Gulliver's Fugitives - Keith Sharee [8]
“Um, ahem!” said Riker.
“Oops, we’re sorry,” replied the little girl, without actually turning toward Riker. Then she spoke to her partner. “Let’s tell him that we’re married,” she said.
“Later,” the little boy said with a laugh. He started kissing her again, and still neither of them had bothered to turn and look up at Riker.
Riker couldn’t shirk responsibility. He was determined to be firm.
“Uh, well, I’m not the best person to explain to you about marriage,” he said as a single drop of sweat slipped down the side of his face and lodged in his beard. “But I don’t think you’re quite ready for it.”
It was as though he’d told the biggest joke in the galaxy. The toddlers sputtered and laughed so hard Riker thought they might hurt themselves. The first officer found himself feeling at a disadvantage, as though, incongruously, these children had played a sophisticated joke on him and were laughing at his expense.
After a moment they contained themselves. For the first time, they turned to face Riker, and the little boy spoke with a steady, measured voice.
“I am Oleph, and this is my wife Una.”
They bowed gracefully.
“But I think we’ve already met, First Officer Riker,”he continued, “under more formal circumstances, when we first arrived on your ship.”
“I realized I had been talking to the two cultural envoys from the First Federation. Grown adults of their species! One hundred years ago, their people had initiated a first contact with us, and now I was condescending to correct their sexual behavior.”
Riker chuckled and glanced over at his captain, who walked beside him along the corridor. Picard looked more disquieted than amused.
“I don’t think any diplomatic damage was done, sir,” said Riker. “They seemed to have found it funny rather than offensive.”
“Good,” said Picard. “We have more pressing matters to contend with. Counselor Troi dug around in the ship’s computer and found out her location on the ship in the hours before the Other-worlders came to her. It turns out she was with Oleph and Una. Her amnesia keeps her from recalling what she did with them, but she’s sure that Oleph and Una have some connection with the Other-worlders. I want to ask Oleph and Una about it—before we begin our mission to rho Ophiuchi.”
“Here’s your chance,” said Riker.
Farther down the corridor, a door had opened. Oleph and Una had stepped out. Now they saw Picard and Riker approaching.
“Greetings Captain, First Officer,” said Una.
“Greetings to you,” said Picard.
Picard and Riker realized they were standing at the door to Worf’s cabin. And there was Worf himself. The dark-skinned, herculean Klingon, chief of Enterprise security, was standing just inside, in the act of receiving an electronic padd from Oleph’s tiny hand. Worf towered over the two diminutive envoys from the First Federation, making them look like porcelain figurines.
Worf shared a private look with Oleph as he took the padd and held it nonchalantly at his side.
“Hello, Lieutenant,” said Picard.
“Captain,” intoned Worf, in a deep fearless voice that seemed to vibrate the ship’s bulkheads.
The awkwardness of an interrupted moment kept all parties silent, until the captain spoke directly to Oleph and Una.
“I’m sorry to trouble you, but I need information. My counselor, Deanna Troi, had contact with alien and possibly dangerous life-forms shortly after she was with you today. Do you recall what you did while with her?”
“We discussed her work, and our work,” Oleph said.
“We are ethnographers,” Una added. “We study and record aspects of indigenous cultures all over this part of the galaxy. On your planet we might be called cultural anthropologists.”
“Nothing unusual happened?” Picard asked.
Oleph and Una looked at each other. Una’s child-eyes pleaded a mute question. Oleph gave her a silent nod of confirmation. He looked at the floor for a moment, and when he looked back up at the captain of the Enterprise, his face wasn’t that of a toddler, but of the formidable adult he in fact was. A firmness in his voice completed the transformation.
“Just