Lost Era 06_ Catalyst of Sorrows - Margaret Wander Bonanno [22]
Has he ever been offworld? Cretak wondered, still studying that weak-chinned face. His masters have probably sent him on all sorts of secret missions that I would never know about, even if we wed. What kind of relationship would that be?
His breathing was far too regular to be natural. Was he watching her under his eyelids? Difficult to tell. His eyes were so small, so hidden behind overlarge eyelids and prominent brow ridges that it was hard to tell what he was looking at even when he was awake, something his employers no doubt cherished in him.
Cretak had been to other worlds in Pardek’s train. Those outside the Empire assumed that Romulans only interacted with Romulans, that all their worlds were the same, but nothing could be further from the truth. The Empire might not have the multiplicity of species that comprised the Federation, but there were wide variations in race, language, culture, technology. Ironically, the homeworld, ruled by suspicion and the assumption that everyone was watching everyone else, was backward in comparison to some. It was hard to be innovative when you were always being monitored, hard to keep the machinery repaired when the budget went first to the military.
The constant state of war, with others and with the paranoia within themselves, was to blame. Even a simple letter to a friend, a stray remark to a family member, could be read as seditious. Progress does not flourish in an atmosphere of dread. There was so much more they could become, if only they could set aside their fear.
Had Koval ever harbored thoughts like these? Could he see beyond his own nose, or did he truly subscribe to the credo that the Romulans had created the perfect state and simply look no farther?
Cretak was not looking at him now, but at the view beyond the gauzy curtains. It was the cold season, the trees bare, the sky as gray as the city they had left behind. They were staying at one of his family’s houses, a grand old multi-roomed estate complete with servants in one of the better suburbs. Still, grand as it was, it was cold.
Sensing that her attention was no longer focused on him, Koval at last opened his eyes.
“You’re pensive,” he said.
“I was thinking of futility,” she answered.
“A suitable topic for a winter’s morning. It must be the weather. I will have one of the servants build a fire. That should perk you up.”
“Do you know how many we could feed and clothe and educate if we weren’t always at war?” Cretak said with sudden passion, ignoring his desultory attempts to placate her, sitting up abruptly but keeping the coverlet wrapped around herself, and not only against the cold.
“Why would we want to do that?” Koval wondered indolently, suppressing a yawn. “They’d only breed that much faster.” He stretched and seemed about to reach out for her, but changed his mind.
Was he always this shallow? Cretak wondered. Why have I only now noticed that, too? She rose from the bed, her back to him, and began to dress.
“Where are you going?” Koval asked, suppressing a second yawn.
“Away” was all she said, terminating the relationship with no more fanfare than that.
As if she could ever truly have gotten away, she thought ruefully a lifetime later. For all the millions of them streaming through the streets of the Capital, they of the blood could not avoid bumping elbows, and more than once had she felt Koval’s eyes on her in public places. Should she have remained in his bed a little longer, to learn a little more of him? All she really knew was that she did not trust him, and that is far too little to know about Koval!
“I am no medical expert, Admiral,” Tuvok said gravely, studying the locket Uhura had given him, “but it is my understanding that it is not unusual for illnesses once believed eradicated to recur decades, even centuries later. However, with the exception of Rigelian fever, I know of no such organism that crosses human/vulcanoid bloodlines. Nor am I aware of any disease which kills everyone who contracts it.”
“And if you were thinking like a spy…” Uhura suggested, letting him