The Good That Men Do - Andy Mangels [78]
“Or it may be that Jhamel’s agreeable nature is influencing you,” Theras said to Shran. “That’s a good sign.”
“I’m delighted that Shran is finally starting to mellow,” Archer said, addressing Theras. “It might even make life around here a bit more pleasant for the duration. But it won’t go a long way toward helping us find those missing telepaths. And without the help of Adigeon Prime’s authorities, we’re at an impasse.”
“I certainly hope not, Captain,” Theras said, his blind eyes settling eerily upon Archer’s sighted ones, no doubt guided by the Aenar’s telepathy. “I have to allow myself to hope that Shran’s… attitude adjustment may mean that we may be closer to Jhamel and the other captives than we think.”
Archer found the blind telepath’s elliptical remark both confusing and intriguing. “I don’t understand, Theras. Are you saying that you’ve begun to… home in on her telepathically?”
“No, Captain.” Theras turned his milky eyes upon Shran. “But I believe that your mind may have begun to react to the presence of hers, if only unconsciously.”
Shran’s face abruptly lost its prior, almost convivial expression, immediately collapsing back into a far more familiar frown. “Ridiculous, Theras. I possess no telepathic talents.”
“No,” Theras said. “But such gifts aren’t necessary for one to share a permanent mind-link with a true telepath.”
“That is true,” T’Pol said in a voice that sounded almost wistful to Archer’s ear.
“Theras,” said Archer, “Are you telling us that Shran and Jhamel are telepathically linked somehow?”
Theras nodded. “Yes. I believe they are.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Shran said flatly.
“You love her, Shran,” Theras said, though his tone remained even, matter-of-fact, and completely nonaccusatory. “You’ve already admitted as much.”
Shran flushed a deep indigo. “Theras, it isn’t wise to put Jhamel’s allegedly calming influence over me to the test.”
Theras continued, undeterred by color cues and body language that he couldn’t see. “You share a bond with her, Shran. And it’s deeper than anything she and I could ever share.”
“You are a part of her shelthreth quad, Theras. And that is something that I can never share.”
“Only because our shelthreth was arranged long ago, Shran. Before another conflict involving the Romulans brought the two of you together, binding you in shared loss and shared triumph.”
The “why” of the notion made some degree of sense to Archer, even if the “how” still eluded him. Jhamel had lost her brother Gareb during the Romulan drone-ship crisis, while a Tellarite diplomat had killed Shran’s beloved Talas; Jhamel and Shran had also worked in tandem to help Archer’s crew stop the Romulan drone affair.
“Even if you’re right, Theras,” Shran growled, “the bridge of a pinkskin starship is no place to discuss the matter.”
Archer had to agree. Noting Shran’s obvious discomfiture, he tried to steer the conversation away from the Andorian’s personal feelings and back toward the mechanics of Aenar telepathy.
“I still don’t quite understand this, Theras,” Archer said. “If we were actually anywhere near any of the Aenar captives, wouldn’t you be the first to notice? After all, you’re the only telepath we have on board, if you don’t count T’Pol.”
Archer noticed that T’Pol had raised an eyebrow in response to his last remark. Though she was capable only of touch telepathy- and therefore possessed far less esper ability than Theras- it was certainly possible that she was miffed at being summarily excluded from Enterprise’s current extremely short list of psi-gifted individuals. He made a mental note to apologize to her later.
“If we were extremely close to my fellow Aenar, I would almost certainly detect their thoughts,” Theras said. “I wouldn’t even have to be particularly close to them, for that matter. But I’m assuming that