String Theory_ Cohesion (Book 1) - Jeffrey Lang [30]
The Monorhan’s face convulsed and he covered his nose, saying, “That smell! What is it?!” A moment later, the other four Monorhans were holding their broad noses and backing away into the corner. One of them retched and gagged.
“Neelix!” the captain shouted. “Your tea! The smell is making them sick!”
Hastily, Neelix replaced the mug of pungent tea on the replicator and punched the Recycle button. The air above the pad wavered and the drink was once again reduced to its component molecules. “Sorry about that! I should have thought to ask. There are more than a few humans that don’t take to oolong.”
The captain was holding her forehead and wearing one of her I’m going to hurt you, I just haven’t decided how expressions. Possibilities began spinning through his mind, but Neelix decided his time would best be served trying to placate the Monorhans. “My friends, I must apologize! I had no idea this substance was so offensive to you. It’s hardly common here on Voyager, but…but…” He knew he was making a complete fool of himself, but he didn’t know what else to say. Despite his vast experience in dealing with individuals of other species, he knew how easy it was to make mistakes of this sort. “Perhaps I should just take my leave for now….”
“Perhaps that would be best,” the captain said, again calm. “But could you ask Commander Chakotay to step in as soon as he has a few minutes?”
“Yes, Captain. My friends, again…” Neelix moved closer to the Monorhans, hoping that he could convey his concern. To his relief, Diro stood and briefly clasped hands with him. “If there’s anything I can do,” he murmured one more time, but he knew that the sad truth was that there was nothing he could do. At times like this, there was nothing to do but pull your grief to you and try to make an accommodation with it. Neelix believed he knew that better than anyone on Voyager, but he also knew it was something no one could teach another.
Out on the bridge, all was relatively calm, though Neelix could feel the undercurrent of tension. No one understood what had just happened. Neelix had boundless admiration for the crew of Voyager, had seen them come together as a team on countless occasions to battle opponents that appeared unbeatable. But it was one thing to ready yourself to fight Species 8472 or the Kazon, and another thing entirely to, figuratively speaking, escort a pleasant stranger on a stroll and then have the stranger explode on his front lawn. Everyone, he decided, is going to be hungry.
Pausing only briefly to pass on the message from the captain to Commander Chakotay, Neelix scurried to the turbolift, all the while running through the list of ingredients for tonight’s menu.
Disaster plus 14 minutes
Janeway was overwhelmed by the need for a cup of coffee, but did not dare approach the replicator. Who knew what the Monorhans would think of Colombian dark roast? How many different alien species had been aboard Voyager in the past four years? Ten? Fifteen? Had there been a series of disasters anything like those that had plagued her ship and crew in the past…what was it? She glanced up at her chronometer and saw that less than five hours had passed since Harry Kim had first mentioned the anomalous readings. She wondered how much longer they would be here in the Monorhans’ system, then fell to thinking about whether they would ever be able to leave at all. Best to deal with the problems at hand.
“Captain Ziv,” Janeway begin. “Gentlemen…My sincere condolences on the deaths of your crewmates, your passengers, and no doubt what must have been your friends and members of your families.” She watched as the Monorhans, all of whom had been trying to regain their dignity since Neelix exited, sagged down into themselves. Yes, obviously, there had been members of their families in the disaster. “Please let me assure you that no one on my