raven | Fic:: Birthday Girl [DS9]

This is cheating a little, as I've had this little scene in my head for ages, but when

abyssinia4077 asked for something with Kira, it reminded me.

Ficlet: Birthday Girl
by Raven
G, Deep Space Nine, gen, 1200 words, Kira, Dax. It's too late for presents.

The Bajoran legislature began their yearly session on a day in early spring. The new reports were bright and optimistic, running a short interview with First Minister Shakaar, discussing his plans for health, welfare and education policy through the government's new term. It was Kira's thirtieth birthday. She spent the day on the station, doing her duties as usual, but getting smiles and good wishes from Sisko, from Bashir, from Miles. When she got to her desk she found a pretty, hand-painted card from Keiko; after she was done for the day Jadzia came around to her quarters with a bottle of something sweet and alcoholic.

"I'm not sure I should," Kira said, and Jadzia laughed.

"How much leave do you have stored up, Nerys?" she demanded. "Take a day. Take it tomorrow. I'll take one too, we can go play at Lancelot and Guinevere. I'll let you be Lancelot."

Kira smiled, and relented, and Jadzia went to find something to open the bottle with. By the time the station was turning over to the gamma shift, they were both giggling and cheerful; by the time the lights in the habitat ring were rising again Jadzia was dozing, a blanket thrown over her, but Kira was awake, the air suffused with a chill, a sense of purpose.

Jadzia mumbled sleepily as Kira steered her along the corridor, and then woke up all at once as she realised they weren't going to her quarters. "Where..."

"On a trip," Kira said. "It's important."

The first transport of the day left from the upper pylons just before five am. Deep Space Nine ran on Bajoran time, and it wasn't yet lunchtime by the time they reached the Dakhur Province and took local transport to a regional transit station. Jadzia had napped all the way and looked enviably fresh even in yesterday's uniform. "Nerys, are you going to explain this? Not that I don't love an adventure as much as the next girl..."

"This is where I grew up," Kira said, gesturing around them, and Jadzia fell silent.

It was noon. They were walking down the long, dusty road towards Singha, listening to the autumnal noises of birdsong, of children calling to each other in the fields. There was a constant buzz of construction beneath it all – the refugee camp had been demolished and allowed to become overgrown, erased; the house-building was beginning in earnest on the other side of the town.

"That's the oldest building here," Kira said, pointing at it; it had white walls and red tiles, and a sign above the door. "It was a food-distribution point when I was a child."

The sign merely read "Dakhur Municipal and Administrative Services", and below that, its opening hours. Kira tried the door and went in. Jadzia followed, her face alight with curiosity.

"Oh!" said a voice from within. The woman behind the counter was about Kira's age, fair-haired, with a broad smile. "You're just in time, we're about to stop for lunch. Not that we normally do, but today's going to be a long day. Name?"

"Kira Nerys," she said, and remembering her civilian clothes, added, "Major. I'm in the Bajoran militia."

"Right." The woman tapped at her computer. "Now, how many children? And are you both parents?" she added, looking at Dax.

Kira shook her head. "Neither. I don't have children."

"Neither do I, right now," Jadzia added.

"Ah." The woman looked up. "Did you perhaps need housing and welfare services? They're upstairs. This is education. The provisional government is unrolling a new policy…"

"Yes." Kira nodded. "I know. Compulsory free primary and secondary education for every child on Bajor, implemented this academic year."

"Right." The woman inclined her head. "But if you don't have children, then I'm afraid I don't understand."

Kira took a deep breath. "My name is Kira Nerys. I was born in this province. I am a Bajoran citizen. I pay my central and regional taxes every quarter. I voted for this government. I would like my education."

"Excuse me, Major, school age in this province is four months after the child's fifth birthday…"

"I attained that distinction some time ago." Kira inclined her head. "And I've been waiting ever since for my government to give me what it owes me."

"Major!" The woman was sounding desperate. "You can't seriously mean that you want to go and sit in a classroom with five-year-olds, learning your alphabet!"

"Listen," Kira said, softly, "what's your name?"

"Li Annelise," she replied, just as softly. "I'm one of the new staff brought in for the initiative."

"Listen, Li Annelise," Kira said, "My father taught me my letters. In a cave, by candlelight. Where did you learn yours?"

"My mother taught me," Annelise said, quietly. "We lived in the town, and the overseer was called away to Cardassia Prime for six months when I was seven. She taught me then."

"Did you want to go to school?"

"Yes." Her voice was very quiet. "Did you?"

"I wanted to fight the Cardassians. I didn't even know what girls my age were supposed to want." Kira sat down on the small chair provided – for pregnant mothers, she realised – and sighed. "I want to apologise. I understand that you can't help me."

Annelise looked relieved, but a little wary, a little soft around the edges. "Why did you come, then?"

"I got drunk and I got angry," Kira said, surprising herself by her own honesty. "I saw on the newsfeeds that parents could register their children today. My parents are dead. I'm only thirty."

"You're the Kira Nerys, aren't you?" Annelise said, suddenly. "I've seen you on the news, sometimes... you're on the old station, Terek Nor. I'm sorry, Deep Space Nine." She stopped, suddenly, looking at Dax, who had retreated into the shadows by the door, watching the scene with large, thoughtful eyes. "They talk about you a lot here, you know? Local girl, made good."

Kira laughed. "I guess that's something."

"But if you're in a senior position there, that means you don't need an education," Annelise persisted. "I mean, you've done all right without it."

"I had to," Kira said, softly. "And, you know, I wanted... I don't know. Something."

"I'm sorry I can't help you."

"Don't be," Kira said, and picked her bag up from where she'd put it down, and began to do the buttons on her coat. "It's not your fault. It's not anybody's fault except the Cardassians'."

She turned and went out, feeling rather than seeing Jadzia behind her, and stood for a moment in the cool, still air.

"Are you all right, Nerys?" said Jadzia softly, and sat down on the ground, leaning against the wall of the building. After a minute, Kira joined her.

"I think so," she said, softly. "This was a stupid thing to do. I'm sorry I dragged you along for it."

"I'm sorry, too," Jadzia said unexpectedly. "I'm sorry you didn't have the education you deserved, and I'm sorry I was so dense not to realise it before now."

"I'm not like you," Kira said, honestly. "Even if I'd had your chances I wouldn't have degrees in science and engineering. But I don't know what I'd have had. I'll never know."

Jadzia looked seriously at her. "Nerys, any university in the quadrant would take you and gladly. You don't have to... I mean, if you want to. You could..."

Kira smiled, a little ruefully. "Maybe. But it's too late to invite my classmates to my birthday party. It's too late for my first kiss at my first school dance."

Jadzia snorted. "I was a Trill initiate. Don't ask me how old I was when I had my first kiss."

Kira laughed, suddenly. "Come on, let's go home," she said, standing up. "I'm still on leave. Maybe I'll spend my second day being thirty in the bathtub."

"Good idea."

"And maybe..." Kira paused. "Maybe I'll write to a few places. You can study by correspondence, can't you?"

"Sure," Jadzia said. "What do you want to study?

"Something useless," Kira said, grinning. "Maybe literature, maybe philosophy, maybe the ancient sculpture of Bajor. Maybe religious history. Something you can't do in a cave."

"I'll write you a reference," Jadzia said, and impulsively, hugged her. "Happy birthday, Nerys. I hope you have many more happy birthdays."

"Thank you," Kira said, very softly, and they started walking through the early afternoon light.

end.