The Sky's the Limit - Marco Palmieri [165]
Beverly told Riker how she had used his distraction to sneak up on the Tellarite and inject him with a neuroparalyzer from her hypospray. She got them all onto the shuttle and flew it back into open space. Once she was clear of the planet’s interference, she contacted the Enterprise and had them beamed directly into sickbay.
The Lifesaver was almost out of power so had gone into an energy-saver mode. It kept Riker preserved but not animated. Data and Geordi figured out how to keep it powered and even stabilized the cargo gun’s transporter buffer while Crusher and her medical staff attacked the Fabrini database. After two days’ research, they managed to reimplant his heart and missing tissue, and stabilize him.
“Two days?” Riker thought aloud. “And the Tellarite?”
“We had to give Worf something to do.” Beverly smiled. “You know, you’re quite the hero. Our scavenger’s name is Sakal and he’s wanted all over the quadrant. Starfleet already has extradition petitions from seven different systems. But until the JAG corps sorts it all out, he’s in our brig.” Then Beverly’s smile broadened until her face could barely contain it. “Recovering.”
“So I’m going to be okay?”
“Given a little time, a little Regen, and a lot of rest, yes. I’ve put Deanna in charge of supervising your recovery.” Deanna looked at Crusher for a moment. “I think I’ll leave you two alone now.”
Once Crusher had left sickbay, Deanna turned to Riker. “Don’t you ever do that to me again.”
“I’ll try my best.”
Deanna composed herself. She let go of his hand, straightened, and stood almost formally at his side. Her smile disappeared and Riker felt a wave of confusion and anger from the connection they shared. Deanna pulled a tricorder off her belt. Riker’s tricorder. “Now, would you tell me what this is?” She flipped open the device to display the recording Riker had made, a solid minute of Riker, smiling and silent. “This was your last message to me?”
“Pretty much.”
Deanna furrowed her brow.
“Deanna… imzadi….I tried over and over to record you a message. Something weighty…important. Hell, something worthy of you. It was going to be the last thing I’d ever say to you and I wanted it to be memorable, but memorable in the right way.” With an effort, Riker reached out and placed his hand atop Dean-na’s, closing the tricorder’s display.
“I couldn’t do it. I tried and tried. But nothing sounded right. Then I realized why. Those last messages, they’re for people who’ve held back.” Riker’s throat was getting drier, the pain more severe, but he continued. “I spent years denying how I felt. When we finally got back together, I stopped holding back. There hasn’t been a day since then when I haven’t given you, told you, and shown you exactly how much I love you.”
Riker held Deanna’s gaze. “You know I love you, right?”
“Yes.”
“And you know that I won’t let any force in the universe get between us again? Not without one hell of a fight.”
“Yes.”
“Then what was there left to say?”
Deanna leaned in and kissed him tenderly. She hugged him as much as she could without disturbing his recovering chest and whispered, “Well, you’d better think of something. You still have to write your vows.”
On the Spot
David A. McIntee
Historian’s note:
This tale is set during the epilogue of the feature film Star Trek Nemesis, during the weeks the Enterprise was under repair in orbit of Earth.
DAVID MCINTEE
David A. McIntee has written a dozen novels based on the British TV series Doctor Who, as well as ones based on Space: 1999 and Final Destination. He has also written various audio scripts, several nonfiction books on subjects such as the Aliens and Predator franchises, and Quatermass. He has also written for the Star Trek Communicator, SFX, Dreamwatch, and the UK’s official Star Trek Magazine. His most recent tie-in work has been writing Jason and the Argonauts: The Kingdom of Hades, the official sequel to Ray Harryhausen’s movie, for Blue Water comics.
When not writing books, he studies martial arts, explores historical sites, builds models, researches Fortean