Free Star Trek: Terok Nor 03: Dawn of the Eagles by S.D. Perry

demanded. “How can we even be sure that the coded message is genuine? This could be a trap to bring the kai out into the open.”
    Winn had been thinking much the same thing, but something in her constitution wouldn’t permit her to speak—not only because she was the youngest member of the assembly, nor because her first concern had been for the kai. Her anxiety was for the resistance fighters who would likely be targeted by the technology in question. There had been a time when Winn had disagreed with the rebellion, but times had changed. The Vedek Assembly’s positions had changed. Of course, the kai was a symbolic beacon of hope for Bajor, but she did not hold the same importance to its future as did the resistance. Winn was suddenly eager to contact Jaro Essa.
    Vedek Sharet smiled patiently. “We must come to a quick conclusion, my brothers and sisters,” she said. “We must decide which poses a greater risk: evacuating the kai—preferably here, to the Shikina Monastery—or doing nothing.”
    “Bek is a trustworthy man,” Vedek Marin said. “We must do this.”
    The other votes were cast, with four of those in attendance voting to reject the warning as a trap, and four opting to immediately inform the kai of the possible danger and to arrange to have her secretly transported to the Shikina Monastery. It fell to Winn to cast the deciding vote, which pleased her not a little. After a brief moment of reflection, she decided to warn the kai, for she ultimately felt that Kai Opaka was good for Bajor. She wondered if the kai would ever learn of Winn’s role in the vote. How will I reply when she thanks me?
    The decision made, some monks were recruited immediately to take the message to Kendra, so that Ranjen Stassen could be contacted at the shrine of the kai. Winn was relieved that the ordeal was over, and eager to resume her scheduled appointment with the Orb. But Vedek Sharet had other ideas.
    “Vedek Winn,” she said, with a gentleness that Winn surmised to be false, “I think it is best if we do not take anyone down to see the Orb just now. There has been so much excitement for a single day…and you must have heard that an Orb experience is not something to be taken lightly. I sense, Vedek Winn, that you are not ready for such an experience today. We will speak further on the matter tomorrow.”
    “But…Vedek, after all the time I’ve waited, I am more ready today than I will ever be,” Winn protested, but she could see a kind of finality in the eyes of the old woman. She would not be getting her chance to see the Orb today—maybe not even this week—especially if the warning concerning the kai turned out to be genuine. The “excitement” would not be ebbing any time soon. As she returned to her rooms, Winn thought to herself that the warning had better turn out to have substance; if she’d been prohibited from seeing the Orb without cause, it would certainly make her regret her vote.

    Russol met Natima at her house with a skimmer, a means of transportation that she supposed he felt was more discreet than public transport. But Natima knew only too well that if Russol had been marked as a possible dissident, it wouldn’t matter how he chose to travel; the authorities would know where he was going before he even got there.
    Natima was taken to the residence of a retired archon, where she was greeted in the lobby of his impressively large house by one of his many servants. The furniture was rich and heavy, the art expensively austere. She was surprised that one so wealthy would have associated with government nonconformists; she had always supposed that rebellion stemmed from desperation, from the young, the poor, or men like Russol who’d been forced to take part in conflicts that they did not agree with.
    There were many people here, seemingly from all walks of life and within every age category beyond young adulthood, though most of the people she saw were nearer to her own age. There were