A Time for War, a Time for Peace - Keith R. A. DeCandido [91]
At once, Picard was both annoyed and relieved. The former because he had allowed himself to jump to conclusions about this woman before she even came on board, based in part on the way the admiralty had treated him after Rashanar. The latter because those conclusions were obviously unfounded. “Thank you, Captain.”
“You’re welcome, Captain. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a report to write—and you have an emperor to find.” With that, Go turned and took her leave.
Smiling, Picard went to the other door and returned to the bridge.
In the beginning, Riker and Troi’s wedding was to be a ceremony in the chapel in the capital city. Since it was where they had first met, it had a symbolism that appealed to both Lwaxana and to the couple.
Then the guest list grew to a number that the chapel simply could not accommodate, so the venue was changed to the spacious grounds behind Lwaxana’s new house.
Then she decided that the grounds weren’t spacious enough, so she reserved a park near Lake Cataria.
Then she realized that the weather this time of year was such that an outdoor wedding was impractical, so she reserved Amick Hall. Named after one of the Betazoids who died in the fight to drive the Dominion off the planet during the war, it was built on the site of Byram Hall, the place where Lwaxana and Ian Troi were married, which was destroyed when the Dominion took Betazed.
Then she added a hundred more names to the guest list, and even Amick Hall was no longer large enough, so she altered the day’s events so that there would be a before-wedding party on Lake Cataria, with the actual wedding—with a different list of guests—to be held at Amick Hall.
Now, two hours after the Enterprise left the Davlos system, Riker was ready to commit an act of matricide. All right, she isn’t even my mother-in-law yet. What do you call it when you murder your fiancée’s mom? The endless amendments to the ceremony were getting beyond tiresome.
He had tried to lose himself in the mission, but there was no joy there, either. Davlos proved an easy system to eliminate as Kahless’s location, as it had no Class-M worlds. Three planets were inhabited, but all the sentient life was located within easily scanned atmospheric domes. The only Klingon they found was a patron in a bar on Davlos VI, and he turned out to be the supervisor of an independent mining team.
As the Enterprise warped its way to the Cygnet system, Vale looked down at her status board and then at Riker and Troi. “Commander, you and Counselor Troi have another mess—”
Before Vale could even finish, Troi said, “Not my mother again?” Her voice sounded to Riker like a plaintive wail.
“Afraid so, Counselor. I’m really sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” Troi said with a sigh.
“Oh, I know it isn’t,” Vale said. “I’m sorry because I had 1700 in the pool.”
Picard turned to look back at Vale. “A pool?”
Suddenly nervous, Vale said, “Uh, yes, sir. Captain Scott put up a bottle of single-barrel scotch as the prize. I think Ensign Hoang was the one who picked 1640.”
“I see.” Picard turned back around with a neutral expression on his face.
I’m glad somebody’s getting some entertainment out of this, Riker thought. He wished he’d known about the pool, as he might well have chosen 1640 hours, and right now he really felt like he could use a good stiff drink. On the other hand, maybe Hoang can use it on her next date with Studdard.
Turning to his left, he asked, “Captain, can we use your ready room?” To Riker’s chagrin, his voice sounded strained and irritated, the very qualities he was trying to keep out of it.
“Of course, Number One.”
“Thank you.” Looking over at Vale as he and Troi rose, Riker said, “Pipe it in there, Commander.”
“Yes, sir.”
As soon as the doors closed behind them, Troi turned to Riker