"I don't care how you do it Data, just get her *aboard*!" Picard walked agitatedly across the bridge. The sudden reappearance of the away team had momentarily cloaked the absence of his First Officer and once they realised she was missing every attempt to get her back had failed.
"Captain, I've lost her life-signs."
"You WHAT?!" Beverly jumped up from her chair and practically ran towards the android. "Damnit! Damnit, DAMNIT!!!" Surprised by his wife's outburst Jean-Luc laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down.
"Beverly, calm down." Without turning Beverly stiffened and through clenched teeth she whispered.
"She can't take this again Jean-Luc. We *have* to get her out of there."
"Captain, the Hydra is going under cloak!" All bridge officers turned to the viewscreen just in time to see the smaller vessel disappear.
"Data, get a lock on the Counselor *now*!" With an incredible speed Data's fingers moved over the console; entering data and orders as they went. But his attempts all failed.
"Captain, we've lost the Hydra." Picard felt like hitting something, *hard*. Everyone could see it in his eyes and more importantly, everyone felt exactly the same way.
"And assured me he'd have her back..." His voice trailed off. 'I should never have let her go'
"Jean-Luc? What are you saying?" Almost in a daze he turned towards the soft voice that he knew to be his wife's.
"Baites, I said 'I hold him responsible for kidnapping and torturing one of my crew members.' Baites responded with 'Oh yes, the Empath. He was really pissed at having lost her' and assured me that he'd get her back." With a heavy sigh he dropped into his command chair. "Damnit." He spoke as an afterthought. "Data, keep trying to track the Hydra down; I don't care how you do it."
"Aye Sir." Knowing that there was nothing else that could be done at this moment he allowed himself the slight comfort of his wife's hand on top of his while he heard her soft whisper.
"Oh god..."
~*+*~
"There, there. She's coming round." Blinking her eyes rapidly, Deanna tried to focus her eyes and make the four heads hovering above her merge into one. When that didn't work she started rolling her head from one side to the other, desperately trying to see through the haze that was covering her eyes and senses.
Sickbay. She was in Sickbay. After all, that's where you end up after an away mission that went wrong, right? You end up in Sickbay, with familiar people around you, caring people, people who would heal your injuries and protect you. Not in some dark place as a hostage, or do you?
"Leave us now, I'll take it from here." 'Beverly?' No, not Beverly, this voice belonged to a man. Not at all like the soft soothing voice of her friend. 'A nurse?' Could be. Should be. After all, she *was* in Sickbay, wasn't she? A rough hand caressed her forehead and travelled through her curls. It felt wrong, she couldn't describe it. But the touch that should've been comforting and soothing made her want to scream as loud as she could. What was happening? Why did everything around her feel so terribly wrong?
"Welcome in my home Imzadi." 'Home? Not Sickbay? Is that Will?' It couldn't be Will! Will was away, gone. Starting to panic, Deanna tried even more frantically to open her eyes. Where was she? Where was Beverly? Why wasn't she in Sickbay?
An empathic probe got her nothing, except that it increased the feeling that something was amiss. It was almost as if her empathic sense was shielded somehow. Without being able to use her empathic skills Troi had to reply on her physical sense.
'Definitely not in Sickbay' she figured. The bed she was lying on was larger and softer than any biobed she knew of and her uniform had been replaced by something long and silky, something far softer than the usual Sickbay clothing. 'By the moons of Betazed; where am I?!'
A rough finger traced her jaw and seconds later a thumb caressed her lower lip. Taking a deep breath Deanna opened her eyes and focussed. The four faces merged together and she found herself looking into -very- familiar eyes.
"Will?" The man grinned wickedly and planted a hard kiss in her forehead. "Will?!" Troi felt her eyelids close again; the sheer effort of regaining consciousness had exhausted her and no matter how hard she fought the inevitable happened and she fell into a deep sleep.
~*+*~
Unwilling Troi woke, she was so tired she kept her eyes closed in the hope she'd fall asleep again. But the emotions dripping into her conscious mind kept her from doing so. Unsettled by their nature she tried to focus on their origins, only finding a cloak of dullness covering her senses. Only allowing her to read emotions on a muted level, no sense of direct or cause, just their entirety. Clawing through the layers of emotions round her she tried to remember where she was and what had happened.
Despite the haze on her abilities a sense of pure evil invaded her mind, penetrating deeper every second. Never before had she felt anything like it, and the more she thought about it, the more intense it became. It wasn't her usual self, she knew that. She had never been easily scared and the years she'd spend on the Enterprise only prepared her for the worst.
She wasn't on the Enterprise anymore; she knew that with absolute certainty now. Whatever the reason of the haze on her senses, she could at least think clearly now. Still she kept her eyes closed out of fear for what she might find when she'd open them. The last thing she remember was beaming off the Enterprise, but she couldn't remember where to or for what reason.
Will had something to do with her situation though, she knew that for sure. But what she couldn't tell. She was on a spaceship of some kind, the hum of the engines flowed through her body. The minds of those around her had a similar feeling to those of Starfleet officers, but were laced with such a profound sense of anger or even hatred that she would run away if she could. She didn't seem to have regained control of her body yet, whether because of toxins or an injury or something else.
She was thinking too much, her panic had risen and certainly trying to analyse her situation from the little information she had only worsened matters. But right now there wasn't much to distract her. She couldn't hear a sound and she wasn't yet ready to open her eyes.
She couldn't tell how much time had passed, or how long she had already been where-ever she was. It must have been quite a while though, or she must have suffered some kind of head injury for tiredness seemed to surround her again. She fought her hardest to stay alert, to keep gathering as many information as she could, all the while doing her best to quell the panic that was rising within her. It wasn't long however when she was once again exhausted and slipped back into the dark world of her dreams.
~*+*~
One by one the senior officers of the Enterprise entered the Observation Lounge, tension etched on the faces. "Status?" It was obvious Picard didn't want to waste a single second on pleasantries. The strong set of his jaw wordlessly said that he would not tolerate any irrelevant words or information. 'To the point' had been the norm onboard the Enterprise since Deanna Troi had disappeared, nearly twelve hours earlier.
"The adaptations made to our sensor arrays to track the Hydra have been transmitted to all space-ships and space-stations to be able to detect the vessel should it pass by." With only a blink of his eyes the Captain acknowledged the words of his Chief Engineer. "Starfleet Command has given her rescue top priority." surprised looks flew across the room, top-priority for a mission to rescue an officer had only occurred once or twice in Fleet history and those cases were about a high-placed admiral who had been kidnapped. Knowing why his officers were surprised Jean-Luc tried to keep his explanation within the limits Command had given him. "Apparently Captain Troi was working with the Fleet Council on re-arranging the command-structure." More surprised looks, this time laced with confusion. Much similar to his own reaction to the communiqué he had received from the Fleet Admiral.
After nearly two decades serving together he considered Deanna Troi one of his closest friends, but she was also the person he considered most mysterious. She seemed a very open person, but during the incident on Pklira Prime he suddenly realized how little he knew about her. Once again proof that one was never finished exploring.
"So what do we do now?" LaForge's voice drew his attention back to the meeting. "I don't know commander, Mr. Data has plotted several courses that the vessel might have taken, and it seems that our only option is to haunt the bird till we've found it."
~*+*~
He sat on the edge of the bed and traced her body slowly with his eyes. Clad in a long white silk nightgown, Deanna was lying on the white satin covers of a king-sized bed, her hands tied to the bedpost above her head with a red string. Her thick dark curls fanned out around the peaceful features of her face. The slit of the gown revealed the greater part of her right leg. Around her ankle she wore a thin silver strand, given to her by her father. She had received it on her eighteenth birthday and never taken it off since.
For a while the silent observer marvelled at her beauty and serenity. For years his memory of her had been the soul thought that had kept him going. Although both had aged she was more beautiful than he remembered. Oh how he'd longed to be near her again, seeing the sparkle in her eyes and feeling her soft body against him. They fit well together, she was his other half and when together they would make the sparks fly. Their time together would be glorious and passionate. She would be everything he wanted and more.
His hand reached for her ankle and his fingertips trailed a path to her knee and upward to her inner thigh. The man withdrew his hand and shifted position. Now sitting next to her upper body he watched her face for any signs that she was waking. When he was convinced she wasn't waking up just yet her cupped her jaw in a large hand and softly pressed his lips to hers. With eyes intent on her face he trailed his hand down her chin and the column of her neck to her chest.
A small smile crept around his lips as Deanna twitched her mouth and ensconced herself further into the satiny covers of the bed. His hand dipped underneath her gown and moved to cup a breast. The smile on his face widened as he heard Troi's soft sigh and she moved against his hand. Finally, after all those years she was his.
Still sleeping, the Betazoid wasn't aware of where she was or who was with her. But subconsciously she felt the ministrations to her body and vaguely sensed the emotions of her captor. His ministrations became rougher and when he, overcome by physical lust, roughly seized her mouth she awoke with a start.
The man released his hold on her mouth and grinned wickedly as he suddenly straddled her waist. Images of her time with Rahad shot through Deanna's mind and she opened her mouth to scream. But before she could make even the slightest sound the man had already captured her mouth with his. Troi tried to focus on his face and shrieked his name as their eyes locked. Black met blue.
"WILL!!!" An evil gleam flickered in his eyes and he moved his face next to hers; his mouth nearing her ear. The evil and hatred in his soul poured into Deanna's psyche, making her gasp in horror.
"Try again Imzadi." Her dark eyes widened with realisation, her heartbeat increased with fear.
"Thomas..." Thomas Riker sat up, his face drawn into an evil smile.
"Welcome home Imzadi." He tore the gown off her body and kissed her again, forcing her mouth open with his hand. 'Oh God NO!!!' Unable to cry out, Deanna's psyche screamed and she frantically tried to break free from the bonds that were holding her hands.
Thomas Riker got up and went to stand next to the bed, looking appreciatively at Troi's naked upper body. The fear was written all over her; little drops of sweat that were shining near her temples, a rapid rise and fall of her chest and her writhing movements against the bonds told him exactly what he wanted to know – she was scared to death.
Slowly, *very* slowly did Thomas bend over her, placing his mouth near her ear. "It seems we'll have to continue your welcome home party later my love." The sensation of his warm breath blowing against her ear sent shivers of fear down her spine. With his lips barely brushing her skin he moved until his mouth and hers were only a hair's breadth apart. "But we'll have fun. I promise." Now his mouth was hovering above hers, and in fear and disgust Deanna closed her eyes, waiting with mouth tightly closed in anticipation of another brutal kiss.
To her utmost relief Riker pulled away and walked to the doors. Before he walked out he threw her a patented Riker smile, the one she loved so much. Behind this one however there was such hatred and sick lust that she had to clench her teeth to keep herself from screaming.
Only when the doors closed, separating him from her, did she allowed herself a long gasp of terror. From the young and brash Lieutenant whom she had known so well and loved so much he had become someone so profoundly malevolent, evil-spirited and angry at the world that she feared him with every fibre of her being. And now she was at his mercy.
With tiny movements Deanna tried to feel how well her hands were tied. Patiently she explored the ties that bound her until eventually she gave up, realising that with her wrists tied together she would never be able to free herself.
Unwilling to give up the search for a way out, she tried to coax the computer into opening the doors using the access codes she had obtained earlier. Unfortunately, Thomas had been one step ahead and had already replaced all codes.
With her last hope crushed, desperation and fear overtook her and she began to cry, never making a single sound.
She knew that while she was being held Thomas would abuse her, she could tell that much from a superficial empathic scan. Undoubtedly she'd also have to undergo yet another series of medical experiments as well.
Thus she had only two options: cooperate and try to win his trust or resist and wait for her friends to come and rescue her. 'Great, just great!' After a while the fear and emotional drain exhausted her and she fell asleep once again.
~*+*~
On his bridge Thomas Riker was thinking of the wonderful time he and his Imzadi, his Deanna, would have together. Soon she'd forget all about William Riker and her petty friends on the Enterprise.
Together they would dominate the Black Dragons. And if she resisted, he'd find a way to break her.
Yes, after almost two decades the gorgeous, sensual Betazoid was his and his alone.
===================================~*+*~===================================
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~End Xiara esta, ta Fira xi Part I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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