ST: TNG – Betrayal and fears

Disclaimer: I don't own any ST characters.

Summary: A child is found, unconscious. When she wakes up, she is terrified. But is it true what she says? Was there betrayal among Starfleet ranks?

Rating: T for certain events spoken of.


Chapter 1: Terrified

"Crusher to Dr. Crusher, medical emergency in Education." She could hear in Wesley's voice that he was shocked about what he saw. She answered him with an "On my way" and turned on her heals to leave.

Upon arriving in Education, she understood. Wesley was crouched next to a little girl who was lying facedown on the floor. She was clearly unconscious. Her arms were stretched above her head and her wrists were bleeding. Even though she was lying on her stomach, Dr. Crusher could see her clothes were torn. She was about six years old.

"What happened?" She asked Wesley while scanning the girl; the results she got didn't please her.

"I don't know, the teacher asked me to have a look at one of the computers that was malfunctioning and I found her like this."

Crusher nodded and beckoned the nurses to carefully put the girl on a gurney and take her to Sickbay.

In Sickbay, she ran a second scan and sealed the girl's wounds. She decided not to wake her up yet, but instead call Counsellor Troi and inform the girl's family. She only knew her father vaguely from regular medical check-ups. He was an Ensign in the Engineering department. The girl's parents were both Betazoids, but her mother had died shortly after the girl's birth.

Both Deanna and Ensign Cassidy arrived only minutes after Crusher had called them.

"Laurana?" Mr. Cassidy asked upon entering Sickbay. He beckoned to the girl on the biobed.

"She'll get through." Crusher pressed her lips together for a moment; what she had to say would be quite a blow for Laurana's father, and she was grateful for Deanna's presence.

"But…?"

"Maybe we should discuss this matter in my office, and not in front of everybody."

Ensign Cassidy turned slightly pale, but nodded. Once in the office, he prompted the doctor. "So, what is wrong with her? What happened?"

Dr. Crusher waited a few seconds to answer. When she did, her voice was low. "Mr. Cassidy, according to my scans, Laurana was violated."

Both Mr. Cassidy and Deanna had turned pale and they bore nearly identical expression of horror.

"What…? Who..?" Cassidy could only stutter.

Crusher shook her head. "I don't know. I didn't find any traces of DNA and the investigation team hasn't found anything so far either. I'm sorry." She bit the inner side of her lip. Sometimes she really hated this job.

At that moment a nurse came in. "Dr. Crusher. The girl is waking up."

Cassidy immediately turned around and walked over to his daughter, Deanna and Beverly close on his heals. She had opened her eyes a tiny bit. When she saw silhouettes hovering over her, she suddenly sat up and backed away, eyes open in horror.

"Get away from me," she said. Her voice shook with fear.

"Honey it's me," her father said, and reached out his hand to touch her cheek and comfort her. She backed away even more.

Deanna took his arm and held him back. "Don't," she said. "She's terrified and doesn't recognize anyone at the moment. Touching her now will only make things worse." She looked back to Laurana. Beverly had managed to get to her and had given her a hypospray that would put her back to sleep. Right before falling asleep again, Laurana murmured something.

"Betrayal… Starfleet betrayal…"

TBC

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A/N: This is my first fanfic, so please tell me what you think!