2367: Terok Nor
RESISTANCE
Damar looked up, his eyes following Keela as she came over toward him. He put away his Kanar and opened his arms to envelop her small frame as she sat beside him. Keela huddled up against him and sighed happily.
"What're you reading?" Keela enquired, gesturing to the PADD he was holding firmly.
Damar shrugged his shoulders, as best he could. "Dukat's given me some files on the location of a new resistance base we've found."
Keela frowned, her neatly plucked eyebrows drawing together. "A resistance base?" she repeated, her aquamarine eyes looking into his.
He nodded slowly and turned the PADD off, setting it aside.
"Are you going to bomb the base?" she asked, hoping she had known him long enough to understand he wouldn't do such a thing.
Damar stiffened and cleared his throat. "That is not under my control," he answers tightly.
Keela sighed. "How do you mean?"
A muscle in Damar's jaw twitched. "I am only a Glinn," he replied hotly. "I have no direct influence over what occurs, you know that."
Keela harrumphed and nodded uncertainly. "I... Those people - the resistance fighters. They'll die."
Damar stood up abruptly and looked around the room. "I have told you, Keela," he said angrily. "This is not my doing."
She looked up at him, watching him coldly. "What if there are children, Corat? Mothers?"
Damar brought his hands up to massage his temples and let out a low sigh. "It has nothing to do with me!"
Keela shook her head and got to her feet. "It has everything to do with you, Corat," she reminded him.
Damar closed his eyes and his jaw tightened. "Gul Dukat has control. He is the head of the Occupation," he explained. "I am a soldier."
Unconvinced and unrelenting, Keela shook her head. "You have control, Damar! You can tell Dukat to leave the resistance fighters be."
He took her forcefully by the shoulders. "That puts the entire Occupation in jeopardy!"
Keela kept her eyes level with his. "What if it were our child in that base?" she asked him, challenging him to say otherwise.
"It isn't," he growled.
She swallowed, keeping her gaze fixed. "What if it were?" she maintained.
"I don't have to listen to this," he snapped, letting go of her abruptly.
Keela stared at him, open-mouthed. "Other comfort women," she began slowly. "They have their family treated better than others, don't they?"
Damar picked up the bottle of Kanar and brought it to his lips. He nodded in response to her question.
"Just because I'm not Bajoran," Keela continued. "It doesn't mean I won't get the same treatment." She felt her stomach churn at the half-realisation that she was taking advantage of innocent Bajorans.
"What do you want me to do?" he barked.
"Tell Dukat not to infiltrate the camp," she told him firmly.
"I cannot do that," he replied blandly.
She rolled her eyes. "Why not?"
"He won't listen. There is no point," he answered hotly. "What will saving a handful of resistance fighters mean in the long run?"
Keela paused to consider that, and held her unnoticeable bump protectively.
"Look," Damar said, his tone softening, as he caught sight of her hurt and defeated expression. "Dukat has already abolished child labour, and improved working conditions for the Bajoran workers. There is little more he can do, whilst still ensuring the Occupation stays strong."
Keela sighed and tucked a stray tendril of hair behind her ear. "Ensure the Bajoran orphans are better looked after," she suggested. "Give more care to the elderly." She approached Damar and took his coarse hand, placing it to her chest, where her heart was. "Talk to Dukat. He'll listen, I know he will. Please, Corat."
He reluctantly looked into her eyes. "I-"
She cut him off. "No, Corat, listen. Please." She placed a hand to his cheek. "Do it for me."
