Star Trek: Death's Angel by Kathleen Sky

Author:Kathleen Sky
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, Star Trek, Fiction
ISBN: 9780553147032
Publisher: Bantam Books
Published: 1981-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

“Well, she’s managed to pull this one off,” Dr. Rigel commented to McCoy after returning from Spiracles’s cabin. “That poor ambassador is scared out of his skin, and I can’t say I blame him. But I think Col. Schaeffer managed to make him feel a little better about the whole thing. He didn’t even need a tranquilizer. All I did was fix his oxygen, tuck him in and tell him to contact me if there was anything he needed. He said he’d prefer to contact Col. Schaeffer; and I don’t blame him for that, either. She can probably help him more than I can.”

McCoy looked up from his desk at the young veterinarian. There were several things about Elizabeth Schaeffer he didn’t fully understand, and he suspected Ruth might know something. “Look, I know your field isn’t exactly alien biology, but there’s something weird about Col. Schaeffer and I’d like to know what it is. She won’t let me sigmund her, and yes, she had the rightregulations and all thatbut the way people keep reacting to her! They keep forgetting she’s a blackjak, and I don’t understand it.”

“Well, that’s relatively simple to answer, even for me.” Ruth slid onto the corner of McCoy’s desk, which was one of her favorite perches. “It’s part of that mixed alien ancestry she has. We know the SSD picks their cadets for very specialized reasonsand in Schaeffer’s case I think it has something to do with her body chemistry, particularly the pheromones. Everyone gives off odorsthey’re simply a natural function and a lot of animals have odors that are meant to frighten anything that might want to eat them. And then of course at mating seasons, pheromones are used to attract a being of the same species and the opposite gender. It actually occurs in human beings, too, but on such a slight level that I don’t think we’re even consciously aware of it.”

“Ruth, are you trying to tell me that Col. Schaeffer is good at her job because of the way she smells? That’s too silly even for me to believe, and on this mission I’ve grown accustomed to believing at least six impossible things before breakfast every day.”

“No, I’m serious about it. I suspect Schaeffer is part Laudarian. They give off pheromones that ensure they’ll be liked; it’s a defense mechanism. And knowing the SSD, I’m sure Col. Schaeffer is aware of her effect on other beings. In fact, it strikes me as an extremely useful trait for a security agent.”

“But wouldn’t the odor have to vary depending on the kind of alien she was talking to?”

“Oh, of course. That’s part of the beauty of it. It’s a semiautomatic function; it can be dealt with, oh, a little like biofeedback. Schaeffer’s probably an expert at it. She can produce the right combination of chemical compounds and the right body odor that calms whoever she’s talking to. I’d love a chance to get her into my lab and study the chemical balances she must have to go through.

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