Chapter 18
"Sir," Worf announced as Captain Picard and Doctor Crusher emerged from the ready room, "I have raised the Neverland. They are responding."
"On screen," Picard stood before his captain's chair. Beverly slowly walked to the turbolift and was gone by the time Picard's order was obeyed. Deanna watched her go. She knew her friend was going to lie down for a while and think. Then, Deanna would go to her. When Beverly was ready to talk.
The nervous visage of Briyen appeared on the screen, looking as if he didn't quite know how to operate the communications link without Kaelha. And indeed, Kaelha wasn't there.
Picard collected himself for a second, then addressed the boy, "Commander Briyen, you have knowingly and willingly abducted two members of my crew. That is considered a hostile act, an act of war. Do you understand that?"
"Of course! I'm not stupid."
Riker bit his tongue so hard he tasted blood. His overwhelming urge to disagree with the boy could only be thwarted with physical pain.
"Go away!" the boy shouted. "You keep hailing us and chasing us. You lost, don't you get it? Now is when you go and lick your wounds and find another boy genius and girl Rambo to fill their places. Humans are replaceable, right? Go find a Hu-Man replacement!"
Somewhere in the back of Deanna's mind, it registered that "Hu-Man" was the Ferengi's derogatory pronunciation of the term for the race of beings from Earth, and also a Ferengi belief that Humans are replaceable. Strange.
"Commander, I will not 'go away' until my officers are returned to me," Picard's voice was rising dangerously near to a resonant bellow. "And if they are not returned immediately, I will have the whole of the Federation upon you in moments." Frightening children seemed to come easily to the captain.
The boy was silent for a moment. He had not expected to be attacked by the entire UFP. The Enterprise they could handle, but dozens of starships? He would have to talk to Kaelha, convince her to abandon this ridiculous and inconceivable plan, talk her into returning the Humans.
Picard was growing impatient with the boy's inaction. "Let me speak with your captain," he sighed.
Big mistake. Adolescents do not like it when adults "pull rank" on them.
Briyen glared hard at the screen. "No, Jean-Luc. You'll have to simmer a while longer. Briyen out."
"Damn it!" Riker hissed.
"There must be some way to find out what's been done with Mister Crusher and Mister Wallace," Picard stated, racking his own brain for some possible option they hadn't already considered and/or tried. "Mister Worf, keep trying to contact the Neverland and tell me as soon as you succeed."
Tight-lipped and holding his breath, Picard turned stiffly on his heel and marched back to his ready room. He hated children.
* * *
Robin struggled and twisted and yanked, but she was out-muscled. The Monster Boy was dragging her through corridors that looked strikingly like Federation Standard, and past doors that were labeled in a familiar, if antique, manner.
Monster Boy had been dragging her for a good four minutes (which is a long time when someone has a vice grip around one's upper arm) through hallways and down one turbolift so far. The ship was huge. He stopped abruptly in front of another turbolift, waiting for it to appear.
"Hey, uh... Dalev," Robin said, suddenly remembering his name, "where are we going?"
Dalev looked extremely inconvenienced and highly irritated, "To your quarters!"
Ooh, it talks. "No one can get past that, can they? Where are my quarters? Are they going to be near Wesley's? Why are you manhandling me? Am I free to roam the ship or are you going to lock me in? Or are my 'quarters' the brig?"
"Hmph! Too many questions," the boy narrowed his eyes, but did not look at her. He was head and shoulders taller than she. She stared at him in utter disbelief, then groaned.
"Wonderful. I get the dumbest kid on the ship as tour guide." Oops... shouldn't've said that...
The boy turned and hurled her against the opposite wall of the corridor. Her back slammed against the bulkhead and she lost her breath. She managed not to fall, charged back towards Dalev.
Technically, he started this by kidnapping me, she thought as she aimed a high roundhouse kick to his ear.
He blocked her kick easily. But she did not put her foot down after the first kick. She simply bent her knee all the way back so that her heel almost touched her hip, and snapped a second kick. He blocked again. Now he was sure she would have to put her foot down. He lowered his guard to block her next move, doubtless a punch so that she could regain her balance. He was wrong.
Robin snapped a third kick and connected the top of her foot to the side of his face with a resounding thump.
Dalev reeled. Robin lost her balance and stumbled backward, landing in a low punching crouch. She dropped to sweep his legs, but it was as if she had kicked a banister. His feet went nowhere. She had not dazed him enough to take him down.
Dalev aimed a snap kick at her chin, and connected. Her head whipped back and she hit the floor. It was almost possible to feel her fury in the air like heat as she spat blood onto the floor.
She was down only for a second. She remembered her defense class from just yesterday and decided to lure a punch. She took on the fighting position and opened her guard ever so slightly, careful not to make it look intentional. Dalev took the bait.
Middle punch, right hand, to her solar plexus. A perfect setup, but he never connected. She sidestepped, grabbed his arm, turned, and yanked him over her shoulder as hard as she could. The crown of his head rammed into the bulkhead and he crumpled to the floor. He groaned and stirred.
Robin dashed around a corner and kept running.
* * *
"How am I supposed to prepare to deal with you if I'm not allowed to see my Second?" Wes was practically frantic, trying to force logic into play in the argument. Either that or have her give up the lie. He wasn't succeeding either way.
"If I were to allow you to confer with your girlfriend, you would doubtless conspire your release and our defeat. That is unacceptable. We will conduct these negotiations according to the book, and I can assure you that conspiracy is not in the regulations."
"There's no conspiracy, and no rule that states associates must be kept apart!"
"And no rule that they must be kept together, either."
And Briyen chose that moment to rush in and gesture Kaelha over to him. She strode towards him and he whispered to her. Wes strained to overhear, and he could piece together what was happening from the few words he caught. The Enterprise had of course warned them that the abduction of Starfleet officers is an act of war.
Kaelha suddenly raised her right hand across her left shoulder, threatening to strike Briyen across the face. Briyen flinched ever so slightly and raised an arm to block her hand. She didn't hit him. She whispered something to him that Wes couldn't make out, but he could tell from her movements that she was reprimanding the boy. Then Briyen left and Kaelha turned her attention back to her 'diplomat'.
Wesley stood silent for a moment. "You have no intention of negotiating with us at all, do you? We are your captives, and you are escaping with us. I heard you order Helm to take us out of here. Slowly, but we're still leaving. How far are we from the Enterprise now, Captain Kaelha? Are they pursuing us? This whole thing is a facade, and I want to know why you even bothered."
Now it was Kaelha's turn to be left speechless. Young Humans were smarter than she had assumed.
"We need you here, ensign," Kaelha decided to confess, even if just a little. "No doubt you know your value to the Federation. You cannot claim to possess any less than exceptional abilities in certain areas, areas in which we could use some help."
"Part of Starfleet's Prime Directive is never to offer our knowledge or technology to races that have not achieved our level of development yet."
"Don't patronize me, boy, we're far beyond your level of technological development. It's not your technological know-how we need, in particular. I'm prepared to offer you any position you desire, and you have no need to go through any kind of academy to earn your place. You will be treated with the utmost respect and consideration, much better than you would ever have been treated by the Federation. And I am willing to consider any conditions you name."
Wesley was stunned. "I... I have no conditions... and... and nothing to offer you. I'm a Starfleet officer and--"
"Yes, yes, I'm tiring of you saying that. 'I'm a Starfleet officer, I'm a Starfleet officer'," Kaelha imitated him, "and with such bravado, puffing your chest out and holding your head up. Please. This will put an end to that: you have no choice. Frankly. You're not with Starfleet now, and I have no intention of returning you. We need you here."
"What for?" Wes narrowed his eyes and crinkled his nose in disgust.
"What is your area of expertise, Mister Crusher?"
"I don't have one. I haven't been through the Academy yet."
"Let me put it another way. What is it, ensign, that you do well?"
"Nothing," he cocked an eyebrow, daring her to disagree. She did.
"I hear you're a prodigy in Engineering, ensign, even beyond your own race's current knowledge. You wouldn't lie to me, would you, ensign?"
"Why would I lie to someone who's shown nothing but exemplary integrity towards me?" the sarcasm in Wes' voice was reiterated by the expression on his face.
Kaelha raised her hand to strike Wes as she had done to Briyen, but she didn't stop herself. Wes caught her wrist easily and clenched his fingers tightly around it.
"What is wrong with you?" Wes shook his head. Kaelha tugged at her wrist, but Wes didn't release it. "This won't forward negotiations, or have you just given up that joke entirely?"
Kaelha jerked her arm away from him angrily, but with a single breath, her anger was replaced with cool distance again.
"We return to the question of your position on my ship, ensign. You don't need to tell me where your talents lie, since in fact, you may not know yourself. I will tell you. You have the power to create temporal anomalies with your mind."
Wes stood silent for a moment, then burst out laughing. "A time machine right inside my head? Oh, that's rich! And to think my race has been working on a way to control time for centuries, and all along I had only to think about a rip in the space-time continuum! That's very funny."
Kaelha ignored the bout of mirth from her captive and waited for him to regain his composure. "You can, you have, and you will do so again. For me."
"Kaelha, even if I wanted to help you, which I certainly don't, I couldn't. I can't travel through time unaided. I can't create temporal anomalies, and certainly not stable, pre-determined destinations. I can't do anything with my mind except think. I'm sorry if you thought I could do this, but you've been misinformed. You kidnapped the wrong guy."
"I am not misinformed! You can, have, and shall again manipulate warp fields with your mind!"
"I have never manipulated warp--"
"What about when you saved your mother from your collapsing warp bubble?"
"That wasn't me, it was-- h-how did you--?"
"The Traveler. Yes. I know about him. It wasn't him who saved your mother, ensign, it was you. You pulled her time to yours and opened a doorway between the two times. And that is exactly what we need you to do: to create a gateway to the past."
"I can't! I didn't do it before! The Traveler did it! He just needed me there because he was weak and injured, and because I'm her son!"
"That's not the truth, ensign. The Traveler may have guided you, strengthened you, but it was you who did the work. We have someone here who may be able to fill that role for you. Wesley, we're not asking you to succeed, just to try."
Wes sighed. "Look. When my mother was trapped, the Traveler offered to help me save her life. We barely managed, and I almost passed out from the strain, even with someone there who can do what you need. I don't know who set up the stable bridge, if you can even call it 'stable'. I don't know if I can do it again, I don't know how to find where you want to go. All I was thinking about when I did it before was how to avoid being responsible for my mother's death. I wanted her back, and I got her back. That's it. If I tried this for you, you could be lost forever, and I would be powerless to save you."
"That is a risk we are all more than willing to take, ensign."
"I don't care!"
"Will you at least try?"
"No! Absolutely not! I've been brought here under false pretenses, held against my will, and now you want me to help you! When a ship wants the assistance of the Enterprise, they ask for it. If you return us now, Captain Picard would probably be able to--"
"Captain Picard is a fool and an ignoramus. All Humans are. I don't know what happened to you that you escaped that fate, but it is the only reason why we have not yet killed you and everyone aboard the Enterprise."
Wes took a moment to think about the far-reaching implications of that statement. The weight of over a thousand lives hung on every one of his actions. He should start being more careful.
"Well, I obviously can't assign you to Engineering, that would be the same as setting you free. For now, Briyen will take you to quarters until we figure out what to do with you. You will remain in quarters until we contact you."
If there was one thing Wes Crusher hated, it was being locked up. However, for now, it was better to just go along with them until he could formulate an escape plan. "I don't suppose I'll have a choice," Wes bit off the words.
"No, you won't." Kaelha tapped her communicator and summoned Briyen to the room again. Briyen was there in a moment, giving Kaelha a wide berth. She coldly instructed him to escort Wesley to quarters. Wes wondered why she felt it was necessary to guard him only with Briyen, an obviously smaller boy, when she had assigned a monstrously huge boy to guard Robin. She probably had assumed he wouldn't try to escape without Robin.
"How does Robin figure into this? What do you need her for?" Wes asked as Briyen waited for him to come quietly.
"Well, for strength, as an aid to you, for one," Kaelha smiled and gestured for Briyen to take Wesley. Briyen took Wes's arm and began to lead him to the doors. Wes complied, but still watched Kaelha over his shoulder. When Wes and Briyen were out the door, she continued.
"And in case you were difficult to convince," she grinned and the doors swooshed shut between them.
Wes halted outside the transporter room and stared hard at the doors. Great. I get myself kidnapped and bring along my girlfriend so they can torture her until I cooperate. Bring on the Academy Psych Test!
Sighing a futile sigh, he turned and followed Briyen down the corridor. Briyen hadn't stopped to wait for the Starfleet ensign to follow, so Wesley was trailing a bit behind. Wes was about seven inches taller than Briyen and almost four years older. There was something different about Briyen, something almost... well, Human. Kaelha certainly didn't act like any sixteen-year-old Human he knew! She was far too intelligent, conniving, malicious and mature. She had all the characteristics of an adult Klingon female, and all the appearance of a young Humanoid woman.
Wes wondered how much significance there was in Briyen's personality differences. He followed the boy in silence through the corridors for a while, then decided that he would talk to him. Maybe the careless Briyen would accidentally divulge useful information.
"Hey, Briyen."
The boy stopped and waited for Wes to catch up.
"What do you want?" Briyen then continued walking, looking ahead. His voice was a little resentful.
"Just wanted to talk," Wesley tried to sound injured by Briyen's cold tone. "Mind if I ask you a question?"
Briyen considered. "No. I don't mind."
"I would love to be second in command of the Enterprise. How did you get to be First Officer so young?"
Briyen thought for a long time. Without changing his stone facial expression or looking towards Wes, he answered, "Friendly with the captain."
Wes smiled at that. "Yeah, that would do it. Is it fun?" Wes was trying not to talk down to him, and the attempt was made harder by the fact that Wes physically had to talk downwards to the shorter young man next to him.
"Sort of," Briyen was talking more easily now, as if to an acquaintance. Wes had learned from experience that people considered him the trustworthy type, and he quickly gained confidences. "It's a really hard job, and I don't have any kind of training or anything."
No training? To be second in command of a starcruiser? Then what the hell does he do?
"Well, you learn by doing, right?"
"It's hard," Briyen repeated, trying to keep himself from betraying anything. Wes got the distinct impression that Briyen didn't really enjoy his job.
Wes proceeded carefully. "What do you like to do?"
"What do you like to do?" Briyen looked up at him for the first time, a sideward glance and the ghost of a smile tugging at one corner of his mouth.
Wes thought this was a strange question since the children apparently already knew what he liked to do, as well as a few other things about him. He decided to answer anyway. Besides, he was beginning to get a good feeling about Briyen -- but he had no idea why. "I like Engineering."
Briyen smiled and nodded, looking ahead again.
"Engineering's your thing, too?"
Briyen nodded again.
"Well, I guess I'll have to talk with you about it sometime. We could compare notes. And I could tell you how the Enterprise works."
Briyen smiled again. "I'd like that--" but he suddenly stopped talking and faced forward again, as if he just remembered that the young man walking beside him was his prisoner, and going out for coffee and conversation with his prisoner was probably not a good idea.
They reached Wesley's quarters. Wes noted that they had not taken any turbolifts. His quarters were on the same deck as the transporter rooms. That could be important information for rescue. If his ship was able to attempt rescue.
The doors hissed open upon Briyen's command and Wes stepped inside. He turned to say something pitiable about worrying about Robin, hopefully to get some hint of her whereabouts from Briyen, but the doors whooshed shut and he was alone in his room.
The room was small with just a bed, a nightstand with a lamp, a bathroom, a closet without doors (there went the idea of a closet ambush), and no windows. No replicator, either. Wes hoped they didn't leave him alone without food for too long, he was skinny enough as it was.
He was already bored. He sighed and flopped onto the bed, folding his arms under his head. The room was dimly lit, he assumed the lights were at one-half brilliance if that. He was exhausted from his very long day, and had nothing to do except wait for someone to come get him. What could it hurt if he rested a little? He couldn't replicate anything useful to his escape (he couldn't replicate anything at all), and now was not the opportune moment to attempt escape anyway. He couldn't get out of the room to find Robin, and he certainly couldn't access the computer. Besides, he was developing a severe headache.
"Lights down," he called to the computer, almost subconsciously. The lights went out completely. Completely. Wes forgot that there were no windows in this room, hence no starlight at all, and he was in utter blackness. "Lights at one-quarter," he remedied.
Then it registered. The computer was responding to his voice. Which meant that he was at least one step above prisoner status. He sat up.
He tried the lights at full. They complied. He left them there. Then he tried room temperature and other atmospheric conditions. The temperature went up and down, slowly but obediently, with a soft whispering sound of tempered air being piped into the room. The humidity and purity of the air responded accordingly. He could even select music to be played, and control the volume. All right. Enough fooling around.
"Computer, open doors."
"Unable to comply. Proper security code required. Enter security code."
Wes gritted his teeth. He should have just gone to sleep and ignored this "caged bird" feeling growing inside him. He had a frightening feeling that if they kept him locked in here too long he'd go mad and charge headlong into the doors. "Cancel."
Wes tried accessing Main Engineering. He tried accessing the computer's library. He tried asking it all sorts of questions about the children and the ship he was on.
"Unable to comply. Unable to comply. Unable to comply."
Wes gave up. He stood in the center of the room with his hands balled into fists. Then he collapsed onto the bed again, letting all his air out in an futile sigh. He'd never really been locked up before without an immediate danger to himself to keep his mind occupied. There had always been something pressing, even life-threatening, to solve at the time. He'd never been just... detained. Confined to quarters. One single minute felt like ten.
Soon, he no longer had to search for something to worry about to keep him on his toes. He was so worried about Robin that he could barely breathe. Wesley Crusher lay on the bed with his fingers laced behind his head, fear and dread paling his face. Where was Robin right now? What was his mother doing right now?
"Sir," Worf announced as Captain Picard and Doctor Crusher emerged from the ready room, "I have raised the Neverland. They are responding."
"On screen," Picard stood before his captain's chair. Beverly slowly walked to the turbolift and was gone by the time Picard's order was obeyed. Deanna watched her go. She knew her friend was going to lie down for a while and think. Then, Deanna would go to her. When Beverly was ready to talk.
The nervous visage of Briyen appeared on the screen, looking as if he didn't quite know how to operate the communications link without Kaelha. And indeed, Kaelha wasn't there.
Picard collected himself for a second, then addressed the boy, "Commander Briyen, you have knowingly and willingly abducted two members of my crew. That is considered a hostile act, an act of war. Do you understand that?"
"Of course! I'm not stupid."
Riker bit his tongue so hard he tasted blood. His overwhelming urge to disagree with the boy could only be thwarted with physical pain.
"Go away!" the boy shouted. "You keep hailing us and chasing us. You lost, don't you get it? Now is when you go and lick your wounds and find another boy genius and girl Rambo to fill their places. Humans are replaceable, right? Go find a Hu-Man replacement!"
Somewhere in the back of Deanna's mind, it registered that "Hu-Man" was the Ferengi's derogatory pronunciation of the term for the race of beings from Earth, and also a Ferengi belief that Humans are replaceable. Strange.
"Commander, I will not 'go away' until my officers are returned to me," Picard's voice was rising dangerously near to a resonant bellow. "And if they are not returned immediately, I will have the whole of the Federation upon you in moments." Frightening children seemed to come easily to the captain.
The boy was silent for a moment. He had not expected to be attacked by the entire UFP. The Enterprise they could handle, but dozens of starships? He would have to talk to Kaelha, convince her to abandon this ridiculous and inconceivable plan, talk her into returning the Humans.
Picard was growing impatient with the boy's inaction. "Let me speak with your captain," he sighed.
Big mistake. Adolescents do not like it when adults "pull rank" on them.
Briyen glared hard at the screen. "No, Jean-Luc. You'll have to simmer a while longer. Briyen out."
"Damn it!" Riker hissed.
"There must be some way to find out what's been done with Mister Crusher and Mister Wallace," Picard stated, racking his own brain for some possible option they hadn't already considered and/or tried. "Mister Worf, keep trying to contact the Neverland and tell me as soon as you succeed."
Tight-lipped and holding his breath, Picard turned stiffly on his heel and marched back to his ready room. He hated children.
* * *
Robin struggled and twisted and yanked, but she was out-muscled. The Monster Boy was dragging her through corridors that looked strikingly like Federation Standard, and past doors that were labeled in a familiar, if antique, manner.
Monster Boy had been dragging her for a good four minutes (which is a long time when someone has a vice grip around one's upper arm) through hallways and down one turbolift so far. The ship was huge. He stopped abruptly in front of another turbolift, waiting for it to appear.
"Hey, uh... Dalev," Robin said, suddenly remembering his name, "where are we going?"
Dalev looked extremely inconvenienced and highly irritated, "To your quarters!"
Ooh, it talks. "No one can get past that, can they? Where are my quarters? Are they going to be near Wesley's? Why are you manhandling me? Am I free to roam the ship or are you going to lock me in? Or are my 'quarters' the brig?"
"Hmph! Too many questions," the boy narrowed his eyes, but did not look at her. He was head and shoulders taller than she. She stared at him in utter disbelief, then groaned.
"Wonderful. I get the dumbest kid on the ship as tour guide." Oops... shouldn't've said that...
The boy turned and hurled her against the opposite wall of the corridor. Her back slammed against the bulkhead and she lost her breath. She managed not to fall, charged back towards Dalev.
Technically, he started this by kidnapping me, she thought as she aimed a high roundhouse kick to his ear.
He blocked her kick easily. But she did not put her foot down after the first kick. She simply bent her knee all the way back so that her heel almost touched her hip, and snapped a second kick. He blocked again. Now he was sure she would have to put her foot down. He lowered his guard to block her next move, doubtless a punch so that she could regain her balance. He was wrong.
Robin snapped a third kick and connected the top of her foot to the side of his face with a resounding thump.
Dalev reeled. Robin lost her balance and stumbled backward, landing in a low punching crouch. She dropped to sweep his legs, but it was as if she had kicked a banister. His feet went nowhere. She had not dazed him enough to take him down.
Dalev aimed a snap kick at her chin, and connected. Her head whipped back and she hit the floor. It was almost possible to feel her fury in the air like heat as she spat blood onto the floor.
She was down only for a second. She remembered her defense class from just yesterday and decided to lure a punch. She took on the fighting position and opened her guard ever so slightly, careful not to make it look intentional. Dalev took the bait.
Middle punch, right hand, to her solar plexus. A perfect setup, but he never connected. She sidestepped, grabbed his arm, turned, and yanked him over her shoulder as hard as she could. The crown of his head rammed into the bulkhead and he crumpled to the floor. He groaned and stirred.
Robin dashed around a corner and kept running.
* * *
"How am I supposed to prepare to deal with you if I'm not allowed to see my Second?" Wes was practically frantic, trying to force logic into play in the argument. Either that or have her give up the lie. He wasn't succeeding either way.
"If I were to allow you to confer with your girlfriend, you would doubtless conspire your release and our defeat. That is unacceptable. We will conduct these negotiations according to the book, and I can assure you that conspiracy is not in the regulations."
"There's no conspiracy, and no rule that states associates must be kept apart!"
"And no rule that they must be kept together, either."
And Briyen chose that moment to rush in and gesture Kaelha over to him. She strode towards him and he whispered to her. Wes strained to overhear, and he could piece together what was happening from the few words he caught. The Enterprise had of course warned them that the abduction of Starfleet officers is an act of war.
Kaelha suddenly raised her right hand across her left shoulder, threatening to strike Briyen across the face. Briyen flinched ever so slightly and raised an arm to block her hand. She didn't hit him. She whispered something to him that Wes couldn't make out, but he could tell from her movements that she was reprimanding the boy. Then Briyen left and Kaelha turned her attention back to her 'diplomat'.
Wesley stood silent for a moment. "You have no intention of negotiating with us at all, do you? We are your captives, and you are escaping with us. I heard you order Helm to take us out of here. Slowly, but we're still leaving. How far are we from the Enterprise now, Captain Kaelha? Are they pursuing us? This whole thing is a facade, and I want to know why you even bothered."
Now it was Kaelha's turn to be left speechless. Young Humans were smarter than she had assumed.
"We need you here, ensign," Kaelha decided to confess, even if just a little. "No doubt you know your value to the Federation. You cannot claim to possess any less than exceptional abilities in certain areas, areas in which we could use some help."
"Part of Starfleet's Prime Directive is never to offer our knowledge or technology to races that have not achieved our level of development yet."
"Don't patronize me, boy, we're far beyond your level of technological development. It's not your technological know-how we need, in particular. I'm prepared to offer you any position you desire, and you have no need to go through any kind of academy to earn your place. You will be treated with the utmost respect and consideration, much better than you would ever have been treated by the Federation. And I am willing to consider any conditions you name."
Wesley was stunned. "I... I have no conditions... and... and nothing to offer you. I'm a Starfleet officer and--"
"Yes, yes, I'm tiring of you saying that. 'I'm a Starfleet officer, I'm a Starfleet officer'," Kaelha imitated him, "and with such bravado, puffing your chest out and holding your head up. Please. This will put an end to that: you have no choice. Frankly. You're not with Starfleet now, and I have no intention of returning you. We need you here."
"What for?" Wes narrowed his eyes and crinkled his nose in disgust.
"What is your area of expertise, Mister Crusher?"
"I don't have one. I haven't been through the Academy yet."
"Let me put it another way. What is it, ensign, that you do well?"
"Nothing," he cocked an eyebrow, daring her to disagree. She did.
"I hear you're a prodigy in Engineering, ensign, even beyond your own race's current knowledge. You wouldn't lie to me, would you, ensign?"
"Why would I lie to someone who's shown nothing but exemplary integrity towards me?" the sarcasm in Wes' voice was reiterated by the expression on his face.
Kaelha raised her hand to strike Wes as she had done to Briyen, but she didn't stop herself. Wes caught her wrist easily and clenched his fingers tightly around it.
"What is wrong with you?" Wes shook his head. Kaelha tugged at her wrist, but Wes didn't release it. "This won't forward negotiations, or have you just given up that joke entirely?"
Kaelha jerked her arm away from him angrily, but with a single breath, her anger was replaced with cool distance again.
"We return to the question of your position on my ship, ensign. You don't need to tell me where your talents lie, since in fact, you may not know yourself. I will tell you. You have the power to create temporal anomalies with your mind."
Wes stood silent for a moment, then burst out laughing. "A time machine right inside my head? Oh, that's rich! And to think my race has been working on a way to control time for centuries, and all along I had only to think about a rip in the space-time continuum! That's very funny."
Kaelha ignored the bout of mirth from her captive and waited for him to regain his composure. "You can, you have, and you will do so again. For me."
"Kaelha, even if I wanted to help you, which I certainly don't, I couldn't. I can't travel through time unaided. I can't create temporal anomalies, and certainly not stable, pre-determined destinations. I can't do anything with my mind except think. I'm sorry if you thought I could do this, but you've been misinformed. You kidnapped the wrong guy."
"I am not misinformed! You can, have, and shall again manipulate warp fields with your mind!"
"I have never manipulated warp--"
"What about when you saved your mother from your collapsing warp bubble?"
"That wasn't me, it was-- h-how did you--?"
"The Traveler. Yes. I know about him. It wasn't him who saved your mother, ensign, it was you. You pulled her time to yours and opened a doorway between the two times. And that is exactly what we need you to do: to create a gateway to the past."
"I can't! I didn't do it before! The Traveler did it! He just needed me there because he was weak and injured, and because I'm her son!"
"That's not the truth, ensign. The Traveler may have guided you, strengthened you, but it was you who did the work. We have someone here who may be able to fill that role for you. Wesley, we're not asking you to succeed, just to try."
Wes sighed. "Look. When my mother was trapped, the Traveler offered to help me save her life. We barely managed, and I almost passed out from the strain, even with someone there who can do what you need. I don't know who set up the stable bridge, if you can even call it 'stable'. I don't know if I can do it again, I don't know how to find where you want to go. All I was thinking about when I did it before was how to avoid being responsible for my mother's death. I wanted her back, and I got her back. That's it. If I tried this for you, you could be lost forever, and I would be powerless to save you."
"That is a risk we are all more than willing to take, ensign."
"I don't care!"
"Will you at least try?"
"No! Absolutely not! I've been brought here under false pretenses, held against my will, and now you want me to help you! When a ship wants the assistance of the Enterprise, they ask for it. If you return us now, Captain Picard would probably be able to--"
"Captain Picard is a fool and an ignoramus. All Humans are. I don't know what happened to you that you escaped that fate, but it is the only reason why we have not yet killed you and everyone aboard the Enterprise."
Wes took a moment to think about the far-reaching implications of that statement. The weight of over a thousand lives hung on every one of his actions. He should start being more careful.
"Well, I obviously can't assign you to Engineering, that would be the same as setting you free. For now, Briyen will take you to quarters until we figure out what to do with you. You will remain in quarters until we contact you."
If there was one thing Wes Crusher hated, it was being locked up. However, for now, it was better to just go along with them until he could formulate an escape plan. "I don't suppose I'll have a choice," Wes bit off the words.
"No, you won't." Kaelha tapped her communicator and summoned Briyen to the room again. Briyen was there in a moment, giving Kaelha a wide berth. She coldly instructed him to escort Wesley to quarters. Wes wondered why she felt it was necessary to guard him only with Briyen, an obviously smaller boy, when she had assigned a monstrously huge boy to guard Robin. She probably had assumed he wouldn't try to escape without Robin.
"How does Robin figure into this? What do you need her for?" Wes asked as Briyen waited for him to come quietly.
"Well, for strength, as an aid to you, for one," Kaelha smiled and gestured for Briyen to take Wesley. Briyen took Wes's arm and began to lead him to the doors. Wes complied, but still watched Kaelha over his shoulder. When Wes and Briyen were out the door, she continued.
"And in case you were difficult to convince," she grinned and the doors swooshed shut between them.
Wes halted outside the transporter room and stared hard at the doors. Great. I get myself kidnapped and bring along my girlfriend so they can torture her until I cooperate. Bring on the Academy Psych Test!
Sighing a futile sigh, he turned and followed Briyen down the corridor. Briyen hadn't stopped to wait for the Starfleet ensign to follow, so Wesley was trailing a bit behind. Wes was about seven inches taller than Briyen and almost four years older. There was something different about Briyen, something almost... well, Human. Kaelha certainly didn't act like any sixteen-year-old Human he knew! She was far too intelligent, conniving, malicious and mature. She had all the characteristics of an adult Klingon female, and all the appearance of a young Humanoid woman.
Wes wondered how much significance there was in Briyen's personality differences. He followed the boy in silence through the corridors for a while, then decided that he would talk to him. Maybe the careless Briyen would accidentally divulge useful information.
"Hey, Briyen."
The boy stopped and waited for Wes to catch up.
"What do you want?" Briyen then continued walking, looking ahead. His voice was a little resentful.
"Just wanted to talk," Wesley tried to sound injured by Briyen's cold tone. "Mind if I ask you a question?"
Briyen considered. "No. I don't mind."
"I would love to be second in command of the Enterprise. How did you get to be First Officer so young?"
Briyen thought for a long time. Without changing his stone facial expression or looking towards Wes, he answered, "Friendly with the captain."
Wes smiled at that. "Yeah, that would do it. Is it fun?" Wes was trying not to talk down to him, and the attempt was made harder by the fact that Wes physically had to talk downwards to the shorter young man next to him.
"Sort of," Briyen was talking more easily now, as if to an acquaintance. Wes had learned from experience that people considered him the trustworthy type, and he quickly gained confidences. "It's a really hard job, and I don't have any kind of training or anything."
No training? To be second in command of a starcruiser? Then what the hell does he do?
"Well, you learn by doing, right?"
"It's hard," Briyen repeated, trying to keep himself from betraying anything. Wes got the distinct impression that Briyen didn't really enjoy his job.
Wes proceeded carefully. "What do you like to do?"
"What do you like to do?" Briyen looked up at him for the first time, a sideward glance and the ghost of a smile tugging at one corner of his mouth.
Wes thought this was a strange question since the children apparently already knew what he liked to do, as well as a few other things about him. He decided to answer anyway. Besides, he was beginning to get a good feeling about Briyen -- but he had no idea why. "I like Engineering."
Briyen smiled and nodded, looking ahead again.
"Engineering's your thing, too?"
Briyen nodded again.
"Well, I guess I'll have to talk with you about it sometime. We could compare notes. And I could tell you how the Enterprise works."
Briyen smiled again. "I'd like that--" but he suddenly stopped talking and faced forward again, as if he just remembered that the young man walking beside him was his prisoner, and going out for coffee and conversation with his prisoner was probably not a good idea.
They reached Wesley's quarters. Wes noted that they had not taken any turbolifts. His quarters were on the same deck as the transporter rooms. That could be important information for rescue. If his ship was able to attempt rescue.
The doors hissed open upon Briyen's command and Wes stepped inside. He turned to say something pitiable about worrying about Robin, hopefully to get some hint of her whereabouts from Briyen, but the doors whooshed shut and he was alone in his room.
The room was small with just a bed, a nightstand with a lamp, a bathroom, a closet without doors (there went the idea of a closet ambush), and no windows. No replicator, either. Wes hoped they didn't leave him alone without food for too long, he was skinny enough as it was.
He was already bored. He sighed and flopped onto the bed, folding his arms under his head. The room was dimly lit, he assumed the lights were at one-half brilliance if that. He was exhausted from his very long day, and had nothing to do except wait for someone to come get him. What could it hurt if he rested a little? He couldn't replicate anything useful to his escape (he couldn't replicate anything at all), and now was not the opportune moment to attempt escape anyway. He couldn't get out of the room to find Robin, and he certainly couldn't access the computer. Besides, he was developing a severe headache.
"Lights down," he called to the computer, almost subconsciously. The lights went out completely. Completely. Wes forgot that there were no windows in this room, hence no starlight at all, and he was in utter blackness. "Lights at one-quarter," he remedied.
Then it registered. The computer was responding to his voice. Which meant that he was at least one step above prisoner status. He sat up.
He tried the lights at full. They complied. He left them there. Then he tried room temperature and other atmospheric conditions. The temperature went up and down, slowly but obediently, with a soft whispering sound of tempered air being piped into the room. The humidity and purity of the air responded accordingly. He could even select music to be played, and control the volume. All right. Enough fooling around.
"Computer, open doors."
"Unable to comply. Proper security code required. Enter security code."
Wes gritted his teeth. He should have just gone to sleep and ignored this "caged bird" feeling growing inside him. He had a frightening feeling that if they kept him locked in here too long he'd go mad and charge headlong into the doors. "Cancel."
Wes tried accessing Main Engineering. He tried accessing the computer's library. He tried asking it all sorts of questions about the children and the ship he was on.
"Unable to comply. Unable to comply. Unable to comply."
Wes gave up. He stood in the center of the room with his hands balled into fists. Then he collapsed onto the bed again, letting all his air out in an futile sigh. He'd never really been locked up before without an immediate danger to himself to keep his mind occupied. There had always been something pressing, even life-threatening, to solve at the time. He'd never been just... detained. Confined to quarters. One single minute felt like ten.
Soon, he no longer had to search for something to worry about to keep him on his toes. He was so worried about Robin that he could barely breathe. Wesley Crusher lay on the bed with his fingers laced behind his head, fear and dread paling his face. Where was Robin right now? What was his mother doing right now?