Okay, here's the second chapter. Hope you like it. If you are reading this please review! I'm new here and I want to know what you think!

Chapter 2

Captain Picard sighed as he sat in the command chair. The Enterprise was rarely boring, but today it most certainly was. As of this moment the ship was cruising steadily at warp four. It had been that way for the past several days, and they were all ready for something to happen.

Suddenly, something on the viewscreen began to shimmer, and the captain knew that they had gotten their wish.

"Captain! Romulan Warbird uncloaking directly ahead!" Worf called from his tactical station. Then everyone saw it on the viewscreen.

"All stop, red alert!" Picard said immediately, standing. But the Romulan ship, to everyone's surprise, did nothing, or seemed to do nothing, but sit in space. Except for the wailing of the red alert sirens in the background, the bridge became silent, and as tense as a stretched rubber band.

Worf finally broke the silence, but the news he relayed was not exactly good. "Sir, the Romulans, have just attempted to beam several personnel off of the ship. Shields have been raised to block them."

Picard turned to face Worf. "Who? From what part of the ship?" he asked, and at the same time wondering why they had tried.

"It was not a specific place sir. It appeared to be teenagers and younger crewman. It also appeared to be somewhat random," the Chief of Security answered.

It clicked. They want prisoners. And they want prisoners that they can be relatively sure are fit. The captain thought in dismay, along with plenty of disgust. Because that could only mean one thing. But why? And why are they going after a Starfleet ship? Picard looked at Riker. He could tell that the Commander was thinking the same thing.

"Keep our shields up," Picard said to Worf. Then he sat down again, and fixed his eyes on the Warbird, ready for whatever happened next, for whatever the Romulans did. But soon a thought caused his gaze to drift down and to land on the young man seated at the helm, Wesley Crusher. Lt.Worf had said that some of the people that the Romulans had attempted to beam off of the Enterprise had been as young as teenagers. Those young people weren't members of the crew; they were civilians. Something had to be done to provide them with at least some extra protection. And there was only one thing that he could think of to do.

"Mr.Worf," Picard said.

"Sir?"

"Have all of the teenagers on board go to Ten-Forward. Have them stay there until the Romulans are gone and this threat is over. Make sure that as much shield power as possible is put into protecting that area of the ship, and do anything else you feel is nesscesary to ensure that none of them will be taken from the Enterprise."

"Aye sir," Worf readily agreed.

At hearing what the captain had ordered, Wesley glanced backward, but said nothing.

Picard made a shipwide announcement, and his order was carried out. Lt.Worf assigned security officers to stand guard both inside and outside of the Ten-Forward lounge, in the event that the Romulans decided to try beaming themselves over to the ship. Soon after that was done, something on Worf's console beeped.

"Captain," he said. "They are hailing us."

Picard stood again. "On screen."

The red alert sirens cut off, and the image of the Romulan ship disappeared to reveal that of its bridge and the face of its commander, who did not look at all happy.

"Lower your shields immediately," the Romulan demanded. "Allow me to transport who I want!"

"I can't do that," Picard said. This Romulan is not acting normally, the captain thought. He must be acting on his own, not on orders.

"You will, or I'll blown your ship to pieces."

"I highly doubt that," Picard answered defiantly.

The Romulan Commander scowled. "I mean it, captain. I'll give you a chance to lower your shields and let me take them calmly. If you do so I will leave your ship and the rest of your crew alone. But in two hours if you do not do that, then I will take them by force."

"And how will you do that when our shields are up?"

Now the Romulan smiled. "I have my ways."

The Romulans severed the link, and the commander disappeared. Wesley turned in his seat to look at Picard.

"Captain?" he said.

"Yes, Mr.Crusher?"

"Umm…" Wes cleared his throat. "Should I go too? To Ten-Forward I mean?"

Picard thought on that for a few seconds. It didn't take long to decide though, because Jean-Luc knew that Beverly would be both worried sick and furious if anything were to happen to her son. Shortly he nodded. "Yes, I think you should. But you may come back to the bridge once the Romulans are gone."

"Yes sir," Wesley said, not sure weather he should be happy that he would be protected in Ten-Forward, or disappointed that he would not get to stay on the bridge.

A few minutes later Wesley walked through the door of the Ten-forward lounge, and spotted Kathren seated alone at a table near him. She saw him as well and waved him over to her. Wesley made his way to the table and dropped into the chair across from her.

"How long have you been here?" he asked.

"Not long. You know, I started to object when Beverly told me that I should come here too, but that mother of yours settled that argument in two seconds flat!"

Wes grinned. "Yeah, I had a feeling it would go something like that."

Kathren rested her chin on top of her folded arms on the table. "I've only been here for about five minutes I think, but with almost nothing to do it's seemed like ten or twenty."

Doing the opposite of his friend, Wesley leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "This does look like its going to be a boring couple of hours, doesn't it?"

Kathren sighed, "Most definitely."

Then the two of them fell silent; both a little worried by what was occurring. Wesley stared out the windows at the front of the lounge. Normally they would have shown stars lazily flying by, but now they only provided a good view of the Romulan ship that was floating in space in front of the Enterprise.

Why didn't the captain think of that before he chose Ten-Forward? Wes thought. The view doesn't help any.