The Garden - Melissa Scott [64]
"Glad to help," he said, hoping to prolong the conversation, draw her out, but she shook her head slightly.
"No more." She tilted her head, a mere fraction of movement, pointing ahead of them up the ramp that led into the shuttle.
Revek had already opened the hatch, and was sitting at the top of the ramp, his head tipped to the side in a surprisingly Kirse gesture. Paris blinked, startled-until that moment, he had assumed that Revek's rapport with the Kirse extended to all of them-and Grayrose swept past him up the ramp.
"Have you started the check, Thilo?"
"Just the preliminaries," Revek answered.
"Then you can take your places," Grayrose answered, and took her place in front of the pilot's
column. At her signal, the safety webbing snaked from its pods and fastened itself around her body. Paris stepped past her, and took his place in the row of passenger seats, fumbling his own harness into place against Grayrose's takeoff. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Revek did the same, wondering again just what the human's relationship was to the various Kirse. Certainly he seemed very close to Adamant, the Kirse leader-and was that why Gray-rose wanted to keep her knowledge that one of the creatures had survived a secret? She had said that she was under orders to kill the creatures, rather than stun them-at least I think that's what she meant when she said it was required-and maybe she was worried Revek would tell Adamant, or one of the others in authority. It made sense, but he knew better than to rely too much on logical conjecture when dealing with nonhumans. He would work from that assumption for now, but keep an open mind.
The shuttle lurched as Grayrose began the launch run, and in spite of himself Paris dug his fingers into the padding of his couch. He could see Revek's eyes tightly closed as the shuttle bounded forward, seemed to bounce once, and then was airborne. Grayrose glanced over her shoulder, laughing.
"Sorry. But it's good to be flying again."
"Yes, well," Revek said. "I'd like to stay flying, Gray."
Grayrose laughed again, and Paris said, "I think Grayrose is an excellent pilot."
Revek gave him a quick glance, surprise turning to a knowing smile, and Paris felt his cheeks growing warm. "She's a very good pilot," Revek said. "But, like I said, I'd like to get home in one piece."
"And where is home these days, Revek?" Paris asked. He saw Grayrose's wings twitch, and damned
himself for an idiot. I should know better than to let him provoke me like that, he thought. / hope I haven't spoiled everything.
To his surprise, however, Revek gave a snort of laughter. "Touche. I do think of the citadel as home these days-I have to say, I never expected to see another human face once I'd met your Caretaker."
"So you didn't even try to get back to the Federation," Paris said.
"I tried," Revek answered. "Though I'm not sure why I bothered. I mean, barring miracles, and they seem to be rather rare on the ground these days, at maximum speed it's a seventy-year trip back to the Alpha Quadrant. And even if I did live that long, I wouldn't have much time left once I got there. So I'd been keeping an eye out for likely places to settle even before I landed here." He gave the younger man a shrewd look. "Don't tell me Starfleet training keeps you from even thinking about settling. Provided you found the right world, of course."
"It doesn't," Paris said, and looked out the shuttle's window. Revek was unfortunately right, not even Starfleet training could keep people from thinking about other possibilities, from making the same calculations Revek had done and pondering the same answers. So far, none of the planets had appealed to him as