First Encounters of a Disillusioned Kind

Posted on Tuesday March 8th, 2022 @ 3:40pm by Commander Kanaka Shakura & Cadet Freshman Grade Daisy Stanier & Radrom Kondak

2,453 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: S1-A1-Ep. 2: Our Foremost Virtues
Location: Starbase 129, Alpha Quadrant; Close to Cardassian Space
Timeline: Docked at Starbase 129; Stardate 72180.5
Tags: Radrom Kondak, Cardassian Refugees, Dominion War

Executive Officer's Log, Stardate Seven-Two-One-Eight-Zero-Point-Five.

The U.S.S. Poseidon has finally arrived at Starbase One-Two-Nine, close to the Argus Array and the demilitarized zone between both Federation and Cardassian Space. After having successfully docked, we are not wasting any time in beginning the process of documenting all our refugees as we take them on-board. I and a group of my staff from the Counselling Division will be heading over to begin the process immediately.

At the same time the Poseidon will be receiving further critical supplies and repairs in order to assist in the mission's success. While they won't resolve all our problems, I hope that they can at least aid us in our immediate journey back to Starbase Forty-Seven.

I've been personally tasked to liaise with the Cardassian who reportedly organised this group of refugees, a man by the name of Radrom Kondak. Aside from his history as the son of shipbuilders and his service in both the Cardassian-Federation War and Dominion War, Starfleet Intelligence claims to know little else about him...

Daisy was noticeably restless as she and a group of young Counsellor's from the Poseidon's Counselling Division followed behind Commander Shakura, working their way through the throngs of the crowd of the promenade towards where they had been directed to go in order to meet with their mission's passengers. The young Counsellor's Aide was not a very big fan of crowds, and she made little attempt to hide it, sticking as close to the coat-tails of her superior as she could, knowing that her clear rank and proper appearance would make certain that people got out of her way a lot more easily than it would be for her to ensure the same.

Kana could sense her discomfort, and had done all she could to reassure her before they departed the ship, but alas now she had to focus on the task at hand. The station's Commanding Officer had been, while helpful, clearly very exacerbated by the situation: they had not been expecting to receive almost two-hundred Cardassian refugees in such short notice, and to have to begin processing them for a quick turnaround to the Poseidon. All of this made the Commander question the sudden urgency that Starfleet seemed to have with this particular group of refugees; of course, the Federation always made an active effort to assist people fleeing war, famine, persecution or the like - but they had processes for this. None of this felt like it was following the process, and Kana usually took that as a sign that something was up.

Of course her immediate concern was still in regards to the wellbeing of the refugees, but these doubts didn't stop creeping into her mind even as they arrived at the place where the refugees had apparently been keeping refuge. It was one of the starbase's evening lounges, having been converted - with quite some obvious haste - into a rather spartan bunkhouse. Groups of Cardassians - men, women, children - huddled around each other at different cots, not paying too much mind to the Starfleet officers and cadets as they immediately walked in. Commander Shakura took some time to survey the scene while Daisy and the rest of the team crowded behind her, which eventually drew a few neutral stares from their charges. At the back of the room there was a large mural, depicting the Starbase under fire during the Dominion War, and below that large bold rows of names - broken down by ship - of the lives lost and those wounded or missing during the fighting that occurred in this sector of space.

Turning about on her heel to face her team, they all snapped to attention, only one or two reacting a second later due to their interests either in the Cardassians or the mural.

"Alright, everyone. I want you to break up into four teams and I want you each to take a corner of the room and begin working your way inwards; we haven't had much time to arrange a proper system so we need to be clever about our approach. Don't waste each others time, or the time of those who've already been forced to wait as long as they have. Get the essentials; the rest can be sorted more properly once we have everyone on-board the Poseidon. Your PADDs give clear details on what exactly you need to gather and check; as soon as they're filled, they must be submitted to both Security and Operations for safe keeping. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Ma'am!" All the team responded in close unison, only a few sounding slightly more hesitant than their peers. Daisy, despite her previous nervousness, had perked up since arriving at their destination and seemed determined to do her job well. Happy with their response, the Commander roughly divided them into four teams and sent them about their way, and made sure to watch them for a bit before setting about her own assigned task. Some were a bit more tepid than others at first, to which Kana worried would cause some frustration on the part of their charges, but she was pleased to see that when conversations did strike up, the refugees were just relieved to finally be talking to someone who seemed in any way ready to have them. All the groups and clusters she had previously noted seemed to parcel out to one of the four points of the room, all except one clustered in the very centre.

Kana narrowed her focus and began to make her way, but within a few steps she could sense in her peripheral vision that she was not alone. Turning suddenly again, she noticed Daisy was still standing right behind her.

"Is something wrong, Daisy?" She asked the young woman directly. Daisy looked slightly confused and shook her head in response.

"Then please, do go and help your teammates."

"Oh! I thought I would--"

"Daisy." Kana was patient with her young ward, but at the same time was clearly drawing a line. "I know you worry about handling people on your own, but you will be fine. You have an approachable demeanour and you've shown how at ease you are with following administrative tasks. These people are scared too; you share that in common, and in situations like these, that can help build a very secure bridge, as you're both looking to trust one another."

"I know, Commander, it's just--"

"I know about the group in the centre. Don't worry about them, they'll come to you shortly. For now I need to have a conversation with someone, but I need to do that alone. It's nothing for you to worry about."

Daisy looked into Kana's eyes for a moment, and the Commander could sense that she was trying to decode something from her face, which she actually found to be quite promising: it meant that Daisy was honing her intuition towards people's underlying feelings. After a few seconds, the young woman nodded without another word and made her way over to the closest group of her colleagues and got stuck in with the same work.

Turning about again and reaching the group in the centre - which was almost entirely of men, of varying ages - the Commander cleared her throat. "Radrom Kondak?" She asked them all. They all turned their heads to look at her, some eyeing her with indifference and others with a tinge of distrust, especially as she could tell that they immediately picked her out as Betazoid due to her pitch black irises. Undeterred, she kept her posture straight and official as she waited for a response. Eventually, a gruff old voice from the centre of the pack spoke over them.

"That would be I. To whom am I speaking?" The bodies parted to reveal a rather elderly Cardassian, unconventional locks of bright white hair slicked back behind his deeply set face, his ridges baring quite a few scars. His mass was quite large, and while he stood with a slight limp and arch in his posture that made him no less threatening or intimidating, which made Kana wonder what the man must've looked like in his prime. His light blue eyes scanned over her as he clearly took in every little detail, a genuine curiousness expressed even as his tone conveyed absolute superiority.

"I am Commander Kanaka Shakura, Executive Officer and Chief Counsellor of the U.S.S. Poseidon. My team and I are here to begin processing you all so that we may transport you back to Starbase Forty-Seven."

Radrom Kondak took two confident strides over to Shakura, his eyes not having parted from her for a second, not even to blink. Kana did not flinch, and the two shared a brief exchange of glances before the senior Cardassian offered her his large, calloused hand. She politely took it, after which the both shared a rather strong handshake, which Kana noticed became even stronger with every passing second, before he eventually let go.

"I trust that this process of yours will be a lot less cumbersome than the several through which we already had to pass in order to get to this point, Commander Shakura?" His question seemed pointed, but there was also a hint of earnestness.

"It certainly is my hope to make this as painless as possible for you and your people, Mr. Kondak."

He gave a sliver of a smirk in response. "We've experienced quite enough pain already, Commander. There's little else you could do to us now that would make it much worse; we just want to get past the tedium as quickly as possible, really. I'm sure you understand."

"Yes, I do."

"Hmm." He seemed unsure in her response, though that was to be expected. All the while as this exchange was happening, his younger companions stood and watched, their sense of distrust dissipating only slightly as their elder seemed to strike a cordial enough tone with Kana. He eventually waved them off, and they each began to slowly head to one of the other clusters - returning to friends or family members - which left both the Commander and the senior Cardassian alone as he returned to sit on his bunk.

"So am I to get the special treatment from you then, Commander?" He asked, his bones aching slightly as he bent his knees in order to sit back down, which Kana could tell from how he rubbed them afterwards. She arched an eyebrow at him.

"If by 'special' you mean am I here to give you a direct transfer? No. I was ordered simply to make contact with you and make myself available, should there be anything that you wished to discuss over the course of your transfer to Starbase Forty-Seven."

"How very considerate." He smirked a little more visibly this time. There was a moment of silence between the two before Radrom - seemingly curious as to what sort of reactions he could illicit from the Commander - spoke up again.

"So if you're the Chief Counsellor, does that mean that you're here to counsel me?"

"That depends. Do you feel in need of counselling?"

"You're a Betazoid. You can tell what I'm feeling."

"If I feel the need to, yes."

"And you don't feel that need now?"

"Should I?"

Their exchange was quick, each of them parrying their words off the other, though with no direct hostility or tension as much as it was a test of each others reactions. More than anything, Radrom seemed amused. "You strike me as someone a lot like my daughter, Commander."

At this, Kana arched another eyebrow. It seemed very sudden for the elder Cardassian to speak of his personal life even in vague terms so openly on an initial encounter. "Is your daughter here with us?"

A moment of silence passed, Radrom confident that it spoke for itself. He circled back round to the initial subject. "Will your counselling services be available to my people as well, during the duration of our transport with you?"

"Yes, should they feel the need to--"

"Their feelings are one thing, Commander. What they require is another." Radrom cut off Kana before she could finish speaking, not embarrassed by doing so. She paused for a moment, making sure to not let her face visibly register her annoyance at his interruption, before responding.

"I think it's for them to decide what they require, Mr. Kondak." She responded confidently.

"Assuming they know that's what they need." He retorted.

"Confident they have the best sense of themselves." She retorted back.

He smirked yet again. "Commander, I want to tell you something, and I want you to counsel me on it." Before she had a chance to respond, the elder pivoted in his cot to face the mural on the far side of the lounge.

"Every day since my people and I arrived here I've looked at that mural, studying every name of every person on every ship that perished in this sector during the fighting that occurred here. I catch myself wondering to myself: How many did I help kill or maim? Not only that, but what was it that we must have both been thinking when it happened. Were we both as angry at each other, did we both believe zealously in our own causes? What wants and needs did they have? Did they have a sense of themselves in all of this. Can you tell what I end up feeling at the end of all those questions?"

The two shared an exchange of glances again before Kana responded. "You feel nothing." She said it with complete clarity and certainty, for she could sense absolutely nothing from him. Not one thing.

"That's right." He confirmed, though by now his smirk had long since faded. It seemed as if this wasn't a state of mind that he was particularly fond of either, despite how confident he was in his statements. "I feel absolutely nothing. I draw blanks every time. Why is that, Commander?"

"The answers to your questions died with them, Mr. Kondak. Something was lost to all of us during those battles, and those of us who didn't die are left to carry the scars and wonder why, the best we can cast are illusions to what we think might have been or could have been."

"How poetic." Kondak coughed. "I gave up on such illusions long ago, Commander. There's no point in wondering why or what might or could have been. There is only what is and what can be."

"Quite the poet yourself, Mr. Kondak."

"I'm merely a disillusioned man, Commander."

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