"I cannot locate the combadges of either Doctor Crusher or Captain Picard." the young Ensign Joffrey declared from the tactical post with an edge of stress in his voice.

"How can that be?" Deanna looked at Will confused, and the latter stood up to cross to the Ensign.

"Check it again." he ordered as he walked up to where his subordinate was standing at his console. After blinking at the negative results for a moment longer, a thought struck him "Compensate the same way we did when we beamed Data and the others on board. Maybe something is interfering with the scanners."

Deanna looked at him confused "But Data and his team were underground when we beamed them on."

"Maybe they followed Commander Data and his team into the mines." chimed in another very young Lieutenant, Ms. Anderson, from the ops console.

"Confirmed." Joffrey declared "The badges now register on the scanners. But they're not at the mines."

"Can you lock on to them?" Will asked.

After pressing some buttons, the younger man shook his head "Negative, sir. Though the badges are there, the lifesigns of the Captain and the Doctor don't seem to be anywhere around."

"I don't think I like the sound of that at all." Will growled and was about to step back to the Captain's chair when Ensign Joffrey couldn't stop himself any longer.

"Commander!" he called and when Will looked at him, he could see that the young man was clearly very upset "Yesterday, I was on duty in Transporter room 2. Captain Picard contacted me, and asked me to beam them to a certain set of coordinates. He also asked me never to reveal this to anybody, but... seeing how half of the away-team got back to the Enterprise..."

"Give me those coordinates! And get me Commander Data." Riker cut in on his strictest voice and Deanna pushed her combadge.

"Troi to Data..." she began, but she hadn't finished her transmission when the turbolift doors opened.

"I'm here, Counsellor." Data told her silently stepping into the Bridge.

There was a long moment of shocked silence as the Bridge crew took in his appearance: his clothes were torn and burned, his face and hair was dirty, and his right arm hung next to his side, lifeless - with the sooty, raw metal of his endoskeleton clearly visible.

"Data, are you..." Deanna started growing pale at his sight, but he again cut in.

"I'm fine. I'm sorry that my appearance upsets you." he turned his head to Riker "Commander, there is another matter just as important as finding the Captain and Doctor Crusher. There might be a Romulan ship in orbit Epsilon Four."

"What?!" Will gaped.

"Scanning the sector." Lieutenant Anderson declared.

Deanna stepped up to Data "What did happen on the planet?"

Riker joined in "Do you know anything about the Captain?"

Data shook his head faintly "We split up. I do not know where the Captain or the Doctor might be. My team was to investigate the mines of Ridgeback mountains, where we were told by some members of the Resistance that there might be evidence to prove that Premier Jones was using alien technology to mine dilithium. The rumour even ventured, that the alien technology might be Romulan. The Captain judged that Admiral McKinnley would not believe us if we went to him with our hunches based on gosips. So we decided to investigate covertly with Captain Picard and Doctor Crusher providing the cover for the rest of us. They were pretending to look for ...Lieutenant Jones who had gone missing a few hours prior."

"But she was actually with you, and you went down into the mines with virtually no means to protect yourselves from Romulan guns." Will concluded "Neat..." he grimaced wryly.

"We didn't have any other choice."

"Scanning complete, and negative, Commander!" Anderson spoke up from her console.

Data stepped up to her "Try to flood the area with tachyon particles and then look for any inertia displacement that would fit the size of a Romulan ship."

"The old trick?" Will asked with a tight smile walking up to them.

"Long shot, as the vernacular goes. However, as it worked at least once..." Data slightly shrugged with his good shoulder, only looking at the displays.

Deanna walked up to Ensign Joffrey "Scan the whole planet for their lifesigns."

"That could take a considerable amount of time, Counsellor." he told her looking still very worried. And she could feel, that apart from being worried for his colleagues - there was something far more personal in his feelings. She gave him a comforting small smile.

"We have to start somewhere." she told him putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder for a moment "Begin with the coordinates the Captain gave you last night."

Meanwhile, at the ops station, the console chirped, and Anderson looked up at Data excited "There's something at the edge of the sector. Though the readings might be inaccurate because the tachyon field is the weakest there."

"Set course to those coordinates! Full impulse." Will ordered, and Data took up the role of the second officer.

"Shields up, scanners at maximum range." he commanded, and they both went back to the command chairs and sat down.

"Prepare photon torpedoes with warhead yields at energy burst level five!" Will went on with Data's old manoeuvre.

"Aye, sir." Anderson nodded tapping the console, but then frowned confused "Photon torpedoes at level five, sir? It wouldn't even scratch them. Shouldn't we use quantum torpedoes instead?"

"Keep your pants on, Lieutenant, we don't want to start a war. We just want to see where they are." Will told her. In the background, they could hear Deanna talking to the Admiral.

"Torpedoes ready!" Anderson declared.

"Fire!" Will ordered and a brightly shining torpedo appeared on the screen moving away from the Enterprise to the direction of the tachyon displacement. The Bridge crew was watching it in tense silence - except for Deanna who was still on the line with the Admiral.

To their disappointment, the torpedo reached the coordinates and flew past them without hitting anything there. Will and Data both let out a frustrated breath.

"They had a considerable amount of leeway." Data remarked absently on a low voice.

"How much?" Will asked now curious.

"Over thirty minutes, Commander."

Will sighed and noted with some wry sarcasm "Half an hour. They can as well be in Romulan space."

Data looked at him with a sudden irritation "Though I understand that my actions seem haphazard and thoughtless in the light of the amount of time that has passed since we last saw them in the mines, but Sela seemed extremely motivated in retaining her authority over the planet. I was hoping they would stay and try to wait until our presence. ..."

"Alright, alright." Will held up his hands in defence with genuine surprise on his face at Data being so sensitive "I didn't mean to criticise you. We have to take our chances, if it's about the Romulans." he turned his head ahead "Conn, set course back to the planet. Standard orbit."

"Aye, sir, standard orbit."

Deanna then walked up to stand in front of the command chairs, and the two men looked up at her seeing first only her looming shadow. She crossed her arms with a small smile on her face "Now, if the gentlemen has had enough of playing wargames, maybe you're interested in what we've found out."

They looked at each other then stood in union: "You found them?"

She let her arms down "The Admiral said they haven't reported to him in the last six hours. As to why he didn't contact us about it, he did not elaborate, and he had really no idea where they might have gone. But. Digging a bit deeper with Ensign Joffrey, we found that it seems the combadges of Captain Picard and Doctor Crusher is at an underground special facility. And here comes the interesting part: the facility is to confine political prisoners." she looked at Data as she went on "If you've been bargaining with the Resistance in order to get information, what if they were mistaken by the authorities for members of the Resistance, and were taken to this political prison?"

Riker and Data looked at her surprised but appreciatively "The question is, how do we make sure?" Will asked finally.

"I talked to Admiral McKinnley about it, and he suggested a direct approach. He is asking Premier Jones at this moment." Deanna declared and returned Riker's admiring smile with a shy one of her own.

But Data disrupted their positive attitude "If he holds them captive, he'll deny it."

"Why do you think so?" Deanna asked shocked.

Data looked her straight in the eye "He was in the mines. If he gets the opportunity, he'll try to get rid of anyone snooping around his flourishing dilithium business with the Romulans. Just the way he tried to get rid of us too."


Picard new he would not last long after feeling his own blood dripping into his eyes. He'd been beaten up the third time that night, and even if he wasn't exactly unfamiliar with physical pain or torture for that matter, this would have been too much even if he was only in his thirties. And he definitely felt that he was NOT in his thirties. He was also not sure what might have happened to Beverly. He kept hearing her voice from time to time for a little while when he got on with the guards, but then she was dragged out of the cell, and after that he had no idea what happened to her.

He hit the ground hard and felt, he had no more strength left even to defend himself. He was just about to give in to pain and just wait for losing consciousness when the metal door to the cell opened with a clank, and the blows stopped.

"Premier!" he heard the stunned voice of one of the thugs, and vaguely saw a pair of elegant shoes coming his way - and a pair of lady's shoes followed! His vision then blurred, and he closed his hurting eyes.

"Jean-Luc!" he heard and felt himself turned to his back. He opened his eyes and saw a hand above his face holding a medical scanner.

Then he heard the voice of Premier Jones. It lacked all regret or other emotion when he spoke. "I'm terribly sorry for this misunderstanding, Captain Picard. The responsible people will be taken care of."

He then heard Riker's voice through the comm channel "Riker to Admiral McKinnley."

"We're ready to beam-out, Riker. Go ahead." the Admiral rasped, and at that, Picard saw the energy flow of the transporter beam, and in a moment's time, he found himself in Sickbay.


"Where is she?" Beverly asked on a tense voice, finally meeting Nurse Ogawa in the preparation area of the operating rooms.

"In operating room C. Doctor Powell is operating on her." Alyssa explained, while Beverly washed her hands, and made preparations to enter.

"You were assisting, right? What's the status?" she asked putting on her operating gown, and the nurse helped her.

"Doctor Powell managed to stop the bleeding and fixed her fractured ribs. But the fractured pelvic bone is a complex matter. And we were not able to find a blood donor on board. Her blood antigenes are extremely rare."

"Don't worry about that." Beverly told her on a low voice and put on a mask "We brought three units of her own blood. I already ordered it into the operating room after a thorough scan, of course."

"How did you..."

"It was preserved for her on the planet below. By her husband." Beverly added on a voice full of contempt, then entered the operating room.


Data was still sitting in the second-officer's chair on the Bridge an hour after Beverly and Picard were safely beamed aboard. Deanna watched him worried as he stared ahead into nothing with his burned arm hanging at the side of the chair. Riker came back to the Bridge with a grim expression after a status meeting with the Admiral and stepped up to Deanna where she was standing at one of the science consoles to the side.

"Status?"

Deanna turned her head to him and sighed with a small shrug "Nothing is out of the ordinary. The scans still haven't shown any sign of a Romulan ship. Or any other disturbance. What did the Admiral want?"

Will glanced away, and Deanna could sense frustration oozing out of him "Nothing that worth mentioning." he looked back at her again "I have the Bridge."

She nodded in acknowledgement "You have the Bridge."

As Will sat down next to Data, who was still sitting there motionlessly like a sophisticated albeit somewhat battered sculpture, he exchanged glances with Deanna. He had to think of something to get his android friend out of here - and out of this state he was in. He looked at Deanna again:

"Counsellor, you might want to pay a visit at Sickbay and check how the Captain and the other members of the away-team are. All of them returned hurt or in shock, I suppose they could use your support."

"Yes, I was just about to offer, Commander." she nodded with a small smile and looked at Data "Data, could you join me? Your mother probably appreciated your company over mine."

He still did not move - in fact, they weren't exactly sure whether he was breathing or not. Then he uttered on a soft voice "I do not wish to return to Sickbay."

Riker and Deanna exchanged glances again, and she could feel that Will shared her deepening worry for their friend. She sighed and tried on a patient voice:

"Data, running away from pain is not..." she began, but he suddenly looked up at her and cut her off.

"Counsellor. I am not returning to Sickbay. No matter if you try to convince me or not." he told her flatly, and she bowed her head defeated. If only she could feel how he felt! Just once! She could help him so much better! But like this, she was just groping about in the dark.

Riker on the other hand was not that easy to be shrugged off. He turned to Data with a strict expression "Commander, we wanted to do this in the gentle way, but if you're so stubborn, I have no choice but to give you a direct order. Get off the Bridge. Go clean yourself up, get stitched up by Geordi - or Maddox if you trust him enough." he added in a grunt "But I don't want to see you anywhere near this Bridge in the next twelve hours."

Data looked at him with his usual blank expression, and Riker suddenly felt guilty for sending him away so harshly. He added on a soft, caring voice "Listen. You've been through hell. And regardless that you need rest or not, I want you to take your time to recover from the experience." He didn't dare to add a remark about Emma. It might have done more damage than good to send him away on the grounds that anyone having his girlfriend on an operating table had nothing to do on the Bridge.

Data gave him a small nod and stood.

In a minute, he was standing in the turbolift with Deanna. She watched him now really worried. She'd never seen him like this - not even after he was held captive by the Borg and drifted from his friends. He was sad and depressed then. This was different. It was as if life was sucked right out of him, and there was also something else she couldn't put her finger on... but somehow, it made her feel uneasy. She had to try and reach out to him again.

"Data. If you wish to talk to me about anything that has happened on the planet, you know I'm here."

He raised his head and locked his gaze with hers "I know, Counsellor. I am grateful."

She went on on a silent voice "I know how hard it is when someone whom we love is in danger or is sick. Believe me, I've been in this situation too. It IS natural to be afraid of the news which might be good... or bad. But locking yourself up on the Bridge or anywhere else, won't help. Hiding away won't help. I know it from experience. You'll only feel better, if you're near her."

Data took a moment of consideration before answering her. He looked deep into her black eyes and again - something was so strange about him... "Counsellor. My fear of going to Sickbay is of a different nature. I am not afraid to go there and be near Emma. Or hear news about her condition for that matter."

"So then why..."

"Because her husband is there too." he explained, and she gaped. True as it was, they beamed Jones aboard along with the blood he brought, with Beverly, Picard and the Admiral. She frowned still perplexed, and he went on "He is solely responsible for what happened to Emma. And he left us to our certain deaths in the mines amidst a severe tectonic activity which he started with a Romulan disruptor." he paused lowering his gaze "If I meet that man again, I'm afraid, I won't be responsible for my actions. And it scares me to feel that way, Counsellor."

Deanna tried as best as she could to hide her reaction. Among all the things Data had ever said to her, this was one of the most upsetting. And she knew it was so, because she could see in his eyes that it was true.