A/N: Looking ahead for a moment...I've been outlining the rest of my plans for this universe, and I realized I can wrap everything up in one more episode. So there will only be one more after this. But I'm always open to doing one-shots, if anyone has any ideas :-). I thought maybe it'd be kind of cool if you had an episode where you always wanted a different outcome or something like that. Anyways, let me know what you'd like to see! I love writing prompts, and any excuse to keep writing. But for now, back to the village of Almer...
"Mr. Elion! What happened?" Lorana cried. Carmen sucked in a breath. She could feel his distress grating against her empathic senses. Something had rattled the agent badly.
"It's Durand, my partner," Elion lamented. "He...he never came back last night. I've been searching for him since dawn."
The body on Shadow Ridge. Carmen stole a glance towards Troi. That must have been him.
"Come inside, come inside," Lorana urged, pulling on his arm. She guided him over to a chair that had been placed at an angle in the corner. "Jora-" she looked around for her daughter. "Fetch him some water, will you?" Dutifully, Jora nodded and withdrew. Once she was out of earshot, Lorana pulled herself up on a padded ottoman. "Mr. Elion," she said. "I'm terribly sorry about your partner. But what does this have to do with my daughter?"
"Hmm?" His mind, fraught with worry, could barely take in the woman's words.
Carmen squared her jaw. "You said you needed Jora," she said, a protective brusqueness in her voice.
"Yes, yes I did..." He combed his fingers back through his hair, which had been slicked down with sweat. "It's because she knows that jungle. She knows that ridge. I'd like to take her back with me."
Fret filled the lines of Lorana's face. "Out there?" she gulped. "I...I don't know. I need to speak with her father first." She gathered her skirt and hastened to her feet. "I'll be right back. Deanna, would you…?"
Troi nodded. "We'll stay with Mr. Elion," she assured.
Lorana left looking as though she were on the verge of tears. Within moments, Jora reappeared. She glanced around the room, taking silent note of her mother's absence. "Here you go," she said, holding out a glass of water to Elion.
"What? Oh, thank you." He took the glass and drank in deep, successive gulps. The refreshment seemed to calm his nerves. Slowly but surely, his distress began to recede from Carmen's senses. She let out a breath of relief. As a child, the emotions of others would easily overwhelm her. While the counselor was working with her to change all that, she still found the intrusion a taxing one.
After passing off Wren to his sister, Troi knelt down and cupped a hand over the agent's arm. "Where was Durand last?" she asked.
Elion slung his other arm off the side of the chair, dangling the empty cup from his fingers. "He said he was going to have dinner at the tavern and then call it a night. I just don't understand. Why would he go off alone? Why would he…" The agent bit his lip, torn between anger and concern.
The counselor's expression softened. She squeezed his arm in a show of support. Carmen knew that her Betazoid mind was far more sensitive, far more sympathetic. No doubt she could feel his pain as if it were her own. But the weight of such raw emotions did not encumber her as it did Carmen. In fact, the young woman often marvelled at Troi's ability to be both compassionate and prudent at the same time.
Elion sent her an appreciative smile. He set the empty glass on the ground and let his hand rest idly over hers. Carmen's lips twitched in contempt.
"One of Keeling's men went missing, too," Elion mused aloud. "I wonder if...I don't know. I wonder if there's a connection."
"Keeling?" The counselor masked her familiarity with the name.
"He and his team posed as officials from the High Court, said they were here to investigate the crash. But we were the only ones sent from Kitadara," the agent explained. "I found their camp and confronted them, and they seemed pretty upset about something. Kept asking me what I did with Gardener, where was Gardener."
Carmen heard Jora gasp at her side. She nudged her sharply.
"What happened to them?" Troi asked, hoping Elion hadn't noticed the girl's reaction.
"There was a scuffle. They got away, and...well, nobody's seen them since. Jora, I've been meaning to ask you-"
Footsteps clattered in the hall, interrupting his train of thought. Lorana had returned with her husband, Adren. Riker followed. At sight of the towering man, Elion pulled his hand back down to his lap and straightened in his seat. Riker's eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"Dad!" Carmen blurted out. It was good to see him again, she realized. Especially after such a long and disastrous night.
Riker's eyes fell on the young woman. A lopsided smile replaced the suspicion on his face. "Hey," he rumbled. "Feeling better?"
"What? Oh, uh, yeah." No doubt Troi had filled him in on everything. Carmen braced herself, waiting to feel his inevitable disappointment. But to her surprise, she found none. As the commander's arm wrapped loosely around her shoulders, all she sensed was relief-relief that melted into an abiding affection. She smiled and leaned against his side. "I'm feeling much better, actually," she whispered.
Nearby, Adren cleared his throat. "I'm sorry Carmen, but would you mind stepping out?" he asked in a tone more grave than she had ever heard him speak.
Jora balked at her father's request. "But why?"
Her mother took Wren from her arms. "You too, Jora. These are troubling matters. Hardly appropriate for-"
"It's alright, we can handle it," Jora insisted. "We're not scared or anything."
A hint of a smile eased her father's stern demeanor. "I know. But please-step out while we discuss a few things with Mr. Elion."
Now is your chance. Troi locked eyes with Carmen. Go and speak with her-see if you can find out what she's hiding.
The young woman nodded, pulling herself away from Riker's side. "Come on, Jora," she urged. Jora voiced her displeasure with a groan, but followed her friend away from the group of grim-faced adults nevertheless.
Stepping outside, Carmen squinted in the bright mid-day sun. A stifling heat wrapped around her body. Insects droned from the shadowy edge of the jungle.
"Can you believe that?" Jora retorted. "Treating us like a couple of...of...kids!" She sat down on the edge of the porch to sulk.
Carmen joined her, reclining onto her palms. "They were just trying to protect you."
"Protect me from what?"
"Elion said he wanted to take you back out there with him. It's a dangerous idea, especially now that a government agent has gone missing."
"I can take care of myself, you know."
Carmen laughed wryly, having never been on the other side of that statement before. "I know how you feel. Trust me. But...that's just how it is. A parent's job is to protect their child." Her mind drifted back to her argument with the commander, and when Lwaxana had tried to convince her of the same thing. With another wry laugh, Carmen realized that her grandmother's words had found their way onto her tongue.
A smile flickered across Jora's face, glowing briefly but brightly with a newfound solidarity. As Carmen smiled back, she became aware of a bond that stirred to life like a seed in a deep and wounded place. She winced, reminded of that which had been uprooted. Faces of the fallen came to mind, faces that had once looked at her with the same earnest devotion. Every time she lost another young recruit, she could feel her heart growing a little bit colder, a little bit harder, until any other seeds planted there could no longer thrive.
"Anyways," she said, clearing her throat and trying to clear her mind. "Did you hear what Elion said about that team?"
"Yeah…" Jora's brows knit together. "I guess that thing I found...it isn't called a Gardener, it belonged to a Gardener."
Carmen nodded. "I think you're right."
"What do you suppose they were doing here, anyways? You don't think they were...looking for somebody, do you?"
"Like who?" Carmen stared at her evenly. The girl began to squirm beneath the weight of her secret. So Carmen pressed her a little more. "Jora, have you ever found anything else out there? Elion sure seems to think you know something the rest of us don't."
The girl's lips pulled into a thin line. She reached down, playing with a rock near her feet. "If I told you...you'd keep it a secret, right?"
"That depends. Something bad might have happened to Elion's partner. If what you know could prevent others from getting hurt-"
"He wouldn't hurt anybody!"
Carmen's eyebrows shot up. "What?"
Jora grimaced. There was no going back now. "He said they never meant to come here. Their ship had been damaged when they flew past a bunch of space rocks and they crashed. He said they were on the run, that there were people who wanted to kill them."
"Did he say why?"
"No. He doesn't really like to talk about that stuff."
"Do you know where he is? How to find him?" Carmen's head buzzed with questions.
"I'm sorry." Jora grimaced again. "I know they're camped on Shadow Ridge, but he told me not to go up there. Says the others may not be as...understanding."
Leaning forward, Carmen rested her elbows on her knees. "Well what does he look like?"
"He looks...strange. His hair is black and short. His ears are pointed at the tip. And his eyebrows are weird, too. They aren't shaped like ours. They go up, like this." She ran two fingers across her forehead at an angle. "And the weirdest thing of all, his blood is green. I know because he was bleeding when I found him."
Carmen's heart pounded in her chest. She had seen entire battlefields bathed in green blood before, blood that she had helped spill. It can't be.
"But he's not like the aliens in Kadan's books, I swear. He's nice and he makes me laugh and he...he just misses his home. Do you think Elion would hurt him?"
"What?" Carmen's mind still swirled with the new revelation.
"Elion. Do you think he would hurt him?"
"I don't know," she answered honestly. "But...I don't think you should tell him."
"Okay." Jora nodded, relieved. "You won't tell anyone either, right?"
"No." This time, she did not answer honestly. She had to tell Riker and Troi as soon as possible. There were Romulans nearby.