Part Twenty-Eight

Omicron Theta Science Colony

Four weeks before the attack…

Renny Marr snatched the spinning disk out of the air and ran, dashing for the blinking goal marker with the grace of a Rigellian deer.

"Yeah!" Janina Marsden cheered, jumping in place and pumping her arms. "That's how you do it! Go for the goal, goal, goal!"

Rhoda snickered, glancing up from the novel she'd been reading on her data padd to watch her older brother Tim tackle the fleet-footed sixteen-year-old with a flying leap, the two boys rolling to a stop in the dense, green grass just short of the goal.

"Yeah, that's how you do it all right," she said and cupped her hands to her mouth. "Hey," she shouted, "this isn't a contact sport, you know! When do I get a turn?"

"When you win a championship emblem, like me and Renny," Tim teased back, brushing at the flower petals and grassy patches staining his jacket and trousers.

"That was for a parrises squares tournament. This is Risan friscus! In the park!" Rhoda protested, getting up from her seat under the shade tree and tagging Janina's arm. "Come on, let's go play."

"Nah, I think I'll sit out this game," the older girl said, straightening her windblown hair with her fingers as she cast a broad smile at Renny. "You and Tim can play. Renny and I can watch from here."

"Oh, so that's how it is…" Rhoda scowled and rolled her eyes. "You know, you two have gotten to be less and less fun since you 'officially' started going out."

Janina smirked back. "You only think that because you don't have a boyfriend," she said, flipping her hair back over her shoulder.

"Yeah, well, if it means I have to start acting like you, I hope I never do," Rhoda shot back and ran out into the sunny field.

"Looks like it's you and me, bro," she said to Tim as she recovered the friscus disk from where it had landed following Tim's tackle. The warm grass and bright wildflowers smelled almost overpoweringly sweet, particularly where the soft blades had been bruised and broken by the boys' game. "Janina and Renny are gonna make out."

Renny blushed bright red, but Tim laughed out loud, giving Renny a chance to duck away and join Janina by the tree.

"You sound jealous," Tim teased.

"I am not!" Rhoda exclaimed, her eyes wide with outrage. "You take that back, Tim Forrester!"

"Or what?" Tim challenged. "You gonna hit me, Rhoda-dendron?"

"No," Rhoda said, raising the friscus disk. "But I'll smash your score record. Prepare to be demolished!"

"Ha, ha, ha-larious! Ever hear of hubris? When pride goeth before a fall?" Tim scoffed and jogged backwards toward his starting position by his own blinking goal. Clapping his hands together, he shouted, "OK, Rhoda: bring it on! —Hey!"

The teen stopped just short of tripping over a figure bent double over a particularly dense patch of wildflowers. Despite the warm, sunny day, he wore a long overcoat, as rumpled and baggy as his suit jacket and trousers.

"Oh, excuse me," he apologized, straightening as if his back were a spring. "I didn't mean to interrupt your game. I was…collecting samples."

Rhoda squinted and jogged closer across the field. "Dee?" She took in the android's messy hair and rumpled appearance and snorted a laugh. "That is you, isn't it! You look so different without your hair slicked back! Why are you dressed up like a spy?"

Dee blinked his golden eyes. "I am a detective, not a spy," he said.

"Oh god, that's right," Tim realized, all trace of amusement draining from his face. "Remember, Rho? Mom said the town leadership recruited Dee to help find out what happened to Keith and Elias."

"Hey, what's going on?" Renny called out as he and Janina hurried across the field to join them. "Hi, Dee. How's your mom?"

"My mother is well, thank you," Dee said. "But, she is troubled by recent events."

Rhoda glanced at the newcomers and smirked. From their ruffled hair and the slight puffiness around their lips, she could tell she'd been right. They had been making out.

"Dee's here as a detective," Rhoda told them. "He's investigating why Keith and Elias drowned."

Janina seemed to pale. Grabbing Renny's hand, she leaned in close and whispered, "Is this about Ally?"

"Nina…!" Renny warned through his teeth.

"What about Ally?" Tim said, stepping forward. "Don't tell me she—"

"No way," Renny cut him off. "I'm sure she doesn't know anything about it!"

Dee's head twitched.

"You are referring to Ally Wallace?" he asked, and his eyes locked on Renny. "Eldest daughter of Maisie and Lachlan Wallace: the family with whom you stay while your mother, Dr. Kila Marr, conducts her research off-world?" Dee blinked curiously. "Was she not accepted to the University of Betazed's psychology program last year?"

"Yeah, but she couldn't go," Renny said quietly. "Her parents needed her to help with the farm, so she had to get a deferment. It happens to a lot of colony kids."

"Yeah, like you know," Janina said, pulling away. "Your mom's whole life is off-world."

Renny frowned at her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, OK?" Janina snapped, kicking at the grass with her shoe. "It's just... You have a way out. Somewhere to go! Not everyone does. And... I know it messed her up…being kept back like that. Trapped on this go-nowhere rock. Most of her friends are already in their second year…"

"I get that she's frustrated," Renny said. "I'd be angry too! But, she couldn't be involved. Not with something like this. Ally's like my sister! I know… She just wouldn't!"

"What about that pack of petal-heads she's been loiting around with?" Rhoda said, crossing her arms.

"I'm sorry… 'Loiting?' 'Petal-heads'?" Dee queried the unfamiliar terms.

"Loiting. Loitering. You know, hanging out," Janina explained. "And, I don't think they actually use the petals for the extract. More like spores or something."

"Then…" Dee frowned. "I'm not certain that I understand. Are you suggesting Ally and these 'petal-heads' have been ingesting illicit chemical substances?"

Janina snorted. "It would be illicit if the grups found out," she said. "But there's nothing, like, unnatural about it. The extract is made right here, from flowers native to Omicron Theta. And the Pack… Well, they like to pretend they're, like, one of those chemical clubs, you know? Like they have on those Ferengi pleasure worlds. Their whole thing is 'mind enhancement.' A chance to escape this dead-end life for a few hours."

Tim knit his eyebrows together. "Janina, you haven't—"

"No," she said. "No, I never took the stuff. But I listened at those meetings, and the Pack does have a point, Tim." She lifted her chin and stared around the placid parkland, her expression tight. "This place... It's the grown-ups' view of paradise, not ours. They came here to build homes and put down roots, and us kids... Unless we make it to an offworld university or Starfleet Academy, we're expected to root down too, helping our parents grow their 'perfect' settlement. And it sucks."

Renny regarded her. "You really think it's that bad here?"

"Maybe not now..." Janina said, reaching for his hand. "Not while we're together. But in a few years, when you're all off at university and my folks spring the trap on me... 'Oh, it's just a two-year deferment!'" she mimicked bitterly, "'The community college they're building will be just as good, really - better, because it's local!'" She squeezed her eyes shut and turned her head away, swallowing hard. "Yeah. Yeah, it'll really be that bad."

A somber cloud fell over the group. Tim, Rhoda and Renny lowered their heads, but Dee seemed agitated.

"Over the past five days, I have spoken with several dozen colonists. Adults and students alike," he said. "Why is this the first I've heard of these 'petal-heads', and their apparent disaffection with colony life?"

Janina smirked darkly. "Loiting with a chemical club isn't exactly something you talk about in public, Dee," she said. "Especially not with…you know…"

"A sleuth? Private eye? Copper? Flatfoot? Fuzz?" Dee suggested, adjusting his off-center tie.

"Try square," Janina said. "Conformist. Nerd. Teacher's pet."

Dee's eyebrows shot up. "Is that how I am perceived?"

"Well, you do report to the town grups, don't you?" Renny said.

Dee frowned. "My purpose is to discover why two boys from our school drowned in Reservoir Lake. Is it not in everyone's best interest that I uncover the truth?"

Rhoda smiled. "Well, it sure wouldn't be in the killer's interest."

"Then, you believe these drownings were not an accident?" Dee asked.

The teens shared a long, tense look.

"Keith and Elias were going to the meetings," Janina said quietly. "I know because I saw them a few times. But I wasn't there the night they drowned. And I honestly don't know who did go or what happened."

"Yeah," Renny said. "Janina had dinner at my house – that is, at the Wallaces' – that evening, and after that we went skating together at the rec center. But Ally… Oh god, that's right!" Renny blinked, pressing his hand to his mouth. "Ally got that call on her comm, just before dinner. She vanished after that. I didn't see her again until…what was it? The next day after school?"

Janina cast her eyes down and leaned her head against Renny's shoulder.

Dee took in a sharp breath through his nose and let it out, turning his golden stare to each of their tense faces in turn.

"When do these 'petal-head' meetings take place?" he asked.

"After dark," Janina said. "Usually once or twice a week. They have hang-outs all over. But, when the weather's good, they usually gather in the woods - upriver from the reservoir. That's where they'd have been that night."

"Will you take me there?" Dee pressed. "If you're right, that meeting may have been the last place Elias and Keith were seen alive. There may be clues at the location that could indicate whether this tragedy was an accident, or something far more sinister."

Janina's jaw tightened, and she squeezed Renny's hand.

"Yeah," she said. "I'll show you the place. Follow me."

She started walking but Dee stood among the flowers for a moment longer, thoughtfully stroking his chin.

"Janina," Dee called, causing her to pause and turn back to face him. "Just one more thing."

"What?" she demanded.

"This extract," he said. "You say it is produced here, on Omicron Theta?"

"That's what I've heard," she said.

"Do you have any idea who produces it?"

"I don't know the guy's real name," Janina admitted. "But I think he's the club's founder. Most of the members call him 'The Storyteller'. I've never seen him outside the meetings."

"Hm," Dee grunted, his pale brow deeply furrowed. After a moment's thought, he looked up and started walking. "Please," he said, "lead on."

To Be Continued...

References Include - TOS: Miri; This Side of Paradise; TNG: Datalore; Silicon Avatar; Brothers; Inheritance; Columbo

I know - long time, no update... So much going on! For starters, I had an article published, one of my stories was chosen to be the subject of a podcast, and I made a brand new author website where you can check out some of my original in-progress projects. It's my penname (RowenaZahnrei) dot com. The site is still a work-in-progress itself, but if you're interested, please feel free to check it out! :)

Updates for my other TNG stories and Mind the Gap are in the works. Thanks so much for reading, for your fantastic feedback, and for your patience with me! Please Review! :D