Nightshade - Laurell K. Hamilton [64]
‘Should Colonel Talanne be barred from the peace talk?”
‘I don’t know yet. It depends on whether or not she can learn to control her power. She’s like all the other Orianians and has no idea she has this awesome ability.”
‘Are you suggesting the colonel could use her power as an influence for peace?”
‘Yes,” Troi said.
‘Isn’t that… cheating, Counselor?”
‘Worf, all the Orianians are constantly affecting each other. Their talents are almost totally wild. They play off each other now. All I’m suggesting is that we could harness the power and use it, like a tool. Like I use my own talents when the captain is negotiating a treaty. You don’t think that’s cheating, do you?”
‘I had never thought about it,” Worf said. “But knowing what the other side is feeling is not the same as making them believe something they do not believe. The peace would only last as long as Talanne could influence them.” He shook his head. “No, the peace must be uncompromised.”
‘You’re right. But we have to find some way to control these abilities. I can’t keep doing this.”
‘What happened, Troi?”
‘Talanne possessed me. I felt her anger, her outrage at Marit’s death. And underneath that was guilt.” Troi stared up at him. “Guilt, Worf, like a great darkness eating at her soul.”
‘She feels responsible as any good commander would,” Worf said.
Troi shook her head. “No, it was personal. Whatever she felt guilty over was something specific that she had done.”
‘What?”
‘I don’t know, exactly, but she knows something. She knows something about the Greens. We have to question her.”
‘Do you think Colonel Talanne had something to do with the murder?”
‘I don’t know. Maybe. But whatever she did, it’s something important enough for her to feel an obligation to the Greens. It was as if she had failed personally.” Troi hugged her knees to her chest. “I was Talanne for a few minutes, but her feelings were so intrusive that I couldn’t catch her thoughts. Guilt, horror, and very specifically directed toward the Greens. Not Marit, but the Greens.”
‘I will question her, Deanna,” Worf said. He stood. “You rest.”
‘No, I have to be there.”
Worf scowled down at her. “You nearly died. I will not risk you again.”
‘I was not close to death.
‘You were badly hurt,” Worf said stubbornly. He had no words for injuries of the mind. Troi could be badly and permanently damaged with invisible wounds.
‘The greatest fear for a Betazoid is to lose oneself. To be swallowed up until we become the other entity. I became Talanne for a time.” She stared down and would not meet his eyes.
‘Then you cannot go near her again. It is too dangerous.”
Troi looked up at him. Her solid black eyes sparkled with something between determination and anger. She looked so small huddled in a nest of blankets, hugging her knees to her chest, and yet… There was nothing small about the look of utter stubbornness in her face. But if she thought she could out-stubborn him, well, Klingons had many talents.
‘It is almost nightfall of the second day, Worf. At nightfall tomorrow the captain will be executed for murder. I have to be there when you question Talanne. Now that I know what she is, I can protect myself more actively.”
‘No, Counselor.” Worf said it like it was a reality.
Troi stood, letting the blankets spill to the floor.
‘Worf, Talanne knows something important. She’s the first person that I’ve been near that I am sure knows something about this murder. We have less than forty hours to prove Captain Picard’s innocence. Without me in the room, Talanne will be the best liar you have ever seen.”
‘What do you mean by that, Counselor?”
Troi took two steps closer to him, forcing herself to crane her neck upward, but she wanted eye contact for this. “Talanne is a projection empath. She can project her emotions onto others. I and the other Orianians are more in danger, but you are not immune.”
‘I still do not understand,” Worf said.
‘I believe that Talanne is a wild talent and doesn’t realize what she’s doing, but