They made it to the planet Koin the next day. Elle invited herself to the conference room for the general briefing and sat next to Commander Riker, who handed her a raspberry danish. "Aw yiss," Elle whispered under her breath.

Lt. Marla Aster led the briefing. "The planet Koin, or as we like to call it, Pocket Change. We were gonna call it Common Greek but that was vetoed for being too niche."

Picard snorted.

Lt. Aster grinned and continued, "This planet is distinguished by having two separate races on it, one physical like ours, and one composed of energy beings. The humanoid civilization disappeared thousands of years ago, but they left behind enough for us to study. The energy beings, while we haven't had direct contact with them, have not interfered or commented on any Federation expeditions, so for now, we're taking it as a sign of their tacit approval."

"How do we know that these energy beings are not the same civilization that ascended to a higher form?" Riker asked.

"We have found evidence of the two civilizations coexisting, the humanoids called them 'our neighbors'. So far the Federation has studied three different sites. Our target site has only been explored through sensor probe. We are hoping to personally survey those areas with an away team, focusing on building an idea of their culture." She pointed out an underground area. "We think that these underground tunnels were either storage or bunker areas."

"Tunnels," Picard said. "Do we know where they lead?"

Lt. Aster shook her head. "No sir. At least two of them dead-end into large artificial caverns, but there are another ten we haven't managed to explore yet."

Elle frowned. "Koin," she said slowly, and chewed on her pastry. "Tunnels..."

Riker glanced at her sharply. "Elle?"

Elle swallowed. "Lt. Aster, do you have a kid?"

The question barely threw her. "Yes, Jeremy, he's 12. Why? Do you know him?"

The pieces clicked. Elle winced. "Uhhhh, because there are hidden bombs in those tunnels, and I don't think you want to lead the expedition."

Riker, Picard, and Data flinched. "You're not saying..."

"Uh-huh."

Lt. Aster looked from one face to the other, and then to her fellow archaeologists. "Captain?" she asked.

"I will not allow an away team unless sensors and a security team have cleared the tunnels," Picard said firmly.

"Captain, these tunnels have not been inhabited for over a thousand years. And any explosives couldn't have been contained for that long, or remained active... could they?"

Elle shook her head. "We can't take the risk. You didn't notice them until one went off."

"Let's not be hasty," Picard said. "I would hate to lose anyone because of hidden traps."

"Understood," Lt. Aster replied. "In that case may I suggest..."

The briefing was dismissed to let Data and Lt. Aster go over the site with sensors and a fine-tooth comb.

Riker kept Elle in the conference room. "In the episode, did she die?" he asked.

Elle nodded slowly.

Riker winced. "That's the last thing we need. Thank you."

Elle offered a crooked smile. "That's my job."

-/\-

"What do you mean there's nothing?"

"We haven't found a single explosive thing down there in those tunnels," Lt. Aster said.

Elle held up her PADD. "Research suggests that the Koinonians destroyed themselves through civil war, what if they were rigged to only respond to organic matter?"

"They would have to be still active," Data said.

"So beam down a pack of lunch meat and see what happens," Elle suggested.

Lt. Aster smiled in spite of herself. "A pack of lunch meat?"

"Why not?" Elle said. "Nobody eats those things anyways."

"Worth a try," Riker said. "Mr. Data?"

Data went and found some meat nobody was eating from the deli mess hall, and everyone waited on the bridge while Chief O'Brien beamed it down to the sensor probe.

The sensor probe made its way down the tunnel, tootling back a cheerful data stream of information, and then turned around a bend. It portrayed a view of the tunnel, moved forward two feet, and then the entire viewscreen went up with a flash of light. The datastream stopped dead.

"Tunnel collapsed," Elle observed, from the Enterprise's sensors.

"That could've been us," Lt. Aster said, shaken.

"It almost was us," Lt. Kabanec, another archaeologist, said, shuddering. He turned to Elle. "How did you know?"

"I've watched a lot of Indiana Jones," Elle said, grinning. "Don't you know ancient tunnels are always booby-trapped?"

"After this I'd have to say you're not wrong," he said dryly.

"We can't go down there unless all the tunnels have been cleared," Lt. Aster determined. "But we can't just keep sweeping the tunnels with sensor probes and open packs of Spam, or the entire site will collapse and destroy everything."

"Perhaps a solution will be found in the sensor data we recorded as the explosion happened," Data suggested.

"Or we could try and make contact with the other inhabitations of Pocket Change," Elle pointed out.

Lt. Aster blinked. "No previous team has been able to make contact. We don't even know if they're still there, or if they've moved on to another planet or another dimension."

"They're still there," Elle said. "We just have to figure out how to get their attention."

"And then what?" Lt. Kabanec asked. "Ask them politely, 'Hey, could you tell us where the rest of the bombs are and how to disarm them, thanks'?"

"Well, they feel bad about their previous housemates killing themselves, so yeah probably."

"How do you even know that?" Kabanec asked. "Where are you getting your information from?"

"It's in the script," Elle replied, deadpan.

-/\-

The Enterprise stayed in orbit another entire day, barraging the planet Koin with greetings, requests for communication, video messages explaining the sensor probes, and requests for assistance in all known languages, frequencies, and transmission attempts. Another sensor probe loaded with video and audio greetings went down to scope out the situation.

It was almost dinner time. Elle considered going to the mess hall and coming back, but she didn't want to miss any-

"Sir I'm reading a massive energy burst from the surface," Wesley said suddenly, interrupting Elle's internal monologue of tamales versus grilled cheese. "It's originating from our sensor probe and coming directly towards-"

There was a flash of blue light, and a shapeless glowing humanoid figure stood on the bridge. Intruder alert began to blare, promptly silenced by Data. The glowing humanoid gazed at them for a long second, and then morphed into the general features of Counselor Troi. "Greetings," the being said.

"Greetings," Captain Picard said cautiously. "You are one of the natives of Koin?"

"Yes," the being said. "We heard your communication and I was able to come to you in this form."

"Thank you for speaking with us," Captain Picard said. "It's about the bombs."

Elle felt like she was a tennis match, switching her gaze raptly from Captain Picard and the energy being from Koin as they spoke about the past physical civilization and the bombs they had left in the tunnels.

"Of course, we have no wish to see anyone else brought to harm," the energy being said. "We will show you how to find each of them, and how to disarm them."

"Why have you never done it yourselves?" Elle asked, before her brain-to-mouth filter could catch the thought.

The being's attention switched to her, and the translucent features arranged themselves into a gentle smile. "Because we are not of this physical dimension. We cannot change things, not like you can." The smile faded, and the glow increased. "You were the one who called us. You knew we were there."

"I guessed," Elle said.

"You knew," the being said.

"Yes," Elle admitted. "I'm glad you can help us."

"We are glad, as well," the being said. "If you wish to study the ruins and learn from our counterparts' mistakes, we will aid you."

"Thank you," Picard said.

The being vanished. "We will send you a message," came a faint, final thought.

Riker opened his mouth, closed it again. "Well that happened," he said finally.

-/\-

"So in the original timeline, Lt. Aster was supposed to die, and the being, or one of the beings, was going to try and kidnap Jeremy Aster to keep him from feeling any grief?" Wesley asked.

"Yeah." Elle leaned back against the chair. "But Captain Picard gave this great speech about how we have to feel our sorrows or else we lose our humanity, or something, and then you tell Jeremy that it's okay to feel angry, and the being goes home and Worf ceremonially adopts Jeremy or something. I didn't pay attention to that part."

"That's, wow," Wesley said. "So you saved her life. Lt. Aster's."

Elle shifted uncomfortably. "I mean, I guess, yeah. Maybe she was never going to die in the first place but it was more dramatic to kill a single mom, I don't know."

Wesley frowned. "And you, you know about how my dad died?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

Elle glanced at him and then glanced away again, uncomfortable. "You don't, still hate the captain for what happened right?"

"No," Wesley blurted, "no, no I don't hate him. Haven't been angry at him in a long time."

"Okay. Good. Sorry. Just had to check."

"Yeah." Wesley fidgeted. "What about you?"

She snorted. "Why would I hate Captain Picard?"

He jostled her elbow. "You know what I mean," he said. "Your parents. Both sets."

Elle sighed. "Who'm'I gonna hate, Wes? Myself? The element of carbon monoxide? A non-sentient whale-shark thing? I hate that it happened, twice, but I mean, hate's not gonna do anything but hurt, and I have a lot more productive emotions to work with."

"Sounds very Vulcan of you," Wesley said.

"Thanks. I've been working on it for two years." Elle sighed. "I really miss my mom."

"You can borrow mine," Wesley offered. "She keeps trying to hug me."

Elle huffed a laugh. "If you're going to travel the galaxy like I think you will, you'd better stock up on mom-hugs." She stood up before she could start giving away spoilers. "Anyway. I've gotta go eat something."

"Yeah. I'm going to go talk to Jeremy Aster, maybe."

Elle went to her quarters, ate a bowl of ice cream for dinner (thank the Great Bird for nutritionally complete replicator meals), and just as she was licking the bowl clean (no reason to waste food), the long-distance comm signal went off.

She jumped over to her desk and switched on the comm channel. "Hello?" she asked, when confronted with an old man in his nineties. "Can I help you?"

He stared at her. "It is you," he said, amazed. "I thought Uncle Jim was kidding."

Uncle Jim... "Peter?" Elle screeched, leaning forward. "Peter Kirk?"

"Elle," he said, hazel eyes twinkling in a very Jim-like way. "It really is you."

"You're so old!"

"You're so young."

They stared at each other for a long few seconds, Elle unable to look away from Peter's wrinkled features.

"Didn't Admiral McCoy tell you I was going to call?" Peter asked.

"Yes, but, I wasn't expecting-" Elle waved a hand, "it didn't occur to me that you'd be old."

"I'm not that old, Elle, most people live into their 120's."

"Okay, still, but you're older than both my actual grandparents, that's so weird," Elle said. "Hi."

He smiled. "Hi. How's the 24th century treating you so far?"

"Good, good," Elle said uncertainly. "I like the holodeck."

"Good."

It was awkward again. Peter Kirk lifted a hand to push a strand of hair off his face.

Elle spotted the wedding ring. "You got married?" she asked.

"I did, yes." He grinned. "You know how you told me to learn about Klingon customs?"

"You married a Klingon?" Elle asked, delighted. "For real?"

"For real," he confirmed. "We met in the Diplomatic Corps and, well. Had four kids, now I have grandkids, in about seven months I'm going to have a great-grandkid."

"Wow," Elle whispered. She tilted her head, slowly putting the dots together. "One of your kids, or grandkids, is Spock's third protege?"

Peter grinned. "Yes. My youngest daughter, an ambassador."

"Do you have pictures?" Elle asked eagerly. "Your wedding? The family? The farm? Who has the farm?"

"David does," Peter said, "but we get together once in a while. My youngest grandaughter wants to be a cheesemaker, so they're on Earth quite a lot." He leaned forward. "But enough about my ramblings. How did you get here? Are you still on episode knowledge? Anything interesting happen?"

They talked until Peter had to go, and he promised to send her pictures and videos of his family. "Bye, Elle. Talk to you soon."

"Bye, Peter."

-/\-

After taking a shower, Elle proceeded to Holodeck D-7, which was simply known as the Simulation Room. It was used for drills, simulations, recertifications, and other things that went on official logs.

She entered the miniature holodeck, and found Wesley already waiting for her in a facsimile of the Enterprise's bridge. "Whoa, trippy," Elle said, walking down the ramp to the helm. "Man, holotechnology is so cool, I don't think I'll ever get used to it."

Wesley grinned. "The only thing this simulation can't do is run the actual ship. Everything else, just like flying in real life." He patted the seat. "Go on. We can walk through the interface and you can start on some standard maneuvers."

The LCARS was a bit of a learning curve, but a starship could only move in so many different ways.

"Eighty hours and you'll be coming for my job," Wesley joked. "I'll have to move to engineering full time."

"Unless you go to the academy," Elle replied, looping the "Enterprise" through the "solar system".

"I can't wait to get my hands on that sublight dogfighting simulation," Wesley said wistfully. "I bet if I got my hands on it I could apply it to all kinds of different ships."

Elle smacked her hand on the 'pause' button and turned to face him. "Hey," she said sharply. "Don't get cocky."

He stared at her in surprise.

"I'm serious," Elle pressed. "There's a reason they stuck to one simulation that doesn't even count for a passing grade - it's dangerous."

"Yeah, but-"

"No!" Elle said, standing up to face him, a terrible realization forming in her mind. "That's how it happens at the academy... of course Nova Squadron would have access to it..."

"Nova Squadron?" Wesley asked.

She grabbed his shoulders. "Listen," she said urgently. "I need to tell you about what happens to you at the academy in the show."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Wesley said uneasily.

"Do you want to be responsible for the deaths of your classmates?" Elle asked.

"What? No!"

"Then shut up and listen to me."

Slowly, she recounted the events at the academy with the Tom Paris-that-was and the Nova Squadron. Lying, cheating, the whole shebang. Wesley was white as a sheet by the time she finished talking about his ultimately leaving Star Fleet to go with the Traveler.

"That's, crazy, I wouldn't- I would never-" he protested feebly.

"You would though," Elle said, folding her arms to look at him. "If it was offered to you. The chance to travel through the dimensions, or the multiverse, or wherever the Traveler hangs out."

"Wouldn't you?" Wesley asked.

"Of course," Elle replied. "But the point is, you're not a multi-dimensional being. You're a human, a vividly hallucinating blob of electric meat, on a ship, soon to be a vividly hallucinating blob of electric meat on a planet full of other blobs whose hallucinations of this thing called reality is just as complex and valid as yours. And your life isn't worth any more than anyone else's."

"Way to kill a guy's ego," Wesley said, chagrined.

"What you need," Elle said dryly, "is friends your own age."

"Says the one with social anxiety."

"Yes. Exactly. I know what I'm talking about, Mr. Crush-on-the-first-Reckless-Cadet-he-meets. You had no experience with scoundrels and look where that got you."

"I haven't done anything bad yet!" he protested.

"Hopefully you never will," Elle retorted.

They regarded each other for a long moment.

He sighed. "I don't want anyone to be hurt," he said. "That's all."

She unfolded her arms. "Good. Me either. That's why I told you."

Another long moment passed, and Wesley said, "So, uh, same time tomorrow? There's a good evasive maneuvers simulation."

"Sure," Elle said, agreeing to his peace offering.