“Is there any final business before we adjourn?” Eran asked, looking around the chamber to see if there were any hands on the tables, which would signify a desire to address the Assembly. Slowly but firmly, Solis put his hands out. Eran saw him, and Solis saw a momentary flash of hostility in his eyes. “Yes, Vedek Solis?”
Solis rose, gathering his robes around him. All eyes turned to him, some with great suspicion. Since he had publicly embraced the prophecies of Ohalu and announced his candidacy for kaiship, he found that his presence among the Bajoran people had become an increasingly polarizing one; people were largely either with him or against him, while but a few remained completely undecided. This held true with the vedeks as well, and it was to those undecided clerics that he felt he had to appeal most carefully.
“We are now, as a people, looking to the future, and to what that future will bring,” Solis said, looking each of the vedeks in the eyes in turn. “By joining the Federation, we are attuning ourselves to a presence in the galaxy greater than our own. Every sentient species on each of the planets within the Federation has a history, a tradition, a set of ‘old ways.’ Some of these have the potential for coming into great conflict with each other. There are people in the Federation who believe in a single god who created everything in the universe, who rules from a heaven above them. Others believe in a pantheon of gods and goddesses, each representative of an element of their lives. Others believe that there are nogods, that life itself is a cosmic happenstance. Still others believe that they may become gods themselves, if they work to perfect themselves during their lives.
“These are but a very few of the personal belief systems held by the peoples we will be joining within the Federation. That body is a diverse and ever-expanding construct, filled with people who are deeply religious as well as those who are indifferent, atheistic, or agnostic. We are about to become a people who side with allthese others, whether pious, mystic, or empirical, peoples who share a common bond and goal of peace and exploration and growth.”
Although a few vedeks were actively scowling at him, Solis saw several more nodding, even if barely. He continued. “Here on Bajor, the belief in our Prophets is what drives our people. And though we sometimes deny it, Bajor isruled by its theocracy. The Chamber of Ministers is filled with Bajor’s faithful, most of whom attend services conducted by some of us who are gathered here today. Even our planet’s name is based upon our religious beliefs. If things had gone differently millennia ago, our people might be known as Perikians or Endtreeans. But we are Bajorans.Our faith definesus.
“But how do wedefine our faith?Does faith mean an unwavering, unquestioning belief in the doctrine of the Prophets? Or do we often question, often interpret what we believe the Will of the Prophets to be? How many of us saw the Occupation as the will of the Prophets, some horrifying test that we had to endure? How many of us saw it as a moment in time when the Prophets had abandoned us, or had chosen to punish us? And yet, even if we believed those things, we did not lose our faith; we merely interpreted events in ways that buoyed that faith.
“Most of us here today, even the ranjens, have experienced the power of the Prophets through the Orbs. The Orbs represent a tangible, tactile, physical proof that there is something beyond Bajor with a power greater than ours, a power to shape reality, to destroy, and to create.
“But we leave these Orb experiences with our own personal interpretations of what the Prophets are trying to tell us. Never have They handed us specific guidelines, and yet all too often, when we come away from the Orbs, our interpretationof our communion with the Prophets becomes Bajor’s received wisdom. We use what we feelfrom the Prophets to guide our world. We act as the translators of Their wishes.”
Solis paused for a moment, clearing his throat. He could see Bellis glaring at him, muttering under his mustache. He pressed on. “As we join the Federation, we combine with more than one hundred fifty other worlds, and hundreds of billions of people, all of whom have their own belief systems and faiths. We are not proselytizing to them about the Prophets because we recognize that their beliefs differ from ours. From their perspectives, their own beliefs are just as valid as our own. And truthfully, in this wonderful, vast galaxy of limitless possibilities, who among us can say that the gods of Andorians and Betazoids and humans are not as real as we know the Prophets to be?
“So now, in this time of joining and openness, the political and religious leaders of Bajor have many pressing concerns. We are standing at a physical and metaphysical crossroads, and we must choose which way to lead our people. Our animosity toward Cardassia may finally be at an end, but will we continue down the path of peace, or will we instead allow our grief and anger and Occupation-era grudges to block our way? And our faith in the Prophets is being questioned by those who propose that the prophecies contained in the Book of Ohalu should be given credence and legitimacy. Will we allow our people to question their beliefs, to question the Prophets, to emerge with their faith changed or renewed?”
Bellis stood, interrupting him. “We know that you lead this so-called Ohalavaru movement, Solis. Your liberal platitudes may have a place on the street, or in your own gatherings, but they are heresyin this hallowed place.”
“Is your faith in the Prophets so fragile, Vedek Bellis, that you cannot hear the words of others whose opinions might diverge from your own?” Solis’s voice remained firm, and he smiled beneficently at the vedeks arrayed about him in the semicircular chamber. Bellis sat down heavily, harumphing as he came to rest.
Solis continued. “I know one person whose faith in the Prophets is strong, perhaps as strong as any of ours…and certainly stronger than someof ours. Her paghis incandescent, her actions always, alwaysgoverned by her feelings for the Bajoran people. I have not always agreed with those actions over the years, and I know that many of you have had your squabbles with her as well. And yet, through it all, her belief and her faith and her intent have always been noble.
“Kira Nerys is one of the bestof us. I am humbled to know her. And I don’t find it at all surprising that the Emissary and his wife hold her in such high regard. Weeks ago, the wife of the Emissary all but cast Vedek Yevir out of her house, even as she welcomed Kira in her home to stay and recuperate from deep wounds. These are wounds which wehave inflicted upon her, injuries to her standing among Bajorans, the military, and the faithful. We have Attainted her, cast her out of our faith.”
Solis brought his hands together in front of himself, clasping them in a gesture of supplication. “This overly harsh sanction is an outrage that shocks the conscience of our world. It threatens to divide our people more than the words of Ohalu, which Kira liberated, ever could.”
He paused, then delivered his final thoughts. “I imploreyou, my fellow Vedeks, to rescind the Attainder of Kira Nerys. I know that shehas not lost faith in the Prophets. Please don’t allow the people of Bajor to lose theirfaith in the Prophets—or in us—because of our unjustly punitive actions.”