understanding, you can rebuild. It will take time, but you
have that in abundance. It will take support, but you
will have that in as great quantities. Come out to me.
Reach out to my soul, Reannon. You see it there,
calling to you."
Nothing.
There were footsteps just outside, and Geordi
La Forge entered. He paused in the threshold and
said, "Sorry, Counselor, I didn't know you
were ... I can come back later."
"No, it's all right, Geordi," she said,
gesturing for him to enter. "Your presence can only be
of benefit."
He sat down within arm's reach and shook his
head. "Still can't believe that thing survived cutting
right through a star. The radiation, the heat--it's just
incredible."
"What's more incredible is that we're still in
pursuit and trying to convince ourselves we can stop
it," said Troi.
He looked up at her. "That sounds
surprisingly fatalistic for you, Counselor."
"There's a fine line between fatalism and
realism, Geordi."
"Hey, who would have thought that the Tholians would have
let us depart from their space without any sort of
further challenge? They still can't believe that the
captain risked everything to save their homeworld."
He leaned forward towards Reannon. "Any
progress?"
"There was that moment in the engineering room," said
Troi, settling back and trying her best not
to look discouraged. "That was a definite breakthrough.
But now there's nothing. It's as if she's hiding."
"I can't say I blame her entirely," said
Geordi.
"Nor can I. Obviously, she does not wish
to face the reality of her memories of the Borg.
So she has blocked out everything, rather than deal with
it."
Geordi reached forward, took her hand and brought
it up to his face. "This got a reaction out of
her before," said Geordi. "She seemed interested
in my VISOR. Maybe she will be again."
He brought her ice-cold hand up in front of
his face, took the tips of her fingers, and ran
them across his VISOR. When they reached the end he
rubbed them back in the other direction, and all the
time he kept saying, "Reannon? Reannon?
I know you're in there. I know I can help you.
Reannon?"
Slowly, ever so slowly, her gaze shifted
to Geordi and actually seemed to focus on him
for a moment.
"Geordi, she's reacting," said
Deanna in a hushed voice, as if afraid that
speaking out loud would somehow break the spell.
Reannon's fingers closed on the VISOR,
and she yanked with all her strength. The VISOR
flew off Geordi's face and the world immediately
became blackness around him.
Reannon held the VISOR tightly, and again
she started to make sounds, muttering incoherences.
Out of a reflexive sense of panic to the darkness
that had enveloped him, Geordi La Forge
lunged forward, trying to get to the VISOR. He
missed completely and fell heavily to the floor.
The ruckus immediately prompted the security
guard outside to enter, phaser drawn.
"Lieutenant!" he shouted, seeing Geordi on
the floor, grasping about desperately.
"No!" cried out Deanna, leaping to her
feet and raising her hands as if to ward off a
phaser blast. "No, don't! It's all right.
It's going to be all right!"
Reannon had turned away, moving quickly but
in a very tight circle. And she was trying to shove
the VISOR onto her face. She got it on
once but it slid off, and she grabbed at it while
muttering incoherent, incomprehensible shrieks.
"What's happening!" called out Geordi.
Troi was helping the engineer to his feet, and again
the engineer said, "What's happening? What's going
on? What's she doing?"
Reannon hesitated for a moment, looking around
in confusion, and then, gripping the VISOR with one
hand, she started clawing at her eyes with the other.
Fortunately, it was the prosthetic hand that was
holding the VISOR, because if she'd used that hand
done serious damage to herself.
Troi reached forward and grabbed Reannon's
wrist, all the time hushing her and whispering to her
to calm down, that everything was going to be all right, that
she was among friends. And finally the fit seemed
to pass, and Reannon slipped back into the
sullen, coma-like attitude that she had had before.
Without a word Troi handed the VISOR back
to Geordi, who quickly replaced it on his face.
As what passed for the world snapped into view once
more, he sighed in relief. "Not damaged," he
said. "That's a relief. What happened,
Counselor?"
"I believe," said Deanna slowly, "that she
was attempting to rip out her own eyes and
replace them with a mechanical implement."
He hung his head. "Trying to re-create herself
as a Borg. My God. That's what she was
trying to do, isn't it."
"That is my guess," said Deanna. "And
yet, she is of two minds. On the one hand, she
tries to recapture her transformation into a
Borg. On the other hand," and Deanna ran her
fingers maternally through Reannon's hair, "she
is repulsed by it and tries to deny what happened
to her. She is a very tortured individual."
"But I was sure I was getting through to her," said
Geordi fiercely. "I was so certain."
Troi looked at him curiously. "This is so
important to you, Geordi. More so than I would
have suspected. Beyond any of the explanations you
gave before. Why? What is it about her that seems
to have touched you so?"
He sat there, trying to find a way to put it
into words, and ultimately was unable to. "I
feel close to her, that's all. I admire the
type of woman she is. Or was. The
adventurer. Someone who is totally independent,
willing to take on anything. I admire her and
I respect her and--"
"Do you love her?"
La Forge looked slightly taken aback.
"I ... don't think so. I love the
opportunity to help her, and I think about ..."
His voice trailed off a moment and then, softly,
he admitted, "I think about her all the time."
Then he drew himself up, squaring his shoulders, and
said, "It's a challenge, that's all. A
project. The same as any other challenging
project. I want to help her to feel better.
That's all."
"If you say so, Geordi," said Troi
neutrally. He glanced at her face and wondered
if she was smiling or not.
At that moment both Troi's and La Forge's
communicators beeped. La Forge tapped his,
as Troi did hers. Picard's voice came
over both of them as he s
aid, "I'm calling an
immediate conference of all senior officers."
"What's happened, Captain?" Troi could
instantly sense the controlled distress the captain
was feeling.
"Reports from outlying starbases along the
frontier," said Picard. "The Borg are on
their way." He paused. "In force."
Picard signed off, and Geordi and Troi
looked at each other. "They're obviously
determined to destroy the planet-killer," said
Geordi, "before it gets to Borg space."
"And in a battle between Delcara and the Borg
... whose side would we take?" asked Troi.
Geordi chewed his lower lip and finally
admitted, "That's going to be the big question, isn't
it. The big, and maybe final, question."
Guinan walked slowly down the corridor, not
even noticing the crewmembers who walked past
her. That was extremely unusual for her, since
on those rare occasions when she was noticed moving
through the hallways of the Enterprise, she always had
a kind word or a polite nod for anyone who
passed her. Now, though, she was clearly
preoccupied.
She stopped in front of a holodeck door and
paused, as if considering her options. The ship was
still on yellow alert, so no crew members were
busy living out some sort of amusing fantasy through
the Enterprise holo-technology. Guinan
composed herself and walked in.
The yellow grids glimmered around her as she
stood in the middle of the holodeck. She took a
deep breath, clearing her thoughts, and then she put
her fingers to her head.
"Delcara," she said softly, and again,
"Delcara." And when she spoke, her voice
went far beyond the confines of the holodeck, beyond the
confines of normal space.
All was silence for quite some time, and then an
image shimmered and appeared before her.
Guinan gasped when she saw her in spite of
herself. Delcara's face was more lined than before, and
now her hair was brittle and looked like it might
even be falling out. When she stood it was wi th hunched
back, as if she were carrying the weight of the world on
her. And her very aura had changed. Once it had
glimmered, white and pure, and now it was darksome and
disturbing. Her eyebrows were heavier, her eyes
seeming to be receding into her head. When she
regarded Guinan, her entire face seemed
constructed for exuding suspicion.
"What's happened to you?" whispered Guinan.
"Nothing," said Delcara. "Nothing, bond
sister. You called me. I have come. What more can you
wish from me than that?"
"Computer," Guinan said abruptly.
"Access ship's log, stardate 44793.6.
Re-create from visual records the woman named
Delcara who appeared in holographic form.
Physical form only. Do not animate."
Within an instant the computer had complied, and a
perfect construct of Delcara stood before the two
of them. She stood there quietly, unmoving, a
mere shell. Yet there was a grace and quiet
beauty still in evidence that had already faded from the being
who had come to Guinan at her behest mere moments
ago.
"Geordi tried this with his Borg friend," said
Guinan. "A woman whose soul he is trying
to recapture. I figured, if it's good enough for
him ..."
"A Borg friend?" Delcara looked at her
skeptically. "Recapture a soul? That cannot
happen, my bond sister. They have no souls.
Nor does this," and she gazed in fascination at the
body that stood before her, motionless. "This, however,
does present interesting ... opportunities."
She stepped forward, like a specter, and merged
with the body.
The body staggered for a moment, as if getting its
bearings, and then Delcara's heart shone through the
eyes. She held up the hands and experimentally
touched them to the face. "Intriguing," she said.
She looked over to Guinan, who was standing there with
quiet satisfaction, and held out her hands to her.
"Bond sister, I feel as if I see you with
new eyes. You are looking well."
"And you--" Guinan took her hands. "You
look terrible."
"Blunt as ever," said Delcara. "Wrong as
ever. You counseled forgiveness, Guinan. You
counseled that I should live my life and not dwell
on the past. But look at what I have achieved,
sister. Look."
"Yes, let's look, shall we?" said Guinan
sharply. "Don't you understand what's happening to you?
Your obsession is destroying you. It's eating
away at your soul. God only knows what it's
done to your body. You won't let us see that."
"My body is in perfectly fine health,"
Delcara told her.
"Come aboard the Enterprise, Delcara,"
Guinan said urgently. "Leave the
planet-killer behind. Come be with me. Come be with
him. We are your future. Not that machine in which you
hide."
"You do not understand, Guinan. They need me, and
I need them."
"You only need them if you need vengeance. If
you put vengeance aside, you need only love.
And you don't need a machine that was built
to destroy to provide you with that."
Delcara turned her back to her. "You don't
understand."
"No, no, I've never understood," said
Guinan. "Letting an obsession consume you in the
way that it has is totally alien to me. I
remember you as you were, Delcara. There was a
darkness in you, true, but you were willing to let in
light. You were willing to love. You were willing
to dream and hope of things other than destruction."
"We change, Guinan. Well, not you, of
course," said Delcara with a touch of sarcasm.
"You are the same, sweet-tempered, attentive
individual you always were."
"I remember a time when that was important
to you," Guinan replied. "Delcara, come back
to us. To me."
"They need me," she began again.
Guinan squeezed Delcara's "hands" as
tightly as she could. "They need. They need. But
they don't give, bond sister. They take and
take from you. But they don't give you the flesh and
blood relationship that only other living beings can
provide. The spirits of the dead possess you and
destroy you. Leave them and return to us."
"I can't!" cried Delcara in exasperation.
"What would you have of me, Guinan! What would you
have!"
"Give up the vendetta ..."
"I can't! Don't you see? That's all I
am. That's all that's left of the woman you once
knew. I don't know anything else, nor does
anything else matter!"
"I don't believe that."
"Whether you believe it or not doesn't change
it."
"Let us come to you," said Guinan
desperatel
y, urgently.
"Impossible."
"Not impossible. Let us into your vessel.
See us like this," and she squeezed Delcara's
"hand" firmly. "Let us address the many beings that
you represent. Picard can be very persuasive."
"Picard," said Delcara with a faint whisper,
and then, her voice more firm, she said,
"It's impossible, I said."
"That's not you speaking," said Guinan with
surprising fierceness. "That's them."
"They are many. I am one."
"But you're the one that matters to me."
"All right," said Delcara, sounding
extremely tired again. "All right, Guinan.
I swear, you and your relentless nature. You would
vex the gods of patience."
Guinan smiled. "At the very least, I'd
give them something to think about."
"Time draws short, though," said Delcara
darkly. "I sense more of the soulless ones on the
horizons of space. There are three of them this
time."
Guinan cast a glance in the direction that
Delcara was pointing, as if she could see through a
bulkhead. "Three."
"Yes. It will be a difficult battle. But
I will prevail. That is the main reason that I
agree to see Picard now, you see."
"On the eve of your great triumph?"
"No," she said simply, and sadly. "Because
I anticipate that he will not face the Borg
another time and live. And his departure will leave a
great absence in me. How fortunate that I do not
love him."
The holodeck-generated body arched her back
slightly, and then slumped forward, its eyes
vacant and wide, staring at nothing. Guinan
nodded slowly and said, "How fortunate indeed."
Once again Picard had assembled his top
officers in the briefing room, with Korsmo and
Shelby in attendance as well.
It was a strategy conference, the type of which
Picard had hoped he would never have to call again.
"The Borg," he said, "are on the way. The
speed reported by Starbase 222 was somewhere above
warp nine-point-nine."
Geordi whistled. "Incredible. The fastest that
subspace radio goes is warp
nine-point-nine-nine-nine, and that's with booster
relays, which means that the Borg may be barely
behind the radio transmission. You know, the laws of
physics say it's impossible to reach warp ten,
but if anyone can do it, I bet the Borg could.
Not that I get any particular pleasure from that
thought, mind you."
"What's even more incredible is that they