Lost Era 06_ Catalyst of Sorrows - Margaret Wander Bonanno [87]
“Okay, Jake-O. I’ll talk to you soon. I love you!”
“Love you, too, Daddy…” And, dragging his critter behind him, he was gone.
“It’s my guess you miss him,” Jennifer said, and this time Sisko had no words at all; he just rose to his feet and gazed at her. Had she been this beautiful the last time he saw her?
It was at that point that Crusher made her exit.
“I’ll put you two on discrete,” she said. “Lieutenant, you can let me know when you want to terminate.”
“What?” he said vaguely, his eyes and mind only for Jennifer. “Affirmative, Doctor. And… thank you.”
“It rains a lot,” Zetha told Jarquin, as usual blurting out her words without giving anyone else a chance to speak, though this time, she suspected, it was welcome. “But, yes, it’s very warm in the summer. Warm enough to walk bare-armed in the sun. And when any two of the moons rise, it’s very bright, and everyone has two shadows.”
“Two shadows!” Jarquin whispered almost in awe. “And the butterflies-?”
“Exquisite,” Zetha told him, though she’d seen precious few of them in the dark streets of the capital. “Just as you imagine them. Sometimes if you’re very still, they’ll even light on your shoulders and in your hair, especially if you wash with flower soaps.”
Now that, she thought, is going too far. It was only one butterfly, and it landed on the wildflower Tahir found struggling through a crack in a cobblestone and braided into your hair. But how would this-bureaucrat- know that? Emboldened, she went further.
“There are certain times of the year, when they migrate, there are so many of them overhead that they block out the sun…” Zetha noticed that Tuvok was watching her, something like admiration in his eyes. “Citizen Jarquin, can you imagine looking up at what you think is a cloud and seeing instead a rainbow of colors, flashing in the sunlight, all fluttering at once, moving as one toward a common goal?”
Jarquin did not answer. His thoughts were very far away. Tuvok cleared his throat.
“That is sufficient, Niece,” he said. “Citizen Jarquin and I need to discuss our itinerary now.”
That brought Jarquin out of his rapture. “I’m afraid it won’t be entirely possible for you to visit every sector you’ve requested.”
“Why not?” Tuvok demanded with what he hoped was a credible Romulan imperiousness.
“I can issue you limited travel permits for certain areas, but others…” He seemed to weigh something before he spoke next. “Citizen Leval, Citizen Vesak, I trust these words will never leave this room… but there have been outbreaks of we don’t know what, except that it was deadly….”
Zetha, her mouth shut at last, dared a glance at Selar, who had suddenly become even more alert than usual.
“We’ve had to quarantine two of the cities you requested, and certain sectors of three more. No one gets in or out until we’re certain this thing is finished.”
Jarquin had pulled up a map on his desk screen. Selar leaned forward imperceptibly, committing it to memory. While Jarquin was occupied with pushing buttons, she and Tuvok exchanged glances. Selar’s was visibly excited; Tuvok’s urged caution.
“Damnable, inexplicable, something like that occurring in the winter,” Jarquin was muttering. “Every citizen receives immunizations at the start of every winter against anything contagious. Well, you can imagine, shut up indoors most of the time, we can’t be too careful. But usually no one gets sick in the cold weather. Sorry, I know this will cut into your profits, but I can’t let you…”
“We quite understand,” Tuvok said before Selar could object. “But we can have permits for the other sectors we requested?”
“Oh, of course, of course,” Jarquin blustered, rummaging on his desk for the proper forms. “Always happy to be of service to loyal Romulans…”
Sisko’s chrono beeped, reminding him that he needed to check on the landing party’s whereabouts every fifteen minutes, and that fifteen minutes was up.
“Jen, I have to go.”
“I know,” she said. “But this doesn’t have to be the last time. We’ll talk again, soon. You know I love you.” She didn’t wait for him to end the