Author's Note: I posted this story on A03 ages ago and didn't realise that I never shared it here. Sorry about that!
This story is intended to be a fun romp inspired by the TNG episode Conundrum. I adored the premise of that episode. After rewatching Avengers: Civil War, I got to thinking what might happen if our favourite crew ever found themselves fighting head-to-head.
This story is set in the same universe as The Complication. However, it can stand alone. If you have not read The Complication, you'll need to know that the series has several established relationships: Data/Tasha, Keiko/Miles, & Geordi/Sonya Gomez.
Thank you for all your support. As always, if you like my work or want to chat about the fandom—feel free to join me on Twitter TheTartanTart.
A Note on Timing
This story is set toward the end of S2/beginning of S3. In this story, Doctor Crusher has recently returned to the Enterprise. Doctor Pulaski is still on board before she arrives at her next assignment. I imagine there must have been some overlap based on the vast size of the universe & all the possible postings.
It was known as the "The Classified Incident" or, more commonly, they called it "the mission no one talks about."
"We will reach Starbase 38 in three days," Captain Picard announced. "At which time, we'll be docked for repairs for several days. Everyone will take mandatory leave."
This was welcome news after the last two weeks.
"Starfleet has assured me that no one will face any charges or disciplinary action. We were all under the influence of a force beyond our control," Captain Picard continued.
That's an understatement. Tasha thought.
"We have a fine crew. It's my honour to serve with each and every one of you," Picard went on. "I want to personally reassure you all how proud I am for the manner in which everyone conducted themselves during this incident. You were all doing your best."
Commander Riker shifted uncomfortably.
More than anyone, he felt personally responsible for what had occurred.
"Lastly, I just want to say that Starfleet has assured me there will be additional counsellors on hand at Starbase 38. I believe after a few days of rest, it is best to put this behind us and move on," Picard finished.
Captain Picard ended his ship-wide announcement and looked across his Ready Room at his senior officers.
There was still a collective feeling of awkwardness.
"I want to apologise again, sir," Commander Riker said.
"No need, Number One," Picard assured him. "I want us all to forget this ever happened."
Jean-Luc glanced around the room and offered a reassuring smile.
Captain Picard stopped just shy of where his Security Chief was seated, still unable to make eye contact.
Two Weeks Earlier
The Enterprise had just completed a highly important diplomatic mission to Tau Fenti VII where a new Federation applicant was hosting a conference that included world leaders and Federation diplomats.
As the flagship, the Enterprise was tapped to represent Starfleet.
And because of the diplomatic nature of the event, Captain Picard had beamed down to the planet himself. He'd been joined by Lieutenant Yar, Lieutenant La Forge, and (much to his chagrin) Ambassador Lwaxana Troi.
Despite being a largely peaceful people, the conference was attacked by a rogue group of militants from a neighbouring planet with the intention of disrupting the conference and assassinating two of the faction leaders.
The away team acted quickly. Captain Picard had taken a rudimentary blast weapon charge to the chest. Geordi managed to pull down one of the faction leaders—saving his life and possibly the peace.
Lieutenant Yar tackled one of the assassins. She took her own fair share of blows in the ensuing struggle. That included a nasty slice along the side of her face and across her bicep.
Planetary security forces flooded the conference. They managed to extract their leaders. Federation diplomats began to vanish, beamed away safely to their own waiting vessels.
"Hurry up! There are rebel reinforcements on the way!"
Geordi offered his arm to Lwaxana Troi.
"Come on, Ambassador. Let's get you back to the ship."
Tasha rushed over to Captain Picard's side and helped to pull him to his feet.
"Sir—"
"I'm fine," Picard said, swaying dangerously as he tried to stand.
"We need to get you to Sickbay," Tasha insisted.
"No, no," Picard protested. "Where is the Ambassador? Are the delegates safe?"
Just then, the rebel forces broke through the planetary security team defences. They spilled into the room, weapons drawn.
There was no time to waste. Tasha ignored Captain Picard's protest to ensure the diplomats were safely evacuated. She knew they would have a better chance of finding information and coordinating a rescue from the Bridge.
She activated the Emergency Transport Beacon on her wrist. Picard and Tasha disappeared in a flash.
They rematerialised a second later on the Bridge of the Enterprise. Geordi and Lwaxana Troi were next to them.
"Administrator Gelondor reports they are amassing a large force. They will soon arrest the rebels," Worf reported from Tactical Station.
"I don't know why we had to leave," Lwaxana huffed. "The whole situation seems to be under control now, Jean-Luc!"
Captain Picard shot her a disapproving look.
"Emergency transmission coming in from Starfleet," Chief O'Brien advised. "We've been ordered to fall back to Gamma sector and rendezvous with the Crazy Horse. It sounds like those militants are sending in a fleet of ships."
The events of the conference had only escalated the situation.
"This could be a hostile takeover. We need to stay and help these people," Tasha warned.
"These people are not yet Federation citizens," Picard countered. "Any action on our part to defend their planet could be seen as interfering with an internal matter."
"But sir," Commander Riker protested.
"We have our orders—despite how much I may personally object to them," Picard grumbled. "We cannot violate our duty to Starfleet by intervening."
The door to the turbolift slid open. Doctor Crusher stepped off and moved to join the Bridge crew. She whipped out her tricorder and quickly assessed the extent of their injuries.
Captain Picard hissed as she poked at the burned and lacerated skin under his ripped dress uniform.
"Set a course for the Gamma sector, Mr Crusher," Picard ordered.
Wesley keyed in the appropriate commands. On the Captain's orders, they set off to rendezvous with USS Crazy Horse at Warp 3. It would take at least a day to reach the meeting point. But if these two worlds were going to war, the Federation would want to ensure a steady presence to dissuade the conflict from spreading.
"Sir, you need to come with me to Sickbay," Beverly advised.
Geordi & Tasha were fairly beat up from the ordeal and Captain Picard was losing a lot of blood. Lwaxana Troi had fortunately escaped without a scratch.
Picard stumbled and was caught by Chief O'Brien.
"Whoa, sir," Miles said as he helped the Captain stay upright.
Geordi slipped an arm under the Captain on the opposite side to help support him.
"Captain, get to Sickbay. I relieve you of duty," Commander Riker said. "Computer, note the time in the log and let's—"
Out of nowhere, a disturbance rocked the Enterprise. The entire ship began to shake. It caused a violent power surge to the main computer system. The Tactical, Operations, and Helm stations sparked and sizzled as the energy sought somewhere to discharge.
Data frowned as he watched the energy levels build. Geordi could visibly see the charge increase in every system surrounding them.
"GET DOWN!" Geordi shouted.
It was all over in a matter of minutes.
Somewhere in the distance, Worf heard the steady beep of the emergency power system. Every fibre of muscle in his body ached. He opened his eyes and found himself on the floor. He stared up the damaged Tactical console as it blinked.
The control panel was charred. The acrid smell of burnt wiring choked the air.
Worf used the console to pull himself upright. The viewscreen was still visible. Worf could see the ship had dropped out of warp.
When Data opened his eyes, he spied Commander Riker on the ground next to him in front of the Commander Chair.
"Sir? Are you alright?" Data inquired.
Riker nodded. He gingerly got to his feet.
Over near the Helm, Wesley Crusher was on the floor. He hissed as he rubbed his sprained wrist.
Deanna Troi had been thrown behind the Operations console—clean over the chair. Though shaken, she was uninjured.
"Is everyone alright?" Deanna asked.
She staggered, suddenly hit by a wave of confusion and fear. Deanna gripped the back of the chair for support as her mind was flooded with a disturbing sense of the unknown.
Most alarmingly, everyone seemed to have trouble remembering much of anything.
On the other end of the Bridge near the lift, Beverly was treating the injured Captain Picard. He pushed her aside as he got to his feet, leaning heavily on Lieutenant La Forge and Chief O'Brien.
Tasha clutched the wall near the turbolift as she got to her feet.
"What just happened?" Tasha asked.
Data checked his internal chronometer. He confirmed that his system had been offline for approximately twenty minutes. Data's mind surged as he formulated countless hypotheses to explain the strange circumstances of their situation.
"I believe we have been rendered incapacitated by some unknown means," Data said.
"Theorise, Data," Picard ordered.
Data shrugged. There were many possibilities.
"An energy surge. A weaponised chemical suppressant system. Q," Data rattled off.
"Computer, replay the last Bridge log," ordered Riker.
All Bridge activities were recorded and logged. The first voice they heard was Chief O'Brien's.
"Emergency transmission from Starfleet."
The log sounded garbled. There was clearly missing information. It cut in and out of transmission. Tasha's voice came across the log.
"Hostile takeover. We need to—"
The recording jumped around as it struggled to replay the last conversation on the Bridge.
"As much as I disagree with those orders," Picard's voice cut in. "Violate our duty to Starfleet."
The distortion emerged again in the replay.
"I relieve you of duty," Commander Riker stated in the log.
"Captain Jean-Luc Picard was relieved of duty at 14:21 hours by Commander William Riker," the computer reported.
Everyone looked around at one another. They could recall their names but there was little else in the way of memory.
"Well, one thing's for certain," Riker stated. "It would seem that I'm in Command."
"Hold on a moment," Tasha interjected. "Captain Picard is Captain of this ship. And according to that log it sounds like you assumed Command following a hostile takeover."
She glanced back at the injured Captain.
"For all we know, you could be leading a mutiny," Tasha charged.
"And if I did, I did so for a damn good reason!" Riker argued.
Will Riker may not have had his memories, but he knew there had to be some reason why he would resort to mutiny.
"I think we can all agree the log was missing information," Riker acknowledged. "But it sounded like we received an order that Captain Picard disagreed with."
"And was contemplating breaking," added Worf.
"According to my internal system log, we were all unconscious for approximately twenty minutes," Data advised. "That time frame would be consistent with the release and dissipation of an incapacitating agent."
A shared sense of unease swept across the Bridge.
"There are several known agents that can be deployed by the use of verbal command," Data explained.
"Only by verbal command of the Captain, First Officer, Second Officer, or Security Chief," Tasha chimed in.
"And only one of which is capable of rendering me incapacitated," Data added darkly.
"The halothane vapour," Tasha said, finishing his thought for him.
"How would you know that?" Riker asked as his eyes narrowed.
Tasha shrugged.
She couldn't explain it—but she knew it.
Riker asked the computer for any record of the deployment of a chemical agent. Unfortunately, the computer buzzed in the negative and was unable to answer that request.
"We need to contact Starfleet," Tasha urged. "Let them know what's happened here."
Worf tried to raise the comms array from the Tactical console. He shook his head in dismay.
"Outgoing communications are down," Worf advised.
Captain Picard tapped his combadge.
"Engineering, report."
"Excuse me, sir," Riker said. "You've been relieved of duty."
"I'm sorry, but we haven't established that," Tasha snapped.
She pulled out her phaser and took aim at Commander Riker.
"From what I heard, you are a mutineer."
In response, Worf automatically pulled his own phaser out and the two found themselves in a stalemate.
Deanna was starting to get a headache.
"Maybe she's right? Perhaps we should make contacting Starfleet our first priority?" Deanna suggested. "Everyone's memory is scattered. We don't know what any of us are supposed to be doing. We don't even know who we really are."
Commander Riker knew she was right.
But he also knew that someone needed to be in command.
"I know that I'm William Riker and that I took command of this ship before we were all rendered unconscious," Riker said. "And I would suspect based on where you're all sitting, you were likely the crew that helped me."
He looked around at the team on the Bridge for support.
"I recognise this station," Worf said as he eyed the Tactical console.
"And I know how to fly the ship. I must be the helmsman," Wesley offered.
Deanna looked down at the Operations console. Although she knew how to operate it, there was something that didn't quite feel right about sitting there.
"And I assume you're the Second Officer," Riker said as he looked to Data. "I'm naming you my First Officer."
It only made sense that they would all have fallen near their own respective workstations. Riker ordered Deanna to head down to Main Engineering and check in with the crew there. He wanted a report on the situation and a team to get started on repairs.
"Prioritise life support and communications," Riker ordered.
"I can help with that," O'Brien offered.
Riker rounded on the group in the corner where Captain Picard, Beverly, Geordi, Miles, and Lwaxana Troi all stood behind Tasha and her phaser.
"I don't think so," Riker said.
Tasha kept her phaser on Riker as he closed in on the group.
"We've already established Captain Picard has been relieved of duty. Based on your injuries, I'd say this was a hostile takeover. And you lost," Riker said.
He stepped right up to the device. It pressed against his chest, almost as if he dared Tasha to fire. She didn't for fear that the situation would only escalate.
"Call Security. Escort them to the Brig," Riker ordered.
Geordi baulked.
"Hey!"
"Listen here, pretty boy," Lwaxana snarled.
"Look, we can sort out who belongs in that chair later. Right now, we need to get our systems back online. Let me help," Miles insisted.
Riker gestured for Worf and Data to step forward.
"Escort them to the Brig. Find out their names and what they know," Riker said. "If you are who you claim to be and this is all just a misunderstanding, then you can appreciate why this is necessary."
Tasha stepped between Data and Captain Picard. She put her hand up to stop him while keeping her phaser aimed directly at Riker.
"I don't think so," Tasha said. "We have no way of knowing if you are truly who you claim to be. For all we know, you could be responsible for this."
"Take the Captain into custody," Riker instructed.
"No!" Tasha pressed.
She physically shifted to block Data, warning him off with just a look. In a flash, Riker reached for her phaser. The two struggled. Data stepped in to physically restrain Lieutenant Yar as Worf moved to intercept the phaser.
"I'm guessing you must be this ship's First Officer. You certainly aren't shy of opinions. And you clearly took a beating defending your Captain once. Don't make it worse," Riker warned.
There was so much unknown that the last thing he needed was a firefight on the Bridge.
Suddenly, Captain Picard collapsed from the loss of blood. He fell against Geordi, muttering as he tried to sustain consciousness.
"It's… it's not important… command… focus on working… working communications," Picard managed to choke out.
Something in the back of his mind screamed that this was all wrong—but that they had to restore communications first before they could fix anything.
"He needs medical attention," Beverly insisted.
"Fine. He can get in the Brig," Riker said.
He knew there had to be a good reason for taking over from the Captain. Riker would only have done so under dire circumstances.
"You aren't fit for duty. And the rest of you may have been taken over by some alien entity or infection. Until we rule out—"
"You could have been possessed by something!" Tasha disputed hotly. "Hell, you could be an imposter!"
Tasha lunged.
Before she knew what happened, Data had her pinned against the wall. The force was enough to knock the wind out of Tasha. An unholy gasping noise escaped from her throat.
Data panicked. He immediately loosened his grip. His face was full of concern.
"Forgive me, Tasha," he pleaded.
"How do you know her name?" Geordi asked.
Data cocked his head the side, scanning his neural net for any clues.
"I do not know," he confessed.
Tasha used this moment to her advantage. She tried to break way—only to find herself trapped by Data again. He caught her arm and twisted it behind her back. She hissed at the pressure.
Data was careful not to pull too hard.
"I am capable of breaking your arm. Please do not force me to do so."
Reluctantly, Tasha stopped fidgeting.
"Take them to the brig," Riker repeated.
Beverly threw her hands up in the sign of surrender.
"Wait! Wait! I know I'm a doctor. And somehow, I just know that I was sent here to heal the wounded," Beverly said with pleading eyes. "I'm a medical professional. I don't care who's in command. My job is simply to help. There's probably a lot of injured personnel. You're going to need me, sir.'
Riker met the Doctor's eyes.
"She's not lying," said Lwaxana.
Everyone turned to the elegantly dressed woman standing in the back of the alcove near the turbolift. She sauntered out toward Riker. There was an air of aristocracy about the way she moved.
"Who the hell are you?" Riker asked.
"I'm Lwaxana Troi, Daughter of the Fifth House, holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx, heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed," she huffed. "And although I can't explain it, but I seem to have telepathic powers."
Commander Riker was not impressed.
Not only had this woman announced some fantastic telepathic powers, but she was also clearly not a member of the crew.
"I can feel that there are hundreds of injured people all over this ship. Don't lock up one of your doctors," Lwaxana said.
"I want her in the brig too," Riker ordered without hesitation. "If she's got some kind of mind control powers, she may be the cause of all of this."
Lwaxana was scandalised.
There was something so familiar about this woman to Deanna. Deanna slowly began to realise that she could also sense the thoughts and feelings of others.
And Deanna knew they shared a surname. There had to be some kind of familial connection, but she couldn't place it.
Deanna really didn't want to be thrown in the Brig with the rest.
She decided that, for the time being, it would be best to hide this empathic ability (and her full name) from Commander Riker. Deanna could sense he was frightened by the unknown and feeling very unsure of himself.
He was hesitant to order Captain Picard to the Brig. But he was doing what he felt was best in order to protect everyone.
"I'll go check in with Engineering now, sir," Deanna said as she stepped off the Bridge.
Down in Engineering, Deanna found the area was a mess. It had taken a lot of damage recently. It was impossible to tell if the damage had been caused by mutiny or some outside force.
There was a tall, balding man trying to give orders.
"N-n-no, we need to get the power couplings replaced next," he stammered.
"I'm from the Bridge. Who is in command here?" Deanna inquired.
Everyone turned to the man in the middle of the room.
He'd been the first to wake up following their mysterious unconsciousness and set to work waking the others. He'd also been keen to get a plan going to identify and prioritise repairs.
As Deanna approached him, he swallowed hard.
"I-I think I am," he said. "Lieutenant Reginald Barclay."
"I'm the ship's Operations Officer. Deanna."
She wasn't ready to share her surname with anyone yet. At very least, she wanted to ensure there was no connection to the woman in the brig first.
It didn't feel right, but after they'd thrown the last telepath into the brig, Deanna thought it was best to simply go along with Riker's orders until they knew more.
Deanna explained that Riker was acting Captain and wanted life support and communications prioritised immediately for repairs.
Barclay nodded nervously as he listened to the update.
He informed her that they were working on getting the life support and atmospheric systems stabilised and would get a team started on the communications issue shortly.
"I'd like to recommend that we prioritise our internal computer sensors as well," Barclay suggested. "Right now, we're flying blind. We don't have any way to detect system failures from the Bridge or Engineering. It could mean there are decks or sections without life support, and we have no way to see it."
"Right, that's a good plan," Deanna agreed.
"Would you rather have us divert from the main deflector array or the weapons system?" Reg inquired.
Deanna froze.
Although she had only scattered memories, she knew enough to understand this was not her forte. She wasn't equipped with the expertise to make that call.
"What do you recommend?" she asked. "You've had a chance to give them a preliminary glance."
Fake it 'til you make it.
"Erm, I guess I would do weapons," Reg offered with a shrug. "You'll need to let the Bridge know that they'll be offline for at least another thirty minutes."
Deanna nodded in understanding.
She left Engineering to return to the Bridge—hoping more than anything that she'd made the right call.
Commander Riker sat in the head chair. The team was on the Observation Lounge. Data was at the far end near the computer.
"As best we can surmise, we believe that this was the chain of Command prior to the takeover," Data explained.
He tapped the viewscreen to display the graphic he'd designed.
Computer logs were still down—the main control chip was fried and a plasma fire on Deck 39 had destroyed their backups. They would eventually be able to recover the backups. But that required a new control chip. That wasn't something that could be field replicated.
The system was completely scrambled.
Deanna was overseeing a plan to distribute rations and supplies without the use of the replicator or computers. Data tried his best to decode what little they could recover. It wasn't much. Thus far, Data had only managed to pull a few fragments.
"Captain Picard was the Captain of this vessel until your takeover, sir," Data explained.
Data had conducted a series of interviews with the prisoners and pieced together what he could from other clues like their uniforms and rank insignia.
Based on their unique uniforms, Data surmised that Lieutenant Yar and Lieutenant La Forge were Captain Picard's First and Second Officers.
He also believed Chief O'Brien was the most likely candidate to be the Chief Engineer.
They had settled into a belief that Commander Riker must have been the Night Watch Commander. Data identified Worf as the Chief Tactical Officer, Wesley as the Helmsman, Deanna as the Chief Operations Officer, and Doctor Katherine Pulaski as the Chief Medical Officer.
She had been in Sickbay during his sweep of the area and was clearly familiar with the setup and crew.
Although they managed to restore internal ship communications, outgoing messages were still down. Barclay estimated it would be several days before they could contact Starfleet.
Things were so bad in Engineering they had to cannibalise one system to keep another running.
Riker ordered the Enterprise to set a course for the closest Starbase. Wesley and Data put their heads together to map it out the old-fashioned way.
The closest Federation outpost was Starbase 38—fourteen days away.
But the Enterprise was limping along in space. The engines couldn't handle anything greater than Warp 1. That meant it was going to be a long, uncomfortable journey.
"At least they'll be able to answer some of our questions," Riker surmised.
Data nodded and flipped to the next slide in his presentation.
It outlined the repair plan developed by Data to maximise efficiency and prioritise safety.
Riker had to admit that he was impressed with this Commander Data.
Although a synthetic lifeform, Data was incredibly talented—and those talents were across a wide variety of disciplines.
He knew the ship inside and out and was able to quickly piece together a repair plan complete with ETA's and material estimates.
Riker was half tempted to put him in Engineering for the time being, but he wanted him on the Bridge. This Android's knowledge of Starfleet protocols and operations was invaluable. Best as they could gather, Data was the Chief Science Officer.
But Riker thought that was a waste of his talents.
He should be Captain. Riker mused.
"And how is Lieutenant Barclay working out down in Engineering?" Riker asked.
"I think he just needs some encouragement," Deanna said. "He's clearly bright. But he's nervous."
Riker nodded in agreement. It had only been a few hours, but he'd come to rely heavily on Deanna's sage advice.
"You know, you've really got a knack for reading people, Deanna," Riker said with a grin. "Speaking of which, has your surname or rank come back to you yet?"
Deanna had been dressed in a casual jumpsuit at the time of the incident with no pips or other insignia aside from her combadge.
"Not yet, sir," Deanna advised. "I'm hoping that, in time, it will return."
Data had already dispatched several search teams. They were going deck-by-deck to search personal quarters, direct frightened personnel to a staging area for identification, and to match rooms back to their occupants.
Thus far, the team had managed to identify nearly twenty percent of the quarters. Some individuals were already in personal quarters during the incident and assumed those quarters belonged to them. Others seemed to recall their own rooms—but not much more.
However, many more personnel had simply been assigned guest quarters or lodging down in the lower decks cold air dormitory style sleep chambers until they knew more.
Deanna arranged to set up several emergency check-in stations on the ship to match personnel and assign them quarters and supplies.
They were still working to put together a roster. People that had been on duty seemed to recognise their stations. But the Enterprise had three duty shifts and many civilians. That meant over two-thirds of the ship had been in common areas, personal quarters, or the rec rooms at the time of the incident. They didn't know their roles or duties.
Data couldn't simply assign them tasks—it was too risky on a starship.
Deanna had suggested setting up a training station to familiarise crewmembers with basic tasks. It would alleviate some of the pressure to free up others for more complex repairs.
Commander Riker developed a temporary working chain of command in order to keep things functioning smoothly. For the time being, Data would serve as First Officer and Worf would fill the role of Second Officer.
"We still haven't identified the Chief Security Officer," Data advised. "But I may have a clue."
"Well Sherlock, you've got my full support to pursue any leads," Riker replied. "Dismissed."
Data left the Observation Lounge and made a beeline for Deck 12. They had reassigned one of the storage bays as a medical staging area and checkpoint.
There was only a team of Ensigns in the Security Office when the incident occurred. No higher-ranking officers were on hand. Data knew it was highly improbable for an Ensign to be the Chief of Security on a ship the size of the Enterprise.
No one in the office could identify the Chief. There were no obvious clues. Most Starfleet officers kept personal effects to a minimum. However, when interviewed independently, all the Security ensigns referred to the Chief as 'her.'
I can't recall her.
I can't remember her name.
Earlier, Data had identified his own personal quarters. Inside, he discovered several important clues.
First and foremost, he found a woman's gold security uniform hanging in the wardrobe along with numerous other garments and personal items that led Data to believe that he had an intimate partner and that she was a woman—the hairbrush & lippy, a short kimono dressing gown on hook by the wall, a single pair of heels in the back closet.
Data had also discovered something unique.
There was a hidden shelf located in their quarters. Somehow—someway—Data knew the access code. Inside were a number of personal weapons and an access chip.
That chip was a 'key' to the ship's armoury that allowed the holder to remotely seal access to the ship's armoury.
The only people with such a 'key' were the Captain, First Officer, and Chief Security Officer.
Last but not least, Data had found a holopicture on the shelf near his workstation. In the picture, Data had a boutonniere pinned to his dress uniform. He was standing arm-in-arm with a woman wearing what Data quickly had identified as traditional Japanese wedding attire.
Now, he was on a mission to find her.
Data spotted her the moment he stepped into the staging area. He was hit with a wave of familiarity. Data was certain that he had spent hours with this woman.
Data couldn't recall her name.
She was in the corner of the room doing her best to wrangle a group of children. The Enterprise school had been in session during the incident and children had also been affected by the memory loss.
It meant that there were currently dozens of children without their families.
Doctor Pulaski set to work arranging for a team to start care and school. At the very least, they knew who the teachers were that had been on duty at the time.
From the way this woman took control of the situation with a firm, but even manner it reinforced Data's suspicion that she was the Chief of Security.
"Excuse me," Data said as he approached the woman. "I'm Commander Data, acting First Officer of the ship."
"What can I do for you, sir?" she asked.
"Would you please accompany me? I have something you need to see," Data replied.
"That's a Himalayan blue poppy," she said as she spied the plant in the corner of the main room. "They're notoriously difficult to grow."
Data flashed her a small smile.
"Yes, it would seem we also share an affinity for botany," Data replied.
They were seated across from one another in what they now assumed were their own shared quarters.
Her name was Keiko.
Although they had no memories of their relationship prior to the incident, the wedding photo seemed to be a fairly large clue. The more they talked, the more they seemed to have in common with one another.
Aside from Botany, the two had a mutual interest in woodwind instruments, a common fascination with mystery literature, and poetry.
"I don't recall meeting you or marrying you," Keiko confessed. "But there's definitely a familiarity about you."
She reached across the table for Data's hand.
"It's like seeing an old friend," Keiko said with a warm smile.
Data felt it too. They were at ease with one another. Conversation came naturally. There was no need for either of them to put on airs—they could simply be.
Suddenly, Data's combadge pinged. Riker's voice rang out.
"Bridge to Commander Data. We've got a situation."
