The Eyes of the Beholders - A. C. Crispin [86]
Slowly, formally, Jean-Luc Picard put both hands on the android officer’s shoulders. “Data,” he said, “there is an old saying on Earth, ‘Greater love hath no man than he give up his life for his friends.’ It seems to me that a willingness to give up one’s life counts just as much as the actual sacrifice. We are truly in your debt.”
“But, Captain,” Data protested, “I am not a man, I am an android.”
“You are yourself, Data, unique,” Picard corrected firmly. “And we are all very lucky to have you as a friend.”
“You can say that again, Captain,” Geordi said, grinning.
Chapter Twelve
“THALA?”
The Andorian gift jerked awake, wondering who had called her. After a moment, the voice spoke again. “Thala, are you there?” With a feeling of relief, she recognized the voice and realized it was coming from her cabin intercom.
Hastily she sprang out of bed and activated her computer link. “Wesley, I’m here.”
“Where were you?”
“I was asleep, but it’s all right. What’s going on?”
“You asked me to let you know when we were getting ready to dock. We’ll be docking at Starbase 127 in about ten minutes.”
The child felt a mixture of emotions wash over her—excitement, sadness, apprehension, determination. “Oh,” she said. “Thank you for remembering, Wesley. I really appreciate it.”
“No problem,” he replied cheerfully. “I’ll see you later.”
“Uh … yeah. Thanks again.”
So, the moment she had dreaded for so long had come. It was time to leave the Enterprise forever. Thala swallowed hard. It had been a long journey back from the artifact, but now it was ending, and her own journey would begin.
Following Commander Data’s successful attempt to turn off the force field that had held the starship captive, the Enterprise had used its phasers to destroy the PaKathen, in accordance with the Klingon High Command’s request. Then, with the Marco Polo in tow, the ship had headed back for Thonolan Four to deliver the overdue seed grain to the Andorian colony.
Thala had been in a quiet state of panic the entire time they orbited the Andorian colony, for fear the authorities there would change their minds and decide to accept her, but they evidently had not.
In the past days, the child had stayed quietly in her quarters. Because of the overcrowded conditions in sickbay, Selar had been too busy to visit, but the Vulcan had managed a few moments each day to call and ask after her young friend. Yesterday, the doctor had asked Thala to join her for dinner, saying that she had something important to discuss.
I’m sorry, Selar, Thala thought sadly. I wish I could leave you a message apologizing for missing dinner, but I can’t afford to leave any clues behind. Moving over to the Andorian statue, she quickly twisted it open, then removed the jewelry. For a moment, she wished that she could take the statue with her, but it was too heavy, and she couldn’t afford to burden herself with extra weight. She might have to move fast today.
Quickly, the Andorian girl moved around her cabin, forcing herself to eat something (she had no idea how long it would be before the opportunity came again), taking a sonic shower, then laying out her clothing. Before dressing, she used a piece of surgical pseudo-skin she’d purloined from sickbay to fasten the antennae webs to her ribcage. Then she pulled on several layers of clothing before slipping on her best sensory mesh. She had no way to pack anything, it would make her look suspicious.
Last of all, she wadded a cloak of Altairian spider silk into one of her father’s belt pouches, and, in the small space that remained, she stuffed a meager lunch. The spider silk’s insulating properties would keep her body heat from registering on the ship’s sensing devices.
When she checked her chrono, Thala discovered that the entire process had taken less than an hour. She sighed. It would take far more time than that for the starship’s medical personnel to supervise the transport of all the patients