Star Trek - NF - 12 - Being Human Page 14

  source."

  "And he never wandered far from his source of power," added Calhoun. "He was able to project it into space in immediate proximity to bis world... but be-yond that, he stayed put. That does not seem to be the case with Artemis."

  "No, it's not," McHenry said. "As near as I can tell, she goes where she wants, whenever she wants. I've never noticed any limitations on what she can and can't do. And I'm not sure why that would be."

  Soleta leaned forward, fingers interlaced. "Can you find out, Mark?"

  "How am I supposed to do that?"

  "Here is a thought: You could ask her," said Selar. "And this 'golden age' to which she refers: Do you know what that entails?" When he shook his head, she said, "Ask her that as well."

  "This entire situation is too vague, McHenry," Cal-houn said. "Our mission was to find the source of these energy emissions. We've done that... or rather, it found us. Obviously, however, it's not going to be left there. We need to get a firmer footing on what's happening.

  You obviously have some sort of link with her, or she with you. You sensed that she was out there, after all."

  "I know," said McHenry slowly. "I just... I knew she was there. When I was younger, and she was with me, I... I felt a certain way... I felt..."

  "Sexually aroused?"

  He gaped at Soleta, whose face remained impassive even as she had made the inquiry. "Soleta... is there something you want to talk about?"

  "Just making scientific inquiry," she replied.

  "Look, never mind how she made me feel," McHenry said, tugging at his collar slightly. "The thing is, you want me to find these things out. But it's not as if I'm in communication with her-"

  "You will be," Calhoun said. "I've seen the way she looks at you, acts around you. She'll be back, Mark. And when she is, we need you to find out what you can, in order to help us. Promises of a golden age or no, the woman is a time bomb. What we have to determine is just how large a bomb she is... before she goes off."

  TRIDENT

  i.

  kalinda had just decided that she liked the Ten-Forward on the Trident better than the Team Room of the Excalibur when Lieutenant Commander Gleau came hurtling through the air and crashed into her table. For-tunately she had a split second's warning when it hap-pened, and had sufficient presence of mind to snag her drink off the tabletop so Gleau wouldn't spill it. The re-mains of her pastry, however, were crushed to crumbs.

  Up until that point, things had been very pleasant, even convivial. Kalinda had never considered herself to be the most sociable of creatures, and yet felt herself moved to strike up conversations with people as they passed her. One of them had been Gleau himself, some minutes be-fore he'd been transformed into a small projectile.

  Radiating charm, he'd sat down at her table and she couldn't help but feel herself drawn to him. It was a most intriguing sensation for her. It made her tingle in

  areas where she usually did not tingle, and she could have sworn that Gleau was not only aware of the effect he was having upon her, but actually reveled in it.

  "What are you eating?" he inquired, pointing at the pastry she had in front of her.

  "Oh. This." She held it up. "A woman named Morgan Primus introduced me to them back on the Excalibur. It's called a bearclaw. Your food synthesizers can pro-duce them."

  "Do you mind if I-?" He gestured toward it.

  "Not at all."

  He broke off a piece of the bearclaw, chewed it with great delicacy, and licked the crumbs off his lips. There was something remarkably erotic about the way he did all that. "Not bad. Not bad at all." He smiled at her and she returned it immediately. She couldn't have helped herself. If her life had depended upon her frowning in re-sponse to his smile, she would have died at that moment.

  Gleau had leaned forward and said, with extreme cu-riosity, "So tell me... is it true what I've heard about your

  "I don't know," said the young Thallonian woman. "What have you heard?"

  "That you... how shall I put this..." Even lost in thought, he was gorgeous. She just couldn't get over it. Finally he said, "Well, no way to put it but straight out, I suppose. I've heard that you've actually communed with... well..."

  "The dead?"

  "Yes!" he said chipperly. "Yes, that's exactly it. And I can see by your face that it's a truly absurd notion...

  totally ridiculous... why, you must think me a fool for even bringing it-"

  "It's true," said Kalinda.

  "Really! You know, I thought it might be." He moved closer to her, waved a waiter over to get a glass of syn-thehol without taking his eyes off Kalinda. "How did that come about, exactly?"

  "I'd... rather not discuss it, if it's all right with you," she said softly. "The actual event, and the things that led up to it... they're a bit..."

  'Traumatic?"

  She nodded.

  He took her chin in his hand, and she felt her toes curl-ing up by themselves. Suddenly she was getting fidgety in her chair and she wasn't sure why. "I fully understand," he said, and she was positive that he did. He seemed the type to whom she could say just about anything, and he would absolutely be on her side, and know exactly what was in her heart when she said it. "It must be terrifying... hav-ing that sort of unnatural communication..."

  "Oh, no," she said quickly, anxious to get him to see things the way she did. "No, not at all. It's the most natural thing in the world, actually. People just don't comprehend. Death... they think death is the end of existence. It's not It's simply the beginning of an entirely different type of existence. One with its own rules, its own way of... of life, I guess, although mat's hardly the best way to put it."

  "That is extremely fascinating," he said, and at that moment she felt as if there was nowhere in the entirety of the galaxy that she would rather be. That to be the focus of his attention... there was nothing better, nor

  could there ever be anything better. "And I suppose that by having this sort of experience, this ability to compre-hend life after death... you probably have no fear of death yourself, then."

  "Not at all. I mean, it's not something I would readily embrace for myself," she admitted. She looked down at her own drink, trying to imagine what it would be like to be on that other side. "It's an entirely new way of... of existing, and I'm somewhat used to the one I've presently got. But when the time comes, sooner or later," and she shrugged, 'Til be ready for it."

  "Hopefully it won't come for you for a long, long time yet," he said with conviction. "You know, Kalinda..."

  "My friends call me Kally."

  He smiled a dazzling smile. "Kally, then. You know, Kally, I was thinking, perhaps we might consider-"

  There was a sudden clearing of throat behind Gleau, and he turned in his seat and looked up. Standing behind him was the head of security-that oddly proportioned fellow named... what was it again? Oh yes... Arex. His head seemed higher than it did before, his neck extended, and he was scowling rather fiercely... although since he had a fairly low-hanging brow, it wasn't easy to be sure.

  "Lieutenant Commander," he said in bis warbly voice, "a moment of your time, please."

  "Well, Lieutenant, now I wouldn't want to be rude..." said Gleau suavely, indicating Kalinda.

  "Oh, this won't take long. I'm sure the young lady would be able to excuse us for a brief time."

  "Of course," said Kalinda. "I wouldn't want to do anything that would get in the way of the ship running

  smoothly or important things." Then, in a low voice, al-though she wasn't sure what prompted her to say it, she added, "Don't worry, Gleau. I'll wait right here."

  He smiled and cupped her chin once more, and she felt a tingle up and down her spine. "You do that," he smiled, and then got up from his chair. Arex ushered him over to a table a short distance away, and draped his three legs care-fully around a chair, sitting as best he could in a seat mat was not exactly built for his species. Gleau, by contrast, sat gracefully, crossed his legs at the knees, and regarded Arex with
patience, mixed with mild bemusement.

  Kalinda calmly sipped her drink, every so often cast-ing a glance at Gleau and Arex's table, hoping that they would wrap up whatever they needed to discuss as briskly as possible. Even though she knew she should not, she tried to pick up bits and pieces of their conver-sation. She thought she heard the word "Mess" or "More Ess," whatever "ess" might be, being mentioned a number of times. And something about a knack for something, and comments about "easing up on her." At first Arex seemed to be doing most of the talking, but then Gleau started speaking, and he seemed to be get-ting increasingly angry at what Arex was saying.

  And suddenly Gleau was on his feet, and he said, "I don't have to take that from you!" He turned and started to walk away, and one of Arex's arms snared out, fast as a whip, and snagged Gleau's right arm.

  "Sit down. We're not through," said Arex, and every eye in the place was on them, but Arex didn't seem to care.

  "Oh yes we are!" shouted Gleau, and he tried to shove Arex back. That was a total mistake, because

  thanks to his tripodial structure, Arex was the single most difficult individual on the ship to throw off bal-ance. Instead, operating purely impulsively, Arex spun Gleau around and then shoved him as hard as he could.

  It was, apparently, a little too hard, for Gleau sailed through the air. He smashed into Kalinda's table, Kalinda managing to salvage the drink. The remains of the bearclaw, however, were a total loss.

  Gleau rolled off the table, landing just to Kalinda's left. He scrambled to his feet as Arex advanced on him, and other crewmen were now endeavoring to get be-tween the two, to keep them separated and calm things down.

  "You're insane, Triexian!" Gleau was shouting, and it wasn't just that he was angrier than Kalinda had ever seen him, because she knew perfectly well that she hadn't known him for all that long. But he was angrier than she would have thought possible for him, considering the ut-terly placid demeanor he'd been putting forward. "You're insane, and you're going to pay for this! This is not over!"

  "I'm telling you to leave M'Ress alone," shot back Arex. So that's what he'd said! Not "Mess" or "More ess " or similar idiocy! It was Muh-Ress. Probably some-one's assumed name. "If the captain telling you that wasn't sufficient, then perhaps my doing so will be." Yet he was already busy picking up after himself, righting the table that had been knocked over, dusting up the crumbs. He looked apologetically to Kalinda. "Are you all right?"

  "I'm... I'm fine, I think..."

  Gleau was stabbing a finger at Arex. "Not over," he

  repeated. "Not over at all." Then, gathering up what was left of his battered pride, Gleau stalked out of the room.

  There was an uncomfortable silence in the Ten-Forward then. Arex didn't bother looking at anyone else; he was busy cleaning up the mess that had resulted from his altercation with Gleau. Kalinda's initial reac-tion was to be horrified on Gleau's behalf over what she'd just seen. But as moments, and her first impulses, passed, she found herself wondering just what it was that Gleau could have said or done that would have so incensed the head of security.

  She sidled over to Arex. He turned to her and said apologetically, "Again, I'm sorry for disrupting you. Where I come from, walking out the way he was trying to was extremely rude. I suppose I overreacted. Let me get you another of those-whatever that was you were

  eating."

  "A bearclaw." She looked at him with curiosity, be-cause he seemed most amused. "What? That's what it's called: a bearclaw. What did I say-?"

  "Nothing. It's funny to me; I doubt it would seem so

  to you." Then, in a very low, very quiet voice, she asked,

  "What did he do? Gleau, I mean." Arex righted the nearest chair. "Do you have strong

  feelings for him?" he asked in that high voice of his.

  "Be honest."

  "I... I think I do, yes... at least, I think I did." "Well, a friend of mine developed strong feelings for

  him. But be careful... because the feelings you think

  you have, aren't always yours."

  ii.

  "I feel that I have been misused, abused, and I want to know what you 're going to do about it, Captain!"

  Shelby was in her office, which adjoined her private quarters. Despite the fact that she was off duty, she had complied with Gleau's request for a meeting, and had chosen to take it here rather than up in the ready room. Truth to tell, she'd been expecting him, since she'd al-ready heard about the altercation in the Ten-Forward. However, she'd had a long day, which was getting longer by the moment, and so she wasn't especially in the mood to be bellowed at by one of her officers. So when Gleau raised his voice to her, she was on her feet in an instant, eye to eye with the angry Gleau, and she didn't feel the least bit of charm coming off him. He was purely angry, and on one level she couldn't blame him, and on another, she was rapidly reaching a crisis point of frustration. "Sit down, Lieutenant Commander. Now."

  He stabbed a finger at her and remained standing. "I blame you for this, Captain."

  "Me? I didn't knock you over a table."

  "No," he said, his hands on his hips, looking like a de-fiant gold statue. "But a crew takes its lead from its commanding officer. This 'Oath of Chastity' which you forced upon me..."

  "Mr. Gleau," she said with forced calm, "if you do not sit down, I will have security come in and force you to sit. And since we now know that our security chief can handle you with little difficulty-"

  "You approve of what he did?!"

  "No, I do not," Shelby told him firmly. "And Mr. Arex has been dealt with separately."

  "Court-martial, I should think, for striking a superior officer."

  "There will be no court-martial, and the specifics I took in Arex's case are between him, me, and Starfleet. Now sit the hell down."

  He sat, but remained ramrod stiff. "Captain," said Gleau stiffly, "I have given this matter a great deal of thought, and I am seriously considering filing charges, against you, for harassment."

  "Really," she said, eyebrow cocked. Shelby began to feel as if the entire thing was spinning off into the realm of the truly insane. "And I have harassed you...

  how?"

  "As far as I am concerned," he told her with an air of great wounded dignity, "you have acted in direction vio-lation to General Order Seven."

  Shelby frowned. "When the hell did I visit Talos IV, and how is that remotely relevant? Unless you're trying to find a way to have me executed..."

  She was pleased to see that that threw Gleau off his mental stride considerably. "That's not General Order Seven."

  "Yes, it is."

  "I'm sorry. I meant Twelve. General Order Twelve."

  "You think that I didn't take adequate precautions when approaching a starship without establishing com-munications first?"

  His face darkened. And as far as Shelby was con-

  cerned, the best thing was that he had nowhere to direct his anger except at himself. "Twenty-four, then."

  She leaned back in her chair, steepling her fingers, and recited, " 'Upon receiving direct instruction from a flag officer in an emergency situation, a starship will be authorized to use deadly force upon a planetary surface unless receiving counter-' "

  "Damnation!" thundered Gleau.

  "Are you sure you graduated the Academy?"

  "We Selelvians have a different numbering system. I've made the transition to Federation standard, but I get confused sometimes. The one about," he waved his hands in frustration as if he was hoping to pluck the elu-sive general order out of the air, "about respecting cus-toms of crew members-"

  "General Order Thirty-four? Starfleet captains will honor, respect, and display extreme tolerance for species-based customs and practices insofar as the safety of the vessel is not threatened by such prac-tices... ?"

  "Yes!" he clapped his hands once in an "ah-ha" man-ner. "Yes, thank you."

  "You're welcome. Always glad to aid in my own pil-lorying."

  "It has nothing to do with being
'pilloried,' Captain. The simple fact is that at no time have I acted in a man-ner that is not in keeping with customs and decorum as practiced by my people. And I have been penalized for it. I did nothing with M'Ress that she did not desire to have happen on some level. Yet now she is abrogating responsibility for it, and you are aiding and abetting her

  in that. You forced me to take an onerous oath of per-sonal conduct. And now she has come complaining to you about my subsequent treatment of her, when I have done nothing to-"