I’ve recently binged both bbc and cbs ghosts and been a little obsessed with it but anyway it’s given me an idea for a ds9 au with the same premise, namely ghosts: cardassia.
now imagine. it’s months after the finale and julian has been working with the relief unit on cardassia for some time. sometimes he visits garak (for lunch? because they got together? who knows) in his garden shed but lives with the starfleet unit. one day he has a minor accident with the power grid or something that leaves him clinically dead for a lil bit but it’s ok, the miracles of starfleet medicine etc. etc. he goes back to work the next day and doesn’t notice anything, but then he goes to visit garak (who doesn’t know about the accident) and finds him surrounded by a gaggle of oddly dressed cardassians. he asks about the visitors. there are no visitors, says garak. he doesn’t know about them. because they’re ghosts. and they’re staring at him, wide-eyed, shocked that he can see them.
there are nine of them, and they are, in order of death:
- a hebitian woman who was something like a farmer. she’s kind and religious and wears very colourful clothes. she fell from a tall tree when picking fruits.
- a hebitian man who died about 1000 years later, when the first invaders came after the climate catastrophe. a scientist. he was murdered by them.
- a 20-something man, a child of the invaders, who died because of the awful conditions of the planet that were unkind to everyone. there’s only a 30-year gap between his and the previous ghost’s deaths. they don’t like each other.
- the housekeeper of the very first tain who built the very first house on that land. died of an accident in the kitchen. she’s a very no-nonsense woman and will criticise your manners.
- an artist who was staying in the house for some reason. nobody really knows how they died and they won’t tell, probably because it’s embarrassing. they’re kind of a romantic and all about aesthetics and appreciation of art and beauty.
- a gul who was a friend of one of the tains. died of a heart attack or some such. he’s older. he’s very into the military propaganda and all that but during the dominion war he was very anti-dominion and a fan of damar, thank you.
- enabran tain’s great-grandfather’s brother. the gul knew him as a child. he was a lawyer who died of an illness. he also buys heavily into the system and the state propaganda. he has a sense of humour which is kind of annoying at times.
- a young politician who was too pro-democracy and anti-bajoran-occupation for everybody’s liking, so tain invited him over and killed him himself. he was a supporter of the oralian way. he gets along with the hebitians and the artist most of all, but also with mila, who likes him and is sorry for tain and for having to clean up his body.
- mila garak, the newest ghost.
at first julian doesn’t want to believe that they’re really ghosts and thinks it has something to do with the accident, but then he remembers the incident with dr crusher and the candle ghost, which every cmo knows about because it impacted the fuck form policy, and other weird things he’s seen or heard about, and concludes that it might not be impossible actually. plus they’re all speaking kardasi and he reckons that if they were in his head, he’d hear english, if they were telepathic entities only he can see, he’d hear english, and if they were any other sort of entity, he’d head ut’d english, so clearly they must exist, be cardassian, and go unregistered by the ut. he grabs a tricorder and finds some faint energy readings that aren’t normal when he scans them. so that’s it, ghosts exist, apparently… and they can be very opinionated.
garak doesn’t believe him at first but then julian starts telling him all sorts of stuff related to the time in the basement and even his childhood, supplied to him by the ghosts and most definitely previously unmentioned, and horrified that they’d just tell him all that, he concedes (mostly because he does know about hebitians and the oralian way teachings, and the idea of spirits and afterlife aren’t as foreign and ridiculous to him as to most others). so now he knows he lives with nine ghosts, and one of them is his mother. he’s mostly glad he can’t see them, but it unnerves him all the same because they can see him.
julian is a bit unnerved as well, but he does get used to them (and other ghosts he now realises he sees everywhere else) fairly quickly and sees them as eccentric friends who can tell him interesting things about history and garak when he lived there, much to garak’s dismay, and most of whom listen to him and need him to do things for them so they’re less bored. some need time to get used to him because he’s an alien, but they come around too eventually. he speaks the language, which is appreciated, and clearly cares about the cardassian people if he’s there to help, and mila’s elim loves him, and did they mention he’s the only one who can see them and make things interesting? so he’s alright. if they could get used to the idea of being ghosts and being ghosts together with two hebitians whose existence was erased from the history curriculum, well, they can get used to a human. for him, it’s chaos at times, because they love to talk and argue and it makes it hard to focus when he’s there and they’re around, but he’s patient and listens to them in turn, actually talks to them, and, being used to garak’s nonsense, knows how to deal with them if need be. so that’s fun. and, being a doctor and wanting to help people, he gets them to talk about things, sometimes, in an effort to help them move on. they don’t, or not any fast at least, but he can try, eh?
so yeah. cardassian ghosts au!
I haven’t considered kelas before but him also being able to see the ghosts would certainly be an interesting twist. I’d like to think that he’s had the ability for a while and mostly goes through his days ignoring them (because, on a sadder note, there’s lots of them after the fire and if he didn’t tune them out, it would make being a leader of the emergency med unit a lot more difficult, especially when there’s a ghost hanging around a body they’ve just found somewhere…). but then those at garak’s place have been there for a while, take it well, and are a source of information and nice conversation! one day he sees julian talking to them when they happen to be there at the same time and is pleasantly surprised, and they become friends thanks to it.
also, garak had no idea kelas could see them as well, but now that kelas knows garak knows julian can, he tells him. garak can’t believe it, because now there’s someone ELSE who can hear the embarrassing stories the ghosts have happily begun to volunteer, especially because he doesn’t like it and this is the most fun they’ve had in a long time? he’s both glad that kelas is mostly interested in history and the ghosts’ lives and petulant because he’s more interested in them than in talking to HIM. but, you know, if it means his two favourite people hang around more often, and know each other, and like each other… well, he can bear it :)