The Complication

Promise Me

But the phaser blast had no effect aside from alerting him to her presence. It was as if he absorbed the energy.

He turned to face her. She quickly placed it back into her holster, determined that if she could get him into the corridor, then she could lock the Transporter Room access to at least stop him from getting off the ship.

Standing between the Captain and the transporter pad she noted there was something foreign in the way he was staring at her. It was as if the entity had completely replaced the good-natured Captain with something driven only by an insatiable desire to leave the ship.

The Jean-Luc Picard that Tasha knew and admired would never have made this choice uncoerced.

He lunged, but her aikido skills enabled her to anticipate his move. She tried to toss him into the hallway. Normally, she would have dispatched even someone Riker's size with ease. But something about the entity had made him strong, more agile, and dangerous.

"I believe ultimately he will become dangerous," Deanna had warned them.

Deanna had been right. In a flash, Tasha was thrown against the transporter panels with great force and slid down to the floor.

Her head hurt. At least she was fairly sure it was her head. Tasha brought her hand up to touch her right temple. She hissed as her fingers made contact with the abrasion.

That's blood. She thought to herself. But she wasn't surprised, no human alone was capable of that kind of strength.

Standing above her, she was certain he was about to strike. Instead, he hesitated and took a step back.

"Sir?" Tasha managed to say.

"Help me," Picard said as he took another step back.

It was as if he was fighting within himself for control. He took a slow, straining step toward the transporter pad.

Tasha managed to stand up and quickly regretted the decision as a wave of vertigo and nausea overwhelmed her.

She managed to stumble onto the transporter pad. Wrapping her arms around him, she tried to pull him off. It hurt to touch him, as if the entity was burning her each time she made contact. They struggled for a moment before he threw her off and into the console.

"Energise," he ordered.

In a flash, he was gone.

As soon as the command had been carried out the console blew and Tasha was thrown up, landing on her back on the floor.

Tasha had landed on her back on the floor. Her body ached and she could hear her own heartbeat beating loudly between her eardrums.

Straining against the pain in her back she tapped her combadge.

"Yar to Sickbay, I need a medical team in the Transporter Room," she choked out.

"Lieutenant, where is the Captain? We can't pick up his signal," Riker's voice boomed from her combadge.

"He's gone, Sir," she replied weakly.

"How? Your orders were to restrain the Captain," Riker said seriously before adding, "I want to see the Senior officers in the observation lounge immediately."

"Sir, I need to-" Tasha tried to say but was cut off by Riker.

"Now, Lieutenant. That's an order," he commanded.

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Riker regretted his words as soon as she walked into the observation lounge. 'Walk' was a bit of an overstatement. She looked beat to hell with a gash on her face. She was walking with a limp and he suspected she must have taken quite a beating. Her left sleeve was ripped below the shoulder and he noted the particularly nasty burn on her arm.