The Enterprise-E hummed as she sat in the space dock. Captain Picard relaxed in his ready room, his usual earl grey in his hand, steaming. He tapped his finger restlessly on the glass mug. His sightless gaze darted up towards the door as the chime perked out, waiting expectantly for him to answer,
"Come," he announced, allowing the new counselor on the Enterprise to walk in. Picard set down his mug onto the desk, turning to fully face the counselor. He smiled at her, which she returned, with a polite nod. "Captain." He nodded, and gestured to the couch on his left. "Please, do sit, Counselor Tamara." She nodded respectfully and obeyed. As she sat down, the captain took in his new counselor's appearance. She had dark black, wavy hair that fell down just past her shoulders. Her wavy hair had fallen in such a way that her Vulcan ears were visible. If the Captain had not read about her before she came onto the ship a few weeks ago, he wouldn't have ever thought she were part Vulcan - she hid it well, behind her Betazoid mask.
She looked up at the captain, her deep ocean blue eyes, normally sparkling with a happy kindness, were dull. Her face was serious, her jaw set. She folded her hands in her lap and took in a deep breath, as if she were about to delve into deep water and looked Jean-Luc in the eye.
"Captain, I know you are hurting from Data's death - everyone is. However, you have a new commander to train and a peace treaty to sign with the Romulans, after what happened with Shinzon. Don't think you can hide it, either. Just because Deanna's not here doesn't mean you are a secret again. Sir." Her face softened and she absentmindedly brushed some waves behind her ears. "You still have someone you can talk to, sir. I'm not Deanna's replacement - I never could be - but I still know you should at least open up to me, sir." She stood up, nodded at Jean-Luc, who hadn't spoken a word since she spoke, and she walked out of the room.
He looked back down at his tea, before his thoughts were interrupted again by the comm chirp. He reached over and pressed the button.
"Yes?"
"Captain, would you come to engineering for a moment?" The chief engineer's normally calm, in-control voice came through worried, as if he had seen a ghost. Jean-Lux stood up quickly, leaving his untouched tea on the desk. While walking out, he said, "On my way."
-.~
Captain Picard strode into engineering, expecting everyone to be running around in chaos, from the tone of his friend. But, what he faced was complete calm and order. Confused, he marched over to Geordi, the man's figure obvious amongst the slight crowd of officers. When he approached the chief engineer, he was bent over a console, as if making sure what was on the screen was real, as the captain could tell from the repeated rubbing of his eyes, VISOR-free.
Jean-Lux tapped his on the back, causing Geordi to look up. He straightened immediately, then gestured to the console, stepping back. Jean-Luc walked over to the console and had to do a double, then triple-take on the information sprawled on the screen.
What he saw was a display of Remus. On the area on the border of sun and darkness, was a small blip. What the blip was from, the computer said, was a result of a scan for a positron signal. Picard looked to Geordi dumbly.
"Commander, is this the result of the positron scan you were conducting, looking for any sign of Data, or is this some prank? If it is the latter, then I am not amused, Mr. LaForge."
Geordie quickly shook his head. "Never, Captain! The computer alerted me while it was running the auto scan. If this was a prank, I certainly wasn't in on the joke." Jean-Luc sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "This joke isn't a very funny one, Geordi," he said, calming himself. He took in a breath, and looked up at his friend. "My apologies, Geordi. I didn't mean to assume…" Geordi shook his head. "Not at all, sir. After what happened, I wouldn't have believed it myself unless it came directly from the computer." Jean-Lux nodded, then turned back to the ruddy screen, contemplating his options.
After a few moments, he turned back to Geordi, a look in his eyes no one had seen for a few weeks.
"Commander, let's go see what the Remans are doing with positron signals."
Geordi's face lit up in understanding, and he smiled. "Yes, sir!"
-.-
Jean-Luc sat in his chair, subconsciously tapping on the arm impatiently. Couldn't they get to Remus any faster? He was jerked back to awareness when the helm officer spoke.
"Captain, we are outside the planet Remus' scanners, and we have visual." Jean-Lux stood up.
"On screen."
The image of a familiar planet, not rotating, appeared on screen. However, the image was cut short by a ferocious beeping coming from the tactical console.
"Captain, we are being hailed. They are claiming to be Shinzon's followers."
"On screen, Commander." Jean-Luc folded his hands behind him, resting on the heels of his feet, as an image of a Reman soldier appeared.
"I am commander of the Reman Protection Corps. What are you doing here, may I ask?" His mannerisms were obviously false, but his true message was very clear.
Jean-Luc stepped forward, closer to the screen. "Why, we are just here because we lost a ship in this area recently. I apologize if we disturbed you." The Reman grinned, which sent a chill down everyone's spines, even the impenetrable-Mr. Worf seemed disturbed by the alien's malicious grin.
"I'm afraid that is too late, Captain. For, you see, I have orders to destroy any who are foolish enough to come to Remus." His grin widened. "It looks like you will be joining your fallen comrades, Starfleet."
And with that, the Enterprise shook as it got fired upon. The tactical console was beeping furiously.
"Captain, the port torpedo bay has been hit by a fixed phaser beam. Another hit and we will be completely defenseless!" Jean-Luc swore under his breath, clenching his fists. He looked up and saw a familiar place face and yellow eyes behind the commander. Jean-Luc grinned. He turned and whispered, "Mr. Worf, can you scan for any shields on the complex? Find Commander Data's positron signal and prepare for a beam down. I have some matters I need to clean up." Worf nodded, a small feral grin on his face, and started to scan, ending the communication as well.
After a few seconds of scanning, the console beeped and Worf looked up at the Captain. "Captain, the compound has no shields, which would explain why they are attacking us. If they allowed us to attack first, they would be gone before anything could even start." Jean-Luc nodded, processing the information and forming a plan. A beat. Picard turned and walked to the turbolift.
"You have the bridge Num — Commander." The new first officer nodded and sat in the Captain's chair as the turbolift doors closed.
-.-
Picard walked onto the transporter pad. He nodded to the transporter officer and beamed down. Worf had alerted him that the positronic signal was near the soldier who had communicated with them. When he materialized into the underground compound, he went into a defensive stance, pulling out his phaser. After glancing around and not being attacked after a minute, he relaxed and looked around, taking in the room he was in. It was to be expected, really, and slightly disappointed Jean-Luc that it wasn't anything spectacular. He was underground, and the area was carved out of the rock. Not much to write home about.
Jean-Luc's grip on his phaser tightened as he whipped around, having heard a noise, his muscles tense. He relaxed when an all=too familiar android walked in the cave he was in.
"Captain. May I ask, what are you doing here?" Data asked, tilting his head curiously. Jean-Luc couldn't stop the grin blossoming on his face, and he shook his head at his friend.
"Still the same, even when you've been dead. Are you alright?" Data nodded, then walked closer to the captain.
"Let us leave. I managed to subdue the commander and the soldiers keeping me locked up, but other soldiers will arrive soon." Picard nodded. Once the ex-commander was next to Picard, he tapped his com badge, feeling his happiness swell in his words.
"Enterprise, two to beam up."
-.-many months later-.-
"… I'm pleased to say, I now promote you to Commander, and the position of first officer on the Enterprise-E. Welcome back aboard, Data." Picard patted Data on the back as the new pip was fastened to the android's collar.
Everyone was present, celebrating, for Data's return and his promotion. It was also announced recently that Will and Deanna were having a child, which of course had caused more reason to celebrate.
It seemed that a millisecond before Shinzon's ship was destroyed, Data had been beamed out by upset followers of Shinzon. He had been taken to Remus and at first was tortured, but once they found out he was immune to pain, decided to gut him and find out how he ticked, so to speak. They were going to create an army of androids, an invincible army. However, he was too complex for them to understand, and they instead had him working in the mines as a slave.
The Federation had alerted Romulus of Remus' activities, creating a new cause of peace. A few weeks before the promotion ceremony, the peace treaty between Romulus, Remus, and the Federation was signed.
B-4 found a job as a childcare helped on the Enterprise. Data was back. Now the ship felt more complete to everyone, having their favorite android back.
What happened to Shinzon's followers? Well, that, my dears, is a story for another time…
-.-
OCSluvr: HEYO!
Yes, I'm alive! XP
Sorry for the lack of updating so much! -_- I've been dealing with emotions recently, and my robotics team made it to Super Regionals! XDD We didn't make it to Worlds (*tear*), BUUUUT we did have a great time, and I'm glad we went! X3 (and we MAY OR MAY NOT have been able to skip the last three days of school before spring break)
So, I'm mostly posting this for many reasons.
Reason number 1- I wrote this a few summers ago for a writing activity in my summer camp (one of my earliest fan fictions! X3), and wanted to post it after some tweaking. ;)
Reason number 2- I haven't been on in a while and wanted to post something!
Reason number 3- I've been losing inspiration recently for my other stories. *blushes and hides* I'm soweyyyyy...
Reason number 4! - State testing will be coming up soon (*boos*), and spring time is normally time for tests and being busy and I'M SO SORRY PLEASE FORGIVE ME!
Lauren: Gosh, Authoress-sama, you sound so pitiful.
Me: Coz I feel it. I haven't been giving my readers-
Lauren: Our.
Me: ... My readers anything to read recently and I feel BAD!
Lauren: *rolls eyes* Uh-huh. Well, whatever. Just... why are you posting this and not all the OTHER things you have piling up?
Me: COZ I have things piling up! I don't need so much more to pile up!
Lauren: Excuses, excuses...
Me: Ugh... Please excuse my early exit, everyone. It seems I have a lesson to teach Lauren, here. *glares at Lauren* Oh! *looks back at camera* If you're a new reader, this is Lauren *gestures to Lauren*, one of my best friends in real life who barges unwelcomed into my head, my stories, and my real life-
Lauren: All the time. *smiles angelically**waves* Nice to meetcha, new reader! *gains dark aura* You wanna go destroy some peoples' lives? I have a few rowdy boys in my family who would make great victims...
Me: *pushes Lauren away* Uh-huh. Lauren, please don't scare away my-
Lauren: OUR!
Me: Ah, no. MY readers. While this isn't my best work, I'm proud of this little one shot.
Lauren: Meh, whatevs. Imma gonna go and rematch Merlin WITHOUT YOU SINCE YOU DON'T CARE!
Me: Yeah, you're right. I. DON'T!
Lauren: Humph! *stomps away*
Me: SOOOO sorry about that long ending, everyone! *sweatdrops* Anywho, hope y'all enjoyed! Please leave a review, I'm getting uber lonely tonight... :/
Have a great day, everyone!
OCSluvr is out!