CHAPTER III. THE PRICE OF ETERNITY

Jadzia Dax and Lenara Kahn’s adventure lasted for almost three years. Although their symbionts retained the memories of their previous hosts and, therefore, Torias and Nilani lived on in both women, their memories and the symbionts themselves had very little influence on their relationship. Much less than one would have expected.

Both women of rather strong character, they demonstrated on several occasions how true it was what Lenara had told her brother Bejal on the evening before he left for Trillius Prime: neither of them had been particularly affected by the memory of a previous love brought by their symbionts, although one might believe that this had most likely been the spark that had sparked their interest in each other.

They got to know each other, discovered each other day by day, with their flaws and their strengths, and learned to love each other more and more. The difficult moments were not lacking, of course, but they were all overcome with great humility by both women, although at times their fierce discussions made even Commander Worf, the imposing Klingon in charge of the base’s Strategic Operations, turn away. Which, all things considered, made one wonder quite a lot, if one reckoned with his irascibility, enhanced, at least for the first few months, by the fact that he had hoped, underneath, to be in Kahn’s position.

A few months after their relationship began, the war against the Dominion exploded in all its enormity and ferocity, seeing Commander Dax engaged in constant guerrilla warfare against enemy Jem’Hadar and Cardassian vessels. At the dawn of the clashes against the Dominion, the Symbiosis Commission had notified both women of their exile from Trillius Prime and the associated death sentence for their symbionts once both hosts were deceased. Nothing the two women hadn’t expected, mind you, but nevertheless quite a blow to take: all their friends and colleagues rallied around them both, supportive and understanding, always ready to offer a helping hand and not make them feel isolated.

On the eve of the Defiant‘s umpteenth departure for a war mission, this time to the Chin’toka system, where the Federation vessel would join the Allied forces, Lenara and Jadzia were in their quarters, the latter intent on finishing preparations for the next day. Tension crackled in the air: Dax knew perfectly well how uncomfortable Lenara was when her companion was leaving for a war mission, just as she knew that she was trying hard not to let it weigh on him.

Having finished her preparations, Jadzia approached the other woman, wrapping her slender figure in her arms and holding her close, in an attempt to convey to her with that simple gesture all her love and strength, her confidence: «I will come back to you, Lenara, as I always have and as I always will. I promise you! I will never abandon you.»

The scientist turned in Jadzia’s arms, so that she could reciprocate the embrace, could hold in turn the woman she had discovered she loved and had grown to love more and more over the past few years. Neither of them expected that this would be the last time they would ever embrace.