Spirit Walk_ Enemy of My Enemy (Book 2) - Christie Golden [17]
“We took the shuttle down to the planet, and then we separated. I remember thinking that Loran II was going to be pretty boring. There was nothing about it that set it apart from other Class-M planets.”
“Except for something large and furry and clawed, apparently,” said Kaz. He nodded his head as he examined the tricorder readings. She was fine.
Her eyes brightened. “Oh, yes, they were quite intriguing!”
“They did a pretty good job squashing you and almost killing you, Patel,” he said. “I’m not sure I’d call that intriguing.”
“Oh, but they were!” A look of panic appeared fleetingly on her face, then she relaxed as she realized she still held the tricorder. “I got some good readings.” She handed him the instrument. “You might be interested in taking a look yourself.”
Patel looked so eager, so hopeful, that Kaz succumbed. “Certainly,” he said. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I’d be analyzing it myself first, of course, but somehow I’ve got a feeling that you’re about to tell me to return to my quarters and not do any work for a while.”
“Why, you didn’t tell me you were a telepath, Lieutenant.”
“Not at all. I just had several years of premed. I assure you it’s not what I want to do, but I trust you’ll notify me if you run across anything interesting.”
“Indeed I will. Do you think you’ll be able to rest, or shall I give you a sedative?”
“I’m still pretty tired,” she confessed. “I’ll be fine. I’ll let you know if I need anything.”
As she slipped off the table and walked out of sickbay, Kaz found himself wishing all of his patients were so willing to follow doctor’s orders. He looked at the tricorder, smiled a little, carefully set it down, and returned to finishing his report on Patel’s injuries.
She was tiny, fair-haired, with the biggest blue eyes he had ever seen. Eyes that he could easily drown in. When she had first joined his crew, he thought she wasn’t even big enough to hold a phaser rifle. But she’d proven him wrong, time and again. That delicate-seeming frame housed a passionate and fiery spirit. She’d fought on Bajor, as part of the resistance, and refused to be content with simply driving the Cardassians from her homeworld. That wasn’t enough. She joined the Maquis, to track the Cardassians down wherever they might be terrorizing other worlds, other people.
“Vallia,” Kaz said, his voice deep and hoarse with emotion.
As if she were physically present, he could smell her scent, a combination of sweat and the metallic tang of the weapons she always carried and her own unique fragrance; felt the brush of soft, full lips on his—
Kaz made a fist and slammed it down. Vallia was dead, that much he knew from Gradak; was dead, was the lover of someone else, not him, not Jarem Kaz….
Gradak had backed off when there were injured requiring treatment. He’d respected the needs of others that much, at least. But now that there was nothing to really occupy Kaz’s thoughts, Gradak had come right back again, settled down in Kaz’s tall, strong body as if he belonged there.
Kaz looked again at Patel’s tricorder with a renewed appreciation for the information it contained. Patel had managed to take some scans of the creatures. Maybe analyzing the data would be enough to send Gradak back into a sulky retreat.
Kim and the others hadn’t been able to tell him much. Chakotay might have gotten a better look at the creatures, but this was clearly not the time to ask him. There wasn’t much Kaz could surmise from the injuries alone.
It would occupy his thoughts. And it was better than seeing and feeling the lithe, lost Vallia in his arms.
“Computer,” he said, his voice trembling but sounding in his ears like his own again, “transfer data from the tricorder to main computer.”
Chapter 6
THE CARDASSIAN TURNED as she entered the lab. Sekaya looked around curiously. She’d never seen so much technology crowded together in one place in her entire life. She had no idea what most of it was for, and she was almost dazzled by its colorful shininess.