Ring Around the Sky - Allyn Gibson [22]
“You’re too insufferably pleased with yourself.”
Tev said nothing, and they sat together in silence as Eevraith’s eyes cleared somewhat.
“How is Biyert?” asked Tev.
“Fine,” said Eevraith, caught off-guard. “She’s fine. She dotes on our daughters too much for my taste, but that makes her happy.” He shrugged. “She wants another child, but I don’t know that I love her that much anymore. If I ever did.” He looked at Tev and scowled. “Why does this even matter to you? The two of you weren’t going to be together, not the way you wanted to be. Her family would never have approved. How would it have looked to have the granddaughter of the rising leader of the ruling party marry an off-worlder? By Phinda, Tev, that would have cost the party more than an election—it would have cost it power for a generation.” He paused. “Is that what you really wanted? To destroy everything your father worked so long and so hard to achieve for Grevesh and the party?”
“Leave my father out of it,” Tev said, his nostrils flared in anger. Eevraith said nothing. Finally, Tev said, “Did you at least tell Biyert I had returned?”
Eevraith shook his head. Reading the expression on Tev’s face, he said, “I didn’t even know until I saw you in the palace that you were aboard the da Vinci. Had I known, I would have asked Starfleet for another ship.”
Tev nodded. “Starfleet thought, in light of my history here and my experience with the Ring, that the da Vinci was the ship best suited for this mission.”
Eevraith blinked a few times, his vision very nearly returned to normal. “Under other circumstances, I might agree,” said Eevraith quietly.
Tev looked down, following Eevraith’s gaze, to the padd in his hands. “I have the mission report.” He paused. “It’s as I feared. The elevator cannot be repaired.”
Tev held out the padd. Eevraith considered it for a moment, then reached out and took it. He looked down at the screen, weighing whether or not he should read the report. He wanted to read it, had to know what it said, what the options were, but there would be time enough the next few days for that. “The elevator,” said Eevraith at last. “You can’t repair the damage.”
“No,” said Tev quietly.
“The dampened oscillation from the structural integrity fields.”
Tev nodded. “The shell was held too rigid. At the edge of the structural integrity fields, the shell stressed more than it should have.”
“You wanted to gloat,” Eevraith said, his voice neutral, his statement flat. “You always had to be right. You always had to know more about the Ring and the elevators than anyone else. This is your payback, for all the perceived slights of twenty years ago.” He stood, his face flushed in anger, and threw the padd onto the stone floor. “Did you do any legitimate work? Or did you and your team work from a preconceived notion that Kharzh’ulla would have to be abandoned out of your misplaced sense of spite?”
Tev spat on the floor in front of Eevraith, then looked up into Eevraith’s eyes with a look of cold fury behind his own. “Don’t ever insult my work again, Eevraith,” Tev said, his voice low. “Forget that at your peril.” Tev paused as Eevraith stumbled back to his bench. “You owe me a favor. I left you in peace twenty years ago. I did nothing to derail your personal and political ambitions when you know damn well I could have.”
He stood, walked across the chamber, picked up the padd Eevraith had so carelessly thrown, and held it out to him. Eevraith looked up at the proffered padd through bleary eyes.
“The solution,” Tev said. “How to save Kharzh’ulla without evacuation.” He paused and looked meaningfully at Eevraith. “How to save your career and further your ambitions.”
Eevraith looked at the padd held before him. He thought about taking it in his hands again. “The elevator will collapse,” said Eevraith, his voice tired and heavy. “What else is there to say, other than evacuate Kharzh’ulla?”
Tev bared his teeth. Eevraith found this disconcerting. “Accelerate the collapse,