The Farther Shore - Christie Golden [59]
Now B’Elanna was confused. “But I assumed you wanted me to undertake the Challenge properly—to spend at least six months fending for myself in the wilderness.”
“I did,” Miral replied. “But I did not know you had a mate and a child. A baby, “no less.”
“But my honor—”
“There is great honor in tending to the needs of a child one has brought into the world,” Miral replied. “In fact, there is no greater honor. Why do you think I strove so to bring you to your heritage?”
B’Elanna blinked, startled. “I thought it was because you wanted me to be like you—to love all things Klingon.”
“You thought I did it for myself?”
“Well—yes, I did. Didn’t you?”
Miral considered the question. “I love my bloodline,” she admitted.. “I am so proud to be Klingon. We are a great and noble people, and if our ways are different [175] from those of others, then so be it. But I believed that you needed to understand both sides of your heritage. That was my duty to you. My task, as it were. Had I not done what I could to show you the glory of what you are—not half of you, but all of you—I would have been remiss as a mother. Did I ever insult your father or his people?”
“No, you didn’t. And you could have, easily. Especially when he left us.”
“To do so would be to make you feel bad about being part human. I wanted you to feel proud of your human blood. I wanted you to be proud of your Klingon blood as well. I wanted you,” she said, stroking B’Elanna’s mud-caked hair, “to be proud of yourself. If I failed to ascend to Sto-Vo-Kor it would not have been because I didn’t make you Klingon. It would have been because I didn’t help you find your own pride.”
B’Elanna stared at her mother’s face, so familiar and so strange after all this time. Could she have been that wrong about Miral’s motivation?
And if so, what else had she been wrong about?
Chapter 15
KAZ KNEW that he was no slouch intellectually, but standing next to Data and the Doctor, watching them process information nearly at light-speed, left him feeling a bit inferior. An android and a hologram were beating him at his own game. Quickly, he shook that thought away. Everyone had strengths and weaknesses. Even Trills, and androids, and holograms. One was wise to know and respect one’s own weaknesses and strengths. They needed his expertise, too, and when he was able to offer it, he felt inordinately pleased.
They had determined a great deal about the virus in the hour they’d had alone in sickbay. It was operated by nanoprobes that entered the body through touch or inhalation. The method of delivery should surprise nobody, Kaz thought, considering who they were dealing [177] with. It would remain dormant until given an order to be activated.
So far so good, but this was where it all fell rather nastily apart.
How was the order given? Could an infected person spread the virus before the virus was activated? Why weren’t adults with strong, functional immune systems affected yet? Would they be, and if so, when? How was the virus contracted?
“I am fond of mysteries,” Data confessed at one point, “yet I would be glad to have this one solved quickly.”
“I’m sure you speak for a lot of people, Commander,” the Doctor said. His acerbic tone of voice seemed odd, coming from the new hologram’s milder throat. “I suggest that we’ve spent enough time researching how the virus is transmitted. I have a theory on how we can stop it. Dr. Kaz, you said earlier that you had downloaded information from Voyager.”
“That’s right.”
“And you said you had begun experimenting with nanoprobes?”
“Yes. Your work with the cellular construction of Species 8472 pointed the direction.”
“Really?” The Doctor preened slightly.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t come up with a modified nanoprobe that would destroy the original ones.”
“Hmmm,” said the Doctor. “Perhaps that’s not the correct route. One thing we need to do right now is start replicating as many Borg nanoprobes as possible. I’m not sure how we’re