WRITING CHALLENGE : No Comfort

Posted on Sun Jun 26th, 2016 @ 12:18am by
Edited on on Sun Jun 26th, 2016 @ 12:18am

Mission: Mission 1 - Bridges
Location: Deck 3 - Crew Quarters
Timeline: MD-4 04:00
553 words - 1.1 OF Standard Post Measure

The scene was the same. The mining camp where Joss walked with his grandfather to patient after patient was poor and ragged.

He remembered that day. The Cardassians had left them alone for quite a while. They had met their quota three months in a row. However, this month they had not unearth enough of the pergium. Everyone was on edge, knowing an impending visit would occur.

The day started like any other. Joss was with his grandfather. They were in the small hut of an elderly woman. She was weak and frail, near to death. From the hut, they could hear the commotion in the center of the camp.

Joss and his grand fate knew what it meant. The hard taskmasters were back inside the camp, attempting to motivate them to do better mining. To work harder. To not be lazy no good Bajorans. They regularly showed when the quota wasn't met. Sometimes the recognized camp leaders were executed as a warning to the community.

That day, when Joss and his grandfather arrive in the center of the camp, several young girls were lined up. In the middle of them was Dexo, Joss' sister. Joss was too young to realize what was happening, but he could see the fear in his grandfather's eyes. Grandfather knew what was happening and it scared him.

The Cardassian soldiers sized the girls up. Checked them from head to toe. Checked their hair, their teeth, even copped a feel or two. One Bajoran man objected and was shot down as he attempted to take one of the girls away. Finally, they settled on one; it was Dexo. They called her Gul Borak's comfort girl.

Joss didn't understand what a comfort girl was. But he saw that they were taking her away out of the camp. He saw his grandfather drop to his knees and crying. Everyone stared at them. Joss couldn't let them take his sister. He ran for her, tried to get her away from them, but was struck down by one of the soldiers.

He watched as the soldiers regrouped outside of the camp. Then, the dematerialized as they were transported away. Dexo was gone too. Joss stood there crying. He never saw her again.

Talon awoke with a start. He had to think of what awoke him, then he remembered the dream. He felt the dampness of his hair as he ran his fingers through it. None of the dreams he experienced from his childhood days was good. It was why he hated Cardassians. They took his family from him. His sister, then his mother and father, who had fought for Bajoran freedom.

Like always, Talon had difficulty falling back to sleep after the dream. Of course, he recognized the Occupation was over. But the dreams seemed so real, possibly because Joss actually experienced them. They were simply replays from his earlier life. Sometimes they were played out in slow motion in the dreams.

Talon turned to his coping mechanism. Reaching into a corner by his bed, Talon picked up the tivara. He began to play an ancient Terran classical piece called Fur Elise. Some nights it would be Brahms, some Bach, some Mozart. Tonight it was Beethoven. He played for nearly forty minutes until he drifted to off back to sleep.