Chapter 4: setting the table

            Commander LeBeau sat next to her godchild.  For a five-year old the little girl was very smart.  Her speech was closer to that of a ten-year old, and now that she was getting a handle on her mental gifts, she was definitely showing her ability to help others.  She was very much like her mother in that respect, and probably would make an excellent counselor herself. She definitely had the instincts for it.  Conversely, she was so strong willed that she could give her father lessons in stubbornness.  At the moment Tina was getting a full dose of the Riker tenacity, and it was worse than any fight that Will and her had during her tenure as his Number One.  First off, Julie was absolutely positive she heard her father.  Tina had known the moment that Julie had told her what happened that the girl had picked up on Tom Riker, and whatever had been going through his mind.  She could not tell her that in so many words so she had tried other ways to convince the girl that she had misheard.  But Julie would have nothing of the idea.

            It did not matter what Tina tried; Julie would hear nothing about it.  She was convinced that everyone was lying to her and that something bad had happened to her Dad; either that or she had done something really bad and he was very mad at her, and would not speak to her.  Tina had even suggested that she use the ship's intercom system to call him, but even that got the response of no.  Julie just plain refused to listen to anyone but herself.  Stubborn Rikers, one and all of them, in-laws included, she added the last for good measure.

            As if the thought of a Riker had summoned him, Tom Riker walked into the office, with Deanna not too far behind him.  Tina was only sure it was Tom by the clothes.  Now that he had been treated and cleaned up, she could not tell them apart.  Currently he was in a loose pair of slacks and a shirt.  If it had been Will he would still be in uniform.  By the time she had processed this Julianna had leapt off the couch.

            "Daddy!"  She had almost jumped into his arms but stopped herself.  "You're not my Daddy."  She looked on the verge of running away from Tom, but she controlled the impulse. 

            The two women that were witnesses to the exchange watched the child as she gathered herself together.  If the situation had not been as important as it was Deanna would have allowed herself to feel an enormous amount of pride in how well she was handling the situation.  In fascination Deanna watched her daughter as she straightened her posture and assumed a pose that was not unlike one that Deanna used in first contact situations when she had been startled or frightened at the onset.

            "You are not my Daddy, but you are the one I thought was him a few minutes ago.  Your mind is like his, and you look like him too.  Who are you?"  While she still looked ready to flee if she had to, Julie now seemed to feel like she had some control over what was going on.

            Tom looked at Deanna.  "I guess this was the crew member that you had to deal with."  He looked into her eyes, an attempt to get permission to speak to the little girl that was obviously Deanna and Will's daughter.  He saw a small nod, and took on of the seats that were available in the office.  "My name is Tom.  Your parents and I have known each other for a long time.  So, what's your name?  They have been busy and we haven't had much of a chance to talk yet."

            "Julie."  She looked at him.  "Why are you so sad?"

            Instead of answering he looked at the women in the office.  He assumed that the other one was the Commander LeBeau that Deanna mentioned.  He then began to carefully try to phrase the answer so that the little girl would not be frightened of him.  The last thing that he wanted was to hurt the girl.  Technically, she was not his daughter, but nonetheless he instinctively felt as protective of her as if she was.  "Well a lot has happened lately.  I guess it was too much to think about at once, so I am kind of sad."  Tom noticed that Deanna had taken a seat herself and had been watching the whole exchange not only with the worry of a mother, but as a Starfleet commander.  He now addressed her, noting with amusement that now that Julie had asked her question she was climbing into her mother's lap.  "I guess I am not the only one that has had a lot of things happen to them."  He held an angry gazed at Deanna.  "Why did you decide we needed to meet?  And for that matter were you even going to tell me about her?"

            While normally Deanna would not be too baited by this she took what had been handed to her.  "We weren't going to tell you.  We had figured that we would deliver you to Starbase 12 and that would be it.  But there were a few complications, not the least of which was her."

            "How?  I mean what did she… oh, I think I understand.  She said that she thought I was Will earlier, and then she asked me why I was sad.  She's an empath."

            "She is an empath and a hand full all right.  She started show the empathy about nine months ago.  On top of that when Kyle Riker died three months ago she started showing telepathy to a lesser degree.  When she felt you, she tried to reach you through telepathy and you couldn't hear her, Will can.  She was upset and called me.  Between what she just did and Q, I decided that you two needed to meet now."

            Just as she finished Will walked into the office.  Julianna practically flew into his arms.  Pumpkin!  Am I glad to see you.

            "Daddy!!"  Mentally she added, I think that I like him, but something is off.  I get a feeling that there is something that he wants to say but he feels like he can't.

            I know Pumpkin.  I am very proud of you.  Verbally he spoke, "Tom, I see you've met Julianna.  She just gave her mother a bit of a scare.  Now given what just happened, I think that you need to be straight with us and tell us why you are here."  He nodded to LeBeau, "Number One, would you mind going and relieving Katie on the bridge.  With Q hanging around I would feel better if you, Deanna or I were on the bridge right now.  Take Jules with you.  I am sure you can find something to keep her out of trouble and maybe be useful at he same time."

            From his hip there was a squeal, Julie loved being on the bridge and Will knew it.  While not the best place for a little one, she was so curious and smart that she was learning a bit of ships operations and piloting already.  "Can I watch Mark fly the ship?  The last time I was there he was showing me."

            "If he doesn't mind, but don't bug him too much."  He tweaked her nose and handed her off to Tina.  Will watched as two of his favorite people left the room, one on the hip of the other.

            "Now that she is out of active earshot, talk."  Will sat down.

            "I don't know what I can tell you."

            "Start with why Adm. Nechayev ordered us to take you to DS9 instead of Starbase 12 like the rest of the refugees that we picked up on that run."  There was a bristle in the Captain's voice.  " I think that you would understand when I say that I do not want to take this ship into an unknown situation without learning all that I could to protect her.  Not to mention, the last time you were on DS9 you stole a friend of mine's ship.  So, with those in mind, tell me what I need to know."  Will purposely phrased his statement to trigger the training in Tom.  Need to know was the catch phrase for classified information.

            "After the Dominion War the Cardassians were in a sorry shape.  Truthfully, as far as I had been concerned, I could have cared more about a vole than I did about the people.  Their colonies were experiencing every ravage that could be thought of, from starvation and drought, to disease and plague.  Eventually the medical supplies that were still being stolen to care for our people were no longer needed.  Without any effective Cardassian rule federation colonies were starting to recover, and even some trade was beginning to trickle in.  Those supplies were no longer needed by the border colonies, so we began to go father into the Neutral Zone to see if others needed any assistance.  One day we found ourselves past the Neutral Zone and in undisputed Cardassian space.  I thought that I had seen some pretty bad things in my time, but what I saw there would have appalled anyone.  There were several colonies where the people were grotesquely deformed.  Even children were dying in the streets and there was nothing I or anyone else could do to save them.  At first we thought it was a plague, and our doctors started to run tests.  What they found was that it was a plague of sorts.  Every body that was examined had been genetically changed in some way." 

            Tom was becoming more distant as he spoke.  At the same time he was overtly becoming more passionate.  Will recognized one of his own defense mechanisms.  Tom had the same way of coping with trauma that Will had.  He had never realized that he did it himself until Deanna pointed it out to him after a particularly gruesome campaign during the war.  "So why do they want you now?"

            "I couldn't just sit there, I had to do something.  I got too nosy for my own good.   I found out more than the Cardassians wanted to let out.  I barely made it out with my life.  I used my contacts to get a message to Starfleet.  I got the word back that there was to be a discreet escort for me and there would be a general amnesty at the same time.  However, I would hardly call this discreet."

            "So you are saying that you knew we were coming, yet you thought that you were on the Enterprise."  Deanna had been watching him, trying to catch him at anything deceptive.  So far, everything that he had said so far had been true, at least from his point of view.  She knew that he had only scraped the tip of the iceberg with his knowledge of what he had witnessed, but the more he talked the more she could see that he was guarding his thoughts just enough that if he wanted to he could block her out.  It was the same as when Will had to keep her from accidentally finding out information that he had been told was classified.

            "Not exactly.  I just knew that someone would be out here to meet me; that and they would be able to get me to the people I was supposed to get in contact with.  The reason that I thought it was the Enterprise was because of you Deanna.  I just could not see you serving on any other ship."

            "You know the Enterprise that you were on crashed a few weeks before you came to Betazed the last time."

            "I know.  That was how Sela knew that you were on Betazed in the first place.  I figured that there would be another ship to bear the name, and if there was you would serve on her."

            "Will and I both served on her for just over eight years.  When we married seven years ago, Will took command of the Titan and I took the spot of Second Officer."

            Will interrupted his wife.  "Can we continue this later.  Right now we have a mission, and a puzzle that Q left us to solve.  I would like to see how much of it can be figured out before we reach Starbase 12, or Q shows back up."