Unification - Jeri Taylor [64]
Omag was undone by her tender ministrations. His eyes actually seemed moist as he stared up at her. “Amarie,” he snuffied, “you are a good woman.”
She laughed her horsey laugh; it felt good to laugh again. “You better believe it, Omag.” She leaned down to him and whispered in one giant ear, “and I got more bounce to me than those skinny little girls you bring in here all the time.”
Omag smiled and nodded, his eyes twinkling once more. “You play me ‘Melor Famagal’ about fifty or sixty times, I’ll be myself again. And then”—he stretched up to her and she leaned down to hear— “we will have late dinner together. Just you and me. I think I would like to get to know you better.”
Amarie gave him a squeeze and a smile, then made her way back to the keyboard. She felt a joyousness in her heart that she realized hadn’t been there in a long, long time. She was eager to get her hands on the keys. That cute little rune was going to hear “Melor Famagal” like he had never heard it before.
Amarie knew that somehow, everything was going to work out just fine.
Chapter Seventeen
DEANNA TROI WAS AWARE of uncomfortable feelings between Will Riker and Ensign Gretchen Naylor. They were sitting in the conference lounge, being briefed by Will on the events at Qualor Two.
There was nothing overt that happened between Will and the pretty young ensign, but Troi’s empathic senses were fully engaged by something potent and puzzling that she sensed, particularly from Gretchen. She noted that Will seemed to avoid looking at her, sweeping his eyes by her as he recounted the events of the previous night and the information he had garnered from Omag, a Ferengi ship dealer.
“He claimed to have delivered the ship to a Barolian freighter near Galorndon Core. And you know what that place brings to mind.”
The rocky shoals of Galorndon Core had figured prominently in another adventure they’d had with the Romulans, a few years ago. Troi could remember well the tension that had been created on the Enterprise when they had found a downed Romulan craft on that bleak, storm-ridden planet and had faced down the Romulan captain, Tomalak, who claimed that the incursion into Federation space was accidental and insignificant.
They were sure that it wasn’t, that the Romulans had their eyes on that prize location near the border of the Neutral Zone, but nothing was ever proven either way. And henceforth, the name of Galorndon Core had always conjured to them the image of Romulans.
“I think we should get this information to Captain Picard. It might somehow be related to his mission.” This was Ensign Naylor speaking, carefully addressing the room and no one person in it.
“Agreed, Ensign,” said Riker, also not looking at her. Troi found this strange, indeed. What was going on? Were these two having a romance—one that was going badly?
She found it hard to believe. She and Will had learned years ago that, if they were to serve on the Enterprise together, they had to sacrifice their own prior relationship. There was no place on a starship for such emotional entanglements. Surely Will had learned that lesson well enough not to repeat it. But there was definitely something going on between him and the beautiful ensign.
“Commander Data was going to work on a piggyback communication process in order to get transmissions out of the Neutral Zone,” Riker was saying. “If he’s successful, we can apprise them of our findings.”
“Of course, we could go to Galorndon Core. See what’s going on there.” That from Ensign Naylor, again stated to no one in particular.
“Captain Picard expects us to be at Qualor. That piggyback transmission would never find us at Galorndon Core. We’ll wait.”
“Aye, sir,” replied Naylot quietly, but Troi again felt a surge of—something—from the young woman. Not love, not romance … a longing for something was as close as Troi could get to it.
Troi’s