„Private Log, Deanna Troi, Stardate 37682.", she said even before sitting down in the armchair. "Let's see, our Keionian guest was transported to Selprana IV five days ago. Our sensors show that he was picked up from there by someone…some ship. We stayed within a safe distance from the planet to avoid contact, but the impulses show that the kation emitter was transported back to Keiona. I can only hope that Manhari is doing better there than he was here." She crossed her legs, leaning back to study the ceiling with mild interest.

"As an officer, I know that it was the right decision to bring him back there…I just have a bad feeling about sending someone to a world where he'll be facing mistreatment, and indirectly supporting that society by doing them a favor. Well, he wanted to go back."

Deanna shrugged as if the computer could see it, taking a moment to think. "The question is how he is going to re-integrate into the epamari structures now, after his time here. Everything that used to be self-evident to him started to crumble because of the pressure from our side. His personality changed, not so much out of conviction but out of confusion. I wonder how his comrades are going to react to that…"

"We aren't receiving any progress reports about the negotiations on Liphew territory, they're keeping us uninformed. Maybe there is no progress to be reported…but I prefer to think of it otherwise." She sighed, bowing her head. "Well, they got the best diplomats we have for the conference, and the team from the U.S.S. Babylon are very qualified, too."

Her glance hit the big box sitting on the living room table, which inevitably wiped the frown away and replaced it with a smirk. "The great Ambassador Troi has decided that I must change the way I dress, and sent me two expensive looking gowns for my birthday, along with a painting by the still unknown Baaht Kerell-beautiful Betazoid artwork. The clothes are rather…flamboyant, attention catching- well, you know mother, there's no taste like hers."

"Lily loves them!", she laughed. "She keeps strutting in front of the mirror in the matching shoes."

"Mother keeps asking about her, she's so excited about having a grandchild…I suppose she'll render us a visit soon. That's going to be the one and only occasion to wear one of these gowns…"

Deanna was interrupted by a short, bleeping noise coming from the door. "Computer, end log…come in!"

She smiled at the blue-eyed woman entering her office. "Hello, Aminia, you're a little early, but-"

"I'm sorry, am I interrupting?"

"No, that's fine, I was just taking a break…good timing, actually. Take a seat."


"Captain, there's a communiqué from Starfleet Head Quarters coming in."

Will pushed himself up from the chair, pulling down his uniform shirt. "On screen."

"They're requesting a private connection."

"Transfer it to my ready room, then. Commander, you have the bridge."

"Aye, Sir."

After a brief nod to Mahiko, he left the bridge. Sitting down behind his desk, he opened the commlink, causing the face of Admiral Janeway to show up on screen.

"Captain Riker, it's a pleasure." She smirked as if aware of something…and he wasn't quite sure if that was a good or a bad thing. However, it was a genuine expression.

"The pleasure is mine, Admiral."

"I have some important information for you, and ask you beforehand not to share it with more people than a small staff, and only if it is absolutely necessary, because we would like to treat the subject-how should I say this-'discreetly'." Was he mistaken or was there actually a sarcastic undertone in her voice?

"Understood, Admiral."

"We are currently examining the environmental crisis on Nibba III and its potential connections to the Inugia incident." The captain was speechless, this was the exact opposite of what he would have expected. There was no reason for them to change their opinion about what he had said…unless the situation had changed, unless there was new evidence.

Janeway scrutinized him with a doubtful look, waiting for a response. When it didn't come, she simply continued. "A hearing will take place on June 26th, 1100 hours. We need you to be here by then to make your statement."

"That's in four days!"

"Is that a problem for you?"

"It's just that…we're currently at the far end of the beta sector, on our way to witness the collapsing of a supernova."

"Well, I'm sorry that you're going to miss this phenomenon.", she replied with a hint of compassion. "I know this is at a very short notice, Captain, but we expect you to be on earth by thursday."

Will gave up and nodded. "I'll be there, Sir."

"Good." A smirk came over her lips. "Just place your first officer in command. I'm sure that they're going to survive for a while without you."

"I guess so." He returned the smile.

"I'll see you in a few days then. Janeway out." The connection was cut, the screen black again except for the white and blue Starfleet emblem.


Will sighed, this seemed like a pure test of patience. "Lily, you don't have to color the apples, just put them into groups."

"But daddy, they don't look like apples!", she objected vehemently. "Mr. Winter says 'draw bags around the apples, five apples to- into each bag'."

Her father chuckled, just shaking his head at the child's special way of learning mathematics. He leaned back, still watching his little girl draw bags around smaller circles on the paper, as he had been doing for the past ten minutes. If the only way she would do her Alpha-1 level pre-math assignment was by coloring the apples yellow and red, with a short stem and green leaves, he would let her. If he was being completely honest with himself, he had to admit that he sort of enjoyed watching her draw fruits with such seriousness.

"Ready!", she beamed, holding up the sheet.

"Okay, let's see…" He took the paper and saw that all bags were carrying the right amount of fruit. "Good job, now do you remember how many apples were there at first?"

"Uhm…thirty?"

"Yes, and how many did you put into each basket?"

"Five, I already told you!"

"I know, and how many baskets are there now?"

Lily counted them, pointing at each with her index finger. "One…two…three…four…five…six. Six!"

"Right, so if you put five apples into one basket, and you have six baskets, you have a total of thirty apples." It was important to him that she understood this, because it would set the basics for later techniques of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Lily was getting bored of the game though and had already jumped up from the couch. "Can you please learn me the song now?"

"You mean if I can teach you the song? Yes, go get the horn."

"Yess!" She ran to the drawers immediately and opened each one, looking for the small, Niriendan instrument. "It's not there!"

"Well, did you put it in there last time?"

"Uh…"

"Lily, you know you need to clean up your stuff.", he scolded. "If you take something out, put it back where it belongs."

"It just disappeared." She shrugged helplessly, when the door of the quarters slid open and her head turned. "Mommy!"

"Hi, you two." She set the data padds on the table, and dropped onto the sofa next to her husband, looking exhausted.

"Hard day?"

"Crew evaluations.", was all that came as an answer.

Will smiled perceptively, remembering the times when they had been sitting together for hours, talking about personality profiles and practical accomplishments. "Did you get it done?"

"No, we're finished with about two thirds of them, but the rest is left for tomorrow." Her daughter walked up to her, tugging at a few loose locks of her hair.

"What are you doing there?"

"Your hair is unstraight.", she stated with a serious expression on her face.

"That doesn't matter at the moment." Deanna gestured Lily to sit down next to her. "So how was your day?"

"Boring.", she replied, starting to kick against the couch with her heels.

"Why?"

"Melissa and Felie weren't there, and Alejandro wanted to play death battle with Ker."

"Death battle?"

Her daughter nodded. "And Felie is on shore leave. Can we go on shore leave, too?"

"Not at the moment, I'm afraid. We can go to the holodeck, but all three of us leaving the ship is impossible right now, because mommy and I have to work.", Will explained.

Lily looked disappointed at this. "Will we ever go on vacation?"

"Sure we will, but I can't tell you when." That answer was hardly satisfactory to her, but she didn't dare to interrogate any further.

Her father noticed Deanna glancing at him with a questioning look. Had he said something? Maybe it was his emphasis on "all three of us"…but that couldn't have been enough to catch her attention, could it?

"Hey, I still have to teach you that song I promised, and I'm pretty sure the horn is lying around somewhere in your room. Why don't you go look for it?"

Lily went to go get it, a little less enthusiastic than before. His wife went to the replicator, asking him if he wanted anything. When he refused, she got a mug of hot chocolate for herself and sat back down in the corner of the couch, pulling her legs up to her body. Her black eyes still rested on him, even if it was much less noticeable, as she was obviously waiting for him to say something.

Will spoke up to break the awkward silence. "So how are the evaluations going? Who do you have in mind for a promotion?"

"Lieutenant Carmichael, definitely, and Lieutenant Commander Gregory. As for the ensigns…Lacroix and Svensson, but Commander Davenport thinks that Zulu would be the better choice. We debated that for nearly half an hour, and delayed the decision."

"Zulu is very competent.", he implied his preference.

"They're both competent, Svensson graduated with distinction, he published an exceptional study on anti-matter reproduction."

"True, but technological knowledge isn't everything. Zulu has proven to be a good leader, while Svensson seems a little too…indecisive sometimes."

"He does have a tendency to 'lean on someone'.", she admitted. "But was he ever given a command, or any chance to excel?"

"No, which is another point: he's inexperienced. Out here, you can't always go strictly by the book."

"No one gave him the opportunity to gather leadership experience yet. He is being overlooked, and simply because he's one of the more quiet officers."

"Yeah, maybe…but what do you have against Zulu?"

"I have nothing against him, he's rather a good ensign. But his ambition sometimes appears to dominate him, and he's very impulsive."

Will scratched the back of his neck thoughtfully. "I won't interfere with your decision, but waiting another three months to see how Svensson actually handles a real command sure wouldn't hurt."

"If he is given a 'real' command. I'll discuss it with Ashley." She took a sip of her beverage.

The faint sound of a few notes, or at least some kind of tune, reached their ears. They smiled without a comment, apparently, Lily had found the instrument. A few moments passed, silent except for the implied melody from behind the door. Will shifted, he didn't know how to bring up the subject he actually wanted to talk about.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing…"

Deanna opened her mouth to reply something, but thought better of it. Instead, she started collecting the coloring pencils which were spread out across the long couch-table. "Don't always let her run away from her things to start something else before she has cleaned up her stuff."

"Yeah, I know…won't happen again." She put the pencils into a small, black holder.

"Deanna, I have to leave for earth."

She nodded, it was hard to tell by her reaction if she had speculated on something like that. "What for?"

"Something caused the Head Command to set up a hearing to investigate the 'environmental crisis' on Nibba III and its connections to the Inugia incident."

She raised an eyebrow, surprised and even a little cynical. "I didn't know they recognized the fact that there are such connections."

"New evidence, I suppose. Whatever their reasons are, they want me to make a statement on the Nibba crisis…and probably the Titan's activities in the past few months."

This was enough to interrupt Deanna's cleaning, there was deep concern in her eyes. "They're going to inquire about that again?"

"I don't know, probably."

"Well, what did-whoever it was who told you-say?"

"Admiral Janeway didn't exactly say a whole lot. Only that I'm supposed to 'treat the matter discreetly'." He was still debating with himself what would be defined as "indiscreet". Commander Davenport knew the truth, he had placed her in command an hour previously, but she was the only one aware of the hearing-except for Deanna. With a bad conscience, he had decided against telling the rest of the senior staff.

"If you…should you realize that they're trying to get you for something, request a delay. Article 15 grants you the right to delay the hearing for the gathering of further evidence for up to three days."

"When did you turn into a judicial expert, Counsellor?"

"Will, I'm serious!" She crossed her arms, looking more worried than angry. "Request a later date, okay? It will give all of us time to find a solution."

"Alright, should anything happen, I will request a delay. But don't talk to anyone about the hearing if you don't have to."

"I won't. So when do you have to leave?"

"Tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow! And you just heard about it today?"

"That's very sudden, but…" He raised his hands in a speechless, defensive manner. "it's a fifty-two hour journey."

Deanna sighed, sitting back down. He understood her discomfort, but it wasn't his fault that he had been ordered to earth on such short notice. There was no choice. "So did you prepare everything?"

"It's all settled."

"Good…that's good." She leaned back and forced a smile, and Will couldn't help noticing that it never reached her eyes.


Hey everyone! For some reason, it has been difficult for me to write this chapter. I'm never sure how exactly they would talk in the future(I've never seen the TV-show in English), and, most of all, there was a thin line in the last scene between writing a natural dialogue, with accurate characterization, and drifting off into cliché.

Since this story has been going for so long, I just want to ask you a general question now: Are Deanna and Will in character? Honest answer, please.