Pathways - Jeri Taylor [166]
“That’s fine with me. I don’t want to make this my life’s work, after all. I’m willing to try it in hopes of getting a tidy amount of cormaline.”
Jabin seemed to lose interest in him then. He took a swallow of water, and proceeded to swirl it around in his mouth, eyes closed in private ecstasy as he savored the precious liquid.
Neelix walked out to find the pale girl.
She stood quietly in the shade of a stone column, studiously ignoring the taunts and jeers of the lascivious Ogla miners, staring out at the vast desert as though willing herself into its searing depths. Neelix stood at a distance, uncertain about interrupting her intense reverie. But then he heard a husky voice in his head. “I feel I can trust you.”
He approached her, feeling as bumbling as an adolescent. “You can,” he stated simply. “I’m your friend.”
And so it was that Neelix came to know the Ocampan known as Kes, and heard the remarkable story of her climb to freedom and swift capture, of the entity known as the Caretaker, and of Kes’s own indomitable spirit, her intellectual curiosity, her sweetness of manner.
They were able to keep Jabin at bay for several weeks, Neelix faithfully reporting to the Maje that Kes was beginning to share some secrets of her underground world and that the location of the tunnel to the Ocampan city would undoubtedly be revealed soon.
But Neelix made an error, one that threatened to bring their subterfuge crumbling down, sending Kes back into Jabin’s hands for interrogation.
He stole water.
He did it for Kes, of course, and he thought he’d gotten away with it, but one of Jabin’s men discovered the theft and Neelix had ended up running to his ship just ahead of the Kazon pursuers, yelling at Kes that he’d be back for her.
How he intended to do that, he had no idea. He had located the mighty Array that supplied the Ocampa with energy, and he tried to communicate with the entity that Kes said controlled it, but to no avail.
He tried not to think what Kes might be undergoing at Jabin’s hands, and racked his brains to come up with a rescue plan. But he was one man, alone, in a ship with pitiful weapons. What hope did he have?
He decided to revisit a debris field he’d encountered some time back but had never explored. Maybe luck would be with him, and he’d find something he could trade for weapons. He was trawling through the space rubbish when he spotted a ship of a sort he’d never encountered before. Alarm gripped him—this ship was much bigger than his, and undoubtedly intended to collect the most valuable detritus for itself. It wasn’t fair!
His communication system was activated and he sprinted to the small screen, having first to uncover it and then set it at the proper angle. It wouldn’t hold, so Neelix cocked his head and assumed the most confrontational pose he could muster. “Whoever you are, I found this waste zone first,” he said imperiously.
A woman stared back at him. She was small-boned, dressed in what looked like some kind of uniform. Her hair was swept back off her face and her eyes blazed with intelligence. “We’re not interested in this debris, Mister . . .”
Her trailing voice indicated that she wanted an introduction. Neelix, more at ease now that she had indicated no interest in the waste field, adopted his most gracious mien. “Neelix. And since you aren’t interested in my debris, I am delighted to meet you . . .”
His inflection indicated that he wanted her name, too. The woman smiled, and even from a screen Neelix could feel her warmth. “Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation starship Voyager,” she said, in a voice husky as old velvet. Neelix had no way of knowing that that voice would change his entire life.
CHAPTER
11
NEELIX FOUND THAT HE COULDN’T LOOK UP AT HIS FELLOWS when he’d finished. He was exhausted with the emotion of reliving his past, and somewhat uncertain as to how the others would respond. He, after all, was not really one of them, not an Alpha Quadrant, Starfleet-trained person. Would they judge him differently?
Finally he raised his eyes. Tom moved to him and