Chapter One
Captain's Log, Stardate 44771.5: The Enterprise has received a distress signal from an unidentified ship in Sector 437. The signal was a computer-generated distress call, conforming to Starfleet regulation, although we have not yet been able to make any connection between this signal and any commissioned Federation ship, outpost or colony. However, the call specifically requested the aid of the Enterprise. There are four Federation starships slightly closer to the given coordinates: the starships Hood, Venture, Cavalier and Geneseo. These starships have been alerted by Admiral Thelasli in case of an emergency. At maximum warp, it will take us four days to reach the coordinates. For the endangered ship to be so selective about which Federation starship aids it, it mustn't be in very immediate danger.
Guinan scanned the Ten-Forward room, considering which table to approach first. It seemed that every bridge crew member in the room was tense and in dire need of some mode of relaxation. From Captain Jean-Luc Picard right down to Ensign Wesley Crusher, everyone was here, their favorite haunt largely due to Guinan's presence. The Listener knew this, but she was distinctly good at being modest. She was wise beyond her years, which were not as few as one would think. She appeared to be a relatively young Human woman, but she was in fact centuries old, and not at all Human. She was the most gentle, soft-spoken, wise woman Picard had ever had the pleasure of knowing. Upon her unbidden word, Picard would set the Enterprise on self-destruct.
Guinan decided that the senior officers' table would be a good place to start, and moved over to the table where Captain Picard sat with Commander William T. Riker, Doctor Beverly Crusher and Counselor Deanna Troi.
"Hello, captain. Commander. Doctor. Counselor." Guinan nodded and smiled at each, "What can I get for you?"
"Tea, Earl Grey, hot," the captain said absently. He was not looking at her. His chin was resting on his fist and he was staring out the tall observation windows into the starfield as it slowly drifted by, obviously worrying about their most current mission and the strange distress signal. His sentence had been a perfect imitation of what you would tell a food replicating unit if you wanted it to prepare Earl Grey tea for you.
"I feel like your replicator, Jean-Luc," Guinan smiled gently. The captain allowed very few people, Starfleet or otherwise, to call him Jean- Luc. On the Enterprise, it was only those people currently at his table. And even his senior officers only did so in private. No one else would dare.
The captain looked up at Guinan, mildly startled by his own episode of absence. For a brief second, Picard was mesmerized by Guinan's calming visage. Her smile began on her lips but spread to her dark-complected face, making her perfect skin glow with a warmth like the embers of a fire. Her deep brown eyes shone with an almost maternal comfort. Long black braids of thick hair were tucked back under a large dusty-purple colored hat with a flat top that matched her shapeless dress. How someone could appear so non-threatening and yet so powerful all at once was something the captain admired greatly, yet could not achieve, could barely comprehend.
Picard dragged himself from his reverie and apologized. But of course, Guinan had not really been offended.
"I'd like a Vulcan Sunrise," Deanna mused, lacing her slender fingers beneath the point of her chin. Beverly lifted her head.
"Ooh, that sounds good. I'll have one of those too."
"Coffee, black," Riker winked at Guinan. She nodded and walked away. Guinan never wrote anything down. She had never needed to. She never confused things or forgot what someone wanted. Often, she didn't even have to ask what someone wanted; she just knew.
Picard breathed deeply. Everyone on his ship was able to draw strength from him, and he would have it no other way. But he couldn't help being grateful that there was someone somewhere on his ship from whom he could draw strength.
"Captain, this distress signal worries me," Deanna scrunched up here eyebrows. "It was very unusual. Why would a ship request aid expressly from the Enterprise when we are so far away? And why not even identify itself?"
Picard raised his eyebrows and frowned, in lieu of shrugging his shoulders.
Riker answered, "Evidently they want Starfleet's best. It must be very important to them, but not very urgent."
"Yes, but that does not explain why they did not identify themselves," Picard reminded him. "If they have the time to wait four days for us to get there, why did they not have the time to tell us what is happening? I can't imagine why they wouldn't have thought of that. They must know it would only help us in locating them. Or in being prepared to aid them. Or any number of things."
Riker nodded. "The coordinates are far from the Neutral Zone, and equally far from Cardassian Space or Borg Space. We can probably rule out some kind of trick."
"I'm not ruling out anything yet, Number One."
"Do you suppose it might be a Federation Outpost?" Deanna asked. "Outside of the Federation, I've never seen a distress signal pattern anything like that."
"I've never seen anything like it either," Riker agreed, "but we have no Outpost anywhere near there. Not even in neighboring sectors, we've checked."
Guinan subtly placed drinks in front of their distracted owners without drawing notice. Riker instinctively gripped the handle of his coffee mug.
Beverly sighed in frustration. "I think you've all forgotten the possibility that it's a real, honest-to-God distress call. Yes, it makes no sense that they requested a starship so far away. Yes, it's strange that they didn't even identify themselves. There could be perfectly reasonable explanations for all of these things that they didn't have time to give over a repeating, recorded, automated distress signal. So rather than worrying about what sort of trap it might be, we should be prepared to deal with a real situation."
"I agree," Picard mediated. "We cannot rule out the most likely possibility of this being a legitimate situation of distress. But we also cannot rule out the possibility of threat. We shall still approach this with caution."
End of discussion.
* * *
"Hey, Crusher!" called Acting Ensign Billy Nolan from across Ten- Forward. Beverly's son cringed in his chair at the table he was occupying alone. Without even looking up, Ensign Wesley Crusher knew who was calling him, and he did not want to see him. Billy strode across the lounge with a girl at his side. Wesley recognized the girl as Billy's cousin Karen. Great.
"Hiiii Wesleeeeeyy..." Karen breathed in a sing-songy voice and with a dreamy expression on her face. It was all Wesley could do to keep from groaning. This girl was thirteen, five years younger than Wes, and had one doozy of a crush on him.
"Crusher, do me a favor, would ya?" Nolan plopped Karen down in the chair across from Wesley, who had been enjoying sitting alone for a few moments. "Keep an eye on her while I go for my defense class? Thanks!" And before Wesley could answer that he had other things to do (and think up what they were), Nolan was out the door. Wesley looked at the girl sitting across from him and half-smiled with defeat. She was not a bad-looking girl, she was cute. And too young. And annoying. Not that she meant to be, she was just always there whenever Wes turned around. And grinning at him. How dare she.
Karen gazed at Wesley. It wasn't difficult to locate the causes of her infatuation. He'd been something of a legend among the younger residents of the Enterprise - their occasional hero. But beyond that, he was tall and slender and attractive, with dark brown hair and huge brown eyes fringed with the long lashes that boys were always blessed with and girls had to use mascara to achieve. He was cute, in a dopey sort of way. But 'dopey' was the last word one would ever use to describe Wes Crusher. He was easily the most intelligent eighteen-year-old aboard the Enterprise, if not in a large part of Starfleet. Even so, he was not calculating. Everything he did was performed as if by instinct. Even genius inventions seemed to come from him with unassuming impetuosity, but immediately followed by a self-indulgent twinge of smugness and pride. He had a sweet, innocent way of doing things, nothing like all the other guys his age. He was as artless with women as one who had never dated before, much to Wesley's chagrin. But that's what made him seem so harmless, and made it easier for young women to feel more at ease around him. This only served more to baffle the poor ensign.
"Hi, Karen," Wesley managed.
"Hi," she sighed.
His brow furrowed. He'd been responding to her greeting. "We covered that," he said, already uncomfortable.
"Oh," she giggled. "Right."
He stared at her. She looked down, blushing a little. Wes bit his lip and glanced around the room, casting about for some escape from the silence. Karen crossed her legs. Then uncrossed them again. Feeling uncomfortable both with her legs crossed and with them uncrossed, she opted for crossing just her ankles.
"Um, so how's school?" Wes ventured.
"Okay," she blushed again.
Wes nodded. Karen looked down at her hands folded on the tabletop, then removed them from the table and folded them in her lap, not raising her eyes. Wes sighed and rolled his eyes. This was almost as boring as a shuttle trip with Worf.
Guinan came to the rescue.
"Hi, Guinan!" Wesley was thrilled to see someone with whom he could have an actual conversation. "Been busy around here, huh?"
"Nothing I can't handle," Guinan decided to allow him those few minutes of conversation before asking for his order and leaving. Wes appreciated this immensely.
"It looks like the entire bridge crew, most of Engineering and half of Security are down here. I guess we all have the same mode of relaxation."
"Tell me about it. The holodecks are all full, an so's my bar. Everyone has been a little on edge about this new development," Guinan said ambiguously, leaving a topic of conversation for the two. "A clear ether?"
"Yeah," Wes was not amazed by her knowing what he wanted. A clear ether was his usual. "Thanks."
Guinan tilted her head toward Karen. "Something for you?"
"Um, the same?"
Wes rolled his eyes. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, he reminded himself, which didn't seem to make it any less annoying.
"You got it." Then Guinan was off. Wes watched her until she was all but lost in the tiny crowd filling Ten-Fore. He was sorry to see her go, not just because she was distracting him from Karen, but because he truly enjoyed talking to Guinan. She was one of the few adults on the ship who didn't patronize him. And she never gave advice, but more like lead him to advice. She would turn the conversation until Wes came up with the answers to his questions and dilemmas on his own. Wes found that a lot easier than talking to Deanna Troi about his problems. Besides, Deanna always looked so concerned, as if he were in severe trouble, or as if he were deeply disturbed. Talking to Guinan was more like talking casually to a friend. In fact, that's exactly what it was.
"What's happening on the bridge?" Karen asked, eyes huge and enthralled.
"Well, I shouldn't really discuss it. We just have to delay our current mission for a little while."
"What for?"
"I'm not really supposed to talk about it," Wesley wished Guinan had brought up a less confidential topic of conversation.
"Is it about that distress call? The one that's the same as a Federation one but isn't a Federation one?"
"So much for secrets on a starship..." Wesley muttered.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Are we in any danger?"
"No, no," Wesley comforted, folding his arms on the tabletop, "Not at all. Don't worry about it."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure," he smiled.
"Wesley? Do-- do you have a girlfriend?"
"Uhh..."
* * *
Chief of Engineering Geordi LaForge entered Ten-Forward and headed straight for the captain's table. The captain was sitting over by the windows, so Geordi had to pass Wesley and Karen to get to the captain. Wesley had been looking around the room, frantically fishing for an escape, when he saw Geordi come in.
"Geordi!"
Geordi halted in his tracks, a little surprised, then relaxed. "Hey, Wes," he said cheerfully, then started towards the window tables again.
"Wait!" Wesley cried, a little too desperately. Then he calmed his voice, "Wh-What's going on down in Engineering?"
Geordi shrugged. "The usual. See you later, Wes."
"Geordi!" Wesley was not letting him get away that easily, "Don't you need any help down there? I mean, I'm not on duty right now, and I'm free for a little while, so--"
"I appreciate the offer, Wes, but there's really nothing extra to do. But, thanks. I won't forget it next time I have to run diagnostics."
With that, he was gone.
Defeated, Wesley turned back with a half-hearted smile to the starry- eyed girl across the table from him. Now what?
* * *
Geordi continued towards the captain's table shaking his head. Wes sure was acting weird just then, he thought. Then it occurred to him.
Geordi tried to stifle a laugh. Now he wished he'd known what Wes was doing while he was talking to him. A situation like that has a lot of potential for humor.
"Geordi," Captain Picard smiled. "How is everything down in Engineering?"
"Running smoothly, captain, although you're the second person to ask me that in less than a minute. The more people ask me if everything's okay, the sooner a problem comes up."
"Then we won't ask anymore," Riker grinned. "Have a seat, Mr. LaForge."
Geordi turned to pull a chair over to the end of the table.
Geordi LaForge was fairly young to be Chief Engineer. Already a young lieutenant when he was assigned to the Enterprise, he had advanced very quickly through the ranks to Chief of Engineering.
Geordi was born blind and wore a silver prosthetic device called a VISOR over his eyes to help him "see". He couldn't see what Humans saw, like colors and dimensions, but he saw electromagnetic patterns, outlines, X-rays, areas of heat and cold, he could even sense a subtle change in a person's facial expression better than sighted people could because of the detection of heat. He could tell the chemical makeup of an object by looking at it. His VISOR-aided sight was far superior to any Human sight. But he'd had to train himself to see as he does, and there was an ever- present dull ache he dealt with to pay for it.
Geordi was one of the most cheerful people on the Enterprise despite his frustration over his blindness and his constant pain from the device he wore. In fact, no one knew he had any pain whatsoever until, in a moment of exasperation (feeling the effects of Romulans having tampered with his VISOR), he vented to Beverly Crusher in sickbay about how no one appreciated what he goes through and he is often taken for granted. Geordi had later apologized for his outburst, insisting that he had not meant a word of it, but the evidence of truth in his professions at the time remained with Beverly for a long time afterwards.
One of Geordi's closest friends, surprisingly enough, was the android, Lieutenant Commander Data. Laborious Federation deliberations determined that Data was "alive" by all definition of the word, even though the android had no capacity for emotion. Geordi felt himself drawn toward Data because of their similarities. They privately called themselves "The Perceivers" because of their different and unique views of life, caused by their differences from fully biological beings. Additionally, the part of Geordi that was mechanical made him feel somewhat similar to Data, who was all mechanical.
Although Geordi had his favorites, there were very few people aboard who could not call him a friend.
Geordi slid into the chair he had pulled up to the end of the square table for four against the window wall. He was not there to report anything in particular, but now he had a mission of mercy for anyone who could oblige.
"I think our friend Wes could use some help," Geordi said with a jerk of his head in the young ensign's direction, "if anyone can think up a reason for him to leave quickly and quietly."
All four officers looked over at once, then back at Geordi.
Picard's jaw muscles tightened. He was staying out of this one.
"I think that's my job," Beverly sighed.
"Beverly," Deanna stopped her friend with a hand on her arm. "Do you really think he wants his mother to go over there and rescue him? We must be sensitive to the delicate ego of a teenage boy," she smirked. "I'll go."
"Would someone explain to me what the hell is going on?" Riker asked in mild frustration, glancing back and forth at the two women who had both risen from their seats but had made no move towards Wesley yet.
"Wes has a persistent admirer," Geordi smiled. "He practically begged me for something to do in Engineering, but I didn't figure out what was going on until it was too late."
"Well, then. I think I can handle this one," Riker grinned. "This is my area, anyway."
Riker stood, straightened the top of his uniform and strode over to Wesley's table, looking tall, intimidating, tall, commanding, and pretty damned tall.
"I think he would have been better off with you," Deanna smirked as Beverly sank back into her seat. Picard lifted an eyebrow.
* * *
"Mister Crusher," Riker addressed him. Wesley stood, his height stopping just short of Will's. Wes grabbed the waistband of his new red and black command uniform top and attempted an imitation of the crisp, sharp tug the captain had perfected, succeeding only in looking like he was trying to squirm through the neckhole. Riker tried not to laugh.
"Yes, sir?"
"I'm glad I found you here, ensign. I need you to work on something. Are you busy now?" Wesley breathed in, formed his mouth to say "Well...", and started to gesture towards Karen, but Riker interrupted him before he could make a sound. "This is important, ensign."
Wes breathed out and dropped his hand. Riker, somehow, had figured out that Wes wanted out of here, and he was going to help him. Since when does an important assignment wait until you bump into each other in a bar, rather than using communicators? Now all Wes had to do was play along.
"No, I'm free, sir."
Karen watched all this in awe. She, a mere civilian, was watching two Starfleet officers in action. Wesley's so cute when he's being given orders, she gazed at him.
Riker figured this girl knew nearly nothing of starship operation, so he used some fake terminology to clue Wes in that he didn't want the ensign to actually go do what he was about to tell him to do. But he got a bit carried away with it, taken in by his own cleverness. "I'm going to have to run a check on the warp inducers first thing tomorrow."
Warp inducers?, Wesley thought, This is definitely going to be good.
"I need you to check the phase containment nacelles and compare the output ratio to the average trajectory of the matter/anti-matter converters."
A trajectory for matter/anti-matter converters! And just where would you like our warp core launched to, sir? Wes bit down on the insides of his cheeks in an attempt not to burst out laughing.
"Then cross-power the warp engines with the aft phaser array power source to keep from burning out the life support systems in Main Engineering."
Would that be so we can launch breathable-air probes at warp nine, sir?
"Be careful around the configurations for the transporter memory banks or we'll lose the patterns for every person on this ship."
Wes pictured Worf materializing on a transporter pad with Deanna's head on his shoulders and the ensign almost lost it altogether.
"I need that done by tonight, ensign. Think you can handle it?"
Wes couldn't take much more of this. "Aye, sir," he managed to say with very little quaver in his voice.
Riker nodded once and turned away. As soon as neither Wesley nor Karen could see his face, the First Officer broke into a wide grin, biting his bottom lip to suppress his laughter.
Wesley was not feeling particularly guilty about leaving Karen unattended. The girl was thirteen years old and needed no babysitter. Billy had just dumped Karen on Wes because he knew it would annoy Wes and thrill Karen. She'd been living on this starship for almost five months, so she didn't need a tour guide, either. And even if she did, Wesley certainly wasn't itching to give her the grand tour. He was sure Data would be a better, if more boring, choice for that.
"I guess I'd better get started," Wesley said as he looked down at an awed Karen Nolan.
"Wow," she breathed, "you're the smartest person in the whole universe!"
"Uh... right," Wes turned and strode out of Ten-Fore with obvious relief. Obvious, that is, to everyone but poor Karen Nolan.
* * *
"Mission accomplished," Riker slid back into his seat with a satisfied grin.
"What did you do?" Deanna asked.
"Used some techno-babble," Riker volunteered no more than that.
"Oh, look," Deanna gazed sympathetically over at the table (and the girl) Wesley Crusher had just abandoned. "She's all alone now. I'll go and talk to her," she resolved. "She's definitely got a terrible crush on Wes, and that can be just as embarrassing for the crush-ee as it is for the crusher."
Riker made a sickened face.
Doctor Crusher scowled. "Oh, that's a pun, isn't it?" Troi smiled. "Well crafted," Beverly bit off sarcastically.
Troi glided over to Karen's table.
Captain's Log, Stardate 44771.5: The Enterprise has received a distress signal from an unidentified ship in Sector 437. The signal was a computer-generated distress call, conforming to Starfleet regulation, although we have not yet been able to make any connection between this signal and any commissioned Federation ship, outpost or colony. However, the call specifically requested the aid of the Enterprise. There are four Federation starships slightly closer to the given coordinates: the starships Hood, Venture, Cavalier and Geneseo. These starships have been alerted by Admiral Thelasli in case of an emergency. At maximum warp, it will take us four days to reach the coordinates. For the endangered ship to be so selective about which Federation starship aids it, it mustn't be in very immediate danger.
Guinan scanned the Ten-Forward room, considering which table to approach first. It seemed that every bridge crew member in the room was tense and in dire need of some mode of relaxation. From Captain Jean-Luc Picard right down to Ensign Wesley Crusher, everyone was here, their favorite haunt largely due to Guinan's presence. The Listener knew this, but she was distinctly good at being modest. She was wise beyond her years, which were not as few as one would think. She appeared to be a relatively young Human woman, but she was in fact centuries old, and not at all Human. She was the most gentle, soft-spoken, wise woman Picard had ever had the pleasure of knowing. Upon her unbidden word, Picard would set the Enterprise on self-destruct.
Guinan decided that the senior officers' table would be a good place to start, and moved over to the table where Captain Picard sat with Commander William T. Riker, Doctor Beverly Crusher and Counselor Deanna Troi.
"Hello, captain. Commander. Doctor. Counselor." Guinan nodded and smiled at each, "What can I get for you?"
"Tea, Earl Grey, hot," the captain said absently. He was not looking at her. His chin was resting on his fist and he was staring out the tall observation windows into the starfield as it slowly drifted by, obviously worrying about their most current mission and the strange distress signal. His sentence had been a perfect imitation of what you would tell a food replicating unit if you wanted it to prepare Earl Grey tea for you.
"I feel like your replicator, Jean-Luc," Guinan smiled gently. The captain allowed very few people, Starfleet or otherwise, to call him Jean- Luc. On the Enterprise, it was only those people currently at his table. And even his senior officers only did so in private. No one else would dare.
The captain looked up at Guinan, mildly startled by his own episode of absence. For a brief second, Picard was mesmerized by Guinan's calming visage. Her smile began on her lips but spread to her dark-complected face, making her perfect skin glow with a warmth like the embers of a fire. Her deep brown eyes shone with an almost maternal comfort. Long black braids of thick hair were tucked back under a large dusty-purple colored hat with a flat top that matched her shapeless dress. How someone could appear so non-threatening and yet so powerful all at once was something the captain admired greatly, yet could not achieve, could barely comprehend.
Picard dragged himself from his reverie and apologized. But of course, Guinan had not really been offended.
"I'd like a Vulcan Sunrise," Deanna mused, lacing her slender fingers beneath the point of her chin. Beverly lifted her head.
"Ooh, that sounds good. I'll have one of those too."
"Coffee, black," Riker winked at Guinan. She nodded and walked away. Guinan never wrote anything down. She had never needed to. She never confused things or forgot what someone wanted. Often, she didn't even have to ask what someone wanted; she just knew.
Picard breathed deeply. Everyone on his ship was able to draw strength from him, and he would have it no other way. But he couldn't help being grateful that there was someone somewhere on his ship from whom he could draw strength.
"Captain, this distress signal worries me," Deanna scrunched up here eyebrows. "It was very unusual. Why would a ship request aid expressly from the Enterprise when we are so far away? And why not even identify itself?"
Picard raised his eyebrows and frowned, in lieu of shrugging his shoulders.
Riker answered, "Evidently they want Starfleet's best. It must be very important to them, but not very urgent."
"Yes, but that does not explain why they did not identify themselves," Picard reminded him. "If they have the time to wait four days for us to get there, why did they not have the time to tell us what is happening? I can't imagine why they wouldn't have thought of that. They must know it would only help us in locating them. Or in being prepared to aid them. Or any number of things."
Riker nodded. "The coordinates are far from the Neutral Zone, and equally far from Cardassian Space or Borg Space. We can probably rule out some kind of trick."
"I'm not ruling out anything yet, Number One."
"Do you suppose it might be a Federation Outpost?" Deanna asked. "Outside of the Federation, I've never seen a distress signal pattern anything like that."
"I've never seen anything like it either," Riker agreed, "but we have no Outpost anywhere near there. Not even in neighboring sectors, we've checked."
Guinan subtly placed drinks in front of their distracted owners without drawing notice. Riker instinctively gripped the handle of his coffee mug.
Beverly sighed in frustration. "I think you've all forgotten the possibility that it's a real, honest-to-God distress call. Yes, it makes no sense that they requested a starship so far away. Yes, it's strange that they didn't even identify themselves. There could be perfectly reasonable explanations for all of these things that they didn't have time to give over a repeating, recorded, automated distress signal. So rather than worrying about what sort of trap it might be, we should be prepared to deal with a real situation."
"I agree," Picard mediated. "We cannot rule out the most likely possibility of this being a legitimate situation of distress. But we also cannot rule out the possibility of threat. We shall still approach this with caution."
End of discussion.
* * *
"Hey, Crusher!" called Acting Ensign Billy Nolan from across Ten- Forward. Beverly's son cringed in his chair at the table he was occupying alone. Without even looking up, Ensign Wesley Crusher knew who was calling him, and he did not want to see him. Billy strode across the lounge with a girl at his side. Wesley recognized the girl as Billy's cousin Karen. Great.
"Hiiii Wesleeeeeyy..." Karen breathed in a sing-songy voice and with a dreamy expression on her face. It was all Wesley could do to keep from groaning. This girl was thirteen, five years younger than Wes, and had one doozy of a crush on him.
"Crusher, do me a favor, would ya?" Nolan plopped Karen down in the chair across from Wesley, who had been enjoying sitting alone for a few moments. "Keep an eye on her while I go for my defense class? Thanks!" And before Wesley could answer that he had other things to do (and think up what they were), Nolan was out the door. Wesley looked at the girl sitting across from him and half-smiled with defeat. She was not a bad-looking girl, she was cute. And too young. And annoying. Not that she meant to be, she was just always there whenever Wes turned around. And grinning at him. How dare she.
Karen gazed at Wesley. It wasn't difficult to locate the causes of her infatuation. He'd been something of a legend among the younger residents of the Enterprise - their occasional hero. But beyond that, he was tall and slender and attractive, with dark brown hair and huge brown eyes fringed with the long lashes that boys were always blessed with and girls had to use mascara to achieve. He was cute, in a dopey sort of way. But 'dopey' was the last word one would ever use to describe Wes Crusher. He was easily the most intelligent eighteen-year-old aboard the Enterprise, if not in a large part of Starfleet. Even so, he was not calculating. Everything he did was performed as if by instinct. Even genius inventions seemed to come from him with unassuming impetuosity, but immediately followed by a self-indulgent twinge of smugness and pride. He had a sweet, innocent way of doing things, nothing like all the other guys his age. He was as artless with women as one who had never dated before, much to Wesley's chagrin. But that's what made him seem so harmless, and made it easier for young women to feel more at ease around him. This only served more to baffle the poor ensign.
"Hi, Karen," Wesley managed.
"Hi," she sighed.
His brow furrowed. He'd been responding to her greeting. "We covered that," he said, already uncomfortable.
"Oh," she giggled. "Right."
He stared at her. She looked down, blushing a little. Wes bit his lip and glanced around the room, casting about for some escape from the silence. Karen crossed her legs. Then uncrossed them again. Feeling uncomfortable both with her legs crossed and with them uncrossed, she opted for crossing just her ankles.
"Um, so how's school?" Wes ventured.
"Okay," she blushed again.
Wes nodded. Karen looked down at her hands folded on the tabletop, then removed them from the table and folded them in her lap, not raising her eyes. Wes sighed and rolled his eyes. This was almost as boring as a shuttle trip with Worf.
Guinan came to the rescue.
"Hi, Guinan!" Wesley was thrilled to see someone with whom he could have an actual conversation. "Been busy around here, huh?"
"Nothing I can't handle," Guinan decided to allow him those few minutes of conversation before asking for his order and leaving. Wes appreciated this immensely.
"It looks like the entire bridge crew, most of Engineering and half of Security are down here. I guess we all have the same mode of relaxation."
"Tell me about it. The holodecks are all full, an so's my bar. Everyone has been a little on edge about this new development," Guinan said ambiguously, leaving a topic of conversation for the two. "A clear ether?"
"Yeah," Wes was not amazed by her knowing what he wanted. A clear ether was his usual. "Thanks."
Guinan tilted her head toward Karen. "Something for you?"
"Um, the same?"
Wes rolled his eyes. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, he reminded himself, which didn't seem to make it any less annoying.
"You got it." Then Guinan was off. Wes watched her until she was all but lost in the tiny crowd filling Ten-Fore. He was sorry to see her go, not just because she was distracting him from Karen, but because he truly enjoyed talking to Guinan. She was one of the few adults on the ship who didn't patronize him. And she never gave advice, but more like lead him to advice. She would turn the conversation until Wes came up with the answers to his questions and dilemmas on his own. Wes found that a lot easier than talking to Deanna Troi about his problems. Besides, Deanna always looked so concerned, as if he were in severe trouble, or as if he were deeply disturbed. Talking to Guinan was more like talking casually to a friend. In fact, that's exactly what it was.
"What's happening on the bridge?" Karen asked, eyes huge and enthralled.
"Well, I shouldn't really discuss it. We just have to delay our current mission for a little while."
"What for?"
"I'm not really supposed to talk about it," Wesley wished Guinan had brought up a less confidential topic of conversation.
"Is it about that distress call? The one that's the same as a Federation one but isn't a Federation one?"
"So much for secrets on a starship..." Wesley muttered.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Are we in any danger?"
"No, no," Wesley comforted, folding his arms on the tabletop, "Not at all. Don't worry about it."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure," he smiled.
"Wesley? Do-- do you have a girlfriend?"
"Uhh..."
* * *
Chief of Engineering Geordi LaForge entered Ten-Forward and headed straight for the captain's table. The captain was sitting over by the windows, so Geordi had to pass Wesley and Karen to get to the captain. Wesley had been looking around the room, frantically fishing for an escape, when he saw Geordi come in.
"Geordi!"
Geordi halted in his tracks, a little surprised, then relaxed. "Hey, Wes," he said cheerfully, then started towards the window tables again.
"Wait!" Wesley cried, a little too desperately. Then he calmed his voice, "Wh-What's going on down in Engineering?"
Geordi shrugged. "The usual. See you later, Wes."
"Geordi!" Wesley was not letting him get away that easily, "Don't you need any help down there? I mean, I'm not on duty right now, and I'm free for a little while, so--"
"I appreciate the offer, Wes, but there's really nothing extra to do. But, thanks. I won't forget it next time I have to run diagnostics."
With that, he was gone.
Defeated, Wesley turned back with a half-hearted smile to the starry- eyed girl across the table from him. Now what?
* * *
Geordi continued towards the captain's table shaking his head. Wes sure was acting weird just then, he thought. Then it occurred to him.
Geordi tried to stifle a laugh. Now he wished he'd known what Wes was doing while he was talking to him. A situation like that has a lot of potential for humor.
"Geordi," Captain Picard smiled. "How is everything down in Engineering?"
"Running smoothly, captain, although you're the second person to ask me that in less than a minute. The more people ask me if everything's okay, the sooner a problem comes up."
"Then we won't ask anymore," Riker grinned. "Have a seat, Mr. LaForge."
Geordi turned to pull a chair over to the end of the table.
Geordi LaForge was fairly young to be Chief Engineer. Already a young lieutenant when he was assigned to the Enterprise, he had advanced very quickly through the ranks to Chief of Engineering.
Geordi was born blind and wore a silver prosthetic device called a VISOR over his eyes to help him "see". He couldn't see what Humans saw, like colors and dimensions, but he saw electromagnetic patterns, outlines, X-rays, areas of heat and cold, he could even sense a subtle change in a person's facial expression better than sighted people could because of the detection of heat. He could tell the chemical makeup of an object by looking at it. His VISOR-aided sight was far superior to any Human sight. But he'd had to train himself to see as he does, and there was an ever- present dull ache he dealt with to pay for it.
Geordi was one of the most cheerful people on the Enterprise despite his frustration over his blindness and his constant pain from the device he wore. In fact, no one knew he had any pain whatsoever until, in a moment of exasperation (feeling the effects of Romulans having tampered with his VISOR), he vented to Beverly Crusher in sickbay about how no one appreciated what he goes through and he is often taken for granted. Geordi had later apologized for his outburst, insisting that he had not meant a word of it, but the evidence of truth in his professions at the time remained with Beverly for a long time afterwards.
One of Geordi's closest friends, surprisingly enough, was the android, Lieutenant Commander Data. Laborious Federation deliberations determined that Data was "alive" by all definition of the word, even though the android had no capacity for emotion. Geordi felt himself drawn toward Data because of their similarities. They privately called themselves "The Perceivers" because of their different and unique views of life, caused by their differences from fully biological beings. Additionally, the part of Geordi that was mechanical made him feel somewhat similar to Data, who was all mechanical.
Although Geordi had his favorites, there were very few people aboard who could not call him a friend.
Geordi slid into the chair he had pulled up to the end of the square table for four against the window wall. He was not there to report anything in particular, but now he had a mission of mercy for anyone who could oblige.
"I think our friend Wes could use some help," Geordi said with a jerk of his head in the young ensign's direction, "if anyone can think up a reason for him to leave quickly and quietly."
All four officers looked over at once, then back at Geordi.
Picard's jaw muscles tightened. He was staying out of this one.
"I think that's my job," Beverly sighed.
"Beverly," Deanna stopped her friend with a hand on her arm. "Do you really think he wants his mother to go over there and rescue him? We must be sensitive to the delicate ego of a teenage boy," she smirked. "I'll go."
"Would someone explain to me what the hell is going on?" Riker asked in mild frustration, glancing back and forth at the two women who had both risen from their seats but had made no move towards Wesley yet.
"Wes has a persistent admirer," Geordi smiled. "He practically begged me for something to do in Engineering, but I didn't figure out what was going on until it was too late."
"Well, then. I think I can handle this one," Riker grinned. "This is my area, anyway."
Riker stood, straightened the top of his uniform and strode over to Wesley's table, looking tall, intimidating, tall, commanding, and pretty damned tall.
"I think he would have been better off with you," Deanna smirked as Beverly sank back into her seat. Picard lifted an eyebrow.
* * *
"Mister Crusher," Riker addressed him. Wesley stood, his height stopping just short of Will's. Wes grabbed the waistband of his new red and black command uniform top and attempted an imitation of the crisp, sharp tug the captain had perfected, succeeding only in looking like he was trying to squirm through the neckhole. Riker tried not to laugh.
"Yes, sir?"
"I'm glad I found you here, ensign. I need you to work on something. Are you busy now?" Wesley breathed in, formed his mouth to say "Well...", and started to gesture towards Karen, but Riker interrupted him before he could make a sound. "This is important, ensign."
Wes breathed out and dropped his hand. Riker, somehow, had figured out that Wes wanted out of here, and he was going to help him. Since when does an important assignment wait until you bump into each other in a bar, rather than using communicators? Now all Wes had to do was play along.
"No, I'm free, sir."
Karen watched all this in awe. She, a mere civilian, was watching two Starfleet officers in action. Wesley's so cute when he's being given orders, she gazed at him.
Riker figured this girl knew nearly nothing of starship operation, so he used some fake terminology to clue Wes in that he didn't want the ensign to actually go do what he was about to tell him to do. But he got a bit carried away with it, taken in by his own cleverness. "I'm going to have to run a check on the warp inducers first thing tomorrow."
Warp inducers?, Wesley thought, This is definitely going to be good.
"I need you to check the phase containment nacelles and compare the output ratio to the average trajectory of the matter/anti-matter converters."
A trajectory for matter/anti-matter converters! And just where would you like our warp core launched to, sir? Wes bit down on the insides of his cheeks in an attempt not to burst out laughing.
"Then cross-power the warp engines with the aft phaser array power source to keep from burning out the life support systems in Main Engineering."
Would that be so we can launch breathable-air probes at warp nine, sir?
"Be careful around the configurations for the transporter memory banks or we'll lose the patterns for every person on this ship."
Wes pictured Worf materializing on a transporter pad with Deanna's head on his shoulders and the ensign almost lost it altogether.
"I need that done by tonight, ensign. Think you can handle it?"
Wes couldn't take much more of this. "Aye, sir," he managed to say with very little quaver in his voice.
Riker nodded once and turned away. As soon as neither Wesley nor Karen could see his face, the First Officer broke into a wide grin, biting his bottom lip to suppress his laughter.
Wesley was not feeling particularly guilty about leaving Karen unattended. The girl was thirteen years old and needed no babysitter. Billy had just dumped Karen on Wes because he knew it would annoy Wes and thrill Karen. She'd been living on this starship for almost five months, so she didn't need a tour guide, either. And even if she did, Wesley certainly wasn't itching to give her the grand tour. He was sure Data would be a better, if more boring, choice for that.
"I guess I'd better get started," Wesley said as he looked down at an awed Karen Nolan.
"Wow," she breathed, "you're the smartest person in the whole universe!"
"Uh... right," Wes turned and strode out of Ten-Fore with obvious relief. Obvious, that is, to everyone but poor Karen Nolan.
* * *
"Mission accomplished," Riker slid back into his seat with a satisfied grin.
"What did you do?" Deanna asked.
"Used some techno-babble," Riker volunteered no more than that.
"Oh, look," Deanna gazed sympathetically over at the table (and the girl) Wesley Crusher had just abandoned. "She's all alone now. I'll go and talk to her," she resolved. "She's definitely got a terrible crush on Wes, and that can be just as embarrassing for the crush-ee as it is for the crusher."
Riker made a sickened face.
Doctor Crusher scowled. "Oh, that's a pun, isn't it?" Troi smiled. "Well crafted," Beverly bit off sarcastically.
Troi glided over to Karen's table.