Dark Matters_ Shadow of Heaven (Book 3) - Christie Golden [7]
It was the orb Tialin had given them, their means to understanding how to extract and contain dark matter. The orb glowed, and spoke without speaking.
Tuvok listened. Despite his lifelong control over his emotions, his heart sped up and sweat broke out on his dark skin. His eyes went wide, dilated, and he almost stopped breathing. He had never imagined such a horror, such a complete and sweeping disaster, as what was being imparted to him now.
It was no wonder Telek had not wanted to put this into words. To do so would be to drastically reduce the profound impact of this knowledge, though speaking this information would be horrific enough. Tuvok
wanted to break the contact at once, to deny what had been imparted to him, had been burned onto his brain like a brand.
Instead, he regained control. He gently disengaged his mind from that of Telek's, returning to the Romulan the thoughts that were rightfully his and his alone. He thought a brief statement of gratitude at being allowed to share those thoughts; a Vulcan ritual.
Tuvok was trembling by the time his mind returned to him and he stared at Telek R'Mor.
"Now," said R'Mor shakily, "you know."
"Yes," said Tuvok. "We must beam down to the Kwaisi Council at once."
CHAPTER 3
THEY WERE MOVING HER FROM THE HOLDING CELL TO her permanent place of imprisonment, and they had blindfolded her to do it. Behind the blindfold, which was sealed to the individual contours of her face, Jekri Kaleh's eyes still foolishly struggled to focus. She smiled to herself, then forced her lips to uncurve. There was no telling what these guards would do if they thought she was laughing at them.
But the former head of the Romulan intelligence service the Tal Shiar was not laughing at them. She was laughing at fortune, which had raised her from the streets only to throw her back down even harder. And she was laughing at the familiarity of all of this, although up until now she had only witnessed these events from the other side.
There was terror here, of course. She'd be the worst sort of veruul, knowing all the ghastly details as she did, to feel no fear. But she also knew exactly what was being done to her, and why, something that most prisoners did not have the luxury of knowing. The blindfold was to make her feel vulnerable, to force her to trust to the goodwill of the guards-who naturally had none-to save her from tripping or slamming into something. Her ankle was slightly twisted and there were bruises forming on her forehead and right elbow already.
Next, possibly, would come the psychological and physical experiments. -Many a cure for disease had come from trial and error upon living patients. And new types of interrogation that did not involve elaborate equipment were always tested on those unlucky enough to come down on the wrong side of the law-or, Jekri mused bitterly, on the wrong side of Ambassador Lhiau.
She was glad she thought of Lhiau, because the hatred that flooded her at the thought of his loathed, handsome face gave her strength and courage. She was here wrongly accused, and she was certain that almost everyone involved, save perhaps the Empress, knew it.
Ah, righteous anger. How often have I seen it in others? Jekri did not delude herself that all the prisoners she had had arrested, interrogated,-imprisoned, or executed were true criminals or traitors to the Empire. Some were just inconvenient, and she had watched with cool detachment as they raged and pled.
As, no doubt, those in control of her fate were watching her. It was