Dry. It felt as though she had swallowed pounds of sand and dirt, and as she desperately tried to bring moisture to her dry, burning throat, it only sent her into fits of coughs. Once the hacking subsided, she took a quick inventory of her body. Beside the small taste of blood and the pounding head ache, nothing seemed to be missing or broken. She decided to open her eyes, only to be blinded by the bright lights above her.

"Computer, reduce lights 50%." The soft female voice and the dimming of the lights brought her to reopen her eyes. A dark blur formed over her. "Hello. How are you feeling?" She did not recognize the voice, so she tried to raise herself up, she noticed something was holding her down. "Can we remove the restraints?"

"That would not be advisable."

"Just her upper body, at least." Her cloudy mind was able to process most of the conversation around her. Restrained. Crap. "She still has sedatives in her system, she can't be that much of a threat." When she felt the restraints being removed, she tried to sit up, but the thumping in her head forced her back down.

"Aw, god." She mumbled, lifting a hand over her eyes.

"How are you feeling?" Deanna repeated.

"Head ache."

Dr. Selar loaded a hypo spray, and Deanna took note of the young woman before her. She had striking blue eyes and wild, curly, dark blonde hair, and looked as though she was in her late twenties.

When Selar was finished with the injection, Deanna moved to sit on the edge of the bed. "My name is Deanna Troi. You are on a Federation Star ship, Enterprise. Can you tell me your name?"

The woman removed her hand from over her eyes and to where she was just sprayed. "What was that?"

Dr. Selar returned with a glass of water, and the young woman downed it, soothing her raspy voice. "It is something to help you with your head ache. It is to be expected after your surgery, but it is nothing to be concerned about." Selar lifted the tricorder and began her scans.

"Surgery? What surgery?" She had now lifted herself up to a sitting position, bracing herself with her arms behind her. Selar looked at Deanna, giving her a 'this is your department' look before turning away, calling both the captain and CMO to sickbay. "What is she talking about? What is going on?"

Deanna smiled. "What's your name?"

"Emelle Pinces. Commander of the Volkerie." Emelle raised her hand to where the laceration was on her head. "Or I suppose I was." Her wound was partially healed, but it still caused a dull thump in her head.

"Commander, a little over a day ago, we heard your distress call, and when we came to investigate, we found your ship adrift, and unresponsive to our hails. Its hull was breeched, and you were loosing what little life support you had." Emelle lighted shook her head in a desperate attempt to clear it as Deanna continued. "Do you know why you were attacked?"

"We were, uh, rescuing prisoners from a mining prison. As we were escaping, a Sodierian war ship attacked us. I don't know why they left us there. It's not really their MO. You didn't answer my question. What surgery?"

"You inhaled a considerable amount of smoke and debris. Dr. Crusher and her team performed what's called a bronchoscopy. It's when-"

Emelle light heartedly waved her hand. "Yeah, I know the procedure."

Deanna was curious what the girl's reaction would be to the mention of the CMO. When she received none, Deanna was ready to continue with her questions, but was interrupted when Beverly walked into sickbay with Captain Picard. She sensed the moment Emelle recognized her, and was surprised at the colourful language running threw the young woman's mind. Deanna cleared her throat and conducted the introductions. "Emelle, this is Captain Jean Luc Picard, and this is Dr. Beverly Crusher."

"Oh, my..." Emelle cringed.

Beverly waved her hand and smiled softly as Selar handed her the PADD with the scan results. "I'm just fine, the cut wasn't major. Nurse Ericson will be fine too."

"I really didn't mean to hurt anyone."

Beverly smiled, and looked down at the restraints on Emelle's legs. "If I remove your restraints, you won't attack any more of my staff, will you?"

Picard looked at Beverly sharply. "Doctor." She didn't have to turn around to know he was frowning so hard his two eyebrows had merged into one.

She cast a sideway glance toward Picard before turning again to Emelle. "Well?"

Emelle sighed. "No promises." Beverly nodded to Selar, who moved to the other side of the bed and removed the restraints. As soon as they were removed, Emelle brought her knees up and re-extended them, thoroughly enjoying being able to stretch her stiff muscles. The crack of several joints caused Emelle's face to twinge slightly, and as she swung her legs over the side of the bio-bed, she turned her attention to Picard. "I guess I owe you a thank you."

Picard nodded. "Yes I guess you do. I am sorry we were unable to come sooner to help your crew."

"The four of us on the bridge were the only crew. The rest were refugees we were freeing from a mining camp in a neighbouring system."

Deanne furrowed her brow as she remembered her previous conversation with Emelle. "Refugees? Earlier you referred to them as 'prisoners'."

Picard's eyebrow shot up as he looked from the counsellor to the young woman. "Prisoners?"

The dizziness wouldn't let up but Emelle managed to swallow the nausea and answer the captain's inquiry. "Don't get yourself into a twist, it's not like that. The Soldier's take civilians from any planet they want to, and throw them into one of their many mining camps." She glanced downward before continuing. "There were friends of mine that were left behind because we didn't have a large enough ship to take them all. I guess it was for the better."

"You mentioned these Sodier before," Deanna mentioned, "who are they?" Emelle closed her eyes and swallowed heavily.

Beverly, noticing the drain of colour from the woman's already pale cheeks, moved to load a hypo spray. "Perhaps this can wait until after she gets some rest." It only took a few seconds after she pressed the spray to the woman's neck for Emelle to feel the effects of the sedative. Dr. Selar helped her lay down, and lifted her legs back onto the bed.

"Counsellor," Picard turned to Deanna. "what are you sensing from her?"

Deanne sighed heavily. "Surprisingly, not much. While we were talking, she was understandably hesitant to trust me with much information. Her somewhat vague answers could be because of the trauma of the attack along with the medication still in her system, or more realistically,"

"She doesn't trust us." Picard commented.

Beverly tossed the empty hypo spray on an empty bio bed, and crossed her arms. "How would you feel if you woke on a strange ship, your crew dead, and your own ship nearly destroyed?"

Picard nodded. "Speaking of which, I should head to the cargo bay to see how Commander La Forge and Mr. Worf are managing the repairs on the ship. Maybe they can answer some questions in the meantime. Please inform me when she wakes up."

Beverly nodded. "She'll be out for a few hours at least." With a quick nod, Picard turned and left sickbay.

Deanna stayed behind for a moment. She took a step closer to Beverly and lowered her voice. "I am sensing so much from him Beverly. I am worried."

Beverly sighed. "He wouldn't tell me much about what happened on Celtris 3."

"Me neither. At the time, I thought it best not to push him, but now I'm worried he's repressed too much." Deanna exhaled heavily. "I'm scheduled on the bridge, and I should leave you to work."

"Are you still planning on going to Worf's class later this afternoon."

Deanna chuckled. "I made the mistake of telling Will he should try it out, now he won't let me miss a class." Beverly smiled as her friend turned and left sickbay.

She didn't have to be an empath to sense Jean Luc's thoughts. The chilling look in his eye was enough to raise the hair on the back of her neck, and unfortunately, she also knew that for the moment, there was nothing she could say or do that would console him now. What he needed was to answer some of the lingering questions, and then maybe those dark thoughts would lighten up. She hoped.

Ok. It's going to be a while before I am able to upload again, so please enjoy, and PLEASE R&R! I love getting reviews, and I want to know what you guys think!