Author's Note
This chapter will bring the story to about a quarter of a million words. Which is more than enough to justify me working on something else for a while. However, I will get back to this story before too long so I can handle the Collectors while life on DS9 is somewhat peaceful.
Anyway this needs beta reading and editing. Joe Lawyer I choose you!
Joe Lawyer's Co-Author's Note
Thanks buddy! I'll do my best.
So this chapter will wrap up the Circle arc, which was pretty damn hard considering all the changes we've made to canon DS9 in this story so far. The FT is still out of commission for the time being, but that's fine, since it really wasn't needed to resolve the current issues.
You can look forward to a shakedown cruise to Earth to begin resolving the FT's slipstream drive issues soon. That'll be fun! Will we see Gothic hook up with 7 of 9 again and this time make a real holo sex tape with her? Will the folks on Earth be shocked at Gothic's new ship entering Earth's orbit? Will Gothic go on another Section 31 mission? Stay tuned!
As always, please leave a review, good or bad. It keeps us motivated to write this story. I read every single one of them and if they're signed, respond to them.
Augment Gothic
Part 29.
Gothic's Island Fortress. Bajor.
So it had begun, the Bajoran civil war, or as much of a civil war as you could have without the actual military getting involved.
In the show, The Alliance for Global Unity, informally known as The Circle, was an organized Bajoran extremist faction led by Jaro Essa that emerged not long after the Cardassian withdrawal from Bajor, ending the Occupation. This seemed to be the case yet again, only the political situation was perhaps even more complex.
I knew that Jaro was behind the Circle and that he had the support of Vedek Winn and her cult of fanatics, but the real impetus for the Circle's success had been fifty years of oppressive Cardassian rule which had created a fierce desire for independence in the hearts and minds of many Bajorans, a desire so strong that many had been willing to join the Resistance to fight and die for an almost certainly lost cause. Those folks were the heart of the Resistance and a big part of the reason it had succeeded.
But it had succeeded. Jaro and Winn had taken that desire for freedom and perverted it for their own ends with little thought to the consequences in a changed galaxy. The wormhole had changed everything. The Occupation was over and freedom from every alien influence, including the Federation, would only lead to the reoccupation of Bajor by the Cardassians who desperately wanted control over the wormhole. That was why the spoon heads were strongly supporting the Circle, even giving them heavy weapons that could later be used against them; it wasn't just about weakening Bajor.
Looking back over the newscasts it was clear to me that the vast majority of the Bajoran people harbored little ill-will for the Federation, not really, but tensions had risen sharply as now the Federation and Bajoran cultures had publicly clashed and the Circle's supporters were doing everything they could to fan those flames of division. When Keiko O'Brien opened a school aboard DS9 for the children of its personnel and residents, most of her students were obviously Bajoran. Her secular approach to the wormhole's exact nature and frequent references to the "wormhole aliens" conflicted sharply with Bajoran spirituality. According to Bajoran religious doctrine, the wormhole was the "Celestial Temple," the home of the Prophets themselves. The opportunistic Vedek Winn Adami had recently arrived on DS9 looking for an issue to sow discord and division and she'd found it, and had accused Keiko of blasphemy.
I'd been so focused on foiling Winn's plans to assassinate the Kai that I'd not noticed how much of an uproar this was causing in the local population and later reaching to the planet. My guess was that the Circle's more hardcore members, who were no doubt drawn from Resistance cells Winn had visited or encountered during the Occupation, were stirring up crowds everywhere as a distraction, if nothing else.
Jaro Essa, a minister of the Bajoran Provisional Government, had at some point seen an opportunity to seize more power for himself, so that he could rule unilaterally. Right now he was using the civil unrest and the widespread dissatisfaction with the current government for his own purposes. I knew he had founded the "Alliance for Global Unity" and covertly orchestrated its activities in order to inflame that dissatisfaction, but couldn't prove it. Whether he actually believed in any of the ideology of the terrorists he led or not was unclear to me.
More recently 'The Circle' had become a tool to be used against the Federation and the provisional government that the Federation supported.
While he wasn't actually coming out and saying it directly, he was creating a xenophobic isolationist vision of Bajor, arguing "Bajor, for Bajorans."
I knew this because statements made by the The Circle often compared the Federation presence in this system to the Cardassian Occupation, which any rational being who had lived during those horrific times could see just wasn't the case, but thanks to Vedek freaking Winn whipping people up into a frenzy, the rational people weren't being heard over all the loud fanatics screaming their regurgitated bullshit.
Worse, they were insisting that all 'aliens' be expelled from the planet, with veiled suggestions of violence if they didn't quickly comply. Strangely, considering the number of aliens on the station versus the planet, they were exclusively focused on Bajor itself and didn't seem all that interested in Deep Space Nine. I wondered if that had something to do with me being here, or if it was just because the Circle didn't have military support this time and thus expelling aliens from the station was beyond their capabilities. Since I was in command of all of Bajor's starships, and was an alien myself, I suspected it was a little of both.
Well, that wasn't totally true, they did have some military support. General Krim, who led the part of the Bajoran militia which acted like the planet's police/law enforcement, was refusing to do anything about The Circle and was openly supporting Jaro Essa. Krim himself wasn't a bad person, he wanted stability, and Jaro supposedly offered that.
This also explained why The Circle had been supplied with heavy weapons by the Cardassians this time around, something that hadn't happened in the show. The militia forces led by General Krim were basically law enforcement, the police of Bajor, as such they didn't have heavy weapons and never did, since they were meant to keep the peace, not wage war against hostile alien aggressors for which greater firepower would be required.
As for the other General, Li Nalas, who was in command of the Militia's planetary forces, he was unwilling to march troops into the capital. And he had very valid reasons not to, as not only would this lead to violence between Bajorans that could spiral out of control quickly, it would threaten the capital as both sides would have heavy weapons and they'd inevitably end up being used.
Plus the militia on Bajor wasn't ready for a war. There were valid reasons why I considered it 'game over' if the Collectors actually reached the surface of Bajor. The planetary militia just didn't have the funding, equipment, training or leadership it needed to be effective against an enemy like that. Oh, Li was a fine figurehead, he inspired his troops and would be the first to pick up a phaser and lay down his life if required, should Bajor be invaded, but he wasn't the hardened battle commander I was. He was a good peacetime general, one who listened to his staff and followed their advice, but that was it.
We did have a lot of stockpiled Cardassian military equipment, though, left over from the Occupation stashed and hidden all over the planet. In the event of invasion the Bajoran planet-side militia would disband and form Resistance cells, ready to fight again like we did during the Occupation.
"Why aren't you doing something?!" Neela demanded to know as she strode into my private office on the island. "You've got a whole fleet in orbit and all this technology!"
I took a deep breath.
"What do you want me to do?" I asked the young woman with a sigh. "I could order the fleet to bombard the Circle forces from orbit, but even if they were willing to follow that order, and I was willing to give it, the Circle are using heavy weapons in a heavily populated area. Even the most precise orbital bombardment will result in civilian casualties, won't get them all, leaving some free to wreak havoc, not to mention the secondary explosions that could result and would almost certainly level whole sections of the city. I could work with Li Nalas and seize control of the government directly by force of arms, but again, assuming my orders would even be followed by a majority of Krim's forces, the rest would resist us for years to come. It would be just like the Occupation all over again, except it would be Bajorans killing Bajorans!"
Neela wasn't really mad at me, or my supposed lack of action, she was just frustrated with the situation. Seeing the Bajor she'd fought and bled for tear itself apart, not by external enemies this time, but by its own people, was driving her crazy. Lacking anything useful to say in response she simply stormed out. I was sure she would come back to apologize later.
"Are you well, General?" a calm voice asked.
Startled, I looked away from the galaxy map database, which was focused on Bajor right now, and turned to see the Kai in my office's doorway. She must have entered with ninja-like skill; she had to have, given that even a distracted augment was extremely hard to sneak up on. Did Bajoran monks practice some form of martial arts? Many Asian religious orders did on Earth after all. I'd have to investigate that at a later date.
"Not really," I admitted with a sigh. I was doing a lot of sighing these days. "I'm struggling to find a long-term solution to this crisis."
The episodes detailing these events really glossed over just how complex the situation was and how difficult it'd be to resolve.
The Kai didn't have a solution either it seems, considering the contemplative silence that followed; if there had been a simple solution we'd have used it by now. Oh, I could have her address the people and appeal for calm and understanding, but that wouldn't solve anything in the long-term. She also knew this, which was why she was keeping her efforts focused on the many frightened non-Bajorans who I had invited to my island, for their own safety.
There weren't truly that many aliens on the planet, relatively speaking, but there had been too many to quickly evacuate and I wouldn't put it past the extremists to target the aliens who were on the planet for whatever reason. Even the orphanages that had Cardassian and half-Cardassian children in their care were potentially at risk, so I'd taken those kids in too. I needed a long term solution for them. Perhaps they should be sent to Earth? They had no place on Cardassia, and likely no future here on Bajor, no matter how well the average Bajoran typically treated them.
"Then it is time," the Kai declared. "Come with me, seek wisdom from the Prophets."
I shook my head.
"Prayer isn't going to help," I said. "And if the Prophets wanted to send me a vision, they would."
The Kai took my arm gently.
"I was referring to using one of the Orbs," she corrected. "I took it with me when we fled from the Capital."
That might seem like a cowardly action for me, running away rather than staying and fighting, but I wanted to protect Bajor and its people, which wasn't a goal I could achieve by killing even the deluded members of the Circle. Really, all I could do was run damage control and attempt to lessen the violence until my Section 31 ally returned with the proof I needed of Cardassian involvement and support.
"Very well, your holiness," I agreed. "But I've used an Orb before. It didn't really give me solutions to my problems, though maybe it did inspire me a bit, made me surer that I would succeed." I had seen both my rank as a General in the militia as well as my completed armor and weapons.
The Bajoran Orbs, known to the Bajorans as the Tears of the Prophets or as the Orbs of the Prophets, were mysterious and powerful artifacts that were sent to the Bajoran people by the Prophets themselves. The Bajorans stored them in special arks which contained their powerful energies, as they induced unusual effects on those exposed to the raw energies, even if that didn't always result in a vision.
"This is the Orb of Prophecy," the Kai told me. "It is considered by some scholars to be the most powerful of all the Orbs, and perhaps the most dangerous, given how our mortal minds, limited by linear time, are prone to misinterpreting what it shows us. I must warn you, using this is orb is intense and can be draining even for healthy people. But you will endure, I am sure," she ended, with a small smile on her face, knowing of my genetic enhancements from a conversation I once had with her.
I noted right away that this Orb was larger than the others I'd seen in the past, and was a paler shade of green. What that might mean, if anything at all, eluded me entirely.
"The Prophets allowed you to use the Orb of Guidance, wanted you to even," the Kai explained as I got closer to the shiny green alien magic thing sent by Gods who saw the past, present and future simultaneously. "Let us hope that they are feeling equally as generous today."
There was a sudden and very bright light, and then I was whisked away.
(Line Break)
Gothic's Island Fortress. Bajor.
Hours later Gothic and Opaka were having a sumptuous meal together on a balcony with a beautiful view of the ocean in the distance. While not particularly close to the water, the General had obviously chosen to build his home on top of this hill as it was the highest point on his island and thus offered panoramic views of his lands and the crystal clear turquoise waters that surrounded it. The Kai knew that these lands had been given to the man as a reward and payment for his service and material support during the Occupation. She was just glad he had found peace and made a home and life for himself on the very planet his efforts had helped liberate. His generosity had not ended when the Occupation had, and she knew the rebuilding of Bajor would not be anywhere near as far along as it was without his support.
The Kai sometimes felt a little bad about being so well fed while other Bajorans were going hungry right now, but she also understood the importance of being a good guest. She felt less guilty this time since she knew that the non-Bajoran refugees that had found sanctuary and protection on this island were eating the exact same food.
Besides, accepting the General's hospitality had been a wise move. He'd removed her from the capital and because of that the Circle had no reason to target any of the temples in their attempts to arrest her.
No doubt the Circle had intended to set up some sort of sham trial for her so called crimes against the Bajoran people during the dark days of the Occupation. Of course, in her heart, she truly believed she'd never committed any such crimes.
The true collaborators had worked with the Cardassians for their own comfort, safety, or to possess some form of power over their fellow Bajorans. Opaka had worked with even the likes of Gul Dukat, but she had done so only in order to save lives. She'd spent many years of her life in underground bunkers under Cardassian guard rather than live in a more comfortable setting on Deep Space Nine, as Dukat would have wished.
Yet those days still weighed heavily upon her. One life to save a hundred was a cold arithmetic, a moral dilemma she had often struggled with, but the survival of her people required she take those burdens upon herself. If the Prophets wished to punish her for her actions, she would gladly welcome it.
Her appreciation for Gothic's rescue was helped by the fact that she hadn't actually left Bajor, something she had sworn not to do during the Occupation and had no desire to do so now. Which was why she'd been so impressed by the advanced transporter system here on the island. She'd been transported to the island seemingly without any sort of signal being bounced off anything in orbit, as was typically the case.
"General, did your Orb experience aid you?" the Kai inquired.
It had done something, of that Opaka was sure, the Prophets obviously having chosen to share their wisdom with the man. Those who had undergone an Orb experience could always detect it in another, it was something in the eyes, and a recent orb experience was even more noticeable due to the strain it placed on a person. The Orb of Prophecy strained both the mind and the body, but it was the emotional impact more than anything else that showed.
Before he could answer, Emma, a sort of holographic computer interface for the island's systems, which she assumed was based on a human woman who'd been alive during the General's native time, suddenly appeared. The thigh high stockings, short skirt, and knotted blouse exposing the holograms trim stomach and much of her breasts was certainly an interesting choice on the General's part. Emma had appeared, it seems, to inform the General that a half dozen Cardassian designed gunships armed with heavy weapons-aircraft most likely left over from the last days of the Occupation-were approaching at high speeds. They were not responding to hails.
Gothic's reply upon hearing this was to sigh, but he seemed otherwise unconcerned, like he had expected this. She, on the other hand, was very troubled at this escalation and what it meant for her people's future.
"Emma, raise the island's shields. Power up and arm all defense batteries, but do not fire unless I give the command," the general ordered. "Provide me a tactical view."
At these commands, many things happened simultaneously. The first was a hologram of the General's island appearing above the table, his home clearly depicted, with the approaching gunships outlined in red and a shield bubble visually being raised over the entire island and much of the surrounding water, including a second smaller shield directly enclosing the house. She knew little of such things, but to shield such a large island could not have been easy and the power demands extreme. The shield was strong enough to be visible to the naked eye for a second or two upon completely enclosing the island before it faded to invisibility.
Hidden weapon emplacements were also raised up all over the island and their positions were showing up and turning green on the hologram of the island, likely indicating that they were online and ready to fire. Once all his commands were carried out, he pointed the flying machines out by hand, likely for her benefit, so she looked in the direction indicated.
"They've stopped," Gothic said.
Opening a channel, Gothic spoke to whoever was operating these armed gunships.
"Unregistered Gunships, you have entered restricted airspace above the private island home of General Gothic. Turn around or you will be fired upon," he ordered calmly.
The gunships, having detected the shield, had stopped just outside the shield perimeter and spread out. Perhaps ten seconds after being ordered to leave they responded with energy weapons and rockets, which lit up the evening sky in a kaleidoscope of color as their weapons impacted ineffectually against the shield. Opaka was no engineer or soldier with experience with such things, but she was fairly certain that the shields didn't waver an inch.
"Do you intend to destroy them?" Opaka asked without judgment.
He would certainly be justified in doing so, both morally and legally. The fools in the gunships had fired on his home, which was currently filled with frightened civilians. Both she and they were likely what the Circle wanted most right now.
"No, I won't harm any Bajoran unless I have no choice. Luckily for them, their weapons are not anywhere near strong enough to pose a true danger to us. They'll figure that out shortly," Gothic responded. "And if they don't, well, a warning shot or two should help them realize that they continue to live only because I allow it."
It was as the General said, after two solid minutes of bombardment the General's patience had obviously run out.
"Emma, prepare to fire warning shots with canons to graze each of their shield edges, 1% power," he commanded, the hologram signaling near instantly her targeting was ready. "Fire."
With that command, thick beams of neon blue energy flew unerringly towards the gunships lighting up each ship's shields and completely overpowering them. What kind of weapons these were she had no idea, but they didn't appear to be phasers or disrupters. Whatever they were, they were powerful, even at 1% power, and were obviously weapons meant to reach into orbit and destroy state of the art warships, not obsolete, though still dangerous, Cardassian gunships.
The gunships fled in sheer terror mere moments after the island's defenses had opened fired, showing them just how outmatched they were, with no loss of life.
Once they were gone, the Kai went back to her earlier question about the Orb. The actual experience was private, but what it would lead to did concern her, in fact it concerned all of Bajor.
(Line Break)
Farm. Rakantha Province. Bajor.
"I'm surprised that you made it here in one piece," Shakaar commented with a smile, as he poured us both a generous measure of spring wine. "From what I've heard The Circle have blockaded the major roads."
Things weren't that bad yet. The Circle simply didn't have the manpower to actually conquer and hold even small parts of the planet. They were depending on the breakdown of social order, which involved riots and other forms of civil unrest to do a lot of the damage. The Militia had the roads blocked in an effort to contain the Circle while allowed the innocents to flee the major cities.
"I have ways of getting around," I told Shakaar. "Secret ways, ways which I fully intend to share with you if we can form an alliance."
Naturally he was interested in hearing more, but was also cautious about it, as he should be since he was smart.
"What sort of alliance?" he asked.
I didn't show my ace in the hole just yet.
"Bajor needs a leader," I explained.
Shakaar frowned.
"I'm just a simple farmer," he insisted.
This made me shrug.
"And I used to work in a library," I told him. "Times change."
He didn't reply immediately. I knew him to be a man who thought things through. In fact, he was more level headed than most of the people I'd worked with during the Occupation. He'd never wanted to be leader, he'd just wanted his farmland back, but that hadn't stopped him from being an effective one.
"Right now Minister Jaro and Vedek Winn are secretly taking over Bajor, hoping to overthrown the Provisional Government," I said. "When they've won, and at this rate they will. They'll kick the Federation out, and thus open the doors for another Cardassian Occupation of Bajor, and before you deny it, you know they'll come for the wormhole. The very second the last Starfleet Officer is gone a fleet of Galor-class warships will go right for Deep Space Nine and from there they will invade Bajor. The Cardassians desperately want the wormhole. They would never have left this place if they'd known it was there and once they're back, we'll never be rid of them, no matter what we do."
Shakaar busied himself with some dishes, not making eye contact with me, obviously deep in thought and unwilling to once again have to fight Cardassians on Bajor.
"What can I do about it?" he asked. "I'm just a farmer."
He could be so much more, and to prove it to him I took the Orb out of its protective casing. It was still hidden within its ark, but its presence now could be felt as well as seen.
"I could try to convince you," I told Shakaar, whose wide eyes had not left the orb. "I could say that you owe me a great deal, or that you owe Bajor, or that you owe it to yourself, but if what I have planned is meant to be then the Prophets will show you the path. I'm fairly certain that there is no stronger endorsement than that."
With that I left Shakaar to have his orb experience. I went outside and rubbed my head wearily while thinking about what the orb had shown me. Each orb was different. They all offered wisdom of sorts, sometimes in the form of visions of the future or the past, but the Orb of Prophecy was not like the Orb of Guidance. The Orb of Prophecy showed a sequence of events. All of which had been hard to focus on since they'd not been very clear, they were out of context, and they'd come very rapidly.
I'd seen Shakaar presenting the evidence of Cardassian involvement in supplying weapons to the Circle-damning, incontrovertible, and detailed evidence my Section 31 allies had already delivered to me-to what passed for government right now. Then I'd seen a slightly older, but also happy looking Shakaar becoming First Minister one day down the line. Then I saw him kissing a very pregnant looking Nerys, which meant this course of action would most likely lead to me losing her, but it would also lead to a more stable and prosperous Bajor. Then I'd seen his re-election to First Minister. My last vision had been of Shakaar with grey hair signing a document which brought Bajor into the Federation as a full member planet. This was a series of events which I wouldn't oppose because deep down I was willing to give up Nerys to secure Bajor's future. She would have done the same if our positions were reversed; she'd have insisted on it, no matter how much it hurt her.
But that didn't mean I was fucking happy about it.
(Line Break)
Sisko's Office. Deep Space Nine.
"So the Circle is done for," the Commander summarized as our meeting came to a close. "And Bajor will soon enter a new period of political stability."
If only it was that simple. This younger Ben Sisko was clearly a far more optimistic version of himself than the one in the show. Having a loving wife and son was bound to help with that. For fucks sake I hope he wised up quickly. There were a lot of hard decisions to be made and dirty deeds done in the war torn years to come.
"Well, it's over, but all its former leaders are still free and mostly unknown," I said. I guess I was the realist/pessimist in the group now. "But sure, the actual organization has fallen apart, thanks to it becoming known that the fucking Cardassians were supplying the Circle with weapons and explosives and the Circle played right into their hands, aiding whatever plans the Cardassians have to take the planet back. It helps that we got the new police force together so quickly, though."
Sisko sighed and started playing with his iconic baseball, perhaps finally realizing that this wasn't some amazing total victory.
"And you're still a General, as I understand it," he said.
The Prophets had really lit a fire under the former rebel leader during his orb experience. While riding a wave of popularity generated by the information I'd provided to him, as well as public support from the Kai (at my urging), and two militia generals, he'd gotten the First Minister and the other ministers to agree long enough to dissolve the militia and thus remove a major supporter of the Circle.
That sounded bad for me, but the Bajoran Militia had simply been renamed and reorganized into the Bajoran Defense Force, which was completely separate from the new police force, even if it was still mostly made up of former members of the militia for the time being. However, it was very different in that it wasn't an army, it was law enforcement, made up of civilians now and completely separate from the military. They would have separate buildings, different uniforms, and over time the militia officers would either be replaced by academy trained officers or they'd undergo the same training once they could be spared.
"I'm not saying the Circle is totally done for or those isolationist ideas have been wiped out, but they've been disgraced. Aiding the Cardassians in retaking the planet is not something the Bajoran people will ever forgive or forget," I said.
As for me and Li Nalas, not much would actually change in practical terms. We'd be getting a bit more government oversight from Shakaar's faction, which wouldn't be a problem as he needed our support and as a former Cell leader understood many of our issues; he just wanted to be able to tell the people that the new Defense Force fully answered to the government, just as the new police force did.
"So rather than have an actual civil war, we end up with two rival political parties in the post-Circle shakeup," I was explaining to Sisko, just to make sure he fully understood the whole situation. "Winn's lot are the conservative, isolationist and traditionalist faction, who want to go back to a pre-occupation Bajor, because, you know, that worked out so well. While those who follow Shakaar and the Kai are more progressive, open to change and want closer ties to the Federation. Not a united government, true, but now there are two solid factions who might actually agree on things rather a dozen people all pulling in different directions."
Which wasn't the whole story.
"Then you have the current First Minister who will do whatever the majority wants, which is currently Shakaar's growing faction," I continued. "Of course that could quickly change once it comes time to elect a new First Minister or Kai, but until that happens things should calm down."
A period of calm was exactly what I needed, leaving me free to look into the Collector situation, resolve the ongoing issues with the Temptress' slipstream drive, and time to do whatever favor Section 31 would want for letting me use their resources. It'd likely be a relatively minor one considering they had just as much of an interest in preventing Bajor from falling to the Cardassians as I did and would likely have acted anyway, even without my request.
"Where does that leave us then?" Sisko wondered.
I stood up.
"Pretty much the same as before," I answered him. "Starfleet will continue to administer the station and control the wormhole. The new Bajoran Defense Force is divided now into a navy and an army. Li Nalas is in command of the army, while I have command of the navy, as well as all off-world bases. Any off-world colonies set up in the future will be defended by the navy. The former militia forces here on the station will transition automatically to become part of the navy, but will remain under your command, just like before. I'm not going to change the rank system either, so no new admiral for you to consult with. In practical terms it will just be a change of uniforms. I'm thinking something in a nice dark blue color. The Bajoran fleet, such as it is, will patrol Bajoran space, deal with smugglers and the like, while not interfering with the running of DS9."
Sure, I could call myself an admiral now, and maybe even get myself a nice big hat for laughs, but it wouldn't actually change what I did day-to-day and I liked being addressed as a 'general.' Besides, I wanted the change from off-world militia to Bajoran Navy to be as smooth as possible. Really, it was mostly just a confirmation of our already existing roles rather than a true reorganization. Plus, if I changed my rank to admiral, I might have to regularly confer with Starfleet's admiralty and treat them with respect. Best to remain as separate and independent as possible. Although a navy school wouldn't be such a bad idea, but I could hire someone to run that for me.
"Oh, if you could do something to show your support to Shakaar, without actually coming out and saying it, I'd be grateful," I said to the Commander. "Maybe invite him to tour the station or something; he's very likely to be the next First Minister after all."
Which would no doubt lead to him reconnecting with Nerys, but if she could be happy with him then I should let her go and be happy for them. At least then maybe she wouldn't have to suffer through losing that Vedek guy.
In the meantime I'd enjoy the time we had left.