)
)A few months later, a group of Bajoran resistance fighters freed the occupants of the camp. Arda, as she was now calling herself, followed them for several months, fighting their battles with them and seeking acceptance from them. They soon abandoned the Cardassian half-breed on Bajor.
With the occupation ended and the entrance of the Federation, Arda found herself left alone. But the peace was short lived. Shortly after Starfleet took over Deep Space 9, a xenophobic, "Bajor-for-Bajorans" terrorist group called the Circle, began making random attacks on
non-Bajorans. Because of her mixed heritage, Arda found herself the target of some of these attacks. She fled the area for a small planet on the Cardassian border.
Arda began to settle in. Finding herself an outcast among outcasts, she managed to bond with several people. The Federation then handed her world over to the Cardassians in a new treaty. Arda fled, fearing her mother's killer would come for her.
Arda was taken in by a group of Maquis Freedom Fighters. They had a ship and were hiding out in the Badlands for quite some time. The captain, an angry man by the name of Xzarre, seemed sympathetic to her plight.
Arda soon learned why the group took her in. She was used as a morale booster for a group of ex-Circle members who had been waiting in the shadows for a chance to fight again. She was beaten and abused by the crew and withdrew into her shell once more.
As the Maquis grew stronger in their fight, Xzarre took on new crew. Most took on the old crew's ways in beating up on Arda. She suffered numerous injuries at their hands. One of the new crew members, however, noticed her. Luc Dusaj befriended her in secret and sought her out often, winning over her trust.
Soon, Luc revealed to her that he was a Starfleet Intelligence Officer and he needed her help. Fearing for her life, Arda isolated herself from him once again. He was persistant and managed to convince Xzarre to send him and Arda on a secret mission into Starfleet territory.
Arda didn't want to go, but, at Xzarre's threatening, she did. Their small craft was soon captured by a Starfleet vessel. It had been a set up. Arda found herself being questioned by the captain of the vessel, Luc by her side. Unable to bear anymore, she broke down and told them everything she knew. As a reward for her help, she was offered haven in Starfleet. First, she and Luc had to return to Xzarre's ship.
The two were given a "stolen" shuttle and they headed back. Arda was severly beaten by Xzarre for failing the mission. Luc was confined in the brig with her, his association with her discovered. Three days later, Xzarre's ship was attacked by the same Starfleet ship. Luc and Arda made an escape attempt, but Xzarre's ship attacked their shuttle, damaging it badly and injuring the two occupants. Arda managed to pilot the shuttle away from the battle, but she also piloted it away from her haven.
They hid in Lerins Nebula for days. Soon, another distress beacon was sent across their path. Ens Catalina Fox and Ens Tali'isko, the only survivors of a warp core breach on the USS Appalachia, joined them. They rigged the shuttles together, sharing what power they had left to survive. They were discovered by the USS Nova.
The crew of the Nova took in the four stranded people and made them a part of the crew. The Nova continued her mission of studying the Nebula only to find a sentient being inside. This space creature was surrounded by telepathic entities that had no physical form. Arda was rendered unconscious by one of these entities and impregnated.
Arda feared for her life and for the child. She didn't want to continue the pregnancy, but a Lieutenant by the name of Epic Terrakian came to her and asked her to continue the pregnancy. She relented, finding herself to be one of the few who trusted the strange Betazoid with the blue eyes.
Three days later, she gave birth to a baby girl that was genetically identical to herself. The baby was capable of telepathy and mother and daughter shared a link. Epic came to Arda again, saying he too had a link with the girl. Arda could sense it was true and permitted him to help her raise the child. He asked to make it official and adopt the child. Arda gave her permission.
She named her daughter Arda Kaede, following the Bajoran naming convention. She named her for her mother, the only person Arda ever felt real love from. The Nova arrived at Lerins Station with her five new passengers, marking the end of her voyage. Luc was transferred back to Starfleet
Intelligence, Epic was transferred to the USS Grail, a Galaxy class vessel. He came to her, asking her and Kaede to join him on the Grail. Arda turned him down, citing dangers on a deep space mission that she didn't want her infant daughter to face. Starfleet decided otherwise.
Arda was given a quick course in Starfleet, her natural talent as a pilot pulling her through. She was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and sent to the Grail, Starfleet citing the fact that she and Kaede were Epic's family.
Arda has her own suspicions as to why Starfleet sent her to the Grail, a doomed ship on a mission to recover another doomed ship. Granted, family is a good thing to have on a long voyage, but, with Arda's rocky past and Kaede's mysterious origins, Arda felt that Starfleet found them disposable.
During an imprisonment on Maxia in the Delta Quadrant, Arda, now allowing some people to once again call her Kaje, found her father, also a prisoner on Maxia. After he attempted to kill her to prevent her discovery by the Cardassian government, Kaje managed to convince him that neither was likely to see the Alpha Quadrant again. Once convinced, Gul Kuraht left her once more on her own, not admitting to the fact that he could never be her father and could only be the man who gave her life.
The Grail crew managed to escape from Maxia and were immediately pulled into an alternate dimension. There, they were attacked by the native beings of the dimension. To their knowledge, they were there for only three days, but upon returning to their own dimension, they found that they had been missing for an entire year.
The last month was turbulent. During their time in the alternate dimension, Epic Terrakian was killed, throwing Kaede into a depression. After their escape from Maxia, Kaje had discovered she was pregnant, the Maxim having artificially inseminated a large number of the women on the Grail. After finding the old Sivoan colony ship, many people had decided to attempt to return to the Alpha Quadrant. Kaje elected to stay on board the Grail.
Also during this month, a clone of Epic Terrakian, created by the Maxim, returned from the future by the power of Q to lead the Grail crew to their destiny and prevent horrible events of Borg domination in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. However, upon the death of his mother in the present, the clone was unable to continue to lead. Epic Terrakian himself returned, relenquishing his powers as a Q that had been given to him upon his death and joining the crew once more. He was later killed again in an explosion on an away mission.
Another away mission triggered another large explosion on a nearby planet. The shockwave summarily destroyed the planet and anyone who was on it. Kaje, along with her daughter and some of the Shuttle Bay crew, managed to barely escape the shockwave in one of the runabouts stored on the Grail. They remained stranded for several days in the light of the expanding anomaly created by the explosion on the planet. Arda prematurely gave birth to her child, a baby girl she named Arda Bestri, during this time and, surprisingly, the child survived.
The Orinoco was eventually pulled into the anomaly, like most of the remaining escape pods and shuttles that had evacuated the Grail. They drifted through and emerged in a dark area, far outside the opposite side the galaxy. They were now on the side of the Gamma Quadrant, diagnally out, instead of stranded in the middle of the Delta Quadrant. Much to their pleasant surprise, they caught sight of a Federation vessel.
The USS Brant had been put in a similar situation, having been pulled through the Bajoran wormhole, but, in a freak situation, being deposited outside the galaxy instead of in Dominion territory. The refit, recommissioned Constitution class vessel took in as many of the escape pods from the Grail as they could, but many people didn't survive. The Orinoco, most systems disabled from the explosion that destroyed the Grail, drifted towards the ship, all on board hoping this was their salvation.
Quote: "Whatever."
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