Second self, p.20
Second Self, page 20
When everyone was out of the accommodation block, there was a head count. Everyone present and correct. They were in little groups of ten, families as far as possible, but with a senior Cardassian woman overseeing each group. Raffi and Byrne were up front, Lafleur and Turan at the rear, and Avarak and Kovar with the groups in the middle. Limited to what they could carry. A few small replicators, and as much other equipment as the adults could strap on their backs. They had no idea how long they were going to be out there.
At last, the flow of people began, heading from the civilian area toward the eastern exit of the compound. The gate was manned by two young Cardassian foot soldiers, and it was closed. They came forward, disruptors out, lifting them slightly. Raffi said, “It’s okay. You can let us through.”
“We’re not supposed to let anyone through,” said the slightly senior of these two boys. His name was stamped on the front of his armor: Tohk. “Zhol’s orders.”
“Zhol isn’t in command here,” said Raffi.
“Neither are you,” said the slightly younger one, who looked like he didn’t much care for Starfleet. His name was Ghorik. Tohk was already busy requesting backup, and, within a few minutes, another couple of armed foot soldiers arrived. Behind, some of the civilians were getting anxious. Raffi saw Avarak among them, exuding calm, and she raised her voice, speaking clearly and firmly. “Remember, people, we’re keeping things quiet,” she said. “These guys are making sure we’re all right, that’s all. We’ll soon be on our way—”
“No, you won’t,” said Ghorik. He swung his disruptor around. The people closest by shrunk back in fear, and the ripples were quickly felt throughout the crowd. Some of the kids began to cry.
“Gil Tohk,” Raffi said. “Let’s keep things calm. Nobody wants anybody to get hurt.”
“They’ve got to go back to their billets,” said Ghorik. “They’re going to get us all killed—”
One of the little ones began to wail, a thin and desperate noise that sounded like it might never stop. Raffi watched fingers get twitchier on disruptors. But then the crush of people fell back, and a figure came through. Half dressed and stumbling slightly; you’d think he was a vagrant. But it was Tradall. Up close, he looked worse than ever. Bloodshot eyes; trembling hands. That giveaway sweet scent that followed him around. “What’s…” His voice was cracked and hoarse; he coughed. “What’s going on here?”
“Starfleet,” said Ghorik. “Interfering.”
“These people want to leave,” said Raffi.
“They can’t,” said Ghorik.
Tradall looked around. “What do you expect me to do?”
“Order them back to their beds,” said Tohk.
“Let us go, Tradall,” said Raffi. “We’ve got time to get them all to cover, but not if we delay much longer.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” said Ghorik.
“We’re not staying here to die!” someone cried out from the crowd, and this was picked up and passed around. Raffi lifted her hands: Calm, calm; stay calm… She saw Avarak, and Kovar, and several of the Cardassian adults, doing the same farther down the line.
“What I mean,” said Tradall, and he was saying each word very carefully. “What I mean, soldier, is… Do you expect me to force them to stay?”
Raffi felt a cautious hope rise up.
“Because I’m not going to force them to stay,” Tradall said, still with the over-precise diction of a man not entirely in command of himself. “And the last I checked, you take your orders from me. I’m the senior officer here. Not you, not Zhol, certainly not Starfleet. So put that disruptor down, and if you don’t want to help these people leave, stand back and let Starfleet get on with it. Because somebody has to.”
The young man’s voice got steadier throughout this speech, and Raffi could see the effect on the foot soldiers present. Something deeply ingrained in the Cardassian military was coming into play. They could no more disobey Tradall than betray the Union.
“Nobody else here is going to die,” Tradall finished. “You got that?” he called across the crowd. “Has everyone got that?” He turned to Raffi. “That help?”
“Yes,” she said. “Thank you.”
Tohk lifted the barriers out of the compound, and the flow of people began to pass through into the darkness beyond. Some of the other soldiers who had gathered around to watch were starting to help. Raffi turned to Tradall. “What are you going to do when Zhol gets back?”
“I’ll deal with Zhol,” said Tradall. “Probably should have done ages ago.” He looked around blankly. “I don’t feel so good.” He propped himself up against the wall of the hut. “You’d better go now,” he mumbled. “Before they decide they don’t have to do anything I say.” He laughed. “Who would blame them?”
“You should come with us,” said Raffi. “Bring those soldiers who want to come along with you—”
“No.” Tradall shook his head. “Zhol will come after you.”
“You think so?”
“He won’t like this.”
“People will die,” said Raffi. “He can’t want that.”
“He’s past caring,” muttered Tradall. “All that matters to him now is holding things together until the end. This…” He nodded at the people hurrying past. “This looks like things falling apart.” He pushed himself up, wavering on his feet. “I’ll keep him busy, Lieutenant. Get these people as far as you can, quick as you can. Got to make sure someone makes it.” Tears were running down the gray ridges of his face. “Because there’s nobody left back home.” He thumped his fist into his leg, using the shock of the physical pain to make him focus. “When I’m done with Zhol, we’ll give you cover when the Romulans get here.”
Raffi’s heart was filled with pity for this young man and what was happening to him. The drug, the end of his world, how hard he was trying to pull himself back from the brink while it still mattered. She reached out and squeezed his arm. “Don’t stay here too long,” she said. “The Romulans will butcher you.”
“Mercy killing,” he mumbled.
“No,” she said fiercely. “Dead is never better than alive. Don’t stay too long. Get out when you can.”
“I’ll try,” he said. “Got to survive Zhol first.”
The last people were coming through. Time for Raffi to go.
“Goodbye, Starfleet,” said Tradall. “Good luck.”
* * *
They reached the Bajoran town in the dead of night, moving quickly past the stones and the ruins of the temple toward the entrance to the tunnel. Lafleur, coming up from the back, deactivated the holo-filter. The first group, led by Kovar, entered the tunnel. Two Cardassian foot soldiers had caught up with them, sent by Tradall to help expedite their passage, and they stood on either side of the tunnel mouth, disruptors in hand, alert.
The first three groups had gone down the steps and into the tunnel when Raffi heard a disturbance from farther down the line. She turned to Byrne, who was standing by, and said, “I’ll go and see what’s happening.” Discreetly, she nodded at the foot soldiers. “Keep an eye on them,” she murmured. “They’re looking twitchy to me.”
Raffi hurried down the line, where a Cardassian girl—not a little one, but not yet an adult—was sitting on the ground, her arms around her knees, weeping and shaking. “I won’t go down there!” she said. “I won’t!” Mesat was kneeling beside her, stroking her hair, trying to quiet her, but the girl’s voice was getting louder. “I don’t want to be buried alive! The Order buries people alive!”
Mesat, seeing Raffi, came to explain. “Her father was taken by the Order when she was a small child,” she said in a quiet voice. “Never came back. We all know…” Mesat closed her eyes for a moment, as if to deal with some great pain. “We all know the kinds of things that the Order did to people, Lieutenant. And it seems that word has got around that the Order were in the Caanta valley.”
“I dreamed about him,” said the girl. “I dreamed about Edde. There was a bright light. He was warning me. I don’t want the Order to take me!”
One of the foot soldiers had come to see what was happening. “She needs to shut up,” he said to Raffi, as if the child’s distress was somehow her responsibility. “She’s going to give us all away.”
The girl, seeing the soldier looming over her, started to shake. “Oh, please, don’t let them take me away—”
“Hush, Gheta!” Mesat was saying. “It’s all right! Everything will be all right.”
“Shut her up!” said the foot soldier, lifting the disruptor. Raffi, her hand on her phaser, said, “You have a job to do. Back up the line.”
“My orders are to keep these people safe as they get through the tunnel,” he said. “She’s putting them in danger.”
“I swear to you,” said Raffi, “if you don’t put that disruptor away, you won’t see daylight.”
“Lieutenant,” said a quiet voice. “I believe I may be of assistance.”
Raffi turned to see Avarak, standing beside her. “What? Did you pack some sedatives?”
“Not drugs,” he said. He knelt down beside the girl and put his hand against her face. “Gheta,” he said. “We have met. We have talked.”
The girl’s sobbing began to steady. She looked up into his eyes.
“You can trust me,” said Avarak. Ever so gently, he began to increase the pressure of his hand. “My mind to your mind,” he said. “My thoughts to your thoughts.”
The soldier moved forward. “What are you doing to her?”
“Shut up!” hissed Mesat, and the young man, startled by such a vicious outburst from a civilian, pulled back. As they watched, Avarak rubbed his fingers in a slow circular motion around Gheta’s temple. Her breathing steadied. Her eyelids began to droop. After a minute or two, she was asleep, leaning against Mesat. Avarak released his hold and stood. He turned to the soldier. “She’ll sleep for an hour or two,” he said. “Perhaps you might carry her through the tunnel in the meantime?”
The young soldier, gaping, quickly holstered his disruptor and picked up the girl. “Yes, yes, of course.”
“Great job, Avarak,” Raffi said quietly, watching them go.
“Gheta and I had already had several conversations about her experiences,” Avarak said. “But—if I may issue a warning, Lieutenant, you may find that resistance to entering the Caanta valley is more widespread than you realize. Fear of the Obsidian Order runs very deep—and is by no means irrational.”
“I’ll bear that in mind,” said Raffi. She hurried back to the tunnel mouth, where Byrne was waiting.
“What was that?” said Byrne.
“One of the girls got spooked,” said Raffi. “Didn’t want to enter the tunnel.”
“Some people don’t like underground spaces,” said Byrne.
“It’s more than that,” said Raffi, lowering her voice. “The rumor that this area was under Obsidian Order control has been going around.”
“Ah,” said Byrne.
“Also,” said Raffi carefully, “she has been having bad dreams.”
“Bad dreams?” said Byrne. “Well, no wonder. She’s a traumatized child being chased by a company of Romulans intent on murdering her. Bad dreams are going to be the least of it for years to come—”
“Commander,” said Raffi, “have you had any dreams while you’ve been here at Ghenic?”
“Excuse me?”
“The last few nights, in particular.”
“Why?” said Byrne. “Have you?”
“Yes,” said Raffi.
Byrne didn’t reply straightaway. She watched the next group of people go through. “Lieutenant Musiker,” she said, “have you tried sailors’ delight since arriving at Ghenic?”
There was a pause. “Once,” said Raffi.
“And was that when you dreamed?”
“Yes, but—”
“Then there’s your explanation. Listen,” said Byrne, “I know that almost everyone here is taking that stuff. I know that Lafleur and Kovar in particular are using it. But we know very little about its effects on human metabolism and… Really, Raffi, for fuck’s sake!”
“It was a bad mistake,” Raffi admitted. “I won’t do it again. But, Commander, the dreams I’ve had, one said to cross the river, the other said to stay back.”
“Dreams don’t contain some kind of fucking message, Raffi!”
“But other people are getting them. That kid, Gheta, she had the same kind of dream—a warning from someone about the Caanta valley.”
“Raffi! We have a hundred Cardassian civilians whose lives depend on us. Are you seriously suggesting we stop this evacuation because you’ve dabbled in local delicacies and a distressed kid has had a nightmare?”
“No,” said Raffi. “I’m just saying… We don’t know what’s over there.”
“Trees, mountains.”
“Assott left standing orders not to enter the Caanta valley. You seemed to think Assott was a thoughtful man. Level-headed.”
Byrne didn’t answer right away. Raffi, looking at her, suddenly understood. “You’ve been having these dreams too, haven’t you?”
Byrne, reluctantly, nodded.
“And you haven’t touched the stuff, have you?”
“I know the regs, Lieutenant,” said Byrne sharply.
Raffi looked into the darkness where the river and the Caanta valley lay. “Damn…”
“Dark figures,” said Byrne. “I can’t hear them, but I know what they’re telling me. Stop. Don’t come any farther.” She shook her head. “What are we supposed to do? Dreams can’t foretell the future! But I know… I know… that we’re entering an area about which we have very limited information. That might well have been under Obsidian Order control.”
“The Order’s defunct,” said Raffi. “Has been for years.”
But what if some of the projects were not. Perhaps this had been a test site for some experimental weapon. That was well within their modus operandi. There were parts of Bajor where nothing would grow for centuries. There might be a good reason for putting a ban on entering the valley.
Byrne took a deep breath. “You know what I think?”
“Go on.”
“I think the ban is because of the massacre at Akantha. I think maybe there’s some evidence out there. A mass grave, perhaps. The Order forbade entry to the valley and since then all these stories have sprung up. We’re all stressed, and we’re all having the same kind of dream. Look, it’s as rational an explanation as any.”
“So we go on,” said Raffi.
“Yes,” said Byrne. “We committed to this course of action. We’re going to see it through and we’re going to present a united front.”
“Absolutely,” said Raffi.
“But”—Byrne looked fearfully across the dark river—“I’m afraid of what’s over there. And I think that’s a rational fear.”
“Oh, I’m all for rational fears,” said Raffi. “Rational fears stop us from doing stupid things. But you’re right. We have to get these people away. We know what’s behind us. We’ll deal with what’s ahead when we get there.”
* * *
About half an hour before dawn, most of the Cardassian civilians had entered the tunnel and were, Raffi hoped, under the cover of the forest on the other side. Comm silence meant she was relying on word-of-mouth messages being passed back, but she knew that Byrne and Kovar were through, organizing people on the other side, while Lafleur and Turan were down in the tunnel monitoring its structural integrity. Raffi and Avarak remained on the near side, keeping folks calm until their turn came, ensuring that the shuffling queue did not become a dangerous press or push of people, quickly assuaging any fears that were expressed.
The two last groups were getting ready to head into the tunnel when Raffi heard the sound of craft flying overhead. Not the Romulans, surely, not already. Not when they were so close… She turned to one of the young Cardassian foot soldiers, Entheny, who had proven to be solid and dependable during the course of the night. “See if you can hurry things along,” she told him. “Try to get the rest into the cover of the tunnel, at least. Tell Lafleur she might need to conceal the entrance.”
He went off. Raffi turned to Avarak, who was taking sensor readings. “It is a Cardassian skimmer,” he said. “Although of course one cannot infer from that information alone whether or not it is crewed by Cardassians.”
The last of the civilians had just reached the bottom of the steps when the skimmer began its descent, throwing up dirt and rubble all around. Lafleur activated the holo-filter, and Raffi and Avarak went to meet the skimmer. It had barely touched the ground when Zhol emerged, armed and angry, dragging Tradall out behind him. Raffi looked at him in fury. Had he given them away? His eyes were averted; when he drew closer, Raffi could see dark bruises across his face. Maybe he hadn’t surrendered them so easily after all.
Zhol marched right up to her. “Where are they?”
“Who?” said Raffi.
“Where have you taken them?” he yelled. “You Starfleet skrit—”
“I’ve sent them where you should have sent them, days back. To safety.”
His disruptor came up. “You’ve overstepped the mark.”
“I’ve done your damn job for you!” Raffi shot back.
“We’re not allowed into the Caanta valley!”
“Who says that’s where they went?” said Raffi.
“Don’t fucking lie to me, Starfleet—!”
“Either way, you might be under orders, but I’m not—and none of those people are either.”
I should be de-escalating this, thought Raffi. But the truth was that she was angry—with Zhol, for his lack of care for these civilians; with Tradall, for his vacillation; even, a little, with Byrne, for waiting too long and trusting that Starfleet Command—so far away—would somehow resolve this for her. Raffi stood her ground—and kept in Zhol’s face.
“What are you going to do, huh? Drag them all back to face the Romulans? You’ll have to find them first—”
She saw his grip tighten around his weapon. She thought: Shit, should’ve kept my mouth shut. Then, unexpectedly, insanely, she saw Tradall lunge forward, trying to grab the weapon in his hand. Zhol swiped the younger man with the back of his hand, sending him flying. “Should have put you out of your misery months ago,” he said, targeting the disruptor on Tradall and raising it to fire.
