Loss of an Angel

Aurora Khan (ltrotsky17@hotmail.com)

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Codes: Kira, Garak, Ziyal, Dukat

Disclaimer – Paramount is Paramount.

Synopsis: After the death of Tora Ziyal, Kira Nerys relates

how she found Gul Dukat and Ziyal.

Archiving: Please do not archive anywhere. If you’d like to

Link to my story, please e-mail me and let me know. I like to know where my stories are so I can come and visit.

Homepage: http://www.oocities.org/auspicious17

Feedback: Always. Anything. Even one line will be cherished.

Author’s Notes:

It’s DS9’s writing staff’s fault for writing such great

stuff that I was compelled to finish off one of the

episodes. That episode was "The Sacrifice of Angels", the

one where the Federation finally triumphed over the

Dominion/Cardassian Alliance.

The ending left me in shock for several moments, and that

led to his story. It’s my first foray into the DS9 land of

fanfiction,

Historical Note: This takes place right during/after the ending of "The

Sacrifice of Angels".

=/\==/\==/\==/\==/\==/\==/\==/\==/\==/\=

It was a time of celebration all over the rest of Deep

Space Nine, and indeed, the rest of the Federation. News of

the Defiant’s defeat of the Dominion/Cardassian alliance

must have reached Starfleet Headquarters at warp speed, and

the sound of corks popping was most likely filling San Francisco.

On the Promenade, families who had been torn apart by war

were reuniting. It was a time of great joy, triumph and

celebration.

But Tora Ziyal, one of the people who had helped make

it all possible, was dead.

Major Kira Nerys stood in the Infirmary, numbly staring

at the corpse of the young Bajoran-Cardassian girl. Kira had

faced death more times than she cared to count. But the sudden demise of

such a talented, sweet young woman…that was something Kira

wasn’t able to convince herself was real.

Sudden footsteps alerted her that someone was

approaching the vicinity.

It was Garak, the Starfleet-issue phaser hanging at his

hip testifying to the fact that he’d been on the Defiant

during its kamakazie mission to destroy the anit-graviton

beam or, if all else had failed, the wormhole. Since he was

still alive, it was clear that other measures had been

taken to stop the Dominion invasion force from entering the

Alpha Quadrant. Damar, Cardassian leader Gul Dukat’s second-in-command, had had Kira, Leeta, and Jake Sisko arrested—for no reason other than to make sure that they didn’t try to sabotage the station until the Federation arrived. If it hadn’t been for Quark and Ziyal breaking the trio, plus Rom, out of jail, it would be the Cardassians now popping open bottles of kanar.

Kira watched silently as the Cardassian made his way

next to the biobed. "She loved you," she said simply.

"I could never figure out why," Garak said as he

touched Ziyal’s cold cheek. "Now…I suppose I never will."

The silence between the Major and Garak was tangible.

Neither could think of anything appropriate to say, yet the

stillness was becoming unbearable.

"How did it happen?" asked Garak softly. "Why?" His

voice betrayed no emotion whatsoever; he was a master of

deception.

"I’m not exactly sure," Kira admitted, her voice

pitched low also, as if talking in a normal tone would

somehow dishonor Ziyal. If she lived to be two hundred,

never would she forget this day. Never.

"It was about the time the Defiant started attacking

the station. Rom and I had gone to disable the weapons, and

we remained in hiding while the Cardassians and JemHa’Dar

were evacuating the station. Jake, Quark, Leeta and Ziyal

had gone somewhere else, we didn’t have time to discuss the

location. When all the Cardassians and Dominion soldiers

were gone, and preparations were being made to welcome the

Federation back onto the station. Rom and I made our way

onto the Promenade…"

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

Rom had quickly found Leeta among the throng of people.

Kira had left the two love birds to themselves while she

looked for Ziyal. The girl was no where to be found, at

least on the Promenade. She asked the computer to locate

Tora Ziyal, and the computer had given her the location.

Kira had hurried away from the crowd of Bajoran

citizens and Federation officers celebrating their victory.

She had sensed something was wrong as she’d approached her

destination. The corridor was quiet, even seemed to have a

solemn air to it. There was no sign that there was anything

alive. A sense of fore brooding filled Kira, and she ran

down the corridor—and then came to an abrupt halt.

A meter away, was the hunched over figure of a

Cardassian. That had been peculiar enough, no Cardassian was

foolish enough to remain on the station, the Federation

would have taken them into custody immediately. But then

she’d recognized the figure.

It was Gul Dukat.

But it wasn’t the proud, arrogant, pompous Dukat she,

and everyone else had known for five years. It was the

crumbled, dispirited, broken hearted form of a man who had

lost everything near and dear to him. But what had he lost?

Certainly, he wasn’t this broken up over the station—he had

lost it before. Then what had made him so distraught that---

"Ziyal!" The words had come out of Kira’s mouth even

before she knew what she was saying.

Dukat sat up and turned around, giving the Major her

first glimpse of Ziyal. The still face and the blaster wound

on the young woman’s chest made it clear that Dukat’s

daughter was dead, and she was the reason Dukat had thrown

everything away and remained on Deep Space Nine.

"Everything will be all right, Ziyal. Everything will

be all right. See, Major Kira is here, we’ll both take care

of you, and we’ll go home together. To Cardassia, Ziyal,

we’ll both go, and everything will be all right," Dukat

crooned to his daughter. "Everything will be all right. You

forgive me, I’m your father. And I forgive you, my

daughter…"

His ranting made it crystal clear that Dukat was no

longer in a rational state of mind. The death of his

daughter, however it had come about, had apparently pushed

him over the edge.

Kira cautiously approached Dukat, crouching down beside

him. "Dukat?"

Gul Dukat turned to face her, his right hand never

letting go of Ziyal’s. "Major…" He seemed to have forgotten

what he was going to say.

"What happened?" Kira did a quick once over of Dukat,

there was no sign of any sort of weapon on him. He hadn’t

done it, so who had? What cold hearted bastard would---

"Damar," Dukat spat out, a moment of lucidity shining

in his eyes. "Damar shot her." His eyes glazed over, and

leaned over over his daughter, cradling her face in his gray

hands. "But you'll be all right, Ziyal. Everything will be

all right…"

The Major no longer noticed Dukat, her mind was reeling

in shock.

Damar had killed Ziyal.

Suddenly, Kira remembered when she'd given the Damar

the thrasing he'd deserved and left him laying on the cargo

bay floor. Ziyal had looked on with horrified fascination

and asked,"Is he dead?"

Obviously, he hadn't been.

But Kira wished that she had killed him then.

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

"…and Dukat stayed like that for, I don't know, what

felt like forever. He just sat there, calling Ziyal's name,

and saying that everything would be okay. The security

officers that came to get Dukat had to sedate him before

they got him to leave Ziyal," Kira finished. She waited for

Garak to say something along the lines of, "At least Dukat's

as good as dead," or "With Damar in charge, it won't be long

before Cardassia falls apart." But he didn't say anything at

all.

Garak just gazed at Ziyal for a few moments, taking in

the youthful face that had apparently been destined never to

age. For a second, a mournful look seemed to appear on the

tailor's face, but when Nerys blinked, it was gone.

"I never understood why," he repeated. "And I never

will." Garak's fingers grazed Ziyal's cheek one more time,

and he said something in his native tounge that the

Universal Translator failed to decipher. He left the

Infirmary without a backward glance.

It wouldn't be until many years later that Kira Nerys

would learn that Garak had whispered," I loved you too."

=/\==/\==/\==/\==/\==/\==/\==/\==/\==/\=

Author's Afterword:

I am not postulating that there was a Garak/Ziyal

relationship. For those of you who think that there was, I'm

not debating the point. For those of you who things there

wasn't, I'm not debating that either. But what I am saying

is that the word 'love' has many different definitions in

various contexts, so it's up to you to decide what Garak

meant.

Aurora Khan December 21, 1997

"The truth is usually just an excuse for a lack of

imagination."--Garak

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