After fifteen minutes of loving maintenance, the graves' of Kira Nerys's two fathers looked good as ever. Owing to Dukat's mind-games, she found that she had nothing to say of late to Taban. Until Dukat was dead, her feelings over what her mother had done would be far too mixed. So she talked this day to Tekeny Ghemor. Oddly, her feelings for him were strong and resolved. Kira loved her Cardassian father, and wished his spirit to be at rest. She wondered if it ever could be, though.

"Stop me if you've heard this one, Ghemor. A Federation ship follows a Maquis ship out to the badlands, and they both get swept out to the Delta Quadrant. Working together, the two crews try to make their way home. Still with me? Eventually, they come upon an alien relay that is somehow in contact with an experimental ship in these parts. Well, their EMH, who is kind of a RMH, is piped over, joins with another MH, and defeats invading Romulans. Afterwords, he informs StarFleet that the crew is alive, and trying like anything to get back. Through his program, he downloads reams and stacks and tons of information, which they are STILL sorting through. Some of it is trivial, and some of it is mind-bending. And at least one piece of it--may make all the difference."

Nerys paused. Hers was a monologue, and she preferred it that way. Any response meant the end of a simple visit. Happily, there was none. On Bajor, spirits of the dead talking up had no positive tradition in their literature. She had actually made a point of surreptitiously installing a low-level E-M disruptor near Ziyal's grave, so that any ideas Dukat had about holos or robots, or whatever, would fall by the wayside, and maybe even interfere with that maddening hyper transport of his. She continued.
 

"Understand, its taken them better than a year to go through it all. Julian was kind enough to point this piece of trivia up to me. Says he actually chatted with the RMH, patterned after the difficult Doctor Zimmerman, for about a minute, and, found that he liked the RMH better than his template. This surprised none of us. Well, here goes, Ghemor. Are you ready? Because I sure wasn't. Part of the RMH's information included a bio-listing of a deceased deep-cover Obsidian Order Operative, named Seska. She was sent among the Maquis, disguised as--ta-da- a Bajoran. Ghemor, the Seska I knew died a dirty death. It was one of a lot of unclean deaths the war managed to produce. It was never mentioned because she was executed for collaboration. It was buried because she wasn't a collaborator. As part of The Obsdian Order's counter- intelligence efforts, several very loyal Resistance fighters were carefully smeared. How do I know this for sure? It was part of Garak's post-Empok Nor expiation. But we knew about most of it, anyway. Point being, the individuals involved were so shaken by executing the innocents, that when Seska turned up alive, no one said anything. Then, she joined The Maquis, who are known to ask even fewer questions. She ended up on the Federation ship, USS Voyager, and apparently worked as a loyal, if somewhat contentious member of the crew til she was exposed. Seska then fled the ship, allying herself with a backwater- -ahem- indigenous power known as The Kazon Nistrum. What she hoped to gain, I really don't know. Call me a bigot, Ghemor, but your people are really a big non sequitur to me sometimes."

Again, she paused. It was not merely to catch her breath, though. Kira scanned the area, both by herself and by way of two types of tricorder. Like the Immortals of Galactic Legemd, she did not like being trifled with on sacred ground. Before resuming, she closed her eyes, breathed deeply, and began a brief kata of movements, lashing out at empty air, punching, pulling, and kicking out. After doing this within a fair radius, and varying her movements, she rehydrated herself, satisfied of the perimeter's security.

 "Yeah, I know. But you can never be too careful. At this rate, bipedal life will have to evolve anti-cloak vision, just to survive. Well, Ghemor, I guess you know the punch-line to my little story. I'll say it bluntly : I believe that Seska is, or was, your daughter, Illiana.  Now, not everything jibes with that theory. Once again, though, the very nature of the Obsidian Order as it once existed would actually have me more suspicious if everything fell into place. As I say, 'Seska' is gone, now. After taking the Voyager from its crew, she  was killed when they retook it. If she was Illiana, then either she had nothing of you in her, or the Order did a bang-up corruption of her soul. She-raped, for want of a better term, the Voyager's First Officer, a man named Chakotay, and even wrongly believed that the child she bore was his. He's interesting, that one. All the Maquis who are now in prison became ecstatic at the news that he and his crew were alive, somewhere. I have to wonder how those people held up when they learned of the Dominion slaughter. The child was not his, Ghemor. But it might well be--your grandson. Now, the Federation lost contact with the Voyager-we hope they're still alive. If they are, then I will make a request for a reading of  'Seska's' DNA. Then, we will know. But your grandson- -who I will gladly call nephew- might still be out there. Somehow, Prophets willing, I will speak with him, let him know that he had a grandfather that would have delighted in him. All of this feels right  --what we know of Seska's insertion date, and of your daughter's  vanishing. But such information can be planted, to suit any of a dozen agendas. Anyone could have done it, from Dukat, to Damar, to Weyoun, a desperate Founder, or Odo, seeking to give me comfort, to Julian's amoral acquaintances. Or-it could be the truth, harsh though it may be. I have to go, Ghemor. War has a timetable, after all. Tell Taban we'll speak--when I'm able to, and providing my past life has no other punches in the face waiting for me. Prophets keep you, til I take you to the soil of a Free Cardassia--and I will."

Kira then transported back to her Runabout, and returned to Deep Space Nine. She would continue her quest for Illiana, and her efforts to find out the truth about Seska. But as she said, war has a timetable, noted for its strictness.

EARTH, RIVER BEND, MISSOURI

THE BAJORAN EMBASSY
TWENTY YEARS AFTER THE  END OF THE DOMINION WAR

Ambassador and Offworld Kai Kira Nerys stared in devotion at the portraits of the two Prophets known to assume Mortal form, Sarah Sisko and Francis Mulcahy. She then checked her morning agenda, which helped her keep her mind off of Odo, serving far away in his capacity as Anointed One To The Surviving Founders.

She saw that there were yet more trade meetings to be held with powers from The Delta Colonies. Her heart raced as she saw the name of one of them. She would still have her guard up, and check carefully, the Resistance in her not allowing any other way. For all that, though, she would be very interested in meeting the head of The Kazon-Occampa Free Coordination, who had chosen a new name and title upon ascending. He called himself Legate Ghemor. If all worked out, there was a grave on Cardassia Prime he might well wish to see. A promise kept? Perhaps. But Kira Nerys now resided in what was once the great state of Missouri. They would have to show her.