Multifandom Oneshots! (READ DESC)

No-Win Scenario

This fanfic takes place in Star Trek:Picard S3 Ep4. I do not own the plot, I only own Y/N and their story.

You were on your way to see the acting captain of the USS Titan, William Riker. Your dad. Or, adoptive dad, at least. It's complicated. If there are anyone in this universe who would know how to save us from being completely sucked into a gravity well, then it'll be him. Well, maybe not necessarily him. You still have a lot to figure out. And, well, it was worth a shot. Your father, was possibly one of the only people who knew how to get out of this problem.

There are a few things to take into consideration. First, you have to analyze what the hell just happened. Vadic had used a portal device to send the Titan into a gravity well, but before using that device, she had damaged the ship and left us with barely any power. So, that's fun. How'd she even get her hands on a portal weapon? That's something you'll have to figure out when and if you make it out alive.

You heard the elevator ding, signaling you arrived at the bridge. William saw you. "Y/N, you really should not be up here. It's dangerous." The acting captain said. "You've prepared me constantly for situations like this. I can help." You said.  Riker sighed. Then he motioned you to come up at stand next to him. You smiled slightly. Riker then said, "I don't know if you are aware, but you are not in command of this ship." "I'm aware." You said.

You looked out the huge window to see the situation. There wasn't much to see. You then asked Ensign La Forge to check life support. "Life support is sable, but it's taking really all we have to keep it fully running." She replied. You were stumped. Maybe you hadn't been trained for every situation. You were stumped.

You went down to the holodeck, which seemed to be where a lot of people were going. To get fresh air. Sort of. You saw Jack and Jean-Luc talking, you didn't want to interrupt them. They were having father son bonding time. Jack saw you and motioned you to come over. You greeted them both with a smile, they did the same back. The three of you went on to talk, and laugh while reminiscing of stories you could remember. Then the captain of the ship, Liam Shaw, came in and sat down in a stool a little near to us. He looked in a bitter mood. Surprise, surprise.

"Did your old man ever tell you about the time that he and I first met? USS Constance.  Stardate 44002.3," Shaw said. Jack looked at Picard confused, as did you. Picard looked like he was processing or calculating something. "Oh, come on," Shaw continued "You must've heard about the Battle of Wolf 359." Picard then looked grim. Guilty. "40 Federation starships up against one Borg cube," Shaw went on. "Yeah, I was just in engineering. Just a... a grease monkey. And the next second...
It's like... it's like space itself was burning. 50 of us made it down to the life deck. But, uh-oh... there's just one life pod. Ten seats. Now, the thing is, we were all friends, they were all my Jack Crusher." Jack Crusher. Not meaning the Jack Crusher you were looking at right now, but his mother's ex-husband. Picard's best friend. Shaw continued.

"We weren't... we didn't fight over who should live and who should die. No, we- we waited for orders. And then, finally, some lieutenant comes down, and she just starts... pointing. You, you, and you. Now she's pointing at me. Why-why me? I'm just some dipsh!t from Chicago. Now I'm... lucky number ten. She didn't count herself. 'Get in,' she says, 'that's an order.' I know, I know, I know. I ask myself the same thing. Did she make a mistake?

"I'm sorry." Jack said. You could tell he was trying to ease up the tension in the room.

"11,000 dead. Do you know where your old man was on that day?" Shaw asked Jack, voice growing louder, irritated. Traumatized. That was the feeling it seemed both Shaw and Picard were feeling.

"He was on that Borg cube, setting the world on fire! Forget about all that weird sh!t on the Stargazer. The real Borg are still out there. And they have a name for you," he said looking at Picard with hatred fueled in his eyes. "Locutus of Borg. The only Borg so deadly they gave him a goddamn name!" He was now shouting. Pointing at Picard. The deadliest Borg to ever live was on his ship.

"That's enough!" You and Jack said. "No, no," Picard interrupted "It's alright. I understand." He said to mostly Shaw. Picard got up and exited the holodeck, Jack and I followed. "Admiral." "Jean-Luc-" Jack and I said, catching up to him. Jack started the conversation "Look, what happened back there-" "You don't need to explain yourself to us." I finished. Picard just looked at us. "Thank you for your time, both of you. It meant a lot." He then started walking away.

Beverly ran up to us. "There's a pattern." She said. "It's building and building, and it's going to crescendo."
"What are you talking about?" Jack asked. "This." She answered. "This gravity well we're in. It's drawing in matter and expelling energy, which means somewhere in its center, it is reconstituting the matter it consumes into energy. But energy is mathematical, logarithmic, but the increasing intensity and narrowing frequency of the waves implies something else. It's a countdown. Which led me to track them, just like contractions."

"Contractions? Like a birth?" Picard questioned. "Of what?" I asked.
"I don't know." She responded. "But if it's anything like these smaller waves, once it hits, for us, it will be over quickly. We need to be out of here as soon as possible.

~Time skip into the Ready Room where Beverly is briefing Riker on her idea~

"But we have no power." Riker said. "We do when those waves hit." She said. "You've seen the lights? If we knew when those waves were coming, maybe we could plug into them. Get a little extra juice, and then? We could hitch a ride out of here."

Final word count: 1,145.
I hope you enjoyed this story! I will make a second and maybe third part depending on how much more of the episode I have to write lol
If you haven't seen Picard or Strange New Worlds, and you have Amazon Prime and/or Paramount Plus, I HIGHLY recommend watching it. With Picard, just start on S3. Well, have a great day/night everyone! 🤗💙❤️🖖