Path: inforamp.net!news1.toronto.fonorola.net!news1.toronto.istar.net!news.toronto.istar.net!istar.net!imci2!imci3!imci4!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!news.cac.psu.edu!usenet From: "Todd A. Bobenrieth" Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative Subject: REPOST:Night of the Next Generation (10/14) Date: 27 Mar 1996 21:57:40 GMT Organization: TAMBOFILMS Lines: 147 Message-ID: <4jcdkk$obh@hearst.cac.psu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: nb8slip94.cac.psu.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.22 (Windows; I; 16bit) Status: N X Captain's Log, Stardate 47344.7 - We are currently on course out of the Nebula. With the animated bodies safely behind force fields, we now make our way back to Starbase 109. I have made the decision that sending a rescue party to the Rickover would put additional Enterprise personnel at risk, and hereby declare the first away team a loss, with all presumed dead. Additional starships will be sent with proper equipment to retrieve the Rickover for further study. * * * "Close log." Acting Captain Data stood staring through the force field. The creature that had once been his former Captain stared back. Picard looked extremely pale. His eyes had lost almost all of their pigment, and his flesh dropped from his bones. The once highly decorated Captain of the Enterprise, now sat dis-shriveled in the corner, staring into nothingness. The expression on Data's face was almost one of sorrow, and one would believe that by looking at him that he was actually feeling emotion. "It is a shame, Captain," he said, "for one to have such an illustrious career, and then go out like this. I am truly sorry we could do nothing to save you." Picard stared out. He was CONSCIOUS goddamn it, couldn't Data see that? He wasn't like those other things, his BRAIN was still alive! What was Data doing? Will and the others could still be alive, and he was just abandoning them! He tried to communicate with the android once again. He opened his mouth to speak, which caught Data's attention for a moment, but suddenly his jaw broke off and splintered onto the floor. He tried to raise a hand to perhaps signal Data in a form of sign language, and managed to get it almost halfway up, before his arm slid off the bone with a shlurping sound and hit the deck with a dull, wet thud. His body was falling apart around him, and he was conscious through all of it. As his face began to melt into the bulkhead, he took one last look at Data. The android was shaking his head, and Picard thought he almost heard him sigh. And then, blackness... * * * When he opened his eyes, he was in a meadow by a crystal clear stream. Clouds floated lazily by a brilliant midday sun, and birds chirped from the trees all around. Picard lay under a rather large tree, it's branches hanging low providing him shade from the afternoon heat. He was very relaxed. Was this heaven, he wondered? A bright light suddenly appeared above him. It beckoned him, calling over and over with a soundless voice. Long tendrills of hazy smoke drifted down and enveloped him. He closed his eyes, and allowed himself to be carried by them, upwards into the light. But he sensed something was wrong. Were these loving fingers of mist supposed to be so cold? A shadow of doubt briefly crossed the Captains mind. And suddenly, dark clouds rolled rapidly in, clouding the sun. Picard turned, and tried to wriggle free of the tendrills, but found he could not. He looked and saw, not hazy smoke fingers as he expected, but branches of the tree he had been lying beneath wrapped around his legs, immobilizing him. He screamed as the branches continued to surround his body, until all that was showing was his head. The world grew very cold, very suddenly. And then the apparition appeared. Had it just suddenly appeared, or had it been there all along? Picard couldn't remember. It's robes hung loosely from narrow shoulders, and a large hood blanketed completely whatever face was beneath--if there actually was a face there. It was old, perhaps older than time itself. And it was hungry. Picard looked again, and realized it wasn't the tree which held him, but fingers from the outstretched hands of the apparition. And it was pulling him towards it. The landscape disappeared into an abyss of blackness, leaving only the Captain and the Apparition floating in the middle. A sudden wind caught the hood of the robes, flinging it backwards. Picard was shocked to see Wil Riker staring back. But it wasn't just Wil. It was also Data. And Beverly. And Troi and Geordi and Worf and Tasha and Guinan and... It was everybody he ever knew, and all at the same time. The apparition paused and Picard felt confusion emitting from it. Suddenly, the faces began to be replaced with something else, something horrible, something he knew he didn't want to see--the true face of the apparition. And Picard understood. He concentrated, and the faces began to re-form. They were his friends... his family... his SOUL. The apparition's fingers began to slowly slip away from him, and Picard concentrated harder. He brought all of his will forward. All of his being. All that he was. All that he would ever be. And he directed it right at the apparition. Light began to replace the blackness. Not a lot at first, but then more and more and more and suddenly it was not so dark anymore. Picard looked, and the apparition began to shrink backwards, into the retreating darkness. It was still there--he could still feel it's presence--but now there was nothing but light... * * * "...must...leave..." Dr. Crusher snapped awake. She had dozed off while sitting a bedside vigil beside the still figure of Captain Picard. He had been there ever since he passed out after the encounter with nurse Bannister. The sound of his voice brought her immediately to attention. "Jean-Luc?" she asked incredulously. The Captain's eyes were partially open, staring into the overhead lights. "...nebula...must...leave..." he gasped. The Doctor slapped her communicator pin. "Data, report to Sick Bay. Now!" Above him, the readouts monitoring his life signs began to pick up a bit, and Beverly's grin began to widen as she saw this. The on-duty nurse came barreling in from the next room to see what the commotion was. "Yes, Jean-Luc, YES! You can do it! Don't give up!" She grasped his hand and squeezed it tightly. The readouts stabilized a little, but then began to drop off again. "Wait, No," pleaded the Doctor. "Damnit, Jean-Luc, you've got to fight!" She grabbed a hypo from the nurse and emptied the contents into him. "Stay with me!" At that moment, Data came strolling into Sick Bay. "Yes Doctor, you hailed me?" "He's alive, Data!" said the Doctor. "Just barely, but alive all the same." Data walked over to the bed, and Picard looked over at him. "...Data...leave...must..." Picard struggled to get out each word. Data leaned forward and placed an ear next to the Captains mouth. The Captain found it much easier to whisper his commands. Data suddenly stood bolt upright and pressed his comm-badge. "Data to bridge, lay in a course for the shortest way out of the nebula. Full impulse," he commanded. Picard smiled, and then blacked out.