After Commander Riker returned Daria to her cabin, she decided to take a nap. She kept having dreams about Buck Rogers, though. The incessant "bidibidibi"ng from that damn little robot made her jump up from her sleep in a sweat. I guess I should count myself lucky. Buck slept for 500 years.
She went to her sink and splashed some cold water on her face.
She then decided to check out her cabin's data terminal. After a few voice commands, she was deeply engrossed in all of the history that she had missed in her hibernation. Daria skipped over the fates of her family and the few friends she had - she had already accepted that they were long dead and she didn't want to dwell on that too much; time enough to mourn later.
She read the Galactapedia entries on World War III, First Contact, The Federation, and all of the magic technology that the inhabitants of this era took for granted. She was reading about weather control when the terminal spoke:
*You have an incoming message from Engineering.*
"Uhh...go ahead."
Geordi La Forge's face appeared on the screen. Daria had learned from a passing crewmember that his VISOR was an artificial vision device, Lt. La Forge being blind from birth. It looked creepier than mirrored sunglasses on a sheriff, though. "Miss Morgen - Daria," Geordi caught himself. "Glad to catch up with you. I've been a little busy having to split my duties between the Bridge and Engineering. Anyway, we found a packet of personal effects with your cryotube. I wanted to go ahead and return them to you." He reached off camera and touched a switch; there was a hum and the packet materialized in her replicator in a swirl of light (the replicator also being a site to site transporter.)
Geordi continued. "When we examined it, we found an old style flash drive with encrypted files. Data and I decrypted them for you and transferred them to an isolinear chip. You might check to see that they are all there."
"Thank you. I appreciate it."
"No problem. La Forge out."
Opening the packet, Daria found photos of herself, ID and social security cards. There was also a savings account card indicating that had five thousand dollars in an interest bearing Swiss bank account. She would have to find out later how much interest had accrued.
There were also letters from her parents Helen and Jake, her Aunt Amy, Jane Lane and her brother Trent, her ex-boyfriend Tom, and her sister Quinn. She opened them and scanned them quickly - she would read them in depth later.
Jane's was short, though - the paper held only one sentence:
"Hasta la Vista, Amiga."
Short and kind of cryptic. Maybe she'd figure it out later.
Quinn's seemed to have something besides a letter inside. She opened it and withdrew a flash drive and a rectangular blue wafer inlaid with intricate metallic circuitry. This must be La Forge's isolinear chip, Daria thought. She opened the letter from Quinn.
"Dear Daria,
I thought that you might want the mail and stuff that was in your computer. Your files were encrypted and Jane couldn't remember the password, so she downloaded all of your files onto a flash drive. I know how important all of this stuff was to you and I hope it comes in handy. I don't have much to say that I didn't say while you were - you know - except that if you do come back and I'm not around, that I hope that wherever you are, that you are happy.
Your loving sister,
Quinn
Daria stared at the letter, absently twirling the iso chip between her fingers. Finally, she stuck it into a memory slot and told the computer to bring up the files.
There was her journal, some poetry, photos, some emails, and...every last one of her Melody Powers stories.
Tears filled her eyes at seeing this link to her past. "Thank you, Quinn," she whispered.
Quinn, her parents, Jane. Each had done so much for her, both before and after her death.
I've got to get out of here for a while. She stuffed the isolinear chip into her pocket. "Computer, call Wesley Crusher."
"Crusher here," Wesley said, answering the page.
"This is Daria. You finished yet? I think I'm ready to try the holodeck."
"Not yet, but I can take a break. We can use holodeck one. Want me to come get you?"
"Nah, I'm good. I can find my way."
"Ok," Wesley said. "Meet you there in 10 minutes."
Daria shut off the terminal, got up and left.
