"Of course it was, you watched that holovid three times," Bryce said, fidgeting a bit beside her. "And did nothing but cook."

"And you played ball with the kids everyday," Reeec rebuked in return, "all day."

"That's enough, you two," Ky lightly reprimanded. "It's time to get back to work." Then he realized it was hard for them not to laugh to hear him say that with a squirming boy at his side.

Within minutes Dakota and Traela bowed one last time and walked over to where Bravo Squad and Zac were standing. "Ready?" Ky asked.

"Ready," Dakota said, taking Traela's hand in one and Zac's in another.

Ky contacted the computer on the *Nightwraith* and all six of them beamed out, hoping to have left behind some happy memories.

Seven hours later, Ky still hadn't received any response from Admiral Sorvek about the report he filed on their last mission. He didn't know how Sorvek would react to him standing up to Kira that way. Or if there would either be any repercussions to her, or to him based on the decision he made to disobey her orders and changed the parameters of the mission that was assigned to them.

"Zac, don't touch that!" Ky heard Traela yell from the hallway connecting to the bridge. "This is Uncle Ky's ship, and we cannot just run around and play with everything as if it is home."

Dakota walked on to the bridge, her hands fluttering wildly. "All discipline goes out the door when that child isn't at school."

"Happens to all kids. The taste of freedom is addictive. He can't get enough of it." Ky smirked as he ran another diagnostic on the sensors he'd been tweaking for the past few hours. "It's going to be hard to get him back into the routine again."

Dakota sat down hard into a chair at another station. "He's an angel when he's behaving, but when he's not…."

"All kids are like that." Ky said sagely. "And that's an oxymoronic epiphany from the experienced."

She just slumped in her chair and crossed her arms across her chest. "You're no help."

"Sorry. I was just-"

An incoming transmission interrupted their conversation. No one knew where they were, let alone where they were going. Other than Umbra One, that is. Ky got up and went to the center chair.

"On screen," Ky ordered. Dakota jumped to action and opened the channel.

Admiral Sorvek appeared on the screen. "Commander Vree, I see you are on your way back to us."

"Aye, sir. We should arrive in about 32 hours."

"I want you to increase speed to maximum warp and get here as soon as you can. The children will arrive in seven hours. You will deploy as soon as the service is over."

Ky nodded. "We will get there as fast as we can, Admiral."

"See that you do."

"Sir, before you we sign off, I wanted to ask you about my latest afteractions report."

Sorvek leaned back into his chair and steepled his fingers in front of him. "I've read it, but I will hold any determinations until I have read Lieutenant Commander Bryce and Lieutenant Reece's accounts first."

Ky looked to Reece. "You didn't finish your report yet?"

Reece shook her head sheepishly. "I was going to work on it on our way home."

"Then you have," Ky did some calculations on his chair's console, "six point five hours to do it." Then he stood up in front of his chair and came to attention. "Admiral, I apologize for the delay with their reports. They will be sent to you as soon as we dock."

"See that it happens. Sorvek, out."

Ky jabbed a finger on his chair's console. "Bryce, get your report done and send it to the Admiral. You have 6.5 hours." He closed the comms and looked to Reece. "Increase speed to maximum warp and get us back to Umbra One, fast."

"Aye, aye," Reece responded.

"Thank YOU, Admiral," Dakota said quietly to herself just as a child's wailing echoed from down the corridor.

"MOMMA!"

"I think someone is calling for you," Ky said as he sat back down in his chair. He hid a smirk and avoided the look she was giving him. He waited until she left the bridge before smiling for a second, then turned his thoughts to the upcoming funeral service for one of his charge.

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