To Storm Heaven - Esther Friesner [92]
“We would sooner give our word to the lowest worm that creeps through garden mold than to you. If you will kill us for it, then do so and be done!” “If that is what you desire.” Nish na’am’s eyes turned to slits of stone. He raised his hand.
“Nish na’am, no.” Having submitted to the Na’amOberyin earlier, Captain Picard was not now restrained by any measure of their coercive power. He was on his feet, one hand on the na’am’s arm, before anyone could stop him. As he tightened his grip, he thought he felt a vague probing in his mind, and for an instant his hold slackened, but only for an instant.
The tentative mental intruder pulled back, leaving him untouched.
Almost as if it’s already got more than it can handle, he thought.
Aloud he said, “If you kill these men, you will be no better than they. You will have destroyed not only your sacred Balance but all hope of ever seeing it restored between your two worlds.,: “And what would you have us do then, shiplord?” Nish na’am spoke bitterly. “Let them go free of debt, free of blame? Return to our world and watch our people’s lives be blown away like ash whenever a sickness strikes, even when it is a sickness that these illspeakers could have cured or prevented? No, shiplord. We have tasted enough of our own deaths. Let us share this much with them even if they refuse to share with us.” He twisted his arm from Picard’s grasp and raised his hand once more.
“Stop!” Ma’adrys stood with her arms wrapped tightly around Udar Kishrit, her body wedged between his and the dagger. “Kill him and you kill me.” “Ma’adrys, what are you doing?” Bilik exclaimed.
“Get out of the way!” “No!” Ma’adrys was adamant, “On Iskir, we defend our own. He is blood of my blood, even if he will deny it. I cannot allow him to die.” “Girl, do not be a fool,” Udar Kishrit hissed.
“Look at their eyes. They will not hesitate to kill you if they want to kill me.” “Then so be it!” Ma’adrys tossed back her head and looked him in the eye. “I am not afraid to face death if it is for the sake of my family.” “Stubborn,” Avren murmured. “Just like her grandfather. If that doesn’t convince the old man—” “Step aside, Ma’adrys,” Nish na’am commanded.
“The illspeaker speaks truly, for once. The Ne’elatians have run up a tally of needless death for our people. It is past time we began to even the score.” “He is one of my people,” Ma’adrys maintained.
“And what you seek to do here to him, to all of them, is wrong. It is as the shiplord says, it makes you no better than they!” “This does not concern any but we of Iskir,” Nish na’am said, his voice like steel. “You have chosen, Ma’adrys. Live with your choice and die with it.” He raised his hand to the silver sigil.
“No.t” Bilik’s cry rocked the briefing chamber.
Picard thought he felt something, something invisible, intangible yet present. As to what that something might be— With a war shout in his own tongue, Lt. Worf sprang forward, free of the unseen bonds that the combined forces of Bilik and the Na’amOberyin had laid upon him. One open-handed blow and Nish na’am sprawled on the floor, stunned. The removal of the Na’amOberyin’s most powerful member effectively hamstrung the others. Without Nish na’am they could no more hope to retain control over the Masra’et and the rest than they could keep Worf their prisoner without Bilik’s help. A communal sigh of relief swept through the chamber as the Masra’et regained self-mastery and let their daggers drop.
As Mr. Data hastened to remove the dazed Nish na’am from the room—and so from any further possibility that the Na’amOberyin would take radical action against the Ne’elatians—Worfand his Security people saw to the others. Without their leader, the Na’amOberyin seemed harmless.
Harmless… or only dazed for the moment by what’s happened here, Captain Picard thought. If they recover and regroup— He gave Lt. Worf a significant look. The Klingon nodded and barked orders