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

Chapter Five

Five hours later, I was sitting in my cat bed, still in shock over what had happened. I wasn't in the brig, I wasn't fleeing security, and I wasn't lying beaten up somewhere, which had happened before. I wasn't even hiding. Well, I wasn't hiding from the one person who knew who I was, anyway. The rest of them didn't really matter since I was still a cat to them.

I still didn't know why Riker had done what he did. Maybe I would ask him sometime before I left, but I didn't now. He didn't seem to want to talk about it, and I didn't press it. As far as I was concerned, he had earned the right to keep some things to himself.

I didn't sleep much that night, so absorbed was I with my thoughts. It was still inexplicable to me that Riker hadn't turned me in, and I couldn't understand it. It wasn't just that he had potentially put his ship in danger, it was that he had put his own career in danger. And he had done it for a complete stranger who had taken advantage of him. I had thought that I had gotten to know Riker fairly well over the past five days, but apparently I was wrong. But, how well can you know someone when you're a cat?

I just couldn't wrap my head around it, even though I lay awake for many hours.

I was nine years old, and my friend was leaving me for the first time. It is a custom on Sandor that children are sent off to some major city to enter a boarding school once they reach the age of eleven. Sebastian had turned eleven during the spring, and his parents were sending him off to the capital to learn.

We were walking alongside the stream, skipping rocks across it. Sebastian was always better at it than I, but right now I didn't care too much. I had more important things to worry about.

"Why can't you go to somewhere closer?" I asked.

"Beldon is one of the closest cities with a good school," Sebastian told me. "I told you that before."

"I know," I mumbled, throwing a rock into the creek. It sank to the bottom.

"Aw, cheer up Tasha," Sebastian said, shaking my shoulder. "We'll still see each other. I'll be home over the holidays, and we can see each other all next summer."

"I guess..." I muttered. I still couldn't believe that Sebastian was leaving. When I had first met Sebastian at the tender age of five, I had thought that we would be together forever. Eleven had seemed such a long way off.

"And you'll be eleven in two years," Sebastian said. "You can go to the girls' school next to mine, and we can see each other then."

"That's true."

"See?" Sebastian said. "It's not so bad. Come on, let's go eat lunch. My mom's fixing kali-tal."

"Alright," I answered grudgingly. I guess things weren't as grim as I had thought. Sebastian would be back the next summer, after all, and I was sure that we would be friends for the rest of our life. Just like I'd always thought we would.

In the morning, I slept later than Riker. When I awoke, he was eating breakfast at the table, already dressed in his uniform. I stayed in bed for a few minutes, trying to decide what to do next. It seemed stupid to continue as a cat now that he knew who I was, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to become Sandorian again. It would be hard to live with Riker, who I was beginning to realize I knew so little about. And he didn't know me at all.

Eventually, realizing that I might as well get it over with, I rose from and bed and shifted. I pushed my hair back over my shoulders and straightened my clothing, which was the same thing I'd created the night before. I wasn't too imaginative when it came to clothes. It wasn't as if I was a clothing designer or anything. As per normal, I was barefoot.