NEW: The Distance Between (TNG, P/C) 9/15
wishfu...@my-deja.com
Author: Cindy Wright, wishfu...@my-deja.com
Part: 9/15
Captain's Log, Day 40
The construction of the officers' quarters is nearly completed and the
ground breaking for the new crew quarters was begun today. Although the
crew celebrated enthusiastically at the ceremony, I believe there is an
undercurrent of resentment that Commander Riker has failed to take into
consideration.
The senior officers will be moving into their quarters within two
weeks; the rest of the crew, however, will have to wait several more
months for their accommodations to be completed. I pointed out the
potential for morale problems at the start of construction, but Riker
was more concerned about the readiness of the construction crew. He
felt that by beginning with a smaller structure, he could test the
skills of his men and refine their building methods. I understood his
reasoning but I'm not sure the rest of the crew does, particularly now
that we're about to move into our new quarters while they are forced to
remain at the overcrowded dormitory. My course of action would have
been markedly different, but I have ceded full authority over the
construction to Commander Riker and will follow his wishes.
Our newly built brig stands unused. There have been no more incursions
since it was completed several weeks ago. In fairness, I informed
Garreth of our intent to imprison anyone caught inside our perimeter.
He assured me that he would notify his men and support my decision. I
assume he has kept his word because we have not had an incident since.
Commander Riker is very pleased with his decision to implement a
detention system. I admit I am somewhat surprised at the dramatic
effect it has had on the Dak'ai youths. Those I have met did not
impress me as the type who would shy away from mischief at the threat
of a short imprisonment. Since we have been unable to determine
exactly why the attacks on our borders have been occurring, it is
difficult to draw conclusions about why they have now stopped. On
several occasions, I have attempted to discover whether Garreth is in
some way behind the attacks, but he professes no knowledge of the boys'
motives. In fact, he encouraged me to exercise my authority and punish
the offenders.
The ship building effort has slowed to an unacceptable level. Data
continues to construct and test engine prototypes, searching for the
most feasible design with the materials we have been able to obtain. We
are still lacking several key components that I fear we will not be
able to obtain unless a ship crashes in the near future. It is ironic
that our good fortune should be yoked to the misfortune of some as yet
unidentified ship. While I cannot bring myself to wish for it, I
cannot say it would be unwelcome.
On a personal note, I have discovered a burial site in the hills not
far from our settlement. I have had time to make only a few brief
excursions but hope to dedicate more time to the exploration of my
find. The day to day operations of the settlement have fallen into a
familiar pattern and the task of command is less demanding here than on
the ship. With Commander Riker shouldering the bulk of the
responsibilities, I am able to dedicate time to personal interests in a
way that has eluded me for many years.
<><><><><><><>
Beverly parked the transport haphazardly at the foot of the rolling
hills and activated its sensors. She sorted through the readouts and
quickly found the information she needed. Estimating her destination
would take less than an hour to reach on foot, she grabbed both gear
bags from the storage compartment and set off over the ridge in search
of her quarry.
The hills to the west of the settlement were very different from the
rest of the planet. The gently rolling terrain was kept cool by tall
coniferous-like trees, a pleasant contrast to the sun baked dryness of
the pock-marked plains that pervaded the landscape. She inhaled deeply,
enjoying the cool, spicy scent given off by the trees' long needles.
Higher and higher the hills rose, forcing her to pause occasionally to
catch her breath. The air was not only cooler, it was also a bit
thinner, making the hike more taxing than anticipated.
Nearly ninety minutes passed before she approached the coordinates
stored in her tricorder. Stopping to collect herself, she reached into
the smaller of the two gear bags and pulled out a short-sleeved shirt.
She slipped it on over her tank top and buttoned a few of the buttons.
Satisfied with her appearance, she traversed the last few hundred
meters and emerged from the trees into a clearing.
She spotted him right away. It would have been hard not to. The
clearing was small and bare, dotted sparsely with the same low-lying
vegetation that dominated most of the planet's surface. She had
collected specimens of the ubiquitous plant for study, but it had
proven to be nothing more than the Rellan equivalent of a weed: quick
to reproduce, able to grow under almost any conditions and utterly
useless.
The lack of trees at the summit made the temperature a bit warmer than
it had been on the ascent. She watched as he worked near the center of
the plateau, unaware of her presence. His was hunched over a pit in the
ground and she could see streaks of dark, dust-tinged sweat running
down his bare back.
She took a few steps into the clearing before her foot crunched loudly
on a cluster of pebbles. Roused from his work, Picard stood and shaded
his eyes against the sun as he searched out the source of the sound. A
look of surprise crossed his face as recognition set in.
He set down his shovel and wiped his hands on his dusty khaki pants
while he waited for her to reach him. "This is a surprise."
She dropped her bags near his feet and smiled at his greeting. They
stood awkwardly for a moment, searching each others' eyes for a hint of
how to proceed. Since 'getting caught', they had spent their days
carefully avoiding being alone. They spoke, of course, daily. But only
about mundane things like the weather or the progress of their various
projects. They shared a meal now and again in the cafeteria, but never
without the company of others.
Beverly had tried once or twice to create an instance of privacy, but
in the few minutes they had managed to steal, Jean Luc had remained
distant and moody. She concluded that extreme measures had become
necessary.
Realizing she would have to make the first move, she had taken a huge
risk. Now that she was standing in front of him, watching him watch her
uncertainly, she wondered if she had been overconfident. Throwing
caution to the wind, she kissed him quickly on the lips.
If he had responded in any way to the kiss, she might have been tempted
to run her hands over his bare chest, to hook a finger into his
waistband and pull him closer, to tease him about how filthy he was.
But since he did not, she stepped back and tucked her hands into the
pockets of her walking shorts.
Needing to break the silence, she casually tossed out, "I was in the
area looking for specimens and picked up human life signs on my
tricorder."
His eyebrows shot up in amusement. "Plausible, but I wouldn't give it a
very high score for originality."
"All right, I followed your transport's radiation emissions and then
hiked almost two hours up this godforsaken mountain because I knew I
would have your undivided attention." She emphasized her confession
with a poke at his chest. "Happy?"
"Have I ever told you you're beautiful when you're flustered?"
"Flustered?"
Ignoring her question, he knelt down once again beside the shallow pit
and resumed chipping away at the hard-packed earth.
Not put off by his need to continue working, Beverly surveyed the area
and wondered how Jean Luc had come to choose this peak from the many
that formed the long ridge of hills. It seemed a neutral enough topic
of conversation. "What made you pick this place to dig?"
He didn't look up, intent on scratching away the dirt from some object
she couldn't clearly discern. "Tricorder readings showed bone
fragments."
How did he get tricorder readings from several kilometers away? She
thought for a moment and found the misunderstanding. "I mean how did
you choose this *mountain* over the others?"
"Oh." He paused a moment to wipe the sweat from his brow. "Garreth told
me about it. We were discussing the original settlement of the planet
and I remarked on the relatively short history of civilization here."
She interrupted his explanation when a stray thought crossed her
mind. "You like him, don't you."
"Garreth?"
She nodded and he continued, "*Like* might be a bit strong. But I
respect him and I respect the fact that he's a valuable ally."
"And?"
"He told me a legend about a nomadic tribe that supposedly occupied
Rellar Minor around the time that the first Dak'ai settlers arrived."
"They lived up here?"
"Legend has it that they lived in the forests but no concrete evidence
of their existence has been documented. It is believed that they buried
their dead on the peaks of these mountains. I just chose one at
random." He laughed and continued, "Either I'm very lucky or there are
burial sites on every peak."
"Congratulations," she said, genuinely happy that he'd found something
to take his mind off their recent turmoil. "So you've made a major
archaeological discovery here?"
"I wouldn't say that. I have a feeling no one else has ever bothered to
look, so the sites have never been explored. The Dak'ai don't seem very
historically inclined."
Beverly watched him work for a moment more and then walked to a spot a
few meters away where Jean Luc had collected the artifacts he had
exhumed. She squatted and picked up each one in turn, carefully
examining the colorful, detailed markings that covered the surfaces.
Most of the stone and metal relics were easily identifiable: various
eating and drinking implements, a decorative plaque, a few small
fragments of cloth. One object, however, caught her attention. After
giving each of the others a thorough study, she returned to it, turning
it over in her hands.
"I believe you've got it upside down."
She twisted around to see Jean Luc watching her. Looking back to the
cylindrical object in her hands, she turned it upside down and smiled.
This would prove to be an interesting conversation piece. She took it
with her as she walked back to the dig site and sat cross-legged by the
side of the pit.
Jean Luc had returned to his work once again and she looked carefully
at what he was uncovering for the first time.
"Is that a skull?'
Without looking up, he answered, "It would appear to be."
"Humanoid?"
"I can't tell yet. Judging from the ritualistic burial, it's obviously
a species with higher order thinking capabilities so humanoid is a
possibility."
"A member of the tribe you spoke of?"
"I'm not certain, but these artifacts predate the arrival of the Dak'ai
on Rellar Minor by over a century."
She considered his words while studying the bone fragments he was
carefully dusting off. "I wonder how they got here."
He reached for a laser scalpel and then laid flat out on his belly to
work more closely on the skeleton. "Perhaps the same way we did. The
gravitational pull of the planet has existed for many centuries."
Switching on the scalpel, he used it to cut away a rock fragment that
was jutting between the jaw bones. "I hope our destiny is a bit
brighter than theirs, however. If the legends are true, then they must
have become extinct in the past century. No one has seen them for
generations."
His comment brought home a certain reality and she mulled it over for a
moment before asking, "Isn't it possible that this was a survivor of a
small scale crash rather than a member of a larger, established society
that disappeared?"
He set down the scalpel and blew some dust away from the surface before
picking up a small metal chisel. "Very unlikely. The artifacts buried
here, the care with which the body was laid out, the elevated place of
burial, all suggest a very important person in society. I would
venture that she was a ruler of some sort."
Beverly looked at the dirt mound that likely concealed the rest of the
bones. "She? How do you know the sex of the skeleton by examining the
skull?"
He looked up at her from his prone position and nodded to the artifact
she still held in her hands. "Thus far, that would seem to be the best
clue as to the gender of the deceased."
Holding it up to study once again, she said, "You mean it's really a--"
"Wasn't that you're first interpretation?"
"Well, it is very phallic." She ran a finger tentatively across the
surface. "But stone? The surface seems rather rough."
The grin spreading across Jean Luc's face gave him away. Unable to hold
his laughter in any longer, he set down his chisel and sat up, laughing
happily at Beverly's mistaken assumption. "I didn't mean literally. I
believe it's a fertility totem. Many ancient cultures buried symbolic
pieces of art with their dead as a way of bringing good fortune in the
afterlife."
A blush spread across her cheeks and she set the artifact aside,
suddenly not wanting to seem too interested in it. Sensing her
embarrassment at his teasing, Jean Luc stood and brushed the dust from
his chest and pants.
"Come, I've got to clean up and then we'll have some lunch."
She followed him to the edge of the woods opposite the direction she'd
come from and then down a short, roughly hewn path to a small brook. He
knelt beside the water and washed his hands and face vigorously,
scrubbing away the sweat and dust from his morning's work.
Finished, he excused himself and set off deeper into the woods,
presumably to relieve himself. Beverly watched him disappear and then
bent to wash up for lunch. The water was cold and she found it hard to
plunge her hands into it with the same joy that Jean Luc had. She
tentatively wet them and then quickly dried them on her shorts.
Jean Luc soon reappeared and nodded to the dense trees behind
him. "I'll wait here if you need to--"
"That's all right. I'm fine for now." She hadn't considered the lack of
bathroom facilities when she'd made the trek up the mountain. Taking
her adventures on the holodeck had spoiled her in more ways than
one. "You said something about lunch?"
Placing a hand lightly between her shoulder blades, he guided her back
out of the woods to the edge of the clearing and picked up an
overstuffed pack. Rather than taking a seat in the shade as she
expected him to, he led her along the tree line before turning off to
the left and climbing a small outcropping. Once at the top, he signaled
for her to follow.
Fortunately, it was only a few meters to climb and she made quick work
of it. The short trip was worth the effort. In fact, it was worth the
morning's two hour hike. She surveyed the view and let out a long,
satisfied sigh.
The planet stretched out before her, golden and bathed in sunshine. The
harshness of life on the ground was muted by the surrealistic view from
above. She could see the Dak'ai settlement far off in the distance,
their own settlement closer in and a half dozen other small cities
scattered to either side.
Her reverie was broken by Jean Luc's too-cheerful inquiry. "Makes you
happy you were stalking me, doesn't it?"
She turned to where he sat behind her, unpacking their lunch. "I was
not stalking you."
"Hunting?"
"Hardly."
"Pursuing?"
"Following is the best you're going to get." Annoyed by his insistence
on pointing out her uninvited presence, she sat down sulkily beside him
on the flat, stone shelf. "Are you going to feed me or not?"
"Perhaps not," he said, handing her a sandwich.
It was an offhand attempt to get in the last word and she knew it, so
she let it drop.
They ate in silence for a few moments before Beverly observed, "You've
been coming here often." He looks too comfortable here, she thought,
watching him enjoy his lunch.
"A few times." He took a bite of his sandwich and considered where she
was going with the conversation. "A chance to explore undisturbed ruins
is just too tempting to pass up. Now that Commander Riker has taken
responsibility for the day to day construction of the quarters, I have
some long overdue free time to indulge my curiosity."
She leapt at the opportunity he presented her. "The quarters are coming
along nicely aren't they?"
"Yes, he expects we'll be able to move in soon. In a couple of weeks, I
believe."
"I was surprised that you approved the construction of the officer's
quarters before the crew quarters."
He took a long sip of his water before answering. "That was Riker's
decision. It wouldn't have been my choice either," he said, alluding to
the mild disapproval in her voice. "The morale of the crew would have
been better served by starting with the dormitory."
Picard shrugged and took another bite of his sandwich. "He has to learn
the nuances of command for himself and this is a good opportunity."
Beverly wondered if perhaps he was hoping Will would fail. "But he
needs the benefit of your experience to learn."
"I gave my opinion when he asked." He handed her the thermos and
watched her throw her head back to take a long swallow. "He chose not
to follow it and I'm not going to question that choice. If Will feels
he is most qualified to lead this settlement, I'm not going to get in
his way, Beverly. "
The resignation in his voice struck Beverly especially hard. She could
only guess at the pain that had given birth to it and sought to gently
draw it out. "That sounds awfully bitter."
He looked into her eyes, pleading with her to leave it alone. When he
saw her determination holding fast, he said resolutely, "It does, but
it's the truth, and I won't run from it." He looked away, letting his
eyes roam over the scenes in the distance. "I'm not blind to it. I see
the way he works with the crew, the way he's so well suited for this
situation."
"And you're not?"
"Honestly, I don't think so. People look at me and see a glaring
reminder of what put them here in the first place. And frankly,
Beverly, I'm tired of it: tired of the pressures, tired of the
responsibilities, tired of the day to day struggle. I think it's time
that I stepped back and let someone else take charge for a bit. If it's
for the greater good of the settlement, I can accept that."
"Accept it or resign yourself to it?"
He stood, uncomfortable with her probing. "I'm not sure there's a
difference."
Standing as well, she moved to face him, blocking his view of the
plains below. "There is, and you know it. Jean Luc, you can't give up
on us. We need you, your presence, your strength. It's essential if
we're going to make it."
He dropped his head, avoiding her gaze. "Then you've changed your mind?"
"About?"
"Supporting Riker?"
If he had phrased it differently, she might have seen that he was
offering to expose his deepest fears. But she was distracted by the
implications of the question and missed his real meaning.
"That's unfair." She sighed and folded her arms over her chest. "It's
not a contest. I don't have to choose between the two of you. I make my
decisions about the welfare of the crew based on the facts."
"You're right, of course." The words spoke of concession but the tone
of his voice still held the same flat resignation of his earlier
statements. He looked up at the sun making its way across the sky. "I
should get back to work, I still have quite a bit to finish before the
sun sets."
He turned back toward their picnic spot.
"Jean Luc, wait."
He stopped and looked at her expectantly.
"Does it bother you that people know?"
If she had been anyone else, he might have forced her to elaborate, but
she would have seen it for the ploy that it was. Instead, he confronted
the issue head on. "It was bound to happen. I don't think it surprised
many people, really."
"Really?" she asked, raising her eyebrows in surprise.
"Our relationship, I mean." He put his hands in his pockets,
suppressing the impulse to capture the few stray hairs that had fallen
onto her face in the breeze. "The fact that we were acting like a
couple of teenagers in the storage room - now *that* probably surprised
more than a few people."
It felt good to see her laugh. It made him realize how much he had
missed being alone with her. After it became obvious that Ensign Cortez
could not keep a secret, Jean Luc had been careful not to be seen alone
with Beverly. He was not anxious to fuel the rumors that flew through
the small population and did not want to continue to subject Beverly to
the curious stares that met them wherever they went together. As a
result, their time together outside of official business had become
necessarily limited.
Speaking aloud about the subject that had lain just below the surface
for so long made him feel as if a barrier had fallen away. "Do you
mind?"
"Not that people know." She pulled his hands from his pockets and took
them in hers. "But I do mind, very much, that it has affected us so
deeply."
He wanted so badly to touch her, to kiss her, to take her in his arms.
But he knew where it would lead and that would make it too difficult
for him to keep his distance once they returned to the camp. She solved
his dilemma for him, placing a light kiss on his cheek and then turning
away to look out over the landscape once again.
There might have been tears in her eyes, but he couldn't be certain.
Staring at her back for a moment, he sighed and turned back to the
remnants of their picnic lunch.
He packed the trash into his bag and, with a gentle squeeze of her
shoulder, motioned for Beverly to follow him back to the dig site.
Once there, he resumed his work in thoughtful silence and was
pleasantly surprised when she offered to help. Their partnership was
tense at first, but as they worked together painstakingly to uncover
the bones, the strain of their conversation over lunch faded into the
background.
Hours passed before they stopped to rest. When Beverly finally stood to
stretch, she pulled off her shirt to reveal the tank top beneath. Jean
Luc admired the curves that the form-fitting shirt revealed and
wondered what it would be like to make love to her under the setting
sun.
There would be no fear of getting caught this time, just the two of
them hidden away in his beloved oasis on top of the hill. He was on the
verge of going to her when she spoke. "The sun will be gone in a couple
hours. We should be getting back."
He nodded and rose, pushing away his foolish fantasy. "We should."
After the way he had behaved, what had led him to think she would be
receptive to his advances? He had treated her badly, neglected their
relationship, accused her of being unprofessional and disloyal,
questioned her judgment, concealed his fears and insecurities. In
short, he had behaved like an ass, and had no right to ask her to
comfort him now.
They covered the dig site and secured the waterproof sheets with
stones. Gathering their bags, Picard handed one to Beverly and then
pulled on his shirt before he shouldered the others. He gave the
clearing one last glance over his shoulder and felt a small hope rise
within him. He had lost his ship and his command, but he still,
miraculously, had a chance at saving the one thing that mattered most
to him.
It was on that single hope, he vowed silently, that he would rebuild
his faith. He smiled at Beverly and took her hand in his as they
started the long walk down the mountain.
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