Khitomer Peace Award Winner

Reason for the award

This scene (actually the first installment of five,) places Major Bloch Antony, a former Bajoran Resistance fighter who currently serves as Chief of Security aboard the USS Hiroshima, in the morally complex position of being tasked to help rebuild Cardassia Prime in 2375 after the Dominion’s devastating retaliation… the world of his former oppressors.

The details are specific and devastating: a Cardassian mother bowing her head in Bajoran gratitude for a ration pack, a young officer who can’t reconcile helping the people who killed his brother, a stone fragment carved with “”memory”” that Antony leaves buried in the rubble.

Antony’s voice is what makes this most compelling. He’s processing in real-time, acknowledging his anger while choosing something harder: a chance at forgiveness. “”Bajor suffered under a boot. Cardassia suffered under its own hubris””… a line that encompasses the entire tragedy without assuming it’s a simple thing to reconcile.

This is the Star Trek universe doing what it does best: asking whether reconciliation is possible after unforgivable harm, and whether healing can happen when history demands vengeance. Chuck doesn’t offer easy answers, and the writing never flinches from the weight of those questions. That’s why this story stands out, it’s a storyline that not only defines Antony, the character who lived it, but it’s one that lingers with the reader, long after its reading.