Chapter Five

Counsellor Troi reached out once again with her mind towards the mind of her unconscious friend. Once again there was little to no power there and therefore no images that could be detected- on the surface level that was. But Troi was now capable of much more, thanks to Selar's ministrations. Troi delved deeper into the unconscious realms of Beverly Crusher, and into a part of her mind where she had never been before; in fact she had never been this deep into anyone's mind before except her own of course.
She detected the power far below the surface of the mind, and she approached it carefully, so as not to alarm Beverly in any way that might make her retreat further back. She peeled back the inner weak barrier at the core of her friends' being so she could take a peak inside, and see if there was anything that she could do. She felt activity inside lined with feelings of turmoil combating some sort of induced restraint, and mixed with repressed sensations that were just beginning to re-surface, out of control. When the subject was at rest the mind was capable of such disorder, and when awake it was usually kept tightly under control, and in this case it was the former of the two.
Troi saw images deep below that she did not understand but then she hadn't expected to since she had never been capable of this level of perception before. Troi felt powerful now, she could influence her friends' mind and try to help her out of her state. She could but she would not because for complete recovery, Beverly's mind needed to rest and come to terms with the turmoil it was facing now. Troi's task was to figure out why she had fallen into a coma, and to try to restore the emotions and terminate the disruptive feelings that were wreaking havoc in her friends' inner being.
Troi began to feel something happen within the mind of her friend, more activity and stronger images were beginning to open up and reveal themselves to her but beyond that something dark lay. Something that she could just detect, it was buried very far below the surface and she had no idea what it was. "Well," she thought. "If I'm going to learn anything I should wait and watch." So that is what she did and as if it were some sort of a show, she received images that were very... informative.

Crusher was late for class, again. She felt sure that she would have changed her constant unprepared ways when she had been accepted into medical school. She had tried hard recently to be on time but it was just not working out, there was always something left undone that she had to do before she rushed out to where she was supposed to be. Crusher had been reprimanded a few times for her "anachronistic" manner, as one of her lecturers had put it, but she had never quite sorted herself out, and Kathleen was no longer available to help her.
Kathleen had been accepted into engineering school and no longer had any classes with Beverly, in fact they very rarely saw each other these days; except for the times when she and Jack ran into her and Walker at the café. The café had turned out to be a sort of reunion place for them now and they always tried to meet up at least once a semester.
Beverly had a good excuse for being late today though, and she felt sure she would not be punished for being late, again.
Beverly Howard had been walking for some time now towards the medical school, and away from the command school where she had been out late the previous night with Jack Crusher. She was still giving Jack dancing lessons and after four months of three lessons a week, he still seemed to have two left feet, she didn't mind teaching him though as it meant spending more time with him.
She had paused to allow a low flying shuttle to cross the path twenty meters ahead of her, which she felt sure was off course. The shuttle was coming down at a rather fast pace and began to wobble slightly as the inertial dampers started to fail, it crashed to the ground with a slight rumble as the engines shut down. Beverly hadn't even had time to react before the shuttle burst into flames. She reacted with haste now though running toward it with speed. Various other cadets milled around farther away than she was from the shuttle, and ran to get help when they saw what had happened.
She approached the shuttle and noticed that the two crewmembers were both unconscious and trapped inside. Her vision though was rapidly decreasing with the thick black smoke that was coming from the fire. As she got nearer to the door she saw an off duty cadet come rushing over to help get the crew members out of the shuttle. The two of them pulled hard at the door and with the third attempt it opened slightly to allow them to enter. Beverly burst through the door and headed for the pilot while the other cadet picked up the co-pilot, with remarkable ease, from her seat and took her out onto the grass.
Beverly struggled with the pilot but the helpful cadet came back to help again, and she was able to grab a medical kit before they all exited the smoldering cabin.
They dragged the survivors away from the shuttle as the fire suppression unit got to work in extinguishing the flames before they got out of hand. Beverly coughed and spluttered with the smoke while opening the med-kit with haste. She got out a medical tricorder to assess the damage to the two unconscious cadets. One just needed minor medical attention, which could wait for the medical team to arrive. The other pilot however was more seriously injured with head injuries and internal bleeding. She got out a hypospray and gave the cadet a shot of seratonin to stem the flow of blood and combat the internal bleeding. She rolled him into the classic recovery position remembering to check that he had a clear airway. There was nothing more she could do with the equipment at hand.
Beverly looked up towards her helpful cadet and asked what his name was. "Cadet Data, or just Data if you prefer." He had said with a kind voice and visible calm at what had just occurred.
"Well, Data. I must say that you handled that little incident with remarkable ease." She started to scan him with her tricorder to make sure that he hadn't suffered any smoke inhalation damage.
"As did you, Cadet." He replied, cocking his head to one side as he said, "It is not necessary for you to administer any medical treatment, Cadet. I am not damaged in any way."
"How...?" Beverly began to ask as she coughed slightly herself.
"I am an android and am able to function adequately when I am needed to in a crisis. The smoke did not affect me internally, as I did not need to inhale any oxygen when I was inside the cabin. I am capable of going without oxygen for a longer period of time than you." Data informed her.
"Well, you're definitely the kind of person to have around in a crisis then." The medical team arrived at that point and whisked the two injured cadets off to the infirmary while Beverly gave one of them a run down of what had happened.
A qualified doctor had come out of one of the classrooms to see what was going on. He was dressed in the usual science blue uniform of Starfleet and was the rank of Lieutenant. He was about thirty years old and was about Beverly's height. His hair was dark brown and he had a thick bristly mustache. He said that if Beverly and Data had not taken immediate steps to ensure the safety of the shuttle's crew, they would have surely been badly burned or even died.
So Beverly had arrived at the door to her lecture hall very pleased with herself indeed.
She knocked on the door and an immediate answer yelled for her to enter. Professor Raymond was on the other side and was the type of person that any excuse was not good enough for. He had dark piercing brown eyes and black hair that was peppered with grey, standing at a height of six feet it made him even harder to talk to. He was about fifty and had a brash Irish accent, when he spoke it felt like you were being put back into place at the side of the gutter somewhere. He was very imposing and not very easy to get along with. Beverly had him for anatomy and physiology.
His eyes turned to her and he stared as she entered the lecture room as quickly and quietly as possible. She had never been late for one of Professor Raymond's classes before and so did not know what to expect.
"Cadet Howard?" He said expectant. All eyes turned to her and some of her classmates looked down so as not to make her laugh involuntarily, and put an already volatile situation into a full blown eruption.
"I'm very sorry I'm late, Professor Raymond but if you would just let me explain I..."
"Cadet." He interrupted, "I know of your inability to come to lessons on time and let me tell you now that this excuse of yours had better be good. Well?" He said turning to her and putting his cane under his arm like an old-fashioned drill sergeant from the army.
"I assure you, sir, that there is a very good reason for my being late." She proceeded to tell him of the mornings events and he listened intently, smiling, at the end of her speech, in disbelief.
"Well, I thought I had heard some stories in my time but that one just takes the biscuit. Cadet, I really should commend you for your ingenuity but I shan't, sit down and see me at the end of the lecture." He began to turn back to his notes but saw Beverly standing where she was in protest. "Sit down, Cadet!" He yelled, but she stood her ground firmly. Her classmates looked to her in shock but she ignored them trying to come up with a good excuse for her insubordination.
"No. I will not sit down until you believe my story, Professor." Her face set in the grim, determined expression she had that told everyone that she would not stand down. The professor's face turned red as he accepted the fact she was not just going to go quietly.
"Cadet, you are making a grave mistake by defying me. I will not tolerate insubordination and while I assume you may get away with it with your other tutors, I assure you, you will not get away with it with me." She walked slowly toward him across the room becoming angrier by the minute.
"You have the nerve to assume that I am a liar, insubordinate and you will not tolerate it? Well let me tell you something..."
"Beverly, don't it's not worth it," one of her friends whispered but she hushed them with her hand.
"I have done exactly what I said I have. If you don't believe me then that's your problem and I'm out of here now. However I suggest that you check the facts before you assume things about me!" Beverly shouted back, giving as much as she was getting.
"Cadet..." There was a knock on the door and Professor Raymond called for whoever it was to enter. Beverly noticed a man step through the door; it was the doctor that had been there earlier that morning. If he had just come in then couldn't he tell the Professor and make him see reason?
"Doctor Quaice. What can I do for you?" He asked slightly annoyed that he had been interrupted for the second time that morning.
"I just stopped by to speak with one of your cadets, in fact she's right here." He stepped over to Beverly and held out a hand to shake her's. "Cadet I just want to congratulate you." Beverly looked puzzled. "The two crew members from the shuttle will be fine thanks to you and your friend. It appears that the shuttle's engines failed more than once and they had to make a crash landing. Thank you, you both have commendations coming your way in the near future, I'll make sure of it." He turned back to the professor. "This is probably a credit to you, Professor Raymond." He smiled at the professor who paled slightly at the realization that Beverly had been telling the truth all along. The class started to applaud her and she flushed slightly. "Well I must be going now." Dr. Quaice left the room and Professor Raymond turned to Beverly.
"Cadet Howard. It seems that I was mistaken, please accept my apologies and.... well done."
"Thank you, Professor." Beverly said and turned to sit down and join the class for the rest of the lecture.
Beverly turned to look behind her and noticed a woman she had never seen before, this woman was a little too old to be a medical student but she had a Starfleet uniform on and the rank of commander. She looked very familiar and she was staring at her. Her eyes were the deepest black that Beverly had ever seen before.
Professor Raymond began his lesson again and Beverly turned to face the front thinking that she would never be late for class again, since this time she was nearly on the verge of being kicked out of medical school. She really must learn to keep her mouth shut and control her temper.
When she turned around again the woman was gone but Beverly still had the uneasy feeling of being watched. She suddenly went dizzy and blacked out.

A/N: Thank you for all of the reviews so far, please continue to leave your comments. Thanks.