This is a try to write a very small story with my fave character in it.
Thanks a lot to Thor Damar for grammar and spell checking and to Nerys Ghemor for the advice to let Damar be also blunt spoken in after-life.
Thanks a lot to Thor Damar for grammar and spell checking and to Nerys Ghemor for the advice to let Damar be also blunt spoken in after-life.
The beginning after the end
Justice, Damar thought as he looked up at the remains of the pillar before him, blackend by the hungry mouths of a thousand hot flames. Was this justice? Was this what his people deserved for bringing misery to others?
For weeks now he had wandered through the darkness and the ruins of what had been his home.
Under some of the crushed buildings, bodies still lay rotting. Whole families, who had found their graves in their houses, the one place where they should have felt safe.
Was it night? Was it day? There was no way of telling. No sun beam found its way down to Cardassia´s surface any longer. The thick dust which lingered like a deadly shadow over everything did its best to prevent that.
Two Cardassians crossed his way. A young woman and a small girl. Their eyes were haunted and hungry, their breaths came out in little clouds as they rubbed their hands together in the attempt to warm them.
How cold is it? Damar wondered, staring after them. Though he could not feel what they felt, he shivered when the memory of the coldness grabbed his soul.
He didn´t know where to go and so he sat down on a pile of rubble with a sigh. What was he to do?
For a long time he just sat there staring into nothingness, when suddenly something small danced through the air in front of him and landed on the stones by his feet. He looked at it in confusion, but when he bent down to study it more closely it was already gone.
He looked back up and saw another small thing coming down from the darkness above... and then another ... and another, till the air was filled with uncountable waves of them.
Damars eyes grew big. Was this ... snow? It couldn´t be! It never snowed on Cardassia! How should his people survive such weather, when most of them not even had a true shelter to go to? Damar felt panic rising within him. He didn´t rebel to destroy his people. He had wanted them to be free again, but this was not what he had imagined. He had to help them!
"You can´t." A soft voice behind him said as Damar turned around in startled surprise. "You can´t help them anymore Damar. You did your true duty to Cardassia when you, as their leader, started to dream again. They will remember that."
"But ..." Damar started and then looked around helplessly. "Look around, Ziyal. Look at what Cardassia has become"
"I know." Ziyal said sadly. "But out of the ashes a new Cardassia will arise. And maybe, it will be much more like the Cardassia that you dreamed about in the end ... and like the Cardassia I used to dream about. That is a wonderful thought, isn´t it?"
Damar nodded. "It is ... though I didn´t see it the way when ..." Suddenly Damar´s face turned into the hard scowl that Ziyal remembered so well. "Why are you here Ziyal? Why do you give a damn?" he growled.
Ziyal came closer and studied him intensely. The regret in his eyes was easy to see and behind his hard demeanor she knew there was nothing but shame and pain for what he had done to her.
"I have seen how you have grown and that is why I am here to forgive you." she said simply.
Damar´s expression softened again as he stared at her in wonder, trying to find the words that could express what this meant to him, but like it had been so often in his life, the right words would not come.
Ziyal smiled in understanding. "Come now", she said, "I think, someone is waiting for you."
And with this she floated away towards a group of Cardassians, from which suddenly a small boy sprang and came running into his fathers arms.
For weeks now he had wandered through the darkness and the ruins of what had been his home.
Under some of the crushed buildings, bodies still lay rotting. Whole families, who had found their graves in their houses, the one place where they should have felt safe.
Was it night? Was it day? There was no way of telling. No sun beam found its way down to Cardassia´s surface any longer. The thick dust which lingered like a deadly shadow over everything did its best to prevent that.
Two Cardassians crossed his way. A young woman and a small girl. Their eyes were haunted and hungry, their breaths came out in little clouds as they rubbed their hands together in the attempt to warm them.
How cold is it? Damar wondered, staring after them. Though he could not feel what they felt, he shivered when the memory of the coldness grabbed his soul.
He didn´t know where to go and so he sat down on a pile of rubble with a sigh. What was he to do?
For a long time he just sat there staring into nothingness, when suddenly something small danced through the air in front of him and landed on the stones by his feet. He looked at it in confusion, but when he bent down to study it more closely it was already gone.
He looked back up and saw another small thing coming down from the darkness above... and then another ... and another, till the air was filled with uncountable waves of them.
Damars eyes grew big. Was this ... snow? It couldn´t be! It never snowed on Cardassia! How should his people survive such weather, when most of them not even had a true shelter to go to? Damar felt panic rising within him. He didn´t rebel to destroy his people. He had wanted them to be free again, but this was not what he had imagined. He had to help them!
"You can´t." A soft voice behind him said as Damar turned around in startled surprise. "You can´t help them anymore Damar. You did your true duty to Cardassia when you, as their leader, started to dream again. They will remember that."
"But ..." Damar started and then looked around helplessly. "Look around, Ziyal. Look at what Cardassia has become"
"I know." Ziyal said sadly. "But out of the ashes a new Cardassia will arise. And maybe, it will be much more like the Cardassia that you dreamed about in the end ... and like the Cardassia I used to dream about. That is a wonderful thought, isn´t it?"
Damar nodded. "It is ... though I didn´t see it the way when ..." Suddenly Damar´s face turned into the hard scowl that Ziyal remembered so well. "Why are you here Ziyal? Why do you give a damn?" he growled.
Ziyal came closer and studied him intensely. The regret in his eyes was easy to see and behind his hard demeanor she knew there was nothing but shame and pain for what he had done to her.
"I have seen how you have grown and that is why I am here to forgive you." she said simply.
Damar´s expression softened again as he stared at her in wonder, trying to find the words that could express what this meant to him, but like it had been so often in his life, the right words would not come.
Ziyal smiled in understanding. "Come now", she said, "I think, someone is waiting for you."
And with this she floated away towards a group of Cardassians, from which suddenly a small boy sprang and came running into his fathers arms.
-The End-
TerokNor
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