Libernobis

When one looked at Admiral Dakin Patterson, the first impression was very unassuming. Yes, he was an admiral and the rank showed on his uniform accordingly, but when Kira saw the older man, whose hair was receding and skin was a friendly shade of peach and pink, she thought like everyone else and instantly liked him. By the end of Kira’s meeting with the admiral, Kira still liked him, though with a greater understanding and respect for the former calculus professor. He remained nice during the meeting, though the strength and firmness beneath his advisement and orders had been unmistakable.  He was one of the few people she had encountered who could balance friendliness with firmness so well. Almost always the scale tipped in one direction too far and a commanding officer could lose the respect of those beneath them.

The admiral and his friendly face had still been on Kira’s mind as she waited outside of the temple Weyoun was in. He was fortunate that Bajor and the Federation wanted to heal wounds with the Dominion, otherwise he would not have had this opportunity. Personally, Kira felt almost offended to have him at one of their orbs. Yes, it wasn’t a reasonable feeling, but when someone was so arrogantly sure about who their gods were and you knew all they wanted to do was poke fun at your own, it didn’t leave a pleasant feeling sitting in the bottom of your stomach. It was that same, solid mass in her stomach that had Kira wishing she could rub over her abdomen.

“Ah, Major,”

Turning at the sound of Weyoun’s distinct voice, she gave the ambassador a formal inclination of her head. In turn a smile stretched over his face, with a degree of falseness, and the Vorta graced her with a similar gesture. Leading the Vorta and his three Jem’hadar guards back to the shuttle, Kira remained silent until the small group was on board and had departed for the station.

“So, was your visit productive?” The Bajoran officer asked, though it was less out of personal interest and more to pass the time and to get his impression of their culture. Perhaps if the Vorta had a better understanding of the Bajoran faith it would help in the peaceful talks between the Dominion and the Federation. There had to be a first step.

“Orb experiences, are they not personal? Aren’t they an intimate event that you do not customarily share?” He asked pointedly but politely.

“You’ve been acting odd since your arrival to the station.” Kira replied, not admitting that that was indeed a personal experience. This was not the usual case of a simple individual going to the orbs, this was a servant with a genetic predisposition to worship other aliens. Everything Weyoun did, he did for a reason. “And your lack of forthcoming now bothers me. A visit to the orbs is not a small ordeal.”

“Major Kira,” Weyoun began and looked at her. “When I was last here, were you not a Colonel?” The Vorta asked, changing the subject ever so carefully and gave Kira a small, albeit slightly patronizing, smile. All of it was just to avoid her line of questioning, which he found tiring.

The Major took a few moments to respond, seemingly ignoring him as Deep Space 9 loomed, like a child’s toy, brown and bronze in color, dangling over a crib, in the view screen. “I was a Colonel, but there was this ambassador on the station. He annoyed me by avoiding questions and trying to anger me in order to distract me. It worked and now I am a Major again.” Kira replied smoothly, not letting on if it was true or not, and glanced at Weyoun. The Dominion Ambassador remained silent and looked to the station.

“I have a greater understanding of your people, your gods, now that I have experienced one of your orbs. ” Weyoun finally told Kira. They were almost there now; Kira was positioning the shuttle to descend and hide within the docking ring. The details of the station’s docking ring came into view as they lowered into the waiting dock. The sources of light from outside sharply cut off and the cabin of the shuttle was full of artificial light.

Almost impulsively, Weyoun spoke again. “Major,” he paused and turned to look at her in his chair, “may I ask a favor of you?” While his voice wasn’t overly urgent, it was still clear that he expected, and very much wanted, an answer quickly.

“You’ve asked to see one of our orbs and got it, I can’t imagine what other favors you might ask.” Looking to the Vorta, Kira decided to humor him. “What is it?”

“I am aware that the Federation did mapping in the Gamma Quadrant prior to the war. Was this one of the areas?” Weyoun asked and then procured a small datapadd from his jacket and handed it over. The coordinates were of a specific area, one outside of the Dominion and one that Weyoun could admit that he didn’t know much about.

“I think we did. What do you want?” Kira asked, after she thoroughly looked over the information on the datapadd. It was a strange question to be sure, but she wanted to have an idea of why.

For a moment, Weyoun didn’t answer and then looked to Kira, giving her a simple smile. “Founder Odo assigned me a project while I was here. Part of it is to work with the Federation and if necessary, pool resources.” Weyoun explained to her, his hands folded neatly in front of him.

~*(O)*~

“And then, that was it. ” Lesedi blinked at Kira from across the small table in the middle of the Bajoran’s quarters. Thoughtfully, the woman took a sip of the Bajoran Spring wine that she’d brought to the dinner. The quarters were nicely decorated with a woman’s touch, though in her opinion, any touch was better than the empty grey and browns of the metal walls. Kira had done well with light orange and red cloths hanging on the walls and some pictures of Bajoran landscape mounted orderly. It was certainly an improvement.

“You gave him the star charts then? Well, it does make sense, they are just star charts. ” What argument could she really make against giving them to him and not endanger the fragile peace they had with the Dominion right then? Kira seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

“It isn’t as if there is any sensitive information in them. There weren’t any planets in it that bore any substantial life, nothing that I can think of that the Dominion doesn’t already have access to. It’s the why he was asking for them that has me wondering,.” Kira Nerys said with a sigh and pushed the plate away before sitting back some. “I’m sorry Lesedi,” She apologized and laughed some. “You came here for a nice dinner and I’m talking your ear off with all this,”

The dark skinned woman waved it off and wiped her mouth. “Please, it’s good to know and a nice change. All this debate on Bajor, people like Vorak, it is a relief to focus on something else.” She smiled. “Anyway, at least this is first hand information. It’s better than hearing about the Romulan border or some new thing on Cardassia via the table next to mine at lunch. ” Both women laughed some. Deep Space 9 was good for being a pool teeming with rumors and hushed conversations and you could only listen to a small fraction of any of it.

 

A/N: In comparison to Ad Astra, I get very few reviews here and I'm weak, I need those reviews. Because of this I kind of neglected aff.net and updating. Libernobis is complete, you just have to go to the URL below to see it. I will try to remember to finish it up here, but generally I've been sticking to there. Susan, thanks for reviewing, I really appreciate it! It is nice to get feedback!

http://www.adastrafanfic.com/viewstory.php?sid=870&warning=5