All Good Things__ - Michael Jan Friedman [26]
The captain held up his hand to stop her. “Do you have any memory of me calling for a red alert in spacedock? Do you remember Starfleet diverting us from Farpoint to the Neutral Zone to investigate a spatial anomaly?”
She thought again. “No… I don’t.”
Picard leaned back in his chair. “As you may have gathered, I do. I experienced those events just a few short hours ago.”
“It would appear,” remarked Data, “that there is a discontinuity between the time periods you have described. Events in one period would seem to have no effect on the other two.”
“And yet,” Riker offered, “in both the past and the present… there’s a report of the same anomaly in the Devron system. It’s hard for me to believe that’s a coincidence.”
The captain nodded. “And for all I know, there may be a similar anomaly in the future, as well.”
“Maybe,” commented Geordi, “the anomaly is some kind of… temporal disruptien.” He positioned his hands as if he were holding a bowl, in an attempt to describe the thing. “A hole in the continuum, so to speak.”
Beverly turned to Picard. “But how is all this related to your time-shifting?”
The captain grunted. “A good question. I suspect I may have some answers when I make my next round-trip to the past… or the future, whichever comes first.”
“In the meantime,” Riker reminded him, “we’ve got the Romulans to keep us from getting bored.”
Picard turned to him, acknowledging the need for discussion. Regardless of what else was happening to him, that problem hadn’t gone away.
“Thank you for reminding me, Number One. Insofar as the current mission is concerned, all departments should submit combat-readiness reports by oh-eight- hundred hours tomorrow.” He looked from one face to the next. “I hope it won’t come to that, of course—but if it does, I want to be ready. Dismissed.”
Everyone rose to go, intent on their respective assignments. As Deanna headed for the door, Riker caught her attention.
“Looks like it’s going to be a late night,” he said. “Want to get some dinner first?”
There was something in her eyes that he hadn’t quite expected. A hesitation, a feeling of awkwardness. He wondered why.
“Actually,” said Deanna, “I…” She glanced over the first officer’s shoulder. “I mean… we have plans.”
Riker turned to follow her gaze—and found himself looking at Worf. It caught him off-guard, but he recovered quickly enough.
Apparently, the relationship between Deanna and his Klingon friend had progressed further than he realized. But hell… that was no fault of theirs, was it? They didn’t have to keep the first officer apprised of their every move.
“I see,” he said, doing his best to sound casual. “Well, then… see you tomorrow morning.” Worf inclined his massive head. “Good night, sir.” Riker inclined his head in turn. “Worf…”
He stood there for a moment, watching the two of them file out after the others—and acknowledged an emptiness in the pit of his belly that was directly related to the sight.
Not that he had any right to tell either of them whom they could spend their time with. No one was in a position to do that.
But, even though he and Deanna hadn’t been lovers for several years now—since his assignment on Betazed came to an end—he’d always thought of her as his special friend. His confidante. His close companion.
And now, he saw that someone else might be taking his place in that regard. Someone he liked and respected, true—but it was still a change he wasn’t looking forward to.
Or was there rr. ore to it than that? Did his feelings run deeper than he cared to admit? At some level, had he harbored the hope that, in the end, he and Deanna would wind up together again?
Beleaguered by such disturbing thoughts, he sighed and went back out onto the bridge.
CHAPTER
Picard paused by the aft science station to give Data his orders. The android’s face was caugllt in the glare of his monitors.
“I want continuous subspace sweeps,” he said. “We might detect a temporal disturbance.”
“Aye, sir,” replied Data. Without hesitation, he got to work manipulating his instruments.
Seeing that Riker was headed