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

Chapter Twelve

The hall erupted into noise around me. Apparently, everyone had an opinion or a complaint. A man who I assumed had to be the mayor climbed up on the stage and tried to restore order, but no one seemed to be listening. A few people were already leaving and before the doors closed behind them, I could see guards stationed outside in the hallway.

I was sitting in stunned silence. When I had envisioned any repercussions of an escape attempt, I hadn't imagined this. Brick hadn't even done anything beyond asking me to tell him when I would be trying to get out, and he certainly hadn't done anything worth getting killed for. Otten was still sitting beside me, his jaw clamped shut and eyes staring up at the mayor.

"We have to do something," I told him. He turned toward me, his eyes hard.

"Like what?" He demanded. "What do you want me to do?"

"We can't let them kill Brick, we need to get him out of there."

Otten stood and for a second I thought he was going to just walk away, but he grabbed up my upper arm and tugged me toward the exit. I followed, not sure what he wanted but needing his help in anything I would do next. The crowd was starting to quiet down as the mayor was getting control. I followed Otten out the doors and into the hallway, trying to ignore the guards posted on either side. I trained behind Otten as he strode away, passing several doors before coming to rest in front of one. He stepped to the side and gestured for me to lead the way.

When I entered, I recognized the common room where I had played pool with Brick the night before. It was empty. I turned to face Otten and found him glaring at me.

"This is your fault," he began. I stared at him as he let the accusation hung in the air. "Brick wanted to get out, like most of us, but he would have never done anything on his own. He was an idealist, not a hero. What did you say to him?"

I bit my lip as Otten voiced the very things I had been thinking. "I talked to him in the park," I said finally. "We just talked. He said that he wanted to leave and to let him know when I was going to try something." When Otten just continued to look at me, I continued. "We didn't plan anything, we didn't even say we were going to meet up again. We just talked about it."

Otten sat down heavily in one of the lounge chairs, his face pained. "Well what did you think would happen?"

"I don't know!" I snapped at him, angry at myself more than anyone else. "I didn't think they'd kill him just for talking to me! People have to talk about escaping all the time, why would they pick him out?"

"Because of you! Look, you don't want to tell me who you are or why you're here, fine. But there's something going on with you. You had guards pull you out of the Common Room last night, you've been asking questions about getting the restraint off, and Grey brought you down here himself. Whatever they do to Brick, it's because of you, not some half-assed escape attempt."

I knew he was right, but that just made it more painful. "Then why don't they just take me instead? Why did Dominic blame it all on Brick?"

"Maybe it's a lesson. I don't know. Maybe this Dominic can't touch you so he's trying to break you. Your guess is better than mine."

It made sense, though, in a twisted sort of way. They hadn't just executed me on the spot for killing that man years ago, so they wanted me alive. Sebastian seemed convinced that I knew something about the Enterprise, plus he seemed to harbor some lingering affection for me. If he couldn't punish me directly, the only thing he could do was to hurt my friends. And as much as I hated Dominic, I couldn't pretend that Sebastian didn't have some hand in this. He'd bragged that this was all his creation, after all.