Enigma - Michael Jan Friedman [32]
Ulelo had been thinking for a long time about the period he had spent with his masters—thinking hard—when he realized there was someone standing in front of his cell.
And it wasn’t Commander Wu, for a change. Much to Ulelo’s surprise, it was his friend, Emily Bender.
Ulelo looked into her eyes and wondered how she would respond to what he had done. He wondered what she would say.
It was a moment he had attempted to picture long before his treachery was discovered. The prospect of his friend looking down on him as he sat there in the brig had almost kept him from transmitting the Stargazer’s specs.
Almost.
But Ulelo had gone ahead with his transmissions anyway. And now, much to his discomfort, he would have an opportunity to see if the reality of his present situation had anything in common with his expectations.
After a moment, Emily Bender was joined by Lieutenant Pfeffer, who tapped in the code that deactivated the electromagnetic barrier, and let Ulelo’s friend into his cell. Then Pfeffer raised the barrier again and withdrew.
It left the prisoner alone with Emily Bender. Unlike the second officer, Ulelo’s friend sat beside him on his bed. Her expression—one of sadness and uncertainty—almost made Ulelo wish that his visitor had been Wu after all.
But Emily Bender didn’t say the sort of things he had dreaded to hear from her. When she finally spoke, her tone was unexpectedly kind and understanding.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
“I’m…fine,” Ulelo told her.
She looked at him a moment longer. Then she said, “Whatever happened, Dikembe, I know it’s not your fault. You would never willingly do what they say you’ve done.”
He didn’t know what she meant. He said so.
“If you sent those messages,” Emily Bender explained, “you must have been under the influence of someone else. You must have been their puppet.”
“Their puppet?” he repeated.
“Uh-huh. Is that what happened, Dikembe? Were you under somebody else’s control?”
He didn’t know what to say.
Emily Bender put her hand on Ulelo’s. “It’s all right, Dikembe. Just remember, I’m still behind you. All your friends are behind you. You’re not alone in this.”
She said other things as well, comforting things. But all the com officer could think about was the possibility that Emily Bender had suggested to him….
“Is that what happened, Dikembe? Were you under somebody else’s control?”
After a while, Emily Bender left, assuring Ulelo that she would be back. Pfeffer restored the electromagnetic barrier and the com officer found himself alone again.
And he had even more to think about than before—because he was no longer just trying to remember the time he had spent with his masters. Now he was also trying to recall why he had agreed to work for them.
But he couldn’t.
He wasn’t drawn to anyone else’s way of life. He didn’t believe he owed anybody anything. And yet, he had felt compelled to do what had been asked of him, to the detriment of his comrades. He had felt it was a necessary endeavor—worth the price of his freedom, not to mention the trust of his friends.
He had been sure of that, if little else. Absolutely sure.
But now that he thought about it, he couldn’t imagine why he had been so sure. And for that reason, he had to entertain the possibility that Emily Bender was right—that he had been manipulated against his will.
That he was, in her words, a puppet.
Avul Vayishra was a tall, darkly complected man with a black goatee. He had been one of Admiral McAteer’s favorite captains from the day the admiral took over administration of the sector. McAteer had described Vayishra as a natural leader, a paragon of Starfleet efficiency.
But Vayishra didn’t look like a paragon of efficiency at the moment. As he sat warming his hands around a steaming cup of coffee, he just looked stunned.
“They cut through our shields as if they weren’t even there,” he said, his voice thinned by cold and fatigue. “And when we fired back, our weapons barely slowed them down. There wasn’t much we could do except try to hold on.”
Picard, who was sitting