1. The photograph
"Look, Leliyani, I do not know a way out of this desert but-"
"What, are you afraid to admit defeat? Just say it already! Both of us are going to end up starving to death in this part of Cardassia!" The fourteen year old Leliyani retorted.
"We do not know that!" Her brother countered.
Before she knew it, tears were streaming from her eyes. "Are you so blind as to not get the message? Our brother died!" Her remaining sibling immediately glanced away in controlled grief. "I am aware of the trouble we are going through, but it does not stop us from finding a way out of here!"
Leliyani shook her head, angrily brushing the tears that were riding her cheeks. "We cannot get out, do you not understand? Spending the whole time traveling and wandering will only cause us to die quicker!"
"So you are telling me that you would rather stand here and rot away than making your best effort to survive?" Her brother shouted, "You disappoint me, Leliyani."
"So do you," She shot back.
His eyes flashed. She continued, "Believe me, I wish we could survive. After all, we are the only ones in this family left!" Her brother sighed. "I am not going to give up this easily! We are going to live, and I will make sure of that."
Leliyani sobbed harder than she had ever done before. She knew that her brother was trying to keep his emotions in check. "We should have never arrived in this desert in the first place!" He bellowed. Leliyani's mind boiled in exasperation. "Oh what about that," She sneered, "How did we even get here? Well, there can only be one answer to that." Anticipation pounding in her head, she managed to utter the five-word sentence: "Your mentor set us up!"
Her sibling glared at her. "You do not dare bring him into this discussion!"
"Oh, I am," She snapped, "You are completely aware that he is the whole reason why we are stranded in the middle of nowhere! I saw the mischief in his eyes-"
Her brother abruptly cut her off. "You only saw what you wanted to see!"
She rolled her eyes at his statement. "Why do you always defend him? Come clean for once he is not to be trusted-"
"Since when did you feel that way about him?" He asked, eyeing her with suspicion. Leliyani glowered at him. "Believe me… It has been a long time."
Before he could reply to her assertion, she walked a reasonable distance from him and simply curled into a ball, her eyes flooded with tears. Leliyani could hardly accept the truth: She and her sibling were trapped in an environment that was not designed to sustain life. They had just ended one of their worst arguments they had ever engaged in. The worst part was… her other brother has already perished. The little boy was so young—so full of life! Why did he have to die? Overwhelmed by the flaming sorrow inside her heart, Leliyani had come to the realization that her elder sibling was all that she had left. If she was going to lose him too, she might as well take her last breath right now.
Leliyani whimpered and dug her face into the sand. As she continued to weep and lay in the middle of the clearing, she heard her brother shuffle into the sand as well, and before long he was snoring. Leliyani rolled her eyes and irritably brushed the tears off of her face. Her instincts told her not to sleep, for that she would die soon, just like her younger brother. She may as well spend the remainder of her time gathering her thoughts rather than wasting it while snoring.
Leliyani shifted her position; staring up at the twinkling stars. It would probably be the last night that she would ever glance up at them. She then looked to her left and gazed at the desert that stretched beyond the distance. 'I cannot believe that this is the end,' she thought.
Trying not to reflect on her assigned fate, she shoved the words to the back of her mind.
She then remembered what she had said to her brother: 'Your mentor set us up.' Leliyani instinctively clenched her fists in pure anger. She knew inside her heart that the man was not trustworthy. After the unfortunate experience of enduring her parents' death two years ago, her elder brother's mentor took the children into his custody. At first he seemed fairly decent, but when her little brother came to her with bruises, her opinion of him changed. When her elder sibling did not deem the story right, the conflict only became worse. He actually believed that their brother was making false accusations, which was what infuriated Leliyani the most, considering that he held his mentor in high regard. Eventually, she had to accept her brother's admiration for their guardian; she knew that if she had tried to make him think otherwise, she would fail.
Leliyani's mind suddenly flew back to when they first found themselves lost. It has been four days since the mentor had initiated the time to escort them back to Cardassia Prime. They had boarded a shuttle when they were 'coincidentally' beamed down into the middle of nowhere. It was also 'coincidental' that their guardian was not with them.
Her elder sibling had managed to convince himself that there had been some kind of malfunction, but Leliyani was not that deluded to believe such a ridiculous explanation. Her head pounded. Due to lack of food and water, her younger brother had died only a day ago. How is it that her and her brother was still alive?
She had lost track of time when an abrupt noise sounded not too far away. Her instant thought was that it was her last relative moving in his sleep, but for some odd reason that rationalization did not flow with her. Before she had the chance to act, a hand was placed on her mouth.
Leliyani shrieked and looked up to see a group of at least four Cardassian men and one woman staring down at her.
One of the men smiled deviously. "Great, we have a meal," He said.
Shaking in horror, Leliyani slapped the man's hand away and screamed. Unexpectedly, her brother sat up and spotted the intruders. "What are you doing here?" He spat.
One of the men stepped forward. "We mean no harm to you," He stated, "Everything will go smoothly if you simply let us have her."
"For what purpose," Her brother challenged, clenching his fists.
The man paused. "You do know that we are in the middle of a lifeless desert and that we require water and food to survive…" He trailed off.
Her sibling's eyes flashed. "No, we are Cardassians, just as you are-"
The stranger's laughter interrupted his protest. "We are aware of that," He replied, "Unfortunately for you; we are willing to do anything to live." Her heart rate increasing, Leliyani made a frantic dash toward her sibling; only to be snatched by another man standing nearby.
"Just do what we ask and you will not receive any injury," He addressed her brother.
"I won't allow it!" He shouted.
At once, he hurried towards the large man and knocked Leliyani out of his arms. He kicked him to the ground and stood over him. "Do not ever touch my sister again!"
Before he could make any further movements, the other three men rushed forward and shoved him into the sand; repeatedly punching and kicking him. Leliyani heaved herself up and stared in overwhelming horror as she watched. "No," She cried, "Don't hurt him, please!" Regardless of what she said, they persisted. By the time the attackers were finished, Leliyani raced to the scene and kneeled beside her brother. "No…" She murmured, staring at his unconscious body with mortified eyes.
"We apologize for the intrusion, but you know why we came…"
Leliyani glanced up at the woman; uncontrollable fear beginning to build inside her chest. More swiftly than she could think, the men darted in her direction. She immediately jumped up and sprinted in the opposite route, but was soon kicked to the ground and stuffed in a bag.
Out of nowhere, I jolted back into consciousness, and the first thing that came to my mind was my sister. Without giving it a single thought, I sprang up from where I was laying and began an immediate search for her.
"Leliyani!" There was no answer.
I called once more. There was still no reply. Getting worried, I practically patrolled the area back and forth. I continued shouting out her name, hoping that a faint response would be the result. Unfortunately, my hope of a miracle did not occur. My worst fears confirmed I sat down in the sand, controlling my anguish as best as I could. It felt like an important piece of my heart was suddenly ripped out of me. Evidently, my sister was kidnapped by those fowl, uncivilized cannibals and most likely eaten.
Anger was building in my chest like it had never done before. All I wanted to do at the moment was to go find those inconsiderate fiends and kick their heads in. Despite my impulse to go hunt them down, I stayed where I was, looking intently into the distance. Why did this have to happen? Why could it not have been me that was eaten? It looked like I was going to have another sleepless night, the loss of my whole family ripping a huge scar on me.
26 years later…
She awoke to the sound of unfamiliar voices. Suspiciously opening her eyes, she was immediately stunned by seeing four people standing in front of her; some of them were different species. One of them was a Bajoran woman with brown hair that fell down to her chin. Two others were human men and another was a male Cardassian.
Growing paranoid, she attempted to lift herself up but was instantly pushed back down by one of the humans. "Easy now," The man said, "You do not want to move too quickly."
Trying to ignore the pain throbbing in her back, she glared at the strangers in front of her and asked, "Who are you?"
The Cardassian spoke first. "You may call me Garak. This is chief engineer Miles O'Brien"- he pointed to one of the human men- "And this is Colonel Kira."
She nodded and turned to the human man who was examining her. "What about you?"
"I am Julian Bashir, the chief medical officer," The man replied.
She rolled her eyes. "Figures," She muttered.
"Would you mind telling us what your name is?" Garak inquired.
She tried hard to think, but her mind was blank. "I-I do not remember," She responded, "I… I suppose I have forgotten."
"What a disappointment," Garak said sarcastically.
Dr. Bashir glanced at her. "Do you remember anything at all?" He asked.
She thought for a moment. In spite of her effort, she could get no memory to make an appearance. "N-No."
"Severe case of amnesia, probably due to the head injuries," Bashir concluded, "It appears that she has does not remember anything about her life. I do not know if she will recover from it, but it might take me a while to find out."
She was hopelessly confused. "Where am I exactly?"
"You are aboard Deep Space Nine," Chief O'Brien answered.
"Apparently, you were located inside a Cardassian shuttlecraft that had crossed the border," Kira explained, "We noticed that it was not too far away when we checked the sensor relays. Your vital signs were weakening, so we beamed you up here, and-"
Kira was cut off when Garak suddenly intervened. "You were unconscious."
Without warning, she caught some sort of a recollection:
She was addressing the computer when, unpredictably, a familiar looking man beamed aboard. She rose from her seat to turn and face him.
"Ah, Leliyani, it has been such a long time." He gave a mischievous grin.
Fear swelled in her heart. "No… It can't be!"
Everything grew dark and she was pulled back into the present. "Leliyani!" She gasped, catching her breath. Everyone stared at her in confusion. "My name…" Leliyani uttered, a little puzzled herself. "It surprises me that you have picked up a memory that quickly," Dr. Bashir stated. After close giving her close inspection, he finally said, "Well, you back have a couple of bruises as well as your head, but other than that I can detect no serious injuries. You'll have to stay in the infirmary for five more hours so I can run some tests."
By the time Dr. Bashir was finished, she was free to leave. It was confusing to her; suddenly waking up on a foreign space station and not having the ability to recall almost anything. When she set foot out of the infirmary, she coincidentally crossed Colonel Kira's path. "Oh, hello," The Colonel said. Leliyani slightly waved, glancing around, wondering which way she should go.
"Lost?" Kira guessed.
Leliyani nodded in response.
"Why not go to Quark's? I could introduce you to a few friends, and we could show you around the station," she suggested.
Leliyani hesitated. "Well, alright," She agreed as she followed the Bajoran woman. "I am not a waste of your time, am I?"
"Not at all," The colonel replied, "I have just gotten off duty not too long ago."
As soon as they entered the bar, they spotted a table of people that was gesturing for them to sit. Following Kira, she sat at the table and stared at the strangers sitting across from her. One of them was a changeling in the form of a humanoid; the other was a young trill with remarkably short brown hair.
"Greetings," The shape-shifter said as he held out his hand. "I'm Odo. You must be Leliyani."
She nodded and reluctantly shook his hand. She did not feel comfortable, considering she was sitting among other species.
"Hi, I'm Ezri," Addressed the trill.
Leliyani nodded once again in acknowledgement. "It is nice to meet you," She lied. She felt exceedingly self-conscious about what she said around them. Everything was happening too fast.
"So, Nerys, what happened earlier on the Promenade? I've heard that you-"
Leliyani looked away and blocked Ezri's voice from her mind. She then noticed that a proud-looking ferengi was strolling up to them…or her.
"Would you like anything to drink?" He asked.
Leliyani shook her head. "No… but thank you," She answered.
"Are you sure?"
"I am," She replied sternly.
"Alright."
Without hesitation, he left her alone and walked away. Suddenly, he turned around. "Oh, and by the way, I found this photograph. Someone must have dropped it because it is not mine."
He then tottered up to her and handed her a picture. She took it and examined it. The photograph depicted a Cardassian teenage girl that strongly resembled her. Sitting right next to her was a teenage boy, who looked about a year or two elder than her. Peeking out from behind them was a young child; a male. She turned the picture over to see a brief note:
To my apprentice and his siblings…
As soon as she read that, a remembrance ambled into her mind:
"What do you think?" She asked her elder brother.
Her sibling glanced at her. "You're crazy," He replied bluntly.
She play hit him on the arm. "Whatever, it's not like you are a little crazy yourself!"
Her little brother gave her an abrupt poke on her back. "Leliyani, I'm scared!"
She placed her arm around his shoulder. "Why is that?"
Tears were forming in his eyes. "Will he hurt me? Will he get mad at me if I cry?"
Her elder brother rolled his eyes. "Don't worry; he won't lay a finger on you… unless you are too depressed like you are now." He chuckled.
Leliyani gave him an intense glare. "That was uncalled for!"
Without taking another glance at her sibling, Leliyani returned her attention to the little one and said, "There is no need to be afraid." It was not too long ago when her elder brother's mentor had volunteered to take them into his care after they were orphaned. Everything had been slightly insane recently; her younger brother acted like he was going to have a heart attack when he heard the news. He was in a constant state of panic, which was why she had to watch him more carefully than ever.
Suddenly, a Cardassian man strode proudly up to them. Almost as if he was a dangerous monster, her little brother hid fearfully behind Leliyani. "Greetings," He said, "I am looking forward to many years of living together."
Her younger brother screamed.
Their guardian stared at them with gentle eyes. "What is the matter with him?"
"He has been acting like this recently. We have to watch him closely; it's a full time job," Her elder brother replied with an irritable edge in his voice.
Leliyani glared at her brother. "Just like it is to get you to shut up!"
"Leliyani!"
The sound of Kira's voice immediately shoved Leliyani back into the present. "This happens to belong to me, thank you," She addressed the ferengi, who nodded and walked to another table. Odo and Ezri gazed at her with curious eyes. "Is that your family?" Ezri inquired.
"I suppose so," Leliyani acknowledged, not looking up from the picture.