300Darkness in the Void
Disclaimer; I own neither Harry Potter or the Star Trek Series. Any recognisable plot or character in this story I take no credit for. I do not make a profit from this story.
Warnings; This story is SLASH. Any graphic scene will be marked as such so they can be skipped by those that wish to not read them.
A/N; I honestly don't know where this story came from. I watched a couple of episodes of Star Trek; The Next Generation and suddenly had this pop up in my head so I put it down. There are a few chapters ready for posting and I'll put them up in the next couple of weeks but then they'll be a long delay before any more due to my work. Please enjoy.
Chapter 1; Stowaway
History would say that Earth was once the host to two humanoid races, one was the majority and lived unto this present day, giving their lives into their technology, reaching out into the Galaxy to explore and learn. The other, a smaller sect that grew to wield powers tied into the very energy of the universe wanted only to grow in power, to conquer and purify. The history books tell of a massive explosion of unreadable energy that left traces around the globe before a great cloud eclipsed the sun and then the second race was gone, never to be seen again.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
United Star Ship Enterprise – NCC-1701-D – 2365
Captain Jean-Luc Picard stood beside his first officer, Commander William Riker, as they watched out the view screen as the SS Gavon slowly approached the vast cloud. It was barely visible except when it shifted and blotted out their view of this solar system's star. Ensign Crusher sat at the helm with Commander Data at sensors.
A face appeared on the screen wearing the uniform of the civilian fleet. "Captain Picard, we're ready to attempt an extraction."
"Do you yet have any idea what this is?" Picard asked.
"It seems to be some kind of gas cloud though our sensors cannot determine the exact substance. The gas seems to absorb all spectrums of electro-magnetic energy." The man told him.
"You'll have to forgive me for asking what that means." Picard told him with an amused smile.
The man smiled self-deprecatingly and shrugged. "We don't know yet. We'll have to get a sample before we can say for sure." The man paused before looking Picard dead in the eye. "But I can say this for certain, nobody on my crew has ever seen a cloud like this before. It has the same properties as a theoretical form of matter called Dark Matter."
"Where have I heard that before?" Picard asked.
"Probably from about a thousand sources. It's every scientists dream to harness it." The man laughed. "Let's get this done so we can get some answers."
"You have my permission to begin." Picard told him as the senior officer.
"Releasing probe now." The man said after looking to the side. "Probe contact in five seconds. Contact." There was an instant's pause before the captain of the other ship vanished from the screen and it shut down to show the cloud and the SS Gavon magnified to a comfortable level.
"Captain." Data turned to look up at him. "I've lost contact with the probe."
"How?" Riker asked.
"It disappeared from sensors as soon as it passed through the outer edge of the cloud." Data told him. "Sensor's suggest it is within the cloud."
"Should we..." Picard began but was interrupted by a groan from his Councillor, Deanna Troi, from where she sat in her chair behind him. Picard and Riker turned to see her hands against the sides of her head. "Councillor?"
"It's..." She struggled out with. "It's angry."
"The cloud?" Riker gasped.
"Sir! It's on the move!" Ensign Crusher reported as he sat up straighter at the helm.
"Course?" Picard asked.
"It's heading straight for the Gavon." The young man, Crusher, told him without taking his eyes from the console in front of him.
"Hail them!" Picard shouted over his shoulder at the crewman at communications.
"No response." The man told him calmly but tried again without having to be told.
"The SS Gavon is attempting to evade." Data told him. The entire crew looked up at the scene in time to see the vast shadowy cloud ebb. It seemed to turn in on itself before tendrils shot out at the Gavon. Light blue shields flared in a bubble around the science ship but the three tendrils cut through them as if they weren't there. The tendrils twisted and drove up through the upper saucer shape pushing straight through without clear resistance. Debris flew into space as air vented. The tendrils retreated back into the cloud but to their horror the cloud still approached the listing SS Gavon.
"Damage report!" Picard ordered.
"The SS Gavon's life support, artificial gravity and main power is offline." Data reported emotionally. "The Warp core will enter critical mass in twenty seconds."
"Transporter Room." Riker glanced up at nothing in particular. "If you can get a lock on anybody on the Gavon beam them out immediately."
"Understood, Sir." Came the disconnected voice of the engineer in the transporter room.
"They won't be able to get a lock through their shields." Riker sighed.
"I feel curiosity within that anger." Councillor Troi stood up in a single fluid movement and stood beside Picard with a frown on her face. As they watched the cloud slowly enveloped the SS Gavon, sinking through the shields which flickered and died.
"Core overload in five...four...three...two...one." Data informed them just before a bright white light exploded from the inside of the dark cloud, shining through it. As they watched the cloud ebbed and seemed to float away from the scattering shards on the Gavon.
"Sir. The cloud is on an intercept course." Crusher half turned to look up at his Captain and Executive Officer.
"Take us astern, Ensign. Full impulse." Picard ordered and Crusher's hands flew across the controls as he manipulated the controls.
"It's turning away." Crusher sighed in relief.
"Full stop." Picard ordered and sighed in his own relief. "Keep clear of the cloud but approach within transporter range of the debris. Scan for escape pods."
"No escape pods on sensors." Data told him. "However I think I can isolate the data recorder, and I believe I have a body on sensors. In the centre of the debris field."
Riker winced but addressed the transporter room again. "Transporter room. As soon as you are in range transport the body and data recorder."
"Yes Sir." There was a pause. "I'm sorry sir, but I didn't manage to lock onto any of the crew before she exploded. I lost sensor lock just after the shields collapsed."
"It's okay, Crewman." Riker told him.
"I need to know what just happened, Number one." Picard told Riker. "I want a meeting of all department heads in one hour in the briefing room. Ensign Crusher, make sure to attend. I'm sure you have your own opinion on the matter."
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Transporter room
The Crewman walked up onto the raised transport ring and opened his tricorder to scan the body out of habit more than any hope it was alive. It was a shame as the person was clearly not much older than sixteen or seventeen. Definitely a child. He was wearing loose black trousers and a dark red thick jumper that hung loosely around his torso with a hooded section on the back in a style he'd never seen before. Bizarrely the boy wasn't wearing a t-shirt under the jumper or even shoes and socks.
His tricorder bleeped at him and he glanced down at the display before staggering backwards in shock. "Sickbay. Prepare to receive emergency transport!" He called into the air as he ran to his control console to transport the boy site-to-site across the ship. The boy vanished in the glittering image of the transporters and the crewman sagged onto his arms against the console.
"Transporter room, report." Commander Riker's voice ordered.
"The body, sir." The crewman stammered. "The one I transported over from the Gavon. He's alive, sir."
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Sick bay
Picard walked into the Sickbay with Riker on one side and Councillor Troi on the other. Seeing this section empty they walked through it and into the intensive care unit where they found Doctor Beverley Crusher at a console opposite a bed with a older teenager lying on it. The boy was wearing only black cotton trousers but he looked perfectly comfortable, without a scratch on him.
"Doctor?"
"Jean-Luc." Doctor Crusher sighed and moved away from the console and to the boy's bedside. Deanna Troi moved to stand next to her while Picard and Riker stood on the other side. "I really don't know what to tell you. So far he seems the perfect human specimen. There's no sign of prolonged exposure to vacuum. No damage and his body temperature is good. If I didn't know any better I'd say he was just sleeping."
"If he's not sleeping what is he doing?" Riker asked.
"He seems to be in a coma." Doctor Crusher told him.
"I sense nothing from him." Deanna Troi told them all. "I can sense he is there but not what he is feeling."
"Is that usual for coma patients?" Riker asked.
"I have never tried to read a comatose person before." Deanna admitted.
"It shouldn't be much different than somebody who is sleeping." Doctor Crusher told her.
"Yet I can sense a sleeping person's emotions." Deanna shrugged.
"There's a lot I want to know about this boy, Doctor Crusher." Picard told her. "Namely how he survived drifting through space."
"And how he survived a core breach without a scratch on him." Riker pointed out.
"Indeed." Picard nodded.
"Report to me in the briefing room in forty minutes, Doctor." Picard told her before taking his leave.
Picard headed out of the room with Riker to send a message to Starfleet Command.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Sickbay
Harry studied the body he'd created in his old image, an image he'd barely associated with in however long it had been since the Dark Matter explosion had created the Multitude. It seemed wrong to him and so out of place. Like a cage but at least he didn't have to get in the cage just yet.
The human looking woman was standing over him again and reading off a little pad that looked like a computer screen. He'd learnt a lot in his time in the Multitude as he called it. For starters he knew better than to assume the woman was in fact a human. He'd explored other ships before when they'd come close and studied the aliens that flew them. The others thought he was strange for his overwhelming curiosity and care about what they called Lessers but what was the point of existing if you didn't learn?
"What is this?" She asked with a frown and reached out over him with a small sensor looking confused. "This is odd."
Well maybe Harry couldn't make his body perfectly human but it was close enough and trapping himself in a body without powers was simply boring. Harry drifted around the woman as an invisible cloud of Dark Matter ebbing and flowing over anything that he looked at. He was interrupted when a young man walked in. He looked about the same age that Harry had been when the explosion had happened, about seventeen, and he was wearing a grey uniform, whatever that meant.
"Mum." The other boy interrupted her and belied his relationship to her. "Commander Riker sent me to remind you about the meeting. He thought you might get distracted."
"Is it already that time, Wesley?" She frowned at him.
"We've got about two minutes." 'Wesley' smiled at her in amusement.
"Take a look at this, Wes." She handed him her little pad and the young man looked at it carefully.
"This can't be right." He shook his head. "It's like parts of him are missing."
"Except they were there before." She told her son.
"You mean he's disappearing?" Wesley's eyebrow's shot up.
"I don't know. According to this his heart isn't there but we can easily read his heart beat and blood pressure." She told him.
"Then there's a problem with the sensors?" Wesley asked. Harry ebbed happily, it had taken a lot of his reserves to create something as complicated as a human body and he'd been drained for a while but now his reserves of pure Dark Matter were building again. Draining all the Dark Matter from the inside of the ship and even the space around it. "Mum, we're really late now."
"Right." She nodded. "Computer, activate EMH."
"State the nature of the medical emergency." A new voice appeared and Harry ebbed straight through the man that suddenly appeared. So they could create people too and they could do it with just words.
"I need you to monitor this boy carefully. He's showing strange signs. Run a sensor diagnostic and report the results to me." She ordered the newly created man. "He's showing anomalous results."
"Understood." The man told her and moved to Harry's body. The woman and young man left the room and Harry flowed along through the corridors, filling whole sections with an invisible cloud. He was there but he'd long since learnt to cloak himself after seeing a nice green coloured ship cloak itself. It hadn't helped the ship hide from the Multitude but it helped Harry to explore the ships before they were destroyed by the Multitude. He followed Wesley and the doctor higher up in the ship until they entered a long room with numerous people in it.
"Doctor Crusher." A bald man at the end of the table greeted.
"Sorry we're late, Captain." She told him as she took a seat with her son at her side. "I found out something interesting about the boy."
"We waited for you." The Captain nodded before motioning to a rather pale man at his left side. "Data, why don't you start?"
Harry explored the man passing tendrils through him like he always did. He wasn't like the others here, he was a machine, just like the ship around them. He partly reminded him of another race that the Multitude had met. A race of part aliens and part machines. "We've decoded the data recorder successfully. The SS Gavon exploded from a Warp Core overload. An almost six hundred percent increase in power."
"How is that possible?" The Captain asked.
"I don't know, Sir." Data frowned. "It is possible that one of the cloud's tendrils passed through the Warp Core and the Warp Core fed from some form of energy in the cloud."
"That sounds rather vague for you, Data." Another man in red pointed out.
"I am dealing with rather incomplete information." Data told them.
"Only one theory seems to fit so far." Another human looking man spoke up as he leaned forwards onto the table. He was wearing a strange strip of metal around his eyes with what looked like gold patterning on the front. It was something Harry had never seen before so he flowed over the table to look at it closely. "Whoa, saw stars there for a moment." The man gasped out before he could speak again. Harry pulled back from the visor and the man shook his head. It was obviously technological and Harry had been able to mess with it to his satisfaction.
"Jordy?" A woman in yellow asked with a frown. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, sorry." Jordy shook his head. "My visor blurred there. As I was saying the only explanation I can think of for all of this is some kind of energy absorbing matter. The Gavon's sensors tell us that the cloud absorbs all forms of electro-magnetic energy and I've only heard of one thing that fits so perfectly that even our sensors can't see it. Dark Matter, just like the Gavon thought."
"Research it." The Captain told him. "I want to know more about this form of matter and what it is capable of. More importantly I want to know why it attacked and destroyed the Gavon."
"What about the boy?" The man beside the captain asked.
"I've never seen anything like it." The doctor told them. "I don't see how anybody could have survived being in vacuum as long as he was. Especially without any sign of injury from the explosion."
"Nothing should have survived." Wesley spoke up. "I checked the sensor logs carefully, it wouldn't have mattered where you were on the ship. Even if he'd been blown out with the breaches he would have been caught in the warp core breach."
"What about DNA assays?" The Captain asked.
"I checked his DNA against the Federation Database without any luck. His DNA doesn't register but it is definitely human except he seems to be slightly more advanced. He has twenty seven distinct chromosomes, three more than normal." The Doctor told him. "There's also something else, while I was scanning him I noticed that the sensors detected a loss of organs, as if they'd just disappeared. I can't explain it. When I left him with the EMH he didn't have a heart but had a strong pulse and normal blood pressure."
"Sensor problem?" The Captain asked.
"I instructed the EMH to run a diagnostic." She told him.
"Is there anything else to go on at the moment?" The Captain asked.
"If I may, Sir." Data spoke up. "I believe there is a connection between the cloud and the rescued individual. The interference with the sensors is similar in both instances. It may be possible that he was altered by the cloud when he came into contact with it."
"To what end?" The Captain asked.
"Perhaps by chance alone." Data suggested. "It seems a logical conclusion."
"EMH to Doctor Crusher." The voice of the created man announced.
"Go ahead." The Doctor spoke up.
"The sensors are working correctly, Doctor." The EMH reported. "The sensor readouts on the patient concern me however. The sensors show no liver or skin on his left leg. Physical inspection states otherwise."
"Thank you." The Doctor told the ceiling before looking at the Captain. "I really can't explain it. As far as our sensors go, he's vanishing."
"Well let's do everything we can to stop him from completely disappearing on us." The Captain declared. "What are the chances of him waking up?"
"As far as I can tell he's merely sleeping but I can't wake him. The normal stimulants don't seem to have any effect." Doctor Crusher sighed. "I'll let you know the moment he wakes up."
"Data, see if you can find anything in the database about any of this or any other reports of this cloud." The Captain ordered. "We're going to follow the cloud at a safe distance but it doesn't seem to be in a hurry. Sensors put it as heading to this solar systems sun but it'll be a few days before it reaches it."
Harry ebbed and flowed as the meeting broke up and slowly explored the ship, there were thousands of people on this ship, some with families. It was easily the most interesting ship Harry had ever encountered. He found a room where they created people and decided to take a look. A pair of humans were lounging on a balcony under the sun when mere minutes ago they'd been standing in a black room wearing swimsuits and towels. Now they were lying out in the sun chatting happily together.
They were alone except for two men that had appeared and were fanning them even though it wasn't particularly hot on the balcony. After a few minutes the crewman raised a bell and rung it and another man appeared through a door with a tray of glasses. Harry was intrigued, they'd managed to create a sunny balcony with servants out of nothing, something he'd never seen before on another ship.
"How do you do that?" Harry asked ebbing into a form they could see.
"Excuse me?" The man shot up in his chair and saw Harry standing at the foot of his lounger. Harry was powerful enough again to take a form like this even as his created body lay in the ship's sickbay. He'd absorbed enough of the ambient Dark Matter to be at his full abilities again.
"I was wondering how you created this place." Harry asked. The woman had sat up now as well, covering her chest quickly with a towel.
"Computer freeze program." The man ordered and as Harry watched the two fanning men and the waiter froze motionless.
"What kind of program are they?" Harry asked unaware that he was doing anything strange.
"Computer identify." The woman demanded.
"Unidentified." A voice told her.
"Computer intruder alert!" The man snapped and stood. "Holodeck two. End program!"
The scenery vanished and Harry felt it might be prudent to disappear too so he removed his imprint and became the cloud again. Two yellow uniformed men ran into the room with little objects in their hands. They were similar to what had been pointed at him before. It almost seemed to be custom when he greeted people.
Harry streamed from the room and decided to go pay his body a visit. He got distracted by a room full of children learning from an adult but he soon got bored of hearing about Earth history, though it did prove what he thought about the ship being from Earth. It was a shame it would all be gone soon like anybody else that tried to learn about the Multitude. When he got back to his body he discovered he had an audience. As he arrived he heard the Captain talking to the others.
"I saw the image myself. The holodeck recreated his very image." The Captain told them.
"Well I've only left him for a matter of ten minutes but Wesley hasn't left his side." Doctor Crusher told them. Harry glanced at the grey-uniformed ensign.
"I've been trying to find out why his body is slowly disappearing on sensors and I think Data is right." Wesley said. "I've compared the interference to the cloud and they match. I think this Dark Matter is slowly being absorbed into his body."
"Maybe it allowed him to survive vacuum." Riker agreed.
"But that doesn't explain how he got to the holodeck without us noticing." Doctor Crusher pointed out.
"Even so he's obviously more than meets the eye." Riker sighed. "We need to put him on twenty-four hour surveillance to be on the safe side."
"Agreed." The Captain nodded. "Keep me informed."
Harry watched them all leave and decided to linger with his body for the time being. Wesley sat on the bed next to his own for a few hours pouring over a pad as he ran scans over Harry's body.
"I feel sorry for you." Wesley suddenly spoke up in the emptiness of the room. "Maybe your family were on the SS Gavon. You seem to be my age so I guess I know how frustrating that is. To be on a ship but not be allowed to really do anything. My mum's the Chief Medical Officer on the Enterprise so I know it's hard to deal with some times."
Harry lingered around him for a while wondering whether to rejoin with his body just yet. To do so would trap him there until the body was destroyed. Dark Matter had a few limitations to it, if not many. He knew he'd have to eventually. "That's even if you were on that ship though I don't see any other way to it." Wesley went on. "Either way it'll be nice to have somebody my own age around for a change. Maybe you can come to the Academy with me in a month. You just have to wake up. Mum's always telling me that sometimes faith is necessary in medicine and I've read books about the past when they used to encourage talking to comatose people."
"Ensign Crusher." A Crewman with a weapon in his hands appeared through the door into the sickbay. "I've been ordered to watch him. Maybe you should get some sleep, Sir?"
Wesley sighed but nodded and put the pad down on the side before standing. "I'll talk to you tomorrow." Wesley told his new body before leaving. Harry tried to interact with the new man in the room without any luck so instead he decided to go exploring. He'd join with his body tomorrow but for now he wanted to go talk to people and learn about the ship while he was like a ghost.
Harry soon got bored when he realised that a lot of the crew were sleeping. The Bridge crew were boring, as were the engineers in the Warp Core. Nobody was walking through the halls and nobody was using those little holodeck rooms that created people to play with. He floated in the middle of one of the curved corridors with lots of doors before grinning. No matter which type of aliens they were, all ships reacted the same to certain sounds and Harry knew just how to get all the humans up and about again.
His voice, unused and eerie as it was, echoed in the corridors as he addressed the computer like they all seemed to do. "Computer, red alert."
All ships seemed to react in a similar way and Harry thought that maybe the ships liked to be on alert with all the people running around and doing things. Almost instantly red lights began flashing down the corridor and a sharp sounding alarm began waking all the thousands of sleeping people on the ship. Harry grinned and flowed down the corridor to find people to answer his questions.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Bridge
Commander Riker snapped up from the command chair as the lights flashed red and the red alert sounded. "Report!"
"There's nothing on sensors." The crewman at sensor controls reported.
"The order was given on deck ten, section three." The security officer reported just as the Captain walked in.
"Report Number One." He demanded.
"We're not sure yet, Sir." Riker told him. "The alarm was triggered in deck ten, section three."
"Computer, identify danger." Picard ordered.
"Unknown." The computer replied emotionlessly.
"Computer, who gave the order?" Picard pressed.
"Unknown." The computer told them.
"Captain, all decks report on station." The security chief told them both. "Nobody is reporting any danger."
Councillor Troi came in through the turbo-lift with a bemused expression on her face. "Councillor?" Picard asked.
"I sense great amusement, Captain." Deanna told him. "With a touch of curiosity. A powerful mind. It overrides all other emotions on the ship at the moment. There is an entity on the ship not too different from the cloud."
"Could it have ordered the alert?" Picard asked her.
"The timing was exact." Deanna told him.
"Computer, stand down red alert. Ship wide." Picard announced. "This is Captain Picard, we seem to be playing host to an entity who finds amusement in waking the ship. Man all stations but rotate for sleep, keep an eye out for an intruder, especially one that matches our visitor in sickbay."
He was about to turn to give Riker the night off when a voice came back. "Captain Picard, crewman Geoffrey. Some kid just asked me where I was going when I was on my way to my station. I thought I imagined it."
"I can sense the entity, flitting about the ship, he's getting more curious." Deanna told him. "Almost as if he's trying to learn about us."
"Ship wide." Captain Picard announced again. "This is Captain Picard. This entity seems to be curious. By my orders you are to ignore him if he appears."
"Captain?" Deanna frowned. "Are you sure that is wise?"
"I won't let somebody terrorise my ship." Picard told her. "If he's curious he'll have to come to me for answers."
"He may not like that." Deanna warned him.
In the next few minutes eight more encounters were reported to the bridge, all where the boy had been ignored.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Engineering
"They're all ignoring me." Harry declared as he appeared in the middle of the room. He'd realised this quite quickly after hearing the Captain order it. It had annoyed him because humans weren't fun if they didn't do anything. So he'd pestered a dozen or so before searching the ship for Wesley. The boy who had wanted to talk to him the night before. He'd found him working with the man with the funny visor near the ship's Warp Core. The two jumped as Harry appeared on the other side of the console to them. After a moment they went back to work. "But you wanted to talk to me before, Wesley."
"How do you know my name?" Wesley blurted.
"Wes!" Jordy hissed. "Captain's orders."
"I heard you talking to me. You have to talk to me or it'll be really boring." Harry countered but Wesley was going back to work and that hurt Harry. It was the first time in years he'd felt that emotion and it made him angrier then he'd been in all the time he could remember. He floated backwards through the railing and out over the space that separated the glowing blue Warp Core from the rest of engineering. His image vanished into a black cloud that darkened the room as it absorbed the flashing light and now everybody was looking at him.
Tendrils of angry black cloud reached out and his cloud grew to completely surround the Warp Core. But Harry was simply angry, they'd made him sad and he wanted them to be sorry for that. He wouldn't hurt them really but he did want to scare them so they wouldn't ignore him again just because one human told them too. It was a silly way to run things.
"Warning, Warp Core overload imminent." The disembodied voice announced as red lights began flashing. "Warning, Warp Core overload in two minutes."
"Engineering! Report!" Harry recognised Riker's voice this time.
"Sir, the image of the boy was here. We ignored him but he turned into a cloud just like the one in space. I think we angered it!" Jordy shouted as he tried to do something on the console. "It's flooding the Warp Core with Dark Matter!"
"Prepare to jettison the Warp Core!" This time it was the Captain's voice.
"Jordy! It's Deanna." Harry paid closer attention as the woman spoke. "All I feel is hurt and anger. Try to talk to him."
"Him?" Jordy gasped. "It's a cloud!"
"Please stop this!" Wesley was suddenly leaning on the railing only a foot from the edge of the cloud. "We're sorry about ignoring you but we don't understand you. We won't ignore you anymore but you need to stop or you'll kill us. You're just curious about us but doing this won't get you somebody to talk to."
Harry ebbed away from the Warp Core and the alarms stopped. Jordy sighed in relief but then cried out in shock as the cloud flooded forwards and enveloped Wesley so thickly that they couldn't see the boy anymore. Wesley stared in shock at the ebbing walls of black as they swirled around him and reached out a hand to touch it. The cloud wall ebbed away slightly before flooding forwards to brush around his hand sending tingles of energy up his arm.
In just a moment Harry pulled away from Wesley and vanished through a wall leaving a stunned group of Engineers to explain what had just happened.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Sickbay
Harry's eyes opened and focused instantly on the ceiling of the Enterprise's sickbay. He shuttered his eyes as he got used to the sensation of touch, all along his back, and even the feeling of air across his skin. When he opened his eyes again it was to see a man in yellow standing beside his bed looking at him.
Harry lifted up a hand and touched the man's shoulder. In a moment the man's eyes rolled up into his head and he slumped to the ground. Being interrogated in the bed seemed boring to Harry so he pulled himself up from the bed and checked himself over. He'd forgotten shoes and socks but he liked feeling of the floor on the soles of his feet. He was still wearing the black trousers and the dark red hoodie and he felt warm enough even without the t-shirt underneath, another oversight on his behalf. He'd almost forgotten clothes altogether.
He quickly crossed the room and went out into the corridor and quickly turned the corner. He headed in a random direction and found himself in a darkened room with wide windows facing out into space. There were tables and chairs around the room and a bar against the other wall. Harry sat down at the bar and watched through the hole in the wall at a dark skinned woman with a large hat over her thick black hair. She bled power though well hidden. To Harry her power was obvious though, just like his was, just not as powerful. She could control Dark Matter.
She turned around and jumped as she spotted him sitting in the dark. "Computer, lights, half." The lights came on in a dull glow. "Well now, you'd be our unexpected guest. Appearing all over the ship."
"Am I?" Harry asked. "What are you doing?"
She came out into the room proper and leaned on the bar opposite him. "I was making a hot drink."
"Why?"
"Because I was thirsty." She told him with amusement.
"Why does it have to be hot?" Harry asked.
"You're definitely a strange one." She frowned. "You look human enough."
"So do you." Harry pointed out with a cheeky grin.
"I've been around for a while yet I've never come across a race like yours." She narrowed her eyes.
"What's your name?" Harry asked.
"What's yours?" She countered.
"Harry."
"An Earth name." She narrowed her eyes again. "So you were from that ship?"
"Was I?" Harry grinned unwilling to put all his cards on the table just yet. "You owe me a name."
"Guinan." She told him.
"You're not human." Harry prompted without losing his grin. "And you're older than me."
"You're a child, it's not hard to be older than you."
"You'd be surprised." Harry smirked, feeling more alive than he had in years with this bantering. "So what are you?"
"What are you?" She countered. Harry just continued to smile at her, not willing to give in this time. "I'm an El-Aurian."
"I'm sorry." Harry lost his grin. "I don't like the Borg much either, though they're more interesting than most."
This time Guinan stared at him carefully. "There's more to you than meets the eye."
"There's more to you than meets the eye." Harry countered.
"What race are you?" She asked.
"I was human." Harry smiled at her.
"So they're right, the cloud changed you?" She asked.
"The Multitude doesn't change people, people change the Multitude. You could change the Multitude too if you let yourself." Harry pressed on relentlessly. "Others of your kind did."
"What...?"
"Bridge to Guinan. Are you okay?" That was Commander Riker's voice. "Our guest walked out of Sickbay."
"He's here." Guinan responded. "Being rather talkative, if not cryptic."
Harry grinned at her as she obviously realised it was his actual body here. "Security is on its way."
"I don't see any need to hurry, Commander Riker." Guinan told him.
"Oh, am I not dangerous?" Harry asked. "That's amusing."
"Amusing?" She asked.
"I like being amused, it's fun." Harry grinned. Before anything more could be said the door opened and four yellow-uniformed humans entered with weapons in their hands. Harry ignored them and turned back to Guinan. "I still don't see the necessity for liquids to be hot."
Her eyebrows shot up. "It's a preference thing. Like bathing in hot water rather than cold."
"Were you there when it happened?" Harry suddenly asked.
"Where?" Guinan asked.
"When the Borg attacked your home world?" Harry asked.
Her eyes narrowed but she nodded. "I was among the few not present."
"I am sorry." Harry stood as the security team surrounded him and led him from the room. He was led back to the Sickbay without a word from his escort and he was tempted to do the same to them as he had to his previous guard but he kind of looked forward to this meeting. He was led straight to his previous bed and made to sit on it though he refused to lie down as numerous other people entered the room. His escort spread out to the edges of the room as Doctor Crusher, the Captain, Commander Riker, Councillor Troi, Data and Wesley walked into the room.
"You seem to be rather good at giving us the slip." The Captain told him.
"Captain Picard, I've only done it once." Harry responded.
"So you know who I am." Picard nodded. "May we have your name?"
"Harry." Harry told them.
There was a pause as they clearly waited for a surname but he didn't offer one. "This is my First Officer, Commander William Riker. My Chief Medical Officer, Doctor Beverley Crusher. The Ship's Councillor, Deanna Troi. Data, the Ship's primary sensor analyst and lastly Ensign Wesley Crusher, who you seem to have bonded with rather surprisingly."
"Why is that surprising?" Harry asked. "Do humans not seek out friends anymore?"
"Of course." Picard recovered easily. "We are having trouble finding your records within the Federation Database or the crew manifest for the SS Gavon."
"Was that a question?" Harry asked, honestly curious.
"Yes, son." Picard smiled.
"Son?" Harry frowned. "You can't be my father." Riker covered his mouth with his hand as he snorted. "Was that amusing?" Harry pressed on.
"No." Picard narrowed his eyes at Riker before looking at Harry. "Some people use 'son' as an endearment, it sometimes helps to soften tense moments."
"Is this a tense moment?" Harry asked.
"Clearly not." Picard frowned.
"Then why did you call me your son?" Harry pressed.
"Let's just forget about that bit shall we?" The Councillor suggested. "Was your family on the SS Gavon?"
"No." Harry told her and tilted his head as he felt her mind reading his emotions and thoughts. He blanked his thoughts from her but didn't stop her from feeling his curiosity.
"If you give us their names we can contact them." Picard suggested. "Let them know you're alive."
"Their names are James and Lily Potter." Harry told them honestly. "But I didn't know you could send messages back in time."
"What do you mean?" Data asked.
"They died when I was a baby." Harry told them.
"We're sorry." Deanna told him.
"Why?" Harry asked curiously.
"We're sorry for your loss." Deanna explained. Harry smiled at her.
"Were you a guest on the SS Gavon?" Picard asked.
"No." Harry shook his head. "I visited it but only for a while."
"You'll have to be more specific than that if you want us to find out where you belong." Doctor Crusher told him.
"I didn't say I wanted you to find out where I belong." Harry told them. "I know where I belong. I just don't want to be there."
"You stowed away?" Riker's eyebrows shot up in surprise.
"I suppose you could say that." Harry admitted since it was the truth.
"You do realise that is a serious crime?" Doctor Crusher asked.
"Not for me." Harry told her.
"Are you human?" Data suddenly asked shocking everyone.
Harry tilted his head to the side but didn't answer straightaway. Deanna spoke up. "You're amused." She sounded surprised.
"Amusement is so much more fun than any other emotion I find." Harry told her. "Did you feel the Multitude?"
"The Multitude?" Picard asked. "Do you mean the cloud? You've seen it before?"
"Yes." Harry nodded. "I've seen the Multitude. Did you feel it, Deanna Troi?"
"Yes." Deanna nodded.
Harry stood up, standing eye to eye with her before any of them could react. "Did you really see what the Multitude was?" She shook her head. "Shame." Harry sighed before turning to Picard. "You have an interesting crew, somebody who can feel the Multitude and somebody who can become part of it. I've never met either before other than myself."
"So you're not human?" Riker asked.
Harry turned to look at him. "I used to be I suppose."
"So the Cloud...the Multitude changed you?" Picard asked.
"The Multitude doesn't change people." Harry told them, repeating what he'd said before to Guinan. "Why would power change a Lesser?"
"A Lesser?" Picard asked.
"Humans are a Lesser, Captain Picard." Harry told him.
"You're part of the cloud!" Wesley gasped in shock making everybody look at him in surprise except Harry who smiled at him. This was fun.
"Wes!" His mother looked at him in shock.
"He's right!" Deanna was looking at Harry. "You're amused by our reactions."
"What's most interesting about Lessers is the way they react." Harry told her. "Even the Borg's reaction was interesting."
"You've come across the Borg?" Picard asked.
"A few times." Harry admitted. "They avoid the Multitude now."
"I don't know whether we should be believing this, Captain." Riker spoke up.
"For the safety of the crew I'm going to have to ask you to remain here." Picard asked. "If you are what you say you are we have to make sure we are protected. A shield will be raised around this section of the Sickbay."
"I don't understand how this would keep you safe." Harry frowned. "I would not need to leave this place to cause damage to your ship."
"But would the force field keep you in place?" Data asked.
"No." Harry frowned. "Not for long."
"Computer, erect a level ten force field and notify the Bridge if it is tampered with at any time." Picard ordered. There was a shimmer between Harry and them all and Harry reached out a hand. It fizzed against the shield and he held it there for a moment feeling the shield. "This is just a precaution, son." The Captain told him. "As soon as we determine you are not a threat you'll be released."
"A son must be younger than the father, Captain Picard." Harry told him with sad eyes. "May you determine your inability to control me soon. It seems such a shame to trap me this way when there is so much to learn on your ship."
"I'll make sure you have somebody to keep you company." Picard told him. "Ensign Crusher, how would you like that task?"
"Yes, Sir." Wesley nodded. Harry watched them from behind his force field as everybody but Wesley left the room.
"Wesley, it's boring in this room." Harry told him rather childishly.
"I can't let you out." Wesley told him.
"Can't, or won't?" Harry asked.
Wesley winced. "Won't."
"Did you know that honesty is more common now than it ever has been in the human race?" Harry asked with a grin. "But I think you're interesting enough to keep me from getting bored."
Wesley flushed bright red. "How much did you hear last night?"
"I created this body to eventually take residence in but I explored the ship." Harry told him. "I didn't want to be trapped before I had the chance to find out what you were like. I heard everything you said. I'd like a friend."
"I thought you were human." Wesley told him as he sat on a bed next to Harry's little containment area.
"I am." Harry told him.
"Because you've take a human form." Wesley argued.
"I was human before." Harry told him. "I lived on Earth along with the rest of the Multitude. Most of our kind became greedy and power hungry and the few of us that weren't had no choice but to get dragged into it."
"What happened?"
"You really want to know about me?" Harry asked.
"Yeah." Wesley told him.
"We made a mistake. My enemy was drawing together a powerful nexus of power and we thought that by destroying it we could save Earth but I was wrong. The explosion took us all. It created the Multitude." Harry told him. "A collective of all of our minds and the power of Dark Matter that we yielded."
"How long ago was that?"
"It was in the late twentieth century." Harry told him.
"Four hundred years!" Wesley gasped. "What have you done in all that time?"
"Carried on our old ways." Harry told him.
"Seeking power?" Wesley asked.
"At least that's what the Multitude wanted." Harry sighed. "I wanted to learn but I was one among thousands. When I realised this was a ship of humans from Earth I created a body for myself so I could interact with you properly."
"So why did the Multitude attack the Gavon?" Wesley asked.
"There isn't any particular reason I can give you." Harry shook his head. "The ship irritated the Multitude so it removed the problem."
"What's it going to do now?" Wesley asked.
"Seek power." Harry told him.
"Why?" Wesley asked. "To feed?"
"If it was to feed it would have cause for destruction, Wesley." Harry told him. "The Multitude enjoys the feeling of power."
"And it's heading for the sun!" Wesley gasped.
"How long?" Harry asked.
"It'll reach the sun in a few hours." Wesley told him.
"It would be for the best if I was on your Bridge when it reaches the sun." Harry told him.
"I don't think the Captain will like that." Wesley warned him.
Harry stepped around so only the shield separated them before he took a step forwards. The shield whined as it tried to stop Harry but after a moment Harry stepped straight through it and into Wesley's personal space. "I need to see what it does after it gets to the sun, Wesley." Harry told him before leaning forwards within half an inch of Wesley. "I might not seem human, Wesley, but my mind is and I care about Earth." Harry noticed the way Wesley was looking between Harry's eyes and his lips and he grinned suddenly and pecked Wesley on the lips before sliding back through the force field which hadn't even reported Harry's passage.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Wesley stared at him in shock for a moment before fleeing from the room thinking only that he'd enjoyed that brief kiss but the entire thing had been too surreal. He headed for the Bridge and almost dashed out onto it. Picard and Riker turned to look at him and Deanna blinked in shock at his feelings. Wesley felt his cheeks heating up so concentrated on his superiors regardless of the amused and concerned look on Deanna's face.
"Captain, I think there's some things you need to know." Wesley told him.
"Enough to leave our guest alone in his confinement?" Riker asked.
"I..." Wesley went red again. "He walked straight through it, Sir, and the computer didn't register any tampering. I locked the door and security is in the room."
"Alright, Ensign." Picard shook his head. "What's so important?"
"He told me a lot about his past that I think you should know." Wesley rushed through the entire conversation except for the last moment with the kiss which he kept to himself.
"That's all rather odd to hear." Riker pointed out.
"Yet it fits all of the facts we have thus far recorded." Data pointed out.
"So our guest is a part of this Multitude and has taken a human form to interact with us because he is curious about us?" Picard asked.
"Is that so strange?" Deanna asked. "Most races do a similar thing when they send greetings in a language familiar to the other race."
"She's right." Riker agreed. "When you take out the sentient cloud of Dark Matter it makes sense."
"So what now?" Picard asked.
"Captain?" Wesley spoke up nervously. "He wants to come up to the Bridge for when the Multitude reaches the sun."
"If he can walk through a level ten force field why is he asking permission?" Riker asked.
"Courtesy." Deanna told her Captain.
"Ensign Crusher, take our guest to ten-forward for some lunch and then extend my invitation for him to join us on the Bridge in one hour." Picard told him.
"Yes, Captain." For some reason Wesley couldn't stop the grin from spreading across his face as he left the room.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
End Chapter
