A/N: Angel897, Zara08-So glad you guys are still enjoying :-) Thanks for the reviews!
"Alright, Mister Haykov. We can begin," Picard said, sighing deeply as he settled into his chair at the head of a long, glossy table. "Now, what happened down there?"
Haykov looked sick to his stomach, despite having been cleared for the briefing by Crusher's staff. His eyes between each of the faces present. Riker and Troi flanked Picard, sitting across the table from one another. Worf and Laforge sat beside them, respectively. All eyes made their way to the junior officer. Riker's stare was a particularly blistering one. Haykov found himself wondering how long it would take the commander to leap across the table and throttle him. Not long at all, probably.
"Well, Haykov?" he prompted. "Why did you leave two of your party behind?"
The young man drew in a breath, steeling himself. "We waited as long as we could, sir. Spent hours in those caves, searching for her. Sheppard...he refused to leave. He stayed behind to keep looking."
Laforge smiled fondly. "Sounds like Sheppard, alright."
"He said it was the shadow people," Orin added. "But it was the Nokk Qoten. I'm sure of it."
"Well I'm not sure of it," Haykov retorted. "They tried it before, remember?"
"Who? Tried what?" Riker's patience had already waned dangerously thin.
"The shadow people! They tried to take her before! It had to be them this time!"
"But she was in the Chamber of Hearts," Orin argued. "You heard the singing!"
"Slow down, slow down," Picard instructed, steepling his fingers together. "Haykov, these shadow people-what did they look like?"
"They-well, we...uh...we never actually saw them," he admitted. "But we did see a body."
"What kind of body?" Worf's brow furrowed with intrigue.
Haykov squirmed in his seat at the grotesque image that came to mind. "It was kind of hard to tell. It looked human, though."
"Well didn't you scan it?" Laforge asked.
Again Haykov squirmed, this time with shame. "No, sir. At that point, we thought we were the only people on the planet. And Ensign Riker had run off, so we assumed it was her."
"Run off? Why would she run off?" Riker's eyes narrowed, practically burning a hole through the young officer's skull.
"She had been hearing things, seeing things. And after Sheppard got hurt, Kerry thought she was too dangerous. Said we should confine her to the shuttle."
"Wait-she hurt Sheppard?" Laforge frowned with concern.
"She didn't mean to!" Orin jumped to the young woman's defense. "Trust me, she never would've hurt Sheppard on purpose. Especially after the way they were acting this morn-"
"It's because she thought he was somebody else," Haykov interrupted, hoping that the commander wouldn't find it suspicious. But Riker's glower intensified.
"Like one of the shadow people, perhaps?" Picard offered. "What happened the first time they tried to take her?"
"She said they led her towards the north end of the ruins. Then that cat monster showed up, and everyone made a run for it. We...uh...sort of bumped into her just as we were leaving the caves. Her and the cat."
"But you never saw her pursuers?"
"Well...no, sir."
Riker turned towards the captain, blinking in surprise. "Sir, what are you suggesting?"
Picard exhaled slowly, carefully. "From the sound of things, we should be prepared for the possibility that Carmen's mind has been altered somehow."
"Sir, if I may-" Orin spoke up again. "We saw things, too. Things that didn't make sense. I believe now that she was telling the truth all along. For example, she wasn't with us when we entered the Chamber of Hearts, yet she could describe it perfectly."
"What do you mean, the Chamber of Hearts?" Worf inquired.
"She called it that," Orin explained. "Ensign Riker, she had been seeing it in her sleep. That's where she went when she...when…" His shoulders slumped. "When she disappeared."
"We tried to talk her out of it, I swear," Haykov insisted. "We were just there to get a few more samples. Then…"
"Then what?" Troi gently urged.
"We heard the singing again." Haykov shuddered involuntarily. "We'd heard it before, when the Nokk Qoten showed up."
"That's the second time you've mentioned them," Picard remarked. "But I thought the Nokk Qoten were from Bolian mythology?"
"We don't know what they were, exactly. But…" He searched for the right words, ones that wouldn't make him sound crazy. That proved impossible, however. "They...uh...they came out of the walls. Spoke into our minds somehow."
Troi and the captain exchanged a meaningful glance. "A telepathic race?" he mused aloud.
"Yes, sir. That would explain her nightmares."
"How so?" The commander leaned back, rubbing one hand against his beard.
"Maybe they could sense her Betazoid blood, tried communicating with her. If she realized this, then-"
"Then that's why she must have gone into the Chamber of Hearts," Riker finished. He looked to Picard earnestly. "Sir, I think she was on to something."
Picard drummed a pensive hand on the table. "Haykov," he said after a prolonged pause. "Did anyone go into the chamber with her?"
"No. Sheppard begged her not to go alone, but she made us all wait outside. Said something about a mother and child...and someone named Wharton, I think."
To Haykov's surprise, the name had a profound effect on his audience, especially Picard. The captain bolted upright in his chair. "Wharton? What about Wharton?"
"I don't know, she wasn't making a lot of sense at that point. But she wasn't in there very long before we heard her on our combadges." Haykov tried to wet his lips, but his mouth felt like cotton. So Orin took over for him.
"That's when she told us to get out of there, to get help."
"Did she say anything else?" Riker asked, a slight waver in his voice.
"No, sir. When we went in after her, this was all we found." He reached into a pouch at his belt and retrieved something small. Then he bit down on his lip and held it out to the commander. "I'm sorry, sir."
Troi inhaled sharply as it fell into Riker's palm. The commander didn't even have to look down to know what it was. He knew its familiar weight, the curve of its edges. A combadge. It was Carmen's combadge.
Suddenly the doors swished open and someone burst into their midst. Picard's head whipped to the side to see Dr. Crusher's flame-colored hair tousled from her haste and her blue eyes brimming with urgency. "Haykov-that wound on Kerry's arm, where is it from?" she demanded, bypassing any form of a greeting.
"Her-? Oh, from the dog creature."
"Do you mean the one that Carmen fought off? Was she bitten, too?"
"Well yeah. Why?"
"Beverly, what is it?" Picard stood and touched her gently on the shoulder.
"It's the poison." Crusher's face darkened. "It didn't come from a plant. It came from the dog bite."