The next morning, Beverly showered quickly and changed, preparing to meet her friends for breakfast and discuss the recording her and Tafton had procured after Mina had ruined the Stargazer reception for Beverly a few days earlier. She finished straightening the covers on her bed and afforded herself one final glance in her mirror though she was running late already. As she looked herself over, she noticed the red light on her PADD flashing, indicating that she had received a communiqué. Sighing, she picked up the device and listened to the voice.
"Cadet Howard, this is Captain Jean Luc Picard. I was contacting you in regards to the message I had sent to Admiral Parsons last night. I am hoping that everything has worked out well, and that and punishment you may have incurred has been nullified. Please feel free to send word if there are any problems." His voice cut out abruptly and her stomach filled with the uncertain nausea again. Overnight, sleep had pushed away the sensations that the warmth and closeness of the vineyard had created and she had not thought of the Captain again until now.
She knew she must put a stop to this foolish nonsense. Jack was waiting for her now, a warm smile upon his face, she was certain, and a soft kiss upon his lips. His arms were where she truly belonged, and though she believed this with the majority of her heart, there was a spot that wondered if that belief were nothing more than a fallacy, a fanciful illusion brought on by the hardships of the past few days. Perhaps she had needed someone to turn to, and Jack had been there. Perhaps now she was mistaking the feeling of comfort for something more, something deeper. Or perhaps the opposite was true. She really was falling in love with Jack Crusher, truly falling in love for the first time and the walls surrounding her heart5 were warning her to repress these feelings, to push them back. Perhaps what she felt towards Captain Picard was comfort of a different kind; the certain knowledge that nothing serious could come of such an affair.
She began to feel a bit better. Besides, herself and Picard? What was she thinking? For all his kindness and desirable qualities he was somewhat of a stiff. A man devoid of passion for anything other than his career, or so she had heard. Moreover, he was old enough to be her…well, older than she liked at least. She nodded in affirmation to herself, but still could not quite find the strength to leave her quarters. She need another moment. Just a little more time to sit and mull over the ramifications of what might have been and what might become. Perhaps if she could thoroughly convince herself that everything was okay she would be able to convince everyone else as well.
Slowly, she placed her head in her hands and sank back onto the bed. Confusion and loneliness washed over her in violent waves. She took a deep breath. Before she could do anything, she had to pull herself together.
* * *
"Where is she," Jack questioned Walker for the fifth time that morning. Beverly was three minutes late for their scheduled rendezvous, and Jack was already bent out of shape.
"She's probably fluffing her hair or something. you know how women are. They think that perfection is the only thing acceptable to our side of the species."
"Yeah," Lennie agreed. "They always yell at you for being late, but they thinks it's fashionable to spend an extra hour primping themselves to see you."
"I once dated a girl who refused to let me into her quarters and left me standing in the corridor for forty-five minutes. Her roommate told me later that my date had been staring into a mirror the entire time, picking apart every imperfection she could find. I didn't notice anything wrong, though," Scott added.
"Well, boys, I hate to break up the woman bashing but I think we had better get started with or without Beverly. Korbin's parents are coming to visit this afternoon, and I have some serious cleaning to do in my quarters if I want them to pass tomorrow's inspection," Tafton interrupted.
Jack sighed as Walker pulled him over to the table. "Don't worry," said Keel. "She'll show up. If she don't, you can stop by her room and find out what's up. Maybe she's sick or something."
"maybe she was expelled," said Jack.
Tafton's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "Now that the sunny side of the universe has been heard from, can we please get this meeting started." Finding no objection other than Crusher's forlorn sighs, she continued. "We all know what happened to Beverly the night of the Stargazer reception. After the incident, I accompanied her back to her quarters with my handy little voice recorder and waited outside. you wouldn't believe how easy it was to make Mina spill her guts. you'd think she was proud of all the nasty things she's done."
Tafton reached over and pushed the "play" button. At once, an obnoxious voice spewed forth:
"Oh, poor Beverly. It looks like you spilled something on your pretty dress. What a shame that you would have to leave so early. Oops, I forgot. I guess you would have had to anyway, with what your little curfew and all."
"Like you didn't know all about what happened to my dress. You were there, remember you conniving little sneak."
"Oh, well then I suppose I was. Clever how I 'accidentally' toppled the drink tray onto you, wasn't it?"
"Some people might think so, but if you ask me it's nothing to be surprised at. After what you did to my data PADD in Jarcock's class, nothing could possibly surprise me. I'm just waiting to see what depths of evil you'll go to next."
"The way I cheated on that exam was nothing. Changing access codes and switching PADDS? That's grammar school. How do you think I got accepted to the Academy in the first place? you don't think I actually worked at it to earn my way in here, do you? I'm not exactly what you would call Starfleet material. I hacked into the systems there, downloaded what I needed to know, switched scores and times, and made up a personality profile test to be administered that best suited the most desirable qualities that I possessed. I found the answers to every question I had come across, and entered them into memory files in my PADD that could not be detected and that were erase proof. The only reason I'm even here is because I had the technology to arrange it to be so. That and my natural um 'charm'."
"So you really are nothing but a phony?"
"That's right. Everything that they think I am is an illusion of what I could be. alas, I never applied myself. But what for? When it comes so easy why should I make it hard?"
"There are things like honor and duty and loyalty. those are some reasons you might want to consider the next time you choose to ruin the lives of others. What about all of those people you beat out of a spot in the Academy? What about the people who were more deserving than you because they not only had the desire, they had the dedication and determination. What about me? I was almost expelled because you wanted to slide by without putting any effort into it."
"What about it? History is filled with account of people who were nothing but giant fronts created by those working behind them. Think of how many people in the past were nothing, but made you believe they were really something. There are more people in this world that have the spoils others deserve than that get what they truly deserve. Why should I do all of the work when I can get all of the glory? Such are the lies that history tells us to believe in."
"But why ruin my dress? Why spread lies about me and constantly make me feel badly about myself?"
"Simple. I don't like you. I don't like anyone who's justly self-righteous"
"At least when I go to bed at night I can sleep knowing that everything I am and everything I do is good and honest and real."
"If that's what matters to you, then so be it. What matters to me is being the best, or appearing to be so. No matter what the cost. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get some rest."
Tafton stopped the whirring of the machine as the others stared silently. It was Korbin who broke the silence. "I think we can call off the search for evidence. If you ask me, she's guilty as sin."