Demands of Honor by Kevin Ryan Read Free Book Online Page B

walked slowly through the halls of the
Enterprise.
She had been relieved of her squad and was no longer an active-duty officer in Starfleet. True, since her pregnancy her duties had been limited to running training exercises, but since the
Enterprise
hadn’t been in any hostile situations since then, it had been easy to fool herself into believing that nothing had changed. Now she saw that things were really different. Hell,
everything
had changed.
    Because of Jon and the child she now carried insideher. Their child. His child. A half-Klingon child.
    Doctor McCoy had been clear. A human/Klingon pregnancy was difficult at best. There would be complications and it would be dangerous for her. And then there was the question of the kind of life the child would have in the Federation after the inevitable war with the Klingons.
    And she would have to give up not just this mission, or the next one, but her career in Starfleet, the only job she had ever wanted. Her first squad leader, Sam Fuller, had called security the “highest calling in Starfleet.” She had seen what security people could do. It was important work. And she knew she had something to offer. She had proven that much to herself in the last few months where she had seen people around her die for their beliefs—people like Sam Fuller, even people like Jon. Whatever his biology, he had been as much a part of the crew as anyone else.
    Those people had stood for something, and they had all died for something. Nevertheless, in a short time, the Klingons would try to smash it all: Starfleet, the Federation, and everything they represented. If she stayed on the
Enterprise,
she could make a difference in that fight, but she couldn’t stay if she had the baby. The best she could do would be to watch from the sidelines and wait—two things she had never been good at.
    It made sense; it was perfectly logical. The fact was, she could do more good in Starfleet security than out of it. And yet …
    That would be the end of Jon. If she didn’t have this baby, there would be no physical proof that he had ever existed. He would be a name on a Starfleet report, anda memory in the minds of the few people that served with him.
    Did he even have a family? Did anyone who really knew him even know what he was doing? He had given up his face and his identity to infiltrate Starfleet. He had done it to serve the Klingon Empire, but in the end he had given up that allegiance to fight against Klingons with Starfleet—with her.
    It was an amazing story, most of which had died with him on Starbase 42. What would be left if she didn’t have his child? What would be left of him in this galaxy, and what would be left of what they had shared together in the brief weeks they had known one another?
    Leslie Parrish had faced impossible odds on more than one mission on board the
Enterprise.
She had faced death and helped the people around her succeed when every rule in the book said they should fail. And never in all that time had she felt so overwhelmed by a decision.
    Kirk stood up when Giotto and Fuller entered the briefing room. “Mister Fuller,” he said, pointing to a seat. As much as any officer Kirk had ever known, Fuller was born to lead. And for nearly all of his quarter-century Starfleet career, Fuller had been a security squad leader, politely declining all offers of promotion.
    Kirk had served with Fuller as a young officer and understood the decision. Michael had done a hell of a lot of good as a section chief, as had his son Sam before his death. Something about the bond within the security squads was unique in the service, a bond that was related to the shared dangers they faced and the high casualty rate in their ranks.
    â€œMister Fuller, have you seen the briefing materials on the situation with the
S.S. Harmony?
” Kirk asked.
    â€œYes, and I understand we are effecting a rescue. I volunteer, of course, but I assume there is more to