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would have been sufficient to make him realize the depths of his feelings for her, but such had not been the case.
This time was no different than the other times, as the colors in the painting, in his mind, swirled and coalesced. And they seemed to form a face, smiling and loving, filling him with completion. As it happened, Riker felt connected not just to his past but to his future, as if he was standing at a crossroads in his life and seeing all the possibilities of his actions played out for him, here and now.
The face seemed to speak to him, and it was her face, it was her soul intertwined with his, and as if she were talking to him from every point in his existence, as if they had always been meant to be together and always would be, she said to Will Riker, Welcome home.. . Imzadi. ..
"Glad to be back," he murmured.
He closed his eyes, holding the image in his mind for a time longer, and then allowed it to dissipate. In doing so, he felt as if he was drawing it into every aspect of himself, fortifying his spirit for what was to come. It was not going to be easy, that much was certain. Will was going to have to talk to Deanna . . . talk to Worf. .. explain himself, make his case . . .
It was a daunting prospect.
He had already been on Betazed for a day or two. He had not come in through the normal spaceport, which was the required port of entry for standard commercial transports. His concern had been that, if he came through the main port of call and been ID'd as Will Riker, it might have set off bells in Jellico's office. But the transport pilot had been a friend of former Sergeant Tang's, and had been kind enough to bend the rules and drop him off a distance from the city. Unfortunately, to make sure that they were far enough away to avoid detection, he'd had to let Riker off quite a few miles from the city. But that had been okay, for Riker had found that he was anxious to give himself time to build up-of all things-his nerve. He knew he was going to have time; just before he had left,
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Deanna had dropped him a chatty vid in which she mentioned, among other things, that they had decided to extend their stay on Betazed. "Mother and Worf are getting to know each other," she had said perkily ... or at least, it seemed as if she was trying to look perky. Riker didn't know whether to take that as a good sign or a bad one.
For all he knew, once he came to her, she would smile at him pityingly as she explained to him that it was over. And Worf... would look at him with pure contempt. He would be forever diminished in the Klingon's eyes for his weakness and uncertainty in waiting as long as he had. But then Will squared his shoulders, reinforcing his confidence. Whatever was going to happen would just have to happen. He'd live with the consequences of his actions.
Worst came to worst, he could always leave Starfleet and join a traveling circus.
He'd arrived on Betazed only a short time before. His first impulse had been to go straight to the Troi home, but he fought it. Instead he needed time to steel himself for what was to come, and had done so by visiting the museum. It had, after all, been the last place that he had seen Deanna before he embarked on a career that would take him away from her, only to wind up reuniting them. It was only fitting somehow that he return to the museum to pay his respects.
"Will!"
The voice sounded familiar but he couldn't immediately place it as he turned to see the speaker. .. and then he recognized her instantly. "Wendy! Wendy Roper! I don't believe it!"
The woman approaching him was small and slim, with her long black hair tied back in an elaborate braid. "Will Riker, you old sleaze!" she said in amazement. "When did you get so scruffy?"
"About eight years ago."
"Makes you look ancient."
"I feel ancient." He paused, thinking about the fact that the
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last time he had seen Wendy Roper, they had been naked together in his quarters, sleeping off a slightly (but only slightly) alcohol-supplemented assignation. Then Deanna, with whom he had thought he had broken up some hours before, showed up and discovered them together. The rest was history.
He shook his head. "I can't believe you're still here. I mean, you can't still be assigned here with your father .. ."
"Actually, Daddy left his job at the Federation Embassy about three years ago. And it's Wendy Berq, actually."
He looked at her in surprise. "Married?"
"That's usually the way."
"When?"
"Actually, about two years after you left. My husband is Betazoid ... a teacher. That's why I stayed."
"My God . . ."
"But Will," she said urgently, her mood suddenly changing, "I heard about Deanna . . ."
"You did." He sighed.
"Is that why you're here?"
"In a way ... it is. I mean . . . you know ... in a way, I wanted it to happen to her . . ."
He didn't notice that Wendy was staring at him in clear astonishment. "What?"
"It's just, after all these years, she deserves something like that... in many ways, it couldn't happen to a better person . . ."
"Will, are you out of your mind?"
The intensity of her reaction caught him off guard. "Wha-? Wendy ... what are you . . . ?"
"How can you say that? No one deserves to have something like that happen!"
"Wendy, what's the matter with you?" He gripped her arms, noticing that people were looking at them in confusion. "Get ahold of yourself."
"What's the matter with me? Will, I know that you and
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Deanna had a bad breakup, but it was a dozen years ago! You can't really think that after all this time, she deserves to have her home destroyed, her mother mentally brutalized, her-"
Will Riker went completely ashen.
"What.. ." he said slowly, "in heaven's name ... are you talking about?"
Will ran through the hospital corridors so quickly that he nearly knocked over at least half a dozen people. Fortunately enough the Betazoids, being a fairly hypersensitive race, were adept enough to get the hell out of his way so that they didn't wind up with his footprints on their backs. Wendy ran behind him.
The news that Wendy had told him was simply beyond belief. Gart Xerx, whom Riker knew quite well, had stopped by the Troi household to visit on the spur of the moment and found the entire place a wreck. Destruction from above and the sides. Lwaxana and Homn, lying insensate in an upstairs room, Lwaxana in some sort of mental coma and Homn unconscious and having lost a ton of blood. No sign of Deanna, or Worf, or Alexander. No clue as to when any of it had happened. It was as if the galaxy had gone crazy.
"Excuse me," said one thin, gray-haired Betazoid woman, stepping deliberately in his way, "but you absolutely should not be running in-"
"Lwaxana . . . where is she . .. ?" he managed to gasp out. He had run ten blocks and up several flights of stairs, and was feeling a bit winded.
"Lwaxana? You mean Lwaxana Troi. . . Daughter of the Fifth House?"
"That's right."
The woman seemed taken aback. "I can take you to her. I'm her doctor. Come."
She turned and walked away. Will and Wendy fell into step behind her. They headed down the corridor, and Will could tell before they got there which room was very likely
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Lwaxana's. There was a number of people standing outside, most of them fairly tall and broad men, and they were wearing pale blue uniforms. Riker immediately recognized them as part of the Betazoid Peace Keepers force. The Peace Keepers were, for the most part, a figurehead force only, since crime was almost unknown on Betazed. Since all Betazoids were capable of mind-reading, getting away with any crime was virtually impossible. So outside races rarely bothered trying anything on Betazed, and the Betazoids themselves were-to all intents and purposes-above that sort of thing. All in all, the Peace Keepers' main function was to provide a nominally comforting presence to tourists and look good on a float during the annual Betazed Unity Parade. There was also a Starfleet security man, apparently connected to the embassy.
/> When they saw Riker coming, however, they stared at him with what appeared to be surprise. "You!" one of them said, and another called out, "He's here!"
"They know you?" Wendy asked.
"I've been back here from time to time, but I don't remember these guys in particular," Riker said in a low voice, and then he switched into "command mode," adopting the tone of voice that came so naturally to him when he was striding the bridge of a starship. "How is she, gentlemen? And Mr. Homn, what's his condition? I'm going to want to inform Starfleet of this immediately. Do we have any idea of the whereabouts of Deanna Troi? Or Mr. Worf, or his son? Or any clue as to the identity of the perpetrators of-"
A blunt object came down from behind Riker, catching him squarely in the back of the head and sending him to his knees. Wendy let out a shriek as Will pushed himself forward, trying to get distance between himself and whoever had just assaulted him, and staggered to his feet. He turned and saw, to his astonishment, a Cardassian. He was holding a shock prod, tapping it gently against his lower leg. He was tall, with the darkest and most pitiless eyes that Riker had ever seen in a
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sentient being. It had been the prod that he had used to slam Riker from behind, but it hadn't been activated. If it were, Riker would be immobile from the neck down.
"Who the hell are you?!" demanded Will.
"Are you going to pretend you don't remember me, Riker?" asked the Cardassian. "Your old friend, Mudak?"
"Remember you? I've never even met you! Will someone tell me what's going on?" He was rubbing the back of his aching neck.
"You should have finished off Homn when you had the chance, Riker. He regained consciousness for a time . . . long enough to tell us who was behind the attack. Romulans . .. and you."
"And. .. me? Are you insane? He's insane!" he said to Wendy.
Wendy turned to the Peace Keepers and said, "This is a mistake . . . Will Riker would never do something like th-"
"Will Riker?" Mudak laughed derisively. "This isn't Will Riker."
"What?" Wendy asked. "What do you mean, this isn't-"
"This is Thomas Riker, or at least that's what he calls himself," continued Mudak. "Terrorist. Member of the Maquis. Escapee from a Cardassian labor camp. And freak of nature ... a walking accident, a duplicate created by a transporter mishap."
"No ... I am Will Riker," Riker said, trying to fight down a rising sense of panic. "I didn't know that Tom had escaped . . . until recently, I didn't even know that he wasn't aboard the Gandhi. . ."
Wendy stared at him in astonishment. "You mean it's true? There's another . . . another you running around?"
"Yes," said Will, "but I'm not him. You," he said urgently to the Peace Keepers. "Look at my mind ... you'll see that I'm Will Riker___"
One of the Peace Keepers, the leader apparently, took a step forward and frowned momentarily. "He is Will Riker ..."
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I M 2 A O I II
"Of course he is!" said Mudak._"I explained that to you people when I first arrived! Timing worked against you, Riker. I've been tracking you ever since you escaped. Made you my pet project. I'd left word with key, discreet informants on certain worlds to be on the lookout for you, and when word of your involvement in this assault surfaced, I was here in no time. I didn't think you'd actually be foolish enough to return here. I've been waiting for Lwaxana Troi to recover so I could try and get more information from her, on the chance that she had scanned your mind and knew where you were going. But here you are. What were you doing, Riker? Coming back here to finish her off?"
"I am not.. . Tom Riker ... I am Will Riker, now what do I have to do to make that clear to you? Lwaxana!" he suddenly raised his voice. "Lwaxana, I need to talk to you!"
The doctor was still there, and she was interposing herself between Riker and the entrance to Lwaxana's room. "You can't. Whatever happened to her, it left her in severe mental shock. She underwent some sort of psi attack. There may be memory loss . . . she's still not conscious, she has to build up her strength .. ."
"But she'll know me. More than anyone else could, except for Deanna, she'll know me ... and maybe she can tell us where Deanna went, maybe-"
The Peace Keepers were gathering around her on either side, adding their bodies to the blockade. "I'm sorry," the doctor said firmly.
"All right, Riker, enough games," Mudak said, and with a click of a switch he activated his prod. "Please, I'm begging you . . . make this difficult. . . ."
"He might know where they are," one of the Peace Keepers pointed out.
"Their whereabouts are none of my concern," Mudak replied impatiently, "but if you wish to scan him on that matter, do it and be quick about it. I'm growing tired of these games."
Once more the Peace Keeper delved into Riker's thoughts.
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"He has no knowledge of their whereabouts. In fact, he has no recollection of, or knowledge of, what happened at all."
"You see?" Riker said.
But Mudak shook his head. "That proves nothing. The Troi woman had her mind tampered with; you said so yourself. They may have done a similar thing to him, in order to protect themselves, cover their tracks." He pointed the prod at Will. "I checked with Starfleet as soon as my contact passed the report on to me. Will Riker is still on Earth. I have that directly from one of their admirals who gave Will Riker his latest assignment. This is Tom Riker. He is my prisoner and he is coming with me now!" And over the startled gasps of the Peace Keepers, who were not remotely accustomed to even seeing the use of force, much less utilizing it themselves, Mudak lunged at Riker with the shock prod.
The prod came up a half foot shy of Riker's chest... because Wendy Roper had leaped onto Mudak's back, her fingers clawing at his face, and she was shouting, "Leave him alone!"
And Riker, who took the only opportunity open to him, turned and charged straight into the midst of the Peace Keepers. He slammed into them, knocking them aside as if they were weightless. It was not difficult; they were so stunned by the ferocity of his thoughts that they'd been momentarily paralyzed anyway.
Riker stumbled into the room, and the door hissed shut behind him. The open/close mechanism was to the right of the door, and Will quickly turned and ripped it out of the wall, decommissioning the door. He saw Lwaxana lying in a bed, motionless, staring upward at the ceiling with vacant eyes. "Lwaxana, it's me! It's Will! You have to come out of it!"
He ran to her, grabbed her by the shoulders. "Lwaxana!" he called her again, staring into her eyes, trying to pull her out of her stupor through sheer and unbridled determination. "Lwaxana, I have to help Deanna! I have to get to her! You may be the
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only one who can help! Come out of it, Lwaxana! Give me something to go on! Anything!"
Her eyes remained dark and opened, but there was nothing behind them.
"Lwaxana!"
In the corridor, an annoyed Mudak brought his shock prod up and touched Wendy's arm with it. Wendy shrieked, losing all sensation in the arm, and Mudak easily shoved her to the floor. Then he tried to get into the room, but the massed bodies of the Peace Keepers were blocking his way as they tried to pry open the door.
Inside, Riker was talking at Lwaxana with greater and greater urgency. "Lwaxana, it's me! It's Will! You know I wouldn't have tried to hurt you! You know I wasn't involved in any of this! I've got to find Deanna! I may be the only one who can do it! If Worf s with her, she might have a chance, but if Worf s dead, she's helpless! I've got to find her! I've got to!" He heard pounding at the door, the high-pitched whine of instruments prying at it. "Lwaxana! I've come all this way to get her! To get her back! But I'm going to wind up in a Cardassian prison camp unless you come around and help me!" His anger, his frustration began to build as there was still no sign of mental life in her eyes. "It can't end like this, Lwaxana! It can't! Not after everything we've been through! You owe it to her to help her! You owe it to me, to yourself! Lwaxana, I understand now! I finally understand! I have to
help her! I have to! Because being stuck in a prison is nothing compared to not knowing where she is, knowing that she needs me, knowing that I'm not there for her! I have to be there for her! I have to, always! Always! Dammit, Lwaxana! Wearelmzadi, and I love her! Help me, dammit! Help me!"
And suddenly Lwaxana's eyes focused on Riker. Focused with something that he hadn't seen before, an intensity, a determination . ..
... and abruptly Lwaxana was in his head ...
... and Riker gasped as a flood of images overwhelmed him.
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Not just images . . . sensations, emotions, all pounding through him, filling him and overflowing . . .
. . . and there was Deanna, and she was everywhere, and he could see her, and the scent of her, and the sound of her voice was in his ears . . .
. .. and everything was amplified a thousand times, and there was the first brush of her lips against his ...
.. . and the first time that their souls had touched ...
. . . and the agony of their separation was so intense that it threatened to cleave him in two . . .
.. . and the joy of their reunion was so incredible that he began to sob . ..
... and there was a ripping noise of his universe being torn to shreds and then just as quickly being restructured with Deanna as its center, and how could he possibly have difficulty knowing where she was, because she was everywhere, in every pore, in every centimeter of his skin, in every aspect of his soul she was there ...
The door to Lwaxana's room was suddenly torn open, and Mudak was the first one through. Riker didn't even see him and suddenly the shock prod slammed against the side of his head. The contact was so intense, so jolting, that Riker and Lwaxana both let out a scream. Lwaxana fell back onto her pillow, her eyes closing, her head lolling to one side.
Will was on the floor, trying to reorient himself, because everywhere there was Deanna, and he couldn't possibly be in any danger because she was there with him, one sensation tumbling over another, so that he made no effort at all to block the thrust of Mudak's boot as it slammed upward into his gut. Riker flipped completely over, lying on his back, gasping and, insanely, he was half-smiling as he whispered, "Deanna . . ." That was when Mudak kicked him a final time in the head and sent Riker spiraling into unconsciousness.
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