Here's a quick scene to get this story moving again! I hope you enjoy it! :D
Chapter Nine
A howling roar ripped through the dimly-lit corridor, followed by the violent sound of something shattering. Several passersby shared disquieted glances, but Commander Applewood jogged toward the noises, his boots clanging on the deck's metal grating.
"Fine!" a second voice shouted, just ahead. "Stay there and sulk! I'll destroy all the monsters without you!"
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The first voice screamed and Mikey turned the corner at full speed – only just managing to avoid slamming into a Klingon woman storming in the opposite direction.
"Kay!" he exclaimed, stopping himself against the duranium wall with an awkward skid.
"Commander! I'm sorry, I didn't…" The slender Klingon squinted more closely at his face, then laughed. "Oh, it's you! By Kahless, I can't get used to this…" She shook her head, running her scarred hand over her neatly braided hair.
Back in the cargo bay, it had taken a lot to convince Kahlestra and Ishta that the white-haired android they saw rushing to greet them really was the Data they'd risked everything to find. It had taken even more to convince them the tall, middle-aged officer in the futuristic black and gold uniform was Mikey Applewood.
Fortunately for all of them, Data maintained the patient rationality of an android, and the accepting warmth of a devoted mentor. Watching their tearful embrace left Mikey choked up and sniffling – until the same quantum fluctuations that had aged Data hit the girls. By the time Data had raced the agonized children to Sickbay, they'd both aged some ten years.
That had been hours ago. Once Doc Nathan declared the girls had reached 'alignment' – or near-alignment – with the ship's 'quantum time zone,' as he put it, the captain had grudgingly allowed all three stowaways to be assigned guest quarters. Albeit with heavily restricted computer access.
Mikey had been surprised how well Kay seemed to be taking it all, as if stumbling through a Preserver tunnel to a future world where mysterious forces caused her to age thirty years was just another Tuesday. But Ishta…
His expression softened a little and he gave the Klingon a commiserating glance. "I take it Ishta's not taking the…transition…quite so well?"
"What do you think?" Kay scoffed. "It was her idea to go charging into the Stairway. I only came to make sure she didn't get herself killed! And now we actually found Data, here in the future, on an actual future ship where we get to be actual grown-ups…!" She spread her arms wide. "She refuses to leave her quarters!"
Mikey's eyebrow twitched, but beyond that he refused to let his fond amusement show. "Is Data with her?"
Kay sighed, her long braid swishing as she shook her head. "No, he got called away by the captain. I thought that's where you were?"
"I was. She wanted to talk to him alone. Likely because Lenny – that is, Commander Hugo, and I have never seen eye to eye on politics. Still." He frowned and rubbed his chin. "I didn't realize it would take this long…"
The shorter Klingon glared up at him, her brown eyes sharp. "Something's going on. There's something wrong in this time period, isn't there. Something serious."
Far from being surprised by her accusation, or growing defensive, Mikey allowed himself a grim smile. "You always were a sharp kid," he said. "Not to mention, direct."
"P'takh." Kay straightened her shoulders, clearly frustrated that even on tip-toe she didn't quite match the commander's height. "Who are you calling 'kid'? I'm older than you, remember?"
"Yeah. And in this light, you almost look it," he teased, prompting her to chuckle.
"It is strange, though," Kay said, holding out her arms as she gave herself a critical look-over. Her gym outfit's drab, utilitarian fabric wasn't exactly complimentary, but the cut did accentuate her adult form's muscular curves. "I really hoped I'd end up taller. But it's so bizarre. I mean, it's like, you and me and Ishta… In this time, we're all, like, maybe half a decade older than Data was back home, right?" She blinked, a terrible realization washing over her. "—And that means I'm also older than my mother!" She grimaced and rubbed her arms. "Eeeessh… There's a crazy thought."
"About as crazy as that quantum tunnel thing that brought you here." Mikey looked down, the amusement draining from his features. "You're right, though. There is something going on here. Something big. That's why it's so important to me, and to the captain, that we find a way to send all of you back where you belong as soon as we can."
Kay looked up at him. "Can't Data figure it out?"
Mikey's frown deepened. "If Data has any ideas, he hasn't shared them with me yet. Or the captain…"
"I might have one."
The commander narrowed his eyes at her, but the Klingon looked thoughtful and completely serious.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, I'll tell you, but only after I talk to Data first," Kay said, and strode past him, her long hair swaying. "Right now, I signed out a holodeck and I've already used up about a quarter of my game time. Let me know when Data's out of that meeting, OK?"
"Sure, but… Kay! Kay, wait!" he called after her, but the Klingon didn't pause her stride, her gym shoes tapping against the metal floor.
"No homework, no school! And no one's the boss of me!" She laughed over her shoulder. "I think I'm gonna like being a grown-up!"
The commander's fists clenched. For a moment, he considered chasing after her. But knowing Kay, and Klingon stubbornness in general, he realized the more he questioned her, the more she'd dig in her heels and refuse to say anything more until she was ready.
Blowing out a sigh, Mikey turned and pressed the chime outside Ishta's guest quarters.
"Go AWAY!" the Orion barked, but Mikey walked in anyway.
"I'll take that as an invitation," he said – ducking just in time to miss getting decapitated by a flying fruit bowl, complete with flying fruit. The various fruits bruised and spattered while the bowl clattered against the wall and spun a few times before settling to a stop on the carpet.
Mikey blinked, and risked a little wave. "Hi."
Ishta's blue eyes glared at him from the sofa, where she'd pulled the bed's silvery-purple blanket tightly over her head and shoulders.
"You're looking old, Cancer Boy," she snarled. "If that really is who you are."
"I know you know this is real," Mikey said, courteously avoiding her personal space as he pulled a chair over from the dining table. "That I really am—"
"You don't know anything I know, and you don't know me!" She curled more tightly under her blanket.
"OK," he allowed, then smiled, just slightly. "But you were wrong."
Her glaring eyes reappeared. "What are you talking about?"
"You were wrong," he repeated, more brightly. "I didn't die. OK, I still need genetic therapy about once a month, and the treatments are a real pain. But I'm alive, Ishta. I'm still here." He leaned a little closer, his eyes intense as he stared straight at her. "And so are you."
Ishta didn't move. Mikey's little smile broadened.
"That's what this is about, isn't it," he said, gesturing to the fruit chunks dripping down the wall; though the shattered mirror he'd spied through the open bathroom door told a more complete story. "We're both still alive in this tomorrow world. Alive and well and older than we ever thought we'd get to be." He snorted and rubbed his chin. "Even I can't believe it most days, and I got here the slow way. I didn't get to skip up some weird quantum stairway, like you and Data."
Ishta grunted, but the blanket had slipped slightly, revealing more of her face.
"Data thinks he's here for a reason," Mikey said, a little more quietly. "That something in that Stairway 'guided' him to this ship. This time." He leaned closer, his expression sincere…even anxious. "Ishta, I need to know… While you were in that quantum tunnel, did you or Kay see anything…anyone…strange?"
"If you're talking about that shimmering blob," Ishta said, her voice starting low, then rising to a roar, "I told it to take me to Data, and it did. It didn't say there would be these "quantum wave" things that would hit us like agony beams and turn us into grown-ups!"
Mikey nodded, pressing his fist to his mouth to hide his delighted relief. As much as he'd wanted to believe Data's strange story, his doubts had outweighed his tentative hope…until now.
He sniffed in a calming breath and cracked a slight smile. "Is it really so bad?" he asked. "Getting a glimpse of yourself as an adult?"
"Like you care," she muttered into the blanket. "You're already old."
"Older maybe," he teased. "Data's old. At least, he programmed himself to look like he was growing old."
"Data's an idiot."
"And that's why we like him so much." Mikey's smile broadened for a moment, then he sighed, allowing his shoulders to slump.
"Look, Ishta… I'm sorry I teased you back then. I remember the way you stood up for those little Bajoran girls at that last Skin auction. What it cost you—"
"Shut up."
"You're a good person, Ishta," he insisted, and glanced at the shattered mirror. "I know you don't believe it. I still struggle to believe in my own worth…to anyone… But—"
Ishta surged to her feet, revealing a full-grown Orion woman of startling height and physical strength. Her silvery blanket and wild black hair couldn't mask she had the voluptuous figure of a holo-vid star, with large blue eyes and the kind of legs any dancer would envy. Yet her defensive posture…the pain he saw etched in her face…
"You want me to get off this couch." She snarled, her glare more deadly than when he'd walked in. "You think I should join Kahlestra in that stupid holodeck fighting game?"
Mikey rose from the chair. "I think you're beautiful," he said truthfully, fully aware that, were she inclined, she could easily snap him in two. "And I don't mean your looks." He risked a quirky smile. "Though you could use a hairbrush now and then."
The Orion hissed through her teeth, but Mikey didn't flinch. If anything, his smile grew wider.
"Ridiculous human bastard," she growled, and crossed her arms over the blanket. "You can leave, Cancer Boy."
"OK," he granted. "But I'm hosting a dinner tonight in my quarters. Just me and Data and Kay. And you. If you'll come."
She growled again, but without the defensive rage. Mikey headed for the door, then paused and turned to face her.
"One more thing, Devna Rel." He spoke the name in his deepest, most commanding voice, looking her straight in the eyes. "You are not your mother, and you never could be. To me, and all of us, you are Ishta. I hope you'll see that…next time you happen across a mirror."
Ishta blinked in alarm, unable to hide how deeply the commander's words had rattled her.
The doors slid closed behind Mikey and she launched a flower vase at them. Then, with an anguished cry, she fell back to the couch, her adult form wracked with sobs.
To Be Continued…
References Include - The TNG novel Survivors, by Jean Lorrah, and the TOS pilot, The Cage.
Hi everyone! I'm back with more story! Last year, I finished Croaked, Often Wrong, and my Ghoulish Ghost Cat story, among others. Then, like a nut, I went and started a few new ones, like Tabula Rasa and A Stab In the Dark! :D This year, my plan is to finish this story (concluding the full Skin Deep trilogy), Alternative Data, and maybe even Mind the Gap and Sinister Motives! Will it be possible? We'll see!
Also last year, I published my graphic novel nature mystery trilogy The Adventures of Nicki and Ricky: Baffling Birds!, which led me to San Diego Comic-Con, Neurodiversity Comic-Con in NYC, and a bunch of other amazing events. So far this year, one of my original comics will be coming out in a special anthology and I've started two new original projects. So, lots and lots going on (check out my website for details and updates!). But these fanfics have always been my experimental laboratories, and I'll keep working on them until they're finished - no matter how long it takes! :)
Thanks so much for reading and for sticking with me and my stories. And remember - your thoughts and comments really matter. After all, what's the point of sharing all this hard work for free without getting any feedback? If you've enjoyed my story enough to read this far into it, why not let me know? Please Review! :)
Until next time! :D
