She used her medical override to enter his quarters, noting immediately the low level of the lighting. She had that right after all, didn't she? As his wife surely, she…. *You've got to stop that, Beverly. He's not your husband.* A small voice far back in her mind begged to differ *But he COULD be. Maybe he SHOULD be.* How did one even react to such a situation, having spent an entire *lifetime* together. Having shared the minutiae of life for *decades, known each other in *every* sense of the word and now…. They were… what? friends...? Colleagues...? Superior and subordinate? She didn't think that she could do this, and yet she knew him, and she knew that he could offer nothing more. Not in *this* life. Here, in this life, he was Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the flagship of the Federation…

She spotted him immediately upon entering his quarters, silhouetted against the viewport, arms at his sides and she drank him in, one last time while she still felt she had the right to do so. She could tell that he'd heard her enter. His posture had straightened infinitesimally.

Her voice, though low, was startlingly loud in the stillness of his cabin. "I'll put in for a transfer. It shouldn't take too long to be granted. They're always short at Medical... I'm… I'll take some leave until then…. Immediately. Riker will have the request within the hour. I have quite a bit of time owing. It'll be… easiest. I just wanted to…" She didn't know if she could finish this, but swallowed back the lump in her throat, blinked away the moisture that had gathered in her eyes. "To say…. that I'll miss you. I'll miss the life we had together… even though it never existed." She waited, but knew that he wouldn't, *couldn't* respond. "Good-bye, Jean-Luc." His back was still to her as she turned towards his door, desperate to escape, now that she'd accomplished what she'd come for.

"Beverly, wait…"

--

Captain's log, stardate 45944.1. Following a magnetic wave survey of the Parvenium Sector, we've detected an object which we cannot immediately identify.

Bridge…

"Magnify. Mister Data?" Picard, like the rest of the bridge crew was intensely curious about the unusual object now being projected on the display screen in front of them.

"It appears to be a probe of some kind, but there is no Starfleet record of this shape or design."

"Is it scanning us?" Riker from his place to the right of the Captain, then looked behind the centre chairs at Worf stationed at tactical.

"No sir, but it has assumed a relative position, and it is holding course with us." Worf voice, despite never changing in timber or tone, somehow managed to project his increased concern that the unknown object was now pacing the ship.

While Worf was monitoring the position of the object vis-à-vis the Enterprise, Data was continuing his scans of the probe from his place at the opps. "The probe is composed of paricium and talgonite, a ceramic alloy."

"Not a very sophisticated technology" added La Forge. He seemed unimpressed with the probe. It *seemed* innocuous and from a technical standpoint, he saw nothing to alarm him. There was a long moment of silence as the officers on the bridge continue to monitor and try and interpret the data coming into their individual stations. It was Data who abruptly broke the silence abruptly.

"Sir, I am detecting a low-level nucleonic beam coming from the probe." His flat affectation gave no indication of concern, but the words themselves were enough to cause his fellow officers to move from caution to increased alertness.

"Shields up. Stand by phasers." Riker hopped up quickly from his position, giving his tunic a tug. Suddenly this probe didn't seem so harmless after all... to any of them.

"The beam is scanning the shield's perimeter. The probe is emitting an unusual particle stream." Data's hands flew over his console, but his voice remained steady, his tone still unaffected.

Worf's reaction, conversely, was not nearly so passive as he practically growled out "Sir, the beam is penetrating our shields."

Picard was now also on his feet. What had seemed to be a derelict space relic had now managed to penetrate the shields of the flagship of the Federation... "Increase power to..."

The Captain twitched, staggered, and was then caught mid fall by Dr. Crusher who had been observing the unfolding events from the seat to Picard's left. The doctor partially cushioned Picard's slow, stumbling descent, her arms going around his back and shoulders, but the moment she came in to contact with him in an attempt to lower him to the ground, she *too* collapsed slowly forward, coming to rest on Picard's chest, her hair spread out across his neck.

"Captain? Doctor? Don't touch them!" This last was very forcefully directed at Worf who had already made it from his station down to where the captain and the doctor now lay on the floor of the bridge. The security chief stopped just short of the (hopefully only) unconscious pair. Riker viciously slapped his palm against his comm badge. "Medical emergency. Dr. Selar to the bridge!"

--

"Finally. How are you feeling? Jean-Luc? It's Beverly. Can you hear me?"

"What is this place? Doctor?" Picard blinked rapidly, Beverly's face slowly coming into focus, at first as if he were viewing her from underwater, but slowly clearing and finally settling into the familiar visage he knew so well. Despite the fact that Beverly was there with him, which he should have found comforting, he found himself feeling completely disoriented. He likened the feeling to travel by interdimensional transporter, a method of travel they'd both experienced (and had hoped to never experience again) on Rutia IV years before.

"You're still suffering the effects of whatever the hell happened to us. What's the last thing that you remember?" Beverly fussed over him, feeling his face with her hands, bending forward to wring out a wet cloth from the basin on the low table beside the chair where he currently found himself.

"We were… on the bridge… weren't we...?" He turned a questioning look towards her as if asking her to verify that had indeed *not* lost his mind… This *had* to be some sort of simulation, some holodeck program... "Computer, freeze programme. Computer, end programme." He glanced around the room which seemed to be decorated in what he considered adobe style…

"Picard to Enterprise." he tried, although by now he'd understood that it was probably futile. Pushing himself up and out of the chair, he wandered around the room, craning his neck into doorways but remaining in the room where he'd awakened with Beverly. "How long have you been awake?"

"Captain!" She sounded alarmed now. "Please don't get up yet. You're still not well! Jean-Luc!" He gave her a look that indicated he was at the end of his patience with her hovering. "Beverly." His mocking imitation of her tone was *not* well received. Finally, she rolled her eyes at him and threw up her hands as if to say *Fine, do as you please. You always do anyway.* "I've been trying to bring you around for at least 15 minutes. I woke up in the chair beside yours."

"Are we prisoners here?" Jean-Luc had a *very* bad feeling about this. Unwanted memories of previous episodes of captivity flashed in his mind and all at once the room felt stifling, he felt unable to draw a full breath. He suddenly changed direction, no longer content to explore the confines of this unfamiliar living room, he headed for the exterior door.

"You mustn't push yourself too quickly. Captain? You really shouldn't go outside." She scrambled up from the chair she'd flopped into while he'd been wandering around. Her determination to attempt to dissuade him from leaving the dwelling was written all over her face, but he simply ignored it, and her… She finally settled for chasing after him when she realized that he wasn't going to listen to reason.

--

Courtyard...

Stepping outside, Picard blinked several times, the bright sunshine of the courtyard of the home he'd just exited, making him feel even more disoriented than he'd felt moments before. The air was almost stiflingly hot, and slightly arid. He noted the landscape surrounding him. It seemed rocky and arid, somehow reminiscent of a desert. The exterior of the dwelling reinforced the impression of adobe architecture, a light-coloured stucco covering the walls, a low flat roof, even the courtyard itself and the plants and flowers he could see growing there. Beverly, refusing to back down, had followed him to the door.

"Beverly, get back inside."

"Why?" She was instantly suspicious.

It was on the tip of his tongue to snap back *Because I damn well said so.* "I'm going to have a look around…" Beverly cut him off before he could again tell her to return inside.

"Jean-Luc, please come back inside." She then changed tactics. "If you're going somewhere, at least let me go with you!"

"I said *no* doctor! You'll stay *here* and that's an order!" He drew in a steadying breath, closing then opening his eyes slowly. "Doctor... Beverly… just stay here until I return."

"Jean-Luc, *anything* could happen to…"

"I will be *back.*" He enunciated each word slowly and firmly. *Infuriating woman! Would she *ever* learn to simply follow orders...? Probably not in this lifetime, Jean-Luc.* Before she could protest any further, he brushed aside her attempts to forestall him and started off in a somewhat random direction, leaving her exasperatedly calling his name before she lost sight of him and withdrew reluctantly back into the house.