Spirit Walk_ Old Wounds (Book 1) - Christie Golden [71]
There was nothing in the embrace but affection, compassion, and concern. Sekaya thought this a good thing. She did not want the leader of the colonists to develop a romantic attachment to her. They stepped back and looked up at one another.
“I just heard the news from my brother,” she said. “Marius, I grieve with you.”
“Thank you, Sekaya. It’s not as if we weren’t expecting it, but…Well.” He sighed and straightened himself. “I see you’ve brought something,” he said, indicating the bulging pack she had slung over her shoulder.
“Yes,” she replied. “Some of the things we talked about for the ritual.”
“Ah, yes. The ritual. Well, I think we know which one we’re going to be performing.”
“Performing first,” Sekaya corrected.
“Pardon?”
She smiled a little, sadly. “We know that first it is time to grieve,” she said. “To mourn your dead and salute them. But then, we’ll need to perform the other ritual we created. The one to say hello again to this place that you love. Am I not right?”
He seemed startled that she understood him so well. “Are we so easy to read?”
“Yes and no,” she said. “Easy for one who understands you, perhaps.”
He nodded. “Yes, Sekaya. Yes, you are right. What was it you said? We will grieve, and decide if we want to stay, and start over.”
He extended a hand. Confused but willing to go along with him, Sekaya took it. He led her into the cargo bay. Seeing the two of them approach, the colonists got to their feet and looked at her curiously. Still holding her hand, Fortier said, “Some of you have not yet had the honor and pleasure of meeting Sekaya. I have been talking with her about ceremonies. Traditions. Things that matter to our people. She has some ideas.”
Sekaya took a moment before she spoke. She looked around the crowd, at the sad yet determined faces. She felt a rush of warmth, of kinship with these strangers.
“We humans need ritual,” she said. “We need celebrations, and ways to mark important passages. We need,” she said quietly, “to be able to say good-bye.”
Damn it, where had they encountered a storm like this before?
Chakotay was alone in his ready room, hoping the solitude would help him focus. He drummed his fingers on his thigh. He couldn’t remember. But it had been the precursor to something very important. And it was similar, but not exact…. There was something about trying to transport to a specific site and storms appearing precisely at that site….
He was so lost in his thoughts that he started when he heard Ellis’s voice.
“Ellis to Captain Chakotay.”
Chakotay sat upright. There was a strained sound to the commander’s voice.
“Go ahead, Ellis.”
“I, uh…sir, there’s something very odd here that I think you ought to see. I’m taking a scan of it and I’m going to try to transmit it to you. I hope there won’t be too much interference. I’m not overly familiar with the customs of our passengers, but this somehow doesn’t look like something the colonists would do, and it’s clearly not Cardassian. But it’s recent.”
“You are definitely whetting my curiosity, Commander. Go ahead and transmit.” He touched a button. The image appeared on the small viewscreen.
Chakotay inhaled swiftly, his eyes widening in shock.
He knew that image. Knew it from when he was fifteen years old, walking with his father on Earth in the Central American rain forest. Recognized it when he saw it drawn on the dust of a moon, many years and several thousand light-years away from that first encounter.
A blessing to the land.
A chamozi.
Chapter
19
LIBBY WEBBER STEPPED into her director’s home to the sound of applause. She smiled and waved slightly at the assembled crowd and accepted yet another bouquet with graciousness.
A large man stepped up to her and kissed her on the cheek. “Admiral Montgomery! How good to see you!” she said.
“Ken, Libby, Ken. It’s only ‘admiral’ when the pips are there to insist upon it.” Indeed, he was out of uniform and looked quite dashing in his tuxedo, his weathered face split in a grin.
As far as he knew, they