Chapter 17

"Stop the train! Stop the train!" she heard the conductor yelling. Guinan raced forward through the train, slowing only briefly to grab her satchel which held her traveling clothes. Resuming her escape she ran until she reached the locomotive car. She found a ladder and flew up it as fast as she could, and then opened the hatch. Wind and the smell of burning coal blew into her face, as she pulled herself up and out into the sunlight. The sound of the engine was now all she could hear, but she slammed the hatch shut, knowing that she was still being pursued. She realized immediately that standing up was a bad idea, as she was nearly blown off the vehicle. There were metal grips alternately along the black body of the locomotive and she crawled along as quickly as she could.

Finally she ran out of locomotive to crawl along, and heard shouts behind her. Looking over her shoulder one of the junior conductors was holding an object into the air, resembling a disruptor. She almost lost her balance as he fired it into the air with a deafening blast. There were three men behind her now, and she stood to her feet. Seeing the first passenger car behind her, she took three big steps backward, and then ran and leapt in the air. She landed with a thud, and then ran forward not looking back again. The train had already begun to slow down, and she knew she would have to find a way to hide. She was armed still with the small disruptor inside her boot, but she could not kill everyone to escape. She was not here to promote violence, and from what she had observed so far there was already enough of it on this planet.

As the train began to slow, she had an idea. She glanced back at the men clumsily pursuing her. At the end of the third passenger car she stopped and turned to make sure they were looking her way. They shouted at her to stop, and she wobbled, pretending to lose her balance and slipped off the end of the passenger car. It was a risky business, as there was little room and many pieces of protruding mechanical pieces between this car and the next one over. She caught herself on a ledge, and gripped it tightly. "She's fallen!" one of the men was screaming. "The train's stopping, let's wait and then find the body." She closed her eyes momentarily and then, as she rarely ever did, asked Orla for help.

Opening her eyes again she looked down beneath her and could see the ground beneath her still moving so swiftly that it was sickening. She knew the men would be coming, so she quickly but carefully climbed downward until she reach the immense coupler that connected the two cars. Asking Orla for help again she gripped the coupler and then swung her entire body underneath it. She knew that only a few feet now separated her exposed back from the tracks beneath her. She heard shouts from above, and then the shouts became weaker—they were moving away. They hadn't seen her. Her arms ached, but she held onto the coupler with all of her might until the train eventually stopped after a few minutes.

Letting go of the metal fixture, she dropped to the ground, and crouched down. She heard more shouts, but this time from ground, and she knew they were still looking for her. "Mr. Quentin said she stole his prize ruby," said one of the voices. "If she ain't dead yet from the fall, she will be soon enough."

Guinan crouched down as low as possible and looked underneath the train. Her hands were slippery with grease, but she was able to grab a bar underneath the train car, and pulled herself up, wrapping her arms and legs around whatever she could. Water dripped into her eye but she held herself very still as the voices passed. "She must have fallen from this car at least a mile back," she heard the conductor say gruffly. "She's dead… that much is sure. But Mr. Quentin needs his belongings, which she stole from him. Problem is we are on a tight schedule you see. Send a message to the authorities and let's be on our way."

The voices faded again, and she waited until she heard the whistle blow and the now familiar huffing of the engine firing up before she dropped down and darted away from the train, keeping low to the ground. She leapt over a grassy bank just away from the tracks and took cover as the train began to pull away. Eventually she stuck her head up and watched it disappear into the distance.

She climbed back up the hill and then turned and looked all around her. Tall grasses covered rolling hills as far as she could see. The sun was dropping lower in the sky, and she knew her best bet would be to follow the train tracks all the way into Sioux Falls. But she had no idea how long it would take. Without the train, she had no idea how long it would take her to reach the Black Hills where she knew the third piece of the Other would be waiting for her. The star map was no help to her now. She could only hope that she could find some better form of transport, or her chances were slim. So far she had been able to rely on the generosity of others only to a point. Most of these Earth people, she had learned did not have her best interests in mind.

As she walked on through the late afternoon, the wind became cooler. As the sun disappeared the stars appeared and the orbiting moon Luna was so bright that she could still see her way forward. In awe of the beauty, and very tired and thirsty, she sat down cross-legged and stared upward at the stars, wishing, not for the first time that she was back home on El-Auria. It had been years since she had lived anywhere stable for long. As she became still she suddenly came to feel very unsettled. The air did not seem as fresh here as it had.

Standing up again she could see all around her the shapes of large objects. Some were dark, but many had bright white edges, emphasized by the glowing moon above. Turning, she could see the eerie shapes all around her. Not prone to fear, she walked toward one of the shapes until she was standing over it. The smell was now overpowering, and she covered her mouth and nose before peering closer. She realized now that she had observed these shapes from the train at a glance, not knowing what she had been seeing. Now she realized that she was now walking through an immense graveyard of dead four legged creatures. Some had a strange brown fur, but many had been stripped of this covering and lay rotting grotesquely in the moonlight, some were now just skeletons having been stripped of their flesh by smaller creatures. All around her the bodies lay and she wondered what could have caused this. Disease? Famine? Or had the humans whom she now walked among done such a senseless thing on purpose with their antiquated disruptors? Deciding she had seen enough, she continued walking on into the night.

"Are you sure you're going to be alright?" she touched his face where the gash from last night had faded to a light scar. They stood in the transporter room. Beverly had insisted on seeing him off that morning. She would join him and the rest of the command officers down on Kronos that evening. But for the majority of the day he would be in negotiations with Tomalak and Chancellor K'mpec. After the previous night's events she felt very unsettled and did not know what to think. She hated the fact that he was tied to an object that was causing chaos in his mind, which in turn was causing physical and psychic pain for himself and those around him. And she hated that so far there was nothing she could do to help him.

He averted his eyes. "Yes, I will be fine," he murmured dully. He was exhausted, but more than that he was terrified inwardly of how he might react in any given situation. He wasn't even sure what set it off; what caused the sudden changes in him. He knew he could not leave the damn rock behind on the Enterprise or he would bleed to death. It was like a parasite that refused to leave him. For the most part he still felt himself, but when he heard the whisper, something else took over in his mind and apparently also his body.

How was he to trust himself among the Romulans and Klingons, when he was expected to be sharp witted? He could not believe that he had injured Worf, who had only been trying to protect Beverly. Yes, Worf had been protecting her from him. It was unfathomable to him that he was a threat to the people he most cared about, and what was he supposed to do, give in to it? He had to resist, he knew that was the only way.

Beverly kissed him lightly on the cheek and then looked at him again. "Tell me what you're thinking," she said quietly.

He looked at her. "It doesn't matter," he said.

"How can you say such a thing, of course it matters! If we're to fight this thing and win-"

"No!" he objected backing up. "I have to handle this, Beverly. I am not sure it is even safe for anyone…but especially you to be around me anymore."

"Don't use this as some excuse to pull away from me now, Jean-Luc," she said in a low voice. "You can't do this on your own," she cautioned him. He looked away. She stared at him in frustration verging on anger, as Riker and Troi entered the transporter room followed by the rest of the away team.

"I have to go," Picard said and turned away from Beverly walking toward the transporter pad.

Not knowing what else to do, she turned and left the transporter room.