Double Helix 03_ Red Sector - Diane Carey [105]
Broiling with envy and impatience, Stiles rubbed his cracked hands on his trousers. He didn’t understand that, exactly, but something about it lit a fire under him.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” he announced. “It’s time to go. We’ve got to do something.” “Then you have decided to act?” Spock asked.
Bitter, humiliated, and angry about it, Stiles held back the answer that bit at his tongue. He looked up, met the ambassador’s keen eyes. If only he could slap back the undercurrents of mockery and deserve better!
Spock gazed at him with sharp-eyed significance. “Eric, you underrate yourself and it makes you hesitate.”
“I hesitate because I get things wrong so much,” Stiles said. “And I don’t want to get things so wrong it gets somebody killed. Or a whole lot of somebodies.” “That is what everyone likes about you.” Stiles looked up. “Huh?”
“Your reputation among the captains of frontline ships is well known. Every service commander knows you are a Medal of Valor winner. You could have pushed, jockeyed for position, used your commendation to leap over the heads of everyone on the promotions list. Even in civilian life you might have used your hero status to become a senator or gain other power. You could easily have become one of those people with much rank and little experience, but you chose a wiser and less vainglorious way. You went back out into space for more experience, working your way up rather than forcing your way up. You may not realize it, but you are deeply respected and liked by the people who get all the attention. They speak of you fondly. They hope Eric Stiles is the one who comes to repair their ships.”
Astonished to his socks, Stiles gawked in complete stupid amazement. His men had said things like that to him, but he thought that was in-house loyalty and dusted it off with the debris of a day’s work.
“Sir,” he began, “there’s something the history tapes don’t show about you.”
“What would that be?” Stiles voice was low and sincere. “You’re a nice person.” Though Spock’s face remained passive, his eyes dropped their guard. “A supreme compliment,” he said. “Thank you. Now I suggest we vacate this ceil.” “I’m ready,” Stiles said. “How do we do it?”
Offering a moment to absorb what they had said to each other, the ambassador raised a brow in punctuation. Then he brought his right hand to his ear and pressed the skin just behind his earlobe, and said, “Spock to Saskatoon.”
For two or three seconds there was nothing. Then, out of nowhere, the very faint buzz of a voice, unmistakably human, spoke up from thin air, sizzling as if on a grill.
“McCoy here. What are you clowns waiting for? We’ve had you located for a half hour! Why’d you wait so long to signal us? You always did have lousy Vulcan timing.”
Touching his ear in a different place, Spock tilted his head to clear the signal a little more. “The comm link has been charging, doctor.” “Have you found that Romulan yet?”
“Not yet. We have been incarcerated, but will be remedying that momentarily and effecting a search. Are you and the ship under cover?”
“You bet we are. You can track us with this signal, can’t you ?” “Yes. Stand by. No unnecessary signals.” “Standing by. McCoy out.”
Astonished all over again, Stiles squawked, “How’d you do that! How could you contact-“
“A micro-transponder embedded in my cochlear cavity.” Spock gestured to his right ear as if to display something that couldn’t possibly be seen.
“But the guards scanned us!” Stiles asked, “How’d they miss something with a broadcast range?”
“The mechanism was nonactive. Dr. McCoy was under orders to activate a charge by remote after two hours had passed, with short-range microburst-” “Remote? From the ship? Wouldn’t it get interference?” “The good doctor has many connections on this planet who owe him favors. I suspect he had the signal relayed through several private sources.” “You ‘suspect’?” “He delights in not telling me.” “But can’t the Pojjana key in on an outside signal like that?” “Why should they?” Spock pointed out. “Until today, there were no