Lost Era 06_ Catalyst of Sorrows - Margaret Wander Bonanno [61]
“Some spy!” Crusher remarked before Uhura could state the obvious. “She’s just curious. It’s normal. My radar would go off if she wasn’t curious. And if she could spend an evening with Wes and me in a less clinical setting, I think I could learn more. See how she socializes, get her to drop her guard.”
“Absolutely not!” Uhura said. “Don’t get soft on me now, Dr. Crusher. She’d be a security risk, and you know it.”
“Respectfully, Admiral,” Crusher said, “you’ve asked me for a psych assessment; this way I can give you one. You’re not going to get that with her sealed up in a windowless room with no one but Tuvok to talk to. Oh, I know, SI’s containment rooms have all the amenities of a luxury hotel, if you overlook the fact that the door locks in the wrong direction. She needs socialization, not just a bunch of SI types asking her questions all the time.”
“I agree,” McCoy chimed in. He had the annoying habit of presenting himself as just a voice, even though he had Uhura and Crusher on visual.
Who asked you? Uhura wanted to snap at him, but she restrained herself.
“You might remind yourself that she’s as strong as a Vulcan,” she told Crusher. “Would you be able to overpower her if she attacked you?”
Crusher held up a hypospray. “This can. Done it before with psychotic patients. Has she attacked anyone so far?”
“She’s been contained so far.”
“Do you want me to do a psych profile or don’t you?”
“Are you blackmailing me, Doctor?”
“What do you think? At home I can run her through DSMs and Rorschachs and anything else you’d like and give you an evaluation in the morning. I can also feed her a home-cooked meal and show her that humans aren’t the monsters her upbringing has no doubt led her to believe. You want to be paranoid, fine. Have Tuvok tag along. He can bunk in with Wes; they can play kal’toh together. But Zetha gets the guest room.”
Uhura drummed her fingers on her desk, weighing options. This wasn’t what she’d had in mind, but was she balking just because McCoy was siding with Crusher?
“Promise me you’ll be careful,” she said at last.
Crusher held up the hypo once again. “Where the safety of my son is concerned? Always.”
Sisko was the last to arrive at the briefing the next morning, and realized something at once as he glanced around the room.
I’m the only human on this mission, was his first thought. His second was, Get over it. Not every Vulcan is like Solok!
That particular Vulcan and his notions of racial superiority had left Sisko with a sore spot ever since his Academy days. The resentment still festered, though he hadn’t seen Solok in years. Solok was one Vulcan who didn’t seem to understand that it was illogical, not to mention unjust, to continually point out to humans where they were lacking in comparison to Vulcans, whether it was in physical strength, longevity, emotional control, or intellect.
All the more reason not to judge all Vulcans as a species. You’re in command of this mission, he reminded himself. You can’t afford to let old baggage get in your way. Besides, no Vulcan will ever be able to throw a split-finger fastball. Console yourself with that.
His reactions to his fellow Starfleet officers were fleeting. But then he caught sight of Zetha. A civilian. And another Vulcan? If so, something about her was… off, Sisko decided, but he couldn’t figure out at first what it was.
“Thank you for joining us, Mr. Sisko,” Uhura said evenly. “I believe some introductions are in order. Lieutenant Tuvok, Dr. Selar, Lieutenant Benjamin Sisko. And this is Zetha. She has come to us from across the Neutral Zone.”
“A Romulan-?” Sisko blurted before he could stop himself.
Zetha’s chin came up, her eyes narrowed, assessing this human, but saying nothing. Uhura cleared