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

Chapter Eleven

I didn't know what to do with myself after breakfast. The mess hall slowly filled and then emptied as breakfast winded down. Otten had told me that there were around three hundred people and it looked like about that many passed through. I knew Keerthana worked around here somewhere but I didn't catch a glimpse of her throughout breakfast. Finally, when the last stragglers were returning their meals to the windows, I decided that it was time to go. Where, exactly, I wasn't sure. On exiting the dining hall, I turned left on a whim.

I passed one of the common rooms on the way down the corridor. The small sign over the door identified it as Common Room 3, the one I'd been in the day before with Brick and Otten. Just past it was number 2 and, after I rounded another corner, I found the men's and women's quarters. I slowly made my way around the square of the complex, passing the training facilities, town hall, and the rec center. I stopped for a full minute in front of the room marked "Pool," wondering why this place was just as nice as the town I'd grown up in. A part of me almost understood Cort's terrifying declaration over breakfast. These people were locked up, but at least they were in a decent place and, most importantly, with other shapeshifters. Even the guards seemed relatively accepting, once you got past the fact that they carried blasters. It was...comfortable.

The next door I came to was the park and I realized I'd come full circle when I saw the mess hall just across the hall. I was starting to get a map of the place in my head. Not knowing what else to do, I entered the park and started walking across the springy grass. The park wasn't large, but it was laid out to make it seem like it was. I crossed through a stand of trees and found a Jort field stretching out in front of me, hoops rising from both ends. A few men were throwing a ball around and I stopped for a minute to watch them, trying to remember how long it had been since I'd seen a good game of Jort. My father had used to take me to them but that had been two decades ago.

My thoughts would have taken an uncomfortable trip through my memories if at that moment the Jort ball hadn't come sailing towards me. I snagged it out of the air about a second before it hit my chest and stepped forward to meet the man jogging towards me. As he approached I realized it was Brick.

"Shit, I'm sorry about that!" he panted as he came to a stop. "We just got Vince into playing and I swear, he can run but he can't throw for anything."

I handed him the ball. "It's fine, I should have known better than to stand so close. I used to get hit with fouls all the time when I went to the Krasper games."

"You've been to pro games?" he asked, sounded stunned.

"Ages ago. I went to games in Beldon when my dad took trips for work."

"I only ever saw the league games," Brick told him with a hint of envy in his voice.

"The stadiums were really something," I said, thinking back again. "But I don't want to hold up your game." I gestured at the five men waiting for him on the midpoint of the field.

"They're fine, it's not even a formal practice." He turned around and hurled the ball to the closest figure. "I'll be a minute!" he shouted before turning back to me. "So how was your first day here?"

"It was...weird. Everyone's been ridiculously nice, though."

Brick laughed. "We try. It's because we were all in the same boat at first. It gets better."

"So I've heard," I muttered, thinking about Cort. I now remembered him getting upset yesterday when I had asked why they just accepted it here. His annoyance made more sense now, because it wasn't just because he was making the most of it. He actually preferred it here.

"It's true. Oh, what happened with the guards last night?"

"They took me to my quarters. I apparently have early curfew." I chewed my lip for a second. "Is Grey around here a lot?"