Chapter Eight

"Orions?" Squeaked Miranda. "How far?"

"Far enough."

"That's no answer. Why won't you give me a real answer?"

Drake wished they were aboard the Endeavour, where he was captain and could just issue orders and not have them debated. Military structure made things so much simpler. "We're nine hours from our destination. Alex assures me that the Orions won't catch us before then."

"Mr Drake," said Riker, "I know this area of space pretty well, and there isn't any system or station within nine hours of Mansfield."

"Where are you taking us?"

Susan was sitting next to Sarn on the common room's long, comfortable couch. She was playing with the Vulcan's yoyo, although she was even more inept with it than Drake – she couldn't even get it to go up and down. Winding the string back up again, she answered for the captain, "To the Graveyard."

Miranda focused on the child and asked her, "Graveyard? What graveyard? Do you mean they're going to get us killed?"

Sarn raised an eyebrow, completely baffled by what was being said around her.

Susan shook her head. "Alex will save us."

"Alex? She's been nothing but trouble since we met her. You're sure?"

"Yes."

"Captain?" Sarn asked, hoping that he could explain to her why an adult woman was taking advice from an eight year old girl, and how that girl seemed to know more about what was happening aboard ship than she did.

"Captain?" Frowned Lance. "I though Nain was the captain?"

Susan laughed. "Alex is a lieutenant."

Miranda's eyes widened. "Lieutenant? Captain? You're Starfleet!"

"Yup. He's Captain William Leonard Drake, she is Doctor Sarn, and she is Lieutenant Alexandra Nain."

"They're Starfleet?" Repeated Miranda, horror-struck. "Susan! Why didn't you tell me? We…we have to…"

She was suddenly the centre of attention, Lance, Drake and Sarn all staring at her, all silently demanding that she explain herself. She fidgeted and took a step towards the door, contemplating running – although where she hoped to go aboard such a small ship was anyone's guess.

"Tell them the truth," Susan begged her, more aware of Miranda's thinking than anyone else. "They're nice people. They'll understand."

"It's not that simple!"

Captain Drake spoke: "Susan's an Augment. The people who created her want to destroy her, and you're trying to keep her alive. And I'd go further to say, judging from your reaction to our profession, that it was Starfleet that made Susan."

Miranda seemed to crumple before him. Everything had gone completely out of control for her, and she was finally giving up. "How did you…?"

He smiled. "Normally I'd claim that I'm this century's Sherlock Holmes, but since Susan can read my mind I should probably be honest: Alex worked it out."

"So she did," agreed Kana, walking into the room with her hands in her pockets. "She can be quite clever sometimes. I seem to recall advising you not to mention any of this just yet, Will, but obviously that got ignored. Oh look, a new yoyo!" She bound across the room and snatched the toy from Susan, who didn't protest, knowing how much Kana enjoyed playing with such things.

"It just came up," said Drake, not liking her accusing tone of voice.

"Of course. Well, since we're talking about this, how about we get the full story? Hmm, Miranda? Want to fill us in?"

"I…"

"Please don't protest innocence. You're somehow involved in this 'person's' existence, and I know it. So save us both some time and fill me in. What was your job? Genetic engineer? Hair stylist? What?"

Lance stood up for his friend. "I don't know what you're talking about, but you'd better stop accusing her of things she can't have done! Miranda isn't a geneticist! She's a psychiatrist."

"Really?" Kana's eyes twinkled. "So that's it. They hired you to keep an eye on Susan. Make sure that her telepathy works, that her mind is stable, and that she doesn't have any plans for world domination. Sensible. And then, when your employees decided to end their project, you'd become so attached to little Susan that you risked everything to save her. Am I right?"

Tearfully, Miranda nodded.

Kana placed her hand on the woman's shoulder. "I'm impressed. Doubly so, in fact. Being willing to sacrifice yourself for another, and getting this far against some formidable odds. That's a very good achievement. Now, it's time to let someone else finish the job."

"You mean you?"

The second Nain smiled. "Yes."

"You're pretty full of yourself."

Susan chuckled. "She has every right to be."

"I love to have people on my side."

"No you don't."

"I'm not that fond of telepaths, mind," she warned.

Lance was more shocked than anyone to hear all of this – he had honestly had no idea what his friend had been involved in. "You told me you were working for Starfleet! Not this…this is illegal."

"I was working for Starfleet!" She protested. "A section of Starfleet Intelligence. She's right, Susan was a project. The Beta Intelligence Development Project. She's officially Beta-Two, the revised prototype. I…please don't ask me what happened to Beta-One. I wasn't involved in the project then. They…they called me in after they'd created Susan. Like Nain said, I was to monitor her mental health, nothing else. I wasn't even officially told what they were creating her for."

"If Susan's the Beta IDP, I wonder what the Alpha one was."

"Or the Gamma," said Kana.

Riker was still trying to get his head around what he was hearing. "What…? What were you involved in, Miranda? How could you be a part of that?"

"Someone had to take care of her," Miranda defended. "If I hadn't, they would have hired someone else, and I couldn't be sure my replacement would care about her like I do. Did…did you know…no one else on the project even named her! She was just Beta-Two, or BIDP. I gave her a real name; I treated her like a human being. I couldn't abandon her. Don't you see that?"

Lance wrapped his arm around Miranda's shoulder and hugged her supportively. "I'm sorry."

"I couldn't leave her. When I heard what they were planning…they were going to kill her! Lance, I'm so sorry that I got you involved in this, but I didn't know who else to turn to. She's like a daughter to me."

"I know," he soothed. But there was still anger churning up in him and he had to turn it on someone. "And you, Captain. What is your involvement in all this? What part did you play?"

"Nothing. I didn't know any of this until just now."

Drake would have made an excellent politician; when he spoke, people believed him. Unable to question the captain's veracity, Lance turned his ire on Kana instead. "You then, Nain. You seem to know so much about all this. How?"

"I'm a genius."

"You work for Starfleet. How do we know you weren't involved in this?"

"Oh please," spat Kana. "If I was working for BIDP I could have killed you all by now and achieved their objective for them. It would have been a simple matter to cut off life support from the cockpit. Notice that you're still alive, so I think you can take that to mean I'm not one of the bad guys. Besides, Susan can see into my thoughts. She could tell you if I'm someone to worry about."

"She isn't," Susan immediately told him.

"There, you see? No one on this ship approves of what Intelligence did. None of us are going to let them harm Susan or Miranda. If you'll just have a little faith in me, Lance, everything will turn out fine." She managed to make that sound like a threat, like the only way things could go wrong was if he didn't believe in her. He closed his lips, but he still glared at her. She didn't mind in the slightest; she was used to people being irked with her.

Kana tossed the yoyo back to Sarn and stuck her hands into her pockets. "We will reach the Graveyard in about nine hours, as you know. I suggest you all get some rest before then. Will and Sarn can show you to the cabins."

"What about you?" Asked Drake.

"I'll entertain myself in the cockpit; please don't ask how."

That got a few smiles, while Susan made an 'eww' face, but they didn't last. Kana walked out, swapping places with Alex as she went. The human paused briefly in the doorway and looked back, seeing a lot of tense, confused faces; particularly Miranda and Lance – their whole relationship had just been shaken to its foundations. She felt terrible for them.

She also felt that she and Will could end up in a position very much like that if she ever told him about Kana. One more reason to never do so.

"I think it's going to be a long night," she remarked, and then a thought came to her. "Hey, I never got that beer I was coming down here for."

She went back into the common room, collected half a dozen cans, and took them with her to the bridge. She figured that she had an awful lot of relaxing to do.

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"Lance?"

"Miranda. May I come in?"

It had been five hours since the revelations in the common room. The Starfleet captain and science officer were in their rooms, Nain was keeping an eye on things in the cockpit, and Susan was sleeping peacefully on the bed. Miranda had been napping in the cabin's small chair when the doorbell had woken her.

"Of course, of course." She stepped aside. "Just…shush. She's sleeping."

Lance looked at the slumbering Augment. She looked so peaceful, so harmless, and so normal. It was hard to believe that she wasn't human, not really. She had the power to read minds! How many people had dreamed of having that ability at one time or another, and here was someone who did. She seemed so small and helpless, but she had that hidden power. It made her incalculably dangerous. No secret could be kept from her. And what if…what if as well as plucking thoughts out of minds she could put thoughts into minds? Surely a strong enough telepath could do that? It stood to reason, didn't it?

What did they create? He asked himself. And why? Why? Augments and humans can't coexist. We know that. Oh, Miranda, how could you be a part of this?

"She's so beautiful, isn't she?" Whispered Miranda.

Lance couldn't argue with that; Susan was a pretty child, both physically and spiritually. That wasn't the problem. It was what she was that concerned him. "Wonderful."

Miranda seemed to know what he was thinking. Maybe he wasn't as subtle as he thought he was. "It's okay. She can't read our minds in her sleep; it's an entirely conscious ability."

"How do you know that?"

"Tests. Research. I spent years working with her. I watched her grow from a bewildered little girl into who she is now. I'm so proud of her."

"You're very attached to her."

Miranda nodded. "She's my daughter."

"Your…?"

"Not biologically. But in every way that counts. I've been her mother, and she's been my little girl. That's why I couldn't let them hurt her, Lance. Apart from everything else, I just couldn't let them hurt my little girl."

"I understand."

She looked at him sadly. "But you don't approve?"

"She's beautiful, and she's a lovely girl. But I don't like what she is."

"A telepath?"

"An Augment."

Miranda sighed. "That's become such a dirty word, hasn't it? When people say Augment they always mean Khan. It just means changed."

"Usually for the worse." He realised what he had said and sighed. "I'm sorry, Miranda, I didn't mean it like that. Susan's lovely."

"But you're sacred of her?"

He chuckled. "Tell you the truth, I'm more scared of Nain right now. She was acting strangely earlier."

"I know what you mean. I asked Susan about that. She just laughed and said not to worry about it."

"And that worries you?"

Miranda nodded. "She's being very secretive about Nain. As soon as we got to Mansfield she went off to find her, like she was expecting her. But she never mentioned Nain to me. And now she won't talk about her at all."

"I wonder what that's about."

She shrugged. "I don't know. I'm sure it's not important." She looked at the sleeping child for a while longer and smiled. "She's so beautiful. Lance, I'm so grateful to you for everything you did for us. Not everyone would have been so good to us."

He didn't know what to say to that, and settled on the old cliché, "What are friends for?"

"You know," continued Miranda after a bit of a pause, "I've always thought of myself as Susan's mother, I've said that. But she also needs a father, and…well…I always hoped that it could be…you."

Lance was caught completely off guard. "I…um…"

"Think about it."

He took her hands and kissed them gently. "I don't need to."

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From the tumbled cacophony of my dreams – it's such a strange place in here – emerges a kind of order; a flat stretch of ground in the swirling vortex of impossible dreams and chaotic thoughts. I land on it, my plunge through the horrors of unconsciousness paused. I pick myself up and look around, surprised to see that there is another figure now in this whirlwind of the mind. She stands watching me with her hands in her pockets, the twisting wind pulling at her long cloak and her spiky hair.

How has she come to this place? The inner sanctum of my mind. Even I rarely venture in here, only when sleep forces me to. There's so much information in my head. More and more and more than anyone ever expected: The scientists who built me, all of their secrets, all of their schemes, all in here; all the knowledge of their little section of Starfleet Intelligence; and that's just for starters. There are other things in my head, things that even I don't know how they came to be here. Like how I knew who the Nains were, and where to look for them. I've always known, but never known how.

It is one of the Nains who faces me now. I recognise her as Kana. She looks a bit different to how I see her in Alex's mind. This Kana wears a more elaborate costume than her regular self. It is still fundamentally the same, tight crimson trousers and a vest, a cloak over the top, but these clothes are leather instead of cloth, the trimming is real gold, an elaborate chain hangs around her neck, and gold rings and bracelets decorate her fingers and wrists.

I have seen her dressed like this before, in her memories. I wonder what the appearance of this Kana, in her old robes of office, means.

And if she is truly the diabolical Kana from the past, I wonder how I can escape.

She smiles at me and a harsh chuckle carries from her lips. "Hello, Susan. You seem so surprised to see me."

"How did you get in? Where did you come from?"

"When you intruded into my mind earlier I was able to use your own telepathic connection to sneak part of me into you. I've been waiting for you."

"Waiting?"

"Yes. Don't worry; I haven't been probing your deepest, darkest secrets. I have enough of my own without having to worry about other peoples'."

"Yes, I know."

The phantom Kana wags a finger. "That's actually what I'm here to talk about. I don't like your habit of prying into other peoples' minds. Well, I'll be more specific, I don't like you peering into our minds: Alex's and mine. We each have secrets that we don't want anyone to know."

"Everyone does," I say.

"Few have secrets like ours. Now, I am not debating this with you, Susan. You will stay out of our head. If you try to read either one of us, I will know. And the next mini-me I put into you won't be here to have a pleasant chat. Clear?"

I know that Kana does not make idle threats. I know that even a mental copy of her will be astonishingly dangerous. I push down my fear and acknowledge, "Yes."

"Good. So long as you respect our privacy, Susan, there is no reason why we shouldn't have a terrific relationship."

Kana and the floor beneath me disappear and I plunge back into the nightmare of sleep.

I miss her already.