Survivors - Jean Lorrah [30]
The color, Yar noted, suited Nalavia’s pale skin and black hair, but was wrong with her eyes. Oddly flat green eyes, yet although “reptilian” sprang to mind, it was the wrong description. Cat’s eyes they were certainly not; no wide-eyed clarity here. Something about those eyes nagged at Yar, but she could not decide what was wrong with them.
The meeting was brief and very formal. Nalavia had a prepared greeting; Data had a prepared response. Yar was glad he outranked her and therefore had to handle this part of the proceedings; she hated public speaking. It also gave her the opportunity to note something in Nalavia that just might be frustration. Now what could cause … ?
Then she realized what Captain Picard had done: to face a woman so voluptuous that her sensuality reached through a recorded message to trigger every male hormone on the Enterprise bridge, he had sent a woman and an android! Yar smothered a grin at her captain’s perspicacity.
When the public meeting was over, Data and Yar were shown to their quarters. Each had a suite of two rooms and a bath, on opposite sides of a wide corridor sporting paintings, statues, and well-armed guards.
Yar found that her belongings had already been put in the drawers, closet, and bathroom cabinet. And probably thoroughly searched in the process. But there was nothing to find. She carried her phaser, tricorder, and combadge.
Dinner with Nalavia was scheduled in an hour and a half, so Yar bathed and put on her dress uniform, taking the time to put on makeup in deference to the formal occasion. She was glad she didn’t have to wear a formal gown, although she was certain Nalavia would.
A few minutes before they were due, Data appeared at her door to escort her to the private dining room where they hoped they would learn more of what was really happening on Treva. The android was also in dress uniform. “I suppose it is safe to leave our phasers in our rooms,” he said.
“You seem as uncomfortable without it as I do,” Yar observed. “Have you checked your room for listening devices?”
“There are none. However, I wish Counselor Troi were with us,” he replied. “Even I sense that we are not being told the truth-and neither are the people of Treva. What do you sense, Tasha?”
“The same. And that you frustrated Nalavia today.”
“Frustrated?”
“You didn’t react to her charms. Hmmm. Data, do you know how to flirt?”
“I am programmed in a broad variety of pleasuring techniques. Among them are 234 forms of flirtation.”
“Then I suggest you try a few of them on Nalavia. Give her a bit of her own medicine, and see what happens.”
“What happens? Tasha, if I do so, she will undoubtedly expect-“
“No!” Yar said sharply. Then, “I mean, not tonight. If you give her what she wants immediately, there will be no reason for her to give you what you want.”
“Which is?”
“The truth. What’s really happening on Treva. You do understand that we can’t ask her directly?”
“Yes, Tasha,” he replied with his slight smile. “Even I am not that naive. I have lived among humans for twenty-six years.”
Yar could not resist. “You’ve been around the block a few times, you weren’t born yesterday, you’re no longer wet behind the ears-” And she had the delight of seeing Data’s smile widen.
“Please do not steal my act,” he said softly. “So far, it is the only one I have.”
“Oh, no, it isn’t,” she said, and kissed his cheek. He was designed to be nice to touch, as she well remembered: warm, soft, with underlying strength. Up to now, Yar had regretted her seduction of Data under the influence of the uninhibiting virus. Perhaps what she ought to regret, though, was her instruction that “It never happened.”
When their mission was over, after all, there would be another long journey in the shuttlecraft, just the two of them, alone together….
She put such thoughts out of her mind, and settled down to the business of dinner with the President of