Of Myths And Legends

[Veloras Itana 0]

Of Myths And Legends

 

What Itana lacked in years she more than made up for in experience. And, one thing she had discovered during her travels through the galaxy was that all races held several fundamentals in common. Those in the know continually battled for their own ends while those in the dark consistently got caught in the crossfire. It was as true of Terran history as it was on her own homeworld. It appeared to be as true here in Dominion space. What never ceased to amaze her was how these things were turned by those responsible for recorded history from destructive tragedies of epic proportions to things of myth and legend. Glorified in the annals of time by a person or persons with only the best of intentions. To enlighten future generations and prevent these tragedies from ever happening again. But, in glorifying them and making these tales more readable to the posterity they succeed only in ensuring that they are revisited time and again.

 

She watched the viewscreen aboard Camelot Station with interest and even a bit of amusement over the fact that she once again stood, caught in the crossfire, between two groups of people, each with their own agenda, while she herself was powerless to do much more than watch. The fact that this station was named for one of Terran history's greatest myths was not lost on her as she watched the Jem Hadar ships face off with both the station and Excalibur between them. If she lived, she would likely look back on the irony of it with a mixture of sadness and laughter. If she didn't she hoped posterity would at least remember to spell her name right.

 

Someday, some beleagered historian would write some record of this battle, glorifying it for posterity's sake without the benefit of first hand accounts and nothing but word of mouth to base their conclusions on and, the cycle would start again.

 

Records of Bajor's war with Cardassia had already begun the transition from fact to fantasy and, was already being based largely on such recordings. Heroic tales of a beaten people rising up against their oppressors and overcoming insurmountable odds in the proccess but, the meat of the story was being ommitted. The horror of it. The death. The needless waste of life. Even the Bajorans themselves, for all their fortitude against these odds, were missing a good deal of the story and, in fact, knew very little about how closely it came to going the other way due largely to the actions of those Bajorans in the know. She wondered how many people would actually take the time to dig for the truth, betting that it would be a considerably small number. She was also certain that no one here from the Admiral on down had the full story behind the current conflict between the Jem Hadar renegades and their Dominion counterparts. No one on the outside of a conflict ever had the full story. Most of the time even those involved only had peripheral knowledge of what was truly going on.

 

Her hands flew over the shield console with a practiced almost subconscious ease, watching Excalibur's proximity carefully. They were getting closer as the renegade vessel continued to fire. Soon they would be encompassed in Camelot's shield grid and the fight would "hit home" so to speak. Several of the others gave her a curious glance and she realized she was smiling. Not at the situation but once again at the irony of it all. The Dominion had, at one point, had their own forced version of Camelot where they were the masters and commanders of all they surveyed. Yet, in the here and now, what it came down to was that fateful day when Mordred and Arthur faced off at Camlann. The Jem Hadar renegades taking the role as the ill begotten child of the once and future kings and the Dominion as the aging and half mad Monarchs facing death at the hands of their own arrogance. History is indeed a very funny thing.