Marooned - Christie Golden [47]
A slow smile spread across his commander's face, and Aren chuckled. "You continue to please me, even as you vex me. Go and clean yourself up first, then find out everything you can on the area where the debris was spotted. I do not like the thought of them wandering about. I intended them to die, and die they shall, if not from the ion pulse than from a more direct and personal blast of energy. As long as my precious Kes thinks they will come for her, she will never surrender to my will."
Just at that moment, the door to the back room opened a crack. Kes stood there, the soft light from the room making her features glow and turning her gold curls into a halo. It also cast unkind shadows beneath her large blue eyes, eyes that to Dhad seemed somehow haunted.
"Aren," she said in her soft voice. "I- I'd like to leave, if I may. The room ..." her voice trailed off.
Aren's face softened, brightened, as he looked at his newest acquisition. "Of course, my dear," he told her. "All you ever had to do was ask. What would you like to see first, the hydroponics room, the terraforming controls, the-"
"It doesn't matter." Kes's voice was like the soft sigh of the wind in the trees. "Whatever you would like. I just want to move a little." She shrugged her slim shoulders eloquently. "That's all."
"Then move you shall, my dear." Dhad couldn't help himself, but stared, rather rudely, at his commander. This Kes girl was really upsetting things. Not that Dhad couldn't see the appeal, of course. Who couldn't? All Rhulani had an eye for beauty, for precious things. It was one reason why so many of them turned to piracy with such ease; a desire to see, to hold, to own, things of surpassing loveliness. Kes was almost heartbreaking to look upon.
But still, but still-she was making Aren do rash things, putting them all in jeopardy. And the way Aren looked at her, his face softening like that-why, if Dhad hadn't known better, he might have suspected that the little Ocampa female meant more to the pirate leader than a few years of pleasurable amusement. But of course Dhad did know better. He'd seen lovely females come and go out of these apartments. He'd even brought most of them to Yashar's attention in the first place.
But this one ... "You are dismissed, Kula," said Yashar, and there was the old coldness, the old strength and power, in his voice. Reassured, Dhad bowed and scurried out.
He didn't want to be around the uncanny Kes longer than he had to.
It felt unspeakably odd to Chakotay to be the one leading the discussion in the conference room. He was used to Janeway, her eyes bright with attention and her mouth set in that firm line, taking control with practiced ease. Chakotay was no stranger to command, of course, having captained his own crew for a not inconsiderable length of time, and the mantle of the final decision that weighed on his shoulders now had a familiar feel about it.
But not here. It wasn't his mantle, wasn't his responsibility, and to assume it made him feel that Janeway was beyond aid.
Chakotay didn't like that thought one bit.
The senior staff-what was left of them-were already assembled by the time he stepped into the room himself. Great spirits, he thought, keeping his shock from showing on his dark face. Great spirits, so few of us left?
Harry Kim and the doctor were the only members of the senior staff seated at the long table. Janeway. Tuvok. Paris. Torres. Neelix. And of course Kes, whose abduction had set off the chain of events that led to a paucity of officers aboard Voyager. Gone, all of them.
He felt his spirit guide, warm and reassuring, in the back of his mind. And what about you, Chakotay, she reminded him, soft as a sigh. You are still here. And they need every bit of wisdom you can give them.
In other words, thought Chakotay, quit feeling sorry for yourself is that right?
He could see her, in his mind's eye, cocking her