A powerful Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel, this science fiction saga explores the fall of the Cardassian Empire through the eyes of a man caught between two cultures during the aftermath of the Dominion War.
Rugal is a Cardassian orphan raised by the Bajorans, the very people his race once conquered. Reluctantly returned to Cardassia as a teenager, he becomes a firsthand witness to the collapse of Cardassian power?first under Klingon occupation, then through the empire's catastrophic alliance with the Dominion, a partnership that ends in devastation and near-genocide.
As Cardassia fractures and its people struggle to survive the consequences of their choices, Rugal's unique perspective reveals the political arrogance, moral compromises, and cultural blind spots that led to ruin. Yet even as he believes he understands the failures of his people, Rugal discovers that the Cardassian soul?and his own divided identity?are far more complex than he ever imagined.
Autorentext
Una McCormack is the author of ten previous Star Trek novels: The Lotus Flower (part of The Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine trilogy), Hollow Men, The Never-Ending Sacrifice, Brinkmanship, The Missing, the New York Times bestseller The Crimson Shadow, Enigma Tales, The Way to the Stars, the acclaimed USA TODAY bestseller The Last Best Hope, and Wonderlands. She is also the author of five Doctor Who novels from BBC Books: The King's Dragon, The Way Through the Woods, Royal Blood, Molten Heart, and All Flesh Is Grass. She has written numerous short stories and audio dramas. She lives with her family in Cambridge, England.
Klappentext
A boy looks up. He sees a Cardassian's hand on his shoulder and knows that this is usually a prelude to a beating or, if he is fortunate enough, arrest. The boy knows how many disappeared during the Occupation of Bajor. So he does the one thing he can think of: he bites the Cardassian. Then the nightmare begins.
He is ripped from the family that took him in as an orphan, clothed him, fed him, always loved him unconditionally. And no matter how earnest, how caring the commander of Deep Space 9 is, the boy knows this is all a horrible mistake. How can someone from Starfleet judge him by what he looks like, not by what he is? He prays to the Prophets; he is Bajoran. They all keep telling him that the test proves the large Cardassian man is his father, that the other Cardassian -- that oily gul -- took him away from his father. But the boy keeps telling them that he is Bajoran, he only wants to go home with his father. So they send Rugal home -- to Cardassia.
On the homeworld of the Cardassian Union where sacrifice and devotion to the state are surpassed only by the government's need to keep its people in check, one very lonely boy discovers that if he doesn't resist, his life -- like those of so many others -- will be added to the tally of the never-ending sacrifice.