Chapter 1

“I’m telling you, Colonel, she’s nuts.”

Kira rolled her eyes. The bar was crowded and noisy enough as it was without Quark’s interruptions. She looked up from her drink long enough to give him a wry look. “As if you have room to talk, Quark.”

The Ferengi sputtered in protest. “I’m serious! The woman comes in here every day, alone, never socializes with anyone. Then she spends an hour in the holosuites — alone! — doing who-knows-what using a program I had to dig out of the oldest files on the computer. And you put her in charge of security around here?”

“I didn’t put her in charge of anything,” Kira muttered. “She was sent by the Bajoran government.”

Quark wasn’t going to let that excuse stop him. “And you didn’t even try to find out who this Constable Elmer is?”

“That’s Emyn.” Kira had to laugh at Quark’s version of the name. “And yes, I did do some research. She’s done good work in the past few years, and that’s all I need to know.”

He gave her a skeptical look, then put on an overly nostalgic face and leaned companionably toward her. “Yeah, I have to agree — it won’t be the same, her doing Odo’s job.”

Kira scowled at the unwanted consolation. “Like I said — she does good work.”

“Yes, well.…” Quark grinned. “I doubt she’ll have the same flair and intuition that I had to maneuver around when Odo was here. I wonder if she knows what she’s up against.”

“Oh, I’m sure she’ll be able to handle it,” Kira smirked. “And anyway, I’ll be keeping my eye on you as well.”

Quark scoffed. “Come on! You can’t run a station and keep me under your thumb at the same time! No, this new kid’s going to have to deal with me, and she doesn’t have half the experience Odo did.” A look of smug satisfaction settled across the Ferengi’s face. “I must say, things are looking up these days.”

“Glad to hear it.” Kira and Quark turned toward the unexpected voice. The woman in question, dressed in exercise clothes, smiled wryly back at them. Kira could almost hear Quark scrambling to figure out how long Emyn had been standing there. For her own part, it was hard enough to realize that it would be impossible to avoid her new chief of security this time, especially since she was still trying to deny that she was avoiding her in the first place.

“Constable,” Kira greeted her, nodding. That title again. It sounded so impossibly out of place to call her that.

Emyn nodded back. “Colonel.” As simple as that — or it would have been, if not for Quark, who had just regained his sense of opportunity.

“Well, Constable! I can’t tell you how pleased I am to see you here!” he gushed, giving her his toothiest smile. “I trust you’re finding my program enjoyable?”

Emyn shrugged, placing the data rod on the bar and sliding it over to him. “It works.”

“Wonderful! Now, what can I get you? This one is on the house.”

She studied him with a skeptical expression, then shook her head. “Just water, thank you.”

Quark seemed a bit taken aback. “That’s it? No, I mean it, it’s free.”

Kira snorted, throwing back the last of her drink. “Nothing is free with you, Quark.”

Emyn grinned slightly at the colonel’s comment. “And I mean it — I just got done with a run. I only want water for right now.”

The Ferengi gave the bar a delighted thump. “So that’s what you do up there! I was wondering.”

“Yeah — among other things,” she replied shortly. “Water?”

“Oh — of course.” He darted over to the replicator, looking a little bemused. People didn’t often come into his bar asking for water.

A short pause followed, and Kira cleared her throat slightly. “So you’re a runner,” she said, trying to keep her voice casual.

Emyn nodded, tugging at the sweaty fabric of her tunic. “Have been for some time. It helps me to relax.”

“I don’t see how that can be relaxing,” Quark said with a shake of the head, handing her the requested glass. “I mean, I have much better trail programs than….” He glanced at the rod. “The P’Tok mountain range of Vulcan.”

“I know — I saw them,” she replied with a dry smile. “Like the Memorial Park in San Francisco. With paved trails. No, I’ll save that one for the Starfleet officers. I prefer real terrain.”

Kira smiled at the humor in Emyn’s voice, relaxing a bit. Starfleet’s posh exercise programs tended to get on her nerves, too. “But why Vulcan? I’m pretty sure Quark has a few Bajoran programs you could use.”

Emyn shook her head. “I know, but they’re all simulations of relatively temperate regions — Musilla, Dakhur, places like that. I grew up in Ralinte, a desert province — and P’Tok was as close as I could get.”

“Ralinte.” Kira brightened. “The Olan Resistance cell was based in Ralinte Province for several years during the Occupation.”

Emyn glanced at her over the rim of her glass, then looked away as she drained the last of the water. “Yes, it was,” she replied shortly. Then she slid the empty glass toward Quark. “Thank you. I’ll reserve the same slot for tomorrow, if I can.”

“Absolutely,” he said, his voice dripping with false sincerity. “And I just want you to know how honored I am to have you here at DS9. I only hope that I can develop as close a friendship with you as I did with our former chief of security.”

Emyn was middle-aged, and she wasn’t beautiful. But she was striking, and she could pull off a smile that could be described as dazzling if she wanted to. “Oh, yes — the ‘close friendship’ that has its own directory in the central security records. Your Odo was very thorough with his reports.”

Quark blinked in genuine surprise; Kira almost laughed out loud. “Read them, have you?”

“I stumbled across them as I was getting accustomed to the computer,” Emyn explained with a grin.

“Never been more entertained in my life. Trust me, Quark,” and she leaned across the bar to clap a hand on the Ferengi’s shoulder, “we’re going to be very … very … ‘close.’”

With that, she tossed her braid over one shoulder and walked out of the bar, leaving a very disgruntled barkeep gaping after her.

Kira stood up from the bar, stretching, and graced Quark with a cheerful smile. “Well, I like her.”

* * * *

The doors to Emyn Lise’s quarters slid open politely, and she stepped across the threshold into the relative peace of her living room, rubbing the back of her neck. She was tired. The run hadn’t gone any worse than others she’d taken since returning to the station, but for some reason her body felt heavy. Shaking her head, she shrugged the impression aside. Most likely the simulated crimson Vulcan sky of the holosuite program had put a damper on her mood. Heat was one thing, but Vulcan’s oppressive dryness was entirely another. It made her feel like she was running through a furnace.

Emyn pulled her shirt over her head and dropped it on the couch on her way to the bedroom. Whatever reason she had for feeling out of sorts, she wasn’t in a mood to be neat and organized. Soon a trail of sweaty clothing led the way to the small bathroom. A sonic shower would make her feel a bit better, although it wouldn’t do much for the weariness in her muscles. Even her scalp felt sore. Sighing heavily, she reached up to pull the band out of her hair; the heavy braid uncoiled almost by itself and the damp strands fell over her shoulders, hiding her bowed head for a second. Then she blew out a breath, laid her hands flat on the cool metal of the counter, and lifted her head determinedly.

Gray eyes met her gaze in the mirror, and she paused. The light was dim and uncertain; naked and with her hair down, she had for a moment looked younger than she really was. Emyn stared hard at her reflection for a moment, searching for that part of her she’d almost seen. But whatever had been there was gone now. The body she saw was strong, certainly, and healthy. But not young anymore. That time in her life was long past.

She broke eye contact abruptly and turned away. A sonic shower just wasn’t going to be enough; for some reason she felt she deserved to use some of her water ration this time. Stepping under the nozzle, she set the temperature to as hot as she could bear and activated it, lifting her face directly into the spray.

* * * *

“Agh!” Lise clutched wildly at her hair as it suddenly came spilling down around her shoulders and down her back, as thick and heavy as a blanket in the midday heat. But there was really no way to fix it, the band holding it in place had snapped. Lise cast the broken leather string away with a flick of her hand as she ran and ignored her loose hair as best she could, focusing instead on the short brown hair of the young woman who was now running one stride ahead.

“That’s … not fair, Tana!” she puffed, stretching out her long legs to try to close the gap. “I was distracted!”

Regne Tana only hooted over her shoulder at her friend and redoubled her efforts as they rounded the bend in the trail. The finish, by the banks of the river, was in view. “Excuses, excuses!”

Lise didn’t have enough breath to argue back, and the wind was whistling past her ears too much to carry on a conversation anyway. But Tana’s lead was faltering — she wasn’t a very fast finisher. Lise threw herself forward with the last of her strength and passed her, sandals sliding on the hard sandy ground as they swept down the slope to the narrow river valley. She even managed to gain a few meters on her before they reached the tall ikassa tree that had been designated the finishing point.

Tana barreled into her from behind as she slowed to a walk, thumping her shoulders in mock indignation. “Cheater!”

“I don’t … have to cheat,” Lise boasted between breaths. “I’m just that much better than you.”

“Sure you are,” her friend snorted. “That’s why you let me set the pace for the entire run and sprint into the finish. Typical.”

“Complain all you want,” Lise said airily, gratefully throwing herself down in the sparse shade. “Ugh, I’m burning up….”

Tana plopped down next to her and leaned back on her arms, rolling her eyes. “Now who’s complaining?”

Lise only chuckled, and they stopped talking to catch their breaths. Wiping the sweat off her brow, she rolled over onto her back and squinted up through the branches of the ikassa at the sun, hanging high overhead in a hot blue sky. At the edge of her vision she could see the tall sandy bluffs that rimmed the valley, shutting it away from the wide expanse of the open desert beyond. Hardy, sparse trees were clumped at the bases of the cliffs, clinging to the dry soil with twisted roots. The river beside them was shallow and slow at this point, throwing back the sunlight in dazzling shapes on the leaves overhead.

This was Ralinte Province, a tiny crescent of land tucked near the border of the Bajoran Outback. The terrain was harsh and forbidding to those that did not know it, the soil coarse and pale from the lack of rain. Life was continually sparse, rough, efficient out of pure necessity. Survival here meant intimately knowing every trail and bluff and stream, becoming wiry and roughened by hard work. Lise loved it.

The sun was making her eyes water; she blinked and turned her head toward her friend again. Clothes and skin dusty, and her short hair sweaty and windblown, Tana fit right into the landscape. At eighteen, Tana was actually a little older than Lise, but she was quite a bit smaller. Her build was that of most Bajorans that lived here — short and compact, a slight torso and strong muscled legs, skin burned dark by the sun. It was Lise who was different, taller and more slender with lighter coloring. Lise would always stand out.

“How much time do you suppose we have?” Lise asked idly.

Tana shrugged, tossing her hair out of her eyes. “We aren’t due back in the mines for at least a half hour yet. We’ll have time to clean up and eat before we check in, if we hurry. Let’s leave in a few minutes.”

Lise rolled onto her side and propped her head up on one hand, grinning. “Let’s take our time. We’re working in the southern tunnels today, way in the back, remember? The overseers don’t check to make sure we’re at our posts for a good fifteen minutes after we’re supposed to be there. We’ll slip in through the back entrance, near the ravine.”

Her friend gave her a wry look and shook her head, but it didn’t take much to convince her to stay in the shade a while longer. Today’s heat was especially fierce. “You and your little tricks. One of these days we’re really going to get into trouble and then what will you do?”

“Then I’ll get us out of trouble, just like I always do,” Lise retorted. She stretched her legs to dabble her toes in the water of the river. “As if the Cardassians care what we do out here ‘in the middle of nowhere,’ as they put it. All they want is the work to get done and themselves to appear important.”

This brought a frown to the smaller girl’s face, and Lise sighed. She knew better than to bring up their Cardassian overseers around Tana — it always sparked off a debate on Bajoran pride and dignity that she would rather not waste time on. Before Tana could shake her head and mutter a retort, Lise rolled to a crouch and reached over to tug at her arm.

“Hey, come on. No one is looking,” she said, glancing quickly up and down the road leading to Aoja, the small village a half kilometer away. The way was empty.

Tana looked confused. “‘Come on,’ what?”

Lise grinned at her impishly. “It’s roasting out here. Let’s go swimming, really quick before we have to head back.”

“What?!” Now Tana’s eyes were huge. “Are you kidding? If someone sees us….”

“They won’t,” Lise insisted, dragging them both to their feet. “And we’re already drenched in sweat as it is, no one will notice.”

“No, Lise, I don’t think that’s a good….”

She didn’t get any further. With a quick shove, Lise tumbled Tana off the bank and into the shallow water of the river. Tana yelped and stumbled back a few steps before she lost her balance and fell backwards, vanishing under the surface with a loud splash. Lise stifled a giggle and quickly checked the trail to make sure no one had heard them.

Tana dragged herself into a sitting position in the middle of the current, upraised knees poking out of the water, hair plastered down over her eyes. Being Lise’s nearly constant companion since they were toddlers had led her to become a master at shrieking in indignation without making too much noise. “Lise! You are really going to pay for that, you idiot!”

Lise was laughing as she waded in to join her, and Tana couldn’t keep a straight face when she stumbled and flailed wildly to regain her balance. “Ah, stop whining, Clumsy. You’re cooler, aren’t you?”

“Shut up,” Tana said with a begrudging laugh, flicking a handful of water at her.

Lise backed up a step to dodge the spray, wobbling again on the shifting stones of the river bed. “Hey, knock it off! I don’t want to get as drenched as you.”

Tana raised an eyebrow at her. “Oh, you don’t, huh?”

“Stay away from me, you….” But she didn’t see Tana’s foot hooking around her ankle until it was being jerked out from under her. Already standing on uncertain footing, Lise didn’t have a chance; she fell into the water with a much less graceful landing than Tana had. Tana almost doubled over with laughter.

Lise came up sputtering, shoved her dripping hair out of her face. “Okay, that’s it! I wonder how long you can hold your….”

“You! Bajorans!”

Their heads snapped up and they stared at each other. Lise could feel adrenaline dump into her blood; Tana was frozen, hazel eyes wide. “Oh, Prophets, Lise, I knew this would happen….”

Lise frowned back at her, thinking quickly; then a cool mask fell into place and she gave her friend a calming smile. “Don’t worry,” she murmured. “It’ll be fine. Just let me do the talking.”

A scowl crossed Tana’s face as they scrambled to their feet, and Lise could almost hear the biting remark she would have made to that statement in any other situation. The current situation needed their attention first, however. Heads bowed, the two of them turned toward the shore of the river, toward the pair of young Cardassian guards scowling at them.

The one to the left, the taller of the two, gestured at them with overdone scorn. “Approach us, servants!”

They complied, Tana trying desperately not to slosh through the knee-deep water, Lise walking with measured grace close beside her. Thoughts flashed rapidly through her demurely lowered eyes. She recognized these two. They were barely older than herself, both of them, and used to strutting their power, that much was obvious. Behind her meek appearance, Lise was smirking to herself. She doubted that they had the authority or bravery to give the two of them any serious punishment without authorization from a higher official. The only real concern in her mind was that she and Tana could be reported to the prefect of the village — only then could things get serious. A small frown tugged at her mouth as she discreetly searched the arrogant faces of the soldiers, looking for a way to distract them from that.

The Cardassian looked at the two women as they reached the shore, out of breath and soaking wet. They grinned leeringly — and Lise had her way out.

Haltingly, before anyone else could speak, she stepped forward, placing Tana behind her. “I — I’m sorry, sirs, I….”

“No one gave you permission to speak, girl.” The shorter one, whose thick short neck had earned him the nickname of Stumpy among the Bajoran servants, cut her off rudely. Lise broke off uncertainly, as if abashed and frightened by the interruption, and lowered her head still further. Strands of wet, ruddy hair swung across her face, brushed her cheeks lightly.

“That’s better,” Stumpy declared with aplomb, and Lise had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. No Cardassian overseer worth a melon rind ever praises a Bajoran for obeying an order. Pitiful.

Judging from the stiff sound Tana made under her breath, she wasn’t sharing her amusement. The guards gave Tana a sharp look, and Lise began to get worried. “Something the matter, Bajoran?” the taller one spat.

Tana shifted uncomfortably. “N-no, sir.”

He snorted at her, then turned his attention back to Lise. “Now, you will speak. By what right do you think it appropriate to splash around in Cardassian drinking water?”

Lise allowed a flush to color her cheeks. “I’m sorry,” she repeated shakily. “I didn’t mean….”

“Answer the question!”

She drew back, then folded her arms tightly across her chest, pressing the wet cloth of her tunic to her body. “By no right. I forgot my place.” Not “we” — I. Don’t think of Tana. Pay attention to me — look at me.

The guards couldn’t have obeyed her silent command more thoroughly if she’d had them under mind control. They were all but ogling her now, gazing at the wet fabric as it clung to her skin. Everything was going exactly as Lise had planned.

Not that she was enjoying this, of course, but….

“Indeed you did.” Stumpy stepped forward and grabbed her roughly by the arm. Lise acted appropriately mortified by the action but didn’t resist. “Do you think we want your filthy bodies dirtying up our water, slave?”

“I — no … please, I won’t….” That’s right, I’m helpless and afraid, you big man, you.

“That’s right, you won’t,” the taller one said with a crude laugh. “I do think this one needs a bit of a lesson, wouldn’t you agree, Umpek?”

“Very much,” Stumpy growled, jerking Lise against him. “Do you know what happens to little Bajoran slaves that forget what they are, girl?”

The shudder that went through her, delighting the Cardassian to no end, was not completely faked. How do I always manage to get myself into these disgusting situations? Every stinking time....

“Umpek!”

Stumpy released her so abruptly she almost fell over. And now it was his turn to look abashed. “Gul Tovan…!”

Lise’s eyes darted over the two young soldiers, at their superior officer standing behind them, and jumped at the opportunity. Scrambling back as quickly as she could, she dug fingers into Tana’s arm. “When I say,” she hissed, “run back up the trail. Tree grove.”

Tana nodded breathlessly, trying to be as small and inconspicuous as possible as the gul approached. True to form, the Cardassian overseer barely spared them a second glance before turning his stony frown on the younger soldiers.

“What’s going on here?” he said, with an aloof disdain that Umpek and his companion had yet to master.

“N-nothing, sir — I was simply—“

“I think I can see what you were doing,” Tovan said scornfully. “And I am not pleased, Umpek.”

Stumpy’s companion made the mistake of trying to defend himself. “But, sir, these two were….”

“I am not interested in the personal habits of Bajorans,” Tovan boomed. “I am concerned, however, with the integrity of my subordinates. I will not have anyone under my command eroding the honor of the Cardassian military.”

Abruptly, the gul’s piercing gaze swept in Lise’s direction, and she felt a stab of real fear. He took in Lise’s wet clothing and tousled hair, and his gaze shifted to somewhere above her left shoulder, as if she was too distasteful to really look at. “Bajorans are low and common,” he spat toward them. “A Cardassian whore, however defiled, is more honorable than their women. And what is a Cardassian soldier if he will stoop to their level?”

Stumpy and his companion stared at their boots, abashed. “Forgive us, sir,” the taller one muttered. “It will not happen again.”

“See that it doesn’t.” Tovan swept his gaze across the scene before him, then executed a fast-break and walked away in long strides. The two soldiers followed after their master’s heels like whipped hounds.

The moment their backs were turned, Lise pulled hard on her friend’s arm, urging her into a run. Tana fell behind for a moment but quickly caught up, even overtaking Lise’s sprinting strides. They fled from the open view of the river as quickly as they could go, and did not stop until the trees near the base of the bluff hid them from sight of the trail.

Lise leaned her hands on her knees, wheezing for breath. “Why … didn’t you tell me you … could run that fast?”

She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but the frustrated snarl in reply made her look up in surprise. Tana’s face was crimson, far more than sunburn or exertion could account for. She turned her back on Lise, leaning her forehead on the trunk of the tree next to her, her chest heaving.

Lise watched Tana’s strained breathing for a moment, then straightened and took a step toward her. “Hey, look, it’s okay now. They won’t dare bring this up back at—”

“How can you just — pander to them like that?” Tana’s voice was shaking with anger.

“What?” Lise drew back. “What are you talking about?”

“Them.” Tana flung an arm toward the trail, to the town. “You just stand there and take it — no, you do worse than that, you encourage them! How could you, Emyn Lise?!”

“Would you shut up and think rationally for a second?” Lise’s anger could rise just as quickly. “I just saved our asses back there, Tana. Would you rather I fight them off and get us both arrested?”

“That isn’t the point,” Tana said, exasperated. “You heard what Tovan called us! Lower than a Cardassian whore, he said.” Her lips curled as she spoke, as if the words left a bitter taste in her mouth. “They think we’re dirt! They wouldn’t think twice about letting us rot!”

“That’s right — they wouldn’t,” Lise snapped back. “And I’m sure Umpek and his friend would be more than happy to have our families’ rations cut for months, or … or worse, to punish me for stepping out of line. Don’t you get it? This is how it works! I keep the Cardies happy, and no one I care about gets hurt for the sake of my wounded ego.”

Tana turned away with a scowl. “Right — no one gets hurt. Just humiliated, with no resistance whatsoever.”

Abruptly, Lise’s anger deflated, and she felt guilty in spite of herself. “Look, I’m sorry I had to do that — I just … we don’t have any choice….”

“I want to go back,” Tana interrupted dully. “We’ll give the guards a few minutes to get ahead of us, then take the back roads. Okay?”

Lise stared at her friend for a moment, then sighed and shook her head. “Okay.”

Chapter Two

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