But as each officer laid hands on his respective Bajoran sectarian, the Ohalavaru abruptly began chanting. “For Kira Nerys, the Truthgiver,” they said as one, though none of them offered any resistance to the deputies who restrained them. “For Kira Nerys, the Truthgiver.”
“That’s enough!”
Ro recognized the voice instantly, though she had never before heard it raised to such a stentorian volume. She turned toward the speaker, who stood silhouetted in the shrine’s Promenade doorway.
Kira Nerys. Being Attainted, the colonel was obviously taking great care not to cross the shrine’s threshold.
“That’s enough,” Kira repeated, once it became clear that she had succeeded in gaining the attention of everyone in the room. The chanting had stopped. “You Ohalavaru have made your point. I’m asking you to exit the shrine nowwith our security staff. I ask that you all move in a quiet and orderly fashion.”
Several of the Ohalavaru looked toward a dark-haired woman who held a squirming toddler in her arms. The woman nodded her assent, and the Ohalavaru responded by scooping up their earrings and filing toward the exit. Unbidden, the security officers followed, keeping a safe distance from the protesters, but staying close enough to protect them should any of the frustrated orthodox Bajorans follow and lash out.
As each of the Ohalavaru passed Kira, Shakaar, and Asarem, they reached out to touch the colonel—no doubt to thank her for exposing them to Ohalu’s prophecies—but she remained impassive, neither acknowledging nor flinching from them. Ro also saw that Kira still had not set a foot within the boundaries of the shrine. She’s still obeying those pompous-ass vedeks who Attainted her.
Ro turned and in a low voice apologized to Vedek Capril for the intrusion. He brusquely accepted her words, then glared across the room toward Kira. Ro knew that Capril had been on pleasant terms with Nerys in the past; had her Attainder changed that, or had the Ohalavaru demonstration merely rattled him?
Following the last of her officers out of the shrine, Ro strode over to First Minister Shakaar. “I’ll leave a detachment of guards posted nearby in case of any further disturbances, Minister,” she said.
He nodded, one eyebrow cocked as he watched the officers herding the Ohalavaru through the Promenade toward the security office and the adjacent holding cells. “I hope that this will be the onlytrouble they’ll make here in the coming days.”
“Perhaps if they weren’t aboard the same station as their leader,”said Vedek Bellis, his baleful gaze cast upon Kira.
“I don’t believe that Colonel Kira has either endorsed or allied herself with the Ohalavaru, Vedek Bellis,” Shakaar said. He put a hand on the rotund man’s shoulder, half turning him back toward the temple interior, and beckoned to Asarem. “Come, let’s renew our devotion to the Prophets and Their Word.”
Ro couldn’t help but wonder if Shakaar had just gone out of his way to remind Kira that she wasn’t permitted inside.
Asarem nodded almost imperceptibly. Apparently avoiding eye contact with either Kira or Ro, she turned back toward the temple to join Shakaar and Bellis. Ro saw Kira hesitate for a moment, then spin on her heel and walk briskly away from the shrine entrance. Ro could see that Kira’s jaw was clenched so tightly that she could have bitten through hull metal without any trouble.
Deputy Etana approached Ro with a padd. “All sixteen of the Ohalavaru have been taken into custody, Lieutenant. We kept the mother and her child together. They’re all cooperating fully with us. From the way they’re acting now, you’d never guess they did anything wrong.”
“In theirminds, they didn’t,”Ro said, looking over the names on the padd. More information was being added remotely, from the officers working at the security office, and it continuously scrolled onto the tiny display. None of the names belonged to known felons, though one of them seemed familiar: Cerin Mika. Pointing to the name, she gave the padd back to Etana. “Pull any files we have on all of these people, but I want you to pay particular attention to hers. Then send them on their way unless their files give us any further reason to hold them.”
Catching the attention of the nearby Sergeant Shul, Ro pointed back to the shrine. “Shul, I want you and three others to take the first shift watching the temple. Tomorrow is going to be complicated enough without more surprises around here.”
After Shul acknowledged her order and peeled away, Ro turned back to Etana and put her hand on the woman’s shoulder. “I need to go and…brief the colonel on a few things, Kol,” she said, using Etana’s familiar name. “You’re in charge here.” Ro looked at her chronometer and saw that one day had segued into the next just ten minutes ago. She sighed profusely. “Not a very auspicious beginning for this eve of peace, is it?”
Etana smiled warmly and patted Ro’s hand. “We’ll get through it, Laren. Go take care of the colonel.”
I’ve got to tell her,Ro thought as she approached the sliding doors to Kira’s office. As the doors whisked open, she saw Kira sitting with most of the illumination off, the distant stars shining brilliantly through the office window. Kira appeared to be meditating, or perhaps praying. Good for her. The damned vedeks can’t do anything aboutthat.
“Colonel,” Ro said softly. “Are you all right?”
“Yes,” Kira said. Then just as quickly, “No.”
“I’m glad you showed up when you did,” Ro said. “You saved us from what could have been a very…distressing scene. It seems that the Ohalavaru are pretty intent on getting you reinstated into the Bajoran faith.”
“Huhn,” Kira said, half chuckling. “So I’ve heard. Did you know that there were similar demonstrations in shrines in every province on Bajor? There were only a handful of Ohalavaru in each place. All of them stripped their earrings off. Because of me.”
“I hadn’t heard,” Ro said. “Was anyone hurt?”
“Thankfully, no. There were some scuffles and shouting matches, but everything seems to have been resolved peacefully. For now, at least.”
“I’m not sure I should say this, Colonel, but maybe you should be glad that you have the support of so many passionate people. It says good things about you. And about your decision not to let the Vedek Assembly suppress the Ohalu text.”
“Good things?” Kira placed a hand to her bare right ear as though unconsciously feeling for a phantom limb. “Whatgood? I’ve unleashed a horrifying division on the people of Bajor. I’m responsible for who knows how many believers losing their faith! Maybe Vedek Yevir was right about me all along. Maybe what I did was rash and unthinking and stupid.Maybe I’ve only begunto reap the condemnation I’m due.”
Ro felt profoundly sad that Kira apparently couldn’t recognize how much she meant to so many. “You did what I would never have had the courage to do, Nerys,” she said, using Kira’s given name for the first time. “You, with all your faith in the Prophets and Their Will, you still did what was right.” Kira stared back at her, and even in the near darkness, Ro sensed that she was listening intently.
“Haven’t you considered the dichotomy of the Ohalavaru’s actions tonight?” Ro asked. “The teachings of Ohalu tell them that the Prophets may not be everything they have been taught. So why, when they’re rejecting the most basic tenets of that religion, would the Ohalavaru stage a planetwide protest, which has the apparent goal of forcing the Vedek Assembly to take you back into the fold?”
“I…I don’t know,” Kira said plainly.
“Well, I haven’t talked to any of them directly yet, but I think I know what their answer is going to be. You were punished because you gave them a choice. Before you uploaded the prophecies of Ohalu, they had only two options: join up with the faithful, or become outcast agnostics like me. But now they have another path to follow, one that seems to offer them some concrete possibilities for the future. And don’t think that their timing wasn’t influenced by the upcoming signing. Bajor’s entry into the Federation will offer its people even more freedom. New belief systems, new technologies, new interspecies interactions…”