Chapter 23
Deanna Troi was extremely relieved that she had been able to convince the children to come with her to try and hide from Ra'Val. She knew that they feared Ra'Val, but even more so, they had been conditioned to believe that they owed him allegiance. In fact, she now learned that all this time, the children had believed that Ra'Val had died on the Andorian moon. T'Kel told her that recently, she and the other children had become aware that Ra'Val had simply taken on the physical appearance of their young friend Thar. T'Kel told Troi that she now believed that her brother Ja'Nel, now comatose, had been under Ra'Val's influence when he had violently lashed out at Troi and the Captain just days ago.
It was not until Thar had disappeared a few hours ago, that the children had admitted as a group that he was not the boy they had known before the disaster on the Andorian moon. They asked Deanna about T'Pel and they revealed that they believed that she had tried to communicate to them without speaking, that Ra'Val was still alive and among them. Troi felt elated for the children because for the first time they seemed to have been released from a kind of spell. Troi tried to steer them away from the knowledge that T'Pel had confronted Ra'Val, and was now in grave danger.
Troi felt Tasha Yar's impatience emanating from the corridor as though the woman was literally tapping Troi on her shoulder. "Alright, we're coming," she actually said out loud. When Troi stepped out of the children's guest quarters to find Yar still waiting, she saw not anger, but worry on the Lieutenant's face. Above all else, Troi could tell that Yar did not want to see the children harmed. A three-person security team had joined them, and it was then that Yar revealed where she intended to take them.
"Inside the Jeffries tubes?" Deanna was shocked. "How will that be safe?" She was a bit claustrophobic, and the idea of having nowhere to run to and in fact having to crawl, did not appeal to her.
"I allowed you to do your job, now allow me to do mine," said Yar a bit harshly, then seemed to deliberately soften her tone. "Trust me," she said.
Lt. Commander Data was alone, or so it seemed. He was the only android member of the crew, and every crew member he passed as he walked through the ship was either unconscious or appeared to be experiencing a kind of seizure-like state. He was concerned about what might be the long-term effects of such an ordeal on a humanoid body. Data considered Ra'Val's attack and wondered why the Enterprise crew had not simply ceased to exist through the power of Ra'Val's mind, as had happened with the Andorian colony. Perhaps the larger number of people on the starship would account for the difference. Perhaps Ra'Val had been injured in his battle with T'Pel.
When he entered the observation level to investigate, Data found evidence of a devastating encounter. Judging by the large amounts of green coagulating blood on the deck, he expected to find a body, but ultimately found no one, dead or alive. Had Ra'Val killed T'Pel, he wondered? Judging by the severe psychic effects the Enterprise crew was currently experiencing, he would assume that Ra'Val had been the victor.
Beverly lay paralyzed on the floor or her sickbay, well aware that she was alive, but unable to move her frozen body. If Will Riker was still present, he must have been in the same predicament. She tried to yell to him, but her lips would not utter a sound. Gradually, a strange gray haze entered her skull, and she could see herself, much younger, alone and afraid. If she could have screamed, she would have, to avoid the most horrifying moments of her life.
Just one week ago, she had turned eight years old. Now she sat with tousled hair upon a hillside of wet leaves and broken trees. She could no longer feel the reassuring pressure of her mother's hand in her own. She still gripped her mother's hand desperately, but the warm pulse that had always been familiar to her had now gone. What did it all mean?
Hours ago, before the mudslide had pushed their house and garden and her entire village through the quickly flooding valley, the three of them had tried to escape to higher ground. Soon after she had seen her father's body float away down the river, his eyes staring at the sky emptily. Her mother had bravely tried to swim out to save him from the floodwaters, but despite her efforts she had been swept back toward the shoreline twice. Beverly ran along the river banks, moving too fast to make any sound. When she finally found her mother she was pinned against the rocky shore by an immense tree branch. He mother pushed while Beverly sat on the bank and used her leverage to push the branch with her feet. They did this together for at least an hour.
Once free and out of the frigid water, they both discovered that her mother's legs were unresponsive and she could not move them. She had never heard her mother cry until that moment, but even then it was a single, quiet sob. And then her mother whispered to her that they must get to high ground as quickly as possible. She and her mother had crawled up the hill away from the screams, and torrents of rushing waters. There were many others who had been swept away that day never to return.
With Beverly's help, her mother had used her upper body to drag herself all the way up the hill. When they had reached the top, she watched her mother, so quiet and brave, dying in her lap. If only she knew what to do, she would have done anything in those last moments. And although Beverly's lip trembled, she did not cry.
"Promise me you will go with your grandmother to Caldos, Beverly. You go with Nana," were her mother's last words.
She looked up to find her grandmother's smiling face. "Nana?" Where had she come from?
"Yes, dear," said the old woman still smiling down at her. But as she continued to look Beverly could tell that something was different.
"I want to go to Caldos with you. I want to get off of this hill," Beverly pleaded, shouting into the wind.
Nana's eyes had turned black. "No, Beverly, my dear. You cannot leave this hill. Not ever." Slowly, the old woman withdrew, turning away from the child on the hill.
It hit him so quickly he was unable to react. He saw Wesley fall first, and roll against the bulkhead. Whether the boy was groaning with disorientation, pain or both, he could not tell. Picard stumbled, and his vision seemed to fade. It reminded him of his dangerous shuttle ride a few days ago. Oh no, not again, he thought.
"Mr. Worf!" he called out, "I can't…" he felt his eyes roll in his head and he slowly dropped to a pushup position, and concentrated on crawling to Wesley. The teenager was twitching as though he were experiencing a seizure.
Picard continued to crawl until he reached Wesley. He turned the quivering boy toward him, and saw that the boy's eyes were shut tightly. If he was conscious, he did not appear to know where he was. He cried out and tears were streaming down his face. "Dad! Dad!" shouted the boy as though he was trying to reach his father.
"Shh, shh, Wesley, it is all- it's alright," said Picard stuttered. His teeth were beginning to chatter uncontrollably. He dragged himself to the wall and sat with his back against it, legs straight out in front of him. "Lt. Worf," he said again. Dimly, he could see Worf struggle to his feet and lean on the tactical station. Picard knew that Klingons had a greater protection from telepathy based on their cranial structure, and he hoped Worf could stay strong at least for a few more minutes.
"Yes, Captain," Worf said dully.
"In…increase speed to maximum warp. Send message to C-Captain Keel. Inform him we are under a…attack. Tell him…Ra'Val-."
"Aye sir," said Worf, his chest heaved from labored breathing, but he remained upright. "Sir…we will not be able to transport on or off the ship at that velocity."
"Damn…don't argue. Need to get to Vulcan…more quickly" Picard muttered. The pounding in his temples was growing more persistent.
"Dad, please!" Wesley cried out again. He suddenly reached up, arms flailing and then grabbed Captain Picard by the neck. Picard grabbed Wesley by the wrists, realizing for the first time how slender and light the boy was, and lifted him up to a sitting position. Eyes still closed, Wesley threw his arms around Picard's shoulders and gripped him tightly, crawling into his lap as though he were a small child. "Dad," he whispered.
Picard's brain was so much in turmoil that he did not try to reason with Wesley. His ability to build a coherent thought let alone an actual sentence seemed to be failing. He raised his hand to say something else to Worf, and that is when it finally overtook him. He jerked backward with Wesley's arms still wrapped around him tightly, and fell unconscious.
Worf slowly turned his head to look at the Captain. Now, he was the only one on the bridge awake. He noted that all other personnel were sprawled on various areas of the floor. He finished inputting the distress code to the Horatio, and then slumped against the tactical station.
The battle had been won but his ship would be lost, it was now clear. The Stargazer drifted in space, disabled and soon to be forsaken by its crew. The strange horseshoe-shaped ship had taken them by surprise and fired on them while they traveled through the Maxia Zeta system. Picard had chosen to hail the ship several times, and hadn't been quick enough to avoid the first hit to the ship. He hadn't avoided the second hit either, but by then he had formulated a plan. Within seconds he had given the order and his ship went into high warp, appearing to the enemy to be in two places at once, at which point he had fired with everything they had and the enemy ship had been destroyed. But at the cost of his ship. It had been a surprise attack, but he made no excuses, and now here he sat.
"Vigo, get to an escape pod," shouted Picard. When the security officer continued to stubbornly stand at tactical, he roared "That's an order!" It would be the last emotional outburst he would have for years afterward. He was drained, and as much as his ship was broken, so was he. He slumped back into his chair.
His first officer, Zev had already taken the rest of the bridge crew to one of the few remaining escape pods while the rest of the ship's crew continued evacuation procedures. Shortly after she departed, a fire had broken out in engineering and was quickly rising through the decks. The bulkheads were now beginning to radiate heat onto the bridge. Picard wiped his forehead with his sleeve and coughed as smoke began to pour from a vent.
"What about you, Captain?" demanded Vigo, stepping down from tactical and standing in front of Picard. "We've got to get out of here in case there are more of those ships out there. We'll be sitting ducks this time, sir."
"Have all of the decks been evacuated? "asked Picard coughing again. His throat burned from and his eyes were bleary from the acrid smell.
"We haven't received all decks reporting in yet, sir."
"Then obviously I am not leaving until everyone is away safely in an escape pod," he said without any discernible emotion.
As the temperature on the bridge continued to increase, a strange popping sound began to shiver through the wall supports.
"I'm not leaving you, sir" insisted Vigo. "The ship is on fire now; she's lost, sir."
Picard turned in his command chair and stared Vigo down. "There is going to be a court martial, Vigo. It'll be much easier for me if I only have to explain my own actions to command. "
"Captain, you won't be able to explain anything at all if you're not alive to tell the story," responded Vigo.
"I have no intention of dying just yet," Picard said calmly. But the truth was, death had been on his mind for a year now. Jack had died under his command less than a year ago, and now, well this was another kind of death, he supposed. "Go, Vigo. If you don't leave now, your career will be over. I don't want that responsibility too," he said.
Suddenly Vigo was standing in front of him, and he stooped down to look Picard in the eyes. Vigo's hand shot out swiftly and gripped Picard by the throat. For some reason, Picard could not move his arms to defend himself. Vigo's eyes turned black and it was almost as though they were without limit. "Let go of this ship…."
The grip tightened and somewhere deep in his consciousness, Picard knew it was no longer the Stargazer that he needed to hold onto. "No," he choked, but Ra'Val's grip tightened.