Gateways #6 by Peter David

Author:Peter David
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2001-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

15

TRIDENT

M’R ESS WAS READY to smash the equipment, rip it to shreds with her bare hands. She moved to do so, in fact, just out of sheer frustration, and it was only Gleau putting his hands gently upon her wrist and quelling her anger that prevented her. Yet, despite all her anger, she felt a guilty thrill of pleasure from his touch, and the fur on the back of her neck prickled.

“You mustn’t let it get to you, M’Ress,” Lieutenant Commander Gleau assured her. “It’s . . .” He paused, frowned. “What is that . . . odd noise? It . . . seems to be emanating from around your chest cavity.”

Of course M’Ress knew it immediately for what it was: his skin against hers was making her purr again, dammit. It was a reflex action, and she immediately cleared her throat loudly to try and cover it. “My apologies, sir. The Caitian . . . digestive system . . . is rather loud.” She couldn’t help but feel that it was an extremely weak excuse to make, but it was the only one that occurred to her.

Fortunately, Gleau made no indication that he found the excuse remotely implausible. “Amazing, the way species are so different, one from the other, isn’t it?” he said, sounding for all the world as if he really thought it was a marvelous thing. “So you are hungry, is what you are saying?”

“No, sir,” she assured him, deciding that this would be a good opportunity to send the conversation away from her. She rose from the scanning station in the main science lab and stalked it with obvious annoyance, her tail whipping about . . . so much so that several crewmen who were walking about, working on other projects, were constrained to give her a wide berth so they wouldn’t be smacked in the face. “Sir, I’m not picking up anything. Not a damned thing. The only conclusion I can draw is that if the Gateway, or the Iconian, is down there, they’ve managed to find a way to shield themselves from our probes.”

“Would that be possible?”

She shrugged. “Lieutenant Commander, before what happened to me happened to me, I would have been the first to tell you that a Gateway that hurls travelers into the future would have been impossible. Yet there it was, and here I am. So who am I to say what’s possible and what isn’t? All I know is, I’m getting nowhere, and I’m getting the sinking feeling that I’m going to continue to get nowhere.”

“All right,” said Gleau after a moment. “The captain is in a holoconference with Captain Calhoun, so I won’t disturb her at the moment. However, if your recommendation is that we quit . . .”

“I didn’t say that,” M’Ress quickly informed him. “I’m going to keep looking, even though it may be utterly futile, for as long as we’re in orbit around this hunk of rock. As long as there’s still an opportunity.”

He smiled approvingly, and it seemed to M’Ress as if his smile illuminated the entire room.

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