Reon knew he shouldn't be doing what he was about to do, but he couldn't stop himself. He couldn't just pretend he didn't know that Fala had been spying on his family for years. He couldn't wait for him to return to confront him either. He found the monk with his father in their home, chatting to Taban as though nothing was amiss. Reon drew a knife and held it at Fala's throat.
"Son, what are you doing!" his father cried and Fala froze.
"You need to see this, father! Then you need to explain yourself, holy man!" Reon said his last words with such contempt.
"Oh no!" Fala paled when he saw the data chip.
Reon played back the recording he had found and showed his father that there were countless hours more. Instead of exploding into a rage like him, Kira Taban was silent and still. Instead of babbling excuses, Fala slumped his shoulders and shut his eyes. Reon chaffed at the lack of action.
"Fala, do you care to explain?" he asked through gritted teeth. "You are a Collaborator! Confess it!"
"I was told to watch over your family to protect you. I would hardly call that collaboration! I never harmed you and tried to steer you from danger. My main goal was to keep you and your sister out of the Resistance, but I fear that I failed doing that. Both of you are too belligerent to stand idly by while others suffer. That's admirable, but foolish!" Fala said everything in one rushed breath.
"Who was giving you rations in exchange? If it was a Cardassian, any Cardassian, you are a Collaborator!"
"Fine. It was someone incredibly high ranking in the Cardassian military. That is all I know of the 'who'. I never met him and was ordered and supplied by a Bajoran. It was a woman that you might know, in fact."
"Who? Why?"
"It was your mother and it was for her sake."
Taban threatened to keel over for a moment, and then regained his previous stoicism. Reon glared at him, all his anger temporarily flying at his particular person rather than at the monk.
"Father, what does that mean?" he demanded. "My mother Kira Meru is supposed to be dead! Why is Fala talking in this video as though she is alive? How could she provide him rations?"
"She was alive, Reon."
"Put the knife down, child! Please!" Fala begged.
"I'm not convinced that I should yet! Someone tell me what the hell is going on! Now!"
Taban moved with a speed and power that Reon had never seen him display before. His father was a pacifist and a believer that no action should ever be hurried unnecessarily. His attitude frustrated him and his sister to no end some days. He snatched the knife from Reon's hand and pulled Fala away from him to a safer position at his side. Then he pointed his son to a chair.
"I will tell you the truth if you behave like a man and not a terrorist. I supported you and Nerys entering the Resistance, but I didn't raise monsters. If Fala is a Collaborator, so am I, you, Nerys, Pohl, and your mother. Do you really wish to reveal that to your cell? What will they do to us? What will they do to your sister? I know if there's anyone in this world you care about more than yourself, it's her! Think of her!"
"I don't understand!"
"I lied to you children about what happened to your mother. She didn't die of malnutrition. She was taken to become a comfort woman."
"No!" Reon clamped his hands over his ears. "Anything but that! Please tell me that isn't true!"
"She was rounded up with other women. They seized her and took her away. She didn't go willingly. Do you know what happens when the women resist? We were parents of three children, one of which was a girl! If a man refuses to give up his wife, sister, or daughter, the entire household is punished. The males are slaughtered and all the girls enslaved. You must know this already. We would have lost your sister and mother if I dared intervene. At three, they would have placed her in some safe house to be trained until she was of age, but her fate would have been sealed!"
"But why didn't mother try to escape? Why didn't you seek out the Resistance to rescue her?" Reon wailed. "My mother!"
"She was too heavily guarded and taken off planet with her new Cardassian mate almost immediately, my son. How was she going to escape what was essentially a prison in space? Why would the Resistance blow such resources on one comfort woman?"
Reon knew everything his father was saying made sense, but at the same time, it made no sense! He bit back tears of pure fury and cursed because they had taken his knife.
"Now I understand why our rations halved overnight," he said aloud. "Was that when my mother really died?"
Taban couldn't speak and made no sign. Reon turned to Fala.
"She requested you to watch over us? She still loved us?"
"Of course she did, Reon. No real mother would ever forget her children. I was always a friend of the Kiras. She was able to persuade her master to see her children grow up through me. He provided rations to you and me."
"Why are you still getting rations? Why are you still spying if my mother is dead? Who took her and why did she die? Did the Cardassian murder her for resisting his advances or trying to escape? Where the hell was she while Nerys and I were crying for her at night? Pohl still needed her milk!"
"I don't know exactly who owned your mother. As far as I know, he treated her well. How many other Cardassians allow their comfort woman to keep tabs on their Bajoran husband and children? They send a sad amount of rations in exchange for her. This Cardassian was very generous. Your mother Meru was an exceptional woman, Reon. Even those snakes couldn't resist loving her. I told you the beauty of our women is our saving grace. If not for that, the Cardassians would have simply destroyed us all in a great sweeping genocide."
"Don't be so naïve!" Reon shouted. "They needed slave labor! They wanted every scrap of Bajor's resources! For that reason, they couldn't possibly use bombs or other methods of mass destruction. That's why they rely on starvation tactics. They chose a slow and prolonged death for Bajor. Slaking their lusts on our women was merely a nice bonus for them! I am young, but I understand this too well!"
"Well, whoever it was that kept your mother possessed her for seven years-"
Reon let out a lengthy anguished moan.
"She was kept seven years on the space station of Terok Nor. She grew ill. I'm not entirely sure what caused it. Maybe it was exposure to something in those mines. Maybe she was poisoned. Some Cardassians do that when they tire of their women. They don't like the idea of returning them to their Bajoran husbands. They stint at the thought of another Cardassian enjoying their girl. I only know that she was placed in hospice and expired quickly. Her master took another mistress not long after."
"Who is this Cardassian? Are you lying when you say you don't know? Father, do you have any clue?"
Taban's eyes looked dead and he acted as though his lips were sewn shut. Fala had to answer.
"The Cardassian continued his interest in your family. In fact, his obsession has centered upon your sister Nerys. Meru didn't want her daughter to go through what she did. She knew not all Cardassians are as gentle as hers turned out to be. She got the best circumstances in the worst kind of circumstances."
"You mean she accepted her fate? She let that Cardassian violate her? She might have even liked it?" Reon was thrashing his head and arms in anger. "My mother allowed herself to love the enemy? Is that what you are saying?"
"Not at all. Remember, your mother was selected. She didn't volunteer. Most comfort women never volunteer! Is that what you've been led to believe? Haven't you met enough former comfort women to know that they never had a choice?"
"But those in the Resistance escaped! They fought tooth and nail! They're killing Cardassians now. They don't accept their fate meekly! They don't lie on their backs and let-"
Taban opened his lips and raised his voice louder than Reon had ever heard, "Your mother never let anything happen to her. I didn't let the Gul take her! She was the bravest woman I ever knew. I loved her. I still love her. I never blamed her for a second! I will not allow you to think ill of her! Your reaction is exactly why I never told you or Nerys. I couldn't bear the thought of you hating her. She was no Collaborator. I don't believe Fala is either. Now let this go!"
"Let it go?"
"Yes. And swear to me in the name of the Prophets you will not tell your sister."
"She has every right to know!"
"She might accept it even less than you are accepting it right now! Don't tell her!"
"I need to know what really happened to my mother. I need to know who it was that ruined our lives! Until I know all the details, I swear I won't tell Nerys. But when I do, nothing will stop me from revealing it to her and together we will murder the Cardassian that did this to us!"