A soft chime woke her up. "Computer, cancel alarm and reset," Elle groaned, rolling over. She could skip gym today.

The chime rang again.

Elle opened her eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. Everything came rushing back and she groaned. It was the doorbell, not the morning alarm. "Come in!" she hollered.

She dragged herself out of bed and met Counselor Troi in the living area. "Hi, sorry, Counselor, I forgot to set an alarm."

"No problem," Troi assured her.

"Give me five minutes," Elle said. She dashed back to her room, washed her face, changed into yesterday's clothes, and tied her hair away from her face. She reached for her absent meal card and froze. "Wait." She walked out. "Do we use meal cards in this century?"

"No, everything is tracked by voiceprint."

"Oh." Elle shrugged. "I'm ready then."

Troi led the way. "Did you sleep well?" she asked.

"Well enough," Elle replied. "I'm just, it's a lot of dejavu, you know." Elle couldn't help a wry little laugh. "Alone in the future, with nothing but my bones and a tricorder that's eighty years out of date. I didn't even get a nasty divorce, I just-" She stalled on the word.

"Almost died?" Troi finished gently.

"Yeah. That."

"And yet you prefer to stay here rather than go somewhere safe like Vulcan or Earth?"

"Where is safe?" Elle asked, half-rhetorical. "I could get hit by a car, er, shuttle, easier there than I could here, I'll tell you that."

The ship jolted violently, pitching them both into the nearest wall. Elle hit the edge of the doorjamb with her leg and braced herself in spite of the pain. Yup, that was definitely gonna bruise. Ow, ow ow.

Finally the shaking stopped and Elle flopped to the deck. She picked herself up and helped Troi to her feet. "Speaking of getting hit," Elle griped, "what was that?"

Troi frowned. "Let's get you to Ten-Forward and find out."

They entered the lounge and picked their way around people who were heading out to various stations. They went to the bar and Elle sat on a stool.

Guinan, she of the wide hats and wise advice, glided over. "Welcome to Ten-Forward," she said, giving Elle a small smile. "You look much better than yesterday."

"Oh yeah," Elle said, blushing. "Sorry about the, um, everything." You wouldn't even know that somebody had almost died of drowning in the middle of the deck. Couldn't even tell.

"I think you were entitled," Guinan replied lightly. "I've heard a lot about you."

Elle blushed harder. "Really? From who?"

"Oh, you know." Guinan turned to look at Troi. "If you need to get to the bridge, Elle can stay with me."

"Thank you, Guinan." Troi looked at Elle. "You remember your cabin number?"

"Deck 32 Section G Number 15," Elle recited. "I'm okay."

"All right, I'll see you later." She hurried off.

Guinan produced a teapot and two cups from somewhere and poured. "Jasmine green tea," she said.

Elle inhaled the fragrant steam and took a sip. "Oh, that's really good."

Guinan smiled. "I'm glad you like it."

They sat for a while, sipping tea, and Elle managed to pretend it was just another morning.

"Would you like a toasted bagel sandwich?"

"I'd love one."

"I thought so." Guinan moved off to the replicator. A moment later it spit out a black chunk of something definitely-not-a-bagel. "Hm." She tapped her commbadge. "Guinan to maintenance, Replicator 2 in Ten-Forward is malfunctioning."

"So's every other replicator on the ship," a dry voice replied. "Hang tight while we reroute systems."

To take her mind off the nasty pile of not-a-bagel, Elle looked out the observation window. She registered the neutron star coming into view and almost dropped her teacup. She caught it before it spilled and turned shakily back to the bar. "Guinan? If this is the beginning of season three... is there a famous scientist on board who wants to launch a thing into that thing?" She pointed out the window.

"If you mean Dr. Stubbs and his EGG then yes." Guinan's eyes twinkled. "Getting your bearings?"

"Kind of. If things are wonky..." Elle bit her lip, trying to recall the episode. "I need to speak to Wesley Crusher."

"No need to give me puppy eyes," Guinan smirked. She tapped her commbadge. "Guinan to Wesley Crusher."

"Crusher here."

"Can you come down to Ten-Forward? I've got a lead on the ship's problems."

"On my way. Crusher out."

Guinan looked at Elle expectantly. "Anything else?"

Elle bit her lip. "How do I make Captain Picard like me?" she blurted.

Guinan smiled. "He doesn't dislike you."

Elle frowned.

Guinan patted her hand. "You'll find your way with this new crew. Just give everyone a little time. Including you, Elle. You died and revived just yesterday. You don't have to do everything right away."

Elle scrunched up her face. "Yeah, I guess."

A gray blur skidded into the room and stopped with minimal arm-flailing in front of them. "Guinan! You said you- oh. Hi."

"Ensign Wesley Crusher, Civilian Consultant Elle Wilcott," Guinan said.

Wesley blinked and said, "Oh. We were briefed on you. I thought you'd be, uh, older." His ears started to turn red.

Elle shook his hand, trying not to blush. He was cute. Why had she never noticed this before? She got back to business. "Wait, you've already been briefed?"

"Your, uh, alternate source of foreknowledge, yes."

"Oh. Good. Then I can tell you that your nanites are becoming sentient and eating the ship in the search for knowledge and evolution," Elle stated plainly.

Wesley groaned and put his head in his hand. "I knew they got out. What do we do?"

"Talk to them," Elle said.

Wesley blinked. "They're nanites."

"And they're learning," Elle reminded him. "Better go talk to the captain before something else happens."

He groaned. "Oh, I'm gonna be in so much trouble."

"I'll go with you," she offered. "This can't be worse than informing Spock that the captain was bodyswapped."

He stared at her like she was crazy. "What."

"Yeah, it was nuts," she agreed. "Let's go." She ushered him out of Ten-Forward. On the threshold they bumped into Dr. Crusher.

"Wesley, I've been looking for you, I..." she trailed off on seeing Elle.

"Mom, uh, I have to talk to the captain," Wesley said, grimacing.

"I'm going for moral support," Elle added, stepping slightly away from Wesley as Dr. Crusher's gaze traveled between the two of them.

"Uh-huh. And what did you do?" she asked Wesley.

He wrinkled his nose. "Let nanites loose?"

Dr. Crusher pressed her lips together tightly, trying not to laugh. "All right. I'll come with you, too. For moral support."

So Elle found herself in the briefing room for the second time in as many days, watching Wesley and Dr. Crusher explain what had happened, using readings from internal sensors.

"Can it be possible they know what they're doing?" Picard asked.

Riker frowned. "Why would they attack us?"

Stubbs snorted. "Why does a mosquito bite your ear? And who cares? The answer is simple. Call an exterminator."

Dr. Crusher raised an eyebrow. "Doctor Stubbs, these nanites are now working with a new collective intelligence. Operating together. Teaching each other skills."

The renowned scientist snorted. "Oh really. I'm sorry but this is nonsense. You can't have a civilisation of computer chips. They're made in a plant in Dakar, Senegal. I've watched the construction."

"Then how do you explain what we've seen here?" Dr. Crusher insistsed.

He waved a hand. "It's no more mysterious than watching a strain of the Leutscher virus reproduce itself. And that at least is a bona fide lifeform. How many disease germs and viruses have you destroyed in your time, Doctor Crusher?"

Picard frowned. "Doctor Stubbs, we cannot exterminate something that may or may not be intelligent."

"My good Captain," Stubbs started.

Picard shook his head. "There's still time. Ensign, will you work with mister Data to try to remove them safely. If things get worse, we'll use stronger measures."

"Or you could just skip to the end," Elle suggested, startling everyone who'd forgotten about her presence. "They're a new lifeform. All they want to do is explore."

Stubbs made a face. "Who is this? Is this bring-your-child-to-work-day?"

"Dr. Stubbs, Elle Wilcott," Riker said, waving a hand. "What're you talking about, Elle?"

"They're learning, like you said," Elle replied. "Taking our systems one at a time, absorbing information and adapting to it. They're obviously intelligent, but they're not aware they're sharing the ship with other living beings. If Cmdr. Data can feed them the concept and the basics of communication through binary and other languages, they'll stop. They'll even repair the ship if you let them."

"That's ridiculous," Stubbs said.

"Will it work?" Picard asked Data.

Data nodded after a second. "With intelligence, there is the capability of language, but it will depend on how far their evolution has brought them. We could modify the circuitry in the universal translator to make it capable of communications with them."

"It would only take them a couple of hours to figure out the concept of Other and language," Elle said. "They're very smart."

"And in a couple of hours they could have destroyed half the ship," Stubbs snapped. "It's not worth it for some fancy computer chips."

"They're a new form of life!" Elle retorted, pressing her hands to the table as she leaned forward in her chair. "They barely know what they are, they deserve a chance to know who they are."

"It is a viable option-" Data started.

"We have the time," Geordi also said, trying to break up the tension.

Picard held up his hand for quiet, his gaze locked with Elle's. "You would ask me to risk a thousand lives on the chance that these nanites will learn to communicate and decide who they are?"

She kept his gaze. "Yes, captain. Because that's who you are."

Picard gave her a small smile. "Mr. Data, you may begin at once. Dismissed."

Elle stood up slowly, her heart hammering from the confrontation and the quiet joy that she'd read him right.

Wesley ushered Dr. Stubbs out the door.

Picard looked at Elle. "If this works..."

"Dr. Stubbs' project will go ahead in time and your faith in the essential goodness of new lifeforms will continue," Elle said, sassing him slightly. "I can't promise about the next one."

"You know us almost too well," he accused. "It is, disconcerting, to say the least."

"At least I'm not telepathic," Elle offered.

He snorted. "There's that."

"Oh, and captain? Keep a close eye on Dr. Stubbs. In the episode he goes after them with gamma rays and they retaliate."

Picard grimaced. "Understood."

She nodded. "Um, let me know what happens?" she asked.

"Once everything's wrapped up," Picard said.

"Thank you, captain." She wasn't allowed on the bridge or engineering, where the whole thing would take place, so she went back to Ten-Forward. "...and I'm useless again."

Guinan appeared with the promised bagel sandwich. "It's going to be okay, Elle."

"It always is." Elle methodicallly chewed her meal.

After Elle finished eating, Guinan set her up at a corner table with a glass of lemonade and the Federation news from the last ninety years.