With thanks to Camelopard for editing... Excerpt from: Life in Occupied Cardassia Segment: “The Operation” (Episode 3) Federation News Network Correspondent Rubicon Rays Captain X sits across the table. He’s not characteristically Starfleet: in fact, he wears the trappings of the Cardassian Militia. His uniform is a cloth version of the armor worn by his predecessors. We’re currently sitting in a café in one of the numerous ‘new’ military bases situated throughout occupied Cardassia. I ask him a question about the Reman situation. He taps his cigar on the ashtray. - They’re good men, he says. One of them saved my life during the war, and they’ve done it several other times here. The one that stands out in my mind is Hooknose. I inquire if this is the same Reman who’s been associated with the push for large-scale enlistment in the Cardassian militia Captain X takes a long drag on his cigar. - Let me tell you a story. It was during the war. My ship got stranded on a deep space raid. We were saved by another lost ship, full of Remans. Their Romulan commander didn’t know how to deal with them – the same problem the Vorta had with the Jem’Hadar. Of course the Vorta never made them mine for ten generations. Captain X chuckles, waving his cigar around. - We grew tight in that space. My commander was British, from Oxford - Cambridge - Manchester - somewhere around there. He taught the Remans how to speak English—with a British accent. He even taught Hooknose how to read. I don’t know why he did that. Perhaps because we were besieged and all. The ship was in pieces. Captain X takes out a small knife to cut off the ashes. - But my commander died and that’s another story. - I think the one you want was later—after the Orions had infested an entire city during the chaos surrounding the second election, when the Premier became the Council all by himself. The Romulans didn’t want their Remans back. There was some trouble involving some Shinzon chap. You know more about than I do. - There was a whole mess of them, but the one who stood above them was Hooknose. We were separated after we had to blow up the ship. This was before the Breen joined in. - Anyway, there he was, like a third arm for us. He’d managed to educate a whole slew of them – but he could never quite teach the accent. He only got it half right. And he did this hand motion, like a claw, when he pointed out that with two-thirds of the Cardassians dead, there was plenty of room to settle in and so forth. He would talk about Earth history—how Germany showed such great promise in the 1920's. He would smile showing his crooked sharp teeth. Their only problem was bad leadership, he said. He had read about this. - I told him he was reading the wrong texts but Hooknose would raise his finger and say – there’s promise. There’s always hope. - Anyway – there were the Orions. We had them surrounded – an ironic sight. I remember this because of what happened as the lights scorched metal. My whole crew was Reman – educated through and through. I had this guy from the USS Alabama as support. - Then the news came over subspace. This Reman had gone home and torched the Senate. It wasn’t as bad as what the Dominion did to the spoonheads but he was the leader of Romulus now. - Hooknose laughed at that – a bad laugh. You ever seen them smile? Their faces were scarred by the mines, by phaser blasting, and whatever—they looked like the damned. Then there’s this Hooknose who’s read all the texts that he can get his gnarled blighted hands on and he said in his bad accent – the best he can do – that now Remans can be free. - It inspired them. They went right over the barricades, right over the green giants--like something straight out of the war. Our waiter comes with the meal. Captain X smashes the cigar in the ash tray. I ask him how Hooknose managed to hide his literacy given the constant torture that the Romulans inflicted on the Remans. It is a little while before Captain X continues. - I wasn’t there. - But I was there when they got their claws into the Orions. They were like Jem’Hadar without the tubes. The other guy - Billy I think his name was – kept on digging for information from the broadcast as the last of the greenskins went down. Something happened involving the Enterprise but I think that was later. - After the battle had been won, Hooknose walked up to me. He still had his knife in his hand—it was dripping with blood. He asked Billy if there were any more details—could we pick up the FNN using captured Orion communication equipment. The Orion comm. systems were all shattered, but Billy nodded and Hooknose barked out the orders. Our Cardassian advisor was busy grousing through the captured weapons, no doubt seeing if anything could be sent to his militia or anyone else. - The news was verified and the Remans did a hurrah with their weapons—a real feu de joie. It was then that the truth hit. With the overthrow of the Romulans, the situation had gone so far south that ice was just a dream. Billy was smarter than me—he called for reinforcements. God knows how many prison planets the Romulans drained for the war. I asked him if the reinforcements were to watch over the Remans. Captain X does laugh at this. - No, he says: the Cardassians. They always wanted to reconstitute their legions. Our advisor had ranted earlier about bringing back the Marines and nevermore Starfleet on land. - But there was more news to be had. The Remans were in charge now, and it dawned on us that there were only three of us there – two humans and a Cardassian. Hooknose had a small conference with his fellow soldiers. There were loud voices and the guns were there. - Time crawled. Billy became agitated. I told him not to worry; Hooknose was a good guy. Billy said – How do you know? They’re in rebellion. This Shinzon fellow could be the next Gul Dukat. - Then – Hooknose wrapped up his short huddle and apologized to Billy for worrying him. His crew had decided to continue their service in Cardassia. The way he put it –there was far more hope and honor in the open hand than closed. After all, look what happened to the Cardassians--no offense meant, Glinn Hakar. - Glinn Hakar shook his head. Captain X finishes his meal and the waiter comes. He pulls out a lighter again. I order another shot of coffee and the waiter’s bald blue head nods. I turn to Captain X and inquire about Hooknose’s fate. - Well – you know the rest. Hooknose tried to go all civilized and it didn’t work. Those Remans that did rebel and kill the Romulans were put down. We had to shoot them. The survivors joined the Orions. - The Premier tried to wade into the pool. He said that there was enough bloodshed in Cardassia with the rogue legions and all. I remember Billy’s twitching mouth and blue eyes on Hooknose when the Romulan reinforcements came, as if he wanted to cast the first stone. - It was after about two weeks of blood soaking every planet with a Reman garrison that Hooknose’s words began to appear everywhere. He had even written some speeches – he – I think – quoted old Earth philosophers – Jefferson, Paine, Lincoln, and people I honestly forgot since Academy. - Some spat at him. Some accused him of going all Shinzon. Some of his followers attempted a sit-in, but were shot to pieces. Others—well, the Romulans had this invention they used for information – something with a booth – and the dial went up to ten – you could hear the screams a thousand miles away. - Eventually the Premier got word of it and raised a new battalion based on some provision in the treaty. Then Shinzon went crazy and that whole escapade pulled the Remans down the drain. There were more Orions with each passing day. I ask him again on the fate of Hooknose. Captain X relights his cigar. - The last I saw of him was behind bars. The new Council had put all his supporters in Starfleet custody. He was sitting behind a force shield – for his own safety. The rest of the Remans were locked up and that day I heard the USS Alabama had been destroyed. - Our new commander at that time actually found himself petitioning the High Command to make use of Hooknose’s offer. - I had mentioned this and Hooknose’s bruised face did not laugh. I think his humanity was failing him. I said to him that there was still some hope yet in Starfleet – after all we had the articles of Federation behind us and so on. - He looked at me with his pock ridden face and replied – - X, he said – I was wrong in using Germany as an example. But we can still serve. I can promise you – we can still fight. We still have a promise. There is a small haze of smoke hanging above our table. - Thankfully the Premier got his battalion.
My bad. I didn't know that there was a user by the name of Captain X. What I was trying to do in the text was illustrating a character off in Cardassia and changed by it. Of course, due to his own politics, his name had to be withheld by the interviewer. What do you think of the story?
Aww, and here I though someone had named their character after me. I honestly don't know what to think of the story. I get that it's really about a Reman soldier, but other than that I'm not sure what to think of it, sorry.
I thought you didn't want that honor! It's supposed to be about a Reman standing up and doing the logical thing in Cardassia as Shinzon's (aborted) rebellion goes down in flames. Of course, with Shinzon being thoughly crazy (see: ST:NEM), his logic only gets him in jail, and later (the last statement of the piece) "disappeared".
I very much liked the narrative style here. Like most of your stories it has an undeniable charm to it. But like most of your stories this is not easy to read and I admit that I was hopelessly lost here as well. Maybe you should consider a slightly more straight-forward narrative in order to make your stories more accesible. It'll be a sacrifice but maybe one well worth it.
I thought it was straight enough - a reporter getting a story second hand about a Reman. I'll try next time.