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Published in 1993 by Orion Press, this Riker-centric novella by Gail Christison was originally intended as a short story for the zine TANTALUS 5. The cover artwork is by BEKi (as you can tell!) and the interior artwork is by Margaret O'Quinn. As the publisher notes, this story submitted to TANTALUS 5 caught her eye, but…

“When Gail Christison first sent me her story, I intended to publish it in TANTALUS 5. It struck me immediately as classic hurt/comfort, the kind made popular in Classic Star Trek fanzines, the kind of hurt/comfort that literally drags our beloved Trek characters through pain and suffering and teaches them how to doubly appreciate the friendships they have heretofore taken for granted. Only this time it featured Star Trek: The Next Generation characters, specifically Picard and Riker. Perfect for TANTALUS, I thought, immediately accepted the story and then turned it over to my assistant editor on that issue, BEKi, for editing.

“BEKi liked the story as much as I did, but in the process of detailed editing found some holes in the plot, nothing that couldn’t be fixed, but things that did need fixing. She made suggestions, some of which Gail liked, some of which she didn’t. But through the sometimes painful process of editing and compromising, Gail adopted some of BEKi’s suggestions, rejected some others and came up with some alternative methods of fixing the other problems that she felt were more true to her original vision for this story. Her story. Her prerogative.

“As a result of the process, painful as it may be (and believe me, Gail, I know exactly how painful, as I’ve been through it myself from your end), we ended up with a story that was even better than the original version. And not only was it better, but it was longer, too.

“In fact, A Fine Line ended up so good and sufficiently long that we decided to pull it from TANTALUS 5 and publish it separately as a novella. After all, that’s what it ended up being, both in length and in scope, as well as in strength.

“If you like hurt/comfort (h/c, but not slash) in the grand old tradition of Trek fanzines but want to see it applied to Star Trek: The Next Generation, then this story is for you. If you like the characters of Jean-Luc Picard and/or William T. Riker and especially want to see their friendship with each other more thoroughly explored, then this is for you. If you like to slowly peel back the protective layers of a character’s personality to discover both the strenghts (sic) and weaknesses underneath, then this is for you.

“Get ready for a good, old-fashioned wallow. I think you’ll enjoy it. I know I did.”

—Ann Lewen

…And this is one damn good novella.

Obviously I’m biased! Let me get that out of the way! Riker is my favorite character on TNG, and hurt/comfort is my favorite fanfic genre. If you check my AO3 you’ll find 55 TNG fics, and probably 53 of them are Riker-centric, with a good portion of those being hurt/comfort or whump.

This whole novella is just one long Riker whumpfest, with some pitch-perfect dialogue, great character moments for Picard and Riker, and a bit of plot along the way. It would be an exceedingly rare gem to find on AO3 today, the sort of fic you clutch to your chest, download immediately, and rec to everyone you know. In fact, I meant to save this zine for after I finished the Garashir zine on my list, but once I read the opening lines I was hooked.

(What are the ethics of scanning this fic, or transcribing it?? I run into this little dilemma every week when I do my fic reviews, but especially now. A quick google shows me the author remained active at least until the early 2000s, writing Buffy/Giles fanfic — a woman after my own heart. But is she still active? Has she decided not to post this fic for a reason? Augh! If you’d like a copy you can get it for $4 from Jim and Melody Rondeau, they have a website where they sell zines, used and new, for cheap).

So, what’s the premise? This is a gen novella featuring Riker & Picard’s friendship, set sometime around Season 5 (after Odan, and after Malcor III, if you’re a Riker-whump aficionado). A Federation science team conducting a mineral survey discovers a peaceful Klingonoid settlement, makes friends with them … and then mysteriously goes missing. Normally Picard would send Riker and Worf to investigate, since they’re both tall, menacing, competent, and high-ranking. But Worf is away visiting Alexander, so Picard decides this is one of the rare occasions where the captain must go on an away team — anything less would be an insult to the Kesagj species below.

A brief description of the plot would be that Riker and Picard are betrayed; Riker is grievously injured by a wild beast; Romulans are secretly involved; and Worf saves the day. But a more juicy plot description follows!

We start off with Riker and Picard on the Enterprise’s racquetball court, dressed in unflattering padded onesies (this is not a slash fic). It sounds dull in summary, but I actually really enjoyed the description of their matches — Picard is an old hand, with lots of finesse and an understanding of strategy; Riker is a quick learner, much taller, and much stronger, and he can brute-force his way to winning the first game. A great, quick little way to introduce the characters, show their chemistry, and highlight each one’s strengths and weaknesses.

After 12 matches (good God, I wouldn’t have the stamina for one), they head for Riker’s quarters (this is not a slash fic) while discussing the missing science team. In “Encounter at Farpoint” we see that Riker is hired — maybe solely — because he refuses to let his CO risk his life on away teams. It’s a tense moment between them, but Picard’s rank overwhelms, and Riker is forced to accept that it’ll just be him and Picard planet-side.

The planet, Kesadj (?), is mostly wilderness. The Kesagjs here are peaceful and have renounced war, but they still value size, strength, and the hunt. You see, they were exiled from the Klingon Empire generations ago for their peaceful ways, and now they’re stuck on this backwater planet.

When they beam down, Riker takes point and cuts his way through the jungle, working himself to exhaustion before he and Picard even arrive at the village (why they weren’t beamed down closer, I don’t remember). The leader of the village sizes them up, assuming Riker is the leader, but Riker stubbornly affirms Picard’s rank (another part I liked!).

They sit down to eat dinner with the village leader ToSghai and his family, and it becomes clear that ToSghai suspects his fellow villagers — he thinks they had something to do with the missing science team. And he was quite fond of one of the Human scientists, while his wife was quite fond of the Klingon scientist, so they desperately want to find these people.

At the end of dinner, Riker automatically collects dishes, while Picard notices that only the wife is working and stays still. ToSghai tosses Riker a contemptuous look, but Riker, when he realizes his mistake, just defiantly collects the rest of the dirty dishes and joins the wife in the kitchen — where she bursts out laughing. She explains that it’s not a cultural thing for wives to do the kitchen work. It’s just that her husband is kind of a dick, and Riker just showed him up in his house.

As they explore the village, Picard and Riker meet a young Kesagj named Lonahk, an arrogant kid-warrior who clearly doesn’t like having more Humans in his midst. Riker is a natural among Klingons and rises to the challenge, agreeing to a ritual dual, with a tall, beautiful Kesagj warrior as his second. This warrior, BeshKai, appears to be friends with Lonahk, but they have an antagonistic relationship, and she’s heavily scarred from her own duel with Lonahk. Picard is aghast at Riker, but Riker cheerfully explains that whether he wins or loses — most likely loses — he’ll still win the Klingons’ respect. He promises not to get injured (lol).

So what do Klingons wear during battle? No shirt. A speedo. Assless chaps. (This is not a slash fic).

Riker changes into the appropriate clothes and shows off to an exasperated Picard — when I first got this zine, I flipped through, saw this illustration, and IMMEDIATELY got the wrong idea. I mentally slotted this zine into a certain category of fanfic — a little too silly to be in-character, I suppose. But God was I wrong.

The duel scene is tense, tautly written. Lonahk throws Riker to the floor almost immediately and gloats about it … but Riker springs back up and throws Lonahk with an aikido move, and suddenly both of them are serious. For the next five minutes, they circle each other, striking glancing blows, both of them managing to dodge or block anything that would be too damaging. Five minutes is a long time to fight, especially when one fighter is a teenager and the other is 30+, but Lonahk is still going strong, while Riker is winded, battered, and bruised. Picard, though, is relieved that it’s almost over…

…until the two opponents break apart and grab longswords.

Now Picard is sweating. He and Riker fence from time to time, and Riker is an ungraceful fencer. But longswords are different — brute strength and speed are fine. Riker holds his own, but visibly, he’s flagging, even favoring one leg heavily. He gets a few good blows in and uses the handle of his sword to knock Lonahk to the ground, and Lonahk quickly lays his sword across his palms — not surrendering! Just requesting to change weapons again.

Riker allows it, and Lonahk selects the delicate, sharply curved blade of the bat’leth. Picard is alarmed. These weapons look especially deadly, but they don’t seem designed for fierce, long-term combat. He’s proven right when Riker’s blade shatters as he tries to block a swing. Riker is forced to his knees with Lonahk’s bat’leth at his throat, and all Riker can do is hold onto Lonahk’s arms and try to keep the blade away. Picard puts a hand on his phaser, holding his breath, and just as he’s about to intervene, Riker gains some traction and kicks Lonahk in the groin. From there it’s a quick, tough victory for Riker.

ToSghai notes that Picard didn’t intervene — would he have let his man die?

“He was never in any danger,” Picard bluffs. “Riker was being gentle with Lonahk. We humans do not brutalize our children; we only teach them a little respect.”

ToSghai is impressed. Meanwhile, Riker helps Lonahk to his feet with a grin and a “good game”, and Lonahk shyly asks if Riker will still drink with him after such a dishonorable defeat. Riker warmly agrees, and fucks off for the rest of the day, leaving Picard to grumpily sort through files left behind by the science team.

(Worth noting: ToSghai had these files all along but made no mention of them until he had the opportunity to watch Picard and Riker during the duel. Both of them proved themselves honorable in his eyes.)

There’s a very sweet scene here, pitch-perfect character voices, when Riker stumbles home after a long day of Klingon partying. Picard lightly chides him for having fun all day while there was real work to be done … but his eyes slide down to Riker’s bruised, skinned torso, betraying his concern. Riker admits he’s sore, but promises the hangover will be worse than his wounds. At the same time Riker notes that Picard called him “Number One”, quietly reminding him that this is a mission, that they are captain and first officer, not friends. He sits down at Picard’s side and puts his feet up, determined to listen to what Picard has found (not much — no clues to why the science team might have left, or enemies they made). But Riker is quickly lulled half to sleep by Picard’s voice.

Picard looked up and saw Riker seemingly almost asleep in the chair. “Go to bed, Number One,” he ordered good naturedly. “You’re out on your feet.”

Riker’s sleepy eyes moved whimsically to the size twelves propped up on ToSghai’s footstool, and an eyebrow raised itself lazily.

Unfortunately for Picard, when he wakes up, everything has changed. He’s so sore he feels like he came down with the flu overnight — he’s dressed in Klingon hunting clothes — his communicator, tricorder, and phaser are all gone, replacing with a sharp knife and a canteen — and worst of all, he’s in the middle of the wild forest. Picard surmises he must have been stunned, on a high setting and with an antique device, since he’s so achey. He locates an unconscious Riker nearby — also re-dressed — and wakes him. If Picard is sore, Riker must be ten times so, since he still hasn’t healed from his tough fight. They quickly realize that whoever re-dressed them and dumped them here must have done the same to the science team.

Why? Perhaps as punishment; perhaps as humiliation; perhaps something else entirely. They know the science team’s leader, Daley, was a pacifist who refused to join the local hunt. Maybe Picard and Riker have been found similarly unworthy, and this is the standard punishment … but they both sense it’s something more than that. Together, they beat a wide path through the wilderness in increasingly-large circles, until they stumble across a clearing an hour later.

Picard, exhausted, is no woodsman. He collapses on a nearby boulder to rest while Riker paces the clearing to cool down. Riker has the naturally quiet step of a hunter; Picard not so much. He makes a little bit of noise while he’s resting — I can’t remember if it’s opening his canteen or unsheathing his knife — but either way, it draws the attention of a monstrous beast, an hongerat.

Shaped like a Klingon bear, the hongerat charges Picard. He doesn’t have time to attack or defend; he’s just lucky that Riker is already on his feet. Riker manages to get between Picard and the hongerat just in time, taking the full force of the attack and knocking Picard away. As he struggles with the hongerat, it’s Picard who rescues him — he makes himself large and screams in an attempt to drive the hongerat off, but all he manages to do is make it pause its attack. That’s enough. In that pause, Picard takes his knife and plunges it deep in the hongerat’s eye.

He doesn’t stick around to see what happens. Picard sensibly removes his knife so he doesn’t lose his one weapon and hauls Riker to his feet, cajoling, threatening, dragging, and forcing Riker to run. There’s no telling how far or for how long they run — it’s a frantic flight with no sense of time or direction. Picard is desperate to put space between them and the hongerat before it regains its senses; he bullies Riker along the whole way until finally, Riker slumps to his knees.

Only then does Picard realize that his hand — where he was holding onto Riker’s shirt — is wet with blood. He removes the shreds of Riker’s clothing and discovers that his back has been absolutely torn apart by the hongerat’s razor-sharp claws. What was already a grievous wound has been turned into near-fatal blood loss by their race through the woods.

Delicious!

At this point I had no idea that the hurt/comfort was just going to get better and better. Picard uses water from his canteen to wash Riker’s wounds while he’s unconscious. He takes off his own shirt and uses it as a bandage, mostly to keep forest debris from getting into all those lacerations. After an hour, Riker stirs, still pale and extremely out-of-it, and Picard urges him to get up — they have to keep moving! — but Riker quickly discovers he’s too weak to walk. Although Riker gives no indication of shame, Picard seems to sense this might be a delicate subject, and so he’s very kind and matter-of-fact about it; he doesn’t question Riker’s assessment, he just presses a hunting knife into his hands and commands him to stay awake while Picard searches for shelter.

Riker agrees, twice, to stay awake … and falls unconscious as soon as Picard leaves the clearing.

Not far away, Picard discovers a primitive shelter, a hut, possibly one made in years past by a hunting team. He clears it of snakes and bugs and starts the laborious process of moving Riker there, step-by-step. Riker’s pain is on full display, but with a great old-school dignity that’s hard to find in hurt/comfort fics these days — no crying, no noises, just paleness, trembling, and a ragged good humor. He leans heavily on Picard and has to stop a few times when the pain and nausea become too great, but finally, they make it to the hut.

There’s a scene here I particularly liked. Look, I know it’s not rational to be afraid of spiders. I actually used to love them; I remember the moment my brain twisted. I was a kid, letting a friendly spider crawl over my knuckles, and I thought to myself, “Can you believe some people are afraid of these?” Then a lightswitch flipped and I thought, “Oh God, I’m afraid of these!!” I’ve had a visceral “OH SHIT OH GOD” reaction to spiders ever since. To combat it I’ve, for years, been following spider photography accounts online and even got into insect taxidermy, forcing myself to handle spiders on the reg. It hasn’t helped.

…This is a common fear but I rarely see it in the characters I like. Heights, yes. Snakes, sure. But spiders? (side-eyeing Ron Weasley). So I was inordinately pleased when Riker makes a quip about the hut, hoping Picard has cleared it of spiders. And even though it’s meant as a joke, Picard waits until Riker falls asleep and then takes it seriously, searching the hut to make sure it’s spider-free!

(It’s a great, cute display of their friendship — there’s no real indication that Riker is serious, but Picard still treats it as a real request. And to add an additional layer of dignity, he waits until Riker is unconscious to show it.)

Picard’s next scene is a frankly flat and not-very-interesting back-and-forth narrative as he struggles to find food and water (he does so, just fine, with no injuries). Meanwhile, Worf has returned to the Enterprise and is playing a Klingon board game with Geordi when he notices Deanna Troi across the room — she turns pale as she suddenly senses Riker’s pain. Rushing to the bridge, Troi informs Commander Data that Riker is in trouble, and Data obediently beams the first officer and Captain Picard back aboard.

But only their communicators return.

Clearly, something is up. Data assembles an away team: Worf, Geordi, Deanna, and any security team members they want. He sends them planet-side to track down Riker and Picard before it’s too late (but Deanna has lost her sense of Riker and is already half-certain he’s dead).

In the hut, Picard discovers that Riker’s wounds have already become infected, and he’s sporting an awful fever. There’s a lovingly rendered traditional hurt/comfort scene where Picard wets his shirt in a creek and tosses it to Riker so he can wash the blood and sweat away. But Picard quickly realizes Riker is too weak to even wipe his face, so he handles it for him, brisk and professional, while Riker tries to swallow his embarrassment.

Delicious, delicious!

Another great moment sees Riker and Picard trapped in their hut while wild animals scream and howl outside, getting closer and closer. Picard knows that if they come close enough to smell Riker’s blood, it’s all over. He has to lead them away; he leaves Riker upright, with a knife in his hand, and then he disappears into the wilderness. Addled by fever and exhaustion, Riker stays behind, distressed by his own weakness and his inability to protect Picard. He struggles to stay conscious and lucid, only to lose the fight. A shadow falls over his face sometimes later and he cries out in fear, only to realize it’s Picard, who’s returned ragged and a little bloodied (not from an encounter with hongerats; from falling out of a tree).

At another point, Picard leaves the hut (I think searching for more food), and when he returns, he finds the hut smashed to pieces and Riker dragged away. He follows a trail of fresh blood and strangely familiar footprints, but eventually the trail goes cold. Picard realizes these footprints belong to Romulans — he recognizes the pattern on the sole!

MEANWHILE

Our away team (Worf, Geordi, and Deanna) speak to the village leader and determine he’s just as worried about Picard and Riker as they are — plus incensed, because Picard and Riker were kidnapped directly from his home! He tells them how his men found Picard’s and Riker’s Starfleet uniforms the day after they went missing, and at first, they all assumed the officers must have changed clothes willingly and gone out into the wilderness. But the leader quickly changed his mind, and suspects Picard and Riker have run afoul of something strange.

Remember those combadges that were beamed up? Geordi traces the coordinates to a house in the village — a house belonging to BeshKai, the beautiful, scarred Klingon woman who served as Riker’s second in his duel.

Inside, there’s furniture, but no personal effects at all — not even toiletries in the bathroom. And BeshKai catches them there, her emotions laid bare to Deanna: she’s concerned for Riker! She truly doesn’t know how the combadges got into her house! But she’s also hiding something. Quickly, they discover that she’s been having a secret affair with the village leader, but Deanna suspects this is just a red herring.

Back in the woods, Picard is found by a search party — the village leader ToSghai and young Lonahk, who’s very concerned about his new friend Riker. But when Picard points out the Romulan bootprints, Lonahk attacks ToSghai from behind, knocking him out, and takes Picard hostage. Lonahk isn’t satisfied being exiled to this wild planet; he wants to return to his homeworld, and the Romulans have promised him passage on their ship. All he has to do is deliver the science team, and now Picard. He had hoped to spare Riker, but…

Onboard the Romulan “ship”, Picard is taken to a cell. He immediately knows it’s not really a ship. There’s no hum of the engines, no sense of movement; it’s totally stationary. But young Lonahk wouldn’t know that. Picard demands to know what happened to Will; his jailers acquiesce.

They lead Picard to a torture chamber where Riker is hooked up to a machine, his wounds untended. Tomalak is there, and he explains the device: a sort of innovated Klingon mind-sifter, sleek and new. It has the power to search through Riker’s memories and put them on display for his torturer, so Tomalak can slowly twist them into nightmares. And Riker will come away believing all these twisted memories actually happened.

Tomalak gives a demonstration. He calls up Riker’s memory of Tasha Yar’s death. At first, it plays just like canon. But it replays over and over again, subtly changing a little more every time. Finally, as Picard watches, the memory totally morphs to show Riker, not Armus, killing Tasha. The whole time Riker is convulsing from the pain, both mental and physical, of this change.

Tomalak has already been torturing Riker for a while, he admits. He wants info on how Riker defeated the Borg when Picard became Locutus; he’s certain Picard must have guided him from afar, and he can’t accept the real explanation that he’s found in Riker’s memories. Picard says Riker would never give up any information to the enemy — he’s a Starfleet officer! — but Tomalak demonstrated that with the mind-sifter, Riker has no choice.

Riker’s painful memories of Locutus swim to the surface, and the torture begins again. Tomalak calls up Riker’s anbo-jytsu match with Kyle Riker in S2, and changes it to show Will killing his own father. Next up is Will’s memory of being caught in a fireplant, which stripped off the top layer of muscle on his calf in real life. In Tomalak’s version, no help comes for Riker, and the fireplant slowly consumes his entire body in a meticulously painful, acidic process.

This is where Picard steps in. He gets into the torture chamber with Riker and discovers a transmitter stuck in Riker’s neck; he rips this out and shakes Riker awake, trying to drag him back to reality. There’s a great hurt/comfort scene of Picard comforting Riker — holding him, assuring him he didn’t kill Tasha. Riker doesn’t seem to believe him, but he luckily slips into unconsciousness just as Tomalak intervenes.

Picard successfully convinces Tomalak to care for Riker’s wounds, at least minimally, before going on. Shortly after Riker is stabilized, Worf barges into the room and takes Tomalak out — with help from the villagers and BeshKai, the away team was able to locate Picard. And like Picard thought, they’re not on a ship — they’re in a bunker 5km underground.

To clear up some loose ends: Lonahk was deceived; he thought he could get out of here, on a Romulan ship, but instead he found himself trapped in the bunker. BeshKai was also convinced to go — that’s why she had no belongings, no toiletries. She’d already packed and given Lonahk her things!

Worf carries Riker out of the torture chamber, and is beamed up to the Enterprise. There’s a cute scene with Data and Picard on the bridge, where Data asks if it would be okay to check on Riker periodically and make sure he’s healing. Later, Beverly calls Deanna to tell her Riker is stable, and while he’s unconscious, he might like it if Deanna comes down and stays by his side… even though it’s after hours.

But before Deanna gets there, Picard pays Beverly a visit. He claims he’s just there to get some lacerations seen to — his ass got scraped up pretty bad on one of his food-scavenging trips. Obviously, the sensitive location of the scrapes means only the CMO can see him… Beverly reluctantly agrees to this and opens the ward for Picard, who makes a beeline for Riker, and Beverly scolds him for shamelessly manipulating her XD

Now, at this point, Beverly doesn’t fully know what happened to Riker. She’s noticed some neurological damage and asks Picard about it. He gives her a quiet, solemn rundown of the torture Riker experienced, and sometime in the middle of this, Riker wakes up and listens in. He eventually cracks a quiet, weak joke about needing a vacation, and Beverly leaves Riker and Picard alone.

“I really am all right, sir,” Riker insisted, watching the frown between Picard’s brows. “Beverly’s right. I’ll be up and about in no time.”

“Good to hear, Number One. I’ve been meaning to ask you about a rematch on the racquetball court…”

“Not that up and about, sir,” Riker grumbled mock-sufferingly.

“Whenever you’re up to it,” Picard agreed blandly. He knew that the commander’s physicall problems would be over in a relatively short time. But the other…

“Next year, maybe,” Riker cracked. He ran a hand over his pale face as the captain opened his mouth to respond. Picard didn’t miss the tremor in it.

“Care to talk about it?” he asked quietly.

“I really am all right,” Riker repeated, ignoring the question.

“I was there, Will,” Picard reminded him.

Riker shook his head. It appeared more a gesture of denial than anything else. “I don’t remember much.”

“Do you remember Armus?”

“No.”

But the horror in Riker’s eyes told Picard what he needed to know.

Picard glanced at the neural analyzer. The pattern had changed markedly. “What are you thinking about, Will?” he asked quietly.

“Exactly?”

“Exactly,” Picard confirmed, smiling.

“A ham and cheese omelette, Lonahk, a long hot bath, a girl on Risa named Lysarra…She knows the most wonderful way to—”

“All right, Commander. Just stick to the list,” Picard interrupted, amused.

Riker fell silent for a few moments. “I remember…you,” he finally admitted, in a hoarse voice. “Some kind of purple fruit. Spiders. My father…” He stopped again, his face shuttered.

“Will, you don’t need to remember any more,” Picard told him quietly. “I know what you’re going through. I understand what—”

“With respect, sir,” Riker croaked, a harsh defensive note in his voice. “There is no way you can know how I feel.”

Picard was aware that only honesty would serve Riker now. He stared fixedly at the neural analyzer, remembering.

“Violated,” he said quietly. “Angry, used, afraid…vulnerable. Actually I recall it all quite vividly.”

——

Picard gently orders Will to talk to Deanna, let her help him, don’t let pride get in his way. He promises that soon Riker will be on vacation in Risa, all of this behind him. Then he turns to go and we get the classic hurt/comfort scene of Riker reaching for Picard’s sleeve and desperately asking him to stay a moment — to confirm again that Riker didn’t kill Tasha.

Picard stays until Riker falls asleep. He cedes the watch to Deanna — they kiss, her on Picard’s cheek, him on Deanna’s forehead, and he asks her to look after Will.