Force and Motion Read Online Free

past the forward port. “. . . the forsaken void.” He gritted his teeth.
    Grimace? Pained mirth? Something in between the two? Nog couldn’t be sure.
    â€œBut then, around day two, it would begin to rankle him. A burr under his skin. He’d be asking himself, ‘Do I really deserve this?’ ”
    â€œDoesn’t he?”
    â€œOf course he does,” O’Brien said, rallying to his friend’s defense. “He just wouldn’t believe it deep down.”
    â€œWhy not?” The helm signaled that they would reach their coordinates soon. The Amazon ’s autopilot dropped them down to warp one.
    O’Brien shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe he thinks that everything comes too easy, so he hasn’t earned it.”
    Nog thought about the doctor’s now well-known augmentations. If I could be genetically modified, what would I want? Greater intelligence? Bigger lobes? Sharper teeth? He dismissed the ideas as both petty and unnecessary. Nog was content with his physical and mental attributes. So, what did he really want? The thought came unbidden and all too easily: To not feel so alone. The idea surprised him. It was silly, wasn’t it? Nog knew he wasn’t alone. He had his crewmates and his colleagues. He had his work . . .
    â€œAnyway,” O’Brien continued, “if Julian were here, this would be just about the time we’d log some holosuite time.”
    â€œAlamo?”
    â€œNo, Siege of Bastogne, I think.”
    â€œI don’t think I know that one,” Nog confessed. He knew about the Alamo, but only because he had installed the holoprogram in his uncle’s bar on the first Deep Space 9.
    â€œOh, it’s glorious,” O’Brien said, sitting up straighter in his seat. “ ‘Nuts!’ ”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI said, ‘Nuts.’ It’s a famous quote from the siege.”
    Nog looked at O’Brien from the corners of his eyes, uncertain if he was being mocked. “If you say so.”
    O’Brien settled back down into his chair. “Julian would get it.”
    â€œApproaching destination coordinates,” the computer announced. “Scanning. No anomalies detected. Exit warp?”
    Nog took the helm back from the computer and, with practiced ease, disengaged the warp engines and slippedinto impulse, the stars shifting from streaks of light to bright pinpricks. He checked the scanner readout. “Nothing,” he said. “Except what you told me to expect.”
    O’Brien rose and leaned forward to get a closer look at the only noteworthy object in nearby space as it rolled slowly beneath the runabout’s bow. “Not much to look at, is it?”
    Nog hadn’t wanted to say, especially as their outing had not been his idea. “But this is where you wanted to be, isn’t it?”
    O’Brien nodded.
    â€œ Why ?”The Ferengi tried to put as much emphasis into the word as he could without sounding insulting.
    â€œWe needed to get away,” O’Brien offered.
    â€œ We did?”
    â€œWell, I did. And Captain Ro thought you did too, so she asked me to bring you along.”
    â€œCaptain Ro thought I needed to get away?” Nog asked, his voice going an octave higher at the end of the question.
    â€œShe said you’ve had a rough few weeks,” O’Brien offered. “I had to allow as that might be true, so . . .” He lifted his hand and waved it generally in the direction of their destination. “. . . change of scenery. If only barely.”
    The station—a Helios -class hub—rolled into view. Compared to the glory that was the new Deep Space 9 or, frankly, even the former Terok Nor, this waypost in space looked like an indifferent first-year engineering student had designed it on the morning the assignment was due.
    â€œLooks like a mushroom,” O’Brien said, which is exactly what