Unworthy - Kirsten Beyer [108]
“The weak will perish,” Eden said softly, remembering the first words ever communicated by Species 8472.
“As they should,” Willem agreed.
After a moment Eden said, “You don’t understand us.”
Willem appeared to be taken aback.
“You didn’t have to lie to get what you wanted. You didn’t have to put this ship or the fleet in danger. You could have simply asked.”
Willem actually chuckled. “You think I should have put it to a vote? Can you imagine what Command would have done if they’d learned what I really was? There are dark holes in the Federation that most of you refuse to acknowledge. The secrets buried and studied there would turn your blood cold. I had no intention of becoming lost in one of them.”
“I mean,” Eden said, swallowing hard, “you could have asked me. ”
For the first time Eden could ever remember, Willem appeared stunned at the notion.
“I betrayed you. You would have been honor bound to betray me in return.”
“Or maybe I would have found a way to help you. We may be weak, but we’re also consistent,” she added.
Willem eyed her warily. “Are you saying you’re willing to let me go?”
“You could have stunned me along with the security team. You didn’t. I think you wanted me to know the truth and you need me to let you go. I could destroy the shuttle you’re about to take through that rift with one shot.”
“And will you?”
“Of course not.” Taking a deep breath, she said, “Now get on that shuttle and get the hell off my ship.”
Willem reached for her hand but she automatically flinched, pulling it away.
“Thank you, Afsarah.”
“Good-bye, Willem.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Willem was elated to learn that Afsarah wasn’t going to make his final step in a journey it had taken him years to plan and bring to fruition any harder. His gratitude was appropriate. The fact that he was incapable of regretting the loss of her was something he hoped she would come to accept in time.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t loved her. Willem was incapable of loving anything. The bonds that joined his people to each other surpassed this fragile human feeling. Constant access to one another’s thoughts, heightened by the connection every individual member of Species 8472 felt to their universe of fluidic space, made the distances that separated the life-forms of Afsarah’s galaxy seem impassable. His time as a human had been lonelier than he had ever imagined or feared. An individual, encased in delicate flesh and bone, unable to do more than guess at another’s motives or feelings, was ultimately an inferior and weak creature. The achievements of the Federation that had overcome these obvious limitations were noteworthy, and had earned Batiste’s grudging respect, but he saw nothing promising in their future until the species that made up this alliance had evolved past the need to communicate with one another so clumsily.
As he still understood too little about his unexpected and undesired companion, he gave Meegan as wide a berth as possible. He reentered the shuttle, sealed the hatch behind him, and moved to the helm.
“You weren’t planning to leave without me, were you, Willem?” she asked in a tone that was somewhere between mocking and flirting. “Meegan” had subdued him in his cabin and explained her intentions and the ways in which his plans, which she had discovered—probably by violating his mind telepathically and simply taking the knowledge she required— would correspond with hers. Since then, he had been her prisoner. Any attempt to thwart her goals would have resulted in his exposure. Providing her with a Starfleet shuttle with which to return briefly to the Indign system and, now, to make her escape seemed to Willem a small price to pay to secure her freedom and his own.
“Of course