Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Soul Key by Olivia Woods

Author:Olivia Woods
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Science Fiction, Star Trek, Fiction
ISBN: 9781439107928
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2009-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

Ignoring the two scowling Klingon soldiers who flanked the doorway to the guest quarters on deck 6, Iliana barked her access code into the bulkhead-mounted panel. It wasn’t at all difficult to forget about the hulking armored sentinels that stood on either side of her; the moment she glimpsed the man on the other side of the sliding hatch, she instantly forgot about everything else.

He was sitting on the protruding hard shelf that passed for a bed aboard every Klingon warship she had ever seen, his elbows resting on his knees as he stared at the deck in apparent contemplation. He looked up at her as the door opened, his face leaner and harder than the one she remembered, but in a pleasing way. His shapeless orange prison fatigues failed to hide his lean and powerful physique, which clearly did not need to be accentuated by the flattering shape of Cardassian military armor.

Ataan appeared to have aged very well indeed.

“May I come in?” she asked quietly.

He frowned and nodded, clearly puzzled by the courtesy, as well as more than a little suspicious of it. As Iliana stepped inside, he rose to his feet in a show of either respect or defiance, or perhaps both.

Iliana let the door slide closed behind her before she spoke again. “Please sit down,” she told him.

He did as she asked, and she took the single chair with which the small cabin had been outfitted. The bareness of the room reminded Iliana of the stark cell she’d been assigned when she had first joined the Obsidian Order.

They sat in silence for a few moments. Iliana thought she knew what she would say when she went to see him, but now that the moment was finally upon her, she was finding it hard to recall how she wanted to begin.

Fortunately, Ataan spared her the trouble. “I understand I have you to thank for my release,” he said.

“That’s right,” Iliana said. Her throat was dry, and her words came out as a sandpaper whisper. She swallowed and tried again. “That’s right,” she repeated, more clearly this time. “The charges against you—conspiracy, murder, treason, all of them—have been summarily dropped.”

Frowning, he folded his arms across his chest. “May I ask why?”

“Does that really matter?”

Ataan’s eyes panned quickly across his surroundings before his gaze settled again on Iliana. “If I’m to understand my unusual new circumstances—being brought aboard this ship at the summons of Bajor’s Intendant—then yes,” he said, smiling crookedly. “It really does matter.”

“I see your point,” Iliana said. “Regent Martok has tasked me with investigating rumors of sedition on Bajor—”

“I don’t know anything about that,” Ataan said firmly.

“—and I was able to persuade the regent that you could be quite helpful in that regard,” she continued, speaking over his denial. “Any assistance you could provide would certainly help in my vindicating you.”

“I thought you said I had been exonerated.”

“I said that the charges had been dropped,” Iliana reminded him. “I never said that anyone really believes you’re innocent.”

“I see.

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