Phoenix Rising: Chapter 6

Logan showed Crusher how to turn the portable shield on and off and told her not to let them work longer than four hours at a time. Regina objected loudly but he was adamant that they take breaks to eat and sleep. A tired telepath was careless, and her own shield was too new to withstand the test of an uncontrolled mind. At this point in her recovery, Jubilee had very little control over any of her powers and could inadvertently smash Regina's fledgling shield. Better to take the time and do it right.

He knew he would be thrown out of sick bay when they opened the meld, so he left before they asked. He had an idea on how to find Argon but he needed help from LaForge.

He stopped in his cabin long enough to open his personal file and copy a diagram onto a padd. He erased the computer entry and made his way to engineering where he found the chief engineer rewiring the lateral phaser array control panel.

"LaForge, I need ya ta build somethin' fer me when yer finished with that," he told the blind engineer.

"What is it?" Geordie asked looking at the padd. "It looks like some kind of sensor but I've never seen one this intricate."

"It's designed to link to the brain of a human," Logan told him. "It'll help us find Argon."

"New technology?" asked Geordie.

"No," Logan smirked. "Very old."

"When do you want it?"

"As soon as ya can get ta me. Data should be able ta make the connections faster than you but ya need ta be there ta help him understand the diagram. Ya need ta have an agile mind to understand."

"Data has an agile mind," Geordie protested.

"He's a machine," Logan said. "Even if he self programs, he needs somethin' ta base the programmin' on. Most of this stuff hasn't been seen in the human world fer three hundred years, and even then, the technology was from a different galaxy. Even if ya don't think it'll work, build it exactly as I put down."

"No power supply?"

"Don't need one. I'm gonna route it through the main sensor array."

He left LaForge to ponder the insanity he had left on the padd and went to the Holo deck to work off some aggression. He stayed for over two hours, fighting holographic enemies, old and new. He started easy with ten Hand ninjas, defeating them quickly. By the time he got to Sabretooth, he was warmed up nicely. The fight went on for fifteen minutes before the holographic head rolled across the floor with a wet slurp. Five Borg drones replaced him.

This was the most dangerous part of the exercise. He had the computer allow the drones to adapt as soon as he took out the first one. The remaining four would need to be eliminated without using his claws. It took a great deal of skill and speed to pass this test. He was immune to Borg nanites but not to their strength. It took all his skill to avoid being tagged by the on-board weapons each drone was given and still get close enough to take them out. By the end of the session, all five were in scattered pieces strewn across the floor.

"Impressive," a security guard said from the door.

"Who are you?" Logan demanded with a growl, still somewhat feral from the exercise.

"Lt. Joe Thompson," he introduced himself.

"Whataya want?"

"I heard rumors that there was a mutant on board," he said, leaning against the bulkhead. "I wanted to see for myself."

"This ain't a petting zoo," Logan growled and gave the air a sniff. "What's yer codename?"

Thompson straightened suddenly. "How... ?"

"Can smell a mutant," Logan said as he picked up a towel and wiped the sweat from his face. "So, what is it?"

"I took the name of the first of my line; Cannonball."

"Do ya have powers like him?"

"Invulnerability when I'm blasting and lots of speed," Thompson admitted. "I'm not an External though."

"Ya fly?" Logan asked.

"Yeah," he replied. "What's your codename?"

"Wolverine."

Thompson's step faltered as he headed for the door. "We were told that we couldn't take the codename of a living X-Man. How come you did."

"Didn't. I'm the original," he told him as they left the Holo deck.

Thompson slapped himself on the forehead. "I should have recognized you. Your portrait hangs in the Danger room corridor at school. Scared the crap out of me every day."

"I'm gonna hafta ask Wetzel fer that flamin' picture," he grumbled.

"So, did you know the original Cannonball?" Thompson was almost skipping beside Logan.

"Sam Guthrie?" Logan asked. "Yeah, I knew him. He went ta another team when the mansion got too crowded. Knew his sister, Paige, better. She was friends with my partner."

"How did he die?" Thompson asked. "I always thought Externals couldn't be killed."

"Everyone can be killed," Logan lectured, "even me. Sam took the wrong woman ta bed. She repaid him by whacking off his head after they were through. I got the bitch in the end."

"She killed him after they made love?" he was astonished.

"They didn't make love, they screwed," Logan sighed. "There's a difference. Sam had been dumped by his girlfriend and was lookin' fer a body ta loose himself in. He picked wrong."

"Damn," he swore under his breath. Logan heard it just fine.

"I told the others that if they wanted to have sex with anyone outside the team ta let me have a sniff first. The casual sex dropped off right away."

"I'll bet."

"The kids were too embarrassed ta ask me so we had a run on celibacy."

"You have to admit, you're a little intimidating," Thompson snorted.

"Worked hard on that image," he said proudly. "I never got caught with my pants down like Sam."

By then, they had reached Logan's quarters. "I have some questions fer ya," Logan told him. "Come in."

They sat at the table near the window. "How many mutants are on board?" Logan asked.

"I'm not sure I should tell you," Thompson said suspiciously. "You're intelligence. They'd love to know all about us."

"I ain't gonna turn any mutant in, no matter what. It's too dangerous fer the ones serving. I just need ta know fer the mission I'm here fer. I know about one."

"Regina Williams?" Logan nodded. "She was in the class behind me. She's a very powerful telepath, maybe as strong as Xavier. She's the only other one I know of for sure. I suspect five others but I haven't approached them."

"Williams may know who they are but I doubt it. Yer school still teaches the value of privacy. She'd never invade another mind unless she had ta."

"So where does that leave us?"

"Ya give me the names and I'll sniff 'em out. Ya don't hafta talk to 'em, I'll do that but I need ta know. We hafta go up against Phoenix."

Blood drained from Thompson's face. "You're kidding, right?"

"I wish."

"She'll kill everyone," he whispered, frightened.

"Only if she's Dark Phoenix. I'm hoping that she isn't but if she is, I can kill her."

In the end, Logan got the five names. He wasn't sure how he was going to justify his trips to some of the areas he needed to go in order to contact the individuals, but he would think of something. In the mean time, four hours had passed and he needed to shoo Williams and Troi out of sick bay.

When he got there, he was surprised to see them sitting in Crushers office sipping tea.

"I'll be able to wake her tomorrow," Regina told him. "She's doing a lot of the work herself, without my guidance. She's evidentially done this before."

"Considerin' how many times people tried to probe her mind when she was a kid, I'm not surprised," he told her. "She's a strong one."

"We'll do one more session this afternoon, then I'll lighten the sleep hold and let her wake up on her own. You might want to stay in case she wakes up early. I don't want her to open her eyes to unfamiliar faces, she might panic."

"Ya don't want that," he told them very seriously. "She might blow and take the ship with her."

"Can she do that?" Crusher asked.

"She could at fourteen," he told her. "And she didn't have total control over her powers."

"Does she now?" she asked Regina.

"Not really," she sighed. "Her control centers took the hardest hit. She'll need to relearn control, and quickly."

"It might be safest ta do it planetside," he ran his fingers through his hair. "The ship can't contain her powers if she's still at the same level she was at twenty-five. I'll talk ta Picard."

"Do you want me to place a block on her powers?" Regina asked him.

"Might not be a bad idea. If the doctor can spare ya, I'd need ya ta come with us ta remove the block and help her learn control."

"Weren't you the one who taught her in the first place?" she asked in surprise.

"Nope," he said as he got up from the chair. "She taught herself. If I didn't need her fer this mission, I'd let her do it the same way, but time's a problem right now. I need ta find out what frame of mind Phoenix is in. If she's in an evil mood, I'll hafta take her out, quick."

"First we have to find her," Deanna said.

"Oh," Logan stopped at the door, "one more thing Regina. Have ya ever used Cerebra?"

By 0600 hrs the next morning, he was back in sick bay, sitting beside Jubilee. Her color was much improved and it looked as if Crusher was doing come modern medical magic. She had been able to add twenty pounds to her emaciated frame and stimulated her lax muscles to tone them. Jubilee would wake up near the weight she was at twenty and almost the muscle tone she was used to. He began to plan her rehab in his mind. He needed her to get back into the game quickly if they were going to live.

"Her shields are back up and her memories are in better order," Regina said from behind him. "She will still have problems accessing some of the more recent memories but her older memories, most especially the ones involving you, are intact."

"When will she wake up?" he asked quietly.

"I can wake her now if you wish."

"Would that be okay?" he asked anxiously.

"I would prefer to be here when she wakes. If anything goes wrong, I can put her back to sleep."

"Do it," he said as he picked up her hand.

Jubilee's eyes fluttered, then flashed open in panic. "I'm here, Jubes," he said quietly.

"Wolvie?" a small scratchy voice gasped. He took a glass of water from the table at the side of the bed and held it to her lips. She drank several sips before he took it away from her. She looked up at him in confusion. "Where are we?"

"We're on the Enterprise," he told her.

"The what?" she asked, confused.

"Enterprise," he repeated. "I know this is kinda hard ta believe but we're in space."

"Again? Is Lilandra here?"

"Darlin', the Shi'ar Empire fell three hundred years ago."

"I don't understand," she complained.

"I know ya don't. Yer memories are kinda screwed up right now."

"Ms. Lee," Regina said in a quiet voice, "I'm Regina Williams. You were attacked telepathically sometime in the past three years. Your memories have been scattered and twisted. You, me and Deanna Troi have been working for three days to repair the damage. You still have some work to do but I felt it best that you awake now and reconnect with your body."

"Are you a telepath?"

"Yes."

"She's one o' Chuck's kin," Logan told her. "She's got almost the same amount of raw power as Chuck but not the experience."

"How bad was I hurt?"

Logan and Regina exchanged glances. He decided to tell her the truth.

"It was bad, Jubes. Yer astral landscape was a desert."

Jubilee was so confused. Everything felt strange here. Even Wolvie felt strange. He looked older. He had gray in his hair for chrissake. What the hell happened to her? The machines in this lab didn't look even remotely familiar, and she spent her share of time in the Med-Lab. The last thing she could clearly remember way seeing Gateway in her bedroom on her twenty-fifth birthday. Why couldn't she remember? Why did Wolvie smell so strange?

Logan could smell her panic a couple of seconds before it registered on the biobed monitor.

"Jubilee?" he questioned.

"You're not my Wolvie," she said, her panic rising. "My Wolvie doesn't have gray hair. He doesn't talk like you. He doesn't feel like you.." She shoved him, hard. "Get away from me!"

"Jubes," he said in a calm tone. "I know yer scared but it's me."

"No!" she screamed. "You can't be Wolvie. You don't even smell like him. Where's the cigar smell? What about the leather? Wolvie wouldn't change that much in three years." She curled herself in a ball, tears streaming down her face. He reached out to hold her but she cringed and pulled away.

"Jubes," he said, his voice full of pain. "Please don't cry, darlin'."

"I want my Wolvie," she whimpered. She began to rock on the bed, here eyes, glazed and panicked.

A new scent floated to him that made his heart skip a beat.

"Gina, knock her out." he yelled to the stunned telepath. The biobed alarms began screaming in earnest. Her panic was causing her weakened heat to falter. Regina concentrated and Jubilee slumped to the bed, senseless.

Logan stood by her bed, shaking in reaction. He never realized how well she knew him. Without the familiar scents of cigars and leather, she couldn't recognize him.

"Are you alright?" Regina asked as she pressed a hypo to the girl's neck and triggered the drug.

"She didn't know me," he choked out. "She was my best friend and she didn't know me."

"Her mind is still pretty messed up and she's displaced in time." Regina told him gently. "The shock of how much you've changed over the years and the damage to her mind made her lash out at you. Give her time to accept that she isn't in the 21st century anymore."

The Sick Bay doors swished open and Picard and Crusher ran into the room. Crusher was still dressed for bed and Picard was in uniform. Both were out of breath. Logan took one look at them and left. He didn't need to see their reactions to what Williams was sure to tell them.

"Regina, what happened?" Beverly demanded.

"I woke her up to allow her to reconnect with her body," Williams told them. "She doesn't believe that Logan is the man he claims he is. She panicked and her heart faltered. I put her to sleep so she could recover more. Logan is not taking this very well."

"Didn't he expect her to have some confusion?" Picard asked.

"I think, underneath, he did. The problem is that he's in love with her and has been in love with her for a very long time. That she couldn't recognize him hurt him deeply."

"He still loves her after four hundred years?" Beverly asked, astounded.

"Apparently, yes."

"Is he stable enough, mentally to do this mission?" Picard asked.

"At this point in time, no." Regina told him. "And if she can't accept that he truly is Logan, I'm not sure if he will ever be stable again."