Kira tried to shake off her melancholy. She took one last appreciative look at the painting, then returned to her desk, and to the work she had not yet completed tonight. On her desktop computer interface, she brought up the list of ships still circling the station, which had begun to thin this afternoon. In the next four or five days, she knew, they would all be gone, leaving Deep Space 9 alone at the threshold of the Celestial Temple once more.
Well, not alone,she corrected herself. Defiantwould not be departing to the Gamma Quadrant for another six days— Seven,she amended, taking into account the one-day delay—and Captain Mello would be arriving shortly with Gryphon.Kira recalled that Mjolnirhad originally been slated for the three-month tour at DS9, and a swell of annoyance grew within her. She liked Captain Mello, but she had not seen Captain Hoku in quite some time—not since before the war with the Dominion—and she had been looking forward to spending some time with her old friend.
It’s more than that,Kira thought as she studied the departure schedule for the next week. She knew that she would catch up with Kalena soon enough, and that as a stand-in for Defiant,the Akira-class Gryphonwas better suited to the task than the Norway-class Mjolnir.What bothered her was the way Starfleet had informed her of the change in plan— Mjolnir’s early arrival three weeks ago had been a surprise—and more than that, the demeanor of Admiral Akaar. She had not cared for him much, and she was pleased that he had remained at the station only long enough to speak with her and collect Councillor zh’Thane. Now he was the first minister’s problem.
On the display, Kira saw that many of the vessels at the station would be voyaging to Bajor tomorrow. As the Europani resettlement got under way, they would transport the refugees aboard and then ferry them back to their world. Whatever few difficulties Kira had with Starfleet—mostly the administrative matters they burdened her with, as well as the occasional troublesome admiral—she thought highly of their Corps of Engineers. She had received word earlier that day that the specialized technical arm of Starfleet had managed to completely decontaminate the radiation-scarred world of Europa Nova; remarkably, they had taken less than a month to do so. Concerns that the population of three million Europani might overburden Bajor’s available resources had now been rendered moot, though Kira was happy that, despite the risk, her people had immediately offered refuge when the crisis had arisen. She still remembered with bitterness and guilt the incident, six years ago, when she and her people had turned away the Skrreea in their time of need.
“Ops to Colonel Kira.”The voice belonged to Ensign Selzner. Kira tapped her combadge, which chirped to life.
“This is Kira,” she said. “Go ahead.”
“Colonel, we’re being hailed by a ship requesting clearance to dock,”Selzner explained. “I thought you would want to know: it’s theTrager.”
Macet,Kira thought. What’s he up to?This marked the third time that he and his warship had been to Deep Space 9 within the last month. On the previous two occasions, the ship had docked after assisting with the Europani. After the gul had helped evacuate Europa Nova—and before Kira had returned to the station—Commander Vaughn had authorized repairs to Tragerat DS9. And after Macet’s aid at Torona IV, Vaughn had convinced Kira to allow additional repair work to the ship.
Could that be why he’s been assisting us?she thought. Somehow, Macet trading his help for free starship maintenance didn’t seem quite right. That sounded more like Ferengi behavior.
“Put Gul Macet through to me, Ensign,” Kira said.
“Aye, sir,”Selzner replied.
A faint electronic signal accompanied the appearance on the display of Gul Macet.
“Colonel Kira,”he said, smiling. “How nice to see you.”
“Gul Macet,” Kira said. She returned the smile, wondering if it looked as false as it felt. She had learned since the Occupation not to judge Cardassians as a species, but to see them for who they were as individuals. But what confronted her now consisted of more than simply a Cardassian face; this was the face of the unholy Dukat, a likeness to which she had still not grown accustomed. “I’d like to know the purpose of your visit to Deep Space 9 before I authorize you to dock.”
“Ah…of course, Colonel,”he said, hesitating a bit as he spoke, as though he had not expected to have to justify his arrival in Bajoran space.
The arrogance,Kira thought. Perhaps Macet was not, after all, quite as different from his cousin as he professed to be. “Is there a problem, Macet?” she said. “Don’t you have a good reason for visiting the station?”
“Yes, of course, Colonel, of course,”he said, and though the tone of his voice differed from Dukat’s, his selection of words seemed very recognizable. “It’s simply that…well, I thought you would already have been apprised of our arrival. We’re here to help transport the Europani back to Europa Nova.”
Kira reached a hand up and tugged idly at her right earlobe for a moment. She suddenly felt foolish, distrustful as she had been in view of this offer— anotheroffer—of assistance from Macet. Still—
“How do youknow about the Europani returning to their planet?” Kira had only been informed this afternoon by the SCE that the decontamination had been completed.
“I was contacted by Admiral Akaar.”
“Admiral—” Kira started. “I see.” Suddenly, her caution with Macet seemed entirely misdirected. She regarded the gul, concentrating on the tufts of hair fanning out from the corners of his mouth down to his jaw, the most distinctive variance between his appearance and that of Dukat. Another question occurred to her—why was Tragercoming to the station rather than to Bajor, where the majority of the refugees were located?—but the answer came to her right away: the thousands of Europani on DS9 could be taken back to their world in one trip, together, aboard what would be, by far, the largest vessel in the task force. And sending all of the Europani on the station onto one ship would significantly ease coordination of boarding procedures for Kira’s crew. “I’m sorry, Gul Macet,” she said, realizing that she could not deny the value of his aid or the apparent quality of his intentions. “You have my authorization to dock.” Then, trying to spare them both an awkward moment, she added, “I’m just a little tired this evening.”
“Not at all, Colonel,”Macet said, graciously not making an issue of Kira’s initially adversarial manner. “My crew and I are at your disposal. We’ll wait until your people are prepared for the Europani to boardTrager.”
“Thank you,” she said. “It’s night here, so it’ll probably be eight to ten hours before we can begin.”
“I look forward to hearing from you,”Macet said. “And Colonel…my crew will remain aboard ship while we’re at Deep Space 9.”
Neither of the times that Tragerhad docked here before had Macet or any of his crew come aboard the station, and considering how much the gul resembled his infamous cousin, Kira realized what a wise decision that had been. She wanted to tell Macet now that such a restriction was not necessary, that he and his crew were welcome on DS9. But even if Kira welcomed these Cardassians aboard, would the same be true of the Bajoran civilians on the station? In particular, what would be the reaction to a Cardassian gul who so resembled the justifiably reviled Skrain Dukat?