Breakdowns Read online

  Gomez attached the rank pin to Conlon’s collar. “You earned it, Nancy. Hell, if helping install a warp core and starting it up in less than an hour doesn’t qualify you for chief engineer, I don’t know what does.”

  “I’m not sure what to say,” Conlon said.

  Gold grinned. “‘Thank you’ works.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said quickly. “Thank you both, sirs. I hope I can live up to this.”

  “You will.”

  In turn, Gomez doled out promotions to Songmin Wong and Anthony Shabalala, both also to lieutenant junior grade. Shabalala was also taking over the alpha-shift tactical officer duties from the late David McAllan; Wong was remaining alpha-shift conn officer.

  Then Corsi stepped forward. “The officers don’t get all the fun here. Vance Hawkins, step forward.”

  Hawkins did so at full attention, which looked amusing to Gomez’s eyes, since he was still wearing civilian clothing.

  “I hereby promote you to the rank of chief petty officer, and appoint you deputy chief of security.” She allowed a small smile. “You and Robins are going to be the only ones I can count on for a while, and I want you to help me beat the new recruits into shape.”

  “I won’t disappoint you, sir.”

  “Damn straight you won’t,” Corsi said, meaning every word of it.

  Still, Gomez thought, Domenica sounds a bit more playful than usual. Maybe that trip with Fabian did her some good.

  “Now then,” Gold said, “there’s a fine old Jewish tradition: When major life events happen, we respond by gathering in a large group and eating copious amounts of food. Conveniently, I married the best cook on the planet to provide us with the latter. So, if you’ll follow me…”

  Gold led the other sixteen inside. As soon as he opened the front door, Gomez caught a whiff of the kitchen. Rachel had made some amazing dishes over the last several days that Gomez had been spending at the house, but this beat all of them into olfactory heaven: fish, chicken, beef, assorted sauces and soups, and fresh bread that Gomez knew would melt in her mouth.

  It’s going to be very hard to go back to replicated food after this, she thought.

  Gold had set up the large wooden table in the dining room with eighteen chairs—including one specially modified for Pattie—and invited everyone to take a seat as Rachel brought in the matzo-ball soup.

  After the third sip, Abramowitz turned to Gold. “Captain?”

  “Yes, Abramowitz?”

  “I was wrong.”

  Gold smiled. Gomez, for her part, frowned, and wondered what that was about.

  Soon, people were telling stories. Hawkins talked about one of his and Drew’s shore leave misadventures, which led to Stevens telling a similar story about a bar crawl he and Duffy had engaged in during the war shortly after Stevens signed on to the da Vinci. (Gomez was torn between anger and gratitude that Kieran had never told her the full story.) Wetzel described the entertaining process of separating Robins’s and Lipinski’s hair after it was fused together, with Robins adding colorful commentary and Conlon—the instigator of the practical joke—sinking deeper into her chair. Blue then told a tale of her, Barnak, Feliciano, Frnats, and Orthak on leave on Starbase 96, when some idiot had a problem with a group of five people from five different species sitting together that almost led to a brawl, and did lead to the person in question having five different drinks spilled on his head. Lense even told a story about her and Emmett.

  Gold then asked Soloman, “Were you able to restore any of Emmett?”

  “Not as such. I’m afraid that the EMH on the da Vinci will be akin to what he was when he was first installed.” He turned to Lense. “I’m sorry, Doctor. I did attempt to retrieve the data, but the damage was too extensive.”

  “It’s all right,” Lense said. “I was hoping he might be restored, but I wasn’t really counting on it. I don’t think I want to call this one Emmett, though.”

  The stories continued through the fish course, the chicken course, the beef course, and dessert. As he was polishing off his baklava, Stevens decided to do something he’d never done before.

  He told the Tellarite story.

  Gomez forced herself to keep her composure, but she appreciated what Fabian was doing. Everyone here (except Rachel) had heard the Tellarite story—from Kieran. He loved recounting it, though it was hard to say which he enjoyed more: embarrassing Fabian by telling it behind his back or embarrassing Fabian by telling it in front of him.

  By telling it now, Fabian assured everyone that none of the dead would be forgotten, but that the living were, as Gold had said, moving on.

  Eventually, the party broke up, though some decided to stick around for coffee, tea, and fruit in the living room. More stories were exchanged, and some started talking about the modifications and improvements to the da Vinci—the addition of guest quarters, for example, as well as the expansion of the hololab, the more versatile tractor beams, and the industrial replicator.

  Sonya Gomez wasn’t sure if she was going to be able to face going back up there. It had been one thing to reconcile her own feelings of anger toward Gold and her ambivalence about Kieran. Even there, she still, weeks later, had no idea what answer she was going to give Kieran to his marriage proposal. All she knew for sure was that she missed him terribly.

  Tomorrow, she’d find out if she could go on without him.

  About the Author

  KEITH R.A. DECANDIDO is the codeveloper of Star Trek: S.C.E., and has previously written Fatal Error, Cold Fusion, Here There Be Monsters, and the two-part War Stories; he also cowrote the two-part Invincible with David Mack. His other Star Trek work ranges from the novels Diplomatic Implausibility and Demons of Air and Darkness to the two-book series The Brave and the Bold (the first single story to encompass all five TV shows) to the comic book Perchance to Dream to the novella “Horn and Ivory.” Keith is flooding the market with his prose at the end of 2003. His short fiction will grace the pages of Deep Space Nine: Prophecy and Change and New Frontier: No Limits in September and October; October will also see the release of his Star Trek The Lost Era novel The Art of the Impossible; and he’ll be debuting his Star Trek: I.K.S. Gorkon series in November and December with the books A Good Day to Die and Honor Bound—these will be the first Star Trek novels to focus exclusively on the franchise’s most popular aliens, the Klingons. Keith, whose work has been praised by Publishers Weekly, TV Zone, Dreamwatch, Cinescape, and several Web-zines, is also the editor of the groundbreaking anthology Imaginings, the author of many novels, short stories, and nonfiction books in the worlds of Buffy, Farscape, Andromeda, Marvel Comics, Xena, Doctor Who, and many more items that continue to keep him from ever getting enough sleep. You can tell him how sick unto death you are of him by e-mailing him at [email protected], laugh at his Web site at DeCandido.net, and justify his pitiful existence by joining his official fan club at KRADfanclub.com.