Author's Forward
It's time for the newest Marrissa Story. This one is set after "The Walls of Jellico." It was originally posted to alt startrek creative over the a periord of a month. In my older stories, I use to include a cast and posting list as part of an appendix. After "Who Q? Where Q?" I discontinued the practice. There was one posted to the newsgroup with this story. I have not included it in this formatting correction and chapterization of this work.
Note: This update does not include new content, only minor corrections and splitting into chapters.
Prologue
The Enterprise-E felt empty without the children. That was a statement that Jean-Luc had never thought he would make. He never wanted a command with families; not that the Enterprise-E had as many as the Enterprise-D had had. However with his own family gone, the ship seemed to be missing something. He'd sent Beverly, Jackie, and Nicholas to live on Earth for the duration of the war. The Rear Admiral had once felt that that a starship was no place for children. Without his own, however, he prowled the halls of the Enterprise in search of something to fill that hole in his life.
Just three and a half, almost four, years ago, he would have never done this. Then he had met and adopted Marrissa. That young girl had changed him more than he would admit. He married Beverly Crusher, and together had now not one but two children, a cute little two-year-old girl who knew just how to get her way with her father, and a new born baby boy. Beverly accused him of spoiling little Jackie, but when that little girl looked up with her beautiful blue eyes and tossed back a wisp of her strawberry blond hair in a gesture that so reminded him of Beverly, he just had to cave in.
Up ahead was the deck 20 rear observation lounge, a small lounge that was a good place to watch the stars go by. It was where he use to find Marrissa when she was troubled back before she left her post as the Enterprise's Chief of Security to become first Fighter Commander, then First Officer of the Stargazer. He'd stopped there every night since Beverly and the children had left.
This time it wasn't empty though. Clara Sutter, his oldest daughter's best friend, was laying on one of the couches, and looking at the stars. "Mind if I come in, Clara?" Jean-Luc asked.
"Come right in Captain," Clara said, knowing his preference for not using his full rank unless necessary.
He took a seat on a nearby chair, and looked at the young lady. Only thirteen years old, and an Assistant Chief Engineer on a starship, the Lieutenant had accomplished a lot. Commander La Forge called her his most promising officer, a title he did not bestow often. In fact, since La Forge had become Chief Engineer, only Wesley, Ensign Lefler, and Clara had been accorded that title. Clara was normally a confident girl, she took to the Engine Room like she had been born into it. In her element, she was unshakable. Tonight however, she didn't look so
sure of herself.
"Troubled tonight, Clara?" Jean-Luc Picard inquired.
"Does it show?" Clara asked.
"Not really," Picard replied. "It's just that I find the people tend to visit this lounge when they need to think."
"Oh," Clara said. After a moment's silence, she continued. "I guess I am a little troubled. I just heard that the Seventh Fleet is going to make an attack deep into Cardassian territory."
"Worried about your best friend?" Jean-Luc Picard asked.
"A little," Clara said. "I mean Marrissa's gotten in and out of battles before, but we're at war now, and before I've always been right there. I've never had to wonder how she was doing."
"I'm worried about her too," Jean-Luc Picard said. "I keep telling myself that she's a big girl now, First Officer of her starship. She can take care of herself. Then I keep remembering how she was that first month after I adopted her, when ever comment put her in tears. I remember every time she got hurt, and my mind starts imagining what could be happening too her. But I have to put that aside. I am a starship Captain. I have a ship and a fleet to command. I can worry about her latter."
"So you do your duties during the day, and end up haunting the ship at night," Clara summarized.
Rear Admiral Picard nodded and they lapsed back into silence. He turned toward the window, and for awhile, the two watched the stars streak by as the Enterprise patrolled.
