Jean-Luc Picard was standing at the long viewport behind his desk staring out at the stars flashing by at warp speed when Beverly Crusher entered his ready room.

He half turned in her direction as she walked towards him, and even from across the room she could see the melancholy lurking in his eyes. It seemed that Walker's unexpected death was affecting them both deeply. Reluctantly she forced herself to set the thought aside, letting her professionalism kick in to keep her focused on the here and now. "Sir, you wanted to see me?"

The Captain sighed, running a hand over the greying fringe of hair at the back of his head. "Beverly," he said quietly, and she started at his use of her first name, "There's something I need to tell you."

She drew in a quick breath, alarmed by the note of regret in his voice. "About the Horatio?"

He nodded. "Yes. I did see Walker down on Dytallix B. He – said to tell you hello. I couldn't tell you, on the bridge, before. I'm sorry." He finally met her gaze, fearing recrimination, but there was no anger in her eyes, only a deep and profound sadness.

He swallowed and went on, "He as well as Captains Rixx and Scott had a clandestine meeting with me down in the old mining colony. They came to warn me of a conspiracy reaching up to the very highest levels of Starfleet Command."

Beverly stared at him in astonishment. A conspiracy? In Starfleet? The very idea seemed lunatic. But she had known Walker Keel very well, and he wouldn't have called the Enterprise all the way out to a backwater planet like Dytallix B without a very good reason. It appeared the Captain was taking the idea seriously as well. "A conspiracy, sir? Based on what evidence?"

"Walker and the others cited a number of irrational orders, personality changes in Starfleet commanders…and most troublingly, several unexplained deaths. And Lt. Commander Data just found an abnormal pattern in Starfleet's directives and personnel reassignments going back over the past three months that suggests a stealth invasion may be imminent."

"An invasion? And you think the…the destruction of the Horatio has something to do with all this?"

His eyes darkened. "Yes, I do. Walker told me he thought the…subversion…had spread to his own ship. We're on our way to Earth now to try and find out more. I wanted to let you know before I called a meeting of the command staff." Picard returned his gaze to the viewport, the recent events and their implications clearly weighing heavily on him.

"Thank you, sir," Beverly said absently, her mind still reeling with the news. I can't believe this. The idea that their old friend might have been killed to cover up a conspiracy filled her with a sickening blend of outrage and pain. "You know I'll do anything I can to help," she promised.

He nodded slightly without turning around.

First Jack and now Walker, she thought as she watched him in silence. Another one of the men from their past was dead. At one time they had been inseparable, Jack and Walker and the Captain. Jean-Luc. She found she was thinking of him that way again more and more as the days went by. He was older now than she remembered, of course, more distinguished and in many ways even more solitary than the man she knew from Jack's days on the Stargazer, but still the same man.

And now Walker was gone, and Jean-Luc was more isolated than ever.

He had told her when she first arrived that he hoped they would once again become friends. She wanted that more than he knew, and yet, thus far neither one of them had done much to actually make it happen. Perhaps it was time that she took the first step. She searched her mind for an appropriate way to make the overture.

"When this is over, come have a drink with me," she offered finally.

"Pardon?" He looked at her as if the universal translator had suddenly stopped working.

"Once we find out who did this," she repeated, leaning towards him, "I want to go to Ten Forward and make a toast to Walker's memory. Would you join me?"

Without even needing to consider the offer, Jean-Luc nodded gravely. "Yes, I'd like that. I'd like that very much."

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