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 8

Ella Brigham could barely hold her enthusiasm of being alive and free of the disease. She was eager to rejoin life on the ship and anywhere else as the ship had returned back to the 24th century with her ancestor onboard.

Captain Picard had decided to grant Ms. White passage back with them as she had nothing to live for in her time. She was already deemed dead. Of course, that was weird. Ella felt for Carrie nothing but love and deep understanding given that she had nearly joined her in the afterlife.

The two became friends quickly. Carrie seemed a bit closed up but given the horrific experiences Ella could understand. Still she was there for her every step of the way as she had a lot to learn and catch up in order to blend in this new for her time. Many things have changed since her time.

Carrie absorbed eagerly everything Ella was teaching her. She only had a problem with the manner of life on the ship. It was difficult to adapt to a ship full primarily of scientists. She needed to find a hobby or a job. The other difficult for her concept was the absence of remuneration and of money.

The whole idea of working for the benefit of humanity and the Federation was noble at its heart but it did not quite explain how one gets a place to live and what kind of furniture one could get for that, and how much replicator use.

Speaking of the replicator, this was the other shock. She could not believe that the people of this century ate essentially recycled food or that they drank synthetic alcohol with no actual alcohol in it. Of course there were many other benefits to this future she got herself into but still she missed the real food and drinks.

The first few weeks they spent in sickbay where Dr. Crusher ran test after test on both of them in order to determine that for Ella there were no unintended side effects, and for Carrie that she could actually survive in the future and not bring some bug from the past.

Dr. Crusher administered on Carrie many vaccines and other shots to make the transition from her century to this one but mostly to ensure that she can live in space. That was the other weird thing to get used to. Despite the misery of a life that she had, she had the outdoors, the smell of roses, the warmth of the sun, the luxury of day and night. And in space it was always night.

How these people had managed to get accustomed to day and night when it was always dark was beyond her. Her biological clock kept getting it wrong hence she was either sleeping during what they considered the day or waking during the night. The lack of general direction in space was also something nearly impossible for her to wrap her mind around especially when she was seeing people on the hull of the ship walking upside down.

She had many panic attacks because of it, which Dr. Crusher had learnt very quickly to counter given that she tended to break or throw things whenever it happened. It was a very weird sensation that she could not control until the day the captain taught her how.

It was the most unorthodox manner of doing so. He came to her quarters with a proposal for an outside mission and she eagerly accepted. They arrived near an airlock and Carrie became instantly apprehensive but Ella was with her so she had relaxed a bit.

They put her in an EVA suit and explained to her how to breathe and activate the magnetic boots. Ella took her by the hand and they entered the airlock, which was then depressurized and they ventured outside into the void.

"Come on! Do not be afraid." Ella said soothingly. "Grab that bar."

Carrie followed her instructions and they soon found themselves on the hull. Panic started to overpower her.

"Ms. White, relax." The captain told her. "Keep your eyes on the hull and ignore everything else. Just the hull."

Carrie followed that instruction and instantly her view changed. She tried very hard not to think that she was actually upside down.

"There is no up and down." Ella said.

This surprised Carrie a lot. It appeared that Ella was a bit like her. 'How do you know what I am thinking?' Carrie asked.

'I can hear you.' The mental reply came. 'Strangely and thankfully for now I can only hear you.'

'Did you have this ability before?'

'I am not sure, maybe, but at the time I was so afraid of the disease and I did spend some part of my life in stasis and on tubes so I did not really have the time to explore it.'

'I am sorry. I am glad you are alright.'

'Yes, thanks to you,'

'Can we talk this way all the time?'

'It will not be polite towards the others but when we are alone I have nothing against it.'

'Are you reading only my surface thoughts or can you go deeper?'

'I don't know. I have not tried but now it is not the time.' Ella replied. 'Look, you are doing well. Let's go to the captain.'

Carrie was somewhat relieved that Ella could not read deeper than her surface thoughts otherwise she would need Dr. Crusher more than she did. Truthfully, Carrie did not want her to go there either. She liked her. And her subconscious was no place for such nice girl. That place was dark and ominous and contained painful and horrible memories. It also contained her darkness.

Ever since she came to this new time she had been considering what to do about her dark impulses. She had to find an outlet before she starts to hurt people. She had a lot of suppressed hatred and anger in general for the life she had been living. The tip of the iceberg came from her so-called friends that played the cruelest prank imaginable – pig's blood. She got so angry in that moment of utter humiliation that she unleashed her darkness.

The problem was that she liked what followed. She truthfully enjoyed hurting and killing all these people and while guilt did reach her she was near death's door. So she did not really have the time to process these complex emotional experiences. And as she came here she continued to have this problem as she had spent her focus on learning things and adapting to this crazy new society.

She had to find a way to deal with them. She has not shared that with the others as she was not exactly sure how they would react. And she liked these people though at times their manner of doing things was driving her crazy. Adapting to people being generally mean to generally outgoing, honest, and amicable had been one of the most difficult transitions she had to endure.

Her best ally so far had been her grand, grand, grand, grand something niece Ella. Carrie was unsure how she would have made this progress without her. Of course there were other telepathic beings onboard but she was not compatible with them and of course they were ETs and she was still not very comfortable with that.

The only two 'aliens' she got along with were Lt. Worf and Counselor Troi. Of course her second meeting with Lt. Worf became very awkward when she accused the captain of making a prank with keeping the charade of the weirdly dressed and costumed alien. That earned her a lot of weird looks from the crew as apparently no one has ever dared to call a Klingon an oddly dressed costumed and masked alien.

When she attempted to remove the 'mask' she finally understood that he's indeed an ET and not some poorly dressed guy. She had to apologize quite a lot afterwards but weirdly enough Worf not only showed understanding but also forgave her for lack of knowledge as he said that is perfectly normal for a human that just discovered an entire galaxy full of alien life. And that was one of the most maddening things she had experienced. She could not get where they found this fountain of good mood and positive thinking.

The level of tolerance on this ship and in general was something that was very alien to her as her society had so many definitions that the lack of it threw her off and she made many mistakes that everyone continued to forgive making her feel even more awkward that she already felt.

Counselor Troi, she met her for the first time when she left sickbay and was given her own quarters. The captain took her to her. Carrie had difficult time believing that the woman was an alien as she looked so human. But as it was explained there were many humanoid civilizations in the Federation and while they looked like her their physiology was different.

Counselor Troi surprised her a lot. At first she was afraid she was like her - a telepathic but as it turned out she was an empath. She got the fear the first time as most of what she was thinking at the time the counselor used. Since then she learnt that empaths can sense emotions that are sometimes linked to thoughts. Still, counselor Troi was very patient with her and did not push her in any way. She was just as curious about her way of life as she was for theirs.

That helped in building a bridge between them and that bridge grew into acquaintance. Carrie also had to learn the hard way that most people saw her as an acquaintance at best as they had to maintain a working and respectful relationship with the guests on the ship. So the only friend that she had onboard was Ella.

Carrie knew that she had to change that. She had to build friendships but she was also cautious about it as the last time she tried it she ended up covered from head to toe with pig's blood and she was not eager at all to repeat that experience. Of course the people here were nothing like the ones in her time but still trust is something built over time and right she was very mistrustful.

She had accepted Ella as her friend – one because she was blood and two because there was no one else that took such good care of her. Her grandfather, the weird and despicable admiral, was shipped out the moment they returned to this time.

Apparently the good admiral expected that his ruse that the Federation had been compromised was going to continue to work on the captain but he had misjudged him and mostly because Carrie read his mind where she discovered a careful selection of thoughts that might have worked on someone from his century but not on her and so he was shipped back to Earth for a court martial. Thankfully Ella remained onboard on the insistence of the captain and his doctor.

The problem with forming relationships onboard a starship however was the constant rotation of jobs and transfers to other ships and star bases. She tried a few times to make friends but they were reassigned to other decks and ships, and bases. That put a setback on the plans for friendships. She then decided that these friendships had to be with the command crew and they were not exactly her age range.

The other problem was finding a common ground with anyone and that led to the realization that she needed to find something to do on this ship. She did not want to do the science thing as she learnt that she had to go to the academy for that and this was not ideal for her. But she did learn of many other outlets and jobs that civilians did onboard that did not require this form of qualification but she had yet to choose a direction.

"Carrie," She heard Ella's voice and that took her away from her thoughts.

She noticed that they have reached an area where she remembered was the ship's communication array.

"Look. Isn't it beautiful?"

For the first time she dared to look at the stars and found that while she could still see the rest of the ship it did not bother her so much being upside down in relation to it.

Ella was right. It was beautiful.

"Yes, it is." Carrie said and enjoyed the view. "Thank you, Captain. Thank you, Ella!"

"It is my pleasure, Ms. White."

Carrie was indeed grateful that the captain took out of his time to help out. She knew how busy the man was and that was one very big gesture. Of course she imagined the captain viewed that as public service despite being so personal. She was not sure he did that for anyone but she was a special case.

At first Starfleet wanted the captain to transport her to Starfleet headquarters and to reassign her away from the flagship of Starfleet. But the captain fought on her behalf and she remained onboard. She did not know under what conditions as the captain did not share these details with her. He had only told her not to worry and that she belonged with them, and 'leave it there'. She was tempted at the time to peek in his mind but she was so grateful that the moment passed.

The other thing that she had to learn was how to control her telepathic ability and counselor Troi helped a lot with that. She had to learn to control her desire to peek inside anyone's head and that had been difficult. It was tempting but Counselor Troi convinced her easily with a few life examples and she got the message. She learnt quickly how to block people's thoughts as it got out of hand – the noise of unfiltered thoughts and was beginning to overwhelm her senses.

"Can Carrie come with us on the next planet?" Ella asked yet again turning Carrie away from her thoughts.

"Of course," Captain Picard replied. "I think that would be beneficial for her. She's not used to being in space for so long."

"Did you hear?" Ella asked excitedly.

"I heard, thank you!"

"Good, it is time we returned back inside." Captain Picard said and led the way.

"We are not going back the way we came?" Carrie asked.

"No, we will use the other entrance just over there."

"Cool!" Ella exclaimed.

Carrie smiled. Ella was a bundle of joy and excitement at pretty much anything. She could understand why. Being tied up to a bed for so long gave her now the excuse to fully embrace anything in life with nothing but joy and relief that she no longer has to see that biobed again but of course that had also its drawbacks.

The girl barely slept and came to her quarters often and while Carrie had become tired Ella was still full of energy and could probably run a few laps around the ship before showing any signs of being tired. Carrie had gotten used to that at some point.

They reached the airlock and got out of their suits. Carrie was happy to be again inside the ship though she did like the walk outside. Of course it was not what she expected when the captain came to her headquarters.

The captain big them goodbye as he returned to his duty while she and Ella decided to go to Ten Forward. That was one of their favorite places. She did not meet though its usual owner a woman named Guinan as she had learnt that she had left the ship prior to them going for her for some personal reasons. Still she liked the place a lot as it had the best view.

It was also the area where the crew liked to unwind from their duties other than on the holodecks. She came to like them too. Especially the first time she visited when Ella recreated in it some obscure movie from the 1930s and they participated as characters. That was one of the weirdest experiences for her. But since then she had come to like it. That way she could visit many places and planets without actually having to go there.

Her focus returned to Ten Forward as Ella had gotten out of the replicator a large Sunday Surprise (that was one of Counselor Troi's favorites too).

"Again?" Carrie asked.

"What?" Ella asked back innocently.

"Didn't Counselor Troi use that only she's feeling down?"

"Well that's her way. I liked it the way I want."

"Overly excited bundle of…" And the two laughed. It was good to laugh again.

"Check that out." Ella said turning her gaze to the furthest table.

Carrie followed her gaze and logically it fell on men. Ever since she got out of that pod she has been attacking the opposite sex quite ferociously. Carrie could understand the appeal but she was not ready for that yet. Still she did throw a look every now and then.

She did look again and this time noticed one guy. She had seen him only in passing in Engineering. The reason she remembered this one was because she could not read him for some reason. And the reason she wanted to probe his mind was because she did not like him for some reason. It was something in his demeanor that she found intimidating. Of course she did not have the time to stop and probe him.

"Oh, he's a cutie." Ella observed having followed her gaze. "He works on the lower decks."

"What does he do?" Carrie asked as Ella was on top of every gossip column.

"He's dealing with fixing the communication arrays and the one next to him is the security officer in charge of the lower decks." Ella explained. "He's unattainable for the ladies."

"Why is he married? Or is he gay? Or eunuch?"

"Oh, no, he's single and straight as far as I know. But the girls say he has a mysterious aura around him."

"And that's what makes him unattainable?" Carrie exclaimed. "You people have a weird sometimes point of view about things."

"It is not weird." Ella protested. "Mystery men are tantalizing and we like to keep them that way. It is always good to have some mystery left."

"Really," Carrie found this argument ridiculous. "If you do not even attempt then how would you know? How would you know if he's good for it or not? I mean for you know he's not good at all or it is small it is barely noticeable. "

"Oh, come on, I doubt that."

"Well, go and find out."

"Aren't you interested?" Ella said. "Oh, I have seen you sneak a peek at some of the guys."

"Well, it is perfectly natural but no, I am not interested."

"Come on - why not?"

"I will tell you another time."

"Okay,"

"Let's go down to the holodecks. Crewman Hanson said there will be a party."

"Agreed,"

They left for the holodecks and Carrie threw one last look at the table with the mysterious guy and the undesirable one making a mental note to check them out later. Fortunately for them they did not notice the increased interest about them from the newest resident on Enterprise.

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Lordheaven