Jamie thought the day had dragged on forever until she could go to the bridge for dessert. Learning cycle went on tip toe feet and then playtime, which usually went too fast, seemed like it lasted for days. Even dinner took a long, long time because Nanny Banks decided Jamie should help cook. Some days were like that and most of the time Jamie enjoyed helping. It reminded her of being back home with Gramma. Today though it took forever to make the pizza and eat. Nanny wouldn't let her go to the bridge until she'd finished every drop of milk and helped clear off the table. Then to Jamie's absolute total embarrassment, Nanny walked her to the turbo and took her to the bridge. Jamie thought she would die of shame if Mr. Spock saw Nanny getting out of the lift with her. Like a baby. Thankfully, Nanny got off two stops before the bridge to go to the ship's library.

"As soon as the Captain sends you down," Nanny reminded her, "stop for me."

"Okay."

The lift took forever and ever, but it finally opened on the bridge. A funny thing happened then; Jamie was almost too scared to step out. She could see the back of Daddy's head above the Captain's chair. He'd just said something to Mr. Sulu who turned around and laughed. Seeing her standing there, Mr. Sulu smiled and nodded. Daddy looked around and smiled too. Suddenly, Jamie didn't care how scared she felt at stepping onto the bridge. Daddy was there. She hurried as fast as she could to him and without even thinking, she threw herself into his arms. A second later she squirmed inside at being so dumb.

Embarrassed, she thought her face might be on fire. Maybe I shouldn't hug on the bridge. On the bridge Daddy is the Captain. Jamie hadn't had many occasions to be invited to the bridge and certainly never for dessert. What if it was wrong to hug the Captain or something? Starfleet had a lot of dumb rules.

Just when she was thinking maybe she should get down and not sit on Daddy's lap, he smiled. Then he reached behind him and pulled out a familiar blue packet.

"Oreos! Real Oreos!"

They were the best dessert ever! And Daddy didn't look like she was breaking any rules by sitting on his lap.

"I didn't know you knew I liked Oreos," Jamie said as she opened the cookies and pulled out the first one. Chewing and swallowing until the first cookie was gone, she sighed in pure pleasure. The first one she always ate whole. After that, she untwisted the cookie and ate the icing off the inside, then dunked the cookie halves in milk. It would probably be rude to ask for milk, Jamie thought.

"Don't you want milk with those?" Daddy grinned and pulled out one of the little cartons they had on the children's deck.

Jamie loved the cartons of milk because they had a square bottom and the top lifted off perfectly to dunk in. If you didn't drink all the milk, you could snap the top back down to save it. "These are yummy," she mumbled with her mouth half full, "do you want one, Daddy?"

"No, I'll let you enjoy them."

"Gramma always buys me Oreos at home," Jamie told him while she dunked a chocolate half until it was nice and gooshey. "When it was time for me to leave for the Enterprise, there was still a whole bag in the pantry. I wonder if they'll still be good when I get home?"

Daddy's face looked like it had a pain, but he pretended to hide it. "You can always buy more if they aren't."

Suddenly Jamie thought of what she'd said and felt ashamed. Daddy was trying to do something nice, buying her real Oreos and letting her come on the bridge, and she was talking about going home. Daddy got really sad whenever Jamie talked about home. Once she asked Dr. McCoy why and he'd said that it was because Daddy wanted her to stay on the Enterprise a little longer than the year Gramma would be gone. It made Jamie sad herself to think about leaving Daddy, but it also made her sad to think about leaving Gramma all alone in Iowa. Sometimes she wished she could just beam back and forth to each person she loved. She knew it would make Daddy very, very happy to tell him she wanted to stay on the Enterprise, but she couldn't. Not right now. Jamie had asked Dr. McCoy why she couldn't make up her mind.

"Probably because two people love you very much and you don't want to make a choice that will hurt either of them. But one day, you'll know the right choice to make."

"Daddy?"

"Yes?"

She whispered in his ear so that no one else on the bridge could hear. "I love you. Thank you for giving me the Oreo's. This is the nicest dessert ever."

"You're very welcome," he whispered back. This time his eyes didn't look as sad, and he hugged her tight. "I love you too, more than you'll ever know."

Jamie did know and it made her feel safe and warm. After she finished the cookies and milk, Daddy let her just sit on his lap as long as she wanted. He told Mr. Sulu to open the viewscreen to maximum so she could see all the stars. Daddy knew just about everything to know about the different constellations, and he didn't mind telling the stories. Jamie tried not to yawn but after a while it just came out.

"You're getting sleepy," Daddy noticed. "Time for you to go back to your quarters."

"I'm not really slee . . ." Jamie tried to protest but a giant yawn broke the word in half.

Daddy smiled. "You can hardly keep your eyes open. Go on back to your quarters now. Maybe you'll find a surprise there too."

"Another surprise?"

Daddy nodded.

It took Jamie two seconds to jump down and head for the lift. Daddy stopped her by ordering one of the Security officers to take her down to meet Nanny. Then he lifted her up and gave her a big hug and a goodnight kiss right in front of everyone. "I love you. Sweet dreams." Then he stood her on her feet and whispered, "You have my permission to call me on my private com as soon as you see the surprise. Let me know if you like it."

Jamie didn't really want to go to bed, but after that she had to see the surprise. Officer Thompson got in the lift with her, but she didn't speak except to command the turbo to the right deck. She handed Jamie over to Nanny with a short, "good night" and headed off down the corridor.

"Did you have a nice time?"

"Oh, yes! Daddy says there's another surprise in my quarters."

Nanny smiled mysteriously as if she might know what it was.

Jamie could hardly stand still as the lift took its own slow time getting to the Officer's Deck. It took a long time for Nanny to walk down the corridor to their quarters, command the door to open, and then step aside so Jamie could run in.

"Where is it?"

"Why don't you look on your bed?" Nanny answered.

"It's beautiful!" Jamie squealed when she saw the lovely quilt spread over her bed. The blue looked just like the sky and there were stars and swirls. Nanny came into the room and showed her how the stars glowed in the dark when the lights were off. It was the best present Jamie could imagine. She hurried to call Daddy and tell him so.

"It's so pretty! It's the best present ever, Daddy."

"Do you like it?"

"I love it! It's so pretty and it glows when the lights are off."

He laughed over the com, "I knew you'd like that. Sleep tight, I'll see you sometime tomorrow."

"Nite, Daddy."

It wasn't until later, after Jamie had crawled into bed and Nanny had covered her with the new quilt, that she remembered Gramma's quilt. Before she left Iowa, Gramma had made a simple nine-patch quilt. The scraps were all bits of clothes Jamie, Gramma, Daddy and Grandpa had worn. Gramma knew a story about each patch, and she'd told Jamie about them. There were even a few tiny pieces of Mama's wedding dress, Uncle Sam's overalls and Daddy's first Space Scout uniform buttons. Sometimes when she felt afraid or couldn't sleep, Jamie played with those little buttons. Rubbing her fingers across the cool gold helped her when she missed Daddy the most too.

"Just imagine when you are sleeping under it that it's all our arms holding you and keeping you safe through the night," Gramma said.

The quilt had been Jamie's favorite thing and many nights when she felt sad or lonely, she curled up in it and felt like Gramma was there holding her. Nanny must have folded Gramma's quilt and put the new quilt on the bed. Quietly, so she wouldn't get in trouble for getting out of bed, Jamie got up and searched her quarters. Nanny had put Gramma's quilt on a shelf in the closet. It only took a few minutes to pull a chair – quiet – quiet – over and tug Gramma's quilt down. Jamie didn't even know she had tears in her eyes until she felt one drip along her cheek and drop on her hand.

When she climbed back into bed, she pulled Gramma's quilt up one side and Daddy's up the other. Just like an Oreo, she'd made a Jamie sandwich. I'm right in the middle. It was a scary thought, so Jamie stopped thinking it. Instead, she watched the pretty stars on Daddy's quilt glow and she rubbed her thumb over the little buttons on Gramma's quilt. Comforted, she finally went to sleep.

Once in the night she woke up. Daddy's quilt had stopped glowing, but it didn't matter. Someone had snuggled her under both quilts.

For the next few days Jamie didn't see Daddy or any of the officer's. One night in her quarters, she'd made a nice thank you card for Mr. Spock, just to let him know she appreciated all his tests on the medallion. So far, she hadn't worked up her courage to give it to him. Jamie had heard through Baxter, who heard through Mr. Scott, who knew just about everything that happened on the ship – that Security was still busy trying to find the missing medallion. Even though he probably wasn't supposed to tell anyone, Baxter had also shared the secret about the medallion being a fake.

I already knew that. Daddy told me. Jamie pretended to be surprised by the news. Probably Daddy would be surprised to know his secret was out.

"Betcha Mr. Cornealian brought a fake onboard from the start," Baxter commented as he selected a gray Lego brick to fit in the tower of the castle, he and Jamie were constructing during rec period. "Bet there wasn't any real medallion at all."

It had been Baxter's idea to construct the gigantic Lego castle, but Jamie had agreed. The old Earther toy was as popular as it had always been, and most of the children onboard competed to see who could make the most realistic buildings. There were even prizes given by some company on Earth who still manufactured the toy. All you had to do was send a likeness to be entered in the contest. The prize this month was a spaceship kit Baxter wanted to win.

Jamie frowned as Baxter jiggled the bridge she'd just fit in place over a moat. "Be careful! You almost knocked the bridge into the alligator pit." She waited a minute to see if she could snap the Lego's more firmly before answering. Without giving away anything Daddy told her, she said, "That would be dumb, to bring a fake medallion to give to the Klingon's. They'd know it wasn't real and probably vaporize the Ambassador on the spot. I think Mr. Cornealian put the fake in the box and took the real one. He's got mean, scary eyes."

"Maybe," Baxter agreed. "Whatever happened I bet that old slime devil's in on it. Hey! Maybe we could follow him around, see where he goes. Maybe he's got it hidden somewhere on the ship. Maybe if we found it, Starfleet would give us an award."

"Ha! Like Security wouldn't see us and tell Daddy. Like I need to get in any more trouble." Ever since being invited to the bridge for the Oreo's and given the pretty quilt, Jamie had tried to stay out of trouble. Daddy had enough to worry about, Dr. Bones said, without having to be afraid something would happen to her too.

"Maybe we wouldn't get in any trouble. I think we could find the medallion if we tried."

"No! A thousand times n-o! Quit jiggling the walls! What are you doing now?"

Baxter had taken out a few Lego bricks near the tower's top. "I'm putting in a disposal chute. In case any of the cannons misfire and they have to jettison them."

"They didn't have disposal chutes in castles," Jamie argued. Annoyed at him changing history and the extra jiggling to put her bridge in jeopardy. "What will the Lego people think when they see that? You won't win the contest."

"Bet I will," he argued back. "All castles got those little holes up near the top of the tower. What are they there for if they aren't disposal chutes?"

"Guns, I think, or cannons," Jamie wasn't real sure, except they did not jettison anything in the middle ages. "We can ask teacher."

"Aw, who cares what she says. There!" Baxter finished off the tower with a small Federation flag. It wasn't realistic, but Jamie let it pass since her bridge looked safe enough to walk on – if she were a Lego person. "We did it. Computer, take a likeness," he ordered and waited until the computer had verified his request.

By tomorrow some of the other children would grab the Lego blocks, the building table, and their castle would all be gone. Jamie wished Daddy could see it, but then, maybe not. Daddy knew a lot about Earth history and he'd probably notice the disposal chute and Federation flag right off. You can't change history, daddy would say.

"C'mon, I'm starved." Baxter didn't let Jamie think about the castle long. "Teacher said we could have an ice cream when we were done. I ate all my Glad Rocks and I'm about ready for some chocolate."

"That's all you think about – food."

"Nuh, uh – think about the engines too! Hey, I just had an idea. What if Mr. Cornealian had the real medallion and he flushed it out of the ship. That way no one would know he took it."

"Why would he do that? You couldn't ever get it back if you did that?"

Jamie might not know as much about the Enterprise as Baxter, but she knew enough to know anything whooshed into space pretty much stayed there. Sure, there were scavenger's who made a living trying to pick up space debris – but a medallion was pretty small. Except, if it truly did make a person live forever, it might be worth the trouble. Daddy said scavengers could be very nasty people, like a "pack of wolves." He'd warned Jamie never to get near them at the last starbase stop.

"If Mr. Cornealian stole the medallion, he probably wanted to keep it so he could live forever. Why would he throw it away?" She asked again as they walked to the food slots. They put in requests – banana split for Baxter, chocolate swirl cone for Jamie. Grabbing napkins, they went to sit at one of the small red tables in the Children's Dining Room. The only other table occupied was by one of the olders. Bent over a tablet, he appeared deep in study.

"Maybe so it couldn't be found," Baxter said with a wise look in his eyes, "Maybe he wants war with the Klingons. Uncle Scotty says not everybody wants peace; you know. Some people would rather fight. Isn't that true, Javik."

The older boy glanced up from his work and focused on their faces. "What?"

"Isn't it true some people would rather fight and never have peace between the Klingon's and the Federation?"

"Sadly, it is true. There are many species that would rather see the Federation and all it stands for shot down in flames. Others who would like to see the Klingon's ruling the galaxy."

Jamie almost couldn't believe it. Why would people not want the fighting to stop? Daddy always said peace was the topmost goal of the Federation. No matter what else they did – exploring, seeking out new life and new civilizations, or going where nobody else had ever gone before – they tried to do it peacefully.

The chocolate swirl cone didn't taste as good as it usually did. Jamie tossed the last of the cone into the on ship compost bin. The part she had eaten swirled uneasily in her stomach. If what Baxter said was true, maybe Mr. Cornealian had taken the real medallion and he did want the Klingon's to fight the Federation – maybe even the Enterprise.

I'm scared of Klingon's. If they fight the Enterprise could Daddy win? Jamie had heard stories about battles between the Klingon's and the Federation. Suddenly, it was all too scary to think about. "I'm going to my quarters," she told Baxter. "Talk to you tomorrow."

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