CHAPTER TWELVE
Captain Picard sat in his ready room, waiting for Commander Riker to bring him a report on Geordi's findings of Data, from engineering. He looked up from his desk when he heard the door chime. "Come," he said as the doors opened and revealed Dr. Crusher. Picard stood up as she entered the room. "I wasn't expecting to see you, Doctor. Is there something wrong?" he asked as she approached the desk.
"Not really, I just brought the report you asked for and to see if Wesley could be relieved of duty for two days." Picard looked puzzled. "You were told about Wesley's accident weren't you?"
"No, I have not been informed. What happened?" Picard asked feeling concerned. They both sat down and Crusher told Picard about Wesley.
"So I'm not speaking as a mother but as a physician. Wesley needs time to recover; the trouble is that he won't listen to reason. I know I don't need your approval to release someone from duty on medical grounds but since I'm his mother he won't listen to me, that's how he got into this mess after all."
"Okay, Beverly. I'll order him to rest and relieve him of all duty for the next two days. Thank you for the report, I haven't finished mine yet."
"Well, I'd better let you get on with it then, Jean-Luc." The doctor stood up and moved toward the door.
"Beverly. Have you noticed anything strange about Data?" He asked, she would understand his reasoning for thinking Data was a different android, after seeing the duplicate Data's over on the other ship.
"Not really," she said as she turned back to face him.
"I don't think we got the right one, that's all." Crusher looked at Picard not liking the sound of that. The door chimed again. "That will be Commander Riker with a report. I ordered Data to be fully checked out in engineering. Come." Picard said and the doors opened this time to reveal Commander Riker.
"I'll see you later, Jean-Luc." Dr. Crusher said as she left Picard's office.
Riker entered with a grim face and handed Picard the report La Forge had given him. Picard read through it with great interest as Riker sat down. "So, there is no way to know whether he is Data until Commander La Forge has gone over the specs?"
"No, Captain. La Forge has corrected what was wrong with the android, so if he is a duplicate he will function in the same capacity as Data. It seems that we were lucky to get him checked out when we did. The android- Data had been altered and given a sort of self-destruct mechanism, we could have all been blown sky high."
"Yes I read that, Number One. Is Data back to duty now?"
"Yes, sir. I thought it was best since he has been re-programmed. We need Data's talents for this mission."
"Very well. Thank you, Commander." Riker turned to leave but Picard called him back. "Commander. Why was I not informed of Mr. Crusher's accident?"
"Sorry, sir. We've been busy lately and I didn't get around to writing a report."
"A verbal message would have been sufficient for now, Mr. Crusher is a bridge officer and you should have made time for at least that, Commander. Don't leave it this long the next time before I am informed." Picard rebuked, he felt like he was back in that other Picard's role now.
"Aye, sir." Riker said as he left the room.
Commander Troi and Captain Picard moved closer to La Forge. He turned around, shocked at who was standing behind him. "Broad, bring Mr. La Forge." Troi's chief bodyguard grabbed La Forge and they all left to go back to the agony booth.
It didn't take long to get to the booth this time as the captain wanted to get this part of the punishment over and done with. Broad shoved him into the chamber with the raised platform and Troi manipulated the controls again. "Start where you finished off the last time, Counsellor." Picard said and she complied somewhat reluctantly.
Geordi was again thrust up in the air by tractor beams and he immediately started to scream. The intensity of the pain was much worse than he had remembered, if that were at all possible. Troi and Picard stood enjoying the scene before them, as Troi put the level up to number eight. He cried out again. "Don't worry, Mr. La Forge. I shouldn't think you'll last much longer." Troi spoke but it was like a distant memory of what was once reality to Geordi. Troi laughed immensely happy.
Picard left the booth because as much as he was enjoying it, he had more pressing matters to attend to.
He walked along the corridor with Lieutenant Rice, Detaith had gone off duty and so his second in command had taken over. They went to Picard's quarters. The captain had promised a transfer for his chief medical officer, Beverly Crusher, and so he was going to write his approval for her- it was the least he could do. He sat down at his desk and began.
Back aboard the Enterprise on the other side of the rift, Captain Picard left his ready room and appeared on the bridge. Commander Data was at the ops position and Wesley was at the helm. Picard stopped when he noticed that Ensign Crusher was on the bridge. "Ensign Crusher. You've been relieved of duty for two days, why are you at the helm?" Picard asked, stepping over to him.
"Sorry, Captain. I was so bored I thought I may be allowed to sit here for a while."
Picard moved over to him. "Ensign, you are still recovering from your accident. I need a sharp officer at the helm incase that other ship makes a move and in your condition at present, that isn't you. Now you have the time off, so use it. Dismissed." Wesley got up and wandered off the bridge. Picard went to his command chair and sat down.
Wesley decided to go and see his counterpart, he told the turbolift to proceed to guest quarters. He got out on deck eleven and walked along the corridor to his counterpart's room. Two guards were positioned outside of the door.
Wesley walked up to them and asked to be let in, one of the guards informed him that no-one was allowed in without prior authorization. Wesley tapped his communicator and asked for Counsellor Troi.
"Yes, what is it, Wes?" She replied over the comm link.
"Counsellor. I want to see the other Wesley Crusher but there are guards on the door and won't let me in without authorization. Can you do anything, Counsellor?"
"Okay, Wes. I'll be down straight away, don't cause any trouble." She said in humour.
Deanna Troi met Wesley a few moments later, outside of the doors to the room where the counterpart was located. "Are you sure you want to do this?" She asked him again, it wasn't easy coming face to face with an exact replica of yourself- she knew from past experience.
"Yes. Could you wait out here though? I want to speak to him alone."
"I'm not sure that's a good idea, one of the guards will accompany you. No arguments." Wesley entered the room with one of the security guards. The room was dimly lit and Wesley could see that his counterpart was still in bed. He went over to him. He stirred in the bed and rolled over to see who his visitor was. "Where am I and who are you?" He snarled at Wes.
"You're aboard the starship Enterprise NCC 1701-D and I should think it was obvious who I am."
"What do you want? Have you come to gloat?" He asked, still angry at everything; or maybe this was his normal attitude?
"No, I just came to see if you were alright. I thought we might get to know each other. Maybe I could help you or you could help me."
"I'm fine, now anyway, thanks to my... your mother." There was a silence in the room. "What do you need help with anyway?"
"I thought you might have gotten to know your father. Mine died when I was quite young. I wondered if you could tell me about him, our universes don't seem to be that much different."
"Now, there's something we have in common. My father died when I was young also, he was killed- murdered in cold blood by Captain Picard who wanted to take my mother away from him. She foolishly went to him as well. I never got to know my father but I will avenge his death." He was silent for a moment. "How did your father die?"
"He was killed on an away mission while serving under Captain Picard." Wesley said, gulping at what his counterpart had said.
"Well it seems that man has a lot to answer for, doesn't it, in any universe? I don't think I can help you." The counterpart turned back over in his bed. "Unless... you get me out of here."
"I doubt that will be allowed. Do you want to go back to your ship?"
"Well where else can I go?" He asked hopeful.
Wesley didn't have an answer to that. "I'll send Counsellor Troi in, I think she wants to speak to you." Wesley turned and went out of the quarters with the security guard behind him. Troi was waiting for him outside.
"Everything okay, Wes? Did you do what you wanted?"
"Yes, I said you'd probably want to talk to him." Wesley said a bit disappointed.
"Well, I have to speak to the captain first. Come on, we'll go." They both headed off down the corridor as the guards positioned themselves outside of the door again.
Captain Picard sat on the bridge watching every move Commander Data made. He asked for continuous scans to be made of the ship on the other side of the anomaly, and to be notified if any changes occurred. Everything had been quiet for a while now; it was like a face off between the two ships.
Data pressed some buttons on his console and the red alert sirens blasted throughout the ship. "Evacuate the bridge, life support systems are off line." The computer said calmly as thick, black smoke was filtered in through the ventilation shafts, instead of fresh air. Picard started to cough as he instructed the computer to restore life support immediately. "Unable to comply," was the computer's response.
"Reassemble in engineering." The captain shouted over all of the coughing. Picard and the bridge crew moved into the turbolifts and Picard instructed the computer to transfer all command controls to engineering. As he exited the bridge himself he stared at Data still sitting in his position, there was nothing he could do to stop the android from taking over the ship. The bridge was soon clear of everyone except Data who remained at his post.
Data/Reval was now in command and his mission was well on the way to becoming a success.
He returned life support to the bridge and sealed off all turbolift shafts with the emergency bulkheads. Reval brought the controls back up on the bridge and moved into the helm position, he steered the ship into the anomaly and engaged at half impulse power. Reval sent a message to his ship on the other side of the rift, to inform them that the plan was going all right so far. Reval moved into the command chair and waited for further instructions from his captain.
Picard and the rest of the bridge officers got to engineering. "Mr. La Forge, I need my ship back." He shouted to him over the noise in engineering.
"Yes, sir. I'm doing what I can." Geordi rushed from one control station to another trying to get the controls back on line. "It's no use, Data has locked us out of the command functions. He has erected force fields around the bridge and has locked out all transporter functions. There is no way to get to him, we can find out what he's doing though." They moved over to another access terminal, which displayed the ship's status.
"We're moving, our heading is through the spatial rift." Riker observed.
"Yes but only half impulse power, we're obviously not in any hurry to get to where ever it is we're going." Picard replied. "Mr. La Forge, have you come up with anything from the scans you performed on Data?"
"Yes, sir. I finished just before you came down. It appears that Data, is in fact not the Data we know. He is an exact replica and it is extremely difficult to tell them apart."
"Then it seems that our Data is still over there and is probably the one I was sitting next to on the bridge, he seemed so different though." Picard sighed, mad at his lack of observation.
"Yes, sir but physical appearances can be deceptive sometimes."
"It was more than that though, his features and attitudes, even his composure were all so different." Picard explained.
"Then he was re-programmed, quite easy if you know what you're doing, and someone over there obviously does." Geordi told the captain. Picard started to pace back and forth thinking of what his options were. *****
Geordi screamed again, he was close to death and he knew it. "This is the final setting, La Forge. I'm surprised you lasted this long, maybe it was because you had a break in between, I don't know." Troi manipulated the controls again and the agony booth finished, Geordi fell to the floor with a hard thump. He didn't feel it though; all of his pain receptors had already shut down. "The captain wants you now- time for more fun. Bring him." She said as Broad lifted Geordi's body and they went off to see the captain.
Captain Picard finished what he was doing in his quarters and picked up the padd he had written Dr. Crusher's transfer approval on. He left his quarters with Lieutenant Rice in tow and headed for sickbay.
He entered sickbay a few moments later and entered his chief medical officer's office. Dr. Crusher looked up when she heard him enter and flinched inside slightly at the sight of him. "I didn't think you would show your face so soon, I must admit you have some gall." He handed her the padd. She took it, read it and threw it down on the desk in disgust. "This is supposed to make me feel better?" she spat at him.
"It's what you wanted." Picard said seriously.
"No, no. What I wanted was to be left alone from the very beginning, you couldn't do that though. You had to kill Jack, and it didn't stop there did it? Wesley was supposed to be killed by Troi, she didn't get that right though and he's still alive." Picard looked puzzled but she kept on letting out the fury that had been suppressed for so many years. "Yes, he's alive on that ship out there." She stood up from her desk and looked Picard squarely in the face. "So, you don't want me anymore and I have to like it? Get out of my sight, Jean-Luc. I despise you and can't bear to look at our deceitful face any longer." She turned her back on him and began to get on with her work- hoping that he would give up and go away.
Picard had been spoken to in some ways before- and usually killed the person he was receiving it from, but never like this, and he certainly wasn't going to stand for it now. He approached her and grabbed her arm, forcefully twisting it until she had to look at him again. She looked startled, as she had never been physically handled like this from him before.
"How dare you speak to me like that. I offer you another chance at life, possibly a better life than you would have had here, and you won't take it? Well, I won't give you another chance, you've blown it." With that he released her arm, took the padd off her desk and snapped it in two, he threw it on the floor. "I'll find a more inventive way to get rid of you or maybe I'll let the counsellor take care of you, you're not worthy of my attention." He spat out the words highly irate.
"Yes, well. I won't have to worry about her for much longer. I told you that if you ever got another woman and went off me, she had better not get sick. I'll leave you to work it out." She smiled malevolently as he turned on his heel and stormed out of sickbay.
Picard briskly walked up to the bridge, when he got there he saw that the counsellor and La Forge were waiting for him. He walked down the ramp and crewmembers saluted him. "Finished already, Counsellor?"
"Yes, I thought you wanted to get on with it."
"I do." He approached La Forge who was doing his best to stand to attention. "Having trouble standing, La Forge?" He asked, noticing his discomfort.
"Yes, sir." Geordi tried to speak but all he got out was a few strangled words due to all of the screaming he had done; his throat was sore and dry.
"We shall have to remedy that. Do you see that beam up there?" Picard pointed upwards. A small metal pole stretched horizontally along the ceiling in place of the observation window. Geordi looked up at it and nodded. "Well I haven't had time to use it yet, it's fairly new to the Enterprise but the principal behind it goes back thousands of years. We need a rope or cable." A guard went off to get one and came back with a length of optical fiber three meters long; he handed it to the captain. Picard took it and tied a noose in one end of it. He threw the other end over the pole in the ceiling, and put the noose around Geordi's neck. He hoisted Geordi up, not so much, that it would strangle him but just enough so that only his toes were touching the floor. He made a choking noise and Picard tied off the other end of the cable. Picard sat down in his command chair and Troi was sitting on his left. Geordi swayed slightly, hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the bridge command area. "That's better isn't it? You can stand up straight again, works wonders for your posture. I bet you feel much taller, don't you?" Geordi nodded his head as best he could. "You can stay there for a while to let people know that I won't tolerate disobedience and belligerence on my ship."
Troi smiled at Picard. "This is quite entertaining, Jean-Luc. I had no idea you could be as inventive. You really do surprise me sometimes."
"Well I do try to please."
Geordi tried to breathe but the cable around his throat was becoming slightly tighter. He couldn't take in great amounts of oxygen as his diaphragm was stretched upwards. He swayed slightly still facing Troi and Picard.
Everyone on the bridge were spectators for this new form of torture and looked on with great interest, taking bets as to how much longer they thought he was going to last. "Maybe I should get Dr. Crusher up here." Picard said to Troi.
"Why? Is someone sick?" Troi asked trying to be funny; it got a few laughs from around the bridge.
"Huh, not really. I thought she may give us a few tips on how to help Mr. La Forge breathe more easily, that's all."
"Well, if you insist. Dr. Crusher to the bridge immediately." Counsellor Troi summoned her over the comm system.
A few minutes later Dr. Crusher appeared, she looked at the scene in front of her in utter shock and made her way down to the command area. "You sent for me?"
"Yes, Beverly, I did. See how inventive I can be when I have to punish someone?" Troi grinned in the way she did when she was having fun at someone else's expense. Beverly looked at her then back at Picard with disbelief at the way he could behave sometimes.
"Wonderful, Jean-Luc. Am I here for a specific purpose or just so you can let me see that this is what you're going to do to me?" She glanced in Troi's direction again to see her grinning, never mind in a few more hours, she would be dead.
"Give me some credit, please... I would never use the same form of punishment twice." He faked a pained expression and made an action as though his heart was pierced. "I asked you here to see if there was anything you could do to help Mr. La Forge breathe more easily, without having to take him down of course."
"I can't help you there, he can't breathe because his diaphragm can't work properly." She looked over at Troi again who now had a pained, fake disappointed expression on her face. She was really becoming quite tiresome, and since Beverly reckoned she would be dead before the end of the day, she decided to say something. "You know, I'm really sick of your attitude, Deanna." She started to walk over to where the counsellor sat, listening to the challenge in her voice. Picard followed her with his eyes, quite amused. "I really feel like smashing your face in and getting rid of that stupid grin once and for all." Beverly said with such conviction and challenge; everyone on the bridge looked on with great interest now- the doctor had just sealed her death sentence.
Troi rose to the opposition and stood face to face with Crusher. Drawing her knife from the sheath in her boot and holding it pointed at the doctor. "Well, don't let me stand in your way. It sounds like a challenge to me, and yes, I do accept it." Crusher withdrew her knife as well and leapt for the counsellor with it. Picard quickly stood as Troi's chief bodyguard started to move forward from his position. Picard pulled the two of them apart from each other still amused at the scene that had just played before him. Beverly had offended Picard earlier and it would be he who would deal with her, not the counsellor. If he had let the two of them continue Troi would most certainly have killed Crusher.
"Ladies, please. We have other matters to deal with now. Mr. La Forge is still having difficulty breathing." Picard said gesturing to La Forge who was going very blue about the face. Troi sat down again and Crusher moved away.
"I can't help you, Jean-Luc." Beverly said.
"Well if you can't help me, I shall have to be a little more inventive." Picard stepped over to Geordi and withdrew his dagger- it was a lot bigger than anyone else's on the ship, being the captain it was his privilege to carry such a weapon. He looked Geordi in the face and lifted his dagger. "This won't hurt a bit, Mr. La Forge," he said as he cut his uniform top off him and let it fall to the floor in a heap at his feet, revealing La Forge's muscular torso. Picard motioned cutting him around where his diaphragm was located, and looked back to his CMO for advice. "You're a surgeon. If I cut him here, will he breathe more easily?" Picard asked, taunting her a bit more.
"No, the only thing to do is let him go." She was almost in tears as she tried to talk the captain out of harming the engineer any further. She ran off the bridge and Picard watched her go feeling discontent.
"Maybe she's gone to get some surgeons tools." He offered as a thought and shrugging his shoulders. "Not to worry, they won't be needed." He cut La Forge across his stomach with his dagger- he didn't make a noise. Picard did it again and again until he had mapped out a small grid shape; blood began to seep from the wounds. "Anyone for a game of naughts and crosses?" He asked pleasantly while Geordi bled on the floor. Picard got no response and so turned around and thumped La Forge in the stomach, knocking all of the air out of him, which wasn't much to start with. Picard yawned and cut the cord that held Geordi. He collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath, in total agony and wondering when it was all going to end.
"Oh, Mr. La Forge, don't worry, we're no where near finished with you yet." Troi informed him after listening into his thoughts again. Geordi lay on the floor in mortal agony and bleeding from the various wounds Captain Picard had given him, a tear came to his eye. He tried not to think too much as that would have only fuelled the counsellor with ammunition to use against him so he closed his eyes and wished he was dead.
A/N: Please leave a review. Thanks
Captain Picard sat in his ready room, waiting for Commander Riker to bring him a report on Geordi's findings of Data, from engineering. He looked up from his desk when he heard the door chime. "Come," he said as the doors opened and revealed Dr. Crusher. Picard stood up as she entered the room. "I wasn't expecting to see you, Doctor. Is there something wrong?" he asked as she approached the desk.
"Not really, I just brought the report you asked for and to see if Wesley could be relieved of duty for two days." Picard looked puzzled. "You were told about Wesley's accident weren't you?"
"No, I have not been informed. What happened?" Picard asked feeling concerned. They both sat down and Crusher told Picard about Wesley.
"So I'm not speaking as a mother but as a physician. Wesley needs time to recover; the trouble is that he won't listen to reason. I know I don't need your approval to release someone from duty on medical grounds but since I'm his mother he won't listen to me, that's how he got into this mess after all."
"Okay, Beverly. I'll order him to rest and relieve him of all duty for the next two days. Thank you for the report, I haven't finished mine yet."
"Well, I'd better let you get on with it then, Jean-Luc." The doctor stood up and moved toward the door.
"Beverly. Have you noticed anything strange about Data?" He asked, she would understand his reasoning for thinking Data was a different android, after seeing the duplicate Data's over on the other ship.
"Not really," she said as she turned back to face him.
"I don't think we got the right one, that's all." Crusher looked at Picard not liking the sound of that. The door chimed again. "That will be Commander Riker with a report. I ordered Data to be fully checked out in engineering. Come." Picard said and the doors opened this time to reveal Commander Riker.
"I'll see you later, Jean-Luc." Dr. Crusher said as she left Picard's office.
Riker entered with a grim face and handed Picard the report La Forge had given him. Picard read through it with great interest as Riker sat down. "So, there is no way to know whether he is Data until Commander La Forge has gone over the specs?"
"No, Captain. La Forge has corrected what was wrong with the android, so if he is a duplicate he will function in the same capacity as Data. It seems that we were lucky to get him checked out when we did. The android- Data had been altered and given a sort of self-destruct mechanism, we could have all been blown sky high."
"Yes I read that, Number One. Is Data back to duty now?"
"Yes, sir. I thought it was best since he has been re-programmed. We need Data's talents for this mission."
"Very well. Thank you, Commander." Riker turned to leave but Picard called him back. "Commander. Why was I not informed of Mr. Crusher's accident?"
"Sorry, sir. We've been busy lately and I didn't get around to writing a report."
"A verbal message would have been sufficient for now, Mr. Crusher is a bridge officer and you should have made time for at least that, Commander. Don't leave it this long the next time before I am informed." Picard rebuked, he felt like he was back in that other Picard's role now.
"Aye, sir." Riker said as he left the room.
Commander Troi and Captain Picard moved closer to La Forge. He turned around, shocked at who was standing behind him. "Broad, bring Mr. La Forge." Troi's chief bodyguard grabbed La Forge and they all left to go back to the agony booth.
It didn't take long to get to the booth this time as the captain wanted to get this part of the punishment over and done with. Broad shoved him into the chamber with the raised platform and Troi manipulated the controls again. "Start where you finished off the last time, Counsellor." Picard said and she complied somewhat reluctantly.
Geordi was again thrust up in the air by tractor beams and he immediately started to scream. The intensity of the pain was much worse than he had remembered, if that were at all possible. Troi and Picard stood enjoying the scene before them, as Troi put the level up to number eight. He cried out again. "Don't worry, Mr. La Forge. I shouldn't think you'll last much longer." Troi spoke but it was like a distant memory of what was once reality to Geordi. Troi laughed immensely happy.
Picard left the booth because as much as he was enjoying it, he had more pressing matters to attend to.
He walked along the corridor with Lieutenant Rice, Detaith had gone off duty and so his second in command had taken over. They went to Picard's quarters. The captain had promised a transfer for his chief medical officer, Beverly Crusher, and so he was going to write his approval for her- it was the least he could do. He sat down at his desk and began.
Back aboard the Enterprise on the other side of the rift, Captain Picard left his ready room and appeared on the bridge. Commander Data was at the ops position and Wesley was at the helm. Picard stopped when he noticed that Ensign Crusher was on the bridge. "Ensign Crusher. You've been relieved of duty for two days, why are you at the helm?" Picard asked, stepping over to him.
"Sorry, Captain. I was so bored I thought I may be allowed to sit here for a while."
Picard moved over to him. "Ensign, you are still recovering from your accident. I need a sharp officer at the helm incase that other ship makes a move and in your condition at present, that isn't you. Now you have the time off, so use it. Dismissed." Wesley got up and wandered off the bridge. Picard went to his command chair and sat down.
Wesley decided to go and see his counterpart, he told the turbolift to proceed to guest quarters. He got out on deck eleven and walked along the corridor to his counterpart's room. Two guards were positioned outside of the door.
Wesley walked up to them and asked to be let in, one of the guards informed him that no-one was allowed in without prior authorization. Wesley tapped his communicator and asked for Counsellor Troi.
"Yes, what is it, Wes?" She replied over the comm link.
"Counsellor. I want to see the other Wesley Crusher but there are guards on the door and won't let me in without authorization. Can you do anything, Counsellor?"
"Okay, Wes. I'll be down straight away, don't cause any trouble." She said in humour.
Deanna Troi met Wesley a few moments later, outside of the doors to the room where the counterpart was located. "Are you sure you want to do this?" She asked him again, it wasn't easy coming face to face with an exact replica of yourself- she knew from past experience.
"Yes. Could you wait out here though? I want to speak to him alone."
"I'm not sure that's a good idea, one of the guards will accompany you. No arguments." Wesley entered the room with one of the security guards. The room was dimly lit and Wesley could see that his counterpart was still in bed. He went over to him. He stirred in the bed and rolled over to see who his visitor was. "Where am I and who are you?" He snarled at Wes.
"You're aboard the starship Enterprise NCC 1701-D and I should think it was obvious who I am."
"What do you want? Have you come to gloat?" He asked, still angry at everything; or maybe this was his normal attitude?
"No, I just came to see if you were alright. I thought we might get to know each other. Maybe I could help you or you could help me."
"I'm fine, now anyway, thanks to my... your mother." There was a silence in the room. "What do you need help with anyway?"
"I thought you might have gotten to know your father. Mine died when I was quite young. I wondered if you could tell me about him, our universes don't seem to be that much different."
"Now, there's something we have in common. My father died when I was young also, he was killed- murdered in cold blood by Captain Picard who wanted to take my mother away from him. She foolishly went to him as well. I never got to know my father but I will avenge his death." He was silent for a moment. "How did your father die?"
"He was killed on an away mission while serving under Captain Picard." Wesley said, gulping at what his counterpart had said.
"Well it seems that man has a lot to answer for, doesn't it, in any universe? I don't think I can help you." The counterpart turned back over in his bed. "Unless... you get me out of here."
"I doubt that will be allowed. Do you want to go back to your ship?"
"Well where else can I go?" He asked hopeful.
Wesley didn't have an answer to that. "I'll send Counsellor Troi in, I think she wants to speak to you." Wesley turned and went out of the quarters with the security guard behind him. Troi was waiting for him outside.
"Everything okay, Wes? Did you do what you wanted?"
"Yes, I said you'd probably want to talk to him." Wesley said a bit disappointed.
"Well, I have to speak to the captain first. Come on, we'll go." They both headed off down the corridor as the guards positioned themselves outside of the door again.
Captain Picard sat on the bridge watching every move Commander Data made. He asked for continuous scans to be made of the ship on the other side of the anomaly, and to be notified if any changes occurred. Everything had been quiet for a while now; it was like a face off between the two ships.
Data pressed some buttons on his console and the red alert sirens blasted throughout the ship. "Evacuate the bridge, life support systems are off line." The computer said calmly as thick, black smoke was filtered in through the ventilation shafts, instead of fresh air. Picard started to cough as he instructed the computer to restore life support immediately. "Unable to comply," was the computer's response.
"Reassemble in engineering." The captain shouted over all of the coughing. Picard and the bridge crew moved into the turbolifts and Picard instructed the computer to transfer all command controls to engineering. As he exited the bridge himself he stared at Data still sitting in his position, there was nothing he could do to stop the android from taking over the ship. The bridge was soon clear of everyone except Data who remained at his post.
Data/Reval was now in command and his mission was well on the way to becoming a success.
He returned life support to the bridge and sealed off all turbolift shafts with the emergency bulkheads. Reval brought the controls back up on the bridge and moved into the helm position, he steered the ship into the anomaly and engaged at half impulse power. Reval sent a message to his ship on the other side of the rift, to inform them that the plan was going all right so far. Reval moved into the command chair and waited for further instructions from his captain.
Picard and the rest of the bridge officers got to engineering. "Mr. La Forge, I need my ship back." He shouted to him over the noise in engineering.
"Yes, sir. I'm doing what I can." Geordi rushed from one control station to another trying to get the controls back on line. "It's no use, Data has locked us out of the command functions. He has erected force fields around the bridge and has locked out all transporter functions. There is no way to get to him, we can find out what he's doing though." They moved over to another access terminal, which displayed the ship's status.
"We're moving, our heading is through the spatial rift." Riker observed.
"Yes but only half impulse power, we're obviously not in any hurry to get to where ever it is we're going." Picard replied. "Mr. La Forge, have you come up with anything from the scans you performed on Data?"
"Yes, sir. I finished just before you came down. It appears that Data, is in fact not the Data we know. He is an exact replica and it is extremely difficult to tell them apart."
"Then it seems that our Data is still over there and is probably the one I was sitting next to on the bridge, he seemed so different though." Picard sighed, mad at his lack of observation.
"Yes, sir but physical appearances can be deceptive sometimes."
"It was more than that though, his features and attitudes, even his composure were all so different." Picard explained.
"Then he was re-programmed, quite easy if you know what you're doing, and someone over there obviously does." Geordi told the captain. Picard started to pace back and forth thinking of what his options were. *****
Geordi screamed again, he was close to death and he knew it. "This is the final setting, La Forge. I'm surprised you lasted this long, maybe it was because you had a break in between, I don't know." Troi manipulated the controls again and the agony booth finished, Geordi fell to the floor with a hard thump. He didn't feel it though; all of his pain receptors had already shut down. "The captain wants you now- time for more fun. Bring him." She said as Broad lifted Geordi's body and they went off to see the captain.
Captain Picard finished what he was doing in his quarters and picked up the padd he had written Dr. Crusher's transfer approval on. He left his quarters with Lieutenant Rice in tow and headed for sickbay.
He entered sickbay a few moments later and entered his chief medical officer's office. Dr. Crusher looked up when she heard him enter and flinched inside slightly at the sight of him. "I didn't think you would show your face so soon, I must admit you have some gall." He handed her the padd. She took it, read it and threw it down on the desk in disgust. "This is supposed to make me feel better?" she spat at him.
"It's what you wanted." Picard said seriously.
"No, no. What I wanted was to be left alone from the very beginning, you couldn't do that though. You had to kill Jack, and it didn't stop there did it? Wesley was supposed to be killed by Troi, she didn't get that right though and he's still alive." Picard looked puzzled but she kept on letting out the fury that had been suppressed for so many years. "Yes, he's alive on that ship out there." She stood up from her desk and looked Picard squarely in the face. "So, you don't want me anymore and I have to like it? Get out of my sight, Jean-Luc. I despise you and can't bear to look at our deceitful face any longer." She turned her back on him and began to get on with her work- hoping that he would give up and go away.
Picard had been spoken to in some ways before- and usually killed the person he was receiving it from, but never like this, and he certainly wasn't going to stand for it now. He approached her and grabbed her arm, forcefully twisting it until she had to look at him again. She looked startled, as she had never been physically handled like this from him before.
"How dare you speak to me like that. I offer you another chance at life, possibly a better life than you would have had here, and you won't take it? Well, I won't give you another chance, you've blown it." With that he released her arm, took the padd off her desk and snapped it in two, he threw it on the floor. "I'll find a more inventive way to get rid of you or maybe I'll let the counsellor take care of you, you're not worthy of my attention." He spat out the words highly irate.
"Yes, well. I won't have to worry about her for much longer. I told you that if you ever got another woman and went off me, she had better not get sick. I'll leave you to work it out." She smiled malevolently as he turned on his heel and stormed out of sickbay.
Picard briskly walked up to the bridge, when he got there he saw that the counsellor and La Forge were waiting for him. He walked down the ramp and crewmembers saluted him. "Finished already, Counsellor?"
"Yes, I thought you wanted to get on with it."
"I do." He approached La Forge who was doing his best to stand to attention. "Having trouble standing, La Forge?" He asked, noticing his discomfort.
"Yes, sir." Geordi tried to speak but all he got out was a few strangled words due to all of the screaming he had done; his throat was sore and dry.
"We shall have to remedy that. Do you see that beam up there?" Picard pointed upwards. A small metal pole stretched horizontally along the ceiling in place of the observation window. Geordi looked up at it and nodded. "Well I haven't had time to use it yet, it's fairly new to the Enterprise but the principal behind it goes back thousands of years. We need a rope or cable." A guard went off to get one and came back with a length of optical fiber three meters long; he handed it to the captain. Picard took it and tied a noose in one end of it. He threw the other end over the pole in the ceiling, and put the noose around Geordi's neck. He hoisted Geordi up, not so much, that it would strangle him but just enough so that only his toes were touching the floor. He made a choking noise and Picard tied off the other end of the cable. Picard sat down in his command chair and Troi was sitting on his left. Geordi swayed slightly, hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the bridge command area. "That's better isn't it? You can stand up straight again, works wonders for your posture. I bet you feel much taller, don't you?" Geordi nodded his head as best he could. "You can stay there for a while to let people know that I won't tolerate disobedience and belligerence on my ship."
Troi smiled at Picard. "This is quite entertaining, Jean-Luc. I had no idea you could be as inventive. You really do surprise me sometimes."
"Well I do try to please."
Geordi tried to breathe but the cable around his throat was becoming slightly tighter. He couldn't take in great amounts of oxygen as his diaphragm was stretched upwards. He swayed slightly still facing Troi and Picard.
Everyone on the bridge were spectators for this new form of torture and looked on with great interest, taking bets as to how much longer they thought he was going to last. "Maybe I should get Dr. Crusher up here." Picard said to Troi.
"Why? Is someone sick?" Troi asked trying to be funny; it got a few laughs from around the bridge.
"Huh, not really. I thought she may give us a few tips on how to help Mr. La Forge breathe more easily, that's all."
"Well, if you insist. Dr. Crusher to the bridge immediately." Counsellor Troi summoned her over the comm system.
A few minutes later Dr. Crusher appeared, she looked at the scene in front of her in utter shock and made her way down to the command area. "You sent for me?"
"Yes, Beverly, I did. See how inventive I can be when I have to punish someone?" Troi grinned in the way she did when she was having fun at someone else's expense. Beverly looked at her then back at Picard with disbelief at the way he could behave sometimes.
"Wonderful, Jean-Luc. Am I here for a specific purpose or just so you can let me see that this is what you're going to do to me?" She glanced in Troi's direction again to see her grinning, never mind in a few more hours, she would be dead.
"Give me some credit, please... I would never use the same form of punishment twice." He faked a pained expression and made an action as though his heart was pierced. "I asked you here to see if there was anything you could do to help Mr. La Forge breathe more easily, without having to take him down of course."
"I can't help you there, he can't breathe because his diaphragm can't work properly." She looked over at Troi again who now had a pained, fake disappointed expression on her face. She was really becoming quite tiresome, and since Beverly reckoned she would be dead before the end of the day, she decided to say something. "You know, I'm really sick of your attitude, Deanna." She started to walk over to where the counsellor sat, listening to the challenge in her voice. Picard followed her with his eyes, quite amused. "I really feel like smashing your face in and getting rid of that stupid grin once and for all." Beverly said with such conviction and challenge; everyone on the bridge looked on with great interest now- the doctor had just sealed her death sentence.
Troi rose to the opposition and stood face to face with Crusher. Drawing her knife from the sheath in her boot and holding it pointed at the doctor. "Well, don't let me stand in your way. It sounds like a challenge to me, and yes, I do accept it." Crusher withdrew her knife as well and leapt for the counsellor with it. Picard quickly stood as Troi's chief bodyguard started to move forward from his position. Picard pulled the two of them apart from each other still amused at the scene that had just played before him. Beverly had offended Picard earlier and it would be he who would deal with her, not the counsellor. If he had let the two of them continue Troi would most certainly have killed Crusher.
"Ladies, please. We have other matters to deal with now. Mr. La Forge is still having difficulty breathing." Picard said gesturing to La Forge who was going very blue about the face. Troi sat down again and Crusher moved away.
"I can't help you, Jean-Luc." Beverly said.
"Well if you can't help me, I shall have to be a little more inventive." Picard stepped over to Geordi and withdrew his dagger- it was a lot bigger than anyone else's on the ship, being the captain it was his privilege to carry such a weapon. He looked Geordi in the face and lifted his dagger. "This won't hurt a bit, Mr. La Forge," he said as he cut his uniform top off him and let it fall to the floor in a heap at his feet, revealing La Forge's muscular torso. Picard motioned cutting him around where his diaphragm was located, and looked back to his CMO for advice. "You're a surgeon. If I cut him here, will he breathe more easily?" Picard asked, taunting her a bit more.
"No, the only thing to do is let him go." She was almost in tears as she tried to talk the captain out of harming the engineer any further. She ran off the bridge and Picard watched her go feeling discontent.
"Maybe she's gone to get some surgeons tools." He offered as a thought and shrugging his shoulders. "Not to worry, they won't be needed." He cut La Forge across his stomach with his dagger- he didn't make a noise. Picard did it again and again until he had mapped out a small grid shape; blood began to seep from the wounds. "Anyone for a game of naughts and crosses?" He asked pleasantly while Geordi bled on the floor. Picard got no response and so turned around and thumped La Forge in the stomach, knocking all of the air out of him, which wasn't much to start with. Picard yawned and cut the cord that held Geordi. He collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath, in total agony and wondering when it was all going to end.
"Oh, Mr. La Forge, don't worry, we're no where near finished with you yet." Troi informed him after listening into his thoughts again. Geordi lay on the floor in mortal agony and bleeding from the various wounds Captain Picard had given him, a tear came to his eye. He tried not to think too much as that would have only fuelled the counsellor with ammunition to use against him so he closed his eyes and wished he was dead.
A/N: Please leave a review. Thanks
