Here's chapter 7 guys! Read, review, and enjoy! I cannot thank you guys enough for your reviews so far. It helps me a lot to know that you care enough to take the time to do that, and that you like my story!

Chapter 7

Wesley Crusher screamed as pain worse then anything that he had ever felt before flooded through his body at the touch of a button by the Romulan Commander. His legs buckled, and he fell to his knees.

"Wesley!" Kathren cried, following him down and kneeling beside him. "Wesley?" Unable to answer her, Wesley only moaned, wrapping his arms around himself as he trembled in pain. Kathren looked up at the Romulan. "Stop it!" she begged. "Stop hurting him, please!" But the Romulan ignored her, glanced down at the control in his hands, and touched something on it. At the same time Wesley gasped, releasing a yell.

"No!" Kathren shouted as Wes continued to moan and shake, seeing that the pain had been increased. "No, don't do this to him! Stop!" But still the Commander ignored her; he poked at something else on the object he was holding. Kathren yelled in pain when her's was activated as well, sending her tumbling backwards.

Her jaw clenched, Kathren struggled back to a sitting position. Wesley was still on his knees, trembling violently. What now? She could barely think straight for the pain, much less think of a way to get he Romulan to stop. A surge of pain overtook her and she screamed suddenly, tears seeping from the corners of her eyes.

"Kat?" Wesley gasped, glancing over at her. "Are you okay? -AH!" Now even speaking was painful, and his question ended in a yell.

"I guess," Kathren managed to say back, gasping. Suddenly Wesley shrieked, toppling over and curling up into a tight ball on the floor. He continued to scream, his whole body convulsing as the pain throughout his body increased at the control of the Commander.

"Wes!" Kathren cried, moving towards him. Slowly, and painfully for both of them, she helped him sit back up, but he wasn't able to stay that way. The boy fell weakly into Kathren's arms, shaking like a leaf. Kathren winced at her friend's pain and her own, holding onto him. Soon the pain had reduced him to tears, and Kathren clutched her friend's shuddering form, angry at the Romulan for doing something like this to them, especially Wesley. She was also relieved that she wasn't in enough pain that she couldn't comfort him. Maybe holding him wasn't much, but it was all she could do at the moment.

Unfortunately, that was when the Commander turned hers up as well, and soon Kathren also lapsed into screams. The two teenagers clung to each other for dear life, the shudders racking their bodies threatening to tear them away from each other. Both were in so much pain that they thought the Romulan was going to kill them, that this was it, they were going to die. But that wasn't what the Romulan Commander had planned. To Wesley and Kathren it seemed like hours, but things stayed that way for several minutes, until the pain worsened to the point that they both lost consciousness.

Captain Picard sighed. Now the time since they had begun to try to pick up the trail of the Romulan Warbird had doubled, but still nothing.

"Captain," Worf spoke up. "I believe I have found them!" Every head on the bridge turned toward the Klingon.

"Yes?" the Captain said.

"There is a Romulan warp signature ahead; enough of one for us to follow."

Picard nodded as he turned back around. "Mr. Crusher-oh," he stopped as he remembered that Wesley wasn't there. "Excuse me, Ensign," he said to the young woman seated at the helm, where Wesley usually was. "Set a course to follow that signature."

"Aye sir," the ensign replied instantly, her fingers skipping across her board.

Picard started to look ahead again, but instead found himself glancing over at Beverly. Despite the fact that they now had a trail to follow, his slip had caused a crestfallen expression to come over the doctor's face.

"Don't worry so much," Picard said, addressing both Beverly and a worried-looking Troi. "It shouldn't be too long now before we find them. They'll be fine."

Kathren woke up on the floor of her compartment. How she had gotten there, exactly, she didn't know for sure, but her position seemed to be the same, so she assumed that she and Wesley had been beamed back to their cells. She sat up slowly, and with relief found that the only remnant of the episode in the storage bay was a mild headache.

Kathren turned to the window and found Wesley lying on the floor, just waking up. "Wesley, are you all right?" she asked.

"Yeah, I guess so," he said.

Kat gulped, remembering what had happened. "I hope they find us soon," she said, her voice not as confident as she would have wanted it to be. With this new development in the way things were going, she was feeling less and less so.

"Yeah," Wesley agreed. Then he sat up, but hit his head on the underside of the bench rather hard on his way up. "Oww!" he yelled.

"Wesley!" Kathren yelped in alarm. "Are you okay?"

His head pounding, Wes rubbed the back of it. "Damn."

"Wesley!" Kathren said in surprise.

He looked up at her sharply. "What?!" he said in annoyance.

"You shouldn't say that!"

"Oh yeah? And why not?"

"It's not a nice word."

"I know that! So what?"

"It's wrong. Saying things like that is wrong."

Wesley rolled his eyes. "Oh please. Everybody talks like that Kathren, wake up. What could possibly be that wrong with it?"

"It just is, Wesley," Kathren insisted.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Kat balled her hands into fists and growled in frustration. No one but her friends back at the academy knew of her faith. She'd been a little scared to tell any of her new friends, or even her family, once she'd realized how little-known and little-liked Christianity had grown by this century. But nevertheless, she had become a Christian at Starfleet Academy, because she'd known that it was what God wanted her to do, now that she knew who God was.

It had used to be much different, but not anymore. Unfortunatly by the 24th century most people, or at least most humans, didn't even believe that there was a God, much less believe that He sent His son to die for everyone. In this day and age it was hard to find Christians, and Kathren had been blessed enough to meet a few at the academy. Even though since coming on board she had continued to pray, read her Bible, and do her best to live for Jesus, she hadn't said a word about it to anyone, and now she felt guilty for not doing so.

Well, she thought. This just proves that I need to stop being a chicken and start witnessing. So she did.

"Wesley," she began. "There's something I should have told you a long time ago. And I really wish I had."

"What do you mean?" he asked, now looking thoroughly and completely confused.

"I'm a Christian."

"Huh?"

Kathren sighed; she could tell that he had absolutely no clue as to what she meant. And of course he wouldn't know. She'd known that. So, she took a deep breath, and dove in.

Starting at the beginning, she told Wesley everything. She told him of her Christian friends at the academy, and what happened there. Then she told him about what she believed. Wesley was curious, and eagerly she told him everything about her faith, loving being able to tell her best friend about Jesus and what He did for everyone.

At first Wesley had had ahard time believing that she was telling the truth, but slowly he realized that she was being serious, and listened in fascination as she talked, even if he didn't believe it for himself. Finally, after what must have been hours, and the lights had long since been dimmed, signaling ship's night, Wesley told her that they should probably get some sleep, but that he would keep in mind everything she had said. Kathren could have talked all night and started to protest, but looking around and seeing that the rest of the kidnapped teens and officers in the room were asleep, she realized that he was right.

Wesley and Kathren said goodnight to each other, then both settled down on their bench to try to get some sleep. Kathren prayed silently, thanking God for the opportunity to talk with her friend about her faith, and asking could they please be rescued soon. Then she fell asleep, dreaming of getting off the Romualn ship.

Hey guys! The part at the end, what Kathren and Wesley were talking about, was inserted so that something later in the plot would work correctly, and for other obvious reasons. (Fellow Christians should know what I'm talking about.) Anyway, the story will continue as usual in the next chapter. Also, if have any questions concerning what the two were discussing, feel free to e-mail me. For instance if what it was about confuses you and you want to know more, I would be more than happy to help. Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll have the next one up as soon as possible!