Breaking The Bonds

Chapter Five: Unexpected Confessions

"Captain's personal log: I've just had one of the most anticipated and feared conversations with my chief medical officer. It seems that my suspicions were confirmed. Lieutenant Derryl Pulaski is involved in the ill-treatment of one of my most prized officers. I am not sure how to approach this, however strange and insane it may seem. People look to me as a source of hope, support, and strength. I wish I could give myself the same encouragement, but I guess it doesn't work that way. On a brighter note, we have just received a message from an oncoming shuttlecraft. They will rendezvous with us in only two hours. I am curious as to who is onboard."

"Security to Main engineering."

Worf met the captain outside the turbolift that had just brought him down. "You called?"

"I did. I want you to make up an excuse as to why you are in there. You and Martinez head for the upper level. I'll stay below."

"What exactly are we doing here sir?"

"No questions now, Lieutenant. Just go and improvise. Keep an eye on Derryl Pulaski."

"Ay sir." They headed in while Jean-Luc pondered whether to enter armed or not. If I enter armed, he'll suspect something. If I don't, and there is a situation where Worf or Martinez cannot reach them in time, I'll have to live with the loss of an excellent officer. I've gone through that already many times over. I'm arming myself then going in. He set a phaser on stun and proceeded into engineering. All looked calm except for Geordi, who was now straightening his visor. "Captain, somethin' wrong?"

"I was just about to ask you the same question. Since when do you have to straighten that thing?"

"I just hit it when coming up from under that shelf. The panel under it needed to be adjusted. Someone had set one of the micro transmitters to overload. That would have caused an imbalance of power. We would have lost navigation systems."

"Very good. Has Doctor Pulaski reported down here yet?"

"No sir. She should have been here by now. Gomez was just hit with something out of nowhere. It seemed like a phaser, but nobody had one armed. I checked everybody."

"Alright. Computer, Locate Doctor Pulaski."

"Doctor Pulaski is on Holodeck six."

"Damn. Too late!" Picard turned and headed for the doors. "As you were, commander." Then he left.

"Ay sir." As Geordi watched his commanding officer leave and began to wonder. The doctor was secluded and withdrawn, while the captain was now running around the ship instead of remaining on the bridge. These were two completely different people acting just the opposite of each other.

"Worf, what's goin' on between those two?" He straightened p and looked to the Klingon for an answer.

"I don't know. They seem too close for a normal professional relationship. Although they have different views on many subjects, they care deeply about each other."

"Well, he's on his way to Holodeck Six. Pulaski is in there. I don't know where the hell our insubordinate lieutenant is… He was supposed to help me adjust that panel. If something had gone wrong, we would have been like the Hurratio, History."

"He has been getting a bit slack when it comes to duty, and it seems he holds something over his sister that keeps her in his direct line of vision…" Geordi nodded at that. Picard had completely overlooked his duty to the ship and took a personal matter into his own hands. Derryl was a manipulative bastard, but did that warrant so much concern from the captain?

"Well, if Derryl comes down here, ell him I wanna see him. I'm tired of him wanderin' off."

Meanwhile on holodeck six, Derryl was initiating a transport. "Don't worry I'm sure Captain Taggart has every reason to transport you back to the Repulse. He doesn't want you to become too soft."

Katherine stared into his eyes and saw the deception etched in every line on his face. "You truly are a bastard if you expect me to believe all that!"

"I am, am I? We'll see what Will Taggart has in store. Surely it can't be any easier than last time…" A dark look passed over his face, and the transport began. Katherine began to get nervous. The transporter wasn't the best thing, according to her, and Derryl knew it. As the simulation began, the thoughts began to wash over her, and memories came back.

The room was cold, damp, aand musty with the stench of sick and dead crewmen. A Romulan encounter had proven more counterproductive for the Repulse, and Taggart hadn't expected all the casualties. His orders had been to send a medical team up and check on the status of the injured. When they had reached the area most effected, Katherine had spotted one corpse that stuck out in her mind. It had been her brother, Derryl Loyd Pulaski. His eyes stared blankly up at her, his face a perfect picture of shock and horror. Something had collided sharply with the side of her head, and now here she was, stuck in this mortgue. The sick were forgotten, and the dead were left to rot along with them. Her head spun as she tried to stand, and a hand slowly grasped at her shoulder, catching her off guard. "You'll join them." Her captain's voice rang out through the eerily silent room. It seemed to match the mood: Cold, heartless, and unrelenting. The next thing she knew, Katherine was being slammed up against the nforgiving steel of the walls. Her shock was evident, and it brought a loud, barking laugh from him.. "You never expected this? How blind can you be? Why do you think we erased your transport pattern when you transferred? We didn't want Picard to track you when we got you back. Are you really that foolish?"

His words sliced into her like the blade of a sharp knife. It hurt to hear her captain degrade her just as her parents had. Viktor and Shiela hadn't been the worst, but they had their moments. She just let it come as he began striking her. The blows beginning to leave angry marks on her skin. Things suddenly began to get darker as the umm of the transporter came back, and the room was spinning. Dull shouting was heard from outside the holodeck. The sound of a man screaming through the wall was overheard.

Picard rushed past the other holodecks, and stopped outside the only occupied one. "Katherine, can you hear me! Computer, en-"

"Captain, don't!" Chief Miles O'Brien emerged from a maintenance tunnel. "I've traced an nauthouized transport from here. If you end the program, whatever is being transported will be lost. Just manually override the password, and enter. I'll attempt to stop the transport." They crowded round the door as Picard did the voiceprint override. The doors slid open, and Picard gaped at the sight. Derryl Pulaski was standing in a corner of the room laughing his head off, and Katherine stood numbly on a transport pad, being mock-transported off the ship. When a phaser beam startled him, Pulaski rushed toward the panel. "O'Brien, hurry!"

"On it, Sir. Wait… I can't do anything. He's got it on an infinite loop. Only he can stop it. It's a paradox of an override key…"

Picard took a deep breath at that news. His heart began beating against his chest, and a blinding rage threatened to take over. "If you don't stop that damned transport, I will not hesitate to kill you. Think, would you rather die at my hands, or be honored beyond all belief by the bastardly coward you work for?" This question took the usually quick witted fool longer to answer. He considered his possibilities, and then turned. "How'd you know I was working for someone, Picard?"

"You are too blinded by arrogance to have thought up this scheme. Now, what'll it be?" They locked eyes, and each man wore an expression of pure loathing and a desperate sense hung in the air between them. "Well!"

"Captain, you'd beter hurry. She's fading on us! Her molecules are becoming unstable. She's gonna fade into nothing!" O'Brien was looking frantically at Katherine's troubled expression. For a second, she looked somewhat peaceful, then her expression changed to one of pain and confusion. "Captain?"

"Well, Pulaski, if you decide to just let her go, you will die the ritual Klingon way, if I have any say so!" This sped up the thinking process, and Derryl rushed toward the panel. His fingers were moving quicker than an expert, and soon the transport beam slowly faded, leaving Katherine to slowly become whole again. She looked as though she might faint, and O'Brien sensed this. He began ushering Derryl to the door as Jean-Luc rushed forward. She fell into his arms, and as her eyes filed with tears, she whispered something darkly. It was broken and muffled, but it was mostly straight forward. "He's not my brother…" She dissolved then. Her body began shaking and lurching as sobs racked her frame. All he could do was strengthen his warm embrace. "I'm right here… I won't leave." These words could never have been less true. While Worf and Geordi were questioning the man formerly known as Derryl Pulaski, he remained in that position. She clung to him as if h were the only good thing left, and she was close to loosing him.