Hufmin had never been a religious man. The concept of unseen, unknowable deities had been of no interest to him at all in his rather pragmatic life. And as he began to deliriously cheer, and wave his hands as if they could see him, he decided that he did indeed believe in gods after all. Not the unknowable ones, though. His gods were whoever those wonderful individuals were who loomed above him. They had come from wherever it was gods came from, and had arrived in this desperate environment currently inhabited by one Captain Hufmin and his cargo of forty-seven frightened souls.
Thereby answering, finally, a very old question, namely:
What does God need with a starship?
And the answer, of course, was one of the oldest answers in the known universe:
To get to the other side.
XI.
ROBIN LEFLER LOOKED UPfrom Ops and said, " Captain, everyone from the vessel has been beamed aboard: the ship's commander and forty-seven passengers."
Shelby whistled in amazement as Calhoun said, clearly surprised, "Forty-seven? His ship's not tiny, but it's not thatbig. He must have had people plastered to the ceiling. Shelby, arrange to have the passengers brought, in shifts, to sickbay, so Dr. Selar can check them over. Make sure they're not suffering from exposure, dehydration, et cetera."
"Shall we take his ship in tow, sir?" asked Kebron.
"And to where do you suggest we tow it, Mr. Kebron?" asked Calhoun reasonably. "It's not as if we've got a convenient starbase nearby. Bridge to Engineering."
"Engineering, Burgoyne here," came the quick response over the intercom.
"Chief, we have a transport ship to port with an engine that needs your magic touch."
"My wand is at the ready, sir."
"How many times have I heard thatline," murmured Robin Lefler . . . just a bit louder than she had intended. The comment drew a quick chuckle from McHenry, and a disapproving glance from Shelby . . . who, in point of fact, thought it was funny but felt that it behooved her to keep a straight face.
"Get a team together, beam over, and give me an estimate on repair time."
"Aye, sir."
He turned to Shelby and said briskly, " Commander, talk to the pilot. Find out precisely what happened, what he saw. I want to know what we're dealing with. Also, see if you can find Si Cwan. He's supposed to be our ambassador. Let's see how his people react to him. If they throw things at him or run screaming, that will be a tip off that he might not be as useful as we'd hoped. Damn, we should have given him a comm badge to facilitate—"
"Bridge to Si Cwan," Shelby said promptly.
"Yes," came Si Cwan's voice.
"Meet me in sickbay, please. We have some refugees there whom we'd like you to speak with."
"On my way."
Shelby turned to Calhoun. "I took the liberty of issuing him a comm badge. He's not Starfleet, of course, but it seemed the simplest way to reach him."
"Good thinking, Commander."
She smiled. "I have my moments," and headed to the turbolift.
The moment she was gone, though, Kebron stepped over to Calhoun and said, "Captain, shall I go as well?"
"You, Kebron? Why?"
"To keep an eye on Cwan."
"What do you think he's going to do?"
"I don't know," Kebron said darkly. He seemed to want to say something more, but he kept his mouth tightly closed.
"Lieutenant, if you've got something on your mind, out with it."
"Very well. I feel that you have made a vast mistake allowing Si Cwan aboard this vessel. He could jeopardize our mission."
"If I believed he could, I would never have allowed him to remain."
"I'm aware of that, sir. Nevertheless, I feel it was an error."
"I generally have a good instinct about people Lieutenant. I've learned to trust it; it's saved my life any number of times. If you wish to disagree with me, that is your prerogative."
"Then I'm afraid that's how it's going to remain, Captain, until such time as I'm convinced otherwise."
"And when do you think that will be?"
Zak Kebron considered the question. "In Earth years, or in Brikar years?"
"Earth years."
"In Earth years?" He paused only a moment, and then responded, "Never."
Shelby entered sickbay and looked around at the haggard faces of the patients in the medlab. Immediately her heart went out to them. They were a mixture of races, with such variations of skin colors between them that they looked like a rainbow. But there was unity in the fact that they were clearly frightened, dispossessed, with no clear idea of what lay ahead for them. Dr. Selar was going about her duties with efficiency and speed. Shelby noticed that Selar and her people already seemed to be working smoothly and in unison. She felt some relief at that; Calhoun had mentioned that there'd been some difficulty between Selar and one of her doctors, but Shelby wouldn't have known from watching them in action.
"I'm looking for the commander of the vessel," she said to the room at large.
One of the scruffier individuals stepped forward. "That would be me." He stuck out a hand. "Name's Hufmin."
"Commander Shelby, second-in-command."
"You people saved our butts."
"That's what we're here for," she told him, even as she thought, Did I justsay that? I sound like something out of the Star fleet Cliché Handbook.
And then Shelby saw the attitude of the people in sickbay change instantly, as if electrified. A number who were on diagnostic tables immediately jumped off. One even pushed Dr. Selar aside so he could scramble to his feet. They were all looking past Shelby's shoulder. She turned to see that, standing behind her, was Si Cwan.
There was dead silence for what seemed an infinity-to her, and then a young woman, who appeared to be in her early twenties by Earth standards, seemed to fly across the room. She threw her arms around Si Cwan so tightly that it looked as if she'd snap him like a twig, even though she came up barely to his chest.
"You're alive, thank the gods, you're alive," she whispered.
And now the others followed suit. Most of them did not possess the total lack of inhibition of the first woman. They approached him tentatively, reverently, with varying forms of intimidation or respect. Si Cwan, for his part, stroked the young woman's thick blue hair as gently as a father cradling his newborn child. He looked to the others, stretching out his free hand as if summoning them. They seemed to draw strength from his mere presence, many of them genuflecting, a few had their heads bowed.
"Please. Please, that's not necessary," said Si Cwan. "Please . . . get up. Don't bow. Don't . . . please don't," and he gestured for them to rise. "Sometimes I feel that such ceremonies helped create the divide between us that led to . . . to our present state. Up . . . yes, you in the back, up."
They followed his instructions out of long habit. "This ship is bringing you back to power, Lord Cwan?" asked one of the men. "They'll use their weapons on your behalf?"