This is very short and very unpolished. It's first person, present tense
which is an odd form for me to choose, and it's told from Riker's POV. I
suppose it could be classified as an excerpt from Nemesis, albeit one from
the very end of the movie. There's very little in the way of spoilers here
but just in case... it does deal with Troi's voliation (as it occured in
Nemesis), without going into any real detail that I think could spoil the
movie. All the same, reader beware.

If you watched the end closely, this would take place just after the
Enterprise docked for repairs at the Utopia shipyard, and sometime before
Riker left with Troi for their honeymoon... I'm making it a part of my
"Pathways" chronicles, because it seems to fit somehow, even though its
timeframe occurs earlier than the first one.

"Pathways: Utopia Plenetia"
By: QDestinyy@aol.com
Rated: PG

"No... no..." Deanna's heated whisper brushes softly against my skin.
"Will..." her voice is faint at first; it's barely there. But I know that
she's been crying in her sleep. "Will!" she calls out desperately.

My head feels heavy in the moment I awake, but the lethargy transforms.
Between one heartbeat and the next, it disappears. She needs me now.

"Deanna..." I cradle her beautiful face between my palms, tracing every
cherished centimetre of her still-damp features. "Deanna..." And when she
opens her beloved eyes at last, illuminated by the light of recognition, I
know she's finally with me again. Back in my arms... away from him.

"Will..." she swallows harshly; a sigh of such profound relief that I can't
help the vengeful way I feel. I want to kill them. Kill them both--Shinzon
and that Reman worm who shadowed him in darkness. No matter they're already
dead. I want their minds to suffer endlessly, the way they've tortured her;
the only light I've ever nurtured in my soul.

"Imzadi.." my mind and heart reach out for her; a little clumsily at first.
I'm still not great at 'sending', yet. Deanna tells me not to think of it;
that I'm not Betazoid and that she knew all that when she agreed to spend her
life with me ... but sometimes I still wish that I could fill her mind with
endless ecstasy, the way she does to me. "Deanna... I'm right here..." I try
again, as only a human so helplessly in love with a Betazoid could ever
understand. "Imzadi, I won't ever leave--" I need to reach her in our
special way, it matters so much more.

"Will... oh, gods, I can hear him. I can still hear his voice--" she speaks
to me aloud in broken fragments; punctuated by the grip of her emphatic
embrace. But I realize... she understood my heartfelt declaration. She
heard it; or felt it; or somehow she just 'knew'. And right now she's trying
to make it easier on me, to help me answer her with words instead of
thoughts. I guess ... she loves me too.

"He's gone, sweetheart. Gone forever. He'll never hurt you again--" I hear my
own reply, but God, I know it's hardly adequate. Not while the ominous
memory of her violation still betrays her in her dreams.

It's one day before our honeymoon. The Enterprise hangs, cold and lifeless
in her space-dock cradle. We can see her from our suite. Our window at
Utopia-Planetia. I know Deanna's wondered--just as I have more than
once--how so much damage could ever possibly be 'repaired'. But there will
be another Enterprise. Captain Picard *will* have his ship again. I'm as
sure of that as I have ever been of anything I know.

I have to be...

We have to be...

Three weeks on the Opal Sea should do Deanna and I some good. Three weeks,
and if she lets me, I'll spend every moment helping her forget; that she was
hurt; that there was ever any force in her lifetime other than love. I'd die
for that promise, just as I swore that I would live--forever hers--on the day
she took my hand and said, 'I do.'

It's ironic for me, as I gather her diminutive body even closer in my arms,
how much things change with time. I can feel Deanna slowly begin to let-go;
to relax from yet another nightmare. They've been far too commonplace of
late. But I can sense her slowly learning to trust again, and it's enough for
me... for now. Enough she knows the difference between what happens in those
dreams, and what happens in my arms when we make love. Enough she knows...
I'd trade my soul for hers. Brushing my cheek across a wayward fall of her
thick, luxurious, hair, I grant myself that irony.

There was a time I would have stared out of the portal in our quarters and
thought of nothing but the majestic ships that hung there, suspended in such
magical repose. A time I wanted nothing more than my very own command.

I have that now--and not just any ship--but the newest, greatest,
state-of-the-art galaxy-class starship in the entire Federation. I have the
'TITAN', and I should glow with pride at every thought of such magnificence.
But in this moment, I can't think of pride. Not even my career.

I can only hold my wife a little tighter; whisper softly in her ear and feel
her heartbeat slow, to merge with mine. I care for nothing in Starfleet;
nothing in the scope of my undying ambition. Nothing but the wide, dark fear
I've seen too lately in Deanna's lovely eyes. Her desperate struggle with
the kind of helpless dreams she believes she should already have mastery
over. And the way she feels both defeated, and angry all at once.

If it were up to me, I'd strip my confidence and gift it to her. I'd give
her everything that ever made me strong and wrap her soul in it. But I can't
do those things. With all my knowledge, all my strength, I still can't spare
her from the dreams... And while that scares me, just a little, it also makes
me realize I would die, if she weren't here.

"It's going to be all right..." her unexpected whisper tickles the edge of my
hand, and I remove my fingertips from where they'd been tracing a calming
pattern on the side of her face. I shift my hold, so that I can look down at
her, and I'm captivated for the millionth time.

Uncanny how she's suddenly transformed. The desperate fear in her replaced
with such incredible desire to make me feel sufficient. "I'll get through
this, Will. We'll get through this together. With you, I can do anything--"

"Shh--" It fills my heart with painful joy when she looks up at me this way.
It's so rare for her to falter. It seems to me, my whole life, she's been
guiding me from falling astray. And now she looks to me to find our way.
"I will be here with you, Deanna," I reply, "no matter how long it takes. I
swear I'll be right here."

"I know," she smiles, her smaller hand somehow encircling my own, "what you
feel for me is so beautiful, Imzadi..." her body shifts and she slips
carefully onto my lap, "Sometimes I--" her expression falls briefly, then
lifts again, "I'll never be able to describe to you with words, how cherished
you make me feel."

"That's good," I have to exhale at the gentle, tentative brush that her
Betazoid empathy engenders inside of me. She's trying to show me... without
words... and the heat of my automatic response seems to flood across my body
like a tidal wave. I can't help the confession I'm about to utter when it
falls from my lips, "Deanna, you're everything to me."

Her dark eyes fill with shining teardrops. But this time they look different
than the last, and I can welcome the sight. She isn't frightened anymore. I
may be only human, but the bond we share is strong enough to translate...
she's in love.

God help me, so am I.

Lifting her face between my palms, the grin I express is magical. Deanna's
warm thoughts merge with my own and suddenly... I feel so free... like
everything I've ever known was so much smaller before she slipped into my
heart to share it with me. Incredible. I think I'll never be able to keep
myself from marvelling at the way she joins our souls this way. Right now I
can feel for both of us.

There's joy in her heart that I'm about to kiss her breathless. There's hope
that our emergence from this latest, terrible conflict means our lives
together can finally begin to rebuild... And there's a white-hot stab of
passion--we are still newlyweds, after all. I need her so damned much!

"Gods Will, kiss me... please..." her frustrated gasp drips, honey-sweet
across my lips before I realize: I've been teasing her. In thought, in
mind, and action--with my mouth less than a breath away from hers--I finally
give in. "I need you..." she implores, and we fall backward on the bed. Her
body over mine. Her fingers in my hair.

I don't know when or how I stopped caring what anyone else might think, or
whether fate could punish us for being happy, at last. But I did stop. In
fact, the only thing I care about right now--while Deanna's fervent kisses
rain passionately across my neck; while her sultry whisper drives me out of
my head with need--is that we've finally done it.

Shinzon and his star-crossed war be damned. The universe, the Federation,
even Starfleet fades away. We're married now, Deanna and I. In every
conceivable way, she's finally mine. All right, so I allowed myself a single
breath of masculine pride. My beautiful, Betazoid angel. Mine to touch; to
hold. Mine to cherish... until the end of time.

~end~