“Yes, I know,” said Batra. She knelt alongside a low divan in a back room of Dalal’s tiny apartment. Every now and again, the floor shivered as another ship departed the spaceport, and Batra heard the tinkle and clatter of glass and pottery as vibrations shuddered up her legs. The room was spare. Besides the divan, there was a low round wooden table, on which Dalal had placed a metal container of medical supplies, and two chairs: one in which Dalal sat as rigidly as if the chair were made of steel instead of some kind of wood, and a frayed, overstuffed armchair that was so old the middle sagged.
“What,” Batra had to form the words carefully because of the swelling in her mouth and along her jaw, “what about Samir?”
“What about him? You can see for yourself, can’t you? You’ve got eyes.” The old woman’s fierce face was almost displeased, and Batra thought Dalal was just itching to give her and Halak a good tongue-lashing. Dalal was out of luck, though; Halak was unconscious. He’d passed out as Batra had hauled him up the last two steps onto a landing on the tenement’s third floor. Too late, she’d discovered when she’d pushed her way into the building that the lift was broken. So they’d been forced to climb, and the pain had done him in.
They’d stretched him out on his stomach, so Dalal would have an easier time tending to his wounds. Now Batra looked at his half-naked body. He looked as defenseless as a little boy. Dalal had cut his tunic away before going to work, and Batra picked out familiar scars. In the past, she hadn’t thought much about them, but in light of what had happened and what he’d told her, those scars took on new meaning.
Probably a story behind every one.
Batra turned her gaze to the old woman. “He’s been unconscious for nearly an hour.”
“Better for me.” Dalal harrumphed, sponging away the last bit of Halak’s dried blood from his back. Dalal had already bandaged Halak’s left arm; a white bandage was twisted around his bicep, and Batra saw that an irregular rust-colored flower of blood, black around the edges, had bloomed on the bandage.
Dalal wrung water and disinfectant out from the cloth. The liquid in the white-enameled basin had turned a deep copper, and she motioned at Batra. “There, go empty that and refill it. You know where the kettle is.”
Pushing to her feet, Batra retrieved the basin and then turned aside and went down the hall, toward the front of the apartment, turning right into a small kitchen that didn’t have a replicator but did have a tiny stove and round tandoor oven whose interior was ceramic tile.
My God, what’s going on here?Batra leaned against the metal rim of Dalal’s sink and stared dully at the water—colored copper because of Halak’s blood. I don’t understand any of this.
Her muscles ached, and a twinge of pain flitted along the left side of her mouth. She had a bruise there, she knew. When she’d washed her hands in Dalal’s miniscule bathroom, she’d inspected a fist-sized, purple-black bruise staining her right cheek down to the angle of her jaw. Her tongue was sore but not too deeply cut; Dalal had already examined it, then ordered her to rinse out with warm water and some sort of medicinal salt that made the inside of Batra’s mouth feel as if it had caught on fire. Clearly, the old woman knew a few things about medicine.
Batra swirled the dirty water into a sink and then tipped out hot water that Dalal had boiled in a kettle into the basin. Steam billowed up in clouds, and Batra leaned forward, letting the moist warm air caress her battered face. The steam was soothing. She was aware, all too keenly, of how close a call they’d had, and she still wasn’t sure if she’d heard Halak correctly. What had he said?
Let her go. She’s not part of…she doesn’tknow.
Know what?Batra felt the metal basin warm under her fingers. This wasn’t just a robbery; we were targeted, and Samir knows why.
And was this the man who’d asked to marry her? What she’d said was that marriages weren’t made in Starfleet so they should wait, but she’d lied. (She was such a liar; she knew exactly why she wanted to put him off.) She knew now what she should’vesaid: Before, or after the funeral, darling?
Batra felt a ball of hysterical laughter bubble up in her throat, and she swallowed back, hard. Who was she to chastise him, anyway? She wasn’t telling him the whole truth; she didn’t have the guts to tell him what Stern had said.
(Batra had known the instant the ship’s chief medical officer Dr. Stern had come into the room. I’m afraid the news isn’t good, Lieutenant. About you having children, I mean.)
Secrets. Batra scooped up the basin. There were too many secrets: hers, his. She padded noiselessly down the hall on a thin carpet of an exotic kilin design, practically the only sign of luxury in the otherwise drab and dingy little apartment. Batra’s feet were bare; Dalal had taken Batra’s ruined sandals and promised others before they left. The carpet was soft against her battered soles and Batra paused a moment, enjoying the sensation.
Ahead, in the back room, she heard Dalal’s voice, low but very clear: “…might as well take out an advert, the two of you traipsing around like that. Why’d you bring her?”
Then, Halak, his voice weak: “She followed me. I don’t know how.”
Batra froze.
Dalal again: “You trust her?”
“To a certain point.” A pause. “I don’t know what she would do.”
Do?Batra’s fingers tightened around the basin. Do aboutwhat?
“What does she know?” Halak must’ve responded with some gesture because Dalal continued, her voice angry, “That’s no answer, boy. They knewwhere to find you.”
“What do you want me to say, Dalal? Ani knows what they all know. As for finding me…all they had to do was check the passenger manifest.”
“Which they wouldn’t knowto check less’n they were tipped off somehow.”
“And you don’t think they keep tabs on you?”
“None of your lip. They’ve no cause to bother me.”
“Just your being alive is reason enough to…” Halak’s voice dropped, and Batra strained to hear. She caught the last part. “…anyway, if not for Ani…”
“You’d be dead.” Dalal made an impatient, old woman sound. “Your Starfleet’s made you careless, coming here the way you did. Where are your wits?”
“Dalal, I came.”Halak sounded very weary. “You called. I came. So why don’t you finish bandaging me up and then…”
Batra heard a rustle of clothing, a slight grunt as Dalal got to her feet. “Where isthat girl with the water?” Dalal’s voice was coming closer to the hall, and Batra heard the shushof the woman’s slippers. “She should…”
Quickly, Batra covered the last few meters to the room just as Dalal shuffled into the hall. “Sorry,” she said, giving the old woman a tight smile, and the basin. “I waited until it had cooled down a little. It was scalding hot.”
She made a show of peering around the woman’s shoulders. “Is he awake yet?”
“Just now,” said Dalal, with an abrupt jerk of her head. Her lips were set in a thin, suspicious line, and Batra saw the woman’s black gaze drift to Batra’s bare feet.
“Oh, good,” said Batra, hurrying past. She crossed to Halak’s side and dropped to her knees. Her hands reached for his left, and their fingers laced. “How are you?”
Halak was still on his stomach, the cloth Dalal used to clean him draped over his skin, covering the wound. His color was off; he looked ashen and worn. But when he saw Batra, his lips curled into a tired smile. “I should ask the same of you,” he said. “You look terrible.”
“Thanks,” said Batra, knowing he was right. Her long black hair was matted with blood and mud. Her new pantaloons were ruined. She knew she’d never get them clean, and she wasn’t really sure she would ever wear them again even if she could. Long scratches scored the skin of her waist, where one of the men had fumbled for her pouch; from his nails, she guessed.