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[coalitions]

@lexa.trikru | ■ ▲ ◌ ▼

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[coalitions]

All it takes is one bad moment. None of us can live forever.

[plainsimple]

Forgive me if this is a sensitive subject, but did you lose someone recently?

[coalitions]

Yes. Me. I died.


[CALM AS CALM CAN BE.]

[plainsimple]

I'm afraid I don't quite follow.

[coalitions]

What I've been told is that people who are dead in their world can be brought here alive as they are "taken" from before they gave their last breath. That is the case with me. I was fatally wounded by a gunshot.

[plainsimple]

I am terribly sorry, my dear. I didn't realize that was a possibility.

[coalitions]

There is nothing to be sorry for. Commanders do not live long. I had a decade as one and I accomplished many things to be proud of. I live on as all Commanders do in the next one.

[plainsimple]

This is a part of your peoples' faith?

[coalitions]

It is not only faith, it is truth. Commanders keep the memory and experiences of those before them. We can commune with them in meditation or in sleep.

[plainsimple]

So it's like an inherited katra, or spirit?

[coalitions]

Yes.

[Not really, but it's close enough and she's not going to talk about the AI in her head.]

I regret that I died when my work was far from finished. Tragedy befell my people once I was gone.

[plainsimple]

I truly am sorry. I wish I knew what else to say.

Do you know if your successor was able to at least help some of them?

[coalitions]

Unfortunately not. Another end of the world event happened. Nearly all of my people are dead now. A few hundred are left of what was many thousands. I mourn for that far more than my own death, I am but one.

[plainsimple]

My own world has been occupied, and I know my people are dying. There is little I can do, as a tailor far from home, and yet I still wish I was there to try to help.

[coalitions]

You are no common tailor. I think you are something ele.

[plainsimple]

I have also gardened?

[coalitions]

You're a warrior, you held your own against me, the creature in your ear used your own skills. But you are hiding it. Are you a spy?

[plainsimple]

My people are from an Empire, my dear. Even a humble tailor learns how to fight. I hid nothing; I was outside Red Wings openly defending it.

[coalitions]

I was given a blade when I was three, became Commander at 12, and have been fighting my entire life. You mean to tell me that your tailors are as lethal as that?

[plainsimple]

No. I am, however, in my fifties. So is it a surprise that over thirty years of preparation and more casual experience can compare to the focused training of perhaps twenty? We are at war, yet again; peace does not last long in our universe.

[coalitions]

I am curious what you gain here, in this place, by hiding who you are. There is no one from the empire here to catch you.

[plainsimple]

That is the question, isn't it? Why would someone hide what they were here if they were more? And why would someone be content to be known only as a tailor if they had additional skills?

When you've figured out answers to those you'll have to let me know. I fear I have none to give.

[coalitions]

[Hm that is interesting. Lexa gets the message underlining what he's saying even if she does not fully understand what it means. It's enough to let her back off the topic for now. ]

Who is occupying your world?

[Back on task!]

[plainsimple]

[He wonders if he got his point across. Time will tell. For now, there's something else at hand.]

They're known as the Dominion. A race of shapeshifters that has taken over much of one quadrant of the galaxy, enslaving and altering multiple species along their path as well as destroying others. Now they've found our corner of the galaxy, and a deluded moron who saw a potential for more power for himself invited them in. Said failure of a Cardassian was entirely unaware to how much they want to destroy our world and our people, or perhaps he didn't care. I've never been quite sure with him; how he manages to breathe while being quite that dense is a scientific marvel.

I wouldn't mind him showing up here. We could shove him in front of the creatures as a diversion next time.

[coalitions]

Do you think he is evil or stupid or both? Not that it matters, if he is so disastrous for his people, he deserves death.