Chapter 52

Imzadi Altered


Aboard USS Hercules

November 22, 2377

4am

Lyta Alexander walked into the sickbay and saw Captain Riker standing beside his sedated wife. She had learned earlier that the first time that they had tried to revive Troi, she began to attack everything in site, and tried to take over the ship from the computer in sickbay. She didn't come close to succeeding, but it was clear that she had been changed. The ship's doctor could find nothing wrong with her, except for some heightened activity in the brain. So, as a last resort, Lyta Alexander had been asked to assist them.

She was joined by her newly returned beau, Byron. Riker glanced over at him cautiously, knowing about the story of his insistence for a homeworld for telepaths. Weeks earlier, he and his rogue telepaths had just showed up, thanks to the Legendora. As soon as he'd come on board, he had sought out Lwaxana Troi and asked about asylum for his rogues. The elder Troi put him off diplomatically and sent him to discuss matters with the Federation Council.

Lyta came up to him and asked, "I will try to be as gentle as I can, but I can't guarantee that getting at what Bester has programmed into her will restore her old self. Bester is well practiced at this, and I can only do so much."

Byron interjected, "Long ago, I was Bester's protégé, until I saw what kind of beast he was. It's a long story, but I learned that Bester thinks nothing of sacrificing normals, like you, Captain, or less powerful telepaths like Troi. He wants a war between our kind and your kind."

"But she's not human. She's Betazoid."

Byron scoffed, "Tell that to Bester and his kind. Like I said, he'll do anything he can to regain what he once had, and get vengeance on whomever he thinks has wronged him. If it means using your wife to get at the president and the government, then he'll do it and not think anything of it."

Lyta entered Troi's mind and soon found that Bester had not destroyed the original personality of Deanna, merely repressed it and contained it in a small part of her brain. She then encountered the installed personality, and found that Bester had been quite thorough in designing this new personality.

So, it's you! Bester said I'd encounter you one of these days, Lyta. You know you can't win.

You don't know what all I'm capable of. You have no idea of what the Vorlons did to me.

(laughs mockingly) If you try to rip me out, I'll destroy Troi and turn her into a vegetable. Or, I might even leave her and just turn her against Riker. That would be sweet in itself. Oh, all the chaos I could do!

Yeah, you sound like something out of Bester's mind!

I'm not from Bester's mind. I'm from Talia's!

Huh? But...

They simply took the programming that they had installed in Talia and implanted it into me. It was a rush job, so it wasn't as thorough as it should have been, but I can do enough damage to turn Troi into a babbling buffoon, and there's nothing you can do about it!

Oh, but there is something I can do about it... and Lyta dug deep inside Troi's mind.

They had to restrain Troi as Lyta scanned deeply, but carefully. She took out the programming that Bester had put inside Troi's mind. The implanted personality slowly began to die, and the real Troi began to surface again. Lyta could feel the joy of freedom that the real Troi was experiencing again as she snipped away the last of Bester's programming.

Hours later, Troi opened her eyes, blinked at the glare of the lights, and looked around. She spotted her husband, who was asleep in a chair,his arms supporting his chin as he sat reversed in it. "Will," she said, calling out to her husband.

Riker woke up and walked slowly to his wife. Lyta got up from her seat, did a brief casual scan, and nodded at him. He leaned down and whispered to her, "Good to have you back, Imzadi."

Troi nodded and whispered back, "I'm glad to be back! I'm not sure when I'll be back to normal, if ever, but I'll be ok."

Days later, Lwaxana and Deanna took a shuttlecraft back to Earth. For the foreseeable future, Deanna would be relaxing and vacationing on Earth, as well as going to therapy to help her deal with Bester's handiwork. Riker hated to see her go, but he knew it was for the best.
Now, he could concentrate on the work ahead.

Lyta and Byron joined him just outside the shuttle bay, and Riker said to them, "Let's get back to Deep Space Nine. We've got work to do!"

The two telepaths simply nodded and followed the captain back to the bridge.