Star Trek - NF - 12 - Being Human Page 15

  "M'Ress hasn't come to me. Not since she filed her initial complaint."

  Gleau was visibly startled at that. "She... hasn't."

  "No."

  Then he understood. "Ahhh... but she complained

  to Arex."

  "She complained to him within the context of one friend venting frustration to another," said Shelby. "She did not, however, instruct him to have an altercation with you. Apparently he took his friend's discontent to heart, and took it upon himself to let her perceived op-pressor know of his anger."

  "And you're not court-martialing him for that!"

  It was everything she could do not to sound smug as she said, "Well, apparently it is social custom for Triex-ians to step in and take actions-including physical con-frontations-when they feel a friend has been ill-used. Something of a matter of honor with them, really. And I was concerned that if I penalized him too severely, that he could accuse me of violating General Order Thirty-four."

  For a long moment, Gleau stared at her with his face a frozen deadpan. Then a very small smile played on the edges of his mouth. "That's very amusing, Captain. Very amusing."

  Shelby then rose from her chair and came around the desk, sitting on the edge of it. "Arex also claimed that

  you were busy working your 'charm' on the Ambas-sador's sister, Kalinda..."

  Gleau made no attempt to hide his exasperation. "I was talking to the girl! That was all! Am I now supposed to take an oath of silence as well? Hell thunder, Captain, this is going beyond the bound of ludicrousness! Our se-curity chief takes issue with the way in which I run the science department, and you allow him to do so! I en-gage in civil discourse with a young woman and it's treated as if it's a high crime!"

  "He said she seemed very taken with you. I've spoken to Kalinda as well. Her description of the conversation matches Arex's."

  "Can I help it," he demanded, standing once more and throwing his arms wide, his face almost in hers, "if I am so blasted charming that people actually enjoy speaking with me? This is madness! What would you have, Cap-tain? Shall I wear a bag over my head? Perhaps I should take to treating everyone I encounter as if they were dirt on my boots, so that no one should-heavens forbid- find my company engaging!" She watched as he reined himself in then, trying to keep a handle on the situation. "Do you see how this has spiraled out of control, Cap-tain? In the interests of accommodating one time-displaced female, the integrity of a lieutenant comman-der with a blemish-free record is being challenged. It is intolerable. Intolerable!"

  The door chimed. Saved by the bell, thought Shelby, as she called, "Come." The door slid open and Kat Mueller entered. She glanced from Shelby to Gleau and back again be-

  fore saying, "Ambassador Cwan has told me he wishes to speak with you."

  Shelby let out a soft sigh. "My my. He's being rather formal about it. All right, tell him to come up."

  Nodding briskly, Mueller tapped her com badge and informed Si Cwan to report to the captain's office. As he did so, Shelby turned back to her annoyed science offi-cer. "Mr. Gleau, we're done for the moment."

  "Only for the moment, Captain," said Gleau stiffly.

  "Oh, and Gleau... ?"

  He paused at the door. "Yes, Captain?"

  "I certainly hope, for your sake, that you were limit-ing your interaction with young Kalinda to mere discus-sion. From myself you need merely worry about disciplinary action, and Arex seems to believe a severe tossing is the answer to things. But God help you if Am-bassador Si Cwan feels you have taken... liberties. My guess is you simply won't be found. Ever. Si Cwan can be very inventive."

  Gleau said nothing. He simply nodded a silent "Good day" to her and to Mueller before walking out the door.

  "That man has a spectacular ass," Mueller com-mented when he was gone.

  "He is a spectacular ass," replied Shelby, sitting back down behind her desk and rubbing her temples gently to offset the chance of a headache. "Unfortunately, he's a spectacular ass who also makes one or two valid points. How do you punish someone for simply doing that which is culturally and genetically inbred?"

  "Firing squad?" suggested Mueller.

  "You're not helping, XO." She sighed. "He accused

  me of favoritism... of working to accommodate M'Ress's needs at the expense of other crew members, including himself."

  "I said as much to you already when she first came aboard," Mueller reminded her.

  "Yes, I know."

  "Curse my infallibility," deadpanned Mueller.

  The thudding in Shelby's temples was becoming more pronounced. She had the makings of a consider-able headache coming on, she realized.

  "Are you quite all right, Captain?"

  "No, I'm not quite all right. I'm not even close to all right. I have a planet below that once oppressed my husband, which now wants to try and restart the empire that held an iron grip on this sector of space for hun-dreds upon hundreds of years. I have a science officer who may or may not be seducing women against their will, and a security officer who seems to feel that the best way to handle the situation is to use the science officer as a bowling ball. So I appreciate your concern, XO, but the truth is that I'm a rather far piece from 'all right.' I'm hoping, though, that whatever Si Cwan has to say, it will do something to alleviate the aggrava-tion."

  As if with supernatural timing-which Shelby would have been perfectly willing to credit him with-Si Cwan appeared at her door. She stood up and ushered him in, taking a moment to draw in a few deep, cleans-ing breaths. He looked at her with concern. "Are you all right, Captain?" "I'm thrilled that everyone seems so concerned with

  my well-being, Ambassador. Please," she gestured, "have a seat."

  "I'd prefer to stand, if that is acceptable."

  She turned to Mueller. "I'm going to have these chairs checked. There's something about them that just prompts people not to sit. All right, Ambassador," she said, looking up at him, crossing her arms and forcing a smile against the pain that was thumping in her head. "What's on your mind?"

  "The Danteri offer."

  "I suspected as much."

  "I've given it a great deal of thought, and I'm very pleased to tell you-"

  "Ah-!" said Shelby cheerfully.

  "-that I have decided to take them up on it."

  "-ha," she finished, far less cheerfully. "And... you are 'pleased' to tell me this... why?"

  "Why," he said, as if it should have been the most ob-vious thing in the world, "because the opportunity pre-senting itself to me is a remarkable one, and makes me extremely happy. And since I know you are the type who is pleased to share in others' happiness, I simply concluded that you would be delighted to take pleasure

  in mine."

  "I see." She took a deep breath, leaned back against the desk once more. Then she tapped her com badge and said, "Captain to sickbay: I'm going to be down in a few moments looking for a headache remedy. Anything short of decapitation would be greatly appreciated."

  "Aye, Captain."

  "Shelby out." Then Shelby returned her attention to

  Si Cwan, standing before her. "Ambassador Si Cwan, I suppose that, out of consideration for the Prime Direc-tive if nothing else, I should keep my mouth closed about this matter. But the Danteri... Si Cwan, their his-tory..."

  "History means nothing if they are truly willing to forge a new-"

  "Their Senate speaker, Lodec, murdered my hus-band's father. Are you aware of that?"

  That brought Si Cwan up short. His eyes clouded. "What?"

  "Yes, that's right. The fellow who runs their senate- arguably one of the most powerful men on their world-murdered Captain Calhoun's father. These are the types of people you're going to be involving yourself with, Si Cwan. And we have an old saying back on Earth: If you lie down with pigs, you get up smelling like pigs."

  "A colorful sentiment. I am quite sure I would truly appreciate the splendor and insight of this aphorism," Si Cwan informed her, "if I actually knew what a 'pig' was. As it stands, Capt
ain Shelby... we all of us have darkness in our past. We've all done things that we are ashamed of, or things that we regret..."

  "And you know mat Lodec regrets it... how?" When she saw that Si Cwan did not respond immediately, she continued, "This was not an isolated incident, Cwan. This was not a freak happenstance. This was just another day of bloodletting and brutality perpetrated by a race with a long history of it. Is that who you want to attach your star to?"

  He drew himself up, squared his shoulders. "I wish to attach my star, Captain, to a potential future for the

  Thallonian Empire to which I am committed. If you wish to continue your harangue, please inform me of your intent so that I can be certain to be elsewhere. If, on the other hand, you wish to extend your congratulations, I would be most happy to receive them."

  Shelby looked him up and down for a long moment. Then, stiffly, she said, "Congratulations, Ambassador. Congratulations on coming to an agreement with a race notorious for backstabbing and power-grabbing, in an endeavor to take a giant step backward in the develop-ment of this sector and quite possibly destabilizing it to the point of total chaos." She shook his hand firmly, turned, and walked out.

  A speechless Si Cwan turned and stared at Mueller, who smiled sweetly at him. "She's thrilled for you," she

  iii.

  Si Cwan realized belatedly that he should not have been surprised when he discovered Robin Lefler seated in his quarters. Nevertheless, he was. That she was able to ob-tain entrance was likewise not surprising; since she was there as his aide, he had given her full access to his quar-ters so that she could obtain things whenever she needed them, even if he was not around.

  What surprised him, then, was the look in her eyes. And not just the look. It was the eyes themselves. They seemed redder than usual around the rims, as if they'd been greatly irritated, and he could not figure out why

  that might be. Perhaps there was some sort of human virus going around, first with the captain's clear head pain, and now this odd eye redness. "Robin... ?" he ventured.

  "Kalinda told me your decision," she said without pre-amble. "Have you gone to Captain Shelby with this yet?" "Yes."

  "And what did she say?"

  "Well," and he walked slowly across the room toward her. She was seated in one of the chairs, looking stiff-backed and uncomfortable. He drew another chair across the room and sat opposite her. "The first time, she simply gave me a verbal tongue-lashing. Then she walked out. Then she walked right back in before I could leave to reiterate that she thought it was a mistake. Which it may be. She said that it smacked of ingratitude to people such as herself and particularly Captain Cal-houn, who had gone to such efforts and extended them-selves so greatly on my behalf. Which is true enough. I acknowledged that, and then told her that I had to follow my heart." She snorted disdainfully at that. "Robin-?" "Your heart?"

  "Robin..." His concern was starting to grow, be-cause she was trembling with barely repressed fury. "Your heart?" Her voice rose. "You don't have a heart." "Robin!"

  And now she was on her feet, and he had never, but never, seen her so purely furious. Her rage was tower-ing; she seemed several heads taller than he did, even though she was a head shorter. "You don't have any kind of heart! Oh, ambition, yes, you've got that! And a ca-

  parity for revenge! And mercilessness and the ability to kill, yeah, you've got that. You've got tons of that! But a heart? You wouldn't know what to do with the thing!"

  Si Cwan was utterly flabbergasted. "How... how could you say that? You, of all people. You, who knows what the Thallonian tradition means to me... what my sister means to me!"

  "All you care about is things that are a means to your own end!" she shouted. "You care about people so long as they can be of use to you! Your sister, too! She's prob-ably just a tool as well! You don't really care about her happiness! That's why you were so angry when she was getting involved with Captain Calhoun's son, Xyon! Her happiness wasn't half as important to you as your own selfishness! You're such an idiot! Such an-!"

  "All right, that is quite enough!" Si Cwan said with such iron in his voice that it brought her up short. "Aide or no, Starfleet officer or no, friend or no... you still have no call to address me in that way! Gods, Lefler, once upon a time I could have had you torn apart by wild animals for daring to raise your voice to me. I do not have to suffer this abuse! I have always, always, done what I felt needed to be done! This is no different! For a time, those actions and needs intersected with the needs of Captain Calhoun and the Excalibur, and during that time we shared a mutually beneficial relationship. But sooner or later, all relationships end."

  "And some never even start," she said bitterly. "God, I..." Her fists were trembling. "You are just the most infuriating... aggravating..."

  "Robin," and he took her firmly by the shoulders.

  Every muscle in her arm was wound-spring tense. "Robin... you seem to be taking this decision of mine terribly personally. As if it's a betrayal, a rejection of you and your crewmates. You have to understand: It's not personal. Not at all."

  "Not personal," she repeated tonelessly.

  "No. Not at all."

  And to Si Cwan's immense shock, she grabbed him by either side of the head and pulled his face down to hers. She did it with such force that their teeth collided, and for a moment there was pain shooting through his skull, and then her lips were against his, hungrily, greed-ily. Her hands slid down his back, and her right leg wound around his left one, and Si Cwan felt as if his body was on fire. He gasped as she bit down on his lower lip and then suddenly she broke contact. She stepped away from him, and there was incredible need in her eyes, but also a hard anger that wasn't dissipating, and in a deep, husky voice she said, "You know what, Cwan? That was personal. Enjoy your new empire."

  He tried to get words out, but couldn't find his breath, and she didn't wait for him to find it as she turned and stalked out of the room.

  Stunned, he sagged onto the bed, staring into space, and uttered a word that he'd picked up from Captain Jean-Luc Picard on one occasion when Kebron had in-advertently stepped on Picard's toe.

  "Merde," he said.

  EXCALIBUR

  i.

  when the turbolift door slid open, McHenry was about to step in... and froze. Kebron was standing there, hands draped behind his back. Soleta was next to him. There was actually momentary surprise in Soleta's eyes; Kebron, as usual, could have been carved from rock. McHenry cleared his throat, and then said, "I'll wait

  for the next one-"

  He took a step backward, but that was as far as he got before Kebron's massive hand reached out, snagged him by the front of his uniform, and hauled him in. The doors hissed shut behind them.

  "-or I'll take this one. This one is fine," said McHenry.

  "Kebron!" Soleta said with reprisal in her voice.

  Kebron released him and McHenry stepped back, rubbing his chest and smoothing out the wrinkles. "So... how are you doing? How are your folks? I, uhm, notice that you have a kind of thing happening

  here," and he rubbed the base of his neck. "Are you hav-ing that looked at? Or-?"

  "You should have told us," Kebron interrupted, glow-ering down at McHenry. "What is this, an ambush?" "Pure coincidence," said Soleta. "Zak, McHenry's been under a lot of pressure. This probably isn't the best time to-"

  "He should have told us," repeated Kebron to her. There was such condemnation in his voice, so much contempt, and McHenry suddenly felt very put upon, very annoyed, and very tired. "Lift, halt," he snapped, and the turbolift glided to a halt. He looked straight at Ke-bron and said, "Great idea there, Zak. You're absolutely right Why, when we were first making introductions to each other back at the Academy, I should have said, 'Hi. Mark McHenry. My great-great-great-grandmother was impregnated by a god, I had a goddess for an invisible friend and lover, and maybe, just maybe, I have glimmer-ings of some abilities myself. How you doing?' "

  "Obviously, no reasonable person could have expected you to say
all that, Mark," Soleta said with what sounded like a soothing tone. "But still, in the interest of-"

  "Of what? In my interest?" he said sarcastically. "When would I have brought it up? At what point could it possibly have seemed a reasonable jumping-off point in a conversation? Or maybe, just maybe, it was never anyone else's business but mine." "But-"

  "There's no 'but' here, Soleta! I wanted to be normal! Don't you get that? When I told Artemis I didn't want to

  see her anymore, she tried to kill me! You think those bolts she tossed around in the bridge were a problem? Those were love taps compared to what she hit me with! I could barely move for weeks! She burned my eye-brows off!"