| ..."It was an accident," Sasha sobbed.
"He almost killed me," Mischa murmured.
"I did not! I just wanted to scare you!"
"Look what you did to Bella!" the older boy charged.
The phaser, between settings, had burnt a hole through the
animal's chest. Chekov wiped perspiration from his lip, trying
not to meet the solmn eyes of Bella. He was doubting the entire
incident had occurred. From Mischa he would have expected it;
Mischa was a man out of bounds. But Sasha was a more thoughtful,
sensitive fellow. Now he, too, was turning into a space Cossack.
"God forgive me," he murmured, flipped the phaser setting to
"destroy," and fired. The dog dematerialized.
His boys had never seen a phaser dematerialize a living thing.
Sergei sobbed anew at the disappearance of the dog, while
Michail stared at the cold expression on his father's face as he
pocketed the phaser-stared at the casual ease of the gesture. He
realized for the first time the extent of a life the man lived
away from him that was nothing like the life he lived at home.
|