The Dangers of Alternating Current

[Sendai Riko 0]

The Dangers of Alternating Current

Lt. J.G. Sendai Riko

 

Riko was sincerely surprised. Other than K'Walus' first reaction to knock him on his keister while still in the shuttle, he had managed, for the time being anyway, to avoid receiving any niggling or serious injuries due to his unauthorized actions. She had promised him that he'd face the consequences later when the time was right, and he certainly wasn't looking forward to it, whatever it would be. He didn't even want to think about it, because a worried feverish imagination could engender a lot more fear and pain than the reality, and since he felt his actions justified, there was no point in punishing himself.

 

He left his quarters after freshening up, and slipped into a lift. After a moment, he slipped quietly into the control center and loitered silently in the back to find out what the consequences of Meyvn's own decision would be. Sojef hadn't sounded happy; but as far as that goes, when had he sounded happy in all the times that Riko had heard that grating bureaucratic voice? Not once, yet. Of course, whatever these rather technologically undeveloped people could throw up into space couldn't be that much of a worry for a stout warship like the Qob anyway, so the Bajoran certainly wasn't worried, but merely curious.

 

He kept thinking back to Meyvn and her dedication, and poise under extreme circumstances. Besides the deep caring she showed for her people, she was working her fingers to the bone, so to speak, to find a cure. Also, she had barely batted an eye at the first sight of the Klingons, and hardly seemed put out after having her molecules unexpectedly torn apart and reassembled on a shuttlecraft. Altogether she was a very admirable woman, who had the extreme misfortune of having TroNoQ drooling over her. Just then, a very naughty idea slipped into Riko's head, though a dangerous one, certainly. The proverbial light bulb over his head was a red alert beacon rather than the old-fashioned incandescent glass, but the Bajoran owed the Qel some payback and didn't heed the warning.

 

Whatever pebbles the aliens were going to sling at the Qob forgotton, Riko returned to the lift and rode until it vomited him out into a dark corridor. He walked a short distance, then stopped outside a set of wide doors. Standing outside of his destination, he put his lopsided, shy smile on and walked into the MRF.