Relics - Michael Jan Friedman [26]
Tranh smiled-too embarrassed for Kane to really rub it in. Instead, he said softly “I guess we can keep the dresses in mothballs … eh, Ensign?”
He could have tolerated Tranh’s scorn. But his sympathy … his pity … it was almost more than Kane could bear.
He wanted to hit Tranh. He wanted to make him hurt as bad as he was hurting. But he restrained himself. An assault on another ensign wouldn’t look very good on his record, and there was still a possibility that his record would be important to him one day.
“Hey,” said Sousa, putting a reassuring hand on his arm. “It’s no big deal, Kane. It’s all right.”
But it wasn’t all right-not by a long shot. Shrugging off Sousa’s hand, he got up and crossed the room, heading for the exit. He was seething; it was all he could do not to boil over.
He’d thought things were bad before. But now the situation was rapidly becoming … intolerable.
Scott smiled. The ensign assigned to show him his quarters was about as polite as they came. It was good to know that Starfleet was still choosy about who it permitted to serve on its flagships.
Of course, it was possible that Ensign Kane was an anomaly among his peers, but Scott hoped not. He would have hated it if the human race had gone downhill from the level achieved in the twenty-third century.
“Here we are, sir,” said Kane. He stopped in front of a sliding door, which didn’t look a whole lot different than the sliding doors on Scott’s Enterprise. “After you, sir.”
Polite all right, Scott observed. He nodded approvingly, but the lad was too disciplined even to smile. All he did was wait patiently for the older man to enter ahead of him.
The doors whooshed open automatically, of course. A moment later, Scott saw the quarters that had been set aside for him … and gasped.
Before he knew it, Kane had launched into the grand tour. “You’ll find the closet back there, with a full wardrobe in your size. And this,” he said, gesturing, “is the food replicator… and your computer terminal…”
Scott looked around the room in astonishment. “Good lord, man. Where have ye put me?”
Kane turned to stare at him blankly; “These are standard guest quarters, sir.” A pause. “I can try to find something bigger if you wish.”
Scott’s eyes widened. “Bigger? Ye misunderstand me, lad. Why, in my day, even an admiral would nae have had such quarters on a starship. In fact,” he went on, his mind seeking familiar things, “I remember a time when we had to transport the Dohlman of Elaas to Troyius.” He chuckled. “You never heard such whining and complaining from a grown woman in all your life.”
“Uh … right,” responded Kane, as courteous as ever. “The holodecks, Ten-Forward and the gymnasium are all at your disposal.” He indicated the desktop terminal. “The comp uter can tell you how to find them. Until we issue you a combadge, just use this”- another gesture-“communications panel if you need anything.”
But Scott wasn’t paying very close attention. Again, he was dredging up memories. “You know,” he said, “these quarters remind me of a hotel room I once had on Argelius. Oh, now, there was a planet… everything a man could want, right at his fingertips. ‘Course on our first visit, I ran into a wee bit o’trouble there, but…”
“Uh, excuse me, sir,” said Kane.
Scott stopped. “Aye, lad?”
“I have to return to duty, sir.” The ensign was still smiling politely … but now he seemed too polite. As if he was just putting on a facade, and had been all along.
Scott frowned. What a fool he’d been. Ensign Kane wasn’t interested in the Dohlman of Elaas or the accommodations on Argelius or any other stories he had to tell. Scott could see that now. All Kane wanted to do was discharge his burden and get on with his business.
“Sorry to trouble ye,” said the older man.
The ensign didn’t miss a beat. “No trouble at all, sir. Will there be anything else?”
Scott shook his head, his exuberance punctured. “No, nothing. Thank you, Mr. Kane.”