Текст книги "Over a Torrent Sea "

Автор книги: Christopher Bennett

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 18 страниц)

He pulled himself away, turning to face her, though keeping his knees up modestly—not soon enough to hide how he was responding to her, though. “I’m a married man, dammit. How dare you?”

“What?!” she exclaimed. “Sir, I’m just trying to keep you warm! If anyone’s feeling anything sexual, it’s you!” she said, nodding toward the proof.

“You expect me to believe that? I’ve seen the way you’ve been looking at me and smiling since we ended up here.”

“Because I think it’s so silly that you feel you have to hide from me!”

“I’m your commanding officer and I love my wife!”

She knew they were miscommunicating. She sometimes forgot that many humans perceived all nudity as sexual, regardless of context. That part of it was a simple cultural misunderstanding, and Riker’s weakened condition wasn’t doing wonders for his judgment or patience. But she was past caring about any of that. He’d struck a far deeper nerve. “Is that what you really think of me, Captain? That I’m nothing but a hedonist? That I can’t be trusted to act responsibly? Do you really have so low an opinion of me?”

“I only expect you to act according to your culture. And that’s fine, for you. Just leave me out of it, that’s all. It’s different for me.”

“You think I can’t understand commitment because I’m a Selkie?” She let out a frustrated growl, lowering herself far enough off the side to replenish her oxygen. “You damn offworlders! We’re all just a bunch of libertines to you, aren’t we? Just like Argelius or Risa, but more exotic. Wetter.” She felt a twinge of guilt at the mention of Risa, which had been thoroughly devastated by the Borg. But she was too angry to take it back. “You come to our world to take advantage of us and you never bother to learn just what it is you’re exploiting. You think that just because we’re Selkies, we’re all alike, all free and uninhibited no matter which phase we’re in.”

“What are you talking about?” Riker shot back. “You certainly weren’t inhibited back when you were amphibious. Not that night at the embassy, anyway.”

“And it never occurred to you that that was the problem?!All you brilliant Starfleet explorers, didn’t you ever think about the implications of a life cycle with less than two decades of fertility?”

He shook his head at the seeming non sequitur. “I know you have large families while you can.”

“Yes! Yes. And who the iesatdo you think is raising those families while we’re off having crazy uninhibited sex all the time, hm? Did it never occur to you that responsibility and hedonism don’t exactly mix?”

She’d vowed never to let him know what he’d been a part of, not wanting to burden him with her guilt. But she no longer cared. She told him the whole thing: how only the mature aquatics were free to indulge themselves; how the amphibious were expected to be responsible; how recreational sex was a selfish thrill they sought, pairing with offworlders because they didn’t know and wouldn’t judge. “Because you’re all a bunch of hypocrites,” she told him. “You don’t bother to figure out that you’re facilitating something improper and irresponsible. Easier for you to pretend we’re all just like the full aquatics, because then you can take advantage of our negligence and convince yourselves it’s a celebration of cultural kyeshing diversity!”

“Is that so?” Riker fired back, as angry as she was now. “ Youchoose to neglect your family responsibilities and that makes it ourfault? Well, tell me something, Ensign Lavena. If your dalliances with offworlders are such a source of shame to you, why did you join Starfleet? You certainly haven’t found it repulsive to sleep your way through a quarter of my crew! Perhaps the lady doth protest too much!”

She wanted to strike him. But on some level she remembered that he was weak and miserable…and he wasn’t the one she was truly angry at. But she was angry enough to swim away and leave him shivering. He wouldn’t accept her warmth anyway, and right now neither of them could stand to be together. So she let Alos cradle her gently in his strong tentacles and carry her the rest of the way.

PLANET LUMBU (UFC 86659-II)

Administrator Ruddle was eager to get home. The latest round of debates would be starting any grytnow, and the canal ferry didn’t have a radio. Ruddle would probably miss the beginning of the coverage. But the sooner she could finish up her hospital business for the day and get out the doors, the more of the debate she could partake in.

Not that Ruddle fancied herself any great philosopher. She could barely follow the intricacies of the ideas the combatants expounded upon—the origins of the cosmos, the gradations of corporeality, the multiplicity of worlds, the dynamics of poetry. But she did have a vested interest in knowing whether Lirht would remain ruled by the Cafmor or be ceded to the Regent of Kump. Those Kumpen had notions of medical ethics that Ruddle had no desire to see implemented here at Hvov Memorial—unless, of course, she could be persuaded of their worth by sufficiently eloquent debate.

But then, that was the major bone of contention being hashed out in tonight’s debate. In principle, the war of words had already ended, and the Regent was claiming victory. But the Cafmor and the Lirhten Council rejected the claim. It all came down to an issue Ruddle felt more qualified to comprehend: was the winner in a debate the one who proved one’s case more thoroughly and substantially, as Lirhten believed, or the one who adhered more skillfully to the traditional rhetorical form, as Kumpen held to be true? No doubt the Regent had debated beautifully, improvising in perfect twelvefold stanzas without a single syllable stressed out of place. No doubt his use of traditional formulas and invocations had been flawless. But the Council was led by reformists who held that the traditional elevation of form was shallow and decadent, that a leader needed to prove actual knowledge and practical ability, not just mastery of conventional formulas. The Cafmor’s arguments had been more informed, more weighted with facts and deduction; but to the Kumpen authorities, that was irrelevant, for her form had been so sloppy and informal that they perceived it as an insult to the Regent himself.

The question Ruddle was dying to hear tested, therefore, was: How would the respective voters decide who won the debate about which set of standards for debate were more valid, when they would be judging that debate using different standards? The recursion involved was dizzying, and Ruddle was mentally assembling a couple of stanzas about it to amuse her cousins with.

Of course, it wouldn’t be amusing if the debates broke down entirely, for then the Regent might actually send in troops. Ruddle wouldn’t put it past those Kumpen. It would certainly make things busier at the hospital. Why, lives might even be lost. The thought preoccupied her as she compiled the fatality record for the day. None of the deaths today had been due to violence, but deaths from disease and accident were still all too common, even with the new antibiotic medicines—medicines that a Kumpen regime would force them to give up in favor of homeopathy and spiritual healing, no doubt.

As a result of her morbid mood, Ruddle was extremely alarmed when a loud roaring sound came from outside, accompanied by cries of panic. She rushed to the ambulance lot out front, following the ruckus, pushing past the people who were fleeing inside. She expected to see the worst, some kind of war machine from Kump, maybe an airship delivering troops.

What she saw instead was…undreamt of in her philosophy. An angular object of some sort, smaller than an airship but not by much, was descending from the sky, making a roaring, whining noise as it did so. Bright, multicolored lights, even more vivid than the electrics that had replaced gaslights during Ruddle’s adolescent years, shone from the object, half-blinding her. What she could make out of the object’s shape was bizarre, its contours alien to her experience. “Where did it come from?” she cried to an orderly who was heading inside, grasping his arm.

“Out of the sky! Like a spirit-wain!”

“Don’t be absurd! There’s a rational explanation for this!”

“I’ll be happy to debate that, ma’am,” the orderly told her, “some other time!” He pulled free of her grip and retreated within.

Ruddle had to admit, she could understand the perception of this thing as a spirit manifestation. It had an eldritch quality to it, she realized as it slowly settled to the ground. The way it crushed the gwikwhen it landed left no doubt that it was heavier than air, yet still it had been able to hover without any visible propellers and only the stubbiest of winglike protrusions. Perhaps her childhood beliefs in the spirits deserved another examination after all.

The noise and wind from the bizarre craft subsided, and Ruddle dared to step forward and take a closer look. It was larger than she had estimated, intimidating in its looming bulk and arrowhead contours. And did she catch a glimpse of some massive form moving inside? It was hard to see through the transparent portion mounted on the high upper surface of the hull.

But then a hatch opened on the side– slidingopen under its own power, as though with a will of its own. Maybe the craft did indeed have its own spirit. Ruddle ducked behind a tree, though it afforded little cover.

Then itemerged. It was huge, terrifying—a massive golden-brown thing, walking on two legs but with a long, horizontal body and heavy tail like an elkruh. But unlike an elkruh’s gentle blue-furred countenance, this thing’s head was as long and angular as the craft it had emerged from, its enormous mouth filled with countless razor-sharp teeth. Ruddle was too frightened to move.

As the monster came out farther, Ruddle realized it was carrying another creature on its back. This creature was built more like a person, even a female, except it was a giant—Ruddle estimated it was nearly half again a real woman’s height—and had no evident clarfelbelow the chin. She (the pronoun seemed reasonable enough to use) also had a pronounced belly, almost like a pregnant woman.

Another giantess emerged behind the monster, walking under her own power. This one was roughly the same size but with no abdominal bulge; still no clarfel, though. She placed a hand on the other giantess’s flank, perhaps to stabilize her on the monster’s back, though it reminded Ruddle of a doctor’s gesture of comfort to a patient. The walking giantess held something in her hand that gave off lights and a high warbling sound, waving it in the direction of the other giantess and studying it intently as though it were some magic talisman. Was this how spirits tended each other’s illnesses? Or was she reading too much of her own experience into something truly unknown?

The hideous, toothed monster had been looking around the ambulance circle, and now its eyes locked on Ruddle. She jumped, and as it began to stride toward her, she scrambled backward, hoping to retreat into the hospital. But she promptly backed into the side of an abandoned ambulance. And there was no time to try to get inside the cab before the monster reached her. Terror overwhelming her, she sank to the ground, her back against the ambulance’s large middle wheel. She prayed to every spirit she’d stopped believing in as the monster loomed over her and opened its slavering maw.

“I am Shenti Yisec Eres Ree of Titan,” the monster said. “Take me to your obstetrics wing.”

Even at his most aggressive, Deanna observed, Ree managed to maintain the politeness that the Pahkwa-thanh cherished—that, indeed, they needed as a people to defuse potential conflicts before they became violent. Instead of roaring and threatening the diminutive, scarlet-skinned hospital staffers into assisting him, he addressed them in a level voice and cast his demands as courteous requests—yet made the underlying threat clear with his body language. (“Amazing what one can accomplish with a civil word and a smile,” Ree liked to joke while displaying his alarming array of teeth. Right now, though, he was employing the implied principle in earnest.)

“Think about what you’re doing, Ree,” she said to him as he carried her into the hospital’s maternity ward, the terrorized Lumbuans hastening to make the preparations he’d demanded. She glimpsed other nurses and orderlies carrying newborn Lumbuan babies to safety, something Ree was willing to allow so long as the needs of his own “patient” were met. “You swore an oath to uphold the Prime Directive.”

“I have a higher obligation, Counselor,” he told her. “And your reminder would carry more weight if not for recent events on Droplet.”

“That was unavoidable. This is a wanton violation of noninterference. Why come here? Why not a warp-capable people?”

“The nearest warp-capable species are either nonhumanoid or prone to belligerence. Lumbuans, aside from their size, are similar enough to you for their child-care facilities to be suitable, and unlikely to present any threat to the child. More advanced facilities would have been preferable, but they have the essentials, and we can supplement with Alyssa’s kit and the Horne’s replicator.”

Deanna noted with some satisfaction that the Lumbuan facilities included a birthing chair, which was her preference, although it would be a bit snug for her. However, for the moment, Ree insisted she lie down in one of the ward’s smallish beds and rest. Ogawa moved to her bedside and ran a scan on the baby’s vitals. But her eyes darted to the window as the sound of alien sirens came from outside, drawing nearer. “They’ve called in the police,” she said sotto voce. “I hope they’re as nonviolent as Ree says.”

“That’s what our survey last month suggested. They’re a philosophical people, preferring debate over physical conflict.” Still, Deanna reflected silently, even a normally peaceful species could be dangerous when terrified. And Titanhad not been able to survey this society as thoroughly as she would have liked; Vidra Tabyr, the new Ithenite petty officer from engineering, had been the only one small and humanoid enough to go among the Lumbuans in disguise. Tabyr had done her best, but she had not been trained for the task. Most of what the crew had learned about Lumbu had come from orbital scans, stealth probes, and monitoring of their radio-band communications, which were still in an early, audio-only stage. Deanna took some comfort in their limited telecommunications and crude motor vehicles, hoping that it would minimize the exposure of this culture to the knowledge of alien life—and delay the response of this nation’s military, which was rarely used but currently on high alert due to ongoing tensions with a neighboring state.

“Ree, think about this,” Deanna said when the doctor came back from securing the doors. “Peaceful or not, those police officers out there see us as a threat, and they will do what they feel they must to defend their people. My baby and I are not safe here. You must take us away from here.”

“There is no time. You are too close to term. You could deliver at any time. As for the authorities, I will not allow them to harm the child.” The fierce gleam in his eye intimidated her, and her throat constricted.

But she calmed herself and found her voice again. “If you inflict violence on them, matters will only escalate. Hostage situations rarely work out well for the captors. And they will see me as a captor, as a threat.”

Ree whirled to the Lumbuan ward nurses who cowered in a corner. “You! If you would please tell me what you see here,” he said, pointing to Deanna.

“A…a pregnant giantess?” one of the male nurses managed to say.

The doctor smiled. “Very good. And pray tell, how do your people feel about babies?”

“They…are precious to us. Please, I have a young son at home, he needs me!”

Ree strode closer and spoke in a low growl. “Is this true?”

“Yes! I swear! His mother died last year!”

The Pahkwa-thanh lifted the nurse by his collar and carried him to the exit. “Then go. Make sure the police understand there is an unborn child in this room…and that I will devour anyone who brings the slightest harm to it. Then go to your son and keep him safe.”

He unsealed the door long enough to toss out the nurse. One of the younger female nurses straightened up and said, “I—I have a son too! And two daughters! Just babies!”

Ree’s head whirled to transfix her in his gaze. “You’ve never been pregnant in your life,” he told her after a moment. His head lunged forward, jaws gaping, and Deanna almost screamed. But in a second, it was over—the doctor’s jaws were clamped shut just in front of the nurse’s nose, and her own scream trailed off as she sank to the floor, wetting herself. “Be grateful I need a staff familiar with your equipment,” he told her. “But keep in mind that your value is contingent on your cooperation. I trust my…point…is made?” The nurse nodded, unable to speak. “Very good.” He turned to the other nurses. “Help her clean up, will you, please? This isa hospital.”

Deanna’s fear had triggered a surge of adrenaline, which she chose to use by getting angry; maybe confrontation would help where reason had failed. “This whole situation is ridiculous! Look at yourself, Ree! What do you expect to accomplish here? What kind of caregiver leads an expectant mother into a hostage situation where the people you depend on for help have to be terrorized into compliance? Is this really your idea of how a Pahkwa-thanh male cares for a child?” Alyssa looked at her in shock, subtly shaking her head. But Deanna knew that she was the one person Ree would not harm, so long as the child was still inside her.

But her words had no effect. “Calm yourself, Counselor. We don’t want to place the dear child under any stress.”

“You’re creating the stress, Ree! Why can’t you see that?”

Ree came closer, taking her hand. He was suddenly in full Reassuring Doctor mode. “Have faith, Deanna. I have decades of experience as a specialist in obstetrics. Your child is in safe hands with me.”

She studied him. Was there more motivating him than an instinctive response to her projected fears? “It’s important to you to believe that, isn’t it?”

“Nothing matters more to me than the wellbeing of a child.”

“You have so much devotion to children.”

“Profoundly.”

“Then why have you never had any of your own?”

His hand twitched atop hers; luckily he filed his claws, or the mild scratches she sustained would have been far worse. He looked away. “My…professional commitments have not allowed me the time.”

“But you have had offers?” He remained silent. “No, you haven’t, have you? Come to think of it, don’t Pahkwathanh females generally prefer their males somewhat larger and more robust than you?”

He fidgeted. “My strengths are in the mind,” he declared. “They are just as valuable.”

“But are they as valued?” She softened her voice. “It’s not your fault if they never appreciated you. Never gave you the chance to prove what a devoted father you’d be.

“But now you have that chance. Your chance to be the strong, aggressive, masculine one. Your chance to be the father figure you’ve wanted to be all your life. It must be a very rewarding feeling.”

“My only reward will be the safe delivery of your daughter. And her continued safety thereafter.”

“Do you intend to watch over her the rest of her life? You’ve made your point, Ree. You’ve proven your commitment to her safety. You’ve proven your worth as a protector. You don’t need to take this any further.”

Suddenly his snout was in her face, his hot breath ruffling her hair. “Proven my worth? Says the female who called me ridiculous? You’ve seen that I don’t appreciate being lied to, Counselor. It’s intensely impolite. Be as angry with me as you like, but do not deceive me or attempt to interfere with my efforts to protect your child. As you have heard, I will not tolerate lack of cooperation.” He lowered his head, eyes locking on hers while the front of his jaws hovered over her neck. “Your child is able to survive on her own now. I suggest you do not make yourself superfluous to her wellbeing.”

As she looked into his eyes, Deanna realized she had miscalculated. Ree’s concern for the child’s safety did not necessarily extend to her mother. But what terrified her, even more than the implied threat to her own life, was another thought: once the child was delivered, how did she know Ree would let her keep it?

CHAPTER T