Vaughn knew without looking that everyone’s eyes were upon him. He chose his words with great care before beginning to speak. “If I have to, I’ll fight my way out of this and sort it all out with Starfleet later. But only afterI’ve tried every other alternative.”
Ezri and Ensign Richter both appeared relieved. Sacagawea was, as usual, unreadable, though Vaughn assumed that the alien was listening with a great deal more attentiveness than was apparent. Bashir merely looked bewildered, though he was clearly trying to appear brave—perhaps for Ezri’s benefit.
Nog seemed fairly beside himself with the need to say something.
“I am not eager to belabor this point, Captain,” Shar said, his features drawn and solemn. “But our alternatives are fairly limited. Fighting may become inevitable.”
A brilliant, snaggle-toothed grin spread across Nog’s face then. “Why fight over the front door,” he said, “when you can just…sneak in through the back?”
Vaughn returned the grin as all heads, including Sacagawea’s, turned expectantly toward the chief engineer.
16
Solis Tendren noticed right away that many of the vedeks were missing from this regularly scheduled meeting. The Vedek Assembly chamber was barely half full, and some of those in the room were ranjens, not vedeks. Most of the others had already departed for Deep Space 9 to witness the signing ceremony; many of the ministers were now on their way there as well.
Vedek Yevir, however, was conspicuous by his absence from either location. Bellis Nerani had a holonotarized document from Yevir, giving the vedek the right to act as the would-be kai’s proxy during the Assembly’s votes. Solis found it interesting that all of the other members of Yevir’s inner circle were present; he knew that Bellis, Eran Dal, Frelan Syla, Scio Marses, Kyli Shon, and Sinchante Jin all sided with Yevir in virtually everything. They always voted the same way, a steadfast conservative bloc whose unified voice unwaveringly supported the strictest of orthodox positions.
This presented an unusual challenge to Solis. Each member of Yevir’s cabal was a high-ranking vedek; frail Frelan was one of the oldest members of the Assembly, and she was fond of reminding the younger members that she had been a fixture in the clerical leadership hierarchy while they were still toddlers. Scio seemed malleable, willing to follow the prevailing beliefs of his fellows. Kyli was a thoughtful woman of middle years, who was willing at least to appear to consider divergent opinions, while Sinchante—also a middle-aged woman—was both pious and something of a zealot. Solis found Bellis to be noxious, a man with whom it was difficult to converse for any length of time, much less to debate on the Assembly floor. Shiny-pated Vedek Eran seemed the most open-minded of the lot, though Solis suspected that he had higher political ambitions than he let on.
Despite the lack of attendees—or perhaps because of it—the meeting had run longer than usual. Eran chaired the Assembly today, a role he had been taking on more and more often of late. They had discussed the effect that the Europani refugees were having on the North-west Peninsula lands to which they had been temporarily relocated; the local water tables were falling, and food supplies were stretched to the limit. The matter was not yet a catastrophe, but was a cause for real concern.
Solis sighed. Would that we had been as generous with those lands when those Skrreean farmers had asked to settle there seven years ago. Those lands would be supplying food and water in abundance by now.
Next, Vedek Teetow had brought up some nonsense about a girl in his temple who claimed to have seen a vision of a Prophet in her flour-cakes; the Assembly had been ready to dismiss the topic out of hand until he also claimed that she had—after experiencing the vision—healed several people in her village who still suffered from lingering war wounds. That spurred another lengthy discussion about what to do with the apparently gifted child.
Vedek Grenchen—an amiable man whom Solis always suspected had become a vedek because he loved the pageantry and embroidered robes almost as much as he did the Prophets—brought up the coming celebrations marking Bajor’s entry into the Federation. Most of the public parades and parties were scheduled to begin approximately a month after the signing of the treaty, in deference to those partaking of the abstemious rites of the Bajoran Time of Cleansing. Grenchen felt that a new annual holiday should be declared on Bajor, a symbolic day on which the people could celebrate their role in the greater fabric of the galaxy. Most of the vedeks seemed to be in agreement with Grenchen, but the topic was tabled until a full meeting of the Assembly could be convened.
“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.