Unsealed Cardassian records implicate restaurateur in collaborator controversy

ASHALLA, BAJOR — Iba Sizo, owner of the popular Bajoran-Terran restaurant chain The Orb of Taste, stands accused of having collaborated with the Cardassian occupation government.

Earlier this year, the Bajoran Central Archives unsealed an enormous cache of Cardassian records, which made known the fates of hundreds of Bajorans who disappeared during the last months of the Occupation. A team of archivists have worked around the clock to analyze the records, which comprise kiloquads of data before the Central Archives makes them accessible to the public.

One record concerns Iba Sizo, a former refugee and member of the Bajoran Resistance from Ilvia. Having lost his entire family during the Occupation, Iba immigrated to Betazed in 2369, obtained an education in culinary arts, and worked in some of the Alpha Quadrant’s finest restaurants before opening The Orb of Taste on Earth in 2390.

Iba’s unique Bajoran fusion cuisine proved popular on Earth and elsewhere, with franchises expanding to Terra Nova, Risa, and most recently, Trill. In 2395, Iba published a memoir, Your Pagh is Hungry and embarked on a motivational lecture tour based on his life story. Last year, the city of Mombasa, home to the first Orb of Taste restaurant, honoured him with a Distinguished Citizen Award.

According to records obtained by a confidential source in the Central Archives, however, Iba Sizo actually died at the Elemspur Detention Centre just weeks before the Cardassians withdrew from Bajor. He was 40 years old.

“The new records suggest that the individual currently known as Iba Sizo is actually Enji Tebrey from Hedrikspool,” said the confidential source, unauthorised to speak to the media on behalf of the Central Archives. “Enji worked for ten years as a senior-level bureaucrat in the Cardassian occupation government.”

Existing records show Enji Tebrey vanished from his home in Ashalla the same week that Iba Sizo died at Elemspur.

“So many collaborators simply escaped to Cardassia during that tumultuous period,” said Yama Toreni, Director of Acquisitions for the Bajoran Central Archives. Mentioning no individual by name, Director Yama added, “A smaller number of them were also given identities of deceased Bajorans to avoid capture.”

The unsealed records suggest this was the case with Enji Tebrey, who was, according to the confidential source, surgically altered to resemble Iba Sizo following his disappearance. It is unknown whether someone intentionally killed Iba for his identity or if the timing of the events was coincidental. Cosmetic alteration and identity replacement were well-documented Cardassian practices of the time, particularly within the Obsidian Order, the Union’s former intelligence agency.

After the Cardassians withdrew from Bajor, the Provisional Government named Enji Tebrey and hundreds of others in the Ilvian Proclamation, which delivered a sentence of exile to all Bajorans who served in the occupational government.

While the work of analyzing the records is ongoing, several high-profile political and religious figures have expressed concern that the Iba Sizo controversy detracts from the Archive’s stated goal of solving missing person cases.

“In leaking this unsubstantiated story to the press,” said Vedek Elian in a prepared statement, “an unnamed archivist has unnecessarily stoked the embers of a fire that has been extinguished for nearly three decades. This attack on a successful Bajoran does nothing to further the cause of reconciliation; it only damages us all.”

By contrast, the Kai Meressa Memorial Centre has issued a statement supporting the further investigation into the Iba Sizo case. “A collaborator who perverts the course of justice dishonours the memory of every Bajoran whose life was lost during the Occupation. Every single one of them must be found, apprehended, and held responsible for their crimes,” the statement read.

The individual currently known as Iba Sizo has dismissed the allegations as defamatory and has declined to comment further.

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About Nash Blaxland

Nash Blaxland is a human journalist with a career spanning over 20 years. A graduate of the University of Tasmania and the University of Alpha Centauri, Blaxland is a fifth-generation journalist and has been a correspondent for the Federation News Service since 2392, based from both Earth and StarBase 118.

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