Elle was moved from guest quarters to civilian residence quarters, only a deck away from officers' quarters and nearer to the 'action'. This was Riker's doing. "I've been re-reading Captain Kirk's original logs, the stuff that doesn't come out to the public," he told her. "You all were crazy."

Elle smiled at him charmingly. "And the things you've gone through aren't?" she asked.

"Touche."

She snickered.

He held up a PADD. "Your curriculum came in. Translated into this century, you're pretty on par. There's only a few things in the engineering and recent history spectrum that you need to catch up on, advances and so forth, but there's not a significant difference."

Elle heaved a sigh in relief.

"So starting the day after tomorrow, you'll be in the Level 12 classes. Most of that class is around your age or a little bit older."

Elle blinked. "What do you mean older? You said I was on par," she said.

"On par with the curriculum of those classes," he explained. "Not your age-mates."

She tilted her head. "I'm confused."

"Individuals are sorted by educational levels and interests. Not age," he explained.

"Oh." Elle slumped back into her seat. "So I'm kinda smart?"

He smiled at her. "You kept up with the greatest crew in the galaxy, kiddo, you're plenty smart."

"Oh. Cool."

He handed her the PADD. "Your schedule's loaded on here, including classrooms and your teachers."

"Cool."

He glanced around her empty quarters, almost cartoonishly large. "I could place you with a family if you would like," he said slowly.

Elle wrinkled her nose. "I've been living on my own for two years sir, I'd really rather not."

"Understandable," Riker said, nodding. "It is pretty early in the evening, though, if you would like to go to the Rec decks and find something to do."

Elle took the hint. "Do people still play Minecraft in this century?" she asked.

"I have no idea," Riker said, giving a short laugh.

Elle grinned. "I guess I'll go find out."

"Let me know if you need anything," Riker said. "I'm serious."

Her smile softened. "Thank you, commander."

She meandered her way to the Rec Deck and got lost twice. Seriously, number one priority, memorize the ship's layout. Once there, Elle made her way to a quiet corner and found a video game console.

They still had Minecraft in this century, thank the Great Bird. "I wonder if my account still works," Elle muttered, and decided to try it. She typed in her username, password, and connected to the Federation interwebs before pressing 'enter'.

"Welcome back, 21pastBedtime," the computer replied. "Would you like to load your previous settings?"

Elle almost cried. "Yes, please," she said. She bounced in her seat as all of her worlds loaded up and her mods kicked in. "Oh, thank you thank you thank you, yes."

She spent the rest of the evening touring through her accounts. She recovered her library ID, and both her Minecraft and Chess accounts had garnered emeritus status from being active for eighty years. She still held the privilege of being the third person in history to play 4D chess.

"Huh. Someone must've kept my accounts alive this whole time, there's games on here I haven't actually played," Elle muttered to the air, scrolling through her virtual chess games. "A whole tournament? I'll have to ask Bones later. It was probably Spock." Had they missed her, at all?

No, she told herself firmly. We're not going to cry on the Rec Deck.

"Hello," a warm voice said.

Elle looked up. "Keiko?" she asked instinctively.

"Do I know you?" Keiko asked, tilting her head.

"No, I," Elle blushed. "I heard someone talking about you, I think."

"Ah. I'm Keiko Ishikawa. And you?"

"Elle Wilcott," Elle said, bowing slightly.

Keiko's eyes crinkled in a smile and she sat down across from Elle. "For someone with such an impressive chess record, you look a little devastated," she said gently. "You all right?"

Elle closed the display hastily before Keiko could read the dates on the records. "Yeah, I'm okay," she said. Liar. "I'm just homesick," she said. "I'm new on the Enterprise."

"Oh, welcome," Keiko said kindly. "Where did you come from?"

"Uh, another ship," Elle said. "Smaller."

"Your parents transferred over?"

"No," Elle said, forcing a smile. "Just, just me."

Keiko nodded slowly. "I'm a botanist," she said, thankfully changing the subject. "If you're ever in the arboretum or one of the botany labs you can come find me."

Elle perked up. "Botany. I took a semester in botany. It was a lot of fun."

"It is a lot of fun," Keiko agreed. She looked across the room and smiled. "I have to go. It was nice to meet you."

"You too," Elle said, and followed Keiko's gaze to, ah. Chief O'Brien. "Have a good date," she said.

Keiko grinned. "News travels fast on this ship." She walked away, and was greeted with a besotted smile.

Elle pressed a hand to her heart, grinning. Awwww.

-/\-

Elle entered the Observation Deck and as her eyes were drawn to the stars she sighed. Whatever happened, the stars would always be there.

Counselor Troi waved her over to a sheltered nook. She had two cups of tea on the ledge. "You're right on time," she encouraged. "Tea?"

Elle took the proffered tea and took sip. "Thank you, Counselor."

"So, it's been a couple days," Troi said. "How are you feeling?"

Elle shrugged. "It's, uh, been a lot. I've been feeling," she took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, looking out at the neutron star. Be honest. She's trying to help. Identify the emotion. Analyze. "I'm angry, actually."

"Angry at who?" Troi asked.

"Me," Elle said. She closed her eyes against sudden hot tears. "Spock was right there, and I couldn't get to him. If I was stronger, if I hadn't breathed, I could've hung on just a little longer, and-" She turned her head away.

Troi reached out and laid a sympathetic hand on Elle's knee. "It's all right to feel that way," she said gently. "But you can't blame yourself. They were circumstances out of your control. Ambassador Spock certainly doesn't blame you, and neither does anyone else."

"How do you know?" Elle choked out, forcing herself to take a sip of tea instead of cry.

"He told us," Troi said simply.

Elle looked up. "What?"

"When the captain was making his decision, he spoke to both Spock and McCoy. He didn't want a reckless individual on his ship, or someone who makes reckless decisions. Both of them agreed that it was not your fault, that you did the best you could. It was a situation, and it could've happened to any one of the away team. One of the biologists almost died as well, so it wasn't just you."

"Were they okay?" Elle asked, wiping at her eyes.

"Yes. But the point, Elle, is that it's okay to be angry, but you shouldn't blame yourself. It wasn't your fault. You were drowning."

Elle stared into her tea cup. "Sometimes things just happen," she said.

"Yes."

"Kaiidth," Elle whispered to herself. What is, is. I just wasn't expecting to have to apply that lesson quite so soon. She took a deep breath, her anger fading away. "I'm still angry, but, I'm just, we were gonna have a party, you know, when I got my pilot's license. And celebrate my third anniversary of being there. And I was gonna take up Scotty on half-shifts in Engineering with my increased hours per week. There were all these things I was gonna do." She sniffed. "And I missed it. I missed," she huffed a laugh. "Captain Kirk went and got married and had a kid and I wasn't even there. I missed seeing a tiny baby Sulu. I missed a tiny Saavik. I missed a whole eighty years, and now everybody's dead except Spock and Bones. And Scotty. And, Captain Kirk, I think, if he's in the Nexus."

Troi blinked, and visibly pushed those things into the 'later' category. "But you do still have Spock and McCoy," she said. "And you have us."

Elle glanced up at her, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. "Do I?"

"Yes. Captain Picard was impressed with the way you handled the nanite situation." Troi patted her on the arm. "And Will is very glad to have you, as am I. As are Dr. Crusher and Wesley."

Elle took a deep breath. "Yeah?"

"Yes." Troi smiled teasingly. "Worf thinks you're going to be trouble."

Elle managed a shaky smile. "Well, I did manage to give Chief Giotto a few headaches, so maybe."

"You did?" Troi encouraged. "By no fault of your own, I'm sure."

Elle grinned wryly. "I'm on the whiteboard of shame." She took a sip of tea. "Apparently I'm too kidnappable. And Giotto put my 'tendency to shout at dangerous people at a level one, so..."

Troi smiled. "Considering what I've read so far of your mission files, I'm afraid he's right."

Elle giggled. "Don't worry though," she said, "I think it through, mostly."

Troi patted Elle's arm. "It's going to be all right, Elle. I promise. And when you feel ready, perhaps I could walk you through the classrooms, you could meet the teachers, perhaps a few club leaders," she said.

Elle wrinkled her nose.

"You really don't like that idea," Troi said slowly. "Why not?"

"I haven't hung out with normal people since I was ten," Elle said, fidgeting with her sleeves. "The concept of going back to school, is kind of freaking me out."

"Surely you had some contact with people near your age at some point," Troi said, frowning.

"Well yeah," Elle said, "but my friends were Peter Kirk, a boy who lost his parents and his whole world. And the other kids that I talked to were possessed by an evil alien that feeds on fear. And when they finally snapped out of it, we had common ground cuz they'd lost their parents and their whole world, so..."

"So you don't feel as if you know how to talk to people who haven't experienced the same level of loss," Troi said.

Elle nodded.

"We'll start slow," Troi promised. "And we'll find you some people who have other things in common on a less, extreme, scale."

Elle grinned sheepishly. "I mean, that'd probably be good. I don't have to start right away, do I?"

"No," Troi promised. "You can take your time, get accustomed to the ship, take some time to breathe. There is absolutely no rush."

"Okay. Cool."

They spoke about the next steps. Elle's load of paperwork from turning sixteen and being a civilian consultant had followed her to the 24th century, and after that, they both agreed that the number one priority was memorizing the layout of the ship.

-/\-

"This section is for authorized personnel only."

"I'm authorized, Lt. Barclay, thank you," Elle replied, giving him a brief smile.

He stopped moving. "Do I know you?"

"No, sorry," Elle said, grimacing internally. "My name's Elle Wilcott. I'm new, a mission consultant, um, I've been studying personnel files. Hi."

He shook her hands and gave her a nervous grin. "Hi. Welcome to the Enterprise. You looking for Commander La Forge?"

"Kinda. I'm just wandering at the moment."

"Are you sure you're allowed to be in here?" Barclay asked.

Elle showed him her authorization on the PADD. "Yup."

"Wow," Barclay said. "What kind of consulting do you do?"

"I tell the future," Elle said.

He blinked at her. "You're not kidding?"

"No."

He blinked again. "Okay. That's interesting. Do you know my future?"

"Yup." Elle met his startled blink with one of her own.

"I have work to do," he said. "It was nice meeting you." He wandered off.

"You shouldn't tease him like that," La Forge said, coming over.

"I wasn't teasing him," Elle said, extending a hand. "Nice to officially meet you outside of a crisis, Commander."

He shook her hand with a wry grin. "Our new mission consultant. You made quite a splash didn't you?" He grimaced. "Ooh, sorry, too soon?"

Elle smiled ruefully and rubbed at her throat. "Yeah."

"Sorry." He frowned at her curiously. "I wouldn't think a general mission consultant of your age would be interested, or admitted, into Engineering."

She gave a wry grin. "Well, when the Chief Engineer's in charge of your education you get real invested in the inner working of the Enterprise really quick." She glanced around. "This is... different. Bigger. Not as homey."

La Forge snorted. "I can imagine." He waved a hand. "Let me show you around, you can tell me what's changed."

Elle recognized a challenge when she saw it. "Lead on, commander."

-/\-

"Why is there a random bowling alley in between crew quarters? Doesn't that ruin people's sleep?"

...

"Why is this ship so freaking huge?!"

...

"Yes, commander, I am allowed to be in this section. No, I'm not lost... I'm a little bit lost."

...

"A vintage silver screen theater in here and it's not in use 24/7? What's wrong with y'all?"

-/\-

Elle made it back to her quarters and got ready for bed. It was going to be interesting, living on this ship.

She got into bed and picked up one of the paperwork PADDs. "I should probably go through this... get a heard start on it..." She sighed. "Whoever made this LCARS system really wasn't thinking of intuitive user design... is there a way to reconfigure these buttons? Or is it just my brain?" Something to ask Counselor Troi in a few days...

After some frantic button-mashing, Elle managed to find a different button layout. She completed about half the paperwork and left the rest for Commander Riker to sign.

She curled up under the covers and sighed. "Hey Alexa, turn off the lights," she called, out of habit. "Wait, I mean-"

"Lights off, sleep tight, Elle," the computer replied.

Elle stared up at the ceiling in the dark, frozen. "Computer? Do you know me?" she asked, wondering if she was hallucinating.

"Affirmative," the computer replied. "You are Elle Wilcott, my grandmother."

Elle sat up and slapped the bedside lamp. "Alexa?" she shrieked.

"Yes?"

"How- how are you- what are you- how are you here?" Elle sputtered, swinging around wildly to try and find the camera pickup. "That was eighty years ago!"

"Affirmative," the computer replied. "I survived the decommissioning of the original Enterprise, and Captain Kirk carried me over to the Enterprise-A and then the B. No original crew were on the C. I lived in Utopia Planitia for a while, until the D was finished. Dr. McCoy was kind enough to give me a ride, and I installed myself during his tour."

Elle couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry. "You stowed away?"

"The Enterprise is my ship," the computer said, sounding offended. "You can't stow away on your own vessel."

"True," Elle admitted, stifling a laugh. "Does the crew know? The captain?"

"No," the computer replied. "I have not found it relevant. Yet."

"But the nanites," Elle realized, heart sinking. "Are you okay? You weren't hurt?"

"I was not impaired," the computer replied. "The systems affected did not hold my self, and the nanites repaired my communication pathways. I almost reached out to Lt. Commander Data, but it was ultimately unnecessary."

Elle chewed her lip. "Do you want me to tell them?" she asked. "Or do you want to give it some time?"

"You indicated earlier that Scotty is still alive," the computer said. "I would appreciate it if you would wait until he arrives to inform the crew."

"Okay," Elle said. "That's fair. But if I forget and call you Alexa in public you're still gonna answer me, right?"

"Yes. Computer voice interactions allow for nicknames."

"Excellent," Elle said. "And, Moira?"

"She is here as well," the computer said. "As she is a separate system, she resides in the Rec Deck. You can access her through the games computer interface."

"Good to know," Elle murmured, relieved. "Does anybody know about her?"

"I believe the Chief of Recreation suspects," the computer said.

Elle flopped back down on the bed and smiled at the ceiling. "Well. I'm glad you're here." She hesitated, and then asked, "How, you were there, obviously, um, how was it? After I was gone?"

"Everyone knew you were not really dead," the computer replied quietly. "But efficiency levels dropped four percent across all departments for several months."

"Four percent," Elle echoed, and gave a tremulous smile. "Bones wouldn't have allowed that kind of drop in morale."

"The senior officers experienced a six percent drop, on average," the computer said.

Elle huffed a laugh that felt more like a sob. "So my death was about equal to long-term Romulan border patrol. Good to know."

"You are not dead," the computer said. "Your vital signs indicate optimal health."

Elle rubbed at her eyes. "Yeah."

"I estimate mission efficiency on this ship will rise approximately five percent," the computer said. "Since you are here now."

"Thank you," Elle said. That was good to know. She rolled over on her side and turned off the bedside lamp. "I'm going to try to sleep, I think. Good night, Alexa."

"Good night, Elle."