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Blind Chess	By : madradena Category: Star Trek > The Next Generation Views: 1334 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Disclaimer: I do not own ST:TNG, nor the characters. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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"Help!" Picard heard a muffled voice from the direction of the billboard, and understanding that he now could do little to remedy the situation that he'd left Beverly alone, he decided to try to help where he actually could. He started to run to the bunch of people and shouted to distract them:
"Hey!"
The bunch stopped hitting the man who was already on the pavement, and the thugs turned their heads toward Picard. They were young and seemed to be pretty hell-bent. The Captain fingered his Type-1 Phaser in his pocket realizing that he might have had to use it. They were five. But he also knew that he had to at least try to protect their cover, and not show off any 24th century widgets - so he took his hand out of his pocket, and decided to go with what he had in the 21st century: his fists, and his speed.
"I believe there are more civilized ways to settle a conflict, gentlemen." he told them on a low voice.
One of them took a step toward him with a grunt "Is there? Don'cha wanna show us, little man?"
They stared into each other's eyes for a long moment before the Captain answered "Hopeless." he grimaced in mock-disappointment "For you, the foundations are missing."
In this moment, the closest - and burliest - thug jumped him and tried to hit him on the face. Picard dodged and fended off the attack by one single punch on the bully's chin, and the youngster collapsed on the pavement unconsciously. He silently thanked Mr. Worf for the invaluable mok'bara lessons he received from the Klingon while he was still on board the Enterprise. But the Captain had no more time to feel nostalgic: the shock of the thugs was wearing off, AND they seemed utterly irritated.
Picard fought mightily and only using his fists, while he had to deal with only two of them. But when the other two started to join in, and one of them had a knife in his hand, he realized he had no other choice, he had to use his phaser. He took it out, aimed, and stunned the thug with the knife. The young man collapsed on the pavement next to his colleague already lying there. But to his surprise, the others just became even fiercer: though they seemed surprised by the weapon, it wore off in a moment, and only unrestrained rage remained in its wake! They jumped him all at once, and one of them grabbed him from behind, making him drop his weapon. The two others punched him in the stomach simultaneously - and he started to realize that he made a grave mistake by not stunning them in the first place, instead of engaging into this fight (or rather by coming to this cursed planet altogether).
He received some more blows on the stomach and chin and eyes before he heard one of them speak, and he realized he blacked out for a (brief?) moment: "You're one of those too..." another blow on the face, which he suffered with a silent grunt "...all your alien-lover, freak friends at the Resistance will end up like you! All of them!" he heard the raspy voice shouting at him, and he realized that he couldn't see properly, because his eyes were already so swollen. Suddenly, he grew really scared - which he had no time for till this very moment. How was he going to survive this?!
And almost as if the universe wanted to answer him, he heard a familiar female voice from the distance "Stop it!" he then felt his lips hurt as they involuntarily curled up into a ...well, into a grimace instead of the intended smile.
"Look what has the wind blown here?" Picard heard the sneer in that sentence, and a chill ran up his spine.
"Beverly..." he wanted to say, but only a whisper left his hurting lips - along with some blood. He then heard the sound of the phaser, then a grunt as a body slumped to the ground. Then Beverly's voice again:
"You better step back, young man, or you'll learn how it feels to be the bad guy in the 24th century!" her voice was firm, but at least an octave higher than normally, and the Captain could feel that she was scared. But he knew that only two remained of the five thugs, and they seemed to not have any weapons... In a moment's time, he felt himself to be let go, and he slumped to the ground. He then heard the sound of their hurried footsteps die away, and he understood that the two left. Beverly made it.
"Jean-Luc!" he heard and felt himself rolled onto his back. He then heard the familiar click and then the chirping sound of a working tricorder. He tried to open his eyes, but they just hurt so much... "Don't!" he heard Beverly's voice "Just lie still, and let me help!" she seemed to be very worried, so he obeyed. In a matter of moments, he heard another device working over his eyes and face, and felt the familiar warmth of his cell-metabolism speeding up as the device healed his wounds. The pain slowly faded.
He sighed and blinking, opened his eyes. Beverly was concentrating on healing the bruises on his chest and side - when did she open his shirt? "I'm glad... you found your way back to me!" he whispered with a faint smile, never noticing his Freudian slip.
Beverly glanced at him for a brief moment, then going back to work, she replied on a voice still audibly stressed "I got off the next stop and just took the tram to the opposite direction."
In a few minutes, he felt himself up to sit up, and holding on to her offered hand, he sat up with a grunt. She never looked into his eyes just took her hand out of his and pulled his shirt together, so he wouldn't get a cold in the chilly night. She buttoned the garment up to the neck, but to her shock, he put his hand on hers, where it fidgeted at his collar and finally, they locked gazes.
She again felt spell-bound as they stared into each other's eyes for what it seemed an eternity. Her hand turned warm in his firm grip, and she couldn't help feeling that she missed that... she missed his touch, and the feeling of wanting more of it, suddenly gripped her with a new intensity she had never felt before! Her gaze dropped to his lips instinctively.
"Thank you..." he whispered, and she looked into his eyes again feeling her cheeks burn as she felt his breath on her lips - they were so close! "Thank you for saving my life!"
At that, reality sank in as suddenly as it had fled her mind before: she sighed impatiently, realizing what had just took place, and took her hand away with a frown "Why didn't you wait for me?! Why did you have to take on the five of them all alone?!"
At that, the carved-in-stone expression returned to his face "What other choice did I have, Beverly? Watch them as they kill him?" he asked on a hard voice nodding toward the still unconscious boy, lying under the billboard.
Beverly stood up and hurried over to him, while Picard walked over to the stunned thugs. They would wake up with a minor headache, but otherwise didn't seem to need medical attention.
"Jean-Luc!" he heard Beverly calling him again, and he walked over to where she was crouching next to the boy. "Look at him!" Beverly said on a softer voice as she finished healing the wounds on his face. He squatted to the other side and looked at the kid with a frown.
"Well... it seems I will need to pick a bone with this kid, once he's conscious... he has almost killed me twice tonight: once personally, and once by-proxy. Call me old fashioned, but I don't take that well." he taunted with a humour he did not feel in his heart.
"You'll have a chance for that in a moment." Beverly answered, and the boy started to stir and wake.
As Gary opened his eyes, he didn't recognize either Picard or Beverly from a few hours prior. His first instinct was to try to run, and Picard had to hold him down forcefully. "Easy, boy! You're among friends." The kid blinked around scared for a moment longer before realizing where the two strangers were somehow familiar.
"You're Emma's friends..." he breathed frowning.
"That's right." Beverly nodded with a smile, then let his hand go as she finished healing his bruises there. "There. Good as new!" she declared.
The kid stared at his healed hand then fingered his face "Wow..." he breathed realizing that he'd been healed of wounds so severe that he'd have to spend weeks in a hospital to recover from them, if it wasn't for the technology the Starfleet officers used. He locked gazes with Beverly, who got the impression that he was contemplating whether he should thank them or not - and saw that finally, he decided against it...
"Did Earl send you to find me?" the kid asked with a sudden frown.
Picard and Beverly looked at each other, and eventually, the Captain answered "Let's just say, you were lucky to be found!"
Gary snorted "You can tell him I could've protected myself, if I still had my gun!" he jumped up and then stopped short feeling once again that nothing hurt! He moved his shoulder with a satisfied smile - as a 'side-effect', he'd been cured of a few years old sport-injury too!
The Starfleet officers stood too "Guns are not for kids! Not in the 21st century, and certainly not in the 24th!" Picard answered on a serious tone and watched as Gary went for his discarded backpack.
"I can't always have somebody with a valid gun-licence around, when I want to do my job!" the kid answered as he picked up his bag.
Picard and Beverly walked up to him, and the former asked with mild incredulity "And what sort of job is that?"
"Resisting the government any way possible!" Gary answered and pulled out a can of spray-paint. "See?" he pointed to the billboard.
"Let's stop the Federation together!" Beverly read out the propagandistic label on a blue background.
Gary shook the can a few times, then sprayed the blue paint over the word 'Federation'. The Starfleet officers watched him now curious as he fetched a white paint can from his bag and painted 'xenophobia' over his blue paint.
Then he turned back to them with an undoubtedly proud expression "This is what the Resistance calls civilian disobedience. In a democracy, this is legal. On Epsilon Four however..." he shrugged grimacing.
"Were you beaten up because of that?" Beverly asked on a soft voice.
"Kinda yeah..." Gary shrugged again and put the can back into his pack.
"Who were these people?" Picard asked frowning.
Gary sighed impatiently - he wanted to be on his way "Some fascist sons of bitches who guard their beloved propaganda! I don't give a rat's ass about who they were, and you should neither. Just leave me the fuck alone." he started to walk away in the dark street.
Picard and Beverly looked at each other taken aback "Where are you going?" Beverly asked, and they started to hurry after him.
"Where. To get the job done. There are thousands of billboards to paint over. Find some for yourselves and leave me the shit alone!" he growled hostilely.
They caught up with him, and Picard grabbed him by the arm "Now, wait there a minute, will you." Gary glared at him defiantly, but didn't try to get away "I believe, we've saved your life just now, and it's really bad manners to be so curt to your helpers. Would you care to tell us what we've committed against you, young man?"
Gary pulled his arm away, and this time, his eyes were blazing with hatred "You dare ask?! It's your fault that we have to live this way!" he barked.
Beverly frowned in shock and disbelief "You're not saying that even as part of the Resistance, you believe all this propaganda."
Gary rolled his eyes "No, you idiot! Don't ya understand?! The propaganda exists because of you! Because of the Federation! You let Epsilon Four break away! You let Hague and Jones get unrestricted power over everything and everybody here! You just left us here to die or worse! You let all the people on this planet down! And you expect me to thank you for saving my life?! Here it is: thanks for saving what remained of it for the few more days the Resistance has left, until they catch and silence us all forever!"
They watched him shocked for a moment longer, not being able to answer the same nagging accusations Emma had voiced before coming here. They just stared into the broken gaze of a child not having anything to lose anymore.
And as if to prove his words, all of a sudden three police cars circled them, and before Picard could even think of running, he found himself with his face against the hard pavement, his hands behind his back, and he had no idea what happened to the others before he was shoved into a car and taken to god knows where...
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Blind Chess