Chapter 22

Ten minutes later after arguing with a still groggy Jellico and enduring Mary's many interruptions, concerning various topics such as how he could possibly be the real Captain Picard who had disappeared at Maxia twelve years earlier, or who should be in charge of the Enterprise now given their equal ranks, Picard decided he had better things to do and he turned on his heel and went into Captain Jellico's ready room; much to Jellico's annoyance.

As he seated himself at Jellico's desk, he took a deep breath. His last message to Beverly had been sent from the run down shuttle when he was still on Earth. By now, he hoped she had reunited with Riker and was safe on board the Aldrin. Had she received his message? He'd sent it on a subspace loop just in case the connection was cut. He didn't mind that she hadn't returned his call yet. Of course they had both been so busy. But he worried.

Now, trying again, he was relieved to be able to find the Aldrin and establish a subspace link right away because the ship wasn't moving. He frowned to himself, wondering why they were still located in the Maxia system. The link-up took a moment and then a good looking chocolate skinned man appeared on the small view screen. He was looking down into the screen apparently from a command chair on a well-lit bridge.

"Enterprise?" the man said, clearly surprised to be receiving a message from Earth.

"Yes…this is Captain Picard."

To Picard's surprise the man got up from his seat. "Sir, Commander Patrick Obi here, acting Captain of the USS Aldrin. It's an honor to meet you, Captain Picard."

Picard smiled. "Likewise, Commander. Ah…but you did say acting Captain. Captain Riker is well I hope?"

Obi gave him a half smile and muttered something to someone next to him off screen. He nodded at the person. "He is sir," Obi said, turning back to the screen to face Picard. "But I have someone here you are more familiar with, Captain. Perhaps she can better explain the situation to you. I will send your transmission directly to the ready room, and she'll take it in there."

"Thank you," said Picard. He held his breath until the screen flickered again and a new face appeared. But it was Deanna, not Beverly.

Picard felt his heart do a flip of sorts. Where was Beverly. "Counselor," he said. "It has been too long," he said still extremely pleased to see this wonderful woman.

"Much too long, Captain," she agreed with a wide smile. "But you were hoping to see Beverly."
"Oh," he said, trying to remain casual and professional at the same time. "Oh it's quite alright, Counselor."

Deanna's smile remained, but there was something in her eyes that made his heart stop doing flips and drop.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "I trust that the baby is alright…."

"Captain, there have been… developments recently which required Beverly and Will to travel again into the past."

He reached his hand out to take hold of a tricorder on the desk, and he watched his own knuckles turn pale as his grip tightened around it. He struggled now to keep his tone even and steady. "What? What kind of developments?"

She hesitated. "Jean-Luc…Bok found out that you had reappeared and he re-entered the past to…to kill your former self. And so—"

"No!" He picked up the tricorder and smashed it into two pieces on the desk as he stood to his feet. "Counselor Troi I demand to know how you could permit Beverly to do such a thing. You are her friend. You know that she is pregnant, and how could you—how could you…how could she do such a thing?" He dropped back down into his chair. He stared into the screen and then pushed his chair back violently and covered his face with his hands. He turned away from her and for the first time since she had known him she believed that he might cry. He sat like that for half a minute while she looked on with empathy, saying nothing. But then eventually he turned back to her having composed himself, somehow having pushed any sign of tears back inside. It was an amazing show of control that perhaps was much more sad than an outpouring of emotion would have been. "Forgive me, Counselor."

Deanna smiled gently. "On the contrary, Captain, please forgive me. Perhaps you are right and I should have done more to stop her from going."

Picard shook his head, obviously still outraged, but again he kept it under control, just on the edge. "No, if there is one thing I know about Beverly Crusher it is that she makes her own decisions. She does what she believes is right. But somehow she's forgotten in this instance that what is right could very well kill her. And our child."

"Captain I—"

"No Troi, I have to go," he said. "I have business here on Earth. But I will rendezvous with the Aldrin in about 24 hours. If Beverly returns before then please ask her to contact me."

Deanna had barely nodded her assent before Picard cut the connection and the screen went blank. "I will say a prayer for the souls of any Malkatans he encounters today," she said quietly.

The Aldrin

"How are you doing, Wes?"

Wesley Crusher glanced up to see Geordi standing in the doorway of the nearly deserted mess hall. He shrugged and then looked back down at his uneaten plate of food.

"Want to help us put Humpty Dumpty back together again? Might cheer you up…." Geordi attempted to sound as cheery as possible, but in truth he was exhausted. Data had successfully deactivated CASU's auto self-destruct mechanism but now they had to reprogram the robot and they still had so much work ahead of them.

Wesley looked up at his friend with distracted irritation. "Humpty Dumpty?"

Geordi sighed inwardly. He had hoped this might be easier, but he could see that Wesley was really down. He couldn't blame the kid. First, thought Geordi to himself, we lose the Enterprise just months ago… Captain Picard disappears without a trace…then Wesley receives a creepy visit from his old friend the Traveler while catching up on some late night studying…then he comes out here to try and bring back the Captain, only to be left behind and confused by the Traveler…then his mom gets pregnant after visiting Captain Picard in the past, the same Picard who we're now trying to save again for fear that his disappearance from 2355 will mean he would be gone forever…and again Wesley has been left behind. So yeah, Geordi supposed the kid might be slightly depressed.

"By Humpty Dumpty I meant CASU," said Geordi, walking over to the table. "We found it deactivated in Dr. Mayer's quarters. Looks like she de-programmed it completely. And Data had to disarm a self-destruct program. We aren't sure if she shut it down because she thought she might die preventing Captain Riker from saving Captain Picard…or maybe she just didn't want CASU to intervene, but somehow she believes she won't exist in the old timeline—I mean the one we used to live in." He sighed. "You know this whole timeline thing is confusing as hell. I'm starting to wonder which one any of us belong in."

Wesley was still staring at the tabletop as though transfixed.

"Wes?" Geordi had seen his young friend like this before; when he was trying to work out a problem that no one else could possibly figure out.

"We're caught in a continuous loop," Wesley said as though speaking to someone in his head.

LaForge nodded. "I know, it sure seems like it, doesn't it?"

Wesley looked up at him and his eyes looked a little clearer. "No, I'm serious Geordi…we're in a continuous loop. Nothing we do to save the Captain is working, because the outcome will always be the same…eventually he'll disappear and the Malkatans will still be here." He got up from his seat angrily. "My Mom went back in time for nothing, Geordi. And she and the baby could die!"

"Look, buddy, I know you're having a hard time with this, but—"

"Geordi…we have to find the exact point in time when everything got messed up. That is the only way to ensure that the timeline is corrected and everything goes back to normal."

Geordie raised his eyebrows. "Is it just as simple as preventing Bok from traveling into the past and meeting the Malkatans in the first place? I mean, do we just have to find a way to make sure that the Picard maneuver happens no matter what?"

"That's what I thought at first," said Wesley, sounding extremely frustrated. "But what's to stop Bok from finding some other way to travel to the past and kill the Captain? Even if we found a way to make sure that Captain Picard can defeat the Ferengi ship that attacked the Stargazer in 2355—even if everything happens like it's supposed to, the motivation for Bok's vengeance will still be there, and he's so crazy he would try something like this again. There has to be more to this Geordi…I just know it."

Geordi stood there somewhat uncomfortably. He wasn't a counselor, but he knew Wesley and knew he was reasoning through the situation, and that doing so was helping open up his mind. So he just listened.