The Hands Of Time (Prologue, Chapter 1)

von TanjaKA


The Hands of Time
by Tanara

Disclaimer: Starfleet and all its contents belong to Paramount. No copyright infringement intended. Alicia and Elisabeth are mine though they might bear resemblance to some women we all know… it feels good to say this.
The songs I used don’t belong to me, either …
Another Level “From the Heart”
Mariah Carey “All I’ve Ever Wanted”
R. Kelly “I Believe I Can Fly”
Mariah Carey “I’ll Be There”

Rating: NC-17 for a relationship between two women. It’s going to be explicit at some point or another…

Summary: Doctor Alicia Schmidt serves on the U.S.S. Explorer as the CMO. On an away mission her best friend and Counselor Richard Bronson gets hurt. The Doctor fights for his life and the question arises: Will the Explorer have to search for a new Counselor for their six-month, deep space mission via slipstream?

Notes: I don’t really know what made me write this story anymore but I want to thank Xenatrek for beta-reading and helping me to keep at it. Also, thank you to Katrina for offering some very interesting insights and for the long talks, which helped to solve some problems I had with writing…
Don’t post without written permission of the author.
I used the stardate-calculator from this site: http://www.hillschmidt.de/gbr/sternenzeit.htm

Thanks to Patti for a terrific job with cutting my “run-on-sentences” short!

Special thanks to Wiki for the final touch on the storyline *grins*

Started: August 18th 2006
Finished: December 5th 2006
Revised: April 29th 2009

Feedback: tanara1976@hotmail.de

~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~

March 30, 2438, Time: 10:27:37, SD 115242.29

It was a wonderful spring morning. Huge fields of green grass and wildflowers spread across the hills and valleys of the landscape, as far as the eye could reach. The sky was blue without any clouds; birds were flying across it, singing and enjoying the fresh breeze. The air smelled of spring flowers, the warmth of the sun and grass.

The promise of a beautiful day was palpable.

A dark spot appeared at the eastern horizon, growing bigger until the outlines of a shuttle became visible. Coming closer with every passing second, it was almost close enough to see every little detail like the pilot in the cockpit when suddenly, the starboard nacelle exploded.

The shuttle seemed to hang in the air for some seconds before it began to lose height and crashed into the ground behind a hill. As soon as it was down, a second explosion could be heard and fire burst into the sky, scattering birds from their resting places. The silence afterwards was deafening and black smoke billowed through the sky from the spot where the shuttlecraft had crashed.

The auburn-haired woman stood frozen to the spot, unable to move, think, feel, do anything. She was unable to believe what she had just witnessed with her own eyes. She was shocked like never before. She watched the black smoke rise in circles into the now quiet air. It signaled something for her that she was not able to comprehend at that moment.

Nothing moved for what seemed an eternity. In truth, only seconds elapsed before howls of unbelievable pain and loss could be heard from the crowd around her. Disbelieving screams rang out and everything seemed to move in slow motion.

Without warning, tears began to stream down her face. She felt strong arms encircle her before she collapsed onto the ground, losing consciousness from the sheer impossibility of the events. A strangled, agonized “no” escaped her lips before everything around her went black.

~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~

August 18, 2437, Time: 14:54:57, SD 114629.10

Doctor Alicia Schmidt worked hard to save the life of Richard Bronson, Counselor of the U.S.S. Explorer. It was a Galaxy-class vessel on which she was the Chief Medical Officer, responsible for the health of about 1,200 people together with one other doctor and a medical staff of about 20.

Counselor Bronson had accompanied an away team of two Security Officers, the First Officer Chris Ranton and Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Madeleine Pura, for negotiations on the planet of Cruda about interesting new technology. The Crudans turned out to be very hostile and not interested in diplomacy at all, but in the technology the Federation vessel might have. Without warning, they opened fire on the Starfleet Officers, killing Security on the spot. Lt. Pura had severe burns to her hands and Cmdr. Ranton was shot in the leg. These injuries weren’t life threatening but Counselor Bronson was a totally different story. He had been shot in the chest and midsection before the Transporter Chief was able to beam them back to safety and it didn’t look good for him.

~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~

Alicia had joined the Explorer two years ago, at the age of 40. Richard Bronson, being the same age, had befriended her. They had spent most of their free time together.

“Damn, Rich, you can’t do this to me! Come on,” she mumbled under her breath while trying to revive him.

The monitors were beeping frantically when suddenly, there was only the sound of a flat-line with the drone of a constant beep, but Alicia didn’t stop.

She tried for several more minutes but his injuries were too severe. She couldn’t help him anymore and she was unable to dismiss the obvious: She had lost a very good friend.

Her sky blue eyes filled with tears as soon as she stopped her ministrations. She took off the bloodied gloves as well as the mask covering most of her face and looked down at the broken body of the dark haired man whose face looked peaceful despite his horrible death.

She recycled the instruments, asked one of her staff to clean her friend and tied her shoulder length blond hair back in its usual loose ponytail when she was clean again.

She watched Richard for a while before retreating to her office to write the report and inform the Captain of the Counselor’s death. But before she did anything else, she sat down in the chair in her office and cried for some time.

Her face with high cheekbones, a pointed nose and the cleft chin as well as the full red lips, showed unmistakable sorrow. Her eyes were blood-shot. With unrestrained tears streaming down her cheeks, her elegant hands shielded the light from her sensitive eyes while her elbows were resting on the desk.

When she calmed down again, she wiped her face, put on the blue gown, over her teal uniform and slapped the commbadge after she attached it to the left of her chest.

“Schmidt to Captain Richardson,” she hailed her Commanding Officer.

“Richardson here,” his deep voice sounded over the comm system.

“Captain, I would like to speak with you in your ready room,” she stated.

“Meet me there as soon as you are ready, Doctor,” he said. “Richardson out.”

She sighed, got up from her chair and asked for reports about the other patients before heading to the bridge.

She couldn’t believe that her friend was dead. Only yesterday they had spent the evening riding their bikes on the Holodeck, one of their favorite free time activities together and now, he was gone. But there was no time to mourn now. She had her duties and there would be time for that later.

She greeted her fellow officers when she entered the bridge. She went directly to the door of the ready room, as Captain Richardson was not on the bridge and entered the office after she rang the door chime.

Captain Richardson, a tall, handsome man of about 50 with short dark brown hair and black eyes was sitting behind his desk, looking at her with a serious expression on his prominent face.

“Have a seat, Doctor Schmidt,” he said, gesturing to the chair in front of his desk.

She sat down, meeting his eyes. Her face must have shown the sad news because he lowered his eyes and took a deep breath.

“I take it you weren’t able to save Counselor Bronson?” he asked, sadness evident in his deep voice.

“I did everything I could,” she answered.

“I know you did, Doctor. You wouldn’t settle for less. He was your friend,” Richardson acknowledged.

Silence fell for some time, both looking at each other with sad eyes until the Captain broke it again. “How are Cmdr. Ranton and Lt. Pura?”

“They are both fine. Cmdr. Ranton should rest for at least another day,” she informed him.

“Good to know. So, now we need a new Counselor. I will inform Starfleet and ask for a replacement.” He held Alicia’s gaze and looked for any signs of unease.

“I will miss him,” she admitted.

“We all will. He was a good man and friend to many of us,” he said quietly. “I will inform you as soon as I’ve got any information from Starfleet.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

She got up and was stopped before she reached the door. “Doctor?”

She turned on her heels, putting her hands in the pockets of her gown and had a very good hunch what would come next, the muscles in her cheek twitching slightly.

“He was your friend. Would you like to inform his family? I know it’s hard and if you say you can’t, I will understand, but they will take it better from someone they know and like.” Richardson knew that they had spent a lot of time together and had even met each other’s families, though he wasn’t sure what kind of relationship they had shared.

“I wouldn’t want anyone else to tell them,” she said quietly in her melodic alto voice.

“Thank you, Doctor.”

She nodded and went back to sickbay for the rest of her duty shift.

~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~