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r_scribblesOooh dear. Silly self. Posting while under the influence is not a good idea. I couldn't even write straight, and that was 4 hours after I'd stopped drinking! At least I didn't really have a hangover. God knows what I was talking about on Saturday though. All sorts of bollocks, knowing me. It was wicked fun, though.
We were going to watch a Paul Newman film last night in honour of the great man, but we ran out of time. Hubs is currently addicted to Star Wars: Force Unleashed anyway, and I like watching him play it (I've tried playing it myself, but I keep getting killed like a Spazz. Also, it has too many Bosses in it. I can never kill Bosses.)
More Rollercoaster for you! I've pretty much finished all of 'There's No Place Like Home', but most of it is over with the lovely![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
realmlife for Betaing. It's set during 'Legacy' so it's a long one, and is therefore split into three chapters, by Jove. Here's chapter one.
There’s No Place Like Home, Part 1
-x-
It wasn’t that Riker hadn’t considered the implications when selecting the away team to retrieve the freighter crew unfortunate enough to have crashed on the lawless Hellhole that was Turkana IV. He didn’t exactly have long to ponder it – to weigh up which would be more upsetting to Tasha; to order her to beam down to the place where she had spent miserable, brutal years as a child, or to automatically discount her for the mission based on her background. Ultimately, it had come down to a single question – who was the best for the job?
He had selected Lieutenant Commander Yar.
He was not surprised, however, when, halfway towards the transporter room, he heard heavy footsteps catching up with the group and suddenly found himself with a very purposeful looking Klingon by his side.
‘Sir, I must protest at your choice of Security Officer for this mission.’
Riker glanced at Worf, then over his shoulder at Tasha who was, thankfully, appearing to take the Klingon’s interjection with amusement rather than indignation.
‘Commander Yar herself has described Turkana IV to be a colony which is extremely hostile towards women in particular. It would be far safer to send me in her stead.’
‘Mr Worf,’ replied Will, taking cue from Tasha’s unbothered expression to keep his tone as light as he could, ‘I hope you’re not suggesting that I make a discriminatory judgement on Commander Yar’s capabilities based purely on her gender…’
‘It is not I who would treat her differently as a female,’ growled Worf, ‘but them.’ He turned his entreaty directly to Tasha. ‘These people tortured you throughout your childhood. You do not need to go back there…’
‘Aw, Sweetie,’ Tasha smiled. ‘You worry about me too much.’
‘Do not call me “Sweetie”!’ Worf scowled. ‘Even in jest. I’ve told you that before.’
‘And like I told you before,’ Tasha replied, ‘I’ll stop patronising you only so long as you return the favour. Huh, Sweetie?’
‘You’re impossible,’ grumbled the Klingon.
‘I agree with Lieutenant Worf,’ added the android on the other side of Riker. ‘I believe that you should seriously consider allowing him to take your place on this mission.’
Will looked over his shoulder again. For some reason, Data’s comment had caused Tasha’s expression to change from one of mocking amusement to an irritated frown.
‘Did you not tell me once that you would “rather die than ever set foot on Turkana IV again”?’ Data asked her.
Riker blinked. ‘I didn’t know that…’
‘That’s because it was an offhand comment in what I thought was a private conversation,’ Tasha replied, narrowing her eyes accusatorially at the android. ‘It was an emotional moment, a long time ago. There was no need for Commander Data to have repeated it.’
‘Tasha,’ Riker told her, ‘I don’t want you to feel forced to go down there if you’re uncomfortable with it. You can switch duties with Worf for the mission, nobody will think any less of you for it…’
‘On the contrary, Sir,’ Tasha replied, ‘I want to go down there. I’m not the scared little girl who escaped that world 15 years ago, I’m a Starfleet officer. I want to walk on that planet and know that I’ve beaten it. Besides, unlike the rest of you, I actually know Turkana IV. I’ll be far more useful than Worf on this occasion. No offence.’
‘None taken,’ muttered Worf.
‘Then it’s settled,’ concluded Riker as they reached the transporter room.
Tasha nodded, and added beneath her breath; ‘guess I’m finally going home.’
-x-
So this was what passed as a Coalition HQ these days. Tasha ran her fingers over her sidearm for the umpteenth time as she looked around herself. The Coalition chiefs had always seemed so intimidating to her as a kid, but this…? This was pathetic. Sniggering twenty-somethings stealing liquor. Had it always been so petty…?
Tasha thought back to the tunnels as Riker spoke with the Coalition leader. She was actually glad not to recognise the colony whatsoever – it seemed that it had changed over the last 15 years just as much as she had. Very little of it save her old hiding places in the sewers had been underground before, whereas now it seemed that everybody had given up the surface. Similarly, she was relieved not to recognise a single face amongst the inhabitants. It didn’t appear as though there was anybody around who was any older than she was – she couldn’t imagine that the life expectency was particularly high. The whole group that had lead the away team off into their dank headquarters must have all been no more than kids at the time Tasha had got away.
There was one guy, though – a small, wiry young man at the back of the small crowd of Coalition members - who was looking at her in a way she didn’t much care for. She touched her phaser again. For all her bravado on the ship, she did still feel uneasy at the very least at being back on Turkana IV. It wasn’t for fear of being attacked this time, however. The weapon beneath her fingertips, coupled with the presence of Data and Will Riker, were assurance enough to her that neither herself nor Beverly could be under any real threat from the underfed, rag-tag bunch they had found. What she was anxious about was the prospect of being recognised. She and Ishara had hidden and camped with so many different packs of kids over the years, who was to say whether she’d run into one of those unfortunates down here?
She turned her face away from the scrawny man who had been staring curiously at her. Riker was just about finishing up. These people either couldn’t, or wouldn’t, help them retrieve the escaped crewmen. The colony, in her day the last word in anarchy, had since become far more politically polarised, and it seemed that the swift force of their little away team would not be capable of finding the freighter crew straight away. Tasha wasn’t sure whether she was relieved or disappointed. Either way, it was time to beam out of the sunless tunnels of her childhood and back to her home in the glittering sky.
She was just preparing herself for Riker’s signal to transport when the scrawny man spoke up.
‘Do I know you…?’
All eyes turned to Tasha. She returned his keen stare with a vague smile.
‘I don’t know. Do you?’
‘You’re from here,’ continued the man. ‘Aren’t you? You were a sewer rat, like me.’
Tasha didn’t alter her smile one iota. ‘Now, what do you think a sewer rat from down here would be doing in a Starfleet uniform?’
The man narrowed his eyes. ‘What, indeed?’
‘I’m sure this is all immaterial,’ Riker told the scrawny man. ‘Now, if you don’t mind, we’ll be getting back to our ship.’
Tasha held her breath and closed her eyes as Riker ordered the transport. When she opened them again, the hideout and the accusatory eyes of the scrawny man had been replaced with the clean, crisp transporter room and the kindly, round face of Miles O’Brien. She let her breath out again in a long, controlled sigh. Riker gave her a celebratory slap on the shoulder.
‘How do you feel?’
‘Like I need a long, hot shower,’ she grinned in reply, stepping down from the transporter.
‘I know what you mean,’ Beverly agreed. ‘I can’t believe you grew up in that Hellhole.’
‘Oh,’ Tasha replied, ‘it’s much nicer now than it used to be. Back in my day, it was an authentic Hellhole.’
‘Commander,’ added Data, with an air of wonder, ‘the manner in which you avoided the truth about your upbringing on the colony without actually telling an untruth…’
‘Sneaky, huh?’ Tasha interjected, with pride. ‘Didn’t want to give ‘em any ammunition, but I do so hate to tell a bare faced lie.’
‘It was… remarkable.’ Data patted her on the shoulder himself, a little stiffly. ‘Perhaps you could join one of Commander Riker’s poker games? I believe that you would do well, since…’
‘You’re wasting your breath, Data,’ Riker told him as the four of them stepped out into the corridor, ‘I’ve been trying to persuade Tasha to the poker table for years now. Apparently, she doesn’t see the point.’
‘It’s true!’
‘You’re just afraid I might beat you at something,’ Riker goaded.
‘Didn’t Data beat you hands down last night?’ interjected Beverly.
‘In which case,’ Data added, ‘perhaps Tasha is also concerned that she would be beaten at the game by myself…’
Tasha stopped, and turned to face the pestering trio, her arms folded. ‘Do I have permission to have that shower now, Sir? I can still smell Turkana IV, and it’s making me want to punch people who won’t shut up about poker.’
‘What a curiously specific psychological response to an olfactory stimulus…’
‘Of course,’ replied Will over the muttering android. ‘Take as long as you need.’ Riker clasped her elbow before walking away. You did well down there, Tasha. We’re all very proud of you.’
-x-
She should have known it wasn’t over.
She should have known they’d find out about her.
This was Turkana, after all. She was revisiting her past, so why shouldn’t her past make a little house call of its own?
She should have known.
She knew, the instant that she saw the girl lurking behind Hayne on the screen, who it was. She recognised those eyes, that mouth. And, for a moment, she was the only one who did know as Hayne blathered on, trying to ingratiate the Captain with niceties while the girl quietly stared out at her. Tasha looked down from the screen, her stomach sinking, her heart thumping… only to catch sight instead of Deanna Troi, gazing up at her in shock. Tasha exhaled miserably, wondering who would be the first to tell the rest of the Bridge – Hayne or Troi.
It turned out that it was neither. Haynes introduced the girl as a liaison to help retrieve the freighter crew, but not by name. It was Ishara who stepped forward and gave the Captain her name… her full name. At the mention of Ishara’s surname, Tasha felt the attention of the Bridge shift towards her. She bunched he fists, drew another deep breath and met eyes with the girl who she had not seen for fifteen long years, as Ishara calmly announced; ‘Tasha Yar is my sister’.
With a heavy heart, she followed Picard’s instructions to break communications. She knew what sort of comments and questions were to come once Ishara and Hayne couldn’t hear them.
‘Is she telling the truth?’
Data, never one to disappoint her expectations for his making an already awkward situation a hundred times worse, spoke up before she had chance to.
‘It is impossible, Sir. Commander Yar’s sister died while she was still on Turkana IV.’
Tasha turned her face deliberately away from Data. ‘That is my sister, Captain. She’s grown up a lot, but I’d still recognise her anywhere.’
‘How can that be…?’ Data muttered.
‘She recognises you, too,’ Deanna told her, over the android, ‘although I can’t ascertain how genuine she is in truly wanting to help us. Her emotions at seeing you again are overshadowing any feelings she may be having about the mission.’
‘She’s happy to see me…?’ Tasha asked, quietly.
‘Not exactly,’ Deanna admitted, ‘but I wouldn’t say she was unhappy either, if that makes things better.’
‘We’ll beam her up,’ decided Picard. ‘At this point, I think we can safely say that we need all the help we can get.’ He paused, with a concerned gaze towards Tasha. ‘Would you like to be the one to escort Ishara from the transporter room, Commander?’
Tasha shook her head, briskly. ‘I think… it’s… I don’t believe I’m quite ready for that yet, Sir…’
‘Well, it must be quite a shock,’ Riker added, genially, ‘a kid sister back from the dead, apparently…’ he trailed off, noticing Deanna’s warning glare.
‘Very well,’ continued Picard. ‘Mr Data, if you wouldn’t mind meeting our guest…’
Data got up from his post and walked across to the Turbolift, watching Tasha with confusion as he did.
‘I do not enjoy family reunions either,’ Worf told her, in a conciliatory tone.
Will, Deanna and the Captain gave a synchronised grunt of sympathetic agreement. Normally, that would have made her giggle, but it was going to take considerably more than that to lift her spirits. She bunched her fists tighter, and sighed.
-x-
‘I’m surprised my sister didn’t come to meet me.’ Ishara looked about herself at the bright corridor as Data escorted her from the transporter room.
‘It was suggested,’ Data informed the young woman, ‘but she declined.’
‘Typical Tasha,’ grunted Ishara. ‘Always running away from her problems.’
‘I do not believe that to be an adequate summarisation of Tasha’s typical behaviour,’ Data replied. ‘And do you really consider yourself to be one of “her problems”?’
‘We didn’t exactly part on the best of terms.’
‘But you are her kin.’
Ishara gave him a brief, cold smile. ‘I don’t suppose, being what you are, you’d understand much about sibling disputes.’
Data paused for a moment. ‘I would not,’ he told her, carefully copying a turn of phrase he’d learned from Geordi, ‘be so certain about that.’ He met eyes with her, momentarily, before walking on. ‘It is a situation which would take a long time to explain, and I generally prefer not to do so. It does not cast my family in a particularly positive light…’ He felt compelled to change the subject. ‘There is one matter concerning yourself and Tasha which still confuses me, Ishara.’
‘Being?’
‘Tasha has only ever spoken of you once before, to my knowledge – during an intimate and, on her part, emotive conversation, following a personal misfortune of mine.’
‘So?’
‘In that conversation she informed me that you were dead – that she had lost you, along with her parents on Turkana IV. And yet, you are her, and she does not seem surprised to see that you are alive.’
‘Well, that’s easy to explain,’ Ishara told him, plainly. ‘She lied.’
Data blinked. ‘But why would she do that?’
Ishara shrugged. ‘To get something out of you.’
‘She has never attempted to “get something out of me”.’
‘Hasn’t she?’ Ishara asked, vaguely.
‘Besides,’ Data continued, ‘it is not in keeping with her to lie.’ Data frowned, remembering her “twisting of the truth” on the away mission. ‘Not to me, in any case.’
‘If you say so,’ Ishara muttered, and carried on walking.
-x-
There she was. Sitting at the table with… with him, of all people. Well, Tasha resolved, squaring her shoulders, she had put this off for long enough. She may as well just bite the bullet with the both of them.
Ishara looked up as she approached, and gave her sister an odd, forced smile. ‘Tasha. So you’ve finally decided to come out of hiding and say hello.’
‘Can’t exactly co-ordinate a rescue plan with you if we’re not talking,’ Tasha mumbled.
‘That’s exactly what I’ve been saying,’ Ishara replied.
‘I still think we should come up with a plan that doesn’t call for your help…’ Tasha added.
‘Well,’ Ishara countered, ‘you haven’t. So it looks like you’re stuck with me.’
Tasha pulled up a chair and sat down between Data and her sister. ‘Hmm.‘
‘Don’t you trust me either, Tasha? Your own sister?’
‘I don’t trust the Coalition,’ Tasha stressed, ‘and since you’re one of them now, I guess that mistrust extends to you, too.’
‘Ishara potentially may not be a member of the Coalition for much longer,’ Data interjected. ‘Would your trust in your sister be restored in that eventuality?’
Tasha looked from Data to Ishara. ‘You’re not leaving the Coalition?’
‘Ishara has been considering the possibility of her leaving Turkana IV, and enrolling in Starfleet,’ Data added.
‘What?’ Tasha asked, flatly. ‘You’re not serious.’
‘I never knew it would be like this, up in the stars…’ Ishara began.
‘I told you life would be better,’ Tasha interrupted. ‘I told you, and you wouldn’t listen!’
‘That was a long time ago,’ replied Ishara. ‘I was just a kid. I believed the gossip about Starfleet being this cold, Draconian machine, nothing but rules and regulations, looking down their noses at people like us… but look at this place, Tasha! Look at you!’ Ishara reached out a hand to cover Tasha’s wrist, but the older sister pulled her arm away. ‘The achievements you’ve made just shows me how far a girl from the sewers of Turkana City can come in Starfleet.’
‘Ishara has been keen to learn of your career,’ Data added, ‘she has responded with considerable admiration.’
‘And you’ve been discussing all this with Commander Data, have you?’
‘He’s full of wonderful stories about you,’ smiled Ishara. She moved her hand, still open on the table since her attempt to touch Tasha’s wrist had been rejected, across to Data, and wrapped it around the crook of his elbow.
‘I’ll bet,’ Tasha replied, watching her sister squeeze the arm of the unflinching android. ‘You two have been getting pretty cosy recently, haven’t you?’
‘Data’s been very sweet to me since I came aboard here. What can I say, Tasha? You have a great taste in friends.’
‘Great taste in friends… great taste in career… great taste in lifestyle, right, Ishara?’
Ishara blinked. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘This is typical of you,’ Tasha hissed, ‘just typical. You show up out of nowhere and then you start taking over all of my stuff…’
‘Hey! I never went anywhere – it’s you who just showed up out of the blue. And as for joining Starfleet, isn’t that exactly what you wanted me to do with you in the first place?’
‘What exactly,’ Data added, ‘did you mean by your “stuff”…?’
‘Data,’ sighed Tasha, rubbing her forehead, ‘this is Sister Talk, OK? Would you mind giving Ishara and I a little privacy?’
‘By all means, Tasha.’ The android began to get up from the table.
Ishara didn’t loosen her grip on his arm as he tried to rise. ‘Data and I were having a conversation.’
‘And now we’re having a conversation,’ Tasha replied, ‘since I appear to be in a much greater hurry than he is to get to the bottom of exactly what your little game is all about.’
‘My little game…?’ Ishara looked up at the android, still in an uncomfortable looking half-standing position at the table, unsure whether to stay or leave, then returned her gaze to her sister. ‘How exactly is it that I’m supposed to have died, Tasha? Both Data and I would rather like to know, since you were so very sure it had happened.’
Tasha made to glower at Data for letting Ishara know about her little white lie, but blinked instead in surprise. He appeared to be glaring accusatorially at her. She looked away for a moment, a little shaken, and when she looked back, the expression had gone.
Ishara released his arm. ‘Maybe Tasha and I could do with some time to ourselves after all, Data.’
Data nodded in agreement as he was finally allowed to straighten up. ‘I am certain that you must have much to discuss.’ He shot another strange look in Tasha’s direction. ‘I shall see you both at the mission briefing.’
Tasha watched him leave.
‘You’ve got no cause to act so possessively, Tasha,’ her sister told her.
‘Who said anything about possessiveness?’
‘Come on.’ Ishara folded her arms. ‘I know you. Machine or not, you’d never show that kind of disrespect towards somebody unless you’d had sex with them.’
‘So that’s why you’ve singled him out,’ Tasha replied. ‘To try to get under my skin.’
‘I did no such thing. He’s one of the few people on board this ship, thanks to your attitude towards my coming here, who talks to me normally, and isn’t always on his guard around me. He trusts me…’
‘So in other words, you’re homing in on him because you think he’s gullible…’
‘You told him I was dead!’
‘I had my reasons for that.’
‘I’d love to hear them.’
Tasha had no response to that.
‘What is your problem, Tasha?’ Ishara cocked her head at her sister. ‘I’m working hard to help you get your crewmen back, aren’t I? And as for showing an interest in your life, your vessel, your friends… is that really such a terrible thing for me to do?’
Tasha sighed down at the table. ‘Are you really serious about joining Starfleet?’
‘I don’t know,’ Ishara admitted. ‘I haven’t been thinking about it long. It’s a possibility. If they’d have me, of course.’
‘They’d have you,’ Tasha grunted.
‘You don’t sound too thrilled by that. Would you rather I went back to the Coalition than try to make a life in Starfleet? Just bury myself under Turkana IV again and never resurface – would that make you happy?’ Ishara sat back, folding her arms. ‘Maybe you’d have been happier if I’d never turned up in the first place and you could go on pretending I was dead to get sympathy screws off your friend.’
‘Don’t you dare,’ Tasha hissed. ‘You don’t know… you don’t know how I worried about you.’
‘You’re right. I don’t know. Here we are, first time in fifteen long years, and you haven’t so much as asked what I’ve been doing, if I’m OK, if I’ve been hurt…’
‘Because I know what Turkana City is like,’ Tasha replied. ‘I knew what your life would be like when you stayed, I knew the sort of hardships and suffering you’d face. I was so certain that place would kill you… I grieved for you. In my mind, you were as dead as our parents. I guess, I thought that if I considered you dead, I wouldn’t have to think that maybe you were being kept in suffering.’
‘How convenient for you,’ retorted Ishara. ‘So now I’ve inconvenienced you by showing up, alive and well, and breaking that fantasy, and how do you respond…? If I’m with the Coalition I can’t be trusted, just because you never liked them, and if I’m with Starfleet I’m still not to be trusted because I’m just copying your life to tick you off. Right?’
‘I…’
‘Do you have any idea how selfish and petty you sound?’ Ishara pushed herself away from the table. ‘Maybe you’d like to think about that. As for me, if you don’t mind, I have to help rescue your people, just like I told your Captain I would…’
‘Your plan won’t work,’ Tasha interrupted. ‘It can’t work, and you know it.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘Beaming into the middle of Alliance territory and using your proximity implant to draw their fire? Do you really expect me to believe you’d volunteer to do something quite so stupid?’
‘Maybe one woman’s idea of “stupidity” is another’s sense of duty,’ Ishara retorted.
‘It’s just gonna get you killed,’ insisted Tasha.
Ishara got to her feet, and turned away from her sister. ‘What do you care, Tasha? You’ve killed me off once already.’ Without letting Tasha get another word in edgeways, she walked away from the table. ‘I’d probably do you a world of favours getting shot up for real.’
We were going to watch a Paul Newman film last night in honour of the great man, but we ran out of time. Hubs is currently addicted to Star Wars: Force Unleashed anyway, and I like watching him play it (I've tried playing it myself, but I keep getting killed like a Spazz. Also, it has too many Bosses in it. I can never kill Bosses.)
More Rollercoaster for you! I've pretty much finished all of 'There's No Place Like Home', but most of it is over with the lovely
realmlife for Betaing. It's set during 'Legacy' so it's a long one, and is therefore split into three chapters, by Jove. Here's chapter one.There’s No Place Like Home, Part 1
-x-
It wasn’t that Riker hadn’t considered the implications when selecting the away team to retrieve the freighter crew unfortunate enough to have crashed on the lawless Hellhole that was Turkana IV. He didn’t exactly have long to ponder it – to weigh up which would be more upsetting to Tasha; to order her to beam down to the place where she had spent miserable, brutal years as a child, or to automatically discount her for the mission based on her background. Ultimately, it had come down to a single question – who was the best for the job?
He had selected Lieutenant Commander Yar.
He was not surprised, however, when, halfway towards the transporter room, he heard heavy footsteps catching up with the group and suddenly found himself with a very purposeful looking Klingon by his side.
‘Sir, I must protest at your choice of Security Officer for this mission.’
Riker glanced at Worf, then over his shoulder at Tasha who was, thankfully, appearing to take the Klingon’s interjection with amusement rather than indignation.
‘Commander Yar herself has described Turkana IV to be a colony which is extremely hostile towards women in particular. It would be far safer to send me in her stead.’
‘Mr Worf,’ replied Will, taking cue from Tasha’s unbothered expression to keep his tone as light as he could, ‘I hope you’re not suggesting that I make a discriminatory judgement on Commander Yar’s capabilities based purely on her gender…’
‘It is not I who would treat her differently as a female,’ growled Worf, ‘but them.’ He turned his entreaty directly to Tasha. ‘These people tortured you throughout your childhood. You do not need to go back there…’
‘Aw, Sweetie,’ Tasha smiled. ‘You worry about me too much.’
‘Do not call me “Sweetie”!’ Worf scowled. ‘Even in jest. I’ve told you that before.’
‘And like I told you before,’ Tasha replied, ‘I’ll stop patronising you only so long as you return the favour. Huh, Sweetie?’
‘You’re impossible,’ grumbled the Klingon.
‘I agree with Lieutenant Worf,’ added the android on the other side of Riker. ‘I believe that you should seriously consider allowing him to take your place on this mission.’
Will looked over his shoulder again. For some reason, Data’s comment had caused Tasha’s expression to change from one of mocking amusement to an irritated frown.
‘Did you not tell me once that you would “rather die than ever set foot on Turkana IV again”?’ Data asked her.
Riker blinked. ‘I didn’t know that…’
‘That’s because it was an offhand comment in what I thought was a private conversation,’ Tasha replied, narrowing her eyes accusatorially at the android. ‘It was an emotional moment, a long time ago. There was no need for Commander Data to have repeated it.’
‘Tasha,’ Riker told her, ‘I don’t want you to feel forced to go down there if you’re uncomfortable with it. You can switch duties with Worf for the mission, nobody will think any less of you for it…’
‘On the contrary, Sir,’ Tasha replied, ‘I want to go down there. I’m not the scared little girl who escaped that world 15 years ago, I’m a Starfleet officer. I want to walk on that planet and know that I’ve beaten it. Besides, unlike the rest of you, I actually know Turkana IV. I’ll be far more useful than Worf on this occasion. No offence.’
‘None taken,’ muttered Worf.
‘Then it’s settled,’ concluded Riker as they reached the transporter room.
Tasha nodded, and added beneath her breath; ‘guess I’m finally going home.’
-x-
So this was what passed as a Coalition HQ these days. Tasha ran her fingers over her sidearm for the umpteenth time as she looked around herself. The Coalition chiefs had always seemed so intimidating to her as a kid, but this…? This was pathetic. Sniggering twenty-somethings stealing liquor. Had it always been so petty…?
Tasha thought back to the tunnels as Riker spoke with the Coalition leader. She was actually glad not to recognise the colony whatsoever – it seemed that it had changed over the last 15 years just as much as she had. Very little of it save her old hiding places in the sewers had been underground before, whereas now it seemed that everybody had given up the surface. Similarly, she was relieved not to recognise a single face amongst the inhabitants. It didn’t appear as though there was anybody around who was any older than she was – she couldn’t imagine that the life expectency was particularly high. The whole group that had lead the away team off into their dank headquarters must have all been no more than kids at the time Tasha had got away.
There was one guy, though – a small, wiry young man at the back of the small crowd of Coalition members - who was looking at her in a way she didn’t much care for. She touched her phaser again. For all her bravado on the ship, she did still feel uneasy at the very least at being back on Turkana IV. It wasn’t for fear of being attacked this time, however. The weapon beneath her fingertips, coupled with the presence of Data and Will Riker, were assurance enough to her that neither herself nor Beverly could be under any real threat from the underfed, rag-tag bunch they had found. What she was anxious about was the prospect of being recognised. She and Ishara had hidden and camped with so many different packs of kids over the years, who was to say whether she’d run into one of those unfortunates down here?
She turned her face away from the scrawny man who had been staring curiously at her. Riker was just about finishing up. These people either couldn’t, or wouldn’t, help them retrieve the escaped crewmen. The colony, in her day the last word in anarchy, had since become far more politically polarised, and it seemed that the swift force of their little away team would not be capable of finding the freighter crew straight away. Tasha wasn’t sure whether she was relieved or disappointed. Either way, it was time to beam out of the sunless tunnels of her childhood and back to her home in the glittering sky.
She was just preparing herself for Riker’s signal to transport when the scrawny man spoke up.
‘Do I know you…?’
All eyes turned to Tasha. She returned his keen stare with a vague smile.
‘I don’t know. Do you?’
‘You’re from here,’ continued the man. ‘Aren’t you? You were a sewer rat, like me.’
Tasha didn’t alter her smile one iota. ‘Now, what do you think a sewer rat from down here would be doing in a Starfleet uniform?’
The man narrowed his eyes. ‘What, indeed?’
‘I’m sure this is all immaterial,’ Riker told the scrawny man. ‘Now, if you don’t mind, we’ll be getting back to our ship.’
Tasha held her breath and closed her eyes as Riker ordered the transport. When she opened them again, the hideout and the accusatory eyes of the scrawny man had been replaced with the clean, crisp transporter room and the kindly, round face of Miles O’Brien. She let her breath out again in a long, controlled sigh. Riker gave her a celebratory slap on the shoulder.
‘How do you feel?’
‘Like I need a long, hot shower,’ she grinned in reply, stepping down from the transporter.
‘I know what you mean,’ Beverly agreed. ‘I can’t believe you grew up in that Hellhole.’
‘Oh,’ Tasha replied, ‘it’s much nicer now than it used to be. Back in my day, it was an authentic Hellhole.’
‘Commander,’ added Data, with an air of wonder, ‘the manner in which you avoided the truth about your upbringing on the colony without actually telling an untruth…’
‘Sneaky, huh?’ Tasha interjected, with pride. ‘Didn’t want to give ‘em any ammunition, but I do so hate to tell a bare faced lie.’
‘It was… remarkable.’ Data patted her on the shoulder himself, a little stiffly. ‘Perhaps you could join one of Commander Riker’s poker games? I believe that you would do well, since…’
‘You’re wasting your breath, Data,’ Riker told him as the four of them stepped out into the corridor, ‘I’ve been trying to persuade Tasha to the poker table for years now. Apparently, she doesn’t see the point.’
‘It’s true!’
‘You’re just afraid I might beat you at something,’ Riker goaded.
‘Didn’t Data beat you hands down last night?’ interjected Beverly.
‘In which case,’ Data added, ‘perhaps Tasha is also concerned that she would be beaten at the game by myself…’
Tasha stopped, and turned to face the pestering trio, her arms folded. ‘Do I have permission to have that shower now, Sir? I can still smell Turkana IV, and it’s making me want to punch people who won’t shut up about poker.’
‘What a curiously specific psychological response to an olfactory stimulus…’
‘Of course,’ replied Will over the muttering android. ‘Take as long as you need.’ Riker clasped her elbow before walking away. You did well down there, Tasha. We’re all very proud of you.’
-x-
She should have known it wasn’t over.
She should have known they’d find out about her.
This was Turkana, after all. She was revisiting her past, so why shouldn’t her past make a little house call of its own?
She should have known.
She knew, the instant that she saw the girl lurking behind Hayne on the screen, who it was. She recognised those eyes, that mouth. And, for a moment, she was the only one who did know as Hayne blathered on, trying to ingratiate the Captain with niceties while the girl quietly stared out at her. Tasha looked down from the screen, her stomach sinking, her heart thumping… only to catch sight instead of Deanna Troi, gazing up at her in shock. Tasha exhaled miserably, wondering who would be the first to tell the rest of the Bridge – Hayne or Troi.
It turned out that it was neither. Haynes introduced the girl as a liaison to help retrieve the freighter crew, but not by name. It was Ishara who stepped forward and gave the Captain her name… her full name. At the mention of Ishara’s surname, Tasha felt the attention of the Bridge shift towards her. She bunched he fists, drew another deep breath and met eyes with the girl who she had not seen for fifteen long years, as Ishara calmly announced; ‘Tasha Yar is my sister’.
With a heavy heart, she followed Picard’s instructions to break communications. She knew what sort of comments and questions were to come once Ishara and Hayne couldn’t hear them.
‘Is she telling the truth?’
Data, never one to disappoint her expectations for his making an already awkward situation a hundred times worse, spoke up before she had chance to.
‘It is impossible, Sir. Commander Yar’s sister died while she was still on Turkana IV.’
Tasha turned her face deliberately away from Data. ‘That is my sister, Captain. She’s grown up a lot, but I’d still recognise her anywhere.’
‘How can that be…?’ Data muttered.
‘She recognises you, too,’ Deanna told her, over the android, ‘although I can’t ascertain how genuine she is in truly wanting to help us. Her emotions at seeing you again are overshadowing any feelings she may be having about the mission.’
‘She’s happy to see me…?’ Tasha asked, quietly.
‘Not exactly,’ Deanna admitted, ‘but I wouldn’t say she was unhappy either, if that makes things better.’
‘We’ll beam her up,’ decided Picard. ‘At this point, I think we can safely say that we need all the help we can get.’ He paused, with a concerned gaze towards Tasha. ‘Would you like to be the one to escort Ishara from the transporter room, Commander?’
Tasha shook her head, briskly. ‘I think… it’s… I don’t believe I’m quite ready for that yet, Sir…’
‘Well, it must be quite a shock,’ Riker added, genially, ‘a kid sister back from the dead, apparently…’ he trailed off, noticing Deanna’s warning glare.
‘Very well,’ continued Picard. ‘Mr Data, if you wouldn’t mind meeting our guest…’
Data got up from his post and walked across to the Turbolift, watching Tasha with confusion as he did.
‘I do not enjoy family reunions either,’ Worf told her, in a conciliatory tone.
Will, Deanna and the Captain gave a synchronised grunt of sympathetic agreement. Normally, that would have made her giggle, but it was going to take considerably more than that to lift her spirits. She bunched her fists tighter, and sighed.
-x-
‘I’m surprised my sister didn’t come to meet me.’ Ishara looked about herself at the bright corridor as Data escorted her from the transporter room.
‘It was suggested,’ Data informed the young woman, ‘but she declined.’
‘Typical Tasha,’ grunted Ishara. ‘Always running away from her problems.’
‘I do not believe that to be an adequate summarisation of Tasha’s typical behaviour,’ Data replied. ‘And do you really consider yourself to be one of “her problems”?’
‘We didn’t exactly part on the best of terms.’
‘But you are her kin.’
Ishara gave him a brief, cold smile. ‘I don’t suppose, being what you are, you’d understand much about sibling disputes.’
Data paused for a moment. ‘I would not,’ he told her, carefully copying a turn of phrase he’d learned from Geordi, ‘be so certain about that.’ He met eyes with her, momentarily, before walking on. ‘It is a situation which would take a long time to explain, and I generally prefer not to do so. It does not cast my family in a particularly positive light…’ He felt compelled to change the subject. ‘There is one matter concerning yourself and Tasha which still confuses me, Ishara.’
‘Being?’
‘Tasha has only ever spoken of you once before, to my knowledge – during an intimate and, on her part, emotive conversation, following a personal misfortune of mine.’
‘So?’
‘In that conversation she informed me that you were dead – that she had lost you, along with her parents on Turkana IV. And yet, you are her, and she does not seem surprised to see that you are alive.’
‘Well, that’s easy to explain,’ Ishara told him, plainly. ‘She lied.’
Data blinked. ‘But why would she do that?’
Ishara shrugged. ‘To get something out of you.’
‘She has never attempted to “get something out of me”.’
‘Hasn’t she?’ Ishara asked, vaguely.
‘Besides,’ Data continued, ‘it is not in keeping with her to lie.’ Data frowned, remembering her “twisting of the truth” on the away mission. ‘Not to me, in any case.’
‘If you say so,’ Ishara muttered, and carried on walking.
-x-
There she was. Sitting at the table with… with him, of all people. Well, Tasha resolved, squaring her shoulders, she had put this off for long enough. She may as well just bite the bullet with the both of them.
Ishara looked up as she approached, and gave her sister an odd, forced smile. ‘Tasha. So you’ve finally decided to come out of hiding and say hello.’
‘Can’t exactly co-ordinate a rescue plan with you if we’re not talking,’ Tasha mumbled.
‘That’s exactly what I’ve been saying,’ Ishara replied.
‘I still think we should come up with a plan that doesn’t call for your help…’ Tasha added.
‘Well,’ Ishara countered, ‘you haven’t. So it looks like you’re stuck with me.’
Tasha pulled up a chair and sat down between Data and her sister. ‘Hmm.‘
‘Don’t you trust me either, Tasha? Your own sister?’
‘I don’t trust the Coalition,’ Tasha stressed, ‘and since you’re one of them now, I guess that mistrust extends to you, too.’
‘Ishara potentially may not be a member of the Coalition for much longer,’ Data interjected. ‘Would your trust in your sister be restored in that eventuality?’
Tasha looked from Data to Ishara. ‘You’re not leaving the Coalition?’
‘Ishara has been considering the possibility of her leaving Turkana IV, and enrolling in Starfleet,’ Data added.
‘What?’ Tasha asked, flatly. ‘You’re not serious.’
‘I never knew it would be like this, up in the stars…’ Ishara began.
‘I told you life would be better,’ Tasha interrupted. ‘I told you, and you wouldn’t listen!’
‘That was a long time ago,’ replied Ishara. ‘I was just a kid. I believed the gossip about Starfleet being this cold, Draconian machine, nothing but rules and regulations, looking down their noses at people like us… but look at this place, Tasha! Look at you!’ Ishara reached out a hand to cover Tasha’s wrist, but the older sister pulled her arm away. ‘The achievements you’ve made just shows me how far a girl from the sewers of Turkana City can come in Starfleet.’
‘Ishara has been keen to learn of your career,’ Data added, ‘she has responded with considerable admiration.’
‘And you’ve been discussing all this with Commander Data, have you?’
‘He’s full of wonderful stories about you,’ smiled Ishara. She moved her hand, still open on the table since her attempt to touch Tasha’s wrist had been rejected, across to Data, and wrapped it around the crook of his elbow.
‘I’ll bet,’ Tasha replied, watching her sister squeeze the arm of the unflinching android. ‘You two have been getting pretty cosy recently, haven’t you?’
‘Data’s been very sweet to me since I came aboard here. What can I say, Tasha? You have a great taste in friends.’
‘Great taste in friends… great taste in career… great taste in lifestyle, right, Ishara?’
Ishara blinked. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘This is typical of you,’ Tasha hissed, ‘just typical. You show up out of nowhere and then you start taking over all of my stuff…’
‘Hey! I never went anywhere – it’s you who just showed up out of the blue. And as for joining Starfleet, isn’t that exactly what you wanted me to do with you in the first place?’
‘What exactly,’ Data added, ‘did you mean by your “stuff”…?’
‘Data,’ sighed Tasha, rubbing her forehead, ‘this is Sister Talk, OK? Would you mind giving Ishara and I a little privacy?’
‘By all means, Tasha.’ The android began to get up from the table.
Ishara didn’t loosen her grip on his arm as he tried to rise. ‘Data and I were having a conversation.’
‘And now we’re having a conversation,’ Tasha replied, ‘since I appear to be in a much greater hurry than he is to get to the bottom of exactly what your little game is all about.’
‘My little game…?’ Ishara looked up at the android, still in an uncomfortable looking half-standing position at the table, unsure whether to stay or leave, then returned her gaze to her sister. ‘How exactly is it that I’m supposed to have died, Tasha? Both Data and I would rather like to know, since you were so very sure it had happened.’
Tasha made to glower at Data for letting Ishara know about her little white lie, but blinked instead in surprise. He appeared to be glaring accusatorially at her. She looked away for a moment, a little shaken, and when she looked back, the expression had gone.
Ishara released his arm. ‘Maybe Tasha and I could do with some time to ourselves after all, Data.’
Data nodded in agreement as he was finally allowed to straighten up. ‘I am certain that you must have much to discuss.’ He shot another strange look in Tasha’s direction. ‘I shall see you both at the mission briefing.’
Tasha watched him leave.
‘You’ve got no cause to act so possessively, Tasha,’ her sister told her.
‘Who said anything about possessiveness?’
‘Come on.’ Ishara folded her arms. ‘I know you. Machine or not, you’d never show that kind of disrespect towards somebody unless you’d had sex with them.’
‘So that’s why you’ve singled him out,’ Tasha replied. ‘To try to get under my skin.’
‘I did no such thing. He’s one of the few people on board this ship, thanks to your attitude towards my coming here, who talks to me normally, and isn’t always on his guard around me. He trusts me…’
‘So in other words, you’re homing in on him because you think he’s gullible…’
‘You told him I was dead!’
‘I had my reasons for that.’
‘I’d love to hear them.’
Tasha had no response to that.
‘What is your problem, Tasha?’ Ishara cocked her head at her sister. ‘I’m working hard to help you get your crewmen back, aren’t I? And as for showing an interest in your life, your vessel, your friends… is that really such a terrible thing for me to do?’
Tasha sighed down at the table. ‘Are you really serious about joining Starfleet?’
‘I don’t know,’ Ishara admitted. ‘I haven’t been thinking about it long. It’s a possibility. If they’d have me, of course.’
‘They’d have you,’ Tasha grunted.
‘You don’t sound too thrilled by that. Would you rather I went back to the Coalition than try to make a life in Starfleet? Just bury myself under Turkana IV again and never resurface – would that make you happy?’ Ishara sat back, folding her arms. ‘Maybe you’d have been happier if I’d never turned up in the first place and you could go on pretending I was dead to get sympathy screws off your friend.’
‘Don’t you dare,’ Tasha hissed. ‘You don’t know… you don’t know how I worried about you.’
‘You’re right. I don’t know. Here we are, first time in fifteen long years, and you haven’t so much as asked what I’ve been doing, if I’m OK, if I’ve been hurt…’
‘Because I know what Turkana City is like,’ Tasha replied. ‘I knew what your life would be like when you stayed, I knew the sort of hardships and suffering you’d face. I was so certain that place would kill you… I grieved for you. In my mind, you were as dead as our parents. I guess, I thought that if I considered you dead, I wouldn’t have to think that maybe you were being kept in suffering.’
‘How convenient for you,’ retorted Ishara. ‘So now I’ve inconvenienced you by showing up, alive and well, and breaking that fantasy, and how do you respond…? If I’m with the Coalition I can’t be trusted, just because you never liked them, and if I’m with Starfleet I’m still not to be trusted because I’m just copying your life to tick you off. Right?’
‘I…’
‘Do you have any idea how selfish and petty you sound?’ Ishara pushed herself away from the table. ‘Maybe you’d like to think about that. As for me, if you don’t mind, I have to help rescue your people, just like I told your Captain I would…’
‘Your plan won’t work,’ Tasha interrupted. ‘It can’t work, and you know it.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘Beaming into the middle of Alliance territory and using your proximity implant to draw their fire? Do you really expect me to believe you’d volunteer to do something quite so stupid?’
‘Maybe one woman’s idea of “stupidity” is another’s sense of duty,’ Ishara retorted.
‘It’s just gonna get you killed,’ insisted Tasha.
Ishara got to her feet, and turned away from her sister. ‘What do you care, Tasha? You’ve killed me off once already.’ Without letting Tasha get another word in edgeways, she walked away from the table. ‘I’d probably do you a world of favours getting shot up for real.’
