Three - Michael Jan Friedman [25]
The woman held up her hand. “You don’t have to explain, Lieutenant. I understand.”
Of course you do, he thought. If she couldn’t, who could?
Ensign Andreas Nikolas was heading for the science section, where he was supposed to help with the sensor scans they were running there on the anomaly.
It wasn’t a bad assignment, considering Nikolas was sort of curious about the anomaly, and had already learned the ropes in that section when Lieutenant Valderrama was in charge. His only reservation was the officer in charge now.
He’d heard some strange rumors about Lieutenant Kastiigan—that he had a fascination with death or some [71] such thing. Not being familiar with Kastiigan’s species, the ensign didn’t know if all Kandilkari were like that or not.
However, he found it unsettling to work under someone who was a little too willing to sacrifice his life. With that kind of attitude, Kastiigan might not be too concerned about the lives of those around him either—and Nikolas was going to be working as closely with the guy as anybody.
Oh well, he thought. At least it would look good in his service file. “Perished in the line of duty when his superior cranked the neutrino spectrometer too high” ...
Before he could elaborate on the idea, he came around a bend in the corridor and saw someone approaching him from the other direction. Two someones, actually. Pug Joseph and one of the Asmunds, either Gerda or Idun.
Whichever twin it was, she was wearing a leathery gray tunic, boots of the same color and texture, and formfitting dark-blue pants. And it wasn’t just the way she filled out her ensemble that caught Nikolas’s eye.
He had never seen either of the Asmunds wearing anything but a uniform or a set of gym togs. Never. And as the ensign was pondering that observation, something happened that seemed even more odd to him.
The woman in the gray tunic smiled at him.
No—it was more than a smile. She was positively beaming at him, as if she had never seen anything so pleasing before in her entire life.
But the Asmunds didn’t smile at anyone. At least, not in his experience.
It caught Nikolas completely by surprise—so much [72] so that he doubted the evidence of his own eyes for a moment. But as he stared back, he saw that he hadn’t imagined it.
The woman was still smiling at him. At him.
Then, before he could say anything, she was gone around another bend in the corridor, along with Mr. Joseph. And Nikolas was left with his mouth hanging open.
Impossible as it seemed, one of the Asmunds had favored him with a smile. But he didn’t have the slightest clue which of them it was—Gerda or Idun.
As far as Nikolas was concerned, they looked exactly alike. If there was a way to tell them apart—other than the way they wore their hair, or where they sat when they were on the bridge—he was unaware of it.
But he needed to know which of them he had seen. Because once he knew that, he could find out what that smile had been about.
With that in mind, the ensign bolted after the woman. Unfortunately, he came around the bend too quickly and almost knocked over Lieutenant Ulelo.
Muttering an apology, Nikolas tried to disentangle himself from the com officer. However, it took longer than it should have. And by the time the ensign resumed his pursuit, the object of it had already entered a turbolift.
“Wait!” he blurted.
But it was too late. The doors had already begun sliding together. All Nikolas got was a glimpse of blond hair and blue eyes before the doors closed completely.
[73]Damn, he thought, and hit the heel of his hand against the duranium bulkhead in frustration. Idun—or was it Gerda?—had gotten away.
Then he realized that it didn’t matter. All he had to do was catch up with Pug Joseph later and find out which Asmund he had been walking with.
Simple, he told himself. You’ll have your answer before you know it.
He just didn’t know how he would be able to wait.
In Vigo’s dream, he was back on Pandril, in a pastel-colored lecture hall with a lofty, arched ceiling and the Three Virtues