The Red King - Michael A. Martin [62]
Keru turned. In the shadows, Dr. Ree walked past their table, dragging the corpse of an enormous targ behind him. Keru winced. The stench of the Klingon animal was stifling, but Sean seemed unaffected by the smell; his eyes were merely alight with awe at the sight of Ree.
“That’s the CMO,” Keru said dismissively. “Look, we don’t have to stay here.”
Sean ignored him. “What is he, a Pahkwa-thanh? I’ve never seen one in the flesh before. There’s, what, less than a hundred of them in Starfleet?”
“Something like that,” Keru said. “Can we leave now?”
“Okay,” Sean said amiably as he refocused on Keru. “Where can we go next? What’s Titan’s engine room like? Do you think Captain Riker would mind if I visited the bridge? I’d love to see what the conn—”
“No!” Keru snapped. “Sean, look, I…” He faltered, trying to re-form his emotions into words. “I just want us to go back home.”
Sean tilted his head to one side. “You are home, Ranul. I’m just visiting.”
“No, I mean our home, back on—”
“Knock it off,” Sean said. “Honestly Ranul, I knew you could be a stick in the mud at times, but you’ve graduated to becoming an honest-to-goodness killjoy, you know that? What’s the matter with you?”
Keru’s hand closed tightly around the stein. He looked back down into his drink, the choking scent of it at once unbearable and irresistable.
“It’s the damn bloodwine,” he rasped. “I can’t get the taste out of my mouth. It’s poisoning me.”
Silence had settled between them. Finally Sean agreed with him. “Yeah,” he said quietly, his voice sounding sad for the first time. “Yeah, I’m afraid it is.”
Keru met his eyes, felt tears streaming from his own. “Am I dying?”
Sean shrugged and gave him a lopsided smile. “Let’s just say you aren’t exactly living.”
Keru reached out, tried to take Sean’s hand, but his old love was beyond his reach. The realization crushed him. “Why’d you come here?”
“Honestly? Maybe just to kick you in the ass.” Sean’s eyes brightened. “How am I doing so far?”
Keru laughed in spite of himself. “Up to your usual standards, I think.”
“Let’s just assume you meant that as a compliment and move on, shall we?”
Keru’s laugh turned bitter. “Move on to where?”
“I need to get going, Ranul. And you have a life to get back to.”
Keru hesitated. “I just wish…”
“Yes?”
“I just wish we had more time.”
Sean’s eyebrows drew together. “Was the time we had really so terrible?”
“What? You know that isn’t what I meant,” Keru protested.
“Hey, you’re the one from the culture that reveres memories above all else. What am I supposed to think when you make choices like this?” Sean gestured at the bloodwine between them. “Because this doesn’t honor what we had together.”
Keru shut his eyes and bit into his lip. With a deep breath, he said, “I’m not sure I can do this without you, Sean.”
“Then let me be sure of it for both of us.”
Keru looked at his drink again. With deliberate effort, he relaxed his grip on the stein, and pushed it away from him.
“There’s the big lug I know and love,” Sean said approvingly.
“Oh, shut the hell up,” Keru laughed. Then, after a moment he whispered, “I miss you.”
“I know,” said Sean. “But that’s okay.” He grinned and started to walk away. Keru’s heart ached to watch him go, but then he saw that Sean had left his treasured book behind.
“Hey, Sean,” Keru called.
Sean turned back one last time.
Keru smiled. “Have an awfully big adventure.”
Sean Hawk winked at him, and the darkness melted away.
Chapter Twelve
STARDATE 57028.7
“Do you think this will really work, Captain Riker?” Donatra asked, her saturnine face glowering out across Titan’s bridge from the main viewer.
Seated in the command chair, Riker saw that her gaze seemed to linger for a moment on Frane, who was standing quietly near the turbolift in the raised aft area of the bridge. She no doubt was looking askance at his lax security,