Soft pink light, reminiscent of a dawn on Earth, shrouded the bridge in a rosy haze. It danced through the silence, its delicate beauty belying the danger that the nebula simultaneously concealed.
Picard rubbed a hand across his forehead as he stepped off the turbolift. The night had passed uneasily, and he kept expecting to wake from his sleep to the sound of klaxons. The Borg visited him many times in his dreams. He saw his beloved ship in smoldering ruins. He heard the screams of his people as they tried to escape, tried to resist, the very danger he had led them towards. "Why?" they cried, their faces wrenched with bitter betrayal. "Why did you do this to us?"
Feeling the weight of someone's stare, Picard pulled himself from his troubled thoughts. "Miss Riker?" he said, surprised to see her standing at tactical. She looked away in a hurry, but not before Picard noticed a certain wrinkle in the corner of her mouth. His counselor pursed her lips the same exact way when she was reading him. "What are you doing here? I thought Mister Bradford was supposed to be on duty?"
"Yes, sir. I couldn't sleep, so I relieved him early. Lieutenant Worf said it would be fine-"
Picard lifted his palm, halting her mid-sentence. "It's just as well. To be honest...you're not the only one who had trouble sleeping."
The wrinkle in the corner of her mouth turned into a small smile. Picard said nothing else, but a silent understanding passed between them. The burdens they carried were similar, and so he found her company that morning strangely comforting.
As he descended down the ramp, Data's crisp greeting hailed his ears. "Good morning, sir. I was not expecting you for another hour and six minutes."
"As they say, Mister Data, no rest for the weary." Picard took his seat at the helm, squinting against the shimmering clouds that swirled within the viewscreen. "Have the sensors detected anything yet?"
"Not yet, sir," Data reported.
"Perhaps they've given up," said a hopeful ensign, standing alone at the communications console.
"No, Driscoll." Carmen shook her head emphatically. "They haven't."
Driscoll scowled over his shoulder at her. Picard had always known him to be a mild-mannered officer, but, being on the final hour of a long and taxing shift, his restraint was beginning to wear. Carmen's tone wasn't helping things, either. She shared her father's unapologetic curtness, but not his rank, which inevitably created friction among her peers.
"And what evidence do you have that the sensors have missed?"
Her eyes narrowed. "Experience," she answered. Begrudgingly, Driscoll turned back to his station without a rebuttal.
Picard rubbed his chin, musing to himself as he gazed into the nebula. Silence descended over the bridge like a spell. Clouds of pink and orange drifted past the ship, the color of a perpetual dawn, making the captain feel as though they were all waiting for a morning that would never come.
A loud beep sounded from Data's station, breaking the spell. All eyes flew to the android. "I am picking something up on the short-range sensors," he said. "It appears to be...a vessel."
Carmen's eyes darted to the turbolift and back. Both of her parents would be arriving soon, signalling a senior crew's turn at the helm. But "soon" may not be good enough.
"Could it be the Borg?" a science officer asked.
"It is not the Borg," Data answered. "Sensors indicate a human lifeform aboard."
Picard rose to his feet. "Human?" he repeated, approaching the android's console to see for himself. "Could the sensors be giving us a faulty reading, Data?"
"It is possible."
"There!" someone cried. The silhouette of a shuttle took form on the viewscreen, wrapped in ethereal light. It hovered before the Enterprise like a ghost.
"Sir-" Driscoll again. He turned his body towards the captain without looking away from his console. "I believe they are trying to hail us, but I keep losing the frequency. There's too much interference."
"They are within range for a tractor beam, sir," Data noted. "We could bring them in."
Picard quickly weighed their options. He glanced over at Carmen, finding himself in need of her mother's counsel. But all he had at the moment was her. Her, Data, and the worn-out remains of last night's crew. "Miss Riker," he implored. "Can you sense anything? Anything at all?"
She closed her eyes in concentration, reaching to the limits of her Betazoid senses. "I...I don't know if I can...wait!" Her eyes shot open again. "Yes, I can sense something!"
"What is it, Miss Riker?"
Her brow furrowed with effort. "It keeps changing. Like when…" She trailed into silence.
"Go on," Picard urged. He understood her hesitation. Using her Betazoid abilities on the bridge meant speaking more freely than she was used to, especially while standing at a battle station.
"Like when my parents found me in the service corridor yesterday," she finished. "There is fear, and then relief, and then anger. Each emotion blurs into the next."
"Maybe they've been running from the Borg, too," Driscoll offered.
"Miss Riker, one more thing." Now he needed the young woman's counsel, not her mother's. "In your experience...could this be a tactic employed by the Borg?"
"No, sir," she said. "Whoever is out there...I believe they are as alone as we are."
Picard straightened his shoulders, and his resolve. "Bring them in, Data."
Meanwhile…
Sheppard awoke with a start. Someone was ringing at his door frantically. It nearly gave him a heart attack, with the events of yesterday still fresh in his mind. "Carmen?" he called, instinctively reaching out. But to his dismay, he found the other side of his bed cold and empty.
At first, she had insisted on sleeping alone. "My nightmares," she said, lingering just inside of his doorway. "They'll only keep you awake. At least one of us should get some rest."
"Then go to your parents," he urged. "Your mother-she can help you."
"Yeah, well, they're a little busy, remember?" She exaggerated a shudder. "How am I supposed to recover from something like that? I can't even go to counseling about it, because my mom is the counselor!"
Sheppard laughed, pulling her into his arms. "Well, you've made it through worse. Right?"
She pretended to waver, which made Sheppard laugh all over again. Carmen leaned into the embrace, and into his laughter.
"Hey," he whispered, holding her a little tighter. "You sure you don't want to stay?"
With a sigh, she rested her chin atop his shoulder. "Maybe I can stay for a little while."
She stayed all night.
Now it was morning, just barely, and someone was pounding on his door. Sheppard jumped out of bed, rushing to throw on some decent clothes. To his surprise, he found Commander Riker standing on his threshold. He cradled Billy in the crook of one arm and huffed for breath as though they had been chased there.
"I need you to do me a favor," he said.
Sheppard rubbed his eyes. Am I still asleep maybe? "You need...me, sir?"
"Just take him, quick!" Hastily, he dumped Billy into the young man's arms.
"Ah! Ah!" the baby cooed. Unlike his father, he appeared to be having a grand old time.
"I-I don't understand-"
"William Thomas Riker!"
The commander grabbed hold of the doorframe, startled by his wife's angry voice. "Imzadi!" he said, turning with a sheepish laugh. "What uh, what are you doing here?"
"Don't you 'imzadi' me," she snapped. "Now where is Billy, and why isn't he with Hannah?"
"Billy?" Riker pretended to draw a blank. He drew up his shoulders, blocking Sheppard's doorway from view.
"Wait, is this-" She lifted onto her toes, trying to look past him. "This is Allan's room! Move out of the way!"
Riker sighed, defeated. Slowly, ever so slowly, he moved to the side to reveal a red-faced (and red-handed) Sheppard.
"Oh, uh, hi Counselor Troi," he said. From his arms, Billy bounced ecstatically.
"Mama! Mama!" he cried, overjoyed to see three of his favorite people in one place. This day was turning out to be one delightful surprise after another.
"Hey there, cowboy," Troi crooned, instantly melting into a soft and tender smile. She held her arms out, but Riker interposed himself between the two.
"Does he have to go back?"
Troi's lips pressed into a thin line. "We've been over this, Will."
"I know, but…" he rested his hands on his wife's shoulders. "I don't want my family spread all over the ship in a time like this. Don't you think he's better off here, with Allan?"
She reached up and squeezed one of his hands. "I know, imzadi."
"You do?"
"...that you've been against Hannah since the beginning. She said she feels like you don't trust her. Can you imagine what that's like, to know her own commander doesn't have faith in her?"
"She's got seven other kids to watch," Riker pointed out. "And don't forget about the peas!"
"I told you, just like I told Carmen-there's nothing wrong with feeding him peas!"
"They are his least favorite vegetable," Sheppard chimed in, then winced immediately as Troi's glare turned on him.
"See!" Riker said. "It's not that I don't trust her, it's that...I have legitimate concerns."
Troi pressed her fingertips to her temples. Riker could practically hear her counting in her head. He didn't enjoy testing his wife's patience (not as much as she believed, anyway). But from the moment he first held his newborn son, he knew that no one on the Enterprise would be able to care for him the way his family could.
It surprised him, how difficult it had been to return to his duties. He couldn't stop thinking about his son's bright blue eyes, and how they seemed to smile when someone talked to him. Or the moment he first placed Billy into his sister's arms, and the way she teared up over every little sound, every little sigh that he made. Billy brought out different things in each of them. Courage, in his mother. Gentleness, in his sister. And for his father, Billy drew out a special kind of fear.
That's because thus far, Riker had only experienced a different side of fatherhood. Carmen needed discipline, structure, restraint. Things that, as a commander, he knew how to give. But a baby? Something small and fragile and utterly helpless? That kind of responsibility was even more daunting than being the first officer of a flagship.
It was during those weeks on Betazed when he realized the true meaning of family. To be surrounded by others who felt the same overwhelming fears, the same overwhelming love. To know that this new life would be fiercely cherished and protected. To willingly share that daunting responsibility.
And so, for awhile at least, Riker felt like they were a real family, a normal family, living the way other normal families got to live. No spaceships. No red alerts. And no Hannah. Troi assured him that, given enough time, they would all adjust to life back on the Enterprise. They were still a real family, after all. But Riker knew, with a wry inward smile, that they would never be normal.
"Picard to Riker." The captain came in over his combadge. He could feel Troi's shoulders tensing beneath his hands.
"Here, sir," he answered.
"I need you to go to Shuttle Bay Five right away. We...have a visitor."
Sheppard's eyes widened. "A visitor? Out here?"
"Who is it, sir?" Riker asked, an uneasiness rising in his chest.
"That's what I need you to find out."
Billy whimpered as a stony change came over his father's visage. Sheppard rocked him gently, whispering a few words of comfort to the boy.
"Alright, alright." Troi blew out sigh. "Billy can stay here for today. If that's okay with you, Allan?"
Sheppard and Riker exchanged a smile. "Yes, ma'am."