Elnor went to bed thinking about Deanna's advice. He felt like they had a positive exchange. He had never really wondered why he addressed Picard as he did. "Picard" felt as much a full and complete name to him as his own name. But now he knew he needed to ask and that he and Picard needed to come to some agreement. Part of him knew the agreement would not be him calling Picard "father". No matter how either of them felt, that didn't seem like an option. He didn't know how they would resolve this, but he knew Deanna was right that they should at least discuss the matter. Now he had even more on his mind than what to cook for dinner. He wished he could keep a pet at Starfleet Academy. Candor's warm presence and rumbling, soothing purr would be most welcome right now. Elnor sighed and resolved to ask the computer about seafood dishes in the morning. At least if he served some type of fish for dinner, he could be certain Candor would appreciate it. He smiled at the memory of how the cat had acted when Laris brought out the fresh baked salmon. Visions of the black cat and Deanna Troi merged in his mind as he fell asleep.

Before his first class in the morning, Elnor queried the computer about seafood dishes. The possibilities seemed endless and bewildering. Deanna had said to keep it simple. Nothing he was looking at seemed simple. Maybe Nathan would have some thoughts on the matter. He would at least know far more about Earth food than Elnor did.

His Tuesday classes passed in a blur of activity. Starfleet Academy certainly believed in keeping its cadets busy, Elnor thought. The nuns, while allowing some time for fun and play, weren't known for allowing anyone to slack off either, though, so "busy" was something he was used to. After his last class, he headed once again to the ancient oak tree to meet Nathan. Today, among the crowd of students gathered under the tree's shade, he spotted Nathan chatting with a tall girl with long, wavy red hair. Elnor refrained from rolling his eyes. Did his friend ever think about anything except girls? Was this normal human behavior? And how was Nathan passing his classes? As soon as Elnor thought that last part, he knew it wasn't fair. Having Nathan as his lab partner in xenobiology was definitely an asset. His friend was brilliant or he wouldn't be here. Starfleet only accepted the best. Sometimes he wondered about his own qualifications to be here, but so far he hadn't found the academic studies to be too onerous. In fact, he found most of what he was learning to be fascinating. He only wished they had something new to offer in one-on-one combat. He was starting to feel sorry for his instructor in that class.

Once again, he positioned himself off to the side, out of the crowd, but within Nathan's line of sight.

Nathan spotted him within moments and called out, "Elnor! Come on over!", while gesturing with his arm. Elnor didn't see many choices except to obey. Sure, he could turn and walk away, but that would be exceedingly rude. With a great deal of trepidation, Elnor made his way over to where Nathan stood with the tall, red haired girl. Nathan seemed pleased with himself. For some reason that worried Elnor even more. "Elnor, may I introduce Sabrina?" With a slight nod towards him, Nathan turned back to the girl, "Sabrina, this is my friend I was telling you about, Elnor." Uh-oh. Nathan had been telling a girl about him. This couldn't be good.

Sabrina smiled at Elnor and held out her hand as she said, "I'm so very pleased to meet you, Elnor. Nathan has been telling me wonderful things about you!" Elnor knew enough about Earth customs now to know to shake her hand. He thought hand-shaking was a very strange custom, but everyone seemed to do it except Vulcans. Elnor thought Vulcans were pretty smart to have completely refused to engage in the custom right from the beginning. Then again, they had the excuse of being touch telepaths. He had no such excuse. He shook Sabrina's hand as he said, "Uhhh, he has?" Okay, not the most brilliant thing to say. Why did his brain freeze up around girls? He had been raised by a group composed entirely of women, after all. However, he had always known that none of them, even the ones his own age who were in training to become Qowat Milat, were potential mates. This was entirely different, and he hadn't yet wrapped his mind around what Nathan called "dating." Fortunately, Sabrina seemed capable of carrying on the conversation with a minimum of awkwardness. "Oh yes, he has!", she continued enthusiastically. Then, with a note of sympathy in her voice, she added, "It must be so very hard being the only Romulan in all of Starfleet."

"Technically," Elnor said, "I'm not the only Romulan. Other people with Romulan ancestry, even some half-Romulans, are in or have been in Starfleet." He decided not to mention Commodore Oh who had turned out to be a spy and a traitor of the worst sort.

"That's true," agreed Sabrina, "but it's not like you have your own social club. I mean, there are enough Andorians, Tellurites, and Denobulans here at the Academy to have their own clubs, to get together to share foods from their home planets and relax in the company of others who know their customs." She eyed Elnor speculatively, "You don't have that do you?"

"No," agreed Elnor, "but then again, I was a child during the evacuation. I didn't grow up on Romulus or any other world composed entirely of Romulans." He really did not want to mention the Qowat Milat or have to explain his background further, so he simply said, "I'm used to being in the minority. I'm sure I won't be the only full Romulan in Starfleet Academy for long."

Feeling he had endured enough chitchat and sympathy, Elnor decided to extract himself from this conversation with or without Nathan. He nodded his head to Sabrina and said, "If you would excuse me, I do need to be going."

Sabrina gave him a bright smile. "It was very nice meeting you, Elnor. I hope we'll meet again."

"I'm sure we will," he nodded again, thinking to himself, especially if Nathan has anything to do with it. He caught Nathan's eye as he worked his way out of the crowd of students. He was used to Nathan having a wide range of dating partners, but he really wished his friend would stop trying to pull him into doing the same. He was halfway to the mess hall before Nathan caught up with him.

"Dude! What was that all about? I introduce you to a very nice girl, who, by the way, is also beautiful and very interested in you, and you blow her off?" Elnor hoped Nathan wasn't as outraged as he seemed, but he wasn't feeling especially patient right now himself.

"How many times do I have to tell you? This is my first semester here. I've never been around many people my own age. I don't feel comfortable 'dating' yet! I didn't even know what dating was until you told me! I'd really like some time to adjust to the idea and decide if it's right for me. Will you please stop trying to push me into this?" The stormy look on Elnor's face conveyed the idea that this last was not a request.

Nathan held his hands up in a pacifying attitude. "Okay, okay, man, I won't do that again. It's just that. . ."

Elnor stopped walking and turned to face his friend. "It's just that. . . what?" he prompted, his anger still clear on his face.

"Did you see the girl I was talking with yesterday?"

"Yes." She had been kind of hard to not notice,

"Well. . . ," Nathan continued somewhat reluctantly, "she and Sabrina are close friends. Their rooms are right next to each other even. And she won't go out with me unless I can set Sabrina up with you."

Elnor's jaw muscles moved in the side of his face as he clenched his teeth. He looked up at the sky avoiding Nathan's gaze and didn't say a word.

Nathan was pretty sure his friend's silence wasn't agreement, but decided to continue anyway. "It's called double dating. You and I go out, Cherie comes along as my date and Sabrina as your date. There's nothing to it! The four of us stay together the whole time. We could just go off-campus one night, maybe to that Humble Pie pizza place. After we eat, we walk them back to their rooms and then we leave. Is that too much to ask?"

When Nathan put it that way, it didn't seem like such a big deal. The problem was, Elnor knew it wouldn't end there. If he agreed to go on a date once, his friend would never stop setting him up with potential partners. He needed his friend's advice though, and he was pretty sure this time he was going to have to give something in return.

He looked back down meeting Nathan's eyes. "Maybe." he said.

Nathan was nothing if not persistent. "Maybe? That's the best you can do? Maybe? I'm not asking you to fight your way through a roomful of angry Cardassians."

"I would probably prefer that. Fighting is something I know how to do."

Nathan sighed, not fully comprehending that Elnor was completely serious. "Come on, man. You've got to learn how to interact with other people socially sometime. Just this once? Please?"

Elnor gave in, but he pinned his friend with a stern look and poked him hard in the chest with a pointed finger. "Just this once. And not this week! Perhaps not next week either. I have too many other things on my mind."

If Nathan had been a few years younger he would have given in to his inner child and jumped up and down with glee. As it was, he clapped his friend on the shoulder and said, "Okay, not this week. But can we try really hard to make it next week? I really like Cherie and don't want her to find someone else. Two weeks might be too long to wait!"

Personally, Elnor thought that if Cherie couldn't wait two weeks to go out with Nathan then her feelings for him must not be very strong. Nor did he understand this insistence that her friend must come along and that no one else would do as Sabrina's date except him. Sabrina didn't even know him! What kind of games did these young people on Earth play? He wasn't sure he wanted to find out.

"Let's see how this week and my weekend go," Elnor said. "Next week might work, but I really can't commit to that yet."

Knowing he'd pushed as hard as he could, Nathan decided to let it go. Instead, he said, "Oh yeah, your big weekend dinner plans. How is that coming along?"

"Not as well as I would like. Last night I called Picard's shipmates from the Enterprise, Deanna Troi and Will Riker, and asked for their advice."

Nathan whistled. "Man, you do know those people are like living legends, don't you? And you just called them up out of the blue?"

Elnor hadn't thought of them as living legends. He had thought of them as friends of Picard who might know what Picard most liked to eat. Thinking back to his talk with them, they hadn't seemed like living legends. Then again, how were living legends supposed to act? To Nathan, he said, "Yes, I was nervous at first, but they were very nice to me. Especially Deanna."

Nathan's eyes were huge. "Deanna? You're on a first name basis with her now?"

"Well, she objected to me calling her 'Mrs. Troi', so what else was I supposed to call her? Anyway, we had a very nice talk, but they couldn't offer me much advice about dinner. Deanna did say that she thinks Picard might be fond of seafood. She also said to keep it simple, not to try anything that was very difficult to make. But I queried the computer about seafood dishes this morning and nothing it showed me looked simple at all! You know a lot more about Earth foods than I do. Do you know of any seafood dinner that would be easy to make?"

"Oh, that one's easy!" said Nathan. "Lobster!"

"Lobster? What is that?"

"That my dear friend," he said as he draped his arm over Elnor's shoulder and steered him towards the mess hall, "is one of the most delectable, delicious, seafood dinners ever! And what's even better is that it's easy to cook! The only thing is, it has to be fresh. After dinner, I can help you find a lobster fisherman in France. You can arrange to have the lobsters delivered to your door within a few hours of when you plan to have dinner. No problem! It'll be really easy!"

"Easy is good, when it comes to my cooking," Elnor replied.

"Okay then, it's settled. Stop worrying about it and start having some fun!"

Elnor worried about Nathan's idea of fun. It generally tended to involve lots of students and alcohol. Ever since his first taste of fiery alcohol Elnor hadn't been keen to try the experiment again. Overall, he thought it was best to steer clear of some of Nathan's ideas of fun. Maybe he could talk his friend into hang gliding again instead. Now that was fun!

Elnor switched subjects back to safer ground. "So how does one acquire this lobster and prepare it for serving?"

"Oh, that's simple!" replied Nathan, "First we find a lobster fisherman. It would probably be cheaper to find one operating as close to La Barre as possible. Tell him what you want, when and where, and he'll have the freshest possible lobsters delivered right when you say. In a nice, clear aluminum tank, too, but that'll cost a few extra credits."

Elnor, who hadn't had to deal much with money, had no idea what Nathan was talking about. The confused look on his face said it all. "Ummm, costs, credits, I really don't know how that works. Various things worked on Vashti, but none of the same rules seem to apply here. I don't even know if I have anything that passes for money here."

"Of course you do! Oh, wait, you're not a Federation citizen. Surely someone has made some provisions for you as a cadet at Starfleet Academy. We'll look into that after dinner, too."

Back in Elnor's quarters after they'd eaten, Nathan pulled a second chair close to the computer terminal. "Okay, first of all, let's what you have in terms of credits."

Elnor had questions first. "Isn't everything in the Federation supposed to be free? I read all the mission reports from the Enterprise when Picard was captain and in one of them, if I'm recalling correctly, they traveled to the past and met a famous person named Samuel Clemens. Deanna told him the Federation didn't deal with money, that everyone has what they need. So what are credits but a form of money?"

Nathan sighed. This was going to take more explaining than he'd thought. He rocked his chair back on its back legs and put his arms behind his head, "Okay, Deanna was right in that no one needs money now and everyone's needs are met. Everyone has a decent place to live, access to replicators for food and clothing, any medical care they might need. No one is going hungry or homeless or sick from treatable illnesses like what I've read about happening in previous centuries. But then there's having your needs met and having your wants met. Having your wants met costs credits."

Elnor was paying close attention. Too often on Vashti people went hungry or without proper clothing. If there had been a public food replicator free for all to use, what more than a full belly of their chosen food could someone have wanted?

"Can you explain to me the difference between needs and wants?"

"Hmmm, say next week when we take Cherie and Sabrina. . ."

"Maybe next week. I said maybe, depending on what else I have going on."

Nathan ignored Elnor's interruption, ". . .to the pizza place, that's a want. We could easily all four of us eat together in the mess hall. For that matter, we could order anything we wanted from a food replicator right here on campus. But going to Humble Pie is for the experience, for the ambiance, for the way the place is decorated and the music. It's for doing something different than the same old things. That's what credits are for. That's why it cost credits to go eat pizza at Humble Pie when we could very well eat pizza for free here on campus."

Elnor had that wary look on his face that said he thought he was about to get ripped off. "So let me get this right, we're going to go to a place and pay to eat something we could eat for free here?"

"Don't worry about it, dude. If that's a problem for you, I'll pay for all of us. But trust me, once you've experienced it, you'll understand why."

A part of Elnor thought he should feel bad that his friend had just offered to pay for all of them, but another part of him thought that was only fair since the whole thing had been Nathan's idea in the first place. Elnor still didn't really want to go.

"Anyway," Nathan continued, "back to the question of credits. If you were a Federation citizen, you would automatically be allocated a certain number of credits each month just for existing. The government understands that people want to have some of their wants fulfilled, as well as their needs. But since you're not a citizen, let's see what you have."

Elnor watched closely as Nathan queried the computer to find out if he had a credits account. The computer prompted Elnor to create a password and prove he was Elnor A quick facial and thumbprint scan by the computer verified his identity.

"Oh! Okay, you're sitting pretty well actually. It looks like you do get a monthly stipend for attending the Academy. It's not much, but it would cover a few meals off-campus each month. Also, it looks like someone, my guess would be Picard, set this account up for you and put some into it to start with. And, since you didn't know you had it," Nathan laughed about that, "you've not spent anything from it."

"How does one spend anything from it?" Elnor asked.

"Tomorrow, go to a replicator and ask for a credit chit. It'll ask you to verify your identity just like the computer did tonight. You tell it how many credits you want put on the chit. It's that simple. But don't put more than you plan to use soon on the chit. If you lose it or someone steals it from you, it might be gone. The chit is keyed for use only by you, but some people know how to get around that."

"Okay. This is good to know. So I'll have enough to buy the lobster and a few other things to go with it."

"Oh, definitely! I wouldn't try to buy a flyer if I were you, but the next hang gliding session is on you, buddy!"

"Definitely!" Elnor agreed. He felt somewhat chagrined that he hadn't even realized that hang gliding sessions cost or that his friend had paid for it. He had been too busy taking in the struts of light metal and spans of colorful fabric that would be holding him aloft in the air. Now that was his idea of fun and something he wanted to do again soon!

He'd spent many hours on Vashti watching the birds with enormous wing-spans soar effortlessly in the skies, wondering how it felt and what the birds could see from their high vantage points. Hang gliding, he was almost certain, must be the closest humans could come to experiencing what the birds did. He would be forever grateful to Nathan for introducing him to that experience.

Nathan punched him on the arm, "Hey, buddy, where'd you go?"

Elnor's attention snapped back to the interior of his dorm room. "Sorry. I was thinking about hang gliding." With sudden inspiration, he asked, "Do you think you could talk Cherie and Sabrina into doing that instead of eating pizza?" An advantage Elnor had just realized was that the need for conversation would be eliminated. Any chance for close physical proximity would be gone, too. In fact, he could completely ignore the others except to avoid crashing into them. Elnor was liking this idea much better.

Nathan dashed his hopes with an emphatic, "No."

As he got up to go, Nathan did offer, "I'll help you get those lobsters ordered on Friday though, if you'd like?"

"Yes, please," Elnor gratefully accepted. "That would be a huge help."