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Title: Mirage Author: Anotherjaneway Contact: pattik1@hotmail.com Series: X STV/STTNG Part: Complete episode. Rating: [G] Code: X Geordi&Crusher STTNG meets Janeway&EMH STV Summary: Geordi LaForge and Dr. Crusher survive a shuttle stranding on a winter world. Along the way, they meet a unicorn child and the lost captain of the famed USS. Voyager. Disclaimer: Gee. All people here are theirs. Paramount is the God of Star Trek. They just let me play in their backyard. Comments: This piece I wrote for Pocket Books contest, Strange New Worlds, the first issue in 1996. It did well, making the halfway mark before it was axed. The only reason being that the editors weren't looking for crossovers in that volume. (LOL). I think I got Geordi down. The two aliens are my own creation and later mysteriously surfaced in a novel series featuring Acorna by english author Anne McCaffrey in the late nineties two years later. (Hmmmm...) Oh yes, one more thing. The use of the number 47 in this story was very intentional.. ;) All comments welcome. I had fun. I write canon PG-13 as hobby on a Trek Writer's site. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/voyagerliveactionstartrektheater And I impersonated Janeway for a living with an agency. http://hollywoodimagesusa.com (Look up Liza Minelli) See my Janeway look alike days at http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/patticostumes.html stored on my website featuring two role play games. http://www.geocities.com/voyagerliveaction ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mirage Contest Entry for Pocket Books Strange New Worlds 1996 "My only halfway point survivor submission" LOL! The stars shone in the inky black night, their scant light shining everywhere except in the space where a small shuttle cruised en route. The stark beauty surrounding the little ship didn't go unnoticed by the Starfleet commander at the helm. She smiled, "Beverly Crusher, shuttle's personal log : Stardate 240918.7. I've finally managed to pry Geordi LaForge away from his beloved warp conduit relays long enough for him to get in some much needed R&R." The doctor shot a meaningful look at the the youthful engineer seated to her left. He was slumped in the nav chair with the weight of the world square on his yellow and black uniformed shoulders. He absently hit computer buttons, mumbling mostly to himself, "I'm rested. *Beep* I'm fit. *Beep* Commander Riker is the tired one. Why didn't you bring him along?" Beverly straightened her blue lab coat absently over her lap. It never ceased to amaze her how many of the Enterprise crew were workaholics and didn't even realize it. Why even Chief O'Brien managed to work three consecutive shifts straight without batting an eye. He was only aware that he had a problem when he mistook a canister of lubricant for a mug of coffee. Dr Crusher chuckled, amused, "We are running incommunicado while we skirt an area near the Cardassian border and will remain so until we rendevous with the U.S.S. Kilamanjaro for Geordi's transfer on board. His destination? Talyas moon. Wil Riker's idea of paradise..." Geordi LaForge brightened. He polished the edge of his visor with a sleeve, "Yep. It sure is. Mine, too." Dr. Crusher paused, angling her jaw, "Computer, Hold recording." She fixed Geordi with a curious stare. "I know this is none of my business WHERE you go on leave, even as ship's physician and all, but...what really goes on over there? I mean, even Deanna can't get a good fix on Wil for days... after he goes to this moon.." Geordi just stared vaguely ahead lost in a remembered haze. He purred a long, pleasured sigh as he clicked his visor back into place. His face afforded her a meaningful look full of innuendo. The doctor abruptly closed her mouth. She retraced steps rapidly, "Never mind. It's a guy thing...Annnd, I really think I don't want to know. Resume log.." She hid behind a datapadd. Geordi snapped out of his reverie at her discomforture, "Aw, no. It's not like THAT at all.. You gotta go, Beverly. The people there are so--" Dr. Crusher cleared her throat, interrupting him, "Until I rendevous back with the Enterprise a week from now, I plan to indulge myself in some heavy duty playwrighting. That is.." She put a hint of tension in her voice, "...after I pass all of my tests. End log." Her ploy worked. Geordi was effectively distracted. "Test nerves? You? Spoken like a true novice.." he chided. Dr. Crusher tossed the padd onto her console, "O.k., I'm finished. Now what? I've faced failed stabilizers, a wormhole, and hostile radiation exposure." She reset her coordinates with a fancy flourish of button beeps, "This stuff isn't so bad.." Geordi chuckled with ominous amusement, "Heh. Those scenarios are for junior grade shuttle pilots." He cracked his knuckles, "I'm just getting started.." -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The cold was piercing. Footprints tracked in the snow. Their line was uneven and marred with the craters of frequent falls. A slightly dressed man in ragged sky blue clothes shifted his burden carefully as he leaned against a twisted tree, "Soon, my Ariel. We won't be found here." ::The powerful ones with the name of a single letter are short sighted and luckily, very reluctant to search about artic wastelands like this poor world. They will never have Ariel as a plaything. Not as long as I am still alive.:: He stroked the cheek of the delicate child nestled in his arms. Snowy white tresses wafted away from Ariel's milky face and revealed large, lavender eyes which regarded his own amber ones with a deepening trust, "Guardian, it's happening again.." she murmured sleepily. The old alien looked up in alarm at the surrounding woods. But there was only silence in the chill. For several, tense seconds, his exhausted gasps punctuated the quiet as he convinced himself that their pursuers were no where near. Slowly, the blue sun star's feeble light and the light crystalline song of the daylight wind through the iced, bare trees ended his fright. "I hear nothing child. We are alone." "Not THEM..... "Look" here..." she said vaguely. He focused differently. Impossibly, the sound of dripping water grew in the distance. A torrid promise of a place that was cruelly denied him by the weakness in his body. "Paradise is coming?..." he asked, "In this rising wet?" Tears filled his amber eyes and froze on his saffron skin as the familiar liquid chorus brought him memories of his home fold, tucked away, just out of his reach, by the judgement of his own race and others. "But this world has been frozen for millenia. There is no gate to my Home here." The sound reminded him painfully of what he longed for truly. The Guardian's face broke into a desperately sad smile and he sighed a long trailing sob, no longer willing to handle any reminders of his past. But then, with the melting, came a new sensation, a spicy scent that bit down hard and greatly shortened his breath. Sudden confusion twisted his features and he swayed in the deep snow. He grew dizzy, nearly dropping Ariel as an unexpected swirl of warmth surrounded them. It triggered a Change spasm inside the Guardian...and he fell to his knees. At the rude jarring of his stumble, the albino child made a soft sound that sliced through his heart. "..Ahh.." she sighed, almost musically. Its effect on him offset the pulling burn of the strange climate oddity he thought he saw coming into being around him. He pulled his thoughts back together once more as he coaxed the child to let the chill return as it should to their surroundings. ----- Ariel was the last of her race, one that had no name. It was a cruelly tragic outcome, one that the Guardian felt he was responsible for regardless of how things went on their own. It had torn at him when he found later that she was all alone after his pursuers "unmade" her people purely for hatred's sake. He had witnessed the death of Ariel's mother, left alive until the last, at her birthing, in his tormentor's idea of a joke. He had been enraged when the Ones from the Continuum ruled the newborn a threat to their realm as they had accused the Guardian, simply because both were....."evolving beyond Galactic norms". By some miracle, The Guardian had snatched the innocent child away with him, making the Continuum think she too expired under their thought energy, and so their long evading escape attempt began. His discovery of concealment on winter worlds gave him hope, but deep down, the Guardian knew that the tiny foaling girl in his arms would most likely be doomed to the same loneliness and death through their self righteous pursuers, should she ever be discovered to still exist, as he was destined to suffer. ::But she is from the model people, originators of the unicorn. It is unfair that she, too, is marked to be extinct, like that noble creature.:: That inevitability for her saddened the Guardian more than it did for any animal form he had ever seen die out forever in the length of his entire memory. He did not care that he himself had been tagged for culling. His people were told they could continue, so long as the Change never happened in their children's genes on a regular basis. No doubt he would be killed, earlier than was slated, for saving her. The Q's decision about Ariel's people's fate aside, the Guardian's misery was indelibly enforced on a second front as well. His own people's encouraged biase toward anyone undergoing the Change. That ugly prejudice had only sharpened once the Q had laid down the law. He had been banished off planet for the sudden altering which manifested in his genome during his teen years and now, in his old age, his Change frequency rate alerted the Q to attend to him in the final chase, until he "ceased to exist". ::There is a chance for me. If my Change completes first. Then, I will be beyond their reach. Only then, can I return Home. But no one in the history of my race has ever made it that far. The Q are too strong.:: They were almost upon him in one system, and he poised to give up, when he had found Ariel and her plight. The old pariah decided to devote what was left of his life to her for as long as he could for her presence offered him true comfort and surrease from his troubles. :: My fate may be exiled execution because I am elevating physically beyond my own kind, but now I find that hers will be a far worse one if she remains visible to the rest of the galaxy even if we should successfully elude the Q. For in her eyes, I've found a fatal flaw.:: He thought further about the curious effect the tiny child had on others and himself once she had started talking. ::Anyone who looks into those eyes of hers is instantly caught with a false, unstoppable realization that anything or any desire can be obtainable through her in an instant. :: The hunched over saffron alien smiled at Ariel, shielding his musings from her probing mind with a gentle wash of bonding. ::She will become a tool if she should ever leave my care.:: the Guardian hypothesized. ::No doubt, Ariel will be revered as a god or condemned as a curse, if rediscovered, to serve or die for whomever won the war over her.:: The Guardian swore to create a third option for this final rare child. He would spare her from that horrid existence of fear or servitude. She would know a normal life. Even at the early cost of his own. For now, being together, they were whole. Then one day, the Guardian felt something go wrong with his Changes. Pain became his constant companion. And he grew afraid that even his tiny dream of true escape would be smothered before it had even begun to burn. He kept it from Ariel's detection, but her evolving abilities made each day doing so more and more difficult. The Guardian only hoped he could continue long enough to save them both from oblivion. ----------- It was high sun and the bright sunlit blue glow surrounding them in the snowy valley made his eyes tingle with color shock. The Guardian tucked his rusty mane under his sky hood and looked out over the azure snowscape for their next level course into deeper cover. Wine colored trees crackled in the bitter cold. He didn't even feel his own bodily faults left over from the Change surges for the day. And he smiled at that small mercy. ::Ahh, such sweet ice. It is a balm blanketing me. :: He had chosen well to hide Ariel here.:: THEY never bother this world, for nothing changes here at all. Even the forest. It's in natural glacial stasis.:: For a time, he rested in the snow, imagining the blue sun warming his soul. "So cold." the child wondered, innocently watching her breath curl in the bright sunlit air from her place nestled in his arms. "No more.." she whispered. Her forehead furrowed in concentration. Her Guardian touched the button of glowing horn there. "Don't." he soothed as he imagined her dead father might have once. "You don't know what you are doing, child. Bring no moving water and no warmth out. It hurts me." A cramp from carrying his precious burden so long wracked his altered left arm and that hand fell away onto an ice covered plant near where he was kneeling. It was curiously still green under its shell of ice. ::What's this?:: Others nearby began to steam and drip with boiling hisses.. With a growing look of horror, the alien man struggled to his feet with Ariel. He realized that she was trying to reach his Home fold from another angle. "No! Don't bring that place yet. Not now.. I...need to balance myself." Pain stabbed deep in his head as he sought control of yet another Change ebbing inside of him. "Ahh!! Stop this Ariel!! It's too soon..." "Summer... Peace... This is what you want.. You...need-" she puzzled, not understanding. Her angelically pure face glowed around the tiny lilac button of horn on her forehead. From the plant, the shell of ice fell completely away. Rainbow mist began to rise from its leaves in iridescent fire and the air surrounding them grew spicy. A new wave of weakness staggered the Guardian and he gasped, his mind going numb. He cradled the tiny child, tightly gripping her palm, "Ariel.. I'm...not prepared... Let...let it go. I'm here on this world, keeping you from them, trying to protect you. I don't deserve to leave...not yet.. I won't leave you behind!" But she had closed her eyes against him in thrall. The power grew. Whirling, the Guardian tried to search for healthy frost, an escape route away from the area metamorphosing around them. He covered her head. An intricate transparent timebomb appeared in the snow already locked into a countdown in Iconian numbering at his feet. Ariel smiled, "There will be "light". Like the blue sun above.." she promised him. He put a trembling hand to her lips, "You don't understand. There's danger to me if you do this.." The Guardian ran as fast as he could with her into the trees where the ice was still silent. "I must not go now.. Resist it, Ariel. Fight!" Something of his wish communicated itself to her on a deep level because soon, unseen by the fleeing pair, the thawing place where they had rested ...paused. The created bomb faded away into nothingness and the plants in the snow froze one by one, their permanent winter ice sealing over them once more. The eternal silence of the forest returned. --------- A half an hour later, the pain in the Guardian's head had gone. And his tie with Ariel resumed. She awoke. Ariel had no recollection of how they arrived to where she now found herself. Memory was a morass. ::What did I do??:: she wondered with dread, ::I wanted to help him and yet--:: She startled in her nesting blanket, then relaxed when she found he was next to her, sharing his insulating cape. He lay stretched in a sleep of the dead around the campfire he had started which did not burn any matter. That simple Iconian miracle never ceased to amaze her and she laughed and the icicles around her answered back when she made the blue flames grow higher. Then an odd tendril of "knowing" came from her companion even through his sleep. Ariel's eyes shut.. ::The Guardian knows something I don't.:: she thought. ::What is it?:: His hand on her shoulder, placed to keep her warm was cool and motionless. That alarmed the unicorn girl. Ariel "touched" his awareness and soul with hers. His thoughts were mired in a murky glue that hadn't been there before. "You are hurting." she said aloud, "Why?" Still, he slept not even awakening to her compelling lilac gaze. Then, Ariel knew. That which was meant to happen to him; the Change, wouldn't occur somehow. ::Growth is natural.:: she reasoned to herself, ::For him, most of all.:: "He is being held back and I do not know why.. I want to help him. I-" She saw the instinct in his mind calling out softly, growing louder, not even recognized yet by his own body as a critical need. Ariel frowned, thinking about the impression she had gleaned from his cells, "This isn't food." Ariel said in frustration, "I..I.. I- don't know where to find this." She shook him, "Guardian, answer me.." Her fright carried her eyes to the unnatural fire and into its blue flames. "What is this you require?" she whispered, growing younger in her uncertainty. Her horn button dimmed to darkness when he did not reply. For the first time in her young life, Ariel was afraid. And that fear made her make the first independent decision she had ever made, without her beloved Guardian to guide her. ::As long as he lives, so shall I do, for him and him alone.:: ------------------------------------------------------------- The shuttlecraft Batai felt poised on a brink and so did its two passengers. Geordi raised his eyebrows in challenge. "Ready?" Dr. Crusher licked dry lips, "For anything." Geordi moved slowly over his nav board carefully choosing his next configuration with all the skill of a master. Then his hand shook. He swayed, dizzily, "Ughhh.." His back stiffened and he went limp, slumped over the console. "Incapacitated pilot scenario? Easy one! Not very original Geordi. Automatic pilot engaged. Long range sensors enabled. Shields up...Done." She turned to him, "O.k., what's next?" Geordi LaForge didn't move or answer back. "Geordi? Say something to me.." Alarmed, Dr. Crusher rose from her chair and went to his side. ------------------------------------------------------------- The snow had ended for the night. The Guardian awoke, and he automatically searched for Ariel with eyes and mind. He spotted her silhouette through a blur of vision that did not resolve itself no matter how many times he blinked. She spoke without preamble, "Guardian, how are you?" He lied, "I am better, my child." He brushed away curly hair from his face that was damp with sweat in spite of the cold. Deep inside, he felt himself slipping into a maelstrom caused by his inadvertant taste of his future home. ::Paradise..:: He fought the sensation down and changed the subject. "Have you--" "Eaten yet? Yes. As you should eat.." she finished for him. She handed him a portion of gray meat. "I will." The Guardian noticed that his charge was doing something unusual for her temperment. She was tapping a stone against the bedrock beneath them absently, almost without thought. ::That is strange..:: Ariel never played games or even attempted to form music for that matter. He had a frightening thought at her odd behavior. "Are THEY near?" "No, they're still...in their continuum.." she replied. Tears were in her voice for the first time and the child did not look at his eyes. "What's the matter, Ariel? You are truly frightened.. Don't be. We are safe here. I can exist for some time in "Winter"." The Guardian sat down next to her but the snowy child just studied the results of her efforts as the rocky sounds she created echoed all around them. He tipped her chin up to his and was startled to find her face awash with silver tears. "It's my fault.. I..I don't mean to.." she sobbed. The Guardian looked at her gently, "You don't mean to what, child?" he asked. Ariel's pure features split into a cry of anguish. The permafrost under them exploded. Steamy gouts snuffed out the blue campfire and filled the air with water. The ground instantly softened. The roar of release lasted for only a minute, but when everything had cleared, the Guardian lay insensate on wet, vegetated earth. A cut oozed on his arm and he was sodden with liquid and blood trickled onto the stone beneath him. Ariel was bone dry, her stone beating into mossy rock, "I can't keep your Paradise away!! I can't..I I can't do it.. Forgive me...forgive." The Change fault exacerbated, rising in the Guardian and surged to the foreground. It swept him away in a tide of agony and despair. ----------------------------------------------------------- Geordi's first thought was that the shuttle's floor wasn't made for comfort's sake. He groaned, "Oh.." "Easy, Geordi. Take it slow. I haven't found what's wrong yet." He felt a hand on his shoulder. Geordi opened his eyes. He saw the doctor through his visor's familiar rainbow hues. But another effect was shorting out his vision in regular pulses, "Whoa. That's not right." Dr. Crusher was scanning him with a medical tricorder, "What isn't? Your head? Stay flat." she ordered. His readings were baffling. None of the usual earmarks of syncope manifested. "Not exactly my head.." Geordi squinted against the bright flares in defense, "I-It...I'm seeing some odd imagery here like a sort of subspace leak or ...Ahhh!" He twisted in pain. "Easy." she said holding him still. Her medical check completed and the tricorder bleeped. "All right. I'm getting no signs of head injury. Here's something for the pain." She eased medication into Geordi's bloodstream. He relaxed as he felt the hypo hiss against his neck,.."Hmm, better." He took a deep breath, testing himself, "How...how long was I out?" He tried to focus through the interference. It got easier with the forced absence from his headache. Dr. Crusher helped him to sit. "Only a minute or so. Are you still seeing that visual distortion?" Geordi looked at his hands which keep blinking in and out of true focus settings in the visor's sight, "Yeah, it's still there. But it's not so overpowering anymore." Dr. Crusher barely covered her growing frustration, "Your vital signs are normal. There's no elevated CPK levels, no cellular disruption, there's not so much as a bruise on you. According to this," she snapped her tricorder shut, "You're fine. It's safe for you to get up now." They both slowly return to nav and helm seats with the doctor continuing to watch him closely. Geordi began to feel uncomfortable under her close scrutiny, "Look.." he said a bit forcefully, "Maybe we're looking in the wrong place for my problem. Computer, ship's status.." he commanded. Its familiar warble sounded, #On course bearing zero two seven mark five. Full shields and auto pilot engaged. All systems nominal.# "Everything is "fine" there, too." she said dryly. "Just the same. I'd like you to take off your visor until we can get the lab techs on board the Kilamanjaro to run a diagnostic on it." she shrugged apologetically. She reached for the release servos on either side of Geordi's headband. He stopped her, "Wait a minute! I recognize this....pattern I'm seeing.. It's like an early Code One Alpha Zero from about thirty years ago.." "A distress call?" Beverly asked. She reconsidered their situation. "Computer, are there any abnormal indications in either subspace or transwarp communication bands?" The response was quick, #None currently registering.# Dr. Crusher shrugged, throwing her hands up into the air. Geordi wasn't about to give up, "Huh, computer. Check the ship's logs back to the moment we left the Enterprise. Check for anything out of the ordinary." #There is no record of anomolous activity in any communications frequency since shuttle departure at 2214 point--# Geordi's fist pounded his console with a resounding thud, "Computer, OFF! This is impossible! I'm seeing an outside signal I tell you.." Dr. Crusher leaned forward and a small smile crept into her face. She became confidentially soft voiced, "Perhaps your symptom is due to something other than what might be out "there"." she said, pointing to the twinkling stars around them in the viewing windows. Geordi frowned and Beverly let him work out what she meant on his own, "Let me think." he said, "The signal's not registering on any system nor ever was according to the computer,.. so h-?? Oh, I figured it out.." Geordi blushed with realization, "So.. this is a headache, huh?" He folded his hands into his lap, rubbing his fingers self consciously. Dr. Crusher nodded frankly, "You were about due for one. Though I'll admit. I've always wondered how you would manifest a headache once you finally contracted one." "What do you mean?" he asked her. "Your implant servos follow the pain receptors nature usually sets aside for head pain stimuli. You're incapable of getting a migraine the way I or someone else might experience one. So it comes as that visual effect and pains your eyeballs instead." She opened her own wide just to be funny. Geordi chuckled at her candor and relaxed. He sighed, "Only until now,..hmm.." he grunted. "Not much of a physical advantage today having this thing on my face." he tapped his visor. "All right. Time to go listen to some Kling opera,....visorless.." he stood stretching. "Get some sleep, too." she added. As he disappeared aft, a mischievious glint sparkled in her eye, "I could fix you a warm milk toddy.." His back was to her, but that was no protection. He turned around. "Uh, no thanks, doc. I'll manage. Just.....try not to do any sublight corkscrews during the flight tests, huh? Klingon Opera alone is enough to make anyone sick to their stomach.." Dr. Crusher looked up from the medkit she was putting away. "Then why listen to it?" Geordi shrugged, leaning on the overhand bulkhead above his head, "My date on Talyas Moon will swear her undying devotion to anyone who can outsing her in high Klingonii." His cheshire's grin was the last thing she saw in the darkness of the shuttle's interior. She laughed, "Oh...boy." she giggled, "Shoo.." she flitted at him with both hands. ------------------------------------------------------------------ By a frozen river, the Guardian stirred. Frost crackled on his clothes as he moved and he fought himself free of it and from the ground. He stood on shaky feet. For a few seconds, he struggled internally as well. Something integral to him had been lost. ::What?:: he thought dimly. A movement from the snow drew his attention in the blue sunglow. It was a child. A thin one, a white skinned female dressed in rags. She reached for him. He froze in place. "Guardian? Help me.." she whimpered. "The things that I do frighten me." She clutched at him and his arms closed about her mechanically. "You said th- there was danger. That I couldn't bring you to the still point. Please... Tell me what to do.." she sobbed. Slowly, an infantile blankness spread across his face.. What had been his steadfast personality, was gone. He drooled a little. One hand vaguely touched the girl's lips and he spoke to her in halting steps, "What...? Who.. am I. What...is this place? It's....so cold." Ariel "reached" and couldn't feel the Guardian's mind at all. He was damaged. She backed away in terror. "What have I done to you?" Guilt shot through her essence. And she felt a resurgence of altering power rushing to fill his instinctive need once again. The air warmed. A patch of snow at his feet vanished, revealing ancient green moss and alien flowers. "No," she whispered. "Not again... I will..NOT harm again!!" she fell and struggled off all fours in the slippery slush, "I'm.. I'm going.. to find what you need." She fled away from him taking the power with her like a heavy net around her soul. The Guardian wasn't even aware she had gone. He looked down, seeing the tiny bit of summer on the ground, "Paradise is almost here....but.." He crouched down. A creature was there; so out of place in the surrounding ice that it appeared surreal. The iguana regarded the man with a baleful eye. "Yes..." the man sighed, "You are from there.. Show me the way?" The Guardian tried to touch its mottled skin but it scrambled away, out of the circle of living greenery. It faded to nothingness.... "No..." he said. The sound of flowing water increased. Ice dripped everywhere. To his right, a large ice floe in the river burst free in an explosion of shards, leaving a split exposed to the blue daylight. The dark tongue of water held him mesmerized in a sea of blue sun sparkles, "It is coming!!" The Guardian shouted triumphantly, crippled."See?" The dazzle made him squint against it and his filming eyes watered. He closed them. When he had opened them again, one of the living plants had been freed from its icy tomb by the water's edge. It began to steam colors.. Pain lanced into his head and he laughed insanely weak, "You won't stop me!" he clutched his face, "I won't let you.." he sobbed, "Please...." The cut on his arm bled slowly. The sound of melting ice lessened and died. The river was silenced abruptly. There was nothing of the bared ground to be seen. Only the snow where his boots had torn it. Sagging, the Guardian let exhaustion take its toll. "Don't leave me alone..." He didn't know why he was speaking of such a thing. He was an exile. A Changer. His fate was to stay ....alone.. But a partial name floated before his memory.."Ar--? Ari?" He felt sleep caress him, "I-I need to find.. to...find.." He folded hands under his cheek and the frost gripped him tightly to the ground, "Show me the way..." he sighed, "Show me Parad--" Then the glacial silence rippled with energy. Several bombs appeared in the forest a short distance away from him. They counted down to zero and exploded. More of the strange misting plants were freed into the sunlight... In his fitful doze, the old alien's body twisted in exquisite pain and he tried to cry out, but there was no sound at all. Then the sound of rock hitting rock echoed faintly... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ It was almost an hour later. Dr. Crusher's yawn threatened to dislocate her jaw, "That's enough practicing for one-- Arhhh*yawn*.." The computer burbled, #Repeat last command.# "Stand by, computer." Those last maneuvers had been harrowing. How did one scrape off a quantum string? It took all the creativeness she could muster to restore nacelle telemetry to its mate long enough to break free. In the process, only half the outer hull stayed behind. ::Albeit in simulation.:: she chuckled. Beverly surmised that death by suffocation was preferable to being scattered across all moments in time forever screaming at the top of your lungs as you were being stretched that long. She hoped Geordi would approve of the option test answer she chose. She turned to the sleeping lieutenant commander across the cabin from her seat and aimed a med tricorder in his direction. She noticed that he had heeded her advice. The visor lay on the table by his head. He was comfortable. Satisfied, Beverly set the tricorder on the console before her. "Computer. End all flight emergency simulations. Return flight control to the helm." She watched all of the Batai's displays transpose to normal manual mode. She locked down the correct coordinates for their previous rendevous course as soon as her board committed. Suddenly, the Batai jilted slightly. The stars wavered on the viewscreen for just a moment, "What th-??" A screen at the helm began flickering. Dr. Crusher moved her hands away from the controls, "Computer, did you do what I asked?" #Helm is on manual.# "Scan for any malfunction in the coordinate array panel in front of me. I am seeing a short or something there." #There is no sign of system abnormality.# came its bland reply. Dr. Crusher flew through a deeper diagnostic, confirming what she was getting with the computer once more, "Scan the rest of the shuttle's systems in the same manner." she ordered it. #There are no indications of malfunction on board the Batai. All systems nominal.# Beverly leaned in closer to the blinking screen, "This is weird." "Hey!" Dr. Crusher jumped in her seat. "Oh, sorry, doc." Geordi was right there, both hands on the back of her chair, "That's what I am seeing in my visor!" he exclaimed, gripping his prosthetic tighter to his face. Dr. Crusher allowed herself a recovery period. ::I must still be on edge from those flight tests. Man..:: Aloud, she asked, "D-Did I wake you?" The engineer straightened up, frowning, "No.." he said as if he just learned that truth. "Something else did." "What did?" Crusher asked. The scientist and physician in her seemed to know that that information was crucial to them. She studied him intently. "It was...something simple....it was--" His eyes grew wide through the slits in the visor, "I- I can't seem to remember.." He sat down into the nav chair next to her. "Mystery number three. First, there's the distortion that made you pass out in your visor. Then, it's this screen problem here that the computer can't identify.. and lastly..." Geordi gripped the arms on his chair, "The sound I heard that woke me up!" "Wait a minute.." Beverly gasped, "You REMEMBERED that." "Yeah." Geordi was pleased. The memory was clearing. "What was it?" She asked. Geordi concentrated, "It's ...still going on. Tapping. In time with the pulses in my visor. Yeah.." he nodded, "They're synchronous now." Dr. Crusher leaned back in triumph, "The question is, now what do we d--" The computer interrupted, #Incoming transmission on subspace.# Course static burst from the comm panel. Geordi queried his board. "Someone is coming into range." "The Kilamanjaro?" Crusher wondered. "No, they're still two days out. And we are still in radio silence sectors.. Odd." Dr. Crusher cleaned up the signal. The voice was in Federation Standard!! ~~..Can anyone hear me?..Warp breach is imminent.. Life support is gone..~~ Geordi saw the ghost of a Federation signature on his sensors, "It's one of ours." Dr. Crusher met Geordi's glance, "I'm breaking radio silence." She toggled a switch. "This is Commander Beverly Crusher of the Federation Shuttlecraft Batai We're zeroing in on your location. Please respond.." There was no answer, Geordi shifted in his seat, "I still don't see anything.. Not even on--I'm getting something now." His findings were ominous, "One life sign. Human. And reaction traces of a warp core near critical. She's going to blow..!" he shouted. There was no longer any time to reconsider options. Beverly made her decision, "Lock onto that lifesign. Prepare a broad spectrum beam." Dr. Crusher crossed her fingers together, mentally steeling herself. ::Here's hoping..:: She glanced ceilingward to the shuttle, ::Dammit, let us make a difference here.. Live up to your name.:: She patted a bulkhead. "Having trouble getting a lock. There's an odd energy signature interfering with the targetting sensors." Geordi said. "Compensate!" Beverly snapped, "Prepare to raise shields." "Got em locked!" Geordi exclaimed. "Energize!" the doctor shouted. There was a bright flash out the window and the rising hum of the transporter strained. George and Beverly ducked in reflex at the flash, but then, it was over. Sparkles dotted a large region of carpeting behind them. Dr. Crusher heard the energy chorus begin to distort. "Boost the gain." Geordi had an idea, "I'll try tying the pattern buffers to the impulse engine power relays. It might do the trick." Suddenly, the shields snicked into place on their own and the two hunched down anticipating the full fury of a matter/antimatter explosion. No shock wave came. The sound of transporting had ended. "What happened?" Geordi whispered. "The Federation signature is gone." Dr. Crusher stood, snatching her tricorder open, "I don't know." It bleeped in her hand, "We've got someone all right. And she's alive.." A woman lay sprawled among a tangle of debris and soot. Geordi and the doctor lifted a piece of charred bulkhead out of the way. They crouched down over her. The woman's face and hands were black with ash and she was deeply unconscious. She wore a uniform the opposite of bridge crew norms with hue displaying across the shoulders instead of in the midsection. A phaser and tricorder were arranged in typical away mission configuration on her belt. "That's a strange getup. Think she's from one of the Deep Space stations?" Geordi remarked. Dr. Crusher bent to check the quality of the woman's pulse. A detail the tricorder couldn't show her. Beverly brushed away hair from the survivor's neck. She was shocked to find rank of command grade on her collar. Four pips glinted in the light. "Captain.." she said. "Can you hear me?" Their patient didn't move. The pulse she found was rapid but adequate but recent exposure to smoke had flagged her vital signs. Her breathing was too shallow and irregular to do much good at all. Dr. Crusher bolstered the strange woman out of shock with a hypo, "She's going to be fine. That'll get her breathing normally again. There's no sign of fractures or serious injury. Help me move her to the bed." Geordi did so. Beverly looked down at their mysterious captain's rank patient. "I don't know her. Do you?" LaForge shook his head. Beverly sighed. "There's nothing further I can do until she's conscious." she said covering her up with a thermal sheet. "Maybe then, we'll get some of our answers." "Doc, I think I can do better than that right now." Dr. Crusher looked up. Geordi was kneeling in the mess on the transporter pad. He held up a new model data padd, "Wow.. look at this baby. This is ..this is incredible.. Inside's a huge holoprogram with an autonomous emitter built right into it. Registry..N.C.C. 7465--Oops." His grip had slipped and jostled a hidden commit button. A mechanical buzz filled the air and a figure in black and blue materialized standing on top of the injured woman's bed. It glanced around for a moment, then stooped to retrieve something. Dr. Crusher and Geordi suddenly found themselves staring down the business end of the woman's phaser. The image before them spoke sharply, "All right. Just who the hell are you and what have you done to Captain Janeway?!" --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ariel was on a white plain. She was cupping something in her hands that glowed. "I found it!" Her stones lay abandoned in the slush. A golden pyramid was partially concealed in her balled palms. She put it into one woven pocket and smiled, "This is the thing the Guardian needs." She stood excitedly, looking around. The tiny child started to head in one direction then stopped, "Where is he? ..I- I don't feel him anymore..." She faced yet another way, thoroughly confused, "Guardian..!" In her fright, Ariel did not think. She could have retraced her own footsteps back the way she had come to find him. But her tender age betrayed her yet again. "I must find him... or...or he'll die.." The surrounding terrain offered her no comfort. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Computer!!" LaForge shouted instantly, "Intruder alert!" he ducked down behind the shattered piece of bulkhead still on the floor. "Activate security field Gamma Two!" A wall of yellow shimmered into being, separating front and back halves of the shuttle's cabin. The holofigure fired over their heads. Naturally, it bounced off the field and back at him. He just fizzled and glanced down at his own impacted stomach in surprise. Geordi fumbled with the augmented data padd in his hands, "Come on! Come on!!" he grumbled. Dr. Crusher inched her way over to him using every available cover to help him out. The hologram saw what they were trying to do and raised a hand, "Wait a minute! You can't just---" He disappeared. The phaser fell from mid air, bounced once off the bed and onto the carpeting. The computer bleeped, #Detecting no further threat. Standing down from intruder alert.# The containment field winked out. Geordi and the doctor caught their breaths, both gripping the strange data padd between them as if it could bite, still hunched behind the debris. "What the hell was that?" the engineer gasped. Dr. Crusher had no easy answer. She groaned and crawled to the bed, checking on the captain's status. "He didn't harm her. Do you think that hologram was a sentry? Pretty creative thinking on her part if she used him as one all the while trying to save her own skin from a warp core overload. She could have juryrigged that program before we beamed her aboard as insurance against us. At the time, we were calculated unknowns." Dr. Crusher caught her breath, "Why though? If we could see their ident transponder, wouldn't it make sense that they could see ours?" Geordi pulled himself to his feet, "Your guess is as good as mine. But let me tell you one thing." He hooked a thumb over toward the bed. "I wouldn't want to find myself on this Janeway's bad side for the life of me..." At that moment, Captain Janeway coughed. She stirred and began to awaken. Dr. Crusher spoke up, "Speak of the devil..." Geordi hid the phaser. Beverly put on her most diplomatic smile, and smacked Geordi to do the same, "Easy,captain. You're safe." It took a few moments for the woman to focus. Her eyes took in their uniforms, "Federation? That's not possible." Her hand migrated toward her empty phaser clip.. A second later, to her combadge on her shoulder, "Janeway to Voyager.. Respond.." That last effort made her wince. Geordi spread his hands wide, "I'm sorry. But I'm afraid that won't work." Captain Janeway froze as she took in his visor. She turned her head checking him over as if to look for other implants he might have had. ::Not half Borg:: she decided. She didn't disguise the anger in her voice, "What have you done to my ship..?" It was not a question. Geordi immediately felt inches high, "Nothing, captain,..I..Uh.. We're kind of hoping you could tell us..." he admitted honestly. She studied him and Dr. Crusher for a long moment. Then her eyes flickered to the starry windows. Familiar ones. Her eyebrow ...rose. Her mouth set in a firm line, "From the look of things, I'd say I got home.." she said simply. Beverly was frank, "I'm afraid I don't follow you.." She was worried. ::Did I miss something in my original examination?:: Janeway read between the lines behind Crusher's loaded question. "No, I did not hit my head." she winced again, rubbing a sore spot on her arm. Beverly scanned the spot. The captain asked, "You're a physician?" Dr. Crusher nodded. Janeway relaxed a tiny bit. Then she started speaking, "I could be dreaming this, but somehow, I don't think so." She began coughing, and allowed Beverly to sit her up against a wall to ease it. "oh.. I hate fires.." Geordi looked away and refused to meet the captain's eyes. His reaction was not lost on their visitor and all emotion drained from her face, "I'm Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager. If you check your records, you'll find we were lost some time ago in the Badlands while following a Maquis raider. An energy wave created by a being called the Caretaker carried us over seventy thousand light years from Federation territory. To the Delta Quadrant. My crew and I have been trying to get back ever since." Her words tightened with stress and she stabbed Geordi with a penetrating stare, "I say again, what happened to my ship and crew.." Dr. Crusher understood right away. She knew the devastating consequences of separation that starship captains endured especially, in the face of the unknown, apart from their vessels. "Geordi, we're going about this all wrong. Captain Janeway, I'm Beverly Crusher, chief medical officer of the Starship Enterprise and this is Geordi LaForge, ship's chief engineer. We were on leave to Talyas Moon when we heard a distress call from your ship over the comm line. We went to investigate. ...There was what appeared to be a warp core failure in progress.." Memory hit Captain Janeway like a blow, "I was alone on the holodeck. B'Elanna had just calibrated its program emitters to accept a new energy source that potentially would have lowered susceptability of holoimages to concentrated light beams. I commandeered a phaser and was testing intensity out on the doctor.." "On your doctor?" Dr. Crusher asked. Kathryn smiled, and held up a hand, "Our EMH program. Our regular physician was killed during our transference to the Delta Quadrant. His program has useful diagnostic functions if you know how to use them." Beverly and Geordi stifled their reactions into trying to keep staight faces. "What's so funny?" Kathryn asked. "I believe we've already met the doctor." Geordi held out the data padd he had found, "He accosted your phaser and tried to hold us at bay with it, thinking we were the ones who injured you." The captain took the padd, brandishing it in amusement before setting it on the bed next to her. She frowned ruefully, "I believe it. Can't say he's got much of a bedside manner." she admitted. Her chuckle made her put a hand to her head. "When I saw the outside energy field coming toward the ship, I told the doctor to expect company." "Are you uncomfortable?" Dr. Crusher already had her tricorder on bioscan. "I can give you an analgesic." "It's not that bad." Janeway shrugged, taking a deep breath, then her expression drifted into one of recollection, "We were halfway through with the phase alignments when Voyager was struck with what felt like a tractor beam. I was thrown off my feet. Red alert sounded. I tried to contact the bridge but the comm system was down." She waved a hand in front of her, "I couldn't call the arch. It was a minute later, and I was reconfiguring the EMH to see if I could get a message to the outside...when.." her voiced choked as she recalled her memory, "...when the deck split apart..from under me.." Kathryn reeled emotionally, suddenly reseeing the nightmare she had lived through, "I saw only open spac--" Captain Janeway looked up in horror, "That was a warp core breach?" Geordi was quick to reassure her, "Hey,...now we don't know that. Ship's sensors never registered a matter/anti-matter explosion. There...was a flash of light.. and your Voyager just....vanished." Captain Janeway wanted desperately to be reassured that her crew was still alive.. She wasn't even entirely convinced of where she truly was let alone just who these two strangers were before her. It hurt to no longer be in control of her destiny. ::There has to be answers somewhere.:: Kathryn became the scientist her father once raised her to be. She swung her legs over the side of the bed. "Perhaps if I had a chance to look at your shuttle's sensor logs... There must have been something unusual occurring at the time..." Dr. Crusher nodded, "There was. Geordi's visor began picking up an odd energy distortion like a carrier wave shortly after we left the Enterprise. Its effect had spread to one of the control panels when we found you." "Which one?" said Janeway, standing on wobbly legs. Dr. Crusher hovered nearby to lend a firm arm if it was needed. Geordi moved forward to the main chairs, "Helm station one. But the computer can't seem to detect it." Captain Janeway took the indicated chair. Geordi and Dr. Crusher clustered around her, wondering what she could learn when they couldn't from the flickering screen. "Ah, but WE can. That's the important thing. Now, if I try remodulating the comparator..." She paused, "May I , commander?" she asked, indicating the panel before her. Geordi shrugged, he added with a grin, "You do outrank us, captain." Kathryn smiled. "Thanks." she said as she set up an algorithm sequence.. The screen's flickering turned into regular bands of color which scrolled from top to bottom in wavy meanders. Geordi's grip tightened on the back of the chair, "Wait a sec, I know what this is. This signal IS an S.O.S. Someone's in trouble out there." Dr. Crusher frowned, "But where..? We can't seem to pinpoint it, and the Kilamanjaro.." Geordi concurred with her, "...won't rendevous with us for another two days, I know. But I'm sure having this thing pounding away inside my head for much longer will drive me up the wall. The computer's not going to be much help at all. We're going to have to figure out this one all on our own." Captain Janeway had finished reviewing the logs, "There's not much to go on here. Any suggestions?" Geordi didn't like not having an easy answer, "I don't know." Dr. Crusher was looking thoughtful, "Captain.. you said earlier that it was significant that only our physical senses could detect this signal." Kathryn's smile beamed through the dirt on her face, "Mr. LaForge.." She indicated the copilot chair, "Ever heard of a fox hunt? Well, There's a scent out there somewhere and you're the best hound we've got. Have a seat. We're going hunting." She disconnected a couple of dionode relays from the the service panel by her knees and held them ready. Geordi's grin spread into comprehension, "You're rerouting my visor's impulses into the navigational array." He sat down next to her and got out the shuttle tool kit. He handed her a chamber's coil. Captain Janeway nodded as she worked, "If we're lucky, the closer we get to the signal's origin, the more focused it will become for you. Then we can home in on it through your interpretative account." She finished a minor adjustment, "There. How does that seem?" Geordi frowned, "It's linked. But I won't be able to see to fly." Captain Janeway shrugged, cracking her knuckles, "Just direct me. It's been a while. This is a type VI, isn't it?" she quipped. Her short laugh sent a pang through her head and she couldn't hide the resultant groan that escaped under her breath. Geordi noticed her discomfort, "Listen, if you're not up to this.." Dr. Crusher agreed by crossing her arms sternly. Janeway sighed, "All right. You have the conn, Dr. Crusher." She pulled ashy uniform material away from an itchy shoulder, "I'm going to go take a shower.." She rose, moving toward the aft section of the shuttlecraft. Beverly called out after her, "If there's anything I can get you..." She held up the medkit significantly for emphasis, "Let me know..." Kathryn spoke over her shoulder, "How about a uniform?" "Use cargo hold replicator B. Code up 147." Geordi replied. Captain Janeway turned around, coming back to the front, "Oh, and one more thing..." she said. She met both of their eyes wistfully. "What's that?" asked Crusher. The glint in the Voyager captain's eye was almost feral, "You wouldn't happen to have any...real..coffee around here anyplace, now would you?" "Only Jamaican Dark." Beverly said matter of factly. "Perfect." Janeway grinned broadly, "Back in two minutes." The excited woman practically flew light speed around the corner; a long cloud of soot trailing in her wake. "Caffeine addiction?" Geordi wondered. He occupied himself with beaming out the mess still littering the transporter pad. Dr. Crusher smiled diffidently, "Or deep space deprivation syndrome." Geordi's brow furrowed. Crusher elaborated, "Picture Barclay without his holodeck priviledges." The engineer shivered, "OOooo. Nasty." He turned back to work. |
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