Disclaimer: As if anyone who reads this thinks I could possibly own any rights to anything ST:TNG related…haha you are wrong. I own nothing. Names, references and anything else I missed belong to someone else.
Note: I have been in Iraq for some time and just came back to Hawaii (my duty station) to have surgery because I my arm got messed up in Iraq due to nerve damage. So, I will try to update more since I am on medical leave. Thanks to everyone for reading.
Nothing was said between the two for the rest of the night. Both tried to sleep. But even at opposite ends of Sickbay they still felt each other's presence as if they were right beside each other. As soon as Beverly came in that morning Troi bolted for the door not even saying a 'Good Morning' to her best friend. While Troi and Riker were dealing with their past, the rest of the Enterprise carried on around them in almost perfect order. Geordi and Data were doing their usual scans in Engineering. Captain Picard was sitting at the helm pleased that he was not involved in any sort of intergalactic conflicts. Beverly attended to Will in sickbay. The only person besides those two who wasn't having a good day was Worf.
How could Deanna decide it to be a good idea to stay the night with him? What does it matter if he can't sleep? Worf cussed him a few words and went back to his work going over new defense skills for the Enterprise and her crew. Deanna had not tried to talk to him at all today. He was starting to become very aggravated with her. She still owed him an apology.
Deanna went about her day attending to her counseling appointments. She was very distant the whole day. She had already seen two people who were having problems from missing Earth. She saw a man who had unresolved issues with his mother and her current patient was a little girl was afraid of the dark.
"Why are you afraid of the dark, Tassie?" She asked trying to sound concerned.
"Because bad things live in the dark," the young girl responded, "aren't you afraid of anything Counselor Troi?" The question interrupted Deanna's thoughts. Of course Deanna was afraid of things, everyone was.
"Yes, Tassie I am afraid of things too but we are here to talk about you honey." She hoped the little girl would try and focus on herself.
"My dad says there is nothing in the dark but I think there is sometimes. He doesn't believe me though. I want a glow light but my dad won't let me have one. Could you talk to him for me?" She looked like she was about to cry.
"Of course Tassie I will be glad to talk to your father for you. You about ready to end our session for today?" She agreed and Deanna used the comm. to get Tassie's dad to pick her up. Deanna's last appointment cancelled so she decided to catch up on some reports before her shift on the bridge. The little girl's question stuck with her though. What am I afraid of really she pondered. She was afraid of the answer more than anything. She was even more afraid because she knew she had to see Worf in a second.
Troi made her way down the corridor to Worf's room, their room. She entered the code and walked in. It looked like it always did with all of Worf's battle armor on the walls and the personal touches throughout the rest of the apartment that Deanna had helped place. Pictures of her, Alexander, and Worf's parents scattered the 'historical battle scene'. She smiled at Worf's same expression in every picture he was in, somberness.
"I see you finally have come to apologize to me Deanna." Worf's thick voice scared Deanna.
"I came to see you Worf before I did my shift on the bridge tonight. I'm sorry that you are still upset with me and think I owe you an apology but I don't owe you one Worf. I was simply doing my job." She stood firm to doing nothing wrong.
"Deanna I do not take pleasure in fighting with you. I forgive you, please come here." He held out his hand in a half embrace to honor her forgiveness. She did not know what to do. She had done nothing wrong….really. At least that he didn't know of. But she felt guilty for enjoying Will's mouth so much. She walked stiffly forward and allowed him to pat her back. He pulled her around to kiss him and she wanted to hesitate. The choice was not hers to make and he kissed her as he was allowed to. She was his girlfriend, his lover. The worst part for Deanna was it felt wrong. She felt wrong. His kiss felt rougher and more insistent than Will's. She tensed under his touch but luckily he did not notice.
It had been a while since Worf and her and been together and she knew right away from his kiss he was hoping they could have contact. Instantly Deanna knew she didn't want to. Things between her and Worf were not good and things between her and Will were confusing. She knew he would know instantly if she turned him down. The next hour was one of Deanna's most resentful times.
She dressed quickly hoping to get out of there as fast as she could. It was good, but it wasn't the same to her. She wanted something different. She wanted Will.
"Deanna that was very pleasurable. I hope you enjoyed it as well." Worf smiled very satisfactory. She smiled back, thankful that Worf was not very good with seeing through her lie, and especially that he held no empathy or telepathy powers. He dressed and went into the bathroom. Deanna grabbed the rest of her stuff and slipped out silently.
'I feel awful. What is wrong with me? That was Worf, the man you love, the man you love making love to.' She tortured herself to her quarters on why she was acting so strange. Worf was a good lover. He was strong and rugged, but he did not know how to be that tender and erotic with her. He could not read her mind, or feel her soul….like her Imzadi.
Meanwhile Captain Picard was down in Engineering discussing with Geordi why they had not left the Collaren System.
"Well Sir, it seems one of the planets that we passed while doing our sweeps came back producing a low grade radioactive signal. Normally we wouldn't bother but this planet seems to hold some life form. We don't know if they know about the radioactivity of their home."
"I see. Mr. Data what do you think is the risk of sending an away team down to the surface with the radioactive signals we are getting?" Picard was concerned for his crew; there was no one or no thing, even exploring strange new worlds that would make Jean-Luc ever put his ship or Her crew in danger.
"Sir it seems to me that the levels of radioactivity are a smaller amount, enough for a human to go down on the surface to investigate things further. We will make sure they are sent with the proper equipment and things needed just in case anything where to happen." Data punched rapidly at the instrument panels before him. Processing the new information into his system was satisfactory for his purpose of being. Geordi reviewed the levels and input the necessary equipment for the away mission.
Back in Sickbay Dr. Crusher busied around checking on patients and reading off medical evaluations. She did make time to check on her favorite patient, Will.
"How are you Will?" She studied him close.
"Fine Bev, really. I'm a little tired but that's all. Your hypo drug is not the best." He laughed. It was a lie but a good one. The thought of Deanna's touch still made him shiver. The homesickness of her was overwhelming.
"So when can I get out of here and back to some away mission or sitting at the helm?"
"Calm down Will. I am going to release you later on today for light duty only. No gallivanting around trying to save the universe or anything yet. Ok?"
"Ok mom." He smiled while Dr. Crusher threatened to knock him out with another hypo drug if he didn't take her seriously. Riker was released a few hours later. He still had no real duties so he strolled around the bridge visiting here and there to stretch his legs and mind. He didn't know what to think about Deanna and both of their actions.
He suddenly ran into Data. "Hello Commander how do you feel?" Data asked with seeming genuine interest.
"I am feeling much better Data thank you. How are you?"
"I am operating in normal parameters Commander thank you."
"Are we still in the Collaren System?"
"Yes sir we are, we found a radioactive signal on one of the planets and Captain Picard is going to send an away team down to investigate. It is most likely nothing but there are life forms and it may affect their existence if they do not know about it."
Riker's eyes lit up at the mention of a mission he could go on, his next place to go would be to the Bridge. As he walked onto the Bridge, he breathed in deeply feeling like he had been away from this place for too long. For once in the past months he felt actually happy to be alive. Then a wave of emotion almost knocked him over. Even though Deanna had not turned around or even acknowledged his presence he knew she was upset by him.
Troi had to stop herself from almost smiling as she could tell that Will's aura was turning red from his blushing. He walked straight into Captain Picard's ready room without even waiting for permission.
"Is everything alright Number One? I am glad you are feeling better but you have no need to barge into my ready room."
"I heard there is a mission to go down to one of the planets and I want to go. I want to get off the ship and stretch my legs."
"Well I appreciate your enthusiasm Number One but Dr. Crusher has instructed me not to let you do anything too strenuous for a few more days. And I already assembled an away team." Riker's small high quickly left. He felt his usual self. Disappointed, angry and he wanted to be alone.
"I see sir. Very well." Riker turned and left, leaving the ready room, the bridge and going to his room like a sullen child. His actions were irrational but no one understood how his mind worked now. He had put so much hope into getting off the ship and being able to clear his head. And as usual the one thing he tried to put himself into let him down. Just like everything else.
Deanna could feel Will's pain from her chair on the Bridge. Besides his obvious storming out of the Captain's ready room, her mind shook with rage from within him. She knew from their night in sickbay his dreams haunted him but she didn't understand his rage.
Captain Picard assembled the away team. He brought along Counselor Troi, Dr. Crusher, Data, and Ensign LaTak. He left Number One and Lt. Commander Worf on the Bridge. Picard did not do this to cause trouble or to cause any internal conflict between the two. It had crossed his mind that the two may not be on great terms with each other being in love with the same woman. Picard was a compassionate man, but loyalty was above all to him, even love. To him the Enterprise was priority and two of his finest officers should know how to act and where their loyalties lie.
The Captain gave he orders to beam them down to the surface. As they appeared on the surface everyone immediately began to make their scans.
"I am picking up life forms not far form here. They do not appear to be human. The radioactive signal appears to be only in low levels here." Data continued to scan different areas.
"Captain, if these life forms have lived here all their lives and the radioactivity has always been here then maybe they are not affected or they built up an immunity to it. We have no clue the medical circumstances here."
"I know Doctor but I felt it necessary to investigate closer to make sure everything was alright here. If it was big enough for the Enterprise to detect it is big enough for us to explore. Counselor what are you feeling? Can you sense anything?"
Troi didn't say anything for a few minutes she was deep in her mind trying to get accurate thoughts and feelings sorted out. The life forms, may not have been human but they were a complex alien race. Whether they knew about the radioactivity or not it was starting to take affect on some of them. "Captain I am sensing a basic society of beings. These life forms are advanced and for the most part do not seem affected by the radiation. I sense some are sick, the on stages of something like cancer is beginning to happen. Not here though, the levels are still too low. Somewhere farther, more near to the source they are feeling affects. Some have no idea yet." She wondered if a race, even this advanced could be so powerful as to cheat death of this, some of the worst kind.
Back on the Enterprise, Riker sat uncomfortable at the helm. There had been few times since the Enterprise-D had crashed that Will had taken the helm Having Worf behind him wasn't any help. He was sure Worf had no clue about his time alone with Deanna in sickbay the night before. Or the thoughts that kept creeping up in his mind now. Her lips touching his body, every part. Her curls falling all around tickling him. He snapped back realizing what a poor job nobody knew he was doing. He knew the Captain had a reason he left him back. He trusts you that's why. But he couldn't focus; all he could think about was his life falling apart. His nightmares, his complications with Deanna, the chance she gave him that he cowered away from, and his longing to run away from this ship but bound to it by invisible chains. Riker knew the extent a Betazoid's mind reach and hope Deanna could not hear or feel him. She was farther away than usual, but not far enough for him to feel safe in his head.
For the first time Deanna did not feel Will in her head standing on the planet. For a secret moment she thought of him and received nothing. She felt relieved and knew she could fully concentrate on the beings of this world.
"Counselor, Doctor, can either one of you tell where the source is coming from? And where these life forms inhabit? I think we need to take a look into this source and maybe have a talk with the culture here."
Doctor Crusher responded first, "Captain, my scans read that the source gets much stronger at the base of the mountains to our east. Past that I cannot be anymore specific." That was all Captain Picard needed to set off in that direction to begin exploring. Jean-Luc could not imagine being a captain of a Starfleet vessel and not have exploration in your blood. He always hated captain's who only sat at their helm, never leaving the ship. He had to get out, to explore, and try new things. The team was almost to the baseline of the mountain when they were stopped. The inhabitants of this planet came with a not so nice greeting, carrying weapons and looking highly unhappy. They looked almost human with different facial features and a grayish skin tone.
"We mean you no harm; I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise. This is my away team. We came here because we detected a radioactive source on your planet and wanted to explore it to make sure the affect it had on you was not too great."
The head of the group spoke up first. "We don't need your help. You are not wanted here. Of course we know there is radioactivity on our planet; we are not single celled organisms."
"We never doubted your intelligence but we wanted to see if we could offer any help medically or otherwise." Doctor Crusher tried to speak with compassion and ease. Troi began to try and scan the beings for a better understanding of them.
"Do not try to use your mind skills on us Betazoid," the second one spoke up, "we know your techniques and can block them." Troi appeared angered, while Captain Picard looked surprised. "Captain, did you not wonder how we crept up on you without your nice little lapdog detecting us?" They sneered in amusement.
"There is no need for harsh words towards my crewmembers. Our doctor here is ready to help anyway you need." Picard was hoping this situation's heightened level would decrease if they all just stayed calm and rational. Picard was an explorer but he never purposely tried to encourage conflict. He believed in peace and civility.
"We don't want your help or your nurse over there to try and fix us. We are taking care of our own." They seemed to grow angrier the longer the crew tried to talk to them.
Finally Counselor Troi decided to speak up, "You are angry, angry because you have been trying to find a cure for the radioactivity and you cannot. But why do you hold such hatred towards us? We have not done anything to harm you. We want to use what technology we have to help you or at least make an…"
She was cut off quickly, "WE DON'T NEED YOUR HELP!" The being yelled so loud it frightened Troi a little. "The last helpful group to find us did not help us at all. We let them into our world to try and help cure us because we thought they could. For months they ran tests and would inject us with things. In the end all they did was make some worse and were no closer to a cure than we were. Before they left they prayed on the very weak by taking from them or raping our females. After they left we knew we would never let that happen again. The ones who were not sick or stronger, we advanced our defense skills and knew what to do if anyone tried to come again." The two behind him almost smiled it seemed.
"We are not like the others who came here. We are explorers who only help others if they allow us we do not impose on other cultures unless we feel it completely necessary to their existence. If you do not want us here we will leave."
"I don't care what you say Captain Picard. But no one is leaving." He said something foreign to the crew and before they could draw their phasers, they were bound and disarmed. "You are coming with us and I am sure we can find our own way for you to help us."