To Storm Heaven - Esther Friesner [87]
The false shepherd ignored the slur. “You were glad enough to see me when I first came in,” he said. “It was only when I opened my mouth and told the truth that you wanted to pretend you’d never laid eyes on me before. Well, it won’t work. I can prove you know me.” He reached into his pouch and brought out the same small device with which he had contacted the Masra’et about the problem of the Away Team’s presence on Ashkaar. “There are more than a few recordings of your voice and image right here. I always keep copies of communications. That way no one can make me take the blame for executing orders you would prefer to deny later.” “Your lies have nothing to do with any orders we ever gave you,” Udar Kishrit growled. “They have all been uttered here, before these witnesses. To accuse my daughter of disloyalty! To claim she turned against her own people! She was proud and honored to serve Ne’elat. She gave her life for us! May you pay forever for hurling such filth against a dead girl’s reputation.
Isata Kish was twice the agent you will ever be, a hero among heroes. Her loss will always tear my heart. I am consoled only by the knowledge that she died in the performance of her duty to Ne’elat.” “She died in childbirth,” Avren shot back. “The child herself is here.” He pointed at Ma’adrys. “Don’t you have eyes? Or don’t you remember your own daughter’s face? I knew Isata Kish when we were both in training, and the resemblance—” “Bah.” “Udar Kishrit,” Counsellor Troi said softly, “The Away Team discovered certain artifacts in Ma’adrys’s house that were of Ne’elatian origin. She said that they had belonged to her mother. One was a communications device. We have every reason to believe that this young woman is your grandchild.” “Your beliefs are your own,” he replied haughtily.
“Keep them to yourselves.” “What is the use of all this?” Legate Valdor broke in. “Why do you harass these people with such nonsense? What does it matter if this girl is anything to Udar Kishrit?” “It matters to me,” Udar Kishrit said, his voice cold. “The very idea that my daughter could lower herself to breed with an Ashkaarian! Savages and primitives, all of them.” “And who keeps us so?” Ma’adrys cried, springing from her chair. “It offends you to believe that your daughter took my father for her mate? I find it a worse affront that my father, an honest man, ever mingled his blood with one of you—you heshkatti!” Udar Kishrit’s upper lip curled. “And what would that happen to be?” Mr. Data was quick to provide the answer. “The Ashkaarian heshkatti is a mythological creature, rather like a cross between two legendary monsters from Earth, the vampire and the harpy. It drinks the dreams of its sleeping victims and fouls their homes with its droppings.” “How dare you!” Udar Kishrit bellowed.
“Mr. Data,” Captain Picard murmured, “I don’t think Udar Kishrit actually wanted to know that.” “But sir, he did ask—” the puzzled android began.
“I will bear no more of this,” Udar Kishrit announced, rising to his feet. “We will bear no more.
Captain Picard, we wish to return to Ne’elat at once.” “Then go!” Ambassador Lelys spat. “The sooner we see the last of you, the better. Does it shame you to acknowledge Ma’adrys as your daughter’s child? It shames us a hundred times more to claim you as any relation to Orakisa! You will never be a part of our sisterworld alliance while ! have a voice. Ne’elat will remain the blighted backwater of the galaxy that it deserves to be.” “Speak for yourself, Ambassador,” Legate aldor snarled. “Would you cast aside a whole world of our kin for petty spite?” “Spite! You are a fine one to lecture me on spite, Valdor,” she retorted. “I have heard how you connived against me.” “You are mad.” Valdor sniffed as if Lelys’s anger were a trifle to be disregarded. “Your mind has been affected by your captivity among the Ashkaarian savages. I will report this unfortunate