The command crew sat in the meeting room as Geordi LaForge explained that the Potemkin had tried to rescue William Riker from the planet's surface, only they were losing the signal. The transporter chief at the time used a second beam to ensure success, and William Riker appeared on the ship. What happened was, only one beam was successful.
The second beam had bounced off of the distortion field and reflected back to the starbase and that was how the second William Riker was born. Beverly Crusher confirmed that after her full examination of Thomas Riker, he really was a younger version of William Riker, with a single difference.
“The unknown energy.” Picard said and hid his dismay over it.
“Actually, I figured out what that energy does. It affects his refractory period and sexual performance.” Beverly said and Deanna caught her breath. “He doesn't get soft after ejaculation and his sperm are the most potent I've ever seen.” She smiled at the shocked faces of the command crew, especially Deanna's. “He did ask for a full work-up and I gave him the entire gambit of tests that entails.”
Every man at the table winced slightly at what that meant. If Worf had been present, he would have scoffed at them being wusses about having their anus probed. Data just logged the reactions as interesting.
What Beverly didn't say was that she had thoroughly enjoyed being in full control during the examination. Tom making those soft sounds for her had her own blood rushing to her own very sensitive parts and revealed a small fetish she didn't know she had.
“So, as far as the records will show, we have two Rikers onboard.” Picard said when he broke the silence after Beverly's statements. “Now, what are we going to do about it?”
The rest of the command crew exchanged slightly worried looks and wondered what that question implied. Data sat there and wondered if he could reconfigure the transporters to simulate the same accident and could make a perfect transporter copy of himself, since neither Riker had been harmed after what happened.
There were two more windows of opportunity before the distortion field would be back to full strength and they would need to wait another eight years before the planet was close enough to the sun to weaken it again. Data dismissed the idea as too risky, since he didn't want to take the chance his positronic brain could be damaged if both of his patterns bounced off of the distortion field.
*
I walked only a little awkwardly after suffering through two anal probes and recovering for a while in sickbay. The first should have been enough and then Beverly commented about having to confirm the results. I wanted to complain, except I knew from her thoughts and emotions that she enjoyed having me under her power like that.
Worf led me through the ship to guest quarters on the middle deck of the saucer section. They were the smallest available of course, because Commander Riker was being a dick. It was barely a single room with a bed, a table, and small replicator. At least the table had a personal console on it that I could work with.
“You will be escorted whenever you leave your quarters.” Worf said as he stood in the doorway. “Captain's orders.”
“Make sure they're all female, will you?” I asked. “If I'm being followed constantly anyway, I want to enjoy the scenery at least.”
Worf gave me another pointed look before he stepped backwards into the hallway and let the room's door close.
I chuckled at him not liking I didn't complain about the restriction. Little did he know that I knew the ship and its systems inside and out, thanks to my extensive work in the Array Program. The USS Galaxy was one of the later ships brought in when the sole human colony in the Delta Quadrant wanted to initiate an exchange program, thanks to the 300 that had joined my crew and returned to Earth and they reported back how similar it was.
Oh, and the seeds we found on the truck were a huge hit back on Earth, too. They sparked off a huge Renaissance in extinct crops that grew well and soon it became a fad to grow your own crops to add new biomass to the replicators that produced food.
I put my bag of personal items on the bed and used the replicator to make appropriate command bars to attach to my yellow uniform and then walked over to the small table. I sat and the tiny personal console made me chuckle. I pulled out a bigger display from my inventory and a few components, then I spent the next half an hour making modifications and turning it into a proper workspace for me to use.
Once it was done, I started writing the reports necessary to establish myself as a separate entity, opened a different credit account, then I filed the paperwork for being the sole officer on the starbase for the last eight years, requested hazard pay, and logged all that time as in command of the starbase.
Finding the records of the Potemkin to confirm the dates was easy and I sent everything off to Starfleet Personnel. I would need to wait a day or two before filing the necessary post abandonment forms, just in case Picard tried anything against me to negate my authority.
I did check to see if Beverly really did add my medical records to the general database and laughed when I read her personal notes attached about my excessive flirting at inappropriate times. To be fair, I did ask her out to dinner after the first anal probe. After the second one, she had accepted the date and we arranged to meet in the afternoon two days from now when she had the day off.
I amended the medical file to my paperwork and sent that off as well, to prove I was a different person than Commander Riker. It wasn't that much of a stretch, especially with the picture I included with my identification request. I just hoped they backdated it to the appropriate time and didn't screw me out of my rights after so long... and I realized that was exactly what they would do if Picard called them first.
Dammit, I need to try and get ahead of that. I thought and another file was sent off with a warning and the corrections to the paperwork, so they don't set eight years as my age like I suspected they would. It would invalidate everything, my pay, my claim of command, and my equal status to the captain. Why? Because a child can't be a part of Starfleet until they are of age or earned a recommendation to enroll early in the academy.
Dammit, they are totally going to do that, aren't they? I asked myself and closed my eyes to use my clairvoyance power. I looked at the main office of Starfleet's Bureau of Personnel and found the admiral behind the desk. A touch of his mind showed me that he was good friends with Picard, having served once together, and he had already been contacted about my situation.
You don't want to do this. I inserted the thought into his mind as I typed up a report of some of my technology integration and programming skills.
The man's doubt only lasted for a moment after my mental prod, then he recalled all of the things Picard had done during his career and how many times he had saved people and increased Starfleet's reputation. He was an exemplary captain and the wishes of a non-entity didn't measure up to him at all.
His console beeped as it received the forms and filed requests I had sent. The admiral shook his head and denied it all. He added a personal note that since Thomas Riker didn't exist until eight years ago, that would be when his records in the United Federation of Planets would start, because he thought I had no right to question a superior officer.
I could have stopped him; but, I figured this was going to be a good lesson for him and for Picard. As soon as the man hit enter and filed the denials and the reason, I sent him the impression that he was an idiot and forwarded the follow-up report of my skills as if I was an unnamed bridge officer that just logged them. I had the command codes for everything, after all.
The admiral felt relief that he could help protect their outstanding captain's reputation and sent off a confirmation message to Picard about fulfilling the favor to him, then his console beeped again and he received the file I had sent anonymously. He opened the report and his eyes widened at what was there, then he remembered arbitrarily rejecting all of my requests that legitimized me.
The man started to panic and tried to pull the other files and reports back up on his console to correct his mistake, they had already gone off to Starfleet Command and he no longer had access to them. His face paled and he tapped his comm badge to call someone in an associate's office that would be receiving them. A short disappointing conversation later, the man slumped in his chair and rested his head in his hands.
His request for them to ignore his officially filed paperwork was denied, as I knew it would be, because a bureaucracy ran on paperwork and there was no way anyone in Starfleet Command would ignore officially filed paperwork. He could file corrections if he wanted to; but, his final decision was logged, as was the reason of my young age. Unless he had evidence to the contrary, which he didn't, his decision would stand.
Thomas Riker was only eight years old and could not legally be a member of Starfleet.
I stopped using my clairvoyance power at that point, since I didn't need to see the man breaking down anymore. I was tempted to send a copy of my skills to Picard, then shrugged. His ignorance could only help me and it would be funny to see the look on his face when he found out.
Also, I was going to do my best to woo Beverly Crusher, Picard's secret crush for years. He wasn't man enough to step up after all this time, so he could stand there and watch as someone who was man enough did his best to make Beverly happy.
Although, that did make me wonder what she would say when the official decision was sent back to the ship about my declared age. Would she laugh it off or would she let me down easy, unable to date someone so much younger than her? I was tempted to tell her myself, just to find out.
My room's door chimed for admittance and I stood and walked over to it.
“It's open.” I said and the door hissed open to reveal Councillor Deanna Troi. “Deanna!” I gasped and took a step forward with my arms out to hug her, then pretended to notice her uniform and stopped, then I stepped back. “Hold on, how are you here? Why are you dressed like that?” I paused and looked at her neck. “You're a Lieutenant Commander in the Medical Chain of Command?”
“Will...” Deanna started to say.
“I prefer Thomas.” I interrupted and didn't give her the same 'friends call me Tom' option. “Didn't you say you needed to think about our relationship and where we wanted our careers to go?”
Deanna gave me a sad look. “Do you mind if I come in? We need to talk.”
I sighed and stepped back again and motioned to the small table. “You can sit. I'll stand, thank you.”
Deanna looked at the tiny room and her face flushed red in embarrassment. “Why would...” She stopped and looked at my face. “I'll speak to him and appropriate quarters will be assigned to you.”
“Don't bother. These are appropriate quarters for a child.” I said and motioned for her to sit.
“Wh-what?” Deanna asked, surprised.
“Picard pulled some strings and I'll be declared my own person, except that my existence started during the Potemkin incident and that will be officially logged as my birthdate.”
Deanna looked horrified. “But... but, that means...”
I reached up to the metal commander bars on my collar and pulled them off. “As an eight year old, I'm no longer a Starfleet officer.”
Deanna stared at them in my hand and I sighed. I gave them to her, pulled the Lieutenant SG ones out of my pocket and gave those to her, too. I then took her arm and led her across the small room and sat her at the table. Her eyes immediately locked onto the huge display and her eyes darted from side to side as she read the skill list I had intentionally left there.
“Since you're here on the Enterprise, I have to assume you and William went through with the marriage to complete the Imzadi bond and he convinced you to join Starfleet to follow him as he changed ships.” I said and leaned against the wall by the bed. “That was very accommodating of you...”
“We're not together.” Deanna interrupted me. “He chose his career over me and left me behind.”
I blinked my eyes at her for a moment. “He... no, why... he's such an idiot.”
Deanna let out a huffed laugh. “That idiot is you.” She said and looked embarrassed. “Was you.”
“I've had a lot of time to think about having a relationship with you, Deanna.” I admitted. “Would we get married? Have children? Give up our careers to raise a family on Betazed like your mother wanted?”
Deanna's face turned sad, because she would have liked that last one, too.
“When I found out it's been eight years since then, I had no reasonable expectation that you would still have any feelings about...” I paused and sighed. “I expected you to have mourned after William Riker was declared lost and assumed dead after the Potemkin. I then imagined this great reunion, you know? Your betrothed was miraculously back from the dead, and we'd be together, and then I saw his older and bearded face and knew that none of it was going to happen.”
“Wi... Thomas.” Deanna whispered.
“I'm surprised you still followed him into Starfleet, and then onto this ship, and you're not together? That's horrible for you, Deanna. Have you bothered staying close to him and reinforcing your bond?” I asked and she opened her mouth to say yes, so I reached up to tap my temple. “It's barely a trickle, Deanna. It was so strong before and now it's so damaged that I'm surprised it's there at all.”
Deanna looked embarrassed again. “I've tried to give him his space...”
“No, it's not your fault.” I said with a sigh and she could feel I meant that. “The thing is, it doesn't matter if I'm him from before he made such a stupid decision, does it? You've moved so far past that, where I am, that it's like we're two very different people from those two people back then.”
Deanna nodded and she looked back at the report on the display. “Can you really do all of this?”
I pointed at the display. “I rebuilt the tiny personal console that only recalls data into a fully functioning one.”
“You did?” Deanna asked and started hitting commands. Her eyes narrowed at the results showing instantly and she started typing more and more, only for the thing to perform perfectly each time. “Wi... Thomas, this... how did you do this?”
“Lots of practice, long hours pulling things apart, and rebuilding everything I could get my hands on.” I said, truthfully. “If I had a bit more space, I could easily rebuild the room into a mini-holodeck.”
Deanna lifted her gaze from the console to stare at me with wide eyes.
“It doesn't matter now, though. All my skills are invalid and will never be approved by Starfleet, even after I'm of age and can legally work.” I told her.
“What? Why?” Deanna asked, surprised.
“Because I'd have to go through Starfleet Academy again to get certified, then do the masters course, then be officially commissioned. Since I've been discredited, I sincerely doubt they would accept me into the academy, even if I had a recommendation from someone.”
Deanna looked angry for a moment, then she closed her eyes and sighed. She sat back on the chair and opened her eyes to look at me. “I'm sorry, Thomas.”
“So am I.” I said and walked over to the bed where my dufflebag was. I opened it and pulled out a slate of slightly charred bulkhead about a foot high and almost a foot across. “I intended to give this to you as a reunion gift, except I can't reunite with someone that's never missed me, can I?” I asked and walked over to her to hand it to her.
Deanna wanted to say something about my defeatist statement, then she caught her breath at seeing a perfect depiction of the special waterfall back on Betazed where she and Will had first declared their intentions and love for each other. “H-how did you do this?”
I smiled as she gently caressed the intricately carved surface. “A low level phaser to mark out the etching and then using various precision tools to carefully scrape out the rest. It took quite some time to make that, I assure you.”
“I... I know. The hardened metal plate... it's so difficult to damage and...” Deanna stopped and admired it.
“I really am sorry, Deanna. I thought you would still feel the same if I showed up in your life, except I can't in good conscience expect you to give up on your hope that he will eventually coming back to you, not just to give me a slim chance. That's not fair to you, because you'll see it as me trying to make up for his mistake of leaving you.” I told her.
Deanna had tears come to her eyes.
“That's not realistic for either of us and I won't ever force you to make a choice between us.” I said and placed a hand on her shoulder. “You love who you love and that man isn't me. Not this time.”
Deanna looked reluctant as she nodded.
“He'll smarted up one day, Deanna. I know he will.” I said and let her shoulder go. “You can keep that. Maybe he'll see it and realize what he lost.” I said and smirked at her. “Just don't tell him where it came from.”
Deanna huffed a laugh and wiped at her damp eyes.
“So, I assume you came here to tell me you aren't the same woman from back then and that you've moved on past all of that?” I asked and nodded at the etching.
“Y-yes, that's exactly what I came here to say.” Deanna said.
“Then consider your message delivered and understood.” I said and stepped back from the table. “I won't bother you, or him, or cause either of you any more trouble. I promise.”
Deanna knew that was a dismissal and she nodded. She stood and hugged the piece of bulkhead to her chest and gave me one last look. It was slightly forlorn and she walked across the small room to the door.
I didn't say anything to stop her and she left without another word.