That Sleep of Death by Terri Osborne

Author:Terri Osborne [Osborne, Terri]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Fiction
ISBN: 9781416550242
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2008-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

5

Beverly spent every moment between the conversation with Jean-Luc and the arrival of the envoy in her office studying the readouts of Deanna’s tests. Her blood work was perfect. There was no sign of traumatic brain injury. No sign of skull fracture. Her metabolic readings were exactly where they should have been. Organ function was perfectly—frustratingly—normal.

The sickbay door opened to allow Jean-Luc and the envoy entrance. There was something slightly different about the envoy; he seemed to be stronger than when he’d beamed aboard, even—she dared think—a bit more luminous. The hunch in his shoulders had abated somewhat. “Envoy, please. Have a seat right here. The doctor will be out—”

“The doctor is here,” Beverly said, grabbing a medical tricorder as she walked over. “Please, Envoy, if you would lie down on this bed for a few moments, we can take some measure of your health.”

Sellassars’s melodic voice sounded far more peaceful than Beverly would have been in his position. “But, Doctor, were we not supposed to meet this afternoon?”

“Yes,” Beverly said, fighting to keep any accusation from her voice. “But circumstances seem to have dictated otherwise.”

Picard reached forward, allowing the Kendarayan to use his arm for support as he got onto the biobed. No sooner had Sellassars’s hand left his arm than Beverly leaned over and whispered in Jean-Luc’s ear, “Has he touched your skin?”

Picard quickly shook his head.

Beverly let a sigh of relief drift through her lips. “Envoy,” she began, turning toward Sellassars, “how many encounters with other species has your kind had?”

“Only the Dominion and those who serve them,” Sellassars replied.

“The Vorta?” Picard asked.

“Yes,” Sellassars said. “The Vorta, the Karemma, and many others—including the Jem’Hadar.”

“You have information that will help us battle them?”

While Jean-Luc had the envoy distracted, Beverly wheeled over a cart of testing equipment. Okay, Beverly, think. This is probably going to be the only chance at this you get. She grabbed a hypo, pressing it against what looked to be a vein on the inside of the envoy’s elbow. Surprisingly, it refused to extract any blood. She tried again, this time on the back of the envoy’s hand.

And had no luck there, either.

“Sellassars,” she said, “could I ask you a few questions?”

“Having difficulty with your kilogram of flesh, Dr. Crusher?” the envoy said. With his left hand, he ran his palm over the very same spot that Beverly had tried the first time. She raised an eyebrow at the fact that the skin was suddenly no longer iridescent, looking alarmingly human. “Make your attempt now, Doctor, quickly. Before they return to their posts.”

Beverly bit the question back, just long enough to get the hypospray to the Kendarayan’s skin. He was right. She was able to draw two vials of blood before the hypospray stopped working again. “Envoy, before what return to their posts?” she finally asked.

“What you see here as one being,” he said, gesturing toward his own body, “is merely an illusion made by your own eyes.”

“You are really two beings?” she asked. “One

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