Chapter 36

El-Auria 2264

"Demetrius! Demetrius! Throw it to me!" She jogged up the hill behind him. Hara was always yelling orders at him. Just because she was eleven cycles and he was ten, she thought she was in charge. She was his best friend, but he didn't want to play right now. He wanted to be alone. Demetrius frowned and kicked the dirt, tossing the spinning disc high into the air. It fell back down from the sky, and wrapped obediently around his wrist.

"It doesn't want to play with you, it wants to play with me," he shouted back to her. "See?" he taunted, holding up his wrist to show her and sticking out his tongue. She made an insulting gesture toward him with her hand. The truth was the bright orange disc-bot wanted to play with whoever it was programmed to play with. It had originally been programmed to for his little sister to use, but he had re-programmed it so that it responded to him. She hadn't noticed it was missing yet.

"You're stupid," Hara yelled at him.

He shrugged and walked away from her. That was when he saw it. A sliver of light standing on top of the hill. It looked like a silver string, suspended in mid-air. As he walked toward it, the string began to spin and within moments it was a silver disc spinning in mid-air. He stared at it in awe, because it made his sister's disc-bot look like a baby toy. He walked slowly toward it.

"What is it?" Hara shouted, keeping her distance. "Get away from it, Demetrius!"

He reached out a quivering hand, stopping just short of touching it when he heard Hara scream at him again to get away from it. He spun around and pointed at her feeling a strangely exhilarating fury overtake him. "Go away!" he shouted at her.

She backed away from him slowly. "Demetrius…your eyes…they are black."

"So? Mind your own business, Hara, and leave me alone!" He waved his hand dismissively at her, and to his shock, his best friend disappeared never to be seen again.

"I do not know what to say to them," said the old man, wringing his hands as he paced back and forth. Guinan watched him with growing impatience, which of course she kept well hidden.

"Tell them the truth, Demetrius," she said. "Tell them your story."

"I just want to go to my home, teacher. It's been so long since we were there…together," he said, his eyes glistening with emotion. He stared out of the view port.

"Our people left El-Auria just a few years after you disappeared, Demetrius. Life there just wasn't sustainable after the Borg. They destroyed everything that was beautiful—everything that we loved. You know that."

"Yes," he said with a suddenly hard voice. "Yes, I do know."

Guinan folded her hands in front of her. "And so you must understand that there is no old home to return to."

"Then what am I to do? Stay a prisoner on this ship like the rest of you?" he suddenly snarled at her.

Guinan was unmoved. "Eventually you will make a new home somewhere. But none of us are getting out of this situation until we trust one another. To us this is no prison…it is our home. And right now, no one here has a reason to trust you, Demetrius. So you need to give them reason to. Right now they see you as a stranger who is possibly responsible for all of this."

"I am responsible!" he shouted, now visibly distraught again. He brought his hand up to his mouth and bit his knuckles in an attempt to stop them from shaking.

She moved to him and helped him to sit down. "Now, Demetrius, you and I both know that is not entirely true. But you do need to tell them what happened to you. And I think you need to tell them, as much as they need to hear it."

He looked down at the table and nodded slowly. Then something seemed to occur to him. "How is your friend?" he asked, too ashamed to look directly at Guinan. "The one—the one who was going to take my place."

"Captain Picard is going to survive," said Guinan resolutely. "But he may never be the same."

He dropped his head into his shaking hands. "They must hate me," he said in a low voice.

"We don't know you," said a gentle voice. Counselor Troi walked towards the table holding to cups of something hot. She sat down and pushed one in the direction of the old man. "Do you like chocolate?" she asked.

"I don't know," he said innocently, looking up at Guinan for guidance.

She clapped him on the shoulder. "You will…it tastes just like abul."

His eyes lit up. "Abul? That is my favorite food."

Guinan smiled before leaving them to talk.

Pritchard ducked down behind a huge boulder and turned his back to it sitting down. He holstered his revolver and looked at Guinan. "We're gonna have some trouble traveling incognito from here on in," he said.

Guinan gave him a puzzled look. "In cog...what?"

"Under cover," he offered, returning her gaze for a moment, and then shook his head. "Never mind" he said, getting up to look quickly again. He sat back down heavily. "They're bringing the railroad through here, Guinan. That means the hills are going to be crawling with railroad men, prospectors, and who knows who else, so we're gonna be noticed whether we like it or not. Which means no more sneakin' around."

"So what do you suggest?"

"We need a story...no one will believe a thing we say anyway," he said.

"So, if I tell people we meet that I'm an alien traveling through multiple dimensions, that won't raise any suspicion, is that what you're saying?"

"Alien?" he asked with a look of confusion.

"Never mind," she said.

He continued to stare at her and it was clear that his mind was at work. "Do you have any skills?"

"Well...I'm a teacher which certainly requires a lot of skill. And some say I'm a good listener," she added.

"No one is gonna believe a school teacher is roaming around the Black Hills. Especially with the likes of me…."

She shrugged and leaned back against the rock. "I'm listening…what's your plan, Pritchard?"

He rubbed his hands together. "Bill Loomey's loot. We've still got enough do dads and medicine bottles from those goods we heisted from him to convince toms idiot we've got something to sell. Just enough to distract them." He smiled widely as though very proud of himself. "That's it. If anyone asks, we're in sales."

"Sales?"

He grinned and put a grimy hand on her knee. "Trust me."

She smiled back at him. "For some reason, I think that will be the easy part."

Beverly yawned and got up from her hunched position next to the bed to stretch out her stiff back. Thankfully they had been able to move Jean-Luc to someone's abandoned quarters, so that he could recover from his ordeal in privacy. He was feverish, and she had only been moderately successful in bringing it down to slightly less than dangerous levels. But for now she was satisfied by his progress. His wound had been nearly fatal, and the amount of blood loss still horrified her. Being a professional she had attempted to remain objective, but it hadn't worked this time—not completely. She was too close to him now, and he had been too close to death for her to ever see him like she had before he had disappeared.

She sighed, sitting back down. His face was so pale; nothing of his normally hearty complexion was present. Even so he seemed peaceful now, and it set her more at ease than she had been earlier. She realized that she had never before been able to watch him while he was sleeping for any lengthy period of time until now. Granted, his sleep was chemically induced, but still….She reached out to trace her fingers down his cheek. "Finally, we're alone again," she said quietly. "Look at what we have to go through to get a few moments alone, Jean-Luc. Just doesn't seem fair, does it?"

"Unh," he mumbled, but his eyes did not open.

"Oh really?" She smiled faintly. "I'll take that as your agreement then. Maybe the one bright spot here is that we're not arguing for the moment." She leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead, before standing up again. She walked away from the bed toward the door, turning back to look at him one more time before she slipped through the door. Once out in the corridor she nodded at the security officer, who stood silently nearby. Then she froze. Something strange caused her to hesitate. She didn't want to leave him. She decided she would check on him one more time.

She turned and walked back in and then froze again. A woman was in the room with him. Her back was turned to Beverly. A bizarre purple halo surrounded the woman's slim figure. Something was so familiar about her, and yet her presence was almost frightening. The woman reached out to touch Jean-Luc's face.

"What are you doing here?" Beverly demanded, walking forward quickly. "Don't you dare touch him!" She reached out to grab the woman's arm, but her hand passed through it, as though she were a hologram. The figure stopped in mid-motion and then turned to look at her. Beverly brought her hand to her face involuntarily and backed up, bumping into the wall. She felt dizzy and the sound of her pulse pounded in her ears.

"I am sorry," said the woman. "I did not mean to frighten you."

"Y-you…." Beverly stammered, unable to get out the words.

"I know this must be very strange for you," said Orla. "If you would like, I can change my appearance to something more pleasing to you," she offered.

"Why—why do you look like me?"

The doors hissed open and Guinan stepped inside. Beverly turned to her, still in shock. "I see you've met my mother," Guinan said mildly.

Beverly's eyebrows shot up and she shrank back further, bracing herself against the wall. "What?"

"Mother," said Guinan, walking toward Orla. "You should not have come to us this way. Can't you see you've frightened my friend?"

"I wanted to see John."

Beverly's mouth dropped open. "John?"

"You knew he survived, Mother. You didn't need to come here to see him. Not in this way."

Orla smiled. "But I love him."

Hello, thanks for reading and for reviewing. I am glad to hear people enjoy this story. -PP