Star Trek(91)
She kissed him, making the rest of her case without words. He responded in kind, giving himself over to the loving embrace he had craved for so long. But one lingering thought remained in the back of his mind: What if it’s already too late?
16
July 25, 2164
Orion homeworld
MARAS WAS AWOKEN from her nap by the sound of Navaar storming into the Sisters’ suite, cursing and shouting. She turned her head to gaze sleepily at her eldest sister. D’Nesh, who was getting her hair washed for her by a nude male Risian slave, raised her head in annoyance. “What’s going on?”
Navaar strode over to the middle sister and answered her question. “It’s that gisjacheh human! That scrawny drunkard, Charlemagne Hua.”
“What’s he done?”
“A new drug has begun to appear on the colonies he supplies. They’re calling it the Venus drug. It’s said to increase its users’ sexual allure and potency. To enhance their masculine or feminine attributes—and make them all but irresistible.”
Maras stretched kittenishly on the couch, changing position to give her a better view of D’Nesh’s reaction. Her curly-haired sister showed immediate recognition, but then stopped herself and spoke noncommittally. “So that would mean . . .”
“Don’t you get it, Neshie? He’s using Orion hormones! Selling them to—to rabble as a common street drug! Our gift, our sacred gift of power, and he, he, he reduces it to a, a—” She broke off, unable to find the words.
Maras rolled off the couch and slinked over to Navaar, putting her arms on her big sister’s shoulders. “You’re sad. Can I help?”
Navaar turned into her embrace, her hand reflexively going to clasp Maras’s. “Oh, sweetie.” They fell into a hug, and Maras felt Navaar’s tension easing. “I love you for asking, dear, but no, don’t worry about it. This is big-sister stuff.”
D’Nesh tossed Maras an annoyed glare that she ignored. “How did he manage to replicate our hormones? It’s been tried before—it’s not easy.”
“I had Honar-Des check the medical supplies,” Navaar replied. “His stock of hormonal supplements has been broken into. Half his supply was replaced with placebos.” D’Nesh looked worried. When Navaar broke free of Maras’s embrace and began to pace the room, her back to D’Nesh, the middle sister grabbed a mirror and looked herself over. After a moment, she sighed, seeming reassured. Not that that proved anything, Maras reflected; it could very well be that the placebo effect had prompted her body to produce more hormones of its own. It had been known to happen.
“I just wish I knew how the shechjuk even knew the pills existed. I interrogated Honar-Des thoroughly before I had him perform Vyun-pa-shan, and he swore on his children’s lives that neither he nor any of his staff had revealed their existence.” Maras pouted on hearing that Navaar had ordered her lifelong doctor to kill himself. He’d been kind, and had always given her candy after her exams. But Navaar knew what she was doing. At least Vyun-pa-shan was quick and painless. It was the least the old dear had deserved.
“Well, it’s easy enough to find out,” D’Nesh told her, spreading her hands. “Rip the answers out of Hua before we rip his heart out.”
Navaar grimaced. “I can’t. We need him as an inroad to Federation space, now that you’ve cost us the Mazarites,” she finished pointedly. D’Nesh rolled her eyes. “Don’t take this lightly!” Navaar chastised her. “This whole alliance is falling apart. We lost Zankor. Garos has proved unreliable—we can’t risk letting him act unsupervised again. And Jofirek is barely worth the effort of keeping around. All while the Federation is getting bigger and stronger. This is not going the way I planned!”
Maras moved up to her again and nuzzled the side of Navaar’s head with her own. “Are the purple lizard people still our friends?”
Navaar chuckled, and Maras could feel her cheek pulling back in a smile. “Yes, sweet one. Maltuvis has proven a worthier ally than any of these others.”
“Good. They have cute eyes.”
Navaar stepped away and sighed, shaking her head at Maras fondly. “I envy you sometimes, baby sister. Life is so simple for you.” She tousled the hair atop Maras’s head and went back to D’Nesh to begin planning their next move. Maras was glad she’d made her big sister feel better.
After all, the poor dear could be rather slow on the uptake. She and D’Nesh had gotten where they were through their pheromones, not their intellects. And so they’d failed to notice some important clues. Mainly it was a matter of timing. Maras had noted that D’Nesh was beginning to lose her luster a bit, her control over her slaves weakening. The middle sister had gone to visit Honar-Des (the poor fellow), and since then she’d been as sexy as ever, if not more so. Conclusion: She’d been prescribed a hormonal supplement, the kind Navaar took when she thought Maras wouldn’t notice. But Maras noticed everything she could—like the fact that Jofirek had been in the clinic at the same time as D’Nesh’s visit. And the elderly Agaron had then brought Charlemagne Hua into the alliance. Navaar had been watching Hua clandestinely during that party where he had first proposed selling Orion hormones as a drug, but Maras, as was her habit, had watched the whole room, and noted Jofirek’s body language as Hua made the offer. He had been quite unsurprised and untroubled by the suggestion, unlike everyone else in the room. Which would make perfect sense if he’d overheard something about the hormone supplements while in the clinic, then made Hua an offer afterward.