Disclaimer: They're not mine, and they're not making me any money, so suing me is useless.
_________________________
CHAPTER 2: FLASHBACK PART 1
_________________________
Rose took a deep breath as her captain found a chair in the office and pulled it close to the cot. This was a long story, and telling it was going to hurt. But, while she hadn't thought of it in years, she was a Starfleet officer, and she knew it was her duty to report strange incidents. Report them fully.
As the captain sat down, Rose took another deep breath and began. "I guess here it started yesterday. I had just finished my shift at the duty station and I was headed down to the mess hall for a bit of something to eat. I was stopped in the corridor by an old friend of yours." She looked at Janeway with a bit of mischief in her eyes for the description.
"Who?"
"Q."
A look of angered comprehension crossed her face. Things suddenly made both more and less sense than they had. "I see. Go on."
"Well he didn't waste any time in preamble. He just pointed at me and suddenly I was somewhere else." As she told her story, her mind drifted back, allowing her to relive the events again. Not all of those memories were a part of what she told her captain. Some were just too personal. But her report was complete.
x x x
Rose had wakened in the middle of a recent battle ground. All around her there were the remains of buildings and humans, scattered like the toys of a spoiled child. She moved through the ruined city, taking care where she put her feet as much of the ground seemed unstable. There didn't seem to be any pattern in the destruction. As she found a small toy, a little stuffed rabbit, and picked it up out of the concrete dust, she wondered with sorrow who or what could have done this.
She just kept walking, moving out of the city. The countryside didn't seem affected by the force that had destroyed the urban center, but there weren't any people out, either. They were probably hiding.
She had walked for hours before coming upon a small community of perhaps three hundred. She had given them the story that she had amnesia, and they had taken her in, giving her food, water, and news. And what news it had been. For fourteen years, a couple of androids ("Not like Data, mind you. Closer to a cross between the Borg and a couple of spoiled, bored teenagers.") had been terrorizing the planet, destroying cities mostly, and apparently for the shear hell of it. They could fly under their own power, had the strength to be able to plow through buildings in flight and take absolutely no damage, and could fire blasts of energy, like phaser shots from a starship, from the palms of their hands. Seventy of the world's major cities had been destroyed completely and quite a smattering of smaller ones. They didn't seem interested in anything under a thousand people, so such places were relatively safe, but that wasn't always a guarantee. The people had to be constantly on guard, and even if they had any warning, all they could do was run away, and even that was no guarantee of survival.
Rose had taken it upon herself to help out wherever she could by designing underground shelters. After all, there was no telling how long Q was going to leave her here, and he had never contacted her, never told her what was going on. The shelters had good designs and well hidden, especially from the air. They were usually built in places that had already been ruined, providing camouflage, and put the entrances in old buildings. For two years, she helped with the building of shelters, and some even went inside active cities as a fail-safe. She actually saw the androids on more than one occasion, and always counted herself lucky to escape alive. The twins never even saw her, and that was for good reason.
The last time she had seen them, she had been in one of the cities, going over the plans for a new shelter with the city's building manager. They had flown in and started blowing things sky high. Rose had had the sense to duck out of their sight, but she knew that wasn't going to be protection for long. Luckily they seemed to be going in the other direction. She was horrified to watch them, but she couldn't take her eyes away, fascinated despite herself. They were just about to take down another group of buildings when another blast came from the opposite direction. It smashed into the male android, causing him to crash backward into the building he had been aiming at.
Rose looked up, her gaze following the trajectory of the blast back to it's source, another figure in the sky. He was a young man, probably eighteen, wearing a wife beater and loose fitting gray pants. He seemed to be glowing, his golden blonde hair thrown straight up in the air by some wind or other, and his posture in the air was aggressive. He could fly, just like the androids, but he was obviously not their friend.
Rose watched the battle that ensued with utter fascination. The intensity of the fight got to where she couldn't follow it at times, but what she did see was amazing! In her training at Starfleet Academy, she had come across hundreds of different fighting disciplines, at least forty percent of which had originated on Earth. What the boy was doing seemed to be an amalgamation of many of those techniques, especially the ones from the far east and the Orient, all adapted to fighting in the air. There was also a fair amount of improvisation in his technique, making his a truly unique style. Most importantly, however, he had the speed and power to more than match the androids. They fell to his hands within an hour.
As the last bits and pieces from the exploding android fell to the ground, their destroyer began to land. The glow that had surrounded his form throughout the fight faded and his hair lightened to a surprising lavender, his eyes changing from the sea green that they'd held to a piercing ice blue. He was breathing heavily, but he didn't seem to be in any kind of distress.
Rose wanted to make sure that this wasn't another threat. After two years in this world filled with terror, she wasn't about to take anything for granted. However, she really wanted this to be a friend. She was tired of having to build places for people to hide. Her knowledge of Federation technology would be better used in helping to rebuild the cities.
She decided to find out for herself. She moved stealthily among the debris toward the young man, hoping to get some indication of his intentions before she reached his position, something that would tell her how to handle him.
She was so intent on being silent that she forgot to be careful. The debris covered many pitfalls of various types, potholes made in the battle, ruptured water mains, basements, and the like. It was one of those last that she found, covered by a brittle and fragile wall that could not support her weight. It crumbled beneath her feet, and she fell, letting out a shriek that echoed through the artificial canyon of the ruined city.
x x x
________________
A/N: Ah, am I not evil? Wonderful little clif-hanger, except that it IS a flash back and... Oh well. R&R please. If I messed up anything in the fight, let me know. I don't have access to that episode since my father forgot to turn the VCR on for me that night. (grrr...) Please also remember that this is in revision. I need to know of any mistakes.
_________________________
CHAPTER 2: FLASHBACK PART 1
_________________________
Rose took a deep breath as her captain found a chair in the office and pulled it close to the cot. This was a long story, and telling it was going to hurt. But, while she hadn't thought of it in years, she was a Starfleet officer, and she knew it was her duty to report strange incidents. Report them fully.
As the captain sat down, Rose took another deep breath and began. "I guess here it started yesterday. I had just finished my shift at the duty station and I was headed down to the mess hall for a bit of something to eat. I was stopped in the corridor by an old friend of yours." She looked at Janeway with a bit of mischief in her eyes for the description.
"Who?"
"Q."
A look of angered comprehension crossed her face. Things suddenly made both more and less sense than they had. "I see. Go on."
"Well he didn't waste any time in preamble. He just pointed at me and suddenly I was somewhere else." As she told her story, her mind drifted back, allowing her to relive the events again. Not all of those memories were a part of what she told her captain. Some were just too personal. But her report was complete.
x x x
Rose had wakened in the middle of a recent battle ground. All around her there were the remains of buildings and humans, scattered like the toys of a spoiled child. She moved through the ruined city, taking care where she put her feet as much of the ground seemed unstable. There didn't seem to be any pattern in the destruction. As she found a small toy, a little stuffed rabbit, and picked it up out of the concrete dust, she wondered with sorrow who or what could have done this.
She just kept walking, moving out of the city. The countryside didn't seem affected by the force that had destroyed the urban center, but there weren't any people out, either. They were probably hiding.
She had walked for hours before coming upon a small community of perhaps three hundred. She had given them the story that she had amnesia, and they had taken her in, giving her food, water, and news. And what news it had been. For fourteen years, a couple of androids ("Not like Data, mind you. Closer to a cross between the Borg and a couple of spoiled, bored teenagers.") had been terrorizing the planet, destroying cities mostly, and apparently for the shear hell of it. They could fly under their own power, had the strength to be able to plow through buildings in flight and take absolutely no damage, and could fire blasts of energy, like phaser shots from a starship, from the palms of their hands. Seventy of the world's major cities had been destroyed completely and quite a smattering of smaller ones. They didn't seem interested in anything under a thousand people, so such places were relatively safe, but that wasn't always a guarantee. The people had to be constantly on guard, and even if they had any warning, all they could do was run away, and even that was no guarantee of survival.
Rose had taken it upon herself to help out wherever she could by designing underground shelters. After all, there was no telling how long Q was going to leave her here, and he had never contacted her, never told her what was going on. The shelters had good designs and well hidden, especially from the air. They were usually built in places that had already been ruined, providing camouflage, and put the entrances in old buildings. For two years, she helped with the building of shelters, and some even went inside active cities as a fail-safe. She actually saw the androids on more than one occasion, and always counted herself lucky to escape alive. The twins never even saw her, and that was for good reason.
The last time she had seen them, she had been in one of the cities, going over the plans for a new shelter with the city's building manager. They had flown in and started blowing things sky high. Rose had had the sense to duck out of their sight, but she knew that wasn't going to be protection for long. Luckily they seemed to be going in the other direction. She was horrified to watch them, but she couldn't take her eyes away, fascinated despite herself. They were just about to take down another group of buildings when another blast came from the opposite direction. It smashed into the male android, causing him to crash backward into the building he had been aiming at.
Rose looked up, her gaze following the trajectory of the blast back to it's source, another figure in the sky. He was a young man, probably eighteen, wearing a wife beater and loose fitting gray pants. He seemed to be glowing, his golden blonde hair thrown straight up in the air by some wind or other, and his posture in the air was aggressive. He could fly, just like the androids, but he was obviously not their friend.
Rose watched the battle that ensued with utter fascination. The intensity of the fight got to where she couldn't follow it at times, but what she did see was amazing! In her training at Starfleet Academy, she had come across hundreds of different fighting disciplines, at least forty percent of which had originated on Earth. What the boy was doing seemed to be an amalgamation of many of those techniques, especially the ones from the far east and the Orient, all adapted to fighting in the air. There was also a fair amount of improvisation in his technique, making his a truly unique style. Most importantly, however, he had the speed and power to more than match the androids. They fell to his hands within an hour.
As the last bits and pieces from the exploding android fell to the ground, their destroyer began to land. The glow that had surrounded his form throughout the fight faded and his hair lightened to a surprising lavender, his eyes changing from the sea green that they'd held to a piercing ice blue. He was breathing heavily, but he didn't seem to be in any kind of distress.
Rose wanted to make sure that this wasn't another threat. After two years in this world filled with terror, she wasn't about to take anything for granted. However, she really wanted this to be a friend. She was tired of having to build places for people to hide. Her knowledge of Federation technology would be better used in helping to rebuild the cities.
She decided to find out for herself. She moved stealthily among the debris toward the young man, hoping to get some indication of his intentions before she reached his position, something that would tell her how to handle him.
She was so intent on being silent that she forgot to be careful. The debris covered many pitfalls of various types, potholes made in the battle, ruptured water mains, basements, and the like. It was one of those last that she found, covered by a brittle and fragile wall that could not support her weight. It crumbled beneath her feet, and she fell, letting out a shriek that echoed through the artificial canyon of the ruined city.
x x x
________________
A/N: Ah, am I not evil? Wonderful little clif-hanger, except that it IS a flash back and... Oh well. R&R please. If I messed up anything in the fight, let me know. I don't have access to that episode since my father forgot to turn the VCR on for me that night. (grrr...) Please also remember that this is in revision. I need to know of any mistakes.