Seven of Nine - Christie Golden [29]
At the mention of the insectoid race, Tamaak had spilled his coffee.
He set the cup back in the saucer with a hand that trembled, and put it on the table.
"I had hoped we had shaken them," he said in a low voice. "The Ku travel with one companion, Captain Janeway, and that companion is death."
"WHY DO THEY wAM You, TAMAAK? HAVE YOU DONE anything?"
He laughed-a short, harsh bark. "Captain, we are thirty-four refugees with no weapons. What could we possibly have done to anyone, let alone beings traveling in a ship? No, they want us, that is certain. But not because we have done anything. They want us for something they think we might do."
"What?"
He was silent, one of his fingers toying with the rim of the cup. "I have a confession, Captain." He lifted his gaze from the cup and pierced her with the anguish in the depths of his soft brown eyes. "We have not been completely honest with you. We knew this might happen. But it seemed so unlikely, the odds so great-perhaps you have wondered why we are refugees?"
"The thought had crossed my mind," Janeway admitted. "I didn't wish to pry."
"And I thank you for your discretion. Even though it happened years ago, it is still a painful subject among my people. We were struck down by a dreadful illness. It decimated the population. Millions died.
The Skedans that you have in this vessel are all the Skedans in the universe, Captain Janeway."
"Oh, Tamaak," she breathed, the forgotten coffee growing cold in her cup. "I'm so sorry."
"We never found a cure for it-the Scarlet Death, we called it, because it inflamed all the visible membranes-but some of us survived it.
It-it claimed the lives of my mate and two children."
Janeway said nothing, merely gazed with deep sympathy upon her friend.
She let him continue in his own time.
"We had traded with many races, and the illness never jumped species.
As far as we know, only Skedans caught the Scarlet Death, and only Skedans died from it. But fear is a dreadful thing, Captain. It can be as deadly as any disease. First, the other races stopped trading with us. We later discovered there was a quarantine placed upon our planet. We suffered badly from the lack of trade and more died who should not have."
His soft eyes flashed anger, which was almost immediately quelled as he composed himself. "When it was clear we had survived, we tried to relocate to another world.
We were attacked, almost killed, by the very creatures who attacked you today. They are called the Ku, Captain Janeway. No doubt they have a name for themselves, but no warm-blooded creature knows it. They despise mammalian life-forms and hire themselves out as assassins to other nonmammalian races. They are extremely efficient. Tales of them haunt children's nightmares throughout this part of the galaxy.
'Behave, or the Ku will find you' is a common warning. Except among my people. We have been far too close to the Ku to tease our children with that kind of terror."
"Let me see if I understand you," said Janeway, putting her own cold cup of coffee on the table and leaning forward. "Skeda was decimated by a plague.
Only a handful of people survived it. And instead of helping you, the other races of the Lhiaarian Empire shunned you and some even hired assassins to track your people down?"
He nodded sadly. "They fear that we are carriers of this disease. But they are in no danger. No one other than a native of Skeda has ever become ill."
"Tamaak, I'm so sorry. You have my word on it that I won't let these Ku take you."
"I thank you, Captain, and I deeply regret that your act of kindness toward my people has put your crew and ship in jeopardy."
"I must ask a favor, though."
"Name it."
"I'm going to require your people to be examined by our doctor. We'll need to see if there's any trace of a communicable disease and if we find it, we'll immediately get