Untitled West - 21104.01
By Don West
West slumped down into one of the seats in the corner of the room. Midshipman Elk and Ensign Anderson were seated at the table with him. The Officer’s Mess of the USS Columbia was small but well laid out. Across the room, two of the support crew were chatting at the entrance to the kitchen. Midshipman Elk had invited West out on a number of times for drinks, but he had always managed to have an excuse ready. Unfortunately his luck had run out and he had been dragged into the Officer Mess with her, straight from shift. Luckily he had spotted Anderson on his way in and had asked him to join them. Elk was pretty woman according to human standards, West just did not want her to get the wrong idea. Elk had questioned him about his hatred for the Cardassians, seconds before he had got up to fetch another round of drinks. He hoped he had avoided the question. He passed the other two officers their drinks and took a slip of his Bajoran Ale. As West placed the glass on the table he looked up to see four eyes staring at him. He shook his head as he began to speak.
“Before moving to Earth to attend the Star Fleet Academy I lived on a planet called Bajor. The planet was pretty much run to the ground by the Cardassians during their occupation. I joined the Bajora Military to safe guard my family and the planet I call home. I remember it like it was yesterday. The day started off like every day, I was assigned six Bajoran members to patrol a section of the city which never saw any action. I have thought about it a lot, but can’t think of anything we did wrong. The area was known to be quiet but I remember Private Nou checking all the weapons. Some of the guys still joked about leaving the weapons behind.
Private Nou was scouting that day. He was still a kid, seventeen years old if I remember correctly, but he was good. Everything went according to plan. We patrolled for five hours, all we saw were the locals and they were happy to have us patrolling the area. We came to a section of the city which was badly damaged during the war. The poorest of poor people had moved into the ruins and started to make new lives for themselves. Some of the squad members chatted to the local kids who were playing in the street and I gave the order to take a break. Private Nou moved out ahead to make sure all was safe and Sergeant Sadar dropped off the back to make sure we had not picked up a tail.
After I received the all clear, I gave the order for a half hour break. Sergeant Sadar took guard duty and I took the time to give a report back to my superiors. I still remember that how surprisingly happy the kids were. They had nothing, but their smiles and laughs filled the air. A young girl, I don’t think she was even six brought me a red rose. I rubbed her head as she ran off with her friends.
We packed up after our break and continued on our patrol. As we walked, we approached a large building with an alley way leading down the one side, I saw Nou put a fist into the air. The private in front of me did the same. The command indicated he heard some thing. I was third in the line. I put my fist into the air to stop the rest of my men and then waved them to cover. I glanced back as I took cover behind a burnt out vehicle. The men quickly disappeared out of sight. Privates Nou and Geg took up a defensive position on the corner of the building. Nou looked at me for direction and I order them down the ally way. I saw them move, weapons reading and then they stopped, and lowered their weapons. I wondered what the hell was going on. They started laughing as a group of maybe fifteen kids came running out of the alley.
We all dropped our guard. I heard Sergeant Sadar laughing as we started walking towards Nou and Geg. That’s when it happened. A shot, then a second, shattering the laughter, chaos erupted. I saw Private Nou collapse to the ground, holding his throat. Geg took the second shot. I saw the blood spray out of his thigh as the shot passed through. He dropped to his knees, but he was a fighter and he got back up, snatching two of those kids as he limped towards me. I shouted for the medic as Geg collapsed right in front of me. With out thinking I ran towards Nou, sliding in next to his collapsed body. He was lying face down in the dirt. Shots started flying all over. I saw three kids fall to the ground. Those monsters just killed them like they were animals.
I rolled Nou over, his hand was still firmly around his throat. He removed his hand and grabbed my arm. He told me he was sorry for letting me down. The blood gushed out of the wound. I tried it stop it, but I couldn’t. I really tried. I still feel his blood oozing out between my fingers. I felt how his pulse grew weak and then stop. He died in my arms. They came out of the alley the monsters...the Cardassians, they were smiling, like they enjoyed the killing. They ordered us to surrender. They threatened to kill more of the kids, I could not allow that. One grabbed a young girl by the hair and shook her around. We were forced to throw down our weapons and follow the Cardassians into the alley. I left Nou there in the dirty, but his pagh had already joined the Prophets in the Celestial Temple. The Cardassians stripped us of our body armour. There were four of them, I remember each of their evil faces. They wanted to know who was in charge. My men were kicked and beaten. The blood was following but none of us even whimpered. The Cardassians must have got bored, because then it stopped. They seemed angry with each other, shouting at each other in their language.
One Cardassian shouted some thing to the others and then stormed towards us. He drew a weapon from his belt and slit the throat of Sergeant Sadar, and then holstered the blade Sadar fell right in front of me. I jumped to my feet and charged into the Cardassian. We both crashed to the ground. Luckily for him two of the other Cardassians pulled me off of him and tossed me to the ground. They thanked me my stepping off three of my ribs. They ordered me up, but I could hardly breathe, let alone stand. The one I charged knelt down next to me and insulted me some more. He pulled me to my feet. He placed one of his dirty hands around my neck and started to choke me. I just kept my eyes locked on his. He coughed once and then a second time. He coughed for a third time as blood started dripping out of his mouth as I twisted the blade that I had forced into is belly. He had not noticed I had pulled it from his belt while we were on the ground. The other Cardassians walked towards us to see what was going on. I pulled the blade from the Cardassian’s gut and threw it in the direction of my men. I shouted for my men to charge. At that moment in time I did not know if I had ordered them to their death or not, but I had to do some thing.
I saw the Geg pick up the blade and crash into a Cardassian. The Cardassian’s weapon shot off a couple of rounds into the sky. I looked into the eyes of the Cardassian now on his knees in front of me. I saw Sadar lying in a pool of his own blood. Anger took over, I grabbed the Cardassian by the head and turned. I kept turning until I heard his neck snap, I held onto him until one of my men come over to me and told me to let go, it was over. I looked up and saw the other three Cardassians lying on the ground. We collected our things and the bodies of our friends. We piled the Cardassians bodies on top of each other and set them alight. Geg refused to be helped and limped on his own back to the base.
Since that day, I will never trust or be friendly towards a Cardassian.”
West picked up the glass of ale from the table and took a big sip. He slammed the glass onto the table. The other two officers looked at him as he dropped his head and said some thing in Bajoran they did not understand. West looked up after a minute or so of silence. He got up and left the Officers Mess with out saying anything else.
