First Contact

11.


Everything that Picard had seen here in "Never Land" had convinced him that this was a cleverly constructed illusion. It was a trick of some kind, perhaps to provide a calming world for Dr. Griffiths to live, or merely as a diversion to hide the true intentions of the entity or entities that lived here. Was it benign? Malicious? He did not know, but the show put on for their benefit was a good one.

After watching the garden talents paint flowers and the animal talents apply pigments to butterflies and teach birds to fly Picard and his away team were brought to a stream. Here, a fairy with long brunette hair and striking Asian features presented herself to them. Her name was Silvermist and she was a water talent fairy.

Silvermist descended to near the water's surface, gathered it from the stream and incredibly pulled it up out of the flow. She made it hover in midair as if suspended by some unseen gravitational force. The little Asian fairy with a sweet looking face and long blue dress molded the blob of water into different shapes with just a wave of her hands. First it took the shape of the Starfleet insignia the away team wore on their uniforms. Then she fashioned the bead of water into a leaf, complete with all the veins and surface textures one would observe upon very close examination.

Silvermist was then joined by another fairy. This new female possessed dark skin not unlike Commander LaForge and wore yellow flower petals made from sunflowers. The young woman was named Iridessa and she was a light talent. Elizabeth Griffiths explained that light fairies could manipulate the very rays of the sun which illuminated the world. Iridessa flew up to a beam of late evening sunlight, put her hands around it and bent the light as if by magic.

Data scanned the ray of sunlight and searched for an explanation with his tricorder. Geordi had initially proposed that perhaps her hands were covered in some kind of reflective dust which acted like mirrors. The tricorder scan revealed no such thing. Furthermore, Data informed his friend that a collection of mirrors would disperse the light into numerous, tiny rays of light. Instead, the sunbeam remained constant and focused.

The little light fairy then aimed her sunbeam at a piece of wood laid out by the other light fairies. Iridessa focused the beam tighter and tighter the wood began to smolder and then burn. To the surprise of the Starfleet officers, the young winged humanoid had been able to focus the ray of light into a simple, but rather crude cutting beam. Dr. Griffiths explained that light fairies rarely utilize their talents in that manner except when absolutely necessary.

"Some time ago, a poorly managed beam cut off someone's hair," she said. "No one was hurt, thank goodness, but it was not appreciated."

Picard, of course, could guess at other reasons.

Iridessa was then joined by several fireflies, none of whom luminesced as they should. The human away team stood in stunned amazement as Iridessa grabbed the light right out of the sunbeam as if light itself could be handled and then distributed it to each of the eagerly waiting fireflies, giving them their blinking light.

"Fantastic," Dr. Beverly Crusher gasped. "This contradicts everything we know about insects. But how can it be possible. It's like something from a fairy tale."

Picard nodded in agreement. "I believe it is. This is little more than a well-orchestrated illusion, Doctor," he answered quietly. "I'm sure of it. What I see here is no more real than magician making a glass of milk disappear."

"Well, it's a darn good illusion," she replied.

"We have seen many convincing illusions, Beverly," he replied under his breath. "Why should this be any different?"

While the two officers spoke, Silvermist and Iridessa combined their powers. Silvermist threw out her arms and the water exploded into a spinning chandelier like structure. Iridessa took hold of a ray of sunlight and brought it over until it touched the uppermost bead of water. The light refracted and split into several small rays which hit the other floating beads of water precisely. This created an amazing piece of shimmering art as the light rays glittered out in every direction.

"That's so beautiful," Crusher admired.

"Indeed," Picard commented. "If this were even remotely real I might ask if they practiced this."

Elizabeth, who happened to overhear them, replied. "They do, Captain," she said, the faintest touch of bitterness in her voice. "Every year during the Four Seasons' Festival, Silvermist, Iridessa and their friends conclude the events with this display, but on a much larger scale."

"And a magnificent display it is," Picard replied, applauding. He was joined in by Beverly and Geordi. Data also was compelled to clap when Captain Picard shot him a subtle look. Jean Luc, however, was a touch displeased with himself that his conversation had been heard by Elizabeth.

"I hope you enjoyed your tour of the warm seasons," Dr. Griffiths said to her guests.

Picard smiled. "It was a most impressive display of creativity I have ever seen," he told his host, being truthful, mostly. Though Picard did not for one second believe that what he saw was real, he was still delighted by its inventiveness.

While he and the doctor were speaking with Elizabeth a whirling wind approached from the opposite side of the stream. When it touched the surface the vortex sucked up the water and then dashed directly towards Iridessa and Silvermist. When the whirling waterspout vanished the two winged creatures were tossed along the shoreline, soaked through and angry in their jingling chatter, with Iridessa being the most animated. At the center of the spout was the same purple clad fairy that Dr. Griffiths had identified as Vidia. She was seen hovering in the air laughing at the others misfortune.

"Now behave yourself, Vidia," Elizabeth told the purple fairy. The woman was visibly upset at the little creature. Even Queen Clarion showed her abject displeasure at the fairy for what she had done.

"My apologies, Captain," Dr. Griffiths spoke. "Vidia can be rather naughty at times."

"Naughty" was hardly the word for it. Vidia's prank was quite cruel and disconcertingly levelled against those who she apparently regarded as friends. It did, though, prove that these fairies all had unique personalities and that at least one of them was a malcontent and possibly even antisocial.

Above that, however, the incident did not agree with Picard's assessment that this was some sort of idyllic illusion all for the benefit of Dr. Elizabeth Griffiths or the away team. An additional thought crossed Picard's mind, which was that Queen Clarion had to be at least somewhat tolerant of this Vidia fairy. How else could it explain why Vidia was so willing to disrupt the tour with her malicious actions even with their queen in attendance? It suggested more of a realistic civilization where such individuals were tolerated to a certain degree as it was far too difficult or costly to punish them for what amounted to minor infractions of daily protocol.

"How was she able to do that?" Geordi then asked. "She isn't dressed quite like the other water manipulating fairy."

Vidia, who was visibly taller than the others, also seemed to have the longest wings of any fairy in Pixie Hollow save for the queen. Elizabeth Griffiths explained that Vidia was a fast flying fairy. "They command the winds and can fly faster than any other fairy talent in Never Land. They create breezes in the spring and summer and winds that knock leaves off trees in the fall. The vortex is another of their abilities."

Geordi LaForge was taken aback by this statement. "You mean that water spout was her spinning the air and not the water?"

Dr. Griffiths acknowledged that his assessment was quite correct.

"She's not very hospitable, is she?" Dr. Crusher observed.

"Yes. She can be that way sometimes," Dr. Griffiths explained. Vidia was part of a small clique consisting of friends that included Tinker Bell, Fawn, Rosetta, Iridessa and Silvermist. However, Vidia was still a bit of a rascal at heart. "She can be quite opinionated at times," the Victorian woman told them. "And something of a troublemaker."

Vidia just nodded in agreement, a flash of playfulness in her eyes. After taking a bow she lit of into the skies, showing everyone just how fast she could be.

"We should retire for the evening," Dr. Griffiths told him. "It is getting quite late and it is a long walk back to your vessel. We would ask you to say, but we don't have accommodations. Never Land doesn't receive visitors, as you can imagine."

"I thought we were going to visit all four seasons?" Dr. Crusher asked.

"You will," LIzzy answered. "Tomorrow there will be a tour of the Winter Woods. It is the largest of the four seasons and will occupy most of our time. You should dress warmly, though. It gets frightfully cold over there, even during the daytime."

Jean Luc smiled. "Tell me, doctor, you mentioned someone named Rosetta. I don't remember meeting her."

"Rosetta is a garden fairy," Elizabeth told him. "She keeps to herself."

"Of course," he answered. "We will be ready for tomorrow."

~O~

Back at the shuttle Captain Picard and his officers dined on replicated meals. He asked them pointedly about their thoughts. "What do you make of this place?"

"Honestly I don't think we know any more than we did when we first arrived," Beverly said.

"On the contrary, doctor," Data answered. "We have learned a considerable amount of information about their society."

"I think what she means, Data, is that we still don't know if this world is real or an illusion," Picard clarified.

Geordi LaForge tossed in his two credits. "My optics didn't record anything strange, Captain. This place is as real as any of you."

Data added to the consensus. What he saw and recorded through the tricorder did not contradict what his human shipmates witnessed.

After dinner Captain Picard checked in with the Enterprise. He recorded a log entry and informed Franklin of the events of that day.

"Uh, Captain, what do I tell Starfleet Command if they call again?" Franklin asked.

"Tell them..., tell them the truth," Picard replied. "And if they want more information send them our log entries and tricorder data."

"Yes, sir."

Data, who continued to listen to the fairies communicate, had deciphered more of the strange, jingling language. He uploaded his new findings to the ship's computer so it could add to the database and further attempt to translate it to English.

Then Picard learned that the Titan had returned and was in orbit. The U.S.S. Titan was Riker's command. "Patch me through."

~O~

Aboard the Titan, Will Riker, who was enjoying a cup of coffee with his wife, Deanna, received the communication in his private quarters. "Jean Luc! It's good to see you again."

"Will, how is my former number one."

"We've been better." Riker relayed the firefight his ship had endured. The Titan, a Luna Class vessel, was suited more for deep space exploration and diplomatic missions rather than combat. It took a good beating at the hands of the underground groups which were trying to reestablish the prior governments on Cardassia Prime and Romulus.

"It sounds like you had quite the adventure," Picard said with deadpan humor.

"I wouldn't have believed it myself, but this is one tough little ship," Riker answered back without the slightest hint of irony in his voice. During the second Borg incursion of the Alpha Quadrant at Battle of Sector 001, Riker said the exact same thing to Commander Worf about his vessel the U.S.S. Defiant. Worf was not amused by Riker's description of "little." Commander Riker had spoken those words with sincere admiration back then, but was more than amused when Worf took offense.

"Speaking of adventures, Captain Picard, I thought you would be long gone by now."

"We were scheduled to do so, but we found something most interesting." Picard explained what had happened when the new sensors aboard the Enterprise and its shuttles found the strange energy readings just off the coast of England. "As best as we can describe it, Will, this is some sort of pocket universe."

An image on Riker's screen showed the precise location.

"If I didn't know better I would say its right where Never Land would be," Riker said with a bit of a laugh.

"Funny you should say that."

"Wait, you don't actually mean…?"

"Will, I just spent the last two days speaking with a woman who claims to be five hundred years old," Picard told him. "She introduced to me to Tinker Bell and her friends. Data, Geordi, Beverly and I have toured their world. A place they call Pixie Hollow."

"Captain, are you feeling alright?"

"I wouldn't have believed it myself, Will. Apparently, it exists inside this very pocket universe, one that shares our space, but in some kind of alternate dimension. That's why I'm asking for you and Deanna to join us in the morning. I would like Deanna to use her empathic abilities to learn if the woman is lying. And to try and confirm my suspicions that every single one of these winged creatures are in fact little more than a well-constructed deception."

"You mean there is more than one?"

"An entire society, with division of labor, a government and even a queen."

Riker was incredulous. The very idea that J.M. Barrie's Tinker Bell character could be real was impossible to fathom. It was, after all, just a fantasy story. Yet Riker had never doubted his former captain. A person he knew to be level headed and grounded. Of course, Picard did not believe the claims outright. This was why he asked for Deanna and Riker to join him. To uncover the truth.

"Can't the tricorders tell you if it's an illusion, Captain?"

"We're not certain," Picard answered. "Tricorder readings are inconclusive. They can only detect the fairies when using their magic dust. Will, I need someone who can feel their emotions, their presence. And who can determine if there is an entity behind all of this."

"Q?"

"Doubtful. He usually announces his intentions."

Riker mulled over Picard's request. "We will join you in the morning, Jean-Luc."

"Thank you. And, Will, dress warmly."

Picard also advised Riker to take a shuttle. Transporters could not establish a proper lock on the away team once inside the pocket universe. Riker also received a very specific flight path to take. If the shuttle deviated in the slightest it might miss the entry point to Never Land.

"Thanks for the warning. We will see you in the morning, Jean Luc. Riker out."

Will returned to his wife. He sat down looking a bit distracted. Deanna noticed right away. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"I just had the strangest conversation with Captain Picard," he began.

"Oh, how strange?"

"First, how would you like to join an Away Team in the morning?"