Wrath of the Prophets by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Star Trek Fiction, Bajor (Imaginary Place), Space Opera, Fiction, Science Fiction, Adventure, General
ISBN: 9780671538170
Google: Qd6dxeIRXYkC
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 1997-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

KAI WINN PACED her temple, rubbing the sides of her forehead and trying to remove the pain that pounded within her. There had to be answers. Somewhere, there had to be answers.

Had they truly strayed so far that they were irredeemable? Was the situation on Bajor utterly hopeless?

The numbers were brought to her every hour. The number of dead. The number of reported new cases. The Wrath of the Prophets had spread with hideous velocity, like a ravenous fire scorching every life in its path.

She had prayed; oh, how she had prayed. She had meditated, she had offered supplications, she had studied ancient texts to search for precedents and how they were handled. Whenever she was not praying, she was studying, and vice versa- night and day, neglecting herself, until she couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept more than an hour or so.

Winn consulted one of her books and began murmuring the invocations in it, although reading wasn’t really necessary. After all this time, she had the invocation seared into her memory.

She spoke faster and faster, words tripping one over the other, and then she began to realize that the words didn’t seem to have any meaning to her anymore- if indeed they ever had. They were just... just sounds. Random syllables, noises that bore no relationship to anything real.

Her throat was raw from all her praying, and she swirled her tongue over her cracked lips. She was thirsty. She was thirsty a lot lately, but she’d ignored it just as she’d ignored everything else...

Suddenly she threw the prayer book down. It crashed to the floor and she shouted to the heavens, “What do you want from us? What do you want? To kill us all? Is that it? Just... just cut us down, like excess wheat? Is this just some exercise in cruelty? What did we do to deserve this? What could anyone do to deserve this?”

Her voice was rising higher in pitch, and higher still, until it began to sound like a screech. “Are we actually supposed to worship you? Give thanks when you provide us with favors, and tremble and beg for forgiveness when you inflict some new hardship on us?

“Is that how you wish to rule over us? With fear? Don’t you know anything? Even the lowliest mortal can tell you it’s far better to be respected because of love than because of fear. How can we know this simple fact while you, the Prophets, are oblivious to it?”

She began to cough violently, her rage not yet spent. “For years, decades, I preached your word. I condemned those who did not believe, and I fought back against the impious and the impure. We’ve tried our best- we are not perfect. We can never be perfect. But, Prophets, we deserve better than this! We deserve...”

The room began to spin around her, and a new fit of coughing seized her. She put her hand to her mouth, drew her palm away, and saw it tinged with blood.

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