Park and Reclamation

[Cdr Wyatt Cayne 0]

Park and Reclamation

 

The light breeze blew across the park from one end and flowed playfully to the other. The warm sun poked out from the leaves of the trees about midway to zenith. Directly above at zenith a patch of cumulus clouds crawled slowly across the otherwise azure sky. No world could claim they had a sky quite like this, not Earth, Vulcan, or Cardassia Prime. The parameters were likely set by a committee light years away, some universally agreed upon pleasantries no doubt. Even with its rather lowest common denominator of idealism, one visitor found this park a touch beyond perfect.

 

Gila had just arrived only hours ago on a Groumall class transport bound from Cardassia Prime. The trip was thankfully uneventful, but felt quite longer than it should have. Mostly the problem was her seat's comfort bordered on criminal and was likely a relic from another ship. Her back was killing her, but seeing a park like this on a space station this size was worth the pain. Laying flat on her back on the soft grass was a bonus as well.

 

Even with the park's rather too-perfect setup, getting off of Cardassia never felt so good. The rebuilding process after the devastating bombardment by the Dominion at the end of the war by many accounts were complete. Had you never been there before the war you may have never known anything took place. Gila knew. She remembered. She remembered losing so many friend and most painful of all her entire family.

 

Her battle group was only spared by being at the wrong place at the right time. They were at a training facility high in a mountain range. A man only a mere rank higher by the name of Retav took control of her group and lead them to a system of underground hardened caverns. Their safety came at a cost. The Jem'Hadar were in pursuit as they were heading into the cave system. Retav held them back, all except one. One soldier followed the battle group into the caves and fired shots, hitting Gila in the chest just below her shoulder. The missed shots hit a part of the cave much closer to the lone Jem'Hadar, causing him to plummet to his death. No other soldiers followed. Retav never returned.

 

Those were only memories now, the physical scars paired with the emotional loss having woven themselves into her past. Now it was time to move on. A time to leave everything behind save for the scar left by the Jem'Harar weapon. For the most part she was free. The feeling of relief was so moving for her that emotions pour out in the form of tears down the sides of her face. She was silent in her outburst, but Gila heard crying in her own head. No, it was not her.

 

Gila rolled over and got herself up off the grass. She waited for the head rush to subside as she wiped the tears into the sleeve of her mauve shirt. The euphoria faded away as she got her bearings and looked for the source of the crying. She winded through the plant life scattered along this end of the park before heading to the central pond. The crying was closer, but she could not see from whom.

 

Almost on top of it she looked down to see a young girl sitting on a rock at the side of the pond. She was crying and sniffling, trying to stop one with the other, but likely causing them both in the process. Her hair was a lot like Gila's: black and straight. What was distinctly different was the point of the girl's ears poking out from dark strands. The girl had not seen her approach.

 

"Hello there," Gila started, having not thought of exactly what to say, "My name is Gila. I noticed you are...upset."

 

The girl, no more than ten years old, jumped off her rock and nearly fell in. Would have fallen in if not for Gila's hand reaching out and catching her. The girl looked at the hand on her arm and then back up to see who saved her. The girl's eyes went wide at the unexpected face of a Cardassian. She quickly withdrew her arm as she steadied herself on the rock.

 

"Let me go! I'm not crying. No one is crying here." The girl said as she promptly plopped herself back onto the rock. Her crying subsided.

 

"Oh I did not hear any crying, but even a Horta can tell a biped like yourself is having a bad day." Gila gestured she too wished to sit on the rock. The girl nodded in a manner looking more like she was in trouble and she scooched over a bit. She expressed that by folding her arms and letting out a "humph." Gila continued on.

 

"So little girl," the Cardassian women offered a hand, "my name is Gila Orrak. What's yours?"

 

"Annisha. Annisha t'Korjata, but I'm not a little girl."

 

"Oh my apologies Annisha, but you should enjoy your time of youth, believe me. I was like you once, even the same hair." Gila chuckled as she showed how her own hair was like that of Annisha's. "It's a chore to keep straight, as I imagine yours is too. At least in the respect we are alike."

 

"Maybe, what do you care?"

 

"Well," Gila grinned. "Us straight-haired girls have to stick together, help each other out, but I can't help you if I don't know what is upsetting you so much. If it's something you don't want other grownups to know about I can keep a secret." She patted Annisha's need in assurance.

 

"Someone took something from my and my friends. I was too small to stop them."

 

"Too small?" Gila looked at her quizzically. "Small is only a matter of perspective. What's small to you is quite big to others." She looked down at the girl again, realizing the point may be lost a bit since she was larger than Annisha. "What did they take from you?"

 

"Passes. Holochamber passes I got as a prize from school from a competition. Three passes of three hours each. I was cutting through the park and was ambushed by someone I'd not seen before. Some scraggly boy. He looked homeless." Annisha started tear up upon revisiting her misfortune.

 

"Homeless," Gila repeated. "Did he have a torn shirt with some kind of script on the front, blue perhaps?"

 

"Yes, how did you know?"

 

"I saw him milling about when I entered a while ago. He was pocketing something and stared at me for a moment. Must have been those tickets. If only I had arrived sooner."

 

"Oh, well, he was too tall for me to get them. Teased me with them over my head. There was not even a Federation security officer around to get them back." Annisha looked dejected and stared into the still pond waters.

 

"I know where a security officer can be found," she patted Annisha on the knee again. "Wait right here."

 

Gila got up from the rock and huffed her way to where she last saw that shifty boy. The types of plants where she last saw him were unfamiliar. The writing on the descriptions of the trees looked vaguely Rihan. There were tall grassed and bushes obscuring the grassy floor of the park. In the midst of it all Gila stood there to listen carefully for any movement. She could not hear Annisha, but heard the rustle of the leaves against the wind and then...

 

A snicker of triumph a few meters ahead, in the middle of the Rihan bush. Like before, the sound was low to the ground. As she approached the chuckling stopped. A pair of white eyes greeted her and the rest of the body they were on jumped up.

 

"Ahh!" He exclaimed and he rose to run away. She grabbed him on the shoulder with a surprising combination of swiftness and strength.

 

"No so fast little boy." Gila said sternly.

 

"Let me go! Security!"

 

"I am security," she glared at him with the contempt Cardassians were known for in the quadrant. Her eyes burned through his expression like a nova. "I saw you pocket something earlier and I have it on good authority that it was stolen from a little girl by someone bigger than her. Does this sound familiar to you?" She snarrled.

 

"You can't prove the tickets aren't mine! They were a gift," the boy said with fear in his eyes.

 

"I never said they were tickets, but my friend sure did. Hand them over NOW!"

 

"No, you can't hurt me."

 

"Oh?" she said with mild amusement. Gila proceeded to carry him through the bush and grass. She lead him back to the pond. His struggles were in vain as she held him up just enough that he could not release himself or walk off.

 

Annisha turned from watching the tiny waves on the water too seeing Gila approach with a boy suspended in the air. "Oh," she gasped as she leaped to up and stood upon the rock. "That's him! That's the messy boy that took my tickets!"

 

"That answers my question then." Gila turned to the boy. "You have been identified as suspect in a local robbery. Annisha, come over here please."

 

"Okay," she walked over with a bit of apprehension. She stood in front of Gila, who managed to hold the boy in the air and with little struggle.

 

"Don't be afraid Annisha, but reach into his right pants pocket and pull our your ticket." Annsiha nodded and walked closer to retrieve her stolen passes. She reached into his pocket, not very deep, and pulled out three polymer paper holodeck passes. They were grimy from the handling by the the thief, but still valid for use.

 

"These are it!" She said excitedly, jumping up and down.

 

"Good," Gila said, turning her attention to the raggy boy. "Now you apologize to her."

 

The boy looked ever more frightened as he turned to face Annisha. "I-I won'tt steal f-from you."

 

"Or anyone else." Gila added.

 

"O-Or anyone else again. I'mm sorry."

 

Annisha looked up at the boy who was now had gone limp in the strong arms of Gila. "You better not...boy. I know people on the station. Powerful people that will make..."

 

"That's quite enough Annisha."

 

"Right," Annisha said, smiling. "Hey, au said there was one more thing."

 

The Cardassian woman turned to Annisha and nodded. "You are quite right." Without another word Gila took the boy up on the rock. She held him there.

 

"Just so you don't forget this moment," She then threw him into the pond, the wave so large that water splashed back onto Gila and Annisha. He struggled a bit, but the pond was not that deep. He flopped around in the water and eventually crawled back onto his feet. He ran away from the pond, heading towards the exit.

 

"Tell your friends there will be no theft on this station!" Gila yelled. She turned her attention back to Annisha, who was still agape with what she just saw.

 

"I thought Klingons were brutal."

 

"I'm not Klingon, I'm Cardassian."