Written by DebbieB

Kira Nerys was having a bad day. Granted, not a particularly unusual situation in itself, but the intensity of the badness was spectacular in scope. To put it bluntly, she was having a really bad day. Too many months of enforced diplomacy were beginning to wear on her nerves. And the addition of the blasted Federation and their endless regulations only made her job more difficult. After hours of fighting with the Bajoran Minister of Economic Advancement, she sauntered into Quark's for supper, hoping that for once the insufferable little Ferengi would have delegated authority of the Promenade to someone else. Unfortunately, he was there behind the bar, his customary leer widening at the sight of her. Kira took a deep breath and sat down at the nearest available table, hoping he would just ignore her and let her enjoy her foul temper in peace.

"Ah, Major." So much for enjoying her foul temper in peace. It was not Quark, but the equally-insufferable Julien Bashir who disrupted the Bajoran woman's thoughts. The young doctor pierced Kira's protective bubble of attitude with oblivious enthusiasm, forcing himself into her space with a dumb-puppy grin on his face. "May I join you for a moment?"

The grin she flashed back was more piranha than puppy, but she motioned to the free chair opposite her. "Doctor," she prompted, hoping he would be quick about whatever was making him so damned cheery. "What can I do for you?"

"It's not what you can do for me, Major." Bashir's eyes practically gleamed as he leaned towards Kira. "It's what I can do for you."

Kira sighed, flopping against the back of her chair and folding her arms impatiently across her chest. This had better be good. "Doctor, I am off-duty. Please get to the point."

Bashir's bravado wavered slightly at her tone, only to be replaced by another look of exhilaration. "Can you keep a secret, Major?" Another dart flashed from Kira's eyes to pierce Bashir's blithe demeanor. He cleared his throat, tracing the perimeter of the bar with his glance to see if anyone suspicious might be listening, then lowered his voice to a conspiratorial tone. "I've made a discovery here on Deep Space Nine which could be of significant historical importance to the Federation and, especially, to Bajor."

Kira raised an eyebrow, a smart-ass response poised precariously on the edge of her tongue, but something in Bashir's face caused her to hold back her comment. Instead she affected a skeptical countenance, waiting for his explanation before sending this little chit back to the Infirmary where he belonged. "Oh, really?"

Bashir nodded his head slowly. "Oh, yes, Major. I can't discuss it in detail here." He nodded towards the rowdy group of aliens playing Dabo at the bar. "Too many ears, if you know what I mean."

"I see," Kira murmured. Granted, she did not believe the doctor for one minute. But any situation where she got to put the arrogant young so-and-so in his place could not be a complete loss. Dropping her voice to match his clandestine tone, she added, "But why tell me about this? If it's going to affect the Federation, why not tell Commander Sisko?"

"You see, Major," he chuckled. "As the highest-ranking Bajoran on DS9, I thought you should be the first to see it. After all, this discovery will affect Bajor most of all."

Kira's spine stiffened at his condescending tone. Rising to her feet, she leaned on the table, eying him with a look of pure challenge. "Then I suggest you show me this magnificent discovery of yours and let me decide for myself."

"What are we waiting for, Major?"

The Bajoran hesitated momentarily as he started to lead her from the Promenade, then followed him out the door. "This should be fun," she muttered under her breath.

* * * * *

"According to Quark, the Cardassians used this room for storing medical equipment. He didn't seem to think it was too important, but I thought I'd dig around and see if I could find something of interest." Bashir crouched down in a corner of the storeroom, motioning for the Bajoran to join him.

Kira pushed away piles of wire and metal to kneel down next to him. With the Federation bringing in their own equipment, no one had been in this storage facility for months--and it looked it. "The Cardassians left precious little behind, Doctor. Don't tell me you were hoping to find state secrets or something."

"Of course not. But, as a physician, I can extract the most fascinating secrets just from, say, a medical printout."

"Oh." Kira leaned back on her heels, unimpressed. "I see. In other words, you didn't find anything."

"No medical printouts, I'm sorry." His eyes gleamed as he spoke. "However, I did find something even more interesting." He turned to the wall, reaching behind a shelving unit with one hand. "I almost didn't notice it." He pushed the unit away from the wall with a grunt, revealing a small control panel. "It's not on the station's schematics. Major, would you please take a tricorder reading of this wall?"

"It's reading solid metal." She glanced at him sharply. "Doctor?"

"Observe." He began clicking a series of commands into the panel, then a small door opened in the wall. It was a square approximately four feet by four feet, opening into a dark hollow in the wall. "It took me almost three hours to break the code. It has some sort of shielding; I think it may have been used to smuggle goods on and off the station."

"You haven't been in there?"

Bashir blinked hard, then smiled at Kira, a look of sincerity sobering his young face. "Major, the Cardassians took years from the people of Bajor. If there's anything in there, I felt you should be the first to find it."

Kira hesitated. "You should have contacted Odo when you found the panel. If it had been a trap, you could have blown up the entire station."

"Ah, but I didn't, did I?" The young doctor's eyes twinkled merrily. He motioned to the opening. "Major? After you."

Bashir pulled a hand-held torch from the shelf, flicking it on with his thumb before handing it to Kira. She took it grudgingly, then flashed it into the opening. She peered into the compartment and, not seeing the light reflected against an opposite wall, turned back to Bashir. "It's bigger than you would think."

"It is follows the length of the wall. I checked the station schematics, and this wall is significantly thicker than others. My guess is that there are compartments like this built into several places on the station. For all we know, Deep Space Nine could be a virtual maze of hidden treasures."

"Let's not get ourselves all worked up until we know what's in there. We'd better call Odo."

Bashir raised his hand quickly to halt her. "Do you really think that's wise? I mean, after all, if this is just a bunch of dust and girlie magazines, do you really want Odo here to laugh at us?"

Kira paused momentarily, imagining the look on the constable's face if this treasure hunt turned out to be something like the public opening of Enoe's Tomb on Barenava Six. The "important dig" had turned up little more than dust and trash, immediately destroying the careers of at least six archaeologist and one investigative reporter. No, if they were going to make fools of themselves, better to do it alone. "You have a point." She flashed the torch into the opening, then gestured Bashir to follow her.

The doctor smiled. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

* * * * *

"It widens a little just a bit ahead." Kira played the torch along the far length of the wall, pausing to allow Bashir to catch up with her. The tunnel had led them several meters through the wall, twisting irregularly, narrowing suddenly, snaking a path with led to several forks and dead-ends. The Bajoran was beginning to question the wisdom of the entire expedition when her light revealed an opening the size of a small storage closet. "Up there, Doctor."

Bashir panted behind her. "Thank goodness. It's getting a bit cramped in here."

Kira ignored the tinge of fear in Bashir's voice. They were too near their goal to allow claustrophobia to stop her now. She pushed through the last leg of the tunnel, squeezing into the hollow with graceless determination. Bashir followed her through quickly, breathing heavily as they both struggled to regain their bearing.

"I knew it." There was a note of triumph in Bashir's words as he began to play his light around the opening. The triumph turned to glum disbelief as his torch revealed nothing but dusty emptiness. "I don't understand..." He flickered the light through the room, playing it carefully into each corner and recess, finding nothing. "I can't believe it. Nothing."

Kira leaned heavily against the wall, stretching her legs out to relieved the cramped tension. She said nothing, too torn between anger and disappointment to do more than sigh. Inwardly, she cursed herself for three kinds of fool for allowing Bashir to lead her on this wild goose chase. Even more, she was furious for having been drawn into his idiotic fantasies of hidden treasure and Bajoran glory. She was furious with herself for thinking even briefly that the Cardassians had left anything of value for Bajor.

"I'm sorry, Major." Bashir's soft voice cut through her self-recriminations, a mixture of embarrassment and genuine disappointment.

Kira felt a brief surge of resentment, then allowed it to dissipate into the cramped air of the tunnel. It wasn't Bashir's fault. He was naive and foolish; of course he would believe in buried treasures. She had no such convenient excuse. Years of surviving Cardassians rule had driven the naivete from her; she could blame nothing but her own pride. She'd wanted this. She'd had visions of herself, parading up to the provisional government with treasure in hand, Bajor's hero returning victorious from the hunt. She'd imagined their surprise, their gratitude...

"Major?"

Her voice came out harder than she intended. "Let's get out of here."

* * * * *

"The exit should be just a few meters further ahead."

She didn't answer Bashir. He had taken the lead, guiding her quickly through the maze of tunnels. Kira didn't care; she focused on the heels of his boots as he crawled on all fours ahead of her.

There was a long pause as the youthful doctor awaited her response, then a heavy sigh as he droned on in a less-chipper tone. "Still, it's a good thing that we discovered these tunnels. A thorough search might turn up..."

"A thorough search will turn up nothing, Doctor, except more dust." Kira allowed the sharp retort to echo through the tunnel before continuing. "Anything of value the Cardassians didn't take with them has probably already been sold at twice its worth by the Ferengi, so there's no point in any more treasure hunts."

Another long pause. "I'm sorry, Major." Nothing but the scuff of uniforms against the smooth metal floor. "I really thought there would be something...anything..." Finally, defeatedly, Julien Bashir gave up.

They rounded the last corner to the exit. Kira grunted as she ran into Bashir's feet. The doctor had stopped short, blocking her view of the cramped passage ahead. "What's wrong? Why'd you stop?"

Bashir took a long draft of breath, then let it out hard. Before he responded to the Bajoran's query, he repeated the process--long breath, heavy sigh.

"Doctor, what's going on?" Kira demanded.

"This is the right passage, isn't it?" Bashir asked much too casually.

"Of course it is. We retraced our steps exactly."

Yet a third deep breath and sigh. "I was afraid you would say that." Easing himself forwards a bit, Bashir twisted until he could ease himself into a sitting position facing Kira. In the dim torchlight, she could clearly see the pained expression on his face. "The hatch is sealed."

Kira paused to let that information sink in, then cleared her throat. "Just what exactly do you mean by `sealed?'" There was a dangerous timbre to her voice, a carefully modulated, carefully executed dangerous timbre.

"It must have a timed sealing program."

Kira nodded her head in disbelief. "And of course you didn't find this out before you led me on this wild goose chase."

Bashir spoke quickly, obviously weighing his growing discomfort with Kira's growing anger and deciding that inactivity was the worst course of action at this point. "There's got to be a way out of here. After all, if smugglers used these--"

"Smugglers would probably never be stupid enough to get locked into their own storage tunnels." She leveled a gaze at the young man. "I don't suppose there's a control pan--"

"Control panel, yes, uh..." Bashir withered under Kira's careful scrutiny. "...uh, no. No, there isn't, Major."

Kira frowned at him for a split-second before tapping the communicator on her chest. "Kira to Ops."

"O'Brien, here."

"Chief, two to beam directly to--" She paused for a moment, trying to figure out a quiet place to throttle the doctor. "Upper pylon three."

There was a momentary delay before O'Brien signalled again. "Major, I'm getting some pretty strange readings here. I can't get a fix on you; there's a low-intensity shield distorting the transporter signal. Just exactly where are you?"

"Never mind," she snapped, ending the transmission from her end. Then she leaned back on her heels, folding her arms as haughtily as possible given the tight quarters. "And how do you suggest we get out of here?"

The expression on Bashir's face showed clearly that he didn't want to have to say what he was going to say. "Well, we call someone, give them the access code, and have them let us out."

Kira's look of serene fury did nothing to calm Bashir's nerves. "Oh." Butter would not have melted in her mouth. "I see. And whom, Doctor, do you suggest we call?"

Cautiously, Bashir suggested, "Chief O'Brien?"

"Oh, yes, and suffer his clever comments for the rest of my life? I don't think so." She smiled, a look halfway between grin and snarl. "How about Dax? I bet she would love to hear all about your amazing discovery."

Bashir blanched. "Perhaps that wouldn't be the best--"

"Come on, Doctor. Find me one person who wouldn't take advantage of this situation, and that's the person we call."

There was a long moment as the young man pondered the situation, then with a resigned shrug, he said, "Odo."

Kira nodded slowly, clearly unhappy with the only possible course of action. "Odo."

* * * * *

"Your code no longer works, Doctor." Odo's gravelly voice filtered through the communicator in obvious exasperation. "Are you absolutely sure that this is the correct code?"

Bashir groaned. After several minutes of waiting for the constable to unlock the hatch, he had given in and loosened his uniform jacket for the duration. "Of course, I'm sure. I'm as sure as I was ten minutes ago the first time you asked me."

"There may have been a sensor rigged to discourage looters. My guess is that the lock has recoded itself."

"Oh." Bashir leaned back against the wall with a thud. "Wonderful."

"Can't you just beam us out of here?" Kira had also removed her jacket and was sitting in sullen discomfort a few feet away from Bashir.

"Negative, Major. Along with the recoded lock, whatever trigger you hit also activated a low level shield. Again, probably rigged to discourage looters."

"Great."

Bashir sighed heavily. "So, what do you suggest, Mr. Odo?"

"I suggest you get comfortable while I break this code." There was no mistaking the disgust in his tone. "After all, if you can stumble across it, how hard could it be for someone who knows what they're doing?"

"But that could take hours!"

"Perhaps not. And if it does," the echo of sarcasm rang through the cramped tunnel. "You can always go on another treasure hunt."

* * * * *

"Is it getting hotter in here?"

Kira kicked at the wall with the toe of her boot. "No, it is not getting hotter in here."

"Oh." Bashir leaned heavily against the wall. "It's definitely getting hotter in here. I'm sweating bullets."

"Maybe you're telepathic and you're reading my thoughts."

"That's not funny."

"I'm thinking about how amusing it will be to see you in an EVA suit, scrubbing the outside of the station with nothing but those precious physician's hands of yours."

"Major--"

"Or maybe down in Quark's, helping Rom with the--"

"Major, that's enough!" The harsh words echoed through the passage, shocking both of them. After a long silence, he seemed much more subdued. "I apologize." He let slip a self-conscious half-laugh. "I must confess, Major, that I am more than a bit claustrophobic." He avoided her gaze, obviously very embarrassed. "To be perfectly honest, it was more claustrophobia than Bajoran glory that made me wait for you before coming in here." He released a heavy sigh. "I didn't want to come in alone. I've always hated cramped spaces," he murmured, hugging himself tightly.

Kira traced a pattern on the wall with her boot, sighing. "You get used to it."

"Really? I can't see how."

"I spent a week in a space about this size once, hiding from Cardassian raiders." At Bashir's horrified glance, she shrugged. "Of course, I was just a kid..." She let the sentence trail off, not wanting to pursue this course of discussion with Bashir.

After a few moments, Bashir broke the silence with forced cheerfulness. "Well, sitting around here isn't going to make me feel any better. I came in here without lunch, and so, I believe, did you. Perhaps there are some rations hidden in here somewhere."

"Odo said to stay here."

"I can't stay in this place any longer. I'm already so cramped up I'll never walk straight again."

Kira stared at him for a moment. She could almost see him shuddering. She knew from experience that the last thing they needed was for anyone to panic. Letting out a long breath, she nodded her head slowly. "Anything to get you out of my hair for a few minutes. But I'm warning you, Doctor. Don't make me have to send out a search party for you when Odo breaks the code."

Bashir was already scuttling past her as the words reverberated against the walls. He paused, turning a faint, yet boyish grin in her direction. "You never know, Major. I may find a treasure yet."

* * * * *

Kira was flashing back. Try as she might to keep her mind away from them, memories of her earlier life kept insinuating themselves into happier thoughts. With nothing to occupy her time, without even the questionable company of Julien Bashir, her mind was free to roam in places better left unvisited. She pushed at the images flooding her mind, pictures of cramped, sweaty tunnels, the smell of burning hair, the harsh, guttural assault of the Cardassian language on young ears, the push of bodies, always too many, against her in sleep. The growling in her stomach only fueled the memories of a time when enough was never possible, where too much was only a childish fantasy. Kira shut her eyes hard, trying to physically squeeze the hunger and fear out of her body. Lizard man, lizard man, I won't cry. Lizard man, lizard man, I won't die. Lizard man, lizard man, try you might. Lizard man, lizard man, watch me fight. The child's rhyme came unbidden to her, circling through her thoughts, ring-around-the-rosie. "Lizard man, lizard man, I won't cry..." she murmured, feeling smaller by the moment. She tapped the communicator on her chest. "How long, Odo?"

"Stupid, bloody Cardassians," was all the reply she got.

"Chief?"

"Quite a jam you've gotten yourself into, Major." O'Brien's voice held the much-maligned inflection characteristic of his opinion of Cardassian technology. "I'm rather busy, but if there's anything else I can do for you in my copious spare time... Cup of tea, perhaps? Or some reading material? How about a nice parcheesi set to--"

"Never mind." She ended the transmission mid-gripe, then proceeded to thump her head gently against the wall, holding her stomach tightly. Great. Now O'Brien was involved. Ops was going to be such fun.

"Major." The doctor was panting--half from exertion, half from excitement. He pulled himself up to her, face brimming with smug satisfaction. "Have they made any progress?"

"Stupid, bloody Cardassians."

"Oh." He sat next to her against the wall. He had fastened his jacket into a makeshift knap-sack which he opened onto his lap and began unpacking. "At least we won't have to listen to our stomachs growling anymore. Cardassian emergency rations."

Kira scowled. "We won't have to listen to our stomachs growling because this stuff will kill us."

"Major, beggars can't be choosers." He handed her a packet, which she reluctantly tore open. As she began stuffing the contents into her mouth, Bashir continued. "I also found this. It had rolled into a corner of the storage compartment I found. I'm not sure if it's valuable or not."

Kira took the object he handed her in one hand. It was wooden pipe, carved into a cylindrical tube with holes drilled through the bottom half. A thin piece of wire used to alter the pitch extended from the bottom of the pipe. Kira tugged absently on the toning wire, another wave of memories crashing down on her at the familiar feel of the instrument in her hand.

"Do you know what it is, Major?"

It was a long time before Kira found her voice. When she spoke, it was in slow, measured words. "It's a cerid pipe."

"Is it valuable?"

"No. It's only a child's toy." She didn't want to think about how the Cardassians had acquired this toy. She didn't want to think anything about it. Closing her eyes, she let the pipe drop to the floor between her and Bashir.

The doctor eyed her curiously, then picked up the pipe to examine it. "Do you play?"

"No. I never learned." Never could, she added silently to herself.

"Ah." Bashir raised the pipe to his lips, then thought better of it and laid it back down. Taking two more ration packs from his jacket, he handed one to Kira before opening his own. "We'd better keep up our strength."

* * * * *

"Congratulation, Doctor. I believe you have managed to set off every built-in alarm this lock has."

"How long, Odo?" Bashir demanded tiredly. He'd been putting up with the constable's tirade long enough to know that there was nothing to lose in being impatient.

"Ten minutes. Maybe."

Bashir exhaled loudly. "Bashir out."

The doctor looked over at Kira. She hadn't spoken since their meal. The Bajoran woman had pulled herself into a tight ball, content with her own thoughts and feeling no compulsion towards polite conversation.

Not that Bashir blamed her. With all of his grandiose visions of heroism and fame, he'd led Kira into a ridiculously uncomfortable and embarrassing situation. Buried treasure. All he had to show for his magnificent discovery was a child's toy. He picked up the cerid pipe, boredom winning out over better sense, and began to play.

Kira lifted her head at the sound, her eyes fixed on him in amazement as he began to improvise a simple tune. "How did you--"

Encouraged by any type of communication, Bashir smiled in self-deprecating modesty. "It's not that difficult conceptually. I've always had a knack for musical instruments--harmonicas, recorders-- I played oboe as a boy, which is actually a much more complex instrument than this--"

"Well, you certainly have the wind for it. I never could get a sound out of one of those things."

Bashir watched cautiously as Kira retreated back into her silent shell. Every medical nerve in his body was screaming warnings at him. He knew she was experiencing some sort of emotional or psychological pain, but he was damned if he knew exactly what was causing it. Given the mood she was in, simply asking her seemed foolhardy at best, suicidal at worst. "Perhaps with practice--"

"My brother tried for years to teach me to play." Kira looked up at him with grim humor. "It didn't help."

"Well, perhaps your brother could teach me, and then I could--"

Her entire body stiffened, and Bashir knew he'd stepped in it again. "My brother died in the Battle of Tandinn Dal. He won't be teaching anybody anything." There was no sting to her words, just dull confirmation of a fact neither wanted to hear.

"I'm sorry," was all Bashir could think of to say. He was saved the agony of breaking the soundless void by the swish of the hatch opening behind them.

"Come on out," Odo muttered tiredly.

Neither moved immediately. Bashir turned to Kira, but she had placed an impenetrable barrier between them. "Major, it's time to go."

She nodded. Reaching for her jacket, she stopped when the cerid pipe fell onto the floor. When Bashir reached down to pick it up, she stopped him with a hand on his forearm. "Doctor?"

"Yes?"

She pushed the words out of her like a balloon releasing air. "May I keep this?"

Bashir looked at her carefully, then down at the pipe. "Of course."

"Any day, now, folks." Odo stood outside in the storeroom with O'Brien, more or less impatiently. "I have better things to do with my time."

Kira tucked the pipe quickly into her jacket, then crawled out first. Bashir followed, squinting in the relatively bright light of the storeroom. Odo waited, arms folded across his chest.

"Well. Did you two find any lost treasures?"

Bashir was about to say something when Kira cut him off. "No, Constable. Nothing at all." She walked out of the room without another word.

* * * * *

Kira sat alone in her quarters, hands playing over the fingerings of the pipe. Her fingers tapped out a succession of mute notes, mastered with such difficulty in her youth. She could hear Kira Dahn's annoyed voice with clarity in her mind--No, no, no, Nerys. Your ears are made of rocks. Can't you hear that's wrong? She smiled. Patience had never been a family trait. It had been even worse for Dahn. Everything had come quickly to him--music, games, studies. Kira bit down the sentimentality. Death had come as quickly to Kira Dahn as learning the cerid pipe.

A chime on her door interrupted her thoughts. "Come."

Julien Bashir entered her cabin cautiously, standing just inside of the door. "Major? May I have a moment?"

Kira lifted a sarcastic brow. "Find any more hidden treasure, Doctor?" At the younger man's flustered look, she softened. It wasn't Bashir's fault that he was so damn clever. "Sorry. What can I do for you?"

The human doctor wrapped his hands in a knot at his waist, head lowered slightly. "I just wanted to apologize to you again. For everything, Major."

A long pause fell between them like a curtain. Kira allowed herself to look at Bashir, really look at him for the first time. He was so unlike Dahn in appearance, tall and handsome and dark-skinned where her brother resembled her--tough and fiery, more arresting than attractive. But more and more when she looked at Julien Bashir, Kira Dahn smiled back. Kira felt the memories cutting through her like a blade. Julien Bashir was what Dahn could have been, had he been privileged, had he grown up on a paradise like Earth, had he been given every advantage power and education could provide. Bashir had so much; he took so much for granted.

"Major?" When she said nothing, the doctor sighed and turned for the door. "Well, I am sorry."

"I know." The words were so soft neither could be certain she'd spoken them. Kira watched Bashir's expression as he turned to face her, a flicker of amusement braving her dark emotions. "Every once in a while, I make a mistake, too." Her face hardened in mock warning. "And don't let that get around."

Bashir nodded, uncertainly. "I'll never breathe a word of it to another soul."

"Good."

Any further comments were stilled by Kira's communicator. "Sisko to Kira."

"Yes, Commander?"

The Terran commander sounded tired. "I hate to bother you off-duty, but the Minister of Economic Advancement seems to be having a problem with your proposal. Loudly."

"Oh, really?" Kira wasn't surprised.

"He doesn't think the standard trade agreement you've drafted for use of the wormhole has Bajor's best financial interest in mind."

Kira sighed. "I'll be there in a minute. Kira out."

Bashir coughed pointedly. "Well, I'd better be going, then."

"Good night, Doctor."

Bashir paused for a moment before leaving the cabin, hesitating. "Good night."

Kira watched as the door closed behind him, still fingering the cerid pipe. Finally breaking herself out of her reverie, she reached under her bed to remove a worn smuggler's pack. Laying the soft canvas pack on her desk, she carefully unrolled it, revealing the small hoard of treasures she'd managed to hold onto all of her life--a child's ring, a slip of paper with her mother's writing on it, a stone from the yard of their burned-out home in Tandinn Dal. She lay the cerid pipe alongside the other memories, rolled up the pack, hid it back under the bed, and went out to solve the problems of the illustrious Minister of Economic Advancement.

THE END

Battle Lines Filk