REP: Oasis 2/8 [PG-13] (TNG, Q)
Laura Taylor
I am never away from you. Even now,
I shall not leave you. In another world,
I shall be still that one who loves you, loves you
Beyond measure
Edmund Rostand
"Cyrano de Bergerac"
Dr. Fatima al-Ghazali was having a difficult time adjusting to life on
the Enterprise. She was no stranger to Federation starships, having
previously served for five years on the Bozeman, and had in fact spent
several years traveling about the galaxy in Klingon Birds of Prey,
Vulcan cruisers, Ferengi traders, and even Cardassian prison ships, but
the Enterprise held certain painful memories for the young widow,
memories that she never quite been able to exorcise. At night, as she
closed her eyes and let the steady thrum of the warp engines lull her to
sleep, she imagined the agonized cries of her husband as he sacrificed
his life to save his crewmates....
It had been nearly ten years ago when an omnipotent energy being hurled
the Enterprise across thousands of light-years into the Delta Quadrant
in a fit of pique. The ship's crew, consummate explorers, went about
their business as if nothing unusual had happened and sent an away team
to an uncharted planet, where they stumbled across a race of beings
mercilessly bent on destroying and assimilating every civilization they
encountered. The Enterprise crew was unprepared for the single-minded
malevolent purpose of the Borg Collective, and consequently eighteen
lives were lost when the Borg ship attacked.
That much was generally known throughout Federation space. What was not
widely known was that, were it not for the efforts of Lieutenant Ali ibn
Akbar al-Ghazali, the entire crew would have perished in a cataclysmic
warp core explosion.
When the Borg cube fired upon the Enterprise, the plasma in one of the
warp conduits heated just to the point of ignition. Had the plasma
actually ignited, safety measures would have contained the explosion to
a single sector until it burned itself out, thus minimizing the risk to
the Enterprise. Instead the plasma burned slowly, like a dying ember, as
the heat worked its way towards the warp core.
The ship's engineers worked feverishly to locate the problem, knowing
only that sensors detected unusual levels of heat emanating from the
plasma conduit, but unable to determine the exact cause or location of
the malfunction. They were reduced to frantically tearing panels away,
trying to isolate the problem, when al-Ghazali found the source of the
heat as it sputtered towards a critical junction. The fire had to be
extinguished before it reached the junction, or else it would spread
throughout the entire conduit network, but smoldering plasma cannot be
extinguished by conventional methods. Al-Ghazali realized the only way
to extinguish the fire would be to block its access to fuel, and thus,
without hesitation, he stepped into the conduit, absorbing the fire into
his body and thereby extinguishing it. His agonized howls echoed
throughout the ship, and on the other side of the galaxy, his young wife
screamed uncontrollably as her subconscious mind told her that her
beloved Ali had been wrenched from her soul.
Once Q sent the battered Enterprise back to Federation space, Fatima had
insisted that Ali's body be returned to Earth, where he could be laid to
rest in the crypt of his Persian ancestors in ancient Susa. To Fatima's
surprise, the Enterprise's senior officers and engineering staff joined
her, even going so far as to wear the traditional robes of mourning.
There Captain Picard, looking very much like a priest of Ahura Mazda as
he respectfully ignited the ritual fire sacrifice to the spirit world,
bestowed upon the widow of Lieutenant Ali ibn Akbar al-Ghazali the Medal
of Courage, Starfleet's highest honor.
Fatima was offered extended leave from duty for her people's traditional
period of mourning, but when the year was up she realized that she no
longer wanted to serve in Starfleet and resigned her commission. She was
a skilled physician, and decided to put her arts to good use, and
simultaneously honor the memory of her husband, on the battlefield. She
spent most of the next several years on Bajor, tending to rebels wounded
in the war for independence from Cardassia. She also managed to find her
way into bloody skirmishes along the Klingon-Romulan border, seduced a
Ferengi pirate in order to steal badly needed medical supplies for the
Maquis, and somehow got captured and sentenced to a Cardassian prison
ship, where a terminally ill Gul warlord miraculously recovered under
her ministrations and, in gratitude, set her free.
During those years of wandering from planet to planet, Fatima earned
medals and accolades and respect from Bajor, Cardassia, Vulcan, Romulus
and the Klingon homeworld for her bravery and willingness to help the
injured even in the thick of battle, without regards to species or
political affiliation or territorial claim. Her only impetus was the
memory of her husband; as he had sacrificed his life for the survival of
others, so would she willingly place her life in danger to bring comfort
and assistance to the sick and injured. She had not needed to read the
official report on Ali's death, because it had been scorched onto her
psyche where his spirit was ripped away from hers. Every new dawn that
rose on the horizon, she drew breath from the agonizing loneliness of
his absence as her intimate link to his sacrifice sustained her, drove
her, motivated her. Though her collection of awards far outnumbered her
husband's sole medal, she never felt vindicated, and continued to push
herself beyond human limits.
Fatima had also become reacquainted with the ancient and mysterious
heritage of her people, the Bedouins of Arabia, while recuperating on
the desert world of Vulcan. Even in the twenty-fourth century, little
was known about the Bedouins, except that their nomadic way of life had
all but disappeared two centuries earlier with the advent of desert
farming. Yet the legends of the wanderers persisted, even in the very
permanent structures of New Cairo where she had grown up. Traveling
throughout the endless desert of space, Fatima felt her spirit communing
with her Bedouin ancestors, each planet an oasis where she replenished
her supplies but never her soul. She was at home in space, and grateful
that starships smelled much better than camels.
Two years ago, Fatima felt an irresistible urge to return to Starfleet.
It had taken her almost a full year to make her way to Earth, and then
another six months to convince Starfleet Command to reactivate her
commission. She had barely been on duty two months when the Borg ship
attempted to assimilate Earth by altering history, but was thwarted by
Captain Picard and the Enterprise crew. She had been very busy then,
tending to the thousands of wounded, when Picard walked into San
Francisco Hospital and offered her the position of assistant chief
medical officer aboard the Enterprise. His proposal came as a shock to
her, and she very nearly refused him on the spot. The same forces that
had driven her from one end of the galaxy to the other, however, also
compelled her to reject her doubts and accept the position.
Fatima had now been on the Enterprise for three months, and although she
was glad to be back in space, the memory of her husband's untimely death
continued to haunt her. She had forced herself to read the report on
Ali's death before boarding, but she scrupulously avoided Engineering,
and spoke to no one among the crew who had known him. Her healing skills
helped Fatima make her mark in Sickbay, but she was unknown to any who
had not had the good fortune to be cared for by her. Even Ali's spirit
seemed to have abandoned her.
TBC...
--
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"This city of monuments [Washington, D.C.] is itself a monument to
blunders, bungles and boondoggles. Part of what makes this country great
is it can survive Washington year after year."
Tom Shales