Nightshade - Laurell K. Hamilton [85]
‘Why not?”
Worf didn’t have a good answer for that. As a Klingon he saw nothing wrong with it. “I was being polite.”
‘And very good you are at it,” Portun said.
Worf nodded, acknowledging the compliment. “I do wish to discuss the murder of Colonel Alick.”
Portun frowned, holding the baby a little closer to his chest. “I was very disturbed to hear of the incident. We had hoped that the peace talks would be the beginning of true peace. We Greens have no wish to be the last remnants of our race.”
‘Are you not angry that your people are under arrest…” Worf glanced down at the children and finished his sentence in a lower voice, “and are to be executed?”
‘Angry, no,” Portun said. “Disappointed, yes.”
Worf shook his head. “Why disappointed?”
‘It was to be the beginning of our forging new ties with the aboveground world. We were to be included in this peace, and we were going to be able to use what we have learned, what we have created, to repopulate our world. To heal it. That this will not happen now is very sad.”
‘Your people are going to die. They have been accused of assassination. Are you not worried about them?”
Portun’s face sobered, the smile fading from his features. “They are my people, Ambassador. I hurt for each of them. They will be gravely missed.”
‘Are you not planning to defend them?” Worf asked.
‘In what way?”
Worf stared around the living walls as if there was some clue as to how to talk to this man. His unshakable contentment was infuriating.
‘Leader Portun, do you believe your people are guilty? Is that why you can be so calm?”
‘No, Ambassador Worf, my people did not kill anyone. We do not believe in violence. Taking life, any life, is abhorrent to us.”
The two children in Worf’s lap were almost a comforting weight. The room was full of a warm, easy contentment, that somehow was soothing even to him. “Even if it meant the lives of your children?”
Portun glanced at the children, then smiled wistfully. “If those were my choices, we would be sorely tested. I could let them take my own life without a fight, but…” He sighed. “I have thankfully never had to make that choice.”
Worf liked the answer. Most people that professed to nonviolence made it a blanket statement, and very often had never even had to choose: life or violence. Portun had thought about it, and was wise enough to know he could not truly know what he would do until he had to choose.
‘An admirable answer, Leader,” Worf said.
‘Just an honest one, Ambassador Worf.”
‘Did you know that Alick was poisoned?”
‘No,” Portun said. He leaned a little forward. “We heard only that he was assassinated, and our people and the first Federation ambassador were blamed.”
Worf stared intently at Portun’s face, wanting to study his reaction to his next words. He wished Troi were with him, but she had gone off with Breck to learn to speak with the planet, whatever that meant. But he was, after all, the acting ambassador. He would do the job alone if he had to.
‘The poison was derived from a plant alkaloid. A genetically altered plant alkaloid.”
Surprise blossomed to shock on Portun’s face. “It cannot be.”
‘I have seen the test results personally.”
‘But, you don’t understand. Genetic engineering was outlawed over a hundred years ago. It was considered evil, punishable by death. No one but the Greens practice it. Only we would be capable of such a thing.”
‘I believe you,” Worf said.
‘You have come here convinced that we made this poison.”
‘You yourself just said that it could be no one else.”
‘But…” his words trailed off to silence. His eyes were wide, astonishment plain on his face. The baby in his arms whimpered and struggled in its sleep. He patted it absently.
If Portun were pretending to be surprised, he was doing an excellent job of it. Worf believed that he did not know, but that didn’t mean no Greens were involved. “Who are your best genetic engineers?”
‘No, it could not be one of my