Marooned - Christie Golden [81]
Before anyone could fire, Dhad punched the intership communicators. "Hold your fire! I'm going to take this one alive!"
The lie was already forming. He would share it with his colleagues. Dhad was certain they'd go along with it; their necks were in as much danger as Dhad's own. He hadn't actively killed the humans, no, but sealed up in that abandoned mine, they were surely as good as dead. He settled the vessel gently on the earth, puffing up clouds of sand. Paris, clearly delusional, walked up to the ship and began stroking it fondly.
Dhad punched a button. The door hissed open and he hurried out. "Good girl," Paris was saying. "What a pretty filly!" He turned to Dhad, smiling. His eyes were bloodshot and vague. "You have a lovely horse, Mr. Mccain."
"Yes, I do," said Dhad, drawing his weapon. A quick burst of energy, and Paris spasmed and fell. Dhad hooked his hands beneath Paris's armpits and began to drag him aboard.
We were entirely successful, Great One, he began to rehearse. All of the Alpha quadranters and their Sshoush-shin collaborators were utterly destroyed. The only survivor was "-this one, who is, as you can plainly see, far too ill to pose any sort of threat. I thought you might wish to use him for leverage, if Voyager refuses to leave quietly."
"Dhad, you amaze me!" approved Yashar. He bounded up out of his soft chair with an enthusiasm that made Dhad's heart lift. This was more like it. "Somehow, I thought you'd manage to mess this up. I have never before been more delighted to be mistaken."
Two guards supported the limp body of Lieutenant Tom Paris. His head lolled and his face was flushed. A thin green tendril of poison had worked its way along his cheek. "Scarlet death bite, I see. Take him to the hospital and begin treating him. Just enough to keep him alive. He's not as good a bargaining chip dead."
The guards nodded and dragged Paris away. Aren turned his approving smile full on Kula Dhad. "A perfect job, Dhad. I am so pleased they are dead. We may indeed need Mr. Paris. Voyager refuses to leave. Twice, they have ventured close enough to the sentinel ships to trip the mechanisms. They have even fired upon them. With Janeway and her team out of the way, and Paris to show them, they might be more amenable to simply departing. Prepare all ships for attack in twelve hours."
"As you will, Great One!"
Kes didn't glance up as the shadow fell across the screen, so engrossed was she in what she was learning. Her eyes still scanning, she held up a hand in a just-amoment gesture. At last, finished, she turned to greet her visitor. "What-oh. Hello, Aren."
"Hello, Kes." The warmth, the need she had seen in his face a few hours earlier was nowhere to be found. His face was friendly, cordial, but revealed nothingthe true visage of a Ja'in commander. "I trust you are teaming whatever you like?"
"Oh, yes," replied Kes. "This is all fascinating. Kula Dhad showed me how to interlink and cross reference. Do you think we might be able to try a terraforming experiment sometime soont' Kes was not an accomplished liar, and it was difficult to keep her face open and guileless. Anyone who knew her well-Tuvok, the doctor, Neelix-would have sensed immediately that she was not being truthful For a heart-stopping second, Aren's thin eyebrows drew together as he scrutinized her, then nodded, as if confirming something. His body posture relaxed a bit but, Kes noticed, he was careful never to show his back to her.
"It pleases me that you are happy here, with the computers."
"I am. Aren, about last night-"
He held up a commanding hand, the webbing flashing brightly. "No more words on last night. It is done. I vowed I would not force anything upon you. If you prefer the company of