Three - Michael Jan Friedman [40]
Joseph turned to him. “Mr. Nikolas. How’s it going?”
“Just fine,” said the ensign. “But it would be going better if you could do me a favor.”
The security officer looked at him askance. “What kind of favor are we talking about?”
Nikolas put his hand on Joseph’s shoulder and leaned closer to him. “I would really like to get to know our transporter guest a little better.”
“Gerda Idun?” Joseph chuckled. “I wouldn’t get my hopes up, if I were you. If everything works out the way the captain’s hoping, she won’t be with us much longer.”
“Even so,” said Nikolas, “I’d love the chance to talk with her. What do you think?”
Joseph frowned. “I don’t know. I’m not supposed to let her out of my sight.”
“Then don’t. Just tell her you need to speak to someone for a moment and sit down at the next table or something. It would really mean a lot to me.”
The security officer shrugged. “I guess it would be all right. Just don’t discuss the ship, all right? Or anything that might be considered strategic information?”
“You’ve got my word,” Nikolas assured him.
Joseph seemed to weigh the matter a moment longer. Then he said, “Okay. You’ve got five minutes with her.”
[118] Nikolas saw the security officer go over to Gerda Idun and say something. Then Joseph gestured for the ensign to join them, which he did with unabashed eagerness.
“Mr. Joseph tells me you’re curious about the place I come from,” said Gerda Idun. “He asked me if I wouldn’t mind speaking with you while he went over something with Mr. Paxton.”
“And she said she wouldn’t mind at all,” Joseph added. “Anyway, I’ll be right back.”
Nikolas nodded. “Thanks.” He looked at Gerda Idun as he sat down opposite her. “And thank you.”
“For what?” she asked. “I haven’t told you anything yet.”
“For that smile you gave me in the corridor,” he said. “It was the nicest one I’ve seen in a long time.”
Gerda Idun’s eyes narrowed with mock suspicion. “In my universe, that’s not the kind of line that would kick off a scientific discussion.”
“Well,” he said, “maybe my interest in where you come from isn’t entirely scientific.”
“We aren’t exactly shy, are we?”
“Am I offending you?”
She shook her head. “No. I like a man who’s not afraid to say what’s on his mind.”
“That’s me,” he told her. “Full speed ahead and damn the photon torpedoes.”
“And have you ever had occasion to regret that approach?”
“Plenty of times,” Nikolas admitted. “But I’m also not the kind of person who learns from his mistakes.”
Gerda Idun favored him with another smile. “We [119] have a saying in my universe. ‘Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.’ ”
“We have a similar saying at the Academy,” he told her. “ ‘Those who fail History are doomed to repeat it.’ ”
She winced. “You know, that might have been the worst joke I’ve ever heard.”
He shrugged. “They can’t all be gems.”
“With that kind of attitude, you’ll never make captain.”
“If I were the captain,” he said, “I’d be up on the bridge right now, making decisions that could affect the lives of the entire crew. I’m much happier right where I am.”
Gerda Idun laughed. “You’re a very silly man.”
“Who’s not afraid to say what’s on his mind. And you like that, remember?”
She laughed again. “Yes, I like that.”
They talked a little while longer—about Nikolas mostly, as it turned out—but it wasn’t all silliness. He told her about Earth, how and where he grew up, and the trouble he’d had fitting in at the Academy.
Every so often, when the conversation got a little too serious, he made her laugh again. After all, it was her smile that had drawn him to her in the first place.
Finally, after considerably more than five minutes, the most generous Pug Joseph came over and told Nikolas his business with Paxton had been resolved.
The ensign nodded, however reluctantly. As he got up, he turned to Gerda Idun. “It was great talking with you. We’ll have to do it again sometime.”
Her eyes seemed to lose their focus for a second, as if she had just remembered something important. Then [120] she met his gaze again and said, “You know where to find