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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
- 8
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"Emma Stern! I'm not telling you this any more times, young lady! You are beaming up to your ship RIGHT NOW!" the raspy voice of the old man on the screen came through the subspace channel mixed with some static. But Emma could very well see that her father was dead serious!
But she had to take a stand! This once, she had to! "No, father, I'm not going back!"
The features of the old man became hard and his cold blue eyes were blazing. Emma knew that face: it always predicted that he would go on in full Admiral mode, and she wasn't disappointed: "Lieutenant! As your commanding officer, I'm ordering you to report back to the Cairo!"
Emma rolled her eyes "Father, you're not my commanding officer! Stop acting as if you had power over me, cause once in my life, I got out from under your freaking command, and I'm making my own decisions! And I..."
"I'm not going to let my only daughter get married to a sleazy little colonist! A no-one! How dare you even think about deciding in such a matter without asking ME first?!" then a series of coughs rasped through the channel, and Emma could see that her father's face turned pale when his breathing finally evened. And her heart was gripped by fear - she wished she could understand why she was so scared of losing the one person that ruined her entire life...
"Father, just once... please, try to understand!" she pleaded on a low voice.
The old man glared at her with a look that made her feel guilty "You see what your disobedience does to your old father? You'll put me in the coffin one day, just the way you did with your mother! But you'll regret it, believe me! You'll break all of the nails on your hands trying to crawl me out of the grave!"
But suddenly, there was even more static in the sound and the visual: "Father, the channel is breaking up, I..." but she couldn't finish. The image of the old man disappeared as the screen went blank, and suddenly, Emma felt two hands over her eyes.
"Guess who?" she heard a familiar French accent, and the hands let her go. She turned, and Edmond kissed her on the lips. When he let her go, she smiled at him ruefully and he put his fingers under her chin to make her look at him "No, ma chérie, a day before her wedding the beautiful bride must not look so sad!"
She smiled this time a more heart-felt smile: "You're right..." then her expression turned gloomy again "I tried to tell him but..."
"He was upset, of course! Saying that this marriage is outrageous, of course! Calling me a nobody, of course!" he finished her sentence AND her thoughts smiling challengingly.
"You were eavesdropping?" she frowned but didn't really feel angry about it.
He leaned closer and gave a light kiss on her lips then stared into her eyes with his intent black gaze "Who do you think has broken your channel up?" he asked mischievously.
"Oh, you! You're naughty!" she shook her head stunned and was not sure if she should have been angry or amazed.
Ed tightened his embrace around her almost too tight "You're mine now, chérie!" he whispered "We're getting married tomorrow, and I'm not gonna let anybody talk you out of it! Not even a grumpy old man, you no longer need!" he finished and kissed her on the lips until she had no more air left in her lungs.
Picard strode on the corridor of the detention cells, and his thoughts were somber. He was no fool. He could smell this whole mission was stinking from a hundred lightyears away. He wanted to know what really was going on behind the Federation's sudden interest in the colony, and on a more imminent accord, wanted to see what the Admiral's real intentions were. However, it was plain that they could not get anywhere with the mindless, blunt honesty that was such a trademark characteristic of Lieutenant Jones. He needed convince her that running out on them the way she did was not the resolution and he needed to get her to think at least twice before opening her mouth - the latter seemed the hardest part of it all.
He walked into the brig, and the guard stepped up to him confused: "Sir, the Lieutenant came in here and sat in that cell ever since. I don't know..."
Picard raised a hand to sooth him "That's alright, Ensign! You're dismissed now."
"Yes, Sir." the young man nodded and left them alone.
Picard stepped to the entrance of the small cell - the forcefield was not up - and looked at Emma for a moment. She sat there slouching, her hands were trembling as they were dropped in her lap, her face was tear-streaked, but the most shocking of her sight was that her nails bled on some of her fingers. It was a blood-chilling reminiscence of somebody tearing her nails at trying to crawl out of a cell or a coffin - though he was sure she had just bitten her nails too deep.
He stepped in and slowly sat next to her. She didn't move, and if he wanted to be honest, he wasn't even sure that she perceived his presence.
"That is a very bad habit, Lieutenant." he motioned to her nails bit almost to the flesh.
Emma took in a shaky breath and straightened her back a little as she wiped her tears from her face with the back of her hand "You came. Not Data. How come you didn't maximize the manipulation effect and sent HIM to talk me into making a suicidal leap?" He could tell she wanted to sound strong, but her voice was shaking and tear-filled. A sudden wave of pity washed over him: here was this woman who always tried to seem so fierce, so dominant and now... she was a mess crushed under her fears.
"I owe you an apology." Picard stated on a low voice.
To this Emma slowly looked at him. Her eyes were still hazy reflected shock, and she frowned really confused "For what?"
"You tried to tell me once what you left behind on Epsilon Four. I refused to listen because my pride was hurt. And I'm not talking only about my pride as a man. I'm talking about the pride of a Starfleet officer who is willing to give even his life for the fleet or the Federation. You made me face that even the Federation sometimes makes mistakes. And I have to admit, it hurt my pride as a Starfleet officer."
Emma tried to chuckle at this, but it became a snort. She stood up and started to pace slowly, aimlessly in the small cell. She stopped at the washbasin and stared at her reflection in the water: her face was pale and tear-streaked, and the look in her eyes distraught - she was scared of her own self for a moment! She reached into the water and washed her face quickly as if only to destroy that reflection - the ghost of her real self. Her bitten nails left the water pink from her blood, and the wounds started to sting.
She wiped her face and hands with a towel and muttered "Mistakes. I would rather call them a crimes..." He didn't reply, and she turned to him from the washbasin and looked into his eyes "The Federation let us down. Let the people on that planet down, let the Starfleet officers who remained behind down, everybody..." she shook her head looking for words, but she felt her mind was scattered into tiny pieces all over this cell - she tried again "People died there. Died of sicknesses, died of police brutality, died in prison, some were executed... you name it! And Uncle Seth, the biggest friend of my goddamn father walks in here and tells me that now, all of a sudden, the Federation wants to kiss and make up." she threw her hands up and laughed a forced laugh "Only because they're concerned about the people and their families! Oh, god, how the ceiling never fell on his head, I don't even..."
He stood up and stepped opposite her to look into her eyes "It's plain that this whole is a façade. Don't think that the people in the observation lounge weren't aware of that. But to walk out the way you just did is cowardly and by no means the way a Starfleet officer acts."
Emma suddenly laughed, and it was so sharp and forced that Picard felt the sound almost hurt his ears "Haven't you noticed, Captain Picard that I'm anything but a Starfleet officer?" she stepped around him and took a few paces to distance herself from him then turned to him again and looked into his eyes "You know how I got into Starfleet? My father intended the Academy for me as a punishment." she took a step closer "Do you know how the remarkable Admiral Stern, whose death is the loss of the whole of Starfleet, treated his family? My brothers and I were scared shitless whenever he was home. You know fathers normally kiss their kids before bed. Mine beat us up saying 'You haven't done anything today, but surely you will tomorrow to deserve it.' I was the only one who never broke!" she stepped now close to him again, and Picard knew he had to let her talk. She went on on a firm voice "I was lucky. I had wits. By the age of sixteen, I finished high school, in time I might add, just before I would have dropped out for truancy. He thought, in the Academy, I would finally learn some discipline. That's how I got into your precious Starfleet, Captain Picard. That's how much this whole means to me. So just tell Uncle Seth that he has done me a friendly favour. And have a very good day, Sir." she finished and walking back to the berth, she collapsed on it into the same slouching position he had found her.
Picard watched her for a moment longer then stepped in front of her, but he couldn't make her look up at him, so he just started to talk "When we had that little tiff about a month ago, just before your premiere of Dreamland, I looked up your record. I was stunned to find that some of it was classified by no other but Admiral Stern." At this, Emma finally looked up into his eyes, but her expression was unreadable. He went on "It made me curious, so I pulled some strings and checked around with some old Academy friends. It turns out that in your first semester, on multiple occasions, your father helped in covering the trouble you got yourself into and made you stay in the Academy." Emma bowed her head ashamed and he went on "The troubles seemed to lessen and then went away completely in your second semester. I tried to look for a reason for such a radical change and found that that was the time you were assigned to the same room with..."
"Beverly." she finished nodding, and he waited for her to go on "She was six years older than me. I was sixteen, she was twenty-two. She saw how ...lost I was there... And oh, she was so full of good intentions! Just like now... She helped me understand that even, if I was studying to do the job my father wanted me to do, I got a chance to live my own life. Without his influence." she said on a soft voice.
"And you finished with flying colors I might say. With honors in exo-biology."
"I was just lucky. My brain picks up everything, even the things I don't want to remember... The very fact that I finished Starfleet Medical was only her merit. Nobody else's."
He slowly sat down next to her and went on on a seemingly neutral voice "And now you're finally together again. You're doing a fine job as I hear. You have a home. You have people around you, whom you can call friends. Maybe even family. And you want me to believe you, when you say, you'd gladly give it all up just to defy Admiral McKinnley."
She turned her head sharply to him "Don't you understand?!" she asked in complete desperation "If I go back to that planet, to the planet where my husband is the lord of life and death, he'll NEVER let me leave! Ever! Don't you understand that this whole is his game?! He moves the pieces around on the board for both colors, we just make the moves he wants us to! And if he gets a chance to make me go there, he'll play his game until I'll have no choice left but to stay! And I'm not gonna play his game ever again. No matter how cowardly you may regard me, Captain Picard."
Despite Emma's outburst, Picard looked at her smiling a small, tight smile "You are forgetting, Lieutenant, that your husband is not the only one good at playing games."
Emma shook her head stubbornly "You don't know him Captain Picard. It's like playing a blind game of chess, without knowing his steps or even what your own steps would bring on your head. You don't know what he's capable of."
He refused to let her lose herself in this agony of desperation "But that is exactly what you can help me with! You know him, you know that planet. It gives us an immense advantage." Emma looked at him pleading now - she really didn't want to let herself being convinced as he went on "Don't you want to get to the bottom of this? Don't you want to see what's behind all of this? Why the Federation became so interested so suddenly? What your husband wants with bringing Starfleet there? Don't you want to finally close the wounds of the past and look into the future? Don't tell me, you enjoy wearing somebody's name that you want to forget. Don't tell me you want to run away with your tail wagged between your legs! The woman, who had the courage to tell her Captain that he's a hard-ass has more courage than to just give up on her life like that! Now, if you gave this crew and myself and even Mr. Data just a tiny fragment of trust, you would let us help you, and you would help us in return."
Emma bowed and shook her head defeated - oh, yes, she wanted to close the door on the past! Of course she did! She wanted nothing but that for years! But still... "I trust you. Believe me, I do, it's just that I'm... I'm so..." she shook her head again and looked up into his eyes hoping that he would understand without her saying the words.
And the Captain did understand: "Then we will need to make you feel as safe and secure as possible."
- 8
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Blind Chess