Spirit Walk_ Enemy of My Enemy (Book 2) - Christie Golden [70]
Gradak heard the soft whimper from the back even over the sounds of battle, and his heart ached. Kemi, only six years old. The blast had torn off her arm and her father had made an old-fashioned tourniquet from the fabric of his shirt. If nothing else, Gradak mused darkly, the Maquis had revived medical techniques that had been left behind two centuries ago. Sticks and fabric and water had been pressed into use when limited medical supplies ran out.
The ship rocked from another volley of phaser fire. A huge vessel passed within meters of them, and Gradak could swear he could almost see the occupants. Not Cardassian, not these ships. Bigger, faster, and deadlier, these were…
“Daddy,” breathed Kemi, and Gradak had to blink hard to clear his eyes of angry tears. “Daddy, I can’t feel my legs….”
“Hang on, sweetie,” the girl’s father said in a broken voice. “Please hang on. We’ll get you to help. Won’t we, Kaz?”
“Yes, we will,” Gradak Kaz rasped. “If it’s the last thing I do.”
He knew that it would, indeed, be the last thing he did. He did not tell them he, too, had been shot. He had told them that the blood was from Amgar and Rekkan, whose bodies now lay quietly in the back; that it was not his own. But even as he got the lie out, he knew that he could not hang on to consciousness much longer.
He had to get them to safety. Had to. From the depths of his brain, a tiny scrap of information floated up. There was a Federation ship stationed in this area of space. If he could just get to it—
“Jarem.” The voice was soft, feminine. Vallia? No, Vallia was dead, had been killed by the Butcher of Bajor, along with so many others. “Jarem, I understand what you’re feeling. Believe me, I do. But we need you now.”
Kaz moaned softly and buried his face in his hands. Behind his closed lids, he saw Gradak, his jaw set, his eyes blazing.
Give me this body. I can take care of everything.
And oh, Jarem wanted to let him.
“No,” Jarem said quietly, to the other Trill. But Chakotay misunderstood.
“There’s a way to stop Katal—the Changeling. Moset thinks he can do it, but it’s going to be risky, and I’d feel a hell of a lot better if you were working with him on this.”
He sighed deeply. The two men he hated most in the universe were both on this planet. The question was, which did he hate more—the man who had killed Gradak’s wife, or the man who had betrayed thousands, including children, to slaughter at the hands of the Cardassians?
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
He gazed at Moset, who gave him back stare for stare.
“What do you need me to do?” he asked quietly.
Chapter 20
“I WILL NOT MAKE A DECISION until after I have spoken privately with Admiral Janeway,” Amar Merin Kol said in her soft but stubborn voice. “She has treated me with consideration, concern, and respect. I owe her at least a hearing.”
The Changeling couldn’t believe his ears. When he’d last spoken with Kol, she’d all but capitulated to the “wisdom” he, posing as her adviser Alamys, had spoken. Now, even though she hadn’t had a single private conversation with the woman, that damned Janeway was starting to make the amar change her mind.
“From what you have told me,” “Alamys” said, “Janeway hasn’t bothered to try to spend much time with you. Her Federation duties seem to keep pulling her away. How, then, do you come to the conclusion that you matter to her? That our humble little Kerovi matters?”
“I feel as though I’ve gotten to know the admiral during our conversations,” Kol said, jutting her chin out a little. “If she says that she has something important going on, then I trust that to be the truth. She would not lie to me.”
“How do you know that? How do you know anything like that about this human woman? She’s a politician, a diplomat. How can you trust her?”
Suddenly Kol laughed, a bright sound. “I’m a politician, and a diplomat. And so are you. Do you mean to say you think we can