Star Trek: Sigils and Unions--The Thirteenth Order

Discussion in 'Fan Fiction' started by Nerys Ghemor, Aug 18, 2008.

  1. TheLoneRedshirt

    TheLoneRedshirt Commodore Commodore

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    Yeah, I have to admit, I like Macet. He's savvy enough to realize how the Founders have played the Cardassians. (Kinda wonder how the Italians felt about the Nazis, once things started going south.)

    Great imagery in this segment. I get the mental picture of a harsh, foreboding landscape and a utilitarian but efficient prison camp. For some reason, everything appears in shades of gray to my mind - even the food. :lol:

    At least there is hope for the Starfleet prisoners. That can carry them a long way.

    Nice writing! :techman:
     
  2. Gibraltar

    Gibraltar Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I'll second the terrific use of imagery here, as well as Macet's revealing conversation with Spirodopoulos. And why do I hear the faint sound of men whistling Bridge on the River Kwai? ;)
     
  3. Nerys Ghemor

    Nerys Ghemor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    It also helps that anything Dukat says, he's going to be looking at with VERY suspicious eyes. ;) But even if he weren't related, I suspect that being the kind of man he is, he'd figure it out.

    Thanks...oddly enough, I am sometimes told my imagery is very strong and yet I always feel so weak while I am describing things, especially compared to what I've seen others do, including here.

    Oddly enough, I never said anything much about the exact look of the Lessekda landscape, but Redshirt hit it pretty close: it's not exactly a tree-infested place, at least not in this area.

    About the food--considering the descriptions we've seen of what Cardassians eat, I had to figure that when faced with a whole bunch of other species, some of which don't share their tastes and nutritional requirements, they'd be a little concerned. Rest assured they've figured out how they're going to do it--but it certainly took some doing.
     
  4. Mistral

    Mistral Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Just feed them all spoo!:)
     
  5. DavidFalkayn

    DavidFalkayn Commodore Commodore

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    I like Macet--but then I liked his appearance in TNG--one of those one-shot characters that you'd have loved to have seen more of like Liz Shelby and Lavelle...but then...that's what fan fiction is for, isn't it?
     
  6. Nerys Ghemor

    Nerys Ghemor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I had to look that up to see what it was...looks like something a Ferengi would've cooked up! :cardie:

    Yep! He was definitely an interesting one, and it's no wonder the "official" DS9 relaunch novels picked his character up too. A few parts of the DS9 relaunch will be canon for Sigils and Unions (the Gateways incident, mainly), but most of my continuity is going to be separate.

    (You know, it really irked me when they used Macet on the cover of Betrayal way back when, to stand in for that blustering a-hole Marak! That was so inappropriate on a lot of levels...)

    Though I admit, I would love to ask Marc Alaimo sometime if HE got any kind of "read" on the character, kind of a compare-and-contrast to how he later portrayed Dukat.
     
  7. BrotherBenny

    BrotherBenny Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Just caught up and gotta say I am absolutely enjoying this from first word to last.

    Your focus on Cardassia is as good as, or better than, my fellow countrywoman Una Mccormack's, so kudos to you.

    I'm looking forward to seeing where you take this.
     
  8. Nerys Ghemor

    Nerys Ghemor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll continue to enjoy it! :)

    I wouldn't try to compare myself to Una McCormack, whose work I really respect--though some of my work uses similar underpinnings (especially through the work of Andrew "Garak" Robinson), I am definitely starting to feel that my Cardassia and hers are not one and the same. I enjoy and look up to her vision of Cardassia even though it isn't all the same as mine. Which is fine...that's what fanfic is for. ;)
     
  9. Nerys Ghemor

    Nerys Ghemor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    OK, guys, here's the last section before I go off the grid for awhile. Next post should be the 24th, depending on how crazy things are.

    The events here are referenced in the Gateways novel Demons of Air and Darkness, and I decided I liked them enough to carry them over into the Sigils and Unions universe.

    ==============

    2375—The Dominion War—One week after the Septimus Massacre
    CUW Trager

    To Gul Macet, commander of the
    Trager

    You have received this message because you are known to me as a true patriot of Cardassia who knows how to take an unpopular stand no matter how many oppose it. I know of your involvement in restoring the Detapa Council and your association with Legate Ghemor, but I hold neither against you. In fact, it is this proven record that makes you one of the first to whom I turn.

    The loss at Septimus III of the Eleventh Order is a ghastly affront to the Cardassian people. We were permitted exactly
    three ships to defend against the entire Klingon fleet and not a one from our glorious allies though they made me promise after promise as the situation unfolded. And this is the role they’ve scripted for us! No longer, Macet. I will stand for it no longer. Knowing your thought and temperament, I would not be surprised to find out you are ahead of me on this, but though I am a latecomer to say the least, I am here now and would ask that we stand together.

    I understand this message may seem incredible coming from the man who has so long stood by and let them carry out these atrocities. I am also aware of my reputation of late, all of it richly deserved. I became a mere shadow of myself and I tried to drown my personal failures in empty pleasures…and worst, I let our entire race suffer for it. I may never be able to make up for what I have done, in the eyes of the Cardassian people, or even yours. Nonetheless I
    must try to make amends.

    I am asking you, and other elements of the First, Third, and Ninth Orders to help me: I propose armed rebellion…

    Macet’s heart raced as he finished scrolling through the contents of the heavily-encrypted transmission. This was it—the fruition of everything he had been waiting for! The proposed target was the Dominion cloning facility on Rondac III, a target that while somewhat lacking in strategic value from a military perspective, would destroy the Vorta ability to resurrect themselves. He had to admit the wisdom of it: not only would this be an excellent symbolic strike against the Dominion hierarchy, but any set of Vorta abilities and memories from now on would disappear permanently, piling strain upon strain on the ailing Founder.

    And
    , a smug voice in the corner of his mind reminded him, the real Arawil won’t be coming back. That said, Macet still dared not execute the frozen Vorta lest some system in her termination implant alert the Dominion that a Cardassian had regained control of his ship. Nor did he dare allow the restoration of Mindesa Rhos to her true appearance, for the same reason: though by now the rest of the crew was well aware of who ‘Arawil’ really was, it still hadn’t made things any easier on the young woman from the city of Lakariy’ane who had to be greeted by that smarmy, treacherously smooth face and those unnatural, ta’cardăst bright orange eyes every time she looked in the mirror. And according to Dr. Istep’s latest assessment, the extended assignment was taking a definite physical and psychological toll on her, one whose long-range consequences could not be predicted. This put a damper on Macet’s enthusiasm.

    But now was no time to lose himself in contemplation. If this attack had any chance of success, Macet could not hesitate. He practically rocketed to the bridge, padd with Damar’s message still clutched firmly in his hands. “It’s official: Cardassia shall rise up against the Dominion!” Macet exulted as soon as the doors hissed open. “It seems our leader has come around and decided the true patriots of Cardassia will attack Rondac III. We will be joined there by five Laghur-class fast-attack cutters, where we will form a combined strike fleet and make an assault run on the planet.”

    The bridge erupted with a thunderous—dare one say, defiant cheer…all except for Mindesa Rhos, who raised a skeptical brown-haired eyebrow where once there would have been a cartilaginous ridge. “Gul…if I may speak openly…”

    “Go ahead,” Macet decided.

    Rhos crossed her arms over her soft Vorta suit much as Arawil once had. “How do we know Damar isn’t simply being used by the Dominion to root out the less-than-perfectly-loyal elements of the Cardassian fleet? We know they’re not above sending Cardassians to the slaughter if it suits their cause. And we also know there’s no amount of boot-licking beneath that sorry excuse for a man.”

    Macet flushed all the way from the ridges of his jawline to the very tips of his ears. Under ordinary circumstances, he would have had such a crewperson thrown in the brig for speaking that way of Cardassia’s leaders and another commander might have done more—but he reminded himself that Rhos was under a tremendous amount of stress. Furthermore, there was sense in her objections. The gul decided the best course of action was to deflate them by answering as directly as possible and dealing with Rhos’ borderline-insubordinate attitude later. “It seems Damar himself became aware of that. And in the end, that realization brought him around. In truth we cannot know for sure what has happened until we arrive in the Rondac system…but if we die, we will die like Cardassians, fighting for our right to govern our own affairs without foreign interference. That is why I have decided I will answer the legate’s summons,” he concluded, carefully reminding the enlisted Rhos of Damar’s standing relative to hers. “I am prepared to go to Rondac.

    “Mendral—sesoghoke.”

    “Gul?” Mendral turned all the way around in his seat, stunned at the politeness of Macet’s command. As Macet’s inferior, he ordinarily would have expected the subordinate address and a direct command—ousighukum, not this request to an equal.

    He beheld resolution etched on Macet’s every ridge and scale. “You heard correctly,” confirmed the gul. “We are all Cardassians here. And what we prepare to undertake is an act very few of our kind have carried out and lived to tell of it. This could be our redemption or our demise, but I do this because I believe Damar has come to speak for the true Cardassian Union. This is our chance to strike while the Dominion still lacks a full measure of the threat, before Damar makes the official announcement of rebellion. You must trust that he has contacted me and that his intentions are what he states they are. However, though I strongly urge you to follow…I believe that in a case like this, trust is a choice, not a command.”

    “I will follow,” announced Thouves Daro, a softspoken man of keen eyes, and Gul Macet’s trusted right-hand man. Glinn Daro had returned to Macet’s side as day-shift XO now that he was no longer needed to monitor the Dominion contingent at night. One would never assume, from the demeanor of ‘Inquisitor Daro,’ so nicknamed for the history professorship he nearly attained before his conscription, that he had come up through the ranks of the Mechanized Infantry before Macet brought him, then a dalin, to the Trager. But Daro—Thouves, when he and Macet spoke alone—knew war as only the ground soldier could: dirty, exhausting, and intimately personal.

    Now the Federation War veteran’s eyes stared ahead into the space beyond the viewscreen, full of brooding thoughts Macet could only guess at: this was not the first time Daro had faced the choice between obedience and courage, and the entire crew knew it. As with Macet, there were reasons Daro had remained in this posting for so long, and as with Macet, they accepted it. Three words from that man can bolster or scuttle any endeavor, yet half the time he doesn’t realize the extent of his influence, or doesn’t want to, Macet observed. He couldn’t have that on most other ships. Retiring as Daro often seemed in a crowd, he had a way of winning the trust of his fellows one-on-one and among the crew Macet had painstakingly cultivated over the years his past was an asset, not a liability.

    Sure enough, Mendral seconded almost immediately in the wake of Daro’s approval. “As will I.”

    One by one, the entire crew present on the bridge, even Mindesa Rhos, gave their assent.

    “Then we go to Rondac. Mendral…sesoghoke.”

    The Trager leapt hungrily into warp with a panache that had not been seen on a Cardassian ship for almost two years: a helmsman’s devotion to a cause truly worth fighting for.
     
  10. TheLoneRedshirt

    TheLoneRedshirt Commodore Commodore

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    Macet's leadership has produced incredible loyalty from his crew - a testament to his character and conduct. Now that leadership is put to the test as he takes his ship into battle - a dangerous strike against the Dominion cloning facility on Rondac III.

    Again, I am impressed by your writing - marvelous character work and subtle visualization. I find myself quickly immersed in your story and saddened when a segment comes to an end. Great work!
     
  11. Mistral

    Mistral Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Redshirt beat me to the punch. Anything else is redundant.
     
  12. Nerys Ghemor

    Nerys Ghemor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I'm very glad you feel the visualization is working for you. As I've said before, that's always been one of my weak points to my own estimation, so I'm glad it works. :)

    Macet's definitely an excellent gul--but I think he's also got a very strong crew standing by him. I like that saying, "Surround yourself with great people." I think that's also what he's done.

    Thanks for reading! :)
     
  13. DavidFalkayn

    DavidFalkayn Commodore Commodore

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    Your characterization continues to be first rate. I'm enjoying this tale from "the other side". And now Macet is fully committed to the rebellion. I'll be interested in seeing just how high a price he pays.
     
  14. Nerys Ghemor

    Nerys Ghemor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Thanks! You'll definitely get a taste of it in the next segment.
     
  15. Nerys Ghemor

    Nerys Ghemor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    All right, DavidFalkayn: you're about to get your wish.

    Please note these events are referenced in the DS9 relaunch novel Demons of Air and Darkness. However, Sigils and Unions is its own timeline and reserves the right to deviate from that novel and any other novel whenever I wish. ;)

    ==============

    2375—The Dominion War—Aftermath of the attack on Rondac III
    CUW Trager

    Superheated steam vented into every other corridor Gul Macet traversed as he wove his way from his quarters to the bridge, forcing him to duck out of the way when the gas jets blew too intensely. Though his microscales deflected the worst of it, the repeated exposures still smarted. The turbolifts were still down, so he and every other crew member aboard the Trager had to line up at the emergency stairs and maintenance access points to move from deck to deck; transporter power was being reserved for emergencies only. Though Macet worked to avoid calling attention to himself, at every such point the crowds of soldiers spotted him immediately and someone inevitably shouted, “Gul’s here—step aside!” The other side of possessing this beard, he thought wryly to himself. He treasured their disciplined loyalty…but in moments like these when the entire crew was called upon to suffer for Cardassia together, this sort of preferential treatment rubbed his scales the wrong way.

    The Trager, following the assault on Rondac III, was almost a shell of itself. Illogical as it was, Macet’s nerves ached much like those of his counterpart on the Sherouk—not for any injuries he had suffered, but for those of the ship he had commanded for ten years now. This place had been his home for all that time, his shelter against the storm of Cardassian politics, for whoever had determined he would never again rise in rank and posting had also left him—whether intentionally or not—in what amounted to his greatest stronghold. And now…the Trager wailed at its wounds without a voice from the bowels of the engine room to the tip of its backfin.

    No, that was wrong…it did have a voice: the low moan that accompanied the periodic brownouts every time this deck or that was forced off the main grid and onto emergency power, either by the engineers’ choice or by some new system failure. Every time this happened, Macet’s breath caught: would they be plunged back into irrevocable darkness this time, as they nearly had been when Mendral spun the ship out of the way of a bolt from that awful Breen energy dissipater?

    The gul would never forget what happened next: one of the Hidekiy-class shuttles accompanying the Trager and the two fast-attack cutters had dipped suddenly in its trajectory, punched into warp for a fraction of a second, and then shed its warp field with a flash at a blistering .99 c, not a kilometer from the Breen warship. Against a missile of such size and velocity the Breen’s shields could not stand. Even the ship’s autoevade protocols were helpless. The shuttle smashed through them like paper, collided with the dissipater, and shredded both ships into a fiery tail of debris.

    Please tell me that’s not the only way to defeat these creatures. Macet wasn’t sure who or what he was addressing…he just knew that terrible weapon was yet another threat to the fragile liberation movement they would somehow have to contend with on top of the Dominion war machine—or else that desperate shuttle crew’s final recourse would have to be theirs. If the right data was where they hoped it to be, if they succeeded in taking their objective in the first place, if they even gained the means and the strength to do so…

    A terrible chill descended to meet Macet as he climbed up the maintenance ladder. Here the straining environmental controls could only maintain a temperature just above the freezing mark, for just to his left, only a forcefield separated him and his crew from the void. His skin literally tightened in response: this crawling sensation was that of microscales locking down as tight as they could to contain whatever heat they could manage to hold. Still, no Cardassian dared remain in such an environment for more than a few minutes without winter gear lest the tips of his fingers freeze. Even the old, now out-of-regulation combat gloves Macet had dredged up from the back of a drawer were only of marginal assistance.

    Sixty men died here, the gul silently lamented as he gazed through the ragged edges of the impact site upon the naked stars. It was the greatest single loss of life ever aboard the Trager—a full tenth of his crew, including Dalin Haravl, blown into space by a single torpedo. The wound itself spanned three entire decks from where the torpedo had impacted on the ship’s summersun, or topside. Just as unnerving as what had actually happened was how much worse this could have been—had the dwindling dorsal shields yielded just a fraction of a second before the torpedo’s arrival instead of cutting the missile to a quarter of its speed, the impact alone would have cloven away the entire backfin section. The Trager would have been dead in the void then, its death sentence sealed as prelude to execution.

    It had been Macet’s decision to enter into battle against Dominion forces…yes, his crew had assented, but it had been his influence that had led them to that point. He had given a rousing speech there on the bridge, speaking of what it would mean to live and die as Cardassians…and these sixty—and nine more elsewhere on the ship—had done so to the fullest measure. Here, as he gained his footing on a deckplate so cold he could feel its deadly chill through the soles of his boots, ideology and cause were forced to kneel. Here was the chamber of the dead, most of whose families would never be able to give their loved ones’ bodies a proper funeral on Cardassia Prime. No one spoke in this place—all could feel it.

    And now Macet was left to decide: dared he ask them to continue upon this course? The damage inflicted on the Trager provided a more than sufficient excuse for the Ghiletz to tow them back to the Lessek drydock where Damar had held the Sherouk and Romac in reserve for future actions. At this point, the passage to Lessek would happen regardless. The four conspiring ships would converge in a single system. The question was what to do when they arrived. He still had not informed Damar of his plans, but secure communication was sporadic to say the least—moreover, in his last message to Macet, Damar had indicated it would be better for resisting cells to act on their own initiative lest the movement be betrayed from within.

    So, as much as it offended Macet’s sense of obedience, Lessek would remain Macet’s personal initiative in concert with the other three guls. If Damar wanted his men to keep secrets like the Obsidian Order, he rationalized, then a secret it would stay. Macet believed his chances of raising the new strike force he had worked towards for so long quite favorable—but nothing would be certain until he finally looked the ranking officers in the eye and made his case in the open. Unlike an official tribunal, such a trial lacked the predictable, foregone conclusion, and Macet could only hope the odds, and interpersonal dynamics, would play out his favor.

    His eyes drifted towards the field of stars. He clasped his upper arms with a shiver. It mattered not that his men were watching: he was a Cardassian, as were they. The cold was anathema and in those ancient, discarded legends, the tundra was the place where malignant souls went to die frozen for eternity in their own wrath, and absolute zero the very embodiment of evil where all striving and all existence ceased to be. Down to the very core of his being he would resist: not fear, not even pride would stand in his way.

    After several seconds more, Macet softly fractured the silence. “We must give this meaning. And that we can do by carrying on in their memory.”

    Glinn Topak, who supervised the solemn repair efforts, stepped to Macet’s side, clad in a fossil-grey, armored environmental suit that resembled the carapace of an insect. His voice carried to Macet through the suit’s chest-mounted speaker, but the words themselves remained undiminished. “Gul…I think I speak for us all when I say that we will give you, and them, no less.” No uproar, no cry for vengeance exploded at the glinn’s remark as it might have aboard a Klingon or even a Federation vessel—not at a time like this. Such was not necessary with these servants of a dream, that someday Cardassia might be rid of its oppressors. In this tribunal, there truly was only one possible outcome.
     
    Last edited: Sep 23, 2008
  16. TheLoneRedshirt

    TheLoneRedshirt Commodore Commodore

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    I am struck by the vivid imagery of your words. A very poignant chapter about a ship's commander brooding over his wounded ship and lost crew mates - very well done!
     
  17. Gibraltar

    Gibraltar Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I'll second that. A very well-crafted passage. :)
     
  18. Nerys Ghemor

    Nerys Ghemor Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Thanks for reading! :)

    I owe a lot to KRAD for what he hinted at in Demons of Air and Darkness, of course: things clearly didn't go easily for those Cardassians who chose to rebel.

    Such rebellion doesn't come without a price, and I thought it would be good to really show what that was like for those who were in the middle of it.
     
  19. DavidFalkayn

    DavidFalkayn Commodore Commodore

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    Very well done. And yes, rebellion does carry a high price--a very high price--even if your side wins.
     
  20. Mistral

    Mistral Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I like the continuous play upon Cardassian heat/cold sensitivity-it adds a believability to the characters that was only hinted at in DS9. Great character development and a continuously fascinating plot!