Title: Star Trek-Infinity: Lorin [PG] (MISC) 
Author: Charles Rando (trando@worldnet.att.net) 
Series: MISC 
Rating: [PG] 
Part: NEW 1/2 
Disclaimer: Paramount owns the characters in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, and Peter David owns the Selelvian race (see his book, Strike Zone). Doctor Greyhorse and Chief Simenon, as well as the Gnalish race, are the properties of Michael Jan Friedman (see his book, Reunion). I'd like to think that the characters I've invented and the story are mine. :-) 
Summary: The story of a young woman surviving alone in the universe... until she finally finds found a home on the Starship Infinity. 
CHAPTER ONE
"Father!"
The young girl tried to grab hold of something... anything as the ground shook beneath her. Those monsters were attacking the planet again... no, pillaging was more like it. They had come once more to rape Llyarius of its precious minerals, its food, its water. Would it ever end?
"Lorin! Over here!" called a man's voice, a familiar voice. The young girl ran towards it, hoping to find safety there as she had so often before. Her father would protect her... he always had.
Lorin found her father near the entrance to the underground bunker he had constructed when the attacks had begun years ago. For the past few months, when there had been no attacks, he had spent much of his time down there, working on something that no one was meant to see. Even with all of the explosions around her and the deadly laserblasts falling from the sky, Lorin couldn't help but feel a tinge of excitement and curiousity as she followed her father down into the ground. What could he have been working on, for all those months? What did he not want anyone to see? And then, there it was... a ship.
It was a small ship, to be sure, probably only big enough to hold two people, which was just right for Lorin and her father. Lorin's mother had died a cycle after Lorin had been born, and she had never gotten the opportunity to know her mother. For twelve cycles, it had been just Lorin and her father. And now, from the looks of this ship, it was going to be that way for a long while to come as well.
"Father! It's beautiful!" Lorin exclaimed. "Will it take us away from the attacks?"
"That's the plan, sweetheart," her father replied, putting his hand on her shoulder and squeezing it gently. 
"Where will we go?" Lorin wanted to know. "We could hide on Gramston's continent. The news service says the attackers hardly ever go there."
Lorin's father crouched down and looked her in the eye. "Loring, you know that there's nowhere on this planet that's truly safe from them. That's why we have to leave... and go up there."
Lorin eyes followed in the direction her father was pointing. "To the stars?" she asked in wonder.
"We can sneak past them," her father told her. "I salvaged the engine from one of our attack crusiers. Those things can go faster than light."
The wonder in Lorin's eyes disappeared, to be replaced with worry. "When are we leaving?" she asked. "Do I have time to say good-bye to Tomintha?"
The sound of a nearby explosion punctuated her question, and her father looked at her sadly. "I haven't seen Tomintha's family since the attacks began two rotations ago. I don't know where they are... and the longer we stay here, the greater the risk." He wiped a tear off her cheek and gazed into her purple eyes... purple, just like her mother's. "One of these days, when the attackers go, we might be able to come back. Right now, if we're going to survive, we have to go."
Lorin looked at her father and nodded. She knew that no matter how scared she was, her father needed her to be brave. He had always told her that before... and it was no more true than right now. 
"I have enough food and water to last us for a very long time," her father told her. "And I took some warm clothes in case we need them." He paused and checked his timepiece. "The attacks usually stop in a few moments," he noted. "Go get on the ship... I'll make sure everything is set to go out here."
Lorin nodded and ran up the short runway into the ship. It was much smaller on the inside than on the outside, but there would be enough room for her and her father to live. The enginges were in the back of the ship, along with the bathroom, and towards the front of the ship were the controls... with two chairs. Lorin smiled to herself. Her father was always thinking of her.
There was another explosion... this time it sounded like it was right on top of the bunker. Reflexively, Lorin threw herself down on the floor of the ship until the ground stopped shaking, and then carefully, she picked herself back up. A few seconds ago, she had heard her father walking around the ship, making sure it was ready to go. Now she heard nothing.
"Father?" she called quietly out the doorway. There was no response. "Father?"
She was just about to go looking for him when he pulled himself from underneath the ship.
"Don't EVER crawl underneath a spaceship right before a missle hits," Lorin's father told her with a smile. "Almost had a heart attack. Now, everything looks all set. Let's get out of here."
Lorin smiled back at her father and helped him close the hatch once he was inside the ship. They each took their seats at the front of the ship, and she watched as he powered up the engines.
"Father?" she asked, looking through the window at the bunker ceiling above them. "How are we going to get the ship out of here?"
Lorin's father smiled at her. "Simple, sweetheart. We're going to hang on tight."
He gunned the engines, and the ship flew forward... into the bunker wall and out the other side.
******************************************************
"Lorin, sweetheart, come on. It's time for first meal."
Lorin yawned as she kicked the blanket off of her and sat on the padded shelf her father had built for her bed. "I was dreaming of Llyrrais," she told her father. "Everyone was there, and the attacks had ended and everyone was so happy." She paused as her father gave her a Rankti fruit to eat. "How long do you think it'll be before we can go home again?"
Lorin's father sighed. It had been two weeks since they had left home, and this wasn't the first time Lorin had wanted to know when they'd be able to return. "I don't know, Lorin," he told her honestly. "It might not be for a few more weeks now." He didn't have the heart to tell her that there was a very strong possibilty that they would never be returning to Llyrrais. The attacks made the world too dangerous. If only they could make it to one of the colony worlds... life would be more difficult their because resources were so few, but that also meant that the attackers would be interested in their new home. But the nearest colony was still over a week away, and every rotation they were forced to hide the ship from the attackers. The ships were often more fierce than those piloting them... just their very shape suggested that they were built for battle. They almost looked like a laser gun, with the curved shape of the hull ended at a point at the front. And the thing that bothered Lorin's father the most was that the attackers hadn't even built these ships... they had taken them from a race who had treated them as slaves. As an engineer himself, Lorin's father couldn't conceive operating something that he hadn't had a hand in constructing.
While he had been thinking, Lorin's father hadn't noticed his daughter move to the front of the ship. She sat in her chair, eating the fruit that was her first meal, and looking out at the streaking stars around them. At first, Lorin hadn't liked the effect that faster than light travel had on the stars around them; the way they seemed to streak by so fast reminded her of how far she was getting from her home. Father had assured her that no matter how far away they went, they would one day return back home, and Lorin had been satisfied with that answer. However, both father and daughter were interrupted from their thoughts by an alarm going off... the proximity alarm.
"Attackers are approaching us," Lorin's father told her as he checked the sensors. "They're five hysins away. Is there anywhere we can hide the ship?"
Lorin checked her own computer console before replying, "What about this, Father? This area of space is sending out some strange signals... it might interfere with their sensors."
Lorin's father smiled with pride. "Perfect, sweetheart, absolutely perfect. They'll never think to look for us there." He flicked the switch to bring them out of warp... and as the ship slowed down, it suddenly lurched out of control.
"Father! What's happening?" Lorin cried as she was flung from her chair.
"Attackers! They snuck up on us, flew right into our sensor blindspot!" her father told her. The ship shook again. "They're shooting at us! Hang on, I'm going to try to get to our hiding spot!"
Lorin watched as her father inputted the coordinates for the strange area of space she had found, and she felt the ship turn ever so slightly. They were no longer moving fast enough that the stars were streaking, but every so often another kind of light streaked past them... laser fire.
"We're just a few moments away from our hiding space," her father told her. "Let's hope they lose track of us soon."
Another blast rocked the ship, suggesting that the attackers weren't going to give up so easily. Lorin was flung from her seat again towards the back of the ship. Her father turned to her, wanting to help her... but then there would be no one to pilot the ship to safety, no one to dodge all of the attackers' blasts.
In a split second, father's eyes met daughter's eyes... and then the console in front of Lorin's father exploded. He recoiled backwards at first, and then slumped forward onto the burning console. He wasn't moving.
"Father!" Lorin cried, picking herself off the deck and trying to get to her father's side as quickly as possible. She pulled her father away from the burning console and felt for a pulse... faint, but still there. Streaks of light flashed past the windows, and Lorin knew that the attackers were still following them. Her father wasn't fit to fly the ship to their hiding place... it was up to her. 
Lorin quickly sat in her chair and accessed the navigational controls. They were less than two moments away from their destination... if only she could avoid being hit before then. The ship was already beginning to weaken... she didn't know how much longer it could take.
Suddenly, the blasts stopped, and when Lorin looked, the attackers were no longer following them. "Good," she thought. "They can't find us. I'll just bring us in a little further, and then I can help Father."
That was the last thing on Lorin's mind before space suddenly went crazy.
CHAPTER TWO
Slowly, Lorin picked herself off the deck of the ship again. She was alive. Whatever that strange thing was that the ship had gone into... they had made it through... they were alive!
"We made it Father!" she exclaimed, rushing to her father's side. He too had been thrown from his chair when they had entered that thing, and he was lying face down on the ground. "Father! We escaped the attackers! We made it!" It didn't take Lorin long to notice that her father wasn't answering her. It was just a few seconds later that she realized her father wasn't breathing.
"Father! No!" she cried, tears rolling down her face as she slowly rolled him onto his back. The pulse was no longer there. No matter what she did, he just wouldn't respond. "Father, please," she begged him, her voice almost a whisper now, "don't leave me. Father, please don't leave me alone!"
She was crying so hard that she didn't notice the large ship approaching through the window.
******************************************************
Captain's log, stardate 31452.3- We have come across a small vessel in the Maxia Zata star system. The only person still living on the ship, a young girl, has been brought over to our sickbay for medical care. We have tractored the ship into our shuttlebay and are heading back towards Federation space.
Doctor Greyhorse looked up as the doors to sickbay opened. He looked at his visitor with subdued interest... another person would have most likely broken out into a large grin. "Captain... didn't expect to see you down here. I thought you weren't too fond of children."
Captain Jean-Luc Picard scowled at the CMO's remark. "I am just... uncomfortable around them," he replied. "However, when someone's been through everything that our young passenger has been through, I think it's only proper that I put my feelings aside. How is she?"
Greyhorse shook his head. "Well, I got her talking enough that the universal translator was able to figure out her language, but that hasn't really helped me all that much. She seems to be suffering from some kind of amnesia... all of her long-term memories have been affected. The only things she does remember happened within the last few days." His tone was dispassionate, but Greyhorse was anything but... Picard knew his CMO better than that.
Picard sighed. He could only imagine what it must be like for the young girl, to be alone, surrounded by strangers, and to have no idea where she came from... possibly not even who she was. "What have you learned from her?"
"Well, I can tell you a few things," Greyhorse replied. "Her name is Lorin. The man we found her with is her father. The last vivid memory she has is piloting the ship away from some attackers after her father was injured. Then, she says, space "went all weird" and when she woke up, she was here."
"It went all weird, did it?" Picard mused. "Well, it must have, considering that ship hadn't been there a minute before we detected it."
"Maybe she found her way into a wormhole," Greyhorse suggested, and then under Picard's stare added, "I do have SOME background in science, you know."
"Can I speak to her?" Picard asked. He needed to know more about her situation before he'd be able to help her... and he wanted to see for himself how the young girl was doing.
"She's awake, and she's willing to talk," Greyhorse replied, "but don't be expecting much. Until I can find out what caused her amnesia, I don't know how I'm going to get her memories back." He sighed in frustration. He wanted to do his job, but he just didn't have enough information yet. "I have her back here, Captain. Follow me."
Greyhorse led Picard into a secluded area of sickbay, where on a biobed lay the young girl they had rescued. She looked about twelve by Earth standards, tall and skinny with brown hair to the nape of her neck, very human looking. But when she opened her eyes and looked at Picard, he knew she definitely wasn't from Earth... she had a pair of purple eyes, the likes of which he had never seen before. 
Greyhorse chuckled slightly as Picard shifted uncomfortably, trying to figure out the right thing to say. Finally, he spat out a crisp, "Hello."
"Hello," the young girl replied. She looked at him, obviously expecting him to continue the conversaion.
Picard ran a hand over his balding head. It wasn't his fault that children made him so damn uncomfortable! He just never knew what to do around them, how to treat them. He took a breath and decided he was going to treat this one like an adult. "My name is Jean-Luc Picard," he told her, in a tone that attempted to be sweet. "I am the Captain of this vessel, the U.S.S. Stargazer. What's your name?"
"Lorin," the girl replied. She looked at him with those purple eyes again. "You're the captain?" she asked in wonder. "I never met a captain before."
"Lorin, I'm wondering if you can tell us how you ended up where you did," Picard told her. "We might be able to help you get home."
Lorin shook her head. "All I know is that we were trying to escape the attackers. Father and I found something in space that was sending off weird signals, and we thought that it might screw up their sensors. But they kept on shooting at us... and then the console exploded and Father fell on it... and then I had to pilot the ship myself...and then space went all weird...."
Picard watched as the girl fell apart in front of his eyes. It wasn't until she had reached the part about piloting the ship that he began shushing her gently. "Whoever your attackers were, you're safe now," he assured her. "I am sorry there was nothing we could do for your father." He looked at Greyhorse. "We tried everything we could." 
"He was a brave man," Lorin replied. "And that's what I have to be now... brave. I have to do it for him."
"Lorin, can you tell me what you meant by 'space going weird?'" Picard asked. "I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to say."
Lorin closed her eyes, trying hard to remember. "One second we were in normal space, getting further and further away from the attackers... and then it all changed. I could see all sorts of colors outside the windows... and time seemed to slow down... and then I was thrown on the ground... and then it all stopped."
Picard nodded. Greyhorse's previous assumption seemed to be correct: the ship had passed through a wormhole... but from where? "Lorin, I want to assure you that we are doing everything we can to figure out what happened, and that we will do everything we can to try to get you home again."
"Thank you, Captain," Lorin replied. "I'm glad I have you to watch over me."
Picard smiled slightly. "Rest now. I'll come back and check on you later." He slowly backed away and walked out of the room, Greyhorse following him.
"That wasn't so bad, what it, sir?" the doctor asked.
"Pure hell," Picard replied, "although I'm willing to wager it's nothing like what that girl is going through in there."
"Has Simenon found anything yet? Or is he just puttering around down there?"
Picard shook his head. Rule number one of dealing with Doctor Greyhorse and chief engineer Simenon: keep them out of the same room. "He's still going over the ship, trying to figure something out. He said he would let me know the instant he found something, and I do not feel like pushing him in this endeavor."
"Simenon to Captain Picard," a voice boomed over the comm. system. "Sir, I think I have something."
"On my way," Picard replied, and then turned back to Greyhorse. "Unless, of course, he's already found something."
******************************************************
"It took me a while, sir, but I did find something," chief engineer Simenon said. "Look at this, sir. Have you ever seen this before in your life?"
Picard shook his head. "Should I have?"
"Not in this area of space," the Gnalian told him, his dark red eye slits widening with excitement. "Captain, what we have here is an entirely new element... an element that does not exist in our known space."
"Then you're saying that this ship comes from outside our known space?" Picard asked.
"Yes, but it's not just because of the element, call it Picardium for now," he grinned at the Captain, showing off his sharp, lizard-like teeth. Picard smiled back slightly. "There's a lot of stress on this ship. Stress that's indicadive of passing through a wormhole."
Picard nodded. "I see you and Greyhorse have been sharing notes again."
"Sir?"
"Nothing, Chief," Picard replied with a laugh. "Please, continue."
"Well, sir, the stress on these hull plates is very intense... this was not a local phenomenum. If I had to guess, this ship traveled over seventy THOUSAND light-years in just the course of a few seconds."
Picard arched an eyebrow. "Seventy THOUSAND?" he repeated. "You can tell that just by the stress on the hull?"
"Well, that and the navigational charts I found in the ship's computer," Simenon replied with a grin. "It took me a while, but I finally managed to match them up. This ship is from the Delta Quadrant, sir. Exactly seventy-four point seven thousand light-years away."
Picard whistled. "Then that young girl in sickbay is over seventy years away from home at maximum warp."
"Yes sir," Simenon replied. "It's possible that the wormhole that brought her here is still out there, sir. If we headed back into Maxia Zeta and did some scans?"
Before Picard could answer, alarm sirens began to sound. And then, "Ben Zoma to Captain! Please report to the bridge!"
"I'm on my way," Picard replied, nodding towards Simenon. "Get back down to engineering. I don't like the sound of this."
"Aye sir," Simenon said.
And down in sickbay, a young girl was wondering why alarms were going off again... and if she really had escaped the attackers.
CHAPTER THREE
"Mother? Mom?"
Lorin stepped through the door to her house and called for her mother one more time. There was no response. "Good," she thought. She motioned behind her and a young man followed her inside. "She shouldn't be home for another few hours. That should be enough time, right?"
The young man, a human boy about seventeen years old, nodded. "So, where is it?" he asked.
Lorin grinned back. "Geez, you don't waste any time, do you? What's that old Earth saying, 'Wham, bam, thank you ma'am?'" She chuckled and took his hand. "Come on, Adam, follow me." She led him deeper into the house, paused outside a doorway, and then led him inside.
"Very nice," Adam told her, although just like before, his tone didn't give away any emotion. It usually didn't. Since the first time she met him, Lorin had wondered if Adam was actually a Vulcan who looked human. How could he be so stoic at a moment like this? "Shall we begin?"
Lorin looked at him. "Don't you at least want to... warm up first or something."
Adam shook his head. "It is not necessary for me."
"Well, it's necessary for me! I've never done this before!" Lorin protested.
"Very well," the young man replied. "Sit down. I will show you what to do." She sat down and he moved up behind her, his arms sliding underneath hers and his head looking over her shoulder. She took in a breath nervously. What if she did something wrong? What if she screwed up somehow? Her heart was beating so fast, she thought it might jump out of her chest, and she couldn't help but wonder if Adam had felt like this his first time. Probably not.
"Place your hands here, like this," Adam told her. She complied slowly, and then Adam said, "Now press down."
She did so, and the piano produced a chord, a C major chord. It was beautiful.
"Excellent," Adam told her, although yet again his voice lacked any real emotion. "Try it again, this time with your left hand as well. Put in on the keys, an octave below." Lorin did so, and the piano sounded two C chords. "Try a scale now. Start on C, and play one note right after the other."
Before Lorin could begin to play, a sound caught her attention. She paused and listened for it again... a voice, calling, "Lorin!"
Lorin swore under her breath and looked at Adam, raising her finger to her lips. She stood from the piano bench and led him over to a closet. "My mother doesn't like it when I invite people over without her knowing... especially when that someone is a guy," she whispered. "Stay in here. I'll get you out as soon as I can. If she sees you, I'm dead!" She closed the closet door and walked out of the room.
"Mom?" Lorin called. "Is that you?"
"How was your day?" was the response.
"Good, good," Lorin replied, following her mother's voice into the kitchen. "You're home early today."
"There wasn't much business at the market, so we shut down until tonight." Lorin's mother eyed her suspiciously. "Why are you home so early?"
"I had a lot of homework to do," Lorin answered. "Thought I'd get started on it right away."
"Homework on the piano?"
Lorin sighed. Her mother never missed a beat. "I was just fooling around a little." She looked at her mother. "Are you sure I can't start taking lessons?"
Her mother shook her head. "You don't have time for lessons, Lorin. You know that. If you don't keep your grades up, you'll never get into the Academy." She checked her chronometer. "All right, I'm going to take a shower and then I need to go to the store for dinner. I think you should start on your homework, if you have so much."
Lorin watched her mother leave the kitchen and head upstairs to her room. This was the perfect opportunity. She ran back to the music room... where she saw Adam waiting for her.
"I was wondering when you'd get back," he told her. "Can we continue now?"
Lorin almost slapped her hand to her forehead. "No," she said, "you have to go. Come on, my mother's upstairs." She heard the humming of the sonic shower begin. "We don't have much time."
"I do not understand why we can't continue the lesson," Adam told her as she dragged him from the room to the front door. 
"Because my mother doesn't know that you're here, and if she finds you here, I'm dead. That's why," Lorin told him pointedly. How could someone who saw things so coldly be so stupid? "I'll talk to you later, ok? Now go!"
After Adam was out of the house, Lorin sighed and leaned up against the front door. It was hard sometimes. Her mother was a stickler for the rules, and any violation of them resulted in harsh punishment. She knew her mother was only looking out for her, just as she had done for the last three years when she had adopted her, but sometimes things between them were just so... difficult. 
"Lorin McGowan!" she heard her mother yell, using both her given first name and her adopted last name. Lorin cringed... she only did that when she was really angry. Was it possible she had heard Adam leave? "Why are you in here? Get on your homework, young lady! Now!"
Lorin sighed and left the room, heading for her bedroom. Part of her wished that she hadn't told her mother she had so much homework to do... now her mother wouldn't believe it was all finished unless Lorin spent hours in her room... working. The truth was, Lorin only had a few assignments to do. But, like her mother had told her constantly, there was always a punishment for lying.
Lorin pulled out her history PADD and scanned the questions on it. Only three of them, and she just had to write a small essay for each one. This shouldn't take long... then her eye caught the last question. "Describe the first encounter between the Federation and the Ferengi Alliance."
The Stargazer rocked as the unknown vessel pounded it with phaser fire.