Soul Delving

Posted on Fri Oct 7th, 2016 @ 9:05pm by Indra Nyyar & Eldren Tohr

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Ha'Dara Bajoran Restaurant

* Ha’Dara Bajoran Restaurant *

“We’re a little early but I sent a message to remind Nyyar of the time.” Daren waited until Dolen Vral was seated and comfortable, then sat down in the chair to his right. It left one empty seat for Nyyar across from Daren, which would allow him to face her directly. When the waiter appeared, he ordered drinks, then turned back to Vral. “You’ve not said much about our run-in with Tohr.”

“That’s because there’s not much to say.” Vral grumbled. “His attitude hasn’t changed a bit all these years. It will bring ill to him one day or another and I’m a bit sorry that Nyyar ended up with one like him. That’s no good for her.”

“He would have struck either of us down for her,” Daren observed. “A surprising weakness given your descriptions of him from the Kohn-ma days.”

“That has been a weakness already back then. I’m not surprised about that, I remember how he was willing to throw everything away to shoot down the few Cardassians that were rounding up people. And for what? Only to have the entire village razed within one day and ourselves killed along with all Kohn-Ma plans.”

“Of course you chose right,” Daren agreed. “The good of the many, yes? Still surprising that of all those taken, only Nyyar survived.” He didn’t give voice to his opinion on how she had managed to do that.

“Her comeliness might have saved her but I wouldn’t say that living the rest of your life in the hands of a Cardassian can be envied.”

“I cannot imagine what it was like,” Daren replied. “But like you, I wonder at the situation now. However, it’s not exactly anyone’s place to ask, is it? Tohr certainly doesn’t seem inclined to answer such questions.”

“I greatly doubt he’ll give up any information willingly and I would not try to garner it otherwise from him. Perhaps Nyyar will shed some light on what happened, but I don’t want to pry so…”

“Are you suggesting I should?”

“No, all the contrary. If she happens to reveal any particulars on her own so much the better, for I don’t think we have the right to put her under pressure. Think she’s endured hardships enough.”

Daren nodded. “I think that --” He stopped suddenly as Nyyar approached the table and stood. “Good evening Nyyar.”

She greeted Vral and Daren, then sat as Daren held her chair. “It’s good to see you two again. How are you?”

“We are fine, thank you. Well, at least I am and Daren here seems too,” Vral responded with a nod to the young Bajoran as he smiled warmly to her.

“Good.” She reached over to squeeze Vral’s hand gently. “I trust you’ve had some time to see the station? I am happy to show you around too, if you wish. I’ve just had some things to attend to today so I wasn’t as available as I wanted to be.”

“That is an agreeable thing to which I gladly submit. Even if I’m not a great walker anymore.”

“And you Daren? Will you join us tomorrow?” she asked. A waiter appeared to leave her a glass of water, which she sipped. “Tohr is down on Archadia for the next day or so on business so my time is all yours.”

Daren considered a moment, then shrugged. “We’ll see. I have some things to do for Vral and I’m sure you two would like some time to catch up.”

“A couple of hours of leisure will not compromise anything. You too could use some relaxation Daren,” Vral chuckled, taking one of the glasses the waiter had just brought. “Cheers, as the Terrans say,” and sipped, savouring the beverage.

“Cheers,” Nyyar echoed the toast. “Shall I order for us? Then you two must have plenty of questions, given the events in my quarters.”

“I’ll be fine with everything you order.” Vral nodded. “And for the questions… I admit I have a certain curiosity, some circumstances are clearly odd and I’ve wondered how you came out of your predicament from that day in Tahlàl… But I won’t turn this dinner into an interrogatory.”

“I don’t mind, really.” Nyyar paused the conversation as the waiter returned and ordered dinner for the three of them. Once he was gone she turned back to Vral. “Ask whatever you like. I know I am likely still the topic of conversation and opinion back in the village after my sudden reappearance.”

“Gossipers.” Vral shrugged. “The elder ones, and they are few now, have a particularly dim view of comely women that have survived the Occupation on Cardassia Prime.”

“That sums it up very well I think,” Daren responded. He straightened his silverware as he considered his next words. “They see such women as traitors, especially those who seemed to stay voluntarily once the occupation was over.”

“Voluntarily is quite the inference speaking of Cardassians…” Vral remarked, casting a glance to Nyyar to gauge her reaction.

Nyyar’s jaw tightened for an instant. “I suppose they might if they haven’t gone through it themselves and know nothing of the reality. I did stay but the reasons are complex, Daren. Do you have any idea what it’s like to be taken by a deadly enemy, delivered into the very heart of the enemy’s operation, then suddenly treated with kindness? Protected? Loved?”

“Loved?” Daren scoffed. “What does a Cardassian know of love? Especially for someone like you who they saw as expendable?”

Nyyar took a deep breath, refusing to rise to the bait. Instead, she smiled. “That actually has much to do with Vral’s question don’t you think? How I survived most of my life in such a situation?”

“Until now I had the presumption to think that I’d seen it all with war and all that. Perhaps the Path still has some surprises in store for me. There is this hearsay that would have Cardassians very attached to family, but I thought they reserved it only for their own race,” Vral said, slowly turning the glass between fingers.

“That’s what I thought too,” Nyyar admitted. “I didn’t speak a word to him or anyone else for two weeks after I arrived at his home on Bajor. He brought me something every day….flowers, little gifts. Even had the housekeeper serve Bajoran food. I finally told him my name.” She noticed Daren’s expression darkening and sighed aloud. “Slowly, we got to know each other. He never said a harsh word to me. He was, actually, very concerned and caring at first. He did everything he could to take care of me. He never touched me until much later, not until our relationship had deepened and I was older. So what you want to know is...yes, I loved him. At least until I found out recently what he actually did for Cardassian Intelligence.”

Vral kept looking his half-full glass, pondering in silence for a while. “Must have been a hard blow to find out the truth,” he asked in the end.

“Yes.” Nyyar paused as the appetizer was delivered to the table and the waiter hurried away. “To find out that my whole life had been based on a lie? A hidden secret? He wasn’t lying to me, about us, he was just not revealing the other part of his life. How could he be truthful at home and then go do that? It was impossible to reconcile. It was at that time I met Paz, the man who eventually helped me escape Cardassia. We planned for a year and then we did it. But even he held secrets. He didn’t tell me that escape was actually the idea of Zikar’s assistant, planned for political reasons.”

“Even so, he did you a huge favor,” Daren commented. “Though from what I hear, it pushed Zikar over the edge.”

Nyyar nodded. “Yes, it did, which was their plan.”

“I’m sure Zikar has never been different from his true self. He just played two roles, the heartless torturer and killer of our kin in the day and the gentle master of the prize he gained through his pillaging.” Vral words had assumed a bitter tone now, the hint of a deep old rage skimming the surface, so similar to Tohr’s albeit far more tenuous in comparison. “He pursued you bent on having you back or destroy you but… He found Tohr on his path. Right?”

Nyyar nodded. “Yes. It was, perhaps, the Prophets that put all the pieces in motion, who knows? It was at this restaurant that I first met Tohr. We began to talk and he realized I was the girl he’d watched so often, the one you knew too, Vral. That night, he arrived just in time. If he had not, I’d be dead now.”

“A strange story indeed. If someone had told me back on Bajor instead of hearing your words I wouldn’t have believed it. Still...” Vral paused carefully considering the words he was about to say “Despite his timing in saving you Tohr is a… Complex character.”

“Meaning what?” Nyyar asked.

Daren spoke up immediately. “Meaning that he is dangerous and is likely using you for a pawn, just as everyone else in your life has. He --”

Nyyar reached out, resting her hand on his arm and interrupted. “I will not have you speak ill of Tohr. Do you understand me?”

“Fine.” Daren pulled his hand away from her, laid his napkin on the table, and rose. “Then you likely do not want to hear the rest of what I have to say. Vral, I will see you back in quarters. Good evening.” He turned and quickly departed the restaurant.

Vral frowned watching the young Bajoran go then turned to Nyyar. “I’m very sorry of this sudden rudeness Daren has shown to you, I don’t know what could possibly be wrong with him. Really this wasn’t the outcome I was looking forward to this evening and if you want to get back to your quarters I’ll understand.”

“He left the table, not you.” Nyyar smiled back at Vral. “It seems he doesn’t approve of the choices I’ve made in my life. What’s odd is that I cannot decide which bothers him more, Zikar or Tohr.”

“Probably both of them in equal measure. I’ve always thought him too young to harbor the elder ones’ prejudices” Vral shrugged slightly. “It is true that in all the time he’s worked with me he never manifested his feelings on anything and I never asked anything.”

“If it helps, I have no illusions about Tohr. I know about his lifelong quest to find those responsible for the Occupation. I’ve seen his list,” she admitted. “It’s not my place to try and change that. Till now, it’s what has kept him going I think.”

“He seems to know nothing else than his savage thirst for vengeance. It is much time that he’s lived on the edge, one of these days he’ll slip and get caught or…” Vral stopped just short of one word glancing uneasily at Nyyar.

“Killed?” Nyyar asked, her voice soft. “He very nearly was in getting me back from Boroca on Cardassia. We made it to DS9 and his life was saved….by a Cardassian. The Butcher.”

“I can’t believe this Cardassian is still able to walk with his own legs. Time ago nothing would have stopped Tohr from having his way and be done with it, not even a debt of gratitude.” Vral said perking an eyebrow. “As the Occupation progressed with Tohr earning praise after praise from our superiors, for the successes and the jobs neatly done, I always thought that there was something dark about him. Perhaps I wasn’t entirely right.”

“There is,” Nyyar agreed. “But I think that I ease that somewhat. The man I know and the one you describe are distinctly different. As for the Butcher, Jarad, he is here. On 900.”

“Here?” Vral asked in surprise “What an occasion this would be if only the hostilities weren’t over,” he added then, a thin smile forming on the lips as his eyes gazed beyond Nyyar, lost on some scheming of his own, a legacy of his past in the Kohn-Ma. After some instants, though, he recollected himself returning to look at her “Nonsense now.”

“How so?” she asked. “Perhaps it is better that Daren didn’t hear that Jarad is on station. He seems to be unsettled by all this.”

They were interrupted by the waiter who came with their dishes looking quizzically at the three plates in his hands and the two people seated at the table.

“Ah… Our friend had to leave,” Vral said gesturing to the table. “Leave it here, please. We’ll share his plate.” The waiter did as requested and departed, leaving them to their conversation.

“I think Tohr’s presence here is having that same effect on you,” Nyyar observed.

“Maybe I’m frowning on Tohr’s attitude and on his inability to cope with the reality of the present times but I do not forget for a moment what I fought for, alongside him. The Butcher has a long bill to pay. He’s been lucky that the Federation stepped in before he’d been caught by us. But is all part of the past for me now...”

“Do you believe people can change?” she asked. “And change to the degree that perhaps they aren’t who they were?”

“I’ll be sincere with you. I find that hard to believe and Tohr is my best example.”

Given what she knew of Tohr’s current activities with Suresh, Nyyar had to consider that Vral might be right.

“And you think I may be making a mistake? Daren certainly does.”

Vral inspired deeply as his shoulders slumped a little “I think that the past must be buried and with your return to freedom, at last, you would deserve far better than a criminal to rebuild your life.”

“He has put himself in great danger more than once for me. Isn’t that worth something?”

“It is. I’m not denying that; he would have done that in the first place if allowed to. But now he’s a wanted man, full of enemies. Would you spend the rest of your life waiting for his return every time he leaves with the likely possibility that he does not return at all? And shivering each time you hear a knock at your door and he’s not there? These are things that have to be taken into account, don’t you think?” He chuckled then, strangely. “He would blast me out of existence if he was here now hearing my words.”

“I think,” Nyyar began, “that there are some things he has always wanted. One became a lifelong obsession. The other he gave up on until it was dropped in his path. That thing was also something of an obsession and one he will not give up, any more than he gave up his quest to track down the Cardassians.”

“Everyone has his own path to follow it seems. Be it for the good or the bad,” Vral said pushing away the now-empty plate.

“Yes,” Nyyar agreed. “What really brought you and Daren out here?”

“Well what happened with Zikar and Boroca will have repercussions in all the quadrant and especially on Bajor. We came here indeed hoping to gather informations. I’m retired now and too old to fight again but I’m not going to leave Bajor undefended if I can help it, while Daren is still young, dreaming of a greatness of Bajor recognized by all civilized cultures… And with a temper, now I see.”

“Yes he has.” Nyyar took a last bite of her dinner before continuing. “He also seems to have a real issue with me, beyond what the general sentiment is back in the village. Any idea why?”

“I don’t know. As I said he never talked too much about himself or his ambitions or projects or other. I think I noted his interest in your name when our search brought it up but anything he’s been thinking or feeling about that he kept for himself.”

Nyyar smiled finally. “Whatever it is seems to be getting closer to the surface with him so perhaps we will know soon. Would you care for a walk now that dinner is done?”

“I think that’s a good idea.” Vral responded rubbing his belly.

“My pleasure.” She waited for Vral to stand, then slipped her hand around his arm as they departed.

******************

Dolen Vral
Discovering

Indra Nyyar
Explaining

Daren Reim
Reacting