eight
Beverly Crusher sat near one side of the bed where Lieutenant Raynr Sleven rested, and Deanna Troi sat at the other side. The strapping Antosian seemed to appreciate their attention, especially since the ship’s barber, Mot, had groomed him to be presentable. His vibrant good health and helpful attitude belied the terrible ordeal he had suffered, yet Crusher wondered how much longer she would be able to keep him in sickbay.
Deanna Troi had thought it best to hear his story while it was still fresh in his mind, and his mind was still lucid. But the captain and most of the crew were busy, so she had asked him to tell just herself and the doctor.
“Well,” began the Antosian, “we were supposed to watch the Genesis Wave go past, and take sensor readings and live samples. The astrometrics department was charting the wave’s outward boundary, according to patterns of destruction. But the only thing we witnessed was our own destruction.”
Raynr Sleven shook his head and grimaced at the remembrance [92] of it, and Troi touched his hand. “You don’t need to relive it now, if it’s too painful,” said the Betazoid.
He bit his lip and took a deep breath. “There were just so many of us taken in the first moments ... before we knew what it was. I couldn’t do anything to help them, because those things were attracted to crowds of people. And I was alone.”
“What do you mean, they were ‘taken?’ ” asked Crusher.
He appealed to her with an earnest face, and she could see the confusion in his eyes. “We thought it was a hull breach—or several hull breaches at once—and that the casualties were being sucked into space. That’s until we realized that these pockets of void were moving throughout the ship.”
He covered his eyes with the palms of his hands and began to cry. “It was everyone for himself ... I should have done more to help them, but the corridors were full of monsters!” Raynr looked pleadingly at Crusher. “You’ve seen them, Doctor. I know that other patients here in sickbay have seen them, because they talk about it. I was able to save Grenmoy before I hid in the weapons room, but he’s not here—?”
“That was the dead man we found with you,” said Crusher sympathetically. “He was dead long before we got there ... from the radiation. Your choice of weapons kept you safe, I guess.”
“Dumb luck,” he insisted. “From the beginning, I was lucky, because I was repairing a plasma conduit on level two, where you found me. The weapons room was close by, and it had phasers, armor, radiation suits, emergency rations, medkits, everything I needed. The captain ordered the crew to abandon ship, but I had a feeling they wouldn’t make it. So I stayed put. I don’t think anyone made it, did they?”
“We didn’t see any evidence that escape pods were launched,” said Crusher.
“Well, you should double-check the pods when you go back over there,” suggested the Antosian.
Crusher glanced at Troi, and the counselor delivered the bad news. “The Barcelona was destroyed, and so was a Romulan ship that [93] was too close to it. There’s been a flare-up in the radiation ... and whatever force attacked your crew.”
“They were taken somewhere else ... into the darkness!” The lieutenant sat up, and gripped Crusher’s forearm. “You saw it, didn’t you? Sometimes it looks like a blazing light, and other times it’s a black pit with no bottom. But it takes them away ... and leaves those monsters behind.”
Deanna Troi’s brow furrowed with concern, and she looked away from Raynr to stare at the bulkhead, transfixed by something beyond Crusher’s sight.
“I know I’m not making any sense,” said the Antosian apologetically. He slumped back into his bed. “I wish I hadn’t seen these things, but you saved me for a purpose. If our ship is gone, no other record exists—so I must tell my story.”
“Excuse me,” said Deanna Troi, rising unsteadily to her feet. “I have ... I have some things to do before the staff meeting.” She turned to Crusher and managed a weak smile. “You’re doing very well with your patient—you should be pleased. And, Lieutenant Sleven, I’m sure you will make a complete recovery. I’ll drop in again. Good-bye.”
“It was a pleasure to meet you, Counselor!” called Raynr as Troi hurried out the door. After the door shut behind her, he confided to Crusher, “I have a feeling she’s not well.”
“We’ve all been under a lot of stress,” replied the doctor, rising to the defense of her friend’s privacy.
“No one more than you,” said the Antosian. “When will you stop for a moment to rest ... and recover?”
“Doctor, heal thyself? I’ll take that under advisement,” she said with a wry grin.
With a gentle hand, he lifted her chin and gazed into her green eyes with his black orbs. “I’m serious, Doctor. You look tired. Lovely, but tired.”
Gently but firmly, Crusher pulled away from him. She had seen that look in patients’ eyes before. It was natural to mistake gratitude [94] for something more. “I appreciate your concern, Lieutenant, and I assure you I’ll get some rest. When this is over.”
“Of course,” he said apologetically. “I didn’t mean anything derogatory. It’s just that it’s hard to believe it ever will be over. I’ve cheated death. I shouldn’t be here, but I am! And I feel better than I’ve ever felt in my life—rested and healthy. I want to jump out of this bed and run around the ship! If you have a theater, I want to perform.”
He touched her shoulder and added, “I want to fall in love.”
“I make it a rule not to fall in love with my patients,” replied Crusher, removing his hand. But she felt vulnerable at the moment, and the brawny Antosian was attractive. If circumstances were different—but they weren’t.
“I’m not going to be a patient much longer, am I?” he asked cheerfully. He pointed back at the vital signs on the overhead display. “I mean, I’m perfectly healthy, aren’t I?”
“Yes, you are,” she admitted. “But your treatment was experimental—we have to keep you under observation.”
“I know, cellular metamorphosis,” he answered with a smile. “When I was pretending to be asleep, I heard the attendants talking about it. But it’s approved where I came from—we accept the risk of the side effects.”
“It’s approved on Antos IV, but it’s still only used in dire cases,” said Crusher, rising to her feet.
“Let me walk around at least,” begged Raynr. “See something of the Enterprise?”
She frowned, although she was inwardly pleased by his eagerness to be active. “If I have time after the staff meeting, I’ll come back to check on you. I’m not promising anything. Until then, I’ll see that you get a uniform and can take a brief walk with Nurse Ogawa.”
“Thank you,” said Raynr Sleven with a broad grin. His asymmetrical bun of black hair framed his robust face and made him look almost childlike, or maybe that was just his incredible joy at being unexpectedly alive. Whatever it was, Beverly Crusher wished she [95] could bottle a little of it and take it with her, because she was feeling low.
“Keep up your good spirits,” she said as she left the room. I’ll try to do the same, she told herself.
At their staff meeting in the observation lounge, Captain Picard paced in front of the elegant conference table, which was occupied by the Enterprise’s senior officers. Through the observation window, both of the remaining Romulan warbirds glimmered in the velvety stillness of space, but the captain didn’t notice this impressive sight. He was consumed with frustration, thought Crusher.
“So our probes have been destroyed,” he concluded.
“Not destroyed, Captain,” said Data, “absorbed. They have been absorbed into the dark anomaly, which is either the cause of this or the residue.”
“If it can expand without notice,” said the captain, “it’s a ticking time bomb. Have we managed to capture any of the creatures?”
“We have not been able to find any of the creatures,” replied Data. “Inexplicably, they have vanished.”
“And time has become a crucial factor,�
�� added Will Riker. “Captain, can I relate our last message from Starfleet?”
“Go ahead.”
The big man nodded. “After we reported that relations with the Romulans had improved, the ships coming to help us were recalled. Starfleet reassigned them, because apparently there are a lot of these events to investigate. Since we aren’t near any population centers—and there’s no ship left to salvage—our situation is not considered urgent anymore. In fact, there’s a good chance we might be pulled away from here.”
“We’re supposed to minimize our risks,” added the captain, his lips thinning, “while we station warning buoys to keep shipping away from the area. If the Romulans want to do our job for us, we’re [96] supposed to step back and let them. Does anybody have anything to add?”
When no one else answered, Dr. Crusher spoke up, “My patient from the Barcelona, Lieutenant Sleven, is doing well and has given us a report on his experiences.” She looked at Deanna Troi, but the counselor’s attention seemed far away. So the doctor went on, “Despite having spent a week with the entities, Lieutenant Sleven couldn’t tell us much that we don’t already know. But he felt that his crewmates were somehow absorbed into the dark entity.”
“There seems to be a theme here,” said Geordi La Forge, “of things getting absorbed.”
“It has an unusual gravitational pull,” said Data, “very localized, not commensurate with its size. It does not obey the physical laws of black holes, quasars, wormholes, or any known phenomenon. We need time to devise the proper safety precautions to study it.”
“Time we don’t have,” concluded Picard. “In two hours, we’ve got a memorial service to attend on the Javlek, and some of you have already volunteered to go with me. Right after that, we begin laying the buoys. Unless we make some headway here, we’ll probably be leaving soon. Is there anything else?”
When no one spoke, the captain said, “Dismissed.”
Alyssa Ogawa strolled down the corridor with Lieutenant Raynr Sleven at her side, and the big Antosian smiled and greeted everyone they passed. He was so full of good cheer that just being around him lifted her spirits. If he could be returned to his loved ones, she reasoned, then why couldn’t Andrew be returned to her and Suzi? She tried not to think about what a miracle it had taken to rescue the sole survivor of the Barcelona, and that Andrew would probably need similar luck.
“Have you got any family?” she asked him.
He nodded. “I have my parents and lots of relatives on Antos IV, [97] but no wife or children. We Antosians tend to marry late in life, and like most people in Starfleet, I always thought of my mates as my family. It doesn’t seem possible that they’re gone, even though I saw it happen. But now that the Enterprise is on the job, I suppose we’ll get to the bottom of it.”
“We can hope,” said Alyssa.
“And what about your family?” asked Raynr.
She blinked at him. “My family?”
“Yes, you’re wearing a wedding ring, and you have the worried look of a mother who wants to report home.”
That drew a smile from her. “I guess it’s obvious, isn’t it?”
“In a good way,” he assured her.
“Since we’re just taking a stroll,” said Ogawa, “would you mind if we stopped at home to see my daughter? She should just be getting back from her morning classes.”
“Absolutely!” answered Raynr heartily, “I would love to meet your daughter. Lead on!”
Ogawa figured her patient would rather do anything than go back to his bed in sickbay, so she took him to her residence on deck seven.
When she opened the door, a familiar voice rang out. “Mommy!”
The dark-haired imp came tearing through the living room and tackled her mother around the waist. Raynr Sleven looked on, his handsome face beaming at the sight of the reunion.
“Suzi, this is my friend, Lieutenant Sleven. He came from the other ship, the Barcelona.”
“Pleased to meet you,” she said with a proper curtsey.
“Charmed,” answered the strapping Antosian. “You have a very nice residence here. I bet you’re a big help to your mother, keeping it neat and clean.”
“I try,” answered Suzi, “but Daddy is really the one who’s neat.”
Raynr laughed. “Good for him! Is this your father?” He crossed to a shelf by the dining table, where several family holographs were [98] displayed. With an unerring instinct, he picked up the likeness of Andrew.
“Yes, that’s my Daddy!” exclaimed Suzi proudly. “He’ll be coming home soon.”
Ogawa cringed at this topic of conversation, but she kept a polite smile plastered to her face.
“What department does he work in?” asked the Antosian.
“He’s helping people get through the Genesis Wave,” responded Suzi. “He’s been gone a long time, but he’s coming home soon.”
With dawning realization, the lieutenant looked at Ogawa, who lowered her head. “Starfleet needs to find him like they found you,” she said, hoping he would read between the lines.
“He’s hiding from them,” insisted Suzi with a smile. “He’s good at playing hide-and seek.”
Raynr looked awkwardly from the pained wife and mother to the unsuspecting six-year-old, and he realized he had stepped into something. “Your daddy’s very handsome,” he finally said, putting the picture back on the shelf.
“Are you going to stay for lunch?” asked Suzi.
The Antosian glanced at Ogawa and smiled. “Well, I haven’t been asked yet.”
“I’m asking you,” said Suzi. “If it’s okay with Mommy.”
Ogawa nodded. “Sure, but we have to be fast. We’re just supposed to be on a little walk.”
Suzi stood on her tiptoes and asked importantly, “What would you like?”
“I’d better stick to bland food,” answered Raynr, “because I’ve been sick. What about some oatmeal?”
“Oatmeal it is!” answered Suzi, rushing off to the food replicator.
When she was out of earshot, the Antosian turned to Ogawa and muttered, “I’m sorry about your husband. What are his chances? I mean, do they have any idea?”
[99] Alyssa sighed and looked away. “He’s missing, and that’s all we know. We can’t do anything but wait, and it hasn’t been easy.”
“All right, let’s talk about something else,” said the lieutenant with forced cheer,. “There’s a topic of conversation I’ve been dying to ask someone about.”
“I’ll help you if I can,” said Ogawa.
“All right, tell me about Beverly Crusher. She’s not married, is she?”
Ogawa fought the temptation to roll her eyes. “No, she’s been widowed for a long time and has a grown son. He’s also missing. There’s somebody on the ship with whom she’s been involved—on and off—but it’s hard to figure out where that’s going.”
“I’m terribly smitten with her,” admitted the Antosian. “It’s not just because she saved my life ... I just think she’s terrific.”
“She is that,” acknowledged Ogawa. “But whether she has any brain space for romance, I don’t know.”
Just then, Suzi showed up with a steaming bowl of oatmeal and a big spoon. “Here you are, Lieutenant,” she said proudly, handing over the bowl. “What do you want to eat, Mommy?”
“I’m not hungry, dear.”
“But you’ve got to eat,” insisted Suzi.
“She’s right,” said Raynr, his mouth full. “Mmmm, this is delicious!”
“All right, I’ll have some too.”
They ate lunch, making small talk about Raynr’s homeworld and some of the more famous escapades of the Enterprise. The Antosian said he would ask Captain Picard for a permanent transfer to the Enterprise, since he was already on board and it was the flagship of the fleet. Ogawa said that he might have to spend time in a Starfleet hospital, undergoing evaluation for both his radiation poisoning and his radical treatment, but the Antosian insisted that he felt great.
As the trio dined, the nurse was reminded how pleasurable it was to have a man’s presence. With the three of them seated at the table, [100] it almost seemed as if Andrew was back. Almost. Raynr Sleven glanced often at Andrew’s picture on the shelf, and she could tell that he was saddened by her husband’s absence. He was a sensitive soul, and Ogawa found herself thinking that Beverly should loosen up a bit and go out with him. Guys like him didn’t exactly fall out of trees.
“We’ve got to be getting back to sickbay,” she said reluctantly. “They’ll be looking for us.”
“Let them look. We’ll keep hiding,” said Raynr with a conspiratorial glance at Suzi, who giggled in agreement.
“Don’t make him go,” she told her mom.
“He’s got to, and you also have afternoon classes,” insisted Mom. “But maybe we can do this again tomorrow.”
“Please!” exclaimed Suzi excitedly. “I would like that.”
The three of them left together, and they walked Suzi to her class-room. At the door, Raynr bent down and shook her hand. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Suzi. Keep up your faith, and you will soon see your father again.”
“Do you really think so?” she asked, her brave veneer cracking for a moment.
“I do think so,” he answered. “See you tomorrow, Suzi.”
“I hope so. Bye, Mommy.”
Skipping happily, Suzi headed into her classroom, but Ogawa frowned at Raynr, not quite so happy with him. “You shouldn’t offer her false hope,” she whispered.
“Have you told her that she’ll never see her father again?”
“Well, no,” answered Ogawa, turning and heading down the corridor. “I don’t know that for certain.”
“It’s a good guess, though, isn’t it?” said the lieutenant. “Until she has no hope, I don’t think it’s wrong to give her some.”
Ogawa sighed heavily. “I’ll admit, I’m not sure how to handle this. She’s at a difficult age—not old enough to hear the truth yet ... but too old to be fooled.”
STAR TREK: TNG - The Genesis Wave, Book Three Page 10
