Thanks to the guest reviewers. I am glad yall are enjoying my story. Here is the last section to Chapter 3. It ended up being longer than the other two chapters so far.

When the turbolift reaches the Bridge, my father motions for me to precede him off the lift. He shows me where the Captain's ready room is and then goes and sits in the Captain's chair. My mother nods and sits in her chair beside my father. I smile and walk over to the door.

"Come in." I hear the Captain say.

I enter his ready room, "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes. I wanted to let you know that I have asked Wesley to join us. I wanted to confront him with the information I have and see what he has to say about it."

"I understand, sir. But why tell me? You're the Captain, you don't have to tell me anything."

"I told you because Wesley might feel like you betrayed him to me. You need to be prepared for whatever thoughts or feelings he might throw your way."

I nod in understanding. The door chimes signaling Wesley's arrival. Before he even enters I can feel his worry and unease. You would think that he would feel comfortable being back on the Enterprise.

The Captain nods to me, "Enter."

Wesley walks through the door. I can tell he sensed me as soon as he walked in but he didn't look over at me. "Captain."

The Captain pulls something up on his computer. I know what it is. "Can you tell me what maneuver this is?" He asks Wesley. On the screen I watch five ships go into a circle, cross each other's path and light up a five pointed star.

"It's a Kolvoord Starburst, sir."

"Five ships crossing with in ten meters of each other and igniting their plasma trails. One of the most spectacular and difficult demonstrations of precision flying. It hasn't been performed at the Academy in over a hundred years. Katharyn, can you tell us why?"

Wesley looks at me when the Captain addresses me. I look straight at the Captain, "It was banned by the Academy after a training accident in which all five cadets lost their lives."

"All five cadets, Wesley, five cadets lost their lives. I think Nicholas Locarno wanted to end his Academy days in a blaze of glory. That he convinced the four of you to learn the Kolvoord Starburst for the commencement demonstration. If it worked, you will have thrilled the assembles guest and Locarno would graduate as a living legend. Only it didn't work and Josh Albert paid the price. Am I correct?"

Wesley is standing a stiff as a bored. He has closed himself off from me completely.

"I asked you a question, Cadet. Am I correct?"

Wesley finally answers the Captain, "I choose not to answer, sir."

I can't believe what he has said. I jump when the Captain responds to Wesley's response.

"You choose not to answer! But you have already given your answer to the inquiry and that answer was a lie!"

Wesley raises his voice, "I said the accident happened after the loop and it did."

The Captain has come around his desk and is right in front of Wesley, "What you neglected to mention was that following the loop you performed a maneuver that was the direct cause of the accident. You told the truth, yes, but only up to a point. But a lie of omission is still a lie. Do you remember the day you came aboard this ship? Your mother brought you onto the bridge."

"Yes, sir. I remember."

"I let you sit in my chair. I was annoyed. A presumptuous child playing on my ship. But I never forgot how you already knew every control, every display. You behaved as thought you belonged on the Bridge."

At this point Wesley was starting to feel and look like a child who had let their father down. And the Captain is doing a great job taking the role of being like a father to Wes. I am sure that the Captain will manage to do what I haven't been able to do. Get Wes to tell the truth and not be afraid of what Locarno might do.

"And then later, when I decided to make you an action Ensign, I was convinced you could be an outstanding officer. I have never questioned that conviction, until now. The first duty of every Starfleet officer, is a duty to the truth, no matter what that truth is. It is the guiding principal upon which Starfleet is based. If you can't find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened, then you don't deserve to wear that uniform. Now, I am going to make this simple, Mister Crusher. Either you come forward and tell Admiral Bran the truth or I will. The choice is yours."

By this point, Wesley looks completely chastised, and I knew that the Captain had gotten through to him. He starts to explain to the Captain. "Captain."

"Dismissed." The Captain yells at him leaving no room for possible excuses from Wesley.

Wesley looks to me and then leaves the ready room without a thought or word to me.

I feel hurt and I guess there is a hurt look on my face because the Captain walks over to me. "Katharyn, don't worry about Wesley, he will make the right choice and he will talk to you when he is ready. He won't stay mad at you; he is too mad at me."

I look at the Captain, "Are you sure you're not an empath?"

He smiles, "Your mother has asked me the same thing a few times. Let's go. You need to return to the Academy." We walk out onto the Bridge. "Commander, Counselor, would the two of you like to walk with Cadet Riker to the transporter room?" They both nod yes. "Until next time Cadet."

"Thank you Captain. I will see you tomorrow at the hearing."

We are all back at the Academy hearing room. I hadn't talked to Wesley since yesterday. I hadn't seen him since we were on the Enterprise last night. He wouldn't look at me or talk to me. I don't know what I did to make him treat me like this. I didn't do anything but what was asked of me.

"Wesley, why won't you talk to me, or even look at me? What did I do?"

"You turned me in to Captain Picard."

"No I didn't. He asked me to look at so evidence and wanted to know what I thought. I told him what I saw. He is the one that asked you to go to the Enterprise."

He effectively shut me out after that. I sigh and sit back in my seat and cross my arms over my chest. My movements did not go unnoticed by the Captain.

"Stop fidgeting. They are fixing to start."

The Admiral starts first, "Commander Satelk and I have gone over your testimony and the physical evidence from the crash. Your statements cannot be reconciled with the data collected from the NavCon satellite. Your unwillingness to offer any explanation for this contradiction is disappointing, and raises suspicion. We cannot escape the conclusion that either the data is faulty in some way or you have lied to us. However, suspicion is not proof and I have no proof that you have lied to this inquiry. Therefore, if no other evidence is presented, I have no choice but to close this investigation."

I feel the Cadets relax, all except Wesley. He still seems uptight. I wonder if he will say anything.

"For filing an inaccurate flight plan, and for allowing Cadet Albert to fly when you knew he was having difficulties, I am ordering a formal reprimand placed on each of you records. I am also revoking your flight privileges. This inquiry is closed." She goes to stand up.

Wesley quickly stands up, "Sir, I would like to add to my testimony."

"Proceed Mister Crusher." Admiral Bran replies.

Wesley takes a deep breath and then exhales it. "Yesterday I testified that the cash happened after the Yeager Loop. That is not entirely true. We performed a loop, and afterwards broke formation and attempted a Kolvoord Starburst. We knew it was prohibited. We knew it was dangerous, but we wanted to do something spectacular for the commencement demonstration. We pushed Josh into it and he wasn't ready. We thought we could do it." He looks to he is fellow Cadets and then to me. "We thought we could do anything. We were wrong, and Josh died." He now looks to Josh Albert's dad, "Josh didn't let us down, sir. We let him down."

Admiral Bran looks at the Cadets in disbelief. "Mister Locarno, you are the leader of Nova Squadron. Do you have anything to say?" Mister Locarno looks down at the table top, choosing not to answer. "Mister Locarno?"

He finally looks up, "No, Sir."

After Cadet Locarno answers the Admiral, everyone got up to leave. The Admiral wanted to talk to Locarno alone.

I walk over to Wesley and grab his hand. I squeeze it to let him know I am hear for him. "Let's go for a walk, Wes. Get some fresh air." I lead him outside to the Academy garden. We walk for a few minutes and then sit on an empty bench.

"They are going to be so mad at me. Nick told me I would be letting them down if I told the truth. He told me I should turn in my uniform and leave instead of dragging them down with me."

"Wes, it is better to tell the truth. If you never told the truth and it got out later then no one would ever trust you." I tell him trying to get him to understand.

"They won't trust me now."

"Yes they will, Wes. I still trust you."

"You're partial."

I laugh, "Yeah, I guess so but…" I look up and see the Captain and my parents approaching. I stand up at attention, pulling Wesley with me.

"At ease Cadets." We both relax. "Mister Locarno has been expelled."

Wesley looks at the Captain, "We all should have been expelled."

"You almost were. Mister Locarno took full responsibility for what happened. He said he used his influence as squadron leader to convince you all to try the Kolvoord Starburst and then to cover up the truth. He asked to take full responsibility."

Wesley looks to me and then back to the Captain, "He did exactly what he said he would. He protected the team." Wesley starts to walk off, "I feel awful. I have let everyone down. My mother, you, Katharyn, my friends."

I grab his hand again and send soothing thoughts to him trying to calm him down. The Captain just walks beside us, my parents following behind.

The Captain speaks to Wes, "As you should, and you will pay for what you did. Admiral Bran has decided that in addition to the formal reprimand, your academic credits for the year will be revoked. You will not advance with your class."

"I understand."

"It's not going to be easy, staying here on campus, everyone knowing what you did. You have difficult times ahead."

"Yes sir. Thank you sir."

"You knew what you had to do, I just made sure you listened to yourself. Good bye Cadets." He shakes both of our hands.

"Bye Captain," We both say.

I look up to Wesley, "I am here for you. We will get through this. It's me and you now; we are better and stronger with two."

"I know. Thanks, Kat."

We look over to my parents as they walk over. "Mom, Dad. I am surprised to see you both."

My mother hugs me, "We wanted to tell you bye before we left orbit."

I hug her back and then hug my father. "I am glad you came to tell me bye. I am also glad I got to see the two of you. Now, I need you to do something. Don't go looking for me. Remember, I have to stay where I am no matter what. I will be ok. I love you both."

My father looks down at me, "We love you too Katharyn."

He then looks over to Wesley who is still standing next to me. "You'd better take care of her, understand?"

Wes smiles and nods, "Yes sir I will."

My father seems happy with Wesley's response. They both smile at me and then my father taps his badge and requests the Enterprise beam them up.

After my parents are gone I grab Wesley's hand. "Let's go back to your quarters. I could use a hot shower and a back rub." He smiles at me and leads me to the Cadet quarters.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please read and review. Up next: A little angst. Some issues our two love birds have to deal with and work through.