Q & A - Keith R. A. DeCandido [56]
“But if you turn down an assignment to the Enterprise, you’re done. That puts a label on your file that I won’t be able to erase: that you don’t take the opportunities handed to you. Zelik, you’ve been given a lifeline for your career by Commander Worf. If you don’t take it, then I guarantee, you’re gonna be cleaning up the messes of jackasses like Aenni for the rest of your career. You succeed with Picard, you can write your ticket after that.”
As a general rule, Zelik Leybenzon had put advice from admirals in the same category as waste product. But Haden was the exception. “I accept, sir.”
“Good, I’ll get you transported today.” The admiral shook his hand. “Dismissed.”
Zelik had been hearing stories about the Rozhenkos’ Klingon boy all of his life. The farming community on Gault was a very close-knit one. While the Rozhenkos had retired to Minsk on Earth by the time Leybenzon was a teenager, the stories about them lingered. Not all those stories were pleasant ones. Worf had accidentally caused the death of a fellow teenager during a soccer game. But by the time Leybenzon was old enough to be playing soccer, he assumed the stories about Worf had grown with the retelling. When they met on DS9, Leybenzon was impressed with Worf’s professionalism. Serving with him would be a great privilege.
He had attempted to use Haden’s advice. When La Forge had joined Leybenzon and the people in the Riding Club, his first instinct had been to tell the chief engineer to leave. But he recalled Haden’s words about pissing people off. While Leybenzon generally had even less use for engineers than he did officers—never mind someone who was both—he also knew that being disrespectful to a superior officer was wrong.
What surprised Leybenzon was that he found that La Forge was good company. He didn’t put on the airs that Leybenzon had come to expect from high-ranking types but acted as if they were all equals. The story he told was entertaining. He doubted he’d ever consider Geordi La Forge a close friend, but he also was willing to put him in the same category as Haden and Worf: officers he could tolerate.
The real difficulty was the one he’d anticipated before arriving: an officer-filled security team was nowhere near up to snuff. The ones that were left from Battaglia’s brief tenure were slow, barely fit, and far below the standards that Leybenzon expected. The exceptions were people Leybenzon himself had requested.
Two exceptions were in the transporter room with Leybenzon and Kadohata: Natasha Stolovitzky and Harley de Lange. Stolovitzky had been an enlisted grunt serving alongside Leybenzon on the Andromeda. He had recommended her for the Roosevelt when he was assigned there after the war, only to discover that she had been accepted to the Academy. Once on Enterprise, Leybenzon poached her from Deep Space 3 and made her his deputy chief.
De Lange had been another of the “problem cases” of Starbase 23, showing tendencies toward insubordination and recalcitrance. The young man, who was a mix of several Earth nationalities, had an odd-featured face and a small, compact body. Leybenzon put him in his own squad and whipped him into shape. Leybenzon had asked Haden to allow him to take de Lange with him to the Enterprise.
Worf and the captain arrived. The second officer snapped her tricorder shut. “Ready when you are, sir.”
Picard said, “Let us proceed.”
The captain stepped up to the transporter. Leybenzon waited until Kadohata had joined Picard before proceeding to his own pad. Stolovitzky and de Lange were seconds behind Leybenzon.
Worf nodded his approval.
Leybenzon ordered, “On stun.” He saw no reason to be caught unawares and had never agreed with the policy of leaving weapons holstered during beamdown, especially when the location was likely to be hostile.
“Take care, Worf, with Q you never know.”
“Understood, sir.”
“Energize, Ensign,” Picard ordered.
The canyon was warmer than it had been, and a heavy breeze blew through Leybenzon’s thin brown hair, but