Disclaimer: Star Trek and all its characters belong to Paramount Pictures. Carrie belongs to author Stephen King but the words are mine. The characters of the Four Orders (FO)* are entirely my own.

Requested Story by T-Rex-1000

AU/ST/Carrie/FO*: Admiral Brigham enacts a desperate plan to save the life of his granddaughter, enlisting the help of Starfleet captain: Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Enterprise under false pretense and no matter the cost. But the price comes too high…

Chapter 7

Previously:

"Sickbay to bridge," Dr. Crusher called. "There is someone here who would like to say hello."

The Admiral bolted from the bridge straight to sickbay. His heart was pounding and beating faster than the speed of sound. He reached it minutes later and then stopped in his tracks. From one of the biobeds, his precious little gem stood eyes wide opened and somewhat confused but positively beaming with gratitude and joy.

"Grandfather?"

"Ella," Tears found their way out and down his cheeks. He was so happy. He was ecstatic that it worked.

"How?"

"The one next to you is Carrie. Her blood saved you."

Ella Brigham eyed the biobed next to her where her ancestor lied peacefully. She was grateful to this sudden change of her situation. She was told over and over that there is no cure but her grandfather never gave up hope and now she was up and about and the disease was gone. She could again enjoy the sun, the stars, her friends (hoping they were still around), the sky, the holodeck and all that life had to offer.

The two jumped into each other's embrace. They were so happy and that's why they did not see it coming. Suddenly the doors slammed closed with terrible force. The lights trembled and flickered.

"Who are you?"

And now:

Admiral Brigham and his granddaughter stood in stupor at the person that said that. And that was Carrie White. She looked around incredulously, panic obvious in her eyes.

"I am …" John Brigham began saying.

"John Brigham," Carrie said and looking at Ella continued. "Ella Brigham,"

"Why did the sedation fail, Doctor?" John Brigham turned to Dr. Crusher keeping his cool.

"The sedation worked perfectly, Admiral."

"And yet she's awake."

Dr. Crusher at this moment could not say why the sedation wore off so quickly. She had to run more tests on the subject.

"Beverly Crusher," Carrie continued as everything around continued to shake.

"Relax, Ms. White. You are safe." Dr. Crusher tried to calm her down finally realizing it was Carrie behind the current occurrences.

"I do not feel safe, Beverly Crusher." She said, no, shouted.

Dr. Crusher tried reaching her so she can administer another sedative but Carrie did not let her as she slammed her into the wall.

"What is this place?" Carrie asked but almost immediately had her answer. "A ship in the stars, that is not possible." She shook head as this was overwhelming. How was this possible? The best anyone could pull was a space shuttle that went as far as the moon. But the steps and voices she could sense moved from above, beneath and around her.

No space shuttle was this big. What was this place? Who built it? Utopia Planitia of Mars – WHAT? What was that? Mars, that was not possible either. Who were these people? Or worse, was this how hell looked like? Was it a place where the impossible lived only to torment her? Arrg, she will not give in or up so easily. She would rather destroy this place then allow it to swallow her into this madness.

"Please, Carrie, relax," Ella said approaching her ancestor. "You are onboard the Federation starship USS Enterprise."

"Federation? I am on a Canadian ship?"

"No," Ella shook head and smiled. "It is the United Federation of Planets. It has thousands of worlds all across half the galaxy."

"Planets?" Carrie exclaimed even more confused. "Aliens?"

"Everyone is an alien to another depending on the point of view and the planet."

"ETs then?"

Ella looked at her questioningly as she did not get the reference.

"Extraterrestrials?"

"Oh," Ella understood. "Yes, I suppose you could call it that."

"Are you an ET?"

"No," Ella shook head. "But we have many onboard. And you can see them but just calm down."

"You will show them to me?"

"No, she won't." Admiral Brigham intervened before things get out of hand. He quickly realized the error of this as he joined Beverly at the wall. "Stop this immediately, put me down."

Suddenly, Jean-Luc Picard and a security team materialized inside sickbay thus startling Carrie a great deal but she reacted instinctively dodging the weird ray that came out of the strange device in the hand of the craziest costume she had ever seen.

"Mr. Worf!" Jean-Luc exclaimed. "Holster your phaser!"

"But sir, she's…"

"Now, Mr. Worf,"

"Yes, Captain," Worf put it away.

"My apologies, Ms. White," Jean-Luc said. "Would you mind releasing my doctor and Admiral Brigham and I will be happy to explain the situation."

Carrie looked at him and relaxed a bit. His words were well measured and soothing. It was something she felt she could trust but the situation was way too militant for her to do so. The crazy costume was looking at her with great ferocity.

"Mr. Worf, would you mind turning around?" Jean-Luc said as he noticed her apprehension.

"Captain?"

"Please, Mr. Worf,"

Worf grunted muttering something in Klingon but obeyed the captain.

"There,"

Carrie eyed the captain and then the back of the crazy costume. She wanted him gone but realized she was keeping the doors shut hence the weird appearance. Now that she came to think of it how did they get here?

"How did you do that?"

"I could tell you but explaining it will take more time." Jean-Luc replied relieved her focus has shifted back to him.

"Captain Jean-Luc Picard, this is French?"

"Yes, it is." Jean-Luc replied. "My Doctor?"

"Ah, what, oh, yes," Carrie said and released Dr. Crusher but left the admiral. "So explain? Where am I?"

"You are in the sickbay onboard the Federation starship USS Enterprise."

"There is no such ship or shuttle."

"Yes," Jean-Luc was considering what to tell her. "You are correct. There are no starships at this time but there is a naval ship USS Enterprise."

"What do you mean this time?" Carrie asked perplexed and then she got her answer. "You are…you are from…the future, the 24th century?"

Jean-Luc was also a bit perplexed as to how she reached that conclusion given that she did not know or could possibly know. There was nothing in sickbay that could give away such information.

"Is this the only starship that exists in the future?" Carrie asked.

Jean-Luc continued to consider carefully his answer. Exposing a citizen of the 20th century to knowledge of the future was not a good idea, not to mention a dangerous one.

"I may be from this century but I am not stupid."

And then Jean-Luc had his answer. There was nothing in sickbay that could give her this knowledge but there was – them. She was telepathic and also most certainly telekinetic. That was something that Admiral Brigham had failed to mention otherwise they would taken very different precautions. Of course it was possible the Admiral did not know.

"So he brought you here?" Carrie asked and turned her attention to the Admiral with flames in her eyes.

"Yes, you were the only one who could save his granddaughter from a very rare form of blood disease." Jean-Luc answered. "She's your descendant!"

"My – what?" Carrie looked back at Jean-Luc. That was not possible as she had never been pregnant, as far as she knew. Of course, her mother might have done something awful to her but no, she would know if she had been.

"On the cousin's side," Ella interjected.

'Ah, that explains it.' Carrie thought and relaxed relieved that she had not missed something so important and disturbing.

Now she wondered what their plan was but looking at the Admiral she quickly got the picture. So that was their plan – use her and then dump her with no memory of this every happening but they thought wrong.

'Wait!' Carrie dug deep into his memories. 'What was that? I was dead.' And then she remembered the events that led to that. Her so-called best friend had made a mess and she left her a gift to remember for years to come, and then she died.

'But no,' apparently she was not that dead. These strange people were able to revive her and bring her aboard to do a blood transfusion and safe Ella's life. But then they were going to rearrange her memories and return her back where they found her. Would that mean that intended to make her dead again? So that she could die for real? If that was so they were deadly wrong as she would not go down that easily.

The admiral began to feel the pressure of her powers and it was increasing in strength. He looked helplessly at Ella and then at Jean-Luc hoping he would do something about this before it was too late to do anything.

"Ms. White," Jean-Luc called.

"NO!" Carrie shouted back. "I will not let you put me back so that I can die for good."

"Wait – what?" Jean-Luc looked at her incredulously. He then looked at the Admiral and frowned. "ADMIRAL! Explain yourself!"

"I would watch my tone, Captain Picard." Admiral Brigham said though with difficulty.

"Grandfather?" Ella turned to him. She could not believe that this was ever an option.

John Brigham did not enjoy the way things were developing. That little girl has managed in a single sentence to turn both Jean-Luc and his granddaughter against him. The little brat needed to be put back where she belongs. Sadly the very thought of that increased his agony.

"Admiral Brigham," Jean-Luc said. "I would strongly suggest that you answer me!"

John Brigham definitely wanted to put Jean-Luc in his place but remembered that this is his ship and the crew will obey the captain. And he had gone a bit too far with his previous comment.

He sighed deeply. He had no choice now but to say it. "It was the only window in which we could get her. And she was nearly dead, not completely."

"But she would have been as the doctors of the time would not have picked it up." Dr. Crusher observed.

"I was heading for the morgue?" Carrie said with increasing hate in her voice.

"Admiral?"

"Yes, it was a dirge vehicle."

"Why did you not inform us of this?" Jean-Luc asked.

"I did not tell you because then you would not have helped."

"You have put this ship and its crew in a very precarious situation, Admiral. You should have told us everything. Our directives exist for a reason."

"Your directives can go to hell, Captain." Brigham exclaimed. "The only thing that had any importance and any value is the life of my granddaughter. Everything else can go to hell!"

"Mr. Worf, let it be known in the ship's logs, that as of this moment, under regulation 619 of the Starfleet charter, I am relieving Admiral Brigham from command of the Enterprise."

"That is hanging on whether I will give up command, Captain, and I am not."

"Admiral, you are in violation of the Temporal Prime Directive…"

"And so are you, Captain,"

"This has gone far enough." Beverly joined the conversation. "Admiral John Brigham, under Protocol 121, Section A! I'm hereby reliving you of command."

"Under what pretext doctor?"

"You are medically unfit for command. You are behavior is erratic and borderline psychotic. You will undergo psychological evaluation."

"You are insane!"

"Sorry, Admiral but in terms of health, my authority supersedes yours!" Beverly said. "Mr. Worf, remove the admiral from the wall and put him in the brig pending the evaluation."

"And the investigation," Jean-Luc added. "Also, be so kind to remove Mr. Frex from command and put him next to the admiral. "

"Yes, Captain,"

The admiral tried to resist and that made things worse for him but Lt. Worf overpowered him with ease and took him out of sickbay.

"Please, accept our apologies for this situation, Ms. White." Jean-Luc turned back to Carrie who had released the admiral following this development. "We were not aware of your predicament at the time."

"And if you were you…" Carrie did not finish the sentence and then shook head. "You wouldn't have come."

"It is not that simple. But we would have definitely taken a different approach."

"So what happens now? You will put me back. I am not going back."

"Don't you have a family that we can take you to?"

"By now, they will all be relieved that I am dead."

"She has a point, Captain." Beverly interjected. "Returning her now would be condemning her to death."

"What other option will you give me, Doctor?"

"I can come with you. There is nothing for me here anymore."

"We could do that." Beverly said.

"It is not that simple."

"Yes, it is, Jean-Luc. By the records of the time, she's dead. She will not be missed. History will not be affected."

"I will need some time to think this one over." Jean-Luc said. He was not keen on making a decision on the spot. There were many implications for such an action. Despite of the evidence that Ms. White is considered dead in her time, removing her simply from it and thrusting her into the future was a delicate decision. He needed to consider all options before making this decision. "Ms. White! Please, remain in sickbay so Doctor Crusher can make a full medical examination and tomorrow I will let you know of my decision."

"Sure," Carrie replied hopeful.

Meanwhile in the brig, Admiral Brigham was fuming. He pissed beyond belief. Lt. Frex sitting next to him was keeping quiet. He knew that when the admiral is angered it is best not to say anything.

When the admiral calmed down a bit he decided to ask. "What went wrong?"

"Ella and Picard both played in her devious little sentence. That's what happened." The admiral replied.

Lt. Frex remained silent though he wished he knew what the admiral was talking about as he was not there and he had no way of knowing what the sentence was. Fortunately, the admiral shared.

"Did you know that she is telepathic and telekinetic?" Lt. Frex asked following the logic of the described situation.

"No, I didn't. If I did I would have taken a very different approach. She would have been so bloody sedated it would have been easy to confuse it with being dead. But those powers surprised me. At first I wondered how was she guessing so quickly but then it became self evident."

"And I imagine the other part was also self evident?"

"You imagine correctly."

"So what now?"

"We still have an advantage."

"Which is?"

"Picard gave me the ship under a very specific regulation and one that entitles that he believes our cover story. So he will not contact Starfleet."

"Yes, but your ancestor can spoil that."

"On the contrary, she will sell it. You and I need to be on the same page before they arrive to continue this charade."

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