Nightshade - Laurell K. Hamilton [35]
She smiled at him, and nodded. “I’m fine. You are the acting ambassador now, Lieutenant Worf. What are your orders?” She stared up at him as she said it.
His anger was still there, and she would feel it, but Troi would also know he was in control of it. He was a Klingon among humans, he was a master of eating his own rage.
‘Thank you, Counselor, for reminding me of my duties. We must find the real killer of General Alick. It is the only way to save the captain. And we must find a way to continue the peace negotiations.”
‘Agreed,” Troi said.
‘Who gains from this death, that is the proper question,” Worf said.
He had absolutely no suggestions for how to begin the negotiations again. The first Federation ambassador was under arrest for the murder of an Orianian leader. Why would the Venturies and Torlicks listen to the second ambassador?
‘I would say the Torlicks, but this war is killing them, as well. Would they really sabotage the future of their entire race to win a war?”
‘Races have done so many times, Counselor. After we have rescued the captain, forged a lasting peace, and returned to the ship, I will loan you some books of military history. I believe you will find them enlightening.” His doubts about the peace did not show in his voice.
Worf was pleased with that. If Counselor Troi could sense his self-doubt that was one thing, but he wanted no one else to know.
“Thank you, Worf. I’m sure I will find it unique reading.”
‘Did you feel deception from any of the Torlick faction?”
‘I don’t know.
‘You don’t know?”
‘The death was so overwhelming that it blocked out everything else. The murderer could have been standing right over the body while it was happening, and I could not have told you.”
‘But you told the Orianians that you felt the Greens knew nothing.”
‘I did sense only confusion from them, but it was faint.”
‘So you are saying that your empathic powers were not at their best?”
Troi smiled, then nodded. “I suppose so, yes.”
‘Then the Greens could be guilty, Counselor. They could have done exactly what they were accused of, and Captain Picard’s involvement was accidental.”
‘But why would the Greens kill the leader of the Venturi faction? For the first time in over twenty years the Greens were being given a chance to rejoin their people. To help build a lasting peace. It is what they have striven and sacrificed for. Why would they sabotage it?”
‘You heard Audun, Counselor. His people have been hunted like animals, killed on sight as traitors. Hatred is a good motive.”
Troi had to agree with the last statement. “If hatred is the motive, Worf, the Venturi hate the Torlicks too.”
‘Yes, but theirs is a hatred among warriors. I do not understand why they would turn to poison when they could kill each other on a field of battle.”
‘May I add something, Lieutenant?” Breck asked.
‘You may,” Worf said.
‘It is not the method of your enemy’s death that matters but that he is dead. We are a more practical brand of warriors than the Klingons.”
‘Do you believe it was your own people?” Worf asked, surprised that he would voluntarily point the finger of blame in that direction. The Orianians seemed to have no sense of racial loyalty.
‘I do not have an opinion. I am a sentinel, nothing more. I do as I am told.”
‘Why are you helping us against your own people?” Worf asked.
‘I am a sentinel, Lieutenant. If a person under my care is killed then I will die as well.”
‘I don’t understand,” Troi said.
‘If Ambassador Picard is executed I will be dead soon after. If I do not do the decent thing and kill myself, someone will probably kill me. A sentinel that fails so completely is never trusted again, Healer. I would be an outcast at the very least. Most sentinels who face this option, choose death.”
‘So it is not out of loyalty to our captain, but fear for your own life, that you help us?” Worf said. Somehow that made Worf trust Breck just a little bit more. Self-preservation he understood. This strange shifting loyalty was a total mystery.
Breck made