Maya concentrated on mastering the appliances in her quarters. She explored thoroughly and found that the wardrobe, built into the bedroom wall, was filled with clothes in her size. There was underwear in the drawers and a pair of pyjamas folded under the single sheet that covered the bed, and there were fresh sticks and pots of make-up laid out on a shelf underneath a mirror. Someone had clearly taken care to see that she wanted for nothing while she was here.
In the living room there was a computer access point with a wide screen, and she played around with it while she waited for Riker to return. It was a considerable advance on the rudimentary computers on Alpha. On the other hand, she was in total control of the Alphan system. In the two years she had been there, she had rebuilt the network with the help of the computer engineers and she was proud of the increase in power and efficiency that she had effected in what she had once thought were primitive calculating machines. She had really achieved something on Alpha, and earned the respect of cynical engineers as well as her own research staff. Now, in a way, it would all have been for nothing.
She had to meet Captain Picard. She would do so professionally, as science officer of Moonbase Alpha, even though she no longer had her uniform to give her that identity. She went back to the wardrobe and chose an outfit that was more formal and sober than the soft flowing dress Dr Crusher had provided her with, and seemed to approximate to the tight-fitting uniform the crew of the ship wore. Then she tied up her hair - there was a supply of ingenious flexible bands on the dressing-table shelf - and put on some make-up. When she studied the result in the mirror she felt more in control.
Commander Riker noticed the transformation with a flick of his eyes down her body, and another frank gaze at her face. Irritated, Maya felt herself quivering on the verge of turning into someone old and ugly.
In contrast, Captain Picard greeted her with natural courtesy and shook her hand formally. Commander Riker had taken her to a room that she supposed was used for personnel briefings. It had a long conference table that looked like polished wood, and a wall of space windows.
"I'm very glad to see that you've recovered," said the Captain.
Maya was just about to take the seat that he offered her when she looked again at the space windows, and saw to her astonishment that the stars were streaming by like running water.
"It's a beautiful sight, isn't it," said the Captain.
"How fast are we going?"
"Warp eight - I'm not sure how to translate that into units that would fall within your frame of reference, perhaps my chief engineer Mr La Forge or operations manager Mr Data will be more informative."
"You'll meet them when we do our tour of the ship," said Commander Riker.
"I wanted to appraise you formally of the situation as soon as possible," the Captain continued, sitting at the head of the table. "And, perhaps in a more informal manner, find out something from you about Moonbase Alpha. Would you like something to drink - some tea, perhaps?"
Out of politeness Maya assented, and the Captain fetched it himself from a replicator at the end of the room. For some reason Maya had started to feel nervous, though she kept her face impassive. Without thinking, she glanced sideways at Commander Riker. He was watching her with a steady, friendly expression, and gave her an encouraging smile.
"You must understand what this means to everyone from Earth," said the Captain, setting two glasses of a hot pale fragrant drink on the table. "Our original moon was lost four hundred years ago, and it's haunted the collective consciousness of humanity ever since. We built a replacement in the twenty-second century - at the time it was the largest astro-engineering project ever undertaken - but the image of the moon is something so deeply embedded in our literature, and in our language - people on Earth are going to be very moved when they know that it's been found."
"I'd never thought about that," said Maya. "To me, it's just an asteroid, an inhospitable wasteland of rock. Our home is Alpha itself - the base."
"How long did you say it's been in your time since the breakaway from Earth orbit?"
"Nearly six years. I've been with them for two."
"And how have you survived?"
"Very well on the whole," said Maya, feeling slightly defensive in the midst of the luxury around her. "Alpha was designed to be self-sustaining. We have a hydroponics division that grows enough food to sustain us, and our atmosphere and water is recycled very efficiently. We're short of some mineral resources, but we scavenge what we can from passing asteroids and space wreckage. Our fusion generators how enough fuel to last for thousands of years, and we have a fleet of small spacecraft called Eagles for exploratory missions. The only major disadvantage we have is that we can't control the moon's course, so we have to go where it takes us and we can't avoid obstacles. We've been through several spacewarps - I suppose that's how we came to be so far adrift in space and time."
"Very far adrift indeed," said the Captain. "I have to tell you that you are almost on the edge of the known galaxy. If the moon is on course to drift past Lifeboat 898 then it is heading into an empty region of space. You were very lucky to find us. The only reason the Enterprise is in this region of space is that we came to officiate at the wedding of Federation Ambassador Trewhella and the Princess Amarantha of the planet Lanthenon. Lanthenon has only just joined the Federation and we need to re-inforce our relationship, particularly at the first intermarriage between their Royal House and a Federation official from Earth."
"Have I taken the Enterprise away from the wedding?"
"No - fortunately - we had already scheduled a two-week scientific exploration mission while we were in this remote sector. We've abandoned that instead. I just wanted to explain to you that once we've evacuated Moonbase Alpha, we will have to prioritise going to Lanthenon before we take your colleagues back to Earth - if that's where they want to go."
"That's where they've always wanted to go," said Maya.
"How about you?" Commander Riker asked.
Maya looked at him. His voice was different from the Captain's calm, impersonal tone. "I don't have a home," she said to him. "Alpha is my home, and that's over now."
She had a moment of bleakness as she realised that she had just put into words the undefined unease that had been troubling her.
"I'm sorry," said Commander Riker, perfectly sincerely, still meeting her eyes.
Captain Picard said nothing but watched her gravely, his fingertips poised together.
Maya bit it back and suddenly felt better, and smiled slightly at Commander Riker. "We would have lived the rest of our lives, grown old and died drifting in empty space. There's nothing to be sorry for."
Once the briefing was over, Maya felt that she had established herself and spoken for the Alphans as best she could. The oppressive feeling had lifted. Commander Riker took her to a communal area for lunch.
"This is the forward section of Deck Ten," he explained, showing her the breathtaking view from a whole curving wall of space windows. "That's why we call it Ten Forward. It's one of the Enterprise's main social areas. It's quiet at lunchtime, but it comes alive in the evening."
"We have communal eating areas on Alpha too." Maya thought about the low-ceilinged underground canteen, with its bare white tables and cracking plastic chairs laid out in rows, where she had eaten so many lunches of soya burgers and baked starch with Tony. She wondered, with a pang, what he was doing now. Eating there alone?
It probably wasn't even lunchtime on Alpha. For all she knew it could be the middle of the night. She had lost track of time completely.
"Hamburger and fries?" said Commander Riker, coming back to the table with a tray of food. "I wasn't sure what you'd be used to eating on Alpha. I asked them at the bar for a traditional twentieth century meal."
"It looks delicious. Really, you mustn't all worry so much, I don't care what I eat. Living on Alphan hydroponics for two years has made my tastebuds immune."
"That's appalling. I'm going to re-awaken them for you. Food is one of life's great pleasures, intellectual as well as sensual."
"In what sense is food intellectual?"
"The cuisine of any culture tells you almost everything about the people. Klingons, for example, like their food still to be moving. The Japanese tradition on Earth lays out the freshest ingredients in flower-like, tiny patterns. This - " He took a hearty bite of the hamburger - "says to me that in the twentieth century they liked fat too much. I'll get you something better for dinner."
"No, this is nice," said Maya. "But I'm always ready to try something new."
What Commander Riker called a lightning tour of the ship took up the rest of the day. Maya forgot her self-consciousness entirely in her admiration and fascination. Up to now she had gained a general impression of spaciousness and luxury, but when Commander Riker took her to see the bridge, the cargo holds, the computer core, the holodecks and the engine rooms she saw what a feat of technology and engineering the Enterprise was. She was awed by the warp drive in particular, as it was an achievement that scientists on her own world had failed to attain.
"I would love to study the theory," she said to the chief engineer. Like everyone she had met on the Enterprise, he was pleasant and forthcoming and he took evident pleasure in showing her the depths of the ship.
"The theory's simple enough," he said. "Matter and anti-matter propulsion. How's your physics?"
"Comprehensive, I used to think. But now I see there must be large gaps in my knowledge."
"Nobody can be an expert on everything."
"Maybe not, but I would like to know the basics."
"You'll soon catch up. What's your subject anyway?"
"Well, I was an expert on biological computers, but the Alphans have nothing approaching that technology."
The chief engineer, whom Commander Riker called Geordi, blew through his teeth. "These things exist but that sort of research is illegal in the Federation. It's not considered ethical."
"It depends how it's done," said Maya, feeling defensive again. "But to be honest, on my world biological matter had the specific property of molecular transmutability, so we could do things with it that simply can't be done with life-forms that have evolved elsewhere. My knowledge in that field is useless now."
"No knowledge is useless - ever!" said Geordi. "There's someone I bet you'd love to meet."
Maya tensed at the prospect of being introduced to yet someone else, but Commander Riker hit the communications badge on his chest and asked for a Mr Data to report to Engineering immediately. When he appeared, she was at once taken off her guard. He was not human. When she touched his hand in greeting, she could sense that his composition was entirely non-organic. It was both disconcerting and in a strange way reassuring to be appraised by a creature that looked like a male human, but gave off no kind of aura.
"You're not - " she began in surprise, but broke off as she wondered how to be tactful.
"I am not human, you are correct," said Data, in a perfectly natural tone. "I am an android. Although my form closely resembles a human body, I am composed of mechanical, cybernetic and positronic components, with regulatory biochemical lubricants. Captain Picard has suggested you may find me interesting, and I would be willing to let you examine me at any convenient time."
"Thank you," said Maya, at a loss. "Do you - are you sentient?"
"I am sentient. My positronic brain is in some ways superior to a human's, being able to perform trillions of calculations every second like any computer, but I am not able to experience emotion."
"That's very interesting. How do you know you're not experiencing emotions?"
"All my observations of human behaviour have led me to the conclusion that I do not."
"That must be rather nice in some ways."
"No," said Data, promptly. "I perceive it as a lack, and I work constantly towards attaining a more human perspective. I have duties today to which I must attend, but if you would like to discuss these matters further I would be pleased to make an appointment with you."
"Yes, thank you, I'd like that very much."
After they had left the engineering section, Maya asked Commander Riker, "Do you have many of these androids on your ship?"
"No, Data's unique. He wasn't made by the Federation, he was the lifework of a maverick scientist who lived in isolation on a colonial world. He's considered a sentient being and he serves in Starfleet as an officer in his own right."
"That's fascinating. Particularly so to me - you see, when I touched Data's hand, I felt nothing, as if he were an inanimate object, and yet he spoke and reacted to me like a human being."
"What do you mean, you felt nothing? Are you telepathic, or empathic in some way?"
"Oh no, not in the sense of knowing what's going on in other people's minds - but I can sense the pattern of living cells and forms, and that sometimes edges into an intuition about things like emotion - usually only on touch, though."
"I can often tell what people are feeling when I touch them," said Commander Riker. "It's amazing."
Maya glanced sideways at him as they walked, almost amused but feeling she ought not to be.
He left her for an hour before dinner to attend to some necessary duties, but he showed her the entertainment options on the console. The Enterprise's library, which could be accessed directly from the console onto the screen, contained music, books and films from hundreds of different worlds.
"It can search intelligently," he said. "If you don't know what you're looking for, you can say, 'I'd like to see a light-hearted film, not set on Earth, with an upbeat ending and no violence', and it'll give you a list of suggestions."
Maya browsed through the catalogues, sampling snatches of music and dialogue here and there and searching for the things she already knew. She was comforted to find the touchstones of familiarity. All the books, plays and music that she had learned to enjoy on Alpha were here, intact and instantly accessible. When Commander Riker came to fetch her for dinner, she was skimming through later episodes of a serial drama that had not finished its run before the moon left Earth orbit. She flicked this off-screen rather guiltily.
He had changed out of his uniform into what were evidently casual clothes. Clearly he was now off-duty. "I thought we could go somewhere less busy than Ten-Forward," he said. "It gets crowded around this time. There's a restaurant on Deck Twelve run by a real chef - I think most of the ingredients are replicated but he puts the dishes together himself."
"Is this an appropriate thing to wear?"
"People tend to dress up to go there."
"Okay. Hang on a moment." She left him in the living room and rifled through the wardrobe in the bedroom. She found a long blue dress which looked elegant, but when she put it on she realised it had a deep plunging neckline. Anxious not to keep him waiting, she decided it would do, found a pair of high-heeled silver shoes to match, and pulled out the bands in her hair. It tumbled everywhere untidily. She could make it appear in any elaborate arrangement she chose in an instant, but then to maintain it would require a slight continuous mental effort and it would only revert to its true state of disarray in about an hour. She ran a brush through it and caught half of it up in a hairband, and hurried back through.
"Very nice," he said, and of course his eyes found her cleavage. But only once; and he kept his hands clasped behind his back as he led her to Deck Twelve. Some men tried to come into the space around her, usually without realising they were doing it. Maya disliked this more than being looked at, because people on Psychon had been more respectful of each other's persons and did not engage in physical contact much unless the circumstances were appropriate. She tried not to overreact to a friendly hand on the arm, but she often froze inside.
Commander Riker, however, radiated so much energy from his large frame that she felt that she was the one in danger of invading his space. He made no attempt to touch her.
The restaurant was a small, tastefully-decorated room, with tables in screened enclaves. It had a private atmosphere which made Maya relax. No-one else dining in the restaurant paid any attention to them.
"This is nice," she said, as he pulled the chair out for her; another gentlemanly gesture.
"It's my favourite place to eat, when I have company. Did you enjoy seeing the ship?"
"Yes, very much, it's all extremely impressive."
"How about the entertainments bank? Did you find anything interesting?"
"It's all interesting. Moonbase Alpha has a library similar to it, though not so sophisticated in its access mechanism, of course. I've spent a good deal of time researching Earth literature, watching Earth films and trying to understand Earth music."
"Do you have any particular difficulty with Earth music?"
"Yes, on Psychon we had a very different concept of music, and we had nothing like the variety of instruments and richness of forms that you have. I have a friend who introduced me to Italian opera, and I love that."
"Verdi and Puccini?"
"Yes!
You know about it then? I thought it might all have been forgotten
about by now."
"Of course not. There's an opera group
on the Enterprise - they put on all sorts of shows. Would you like to
see one?"
"Yes, I would."
"I'll see what I can do. One evening, I might treat you to some of my own trombone playing. Or how about a movie? They have a late show every other night at the holo movie theatre. Watching movies on the flat screen is nothing compared to experiencing them in the theatre."
"Aren't you off duty? I seem to have taken up all of your time today."
"It's a pleasure," he said, sounding quite sincere.
Maya was beginning to feel that she had been ungracious in her earlier cynical interpretation of his intentions. She studied the menu card that the waiter brought them; pressing her thumb on the corner activated streams of words on the decorated slide. The names of the dishes meant nothing to her.
"May I order for you?" said Commander Riker. "I said I wanted to reawaken your tastebuds, and you said were ready to try something new."
"All right." Maya laid down the card in some relief.
When the waiter returned, he held a technical conversation with him about the origins of a rabbit and the merits of a preparation called a soufflé.
"Commander Riker," said Maya, taking her courage after the waiter had left them alone, " I appreciate how kind you've been today, but I don't want to take you away from your duties any longer."
"That's no problem. Until we reach Moonbase Alpha, you are my main duty."
"But I must have some way to occupy my time. Isn't there some work you could give me to do?"
"What do you mean, work?"
"Well, do your computers need attention, can I help in one of your research departments - anything at all?"
He looked down into his drink as if considering, and then met her eyes with a serious expression. "The Enterprise is fully crewed."
"There must be something I could do somewhere."
"I don't know how to say this without seeming insulting, or sounding patronising, but being assigned to the Enterprise is usually the biggest step forward in a Starfleet officer's career. We have over one thousand exceptionally well qualified and experienced people on this ship - "
"So - you don't need me," said Maya, cutting across him, mortified.
"Don't think of it like that. This isn't your ship anyway. Have a holiday."
"A holiday!"
"You seem to me like someone who hasn't had a holiday for a long time."
"We don't have holidays on Alpha. We have days off-duty, but there's nowhere to go on holiday to."
"I guess not. What do you do with your days off-duty?"
"Generally, I study Earth culture."
"That sounds like work too. What do you do to relax?"
"Lots of things. I enjoy our Alphan amateur theatre - we have one too - I listen to music - "
"Italian opera?"
"Among other things - I read a lot, I spend time with my friends - but work is very important to me. Now that you're going to evacuate Moonbase Alpha I have, in effect, lost my job. How can I have a holiday when I've nothing to go back to?" She had to keep a rising panic out of her voice.
Commander Riker leaned across the table, his eyes still serious. "Maya," he said, gently, "the Federation will do everything it can to help you and the other Alphans readjust."
"But I'm not from Earth, I'm not one of your people."
"That will make no difference. Please believe me."
The first course arrived. It was arranged on the plate like a work of art, vegetables and slivers of fish radiating like petals from a mound of garnish.
"Tell me about your commander," he said, attacking the food with no reverence for its artistic appearance.
"Commander Koenig? He's a strong leader and a good man. I have the greatest admiration for him."
"He must have the loyalty of the crew, still to be in command after six years in circumstances like yours."
"All the Alphans are extremely loyal to him. I don't think we could have survived this long without his leadership. He inspires people."
"I guessed he did. I'll look forward to meeting him. How is morale on the base?"
"Generally very good. To you it must seem an odd thing, but to be honest most of the Alphans have adjusted to the situation they're in. As far as I'm concerned, the way I was living before wasn't very much different, except that there were fewer people."
"Fewer people? Fewer than three hundred?"
"Psychon, my homeworld, became uninhabitable. Over the space of two years those of us that were left had to retreat into an underground research establishment on the southern continent, which was once a government laboratory. In the end, everyone left on spaceships, except my father and I."
"On spaceships? You said you didn't have warp drives."
"No, but drifting into unknown space at sub-light speeds was a better hope than dying with the planet."
"What happened to them?"
"I have no idea."
"And why did you stay?"
"My father was working on a project to restore the planet, to halt and reverse the geophysical instability by matter transmutation. I stayed to help him, and because I couldn't leave him."
"Is your father on Moonbase Alpha now?"
"No - he was killed when the plant disintegrated. I was the only survivor."
Commander Riker had finished his starter in a few rapid mouthfuls, and laid the fork down. His hands were laced together and he was watching her intently, but without discomfort. "I'm sorry," he said again, in the same frank manner. "Does it bother you, talking about this?"
Maya considered, listening to her slightly accelerated heartbeat. She was shivering a little, but the pain was still distant and dull. It was getting better. "No. I don't want to pretend Psychon or my family never existed. So if someone asks, I have to tell them."
"You never found out what happened to the rest of your people?"
"No."
"I guess you haven't had the resources to search for them, stranded on Moonbase Alpha."
Maya shook her head.
The main course arrived. It was a dish of rabbit, real rabbit from Earth, boned and carved to look nothing like the animal it had once been, served in a pool of creamy aromatic sauce. Glistening vegetables came on a separate dish. Maya saw, watching Commander Riker, that one helped oneself and put them on the main plate with the meat.
He took a quick mouthful of rabbit and nodded. "Some people say the replicator doesn't do justice to meat. I'm afraid I can't tell the difference."
"I would imagine that the complex cell structure of animal organisms would be more challenging for a mechanical device to perfect."
"Did you have replicators on your world?"
"No, not like this, but we had a similair transmutational technology. Our machines couldn't reproduce living forms from non-living matter either. There was a whole branch of metaphysics which tried to understand the definition of life and the distinction between living and non-living things - we had a word for it but I don't think there's a translation."
She found herself talking a surprising length about the metaphysical science of alazancon, which she had read round but never studied in depth, and from there to the general subject of using biological components in computers and machines. She realised, by the time they finished a sweet airy concoction called a soufflé and were drinking small cups of bitter coffee, that she had talked more freely and discursively about these things than she had for years. It wasn't that the Alphans weren't interested in hearing about the work she had done on Psychon, but she was always aware that their own level of knowledge was so far behind the basis of hers that it was impossible not to trip and stumble over every concept. They regarded her as a kind of miracle worker. Even the Commander, for whom she had a fervent respect, was amazed by her simplest calculations and conclusions. Maya knew she was bright, and she had always studied and worked hard, but equally she knew she was no real genius as her father had been. It was unexpectedly refreshing to be with someone who was more on a level with her, and who had plainly told her that there were hundreds of people on this very ship better qualified than her.
She felt stimulated, and more relaxed than she could possibly have anticipated that morning. Commander Riker escorted her to her quarters through corridors that were now dimmed to simulate night-time, and said goodnight with another polite half-bow.
Her head buzzing pleasantly, she went straight to bed and forgot to be afraid. It was only when she had already turned out the light that she remembered, and fear crept to the edges of the darkness. She hated going to bed alone.
Determined not to be weak and turn up the lights again, she covered her eyes with her arm and concentrated on all the interesting things she had seen and learned today. She tried to imagine the pleasure that the Alphans would feel when they in turn saw the Enterprise. But it was no good; the longing that she had been staving off all day was filling her now, in the lonely darkness. She wanted Tony.
She wished that there had been an opportunity to say something to him more privately, when they had spoken briefly and briskly on the subspace link. But they had been surrounded by people, and anyway he would just have made a joke of it. And so would she.
