Once again Martinez lay in the mud overlooking the native village that now lay in the path of the 172^nd Regiment. In less than 12 hours the regiment would be rolling through this pastoral scene and it was Tony’s job to make contact with the population and convince them to move out of the way. This was most definitely not covered in the Academy classes on first contact with a new species: “Greetings, I’m from the United Federation of Planets, a peaceful grouping of dozens of species. Now leave your homes or, regretfully, our tanks will roll over them.” Tony just had to shake his head at the things to which this war had exposed him.

He activated his communicator. “Ensign, are your squads in place?” he asked Asir Kaftaro, his most inexperienced of platoon leaders who was quickly gaining an education in war.

“Yes, sir. Delta and Echo are here in position on the other side of the village and Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie are ready to follow you in.”

“Keep an eye out for any forces coming to reinforce the town, Asir. This will be a natural spot for the Dominion to try to slow down our offensive.” That was only one of Tony’s worries. He also had to think about whether there were already enemy in the village; whether the retreating Dominion forces behind him would be falling back through the village before he completed his mission; whether the natives would even listen to this strange armed alien walking off a battlefield to ask them to leave their homes.

“Let’s go,” he said to Bravo squad leader Bel Kibish lying beside him on the hill overlooking the town. As one the three squads rose up from their concealed positions and started down the hill. To Tony’s left walked Alpha squad in a line and to his right was Charlie. Bravo was all around him. He preferred to have the big Brikar with him, hoping the massive man provided some measure of authority and even intimidation.

As they approached the edge of the town, walking up the main dirt road, Tony saw people peeking out of windows and running for cover behind buildings. He walked slowly, keeping a vigilant eye for enemy. He hoped, he prayed, there were no Jem’Hadar or Cardassians here. A battle could leave dozens or hundreds of innocents dead.

Finally, they entered the now-deserted village square. Tony motioned to the Alpha and Charlie squad leaders and they moved off with their Marines to secure the perimeter. Standing in the middle of the square, Tony raised his voice. “We come in peace. We are not here to hurt you. We have come to free you from the Dominion.”

There was no answer. He might as well have been in a ghost town, like the Old West attraction to which his grandfather had taken him when he was twelve. “It is imperative that I speak to your leaders. Your lives are in danger.”

“Our lives are in danger if we speak to you,” called the voice of an unseen villager.

Turning in the direction from which Tony guessed it came, he replied, “Not if we’re successful. We have come to fight the Dominion, but we must talk to your leaders to ensure your safety during that fight.” For a moment, Tony thought his pleading would have no effect; that no one would listen. Then a lone figure stepped out from one of the buildings and approached.

He looked male, if Tony’s experience with other humanoid species was a guide, but he had no idea if he was young or old. The villager walked across the square, cautious yet bold. When he stood no more than a few meters away, the villager spoke.

“I am Lvdnal, village leader of Jbwenz. If the Vorta saw me speaking to you, he would order me and my family killed immediately.”

“It is my sincere hope that very soon you will never have to worry about the Vorta again,” Tony said.

“That is a bold claim. Who are you?”

Tony approached and extended his hand. “I am Lieutenant Tony Martinez of the United Federation of Planets. I wish I had more time to explain this all to you, but the short version is that we are at war with the Dominion, a large army is heading this way, and you need to get the people of this village out of their homes and away from here as soon as possible.”

Lvdnal extended his own hand uncertainly and briefly touched Tony’s. It wasn’t quite a handshake but it would do. “Lieutenant, I do not understand. We have heard reports of fighting nearby, but why is it coming here?”

“Because your village stands between our fighting force and the Dominion garrison. We know that the Dominion has enslaved your people and the Federation is fighting to free you from that.” It wasn’t quite the whole truth, but it was enough information for now. Tony didn’t think that trying to educate the man about interstellar politics was a good use of time.

“Can’t you go around our village?” Lvdnal asked. Tony saw him cast a wary eye at the huge Kibish who was standing motionless beside Martinez.

“If we did, the Dominion would occupy the town and use it and you as living shields. They would force you to stand in front of them as we fought and many of your people would die. Trust me that this is the better way.”

“That is the trick, isn’t it, Lieutenant?” Lvdnal said. “You show up here with weapons out and ask me to trust you, an alien from the sky.” He paused, considering the man before him. “But then we already know about the Dominion. My people have a saying: ‘Why worry about the lupits in the forest when you know there’s one on your front porch?’”

Tony wasn’t sure what a lupit was, but he got the gist of the saying. “So you’ll get your people out of town?”

“Yes, I will ask them.”

Tony sighed in relief, but Lvdnal continued. “As long as you can guarantee that my people will not suffer punishment from the Vorta for our disobedience.”

That put Tony in a pickle. He couldn’t make that guarantee. The Federation could lose this battle, evacuating the planet, but leaving these people to suffer the consequences. But what else was there to say? Whatever happened, at least this way gave them hope. Staying here was definitely going to get them killed.

“Okay, you have my word.” That earned Tony a sharp glance from Kibish and a raised eyebrow—or whatever passed for an eyebrow on a Brikar—but he ignored him.

Lvdnal breathed deep and exhaled, as if he had passed the point of no return. “Then we will leave. We will need time to pack basic provisions.”

“Of course, but we don’t have much time.” Lvdnal acknowledged him and ran off calling people from their homes. Quickly, the streets filled with people running from place to place, gathering up children and bundles and hitching up beasts of burden to wagons.

A young man approached Tony where he stood at the edge of the square, getting an update from the squads around the town. “My name is Brrton,” the man said. “I want to stay and fight the Dominion with you.” He had a defiant look on his young face and he planted his feet apart and put his hands on his hips, as if daring anyone to make him move from the spot. One of the Marines snickered. Tony cast a withering glance in the man’s direction. It wouldn’t do to look down upon the man because he didn’t have technology. At least he had courage and bravery.

“That’s very noble, Brrton, but it wouldn’t be wise. You don’t have the weapons or the training to fight the Jem’Hadar or Cardassians.”

“Then give me one of your weapons. I’m not afraid to fight,” Brrton replied, sounding desperate in his belligerence, unwilling to walk away. If Tony had been in this young man’s shoes, if an alien army had walked into his hometown and told him that he should leave while they fought off the people who had enslaved him, he would probably have had the same reaction. He put his hand on Brrton’s shoulder in a comforting gesture.

“I know you’re not afraid. It takes a lot of courage to volunteer to fight against this kind of foe. But what I need …. What your people need is for brave men like yourself to go with them and guard them as they escape.” The words seemed to shake Brrton’s resolve.

He muttered, almost to himself, “They killed Jelosit’s family. Just shot them where they were for no reason. It could have been me or anyone else. They killed them to make a point.” Tony wasn’t sure whether this species could cry or not, but he suspected Brrton was on the verge of it. His voice was filled with fear and rage and even relief—rage at the senseless brutality, fear that forces beyond his understanding were sweeping him away like a leaf on a river, and relief that he was still alive; that the capricious nature of evil had not yet taken him as a victim.

Tony reassured him. “I understand. I’ve lost a lot of friends in this war, a stupid war started by stupid people for stupid reasons. All you can do is try to survive another day.”

Brrton hesitated, as if thinking about the advice, and then he turned and walked away slowly. Tony watched him go, lost in thought, until Kibish interrupted.

“Sir, Alpha Squad says there a problem with some of the villagers, that they’re refusing to leave.” Tony sighed and began walking to where a group of natives stood arguing with Lvdnal and Alpha’s squad leader. He didn’t make it there, because that was when the Dominion decided to spring its ambush.

Disruptor beams flew through the open area and Tony ran and leapt through the open door of the nearest building. It was some kind of shop that dealt in textiles, with bolts of cloth and bundles of fur or wool or something like it piled high everywhere. Kibish was beside him seconds later. Peering around the edge of the door, he saw people running in all directions, some of them driving wagons at breakneck speed out of the square. In the middle of it all lay the bodies of at least a dozen villagers.

“Where’s the shooting coming from?” he yelled to Kibish over the sound of the weapons.

“From the south end of the square, on the roof of those buildings,” he said in his bass rumble.

Keying his communicator, Tony said, “Alpha Squad, hold their attention. Bravo Squad, circle around to their right flank. Charlie, go to their left.”

“Kaftaro to Martinez, do you need assistance?” Asir must have heard the sound of disruptors and phasers from his position to the north of town.

“No. Stay put and keep an eye out to the north. We can handle this.” At least he hoped they could handle it. So far, he had counted about a dozen soldiers on the roofs. A few more were firing from the buildings below. There were probably more somewhere else in the town, trying to flank him even now.

“Alpha Squad, what is the status of the Callessians?”

“There’s a whole bunch of wounded and dead, but most of them are hightailing it on the road heading east,” Tony heard over his communicator.

“We need to buy them some time,” he said to Kibish. Looking around the square, he noticed the tower on the far side. It seemed to be some kind of watchtower with a ladder, a perch, and a bell. Maybe it was used for the fire watch or in case of bandits or war. In any case, it would make a nice sniper position. “Bel, get a man up in that tower to provide cover for us. After that, I want to get into those buildings down there without running outside. Think you can make some new doors for us?” He smiled at the huge soldier.

“I’m a one-man remodeling crew,” Bel said with a wide grin. After tasking a member of his squad with climbing the tower—an unenviable job since anyone going up was going to be an easy target—the two soldiers set about moving into a better position. They began throwing bolts and bundles of textiles away from the wall, and when it was clear, Kibish gave it mighty blow with his fist. The wooden wall collapsed into splinters.

They looked into the small space between the buildings, making sure no one would see them coming, and Kibish repeated his previous maneuver. The next building housed some type of feed store and the next seemed to be the local tavern or restaurant. They progressed this way, making a tunnel through the buildings of the town, until finally they stood before the last wall that separated them from the enemy.

“Bravo Six to Bravo Leader.” 

Kibish paused to answer the communicator. “Go ahead, Six. Are you in the tower?”

“Negative. Someone’s already up there and he’s taking a pounding.”

Surprised, Tony rushed to the window to look out. The wood and metal structure was being pulverized by disruptor blasts, but whenever there was a lull in the shooting a small figure would pop up and fire back using some kind of long projectile rifle. Tony increased the magnification on his visor to see who this brave, foolish soul was.

Brrton! The guy couldn’t take a hint and now he’s going to get himself killed, Tony thought. There was one chance for him now. “Martinez to all squads, be ready to take advantage of our diversion in five seconds.” Turning to Kibish, he said. “Okay, Bel. Do your stuff.”

With a final mighty blow, the wall caved in, catching a Cardassian soldier under all the debris. Another Cardie turned to shoot the Brikar, but was thrown across the room to smack the wall hard. He slid down limply and didn’t move again. The third Cardassian had time to fire his weapon into Kibish’s chest. Brikars had the densest molecular structure of any known sentient species, evolving on a world with high gravity and high solar radiation, so it would take a lot more than a single disruptor blast to stagger him. He shrugged it off and brought up his rifle to shoot the Cardassian who unfortunately did not have a similarly thick skin.

By this time, Tony had been able to rush through the mess left behind by Kibish and circle his huge soldier to bring his rifle to bear on the single Cardassian who remained standing. As he dropped that final enemy, he heard the rate of fire increase outside.

Moving to the door, he looked out to see Alpha and Bravo squads moving closer to this end of the square, jumping from storefront to storefront, but they were still taking heavy fire from the roof. He was gratified to see that attention had been taken away from Brrton in the tower. Hopefully he was still alive.

“How are you doing, Bel?”

“I’ll need some sunburn lotion from the medic later, but I’m just fine.” He fingered the burnt uniform on his chest. “How about we go knock some more heads?”

“Sounds good to me.” Tony grinned at the squad leader’s nonchalance. Looking around the room, he saw a staircase leading to the second floor at the back of the room. Quietly, but quickly, they moved to the stairs and began inching their way up. Stealth for Kibish was a relative thing, since every footfall shook the floor, no matter how lightly he dropped it.

The second floor was a large, empty storage space with bundles and boxes and barrels piled all over. There were no windows up here and thus no enemy firing down on the square below. They must be on the roof.

“Let’s look for a ladder up,” Tony whispered to Kibish. Switching his visor to night vision, the darkness became like day and he immediately saw the ladder on the other side of the room, against the back wall.

He had put his rifle sling over his shoulder and started to climb, when three Jem’Hadar materialized out of the darkness. Kibish roared a warning and Tony dropped to the floor. A disruptor blast shattered the wall where his head had just been. With no time to raise his rifle and react, Bel rushed the three Jem’Hadar. However, they had wisely spread out so that he couldn’t take on all of them at once, despite his wide arm span.

Kibish pounded the one Jem’Hadar within reach with a powerful blow to his skull. The tough soldier was staggered, but managed to raise the knife blade on the end of his rifle and jam it into Kibish’s side. It would take a lot more than that to pierce the thick hide, and Kibish adjusted his attack by picking up the Jem’Hadar and driving him headfirst into the wall.

Meanwhile, the other two had split their attention between Tony and Bel. Lying on the floor, tangled up in his rifle, Tony whipped the hand phaser from his belt and aimed it at the Jem’Hadar focused on him. The first shot missed by inches, causing the Dominion soldier to duck behind a crate. Shifting his aim briefly, Tony winged the other Jem’Hadar who had been about to shoot Bel at point-blank range.

Tony rolled away for cover behind a bundle, trying to shake his rifle loose from his shoulder, while keeping his hand phaser out, searching for the Jem’Hadar he had missed. Meanwhile, Bel was looking for the second, winged Jem’Hadar. Picking up a nearby crate, he surprised the enemy soldier hiding behind it. Before he could recover, Bel dropped the heavy container on him, crushing him underneath.

The last Jem’Hadar jumped out from behind another bundle and raced for the staircase as he fired numerous, hastily aimed shots at Tony’s position. Tony ducked quickly behind the sheltering crate, and then leaned out, took careful aim, and caught the running Jem’Hadar under the chin.

Kibish walked over to Tony and extended his hand to help him up. “Thanks. Let’s try this again,” he said as he walked to the ladder and began climbing it again. Just as he was about to poke open the hatch and look through, he heard his communicator come to life. “Bravo leader, we’re downstairs and coming up.”

The rest of Kibish’s Bravo Squad came running up the stairs to join them. “How did you find us?” Tony asked.

Jaime Heredia laughed. “We just followed Bel’s trail of destruction. A blind man could have found you.”

Tony resumed his climb up the ladder, cracking open the hatch to peer through. It looked like about a dozen Jem’Hadar firing over the short wall at the edge of the roof. Dropping back down a rung, Tony motioned to the soldiers below him. “I’m going to toss two grenades, then we’ll move up the ladder as quick as we can, to take out the rest. I’ll go first and the rest of you follow. Bel, I think you should bring up the rear.”

Grabbing two grenades off his equipment harness, he armed them and waited. Carefully pushing up the hatch with his head, he wound up and tossed the grenades at the enemy, throwing them so that the combined blast would hopefully catch as many of the Jem’Hadar as possible. He dropped down to the base of the ladder and seconds later the explosives went off.

Tony had miscalculated the tactic, forgetting where he actually was. The hefty photon grenades, designed for combat on modern worlds where the buildings were made of durable materials, blew off the front of this wooden building. After coughing out all the smoke and shoving off the debris, he first checked to make sure all of his Marines were okay and then walked to the gaping hole where the front wall used to be. He looked up at the blue sky overhead. He looked down at the broken Jem’Hadar bodies and piles of wood and broken containers. Every one of the humans began laughing uncontrollably at the absurdity of the situation. Tony realized it wasn’t that funny, but he knew that the stress of combat and its sudden release in an unexpected manner, combined with the close call from the explosion, was likely to have this kind of effect. Meanwhile, the non-human members of the squad eyed their comrades with a wary eye, not sure what to make of their reaction.

Once he had himself under control, Tony keyed his communicator. “Alpha and Charlie, report.”

“Charlie Leader here. We’re on the west side of the square. We ran into a patrol of about a dozen Cardassians, but we took care of them. We have three wounded and one dead.” That last comment completely drained Martinez of the remnants of humor, the reality of war coming home to him.

“Alpha, report.”

“Alpha Leader to Martinez. We have four wounded, only one seriously. I just sent someone to check on the native in the tower. He’s alive and coming down.”

“Okay, I’ll meet you at the base of it.” He turned to Kibish. “Have your squad cover the southern edge of town.” He called Charlie Squad again and told them to move their dead and the wounded needing evacuation into the square and then to cover the western side of town.

As Tony walked alone across the square, he checked the dead and wounded natives lying there, and told Alpha Leader to send someone to care for the wounded. Meanwhile, he contacted Kaftaro. “Asir, what’s your status?”

“Lieutenant, I just sent Echo to check on the fleeing villagers. They reported that they are at least two kilometers east of the town now and should be safely out of the combat zone within a few hours.”

Tony blew out a breath in relief. At least that part of his mission had been successful. He finally arrived at the tower where Brrton sat on the edge of its platform, his head held low and mournfully.

“I’m sorry,” the young man said. “I just couldn’t leave. I couldn’t let you fight our battle for us.”

Tony glanced up at the tower above. It was riddled with blaster holes with barely enough material left to shelter a small child behind, never mind a man. It was a miracle that Brrton had survived, never mind unscathed as he appeared to be. “You’re a very lucky man, Brrton. I wouldn’t try to press that luck though. I suggest you find some transportation and try to catch up with your people. They’re still a short distance away.” Tony turned to walk away, but felt a hand grab his arm.

Brrton stood there, looking intently at Tony. “I just wanted to thank you for everything. For defending my people and risking your lives for us. I see that the Federation is different from the Dominion. They wouldn’t have even bothered to warn us that a battle was coming.” His face bunched up and the skin glistened with moisture. Tony guessed that perhaps this was how Brrton’s species expressed deep emotion. “I will tell my people of what the Federation has done today. Please tell your leaders that my people will be grateful to you.”

A smile broke out on Tony’s face and he clapped the young man on the shoulder. “Thank you, Brrton. You don’t know how much it means to me to hear you say that.” Brrton nodded and walked away, evidently to find a traveling animal that might have been left behind.

Tony was satisfied. When he had been given this mission, he had thought that Starfleet’s principles of first contact and non-interference had been thrown out the window because of the war, but he now understood that its best principles shone through in even the worst circumstances. They had defended innocent people and made a new friend for the Federation. And even though some philosopher or lawyer back home might quibble about the Prime Directive, Tony knew that he had done the right thing and saved lives and would walk away from this battle with his head held high.