Yilaan smiled broadly as she saw someone familiar amongst Bradley's three friends; Reiv. She waved at them and joined them shortly thereafter. While Bradley made introductions, Yilaan stared at Reiv the whole time; both this Reiv and 'her' Reiv bore goatees, and she puzzled over the coincidence of this with her mind still foggy from sleep.
"Something the matter, Ms. Yilaan?" Reiv asked eventually.
"Er, well, no," Yilaan stammered, smiling awkwardly. "You remind me of someone, that's all."
"Someone from this other time of yours?" Reiv asked.
Yilaan gave Bradley a startled glance. "It's okay," Bradley said, "These are all friends here." Yilaan nodded and let out a sharp exhale of relief. "Did you sleep well?"
"Well enough, I suppose."
Reiv leaned forward and smiled warmly at Yilaan, touching her forearm with his right hand. "If I'm not too bold to ask," he began smoothly, "who am I in your universe? Your husband, I hope? Or a lover, perhaps?"
Yilaan made a face, "A lieutenant, and bridge officer at the helm position of my ship."
Reiv pulled back slightly at Yilaan's cold response, "A pity." Reiv then leaned back in his chair, his eyes fixed on Yilaan the entire time, "I don't know if your time sounds very appealing." A couple of the others laughed, while Bradley rolled her eyes.
"If we could get on with this," Bradley sighed. "Now, I don't think that....," she started to say, but was interrupted by shouting and weapons fire. Everyone at the table turned to look at the entrance to the restaurant. Two figures staggered in; one collapsed at the doorway, the other made it part way into the room. Bradley gasped as she recognized the man on the floor of the restaurant as Admiral Jevor. She ran over to him; he was covered in blood and barely conscious.
"They know about us. Everyone's at risk. Get your people out of here," Jevor said, almost in a whisper, as his strength and life left him. Jevor reached for Bradley's hand; she took it and squeezed it once, then turned to her friends who had gathered around her in the interim.
"Let's go," she said firmly.
The five ran out of the restaurant with all the speed they could muster. Yilaan looked behind them and saw several Andorians bearing the markings of Jevor's unit fighting a pitched battle, presumably to buy time for their escape with their lives. As they rounded a corner, Yilaan turned back in time to see one of the others from the table get hit by a stray phaser shot and disintegrate; the phasers the Andorians were using were set on kill. Yilaan gave a cry of alarm, to which Bradley grabbed her arm, urging her not to stop.
The group ran through a couple of check points, engaging and defeating the Andorians in brief hand to hand combat. They stopped for a moment to catch their breath, and Reiv suggested a short-cut to his ship at one of the docking rings. They took it and continued to run, as they heard shouts and pursuit behind them.
Rounding a corner, they took several steps and stopped before realizing a dozen Andorians blocked the way, phasers drawn and pointed directly at them. They started to turn around and go back when their pursuers caught up with them from behind. "What is the meaning of this?" Bradley shouted as their arms were clasped behind their backs.
Reiv stepped out from amongst the prisoners and the Andorians and conversed with an Andorian towards the back, before turning back to face Bradley. "I'm afraid this is the end of the line for your little fun, Julie. You, and your little friends here are going to be killed, very slowly and very painfully, while the others watch. Truly a fitting end for people who have been such a thorn in our sides for so long."
"Damn you Reiv!" Bradley shrieked, struggling against her captors.
"However," Reiv continued, walking over towards Yilaan, "I might have to make an exception for you." He grabbed her face with his right hand, while she struggled against him and the Andorian that held her arms. "You will be very entertaining I think." Reiv kissed Yilaan full on the mouth for several seconds, while she squirmed, before he finally pulled away; she then spat in his eye.
"Curse you, you bastard," Yilaan said angrily. "If I live to see tomorrow, I'll personally cut your heart out and feed it to your Andorian friends here." The grip on her arms tightened, as Reiv laughed heartily at her reaction while wiping his face. Yilaan herself began to wonder if she might have some Klingon blood in her veins after all the Klingon-style cursing she'd done over the past couple of days.
"We'll see," Reiv said smugly. "Let's get them out of here; a public execution will be scheduled for tomorrow morning." The other Andorians chuckled to themselves as Bradley, her friend, and Yilaan, were led away.
The three were kept in a holding area, each in separate cells. They could all see each other, but any vocal communication was shouted down with threats of violence by the jailer. They tried to work on a form of hand signals, but the process was slow going, and no one had any ideas on how to escape. Eventually Yilaan gave up on it, and went and sat down over to one side of her cell.
'So, does my mission end here?' she wondered to herself. 'Are we doomed to live out this time line?'
"Oh, you Humans are so pessimistic," a voice out of nowhere said, followed by a flash of light, and the appearance of Q in a Starfleet Admiral's uniform; his favorite attire it seemed.
"Q!" Yilaan said with a start. "Am I glad to see you!"
Q clenched his chest and threw his head back, "Oh, I am overwhelmed by your kindness, fair lady!" He grinned broadly before continuing to put on his show. "Q," Q said in an exaggerated fashion, mocking Yilaan as he slowly repeated her words, "am I glad to see you." He brought his gaze back down and looked directly at Yilaan, "You don't know what that means to me; Picard is always so rude! You'd think after all the kind things I've done for him, he'd stop treating me so terribly. There's nothing wrong with showing an omnipotent entity a little kindness every now and again."
Yilaan rolled her eyes at his monologue. "Q, can you get us out of this?"
"Ah, ah, ah," Q replied, wagging his finger at her. "No interference, remember?"
Yilaan growled at him, while he chuckled to himself at her reaction. "Well, then why are you here?"
"I was just passing through," Q said nonchalantly, "and I figured I'd check in on my charge." Q glanced at the confinement of her cell, "You're not doing too well, are you?"
Yilaan sighed, "I'm not finished yet, thank you very much. As soon as I figure a way out of here, I'm going to set this time line right again."
"I admire your tenacity, Commander," Q responded. "Well, then perhaps a little boost to your morale and I can be on my way then? It would seem that some of the cohorts of your little friend over there," Q said, gesturing at Bradley, "are already planning your escape. It's a decent enough plan; I think they'll succeed."
"Really?" Yilaan asked in a hushed voice, looking at the jailer and the other prisoners.
"Don't worry, no one knows I'm here, and no one can hear this conversation," Q said reproachfully. "I'm not stupid, you know."
"How soon?" Yilaan asked, ignoring Q's other commentary.
Q smiled and gestured with one hand; in a flash of light he was gone again, with his lingering comment, "You'll see," resonating in Yilaan's head. Yilaan found herself back in 'reality' again, retaining a full memory of what just happened. She interpreted Q's last words as meaning the rescue would be coming soon, so she signaled Bradley and the other prisoner to be ready.
As fate would have it, they had to wait no longer than fifteen minutes. Cries of alarm and weapons fire emanated from one of the outer rooms. The jailer grabbed his phaser and tried to activate the communications device in the room. By his reaction, Yilaan assumed that it had failed. He then aimed his phaser at the third prisoner, the one that Yilaan and Bradley had come in with. The jailer dropped the energy field around the cell and fired his phaser; the man within was disintegrated. Yilaan's eyes went wide, and she stared open-mouthed at the brutality she just witnessed. The jailer then turned towards her with the same menace. She saw the force field protecting her cell go down, and closed her eyes, awaiting the end. Yilaan heard a phaser fire......and heard a man's voice cry out in pain. Yilaan opened her eyes in a flash and saw the rescue party had shot the jailer.
Yilaan breathed out a sigh of profound relief, and dropped to her knees as she felt the emotion of the situation drain her of any ability to stand. A heavy pair of hands grasped her arm, gently but firmly, and hoisted her back up again. "Are you alright? Can you stand? We have to get out of the holding area to beam out!" a very familiar voice said to her. She glanced up into the face of the man who, in her universe, was her captain and dear friend; Captain Freeman.
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