Death in Winter - Michael Jan Friedman [89]
He wasn’t a traitor by nature. However, he had a family that he loved very much, and that had made him vulnerable. One night, while Jellekh was away on insurrectionist business, Sela and a handful of centurions paid his family a visit.
When Jellekh returned to his house, the commander was there waiting for him-and his family was not. And she couldn’t guarantee they would ever be back.
After all, as Sela was quick to point out, even she wasn’t perfect. Despite her best efforts to “protect” Jellekh’s wife and sons, there was no telling what kinds of accidents were liable to befall them.
It was a tactic that had worked for Sela in similar situations. It came as no surprise to her that it worked on Jellekh as well.
From that point on, he would have done anything she asked of him. But as it happened, Sela didn’t ask very much-the occasional update on Hanafaejas and little more.
After all, Jellekh was a game piece she could play once and once only. She had preferred to wait for the time when playing him made the most sense.
That time was now.
With Jellekh’s help, Sela would capture not only the Kevratan insurrectionists, but their Starfleet allies as well-Doctor Crusher included. And as a bonus, Sela would have the vaccine the other Federation physician had come up with-which, with a little work on the part of the Empire’s best researchers, would help the Romulans who had contracted the disease.
All she had to do was wait for Picard and his people to leave the tunnels below the castle, and then follow them to Crusher’s hiding place. At that point, it would be a relatively simple matter to seize them and end their adventure on Kevratas.
Then the furor on the colony world would die down and it would become just another Romulan possession again. And Sela, by virtue of her victory there, would again be catapulted back into the light.
She remembered what her father had told her when she was young: Patience is an asset-spend it wisely. Sela was proud to say she had done just that.
Pretending she was firing at Picard, she took aim and vaporized another stone.
Like a great many other species, the Kevrata were partial to gambling. However, the object of their game-which involved three four-sided dice-wasn’t to see who could amass the most wealth. It was to see who could give it away the quickest.
As Picard and his old colleague Pug Joseph looked on, the Kevrata named Kito finished wiping himself out-much to the chagrin of the other players. Grudgingly, they clapped him on the back.
“So,” said Joseph, “I guess we didn’t need it after all.”
The captain looked at him. “It?”
“You know-my lucky marble.”
“Ah,” said Picard, “that.”
“Of course,” said Joseph, “we’re not out of the woods yet. But it’s looking pretty good right now.”
“Better than it did before,” the captain conceded.
“So what happens to him now? Greyhorse, I mean?”
Picard shrugged. “I don’t know. Technically, he is still a resident of the penal settlement.”
“You know,” said Joseph, “I don’t think he’s right yet, and I don’t think you do either. But I think he’s probably right enough to get out of that place.”
The captain knew what he meant. “Perhaps his performance here will be a factor in that decision.”
“I sure hope so.” Joseph smiled to himself. “Remember the time he was treating the Irhennian ambassador?”
Picard smiled too. “Yes. The one who insisted he had suffered internal injuries during the battle with the Gadraaghi? When all the while it was a- “
He stopped at the sight of Greyhorse coming down the corridor. The doctor looked vaguely discomfited, as if he had eaten something that didn’t agree with him. Suddenly, the captain wished he had brought the marble after all.
“Doctor?” he said. “What is it?”
Greyhorse turned to him as if he had never seen him before in his life. He stared for a moment, then said, in a voice full of disbelief, “It’s done.”
Picard looked at him. “You mean… you have a vaccine?” he asked hopefully.
The doctor hesitated for a moment, then said, “Yes. And a splitting