Team Bajor pt2

Posted on Tue Sep 9th, 2025 @ 12:29am by Remal Kajun & Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Lieutenant Commander Aurora Vali

1,938 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: For Bajor!
Location: Cabin

Shortly after Remal returned with the meagre offerings their village and neighbours could provide the team settled in front of the now roaring fireplace. The setting was comfortable and under any other circumstance, could be construed as pleasant and happy. Here however, the mood was pensive despite the delicious aroma wafting in from the kitchen.

Rhenora had curled up in one of the armchairs, a throw across her legs for added warmth as they discussed the decline of society on Bajor. The changes were felt shortly after the last time they had been here. A distinctly hot spring and summer that had sapped much moisture from the ground.

"So the government has declared martial Law, curfews, food quota's and water rationing," Rosita was explaining.

"It's all well and good on the surface level, but people have turned to desperate acts. I read recently that someone tried to blow the dam. They were caught and arrested, but the article never explained why. Was it sabotage, or was it because their farms have shriveled to dust and they now accuse the government of hoarding the supply?" Zio offered.

Zio and her family had lived in the central jungle areas just South of the Equator, but even there, things had become dire. They needed to understand if this was human activity or an act of something higher.

"Are they hoarding it, though? Or are they safeguarding it for drinking if the drought doesn't break?" Rhenora mused, looking outside to the cold weather outside. "We can melt snow for drinking water, but that doesn't help the farmers"

Aurora had sat quiet for a while, her mind going over what had been said before. A baby boy? She didn’t have a baby boy yet something tugged at her now it had been mentioned. She shook it off as she turned her mind back to the current situation.

“What about other races?” Aurora sat feeding N’vea, fortunately, she and Savar had gotten N’vea used to bottle feeds. “Can’t those travelling through bring emergency supplies? Even a little coming in regularly could help bolster what supplies there are?”

Savar sat next to Aurora. The mention of a baby boy tugged at his memory but he could recall nothing. He would ask Aurora if she had any memories after this current crisis was dealt with. "Aurora makes an excellent point. Why has the government not reached out to the traders that come to Bajor and offered incentives to them to bring those supplies needed by the people?"

Rosita shrugged, "Not many people want to trade when you have nothing to offer yourself." She mused out loud, rustling around in the kitchen to help Remal. "And the Government's broke, there's no money to spend, people can't afford to buy what little food there is cos there's no harvests, let alone pay their taxes. It goes all the way up and all the way back down again," She explained.

“Perhaps I could contact my parents. My mother is an ambassador these days, she has some sway with the other Ambassadors, so maybe that could bring some help this way?” Aurora offered.

"An excellent idea Aurora." Savar replied and looked to Rosita, "I will contact my parents and have them talk to the Vulcan government officials to see about helping. After all, it is only logical to help, especially in a humanitarian endeavor."

Remal pointed the spoon in his hand toward the conversation, "It's not a bad idea, at least in the interim. What we really need is to get the satellites working again. Ultimately, correcting the weather patterns will fix this situation long term. How long have they been offline? Over a year, why?"

Zio snapped back, "The government controls the satellites. If they haven't 'fixed' them by now, they aren't going to. It's almost as if they want the planet to suffer."

"Aye, suffer they are. What then, the government swoops in and 'saves' them and everyone thinks they are the heroes? Not likely." Remal rebutted. "It's more likely there is something dark, or someone pulling strings. I thought that Brin fellow was bad, but maybe we missed something. They had to be working with someone higher up in order to get the resources they had."

"You're talking deliberate sabotage of an entire planet. A slow and merciless decline. Even for the Brotherhood and the Wraith followers, that's a harsh call. I wonder if we can see the access logs to the weather satellites, see if they have been trying to repair them or if they've been covering something up" Rhenora mused from in front of the fireplace.

As if she had come prepared, Zio pulled out a holo-screen and placed it on the center of the table. "There are three centralized locations that have access to those logs. There is a security station inside the central Government complex. Highly guarded, difficult to get into."

"The second," she continued. "The Central control satellite station, located in upper orbit around Bajor. From there, one could control the individual sats pretty easily." Feeling attention captured eyes she continued, "Last is the Central Core on Deep Space Nine. During the Occupation, the Cardassians linked a control module to the station so they alone could control the weather. Since Starfleet took over and moved the station, I can only guess it has continued to serve as a backup unit. "

"The station would be perfect 'if' it captured the logs," Remal said before looking at Rhenora. He sampled the stew before adding, "You know who would be perfect to help with this..." But he left it open for her interpretation.

Savar listened as Zio gave them information on the satellite control. It certainly seemed from what they had heard that there was a coordinated plan to keep the satellites disabled, but for what reason? That was still a mystery to be solved.

"Dean and Jen are heading up the investigations into the system failures on DS9 at Kira's request. I can ask them to get into the logs for the satellites without too much of an issue. A redundant system may not be well shielded and provide easy access to the network," Rhenora mused, her brain kicking into gear.

"Excuse me, Captain." Savar spoke up, "Though the systems on DS9 are backup systems. All its security settings will be in place and operational. Commanders' House and Ramthrone will still have to bypass or neutralize them to get to the logs while also not arousing suspicion."

"Not if someone has already been there first" Rhenora replied, her suspicions flowing. "I have a hunched that those systems may have been deliberately tampered with over a long time"

"You're thinking this has been in place for, what, months, years?" Zio asked, now worried about how long of a list of suspects this could entail. "That could mean dozens of people, or more could have had access to the system and we would never find out who is involved."

Frustrated at the concept, Remal, the voice of reason taking hold, spoke up. "I think we need to approach this as a two front attack. Savar and Aurora can pool their contacts to see what aid can be provided to the people. While the rest of us can find a way into the Master satellite while we coordinate with our counterparts on DS9 to get the logs. We'll go back 5 years if we have to." He looked at Rhenora to see if she approved of the teams, and the split or if she thought better.

"We will find out who is involved, but we have a limited time frame to do it. Priority needs to be resetting the weather satellites back to the standard weather patterns, or even a recovery pattern if there is such a thing. We need to get to those satellites" Rhenora nodded towards Savar and Aurora. "If you could pull as many strings as you can to get aid here, the people of Bajor would be forever grateful."

"But first..." Remal stated as he held out a large stock pot, "Stew's ready, get it while it's hot." He said as he started to dish out individual bowls.

" It does smell amazing" Rhenora admitted as the smells continued t wafting from the kitchen. It harkened back to the days of the Resistance, when food was scarce and everything edible (and sometimes not) were thrown in a pot that never came off the heat. It was sometimes stew, sometimes more a gruel, but it kept the Bajoran people alive through that hard time. Kaylen mused that just about everyone would have dug out the old pots and have them bubbling away once again.

Savar looked at Aurora and then at Rhenora, " Absolutely captain. Aurora and I will begin to reach out to our respective network of contacts and aid will be coming to Bajor." He said firmly and decisively.

“What he said!” Aurora grinned as she looked between Savar and Rhenora. With N’vea having fallen asleep after her feed it left Aurora able to enjoy eating her stew without interruption. “Mmmm your stew does smell delicious!”

"Indeed it does." Savar agreed his eyes going to Aurora and then to the bubbling pot of stew Remal had prepared for the group.

They gathered around the large wooden dining table, built for nearly a dozen people and so easily accommodating the small group. For a few moments, they ate in companionable silence, enjoying the delights of the stew.

"I almost miss the odd days of cooking whatever you could find." Zio said absently as she poked around in her stew. "We've become fat and comfortable these days... well, until the satellites went to phekk."

Savar looked up from his stew. "Once we find the problem with the satellites and correct it. If you desire to hunt for your food, I see no reason why you could not do that again if that is your desire to live off the land."

"There is a simplicity to the land and what she provides. Something replicators sadly cannot replicate." Remal chimed in as a biased man of the garden. "You'll find many Bajoran's are very simple that way my friend." He then nodded to Savar.

"I think it is 'were' very simple. Unfortunately, I think many have fallen to the ways of convenience and lost their path" Rhenora retorted with a bit more bite than she intended. "We were survivors, now we're lazy and forgotten the old skills that kept us alive." She took a hearty bite of soup and set her spoon down. " Like this... this is dying skill. The young have no idea how to survive" She indicated the pot boiling in the hearth.

Zio swallowed with a chuckle, "And that, my dear, is why my children know how to hunt, fish, and take care of themselves all around. Growing up we," She glanced at Remal. "had to earn our living through survival. They won't have it near as hard, but that's no reason not to teach them how vulnerable we really are."

"Something we are now all relearning, in a hurry" Rhenora chuckled before swinging the conversation around to matters at hand. "So we have water, some food, and a starving planet. Suggestions on how we get to this master satellite and hack into it?"

The question was left open as a precursor to the day's travel and the after-dinner slog had clearly tired everyone out. What they needed was a pilot or a transport operator to get them through the security. They had friends. What they needed now were solutions.

TBC

 

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