VIII

¡§Starlight Found¡¨

¡§Starlight...starlight found and lost so many times, forever beyond this reach; starlight watching, starlight waiting for hundreds of generations, then slowly, sadly, turning away, to the sea.¡¨[viii]

Will¡¦s book had hit the market.

Beverly, the nurses in sickbay, Geordi, even Data and Picard, had took to using their hard-earned shoreleave to divulge themselves in the book Riker had written, and not one of them could convince Deanna to read the darn thing.

~

Perhaps visiting David onboard the Newton had not been the perfect decision.

¡§Everywhere I look, I seem to be reminded of you.¡¨ He smiled, nervously playing with his coat ¡Vgray, like Will¡¦s had been.

Deanna sighed inaudibly, out of frustration for her own fighting emotions, and maybe even out of pity, for the man she nearly promised her whole life to. She took the seat beside him, in the middle of The Apple, which the senior crew of the Newton had so affectionately named.

He was wearing his uniform ¡Vfour pips and all- and his hair was as immaculate as usual, leaving no room for any sort of imperfection.

¡§Deanna, please reconsider.¡¨

An image of Will ¡Von the day Andy had died- sprang into mind.

¡§David,¡¨ Deanna watched as the tears welled up and her own outlook of the world began to blur. ¡§You know I can¡¦t.¡¨

He turned toward the windows to his right, and then to his shoes, and then back at Deanna, brown eyes ready to flood over the salty droplets of his heart.

¡§I¡¦m sorry.¡¨

He smiled, gently, kissing her hair for the last time he ever would.

¡§I thank you then.¡¨

¡§For what?¡¨

¡§For being you.¡¨

He held her hand, and they sat there for a brief moment, both of them understanding, not angry, nor sad, nor happy.

Just understanding.

~

Starfleet Academy seemed different, but the same.

Life went on here, as it always did, and not even the death of a cadet changed that. They hadn¡¦t known him the way Will ¡Vor even Deanna- had, and it was foolish for her to expect it.

She realized later, when nearing the Medical facilities that that had not been the reason why Deanna had come here. She remembered there being a rather large, wall-sized plaque that had been established a couple of years after she had graduated; the creation of it inspired by the deaths of four young cadets, who had engaged themselves with several ill-tempered Nausicanns, and ended up paying for it with their lives.

So there, in the middle of it all, those who perished in one accident or another, had their names engraved, where they would be remembered forever, immortalized, with lessons to teach to future cadets.

And there, on the bottom of them all, was:

ANDREW M. RIKER

~

¡§Shoreleave went by fast, didn¡¦t it?¡¨

Deanna, Beverly and Picard stood in the middle of Transporter Room 3, on the Enterprise-D, awaiting the arrival of the new first officer that had taken the David¡¦s place.

¡§Yes, yes it did.¡¨ Picard had replied, finding it hard to simply bottle the excitement. ¡§But I look forward to meeting our new first officer, I hear he¡¦s been out of commission for quite some time.¡¨

Oh? ¡§What¡¦s his name?¡¨

¡§Actually,¡¨ Picard answered, in the very French way he always did, ¡§I don¡¦t know.[III] I spoke to Starfleet yesterday, and it turns out, that his father had recommended him for duty.¡¨

¡§Oh?¡¨

¡§Yes, he ¡¥thought it best¡¦ for him. It seems that a family member has just recently passed away, and getting posting again seemed the best way to cope. What I¡¦m curious about is what he did with his time before being assigned, I heard he seems to be quite the accomplished writer.¡¨

Uh oh.

A death in the family? His father¡¦s recommendation? Quite the writer?

¡§Sir, one to beam up.¡¨

UH OH.

¡§Energize.¡¨

And so with a shimmer and a shine, Deanna¡¦s fears were confirmed; when William T. Riker, uniform and all, transformed himself in front of her very eyes.

[III] ¡VI know that this is highly unlikely, but I included it for the sake of the story.