Do You Hear The People Sing?

The sound of the docking clamps echoed through the transport shuttle waking Sorripto from the sleep he had forced himself into.  Looking around Sorripto saw the shuttle had docked but was unaware of why there was an apparent delay.  Sorripto leaned in slightly to eavesdrop on the guards standing by the transport doors but his Cardassian ears could only pick up fragments.  A faint whisper caught his ear and he turned to see a fellow prisoner, also bound and magnetically shackled, speaking to him.

"Cardassian, what are they saying?"

Putting the pieces together Sorripto answered as best as he could.

"Apparently someone has requested a stop of the shuttle to speak to one of us.  Some Lieutenant Commander who rendezvoused with us at the Starbase."

"Who is it?"

"I have no idea."

As Sorripto tried to hear more of the guards discussion two other guards both older and much larger in build then the two at the door walked up the ramp and stood before Sorripto.  Undoing the leg bindings Sorripto was motioned to stand and he was slowly escorted off the transport.  Looking around  Sorripto glanced out and saw a Starfleet shuttle docked beside the transport.  The U.S.S. Maximillian.

"Where have I seen that shuttle before?" Sorripto thought to himself.

As the guards escorted him away Sorripto ran through all the memories in his mind his legendary Cardassian memory not failing him the flashing images of the Maximillian appeared in his mind.  He remembered that shuttle, it was from Starbase 10.

”But who?" Sorripto mumbled

As the images flashed again the shuttle appeared in the background again along with a face, the same face.  The same colored face and kind eyes Sorripto had come to know.  There was only one person Sorripto knew that would have to come see him.  One endless conviction that he knew would have to find closure.  Sorripto knew who was on the other side of the door he now stood before.  With a woosh the door opened and before him stood the Ilythiiri Snowfire.  Glancing at the two guards Snowfire commanded.

"Leave us he is no threat around me."

"With all due respect ma'am we can't..."

Cutting off the guards Snowfire spoke quietly, but firmly.

"That was not a request." She gestured. "Guard the door."

Knowing what was best for them the two guards exited as the door to the small meeting room closed behind them leaving just Sorripto and Snowfire alone.  Nodding to the Ilythiiri Sorripto sat in the chair and nodded slowly allowing her to speak first. Shaking her head, the Ilythiiri sighed and withdrew a small pyramid of slickly black material from one of her pockets. Setting it on the table between them, she tapped it once and then sat herself.

"Hello Sorripto." She said calmly. "No doubt you've worked out why I'm here. As to my little device there, it'll keep this conversation private. A piece of my past that I never really left behind I guess. Then again, you would know that quite well, wouldn't you." She shook her head sharply, cutting off the chance of answering. "Sorry, that was needlessly cruel." Looking up, her violet eyes met Sorripto's Cardassian ones, but they held none of the kindness that he had come to know. If eyes were the windows of the soul, Snowfire had her storm shutters up.

"I have one question. For now." She grimaced slightly, but held firm and tall in her chair.

"Why?"

Sighing Sorripto had feared this conversation but now as he sat staring at his former friend before him he knew this was going to be harder then even he had imagined.  Composing himself Sorripto spoke slowly.

"By now I am sure you know the story, what actually happened and you know the details.  What I imagine you do not know are the feeling that would drive me to the point of no return.  The truth is old friend that the pieces were in place long before I ever met anyone from Section 31.  I will wager you do not know that my father was in command of the first Cardassian ship that fired at the Dominion.  He had been secretly working with Damar against orders and against everything the Cardassian fleet stood for.  My father saw something bigger and better then himself and knew that acting on behalf of the uniform he wore would not be enough, he did what had to be done and while there was blood on his hands I go to sleep at night knowing he did the right thing.

That is the faith and belief my father instilled in me.  For the first twenty five years of my life my father worked to bring about democracy, peace, prosperity and change Cardassia for the better.  On his death bed he begged me to join Starfleet and I was the first Cardassian to wear the uniform.  But from day one nobody cared.  I was just a Cardassian and therefore the villain.  I had instructors, classmates, and even crewmates treat me like a criminal and never give me their fair share.  I watched as the imperfections in Starfleet came through the cracks and slapped me in the face every day.  It wasn't until I met Joey Sisko, back when we were both ensigns working to fight the borg, that I finally had someone who was there to show me that I was a person first and a Cardassian second.

It was around that time that I was recruited by Starfleet intelligence to do some side mission to help them against the True Way.  Little did I realize the door I was opening.  It was during these side missions that the hypocrisy within the the Federation really showed its form."

Sighing Sorripto continued

"Sorry this is long winded but you wanted the truth I will give you all of it.  As I was saying do not get me wrong I will never say that the Federation is bad or Starfleet is wrong.  More then anything the uniform is worn by good people doing the right thing for the right reasons.  Those people however at the end of the day are powerless.  The real evil that pulls the strings and will never rest is and was always there.  When that bastard walked in and showed me a picture of my family I knew I had to do something and I knew that if I had done, what you would so graciously call the right thing, that everyone involved would have died.

I had a chance to save my friend, defeat an evil organization, and take down the black empty soul of the Federation finally giving those good people a chance to do the right thing and let the universe knows that it matters and that they matter.  

When I discovered that Reichman was a traitor I had to act quickly and I played along until it was apparent he was alone.  As he sabotaged the ship I worked in the background to undo what he did to keep everyone alive while still getting my chance to go rescue Sisko.  I started my mission thinking I was going to save my family, and I guess once it set in that they were most likely dead anyway I made the choice.  I collected the data and got my affairs in order and sprang into action.  I could sit here and tell you how I never meant to hurt you or anyone on the ship, hell I didn't even intend to kill as many people as I did but I had only second to stop that fleet.  I could sit here and tell you that I was right but I will not pretend you want to hear it.  

You asked me why well there it is.  I was a man beaten down by a system he wanted to trust, who was pushed to the end of my rope by evil and right before I fell off the edge I swung back with everything I had and when the dust settled that evil was gone, and so was my family.  I sat trimphant but alone I was once again the evil outcast."

With a slow sigh Sorripto composed himself once again.  He had gone over this story in his mind countless times but this was the first time that he had said it aloud.  This was the first time that he truly understood the implications.  Sorripto sat and thought he still believed he was in the right and still stood by his actions but for the first time since that fateful day Sorripto truly saw the scope of what he had done.  Having not felt this way since the day his father died, for the first time since that fateful day Sorripto was a Cardassian with a broken heart.

Snowfire listened carefully, Listening with her mind too as Sorripto spoke. There was a lot of pain there, resentment and helpless fury and...so much. She knew that combination far better then the Cardassian likely realised. And there it was again. Alone. He was always alone, even in times of horror, and the memory of the words of an Andorian Captain rang in her mind.

But what we can do is build a better us, by building a better future. That is after all what the Federation is about, what it has always been about and what it must always be; for everyone.

And it shook her. The power behind those words, the ideal that had for the last eight years been slowly bu inevitably seeping into what she was and changing it. It reached out now, stronger than ever, and seemed to shake her like a leaf. Yes, he had done wrong. But this was acceptance of it. This, here, now, was a being very like her in more ways than he could know, finally facing the consequences of his actions. The emotional ones, that were far more than what had already been processed. And now she was faced with a choice. Ilythiiri or Starfleet. The two ideologies that had so long been warring within her, now finally acknowledged and found. But even as each tried to establish a foothold for another eight years of pain, she looked across at the prisoner in front of her - no, at the friend begging for help - and something rose out of her. Something strange, unlike in so many ways to anything she had ever experienced. And it rose up through her, spreading across her entire being, and simply forbade the continuation of that conflict. No more. Not again.

Snowfire. That was her choice. And with that, she reached out a slender black hand and laid it on Sorripto's shoulder.

"You're an idiot sometimes, Sorripto, you know that?" Her tone was low, but a ghost of her old humour whispered within it. "My turn to play the storyteller I think." She blew out a careful breath. "A hundred years ago, I was responsible for the death of approximately five billion sentients. I didn't detonate the weapons that killed them, I didn't even know I'd let them be placed by landing the teams on the worlds I did. But if hadn't gotten my ship through system patrols, it would have been five billion less - for a while at least. I might have died, but it would have been five. Billion. Less." She looked across at her old friend, eyes haunted still by the terrible memories of that time - and the images seared into her psyche. "And it was five billion - twenty five in total, but I wasn't on all of the missions - that could have been spared. That would have been spared had it been Starfleet doing the fighting - not that it ever would have come to fighting. But to the Council, the Confederation was too large and too dangerous. So we were ordered to subjugate them. And that was that.

"Operation Vanguard - you may have heard of it in regards to my race in passing - broke me Sorripto. It destroyed me, absolutely and completely. Sut'rinos Snowfire K'Leysha died that day. And it's only been in the last decade that I've been able to begin putting myself back together as simply Snowfire. Myself. I may be - now - Lieutenant Commander Snowfire K'Leysha. But that doesn't matter. The extra names and titles, they don't mean anything. They are a part of me, but they do not define me." Her other hand, just as dark as the first, swung up as she placed it on his other shoulder. "Some say your actions define who you are. To a point, that's right. But more correct I think would be that the motivations of your actions, as much as the actions themselves, define you. And all that you've done, for all that I might never be able to fully trust you again, you did to try and save that which was most important to you. And for that - and that alone out of everything - I will never let you be alone again." She leant in, pressing her smooth forehead against his ridges - her silken hair brushing lightly against it - and her violet eyes locked with his.

"But only if you swear to me, here and now, on all that you might have left to hold dear, that you will rebuild yourself again. Do it for yourself, for your family, for your race, for the Federation, hell, if you must, do it for me." The words rang like steel on steel despite their soft tenor. "And one day, perhaps a long time from now - I'm certainly not going anywhere for the next thousand years - we'll talk again. And we'll remember this moment, and you'll look back and find that the mountain you thought you faced alone was nothing more than sandcastle. And that you were holding a water gun connected to a hosepipe. Do that, and one day - one day - we'll be friends again."

Snowfire's words were soft and gentle but the sound in Sorripto's ears was deafening.  He had lived his whole life alone with his worst enemy always being himself, but here in front of him was someone who felt his pain and for a moment, if only brief on Sorripto was not alone.  Composing himself Sorripto rubbed his ridged head slowly against Snowfire's and then leaned back as he spoke.

"You know I did not have to come back?"

The gaze in Snowfire's eyes turned to slight confusion.

"I mean be here right now.  I did not have to come back."

Sorripto rubbed his eyes as he continued.

"I want you to know that so that at least someone understands.  You say I should rebuild myself I want you to know that was always what I wanted to do.  When I say I did not have to come back I mean at all ever.  I could have died aboard the Prophecy and left the story at that.  I could have returned the information watched the fall of Section 31 and then ran and left it at that.  I could have just brought hell and fire on everyone and walked away and left it at that.  The truth is Snowfire I did not want to leave it at that.  With all my knowledge and training I could have died, dissapeared or ran away and I chose to stay I chose to be here.  I am a prisoner because I wanted to answer for my crimes so that I could have a clean slate and I could drag myself up again from scratch."

As Sorripto's eyes looked deep into Snowfire's he knew her words rang true.

Just then the door opened and the two security personnel walked in.

"Time is up ma'am the transport is leaving."

As the guards stood Sorripto up and walked him towards the door Sorripto turned to look at Snowfire.

"If anything else knowing that we could be friends again is more then enough to keep me going."

With a wink Sorripto stepped out of view and walked towards the doors to the shuttle.  As he was escorted aboard and sat down Sorripto glanced out the window towards space and for a brief moment his lips shook and through the rough and the tired a distinct shape formed... it was a smile.