Star Trek: New Frontier: The Quiet Place by Peter David

Author:Peter David
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, Star Trek, Fiction
ISBN: 9780743455749
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 1999-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

He wasn't sure that he entirely knew what she was talking about. She was speaking so quickly, about so many things, and she didn't seem at all focused. He put a hand on her shoulder, and it felt remarkably cool to the touch. He was also a bit surprised to see that she was looking a little more tanned than she had earlier. Her skin was darkening a bit, and he wondered why that might be.

As caught up in the wonder of the moment as she was, she still shrugged his hand off her shoulder. Talk about presence of mind.

“Riella . . .” he began.

She turned and looked at him in surprise. “How do you know my name?”

“I have ways of learning things. Of learning your name . . . and learning of the Quiet Place.”

The effect the mention of those words had upon her was electric. She shrank back from him as if he had pulled out a vicious weapon and was about to gut her with it. “How . . . how could you . . . it . . . how . . .”

“You tend to do that quite a bit. Stammer out a series of barely connected thoughts. You might want to work on that.”

“Who are you?!”

“I'm Xyon.”

“I know that!”

“Then why did you ask?”

She put her face in her hands, and her fingers brushed against where her antennae had been. As if touching the now vacant area reminded her, she backed away from him while never taking her gaze from him. She was acting very much like a trapped animal.

“Shouldn't you be demanding that I take you home about now?” said Xyon, Ms arms folded across his chest. “I mean, that is where this is going, isn't it?”

“No. I . . .” She looked decidedly crestfallen. “I can't go home, I can't . . .” She turned and looked back at him as if truly seeing him for the first time. “What happened to those creatures? The ones who were chasing me?”

“I had a chat with them. They agreed to leave you alone.”

She looked at him with a trace of the wonderment that she'd been gazing out at the stars with. “Who are you? I mean, yes, I know your name is Xyon. But who are you?”

“No one important. I do what I feel like doing. There's not much to say beyond that.”

“It can't be that simple. You go around the galaxy helping people?”

“No. I just kill time, waiting to see what happens next in my life. Everything else is fairly incidental.”

“You're lying. I don't know why, but you are. Did you . . .” She hesitated to frame the question. “Did you kill them?”

“Kill who?”

“Those creatures, who were chasing me.”

“Oh. One of them, yes.”

“I could never do that. Kill something.”

“You would be amazed,” Xyon told her, “what you're capable of killing when it's trying to kill you.”

“I . . . suppose so. Have you killed a lot of people? Or things?”

“As many as I've had to.

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