"Would you care for more coffee?" His soft baritone voice broke Beverly from her revere. "You seemed lost in thought." He remarked as he refilled her glass. "Would you like to talk about it?" After almost a month of shore leave after the encounter with Q, the Enterprise received their new mission to go and explore a new quadrant of the galaxy, beyond the known Cardassian space. Since most of the Cardassians were eliminated due to a viral infection that ended up killing over 90% of the entire population, the Federation deemed it necessary to charter the unknown space and who better than the flagship and her extraordinary crew. Picard and Beverly had made it habit to meet for breakfast every morning. Beverly sighed heavily, contemplating her reply.
"It has been four weeks since we left orbit of Earth, and we still have an other 10 days before reaching the new quadrant." She placed her cup down and leaned her forearms on the table. "There is nothing to do. I know I will always have research to do, and the lab will always have a steady flow of information to be analyzed, but there's no...urgency. The most severe incident I had to handle was when Lt. Boyd cut open his hand on a piece of broken equipment in the astrophysics lab." Jean Luc chuckled.
"You're bored." She nodded before leaning back into her chair. "That is a first. Well, Beverly, you are more than welcome to take a few bridge shifts. I know Will certainly wouldn't mind less time on the bridge."
"What do you mean?"
"I know that this is not my area of expertise," feeling slightly uncomfortable with the topic, he stood and recycled their dirty dishes as he continued. "but I have noticed a marked difference in the relationship between my First Officer and my ships counsellor." As he glanced back at Beverly, he noticed her trying to hide a knowing grin. "You know something about this don't you?" He asked coyly.
"I haven't a clue what you mean captain." Jean Luc moved and sat in the seat next to hers and crossed her arms.
"Beverly."
"Jean Luc you don't expect me to break confidence with my dear friend now would you?" He just continued to stare at her. "Alright. I will tell you that you are not wrong. There's definite...improvement in the area." Jean Luc shook his head.
"I shouldn't be surprised I suppose. It's about time they stopped dancing around the subject." Beverly laughed and reached out to grasp Jean Luc's free hand. After the event of Kes Prytt, their friendship seemed strained, and after many awkward moments, and stubborn prides, they managed to repair the damage, and then some. In many ways both Beverly felt closer to Jean Luc than before, and she knew he felt the same.
"Riker to Captain Picard." Jean Luc smiled as his second in command's voice broke the moment, and Beverly withdrew her hand from his.
"Go ahead number one."
"Sir, we're receiving a distress call, 45 minutes off our heading. They're reporting causalities and a severe hull breach." Jean Luc nodded to Beverly who stood and quickly recycled their remaining dishes.
"Set a course to intercept. Dr. Crusher and I are on our way." As they made their way out of his quarters, Jean Luc placed a soft hand on Beverly's back. "Seems your bored streak is about to end."
"What can you tell me number one?" Riker immediately stood as the Captain and Doctor exited to turbo lift and walked on the bridge.
"Sir, we received this distress call about 15 minutes ago. Audio only." He nodded toward Data who replayed the message. Deanna joined them on the bridge just as the broken female voice played through the bridge.
"Mayday. Att..ion any ship...stranded...hull breech, shields...down...wounded. Please...help."
"Is that all?" Data swivelled in his chair to face the captain.
"I am sorry Captain. That is all that was transmitted. We attempted to retrieve the pieces of the message that was lost, but there appears to be something wrong with their communications array. The message was transmitted repeatedly, but each time, more of the message was lost."
"That's alright Mr. Data. Counsellor," he turned away from the helm and sat in his chair. "can you tell anything from that message?" Deanna sighed and softly shook her head.
"There is so much interference, I can not tell much. But I do not doubt that they are in grave danger." Picard nodded and looked at Beverly.
"We should be ready for any survivors." She was already half way up the ramp towards the turbo lift.
"I'll have sickbay prepared to take on casualties."
"Very good." He lightly rubbed his chin. "Mr. Data, how long until we reach their position?"
"At warp 5, we will be there in 37 minutes."
"If the situation is as dire as she claims, they won't be anyone to save in 37 minutes."
"You're right number one. Helm, increase speed to warp nine."
After several minutes, the helm dropped the ship out of warp. "Sir, we are coming into visual range."
"Thank you ensign. On screen." The screen came to life, and a tattered ship came into view, debris surrounding it, and obvious sections victim to a hull breech. "Mr Worf, report."
"Sir, it appears to be a twelve person craft, over 60% of its hull has been breeched, their computer is down, and we are receiving no response to our hails." Worf replied. "They are losing already minimal life support."
"Are we in transporter range?" Riker leaned over Data's shoulder examining the console.
"No, but we will be shortly."
"Number one, take an away team immediately. If there are survivors, have them immediately transported to sick-bay."
"Mr. Data, Worf, counsellor, you're with me." As the four officers left the bridge, Picard stared at the broken ship on the screen. The damage was extensive, and he was not optimistic that there would be survivors.
When the away team beamed on the control area of the smaller ship, smoke had filled the room, and with the low levels of life support, they were immediately overwhelmed with the lack of oxygen.
"Let's do this fast!" Riker took a breath and held it has he rushed over to the unconscious woman on the floor in front of the view screen. Worf, Deanna and Data did the same and rushed to help the individuals scattered across the bridge. As Riker carefully turned the woman over he was shocked at what he saw. Her head was slit open on the side, and she had already lost a lot of blood.
"This one is Cardassian!" Worf exclaimed as he check a man for a pulse. "He needs immediate medical attention!"
"These two are human!" Deanna checked their necks. "They are already dead."
"Intriguing. This is not a known Cardassian ship design. It is only logical that-"
"Perhaps we can discuss this on the Enterprise. Data, give me a hand!" Data rushed over to Riker, and slung the woman's other arm over his shoulder. "Riker to Enterprise. Six to beam directly to sick-bay." As soon as the two survivors were placed on bio-beds, Beverly and her team immediately began their work.
"Why are there two? We expected more than that?"
"These were the only two we could find on the bridge." Just then Picard walked into sick-bay. "Sir, request permission to return and try to locate more survivors."
"I'm sorry number one. We scanned the entire ship, and we could not find any more survivors." Riker looked to Deanna who shook her head.
"I am not sensing anything either."
"Commander La Forge believes that if we manage to get a tractor beam on that ship, even at impulse power it would break apart." For the first time, Picard noticed that one of their guests was not human. "He is Cardassian?"
"It would appear so sir. However we did find other human remains on the bridge as well." Deanna noticed the captains eyes grow dark.
"Cardassians hate humans. Why would they be working along side them?"
"We are not sure. I was about the theorize that-"
"That's alright Mr. Data, I look forward to ready your report." Picard took a few steps toward the bio-bed where the medical team worked on the female. "Doctor I want a preliminary report as soon as possible."
"Won't be for a while sir. I need to stabilize their injuries." Picard nodded and turned to the away team.
"As soon as you are all cleared, clean yourselves off, and then meet in the observation lounge for a debriefing." As the three away team members turned to get checked out, Picard allowed the dark memories of his encounter with the Cardassian on Celtris 3 to plague his mind. Deanna sensed the dark thoughts coming from him. Worried, she turn and place a soft hand on his arm, bringing him back to the now.
"Captain, are you alright?" He pulled on the captain mask and patted her hand.
"Of course. Let me know when you will be ready to debrief." With a quick nod, and tug on his uniform jacket, he turned and walked out of sick-bay. Beverly looked up briefly from her work and caught Deanna's eye, and shared an understanding look. Neither knew exactly what he went through when he was captured, but both knew enough to know that this was going to be far from comfortable for their Captain.
Ok, this is my first TNG story, so be nice! This is totally an AU story, after the series finale. Doesn't follow the storyline of the movies and books. Please R&R!