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SUBTLY UNNERVING

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For anyone who is beginning to question the likelihood of our favorite Cardassians showing up at every turn in my stories, I remind the reader that the series itself tended to have Dukat pop in on Kira disconcertingly often, much to her continuing chagrin. Can we accept that if the series can do that, the fan-writer can do it, too???

If you have not already read my story ABOVE AND BEYOND, please do so before proceeding; although this does not qualify as a sequel, it uses a character that I created for that story, and also contains a few references to that prior story.

Additionally, anyone who prefers a lot of action in a story would be better off to skip this one; it’s exclusively conversational: don’t say that I didn’t warn you!

 

 

            It was one of the more upbeat-outcome universes, in regard to the Dominion War. The Federation and its allies had defeated the Dominion faster, and fast enough to prevent the devastation of Cardassia Prime. There had been no Ziyal for Damar to kill, therefore Dukat had spent a lot of time with Garak, Damar, and Kira in Mila’s basement, enough time to reconcile many past differences amongst the four, to develop major respect for one another, and to actually become a rather amiable group. Those same three Cardassians were now the joint rulers of their planet, which, with the Dominion overthrown, was well on its way to resuming its position as a major Alpha Quadrant power. The three rulers, as befit their role, were now on Earth at Starfleet Headquarters, as were dignitaries of all other major powers of the quadrant, to honor the induction of Bajor as the Federation’s newest member (an irony which of course was not lost on the Cardassians, but they admirably took it in stride, with even a spot of good-natured humor), as well as to flaunt the new solidarity of the Alpha Quadrant to any outsiders who might happen to take notice. Though the Dominion was hardly likely to attempt again to divide the quadrant, at least not soon, one never knew who else might be observing with such intentions. Kira, in her function as a major Bajoran official, was there as well, and was actually enjoying a reunion of sorts with her erstwhile fellow basement-bound conspirator-fugitives, in one of Starfleet’s many cozy private lounges, just hours before the ceremony would take place. Garak had even managed to achieve, after the war, a reconciliation with his father Tain who still lived, since in this universe there had been no ill-fated premature attack on the Founders by combined intelligence agencies. On occasion, Garak even relied upon advice from Tain, whose wisdom he had always respected; in fact, he had brought the latter with him to this gala affair.

            “You clean up well,” Damar teased Kira.

            “I think that we all look a lot better than we did the last time that we saw each other,” Kira returned, unoffended.

            “That evening gown suits you,” Dukat commented approvingly. “Its lovely shade of green compliments you well.”

            Before she’d had a chance to thank him, Garak feigned admonishment, “So predictable, Dukat: always preferring Bajoran women to be in evening gowns.”

            “Oh, ha ha,” Kira said in friendly, unruffled sarcasm, admirably tolerating the veiled reference to the unsavory Occupation practice of using dressed-up Bajoran females as “comfort women.”

            Eyes twinkling, Dukat gently taunted, “Last chance, Nerys; are you sure that Bajor wouldn’t rather join our empire than the Federation?”

            “No thanks,” she replied sardonically.

            “Think carefully; we offer a very strong military.”

            “Somehow, Dukat, my people really don’t see that as a plus.”

            Both were still smiling. Beneath the surface, of course, some bitterness still simmered on both sides, and always would, but for the most part, the four former rebels had matured beyond the need to display constant, blatant animosity like a banner for all to see.

            Now Kira’s eyes sparkled. “Besides, the Federation has a much better retirement plan: i.e. we get to live long enough to have one.” At Dukat’s mock-wounded look, she continued, “Better variety of career choice, too: mine-working just doesn’t suit everyone, and it’s awfully hard on the hands.” She examined her own smooth ones pseudo-critically. He was shaking his head at her now, openly grinning.

            “Speaking of your infamous military, I’m a little surprised to see you three in uniform even for this formal event,” Kira said more seriously.

            This time, it was Garak who answered quietly, understatedly, “It’s part of our strength, and our charm, to always wear our powerful, ominous symbol wherever we may appear; people expect it of us.”

            “It’s part of your mystique, is that it?”

            “Quite.”

            “Or part of your mistake,” quipped a new arrival, who then immediately blushed self-consciously when the eyes of all of the room’s inhabitants turned toward her in surprise. “Sorry! I don’t know what came over me!”

            “You’re forgiven,” Garak told Bolian Representative Nivea Hollister. “And you’re close to the last person that I would have expected to see here.”

            “I agree,” said Tain, appearing at her side. “Which is why I insisted that she come to visit with us for at least a little while, when I found her wandering around out there.”

            Her more normal, shy demeanor had returned as she surveyed the three younger Cardassians and the Bajoran uncertainly. “I honestly didn’t mean to malign your uniforms; they really are quite dashing on you. And I don’t mean to interrupt; I hope that I am not annoying you.”

            Garak remarked, “I’ll only be annoyed if you don’t get in here and tell us why you didn’t resign your post as you’d told us that you intended to do.” He smiled to prevent any misinterpretation that she otherwise might draw from his teasingly heavy-handed wording. As she sat, he suddenly remembered that the two women likely didn’t know each other, and quickly introduced Kira to Nivea, along with a brief explanation to the Bajoran of how the Cardassians’ and Hollister’s paths had crossed, nearly disastrously, at least for the girl.

            Smugly, regarding Kira pointedly, Dukat appended, “She offered herself to me.”

            Unaware of Dukat’s complex, tumultuous history with the Bajoran woman, Nivea told Kira earnestly, “The alternative was that they were going to kill me!” She was so intent upon explaining herself to Kira that she didn’t even see how Dukat had deflated at her words.

            Kira, now the smug one, said, “Well, let’s see: share Dukat’s bed or be executed; yeah, I guess maybe you made the right choice.”

            Abruptly looking over toward Dukat, and seeing, in alarm, his reaction, the human blurted, “I meant no offense!”

            “No, of course not.” Dukat sighed. Then Nivea noticed Garak’s and Damar’s not quite smothered smiles.

            Staving off the human’s inevitable, even more profuse apology to Dukat, Garak insisted, “Now really, how is it that you are still here at Starfleet?”

            “I honestly did hand in my resignation, but Admiral Nechayev said that I had to wait a year before she could accept it.” She turned rueful. “It seems that I…‘know too much.’ Namely, the very data that you-all…well…retrieved from me.”

            They smiled at her obviously uncomfortable memories regarding that exceedingly awkward, tense retrieval.

            She went on, “There are still many potential foes that Starfleet doesn’t want to obtain the information. So it’s too much of a ‘liability’ for me to be ‘turned loose’ in the quadrant.” Her slightly sarcastic emphasis conveyed the quoted phrases. “But since I have no ‘fortitude’ against ‘coercion’ I was removed from the Bolian assignment, and placed in a ‘risk-free’ desk job for the duration.”

            The Cardassians’ grins grew broader with her every word.

            “Why one year?” prompted Garak.

            “Because by then, the top secret data that I carry – against my will – will be obsolete. And no, I don’t know why.” She put up a forestalling hand before they could ask. “I never ask questions around here anymore. The less I know, the better.”

            Tain in particular smiled slightly, tolerantly at that, his own personal philosophy being diametrically opposed to that viewpoint.

            “All I care about is that Nechayev promised that I wouldn’t be burdened with confidential data ever again, subliminal or otherwise.”

            Dukat, Damar, and Garak were regarding her sympathetically, if somewhat amusedly.

            Kira, on the other hand, was watching her in mild amazement. She said, “Despite your previous unpleasant encounter with these Cardassians, such an event was certainly unlikely, and therefore even more unlikely to ever repeat. So I find it astonishing that you consider a position as Federation Representative, especially to Bolius of all places, to be risky, even when compared to a desk job.”

Nivea looked back at Kira in consternation, as if trying to decide whether or not she’d been deliberately insulted.

Seeing that, Damar put in smoothly, diplomatically, “Well, Kira, your past and Nivea’s are evidently vastly different, if not blatantly opposite, causing you to view events fundamentally differently.”

“Yes,” Kira agreed wholeheartedly. “My entire existence has, up until now, been one grim scenario after another, fighting in one covert underground after another.” She still seemed to be belittling the other woman. “For that matter, the whole Bajoran experience has been vastly different from the human one. For instance, if I recall correctly, your species’ first alien contact was the Vulcans, right?”

“That’s true,” the human responded evenly, still uncertain where Kira was going with this.

“Lucky you! Our first contact was the Cardassians!”

Now Nivea’s eyes widened in alarm, clearly wondering whether the all-too-present members of the aforementioned species would take offense. But their expressions were more of smug amusement than affront. Thus reassured, she frowned at Kira in vague resentment. “Our relationship with the Vulcans was hardly ideal, at first.”

Kira looked back at her skeptically. “They’re arrogant, certainly, but completely nonviolent.”

“Granted, but for the first several years, they sat on us rather effectively.”

“Sat on you???”

 “Squelched our space program. They actually judged us too primitive to be turned loose on the quadrant, and penned us in on Earth.”

“Oh. Horrors.” Kira’s sarcasm had become scathing.

“I’m not saying that that compares to your past experiences, but….”

“Not even close! What they did to you was…nothing!”

“Now wait a minute! You tell that to the entire generation of people whose dream was to go to space, and who had to die without ever fulfilling it!”

“But your species still got to go!” Her tone was increasingly scornful.

“Which did nothing at all for the individuals who forever lost their chance!”

“Did the Vulcans torture your people?! Rape them?! Enslave them?! Steal their resources?!”

“Ladies, ladies, please!” Dukat urged.

“I know that you don’t mean to insult each other,” Garak agreed. “Especially since this is neither the time nor the place for it.”

“I’m sure that each of you has legitimate points in the context of your own history.” Damar had obviously developed a real knack for diplomacy in recent years.

By contrast, Tain was coldly amused, and inclined to make no effort at all in reconciling the two. He even appeared smugly proud of Kira’s recitation of his people’s atrocities against hers.

Kira clearly simmered, but just as obviously worked to suppress her temper, grudgingly realizing that Garak was right, and remembering where she was, and why she was here. Nivea’s shyness reasserted itself, but, in character, she seemed far more concerned with the possibility of Cardassian anger than Bajoran pique. Timidly, she lowered her gaze.

Forcing herself toward greater courtesy, Kira asked, “Well, your relationship with the Vulcans has been smooth since then, hasn’t it?” She sounded exaggeratedly concerned, in order not to sound condescending.

“For most people.” Nivea was quiet, subdued. “I sometimes find them a bit intimidating, though, as do some others.”

“Vulcans???” Kira failed to suppress her renewed astonishment.

Struggling to maintain her own calm, the human said, “First of all, because they’re so superior to us: physically, mentally, and of course emotionally.”

“Oh, you can’t let that bother you.” Kira waved it away with a casual gesture.

“No, indeed,” quipped Dukat. “Cardassians are vastly superior to Bajorans, and Kira never lets that bother her.”

Eyes wide, Nivea stared at Dukat.

Kira observed him measuringly, but apparently decided that he meant no harm and was only teasing her, so she said evenly, “I’ll let that pass.”

A brief moment of silence ensued, evidently making Nivea uncomfortable, so she continued, “Anyway, some of us find their superiority a bit daunting.”

Not knowing what else to do, Kira shrugged.

Shrewdly, Tain urged the human, “You implied that there were other reasons for viewing the Vulcans uneasily.”

Nivea nodded. “Some of us are uncomfortable with the abilities that they possess that we don’t.”

“Such as…?” he prompted.

“Their telepathy, for one. Their mind probe, or mind meld, or mind fusion; I’ve heard it called all of the above.”

“It doesn’t work on us,” Dukat supplied, somewhat proudly.

“Well, it does on us. And on most other species.”

“But as I understand it,” Garak contributed, “they don’t use the technique frivolously, and seldom without the consent of the subject.”

“That’s true, but it’s still disquieting to know that they could do so at any time, if they should happen to decide in their relentless logic that it is necessary; and however rarely, they have on occasion forced it, which I’ve heard can be quite painful if the victim resists. Besides, there’s more to it than that; the mind meld, which requires physical contact, is not the only telepathic phenomenon to impact our interspecies relationships. It seems that all of us tend to broadcast our thoughts and feelings all of the time, without realizing it, and without the necessity of touch-contact. Those of our species that are not telepathic are not able to restrict our thoughts and keep them private; we don’t know how. Telepaths, like the Vulcans, have to learn at an early age how to shut out the bedlam of others’ thoughts in order to guard their sanity; they can ‘shield’ against them: barring others’ thoughts from distracting their own minds as well as preventing their own thoughts from spilling out to others nearby. However, one way in which we’re annoying to them is in our inability to keep our own thoughts and emotions from leaking out, so the Vulcans have to put more effort into shielding against us than in shielding against their own kind.”

“But they do shield,” Kira sought clarification. “Shut out your thoughts.”

“Yes, and supposedly completely. But I know that, now and then, an individual Vulcan will choose not to do so, and will eavesdrop. They’re all separate beings, too, after all, and are not all alike.”

“Eavesdrop? How do you happen to know that?”

“By personal experience, a rather blatant one at that.” Seeing that the four Cardassians and Kira clearly were interested, Nivea went on, but with evident embarrassment, especially at the beginning. “I know that this will sound silly, but I am a bit phobic regarding another of their abilities that we don’t share. And they knew, truly picked up on my fear! They have this technique called the ‘Vulcan nerve pinch,’ in which they can just squeeze the bundle of nerves here, where the neck meets the shoulder, and the victim falls immediately unconscious. Anyway, that really scares me, to feel so vulnerable to their least whim like that, and besides, I’ve heard it said that it really hurts. So anyhow, the first time that I attended an official Federation function at which there would be numerous Vulcans as well as other Federation species, I deliberately wore a thick, lacy collar, and left my hair down to swirl around my shoulders, instead of putting it up on top of my head. I suppose that I knew that I was just fooling myself that that would provide any protection against a determined Vulcan, if one should decide that he had a reason to nerve-pinch me, but it made me feel a little more secure. I remember staring at one human woman with a sleeveless, strapless gown, and her hair piled up on top of her head, and thinking, ‘Is she flaunting her vulnerability on purpose?’, and I imagined that the Vulcans must have been looking at her with what passes as Vulcan amusement, in realizing how easy it would be to take advantage of her bare shoulders! Well, after a while, a Vulcan woman approached me; we’d never met, never spoken, and I believe that she’d been near the opposite side of the huge ballroom from me most of the evening, until that moment. She looked at me, dispassionately of course, as they do, and bluntly said, ‘That would not prove to be any deterrent.’ Naturally, I said, ‘What?’, not yet making any connection between her abrupt statement and my inner turmoil. She replied blandly, ‘Fabric and hair would hardly be any barrier against a nerve pinch.’ Well, you can imagine the shocked astonishment with which I looked back at her! Misinterpreting my surprise as skepticism, she asked, ‘Do you require a demonstration?’ So, given my fear, I backed away from her, and demanded, ‘Are you threatening me?!’ She just blinked, and said, ‘Not at all; I am merely offering to prove the veracity of my statement.’ To which I replied, ‘But why would you discuss this with me at all, out of the blue??’ She then said in her flat tone, ‘I am simply attempting to spare you the repetition of a useless effort.’ In other words, I might just as well bare my shoulders like that other woman that I’d seen, for all the good that it was doing me to try to protect myself! So, in order to spare me future slight effort, she had magnified my feeling of miserable vulnerability by about a factor of ten; plus you can imagine how sheepish I felt at having at least one of them, and possibly more than one, zero in on my private phobia regarding Vulcans!” Nivea observed her audience’s mixed reactions: she saw Dukat’s and Garak’s and Damar’s gentle amusement and sympathy, and Kira’s glaringly evident view of Nivea’s fear as absurd, but she wondered at Tain’s narrow-eyed smugness. As her eyes remained on him, he remarked, “The nerve pinch is obviously a second Vulcan method that wouldn’t work on Cardassians: marvelous.” Thus reassured that Tain was focusing on how her story related to his people, rather than how he could potentially use it against her, she relaxed.

Forcing diplomacy, Kira admitted, “I’m sure that you found it disconcerting to realize that she had read your thoughts and feelings so accurately from across the room, and to wonder how many others had, without revealing the fact to you.”

Nivea gave a smile of appreciation.

Garak couldn’t help but note, “Obviously their telepathy would be a handy tool for interrogation.”

Tain nodded to him approvingly.

Seeing that, Nivea shuddered, and Kira looked rueful.

Dukat prompted curiously, “Have you attended many functions since, where Vulcans were present?”

“Yes, and I’ve discovered that there simply is no defense against being read, at least for us humans! At my second event, I tried to prepare all day by listening to the same song over and over, to get it firmly embedded in my head: you know how a melody can get stuck in your mind against your will, and you can’t seem to get rid of it? Anyway, I did that to myself on purpose, assuming that all that the Vulcans would be able to read would be that song, repeating endlessly, and that they’d want to shut me out because of it. Well, about halfway through the evening, a distinguished, older Vulcan gentleman approached me and requested that I ‘change my tune’ to another selection! Apparently, I was annoying quite a few of them: by concentrating so hard on keeping the music at the forefront of my mind, I was projecting even more loudly than we humans normally do. Ignoring my music would be as difficult for them as it would be for us to ignore screaming! Again, embarrassment!”

Chuckles of non-critical amusement followed from all.

“But the scariest thing that they can do that we can’t is tal-shaya. Did you-all know that a Vulcan can break a neck with one finger? By pressing on a precise spot on the back of the neck-bone. Now how’s that for intimidating?”

Kira nodded slightly. “But they’re nonviolent, so it’s extremely unlikely; it would be a very rare occurrence.”

“Tell that to the one guy in a million, or whatever, who’s had it done to him!”

“I suppose,” she conceded, but with evident reservations.

Again, Tain was smug. “Another ‘ability’ that they would be unable to employ against us, with our double spine.”

Nivea blinked. “I hadn’t thought of that, but I would suppose that you’re right.” Still seeking to defend her fears as warranted, she went on, “But Kira, really, the very fact of their nonemotional, dispassionate nature makes something like tal-shaya more scary, not less. Whereas an emotional being might be talked out of killing someone, might be convinced to feel compassion or guilt or even fear of repercussions, an unemotional person could not be persuaded. Once a Vulcan reasons that an individual must die, for ‘the needs of the many,’ he becomes as relentless as a Borg, and no amount of pleading will be able to dissuade him. You’d never be able to reason him out of it, either, because all Vulcans are convinced that their logic is correct and superior to anyone else’s reasoning faculties.” The human rose. “I must be going; it’s almost time for me to take my place on the dais.” She regarded the four Cardassians with a genuine smile, and said sincerely, “It was truly wonderful to see you again, especially under these much-improved circumstances.” She grinned at the second part of her statement, and the men grinned back at her. She turned a more serious expression to the Bajoran. “Heed my advice: guard your thoughts well, Kira. There is much anger in you. If the Vulcans read my fear clearly, imagine how well they’ll read your rage.”

Kira’s unmistakable return look revealed to all present that the human woman had indeed given her something to think about after all.