For All The Right Reasons Pt. IX

[Veloras Itana 0]

For All The Right Reasons

Pt. IX

"Betrayal"

 

"No! Stop! Itara! Don't go!" Itana woke screaming as she did nearly every night that exhaustive unconsciousness did not take the place of real sleep. Bathed in sweat, shivering and confused she would wake with teeth and fists clenched so tightly, they often drew blood from her lips and palms.

 

~He knew~ The Whispered words came once again. The only part of the dream still brought with her into the waking world. He knew what? What was it that their father knew? The thought plagued her every waking moment. She wanted so desperately to understand why she continued to dream of her sister's parting words to her but, try as she might, she couldn't. She often considered asking her father what it all meant but, the mention of Itara or what had happened to them brought such a profound look of guilt to his eyes that she couldn't bring herself to push for the truth. That part of her that was still a child and, still saw her father as a hero as a god as the one person in her life that could make everything all right did not want to know. And, that part of herself was still strong enough that it wouldn't let her say the words.

 

The truth. She could hardly believe it but, she knew. On some unconscious level she knew he was lying to her about his involvement in both the Kendra Valley deaths and the death of her mother and sister and brother. He'd betrayed them. He'd betrayed her. She was certain of it just as she was certain he knew more than he had ever said about what had taken them there in the first place. Itara was still insisting on it after all this time and, Itana was the only person who could still hear her pleas for justice and, for peace.

 

Or, was this all some delusion in her own mind as the healers and monks had so often inferred back when she still spoke about her dreams? Was this just her mind's way of keeping Itara with her? Was she making her father pay for something he had no knowledge of and couldn't possibly have prevented? No. She was just as certain that wasn't it. Either way though she no longer saw him as she once had, as her protector, as her entire world. He was diminished somehow. Mortal, flawed and dishonest. Somehow, at some point in time, she had to know why she felt this way. She had to know what he'd done.

 

"Are you all right?" Veloras Ranik's head poked through the partially open doorway in the darkness. "You were screaming again."

 

"I'm fine father, go back to bed." Her reply was flat, emotionless and benign though the feelings behind them could still be felt like the crack of a whip against his ears.

 

Ranik pulled the door closed and went back to his room with his head and shoulders hung in despair. She was only fourteen years old yet her eyes were those of someone much older. So much experience, so much disdain and such pain hidden behind the face of a cherub. It had been so long since he recognized the child that sat across from him at meals, he had almost given up hope of ever seeing her again. She was a stranger to him now and, he suspected, she was a stranger to herself as well.

 

Since their arrival on Jerrado nearly eighteen months earlier,he had tried everything from discipline to over indulgence. Nothing worked. He had tried intervention and instruction from the monks at the monastery. He had tried surrounding her with other children her age who had been through similar traumas. Nothing affected her. If she wanted to be reached, he could not find the way to do it and, it broke his heart. His only remaining child, a joyful, outgoing and athletic, brilliant little girl had simply shut down. She found joy in nothing and had drifted through the last two years in an ambivalent and ambiguous haze.

 

Itana may have survived the Kendra Valley Massacre and its aftermath but, he had lost her that day as well, as surely as if she had died with Ebret and the other two children. Today was no different from the day she'd first regained consciousness in the caverns of the Kohlar mountains. His relationship with Itana had been steadily deteriorating from that moment this.

 

News had reached them a month earlier. News that Ranik believed would ease the tensions between him and his rebellious daughter. The war was ending. The Cardassians were withdrawing from Bajor and, the Federation had come to protect their borders and help ease their transition to a free planet. Itana would no longer have to sneak off against his wishes to engage in random acts of sabotage against the Cardassians. Life both here and, on Bajor could return to some semblance of normalcy. They would finally be given the time to grieve as a people and, the healing process could finally begin. He thought this would make her happy but, she'd shown no reaction to the news at all. As if something else occupied her thoughts to the point that hearing they were once again free had not even reached her. Her preoccupation with whatever demons haunted her dreams both frustrated and frightened him and, he was out of ways to try to get her to talk to him about it.

 

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

Seasons changed and changed again and life continued to change with it. Bajor's provisional government had been formed and now began to deal with old arguments that predated the war as well as what they were to do with those Bajora who had aided the Cardassian occupation. By word, deed or the lack of same, some Bajora were in fact as guilty as their Cardassian oppressors for the plight of the dead, the abused and the displaced. They were guilty of causing their brother's suffering and, that issue had to come first. It had to be addressed if they were ever to heal as a people.

 

In the meantime, life on Bajor and its surrounding colonies began to resemble what it had been before the occupation. For a while, Ranik found himself believing there may finally be a chance for he and Itana to rebuild some of what they had lost. To reclaim that closeness they had once had. It was a slow arduous process for Ranik but, little by little he began to see traces of the daughter he'd known return in her eyes and the way she spoke to him. She was all he had left in the world and he praised and thanked the Prophets every time he saw hints of the child he remembered returning in her smile.

 

It was just after dawn on a bright, sunny morning in late spring of the following year. Ranik and Itana were outside in the small vegetable garden they had planted behind the house they shared, which sat alongside a tributary to one of Jerrado's major rivers. Itana was fifteen now. She along with many of the residents of Bajor's largest secondary moon were slowly getting used to the idea of life without Cardassian rule. She rediscovered her love or plants and, in fact all things from nature. She developed an interest in music and literature and even pondered the idea of studying music when she returned to Bajor in the fall to get her junior degree in Botany. She'd also discovered the one thing no adolescent girl should be without, boys. Ranik could not remember the last time he felt so at ease despite his daughter's growing interest in the opposite sex. Watching the magic she could work in a garden. The way she could name foreign plants on sight and the natural gift she seemed to have for giving things life and making them thrive made him happier than he ever thought he could be again.

 

He stood, smiling silently as he watched her pruning the leaves on the new feriga plants she'd set the bulbs for the previous fall. Two men approached from the south, dressed in militia uniforms. He assumed they were on their way into the village and approached them smiling to offer them food or some cold water. As they drew near he could tell by their _expression they were here on business. Business he assumed had to do with his service in the resistance.

 

Hands on their weapons the one in charge stepped forward with a stern implacable glare. "Veloras Ranik?" He said resting his hand on the butt of his weapon.

 

"Yes, I'm Veloras Ranik." Ranik replied as Itana came up beside him carrying a bushel of jumja berries.

 

The man produced a hand held data padd and keyed in a few commands."By order of the Provisional Government and the Vedek Assembly, under the provisions of the Ilvian Proclamation, you are hereby ordered to accompany us to the Jerrada holding facility for questioning."

 

Ranik and Itana exchanged glances and, she could tell by his _expression that he clearly had no idea why they would want to question him. "On what grounds?" Ranik asked sounding slightly panicked.

 

"You are to be detained and questioned on the charges of collaborating with the enemy during a time of war, treason and murder in the deaths of forty-three Bajoran dissidents at the resistance camp in the Kendra Valley. You will come quietly sir or we will be forced to restrain you." With that his companion drew his weapon and took Ranik by the arm.

 

Itana's face and heart turned to stone as her sister's words once again echoed in her ear. ~He knew.~ She said nothing as Ranik proclaimed his innocence and the two men nearly had to drag him from behind the fence that circled their small patch of ground.

 

She watched as her father ceased his resistance and turned back over his shoulder to look in her eyes. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks as her father shouted back at her. "It's not true Itana. No matter what you may hear or how you may feel. PLEASE believe that I did not do this."

 

They disappeared from sight leaving her standing there alone and frightened. Carrying the berries into the house, she dropped to the floor crying and, recited the words that had haunted her dreams for over two years. "He knew."

 

...To Be Continued

 

Nail in my head

From my creator

You gave me life

Now show me how to live

And in your waiting hands

I will land

And roll out of my skin

And in your final hours

I will stand

Ready to begin

~Audioslave