Chapter 25
Vortigon screamed and dropped him, his body cleaved apart at the shoulder. Reg slumped and sat at the base of the tree, gasping for breath. Vortigon vanished into smoke with a hollow roar revealing Data holding his broadsword in one hand and the demon's heart in the other. In seconds he was standing empty handed and crouched in front of Barclay, who looked confused and was rubbing his neck.
"Are you from here?" Reg asked. "Part of Taryn's memory?"
The android shook his head. "I am plugged into the interface using my optical data network port. You appeared to require assistance."
"You… could put that slant on it." Reg stated guiltily as Data took his hand and helped him to his feet. "Thank you." he said sincerely.
"From what has happened so far, I would suggest that she wants you to find her, but it is something else that keeps warning you off."
"Something else?" Reg frowned and considered this.
"She may have asked you to stay away or back off, I do not believe she would try to kill you. In fact, she appeared to try to protect you more than once."
"He was…g…going to kill me?" Reg asked and nervously placed his hand on his chest. "Not just in here, b…but out there too?"
"He almost did." Data advised him.
"W…what is it? I mean, h…how could there be another consciousness in her mind?"
"I do not know." he replied.
Reg moved to Taryn's fallen form and turned her, lifting her gently as he knelt beside her. She gazed up blankly, her eyes as devoid of life as she was in the real world.
"This isn't her, I mean it was but she's not here anymore." Reg stated and laid her carefully down, folding her hands on her chest. "We have to keep looking."
"Where do we go?" Data asked.
"I don't know, I've been following her. If she wants me to find her she wouldn't make it hard." he reasoned.
"Perhaps the direction she was running in?" Data suggested and Reg shrugged.
Reg suddenly stopped as they walked along the forest path. "If there's someone else here, maybe it was their katra Surok sensed." Reg looked at Data nervously. "Maybe she's really gone."
"From what you told us she gave Surok a piece of her mind telepathically. She is here." Data assured him. "This place…feels like her. I cannot describe it rationally."
"I feel that too, but maybe it's just an echo." Reg suggested dejectedly.
The setting changed and they were in a busy nightclub, surrounded by gyrating bodies, bright flashing lights and loud pumping music.
"I have no idea what this is about." Reg shouted, then noticed a scantily clad Taryn dancing on a podium, then another walked past him in skin-tight leather and flashed them a smile, her eyes, even the whites were black, demonic. More of them turned in different clothing and looked at them, they were spread throughout the crowded dancefloor. Reg began hunting for her, turning girls and looking into their eyes. They laughed as they gazed up at him with their black stare. A dark sinister laugh.
"You'll never find her." one of them hissed in his face. "She's mine, she's always been mine, just like her filthy mother." The voice wasn't hers, it was malevolent and hollow.
Reg's lip twitched, "It's you!" he grasped her by the arms and shook her, realising that somehow, this was him, the monster that had defiled and deflowered his wife. Data grasped his arm and tried to stop him, worried he was attacking Taryn, then paused to listen as she spoke. Her voice echoed in their minds, they could hear her clearly in spite of the music. "Who are you? What are you?" Reg asked.
"I am Multitude." the creature intoned. "She was sweet, so little and innocent but she's strong." she smiled and stroked his chest. "Her mother was weak. The bean counter was weak. They were easy to control but this one fights. She'll be a worthy host when I finally break her."
"You occupied Tira?" Data asked. "And the accountant at the Barin court?"
"Tira was twisted, she had dark appetites to rival my own, she was easy to occupy but she drew attention to herself, blinding her brother, torturing animals while I was hiding within her. The accountant was easy to seduce, he liked little girls but lacked the courage to act on his impulses. I found my way into him easily, but he was old and pathetic… But Tira, I remembered her taste and the feeling of being inside her, her body, her mind and then her daughter was brought to me, almost as a gift and she was sweeter than Tira. You know how good she is don't you?" She grabbed Reg's crotch and he grasped her wrist, wrenching it away from him gripping it tightly. "I forced a way in but could not take control, she didn't hear my whispers, telling her to hurt, to rape, to kill. Then she bashed her brains in and now this place is mine." The creature laughed.
"She did this to herself." Reg stated. "She lobotomised herself to keep you trapped." he realised and pushed the laughing monstrosity away.
"She's growing weaker by the moment. This body will be mine." she informed him as they moved away. "I've tasted you now, I'll take you next." she laughed. "Your little daughter is very pretty don't you think? Sweet little Galatea. I can't wait to taste her. I'll use your body to do it…"
They continued hunting the crowd, checking the eyes of all the girls until Reg spotted something and pushed his way through the throng. Facing the corner, curled up into a foetal ball was a green-skinned woman wearing strategically placed leaves. He lifted her gently and turned her, tilting her face with a finger to her chin to look into her eyes.
"You took your time to find me." she shouted over the music and melted into his arms. They were in the glade, the glade from the painting, under the tree. "I made this place, somewhere you would recognise when I felt you in my mind. It can't get in here yet." she told him, holding him tight. "It's been taking over people in my memories, trying to wear me down, I don't know how much longer I can hold it back. You have to leave. Both of you."
"I'm not leaving without you." Reg stated as he moved to gaze into her eyes.
"Where are you going to take me?" Taryn asked. "I'm in my own body."
"There has to be a way to bring you back?" Reg pleaded, her hands in his.
"If I can hold out long enough by the time it takes over the neurological damage will be beyond repair and it will be trapped. Data, you and The Doctor will have to keep my body alive until you can find a way to contain or destroy this…monstrosity permanently. It has to be stopped, it has to end with me."
"No." Reg argued.
"There's no other way." she told him as tears rolled down her face and she stroked his cheek. "It's right, I'm losing and you have to go or you'll be trapped here with it and I'll be gone." He clutched her against him. "You have to take care of Galatea and the babies and I'll keep this thing away from you all."
"The Doctor is attempting to…" Data looked confused, his eyes darting from side to side. "There may be another way."
"There certainly is another way." The Doctor stated appearing in her mind, Reg realised he had patched his program into the interface as well. "Your synaptic pattern makes sense now, it's not the two hemispheres I've been seeing, it's two different personalities. We can isolate its pattern and we can eradicate it, in the same way we would correct epilepsy. Dr Crusher is preparing for the procedure as we speak."
"Why do I think there's a 'but' coming?" Taryn sniffed, her head against Reg's chest as he wiped his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.
"The only way we can currently tell your neural pattern from the entity is because Reg's is the same as yours, he'll have to stay here until we complete the procedure but as you stated, that carries a risk to him if the entity takes you over before we finish." The Doctor stepped closer. "Are you aware of how extensive the trauma is to your brain?"
"Yes, but Reg was wrong, I haven't done further damage, I've just held back the healing process. You're right to worry. I honestly don't know how much better I'll get." she looked up at Reg. "I don't know how long it will take and you might never get all of me back."
"We have to try, and we have to try together." he kissed her hands. "What do you need us to do?" he asked The Doctor.
"Taryn needs to hold out as along as she can against the entity. I'm guessing you should give moral support." The Doctor stated.
"If this goes wrong look after our children please? Both of you." Reg asked.
"Did you decide on names for the twins?" The Doctor asked.
"What's your grandmother's name?" Taryn asked Reg. "On the Barclay side."
"Philippa." he replied.
"That's easy, my Grandad was Philip but everyone called him Pip."
"Pip Prior? That's cute." Reg smiled.
"It was Professor Pip Prior." Taryn corrected with a smile. "So Philip or Philippa for one of them. Edan, or Edara as a middle name?" Reg nodded.
"T'Pandra?" Reg stated.
"T'Pandra Myfanwy and Iestyn Reginald if it's a boy," Taryn stated and Reg reluctantly nodded in agreement with her choice.
"Philip or Philipa Taryn then." Reg argued. "It is technically a boy's name."
"Okay." Taryn agreed. "We won't be the ones to explain it to Edara anyway. Please contact Surok and send him my apologies. I was worried it would move to him and I said things I didn't really mean although they were technically true."
"Apologise for me as well, and tell my Dad I love him." Reg requested.
"We're ready to start." The Doctor stated. "We need to go and we'll see you both soon." They both disappeared and they were left alone.
"How are you holding up?" Reg asked her, he loved feeling her tummy against him as he held her but he'd missed being able to hold her as close as he could now. In her mind she wasn't pregnant.
"Okay for now I think." she replied and snuggled against him.
"Did you know I was visiting you? Did you hear what I said?" he asked.
"Not really, but I sort of felt your presence and Gala sometimes, as well as my family when they came and I remember a lot of lovely pictures. It meant a lot to me to feel you all cared. I don't think I'd have held out this long without it." she smiled.
"I wondered, we didn't know you see." Reg told her and nuzzled her hair. "I've missed you so much. If this works you have to fight to come back to us."
"I will, I promise." she clung to him. "It's getting harder."
"I know," he whispered, "but they're watching us..." he said casting his eyes around.
"No it's harder keeping it out you prat."
"Oh sorry, I thought…never mind." he smirked. "Will you do something for me?" he asked.
"I thought you said they were watching." she replied, looking askance.
"No it's, well you look great in that outfit and I never got the rear view from the painting."
"Okay." she let him go and stepped back with a smile. "Do you want me to pose?"
"By the tree?" he suggested and she walked over, did the pose that the Dryad did with her hip cocked, her heel lifted and her arm raised above her head only in reverse then turned and smiled at him over her shoulder. "If any of you are listening I want a picture of this." Reg shouted.
The sky turned cloudy and dark and the wind picked up across the glade.
"Multitude is coming." she shouted as the wind whipped her hair.
"You are stronger than this thing. It caught you with your guard down, that's all. You can hold it at bay. I know you can. You've staved it off for fifteen years, you just have to hang on a little longer." he told her as he grabbed her and pulled her against his chest. He took her face in his hands and turned it up to his. "Look at me. You can do this. You just have to hold on."
"You have to go." she cried and he felt as though he was being pushed away from her, out of her mind. "I have to protect you, they need you."
"They need us both. Don't you dare push me away!" he shouted. "When I did it to you it was the stupidest thing I ever did. We're doing this together, everything together. Use that energy on the entity, not me. You have to focus Taryn."
"I'm not strong enough." she wept.
"Yes you are. I promise you." He pressed soft kisses to her tearstained face. He turned at the sound of rushing water and saw a tidal wave break over the trees and he gripped her tighter as they were immersed in icy cold water.
Suddenly they were strapped into the shuttlecraft underwater again, an experience he'd previously counted his blessings she was unconscious for. She was panicking and tearing at the belt over her lap still dressed in her leafy swimwear, air emerging from her mouth and nose in large bubbles. He unfastened his belt and forced the broken seat back using his foot on the console to get free and reached for her belt which was jammed. He yanked a panel open and pulled out a phaser, adjusted the settings and melted the buckle which came apart easily. He grabbed her and pulled then noticed she was pointing frantically at her lower leg which was trapped under the console, impaled on a shard of metal. He reached down and yanked her leg free from the spike, ignoring the billowing cloud of green blood that swirled around her lower limb while telling himself it was just an illusion. He took hold of her around the upper body and kicked hard towards the back of the up ended shuttle. The rear hatch was closed. This damn entity was certainly not going to make this easy for them. He reached out and hit the release pad with his hand and he pulled her out of the craft as it rolled and tumbled on its way down. He was surrounded by darkness, unable to tell which way was up. Taryn released what he suspected was the last of the air in her lungs and he watched the bubbles drift away, then oriented them both in the water and kicked in the same direction, hoping against hope that the laws of the physical universe applied here and bubbles rose to the surface. He kicked hard and broke the surface with a gasp, then cupped his hand under her jaw, keeping her head up as he treaded water. She began to splutter and cough.
"It's okay, I've got you." he whispered and held her against him still clad in her leafy bikini as they bobbed in the icy water with her flailing frantically. "I'm not letting you go, I'm never letting you go."
"I'm never letting you go." his words echoed in his mind as he woke with a start. He was in a strange bed, a double sized biobed on a holo-grid. He was wearing his pyjamas which puzzled him. He was wearing his uniform when they… His mind cleared and he realized Taryn was beside him in a nightdress. Her head on his shoulder and his hand on her bulge. Her breathing was relaxed and her eyes were closed, not open in the vacant stare that had been her perpetual expression for the last two weeks. He stroked her cheek gently with his finger and he tried frantically not to set his hopes too high as she stirred.
Her eyelids flickered open and she looked at him with a worried frown. "Cold." she whispered.
"You're cold?" he asked and she shook her head slightly.
"Wet." she stated and looked at him earnestly. He wondered if she was talking about the experience they had shared but she seemed to be wanting something. He checked the bed and she certainly hadn't wet herself. Then he noticed she was licking her lips and they looked dry.
"Are you thirsty?" he asked and she nodded. "You want cold water." he realised and looked up and saw a cup with sponges on sticks in it. They had used them in the hospital to moisten her mouth as she was unable to swallow. To be safe he wetted one in a glass of water and held it to her lips. "Better?" he asked after she had taken a little from the sponge and she nodded.
"Go." she said after a struggle to think of the word.
"You want me to go?" he asked and she shook her head. "Can you sign? You might find it easier." she tried to lift her hands but her right hand was clenched and curled tight against her chest. "It's alright." he told her. "Go." he whispered. "Do you want to go?" she nodded. "Where?" she shook her head. "Oh you want to go. You need to pee." he realised. "Uh…" he looked around and then got off the bed and went around to her side. "Allow me to show you your new bathroom Milady." he said gallantly and picked her up. She gripped him tightly around the neck with her left arm and whimpered. "I've got you." he whispered and carried her across the hall and into the family bathroom. "I hope you like the colour." he said as he sat her on the toilet and made sure her nightdress was out of the way. He supported her at first as he was uncertain of how stable she was but she seemed able to sit unaided. She sighed with relief as she urinated and looked around the room with a gentle smile on her face. She must like the colour, Reg decided.
"Ah you're both up." The Doctor asked as he carried her into the hall. "How is she?"
"Doctor." she stated.
"She's having problems communicating, her right arm, well you can see it. I gave her a little water on a sponge stick and she tried to swallow." Reg explained as they entered the holo-grid room and he put her back on the bed. "She sat on the toilet unsupported."
"That's an excellent start, did she pass urine?" The Doctor asked and Taryn nodded. "Let me assess you and we'll take things from there." he told her then looked at Reg. "She recognised you I assume?"
"I'm not sure." Reg replied. "She didn't say my name like she did yours…" he added nervously.
Taryn reached up with her left arm and touched his stubbled face gently, "Prat." she smiled up at him.
"She recognises me." Reg confirmed and took her hand and kissed it.
"Doctor, is it all right if…Daddy you're awake! You were asleep for ages." Galatea declared.
"I was?" Reg looked at The Doctor, confused.
"Gala!" Taryn cried.
"Mommy!" she ran to her and hugged her tightly. "I knew you'd wake up." she whispered. "They always do in fairy stories."
"My Gala." Taryn said softly, stroking the little girl's hair awkwardly.
"Mommy woke up, but she's still not very well, so how about we go and find some hot chocolate while The Doctor checks her out?" Reg suggested. "You'll have time with Mommy later, I promise." She took his hand and they headed downstairs together.
"Good to see you Kiddo." Reg II said as they entered the kitchen. He was feeding the cats. "Did you wake Daddy up?" he asked Gala with a mock stern expression.
"He was already awake, so was Mommy." Gala said and walked to the replicator. "Hot chocolate in a child cup please." she requested and took it into the living room.
"Sit quietly while you drink it." Reg advised.
"She's awake?" Reg II asked. "Your half-assed risky idea that you went ahead with without even telling me actually worked?"
Reg blanched. "Sorry Dad. I had to, and it was in the nick of time. That entity was about to take her over completely. She was running through her memories and keeping it restrained till she was beyond healing. As it is she's damaged, The Doctor's assessing her now but she's recognising people. She called me a prat." he smiled weakly.
"That's good." Reg II said and squeezed his son's shoulder. "That's a good sign, it's got to be. You know you both had us all worried. The doctors said they had trouble breaking the interface between you, they even had to put you on a bariatric biobed together 'cos you wouldn't let go of each other's hand. You were both out for over seventy-two hours. Some kind of neural shock they thought at the time."
"Really? How is she?" he asked The Doctor urgently as he entered.
"She has aphasia, hemiplegia of the right side and upper limb spasticity, her left side hand coordination is also impaired. She has a good swallow reflex so she can eat and drink normally although she will require assistance with feeding." The Doctor stated, "The good news is all these problems should improve with therapy although by how much I currently can't say. The healing capacity of her brain is truly remarkable but I wouldn't want to give you false hope of a full recovery."
A few hours later Taryn was sitting at the dinner table with her family and Reg was feeding her.
"That's not how you do it Daddy." Galatea told him.
"It isn't?" he asked and looked at his father.
"She needs to build mucky memory." Galatea told him and got down from her seat. "This is how Mommy helped me learn to use a knife and fork." She put the fork in her mother's left hand and with her tiny marbled hand over hers steered the fork to her mouth. "See? Like that." Taryn smiled at her daughter as she helped her to eat.
"I think she means muscle memory." Reg II stated with a smile. "Looks like Mommy trained her own little physical therapist."
"Thank you honey, it's good job you're here to help." Reg smiled and moved around to take over so the little girl could finish her dinner. It made sense really, helping her to feed herself seemed more therapeutic than him forking food into her mouth. He'd even watched Taryn encourage the little girl she had spoon fed on Nareev's barge to hold the spoon while she fed her. Taryn looked at him and smiled. She was there, the part that made her his Taryn was intact, he could feel it when she looked at him but how much she remembered of her life was anyone's guess.
…
"Are you okay?" Reg asked as he stepped out of the shower with a towel around his waist. She was walking much better and regaining her motor skills well. She was even using her right arm again, but her speech was taking longer to improve.
"Fine." she said softly and sat on the toilet lid.
"Are you keeping me company while I have a shave or do you want me to step out while you pee?"
Concentration formed on her face as she struggled to find the words she wanted. "Sh..shave. Pee anyway." she looked up at him as he brushed soap on his chin. "Recall….remember."
She had a point, she'd never been shy about them sharing the bathroom, even he had been surprised how natural it felt. She'd once told him true intimacy was sitting in the bath while your lover took a dump. He thought she was probably right. "You've seen me shave a lot, so I'm not surprised you remember it." Reg said.
"No, apart… nose…kiss."
"Oh on the Enterprise, while I was having my divorce from reality." he dabbed soap on her nose as he had that day.
"Remember everything." she looked up at him and wiped her nose as he began to shave.
She really did, he realised, she remembered everything but she just couldn't articulate her needs and feelings. He'd been, not cold with her but he'd been restrained when it came to affection, despite the look in her eyes and on her face in moments like this. "I've had the feeling you did, but I wasn't sure." he whispered. "I know I've been distant but…I love you, I'm as in love with you as the day I met you but you needed time to heal and I needed to be sure…that I wouldn't be taking advantage." She grasped his hand on the side of the sink and he gripped her fingers with his thumb. "I know how frustrating it must be not being able to make yourself understood. You could start signing now your hands are so much better?" he suggested.
"No..." she looked at her hands desperately.
"You can't find the words to sign them either?" he asked and rinsed his razor. "I'm sorry Pickle, I didn't realise." She nodded and watched him shave in silence. He finished shaving and wiped his face with a towel and she stood and felt his cheek, a warm smile on her face. "For a girl with a thing about hair you really don't like face fuzz do you?" he pointed out and turned to face her as she let her hand slide down to his bare chest. He took her gently in his arms and kissed her softly on the lips, tangling his hand in her hair as the kiss became more heated. He had been working from home on the project as it was still at the theoretical stage and there was a rota of her family members who looked after her when he had classes while she was recovering and also because she was on limited activity for the remainder of the pregnancy. She was allowed to potter about the house but no lifting or carrying, especially not Galatea. She was already at thirty-six weeks, but The Doctor wanted to hold out for longer as all was well. They had been given a date to go in and have labour induced so at least everything was set at last. He'd loved the time he'd spent with his family in recent weeks, despite his needing to care for his wife. Much of the help she needed was due to the logistics of her enormous distended belly rather than the head injury anyway as she'd recovered physically much faster than expected and The Doctor believed her brain was still healing itself. While a full recovery wasn't guaranteed it was by no means ruled out as a possibility. Gala had been a little star too. She still remembered most of the tutoring she had been given and seemed to relish the tables being turned. She helped with her exercises and told Reg off when he did things for her rather than letting her do them herself.
She pulled away from the kiss with a look of realisation on her face and gazed up at him. "…." she scowled with frustration. "Slot."
"You want me to fill your slot? I can do that." he smiled and kissed her neck.
"No, not sex." she stated. How typical that she could make that clear. "Wall…"
"Slot in the wa…the replicator, you want something from the replicator?" she nodded and grabbed his hand, towing him into the bedroom to stand by the replicator.
"Child…fun…clever." she clenched her fists in frustration, grabbed him again and towed him into one of the rooms ultimately intended for the twins. She went to a pile of boxes that contained developmental toys that Gala had outgrown but may be useful later on.
"A-a, let me." Reg warned as she reached for the highest box and lifted it down for her to rummage through. She shook her head and he lifted down the next one, uncertain as to why this couldn't wait until he was dressed, but she'd clearly had a brainwave of some sort. She pulled out a device and looked at it, it was a math game for children. She turned it over and looked at the reverse of the small console. She pointed to a name embossed into the surface. "It's the name of the designer, so?" he gazed into her eyes, trying to understand. "You want to replicate something by this designer?" she nodded. "For Gala?" she shook her head and pointed to herself. "There's something by this designer you think will help you?" she nodded vehemently. "Okay let's look them up on the terminal."
They quickly found it, it was a language game specifically designed for adults with aphasia and she pounced upon it like a hungry dog on a steak as soon as it was replicated and sat on their bed. He should have thought of it earlier and done a search himself, he was such an idiot, but cognitive development was her field not his.
"I meant it you know. I could fill your slot if you want?" he suggested hopefully as he rummaged for something to wear. "It's nearly your nap time and it's a while before I have to pick up Gala from school."
She looked up at him and smirked, "Okay," she agreed and held her arms out to him. "Oooh soap." she whispered as she nuzzled his face.
"I'm going to cover myself in that shaving soap one of these days." he whispered as a he kissed her neck, lying on the bed beside her.
"You don't need to." she replied softly and he looked at her in shock.
"You just said four words in a row and it made sense." he stated. She looked doubtful, "Honestly, you did."
"Quiet… kiss." she instructed him.
…
Taryn entered their bedroom and froze, as did Reg with an expression on his face of a man caught out. "Reg, why do you have my breast pump hanging from your man-boob?" She held up her hands. "On second thoughts don't answer that. I expect every prospective father has done it since it was first invented." She smirked.
"Do we really need all this…stuff?" Reg asked, extricating his chest from the pump and rubbing his nipple before fastening his shirt. "Can't we just replicate as we go?" he argued, looking at what she'd ordered that was spread out over their bed.
"Clothes and nappies yes, but we need the safety-seats for the hovercar to bring them home, we need the playpen to have somewhere safe to put them downstairs for a nap and it had to have a safety field because of the cats, two cots, a changing table, a bath, a double anti-grav pushchair and a bag the size of Wales to carry all their crap around when we go out…" She looked at him earnestly, "It's not my fault we need two of everything. You're in no position to talk you know, you've got more tools in the attic than the Utopia Planitia Shipyard."
"It was you that released two ova, it's not like my away team had a tricorder telling them where to go." Reg argued. "Besides, I'm an engineer, and half of those tools are yours you know."
"I know." she admitted. "Do you think it was a mistake not to resign my commission again?"
"Why? I know I wanted you out of Starfleet at first but you're an officer, I've come to accept that and it's not like you're serving on a starship or the frontline somewhere. You're an academic, a teacher."
"I want another child." she told him.
"Can we get these two finished first?" he asked with a raised brow.
"Another artificial child and… Bastion's future is still undecided and Haftel still casts a shadow over Starfleet…attitudes don't change overnight, they can't."
"No one has tried to stop Data keeping Lal with him." Reg stated. "If you want to resign your commission that's fine. If you want to quit altogether that's fine too. As long as you're happy." He wrapped his arms around her. "Can we get some of this junk off the bed so I can have my wicked way with you Mrs Barclay?"
"The pump got you going did it?" she asked with a smirk. He nodded. "Okay, as long as we can find a comfy position." she said as he pressed his lips to hers.
…
"Reg!"
He woke with a start and realised he was alone in the bed. The chronograph read just after 3am. "Taryn?"
"I'm in the shower." she called and he got up quickly, worried that she had fallen.
"What's wrong?" he said stepping into the bathroom to find her showering with water, unusual for her.
"I'm having contractions." she told him, her hands braced against the shower wall.
"It's probably Braxton Hicks like The Doctor warned us about. You're only at thirty-eight weeks, you're getting induced in three days so just… chillax Kitten." Reg said calmly.
"I think the babies have other plans." she stated and handed him the device The Doctor had given them to time contractions if they should start.
"Oh boy." he panicked, looking at the device, "Oh boy, oh boy." she'd been having contractions around every seven minutes for over an hour and from the look on her face they were strong. "You're really in labour." he started flapping around the bathroom in his pyjama bottoms.
"Chillax Tiger." she said archly. "It's a long way off yet." she winced in pain. "Time it." He pressed the device and put his wrist through the strap then stepped into the shower with her and put one hand on the bulge. "I'm really feeling it in my back." she moaned and he began rubbing her lower back firmly with the heel of his palm.
"The Doctor said back labour is really common in Orion women. It's nothing to worry about." Reg stated, showing remarkable stoicism and support. "Jesus wept! What the hell is that?" he shrieked as he spotted a bloodstained blob that looked like snot on the shower floor.
"That would be the mucous plug I passed it earlier. Stop the clock." She breathed steadily. "You know it's wonderful that you're so calm about this." she said sarcastically and smiled up at him cheekily.
"Your birth plan was to be induced, at the hospital, by The Doctor, in three days' time." he protested. "I wasn't expecting it to be so…disorganised and certainly nothing called a mucous plug."
"My original birth plan was better. It was perfect…just squeeze them out, play the rest by ear." she muttered and stepped out of the shower with him, grabbing a towel and handing one to him.
"Did the water make it easier?" he asked sincerely as he dried himself and she wrapped the towel around her, her green belly comically sticking out through the gap as it wouldn't reach.
"Not really, but you rubbing my back helped." she smiled.
"Okay, well that was six and a half minutes so… Right… Um, I'll call Dad and ask him to come over and watch Gala today instead of three days' time, and I'll let the Doctor know."
"Okay, I'll get dressed and go downstairs and have a little to eat and drink while I can." she suggested. "There's plenty of time, it could be hours yet so we can let my tribe know later on." She rubbed his arm, "You should have a shower and get dressed before you make those calls. It's going to be a long day and it will help you feel settled."
"Are you sure?" he asked, "I don't think I should leave you…"
"If you're worried I'll wait here till you're finished." she said, picking out a tent to wear. "You'll miss a couple of contractions at the most."
"Okay." he said nervously. "Oh boy. I'll…okay." He went into the bathroom.
…
"When you said to haul ass over here I didn't expect to find the pair of you smooching." Reg II stated.
They were slow dancing in the living room to soft music, he held her hand to his chest and was rubbing her back with the other hand.
"The rocking motion helps with early labour." Reg explained.
"That's a new excuse." his father stated wryly and headed to the kitchen to get a coffee. "I'll have to remember that one."
"Ooh." she moaned and gripped his shoulder, making him whimper and fumble for the timer dangling from his wrist behind her then rubbed her back.
"That was a strong one I'm guessing. They're getting longer too." he whispered as she signalled him to measure it. "Time to go to the hospital." he said, looking at the readout.
"I'm not going." she stated.
"Taryn, we agreed it would be safer…"
"I changed my mind. I want to stay here." she protested and buried her face into his shoulder.
"If it's because you haven't been outside for a while... You'll be okay, I'll be with you."
"It's not that," she whispered. "I just feel I shouldn't go to the hospital."
"I'll call The Doctor and he can have the deciding vote. Deal?"
"Deal." Taryn replied reluctantly.
…
"It's not uncommon for women to radically change their minds about their birth plan during labour Reg, particularly around the transition stage." The Doctor stated as he scanned her while she sat backwards on a chair, leaning on the back in her maternity dress. "Well, Twin A is head down and engaged, B is head up."
"What does that mean?" Reg asked.
"The second baby will be showing us a little green bottom instead of its head. But it's quite common with twins and shouldn't be a problem." The Doctor smiled. "We should be able to deliver naturally."
"I don't like this. We should really go to the hospital." Reg shook his head and started pacing.
"We can transport there if there's an emergency, can't we?" Taryn asked The Doctor.
"Certainly. Look, this is for you both to decide, but medically there isn't a lot in it at this stage."
"I don't want to, but I'll go." Taryn stated. "It's not like you have any other control in this situation." she told Reg and started to moan again, and he ran to rub her back.
"Thank you." he whispered in her ear as she wailed.
"Did I pee myself?" she asked desperately and started shaking.
"Your water broke I think." Reg said and looked at The Doctor who nodded.
"If we're going, we'd better go now." The Doctor stated.
"Perhaps we should stay." Reg said looking at the mess on the carpet.
"You arsehole! You don't want me to get in the car!" Taryn declared.
"Well, I just got it detailed." Reg argued. "I shouldn't have said that should I?" he added guiltily and The Doctor and his father shook their heads with horrified expressions on their faces.
"I'm definitely going now." she said as she struggled to get up. "I'm stuck." she shouted as her legs flailed, just too short to gain purchase on the floor and the bump protruding through the back of the chair. "Bloody hell!"
"Alright, don't panic." The Doctor said as the three men extricated her from the chair.
"Why is Mommy shouting?" Galatea asked, standing in her pyjamas.
"Mommy is having the babies and she's a little uncomfortable." Reg explained.
"Uncomfortable?" Taryn hissed as Reg held her upright by the armpits.
"Can I see them come out?" the tiny girl asked excitedly.
"How about you get dressed and we go riding?" Reg II suggested. "Aunty Beth is baking today and you can help her after?"
"Yay." she cheered and ran upstairs.
"Reginald Barclay, I love you more than life itself but if you use the words 'chillax', 'detailed' or 'uncomfortable' again before these babies arrive I swear I will stab you in your sleep." she vowed, her face bathed in sweat. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be, I've been an idiot." Reg conceded.
"No, I mean you wanted this to be all calm and romantic and organised and its mucous plugs and swearing and yucky water on the carpet."
"Taryn, I love you and you have the shitty end of this stick. If you want to have the babies here that's fine, if you want to swear your head off that's fine too, although an 'arsehole' and a 'bloody hell' so far is actually very restrained for you especially as you've had nothing for the pain. All I ask is you leave my genitals intact at the end of this as I really want to make love to you again at some point. No rush though, whenever you're ready." he kissed her temple.
"I'm really tired, could I lay down for a minute?" she whimpered.
"Sure you can. That's alright isn't it?" he asked The Doctor.
"Preferably on her left side, and you might need to support her top leg." The Doctor advised him.
"Okay, we're off to the stables." Reg II stated.
"See you later sweetie, take care." Taryn hugged her, now sitting on the floor.
"By the time you get back you'll be a big sister." Reg said, kissing her cheek and they waved them goodbye.
"I was hoping she wouldn't see all this." Taryn stated and laid on her side.
"Are you kidding? She's read that book you got her a million times, she's probably got a better idea of what to expect than we do. She'd have ringside seats if we let her." Reg stated.
"She probably wouldn't have screamed like a girl at the sight of the mucous plug." Taryn said dryly.
"Do you want me to hold your leg?" he asked, lying behind her and stroking her hair with one hand and lifting her leg behind the knee with the other to ease the pressure in her pelvis. They both started to giggle, realising the position they were in.
"Brings back memories of the other day." Taryn whispered.
"Stop it you two." The Doctor told them.
…
"I can see the head." The Doctor stated as Taryn was on all fours screaming with Reg beside her, rubbing her back with one hand and her arm with the other and watching what was going on at the rear with a shocked expression on his face. "Here it comes." he said and there was a cry from the newborn as he laid it on a towel. "You have a pink baby daughter." He smiled as he cut the cord and cleaned her up a little. Then wrapped her and handed her to Reg.
"Oh boy, she's beautiful." Reg wept and showed her to Taryn who was crying as well.
"We're not finished yet." The Doctor reminded them as another contraction started.
Reg rubbed her back with his free hand. "We're nearly there." he told her.
"It's green and it's got a crack in it." The Doctor stated and Reg craned his neck to look. "See that Daddy?" The Doctor stated as he took hold of a leg and manoeuvred it out.
"It's a little green winky." Reg told her excitedly. "Oh boy, we have a boy."
"There he is." The Doctor stated as he cleaned up the squalling green boy. He put him on the floor in front of Taryn while he cleaned her up.
"Hello gorgeous." Taryn cooed as they looked at their son, their faces wet with happy tears.
…
"Look what we made." Reg smiled as they reclined on their bed. Each holding a clean baby dressed in a onesie with a full tummy in between them. They were small, a little over five and a half pounds apiece but The Doctor said that was okay for twins.
"I know." she replied smiling down at her daughter in her arms.
"There were times I thought we'd never get here."
"It certainly took a while." she replied. "It felt a lot longer than just under nine months."
"I can't get over their eyes." Reg whispered.
"Green Orion babies have purple eyes at first, before they change." Taryn stated. "They're very dark though. I think they're going to be like yours." She smiled. "They both look like you."
"They both have your mouth, she's definitely got your nose. I think they look more like you." Reg smiled.
"I'm going to need a nap before the horde descends on us, but I don't want to let them go." Taryn said as she stroked her son's cheek as he slumbered in Reg's arms.
"I let Charlotte loose in the living room to clean up," Reg told her, "so at least we don't have that to look forward to." He had kept the holographic spider with sonic cleaning capability and OCD and set up small holo-emitters throughout the house as she didn't require much energy. She came in handy with two cats and a small child with a penchant for hot chocolate, let alone the messes they had to look forward to with twins. She'd sometimes tussle with Ratio and Neelix but they probably gave as good as they got. "Taryn?"
She was asleep so Reg stood and put his little son, Philip Iestyn Reginald Barclay into the crib. He'd only assembled one so far as he thought he had more time but it was a large cot and they could both fit with lots of room to spare. He carefully lifted T'Pandra Marianne Myfanwy Barclay from her mother's arms and placed her in the cot beside her brother, her head felt like velvet and she stirred as he covered her. Then he stroked the dark tuft of hair on his son's tiny head gently and tucked him in and stood looking at them both, utterly awestruck and enraptured, just as he felt when he watched Galatea sleep. He knew now he really did love her as if she were his own for certain. They'd had a rethink on the names. He'd been reluctant to put the Reginald in his son's name but Taryn won him over. He wasn't named after Reg III, but Reg I and II but he suspected she was lying about that from the expression on her face. They were at least all spared the indignity of Reginald Endicott Barclay IV, Reg felt some family traditions could be taken too far. Besides, that tradition mattered most to his mother and she would have a purple fit that the son and heir was green like his Mommy. Something that amused Reg no end.
"Sleep tight Andie and Pip." he whispered, before he walked back to the bed, kissed his exhausted wife on the forehead, laid down next to her and fell straight to sleep himself.
…
"It will be fine Reg." Taryn assured him, with Pip on her hip and Galatea holding her hand. The twins were six months old, both with their Daddy's big brown eyes and their Mommy's dimpled smile, Pip with a shock of black hair that was like a quiff, Andie's fluffy and fair.
"I just don't see why all the top brass have to be there, it's only a preliminary test. We're just opening the singularity to see if it'll take the bandwidth and beaming a test cylinder through it. Why do we need an audience?" he replied, Andie sitting on his forearm and a large bag on his other shoulder. It hadn't taken him long to realise 'father' was a synonym for 'beast of burden' when it came to babies. They were heading for the child care facilities at Daystrom to drop the children off as it was the school holidays and Taryn would be joining him at work to offer moral support on her day off, although she was in uniform for the occasion.
"They want to say they were there at the dawn of a new age. You can understand that surely?" she reasoned as they entered the building. "A fair percentage will be well-wishers too."
He stopped and turned as they emerged having settled the children in. "W…what if it's a d…damp squib? What if it doesn't work?" he wrung his hands.
"Then it doesn't work, you rethink it, you try again and no one will think any less off you." she told him, gazing into his eyes. She cupped his cheek in her hand and drew closer. "It will work, all the simulations have been clear across the board." He nodded and hugged her. "Pretend they're your usual shower of spotty, nerdy students and you'll be fine. It's just another day." she whispered into his chest.
"I don't know what I'd do without my head cheerleader." he whispered into her hair.
It was a bigger crowd than anyone expected, half of the Admiralty had turned out and were jockeying for prime positions around the edge of the lab along with some of the faculty and a handful of students. Reg looked at Taryn worriedly and she smiled back with a reassuring wink.
"G…good morning. I'm Lieutenant C…commander Reginald Barclay and as you probably already know we plan to transport this test cylinder to the USS Enterprise which is currently stationed in the G…gamma Quadrant over seventy-thousand light years away." he activated a screen to give a short presentation, "The theory behind this experiment is to use the same method used during the P…pathfinder Project to open a subspace channel to the USS Voyager while it was lost in the D…delta Quadrant, utilising the Mutara Inter-Dimensional Deep Space-Transponder Array System, or Midas Array. We will focus a tachyon beam at a pulsar to create a micro-singularity to the Gamma Quadrant, then amplify the signal by passing it through a Class-B p…pulsar and establish a link. We then hope to bridge this transporter with the one on board the Enterprise, beam the cylinder there and then beam it back." the animated presentation ended. "Before we begin, does anyone have any questions?"
"Will it work?" someone shouted from the back and caused a flurry of laughter.
"That's what we plan to find out, but all of our computer simulations have indicated that it should be successful. Yes. Admiral Paris?"
"Why choose a target so far away for the first test?" Admiral Paris asked, standing next to Pete Harkins.
"W…why not?" Reg smiled. "Theoretically we should be able to use this method to t…transport anywhere providing we can maintain signal strength, but as we need to use the MIDAS array it seemed pointless not to try somewhere more remote. The Gamma Quadrant was the obvious choice as the B…Bajoran wormhole gives us a shortcut to deploy a ship." he explained. "Any other questions?"
With no further questions they began preparing for the test. Barsha, David and Reg establishing the link and Dan preparing to monitor telemetry from the cylinder during the transport
"Interface with the midas array." Reg stated.
"Interface established." David responded.
"Activate the control matrix." Reg ordered.
"Matrix active." he replied.
"Full power to graviton emitters."
"Acknowledged." he replied.
"Direct 60 terawatt tachyon beam at target pulsar." Reg instructed.
"Target established. Beam in progress. Monitoring gravimetric build up." David reported. The team exchanged glances as they monitored systems.
"Graviton surge at 5 million teradynes." David reported after an agonizing quarter of an hour.
"Adjust phase alignment trajectory to the coordinates of the USS Enterprise." Reg ordered.
"Trajectory set." David stated.
"USS Enterprise, this is Daystrom, come in please?" Reg called via the comm channel.
"We hear you Daystrom. Hi Reg." Geordi responded with a smile as his face appeared on the viewscreen in the lab with Data beside him in the Enterprise Transporter Room. "We're ready to bridge these transporters when you are. Switching to audio only to save bandwidth." The screen returned to the Starfleet insignia.
Reg nodded to Barsha. "Engaging system interlock, pattern buffers synchronised, phase transition coils at standby." the Grey Orion stated. "Energising."
Everyone in the room held their breath as the cylinder dematerialized on the pad. Reg looked plaintively at Taryn who smiled reassuringly. The wait was excruciating.
"Daystrom, we have it!" Geordi's delight was audible over the comm channel and the room erupted in applause
"The cylinder transmitted throughout the transport." Dan report. "We have a full data set to analyze."
"What do you think?" Reg asked with interest.
"An organic subject could survive transport easily. No question." Dan grinned. "Better start building more transponder arrays Admirals."
"Stand by Daystrom, we're beaming it back." Geordi advised them.
Dan's console beeped an emergency. "There's a problem with the cylinder, stress readings off the chart as if it's under torsion." he reported.
"The singularity is becoming unstable…" Barsha called from her terminal.
"No it's not." Reg stated and turned pale. Looking at the readings over her shoulder.
"Oh God, the Bajoran wormhole just opened." David stated. "There's a ship in transit…"
Taryn stepped forward as did Admiral Paris, Admiral Janeway and Pete Harkins. "Please tell me they aren't intersecting?" Janeway asked Reg who looked about to faint.
"Enterprise, what is your status?" Taryn asked over the comm.
"We're trying to sever the interlink on the transporters." Came Geordi's crackling voice as the transmission broke up. "The other ship is caught in the…." Static interference broke into the message.
"Cut power to your transporter before the cycle completes!" Data ordered as their signal was lost.
Taryn and Reg both ran for the power controls beside the transporter, she was faster, but not fast enough, she reached the console at the same time the beam energized and the transporter pad suddenly contained a swirling void that began to pull anything not bolted down into it, growing in intensity by the second. Taryn gripped the edge of a panel by her fingertips, pulled horizontal by the force as Reg slid across the floor until he caught a lead and was lifted off the ground. He reached out to her, catching her hand as her fingers slipped.
"Everyone clear the room!" Maddox bellowed, but the stampede to the door had already started.
"Shut down the MIDAS array!" Reg shouted over the chaos, his grip on her hand becoming more tenuous. "Shut it down now!" his eyes met hers as her hand slipped from his. "NO!" he screamed as she vanished into the void a fraction of a second before the link was severed and he dropped to the floor, his body shaking with wracking sobs. The room was silent apart from that sound for several minutes as they all stood in shock, processing the situation.
"Daystrom this is the Enterprise. Do you have Commanders Data and La Forge?" A transmission came over the com. "Come in Daystrom."
Epilogue
London 1891
The building was crowded, men jostling and laughing with each other, drinking and making bets. It smelled of sawdust and straw, blood and the stench of dog urine and faeces, but the dogs weren't fighting tonight.
"Gentlemen, gentlemen. We have a very special fight for you tonight. We have a cat-fight!" The crowd roared. "We have the lovely Amelia Malone of Whitechapel!" The woman stepped forward, her flaxen hair in a loose bun. She wore a skirt and above the waist a shift that barely covered her modesty, it was torn and hung from her shoulders, her back bare. "She's issued a challenge to the painted lady, Poison Ivy!"
She stepped forward, hair as black as night in tied loosely a bun at the nape of her neck, her skin painted the colour of jade, patterned with darker green vines of ivy about her décolletage, shoulders and down her bare arms. She wore white underwear, drawers and a shift that covered her bosom and sat off her shoulders, white stockings and black leather ankle-boots. They walked around circling each other. So the crowd could take their measure, or ogle.
Amelia hit first, a right cross to the eye. Ivy barely flinched, instead she struck. A left to the cheek, a right uppercut to the stomach followed by a head-butt to the face. Amelia staggered, bleeding from the nose, but came back with a jab to the face and a kick against the chest that forced Ivy back into the crowd who pushed her back into the fray. The women traded bruising blows, punching and kicking, grappling and tearing at each other, slogging it out in gruelling combat, evenly matched until Ivy landed an uppercut to the jaw, sending Amelia to the floor semi-conscious, unable to stand.
"We have a winner, Poison Ivy!" the MC shouted and the crowd cheered and jeered depending on who they'd backed. Ivy saw a familiar dark skinned face in the crowd, miming wiping their lower lip and mimicked the action, tasting blood as she sucked her thumb.
"You alright?" Ivy asked Amelia as they pulled on their clothing in a backroom.
"I'll live." Amelia spat blood onto the floor and spoke in a cockney accent. "It's better 'an being on the game, like as not they have their way then beat yer and don't pay anyway." she told her. "Wots wiv the paint? They say you's a toff in it for larks."
Ivy smirked. "No love, not larks." she replied in a similar accent, but not as broad. She certainly wasn't fighting for the fun of it. She slipped on her cloak and paused, pulled some coins from the purse she had just won and handed them to the young woman. "Have a drink on me love. You fought well tonight." She pulled the hood to cover her face and stepped out into the night where a carriage was waiting and she climbed aboard.
"You okay?" the dark skinned man asked as he knocked for the driver with a cane.
"No." She pulled back the hood and began to wipe green paint from her bruised face. "The Eliza Doolittle act is getting right on my tits." she stated, her accent now more cut glass. "How can I make it look good without them drawing my blood?" she shook her head. "I'm liable to accidentally kill someone one of these days." She handed over the purse. "I slipped the other girl a few pennies. Poor kid's a streetwalker. She won't be able to work for a while with her face messed up." The two men with her nodded that she'd done the right thing. "How did we do in wagers?" she asked.
"Enough to pay the rent and eat for the next week and purchase the rest of the components I need." The other man said as he took her by the chin and wiped her bloody lip with a handkerchief, it was stained green with blood in addition to the paint that was only there to rub off on her opponent's fists.
"I know it was my idea but there has to be an easier way to make money Data." Taryn moaned and sat back, exhausted from the fight. "To get the higher purses and for you to make bigger bets on me I need notoriety and that will bollocks up the timeline even more than we have already. I can sew, you can play the violin…" Data removed her wedding ring from his little finger and handed it to her. She eased it over her bruised knuckle, back where it belonged.
"We could buy some broken clocks or timepieces from a pawnbroker, we could fix them and sell them on? We already have the tools?" Geordi suggested.
Taryn waited for Data to say it, the thing that none of them had wanted to say since they found themselves in a graveyard in the middle of the night over a fortnight ago with only the clothes they stood up in, the test cylinder and Data's tricorder. They had sold their rank insignia to a pawnbroker and found lodgings and Data had begun building a monitoring system for temporal anomalies but they found it hard to raise money. The higher stakes card games were all held in gentlemen's clubs and introductions were hard to come by, especially if you looked unusual. Even when they made the instrument they unfortunately had to wait until an opportunity presented itself as the technology to open the portal wouldn't exist for another five hundred years and there was a good chance everyone assumed they were dead. They had kept their communicators, it was possible if they managed to open a wormhole they would try to make contact, or get a transporter lock of some kind. Taryn prayed that Reg's belt and braces approach to engineering meant that somewhere in the telemetry from the test there was a clue as to what had happened to them. The one thing she knew for certain was if he thought there was the slightest chance she was alive he'd never stop looking for her.
"I could try and sell some paintings." Data stated and exchanged glances with his fellow officers.
"Okay, but I'm not posing in the nude." Taryn smirked, knowing exactly what he was going to paint first. It was hanging over the fireplace at the Watermill, a wedding gift from her father-in-law. They even knew what to call it.
The Dryad of Windspirit Glade.
…
In orbit above them a ship loomed, malevolent and menacing, a Jem'Hadar Fighter.
"We have a positronic signature on the surface." the first reported.
"Positronic? In this era?" The Vorta female asked.
"We also have readings of tritanium at that location, and two biosignals. One has cybernetic implants, the other is…not completely Human, I'm reading chlorophyll and there is no plant life present."
"We saw the Enterprise. The Starfleet android, the blind engineer and the green professor? They must have come through the temporal rift with us." The commander reasoned. "Perhaps this world is not as unprotected as it seems?" She laughed, three Starfleet officers would be no problem. They had a full crew compliment, herself and forty-two Jem'Hadar warriors and the ability to breed more in a matter of days. Their recent trip to an abandoned ketracel-white refinery in the Gamma Quadrant ensured they were well supplied and the crew would remain loyal.
A dark humanoid figure appeared on the bridge, little more than a swirling mass of dark smoke. "You fools. What exactly do you plan to do? Plunder this world for base metals? You drift like rudderless pirates, rogues with no leader, no cause to follow. No Gods to swear fealty to. Do as I say and the balance of power in this galaxy will fundamentally shift not just in your own time, but far into the future."
"How?" the Vorta asked.
"The tritanium reading. Look at it." the blurred figure ordered.
A scan of a ring, decorated on the interior with Orion text rotated in the eyepiece of the Vorta with symbols analyzing it.
"It's an inert piece of metal, a trinket. What of it?" the woman asked.
"It is far more than a trinket. It's a symbol of a unified force, it's brother is on the finger of a man who has no idea of what is to come, what his influence and that of their progeny will be. Follow me now, and I can help you bring down the Federation in the future."
To be continued….
Coming soon: Tempus Fugit.
Author's note:
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read this story. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. The history buffs among you may point out that 1891 is a little late for women's prize fighting but I'm going on the assumption it carried on illegally for a while. Call it artistic license.
Tempus Fugit is well underway at over 100k words so far, but still needs a fair bit of work to pull it all together. There's much more Data and Geordi in it as well as some Star Trek characters I haven't included yet. I'm having great fun writing it and I hope it will turn out well.
The short story featuring Data's budding romance is also underway and will appear at some point. Although my inspiration is firing in the direction of Tempus Fugit at the moment so it may be a while.
Please feel free to leave any comments or reviews.
Love and bright blessings
yncarn8