Progenitor - Michael Jan Friedman [25]
The ensign didn’t say anything right away. He just walked up to the bars and watched with undisguised admiration.
After a while, Idun noticed him. Finishing her routine with a simple side dismount, she went to the towel she had left on the floor and dried herself off. Then she glanced at him.
“Is there something I can do for you?” she asked.
“Well,” said Nikolas, “our mutual friend Obal tells me you’ve decided not to spar with me.”
Asmund nodded. “That’s correct.”
“I understand,” he told her. “You’re concerned that you’ll get hurt. But I’m here to tell you that you needn’t worry. I’m used to sparring with weaker opponents.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Really.”
“That’s right,” Nikolas assured her. “And if I can pull my punches for them, I can pull them for you, too.”
The helm officer nodded. “I see.”
“So,” he went on, “there’s really no reason not to—”
“Name the time and place,” she said, interrupting him in the middle of his pitch.
Nikolas smiled. “Really? I mean... great. How about tomorrow, after second shift?”
Asmund’s eyes seemed to glitter. “Fine.”
“And afterward,” he suggested, pushing his luck, “a cup of coffee in the rec? And a little friendly conversation?”
Her mouth pulled up at the corners, making her look even more desirable. “One thing at a time,” she advised him.
The ensign was perfectly willing to go along with that. “One thing at a time,” he agreed.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
“Absolutely,” he told her. “Tomorrow.”
Nikolas watched the doors to the lieutenant’s quarters slide shut. Then, rather pleased with himself, he started to retrace his steps along the corridor.
This is good, he mused. This is very good. And it wasn’t anywhere near as difficult as he had thought it would be.
Wouldn’t Obal be surprised.
As soon as his shift was over, Ulelo returned to his quarters, stretched out across his bed and tried his best to concentrate on his mission. However, it was difficult to do so. Thoughts of Emily Bender kept intruding.
He had no reason to doubt that she had known him at the Academy as she had claimed. His memories of that time were incomplete, hazy at best. All he remembered was what he had learned in his classes.
It hadn’t bothered Ulelo that it should be so. But it had bothered Emily Bender. It had bothered her a lot.
The question was...what would she do with her resentment? Would she discuss the matter with her fellow science officers? Would they think it strange that the junior comm officer couldn’t—or wouldn’t—acknowledge the experiences he had shared with Emily Bender?
And would the story spread eventually to Captain Picard and his command staff, raising doubts in their mind as to Ulelo’s character . . . if not his sanity?
He couldn’t afford that.
But what could he do about it? How could he keep Emily Bender from shining a light on his odd behavior?
He had barely posed the question when he heard the chimes that told him someone was standing in the corridor outside his quarters. Ulelo sat up on his bed and wondered who it might be. After all, no one had called on him before.
“Come in,” he said. Then he left his bedroom and entered the smaller enclosure that served as an anteroom—just in time to see the doors part and reveal Emily Bender.
“May I come in?” she asked.
Ulelo frowned. “I don’t—”
Before he could get the rest out, she slipped past him. “Thanks a bunch, Dikembe.”
As the doors to his quarters hissed closed behind him, Ulelo watched his unwanted visitor take a look around. After a moment or two, she seemed disappointed.
“You know,” she said, “I was hoping to find something from the Academy so I could pin you down. But you don’t seem to have anything of that sort on display here.” She turned to look at him. “Still, it’s you. I know—I found your name in the personnel files.”
Ulelo sighed. “Maybe we did know each other at the Academy. It