Lost Era 06_ Catalyst of Sorrows - Margaret Wander Bonanno [122]
It wasn’t a collapse, exactly, Uhura insisted. She’d gotten up from her desk while she was talking to Crusher, and simply misjudged her footing. The fact that she was walking across a level floor that suddenly seemed to undulate and buckle beneath her was beside the point. She was fine, really.
“The hell you are,” Crusher said, pressing the hypo against the side of her neck. Seeing the older woman literally fall off her feet, Crusher had used a priority override and beamed directly into Uhura’s office, then ordered a backup team to escort the admiral home. “You’re this close to exhaustion. You’re to stay in bed and away from that desk for at least eight hours if I have to strap you down in order to enforce it.”
Annoyed at all the fuss, Uhura was sitting very straight with her arms folded, wearing The Look, by the time Crusher had sent the backup team on its way and returned to the bedroom. But The Look, she discovered, only worked on the male of the species. Damn! she thought. Either I’m losing my touch, or it’s whatever tranquilizer Crusher’s shot me with, but this evening is not going the way I’d planned!
“Doctor’s orders?” she managed, resting on her dignity amid the pillows of her queen-size bed.
“Bed rest. Watch a movie, listen to some music, read a good book,” Crusher said. “Anything but work.”
“May I answer some mail?” Uhura asked sweetly. If The Look didn’t work, maybe her best smile would.
“Only if it’s not work-related,” Crusher scolded, halfway out the door. “Want a cup of hot milk before I go?”
“Get the hell out of here!” Uhura snapped. If the smile wasn’t going to work, either, she’d save it for another occasion. “Go home to your son; I don’t need you here.”
“Good night to you, too,” Crusher said, and was gone.
As soon as the outer door slid shut and locked behind her, Uhura activated the beside console. Riffling through the usual office memos and notes from friends and family members she didn’t have the energy to answer, she found a message from Curzon. She unscrambled it.
“Called in on emergency diplomatic mission, effective immediately. Hush-hush, rush-rush, top secret. So I won’t tell you I’m aboard Okinawa. Will comm you when I get back. Thanks for the memories, Curzon.”
Ordinarily, if Curzon was off on a top secret mission, he kept it secret. By its very presence, his message bothered her. Following her refit, Okinawa had been scheduled to go on maneuvers in the Mutara sector awaiting a new assignment. Where had she been diverted on such short notice, and why would Curzon specifically want Uhura to know?
Memo to self, she thought sleepily as she turned off the bedside lamp and the combination of the sound of foghorns on the bay and whatever it was Crusher had given her took effect: Ascertain Okinawa’s official destination, then extrapolate. Tranquilizers or no, a familiar tingling at the back of her neck said it had something to do with Catalyst.
Chapter 17
Zetha backed away from the others until she reached the far wall, one hand covering her mouth, her eyes wide with terror. Thamnos was still smirking.
“Do we have a deal?” he demanded. “The vaccine and your lives in exchange for my freedom? I’d say you’ve got the better end of the bargain.”
Again a look passed between Sisko and Tuvok which was too quick for Thamnos to notice. The human let the Vulcan know he was about to create a diversion.
Sisko appeared to crumble while they watched. He clenched his fists against his temples and seemed to stagger. When he straightened up, tears welled in his eyes.
“I don’t want to die!” he cried with all the passion of a Shakespearean actor. “I’ve seen what this disease does to people!” He turned on Zetha. “If this-this Tal Shiar plant has infected us all, the only thing that matters is the vaccine! Tuvok, let him go.”
“But, Dr. Jacobs-” Tuvok interjected, playing along.
“I said let him go, dammit!” Sisko snapped. “Dr. Thamnos,