Devereux surprised herself by managing to maintain eye contact as she told him, "My Tactical Officer believes that might represent some kind of danger to me."
The Heftaur looked thoughtful. After a moment, he met her gaze squarely. "He is correct."
Devereux noted that there was no trace of a smile on Tarkanan's lips as he said this. Yet, there was also nothing threatening in his posture either. If he was preparing to initiate an attack on her, he was hiding it well. He must have recognized that she was studying him for he broke into a gentle smile.
"I intend no harm to you, Captain," he went on. "Nor to your ship or any member of your crew."
She felt a sense of relief and allowed herself to relax slightly. Something about their exchange, though, still troubled her. She tried to dismiss it as lingering doubts from her conversation with Hawkes. If there were baseless, she decided, she doubted that Tarkanan would be offended by her questions. Based on her experience with the Heftaur ambassador so far, she had trouble imagining what he might find offensive. She suspected that honesty was not among them.
"I believe you," she told him gravely, her eyes searching his. "The question is: Do you intend to harm anyone else?"
There was only the briefest pause before Tarkanan answered. "No, Captain, I do not." His expression was as serious as Devereux had ever seen it.
Devereux frowned. "But there's something?"
Tarkanan met her eyes. She saw something almost haunted in them as he spoke. "I intend no violence, Captain," he said. His voice was soft, almost halting in its cadence, as if he were exercising considerable restraint. "However," he went on, "I fear that it will be difficult to avoid all violence."
Devereux continued to study the Heftaur elder's face, but his expression gave her no further clue as to what he meant. She suspected that he referred to the considerable tensions between the different diplomatic parties, but his disquiet seemed to come from something or somewhere far deeper.
A long moment passed during which neither Devereux nor Tarkanan spoke. Then, like a sun burning away fog, Tarkanan's smile returned.
"Shall we continue, Captain?"
#
[during the reception]
Rusty stared down at the report Choy had given him. He had already been placed in a less than pleasant frame of mind by the Captain's refusal to let him attend the reception, now his engineering team's investigation had failed to provide any reason for the erratic system malfunctions that had been plaguing the ship's systems during the past few days. Privately, Rusty suspected that someone from one of the diplomatic delegations was responsible. So far, though he had no proof to support his suspicions, nor in fact any evidence of what was causing the recurring malfunctions—as minor as they were—in the first place.
Although he noted that Choy remained several paces away from him as he read the results again, he chose to ignore it, not even attempting to soften his irritated stance.
"Nothing, huh?" he asked. He knew his tone sounded harsh; he did not care.
"No, Chief," Choy answered him, almost meekly. She swallowed and then said, "Nothing happened while we were there, so it was hard to trace back to a root cause."
Rusty thrust the tablet back at her. She flinched before reaching out to take it. He felt mildly guilty for her reaction, but not enough to make even a faint gesture of apology.
"I guess I'll have to do it myself," he announced, his words coming out in almost a snarl. She stared at Choy. "Stay here." He turned and looked around. "Aruna, Benitez, you're with me." He caught a glimpse of Choy's crushed expression, but only shook his head and reached for a nearby tool case. He headed for the hatch with Aruna and Benitez close on his heels.
The trio said nothing as Rusty led them down the passageways. He sensed rather than saw them exchange several uneasy glances. Good, he thought. Keep 'em on their toes.
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