Well of Souls

“I’m sorry,” he said again, chastened. “It’s just that you don’t understand.”

“Don’t I? Well then,” Batra said, folding her arms over an emerald-green, short-sleeved choli that showed off her trim waist and a sparkling garnet tucked in her navel, “maybe you’ll just explain it to me.”

“There’s nothing to explain.”

Batra gave a breathy laugh that wasn’t really a laugh at all. “Oh, no? Let me refresh your memory, Commander.What Irecall was that we—emphasis on the we—made plans to take our R and R together,”she said this very distinctly, as if she were speaking Vulcan to a Klingon tourist who hadn’t the foggiest. “As I recall, we had no intention of setting one toe on Farius Prime, much less traipsing around a dusty bazaar, under a hot sun. We said Lake Cataria. Betazed? That ring a bell?”

“I’m not stupid, Ani.” Halak scooped a hand through his crop of close-cut black curls and blew out. “I was going to meet you on Betazed sooner or later.”

Batra arched one black eyebrow, her left. “Emphasis on later, I’m sure. We were supposed to leave together. We were supposed to be having that serious talk two people who supposedly love each other usually have when they’re trying to decide if they can stand each other’s company for the long haul.”

“I can stand your company, Ani.” Halak’s lips twitched, and he tried not to smile. (God, no, then he’d get a lecture about how he wasn’t taking her seriously.)“You’re just a pain in the neck.”

She didn’t smile. “Yes, I am your particular little pain, and you wouldn’t have it any other way. So you want to explain why you’ve been looking to ditch me ever since I showed up at Starbase 5?”

“Because I wasn’t expecting you. And how did you find me, anyway? I didn’t leave word where I was going.”

“Woman’s intuition.”

Halak barked a laugh that sounded as if he’d cracked a dry branch over his knee. “Farius Prime is the firstplace a woman thinks about? Come on, Ani, that’s no answer, and you know it. How did you find out?”

Batra licked her lips, and for an instant, it crossed Halak’s mind that she might be getting ready to lie.

“Well, I just did,”she said, tersely. She mopped her forehead with the back of one hand. “Look, it’s too hot to stand here, arguing. What difference does it make, anyway, and especially now? I’m here, I’m hot, I’m thirsty, and my mouth has so much sand my teeth are getting a nice buff and shine. I think it’s high time we get someplace cool, and I buy you a drink. Don’t you agree?”

“No.” His ankle was killing him. “I don’t want a drink. I just want to…”

“Good,” said Batra, linking her arm through his. She pulled him toward the nearest café. “I’m parched.”

They made Halak check his phaser at the door. Batra’s eyebrows headed for her hairline when she saw the weapon.

“Personal carry. No regulation against that.” Halak gave a half-shrug. “You never know.”

She didn’t reply. They ordered then drank in silence, and Halak had almost finished with his second Saurian brandy when Batra said, “Pe

Halak shook his head. “They’re not worth that much.”

“Samir, are we going to talk about it?”

Halak lifted his glass to his lips. “No.”

“Are you like this all the time, or do you practice a lot when you’re alone?”

“Actually, I save it all up for you,” said Halak, and then drained the rest of his drink. He craned his neck, peering around Batra for the waitress.

“Probably because I’m the only one aboard patient enough to put up with you.”

“No, you’re the only one aboard luckyenough.” Halak’s eyes swept the café. The interior was very dark and close, smelling of mint tea, sugary roasted almonds, and the sour tang of Trakian ale. Halak spotted one of the café’s waitresses: an Atrean, dressed in a tight weave of hip-hugging silver mesh that began below her bejeweled navel and ended at a spot barely brazing the underside of her buttocks; silver strappy sandals that threaded up to mid-calf; a mane of silver hair that coiled in strategic swaths over her breasts; and very little else. Halak whistled, and when she looked his way, he pointed to his glass and held up a finger.

“You really need another?” asked Batra.

“You’re not going to let us leave until we talk. I’m apt to get dry.”

“Uh-huh,” said Batra. She sipped at a tall glass of iced Molov mint tea. “Well, we could talk about your leaving Enterprisewithout me. Or we could talk about why we’re on a planet with no redeeming virtues.”

Halak snorted, a humorless exhalation through his nose. “I don’t like either of those topics.”

“Well, I…” Batra began but stopped when the Atrean expertly tacked a napkin to the table with a fresh glass of brandy and retrieved Halak’s empty. The woman lingered a moment longer, bending so that her hair had to adjust by curling and rethreading itself, like a mat of snakes, to keep her breasts covered up. Even so, Halak got a good glimpse before the Atrean straightened, flashed a tiny smile to Halak, and turned on her heel, her long shank of hair flaring to reveal the small of her naked back. Halak’s head swiveled to watch her go.

“Well, I want to know,” said Batra, reaching across and taking Halak by the chin. She pulled his head around but let her fingers linger over the raised ridge of a thin white scar that skittered over his left jaw. “And I want us to make it to Betazed in one piece.”

Halak grabbed her hand and pressed his lips to her fingers. “We’ll make it. We would have made it faster if you hadn’t followed me.”

Batra retrieved her hand. “But I have and we’re here. You want to talk about that?”

Halak took a sip of the strong orange liquor, swallowed, and inhaled through his teeth against the burn. “Ani, if I had wanted to tell you, I would have. I know that we’ve been together now for some time…”

“Six months. Half a year.”

“Half a year. But in every relationship there has to be privacy. Even telepaths have places in their minds they keep locked.”

“Everyone has a right to privacy. But there’s a difference between privacy and secrets. The way I see it, this is about you keeping secrets.”

“What secrets are you referring to, Ani?”

“You want me to make a list?”

Halak gave a mirthless laugh. “That many? We only have a week’s leave.”

“Okay, then how about you and I? Where do we go from here?”

Halak reached across the table and took her hands in his. “I know where I’mgoing—to Betazed with the woman I love. Now, as I recall, I asked you a question about two weeks ago. It was the same question I asked you several months ago. Both times, you said you wanted to think. Well, you’ve thought and I’ve waited. You want to tell me now?”

Even through the haze, Halak saw the color rise in Batra’s cheeks. “No,” she said. Her eyes drifted to the table. “Or, maybe…I don’t know. It’s so sudden. When you asked the first time, we’d only known each other two months.”

“Ten weeks.” Halak gave her hands a squeeze. “Four weeks longer than I needed to know for sure. But I didn’t want you to think I was an impulsive guy.”

“Oh, never that.” Her eyes still didn’t meet his. “No, I know you’re not impulsive, Samir. You may be opinionated, and you’re lucky Captain Garrett…”

“Let’s not talk about Garrett, all right?” Halak softened the admonition by ru

“And that’s precisely my point,” said Batra, freeing her hand. “This was…this isour time. And yet we’re here, on Farius Prime, where no one in his right mind goes, not if he wants to stay out of trouble. But that’s your problem, isn’t it? That you’re always in trouble?”