Chapter Three

Maya heard a voice, very distant. As soon as she glimpsed consciousness, her mind snapped into focus and she thought, quite lucidly, how corny it was; the voices were remote and reverberating, just like the sound effect of an unconscious person recovering in a film. When the echo wore off she could distinguish words, for a few moments before she could move anything.

"We have a normal brainwave pattern, as far as I can tell. She's coming out of it. The brain tissue looks undamaged - she's lucky there weren't any cerebral ruptures."

She felt a cold hand against her cheek.

"Hello? Can you understand me?"

The voice was calm and low. "Helena?" Maya said in confusion. She opened her eyes and focused on a face which gradually became different, and realised that the woman leaning over her was a stranger. With a terrified gasp she bolted upright and jarred against some equipment across her.

"Hey, easy, easy," said the doctor, pushing her back down onto the bed with some strength. Another woman did the same with her other arm. "You're safe, you're on a Federation starship."

Maya looked at the other woman, whom she supposed was a nurse. She was also a stranger. The doctor was about Helena's age, but taller, and had red hair. She looked entirely human. The nurse, though humanoid, did not appear to be of Earth origin.

"I don't want you to make any sudden moves just yet," said the doctor. "You've had the worst case of transporter trauma I have ever seen. In fact, I think you might have made medical history. Congratulations."

"Transporter - trauma?" said Maya carefully, testing her voice. Her throat felt dry and catching.

"Adverse effects from going through emergency long-range transporters are common, but the symptoms are usually disorientation and nausea. You suffered sever internal haemorrhaging - I thought at one point we were going to lose you. It was a race against time to replicate enough of your blood to keep you alive. I'm afraid I've never seen your species before and we couldn't find any records of you in the computer, so we had to start from scratch."

"Am I - recovered?"

"How do you feel?"

"All right - normal."

"Good. I have to ask, because I don't know what's normal for your species physiologically and though I think I put you back together in the right order, I can't be certain how you are now."

"How long have I been here?"

The doctor check a chronometer on her belt. "Just over twenty-four hours now. You've been in a state of controlled sedation for the last six hours."

"How did I get here?"

"You don't remember?"

"I remember going into a kind of booth on an abandoned base - and I was trapped inside when the door closed. I hit a button to try to get out - " The vague mist cleared from her mind and she remembered, suddenly, the appalling pain as she was transfixed by a beam of light that tried to tear apart her body molecule by molecule. She had fought against it with all the strength of her metamorphic control, but the force had been too great. The last thing she saw was Douglas Mullins' terrified face, staring and shouting silently, as every particle disintegrated. "I was pulled apart," she said, less composed. "What did that to me?"

"A transporter beam. You came from Lifeboat 898 on a long-range emergency transporter."

"Oh! A means of turning living forms into energy and transmitting them to another location?"

"You sound as if you're not really familiar with them."

"We knew the theory on my world, but we never developed the technology." She blinked at the ceiling and tried to take in her surroundings. The medical room was much more spacious than anywhere on Alpha, and the equipment obviously more sophisticated. "Where am I?"

"On a Federation starship, the Enterprise. I'm Chief Medical Officer Dr Beverly Crusher." She held out her hand.

Maya eased herself up carefully. She felt shaky, but otherwise uninjured. "I'm Maya, daughter of Mentor. I'm science officer on Moonbase Alpha."

"Is your ship still at Lifeboat 898?"

"The exploratory craft I was in must be - but Moonbase Alpha isn't a ship, it's a research station that was built on the satellite of a planet called Earth. It broke away - "

"Earth!" said Dr Crusher.

Maya saw that she and the nurse exchanged a look.

"We're from Earth," said Dr Crusher. "That is, I am, and the Federation that this starship represents originated with Earth. Moonbase Alpha - that was lost four hundred years ago."

Maya sipped carefully at a cup of hot, savoury liquid that Dr Crusher said would help restore her strength without putting a strain on the digestive system that had been damaged and repaired only hours ago. She did have a slight ache in her bones, as if she had flu without the temperature, and she had no appetite at all. In every other way it was impossible to tell that she had suffered serious internal injuries. Dr Crusher had shown her beautifully explicit slides of her insides and explained, proudly, how she had regenerated the tissues.

"I tried to hold myself together," said Maya, as she gazed in fascinated disgust at a picture of her own intestine. "I fought against the molecular transformation from matter to energy. I shouldn't have done that."

"That's an understatement. Considering the results, I would advise you never to use a transporter again. This control over your own molecular composition - that's remarkable."

"It's a characteristic of my species. It's what I am."

"I'd be interested to see a demonstration, but definitely not now."

Maya didn't feel strong enough to transform herself anyway. She only just had the energy to sit up and drink the liquid meal. Now Dr Crusher had gone off duty - or had disappeared somewhere - and she had been left alone in the medical centre with a nurse and the two security guards that she had noticed were posted at the main entrance. They were discreet and they did not look directly at her, but she recognised what they were and she knew they were there for her.

The door opened with a swish, and Dr Crusher came back with three others. One was an older man with a curiously bald head and a definite, distinguished aura of authority. As he sat beside her bed, the very way he moved and looked at her made her realise that she was being visited by someone of importance.

He had sat down, she thought, so that he could be at eye-level with her, without making her stand up.

"I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard," he said, "from the planet Earth. I am captain of this starship, the Enterprise."

"My name is Maya, daughter of Mentor," she said, matching his formality. "I come from the planet Psychon. I'm science officer on Moonbase Alpha."

"This is Commander William Riker, from the planet Earth," he continued, gesturing at the people behind him, "and Counsellor Deanna Troi, from the planet Betazed."

Commander Riker gave her a nod and a smile and the kind of look that she was used to receiving from men. She gave him the calm half-smile that she was used to replying with, and she shook hands with the friendly-looking Counsellor.

"Are you commander here?" she asked the Captain.

"I'm in charge, if that's what you're asking."

"Oh, then send me back to my friends on Moonbase Alpha. Please."

The Captain looked at Dr Crusher, then turned back to her with a grave expression. His voice was cultured and gently. "Emergency transporter beams on lifeboat stations only operate in one direction. They're for use when there's no hope of repairing the ship, or if someone needs urgent medical attention. Have you any idea what the lifeboat station is for?"

Maya shook her head.

"There are hundreds of them, artificial planetoids positioned in remote sectors. If a spaceship runs into trouble light years from a friendly planet, they provide emergency facilities - guidance systems, ship repair docks, food, medical equipment, subspace communication. The transporters lock onto any starship within range and beam the crew to a secure area."

"I see. I must have activated it accidentally."

"Were you with others?"

"Only one other - a pilot. We were on a reconnaissance flight and we found the lifeboat station just at the edge of our range."

"Dr Crusher tells me that you have a remarkable story. Everyone on Earth knows about how our moon broke away from orbit when its nuclear waste dumps exploded, four hundred years ago, and that there was a research station there with survivors. Nobody had any idea that the moon was still travelling, or that Moonbase Alpha still existed."

"Oh yes! We've been going at sub-light speeds for nearly six years, and we've passed through several space warps. It doesn't surprise me that four hundred years have passed on Earth, relative to us. Everyone on Alpha understood that they would never be able to go back to Earth as it was."

"Only now, of course, we've developed warp drives, and relativity is no longer a problem."

"Please, Captain, send me back. My friends will already be very worried about me, they'll be taking risks to try to find me."

The Captain leaned forward. "I think a better idea would be for the Enterprise to go there and rescue your friends from Moonbase Alpha."

Maya stared at him as the implications sank in. She had been considering herself as being somewhere from which she needed to be rescued, or to escape from. Suddenly, she realised that everything was reversed. She had escaped. This was it, this was the outside world.

And everyone on Alpha would be delighted. She wondered why she felt chilled and depressed at the thought of leaving the base.

"Commander Riker has already established the position of Lifeboat 898 and the moon relative to our position now," Captain Picard was saying.

"It will take us about ten days to get there," said Commander Riker.

"But my friends won't know what's happened to me! Is there no way I can communicate with them?"

"Not unless they have a subspace receiver," said the Captain.

"Of course we don't have a subspace receive on Alpha!"

"But there is one on 898," said Riker. "Maybe your pilot's still there?"

"Yes - maybe. I have to try." She stood up, and immediately swayed.

Dr Crusher caught her. "Oh, no! You're not discharged."

Maya concentrated and regained her balance.

"I want her to rest for at least another twenty four hours before she goes anywhere," Dr Crusher continued, addressing the Captain.

"Captain," said Maya, still on her feet. "I must speak to Moonbase Alpha as soon as possible."

The Captain met her gaze seriously, looked up at Dr Crusher, and said, "Doctor, one short trip to my ready room and I promise she will be returned in one piece."

Dr Crusher deferred immediately and had a wheelchair brought out for her. Feeling embarrassed, but glad that she would not have to walk, Maya allowed herself to be helped into it. One of the nurses pushed her out of the medical area along bright, wide, seamless corridors, surrounded by the three officers and still accompanied by a security guard who had said nothing. They were often passed by people in the same one-piece uniform, and occasionally by others in civilian or casual clothes.

"How many people live here?" asked Maya.

"One thousand and thirty-nine at the moment," said Commander Riker.

They stopped in front of what Maya guessed was a lift entrance, and she heard a familiar unfamiliar sound that made her heart jump. Just as the lift door opened, a tiny child of no more than two years old came round the curve of the corridor at a running toddle, shouting happily. He stopped when he saw them and looked at Captain Picard with solemn eyes. A woman appeared behind him.

"Hello, Dominic," said the Captain seriously.

"I am sorry, sir," said the woman, scooping the child up and retreating.

"Children," said Maya, as they entered the lift. "You have children here."

"Yes, we do," said the Counsellor. "Have you left a child behind on Moonbase Alpha? I sense your anxiety."

"No... we don't have children. None of us have. Our resources - we can't."

"That must cause stress and conflict," said the Counsellor, as a sympathetic comment rather than a question.

"Yes." Maya was surprised by her reaction to the sight of the little boy. Perhaps it was her weakened physical state, but her stomach was filled with a fluttering sensation and her throat was seized by something that felt dangerously like tears. She hadn't seen a child for over five years, since the last of the Psychons had evacuated the planet. During the discussion at the meeting on Alpha, which seemed liked several weeks ago but had probably been the day before yesterday, she had felt entirely detached from the subject of the debate. She knew Helena's stake in the argument - she knew more about the conflict with the Commander than she had told Tony - but it hadn't really occurred to her that it might have anything to do with her.

And now, in this strange place, as the door of the lift shut in the little crowd, she realised for the first time in her life that she could actually have a child. Merely acknowledging it as a possibility amazed her, before she asked herself whether it was something she wanted and discovered immediately that it was a longing like thirst. The intensity of the desire was astonishing.

She felt the Counsellor's eyes on her. Looking up, she realised that the woman had no irises.

"Starfleet personnel often serve on board starships for years at a time," she said. "We consider it essential for those who want it to bring their families with them."

Maya looked away. The moment had passed, leaving her deflated. The reality was that it would be a long time before she had a child, if she ever could. She didn't even know whether Psychons and humans were compatible.

Helena knelt cautiously at the edge of the booth, and scraped a sample of dried blood from the floor. Douglas was standing beside her, holding the edge of the place where the door came from. She edged back and ran an analysis on the sample with her hand-held medicom, but she was sure that it was Maya's blood. As soon as they had entered the room and seen the dark splashes on the floor and walls of the booth, they had all known what it was. At first Tony had gone from room to room and door to door shouting confidently for Maya, but when he saw the bloodstains he had stopped still and stared.

"God," said Douglas. "It's worse than I remembered."

Helena straightened up. "This is blood - I can't tell whether it's Maya's blood or not until I take a sample back to Alpha for DNA analysis."

Tony looked round at the console of controls, and back at the booth. John rubbed his mouth with his hand.

"It's a teleporter!" Tony shouted suddenly. "That's what it is! Look at it! It's some sort of teleporter! She's been beamed off somewhere."

"Tony, no," said Helena, helplessly.

"These controls do something - they could get her back - "

"Don't touch anything," said John.

"Don't, I really wouldn't," said Douglas, panic in his voice.

Tony turned to the control panel and was about to disregard them when, below the large screen on the wall, a red panel began to flash on-off, on-off, and the room was filled with a deep tone in synchrony.

"No!" cried Douglas. "That's how it happened - a flashing light - Mr Verdeschi - "

But Tony was right beside the screen and he pressed the flashing panel. The screen was filled with the image of a human face, a man with a bald head. Tony backed away.

"I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise," said the face on the screen, with perfect composure. "Am I addressing personnel of Moonbase Alpha?"

John looked at Helena, then took a step forward. "I am Commander John Koenig of Moonbase Alpha."

Tony joined him in front of the screen. "What have you done with Maya?"

Helena noticed that the man on the screen glanced sideways, with a small smile. There was a blur of movement, and then she caught her breath in joy as Maya appeared.

"Commander," said Maya, smiling brilliantly. "Tony. It's all right, I'm all right."

"Where are you?" asked John.

"On a Federation starship - a wonderful spaceship, you can't imagine how wonderful. These people are friends - Commander, they're your people, they're from Earth."

"From Earth?"

"Four hundred years after you left."

"Four hundred years," said Helena to herself, her heart sinking again. It had been one hundred and twenty years when they had last been contacted by Earth. After four hundred years, how much of her world would be left?"

"They've got warp drive technology - they can cross space now without dilating time."

"Maya," said Helena, "are you sure you're all right? We found blood everywhere."

"I was injured by the transporter beam, but their doctor treated me - she regenerated all the damaged tissue within twenty-four hours."

"How can we come and get you?" said Tony. "Where is this spaceship?"

Maya looked off-screen, and the Captain replaced her again. "Commander Koenig," he said, "we are presently dozens of light years from your position. However, we intend to come and get you. We've already laid in a course. I am right in assuming you don't want to stay on Moonbase Alpha indefinitely?"

"Can you take us back to Earth?" asked John.

"We can take you anywhere."

John's expression was set. Helena tried to catch his eye, but she had to go up to him and touch his arm. He laid his hand over hers but said nothing.

"We've had our hopes raised before," she said to Captain Picard, feeling one of them ought to say something.

"This time, I assure you, you will be rescued. We will reach you in ten days."

"Why can't we just all hope into those transporters and beam straight to you, like Maya did?" said Tony.

"The long-range transporters can be hazardous to use, and we have no way of knowing whether it was Maya's particular physiology, or a malfunction in that transporter, which caused her injuries. The Enterprise has plenty of room to accommodate your people in comfort."

"We're only just in range of Alpha as it is," said Tony in a low voice to John.

"I would advise you," said the Captain, "to go back to Moonbase Alpha and wait for us."

"Return Maya to us," said John.

"We'll bring her with us - of course."

"That's unacceptable. We want her back here, now."

"I'm afraid that's impossible. The emergency transporters only operate in one direction."

"Look," said Tony, his temper rising, "if you got her there you can get her back."

"We did not bring her here. She sent herself, by activating the transporter. I understand your concern for your crewmember, but you will just have to trust us."

"We've learned not to trust anyone we meet," said John. "Most of the species we've encountered have been hostile to us."

"Hostility is often a two-way process," said the Captain.

Helena was impressed by his dignity and calm. She had the feeling that he negotiated with difficult types every day of his working life. "John, I trust him," she muttered. She felt the grip on her hand tighten.

"You say you're from Earth?" said John.

"The Starship Enterprise represents the United Federation of Planets, an alliance of peace-seeking worlds who came together over a century ago to promote galactic unity. Starfleet - the Enterprise is staffed by Starfleet officers - seeks to explore the outer reaches of the galaxy, making contact with new species, spreading peace and understanding."

"Why does that sound so different from everything we've seen?"

"You are travelling in a very remote part of the galaxy, at sub-warp speeds. If you're taking a course away from Lifeboat 898 then you're heading into centuries of oblivion. Unless you want to live the rest of your lives on Moonbase Alpha, I suggest you let us rescue you."

"Is there no way you can send Maya back here now?"

"None. I'm sorry."

"John," said Tony, "he said the transporter was one-way. That way. Let me go over to them - then I can report back over that transmitter, and at least we'll have some sort of check on what he says."

John nodded, and turned back to address the screen. "I want to send my second-in-command through to your ship."

"I would strongly advise against it. The Enterprise is travelling towards you at full warp, which would make using the long-range transporter extremely dangerous under any circumstances. And, as I said, we suspect it may be damaged."

"I want to try anyway," said Tony, to John.

John looked at Helena for an opinion. She shook her head with a slight motion.

"Don't," said Douglas. "I saw what that thing did to Maya."

"But she looks all right now," said Tony. "Maya!"

"Yes, Tony." Maya appeared over the Captain's shoulder. "Don't use the transporter, it nearly killed me. I'm only better now because of the medical technology they have here. Do what Captain Picard suggests, go back to Alpha. I'm quite safe here."

Tony stared at her hard, sighed, and turned away.

"Very well, Captain Picard," said John. "It seems we have no choice. Ten days."

"We'll signal you as soon as we're in range of your communicators. I look forward to meeting you, Commander, and all of your crew. To us you're people from the history books."

John nodded, and the screen went blank.

They had a tense conference in the Eagle as soon as it was in flight, on its journey back to the rendezvous point with Eagle Four. With the craft on autopilot, they gathered together in the cabin.

"Before we even report in to Eagle Four," said John, "I want to talk to you. Now I don't think we should tell anyone on Alpha what happened back there. If this Starship Enterprise turns up in ten days time, that's fine. If not, it will just be one more disappointment to lower morale."

"But what about Maya?" said Helena. "What are we going to tell people?"

"We'll tell them," said John calmly, "that we got to that base and we found no trace of her, beyond those bloodstains. Closest to the truth is the simplest way."

"We can't do that!" said Tony. "I can't go back to Alpha and pretend that she's - dead. It's spooky."

He looked, Helena thought, like he was teetering over the verge of exhaustion. The grim animation which had kept him alert on the way out had collapsed into weariness.

"It's the only thing we can do," said John. "We three here are the people closest to her - we know she's safe, that's what matters. Douglas - you understand why we have to say nothing?"

"Yes, sir, I won't give anything away."

"You really don't think this ship is going to turn up, do you," said Tony, in a flat voice.

John said nothing.

Tony slammed his heel against the metal bunk. "We should have done something. I should have tried the teleporter whatever Captain what's-his-name said."

"There wasn't anything we could do."

"If you believe what he said - we had no proof. Do you trust a man with a pointed head?"

"Maya believed him," said Helena.

"Maybe they were controlling her, intimidating her - maybe that wasn't even Maya."

"Is that what you think?" asked John seriously.

Tony sat down again and rubbed his eyes with one hand. "No, it was her."

"Tony," said Helena, "you've got to get some sleep. You're not thinking rationally any more."

"Okay, okay."

When John and Douglas had gone through to the cockpit to pilot, Helena dimmed the lights in the cabin to minimum and, to encourage Tony, took off her boots and stretched out on one of the upper bunks herself. She knew that John would be reporting to Bill Fraser in Eagle Four with the story that they had agreed. She listened to the tense breathing below her until she realised that there was no sound any more, and Tony had at last given in to sleep. Then she slipped down and crept through the connecting door to the cockpit.

"How is he?" asked John, as she knelt down beside him between the two seats.

"Fast asleep."

"I'll go and get some rest too, if that's okay," said Douglas. "I'm beginning to see spots in front of my eyes."

"Do you really think the ship won't arrive?" said Helena, when they were alone.

"Helena - how can I tell. Nothing's worked out for us up until now. I don't want you to get your hopes up either."

"It's difficult not to think about it. What will we be going back to, what is Earth like by now? After all this time I've come to think of Alpha as home. I think a many of us have. I've always imagined that we would find a habitable planet and settle down as a community."

"Well, maybe the reality of it will be more complex than that. Whatever happens, at least Maya's okay. That takes a huge weight of my mind. Even if we never see her again - she looked happy."

"John, don't say that."

"I'm just trying to make myself feel better about doing nothing to get her back."

Helena squeezed his arm and took her place in the co-pilot's seat, and before long - and against the rules - she was asleep too.

After the relief of talking to the Commander and Tony, Maya began to feel considerably more sick and faint than she had since waking up. For half a minute she was gripped by the humiliating certainty that she was going to bring the liquid meal back up in Captain Picard's ready room, but the nurse gave her a shot of something and whisked her back to sickbay. She had only a weak impression of the Captain and the other two officers bidding her farewell.

"All right, lie back," said Dr Crusher. "Your blood pressure is so low I'm surprised it's still circulating. I'm going to put you on this monitor overnight and give you a mild hypnosedative to help you relax completely."

"Will I be well by tomorrow?" Maya asked, feeling rather pathetic.

"How's your health generally?"

"Usually perfect."

"You seem in good shape. You're young and fit. I would expect that by tomorrow you'll be feeling much better. We'll try breakfast in the morning."

Dr Crusher attached a disk to her upper arm, which Maya supposed communicated electronically with a piece of equipment she moved over to the bedside. She had a technical discussion with a junior whom she summoned over, talking as doctors did in a low voice that the patient was supposed to ignore. Then she pressed a narrow hand-held instrument against Maya's forehead, saying, "This will just make you relax that little bit you need..."

Maya felt a faint buzzing in her head, then almost at once a dreamy sleepiness came over her. She waited in a pleasant, detached daze while Dr Crusher went away and the junior doctor left the bedside to attend to something else. This was very different from Helena's brutal white sleeping pills, which she resorted to occasionally when she was afraid to go to bed alone. They knocked her out like an iron bar and made her wake up the next morning exhausted, with a headache and a bitter taste. But this delicious soft doze felt so natural... she had been longing for Helena's care, yet now she felt safe and comforted. Hardly thinking at all any more, as soon as she closed her eyes she drifted to sleep.

Her eyes were stinging with smoke and flames. Her body was trapped in a dreadful paralysis. She could move, but so slowly that she could neither run from the fire nor into it to save her father, who was shouting for her or at her. If she could break free she could still reach him, but she struggled hopelessly. The heat was so intense that her skin began to singe and she could only just hear her father's voice over the roar of flames, the crash of disintegrating glass and metal and the distant, seismic explosions. His hands rose out of the fire, disembodied and reaching for her.

Suddenly the grip broke and she was free to fling herself into the inferno -

And to scream. She heard herself scream as the terror shattered around her and she felt cool ordinary air and darkness again. She reached out for Tony and grasped his arms, then screamed again as she saw the face of an unknown man.

"Don't be afraid," he said, and hit his chest. "Slater to Dr Crusher, come to sickbay."

Maya realised that he was fumbling with some hand held instrument and she waved it aside forcefully, sat up, and breathed deeply to regain control. She could feel sweat freezing on her and her heart was still racing in her ears.

The doctor, who was no older than her, watched her anxiously.

"I'm all right," said Maya. "It was just a nightmare. I'm all right now."

The door hissed, and to Maya's dismay Dr Crusher entered clad in something that was unquestionably nightwear. She repeated her protestation.

"She was screaming for at least half a minute," said Dr Slater. "I'm afraid I may have panicked a bit, calling you."

"That's all right, Andrew, I'm glad you did." She ran a diagnostic instrument over her. "Well, your blood pressure's back to normal but your heart-rate is seriously elevated and you're in a state of extreme stress."

"I had a nightmare, that's all. Really, I'm all right now."

"Do you often get nightmares?"

"Sometimes - not much, recently."

"Is it the same one every time?"

"Yes."

"Would you like to tell me about it?"

"No - I'd like to go back to sleep. It won't happen again tonight, it never does. Could you give me something, please?"

Dr Crusher sat by the bedside. "Do you often take something, to make you sleep?"

"Not very often. Sometimes."

"All right. I'm only asking these questions because your mental health is as important as your physical health, and I wanted to know whether this nightmare was related to the transporter trauma which I'm treating. If it's a recurring problem that you had before, that's a matter for your own doctor. Your heart-rate's back to normal now. I'm going to give you this hypnosedative on level four, that should make your sleep dreamless."

She felt the coolness of the instrument on her forehead, but nothing after that.