Chapter Nine

The group's search of the compound turned up no signs of the archaeology team though, given the circumstances, each of them had taken a compact phaser from the archaeologists' emergency stores. Picard was heading back to round up the slowly wandering horses when, behind him, Troi let out a startled gasp.

"Deanna, what is it?" Riker asked.

"It's Data!" she exclaimed, sharing a worried look with Riker before fixing her dark eyes on the research lab. "Captain, something is very wrong!"

"Can you explain, Counselor?" the captain ordered.

Deanna frowned in concentration.

"It was brief. I felt an intense flash of…anger, alarm— And now, I'm not sensing anything from him. Nothing at all…"

"Whoever attacked this place could still be here," Riker said, gripping his phaser. "If Data ran into them..."

"Come on," the captain said, and they ran up to the lab's sliding door, weapons at the ready. Once there, Picard made a cautionary gesture, and indicated Riker should take the back entrance. The commander nodded and hurried off while Picard and Troi slipped through the door—

—just in time to see a huge, hulking figure vanish in a sparkle of transporter energy.

A horrified shudder clenched Picard's artificial heart, and he gasped: "Nausicaans…!"

A bevy of traumatic memories threatened to assault his mind, but Picard fought them back. They were from long ago, educing the fear and fury of a previous encounter with Nausicaan raiders that had left a newly minted Ensign Picard with a knife jutting through his ribs, a synthetic heart pumping in his chest... But the Borg had done far worse to him, and he had survived. He and Data, both...

Picard scanned his eyes across the room, anxiously searching the wreckage for his friend's metallic form, and for any shadow or movement that could indicate the raiders were still lurking—

"Errrgghhhh…"

The groan came from somewhere under the scorched debris that littered the grated floor.

"That sounded like a woman's voice," he said.

"She's over here," Troi called, and the two of them picked their way toward the sound, raising their eyes as Riker stepped cautiously into the room, his phaser in his hand. At the captain's unspoken question the commander gave a brief, worried shake of his head.

"I'm sorry, sir," he said, "he's not back there, and he's not answering his communicator."

Troi turned her large eyes to the captain.

"Do you think... Could Data have been abducted too? If he's been deactivated, or transported out of communications range...?"

With Deanna's unfinished questions and all their distressing implications still hanging in the air, the woman groaned again and the three officers hurried to help, managing to shift enough wreckage to reveal a Klingon civilian only just flickering to consciousness. Dark magenta blood stained her long, tangled hair, trickled from her mouth and nose. Her leathery dress was charred, and her right shoulder and upper arm were all blackened and burned, probably grazed by the same energy weapon that had shot up the lab.

Deanna ran for the lab's emergency medical kit while Picard tried to keep the woman still.

"No, don't try to sit up," he said, wielding his commanding, cultured voice like the tool it was. "Can you tell us what's happened here? Why were you attacked?"

The Klingon was unaffected, and unmoved, by his concern.

"How the hell should I know?" she snapped viciously, pulling away from the human's helping hand and stubbornly pushing herself – with obvious pain – into a sitting position. "We are scientists, we have nothing here those brainless raiders could understand, let alone want!"

Picard pursed his lips, willing himself not to react to her anger.

"We're looking for another member of our party," he said. "An android. He would have come in here just a short time ago."

"If he came in before you dug me out, I did not see him," the woman snarled, wiping slick blood from her chin with the back of her hand as she surveyed the wreckage all around them. "Damn Nausicaan vandals…!"

Deanna returned with the emergency kit, pulled out a compact medical tricorder, and started scanning for the nature and extent of the woman's injuries.

The Klingon reached for the device. "I can do that," she snapped, but Troi moved out of range of her grasp.

"You're in no condition to move just yet," the counselor said firmly. "You have a concussion, and those burns are very serious. Is there a doctor or medic nearby-"

"I'm no invalid!" the woman shouted, forcing herself to her feet. She tried to take a step, but her legs gave out from under her and Riker was only just quick enough to save her from collapsing against a still-sparking console.

"Easy," he said, but the woman shook him off, baring her teeth in fury.

"I don't need your help, human," she snarled, supporting herself against the charred wall. "Captain Picard," she said, "Where is my daughter, and the Federation archaeologists? Are they still alive, or did the Nausicaans ambush them as they did me?"

Picard looked down at his hiking clothes, rather surpised to be recognized out of uniform. Their request to tour the site had included only names, not images.

"You know me?"

The woman snorted.

"Of course I know you," she said. "I have been aboard your ship. Or don't you remember the incident with that Ferengi scientist and his experiments with metaphasic shields?"

"Of course..." Picard realized, beginning to recognize her features beneath the blood and soot. "Then, you must be Kurak. Or...is it Dr. Kurak?"

"It would be, were I a Federation scientist," the woman growled darkly. "In the Klingon Empire, however, the use of academic titles is highly uncommon. I am, therefore, simply Kurak. And you have not answered my question, Captain. Where is my daughter, and the others?"

"I'm afraid you are the only one we have so far been able to locate," Picard told her. "But, I do have...somber news. Outside, we identified the...the remains of a woman, and evidence indicating that the child with her had been abducted."

Kurak closed her eyes, wrapping her arms tightly around her ribs. Troi winced at the burning spikes of agony the movement caused her, but the the woman seemed unaffected.

"Then, you think they have taken her," the Klingon said calmly. "That the Nausicaans have stolen my daughter. For what reason?"

"I don't know," Picard said. "But, if they have taken your daughter, it's likely she is not alone. Commander Data-"

"Yes, yes, you mentioned your android has gone missing as well," Kurak said brusquely, and opened her eyes. "You believe it possible they are being held together?"

"We don't yet have enough information to speculate," Picard said. "But, if Data and your daughter are together, you have little to worry about. Data is...an exceptionally resourceful man. And he has proven himself to have quite an affinity for children."

Kurak grunted low in her throat and squeezed her ribs even tighter.

"We have a small medical clinic near the exercise facility," she said, her words rough with pain and effort. She glared up at Riker. "Take me there."

To Be Continued…

References include: Tapestry; Suspicions; Best of Both Worlds I/II; The Offspring; Pen Pals; Hero Worship; First Contact (movie).

Next time: What has happened to Data? Why did the Nausicaans attack? Please review! :)