Chapter 48

The young boy turned from the skylight with a look of wonder on his face. Guinan smiled at him. "What do you see, Demetrius?"

"Orla," he said with a glorious smile. "I see Orla and I am so happy."

"Good," said Guinan slowly. "We're going to need your positive spirit where we are going." She didn't bother to question how the wizened old man she had taken reluctantly from the Other's world just days ago, was eleven years old again. She had seen so many amazing things lately there was no point in questioning this one unusual development. But she couldn't help but think that this was one of the few truly good things that had happened recently. What it meant remained to be seen.

"What now, Teacher?" Demetrius asked her.

"The Earth people have an expression: 'going to meet your maker'. Well this may be as close as we are going to get without dying first, Demetrius."

The young boy raised his chin confidently. "I am ready," he declared.

They sat facing each other, each leaning a shoulder against the damp wall. Doulos' torches still lit the room, but the brightest light of all was still Picard. He continued to be enveloped in the strange purple glow; the one that Beverly now knew threatened to take him away from her forever. He stroked her cheek with his hand, sending a tingle of electricity through them both. She knew only part of it was artificial—the connection Orla had created between them. Somehow she wished it wasn't there anymore. They had their own connection; one they didn't need a supernatural being to interfere with.

He blinked and smiled at her through the purple fog. "The time is growing near when I will meet Orla."

She caught his hand as it caressed her cheek. "What are you trying to do to me? Don't touch me and then remind me you're going to leave me forever to be with Orla."

"I am only doing what I know pleases you, Beverly. And it pleases me too, to touch you. Even though I know I have to leave…I want to stay here with you."

"You want to stay with me because you love me," she said.

He shook his head as if to clear it. "I must join with Orla to stop the Other. And so…and so I cannot stay with you much longer." He rubbed the bridge of his nose and stared at the floor.

She sat forward on her knees and gripped his face between her hands. "Why do you keep saying things like this, Jean-Luc? You are the strongest person I know. You can do anything you set your mind to. I've seen it…." He stared back into her eyes, but she could see there was still something blocking his reasoning. They both knew it was Orla.

"But my mind…" he took a deep breath in, and exhaled shakily. "My mind is not completely my own. I want to stay with you, Beverly, but something in the back of my mind is telling me the only way is to join with Orla."

"That's Orla, Jean-Luc. That's her trying to influence you." She leaned forward and embraced him. "But I'm here, you don't have to worry."

His eyes clouded over again. "Orla has already set events in motion. She has foreseen that love will overcome the evil of the Other."

She pressed her hand into his chest. "Well then she's mistaken, Jean-Luc. Because she may believe that she loves you, but you love me. How is such a flawed plan even going to work? You know it's going to backfire."

He looked into her eyes and to her dismay his once hazel irises had turned violet. "It's no use," he said. "There is no other way, and he must be stopped. You know that. We only have very little time left together." He pulled her to him and she was inside the purple cloud that surrounded his body. "If I have to leave, please let me give you what you want right now." He pulled her forward onto his lap and rubbed the small of her back. She wrapped her legs around his waist and squeezed as their mouths came together. She moved her hips in a slow circle and he gripped the small of her back with his fingertips bringing her even closer as their breath quickened. He pulled her shirt up over her head, and dropped it to the floor.

"Guinan," Riker said for the eighth time. She stood staring at a wall. For minutes now she had been silent. "Guinan, you said yourself we've got to find a way to stop the Other," he said, when she finally turned to face him. She had removed the hat from her head and held it in her hands, turning it over and over thoughtfully.

"Right," she said.

"Well? I'm not just going to allow Captain Picard to be handed over to anyone as some kind of martyr. Not even to the good guys…Orla is the good guy isn't she?"

"Orla is good, yes. But she is misguided." She began to walk away.

"So, you're willing to just hand over the Captain to a misguided super being?"

"No, I'm not," she said. "Are you?"

"No!"

"Well…then I have an idea. I don't think it will solve everything, but it may be a start. Are you willing to let me try?"

Riker glanced around him with a perplexed expression. "Do I even have a choice?"

Guinan shrugged. "Maybe believing we have choices is almost as good as actually having them. Just like we are free to continue to believe this is still the Enterprise," she gestured around at the now unfamiliar surroundings. "Even when it isn't."

"Because there's a chance it will be again," Riker said with a note of defiance.

Guinan nodded. "That's right," she said walking toward Doulos' room, which was now occupied by Doctor Crusher and Captain Picard.

"Wait," Riker called after her. "I'm not sure it's a good idea to disturb them right now." She didn't seem to hear him, or if she did, she didn't care to acknowledge his warning.

It didn't last very long, and when it was over, they stayed in the same position, holding onto each other. Picard blinked and could feel that something had changed in the air. His mind felt clearer, and even though the purple aura still surrounded him, it no longer seemed to cloud his brain. She sat atop him with her head resting against his. His arms were still wrapped around her, but he moved one of his hands up over her back to push the strap of her bra back onto her shoulder. They hadn't really had the time or presence of mind to get completely undressed. She bent to nuzzle his neck, but her head jerked up startled at the sound of footfalls. He grabbed her shirt hastily and helped her put it back on, and Picard had just finished fastening his trousers as Guinan walked into the room.

They both stared at her from the floor, mouths open in shock. "What do you think you're doing?" Beverly was the first to express her outrage at the intrusion.

Guinan sat down at Doulos' table in the center of the room. She looked down at her hands. "I know it's very rude of me…." she looked up at them. "But I'm guessing my timing could have been a little worse."

Beverly opened then closed her mouth, then paused. "A little," she finally admitted quietly.

"What is it Guinan?" Picard asked, getting to his feet. He walked over to the table and looked down at her.

"So…Orla seems to think that true love can defeat the Other. She may be right…I am beginning to doubt she is. But assuming she's right, I have this idea to reunite Orla with her true love. Which we know is not really you, Captain," she said glancing over his shoulder at Beverly, who had walked over to stand behind him. "But the problem is I need both of you to accomplish it."

"And?" Picard prompted.

"And I also need a favor from Q."

What's happening?" Riker shouted at no one in particular. The truth was, no one really knew, as the colossal disk that had at one point been the USS Enterprise began to shudder and tilt at a sickening angle. A deafening rumble filled his ears. Riker felt his insides slosh forward as the screams of his comrades filled his ears. Bodies slid by him down the now nearly vertical deck, as Riker's own feet slid out from under him. Twisting his body he tried to sink his fingertips into something, anything in order to stop his free fall. Instead he slammed against the forward wall both hearing and feeling the crunch of his own limbs.

When Riker came to, the solid stone ceiling above them had disappeared, replaced by a transparent bubble covering a vast platform. Outside of the bubble lay a vast ocean of purple gases. A nebula? Were they here? Was this the Orla everyone had been talking about? Something told him that they hadn't quite reached their destination yet. Only Guinan would know, because only Guinan had been this far.

He looked around him as his head began to clear. He recalled dimly that Guinan had told him she had an 'idea'—not even a plan, just an idea-just seconds before she disappeared into the room with Doctor Crusher and Captain Picard. And now there was no room, and no sign of the three of them. The Enterprise was also nowhere to be found, and yet the entire Enterprise crew was around him, as though they had never been transformed and perverted by the Other. Some families huddled together, and others lay alone the platform seemingly asleep. Other crew members sat cross-legged and in a daze.

Glancing to his side he saw that Geordi LaForge and the Romulan officer Saris lay in each other's arms. Whether they were unconscious or simply too exhausted to move, he couldn't tell. Data was helping Wesley Crusher to sit up groggily. Troi sat holding her head, but she waved at him with a weak smile, indicating she was alright. Further away, Worf and Kehleyr were helping each other struggle to their feet. Just who did they suppose they were going to fight? There was no one to fight. Except maybe… him. Riker looked to the far edge of the platform and saw the large form of Doulos crouching down, hugging his knees. He looked battered and weak. No threat to anyone anymore, it seemed. And no one, not even Doulos, knew what to do, or what was coming next.

But when the tall figure cloaked in black robes materialized without a sound right next to him, Riker realized he probably should have expected something like this might happen.