Darrah glanced at the Starfleet officer. “I can take it from here.” A group of Bajorans were approaching them.

Nechayev nodded, hesitating with her hand over her communicator badge. “For the record, I wanted to tell you this. The Federation was wrong to let Bajor slip away. We had a chance to intervene and we didn’t. Now the Cardassians have a grip there, and they’ll coil around it like snakes with prey.” She leaned closer, and her voice became conspiratorial. “I will do whatever I can to help your people resist them. Someone has to.”

With a nod, the woman stepped away from him, and in a moment he was alone. Darrah glanced around. He’d never visited Valo II, but he knew the place from images and newsfeeds. A small colony on a temperate world, farms and resorts, the kind of place a man might retire to.

None of that applied to the planet he saw around him now. The settlement was overloaded with people, the adobe buildings crowded out by the sprawls of shantytown shacks made from cargo pods and scavenged metals. It was the mirror of the Oralian encampment outside Korto, but here the people peering warily from the flaps of makeshift tents were all Bajorans.

He recognized the man at the head of the greeting party. “Minister Keeve.”

Darrah got a shake of the head in return. “Not for a long time. I’m just Keeve Falor now. And we know you, Darrah Mace. We know you well enough.”

They shook hands. Mace frowned. “Jekko Tybe was killed,” he told the other man, eliciting gasps from some of Keeve’s men. “He saved lives by giving up his own.”

Keeve was silent for a moment, then nodded. “He spent it well, then. That’s like him. A good man. He’ll be missed.” He beckoned Darrah after him. “Come on, this way. Valo’s not the jewel it once was, but there’s still room here. Still room for Bajorans.”

They walked. Darrah was curious to see that the place was open, without the divides between D’jarracastes he had expected. Keeve saw the question in his eyes and nodded. “We’re all Bajorans now, Darrah. Soldier, priest, lawman, minister. We need to look to what’s common to us, not what sets us apart from one another.”

He halted near a shallow river where ragged children were playing and women worked. Even among all this, there was life and community. For what seemed like the first time in years, Darrah felt hope bloom at the sight of the simple ordinariness of it, the sight of life going on despite all the darkness that threatened it. “What can we do?” he husked, turning to face the other man.

“Resist,”said Keeve. “Fight the Cardassians at every turn, gather our strength and weaken theirs. Fight for Bajor.”

Darrah nodded slowly. “We turned out backs, and look what it brought us. We turned our backs and they took our world from us.”

Keeve smiled and pointed. “Not all of it.” Three figures were racing up the riverbank toward them: a teenage boy with long hair and wide eyes, a younger girl who was crying with joy, and behind them a woman who made Darrah’s heart lift.

His face split in a smile, and for that moment everything he had lost was returned to him.

THE TEROK NOR SAGA

CONTINUES IN

NIGHT OF THE WOLVES

Appendices

The following is a guide to the specific characters, places, and related material in Day of the Vipers.Where such an item was mentioned or appeared previously in a movie, episode, or other work of Star Trekfiction, its first appearance is cited.

APPENDIX I: BAJOR

Characters

Arin(male) priest, aide to Kai Meressa

Coldri Senn(male) a high-ranking Militia officer

Cotor(male) a senior vedek at the Kendra Monastery

Darrah Bajin(male) eldest child of Darrah Mace and Darrah Karys

Darrah Karys(female) wife of Darrah Mace

Darrah Mace(male) officer of the Korto City Watch

Darrah Nell(female) youngest child of Darrah Mace and Darrah Karys

Els Renora(female) public defender for Korto Justice Department (DS9/“Dax”)

Gar Osen(male) priest, resident of Korto District

Jarel(male) an artist, cousin of Darrah Karys

Jaro Essa(male) Militia officer (DS9/“Homecoming”)

Jas Holza(male) Korto District administrator and member of the Chamber of Ministers (TNG/“Ensign Ro”)

Jekko Tybe(male) adjutant for Minister Keeve Falor, former partner of Darrah Mace

Kalem Apren(male) member of the Chamber of Ministers (DS9/“Shakaar”)

Keeve Falor(male) member of the Chamber of Ministers(TNG/“Ensign Ro”)

Kored(male) junior officer aboard the Militia Space Guard vessel Clarion

Kubus Oak(male) member of the Chamber of Ministers (DS9/“The Collaborator”)

Lale Usbor(male) First Minister of Bajor, succeeding Verin Kolek

Li Tarka(male) colonel in the Militia Space Guard; commanding officer of the Militia Space Guard vessel Clarion;father of Li Nalas (Li Nalas first appeared in DS9/“The Homecoming”)

Lirro(male) duty technician aboard Cemba Station

Lonnic Tomo(female) senior adjutant to Minister Jas Holza

Meressa(female) kai of the Bajoran faith (DS9/“Indiscretion”)

Myda(female) officer of the Korto City Watch

Proka Migdal(male) officer of the Korto City Watch (DS9/“Cardassians”)

Rifin(male) captain of the scoutship Eleda

Rifin Belda(female) wife of the captain of the scoutship Eleda

Syjin(male) freelance pilot and courier

Tikka Rillio(female) a childhood bully who made Syjin’s life hell

Tima(female) religious novice

Verin Kolek(male) First Minister of Bajor during 2318

Wule(male) dock chief at Korto’s starport

Yilb(male) an old priest who taught Darrah Mace, Syjin, and Gar Osen when they were youths

Places

Avenue of Lights:a central boulevard in the city of Ashalla

Ashalla:capital city of Bajor ( DS9/Mission: Gamma, Book One—Twilight)

Cemba(aka Cemba Station):commerce station and civilian spacedock in high orbit over Bajor

Derna:fourth moon of Bajor. (DS9/“Image in the Sand”)

Golana:Bajoran interstellar colony (DS9/“Time’s Orphan”)

Kendra Monastery:main site of theological study in Kendra Province (Kendra Valley first mentioned in DS9/“The Collaborator”; Kendra Province first mentioned in DS9/“Penumbra.”)

Korto City:major metropolis on the northern continent of Bajor, situated in the Korto District of Kendra Province on the banks of the Tecyr River, in the plainslands between the Kendra Valley to the northwest and the Sahving Valley to the southeast. Other locations in the city include the Naghai Keep and its ornamental gardens, the Night Market and the Night Market Temple, the precinct house (headquarters of the city police department), the Edar Bridge, the City Oval (where the city’s bantacaspire is located), the Hill District, the Low-Caste District, the river docks, and the starport. Public transport around the city is by tram.

Naghai Keep:An ancient castle several thousand years old in the Korto City. Ancestral home of the Jas clan, seat of local government for Korto District. The keep is on a hilltop overlooking the city, set in a series of ornamental gardens, with a ring wall surrounding a central cylindrical tower.

Qui’al:city on the northern continent of Bajor, governed by Minister Kubus Oak (The Qui’al Dam is mentioned in DS9/“Destiny.”)