Star Trek: The Next Generation – Souvenirs

Written By: Commander Cody CC-2224

CHAPTER 37

Felicity, Elizabeth, Ben, Nan, and William were all immediately shoved into the central brig in the detention room on Deck 5. Then the force fields were immediately in place as the majority of the security personnel quitted the detention room, leaving two crewmen to guard both sides of the brig entranceway.

Elizabeth, seeing herself as the only able-bodied girl available when the rest of the older children were injured from their recent tussle with the security personnel, slowly struggled to assist a slightly injured and sweaty Felicity to the left side of the brig relative to the entranceway.

"Th-th-th-thank…y-y-you," Felicity said weakly to her best friend, who was helping her take a seat on the left hand side wall. She grimaced involuntarily on account of her physical pangs she felt across her body. Her vision was a little blurred, and she looked almost bleary-eyed. Felicity struggled to pull a conked-out Ben closer to her body, and Elizabeth saw to it that Ben was fully relaxed in Felicity's stead. After that, she tried to administer comfort to frightened Nan and William for her friend's sake.

"Shh-shh-shh-shh-shh," soothed Elizabeth, as she and the little mites sat down on the only cushy bench facing the front opening of the brig, encompassing them under her arms.

Capt. Picard's Ready Room was just as quiet as ever. Picard himself was seated on his desk, with his hands crossed and his head leaning over the top of his crossed hands, looking pensive and a tad moody as ever. When he was on the Bridge, he was monitoring the progress of the security personnel, but after listening to an audio reception of what exactly was going on during the tussle between the children and the personnel, he impulsively decided to take refuge in his Ready Room. There he could wait for any reports on interception's progress.

As he was musing over his decision to intercept the children, two beeps emanated from the combadge.

"Worf to Picard."

Picard intuitively tapped his combadge. "Go ahead," he answered.

"The children are now in custody," informed Worf. "They are now kept in a holding cell in the detention area."

Picard nodded his head. "Very good, Worf," he rejoined rather grimly. "Picard out."

It would seem that Capt. Picard would at least have a longer period of reflection. However, his moment of musing was interrupted when, a few seconds later, the door chime to his Ready Room rang.

"Come," he called.

The automatic sliding doors slid open smoothly and in entered Counselor Troi in her regular gull gray jumpsuit. After taking her stand at the center of the room, the sliding doors slid themselves shut.

"What is it, Counselor?" Picard asked rather curtly.

Troi cleared her throat. "Captain," she began quite seriously and forcibly, "I think you are being too hard on our guests."

Picard stared the Counselor in the eye. "How so?" he asked briskly in his curt manner.

Troi prepared for her screed. "Our guests can barely make an efficient stand against the Enterprise security personnel," she said. "They have no weapons training, much less on tactics, and you're viewing and treating them as though they are dangerous criminals by locking them up in a high-level holding cell!"

Picard shot the Counselor a serious look. "I agree with you on that, Counselor, but you underestimate how intelligent the children are, even for their age," he informed. "You see how they were able to breach a weapons locker and navigate their way through the bowels of the ship in their attempt to locate Shuttlebay 2.

"I do see this, Captain," rejoined Troi, "But my point is, we are not dealing with genetically manipulated Angosian prisoners like Roga Danar!" She gave Picard a serious look. "We…are dealing with ordinary human children. Frightened children who haven't even the slightest trace of physical or psychological conditioning, but will have the disposition to take matters into their own hands if they see that their lives and their interests are being threatened."

Picard mused for a brief moment before heaving a heavy sigh.

"What would you have me do?" he asked.

"Confine them to their quarters until further notice," suggested Troi. "It's the least you can do." She paused. "Or…confine them to a minimum security brig."

"I cannot do that," said Picard rather tactlessly.

"Why not?" retorted Troi with indignation.

"If I just confine the children to their Guest Quarters, or for that matter, a minimum security holding cell, they will no doubt find another way to escape again. We need them in order to rectify the mess that the Corellians have made on Earth's history." He looked the Counselor in the eye. "And we cannot do precisely that without them."

"Earth's history," rejoined Troi in a rather smug manner. "Is that all you care about, Captain?" she replied angrily with her inflection down.

"No, that's not all, Counselor," countered Picard, without snapping into unnecessary rage. "I have…a duty to protect them."

"By what?" the Counselor retorted again. "Confining them to the brig?"

"If necessary."

"Well, I do not see it as necessary!" Troi retorted with similar indignation. "What danger could they be to the rest of the crew?"

Without feeling some kind of shock over Troi's remark, Picard handed her a PADD that comprised a detailed report of the skirmish between the children and the crew. Without second thought, Troi picked it up and browsed through the report.

"If you notice on the bottom of the PADD, it notes that the Davidson boy had fired off a high-energy discharge phaser beam at one of the security personnel, which narrowly missed him and instead impacted and literally blasted a portion of the wall at his proximity, with the explosion knocking him out," Picard informed her.

Troi tossed the PADD down on Picard's desk. "Well, the report also says that most of the children used low-setting phaser beams to deter the personnel during their escape attempt! Does that sound like a murderous spree to you, Captain?" she challenged.

"No, and thank God it isn't" Picard rejoined rather forcibly. He crossed his arms and leaned a little forward. Then he spoke in a lower tone of voice. "We can only be so lucky, Counselor," he said quite seriously. "But our luck will not hold if we throw prudence and caution into the wind. The next time they concoct another escape attempt, they will end up firing that same energy beam that the Davidson boy has just fired during the skirmish, and as a result, end up injuring more of the crew in the process. We cannot risk putting the lives of the rest of the Enterprise crew in further jeopardy."

"But keeping the children on board can put the crew in jeopardy," said Troi. "And besides, all they did was wanted to escape." The captain seemed to be silent on this one before the Counselor spoke again, hoping she could come up with some convincing alternative. "What if…you considered the possibility that the Davidson boy fired that high-energy beam…out of carelessness? Surely, like the rest of the children, he had no intention of…killing anyone? He was just being protective. Is that not the natural instinct of a man when he and his loved ones are threatened?"

Picard gave a rather curt nod. "I share your sympathies on this consideration, Counselor, as all possibilities are being taken into account," he said. "But my decision still stands. They will be confined to a maximum security brig until further notice."

There was a moment of silence before Troi resumed the discussion.

"I cannot understand how you can just simply sit back in your Ready Room desk and be so cold about this," she said disappointingly.

Picard cleared his throat in preparation for his reply. "Counselor, it took nearly fifteen personnel to restrain them."

"But, Captain, they're only children!" Troi cut in right away in dismay.

"I know!" Picard burst out in furious frustration. "And as much as I have an irresistible attraction to them, I cannot sacrifice the safety of the crew on their behalf. And at the same time, I cannot let them get away because of Earth's timeline." He was silent for a moment. "I'm in a moral quandary, Counselor. If you cannot help me during this hour of extreme uncertainty, then get out of the Ready Room."

Feeling rather stiffed from Picard's reply, Troi proceeded to exit the Ready Room when Picard interrupted her with a proposition.

"Counselor," he called.

Troi turned around and faced the captain.

"I apologize for my seemingly ungentlemanly conduct," he admitted, before getting on to the matter of importance. "I will order a full scale investigation of the incident and conduct a hearing on the Bridge at 1200 hours sharp. Will that satisfy you?"

"More than ever," the Counselor replied coolly and smoothly.

"Good," rejoined Picard, feeling slightly relieved. "Dismissed."

Troi exited the Ready Room, and the automatic sliding doors closed behind her. Seconds later, Picard picked up the PADD, glancing and reflecting over its contents.

The central brig was as solemnly quiet as a monastery as the children began their silent gradual recuperation from their recent skirmish with the crew. As the minutes of the day drifted by like clouds on an earthly sky, Felicity seemed to be recovering from the pains she received from those stun discharges that were inflicted on her during the skirmish. Ben's head was resting on Felicity's lap, and Felicity couldn't resist stroking his handsome chocolate-brown mane. Elizabeth decided to recline herself on the bench, with her head to the left side relative to the entranceway, her hands clasped together, and her avid blue eyes staring at the seeming nothingness of the ceiling.

Nan and William decided to take some refuge in their older sister. As Nan took her area near Felicity's left side, William decided to plop himself on Ben's upright lap. Felicity did not seem to mind that for a moment until she became fraught with concern about what it was doing to Ben when William began positioning his little body in a manner that she perceived would make Ben feel rather uncomfortable.

"William, stop it," said Felicity a little weakly. "You're squishing him. Sit up properly." Frowning a bit in resentment, little William decided to plop himself across Ben's lap in an upright position. Felicity only sighed softly.

The slight bump made by William woke Ben a little, prompting him to respond by a tad. Initially he felt kind of dizzy, but his vision cleared up, and his mind partially focused.

"Waaaazzzzuuuup, Lissssie?" said Ben sleepily.

Felicity didn't really know what to do at the moment. Usually it was she who could come up with some fairly practical solutions, but with the condition of her body, as well as one teenager and two little youngsters seeking refuge with her, she felt pretty helpless. So she turned to her best friend, who was reclining pensively on the bench. "Elizabeth?" she called quietly.

Elizabeth slowly and daintily pushed herself up on the bench and got off, stretching herself a bit. Then she arrived to the scene.

"Shh, Ben," she crooned. "You need to rest." She immediately beckoned William off Ben's body, and both she and Felicity carefully took Ben's head off her friend's lap, gently resting his slumbering body near the left hand corner of the brig, near Felicity's right side. Then Elizabeth daintily straightened up Ben's jacked before turning to her exhausted-looking friend.

"How are you, Lissie?" Elizabeth inquired considerately in an almost whispering tone of voice.

Felicity did not seem to be in the mood for talking, but she decided to answer her friend out of courtesy. "I…um…I think I seem…to be feeling…much better,…thank you,…Elizabeth," she answered a little sleepily, grimacing a bit.

"Well, not entirely better, I'm afraid," rejoined Elizabeth softly, as she placed her right hand on Felicity's slightly sweaty forehead.

Felicity did not seem to take kindly to such criticism. "You…are so presumptuous, Elizabeth," she declared. "Whatever happened to your humble personality?"

Elizabeth just simply chuckled to herself. "Well, when I'm with you, I can be a bit of myself," she answered quite understandingly. "Most of the time, when I'm around with people, I just act like a humble, gracious young lady."

Felicity glanced slowly and drowsily at the surroundings of the brig, as well as the armed yellow-uniformed guards stationing both sides of the opening.

"They can't do this to us, Elizabeth," Felicity remarked rather wearily. "They just can't. 'Tis impossible."

"I'm afraid anything is possible in this day and age, Lissie," replied Elizabeth sadly.

Felicity could notice Elizabeth's rather pessimistic tone of voice in a remark that she perceived should be said with great optimism. "You don't seem quite optimistic about your statement, Elizabeth," she observed.

Elizabeth could not help laughing quietly at the sound of Felicity's remark of observance. "I was only speaking of the moral sense, Lissie," she replied. "Not that you care about it much."

"That's not true," retorted Felicity forcibly, despite her weary self. "I still care about it. Otherwise, you would be seeing me as a hussy. And I'm…I'm no hussy…"

With that, Felicity lowered her head and looked at herself downward. She was beginning to feel quite hot and sweaty. Again she looked up to her best friend for assistance.

"Can you help me take off my clothes, Elizabeth?" she asked somnolently. "I'm very…I'm very hot."

Nan immediately perked her little head up, her flowing auburn hair which peeked out of her little mobcap swinging playfully a little. "Lissie! You don't mean that!" she exclaimed in dismay. "'Tis most improper for a gentlewoman to be seen without her clothes!"

The security guard on the right side of the brig opening burst into a fit of muffled guffaws. William started snickering to himself, too, on account of Felicity's unseemly idea.

Elizabeth looked at her friend solemnly. "Your younger sister is right, Lissie," she said. "'Twould be most improper."

Felicity scoffed in exasperation. "Oh, don't be such a prissy, Elizabeth," she said tetchily. "Would you rather have your dear best friend die of this most dreadful heatstroke? Just ease my pain once in a while. Please?"

Ben stirred a little from his slumber. "I heard that," he said sleepily.

Felicity turned her head to Ben in exasperation. "What now, Benjamin Davidson?" she asked crabbily.

Ben put himself in a half-upright manner with the support of his elbows on the floor; his eyes squinted as he faced Felicity. "D-Don't…don't you remember?" he asked. "Those magazines…featuring the undraped form of the human female…?" He paused in between. "You…you've been making rather rude complaints to me about…about me looking at them. Don't tell me you're a hyp…hyp…hyp…" His voice trailing off, Ben exhaled forcibly as he plopped himself upright on the floor and drifted off into deep slumber.

Felicity knew what Ben was about to say concerning the word "hypocrite", but was rather averse to speaking her thoughts on the matter out loud for her friends and siblings to hear.

Felicity drooped her head at Ben. "Then I suggest you resist looking at me, Ben," she said simply, as she softly patted Ben on the head before turning to Elizabeth with a pathetically pleading look in her redheaded face. "Will you help me, Elizabeth?" she said in exhaustive exasperation. "Pretty please?"

Though quite understanding of her best friend's hot and sweaty state, she sighed quietly before making her affirmative reply in a rather uncertain manner. "All right, Lissie," she said softly. "I'll help you, but please do be sure to cover your front."

Felicity removed her mobcap and threw it to the other end of the brig as Elizabeth helped her out of her yellow cream-colored gown. Then she unlaced her stays and helped her out of her petticoats. Finally, Elizabeth assisted her friend out of her shift before carefully taking off Felicity's shows and stockings, save for her garters. After most of her clothes were taken off, Felicity did whatever she could to cover her naked front as she pressed her gown close to her body, as she thought to herself what a great relief it was to be out of all that clothing for the time being.

A/N (1): I tried to be as fairly accurate as I could as regards to Counselor Troi's philanthropic discussions with Capt. Picard about Felicity and her friends and siblings.

A/N (2): The Angosian prisoner Roga Danar was a genetically manipulated entity who was intended to be utilized by the Angosian government as a genetically enhanced warrior. (Star Trek TNG Episode The Hunted.)