Possession - J.M. Dillard [62]
She looked at him, and some faint odd undercurrent in his tone—something insidious, ancient, cold—caused a wave of unreasoning fear to sweep over her.
A panicked, unbidden thought welled up: This isn’t Geordi. It looks just like him, but this is something else …
“What’s going on here?” she tried to demand bravely, but the question came out as a whisper.
“Doctor, I can explain everything,” Tarmud insisted, with that smug smile that had infuriated her so much in Ten Forward.
“Explain what?” she asked impatiently, turning to gaze at him.
She looked deep into his hazel eyes and saw something there: something strange and mesmerizing. He reached for her, this odd researcher from New England, and touched her hand.
A jolt—raw invigorating power—surged through her. She groaned, even as Geordi held her other hand and Skel’s fingers brushed the back of her neck.
“This will only take a minute, Dr. Crusher,” Geordi said patiently, using the most reasonable tone to explain away the most unreasonable behavior.
Her body shuddered as the men moved in closer, supporting her, helping her to withstand the oddly pleasant jolt running through her. And then, it passed. And she understood everything, just as Tarmud had promised.
She regained her balance, and the men drew back respectfully. Like the doctor she still was, she pulled out the medi-scanner in her pocket and watched her own readouts as the entities claimed her and fed off the rush of adrenaline coursing through her. It was beautiful, really.
“The captain will be having breakfast with you tomorrow?” Geordi asked.
Beverly smiled, still eyeing the medi-scanner. “Yes, that’s right. I’ll be meeting him in his quarters.”
“Wonderful,” Tarmud said, smiling his infectious grin.
“So, you see,” Dr. Dannelke explained, as she helped Alexander clear off the table and send the dishes back through the recycler, “you can learn so much about the rest of the body through the eyes—diseases, vascular health—so many things. I guess that’s what got me interested in the field. Do you have any specific interests yet?”
The boy shrugged his shoulders. “I want to be a navigator, I think.”
“Lots of math needed for that,” Kyla told him. “Physics. All that kind of stuff.”
He nodded as he stacked the final dish in the recycler, then closed the door and turned it. “I know. I’m good at those subjects, so that should be all right. It’s just—”
“It’s just what?”
Alexander peered around her as if looking for his father. Worf had gone to check with his security forces to see if there’d been any new reports about her assailant, and was still in his private room. “It’s just—well, I don’t know if they’ll let a Klingon kid do that kind of stuff. I can’t say that around Father. It makes him furious.”
Kyla felt as if she’d just been slapped. She remembered her thoughtless comment of a day ago and hated herself for it. “Hey, that’s no way to think! Your dad’s a Starfleet officer, and I’ll bet before he joined no one would’ve ever believed Starfleet would’ve taken a Klingon into its ranks?”
“They had to take him,” Alexander explained patiently. “His foster parents—my grandparents—are human, and my grandfather was a Starfleet chief petty officer. Father not only passed his tests, he was third in his class. They couldn’t find a way to turn him down.”
“Listen, Alexander.” Kyla crouched down so she would be on the boy’s eye level. “Don’t make it easy on anyone. Don’t pass up opportunities because you think they won’t take you. Make them turn you down! Make them tell you to your face. See if they have the nerve. You’re a bright strong kid! You can be anything you want to be in this Universe. Don’t let anyone tell you differently!”
His small somber face broke into an easy grin. “That sounds like something my mom would say. You remind me so much of her!” Alexander grabbed her in a quick spontaneous hug, then walked over to the couches. He picked up a small holo projector and, bringing it to Kyla, turned it on. A tall woman—pale-skinned, with distinctly human features but skull ridges that spoke