Getting toknow me?Klisiewicz almost choked on his hash. “Likewise,” he said around a tentative mouthful of food. “Maybe I’ll see you next time?”
McCormack nodded once in agreement as she picked up her tray, pausing long enough to hold his gaze. “For what it’s worth,” she said, “you’re a good guy to have on the bridge during a fight.”
And with that, Lieutenant Marielise McCormack spun on her heel and was gone, leaving a baffled Klisiewicz to watch her as she disappeared through the door leading to the corridor. It was not until several moments had passed, with him trying to assess his enigmatic dining partner, that he realized he had finished his meal and that he felt better than he had in several hours.
Wow.
Space had never felt colder for Atish Khatami than it did at this moment.
In the stillness of her quarters, she sat upright in a tall-backed seat behind her desk. The desk was unadorned except for a standard tabletop viewer, which bathed her face in a soft glow of light as she stared unwaveringly toward its screen and into the faces depicted upon it, those of Commodore Diego Reyes and Lieutenant Commander T’Prynn.
Khatami figured that if she looked straight into their faces, then maybe she could keep on blinking back any stray tears that she still could not manage to suppress. So far, through her whole report on the incident at Erilon, she had managed to do so. She believed she had held herself together on an even par with Reyes himself, which given her experience with the base commander’s reserved demeanor was saying something.
Khatami knew better than to hold her disposition up for comparison against T’Prynn’s.
“ Have you interviewed Mr. Xiong?”the Vulcan intelligence officer asked flatly from the other side of the screen.
“Not beyond the basics of what I just told you,” Khatami said, ignoring the dull ache in her bruised jaw. “Dr. Leone ordered that he be allowed to rest before he is debriefed.”
“ There’s no need for you to speak to him, Commander,” Reyes said, almost too quickly. “ We’ll just do it again here, anyway. Let him rest and maybe work up his written report.”
“Yes, Commodore,” Khatami replied, nodding in understanding.
“ Now, as for theEndeavour,” Reyes said, “ your chief engineer has already transmitted a complete list of the outstanding repairs and needed replacement components. We’ll be ready for you as soon as you get home.” Leaning forward, the commodore knitted his fingers together and tapped his thumbs, looking down at his hands a moment before releasing a sigh. “ Commander, I’m going to need your people prepared to ship out as soon as we can get you ready, and you know my people work fast. I’m going to need theEndeavour back at Erilon as soon as possible, to investigate…what happened there.”
I know what happened there, and I didn’t want to leave in the first place.
Khatami nodded again. “Understood,” she said, refusing to give in to the burning in her eyes. If she had learned anything during her brief tenure assigned to Starbase 47, it was that the station’s mission paused for little, even tragedy.
As if satisfied with the report, at least for the moment, Reyes nodded. “ Commander, Captain Zhao was an exemplary leader, and I have no doubt the others who gave their lives today were equally capable,”he said, the tone of his voice softening. “ You have my deepest sympathies for your losses. Reyes out.”
“Thank you, sir,” Khatami whispered to the now darkened screen as she finally allowed the fresh tears to come forth.
I left them behind.
The words had been whips, mentally flogging herself during these past hours. They showed no signs of letting up, and Khatami did not want them to stop.
I left them. But he would have left them, too, even me. Or would he…?
Her tortured silence was jarred by the sound of her quarters door chime. Quickly blotting the tears from her eyes, she drew what she hoped was a calming breath. “Come in.”
The door slid aside to reveal a somewhat hesitant-looking Dr. Leone, holding a data slate in one hand and a medical pouch in the other. He shuffled a bit as he grimaced from one side of his mouth. “Commander,” he said after an awkward pause.
“Tony,” she said, allowing a bit of relief to seep into her voice. Leone, at least, was unlikely to require too much of her in a decision-making capacity, a role she admitted she was most uncomfortable assuming at this moment. “What can I do for you?”
“Well,” the doctor said, “you haven’t checked in to sickbay yet, and I’m told you need to.” He stepped into her quarter, allowing the door to close behind him. “So, how are you?”
Khatami rubbed two fingers along the line of her jaw. “Better,” she said, not altogether lying. “At least, I don’t think it’s broken.”
Leone nodded, reaching into his medical kit and producing a scanner. He cradled the device in his fingers as she leaned closer, and Khatami imagined a prickly sensation beneath her skin as she watched the scanner hover a hairsbreadth over her cheek and jawline while Leone moved it slowly up and back. After a few moments, he consulted its readings.
“Wow,” Leone said. “That’s gonna hurt awhile.”
Khatami leaned back, not feeling very relieved by the assessment. “Is that your informed medical opinion, Doctor?”
“Absolutely,” he said in all seriousness as he traded the scanner for a hypospray. “But it’s not fractured. This’ll help.”
No sooner did Leone inject the contents of the hypospray into her shoulder than Khatami felt its analgesic effects begin to soothe the throbbing ache she had endured these past hours. Closing her eyes for a moment, she allowed herself to enjoy the welcome relief.
“That ought to do the trick,” he said after a moment, returning the scanner to his medical kit before extracting a green computer data cartridge. He moved across the room to Khatami’s personal food slot. “A colleague once told me something about doing my job when it comes to the senior staff,” he said as he inserted the data card and pressed a pair of control buttons set into the bulkhead above the slot. “Something about knowing when to be a physician and when to be a bartender.”
He turned to face her, now carrying a small tray that bore two iced drinks in short, square glasses. Crossing the room to her desk, he set the tray down, and a wafting scent of alcohol teased Khatami’s nostrils. Despite herself, she could not help but smile for the first time in what felt like forever.
“You know I don’t drink, Tony.”
Leone shrugged. “Exactly my point,” he said, snatching one of the glasses and downing its contents in a single slug. “The guy didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. Some people just shouldn’t be on starships, you know?”
She laughed as she watched him exchange glasses, almost forgetting the pain in her jaw as he sipped from the second drink. “I’m beginning to think so, yes.”
Leone nodded, then froze as if only then realizing his words carried the great likelihood of landing completely albeit unintentionally wrong. He squeezed his eyes shut and sighed. “You gotta throw me a bit of a lifeline here, Atish,” he said, still looking pained. “This isn’t my thing, you know?” Shaking his head, he took another, larger sip from his drink. “Dammit, we need some sort of psychiatrist out here full time or something.” He froze again but this time recovered more quickly. “Not that you need a psychiatrist,” he clarified before looking away and swearing one of his preferred, earthier oaths.
Khatami reached across her desk and put her hand on his arm. “Your effort is not going unappreciated, Doctor.”