What's Past_ The Future Begins (Book 2) - Michael Schuster [19]
Technically, “night” was something that Risa in its natural state rarely experienced. The cause for this was the existence of a second sun that had an entirely different revolutionary rhythm. To avoid almost eternal daylight, the Risians had installed gigantic screens in orbit that would blot out any unwanted rays from the larger, reddish star on the “nightside” hemisphere. Of course, they didn’t want a large, starless field in their sky, so they also installed simulated stars that mimicked their real counterparts. This was but one example of the trouble the Risians went to to satisfy their visitors as well as themselves.
Now he was standing outside the hotel, watching the steady throng of people coming down the boulevard. Many of them were obviously attracted by the music and the kaleidoscope colors that were pouring outside through the open hotel doors. Many of them were humans, or at least humanoid, but there were a few aliens that had almost nothing in common with those. Scotty saw a few Escherites, those horizontally-oriented creatures that he’d first met on the refit Enterprise, and they were still extraordinarily strange to look at, even though he had served another three decades in an ever-expanding Federation. Scott also spotted the occasional Mizarthu, and if he wasn’t mistaken, there was a Horta slowly disappearing behind a group of Gnalish.
Presently, Montgomery Scott found himself staring at two shapes that moved along the promenade with the other tourists, and when he realized which species they belonged to, he was quickly thrown out of his nostalgic reverie, only to land on the hard floor of reality.
Two Kropaslin were among the various aliens attracted by the sounds of laughter and joy that came out the hotel’s open doors. The couple, a male and a female, was actually taking a left turn, walking slowly and magnificently down the paved road that led to the El Dorado’s main entrance.
Scotty was using all the power at his disposal not to utter a particularly profane Gaelic curse. There was so much time in the universe, so why did these two have to show up right now? Who they were or why they were here didn’t matter; what mattered was what they were, and that they reminded him of something that he still hated himself for.
It had happened only about half a year ago, and the memory was still fresh. He’d tried to drown it in many a glass of Scotch, Saurian brandy, and genuine Romulan kalifal, but it hadn’t worked. No matter how much alcohol he imbibed, Nechayev’s order was still as present in his mind as if everything had happened yesterday.
Of course, he was intellectually aware that he was, as a member of an originally military organization, expected to follow the orders of his superiors, no matter what those orders might be. That wasn’t the problem.
The problem was that he was also morally aware that some of those orders were just stupid—or worse, they were totally and utterly wrong. Nechayev’s order had struck him as one of the latter sort, no matter how often she told him it was for the good of the Federation. She was a much-decorated Starfleet admiral, that was true—but, as Tarbolde had once said, “even the gods have erred,” and Nechayev clearly was not a god.
The good of the Federation. What a bloody excuse to throw away your ideals and integrity.
Great. Now he was angry and nostalgic at the same time. Not the best of moods to be in while working. He needed a distraction, and he needed it quickly.
There seemed to be only one way out of this dilemma. He had to engage the Kropaslin in a conversation.
“Good evening to you both. On behalf of the management of the El Dorado Hotel and Vacation Resort, I welcome you and invite you to the Engineerin’ Room. I’m sure you’re going to have a nice evenin’.”
Later that night, he came close to forgetting