As he stood in the hanger control room watching as the saucer was gently tugged inside, Commodore Geordi La Forge was unable to resist the urge to move forwards and look at the primary hull of a Galaxy-class starship. A slow smile crept over his face as he watched the familiar, great, silver-white disc be tractored back slowly before coming to a stop.

"I'm taking a shuttle to overfly the saucer," Geordi told his assistant, Renshaw.

"The shuttle's prepared, sir," Renshaw told him. "Are you sure you don't need a pilot?"

"Quite sure, but thanks," Geordi smiled back.

Renshaw grinned back, then he looked shy. "Sir, would it be okay if I came with you? It's just I've heard a great deal about the Enterprise D; the encounter at Farpoint, the Aldeans, the first contact with the Q and the Borg, and the discovery of the ancient DNA seeded on different worlds. I would love to see it."

Geordi was torn when he heard the question. A part of him just wanted to refuse Renshaw's request and go out on his own so then he could be lost in his memories, but at the same time if he had somebody else with him onboard the shuttle, then he could swap stories like Scotty had after the Enterprise D rescued his pattern from the Jenolen's transporter after she'd crashed on the Dyson sphere…

"Okay, you can come," Geordi said.

"Thanks, sir."

Geordi La Forge, as befitting his role as a Starfleet officer, even as a high-ranking one, was constantly taking fresh courses just to freshen up on the newest shuttles. The fleet museum shuttle collection had several shuttles, ranging from 22nd-century shuttle pods to 23rd-century Galileo class shuttles which were standing issue on the old Constitution-class ships. They even had a Delta Flyer mark two design in the collection, along with the entire surviving complement from USS Voyager.

But for Geordi, his personal favourite would always be one of the shuttles from the Enterprise D. When he had first met Scotty, the legendary engineer from the 23rd century had been a fish out of water, lost in time like Rip Van Winkle, Geordi had quickly become frustrated by Scotty's never-ending stories and presence. It wasn't until the mess at Veridian 3 where Data's emotion chip had been used against him and how the Duras sisters had placed a probe in his VISOR when he'd been their prisoner to allow them to spy on the ship, Geordi had gained a greater understanding of the grief Scotty had felt for the loss of the original Enterprise during the battle above the Genesis Planet.

The shuttle they used was one of the newest models, and they glided on low impulse power towards the saucer section. The saucer had been removed from Veridian 3 because of the Prime Directive. The ship had been destroyed but thanks to their efforts, and the sacrifice of the returned James T. Kirk who'd worked with Jean-Luc Picard to stop Soran from destroying the star and getting back to the Nexus, and his family, an entire pre-industrial society had been saved. But sooner or later they would have developed the scientific knowledge and engineering skill needed to get into space and would reach the other worlds in their system and they would have found the saucer of the Enterprise D on the planet. The technology of the ship, damaged though it was, would have greatly accelerated their development, for better or worse.

It was against the Prime Directive, so Starfleet had worked quickly and they'd moved the saucer to the Fleet museum where it would then be fully repaired and put on display. There had been no plan for restoration of the Enterprise D. There was hardly any point, as Starfleet had ruled it out and the commissioning of the Enterprise E was put into order.

"It's still stained with soil," Renshaw commented as they overflew the saucer.

Geordi nodded as he leaned forward. The saucer of the once magnificent Galaxy-class starship was scuffed and showed signs of the battering it had taken during the crash. He shuddered as he remembered the little girl who'd lost her teddy bear, the same kid he'd carried away from the secondary hull after the Duras sister's Bird of Prey had smashed their defences to bits, and how the crash had taken forever, and so many lives had been lost.

"They didn't see the point of cleaning it since it was considered a good sign of the ship's history. Besides, as far as they were concerned, the ship was never going to be reconnected to another star drive section, so what was the point?" Geordi tried to say it as nonchalantly as he could, but he wasn't able to pull it off.

Renshaw glanced at him curiously out of the corner of his eye. Geordi noticed the look of worry on the younger man's face. "Didn't they restore the life-support systems?"

"Yeah, they did. That was because of the visitors, but beyond that the ship is no longer meant to fly," Geordi was unable to hide the sadness in his voice.

"You miss her, don't you?"

Geordi was angry with the question. He felt it was a pointless thing to ask since he was making it extremely clear, but he didn't let his anger show. "More than you could imagine. I spent seven incredible and difficult years on that ship," he shook his head as he thought about the things he had seen, the events he'd witnessed and was a part of, and the people he'd met, the friends he'd made to say nothing of the enemies that he'd made. "If you meet someone like Will Riker, he would tell you point blank that he missed his days on the Enterprise D. I think, with her loss, the galaxy became a lot less kind."

Renshaw nodded. "The Dominion War, and the Borg."

"Among other things," Geordi replied as he also thought about the mess with Shinzon. "Don't get me wrong; I loved the Sovereign class Enterprise E, but as a old friend of mine said, when he'd described the loss of the ship he'd worked on most of his life, this is the only one I miss."

He meant every word he'd said. While he had enjoyed his time on the Enterprise E, it was marred by the never-ending battles and conflicts from the Borg's attempt to travel back into the past, the skirmishes of the Dominion War and the frustration so many among the crew felt when they found they were not going to be fighting on the front lines that often like the First Battle of Chin'Toka, Operation Retrieve concocted by Captain Sisko to recapture Deep Space Nine which would have been a bonus since they could have spent some time with Worf, and the final days of the war before that mess with Shinzon.

"When we were on this ship, we ran into discovery after discovery. That's what being a Starfleet officer is all about. Making discoveries in the name of scientific truth and exploration. Y'know, Renshaw," Geordi added, "sometimes I wish the Caretaker had thrown Enterprise and Voyager into the Delta Quadrant together. While Admiral Janeway and Admiral Picard had different ways of doing things, we would have made so many different discoveries between us both, but if we'd done that, Earth might have been lost and the Ba'Ku's world might have been harvested by the Son'a."

Renshaw listened with some astonishment. "You mean that?"

"We didn't have many exploratory or scientific expeditions for years," Geordi said bluntly. "I signed up to protect the Federation but primarily because I wanted to see the galaxy. And believe me, I sometimes think Admiral Picard would have wanted to see the Delta Quadrant and the hostile races there instead of fighting a war waged by xenophobic shapeshifters." Changing the subject, Geordi calmly guided the shuttle over the Enterprise-D's saucer. "Now, what do you wanna know? I'm here, and I've got 7 years' worth of memories to tell you," he grinned.

Renshaw brightened, delighted that the subject was changed.

Xxxx

As the years passed, Geordi La Forge moved on with his plans to rebuild the Enterprise D. He'd gotten the idea in his head out of nostalgia. He had spent so many hours sitting in a shuttlecraft hovering just above the saucer of the Enterprise D, remembering all of the good old days, and how he wished there was more than just a saucer.

Then it had occurred to him. The fleet museum had so many industrial works and fabrication facilities, complete with the plans for the construction of a new star drive section that would work.

Geordi knew the idea was mad. But he couldn't get the days of the Enterprise D out of his mind, and he also knew if Scotty had the means and the remains of even a chunk of his old Enterprise, the Scottish engineer would have spent the rest of his life rebuilding the ship. He wouldn't have cared about his career if it meant getting his ship back. And now Geordi was doing the same.

It took Geordi 20 years to work on the Galaxy-class ship. The Galaxy class were going out of service, so getting many of the parts was relatively easy. To his delight, he was able to find a Galaxy-class star drive section without too much trouble. It was one of the survivors of the Dominion War. A hulk that had been badly damaged during the fighting and then cannibalised for parts when spares were scarce, but it was a start. It had just taken so long for him to repair that section of the ship, especially since the warp nacelles had been destroyed in one of the battles.

But slowly and surely, with the help of engineers like B'Elanna Torres, he was able to restore both sections of the Enterprise D and he'd worked on restoring the ship to its original, classic state before the final refit which was lost at Veridian 3. The star drive recovered had only been refitted a few times and was one of the original Galaxy-class ships launched, so restoring that was not a problem. Getting the components were. The galaxy was moving away from this design as newer, more sophisticated starships took the place of ships like the Enterprise D.

When the new warp engines were installed, Geordi had taken the ship out with a small crew to test them. When he had heard the familiar hum of power, Geordi had grinned in delight at the sound of the warp engines.

The USS Enterprise D was once more back in space!