Author's Note: The dialogue herein, except for the three lines at the end, was written by Kacey Arnold-Ince and Jeri Taylor.


Beverly Crusher's shift had officially ended hours ago but she still haunted the bridge, waiting for news.

Wesley and Jean-Luc were missing. Their shuttle had inexplicably failed to arrive at the mining settlement on Pentarus V, and the diversion of the Enterprise to the Gamelan system meant that they had lagged far behind in the search for the missing craft. Even now that they were on the hunt the situation still looked bleak. There was no sign of the shuttle, no energy signature, no trail to follow, nothing.

Beverly clung to the fact that, so far, there was no actual, physical evidence that they were dead. But there was no evidence that they were alive, either, and the latter possibility was becoming more and more remote with each passing moment.

She was glad Deanna wasn't on the bridge with them, that she was spared the empath's kind words and sympathetic gaze. She didn't need sympathy right now. What she needed was to hear that the two people she loved most in the universe were alive and well down on one of the planets below them.

Inexorably her thoughts turned to Wesley – her beautiful, precocious boy. A young man now, really, soon to be heading off to Starfleet Academy, just like Jack. She was so proud of him. He was so smart, so gifted…and so much like his father. He still had his whole life ahead of him.

And Jean-Luc – he was her CO and her friend, and yet at the same time he was so much more. He was the one man who had made her feel alive since Jack died. The one man she was drawn to not only physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. Who made it seem possible to imagine, on quiet nights in the darkness of her quarters, that she might not spend the rest of her life alone.

Where are they?

It was the not knowing that was the worst. She was caught – trapped, like a fly in amber – half way between hope and despair.

The Enterprise sat at the last known location of the shuttlecraft, performing her own scans of the area. Beverly's heart clenched the moment Commander Data reported that his instruments were detecting significant elements of debris. She struggled to fight back the rising tide of fear that threatened to sweep her under.

"Are you certain?" acting-Captain Riker asked, moving to stand behind Data at the operations console. Geordi La Forge flanked him on the other side, lending his engineering expertise.

"It is definitely debris," Data reported, still scanning the area in question. "The primary material is duranium, with smaller proportions of sonomite and vermanium."

"Most shuttlecraft hulls are made of duranium," La Forge noted.

That was it. The blow had fallen. The shuttlecraft had been destroyed. Oh god, no. Wesley, Jean-Luc – "Then they're gone," Beverly said flatly. As the import of her words began to sink in her knees threatened to give way beneath her, and only sheer force of will kept her upright.

"Not necessarily, Doctor," Data replied over his shoulder. "There is far too little debris to account for an entire shuttlecraft."

Beverly's heart began to beat again. There was still hope. As the initial sheer, crushing sense of loss began to fade, input from her surroundings gradually trickled back into her consciousness as the bridge officers around her discussed the possibility that the shuttle had crash-landed on one of nearby moons.

"Set a course, Ensign," Riker commanded. "We'll search each one in turn."

As Data nodded, Will's eyes fixed on Beverly's. "We'll find them. No matter how long it takes."

She forced herself to nod in response. We'll find them. We have to. She clung to the thought with all the stubbornness that was in her nature.

Because the alternative was too terrible to even contemplate.

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