Lost Era 06_ Catalyst of Sorrows - Margaret Wander Bonanno [60]
“She seems… wary,” Crusher conceded. “As I would be in strange surroundings, among a people I’d never seen before who spoke a language I only partly understood. Oh, yes,” she said off Uhura’s puzzled look. “She’s already mastered the rudiments of Standard and then some. She wanted to know exactly what I was doing, what each instrument was for…”
Zetha had been watchful but cooperative during most of the examination, answering questions, following instructions. “Close your left eye, now your right eye, stick your tongue out, inhale, exhale, cough. Does this hurt? What about this? This may sting a bit. Lie down, sit up, stand on one foot, hop on the other,” and so on. Only the hypospray seemed to alarm her.
“What is that?” she had demanded when she saw what the healer had in his hand, her muscles tensing, ready for fight or flight. Pointless. At the weak-chinned Tal Shiar operative’s nod, the injection was administered, and the healer left the room.
“Nutritional supplements,” the weak-chinned lord said. “You’re not a little malnourished.”
“No, really? After a lifetime on the streets? Who’d have imagined?”
“Dispense with the sarcasm,” he snapped. “It’s very unattractive.”
“Of course, Lord,” she’d replied flatly. Did he know this was the greatest sarcasm of all?
“What is that?” she demanded again when Crusher approached her with the hypo. Either side of the Marches, Zetha thought, it’s all the same!
“I’m not injecting you with anything,” Crusher explained gently, stepping back a little at her alarmed look. Professional manner aside, she’d taken an immediate liking to the girl and wanted to put her at ease. “It’s just a blood draw. Some of it will be used in our research, but mostly it’s to make sure you’re healthy.”
“She does seem to be wound too tight,” Crusher acknowledged. “But that may be normal for a Romulan. It might also be a little bit of post-traumatic stress. Did she give you any details on how she got here? I imagine it must have been harrowing. She’d need to process that.”
“But would you say she’s fit to travel?”
“If I say no, you’ll lock her away in one of your famous SI containment rooms, at least until the away mission returns. Which could be weeks or… longer.” Neither woman was willing to complete the thought that the away mission might not return at all. “But if I say yes, and you send her into the Zone, at least part of the responsibility is mine.”
Just past Crusher’s shoulder, Uhura watched Zetha slide quietly off the diagnostic table and begin moving slowly around the enclosed room, not touching anything, but examining every object she could see from every possible angle, as if memorizing it. She did not, Uhura’s practiced eye noted, bother to try the door or seek any other avenue of escape, at least not overtly. But then she would know she was being watched, so perhaps she would do that later. Her actions could be equally interpreted as those of a curious child, or a spy.
“Let me worry about that, Doctor. Is there any way you can give me an objective assessment of her state of mind?”
“You mean anything that might indicate whether she’s been conditioned, trained to lie?”
“Not necessarily.”
“There are tests I can run, but whether they’d work on a Romulan… we know so little about them, and half of that’s rumor laced with propaganda. I doubt a standard DSM score would work, but-“
“In English, please.”
“Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders score. With some modifications, it’s how we’ve assessed human mental status for the past four hundred years. I can’t tell you if it will work. But I have an idea what might.” Crusher hesitated. “I’d like to take her home with me tonight.”
“Doctor…” Uhura nodded toward