A Captain And A Madman

Chapter Sixteen: This Is The Plan

Captain Jean-Luc Picard had been in the mess hall for a little over ten minutes now, seated at one of the rear corner tables, where he could get some privacy. As it wasn't peak hours yet, the mess hall was only about a quarter full, and the junior crewmembers had left a respectful buffer of empty tables between the Enterprise's Captain and the conversation of the rest of the room. It was apparently something that Picard appreciated, as he seemed to be spending his time idly eating with one hand, and reading something with another.

The Time Lord was in the mess hall as well, for a few minutes, and seemed quite interested in peering at the various (largely untouched) dishes that Neelix had set out on the counter. When the Talaxian had asked what he'd like, the Doctor had muttered that he was still perusing, so instead Neelix wandered over to one of the tables opposite to Picard's. Only two occupants sat at this one; the first, B'Elanna Torres, was staring incredulously at the second. The second, Harry Kim, was being stared at because, even though he sat in the chair facing away from Picard's table, he nonetheless felt it necessary to swivel his head and body around to glance at the Starfleet Captain every ten seconds.

"So," Harry said nervously, after his fifteenth swivel-glance. "Why do you think he's here? Think he's staying? Should we talk to him?"

"Harry," Torres chided, a little bemused; "You're not exactly a fresh graduate anymore, I thought we gotten past all... this!"

"Yeah, well," Kim replied, exasperated, "It's a little hard to act like same old, same old when a living legend shows up on the ship... might as well be Kirk! I mean, how can you not be even a little interested in talking to him, he's Captain Jean-Luc Picard."

"I know who he is, Harry!" Torres retorted.

"Well, I don't," Neelix chimed in, openly curious as he briefly glanced back to see if the Doctor looked any closer to deciding.

"No, no," the Chief Engineer protested, "don't ask him-"

It was too late, as Harry turned in his chair to face Neelix, clearly pleased to find an audience. "The man was in command of two exploration ships, the Stargazer and the Enterprise, the last of which was the flagship of the entire fleet... in fact, don't tell him, but the Picard of this timeframe's in command of the Enterprise's successor, according to our updates from Earth. which is one of the most advanced ships ever built. Still, even from the year he came from... he's helped save countless worlds, developed the Picard Maneuver, made first contact with dozens of alien species, and-"

"Then go talk to him," Torres said, cutting off the tirade. "He's sitting right over there, across the room, maybe the only chance you'll get."

Kim was starting to look more and more like a cornered deer. "You think I should?"

Torres managed to nod convincingly enough.

Kim shifted in his seat a few times, then finally stood up all in one motion, nodding with all the forceful determination he could muster.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to do it."

"Okay," Torres replied agreeably.

"I'm going to talk to him."

"Go talk to him."

"I'm going."

And indeed, after another fifteen or twenty seconds of determined nodding, Kim got going, starting to stride across the mess hall with confident, firm steps... steps that became smaller and considerably less certain the closer he drew to Picard's table. He could see that the Captain of the Enterprise was occupied, reading something on a PADD as he sipped a mug of something; a half-eaten, replicated piece of cod set to one side. The sight of Picard's distraction should have been enough to convince Kim to change course, but somehow his legs weren't responding... the traitorous limbs bringing him right up to the Captain's table, where Kim stood in awkward silence.