This is just a random filler chapter, set just after Picard's dinner with Shinzon.

Charlotte stepped into the corridor and immediately fell into step with Captain Picard. The Captain was deep in thought, and Charlotte was completely sympathetic with what he was going through, but she needed to talk to him.

"Captain?"

Picard turned to look at the girl, surprised that she wasn't in uniform. Wait- she must be the other one, he thought vaguely. The one who no longer has a rank.

"Yes?"

Charlotte shifted her PADD (it wasn't really a PADD anymore, but she didn't know what else to call it) from one hand to the other. "I'm sorry, Captain, but I need to go to the bridge. And I can't tell you the exact reason."

"You are from the future, correct?"

"Yes. And I can't tell you anything about it, so please don't ask me. All I can say is that I need to get to the bridge."

Picard sighed. "Under normal circumstances, I would refuse and confine you to quarters- not for personal reasons, you understand, but because of protocol. Who knows what a security risk you are? But these are not normal circumstances. You may accompany me to the bridge."

"Thank you, Captain."

He nodded, and they continued into the Turbo-Lift.

"Halt. Captain, I just need to say something."

Picard looked at her in surprise. "Yes?"

"Charlotte and I are practically the same person. But as i got to know her, i found tiny differences between us- unimportant things, but enough for me to realise that we aren't exactly the same."

"Your point is?"

"No matter what he says, you and Shinzon are not the same person. You may be extremely alike, but there will always be differences. I just thought you should know."

He nodded. "Thank you."

Charlotte smiled. "Continue."

When the doors opened, Picard emerged first to find Data, Worf and Geordi waiting for him at the engineering station. Judging from the looks on their faces, something was definitely wrong.

As the captain approached and Charlotte followed behind him, Worf said, "Sir, we've had an unauthorised access into the main computer."

"Source?"

"It's going to take some time to find out- the data stream was rerouted through substations all over the ship," Geordie replied.

"What programs were accessed?"

"That's what I don't get. It's mostly basic stellar cartography: star charts; communications protocols; some uplinks from colony tracking stations. It's not even restricted material."

Picard nodded and turned to Worf. "Set up a security program to detect any unusual data stream rerouting. If it happens again, we want to be ready."

Geordi's tone was grim- so much so that he gained Charlotte's immediate attention. "There's something else. I was reviewing the sensor logs." He nodded at some readouts on the console. "When the Scimitar decloaked, there was a momentary spike in the tertiary EM band- there-" he pointed. "You're not going to believe this, but… it's thalaron."

Picard recoiled in shock, but Charlotte activated her device and leaned closer to the console. Picard glanced at her tapping madly into her PADD, and decided to leave her be. "Data, Geordie, with me." They left the bridge, and Worf looked at her curiously. "What are you doing?"

"I'm afraid I hardly know myself, Worf. But I'm sure that this will make all the difference."

"All the difference to what?"

She smiled sadly. "I can't tell you that. Just pretend I'm not here, ok?"

And Worf, figuring she was doing some secret work for the captain, said no more.