Shifting Sands (A Star Trek: The Next Generation Fan Fiction)

Chapter Four

I turned around as if in slow motion. I watched as the door slowly opened, with myself frozen in time and helpless to stop it. There, standing in the doorway, was Riker.

He saw me as soon as the door opened. He frowned, stepping through. Later, I remembered his face and realized that he was mentally running through a list of the crew, trying to place me, but at the moment I couldn't think much of anything. I couldn't believe this was happening. Not now, not when the voyage was almost over.

A few seconds passed, but it felt like years as we stared at each other. Finally, Riker spoke.

"Who are you?"

He was confused at my being there, but also angry. I was an intruder in his quarters, and he was the First Officer.

"I...I'm..." I stuttered, unable to find words or indeed think of anything to say. What could I say? "You..."

"I don't recognize you. You're not part of the crew," Riker said. It wasn't a question, it was a statement. I could see his hand start to move, ready to call in an intruder alert.

"No!" I said, stepping forward. My reaction must have surprised him, because he paused. It was only for a second, but it was what I needed. "Don't call security."

"Why shouldn't I?" Riker asked. He started to move his hand towards his com badge again, ready to call for Worf.

"Because I'm Tasha." The words were out before I could stop them. If I had been thinking clearly, I wouldn't have said them. I would have disappeared into some tiny form, unable to be seen. Or, at the very least, have let him think I was nothing more than a normal Sandorian. I could have even passed for human if they didn't scan me. But I hadn't been thinking clearly for the past five days. Not since I had come on board.

Riker looked slightly confused, but not enough. He obviously hadn't connected his cat Tasha and this strange woman standing before him. He was only confused because I thought that he should know who I was.

"Tasha who?"

I looked at him, regretting saying what I had said, and wondering if I could reach him some other way. Wondering what I could say or do to get him to not call security. What story could I tell him? My brain was already cycling through stories and plausible made-up scenarios, when I stopped it. No, I realized. He wouldn't believe any story I came up with on the fly.

I couldn't tell him the truth, though, could I? I'd been hiding who I really was for years, why should I tell Riker now? I should have just told him a lie, and then gotten out of there somehow.

"Please, don't call security," I said again, not sure what I was going to say, bumbling along. "Just, let me explain. Please."

"Explain what?" Riker asked. I could tell that he was still confused, but he also had the hard, Starfleet look of an officer faced with a hostile. I'd seen it before. You could see them mentally going over all of the protocol and combat training that they had ever learned. And they were ready to use it.

"It's me, Will, it's Tasha," I said. I wasn't sure why I called him Will. I hadn't thought of him as anything other than 'Riker' ever since I had met him. "Your cat."

Riker's calculating look was replaced by one of utter confusion and disbelief.

"What?" he asked. He obviously thought that I, whoever I was, had lost it.

"I'm Tasha. I'm the cat," I said, as if he could understand that. He couldn't, and he didn't answer. He still looked like he thought that I was either crazy or making up a very elaborate and stupid lie. "Look," I finally said.