Abor smiled coolly. “Well then,” he told the woman, “I imagine you’ll want to begin looking for the container right away.”
“May I ask why this is so important?”the woman asked him, plainly annoyed at the manner in which she was being spoken to.
“No, you may not,” Abor told her. “It does not concern you.”
A knowing expression came across the woman’s eyes, and Abor punched the disconnect button. If she thought she knew what was going on, she probably couldn’t guess the half of it. But she almost certainly suspected the Order was involved. No matter, Abor decided. If she became a problem, the Order could get rid of her. Tain might be reluctant to arrange it himself, but Abor supposed he had enough influence to make that call on his own.
Of course, it would be ideal to do it before he was sent back to the Valo system. Abor had no intention of allowing another agent to take credit for a breakthrough that was deservedly his to claim. It had been Abor who had uncovered the long-overlooked transmission that he believed might lead the Order to the heart of the risen Oralian Way.
Enabran Tain may have been far less interested in the Bajoran artifacts than his predecessor, but that didn’t mean that Dost Abor had lost interest in them. Abor had recently learned that the artifact from the Ministry of Science was the only one that had ever gone on record as causing anyone to have any kind of so-called “mystical” experience since it had been removed from Bajor.
Abor was not certain, but he believed that the artifact in question had been removed from Bajor under the authority of Rhan Ico, one of many agents who had disappeared during the upheaval that followed Tain’s assumption of office. There was a short interim during which the vast and untraceable contents of the Order’s storage facility had been ransacked by several agents who protested Tain’s impending status; those agents had all disappeared shortly following the incident—and so had at least one of the Orbs of Bajor.
Tain was unconcerned about the breach; the old man was convinced that there was no weight to the stories surrounding the artifacts, the suggestion that whoever possessed them might be privy to a kind of second sight, an indefinable source of knowledge and power. But Abor, who had been in the Order at the time of the first artifact’s retrieval from Bajor, remembered a few details about that original group of Oralians, those the Order and Central Command had conspired to exterminate. The Oralians had developed a particular fascination with Bajoran religion, and the artifacts that came with it. Now that the Oralians were said to be growing in numbers once again, Tain was sure that it was only a matter of time before Central Command began to tolerate them, and possibly even to condone their foolish, imaginary ideologies. Enabran Tain made no secret of his disdain for many of Central Command’s “softer” policies, believing that the military was weakening due at least in part to the sudden influx of wealth from Bajor, turning soldiers who had once been hard and ruthless into soft, complacent politicians—most notably, Gul Dukat.
Reviewing old transmissions when he was last stationed on Valo VI, Abor had discovered an archived communiqué between Yannik Reyar, the military’s liaison with the Order, and his daughter, who apparently worked at the Ministry of Science several years before. Their conversation referenced a Bajoran artifact, one that Dost Abor was certain had been taken from the Obsidian Order, somehow finding its way to the ministry. Tain had shown little interest when Abor sent word that he might have located an item that had been missing from the Order’s catalogued inventory. But, Abor hoped, when he assembled his case, Tain would take notice—for Abor had done a bit of digging since he first came across the transmission, and he intended to find not only the Orb, but the woman who had handled it last—the woman who had apparently attempted to hide it—the woman he believed to be the Guide for the Oralian Way.
THE TEROK NOR SAGA
CONTINUES IN
DAWN OF THE EAGLES
Appendices
The following is a guide to many of the specific characters, places, and related material in Night of the Wolves. Where such an item was mentioned or appeared previously in a movie, episode, or other work of Star Trekfiction, its first appearance is cited.
APPENDIX I: BAJOR
Characters
Akhere Bis(male) resident of Valo II
Akhere Juk(male) resident of Valo II, father of Akhere Bis
Arin(male) kai of the Bajoran faith ( Terok Nor: Day of the Vipers)
Aro Seefa(male) resistance fighter, member of the Ornathia cell
Basso Tromac(male) personal aide to Gul Dukat. (DS9/“Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night”)
Bram Adir(male) resistance fighter, leader of the Bram cell
Crea(female) resistance fighter, member of the Ornathia cell
Dakahna Vass(female) resistance fighter, member of the Shakaar cell
Darrah Mace(male) resident of Valo II, former member of the Bajoran Militia ( Terok Nor: Day of the Vipers)
Daul Mirosha(male) researcher at the Bajoran Institute of Science
Dava(male) a kai who lived several hundred years prior to the Cardassian occupation
Faon(male) resistance fighter, member of the Bram cell
Furel(male) resistance fighter, member of the Shakaar cell (DS9/“Shakaar”)
Gantt(male) resistance fighter and medic, member of the Shakaar cell (DS9/“Ties of Blood and Water”)
Halpas Palin(male) resistance fighter, leader of the Halpas cell
Hintasi(male) resident of Valo II
Istani Reyla(female) monk, friend of the Kira family ( DS9/ Avatar)
Kanore(male) resistance fighter, member of the Bram cell (TNG/“Preemptive Strike”)
Keeve Falor(male) resident of Valo II, former member of the Bajoran Chamber of Ministers (TNG/“Ensign Ro”)
Ketauna(male) artist, follower of Opaka Sulan
Kira Meru(female) mistress of Gul Dukat, mother of Kira Nerys (DS9/“Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night”)
Kira Nerys(female) resistance fighter, member of the Shakaar cell (DS9/“Emissary”)
Kira Pohl(male) brother of Kira Nerys (DS9/“Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night”)
Kira Reon(male) brother of Kira Nerys (DS9/“Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night”)
Kira Taban(male) father of Kira Nerys (DS9/“Ties of Blood and Water”)
Kubus Oak(male) special liaison between Gul Dukat and the Caradassian-sanctioned Bajoran government (DS9/“The Collaborator”)
Lafe Darin(male) resistance fighter, member of the Halpas cell, lifelong friend of Lenaris Holem
Legan Duravit(male) resistance fighter, member of the Ornathia cell
Legan Fin(male) resistance fighter, member of the Ornathia cell
Lenaris Holem(male) resistance fighter, former member of the Halpas cell and later the Ornathia cell (DS9/“Shakaar”)
Lenaris Jau(male) resistance fighter, member of the Ornathia cell, brother of Lenaris Holem
Lenaris Pendan(male) father of Lenaris Holem and Lenaris Jau
Lino(male) resident of Valo II