“I think the meeting went well,” Damar said hopefully.

Dukat smiled, looking tired. “It went as well as could be expected, considering those fools from the civilian government were invited. So many of them have succumbed to weakness, and I know that at least a few have spread their biases around regarding the situation here. I have no doubt that Kell was unable to see them for the cowards that they are.”

Damar was puzzled. The only “civilian” who’d spoken up had been Pa’Dar. “But…Pa’Dar…he agreed with you. It was Gul Darhe’el who said…”

“Yes, on the surface it would appear that Pa’Dar is aligned with me, and Darhe’el is not. But it is much more complicated than that, I’m afraid. It is always important to know who your friends are, who your enemies are, and what their ulterior motives may be for agreeing or disagreeing.”

Damar felt awed in the presence of such a complicated man. “I am sure that Kell appreciates which men are sincere.”

Dukat laughed. “Are you, Damar? I don’t know where Kell stands at this point, although he at least pretends to have some faith in my abilities.” The gul’s expression narrowed. “As well he’d better. For although it’s clear that very few can understand my strategies, I will be successful, whether Kell is willing to acknowledge it or not. You can make no mistake about that.”

“I know you will be,” Damar replied earnestly.

Dukat’s expression grew more relaxed. “Will I see you in the reception room, Damar?”

“Oh.” Damar was taken aback. “I thought it was reserved for attending officers.”

“I don’t see why we can’t bend the rules a little, considering that I’m the one who makes them.”

Damar was pleased, but in truth he preferred not to attend. Earlier today he had seen Basso Tromac with a group of scrawny and bedraggled Bajoran women, a group that he later saw being herded into the conference room after they had been cleaned up and dressed in tawdry gowns. He quickly deduced that they were meant to attend the reception, and the thought of mingling with the Bajoran females made him uncomfortable on several levels. “I am honored that you would extend the invitation to me, Gul, but I’m unusually exhausted this evening.”

“Of course. No doubt you’re eager to get to your quarters so you can place a communication to your beloved on the surface.”

Damar smiled, thinking of Veja. “If you could see her, you would agree that I can’t be blamed for my impatience.”

“I don’t doubt it, Damar. Still, it might do you well to come and socialize with the officers. You could learn a thing or two.”

Damar spoke with unbridled honesty. “The only officer I wish to learn from is standing here with me right now.”

It was not prudent to travel by foot for a few days after Lenaris’s arrival at the settlement outside Tilar, for the spring rains had made it too wet to be practical. But when a dry day finally arrived, Lenaris joined Lac and Taryl as they picked their way through tessipates upon tessipates of unproductive land, some barren, some choked with noxious weeds. Without irrigation, these fields would doubtless wither into a dry tinderbox in the late summer, and Lac confirmed that wildfires were common.

Lenaris stopped along the way to pick wild alvafruits, which grew in abundance along the old hedgerows that had once marked the boundaries between farms. Lenaris had learned that dried alvas were a mainstay of the Ornathia diet, since they were plentiful and provided enough nutrition to ward off many serious infections. Lenaris popped the fruits in his mouth, savoring the burst of fresh flavor that was severely diminished once the fruits had been dried for preservation.

Lac had insisted that they walk. Though he was confident that the Cardassians could not trace the balon signature of his raider, he did not want to take any chances that the derelict warp vessel would be discovered, and so it was that the three had set out on foot to have a look at the craft.

“This was all productive farmland when I was a boy,” Lac said, gesturing to the knee-high weeds that surrounded them. “We had the most reliable irrigation system on all of Bajor. It was built millennia ago, but it never needed to be restructured. The network of ditches, conduits, and underground canals was incredibly elaborate. I was always warned as a child not to go into the tunnels. They had never been mapped, so it was near-certain that you would get lost—if you didn’t drown first.”

“So, what happened to the waterways?” Lenaris asked him, though of course he already knew. It was the same story everywhere on Bajor.

“The Cardassians,” Taryl answered simply. Lenaris nodded.

Lac continued where Taryl had left off. “They dug up the main canals and diverted all the water to a point about thirty kellipates inland, for a mining operation that they abandoned less than five years later.”

“What a waste,” Lenaris said.

“Yes, it’s their way. They’re a very irresponsible people.”

Lenaris laughed at the understatement.

Taryl broke in. “But really, we’re fortunate that they stripped out the minerals they wanted so quickly. When they deserted that mine, they left us to go back to farming as we had before. But with the irrigation systems the way they are now, most of us have to rely on the elements for watering our crops. The Cardassians have their own system for delivering irrigation to the vineyards, but it’s not sustainable. Some of us started trying to restore the canals, but most of us feel that fighting the Cardassians takes precedence over a convenient way to water the crops.”

Lac grimaced. “The older generation, as I’m sure you can imagine, doesn’t particularly agree with us. Which is why we don’t spend a lot of time at our parents’ farm anymore.”

“The mining operation is near the village,” Taryl explained, gesturing back to where they had come. “We followed the water, basically. Its most abundant flow is back where we built our houses.”

“Does Seefa know where you are?” Lac asked his sister, and Taryl shook her head.

“He doesn’t need to know where I am at every minute of the day,” she said crisply. “So, Holem, do you know where this Tiven Cohr is, or not?”

Lenaris didn’t care to discuss Tiven Cohr, but he wanted Taryl to think him agreeable. “I think so,” he ventured. “I know a few people who could possibly have spoken to him recently. People from my old cell.”

“What happened to your cell, anyway?”

Lenaris frowned. Much as he wanted to engage Taryl in meaningful conversation, he did not want to explain how the cell had broken up. “Just went our separate ways,” he said vaguely.

“Yeah, but—why? If the rumors are true, you had some very skilled people working together. Why would you throw all that away?”

“I don’t think he wants to get into it,” Taryl’s brother said quietly, and Lenaris looked to his friend—for he had come to think of Lac as a friend—with gratitude.

“Is that it?” Lenaris said, pointing to some low foothills that were coming into view.

“Yeah,” Lac confirmed. “She’s right at the base of the smallest of those hills. They’re riddled with kelbonite—the Cardassians’ scanning equipment doesn’t work well here. It’s how she’s avoided their attention all this time.”

No one spoke as they came upon the massive ship, mostly buried in dirt and dense foliage. It was well camouflaged. Lenaris could see from the outline that it had been a mid-sized carrier. Someone, presumably Lac, had excavated part of one wing and a section of cockpit that permitted access to the interior. Ground birds had nested in the gentle fall of rock covering the ship, spiders had spun their webs across the dark, jagged entrance holes; the vessel had a desolate feel, dead and abandoned.

“You’ve gone inside?” Lenaris asked, his heart thumping.

Lac nodded. “A couple of times,” he said. “It’s a little spooky in there…but I didn’t find any bodies—at least, not yet. I think whoever was inside must have bailed out before she came down—I couldn’t find any escape pods.”