ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN
Veronica Jane Williams
xkhoi@iafrica.com

Disclaimer: Paramount owns them. I created a few very special
characters, most notably Anina Kashyk, and Lushana.

Summary: Five years aftre Voyager left Devore space, Kashyk lies
Dying. He tells his tale to a young girl.

Amansure Nidal felt the excitement rise in him. It started as a
churning in his stomach, and spiraled upwards to settle as a wild
thudding of his heart. Pressing his fingers just beneath the lobe
of his ear, he marveled at the way the artery throbbed, his neck
skin rising and falling in the rhythm of his heartbeat. His eyes
held a gleam of triumph. He was closing in on his prey,
and the anticipation that he would soon lead his captive home,
afforded him a glorious sense of achievement. He will then have
conquered the one man he had made it his life's mission to see
justly punished and executed. From deep in his throat came a sound.
It was something like the growl of the chamka - the most beautiful
and fearful of the Devore cat-like animals - when it sensed that
the adventure of the hunt was entering its final phase. Nidal's
growl tapered into a whoosh of exhilaration as he entered the new
co-ordinates. .

Nidal looked at the read-out on his computer screen, and considered
for a moment again the importance of his mission. Lest the Council of
the Imperium think him a useless adversary for his prey, he began his
daily log:

Tracker Amansure Nidal
Chief Tracking Agent's log: Date 57000.8

I have damaged the vessel of the Accursed. Although he has
managed to elude me, my sensors have picked up his trail. I know
that he is unable to maintain his lead over me. It is only matter
of days before I will catch up with him. The possibility that he
may himself have sustained injuries cannot be ruled out, but the
extent or nature of his injuries remain to me only a matter
of record. I will, once I come face to face with him, exterminate
him.

After five years in which this daigha has eluded me, taunted me,
tormented me, yet never conquered me, I can finally say that my
mission has been a success. In the name of the Imperium will I,
Amansure Nidal, kill the Devore's Most Wanted.

end log.

*
Amansure Nidal sat back in his chair, smiling grimly. Finally,
after five long years, he will see that miserable Accursed again
in the flesh; come face to face with the man who had so successfully
eluded him in this clever game of hunter and hunted. Nidal will come
face to face with the man who, for five long years, played mind
games with him. The former Inspector has managed to outwit him,
outsmart him, angered him, yes, even elicited Nidal's grudging
admiration. This daigha, this Accursed of the Imperium had proved a
worthy adversary. His desperate attempts to survive and stay one
step ahead of his enemy garnered the respect only of the man who
pursued him, and made the fugitive the golden prize of the Devore
Imperium.

Nidal scanned the region. The nearest star system had one planet,
the eighth, which was inhabited. Nidal knew his prey would seek
refuge on a world that was inhabited. , Nidal thought. The Tracking
Agent sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. He could take his
time now. The prey was wounded, and was waiting for him...

No, Nidal admonished himself. He had learned from
the great man himself, when they were both once eager young
trainee inspectors, that the joy of the hunt was the chase. He had
experienced that exhilaration many times when they were sniffing
out telepaths on ships that entered their region of space. The
eventual catching of the prey, a mere formality.

, Nidal
thought as he sped towards the planet Zastron, eighth planet of the
Zastron star system.

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

END PROLOGUE

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN

PART ONE

They found him lying face down in a shallow, sandy ditch. Earlier,
several hours earlier, Lushana thought as she looked at the dying
man, they had seen the flash, like a shooting star. He had been in
an escape pod. His vessel must have been destroyed, or, perhaps,
she surmised, he must have put in on self-destruct. The latter being
the case, she wondered whether the injured man had been pursued,
or why he had been fleeing.

She was startled from her reverie when her father's thought broke
into her own.

<>, her father
spoke.

She turned around, and saw her father, who had just entered the
room.

<>.

Her eyes held compassion, her lips quivered.

<>...

A smile relieved the grave strains in her face. Chellin bent down
and touched her forehead with his forefinger.

<>.

"Father," Lushana said suddenly, speaking aloud for the first time
since the older man entered the room. "We know nothing about him.
We do not know where he came from, and why he was traveling alone,
and - "

"Questions, questions, Lushana. Be patient. Look, he is about to
wake up..."

Both turned to look at the man lying on the low cot. His breathing
was very shallow and erratic. His wounds had been bandaged, but his
body was riddled with scars, some old, others recent. His hair was
black, but streaked with grey. He is battle weary, Chellin thought.
There is no fight left in the dying man. He has reached the end of
his endurance. The dying man's lips were dry, his skin pale,
bloodless. Chellin and Lushana could see his eyeballs move under
the closed lids. He tried to move his head towards the sounds, and
groaned as waves of pain overwhelmed him.

"Shhh... please, do not move," came the soft, gentle voice of
Lushana as she dabbed his parched lips with a sponge. He sighed and
sagged back as the cool liquid relieved him.

Very slowly, with great difficulty he opened his eyes. The figures
appeared to hover above him, registering as nothing more than a
blur, a haziness. Then they seemed to turn, swirling in such
maddening dizziness that he felt the nausea rising. He lay still
for a few moments and closed his eyes again. It felt safer, the
pain less raging through his body. Perhaps it was the gentle voice
that drew him, that made him consider again opening his eyes. When
he tried to open them again, he felt the relief as the dizziness
subsided.

He turned his face to his right. The voice he heard was kind,
gentle. He saw her, an apparition dressed in a simple white tunic.
Her hair was black and long; she had eyes the colour of...of the
smarag stone - a deep, deep green. He was startled. How could it
be? He tried to open his mouth to speak, but for some reason,
looking at her beloved face, his words choked in his throat.

Lushana saw his eyes for the first time. It completed the picture
of this very sick man's face. His eyelashes were long, and although
his face was so pale and his lips parched, the ridge on his forehead
showing a long but superficial gash, Lushana thought that he was a
comely man.

Kashyk looked at her. His hand trembled as he reached to touch her
face. Her eyes...her eyes... They were green. She was...

"No, gaharay - stranger to our world - my name is not Anina. I am
not your daughter."

He tried to lift himself, his tired eyes widening slightly. His
mouth opened and he reached for her hand. She took his hand in
hers, a gesture that immediately calmed him. He lay back again,
his eyes still one her. The words, when they came, issued from his
parched lips as a stammer.

"You - you have... you - "

"I can read your thoughts, gaharay," she said very gently. "I can
picture the things you are thinking, even hear sounds..." She
leaned forward to touch his ridged brow. It felt to him that the
pain went away. Her touch was like the touch of a butterfly - a
beautiful butterfly.

"Butterfly?" she asked softly.

His throat moved again, and Lushana watched in compassion as he
tried to speak.

"Yes..." he said slowly, his chest wheezing. "I - I should call...
you...gaharay... I should h-hate you...and you - you should - "

"There is no hate in you, gaharay," Lushana said, then looked at
her father, who was still standing next to her. Chellin nodded
to his daughter, then turned to speak to their patient.

"You have been mortally wounded, stranger - "

"I know. I - I am...dying," the sick man gasped. "Let me die here,
in peace..."

"What is your name, good man?" Chellin asked.

"I am - I am Kash - Kashy-riyon Kashyk..." he gasped again, before
sagging back against the pillows, his eyes closing. His mouth was
open as his breathing became more and more raspy.

"Once, you used your mental powers to block out intrusion from
telepaths. Yet, I can sense you are not angered by my own
intrusion," Chellin communicated.

"I have learned and come to understand and - and accept many
things, good ---" Kashyk opened his eyes again. "I - "

"My name is Chellin, and this," Chellin said, looking at her with
great tenderness, "is my daughter, Lushana."

"I - I had a... daughter, whom I loved... very much," Kashyk said,
every breath causing him to stutter, and his face to contort with
pain.

For long moments Kashyk looked first at Lushana, then his eyes
rested on Chellin. Lushana smiled a little. Her father's telepathic
ability far exceeded her own. He was able to allow the sick man to
read his own mind, and creating an aura around the two of them, so
that no third person could intrude on their communication. That was
what was happening now as she looked at them.

Finally, the dying man sagged back again, his eyes closing slowly.

Lushana looked in alarm at Kashyk, then at her father.

<>.

<>...

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

Lushana sat very quietly on the low cushion next to the bed on
which Kashy-riyon Kashyk lay. He was restless, and whenever he
cried out in some remembered pain, she leaned forward and soothed
him. She wished so that her mother had been here. Her mother had
great wisdom and she would have known how to offer Kashyk the
solace he craved.

Lushana sighed. She felt she was not equipped to absorb all that
Kashyk wanted to tell her, but her father had been right - he is
always right, she thought - that she reminded Kashyk of other
children who had suffered.

"You should hate me..." she heard Kashyk speak. She had been
staring out the window, pondering on her task, and didn't see him
open his eyes.

"I do not see how I can, Kashy-riyon Kashyk. You are the first of
your race we have seen here. I do not know what you have done that
you should say such words. You are good - "

"I - I am not a g-good man!" His stammer was more from a passionate
denial than his present serious condition.

She frowned and touched the back of his hand.

"I do not understand..."

"I was responsible for the deaths of many..."

He coughed then, and Lushana used a damp cloth to wipe a tiny
stream of blood that escaped from the corner of his mouth.

"Please...I can see it hurts you to speak. You do not have to,
Kashy-riyon Kashyk," Lushana comforted him. She held his hand in
hers as she did a few minutes ago, and smiled kindly when he lay
back again, his eyes never leaving hers. He simply stared and
stared.

"Yes, I know I look like her," she said quietly.

"The same green eyes and black hair..."

The young girl could see Kashyk was tiring himself whenever he
spoke. He had internal bleeding, his wounds so severe that they
could do very little for him, except making him as comfortable as
possible.

"If you will permit me, Kashy-riyon Kashyk, then you do not have to
tire yourself," Lushana murmured gently, her fingers stroking the
back of his hand.

She felt, as soon as she said the words, his spontaneous withdrawal,
followed almost immediately by acquiescence. It was as if he knew
he could trust her, and entrust his deepest emotions to her. He
breathed a little easier, his demeanour somewhat calmer. She knew
that she would be experiencing and sharing his travails, so she
resolved to remain strong.

"You have had many adventures," Lushana offered.

"Adventures? Adventures!" he coughed again, but her hand pressed
him gently back after the bout subsided. His eyes were glistening
as he looked at her, very fevered as he gasped, then blurted:

"I am a murderer..."

"You have remorse," she said softly.

"It was my task, you understand? I was under orders..."

"Then you were forced to do those things?" she asked, paling
slightly. Zastrons were a peaceful people.

"No..."

"You changed, good Kashy-riyon Kashyk," she said with a little
smile.

"He called me a scorpion."

"Scorpion? I do not understand."

"My - my nature that will not change..."

"Who was this man who called you 'scorpion'?"

Kashyk looked at her, then half rose and clutched her arm. He
gasped:

"Chakotay."

"Chakotay... I like the sound of the name."

"But I showed them, Anina, I showed them."

"I am Lushana, Kashyk."

"Forgive me, please. I keep thinking of her..."

Kashyk lay back against the pillow again and closed his eyes.
Lushana almost cried herself as she saw how the tears seeped from
his closed lids.

Only then she leaned a little forward and touched his temple with
her forefinger.

<>.

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

END PART ONE.
TBC PART 2/?

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN
PART 2/?

VOYAGER

Kashyk stood at the shelf of mementos and picked up the microscope.
He was curiously drawn to it as he studied it. He pondered for a
moment on her people's need for knowledge and exploration, and
juxtaposed the extremes of violence and beauty, and the harmony
of it.

"It's six hundred years old. It was given to me by my grandfather,"
he heard her say. He turned his gaze away for a second from the
antique object, and looked at Kathryn Janeway. He was glad she
couldn't hear his soft intake of breath.

Where she sat on her couch, she was thrown in silhouette in the half
light. He wondered idly if she knew at all how stunning she looked.
If she was restless, or unsettled by the Devore presence, if she was
angry, or resentful or bristling with indignation, it did not show.
She looked like a queen, her hands at her sides resting loosely
on the edge of the couch. Her total composure, the regality of her
stance, the proud chin jutting, her eyes and her beautiful hair that
shone like Devore's burnished orom ore almost, almost made him
lose sight of his objective.

"Your culture has many contradictions. Violence and beauty, science
and faith...all somehow mingled harmoniously," he offered as he
pulled his gazed away from her and studied the figure of a bronzed
head.

"From Earth's classical period..."

"Like the counterpoint of this music. Mahler. Symphony Number One.
Am I correct?"

She told him that he knew Voyager's database better than she did
herself.

He prided himself on the fact that he could study the database and
so get to know their - her - weaknesses. Yet, he was curiously
drawn to their Federation's humanitarian philosophy. It was
something completely alien to him. Voyager's database brimmed with
accounts of selfless acts, and at the vanguard of these acts of
courage and great sacrifice in the Delta Quadrant was Kathryn
Janeway. He found it difficult to accept that they could extend the
hand of friendship, and offer refuge to those they've never met.
Kathryn Janeway, he learned, had a bleeding heart when it came to
seemingly lost causes, hard cases; she had a reformist view, he
privately thought. She probably found great personal satisfaction
in the knowledge that she was instrumental in "giving back the
life," in "offering the opportunity for change" to the many she
"rescued."

That was why they were in the Delta Quadrant, so far away from
home: because they helped a beleaguered race. The Federation,
Starfleet, Janeway, Voyager - all inspired by humanitarian ideals.
An admirable philosophy. They had risen to the highest order of the
essence of their way of life: in order to help, they would be
willing to risk all and sacrifice their lives. They were ordered,
disciplined, and manifest a deep respect for individuality and
unity and the preservation of life.

It was this very fact, these very high and lofty ideals that made
him consider what he first sensed, then knew for a fact: they were
harbouring the telepaths on Voyager. Even though, after this third
inspection, and going over Voyager centimetre by centimetre, his men
still found nothing.

He looked at Kathryn Janeway, then smiled the smile that won him his
first wife. He knew Kathryn's likes and dislikes: Coffee, Mahler,
Tchaikovski... She was classical. She was cultured. She was a
humanitarian. She hid something.

He knew the telepaths were there.

He knew it.

He will find them, like he found Reeza. He had one plan, a
masterplan, to get Kathryn Janeway and Voyager to help him. He will
use them, use any form of manipulation necessary, to extract that
critical information from them.

****

Lushana's voice broke into his thoughts. To him it sounded as if it
came from the depths of his memory. He opened his eyes when she
asked:

"The - the relocation centres where you sent the telepaths, were
they treated well there, after losing their own homes?"

Kashyk looked at Lushana, his eyes burning, and with sudden
strength and fierceness he sputtered:

"They were nothing better than concentration camps, Lushana. Hell
holes infested with the stench of death." He watched how she
shrank back. He continued: "Death camps, that's what they were.
Death camps! Young girls..." Kashyk closed his eyes and burned
with the memory of how they were used. But Lushana, whose eyes
filled with tears, prodded him.

"What happened to them?"

"Tortured, raped, murdered..." he croaked, and Lushana could see
the shame in his eyes.

"You were part of this?" Lushana asked, unable to hide her
distress.

"I - " Kashyk paused, then half pulled himself up and held
Lushana's arm. He stared into her pale face: "I put them there! It
was my task. My task! I was as guilty as my subordinates, child. I
was as guilty as those under me who took pleasure in maiming the
innocent. Guilty! Do you understand? Even though, I swear by all
that is beautiful of Devore's three moons, I never touched a
child."

Kashyk sank back against the pillows, exhausted by his outburst.
Lushana touched his arm gently as he started sobbing painfully.
She waited until his sobbing subsided and he had gained a measure
of composure, before she said:

"Tell me about the little girl," she said softly.

"Her name was Reeza," came his quiet response.

"You saved her life."

"I did not save her life. I sent her to her doom."

"What did you tell your beautiful lady about her?"

"Beautiful lady?"

"The lady Captain Janeway..." Lushana said as she took the soft
cloth again and wiped his brow and neck. She put the cloth back
next to the bowl, and then touched his temple with her forefinger.
She felt his thoughts, she felt all the warring emotions that
waged in his heart and mind. Slowly, her mind connected with his
and drifted gently to the plains where she could see a beautiful
starship, and its very beautiful Captain. Lushana frowned slightly
when she saw a man next to the captain. It was a dark, tall man,
with pitch black short cropped hair, and on his forehead, above his
left eyebrow, a strange tattoo...

Kashyk stirred, became agitated at the memory, and so she turned
her attention - and his - to the little girl Reeza...

<>.

Lushana allowed him to lead her to Voyager again, and again she
she the beautiful woman who was the ship's captain...

***

"So, it seems you violate the Prime Directive, by saving these
telepaths," Kashyk said.

"I go with my instincts," she said quickly.

"Act now, reprisal later?"

"I'm on first name basis with some admirals," she retorted. She
gave him a speculative look.

A lesser man would have wilted under that look, he thought. Right
now, they had to work together, although he could sense that she
didn't trust him. He had to win her trust, or his mission would
fail.

"You're risking a lot, too. Why?" she asked.

"Three months ago my teams were inspecting a plasma-refining
vessel. We found a family of telepaths hiding in one of the
extraction tanks. There was a child...very young. She'd been inside
it for days, barely able to breathe. When I lifted her out and set
her down on the deck...she thanked me."

Kashyk knew how to get to Kathryn Janeway, which strings to play,
and right now, her heart was bleeding for a little girl locked in
an extraction tank. It just strengthened his own position, his
ultimate goal. He had her, he thought.

"I sent her to a relocation center with the others, knowing full
well what would happen to her. After that, I could think of nothing
else, and when I couldn't stand it any longer..." He paused.

He looked piercingly at Kathryn, and knew that the dramatic pause at
just the right place, had her sympathy...

Kashyk felt Lushana's finger release from his temple, and he was
brought to the present again. Lushana looked at him, her green eyes
misting over as she said sadly:

"You lied to her... You lied to her... You were never sorry about
Reeza. She - she died, like the others." A few tears slid hotly down
her cheek before she said fiercely to him:

"I'm glad Captain Janeway didn't trust you..."

"We were always playing a game of wit, Lushana. Until then, I
thought I had her. I was winning! I could have had the telepaths,
*and* had Voyager confiscated long before that, I could have," he
sighed, then repeated the words: "I could have..."

Lushana saw how Kashyk had a faraway look in his eyes, but it was
not the end for him yet. She would know when those moments would
arrive.

"You didn't, Kashy-riyon Kashyk."

"She was my downfall..."

"No, Kashy-riyon Kashyk, I think you - "

"I overplayed my hand, Lushana. I wanted my people to know the
co-ordinates of the wormhole, destroy it and eventually, to
exterminate every telepath in sight."

"You trusted her..."

"She outmaneuvered me," he said, trying to lift himself again so that
his face could be near Lushana, as if he thought he could get his
point across that way.

"You saved her life."

"No, I wanted more than just giving the Imperium a few telepaths and
a ship..."

"You saved their lives, Kashyk."

"No," he countered, "Captain Janeway did. She did, Lushana." He gave
a deep sigh.

"Then you... you trusted her enough to make a - a mistake?"

"She - Lushana, if you had known her. She was a serpent! A serpent,
I tell you. I was Chief Inspector Kashyk of the Devore Imperium,
brilliantly outsmarted by Kathryn Janeway."

He sank back against the pillows again, his ridged brow was beaded
with sweat. If he had any pain, he was valiantly trying to repress
it, so that on a number of occasions the young girl would see him
grit his teeth with the effort. His eyes were closed, but he heard
Lushana speak again.

"She must have been a wonderful woman, Kashy-riyon Kashyk, to have
captivated you so," Lushana said, with a tiny smile hovering on her
lips.

Kashyk opened his eyes.

"You are a child. You don't know what you are saying."

"I can see how my father and mother love each other. Yes, my father
is totally captivated by my mother."

"Then you can understand how I felt about Kathryn Janeway?" he
asked, a sudden eager look in his eyes.

"I think, Kashyk, that perhaps you were a little glad that the
telepaths and Voyager got away, after all."

"That is not true, child," he said with some emphasis.

"Then did not your pride stand in the way of telling your own
superiors that you had failed? All you told them was that your
inspection was routine, was it not?

"Lushana, how - "

"Why did you not tell your superiors the truth, Kashyk?" she kept
on.

"I - " Kashyk stared at this young girl, who could be no more than
twelve in Earth years, and who had so much wisdom. "Yes..." he
sighed, closing his eyes, "I withheld the truth from them. She -
Kathryn, she fooled me completely. I was duped into trusting her.
Yes," he repeated, "my pride, my grand ego was bruised, prevented me
from telling what really happened. I drew my own men into this
deception."

"Then it is in your subconscious, Kashy-riyon Kashyk. Even if you
never voiced it, even if you never admitted it, it was a small, a
very small part in the deepest recesses of your heart that very much
wanted to see the telepaths and Voyager to get to safety.."

"You have to understand, my child, that my primary goal was to
find the telepaths, find the wormhole, and destroy it."

"But Captain Janeway risked everything, Kashyk, to save them..."

Kashyk looked at Lushana with growing wonderment. She could indeed
read him, see into his mind.

"You are remarkable, Lushana."

"Why did you trust her, Kashyk?" she asked, ignoring his words.

Kashyk gave a grimace of pain, heaved and sagged back, exhausted.
Lushana stroked his cheek, and soothed him until he became quiet
again.

"It was her kiss..."

<>.

<>...

Lushana touched his temple with her forefinger and in a second she
was back with him on Voyager. This time, she saw more people,
impressions really, of what Kashyk saw of the crew...

**********

Kashyk looked at the way Chakotay touched Kathryn's arm. It was a
light touch, not the kind that indicated a proprietorial attitude,
but one which Kashyk thought Chakotay was unaware of.

Strange. He had not known them long, but what he learned and studied
from their database gave him enough to understand the way Kathryn
Janeway's crew worked.

He was deeply attracted to Kathryn Janeway. She amused him,
intrigued him, stimulated him beyond measure. There was in her eyes,
he thought, something reciprocal. It gave him encouragement, an
opportunity to get to know her better.

But his enthusiasm was dimmed as he watched the way Chakotay touch
her, and the way Kathryn accepted the gesture as so totally natural
and without guile. It was the very absence of proprietorial
motivation that spoke louder than any verbal protestation of "hands
off, she's mine". Kashyk could sense in her First Officer an air of
protection that exuded from him. It was not cloying, nor was it
complacent; but he gained the impression that Kathryn Janeway moved
about in the complete and utter assurance that she could rely on
Chakotay's innate goodness and strength. And Chakotay... Chakotay
didn't have to touch Kathryn at all. Their interaction, the very
subtlety of the communication between them, spoke of a familiarity
that was borne of out their adversity, their mutual reliance. In a
thousand years, he, Kashyk, could not have that with her. With some
painful clarity Kashyk realised that he provided her merely with a
distraction, a sexual chemistry that was as giddy as it was brief
or transient. What she had with her first officer - and here he
wondered if Kathryn appreciated this gift at all - was constancy.

Yes, between Kathryn and her first officer there was something that
transcended immediate physical gratification.

It was unspoken, it was intuitive, it was sublime. Chakotay would
always be - he thought this not without envy - in Kathryn
Janeway's peripheral vision.

Then there was her crew - her senior crew. Kashyk thought of Prax,
always so officious, always so aware of the Imperium's cardinal
laws. Prax was his subordinate, Prax followed his orders. But he
sensed that Prax's role was that of an understudy. He, Kashyk had
this feeling about Prax. It was as if Prax just waited for the
right moment to pounce and stake his claim. Of necessity, Prax had
to carry out any decision his superior made, and while there was
little room for objections if he wanted to raise them, Kashyk made
certain they were carried out. He sometimes thought he saw
something in Prax's eyes; something that smouldered, a barely
curbed anger and indignation. It made Kashyk uneasy, and this
unease was probably what made him act with so much more aloofness,
control, and discipline over his subordinates.

Kathryn Janeway's crew would die for her.

It was in everything they did, everything he noticed about them.
They were smart individuals who took pride in being part of the
Voyager family. "The Voyager collective" as the ex-Borg on board
said. That was the other thing he noticed about them. They were
fiercely clannish. They protected each other, and they protected
her.

They were all superlative in their various fields of expertise.
He could use a pilot like that blue-eyed helmsman. There was very
little the Devore could teach the Federation when it came to
technological advancement. The Voyager crew was dedicated,
committed, each member infused with the collective desire to do
everything in their power to get to their home sectors.

Why, even that yellow-eyed chef with his toothy grin fell all over
himself to please everyone.

He had not known this kind of relationship, not since his wife died
so long ago. Truth is, he had never felt such a sense of belonging
with his own subordinates. He doubted seriously whether Prax would
serve his cause and die for him. For the Imperium, yes. No, Kashyk
thought, he didn't have that with his crew. Perhaps it was the
nature of his work that required in a way a different style of
leadership. But leadership was leadership. His men respected him
because they feared him. There was little comparison. When
underlings respected their leader out of admiration and love, when
they shared the same vision and drive, when they knew that to
embark on a new and strange adventure had the blessing of their
leader, how could Kathryn Janeway not be loved by her crew?

But she was, he suspected, a lonely person too, and that was where
he would serve her need.

Now he had the opportunity to forge something with Kathryn Janeway.
They shared a love for beautiful things, for beauty.

Aurora Borealis.

Infinite spirals.

Beauty. Beautiful.

Yet, the unease grew in him as he saw that Chief Engineer, B'Elanna
Torres' looks. She could kill him, if she had the opportunity, it
seemed. They didn't trust him within an inch of their captain.
They didn't trust him. Period.

Even that pesky mess hall sergeant acted as though he thought
Kashyk would carry their captain off somewhere. If truth be told,
he wanted to carry Kathryn Janeway off somewhere.

He was constantly under guard, even when it appeared he and Kathryn
were alone in the mess hall, and they were bouncing ideas. He
sensed their presence.

When he departed, it was with mild relief. His task, that of getting
the telepaths and impounding Voyager, still more important than
satisfying an immediate urge. But he wanted more than just a few
telepaths, and his ultimate goal: destroying the wormhole through
which so many telepaths escaped, and delivering a planetful of them
to the Imperium. To attain this, he would manipulate Kathryn Janeway.
He could use her to get the telepaths. He had to win not only her
sympathy, but her trust.

He had her sympathy, he could see how her regard for him gradually
changed. She was getting closer to him. Her eyes had no longer that
mistrustful look about them. They got on well together, and he could
see how animated she became when they could discuss science, the
problems of counterpoint. She was elated, her eyes shone with
excitement as she hit on an idea. He worked with her, gave her
valuable specifications to adjust their scanners to compensate for
refractive shielding. He earned her trust. She was unaware of his
own agenda

She trusted him. They way she acted, her demeanour when they were
together talking, or drinking coffee, made him believe that.

It was in the way she kissed him.

< Lushana's thought intruded on his own, <>.

***

"I've made one adjustment to your plan," Kathryn said to Kashyk as
he was about to start up his shuttle. "After the inspection, we're
going to wait at the wormhole for as long as we can... Until it
begins to collapse."

"I may not be able to join you this time."

"Try."

He looked at her for the longest moment, her face beautiful, almost
regal. Something touched him in those seconds then, and manifest
itself in the uncontrollable urge to kiss her.

Chakotay be damned, Kashyk thought as he took her in his arms, and
brought his lips down on hers. There was a sudden sensation of
drowning as waves of pleasure coursed through his body. Her lips
were incredibly soft, inviting and her eyes... She pressed into
him, and a thousand sparks lit up behind his eyes as her soft body
melted into his.

Kashyk broke off the kiss, unsettled by his own response. He was
certain she could see the fire blazing in his eyes. The next
instant he felt her hands in his hair, her lips on his, and she
was kissing him with so much fire, so much abandon, that sweet
bliss exploded in his body. He groaned his pleasure as she ran her
fingers through his hair, and moaned again as her thumb pressed
against a spot behind his ear. He was giddy with delight, and
ready to swoon... Kashyk was certain Kathryn could feel the wild,
erratic beating of his heart.

When the kiss ended, they were both breathless.

He knew that she wanted him. He wanted *her*. But he was caught in
a dilemma. Use her, get the telepaths. There was no place for him
on Voyager, with all that that intrepid ship, its captain, and the
mighty Federation offered: humanity - the humanitarian ideal. Yes,
even inviting him to defect and join them was an attractive
option. But he had seen Kathryn with Chakotay...

<> Lushana's thoughts
broke again into his own.

<>.

Chellin entered the room quietly, followed by the lady Lerina, his
wife. They saw Lushana bending slightly over the patient. It was
clear to them that his last hours were fast approaching. His
breathing had become more raspy, his chest heaving more and more
as he struggled to draw in air.

But it was not a strange thing for them to see how Kashyk calmed
whenever Lushana soothed him, and communicated vocally with him.
Her tone was soft, the register of her voice light, yet mellow,
musical.

<>, Chellin communicated with his
wife.

<>.

Chellin looked at his wife, took her hand in his and smiled.
They looked at the two silent figures, one dying, and the other
on the threshold of her life.

It was quiet, and only their heart-beats indicated that time, for
this dying man, was running out.

<>, was Lerina's thought as she
looked at Chellin.

<>.

Chellin nodded.

<>.

*********

END PART TWO
TBC PART 3/?

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN
PART THREE

Kashyk lay in uneasy slumber, his hand firmly held by Lushana.
Once, he moaned a little, trying to move his head towards her. She
bent over and whispered soft, soothing words. He opened his eyes
slowly and looked at her.

"Lushana."

"Yes, Kashyk?"

"The people on - on V-voyager," he stammered, "you - you would have
liked them."

"The captain," Lushana offered, "was a beautiful lady."

"Very beautiful, child. And they - she loved all things beautiful."

"Did you not love beauty, Kashyk?" she asked.

"I was too busy doing the work for the Imperium, I did not have
time to ponder on - on... things of beauty..."

"You do now, I sense it in you. It was always there, Kashy-riyon
Kashyk, buried deep inside you."

"She - Captain Janeway, she - we were in accord, did you know?
Objects of beauty and age, like her - her..." Kashyk tried to mouth
the words, but he started wheezing again, and Lushana, touching his
lips, bade him quiet.

"I know, Kashyk. Her microscope that was handed down to her. Six
hundred years old..."

"Yes. I always thought of it as her gateway to the galaxy."

"We found the microscope in your escape pod, Kashyk," she said with a
smile.

"I - it was all I had of her. She did not know that I took it. We
did that, you know. Mementos - *souvenirs* ransacked from vessels
that we inspected."

"Did you want it to be a reminder of her, Kashyk?" Lushana asked.

"It became more than that, Lushana. It became more than that," he
repeated. His agitation was apparent in the way he gasped the
words, in feverish entreaty as he stared at her.

"It kept you in touch with - with - "

"My humanity. A Devore with humanity... Oh, God!" Kashyk cried
suddenly.

"God? Who is God?" Lushana asked, a little bemused that he could
utter it with so much passion.

He looked at her, then pulled himself almost to a sitting position.
She pressed him gently back against the pillows.

"A - a deity many on board the ship Voyager adhered to..."

"And you called out his name often?"

"Only to raise my fists at him," it burst from him.

"But you kept the microscope," she said at length, quietly.

"Yes, I kept it. I kept it," he said again, then sagged back and
let the tears squeeze from his closed eyelids again.

"Please, do not be perturbed. I can sense how much you valued it,
like Captain Janeway did."

Kashyk opened his eyes and looked long and searchingly at the young
girl. A smiled wavered on her lips. She was indeed a beautiful,
exotic child.

"A balance of perfect counterpoint and harmony," he wheezed.

"I do not understand, good Kashyk."

"Think about it, gentle Lushana. Captain Janeway could fight,
persevere, protect her ship and crew to the death, yet aggression,
violence, anger could be complemented and softened by the simple
enjoyment of good music, playing chess, caressing the smooth lines
of a little statue..."

"She was a complete person?"

"Yes, gentle child."

"Then what beauty she admired, touched you too, Kashyk."

His eyes seemed to widen at her words. This child was wise beyond
her tender years, he thought.

"Yes..."

"It did more than that, Kashy-riyon Kashyk. Captain Janeway, of the
starship Voyager, awakened what had remained hidden all your life.
She stirred in you your own love for beauty. She gave you a precious
gift, good Kashyk - "

"The humanitarian ideals! Humanity!" he cried in his anguish.

"It was there, Kashyk, very, very deep inside you."

"I - " Kashyk began, then paused. "I - am not a good man..."

"Until the way of life of the Voyagers, their ethics, their...
humanity, affected you, Kashyk," Lushana said with conviction.
"You fought it, but it won."

Kashyk lifted his hand, and with trembling fingers he touched his
heart. His eyes had again that feverishness in them that told her
what he wanted to impart was very, very important.

"Everything that I - I have, everything that I once valued of my
life, everything that I am, Lushana, is - is here... here," he
repeated the last word. His eyes glistened, the sadness evident in
them. "I have lost... everything..."

"Good Kashyk, I will treasure your memories. Do not be sad," the
young girl consoled. She smiled gently, and was happy when he lay
back again, a little calmer. She then asked:

"Tell me about the infinite spirals."

"They were the most beautiful things to fill the black sky,
Lushana. She - she c-called them the - "

Kashyk tried to speak, but was caught in a spasm of coughing. When
Lushana placed her finger again at his temple, he gently removed
it.

"Aurora. Light. Aurora Borealis, on her own home world, Earth. A
profusion of colour and light that touched the very depths of your
soul..."

Lushana wiped Kashyk's face again when his tears started. She
stroked his cheek and said kindly:

"You miss your home, Kashyk."

He wanted to deny it, he wanted to believe her words were just
platitudes she uttered to console a dying man. But he was Devore.
He could have done a thousand things, saved a thousand telepaths;
deep inside he could no more deny his heritage than lie now to
Lushana. He was not ashamed. He looked long at her and then turned
his face away, looking at the blank wall. His "yes" was murmured so
softly, that she could hardly hear him. She sensed what he said.

"You will fly there soon, Kashyk," she soothed, "and see your
daughter again..."

He turned at last to look at her again, and took her hand in his.

"Yes..."

"I heard music, Kashyk, but it went away quickly. Is the memory of
it unpleasant for you?"

"How - how did - did you know?" he asked, his lips again white and
parched. She sponged him and he closed his eyes as he felt the cool
of the water against his lips. Her finger touched his temple.

<< Woodwinds, trumpets and cymbals. Yes... she loved Mahler. >>

Lushana broke their connection so suddenly that Kashyk looked at
her in alarm.

"What is wrong, gentle Lushana?" he asked, touching her hand with
his now familiar trembling fingers.

"You changed, Kashyk, because of them, of Voyager and Captain
Janeway."

"Do not cry, gentle child. I am - I am a better man for it. My - my
only regret, Lushana... my only regret is - "

"You lost your daughter."

"Anina," he sighed. "Anina... She died, you know." Kashyk became
agitated, tried to raise himself and hold Lushana's arm. His chest
wheezed as his breathing became more laboured. Gasping, he fell
back, unable to prevent the tears from rolling down his cheeks.

The tears stopped and Kashyk turned to look at the green-eyed, fey
and beautiful child.

*********

END PART THREE
TBC PART 4/?

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN
PART FOUR

Kashyk was seated in the command chair, with Kathryn Janeway in the
first officer's chair. He was filled with the supreme confidence
that he had bested Kathryn Janeway. He smiled inwardly, felt
immeasurably smug. Perhaps, if he had taken the time to assess
Kathryn's stance, her face that revealed nothing, and which to him
seemed like the face of the vanquished, he would have known that
Starfleet Captains were notorious for maintaining a poker face.
If he thought about it, even that Chakotay had a way of saying
little and revealing nothing. He looked at the main viewscreen and
waited for the photon torpedo to detonate. He looked at the
read-out on the console, stared for a second in disbelief at the
reading, then looked up.

The moment he said: "There's no wormhole here," he felt a cold hand
grip his heart, and the blood draining from his face. It did not
require any analysis of hows and whys, it did not require any
long and tedious pondering on lack of intuition or the greater
and infinitely grander scheme of a devoted crew. The knowledge:
everything, every little plan, every device used, every iota of
incredible expertise to win this game against the Devore, against
him, came together in the single instant it took him to realise
that Kathryn Janeway had beaten him.

Everything fell into place.

He looked at her. She sat in the Commander's chair, her hands on
on the armrests, and even as he was shattered by what was
happening, his distraught mind registered how like a queen she
looked. Her face was regal, and she had a smile that hovered. He
heard the second movement of the Mahler symphony replace
Tchaikovski's Symphony No.4. Again the clashing of cymbals which
seemed to signify her triumph.

How had he
managed in these moments not to let his men sense how angered, how
devastated he was?

Kashyk smiled briefly, an old trick of covering the warring
emotions in him.

"It seems I never did earn your trust."

It had been a game, from the start, with Kathryn Janeway. Who would
win this exercise of parry and thrust, advance and check? His
heart sank as he looked at the victor. She sat there, and every
nanosecond he remained staring at her, he saw his future, all his
prospects one by one dissipate into thin air - all that remained
was his wounded pride.

He was never, from the start, honest with her. He was always going
to betray her, betray what 'trust' he thought he had.

How empty the words now, how without honour.

Like the good soldier that he was, he conceded defeat, even
gracefully, he thought as his eyes softened again. He liked her. He
could have loved her, even.

<>.

<> Lushana broke into
his thoughts.

<>.

Kashyk was so disturbed by Lushana's words that he broke the link
between them, and stared wildly at her.

"Lushana."

"Yes, good Kashyk?"

"Perhaps not now, but one day, you will understand. But I'll tell
you now, so that you will remember it always. *Trust*, my gentle
child, is the foundation of a relationship. It must be there. If
is it not, everything beautiful will crumble, every possibility and
every good prospect will have been built on lies and deceit and
- and...betrayal..."

"An important element in counterpoint and harmony..."

"You are right! A key element. If not... if not, it becomes - "

"Discordant?"

"Yes! Yes!" Kashyk cried out, then coughed again. Lushana was
quick to wipe the blood from his mouth, making soothing sounds to
calm the disturbed dying man. She spoke softly:

"I shall carry your wise words with me, Kashyk, and know them to
come from a man who once threw away that trust."

"Yes..."

"Did you say goodbye to your beautiful captain, Kashyk?" she asked
suddenly, as if a great thought struck her.

Kashyk went into a fit of coughing again, and it took Lushana
several minutes to calm him again.

"Shhh... be calm, please, and let me enter your thoughts, Kashyk."

The look he gave her was pathetic in his eagerness, his eyes had
a seemingly permanent mistiness in them, and his hand grabbed
gratefully at her.

With her other hand she touched his temple again, and she was glad
to see him close his fevered eyes. They were again on the bridge
of the ship.

***

How could he tell her? How could he tell her that his decision not
to accept her offer was inspired more by personal reasons than
wanting to continue the work of the Imperium?

True, he wrestled with his ethics when he saved little Reeza's
life. But those thoughts, those great moments he considered morals
and 'humanity' and selflessness were so completely fleeting that
they registered simply as: Fine, Kashyk has done his duty by
wrestling with his ethics. Now all can go to the relocation centre.

He rose from the command chair, as composed as he could manage to
be and said:

"The bridge is yours."

Did he imagine he saw first a look of relief flash in her eyes?
Did he imagine he saw the relief replaced be disappointment? Did he
imagine he saw there the regret? There was nothing more to say,
and so he looked at Kathryn Janeway, sighing as he made his way to
the turbolift, his eyes never leaving her.

He thought fleetingly of his daughter who waited for him at home
after this assignment was completed. The two most beautiful things
in his life, he thought. Kathryn and Anina. Anina and Kathryn.

Infinite spirals.

His eyes were still on her as the doors closed. He leaned against
the lift interior, his head thrown back. He could not decide in
those moments, seeing her for the last time, which stung the most:
his bruised ego at having to concede defeat in the face of
brilliant strategy, or the prospect of never seeing her again.

Kashyk knew, for what is was worth, that he did have feelings
for her, that he did desire her and that for a while at least,
if he let himself, they would have been great together.

The same great cold hand that had gripped him earlier on the
bridge gripped him now and squeezed so hard at him that he sank to
the floor of the lift and cried out in pain for a few moments. That
was how weak he felt.

By the time he was back on his own ship, he was calm again.

He was Chief Inspector Kashyk, of the Devore Imperium.

And alone in his quarters on board his ship, he at last gave vent
to his frustrations. Every surface where his fist landed, he
imagined he saw Kathryn's face. Everywhere he sat down, she was
next to him, smiling sweetly, wickedly, victoriously.

Her face remained with him...

Kashyk's eyes opened and he stared at the ceiling. Lushana watched
how he started to shudder. Her small hands held his shoulders, and
she soothed him, crooning to him gentle lullabyes.

"He - he was appointed by the Imperium to - to hunt me down. I have
eluded him for five years."

"He comes, Kashyk."

"Yes, I know. He will not stop. You are not safe..."

"Do not worry about us, Kashyk. My father will know what to do
when he comes."

"Thank you, Lushana. You are kind. I never - I never before..."
Kashyk swallowed with difficulty before he tried again:

"I never before appreciated that. I was raised to hate telepaths,
you know..."

"Tell me, Kashyk, why you became hunted," Lushana asked quietly.

"Then I would have to tell you about Anina..."

"Then tell me about her," Lushana said before she started the link
between them again.

She knew this was going to be difficult, and suddenly wished she
had known Captain Kathryn Janeway and Chakotay. She wished so much
that they could see this man's pain, and she knew that had Captain
Kathryn Janeway been here right in these moments, that lady would
have been proud of this dying man.

Proud.

So Lushana touched Kashyk's face again, and was transported to
another world, away from Voyager and her crew...

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

END PART FOUR
TBC PART 5/?

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN
PART FIVE

Kashy-riyon Kashyk looked back at his transport that had just
taken off. He sighed. It had been a difficult day - no, he thought,
- a difficult five days at the debriefing centre. His uniform sat
cloyingly on him; he was sweating - more from the penetrating gazes
of the Imperatum than the heat and humidity. He was tired and had
found even Anina's constant barrage of questions a source of
irritation.

He opened the front door and wished for a second that Anina had
gone to her grandmother after her morning session at school. A
smile relieved the grimness and tension that had given his
attractive features a drawn look. She had been ecstatic when he
returned from his latest mission, but her happiness at seeing him,
was tempered by her usual:

"How many telepaths did you relocate this time, Father?" She had
a way of emphasizing the word 'relocate', and he pursed his lips
when she did that every time. She didn't like what he was doing,
had a great empathy for the telepaths, and didn't for one moment
believe that the telepaths and other races captured along with
them, were treated in accordance with the law.

"Umi said they were treated badly, Father," Anina would quote
her grandmother.

"Anina, little bird, you must not utter these things at school - "

"Don't worry, Father, I'm very careful," she assured him.

Kashyk sighed. Anina was only six sun turns old - twelve in
Kathryn Janeway and her crew's Earth years - but she possessed
her mother's amazing penchant for speaking her mind. The Imperium
did not take Sympathisers lightly, and certain men and women
he had known in the past, and whom he had never suspected were
Sympathisers, vanished rather mysteriously. Even he had seen that
Sympathisers were dealt with.

Walking through the foyer, he heard music and knew Anina was home.
She had, in the last few days since his return, been playing music
from Voyager's database.

Voyager.

He had taken more than just Kathryn Janeway's microscope.

A few minutes later he was standing under a very cold shower. His
thick shock of black hair lay plastered against his skin. The cold
water relieved the tension, and enervated him. He had a little
reprieve of two days before his next mission. He gave a grim little
smile. This time the Imperium wanted to send him on his next
mission soon.

"We feel, Inspector Kashyk, that you are in need of some purging.
To eradicate any and all residual feelings you may subconsciously
be harbouring after your last mission. There is no better way than
to be seeking out telepaths again soon."

He had merely nodded and cast a furtive glance at Prax, who did not
have the privilege of having been grilled as hard, and subjected to
as intense an inquiry as Kashyk had been. Prax's eyes were guarded,
but he knew Prax, and he knew that look. His second-in-command was
not happy that Kashyk had virtually forced him into silence; the
ever officious, by-the-book Prax had not liked being drawn into
this kind of deception.

Prax.

The unease he had been feeling all the time on Voyager, and
particularly when the Devore's objective failed, had been growing
steadily the last five days.

he thought as he got out of the shower
and grabbed his robe. He was still tying the cord of the robe when
he heard Anina's voice.

, Kashyk thought with alarm, knowing
how the debriefing and inquiry left more questions than any feeling
of satisfaction of a job well done. The Imperatum viewed him with
mistrust. He delivered his reports with his usual competence, but
he knew that a certain pause here, a stammer there did all but
convince the Imperium that for once, the great Chief Inspector
Kashyk appeared disconcerted. Prax had looked at him, his face
bland, but Kashyk knew Prax gloried in his superior's slight
discomfiture.

The Imperium were not above using certain methods of discipline to
keep their members in line...

"Father!" Anina called as she saw him approach his bedroom. He
smiled warmly, and braced himself as she threw herself into his
arms.

"Anina... my little bird," he whispered as he hugged her. When he
held her away from him, he looked into her startling green eyes.
Her hair was pitch black, like his own, but she had her late
mother's features.

"You are early today, Father," she asked, a query in her eyes.

"Yes. Now you and I can relax. We can go to the Institute for
Planetary Studies -

"I wanted to show you how to play 3D chess! It is very challenging!
It was easy to understand, Father. I just studied the rules from
the information you downloaded from Voyager's database into our
computer," she said proudly.

Strange how she reminded him not of her late mother when she spoke,
but rather of Kathryn Janeway. He felt the familiar tightness in
his chest. He smiled, trying to hide any distress he might have
felt when she mentioned Voyager.

"Little bird," he said, using his old endearment for her, "Let me
dress first, then you and I can talk about it." Another sigh
escaped him. There was very little he could refuse her. In their
home she was very vocal about the way the telepaths were treated.
She didn't like the way the children at her school scorned the
mind-readers, as the telepaths were called.

He wanted to enjoy the next two days with Anina. He could relax,
and now, read novels from Voyager's database. Kashyk was glad to be
out of uniform again. He was a different man in it, he thought. Too
much the Imperium's great Inspector Kashyk who has never failed to
confiscate vessels. Too much the man who used whatever means to get
his information, his charm to get women. He was then the great
Kashyk who, to date, has been the most successful Inspector who
could ferret gaharay from wherever they were hiding.

Out of uniform... He just wanted to be a man...

He hated the telepaths. He hated them not because they had the
ability to intrude upon his most intimate and private thoughts, but
he hated them because he was brought up that way. Therein lay the
rub. Both created in the Devore a threat that was as real as it was
unreasonable. Unreasonable?

By the time he became Inspector Kashyk, every vessel he inspected,
every telepath he saw and relocated, became the reason he was
doing this work: they were a threat. The Devore - severe, austere
militia men needed to purge every impurity that could invade the
Imperium. He believed in his cause implicitly. He believed that
telepaths were not to be trusted, that they posed a very real
threat to the Devore, and that his people had to be protected from
them at all costs.

At all costs.

He watched his men sometimes...

He did not bother to check them then. They gloried in the power
they had over their victims: laughed, grinned, dripped with
satisfaction. Personally he found it abhorrent, but what the men
were doing, had the unspoken blessing, it seemed, of the Imperium.
The idea of touching and maiming a child was to him on a personal
level, reprehensible. Perhaps that feeling had always been
tempered with the underlying knowledge that he had a daughter
himself. In those times he managed to shut out or repress his
own accountability. He had no problem of ethical or moral nature
to send the telepaths to the relocation centres. It's where they
deserved to be.

And now, Voyager.

Something happened to him that made him ponder on the way of the
Devore. Something happened that made him ponder on his own
accountability.

Accountability? He never before considered that in the face of the
eventual fate of the inmates of the relocation centres. He felt
like damning Kathryn Janeway to the pits of ghusan for doing what
no one had ever done to him: she made him feel again.

He looked at his hands and saw how they trembled slightly. He
balled them into fists, trying to dispel his growing concern for
his daughter, his own growing empathy.

Anina.

He had to talk to Anina.

It was with a heavy heart he knocked on her door.

****

Kashyk thought his heart would break as he looked at a tearful
Anina. She has taken her own relocation badly, as he expected. He
had a sudden image of the telepaths herded unceremoniously into
the relocation centres, of their drab conditions, and their
impossible prospects.

"I want to stay here, Father. I can't go to another continent!"
she cried out, although the prospect of seeing her cousin seemed
to overshadow her objections.

"I'll visit you whenever I am home again, Anina," he placated her.

He was sitting next to her on her bed, their backs braced against
the wall, feet outstretched. Her head rested in the crook of his
arm, and he gave her a gentle squeeze when he spoke to her.

"Is Umi coming with me?" she asked, suddenly a little more
optimistic than she had been an hour ago.

"Naturally. We can't leave your grandmother here, can we?" he
said, and smiled. She loved her grandmother to distraction, and
Umi loved her. He sighed inwardly. Not for the first time he
wished that she hadn't lost her mother at such a young age. Anina
had been a little toddler when her mother died. She needed her
mother. She needed a mother.

"And can I take a copy of all the music you downloaded from the
Federation ship?"

"Hmmm."

"And the stories and legends of - of Commander Chakotay?"

"Chakotay. Why?"

"He tells these stories of warriors and sky spirits and eagles,
Father. I like them very much. Father, did you know he has this
tattoo because - "

"I know, child." Kashyk smiled at Anina's enthusiasm.

He didn't like Chakotay much, but that was only because the
Commander stirred and activated every jealous bone in his body.
Where he, Kashyk, thought he could use his charm to overwhelm
Kathryn Janeway, Chakotay... that man had merely to be close to
Kathryn, his hand barely touching the woman...

"And you are going to build be a 3D chess set?" Anina interrupted
his thoughts.

"I'll try," he sighed.

"And I can have a picture of the Captain of Voyager?"

"No!" He could have kicked himself for that sudden denial, and
felt an unaccustomed warmth creeping into his cheeks.

Anina turned in his embrace to look at him. There was a sudden
spark of anger in her eyes. "Why not?"

"You are not to be seen with these things, Anina. I'm am making
concessions here that I don't like."

"Why is it so dangerous, Father? I never had problems before,"
she countered.

Kashy-riyon Kashyk sighed again. How could he tell her the
Imperium's mistrust of him was growing by the day? How could he
tell her that they were sending him on more dangerous missions,
that he had to flush out not only their most hated enemies,
but also anyone who sought to help them - anyone who is Devore.

For the first time, the doubts were setting in. He was beginning
to hate his work.

...

"Is something wrong, Father?" she asked suddenly.

"Whatever makes you think something is wrong, Anina?"

"Well, when you return home, especially after missions and your
debriefing, you always come straight to me to hug me. Today - "
she frowned a little, the ridge on her brow seemed like it knitted
together, "today you went into the shower first. It was as if you
didn't want to see me..."

"How can you say that, Anina? Of course I want to see you. You're
my only child, I love you..."

"Or else," she continued as she ignored his words, "you wanted
to delay seeing me, as if...as if you had to think long and hard
first before you decided what you wanted to tell me..."

"Oh Anina..." he groaned a little as he pulled her closer again,
giving her a great hug. He felt like crying, his heart thundering
against his ribcage as he held her away from him, to look into her
incredibly green eyes. He could see the uncertainty and the tears
that threatened again.

"Anina...little bird," he began, "I - I am being monitored by the
Imperium - "

"But I thought all inspectors are monitored..." She frowned again.

"You will be safer living with your cousin Uden." he said, not
answering her question.

"He's a pest."

"I know. I also know he's your favourite cousin."

"You did not do anything wrong on your last mission. Why are you
being watched?" Anina asked, her mind now filled with apprehension.

"No, I did not," he lied, "I did not..."

"But you still think I'll be safer living with Uden.

"Yes, little bird. It would make me breathe easier."

Anina nodded, not wanting to unsettle her father any further. She
could see he was very preoccupied, and over the last five days
since he returned, he didn't talk much. Not like he used to.

"What is this, Father?" Anina asked as she scrambled off the bed,
stuck her hand under it and retrieved an item that shone like
gold in the light.

"A microscope," he sighed. "Anina, I told you not to scratch around
in my room - "

"I have to clean your room, Father," she said, as if that gave her
any right to inspect his personal items. She held it up, and
twisted it in her hands to look at it from different angles.

"What does it do?" she asked innocently, her eyes lighting up as
her father managed to smile at last.

"You can view and magnify minute objects - "

"Sensors do that..." she said reflectively.

"I know, my child. But imagine, in a world very far away from here,
a time - when people didn't have space ships and sensors and
even - "

"Interesting. And this belonged to the captain of Voyager?"

"Yes..."

"You took it..."

"Yes..."

"And old instrument of ages past, and you wanted to keep this as
a *souvenir*?

"Yes, Anina," he sighed.

"Why?" she asked, looking him direct in the eyes. There was a
gentle smile that made her lips quiver.

"I - " Anina watched in amazement how her father's face turned a
little red. She had never, ever seen that happen to him. He was
always a charmer, Umi would tell her. "Your father is a charmer,
Anina. He thinks he can control women without losing control..."

Something dawned on Anina then - something that made her eyes go
wide. "You liked the beautiful Captain of the Starship Voyager!"
she exclaimed.

"Anina..." he groaned, but could not contain his smile. She
watched how his eyes became alive, his black eyes that always
seemed to dance whenever he was happy, or pleased.

"I would have liked to meet her, Father. Since Mama died, no one
has captured your heart..."

"She is very beautiful, Anina."

"I know."

"And very, very clever."

"I read her treatise on quantum mechanics..."

"And very, very smart."

"If she captured your heart, she must be, Father. Didn't you always
tell Umi that you would never let a woman get to within one
thumbnail of your heart?"

"I said that?"

"Oh yes, Chief Inspector Kashy-riyon Kashyk, you break their
hearts!" she cried as she held the microscope reverently. Then
another thought struck her as remembered her Umi's words speaking
accusingly of her father's treatment of women. "She didn't fall
for you," Anina whispered reflectively as she studied the
instrument, "and - and you wanted her to..."

"You are far too wise, young lady. Far too wise. What has Umi - "

Anina looked suddenly at him, her mouth pouting, her eyes accusing:

"And you let her get away."

"I let her get away," he sighed. "My charm didn't work on her,"
he said as he hugged his daughter again.

***********

END PART FIVE
TBC 6/?

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN
PART SIX

On the vessel Bolkannor IV sailing through Devore space.

Chief Inspector Kashyk knew the drill. His men were all over the
freighter, searching and finding in the most ingenious places
some members of a telepathic race called the Venda.

He sighed. Why didn't they just stay on their own home worlds? They
risked all just to travel to other sectors, knowing that the Devore
lay in wait for them.

There were very few children this time, yet he sensed something
as he looked at a woman whose eyes held nothing but fear.

he said to himself as he felt the woman's
thoughts trying to connect to his. It was so strong that for
perhaps a nanosecond, before his guard came up, she succeeded. He
cursed himself as he saw the fleeting images of children, younger
perhaps than Anina.

For a second he closed his eyes, and when he opened them again,
the woman's eyes were still on him. She kept his gaze until she
was unceremoniously bundled away by Prax's men, to be transported
to the support vessel that would carry the telepaths to their
designated centre. The woman screamed once, twice, before the sound
stopped abruptly. He knew that one of the men had struck her. He
stared pensively at the now empty cargo bay. Only Prax remained.

"Inspector, I beg your understanding," Captain Norex said.

"What is there to understand?" Kashyk replied as he looked at
Norex.

Norex wilted under that gaze, squirming a little uncomfortably
as he saw Prax move closer.

"Prax."

Kashyk's voice was low, yet peremptory. It stopped Prax short.

"Sir." Prax turned to look at his superior, his eyes revealing
that slight insolence Kashyk had been treated to in the last few
weeks. It was gone before Kashyk could react in any reprimanding
manner. Prax's insubordination lay just beneath the surface, and
not enough for Kashyk to retaliate accordingly. That irked Kashyk
more than anything, realising that Prax would do little by little,
tiny digs, tiny infractions just to test Kashyk.

"Take charge of the telepaths," Kashyk ordered.

"Sir?"

"Do as you are ordered, Prax," Kashyk barked, his ridged forehead
showing a frown, and signs of strain.

"Sir, you know that according to Imperative 8 of codicil 2, the
Commanding Inspector - "

"I am aware of every rule, Prax," Kashyk interrupted, glancing
fiercely at Norex, who appeared to wait for his execution. They
were still standing in the cargo bay. "I will be making a final
inpection of this vessel myself," he added, and had the urge to
smile wickedly at the nervousness Norex showed. "If you have
nothing to hide, Norex, you have nothing to fear."

Norex nodded, shuffling a little, his hands behind his back. Kashyk
looked at Prax again. "I will rejoin our vessel as soon as I have
completed my final inspection here."

"Sir." It seemed as if Prax clicked his heels as he complied.
Kashyk sighed inwardly. There was that slight taunt again.

"Thank you, Prax. Dismissed."

They moved to the adjacent shuttle bay, where Prax boarded his
shuttle and within minutes he was gone.

Kashyk and Norex waited until the shuttle disappeared from the
screen they were looking at, then Kashyk turned to Norex.

"Now, Norex," Kashyk said in his most wheedling tones, "where are
they?"

"I do not know what you mean, Chief Inspector."

"Come, to your office," Kashyk commanded, taking Norex by his arm
and urging him out of the shuttle bay. Minutes later they were
standing in Norex's office. Kashyk felt the old pain as his heart
contracted, seeing a room that looked a little like Kathryn
Janeway's ready room.

"Did you say something, Chief Inspector?" Norex asked, looking
askance at the man beside him.

"I? er...no," Kashyk replied. "No," he repeated firmly. "Now, where
are they?"

"Chief - "

Kashyk tried to picture the distraught woman, and tried to
recapture the images she transferred to his memory engrams. There
was something dark, not clearly defined. He was reminded of the
containment chamber, and this image, it was definitely oblong. His
men had taken a fine comb to search the ship. Yes, he admitted to
himself with pride, they left it to him to find the hardiest of
hideaways, the most ingenious places the masters of vessels could
hide their fugitives. What at first appeared hazy, now took on
form. He could feel the adrenaline rush, feel his heart pumping
faster. He saw them clearly, and they were right beneath him.

"Open the hatch to the access tube that leads to this room, Norex."

Norex looked at Kashyk, his immediate impulse to deny what Kashyk
suspected. He felt again the power of Kashyk's gaze as his eyes
narrowed slightly. Norex sighed resignedly and gave up. He entered
a few commands on his computer, and to Kashyk's amazement, the desk
where they both stood, moved. It was as if the one end of it was
hinged, and the other end slid noiselessly to one side, revealing
what he could only determine as a trapdoor. Norex bent down, placed
his hand against the flat surface of the door. The door was no more
than one square metre, with a short ladder that led to a cavity
beneath the floor. They were down there, Kashyk realised as Norex
gestured to him to climb down.

Kashyk slid down quickly, then bent low to crawl the short distance
to the coffin-like structure that seemed to block his way. He
turned himself slightly in the narrow confines.

"Norex!"

Without waiting for Norex, he slid further along until he reached
the coffin. It was more like a torpedo casing, he thought as
crawled right against the coffin, squeezing himself between the top
and the roof of the tube. He was sweating, and was glad when Norex
reached him.

"Open, Norex," he said urgently, a feeling of dread taking hold of
him. Norex squeezed himself between Kashyk and the coffin. Kashyk
wondered fleetingly why he should care at all. They were telepaths,
destined to die anyway. Norex lifted the lid after entering a few
commands in the small computer situated on its side.

Kashyk stared.

He also understood why they were unable to trace the fugitives. The
computer gave false readings, he saw. There was nothing more than
cargo in here, simple cases of wine such as those Norex's people
consumed. That was what the readings indicated. His men would have
missed it completely, and he would have missed it if the woman
hadn't...

"Quick," he barked as he lifted the little girl out, "get the boy."
Both children were either unconscious or in stasis. But he ruled
out the latter, as there were no stasis chambers on Norex's vessel.
He dragged the child to the ladder, held one arm around her waist
as he clambered up and into Norex's office. He was just lying the
girl down to tend to her when Norex called:

"He's dead, Chief Inspector."

Kashyk swung round.

"No!"

"He was the weaker of the two, Inspector. I - I begged their
mother..."

Norex placed the body of the little boy gently on the floor. He
removed his own overcoat and covered the child. he thought as his heart cried for this boy, whom he thought
he could take to a place of safety. Now, the Chief Inspector was
going to... He looked up suddenly and asked, dreading a little
at what the Inspector was planning with the remaining child.

"The girl, Inspector?"

Kashyk, who had been looking at the dead child and Norex, turned
his attention to the little girl. Her cheeks were pale, and the
points of her ears appeared to tremble. He could see she was
regaining consciousness. She looked a little younger than Anina,
he thought, and a lot more fragile. He frowned as he watched her move
her head. he thought, a fierce frown marring the ridge on his
forehead. He pursed his lips. But the image of this child, so
quiet, hardly breathing, her lips pale, began to eat at the
control he had all this time. It ate away at every muscle fibre
of his heart.

He rubbed her cheeks gently, willing her to open her eyes.

"Come, little one," he coaxed, "open your eyes..."

The child moaned a little, her arms suddenly going round her in a
hug. Kashyk sense immediately she was missing her sibling. Slowly
her eyes opened, staring first at the ceiling. She turned her head
and saw Kashyk's face. He was lost, he knew it, when he looked
into her expressive dark eyes. And the girl...

The girl gasped with fright when she saw him, and jerked away from
him. She started shivering violently.

"I will not hurt you, little one..." came Kashyk's voice, as gentle
as he only ever used it with his own daughter. He placed his hand
on her arm, and held it there, making soothing tones until the
child's shivering stopped.

"What is your name?" he asked quietly. But she stared pointedly
as him, and he knew she was trying to penetrate his thoughts. For
a moment he fought the intrusion, but her telepathy was so strong
that he gave in to it, and something like wonderment dawned on him
as he experienced her thoughts. It was impossible to rationalise
how he should hate her as a gaharay, how he should not feel
anything for this child, but he was drawn, drawn... He welcomed her
intrusion.

Kashyk smiled briefly. He was cursing Kathryn Janeway for what was
happening to him right now.

"A single act of compassion, Kashyk," he heard Kathryn Janeway's voice
in his memory, "can change who you are. It can put you in touch with
your own humanity..."

<> was his communication with the child. He did not want
Norex to hear.

"What is your name, little one?" he asked aloud, trying to steer
his thoughts away from Kathryn Janeway.

"I am Chaunees. My - my b-brother, he was s-sick," she stuttered.

Kashyk closed his eyes for a second.

"Please..." Chaunees pleaded, for the moment not intruding into
his thoughts.

But it was Norex who stepped closer. Chaunees's eyes flashed in
recognition, but it was a look that was again replaced by despair
as she read his thoughts. He nodded, then said:

"I am sorry, my child. So sorry."

It was the absence of any tears in her expressive eyes that seemed
to emphasize a nameless grief and pain that Kashyk and Norex
witnessed. Chaunees gave a deep sob and threw herself in Kashyk's
arms. Kashyk showed no surprise at Chaunees's action, any intuitive
abhorrence that he displayed before for these gaharay, replaced
by his growing compassion. Despite her anguish, Chaunees sensed
that she could trust Kashyk. He hugged her close to him. She clung
to him convulsively as her fingers dug into his arms. He cupped her
head protectively, closing his eyes briefly as he pressed his lips
against her hair. It was a gesture that was as comforting as it
was fatherly and spontaneous.

When Chaunees looked at Kashyk again, she was calm. Calmer than he
thought for a child whose brother had just died, and who, most
likely, will never see her mother again. He sighed. Her mother's
fate was sealed.

But for this child...

Norex viewed the scene before him with growing astonishment. He had
heard so many stories of how the telepaths were treated, of the
fate of young girls and women. He had seen Kashyk's men eye the
females with predatory hunger, leaving him in little doubt as to
their intent. He had heard of Kashyk's legendary ability to flush
out the most difficult cases. He had seen Kashyk in action on this
vessel, seen the Inspector's single-mindedness, the obsessive way
in which he drove his men to take the ship apart, searching...
searching... Kashyk was clearly a soldier, with the soldier's heart
and instinct for battle and strategy. He knew Kashyk was respected,
had seen the way in which his men deferred to him.

Yet, here, in front of his very own eyes, as fantastic as it
appeared to him, he saw not the soldier and inspector, he saw not
the most hated man by all gaharay who traveled through Devore
space, but a man with heart, with compassion. This image of a man
holding a little girl close to him, surely could not be the hardened
soldier who took pleasure in the power he had over the helpless. He
could not be the man who delighted in the fate of a people whose
only sin was that they could read minds. Norex knew in these
moments that he had nothing to fear. Only now he understood Kashyk's
words of earlier. Only now he understood that Kashyk played a role
in front of his second-in-command. He recalled suddenly the look
Chaunees's mother had given Kashyk and understood now that the woman
had spoken telepathically to the Inspector, probably begged Kashyk
to save her children. Did she sense then that Kashyk would do it, as
was being shown to Norex so clearly now?

Norex stepped back again, to bend over the body of Odane. He lifted
the lifeless body of the boy and left his office.

Norex returned minutes later. Kashyk looked at him, then back
at Chaunees, who was sitting up, and who looked somewhat stronger
after her ordeal. Norex nodded to Kashyk, who understood that Norex
had placed the boy's body in the cargo hold of the Bolkannor.

"Chaunees," Kashyk said kindly to her, brushing her hair away from
her face. Her eyes were large and expressive as she stared at him.
"Norex will take you to a place where you will be safe. You know
that - that you will be - be -"

Kashyk felt a lump in his throat. This child was an orphan, to be
relocated in a different way from her parents. He berated himself
for his weakness, for giving in to the growing sense of compassion
for the plight of these people.

Chaunees smiled when Kashyk communicated that thought to her. Then
she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. For a second he
was surprised, then he smiled.

"Thank you, Inspector Kashyk, for saving my life."

Kashyk just nodded numbly, looked to Norex, then back at her.

"I have to go now, Chaunees. I may never see you again. Norex will
have a safe passage further on his journey. I will see that
he will go through without further inspections. He will place you
with kind people, I know. They will raise you as if you were
their own daughter..."

Kashyk's face looked a little bleak when he said this, but Chaunees
smiled gently, touching his cheek.

"I will be alright, Inspector. Do not worry so..."

"Thank you, Chaunees," he said, and gave her a last hug. He
released her quickly, then beckoned Norex.

"Let no one know of what happened here, Norex," he said calmly,
softly. He gripped the Captain's upper arm hard, purse his lips,
and took one last look at Chaunees, before he left for the shuttle
bay.

***********

In the late afternoon, with the last rays of the sun just moving
slowly from the large patch of light they formed on the floor of
the quiet room to the edge of the window sill, Kashyk stirred
restlessly.

He cried softly as a wave of pain seemed to lift him, letting him
sag back as the wave passed. Lushana could see how he struggled,
and her hand, gentle and cool, wiped his fevered brow again. She
crooned comforting words when it seemed that his agitation grew.
This time he could not be consoled.

"He knew, Lushana."

"Who?"

"Prax."

Lushana could sense Kashyk's emotion.

"You came to hate him in the end, Kashyk," she stated.

"Yes..."

Lushana leaned forward and touched his temple again. He was
weakening, and any amount of talking depleted his strength. So she
resumed her journey into his mind again, and now she was on the
large Devore vessel...

***

"Sir, it is against the regulations as set out in the Imperative to
allow any vessel to resume its course without a third inspection.
According to codicil 12 of the - "

"There are no more telepaths on that vessel, Prax," Kashyk bit out.
They are all accounted for, to be taken to Relocation Centre 41."

"It is not so, Sir, and I think you know it."

"You dare to question the authority and judgment of Kashyk, Chief
Inspector?"

"We know about the two children, Sir. They were in a torpedo casing
under the floor of the Bolkannor's ready room."

Kashyk turned ice-cold and swore under his breath. , he thought with a mild sense of panic. . How to answer Prax, who looked
at him with an air of insolence, smirking even as he knew Kashyk
could have him court-martialed for insubordination?

Kashyk realised instantly that Prax and his men had set him up. It
was, he admitted, a brilliant ploy to expose him. He bristled,
pursed his lips and thought how to reply to Prax's statement
without seeming to lose any of his authority, or making it seem
that he was guilty. Was he losing his touch? he wondered. First
Kathryn Janeway got the better of him, an issue he would have liked
to sweep under some filthy rug. He still smarted a little from a
bruised ego, but he had set himself up for that, he realised,
because of his stupid infatuation. Prax had known when they were on
the Bolkannor, but didn't talk. He just let Kashyk walk neatly into
the trap they set for him. First it was Kathryn Janeway...

Now Prax. Hyper-officious pragmatic Prax, ever aware of rules and
regulations, ever aware of applying those rules without ever
considering things like consideration, extenuation, compassion.

Prax was after his blood.

"Well, Prax," Kashyk said in his best wheedling tones, "of course
they were there in that torpedo casing. Now why would you leave two
gaharay in that narrow confinement? You are very good, Prax. I must
commend you on your brilliant strategy. Of course you left them
there to die!"

Prax looked dubious for a second, then a flash of confusion crossed
his dour face. What did Kashyk mean?

"No, Sir, we left them - "

"To die, no less. I watched you, Prax, as you looked at their
mother. There was victory written all over your face. You were
letting her know that we would let her children die, in order to
exercise your own control over her, naturally."

"I did not, Sir. The mother - "

"I noticed how you looked at your conquest, Prax. No doubt, you'll
be panting your way to ReLoc 41 to try out your spoils," Kashyk
said with ease. "You know that as Chief Inspector, I have the
authority to stop your games with torture toys. But," Kashyk said
suavely as he waved his arms in an accommodating gesture, "Kashyk
is a reasonable man, who allows his men a little pleasure on the
side..."

"Sir, I assure you, that is not - "

"Yes, Prax. I found them, but the two unfortunate individuals were
already dead. I must laud you on your excellent way of seeking to
punish those gaharay whose children you could use against them."

"They are dead, Sir?" Prax asked rather confusedly, and to Kashyk
it seemed that he was weighing a few more options.

He could see that Prax had been certain that the children were on
the Balkannor, moreover, that they were alive. They wanted Kashyk
to find them. By great Agharon! They even knew he would just use
his nose to smell them out. Telling Prax the children were dead...
Kashyk knew that he had taken some of the wind out of Prax's sails,
but the knowledge was small comfort as he realised Prax would not
stop there. For now he was able to tell the truth, although the
truth was cloaked in the fabric of a small lie.

"Yes, they both died in the narrow confines of the torpedo casing
when we found them."

Prax, whom he knew didn't want to land in too much hot water too
often, for fear of reprisal by the Imperatum, backtracked. But
Kashyk, watching him, sensed that it was merely a mask. He
encountered some of what Prax displayed now, when he crossed paths
with Kathryn Janeway and her crew. Prax may believe, for now, that
their plan backfired. But Prax, for all that he appeared lacking
in intellectual adeptness, was not above employing Kashyk's own
manipulative strategy against him. He feigned that believe, Kashyk
sensed, and that was what made Prax dangerous, and what made Kashyk
nervous.

How easy it was to apologise, when no apology was meant. Apply all
devious means of manipulation, and even lies can seem like the
truth.

"Then indeed, Sir, I beg your forgiveness for this oversight on my
part. The men were under my orders. I take full responsibility
for my lack of judgment in this case."

"Fine, then the Bolkannor shall proceed on its way to the Daros
Sector. I have instructed the captain to incinerate the bodies
of the children."

"Thank you, Sir."

Prax had that half-smile again...

*********

Kashyk gasped painfully when the memory of that incident brought
him back to the present. Blood trickled from his mouth and the
gurgle that had started in his throat as a low, shallow rumble,
became more pronounced, a sound that filled Lushana with some
dread.

He opened his eyes and looked at Lushana. They were pleading with
her, black eyes like coal that burned into her and tried to convey
his unspoken message.

His took in deep, wheezing gasps that frightened her. Grabbing her
hand, he pulled himself up to a sitting position. Lushana looked
about to burst into tears, and she turned her distraught face
to the doorway, where her father stood.

Lushana leaned toward the dying Kashyk, and pressed her fingers
again against his temple. Then her father's fingers touched the
other side of his head.

<> Chellin's gentle command
seemed to impress on Kashyk, who looked wildly at the older man,
before his eyes fixed on Lushana again. When he saw how calm she
appeared, he turned again to Chellin.

"Now, good Kashy-riyon Kashyk, tell us what has distressed you so."

"Anina... Anina..."

"Your daughter?"

"S-she died," he stammered.

Lushana, to whom this fact was known, nodded to her father, who
released his fingers from Kashyk's temple. He rose and took up
position near the window. He had a good view of the area, and would
sense when Amansure Nidal made his appearance.

"She died..."

Again, Kashyk's breathing became laboured, short wheezes that
wracked his body. Lushana placed her hands against his cheeks,
turned his face towards her and said:

"I will listen, Kashyk. My heart will beat with yours and your pain
will dim..." she said gently.

There was a look in his eyes of such great tenderness that Lushana
wondered for a moment if Kashyk didn't confuse her in that fraction
of a second with Anina.

*********

END PART SIX
TBC PART 7/?

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN
PART SEVEN

Uden's eyes were wide, his nose bleeding as he looked at his uncle.
Kashyk had half lifted him off the floor, pushed his body against
a wall and held him there.

"Where is she! Where is she! Tell me, or so help me, I'll break
every bone in your body!" Kashyk virtually shoved Uden with every
word he uttered. Uden tried to speak, but by the time he was able
to, Kashyk dropped him to the floor, pinned him still against the
wall, and had his hand round Uden's throat.

Uden choked first, and until he started turning blue, only then
Kashyk released him.

"They took her, Uncle. They took her and Umi..." he managed,
his throat rasping. He wiped ignominiously at a tear that escaped.

"Where were you, Uden!" Uden felt his head knock against the wall
as Kashyk shook him. For several moments the room turned, his eyes
rolling as the dizziness overtook him.

"I was here, Uncle. They - they beat me, knocked me out. I - I
don't know what happened after that."

"You low daigha! You are lying!" Uden's head connected with the
wall again and this time he sank to the floor. Kashyk pulled
him to his feet, and with blinding rage, struck the teenage
boy in the face. Uden's head jerked back, only to be struck again
as he tried to keep upright. He sailed to the floor, quivering
with fear.

"No one knew she was here, Uden. No one. She was supposed to be
on Devore 2, as a smoke-screen. Who took them!"

"T-the s-soldiers of the Imperium. T-they kicked down the doors
and found Umi and Anina. Me, t-they knocked me out."

Kashyk, who listened with mounting rage to Uden's tale, kicked
his nephew viciously. Uden screamed. Kashyk bent down and pulled
him up again. He hauled the hapless boy to a chair and pushed him
down on it.

"Talk, Uden." Black eyes peered at the young boy with murderous
rage. "I'm going to look for them, and when I find them, I will
come back and kill you. Do you hear? I am going to kill you. You
deserve nothing better than to die like a hungry daigha on the dry
plains of Etosha."

"Nobody will kill Uden Rularshen," came the voice from behind
Kashyk.

Kashyk swung round to see the figure in the doorway. With the
light behind him, Kashyk couldn't see the face, but the voice...

"Prax! What in the name of Agharon are you doing here?"

"The boy is a recruit, Inspector Kashyk," Prax informed him. "His
loyalty is to the cause of the Devore, as Protector of the Way
of the Devore."

"What?" Kashyk looked at Uden with disbelief. "What have you done?"

Uden rose unsteadily to his feet, just as Prax stepped inside. The
boy faced his uncle, and the same eyes that had looked with abject
fear at Kashyk only moments before, now held a gleam of triumph.

"It was my rite into the Imperium's Central Bond. A test of my
loyalty, Uncle, something which is suspect in you, and, alas..."
the young man crowed with insolence, "Umi and Anina."

"Umi is your grandmother, Uden! And Anina your cousin!" Kashyk
shouted. But Uden, wiping his bloodied nose unceremoniously on
his sleeve, sneered.

"All I had to do - "

Uden didn't finish his sentence, he was already lying on the floor
from the way Kashyk lunged at him and struck him down.

Kashyk turned, quivering with rage and fear, to face Prax.

"I'll not harm the boy further. Leave us now. I wish to talk to
him, then I'll go..."

Prax remained, and what power Kashyk still had over this obstinate
subordinate, he mustered now as he said:

"Do it, Prax."

Kashyk's eyes were empty as he turned back into the room. He left
Uden where the boy still lay on the floor, and walked to the room
Anina and Umi shared.

There didn't seem to have been any signs of a struggle, he thought.
Umi was too old, and Anina... Kashyk closed his eyes in anguish
as images of his daughter and mother-in-law flashed in his mind.

Anina as a baby, who smiled her first smile at him. Umi, dear
Umi who always wanted to correct his ways. Anina on her first day
at school. Anina saying: "You let Captain Janeway go..."

He saw nothing that could remind him of his daughter. There was
nothing...

It started deep in his chest, a rumble that tore through him. He
stood there, next to her bed, raised his head and screamed.

"Anina!!!!!!"

Her name rang through the house. Uden rocked to attention as he
heard the scream of his uncle, a scream that reminded him of the
daigha of the Etosha plains. Uden cringed, closed his eyes and
covered his ears, trying to blot out the sound of the demented
man.

Several minutes later Kashyk entered the front room where Uden
was still sitting. Uden looked up when Kashyk's shadow fell over
him.

"What do you want..." Uden asked morosely.

"They were your family," Kashyk said softly, his voice hollow.

"I have learnt that fam - "

"I know what every Recruit learns, Uden. I also started there
once, long ago."

"Then you know that the Cause of the Imperium, the Eternal Laws of
Devore must take precedence over a soldier's private life."

Kashyk leaned over Uden, and placed his hands on each side of the
young man on the armrests. His voice dripped with bitter passion as
he said:

"You will rue the day, Uden Rularshen, that you betrayed your own
family."

"Greater misery befalls those who betray the Imperium, Uncle."

"No more than those who betray their loved ones; that is why you
are no more than the carcass-eating daigha of Etosha!"

"We do not tolerate sym - " Uden started, but was interrupted by
Kashyk, who asked, although he knew already the young boy's answer:

"Where are they, Uden?" Kashyk's voice cracked a little, and it
seemed to him that every second that ticked by, his family moved
further and further away from him.

A voice.

"You know where sympathisers go to, Inspector Kashyk. They will
be purged there of their corrupt ideas, but they will be safe."

It was Prax who spoke, who appeared to rejoice that the great man
had finally been reduced to begging. It served Kashyk right. The
Inspector treated Prax with great disdain, as if the older man
didn't have an intelligent bone in his body. Only Kashyk could do
this, only Kashyk could think that. Prax had grown sick of it. Sick
of being ordered to serve Kashyk's whims. Who would have thought
the great man would have bad blood in his pure Devore lines? Who
would have thought Kashyk's own family, his daughter, no less, to
be a sympathiser?

He had to remember to commend young Uden Rularshen to the
Imperatum. Such a young chamka will go far. He will rise high,
higher than his Uncle Kashy-riyon Kashyk. It was a superb flash of
insight to have him spy on his own family, as part of his rite
into the Imperium: a test of strength, character and loyalty.

Prax wondered idly if Kashyk remembered his own rite of passage
into the Imperium. Kashyk had been a warring young chamka himself,
beautiful and fleet-of-foot, highly intelligent and suave, able
to use his manly appeal to manipulate everyone. Kashyk had given
away his best friend - his blood brother - when he was fifteen...

"You know that you are on probation, now, Inspector Kashyk,"
Prax said, his face smug, emphasizing the 'inspector' with just
a little more insolence.

"Yes. My mother and daugther, they..."

"You will see them eventually, Inspector."

Kashyk shook his head, too mute now to speak, too filled with
despair. He knew all the methods of purging, all of them. Hadn't
he sent sympathisers there himself in his good old wild days? Umi
might as well be dead by now. She would be unable to withstand the
method of purging. Devore had no conscience, he thought. They would
not have any clemency for rank, position, or age...

Anina...

Prax beckoned Uden to accompany him to the Devore shuttle that
would take the young man for his final induction into the Way of
the Devore.

Uden looked back one more time at the man who sat at the table
with his head bent, who did not even look up when Uden rose to
leave with Prax.

, were the thoughts of the young man as he left the room.
A brief look of pain crossed his face. He knew in his heart that
he would never see Anina, Umi and Uncle Kashyk again. He quickly
forced down that flash of pain and guilt and made himself believe
that he had done the right thing.

****

********

<> Lushana communicated.

*********

Kashyk opened his eyes and looked at Lushana. The young girl
braved the terrible look of heartache that was reflected in his
eyes.

Kashyk didn't have to say anything, but she heard him nonetheless.

"Umi was dead, and Anina..."

"What about Anina, Kashyk?" Lushana asked, already feeling the
tears threatening to flow down her cheeks. "What about Anina?" she
asked again with a trembling voice. She had to hear this. She had
to hear Kashyk speak of his greatest pain and his greatest triumphs
after that pain. She told herself to be strong, to listen, take in
everything so that she may one day tell the tale of this dying man.

"Anina w-was g-gone, Lushana," he stammered, his voice becoming
more and more incoherent. "Anina...s-she was gone..."

"Where, Kashyk? Where?" Lushana asked, the fear building up in her.

"Oh, God!" Kashyk cried again. "Oh, God!"

"You call again that deity that is not yours, Kashyk..."

"Pain...too much pain, Lushana..."

"Where was she, Kashyk?"

Kashyk looked at Lushana, looked at her as if he could die any
second. Lushana did not know if he would die from his injuries,
or from his heart that was so broken. Kashyk did not cry. There
was indeed no more tears he could cry, Lushana thought. She just
saw his heart cry. The tears sat in his mouth that trembled, his
hands that could not stop shaking. His eyes were fevered, darting
in spite of his condition. When he spoke at last, it came as though
from across the light-years he had traveled.

"Relocation Centre 41."

"The death camp?"

"Anina was dying..."

***********

END PART SEVEN
TBC PART 8/?

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN
PART EIGHT

Anina Kashyk, daughter of Chief Inspector Kashy-riyon Kashyk
walked along the dusty lane accompanied by an older woman and a
small child. It was late afternoon, and prisoners were allowed to
mix and engage in socialising. Not that there was much socializing
taking place. It was, after all, a relocation centre - ReLoc 41.

She was deeply introspective and only half heard Nyala as he was
talking to the older woman.

Anina missed her father, and she missed Umi. She could not
comprehend Uden's betrayal. It was difficult to accept that he
would inform on his own grandmother and his own cousin. And she,
Anina, told him so many things about telepaths and how they are
misunderstood; she told Uden of the Starship Voyager which
traveled through their sector on its quest for their home far away.

She clutched her precious chamka toy to her chest. She was not
allowed to take her microscope her father had given her, or her
3D chess set he built for her. She had become so good at playing
it, and teaching cousin Uden to play. She was stimulated by the
many strategies she could use to beat Uden. Anina smiled to
herself. Maybe it was because she beat him so often at chess that
he betrayed them.

She had to hear how he was being trained for the great Imperium,
she had to listen to all his stories about putting the Cause of the
Imperium first, and that his first duty would be to the Cause. His
second duty would be to practice from early on, how to trap
sympathisers.

She and Umi trusted him.

He called the Imperium.

She squeezed her chamka toy, felt for the hard disks in it through
the padded stomach of the chamka. Good. She still had her tiny
voice PADD her father had given her, something he brought from
Voyager, and the few chips with stories from Voyager's database.

She will tell Nyala tonight of the Spirit of the Eagles, a story
written by Commander Chakotay. Anina sighed. She wondered where
her father was now and when he will find her.

"I know my father will come, Enorah," she said reflectively.

"You are very certain, young Anina," Enorah replied. There was
a sad smile on Enorah's face. She had seen some of the soldiers
looking at this very beautiful child with her long black hair
that had a blue tint in it, and the saddest green eyes she had
ever seen.

"I know he will come, even if - "

Enorah stopped in her tracks, causing both children to look at
her with some puzzlement.

"Anina, my child, this place is a place of untold suffering, and
I can sense - yes, even if I don't read your mind - that you
have great strength in you. I have seen here many accept their
fate with the greatest of courage. I believe you have great
courage..."

Anina looked at the older woman who didn't have to spell it out
to her that she was referring to the number of children - mostly
girls - who were taken to the Shelter. Everyone dreaded the
Shelter. No one returned from the Shelter alive.

She sighed. Even though she was not a telepath, she was here
because she knew through her, they wanted to punish her father.
Therefore, she could expect the same treatment from the soldiers
that they meted out to the telepaths.

"I understand, Enorah. My father taught me that if - if I channeled
my fear it can become my greatest strength. My strength is here,
Enorah," Anina said, placing her hand against her heart. "It's
here, where no one can touch me..."

"Then my child, I believe you are greater than these - these
butchers."

Anina bristled for a second. Enorah was, after all, referring to
her people.

"I am of their race, Enorah."

"My child, you have a spirituality that is far deeper than any
of your race could have, something that even the Venda dream
of attaining. It is in you, and it has always been there."

"My father said - "

"Perhaps even your father has it buried deep within himself,
Anina."

"I know," Anina agreed, "I know." She smiled at Enorah for the
first time since she had arrived here, three days ago.

Their walk was suddenly interrupted by the wailing of a siren,
indicating that their recess was over, and the paths and lanes
cleared.

"Come, we must move quickly," Enorah said as she took Anina's hand,
grabbed little Nyala and rushed with them back to their dormitory.

********

Anina sat on the floor in Dormitory 13. She was surrounded by small
children, all looking at her with rapt attention. It was
storytelling time for them, and they were eager to listen to her
tales. She had many to stories to tell, and they all gravitated
towards her, accepting her as their kind, older sister who looked
after them.

"Then the young boy said to his father," Anina continued, smiling
as she watched the children. They were extremely eager to hear her
tales...

"But Father, the eagles fly. They soar the great skies with their
wings spread wide. How can I fly like that?"

The old man, his face craggy, and eyes darting, looked at the young
boy. He pointed with his crooked forefinger to the boy's chest.

"That is where you fly, my son." Anina mimicked the voice of an
old man.

"In my heart?" the son asked. He was very perplexed, he did not
understand things of the spirit. He was too young to understand.

"The eagles remind us of what we can attain," the old man said to
the boy, then continued: "Have you ever felt happy?"

The boy looked as if he was thinking about the answer, then he
shook his head vigorously as the thought of some happy event came
to him.

"And your heart felt light, as if it could soar very high, not so?"

"Yes! I felt that I could do anything, Father."

"Like flying with the eagles?"

"In my heart I imagined that I was flying."

The young boy smiled, then asked again:

"Are the eagles also spirits father, that can protect us?"

"My son, when you see an eagle flying, or it looks to you as if
the eagle is hanging in the blue sky and looking down at us,
remember..."

Anina watched the children all draw in their breaths, some of them
gasping.

"Please Anina, what did the old man say?"

"Tell us, tell us!"

Anina took little Nyala's hand, and looked at all the children
sitting around her. Her answer was soft, but they could all hear
her. They did not intrude on her thoughts even though they were all
telepaths. She knew they were far more intrigued in the art of
oral - and, she added to herself, aural - narration. They literally
wanted to hear her, to listen to her melodious voice.

"Pleaassse!" a red curly-haired young girl said.

Anina smiled again. It was an art, this storytelling, she thought.
She put the children out of their misery by saying:

"Remember..."

Eight pairs of eyes stared, eight little mouths were open, waiting
for her to continue.

"They carry the spirit of one who had been brave."

The children sighed contentedly.

"Time to go to bed now," she said, just knowing how they would
react.

Their hands went up, some leaned forward and tugged at her
dress.

"Anina, tell us about the warrior."

"What warrior?" she asked, being deliberately obtuse. Only yesterday
she told them that story.

"He had a tattoo on his brow, and he promised - "

"Oh, I see what you mean. It's the story of - "

"The Angry Warrior!"

Anina gave an exaggerated sigh and then began:

"Once there was a warrior..."

*********

Anina stared out the small window that overlooked the lane. She
watched the soldiers enter the dormitory on the opposite side. She
tried to quell the fear that had started to rise in her. Yesterday
a soldier came for Enorah. Enorah was gone the whole day and when
she returned, she had taken Anina in her embrace and cried.

"My child," Enorah said, "be strong... be strong..."

Anina had cried in the older woman's arms. She was afraid, but she
tried very hard to control it. She made Enorah lie on her bed,
then she had gone to the washbasins and brought water and a cloth
with which she could bathe Enorah's body, and stop the bleeding
from the scratches on the woman's legs. Enorah had been quiet in
the morning, and now, Anina watched as the soldiers came out of
the dormitory and a young girl of Anina's age was walking with
them.

Anina gave a soft sob.

The young girl turned away from the window, and went to sit down
on her bed and took Chamka in her hands. She wiggled her fingers
inside the soft fur, and took out the little PADD she had been
given by her father.

...

Anina started with the first words:

"My soul flies..."

She sat and quietly spoke the words that came to her heart, words
she knew would comfort her, and comfort others. When she was
finished, she slipped the PADD into the belly of her chamka toy,
and hid the toy under the cot.

She lay down on her bed, eyes closed. She could hear the screams
that came from the Shelter.

"My soul flies with the eagles," she murmured softly, over and over.

"Anina?"

It was Enorah.

"Be strong, my child."

"Yes, Enorah. I will be strong."

But in Anina's heart she prayed for her father to come...

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

The sun moved just over the rooftops of the dormitories, the golden
rays baking the already hard but dusty lanes of the Relocation
Centre.

Two soldiers opened the door of dormitory 13, and blinked as they
stepped inside, temporarily blinded by the bright sunlight. For a
second they waited till their eyes adjusted to the semi dark of
the large room.

The inmates shrank back where they were sitting on their beds,
their eyes glazed with fear, their hearts thundering.

"Anina Kashyk."

The soldier who called her name was large and brusque. He swaggered
a little and turned to where he saw a movement from one of the
corners. When he saw her, he smiled.

Anina rose from the bed in a fluid movement. Her heart thumped
wildly for a second. She looked first at Enorah in whose eyes
she read the message: "Be strong, my child", before she turned
to the soldier.

"Come."

The soldier beckoned Anina to follow him to the door, where she
was flanked by the second soldier. They did not touch her, in the
unspoken knowledge that there was nowhere she could run or hide.

In the narrow street, she walked between the two. They walked
slowly, and Anina knew why. She could hear the sounds and small
sobs from the dormitories and little houses they passed. She
turned her face once to look at one of the windows. There was the
face, peering just above the window ledge, of a young girl. Anina
could see the fear in her eyes.

She heard the words of Umi:

Inexorably they drew nearer to the Shelter. Anina appeared calm,
to the annoyance of the two soldiers who expected her to cry
with fear. One soldier looked at her, but she kept her gaze on the
Shelter.

"Walk faster!"

"You will be good!" One soldier laughed.

They stopped in front of the Shelter.

"Here we are!"

The young girl's heart hammered. One soldier opened the door. It
appeared dark inside.

"Go in, girl."

She stepped inside, into the darkened room. Her eyes darted wildly
for a second when they took in the figures of three soldiers
standing around.

She saw their smiles.

Anina prayed:

She never saw the figure who stood behind the door, whose hand
reached forward and pushed her to the first soldier.

The door closed with a soft, final click...

******

He was, after all, Chief Inspector Kashy-riyon Kashyk. There was
no need as yet to draw their weapons as the soldiers stood still
and allowed him to pass. There was a wild look about him, his
normally well groomed hair was unkempt. The demented man stumbled
down the narrow street towards the Shelter.

The telepaths and some other prisoners lined the street and watched
the man whose eyes held a fury they had not seen even in the
soldiers when those men were on their worst behaviour. They knew
that this man's retribution would be terrible. Far down the lane
they could see Anina lying in the dust outside the shelter.

<>.

Such were the thoughts of the telepaths as they watched the father
of the young girl who was today's Shelter toy, stumble along the
path.

Kashyk did not scream, he did not look right or left, but kept his
gaze on the little heap at the end of the street, just outside
the Shelter.

The telepaths were not allowed to help the child who lay there.

Enorah went inside the dormitory and sat down on Anina's bed. She
knew what she had to do, and waited for the first primal scream of
the man who reached the heap and held his dying daughter in his
arms...

*******

Kashy-riyon Kashyk went down on his knees and held the limp and
broken body of his daughter against him. Her head lolled back and
he brought his hand to cup her head protectively. There was almost
nothing, except the colour of her hair, and her eyes that he
recognised. He felt a pain so physical that he cried out.

"Anina..." he cried haltingly, "Anina..."

Her eyes were closed, and she was barely breathing. He looked at
her torn dress, the deep scratches and bruises, her legs...

He lay her down again and removed his jacket. He covered her lower
body with the greatest care. Then he lifted her into his arms again.

"Father..." It was soft, a hoarse croak.

"Anina..." he cried, unable to hide his emotion, or to stop the
tears. "Anina..."

There was a trickle of blood flowing from her mouth, and Kashyk
wiped it with trembling fingers. His tears spilled on to his hands
as he cupped her cheek. She tried to lift her hand to touch his
face. Already she was in the throes of death, her eyes were weak,
becoming glazed.

"Father..." she murmured weakly.

"Anina?"

"My... soul flies... with the...eagles..."

Anina Kashyk's eyes remained open, but they were unseeing; her hand
slid away from his cheek, and sagged limply onto her breast.

Kashyk watched for one second in astonishment the smile on Anina's
face which slowly, slowly froze and became still.

From the farthest reaches of the Relocation Centre it seemed,
they heard a madman scream.

Kashyk lay Anina down on the dusty ground. His eyes were crazed
as he looked up and saw some soldiers leave the Shelter. They had
smug looks on their faces, and when the fourth person stepped
outside, Kashyk rose to his feet.

"Prax! You!"

**********

END PART EIGHT
TBC 9/?

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN
PART NINE

<>.

Kashyk's thoughts went again to that day, when Prax came to his
end...

Kashyk rose slowly, and by the time he stood up straight, every
muscle in his body was primed to attack. His mounting fury
threatened to explode as he heard Prax laugh. Kashyk's hands were
at his side, the right hand brushing lightly against his dolk, the
traditional dagger-like weapon of the Devore. It only vaguely
registered that the other soldiers had their hands on their phaser
rifles.

They wanted to see...

Prax raised his hand, indicating to the others not to draw fire.

"He's mine, I'll finish him," Prax said as he advanced on his
former leader. "You treated me like dirt, Kashyk. Now you can die!"

"You maimed a defenseless child, you worthless daigha!"

Prax moved, his own dolk drawn from its sheath. He pounced on
Kashyk, taunting him with:

"I enjoyed doing her, Kashyk."

"Daigha!" Kashyk screamed as he lunged forward. He was lighter,
more agile than the heavy-set Prax, who also lunged. Kashyk
side-stepped, misjudging Prax's deceptive speed. The next instant
Kashyk felt a boot connecting with his stomach. Winded and dazed,
he sank to the ground. But it was Anina's still form that spurred
him to get on his feet again. He rose, felt his head snap as Prax
kicked him. Kashyk's chest exploded with pain; he knew a rib had
cracked.

"You... do not deserve...to... live, daigha!" Kashyk gasped as he
lunged forward, then kicked at Prax. Prax's knife struck him in the
leg, but Kashyk did not feel the pain this time as he threw himself
on Prax. He grabbed Prax in a vice grip, his arm around the man's
thick neck. He was strangling Prax, who tried to prise the death
grip from his neck. Prax choked, his face turning red, then the
hand holding the knife flailed first, before it plunged into
Kashyk's thigh.

Kashyk released his grip for a second, a second in which Prax
screamed. But Prax's scream died in his throat as Kashyk stood
behind him, grabbed his chin with one hand, and with the other,
ripped into his opponent's neck. It was a grating, sickening sound
as Kashyk sliced Prax's throat open. For one blinding second
Kashyk saw Anina's body, and with an animal-like scream the dolk
came down in awful power on Prax's already open throat. Prax
choked, then gurgled as blood spurted from him as he sank to his
knees. In Prax's dying moments he looked at Kashyk with something
of a surprise before he collapsed, his head almost severed from
his body.

Kashyk stood a little dazed, his uniform spattered with blood. He
looked at the soldiers who stood mute, having watched this scene
with some fascination. They did not intervene, Prax himself told
them not to. It was a fight - an honourable one they believed -
between two men. Kashyk, they knew, will be brought to book.

He stumbled a little as he looked at them, his throat moving
as he tried to speak.

"Please, I beg you... Leave me time with my daughter. She deserves
... dignity," he pleaded. His eyes were bleak. The soldiers nodded,
and went about tending to Prax. None of those who had injured the
child, thought to come forward...

Kashyk moved to where Anina lay, and with his bloodied dolk still
in his hand, he picked her up with infinite gentleness. Slowly he
walked towards Dormitory 13, at the upper end of the long lane.
It was a testimony to Anina's kindness and inner strength that the
telepaths all came out of their little houses, open cells and
dormitories. One by one, or in little groups they joined the
procession until he reached Anina's Dormitory. Enorah stood at the
door, waiting. Kashyk gave her a strange look, and she nodded.

He understood.

"I must beg you, please," he said to the woman, "that her body be
disposed of with dignity. I am not safe here. What little power I
still have over these soldiers, will be enough for me to get away.
If I am caught, I am willing to die..."

"Good Kashyk," Enorah said as she moved inside, her hand on the
dead child's cheek, "I have never told Anina that I know you.
I did not want her to suffer more..."

"Thank you, Enorah," Kashyk said as they approached Anina's bed.
"I am saddened that your son died. It could not be prevented,
but Chaunees is alive and well. She is safe."

Enorah closed her eyes and touched his arm.

"I thank you, Inspector Kashyk." Her eyes, when she opened them,
held relief and a great sadness.

At the bed he placed his daughter gently down on it, and Enorah
paled as she saw the child's wounds. She cried inwardly. This
child's only crime was that she was the daughter of Kashyk.

"Thank you, Inspector," Enorah said gratefully. "I sensed there
is good in you..."

"The good, Enorah, touched me too late..."

"Never too late, Inspector, she said softly, then she delved under
the bed and produced Anina's chamka toy.

She held it to the distraught man who wanted to weep again when
he saw Anina's favourite soft toy.

"Never too late," Enorah repeated. "She left you a message,
Inspector."

Kashyk knelt next to the bed, his trembling hands opening the hidden
slit in the chamka, and removed the PADD he had given Anina.

"It is something she composed only yesterday..."

Kashyk looked up at Enorah, then his fingers gently caressed the
now cold cheek of his daughter. He started reading, his voice
trembling and faltering over the words:

"My soul flies...

When I look at the moons of my home
they touch my soul -
Beautiful they are, so close and pure;
I see the stars, and even from afar,
they touch my soul -
The graceful chamka's flight across the plains
has touched my soul.
And in the twilight, when the sun sinks gently
behind the hills of Oman,
my spirit will rise...

How beautiful the sunset! How wondrous
the knowledge that the sun will herald
a new dawn...

I marvel at the beauty and grace of things eternal,
And when I turn to my final slumber
I know that the most important part of me

will live forever.

My soul will fly with the eagles!

Oh, my father, weep not for your daughter!
Take courage and know that even in that final sleep,
time is a forever thing.
As the sun lifts behind the mountains
to greet the dawn,
so my spirit shall triumph.

Do not look at my broken body.
Look to the sky and see...

My soul flies with the eagles.

Enorah thought that even if the soldiers killed her tomorrow, her
soul will remember forever, forever, the picture of a broken man
holding his daughter close to him.

Kashyk wept.

He wept as he held the dead child to him, his tears soaking into
her torn dress. They were great heaving sobs that tore at his very
heart. He threw his head back and howled in pain. At length, when
he calmed a little, he lay her gently back again, and pulled a
cover over her face.

"Go well, Inspector Kashyk. May the spirits guide you," Enorah said
as Kashyk rose, mindless of his injuries, and stumbled to the door.
He had the chamka toy firmly in his grasp as he took a final look
at the bed on which the body of Anina Kashyk lay.

*********

Lushana opened her eyes and looked at Kashyk's pale face. His body
seemed to rock gently, as if he were crying. He was indeed crying,
but it was a soft, dry, desperate low sobbing.

She took a warm cloth again and wiped his brow. The action calmed
him. Lushana could hear how he gave a sigh and sagged back again.

<>.

Kashyk opened his eyes, eyes that were extremely weak. Anina knew
that it would not be long. His hand that he held out to her,
trembled. She took his hand and kept it still. He tried to speak,
was too weak, but it came out:

"My nephew, Uden Rularshen..."

"The one who betrayed your daughter?"

"Yes..."

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

END PART NINE
TBC 10/?

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN
PART TEN

The detention centre was nothing more than a labour camp. Kashyk
knew it. He had many a serious offender, or suspected sympathiser
sent here himself.

The scorching sun was not kind today. It burned into his skin. His
torso glistened with sweat in the sweltering heat. He was not
manacled, as were some of the criminals here, though why they
didn't tie him up eluded him. Perhaps they thought him less
threatening than the other inmates, or perhaps, he thought with
some perverse sense of irony, his name still carried weight.

What weight? As observer of the criminally insane?

He gave a bitter laugh. He was not much better off than his fellow
prisoners. He thought the Imperium took some perverse pleasure in
not summarily executing him.

"Kashy-riyon Kashyk, son of Kendaren Kashyk, you are hereby relieved
of your duty as Chief Inspector. All privileges formerly enjoyed
by you, are revoked."

He had looked down, then faced the Imperatum; he felt courageous,
they saw it as insolence.

Then had come the sentence, and his own curious pondering on why
he was not put to death.

Now he knew. He saw day after day the same persons he had sent
here. They knew him, and his days were spent suffering their taunts,
jibes, unsubtle comments about getting a dose of his own medicine.

He had always known it was a hard life here, an existence that
offered no kindness, no mercy. They offered *him* no mercy. He had
already had to defend himself against two who attacked him, their
anger that he sent them to prison, still simmering years after he
had them committed here. It could simply be that that his presence
awakened what had been simmering, and that day - when was it, a
month ago? - they surprised him in his cell.

He killed one of them.

The other died later of his wounds.

He had little choice.

The Chief Warden overlooked his misdemeanour, on the grounds
that he defended himself, and, he remembered how the Chief grinned
wickedly, they were "double trouble we needed to get rid of".

"Thank you, Kashy-riyon Kashyk. With your usual alertness, you have
disposed of our most evil criminals..."

Why didn't they just execute them? Did they want the inmates
to attack him? Did they want to see the "great" Kashyk beg for
mercy?

Kashyk groaned as he bent down to burn a line through a huge rock.
His chest still ached occasionally from the cracked rib he
sustained when he killed Prax. Kashyk had offered no resistance when
he was caught shortly after leaving ReLoc 41. His injuries were
severe, he had no means of medical help, and escaping... He sighed.
They did not bother to treat his wounds, and the cut in his thigh
festered for a while, before he limped so badly that the medical
personnel here had to tend to him.

No one treated him with respect - even if born out of fear and
enforced loyalty. He had lost all of that.

He lost his family. Uden...who betrayed him.

He lost Voyager and Kathryn.

Kathryn...

Anina...

Infinite spirals.

For a moment his body stilled, and he gave a sob as the words
of Anina's poem went through his mind. His handsome face, now
weather-beaten, creased, became tender at the memory of his beloved
daughter.

"When I turn to my final slumber
I know that the most important part of me
will live forever."

"Hey, Kashyk! Get a move on!"

Kashyk sighed. Yet another order. Comply, fall in line, eat, sleep,
labour - regimentation of a different kind.

Kashyk thought as the boulder
he was working on, fell neatly in two blocks. He started for the
next boulder, looked at it with something akin to a great
resignation, and held up the laser machine to cut two more square
blocks.

"One day, Kashyk, when the new Imperium Coliseum is complete, we
can tell everyone the great Inspector Kashyk had a hand in this,"
taunted his overseer.

Kashyk thought of his small collection of personal effects that
was hidden under his bed in this cell. Anina's chamka, the precious
PADD with her poem, other chips with countless stories from
Voyager's database.

Reading and imagining their world in which they practiced and lived
and breathed, all that Anina was, all that was humane, was what
kept him going and hoping... He had been drawn to it from the
beginning, yet he fought it.

"An admirable philosophy, Captain Janeway. Your Federation is built
on the values of humanitarian ideals, ethics."

"Kashyk, haven't you ever done anything that you thought felt good,
felt right?" he heard her words on one of their numerous sojourns
in the mess hall. He had been a refugee on Voyager then, as part
of his plan to expose Voyager's knowledge of that wormhole.

"I was an Inspector, Captain Janeway. I believed in what I did, I
believed that what I did was right," was his answer to her at the
time.

"Sometimes, Kashyk, a single act of compassion can put you in
touch with your own humanity..."

Kashyk closed his eyes as he remembered how fragile little
Chaunees felt in his arms. He had embraced her as if she had been
his daughter. Chaunees had been so stoic about her new fate, so
accepting of her circumstances. But she had a chance to grow up.

He had given Chaunees a final hug before he left.

"When you disregard your own interests, and think only to put
another's need before your own and helping that person, then you'll
feel it, Kashyk," Kathryn's words seemed to ring across the
light-years.

"What about you? You're risking a lot too..."

How long ago was it now that he sought "asylum" on Voyager? How
long ago was it that Kathryn said that to him?

"And what will you gain from it?" her voice sounded in his heart.

"There are few things in life that come without sacrifice."

"A balance of perfect counterpoint and harmony, Kashyk"

...

******

"Kashy-riyon Kashyk!" the overseer bellowed before he banged on
Kashyk's cell door.

Kashyk jerked from the half slumber he was in. He sat up on his
cot, and blinked before he rose stiffly from the bed.

The door flew open.

What now...

"You have a guest, Kashyk." Here, no one called him 'Sir', not
anymore... And the overseer leeringly emphasized the word 'guest'.
The overseer looked behind him, looking at the as yet unseen
guest, who had to be standing at some distance. Kashyk's cell,
as well as the entire block was constructed in such a way as to
overlook a vast courtyard.

Kashyk was for a moment confused. He had been here months - and
he shrugged mentally - no one thought him important enough to grace
him with a visit. Who could want to see him? he wondered, and why?

"Better make it quick," the overseer said before he moved away
from the door.

Had Kashyk been given, in the time he had to walk from his bed to
the door, had he been given any time to ponder on who might want
to visit him, he would not have been surprised.

He looked at Uden Rularshen, and for a moment he was stunned into
immobility. He was also not prepared for the immediate and, he
realised with his new-found sense of 'humaneness', unreasonable
hatred which caused him to turn his back on the young man.

Kashyk retreated into his cell.

"Uncle!"

"I have nothing to say to you, Uden," Kashyk said as he began
closing his door.

"Please, I beg you give me a hearing," Uden said. Did Kashyk
imagine he heard a pleading in the voice of his nephew? He closed
his door - a futile gesture, since he knew that Uden would enter
in the next moment. Kashyk sighed. Lack of privacy was a dubious
privilege.

At least, closing his door on his nephew was a symbolic gesture,
signifying not only a disinclination to speak to the young man,
but, more importantly, to drive home to Uden how Kashyk felt about
his nephew's betrayal. Uden did betray them - his own blood family
- in the most reprehensible manner.

Kashyk stood with his back to the door, but he heard the opening
and closing of it.

A pause.

"Uncle Kashyk."

"I have nothing to say to you, Uden," Kashyk repeated his words
of earlier. Much of the older man's initial anger at seeing
Uden had subsided. Now only an emptiness, a bleakness remained.

He could hear Uden sigh, and only then he turned to face Uden.
Uden clearly had something to tell him. The young man also had
something in his hand.

"Uncle Kashyk," Uden asked softly, "what is this?" and he held
the oblong instrument to the older man.

Kashyk looked at the object first and then at Uden.

"Where did you get it?" he asked, a superfluous question, since
Kashyk knew the answer. But he wanted Uden to offer a verbal
confirmation of something, something - what? - that took hold
of Kashyk. It was faint, it was vague, yet there... hope...

"What is it, Uncle?" Uden asked again.

Kashyk suspected Uden knew.

"A site to site transporter. Courtesy of my inspection of the
Federation Starship Voyager. Advanced technology."

Kashyk stared long at Uden. Uden was an attractive young man, who
was already becoming... Kashyk thought of Umi and Nina, and felt
a surge of his old anger.

"Have you suddenly decided to wrestle with your ethics, Uden?"
Kashyk asked, unable to keep the bitterness from his voice.
Why did his words sound so familiar now?

"Please, Uncle. There is a shuttle at the outer edge of the
compound. It is your chance, Uncle. Take this, and get to the
shuttle. Take the shuttle as quickly as you can to the limb
of Naron, our first moon. The Bolkannor is there, and as yet,
undetected - "

"Uden, wait," Kashyk interrupted, looking sharply at his nephew.
He took a good look this time in the semi-dark and saw in Uden's
eyes...

"Why are you doing this?" Kashyk asked finally as he took the
transporter from Uden.

"For - forgive me..." it came from Uden. "I - I heard what happened
at ReLoc 41. What happened to - to ..." Uden was unable to finish,
but Kashyk raised his hand in a gesture signifying some mutual
understanding. The boy needn't say it outright. Uden had given
a sob, and Kashyk could see how his nephew's eyes darkened.

"You put her there, Uden," Kashyk said softly.

"Forgive me..."

, Kashyk
thought. But he didn't say these words. He was just filled with an
immense sadness, a sadness that life dealt the good person, the
innocent and the pure some cruel blows.

"Please..." Uden's said quietly.

<"A single act of compassion, Kashyk...">

Kashyk looked at Uden, and he knew what the young man was willing
to risk. Kashyk knew in these moments that Uden, young,
impressionable, easily convinced to accept a universal order that
by any standards repelled the rights of men and women, was
disillusioned. Uden was right. He really had no idea what the
Imperium asked of him. He saw their 'vaunted' values as something
he could embrace with complete acceptance.

Then Anina died. A means of punishing Anina's father. Uden has had
a rude awakening and innocent persons died to facilitate that
awakening. Umi... he sighed. Umi died at the Centerium Mores.

"Your life is in danger, Uden," Kashyk broke the silence at last.

"I care nothing about my life, Uncle Kashyk. Not now," he said
softly, his eyes still with that beseeching look in them. "I have
done my family a grave injustice."

"Uden, you can - " Kashyk started.

"I cannot, Uncle."

Did Uden know?

"They have to think you're still here, talking with me. Should
they enter here, you'll be gone, but I'll be sleeping in your
bed, with the covers over my head. They'll think that I've taken
off in the shuttle... There are a number of shuttles coming and
going. It should give you enough time to get to Naron."

"You would do this... for me?" Kashyk asked.

"Please, go now. All your personal effects are already on the
shuttle, including a strange looking ornament I found under
Anina's - "

"The microscope," Kashyk exclaimed. "Anina loved it."

"Yes..."

"Uden, I - how can I - "

"Our family is cursed, Uncle Kashyk," Uden smiled sadly, but there
was a fierce gleam in his eyes, a gleam of filial pride. "It's in
all of us. I accepted mine too late..."

"I know what you mean, Uden."

Kashyk took one last, anguished look at Uden Rularshen, then hugged
him fiercely. Uden clutched convulsively at him, muttered again:

"Forgive me, Uncle."

Kashyk held him away. His eyes now very tender on the young man.

"There is nothing to forgive, Uden," he said finally, before
entering the co-ordinates of the shuttle and vanishing in the
shimmer of the transporter beam.

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

END PART 10
TBC PART 11/?

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN
PART ELEVEN

Kashyk stood near the entrance of a house in the First City of the
planet Vodar. Attached to each hand was a child, about seven years
old in Earth years. They were brother and sister siblings,
remarkably alike - almost identical really, and because of it,
their telepathy was much stronger than in others of their race.

He looked first at one, then the other. They had been fighting
good-naturedly, and were still bickering on who got to hold Mr
Kashyk's telescope. Kashyk smiled. Since he took them on his ship
- a courtesy of Norex, who helped him acquire it through various
devious means - the children had been childishly ebullient. Quite
contrary to how they were supposed to feel or act, considering their
parents were both at ReLoC 56 - the worst of the camps. They would
never see their mother and father again.

He sighed, then smiled tightly as the front door opened and a young
woman came out. She had a smile on her face that hovered nervously.
She didn't want to be disappointed, Kashyk realised.

"I was told I could come to you," Kashyk said, trying to hold on
to the two wriggling children.

"I received a message, good Kashyk, that you were bringing the two
children." She looked hungrily at Keshai and Amitai, who peered at
their new mother with great curiosity.

"Thank you," Kashyk replied with a smile. "I understand you have
expressed a wish to adopt them."

Berdina smiled again, and this time there was no uncertainty, no
nervousness as she held her hands out to the two children.

Kashyk had known Berdina was telepathic, had come to this planet
for that purpose. As far as possible he placed children with other
telepaths, who could communicate with them with greater ease
and comfort, and soothe the distraught children.

It was Keshai, the little girl, who stepped forward and placed
her hand shyly in that of Berdina.

Amitai broke free of Kashyk's grasp. Kashyk stared indulgently at
the little boy, whose expression spoke of indignance.

"Amitai!" he called the boy, who swung round to face him, his
face red with childish anger.

"She told our new mother I like to fight with her, Mr Kashyk."

Amitai turned back to Keshai, but by that time Berdina communicated
with him.

<>. Kashyk
saw the woman smile as she looked at Amitai.

Kashyk felt good. He was in a hurry, and Amansure Nidal was a week
behind him. His eyes were tender as he watched with satisfaction how
the children took to this woman. They stood still, not speaking, and
he knew they were communicating telepathically. It pleased him
greatly that he had been able to dodge Nidal successfully, and bring
the two children to their new home.

There was a lightness in his heart.

He was constantly amazed by the maturity with which the children
accepted their fate. They would always tell him that their parents
had prepared them, that they knew they would never see their mother
or father again. Kashyk sighed. Word had spread through subspace
of the Devore region that he was on the run. A fugitive fleeing
for a cause. Wherever he could, he tried. It took him weeks to
reach a homeworld not under Devore jurisdiction, or on the perimeter
of the Devore region of space. He picked up children wherever
he could - they were the most vulnerable - and then he would race
to the homeworlds where he could find homes for the children.

It had become his mission.

Every child became...

<>.

Kashyk stirred a little, his movements were slowing down, and
whenever he tried to lift his hand, it would sag back again
limply against the covers of his bed.

<>.

Kashyk opened his eyes tiredly, but he summoned the strength:

"You are a remarkable child... just like my Anina..."

"You are a remarkable man, Kashy-riyon Kashyk. You have crossed
Devore space many times to see a child to safety..."

"I was on the run, Anina."

"Lushana..."

"I forget."

"It's alright, Kashy-ryon Kashyk. Tell me, Kashyk, what happened to
Uden."

"Uden..." Kashyk said with difficulty, his eyes welling again,
"Uden died. He - he died, Anina..."

Lushana thought it would be futile to remind Kashyk that she's not
Anina. In his mind, she was his daughter who died violently.

"He stayed behind, knowing what his fate would be."

"They - " Kashyk's eyes seemed to burn into her. Lushana could feel
her heart racing as she anticipated his answer.

"They t-tortured him..."

"Who told you this?" Lushana asked, suddenly curious. Kashyk had left
the Devore homeworld, he had no more friends, other than Norex.

"Uden was caught. He was killed before the five hundred cadets who
were being trained as young soldiers. As - as..."

"They wanted to show him up as an example..."

"Yes... I was informed via subspace by an anonymous young cadet who
befriended Uden."

"Uden influenced his life?"

Kashyk's face contorted into a smile; he was smiling for the
first time.

"The curse of the Kashyks. The young cadet said that Uden was very
brave. He did not recant."

"Then he was brave, Kashyk. Like you."

"I am not a good man, Anina."

"Lus - "

"Forgive me."

"It's alright."

Kashyk drifted off again, his head falling back, his lips parted
slightly as he struggled to breathe.

"You are a very, very brave man," Lushana whispered.

, She gave a soft sob before touching his temples again.
His thoughts were now mere images, strange tapestries of wondrous
colour, a palette of pain and exultation. Some images were hazy,
others more defined.

She tried to isolate incidents and images, and little bits stood out
clear. Mostly, she could see Anina, Kathryn Janeway, Chakotay, the
starship Voyager, Uden... Prax, also Amansure Nidal. Lushana to
train his thoughts again to new images of children. One after the
other she witnessed Kashyk braving the most incredible adversities
to bring to safety as many people as he could.

*******

Kashyk looked from his command chair to the young girl cowering
in one corner of the small bridge. He was pushing the Liberator
to maximum warp.

Nidal's phasers were effective. He had a larger vessel but the
Liberator had greater maneuverability. Nidal's phasers hit his port
bow and a shower of sparks lit up the bridge as one console
exploded.

"Brace yourself, Derendra, I'm going to evasive maneuvers. I've
got some Starfleet aces up my sleeve - "

Hardly had he uttered the words when another salvo strafed his
starboard section. His shields were down by 40%, and he knew
he had to make this maneuver work. He remembered every trick
and brilliant maneuver perfected by Voyager's Chief Helmsman -
information he gathered from that ship's database.

"Hold on!" he shouted as he stopped dead, and seconds later
Nidal's vessel catapulted past him. Kashyk opened fire on Nidal,
watched how his enemy's vessel careened then righted itself,
finally slowing down. It had taken some damage.

"That should keep you a week behind me," Kashyk said softly as his
eyes glistened with excitement, his body glowing with the energy
of the little skirmish.

Nidal's face appeared on his viewscreen.

"I live to fight another day, Kashy-riyon Kashyk."

"And I live another day to fight for one more life, Amansure Nidal."

The screen went blank, and Nidal's vessel moved away, preparing
for some extensive diagnostics and repairs.

Kashyk breathed a sigh of relief. Nidal had been a sitting duck. He
could have inflicted greater damage, even killed his adversary.
But, he knew the Imperium would simply replace Nidal with another
Tracker. At least Nidal was an adversary he could outwit. Nidal was
an arrogant Tracker who would never admit to being outclassed and
outsmarted by an enemy. Nidal's capabilities and tactics were known
factors to him. Any other Tracker... Unknown factors...

Life, Kashyk decided, was cheap.

Still, his primary goal was to get Derendra to safety.

Two days later, Kashyk smiled as yet another grateful couple
accepted young Derendra into their home.

*********

The Liberator was flying on autopilot. Kashyk left his seat quickly
and went to his cabin. On his bed lay Meeta, a girl of about five.

She was ill, desperately ill. The containment tank in which she
was hidden for three days, was too much for her. The resulting fever
debilitated her strength further. He prayed she would hold out till
he got her to safety. It was what he had assured her parents.

The pitiful minute they had to say good-bye to their child almost
broke Kashyk's heart.

He leaned forward and touched her warm cheek. She was burning up.

"We're almost there, Meeta. Almost there. Then you will receive
medication that I do not have to help you..."

"Will I get better, Mr Kashyk?" she asked in a tremulous voice.

"Meeta, you are very brave. You will get better."

As if the child saw his words as an order, she smiled weakly,
then whispered:

"I will get better..."

When he reached the planet Bromar's First City, he was carrying
little Meeta, who was wrapped in a small blanket. She was in a
coma.

He stayed with the new parents at the hospital and waited till
she was better. He had to leave immediately after she opened
her eyes and smiled at him. Kashyk had taken her in his arms
and held her like that for a few precious moments. When he placed
her in the arms of her new mother, his eyes were red. He felt like
crying.

He didn't wait for them to thank him. By the time he was in high
orbit again and flying at warp 8, Nidal was behind him. He had not
bothered to tell Meeta's new parents of his own injuries that were
beginning to take its toll on him.

*********

END PART ELEVEN
TBC PART 12/13

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN
PART TWELVE

Kashyk's breathing had slowed down. It was a low gurgling in his
throat, and the young girl looking at him, knew that the gravely
injured man brought into her home several hours earlier would very
soon expel his last breath. She was saddened, yet felt the great
privilege of being honored with the tale of a very courageous man.

She looked at his pain ravaged face, the beads of perspiration
that settled on his brow again. There was little pain now, she
knew. He was drifting in a realm few people had the privilege
of experiencing. As telepaths, they never intruded on this,
the painful, peaceful, sublime, glorious final moments of
the dying. It was an unspoken rule, one that was rarely infringed
upon. It was enough that they could conduct entire conversations
without words. But this, what Kashyk was going through now, was
something they regarded as sacred.

Yet...

Kashyk's hand reached tiredly for her, his eyes that opened
briefly, told her that he wanted her to share that. She could not
think if it was a deliberate movement on his part. She wanted
in this moment to believe fervently that it was a reflex movement,
that perhaps instinctively, he needed the gentle and soothing
touch of her fingers against his temple. He spoke not a word,
but she understood.

So Lushana, who knew that Kashyk saw her as Anina, gently leaned
forward and touched his temples again. Her head was bowed, resting
almost on his chest.

*
It was a wondrous sight to behold, Chellin thought as he looked
at his daughter lying over the body of Kashyk, with her fingers
pressed against his temples. Lushana was truly gifted, and she
would carry this gift into her adulthood, when she will one day
succeed him as First Minister of Zastron. Now, she was patiently
storing every memory, every story, every image, every sound
of Kashyk's communication with her.

He sighed. He had been given the news that Amansure Nidal had
entered their orbit. Within minutes he will land and arrive here.
Chellin looked a last time at Lushana, then left the room.

He found Lerina staring out their front window, a pensive look
he knew the meaning of.

Lerina turned to look at her husband, and he looked little
embarrassed. She had never seen him do anything devious, yet he was
going to use his phenomenal power on the unsuspecting Amansure
Nidal. By the time Nidal would leave Zastron, he will not remember
that he was dealing with a telepathic race.

<>.

***********

The images were sometimes blurred, sometimes clearly defined.
Kashyk could feel a lightness, as if he were starting to float.
Yet, he had some awareness that he was still lying on the bed, that
Lushana's fingers still rested against his temples. Her fingers
were quiet conductors, relaying all that he could see, hear and
feel, to herself.

<>.

Her thoughts and her touch on his face were soft, it told him not
to be afraid. His instinctive acceptance of Lushana's gentle
intrusion bespoke his trust in her, his complete faith that she
would treasure his memories. Lushana looked into his soul, and he
gave her the privilege to witness his final moments...

The music drifted towards him, great, magnificent sounds that
filled the room. The sounds of trumpets mingled gloriously with
the woodwinds, and insidiously, the fine strings began their soft
assault on the eventual crescendo.

"Your favourite music, Kathryn..."

"I always liked Mahler..."

How beautiful you are, Kathryn! There is sunshine in your hair,
the rushing of a gentle stream in your smile. Let me touch you,
let me smell your hair, let me listen to your laughter.

The image of Kathryn floated nearer, then drifted away. She waved,
she smiled. She bent her head close to him.

"No one will regret an act of compassion..."

"I have not regretted it..."

From a thin wail of the oboes and horns, their sounds floated from
the distant clouds and came nearer and nearer. It moved, from a
gentle pianissimo, and swelled gradually, joined by the trumpets,
violins, tympani and cymbals to a shattering fortissimo: a symphony
of sounds that expressed at once cadence and counterpoint.

The spiral are beautiful, Anina.

Can you touch the moon, Father?

Kashyk's hands reached out, trying to touch the figures, but
they moved, dancing in graceful concert.

Chakotay, your sky spirits became mine...

Chakotay's image loomed before him. He seemed to say:

"You are a warrior with heart, Kashyk..."

Come...come...

The eagle will come to rest, said Chakotay.

You are capable of expressing deep compassion, Kashyk, said
Kathryn.

No, no! Codicil 12 of the Imperium Law declares that any
sympathiser be punished according to the law... Prax's voice
sounded near him, then he moved away, and dissolved slowly.

Thank you, Mr Kashyk. You have saved my life, said Chaunees.

Chaunees, you are a beautiful young woman...

You saved our lives, came the chorus of children.

Kashyk smiled a sublime smile. Chaunees...Keshai... Amitai...
Derendra, Meeta, Enorah...

Father, will you ever see Captain Janeway again?

Anina, you are so taken with Voyager's captain.

What is that music, Father?

Gustav Mahler, my child.

It is full of brave sounds, Father.

They came, they bent over him, they laughed, they beckoned him
to join them - all the people living or deceased, who shaped his
life in the last years.

When I look at the moons, they touch my soul...

Anina...

"Anina..." Kashyk's voice croaked her name with difficulty. He saw
her, her black hair long, her eyes the deep colour of the smarag
stone.

Anina ran towards him, the hem of her white long tunic lapping
about her ankles. Her arms were outstretched towards him.

<>.

"Anina..." Kashyk's voice croaked again. He opened his eyes, eyes
in which death already lurked, waiting. Lushana sat up slowly, her
bond with Kashyk broken. Her eyes welled up.

Kashyk looked straight at Lushana.

Her black hair was long, her eyes as green as the smarag stone.
She looked at him with some expectation, and when she leaned
forward again to take his hand in hers, her touch was gentle.

"Anina..."

Lushana's lips moved as she formed the words:

"Yes, Father?"

"Anina... Anina..."

"I am here, Father..."

"Anina..."

Kashyk raised his other hand, the fingers trembling as he touched
her cheek. She leaned into his touch, and closed her eyes. His tired
black eyes glazed for a second, the smile he had on his face stilled
gently. His hand slid from Lushana's face and fell limply back.

Lushana rested her head on Kashyk's chest, and she could feel how he
brought his hand up around her slender shoulder. Her left hand still
held on to his other hand. She could feel how his breathing began to
still. Then, a slight vibration against her ear as he spoke.

"My...soul...flies...with...the...eagles..."

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

Amansure Nidal stood just inside the door of the room. He would
report what he witnessed to his superiors when he reached his home
again. He was struck by the quiet in the room, the sanctity of the
moment. Lushana lay with her head against the chest of the dead
man. For he was dead, that Amansure Nidal could see.

The young girl's hand held the dead man's hand, and Kashyk's
other hand was around Lushana. It was to him, Chief Tracking Agent
of the Devore, nothing like he had seen in his life. Kashyk was
holding the young girl exactly as if she were his daughter.

He sighed.

He had wanted to kill this man so badly for so long, yet now,
seeing the dead man, he could only think of Kashyk as the greatest
man he knew. A man of courage, who could fight and survive against
terrible odds. Such was a man he admired.

He sensed that Chellin had moved just behind him.

"I will not take his body back with me, First Minister Chellin."

"He has no one, Amansure Nidal, who could care enough."

"Only in so far as I have succeeded in my quest to find him, it
is enough. Now, I must go. You may dispose of the dead man's body
in the way your people find appropriate."

"Thank you, Amansure Nidal."

Nidal looked one last time at the scene before him, turned to look
at Chellin again.

"He deserves dignity."

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

END

Source: geocities.com/area51/crater/6253

( geocities.com/area51/crater) ( geocities.com/area51)