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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
- 31
- 32
- 33
Data stood at the tall window of Emma's room now wide open and waited for her to finish her morning routine in the bathroom. It was still early, but the weather was delightfully sunny and warm. The view on the studio lot was nothing like Data had ever seen before with its different sets and façades all around them stretched over the broad horizon.
He sighed, and a small smile appeared on his lips. He was happy. Really happy! Here they were, in the middle of a dangerous mission, after days of fighting and doubting each other, and on top of that all, he was a few days - or maybe just hours? - away from a procedure that would leave him virtually mutilated. And he felt happy. It was extremely peculiar how his emotions evoked within him. Almost without any logical reason or pattern. But, oh, yes! he had a good reason to be happy! He was together with the woman he loved, and they finally reconciliated - whatever else mattered in the universe?
And suddenly there was music in the air. He frowned surprised and listened intently. First, a piano could be heard, and after a few accords, he heard the voice of a male singing. He recognized the voice to be Earl's. He frowned confused. The song of the old man seemed to be as happy as he was! Almost as if his mind was read. As he listened on, the smile returned to his face.
"I was blue, just as blue as I could be
Ev'ry day was a cloudy day for me
Then good luck came a-knocking at my door
Skies were gray but they're not gray anymore"
Emma stepped out of the bathroom in a single robe and chuckled softly seeing him so intensely concentrating seemingly on the the view.
Then she heard Earl's voice too:
"Never saw the sun shining so bright
Never saw things going so right
Noticing the days hurrying by
When you're in love, my how they fly"
And her smile broadened recognizing the song immediately. Data turned to her and smiled back as she walked up to him crooning softly. When she got to him, they embraced, and Data cocked his head: "This song is in complete correlation with my mood - and the weather as well!"
Emma giggled softly and sang with Earl:
"Blue skies
Smiling at me
Nothing but blue skies
Do I see"
Then smiled at him with sparkling eyes "Hmmm... It's my all time favourite by Irving Berlin. Earl knows well how to start my day." He seemed to tense up for a moment then immediately tried to cover it, and Emma laughed apologetically "Sorry, babe, I didn't mean to spoil your good spirits! But there really isn't anything to be jealous about."
"I'm not jealous!" he replied almost before she finished her sentence, which made her chuckle even more, then looked at him with calm, sincere eyes.
"Believe me, if he's singing this song for somebody this morning, it is certainly not me!" she told him on a soft, caring voice.
Data looked at her questioningly and after a moment of thinking asked "Judging by your choice of words and the tone of your voice, I'd surmise that you're implying a certain thing. However, I'm not sure I understand what exactly that thing is."
She smiled at his innocence "Didn't you see how they looked at each other last night?"
"Who?" his frown deepened.
Emma rolled her eyes playfully "Who, babe... Your mom and Earl."
His eyes widened to the size of two saucers at this "My mo..." he gaped "What do you mean by 'how did they look at each other'? How DID they look at each other?" he asked and instantly started a search through his data banks of the memories of yesterday evening. Whatever did he miss?! Again...
She giggled on "Oh, come on! Don't tell me you have Oidipal problems, Deadpan!"
He frowned bemused - good feelings now completely gone! "You're suggesting that my mother and Mr. Mils... That they..." but he trailed off into blinking like a carp, not exactly knowing what he wanted to say. Not exactly daring to imagine...
She nodded now with a half-serious expression "I sincerely hope so, Deadpan. And if not, I hope they at least started on that road!" she told him poking him on the chest with her forefinger for emphasis. Then let him go and started to dress.
"But...!" he started but couldn't finish - he felt lost for words, which was not very common since his activation on Omicron Theta. He tried to imagine her mother and this male they barely knew anything about as they... kissed or hugged or... uhhh... He shook his head with - disgust? He wasn't even sure what he was disgusted about!
"But what?" she asked putting on her top and buckling her belt "Don't be such a child, babe! Don't ya think they deserve some fragment of happiness too?" she asked knowing the answer he'd normally give, if he wasn't so upset about it as he was! She watched him standing there blinking ahead confused, and she smiled at his childlike reaction. She stepped up to him now dressed and put her arms around his neck. He reluctantly slid his around her waist. "Baby. Your mother is an extraordinary woman. And Earl, believe me, is an equally remarkable man. ...And they're both very, very lonely." she added on a low voice.
He seemed to contemplate this with an unsure expression and then nodded "I... I know." he sighed "I know that my mother... misses my father very much. I can see it every time I remind her of him, but..."
"Earl takes after you a lot." she nodded in acknowledgement "And so, he takes after your father as well, am I right?"
Data nodded "Yes. I just... I just don't want her to... lie to herself. I don't want her to be disappointed. Or hurt."
She smiled a reassuring smile "If she gets to know Earl, she won't be disappointed, nor hurt, trust me!" she then suddenly took her arms away from his neck and went to put on her coat from the rack "Anyways, Deadpan, the one fooling himself is not downstairs, but is standing right opposite me!" she sneered as he frowned confused, and she went on on a voice getting mockingly high-pitched with every word "You can rationalize all you want, but you're just a little boy jealous of his mommy!" she told him with her usual smirk on her lips. It took him a little more than a moment to realize that she was only teasing him.
He grimaced, but she knew it was not serious, as he energetically stepped to her, and they left the room together, as he replied "I cannot confirm your statement, but if I could, I'd say the benefit of this is to experience an emotion I never had a chance to before! Therefore, distracting as it may be, I'm content that I can analyse yet another novel emotion!"
"That's the spirit, Deadpan!" she answered giggling - and once again silently admired him for who he was.
Data still felt a little gloomy on their way to the mines. Earl drove his enormous auto-mobile, while Juliana was sitting next to him, and he and Emma were sitting at the back of the car. Earl drove off the main road, and the tyres rasped as they advanced on a seemingly unused path. The trees rushed by next to them as Data watched from the side window. Emma had fallen asleep with her head on his lap, and he absently stroked her hair as he glanced over to his mother. Juliana was asleep too - and he couldn't help himself wondering whether she was tired because of the same reasons Emma was fatigued. He turned his head back to the view bemused and started a processing thread to figure out why he felt so uncomfortable with the topic of his mother having this man in her life - if Emma was correct at all.
"Did you sleep well, Mr. Data?" he heard Earl's voice unexpectedly, and he turned his head sharply toward him. Earl was looking at him in the mirror.
"I do not require sleep. However, your concern is appreciated, Mr. Mils." he answered on a professional voice.
"Ah..." Earl nodded "Then you are a lucky man." he smiled slightly, and Data noticed that he DID seem tired. The older man glanced over to Juliana with a tender expression which made Data even more uncomfortable "At least they get their rest."
Data combed his fingers through Emma's hair gently, and she stirred towards his touch.
Then he heard Earl's voice again. This time it was grave and low "If we fail in our mission to find something against Jones, or something happens to me, please promise me, Mr. Data, that you'll take my little bird as far away from here as you can."
Data cocked his head "You must not worry, Mr. Mils. Emma is a member of the Enterprise crew. She is perfectly safe with us. We protect one another."
"I'm afraid Mr. Data that THAT won't suffice, if Jones decides to get her back. You all put yourselves into grave danger by coming to Epsilon. She especially! Jones considers her his personal property. Always have! And he doesn't give up on what he considers his own. Never underestimate him!"
Data frowned at this, feeling himself getting angry - but he couldn't exactly figure out why "I won't, Mr. Mils, but I refuse to be terrorised by rumours or assumptions."
"You do well, if you don't, Mr. Data." Earl said on a serious tone then seemed to decide on turning the conversation lighter. His expression softened into a delighted smile "Otherwise you'd have to believe that the leader of the Resistance is a murderous beast who drinks the blood of virgins in the light of the full-moons at midnight!"
Data stared at him surprised "Were you accused of cannibalism by the propaganda, Mr. Mils?"
Earl laughed a heart-felt laugh "Please! Don't give them ideas!"
Data finally smiled back. He had to admit, Earl was not THAT horrible. He seemed calm and wise AND caring - could he ask more for his own mother? He sighed gazing out of the window. But what would happen to them if - when - they had to leave the planet?
"Here we are." he heard the elder man's voice as he pulled over from the road and stopped the car. "We'll have to walk the rest. It's about two miles, but I don't want to risk them spotting the car. This is not exactly the type of vehicle the guards usually use." he explained and finally, put a gentle hand on Juliana's to wake her.
Data didn't force any more conversation, just woke Emma too.
As discussed earlier, they put on some 'costumes' for their snooping around: Emma and Juliana posed as prisoners, Earl and Data as guards. Earl explained that no women were allowed to take up the job of a guard, so they had little choice in the casting. They then left the car in the bushes, hidden and started for the mines on foot. By the time they spotted the tall fence, the tension was palpable - they had a very real chance of ending up behind that fence for real, if their cover were blown, and they got caught. Emma glanced at Juliana and saw that the elder woman tried hard to cover that her hands were shaking. On impulse, she gently took Juliana's hand and squeezed it tightly in hers. The elder woman looked back at first shocked, but then grateful.
They went through the first obstacle, the front gate without any problems. Earl showed the guards some papers and seemed confident enough to get them through with as few questions asked as was possible.
Within the perimeter, they then spotted some of the prisoners. They were sorting rocks into different crates. Most of them seemed to move sluggishly, as if they were completely exhausted.
"Don't watch, just move on." they heard Earl's silent voice, and all three of them snapped their heads toward him. He looked at the women with a strict expression "Keep your gazes on your toes until we're alone."
They obeyed him wordlessly, but Emma felt her heart was drumming in her chest. She squeezed Juliana's hand in hers, but suddenly, she felt somebody tearing their grip apart. They both stared behind them startled, and to their shock, found that it was Earl who touched them in such a violent fashion! To their disbelieving gaze, he snapped on a hard voice "Gazes down and move it!" And as Emma lowered her gaze, she finally managed to spot a guard standing just a few yards from them, fairly within ear-shot. She took a long breath understanding the elder man's behaviour now, and they started to move on inside the mines.
It took them an hour to reach the bottom of the mine, where the actual mining took place. It was an enormous hall with dark walls and a lot of noise, but without any modern equipment - even by 21st century standards. Juliana glanced around intently, though she tried to be as discrete as possible. The air was humid and hot, they were sweating already, and she had to fight the urge to wipe her face into the sleeve of these clothes - these clothes that were coming from people who once were real prisoners here.
There were a lot of workers here toiling with age-old methods, using shovels and picks, and she could barely believe her eyes seeing that they did actually mine dilithium this way! As if they were mining simple charcoal or iron ore - in the middle ages of Earth! It was inhuman and cruel, and barely effective. She got the impression that people who made prisoners work this way were not interested in the gained mineral itself, only in the suffering of the prisoners! It made her heart sink even lower. What if they really end up in this labour camp? Under the control of these monsters in uniforms?
Earl saw her face and understood her distress. He actually had felt it the first time he was here. By now, he learned to cope with the danger and the thought that he was not able to save everybody. He learned to be content with the fact that he saved all that he could. He glanced around to check whether anybody was looking their way, and when he was sure they were not watched, he reached out and gently touched Juliana's elbow.
"Concentrate, my dear!" she heard Earl's whisper and fought the urge to look at him as he went on "I know it's shocking. But the only way to help them is to find something against Jones. Do you see anything of use here?"
She felt his touch, and she was amazed that it instantly gave her some relief of the stifling anxiety she was feeling. She tried to take a deep breath and shook her head slightly "No. These are only the shallow depos. It's extremely difficult to mine the way they do, but this is definitely not alien technology."
Juliana was not the only one who was upset by what they saw. Emma's blood boiled at the sight, and her eyes were blazing against the humid semi-darkness as she answered without being asked "It's simple human brutality. We don't need aliens to learn about THAT - in fact, we're the ones who could give lessons to THEM..." and she trailed off as she felt a hard shove on her back.
She instinctively turned back just to meet Earl's ice-cold glare: "If this little bird wants to sing outside of this hell-hole, she'll have to restrain herself." he told her as they walked on. He could feel Data's gaze burning into his skin for touching Emma in that fashion once again, but they had no time for Emma's tantrums just now!
"Fine." Emma growled turning away almost sulking "I'll wait with my damning all of humanity to hell till we're out..." she snorted.
Earl didn't reply, just brought them into a smaller chamber at the far end of the hall. They were alone here, so a small measure of the tension lifted from their souls.
"Let's catch our breaths." Earl commanded because he could feel that Emma and Juliana were too stressed out to be of any use at the moment. Going on with them in their current mental state would have been pointless.
Juliana tried to take a few long breaths, but the air was too humid, and she felt almost as if she was suffocated by it. Earl and Data stepped outside to guard the small room, and as Juliana looked at her, Emma seemed to be more angry than scared. Juliana felt she envied her, because she was rarely frightened as much as she was now. She knew she somehow needed to divert her attention from her fear, so she looked around in the room. They were surrounded by crates and other stock: it must have been some sort of a storage room. There was barely any light here compared to the semi-darkness outside, but after a few seconds, her eyes got used to it, and she could see better. She turned around slowly then took a step further in when she caught sight of something seemingly out of place. She took two more steps further inside through the narrow gap between huge boxes, and fixed her gaze on a long pipe coming from underneath, running from the floor next to the wall and disappearing inside the high ceiling above.
Emma frowned hazily seeing her getting so preoccupied with a thing that seemed to her as trivial as a simple water pipe - with some fancy screws though. She could feel the humid air had a dizzying affect on her, like oxygen deprivation, and she felt drowsy the moment her anger passed. "What can you be staring at so intensely?" she mumbled and was surprised that she actually said the words.
Juliana turned back to her a little startled, but her face lit up with a small smile "That's what we're looking for."
Earl and Data came back inside hearing their voices. "What is it?" Earl whispered.
Juliana pointed to the pipe "That pipe belongs to the Taur-MX500 ventilation system used for deep mining!"
Data stepped up to her and stared at the pipe "Are you sure, Mother?" he spoke up for the first time since they started from the car.
"Yes. I recognize the assembly with those special screws and nuts you can see on the side of it. I used to work with such a system on Atrea to mine duranium ore. Completely unknown in the 21st century, the first prototype appeared a decade ago!" she explained excited.
A small smile ran over Earl's strict expression, and it passed just as quickly as it came.
"We need to know where it leads." Data stated.
They filed out of the room back into the huge hall, and Earl glanced around to get their bearings, then pointed toward the exit closest to where they saw the pipe "That way." The two women went ahead, while the men followed half a step behind, still keeping up their façade.
They went through half a dozen smaller chambers and rooms, and Emma felt she lost her sense of direction after so many turns - she was hoping fervently that the others knew the way out still - because she didn't for sure... They then arrived into a deserted corridor. There were pipes similar to the ones Juliana recognized coming out of it, and they wordlessly quickened their pace getting now really curious. When they stepped out of the corridor into a small chamber however, they found themselves face to face with the riffle of a burly guard.
"Stop!" he rasped.
Emma and Juliana stood frozen to the spot as Earl and Data stepped out of the narrow corridor behind them, and the guard lowered his gun seemingly reassured.
The guard locked gazes with Earl and chuckled a low, raspy chuckle "I thought they were wandering around."
There was a long pause, and Data almost finished calculating the minimum impetus and velocity he needed to knock the guard flat before he could fire his gun or call for help, when Earl's mouth twitched into a smile "Me and my friend here," he started slowly, lazily as if explaining himself in a prison camp was all he ever did "we thought we would show these ladies around our hospitable little facility."
Juliana and Emma exchanged glances with real fear growing in their eyes. Would the guard buy this? - Did what Earl was implying at actually happen to women in such a place?!
The guard snorted "Very good idea!" he rasped stepping to Emma. "Nice catch!" he remarked, and she looked him straight in the eye defiant as she heard her own heartbeat drumming in her ears. He grinned as he raised his hand to touch her, but before his finger met her skin, the world went blank around him for an instant. When he opened his eyes next, he saw Data lowering his fist where he was standing in front of the women, and Earl staring at him from above, where he was crouching over him.
"As I mentioned, ME and MY FRIEND HERE." the elder man emphasized his point on a slow, patient - blood-chilling - voice "And now if you'd give us some privacy."
The guard wordlessly jumped up and rushed out as fast as he could, dizzy as he was.
Emma let out a long breath of relief, she felt she'd been holding back from the moment that riffle was pointed to her chest.
"Is he not going to bring more guards?" Juliana asked looking at Earl worried.
He shook his head "We outrank him. He'll count his blessings that he got away with this little." he explained.
Emma shook her head to clear it a little "Shit, I felt like a frog in a frying pan. If I jump, I die, if I don't jump, I'm screwed." she growled - she was not sleepy any more at all. She looked up at Data who was standing wordlessly next to her watching her every move "Thanks, Deadpan."
His mouth twitched into a small smile, but Emma knew, he was far from feeling smiley. In fact, she has never seen him as stressed as he seemed now. - It was never a good sign when he was contributing to a team activity only wordlessly. Let that activity be preparing a stage performance or being on a mission...
Juliana and Earl were looking around the room, and after a moment, Data joined them by stepping up to them where they were looking at an appliance on the wall. It had a lot of switches and indicators but no labels. Data searched his data banks for anything similar he'd seen so far.
"Some sort of a console." he said glancing at Juliana "But I can find nothing similar to it in my data banks about mining."
"What about this?" they heard Emma's voice. She was standing next to the chamber entrance, where she found a small panel with only a few buttons. Before either of them could step to her, or anybody could ask anything, she grinned like a child finding an interesting toy "I always loved learning by trial and error." she declared and pushed a random button.
"NO!!!" all three of them shouted suddenly scared as to their utter shock, a huge metal door slammed down, closing the entrance. The next moment, the whole room jerked and then started to sink rapidly. They all needed to hold onto something, so they wouldn't fall.
"What the hell was that?! Are you crazy?! What did you push?!" Earl demanded stumbling up to her - they were still descending and with quite a speed!
"Would you just stop freaking out already?!" she asked and then laughed out loud pointing to the label above the panel. "Can't you read? It says 'E-LE-VA-TOR'! I have to admit, I expected a secret door to open, which would reveal the secret elevator for us as it does in every decent adventure holo-novel, but this was an even funnier punchline." she laughed at their expressions as they were standing there still with horrified expressions. "Oh, come ooon kill-joys! At least smile a little! What I just pushed won't kill us, but getting heart-attacks for being so stressed out WILL!" she suddenly giggled again "Oh, you should see your faces..."
But the others were not smiling. And seeing them looking daggers at her, Emma's smile disappeared in a moment too.
"You scared the crap out of us, little bird! Don't touch anything before consulting either of us!" Earl told her on a strict - AND upset - voice.
Emma rolled her eyes "Don't tell me, you wouldn't have pushed the button too, eventually. But yes, daddy! Whatever ya say, daddy! Will you change my nappy too?" but her sentence lacked all humor as she frowned now getting irritated.
Before Earl could answer and tell her off for her recklessness, the elevator slowed and then stopped.
The entrance door opened, and they found themselves in a huge, high chamber with a lot of machinery everywhere. They stepped out of the strange elevator, looking around gaping at the enormous sizes - a moment later, the door slammed shut and the noises told them, that the elevator cab automatically returned to where they started from.
They slowly walked about. There were no guards here. No prisoners. But there was light almost as if they were outside, and the air was fresh and clean.
"Where are we?" Emma asked staring around and above them - despite herself, somehow she felt she couldn't find her voice.
Juliana stepped to the machines and instruments, and Data followed her "Do you recognize any of this equipment?" he asked cocking his head curiously.
She shook her head "I can only guess by the similarity of some of these things to the tools I used on Atrea and elsewhere." she pointed to a three-storey tall machine "That's the ventilation system I was talking about. But I was wrong. Though it's similar, it is NOT the Taur-MX500. It's better. And it's definitely not human. I've never seen this anywhere before." she told them touching her palm to a panel.
It glowed, and a covering metal moved away to reveal some combuttons underneath. No label could be seen, only the buttons.
Earl stepped up next to them looking at the panel frowning "How can you be sure that it's not human?"
She glanced at him absently "I'm familiar with the designs of most mining equipment originating from Earth or the colonies."
"Can this be Romulan?" Earl voiced the question all of them had on their minds.
"I don't know, but I've never seen such equipment before." Juliana told him still looking at the controls of the machinery. After studying it for a good few minutes, she spoke up on a silent voice "I've been in this field for decades, I'd say if I haven't encountered such a device as this before, there is a fair chance this was made using technology outside of the Federation." she finally raised her gaze and looked at Earl with a meaningful expression "If you want evidence to prove the fact that your government is using alien technology - any alien technology - despite the laws it's enforcing on its people, you'll never get a better piece of evidence than this one."
They locked gazes, and Emma knew she'd never seen Earl more impressed than at that moment. It was all they ever wanted! It was all he lived for for the last couple of years - ever since his son died.
Data wordlessly took a tricorder out of his pocket and scanned the instrument thoroughly, while Juliana examined the rest of the panels and tried hard to memorize all that she'd been seeing here, so she could give a detailed testimony about it.
"Let's get the hell out'a here." Emma told them, when Data finished scanning and put away the tricorder. They started back for the elevator without any further ado - they all wanted to get away from here as fast as they could.
But suddenly, Data raised his head sharply "Somebody is coming!"
They gazed at him confused, not hearing the voices he'd heard before any organic humanoid could have. But there was no time to explain. He took the two women by the arms and pushed them toward a huge rock only a few feet away from the elevator. Earl followed them, and the moment, they managed to hide behind it, the doors of the elevator opened again.
They watched the people filing out of the cab in shock: five black-haired Romulan males were followed by a blond female, and to Emma's utter disbelief, she was talking to her husband. She instinctively put her hand to her mouth - she knew that her husband was a criminal, but THIS?!
They walked lazily up to the machinery, out of the group's ear-shot, and seemingly started to talk on a hushed voice.
"What are they saying?" Emma whispered to Data who was pricking his ears like a hound dog watching some precious game. Emma was surprised to see that he seemed almost as shocked as she was.
Data felt stunned. From all people, from all the Romulans, it had to be her! Every time he saw THAT face, it had a stunning effect on him. No matter whether the person whom the face belonged to was called Tasha Yar or Sela...
After a moment, he realized he had to put his feelings of surprise and confusion on hold to concentrate on the mission at hand. He started a new processing thread to be able to repeat to them what he was hearing of the conversation, and he started to whisper as they watched Edmond and Sela talking.
Ed seemed awfully satisfied "...we've reached the amount of thirteen mobvers a day as you said we would... fully automated. No staff needed ever since your people configured it."
Sela then nodded with a smirk "You'd be in great trouble, if it wasn't for our superior automation technology. I find myself wondering how you would even operate it with the help of the foolish chimps you are calling your people... enough of this little demonstration of yours. I won't be overwhelmed by something that's trivial on my own planet. What did you bring us here for?"
"To show you that we have capacity for even more! With one more machine like this one, we could double the production rate!"
Sela took a few steps seemingly considering then turned back to him with a suspicious expression "Romulus does not need more dilithium than we are getting from you right now! We made no indication of buying more from you than we are buying right at the moment. So am I to understand that you want to sell dilithium produced by OUR superior technology to OTHER species?! That by far is not in the interest of the Romulan Empire!"
Ed closed the distance between them "I need all the money I can get to stabilize my power. And THIS IS an interest of the Romulan Empire as well, not just me! Think about it with your superior intellect! Who would you be doing your deals with, if I was overthrown, and some hardheaded fundamentalist, like Hague used to be, takes my place? Your fruitful little business would be over for god-knows how long! What would you do then? Dilithium is scarce and expensive. Losing a reliable and cheap source of it would not by all means help your career, am I right? At least, that is what my inferior intellect tells me. Or would you simply conquer the colony and take up the consequences of breaking the Treaty of Algeron? You are a better chess-player than THAT!"
Sela seemed to be considering what she'd just heard with a bemused expression.
Juliana looked at Earl and Emma, while Data watched the Romulans on "It seems we were right in most of our guesses."
Earl shook his head "I always knew he was a hypocritical prick, but to stoop this low..."
Emma just stared ahead wordlessly. She kept hearing Ed's voice in her head, when she'd been begging him to let the doctors use 24th century technology to figure out why she kept losing their babies... >>There's no way, ma chérie! We cannot be an exception to the law! And you accepted this, when you agreed to stay here, you know that!<< Now here they were, under the exact same laws as before, but this time, Ed COULD make an exception to the law - for his own power-greedy, petty little interests! She felt a flood of anguish covering her body, her soul, her whole being! It made her start to get up from behind the rock to face this man and tell him that... but before she could step out, somebody forcefully pulled her back. And as she looked into the worried and stunned eyes of Data, her soul was dragged back into reality as well... What was she doing?!
"What the hell are you doing?!" it was Earl who asked the question she herself had no answer to, on a high-pitched whisper, and Emma could see the utter shock on his face.
"...what is it..." Data heard from the direction of the Romulans, and putting a finger in front of his mouth, he indicated for his friends to be quiet so that he could listen on.
He peered out and spotted Edmond looking straight in their direction. He crouched back soundlessly, and the others stared at him now scared to death. He had to admit, he now shared the feeling.
"...for a moment, I thought there was somebody there..." Data heard Ed's unsure voice.
"Scan the area!" Sela ordered, and Data quickly fetched his phaser from his pocket.
"Did you hear anything?" she asked Edmond, and peering out, Data could just glimpse that he shook his head negatively. But there was no time to wonder about how he could have known that they were there, if he heard nothing. Two Romulans were heading in their direction, and Data locked gazes with Earl. The elder man understood without a word, and they nodded in union before standing and stepping out of the cover of the rock.
"Deadpan..." Emma cried on a terrified whisper and was just about to jump after them, when Juliana caught her and put her hand firmly on her mouth. A panic stricken Emma looked back at her, and the only thing that kept Juliana from feeling the same emotion was the knowledge that her son was a decorated Starfleet Lieutenant Commander! He knew exactly what he was doing! She locked her determined gaze firmly with Emma's and slowly took her hand away from the younger woman's mouth. She took the shaking hands of her terrified friend in hers as they listened on in horror, and though she was not religious, she prayed for their lives.
Data and Earl stood face to face with two Romulan soldiers at gunpoint. Data understood that their Type-1 phasers stood no chance against the Romulan disruptors, so after a fraction of a second, he let the gun drop from his hand. Earl reluctantly followed his example. The point was not to put up a fight. The point was to stop them from discovering Emma and Juliana.
"Earl Mils. What a surprise!" Edmond stepped up to them closely followed by Sela. "I haven't seen you for ages."
"If I never saw you again, you son-of-a-bitch, it would've been too soon." Earl growled on a low voice.
"The feeling is mutual, my old >>friend<<." Ed covered his hatred with an ambitious smirk quickly "Tell me, what have you been doing these days? Of course, apart from leading your pitiful, little organization - the Resistance."
"That pitiful, little organization is causing quite a nuisance to you, as I understand. Otherwise why would you be spending so much attention to what your >>old friend<< has been doing these days?" Earl equalled.
"Speaking of old friends..." Sela stepped up to Data "The android who came to be admired and feared even in our Empire - this time disguised as a human! What a strange coincidence that once again we meet underground. It will be an honour for our cyberneticists to reprogram you to serve US!"
There was a moment of silence as Data refused to requite any of the remarks, and Edmond had to face the truth about his wife's lover... The man, she had chosen over HIM!
"Android?!" Edmond gaped and just couldn't hide his utter shock and disbelief.
"Yes." Sela nodded "I trust you've never seen one before. He's the only one in the Federation. We've been trying to come up with as a sophisticated design as he is without much success for years - now we'll have the necessary resources!" she smiled, and her eyes shone with a peculiar excitement.
But Edmond heard nothing of what she said. He and Data were glaring only at each other, and Ed had no intention of hiding his jealousy anymore. This new-found knowledge fuelled such a loathing, that even he was surprised that he was capable of such and emotion. "...an android... a machine..." Ed whispered with disgust and clenched his jaw, eyes blazing with sizzling hatred as he stepped right in front of Data - they could feel each other's breath on their faces. "And you dared lay eyes on my wife..." he whispered sending chills up everybody's back - except Data's - he went on on a dangerously low voice "...by the time I'm finished with you, machine, you'll curse the name of whomever brought you into this world."
Sela watched them confused and stunned. Then in the next moment, Ed took a step back without taking his eyes off of Data he called to the Romulan soldiers "Search the chamber! You'll find a woman hiding somewhere around!"
TO BE CONTINUED...
A/N: Words in Italics are Irvin Berlin's Blue Skies.
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Blind Chess