Chapter 37

Wesley hadn't had the time to work out a perfect plan beyond beaming over to the Reman ship to rescue Seth. But he knew one thing; if Seth had been captured, Wes would use the power of the Q to bring him back. Q had said he would have one chance to use the Power, and despite his earlier rejections of Q, he couldn't deny anymore the pull to use it. In his duffel bag, he carried several items, including a phaser, but he also carried a small but heavy device under his arm. He just had to find a quiet place in the corridor and would set this down. He was confident enough that his hastily made site to site transporter device would work well enough to allow him and Seth to transport back to the Enterprise in this very hallway.

The problem was, he hadn't anticipated the Klingons. He slowed when he saw them approaching. Worf, he knew well enough, and once, not long ago, they had even had killed computer-generated Borg drones together on the holodeck. But Krala, Worf's wife was another story altogether. To say that he was afraid of her was an understatement. But even more than this, he didn't want to be interrupted in his plans, and it pissed him off that the Klingons had inconveniently arrived here at this moment in time.

For a moment his hopes rose because they were arguing with each other in Klingon, and maybe they wouldn't notice him. The only word he recognized being growled repeatedly by both Klingons was "Picard".

Wesley picked up his pace, hoping he could put some distance between himself and the couple, but a heavy hand suddenly dropped onto his shoulder.

"Young human, where are you going?" Worf's authoritative rumble was unmistakable.

Wesley groaned and turned around. "Look, I can't talk right now, okay?"

Krala, who was carrying more bladed weapons than he would have imagined possible, leaned down, eyeing his bag.

"He is fleeing this ship. Instead of fighting to the death!"

"No!" Wesley objected. "That's not true." Out of the corner of his eye, Worf peered down at him suspiciously through bushy eyebrows.

Worf glared down at the young human. He'd seen the Picard's son play this game before. He was unassuming yet was also a technical genius who was both stubborn and eager to prove himself. That meant it was unlikely Wesley had intended to go out for a mere stroll. "We do not believe you. If you intend to board the Reman ship alone, you are very foolish."

"What is that you carry?" Krala demanded, poking at his duffel bag with one of her curved blades. "A weapon to destroy Remans?" Wesley took a step backward.

Wesley laughed nervously. "Remans?" He shook his head as though the thought hadn't crossed his mind. "Huh? I don't know what you mean..."

"Nonsense," Worf growled. "We were just on our way to speak to your father. You will come with us," he said sternly.

"Leave the boy, he'll only slow us down," objected Krala.

Wesley was about to strongly agree with Krala when he was distracted by some movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning his head to get a better look, he could see that Lieutenant Yar was standing about ten meters away down the hallway. She was watching them with a slightly dangerous look on her face. But she also looked distracted, as though, like him, she didn't necessarily appreciate having company at that particular moment. Q's smirk flashed in his mind, and he remembered the real reason Q had given Wesley the chance to use the power. He had implied more than once that he wanted Wesley to kill Yar, presumably because Captain Picard had refused to. "Your chance to finally be the hero..."

In the next instant, a hum rang through the hallway, and Wesley immediately thought that Yar was transporting away. But then he saw that two large Remans had beamed into the corridor, and after knocking Yar out, the beam appeared again, whisking all three figures away.

"Lieutenant Yar!" Wesley pushed through the Klingons and sprinted down the hall, skidding to a stop where Yar had just disappeared from. He placed the site to site transporter down, leaning on it with his hand, while he turned to see the Klingons thundering toward him.

"Wait!" Worf shouted, and reaching Wesley, grabbed him by the arm. "What are your intentions, Wesley?"

Wes struggled, but couldn't pull from Worf's grip. "You just saw what happened. We have to try and save her!"

Krala growled but Worf crouched down next to Wesley, studying the device. "You have a way to transport to the Reman ship?" He looked up at Krala. This is what they had both wanted, and he could see the fury to avenge her dead father was burning in her eyes. He could not deny her this opportunity to restore some honor to his name.

"Yes," Wesley said. "I'm going over to bring back my brother, and now we have to help Yar. If they take her down to the planet, we're all dead."

Lead landing craft, Planet's atmosphere

Marco was different, that was clear. He had survived, or rather had returned from the dead after getting murdered by a Reman...a Reman, who apparently shared the same viral situation as Marco and the rest of the former crew of the Eureka; the rest of the crew with the exception of Caine. Of course, the Eureka still existed, or would for at least a few more minutes. Drifting in orbit along with the Enterprise and the Reman ship, the immense size of the Eureka dwarfed the other two ships to the extent that they were barely visible from the inside of Marco's shuttle, just one of about twenty that sped down and away toward the planet's surface carrying Marco's people to the long-awaited Eternity.

Soon the other ships would be all but a memory. According to Marco, the Remans would have Tasha Yar by now, which meant that he would have the showdown he had longed for nearly fifteen years, and the viral entities would have their savior. Caine smiled at Marco, who stared longingly out of the tiny viewport at the planet below, which by all appearances promised to be a paradise lost, which Caine intended to find. "How long, pilot?" Caine barked at the man behind the controls.

"Eight minutes to landing," the pilot confirmed calmly. Everyone associated with Marco was so oblivious...so obedient. These factors would serve Caine very well once he was ready to make his move against Marco. Eventually, he and Marco would have to part ways. After all, Marco desperately wanted Tasha Yar to survive, and in the end, Caine could not permit that to happen.

"Just worry about your job, Caine," Marco said smoothly. "Once all our ships are safely out of range, do your job." As suave as his old partner seemed, something was very different about Marco. There was confidence lacking there. That meant that Marco was no longer the leader of the pack. That honor had now been bestowed on the Reman commander, who was now looking after Marco's so-called son, the keeper of the entity's real leader. Now Marco, was just one of the viral gang, so to speak. At times in the recent past, Caine had pondered why he himself had not been infected by this very intelligent and scheming virus, but the time for introspection was over. Now, only domination would suffice.

Caine grinned and pulled a small round metallic device from a plain looking bag at his feet. He held up the ball, activating it with his thumb, which caused a disconcerting whine to fill the shuttle's hold and beginning a countdown from which there would be no return. "My job...you mean this?" He brought the detonator up to his thin lips and kissed it. "So long, Eureka..."

15 minutes to Detonation...

Deanna Troi had once more left little Ianna in the care of her mother, in order to head up to the bridge. Apparently, there was a problem with Captain Picard, and Captain Data had requested her presence. Captain Picard's behavior had grown increasingly erratic as of late, and she was worried about him. It was very clear to her from his emotional display at the briefing earlier that morning, that something had happened between Jean-Luc and Tasha Yar. Something significant. Had he told her about her previous existence? If so, anything could happen.

At least Will would be up there on the bridge with her, but she was beginning to long for a boring life without sentient alien viral invasions and crisis after crisis. Somehow, as she hurried to catch up to T'Sara and LaForge who were heading for a lift as well, she suspected she would have to wait a bit longer for some normalcy. Not that she would recognize normalcy if it ever arrived.

Geordi was engrossed in a seemingly one-sided argument with his friend and neither seemed to notice Troi's approach.

"Hold those doors," Deanna shouted, as her colleagues stepped into the turbo lift ahead of her. They were so preoccupied that they hardly seemed to notice Troi follow them into the lift."Thanks! Hi," she added, still slightly out of breath. She looked from one officer to the other, and both seemed highly frustrated. T'Sara was, of course, hiding it well, but Geordi was clearly angry with T'Sara. Underneath his anger was guilt, and she suspected it was the kind of guilt that she was familiar with.

Geordi exhaled like he had been holding his breath the whole time. "Hey, Counselor."

She glanced at T'Sara, and she had been so focused on both of her friends' emotions that it was the first time he had noticed the Vulcan woman was carrying a strange box in both hands. The object was dented, and the top was ajar, but T'Sara carried it almost reverently in front of her.

"Bridge," LaForge snapped. Commander Riker had asked him up to the bridge to examine some energy readings that the sensors reportedly could not make heads or tails of. He was extremely irritated to leave his post in the middle of a battle, although, inexplicably the Remans and the Eureka had ceased firing on the Enterprise.

On his way out of main engineering, he had been confronted by T'Sara, who had questioned him about Yar. Despite her Vulcan calm, he could tell from her coloring that she was suddenly treating him with suspicion. Something had happened to cause her to lose trust in him, and it wasn't hard to see just what. He knew that when Captain Picard brought Tasha Yar back with his Q powers six months ago, that there was always the potential for her prior incarnation to be revealed; LaForge just didn't expect that he would find himself in the middle of it.

For one thing, he didn't have permission from Captain Picard to say a word to anyone about the former Yar outside of the small circle of the command officers who had served on the Enterprise under Jack Crusher's command or the USS Hood under Riker's command. From what he was able to gather from the very private T'Sara, Tasha Yar had come to some kind of realization about herself. And although Yar had refused to reveal specifics, T'Sara was able to convey that Yar's new self-awareness hadn't been a good thing. In fact, it had sent the security chief off of the deep end, so to speak.

After peppering him with questions and appearing entirely unsatisfied with his answers, T'Sara had declared that Lieutenant Yar was leaving the ship imminently and that T'Sara intended to question Captain Picard about the box she carried under her arm. She had regarded him with suspicion when he said he hadn't said he'd seen the box before. It was true, he hadn't, but she didn't believe him. Whatever Yar had learned about herself, must have raised her suspicions about just how much the crew really knew about her. The fact was, T'Sara probably had good reason to be angry with him about this, but she didn't know all of the details yet. Geordi, like the others who were aware of Yar's prior deeds, had been complicit in keeping secrets that now were apparently dangerously close to being revealed. Still, he didn't want her to be angry with him. She was his friend and despite her controlled exterior, obviously cared about Yar. Now that they were in a cramped elevator on their way to the bridge, he felt he couldn't drop the subject.

Geordi tapped the datapad he was carrying against his thigh. "I told you, I haven't seen that thing before in my life," he said, pointing at the broken metal box.

"Counselor," T'Sara turned quietly to Troi, ignoring Geordi.

"Did she tell you how she planned on leaving the ship?" he persisted.

T'Sara barely turned her head to look at him. "She did not..."

"So...you didn't try and stop her."

"No."

Geordi ran his hands through his hair. "You know what this means? She's going to try and steal a shuttle, or a runabout or something."

"That is likely her intention."

Geordi sighed. "This is crazy."

"Sorry to interrupt, but are you talking about Lieutenant Yar?" Of course, at this point, she knew they were, but she was trying to de-escalate the conversation.

Geordi and T'Sara turned to look at Deanna. "Yes," they replied emphatically at the same time.

"I presume that you are going tell the captain that she is abandoning her position as security chief..."

"Yes," said T'Sara, still eyeing Deanna.

"And you intend to confront him as well," Deanna continued carefully.

"Confrontation is a human undertaking, Counselor Troi," said T'Sara mildly. "But Captain Picard told Lieutenant Yar something that has caused her significant internal distress. Similarly, Captain Picard displayed an atypical lack of emotional control at the staff meeting this morning, when it was announced that Yar would no longer be involved in the away team."

"And you want answers...the answers you believe Yar deserves but is too emotionally unstable to discover at the moment."

T'Sara looked vaguely unsettled but said nothing for a few moments, before focusing in on Troi with Vulcan intensity. "Lieutenant Yar told me to confirm her true identity with Captain Picard." She paused, still poised but obviously searching for the right words. "Vulcan telepathic abilities typically require physical contact, Counselor. Nevertheless, I sense that both you and Geordi know more about this subject than you have been willing to tell me. Perhaps you have logical reasons for your secretive conduct?"

Geordi turned to Troi for guidance. The Counselor opened her mouth to answer when the turbo lift doors opened and they were blasted by the chaotic noise of the bridge.

12 minutes to Detonation...

Tasha's head was in a vice. Steel spikes drove into the top of her skull. Above her, deep voices snarled at each other. Gradually she realized that she could understand what the voices were saying. Instinctively she reached up to tap her communicator badge, thinking that her universal translator was on. But there was no badge. She'd given that up. Up until this point she'd never been able to understand the Reman language, but now, strangely she could. The steel vice dug deeper into her scalp, and she realized that it was not steel at all; it was a hand. A Reman hand. On her knees in near darkness, a thin rivulet of blood dripped onto her eyelid. Coming out of whatever stun beam they had used on her, she was filled with an instant rage, and struggled up against the hand of her captor, staggering to her feet.

"It is awake," said one of the Remans. There were two, she remembered. They'd ambushed her on her own ship. The Enterprise. "TuVol will have his prize after all."

"Why does TuVol seek the presence of this puny creature?" the other Reman questioned, letting go of her head with a rough push. Her hands were bound, tethered to her captors by some kind of material, and she sprung backward.

"I do not know, but you must not harm it. TuVol has declared that this one makes the trip to the planet below."

"Good," Yar said, not caring much if they actually understood her. "I was looking for a way off of that ship anyway...don't think you've hurt my feelings, you piece of Reman garbage."

The kick to the back of her knee reminded her of the immense strength of the Remans, and even if they had been ordered to keep her alive, there were varying degrees of being alive. She didn't need to be crippled before having a chance to make a move.

"Come on," snarled one of the Remans. "TuVol has captured the young alien. He has beckoned us."

Yar tripped clumsily in the dark, surprised by her own emotional reaction. Seth. They have Seth.

"You need to get yourself together, Jean-Luc," Jack shouted, advancing on his friend. He felt Beverly coming just behind him, but he didn't slow down. She'd asked for his help, and he damn well wasn't going to let her down. Jean-Luc slowly unfolded from an odd position head first on the floor of his ready room. He stood up and turned around to face Jack. Jack froze momentarily because his friend's eyes were glowing the brightest white he'd ever seen.

"Jack, I advise you to not get involved," Jean-Luc said in a strange voice; so odd that Jack hesitated and looked at Beverly with alarm.

"Get involved? Jean-Luc what the hell are you saying? Data's trying to locate your son over there on the Reman ship and he says the sensors are acting up...can't find him. You know what I think, Jean-Luc? I think you're actually preventing your son from being found because you are too damn stubborn-"

Picard's eyes glowed brighter and seemed unfocused. "Get away from me, Jack," he warned in a low voice.

Beverly felt like she was going to faint. "Jean-Luc, what are you doing?" She grabbed for his arm, but to her shock, her fingers passed through as though he was nothing but energy. He didn't seem to hear her.

"I am trying to re-capture my son from the Remans," he replied flatly.

"It's not working," Jack continued to shout into his face. "You need to come to your senses...now! You're supposed to be leading an away team to the planet right now. Marco is escaping, and you know what? Marco probably has Seth, and instead of following him, you are up here playing magic tricks like a frustrated little boy. Data's out there on the bridge, being the captain you should be." Jean-Luc stepped forward then, raising his arm as though to strike Jack, but Jack took the moment to swiftly punch his friend in the face, just hard enough to get his attention.

Jean-Luc staggered backward and grabbed his cheek. When he raised his eyes to them again, the white light was gone, and there were tears in them. "I-I'm sorry," he whispered.

Beverly hugged him around his neck and kissed his cheek. "It's alright," he said. "You came back to us. Come on, we need you." Both she and Jack each took one of his arms and led him out of the room.

The Bridge 10 minutes to Detonation

Riker was seated in the captain's chair when they emerged from the ready room. "Status of the tractor beam," he snapped to tactical.

"We're still immobilized, Commander," reported Ashley Howell.

"Geordi, any progress?"

Laforge stood at an engineering console, trying to get propulsion back under control. "Working on it..."

Data stood very still flanked by two security personnel. Data gave a quick nod. "Captain Picard, pursuant to Starfleet Order 104, and due to your interference with starship operations during an emergency, and demonstrated psychological instability, I am hereby relieving you of command. You may remain on the bridge under the supervision of ship security."

"Data!" Beverly stepped in front of Jean-Luc protectively. "You can't do that..." She turned questioningly to Troi, who had just recently arrived on the bridge. Deanna pressed her lips together, but said nothing.

"Doctor," said Data calmly. "This protocol is well supported by precedent, and has been approved by Starfleet Command."

"Data, that doesn't make it right!"

Riker stood up. "Stand down, doctor Crusher."

"It's alright. Beverly, Data's right." Picard put his hand on Beverly's shoulder before walking past her to stand in between the security guards. "It's fine," he said quietly, clasping his hands in front of himself.

Suddenly, Walker Keel, who had been standing at a science monitor cursed loudly, and slammed his hand down. "Data...we're in trouble. I'm reading another energy surge from the Eureka. Their shields are down as well."

"Confirmed," said Howell. "Energy surge from their propulsion center this time."

Geordi pulled up the most recent sensor readings with his free hand. "Oh no...the Eureka has been flooded with a highly combustible substance, and that same substance has been leaking out into the space around us. The only thing that is going to get us out of here safely is to warp out of here. And until we get free of that tractor beam, we're not going anywhere."