Synthesis - James Swallow [3]
Riker plucked at the collar of the shirt, thumbing over the patterned print of blue sky, yellow beach, and palm trees. “It’s casual Friday, Doctor,” he said with a smile, attempting to lighten the mood. “Didn’t you get the memo?”
“Captain,” Ree replied gravely, “it is Thursday.”
“I’m off duty,” he noted. “I’m taking some quality time with the family.”
“Ah.” Ree paused and sniffed the air. “I smell meat.”
Riker patted the carryall. “Replicated ham sandwiches. I’ve got a picnic in here. Not to mention diapers, baby powder, cleansing wipes, a water flask, blankets, a couple of cuddly toys, a self-heating milk bottle, and a bunch of other stuff. I carry less than this on an away-team mission.”
“I have noted that human parents have a tendency to overprepare,” said Ree. “Still, better safe than sorry, I believe the expression goes.” The saurian blinked slowly. “How are your wife and daughter?”
“Good,” Riker noted. “Tasha’s developing fast.”
“That would be the Betazoid in her.”
“You can see for yourself, next time Deanna brings her in for a checkup.”
“Perhaps.” Ree looked away. In fact, in the weeks after their return from Lumbu, the prewarp planet where the Pahkwa-thanh had taken Riker’s stricken wife so that she could give birth, the doctor had ensured that it was Riker’s former Enterprise crewmate Alyssa Ogawa who had handled all postnatal care. Ree had kept his distance for the most part, although on one occasion, Riker had seen him reach out a gentle digit to stroke the child’s head. The saurian hadn’t been aware that Tasha’s father was observing him, and to Riker’s amusement, his daughter had confidently reached out and patted the alien’s dinosaurlike snout. She was fearless, just like her namesake.
Ree’s remorse was visible in the slight stoop of his shoulders. Driven beyond reason by a mix of his own biology’s primitive drives and the effects of Deanna’s empathic abilities, he had stolen mother and baby-to-be during the Titan’s mission on the planet Droplet, convinced that only he could keep them safe. In the aftermath, Ree had freely admitted his culpability and offered himself up for censure, but the captain had refused. Now it seemed as if the saurian doctor was walking on eggshells every time he crossed paths with Riker and Troi.
The captain frowned. This had gone on long enough. “Actually, I have a better idea. How about you have dinner with the three of us, in our quarters?”
Ree blinked again. “Captain… you are aware that my eating habits as a carnivore…”
“I’ll make Andorian sushi,” Riker suggested. “That’s human and Pahkwa-thanh edible, right?”
The doctor seemed genuinely at a loss for words, and so when the lift halted, he appeared quite relieved. “Is that… an order, sir?”
The captain stepped out into the corridor. “It’s an offer. And it’s up to you.”
Ree nodded again, and the lift doors closed.
Christine inclined her head, a smirk threatening to break out on her lips. Despite everything she had just said about the routine wonder of the Titan’s ongoing mission in the Canis Major region, after Melora’s report, she suddenly felt a little tingle of that electric thrill that presaged a new discovery. What are we going to find this time?
“Okay, so that’s pretty int—” Vale stopped, shook her head. “Pretty beguiling stuff.” She glanced up at the turning yellow-white masses of the binary star pair. “A possible interstellar civilization out in an otherwise sparsely populated region. At the very least, I think I can persuade the captain to take us off our current heading and swing by a bit closer, take some better readings on the high-definition scanner array.” She considered this for a moment. “Of course, knowing Will Riker, he’ll throw caution to the wind and go straight up to their front door.”
Melora’s expression shifted toward concern. “That might not be the best approach. When I asked you to come down here, I said I had two things to show you.