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  “I’d want to choose the one I was certain wouldn’t have some sort of regression and bite my head off if my back was turned.”

  Janos whimpered slightly and backed into a corner.

  “Nice going, sir,” said Calhoun. “You hurt his feelings.”

  “You should really apologize, Edward,” Nechayev said primly.

  “I think you’re all insane,” Jellico said. “Fortunately, whatever the outcome, I won’t be here to have to deal with it.”

  “Nothing’s been definitely decided,” said Nechayev. “To begin with, the feasibility of Janos’s stewardship has to be studied and determined. If nothing else, we have to find a couple of scientifically inclined Starfleet officers who would be willing to take on this responsibility.”

  “Actually,” smiled Shelby, “I think I might have just the candidate for you.”

  ii.

  Wexler had been up until all hours studying, and was looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday morning. So he was none too pleased when the chime at his door sounded. His girlfriend, Leanne, in bed next to him, simply moaned softly and pulled the blanket over her head. So Wexler, grumbling, rolled out of bed and tied off his robe around his middle as he shuffled toward the door. “This better be good,” he called through the door.

  “Oh, it is,” came Shelby’s voice from the other side.

  “Elizabeth?” he frowned. “What is it?”

  “Remember that kid brother you always said you wanted? Well, if your parents will agree to it, then I think we’ve got one lined up for you.”

  “What are you talking about?” he demanded and released the door lock. It slid open and a white-furred face with cruel, red/pink eyes was looking at him.

  Wexler let out a yelp and jumped back, clutching at his chest as if his heart was going to explode out of it. The commotion naturally woke Leanne, who snapped upright, saw the white-furred creature crouched in the doorway, and dove under the bed with a shriek.

  Peeking out from behind the creature’s shoulder, Shelby called, “Vincent Wexler…meet Janos, your baby brother. Janos, this is Vincent Wexler. Or Wex, as most call him.”

  “Hi…Wex…” said Janos.

  Wexler, who had fallen back onto the bed, gaped at Janos. “Uh…hi…”

  “He followed us home,” Shelby told him cheerfully. “And you get to keep him.”

  Wexler looked from one to the other and forced a terrified smile.

  “Oh…joy…” he said.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Now

  Gleau was screaming in her dreams.

  Shelby was standing there helplessly, watching him suffer, and Janos was tearing him to bits. Curiously, throughout it all, Gleau wasn’t actually making any noise. His mouth was open, his eyes were wide, and his arms were thrashing about like a drowning man’s. But not the slightest sound emerged from his terrified face.

  Nor was the assault occurring in the turbolift. Instead it was happening on Xenex, in the desert. Within the context of the dream, somehow it made perfect sense. She stood there and watched dispassionately, sipping a drink with a small umbrella in it, as Janos continued to shred Gleau. M’Ress was curled up to one side, having a grand old time with a ball of yarn.

  Of course. She’s responsible. He was her cat’s-paw. Shelby wanted to shout out her sudden realization, but there was no one to talk to about it. And then M’Ress was gone, replaced by Calhoun, who also was playing with the same ball of yarn. But it wasn’t Calhoun as she knew him now. He was young, barely out of his teens, and when he looked up at her it was with pure savagery, and blood was trickling from the scar on his face, except it wasn’t a scar, it was an open wound.

  He opened his mouth and actually produced a sound: a loud, ear-shattering roar that was so fearsome that Shelby just wanted to run. But she didn’t know where to run to, and then he was coming after her, and then he beeped at her.

  He beeped once more, and the waking and sleeping worlds bled together as Shelby sat up in her bed, the beeping becoming more and more insistent. It was coming from her computer station over on her desk. “Yes, what?” she called out in irritation.

  The cranky response was enough to activate the link, and the voice of Kat Mueller sounded in her quarters. “Captain, you’re receiving a priority transmission from Starfleet.”

  “God, XO, don’t you ever sleep?” moaned Shelby as she flopped back onto her bed.

  “As little as possible, Captain. Since it’s a priority communication…”

  “Yes, yes, yes,” said Shelby impatiently. She rolled out of bed, fumbled around in the darkness for a robe, not wanting to bring the lights up even to half. She slept in the nude and it wouldn’t have done to be speaking to Starfleet topless. Finally she found the robe, tossed it around herself, stumbled across the room, banged her shin on a table, uttered a brief string of profanities, and finally flopped down in the chair facing the table. “All right,” she said, rubbing her eyes once more, “put it through.”

  The screen snapped to life and Admiral Edward Jellico appeared on it. “Sorry about the lateness of the hour, Captain,” he said without preamble.

  “There’s nothing wrong with the lateness of the hour, Admiral,” she replied, barely stifling a yawn. “It’s particularly nice if one is sleeping during it.”

  “I’ll get right to the point.”

  “That would be appreciated.”

  “The Selelvians have prevailed upon the Federation to set aside Starfleet procedure and turn Ensign Janos over to them.”

  Any vestiges of sleep evaporated from her and, in the darkness, she sat straighter. “Are you joking, sir?”

  “You’ve known me since the Academy, Captain. Name one time when I joked about anything.”

  “None is readily coming to mind, sir,” she admitted.

  “The Selelvians want the prisoner and we’re to turn him over.”

  “Admiral, there’s more to the situation than meets the eye,” said Shelby. In quick, broad strokes she outlined for Jellico the results of their investigation and their suspicion that Janos might literally not have been in control when the attack occurred.

  Jellico frowned and shook his head. “State of mind may mean a great deal to you and me, Captain, but it means nothing to the Selelvians.”

  “Captain, we’ve been trying to get in touch with Dr. Bethom. If we’re right, if it’s some sort of breakdown in Janos’s mental makeup…we may be able to salvage him. We—”

  “There’s nothing to salvage, Captain,” said Jellico. “It’s out of our hands. The orders from the Federation Council could not be more explicit.” He was clearly reading off something: “The Trident is to rendezvous with a Selelvian representative in Sector 21306. The Trident will then turn over its prisoner relating to the murder of Selelvian national Gleau to the Selelvians for trial and execution.”

  “Nice to know nothing’s being left to chance,” Shelby said. She had never felt more frustrated. “Admiral, there’s got to be another way…”

  “There isn’t, Captain,” he said flatly. “There is no other way. We’re being left no options here. Yours is not a pleasant duty, I’ll admit. But your duty it remains, and you will carry it out to the letter. Am I understood, Captain?”

  “Yes, Admiral,” she said tightly. “Understood perfectly.”

  He paused and then added, “I’m sorry, Captain. Every so often, we lose one. This is one of those times.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Jellico’s image vanished from the screen, and Shelby sat there for quite some time in the darkness until a voice floated across to her from the bed.

  “Were you planning to wake me and tell me?”

  “Lights to half,” she said, and squinted as the lights obediently came on. There was Calhoun, in her bed, bare-chested. She couldn’t help but note that, unlike hers, his eyes were wide open. The increased brightness didn’t appear to be bothering him. For some reason that greatly annoyed her.

  “I thought I’d tell you in
the morning,” Shelby said. “Guess I should have known better, huh.”

  “I guess you should have,” he agreed. “So what now?”

  “What now?” Somehow she’d expected him to say that, even though the answer should have been self-evident. “Now we do as we’re ordered. You go back to your ship, head off on your next assignment. We leave orbit around Danter and head for our rendezvous with the Selelvians. And we all go on about our lives.”

  “All of us except Janos. He loses his.”

  “It certainly looks that way, doesn’t it.”

  “Yes,” he said.

  She waited for what seemed forever to hear what he had to say next.

  Mackenzie Calhoun shrugged. “I suppose that’s it, then.”

  She couldn’t quite believe she was hearing correctly. “That’s it? You mean you’re just going to accept the decree of the UFP?”

  “Well, it’s not as if we have a choice,” he said, sounding eminently reasonable. “We serve at the pleasure of the Federation. We can’t just go second-guessing their decisions, can we.”

  “No. We can’t.”

  Calhoun was on his feet, calmly pulling on his uniform. “We’re line officers. We were sent here to Thallonian space to help keep the peace. What kind of example would we be setting if we immediately gave ourselves over to anarchy the moment we don’t like the way the chain of command is going.”

  “Are you saying these things because you believe they’re what I want to hear?”

  “Are they what you want to hear?”

  “They’re certainly sensible attitudes to have.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Then again, you haven’t always been the most sensible of men.”

  He closed his uniform jacket. “What can I say, Eppy? Everybody grows up. Everybody gets older. And sooner or later, even the most insensible of men come to their senses. Now give me a kiss.”

  She did as he asked, coming to him, pressing her body against him and kissing him passionately. His tongue probed her mouth for a moment, and then he withdrew and smiled at her.

  “Never let it be said we didn’t do our best,” he told her. Then he tapped his combadge and said, “Calhoun to Excalibur. One to beam over.”

  He stepped back from her, smiled once more, and blew her a kiss lightly as he dematerialized.

  Before the last of his molecules sparkled away, she knew exactly what was going to happen.

  She dropped her robe, headed into the bathroom, and took a long shower. She considered it very relaxing. But despite the lateness of the hour, she knew she wasn’t going to be going back to sleep anytime soon.

  Once out of the shower, she put on her uniform, dressing very slowly and deliberately. Then she exited her quarters and strolled down the main corridor, greeting night-shift crewmen who were clearly surprised to see the captain out and about. She felt brief annoyance that she didn’t know all their names and resolved to attend to that at the earliest opportunity.

  She stepped onto the turbolift and said, “Bridge,” and as the lift started up, her combadge suddenly beeped. She tapped it calmly and heard Mueller speaking with great urgency.

  “Captain,” she said, “I’m sorry to wake you again, but we have an emergency on our hands. Can you come up to the bridge? Quickly?”

  “If you insist,” said Shelby just as the turbolift door opened. She stepped out onto the bridge and was greeted with the sight of Mueller doing a genuine double take. “Quick enough?” inquired Shelby.

  “How did…?” Then Mueller obviously thought better of wasting time wallowing in confusion and came to the point. “Captain, Ensign Janos has vanished from the brig.”

  “Really,” Shelby said. She tried to sound shocked. She failed utterly. “Are you saying he escaped?”

  Mueller was clearly puzzled at Shelby’s equanimity regarding this piece of alarming news. “No, Captain. According to guards, he was beamed out. And the Excalibur has just left orbit and gone to warp. It’s my belief that they transported him off this ship and have absconded with him.”

  “I see.” Each step more leisurely than the last, Shelby sauntered down to the command chair as Mueller stepped out of the way. It took her a moment to remember the name of the nightside man on conn. “Lieutenant Harrison,” she said to the jowly-looking fellow at the post, “set course for Sector 21306.”

  “What?” Mueller appeared stunned. “But Captain…that’s not remotely along the course heading of the Excalibur! Is it?” She looked to Harrison for confirmation and he shook his head, backing her up.

  “I’m afraid that’s not of consequence, XO,” Shelby informed her. “You see, Admiral Jellico had very specific orders to give me. Orders I was told I am not allowed to vary from in the slightest. We are to rendezvous with a Selelvian representative in Sector 21306. There, we are to turn over our prisoner relating to the murder of Selelvian national Gleau to the Selelvians for trial and execution. I must follow these orders to the letter.”

  “But we don’t have the prisoner, Captain! The Excalibur does!”

  “True,” said Shelby. “But the letter of the orders has no bearing on that. If we have no prisoner to turn over, well…there’s not much we can do about it. Then we at least do as much as we are able, in the interests of interstellar peace.”

  The light began to dawn upon Mueller. “You knew he was going to do this. Calhoun. You knew he was going to abscond with Janos.”

  “Abscond with Janos? Simply because the UFP has agreed to turn him over to the Selelvians, who will immediately execute him even though he was not consciously in control of his actions at the time of the murder? I knew no such thing, XO,” replied Shelby. “He voiced no plans of that nature whatsoever.”

  “Because he didn’t want you complicit,” said Mueller.

  Shelby shrugged. “Who am I to read Mackenzie Calhoun’s mind, or presume to know what he’s going to do before he does it?”

  “You’re his wife, and I would bet anything that that’s exactly what you do know: what he’s going to do before he does it.”

  “Are you prepared to swear to that in court?”

  Mueller stared at her blankly. “Swear to what?”

  She saw the half-smiling looks from the others on the bridge. It wasn’t as if anyone on the ship would have wished Gleau dead for the things he’d said and done. On the other hand, the brutal practices of the Selelvians didn’t engender much support from the crewmen, either.

  “Exactly my thought as well, XO.”

  “Course plotted and laid in, Captain,” said Harrison.

  “Take us out of orbit, Mr. Harrison,” said Shelby. “And inform Ambassador Spock that there’s going to be a slightly longer delay in the completion of his mission. We have orders we have to obey to the letter, and we’d better go on about obeying them.”

  And, heading in the completely opposite direction from the Excalibur, the Trident leaped into warp drive and was gone.

  Then

  Shelby felt as if she were going to lose her mind, and what annoyed her the most was that Calhoun wasn’t losing his.

  She was sitting in the gardens behind the Academy, watching the sun setting and the shadows lengthening across the neatly manicured lawn. She was studying her padd vigorously, even as her thoughts were reeling over the many facts they had to learn and be prepared to regurgitate for the upcoming final exams.

  As she continued to go over materials sure to be covered on the tests, she couldn’t help but let her mind wander to her roommate, Mackenzie Calhoun. Ever since the successful raid in the company of Kemper and the others, Calhoun’s self-confidence had grown considerably. Captain Nechayev had given him something invaluable: a taste of what his future could hold for him if he stuck with his studies and got the job done. Not only that, but the mission had proven to Calhoun that he was ready, willing, and able to handle missions presented him. That was a confidence builder as well.

  He’d come a long way from being the tentative outsider with anger and un
certainty bubbling just below the surface.

  “Damn him,” she muttered, and was surprised at the sentiment that had popped out of her mouth.

  She was even more surprised when a brittle-sounding voice came from practically at her elbow. “Damn whom?”

  Shelby gave a startled gasp and was on her feet, turning to see an old man perhaps a foot away. He was wearing green coveralls that were stained even darker green at the knees. He had very short gray hair and facial stubble that seemed to exist more because he hadn’t bothered to shave for the past couple of days than out of a concerted effort to grow a beard.

  “Where did you come from?” she demanded.

  “Mars,” he replied with a growl. “We turn invisible on Mars, you know. I walked right up to you and then turned visible just to startle you.” When her expression continued to be blank, he shook his head and said, “Young lady, you were so engrossed in thought, a herd of elephants could have trotted up and waved their trunks in your face and you’d only just have noticed.”

  “Who are you?”

  “Name’s Boothby,” he said. “I’m the groundskeeper here.”

  “Oh.” She didn’t know quite what to say to that. “Right. Your reputation precedes you. But I’ve never seen you around before.”

  “Yes, you have,” he said. “You’ve just never noticed me before.”

  “I don’t think that’s possible.”

  Boothby clearly found that amusing. “Young lady, I can’t even begin to count the number of times you’ve walked right past me and looked right through me. I really might as well have been invisible.”

  “What? Really?” Immediately she felt a considerable amount of chagrin. “I’m…I’m sorry. That was rude of me.”

  “Yes. It was.” But then he shrugged, not seeming especially perturbed. “I suppose you had a lot to think about. That’s the thing about this place. It opens your mind up so much, it can be a full-time job just figuring out what to notice.”