No Reasons. . .

[Karo Veras 0]

Liberty was supposed to be relaxing. It was supposed to be the one place where somebody could, if only just for a few days, forget about the problems of the recent past and near future, and revel in the present.

 

Karo Veras was having trouble sleeping. And he knew exactly why. The conversation had played in his head over and over like a broken record for the past 12 hours.

 

* * * *

"It doesn't matter what the mission is, Kid, a warship is a warship. That's how the Blue Ones see it" said Staff Sergeant Tala "Spank" Nari, a Bajoran Marine stationed on board the USS Simonsen.

 

Veras opened his mouth to protest again, but thought better of it. Arguing the point with the Sergeant would do no good, it happened, and that was that. Bringing up any sort of wartime etiquette discussion wouldn't change the fact.

 

"In any case, we headed to the Mayfair first, that's where the most lifesigns were registering" the Staff Sergeant began again. "So we began to beam them aboard, there were about 51 in all, 45 refugees 5 fleeters, 1 Marine."

 

He paused to look up at Veras "51," he emphasized. "There were 400 refugees and 300 military on the manifest, and only 51 people were left." He his eyes drifted back down to his drink and out towards the promenade.

 

* * * *

 

Veras tossed again in his bed. So much death, yet no reason to leave those they did alive. It almost seemed like a punishment, a penance imposed upon them for whatever sins the Soltans believed were committed against them by the Federation. They weren't just trying to defeat Starfleet, they were trying to demoralize it. So far, it was a tactic that seemed to be working.

 

Veras grabbed his bow from his closet, and began inspecting it. He couldn't sit here and dwell on the conversation. It wasn't healthy. He was going to do what he normally did when things began to bother him. He was going to immerse himself in an activity. The Gunny had told him to brush up on the usage of projectile weapons, and that's exactly what he was going to do. Even if it was 0330 in the morning.

 

He headed out of his quarters with his bow in hand. His pace was brisk, and with intent. No one was in the halls at this hour, or else he probably would have garnered a few strange looks from the passersby as he walked. Not that it mattered to Veras, a few queer looks from his fellow crewmen was the last thing he had on his mind.

 

He finally reached the holodeck. As he entered he spoke "Computer, run program Veras 852 Alpha." The world around him transformed into the open field next to his father's kava grove.

 

* * * *

 

"So, what happened?" Karo heard himself ask, there a sense of fear and dread slipping into his voice.

 

"Nothing at first, really. Everything was going according to plan and procedure." Nari told him. "The cargo bays were quarantined, the Marines were performing triage while the doctors and med-techs were getting blood and tissue samples from each survivor. I was manning the entrance to CB1 along with one other of my guys."

 

The Staff Sergeant paused to take a sip of his drink. "We had already rescued the survivors on to the Ganymede and the Buenos Aires when we received word of the first of the infected. So we moved him into isolation and the docs began to run the secondary tests. Then the second notification came, and the third, and the forth. Before we knew it, there were 65 possible infected of the 117 survivors we had rescued. Well over half."

 

* * * *

 

The quiver of arrows was laid up against a fence. About 15 meters away was pile of kava wood piled up about 1 meter with a circular target painted in black and white with a red line bisecting it both vertically as well as horizontally. There was no wind, he would work up to that point. Right now, it was about refreshing his memory. It had been months since he'd fired this thing. There was no need for increased difficulty. He slung the quiver over his shoulder and retrieved an arrow. He took a deep breath and fired his first shot. . . .A miss. It hit low and to the left of the target, barely catching the kava wood.

 

Karo took another breath. He was indeed rusty. While he wasn't exactly a master archer, he was more than capable of not only hitting the target, but remaining extremely close to center. 'Clear your mind' his father had told him. 'Archery requires clarity of the mind and soundness of the body. It is an exercise of serenity and harmony.' It sounded like a load of philosophical BS, but Karo learned quickly that there was more truth to his father's words than not.

 

Retrieving another arrow from the quiver, he drew the bow back again, and brought it up to the target. He closed his eyes and attempted to clear his mind of all distractions. . .

 

* * * *

 

"We began separating the infected from the rest of the population." Nari continued. "We tried to mask it as an attempt to stay under the occupancy limits for the cargo bays. It was actually working, we were able to maintain the decorum for a while, until we reached the refugee governor. She was a human, with a child. A little girl in fact. Not more than 3 years old, cute as can be. In any case, the mother was potentially infected, while the child was not."

 

The Staff Sergeant stopped to take another sip of his drink. The confliction was ripping through him. Part of the grizzled Sergeant wanted to stop telling the story and switch to subject to something less painful, while the other part of him felt like he had to tell it, for some twisted cathartic reason that neither he nor Veras quite understood. The latter side of his conscience won out.

 

"Now, Kid," he said, looking Karo straight in the eyes. "You tell me how you can possibly split up a mother and child under the ruse we were pulling," he paused as if giving Karo time to answer, but it was a rhetorical question. "You can't? Can you?" Nari said, shaking his head.

 

"It was one of my guys who was handling the situation. He tried to convince the woman to leave her child behind, but it just wasn't going to happen. . . .'Come with me, ma'am' he ordered her. . .'You have to leave the child here ma'am'. . .'I'll explain later ma'am'. Those were his words. And he kept repeating them and repeating them. But it just wasn't going to happen, you know? She wasn't going to leave her child behind, not after an ordeal like they'd been through."

 

* * * *

 

Another miss, this one sailed over the target an off into the field behind. His mind still wasn't clear. He let out a curse. It was the darndest thing about these so called "mind clearing exercises", he didn't know if they were to help him clear his mind, or if he needed to clear his mind to perform them.

 

He drew another arrow, taking another deep breath, and released. This time, it was a hit. Not the cleanest shot, but a start. It was in the outer ring, in the lower left quadrant of the target.

 

He drew another arrow, and fired, this one in the same general area, only a little closer to center.

 

Another arrow. . .This one struck about the same distance from center, only in the upper right quadrant.

 

Before Karo new it, his quiver of 30 arrows was empty. He assessed his work. 27 hits, 13 in the outer circle, another 12 in the middle circle, and two just on the edge of the center circle. Not bad for a few months off.

 

"Computer reset program" he said aloud. The background flickered ever so slightly, with the only changes to the setting being a clean board and fresh quiver of arrows against the fence. Karo took a seat against the fence next to the arrows. He flexed both of his hands, which were feeling raw and slightly sore. Karo had forgotten how taxing on the fingers it was. He took a few moments to relax

 

* * * *

 

"After about 2 minutes. Another one of my guys came and snatched the little girl up from her mother's side . .on my order." Nari said, a hint of remorse sneaking into his voice. "And that just sent her into a frenzy, let me tell you." A hint of a smile creeped at the edge of his lip before disappeared as quick as it appeared, Karo couldn't quite put his finger on as to why.

 

"So one of my guys is walking away with this little girl, who's just –screaming- mind you, and the other his dragging away her mother, who's also screaming. And that's when things went to Hell in a hurry."

 

* * * *

 

Karo stood up, feeling even more tense than he did when he sat down. Just when he thought he had cleared his mind, it was back. He slung the quiver over his should again and walked up to the mark. Drawing an arrow, he fired. . . .A miss, well to the left and over the target.

 

He drew another arrow a fired. . .Another miss, this one just to the right of the wood pile.

 

Another shot. . .Miss again. . . .And another miss. . .And another miss.

 

Karo flung his bow to the side a let out a primal scream.

 

The sound of his voice, the images in his head, they had haunted him. . .And he could do nothing to stop it.

 

Karo feel to his knees and pulled at his hair, allowing himself to fall to the ground, as if in a desperate prayer to the Prophets begging them to end his nightmare. But his voice kept coming, and the images only became more vivid and more graphic.

 

* * * *

 

Nari bit the inside of his lip hard. "Some. . . ." he paused as if to stop himself from blurting out an adjective he'd regret ". . .fleeter. . .Decided that it would be best to stun the poor mother." He paused and looked up Karo. "Can you believe that, Kid?" he asked, another rhetorical question. "He thought it'd be best to fire his damn weapon in a quarantined environment, with no damned hostiles within light years of the scene." Nari let out a swear. "I tell you, Kid. I'd never seen anything like that in my life." The anger was evident in his voice. He took another drink. His eyes shifted from the table, to out in the promenade and back again a few times before he continued.

 

"Well, one of the governor's aides, a Klingon no less, took exception to our dear fleeter zapping his boss unconscious. He came in charging towards this guy, and strike me down if he didn't crack 4 of his ribs with this tackle" there was a twinge of satisfaction in his voice there, believing the fleeter got what he deserved.

 

"Well, it took all of 5 seconds for the other 10 Klingons in attendance to join in the fray, and before we knew it, we had a full fledged riot on our hands." His eyes glazed over a little bit as he stared out into the promenade. "It might have ended peacefully. . .if someone hadn't decided to fire their weapon, and this time not on stun."

 

"Well that just ticked the Klingons off even more. . . seeing one of their own lying dead as a result of a kill shot from their 'rescuers'." Nari placed a sarcastic inflection on that last word, because what he was about to describe next would definitely challenge to use of that word. "I still don't know who fired that damn shot. And I'm not sure I want to." His voice trailed off for a half second.

 

"In any case, one of the Klingons pulled out a dagger and started charging in the general direction of the shooter. And then the shots began. . ." Nari's voice trailed off again, this time for a few seconds, as if to let the image soak into Karo's mind.

 

"I must have yelled cease fire about 20 times before someone actually listened to me. . .But It was too late." He shook his head, as if now recalling the ordeal in his own mind. A nervous chuckle escaped his lips. "I think what I saw will stay with me the rest of my life." He said, looking up at Karo with a pained looked on his face, one that sent a chill down the back of Karo's spine.

 

"When it was all said and done. There were 64 people dead. 64. . . ." he let the number hang out there. "63 of the' rescued' and one from the Simonsen. Killed by friendly fire" He looked down at the table before looking up at Karo again.

 

"That one guy, Corporal James "Scooter" Johnson. He was one of mine. He took a shot right to the heart."

 

Karo could feel the lump form in his own throat as Nari's eyes began to water. Karo had yet to lose a friend here in the service, let alone to situation as messed up as that. But that wasn't why Nari's eyes were watering.

 

"Staff Sergeant Tala Nari" a voice came from his communicator, not waiting for him to respond "Please report to the Station Internal Affairs immediately."

 

Nari gulped down the rest of his drink, slamming the glass down on the table before standing up. "He would have taken a second shot to the other side of his torso." He said, looking straight down at Karo."

 

"But that part of his body was shielded. . .by that 3 year old girl I told him to pick up."

 

Karo's heart sank as the image of the child lying dead with a phaser blast crept into his head. It was an image that would make even the hardest of Marine badasses break down in tears. A child, a little girl, dead. From friendly fire. It seemed too sick to be true.

 

Staff Sergeant Tala began towards the exit. He stopped right next to Karo, picking up his drink, and inspecting it, before setting it down on the table.

 

"That's not even the kicker of this whole deal." He said, looking down at Karo. "On the way back to the station our doctors found that they had mixed to samples from the survivor with their control specimen. Every single one was a false positive. Can you believe that?" he said, disgusted.

 

"All those people died for nothing."

 

Nari gave Veras a pat on the shoulder before walking out the door.

 

For nothing. . .

 

All those people died for nothing.

 

Those Klingons, that Corporal, that 3 year old girl, died for nothing.

 

For nothing. . .

 

* * * *

 

The holodeck had turned off, and the clock read 0515, less than one hour before liberty. Every time he pictured the little girl, the wound became more graphic, more grotesque, as if his mind was attempting to defile any shred of innocence left within the situation.

 

He grabbed his bow and headed out of the holodeck. His mind still racing, still unsure as to how to remove the sordid images from his consciousness. He headed straight to NNC, bow in hand. He found a place for the bow in the weapons locker. There was no use in returning it to his bunk, he was probably going to be practicing with it on duty sooner rather than later anyways.

 

He disrobed and headed to the showers. NNC was decidedly empty, which was surprising for this time of morning, given that they were so close to the start and end of duty shifts. But that was furthest from Karo's mind.

 

He let the cold water pour down on him, trying to shake his mind free of the images haunting his imagination. But again, like a broken record, the conversation kept replaying over and over in his mind.

"It doesn't matter what the mission is, Kid, a warship is a warship. That's how the Blue Ones see it."