Star Trek: The Original Series - 131 - Rihannsu 5 - The Empty Chair by Diane Duane

Author:Diane Duane [Duane, Diane]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, General, Science Fiction, Space Opera, Adventure, Star Trek Fiction, Life on Other Planets
ISBN: 9781416508915
Publisher: Star Trek
Published: 2007-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

McCoy watched her go, and as the door closed behind her, looked over at Jim. “And as for you,” he said. “How are you holding up?”

“Well enough,” Jim said. “I’m a little more nervous than I was at Artaleirh, I’ll admit that much. We don’t have the guaranteed early warning of what’s waiting for us that we did before. But we’ve got a good force assembled for an intermediate engagement like this. Even if they threw all of Grand Fleet at us.”

“Perish the thought,” McCoy said, in genuine horror.

“Bones, they don’t dare,” Jim said. “There are still the Klingons to think about. If the Romulans pull everything out of the colony spaces, that whole side of the Star Empire will be hip-deep in Klingons in just a few days. To this extent, but no further, a de facto two front war is a good thing.” He rubbed his face.

“You getting enough sleep?” McCoy said.

“I’ll sleep in October,” Jim said.

“Don’t get cute with your old family doctor,” McCoy said. “You need your edge more than usual, right now. I’ll medicate you if I have to.”

“All right, all right.” Jim stretched, straightened himself. “Anything else I need to know about?”

“Just Gurrhim’s condition. Improving.”

“Good. Will he be all right during the battle?”

“You handle it like the last one,” McCoy said, “and don’t get us blown up, and he’ll be just fine.”

Jim grinned, nodded, and was gone.

With a sigh McCoy turned back to his desk and looked down at the New Waite deck again, reaching out to put it away. Then he paused. On an impulse, he made a bet with himself, then turned over the top card of the third “cut” deck.

The card showed a robed woman seated on a throne, in profile, very erect and still, and crowned. In one hand, point up, she held a sword. Behind her, in a windy sky, storm clouds blew, tattering past. At her feet sat a small black cat with a thoughtful look in its eyes; not in profile, but looking out of the card at the one who read.

Uh-oh, McCoy thought, and looked at the Queen of Swords for a moment, as thoughtful as the cat. The card was replete with meaning, as all the cards were, from the superficial to the profound. Sorrow, mourning, separation, long absence, those were the general indications. But McCoy was tempted for the moment, however unusual it might be, to take the card literally at face value. The heart of the problem of the moment was a woman with a sword. The card’s usual meaning, when read in the personal mode, indicated a woman in a position of power-though not a position that would let her use it. More generally, it suggested that trouble was coming, and a very bad time.

Didn’t need a piece of plastic to tell me that, he thought, picking up the card along with the rest of them. He tapped them together, gave them one last quick shuffle, slipped them back into their packet and tossed them into a desk drawer, then went off to check on Gurrhim.

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