The Complication

From Romulus With Love

Author's Note: Thank you for your continued support on this story!

All of your likes, kudos, comments, and messages on Twitter are wonderful.

This chapter starts by wrapping up the Romulan incident (and setting the stage for much later instalments) and ends with the first part of our next arc where we introduce a love interest for Geordi.

It wasn't the original plan. However, it seemed better to get this portion of the Romulan arc out before diving into the next adventure. It's a little heavier than I thought and focuses on the mentor-protégé relationship I envision Picard and Tasha sharing.

In this series, I'm trying to balance the episodic feel of TNG with various adventures while simultaneously lacing in some longer story arcs. Q, the Romulans, found family, Data's emotions, and Tasha's relationship to death are some of the longer arcs that we'll be exploring.

I'd like to preface this chapter by stating the science is not my forte. While I've attempted to weave in/ground this with real scientific phenomena, it's still science fiction.

As always, if you like my works or want to stay up to date with my art, comics, or just like chatting about the fandom you can join me @TheTartanTart on Twitter.

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Beverly was halfway through reading a fascinating article when a soft 'ping' disrupted her thoughts.

The article was the latest report on a new type of dermal regeneration gel that was proving effective for long-term missions where energy resources were scarce.

However, the alert from her computer was far more enticing.

Beverly dropped her feet off her desk and turned in her chair.

Sitting upright, she scanned through the readings on the screen.

For the few weeks Beverly had been carefully combing through all available information on the viral infection they suspected had been planted by a Romulan spy.

She was looking for anything – how it had been created, how to properly identify it, and how to create a fast-acting airborne inoculant that could counter-act any future possible attacks.

In her research, Beverly had managed to find and isolate a particular DNA sequence that had an unusual double-stranded pattern.

Beverly sighed as she read the final report on the screen.

She had run the sequence three times to rule out any possibility of error.

"Crusher to Captain Picard," she said as she tapped her combadge. "I need to speak with you in your Ready Room."

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Down in the Main Security office, Tasha and Worf were seated across from one another at the briefing table. Proper to a fault, Worf was sitting with his back ramrod straight as he poured through the medical records from the day of the infection.

Tasha was lounging in a chair with her with her feet thrown over the armrest as she stared intently at the viewscreen.

Their investigation into finding the Romulan conspirator or conspirators was starting to grow mind-numbing.

For weeks they had combed through personnel logs, medical records, and access reports to narrow down the list of possible suspects.

The joint Medical and Security investigation had found a series of hotspots where the contagion originated. There were four spots total – the holodeck near the classrooms, Sickbay on deck 12, Ten Forward, and Main Engineering.