What's Past_ Many Splendors (Book 6) - Keith R.A. DeCandido [31]
Later on, when she would tell people about it, they would say it was anticlimactic. Sonya thought that was insane, and said so. They chased the Borg—who plowed through a Starfleet armada at Wolf 359—to Earth, managing to bring Picard back home along the way. Or, rather, Locutus, as the captain was still a Borg drone. But Data was able to use Locutus—with some subconscious help from Picard himself—to put the Borg to sleep. The cube exploded over Earth shortly after that.
The first person to give the anticlimactic declaration was Belinda, whose face on the comm screen looked disappointed. “That’s the best you guys could do.”
“I’m not about to argue with the results, Bee.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re home, at least, mija. You gonna come down and see us?”
Evasively, Sonya said, “I don’t know…depends on the repair schedule.” Belinda’s soccer career had come to an end due to a knee injury, and she was back living with Mami and Papi—which, unfortunately, was tense for everyone, as Mami was not pleased that her eldest daughter had come home. Sonya really didn’t want to face the familial strife after barely surviving the Borg.
“How’s that boyfriend of yours?”
She broke into a huge smile. “He’s wonderful. It’s been great—we just get along so well. We can talk about anything, really.”
“But you just talk about engines, right?”
Sonya was about to tartly answer in the negative, until she thought about it, and realized that she and Kieran did talk about work a lot. Then she remembered their last date before the Borg mess. “No, that’s not all we talk about. I loaned him my Brautigan book.”
Belinda’s eyes went wide. “The one Papi gave you? Wow, this must be true love.”
When she turned fifteen, Sonya’s father had given her a twenty-first-century leather-bound edition of The Complete Works of Richard Brautigan, which had become her favorite book. She had told Kieran about it, and he asked to borrow it, see what all the fuss was about, especially since he’d never heard of Brautigan.
“So how’s he like the book?”
“Don’t know, he hasn’t read it yet. Anyhow, things are going great with Kieran.”
“Glad to hear it, Ess. Looks like you’re doing well on that luxury liner.”
“It’s not a luxury liner!” Sonya said defensively, and proceeded to give a lecture to a laughing Belinda about the state-of-the-art nature of the Galaxy-class vessel.
Eventually, they finished, and Sonya signed off, giving another evasive answer about whether she’d be able to get down to Vieques to visit the family. Then she went down to engineering, since her shift was about to start.
She came across Kieran in the corridor. “I can’t win,” he said without preamble.
“What is it?”
“I’m finally back on Earth for the first time in years, so I figure, great, I can drop in on Mom and Amy, see how they’re doing. There’s only one problem.”
Smiling impishly, Sonya said, “They’re on vacation on Betazed?”
“They’re on vacation on Betazed. I completely forgot about that.”
Kieran had told her about the vacation his mother and sister were taking two months ago. Somehow, Sonya couldn’t bring herself to be surprised that she remembered that and Kieran didn’t.
“So now I’ve got nowhere to go, unless you have a better offer?” Kieran waggled his eyebrows.
“Honestly, I don’t,” Sonya said quickly, trying to ignore the pit that opened in her stomach just then. “Belinda and Mami are at battle stations, and—”
Kieran held up a hand. “Say no more.” He’d heard her stories about the on-again-off-again war between Guadalupe Gomez and her oldest daughter, and therefore knew that when it was on again, it was best to be elsewhere. “Tell you what. I suggest that we suck up mercilessly to Geordi and volunteer to stay on board during the repair cycle.”
Sonya grinned. “Suits me fine.”
Turning around, Kieran joined her in walking back to engineering, where they found Geordi talking to someone on a comm screen. They waited patiently until he was done,