• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

He looked at her, his eyes hollow and empty. “You should—have let—me go—back. I belong— back there.”

Gomez glanced at the captain, then shook her head. “No, I shouldn’t have. But I am sorry for your loss.”

Geordi moved around to the other side of the Bynar and they managed to get him to the bed beside Vale in sickbay.

An hour later, after trying to scrub the smell off her skin in the shower, she sat across from Captain Gold, a drink in her hand, and tried to tell him what had happened, from her point of view.

He let her ramble, let her get it all out of her system the way she wanted to. The way she needed to.

He knew how to listen as well as give orders. And right now, he was the only one on the ship who understood what she was going through.

On the way back to her cabin, she stopped in sickbay. Both patients were sedated and sleeping. She had lost one team member. She would learn somehow to accept that, but she had gotten the rest out safely, and had stopped who knew how many more from dying if those bugs would have gotten out of that core.

The mission wasn’t a success, but it wasn’t a failure either. They had stopped a menace to the Federation cold—although as Geordi had said, turning an enemy into a friend would have been better. A member of her team had died. More than likely she would lose a second as well, because sometimes Bynar bonded pairs did not survive the death of a mate. Only time would tell, and she was willing to give him that time. She owed him that much.

As Captain Gold had said to her, sometimes the line between success and failure was very narrow.

She had walked that line this time. It didn’t feel good. But it wasn’t all bad either.

CHAPTER

16

Geordi stood in the shuttlebay of the da Vinci and smiled as Lieutenant Vale got the shuttlecraft Cook ready to launch. She was doing everything by the book, right down to the last detail, and it amused him. He hadn’t seen anyone go through this sort of preparation to take a shuttle flight since his days in the Academy.

When the Beast had blown up, the Enterprise had turned around and gone back to its mission. He and Vale had decided yesterday that she would take the Cook back to the Enterprise and he would stay and help the S.C.E. team a little more. There were things to do yet, files on the Beast ’s technology to study, and the colonists needed a lot of help getting back on their feet.

Plus they had to finish reports on those insectoids and brief Starfleet as quickly as possible. Who knew how many more hives of them were out there, waiting to take over some unsuspecting craft.

“Well, I think I’m ready,” she said, her blue eyes full of life and the excitement of taking a long shuttlecraft trip alone.

Geordi could remember feeling the same way on his first long trip alone. Now he would just dread it. It was amazing how a person sometimes grew out of certain things. Long, solo shuttlecraft trips were one of those things.

“Lieutenant Vale,” he said, stepping forward and shaking her firm hand. “You did great. Thank you.”

She smiled. “Thank you for allowing me to come along. I’m not sure if I’ll ever have another nightmare-free night’s sleep, but I must say, this was exciting.”

“The reason you joined Starfleet?” he asked.

She smiled. “No, Corsi was the reason I joined Starfleet. But that’s a long story for another time.”

“Now, wait,” Geordi said, laughing. “You can’t leave me hanging like that.”

“You’re staying here,” Vale said, a very sly grin on her face. “Try to get the story out of her. That should be interesting.”

Geordi laughed. “I expect a story when I get back to the Enterprise .”

“Deal,” she said.

She stepped back inside and, with a wave, closed the door to the shuttlecraft.

He waited and watched until she jumped to warp, then turned and headed toward the staging room. He was sure Gomez would have a hundred things for him to do. And right now, that was exactly what he needed. It was going to be fun, spending a little more time with the S.C.E.

Fun and work and maybe a little excitement