A/N: Hey! If you'd like to read Picard and co's POV of the previous chapter I've created a new volume titled Decoherence: Another Point of View. It'll be scenes from other character's POV. Chapter 3 corresponds to this episode :)

Fajo never came back that night. A burly man wearing a phaser pistol on his belt came in with a tray of food for Elle and side-eyed Data the entire time. He was almost literally itching for a fight. Data applied the rules for interacting with aggressive creatures and avoided eye contact.

Elle fell asleep on the couch at some point. When she woke up the next day, Data was still on alert, facing the door. "Anything happen?" Elle asked groggily.

"No," Data said. Quietly he asked, "Do you know how long it took the Enterprise in the episode?"

Elle thought about it. "They had to go to Beta Agni and come back, and catch up with this ship."

Data's expression turned grave. "That is minimum a week."

"A week?" A whole week in this gallery, acting like a side show, an object? Fajo could take a long walk off a short cliff. She chewed on her lip thoughtfully. "Data, we're gonna have to do something."

"I am currently planning," he reassured her.

"Good." Elle moved to sit next to him and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "How do you feel?" she asked.

He sighed. "I feel many things. But this is the first time I have ever felt fury, I believe."

"Achievement unlocked," Elle said. "Sorry."

"It's fine," Data said.

"Out of curiosity, why are you now using contractions?" Elle asked.

"I figured it would give me a larger range of emotional expression," Data said.

"Nice." Elle sighed. "I'm bored."

"I have memorized the next two engineering lectures I am going to give to your class," Data offered.

"Sure!"

Fajo came in halfway through the lecture on thermodynamics in space. "Oh no, don't stop, this is fascinating," he said. "You're programmed to be a teacher! Go on, go on."

Data obliged.

Elle couldn't pay attention to anything Data said, watching Fajo out of the corner of her eye.

Once Data finished talking, Fajo came over. "Now that your little class is over. Elle, I want you to come with me."

"Why?" Elle asked.

"I want you to tell me the future of a rival collector," Fajo said. "I'm making plans to buy his collection when he dies."

"I can't do that," Elle said. "It's not that specific."

"Sure you can." Fajo put an arm around her shoulders. "Just take a look at him. He's old-ish, I'm sure it won't be that hard to arrange a vision. A heart attack, maybe. A radiation leak. Be creative, I'll make it work."

"You are saying you will cause it to happen?" Data asked, concerned.

"Smart android."

Elle stiffened. "You want me, to tell him he's going to die, so you can kill him and take his stuff?"

"Exactly." He tried to lead her towards the door.

Elle dug her heels in. "No, I can't do that. That's murder."

"Come, my dear, he's just as immoral as I am, you'd be doing the galaxy a kindness."

Elle ducked away from Fajo's arm. "No, I won't. I can't."

"Hm." Fajo eyed her. "So you'll send ships to their death but you won't tell lies? An interesting morality."

Elle swallowed hard. "I, what are you talking about?"

"You think I don't research the provenance of my pieces?"

"You accessed classified information?" Data asked.

Fajo smiled. "Of course."

"That is illegal."

"You can add it to my list of crimes." Fajo smiled at Elle. "Shall we go?"

"No," Elle said, edging behind Data. "I won't do it."

Fajo smiled. It was a terrifying smile, bland and reassuring. "You realize, little girl, you're just a pleasant extra. If you don't prove entertaining, I can get rid of you and still have the android."

Data pushed Elle further behind him. "I will not permit you to harm her."

"You won't permit me?" Fajo asked. "You seem to be under the impression that you have some form of power in this situation." He tapped at his bracelet. "Varria, if you could come here, please?" He went to one of the displays, opened a safe, and pulled out a compact gun. "Have you ever seen one of these, Data? It's a prototype for a Varon-T disruptor."

Data tensed minutely. "The Varon-T disruptor is banned in the Federation."

"Oh, yes. They only manufactured five of them. I own four. I sleep with one under my pillow at night, and I sleep very well knowing it's there too. Do you know why?"

"It is a most lethal weapon."

"It's not just lethal. It's vicious. It tears a body apart, inside out, and very slowly too by your phaser standards. It's tortuous. A very, very painful death. I've always wanted to try this." Fajo smiled as Varria came in. "Varria, how long have we been together, my dear?"

"Fourteen years," the woman replied proudly.

"Fourteen wonderful years they were too. She was barely an adult when I found her. She was idealistic, naive, full of dreams. And I made those dreams come true, too, didn't I? I'm going to miss you." He pointed the disruptor at her.

"Wait," Elle blurted. "Wait, wait, I'll do it."

Fajo smiled. "Good. Because next time your morals interfere with my plans, I'll be using this on you." He put the disruptor back in the safe and closed it. "Varria, tell Elle what I want to happen. You two can brainstorm." He left.

Varria looked shaken. "He was going to kill me," she said, standing there, unmoving. "He was actually going to kill me."

"Sorry," Elle said. "He's not a nice guy."

"No he's not," Varria said. "But I always thought..." she trailed off as her eyes narrowed with determination. She looked at Data. At Elle. At Data again. "If... if I help you escape, will you take me with you?"

Data nodded.

"Okay." Varria went to the safe and took out the disruptor. She handed it to Data.

He looked at Elle. "You will stay behind me. Fajo has more of these disruptors and he will kill you with no hesitation."

Elle nodded.

He looked at Varria. "When we encounter him, you must also stay behind me." Without further ado, he lifted the disruptor, and vaporized the doorway and part of the adjoining wall. He charged forward.

Elle and Varria stayed at his heels. "He'll be on the bridge," Varria murmured, as they moved down the hallway. "We need to get rid of the men first."

They moved around a corner, and came across two of the burly security guards. Data used his android-reflexes and knocked out the closest one. The other security guard charged at Elle.

She set her feet and ducked under him. She flipped him over her shoulder and slammed him to the ground. He swung up at her and she nerve-pinched him. He slumped unconscious. Elle looked up at Data. "Did you see that! That was awesome!"

Data helped her up. "That was an excellent application of your self-defense classes," he agreed, and handed Elle and Varria each a phaser.

Elle set hers to heavy stun. This was a commercial type, not Star Fleet issue, but thanks to Worf's paranoia that wasn't an issue. They encountered three more of the security guards, and between Elle and Varria they were quickly stunned. Data put all the unconscious guards into a storage room and sealed the door.

"We have to get to the bridge," Varria muttered, as they swept around another hallway. "The rest of the guys will be in the cargo hold, but we can control everything and get Fajo on the bridge."

Data nodded. "Then we shall go to the bridge."

"Remember, stun won't work on Fajo, he has that shield," Varria whispered to Elle. "Let Data handle him."

Elle nodded. Hopefully Fajo could be convinced to stand down.

They got to the bridge. Varria opened the double sliding doors, and went in, Data and Elle at her heels.

"Oh, Varria," Fajo said, turning to face them. "You've really disappointed me." He brought up the other Varon-T disruptor.

"Do not," Data warned, stepping in front of Varia and brandishing his own disruptor. "All of you step away from the controls."

"No," Fajo said confidently. "You're an android. You're programmed with the fundamental respect for all living beings. You won't use that thing."

"To protect others, I would," Data said.

"How are your reflexes?" Fajo asked, and aimed at Varria. He pressed his finger to the trigger- Data fired- Elle yanked Varria towards the floor- Fajo disintegrated with a scream.

The wall behind Varria melted away, and the wiring in it exploded.

Data stood there, resolute. "I will not ask again," he said. "Please step away from the controls."

The three remaining men lifted their hands and stepped away from the controls. Elle stunned them all.

"Elle!"

"What?" Elle asked defensively. "That guy was definitely gonna try something."

They stripped the men of weapons and put them in another storage room down the hall. "Elle, stay here and supervise the bridge, Varria and I will round up the others."

"Yes, sir." Elle went over to the main console. "I'll try and get a communication out."

Data nodded, and he and Varria left. Elle closed the doors to the bridge and locked them. "While I'm here," she muttered, and set about deleting everyone else's DNA profiles. She put one in for herself, and put in voice command access for Data.

Data and Varria came back to the bridge. "Do we have communications?" Data asked.

"Yes, sir." Elle pulled it up. "We have long-range comms. Should I contact the Enterprise?"

"Yes."

"Merchant ship to Enterprise," Elle said. "Enterprise, come in."

They waited.

"Enterprise here. Elle is that you?"

Elle managed to put it up on the viewscreen. The bridge of the Enterprise had never looked so much like home before. "Yes, yes it's us, we're okay."

Captain Picard deflated in relief. "Elle. Thank the Great Bird. Is Data with you?"

Data stepped forward into the camera pickup. "Captain Picard."

"What happened?" Picard asked. "Where's Fajo?"

"He is dead, sir." Data looked uncomfortable. "He was attempting to vaporize us. I was forced to kill him in self-defense."

Picard nodded soberly. "And the rest of the crew?"

"Varria helped us escape, and we have his security guards and personnel in custody."

"They're tied up in the closet," Elle added.

Riker hid a smile behind his hand. "Oh really. Sounds like you have everything under control."

"Yes, sir," Data said innocently.

Picard raised an eyebrow. "Our mission at Beta Agni II is completed. We can rendezvous with you in three days."

"Understood, sir."

Picard smiled slightly. "It's good to see you both well."

"Thank you, captain."

They signed off, and stood there in silence for a moment, looking at each other.

"Now what?" Elle asked, and added teasingly, "Captain Data?"

"Now," Data said, with dignity, "we create appropriate holding rooms for the rest of the guards, put away all the extra weapons, and go through Fajo's records to determine what to do with his collection."

"They belong in museums," Elle said.

"We'll see," Data said patiently. "They may belong to Varria now, or one of Fajo's colleagues."

"They wouldn't be given to me," Varria said. "He didn't care for me that much."

"I'm sorry," Elle said again. She didn't know how many times it was appropriate to apologize for the death of your amoral boyfriend.

Varria waved it off. "I know where he keeps his papers. Come on."

"Elle, you watch the bridge," Data said. "And keep an eye on the security monitors, we need to make sure that the security guards don't escape."

Elle gave a thumbs-up.

-/\-

Babysitting an empty bridge as a tiny ship cruises at a leisurely warp three is not an exciting endeavor. Thankfully, before Elle decided to publish a pirate manifesto for the Fajo, Data came back and handed her a stack of actual paper.

"Here. This is the item manifest for the things onboard. Ninety-one percent of this list is neither insured nor mentioned in Fajo's will. If you could go through this list and manually confirm its presence? Once the list is compiled we can begin looking up the items' provenances."

"Yes!"

Elle spent the next three days poking around all the storage rooms, cataloguing entries and looking up their provenances. Half of the items had been previously 'liberated' from public and historical archives. Not that it was a surprise. She also found their uniforms and their comm badges. "My boots!"

Data gave her the dubious honor of calling museums and archives and saying, "Hey, would you like your painting back? Thief's dead."

-/\-

Watching the Enterprise come up close, Elle sighed in relief so hard she felt it in her toes.

Riker, Worf, and a small horde of engineers beamed over. "Permission to beam aboard?" Riker asked, grinning.

"Granted," Data said.

Riker looked over at Elle, who was holding the Iconian artifact in her arms. "That looks...old."

Elle clutched it tighter. "This is an Iconian memory cube, unlisted and apparently bought at a swap meet because no one knew what it was. I claimed it."

"It is the finder's law," Data assured Riker, as if he wasn't the one who had stashed an ancient Greek figurine in his pocket.

Riker covered a grin with a hand over his mouth. "Captain wants you to beam back to the ship immediately."

"Understood." Elle tapped at her comm. "Elle to Enterprise. One to beam up." She dissolved and reformed in Transporter Room 2 of the Enterprise. She stepped off the dais.

"Glad to see you're not dead," O'Brien said, nodding at her. "Welcome home."

Elle grimaced. "You all thought I was dead?"

"The shuttle exploding was not a classified event," O'Brien said. "You might want to walk the ship this evening."

"Oh. Okay." Elle took two steps and had to stop again as Picard and Dr. Crusher came running in. "Hi!" She squawked in surprise as the captain swept her into a hug.

"Do not scare me like that ever again," Picard scolded.

She hugged him tightly and pressed a kiss to his cheek, grinning. "I'm okay," she assured him. "I promise."

"How about you come to sickbay and I confirm that for myself?" Dr. Crusher asked, once the captain had stepped back.

"Yes, ma'am."

"And you can debrief and be done," Picard added, trailing after them.

Elle ran over the whole experience as Dr. Crusher fiddled with scans. Picard scowled the entire time.

"I'm glad you are both back safe," Picard said, squeezing her hand.

"Since I fake died three times do I get an award?" Elle asked.

"You have to make it to seven before you get on a list," Picard replied. "Seven's the minimum. Captain Kirk is at the top of the list with fifteen. If you beat his record you get to have dinner with the Federation president."

Elle grinned.

"Jean-Luc, you liar," Beverly said fondly. "And you, Elle, are not going to fake-die, or die for reals, until you are older than the Federation charter."

"Fine," Elle said. "But the number to beat is fifteen, right?"

Picard gave her a discreet nod. "I'm up to seven. Not bad for a man of my age, eh?"

Elle gave him a grin. "Oh, I brought you a present." She presented him with the Iconian cube. "Do not use this to take over the galaxy."

"Is that a spoiler?"

"Uh, it came from a video game, I don't know." Elle hopped off the biobed. "Can I go, doctor?"

"Yes. Get some dinner, and make sure you go visit your friends, I don't know if they know you're back or not."

-/\-

Simba the Third was not in her quarters. "Alexa, where's my tribble?"

"Satel volunteered to care for the tribble while you were, not here," Alexa said tactfully.

"Oh. Thank you." She changed dressed, and went in search of her tribble.

Satel opened the door and his mouth fell open in surprise. "You are not dead!"

"No, I, we got kidnapped."

"Ah." Satel stared at her. "I, am pleased you have returned. Come in, let me gather Simba's biome."

Elle exchanged awkward hellos with his parents and took Simba back to her quarters. "Alexa, where's the twins and Tyler?"

"They are in the arboretum."

Elle tucked Simba under her arm like a football and headed down to the arboretum. Most of her friends were there. "Hi," Elle said, louder than she meant to. "I'm not dead."

"Elle!" Chaos reigned as everyone tried to hug her at once, laughing and exclaiming over each other. "What happened to you?" Jetta finally asked.

"I got abducted by someone who wanted Commander Data. We escaped," Elle replied. "I got to punch a bad guy. That was cool."

"But you're okay?" Nicole asked.

"I'm fine. Dr. Crusher cleared me."

They had an impromptu pizza party and afterwards Elle wandered the ship, too keyed up to go to bed. She ended up in Ten-Forward.

Guinan brought her a cup of hot cocoa. "Welcome home."

"You knew I was alive?" Elle took a sip of hot cocoa and hummed appreciatively at the ciniammon.

"I knew Data would never let anything happen to you."

Sitting there, Elle composed a message to Spock and Bones and Scotty. "I'm fine, I'm back on the Enterprise." She sent it, and went to bed.

Two hours later, she received a reply message from Scotty that was composed purely of "!?"

Elle laughed so hard she cried.