• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 623 0

might get. This young woman was as charming as she was beautiful. Unfortunately, charm and beauty were no guarantee of sanity. No, there was no help for it, he gained nothing by willful ignorance. He had to ask. He had to know. “You think you’re there? In Evramur? You believe you’re. dead?” Her laughter brightened his world. “Starlord, you are gracious. You condescend to tease me. Have I not said that the flesh still holds me? Of course I am not dead!” She spread her fingers and held them like a latticework between them, then said, “But I hope to be. Is it for that you have come, great starlord? To take me from the shell of flesh that weighs me down? To free me at last from tears and sleep and breath?” Her hands fell to her knees, revealing a face transformed with holy ecstacy. “Oh yes, it is so! It must be so!

Stafford, take what you have come to take freely, with all my will! Tears, sleep, breath!” She threw herself forward into Geordi’s arms and locked her mouth to his in an impassioned kiss.

Just before he gave himself up to the sweetness of it, Geordi had the flicker of a thought: I wonder how I’m supposed to cover this when I make my report to the captain? And then: Who cares?

Chapter Five

COUNSELLOR TROI WAS ENJOYING a moment of solitude in one of the pocket gardens adjacent to the Ne’elatian palace of government when she looked up and saw Geordi hurrying toward her. She rose from the intricately carved stone bench and greeted him warmly. “There you are! We missed you at the concert.” To her surprise, the ordinarily affable engineer didn’t do her the courtesy of so much as acknowledging her friendly greeting. “Where can we talk?” he demanded. “Privately.” Troi could feel anger, confusion, and urgency radiating from Geordi in almost palpable waves. There was another emotion there as well, an underlying current that she could not yet identify. She sat down again in the shade of a lacy-leafed tree and patted the bench beside her, saying, “I believe that this place is private enough.” Geordi’s glance swung quickly from left to right, surveying the little garden for possible security breaches. Only then did he accept her invitation.

“You were right,” he said grimly. “You and Captain Picard and the rest.” She didn’t need to ask about what. It was obvious.

“You’ve found proof?.” She kept her voice low. He nodded. “What is it?” “I don’t think we should talk about it here,” Geordi said. “It would be better if I showed you, but I can’t show you here either. Especially not here.” “We could return to the ship.” “We’ll have to. But first—” He clenched his fists, briefly enough to release a little of the tension holding him, long enough for Counsellor Troi to notice. “Can you do something for me?” “What do you need?” “Go back to the ship now. Tell Captain Picard I’ll be coming aboard soon to make my report.” “To him alone?” “No. It’s only a secret here. I’ve found the answer we were after. He should have everyone involved present for this.” Troi regarded him closely. “From the way you are speaking, I would say that this answer does not. flatter our hosts’ integrity.” Again Geordi ignored her words. “One more thing: Before you inform the captain, speak to Ambassador Lelys. Tell her to show Ensign Kolb one of her gowns—nothing fancy, some sort of simple day wear that we can easily replicate. On my signal, he can use my communicator as a homing device to beam the package down and—” “Ambassador Lelys is not the sort to whom one gives such commands,” Troi said. “I very much doubt she’d want to give Ensign Kolb a tour of her wardrobe. More to the point, what am I to tell her is the reason for an officer of the Enterprise treating a person of her rank in such a high-handed manner?” “I’m sorry.” Geordi’s fists tightened again. “I made it sound like an order, didn’t I? But she has to do it.” “All right” Troi said slowly. “What size is your ‘answer’?” She saw by his reaction that she had hit it precisely. She touched his arm. “Who is she?” “That’s what I’m still trying to figure out,” Geordi replied, a rueful half smile on his