Shifting Sands (A Star Trek: The Next Generation Fan Fiction)

Chapter Ten

Captain Picard was standing outside the brig.

"Captain," I said, standing up.

"Commander Riker has informed me that you have a plan regarding the Romulans," he said.

"Yes, sir," I answered. I mentally thanked Will for telling his Captain about it. I knew that he didn't like the idea, and suggesting it must have been hard.

"He seemed to think that it wasn't worth considering, but I'm willing to listen to any options at this point."

"Thank you. Captain, I think this can work."

"Tell me about it."

I sighed. I had been thinking about the plan for the past fifteen minutes, but I still wasn't sure about some parts.

"Will said that we might be able to get the warp core online and get away if we had more time," I said. "If we could disable the Romulan ships' engine core, they'd be powerless like us, and we could escape to the Federation envoy."

"That is true, but Commander Riker should not have been discussing that information with you."

"I know."

"You think that you can get aboard the Romulan ship and disable these systems?"

"Yes, sir, I do. Getting aboard would be the hard part since they have their shields up, but once I'm over there I should easily be able to get to their essential systems with no one seeing me. It wouldn't be very difficult to disable them. I could try to shut down their quantum singularity."

Picard was silent for a minute. "I agree, your plan may work. But you've been hiding out on my ship for one week. Why should I trust you to do this now? How do I know that you're not, in fact, working for the Romulans?"

It hurt, but I knew it was justified. "Captain, I know that you have no reason to trust me or to believe me, but I give you my word that I will not do anything to jeopardize the Enterprise." I paused. Pledges of honor were all well and good, but that didn't mean he'd believe me. I had to make him think there was something in it for me. "You know a lot about Romulans, so you can understand that I'd rather be in the brig here than free on a Romulan Warbird. I won't betray you."

"Hmm," was all Picard said.

"Captain, I understand your need to be cautious, but we are running out of time."

Picard paused, looking at me. It felt like he was analyzing me.

"Your plan might work, but it needs more specifics," he said. "Come with me to the Observation Lounge. We can discuss it with my senior staff." He nodded to the security officer on duty and the forcefield disappeared.

I followed Picard out of the brig and into a Turbolift.

"Observation Lounge."

We stood in silence for a short time. I thought back over the last week, over all the strange things that had happened. From coming on board to getting to know Riker to saving that man's life. So much had changed.

"Captain, I want to thank you for allowing me to do this," I said.

"Nothing's decided yet," he said.

"I know," I answered. "I just wanted to say that it means a lot that you're even considering it." It did. To have deceived someone and then have them trust me was...unheard of.

The turbolift came to a halt and we crossed the small hallway between the Turbolift and the Observation Lounge. Then, we were inside.

Standing in the doorway, I took in the room. The Observation Lounge was long and curved, with floor to ceiling windows that looked out over the aft of the ship. In the center of the room was an equally long table, around which sat the senior officers. The seat at the head of the table was empty, as was the seat directly to its left.