#i like the conversation worf and Data have about it where they are like

[gaykarstaagforever]

TNG, Season 6, Episode 18, "Starship Mine".

Terrorists seize the Enterprise-D for some stupid reason, Picard gets captured, whatever, who cares.

I want to talk about Hutch.

He is played up as this super-annoying guy who "talks about nothing" all the time, to such an extreme that even this episode's Butt Head Aliens hate him. Worf and Geordi both try to get out of hanging out with him. Picard only gets captured as part of some ploy to avoid him. He also tells Data to learn small talk from him, which leads to Data mimicking him, which Riker and Crusher find so funny, Riker introduces Data to Hutch and then they stand there at a distance, making fun of both of them.

Here's the thing - Hutch did nothing wrong.

You horrible space nerds. This guy is warm and funny and friendly, he has a million stories, he knows everyone, and trivia about tons of planets and species, and he nonchalantly tells you where cool horseback-riding trails are.

This guy is fascinating and awesome! This is 100% the best guy at any party! I guess they cast this badly, because Hutch isn't remotely annoying. He seems like a fun, fascinating guy, who you could talk to about anything, forever. Who the hell hates that!?

"It's all small talk." "He talks about nothing." Oh sorry, important Galaxy-class crew, that Hutch doesn't talk about the one specific thing each one of you specifically cares about. GOD FORBID anyone engage you people on a sub-doctorate level conversation about alien weather or funny ancedotes about people you don't know personally.

I swear to god..

SORRY, Riker, that he got in the way of you finding yet another woman with low standards to have a meaningless one-night-stand with.

SORRY, Beverly, that someone expected you to engage with a conversation not about obscure alien diarrhea for 10 minutes.

SORRY, Geordi, that the captain made you be nice to a guy you don't know, instead of you being creepy and then striking out with a woman you've been feeding drinks to all evening.

Hutch is by far the most emotionally well-balanced and interesting person in this room! If you actually listened to his conversation where Data was innocently copying him, you'd learn a hundred different interesting things!

Leave Hutch alone, you jerks. He's better than all of you!

Update: ...You guys are not going to believe this.

[invisible-brandy]

morning thoughts about tng bc otherwise ill forget

1) i need to slow the fuck down bc it got better and now im swallowing episodes while only screaming about them @ my bestie. which is great, but i do wanna keep a bit of a record on tumblr and i do like going into the tags of each episode and seeing what people have to say

2) the measure of a man is a VERY good episode, but statfleet is a pile of hot garbage. you're telling me that Data graduated the Academy, went on to actually serve, but it still wasn't determined fully whether he's property? Or was it stated before, and they just didn't inform him of his lack of rights, deciding to let him have this delusion that he's free? I understand that it's a complicated and new situation, but HONESTLY. Legally speaking, Starfleet is not doing their best, but i guess i didn't expect them to lmao

(and i somehow don't feel like that hearing fully resolved his issues with being legally considered less than human. maybe im just pessimistic)

data having tasha's tiny hologram makes me physically unwell.

i did feel a bit uncomfortable that they had to bring up them having sex, bc like...... that's not a measure of humanity. but i get why.

all data's other trinkets and gifts also make me unwell. geordi not being able to put on a brave face and stand with the rest of them too - i really wanna see more geordi in general, i feel like despite him having some moments, i dont know him that well yet.

riker in this episode looks so fuckable idk why. i like that he Explicitly states that Data is his comrade and a friend, so maybe i like him more for the character reasons, but also he looks more um thick than before.

Guinan in this episode provides a much needed point of view, and in general I've been really enjoying this character.

i just found out there is an extended cut of this episode hold the fuck up:

- aw fuck he gave geordi the SH pipe ;—; geordi doesn't seem to be as concerned yet

- they cut a scene where everyone looks at maddox like he's absolutely despicable after he suggests that data works at a carnaval. it's such a good scene though!!!! worf steps forward looking murderous, riker stops him but then roughly manhandles maddox out of the room. that's what ive been really wanting to see, the crew visibly coming together being protective over data.

- ooooh i think that's the first time data used "will" for riker

ooof. 10/10 episode

3) went into watching The Dauphin thinking eh I'll be normal, it's just an episode about Wesley falling in love. was indeed not normal and giggled a lot about Worf talking about courting and how everyone tried to be generally helpful but mostly really weren't. Also Worf having all these protector conversations with Anya was interesting. (anything worf does is interesting to me. show me this guy sneezing and ill be glued to the screen) (it's a little funny that I don't remember the girls name, but I remember Anya. it's 100000% bc it's a more familiar name)

anyway, when Wes was rejecting Salia in the end I couldn't stop thinking about trans allegories even though they definitely didn't mean it that way, and I was about to be sad, but then Wes came around. yay

4) contagion was also a very nice episode. watched it in bed at like 1.30 am so i might've missed something, but i have zero negative things to say about it.

the romulans are interesting to watch, data being incredibly helpful even when blind and dying is amazing and touching. USS Yamato being destroyed in front of them was... Well. I wish Picard would got to finish his conversation with Wesley about it, not because i needed to hear it - it's nothing particularly new. but for Picard and Wesley i think it was an important moment.

riker asking for stones to throw at the romulans was funny. that whole scene was kinda hysterical to me, especially bc i imagine the romulans were having similar frustrations.

again, it's funny but also pretty realistic that they don't actually have anyone on board who would be able to help data when something actually happens. geordi is not an expert in soong type androids and they're just lucky that data basically restarts himself.

[frecklenog]

i love hugh's anger so much. the way he shouts "you gave me a sense of individuality! changed me, then sent me back to the collective!" at a klingon warrior a head taller than himself. "you made it possible for lore to dominate us." he's rightfully pissed and i love that for him

and in defiant issue 9,,, good lord. this boy. i gotta include the exchange with worf and do a lil analysis so it's going under the cut

hugh: are we friends, worf? worf: i... hugh... yes... yes, we are... we were... hugh: are you certain? because from what i hear, lore is now your friend. worf: lore is a villain and a liar. i merely had use for him. where is my crew? hugh: you had use for lore. lore used us. as tools. pawns. hugh: he is not on your ship. i believe you. at least in that regard. worf: you... you seem to be driven by much revenge. hugh: revenge? worf: you seek lore's destruction, just as you seek to destroy the borg you attack in this sector. a sense of self has awakened within you, hugh, but one accompanied by a deep well of hatred. perhaps you are more like lore than you realize. hugh: awakened. this is a good metaphor. hugh: i attack no one. i am trying to wake my friends from a very bad dream.

[...]

worf: where are the others? hugh: safe. in our custody. just as lore is not in yours. do you know where he is now at all? worf: i have no idea. hugh: you set him loose, but you act like it isn't your responsibility.

and with the way the comic goes? i can't help but be reminded of troi and data's conversation in descent part 1,,

data: anger is a negative emotion. i wanted to concentrate on something more positive. troi: data, feelings aren't positive and negative, they simply exist. it's what we do with those feelings that becomes good or bad. for example, feeling angry about an injustice could lead someone to take a positive action to correct it.

idk. it makes me feel something.

[thegeminisage]

readers i am so thrilled to report that tng this evening absolutely ATE. i thought tng was bad but as it turns out tng is good sometimes??? we did "a matter of honor" and "the measure of a man" which are proof of fucking concept: tng CAN BE GOOD!!!

a matter of honor: this is the first time i've been really, really fond of riker. his go-with-the-flow attitude is fantastic. yeah i'll wear the slut costume on the woman planet. sure i'll eat these worms to please the klingons. absolutely i will fuck two of their women at once. good for him. i get it now. I GET IT NOW. he is not only down to fuck is is down to do any and everything. when it rome. so true, buddy. he would've eaten those worms in the conspiracy episode fr

i was just noting how pleased i was that wesley only basically had secondary lines this season ("aye sir" and the like) when they called him to the transport room, but luckily it was just to be racist to that one guy...like, it was stupid, but obviously they were just explaining why they were re-using the prosthetic which turned it around into being funny

picard turning his nose up at the klingon food. WHAT A LIMP NOODLE OF A MAN. IF RIKER CAN EAT IT YOU CAN EAT IT. kirk would've eaten it. don't worry i'm only ragging on picard for this episode he's gonna get his time

whatever worf and riker had going on in this episode was gay. ok gayboys!

riker on the klingon ship...chefs kiss...he was so good. effortlessly parrying the challenge to his authority. conniving to become captain. the word phrase "who's your daddy now" may have been uttered by one or both parties during these scenes, among incredulous laughter. i can't believe he had it in him.

oh and HOW can we forget the klingon women. i actually forgive them for not only the threesome joke but also the breastfeeding joke because they were: fucking hilarious, actually, and felt more like they were punching down at riker instead of women. also i now 100% believe he is prepared to fuck his way through any given spaceship at any time and GOOD for him.

the measure of a man: FINALLY SOME GOOD FUCKING FOOD

still flying high on the endorphins of riker doing All Of That we got to view the poker game, which is apparently the first of many. it was wonderful. i loved data's little visor

episode started to drag when picard's lawyer ex turned up (toscore) bc i dont (didnt?) care about him or his love life, but when maddox showed up i was on high fucking alert bc i knew the name but couldnt remember why

LISTENNN every time he called data an it i gasped. i did call him a bitch several times in a row sorry to catherine. i knew obviously that data was going to be fine but i went on this ENTIRE journey

where do i even start. data resigning rather than submitting to the procedure, his goodbye party, his goodbye to geordi specifically AND THEY SHOULD HAVE HUGGED, augh augh augh

i think it was dumb to make will be the prosecuter if he wasn't going to more actively convey his regret to the audience. all of his goodwill from the klingon ship episode was used up sooo quickly especially when he used data's off button. data doesn't like that!!!!!

i did LOVE however the conversation picard had with guinan...which is bonkers bc apparently it was a last minute addition. but her like oh yeah they're gonna make more datas. entire generations of disposable people and his lightbulb going on OH YOU MEAN SLAVERY and she's like no thats a little harsh and hes like ACTUALLY NO IT ISN'T. it was so good. for the first time tng excelled at something that tos doesn't - like it wasn't too on the nose or pointed the way grand speeches in tos were. it was JUST subtle enough and coming from a black woman who is on tng because of the black woman in tos legitimized it in a way that it couldn't have been as much if, say, picard had come to it on his own. david cage WISHES

PICARD'S EXAMINATION OF MADDOX AND SPEECH IN THE COURTROOM. DID YOU GUYS KNOW HE COULD ACT? hey. did anyone know patrick stewart can act??? he was so fucking pissed off this whole episode and it was kind of nice but like did you guys KNOW he could ACT. when he got in maddox's fucking face about it. GO the fuck OFF i have been waiting and WAITING for him to do this

i loved data's packing things coming back, esp his hologram of tasha yar...she literally took his virginity lol i miss you queen

"does data have a soul? i don't know. i don't know that i have" I LOVE WHEN STAR TREK IS ATHEIST

data forgiving maddox in a sense at the end and maddox switching to calling him he...EYE certainly don't forgive maddox but his shock was so good. realizing something you thought was an inanimate object was like, alive.

also i really like that he forgave riker...i was so relieved they had a scene at the end together and so moved that data could find compassion for him after everything he did that EYE forgave riker...data is genuinely the most loving soul wtf i'd fucking die for him. anyway that made me well up a little bit. what a great episode 10/10 this is gonna be my first "must see" i think

ok! next i do "the dauphin" on my own and then tomorrow we do "the contagion" together

[sodiumlamp]

Picard

Picard Season 3 is ten episodes long, and as advertised, it reunites the cast of TNG .......... .................................... ........................................................................................................... .............................................................................................................. ................................................................... ........................................................... ..................................................................................................................................ei.........................ght.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ep...............................................................................i............................................................s..............................................................................................................o.................................................................des..............................................in.

As I expected, this episode sees the good guys retake the ship from Vadic. Jack Crusher creates a diversion, Worf and Raffi rescue Riker and Troi from the Shrike, and Geordi reconnects Data to the ship so he can lock out Vadic's control of the ship's systems.

The good: Data's final showdown with Lore was satisfying, in that there was literally no way for anyone else to interfere or get in the way. Data had to defeat him on his own, and he did it by being the man he is, which sort of revealed the empty life Lore lived. In essence, Data and Lore have combined together, but in the final analysis, Lore doesn't contribute very much at all.

The good: Riker and Troi had a nice conversation in their holding cell on the Shrike. I was confused about how their Season 3 dynamic aligned with their appearance in Season 1, and this filled in the gaps. Riker was just as miserable in S1 as he was at the start of S3, but Troi was using her powers to alleviate his grief, which is why he was so chipper. He saw this as a crutch and wanted to sort things out on his own, and he did. They argue over whether Troi should have done what she did, but in the end she acknowledges that you can't skip to the end when it comes to healing. It works. It's the sort of conflict and resolution you'd expect to see from a couple that's been married for this long. As well as they get on, they still have things to work out sometimes.

The good: Vadic's dead and the Shrike is destroyed. This is satisfying, because it's long overdue. Better late than never. Vadic gets sucked out into space, where she freezes solid and shatters against the hull of the Shrike. I'm not 100% sure that would be enough to kill a Changeling, but the Shrike explosion would probably finish the job. Vadic freezing in space is a nice Jojo Reference, however unintentional. It might have been nice to have her float in space forever, give her the full Kars treatment, but that would never stick in Star Trek. Someone would thaw her out for another run in Star Trek: Discovery Season 47.

The bad: This episode took forever. At least half of this turkey must have been taken up with Vadic reveling in her victory from the Titan's bridge. The point is self-evident. "I won, you lost, and now that I control your ship, I'll start killing you one by one until Jack Crusher surrenders himself." This point is repeated at least three times, and none of them are quick. It's the same dilemma from Episode 2, with Titan in an even weaker position. And Vadic gave rambling speeches then, too.

She talked about why her ship is named Shrike, and how she likes to torment and chip away at her prey, just like the bird the ship is named for. That's just standard supervillain rhetoric. DC Comics has spent decades explaining why "The Penguin" is supposed to be a badass name. But it feels like Vadic's entire raison d'être is to drag out the story. I found out last night that the actress who plays Vadic, Amanda Plummer, is the daughter of Christopher Plummer, who played General Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. That probably explains why she spins in her chair and talks so irreverently to her enemies. Except Chang's scenes were mercifully brief. He'd quote Shakespeare at you, do a couple of spins, make some nonverbal commands to his crew, then die to one torpedo. Nobody needed 35 minutes of Chang's routine. A little went a long way.

The bad: Throughout this episode, the Shrike just.... sits there? It made sense in Episode 7, because Vadic led a boarding party onto the Titan. Shrike couldn't do anything without risking their commander or the man they came to get. But somehow Worf was able to sneak on board without anyone noticing, and then he shuttles back to the Titan with no trouble at all. Then, when things really start to go badly for Vadic, the Shrike continues to just sit there. It sits there while Vadic shatters against its hull, it sits there while Titan opens fire on it.

It's like there was no one left on board to man the ship's controls? Except Worf's group left in a hurry because the guards were coming, so there would have been a few people left to run things. You'd think at least one guy would be on duty to raise the shields, or teleport Vadic back aboard, or at least pick off Worf's shuttle.

And if there was anyone on the bridge, it's weird how Titan took out the Shrike so easily, considering how powerful the ship was reported to be in Episode 2. Maybe that asteroid Riker threw at it did more damage than we realized? I don't know, it just seems very anticlimactic. Who built the Shrike, and how did Vadic get it? Why is she commanding it, when her allies have so much of Starfleet at their disposal?

The bad: This season is 80% done before we get all seven TNG characters in the same room together. I didn't expect that moment to happen early. They had to bring Data back from the dead for one thing. But throughout this season, I've found it strange how little we've seen Deanna Troi. That appears to be for plot-related reasons, because the second she's on board the Titan she can sense something eerie about Jack Crusher. If they met too soon, that might short-circuit the story (Don't threaten me with a good time.). It's the same way they had to hold off on Data so he could be the one to reveal that the Changelings stole Picard's corpse.

To be fair, maybe this is the right call, because withholding Troi makes you want to see her that much more, so they held her back until it was most effective. Once she's on the scene, she starts to get to the bottom of things, much like Worf did when he finally showed up.

Still, there's only six TNG characters to be re-introduced here. Picard's the title character, so he's already there. Even if we bring the others in one episode at a time and save Troi for last, that should still bring her in by Episode 6, not 8. Seven's had a bigger presence in this show and she's a Voyager guy. Shaw's had a bigger presence in this show and he's just some dipshit from Chicago.

It's also possible that some of this was done at the actors' request. Maybe Marina Sirtis was like "Hey, I want to be a part of this, but I've got other things going on, so I'd like a smaller role." And that's why she had those isolated cameos because they were easier to film.

But I feel like this could have been handled differently. Just do a shorter season. Six episodes instead of ten. Or write more story for criminy's sake! I feel like a supercut of Vadic's ramblings would fill a whole episode all by itself. No one needed that!

[the-heartstring-chronicles]

I was never a huge Data fan , I just wasn’t, he bored me for some reason as a kid and I still think he’s just okay, I liked Soji , but that first season felt all over the place , with a focus on Data and androids that I didn’t get invested in beyond a certain point. I think I made it to episode 8

I didn’t watch Picard season 2 once I heard he got together with Laris. I was also not drawn in because I’m not a Q fan. I loved Laris when she wasn’t his girlfriend though and I like Q in small doses, but not a whole season. I would have rather a season focused entirely on Picard’s fatherly relationships with Jurati, Soji or Elnor. I just wasn’t moved by the storyline.

I did like Seven more in Picard then I ever have. I really disliked her in Voyager, especially with the whole C/7 bad writing mess, but I liked getting to know her a little more in season 1 of Picard and was happy to hear that she was with Raffi, they are cute together from what I’ve seen on Tumblr. I don’t like that Raffi stalked Janeway though so I am a little uncomfortable being a super big fan of the Raffi character. But I like her

Season 3 is the season I’m enjoying the most because I’ve always been a P/C shipper and I’ve never gotten more than an episode or two here or there . This season feels like a gift I never thought I’d get.

And it features Seven in a supporting role where she gets to shine as part of a team and just vibe with folks and I really love that, it’s showing me all of her strengths , without making me feel like she’s shoe horned in like I did in so many Voyager episodes. She is fast becoming a character I would watch lead a series.

And I think Raffi and Worf have a good personality mesh together and that maybe he can help her channel her fire like he had to channel his and maybe she can help him find his fire a bit again.

I’ve never cared much about how Riker and Picard interacted , but I do find that showing them as emotionally close in a direct way intrigues me. R/T have always just sort of been there as a ship and it’s cool that they still are. I do hope we get at least one Crusher and Troi conversation.

So for me it comes down to plot more than characters, if this season had been about Picard and Worf or Geordi or Data or even Riker and Troi , I wouldn’t be as interested, but found family as a whole and the ship I’ve loved my whole life, yes please.

I wanted found family in the first two seasons and they went a different direction so this season is my cup of tea, it doesn’t have to be everyone’s though

[starship-imzadi]

S6 E4 Relics

After a VERY long hiatus I'm back! I'd like to finish what I started but we'll see what happens. It's been a while so I'm not entrenched in Trek like I was before so I might not have all the same nuanced observations on continuity and over arching developments. But let's do this!

-

Love a good ship shake!

This is a very serious start to an episode.

I did a quick inter web search for funzies and learned that though Dyson first formalized the idea of the sphere in 1960, the concept is attributed to futuristic sci-fi author Olaf Stapledon in 1937.

This could be so dangerous. They should be asking why someone would have been intentionally locked it there....good thing it's only Scotty!

53%. Oof. I'm not sure what that would turn into...

Also, I realized Scotty makes a comment about being rescued by Kirk but Kirk dies in the Nexus (which would have happened already for him but obviously hasn't happened for the TNG crew yet. Considering Riker's beard it's not the most egregious continuity issue with the films)

Geordi keeps touching Scotty's injured arm.

It's really unnecessary for Scotty to remark on Crusher being more beautiful than Bones. (And by that I mean unprofessional and probably a bit sexist, even if it's well intended. For this context it shouldn't matter the gender of his doctor.)

Poor Scotty is going to feel so outdated. I get the sense this would be like handing an iPad to someone who know DOS.

That chair in his quarters looks decidedly uncomfortable.

I've just realized the warp core reminds me of an office water cooler.

Geordi really should be kinder to Scotty. Technology is what it is because of Scotty. But it's also odd that Scotty is just helping himself to random buttons. Scotty and Kirk defhad a different relationship than Geordi and Picard. And honestly I prefer the latter.

Data to the rescue. This is the first time I've been really struck with the sense that Data is neurodivergent. I'm not even sure I can pin point why (as I am, to the best of my knowledge, "neurotypical). Somewhere between his literalism, his accumulation of facts, and his attentiveness to very small details that other people miss. He of course is literally nuero divergent in that his neurological structure diverges from the structure that humans' have.

That knee high railing in the OG enterprise looks like an amazing tripping hazard.

In some ways this conversation between Scotty and Picard comparing the enterprises feels like a comparison between the making of the different series. The original series seemed more tremultuous behind the scenes, and perhaps now more romanticized. The next generation had a higher budget and a firmer footing in production with fewer stories of high drama (such as that between Nimiy and Shatner).

Bold of Scotty to drink straight from the bottle. Though he certainly seems to hold his liquor well.

As an adult it seems so odd that an entire society would forgo alcohol. And not even with religious conviction. Brewing alcohol and drinking can have such cultural depth and richness, it's quite extreme to opt to lose that just to not get drunk. What about other fermentation with positive effects but also a small amount of alchol like a kombucha? I would think as an advanced society they would instead drink and then have an antidote to administer for sobriety whenever they like.

I feel like the opening monolog should be changed to "....to explore stange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to f*ck around and find out, to boldly go where no one has gone before " because in all honesty they push a lot of buttons with no idea what going to happen and it's amazing they survive.

Hard self depreciation from Scotty there.

"Auxiliary" is a hard word to say.

Wait, Worf says sheilds are at 23%. And then the next time he says they're downs another 15%...."another" suggests two 15%'s but that math doesn't work. Unless it's just down 15% more...

I'm glad Scotty being unconventional, true to character, is utilized. Because though Geordi is innovative, he's very by the book.

If the enterprise has enough power to set a course for the portal then why are they still so close to the sun?

It's crazy Picard called those shots by feel and they just barely made it through.

I'm glad Geordi and Scotty got to bond a bit.

Wait, did Troi just shows up for the end of this episode? She didn't even see Scotty before.

[gar-trek]

OKAY i guess the reason im so obsessed with Second Chances is because it says something I was not expecting at all, which is that Riker literally hates himself. Or like, at least hates his past self. At first this is like so insane because Riker is this hyper confident self assured bastard and yet when he meets his clone he’s got so much open distain and disgust it’s like… damn what happened. I think it has a lot to do with what we learn about Riker in season 2 The Icarus Factor. Riker is set up from episode one to be extremely motivated by his career. Like totally committed to Starfleet and even willing to put his job over his personal relationships. But in Icarus Factor, this changes for Riker. He’s offered his own command and it’s pretty much assumed he’s gonna take it and leave the enterprise. But then we get to meet Riker's father, who it turns out he has a lot of issues with. See Riker's father is just as ambitious as him, probably more. This caused a rift between them as his dad constantly put his career above taking care of his own son. We also see that he once had a relationship with Pulaski which again was ruined due to his commitment to his job and constantly chasing after success. In this episode, Riker realizes how hollow his fathers life is, and that he’s pretty much following the same path. At the end of the episode, he does what no one expects and turns down his own command to instead stay aboard the enterprise. I think a very important scene in this episode is when he goes to tell Deanna he’s taking the command, and they both admit they are sad to be leaving each other once again. At the end of the episode, Riker tells Picard that he’s staying on the enterprise because it’s what’s right for him. In other words, for the first time, Riker chose to stay with the people he was quickly starting to consider his family over furthering his career.

So William Riker learned these lessons and had all these experiences that Thomas didn’t have. Effectively Thomas is William as he was 8 years before when he wasn’t on the Enterprise. Thomas is also the version of Riker who never got the chance to choose his career over Deanna. Now Riker is a guy who likes to sleep around a bit, sure, but you get the feeling from this episode that what him and Deanna shared was different. Thomas talks about how he only got through his 8 years stranded alone by thinking about her. It’s even revealed that Riker had asked Deanna to marry him so they could stay together. So Thomas has a choice, stay with Deanna or prioritize furthering his career. Deanna finds herself wondering if this time it’ll be different as she’s in the extremely strange position of being able to start over with Riker again. The saddest part is that William KNOWS it’s not gonna be different. Despite how much he regrets leaving Deanna, he knows he’s going to make the same decision again. And I think the ending scene, with Will having to save Thomas, is him coming to terms with the fact he can’t change his past.

And, not to mention all that’s revealed about his past in The Pegasus, and everything with losing his mom. I think Second Chances reveals that Riker isn't as confident and self-assured as he might appear, and is instead someone who is working very hard to try and get better.

[yourbuerokrat2]

The conflicts in TNG are usually like the time Data was acting Captain and worf Second in Command and Worf criticised Data on the Bridge and Data just immediatly called for a private conversation. Data told Worf that while he could understand, that he was used to openly point out things like that or criticize as Chief of Security, he can’t really do that as Second in Command because it undermines Datas authority. 

And Worf just apologized, said he understood and for both parts the conflict was now resolved. 

God y know it’s actually kinda hard writing for the tng characters because they’re all so professional that it’s hard to create real conflict between them without it becoming OOC lol

[thesevenwondersofawitch]

I'm on the final episode of Star Trek Next Gen

I feel like Deanna is kinda getting tired of Worf saying the word stimulating😂

Data's house is full of cats, whata mood😂

Riker is definitely not all good with Deanna dating Worf, and I find it completely hilarious that he's distracted by it

IS THE CAPTAIN OF THE MEDICAL SHIP BEVERLY?!

Hell yeah! It is!

Wait, Beverly is married to Picard? Huh.

Beverly's look at Jean-Luc when he also responded to the person saying Captain Picard 😂

Huh, they're divorced. Sounds about right 😂

"He's Jean-Luc Picard, and if he wants to go on one more mission, that's what we're going to do." The foreshadowing to Picard👀

The poor past Enterprise crew is so confused😂

It seriously took Picard that long to realize Q was involved? I figured that out as soon as the first people showed up in his vision.

Oh SHIT, THE TRIAL NEVER ENDED!!

"You're going to deny us travel through space?" Dude no, he's Q, he's probably gonna deny you the ability to exist

I was right! Ha!

Yeah Jean-Luc, you definitely have a much bigger problem than you realized.

Jean-Luc Picard,

The man who caused the annihilation of mankind.

Role model indeed.

Q sees Picard as a pet💀 thank you Data 😂

There's no love lost between Worf and Admiral Rider, it would seeem🤔

Not gonna lie, I thought Word's ship slammed on the brakes abruptly when he jerked forward saying "Dor-sHo GHA!"😂

Aw, Beverly had Picard sit in the chair for old times sake😭

Poor past O'Brien, he's so confused

Oh my god, did they find old footage of Riker? Because it doesn't look like he's talking on a video call

"So, Captain, how long shall we stare at each other across the Neutral Zone?" The extraness of this dialogue delivery 😂

Makes me wonder how long they were staring at each other on video, or if the dude is referring to the ships

There is nothing there, future Picard, nothing. No need to yell.

And undermine Beverly on her own ship!

Seriously though, the poor past Enterprise crew 😂

Oof, I do not envy Geordi right now

HOLY HELL, HE'S GROWING NEW EYES?!?!

*deadpan* Oh no, a rupture in time. Whatever shall happen, I wonder? However will they survive?

Seriously tho, I would have such doubts about going on the Enterprise if this Picard was the Captain and being completely confusing.

Rip to Ensign Chilton

Goodness, that makeup Riker is wearing is quite something 👀

Ok, there is definitely some tension between Worf and Riker. Did something happen to Deanna and that's what's causing the tension? I wanna know!

Alyssa's baby, noooooo.😭

Why hello Q

Picard is the cause of the anomaly 👀

Truth be told, I thought that was where this was gonna go.

Oh shit, three identical time pulses 👀

Oh no

Okay, so the thing between Worf and Riker has been going for over 20 years🤔

Deanna's funeral? Shit, I didn't want to be correct that something happened to her

"I always thought that we would get together again. And then she was gone."😭 Meh heart💔

Picard, you do sound kinda cray

Good job Data! You understood what he was saying. Of course, when it comes from Data everything makes much more sense.

Sometimes.

I would really prefer to transfer to another ship if I was on the Enterprise during this past Enterprise experience

The ship shaking makes me imagine the scene to the song Party Rockers

It worked! Yay!

The Continuum didn't believe in Jean-Luc Picard, but Q did, and sometimes that's all Picard needs

Q's out here giving so much good advice.

And it's back to when he interrupted Worf and Deanna's kiss!😂

That long look shared between Riker and Worf, you would think they were having a telepathic conversation 😂

Deanna!! She sat next to Will, and in my book that says something good😂

Picard joined them at the poker table ❤️

That ending scene, man. It was a sweet end to the TV series 😭😁

Now I gotta go find which movie to watch next

Overall, the show was good, and on a 0/10 scale, I'd rate it a solid 8.😁

[thegreaterlink]

Reviewing Star Trek TNG - S2E19 “Manhunt”

THE PREMISE

The Enterprise is ordered to escort two Antedean ambassadors to a conference on the planet Pacifica. The Antedeans are beamed aboard in a self-induced catatonic state to reduce the stress of space travel along with a plentiful food supply for when they awaken.

En route, the Enterprise is ordered to rendezvous with a shuttlecraft carrying Betazoid telepath ambassador Lwaxana (pronounced loo-axe-anna) Troi, Counsellor Troi's mother, and her manservant Mr Homn. Captain Picard is not exactly thrilled with this arrangement after his previous encounter with her, but Starfleet's instructions insist that she be treated with full diplomatic courtesy. While Picard tries to avoid her advances, Troi explains to Riker that her mother has entered "The Phase," a stage that takes place in the middle of a Betazoid woman's life where her sex drive drastically increases, and that she's searching for a new husband.

MY REVIEW

Hoo boy, that's some... Emmy-level material right there. Wowee.

Yes, you read that right. The premise of this episode is that Troi's mother is in heat and trying to fuck Picard. It probably won't surprise you to know that I wasn't exactly eager to watch this one.

Lwaxana Troi is once again played by Majel Barrett, who proceeds to try and steal every scene she's in. With her ramped-up sex drive, she views men as a commodity (her words, not mine) and spends a good chunk of the episode chasing after Picard. At one point she invites him to dinner, but instead of being the standard diplomatic function for the senior crew he was expecting, it turns out to be a romantic dinner for both of them. This leads to a pretty funny scene where Picard calls Data out of desperation and invites him to join them, tricking him into taking over the conversation with long-winded anecdotes.

Here we get the explanation of The Phase, during which it's confirmed that Riker and Troi are seeing each other, probably because their romance was given so little focus to begin with they just had to clarify. I'd also like to note that Riker seems suddenly interested when he hears that one day his Betazoid girlfriend is going to have a massively increased sex drive.

Picard retreats to his Dixon Hill holodeck program to avoid Lwaxana, and the episode spends a strangely long time focused on it, including Picard reconfiguring the program multiple times and then going to a bar with his secretary. The production design is still excellent, but it feels like a very strange and rather pointless detour from the plot.

Frustrated with Picard's absence, Lwaxana begins to consider other options, including Wesley Crusher. But thankfully she decides that he's too young before the FBI can break my door down, and deems Worf similarly unsuitable. She briefly decides to marry Riker, but then realises that he's not interested either.

Dr Pulaski notifies Riker that the Antedeans are awake, and Riker takes the excuse to go to the holodeck to notify Picard and get away from Lwaxana. Data accepts his offer to come with him, and not only takes five minutes to get into proper costume, but also has his own Dixon Hill persona named Carlos. Seeing Data get so invested in the 24th century equivalent of LARPing is adorable.

Lwaxana uses the ship's computer (which is pretty weird if you think about it) to find that Picard and Riker are on the holodeck, and somewhat pathetically falls in love with Rex, the holographic barman from the Dixon Hill program, and Picard has to tell her that her newfound love isn't a real person.

The episode ends with Lwaxana's phase ending, then offhandedly revealing to the crew that the Antedeans are actually assassins and have been carrying explosives the whole time, so they're taken into custody as Lwaxana and Mr Homn beam off. Glad to know their entire subplot was pointless.

Y'know, for an episode about an older woman going into heat and trying to have sex, this was surprisingly uneventful.

Also, the Antedeans are a pretty memorable design, even if they don't get to do much.

Bizarrely enough, one of them (I have no idea which since they both look the same) was actually played by Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac fame, marking the first of multiple musician guest roles on Star Trek.

3/10 - The smatterings of humour and the holodeck segments elevate it from being a 2.

I sincerely hope the next episode is either better or worse, just so I can say something different.

Previous Episode | TNG Masterpost | Next Episode

[gaykarstaagforever]

TNG, Season 6, Episode 18, "Starship Mine".

Terrorists seize the Enterprise-D for some stupid reason, Picard gets captured, whatever, who cares.

I want to talk about Hutch.

He is played up as this super-annoying guy who "talks about nothing" all the time, to such an extreme that even this episode's Butt Head Aliens hate him. Worf and Geordi both try to get out of hanging out with him. Picard only gets captured as part of some ploy to avoid him. He also tells Data to learn small talk from him, which leads to Data mimicking him, which Riker and Crusher find so funny, Riker introduces Data to Hutch and then they stand there at a distance, making fun of both of them.

Here's the thing - Hutch did nothing wrong.

You horrible space nerds. This guy is warm and funny and friendly, he has a million stories, he knows everyone, and trivia about tons of planets and species, and he nonchalantly tells you where cool horseback-riding trails are.

This guy is fascinating and awesome! This is 100% the best guy at any party! I guess they cast this badly, because Hutch isn't remotely annoying. He seems like a fun, fascinating guy, who you could talk to about anything, forever. Who the hell hates that!?

"It's all small talk." "He talks about nothing." Oh sorry, important Galaxy-class crew, that Hutch doesn't talk about the one specific thing each one of you specifically cares about. GOD FORBID anyone engage you people on a sub-doctorate level conversation about alien weather or funny ancedotes about people you don't know personally.

I swear to god..

SORRY, Riker, that he got in the way of you finding yet another woman with low standards to have a meaningless one-night-stand with.

SORRY, Beverly, that someone expected you to engage with a conversation not about obscure alien diarrhea for 10 minutes.

SORRY, Geordi, that the captain made you be nice to a guy you don't know, instead of you being creepy and then striking out with a woman you've been feeding drinks to all evening.

Hutch is by far the most emotionally well-balanced and interesting person in this room! If you actually listened to his conversation where Data was innocently copying him, you'd learn a hundred different interesting things!

Leave Hutch alone, you jerks. He's better than all of you!

Update: ...You guys are not going to believe this.

[mylittleredgirl]

gonna keep sharing a few thoughts as i watch the star treks this week. i pinned the post where i was asking for crowdsourced episode suggestions if you want to add some! i couldn’t limit myself to a clever one-liner for each episode and busted out the bullet points, so i’m putting it behind a readmore.

(episodes are all tng for this round: “schisms” / “masks” / “manhunt” / “the emissary” / “peak performance”)

“schisms”:

i LOVE when tng goes horror. that scene in the holodeck where they slowly reveal the alien operating table... 👩‍🍳💋. i need to do a Spooky Trek marathon soon.

add this one to the unofficial “counselor troi is really necessary and good at her job actually” theme for the week -- remember that post about how starships need a Weird Shit officer for people to report weird shit to? that’s deanna! worf had a strange reaction to a pair of scissors in the barber shop and must have immediately gone to tell her, as did riker and geordi and that civilian lady, because that’s what you’re supposed to do when Weird Shit happens in deep space, and that’s how you find out that aliens from another dimension are borrowing your crew.

i’m obsessed with the ship’s counselor role and will go fully feral on anyone who dismisses it.

“masks” for @mrv3000​:

look, this episode gets a bad rap, but it’s hard for an episode to be too bad when you’ve got patrick stewart and brent spiner trying their best, you know?

the premise that super sophisticated aliens sent out a super sophisticated probe that survived 87 million years in deep space for the purpose of a brief mythology larp is weird, but it makes me think that either the interaction with data (an unexpected sentient piece of technology not meant to interface with the probe) caused a glitch OR the 87 million years in deep space meant that the probe probably wasn’t supposed to do this exact thing. it’s like if someone in 87 million years encountered a derelict starship voyager, and whatever sensor beam they sent at it activated the tiny portion of the computer dedicated to Fair Haven and they were like “ah, these people for Spiritual Reasons recreate a ritual where they get drunk and throw ceremonial ring-like objects, how strange for a technologically advanced society to do that.”

actually, an alien holoprogram is the only thing that makes sense by Star Trek Rules™️, because the rules of holoprograms is that you can get stuck in the program, but the program ends and everything re-sets to normal once you play to the end of the story.

can we talk about that opening scene with beverly and deanna where there’s a random sculpture in deanna’s quarters and beverly is like “oooh maybe will left it for you as a little present.” i’m gonna leave aside the fact that they decide it’s probably a secret admirer randomly breaking into a senior officer’s quarters with anonymous gifts, and that’s not a cause for immediate investigation, and just focus on how i adore will and deanna’s are-they-or-aren’t-they relationship and beverly being like SOOOOOO is he leaving you booty call tokens? (and this is like an episode before the deanna/worf story starts heating up)

“manhunt” for @coraclavia:

this is an amazing episode of star trek because absolutely nothing happens. the a plot of the episode is “lwaxana troi is horny for alien reasons and goes around sexually harassing every man she sees.” the b plot is “everyone stares at funny looking aliens in stasis.” the c plot of “assassins attempt to bomb diplomatic conference” takes up 45 seconds of airtime in the last scene of the episode.

i live for pulaski and deanna’s hallway interaction where they decide that actually they ARE going to leave captain picard in lwaxana’s clutches for the evening because it’s probably hilarious

i haven’t read imzadi fanfic in years but someone who does please point me to whatever’s the best of the “deanna absolutely breaks riker with sex when she hits midlife” genre

honestly if i were a famous rock musician i also would want to appear on star trek, absolutely unidentifiable beneath sixteen pounds of latex and a voice modulator

“the emissary”:

K’EHLEYR MY BELOVED

i absolutely, absolutely love every interaction she and deanna have in this episode and i want them to become [girl]friends immediately

the conversation about culture is so rich and i want so much more of it, especially between worf and k’ehleyr -- worf fully klingon but raised by humans, overcompensating by being (as jadzia will later point out) so adherent to klingon honor roles that he can’t loosen up and have fun, but also remaining separate from his home culture; k’ehleyr both as human and klingon, raised by both parents, disdainful of the klingon honor code but also making it her life’s work to be a bridge between the two cultures. IT’S SO FASCINATING!

it also makes me think long and hard about b’elanna, and how both k’ehleyr and b’elanna see their klingon tempers as a dangerous burden they have to control, but k’ehleyr seems so much more comfortable with herself in general. in watching it this time, it occurs to me how much of that is likely due to the homes they grew up in -- b’elanna came from a broken home and is estranged from both parents, with the perception that her father left because she was “too klingon” and that her mother was disappointed in her for not being klingon enough; k’ehleyr seems to come from parents who put work into their relationship and dealt with cross-cultural challenges together (“klingon and human dna is compatible, with a little help -- rather like my parents”). 

i spent LONG HOURS as a kid trying to work out the biology of how klingons can get pregnant through their hands.

“peak performance”:

season two gets a lot of shit -- the episodes aren’t as tightly written as later ones because of the writer’s strike, but that means there’s lots of filler content which is awesome. the cold open poker game in “the emissary” feels like it leads into the whole strategema side-plot in this episode.

i love pulaski and data’s relationship in the back half of season two, with the same part of my heart that loves spock and bones’s relationship. is it unhealthy and problematic? yeah. is it also somehow heartwarming and my favorite part of season two? yep.

i love riker so much. his combination of confident swagger and “who WOULDN’T take the opportunity to be guaranteed pasted by the best” is perfect.

quark!! hilarious to me that the ferengi are still a Real Threat™️. i think they should’ve brought that back actually in the dominion war like oh you guys just FORGOT the ferengi have a fleet of ships that almost destroyed the federation flagship a couple of times? we’ll fight the changelings with you but we’re charging you market rate plus hazard pay for each torpedo used.

[space-helen]

True Friend

Words: 1067

Pairing: Geordi La Forge x reader

A/N: I think I still need to work on my transitions when it comes to my longer fics but otherwise I hope you enjoy!!

Request: Hi! Can I request something based off my match up, I think that this 'Geordi he almost instantly senses how anxious you are and understands it. Doing his best to make you comfortable, he tinkers while you draw. Sometimes he’ll just spout nonsense about something he wants to make and you bring it to life in your drawings. He ADORES your creativity.' would make a really good Geordi x reader. You don't have to do it but I think it would be cute. - @morganofthecoves1

_______________

Ten Forward was bustling around you, it was filled with a lot more people than usual. You tried to stay near the sides of the room and kept to yourself, right now you couldn’t think of anything more that you hated.

You held your drink in your hand and anxiously looked around the room searching for someone, anyone who looked familiar and that’s when you saw none other Gerodi come towards you, the two of you had met a couple of times and the man was nice, the two of you wouldn’t call each other friends but right now his company was welcomed.

“Nervous?” 

You nodded as he stood next to you and looked over the room just like you had been doing “extremely.”

“I get it. I hate things like this, being forced to rub elbows with people you don’t know and don’t want to know either...not my cup of tea” your smile at his words was infectious and it soon crept its way onto his face. “How about we stick together tonight? Make sure no one else tries to talk to us?”

“I couldn’t think of anything better.”

The two of you got to know each other pretty well that night, Geordi doing everything he could to make sure you were comfortable in the room, the conversation was engaging and the two of you talked about your jobs with a lot of passion which just made you even more interested in each other. Since then it had been a natural occurrence for the two of you to hang out with each other whenever you could.

You were sunk into the sofa in your quarters while you drew on your personal PADD Geordi was sat on the floor, back leaning against the sofa with parts scattered out in front of him while he tinkered. “I think Data’s jealous of how much time we spend together.”

“Really? Data jealous?”

“Yeah he commented on it earlier in Engineering he said ‘I’ve noticed a great increase in the time you spend with Lieutenant Y/L/N”

“He’s more than welcome to join. Any friend of yours is a friend of mine.”

Geordi smiled up at you “I think he’d appreciate it.” the room fell into a peaceful silence again. 

“Some friends and I usually play poker when we can. Would you want to join? The next game is tomorrow night.”

“Who’ll be there?”

“Just Data, Worf, Deanna, Beverly, possible Will and I.”

“Will they be ok with it? I don’t want to intrude.”

“They’ll be fine with it trust me. You can sit next to me and you can leave at any time.” he barely gave you time to reply. “How about we go grab some dinner?” he climbed to his feet as you put your drawing down. 

“Lead the way.”

You found a small table in the corner of Ten Forward quiet and out of the way. 

“So I’ve been thinking about this new device and I can picture it in my head so clearly, it houses the components I’ve been tinkering with in your quarters. It’d be a small rectangular box no bigger than the palm of my hand so it can be hidden easily but not too angular so it doesn’t cause harm to the user.  There would need to be an exposed end in order for the device to function properly and there’d be a hidden button on the device as well so no one could use it unless they’d been instructed on the proper way. I just need to figure out a way to shrink the components”

You looked at the man and smiled, he froze “I’m talking too much aren’t I?”

“No you’re not, don’t be silly. It’s nice to hear you talk about it.”

“Are you sure I’m not just boring you?”

“I’m sure. I would have told you to shut up about it if you were.”

He smiled a genuine wide smile “You ready to leave? I’d better tidy up the mess I made in your quarters before it gets too late.” 

As soon as the doors opened to your quarters you practically ran for your PADD, opening up the drawing app and cracking to work. “I’m guessing you’ve had an idea?” Geordi joked as he sat back on the floor and started to fiddle with the parts.

“I thought you were going to tidy up.” you teased.

“Yeah well I’d better finish this part so I know where I left off properly.”

The silence once again consumed the room. Around an hour of small comments here and there passed until Geordi broke the silence. “I’d better be going now.” he’d put everything away into his bag and he stretched his legs and arms before standing up. “Tonight was nice, I’ll see ya tomorrow?” he slowly started to leave.

“Wait come back.” you pulled your PADD up to your chest to hide the screen from him. “Sit.” you tapped the seat and he smiled, dropping his tool bag next to the sofa and sitting next to you. “I drew you something.”

Flipping the PADD around you let the man see what was on the screen, it was the device he’d earlier described in ten forward. He took the PADD from you and admired the drawing, his mouth slightly agape in shock. “Y/N you really drew this? For me?”

“No I searched all the databases to find a rendering of the device that you described that’s never been made before. Of course I drew it!”

“It’s exactly how I see it in my head. Thank you Y/N.” 

“There’s no need to thank me, really.”

He passed the PADD back to you “You’ll come to the poker night tomorrow right?”

“I’ll be there.” his face lit up with glee as he stood and went to reach for his bag with the parts and tools he’d been using “You can leave it here. You’ll only be back in here working on it tomorrow.”

“You sure? I don’t want to leave anything that’s going to get in the way.”

“I’m sure. Now leave before I change my mind.”

He put his hands up in mock surrender “Ok, ok I’m leaving. Night Y/N”

“Night Geordi.” you relaxed into the seat as the door closed behind him. You were glad this man had come into your life, he really was a true friend. 

Tag List: (open)

Geordi:

All Star Trek: @morganofthecoves1​ @sophiaescapes @livenerdyandprosper​ @allthetrek​ @deeppandanerdbatty​

[data-startrek]

OK so, another idea sorry for for blowing up your ask's! What about data goes to an art gallery on earth with the main crew! He sees this one painting out of the corner of his eye, he turns he looks he gets close! It's of a girl not rust any girl, the reader!!! Data is in absolute awwww! She is so beautiful he has to talk to her, meet her! But as soon as he turns she's already there beside him, looking at him! Smiling!

Data x female! Reader

A/n: I hope you like it!! 🥰

Warnings: none, just fluff

-

Narrator's view

The crew of the new Enterprise left the ship to have a day off on earth. Captain Jean-Luc Picard wanted to go to a museum with his main crew. So Riker, Troi, Worf, Dr. Crusher, Geordi and Data were on the way to the art Gallery of New York.

"I am really excited.", Deanna Troi said in Data's direction. He looked down at her. "I can relate. You know how much art and painting means to me. It is my first time going to a gallery." Deanna nodded. "I think it'll be wonderful, Data. Just you wait and see."

The crew entered the big halls of the Gallery and walked upstairs where the tour began. It was the premiere of the exhibition.

They saw them all. From oil paintings and pencil drawings to still lifes and portraits that were drawn in such detail that they looked very realistic. Data looked at every single picture, read through every information sheet and now and then stood in one place for several seconds in order to be able to process the newly acquired information.

"Do you like it, Mr. Data?" Riker stepped up to him and supported himself on a pillar next to him. Data nodded. "Extraordinarily." He tilted his head and walked further into the next room. It was filled with full body portraits of young people.

The room was shrouded in light purple light and looked a little fresher than all the others before. "Deanna, come over here. This painting is really great." Beverly Crusher pointed to the largest of the pictures. "She is beautiful!" Deanna came out and stopped next to Beverly. Their conversation also attracted Data.

He let his gaze wander slowly from the painter information: 1. Portrait of an actual model; Y/n Y/Ln. Now his gaze slid over to the painting itself. Data had owned his Emotions Ship for almost a year, but he had never felt such an emotion. He didn't even know what it was called. During the tour he had put his coat jacket over his arm, but now he let it fall. His golden eyes kept moving over the painting. Over the silky soft looking skin of the young woman who smiled lovely. She sat on a chair. She wore her dark blonde hair in a braid. She also wore a dress that was from the 15th century. Data had the feeling her bright eyes burned into his systems.

He stood there and stared at the picture. He didn't move an inch. Its secondary circuits stopped working. "Mr. Data! Are you all right? Has your Emotions Ship blown again?" Geordi hurried over. Data didn't look at him. "No. I work within normal parameters. As always." Data managed to break his gaze to look at the information again. "Y/n." He said softly. He was looking for someone with your name on his network. He could only perceive the questioning looks of the crew members from the left. Moments later, he found out your address. He saved it and was sure to want to look for you immediately.

"Captain Picard! Please excuse me. I have to go." Data picked up his jacket and turned. For a moment he thought he was going round in circles. He looked into your e/c eyes. Data blinked several times. Maybe his Emotions Ship would actually burn out.

You looked him straight in the eyes. Eyes like you've never seen them before. They shone in a gold as beautiful as the sun. Your gaze led to his mouth, which was slightly open. No matter who he was, he was special and you knew that.

"Hi," you said. Your smile broadened as Data began to smile too. "Hello, y/n."

[x-reader-theater]

Even Shields can’t Protect my Heart

Relationship: William T. Riker X Male!Engineer!Reader

Summary: Serving on the Enterprise is a dream come true, and the people only make it better. 

Warnings: Cursing, and lots of engineer jargon that’s probably woefully incorrect. 

Word Count: 10,382 words

A/N: Ho-ly shit. This is a long time coming. And it’s super long. Wow. Well, I didn’t want to do another series so here’s a ten thousand word something that I wrote because I’ve been obsessed with Star Trek for the past two months, and there’s barely any reader stuff for Next Generation, and no Male readers whatsoever, which is disappointing. But, I’ve written something purely for my own amusement. I feel a little bit like Q, but I love them so that’s not a bad thing. Anyways, please like, reblog, and tell me what you think! Asks are always appreciated! <3

"Computer! Where is Commander Riker?" You call out from your personal quarters. You're seated at your desk, papers all around you. 

"Commander Riker is in holodeck three," Computer responds. "Would you like me to hail him?" 

You shake your head. "No, Computer, that's alright thank you." You stand up from your desk and reaffix your badge to your shirt, making sure your pips are still attached to your lapel. Satisfied with how you present you leave your quarters, making a beeline to the holodeck suits. You've used them once or twice before, recreating your small ranch where you're from. It wasn't the same without the actual people there though. There was only so much you could program the computer to do. 

As you round the corner you slam into someone coming at you at full force. You stumble back, catching yourself on the wall before looking up into the face of Data, who was walking through the halls staring at his data-padd. You laugh in your head at that one. 

"I am sorry, Lieutenant. I did not see you there," Data states, looking down at you. 

You straighten out and brush yourself off out of habit. "It's alright Data. What were you so focused on there?" You lean forward to see what he's looking at. 

"Oh, it is just a simple riddle Commander LaForge has given me."

You smile. "If it's so simple, why are you so concerned with it?" Data looks confused for a moment and you pat him on the shoulder. "Sometimes Data, the most complicated questions have the simplest of answers." 

And with that you leave, turning around the corner to the holodeck suits. You hear Data say behind you, "Oh! Silence!" and you laugh as you walk. Coming upon holodeck three, you tap the open button, and watch as the doors open to reveal a bar, 1950s in decoration, and a few men standing on the stage, Commander Riker being one, playing to an empty room. Riker sets down his trombone and looks at you with an eyebrow raised. 

"Commander Riker, I had a question for you… but I seem to have… forgotten it…" you say, trailing off for a moment. "What… is this place?" 

You look around the bar, and cock your head at the sight of no people. "It's just something of my creation. The people held a bad memory, but I love the space, the atmosphere." Riker smiles and looks around. "It's like no other." 

You smile and sit down at one of the tables, saying to the room, “Computer, can I get a glass of whiskey please?” You feel pleased when it appears in your hand. You take a sip of the non-alcoholic recreation and gesture with the glass towards Riker. "Don't stop on my account. Maybe when you're playing the question will return to me," you say with a sly smile. You have no idea where this burst of confidence came from, where this spark of self worth and ability to flirt with the Commander came from. You just really wanted to hear the Commander play. 

You get your wish. Commander Riker picks up the trombone again and perfectly slots himself into the already playing band. His playing makes you close your eyes. You had no idea the commander could play an instrument. He isn't perfect or absolutely amazing to any extent, but he is good. And you are seeing a side of the commander you've never seen before. 

You get up, slowly letting the music carry you to the bar, where you let the holodeck refill your glass of non-alcoholic Whiskey. You smile languidly and watch as the amber liquid fills the cup once more. Picking up the glass you place it to your lips, taking a drink of the burning, but still pleasing, liquid. Setting the glass down you see the Commander start to set down the trombone. You raise your eyebrows and watch as he comes over. 

"Why did you stop?" You ask as he sits across from you. The music hasn't stopped, no you feel all the eyes of the players on your back. For being a simulation, they feel incredibly real. 

Riker summons a glass of a dark liquid. It fizzes and doesn't look like alcohol. It gives off a sweet smell. "It's hard to talk with a 'bone to your lips," he says casually. 

"What do you want to talk about?" You cross your legs and set your glass down on the bar, before folding your hands in your lap. 

Riker sighs and looks at his own glass, the dark liquid filling up again in the glass, as if by magic, but you knew it was the computer. "You're a new officer, correct?" He asks. 

You lean back against the bar slightly, placing an elbow on the dark wood to steady yourself, your fingers still intertwined. You shrug. "Relatively. About two years. Shorter than most on the ship. Much less than yourself," you respond carefully. You don't want to say the wrong thing and break what you have just built up. It was a delicate sort of conversation that was precious. 

The Commander clears his throat and reaches out, as if to touch you, bit he stops himself. "I-uh…" He clears his throat. "I was wondering how you were feeling about your time on the Enterprise? You have progressed remarkably fast through the ranks of Starfleet. There have only been three others faster than you Lieutenant. Ahem, Lieutenant Junior Grade [L/N]." 

You smile and unclasp your hands. "I am enjoying my time here immensely Commander Riker," you respond in kind, a genuine smile on your face. 

The Commander puts his hand up for a moment to stop you from speaking. "Please. In a setting like this, just William is fine." 

You smile. "Okay, William. As long as you call me [Y/N]." 

The Commander, William, nods. "Yes, yes, of course. It's only fair."

You smile, humorously. "And you're nothing if not fair," you joke. He laughs quietly. "But yes, William. I am having a very good time here on the Enterprise. I never thought it possible for me to have this, this position, be on this ship, know these people. After I was transferred from the U.S.S. Valentina, I thought I could never never find family again." You laugh as you lean back, thinking about your messed up family. "The captain, well, he's like an overbearing father you just can't help but love." You laugh at the idea of being a father. "Dr. Crusher is obviously the mother. Lieutenant Commander Data is like a brother, Geordi the same, but also different. Lieutenant Commander Worf is that fun uncle who always tries to get you to do things dad doesn't want you to." You start laughing when you think back to that time Worf tried to teach you how to fight like a Klingon with a Bat Leth. Or that time he trained you to use an actual Klingon D'k Tahg. "And Counselor Troi is like an aunt who always knows what's best for you." 

"What about me?" William asks, leaning forward slightly. 

"You?" You contemplate for a moment. Where did you see him? "I don't exactly know. You're not a brother, an uncle, a father. You've just sort of… been there. I don't know…" you trail off, looking away at the floor. You feel your cheeks flush slightly, and shake your head, hoping William doesn't notice. 

You get up suddenly, not looking at William. You clear your throat. "Ahem, excuse me. I need to get back to work." 

You go to leave, but William grabs your wrist. "Why, we were just getting comfortable." You know he's smirking, and you feel pain in your chest as you pull away. 

"Please Commander. I have neglected my duty long enough. I must get to engineering," you say, walking away from the Commander. 

"Computer, end simulation," Riker says, but that doesn't stop you from walking out of the doors and making your way to engineering, leaving the Commander alone in the empty holodeck. 

--

It's three weeks until you see the Commander again. You've been keeping to yourself, talking to Geordi and Data mostly out of the you've gotten a few direct orders from the Captain and even Commander Riker, but you haven't seen him in person ever since that time in the holodeck. If you even hear him talking in the hallway, without even looking you will turn away, your cheeks flaming up. 

Now, you can't ignore it. The Commander is standing right beside you, leaning over the console, his chest and inch away from your shoulder. 

"What do we see here Lieutenant?" The Commander asks. 

You point to a blip on the screen and say to Riker, "It seems there's some interference coming from the planet below Commander. It's sending out wave after wave of radiation I've never seen before. I asked the computer and they couldn't find a single thing like it!" You exclaim. You have a grin on your face as you say this. 

"Why so cheery Lieutenant?" Commander Riker asks. 

"Well, this is all so new! I've been studying different kinds of radiation since my academy days and I just can't find anything related to it. Permission to do a deep scan and some tests? It would be better to get my hands on some of the radiation up close, but we don't know how dangerous this is!" You exclaim excitedly. 

Riker chuckles and says in a low tone, "Sure. Go for it." You smile and turn to start the deep scan of the radiation. Riker doesn't move. "I didn't know this was an area of expertise for you. I would have had you come on this ship earlier." 

You roll your eyes and look up at him. “Yes because you care so much for engineering.” 

He chuckles and shakes his head. “You’d be surprised about what I’m interested in.” 

“Oh I’d like to know more about those interests that I supposedly do not know about,” you say with a smirk. 

The computer beeps and you and you turn away from the Commander to look at the results. It’s a low grade radiation, something with a lot of energy, not harmful to humanoids but harmful to smaller life forms. Children might be susceptible to it. It’s nothing like you’ve ever seen before. “Hm… Interesting,” you say, leaning into the screen. 

“What is it?” Riker asks, leaning in with you. 

“I’ve never seen anything like this. It must have something to do with the geology of this planet. Permission to run a scan of the surrounding area? I want to make sure everything is safe for the captain to report to Starfleet, so we can actually put a colony here,” you explain. 

The Commander nods. “Of course.” He gets up to leave, but stops before exiting engineering. “And Lieutenant?” You look behind you, pausing in your work for just a moment. “Meet me in Ten Forward. At 2000 hours.” He grins at you and you nod. He walks out of the room and your eyes don’t leave him until the doors from engineering close behind him. You’re smiling, happy with the conversation you just had with the commander, and excited for tonight, for you to meet with the commander tonight. You don’t know what it means, what this flirting thing you have with the commander is, what’s going on between the two of you. But you do know one thing:

You're so fucked. 

--

Ten Forward is close to empty by the time you step into the main room. The secondary shift for the night has taken their positions for the night, which means most of those who usually populate Ten Forward are on duty. 

Commander Riker must have chosen this time specifically because of the lack of distractions. He's very good at what he does. 

You spot him by one of the windows overlooking all of space. He looks very regal silhouetted against the dark expanse of the universe, still in his command uniform. You’d be surprised if he didn’t sleep in it. You yourself have changed out of your engineering gold into something more casual, something that reminds you of home. No one really dresses like this anymore, but your family has always been one for tradition. Your checkered button down is tucked into your boot-cut blue jeans, which are over a pair of old cowboy boots. They were your grandfathers, and they are still in beautiful condition. You walk over to the commander, your hands behind your back, wringing out your fingers as you approach. You can feel the bile rising from your chest but you swallow it down. The hairs on your arms stand on end the closer you walk. The clicking of your boots is the only sound you hear over the roaring of blood in your ears. 

Riker looks up at you as you approach the table. His face breaks out in a smile so genuine you're afraid his face might split in twain. 

You sit down in front of him. There's music playing in the background. Light piano. Nothing you recognize. Riker must have asked Guinan to play it. You sit down in front of the Commander. 

"Hello Mr. [L/N]. I didn’t think you would make it," he says as you take your seat. 

"Hello Mr. Riker. I was caught up in engineering. Geordi had to physically pry me from my chair," you return. 

Riker leans back and chuckles. "Please. Like I said, call me William." 

“And like I responded, call me [Y/N].” You lean back in your chair and cross your arms. “I’m not on duty, am I?” 

William chuckles and leans in as someone comes up to your table, a man who’s carrying a drink tray. “Hello, what can I get you?”

You don’t take your eyes off William as you say to the server, “Whiskey. Real.”

The server turns and begins to address the man leaning into you, but he interrupts. “I would like the same.”

You look up at the server and say to him, “And can you get us some Texas Barbeque? My father’s recipe if you will. It will be under [L/N]’s Texas Barbeque.” The server nods and you smile at him as he walks away. William is staring at you, incredulous and a little confused. “What? I’m feeling nostalgic tonight.” 

“Is that why you’ve dressed up?” William asks 

You chuckle. “I think to most this would be considered dressing down.” William laughs lightly along with you. “But yes. While the rest of the world has progressed past the need to ranch animals, my family has resisted the change. But, with that, they also make the best Barbeque you can find.”

William smiles. “I see. What does this ‘ranching’ entail exactly?” 

You shrug. “It’s mainly just raising animals. My family's been doing it for ages. They used to go into the larger town, I believe it was called Austin before San Antonio grew too large and incorporated it," you explain. "Anyways, they would kill the older chickens, pigs, and cows to sell to local butchers. Or on Sundays there was something called a "Farmers Market" when there were more farmers than there are now." You lean back in your chair and cross your arms. "Now we just raise the animals, taking care of them before they die." You grin as a large plate of Barbeque is brought over and places in front of you. It's beef, you recall as you bring up the family recipe in your mind. "Amd, if an animal gets injured or otherwise can't take care of itself, we kill it, cook up the meat into barbeque, and use the bones, hooves or feet, beaks, and anything 'inedible' and use it to make a broth. That allows us to make soups and other foods that last us a long time. At least until the next animal dies."

You pick up the barbeque with your fingers as William goes for his fork and knife. He looks at you quizzically before setting down the utensils and going in with his bare hands. You smile at that. You take a bite of the sweet but slightly charred meat, the juices running over your tongue and down your chin. You let out a small laugh and chew as you use your napkin to clean up what got on your chin and subsequently, your neck. 

William smiles at you and swallows before saying, "I never thought to eat finger food on the first date." 

Your brain goes blank for a moment. Is this a date? Are you on a date? With your Commander? That's almost as bad as the Captain. But do you want it to be a date? Do you want to go through with this? Yes. 

Your lips quirk into a smile and you taste a little bit of the char still on your lips. "My mother used to say it builds a connection utensils could never hope to achieve. It breaks down walls, and allows everyone to be honest. There's no hiding, no pretend here. You get messy, you work through it together. Just like you should." You smile fondly at the memory. You miss your mother. You haven't seen her in a few years. You talk often enough, but screen communication is never as good as the real thing. You can't hug your mother through a screen. Maybe the next time you're near earth you'll ask if you can make a stop for a few days. 

William smiles at that and picks up a piece of barbeque with his fingers and days before taking a bite, "Your mother is a very wise woman." 

You direct your smile at William now as you say, "She sure is." 

--

“Uh… Commander? I think you’ll want to see this…” You say, directing your comment to Geordi. 

He walks over and leans over your shoulder, huffing as he sees what’s on your monitor. “Well I’ll be…”

“But Commander?” You say, making it more of a question than a statement. “How is this possible? This can’t be real.” You lean in towards the simulation the computer is providing and say quietly, “There’s no way the radiation could be moving!” 

Geordi places a hand on your shoulder. “Well, figure out how. It doesn’t seem to be affecting anything yet but we can’t know for sure.” 

You nod and turn back to the computer, where you start running continuous scans on the now moving radiation. 

--

You lean back in your chair and rub your eyes, letting out a yawn before blinking at the screen in front of you. It’s nearing the end of your shift. You reach out for a glass of water, but your hand hits air. Right. No drinks in engineering. Your stretch your arms as those on the night shift take their place. You feel a hand on your shoulder and jump at the sudden touch. 

“Oh! Sorry Lieutenant, I didn’t mean to startle you,” ensign Torres says. 

You shake your head and press a hand to your temple, a pain starts to drill into your temple. You unclench your jaw but that doesn’t help. “No worries ensign. I was just thinking.” 

He places another hand on your shoulder. “Are you okay? Do you need to go to sick bay?”

You shake your head, but that only makes the pushing pain worse. “No, it’s just a headache. It’ll pass. Eventually.” You start to move from your chair, but you stumble into ensign Torres arms. He reaches out and catches you as you feel the pain deepen, like a screw being pushed into your skull without a drill or a screwdriver to help. You wrench your eyes closed. The engineering lights are too bright. You cry out in pain and can barely hear ensign Torres call out to the computer, “Esign Torres to Sickbay! Medical Emergency in Engineering!” 

You hear someone say from the otherside, “Acknowledged. I’ll be there in a moment. Crusher out.” 

The pain keeps building. Soon you can’t hear the beeping of the Engineering, something that’s come to feel comforting. There’s a buzzing in your ears and your face becomes hot as you continue screaming. You don’t know if there’s any sound coming out anymore, or if your throat has just been run raw, and nothing escapes but air. You feel your knees hit the floor, the pain from the sudden fall gives you a moment to think about something else, before the pain returns to your temples and you feel the air escaping your lungs again. You clutch at your hair and you wouldn’t be surprised if your hands were full of chunks of your own hair. You feel more hands on you, dragging you up to your feet. You’re still screaming when a hypospray is placed at your neck, and you finally fall into unconsciousness. 

The pain doesn’t stop.

--

You look around the dark. You’re not dreaming, you’re actually here. You reach down and feel your shirt, the yellow engineering uniform is coarse underneath your fingers. You look up and shout out, trying to call out to something, but it’s as if you’re in space, and there’s nothing for your voice to bounce back from. Looking around, you realize you’re not in the pitch black you thought you were in. There’s small stars dotting the blackness. 

They’re not stars, you realize, because they start to move. 

They swirl and congeal in front of you, and as you look up, this humanoid made of stars looks up as well. 

“Who are you?” you ask into the quiet room. With the coagulated humanoid in front of you, your voice has something to reflect off of. 

The creature tilts its head and repeats back in a poor imitation of your voice, “Who are you?”

“I’m [Y/N],” you say. “Who are you?”

You reach out a hand, and the stars follow, like a mirror. You reach out your left hand, it reaches out its’ right. “I’m [Y/N],” it mimics again. The voice is closer this time. “Who are you?”

You look down, your arm dropping to your side. You sigh. “This obviously isn’t working…” 

“This obviously isn’t working…” the mimic says. 

You look up and the amalgamation of stars follows. You squint your eyes. You reach out. 

You take a step forward. 

This isn’t a dream. You can move forward. The stars take a step back. 

It doesn’t take a step back exactly the way you took a step forward. It shows hesitation. Your eyes widen. It isn’t a mimic. It’s doing this because it doesn’t know anything else. 

You reach your hands out, gently, trying to be as non-threatening as possible. “It’s okay. I won’t hurt you,” you say softly. 

You take a step forward. 

“It’s okay. I won’t hurt you,” the stars reply back. 

They take a step forward. 

Your face breaks out into a grin and you take another step towards the creature. They take a step towards you. You reach out, each step closing the distance between the two of you. You feel the energy in the air, the charging of electrons the closer you get. The hair on your arms stands on end. You feel goosebumps rise on the back of your neck. There’s a prickling of static building in your fingers. You reach closer. Pins and needles burst from your heart, traveling through your veins out into your limbs, your fingers and toes going numb. 

You reach out. 

Your fingers brush the stars. 

You feel the pushing of the pain from before at the back of your skull, but you feel the stars trying to communicate to you to let go. You close your eyes and feel the stars envelop you. You open your mouth, breath out, and let the stars in. 

They rush into your mouth, into your throat, and for a moment you think you’re choking, but you don’t need to breathe. They settle, higher than your stomach, past your lungs and ribs, right in the middle where your heart sits. 

And you know everything the stars want you to know. 

--

You gasp awake, your eyes split open. The bright lights of sickbay make you want to close them again, but you force yourself not to. You look up and see Dr. Crusher and a few of her nurses standing around you. You can hear them talking, but you can’t understand what they’re saying. You’re still panting when Dr. Crusher walks over and places a soft hand on your back. You shake your head and it's as if your thoughts clear away and you can finally understand what language they're speaking. 

"[Y/N]?" Dr. Crusher asks gently. "Can you hear me?" 

You nod. "Yeah." It comes out as barely a whisper. You wince as your throat screams for water. "W-" you try and say. "Wa-" 

Dr. Crusher looks over at one of her nurses. "Can you get us some water? And something to help with the throat?" The nurse nods and moves away. Dr. Crusher smiles and says, "It's going to be alright. You're going to feel better soon." 

You nod and grab the glass that's handed to you, quickly gulping down what the nurse gives you. She also hands you a throat lozenge, which you quickly pop into your mouth. 

"Better?" Dr. Crusher asks. 

You nod. "Yes," you say, your voice only cracking slightly now. While your voice is quieter, at least you're talking now. "Much better. Thank you Dr. Crusher." 

The doctor smiles. "Please. Call me Beverly."

You smile. "Okay Beverly." You try and lean back against the wall, but you wince. Your body must have tensed up so much your muscles hurt too much to move properly. "Thanks," you say, grateful as she leans you against the wall. 

Suddenly, the doors to sickbay slide open and Commander Riker bursts in, panting. "What happened? Is everything alright?" He asks breathlessly, his eyes locking onto your form. 

Beverly smiles. "Yes. Everything is okay. I'm glad you could make it Commander."

You look at her confused. "While I'm not complaining, I have to ask why Commander Riker is here…" 

She smiles at you and stands up. "You were calling out for him. When you were asleep." 

You feel your face heat up as she leaves the room, leaving you and the Commander alone. 

He sits down where Beverly was sitting before and places a hand on your knee. "How are you feeling?" 

You shrug, but wince as it doesn't come out painlessly. "Sore," you say with a laugh. William laughs along with you. 

He reaches out and grabs your hand. "I was worried about you. When they said who it was I didn't know what happened!" William exclaims, his right hand flying out but his left still holding onto yours. His right hand rests again on your clasped hands and he says quietly, "What did happen?" 

You look him in the eye and say, determined, "I need to talk to the captain." 

You move to get up, but William pushes you back into the sickbay bed. "Whoah whoah whoah. Let's not be too hasty. Do you want to tell me, and I'll tell him?" 

You shake your head, wincing at the pain it causes in your neck, and the phantom pains of the headache fall into the forefront of your mind. "No. It's an emergency. I need to tell him." 

William sighs and squeezes your hands. "Alright. But he's coming here. You're not going to him." You nod carefully and William touches his combadge. "Commander Riker to Captain Picard. Please come to sickbay." William looks at you and says, serious, "It's an emergency." 

You smile, and squeeze William's hands. 

A few minutes later, the captain comes in. "Yes, what's the emergency?" 

William doesn't even say anything. He just gestures to you. You let out a breath. You've only talked to the captain once, when you first came onto the Enterprise. Usually you talk through Geordi. You look up at the captain and say confidently, carefully, "We have to stop scanning the planet." 

"What?" Picard asks confused. "Why?" 

"Because that radiation I detected?" you offer. "That's not radiation. At least, not really. The reason it was moving is because it's alive, captain." 

"What?" The captain looks dumbfounded. 

You sit up more in the sickbay bed. William helps you sit up. "The pain I felt? As it was entering my mind? That's the pain it feels while we're scanning it. The tachyon scans we've been doing have been killing it, captain." 

"But-but that's a class M planet. Others will want to come and claim it." 

You glare at the captain. "Then find a way to protect it." The captain hesitates, obviously thinking about what you're saying. Your eyes narrow even further and you turn to the computer that's against the wall next to your bed. "Computer? Play footage from engineering, 2200 hours." 

The screen lights up and you can clearly see yourself sitting at a computer console, falling asleep in your chair. Ensign Torres comes up behind you, and starts talking to you. It's too quiet to make out what you're saying. You stand up, fall into Ensign Torres' arms, and then all you can hear is your screaming. You look at the captain as he watches, pain and sympathy cross over his features. You just watch him. William squeezes your hands as he watches, tensing up at the sight of you in pain. You remember the pain, as clear as if you were experiencing it now. You tense up as the apology given from the new lifeform rises to the surface as well. 

"Computer," Captain Picard says suddenly, just as Beverly comes into frame. You're still screaming. "Stop video." The video stops and the screen goes dark once again. Captain Picard sighs and places a hand on his forehead. Your eyes haven't left the captain. He looks up at you and says quietly, "I'll see what I can do. Number one, I'll see you on the bride in-" He looks between the two of you, then down at your hands. "I'll see you tomorrow." 

And he walks away. 

You let out a breath you didn't even know you were holding when the doors to sickbay close behind the captain. You lean forward, exhausted after your display and pleading with the captain. William leans forward and catches you, your head resting on his shoulder. He runs his hands through your hair and says quietly, "That was amazing." You smile against his shoulder, but you don't have the energy to move. "Very convincing." You chuckle and reach your arms out to hug him, but you pull back, letting out a small groan of pain. William chuckles and pulls back, pressing his hands to your shoulders to keep you upright while he slides you down the bed. "Come on. You must be exhausted. I'll see if Dr. Crusher can get you something for the pain." He lays you down on the bed and you smile as your eyes close. He leans down and presses a soft kiss to your forehead. 

He gets up to go get Beverly, but by the time they return, you're asleep in your bed. 

--

“[L/N]!” You look up from your personal project you were working on. 

It’s your lunch break and you’re tinkering with a new invention, but every time you use it on something, when you turn it off, the force crushes the object inside. It’s not doing what you want it to, and you have to find a way to stop it from collapsing when it’s turned off. 

Geordi walks over to you in the hallway outside of engineering. “Hey, how are you feeling?” He asks right as you take a bite of your sandwich. 

You hold up a hand, chewing for a few moments as you set down your tools, and you put your device down. You swallow and say, “Sorry.” Geordi holds up a hand as if to say, ‘no worries,’ and you continue. “I’m better. A lot better. Beverly is a true miracle worker.”

Geordi chuckles and says pointedly, “She’s a doctor, not a miracle worker, Lieutenant.” You chuckle along and start gathering up your equipment, popping the last of your lunch into your mouth. You start walking toward the nearest replicator, and Geordi follows along. “I’m sorry I haven’t been able to see you in a while. I’ve been busy.” You nod. You understand how busy the senior officers have been these past few days. 

After leaving the planet, with the new radiation lifeform, the Enterprise was called to Starbase 83 to facilitate a discussion between the Klingons and a new race that was discovered on a mining moon. They drilled into the crust of the planetoid where they discovered a series of underground tunnels and caves, that were home to a race called the Hiyattas. They’re an insectoid race, with humanoid bodies, and they’re so new as an intelligent race they barely have 5,000 words to communicate with. In comparison, Federation Standard has over 170,000 words. William has been too busy to see you for the past few days, but occasionally, when he has the time, or the captain orders him to rest, he’ll ask you to join him in Ten Forward, just to see each other, and to catch up. He’s been updating you on the Hiyattans, and you’ve been telling him about engineering. 

You place the empty plate on the replicator and press a button that dematerializes the plate. “Anyways, I just wanted to know how you’ve been, being back in engineering after… well after what happened,” he says. 

You smile. “I’m fine. Still a little sore, but Beverly told me that’s normal after something like that.” The doors to engineering open and you place the invention and your tools on the table where Ensign Weaver who gets out of their chair and goes back to another station. “Can I ask you a question Commander?”

“Of course,” he says. 

You sit down in your chair, and turn to face him. “Why are you so concerned with me? You’re never like this with anyone else. Why me?” 

He smiles and says cryptically, “Don’t worry about it lieutenant.” He places a hand on your shoulder and squeezes gently. “Welcome back lieutenant.” 

He walks away and you say, confused, “Lieutenant Junior Grade, sir!” He doesn’t acknowledge you and just leaves engineering. You lean back in your chair, more confused than you have been in a very long time. “What just happened?” you mumble to yourself. 

--

You collapse into your chair in Ten Forward, leaning on the table that William is sitting in front of as well. 

“Everything alright?” he asks as your head hits the metal table with a soft thunk. You just groan in response. “Rough day?”

You laugh, though there’s no mirth behind it. “You could say that.” Your voice is muffled by your arms closing around your head on the table. 

William reaches out and touches your arm, grabbing it gently, as if to say, ‘hey, relax.’ You move your arms away from your face and sit up, though you’re still slightly slouched. “Hey, talk to me. What happened?” 

You sigh. “Everyone’s been so weird today. First!” You sit up more and William grabs your hand, not to calm you or anything, but just because he can. “It was Geordi, asking me how I am and talking to me more about personal things than he ever does. Then it was Lieutenant Worf, who refused to talk to me. I wanted to ask when the away team would be back, but every time I tried to contact him over coms, he would just tell me to talk to him later. I had to ask Ensign Martinez to talk to him for me.” You lean forward more. “And then! Chief O’Brien wouldn’t tell me how long the away team was gone for when I went to see him in transporter room three! I tried to run a diagnostic on the energy output from the transporters, so see if we could cut anything down for greater engine efficiency, but he just shooed me out of the room! Told me he’d do it himself and report back later! I asked Keiko what was going on with him but she wouldn’t even give me a straight answer. She would just mumble something about being busy or tired, and then take care of Molly.” You lean back in your chair with a huff, but your hands are still being held by William’s. “The only one who hasn’t been weird is Data, but he’s already weird. He was the only one to actually talk with me today. Though he kept saying ‘I’m sure you’ll be happy today…’” You shake your head. “It’s just been a weird day.” 

William smiles and leans forward, kissing your fingers lightly before encasing your hand in his own. You feel your cheeks heat up and you look away. You’ve been flirty with William, sure, and you talk a lot, but you didn’t think he actually felt anything for you. At least not the same way you feel about him. You were content to remain friends, but this… this feels really good, even if your stomach is doing flips right now. “I can’t wait to see how happy you are.”

You look back at him, your stomach dropping, as well as your shy smile. You groan and drop your head on the table again. “Ugh, not you too!”

He just starts laughing. 

--

You’re in your room the next morning when your combadge beeps at you from the dining table in your quarters. “Captain Picard to Lieutenant Junior Grade [L/N].” 

You pick up your combadge and affix it to your uniform before tapping it. “[L/N] here.”

“Will you come to my ready room? I wish to speak to you about something.” You nod, even though the captain can’t see you. 

“Aye sir.” Your badge beeps to denote the cutting of your connection to the captain, and you let out a deep breath. 

You try and steady your beating heart as you walk out of your room and to the turbolift. You only pass a few people, but you can’t help but feel as though they’re watching you. You don’t realize you’ve been holding your breath until you walk into the turbolift and the doors close behind you. “Bridge,” you say and the turbolift starts moving. You’ve only seen the bridge briefly once before when you first stationed on the enterprise. You were in the turbolift when one of the senior officers went up there. You saw it for as long as the doors were open. You didn’t get a good look at it. 

You feel your heartbeat rising as the lift rises higher and higher. You take deep breaths to steady yourself. You feel like you’re about to faint. The doors to the bridge finally open, and you barely catch a glance at William before your feet take you past the bridge crew and to the captain’s ready room. They’re definitely all watching you. 

You hear Counselor Troi say to someone, probably Commander Riker, before the doors to the Captain's ready room close, "He's definitely nervous." 

The doors close behind you, and suddenly, you're alone with the captain. "Ah. Lieutenant. Please, sit down." 

You do as you're told, but not before saying, "It's lieutenant junior grade, sir." 

He smiles and sits down across from you. "Yes, I've noticed you say that a lot. Is there a reason?" He folds his hands in front of himself. 

You shrug. "My father taught me not to take credit for things that aren't yours. Everyone needs a chance to prove themselves, and you shouldn't take that away from them," you explain. 

Captain Picard smiles and leans back slightly. "That is a very good insight Lieutenant… Junior Grade," he says after a moment. You smile at him. "Do you know why I've asked you here today?" 

"You sound like my principal in highschool," you mumble out. The captain raises an eyebrow at you. "No sir." 

He smiles. "I have heard nothing but good things about you from my senior officers. Geordi, Commander Riker, Deanna, even Data's said something positive about you." You don't say anything. You don't know what to say. You wait with baited breath as he continues. "I have continuously heard great things about you. And so I called you here to congratulate you Lieutenant."

"Congratulate me on what sir?" You don't correct him this time. 

He smiles at you. "On your promotion. Congratulations Lieutenant." 

You stare at him. "I-I don't know what to say Captain. Thank you!" You exclaim. 

He smiles. "It's not me. It's your own accomplishments. Now, we really should get back to work. We have a starship to run after all." 

You nod, still in shock and stand to leave. When you're about halfway to the door, the captain call to you. "Oh, and [Y/N]?" You turn to look at him. "I want to see you on the bridge now. If you could take more shifts on the bridge crew every once and awhile, that would be preferable." Your shock turns into excitement as you nod. "Dismissed."

--

You're sitting at the helm, your fingers don't know what to press first. Sure, you've run all types of simulations in star fleet, and have been reading up since your promotion, but the truth is, you don't know what to do. You've forgotten. Your mind blank. 

"Lieutenant? Are you alright? Do you need me to plot the course to Starbase 116?" Commander Data asks, his voice softer than normal, as if he's trying not to embarrass you. It's all very human. 

You let out a deep breath and shake your head. "No. No Data. I've got it," you say. You reach out, trying to remember which button to push first, when you feel something behind you. 

"Push the red one on the right first," Commander Data says low in your ear. 

You press the button, and with muscle memory start to lay in the course to Starbase 116. You look up and smile as you see Commander Data nod and go back to the Captain's chair. 

This is going to be a long night. 

--

You walk into Ten forward, swaying a little with each step you take. You almost fall into the bar but catch yourself as you walk to the table William is sitting at. You’re still in your uniform form earlier on in the day. You slump into your seat and sigh as you look up at the server that appears next to you.

“Coffee, extra sweet,” you say. William holds up a hand to say he’s good and the server nods and walks away. 

“I thought you hated coffee,” William says. 

“I do.” You lean back in your chair, your arms falling to your side, almost numb. “But I need to stay awake.” 

Riker looks at you, concerned. “Why do you need to stay awake? Do you have a night watch shift?” He asks, a little astounded. You wave him off, blowing a raspberry with your mouth as the server comes back with your coffee. You make a grab for it, but William slides it in front of himself, out of your reach. “No, you don’t get this until you answer me.” You sigh and reach for it, but he just holds your hand. "Why are you drinking coffee?" 

You sigh and place your forehead on the table. Your stomach's been swimming all day, and now it's just gotten worse. You haven't eaten anything since breakfast. You shake your head on the table. William reaches out and you feel him lace his fingers into your hair, touching the tips of your ears with his fingers. You sigh. "I've been taking extra night shifts on the bridge because those are the only times I can do them." 

William looks at you, concerned. "[Y/N], you're working yourself too hard," he says, quietly. 

You shake your head. "I want to do more for the captain, be on the bridge more like he requested, but I can't just give up engineering. It's such  a large part of me I can't just throw it out the window!" You exclaim, though that makes your head spin. You wobble slightly as you close your eyes and take a deep breath. "Whoah…" William sighs and when you open your eyes, you see the same server from before taking your coffee away. "Bu- wa-" you cut yourself off as you reach out towards the server, too tired to actually get up and go after your coffee. 

William stands up and walks around to your chair. "Come on. I'm taking you to bed." 

"But- but I have to be in the bridge in fourteen minutes! Commander Data is expecting me!" You exclaim as William takes your hands and lifts you up, placing a hand around your waist and throwing your own arm over his shoulders. William presses his combadge and says, "Commander Riker to Data."

"Commander Data here sir," comes the reply. 

William starts walking with you, more like dragging you, out of Ten Forward. "Lieutenant [L/N] is unable to come to his shift on the bridge. It's an emergency." 

You hear Data acknowledge it, but he adds on at the end, "Is the Lieutenant okay? He's not hurt is he?" 

William looks down at you. "He's not hurt." 

You can almost imagine Data nodding. "Data out." The comm cuts out. 

"I think Data thinks of you as a friend now." You look up at William as he says this, approaching your door now. You live on deck ten, so it always makes it convenient to go to the forward. 

You smile. "Good. I consider him a friend too." 

The doors to your room open as you approach and William takes you inside. He seats you over to your bed, and you practically throw yourself onto it. You sit up and go to remove your shoes, but William holds up a hand to stop you. You comply, and he removes your shoes for you. He sits down on your bed and you lean over, resting your head on his shoulder. He leans over and kisses your hair lightly. You almost don't feel it in your sleepy haze. 

Looking up, you see William's bright blue eyes. They're alight with affection and warmth, and you want that warmth. You want to feel that affection he apparently has for you. You lean up, pressing your lips to his, moving your hands from the bed to his neck. He starts kissing back, slowly but it's something. He moves his hands to your wrists, and pulls away as he moves your hands away from his skin, some of the only exposed skin on him when he's in uniform. 

He smiles in the dim light and says softly, "I really want this. Trust me, I do. But not when you're tired." 

You nod, and he leans in, pressing a kiss to your jaw before getting up. He lets go of your wrists and they fall back to the bed with a soft "thunk". He smiles and kisses your forehead. 

"Get some sleep. We'll talk tomorrow." You nod and scoot up the bed, falling asleep before you can even watch William walk out the doors.

--

You're sitting in Ten Forward, three days later, your new invention and your tools spread out over one of the tables in Ten Forward. You’re so close to a discovery, to being able to test it, but you have to find a way to not burn out the circuits after every shutdown. You’re hunched over your work and you don’t even notice as someone pulls out the chair and sits down in front of you. 

“Still hard at work, huh?” 

You jump, looking up into the blue eyes of William, who’s smiling at you. You place a hand over your heart, a decoupler pinned between your palm and your breast. “William! You scared me!” 

Even though you’re shocked, you’re laughing with him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were so entranced in your work,” he says. 

You sigh with an exasperated smile. “I’m so close.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever asked you what this is,” he says, pointing towards the invention on the table.

You look up at him, as if to ask, ‘Really?’ but he doesn’t back out of his statement, so you go ahead and explain. “Well, this…” You hold up the metal puck, blue, red, and white wires poke out of the bottom. “…is a personal shielding device. It uses a magnetic resonance created in part by me to cover the body and deflect anything from a phaser blast, to an old earth bullet, to a rock thrown at your head.” William is looking at you with wide eyes. “But-” you say, cutting him off from speaking, “I haven’t figured out how to make it work without the phaser blasts draining the energy from the shield and burning out the internal configuration. Last week I figured out the issue of it crushing the object inside of it when it’s shut off, but it still overloads the power couplings.” 

“This is so over my head, but this is a brilliant invention! How did you come up with it?” William asks. 

You shrug. “I just thought, ‘Why should ships only have shields?’.” 

You grin, and William laughs, leaning back in his chair. You just watch him laugh, his smile so wide you’re surprised his cheeks don’t split to make more room. His eyes are closed, but when you were explaining your technology, you could see adoration in his eyes. As you’re grinning at him while he laughs in his chair, you watch this man you’ve talked to every day for the last few months, and you realize something as his comforting eyes open again. 

You are in love with William T. Riker. 

--

“Alright lieutenant! Let’s fire this up!” Geordi says from the other end of Engineering two days later where he’s monitoring the shielding device. 

You nod and press the final button needed to remotely turn on the device, even though there’s a switch on the side for whoever needs it, for it to be activated. The light hum of the magnetic resonance is almost impossible to hear next to the massive warp engine. You watch as the light reflects for a moment off the shield as it wraps around the vase Data was willing to give you for the test. The magnetic resonance hasn’t vibrated the vase to pieces yet, so that’s good. 

You turn to look behind you, and say, “Commander Data? Fire when ready.” 

He nods and holds up the phaser, firing it on the shield. You watch as the shield pulses from the phaser blast, moving and warping, and you watch with baited breath as the vase wobbles slightly, but stabilizes after only a moment. 

You let out a breath as Geordi calls out, “Shield holding at 83%!” You have to force yourself to focus on your breathing, because you know you will hold your breath until the experiment is done. “Shields holding at 67%!” You watch as the shield starts flickering, but it’s still steady. “Shield falling to 42%!” The phaser still isn’t getting through, even though the resonance is flickering more and more, but you notice the shifting of the field is done around where the phaser is hitting, but it’s solid where the phaser is hitting. “Shield now at 27%!” The buzzing sound of the shield is now louder than the phaser as it pushes itself harder to protect the fragile vase. “Shield falling to 15%!” Geordi calls out to you and Data. “10%!” You watch as the shield starts falling away from the back, still holding strong against the phaser blast. “5%! 4! 3-2! 1%!” You watch as the shield flickers out for one last moment, before the phaser penetrates the magnetic resonance field, and the phaser strikes the vase, shattering it into a thousand tiny pieces. The phaser stops before it can do any more damage.

You watch as, even though the vase isn’t there anymore, the shield comes back online, taking the previous shape of the vase, before collapsing, and turning itself off. 

Data lowers his arm, the phaser resting at his side. Geordi walks over and stands at your side, placing his hands on his hips as he says to you, “Congratulations Lieutenant. You have created the first and only personal shielding device.”

You just stand in shock, a loose grin on your face. 

--

“Why don’t you join us for poker some time! I’m sure Commander Riker has asked you to join a few times?” Beverly asks as you sit in medbay, getting a cut healed from your rather rigorous exercise while fighting a few holodeck romulans. It’s not your program, lieutenant Worf let you use it for the time being. Your shield was being particularly annoying today and you needed to let off some steam. 

You shake your head. “No, no. I don’t play your kind of poker.”

“Seven card stud?” Beverly asks. 

You shrug. “I only know how to play one type of poker, so I think I’d be a little outmatched," you say with a light laugh. 

"Well, what kind of poker do you play?" Beverly asks. "Maybe we can learn!" 

You look up at her and say with a straight face, "Texas Hold 'em." 

She looks at you confused. "What?" 

"It's a poker game that was popular in the 21st century, but after the nuclear wars, only those in Texas really held onto it. Us Texans love anything with the word 'Texas' in it," you say sardonically. 

Beverly laughs as she finishes healing your cut. "Alright. You should be good to go." You smile at her and jump down from the bed, rolling your neck and sighing when you hear the pops it makes. You move to leave, but she stops you with a shout. “Oh lieutenant!” You turn to face her. “Maybe you should steer clear of the holodeck for a little while. Come play poker with us. You can teach us how to play your game, and I’m sure the commander will love to have you there.”

She smiles at you knowingly, and you just smile and nod before leaving sickbay. 

--

“Picard to engineering! Can you get us out of here!” Captain Picard yells over the comms. Because Geordi’s on the bridge, he put you in charge of engineering. 

You press your combadge and shout over the general hustle and bustle of engineering,  “We’re trying our best captain! The tractor beam from the planet’s interfering with our escape plan! I don’t think we’ll be able to leave unless we can shut down that tractor beam!” 

The combadge goes quiet for a few moments and you call out to Barclay to join you at the main engineering consoles situated in the middle of the floor. Your combadge beeps again when Barclay moves to your opposite, continuing his work. “Picard to Mr. [L/N]. I need you on the bridge.”

“Aye,” you say, nodding to Barclay who nods back, and you leave engineering for the bridge. Before you exit, you stop by your station and grab your personal shield, holding onto it as you make your way to the bridge. The ride in the turbolift is silent. No one interrupts. You’re alone. 

Until the door to the bridge opens up and all you can hear is shouting. “[Y/N]! Over here!” Geordi calls out to you, waving you over. You move over to Geordi before the doors to the turbolift can close again. “We’re having a hard time shutting down their tractor beam.”

You lean in next to Data to look at the computer monitor. “Have you tried a reverse tachyon beam?”

Data nods. “Yes. They have a force field up. We can not get through.” 

You nod and start mumbling to yourself, “And we can’t beam anyone in there-”

“Wait, no I think we can,” Geordi says, typing on the display. “Here.” He points to the monitor, where you see the subspace fluctuation in the shield, a hole not big enough for a phaser blast, but just big enough for a transport. 

“Yes, yes. I see,” Data says, before turning to the chaotic bridge. “Captain,” he says, not raising his voice at all. Picard turns, still having been able to hear Data over all the comotion. “I believe we can transport a small away team down into the surface. This is the only way to disable the tractor beam. We have…" Data pauses for a moment and you fill in the rest for him. 

"We have twenty four minutes before the warp core shuts down and we're pulled to the surface," you supply. 

Picard nods. "Commander, assemble an away team." 

Riker nods. "Data, Worf, you're with me." 

They go to leave but you stop them. "Sir?" You interrupt the Commander before he leaves. "Sir. I think I should be the one to beam you all down. I've done the calculations and I know I can get you there safely." 

Riker looks to captain Picard, who nods. Riker motions for you to follow. "[L/N]. You're with me," Commander Riker says. 

You follow them into the turbolift, and down to transporter room one. You walk in and quickly dismiss the ensign on duty. He walks out of the room as you input the exact transporter coordinates. 

You look up and everyone's already on the transporter pad. "Commander, one more thing before you go…" 

You walk up to him, and reach your hand out, grasping your life's greatest work as you place it in the commander's hand. He looks up at you in sock as you say to him, quietly, "You never know what you'll find down there…" 

He looks up at you in shock, and you walk back to the transporter, your fingers over the engagement. 

"Lieutenant? Energize," Riker says. 

You slide your fingers up the panel, and as you do, the three men start to dematerialize. Soon enough, they're gone, and you wait with baited breath, hoping you do it right. 

You feel your heart stop as your combadge beeps and Geordi's voice filters through. "Lieutenant? You did it! Come and join us back on the bridge," 

"Aye sir," you reply. 

--

You wait and watch from the bridge, barely daring to breathe. The bridge has gone silent. It's eerie. The bridge is usually full of life, buttons being pushed, talking from the commanding officer to their officers, and vice versa. Now, you're sitting at OPs, waiting for something, anything to happen. 

You don't have to wait long, because soon enough you're flung against the OPs terminal, and you have to cling to it so you don't Tumblr over it. 

"What was that?" Picard asks the room. 

You start typing on your console but Geordi's faster. "The tractor beam is gone captain. As well as the shield. It seems they were shut down." 

You get up from OPs and look back at the captain, going to say something, but you're interrupted. "Away team to Enterprise. Please beam us directly to sickbay. Commander Riker is hurt." It's Data's voice. 

Your heart stops beating, and you look to the captain. You don’t even need to say anything. He just nods, but as you get up and walk past him, he places a hand on your arm gently. “See me in my ready room after your shift ends.” 

You nod and he lets go, letting you rush down to sickbay. The doors don’t slide open fast enough and you almost slam face first into them. But they do eventually slide apart and you enter, your breathing so fast you’re afraid you may pass out. You spot him, William, lying in one of the sickbay beds against the wall. You push your way through the bustling room and over to William, who grins as he makes eye contact with you. You let out a deep breath and practically throw yourself into the chair next to his bed. He reaches out and you grab his hand. 

You feel something fist sized, warm, machinery. “You saved me. You know that?” 

You let the shield fall to the ground and lean over, kissing William T. Riker. 

--

You let out a nervous breath, clenching and unclenching your hands in the turbolift as you make your way down to William’s room. You’ve never actually been in his room. You’ve imagined it, what he would have in it. Pictures of family, flowers from Deanna, lots of blues and reds. The turbolift doors open, and you have half a mind to turn around and go right back the way you came, but you shake your head, stepping out of the turbolift onto the senior officer’s crew quarters. You walk down the brightly lit hallway and to the door you remember Beverly telling you was William’s. 

You let out a breath, and push the doorbell. 

It only takes a few seconds before the doors slide open, and a shocked William is staring back at you. “[Y/N]! What a nice surprise! What are you doing here?”

“Beverly invited me. She wants to learn how to play my poker,” you explain. “I even brought my own cards.” You hold up the pack you’ve used for years. Your lucky deck. 

“Oh well, come on in!” William steps aside and you carefully make your way inside, smiling as you see Geordi, Beverly, Worf, and Data all sitting around a circular table, chips layed out in front of each of them. William pulls up a chair for you next to Beverly and himself, as well as some chips for you to use. You sit and place your cards on the table, Data scooping up the old cards. 

“What’s the game, [Y/N]?” Beverly asks.

You start to shuffle the deck, almost as well as Data but no one can ever be as good as Data at anything. You stop, placing the cards in front of William to cut as you say, “The game is Texas Hold’em. May the best, win.”