NEW: Ziyal at Terok Nor 2/3 [PG] (DS9, adaptation)
Laura Taylor
*****
ZIYAL (throwing herself into DUKAT'S arms): Be not wroth with me,
Major, if I run from thy side and throw myself on my father's breast.
O my father! I long to outrun others and embrace thee after this long
while; for I yearn to see thy face; be not wroth with me.
KIRA: Thou mayst do so, child; for thou hast ever loved thy father
best.
ZIYAL: I see thee, father, joyfully after a long season.
DUKAT: And I thy father thee; thy words do equal duty for both of us.
ZIYAL: All hail, father! thou didst well in bringing me hither to thee.
DUKAT: I know not how I am to say yes or no to that, my child.
ZIYAL: Ha! how wildly thou art looking, spite of thy joy at seeing me.
DUKAT: A man has many cares when he is gul.
ZIYAL: Be mine, all mine to-day; turn not unto moody thoughts.
DUKAT: Why so I am, all thine to-day; I have no other thought.
ZIYAL: Then smooth thy knitted brow, unbend and smile.
DUKAT: Lo! my child, my joy at seeing thee is even as it is.
ZIYAL: And hast thou then the tear-drop streaming from thy eyes?
DUKAT: Ave, for long is the absence from each other, that awaits us.
ZIYAL: I know not, dear father mine, I know not of what thou art
speaking.
DUKAT: Thou art moving my pity all the more by speaking so sensibly.
ZIYAL: My words shall turn to senselessness, if that will cheer thee
more.
DUKAT (aside): Ah, woe is me! this silence is too much.
To ZIYAL
Thou hast my thanks.
ZIYAL: Stay with thy children at home, father.
DUKAT: My own wish! but to my sorrow I may not humour it.
ZIYAL: Ruin seize their warring and the woes of Weyoun!
DUKAT: First will that, which has been my life-long ruin, bring ruin
unto others.
ZIYAL: How long thou wert absent in the corridors of Terok Nor!
DUKAT: Aye, and there is still a hindrance to my sending the army
forward.
ZIYAL: Where do men say the Federations live, father?
DUKAT: In a land where I would Sisko, the son of Terra, ne'er had
dwelt.
ZIYAL: 'Tis a long voyage thou art bound on, father, after thou leavest
me.
DUKAT: Thou wilt meet thy father again, my daughter.
ZIYAL: Ah! would it were seemly that thou shouldst take me as a
fellow-voyager!
DUKAT: Thou too hast a voyage to make to a haven where thou wilt
remember thy father.
ZIYAL: Shall I sail thither with the major or alone?
DUKAT: All alone, without father or Kira.
ZIYAL: What! hast thou found me a new home, father!
DUKAT: Enough of this! 'tis not for girls to know such things.
ZIYAL: Speed home from Terra, I pray thee, father, as soon as thou hast
triumphed there.
DUKAT: There is a sacrifice have first to offer here.
ZIYAL: Yea, 'tis thy duty to heed religion with aid of holy rites.
DUKAT: Thou wilt witness it, for thou wilt be standing near the laver.
ZIYAL: Am I to lead the dance then round the altar, father?
DUKAT (aside): I count thee happier than myself because thou knowest
nothing.
To ZIYAL
Go within into the presence of maidens, after thou hast given me thy
hand and one sad kiss, on the eve of thy lengthy sojourn far from thy
father's side.
Bosom, ridges, and raven hair! ah, how grievous ye have found the
Celestial Temple and the Federation! I can no more; the tears come
welling to my eyes, the moment I touch thee.
Exit ZIYAL.
Turning to KIRA
Herein I crave thy pardon, daughter of Bajor, if I showed excessive
grief at the thought of resigning my daughter to Damar; for though we
are sending her to taste of bliss, still it wrings a parent's heart,
when he, the father who has toiled so hard for them, commits his
children to the homes of strangers.
KIRA: I am not so void of sense; bethink thee, I shall go through this
as well, when I lead the maiden from the chamber to the sound of the
marriage-hymn; wherefore I chide thee not; but custom will combine with
time to make the smart grow less.
Did the Obsidian Order or the Cardassian Military Academy train Damar?
DUKAT: I brought him up, to prevent his learning the ways of the
wicked.
KIRA: Ah wise the teacher, still wiser the father, who entrusted his
son to such hands.
DUKAT: Such is the future husband of thy daughter.
KIRA: A blameless gul; but what city on Cardassia is his?
DUKAT: He dwells on the banks of the river Apidanus, in the borders of
Phthia.
KIRA: Wilt thou convey our daughter thither?
DUKAT: He who takes her to himself will see to that.
KIRA: Happiness attend the pair! Which day will he marry her?
DUKAT: As soon as the full moon comes to give its blessing.
KIRA: Hast thou already offered a sacrifice to usher in the maiden's
marriage?
DUKAT: I am about to do so; that is the very thing I was engaged in.
KIRA: Wilt thou celebrate the marriage-feast thereafter?
DUKAT: Yes, when I have offered a sacrifice required of me.
KIRA: But where am I to make ready the feast for the women?
DUKAT: Here beside our gallant warships.
KIRA: Finely here! but still I must; good come of it for all that!
DUKAT: I will tell thee, lady, what to do; so obey me now.
KIRA: Wherein? for I was ever wont to yield thee obedience.
DUKAT: Here, where the bridegroom is, will!
KIRA: Which of my duties will ye perform in my absence?
DUKAT: Give our child away with help of the Jem'Hadar.
KIRA: And where am I to be the while?
DUKAT: Get thee to Bajor.
KIRA: And leave Ziyal? Then who will raise her bridal torch?
DUKAT: I will provide the proper wedding torch.
KIRA: That is not the custom; but thou thinkest lightly of these
things.
DUKAT: It is not good thou shouldst be alone among a soldier-crowd.
KIRA: It is good that a patron should give her own ward away.
DUKAT: Aye, and that those maidens at home should not be left alone.
KIRA: They are in safe keeping, pent in their maiden-bowers.
DUKAT: Obey.
KIRA: Nay, by the Prophets of Bajor! go, manage matters out of doors;
but in the house it is my place to decide what is proper for maidens at
their wedding. Exit.
DUKAT: Woe is me! my efforts are baffled; I am disappointed in my hope,
anxious as I was to get Kira out of sight; foiled at every point, I form
my plots and subtle schemes against my best-beloved. But I will go, in
spite of all, with the Foundress, to inquire her good pleasure, fraught
with ill-luck as it is to me, and with trouble to the Dominion.
Exit.
CHORUS: They say the Cardassians' gathered host will come in arms
aboard their ships to the system with its aquamarine eddies, even to
Sol, the sun of Terra. And on the towers of Terra and round her walls
shall Terrans stand, when space-borne troops with brazen shields warp in
on shapely ships to the channels of the system, eager to take the
Celestial Temple, from Sisko, and bear her back to the Dominion by toil
of Cardassia's shields and spears; encircling Mars, the Terrans'
neighbor, with murderous war around her stone-built towers, dragging
men's heads backward to cut their throats, and sacking Federation
Headquarters from roof to base, a cause of many tears to maids and
wives; and the Celestial Temple shall weep in bitter grief, because she
left.
Oh! ne'er may there appear to me or to my children's children the
prospect which the wealthy Terran brides will have, as at their looms
they hold converse: "Say who will pluck this fair blossom from her
ruined country, tightening his grasp on lovely tresses till the tears
flow? 'Tis all through thee, the offspring of the long-necked swan; if
indeed it be a true report that Bajor bare thee to a winged bird, when
Zeus transformed himself thereto, or whether, in the pages of the poets,
fables have carried these tales to men's ears idly, out of season."
Enter DAMAR.
DAMAR: Where in these tents is Cardassia's general? Which of his
servants will announce to him that Damar is at his gates seeking him?
For this delay at is not the same for all of us; there be some, for
instance, who, though still unwed, have left their houses desolate and
are idling here upon the beach, while others are married and have
children; so strange the longing for this expedition that has fallen on
their hearts by Heaven's will. My own just plea must I declare, and
whoso else hath any wish will speak for himself. Though I have left
Pharsalia and Peleus, still I linger here, restraining my glinns, while
they are ever instant with me saying, "Why do we tarry, Damar? how much
longer must we count the days to the start for Terra? do something, if
thou art so minded; else lead home thy men, and wait not for the tardy
action of these men."
Enter KIRA.
KIRA: Hail to thee, son of Cardassia! I heard thy voice from within the
tent and therefore came forth.
DAMAR: O modesty revered! who can this lady be whom I behold, so richly
dowered with beauty's gifts?
KIRA: No wonder thou knowest me not, seeing I am one thou hast never
before set eyes on; I praise thy reverent address to modesty.
DAMAR: Who art thou, and wherefore art thou come to the mustering of
the Jem'Hadar-thou, a woman, to a fenced camp of men?
KIRA: The daughter of Bajor I; my name Kira.
DAMAR: Well and shortly answered on all important points! but it ill
befits that I should stand talking to women.
KIRA: Stay; why seek to fly? Give me thy hand, a prelude to a happy
marriage.
DAMAR: What is it thou sayest? I give thee my hand? Were I to lay a
finger where I have no right, I could ne'er meet Dukat's eye.
KIRA: The best of rights hast thou, seeing it is my child thou wilt
wed, O son of Cardassia.
DAMAR: What wedding dost thou speak of? words fail me, lady; can thy
wits have gone astray and art thou inventing this?
KIRA: All men are naturally shy in the presence of new relations, when
these remind them of their wedding.
DAMAR: Lady, I have never wooed daughter of thine, nor have the sons of
Cardassia ever mentioned marriage to me.
KIRA: What can it mean? thy turn now to marvel at my words, for thine
are passing strange to me.
DAMAR: Hazard a guess; that we can both do in this matter; for it may
be we are both correct in our statements.
KIRA: What! have I suffered such indignity? The marriage I am courting
has no reality, it seems; I am ashamed of it.
DAMAR: Some one perhaps has made a mock of thee and me; pay no heed
thereto; make light of it.
KIRA: Farewell; I can no longer face thee with unfaltering eyes, after
being made a liar and suffering this indignity.
DAMAR: 'Tis "farewell" too I bid thee, lady; and now I go within the
tent to seek Gul Dukat.
CARDASSIAN (calling through the tent-door): Stranger, stay awhile! Ho
there! thee I mean, O Cardassian, and thee, daughter of Bajor.
DAMAR: Who is it calling through the half-opened door? what fear his
voice betrays!
CARDASSIAN: A glinn am I; of that I am not proud, for fortune permits
it not.
DAMAR: Whose glinn art thou? not mine; for mine and Dukat's goods are
separate.
CARDASSIAN: I belong to Dukat.
DAMAR: I am waiting; tell me, if thou art desirous, why thou hast
stayed me.
CARDASSIAN: Are ye really all alone here at the door?
KIRA: To us alone wilt thou address thyself; come forth from the gul's
tent.
CARDASSIAN (coming out): O Fortune and my own foresight, preserve whom
I desire!
DAMAR: That speech will save them-in the future; it has a certain
pompous air.
KIRA: Delay not for the sake of touching my right hand, if there is
aught that thou wouldst say to me.
CARDASSIAN: True; and though I bear thee all goodwill, I like not thy
gul so well.
KIRA: Come, come, unfold whate'er thou hast to say.
CARDASSIAN: Her father, he that begat her, is on the point of slaying
thy ward with his own hand.
KIRA: How? Out upon thy story, old dotard! thou art mad.
CARDASSIAN: Severing with a sword the hapless maid's white throat.
KIRA: Ah, woe is me! Is Dukat haply mad?
CARDASSIAN: Nay; sane, except where thou and his daughter are
concerned; there he is mad.
KIRA: What is his reason? what vengeful fiend impels him?
CARDASSIAN: Oracles-at least so the Foundress says, in order that the
host may start.
KIRA: Whither? Woe is me, and woe is thee, thy father's destined
victim!
CARDASSIAN: To the wardroom, that Weyoun may recover the Celestial
Temple.
KIRA: So the Celestial Temple's return then was fated to affect Ziyal?
CARDASSIAN: Thou knowest all; her father is about to offer his child.
KIRA: But that marriage-what pretext had it for bringing me from home?
CARDASSIAN: An inducement to thee to bring thy ward cheerfully, to wed
her to Damar.
KIRA: On a deadly errand art thou come, Ziyal, both thou, and I.
CARDASSIAN: Piteous the lot of both of you-and fearful Dukat's venture.
KIRA: Alas! I am undone; my eyes can no longer stem their tears.
CARDASSIAN: What more natural than to weep the loss of thy children?
KIRA: Whence, glinn, dost say thou hadst this news?
CARDASSIAN: I had started to carry thee a PADD referring to the former
writing.
KIRA: Forbidding or combining to urge my bringing the child to her
death?
CARDASSIAN: Nay, forbidding it, for thy gul was then in his sober
senses.
KIRA: How comes it then, if thou wert really bringing me a PADD, that
thou dost not now deliver into my hands?
CARDASSIAN: Weyoun snatched it from me-he who caused this trouble.
KIRA: Dost thou hear that, son of Cardassia?
DAMAR: I have been listening to the tale of thy sufferings, and I am
indignant to think I was used as a tool.
KIRA: They will slay Ziyal; they have tricked her with thy marriage.
DAMAR: Like thee I blame Dukat, nor do I view it with mere
indifference.
KIRA: No longer will I let shame prevent my kneeling to thee, a Bajoran
to a Cardassian; why do I affect reserve? whose interests should I
consult before Ziyal's?
Throwing herself before DAMAR
Oh! help me in my sore distress, and her that was called thy bride-in
vain, 'tis true, yet called she was. For thee it was I wreathed her head
and led her forth as if to marriage, but now it is to slaughter I am
bringing her. On thee will come reproach because thou didst not help
her; for though not wedded to her, yet wert thou the loving husband of
my hapless maid in name at any rate. By thy ridges, right hand, and
mother too I do implore thee; for thy name it was that worked my ruin,
and thou art bound to stand by that. Except thy knees I have no altar
whereunto to fly; and not a friend stands at my side. Thou hast heard
the cruel abandoned scheme of Dukat; and I, a woman, am come, as thou
seest, to a camp of lawless soldiers, bold in evil's cause, though
useful when they list; wherefore if thou boldly stretch forth thine arm
in my behalf, our safety is assured; but if thou withhold it, we are
lost.
CHORUS: A wondrous thing is motherhood, carrying with it a potent
spell, wherein all share, so that for their children's sake they will
endure affliction.
DAMAR: My proud spirit is stirred to range aloft, but it has learnt to
grieve in misfortune and rejoice in high prosperity with equal
moderation. For these are the men who can count on ordering all their
life aright by wisdom's rules. True, there are cases where 'tis pleasant
not to be too wise, but there are others, where some store of wisdom
helps. I learnt to keep a single heart; and provided the Dominion lead
aright, I will obey them; but when they cease therefrom, no more will I
obey. Nay, but here and on Terra I will show the freedom of my nature,
and, as far as in me lies, do honour to Cardassia with my phaser. Thee,
lady, who hast suffered so cruelly from thy nearest and dearest, will I,
by every effort in a young man's power, set right, investing thee with
that amount of pity, and never shall thy ward, after being once called
my bride, die by her father's hand; for I will not lend myself to
Dukat's subtle tricks; no! for it will be my name that kills thy child,
although it wieldeth not the steel. Dukat is the actual cause, but I
shall no longer be guiltless, if, because of me and my marriage, this
maiden perishes, she that hath suffered past endurance and been the
victim of affronts most strangely undeserved. So am I made the poorest
wretch; I a thing of naught, and Weyoun counting for a man! No son of
Cardassia I, but the issue of a vengeful fiend, if my name shall serve
thy husband for the murder. Nay! never shall Gul Dukat touch thy
daughter, no! not even to the laying of a finger-tip upon her robe. The
Foundress shall rue beginning the sacrifice with her barley-meal and
lustral water. Why, what is a changeling? A creature who tells the truth
sometimes, with frequent falsehoods, but when his luck deserts him,
collapses then and there. It is not to secure a bride that I have spoken
thus-there be maids unnumbered eager to have my love-no! but Gul Dukat
has put an insult on me; he should have asked my leave to use my name as
a means to catch the child, for it was I chiefly who induced Kira to
betroth her ward to me; verily I had yielded this to the Dominion, if
that was where our going to Terra broke down; I would never have refused
to further my fellow soldiers' common interest. But, as it is, I am as
naught in the eyes of those guls, and little they reck of treating me
well or ill. My sword shall soon know if any one is to snatch thy
daughter from me, for then will I make it reek with the bloody stains of
slaughter, ere it reach the Federation. Calm thyself then; as a god in
his might I appeared to thee, without being so, but such will I show
myself for all that.
CHORUS: Son of Cardassia, thy words are alike worthy of thee and thy
kind.
KIRA: Ah! would I could find words to utter thy praise without excess,
and yet not lose the graciousness thereof by stinting it; for when the
good are praised, they have a feeling, as it were, of hatred for those
who in their praise exceed the mean. But I am ashamed of intruding a
tale of woe, since my affliction touches myself alone and thou art not
affected by troubles of mine; but still it looks well for the man of
worth to assist the unfortunate, even when he is not connected with
them. Wherefore pity us, for our sufferings cry for pity; in the first
place, I have harboured an idle hope in thinking to have thee wed Ziyal;
and next, perhaps, the slaying of my child will be to thee an evil omen
in thy wooing hereafter, against which thou must guard thyself. Thy
words were good, both first and last; for if thou will it so, Ziyal will
be saved. Wilt have her clasp thy knees in suppliant wise? 'Tis no
maid's part; yet if it seem good to thee, why come she shall with the
modest look of free-born maid; but if I shall obtain the self-same end
from thee without ker coming, then let her abide within, for there is
dignity in her reserve; still reserve must only go as far as the case
allows.
DAMAR: Bring not Ziyal out for me to see, Major, nor let us incur the
reproach of the ignorant; for an army, when gathered together without
domestic duties to employ it, loves the evil gossip of malicious
tongues. After all, should ye supplicate me, ye will attain a like
result as if I had ne'er been supplicated; for I am myself engaged in a
mighty struggle to rid you of your troubles. One thing be sure thou hast
heard; I will not tell a lie; if I do that or idly mock thee, may I die,
but live if I preserve the maid.
KIRA: Bless thee for ever succouring the distressed!
DAMAR: Hearken then to me, that the matter may succeed.
KIRA: What is thy proposal? for hear thee I must.
DAMAR: Let us once more urge her father to a better frame of mind.
KIRA: He is something of a coward, and fears the army too much.
DAMAR: Still argument o'erthroweth argument.
KIRA: Cold hope indeed; but tell me what I must do.
DAMAR: Entreat him first not to slay his children, and if he is
stubborn, come to me. For if he consents to thy request, my intervention
need go no further, since this consent insures thy safety. I too shall
show myself in a better light to my friend, and the army will not blame
me, if I arrange the matter by reason rather than force; while, should
things turn out well, the result will prove satisfactory both to thee
and thy friends, even without my interference.
KIRA: How sensibly thou speakest! I must act as seemeth best to thee;
but should I fail of my object, where am I to see thee again? whither
must I turn my wretched steps and find thee ready to champion my
distress?
DAMAR: I am keeping watch to guard thee, where occasion calls, that
none see thee passing through the host of Jem'Hadar with that scared
look. Shame not Bajor; for the Prophets deserveth not to be ill spoken
of.
KIRA: 'Tis even so. Command me; I must play the slave to thee. If there
are Prophets, thou for thy righteous dealing wilt find them favourable;
if there are none, what need to toil?
Exeunt DAMAR and KIRA.
CHORUS: What wedding-hymn was that which raised its strains to the
sound of Libyan flutes, to the music of the dancer's lyre, and the note
of the pipe of reeds?
'Twas in the day Pieria's fair-tressed choir came o'er the slopes of
Pelion to the marriage-feast of Peleus, beating the ground with print of
golden sandals at the banquet of the gods, and hymning in dulcet strains
the praise of Thetis and the son of Aeacus, o'er the Centaurs' hill,
down through the woods of Pelion.
There was the boy, Ganymede, whom Zeus delights to honour, drawing off
the wine he mixed in the depths of golden bowls; while, along the
gleaming sand, the fifty daughters of Nereus graced the marriage with
their dancing, circling in a mazy ring.
Came too the revel-rout of Centaurs, mounted on horses, to the feast of
the gods and the mixing-bowl of Bacchus, leaning on fir-trees, with
wreaths of green foliage round their heads; and loudly cried the prophet
Chiron, skilled in arts inspired by Phoebus; "Daughter of Nereus, thou
shalt bear a son"-whose name he gave-"a dazzling light to Thessaly; for
he shall come with an army of spearmen to the far-famed land of Priam,
to set it in a blaze, his body cased in a suit of golden mail forged by
Hephaestus, a gift from his goddess-mother, even from Thetis who bore
him."
Then shed the gods a blessing on the marriage of the high-born bride,
who was first of Nereus' daughters, and on the wedding of Peleus. But
thee, will Argives crown, wreathing the lovely tresses of thy hair, like
a dappled mountain hind brought from some rocky cave or a heifer
undefiled, and staining with blood thy human throat; though thou wert
never reared like these amid the piping and whistling of herdsmen, but
at thy mother's side, to be decked one day by her as the bride of a son
of Inachus. Where now does the face of modesty or virtue avail aught?
seeing that godlessness holds sway, and virtue is neglected by men and
thrust behind them, lawlessness o'er law prevailing, and mortals no
longer making common cause to keep the jealousy of gods from reaching
them.
KIRA (reappearing from the tent): I have come from the tent to look out
for Dukat, who went away and left its shelter long ago; while that poor
child, Ziyal, hearing of the death her father designs for her, is in
tears, uttering in many keys her piteous lamentation.
Catching sight of DUKAT
It seems I was speaking of one not far away; for there is Dukat, who
will soon be detected in the commission of a crime against his own
child.
Enter DUKAT.
TBC...
--
=====
"This city of monuments [Washington, D.C.] is itself a monument to
blunders, bungles and boondoggles. Part of what makes this country great
is it can survive Washington year after year."
Tom Shales
Trillseekr
In article <36BCEC98...@roanoke.infi.net>, Laura Taylor
<dre...@roanoke.infi.net> writes:
>DAMAR: What is it thou sayest? I give thee my hand? Were I to lay a
>finger where I have no right, I could ne'er meet Dukat's eye.
>
>KIRA: The best of rights hast thou, seeing it is my child thou wilt
>wed, O son of Cardassia.
>
>DAMAR: What wedding dost thou speak of? words fail me, lady; can thy
>wits have gone astray and art thou inventing this?
Oops, the jig is up now....
Trilly