Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek TNG or any of its original characters.

A note to my readers- This is a huge departure for me, and I would not be expecting a chapter a week by any far stretch of the imagination. But I have written the first section of the story and I am curious what others think of it, or if I should continue. I think this is the hardest part for me to write, so if I got through this part okay, then I ought to be able to finish it, given enough time.

It is not an easy, totally fluffy story, and has some dark themes, so I rated it appropriately. It will not be everyone's cup of tea and it is necessary to get through this hard part to go forward. Feedback will be essential for me to get through this, because it is not easy to write. I will need to step away from time to time to keep my mind from going to a dark place.

Captain's Log- Supplemental

We remain in orbit around Galia Prime. The Ambassador and his staff are safely aboard the Enterprise, but it was not accomplished without cost.

Captain Picard kept a purposeful stride as he walked toward the quarters of his first officer. His first instinct had been to summon Commander Riker to the bridge, but he had thought twice about that. His Number One had been beating himself senseless for almost four days. He knew what torture these last few days had been for him and how he took all the responsibility on himself. The least he could do was relay this information to him in a more private setting.

Captain Picard hesitated outside his door. The truth was that if Commander Riker was going to blame anyone for the current situation, he should be blaming his captain. Riker had never wanted it. It was Jean Luc Picard who had insisted. Would Will finally now place the blame where it belonged?

The captain took a deep breath and pressed the chime on his first officer's door. For a long moment there was no answer.

"Come in," his first officers voice finally called and the doors slid open before him.

Jean Luc was struck to see his first officer. He had sent him off the bridge that morning, ordering him to get some rest. Clearly he had not. For the first twenty four hours, from the moment that the doctor had healed his scratches and scrapes, he had not left the bridge, as he and Data and Geordi had led the efforts to break through the planet's shielding and find any sign of their missing officer.

"Captain," Will Riker said rising from his chair as his commanding officer stepped inside his door. His uniform was wrinkled, his hair unkempt, but it was his eyes that showed his deep fatigue, both physical and emotional, the captain feared.

The Captain stood studying the man before him for a moment longer before he spoke. "We've found her, Will," he said simply. "She's outside the central city. Data is monitoring her life signs. She appears to be stable."

Commander Riker's eyes closed only for a moment, before he returned his gaze to his commanding officer. He swallowed hard, trying to control the emotion in his voice. "Is there a plan for retrieving her?" he asked.

"We're going to need to discuss that," the captain said. "Observation lounge, twenty minutes."

"Aye, Sir," Riker replied, still standing obediently before his captain. Jean Luc hesitated for a moment, allowing his first officer a moment to ask any other questions he may have had, but Riker remained stoically silent.

Jean Luc stepped forward and put a reassuring hand on his first officer's arm. "We WILL get her back, Number One."

Will only nodded in reply. He could not trust his voice, and his captain seemed to understand that. With a nod of his own, the captain turned and left.

The moment the doors closed Will sank back into his chair and resting his head on his folded arms on his desk. He could feel the tears begin to slip down his cheeks. In twenty minutes he would need to focus, to be the commanding officer that everyone in the room would expect, but for this moment, he simply let himself feel. She was alive, at least for now.

"Data, what have you found?" the captain asked as they began the meeting. Data stood and walked to the rooms main view screen activating it. A map appeared and Data began his briefing.

"To begin, I would like to remind all of us that the information from our sensor scans are very limited due to the planet's shielding technology. But this is what we have been able to determine." Data turned back to the map. "The life signs that we have identified as Counselor Troi are emanating from here, outside the central city. We believe this to be a less industrialized suburb, from what Ambassador Greer has been able to tell us," Data indicated the former Galian ambassador who sat alone at the far end of the table, "but the conditions and level of technology or weaponry is unknown. They seem to have taken her in the opposite direction from the embassy, which we originally believed would be the militant's destination of choice."

"This would lead us to believe that either they have no intention of negotiating for her return, or they do not realize who they hold," Worf chimed in from his seat at the table.

Data nodded in agreement.

"And we are sure this is her?" Riker asked. "I know the readings are limited. How sure are you that this is Deanna?"

"As you know, Commander, the bio readings for the Galians are too genetically similar to Human for us to distinguish through the shield grid. However, Betazoid DNA differs enough to be recognizable, even through the multi phasic shield harmonics. What we have found is Betazoid DNA. Dr. Crusher has also been able to distinguish it as female."

"But it may not even be Deanna," Will cautioned.

"Will," Dr. Crusher said reaching over from her chair and placing her hand on his arm. "We have no knowledge that there is any other Betazoid on the planet. It's female DNA and it's not a complete pattern, meaning that the person is likely not fully Betazoid. It's Deanna, Will. It's got to be."

"I agree with the doctor, Commander," Data spoke. "I believe it highly improbable under the circumstances that there would be another individual on this planet with these specific genetic markers."

"Is there a way to compare the read outs to the counselor's DNA profile in the computer?" the captain asked trying to ease his first officer's concerns.

"No," Dr. Crusher shook her head. "I already tried. There just isn't enough there. And what we do have has been scattered across the shield grid and then pieced back together by Commander Laforge. Captain, I am confident that this signature we have found IS Deanna Troi."

"I'm sure you are, Doctor. I just do not want to send a rescue party into harms way to chase a ghost." Captain Picard sighed as he looked around at his crew. Riker was not the only one looking warn. Beverly was barely containing her emotions any better. She was agitated, but Jean Luc knew her well enough to recognize fear when he saw it in her eyes. "Let's presume for the moment that this is in fact Counselor Troi," the captain continued as he turned back to Data. "How do we bring her home?"

"The original away team beamed into a seam between two shield generators, here," Data pointed again to the map. "I believe the theory was that the caverns below the surface, where the ambassador and his staff were being held, would serve as a shield in and of itself. However, as soon as the transport was complete, the Galian militants began to adjust the shield harmonics to cover the gap that had been left."

"They reacted faster than we thought," Geordi interjected. "We were lucky to be able to beam back through the seam at all, and we were barely able to contain the transporter beam to be able to get the last of the original group off the surface."

"We didn't get the last of the original group." Riker said tersely to the chief engineer with a glare.

Geordi immediately regretted what he had said. "No, Sir. We didn't." Geordi hung his head, in apology.

Data continued. "The reconfiguration has left another gap. It is located here," Data indicated a spot on the opposite side of the central city from Deanna's location.

"Traveling through the central city would be suicide," Ambassador Greer spoke for the first time since the meeting began.

"I can alter the crew's appearance to allow them to blend in," Dr. Crusher offered.

"I don't care what you do to them. They won't make it. The militia has set up checkpoints all over the city. You might fool one or two, but not the ten or twelve that you would have to pass through." The ambassador was terse. No one could blame him after the last few months of being caught on a planet erupting in civil war.

"The ambassador indicated that this may be a problem," Data continued. "To avoid the vast majority of check points, the safer rout would be to beam in here, and then take a rout around the perimeter of the city, like this." Data showed the group the path.

"That would take them through the mountains," the captain commented.

"Yes, Sir," Data acknowledged. "I would also recommend that no more than one person be sent through the seam. It is possible that one transport pattern would go undetected. More than one is sure to alert the type of security scrutiny we wish to avoid."

"How long would it take from transport in to Deanna's location?" Riker asked anxiously.

"Approximately two and a half days on foot," Data told him.

Riker felt his stomach sink. "Data," he said. "She has been down there nearly four days already. There has to be a better way to get to her."

"Once she has been located, we can equip the recovery officer with a transport beacon that we will configure to penetrate the shield harmonics and we will be able to beam up through the shielding. It will alert all of their security sensors, but once the counselor is safely recovered, we could be out of orbit in a matter of moments. There would be virtually no threat from their planetary weapon systems."

"They clearly have been unable to detect our presence from our current orbit," Worf added.

"I would agree," the captain said. "Geordi, how long before the transport beacon would be calibrated?"

"I could have it ready in…six hours."

"Doctor," the captain turned his attention to the doctor. "Could you adapt Commander Data to appear as much like a Galian as possible?"

Dr. Crusher nodded.

"Captain," Riker interrupted impatiently. "I want to be the one to go," he said plainly.

The captain hesitated.

"Data would be much more helpful here on the ship helping calibrate the transporter matrix through the shield grid," Riker tried to justify his actions.

"Number One," the captain began. Will knew what he was going to tell him, that they would talk about this privately.

"It was my away team, Sir. It should be me. I left her there."

"You made a command decision," the captain tried to diswage his guilt.

"I want the opportunity to fix it, Sir. I want to bring her home and have it be alright. Please give me that chance."

The former Galian ambassador spoke again. "No offence, Commander, But she is not alright. Let's not kid ourselves. If she is in this town, she is being held by Galian civilians. The militants may have seen a political advantage to her, but I am not sure that those patrolling the caverns were more than neighborhood thugs. If she is with civilians she is no more than any other female to them. Property to be sold or bartered at will. I have watched this society deteriorate over the last two years into religious fanatics and power hungry heretics. The fact that they are pulling away from space exploration and becoming xenophobic has to be viewed as a benefit to the rest of the sector. They are not ready for the idea of space travel. It would have been better for them had they never achieved warp drive."

The ambassador sounded more bitter with each word. He looked up to see the shocked faces of the Enterprise crew. "Forgive me, Captain. I want you to recover your lost officer. I do. But I want you to understand what she has most likely been through in the last ninety-four hours. This is not the planet that the federation established diplomatic relations with fifteen years ago. They were mainly well educated, experiencing a type of technological renaissance. In the last few years, the rich and powerful have only increased their power and driven the rest into abject poverty. The female population has been forbidden to be educated. They have literally been driven from society. I, for one, am glad to be off the damned rock. But your ship's counselor should never have been there at all."

"She was there to afford us the very best opportunity to rescue you and your staff, in the impossibly small time window that we were given, Ambassador," the captain spoke forcefully, rising from his chair.

"I don't think you understand, Captain, the gravity of the situation for her. In the last year I have seen a young woman, no older than fifteen who dared go to the market without a male family member to escort her. Her father cut off her right hand with a sword. Then he branded her skin with a vulgar sign to show the rest of the community that she was disobedient. Three months ago, we had a woman about the same age as your officer come to the embassy begging for sanctuary. She had attempted to escape a marriage she never consented to. When she was caught with no male escort, she was dragged home. Do you know what her punishment was? She was gang raped by her husband and every male member of his family, including her own thirteen-year-old son. If your counselor was found by civilians in those caverns, with no male family to claim her, she will have been traded like no more than a stock animal and treated no better. Being held as a political prisoner, in this case, was the more civilized alternative. The militia does not extend often to the region that you have indicated. I'm sorry for what that means for her."

His words rang through the room. Each member of the senior staff letting the words he spoke and the truth that they carried affect them in their own way.

The captain's heart raced and he tried to slow his ever growing more labored breathing. To his right, his first officer sat with his head bowed, his eyes shut tight as if he could somehow close out the meaning of the ambassador's words. His jaw was clenched and his hands were in fists resting on the table. Captain Picard knew at that moment that certainly on his ship, perhaps in the entire universe, there was no one more determined to bring Deanna Troi back safely than was his first officer. As a captain, he was not sure it was the right choice, but as a man, he knew he owed his friend this much.

"Doctor," he said softly. "Take Commander Riker to sickbay. Alter his appearance in any way necessary."

Dr. Crusher looked back at her captain, slightly taken aback by his change in position, but nodded nonetheless.

"Captain," Data spoke again, returning to the table to sit with the rest of the staff. "The ambassador does bring up an ethical dilemma."

"What is that, Data?" Riker asked puzzled.

"If Commander Riker were to locate the counselor and simply activate the transport beacon, the militia will have the exact location of the penetration in the shields."

"If the militia can identify a village, they will assume that they were sympathizers. They won't ask questions. It will be a blanket massacre," the ambassador confirmed.

"What difference will that make to us?" Worf asked.

"Lieutenant," Data said turning to Worf. "However we may disagree, if these are civilians holding Counselor Troi, they are acting as their culture and society would deem appropriate. To allow innocent civilians including unnumbered women and children to be executed…"

"It would not be revenge, Worf," the captain spoke quietly from his seat.

The room was silent for a moment.

"If I got out far enough, back into the hills," Will offered. "Before activating the beacon."

The captain nodded his agreement.

"Not too far into the hills, Commander," Geordi warned. "The same iridium deposits in the rock that kept us from transporting through the rock of the caverns could be in areas of those hills. It would disable the beacon."

"You will have to go in as family," the ambassador offered. "A husband she ran away from…something. You will have to have some claim on her."

Will nodded his understanding.

"You will be asked to identify her, prove that you are who you say you are. Does she have any distinguishing marks, perhaps, something he could use to claim ownership of her?" The question was directed to Dr. Crusher, but Riker stepped in to answer.

"Yes. It won't be a problem." The simple statement stopped everyone in the room. It was the stark reminder that the woman he was about to try to rescue was more than a colleague, more than a friend. She was more than any of that. She had been much much more than that.

"Could you pull off being a brother?" the ambassador asked.

"Why?" Will asked concerned.

"If you are her husband, you will be expected to punish her, claim her." The sentence died in the still air. Will looked away from the ambassador, unwilling to share his reaction to his words.

"You had better play the part Commander, or they will execute you for stealing their property and none of you will ever see her again. She will disappear. No amount of sensors will find her again." His words were a challenge. It was clear that he hated everything about the place he had just been rescued from and that he doubted that anyone in the room had the stomach to do what would be necessary to get their colleague back.

Will Riker swallowed hard against the bile he felt raising in his throat. "I'll do what I have to do."

"Even after you identify her, they may insist on you buying her back, especially if she has already changed hands from those that originally captured her."

"We can make sure he has an appropriate currency," the captain added.

"They won't let you have her the day you identify her. You will have to stay in the village for the night and retrieve her the next morning. It is the custom. You can't even buy a book and take it the same day. You certainly can't do it with a person."

Will sighed heavily fighting the tossing of his own stomach. "So even after I find her, we will have to stay another day?"

"You won't have her with you. You will need to leave her behind."

"What?" Will asked. "For them to do whatever they want with?"

"It is to show that you find them honorable. You pay and then show your trust by walking away. It is what is done."

"I DON'T trust them!" Will bellowed

"And they are most certainly NOT honorable!" Worf added.

"Go in with that attitude and you'll never make it out of the neighborhood, Commander." The ambassador stood from his chair. "I know that you don't like what I'm telling you," he told the group. "I don't like it myself. I am sorry for what has undoubtedly happened to your friend. I am only telling you what I can to help in the only way I can in the effort to retrieve her from hell."

"We are grateful for the assistance, Ambassador. Even if it is not what we want to hear. Thank you," the captain told him, rising from his own chair and standing while the ambassador walked out of the room. When the doors had closed behind him, Jean Luc Picard sank back into his chair and looked at the faces of his crew. "Is there any other way, Data?" he asked desperately.

"Not that we have devised, Sir."

Jean Luc dreaded looking over into the eyes of his first officer, but he found that Will's gaze met his with fierce determination. "Six hours," he said with a nod and the senior staff was off. The only two who did not move were the captain and his first officer.

They sat and waited for the room to empty. "Are you sure, Number One?"

"Yes Sir."

"Will,"

"I can do this, Captain. I need to bring her home."

"None of this is your fault, Number One. These are the risks that we all assume…"

"Captain," Will Riker interrupted him. "No one assumes the risk of what she is going through. And I was in command of the away team. If it's not my fault then whose is it? Hers?"

"Mine," Jean Luc said quickly. "The ambassador was right, as were you. I should not have asked her to beam down to a planet that I knew was so hostile to women. You were right, Number One. I was wrong, and she has paid for my decision." The captain paused and looked out the portholes at the planet below. "We will keep an open Comm. link with you as long as we can. The shield may interfere."

"I understand."

"Dismissed," the captain nodded to him as he turned to leave. He knew that he had to let Will do this, and in these particular circumstances, he may be better suited than anyone else on board, but he couldn't rid himself of the feeling that the Deanna that Will was risking his life to find would never be the same Deanna Troi that Jean Luc had sent on the away mission four days earlier.