Fortune's Light - Michael Jan Friedman [34]
And who was he holding accountable for that? He could hear Picard’s words as clearly as if he were still sitting in his ready room: “You feel guilty for having allowed your close friend to go astray. You feel as though you should have done something to prevent it.”
Riker had seen Teller’s pronounced affinity for things Impriman, but he hadn’t seen where it might lead. Should he have? Could he have stopped his friend from destroying himself and his career?
Or was the captain right? I am not my brother’s keeper. “You sound bitter,” said Norayan.
He shrugged. “Maybe I am. It seems to me that I could have prevented this. I don’t know … somehow.”
“I was here,” she reminded him. “And I couldn’t stop it. By the time I found out, it was too late for me to change him. Teller was in too deep. The day came when I realized I could no longer trust him. He still loved me, but he had found a greater love.”
“I understand,” said Riker. She had been right to call this a confession; he offered her whatever absolution he could. “The risk had become too great.”
“And the stakes too high. It was no longer just a question of fidelity to Criathis or to the Federation. Now there were crimes against the Impriman world government, crimes I knew about and, by rights, should have reported to the authorities. Association with Teller’s activities could have brought sanctions against my madraga—crippling sanctions—from the other madraggi. So … I ended our affair. Just like that, I’m afraid.”
“How did he take it?”
“He was stunned,” said Norayan. “He claimed he had done it all for me, that he only wanted to become my peer in wealth and power, to put us on an equal footing. But I knew better. He said that if I’d leave things as they were, he’d stop smuggling then and there, but it was plain that he wouldn’t. That he couldn’t. I told him to leave this world, to remove himself from temptation, to find another post somewhere else. Or to rejoin Starfleet, as you had done.
“He promised me that he would do this. It gave him hope, he said, that perhaps he could return to Imprima someday, reformed, and on the morning my tenure as administrator was over, claim me for his bride.” She drew a long breath, exhaled it softly. There was only the slightest hint of a ragged edge to it, but Riker noticed. “I couldn’t destroy his hopes entirely. I said that was a possibility.”
“When was this?” he asked.
“A few months ago, just before I was named to the council of Criathis. But that wasn’t the last time I saw him. About a week after my ascension, he came to see me at my father’s estate here in Besidia—openly, as one would visit a friend. But at his first opportunity Teller took me aside and told me he couldn’t abide by his decision. He wanted things to be the way they were before. I stood firm, for his sake and mine, and for the sake of the Federation and Criathis as well. When he left, he was terribly disappointed.
“I didn’t know what to do, Will. I didn’t know what Teller would do in his desperation. Every day that passed was an agony of uncertainty, but I could not turn him in, not while there was a chance he would eventually come to his senses.
“Then he disappeared—and Fortune’s Light along with him.” She regarded Riker. “You know the rest.”
“Do you believe that Teller took the seal?” he asked Norayan.
She frowned. “Yes, I do. He had easy access to it. After all, he was trusted by everyone in Criathis, not only because he was a delegate of an honorable entity like the Federation but also because of his long-standing friendship with me.”
Riker grunted. “His big haul?” He’d said it out loud, but the question was really directed to himself.
Thinking a response was required, Norayan nodded.
“But once he had it,” he asked, “what could he have planned to do with it? During the carnival there would be no opportunity for agents to contact prospective buyers, not with the high-tech ban limiting offworld communications. And afterward, with the merger destroyed and the disappearance of Fortune