The Sins of History
Posted on Tue Apr 22nd, 2025 @ 8:06pm by Captain Marc Kidd & Lieutenant Christopher Blake & Lieutenant Sorine Kaida
Edited on on Tue Apr 22nd, 2025 @ 8:31pm
2,073 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Episode 2 - The Sins of History
Location: Holding Cell - Deck 13 - USS Artemis
Timeline: MD012 2300 hrs
Vamcet paced his cell like a caged animal. He did not want to be in the cell, no Cardassian did well in captivity. However, he knew he deserved this. if he could simply make them understand, make them learn who he was and why he did what he did. They would see, they would not treat him so bad. For this Cardassian this voyage back to Bajor was not for justice it was for absolution.
Kaida wasn't looking forward to this by any sense of the word but it was her job, a job she usually loved. Everything about this case had brought back memories of the occupation however, and she knew she was going to have to bury those feelings deep within her and keep them out of this.
"Mr. Vamcet?" Kaida asked. It was rhetorical but at least it announced her presence as she entered and gave him a chance to address her. "I am Lieutenant Sorine Kaida. I'm going to be asking you a few questions."
Vamcet turned to face the new arrival and he smiled ear to ear. "Of course they would send a Bajoran. An attempt to ply at my sympathies no doubt, or is this your attempt at some sort of sick revenge on behalf of your people. Who better to bring down the Butcher of Porchet then a Bajoran." He stopped pacing and squared himself in the middle of his cell. He stood at his full height and somehow even while caged exuded something to be feared. "Now ask anything your little heart desires. Be honored if I decide to answer it."
"Just doing my job." She answered simply. Kaida generally didn't think about Cardassians that much. She imagined they wouldn't like that if she admitted it. To be thought of kept them in the forefront, even if the attention was negative and the Cardassians ,in her opinion, were definitely what she had heard her foster mother call divas. "I'm going to start simple. Do you know why you were apprehended by Starfleet?"
Vamcet was slightly disappointed and it showed on his face. He thought she would ask something hard hitting, something that would get to the meat of the matter as it were. Yet she led with something simple. "Yes... I am here at the request of your government. It seems to me that as always Bajor needed help from another to take care of its dirty work." He wanted to get under her skin, he wanted her to show him that Bajoran fire.
Kaida was not one to take the bait. "And the charges against you? Made up so that we could have this little chat in a jail cell and make it look like Starfleet and Bajor were doing something constructive?" It almost amused her, almost. She sat back in her chair, watching him, his facial expression, wondering if there was anything sane left behind those eyes.
"Made up I believe would be the incorrect wording. I believe that from where you and your Starfleet betters sit these charges are very much real. However, from where I sit and from where my government sits they are false and you having me here is akin to kidnapping. However, I have faith that your Captain would not be risking everything. So, here we are. If you are asking what I feel about these charges? I feel that you do not understand, you can not understand. Perhaps no one can." The fire in Vamcet's voice dissipated as he spoke. Almost as if he was unsure if he believed himself anymore.
"Oh I'd very much like to understand. Do you think you could enlighten me?" Genuinely curious about what he might say Kaida adjusted her position ever so slightly. The mind was a fascinating thing to her. She wasn't sure she believed that anyone could truly know or understand and mind of another because there were so many tiny bits of information and details that made a person who they were, but there were certain things that might remain the same about some individuals, certain characteristics that often came up in Investigations when dealing with those that killed.
Vamcet regarded the woman before him for a moment. Through the shimmer of the cell field he could see a Bajoran much like the millions of Bajorans he has seen before. Nothing too remarkable, and yet she seems to think she could understand why he had to do what he did. "You see there was no crime committed. When a people have a desperate belief, one that they consider utmost they would do anything to make sure it was true. At the time my people believed that there were none better in this galaxy, none better than Cardassians. Everyone was lesser and deserved nothing but to service our needs. Now, your personal feelings aside about this matter. If that is what you see as the truth then anything done in that pursuit is not a crime. It is akin to those on Earth who believed that the Earth was flat and did everything they could do prove it. Your own people's faith in the prophets is in the same vein of thinking as this."
He began to pace within his cell and held his finger up to stop her from saying anything for a moment. "For example, if you destroy a starship under orders from your Captain, an Admiral, or what have you. Everyone on the ship you destroyed is dead. Did you murder those people?"
She shifted her weight from one foot to the other and studied his body language as much as she listened to his words. "Are you trying to suggest that just following orders makes you immune from the guilt? Since you brought up Earth history, that very idea of just following orders was brought up and discounted in the trials just after their second world war."
"So do answer your question, yes. It is still murder. Orders or not those people would have died at my hand and that is something that I would have to live with." Kaida replied simply. "I think you see things differently though. The deaths of lesser beings doesn't really matter does it?"
Vamcet stopped pacing and stood center in his cell as close to the field as he dared to get. If there was no field he would have been nose to nose with Sorine. "I have studied Earth history and you see they got it wrong all those many years ago. For they did not see that there is a difference between criminal guilt and moral guilt." His voice grew a tad louder, more impassioned. "Does following orders absolve you of the moral guilt, of course not. However, it does absolve you of the criminal guilt. It is not a crime to follow orders, especially in a society where orders are the way of things. You are only here, speaking to me, because it was Bajorans that I dealt with. If it were any other race of beings you would not be as interested. Search yourself you know I am correct."
Kaida pursed her lips a little. "I'd like to think that I'd be here regardless. Crimes were committed and it's my obligation to get to the bottom of things whether they have a more personal stake or not."
"Which do you feel is worse?" She asked, not backing down from the Cardiassian who was responsible for so much suffering. "Criminal or moral guilt?" She paused before the next part, trying hard to keep calm. "If found innocent, would that give you peace to live out the rest of your life happy and free?"
Vamcet squared to her with nothing but the field seperating them. "It doesn't matter which is worse now does it. All that matters is what the society says. Morality is a choice it is something that one chooses for themselves. Criminal guilt is chosen for you by the society in which you live. So it depends upon where...." His voice trailed off as if the wind was taken from his proverbial sails. The look on his face was akin to someone who suffered from dementia as they had a moment. He stumbled back and fell to the floor now seated. When Vamcet spoke again it was if he was a different person, his voice softened. "And there you see is the problem. Society says one thing, and you know another. Tell me Lieutenant how can a person be both sorry and not sorry at the same time?"
"With great difficulty." Kaida replied quietly. "Maybe it's the question of what you feel compared to what society says you should feel. Many Cardassians don't see the occupation as a big issue, or as something to be white washed into something it wasn't. I don't think you personally feel that way."
She bent her knees to be able to keep looking Vamcet in the eye. "Deep down in your heart, you don't agree with what Cardassian society has instilled in you to be right and wrong."
"Ah, but do I? Lieutenant... Do I? I am the great butcher. The Butcher of Porchet I believe your people call me. I will reiterate what I said earlier. It doesn't matter what is deep down in my heart. What matters is that when I was working,when I was performing those experiments, doing my duty, I enjoyed it. I did it because I had to and I often wonder if I would do it again." Vamcet had resumed pacing in his cell. He was yelling, and slightly foaming at the mouth. In the moment it seemed that his anger had taken hold of him.
Kaida sighed and stood back up, pinching the bridge of her nose between her fingers and closing her eyes. So much for trying to get a connection with the man. No, this was going to take some work with the evidence they had already. She opened her eyes and steeled herself as she looked at Vamcet. Part of her wondered if anything the man said could be trusted or reliable, he certainly seemed unbalanced and conflicted.
"Ok Vamcet." Kaida said with a sigh. "Tell me how you think this is going to go for you. You have your guilt and you have your pride, but at the end of the day when you stand in that court what will you have?"
That question stopped Vamcet dead in his tracks, he raved and yet Kaida's simple question cut him to the core. He looked at her through the shield of the Brig. When he spoke again his voice was soften, almost deflated. "That is the question, isn't it. At the end of all of this what do I have?" The air became thick with the silence. What else was left to say between them? Then Vamcet leveled his head and steeled himself. "I have the knowledge that I did what was right." One could not tell if he meant running the camp was right, or if facing the justice was what was right. Or was it both.
Kaida pursed her lips as she considered his words and the possible things he meant. He could be as vague as he wanted to be, but she was going to do her duty and she was going to make sure justice was served."Then that is something we'll both have in the end."
Vamcet watched as the young woman left him alone and in silence. The only sound he had was that of his breathing as it slowed back to a normal rythym. He did not think that she forgave him and in truth he wondered if it mattered. Did he actually need forgiveness for everything that he had done. "I am right... I have to be right... I am right." He muttered to himself and the now empty room.
A Joint Post By
Captain Marc Kidd
Commanding Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Lieutenant Sorine Kaida
Criminal Investigations Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Lieutenant Christopher Blake
Chief Flight Control Officer, USS Artemis
Second Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
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