Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek TNG or any of its original characters
To my readers- Thank you for all the wonderful feedback. I find myself hesitant to post what I have written in fear of disappointing you. I hope it is worth the read. Someone said they were "Dying" for the next chapter, so here it is. I can't take that kind of pressure. :)
ONE WEEK EARLIER-
Captain Picard emerged from his ready room. "A word Number One?" he asked before disappearing back inside.
Will Riker stood and followed his captain into his office. "Yes, Sir?" he asked.
"Have a seat." The captain indicated a chair across from his desk. He continued as Will took his seat. "I just received new orders. We are to change course and proceed to Galia Prime, warp 8."
"Aye Sir," Will said beginning to rise from his chair.
"There's more," the captain cautioned. Will sat back down. "The situation is bleak. The ambassador and his staff have been removed from the embassy. The militant's have gained power. They have taken over the central city."
"Why did the federation leave the embassy open for so long? It seemed inevitable that this extremist movement was gaining momentum." Will asked curiously.
"It was the thought of the federation leaders that the embassy remaining open and operational would lend credibility to the more centric government."
"But they were clearly loosing power."
"Have lost power, Number One. Those that are still alive are in exile."
"Our mission?" Will asked, though he had a suspicion that he knew the answer.
"Locate the Federation ambassador and his staff and bring them safely to Star Base 115."
"Do we have any idea of their location?" Will asked. The captain shook his head. "They didn't happen to have rescue plans with those changes in orders…" Will asked the captain with a mischievous grin.
"Change course, Number One," the captain answered. "Then take Data and Worf. Learn everything that you can. We'll be in sensor range by tomorrow afternoon. We'll need a plan by end of day tomorrow."
"Understood Sir," Riker said again rising from his chair, ready for the challenge ahead of him.
The three members of the senior staff had worked tirelessly the rest of the day and into the next reading everything they could about Galia Prime and its recent political upheaval. Will found himself morbidly fascinated by the fanatical religious movement that had been no more than an minor undercurrent nearly twenty years before when the planet first achieved warp drive, but had now risen to power and domination of the society. It reminded him vaguely of something in earth's history. By the time they arrived within sensor rang of the planet, they were beginning to formulate a plan.
….
"Number One," the captain called after his first officer as he, Worf, Data and Geordi exited the ready room after having just briefed the captain on their rescue plan.
Will lingered while the others exited the room. When they were alone, he stepped back to the captain's desk where he sat. "Yes Sir?"
"One question for you," the captain said.
Will nodded.
"Your away team consists of you, Mr. Worf, and three of his security officers?"
"Yes, Sir. Lieutenant Robins, Ensign Tau, and Lieutenant Corderas." Will told him.
"And how large are these caverns?"
"Approximately 3 square kilometers."
"And you will have twenty minutes to get in and out?" the captain asked and Will nodded. "And you don't know where exactly the ambassador and his staff are located?"
"No, Sir. We have the transmission from the former foreign minister that they are being held in the caverns, somewhere. But it is likely that once we are through the shield grid that we will be able to distinguish their life signs from those of the Galian guards. If you have a different recommendation, Sir…"
"No, Number One. I am not second-guessing your plan. I only wonder why, under the circumstances, you would not include Counselor Troi in your away team. She may be able to locate them far better than our technology will allow and with the limited time restraints…"
"I'm sure we have it under control," Will said tugging on his uniform tunic as he stood.
"Three square kilometers, five people…"
"I would prefer to keep the away team at a minimum."
"And apparently all male," the captain added with a raise of his eyebrow.
Will knew he had been caught. "Captain," he began.
"I am aware of the situation on the planet, Number One,"
"If she were to be separated or captured," Will said,
"I also understand that her unique abilities make her singularly suited for a place on the away team and if she were a man that she would have already had the assignment." The captain paused and watched his first officer's reaction. "So the question is, is it professional discretion that has made your decision, or personal attachment?"
"She would be in more danger than any of the rest of the team if she were to be lost."
"Well, then don't loose her. Besides, I happen to have the utmost confidence in my officers ability to handle themselves in difficult situations." The captain paused. "She is going, Will."
Will Riker hung his head. He knew his captain well enough to know when his mind was made up. The discussion was over. "Aye, Sir. I'll make sure she is briefed."
"Good. You'll leave in 20 hours." Jean Luc looked back at his first officer. He could see the disagreement in the tight line of his jaw, but he would not argue the point further. Jean Luc only hoped it was the right decision. "Dismissed," he said and Riker turned and walked out of the room.
....
It was only eleven hours until the away team would depart for the planet's surface on their rescue mission. Will was still plowing through every piece of information he could find on the typography and culture of the planet he would set foot on for the first time in only a few hours as he sat at his desk in his quarters. He had informed the away team about the change in plans, and Worf had shared his reaction.
"I do not believe that her presents is necessary," Worf argued.
"I agree, Lieutenant. But the captain does not."
"She may be a distraction," Worf said quietly. "I, for one, will be concerned for her safety."
"Again, I agree. But the captain believes that she will be key in finding the ambassador's location."
Worf had not argued again. He had only nodded and had gone on to inform the other members of the team.
Will didn't know if he felt better or worse about Worf agreeing with him so thoroughly. He had been trying to convince himself that his fears were unfounded, but it now only nagged at him more.
His door chimed and he looked away from the typographical map in front of him. "Come in," he called.
The doors slid open and Deanna Troi walked in and smiled at him casually, then without a word of hello, walked over to his couch and settled in. "So," she began nonchalantly. "Want to talk about it?"
"About what?" Will asked, leaving his desk and following her to where she sat.
"About whatever I did or didn't do to make you not want me on your away team."
"You're on the away team. I don't know what you're talking about," Will shrugged. He didn't know why he bothered, she knew him too well for that.
"I am, but not by your choice. So, do you want to talk about it?" Her voice was neither angry nor accusatory, just simple and matter of fact.
Will leaned back and sighed. "Have you read the briefing?" he asked. She nodded slowly.
"Have you read how women are being suppressed, abused…"
Will was surprised when she reached out and took his hand. "I read it, Will. I believe that I understand the situation. I also believe that I will be able to help find the ambassador."
Deanna looked at her friend and smiles gently. She took his hand that she held and put it in her lap. "Do you believe in me, Will?" she asked.
Will sighed and returned her smile, taking his free hand and lightly touching her face. "I always believe in you. I just worry about you and your safety. Is that so wrong?"
Deanna squeezed his hand tighter. "Having my friend worry about me and want me safe? No," she told him with a caring smile. "Having my commanding officer hesitate to allow me to do my job because he is concerned?" Deanna made a questioning face. "Maybe."
Will shrugged helplessly again.
"Okay, here's a question for you," she said settling in against him. "Would you hesitate to let any female officer to be on the away team? Or is it because it's me?"
Will thought about Deanna's question. "I'd hesitate with any female officer on THIS mission," he told her. Then he took another deep breath. "But I am worried that I'm not gonna get any sleep tonight thinking about it because it's you," he told her honestly.
Deanna smiled at him tenderly and with understanding. Then she leaned in and kissed his cheek. "It's going to be fine. We beam in, get the hostages, and beam out. By this time tomorrow we will be sitting on this couch, sipping hot chocolate, adding this to our list of many adventures. You'll see."
"I have to sip hot chocolate too?" Will asked looking light hearted for the first time since Deanna had walked in.
"You can drink what you'd like."
But Will's smile was short lived. He stood and walked to the window gazing out at the planet orbiting below. "Does it bother you at all that half that planet is being held hostage, and we are only going down to rescue eighteen of them?"
Deanna stood as well and walked up behind him. She slowly reached up and rubbed at his shoulders. "We can't take every female off the planet. Will, this is a culture that will find its own way. We can't fix it."
"We're not even trying."
"The federation did try, in their own way. That's why the ambassador was still there when they took over the embassy." Deanna stepped around him to stand between him and his window. "Why is this bothering you so much, Will? What makes this different than the hundreds of cultures that we come in contact with that differ drastically from our own?"
"I don't know," Will answered, but Deanna looked back at him and arched her eyebrow. "Maybe it's because they seem to be going backwards instead of forward. I really don't know. I just can't shake this bad feeling about this."
"There are still a lot of variables in your plan, some we won't have answers to until we are there. It's leaving a lot of uncertainty." She reached up and ran her fingers through the front of his hair. "Get some sleep, Will. It'll be morning before you know it."
"I just wanted to take a look at this topographical map," he said moving back to his desk.
"You have looked at the map. You almost have the map completely memorized. Get some sleep. This is going to be no different from situations that we have been in a dozen times before." Deanna began to walk to the door. "Good night, Commander," she said smiling at him and the doors slid open and she walked away.
…
When the transporter beam faded, the away team stood in the glaring sunlight of Galia Prime. Without a word they took off towards the entrance to the caverns. The caverns were so dark as they entered that they had to pause to allow their eyes to adjust.
"The caverns break off in four main veins from here," Worf said.
Lieutenant Robins scanned with a tricorder. "Sir, I am picking up human life signs, but I can't detect their exact location. Definitely one of those two veins," he said hesitantly.
Will looked over at Deanna and saw her eyes were closed.
"I don't think the whole group's together." She paused. "This way," she said walking forward.
"Do you have any idea of their condition?" Will asked following after her.
Deanna shook her head. "I don't sense pain as much as fear, but I can't tell anything more than that."
The group made its way down the cavern's paths, pausing twice to avoid heavily armed groups of Galians.
"Commander," Deanna put out her hand to stop Will as he passed her. "The group of them is down that way. I think the ambassador is further this way."
"There is a human life sign down that cavern, Sir," the lieutenant agreed.
Riker paused and quickly calculated in his head, how long they had already been in the caverns and how long it would take them to retrace their steps with eighteen others, some of whom could be wounded. Quickly he pointed at the three junior security officers and then to Worf. "Get the main group out," he told him. "The counselor and I will try to find the ambassador."
With a nod, Worf and his group split away from them and Commander Riker and Counselor Troi took off down the other path leading in the direction that Deanna indicated. They did not speak as they went, but their adrenalin was running high as moment by moment they went deeper into the maze of caverns. After several more minutes they came to the end of the path with three smaller paths in front of them. Deanna silently nodded her head to the left, and Will was right behind her. But as they took a couple of steps down the path, they heard a cry of pain and then voices moving towards them.
Deanna's eyes were wide as she concentrated on the person they searched for, but Will quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her back and into the middle of the three tunnels, pushing her tight up against the wall. He felt her body stiffen with tension against him and for just a moment, the officer was gone, and Deanna bowed her head and leaned into his chest as the group of armed Galians walked past them, heading down the cavern towards where they had left Worf and his security group to get the ambassador's staff.
When the voices disappeared into the echoes, Will stepped back and looked at Deanna intently. For the first time, he saw a hint of fear.
"I'm fine," she whispered. "They just assaulted him," she said getting back to work. "I think he's unconscious."
They raced down the left path again until they came to an alcove. Deanna pulled Will by the elbow, indicating this was the place. It was so dark in the alcove that it would have been easy to miss him, and Will's tricorder readings were faint at best. The ambassador lay unconscious on the ground. He was badly beaten.
Will knelt by the man's side and scanned him quickly. "I think his legs are broken," he said. "But I think he's safe to move."
When he looked up, he saw that Deanna's attention was not on the ambassador, but on the path outside.
"Deanna?"
"We've got to get out of here," she said, looking hastily around the room.
"We'll have to see if we can follow the same path out," he told her as he bent over the ambassador. Will shook the ambassador slightly. "Ambassador Greer," he said as the man's eyes drifted open. "Ambassador, I am Commander Riker of the USS Enterprise. We are going to get you out of here."
"My staff," the man mumbled.
"We are getting them out as well. Can you stand?" Will tried to help him, but the man quickly collapsed under his own weight and again lost consciousness. Will picked the man up, draping him partly over his shoulder and turned back to Deanna. "Come on,"
"No, Will. Not that way. There has to be another way out." Deanna was looking around frantically.
"What is it?" Will asked her.
"They must have found the staff pulling out. I think Ensign Tau is wounded. Will, there are too many of them. We'll never make it out. There has to be another way."
They both glanced around in the darkness.
"Okay," Will told her. "This way. We'll have to hurry. We're running out of time."
The two took off deeper into the caverns with Commander Riker carrying the still unconscious ambassador. As they ran they could hear the chorus of voices building behind them. The screams reached a crescendo and the two of them realized that the guards had reached the alcove where the ambassador had been.
The guards were gaining on them, having the distinct advantage of knowing the lay of the land. Soon they could hear and see the lights fill the cavern from weapon discharge. Commander Riker scrambled for a place to find cover. He turned into an alcove and made sure that Deanna was right behind him. But when the Galian weapon discharged, there was no hope of either of them staying on their feet as the energy blast surged past them.
Will heard the cracking as the rocks above them gave way to the energy blast. He instinctively took the ambassador's limp body and pushed it forward, taking Deanna plowing forward with it. The arch of the top of the cavern came crashing down and Will felt a stone rip through his arm as he was thrown from his knees face down in the ground.
Slowly the dust began to clear and Will looked up to find Deanna scrambling towards him, still covering the ambassador's body.
"Will," she called.
Will Riker tried to push himself up using both his arms, but his right arm buckled underneath him and he crashed back to the ground. "I'm alright," he said, pulling himself free of the remaining debris. He could feel the blood trickling down the side of his face.
"Your arm is broken," Deanna told him helping him sit up.
"No, it's just dislocated at the elbow." Will winced as he stood. "The ambassador?"
"He's still unconscious, but no worse than when we found him." Deanna looked at the pile of rock that now mostly blocked them from the group of militants. "How far does this go back?" she asked pointing to the make shift rock wall.
Will only shook his head. "Don't know. But they have bigger weapons than ours. It won't take them long to break through."
"What was that?" Deanna asked referring to the weapon's discharge that had brought the walls of the cavern down around them.
"Nothing I've seen before," Will said brushing himself off. "Some sort of plasma discharge, I would guess." Will struggled to lift the ambassador's body again. "We've got to get out of here," he said. "They must be rescrambling the shield grid."
The two looked desperately for a way out. "Did you notice as we were running that we were gradually going uphill?" he asked her.
"Not particularly," she told him honestly. "I was a little occupied by the people trying to kill us."
"I think we're close to the surface," he told her as he continued the only way that was now available to them.
Deanna was right behind him. "Wait," she cried. "What is that?" she said pointing off to the side.
"That is sunlight!" he said pulling her towards the light further down the path. They could already hear the blasts of the Galian weapons blasting against their momentary sanctuary. "Help me," he said as he put the ambassador down against the stone wall and pulling his phaser from his hip.
Deanna took out the phaser she carried as well. The light was just barely able to filter through the rock face in the corner of the natural alcove's ceiling at least 20 meters above them. "We can blast a larger hole," he told her. "But we'll have to climb the wall to get out." The wall was rough and sloped.
Deanna didn't hesitate on her own account, but she looked back at Riker. "Will, can you? With your arm and carrying the ambassador?"
Will nodded. "Aim for the light. Level three. Ready?"
Deanna nodded and the two of them together blasted the ceiling with phaser bursts for almost five seconds, before the rocks started to tumble away. It left them a gap to crawl through that would have to do. Both of the officers holstered their phasers and began the climb, the ambassador slung over the shoulder of Will's bad arm as he grasped the rocks with his left. Deanna climbed in front of him. Her hand slipped once on the loose gravel from the collapse they had created.
Will's hand was immediately on her back, steadying her. But the voices were growing louder behind them. "Keep going!" he said urgently. They grunted and pulled their way up the wall towards the light as they heard rocks crashing and weapons firing from where they had come. They heard sudden shouts and heavy footfall. The militants were through the barrier the avalanche had caused. "We're not gonna make it," Will admitted just as the cavern light up with the discharge of weapons. Will tired to reach for his phaser, but without grasping the wall and with the weight of the ambassador on him, it would be impossible for him to get a shot off.
"Keep going!" Deanna told him, pausing and pulling aside so he could pass her. Her phaser was already aimed behind them. Will looked her in the eye, as he pulled level with her. "Go!" she told him. There was another blast of weapons fire from the Galians and Deanna fired back. She continued to inch her way up behind where Commander Riker climbed while holding off the weapons fire.
Finally Will reached the top of the cavern and placed the ambassador's body on the ground. He could see that they were not too far from the transport sight, just down the hill, but there was no sign of Worf or his team. He pulled himself out of the hole as well and then reached back in. Deanna was so close, firing her phaser at groups of armed Galians on either side of the alcove.
"Deanna!" he called to her. "Give me your hand!"
Deanna looked up and for the first time realized how close she was to the surface. She let go of the rock face and lifted her hand towards Will's outstretched one. But just as their hands brushed one another there was another blast from the same plasma weapon that had caused the original cave in. Will felt the wave of energy before he heard the crack of the weapon's discharge and it was as if everything slipped into painfully slow motion.
Deanna's body was first pushed against the rock face and then as if on a rebound, she was blasted away from the rock's surface. Will made one drastic attempt to grab on to her hand, but it was too late. He watched as she tumbled from the side of the rock face, hitting against the jagged rocks as she fell, first her shoulder and then her head before he heard the deafening thud of her body hitting the ground face down and unmoving.
The Galians were pouring out from where she had held them at bay, gathering around her body. They were shouting, though Will could not make out what they were saying. He quickly grabbed his phaser and took one shot before he realized that in the dark of the cavern he could just have easily been hitting Deanna with his weapon as anything else.
Fighting the panic inside him, he tapped his communicator.
"Riker to Data," he paused. "Data, I've lost Deanna. Can you lock onto her signal from here? We need to get her out of here!"
There was only static as a response at first. "Neg…ve…deposi…shield gri…must transpor….meediat…read…" was all he could make out.
He looked down at the unconscious ambassador and continuing as if his body knew what to do, though his mind was far from it, he hoisted the ambassador onto his shoulder again and ran down the mountain to the original transport sight. He would get the ambassador off the surface and go back for her. He would find a way. But as he reached the sight, he felt, more than saw or heard, the transporter beam encapsulate him and his cargo.
NO! He thought, almost fighting the pressure of the beam around him, but it was no use. The planet was vanishing in front of him.