they're stupid enough to incriminate themselves, we'll take advantage
of it. If not, this confrontation, assuming it's successful, will
raise Malista's self-esteem and solve the problem without our
'official' intervention."
"I still don't see why I can't be out there where----" Harry began for
the fourteenth time in twenty minutes.
"Because that's not the plan," Torres snarled impatiently. "She'd
start looking at you and forget her lines. Or worry about what you're
thinking about what she's saying. And you HAVE to stay QUIET!
Remember, she thinks we're monitoring this from the Security Office.
We DON'T want her to know we're here so she'll handle it herself!"
"Well, where is she?" Tom reiterated for the twelfth time in the SAME
twenty minutes.
B'Elanna turned her fiery scowl on him. She was about to lose all
patience with both Tom and Harry and blast them both verbally, when
she heard the entrance to the holodeck hiss open. "The Delaneys are
here."
"Where's Malista?" The question came from four directions at once as
the breathless redheaded sisters slid behind the concealing curtain
and climbed up the bleachers to seat themselves on the third row up.
"George is bringing her," Jenny snapped irritably. "She almost flaked
out on us again. That girl has NO backbone!"
Tom, Harry, and B'Elanna bridled defensively at that remark, but
before they could respond, Megan Delaney contradicted her sister.
"Yes, she does. You should have seen her standing eye to eye and toe
to toe with---"
Megan's hand flew to her mouth as she immediately suppressed what she
intended to say. For all her famed lack of discretion, she had managed
to avoid describing the Paris/Shadow confrontation on the planet. And
now? Now she almost let it slip in front of the captain, the first
officer...Damn! Everyone was staring at her.
"So where are Malista and Natwick?" Harry Kim insisted.
Jenny, covering for her sister's loss of composure, quickly replied,
"She started trying to back out again. George was telling her about
something called ---what was it, Meg? bush something."
"Bushido," supplied a subdued Megan . "Something to do with honor and
fighting, I think."
"What? What the hell does that have to do---" Paris began.
"I told you. She was trying to back out of the whole thing. George was
trying to convince her that she has to defend her name and fight back.
He was trying to get her to agree that this is a matter of honor,"
Jenny explained.
"Was he making any progress?" Torres asked sardonically. She didn't
think so. Her own mother had never had much luck appealing to
B'Elanna's sense of family honor in order to gain her obedience or
compliance in following Klingon traditions.
"I don't think so," Megan sighed. "She may be sweet and easy-going,
but she sure can be hard-headed. You think it's a family
characteristic, Tom? Oh. Sorry. I forgot. She's not really your
sister." Torres stared at the redhead disbelievingly. Megan ignored
the chief engineer and continued, "Anyway, she totally refused to wear
the dancing girl costume we provided. She's been dragging her heels
all the way. She said she'll confront them, but she's not letting us
use the hologram of her dancing after all. She says she'll let us make
a recording of her dancing later. In private. For Harry's eyes only.
I'll be surprised if she doesn't just cancel the whole thing while
she's at it. Or tell George to tell us she's not going through with
it."
"Maybe I should go check on them?" Ensign Kim suggested, bounding to
his feet. Inaction and not knowing what was going on was driving him
insane by degrees. Harry told himself he was merely concerned. Maybe
he'd caught the overprotective bug from Tom? He certainly was not
jealous because Malista was alone with another man. Even if it was the
one man who had almost seduced her once before in a vulnerable moment.
There was no need for him to feel threatened. Of course not.
Torres snagged Kim's arm and thrust him back towards the bleachers.
"Leave them alone. I think they may have some issues they need to deal
with before Malista is ready to deal with this one."
"George will get her here. He knows she has to do this," Jenny
insisted.
"Besides," her twin added, "George seems to have a calming effect on
her."
Not comforted in the slightest, Harry Kim threw a discomfited glance
at Megan, and gauged his chances of getting past B'Elanna to the
exit-and concluded he had absolutely no chance at all. He finally
faded reluctantly back into place on the bleacher to wait impatiently,
though he bounced his feet incessantly in an attempt to work off
excess energy.
"I have every confidence in Mr. Natwick's ability to carry out his
assignment," Tuvok stated firmly. "He is quite competent in his duties
as a Security Officer."
"Oh, that sterling reference alone makes me feel so-o-o-o much
better," Tom drawled, but subsided under the steel gray glance of his
captain. They all settled down to await the arrival of the most
important participant in the planned scenario.
***********
"George, I can't fight for my family honor if I don't have any!"
Malista shouted. She looked for all the world like a trapped kitten.
She'd backed herself into the corner of her room nearest the door and
wrapped her arms around herself. She felt terribly self-conscious
being alone with him in her quarters while wearing her circus tights
and robe. Somehow it felt odd. Awkward. It was strange but she'd never
felt quite so exposed when she wore this costume in her circus program
on the holodeck.
"Any family? Or any honor?" Natwick wasn't sure he understood her
response.
"Either. Both. My father disowned me," she confessed miserably.
Natwick, arms crossed over his massively muscular chest, just stared
down at her for a moment wearing his most stoic expression. He didn't
try to close the distance between them. She might bolt. 'Okay,' he
thought dispassionately. 'Screw the honor code approach. Time for a
new angle.'
"Malista, do you remember when you knocked me on my butt?"
That caught her attention all right. He could tell that she had
immediately stopped her internal preparation of arguments to counter
his 'code of honor' rationale. She frowned at him, thrown by the
sudden change in subject. "Do I remember---of course, I
remember---George! Did I ever apologize? I meant to---"
"As a matter of fact, you did, but then you told me I deserved it. And
you were right, but not for the reason you thought."
Now he had her. Her interest was engaged and she immediately became
less defensive and self-conscious. Her arms dropped to her sides as
she took a step towards him, frowning even more deeply as she tried to
puzzle out his meaning. "Why? What do you mean?"
"Malista, WHY did you knock me down in that self-defense class? YOU
got violent. With ME." His voice reve
aled that he still wasn't quite
over his own astonishment. "I'm taller than you. I'm heavier than you.
And, God knows, I have more training than you do! Since I was
seventeen and began my training at Starfleet Academy, and all
throughout my Starfleet career, up until that moment, no one---NO
ONE---had ever managed to knock me flat like that. Why do you suppose
that is?" Natwick felt almost out of breath. That was probably the
greatest total number of sentences he'd strung together in months,
except for when he was teaching. Or talking to Malista Shadow. Damn.
Something about this woman always made him behave
uncharacteristically. Now, she was turning him into a blabbermouth!
But if it would help her.....
She hesitated, trying to come up with an acceptable answer. "Uh, I
caught you by surprise?"
"You did that," he agreed, shaking his head. "But that just tells me
why you succeeded. I didn't expect your reaction. That and the fact
that I underestimated you. I didn't think you had the aggressive
instincts to come after me. I thought you'd take the chance I offered
you to give Kim a few bruises and feel better for doing it. I'm
usually pretty good about judging the students in my classes. A lot of
people may not like my methods, but they work and that means those I
teach learn to defend themselves and don't get themselves killed
needlessly. But you never answered my original question. Why?"
"Why what?" She drew closer, not noticing that he had been steadily
walking backwards until he seated himself on the couch. It felt
awkward to remain standing so she sat down but remained bolt upright
in the armchair facing him. She was not ready to lower her guard,
suspecting a verbal trap of some kind and trying to prepare herself
for it.
"Why did you attack me?" His tone was accusatory.
"I didn't *attack* you!" she protested breathlessly, looking
positively horrified at his interpretation of the event.
He rubbed his stomach in the exact place she'd struck him with the end
of the plastic pipe during the confrontation. "Didn't feel like a love
pat," Natwick said shortly. "You knocked me flat on my back in front
of the whole self-defense class. Which didn't help my reputation any."
Now Shadow was thoroughly confused. The big man didn't seem angry. He
was just stating facts. She didn't understand what he was getting at.
"George, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."
"No, you shouldn't apologize. That's my point," he said patiently,
fastening deep brown eyes on hers. "Did you attack me for a reason? Or
just for fun?"
"No, of course it wasn't for fun. I didn't mean to hurt you," she
began earnestly, but then forced herself to be honest. "Well, not
exactly. But you were trying to set Harry up to take a beating in that
class! For no reason at all."
The muscular Security Officer's mouth twisted in a half-smile. "Oh, I
had a reason. It just didn't prove to be valid. I was attracted to
you, Malista. Even then," he added as she shook her head in automatic
denial. "Yes, even then with you trying to hide your beauty. Even with
you trying to disappear behind Kim every time I got close. I found you
attractive and I took entirely the wrong approach to try to get your
attention. Flexing my muscles always worked before." He held up his
right arm and sent a ripple through the biceps and across his
pectorals in demonstration. "But it didn't with you."
"Oh, George." Her green eyes were filled with compassion. "I didn't
know. I didn't understand." She wouldn't have believed any man could
possibly have found her attractive then. To find out that she had not
one, but two admirers amazed her.
"I know." He forgave and dismissed all her transgressions with a
rueful smile. "I went at you like a charging targ. By the time I
realized I needed to change my methods, it was too late. Kim already
had you on his hook and halfway to reeled in." He held up a hand to
stop her next comment. He was afraid, from the look in her eyes, that
it would be a compliment inspired by pity. He was strong and could
stand a lot of things, but being pitied was not one of them. "But get
back on track here. WHY did you attack me?"
"You were trying to hurt Harry," she answered simply. "And using me to
do it." Her jaw clenched in remembered anger.
"On two different occasions you refused to 'use' me. Once to beat up
Harry for you and the other to teach you about sex," Natwick
commented, steadfastly ignoring Malista's mortified blush. "Is that
some kind of issue for you? You don't want to use people or be used by
them?"
"Well, of course---"
"There's no 'of course' about it, woman!" the big man snarled. "Not
everyone shares that point of view. Obviously. Why do you think
Longoria and Castelle were harassing you? And some of the other Maquis
women?"
"I don't know." Shadow tried to bounce out of the chair, but Natwick
leaned forward and blocked her way. "I didn't know about the others. I
thought it was just me. I thought---"
"You thought you deserved it? You thought you did something that
caused them to treat you like a Risan pleasure girl?"
She didn't reply. Her body sank back into the chair, trying to retreat
from his words. Her green eyes darted away from his face, fixing in a
stare at her clasped and wringing hands. "Didn't I?" Her expression
was a confused mixture of anger and embarrassment, with a measure of
self-disgust thrown in.
"What could you possibly have done that would merit that kind of
treatment?" Natwick demanded exasperatedly. "Did you encourage them?
Did you flirt with them? Did you take off your clothes and run naked
down the corridors?"
"No!" Malista exclaimed in fierce denial. Then a thought seemed to
occur to her. "I don't think I encouraged them. At least, not
deliberately. But then I'm pretty stupid when it comes to things like
that. I didn't think I had done anything to make YOU think I was
attractive either. I must have done something!"
Natwick was floored by her assumption. He remained silent for a moment
while he pondered a counterstrike. She stared back at him. From the
look in her eyes, he judged that she was waiting to be convinced she
was wrong. And HE was supposed to do the convincing? Damn.
He closed his eyes as he brought one large hand up to massage his
temples. "I hate to think you've put me in the same category as those
two. I took 'no' for an answer if you'll remember. Above and beyond
the call of duty in your quarters that night. For that alone, I should
get a medal!" He sighed heavily. "You really don't know much about
men, do you, darlin'?"
She refused to answer verbally, shrugging as she studied her
fingertips and worried her lower lip between her teeth.
With a heavy sigh, Natwick plunged into the fray once more. "Malista,
back in Texas my dear old Daddy used to say there are two kinds of
men---gentlemen and hound dogs. Do you know how you tell the
difference?"
Eyes rounding, she shook her head.
"A gentleman is a man who treats every woman as if she is a lady,
until she proves herself otherwise. Hound dogs treat every woman like
a tramp regardless of her behavior." That said, Natwick leaned back
against the sofa and let her ponder his meaning.
After a moment, she tentatively ventured, "Are you trying to say that
Longoria and Castelle treated me that way, not because of what I may
have done, but because that's the way they treat all women?"
The big man nodded slowly. "More or less. That's the way they treat
all women when they think they can get away with it. You'll notice
they didn't try their tricks with Captain Janeway. Or B'Elanna Torres.
Or Susan Nicoletti, come to think of it. Because they are cowards,
Malista. Their behavior was as much about power and control as it was
about sex. They only picked on women who wouldn't fight back---"
"Wait a minute! There's something wrong with your theory there! What
about Henley? She's a Maquis and she doesn't run from anyone. If they
only pick on cowards like me, why did---"
"You are not a coward," Natwick insisted, meeting her eyes with a
demanding glare. "As for their plan of attack, don't ask me to explain
it. I think they underestimated Henley's reaction. Or they'd grown
arrogant and careless because they'd been getting away with it so
long---"
"Then it's my fault, isn't it?"
Natwick growled deep in his throat. "Woman! You'd probably try to take
credit for the Borg invasion of the Alpha Quadrant if you could find a
Trials 04 Shadow's Trial Page 50