The Garden - Melissa Scott [43]
Janeway lifted her eyebrows. That was a serious complaint, even a possible sign of psychosis-if it was true, of course. "And what did you think?"
"I told you, I never met him." Chakotay shrugged. "At the time, I don't know. I suppose I thought Ger- the captains involved-were overreacting. This was
right after NSTN-2 fell, and they'd lost good people in the fighting, friends as well as crew. Nobody ever went so far as to say that he betrayed us, that he was a Cardassian agent, or even just against us. I know the leadership employed him afterward, on various of the smaller planets, so they trusted him, anyway."
"I see." Janeway frowned, trying to match Chako-tay's description to the man she had met. Revek had seemed comfortable enough with her, with the rest of the away team, even amusingly irreverent at times; still, she thought, if this is his record, he'll bear watching. "If you get the chance," she said slowly, "see if you can draw him out about his background. I'm interested in how he got here, of course- anything new he can tell us about the Caretaker or the Array-but I'd also like to get an idea of how trustworthy he is."
"Whose side he's on?" Chakotay asked.
"Exactly." Janeway sighed. "You know, Chakotay, I think the thing that I find strangest about him is the one thing he didn't ask." Chakotay frowned, and Janeway pushed herself to her feet. "He didn't ask to come with us. Oh, maybe it was early for that, maybe he's been happy with the Kirse, but still-it strikes me as odd."
Chakotay nodded.
"But we can deal with that once we've opened negotiations for the food," Janeway went on, forcing a briskness she didn't entirely feel. "I'll meet you and rest of the away team in the transporter room at seventeen-fifty. Until then, I'll be in my cabin."
"Aye, Captain," Chakotay answered, and Janeway swept past him into the corridor.
The cabin seemed less welcoming than usual when Janeway stepped through the open door, and she frowned at the environmental panel on the bulkhead
beside the door. "Computer, return the lights to my previous setting."
"Your cabin is part of the power-down cycle, a command override is necessary to return to your preferred levels."
The computer's voice sounded almost smug in its refusal, but Janeway shoved that thought aside, recognizing it as born of her own fatigue and the lack of decent food. "Cancel that. Find everything in our databanks, both of Federation origin and those files taken from the Maquis ship, that relates to Thilo Revek-" She spelled the name. "-and patch it to my desktop viewer."
"Confirmed. Searching."
There was a pause, and Janeway moved to her desk, debating her next move. She desperately wanted a cup of coffee, something normal to balance her worries about the planet and the ship, but wondered if she should-could-spend her limited rations on something so self-indulgent. On the one hand, she did have to think about setting a good example for the rest of the crew; on the other, to see that the captain was relaxed enough to spend a replicator ration on coffee was bound to have a positive effect on morale. She smiled then. And if I'm thinking like that, I think I really need the coffee.
"Coffee," she said, turning to the alcove that housed the replicator unit. "A small black coffee."
There was a pause, longer than had been usual before they'd ended up in the Delta Quadrant, while the replicator compared her request to the rations she had on record. Then the door slid back to reveal the steaming cup. It wasn't very big-the serving sizes had been reprogrammed for nonessential items-but the aroma was more enticing than ever. Janeway took a careful sip, reveling in the bitter liquid. Much better
than the Kirse food, she thought, and then laughed at her own chauvinism. The fruit and the pastry had both been delicious;