What's Past_ Many Splendors (Book 6) - Keith R.A. DeCandido [14]
La Forge, bless him, had kept her in line. “We’ll have time to grieve later. Right now, let’s get those shields up.”
Sonya had hoped that “later” would be in her quarters. Eventually Q had taken pity on them and sent them back home to the Alpha Quadrant before the Borg could destroy them. La Forge had let alpha shift—who had all stayed on well into beta—go. Sonya had gone to her cabin only to find Lian crying.
One of the eighteen people lost to the Borg ship was Soon-Tek Han.
Finding herself unable to say anything comforting to Lian, and respecting her desire to be left alone, Sonya instead went to the one place where she had felt comfortable since coming on board the Enterprise.
While sitting in Ten-Forward, watching the stars go by as they flew toward Starbase 83 for repairs, Sonya heard a voice. “Surprised to see you here.”
She looked up to see Kieran Duffy, but said nothing.
Looking down at her drink, Duffy smirked and asked, “That’s not hot chocolate, is it?”
The clear glass had an equally clear liquid in it, so Sonya knew the lieutenant was simply teasing. “Tequila, actually. My papi always kept a bottle of Petròn Annejo for special occasions, which usually meant he only took it out when somebody died. I couldn’t think of anything better to order.”
“Yeah.” Duffy himself was cradling what looked like a beer or ale or somesuch. Both were, of course, syntheholic. Enterprise policy was that its crew was expected to stick with synthehol where at all possible. Besides, Sonya really didn’t want to get drunk; she tended to lose control with alcohol, and she had enough control problems as it was.
Realizing how uncomfortable it was having Duffy hover over her, Sonya said, “Have a seat, Lieutenant—unless you’re scared I’ll spill the tequila on you.”
Duffy chuckled. “Thanks. And I’m not worried about that, unless you meant what you said before about the acid.”
“No.” Sonya threw back some tequila. While the synthehol version didn’t get her drunk, it didn’t have the same burning sensation as it went down the throat, either, which Sonya found herself missing.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Not really.” Sonya let out a long breath and shook her head. “I just can’t get it right in my head, you know? Eighteen people just—just gone.”
After taking a sip of his ale, Duffy asked, “You ever have Commander Schönhertz at the Academy?”
“Well, it’s Captain Schönhertz, but yeah.”
“She got promoted? Good for her.” Duffy started turning his ale glass in place. “Well, remember what she used to say?”
Sonya wondered how old Duffy was, if his Academy days were long enough ago that Schönhertz was still a commander. And he’s still a j.g.? That didn’t speak well for his career prospects.
Aloud, she said, “‘Space is mean.’”
“Yup. Except that’s not really it. Space isn’t mean, because mean implies malice. What space is is uncaring. It’s a brutal environment, but it’s not a nasty one, because it’s not trying to kill you. It just is the way it is. All we can do is work with it best we can.” He smiled. “That’s why I like to fly.”
“You’re a pilot?”
“No, I mean fly. My uncle got me a pair of gravity boots for my birthday when I was a teenager. I loved those things—didn’t stop using ’em until I hurt myself.”
Sonya winced. “What happened?”
Shrugging, Duffy said, “Zigged when I shoulda zagged.” He got a faraway look in his eyes. “I should dig them out, try ’em on the holodeck.”
“What’s the holodeck like, Lieutenant?”
“Hey, c’mon, we’re off duty, Ensign. It’s Kieran.”