Chapter four

A/N... I don't think I'm getting every detail correct about star trek lingo and federation rules and what not but whatever.:) Hope you like it so far!

Geordi ignored the heat he'd generated from running around for hours because he was gonna get this done no matter what. If he couldn't beam them off the planet, he might be able to beam them from one place to another. He looked at the schematics again. The place they were held in was big but pretty empty. Based on what he'd seen on the monitor, he knew just where to put them.

Wesley and the girl had ran to the exit but stopped at the feet of the desert. They both took a deep sigh for lack of what to do next. All at once, every prisoner was pulled apart, molecule by molecule, and pieced back together in some place new. They hadn't a moment to wonder what had happened before realizing where they were. The very headquarters of the entire prison. Six men turned around in total bewilderment and anger. They had been revealed though. They had successfully made the prisoners belive that they were outnumbered. But this was it. A mere, few dozen men with big weapons and a convincing smokescreen.

They took them out with the same strategems they had taught them in the cavern. They had fanned the fire of their own overthrowing. At the fall of the last warden, they began looking for a way out. There were no doors, just the same cave walls but much larger. A few tables, a hutch of miscellaneous items and a first aid kit on the wall. A few prisoners took it off the wall but Wesley could see it wasn't going to end well unless he stepped in.

"Hey, stop..wait." he said kindly, taking it from the hands of a couple young boys and their mother.

"Thats not how you use it."

They looked at him with hope as the mother spoke up.

"You are a doctor?" he translated in his head.

"Well, no but.."

"You know more than us, please help."

He paused, waiting for someone more experienced to step up, but recieved only blank stared from the injured. He took a deep breath, channeling his mothers teachings. He took a seat on a small crate, setting up the kit next to him as a line formed. He made the material stretch until there was nothing left and everyone felt a little better. He whipped his brow as he satisfyingly shut the empty case and tossed it behind him. He turned his head to see one still thing in the haze of people. She sat watching him, giving him a smile that felt like standing warm by a fire in the midst of a blizzard.

He did not want to move for his view was flawless. She turned her attention to the chaos in the room, but he stayed ever fixed on her. He analyzed her side profile in amazement. He began to wrestle with his feelings but became fed up with this notion. He smiled at his conclusion that he was wholly in love with her. The duration of their time together, how it started, the barrier of communication, none of this seemed good enough reason to suppress the vehement and confusing mixture of feelings that screamed from within his core. He was brought out of the trance when her expression became scrunched and her fingers shot to her temple.

"What is it.." he asked, moving to her slowly. She stood with sort of lost glaze over her eyes. As he closed the distance between them, he could hear her heavy breath. It was hot and scratchy. Her hands shook violently as they reached for him just as she broke down. He caught her before she could fall, the uncertain future once again using its ugliness to strike fear into his vulnerable mind. He'd become deeply accustom to dissapointment and a hopeless, profitless existence. Now, a bit of his old self was starting to show again, a new spark he thought had died erupted so genuinely, an immortal bond between him and her so unexpectedly. Absent of sense, begging for a shred of logic but finding none. Their union exceeded anything they'd had before and dulled anything they had now. Without shame and without a plan, he lowered them both to the ground and wept.

"We need it working now Mr. LaForge." Picard urgently said over the comm, suppressing the urge to yell. Every able body and mind was working to solve the transporting problem, and now they were carrying out last nights 4:00am breakthrough. They all ran to the transporter room to aid the first group beamed up. Wesley could not have noticed as he heard nothing but the excruciating voice in his boiling, burning mind that ripped his will from his body leaving him breathless. Everyone with the same racial signature as the enemy were beamed to the brig, atleast the ones still alive. The prisoners were taken in with care and diplomacy according to Picards orders who stood only watching and waiting for Wesley, along with Deanna, Riker, Data, and Worf.

Finally, in the last group, there was Wesley. His sobs stopped instantly as the girl in his arms disappeared. He looked at the space where her body was and around the room, piecing it all together. It would only transport those with life signs. They stood abandoning their previous hopes for a joyous reunion as his hands that supported her head now met his own with curses muttered under his breath. The hour he'd only dreamt, had become real before his unbelieving eyes and he felt not a moment of relief, except for the thought that she no longer suffered.

He rubbed his face as the reflex of his ensign decorum reminded him how he must behave. He rose to his feet, standing crumpled yet as uniform as possible.

"Forgive me Captain, how may I help sir? I'm at your disposal."

His voice came out like gravel against gravel. He unconsciously held his side where his bruised ribs lay unattended.

"You can begin by letting them take you to sick bay. And I'm glad to see you alive young man. You had us quite scared." demanded Picard. They all nodded with faces of anticipation and sympathy. The med team Wesley had tried to ignore only approached as he acknowledged them at Picards order. The anguish was clear on his face though he tried conceal it. He had questions in his eyes but they could see it pained him to speak. His body was withdrawing the auxiliary numb now that he could afford the time to feel his injuries.