Chapter 20
Robin couldn't hide forever. And she wasn't hiding, anyway. She was... lost, actually. She was lost somewhere in the Jefferies tubes on this gigantic ship. She had found a border of sorts, where the ship's construction changed dramatically. It was like phasing from a Federation ship to a Ferengi ship or something in a matter of inches. Weird.
She had seen no one for hours, almost six hours. She needed to find Wesley, but didn't know how. She had found Main Engineering, but there were people constantly in it, and she couldn't manage to get out past the grate without being seen. Yet.
She saw her opportunity. Two people turned around the corner. A third was behind the warp core. She had been loosening the grate for hours and now a strong breath would dislodge it. She could pull it out gently, quietly, and slip out of the tubes. She didn't really have a plan after that. If she could take out the three people presently in Engineering, she'd have control of the ship.
Well, she'd have control if she knew a little more about Engineering. She would do anything to borrow Wes's brain right about now.
* * *
Geordi was about to head up to the bridge. He was in his office off the matter/anti-matter reaction assembly. It was one of the few places Geordi could be both in his element and alone at the same time, since there was usually a handful of people milling around the rest of Main Engineering. Everyone who worked under Geordi knew not to disturb him with anything less than an emergency when he was in his office -- everyone except Wes, who knew he could go and talk to his friend and mentor anytime.
Geordi remembered not so long ago, when Riker, Worf and Wesley were in a shuttlecraft that was lost, and they were all presumed dead. There was even a funeral service in the holodeck. Picard had spoken about Riker, Deanna about Worf, and Geordi was the one to speak about Wesley. It seemed to Geordi that he had the hardest job, speaking about the death of a seventeen-year-old boy with his widowed mother sitting right there. He had told a story of Wes's thrill and fascination with simply taking apart and reassembling a tricorder. And Geordi was not much of a speaker when he wasn't in emotional pain. Fortunately, the service hadn't been necessary after all, and all three officers were safely back aboard the Enterprise just days after their own funerals.
Geordi didn't think he could bear going to Wesley's funeral a second time.
He sighed and rested his head in his hands, trying to will away some of the stress headache that was a constant in his life. But the pain suddenly became unbearably sharp.
He leaped up and cried out, his forehead crinkling in agony. Across his field of vision danced laser lights and fireworks. The room seemed to melt away, the floor above and the ceiling below. Walls contorted and the room appeared to be little more than a can of many colors of paint being stirred slowly. There seemed to be a rushing, roaring sound, like an ocean in a storm. Geordi felt the chair bump into the back of his legs, then floor came up to meet him and smashed into his shoulder. He lay flat on his back on the floor, arms out, almost gripping the floor for a sense of solidity. He reached for his communicator, "LaForge to Doctor Crusher!"
Nothing happened. There was nothing wrong with his VISOR or with his physiognomy, this was the creature.
But Tasha didn't look like this! She just looked like a person with hypothermia. This is agony!
"What do you want?!" Geordi was yelling over the roaring.
A very low voice seemed to rise from the roaring, as if the voice had been making the sound all along, and suddenly could form words from it. It spoke very slowly, and Geordi couldn't tell if he was hearing it in his ears or in his head.
"They are gone."
Geordi was beginning to feel nauseous. He gripped his VISOR and pulled. It wouldn't come off as easily as it should. He yanked and it came off -- and it hurt. But the spinning and roaring stopped, and he was in blind darkness. Geordi was kneeling on the floor gripping his VISOR in both hands. He took several deep breaths and listened carefully. Not a sound. He stood and felt around for his chair. It was toppled over behind his desk. He righted it and sat, trying to get himself back together enough to speak coherently when he called security. He tried to put his VISOR back on.
It flew out of his hands as if batted away from him. He heard it clatter to the floor. He tried to stand, but two incredibly powerful hands were on his shoulders.
"Who's there?" Geordi felt stupid asking who was there when the person was right in front of him and touching him. He didn't really consider himself blind until someone took his VISOR away.
"Go away," said a Human voice. "Your friends are dead. Now leave."
Geordi gripped the wrists holding him in his chair and tried to free himself. "Yeah, right. You're telling me the entire ship of children went to all the trouble of seeking out the Enterprise, threatening it, sending some ghost thing -- namely you -- in hopes that there'd be some kids aboard that they could pointlessly murder. Sorry, I'm not buying." Geordi tried again to stand up.
The creature lifted Geordi out of his chair and placed him in the center of the room. "You want to stand? Go ahead," the voice came from all directions, giving Geordi absolutely no indication of where the creature was, "but how will you fight me?"
"You want me to fight you?" Geordi seemed appalled.
"Yes."
"Blind?" Geordi still couldn't believe it. "That's hardly fair. What kind of fight would that be? You, an obviously more powerful being, fighting a blind guy without his VISOR. You really must be some kind of coward."
"I'm simply short on time, and I have a lot of officers to kill."
Geordi swallowed hard. He felt the air move near his head. He dropped to the floor and heard the swoosh of an incredibly powerful fist pass over his head.
Geez, who taught this guy to throw a punch, Commander Riker?!?
He rolled to the left and got up to his knees again, sending a backfist in the creature's direction. He caught the creature right in the backs of the knees and it staggered. Geordi remembered that when the creature picked him up, it had moved him around his desk, but Geordi was still facing the door. Geordi got up running, arms stretched out before him. His foot kicked something metal on the floor. His VISOR! He stooped to reach it, but the creature was clawing at his heels. Cursing, he let it lay, then ran out of his office.
Once in Main Engineering, Geordi suddenly felt dizzy again. But there would be people around to help him. He collapsed against the Master Systems Display and lowered himself to the floor.
Then he felt someone grip him by the arms. He started to react, to fight it off, but then the person spoke.
"Sir! Geordi! It's me, Billy Nolan. What happened? Where's your VISOR?"
"Billy," Geordi breathed. "The creature. It was back... in my office. It did something to my VISOR, made all crazy colors and noises. I took it off and the creature took it away. It's in my office."
"I'll get it," Billy started to get up.
"No, Billy!" Geordi held tight to the boy. "That creature might still be there. It said it had a lot of people to kill."
Billy struck his badge, "Security." It worked. Billy explained the situation and a security team promised to be there immediately.
Billy helped Geordi up and pulled his arm across his shoulders. "Can you walk with me, sir?" Geordi nodded. Then Billy touched his badge again. "Ensign Nolan to Doctor Crusher."
* * *
"Yes, Guinan?" Picard asked the open commlink from the bridge to the corridor in Deck 10, "Do you sense it again?"
"Just now. It started just a minute ago."
"Do you have any idea where it might be?"
"No, captain. I just have that feeling."
"Thank you, Guinan. We'll be on our guard. Picard out." The captain turned to Riker, Troi and Doctor Crusher, who were standing beside him in the center of the bridge. "First, we should locate any friends of Wesley's to see if that's who the creature could be with. We should probably start with either Geordi or Ensign N--"
"Ensign Nolan to Doctor Crusher."
"Yes, ensign?" Beverly glanced at Picard.
"I'm down here in Main Engineering with Geordi. The creature was just here and messed with his VISOR. Security's getting the VISOR. The creature threatened to kill a lot of people. I think he's okay now, but I'm helping him up to sickbay."
"I'll meet you in sickbay, ensign."
As Beverly rushed to the turbolift, Picard turned to Riker.
Riker took the eye contact as his order to follow the doctor and get Geordi's story. "I guess that was our answer, sir."
Picard gave a quick nod as his first officer jogged after the doctor.
* * *
Wesley was pacing around the tiny quarters in which he'd been locked. He had been trying for almost nine hours to figure a way to get out of at least the room, then off the Neverland altogether, with Robin in tow. He couldn't find a way. All access to the computer was locked off with security codes. Wesley had almost decided to start randomly picking security codes, but if the Enterprise had a security seal for just such attempts, then surely the Neverland would. Wesley could not find a computer panel anywhere, either. He couldn't even get at any wiring. Wesley knew the Enterprise like the back of his hand, and the Neverland was so similar in so many ways that he was surprised that he could not find a way around his confinement. It was as if the Neverland used Starfleet regulations to build their ship, as if it had access to Federation computer files, as if...
Wait. Maybe Wes could use his own Federation code to access the computer. If he tried just one code and it failed, the breach of security would not lock him out just yet. The code had to fail twice to be a breach of security, to allow for Human error. He simply would not try a second time.
"Computer."
"Ready."
Wes hesitated, "Locate Ensign Robin Wallace."
"There is no Ensign Robin Wallace aboard the Neverland."
Wes smacked himself in the forehead with the heel of his palm. No Robin Wallace wearing a communicator, anyway. Shipboard computers can't locate biological folk who aren't wearing comm pins. And both his and Robin's pins were safely back aboard the Enterprise without them. He decided to try his code.
"Access Main Engineering-- Cancel." Wes remembered he probably wouldn't be able to do anything on the Neverland he was not authorized to do on the Enterprise, and on the Enterprise, he only had limited access to Main Engineering from remote locations, not enough to do him any good here. He would have to stick to his own territory. "Access Main Flight Control at Bridge Helm Station, Starfleet security code Crusher Sigma 75 Dervish, Enable."
"Access granted. Current heading: galactic bearing 165 mark 60, half impulse," droned the male computer voice.
"Yes!" Wes whispered excitedly.
So these kids just hacked their way into Starfleet's computers and downloaded everything. They were so busy playing with photon torpedoes and cloaking devices to worry about modifying existing security access codes.
He could set in a course for a range close enough for subspace radio communication at a rapid rate, if he could figure out how to rig one up without being noticed. But first, a little question had been nagging at him, and he decided to try for an answer.
"Computer, access Starfleet Galaxy Class Starship Operations files."
"Access denied."
Careful. Don't get locked out yet. "Computer, does Captain Kaelha have access to these files?"
"Affirmative."
Ah-ha! So I was right about them hacking the files from Starfleet. What else do these kids know?
"Does Captain Kaelha have access to Starfleet Personnel files?"
"Affirmative."
"And records of deceased Starfleet officers?"
"Affirmative."
"How about... the Captain's Log of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D?"
"Affirmative."
Affirmative? This meant that Kaelha could peek into the Enterprise's life at her whim!
Then Wes had a nauseating thought. There were things these kids knew that wouldn't be in the captain's log: personal things, incidental things, things of no consequence to a starship but that could be important to an individual.
"Computer, does Captain Kaelha have access to the personal log of Ensign Wesley Crusher of the U.S.S. Enterprise?"
"Affirmative."
Wesley blanched. Literally, someone had read his diary. He decided to find out how many other journals Kaelha had peeked into.
"Computer, list members of the Enterprise crew to whose personal logs Captain Kaelha has access."
The male computer voice began a running list of the entire crew complement of the Enterprise, including the captain, Data, Robin, Wesley's mother, Tasha Yar, and dozens of ensigns with whom Wesley either worked, studied, or had even met.
Before the computer could finish, Wesley tired of the role call, "Cancel."
He had an idea.
"Computer, access Commander Jack Crusher's personal log from the U.S.S. Stargazer, clearance 23... uh, 9407." It had been quite some time since he last accessed his father's log.
"Access granted." Wes caught his breath. He had thought his mother and himself were the only ones with access to his father's personal log anymore. Starfleet doesn't have it. The children must have hacked it right out of his mother's personal files in their quarters.
"Computer, play Jack Crusher's personal log entry from January 20, 2349, audio only."
The computer twinkled, then stated, "Audio playback of Jack Crusher's personal log entry from January 20th, 2349, filename 'Wesley Richard Crusher'."
Then Jack's voice came through the air. Wes hadn't listened to this entry since just after his father's death almost 9 years ago. "Today has got to be the happiest day of my life. Today, my beautiful wife had a baby. As I've stated in recent entries, the name we picked for a girl is Gina Leigh and for a boy is Wesley Richard. Today, Wesley Richard Crusher was born. he was only six pounds even, and he cried so loud the doctor told us he had the best lungs in the maternity ward!"
Wesley smiled at that.
"He's beautiful. I knew having a baby would be wonderful, but it's more than that. It's... it's amazing. You can't even imagine the feeling. You look down at this tiny little life and then you look at yourself and wonder when you changed from that to this. And you wonder how it's possible that part of you created that little baby.
"He hardly looks like Bev at all. He has my eyes and nose, but her mouth. He was born with a little peach-fuzz hair, and it's as dark as mine, not red like Beverly's. And he's got my stick-out ears."
Wes laughed. He remembered baby pictures of himself with those stick- out ears, and the long curls of dark hair that had covered them up. But he had grown into his ears by the time he was three.
"I can't wait for all the things we'll do together. I want to be around for as much of his life as I possibly can. I can't leave Starfleet just now, but my leave lasts another two months before I'm off again. And I certainly don't want my wife and son in space with me!"
Wes's face straightened. Last time he had heard this message, he hadn't remembered that part. And what did they both do when Jack was buried but jump right into space, exactly what he said he didn't want. Wes had always thought his father would approve of his son following in his footsteps.
"I want to play with him for the first time. I want to play catch with him, to teach him about the world, more and more as it grows bigger and bigger around him. I want to meet his girlfriends, watch him graduate from college, be at his wedding, play with my grandchildren... I can see his whole life laid out before him, like the first page of a new book. I bet he'll even be a doctor like Bev. He'll be successful and loved and happy. At least, that's what I want for him." Jack had sighed at this point. "And looking at him now, I know that when I leave this world, I want the last thing I see to be this tiny face. My dying wish would be for him to--"
"Stop playback." Wes knew what the next words were. His father had said 'be as blessed as I have been with love and joy, and with life itself.' How ironic. Wes's father had only ever been able to play catch with him, out of that whole long list of things he wanted to do with his newborn son. He felt cheated. He wanted his father to see him through the Academy to graduation. He wanted his father's approval in his choice to venture into space. He wanted his father to be at his wedding. His father couldn't even say that Wesley's tiny face had been the last thing he'd seen, and Wes was sure that in the abortive away team mission that took his father's life, his father's last thoughts were not peaceful reflections on the life he had lived and the new life he'd created. It wasn't fair to either of them. But where did the blame lie?
All Wes remembered from the day of his father's death was his mother crying. He thought the world must be coming apart, because his mother was such a strong woman as almost never to cry. But Wes didn't cry. He couldn't cry. He was too furious, with Captain Picard for allowing his father to die, with his father for going out to space and never returning, with his mother for allowing his father to leave, with himself for not being right out there with his father, by his side, with him when his father needed to see his face.
Nine-year-old Wesley had the strange sensation that he was walking around in a dream, an awful dream that he would wake from at any moment. His father was not dead, could not be dead. Death could not be a final and lasting goodbye. It wasn't fair, therefore it could not be the truth. And that's how Wesley dealt with the entire situation, waiting to wake up and see how things were in real life, when life was fair. He waited to wake up until he was so distanced from the pain that it no longer mattered, and Wesley never cried for his father.
Now his memories had been distorted by the twisted image the creature presented of his father. Wes had to listen to that log entry, even just to remember what his father was really like. And it gave him strength. For a brief moment, he felt the fire of pride in being part of Starfleet, the risk, the passion, the glory, that spark that had been fading slowly for months, the excitement that had been wearing off. A Starfleet officer will persevere. He shook his head and took a breath, inspired.
There was a task at hand. He began to think about his and Robin's escape. The first thing he had to do was locate the Enterprise. Then he had to find Robin and get to her, then get to their own ship. Far more easily said than done.
He could enter a heading, but not initiate it until all calculations were completed, giving him more travel time, less figuring time, before someone caught onto his plan. He had to hack through the system without the helmsman figuring out what was going on.
"Computer, set helm course."
"Complying, ready."
"Half sublight." Wes stopped for a moment. Where was the Enterprise?
"Enter heading or flight vector."
"In a minute. How many other starships are within 12 parsecs of the Neverland?"
"One starship. Galaxy class. The U.S.S. Enterprise of the United Federation of Planets."
"Determine their heading."
"Galactic heading bearing 160, mark 25, half impulse."
"Determine our galactic heading."
"Bearing 160, mark 25, half impulse."
"The Enterprise is tailing us..." he whispered.
Wes was up and pacing around the room, his mind thinking so fast that his body had to move just to keep up.
"Okay, um..." This is really hard without the console in front of me, he thought. "Okay, relative heading bearing 325, mark 340, intercept starship, half sublight. Initiate sequence and wait for my command to engage."
"Complying."
"Access bridge tactical station," Wes crossed his fingers. He had limited access to tactical on the Enterprise, but his access did include a low intensity tractor beam, mainly used only for towing shuttlecraft, but that would be enough. All he needed was a disguise for a ship-to-ship subspace communication.
"Access granted."
"Once within range of the Enterprise, lock on a low intensity tractor beam."
"Complying."
Wes knew there would be a complete record of all his activities for the last nine hours or so, but he didn't care. By the time someone got to him, the Enterprise would know exactly where he was and how to rescue both himself and Robin.
Now the quick work begins. He braced himself.
"Engage helm flight vector," he said, more loudly than he'd intended.
"Course engaged."
"Okay, send a ship-to-ship subspace communication along the tractor beam when in range. Communication will contain the following: Enterprise, I am locked in quarters on the same deck as the main transporter room. I've been separated from Robin." Without revealing his plan to his captors, should they discover the communiqué, he wanted Data to scan for DNA matching theirs, lock onto it and transport them back, all of which could not be done while Neverland held shields. Data knew that, and he knew Wes knew that, so Data should figure out that Wes was going to try to knock out shields for as long as he could -- which meant Data had to be ready. "Please transport us out of here."
That should be enough. He hoped.
"Within range, locking tractor beam."
"Good. Send that message along the beam to--"
"Tractor beam has been cut off."
"Damn!" If there had been a single object in the room that wasn't nailed down besides a pillow, Wes would have flung it into a wall. He had to get out of this room! He was getting very edgy. And now that they were catching on to his little computer hackery, he'd have no access at all. If he were Data, he'd just rip the doors off the tracks. But there was no way a Human could do that, probably not even Worf could do it.
There was a door panel near the door. It was disabled, Wes knew from trying it intermittently throughout his captivity. He could try enabling it in a roundabout way, using his own code, and he'd have to work quickly before they killed his code.
Wes laid his route as quickly as he could speak and think. "Computer, access aft engineering station. Security functions. Through aft engineering, access aft mission ops, main relay. Link engineering and mission ops, extend link to aft tactical, security functions, door locks, release Deck 4, 0167, initiate."
Nothing like a big old maze to run through, to add a few seconds to the trace.
"Complying. Completed."
The doors whooshed open. Wesley could hardly believe it. He stepped out, carefully, checking both ways for signs of people. None. He crept down the corridor away from the transporter room. He had not seen a turbolift or Jefferies tube on his way to his quarters, and what he really needed was tube.
Or a tricorder..., he thought as an officer in med blues rounded the corner, reading a dataclip and not looking where he was going. Wes stepped silently behind a bulkhead support beam and waited for the unsuspecting officer.
When the officer passed, Wes struck him hard on the back of the neck with the outside edge of his hand, knocking him senseless.
"Sorry," he whispered as he searched the pockets of the med coat for a tricorder and found one. Of course.
As he ran off, he programmed the tricorder to search for Human, female, 21-year-old DNA.
* * *
"Captain!" cried a young helmsman from her seat at Conn. "I'm showing a change of course! Full reverse, heading straight for the Enterprise!"
"What?" Kaelha stalked over to the navigator and stared over her shoulder. "How did that happen?"
"I don't know, sir! I didn't touch anything!" the girl looked frightened.
"Sir!" called a huge boy from tactical, "I'm showing that we've locked a tractor beam onto the Enterprise, but very low intensity, just touching them, it could never pull them."
"Well cut it off!"
"Aye, sir!"
"Helm, full stop."
"Yes, sir!"
"Sir!" the boy at tactical again, "Door locks on deck four have been released."
"What? How? Trace that command, lieutenant!"
"Aye, sir. The command came through tactical, but not from manual console input. I didn't enter it. It was entered through another station. I'm looking for which one. Mission Ops. But again, that was only a route. Mission Ops is linked with Aft Engineering. The command came to Aft Engineering through the Main Computer. And... it came to the main computer through a voice command. And the command got access through a lieutenant class access code."
"Whose code?"
"No one on this ship. The voice command initiated from the room on which the doors just opened."
"It's Crusher's room, Crusher's code, isn't it?"
"I'll check Starfleet's codes if you'd like, sir."
"Don't bother. It's him. Find him," she pointed to the security officer to the door and he started out. "He can't get far, he's just an unarmed Human."
"Nurse Navvaro to Captain Kaelha," a commlink opened from a corridor to the bridge.
"Yes, nurse?"
"I was just attacked by the Human boy on Deck 4. He... he took my tricorder, sir."
Kaelha cursed so loudly that everyone on the bridge and even the nurse on deck 4 cringed.
* * *
"Hey, you!"
Wes turned and saw three security officers armed with phasers behind him.
Oh god...
He started running. He'd finished programming the tricorder, but he was moving too quickly for its narrow scope to pick up anything. He could be running right past Robin, but he couldn't slow down. He'd do her much less good dead. He flipped the tricorder closed and concentrated on sprinting.
Around a corner and he was out of reach of the phasers. If he could just keep one corner ahead of them long enough to outrun them...
Around the next corner, the corridor was long and straight with no intersections. There was no way they were as far behind him as this corridor was long. There was nothing he could do but keep running. A phaser beam lanced past his head. They missed!
The corner was still very far away, and Wes couldn't dodge a barrage of beams.
He didn't. The next one slammed into the center of his back and he was knocked forward onto the floor.
Wesley's world went black.
* * *
Robin had managed to take out all three officers in Engineering before being stunned into unconsciousness by the phaser of a security officer. She woke up in the brig, alone in a blank room furnished only with a cot.
Great, she thought as she wracked her brain for a means of escape and came up empty.
She didn't know how many hours had passed while she was unconscious, and her every waking minute felt like a full hour. If she knew anything about phasers, and she did, she had been out for at least three hours.
She didn't bother getting up off her cot. What would she do? Pace around? Why bother? There was nothing she could do. She was defeated. Imprisoned. And swiftly becoming depressed.
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Robin couldn't hide forever. And she wasn't hiding, anyway. She was... lost, actually. She was lost somewhere in the Jefferies tubes on this gigantic ship. She had found a border of sorts, where the ship's construction changed dramatically. It was like phasing from a Federation ship to a Ferengi ship or something in a matter of inches. Weird.
She had seen no one for hours, almost six hours. She needed to find Wesley, but didn't know how. She had found Main Engineering, but there were people constantly in it, and she couldn't manage to get out past the grate without being seen. Yet.
She saw her opportunity. Two people turned around the corner. A third was behind the warp core. She had been loosening the grate for hours and now a strong breath would dislodge it. She could pull it out gently, quietly, and slip out of the tubes. She didn't really have a plan after that. If she could take out the three people presently in Engineering, she'd have control of the ship.
Well, she'd have control if she knew a little more about Engineering. She would do anything to borrow Wes's brain right about now.
* * *
Geordi was about to head up to the bridge. He was in his office off the matter/anti-matter reaction assembly. It was one of the few places Geordi could be both in his element and alone at the same time, since there was usually a handful of people milling around the rest of Main Engineering. Everyone who worked under Geordi knew not to disturb him with anything less than an emergency when he was in his office -- everyone except Wes, who knew he could go and talk to his friend and mentor anytime.
Geordi remembered not so long ago, when Riker, Worf and Wesley were in a shuttlecraft that was lost, and they were all presumed dead. There was even a funeral service in the holodeck. Picard had spoken about Riker, Deanna about Worf, and Geordi was the one to speak about Wesley. It seemed to Geordi that he had the hardest job, speaking about the death of a seventeen-year-old boy with his widowed mother sitting right there. He had told a story of Wes's thrill and fascination with simply taking apart and reassembling a tricorder. And Geordi was not much of a speaker when he wasn't in emotional pain. Fortunately, the service hadn't been necessary after all, and all three officers were safely back aboard the Enterprise just days after their own funerals.
Geordi didn't think he could bear going to Wesley's funeral a second time.
He sighed and rested his head in his hands, trying to will away some of the stress headache that was a constant in his life. But the pain suddenly became unbearably sharp.
He leaped up and cried out, his forehead crinkling in agony. Across his field of vision danced laser lights and fireworks. The room seemed to melt away, the floor above and the ceiling below. Walls contorted and the room appeared to be little more than a can of many colors of paint being stirred slowly. There seemed to be a rushing, roaring sound, like an ocean in a storm. Geordi felt the chair bump into the back of his legs, then floor came up to meet him and smashed into his shoulder. He lay flat on his back on the floor, arms out, almost gripping the floor for a sense of solidity. He reached for his communicator, "LaForge to Doctor Crusher!"
Nothing happened. There was nothing wrong with his VISOR or with his physiognomy, this was the creature.
But Tasha didn't look like this! She just looked like a person with hypothermia. This is agony!
"What do you want?!" Geordi was yelling over the roaring.
A very low voice seemed to rise from the roaring, as if the voice had been making the sound all along, and suddenly could form words from it. It spoke very slowly, and Geordi couldn't tell if he was hearing it in his ears or in his head.
"They are gone."
Geordi was beginning to feel nauseous. He gripped his VISOR and pulled. It wouldn't come off as easily as it should. He yanked and it came off -- and it hurt. But the spinning and roaring stopped, and he was in blind darkness. Geordi was kneeling on the floor gripping his VISOR in both hands. He took several deep breaths and listened carefully. Not a sound. He stood and felt around for his chair. It was toppled over behind his desk. He righted it and sat, trying to get himself back together enough to speak coherently when he called security. He tried to put his VISOR back on.
It flew out of his hands as if batted away from him. He heard it clatter to the floor. He tried to stand, but two incredibly powerful hands were on his shoulders.
"Who's there?" Geordi felt stupid asking who was there when the person was right in front of him and touching him. He didn't really consider himself blind until someone took his VISOR away.
"Go away," said a Human voice. "Your friends are dead. Now leave."
Geordi gripped the wrists holding him in his chair and tried to free himself. "Yeah, right. You're telling me the entire ship of children went to all the trouble of seeking out the Enterprise, threatening it, sending some ghost thing -- namely you -- in hopes that there'd be some kids aboard that they could pointlessly murder. Sorry, I'm not buying." Geordi tried again to stand up.
The creature lifted Geordi out of his chair and placed him in the center of the room. "You want to stand? Go ahead," the voice came from all directions, giving Geordi absolutely no indication of where the creature was, "but how will you fight me?"
"You want me to fight you?" Geordi seemed appalled.
"Yes."
"Blind?" Geordi still couldn't believe it. "That's hardly fair. What kind of fight would that be? You, an obviously more powerful being, fighting a blind guy without his VISOR. You really must be some kind of coward."
"I'm simply short on time, and I have a lot of officers to kill."
Geordi swallowed hard. He felt the air move near his head. He dropped to the floor and heard the swoosh of an incredibly powerful fist pass over his head.
Geez, who taught this guy to throw a punch, Commander Riker?!?
He rolled to the left and got up to his knees again, sending a backfist in the creature's direction. He caught the creature right in the backs of the knees and it staggered. Geordi remembered that when the creature picked him up, it had moved him around his desk, but Geordi was still facing the door. Geordi got up running, arms stretched out before him. His foot kicked something metal on the floor. His VISOR! He stooped to reach it, but the creature was clawing at his heels. Cursing, he let it lay, then ran out of his office.
Once in Main Engineering, Geordi suddenly felt dizzy again. But there would be people around to help him. He collapsed against the Master Systems Display and lowered himself to the floor.
Then he felt someone grip him by the arms. He started to react, to fight it off, but then the person spoke.
"Sir! Geordi! It's me, Billy Nolan. What happened? Where's your VISOR?"
"Billy," Geordi breathed. "The creature. It was back... in my office. It did something to my VISOR, made all crazy colors and noises. I took it off and the creature took it away. It's in my office."
"I'll get it," Billy started to get up.
"No, Billy!" Geordi held tight to the boy. "That creature might still be there. It said it had a lot of people to kill."
Billy struck his badge, "Security." It worked. Billy explained the situation and a security team promised to be there immediately.
Billy helped Geordi up and pulled his arm across his shoulders. "Can you walk with me, sir?" Geordi nodded. Then Billy touched his badge again. "Ensign Nolan to Doctor Crusher."
* * *
"Yes, Guinan?" Picard asked the open commlink from the bridge to the corridor in Deck 10, "Do you sense it again?"
"Just now. It started just a minute ago."
"Do you have any idea where it might be?"
"No, captain. I just have that feeling."
"Thank you, Guinan. We'll be on our guard. Picard out." The captain turned to Riker, Troi and Doctor Crusher, who were standing beside him in the center of the bridge. "First, we should locate any friends of Wesley's to see if that's who the creature could be with. We should probably start with either Geordi or Ensign N--"
"Ensign Nolan to Doctor Crusher."
"Yes, ensign?" Beverly glanced at Picard.
"I'm down here in Main Engineering with Geordi. The creature was just here and messed with his VISOR. Security's getting the VISOR. The creature threatened to kill a lot of people. I think he's okay now, but I'm helping him up to sickbay."
"I'll meet you in sickbay, ensign."
As Beverly rushed to the turbolift, Picard turned to Riker.
Riker took the eye contact as his order to follow the doctor and get Geordi's story. "I guess that was our answer, sir."
Picard gave a quick nod as his first officer jogged after the doctor.
* * *
Wesley was pacing around the tiny quarters in which he'd been locked. He had been trying for almost nine hours to figure a way to get out of at least the room, then off the Neverland altogether, with Robin in tow. He couldn't find a way. All access to the computer was locked off with security codes. Wesley had almost decided to start randomly picking security codes, but if the Enterprise had a security seal for just such attempts, then surely the Neverland would. Wesley could not find a computer panel anywhere, either. He couldn't even get at any wiring. Wesley knew the Enterprise like the back of his hand, and the Neverland was so similar in so many ways that he was surprised that he could not find a way around his confinement. It was as if the Neverland used Starfleet regulations to build their ship, as if it had access to Federation computer files, as if...
Wait. Maybe Wes could use his own Federation code to access the computer. If he tried just one code and it failed, the breach of security would not lock him out just yet. The code had to fail twice to be a breach of security, to allow for Human error. He simply would not try a second time.
"Computer."
"Ready."
Wes hesitated, "Locate Ensign Robin Wallace."
"There is no Ensign Robin Wallace aboard the Neverland."
Wes smacked himself in the forehead with the heel of his palm. No Robin Wallace wearing a communicator, anyway. Shipboard computers can't locate biological folk who aren't wearing comm pins. And both his and Robin's pins were safely back aboard the Enterprise without them. He decided to try his code.
"Access Main Engineering-- Cancel." Wes remembered he probably wouldn't be able to do anything on the Neverland he was not authorized to do on the Enterprise, and on the Enterprise, he only had limited access to Main Engineering from remote locations, not enough to do him any good here. He would have to stick to his own territory. "Access Main Flight Control at Bridge Helm Station, Starfleet security code Crusher Sigma 75 Dervish, Enable."
"Access granted. Current heading: galactic bearing 165 mark 60, half impulse," droned the male computer voice.
"Yes!" Wes whispered excitedly.
So these kids just hacked their way into Starfleet's computers and downloaded everything. They were so busy playing with photon torpedoes and cloaking devices to worry about modifying existing security access codes.
He could set in a course for a range close enough for subspace radio communication at a rapid rate, if he could figure out how to rig one up without being noticed. But first, a little question had been nagging at him, and he decided to try for an answer.
"Computer, access Starfleet Galaxy Class Starship Operations files."
"Access denied."
Careful. Don't get locked out yet. "Computer, does Captain Kaelha have access to these files?"
"Affirmative."
Ah-ha! So I was right about them hacking the files from Starfleet. What else do these kids know?
"Does Captain Kaelha have access to Starfleet Personnel files?"
"Affirmative."
"And records of deceased Starfleet officers?"
"Affirmative."
"How about... the Captain's Log of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D?"
"Affirmative."
Affirmative? This meant that Kaelha could peek into the Enterprise's life at her whim!
Then Wes had a nauseating thought. There were things these kids knew that wouldn't be in the captain's log: personal things, incidental things, things of no consequence to a starship but that could be important to an individual.
"Computer, does Captain Kaelha have access to the personal log of Ensign Wesley Crusher of the U.S.S. Enterprise?"
"Affirmative."
Wesley blanched. Literally, someone had read his diary. He decided to find out how many other journals Kaelha had peeked into.
"Computer, list members of the Enterprise crew to whose personal logs Captain Kaelha has access."
The male computer voice began a running list of the entire crew complement of the Enterprise, including the captain, Data, Robin, Wesley's mother, Tasha Yar, and dozens of ensigns with whom Wesley either worked, studied, or had even met.
Before the computer could finish, Wesley tired of the role call, "Cancel."
He had an idea.
"Computer, access Commander Jack Crusher's personal log from the U.S.S. Stargazer, clearance 23... uh, 9407." It had been quite some time since he last accessed his father's log.
"Access granted." Wes caught his breath. He had thought his mother and himself were the only ones with access to his father's personal log anymore. Starfleet doesn't have it. The children must have hacked it right out of his mother's personal files in their quarters.
"Computer, play Jack Crusher's personal log entry from January 20, 2349, audio only."
The computer twinkled, then stated, "Audio playback of Jack Crusher's personal log entry from January 20th, 2349, filename 'Wesley Richard Crusher'."
Then Jack's voice came through the air. Wes hadn't listened to this entry since just after his father's death almost 9 years ago. "Today has got to be the happiest day of my life. Today, my beautiful wife had a baby. As I've stated in recent entries, the name we picked for a girl is Gina Leigh and for a boy is Wesley Richard. Today, Wesley Richard Crusher was born. he was only six pounds even, and he cried so loud the doctor told us he had the best lungs in the maternity ward!"
Wesley smiled at that.
"He's beautiful. I knew having a baby would be wonderful, but it's more than that. It's... it's amazing. You can't even imagine the feeling. You look down at this tiny little life and then you look at yourself and wonder when you changed from that to this. And you wonder how it's possible that part of you created that little baby.
"He hardly looks like Bev at all. He has my eyes and nose, but her mouth. He was born with a little peach-fuzz hair, and it's as dark as mine, not red like Beverly's. And he's got my stick-out ears."
Wes laughed. He remembered baby pictures of himself with those stick- out ears, and the long curls of dark hair that had covered them up. But he had grown into his ears by the time he was three.
"I can't wait for all the things we'll do together. I want to be around for as much of his life as I possibly can. I can't leave Starfleet just now, but my leave lasts another two months before I'm off again. And I certainly don't want my wife and son in space with me!"
Wes's face straightened. Last time he had heard this message, he hadn't remembered that part. And what did they both do when Jack was buried but jump right into space, exactly what he said he didn't want. Wes had always thought his father would approve of his son following in his footsteps.
"I want to play with him for the first time. I want to play catch with him, to teach him about the world, more and more as it grows bigger and bigger around him. I want to meet his girlfriends, watch him graduate from college, be at his wedding, play with my grandchildren... I can see his whole life laid out before him, like the first page of a new book. I bet he'll even be a doctor like Bev. He'll be successful and loved and happy. At least, that's what I want for him." Jack had sighed at this point. "And looking at him now, I know that when I leave this world, I want the last thing I see to be this tiny face. My dying wish would be for him to--"
"Stop playback." Wes knew what the next words were. His father had said 'be as blessed as I have been with love and joy, and with life itself.' How ironic. Wes's father had only ever been able to play catch with him, out of that whole long list of things he wanted to do with his newborn son. He felt cheated. He wanted his father to see him through the Academy to graduation. He wanted his father's approval in his choice to venture into space. He wanted his father to be at his wedding. His father couldn't even say that Wesley's tiny face had been the last thing he'd seen, and Wes was sure that in the abortive away team mission that took his father's life, his father's last thoughts were not peaceful reflections on the life he had lived and the new life he'd created. It wasn't fair to either of them. But where did the blame lie?
All Wes remembered from the day of his father's death was his mother crying. He thought the world must be coming apart, because his mother was such a strong woman as almost never to cry. But Wes didn't cry. He couldn't cry. He was too furious, with Captain Picard for allowing his father to die, with his father for going out to space and never returning, with his mother for allowing his father to leave, with himself for not being right out there with his father, by his side, with him when his father needed to see his face.
Nine-year-old Wesley had the strange sensation that he was walking around in a dream, an awful dream that he would wake from at any moment. His father was not dead, could not be dead. Death could not be a final and lasting goodbye. It wasn't fair, therefore it could not be the truth. And that's how Wesley dealt with the entire situation, waiting to wake up and see how things were in real life, when life was fair. He waited to wake up until he was so distanced from the pain that it no longer mattered, and Wesley never cried for his father.
Now his memories had been distorted by the twisted image the creature presented of his father. Wes had to listen to that log entry, even just to remember what his father was really like. And it gave him strength. For a brief moment, he felt the fire of pride in being part of Starfleet, the risk, the passion, the glory, that spark that had been fading slowly for months, the excitement that had been wearing off. A Starfleet officer will persevere. He shook his head and took a breath, inspired.
There was a task at hand. He began to think about his and Robin's escape. The first thing he had to do was locate the Enterprise. Then he had to find Robin and get to her, then get to their own ship. Far more easily said than done.
He could enter a heading, but not initiate it until all calculations were completed, giving him more travel time, less figuring time, before someone caught onto his plan. He had to hack through the system without the helmsman figuring out what was going on.
"Computer, set helm course."
"Complying, ready."
"Half sublight." Wes stopped for a moment. Where was the Enterprise?
"Enter heading or flight vector."
"In a minute. How many other starships are within 12 parsecs of the Neverland?"
"One starship. Galaxy class. The U.S.S. Enterprise of the United Federation of Planets."
"Determine their heading."
"Galactic heading bearing 160, mark 25, half impulse."
"Determine our galactic heading."
"Bearing 160, mark 25, half impulse."
"The Enterprise is tailing us..." he whispered.
Wes was up and pacing around the room, his mind thinking so fast that his body had to move just to keep up.
"Okay, um..." This is really hard without the console in front of me, he thought. "Okay, relative heading bearing 325, mark 340, intercept starship, half sublight. Initiate sequence and wait for my command to engage."
"Complying."
"Access bridge tactical station," Wes crossed his fingers. He had limited access to tactical on the Enterprise, but his access did include a low intensity tractor beam, mainly used only for towing shuttlecraft, but that would be enough. All he needed was a disguise for a ship-to-ship subspace communication.
"Access granted."
"Once within range of the Enterprise, lock on a low intensity tractor beam."
"Complying."
Wes knew there would be a complete record of all his activities for the last nine hours or so, but he didn't care. By the time someone got to him, the Enterprise would know exactly where he was and how to rescue both himself and Robin.
Now the quick work begins. He braced himself.
"Engage helm flight vector," he said, more loudly than he'd intended.
"Course engaged."
"Okay, send a ship-to-ship subspace communication along the tractor beam when in range. Communication will contain the following: Enterprise, I am locked in quarters on the same deck as the main transporter room. I've been separated from Robin." Without revealing his plan to his captors, should they discover the communiqué, he wanted Data to scan for DNA matching theirs, lock onto it and transport them back, all of which could not be done while Neverland held shields. Data knew that, and he knew Wes knew that, so Data should figure out that Wes was going to try to knock out shields for as long as he could -- which meant Data had to be ready. "Please transport us out of here."
That should be enough. He hoped.
"Within range, locking tractor beam."
"Good. Send that message along the beam to--"
"Tractor beam has been cut off."
"Damn!" If there had been a single object in the room that wasn't nailed down besides a pillow, Wes would have flung it into a wall. He had to get out of this room! He was getting very edgy. And now that they were catching on to his little computer hackery, he'd have no access at all. If he were Data, he'd just rip the doors off the tracks. But there was no way a Human could do that, probably not even Worf could do it.
There was a door panel near the door. It was disabled, Wes knew from trying it intermittently throughout his captivity. He could try enabling it in a roundabout way, using his own code, and he'd have to work quickly before they killed his code.
Wes laid his route as quickly as he could speak and think. "Computer, access aft engineering station. Security functions. Through aft engineering, access aft mission ops, main relay. Link engineering and mission ops, extend link to aft tactical, security functions, door locks, release Deck 4, 0167, initiate."
Nothing like a big old maze to run through, to add a few seconds to the trace.
"Complying. Completed."
The doors whooshed open. Wesley could hardly believe it. He stepped out, carefully, checking both ways for signs of people. None. He crept down the corridor away from the transporter room. He had not seen a turbolift or Jefferies tube on his way to his quarters, and what he really needed was tube.
Or a tricorder..., he thought as an officer in med blues rounded the corner, reading a dataclip and not looking where he was going. Wes stepped silently behind a bulkhead support beam and waited for the unsuspecting officer.
When the officer passed, Wes struck him hard on the back of the neck with the outside edge of his hand, knocking him senseless.
"Sorry," he whispered as he searched the pockets of the med coat for a tricorder and found one. Of course.
As he ran off, he programmed the tricorder to search for Human, female, 21-year-old DNA.
* * *
"Captain!" cried a young helmsman from her seat at Conn. "I'm showing a change of course! Full reverse, heading straight for the Enterprise!"
"What?" Kaelha stalked over to the navigator and stared over her shoulder. "How did that happen?"
"I don't know, sir! I didn't touch anything!" the girl looked frightened.
"Sir!" called a huge boy from tactical, "I'm showing that we've locked a tractor beam onto the Enterprise, but very low intensity, just touching them, it could never pull them."
"Well cut it off!"
"Aye, sir!"
"Helm, full stop."
"Yes, sir!"
"Sir!" the boy at tactical again, "Door locks on deck four have been released."
"What? How? Trace that command, lieutenant!"
"Aye, sir. The command came through tactical, but not from manual console input. I didn't enter it. It was entered through another station. I'm looking for which one. Mission Ops. But again, that was only a route. Mission Ops is linked with Aft Engineering. The command came to Aft Engineering through the Main Computer. And... it came to the main computer through a voice command. And the command got access through a lieutenant class access code."
"Whose code?"
"No one on this ship. The voice command initiated from the room on which the doors just opened."
"It's Crusher's room, Crusher's code, isn't it?"
"I'll check Starfleet's codes if you'd like, sir."
"Don't bother. It's him. Find him," she pointed to the security officer to the door and he started out. "He can't get far, he's just an unarmed Human."
"Nurse Navvaro to Captain Kaelha," a commlink opened from a corridor to the bridge.
"Yes, nurse?"
"I was just attacked by the Human boy on Deck 4. He... he took my tricorder, sir."
Kaelha cursed so loudly that everyone on the bridge and even the nurse on deck 4 cringed.
* * *
"Hey, you!"
Wes turned and saw three security officers armed with phasers behind him.
Oh god...
He started running. He'd finished programming the tricorder, but he was moving too quickly for its narrow scope to pick up anything. He could be running right past Robin, but he couldn't slow down. He'd do her much less good dead. He flipped the tricorder closed and concentrated on sprinting.
Around a corner and he was out of reach of the phasers. If he could just keep one corner ahead of them long enough to outrun them...
Around the next corner, the corridor was long and straight with no intersections. There was no way they were as far behind him as this corridor was long. There was nothing he could do but keep running. A phaser beam lanced past his head. They missed!
The corner was still very far away, and Wes couldn't dodge a barrage of beams.
He didn't. The next one slammed into the center of his back and he was knocked forward onto the floor.
Wesley's world went black.
* * *
Robin had managed to take out all three officers in Engineering before being stunned into unconsciousness by the phaser of a security officer. She woke up in the brig, alone in a blank room furnished only with a cot.
Great, she thought as she wracked her brain for a means of escape and came up empty.
She didn't know how many hours had passed while she was unconscious, and her every waking minute felt like a full hour. If she knew anything about phasers, and she did, she had been out for at least three hours.
She didn't bother getting up off her cot. What would she do? Pace around? Why bother? There was nothing she could do. She was defeated. Imprisoned. And swiftly becoming depressed.
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