Chapter 1
Heather closed the zipper on her bag with a final sounding zip. Here were all her possessions, packed into an old-fashioned duffel bag. She looked up sadly at her childhood best friend, Lt. Maureen Lamore, who was sitting on Heather's bed with her legs dangling over the side. Her pink forearm crutches that Maureen needed to walk were propped up against the tiny nightstand.
"Ohh, I'm gonna miss you..." Heather said softly, wrapping her friend in a tight hug that nearly toppled them both over. Both girls had cerebral palsy, a disability caused by brain damage before or shortly after birth. Heather had it milder than Maureen, but it still caused her problems. She usually walked with one forearm crutch, although she didn't rely on it. She just found it came in handy, not only for long walks, but also to help with the balance problems the CP had caused her. And she had certainly needed it aboard DS9. It was a big space station, and the crutch gave Heather more stamina for walking long distances. After all, it wouldn't do if she was so worn out by walking around the station that she couldn't do her job. Heather was a damn good science officer and she was proud of it. She hated when others saw her as weak, unfit for Starfleet because she was disabled. So that's why she brought the crutch along, to help her and give her more energy. She had intended to do her job to the best of her ability, and dissolve any suspicions that she was somehow not as good at her job because of the CP. She had done all that and much more in the three months she was aboard DS9.
The turn of events that had brought Maureen aboard the station was very strange indeed. Maureen had been serving on the ship that Heather used to serve on as first officer-before she got reassigned to DS9. The ship was composed of all disabled crewmen, and was called the starship Ability. The captain was another one of Heather's best friends-Kathleen Marrari. Heather had only been on DS9 for about a month before a hostile Cardassian ship had fired on the Ability, leaving the ship crippled, and most of the crewmen injured-including Kathleen. Unfortunately, Kathleen's injuries proved to be too severe, and she died soon after coming aboard. This had led to Kathleen's four surviving closest friends, including Heather, to go on a quest to get revenge on the Cardassians and honor Kathleen's memory. Unfortunately, the quest had taken an unexpected turn of events and...well, Heather wasn't quite ready to think about the confusion that had occurred. It gave her a headache-which had been occurring more and more often to Heather since they had got back from the quest. In a way, she was grateful for the reassignment to the Enterprise. It gave her a chance to start fresh, forget about the painful memories. Heather thought later that she had made a mistake trying to forget. Better to let the pain heal slowly with time then to try and forget. Because she knew that she would never ever forget Kathleen, no matter how hard she may try. Kathleen, Maureen, and the other member of the foursome, Bridget McLane had been her heart and soul for so many years...and now part of that was gone.
"I'm gonna miss you, too." Maureen said softly, breaking Heather out of her musings. "But I'll visit you as often as I can. I think we're gonna be here for awhile. After all, we don't have a captain anymore, and even if we picked someone else to fill the position, it wouldn't be the same. We would all be haunted by the memories. For now, at least, we're staying here on Deep Space Nine." Heather felt a tiny pang of regret at leaving DS9. But the regret was soon washed away with a fresh pang of pain as she swiveled her head a few inches to look at the photo of Kathleen standing on the nightstand, with Maureen and Heather on her lap, sitting in her power wheelchair. Bridget was standing behind Kathleen, gripping the handle with her good hand. Bridget had a mysterious disability, caused by a stroke when she was an infant. As a result, Bridget couldn't use the right side of her body. But that just made her stronger, both emotionally and physically. Maureen caught the tears in Heather's eyes.
"The pain will fade. Not completely, but it will fade." Heather couldn't imagine the pain ever being lessened. How did you get over losing your best friend?
Heather's com badge sounded. "Lieutenant, the Enterprise is close enough for you to beam down." came the voice of Captain Sisko. Heather's heart sank. She had not anticipated saying goodbye to her friends this soon.
"Can't they dock at the station?" she questioned, only partly stalling for time. She disliked transporters. They made her even more unsteady on her feet than she usually was.
"No. They are on their way to an important rendezvous and cannot be delayed. Please come to Transporter Room 1." Heather gulped. She looked desperately at Maureen, whose normal cheery smile was replaced with a somber look. Heather scooped up her last-minute possessions that she hadn't quite packed, including the photo she had been looking just a few minutes earlier, and threw them haphazardly into the bag. She slung her duffel bag over her shoulder and sadly glanced back at Maureen.
"Do you...do you want to come with me...you know, to say goodbye?" she asked thickly, holding the tears back as best she could. Maureen shook her head.
"I should...do some other things." Heather knew better than to be fooled by Maureen's feeble excuse. Maureen, like her, thought goodbye would be too painful at the moment.
"OK then. Well...I guess...I'll see you...whenever." For a moment the childhood friends' eyes met; Heather's hazel and Maureen's a shocking blue. For a moment it was almost like the longtime best friends could read each other's minds. They both knew that it could be months, or even years, before they saw each other again. Heather blinked back tears as she said her final word.
"Good...bye." Silence. The doors slid open and Heather walked slowly through them, afraid to look back. A single tear glinted on her cheek as she headed for Transporter Room 1. She tried to take her mind off her childhood friends by thinking about her new assignment on the Enterprise. She was a little apprehensive-that was normal for any new crewmember. She had felt the exact same way when she had been reassigned to Deep Space Nine. But she was also a little excited, although the excitement had been overshadowed these past few days by sadness as she made her final rounds and said her goodbyes to all her friends. She was particularly excited for this specific reassignment, and her reason for the excitement could be described in two words: Geordi LaForge. She had heard that there was a commander aboard the Enterprise-Commander LaForge-who had been blind since birth, but had a special visor to help him see. Heather had been slightly relieved when she heard this. At least she could be sure that one person aboard the Enterprise understood what it was like to have a disability. She was so absorbed in her thoughts about the young commander that she would have walked straight into the Transporter Room 1's doors had they not opened automatically at her approach. Gathered in the transporter room were Dax, Kira, and Captain Sisko. All the people aboard the station who wanted to give her a nice send-off. There weren't many. Heather had somehow made herself unpopular aboard DS9 without even trying. She suspected people were afraid of her disability, thought she was weird. Just like high school. Heather thought with a grim smile.
High school had, indeed, been rough for Heather. Whether she was the shy, mousy little twelve year old she had gone into her 7-12 high school, or the tall, confident, yet still a little quiet young woman she had graduated being, people had never wanted to be her friend. Girls made fun of her behind her back; no boys wanted to go out with her. Heather hadn't started using her crutch in school until ninth grade, but it had had quite the reverse effect from what she had hoped. Far from promoting understanding and fostering friendship, it had made her even more alienated. Heather knew that people were irrationally afraid of the strange stick she carried at her side. Heather had whiled away most of her high school years thinking of her home friends and writing poetry. When the yearbook came out, Heather's face in her picture had a fake and waxy smile, hiding the pain she felt below the facade. In truth, she had been almost crying that day as the photographer snapped her picture, crying not only for herself, but for humanity who, after billions of years on this earth, still could not look past a physical disability and see a fun-loving girl for who she really was. She was glad to leave high school behind. But, by the same token, high school was when she met some of her best friends. The summer before she went into seventh grade, Heather had reunited with Bridget and Maureen, and met Kathleen. And so the Giggle Girls were born. And they had stayed with her through everything, when she had no friends, when she realized the popular girls had been making fun of her behind her back, and so on. The summer after seventh grade, she had met Tucker and gotten her first kiss. Really, Heather thought, summers were the only times where I could fully enjoy just being me.
College had surpassed high school greatly. She had gone to a college with a large disabled population, and so had found many people who could relate to her. The kids were nicer in college, she discovered, and the boys were even cuter. Although she had not found a husband yet, she was confident that she would soon. Heather had gotten her teaching degree and spent a year as a middle-school special education teacher. Strange, Heather, that the worst years of my life were the middle school years, and then I end up wanting to teach middle school. Maybe I wanted to help other alienated kids who didn't even register on the social scale, like I was at that age. She didn't know. She had simply let her subconscious steer her in the appropriate direction. And then, after a year teaching, she had landed the position on the Ability. She had spent almost two years on the Ability before she was reassigned to DS9, and now, here she was, being reassigned once again. Captain Sisko interrupted her thoughts.
"Ready to go, Lieutenant?" he asked with a small smile. He was disappointed to see the young woman go. She had taught the whole station a lesson in tolerance. He would miss her spunky, can-do attitude. Although they had had other disabled Starfleet officers visit the station, none of them stayed long. Maybe it was because Deep Space Nine wasn't exactly handicapped-accessible. But Heather had stayed on, and although she was gone on that mission for part of her time on the station, she had seemed to actually like DS9. Sisko hadn't been sure at first. It must have been a big transition for her, to go from being on a ship of all disabled crew to being the only disabled officer on a space station, he realized. No wonder Heather had seemed quiet and a little shy when she first arrived on the station. She had befriended Major Kira, and Lt. Cm. Dax on her time on Deep Space Nine, but Sisko had sensed a longing about her, wanting to be around people like her. In a way, he was secretly relieved when the Ability came to DS9, with most of Heather's friends injured, but still alive after the Cardassian attack. He had comforted her the best he could after the captain of the Ability, and Heather's best friend since childhood, died from her injuries sustained in the attack. But he knew he could never truly understand the bond between the two women. Not only did he not quite understand how two friends could be as incredibly close as Heather and Kathleen, but he could also never understand the one common factor that had brought the two girls together and kept them together all these years: having cerebral palsy. He had read up on the condition before Heather had come to DS9, but the information he had learned was all repetitive and technical. He hadn't really realized what it was like to have CP until Heather had come onto the station. He had learned even more when the Ability's crew had come aboard the station, and he had met several other crewmen and women with cerebral palsy, many of them Heather's childhood friends. He had been positively astounded at the wide range of abilities people with CP could have. The person could be mildly affected, like Heather, or moderately affected, like Maureen. However, when Sisko had assumed that Kathleen was the most severely affected, he was proved wrong once again. He had met Tucker Solara, Heather's close friend and first boyfriend. Tucker had severe cerebral palsy and his hands were all twisted. He had very hard speech to understand. But Heather always seemed to understand him. Probably because the two had been friends since their early teens. Sisko had also met Dana, one of the most disabled crewmembers on the Ability. She couldn't talk, and used a communication device. Sisko couldn't see why she was part of the crew. After all, nobody was really sure what her mental abilities were. Yet she was still a trusted member of the crew. Sometimes disabled people really boggled his mind.
"Yeah. I'm ready." Heather said after a small hesitation. Major Kira stepped forward and gave Heather a quick hug. Sisko was a bit taken aback. It wasn't like Kira to be mushy like that. But, then again, the Major had taken a liking to Heather in her time aboard the station.
"You come back to the station if anything's wrong, you hear?" she breathed softly into Heather's ear. Heather gave a small nod.
"I will, don't worry." she whispered back. Now it was Dax's turn. She hugged Heather tightly, and Sisko relaxed. That was like Dax. She was more touchy-feely than Kira.
"You be careful, okay, Heather?" she asked softly. Heather nodded, this time more surely.
"I will, Jadzia." Then Heather turned to the captain. "It was an honor serving aboard Deep Space Nine, sir. I will greatly miss it." Then she extended her arm, and the two shook hands rather awkwardly, each not quite meeting each other's eyes. Then, without saying another word, Heather climbed up onto the transporter platform.
"'Bye." she said softly, so softly that Sisko almost missed it. Then there was a shimmering blue light as Lt. Heather Moralez dematerialized and vanished from sight.
Geordi LaForge waited nervously for the new lieutenant. Most of the time he was eager and ready to meet new officers, but this time he was a bit apprehensive. The new officer was handicapped, which made many of the crew nervous, but it made Geordi nervous for a different reason. Most of the crew was nervous about how to treat the young woman, but Geordi needed no instruction in that area. He knew all too well how to treat her-and that was almost the problem. Having been blind since birth, you would think I would be more excited about a disabled officer coming aboard, Geordi mused. But in reality he had a sinking feeling inside his stomach. He was more than certain that this was going to bring up old issues.
Geordi didn't consider himself disabled, and hadn't since he got his VISOR. After all, he could see now, with the help of the VISOR. He was just like everyone else when he had it on-which was all the time, except when he was sleeping. He was chief engineer and damn proud of it. Nobody even noticed his disability anymore. He remembered one time, when his VISOR was being repaired.
FLASHBACK:
His VISOR was in for repairs, but Geordi still insisted on doing his regular duties on the bridge. Doctor Crusher had argued with him that he couldn't possibly do his duties while he was totally blind, but he had pointed out that he knew the ship almost as well by touch as he did by sight. Dr. Crusher couldn't argue with that, and so had reluctantly let him continue working.
They were approaching a new planet, one that wasn't in the Federation. It was the Enterprise's job to try to convince the inhabitants of this planet to join the Federation. Geordi couldn't see for the life of him why this particular planet was so stubborn. He would've thought that the planet would have been grateful to join an alliance of planets. But then again, that was his personal opinion. As they approached the planet, Geordi could hear the sharp intakes of breath from the other crewmembers on the bridge. Later, when his VISOR was fixed, he saw the planet. It was a swirling tie-dye of blue rings encircling the otherwise white planet. Rumor had it that this planet's climate was extremely cold, and over three-quarters of their year was winter.
"It's...amazing." said Riker, ship's first officer.
"It's...stunning." added Lt. Tasha Yar, head of security.
"It's...beautiful." finished Counselor Deanna Troi. Even Worf, usually true to his aggressive Klingon nature, seemed to appreciate the beauty of this new planet. He emitted a low growl of pleasure from his throat. Captain Picard swiveled in his chair to look at Geordi, working hard at his console.
"Isn't it a thing of beauty, Mr. LaForge." he asked. There was an uncomfortable pause while Geordi tried to think of how to best remind the captain that without his VISOR, he was completely blind.
"Sir...I can't see it." he finally said. An embarrassed silence fell over the bridge. Nobody quite wanted to admit that they had forgotten he was blind.
"Oh." Picard finally said. "I am...sorry, Mr. LaForge. Sometimes...I forget." Geordi nodded. "It happens." was all he could say. There had been similar incidents. He was almost used to it. Almost. But deep inside was a feeling he would never admit to anyone: pride. He was proud of the reputation he had created for himself. Nobody judged Geordi LaForge on his blindness anymore, and nobody would, ever, ever again.
END FLASHBACK
At least, that's what he had thought then. But now, with a disabled officer coming to the Enterprise...she would focus on his blindness; try to use the similarity of a disability to forge friendship. That's why he wanted absolutely nothing to do with Lt. Heather Moralez. He was only here on Captain Picard's orders; besides, he didn't want to raise awkward questions.
There was a sudden shimmer of light, and then, there she was, standing on the transporter platform, leaning on a dark blue crutch with her duffel bag slung over her shoulder. Her smile was cheery, but cautious, and her hazel eyes seemed questioning. Heather glanced around the room, mentally naming people in her mind: There's Captain Picard...he looks nice. I hope he's as great a commanding officer as Captain Sisko was. And that must be...Riker? Was that his name? Yes, I think it was. And there...that must be him. Her eyes lighted on Geordi, and her smile turned real; genuine, but a little overeager. She got hyper when she was nervous, and usually talked so much it was embarrassing.
Geordi had his own thoughts about the new officer. His first thought was: Wow, she's beautiful. She had longish dirty-blond hair; she had grown it out while aboard Deep Space Nine, twisted back with a silky blue hair scrunchie. Her eyes, a shining hazel, lit up at the sight of him, as expected, and his stomach sank. I knew it. She's going to want to bond over our mutual handicaps. Oh lord, why do I hate talking about it so much?
"Hello, Lieutenant." Captain Picard said formally, with a bright and cheery smile on his face. Heather looked closely at his eyes. She had learned, in all her years of being with people who couldn't communicate well, that you learned the most about a person by the look in their eyes. His eyes were somewhere between a hazel, like her own eyes, and a light brown. But the color didn't really matter at the moment. His eyes betrayed nothing, but uncertainty and slight skepticism about her. Nothing more than she had expected. Everybody was skeptical of her at first. He'd get over that soon enough-she hoped.
"Welcome to the Enterprise." Riker added, with a small smile of his own. He wasn't quite sure what to expect of this new and intriguing young lieutenant. He had heard she was a very hard worker. But would she physically be able to do the work that was required of her on board? Riker guessed he'd find out soon enough.
"Would you like me to escort you to your quarters before your routine physical?" Captain Picard asked, cordially offering his hand to the young woman as she stepped down from the transporter platform. She bypassed his hand with a kind, but firm "No, thank you. I think I can find my quarters myself." And with that, she breezed out the door-well, as breezy as a woman with a crutch tapping on the floor and a duffel bag sliding down her arm could be-leaving all three of the men in the room to stare at her retreating back, and wonder what in the universe possessed them to bring this feisty young woman aboard.
A/N: Wow, after about a month of working on this, I've finally created a new Star Trek story! And it's a crossover, the first crossover I've done. And, it's my longest 1st chapter ever! I'm doing good! So please, make my day and REVIEW!