A/N: Phew, sorry that this took so long! I hope you haven't given up on me yet! January has been a ROUGH month for us. I started training again after taking some time off for my concussion, then came home one night and couldn't remember which tooth brush was mine. So apparently I'm not out of the woods yet. Been having pretty bad headaches, so I haven't used the computer much. Or trained much. Which I hate because some of my partners are participating in a tournament this weekend and I wish I could help them prepare (I also wish I could go, but that's out of the question). Anyway, I know this all sounds like "excuses excuses" haha so without further ado, here's your next chapter, and I pinky promise the next one won't take so long!
Dee171-Haha thanks for the little kick in the butt! I buckled down and got this finished after seeing your review :-)
JWood201-Did I see that you posted a new story? Omg! I have to go to class now but I can't wait to read it when I get home!
Zara08-You win best pun of the day! Hahaha I am the biggest pun nerd. My husband is always rolling his eyes at me.
WIWJ-Lol!
Carmen lay on the brig floor, trying to breathe, trying to think, trying to grasp everything that had just happened. Several bodies-five, if she counted-littered the ground at odd and twisted angles. There was nothing graceful about the way people crumpled into lifeless piles. Picard alone maintained a sense of dignity in death. He lay on his back, one arm at his side and the other resting across his stomach. His legs were both stretched out, not folded beneath him like the boy's.
Toleel's eyes were still open, the horror of his final moments frozen in place. He was only a few years younger than Carmen. Just a child, really. Picard had pleaded for his life. He had even died first, in the boy's place.
Carmen's stomach churned. Wharton had executed them all right in front of her. Picard, Toleel, and the other two Romulan prisoners. Then he went for Carmen and Geordi. Now he lay on the other side of the brig, his blood seeping out to join the blood of his victims. Despite her hatred for the man, Carmen had not wanted to kill him. But she had to in order to save Geordi, the last living remnant from her father's days aboard that ship.
"Commander Riker?" A voice came through her combadge.
She swallowed hard and then answered. "What is it, Adler?"
"The Warbird is closing in. What do we do?"
Carmen groaned. Her troubles were not over yet. Just minutes ago, while Wharton was settling in to his new role as captain of the Enterprise, they had received a disturbing transmission. A Romulan leader, Admiral Alidar, announced that he was approaching Picard's coordinates just as the two had planned.
Picard, a traitor? Why would he lead the enemy straight to his beloved ship?
Carmen followed Wharton down to the brig in search of answers. But Picard took those answers to his grave, and now Carmen was left with five bodies, no captain, and a Romulan Warbird.
"Is Alidar here?" Geordi's shaky voice drifted across the brig.
Carmen's head whipped to the side. She immediately regretted it, for her vision spun with the motion. "How did you know his name?" she asked. Not once had Wharton called the Romulan by name.
"Picard had planned to meet up with him." Both of them winced at the mention of their former captain. Carmen shut her eyes to keep from looking over at his body again.
"Wh-why?"
"To send the Romulan prisoners home. Toleel is...was...Alidar's son." Carmen squeezed her eyes shut even tighter.
"Commander Riker?" Adler's voice sounded again.
"I'll be right there," she snapped. Then she rolled over to her stomach, pushed herself up, and willed her feet towards where Toleel had fallen. "Geordi-can you come with me? We need to tell Admiral Alidar what happened."
"Yes, of course. What are you doing?" He watched as Carmen slid her arms beneath the Romulan boy and struggled to lift him.
"I've left enough children behind. I'm sending this one home."
Should a Klingon warrior be struck down in the midst of battle, his soul would ascend to Sto'Vo'Kor. His body would become nothing more than an empty shell. And so Klingons abandoned their dead with a callous disregard that Carmen found difficult to stomach. It never felt right, leaving the fallen behind. Especially the children. She often pleaded for the chance to bury them, baffling her Klingon compatriots.
She wasn't sure what Romulans did with their dead. She only knew that this one would not be left behind to rot in a Federation brig. After carefully setting Toleel down on the transport pad, she folded his hands over his chest and tried to close his eyes, erasing that look of horror.
"No more children." Picard's plea resounded within her head. "No more children have to be lost to this war." Though it was Toleel's life he was begging for at the time, there was something in his eye meant for Carmen. She was sure of it.
For the longest time she hated him for turning her over to the council. He knew how they preyed upon orphans, snatching them up like scavengers who picked at the carcass of a once-great fleet. How dare he despise what she had become, what he had let her become.
She hated her father sometimes, too. How could he have left her like that? Didn't he know what would become of her? Didn't he care? During those final moments, did he even think of her? Or was he only thinking of how proud he was to die for a man like Picard?
Her chest felt like it was trying to contain a violent ocean. Her father always taught her that right and wrong were two different things. But somehow, everything had blurred together. She felt as though she were grasping in the dark, trying in vain to decide on a course of action that didn't make her feel like a monster.
But she was a monster. A monster for what she did. And a monster for what she did not do. It was because of her failure to act sooner, her failure to stand up to Wharton, that a magnificent man had died. Without Picard, the Enterprise was merely an empty shell. Just like the body she was sending home in place of a son.
When she arrived on the bridge, she found Geordi engaging the Romulan admiral on the viewscreen. He looked vaguely familiar, enough to give Carmen pause. Had she encountered him before, in battle somewhere? The more she studied his face, the more she saw Toleel. Perhaps it was just the resemblance that felt familiar.
And yet, she saw a quickly vanishing look of recognition in his eyes, too. "You…" he said slowly, his gaze following her as she approached Geordi's side. "What is your name?"
"My name is Carmen Riker," she replied.
His facial features tightened, wrought with pain. "You are the one who returned my son?"
She bit on her lip and nodded.
"Picard swore that he was alive and well. I was a fool, for believing him. A fool for coming here under his guise of peace."
"Picard is dead, too," she said, hating the words, hating how flat they sounded coming out of her mouth.
"There was a...an uprising," Geordi explained. "Picard had no idea it was coming. One of our own, Wharton...he turned on us."
"What does that have to do with my son?"
"It was my fault," Carmen blurted out. Geordi glanced at her sideways, but she ignored his beseeching silence. "I was right there. I had a weapon. I could have stopped Wharton sooner, but I didn't. Please...if you must be angry, be angry with me. Picard tried to do the right thing."
"Toleel's mother died when he was just an infant." Alidar looked away from the viewscreen, unable to stand the sight of them. "He was my world. My everything. The only reason I kept fighting this war was so that one day, I could go home and teach him how to be a man. Teach him what it meant, to be Romulan. Now I will never get that chance. I have been fighting all these years for nothing."
Carmen's heart broke for him. Had they met on the battlefield, she would have tried to kill him. But now, strange as it was, she found herself mourning the death of his people and the death of his spirit. She, too, felt weary of the war. A deep kind of weariness, one that transcended her body and seeped down into her soul.
"You can still honor him," Geordi insisted. "Honor him by helping us put an end to this war. We can prevent other people from losing their sons, their fathers. Picard dreamt of an alliance. He wanted us to stand together against the Borg, to find a place where peace and hope could survive in this universe."
For a moment, his words brought the old captain back to life. No, he had not betrayed them. He had only been trying to save them. To save Carmen, even. If she had known that earlier, if she could have just seen through her anger, she would have never let Wharton take control of the bridge. She would have taken her captain's place in front of that phaser, only thinking of how proud she was to die for a man like that.
"What do I care?" Alidar snapped. "I have no reason for peace. My son was shown no mercy. And so, no longer will I show mercy." His eyes swivelled towards Carmen, sharp as spears. "It has merely brought me grief."
"Please listen to us," Geordi begged. "There's still time-"
"Not for you. I will destroy your ship. I will destroy you all!"
The transmission ended.
"The Warbird's weapon systems are firing up," Adler reported, staring at his console in horror.
The soldier in Carmen woke up. Anything she felt for the Romulan was cast away, on the other side of her walls. "Order all pilots to their fighters," she said to Geordi. "We'll try and break down his shields. Give the Enterprise a chance."
"We?" Geordi echoed. "Carmen, you can't go out there."
The first hit rocked the floor beneath their feet. Carmen's arms shot out to catch herself. "I've never liked sitting around," she shouted over the klaxons. "Consider the bridge yours now."
"Look Carmen, those things that Picard said about you-"
"I don't want to talk about it!" She climbed to her feet. "Not until this is over, okay? My fighter is waiting."
They would never get the chance, and she knew it. The battle was a hopeless one for them. But she didn't deserve to die on the Enterprise like her father. Carmen remembered how some of the children used to talk about a place called Heaven, a place where they'd be reunited with their parents in the afterlife. The notion was not a comforting one to her. "I'm glad they didn't live long enough to see it come to this," Carmen thought as she climbed into her fighter. "In fact, I hope I never see them again."
"Come on, Carmen. Stay with us."
Her father's voice. Carmen felt the fog clearing. She was back in the Grolese cave, wearing the marks of Kotar's beating. And Jora's blue healing paste. The young Vakronian's eyes brimmed with worry as she hovered over her friend.
Someone else was with them, too. Toleel. Toleel had found them. And this time, she would not fail him. She felt certain that somehow, somehow, the Enterprise's survival depended on it.
At the end of Riker and Toleel's exchange, the commander laid out his plans. Jora listened carefully, trying her best to commit everything to memory. Suddenly her body went rigid. "Shhhh!" she interrupted. "Somebody's coming!"
Dr. Gardener rounded the corner, glancing from face to face and mirroring their surprise. "Toleel?"
"I had to know about my father," the boy explained, a little too hastily. "Surely you can understand." He ducked his head and then hurried past him, his footsteps pattering down the length of the cave. Gardener watched him leave, a hint of suspicion wrinkling his brow.
"You!" Carmen growled, eyes ablaze as she caught sight of the traitorous doctor. She rolled to her side and tried to sit up, but Riker urged her back down.
"He's a waste of time," the commander said, casting a pointed glare in Gardener's direction.
The old man winced. "I'm sorry for what happened to her. Truly, I am."
"Then why did you call the guards?"
Gardener looked down, absent-mindedly smoothing the front of his ruddy tunic. "I...I couldn't let Kotar think I had anything to do with your escape. You don't understand what he's capable of."
"I'm well aware of the Tal Shiar, actually," Riker retorted. "Carmen, that's enough!" He struggled with her as she continued to spit curses and threats at the doctor. Jora came to his assistance, placing her hands on the young woman's shoulder.
"Please don't get excited," she begged. "It's not good for you!"
Gardener inched along the wall towards Siko, trying to stay out of reach. As he started looking around for the blue paste, Jora picked up the empty bowl and held it out to him.
"Here. Sorry, but I had to use it all," she said.
A smile flickered across his face. "Quite alright. I'll just have to make some more."
"If it's not too much trouble…" Jora hesitated. She clenched nervously at her skirt, bunching it over her lap. "Do you have any mustelle moss I could use?"
"Mustelle moss?"
The young girl nodded. "For the fever. She's had heat fever for a couple of days now."
"I only have talmus root," the doctor said.
"You've been using talmus root? For blackweed poisoning?" Jora's eyes widened. "How long has he been asleep for?"
"Several days. Why? What's wrong with talmus root?"
"Quiet, Jora," Carmen snapped. "That man he's caring for...he's just like Kotar. It means nothing if he dies."
Gardener's tongue flicked nervously over his lips. "You're wrong," he said. "Siko is the only reason I'm still alive. If he dies, then I die. But if I can find a way to wake him up, Kotar has promised me employment with the Tal Shiar. It's our only option, you see. To join them."
"No." Riker shook his head adamantly. "There is another option."
The old man laughed, a mirthless sound from a mind that bordered on unhinged. "What, escape? He'll kill your daughter if you try again. And then he'll kill that one." He nodded towards Jora. "But I'm a scientist, and you're a commander. Don't you understand how valuable we are to them? Our knowledge of Starfleet gives us leverage. Gives us a chance."
"A chance at what?" Riker snorted. "A life of slavery within the Romulan Empire?"
Gardener's hands shook as he tucked the empty bowl into his bag. "Forgive me, commander. Perhaps...perhaps I am not as brave as you. But I am not ready for death. Not yet."
Riker stared him down evenly. "Make no mistake-bravery isn't the only thing that separates us."
The doctor had no reply. He merely stood over his bag, wringing his hands in shame. Jora placed her palm on Carmen's forehead. "Please," she said, softly breaking the delicate silence. "If you don't have mustelle moss, then is there anything else I can use? She's my friend."
"This mustelle moss…" he said. "It would help Siko?"
"It breaks fevers," Jora explained. "And it's stronger than talmus root."
"Where does it grow?"
The young girl glanced at Riker, as if for permission. "Rain Flower's Gulch," she replied when he said nothing to stop her.
"Where is that?"
"Next to Murberry Thicket."
Gardener pushed out a frustrated sigh. None of this information was helping him. "Could you show me?"
"No!" Carmen grabbed Jora's arm. "Don't help him!"
"You're very ill," she insisted, searching her friend's face worriedly. "I'll help him if it means helping you."
Gardener's eyes shifted back and forth between his patient and the girls. "Come on, he hasn't got much time. Guards!"
Riker shot to his feet. "I won't allow it! Jora, don't move!"
"I'm sorry, but it's not up to you," Gardener said, beckoning her over. The two guards appeared. "I will collect some extra for your daughter. It...it's the least I can do."
Jora dug a guilty toe into the ground. "I'll be alright, Mr. Will," she promised. "I don't think it's far."
Carmen struggled to her feet. The guards tensed, but Riker pushed himself in front of her. "No, don't! I'll take care of her." He shot a glare at the doctor. "And you take care of Jora. Or else the Tal Shiar will be the least of your worries."
Jora followed him past the guards, eyeing their strange-looking weapons fearfully. One of them followed the pair out into the rain. The other stayed behind, keeping his disruptor trained on Riker as he backed towards his post at the mouth of the cave. Eventually only his shadow remained, an unrelenting patch of darkness to remind them of their subjugation.
Riker looked over at Carmen, who had resigned herself to the stone floor. Slowly, a smile spread across his face. "Phase One is complete."