To Storm Heaven - Esther Friesner [62]
He let it out again, the words unsaid. Why try? Not now. Now was not the time. Ma’adrys would never understand. It wasn’t that she lacked the intelligence to understand; she was exceptionally bright. That same keen mind he had come to admire was the reason she had been stolen away from her people.
Such a mind might carry within it the seeds of technological advancement for Ashkaar, and that was something the Ne’elatians wanted to prevent. No, there was no question that Ma’adrys was capable of understanding anything he chose to explain to her. It was her potential reaction to the Prime Directive that made him apprehensive and hesitant.
She wants to hear that her people will get justice, he thought. She won’t care about Starfleet rules and regulations. There~ nothing she can do to change them, any more than she couM hope to change the way the Ne’elatians have been robbing her people all this time, so why add to her frustration?
And so he took another breath instead, drawing the sweet scent of the bower greenery deep into his lungs, and said, “Some day I’d like to show you all the worlds I’ve seen. The Ne’elatians took you from your home against your will, but—but do you think you could ever leave Ashkaar willingly? With me?” Now Ma’adrys put her arms around his neck and smiled up at him. “More than willingly, my love.”
Counsellor Troi did not sleep well that night.
Something was troubling her, an impression that clung to the shadows on the far side of conscious thought. It was only a vague impression, nothing she could pinpoint or put a name to, yet its presence nagged at her and refused to be set aside. It was a feeling that had been with her almost from the moment the Away Team had come among the Ashkaarians of this village, a feeling that there was something about these people.
Something… but what? she pondered. The specifics eluded her abilities, like a mysterious shape glimpsed out of the corner of one eye that vanished when you tried to look at it directly. It left her feeling somehow off balance, a sensation she didn’t relish at all. For a time she had been able to put her discomfort aside, in the frantic days of the sickness sweeping the village, but now that the crisis had been dealt with, the disturbing sensation was back again, stronger than ever.
I must rest, she told herself, turning over on the coarse mattress covering, hearing the dried grasses inside the ticking rustling and crunching under her. I can focus on this properly in the morning, but not if I am exhausted. She willed herself to relax and soon it seemed as though sleep would come.
Just as she was drifting off, she thought she heard footsteps in the room she shared with Ambassador Lelys. She sat up in bed suddenly, peering all around her into the dark. The door was open, and in the meager light she saw first, two shapes outlined in the doorway, then that the Orakisan ambassador was also awake and alarmed by this unlooked-for intrusion.
“Who is there?” Lelys demanded angrily. “What is the meaningw” One of the shapes raised a hand and the words died on Lelys’s lips. Troi started up from her bed, but the hand now swept toward her and she felt a wall of complete blackness slam against her eyes. She crumpled back against the mattress and knew nothing more until she awoke to daylight and Commander Riker’s concerned face.
“—you all right?” he was asking. She nodded. Her head felt strangely heavy; any movement came with effort. She wanted to tell him what had happened, even though she could find no explanation for it, but her tongue was like wood and the words jerked from her mouth. Little by little she shook off the sensation of fetters, words and movement returning to her own command more and more easily. It was only then that her eyes fell on the other bed in the room.
“Where is the ambassador?” she asked.
“We were hoping you could tell us that,