Day of Honor 01_ Ancient Blood - Diane Carey [51]
Will Riker developed a cough, folded his arms around his chest, and nurtured a sudden fascination with Sergeant Leonfeld’s scarlet tunic and white breeches.
“Nice uniform,” he muttered.
Data’s childlike face tilted. “Is there some problem, sir? Did I misunderstand? The murdered passengers were disarmed, correct?”
Picard looked at Riker and found no help from a man whose knuckles were pressed to his tightening lips.
“Eh, yes,” Picard began, “they … were disarmed. Em … Mr. Data, cancel that search for now. I’ll give you more specific orders later regarding that … Mr. Riker, do you concur?”
“Mmmhmm.” Riker’s back was to them, his arms still folded, one hip cocked. The moonlight silhouetted his head and shoulders. Picard raised his chin. “Carry on, Mr. Data.”
“Very well, sir.” The android turned and strode back through the freestanding doorway.
Picard cleared his throat and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, contemplating the vagaries of linguistic communication.
Still hugging his rib cage, Riker sidled toward him, eyes a little wide and one brow a little up.
“Maybe you’d… like some lunch now, sir?” he suggested.
“Lunch?” Picard tossed back. “Lunch, Mr. Riker? While my ship is out there being captured? I’m surprised at you, man. Such ideas. I’ve a mind to disarm you.”
Riker smiled and nodded. “Have a nice stranding, sir.”
“See? Right here. The governor was leaning toward independence, but he wanted strong ties to the Federation and eventual readmittance as a full-fledged member planet. Mrs. Khanty wanted no more ties at all. She was careful about it, though. I can only find one time when she slipped and mentioned it while she was talking to a women’s club. Let me change this—there.”
“Play it.”
Worf peered over Grant’s shoulder in the privacy of their Rogue quarters, where they had set up their computer access terminal. Grant had spent every off-duty hour, including some he should’ve spent sleeping, digging into the government computer links, trying to find his way to Odette Khanty’s private holdings, that “track” he spoke of.
On the tiny screen, Odette Khanty came to life, speaking to a group of women.
“—valiant type, aren’t we? We’re frontier stock. Seniards don’t like being told what to do from way over there somewhere. The Federation wants to levy controls on us about how we ship our ores. We know how to ship ore!”
“Frontier stock! She’s never been within transporter distance of a real frontier in her whole—”
“Be silent, Grant.”
“My husband is a great statesman who only wants the best for Sindikash. No one outside of Sindikash should say what the best is. Our families, our children are more important to us than to anyone else. I mourn the fact that my husband and I never had the chance to have our own children. Perhaps when he recovers from his terrible injuries, and I have great hopes for this, we will be able to begin that spirited enterprise of raising a baby.”
“Incredible!” Grant reached forward and used the keyboard to pause the computer playout of Mrs. Khanty addressing the women’s club.
Worf leaned back and fixed his eyes on the frozen image of the woman. “Which part?”
“The way she gets away with this chopped fodder! You know how she feels about kids. And I think she likes her husband a whole lot better now that he’s unconscious.
Now that the governor’s in a coma, Mrs. Khanty’s maneuvering her little pink self into power on the planet. But she’s doing it in this innocent, sweet-me way. Makes me gag.”
“This mission is getting under our skin,” Worf said with worry. “It makes me burn, pretending to be one of these people. I still feel saddled with the actions of the Rogues, no matter how I try to remember that I am nothing like them. I hear the captain’s voice in my head, telling me not to take all this so personally, but it is personal! It is.”
Shrugging with an endearing sense of himself, Grant nodded and muttered, “Eh, it’s our flaw. That’s what makes us such a great team. We take things personally. Now look at her face. See how she keeps her eyebrows just a little