Captain Jean-Luc Picard was engrossed in his reading until he heard a two-toned beeping noise emanating from the door to his ready room onboard the starship USS Enterprise. "Come in," he called out almost without hesitating, lightly tossing his PADD onto the desk next to a cup of hot tea and pulling his uniform shirt down at the waist.
"Ah, Mr. Crusher," the captain greeted the acting ensign through a half-smile that despite its respectful warmth was crisp and impersonal. "What can I do for you?"
Wesley shuffled timidly toward the captain as the ready room doors whooshed shut behind him. "Sir," he began, his gaze dancing between the PADD on the desk (which was displaying a play of Shakespeare), the circular fish tank, and the tall window to outer space in front of which the captain was seated, "I was hoping you could help me with an essay for my application to Starfleet Academy. See, we have to write about an officer…"
"Whom you look up to or admire," interrupted Picard. "Yes, I remember the prompt. Well, Wesley, my advice is that you find an original subject. Another essay on Admiral Archer isn't likely to grasp the attention of the admissions committee."
"Yes, Captain. I agree. Actually," the young Crusher continued, bringing his eyes now to meet Picard's serious, focused stare, "I was thinking of writing about you. I hoped that by answering a few questions, you could help me formulate my thesis."
A wave of genuine surprise washed over Jean-Luc Picard. Leaning back in his chair, the captain took a long, quiet breath. The features of his hard face visibly softened, and his smile faded away as he returned to an upright posture. "Very well, Mr. Crusher. Proceed."
Wesley, now standing confidently at attention, asked, "Sir, what was the greatest challenge that you have faced as a Starfleet officer?"
Picard's eyes widened as he lost himself in deep reflection. Being around Wesley always evoked the memory of his father Jack Crusher, who had died under Captain Picard's command. Although the death was considered an accident, Picard had always felt responsible, given that he ordered Jack Crusher into danger and could have saved him – but choose to rescue another crewmate instead. Had Picard's friendship with Jack interfered with his judgement in those crucial moments that had determined life and death?
Picard drew his focus back to the conversation. "In my experience, Wesley, the greatest challenges we face as Starfleet officers are those situations which test our very humanity, our morals, our commitments to equality, justice, liberty, progress, and peaceful co-existence." The captain sipped lightly from his cup of tea.
"Captain Picard, are you talking about when you were assimilated by the Borg Collective?" followed Wesley.
Invisibly to the young acting ensign, Jean-Luc involuntarily spit some of his Earl Grey back into its cup. Fresh memories of his time as Locutus of Borg flooded to him – the massacre at Wolf 359. "Yes, I suppose I could have been talking about that," the captain admitted solemnly, now drowning in his own mind. Why did he, Jean-Luc Picard, deserve to be sitting here when Jack Crusher and thousands at Wolf 359 lost their lives because of him? Why should Wesley look up to him, the man responsible for his father's death, for the deaths of so many?
"Sir, what makes us so different than the Borg?" continued the young Crusher, oblivious to the turmoil he was putting the captain through.
"What makes us so different than the Borg?" Picard repeated contemplatively, still lost in the sea of his own grief, but then, as if rescued, as if pulled aboard a life raft after being adrift, he began to smile, glancing at his PADD. "'It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves,'" Picard whispered to himself. Then, turning to Wesley, he replied "The Borg are mindless drones in the service perfection. We, Wesley, are in a much greater service. We serve humanity – that which endures imperfections, failures, and tragedies."
Just then, the red-alert sirens interrupted Picard. "Captain to the bridge!" the first officer's voice called out on the intercoms after the sirens subsided.
"I'm sorry Wesley, it seems like the rest of your questions will have to wait," said Picard calmly, directing the acting ensign back out the door onto the bridge.
When the pair arrived on the bridge, the shock of what they saw was so great they stood frozen in place, unable to take their stations. Everyone else was exactly where they should be – Worf was at the tactical station, Data was at the science station, and Riker and Troi were in the chairs flanking the captain's seat – the only thing out of place besides the captain and the young Crusher was the massive Romulan warbird looming on the viewscreen. "What the hell?" gasped Picard.