--and you running down the corridor in your
nightclothes would qualify."
"Who is "they"'?"
"I said don't interrupt. Just listen:
Deanna is going to be poisoned." He pushed
on despite W's expression of astonishment and
held up the vial from his jacket. "This
will counteract it. You've got to get to her quarters
and get her to drink it. And you've got"--he
glanced at his chronometer--?j over fifteen
minutes to do it."
At that moment, W's communicator beeped.
"You don't have time!" hissed the admiral.
But Will, never taking his eyes off the admiral,
tapped it. "Riker here."
"Security alert, sir," came the deep
voice of Worf. "An intruder was reported in
your general vicinity. Have you seen him?"
Will Riker stared at his future self.
The admiral realized that everything was hinging on this
moment. A ^w from Commander Riker would bring Worf
and his people charging to the rescue. And the admiral had not
had enough time to convince his younger self of the truth of his
^ws.
^ws.
His own ^ws.
And in a very low voice, he said, "The future
holds such promise ... and just as I cannot imag-
ine how I survived the past ... without you ..."
W's eyes widened in shock, even as over his
communicator Worf said, "Commander ... what
did you say?"
"Nothing," was the firm reply. "I haven't
seen him. I'll meet you in a few minutes.
I just ... have to get dressed. Riker out."
There was a silence that, to both of them, seemed
to stretch on for eternity. And then Will said, with slow
understanding, "She died. In your past ... my
future ... she died. And you've come back
somehow to try and prevent it. You're ... you're
tampering with time ... and the "they"' you're worried
about are the people from your time--maybe scientists or,
my God, Starfleet personnel--who might
try and stop you."
"She wasn't supposed to die," said the
admiral. "It was wrong. Wrong for her. Wrong
for me, for everyone. And I'm here to prevent that
wrong, and I don't give a damn what
regulations say, and if you love her ... if
you're truly Imzadi ... you won't give a
damn either."
"But ... but how am I supposed to believe
you? How am I supposed to just ... just take the
future into my own hands. Our own hands?"
The admiral took a step toward him. "We
do it every moment of our lives, kid. Every day we
make our own future. But someone came
back and decided to remake the future in their own
image ... and now I'm here to stop it."
"Unless someone stops you. Which means that someone
isn't certain."
Admiral Riker grabbed Will Riker by his
uniform front. Despite his age, his strength was
almost undiminished and was fueled by anger. "Damn
you, you sanctimonious clod! You think you know
everything? You don't know a damn thing! You want
certainty? This is a certainty, then--Deanna
is going to die! She's going to writhe on the
floor and beg you to do something, and all you're going
to do is watch her suffer massive circulatory
collapse and die! And it's not going to be until
that moment, you purbl idiot, that you realize that
she's the better part of you!"
"You're ... it's wrong," Will said, but there was
tremendous conflict in his eyes. "It's wrong
to tamper with the past. ... I can't believe that
there's any circumstance under which I'd ... I'd
knowingly ..."
"You think you can judge me!" said the
admiral. "Remember what we wrote? "And
just as I cannot imagine how I survived the past
without you ... I cannot imagine a future without
you."' Remember? Well, I'm the future
without her, buddy boy, and I can tell you right now
that it's not something you're going to relish." He
shoved the vial into Will's palm. "It's going
to happen, Riker! In just a few minutes now!
Her life is going to end. You can save it! You have
the power, right here, right now! Now are you going to stand
there debating philosophies and moralities and
rights and wrongs? Or are you going to deal with the
genuine, real, here-and-now fact that Deanna's
life is at stake and only you have a hope in
hell of saving her. And if you don't save her,
then hell is where you're going to be--forty years of
hell! Of might-h-beens and what-ifs.
"Except for me, there was just the frustration that I
should have done something, but didn't know what. For you,
it's going to be the knowledge that you could have done something, but
didn't. How much worse for you, Riker? When you
call out with your mind, "Imzadiea"' and there's
no one to respond, no part of your soul that
acknowledges that the ^w has any meaning to anyone
else, what will happen to you then? God damn
you, Riker! When your heart's been cut out,
how's it going to feel knowing that you're the one
who wielded the knife?"
Will ripped away from him, his face ashen, his
heart pounding.
"Deanna!" he screamed, and charged from his
quarters.
CHAPTER 38
Dann nibbled at Deanna's neck and began
to work his way down. She sighed, a slow,
languorous sigh. She was on the bed, wearing
only the flimsiest of shifts. She started to push
it down off her shoulders so that Dann's downward
course would be unobstructed.
But still, something bothered her. "Dann ... are you
all right?"
He raised his head slightly. "Of course
I am," he said reasonably. "Why wouldn't I
be?"
"I don't know. I just sense ... I mean
..."
And suddenly she sat up, confused, a voice
echoing in her head. "Will?" she said in bewilderment.
"What's wrong?" asked Dann, sitting up
as well.
"It's ... it's w. Something's wrong ...
I sense ... total panic. It's ... something
directed towards me, I don't ..."
"Deanna, calm down," said Dann
firmly, taking her by the shoulders. "He's
probably just, well, jealous about us. That's
what's giving him anxiety. He's probably
even asleep and you're just ... just tuning in to his
dreams somehow. I know you two are close, but--"
"ationo!" She pushed him aside. "Something
is wrong."
"Deanna ..."
She got out of bed, adjusting the shift around
her, and went over to her uniform, which was neatly
hung nearby. She tapped the communicator on
it and said, "Troi to Riker."
"Deanna!" came Riker's desperate
shout. "Stay there! Don't move! I'll be there
in a few seconds!"
She spun and faced Dann. "Did you hear
that? He's ter
rified!"
"Yes," said Dann sadly. "Yes ... I
can't say I'm surprised."
Will hurtled down the corridor at warp
speed. He skidded once and, to his
panic, almost bobbled the vial and dropped it. But
he recovered quickly and turned a corner.
His mind was racing furiously. He didn't
know how or why any of this was happening, but there were
two things of which he was completely, instinctively
convinced--t he had confronted his future self,
and that Deanna was going to die in the next few
minutes.
He skidded to a halt outside her quarters and
charged in. Deanna was seated on the bed, arguing
with Dann, but when she saw Riker, she rose
to her feet. "Will ...?"
He thrust the vial outward. "Drink this!
Quicklyffwas
Dann came off the bed and stood between them.
"What are you, crazy? She's not just going to drink
some vial of unknown liquid because you told her
to. Get out of here!"
"Deanna, you have to," said Riker. "Your
life depends on it."
Deanna knew, of course, that Riker
believed every ^w of what he was saying. But it
didn't make her any less befuddled. "My
life?"
"Out of my way!" Riker said to Dann, trying
to push him aside.
"Like hell! Deanna, don't listen to him!
He's trying to hurt you! He's jealous of me!"
Dann moved once again to block Riker, and this
time Will grabbed him by the shoulders and tried to push
him to one side. To his shock, Dann didn't
budge. He was a head shorter and considerably
slimmer than Riker, but he held his ground.
Instead he grabbed Riker by the forearms and held
him in a grip of iron.
"Deanna!" shouted Riker, and somehow, in his
head, he heard a slow, steady ticking, like time
slipping away from him, spiraling out of control.
Everything seemed to slow down and distort as he
twisted in Dann's grasp and flipped the vial
onto the bed. It landed on the sheets, bounced
once, and started to tumble to the floor. But
Deanna's hand snatched out and grabbed it. She
stared at it, trying to understand.
"Give me that!" shouted Dann, and her
head snapped around in amazement at the desperation
in his tone. With his free hand he lunged for the
vial, but now Will Riker shifted his grip and
spun on the ball of his foot. Dann was thrown
across the room, crashing into furniture.
"Drink it!" Riker yelled at Deanna.
"If you ever trusted me, if you ever loved me,
drink it!"
Deanna needed no further urging. She
pulled at the stopper.
It was stuck.
Dann came to his feet andwith an
animalistic roar sprang toward Deanna.
Riker met his charge, braced himself, and the two of
them went down in a tumble of arms and legs.
Riker rolled over, gaining the advantage, and
pounded furiously on Dann's head. The blows
didn't seem to have any effect, and Dann
drove a knee up, shoving Riker off. But
Riker didn't lose his grip on one of
Dann's arms, and the Starfleet officer, even off
balance, managed to send Dann crashing into the
wall.
Deanna worked desperately at the stopper,
kneading it with her fingers. It worked its way
upward.
Dann began to transform.
He became larger, his body covered with thick
brown fur, his hands shaping into claws.
Riker recognized his species immediately. It
was a Chameloid. Shape-shifters, incredibly
powerful, incredibly dangerous.
Deanna, her fingers still pushing on the stopper,
stared at the man she had thought was Dann, her dark
eyes registering her utter shock. And then, somewhere
deep within her, she felt some sort of distant,
burning sensation.
At that moment, the stopper popped off, rolling
onto the bed.
"NO!" roared "Dann," and he made one
final, desperate lunge. He shoved Riker
aside, his fingers reaching for the vial, and then Riker
snared his long, matted fur from behind and leaped on,
wrapping his arms down and around the Chameloid's
arms, and up around the creature's neck.
Deanna drank down the contents of the vial in
one gulp.
The Chameloid howled in fury, trying to bat
Riker off his back. "You idiot! Do you have any
idea what you've done! Do you?"
Riker said nothing. Instead, all of his energy was
being used to shove the creature's neck forward.
The Chameloid broke the grip, slamming
Riker to the floor. Towering over him, the
creature roared, "You selfish bastard!
You've risked everything!"
"I've risked everything for Deanna before,"
Riker said defiantly, "and I'd do it again!"
"Well, I don't have that choice!" snapped
the Chameloid.
He started toward Deanna, his hands
outstretched ...
And a phaser blast from behind sent the Chameloid
to his knees.
Worf stood in the doorway, his phaser
leveled. "One side, Commander," he said
calmly. Immediately Riker leaped out of the way and
Worf fired again. The phaser beam enveloped the
Chameloid once again. He wailed in
frustration, and then consciousness slipped from him and
he pitched forward, right on top of Riker.
Worf helped roll the Chameloid off
Then he looked to Deanna, who was making a
similar motion of her own. "Deanna," he said
urgently, "are you all right? Are--"
"I ... I felt something. Some sort of ...
of burning pain in my chest ... but now it's gone.
Will ... what's happened here? Who is ... is
that?" She pointed distastefully at the
unconscious Chameloid. "Where did this vial
come from? How did you know ...?"
Riker patted her hand with all the reassurance
that he could muster at that moment. Then he said,
"Worf ... get our "fr"' here to the brig.
Alert the captain, tell him to meet me
outside my quarters. Emphasize that.
Outside my quarters."
"Very well," said Worf, hauling the
Chameloid over his shoulder. Two other
security men had shown up by this point, but Worf
clearly had matters in hand. "Am I correct
in assuming that this is our intruder?"
Will looked up at him bleakly. "Worf, you
don't know the half of it."
Worf grunted and headed off to the brig with the
Chameloid. When he was gone, Riker rotated
his arm, which had been banged up as he'd wrestled
with the Chameloid.
Troi, for her part, merely looked at him with
awe. "You saved my life, W," she said
quietly. "I was in danger, and you came charging
in here--risked your life--and you saved me."
"Actually," said Riker, "not to sound boastful
or anything--but it appears I went
to even greater lengths than that to save you. You'd
better get dressed and come with me. I don't
think you're going to believe this unless you see it.
I'll ..." He cleared his throat, chucking a
thumb toward the hallway. "I'll wait out here
for you to put some clothes on."
"That's very decent of you, Commander."
She slid off the bed, stood on her toes, and
kissed him.
"Thank you for saving me," she whispered in his
ear.
He smiled tiredly. "All part of the
service."
CHAPTER 39
When Will and Deanna returned to his cabin,
Picard was standing there looking extremely
annoyed.
"All right, Number One," he said stiffly,
arms folded. "I have complied with your wishes and
stood here outside your cabin. I cannot say I like
to be kept waiting."
"The counselor was just making herself look
presentable," said w.
"Presentable for whom?" demanded Picard.
"Yes, Commander," chimed in Troi. With the
danger past, she was all business. "Whom
exactly am I being made presentable for?"
For answer, Will walked into his cabin, hoping
his future self had stayed put. It had
potential to be a very embarrassing situation if--
He was gone.
Will stood in the middle of the cabin, looking around
dismally. Troi and Picard followed him in, staring
uncomprehendingly at the officer's obvious
discomfiture.
"He was right here!" said Riker desperately.
"Number One," Picard told him, speaking
slowly and deliberately, "who ...
precisely ... was here?"
"Me."
It had been Will Riker's voice that had
replied, but it was not the Will Riker that Picard was
looking at. For an instant Picard thought that
Riker was practicing ventriloquism or some such
nonsense. But then, slowly, Picard realized that
the voice had come from behind them.
He turned in time to see a gray-haired
version of his second-in-command emerging
from the bathroom. "I was here," he said. "Still am,
actually. Which makes me con--"
He caught a glimpse of Deanna, who was
standing just behind the younger Will Riker. Will stepped
aside and gestured to her. "I did it," he said
quietly, "or rather ... we did it."
Picard had not yet fathomed what to say, much
less what to make of the situation. At that