Caretaker - L. A. Graf [63]
Short rows of anemic plants climbed trellises strung between banks of flowstone, while brilliant white lights had been erected every dozen meters or so to substitute for the reality of a native star. Janeway wondered how the people patiently hauling water to each of the tiny rows had managed to hack out of the growing troughs, much less find the dirt to fill them, and wondered, too, if the presence of the green growing things made any real difference to the starkness of their cave-born lives.
"Captain..." Tuvok moved alongside her, his tricorder aimed upward and singing faintly. "The pulses from the Array continue to accelerate. The intervals between them have decreased another point-eight seconds."
And was that good or bad? Janeway tried to listen for the deep thrum of the energy beam's arrival through the muffling layers of stone, and wasn't sure if what she heard was the Array's pounding or her own heartbeat in her ears.
"Kes!"
One of the farmers recognized the girl still clinging to Neelix's hand, and suddenly a burble of excitement swept through the other workers at the sound of Kes's name. They each took a moment to carefully set aside their crocks and tools, then descended on the landing party with cries of delight that sounded like children heading out for recess as much as anything else. They were all young and pleasantly thin, Janeway noticed as they gathered into a babbling knot around Kes to exchange hugs and brotherly kisses.
It was like being surrounded by a crowd of half-finished adolescents who had only just started to be good at mimicking their parents' adultness.
"Hello, Daggin." Kes smiled when the man who'd first called out to her swept her up in his arms. Neelix, on the other hand, looked considerably less pleased.
Still grinning, Daggin pushed Kes away from him to hold her at arm's length, shaking his head as though unable to believe she were real.
"We never thought we'd see you again! How did you get back?"
"These people rescued me from the Kazon," Kes told him, flashing a shy smile up at Janeway. "I'm trying to help them find two of their crewmen." She turned in a half-circle to call to the other Ocampa around them, "Does anyone know where the aliens are kept?
The ones the Caretaker sends here?"
Silence smothered the joyfulness of a moment before as swiftly as a hand over a candle flame. Janeway wondered if it was the mention of off-world aliens that made them so cautious, or the mention of their own Caretaker.
"I think they're at the central clinic," Daggin said after a moment.
Janeway touched Kes's shoulder with quiet hope. "Can you take us there?"
(No.) A new, deeper voice that was somehow both spoken and yet not quite heard seemed to come from nowhere. (She cannot.)
Kes had no difficulty turning to find the speaker behind the farmers to her right. Janeway was startled to see two Ocampa males as round and grounded as the others were fairylike and young. The older of the two, his pale, clear eyes squinted in a frown of unhappiness, pushed gently through the crowd to stand just in front of Kes as the girl explained, "They can't speak telepathically, Toscat. Please talk aloud."
The concept of Toscat--or anyone--slipping his words so casually inside her mind gave Janeway a chill. At least the Vulcans had the decency to ask permission before opening any sort of contact that might expose whatever random thoughts happened to occur to either party. Living in a race of telepaths must make keeping secrets a serious challenge.
Janeway decided it might be best to keep Tuvok's inherited abilities to themselves, at least for the time being. No telling when the captain might decide they needed an informational edge, and Tuvok's willingness to attach himself to an Ocampa's thoughts would be worthless if the Ocampa already knew to protect