Ring Around the Sky - Allyn Gibson [15]
“Have you seen Commander Tev?” said Pattie.
Gomez looked about. While she saw a number of Kharzh’ullans—Eevraith and Gringa were standing with a group near the facility’s exit—she couldn’t see Tev. Where had he gone?
Gomez frowned. “Pattie, take a look inside. He might be with some of the engineers or inspecting the new elevator shell.” She looked back to Eevraith. “I’ll look around out here.”
Pattie nodded and went back into the warehouse.
Gomez went over to Eevraith. Seeing her approach, Eevraith said, “What’s your analysis, Commander?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know yet. Give us some time, and we’ll let you know.”
Eevraith grimaced. Gomez knew he was impatient. Every day the elevator went unrepaired it posed a threat to Kharzh’ulla.
“Have you seen Tev?” she asked.
Gringa shook his head. “Not for some time,” he said. “I believe he left the warehouse before Eevraith and I did.”
Gomez scowled. She tapped her combadge. “Gomez to Tev.” No response. She repeated the hail, but still nothing.
“Would the elevator be blocking communicator signals?” she asked.
Eevraith shook his head. “Follow me.”
He led her around the warehouse and past the observation platform where they had beamed down to. Gomez knew they were walking toward the elevator’s base, and she forced herself not to look at it, lest its size overwhelm her. They climbed a short hill, and Eevraith stopped at the top. He pointed. “You’ll find Tev there.”
Gomez looked down the hill. Sure enough, she saw Tev. “What…?” she asked. “What’s going on? What’s down there?”
Eevraith shook his head. “My apologies. I must return to Prelv.”
He turned and began walking back to the warehouse.
“Minister!” Gomez called.
He stopped and turned.
She closed the distance between them. “I don’t understand. Why is Tev down there?”
“That is Tev’s tale to tell. Not mine.”
“There’s history between you.”
Eevraith said nothing.
“If that poses a risk to this mission…”
Eevraith held up his hand. “Tev will do as he will. Whatever the differences between us, he will never endanger your mission.” He turned and continued back toward the warehouse.
“No, he won’t, Minister,” Gomez called after him, “but what of you?”
Eevraith continued walking as though he hadn’t heard her.
Shaking her head, Gomez proceeded down the hill. She looked at Tev. He stood near what she took to be a monument of some sort. Might this have been the elevator that had suffered the transport accident?
If Tev heard her approach, he gave no notice.
“Tev?” she said.
He turned. “Commander Gomez,” he said, his voice flat and low.
“You didn’t answer my hail.”
He said nothing.
Gomez frowned. She looked past Tev to the monument. It was a simple granite obelisk. Curvy writing that she recognized from the da Vinci’s past missions to Tellar and Maeglin as the Tellarite script ran down the obelisk’s face.
“What does this memorialize?” she asked.
Tev’s nostrils flared. He looked back to the monument. “The victims of the transport accident.”
Her guess had been correct. “Your mother.”
“She was returning from family business on Tellar. She had been away for six months.”
“How old were you?”
“Twelve.”
Gomez nodded. She placed her hand on his shoulder and squeezed lightly. “I’m sorry, Tev.”
“My father…” he began, but his voice choked. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths to center himself. “Nothing was left in the wreckage. No bodies. The force of the impact, the speed of the transport, it left nothing to be identified. My father…hoped she hadn’t been aboard, that she missed the transport when it left the orbital terminus. Until he died, he hoped she would come through the door to our home.” He shook his head. “She never did.”
Gomez understood. The monument was all Tev had to remember his mother by.
“Come on, Tev, let’s get back to Pattie,” she said. She turned and started back up the hill. She stopped, turned, and saw that Tev had not moved. “Tev?”
He turned, and his eyes were damp and blurry. “I blamed myself.”