Chapter 50
The Planet Glanau 2366
Mayer slowly got to his feet, the stun from Wesley's phaser having apparently worn off enough for him to move. He limped toward Wesley with an intimidating leer. "Why don't you kill me?" He suggested calmly as though it was a perfectly sane thing to say. "Because you know it won't be the end, Crusher... because you can never end me."
Wesley raised the phaser, hand shaking as he pointed it at the wiry, sinister figure in front of him. He licked his dry lips. "You probably think I don't have the guts..."
Mayer laughed hideously and then turned around to walk away. Almost immediately he was surrounded by a ring of light from the sky and froze in place facing away from Wes. Wesley looked up in time to see the Traveler appear next to him. Wesley started to exclaim his thanks, but the Traveler pointed at Mayer.
"Thief," boomed a voice from out if thin air. Instantly the tall grey alien who had confronted Wesley earlier now materialized with the same strange zipping sound next to Mayer. Mayer shielded his eyes from the bright light, but his legs were still frozen in place. The Jailor thrust his palm outward and the light formed into a small dome just covering Mayer. The Jailor stooped down from his considerable height to observe Mayer and his toothless mouth opened wide. "This temporary prison will hold you until we return to my dimension."
"You have no right!" Mayer snarled.
The Jailor clenched his giant fist and Mayer's mouth simply disappeared. "You no longer have the capacity for speech. Your prison term will be adjusted accordingly as determined by the Judges." He opened his hand and the dome turned into a globe with Mayer stuck inside. The globe floated upward over the heads of Wesley and the Traveler until it shrunk down and fit inside the Jailor' s palm. He closed his fist again then slowly turned to look down at Wesley.
"You now hold the key in your hand. You are a Shaper. Use the key."
"But I don't know..."
The Jailor reached down and covered Wesley's face with his hand. Immediately Wesley felt as though he was falling backwards, and then he saw a glimpse of the Enterprise engineering center. Captain Picard was rushing around the room trying to program a way to save his ship from destruction by an invisible threat only he could perceive. Then suddenly Wesley's eyes snapped open again and the Jailor was gone. He turned to the Traveler. "I know where I have to travel to...Will you help me?"
The Traveler nodded with a small smile. "Yes."
Deck 11
Lieutenant Commander Data crouched with Commander Patrick Obi in a deck 11 utility tunnel. The two officers had gone to attempt to access a Jeffries tube in order to try and repair the malfunctioning life pods. They had tried to repair the control panel inside the tube, but it had been too severely damaged by the spreading plasma fire.
Still holding the hyper spanner tool, Obi wiped sweat out of his eyes with the back of his cramped hand. The heat was overwhelming. "It's not working, damn it, and this hull is about to go Data. Once it does, were all dead."
Data nodded. "I do not think this panel is repairable,Commander. Perhaps we should attempt to override from the controls on deck twelve."
Obi looked at Data and gave him a half hearted smile. He wouldn't survive this. Somehow he knew this back when Riker had first explained the changing timeline. He thought of Johanna and wondered if he would see her again in one form or another. "We've only got minutes Data. You go," he said putting a hand on the android's shoulder.
"But, Commander, the efficacy of continuing to work on a panel that is clearly-"
"Data I'm ordering you to go. No time to waste."
Data frowned but backed out of the short tunnel quickly dropping into the corridor.
Once Data was outside in the hallway, Obi shut and locked the hatch. "Sir!" he heard Data protest,but it was too late.
Out in the hallway, Data hit his communicator. "Captain Riker, Commander Obi has locked himself in the Jeffries tube on deck 11."
"Patrick! Patrick get out of there!"
Patrick Obi blinked more sweat out of his eyes, and crawled as far as he could toward the far wall inside the utility tunnel. As he grew closer he could see that the inner hull was now glowing green, a sure sign that it had been compromised by the fire. He stopped at one juncture and could see the green glow of the plasma gas crawling his way. Two minutes to decompression and hull failure, the computer reported.
Obi came as close to the inner hull as he could without frying himself. "We need to cool it down in here," he said aloud. "I hope this works." He pulled his phaser and set it to a drilling mode. Sitting down with his knees tucked underneath him he fired the phaser at the hull, creating a circle just wider than his body. By the third pass with the phaser, he instinctively shut his eyes tightly. Goodbye.
The Bridge
Warning. Hull breach on Deck 11.
"Data, what's happening down there?" Riker demanded.
The answer came slowly, as there continued to be static with communication. "Sir, Commander Obi deliberately compromised the hull sir...I believe he intended to lessen the effects of the plasma fire...and he succeeded in doing so, gaining additional time. It is unfortunate that he lost his life in the process."
Riker shut his eyes. Too many lives had been lost.
Warning. Decompression in 10 minutes.
Data was right, Obi had won them a few more minutes. Riker ran to the ops station an began to type in a code. "Data, the cooling of the hull has brought some systems back online. I'll try and get the life pods from on decks 19 through 14 and you work on the rest of the upper decks from your end."
"Aye sir."
As Riker worked he was able to deploy the life pods on each of his levels one by one. When he was done, he paused and hit his communicator. "Data?"
"All life pods in levels 13 through 2 have now disembarked the Aldrin, sir. It remains to be seen if the occupants will survive, Captain."
"Think positive Data...it's all we have. Now get up here to the bridge. I'll activate the Captain's Boat from here."
Warning. Hull has been compromised. Two minutes until decompression.
"We're back here again," Riker said. He hesitated before reaching up to tap his communicator again. "Counselor Troi...come in...Computer where is Counselor Deanna Troi?"
Counselor Troi is on deck 16.
"Why didn't you tell me that before?" Riker shouted up at the ceiling.
Deck 16
Deanna felt the strain in her back as she continued to help Picard use a tool to pry the hatch door loose. Suddenly he put a hand on her arm. "Wait! Something's happened...look." The activation light on the door of the life pod they were hammering on had turned from red to green. "Computer what is the status of life pods 278 through 288?" he asked, stepping away. Deanna staggered backward into him, exhausted.
Life pods 278, 279, 280, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286, 287, 288 have now deployed.
Picard let out a sigh of relief and bent forward with his hands on his knees.
Ninety seconds until decompression.
"Deanna," Beverly called out from behind them. "Your communicator is buzzing."
Will. Deanna turned, not having realized her communicator had even fallen off. Now she rushed over as Beverly tapped the communicator with her finger. "Doctor Crusher here."
The reply was static-filled but instantly recognizable. "Beverly! Is Deanna with you?"
"Yes, Will I'm here!" Deanna. "We're all okay."
"Stand by, and hold onto each other. I'm going to try site to site transport from ops."
When Jean-Luc materialized on the bridge of the Aldrin the first person he saw was Data. He'd almost forgotten what the android looked like. His arms were still wrapped around Beverly and Deanna, but he let go as Will Riker turned from a utility hatch and waved them over. Seeing them again was surreal, but there was no time for a reunion yet.
Warning. Forty-five seconds until decompression. He pushed Beverly ahead of him as they rushed toward the entrance to the waiting life pod. He was the last one to the hatch, and fell to his knees as he began to phase. "No!" he shouted, reaching an arm out to Beverly who had just climbed inside with their child. She turned at his shouts. "Jean-Luc, hurry..."
He fell face forward onto the deck, and almost didn't feel the strong arms that reached down and lifted him up.
