Future’s Children, Chapter 2
Author: Draygon, draygon_icewing@yahoo.com
Counselor Troi stopped at Lydia’s door, pressing the call button, letting her know that she had a guest. Dianna felt Lydia’s subdued mood before she was given permission to enter, and saw it in the fact that Lydia had not bothered to activate the lights. Troi saw Lydia in front of the mirror, admiring her new clothing as she turned around to see how it fit her in the back. Since there was really nothing proper that Lydia could wear, she had taken it upon herself to replicate nearly her entire wardrobe, down to the platform heels she was wearing. Everything was black, except for the lacing of her bodice and her necklace which were deep shades of red. She wore a pewter dragon’s head around her neck, the eyes set with red stones, and her hair was held back by a black silk ribbon with red embroidery. She was a dream of dark beauty.
“Oh, hi Dianna. So…what do you think of my choice of attire? Not to provocative?” She asked, though the mischevious glint in her eyes said that she was going for the opposite.
“Very nice. The captain has asked me to escort you his ready room. He wishes to speak with you further.” Troi said, trying not to notice the swing of her hips as she started walking out the door. Truth be told, this girl could wear the most unattractive clothing imaginable and she would still be provocative.
Lydia walked beside Troi as they made their way to the Bridge. Troi did not miss the admiring and surprised looks the other officers and civilians gave her. Even though she had shown up just the day before, she walked as though she owned everything she could see. She was not pompous by far, but she had this quiet regal look about her that made people take notice and even those of higher rank stepped asside to allow her to walk past. A phenomenon that left said officers glued where they stood, watching as the young woman passed out of their sight.
The opened onto the bridge, those stationed there nodding to Dianna as she walked out. Their eyes lingered slightly longer on Lydia as she sauntered out, almost floating over the floor, so fluid was her gate.
Data looked up from his control panel, his eyes locked on the back side of Lydia as she dissapeared into the Captain’s ready room. He was so entranced by the fluid perfection with which she walked that Data hardly noticed Riker’s low whistle as the doors closed.
Picard looked up from his data pad as Dianna and Lydia walked in. He acknowledged Dianna with a polite incline of his head. Though when his eyes fell on Lydia, he could hardly help the slightly surprised look on his face. He had only seen this kind of dress in the Museum of Aesthetics on Earth. And even then the maniquins were woefully inadiquite models for such dress. Lydia looked like a dark queen come down to mingle with the commoners. The dark make up on her eyes and blood red lipstick she wore only enhanced this notion in Picard’s mind.
Dianna sat in one chair, beckoning Lydia to sit in the other. Lydia sat down, crossing her long curvacious legs. Even the Captain had to admire her beauty. He may be the Captain of the Enterprise, but he wasn’t dead yet. Dianna read his emotions concerning and found it hard not to smile, apparently she had this effect on everyone. She suspected that it was part of a defense mechanism, meant to disarm anyone that she felt was threatening, the Captain being the intended target of said disarming. Lydia didn’t need this method in this day and age, females were treated in the same manner as the males in Starfleet, but Dianna could understand that Lydia may carry misconceptions from her own time.
“I called you here because the curator of the Museum of Antiquities has heard of your arrival and would very much like to meet you. This is all up to you of course. If you feel that you are not ready, then I shall decline his request to see you?” Picard stated, watching Lydia’s face for any reaction. He could tell that she was somewhat more subdued than the previous day, and wasn’t sure how she would take such a proposal.
“As long as they don’t try poking me with needles and doing experiments on me I’m fine with it. The only problem I have is being considered an Antiquity. I’m not that old…am I?” She asked, looking slightly uncertain as she tilted her head at Picard, her questioning eyes on him.
Picard could pick out in that instant why her middle name was Hera. Her eyes were the color of Hera’s eye feathers on the tail of peacocks, and made her an even rarer beauty. “Good…also, the head of the school of Engineering at Starfleet Academy has asked to see you as well, since your work is the reason we are able to do what we do today.”
Lydia smiled, blushing slightly. “I’m ok with that, too. But could you keep it down about who I am? Geordi already treats me like I walk on water.” She laughed, getting a chuckle from Picard. He knew all too well how much Geordi idolized pioneers of the past. And his treatment of Lydia was no surprise since all his school work at the Academy had revolved around her equations being applied by Cochrain to build the first warp engine.
The first meeting with the curator with the Museum of Antiquities was slightly harrowing for Lydia. She was bombarded with questions about politics, economy, fashion, and world views. She was even asked about the first quake, Christmas of 2004. Her silence was enough to make Picard want to put an end to the meeting. But Lydia sighed and answered. “I remember watching it on TV, yes. It was horrible, absolutely horrible. My family donated several hundred thousand dollars that first day to the Red Cross and other charities. But the second quake was something far worse than anyone could have ever imagined. I only know of the damage from the histories I’ve read aboard the Enterprise. But knowing that my entire family was killed, including my two little nieces…that has literally ripped me apart inside.”
After that Picard put an early end to the meeting, ignoring the curator’s protests that he was not finished yet. A stern look from the Captain was enough to forestall any more complaints, and the curator was forced to go back to his ship with only three-fourths of his questions answered.
The second meeting took place a day later in Tactical. The head of Engineering at Starfleet Acadamey seemed overly excited, and reminded Lydia vaguely of Geordi. But this man was portly and pasty, and sported a goatee that made him look like the Colonel from KFC.
“You don’t know how amazed I was to find out that you surfaced aboard the Enterprise. After all, it was this ship that helped Zephram Cochrain launch the first warp engine using your calculations and theorems. You should be quite proud of yourself, young lady. Our society would not exist if you did not have the courage to go against your superiors and publish these books.” Lydia listened to the man gush about everything that she had made possible. Truth be told, she was starting to get a bit uncomfortable with the whole situation. She sat back, crossing her legs as she studied the equations he had displayed over the table. He wanted her to figure out what was wrong since his entire department could not.
She stood up, smoothing her hands over her short red leather halter dress. Her hair was pulled up into two buns on the sides of her head, each with a red stone holding them together. Out of the buns cascaded the rest of her hair, making her look look almost like a renegade Priestess from Vulcan. Her fish net stockings and thigh high black boots however destroyed that idea. Even the department head had a hard time not looking at her body. This was yet another mechanism of hers, keeping the other person distracted so she could keep herself safe.
“Well…I can tell you right now why your equations don’t add up. See here? The differintal is Point-O-Sixty-Two percent less than what is needed to maintain the frequency needed to sustain anything past Warp 9.9 without having the containment field around the core collapse.” She said as she made the necessary adjustments to the equation, smiling as the simulation took shape, showing a stable warp field past Warp 10 and beyond.
“Amazing, just looking at it for a few minutes and you already had the answer.” The department head looked up at Lydia in awe, prostrating himself in his mind.
“No, Admiral Tytus. I’ve had this equation in my head for months now. I just never got around to writing it down.” She shrugged as she canceled the simulation and started on an entirely new set of equations. “And this is burning a hole in my skull right now…” She said as the equation quickly took shape, dropping the jaws of Geordi and the department head. “Try this and you would most likely be able to engage warp engines inside an atmosphere. You would be able to pop in and out relatively quickly without alerting anyone to your presence until you were right on their ass…so to speak.” She said smiling as the Captain gave her a slightly disapproving glance. “Old habits die hard, Captain.” She shrugged.
Commander T’lyk hung his head in shame as he was greeted with the news that his mission was a complete failure. Him and his crew of the Romulan War bird, the Purist had stayed in orbit around Earth for an entire year, waiting for the chance to destroy the human that posed the greatest danger to them. Even though she was born nearly three-thousand years in the past, she was still an enormous danger to the Romulan Empire. Had she lived longer, she may have published more of her mathematical genius and given the Federation an unfair advantage the Romulan’s felt they alone deserved.
They had tried tricking the woman into thinking that they were from a government agency that wanted use of her talents. But her innate mistrust of government of any kind and her abhoration of authority made it painfully clear that another method was needed in silencing the human. And so the idea of using the planet itself to do the deed came to discussion. If they could create enough energy between the plates of the Earth and release it at their command they had the power to not only wipe out this human, but also to kill as many of her brethren as possible. Needless to say, this plan was met with unanimous enthusiasm.
Commander T’lyk had spend nearly three years developing the technology that would be used for such an undertaking, and when it was complete, The Romulans used the method that Kirk had used centuries earlier to travel into the past, engaging warp engines and slingshotting themselves around a sun of sufficient mass.
When they were sure they had succeeded in arriving at the approproite date, they had provided directly to Earth, engaging their cloaking device incase the primitive sattalites detected their presence.
Before they could use their weapon, they had to test it. So, choosing a date, Christmas in the year 2004, the Romulans aimed their weapon at fault where the Sumatra and Indian plates joined in a subduction zone. It took twenty-four hours for there to be a sufficient energy release to cause the damage they wanted. And so, on December 26, 2004, the test was carried out, with complete success. Not only did they succeed in disturbing the fault zone, but they even changed the coastline of Southern Asia itself. Pleased with their results, the crew of Purist waited, watching the Fiske clan, waiting for the moment when they would all converge in the same spot.
To their delight, they came to the same place they had tested the year before, hoping to inject some much needed money into Thai Land’s crippled economy. This pleased T’lyk greatly, and he ordered the weapon be engaged once again. But this time, to increase the energy build up by Fifty-Percent to make sure that the entire family would be washed away.
On New Year’s Eve, 2005, the crew had built up sufficient energy within the fault, and released it, sending a shock wave through the earth’s crust measuring a 9.9 on the Rictor scale. Within a matter of hours, the entire island of Thai Land and three hundred miles inside India were inundated with water, killing hundreds of thousands more than their test a year earlier. Encouraged by reports from Earth news groups that the entire Fiske family had been exterminated, the Romulan’s returned home, hailed as conquering heros, saviours of the Empire.
But now all those accolades were gone, as was the rank they brought. He was no longer Supreme Commander T’lyk, no longer part of his illustrious Empire’s commanding officers. He had but one chance to redeem himself, and he would not let this slip through his fingers. “Set course for the Enterprise’s last known coordinates.” He commanded, sitting back in his command chair as the War bird engaged its cloaking device and went to warp, speeding toward his destiny.