Spirit Walk_ Old Wounds (Book 1) - Christie Golden [76]
“Sekaya, we will cooperate.”
“Don’t speak for me.”
“You are my family, I will speak for you.”
His words were sharp. She sensed he spoke so because he, too, did not think this a good thing. “The tribe looks up to us. We need to set an example of cooperation. They are not asking for us to surrender anything but a little of our time.”
Stubbornly, Sekaya shook her head. “History is repeating itself,” said Sekaya. “People from another place have come here, to our home, and are laying claim to the land and to us. They are rounding us up like livestock, shuffling us from the place where we want to be to the place where they want us to be. Maybe Chakotay was right to leave. Maybe his is the example we should follow!”
“Sekaya, you will not speak to your father so!” Her mother, too, spoke harshly. Sekaya could almost smell the fear. “If that is all the Cardassians choose to ask of us, we should count ourselves lucky. You know what they have done to other worlds.”
“And what harm is there in knowledge?” asked Kolopak. “As you say, Sekaya, my child—they will learn nothing new.” He tried to smile teasingly, as if this were nothing at all. “I think there is some bureaucrat somewhere who feels he does not have enough to do, and wishes to please his superior. Lists and data are always impressive to those who worship technology instead of the spirits.”
Sekaya looked back down at her work. Once assembled, the drum would be a sacred thing. Its voice would be heard as the tribe’s heartbeat. Her own heart was hammering in her chest, and the desire to craft the drum was gone. She knew her father was right about one thing—it didn’t sound as if the Cardassians were asking for much, on the surface of it. What harm could there be in letting one’s DNA be analyzed, painlessly donating some blood, submitting to a retinal scan?
But they were Cardassians, and as far as she was concerned, that meant they could not be trusted. The council had opted to believe that they would keep their word. The people of Dorvan V would submit to the indignities in order to keep their sacred pact with the land.
Chapter
20
“SO WE WENT, like good little sheep the Navajo used to herd back on Earth,” Sekaya said, continuing the story. “And as we went, we told ourselves this: Had not our ancestors suffered far worse treatment on our mother Earth? This was no great thing the Cardassians asked of us. Every single man, woman, and child, right down to the infants, submitted to analysis by the Cardassians with good humor, without protest. And for a while, it did seem that this bit of cooperation was all they wanted….”
“Sekaya, daughter of Kolopak, I give you greetings.”
Sekaya’s heart stopped beating for a moment, then resumed with a sudden speed. It had been years since she heard that voice, years since its owner had been betrothed to a lovely young Oglala Lakota woman and moved with members of her family to the plains….
She didn’t trust herself to turn around. She stood knee-deep in the lake, soaking more skins for drums, and trembled. Finally, she realized it would be rude not to acknowledge him. She turned to face him.
He was even more handsome than she remembered. The youth’s face had lines on it now, laugh lines around his eyes and mouth, but the brown eyes themselves were as deep and mysterious as ever.
“Sekaya, daughter of Kolopak, gives greetings to Blue Water Boy,” she said, and she knew her voice sounded strained and breathy.
He smiled a little sadly. “Much time has passed since we last saw each other,” he said. “I am no longer Blue Water Boy, but Blue Water Dreamer.”
That’s right, thought Sekaya. The Lakota sometimes modified their names to reflect who they became as they made their way through life. A man in his forties would no longer be Blue Water Boy. It wouldn’t be appropriate.
“It suits you,” she said, unable to think of anything else to say. Attempting to continue the conversation, she said, “I assume that you and your wife have come back as the Cardassians requested?”
His eyes grew even sadder. “Only I,” he said. “My