Elegy for a dying man

A story of Kashyk, based on the episode "Counterpoint"

by

vanhunks

"We are human only through the humanity of other human beings."

[Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela]

SUMMARY: Five years after Voyager left Devore space, Kashyk lies dying, and he tells his tale to a young girl.

DISCLAIMER: Paramount is Chief. Paramount Chief. They own “Counterpoint”, Kashyk, Janeway, Chakotay and Voyager.

NOTE ON THE CODING: This is not a J/Kashyk, J/C story, although there are elements that hint at it. However, these elements do not detract from the fact that this is essentially Kashyk’s story.

To the best of my ability I have tried to provide a backstory here for this character. It is for you, the reader to decide how far, or how little! the backstory provides a logical and believable progression to the events as they occur in “Counterpoint”, and how the events have impacted on Kashyk’s life after Voyager left the Devore region of space.

RATING: PG-13

FEEDBACK: The author would welcome your critique on the story.

INTRODUCING: Lushana, Anina Kashyk, Chellin, Amansure Nidal, Uden Rularshen, and several other minor characters. These characters were created by the author.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

1. My sincerest thanks to Suzvoy, who patiently answered my many questions, and who led me to some interesting web sites where I could view screen captures, the Mark Harelik Fan Page, pictures of Kashyk and Prax. My thanks also to Devorephile who provided much needed information, advice and encouragement.

2. I am indeed very grateful to Mr Jim Wright, from whom I have obtained permission to use his episode summary and analysis of “Counterpoint” extensively for the writing of this story. At the time of writijng this story, I have not seen the episode, and without his episode retelling, I would not have been able to complete this project in the way that I did.

3. My thanks to Roses, my fellow JetC16 pondie who did the beta reading for this project. Her honest recommendations, advice and sound reasoning was invaluable in providing that “second eye” that was so much needed. She kept my feet on the ground and me on track.

NOTES TO FACILITATE READING:

NB! I have indicated a character’s telephatic communication with: [Italics] Since there is a considerable amount of telepathic communication, I have indicated those conversations thus. [Italics]:

I have also created a vocabulary for the Devore race. These words do not appear in italics, but form a smooth part of the day-to-day vocabulary of the Devore. A glossary of terms with their origin appears at the end of the story.

I have made a distinction here between the (Devore) Imperium and Imperatum. The former will obviously refer to the government of Devore, and the latter to the head of that Government. The Imperatum (or emperor) would therefore be one person, the head. Their Laws, naturally, the Imperative.

Now for the story:

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN

PROLOGUE

Amansure Nidal felt the excitement rise in him. It started as a churning in his stomach, and spiraled upwards to settle as a wild thudding of his heart. Pressing his fingers just beneath the lobe of his ear, he marveled at the way the artery throbbed, his neck skin rising and falling in the rhythm of his heartbeat. His eyes held a gleam of triumph. He was closing in on his prey, and the anticipation that he would soon lead his captive home, afforded him a glorious sense of achievement. He will then have conquered the one man he had made it his life's mission to see justly punished and executed. From deep in his throat came a sound. It was something like the growl of the chamka - the most beautiful and fearful of the Devore cat-like animals - when it sensed that the adventure of the hunt was entering its final phase. Nidal's growl tapered into a whoosh of exhilaration as he entered the new co-ordinates.

"I’m on you, you worthless daigha. I’m on you. You cannot escape me now. No matter where you hide, I will find you. Thus it is written," he muttered to himself.

Nidal looked at the read-out on his computer screen, and considered for a moment again the importance of his mission. Lest the Council of the Imperium think him a useless adversary for his prey, he began his daily log:

Tracker Amansure Nidal

Chief Tracking Agent's log: Date 57000.8

I have damaged the vessel of the Accursed. Although he has managed to elude me, my sensors have picked up his trail. I know that he is unable to maintain his lead over me. It is only matter of days before I will catch up with him. The possibility that he may himself have sustained injuries cannot be ruled out, but the extent or nature of his injuries remain to me only a matter of record. I will, once I come face to face with him, exterminate him.

After five years in which this daigha has eluded me, taunted me, tormented me, yet never conquered me, I can finally say that my mission has been a success. In the name of the Imperium will I, Amansure Nidal, kill the Devore's Most Wanted.

end log.

****

Amansure Nidal sat back in his chair, smiling grimly. Finally, after five long years, he would see that miserable Accursed again in the flesh; come face to face with the man who had so successfully eluded him in this clever game of hunter and hunted. He would come face to face with the man who, for five long years, played mind games with him. The former Inspector had managed to outwit him, outsmart him, angered him, yes, even elicited Nidal's grudging admiration. This daigha, this Accursed of the Imperium had proved a worthy adversary. His desperate attempts to survive and stay one step ahead of his enemy garnered the respect only of the man who pursued him, and made the fugitive the golden prize of the Devore Imperium.

Nidal scanned the region. The nearest star system had one planet, the eighth, which was inhabited. Nidal knew his prey would seek refuge on a world that was inhabited. With his damaged craft, and possibly mortally wounded, it was so easy this time, too easy to for me to deliver the final blow, Nidal thought. The Tracking Agent sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. He could take his time now. The prey was wounded, and was waiting for him...

The hunt is almost over, yet why do I feel this sudden deflation? Why do I feel that this victory when it comes, will leave me still hungry. No, Nidal admonished himself. He had learned from the great man himself, when they were both once eager young trainee inspectors, that the joy of the hunt was the chase. He had experienced that exhilaration many times when they were sniffing out telepaths on ships that entered their region of space. The eventual catching of the prey, a mere formality.

Kashy-riyon Kashyk, consider this your last outpost, Nidal thought as he sped towards the planet Zastron, eighth planet of the Zastron star system.

END PROLOGUE

*************

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN

PART ONE

They found him lying face down in a shallow, sandy ditch. Earlier, several hours earlier, Lushana thought as she looked at the dying man, they had seen the flash, like a shooting star. He had been in an escape pod. His vessel must have been destroyed, or, perhaps, she surmised, he must have put it on self-destruct. The latter being the case, she wondered whether the injured man had been pursued, or why he had been fleeing. She was startled from her reverie when her father's thought broke into her own.

Do not ponder too much on why, my gentle Lushana?.

She turned around, her movement unhurried, and saw her father who had just entered the room.

He is dying, my father, and we do not know who he is.

Her eyes held compassion, her lips quivered.

You are so much like your mother, my child. Your heart goes out to the weak and needy, the sick, the lonely...

A smile relieved the grave strains in her face. Chellin bent down and touched her forehead with his forefinger.

You may speak, child, our patient will not be disturbed.

"Father," Lushana said suddenly, speaking aloud for the first time since the older man entered the room. "We know nothing about him. We do not know where he came from, and why he was traveling alone, and -"

"Questions, questions, Lushana. Be patient. Look, he is about to wake up..."

Both turned to look at the man lying on the low cot. His breathing was very shallow and erratic. His wounds had been bandaged, but his body was riddled with scars, some old, others recent. His hair was black, but streaked with grey. He was battle weary, Chellin thought. There was no fight left in the dying man. He had reached the end of his endurance. The dying man’s lips were dry, his skin pale, bloodless. Chellin and Lushana could see his eyeballs move under the closed lids.

Kashyk tried to move his head towards the sounds, and groaned as waves of pain overwhelmed him.

"Shhh... please, do not move," came the soft, gentle voice of Lushana as she dabbed his parched lips with a sponge. He sighed and sagged back as the cool liquid relieved him.

Very slowly, with great difficulty, he opened his eyes. The figures appeared to hover above him, registering as nothing more than a blur, a haziness. Then they seemed to turn, swirling in such maddening dizziness that he felt the nausea rising. He lay still for a few moments and closed his eyes again. It felt safer, the pain less raging through his body. Perhaps it was the gentle voice that drew him, that made him consider again opening his eyes. When he tried to open them, he felt the relief as the dizziness subsided.

He turned his face to his right. The voice he heard was kind, gentle. He saw her, an apparition dressed in a simple white tunic. Her hair was black and long; she had eyes the colour of...of the smarag stone - a deep, deep green. He was startled. It was Anina... How could it be? He tried to open his mouth to speak, but for some reason, looking at her beloved face, his words choked in his throat.

Lushana saw his eyes for the first time. It completed the picture of this very sick man’s face. His eyelashes were long, and although his face was so pale and his lips parched, the ridge on his forehead showing a long but superficial gash, Lushana thought that he was a comely man.

Kashyk looked at her. His hand trembled as he reached to touch her face. Her eyes...her eyes... They were green. She was...

"No, gaharay - stranger to our world - my name is not Anina. I am not your daughter."

He tried to lift himself, his tired eyes widening slightly. His mouth opened and he reached for her hand. She took his hand in hers, a gesture that immediately calmed him. He lay back again, his eyes still on her. The words, when they came, issued from his parched lips as a stammer.

"You - you have... y-you - ">

"I can read your thoughts, gaharay," she said very gently. "I can picture the things you are thinking, even hear sounds..." She leaned forward to touch his ridged brow. It felt to him that the pain went away. Her touch was like the touch of a butterfly - a beautiful butterfly.

"Butterfly?" she asked softly.

His throat moved again, and Lushana watched in compassion as he tried to speak.

"Yes..." he said slowly, his chest wheezing. "I - I should call... you...gaharay... I should h-hate you...and you - you should - "

"There is no hate in you, gaharay," Lushana said, then looked at her father, who was still standing next to her. Chellin nodded to his daughter, then turned to speak to their patient.

"You have been mortally wounded, stranger - "

"I know. I - I am...dying," the sick man gasped. "Let me die here, in peace..."

"What is your name, good man?" Chellin asked.

"I am - I am Kash - Kashy-riyon Kashyk..." he gasped again, before sagging back against the pillows, his eyes closing. His mouth was open as his breathing became more and more raspy.

"Once, you used your mental powers to block out intrusion from telepaths. Yet, I can sense you are not angered by my own intrusion," Chellin communicated.

"I have learned and come to understand and - and accept many things, good..." Kashyk opened his eyes again. "I - "

"My name is Chellin, and this," Chellin said, looking at her with great tenderness, "is my daughter, Lushana."

"I - I had a... daughter, whom I loved... very much," Kashyk said, every breath causing him to stutter, and his face to contort with pain.

For long moments Kashyk looked first at Lushana, then his eyes rested on Chellin. Lushana smiled a little. Her father’s telepathic ability far exceeded her own. Chellin was able to allow the sick man to read his own mind, and creating an aura around the two of them, so that no third person could intrude on their communication. That was what was happening now as she looked at them.

Finally, the dying man sagged back again, his eyes closing slowly.

Lushana looked in alarm at Kashyk, then at her father.

He hangs on to life, my child. He wishes to tell us how he came to be here. Let him tell you his tale, so that he may have peace.

Father, I am only a child.

You are like others who have suffered, Lushana. He needs you to take his tale and treasure it, so that one day, the right people will come, and you will recount this dying man’s testimony.

I am honoured, my father...

*****

Lushana sat very quietly on the low cushion next to the bed on which Kashy-riyon Kashyk lay. He was restless, and whenever he cried out in some remembered pain, she leaned forward and soothed him. She wished so that her mother had been here. Her mother had great wisdom and she would have known how to offer Kashyk the solace he craved.

Lushana sighed. She felt she was not equipped to absorb all that Kashyk wanted to tell her, but her father had been right - he was always right, she thought - that she reminded Kashyk of other children who had suffered.

"You should hate me..." she heard Kashyk speak. She had been staring out the window, pondering on her task, and didn’t see him open his eyes.

"I do not see how I can, Kashy-riyon Kashyk. You are the first of your race we have seen here. I do not know what you have done that you should say such words. You are good - "

"I - I am not a g-good man!" His stammmer was more from a passionate denial than his present serious condition.

She frowned and touched the back of his hand.

"I do not understand..."

"I was responsible for the deaths of many..."

He coughed then, and Lushana used a damp cloth to wipe a tiny stream of blood that escaped from the corner of his mouth.

"Please...I can see it hurts you to speak. You do not have to, Kashy-riyon Kashyk," Lushana comforted him. She held his hand in hers as she did a few minutes ago, and smiled kindly when he lay back again, his eyes never leaving hers. He simply stared and stared.

"Yes, I know I look like her," she said quietly.

"The same green eyes and black hair..."

The young girl could see Kashyk was tiring himself whenever he spoke. He had internal bleeding, his wounds so severe that they could do very little for him, except making him as comfortable as possible.

"If you will permit me, Kashy-riyon Kashyk, then you do not have to tire yourself," Lushana murmured gently, her fingers stroking the back of his hand.

She felt, as soon as she said the words, his spontaneous withdrawal, followed almost immediately by acquiescence. It was as if he knew he could trust her, and entrust his deepest emotions to her. He breathed a little easier, his demeanour somewhat calmer. She knew that she would be experiencing and sharing his travails, so she resolved to remain strong.

"You have had many adventures," Lushana offered.

"Adventures? Adventures!" he coughed again, but her hand pressed him gently back after the bout subsided. His eyes were glistening as he looked at her, very fevered as he gasped, then blurted, "I am a murderer..."

"You have remorse," she said softly.

"It was my task, you understand? I was under orders..."

"Then you were forced to do those things?" she asked, paling slightly. Zastrons were a peaceful people.

"No..."

"You changed, good Kashy-riyon Kashyk," she said with a little smile.

"He called me a scorpion."

"Scorpion? I do not understand."

"My - my nature that will not change...&quoot;

"Who was this man who called you ‘scorpion’?"

Kashyk looked at her, then half rose and clutched her arm. He gasped:

"Chakotay."

"Chakotay... I like the sound of the name."

"But I showed them, Anina, I showed them."

"I am Lushana, Kashyk."

"Forgive me, please. I keep thinking of her..."

Kashyk lay back against the pillow again and closed his eyes. Lushana almost cried herself as she saw how the tears seeped from his closed lids.

Only then she leaned a little forward and touched his temple with her forefinger.

Do not be alarmed, Kashyk. You will be able to understand my questions even when I don’t speak the words aloud...

Yes... I trust you, gentle Lushana, with your green eyes.

Then tell me, Kashy-riyon Kashyk, why you should call yourself a murderer. Tell me about Anina. Tell me why you are pursued...

Gentle Lushana, there was a ship, a fine ship with beautiful lines, called Voyager. A ship from a faraway place...

*****

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN

PART TWO

On Voyager

Kashyk stood at the shelf of mementos and picked up the microscope. He was curiously drawn to it as he studied it. He pondered for a moment on her people’s need for knowledge and exploration, and juxtaposed the extremes of violence and beauty, and the harmony of it.

"It’s six hundred years old. It was given to me by my grandfather," he heard her say. He turned his gaze away for a second from the antique object, and looked at Kathryn Janeway. He was glad she couldn’t hear his soft intake of breath.

Where she sat on her couch, she was thrown in silhouette in the half light. He wondered idly if she knew at all how stunning she looked. If she were restless, or unsettled by the Devore presence, if she were angry, or resentful or bristling with indignation, it did not show. She looked like a queen, her hands at her sides resting loosely on the edge of the couch. Her total composure, the regality of her stance, the proud chin jutting, her eyes and her beautiful hair that shone like Devore’s burnished orom ore almost, almost made him lose sight of his objective.

"Your culture has many contradictions. Violence and beauty, science and faith...all somehow mingled harmoniously," he offered as he pulled his gazed away from her and studied the figure of a bronzed head.

"From Earth’s classical period..."

"Like the counterpoint of this music. Mahler. Symphony Number One. Am I correct?"

She told him that he knew Voyager’s database better than she did herself.

He prided himself on the fact that he could study the database and so get to know their - her - weaknesses. Yet, he was curiously drawn to their Federation’s humanitarian philosophy. It was something completely alien to him. Voyager’s database brimmed with accounts of selfless acts, and at the vanguard of these acts of courage and great sacrifice in the Delta Quadrant was Kathryn Janeway. He found it difficult to accept that they could extend the hand of friendship, and offer refuge, to those they’d never met. Kathryn Janeway, he learned, had a bleeding heart when it came to seemingly lost causes, hard cases; she had a reformist view, he privately thought. She probably found great personal satisfaction in the knowledge that she was instrumental in "giving back the life," in "offering the opportunity for change" to the many she rescued.

That was why they were in the Delta Quadrant, so far away from home: because they helped a beleaguered race. The Federation, Starfleet, Janeway, Voyager - all inspired by humanitarian ideals. An admirable philosophy. They had risen to the highest order of the essence of their way of life: in order to help, they would be willing to risk all and sacrifice their lives. They were ordered, disciplined, and manifest a deep respect for individuality and unity and the preservation of life.

It was this very fact, these very high and lofty ideals that made him consider what he first sensed, then knew for a fact: they were harbouring the telepaths on Voyager. Even though, after this third inspection, and going over Voyager centimetre by centimetre, his men still found nothing.

He looked at Kathryn Janeway, then smiled the smile that won him his first wife. He knew Kathryn’s likes and dislikes: Coffee, Mahler, Tchaikovski... She was classical. She was cultured. She was a humanitarian. She hid something.

He knew the telepaths were there.

He knew it.

He will find them, like he found Reeza. He had one plan, a master plan, to get Kathryn Janeway and Voyager to help him. He will use them, use any form of manipulation necessary, to extract that critical information from them. Then he will impound Voyager and have its crew relocated.

*****

Lushana’s voice broke into his thoughts. To him it sounded as if it came from the depths of his memory. He opened his eyes when she asked:

"The - the relocation centres where you sentt the telepaths, were they treated well there, after losing their own homes?"

Kashyk looked at Lushana, his eyes burning, and with sudden strength and fierceness he sputtered:

"They were nothing better than concentration camps, Lushana. Hell holes infested with the stench of death." He watched how she shrank back. "Death camps, that’s what they were. Death camps! Young girls..." Kashyk closed his eyes and burned with the memory of how they were used. But Lushana, whose eyes filled with tears, prodded him."

"What happened to them?"

"Tortured, raped, murdered..." he croaked, and Lushana could see the shame in his eyes.

"You were part of this?" Lushana asked, unable to hide her distress.

"I - " Kashyk paused, then half pulleed himself up and held Lushana’s arm. He stared into her pale face, "I put them there! It was my task. My task! I was as guilty as my subordinates, child. I was as guilty as those under me who took pleasure in maiming the innocent. Guilty! Do you understand? Even though, I swear by all that is beautiful of Devore’s three moons, I never touched a child."

Kashyk sank back against the pillows, exhausted by his outburst.

Lushana touched his arm gently as he started sobbing painfully. She waited until his sobbing subsided and he had gained a measure of composure, before she said:

"Tell me about the little girl," she said softly.

"Her name was Reeza," came his quiet response.

"You saved her life."

"I did not save her life. I sent her to her doom."

"What did you tell your beautiful lady about her?"

"Beautiful lady?"

"The lady Captain Janeway..."Lushana said as she took the soft cloth again and wiped his brow and neck. She put the cloth back next to the bowl, and then touched his temple with her forefinger. She felt his thoughts, she felt all the warring emotions that waged in his heart and mind. Slowly, her mind connected with his and drifted gently to the plains where she could see a beautiful starship, and its beautiful Captain. Lushana frowned slightly when she saw a man next to the captain. It was a dark, tall man, with pitch black short cropped hair, and on his forehead, above his left eyebrow, a strange tattoo...

Kashyk stirred, became agitated at the memory, and so she turned her attention - and his - to the little girl Reeza...

I defected to Voyager. I sought asylum with them.

It had to do with Reeza?

Perhaps.

Lushana allowed him to lead her to Voyager again, and again she saw the beautiful woman who was the ship’s captain...

*****

"So, it seems you violate the Prime Directive, by saving these telepaths," Kashyk said.

"I go with my instincts," she said quickly.

"Act now, reprisal later?"

"I’m on first name basis with some admirals," she retorted. She gave him a speculative look.

A lesser man would have wilted under that look, he thought. Right now, they had to work together, although he could sense that she didn’t trust him. He had to win her trust, or his mission would fail.

"You're risking a lot, too. Why?" she asked.

"Three months ago my teams were inspecting a plasma-refining vessel. We found a family of telepaths hiding in one of the extraction tanks. There was a child...very young. She'd been inside it for days, barely able to breathe. When I lifted her out and set her down on the deck...she thanked me."

Kashyk knew how to get to Kathryn Janeway, which strings to play, and right now, her heart was bleeding for a little girl locked in an extraction tank. It just strengthened his own position, his ultimate goal. He had her, he thought.

"I sent her to a relocation center with the others, knowing full well what would happen to her. After that, I could think of nothing else, and when I couldn't stand it any longer..." He paused.

He looked piercingly at Kathryn, and knew that the dramatic pause at just the right place, had her sympathy...

*****

Kashyk felt Lushana’s finger release from his temple, and he was brought to the present again. Lushana looked at him, her green eyes misting over as she said sadly:

"You lied to her... You lied to her... You were never sorry about Reeza. She - she died, like the others." A few tears slid hotly down her cheek before she said fiercely to him, "I’m glad Captain Janeway didn’t trust you..."

"We were always playing a game of wit, Lushana. Until then, I thought I had her. I was winning! I could have had the telepaths, and had Voyager confiscated long before that. I could have," he sighed, then repeated the words, "I could have..."

Lushana saw how Kashyk had a faraway look in his eyes, but it was not the end for him yet. She would know when those moments would arrive.

"You didn’t, Kashy-riyon Kashyk."

"She was my downfall..."

"No, Kashy-riyon Kashyk, I think you - "

"I overplayed my hand, Lushana. I wanted my people to know the co-ordinates of the wormhole, destroy it and eventually, to exterminate every telepath in sight."

"You trusted her..."

"She outmaneuvered me," he said, trying to lift himself again so that his face could be near Lushana, as if he thought he could get his point across that way.

"You saved her life."

"No, I wanted more than just giving the Imperium a few telepaths and a ship..."

"You saved their lives, Kashyk."

"No," he countered, "Captain Janeway did. She did, Lushana." He gave a deep sigh.

"Then you... you trusted her enough to make a - a mistake?"

"She - Lushana, if you had known her. She waas a serpent! A serpent, I tell you. I was Chief Inspector Kashyk of the Devore Imperium, brilliantly outsmarted by Kathryn Janeway."

He sank back against the pillows again, his ridged brow was beaded with sweat. If he had any pain, he was valiantly trying to repress it, so that on a number of occasions the young girl would see him grit his teeth with the effort. His eyes were closed, but he heard Lushana speak again.

"She must have been a wonderful woman, Kashy-riyon Kashyk, to have captivated you so," Lushana said, with a tiny smile hovering on her lips.

Kashyk opened his eyes.

"You are a child. You don’t know what you are saying."

"I can see how my father and mother love each other. Yes, my father is totally captivated by my mother."

"Then you can understand how I felt about Kathryn Janeway?" he asked, a sudden eager look in his eyes.

"I think, Kashyk, that perhaps you were a little glad that the telepaths and Voyager got away, after all."

"That is not true, child," he said with some emphasis.

"Then did not your pride stand in the way of telling your own superiors that you had failed? All you told them was that your inspection was routine, was it not?"

"Lushana, how - "

"Why did you not tell your superiors the truth, Kashyk?" she kept on.

"I - " Kashyk stared at this young giirl, who could be no more than twelve in Earth years, and who had so much wisdom. "Yes..." he sighed, closing his eyes, "I withheld the truth from them. She - Kathryn, she fooled me completely. I was duped into trusting her. Yes," he repeated, “my pride, my grand ego was bruised, prevented me from telling what really happened. I drew my own men into this deception."

"Then it is in your subconscious, Kashy-riyon Kashyk. Even if you never voiced it, even if you never admitted it, it was a small, a very small part in the deepest recesses of your heart that very much wanted to see the telepaths and Voyager to get to safety..."

"You have to understand, child, that my primary goal was to find the telepaths, find the wormhole, and destroy it."

"But Captain Janeway risked everything, Kashyk, to save them..."

Kashyk looked at Lushana with growing wonderment. She could indeed read him, see into his mind.

"You are remarkable, Lushana."

"Why did you trust her, Kashyk?" she asked, ignoring his words.

Kashyk gave a grimace of pain, heaved and sagged back, exhausted. Lushana stroked his cheek, and soothed him until he became quiet again.

"It was her kiss..."

You kissed her, Kashyk?.

She kissed me back, Lushana...

Lushana touched his temple with her forefinger and in a second she was back with him on Voyager. This time, she saw more people, impressions really, of what Kashyk saw of the crew...

******

Kashyk looked at the way Chakotay touched Kathryn’s arm. It was a light touch, not the kind that indicated a proprietorial attitude, but one which Kashyk thought Chakotay was unaware of.

Strange. He had not known them long, but what he learned and studied from their database gave him enough to understand the way Kathryn Janeway’s crew worked.

He was deeply attracted to Kathryn Janeway. She amused him, intrigued him, stimulated him beyond measure. There was in her eyes, he thought, something reciprocal. It gave him encouragement, an opportunity to get to know her better.

But his enthusiasm was dimmed as he watched the way Chakotay touch her, and the way Kathryn accepted the gesture as so totally natural and without guile. It was the very absence of proprietorial motivation that spoke louder than any verbal protestation of "hands off, she’s mine". Kashyk could sense in her First Officer an air of protection that exuded from him. It was not cloying, nor was it complacent; but he gained the impression that Kathryn Janeway moved about in the complete and utter assurance that she could rely on Chakotay’s innate goodness and strength. And Chakotay... Chakotay didn’t have to touch Kathryn at all. Their interaction, the very subtlety of the communication between them, spoke of a familiarity that was borne of out their adversity, their mutual reliance. In a thousand years, he, Kashyk, could not have that with her. With some painful clarity Kashyk realised that he provided her merely with a distraction, a sexual chemistry that was as giddy as it was brief or transient. What she had with her first officer - and here he wondered if Kathryn appreciated this gift at all - was constancy.

Yes, between Kathryn and her first officer there was something that transcended immediate physical gratification.

It was unspoken, it was intuitive, it was sublime. Chakotay would always be - he thought this not without envy - in Kathryn Janeway’s peripheral vision.

Then there was her crew - her senior crew. Kashyk thought of Prax, always so officious, always so aware of the Imperium’s cardinal laws. Prax was his subordinate; Prax followed his orders. But he sensed that Prax’s role was that of an understudy. He, Kashyk had this feeling about Prax. It was as if Prax just waited for the right moment to pounce and stake his claim. Of necessity, Prax had to carry out any decision his superior made, and while there was little room for objections if he wanted to raise them, Kashyk made certain they were carried out. He sometimes thought he saw something in Prax’s eyes, something that smouldered, a barely curbed anger and indignation. It made Kashyk uneasy, and this unease was probably what made him act with so much more aloofness, control, and discipline over his subordinates.

Kathryn Janeway’s crew would die for her.

It was in everything they did, everything he noticed about them. They were smart individuals who took pride in being part of the Voyager family. "The Voyager collective" as the ex-Borg on board said. That was the other thing he noticed about them. They were fiercely clannish. They protected each other, and they protected her.

They were all superlative in their various fields of expertise. He could use a pilot like that blue-eyed helmsman. There was very little the Devore could teach the Federation when it came to technological advancement. The Voyager crew was dedicated, committed, each member infused with the collective desire to do everything in their power to get to their home sectors.

Why, even that yellow-eyed chef with his toothy grin fell all over himself to please everyone.

He had not known this kind of relationship, not since his wife died so long ago. Truth is, he had never felt such a sense of belonging with his own subordinates. He doubted seriously whether Prax would serve his cause and die for him. For the Imperium, yes. No, Kashyk thought, he didn’t have that with his crew. Perhaps it was the nature of his work that required in a way a different style of leadership. But leadership was leadership. His men respected him because they feared him. There was little comparison. When underlings respected their leader out of admiration and love, when they shared the same vision and drive, when they knew that to embark on a new and strange adventure had the blessing of their leader, how could Kathryn Janeway not be loved by her crew?

But she was, he suspected, a lonely person too, and that was where he would serve her need.

Now he had the opportunity to forge something with Kathryn Janeway.

They shared a love for beautiful things, for beauty.

Aurora Borealis.

Infinite spirals.

Beauty. Beautiful.

Yet, the unease grew in him as he saw that Chief Engineer, B’Elanna Torres’ looks. She could kill him, if she had the opportunity, it seemed. They didn’t trust him within an inch of their captain. They didn’t trust him. Period.

Even that pesky mess hall sergeant acted as though he thought Kashyk would carry their captain off somewhere. If truth be told, he wanted to carry Kathryn Janeway off somewhere.

He was constantly under guard, even when it appeared he and Kathryn were alone in the mess hall, and they were bouncing ideas. He sensed their presence.

When he departed, it was with mild relief. His task, that of getting the telepaths and impounding Voyager, still more important than satisfying an immediate urge. But he wanted more than just a few telepaths, and his ultimate goal: destroying the wormhole through which so many telepaths escaped, and delivering a planetful of them to the Imperium. To attain this, he would manipulate Kathryn Janeway. He could use her to get the telepaths. He had to win not only her sympathy, but her trust.

He had her sympathy, he could see how her regard for him gradually changed. She was getting closer to him. Her eyes had no longer that mistrustful look about them. They got on well together, and he could see how animated she became when they could discuss science, the problems of counterpoint. She was elated, her eyes shone with excitement as she hit on an idea. He worked with her, gave her valuable specifications to adjust their scanners to compensate for

refractive shielding. He earned her trust. She was unaware of his own agenda She trusted him. The way she acted, her demeanour when they were together talking, or drinking coffee, made him believe that. It was in the way she kissed him.

The kiss, yes. Lushana’s thought intruded on his own. Tell me about it....

******

"I've made one adjustment to your plan," Kathryn said to Kashyk as he was about to start up his shuttle. "After the inspection, we're going to wait at the wormhole for as long as we can... Until it begins to collapse."

"I may not be able to join you this time."

"Try."

He looked at her for the longest moment, her face beautiful, almost regal. Something touched him in those seconds then, and manifest itself in the uncontrollable urge to kiss her.

Chakotay be damned, Kashyk thought as he took her in his arms, and brought his lips down on hers. There was a sudden sensation of drowning as waves of pleasure coursed through his body. Her lips were incredibly soft, inviting and her eyes... She pressed into him, and a thousand sparks lit up behind his eyes as her soft body melted into his.

Kashyk broke off the kiss, unsettled by his own response. He was certain she could see the fire blazing in his eyes. The next instant he felt her hands in his hair, her lips on his, and she was kissing him with so much fire, so much abandon, that sweet bliss exploded in his body. He groaned his pleasure as she ran her fingers through his hair, and moaned again as her thumb pressed against a spot behind his ear. He was giddy with delight, and ready to swoon... Kashyk was certain Kathryn could feel the wild, erratic beating of his heart.

When the kiss ended, they were both breathless.

He knew that she wanted him. He wanted her. But he was caught in a dilemma. Use her, get the telepaths. There was no place for him on Voyager, with all that that intrepid ship, its captain, and the mighty Federation offered: humanity - the humanitarian ideal. Yes, even inviting him to defect and join them was an attractive option. But he had seen Kathryn with Chakotay...

She did not love you, Kashy-riyon Kashyk... Lushana’s thoughts broke again into his own.

I was a fool, Lushana. I believed her then. I trusted her.

But you also used her, Kashyk...

I was arrogant, my ego stroked by her response.

You must have disappointed your captain deeply...

By all that is beautiful of Devore’s three moons, I have begged forgiveness over and over.

You have been tormented by what you had done, Kashyk.

Yes....

*******

Chellin entered the room quietly, followed by the lady Lerina, his wife. They saw Lushana bending slightly over the patient. It was clear to them that his last hours were fast approaching. Kashyk’s breathing had become more raspy, his chest heaving more and more as he struggled to draw in air.

But it was not a strange thing for them to see how Kashyk calmed whenever Lushana soothed him, and communicated vocally with him. Her tone was soft, the register of her voice light, yet mellow, musical.

Like your voice, my beloved. Chellin communicated with his wife.

Do not worry, my husband, there is much of you in her. She will develop her telepathy the way you control yours. She has a rare gift, like you....

Chellin looked at his wife, took her hand in his and smiled. They looked at the two silent figures, one dying, and the other on the threshold of her life.

It was quiet, and only their heart-beats indicated that time, for this dying man, was running out.

He is a hunted man, my husband.

I know, beloved. His pursuer will find him. But I shall know how to deal with the situation when he arrives.

I have no doubt that you will, husband. This man here, this Kashyk, has done many wrongs, which he has tried to atone for, not so?.

Chellin nodded.

He will die in peace.

Yes...

*******

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN

PART THREE

Kashyk lay in uneasy slumber, his hand firmly held by Lushana. Once, he moaned a little, trying to move his head towards her. She bent over and whispered soft, soothing words. He opened his eyes slowly and looked at her.

"Lushana."

"Yes, Kashyk?"

"The people on - on V-voyager," he stammered, "you - you would have liked them."

"The captain," Lushana offered, "was a beautiful lady."

"Very beautiful, child. And they - she loved all things beautiful."

"Did you not love beauty, Kashyk?" she asked.

"I was too busy doing the work for the Imperium, I did not have time to ponder on - on... things of beauty..."<

"You do now, I sense it in you. It was always there, Kashy-riyon Kashyk, buried deep inside you."

"She - Captain Janeway, she - we were in acccord, did you know? Objects of beauty and age, like her - her..." Kashyk tried to mouth the words, but he started wheezing again, and Lushana, touching his lips, bade him quiet.

"I know, Kashyk. Her microscope that was handed down to her. Six hundred years old..."

"Yes. I always thought of it as her gateway to the galaxy."

"We found the microscope in your escape pod, Kashyk," she said with a smile.

"I - it was all I had of her. She did not know that I took it. We did that, you know. Mementos - souvenirs ransacked from vessels that we inspected."

"Did you want it to be a reminder of her, Kashyk?" Lushana asked.

"It became more than that, Lushana. It became more than that," he repeated. His agitation was apparent in the way he gasped the words, in feverish entreaty as he stared at her.

"It kept you in touch with - with - "

"My humanity. A Devore with humanity... Oh, God!" Kashyk cried suddenly.

"God? Who is God?" Lushana asked, a little bemused that he could utter it with so much passion.

He looked at her, then pulled himself almost to a sitting position. She pressed him gently back against the pillows.

"A - a deity many on board the ship Voyageer adhered to..."

"And you called out his name often?"

"Only to raise my fists at him," it burst from him.

"But you kept the microscope," she said at length, quietly.

"Yes, I kept it. I kept it," he said again, then sagged back and let the tears squeeze from his closed eyelids again.

"Please, do not be perturbed. I can sense how much you valued it, like Captain Janeway did."

Kashyk opened his eyes and looked long and searchingly at the young girl. A smiled wavered on her lips. She was indeed a beautiful, exotic child.

"A balance of perfect counterpoint and harmony," he wheezed.

"I do not understand, good Kashyk."

"Think about it, gentle Lushana. Captain Janeway could fight, persevere, protect her ship and crew to the death, yet aggression, violence, anger could be complemented and softened by the simple enjoyment of good music, playing chess, caressing the smooth lines of a little statue..."

"She was a complete person?"

"Yes, gentle child."

"Then what beauty she admired, touched you too, Kashyk."

His eyes seemed to widen at her words. This child was wise beyond her tender years, he thought.

"Yes..."

"It did more than that, Kashy-riyon Kashyk. Captain Janeway, of the starship Voyager, awakened what had remained hidden all your life. She stirred in you your own love for beauty. She gave you a precious gift, good Kashyk - "

"The humanitarian ideals! Humanity!" he cried in his anguish.

"It was there, Kashyk, very, very deep inside you. Even now, I sense it in you..."

"I - " Kashyk began, then paused. &quuot;I - am not a good man..."

"Until the way of life of the Voyagers, their ethics, their... humanity, affected you," Lushana said with conviction. "You fought it, but it won."

Kashyk lifted his hand, and with trembling fingers he touched his heart. His eyes had again that feverishness in them that told her what he wanted to impart was very, very important.

“Everything that I - I have, everything that I once valued of my life, everything that I am, Lushana, is - is here... here,” he repeated the last word. His eyes glistened, the sadness evident in them. “I have lost... everything...”

“Good Kashyk, I will treasure your memories. Do not be sad,” the young girl consoled. She smiled gently, and was happy when he lay back again, a little calmer. She then asked:

“Tell me about the infinite spirals.”

“They were the most beautiful things to fill the black sky, Lushana. She - she c-called them the - “

Kashyk tried to speak, but was caught in a spasm of coughing. When Lushana placed her finger again at his temple, he gently removed it.

“Aurora. Light. Aurora Borealis, on her own home world, Earth. A profusion of colour and light that touched the very depths of your soul...”

Lushana wiped Kashyk’s face again when his tears started. She stroked his cheek and said kindly:

“You miss your home, Kashyk.”

He wanted to deny it, he wanted to believe her words were just platitudes she uttered to console a dying man. But he was Devore. He could have done a thousand things, saved a thousand telepaths; deep inside he could no more deny his heritage than lie now to Lushana. He was not ashamed. He looked long at her and then turned his face away, looking at the blank wall. His “yes” was murmured so softly, that she could hardly hear him. She sensed what he said.

“You will fly there soon, Kashyk,” she soothed, “and see your daughter again...”

He turned at last to look at her again, and took her hand in his.

“Yes...”

“I heard music, Kashyk, but it went away quickly. Is the memory of it unpleasant for you?”

“How - how did - did you know?” he asked, hiis lips again white and parched. She sponged him and he closed his eyes as he felt the cool of the water against his lips. Her finger touched his temple.

Let the music flow through you, good Kashyk. I will be able to hear every note...

It was their music... beautiful, grand, sublime...

It is haunting... Who was the music-maker, good Kashyk?

A composer from their great cultural period, a man called Gustav - Gustav Mahler.

Gustav Mahler... His first of nine symphonies. It sounds... beautiful, like a poem. Kashyk, I hear many instruments.

Woodwinds, trumpets and cymbals. Yes... she loved Mahler.

So do you, Kashyk.

Because of her...

I know...

Lushana broke their connection so suddenly that Kashyk looked at her in alarm.

"What is wrong, gentle Lushana?" he asked, touching her hand with his now familiar trembling fingers.

“You changed, Kashyk, because of them, of Voyager and Captain Janeway.”

“Do not cry, gentle child. I am - I am a better man for it. My - my only regret, Lushana... my only regret is - “

“You lost your daughter.”

“Anina,” he sighed. “Anina... She died, you know.” Kashyk became agitated, tried to raise himself and hold Lushana’s arm. His chest wheezed as his breathing became more laboured. Gasping, he fell back, unable to prevent the tears from rolling down his cheeks.

Look at me, Kashyk

The tears stopped and Kashyk turned to look at the green-eyed, fey and beautiful child.

You will join her, very soon, Kashy-riyon Kashyk. Her arms will be outstretched and she will beckon you to come to her

Yes...

Close your eyes, Kashyk, and let me see what you see, hear what you hear, of how you changed...

*******

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN

PART FOUR

Kashyk was seated in the command chair, with Kathryn Janeway in the first officer’s chair. He was filled with the supreme confidence that he had bested Kathryn Janeway. He smiled inwardly, and felt immeasurably smug. He had succeeded in using his charm to get what he wanted. Perhaps, if he had taken the time to assess Kathryn's stance, her face that revealed nothing, and which to him seemed like the face of the vanquished, he would have known that Starfleet Captains were notorious for maintaining a poker face. If he thought about it, even that Chakotay had a way of saying little and revealing nothing. He looked at the main viewscreen and waited for the photon torpedo to detonate. He looked at the read-out on the console, stared for a second in disbelief at the reading, then looked up.

The moment he said: “There’s no wormhole here,” he felt a cold hand grip his heart, and the blood draining from his face. It did not require any analysis of hows and whys, it did not require any long and tedious pondering on lack of intuition or the greater and infinitely grander scheme of a devoted crew. The knowledge: everything, every little plan, every device used, every iota of incredible expertise to win this game against the Devore, against him, came together in the single instant it took him to realise that Kathryn Janeway had beaten him.

Everything fell into place.

He looked at her. She sat in the Commander's chair, her hands on the armrests, and even as he was shattered by what was happening, his distraught mind registered how like a queen she looked. Her face was regal, and she had a smile that hovered. He heard the second movement of the Mahler symphony replace Tchaikovski's Symphony No.4. Again, the clashing of cymbals which seemed to signify her triumph.

Trust has to be earned, he had told her the third time they had inspected this ship. Earned...earned...earned.. How had he managed in these moments not to let his men sense how angered, how devastated he was?

Kashyk smiled briefly, an old trick of covering the warring emotions in him.

“It seems I never did earn your trust.”

It had been a game, from the start, with Kathryn Janeway. Who would win this exercise of parry and thrust, advance and check? His heart sank as he looked at the victor. She sat there, and every nanosecond he remained staring at her, he saw his future, all his prospects one by one dissipate into thin air. All that remained was his wounded pride, an ego shattered by the control he lost, and which, just a few minutes ago, he thought he had.

He was never from the start, honest with her. He was always going to betray her, betray what 'trust' he imagined he won.

How empty the words now, how without honour.

Like the good soldier that he was, he conceded defeat, even gracefully, he thought, as his eyes softened again. He liked her. He could have loved her, even.

I was the scorpion Chakotay accused me of, Lushana. In those moments, thinking of going with Voyager, sounded so tempting. But tempting was always the word, wasn’t it? Tempting but not tempted.

She would have taken you with them, Kashyk Lushana broke into his thoughts.

If I had changed, young Lushana. But I did not. It was never my intention, you know that.

Yes, I understand. You had power, but you wanted more, I think, Kashyk, more than what Voyager offered.

In retrospect, I would not have enjoyed the power I already had, if I had gone with them. Besides...

Yes, there was Anina to think of. Why did you not tell Captain Janeway about her?

A Devore soldier with a heart... that's what they would have thought. I wanted to preserve the image of the cold as steel military man whose only job it was to send innocent people to their doom...

You betrayed the Captain, Kashy-riyon Kashyk.

My betrayal made it impossible to accept her offer then, more than ever before.

You would not have liked it on Voyager, Kashyk

Who knows? What I do know, is this fact, this indisputable fact: I could never trust her and she could never trust me, whatever else there may have existed between us. Who cared about power if I could not have her trust?.

Trust is important, Kashyk.

Kashyk was so disturbed by Lushana’s words that he broke the link between them, and stared wildly at her.

“Lushana.”

“Yes, good Kashyk?”

“Perhaps not now, but one day, you will understand. But I’ll tell you now, so that you will remember it always. Trust, my gentle child, is the foundation of a relationship. It must be there. If is it not, everything beautiful will crumble, every possibility and every good prospect will have been built on lies and deceit and - and...betrayal...”

“An important element in counterpoint and harmony...”

"You are right! A key element. If not... if not, it becomes - "

“Discordant?”

“Yes! Yes!” Kashyk cried out, then coughed again. Lushana was quick to wipe the blood from his mouth, making soothing sounds to calm the disturbed dying man. She spoke softly:

“I shall carry your wise words with me, Kashyk, and know them to come from a man who once threw away that trust.”

“Yes...”

“Did you say goodbye to your beautiful captain, Kashyk?” she asked suddenly, as if a great thought struck her.

Kashyk went into a fit of coughing again, and it took Lushana several minutes to calm him again.

“Shhh... be calm, please, and let me enter your thoughts, Kashyk.”

The look he gave her was pathetic in his eagerness, his eyes had a seemingly permanent mistiness in them, and his hand grabbed gratefully at her.

With her other hand she touched his temple again, and she was glad to see him close his fevered eyes. They were again on the bridge of the ship.

*****

How could he tell her? How could he tell her that his decision not to accept her offer was inspired more by personal reasons than wanting to continue the work of the Imperium?

True, he wrestled with his ethics when he saved little Reeza’s life. But those thoughts, those great moments he considered morals and ‘humanity’ and selflessness were so completely fleeting that they registered simply as: Fine, Kashyk has done his duty by wrestling with his ethics. Now all can go to the relocation centre.

He rose from the command chair, as composed as he could manage to be and said:

“The bridge is yours.”

Did he imagine he saw first a look of relief flash in her eyes? Did he imagine he saw the relief replaced be disappointment? Did he imagine he saw there the regret? There was nothing more to say, and so he looked at Kathryn Janeway, sighing as he made his way to the turbolift, his eyes never leaving her.

He thought fleetingly of his daughter who waited for him at home after this assignment was completed. The two most beautiful things in his life, he thought. Kathryn and Anina. Anina and Kathryn.

Infinite spirals.

His eyes were still on her as the doors closed. He leaned against the lift interior, his head thrown back. He could not decide in those moments, seeing her for the last time, which stung the most: his bruised ego at having to concede defeat in the face of brilliant strategy, or the prospect of never seeing her again.

Kashyk knew, for what is was worth, that he did have feelings for her, that he did desire her and that for a while at least, if he let himself, they would have been great together.

The same great cold hand that had gripped him earlier on the bridge gripped him now and squeezed so hard at him that he sank to the floor of the lift and cried out in pain for a few moments. That was how weak he felt.

By the time he was back on his own ship, he was calm again.

He was Chief Inspector Kashyk, of the Devore Imperium.

And alone in his quarters on board his ship, he at last gave vent to his frustrations. Every surface where his fist landed, he imagined he saw Kathryn’s face. Everywhere he sat down, she was next to him, smiling sweetly, wickedly, victoriously.

Her face remained with him...

Even now, Kashyk, you cannot forget her...

Her face never leaves me, Lushana. Never.

She was never out of your thoughts for five years

Her humanity inspired me...

Who is Amansure Nidal, Kashyk?

Kashyk’s eyes opened and he stared at the ceiling. Lushana watched how he started to shudder. Her small hands held his shoulders, and she soothed him, crooning to him in gentle tones.

“He - he was appointed by the Imperium to -- to hunt me down. I have eluded him for five years.”

“He comes, Kashyk.”

“Yes, I know. He will not stop. You are not safe...”

“Do not worry about us, Kashyk. My father will know what to do when he comes.”

“Thank you, Lushana. You are kind. I never - I never before...”

Kashyk swallowed with difficulty before he tried again:

“I never before appreciated that. I was raised to hate telepaths, you know...”

“Tell me, Kashyk, why you became hunted,” Lushana asked quietly.

“Then I would have to tell you about Anina...”

“Then tell me about her,” Lushana said before she started the link between them again.

She knew this was going to be difficult, and suddenly wished she had known Captain Kathryn Janeway and Chakotay. She wished so much that they could see this man’s pain, and she knew that had Captain Kathryn Janeway been here right in these moments, that lady would have been proud of this dying man.

Proud.

So Lushana touched Kashyk’s face again, and was transported to another world, away from Voyager and her crew...

*****

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN

PART FIVE

Kashy-riyon Kashyk looked back at his transport as it faded into the distance. The pilots had hardly spoken a word to him on his journey home. He sighed. It had been a difficult day - no, he thought, - a difficult five days at the debriefing centre. His uniform sat cloyingly on him; he was sweating - more from the penetrating gaze of the Imperatum than the heat and humidity. He was tired and had found even Anina’s constant barrage of questions a source of irritation.

He opened the front door and wished for a second that Anina had gone to her grandmother after her morning session at school. At the thought of his daughter, a smile relieved the grimness and tension that had given his attractive features a drawn look. She had been ecstatic when he had returned from his last mission, but her happiness at seeing him, had been tempered by her usual:

“How many telepaths did you relocate this time, Father?” She had a way of emphasizing the word ‘relocate’, and he pursed his lips when she did that every time. She didn’t like what he was doing, had a great empathy for the telepaths, and didn’t for a moment believe that the telepaths and other races captured along with them, were treated in accordance with the law.

“Umi said they were treated badly, Father,” Anina would quote her grandmother.

“Anina, little bird, you must not utter these things at school - “

“Don’t worry, Father, I’m very careful,” she assured him.

Kashyk sighed. Anina was only six sun turns old - twelve in Kathryn Janeway and her crew’s Earth years - but she possessed her late mother’s amazing penchant for speaking her mind. The Devore Imperium did not take Sympathisers lightly, and certain men and women he had known in the past, and whom he had never suspected were Sympathisers, vanished mysteriously. Even he had seen that Sympathisers were dealt with.

*****

Walking through the foyer, he heard music and knew Anina was home. She had, in the last few days since his return, been playing music from Voyager’s database.

Voyager.

He had taken more than just Kathryn Janeway’s microscope.

A few minutes later he was standing under a very cold shower. His thick shock of black hair lay plastered against his skin. The cold water relieved the tension, and enervated him. He had a little reprieve of two days before his next mission. He gave a grim little smile. This time the Imperium wanted to send him on his next mission soon.

“We feel, Inspector Kashyk, that you are in need of some purging, to eradicate all residual feelings you may subconsciously be harbouring after your last mission. There is no better way than to be seeking out telepaths again soon.”

He had merely nodded and cast a furtive glance at Prax, who did not have the privilege of having been grilled as hard, and subjected to as intense an inquiry as Kashyk had been. Prax's eyes were guarded, but he knew Prax, and he knew that look. His second-in-command was not happy that Kashyk had virtually forced him into silence; the ever officious, by-the-book Prax had not liked being drawn into this kind of deception.

Prax.

The unease he had been feeling all the time on Voyager, and particularly when the Devore's objective failed, had been growing steadily the last five days.

Which is why I am worried, he thought as he got out of the shower and grabbed his robe. He was still tying the cord of the robe when he heard Anina’s voice.

I have to send her somewhere, Kashyk thought with alarm, knowing how the debriefing and inquiry left more questions than any feeling of satisfaction of a job well done. The Imperium viewed him with mistrust. He delivered his reports with his usual competence, but he knew that a certain pause here, a stammer there did all but convince the Imperium that for once, the great Chief Inspector Kashyk appeared disconcerted. Prax had looked at him, his face bland, but Kashyk knew Prax gloried in his superior’s slight discomfiture.

The Imperium were not above using certain methods of discipline to keep their members in line...

“Father!” Anina called as she saw him approach his bedroom. He smiled warmly, and braced himself as she threw herself into his arms.

“Anina... my little bird,” he whispered as he hugged her. When he held her away from him, he looked into her startling green eyes. Her hair was pitch black, like his own, but she had her late mother’s features.

“You are early today, Father,” she asked, a query in her eyes.

“Yes. Now you and I can relax. We can go to the Institute for Planetary Studies -

“I wanted to show you how to play 3D chess! It is very challenging! It was easy to understand, Father. I just studied the rules from the information you downloaded from Voyager’s database into our computer,” she said proudly.

Strange how she reminded him not of her late mother when she spoke, but rather of Kathryn Janeway. He felt the familiar tightness in his chest. He smiled, trying to hide any distress he might have felt when she mentioned Voyager.

“Little bird,” he said, using his old endearment for her, “Let me dress first, then you and I can talk about it.” Another sigh escaped him. There was very little he could refuse her. In their home she was very vocal about the way the telepaths were treated. She didn’t like the way the children at her school scorned the mind-readers, as the telepaths were called.

He wanted to enjoy the next two days with Anina. He could relax, and now, read novels from Voyager’s database. Kashyk was glad to be out of uniform again. He was a different man in it, he thought. Too much the Imperium’s great Inspector Kashyk who has never failed to confiscate vessels. Too much the man who used whatever means to get his information, his charm to get women. He was then the great Kashyk who, to date, has been the most successful Inspector in ferreting out gaharay.

Out of uniform... He just wanted to be a man...

He hated the telepaths. He hated them not because they had the ability to intrude upon his most intimate and private thoughts, but he hated them because he was brought up that way. Therein lay the rub: it was an unreasonable hate, he knew. Whatever noble motivations there had been to hate telepaths, had sunk into the oblivion of time. No one living on Devore today could say with any real foundation that he knew why the telepaths were a threat. Today, they just were. To say that telepaths were intrusive, could read one’s mind and were not to be trusted was, as he was beginning to realise, too superficial a reason. Yet the Devore had built its Imperium on the strength of that belief. By the time he became Inspector Kashyk, every vessel he inspected, every telepath he saw and relocated, became the reason he was doing this work: they were a threat. The Devore - severe, austere militia men needed to purge every impurity that could invade the Imperium. He believed in his cause implicitly. He believed that his people had to be protected from them at all costs.

At all costs.

He watched his men sometimes...

They gloried in the power they had over their victims: laughed, grinned, dripped with satisfaction. Personally he found it abhorrent, but what the men were doing, had the unspoken blessing, it seemed, of the Imperium. The idea of touching and maiming a child was to him on a personal level, reprehensible. Perhaps that feeling had always been tempered with the underlying knowledge that he had a daughter himself. In those times he managed to shut out or repress his own accountability. He had no problem of ethical or moral nature to send the telepaths to the relocation centres. It’s where they deserved to be.

And now, Voyager.

Something happened to him that made him ponder on the way of the Devore. Something happened that made him ponder on his own accountability.

Accountability? He never before considered that in the face of the eventual fate of the inmates of the relocation centres. He felt like damning Kathryn Janeway to the pits of ghusan for doing what no one had ever done to him: she made him feel again.

He looked at his hands and saw how they trembled slightly. He balled them into fists, trying to dispel his growing concern for his daughter, his own growing empathy.

Anina.

He had to talk to Anina.

It was with a heavy heart that he knocked on Anina's door.

******

Kashyk thought his heart would break as he looked at a tearful Anina. She has taken her own relocation badly, as he expected. He had a sudden image of the telepaths herded unceremoniously into the relocation centres, of their drab conditions, and their impossible prospects.

“I want to stay here, Father. I can’t go to another continent!” she cried out, although the prospect of seeing her cousin seemed to overshadow her objections.

“I’ll visit you whenever I am home again, Anina,” he placated her.

He was sitting next to her on her bed, their backs propped against the wall, feet outstretched. Her head rested in the crook of his arm, and he gave her a gentle squeeze when he spoke to her.

“Is Umi coming with me?” she asked, suddenly a little more optimistic than she had been an hour ago.

“Naturally. We can’t leave your grandmother here, can we?” he said, and smiled. She loved her grandmother to distraction, and Umi loved her. He sighed inwardly. Not for the first time he wished that she hadn’t lost her mother at such a young age. Anina had been a little toddler when her mother died. She needed her mother. She needed a mother.

“And can I take a copy of all the music and literature you downloaded from the Federation ship?”

“Hmmm.”

"And the stories and legends of - of Commander Chakotay?"

"Chakotay. Why?"

"He tells these stories of warriors and sky spirits and eagles,

Father. I like them very much. Father, did you know he has this

tattoo because - "

"I know, child." Kashyk smiled at Anina's enthusiasm.

He didn't like Chakotay much, but that was only because the Commander stirred and activated every jealous bone in his body. Where he, Kashyk, thought he could use his charm to overwhelm Kathryn Janeway, Chakotay... that man had merely to be close to Kathryn, his hand barely touching the woman...

“And you are going to build be a 3D chess set?” Anina interrupted his thoughts.

“I’ll try,” he sighed.

“And I can have a picture of the Captain of Voyager?”

“No!” He could have kicked himself for that sudden denial, and felt an unaccustomed warmth creeping into his cheeks.

Anina turned in his embrace to look at him. There was a sudden spark of anger in her eyes. “Why not?”

“You are not to be seen with these things, Anina. I’m am making concessions here that I don’t like.”

“Why is it so dangerous, Father? I never had problems before,” she countered.

Kashy-riyon Kashyk sighed again. How could he tell her the Imperium’s mistrust of him was growing by the day? How could he tell her that they were sending him on more dangerous missions, that he had to flush out not only their most hated enemies, but also anyone who sought to help them - anyone who is Devore.

For the first time, the doubts were setting in. He was beginning to hate his work.

<My child, we never encountered the likes of Voyager before>...

“Is something wrong, Father?” she asked suddenly.

“Whatever makes you think something is wrong, Anina?”

“Well, when you return home, especially after missions and your debriefing, you always come straight to me to hug me. Today - “ She frowned a little, the ridge on her brow seemed like it knitted together, “today you went into the shower first. It was as if you didn’t want to see me...”

“How can you say that, Anina? Of course I want to see you. You’re my only child, I love you...”

“Or else,” she continued as she ignored his words, “you wanted to delay seeing me, as if...as if you had to think long and hard first before you decided what you wanted to tell me...”

“Oh Anina...” he groaned a little as he pulled her closer again, giving her a great hug. He felt like crying, his heart thundering against his ribcage as he held her away from him, to look into her incredibly green eyes. He could see the uncertainty and the tears that threatened again.

“Anina...little bird,” he began, “I - I am being monitored by the Imperium - “

“But I thought all inspectors are monitored...” She frowned again.

“You will be safer living with your cousin Uden,” he said, not answering her question.

“He’s a pest.”

“I know. I also know he’s your favourite cousin.”

“You did not do anything wrong on your last mission. Why are you being watched?” Anina asked, her mind now filled with apprehension.

I only let a dozen telepaths get away, lost the co-ordinates of a wormhole I still believe is out there, and let the Captain of a small vessel help them get away and fool me. Yes, Anina, I did nothing wrong.

“No, I did not,” he lied, “I did not...”

“But you still think I’ll be safer living with Uden.

“Yes, little bird. It would make me breathe easier.”

Anina nodded, not wanting to unsettle her father any further. She could see he was very preoccupied, and over the last five days since he returned, he didn’t talk much. Not like he used to.

“What is this, Father?” Anina asked as she scrambled off the bed, stuck her hand under it and retrieved an item that shone like gold in the light.

“A microscope,” he sighed. “Anina, I told you not to scratch around in my room - “

“I have to clean your room, Father,” she said, as if that gave her any right to inspect his personal items. She held it up, and twisted it in her hands to look at it from different angles.

“What does it do?” she asked innocently, her eyes lighting up as her father managed to smile at last.

“You can view and magnify minute objects - "

“Sensors do that...” she said reflectively.

“I know, my child. But imagine, in a world very far away from here, a time - when people didn’t have space ships and sensors and even - “

“Interesting. And this belonged to the captain of Voyager?”

“Yes...”

“You took it...”

“Yes...”

“And old instrument of ages past, and you wanted to keep this as a souvenir?

“Yes, Anina,” he sighed.

“Why?” she asked, looking him direct in the eyes. There was a gentle smile that made her lips quiver.

“I - “ Anina watched in amazement how her father’s face turned a little red. She had never, ever seen that happen to him. He was always a charmer, Umi would tell her. "Your father is a charmer, Anina. He thinks he can control women without losing control..."

Something dawned on Anina then - something that made her eyes go wide. “You liked the beautiful Captain of the Starship Voyager!” she exclaimed.

“Anina...” he groaned, but could not contain his smile. She watched how his eyes became alive, his black eyes that always seemed to dance whenever he was happy, or pleased.

“I would have liked to meet her, Father. Since Mama died, no one has captured your heart...”

“She is very beautiful, Anina.”

“I know.”

“And very, very clever.”

“I read her treatise on quantum mechanics...”

“And very, very smart.”

“If she captured your heart, she must be, Father. Didn’t you always tell Umi that you would never let a woman get to within one thumbnail of your heart?”

“I said that?”

“Oh yes, Chief Inspector Kashy-riyon Kashyk, you break their hearts!” she cried as she held the microscope reverently. Then another thought struck her as remembered her Umi's words speaking accusingly of her father's treatment of women. "She didn't fall for you," Anina whispered reflectively as she studied the instrument, "and - and you wanted her to..."

“You are far too wise, young lady. Far too wise. What has Umi - “

Anina looked suddenly at him, her mouth pouting, her eyes accusing:

“And you let her get away.”

“I let her get away,” he sighed. "My charm didn't work on her," he said as he hugged his daughter again.

*******

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN

PART SIX

On the vessel Bolkannor IV sailing through Devore space.

Chief Inspector Kashyk knew the drill. His men were all over the freighter, searching and finding in the most ingenious places some members of a telepathic race called the Venda.

He sighed. Why didn't they just stay on their own home worlds? They risked all just to travel to other sectors, knowing that the Devore lay in wait for them.

There were very few children this time, yet he sensed something as he looked at a woman whose eyes held nothing but fear.

Calm now, Kashyk, he said to himself as he felt the woman's thoughts trying to connect to his. It was so strong that for perhaps a nanosecond, before his guard came up, she succeeded. He cursed himself as he saw the fleeting images of children, younger perhaps than Anina.

For a second he closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the woman's eyes were still on him. She kept his gaze until she was unceremoniously bundled away by Prax's men, to be transported to the support vessel that would carry the telepaths to their designated centre. The woman screamed once, twice, before the sound stopped abruptly. He knew that one of the men had struck her. He stared pensively at the now empty cargo bay. Only Prax remained.

"Inspector, I beg your understanding," Captain Norex said.

"What is there to understand?" Kashyk replied as he looked at Norex.

Norex wilted under that gaze, squirming a little uncomfortably as he saw Prax move closer.

"Prax."

Kashyk’s voice was low, yet peremptory. It stopped Prax short.

"Sir."

Prax turned to look at his superior, his eyes revealing that slight insolence Kashyk had been treated to in the last few weeks. It was gone before Kashyk could react in any reprimanding manner. Prax’s insubordination lay just beneath the surface, and not enough for Kashyk to retaliate accordingly. That irked Kashyk more than anything, realising that Prax would do little by little, tiny digs, tiny infractions just to test Kashyk.

“Take charge of the telepaths,” Kashyk ordered.

“Sir?”

“Do as you are ordered, Prax,” Kashyk barked, his ridged forehead showing a frown, and signs of strain.

“Sir, you know that according to Imperative 8 of codicil 2, the Commanding Inspector - “

“I am aware of every rule, Prax,” Kashyk interrupted, glancing fiercely at Norex, who appeared to wait for his execution. They were still standing in the cargo bay. “I will be making a final inspection of this vessel myself,” he added, and had the urge to smile wickedly at the nervousness Norex showed. “If you have nothing to hide, Norex, you have nothing to fear.”

Norex nodded, shuffling a little, his hands behind his back. Kashyk looked at Prax again. “I will rejoin our vessel as soon as I have completed my final inspection here.”

“Sir.” It seemed as if Prax clicked his heels as he complied.

Kashyk sighed inwardly. There was that slight taunt again.

“Thank you, Prax. Dismissed.”

They moved to the adjacent shuttle bay, where Prax boarded his shuttle and within minutes he was gone.

Kashyk and Norex waited until the shuttle disappeared from the screen they were looking at, then Kashyk turned to Norex.

“Now, Norex,” Kashyk said in his most wheedling tones, "where are they?”

“I do not know what you mean, Chief Inspector.”

“Come, to your office,” Kashyk commanded, taking Norex by his arm and urging him out of the shuttle bay. Minutes later they were standing in Norex’s office. Kashyk felt the old pain as his heart contracted, seeing a room that looked a little like Kathryn Janeway’s ready room. <No, he said to himself. It’s an illusion.

Every damned ship’s office will remind me of Kathryn and Voyager.>

“Did you say something, Chief Inspector?” Norex asked, looking askance at the man beside him.

“I? er...no,” Kashyk replied. “No,” he repeated firmly. “Now, where are they?”

“Chief - “

Kashyk pictured the distraught woman, and tried to recapture the images she transferred to his memory engrams. There was something dark, not clearly defined. He was reminded of the containment chamber, and this object, it was definitely oblong. His men had taken a fine comb to search the ship. Yes, he admitted to himself with pride, they left it to him to find the hardiest of hideaways, the most ingenious places the masters of vessels could hide their fugitives. What at first appeared hazy, now took on form. He could feel the adrenaline rush, feel his heart pumping faster. He saw them clearly, and they were right beneath him.

“Open the hatch to the access tube that leads to this room, Norex.”

Norex looked at Kashyk, his immediate impulse to deny what Kashyk suspected. He felt again the power of Kashyk’s gaze as his eyes narrowed slightly. Norex sighed resignedly and gave up. He entered a few commands on his computer, and to Kashyk’s amazement, the desk where they both stood, moved. It was as if the one end of it was hinged, and the other end slid noiselessly to one side, revealing what he could only determine as a trapdoor. Norex bent down, placed his hand against the flat surface of the door. The door was no more than one square metre, with a short ladder that led to a cavity beneath the floor. They were down there, Kashyk realised as Norex gestured to him to climb down.

Kashyk slid down quickly, then bent low to crawl the short distance to the coffin-like structure that seemed to block his way. He turned himself slightly in the narrow confines.

“Norex!” His voice echoed in the tube.

Without waiting for Norex, he slid further along until he reached the coffin. It was more like a torpedo casing, he thought, as crawled right against the coffin, squeezing himself between the top and the roof of the tube. He was sweating, and was glad when Norex reached him.

“Open, Norex,” he said urgently, a feeling of dread taking hold of him. Norex squeezed himself between Kashyk and the coffin. Kashyk wondered fleetingly why he should care at all. They were telepaths, destined to die anyway. Norex lifted the lid after entering a few commands in the small computer situated on its side.

Kashyk stared.

He also understood why they were unable to trace the fugitives. The computer gave false readings, he saw. There was nothing more than cargo in here, simple cases of wine such as those Norex’s people consumed. That was what the readings indicated. His men would have missed it completely, and he would have missed it if the woman hadn’t...

“Quick,” he barked as he lifted the little girl out, “get the boy.” Both children were either unconscious or in stasis. But he ruled out the latter, as there were no stasis chambers on Norex’s vessel. He dragged the child to the ladder, held one arm around her waist as he clambered up and into Norex’s office. He was just lying the girl down to tend to her when Norex called:

“He’s dead, Chief Inspector.”

Kashyk swung round.

“No!”

“He was the weaker of the two, Inspector. I - I begged their mother...”

Norex placed the body of the little boy gently on the floor. He removed his own overcoat and covered the child. A shame. It is a shame, he thought as his heart cried for this boy, whom he thought he could take to a place of safety. Now, the Chief Inspector was going to... He looked up suddenly and asked, dreading a little at what the Inspector was planning with the remaining child.

“The girl, Inspector?”

Kashyk, who had been looking at the dead child and Norex, turned his attention to the little girl. Her cheeks were pale, and the points of her ears appeared to tremble. He could see she was regaining consciousness. She looked a little younger than Anina, he thought, and a lot more fragile. She is gaharay, Kashyk, gaharay. Remember that... He frowned as he watched her move her head. I must send you to your doom, child. That’s where you belong... A fierce frown marred the ridge on his forehead. He pursed his lips. But the image of this child, so quiet, hardly breathing, her lips pale, began to eat at the control he had all this time. It ate away at every muscle fibre of his heart.

He rubbed her cheeks gently, willing her to open her eyes.

“Come, little one,” he coaxed, “open your eyes...”

The child moaned a little, her arms suddenly going round her in a hug. Kashyk sense immediately she was missing her sibling. Slowly her eyes opened, staring first at the ceiling. She turned her head and saw Kashyk’s face. He was lost, he knew it, when he looked into her expressive dark eyes. And the girl...

The girl gasped with fright when she saw him, and jerked away from him. She started shivering violently.

“I will not hurt you, little one...” came Kashyk’s voice, as gentle as he only ever used it with his own daughter. He placed his hand on her arm, and held it there, making soothing tones until the child’s shivering stopped.

“What is your name?” he asked quietly. But she stared pointedly as him, and he knew she was trying to penetrate his thoughts. For a moment he fought the intrusion, but her telepathy was so strong that he gave in to it, and something like wonderment dawned on him as he experienced her thoughts. It was impossible to rationalise how he should hate her as a gaharay, how he should not feel anything for this child, but he was drawn, drawn... He welcomed her intrusion.

Why do you curse someone who is not here?

Kashyk smiled briefly. He was cursing Kathryn Janeway for what was happening to him right now.

“A single act of compassion, Kashyk,” he heard Kathryn Janeway’s voice in his memory, “can change who you are. It can put you in touch with your own humanity...”

She is busy turning my life around, even though she is very, very far away, was his communication with the child. He did not want Norex to hear.

“What is your name, little one?” he asked aloud, trying to steer his thoughts away from Kathryn Janeway.

“I am Chaunees. My - my b-brother, he was s-sick,” she stuttered.

Kashyk closed his eyes for a second. Damn you, Voyager...

“Please...” Chaunees pleaded, for the moment not intruding into his thoughts.

But it was Norex who stepped closer. Chaunees’s eyes flashed in recognition, but it was a look that was again replaced by despair as she read his thoughts. He nodded, then said:

“I am sorry, my child. So sorry.”

It was the absence of any tears in her expressive eyes that seemed to emphasize a nameless grief and pain that Kashyk and Norex witnessed. Chaunees gave a deep sob and threw herself in Kashyk’s arms. Kashyk showed no surprise at Chaunees’s action, any intuitive abhorrence that he displayed before for these gaharay, replaced by his growing compassion. Despite her anguish, Chaunees sensed that she could trust Kashyk. He hugged her close to him. She clung to him convulsively as her fingers dug into his arms. He cupped her head protectively, closing his eyes briefly as he pressed his lips against her hair. It was a gesture that was as comforting as it was fatherly and spontaneous.

When Chaunees looked at Kashyk again, she was calm. Calmer than he thought for a child whose brother had just died, and who, most likely, will never see her mother again. He sighed. Her mother’s fate was sealed.

But for this child...

Do not worry, little Chaunees. I will see that you reach a place of safety

My mother hoped that we could get away

I know, child. I know

Norex viewed the scene before him with growing astonishment. He had heard so many stories of how the telepaths were treated, of the fate of young girls and women. He had seen Kashyk’s men eye the females with predatory hunger, leaving him in little doubt as to their intent. He had heard of Kashyk’s legendary ability to flush out the most difficult cases. He had seen Kashyk in action on this vessel, seen the Inspector’s single-mindedness, the obsessive way in which he drove his men to take the ship apart, searching... searching... Kashyk was clearly a soldier, with the soldier’s heart and instinct for battle and strategy. He knew Kashyk was respected, had seen the way in which his men deferred to him.

Yet, here, in front of his very own eyes, as fantastic as it appeared to him, he saw not the soldier and inspector, he saw not the most hated man by all gaharay who traveled through Devore space, but a man with heart, with compassion. This image of a man holding a little girl close to him, surely could not be the hardened soldier who took pleasure in the power he had over the helpless. He could not be the man who delighted in the fate of a people whose only sin was that they could read minds. Norex knew in these moments that he had nothing to fear. Only now he understood Kashyk’s words of earlier. Only now he understood that Kashyk played a role in front of his second-in-command. He recalled suddenly the look Chaunees’s mother had given Kashyk and understood now that the woman had spoken telepathically to the Inspector, probably begged Kashyk to save her children. Did she sense then that Kashyk would do it, as was being shown to Norex so clearly now?

Norex stepped back again, to bend over the body of Odane. He lifted the lifeless body of the boy and left his office.

**

Norex returned minutes later. Kashyk looked at him, then back at Chaunees, who was sitting up, and who looked somewhat stronger after her ordeal. Norex nodded to Kashyk, who understood that Norex had placed the boy’s body in the cargo hold of the Bolkannor.

“Chaunees,” Kashyk said kindly to her, brushing her hair away from her face. Her eyes were large and expressive as she stared at him.

“Norex will take you to a place where you will be safe. You know that - that you will be - be -”

Kashyk felt a lump in his throat. This child was an orphan, to be relocated in a different way from her parents. He berated himself for his weakness, for giving in to the growing sense of compassion for the plight of these people.

Please, Inspector, I am not afraid. I will adapt

You are a remarkable child

I know I will never see them again

I am afraid, they will be -

I know... They have prepared me and Odane for what might happen. I accept it. Do not feel sad...

You are a good child, Chaunees

Chaunees smiled when Kashyk communicated that thought to her. Then she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. For a second he was surprised, then he smiled.

“Thank you, Inspector Kashyk, for saving my life.”

Kashyk just nodded numbly, looked to Norex, then back at her.

“I have to go now, Chaunees. I may never see you again. Norex will have a safe passage further on his journey. I will see that he will go through without further inspections. He will place you with kind people, I know. They will raise you as if you were their own daughter...”

Kashyk’s face looked a little bleak when he said this, but Chaunees smiled gently, touching his cheek.

“I will be alright, Inspector. Do not worry so...”

“Thank you, Chaunees,” he said, and gave her a last hug. He released her quickly, then beckoned Norex.

“Let no one know of what happened here, Norex,” he said calmly, softly. He gripped the Captain’s upper arm hard, purse his lips, and took one last look at Chaunees, before he left for the shuttle bay.

*****

In the late afternoon, with the last rays of the sun just moving slowly from the large patch of light they formed on the floor of the quiet room to the edge of the window sill, Kashyk stirred restlessly.

He cried softly as a wave of pain seemed to lift him, letting him sag back as the wave passed. Lushana could see how he struggled, and her hand, gentle and cool, wiped his fevered brow again. She crooned comforting words when it seemed that his agitation grew. This time he could not be consoled.

“He knew, Lushana.”

“Who?”

“Prax.”

Lushana could sense Kashyk’s emotion.

“You came to hate him in the end, Kashyk,” she stated.

“Yes...”

Lushana leaned forward and touched his temple again. He was weakening, and any amount of talking depleted his strength. So she resumed her journey into his mind again, and now she was on the large Devore vessel...

*****

“Sir, it is against the regulations as set out in the Imperative to allow any vessel to resume its course without a third inspection. According to codicil 12 of the - “

“There are no more telepaths on that vessel, Prax,” Kashyk bit out.

"They are all accounted for, to be taken to Relocation Centre 41.”

“It is not so, Sir, and I think you know it.”

“You dare to question the authority and judgment of Kashyk, Chief Inspector?”

“We know about the two children, Sir. They were in a torpedo casing under the floor of the Bolkannor’s ready room.”

Kashyk turned ice-cold and swore under his breath. They’ve started, he thought with a mild sense of panic. They were not satisfied with the debriefing. I am in danger, and so is my family. Any more of this, and I’m done for. How to answer Prax, who looked at him with an air of insolence, smirking even as he knew Kashyk could have him court-martialed for insubordination?

Kashyk realised instantly that Prax and his men had set him up. It was, he admitted, a brilliant ploy to expose him. He bristled, pursed his lips and thought how to reply to Prax’s statement without seeming to lose any of his authority, or making it seem that he was guilty. Was he losing his touch? he wondered. First Kathryn Janeway got the better of him, an issue he would have liked to sweep under some filthy rug. He still smarted a little from a bruised ego, but he had set himself up for that, he realised, because of his stupid infatuation. Prax had known when they were on the Bolkannor, but didn’t talk. He just let Kashyk walk neatly into the trap they set for him. First it was Kathryn Janeway...

Now Prax. Hyper-officious pragmatic Prax, ever aware of rules and regulations, ever aware of applying those rules without ever considering things like consideration, extenuation, compassion.

Prax was after his blood.

“Well, Prax,” Kashyk said in his best wheedling tones, “of course they were there in that torpedo casing. Now why would you leave two gaharay in that narrow confinement? You are very good, Prax. I must commend you on your brilliant strategy. Of course you left them there to die!”

Prax looked dubious for a second, then a flash of confusion crossed his dour face. What did Kashyk mean?

“No, Sir, we left them - “

“To die, no less. I watched you, Prax, as you looked at their mother. There was victory written all over your face. You were letting her know that we would let her children die, in order to exercise your own control over her, naturally.”

“I did not, Sir. The mother - “

“I noticed how you looked at your conquest, Prax. No doubt, you’ll be panting your way to ReLoc 41 to try out your spoils,” Kashyk said with ease. “You know that as Chief Inspector, I have the authority to stop your games with torture toys. But," Kashyk said suavely as he waved his arms in an accommodating gesture, "Kashyk is a reasonable man, who allows his men a little pleasure on the side...”

“Sir, I assure you, that is not - “

“Yes, Prax. I found them, but the two unfortunate individuals were already dead. I must laud you on your excellent way of seeking to punish those gaharay whose children you could use against them.”

“They are dead, Sir?” Prax asked rather confusedly, and to Kashyk it seemed that he was weighing a few more options.

He could see that Prax had been certain that the children were on the Bolkannor, moreover, that they were alive. They wanted Kashyk to find them. By great Agharon! They even knew he would just use his nose to smell them out. Telling Prax the children were dead... Kashyk knew that he had taken some of the wind out of Prax’s sails, but the knowledge was small comfort as he realised Prax would not stop there. For now he was able to tell the truth, although the truth was cloaked in the fabric of a small lie.

“Yes, they both died in the narrow confines of the torpedo casing when we found them.”

Prax, whom he knew didn’t want to land in too much hot water too often, for fear of reprisal by the Imperatum, backtracked. But Kashyk, watching him, sensed that it was merely a mask. He encountered some of what Prax displayed now, when he crossed paths with Kathryn Janeway and her crew. Prax may believe, for now, that their plan backfired. But Prax, for all that he appeared lacking in intellectual adeptness, was not above employing Kashyk's own manipulative strategy against him. He feigned that believe, Kashyk sensed, and that was what made Prax dangerous, and what made Kashyk nervous.

How easy it was to apologise, when no apology was meant. Apply all devious means of manipulation, and even lies can seem like the truth.

“Then indeed, Sir, I beg your forgiveness for this oversight on my part. The men were under my orders. I take full responsibility for my lack of judgment in this case."

You damned liar, Prax. You set me up, and you know it. I am not deceived by your appeal for clemency.

“Fine, then the Bolkannor shall proceed on its way to the Daros Sector. I have instructed the captain to incinerate the bodies of the children.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

Prax had that half-smile again...

*****

Kashyk gasped painfully when the memory of that incident brought him back to the present. Blood trickled from his mouth and the gurgle that had started in his throat as a low, shallow rumble, became more pronounced, a sound that filled Lushana with some dread.

He opened his eyes and looked at Lushana. They were pleading with her, black eyes like coal that burned into her and tried to convey his unspoken message.

He took in deep, wheezing gasps that frightened her. Grabbing her hand, he pulled himself up to a sitting position. Lushana looked about to burst into tears, and she turned her distraught face to the doorway, where her father stood.

He is deeply distressed, father. I fail to read him. His thoughts are jumbled, chaotic. He is in pain...

Touch him, my child.

Lushana leaned toward the dying Kashyk, and pressed her fingers again against his temple. Then her father’s fingers touched the other side of his head.

Friend, let Lushana listen to you Chellin’s gentle command seemed to impress on Kashyk, who looked wildly at the older man, before his eyes fixed on Lushana again. When he saw how calm she appeared, he turned again to Chellin.

Yes... but there is too much pain...

One day, friend, the right people shall hear of your deeds...

One day...

“Now, good Kashy-riyon Kashyk, tell us what has distressed you so.”

“Anina... Anina...”

“Your daughter?”

“S-she died,” he stammered.

Lushana, to whom this fact was known, nodded to her father, who released his fingers from Kashyk’s temple. He rose and took up position near the window. He had a good view of the area, and would sense when Amansure Nidal made his appearance.

“She died...”

I know that she died, Kashy-riyon Kashyk. Tell me what happened

Again, Kashyk's breathing became laboured, short wheezes that wracked his body. Lushana placed her hands against his cheeks, turned his face towards her and said:

“I will listen, Kashyk. My heart will beat with yours and your pain will dim...” she said gently.

There was a look in his eyes of such great tenderness that Lushana wondered for a moment if Kashyk didn’t confuse her in that fraction of a second with Anina.

Anina...

Yes.... she died, good Kashyk. Please let me join your thoughts and journey with you...

********

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN

PART SEVEN

Uden’s eyes were wide, his nose bleeding as he looked at his uncle. Kashyk had half lifted him off the floor, pushed his body against a wall and held him there.

“Where is she! Where is she! Tell me, or so help me, I'll break every bone in your body!” Kashyk virtually shoved Uden with every word he uttered. Uden tried to speak, but by the time he was able to, Kashyk dropped him to the floor, pinned him still against the wall, and had his hand round Uden’s throat.

Uden choked first, and until he started turning blue, only then Kashyk released him.

“They took her, Uncle. They took her and Umi...” he managed, his throat rasping. He wiped ignominiously at a tear that escaped.

“Where were you, Uden!” Uden felt his head knock against the wall as Kashyk shook him. For several moments the room turned, his eyes rolling as the dizziness overtook him.

“I was here, Uncle. They - they beat me, knocked me out. I - I don’t know what happened after that.”

“You low daigha! You are lying!” Uden’s head connected with the wall again and this time he sank to the floor. Kashyk pulled him to his feet, and with blinding rage, struck the teenage boy in the face. Uden’s head jerked back, only to be struck again as he tried to keep upright. He sailed to the floor, quivering with fear.

“No one knew she was here, Uden. No one! She was supposed to be on Devore 2, as a smoke-screen. Who took them!”

“T-the s-soldiers of the Imperium. T-they kicked down the doors and found Umi and Anina. Me, t-they knocked me out.”

Kashyk, who listened with mounting rage to Uden’s tale, kicked his nephew viciously. Uden screamed. Kashyk bent down and pulled him up again. He hauled the hapless boy to a chair and pushed him down on it.

“Talk, Uden.” Black eyes peered at the young boy with murderous rage. “I’m going to look for them, and when I find them, I will come back and kill you. Do you hear? I am going to kill you. You deserve nothing better than to die like a hungry daigha on the dry plains of Etosha.”

“Nobody will kill Uden Rularshen,” came the voice from behind Kashyk.

Kashyk swung round to see the figure in the doorway. With the light behind him, Kashyk couldn’t see the face, but the voice...

“Prax! What in the name of Agharon are you doing here?”

“The boy is a recruit, Inspector Kashyk,” Prax informed him. "His loyalty is to the cause of the Devore, as Protector of the Way of the Devore.”

“What?” Kashyk looked at Uden with disbelief. “What have you done?”

Uden rose unsteadily to his feet, just as Prax stepped inside. The boy faced his uncle, and the same eyes that had looked with abject fear at Kashyk only moments before, now held a gleam of triumph.

“It was my rite into the Imperium’s Central Bond. A test of my loyalty, Uncle, something which is suspect in you, and, alas...” the young man crowed with insolence, “Umi and Anina.”

"Umi is your grandmother, Uden! And Anina your cousin!" Kashyk shouted. But Uden, wiping his bloodied nose unceremoniously on his sleeve, sneered.

“All I had to do - “

Uden didn’t finish his sentence, he was already lying on the floor from the way Kashyk lunged at him and struck him down.

Kashyk turned, quivering with rage and fear, to face Prax.

“I’ll not harm the boy further. Leave us now. I wish to talk to him, then I’ll go...”

Prax remained, and what power Kashyk still had over this obstinate subordinate, he mustered now as he said:

“Do it, Prax.”

Kashyk’s eyes were empty as he turned back into the room. He left Uden where the boy still lay on the floor, and walked to the room Anina and Umi shared.

There didn’t seem to have been any signs of a struggle, he thought. Umi was too old, and Anina... Kashyk closed his eyes in anguish as images of his daughter and mother-in-law flashed in his mind.

Anina as a baby, who smiled her first smile at him. Umi, dear Umi who always wanted to correct his ways. Anina on her first day at school. Anina saying: “You let Captain Janeway go...”

He saw nothing that could remind him of his daughter. There was nothing...

It started deep in his chest, a rumble that tore through him. He stood there, next to her bed, raised his head and screamed.

“Anina!!!!!!”

Her name rang through the house. Uden rocked to attention as he heard the scream of his uncle, a scream that reminded him of the daigha of the Etosha plains. Uden cringed, closed his eyes and covered his ears, trying to blot out the sound of the demented man.

Several minutes later Kashyk entered the front room where Uden was still sitting. Uden looked up when Kashyk’s shadow fell over him.

“What do you want...” Uden asked morosely.

“They were your family,” Kashyk said quietly, his voice hollow.

“I have learnt that fam - “

“I know what every Recruit learns, Uden. I also started there once, long ago.”

“Then you know that the Cause of the Imperium, the Eternal Laws of Devore must take precedence over a soldier’s private life.”

Kashyk leaned over Uden, and placed his hands on each side of the young man on the armrests. His voice dripped with bitter passion as he said:

“You will rue the day, Uden Rularshen, that you betrayed your own family.”

“Greater misery befalls those who betray the Imperium, Uncle.”

“No more than those who betray their loved ones; that is why you are no more than the carcass-eating daigha of Etosha!”

“We do not tolerate sym - “ Uden started, but was interrupted by Kashyk, who asked, although he knew already the young boy’s answer:

“Where are they, Uden?” Kashyk’s voice cracked a little, and it seemed to him that every second that ticked by, his family moved further and further away from him.

A voice.

“You know where sympathisers go to, Inspector Kashyk. They will be purged there of their corrupt ideas, but they will be safe."

It was Prax who spoke, who appeared to rejoice that the great man had finally been reduced to begging. It served Kashyk right. The Inspector treated Prax with great disdain, as if the older man didn’t have an intelligent bone in his body. Only Kashyk could do this, only Kashyk could think that. Prax had grown sick of it. Sick of being ordered to serve Kashyk’s whims. Who would have thought the great man would have bad blood in his pure Devore lines? Who would have thought Kashyk's own family, his daughter, no less, to be a sympathiser?

He had to remember to commend young Uden Rularshen to the Imperatum. Such a young chamka will go far. He will rise high, higher than his Uncle Kashy-riyon Kashyk. It was a superb flash of insight to have him spy on his own family, as part of his rite into the Imperium: a test of strength, character and loyalty.

Prax wondered idly if Kashyk remembered his own rite of passage into the Imperium. Kashyk had been a warring young chamka himself, beautiful and fleet-of-foot, highly intelligent and suave, able to use his manly appeal to manipulate everyone. Kashyk had given away his best friend - his blood brother - when he was fifteen...

“You know that you are on probation, now, Inspector Kashyk,” Prax said, his face smug, emphasizing the ‘inspector’ with just a little more insolence.

“Yes. My mother and daughter, they...”

“You will see them eventually, Inspector.”

Kashyk shook his head, too mute now to speak, too filled with despair. He knew all the methods of purging, all of them. Hadn’t he sent sympathisers there himself in his good old wild days? Umi might as well be dead by now. She would be unable to withstand the method of purging. Devore had no conscience, he thought. They would not have any clemency for rank, position, or age...

I was part of this madness...

Anina...

Prax beckoned Uden to accompany him to the Devore shuttle that would take the young man for his final induction into the Way of the Devore.

Uden looked back one more time at the man who sat at the table with his head bent, who did not even look up when Uden rose to leave with Prax.

A very sad man he is. And Anina was my favourite cousin. I loved her, were the thoughts of the young man as he left the room. A brief look of pain crossed his face. He knew in his heart that he would never see Anina, Umi and Uncle Kashyk again. He quickly forced down that flash of pain and guilt and made himself believe that he had done the right thing.

******

This is my punishment, Kathryn Janeway. You touched me, Voyager touched me and a defenseless child without family, locked in a narrow torpedo tube, touched me. I am losing... My mother-in-law’s fate is sealed. I must get Anina. I must get Anina...

*****

Did you get Anina, Kashyk? Lushana communicated.

I found some of her personal effects in Uden’s house, under the bed in the room she and Umi shared.

They were important things, Kashyk.

The microscope, her chips with information from Voyager’s database. I found the chess set I built her, on the model of that used by the crew of Voyager. She became good, you know.

Yes. Where were they held?

Sympathisers are taken for treatment to the Centerium Mores. It is supposed to be a hospital

Did you find Anina, Kashyk?

****

Kashyk opened his eyes and looked at Lushana. The young girl braved the terrible look of heartache that was reflected in his eyes.

Kashyk didn’t have to say anything, but she heard him nonetheless.

“Umi was dead, and Anina...”

“What about Anina, Kashyk?” Lushana asked, already feeling the tears threatening to flow down her cheeks. “What about Anina?” she asked again with a trembling voice. She had to hear this. She had to hear Kashyk speak of his greatest pain and his greatest triumphs after that pain. She told herself to be strong, to listen, take in everything so that she may one day tell the tale of this dying man.

“Anina w-was g-gone, Lushana,” he stammered, his voice becoming more and more incoherent. “Anina...s-she was gone...”

“Where, Kashyk? Where?” Lushana asked, the fear building up in her.

“Oh, God!” Kashyk cried again. “Oh, God!”

“You call again that deity that is not yours, Kashyk...”

“Pain...too much pain, Lushana...”

“Where was she, Kashyk?”

Kashyk looked at Lushana, looked at her as if he could die any second. Lushana did not know if he would die from his injuries, or from his heart that was so broken. Kashyk did not cry. There was indeed no more tears he could cry, Lushana thought. She just saw his heart cry. The tears sat in his mouth that trembled, his hands that could not stop shaking. His eyes were fevered, darting in spite of his condition. When he spoke at last, it came as though from across the light-years he had traveled.

“Relocation Centre 41.”

“The death camp?”

“Anina was dying...”

*****

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN

PART EIGHT

Anina Kashyk, daughter of Chief Inspector Kashy-riyon Kashyk walked along the dusty lane accompanied by an older woman and a small child. It was late afternoon, and prisoners were allowed to mix and engage in socialising. Not that there was much socializing taking place. It was, after all, a relocation centre - ReLoc 41.

She was deeply introspective and only half heard Nyala as he was talking to the older woman.

Anina missed her father, and she missed Umi. She could not comprehend Uden's betrayal. It was difficult to accept that he would inform on his own grandmother and his own cousin. And she, Anina, told him so many things about telepaths and how they are misunderstood; she told Uden of the Starship Voyager which traveled through their sector on its quest for their home far away.

She clutched her precious chamka toy to her chest. She was not allowed to take her microscope her father had given her, or her 3D chess set he built for her. She had become so good at playing it, and teaching cousin Uden to play. She was stimulated by the many strategies she could use to beat Uden. Anina smiled to herself. Maybe it was because she beat him so often at chess that he betrayed them.

She had to hear how he was being trained for the great Imperium, she had to listen to all his stories about putting the Cause of the Imperium first, and that his first duty would be to the Cause. His second duty would be to practice from early on, how to trap sympathisers.

She and Umi trusted him.

He called the Imperium.

She squeezed her chamka toy, felt for the hard disks in it through the padded stomach of the chamka. Good. She still had her voice PADD her father had given her, something he brought from Voyager, and the few chips with stories from Voyager's database.

She will tell Nyala tonight of the Spirit of the Eagles, a story written by Commander Chakotay. Anina sighed. She wondered where her father was now and when he will find her.

"I know my father will come, Enorah," she said reflectively.

"You are very certain, young Anina," Enorah replied. There was a sad smile on Enorah's face. She had seen some of the soldiers looking at this very beautiful child with her long black hair that had a blue tint in it, and the saddest green eyes she had ever seen.

"I know he will come, even if - "

Enorah stopped in her tracks, causing both children to look at her with some puzzlement.

"Anina, my child, this place is a place of untold suffering, and I can sense - yes, even if I don't read your mind - that you have great strength in you. I have seen here many accept their fate with the greatest of courage. I believe you have great courage..."

Anina looked at the older woman who didn't have to spell it out to her that she was referring to the number of children - mostly girls - who were taken to the Shelter. Everyone dreaded the Shelter. No one returned from the Shelter alive.

She sighed. Even though she was not a telepath, she was here because she knew through her, they wanted to punish her father. Therefore, she could expect the same treatment from the soldiers that they meted out to the telepaths.

"I understand, Enorah. My father taught me that if - if I channeled my fear it can become my greatest strength. My strength is here, Enorah," Anina said, placing her hand against her heart. "It's here, where no one can touch me..."

"Then my child, I believe you are greater than these - these butchers."

Anina bristled for a second. Enorah was, after all, referring to her people.

"I am of their race, Enorah."

"My child, you have a spirituality that is far deeper than any of your race could have, something that even the Venda dream of attaining. It is in you, and it has always been there."

"My father said - "

"Perhaps even your father has it buried deep within himself, Anina," Enorah said reflectively, then repeated: "perhaps..."

"I know," Anina agreed, "I know." She smiled at Enorah for the first time since she had arrived here, three days ago.

Their walk was suddenly interrupted by the wailing of a siren, indicating that their recess was over, and the paths and lanes cleared.

"Come, we must move quickly," Enorah said as she took Anina's hand, grabbed little Nyala and rushed with them back to their dormitory.

********

Anina sat on the floor in Dormitory 13. She was surrounded by small children, all looking at her with rapt attention. It was storytelling time for them, and they were eager to listen to her tales. She had many to stories to tell, and they all gravitated towards her, accepting her as their kind, older sister who looked after them.

**

"Then the young boy said to his father," Anina continued, smiling as she watched the children. They were extremely eager to hear her tales...

"But Father, the eagles fly. They soar the great skies with their wings spread wide. How can I fly like that?"

The old man, his face craggy, and eyes darting, looked at the young boy. He pointed with his crooked forefinger to the boy's chest.

"That is where you fly, my son." Anina mimicked the voice of an old man.

"In my heart?" the son asked. He was very perplexed, he did not understand things of the spirit. He was too young to understand.

"The eagles remind us of what we can attain," the old man said to the boy, then continued, "Have you ever felt happy?"

The boy looked as if he was thinking about the answer, then he shook his head vigorously as the thought of some happy event that came to him.

"And your heart felt light, as if it could soar very high, not so?"

"Yes! I felt that I could do anything, Father."

"Like flying with the eagles?"

"In my heart I imagined that I was flying."

The young boy smiled, then asked again:

"Are the eagles also spirits father, that can protect us?"

"My son, when you see an eagle flying, or it looks to you as if the eagle is hanging in the blue sky and looking down at us, remember..."

Anina watched the children all draw in their breaths, some of them gasping.

"Please Anina, what did the old man say?"

"Tell us, tell us!"

Anina took little Nyala's hand, and looked at all the children sitting around her. Her answer was soft, but they could all hear her. They did not intrude on her thoughts even though they were all telepaths. She knew they were far more intrigued in the art of oral - and, she added to herself, aural - narration. They literally wanted to hear her, to listen to her melodious voice.

"Pleaassse!" a curly-haired young girl said.

Anina smiled again. It was an art, this storytelling, she thought.

She put the children out of their misery by saying:

"Remember..."

Eight pairs of eyes stared, eight little mouths were open, waiting for her to continue.

"They carry the spirit of one who had been brave."

The children sighed contentedly.

"Time to go to bed now," she said, just knowing how they would react.

Their hands went up, some leaned forward and tugged at her dress.

"Anina, tell us about the warrior."

"What warrior?" she asked, being deliberately obtuse. Only yesterday she told them that story.

"He had a tattoo on his brow, and he promised - "

"Oh, I see what you mean. It's the story of - "

"The Angry Warrior!"

Anina gave an exaggerated sigh and then began:

"Once there was a warrior..."

****

Anina stared out the small window that overlooked the lane. She watched the soldiers enter the dormitory on the opposite side. She tried to quell the fear that had started to rise in her. Yesterday a soldier came for Enorah. Enorah was gone the whole day and when she returned, she had taken Anina in her embrace and cried.

"My child," Enorah said, "be strong... be strong..."

Anina had cried in the older woman's arms. She was afraid, but she tried very hard to control it. She made Enorah lie on her bed, then she had gone to the washbasins and brought water and a cloth with which she could bathe Enorah's body, and stop the bleeding from the scratches on the woman's legs. Enorah had been quiet in the morning, and now, Anina watched as the soldiers came out of the dormitory and a young girl of Anina's age was walking with them.

Anina gave a soft sob.

"It will be my fate, Father. But I promise I shall be strong."

The young girl turned away from the window, and went to sit down on her bed and took Chamka in her hands. She wiggled her fingers inside the soft fur, and took out the little PADD she had been given by her father.

"These words shall be my comfort, Father."

Anina started with the first words:

"My soul flies..."

She sat and quietly spoke the words that came to her heart, words she knew would comfort her, and comfort others. When she was finished, she slipped the PADD into the belly of her chamka toy, and hid the toy under the cot.

She lay down on her bed, eyes closed. She could hear the screams that came from the Shelter.

"My soul flies with the eagles," she murmured softly, over and over.

"Anina?"

It was Enorah.

"Be strong, my child."

"Yes, Enorah. I will be strong."

But in Anina's heart she prayed for her father to come...

******

The sun moved just over the rooftops of the dormitories, the golden rays baking the already hard but dusty lanes of the Relocation Centre.

Two soldiers opened the door of dormitory 13, and blinked as they stepped inside, temporarily blinded by the bright sunlight. For a second they waited till their eyes adjusted to the semi dark of the large room.

The inmates shrank back where they were sitting on their beds, their eyes glazed with fear, their hearts thundering.

"Anina Kashyk."

The soldier who called her name was large and brusque. He swaggered a little and turned to where he saw a movement from one of the corners. When he saw her, he smiled.

Anina rose from the bed in a fluid movement. Her heart thumped wildly for a second. She looked first at Enorah in whose eyes she read the message: "Be strong, my child", before she turned to the soldier.

"Come."

The soldier beckoned Anina to follow him to the door, where she was flanked by the second soldier. They did not touch her, in the unspoken knowledge that there was nowhere she could run or hide.

In the narrow street, she walked between the two. They walked slowly, and Anina knew why. She could hear the sounds and small sobs from the dormitories and little houses they passed. She turned her face once to look at one of the windows. There was the face, peering just above the window ledge, of a young girl. Anina could see the fear in her eyes.

Do not weep...

Oh, my father, I know that if you were here, you would save me...

She heard the words of Umi:

"There is bad in this world, my child, as much as there is good..."

My soul shall fly, Umi

My soul shall fly, oh, my father

Inexorably they drew nearer to the Shelter. Anina appeared calm, to the annoyance of the two soldiers who expected her to cry with fear. One soldier looked at her, but she kept her gaze on the Shelter.

When I look at the moons of Devore

I know how they can touch my heart...

"Walk faster!"

Beautiful they are, so close, my hand reaches out to touch them

"You will be good!" one soldier laughed.

The graceful chamka's flight across the plains has touched my soul

They stopped in front of the Shelter.

"Here we are!"

And in the twilight, when the sun sinks gently behind the hills

of Oman, my spirit will rise...

The young girl's heart hammered. One soldier opened the door. It appeared dark inside.

"Go in, girl."

Take a deep breath, Anina, daughter of Kashyk. You are brave. You are strong. In the end, you will win.

She stepped inside, into the darkened room. Her eyes darted wildly for a second when they took in the figures of three soldiers standing around.

She saw their smiles.

Anina prayed:

My soul flies with the eagles

She never saw the figure who stood behind the door, whose hand reached forward and pushed her to the first soldier.

The door closed with a soft, final click...

********

He was, after all, Chief Inspector Kashy-riyon Kashyk. There was no need as yet to draw their weapons as the soldiers stood still and allowed him to pass. There was a wild look about him, his normally well groomed hair was unkempt. The demented man stumbled down the narrow street towards the Shelter.

The telepaths and some other prisoners lined the street and watched the man whose eyes held a fury they had not seen even in the soldiers when those men were on their worst behaviour. They knew that this man's retribution would be terrible. Far down the lane they could see Anina lying in the dust outside the shelter.

He has helped a little girl escape

That was what they accused him of

Is he a Sympathiser?

He cannot have been before, but he is one now

They say that a ship from the other end of our galaxy got away with telepaths

Some of his soldiers said that. He had sworn them to secrecy

There is good in every man...

He was on the Bolkannor, the vessel Enorah and her children were on.

But mostly, the ship from that far place, was what got him into trouble.

Perhaps that ship was also his greatest influence

Voyager, from the Alpha Quadrant

Yes, young Anina told the children stories about that ship

Poor Anina...

Anina's spirit shall triumph...

Such were the thoughts of the telepaths as they watched the father of the young girl who was today's Shelter toy, stumble along the path.

Kashyk did not scream, he did not look right or left, but kept his gaze on the little heap at the end of the street, just outside the Shelter.

The telepaths were not allowed to help the child who lay there.

Enorah went inside the dormitory and sat down on Anina's bed. She knew what she had to do, and waited for the first primal scream of the man who reached the heap and held his dying daughter in his arms...

*******

Kashy-riyon Kashyk went down on his knees and held the limp and broken body of his daughter against him. Her head lolled back and he brought his hand to cup her head protectively. There was almost nothing, except the colour of her hair, and her eyes that he recognised. He felt a pain so physical that he cried out.

"Anina..." he cried haltingly, "Anina..."

Her eyes were closed, and she was barely breathing. He looked at her torn dress, the deep scratches and bruises, her legs...

He lay her down again and removed his jacket. He covered her lower body with the greatest care. Then he lifted her into his arms again.

"Father..." It was soft, a hoarse croak.

"Anina..." he cried, unable to hide his emotion, or to stop the tears. "Anina..."

There was a trickle of blood flowing from her mouth, and Kashyk wiped it with trembling fingers. His tears spilled on to his hands as he cupped her cheek. She tried to lift her hand to touch his face. Already she was in the throes of death, her eyes were weak, becoming glazed.

"Father..." she murmured weakly.

"Anina?"

"My... soul flies... with the...eagles..."

Anina Kashyk's eyes remained open, but they were unseeing; her hand slid away from his cheek, and sagged limply onto her breast.

Kashyk watched for one second in astonishment the smile on Anina's face which slowly, slowly froze and became still.

*

From the farthest reaches of the Relocation Centre it seemed, they heard a madman scream.

*

Kashyk lay Anina down on the dusty ground. His eyes were crazed as he looked up and saw some soldiers leave the Shelter. They had smug looks on their faces, and when the fourth person stepped outside, Kashyk rose to his feet.

"Prax! You!"

*******

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN

PART NINE

You killed Prax, Kashy-riyon

He laughed, Lushana. He looked at me and he laughed

You said to me you are a Devore with humanity. You would kill?

Lushana, in those moments, I was blinded by my fury. All sense of dignity, of compassion, of humanity left me. I looked at Anina's broken body and could not see anything but the need to inflict pain on another

You have never killed before...

Orders for execution, yes, accountable and responsible, yes

But that day...

I have come to believe, Lushana, that any man can kill

If he is angry enough?

Give him the circumstances, give him the provocation... I killed Prax that day

Kashyk’s thoughts went again to that day, when Prax came to his end...

******

Kashyk rose slowly, and by the time he stood up straight, every muscle in his body was primed to attack. His mounting fury threatened to explode as he heard Prax laugh. Kashyk’s hands were at his side, the right hand brushing lightly against his dolk, the traditional dagger-like weapon of the Devore. It only vaguely registered that the other soldiers had their hands on their phaser rifles.

They wanted to see...

Prax raised his hand, indicating to the others not to draw fire.

“He's mine, I’ll finish him,” Prax said as he advanced on his former leader. “You treated me like dirt, Kashyk. Now you can die!”

“You maimed a defenseless child, you worthless daigha!”

Prax moved, his own dolk drawn from its sheath. He pounced on Kashyk, taunting him with:

“I enjoyed doing her, Kashyk.”

“Daigha!” Kashyk screamed as he lunged forward. He was lighter, more agile than the heavy-set Prax, who also lunged. Kashyk side-stepped, misjudging Prax’s deceptive speed. The next instant Kashyk felt a boot connecting with his stomach. Winded and dazed, he sank to the ground. But it was Anina’s still form that spurred him to get on his feet again. He rose, felt his head snap as Prax kicked him. Kashyk’s chest exploded with pain; he knew a rib had cracked.

“You... do not deserve...to... live, daigha!” Kashyk gasped as he lunged forward, then kicked at Prax. Prax’s knife struck him in the leg, but Kashyk did not feel the pain this time as he threw himself on Prax. He grabbed Prax in a vice grip, his arm around the man’s thick neck. He was strangling Prax, who tried to prise the death grip from his neck. Prax choked, his face turning red, then the hand holding the knife flailed first, before it plunged into Kashyk’s thigh.

Kashyk released his grip for a second, a second in which Prax screamed. But Prax’s scream died in his throat as Kashyk stood behind him, grabbed his chin with one hand, and with the other, ripped into his opponent’s neck. It was a grating, sickening sound as Kashyk sliced Prax’s throat open. For one blinding second Kashyk saw Anina’s body, and with an animal-like scream the dolk came down in awful power on Prax’s already open throat. Prax choked, then gurgled as blood spurted from him as he sank to his knees. In Prax’s dying moments he looked at Kashyk with something of a surprise before he collapsed, his head almost severed from his body.

Kashyk stood a little dazed, his uniform spattered with blood. He looked at the soldiers who stood mute, having watched this scene with some fascination. They did not intervene, Prax himself told them not to. It was a fight - an honourable one they believed - between two men. Kashyk, they knew, will be brought to book.

He stumbled a little as he looked at them, his throat moving as he tried to speak.

“Please, I beg you... Leave me time with my daughter. She deserves ... dignity,” he pleaded. His eyes were bleak. The soldiers nodded, and went about tending to Prax. None of those who had injured the child, thought to come forward...

Kashyk moved to where Anina lay, and with his bloodied dolk still in his hand, he picked her up with infinite gentleness. Slowly he walked towards Dormitory 13, at the upper end of the long lane. It was a testimony to Anina’s kindness and inner strength that the telepaths all came out of their little houses, open cells and dormitories. One by one, or in little groups they joined the procession until he reached Anina’s Dormitory. Enorah stood at the door, waiting. Kashyk gave her a strange look, and she nodded.

He understood.

“I must beg you, please,” he said to the woman, “that her body be disposed of with dignity. I am not safe here. What little power I still have over these soldiers, will be enough for me to get away. If I am caught, I am willing to die...”

“Good Kashyk,” Enorah said as she moved inside, her hand on the dead child’s cheek, “I have never told Anina that I know you. I did not want her to suffer more...”

“Thank you, Enorah,” Kashyk said as they approached Anina’s bed. “I am saddened that your son died. It could not be prevented, but Chaunees is alive and well. She is safe.”

Enorah closed her eyes and touched his arm.

“I thank you, Inspector Kashyk.” Her eyes, when she opened them, held relief and a great sadness.

At the bed he placed his daughter gently down on it, and Enorah paled as she saw the child’s wounds. She cried inwardly. This child’s only crime was that she was the daughter of Kashyk.

“Thank you, Inspector,” Enorah said gratefully. “I sensed there is good in you...”

“The good, Enorah, touched me too late...”

“Never too late, Inspector, she said softly, then she delved under the bed and produced Anina’s chamka toy.

She held it to the distraught man who wanted to weep again when he saw Anina’s favourite soft toy.

“Never too late,” Enorah repeated. “She left you a message, Inspector.”

Kashyk knelt next to the bed, his trembling hands opening the hidden slit in the chamka, and removed the PADD he had given Anina.

“It is something she composed only yesterday...”

Kashyk looked up at Enorah, then his fingers gently caressed the now cold cheek of his daughter. He started reading, his voice trembling and faltering over the words:

*

"My soul flies...

When I look at the moons of my home

they touch my soul -

Beautiful they are, so close and pure;

I see the stars, and even from afar,

they touch my soul -

The graceful chamka’s flight across the plains has touched my soul.

And in the twilight, when the sun sinks gently behind the hills of Oman, my spirit will rise...

How beautiful the sunset! How wondrous

the knowledge that the sun will herald

a new dawn...

I marvel at the beauty and grace of things eternal,

And when I turn to my final slumber

I know that the most important part of me

will live forever.

My soul will fly with the eagles!

Oh, my father, weep not for your daughter!

Take courage and know that even in that final sleep, time is a forever thing.

As the sun lifts behind the mountains

to greet the dawn,

so my spirit shall triumph.

Do not look at my broken body.

Look to the sky and see...

My soul flies with the eagles.

*****

Enorah thought that even if the soldiers killed her tomorrow, her soul would remember forever, forever, the picture of a broken man holding his daughter close to him.

Kashyk wept.

He wept as he held the dead child to him, his tears soaking into her torn dress. They were great heaving sobs that tore at his very heart. He threw his head back and howled in pain. At length, when he calmed a little, he lay her gently back again, and pulled a cover over her face.

“Go well, Inspector Kashyk. May the spirits guide you,” Enorah said as Kashyk rose, mindless of his injuries, and stumbled to the door. He had the chamka toy firmly in his grasp as he took a final look at the bed on which the body of Anina Kashyk lay.

*****

Lushana opened her eyes and looked at Kashyk’s pale face. His body seemed to rock gently, as if he were crying. He was indeed crying, but it was a soft, dry, desperate low sobbing.

She took a warm cloth again and wiped his brow. The action calmed him. Lushana could hear how he gave a sigh and sagged back again.

She has been an example to many, Kashy-riyon Kashyk...

I have traveled far, and everywhere they heard of her...

She did not die in vain...

She died, Lushana. She did not have to die...

Nevertheless, she left a valuable legacy.

Yes..

It was a thoughtful poem, she wrote. She knew she would not live long

Yes, Anina knew. I have wrestled so much with my ethics in the past, but it was mere lip service, Lushana. Since Anina died...

Every young girl whose life you saved, became Anina

I could not save Anina

You saved many more in her name, and in the name of -

Voyager...Janeway... Their humanitarian ideals, their philosophy, kindness to gaharay, their compassion... it touched me

You said she spoke about a single act of compassion -

It changed me, Lushana

I know.

I kept in my heart the image of Anina, Voyager, Kathryn Janeway, for five years.

They kept you going. You saved many people like Chaunees.

I was on the run, Lushana. It was not easy.

All the more commendable and heroic. Tell me, how did you escape from the labour camps?

Kashyk opened his eyes, eyes that were extremely weak. Anina knew that it would not be long. His hand that he held out to her, trembled. She took his hand and kept it still. He tried to speak, was too weak, but it came out:

“My nephew, Uden Rularshen...”

“The one who betrayed your daughter?”

“Yes...”

**********

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN

PART TEN

The detention centre was nothing more than a labour camp. Kashyk knew it. He had many a serious offender, or suspected sympathiser sent here himself.

The scorching sun was not kind today. It burned into his skin. His torso glistened with sweat in the sweltering heat. He was not manacled, as were some of the criminals here, though why they didn’t tie him up eluded him. Perhaps they thought him less threatening than the other inmates, or perhaps, he thought with some perverse sense of irony, his name still carried weight.

What weight? As observer of the criminally insane?

He gave a bitter laugh. He was not much better off than his fellow prisoners. He thought the Imperium took some perverse pleasure in not summarily executing him.

“Kashy-riyon Kashyk, son of Kendaren Kashyk, you are hereby relieved of your duty as Chief Inspector. All privileges formerly enjoyed by you, are revoked.”

He had looked down, then faced the Imperatum; he felt courageous, they saw it as insolence. Then had come the sentence, and his own curious pondering on why he was not put to death.

Now he knew. He saw day after day the same persons he had sent here. They knew him, and his days were spent suffering their taunts, jibes, unsubtle comments about getting a dose of his own medicine.

He had always known it was a hard life here, an existence that offered no kindness, no mercy. They offered him no mercy. He had already had to defend himself against two who attacked him, their anger that he sent them to prison, still simmering years after he had them committed here. It could simply be that that his presence awakened what had been simmering, and that day - when was it, a month ago? - they surprised him in his cell.

He killed one of them.

The other died later of his wounds.

He had little choice.

The Chief Warden overlooked his misdemeanour, on the grounds that he defended himself, and, he remembered how the Chief grinned wickedly; they were "double trouble we needed to get rid of".

“Thank you, Kashy-riyon Kashyk. With your usual alertness, you have disposed of our most evil criminals...”

Why didn't they just execute them? Did they want the inmates to attack him? Did they want to see the “great” Kashyk beg for mercy?

Kashyk groaned as he bent down to burn a line through a huge rock. His chest still ached occasionally from the cracked rib he sustained when he killed Prax. Kashyk had offered no resistance when he was caught shortly after leaving ReLoc 41. His injuries were severe; he had no means of medical help, and escaping... He sighed. They did not bother to treat his wounds, and the cut in his thigh festered for a while, before he limped so badly that the medical personnel here had to tend to him.

No one treated him with respect - even if born out of fear and enforced loyalty. He had lost all of that.

He lost his family. Uden...who betrayed him.

He lost Voyager and Kathryn.

Kathryn...

Anina...

Infinite spirals.

<My soul flies with the eagles...>

For a moment his body stilled, and he gave a sob as the words of Anina’s poem went through his mind. His handsome face, now weather-beaten, creased, became tender at the memory of his beloved daughter.

“When I turn to my final slumber

I know that the most important part of me will live forever.”

"Oh, Anina... you had your spirituality long before I recognised mine!"

“Hey, Kashyk! Get a move on!”

Kashyk sighed. Yet another order. Comply, fall in line, eat, sleep, labour - regimentation of a different kind.

What did I gain, if I lost so much? Kashyk thought as the boulder he was working on, fell neatly in two blocks. He started for the next boulder, looked at it with something akin to a great resignation, and held up the laser machine to cut two more square blocks.

“One day, Kashyk, when the new Imperium Coliseum is complete, we can tell everyone the great Inspector Kashyk had a hand in this,” taunted his overseer.

Kashyk thought of his small collection of personal effects that was hidden under his bed in this cell. Anina’s chamka, the precious PADD with her poem, other chips with countless stories from Voyager’s database. Anina's memories and journals...

Reading and imagining their world in which they practiced and lived and breathed, all that Anina was, all that was humane, was what kept him going and hoping... He had been drawn to it from the beginning, yet he fought it.

“An admirable philosophy, Captain Janeway. Your Federation is built on the values of humanitarian ideals, ethics.”

“Kashyk, haven’t you ever done anything that you thought felt good, felt right?” he heard her words on one of their numerous sojourns in the mess hall. He had been a refugee on Voyager then, as part of his plan to expose Voyager's knowledge of that wormhole.

“I was an Inspector, Captain Janeway. I believed in what I did, I believed that what I did was right,” was his answer to her at the time.

“Sometimes, Kashyk, a single act of compassion can put you in touch with your own humanity...”

A single act of compassion...

"Kathryn, a young child called Chaunees thanked me for saving her life. She hugged me. She hugged me!"

Kashyk closed his eyes as he remembered how fragile little Chaunees felt in his arms. He had embraced her as if she had been his daughter. Chaunees had been so stoic about her new fate, so accepting of her circumstances. But she had a chance to grow up.

She has a chance to grow up, Kathryn, to grow into a beautiful young woman who will one day meet a nice young man.

He had given Chaunees a final hug before he left.

I felt good, Kathryn. It was only later that it struck me. I hadn’t given it any thought that I was going against everything the Devore represented.

“When you disregard your own interests, and think only to put another's need before your own and helping that person, then you’ll feel it, Kashyk,” Kathryn’s words seemed to ring across the light-years.

I didn’t think of myself then, Kathryn, or what I stood for...

“What about you? You’re risking a lot too...”

How long ago was it now that he sought “asylum” on Voyager? How long ago was it that Kathryn said that to him?

Here I am, Kathryn, made out to be a worthless daigha, a traitor to my people, made to live so that I can experience just what it is I used to put others through. I risked, Kathryn Janeway

“And what will you gain from it?” her voice sounded in his heart.

I saved one child, and I felt good. I don’t have to wrestle with my ethics, Kathryn. I know now in my heart, that when Chaunees’ eyes lit up in a smile, when she hugged me and thanked me for saving her life, that when I helped her against everything that my race stands for, I did the right thing.

“There are few things in life that come without sacrifice.”

"You stilled the beast in me," Kashyk murmured to himself as he wiped his brow. "I miss my child, Kathryn. If you knew how much, you’d pity me. I know that one day, one day, when I turn to my final slumber, that all that was the best in me, the most important part of me, will live forever."

“A balance of perfect counterpoint and harmony, Kashyk”

Aurora Borealis. Infinite Spirals. I have never been more aware of it within myself than now...

*******

“Kashy-riyon Kashyk!” the overseer bellowed before he banged on Kashyk’s cell door.

Kashyk jerked from the half slumber he was in. He sat up on his cot, and blinked before he rose stiffly from the bed.

The door flew open.

What now...

“You have a guest, Kashyk.” Here, no one called him ‘Sir’, not anymore... And the overseer leeringly emphasized the word ‘guest’. The overseer looked behind him, looking at the as yet unseen guest, who had to be standing at some distance. Kashyk’s cell, as well as the entire block was constructed in such a way as to overlook a vast courtyard.

Kashyk was for a moment confused. He had been here months - and he shrugged mentally - no one thought him important enough to grace him with a visit. Who could want to see him? he wondered, and why?

“Better make it quick,” the overseer said before he moved away from the door.

"Why should I hurry?" he whispered, more to himself.

Had Kashyk been given, in the time he had to walk from his bed to the door, had he been given any time to ponder on who might want to visit him, he would not have been surprised.

He looked at Uden Rularshen, and for a moment he was stunned into immobility. He was also not prepared for the immediate and, he realised with his new-found sense of ‘humaneness’, unreasonable hatred which caused him to turn his back on the young man.

Kashyk retreated into his cell.

“Uncle!”

“I have nothing to say to you, Uden,” Kashyk said as he began closing his door.

“Please, I beg you give me a hearing,” Uden said. Did Kashyk imagine he heard a pleading in the voice of his nephew? He closed his door - a futile gesture, since he knew that Uden would enter in the next moment. Kashyk sighed. Lack of privacy was a dubious privilege.

At least, closing his door on his nephew was a symbolic gesture, signifying not only a disinclination to speak to the young man, but, more importantly, to drive home to Uden how Kashyk felt about his nephew’s betrayal. Uden did betray them - his own blood family - in the most reprehensible manner.

Kashyk stood with his back to the door, but he heard the opening and closing of it.

A pause.

“Uncle Kashyk.”

“I have nothing to say to you, Uden,” Kashyk repeated his words of earlier. Much of the older man’s initial anger at seeing Uden had subsided. Now only an emptiness, a bleakness remained.

He could hear Uden sigh, and only then he turned to face Uden. Uden clearly had something to tell him. The young man also had something in his hand.

“Uncle Kashyk,” Uden asked softly, “what is this?” and he held the oblong instrument to the older man.

Kashyk looked at the object first and then at Uden.

“Where did you get it?” he asked, a superfluous question, since Kashyk knew the answer. But he wanted Uden to offer a verbal confirmation of something, something - what? - that took hold of Kashyk. It was faint, it was vague, yet there... hope...

“What is it, Uncle?” Uden asked again.

Kashyk suspected Uden knew.

“A site to site transporter. Courtesy of my inspection of the Federation Starship Voyager. Advanced technology."

Kashyk stared long at Uden. Uden was an attractive young man, who was already becoming... Kashyk thought of Umi and Nina, and felt a surge of his old anger.

“Have you suddenly decided to wrestle with your ethics, Uden?”Kashyk asked, unable to keep the bitterness from his voice. Why did his words sound so familiar now?

“Please, Uncle. There is a shuttle at the outer edge of the compound. It is your chance, Uncle. Take this, and get to the

shuttle. Take the shuttle as quickly as you can to the limb of Naron, our first moon. The Bolkannor is there, and as yet,

undetected - “

“Uden, wait,” Kashyk interrupted, looking sharply at his nephew. He took a good look this time in the semi-dark and saw in Uden’s eyes...

“Why are you doing this?” Kashyk asked finally as he took the transporter from Uden.

“For - forgive me...” it came from Uden. “I - I heard what happened at ReLoc 41. What happened to - to ...” Uden was unable to finish, but Kashyk raised his hand in a gesture signifying some mutual understanding. The boy needn’t say it outright. Uden had given a sob, and Kashyk could see how his nephew’s eyes darkened.

“You put her there, Uden,” Kashyk said with finality.

“Forgive me...”

"I should hate you, Uden Rularshen. I should hate you. I should take a dolk and sever your head from your body. I should hate forever what your ‘act of kindness’ did to my family," Kashyk thought. But he didn’t say these words. He was just filled with an immense sadness, a sadness that life dealt the good person, the innocent and the pure some cruel blows.

“Please...” Uden’s said quietly.

“A single act of compassion, Kashyk...”

Thank you Kathryn Janeway, for turning a hardened soldier into a scrap of humanity. Thank you, Anina, who could love so without condition.

Kashyk looked at Uden, and he knew what the young man was willing to risk. Kashyk knew in these moments that Uden, young, impressionable, easily convinced to accept a universal order that by any standards repelled the rights of men and women, was disillusioned. Uden was right. He really had no idea what the Imperium asked of him. He saw their ‘vaunted’ values as something he could embrace with complete acceptance.

Then Anina died. A means of punishing Anina’s father. Uden has had a rude awakening and innocent persons died to facilitate that awakening. Umi... he sighed. Umi died at the Centerium Mores.

<What would I gain from hating him? Nothing.>

“Your life is in danger, Uden,” Kashyk broke the silence at last.

“I care nothing about my life, Uncle Kashyk. Not now,” he said softly, his eyes still with that beseeching look in them. “I have done my family a grave injustice.”

“Uden, you can - “ Kashyk started.

“I cannot, Uncle.”

Did Uden know?

“They have to think you're still here, talking with me. Should they enter here, you'll be gone, but I'll be sleeping in your bed, with the covers over my head. They'll think that I've taken off in the shuttle... There are a number of shuttles coming and going. It should give you enough time to get to Naron.”

“You would do this... for me?” Kashyk asked.

“Please, go now. All your personal effects are already on the shuttle, including a strange looking ornament I found under Anina’s - “

“The microscope,” Kashyk exclaimed. “Anina loved it.”

“Yes...”

“Uden, I - how can I - “

“Our family is cursed, Uncle Kashyk,” Uden smiled sadly, but there was a fierce gleam in his eyes, a gleam of filial pride. "It’s in all of us. I accepted mine too late...”

"As I did mine..."

“I know what you mean, Uden.”

Kashyk took one last, anguished look at Uden Rularshen, then hugged him fiercely. Uden clutched convulsively at him, muttered again:

“Forgive me, Uncle.”

Kashyk held him away. There was a gleam of tenderness in his eyes as he looked at Uden for the last time.

“There is nothing to forgive, Uden,” he said finally, before entering the co-ordinates of the shuttle and vanishing in the shimmer of the transporter beam.

**********

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN

PART ELEVEN

Kashyk stood near the entrance of a house in the First City of the planet Vodar. Attached to each hand was a child, about seven years old in Earth years. They were brother and sister siblings, remarkably alike - almost identical really, and because of it, their telepathy was much stronger than in others of their race.

He looked first at one, then the other. They had been fighting good-naturedly, and were still bickering on who got to hold Mr Kashyk’s telescope. Kashyk smiled. Since he took them on his ship - a courtesy of Norex, who helped him acquire it through various devious means - the children had been childishly ebullient. Quite contrary to how they were supposed to feel or act, considering their parents were both at ReLoC 56 - the worst of the camps. They would never see their mother and father again.

He sighed, then smiled tightly as the front door opened and a young woman came out. She had a smile on her face that hovered nervously. She didn’t want to be disappointed, Kashyk realised.

“I was told I could come to you,” Kashyk said, trying to hold on to the two wriggling children.

“I received a message, good Kashyk, that you were bringing the two children.” She looked hungrily at Keshai and Amitai, who peered at their new mother with great curiosity.

“Thank you,” Kashyk replied with a smile. “I understand you have expressed a wish to adopt them.”

Berdina smiled again, and this time there was no uncertainty, no nervousness as she held her hands out to the two children.

You will he happy here, Keshai and Amitai...

Kashyk had known Berdina was telepathic, had come to this planet for that purpose. As far as possible he placed children with other telepaths, who could communicate with them with greater ease and comfort, and soothe the distraught children.

It was Keshai, the little girl, who stepped forward and placed her hand shyly in that of Berdina.

Will you be our new mother?

Yes. I love you already as my own...

Amitai likes to fight with me...

Amitai broke free of Kashyk’s grasp. Kashyk stared indulgently at the little boy, whose expression spoke of indignation.

“Amitai!” he called the boy, who swung round to face him. Amitai’s face was red with childish anger.

“She told our new mother I like to fight with her, Mr Kashyk.”

Amitai turned back to Keshai, but by that time Berdina communicated with him.

It is normal, Amitai, for brother and sister to fight a little bit. But you like to tease your sister, I can see that. Kashyk saw the woman smile as she looked at Amitai.

Kashyk felt good. He was in a hurry, and Amansure Nidal was a week behind him. His eyes were tender as he watched with satisfaction how the children took to this woman. They stood still, not speaking, and he knew they were communicating telepathically. It pleased him greatly that he had been able to dodge Nidal successfully, and bring the two children to their new home.

There was a lightness in his heart.

He was constantly amazed by the maturity with which the children accepted their fate. They would always tell him that their parents had prepared them, that they knew they would never see their mother or father again. Kashyk sighed. Word had spread through subspace of the Devore region that he was on the run. A fugitive fleeing for a cause. Wherever he could, he tried. It took him weeks to reach a homeworld not under Devore jurisdiction, or on the perimeter of the Devore region of space. He picked up children wherever he could - they were the most vulnerable - and then he would race to the homeworlds where he could find homes for the children.

It had become his mission.

Every child became...

Every child became Anina, Kashy-riyon Kashyk, Lushana communicated.

Kashyk stirred a little, his movements were slowing down, and whenever he tried to lift his hand, it would sag back again limply against the covers of his bed.

I could not save Anina...

Saving other children meant you saved many Aninas, Kashyk.

There was much pain, in the beginning

When you looked at each child?

Yes..

But it was not only Anina, Kashyk, who taught you about - about being ...

Good? Humane?

Many times have you risked your life to do something good, Kashyk.

It was nothing -

Nothing? It was what made you different, better than your fellow Devore

It was nothing.

Everything, Kashyk, that you are, was always within you. Your beautiful Anina, your beautiful Captain Janeway with her red hair, Voyager and her crew... watching them, knowing them, they just let the goodness in you come again to the surface

I -

Where it belongs...

Kashyk opened his eyes tiredly, but he summoned the strength:

“You are a remarkable child... just like my Anina...”

“You are a remarkable man, Kashy-riyon Kashyk. You have crossed Devore space many times to see a child to safety...”

“I was on the run, Anina.”

“Lushana...”

“I forget.”

“It’s alright, Kashy-riyon Kashyk. Tell me, Kashyk, what happened to Uden.”

“Uden...” Kashyk said with difficulty, his eyes welling again, “Uden died. He - he died, Anina...”

Lushana thought it would be futile to remind Kashyk that she’s not Anina. In his mind, she was his daughter who died violently.

“He stayed behind, knowing what his fate would be.”

“They - “ Kashyk’s eyes seemed to burn into hher. Lushana could feel her heart racing as she anticipated his answer.

“They t-tortured him...”

“Who told you this?” Lushana asked, suddenly curious. Kashyk had left the Devore homeworld, he had no more friends, other than Norex.

“Uden was caught. He was killed before the five hundred cadets who were being trained as young soldiers. As - as...”

“They wanted to show him up as an example...”

“Yes... I was informed via subspace by an anonymous young cadet who befriended Uden.”

“Uden influenced his life?”

Kashyk’s face contorted into a smile; he was smiling for the first time.

“The curse of the Kashyks. The young cadet said that Uden was very brave. He did not recant.”

“Then he was brave, Kashyk. Like you.”

“I am not a good man, Anina.”

“Lus - “

“Forgive me.”

“It’s alright.”

Kashyk drifted off again, his head falling back, his lips parted slightly as he struggled to breathe.

“You are a very, very brave man,” Lushana whispered.

<He’s going>, she gave a soft sob before touching his temples again. His thoughts were now mere images, strange tapestries of wondrous colour, a palette of pain and exultation. Some images were hazy, others more defined.

She tried to isolate incidents and images, and little bits stood out clear. Mostly, she could see Anina, Kathryn Janeway, Chakotay, the starship Voyager, Uden... Prax, also Amansure Nidal. Lushana guided his train of thought again to new images of children. One after the other she witnessed Kashyk braving the most incredible adversities to bring to safety as many people as he could...

*******

Kashyk looked from his command chair to the young girl cowering in one corner of the small bridge. He was pushing the Liberator to maximum warp.

Nidal’s phasers were effective. He had a larger vessel but the Liberator had greater maneuverability. Nidal’s phasers hit his port bow and a shower of sparks lit up the bridge as one console exploded.

“Brace yourself, Derendra, I’m going to evasive maneuvers. I’ve got some Starfleet aces up my sleeve - “

Hardly had he uttered the words when another salvo strafed his starboard section. His shields were down by 40%, and he knew he had to make this maneuver work. He remembered every trick and brilliant maneuver perfected by Voyager’s Chief Helmsman - information he gathered from that ship’s database.

“Hold on!” he shouted as he stopped dead, and seconds later Nidal’s vessel catapulted past him. Kashyk opened fire on Nidal, watched how his enemy’s vessel careened then righted itself, finally slowing down. It had taken some damage.

“That should keep you a week behind me,” Kashyk said softly as his eyes glistened with excitement, his body glowing with the energy of the little skirmish.

Nidal’s face appeared on his viewscreen.

“I live to fight another day, Kashy-riyon Kashyk.”

“And I live another day to fight for one more life, Amansure Nidal.”

The screen went blank, and Nidal’s vessel moved away, preparing for some extensive diagnostics and repairs.

Kashyk breathed a sigh of relief. Nidal had been a sitting duck. He could have inflicted greater damage, even killed his adversary. But, he knew the Imperium would simply replace Nidal with another Tracker. At least Nidal was an adversary he could outwit. Nidal was an arrogant Tracker who would never admit to being outclassed and outsmarted by an enemy. Nidal’s capabilities and tactics were known factors to him. Any other Tracker... Unknown factors...

Life, Kashyk decided, was cheap.

Still, his primary goal was to get Derendra to safety.

Two days later, Kashyk smiled as yet another grateful couple accepted young Derendra into their home.

******

The Liberator was flying on autopilot. Kashyk left his seat quickly and went to his cabin. On his bed lay Meeta, a girl of about five.

She was ill, desperately ill. The containment tank in which she was hidden for three days, was too much for her. The resulting fever debilitated her strength further. He prayed she would hold out till he got her to safety. It was what he had assured her parents.

The pitiful minute they had to say good-bye to their child almost broke Kashyk’s heart.

I must keep remembering your words, Anina. “My soul flies with the eagles.."

He leaned forward and touched her warm cheek. She was burning up.

“We’re almost there, Meeta. Almost there. Then you will receive medication that I do not have to help you...”

“Will I get better, Mr Kashyk?” she asked in a tremulous voice.

“Meeta, you are very brave. You will get better.”

As if the child saw his words as an order, she smiled weakly, then whispered:

“I will get better...”

When he reached the planet Bromar’s First City, he was carrying little Meeta, who was wrapped in a small blanket. She was in a coma.

He stayed with the new parents at the hospital and waited till she was better. He had to leave immediately after she opened her eyes and smiled at him. Kashyk had taken her in his arms and held her like that for a few precious moments. When he placed her in the arms of her new mother, his eyes were red. He felt like crying.

He didn’t wait for them to thank him. By the time he was in high orbit again and flying at warp 8, Nidal was behind him. He had not bothered to tell Meeta's new parents of his own injuries that were beginning to take its toll on him.

*******

ELEGY FOR A DYING MAN

PART TWELVE

Kashyk's breathing had slowed down. It was a low gurgling in his throat, and the young girl looking at him, knew that the gravely injured man brought into her home several hours earlier would very soon expel his last breath. She was saddened, yet felt the great privilege of having been honored with the tale of a very courageous man.

Poor, brave Kashyk, you have become a living testimony to the good that is in every man.

She looked at his pain ravaged face, the beads of perspiration that settled on his brow again. There was little pain now, she knew. He was drifting in a realm few people had the privilege of experiencing. As telepaths, they never intruded on this, the painful, peaceful, sublime, glorious final moments of the dying. It was an unspoken rule, one that was rarely infringed upon. It was enough that they could conduct entire conversations without words. But this, what Kashyk was going through now, was something they regarded as sacred.

Yet...

Kashyk's hand reached tiredly for her, his eyes that opened briefly, told her that he wanted her to share that. She could not think if it was a deliberate movement on his part. She wanted in this moment to believe fervently that it was a reflex movement, that perhaps instinctively, he needed the gentle and soothing touch of her fingers against his temple. He spoke not a word, but she understood.

So Lushana, who knew that Kashyk saw her as Anina, gently leaned forward and touched his temples again. Her head was bowed, resting almost on his chest.

*******

It was a wondrous sight to behold, Chellin thought as he looked at his daughter lying over the body of Kashyk, with her fingers pressed against his temples. Lushana was truly gifted, and she would carry this gift into her adulthood, when she would one day succeed him as First Minister of Zastron. Now, she was patiently storing every memory, every story, every image, every sound of Kashyk's communication with her.

He sighed. He had been given the news that Amansure Nidal had entered their orbit. Within minutes he would land and arrive here. Chellin looked a last time at Lushana, then left the room.

He found Lerina staring out their front window, a pensive look he knew the meaning of.

He comes, Chellin

I know, my wife. We are in no danger. Our homeworld is out of the Devore jurisdiction. But -

You will make him forget we are telepaths, Chellin

Lerina turned to look at her husband, and he looked a little embarrassed. She had never seen him do anything devious, yet he was going to use his phenomenal power on the unsuspecting Amansure Nidal. By the time Nidal would leave Zastron, he would not remember that he had been dealing with a telepathic race.

Forgive me, Lerina

Kashy-riyon Kashyk deserves to die in peace

Yes, he deserves dignity

*******8

The images were sometimes blurred, sometimes clearly defined.

Kashyk could feel a lightness, as if he were starting to float. Yet, he had some awareness that he was still lying on the bed, that Lushana’s fingers still rested against his temples. Her fingers were quiet conductors, relaying all that he could see, hear and feel, to herself.

I am dying, Lushana...

I know, good Kashyk

I can see them

Yes. Through you I can see them too.

Her thoughts and her touch on his face were soft, it told him not to be afraid. His instinctive acceptance of Lushana’s gentle intrusion bespoke his trust in her, his complete faith that she would treasure his memories. Lushana looked into his soul, and he gave her the privilege to witness his final moments...

*******

The music drifted towards him - great, magnificent sounds that filled the room. The sounds of trumpets mingled gloriously with the woodwinds, and insidiously, the fine strings began their soft assault on the eventual crescendo.

“Your favourite music, Kathryn...”

“I always liked Mahler...”

How beautiful you are, Kathryn! There is sunshine in your hair, the rushing of a gentle stream in your smile. Let me touch you, let me smell your hair, let me listen to your laughter.

The image of Kathryn floated nearer, drifted away, then floated towards him again. She waved, she smiled. She bent her head close to him.

“No one will regret an act of compassion...” Her voice sounded like a melody.

“I have not regretted it...”

From a thin wail of the oboes and horns, their sounds floated from the distant clouds and came nearer and nearer. It moved, from a gentle pianissimo, and swelled gradually, joined by the trumpets, violins, tympani and cymbals to a shattering fortissimo: a symphony of sounds that expressed at once cadence and counterpoint.

The spirals are beautiful, Anina.

Can you touch the moon, Father?

Kashyk’s hands reached out, trying to touch the figures, but they moved, dancing in graceful concert.

Chakotay, your sky spirits became mine...

Chakotay’s image loomed before him. He seemed to say:

“You are a warrior with heart, Kashyk...”

Come...come...

The eagle will come to rest, said Chakotay.

You are capable of expressing deep compassion.

No, no! Codicil 12 of the Imperium Law declares that any sympathiser be punished according to the law... Prax’s voice sounded near him, then he moved away, and dissolved slowly.

Thank you, Mr Kashyk. You have saved my life, said Chaunees.

Chaunees, you are a beautiful young woman...

You saved our lives, came the chorus of children.

Kashyk smiled a sublime smile. Chaunees...Keshai... Amitai...Derendra, Meeta, Enorah...

Father, will you ever see Captain Janeway again?

Anina, you are so taken with Voyager’s captain.

What is that music, Father?

Gustav Mahler, my child.

It is full of brave sounds, Father.

********

They came, they bent over him, they laughed, they beckoned him to join them - all the people living or deceased, who shaped his life in the last years. Their movements were gentle, dancing to the strains of the music.

When I look at the moons, they touch my soul...

Anina...

I see the stars, and even from afar, they touch my soul -

Anina...

The graceful chamka’s flight across the plains has touched my soul.

“Anina...” Kashyk’s voice croaked her name with difficulty. He saw her, her black hair long, her eyes the deep colour of the smarag stone.

And in the twilight, when the sun sinks gently behind the hills of Oman, my spirit will rise...

Anina ran towards him, the hem of her white long tunic lapping about her ankles. Her arms were outstretched towards him. She smiled, pirouetted, then glided to him.

"You...are...beautiful..."

''See, Father? I have no pain."

“Anina...” Kashyk’s voice croaked again. He opened his eyes, eyes in which death already lurked, waiting. Lushana sat up slowly, her bond with Kashyk broken. Her eyes welled up.

Kashyk looked straight at Lushana.

Her black hair was long, her eyes as green as the smarag stone. She looked at him with some expectation, and when she leaned forward again to take his hand in hers, her touch was cool and gentle.

“Anina...”

Lushana’s lips trembled as she formed the words:

“Yes, Father?”

“Anina... Anina...”

“I am here, Father...”

“Anina...”

Kashyk raised his other hand, the fingers trembling as he touched her cheek. She leaned into his touch, and closed her eyes. His tired black eyes glazed for a second, the smile he had on his face stilled gently. His hand slid from Lushana’s face and fell limply back.

Lushana rested her head on Kashyk’s chest, and she could feel how he brought his hand up around her slender shoulder. Her left hand was still held in his. His fingers curled slowly around hers, until it covered her hand completely. Then Kashyk's fingers unfurled from hers and in a final, wrenching entreaty they lay open as the great plains of the chamka beckoned him home.

She could feel how his breathing began to still. There was a slight vibration against her ear as he spoke. The words moved in whirling eddies of gentle echoes around the room, rose and drifted towards the light of the setting sun.

“My...soul...flies...with...the...eagles...”

*********

END

A GLOSSARY OF TERMS:

1. AGHARON: Some deity. [My own word I made up!]

2. CHAMKA (pronounced 'shumka'): A fleet-footed cat-like animal, much like a leopard. [chamka or gamka/xamka is Xhosa for Lion.]

3. DAIGHA: a roving dog, much like the scavenging hyena, not much liked by the Devore. [Daigha is my own word, remotely related to ‘dagha’, Xhosa for: a mixture of cement and sand].

4. DOLK: The Devore traditional hand-weapon - a dagger. [Dolk is Afrikaans/Dutch for ‘dagger’]

5. ETOSHA: Arid plains, home of the chamka and the daigha. [Etosha is a Khoi word, and also named after the Etosha National Game Park of Namibia].

6. GHUSAN: The underworld/hell [I created this word.]

7. MOONS OF DEVORE: Naron, Kirsa and Troyan [made this up].

8. OROM ORE: like gold. [Orom, from oro - Sp. for gold]

9. SMARAG STONE: A gemstone, deep green, with light seeming to emanate from the centre - an emerald. [smarag; Afrikaans for emerald].

10. VENDA: A race of telepaths.

11: GAHARAY: - stranger: Naturally, that words belongs to Paramount.