The Sacrifice

Written by

James Coppock

Based on the television series:

“Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”

Third Draft

24 January 94

Synopsis

(Caution: Ending is revealed.  Do not read if you do not wish to spoil the plot's ending.)

            A mysterious man from Kira's past, Jaren Vorlanna, arrives at Deep Space Nine when his ship experiences engine difficulties.  Throughout his brief stay, Kira does her best to avoid seeing Jaren for reasons as yet unknown.  Soon, though, it is revealed that Jaren once worked in the Bajoran Resistance during the Cardassian occupation and, because of the war, lost both his lover and their child.  Thus, for the past three years, Jaren has been filled with nothing but pain and anger as he directs his hatred toward Cardassians.

            When Kira is confronted by Jaren's crew members on the Promenade, she angrily denies her identity and quickly departs.  Speculation as to why Kira has been acting so odd and what her relationship with Jaren may have been runs rampant on the station.  Jaren's crew tell them they have found Kira, alive, and Jaren is stunned by the news.  Soon, he seeks to find her.

            The first meeting between Kira and Jaren is an emotional one, yet Kira cannot bear to speak with him for long and flees.  When Jaren reveals his heart's dilemma to Julian, it's discovered that Jaren and Kira met in the underground over four years ago and had fallen in love.  They even had a son.  Shortly afterward, though, when Jaren went on a raid of a Cardassian post, the Cardassians made a counter strike on their lunar facility.  The few Bajorans who had escaped later told Jaren that Kira, with her quick thinking, had saved them.  Yet somehow Kira vanished, presumably captured by the enemy, and Jaren saw neither her nor their child again.

            Meanwhile, Kira shares her feelings with Dax, and the latter explains how the only way to heal the pain of losing her child (the means of its as yet unrevealed in the script) was to face it.  Kira knows what she has to do.

            Thus, when Kira and Jaren finally meet a second time, they drop their emotional barriers and embrace.  Jaren declares that they can still have a life together.  He curses the Cardassians, whom he believes killed his son.  As Kira relates her story of what had really happened that fateful day three years ago, it is gradually revealed that while she and the others were hiding in the overhead ventilation shafts, their child began to cry.  Nothing she did to soothe the baby would stop the child's crying, to the horror of all those with her.  Worse yet, the Cardassians heard the sounds, too, and if the Bajoran rebels were discovered, then the tape that Kira had down-loaded from their computer would fall into enemy hands, meaning the certain of hundreds of Bajoran undercover operatives.  Kira could do nothing, though, but hold the infant closer to her.  To their shared relief, the baby finally stopped crying.  They were safe. 

            Only after they made it to the surface did Kira discover to her shame and guilt that her child was , apparently suffocated.  Overwhelmed by emotion, Kara fled.  Jaren, upon hearing Kira's tale, is stunned, outraged.  Unable to see anything but his pain, he says it wasn't the Cardassians who killed his son but Kira.  In an emotion-filled ending, Jaren refuses to face the anguish as Kira has done.  He blames her.  Jaren departs as Kira watches in silent tears.