CH4
"Odo?" Kira asked; she couldn't see him clearly because her eyes were still cloudy with sleep. She blinked a few times to clear her vision and looked at him again, he was still their looking at her with sweet worried eyes. She had a bit of a headache so she knew it wasn't a dream for the sensation of pain didn't exist in dreams. He reached out and helped her up into his embrace.
"I love you." He whispered in her ear.
"I love you too. How the hell did you get here?" She asked him.
"In a minuet, first are you alright?"
"I've been worse." She answered.
"It hurt me so much to be away from you. I heard some rumor that a political scandal on Bajor was brewing with you in the middle of it, that you were attained, is it true?"
"Yes. The new head of the Vedek assembly is worse than Winn."
"I didn't think that was possible."
"Well almost worse." Kira answered.
The next thing they heard was Commander Vaughn's voice on the comm system calling yellow alert. Kira hit her com badge, "Kira to Ops, report."
Vaughn's voice answered her "Colonel, it's a rather complex situation, if you're well enough to get up here I suggest you do as quickly as possible."
"On my way."
"Kira is your stomach still bothering you?" Her Doctor asked.
"No why?"
"Well you haven't eaten in at lest 18 hours, I figured you'd be hungry unless you still feel sick."
"I'm fine, I've gone much longer than that without stopping to eat, and I have more important things to worry about."
"You're still recovering from radiation poising, you need to take good care of your self." Her doctor said, but it was no use, she had already walked out.
* * * As Kira walked into Ops she saw her first Officer, Commander Vaughn talking to a Cardassian captain. The commander seemed mildly frustrated, and the Cardassian talked with an air of superiority that Kira found instantly aggravating. "The Cardassian government did not authorize this, but I already told you they're irrelevant. It's only a puppet government anyway."
"Would you gentlemen explain yourselves." Colonel Kira instead.
"I won't answer to a Bajoran or a woman." Was the Cardassian's response.
Kira glanced at the sensor readings to see where he was in relation to Bajoran space. He was directly on the border. "Fine," she answered, "if you enter Bajoran space I will use whatever force is necessary to protect Bajor's territory. And that's not a order, it's a threat." She said and gave the hand signal to cut communications. "Prepare the Defiant; I have a feeling we may need it. Tell me the second they cross the border. Commander what do you know about these people?"
"They want to kill Gul Macet, according to them he disgrace his Cardassian heritage by taking orders from a woman, particularly a Bajoran woman. And that the only way to undo his disgrace to Cardassia is to kill him and anyone he was consorting with."
"But that ridiculous, when I was on Cardassia helping with the resistance... they'd have to kill everyone who helped me throw the Dominion off Cardassia."
"I know Colonel, and I brought that up, they said it was different circumstances."
"So it's only OK if it helps them, and they can rape women of other cultures without any disgrace to their society, but if they take orders from one the penalty is death." Kira said with pure disgust in her voice, fighting the hatred she had of Cardassians when she first came to the station almost eight years ago. She looked at Ro, the other Bajoran woman in Ops; Ro's face was red with anger, which Kira could easily understand; she remembered Ro had given in to that anger and hate. Kira swore to herself that she wouldn't give in to anger, in the name of the Prophets she wouldn't let herself indulge in revenge.
"If it's any comfort to you, I don't believe his actions are approved of by the Cardassian Government."
"I agree. Shar, get me Garak via subspace." The Colonel ordered.
A few minuets later he had been able to get Garak on the main view screen.
"Kira, what a pleasure to see you as always." Garak said, his smile sweet and sincere as possible for a Cardassian (from Kira's point of view).
Kira on the other hand was all business; "There are a few Cardassians ships here, intent on killing Gul Macet for taking orders from me while helping with the evacuation, I was wondering what you knew of this."
"I have a few -- " he said then screen when off, and returned to stars.
Kira turned around and saw Ro at the communications console; she obviously had just cut off the transmission. Kira was ready to punish her for blatantly ignoring her authority, when she realized Ro was on the verge of tears, she was sweating, and her skin was a pale greenish color. "Are you well? Should I get a doctor?" Kira asked instead.
"I'm fine." Ro answered her voice faint.
"Alright, in my office." Kira was going to have Ro wait in the office until she was done talking to Garak, but she didn't feel right leaving her alone in this condition. "Shar tell Garak I have some business to take care of and will be with him in a few moments." Kira said, then took her sister's arm and helped her into the office.
"What's wrong?" Kira asked her voice genuinely sympathetic, something rare for Kira perhaps because she had seen so much suffering in her life the everyday discomforts of her Starfleet comrades never had elicited her sympathy. This was different for something much deeper was going on here. Ro answered her, still not quite in control of herself, "He, he... I was just a child. How could some one do that to a..." Kira knew Garak had worked for the Obsidian Order, and Ro's father had been tortured to death by the Obsidian Order did the two go together? "Ro, did he..." "Nerys, I don't know where to begin. You heard Starfleet version of how my father was killed." She was starting to pull herself together enough to finish a sentence. According to Ro's Starfleet file she'd had psychological difficulties because she was force to watch the Cardassians torture her father to death when she was eight years old. "It's not exactly true. I wasn't forced to watch, I was used as a tool to help them." "What do you mean?" Kira asked "They wanted my father to give them information about the resistance, and Garak used me to help them get it. He tortured both of us for information. He drugged my father, I didn't have the information they wanted, I was just a tool, it was no use to do that to me, I wish they had, maybe then I wouldn't remember it as clearly. He used sand paper to rub the skin off my forehead and didn't stop until after I blead so much I passed out. After the first few hours I played right into their hands by crying, screaming, begging, fainting, my body just wasn't made to handle that. At one point I even asked my father to tell them what they wanted to know, it was the only way they let me speak to him, he told me that it would do no good, they'd kill us anyway. He picked me up in his arms and told me everything would be alright, even though he was crying to the whole time. It wasn't until he raped me that my father started talking." Lauren was still crying; although the physical wounds had healed the emotional ones hadn't. "You were only a child." Kira said, absolutely sickened by the story Ro told, and she had a feeling that was the abridged version including just enough details make Kira understand how badly she had been hurt. Tears ran down Ro's face, she didn't want to remember. Why was she telling Kira any of this? She hadn't told anyone since the woman who saved her life right afterwards, she had said she was forced to watch nothing more; she was too ashamed. She still had nightmares about it twenty-five years later, the pain had barley eased a bit since then; she had just learned to control it and not let it control her. None of her Starfleet counselors knew the whole truth, but for some reason she trusted Kira, and Kira needed to know before she trusted Garak. Kira was Bajoran, she could understand better than Starfleet counselors ever would. I shouldn't have come back here she thought, trying desperately to stop herself from crying. "Come here." Kira whispered. Ro did as she said and Kira put her arms around Ro Lauren who Kira let cry on her shoulder. "It went on for several days after that," Ro Lauren continued, "when they finally let me go after my father was dead I had a gun pointed at my head. I was so sick, I hadn't eaten or gotten more than a few hours of sleep in over a week, and I hated myself for participating in my father's murder." Ro paused trying hard not to gag; recalling this story made her physically ill. Kira understood completely, she felt ill just hearing the story. "A woman who's name I don't know took the gun I had pointed at my head and I fell into her arms crying like a baby. She carried me to the place she lived, and cared for me like the child I was. I was hysterical for days. She fed me, gave me a chance to rest and treated my physical injuries; I never would have survived if it wasn't for her. She was the last person I told the whole truth about what happened to, I was trying to talk her into letting me kill myself. She listened with a calm sympathetic compassion, she wasn't disgusted but she pitied me and she didn't judge; that alone helped ease the pain. I didn't talk her into letting me commit suicide, she talked me out of wanting to do it, and I owe her my life for that." They both stopped talking for a moment. "Now you know; I'm a collaborator. I killed my father." "What makes you say that? Garak killed your father, and severely injured you physically and psychologically in the process. You were a child tortured so someone else would break and give them information, yet you call your self a collaborator. What the hell do you expect of your self? I don't know any adults who can stand up to that type of pressure, and yet you think not being able to do it when you're eight years old makes you a collaborator. I have news for you, you're not a collaborator, you're a mortal." "Are you sure that's not just how you see it?" "I think they want you to think of your self as a collaborator, it's just how they're manipulating you. They know how much that guilt can hurt you and they're using it. I think you need treatment for long-term post-traumatic stress." "For the third time." "Have you ever told any of your counselors the whole truth?" "No. Trio suspected something though." "Maybe they could help you if you told them more." "I don't know." "It won't be easy. It will take courage, and from my understanding that's one thing you have never lacked." "Kira, I'm leaving here." "Lauren stop running. It's not what you think it is." "I hate this place. I hate everything about it. I hate being an outsider because I don't worship as you do. I hate the memories, and I hate the half-ass politics and the cowards who run half of it. I hate what it does to me." "By leaving and not helping us rebuild into a better world you are no better than the cowards you speak of." "I don't care. I can't do this. I never what to think about it again, and I never want to see that face. I'm moving to earth." "Shaker told me that we're cousins. Your mother is my mother's sister. Do you know of Ziyal?" "Dukat's daughter?" Kira nodded. "We thought her mother was Tora Naprem, but after she died I had Doctor Basher run a genetic test, it turned out it was Kira Meru, my mother." "He forced her?" "She was his comfort woman. She let him do it so we could have the food and medicine we needed to survive. Which one of us is a collaborator?" "Kira, why would you imply that about your self everyone knows you're not a..." Ro said and realized Kira was right, neither of them were collaborators. Ro Lauren felt dizzy having that weight lifted from her shoulders, and she surprised herself by laughing. She stepped out of Kira's embrace and said. "I'm so glad I finally got an objective view on my experience. I've been on and off medication for years, but it wasn't until today that I've felt a little less sick inside." "Lauren you are not nearly as alone here as you think you are." "Thank you Nerys." "I'd like you to talk to Ezri, professionally. You've taken a first step here today, and I'll be happy to do whatever I can, but I'm not a trained counselor, and you need more help than I can give you." "I understand." "Ro, I think you have the afternoon off." "You think?" Ro asked. "You have command experience?" "Yes, in the Maquis I commanded a ship for years. Why?" "After that comment about Bajoran women, if that Cardassian ship crosses the border I intend to have a Bajoran woman commanding the ship that kicks their ass. I'd do it myself bu..." Before Kira could finish the sentence Ro answered, "Gladly. I'm in the mood to kick Cardie ass." "But don't go to far." Kira warned. "Don't worry I know the Federation rules." Ro said. "Good." Kira answered, "Dismissed." Ro walk out the door leaving Kira alone in the office. But I still have to talk to Garak, Kira thought, maybe I should just have Commander Vaughan do it. Sisko wouldn't have done that to you, when you had Vaughn's job. She thought to herself. It's your job, no matter how much you don't want it right now. She took a deep breath, and tapped her com badge "Kira to Shar, put me through to Garak in my office." "Yes, Colonel."
A few moments later Garak's face appeared on the view screen. "Hello Nerys. I'd though you never call back. What happened?" "My new security chief Ro Lauren wasn't exactly pleased to see you again, she cut the transmission." "She lived?!?! I don't blame her for cutting the transmission, but it took you that long to get it back?" "I don't blame her either. We had to talk." "She told you what happened?" "Yes." "I don't know what to say. I'm sorry doesn't begin to cover it. Maybe you should have joined the Maquis, they where right, all Cardassians are evil." "Just shut-up. I just found out that a friend or x-friend of mine tortured and nearly killed my cousin. The last thing I need is you sucking up." "She's your cousin?" Kira nodded. "Holy hell." Garak muttered. "Kira are you alright? You look a little pale." "I had an accident evacuating Eroupa Nova, not that it's your concern. We have business to discuss. What were you about to say when the transmission was cut?" "I was saying that they are dissidents who think Cardassia has disgraced its self by losing its empire. So they go around finding other off-world collaborators and attacking them. They hate our government, but keep their distance. They're cowards. And no, you won't create a huge diplomatic dispute by blowing them to hell." "Thank you for the background information. I have to go." "Nerys, I think we need to talk." "From now on call me Colonial Kira. I don't want to have any contact with you regarding anything beyond our necessary professional interactions. Good bye." "Now you know why I never talked about my past. I knew when you heard about it you'd be too appalled to look at my face." Garak said. "You were right. I have to go." "It wasn't until after I started helping here that I realized why you had hated me and my people so much. In a way you're lucky, Nery... Kira, you and your people have been in the right as long as you can remember. You don't know what it's like to be deathly and horribly wrong, for your culture to make a mistake so grave it will take generations to undo. Generations of being estranged from the healthy cultures because of atrocities committed by your self and your people. You have every reason to hate us, and we have every reason to hate and pity ourselves. You don't know what it's like trying to explain to a child who wasn't part of any of this the looks on most people's faces when they see us." Poison "What are you asking me for? Forgiveness? How can forgive all the friends of mine you killed and what you did Ro Lauren? You asking for compassion?" She said giggling. "I have some compassion for the civilians on Cardassia who were massacred by the Dominion, but none for a Cardie who feels guilty because of what they did to Bajor." "I'm not asking for any of that. I'm asking for mercy and to be judged as an individual, not as a race." "That wouldn't help you much thought would it? Based on the story Ro told me, you committed a good deal of atrocities during the occupation." "Maybe I have, and I'd do anything to make that up to you and your people. I only wish time it's self was as flexible as good and bad." "Flexible?" "No organization can be completely good or evil, I heard about and interesting scandal within the federation. They found a planet that somehow gave it's inhabits everlasting youth. They would have forcibly removed the naiveties of the planet in order to use it for there own proposes had it not been for Captain Picard and his crew, who started a small resistance movement to stop them. And I have heard stories of the Borg's cooperation with decent people. In the multiple universe you are evil. My point is you must judge individuals, not by their capacity for good or evil, but for what they have done and sometimes their ability to hurt others, not the crimes of their ancestry or their race." "Garak, I'm not talking about the crimes of your race. I talking about what you did to my cousin." "Colonel, that is something I deeply regret. In fact the first few years I was on the station when I started seeing non-Cardassians as people, I simply couldn't deal with the guilt that went along with my past. Don't think that I'm trying to say I have it worse than you, you who are still putting your world back together after the pure brutality of the occupation. I don't know..." "'Your fates are intertwined, what you do to each other you do to your selves.'" "Kira?" Garak asked, from her tone of voice he could tell they were not her words, at least not hers alone. "I had vision, the prophets told me that." "It is true wisdom. If only Cardassia had known that before we... Look at us, could it possibly have more true?" "I am willing to do what I can to help Cardassia, but if I ever see you using our good will as a way to take advantage of us, I promise I will make you sorry." "I understand." "Garak I have a lot of business to attend to, I have to go." "I understand." He said and cut the link.
"What's wrong?" Kira asked her voice genuinely sympathetic, something rare for Kira perhaps because she had seen so much suffering in her life the everyday discomforts of her Starfleet comrades never had elicited her sympathy. This was different for something much deeper was going on here. Ro answered her, still not quite in control of herself, "He, he... I was just a child. How could some one do that to a..." Kira knew Garak had worked for the Obsidian Order, and Ro's father had been tortured to death by the Obsidian Order did the two go together? "Ro, did he..." "Nerys, I don't know where to begin. You heard Starfleet version of how my father was killed." She was starting to pull herself together enough to finish a sentence. According to Ro's Starfleet file she'd had psychological difficulties because she was force to watch the Cardassians torture her father to death when she was eight years old. "It's not exactly true. I wasn't forced to watch, I was used as a tool to help them." "What do you mean?" Kira asked "They wanted my father to give them information about the resistance, and Garak used me to help them get it. He tortured both of us for information. He drugged my father, I didn't have the information they wanted, I was just a tool, it was no use to do that to me, I wish they had, maybe then I wouldn't remember it as clearly. He used sand paper to rub the skin off my forehead and didn't stop until after I blead so much I passed out. After the first few hours I played right into their hands by crying, screaming, begging, fainting, my body just wasn't made to handle that. At one point I even asked my father to tell them what they wanted to know, it was the only way they let me speak to him, he told me that it would do no good, they'd kill us anyway. He picked me up in his arms and told me everything would be alright, even though he was crying to the whole time. It wasn't until he raped me that my father started talking." Lauren was still crying; although the physical wounds had healed the emotional ones hadn't. "You were only a child." Kira said, absolutely sickened by the story Ro told, and she had a feeling that was the abridged version including just enough details make Kira understand how badly she had been hurt. Tears ran down Ro's face, she didn't want to remember. Why was she telling Kira any of this? She hadn't told anyone since the woman who saved her life right afterwards, she had said she was forced to watch nothing more; she was too ashamed. She still had nightmares about it twenty-five years later, the pain had barley eased a bit since then; she had just learned to control it and not let it control her. None of her Starfleet counselors knew the whole truth, but for some reason she trusted Kira, and Kira needed to know before she trusted Garak. Kira was Bajoran, she could understand better than Starfleet counselors ever would. I shouldn't have come back here she thought, trying desperately to stop herself from crying. "Come here." Kira whispered. Ro did as she said and Kira put her arms around Ro Lauren who Kira let cry on her shoulder. "It went on for several days after that," Ro Lauren continued, "when they finally let me go after my father was dead I had a gun pointed at my head. I was so sick, I hadn't eaten or gotten more than a few hours of sleep in over a week, and I hated myself for participating in my father's murder." Ro paused trying hard not to gag; recalling this story made her physically ill. Kira understood completely, she felt ill just hearing the story. "A woman who's name I don't know took the gun I had pointed at my head and I fell into her arms crying like a baby. She carried me to the place she lived, and cared for me like the child I was. I was hysterical for days. She fed me, gave me a chance to rest and treated my physical injuries; I never would have survived if it wasn't for her. She was the last person I told the whole truth about what happened to, I was trying to talk her into letting me kill myself. She listened with a calm sympathetic compassion, she wasn't disgusted but she pitied me and she didn't judge; that alone helped ease the pain. I didn't talk her into letting me commit suicide, she talked me out of wanting to do it, and I owe her my life for that." They both stopped talking for a moment. "Now you know; I'm a collaborator. I killed my father." "What makes you say that? Garak killed your father, and severely injured you physically and psychologically in the process. You were a child tortured so someone else would break and give them information, yet you call your self a collaborator. What the hell do you expect of your self? I don't know any adults who can stand up to that type of pressure, and yet you think not being able to do it when you're eight years old makes you a collaborator. I have news for you, you're not a collaborator, you're a mortal." "Are you sure that's not just how you see it?" "I think they want you to think of your self as a collaborator, it's just how they're manipulating you. They know how much that guilt can hurt you and they're using it. I think you need treatment for long-term post-traumatic stress." "For the third time." "Have you ever told any of your counselors the whole truth?" "No. Trio suspected something though." "Maybe they could help you if you told them more." "I don't know." "It won't be easy. It will take courage, and from my understanding that's one thing you have never lacked." "Kira, I'm leaving here." "Lauren stop running. It's not what you think it is." "I hate this place. I hate everything about it. I hate being an outsider because I don't worship as you do. I hate the memories, and I hate the half-ass politics and the cowards who run half of it. I hate what it does to me." "By leaving and not helping us rebuild into a better world you are no better than the cowards you speak of." "I don't care. I can't do this. I never what to think about it again, and I never want to see that face. I'm moving to earth." "Shaker told me that we're cousins. Your mother is my mother's sister. Do you know of Ziyal?" "Dukat's daughter?" Kira nodded. "We thought her mother was Tora Naprem, but after she died I had Doctor Basher run a genetic test, it turned out it was Kira Meru, my mother." "He forced her?" "She was his comfort woman. She let him do it so we could have the food and medicine we needed to survive. Which one of us is a collaborator?" "Kira, why would you imply that about your self everyone knows you're not a..." Ro said and realized Kira was right, neither of them were collaborators. Ro Lauren felt dizzy having that weight lifted from her shoulders, and she surprised herself by laughing. She stepped out of Kira's embrace and said. "I'm so glad I finally got an objective view on my experience. I've been on and off medication for years, but it wasn't until today that I've felt a little less sick inside." "Lauren you are not nearly as alone here as you think you are." "Thank you Nerys." "I'd like you to talk to Ezri, professionally. You've taken a first step here today, and I'll be happy to do whatever I can, but I'm not a trained counselor, and you need more help than I can give you." "I understand." "Ro, I think you have the afternoon off." "You think?" Ro asked. "You have command experience?" "Yes, in the Maquis I commanded a ship for years. Why?" "After that comment about Bajoran women, if that Cardassian ship crosses the border I intend to have a Bajoran woman commanding the ship that kicks their ass. I'd do it myself bu..." Before Kira could finish the sentence Ro answered, "Gladly. I'm in the mood to kick Cardie ass." "But don't go to far." Kira warned. "Don't worry I know the Federation rules." Ro said. "Good." Kira answered, "Dismissed." Ro walk out the door leaving Kira alone in the office. But I still have to talk to Garak, Kira thought, maybe I should just have Commander Vaughan do it. Sisko wouldn't have done that to you, when you had Vaughn's job. She thought to herself. It's your job, no matter how much you don't want it right now. She took a deep breath, and tapped her com badge "Kira to Shar, put me through to Garak in my office." "Yes, Colonel."
A few moments later Garak's face appeared on the view screen. "Hello Nerys. I'd though you never call back. What happened?" "My new security chief Ro Lauren wasn't exactly pleased to see you again, she cut the transmission." "She lived?!?! I don't blame her for cutting the transmission, but it took you that long to get it back?" "I don't blame her either. We had to talk." "She told you what happened?" "Yes." "I don't know what to say. I'm sorry doesn't begin to cover it. Maybe you should have joined the Maquis, they where right, all Cardassians are evil." "Just shut-up. I just found out that a friend or x-friend of mine tortured and nearly killed my cousin. The last thing I need is you sucking up." "She's your cousin?" Kira nodded. "Holy hell." Garak muttered. "Kira are you alright? You look a little pale." "I had an accident evacuating Eroupa Nova, not that it's your concern. We have business to discuss. What were you about to say when the transmission was cut?" "I was saying that they are dissidents who think Cardassia has disgraced its self by losing its empire. So they go around finding other off-world collaborators and attacking them. They hate our government, but keep their distance. They're cowards. And no, you won't create a huge diplomatic dispute by blowing them to hell." "Thank you for the background information. I have to go." "Nerys, I think we need to talk." "From now on call me Colonial Kira. I don't want to have any contact with you regarding anything beyond our necessary professional interactions. Good bye." "Now you know why I never talked about my past. I knew when you heard about it you'd be too appalled to look at my face." Garak said. "You were right. I have to go." "It wasn't until after I started helping here that I realized why you had hated me and my people so much. In a way you're lucky, Nery... Kira, you and your people have been in the right as long as you can remember. You don't know what it's like to be deathly and horribly wrong, for your culture to make a mistake so grave it will take generations to undo. Generations of being estranged from the healthy cultures because of atrocities committed by your self and your people. You have every reason to hate us, and we have every reason to hate and pity ourselves. You don't know what it's like trying to explain to a child who wasn't part of any of this the looks on most people's faces when they see us." Poison "What are you asking me for? Forgiveness? How can forgive all the friends of mine you killed and what you did Ro Lauren? You asking for compassion?" She said giggling. "I have some compassion for the civilians on Cardassia who were massacred by the Dominion, but none for a Cardie who feels guilty because of what they did to Bajor." "I'm not asking for any of that. I'm asking for mercy and to be judged as an individual, not as a race." "That wouldn't help you much thought would it? Based on the story Ro told me, you committed a good deal of atrocities during the occupation." "Maybe I have, and I'd do anything to make that up to you and your people. I only wish time it's self was as flexible as good and bad." "Flexible?" "No organization can be completely good or evil, I heard about and interesting scandal within the federation. They found a planet that somehow gave it's inhabits everlasting youth. They would have forcibly removed the naiveties of the planet in order to use it for there own proposes had it not been for Captain Picard and his crew, who started a small resistance movement to stop them. And I have heard stories of the Borg's cooperation with decent people. In the multiple universe you are evil. My point is you must judge individuals, not by their capacity for good or evil, but for what they have done and sometimes their ability to hurt others, not the crimes of their ancestry or their race." "Garak, I'm not talking about the crimes of your race. I talking about what you did to my cousin." "Colonel, that is something I deeply regret. In fact the first few years I was on the station when I started seeing non-Cardassians as people, I simply couldn't deal with the guilt that went along with my past. Don't think that I'm trying to say I have it worse than you, you who are still putting your world back together after the pure brutality of the occupation. I don't know..." "'Your fates are intertwined, what you do to each other you do to your selves.'" "Kira?" Garak asked, from her tone of voice he could tell they were not her words, at least not hers alone. "I had vision, the prophets told me that." "It is true wisdom. If only Cardassia had known that before we... Look at us, could it possibly have more true?" "I am willing to do what I can to help Cardassia, but if I ever see you using our good will as a way to take advantage of us, I promise I will make you sorry." "I understand." "Garak I have a lot of business to attend to, I have to go." "I understand." He said and cut the link.