Xena's Arc

Chapter 7 of 13

Xena walked out to the shuttle pad while the sun still hung above the trees. Seven of Nine was inside the shuttle running checks. Tom Paris walked with Xena as far as the ramp and stopped there. He said the crew had heard about the pledge over the comm. He said one of them was already off the shuttle, waiting on the pad, and would not board while Xena stood near it. Xena thanked him for the warning and kept walking. The crewman stood at the foot of the ramp with his arms crossed. He wore the same black and red uniform as the rest of Seven of Nine's shuttle crew, the small gold badge on his chest catching the last light. He was young and fair-haired and did not move when Xena stopped in front of him. He said he had served Seven of Nine for two years. He said he had been told a stranger with a sword had walked into a lodge and made a captain kneel to a pledge before her own crew could speak. He said he would not fly with someone he could not read. Xena set the wrapped sword on the deck plate between them. She drew the blade and held it flat across her palms the way she had held it for Seven of Nine. The light along the edge climbed slow and clean. She told him to take the hilt. She said if he lifted it and the light held under his hand, he would know the blade answered only to true intent, and he could judge hers by what it did. She said if he thought her false, he could turn the point on her right there and she would not lift a hand. He stared at her a long moment. Then he reached down and closed his fist around the hilt. He lifted. The light along the steel steadied under his grip, the same clean prism it had shown for Seven of Nine. His mouth opened once and shut. He set the sword back across her palms carefully, hilt toward her. He said his name, quiet, and said he had been wrong to speak before he looked. He said he would tell the others what he had seen. He walked up the ramp ahead of her and did not look back. Xena sheathed the sword. Tom Paris, watching from the edge of the pad, raised one hand in a small salute and turned back toward the lodge. Somewhere above the trees a bright point of gold moved against the darkening sky, a flyer riding a ring toward the moon, still days out. Xena did not know him. She climbed the ramp. Inside the shuttle the crew stood at their posts and watched her come. None of them spoke against her. None of them spoke to her, either. Seven of Nine looked up from the console and nodded once. The ramp closed behind her.