Tag: Original Version

Chapter 11: I’m going to Serenity Five

Disclaimer: Star Trek: The Next Generation, the U.S.S. Enterprise, Lt. Commander Data, and anything else recognizable belong to Paramount. Zoe and her mother belong to me. This takes place during the first four seasons of TNG.

I’m Going to Serenity Five, And I’m Taking….

Five teenagers. Three adults (one of whom is an android). Two days in space. One runabout. It was the perfect setup for a really bad joke, or possibly the premise of a twenty-first century situation comedy. Either way, no one would have expected the reality of the situation to include – roughly two hours after we left the Enterprise – the first, inevitable utterance of, “I’m bored.”

It was Josh who said it, but we were all thinking it.

My mother was up in the cockpit with Commander Data, taking a turn as co-pilot, or I’m sure she’d have offered a suggestion. Instead it was Kenash – T’vek’s father – who offered, “The replicator has the pattern for a tri-d chess set. Would anyone care to play?”

I looked up from the corner of the bench seat where I had been pretending to read one of the books I’d downloaded to my padd. “I think chess is T’vek’s game…”

“Don’t you play, Zoe?”

I had to laugh at that. “Me? Chess? Way too structured and organized for my tastes, Mr. Mairaj. I mean, unless you really want to see the Kamikaze Kid at work?”

“It’s Kenash, Zoe,” T’vek’s father corrected mildly. “Perhaps my son will do me the honor?”

T’vek joined his father at the center table in the runabout Amazon‘s main compartment. “One game, Father, but that doesn’t help everyone else find something to do.”

Josh slid off his bench seat – on the opposite bulkhead from mine – and sprawled on the floor. “Co-ed, naked, multi-species Twister,” he suggested. “We should play that.”

“I don’t think we have enough variance for the multi-species version,” I shot back at him. “I mean, if one of us spins and gets ‘left tentacle, chartreuse’ we’re kinda screwed.”

“Spoilsport,” he groused back, mostly teasing.

“Bratling,” I countered.

“Children, children, please…” Dana sing-songed from yet another bench. She wasn’t the biggest fan of the oh-so-sophisticated banter Josh and I often descended into.

Josh pretended to sleep, then, and I went back not-reading my book. Dana was also reading, or pretending to, I noticed, and Wesley was… “Wesley Crusher, are you actually doing homework?”

The boy looked up at me, eyes wide. “We do have assignments due when we get home.”

“Yeah, but we also have an even longer trip to get back home.”

“Data agreed that if my assignments were complete I could take a shift as copilot,” Wes admitted. “I am an acting ensign, after all.”

“And we all know it,” muttered Josh from where he was still stretched out on the carpet, continuing, “Because you tell us at every opportunity.” He appended a good-natured, “Twerp,” to that.

“Twerp?” Wes asked. “Twerp? That’s the best you can do?”

I set my padd aside. Suddenly, things were interesting. “He has a point, Josh. That’s hardly the best insult you could come up with.”

“Oh, like you could do better?”

“Actually, I could,” I drawled. “But some of us were brought up with better manners than you generally exhibit. Malapert.”

“Malapert?” Wes asked?

“Look it up,” I suggested, turning back to Josh.

“Hoyden,” he fired at me, actually sitting up.

“Better,” I said. “Overweening.”

“Elf-skinned flax-wench,” he said.

I got up off the bench and took a step toward him, even as T’vek and his father remained focused – too focused – on their chess game. “Mad-brained miscreant.”

Josh got up as well, standing with his arms akimbo. We were literally tossing insults over Wes’s head at this point. “Cankerous, milk-livered harpy!”

“Pribbling, plume-plucked pignut!” I shouted, which – big surprise – drew the attention of T’vek’s father as well as my mother and Data.

“I think that’s enough, you two,” Kanesh said.

“WHAT is going on here?” my mother asked, as she and Data joined us from the cockpit. Data didn’t say anything, just pinned each of us – first me, then Josh, then T’vek, Dana and Wes – with his eyes. That reaction from him was actually worse than the reactions of either of the parents.

“We were bored,” Josh explained.

“And things got a little loud, I guess,” I added.

“A little?” my mother asked in that pointed way all parents seem to have.

“A lot,” I said. I wasn’t exactly contrite, but I did soften my tone.

“I think,” my mother said in her voice-of-infinite-patience, the one generally reserved for when she’s forcing herself not to kill me, “that if Kanesh and T’vek can suspend their game, we should all have lunch. Data, will you join us?”

“We are out of the shipping lanes and the runabout is on autopilot,” he responded. “I would be delighted.”

My mother arranged the seating, of course, placing me between herself and Data, and Josh on the other side of her, and next to Kanesh, so we couldn’t easily see each other. The food was basic – sandwiches, fruit, and chocolate pudding – and the conversation was stilted, until, finally, Data broke the silence.

“Zoe,” he began. “I could not help but notice that the insults you and Josh were using were extremely archaic. May I ask where you both learned them? Is the use of such language a growing trend among teenagers?”

I nearly choked on an ice cube trying not to laugh. “Um…no trend,” I said. “I don’t think. I don’t know about Josh, but back home I was a theatre geek. Our drama teacher gave us a whole list of Shakespearean insults. One of my friends actually created code to generate really good epithets.”

“And you, Josh?”

“Magnetic poetry,” he said. “Shakespeare Wit Kit.” He leaned around my mother, “Do you have copy of the code, Zoe?”

“I might,” I said, arching an eyebrow. We both dissolved into giggles after that, though.

“And peace descends on our happy band of travelers,” T’vek intoned, which only made everyone else – except Data – join in the laughter.

Of course, an hour after the meal, the original problem had reared its ugly head once more. “I’m bored,” Dana said softly. “And I don’t want to watch you and Josh hurling insults back and forth any more today.”

“Mom, have you got any awesome boredom-relieving ideas that do not involve doing all our homework right now?” I called across the cabin. Wes was sitting in the cockpit now, and Data was losing – losing! – to T’vek’s father in another game of chess.

“Mmm,” my mother said, “I’m going to Serenity Five, and I’m bringing an apple.”

I stared at my mother for a moment, then realized what she was doing. “I’m going to Serenity Five,” I said, “And I’m bringing an apple and a banana?” I made it a question, because even though this was a very old game, our version of it isn’t always alphabetical. Instead, you have to figure out the pattern.

“No,” my mother said. “You’re not. Dana?”

“I’m going to Serenity Five,” she said, “And I’m bringing an apple, and a book.”

“Welcome aboard,” Mom said, “T’vek?”

“I’m going to Serenity Five, and I’m bringing an apple, a book, and a chair,” he guessed.

“Nope. You’re stranded with Zoe. Josh. You’re up.”

“I’m going to Serenity Five, and I’m bringing an apple, a book, and a padd,” Josh suggested.

“Welcome aboard to you, too.” My mother took her own turn, adding a spoon. Then she turned to me again, “Zoe?”

“What, Kenash and Data don’t have to play?” I teased, but they were absorbed with their game. “Fine. I’m going to Serenity Five, and I’m bringing an apple, a book, a padd, a spoon, and an umbrella.”

“Welcome aboard, kiddo,” she said, smiling. “Dana?”

“Oh!” she said. “I thought I knew the pattern before, but it’s not what I thought.” She thought for a second. “I’m going to Serenity Five and I’m bringing an apple, a book, a padd, cherries, an umbrella, and a balloon.”

By now, of course, the pattern was obvious, T’vek and Josh both completed their next rounds, and mom did as well. I think we were up to about twenty-seven things in our list when Kenash finally said, “Checkmate. Great game, Data. I look forward to playing with you again.”

“As do I,” our tutor said.

The end of their game was enough to distract Josh, who lost the thread of what everyone was bringing. We played another round of “I’m going to…” which Kenash and Data joined in, though I was surprised by the fact that Data didn’t pick up the pattern any faster than the rest of us, but of course, with his memory he trounced us in the recall department. After that, we did agree to spend a couple of hours doing homework before gathering at the center table for dinner.

After dinner, we found ourselves still sitting around the central table, though the adults had dispersed – Data back to the cockpit with Kenash joining him, and my mother to the sleeping quarters for a sonic shower and some downtime – but this time it was Josh who suggested the game. “Let’s play truth or dare,” he said.

“Let’s not,” Dana said. “It only ever leads to people being upset, and anyway, there’s nothing really daring we can do on the runabout.”

“We could take over the ship, declare ourselves pirates, and demand to parley with the next interesting vessel we pass,” Josh suggested.

“That would be mutiny,” Wesley pointed out.

“Actually, it would only be mutiny for you,” I corrected. “The rest of us are civilians. It would only be a hostile takeover.”

“Poker?” T’vek said. He had left the table and was scrolling through the replicator’s entertainment menu. “Or a video entertainment?”

“Cards, maybe…but not poker.” I crossed the room to join him. “What other card games are there…?” Together we flipped through the options. “This one,” I said. “It’s completely silly which makes it great fun.” The replicator spit out the appropriate deck of cards, and we returned it to the table.

“Okay,” I said, “The person with the most experience playing goes first. I used to play with my father and some of the orchestra members. Anyone else?”

“I’ve played it,” Josh said. “Once or twice.”

“So I go first. T’vek, you’ll take first deal?” He dealt three cards to each of us, as I explained, “It’s the easiest game ever. We start with the basic rules…draw a card, play a card… and then just follow the instructions,” I said.

“How do you win?” Wes asked.

“At the moment, Wesley, you can’t.” Josh seemed a bit too gleeful as he said this.

“What?”

Dana, who had snagged the rule card, explained, “Until someone plays a goal card, there’s no way to win.”

We played the card game with much laughter for a couple of hours. Then my mother and Kenash came to usher us all toward bed – the boys in the port cabin and the girls in the starboard one. Data said as he didn’t need sleep he’d be working and keeping an eye on the runabout all night.

Dana and my mother and I ended up chatting about favorite slumber party games as we got ready to sleep, and pretty quickly, they were both off to dreamland, but I set the screen on my padd to half-illumination and read for a while before I drifted off.

Note: The second half of the trip to Serenity Five will be in Chapter 12.

Chapter 12: I’m going to Serenity Five II

Disclaimer: Star Trek: The Next Generation, the U.S.S. Enterprise, Lt. Commander Data, Wesley Crusher, and anything else recognizable belong to Paramount. Zoe and her mother belong to me. This takes place during the first four seasons of TNG.

I’m Going to Serenity Five, And I’m Taking…. (Part II)

If the first day of our journey to Serenity Five was marked by boredom, the second was marked by a lack of sleep, at least for me and T’vek, for I was awakened in the wee hours of the ship’s morning by my padd, which had been open to a book as I’d fallen asleep, vibrating near my pillow.

Groggily, I tapped the screen, only to see that my friend…or was he my boyfriend now?…we hadn’t really discussed specifics, but whatever…had engaged a messaging program we generally only used in order to have clandestine conversations during classes. The message was brief, and merely asked me to meet him in the access corridor between the port and starboard sleeping quarters. I tapped back a reply, and slid out of bed as gently as I could, then tiptoed across the room, barefoot, using the glow of the padd’s screen to light my way.

The sound of the door sliding open made me freeze in place for a long second, and I strained my ears, trying to discern whether my mother or my friend Dana had noticed it. Both their breathing remained even, so I left the room, freezing again as the door slid shut behind me.

T’vek was in the specified corridor, a cushion beneath him, his back against the bulkhead. He looked up at me, grinning at the sight of what I wore as pajamas: an ancient Hard Rock Café: Risa t-shirt and a pair of coffee-colored yoga pants. “Join me,” he invited, patting the cushion.

I padded the few steps across the corridor and sat down next to him. “One comment about my choice of sleeping attire…” I threatened in a low whisper, but he knew I didn’t really mean it.

He’d brought a bright red emergency blanket with him, and he threw it over both our laps, telling me, with his mouth very near my ear, “Our parents and classmates won’t be able to hear us – the sleeping quarters are fitted with privacy filters – but Data might, if we’re too loud.”

I kept my voice low as well. “So what’s the plan? Are we taking over the ship so Josh can have his pirate dreams come true, or were you thinking that a late night make-out session is in order?”

In answer, he reached for my hand, twining his fingers through mine. “I couldn’t sleep,” he confessed, “And you’ve said more than once that you’re fairly nocturnal, so I took a chance that you might like to chat for a while. Though your idea of a make-out session does have some merit.”

“Some?” I teased softly, squeezing his hand. “Some boyfriend you are! Some merit?”

“Boyfriend?” he asked. I was expecting him to smirk, but he was quiet, even pensive.

“Are you?” I asked back. “I mean we haven’t really talked about it…” I blushed at looked away. “I’m sorry.” I said. “I should go.”

“Never thought you’d be the type to flee in the face of relationship definition,” he teased gently. “My girlfriend would mock you for that. She’s snarky.”

“Snarky, hmm? Sounds challenging”

“Oh, it is. But then so am I. And she likes a challenge.”

“Yeah,” I said, except that my voice didn’t work the way I wanted it to. “Yeah, she kind of does. Boyfriend.”

T’vek grinned at me. “Girlfriend,” he said. “Definitely.” His dark-eyed gaze found mine, and we stayed there, staring at each other for several seconds, before we both began to giggle. I started to pull my hand away, so that I could cover my mouth, and stifle the sound, but then he muted both our voices by kissing me.

The first few kisses we’d shared had been in the Aquatics lab on the Enterprise, and while they had been nice, they were very much first kisses. All bumped noses and tentative movements. The kiss T’vek initiated on the runabout corridor was much more intense, making me all tingly, and making my pulse race and…well…note to self, I thought, when meeting cute Vulcan/Betazoid boy in the middle of night, be sure to wear a bra.

I’m not sure exactly how long we spent actually making out. At one point T’vek’s hands slid partway beneath my shirt, which tickled, and I know I spent more time than was probably healthy caressing his ears – the points were so sexy, and it made him catch his breath – and we never did get around to any more chatting, but eventually slow kisses were replaced by embarrassed yawns, and even though we both knew it was a really bad idea our little cushion in the corridor was pretty comfortable, and we sort of fell asleep.

Well, more than sort of.

Big surprise: It was Data who woke us up. “Zoe,” he called in his usual matter-of-fact tone, though with less volume than he used in class, “T’vek. Please wake up.”

His voice brought me to groggy wakefulness. His presence, standing over us in the corridor, shocked me into complete wakefulness. “Data?” I asked, somewhat bashfully. “Um…are we in trouble?” I nudged T’vek so he’d be fully awake as well, but he just made a grumping sound, and his eyes remained shut. “T’vek,” I called a bit louder. “The Royal Navy has taken the ship!”

Somehow, that worked. T’vek sat up, clipping me in the chin with his head. “Ow!” he said.

“Ow?” I said. “You’re the one who bumped me!” I paused to rub my chin. “And your head is hard!”

“Sorry, Zoe,” T’vek said.

From behind us, Data said, “Excuse me,” in as pointed a manner as I’d ever heard him. We both turned toward him. “Starfleet regulations require that the access corridors remain clear at all times when a runabout is in flight. If you are not comfortable in the sleeping quarters, you are welcome to relocate to the main cabin.”

I looked from my tutor to my boyfriend, and back. Feeling oh-so-articulate, I said again, “Um…”

“Commander Data, what time is it please?” T’vek had risen from the cushion. He offered his hand and helped me to my feet.

“Not quite four-hundred hours,” the android replied. Had either of us been truly alert we’d have remarked about the round number.

“I think I’ll go back to bed,” T’vek said. He picked up the cushion and blanket. “See you later in the morning, Zoe?”

“Um,” I said for the third time. “Sure. Yes. Of course.”

He flashed me a sleepy version of his usual insouciant grin, stamped a chaste kiss on my cheek, and slipped back into the quarters he was sharing with his father and the other boys, leaving me in the corridor with Data. In my pajamas. And bare feet.

“You should also return to bed, Zoe.” Data advised quietly.

It was good advice, but once I’m up, I’m up, even if it’s four-thirty in the morning, not that there’s much difference between morning and evening in a runabout. I mean, the cabin lighting was softer, but there was nothing that really announced the hour. I bent to pick up the padd I’d left on the floor near where the cushion had been. “I should,” I said, brushing my hair away from my face with my other hand. “But I’m kind of awake now. Am I required to return to bed, or can I go make a cup of tea or something?”

“You may help yourself to the replicator, Zoe, of course, but do you not require more rest before you begin your day?”

“Probably,” I said as cheerfully as I could. “But when you tell my mother where you found me, and with whom, she’ll either kill me or ground me for so long I’ll wish I was dead, so I might as well enjoy a few hours of freedom.”

To his credit, Data seemed to accept that I wasn’t in the mood to retreat to my bed, and that I wasn’t entirely serious about my mother’s reaction. He nodded, and turned to walk back through the main cabin to the cockpit, and I followed him to the doorway.

“Data,” I asked. “Is the runabout still on autopilot?”

“Yes,” he said with his characteristic head-tilt. “Why?”

“If I wouldn’t be too much of a distraction, could I bring my tea into the cockpit and sit with you while I drink it?”

“I would be happy to join you in the main cabin if you prefer not to drink alone,” he countered.

“That’s kind of you, and all,” I said, “But I kind of wanted to sit in the front seat. Just for a while.”

Data seemed a little confused. “I was under the impression that you had ‘zero interest’ in a Starfleet career, Zoe. You do know that only commissioned personnel and licensed pilots may take the controls of a Starfleet vessel?”

“Yes,” I said. “This I know. But I don’t want to fly the ship, I just want to see outside, even if all I see is the warp field.”

He seemed almost dubious, but after a long second, he nodded his head. “Very well,” he said. “You may join me for as long as it takes you to drink one mug of tea.”

I wondered if he knew just how long a teenager could make one mug of anything last. Somehow, I suspected he might. He returned to the cockpit, and I went to the replicator for a mug of peppermint tea with as much sugar as it would let me have. I took it and my padd to the forward compartment, and settled cross-legged into the co-pilot’s chair. “Am I allowed to talk to you?” I asked, “Or would you rather I be quiet?”

“Is there a specific topic you would like to discuss?” he asked.

I watched him checking out all the displays, and noting the status readings. “Not really. Although, if you’re open to being bribed not to tell my mom or Kenash about T’vek and me…”

“Bribing an officer is a serious offense, Zoe,” he responded.

I blinked at him, not certain if he was teasing me. “How serious?” I asked. “Are we talking ‘tons of extra homework’ serious or ‘suspended from class’ serious?”

“Historically,” Data told me, “the punishment for bribing an officer of the Royal Navy could be anything from confinement to quarters to beheading.”

“Beheading?”

“It was considered an honorable death. Pirates and privateers, on the other hand,” and he emphasized the word ‘pirates’ just a little bit, “were traditionally hanged by the neck until dead.”

“Seems kind of extreme,” I observed, after a thoughtful sip of my tea.

“Indeed.”

“You didn’t actually answer the question, though,” I pointed out.

“That is true; I did not,” he agreed. He continued, and I could tell, now, that he was still playing a character, of sorts, “Still, I am inclined to be lenient, as this is your first offense.”

“Please, Commander Data, sir,” I said, enjoying our impromptu game, and even attempting (badly) a British accent, “I am ever so remorseful and promise we’ll never get caught in such a position again.”

“See that you do not,” he said.

We were both silent for a long time, and I watched the star trail outside the our tiny ship. Finally, I said, “Data, has anyone ever told you that for a Starfleet officer, you’re incredibly cool?”

Time spent with all of us in the tutorial had inured him to our slang. He didn’t ask why I was remarking upon his temperature. Instead, swiveled his head toward me and favored me with the slightly goofy, slightly shy, almost-smile I would eventually realize was as close to an organic expression as he ever got. I didn’t know if it was because I’d told him he was cool, or because I’d said he was cool for an officer and not an android.

“Go back to your bunk, Zoe,” he said softly. “Since I became aware of your presence in the corridor before an official alert sounded, there is no need for a notation in the ship’s log, or to inform your parents.”

I knew better than to refuse his offer. I left the cockpit post-haste, though I did pause in the doorway long enough to utter a soft, “G’night, Data. And thank you.” I returned my empty mug to the replicator, and moved back through the cabin to the too-dark sleeping quarters and bed. It wasn’t until I was nearly asleep that I realized I’d left my padd on the empty co-pilot’s chair.

Chapter 13: Your Mission

Disclaimer: Star Trek: The Next Generation, the U.S.S. Enterprise, Lt. Commander Data, Wesley Crusher, and anything else recognizable belong to Paramount. Zoe and her mother belong to me. This takes place during the first four seasons of TNG.

Your Mission…Should You Choose to Accept It

I don’t know what, if anything, Data said to my mother. Neither she nor Dana woke up when I returned to my bunk after T’vek, tea, and talking, and when I finally woke up, it was because my friend had come into our cabin to get me.

“Zoe,” Dana was coaxing, “C’mon! We’re almost there, and Commander Data wants to go over ground rules and assignments.”

“Don’t wanna,” I grumbled, but I knew I couldn’t afford to have an adult come get me, so I grudgingly got up, changed into a fresh t-shirt and jeans, and twisted my hair into a messy knot at the back of my head. Sure, I dawdled in the bathroom every morning on the ship, but when I had to move quickly, I could. “Tell them I’ll be right out?”

“Sure,” Dana said, and went back to the main cabin.

It was about five minutes before I joined her, because there was no way I was going to see T’vek and everyone else without washing my face and brushing my teeth. I slouched into the chair that had been left open for me, between Dana and my mother, at the main table, muttering, “Sorry to keep everyone waiting,” with as much sincerity as possible.

To her credit, my mother didn’t grill me about my tardiness in front of the group. Instead, she passed me a mug of heavily creamed coffee, and flashed the look that meant we’d be talking later. T’vek also flashed me a look, one that was more of a smug smirk than anything else. I responded with a very slight shake of my head. We’d talk later.

“Your late arrival has not adversely affected our schedule,” Data assured me. Then he addressed all of us. “The hotel where we will be staying has a shuttle bay on the roof. Once we land, a representative will clear our arrival on Serenity Five and escort us to our rooms. Commander Harris, you will be sharing a pair of connected rooms with Zoe and Dana.”

My mother nodded her acknowledgement of this, and then Data continued. “Mr. Mairaj, you will be sharing a similar pair of rooms with T’vek, Josh, and Wesley.”

“Can’t I share with you, Data?” Wes asked.

“I believe you will be more comfortable with your classmates, Wesley,” Data answered. “However, I will be available at all times should the need arise. I have already sent copies of our itinerary to each of your padds. Please refer to them as I go over the schedule.”

I had been half-listening up to that point, more concerned with ingesting caffeine than absorbing information, but when Data mentioned our padds, I realized I didn’t have mine. In fact, there was a good chance it was still sitting in the cockpit of the shuttle unless Data had picked it up, and I was pretty sure I hadn’t turned it off, or locked the access, which meant that if anyone had picked it up, my book, my homework, a few messages from friends back home, and my journal were readily available. I went from zero to paranoia in about a tenth of a second, and aspirated my coffee.

“Zoe! Are you alright?” My mother was moving the mug away from me, and reaching for napkins. Even in Starfleet, mothers seem to have an endless supply of napkins. Thankfully, she just handed me a few rather than trying to wipe my face for me.

“I’m…um…yeah, fine. Sorry. Went down the wrong pipe.” My explanation was lame, but accurate. “I don’t have my padd with me,” I added.

“Share with me,” Dana said from my other side. “If you go back for yours, you might be tempted to crawl back in bed.”

I flashed my friend a grateful, if slightly rueful, grin, and we bent over her padd together, while Data outlined our game plan: a free afternoon to rest and acclimate ourselves to being on a planet, followed by dinner in the hotel restaurant, and a couple of hours of recreational time afterward. Day two would be our first of two trips to the amusement park. Day three involved a tour of a hands-on science and technology museum in the morning, and a free afternoon.

Day four was all about hanging with my father – a tour of the concert hall, a question and answer session with the orchestra members, lunch, a public lecture explaining the pieces that would be played, and then the concert, with a late dinner afterward. The next morning was open, but in the afternoon we were back at the amusement park, this time to pay closer attention to the information we needed for our assignment, helped out with a behind-the-scenes tour, and finally, on day six, we’d be leaving.

“If no one has any questions about the itinerary,” Data said, “let us move on to your assignments.” He explained that we were to use the principles that ruled the function of the grav-coasters at the amusement part to design a theme park of our own. “You will work as a group,” he instructed, “to choose a theme, a location, and design five rides that use the same mathematical principles you experience on Serenity Five.”

He gave us a few minutes to ask questions then dismissed us to pack our belongings. My mother went to the cockpit to take the controls since we were nearing the point where autopilot wouldn’t be an option, and T’vek’s father went with the boys to supervise their packing. I was about to follow Dana back in our quarters, when Data stopped me.

“One moment, Zoe,” he said softly.

I was out of my chair already, so I just turned to meet his eyes. “I’m sorry I was late,” I said again. “I’m actually surprised my mother didn’t wake me up.”

“I informed her that you had been awake and drinking tea, and that as we had no specific meeting time, there was no harm in allowing you to rest.”

“You covered for me? I thought you couldn’t lie?” I was trying to keep my voice down, but my disbelief was pretty obvious.

“That is not entirely accurate. As a rule, I do not lie, but I am capable of doing so when required. However, you were awake and drinking tea last night, and we agreed that I would not inform your mother.” His expression relaxed from what I’d come to think of as ‘officer’ mode to ‘normal person’ mode. “As well, I believe that we also agreed that we were friends as well as teacher and student.”

“Well, yes, but, I kind of figured you were just being nice. Which, I guess, would have been a lie, in a way. Sort of. But anyway, I’m pretty sure you hadn’t really planned this to be an analysis of typical friendship behavior?”

“That assessment is correct. I merely wished to return your padd without causing you any embarrassment. You inadvertently left it behind last night.”

He held the device out to me, and I took it. “Thanks, Data,” I said, and then, sheepishly I asked. “Um, did you…read anything that was on it.”

“I did not,” he said. “However, in the future you would be wise to set a time-delay so that your password protection will engage automatically after a specified length of idleness. I would be happy to assist you if you do not know how to set that function.”

“I do,” I said. “I just haven’t bothered. But I will.” I waited a beat then added, “I meant what I said last night. You really are incredibly cool.”

“Thank you, Zoe. Please attend to your packing now. I must relieve your mother so that she may give you her full attention.”

Obviously dismissed, I beat a hasty retreat back to the cabin, where Dana was sitting on her bunk. “Okay, Zoe,” she said, “what was that about, and where is your padd?”

“Right here,” I said, waving it at her. “I kind of left it somewhere I shouldn’t after doing something naughty that I will tell you all about once we’re no longer in a shuttle that is only slightly larger than my dad’s left shoe.”

“How naughty?” my friend wanted to know.

I grinned. “Deliciously naughty.”

I totally deserved to be hit by the sneaker Dana threw at me.

Chapter 14: Considering the Letter P

Disclaimer: Star Trek: The Next Generation, the U.S.S. Enterprise, Lt. Commander Data, Wesley Crusher, and anything else recognizable belong to Paramount. Zoe and her mother belong to me.

Considering Things that Begin with the Letter P

Hotels, at least hotels that cater to humanoid guests, are pretty much the same throughout the Federation. Oh, sure, some are more luxurious than others, but after you strip away the glitz and glamour, it all comes down to this: beds, restaurants and swimming pools. I’d visited my father on tour enough to know that the best choice of bed is the one closest to the restroom, so as soon as my mother, Dana and I arrived in the room – suite, really, since it was two rooms connected by a bathroom, and had a common living area – assigned to us, I put my luggage on that bed. “Dibs on this one,” I called.

“So I get the wall,” Dana asked?

My mother was giving me one of those looks, the kind that only parents ever master, so I swallowed my smug grin and asked my friend, “Unless you want the other one?”

She shrugged. “I’m kind of used to the wall after living on the Enterprise so long. Dad and I were aboard from the beginning.” She put her stuff near – but not on – the other bed in our room. My mother was already making the single on the other side of the bathroom into her own home-away-from-the-ship.

“I hadn’t realized,” I said, moving my bag to the floor now that we’d agreed the bed was mine. “Do you mind it much? Living on the ship?”

She shrugged again. “I get to be with my father. After my mother died, there were all these relatives who swooped in and tried to ‘rescue’ me. They said a Starfleet officer couldn’t raise a daughter on his own, especially not in security, but then they started the Galaxy class program – sending families.”

“I thought your father was a tactical specialist?”

“He is. Tactical is a blend of command, ops, and security.” My friend wrinkled her nose. “Zoe, do you really not know how ship’s departments are divided?”

It was my turn to shrug. “Hi, have you met me? The girl who stomped around for three months because she didn’t want to be on the ship everyone else thinks it’s an honor to be assigned to?” I ran a hand through my hair, using the motion as time to think. “I’ve always been closer to my father than to Mom,” I said. “He’s a musician; he’s flamboyant, he’s…fun. I mean, yeah, he left me with my grandmother more than I really wanted, but…look, I look like my mother, but I’m really Daddy’s girl, you know?”

Dana sighed. “Just when I think you’re blending in,” she teased, “you’re suddenly more alien than…well…”

“Actual aliens?” I offered, grinning.

“Something like that,” she agreed.

“How ’bout we skip Starship Operations 102 and go down to the pool,” I suggested, changing the subject.

“Are we allowed?”

“Why wouldn’t we be?” I asked. “You brought a bathing suit, right?”

“Yes,” she said. “But we should check with your mother. Also, I haven’t congratulated her yet.”

I was suddenly extremely confused. “Congratulated …my mother?”

“Zoe!” Dana had joined the ranks of people who could use the three letters of my name to convey a complex assortment of emotion, a skill that was evidently not restricted to adults. In this case, I heard notes of exasperation, frustration, disbelief and even a bit of chagrin.

“What?” I tried not to make it sound defensive.

“You didn’t notice that Data called her ‘Commander’ this morning? Or see that her pips have changed.”

“Um…no?” She gaped at me, so I added, “In my defense, I hadn’t had coffee, and was kind of stressing over where I’d left my padd.”

“You really don’t know?”

“Don’t know what?? Now I was exasperated.

“Your mother got her promotion to Lieutenant Commander. She didn’t tell you?” It was my turn to offer a stupid stare and dropped jaw. “Zoe?”

I shook my head, trying to get my brain working again. “She hinted this morning that we’d be talking later, but I thought it was just to yell at me about bugging Data in the middle of the night, and then oversleeping.” I shrugged. “And honestly, I’m still not up on the telling-rank-by-looking-at-pips thing. Isn’t a pip a citrus seed, anyway?”

Dana just shook her head at me. “Zoe, I get that you’d rather not be on the ship, but your mother’s been in Starfleet your entire life. How could you not know this stuff?”

I had the good sense to look ashamed. “It never really interested me all that much. She wasn’t away as much when I was younger – short missions, close to home – and then she dragged me to the ship, but mostly when I’m with her she’s just Mom, not an officer.” I waited to see if the lecture was over, and since it seemed to be, I said, “So, wanna go to the pool?”

Dana smirked. “Sure. Just as soon as your mother says it’s okay.”

Dana and I went through the connecting bathroom to my mother’s room, where she was in the middle of a com-chat with my father. She held up a hand, signaling us to wait quietly, so we sat on the end of her bed. “I think you should tell her yourself,” she said to my father’s image, but she lowered her voice for the rest of the call, so I couldn’t figure out what he was supposed to be telling me. After a beat, she turned to us, “Girls?”

I put on my best innocent look, and paraphrased a character from an ancient twenty-first century film my father and I had watched one night. “Mom,” I said, “I’ve been considering things that begin with the letter p.”

My mother’s eyebrows arched in response to this announcement, for this was a familiar game. “Let me guess,” she said. “Pizza and pillow fights?”

“Actually no,” I said, crossing my legs. “I was thinking more along the lines of permission, pool, and…what was that other thing, Dana?” Dana shook her head, so I just continued, “…promotions.”

My mother’s delighted smile was so beautiful that I felt bad I had to be schooled by a friend in order to realize what was going on with her. “So you did notice,” she beamed. “Zoe, I wanted to tell you before we left the ship, but we were so busy, and then this morning…”

“Actually, Mom, Dana noticed. You know that if there was a class testing me on Starfleet knowledge I’d be an abysmal failure.” I paused, but added sincerely. “But I’m really, really happy for you, Mom, even if I don’t understand exactly what you get other than a fancier title and different jewelry.”

For a long moment, I was afraid my mother would be offended by this confession, but she actually laughed. “Oh, Zoificus,” she said, “you are so much your father’s daughter.”

I smiled. “Well, I have his musical ability and sense of humor,” I agreed. “But the killer hair, I get from you. And since you’re calling me Zoificus again, does that mean the swimming pool is a go?”

“Mmm.” My mother pretended to think it over, while Dana watched our byplay. “Commander Data specifically said the time before dinner was to be spent ‘resting’.”

“Actually, Commander Harris,” Dana pointed out, “Data said ‘resting and acclimating’ ourselves to being planet-side.”

I nodded at my friend. “She’s right,” I said, “And I can’t think of any better place to acclimate than in a swimming pool.”

“Point taken,” my mother grinned. “Go put your suits on, and I’ll even join you, but Dana, dear, please call me Emily. I’ve asked you more than once now.”

“Yes ma’am,” Dana replied, “Emily.”

Roughly half an hour later, I used a hotel towel to wipe pool water from my eyes, and then padded barefoot over to the deck chairs where my mother and best friend were reclining. Taking the chair they’d left open between them, I stretched out, and folded my arms behind my head.

“Nice swim, Zoe?” Mom asked, looking up from the magazine she was reading on her padd.

“I’m considering a few more p-words,” I said.

“Do tell?”

I grinned, and listed them for her: “Peachy… pleasant … perfection.”

It’s a good thing I didn’t know how soon that feeling would fade.

Chapter 15: Guilt, Flattery, and Bribery

Disclaimer: Star Trek: The Next Generation, the U.S.S. Enterprise, Lt. Commander Data, and anything else recognizable belong to Paramount. Zoe and her mother belong to me. This takes place during the first four seasons of TNG.

Guilt, Flattery, & Bribery

A day and a half of non-stop togetherness with your friends, your mother, your boyfriend’s father, and your teacher, even when said teacher is technically a friend, too, can be exhausting.

We’d had a blast the first day at the theme park, hooking up with three Andorian kids who were on a last vacation with their father before he transferred to a deep space station. With our group expanded to eight, we didn’t have to deal with the fact that amusement park rides were designed to be ridden in pairs and force someone to ride alone or stay on the ground, and I noticed that Dana and the older Andorian boy – Rikkan – were getting along so well that Josh was starting to act a little jealous.

I’d even asked her about that when the two of us had excused ourselves for a restroom run. “You’re being kinda flirty today,” I teased. “Do you have an antenna fetish I didn’t know about before?”

My best friend blushed. “Rikkan’s kind of nice,” she said, staring at her reflection in the mirror and tightening her ponytail.

“Mmhm. And pretty cute, too.”

“You don’t think it’s weird? Being into someone who isn’t human?”

“I’m dating T’vek,” I pointed out. “Anyway, he’s probably asking if it’s weird to like someone who is human. But, I thought you liked Josh?”

Dana avoided my eyes. “I did,” she said. “I do,” but he’s clearly not that into me.”

I offered her a sympathetic smile. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that.”

For the rest of the day, Josh and Rikkan tripped over themselves to get Dana’s attention, and T’vek and I kept looking for opportunities to slip away, but Pirates of the Mutara Nebula was closed for maintenance, and eventually we decided to focus on our assignment – evaluating the biggest scariest rides.

Similarly, the next morning’s trip to the technology museum seemed designed to keep us in a group. The guide’s amplification system did nothing to make her inability to enunciate any clearer, so we had to stick close and take turns interpreting for each other.

When we were finally back at the hotel that afternoon, I was so crabby I didn’t even want to make my mother take me on our promised shopping excursion, I just wanted ten minutes of quiet, so when everyone else went to lunch, I got permission to go back to our hotel room and take a nap. Of course, I wasn’t really sleepy. Just tired of being around people.

I was also distracted by Dana’s comments the night before, about not really understanding the command structure of the Enterprise. I sprawled on my bed trying to come up with ways to ask Wes to coach me without making me seem stupid or allowing him to feel smug. Why Wes? Because there are some things you don’t admit to the boy you’re making out with in shuttlecraft corridors. Or to your best friend. Or to the boy your best friend likes. Or to the teacher you maybe, probably have a crush on, except that you have a boyfriend, and it’s probably just that he’s so vastly different from any other adult that you know.

When the com-system chimed with an incoming call from my father, then, I happily answered it, “Hi, Dad.”

“Zoetrope! Good to see you, kiddo. Are you enjoying Serenity Five? Where’s your mother, and your friends?”

“Back at you, Dad. And to answer in order, yes, and they’re all at lunch. I was feeling a little peopled-out.”

“Too ‘peopled-out’ to meet your old man for a coffee? We’re not far from your hotel, and we have a flitter.”

“Coffee’s do-able,” I said. “I should check with Mom or Data, or at least let them know where I’ll be. I mean, we have the afternoon designated for free time, but it was kind of suggested that we should stay nearby.”

“I’m sure your mother won’t mind,” my father said, “Change into something without writing on it, and be in the lobby in ten minutes.”

Dad was prompt, as always, and the flitter (“A rental, Zoe, I swear!”) was pretty luxe for a cloud-to-ground model. We zipped across town to a smaller, fancier, hotel in the arts district, one with a coffee bar on the ground floor, and he led me to a table in the corner.

“I had an interesting conversation with that teacher of yours, Zoe. The gold fellow. Mr. Data.”

“Commander Data,” I corrected absently, looking around at the art deco design of the place, and the array of art on the walls. “Wait, you talked to him about more than this trip?”

“He told me you were working through a college-level music theory course together. Did you know he’s arranged for you to receive credit for it?”

I hadn’t, but somehow I wasn’t surprised. “Assuming I pass without frying his circuits,” I said. “He didn’t happen to mention how I was doing?”

“I believe the phrase ‘excellent student’ might have passed his lips.” My father’s tone darkened a bit, “Though he also referred to your math work as ‘adequate.'”

I grinned at that. “Considering that my own description of my math abilities was ‘abysmal’ when I started his class, ‘adequate’ means a lot. He’s got this way of guiding you toward the answer to a question without actually doing the work for you. If all my math teachers had been like him, I’d probably have a way better GPA.”

My father signaled a waiter while I talked, and he ordered a double espresso, then looked at me, “Do you want hot chocolate, Zoe?”

“Honestly, Dad, I’m fifteen, not five. I’d like a macchiato, please.” I was learning to like coffee without chocolate or sweeteners in it, but still needed milk.

“You’re growing up so fast…has it really been only four months?”

“Six, if you count the last two months of school last year, when you were on Earth. You know I’ll be sixteen in a few weeks. Legal for cloud-to-ground vehicles.”

“I don’t think you need to worry about a flitter license while you’re on the ship, Zoe,” he pointed out. “Your mother says you’re adjusting better?”

The waiter brought our drinks, and I waited for him to leave before answering. “Kind of, yeah. I might not hate it quite as much as she thinks I do.”

“She also said there’s a boy…?”

“T’vek, Dad. I told you about him in the last three messages I sent. Don’t you open your mail?”

“Tour’s been keeping me busy, kiddo. You know how it is.” He took a deeper swallow of his espresso than was usual. Almost a gulp.

“Is this your lead-in to telling me I don’t get to spend Christmas with you?”

“No,” he said. “We’d love to have you with us for the holidays.”

I pushed my cup away – it was too hot for me, anyway – and stared at my father through slitted eyes – “Who is ‘we,’ Dad? What are you not telling me?”

My father had the decency to blush. He picked up his cup, then set it down again. “You know your mother and I have been separated for over a year.”

“Well, yes, but – I mean – I thought that was just because of her assignment to Enterprise. Mostly.”

“Oh, Zoe. That was part of it.” He really did seem upset. A little. “We’re ending our marriage, kiddo. I’ve met someone, and she and I – ”

“Met someone?” I wanted to yell. I wanted to throw my cup at him. I wanted to throw myself at him and bawl like a little kid. Instead, I kept my voice as low and calm as I could. “Does Mom know?”

“About the divorce? Yes, Zoe, contrary to your assumption your mother and I actually do communicate.” My father could out-snark everyone, including me, when he wanted to. Generally, he only wanted to when someone – usually me – made him angry.

“No, about her replacement. What’s her name? It is a ‘her’ isn’t it?” I’d heard stories about my father’s life before he and my mother had gotten together. I really didn’t care, but I was pretty angry, too.

“Gia is not a replacement,” my father began.

“Isn’t she?” I interrupted.

“She is not. She is a lovely woman, as well as being the archivist for the orchestra. I’m sure you’ll like her if you just give her a chance.”

I picked up my coffee cup, not to throw, but to drink from. I figured having something in my mouth would stop me from screaming. What was it about my parents dragging me to public places before they dropped news-bombs on me? “Is she here?”

“On the tour? Yes, of course. She travels with us.”

“No, not here. Here. In the hotel. Right now. I mean, isn’t this where you introduce me to her and make me promise to behave in front of my classmates tomorrow?”

My father’s eyes widened in surprise. Apparently he hadn’t thought of that. “Actually, no. She had a meeting with the manager of the concert hall. I was hoping you and I could hang out a while longer.”

“I was supposed to go shopping.”

“Excuse me?”

“With mom. I promised not to bitch – ”

“Watch your language – ”

“Whatever. I promised not to grump about her being a chaperone if she took me to a vintage dress shop. I didn’t have anything appropriate for a concert.”

My father sighed. “I suppose the dress you have in mind is ridiculously expensive?”

“Actually it’s not,” I said, a bit too brightly. “But the matching shoes and bag…they’re gonna cost you.”

“And you won’t embarrass me or Gia tomorrow in front of your mother and your classmates?”

I tipped the last of my drink into my mouth, and gave my father my best catty smile. “I will,” I said, “be on my absolute best behavior. Did I mention there are earrings, too?”

I didn’t really want to go shopping. At that moment I would have preferred to be in my room at Gran’s farm on Centaurus with angry music blasting into my ears. I wouldn’t have even minded being on the Enterprise, but since neither of those things were possible, an expensive shopping trip would have to do.

It was long past dinner time by the time Dad returned me to the hotel. He’d called my mother to tell her that I was okay, and still with him, but I’d told him not to go in with me. I was surprised to find, not my mother waiting in the lobby when I walked in with my two garment bags as well as another bag with shoes and accessories, but Data. He had been sitting in one of the chairs, but he rose as I approached.

“Zoe,” he said. And while he meant my name merely as an acknowledgement of my presence, he seemed disappointed in me. Or, as disappointed as he could be.

I couldn’t meet his eyes, and dropped my bags on the floor so I wouldn’t have to. “You’re pretty pissed at me, aren’t you?”

“You know that I cannot be ‘pissed’ at anyone. However, your behavior was irresponsible.”

“I left a note. For you and for my mother. And Dad called. And technically the afternoon was free time. It’s not like I went out and got drunk.”

He blinked at me a couple of times. “Technically, you are correct. You did not break any of the established rules for your comportment on this trip.”

“But…?”

“But there was a tacit understanding that you were to stay near this hotel, and that obtaining permission to deviate from that plan was the preferred choice, was there not?”

“Yes,” I admitted.”There was.” I waited a beat to see if he was going to add anything. When he didn’t, I looked up. “I wasn’t comfortable asking Mom if I could skip spending time with her to spend time with Dad. I should have gone to you, but I was afraid you’d defer to her. I was disrespectful of your role as my teacher and my friend,” I said softly. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

I don’t know what Data would have said to a subordinate officer, but in that moment I could see the ‘command quality’ Wes and T’vek were always talking about when discussing ranking officers. He would have been totally within his rights to restrict my activities for the rest of the trip, but instead he simply said, “See that it does not.”

I nodded then bent to retrieve the bags I’d dropped. “Good night, Data,” I said, as I walked toward the bank of lifts.

“Sleep well, Zoe,” came his response from somewhere behind me.

Of course, facing him was only my first task of the evening. When I got back to our room, my mother was sitting on the sofa, and the door to the bedroom I shared with Dana was closed. She patted the seat next to her, and I left my bags near the door to join her.

“If you’re going to yell at me,” I said, “Can it wait ’til tomorrow? I know you think I waltzed out to spend time with Dad and had a great time, but he didn’t even wait half an hour before telling me that you’re getting divorced and that he has a new girlfriend.”

“Commander Data met you in the lobby?” she asked mildly.

“Yes. Do you think there’s some kind of award for disappointing an android?”

“If something had happened to you, it would have been his responsibility,” my mother pointed out. “I wanted to yell at you, but you were with an adult, and you did leave a note. And it’s possible you should have heard about the divorce from me.” She offered a weak smile.

I kicked my shoes off and curled up against her on the couch. “How ’bout we call it even on this one, Mom. I’m sure there will be lots of other things you can yell at me about this year.”

She chuckled softly. “Probably so. He took you shopping.”

“You know that saying about the power of guilt, flattery, and bribery?”

“Mmhm?”

“The first and third are kind of a down payment on the second. I promised to be on my best behavior tomorrow.”

“Zoe Harris, sometimes you scare me.”

“Mom, sometimes I scare myself.”

Chapter 16: Snark in the Key of ‘Z’ – Part I

Disclaimer: Star Trek: The Next Generation, the U.S.S. Enterprise, Lt. Commander Data, and anything else recognizable belong to Paramount. Zoe and her mother belong to me. This takes place during the first four seasons of TNG.

Snark in the Key of ‘Z’ – Part I

I knew that, at some point during our day with my father and his orchestra, I would be meeting The Girlfriend, as I’d already labeled her in my head. I expected her to be younger than my mother. I expected her to be pretty. I even halfway expected her to be blonde, even if that was a completely stereotypical assumption. The middle-aged man always falls for the pretty, young, blonde, right? Nothing, however, prepared me for the fact that this particular pretty, young, blonde would guide us through our tour of the music hall, and be with us throughout the day.

“Good morning, everyone,” she greeted, flashing us a smile full of too-white, too-perfect teeth. “I’m Gia Viglione. Officially, I’m the Capitol City Orchestra’s archivist, but on this tour, I’m also acting as manager and publicity liaison.” She fixed my mother with her sparkly, blue-eyed gaze and greeted her too warmly, “Emily, it’s lovely to finally put a face to the name,” as if she could erase the inherent awkwardness of the situation with sheer enthusiasm . “And Commander Data, Zoe’s letters to her father mention you a lot.”

While my mother managed only a nod and a polite-but-firm handshake, Data was smoother, and a part of me wondered if he was treating this as a sort of first contact situation, or if he was literally on some kind of android autopilot. “It is good to meet you, Ms. Viglione,” he answered her, also shaking her hand.

“Gia, please,” she said, turning away from him to greet T’vek’s father, and asking if he preferred to be called Kenash or Mr. Mairaj. Clearly she’d been briefed about all of us.

She greeted all of my friends by name as well, complimenting Dana on her wardrobe, and mixing up Wes and Josh, which made the rest of us giggle, at least. She told T’vek he was exactly as expected from my letters, and then she turned to me, and opened her arms. “Zoe, darling, give me a hug. I’m so glad to finally meet you in person.”

“Kill me now,” I muttered to T’vek and Dana, who were standing closest to me, but I’d promised my father I’d be on my best behavior, and since my mother was behaving with grace I supposed I could at least skip the temper tantrum. “Wish I could say the same,” I said, in a too-sweet tone, as I stepped into her embrace, “But Dad never even mentioned you til yesterday.” I absolutely did not give a wide-eyed blink as a said it. Well…not one that anyone saw.

Her smile faltered, but her embrace was firm, if quick. “You know your father, Zoe. So busy, and so scattered. He means well, really.”

“Is that why he has you reading his mail?” I asked, since Gia had known about T’vek when my father had seemed not to. Privately, though, I had to admit that her description of my father was fairly accurate.

“Oh, Zoe,” she forced a laugh. “Zachary said you had a tendency to be direct. ‘Straight up snarky,’ he calls you.”

“Mmhmm.” I agreed. “Except it’s more like ‘snarky with a twist of lime’ these days.” It wasn’t the response I truly wanted to give, but I’d caught the warning arch of my mother’s eyebrow, and felt the tension from my friends. Stepping away from her, I flashed my best innocent grin then asked, “Hey, is it true there are tunnels and catacombs under this building?”

“There are!” she confirmed, as if she were delighted by the very thought. Maybe she planned to ditch me in one of them. “And we’ll see some of them, but before we do that, follow me, and let me show you some of the more unique features of the above-ground portion of the building.”

She led us through the concert hall, explaining things like the way the railings across the picture windows of the mezzanine level lobby were designed at barre height so the local dance company could use them for pre-performance warm-ups, and the way the data screens provided at each seat provided instant translations of whatever was being spoken or sung on stage, as well as information about the performers.

“When developing the Serenity Five arts and entertainment community,” Gia went on, “the leaders of Serenity Five wanted their concert hall to be more than merely accommodating, so they drew on successful designs from around the Federation. The main hall is engineered to have a 1.9-second echo, just like Boston’s Symphony Hall in Massachusetts, on Earth. That measurement is supposed to be the most pleasing to the average humanoid ear.”

“I am curious,” Data interrupted her at one point. “Opera, dance and instrumental concerts have very different acoustic requirements. Is the sound quality adversely affected by adjustments to the stage and seating?”

Gia seemed grateful to have a question to answer. “It would be, but the walls and seats are all on adjustable plates. The concert hall can be made larger or smaller, the walls be pushed outward, curves softened or corners sharpened, all depending on the needs of the type of performance and the artists’ preferences.”

Her tour led us down through access tunnels beneath the stage, down to the first sub-basement, where furniture, costumes, and other equipment were stored. Here, the architecture was obviously older, stone construction that seemed more appropriate for nineteenth-century France than a modern pleasure planet.

“Phantom of the Opera, much?” Josh observed softly.

“‘In sleep he sang to me…in dreams, he came,'” I sang softly in response. Dad had served as musical director of the ancient musical a few years ago, and I still knew the entire score. Josh, of course, was our resident theatre geek, so it was perfectly natural for him to sing the next line.

“Wasn’t there a horror vid based on that story as well?” T’vek asked. “Because this feels like the perfect setting for an undead killer to drag his victims.” To prove his point, he made the sound that has been used in spooky-tunnel scenes in horror movies and vids for centuries: “Ca-ca-ca-ca, che-che-che-che.”

“Stop that!” Dana hissed at him.

“Stop what?” T’vek asked her, the corners of his mouth curving ever-so-slightly upwards.

“I do not believe it is likely that a serial murder with a facial deformity – living or undead – is lurking in the shadows here,” Data observed, before the conversation could go any further. “Please pay attention.”

The mild correction was enough to sober all of us. Gia, meanwhile, was blissfully unaware of the entire exchange, and was currently explaining that there were two levels of basement below this one, and that the bottom one really did have sewer access. “I’m told the nod to old Terran architecture is a bit of a joke on the part of the designer,” she added.

We followed her down a few more dimly-lit corridors, and then up a series of people-mover ramps until we returned to the mezzanine lobby, where my father was waiting for us.

Specifically, he was leaning oh-so-casually against one of the railings, and he was dressed to impress in a white linen shirt, perfectly pressed, but untucked and with the cuffs hanging open, and black pants that were really too tight to be worn by anyone’s father, the matching jacket dangling from one of his hands. He was also, I noticed, sporting the single earring I’d given him for his birthday when I was ten and he was conducting an opera company’s revival of The Pirates of Penzance. I wondered if he’d chosen to wear it for me, to make my friends (or Gia) think he was cool, or to annoy my mother, who hated jewelry on men. Most likely answer: all of the above. The final touch, though, was the black fedora he was also wearing. That piece of attire was the one that told me that if yesterday’s version of my dad had been the contrite-but-indulgent absentee father, today’s was all Euro-trash playboy.

“Well,” he said by way of greeting. “Did you enjoy the tour? No one got lost in the tunnels? I’m pretty sure one of our oboe players went missing down there the other day.” His accent, a mix of Croatian, French, and British English, was stronger than I was accustomed to hearing – usually it was barely detectible, which meant he was definitely pushing the ‘cool’ factor. “You didn’t happen to see her…? No? Well, anyway, I’m glad to have you all here. My Zoetrope, especially.”

“Dad – really?”

“She doesn’t like it when I use nicknames in public,” he observed wryly. “But anyway, Emily-dear, good to see you.” He gave my mother the showy European triple-kiss that real people never actually did any more, and breezed over my mother’s cool use of his name as an acknowledgement. “And Commander Data, we meet at last.” Our tutor was favored with an exuberant handshake/shoulder pat combination.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Maestro,” Data responded, his typical low-key demeanor the perfect counterpoint to my father’s boisterous behavior.

“Zo’, c’mere and give me a hug, then introduce me to your little friends.”

I rolled my eyes at his phrasing, but we hugged, and then I introduced T’vek’s father, first, and then Dana, Josh, Wes, and T’vek. My father made some more small-talk, asking Kenash about his work and chatting with my friends about the tour. Gia, I noticed, hovered very nearby, but didn’t insert herself into the conversation. I moved over to my mother, who had separated herself from us.

“You okay, Mom?” I asked softly. “This is so weird.”

She gave a rueful chuckle. “I should be asking you that.” She lowered her tone even further, “I should also be lecturing you about being catty with Gia earlier, but I think I enjoyed it, a little.”

I shrugged. “She seems harmless. Disgustingly perky, and sarcasm seems to float right over her head, but harmless… It’s just…”

“…weird. I know.” There was a beat, and then she added, “Your father is covering.”

“Oh, you mean the Zachary Harris Experience over there. Yeah, I noticed. How are you so calm and collected? Intensive Starfleet training?” I was teasing her, but only a little.

“Actually, yes. I’ve almost convinced myself this is just another mission.”

“Oh, Mom.” I grabbed her hand, and squeezed it, and she squeezed mine back. “Remind me, later, to tell you how awesome you are.”

She managed a sincere smile. “Go join your friends, Zoe. You’re here to learn, remember.”

I rejoined the group just as my father was rubbing his hands together, his jacket having long since been draped over the railing. “Alright then, who wants to go find some musicians and take them to lunch? We can talk about the physics and math of music while we eat, yes? Yes!”

He reclaimed his coat, turned on his heel and led us down one more level and across a breezeway to the concert hall’s café, where several of the musicians were waiting for us. “Order what you want,” he instructed us as he ushered us inside. “My treat.”

Note: This chapter was getting a bit long, so it’s been broken into two parts. Part II will be up within the week. Sorry for such long delays, and thanks to all of you who’ve been reading.

Chapter 17: Snark in the Key of ‘Z’ – Part II

Disclaimer: Star Trek: The Next Generation, the U.S.S. Enterprise, Lt. Commander Data, and anything else recognizable belong to Paramount. Zoe and her mother belong to me. This takes place during the first four seasons of TNG.

Snark in the Key of ‘Z’ – Part II

“Inspiration is for amateurs,” my father declared to the audience assembled in the hall on Serenity Five at the pre-concert lecture. There were other music fans – paying customers – not just my classmates and me, but it felt like his words were directed to me even so. “When someone tells you they’re not inspired,” he went on, “it really means they won’t put in the work.”

We’d spent the better part of the day at the concert hall, and the bulk of that had been graced by my father’s presence, and as much as I loved him, I was getting tired of his public persona. Thankfully, we just had to get through the next half hour of talking about the music we were about to hear, and then the concert itself. At least I had an amazing outfit to wear, courtesy of a vintage clothing store not too far from our hotel, and my father’s guilt over not keeping me in the loop about his old relationship with my mom, or his new one with Gia.

Next to me, my boyfriend T’vek must have been able to tell I was getting impatient, because he squeezed my hand. I shot him a look out of the corner of my eye and offered him the hint of a smile, but didn’t say anything, because on my other side, Data was asking a question.

“You say that inspiration means a lack of hard work,” our android tutor asked. “But how do you account for the spark of creativity…the ‘divine gift’ that leads to the composition of such music as the orchestra will be playing this evening?”

My father seemed a bit taken aback, but I’m not sure if it was the question or the questioner. “That’s an interesting point, Commander Data,” he said. “Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it is amateurish to wait for a flash of inspiration. Zoe,” he picked on me, as he had, in these situations, for almost my whole life. “What do you think?”

“I think it’s a little of both,” I said, glancing from my father to Data and back. “I mean, personally, I could be inspired by anything. Right now, I could be incredibly inspired by authentic thin-crust pepperoni pizza.” I waited for the soft chuckles that came from around the room to subside. “But even if there is a divine jump-start, if you don’t have the foundation of hard work, it’s just going to fizzle out.”

“Well put,” he said.

“May I just add, Dad, that I really hate it when you get me to argue your side of a topic.”

“Hardly a first for me. But you always manage to put your own spin on it.”

“Hardly a first for me,” I said, feeling much better. Nothing like banter to put a smile on your face.

“Ladies and gentlemen, my daughter, Zoe,” my father said, laughing. “Watch out for her…I have a feeling she’ll be giving these lectures in a few years.”

“Have your people call my people and we’ll talk about it,” I said.

On my right, T’vek cheered, “Go, Zoe!” When I reached for his hand, afterward, he didn’t let go.

The rest of the half-hour flew by, and then the concert began. I was surprised that the Dvorak cello concerto was on the program, because it seemed very serious for a pleasure planet, but the audience seemed to appreciate it, and after my initial reaction, I was very focused on the soloist’s technique.

“Zoe, can you play like that?” Wes asked, during the intermission. “I know cello’s your instrument, too.” He meant it as a compliment, of sorts.

“Ask Data,” I answered honestly. “I suck at self-assessments, and he knows better than anyone what I can do.”

Having heard his name, our teacher excused himself from conversation with my mother and Kenash, and joined us. “Is there a problem?” he asked.

“Not at all,” Wes assured him.

“Yeah,” Josh said, “We just wanted to know if Zoe could play like that soloist.”

“She said to ask you,” Dana added.

I was studiously looking at the floor by now, but the truth was that I wanted to know what his answer would be. “We really only work on theory,” I said softly, stepping closer to T’vek. Great, Zoe, seek protection from your boyfriend.

Data’s answer surprised me. “While it is true that Zoe and I have been focusing on the theory and physics of music, I believe she is a competent musician, and my conversations with her other teachers support this conjecture. With practice,” he said, and now he was directing his comments to me, and not the group, “you would perform quite well.”

T’vek put his arm around my shoulders. “Guess Crusher’s not the only whiz-kid in the group,” he said smugly.

“Brat,” I said to him, making the word an endearment. But in the next breath I added, “Thanks, Data. Coming from you, that means a lot.”

We returned to our seats for the second half of the concert, and stuck around long enough for me to say goodbye to Dad and Gia, which involved hugs (some given more grudgingly than others) and promises of seeing them for Christmas, and then Data was ushering us back to the hotel.

I noticed that my mother seemed drawn and quiet on the way back, and nudged T’vek. “We need to give my mom the night off, somehow. Will you follow my lead?”

“Always,” he grinned.

When we got to the lobby, I said, “Hey, Data…can T’vek and I talk to you a minute?”

“Of course,” he said, leaving it to my mom and Kenash to get the rest of our group upstairs. “How can I help?”

I thought about trying to convince him that hosting a slumber party was an important human ritual, but decided to go for total honesty instead. “I don’t know how much you were paying attention to,” I said, “but tonight was kind of hard for my mom. It’s not easy meeting your soon-to-be-ex-husband’s new girlfriend.”

“Right,” said T’vek. “And Zoe’s mom has been pretty patient with us, so we thought maybe we could give her a break tonight.”

“I do not understand,” Data said, the hint of puzzlement underscoring his statement. “How can she be given a ‘break’ from being a chaperone?”

“We thought maybe we could all change into pajamas and crash your room,” I said. “Order pizza and watch bad horror vids.”

“Though that begs the question,” T’vek teased. “Are there any good horror vids?”

“Watch and mock bad horror vids,” I amended. “Please, Data? I know I was kind of a brat yesterday, but she’s still my mother.”

T’vek grinned, the expression dangerous on his face. “You could consider it an exploration of adolescent human rituals,” he suggested to our teacher.

It was rare for Data to take time to think about a proposal, but in this case, he left us hanging for nearly half a minute. “Very well,” he said slowly. “May I assume that one of you will be responsible for selecting the appropriate type and source of the pizza.”

I clapped my hands. “I will,” I said. “I am a pizza connoisseur.”

T’vek laughed, “This, I have to see. We’ll come a-knocking in about half an hour, Data.” And he dragged me into the ‘lift, stealing a kiss as soon as the doors closed. “Seriously, Zoe, a slumber party?”

“Best I could do on short notice. Besides, I’m dying to see if Data even owns pajamas.”

“Are you sure it’s not him you’re crushing on?” T’vek asked, and while I knew he was teasing me, something less-than-happy passed between us for a moment.

“I’m sure,” I said. “He’s my friend. You’re my boyfriend. You know, the one I make out with in shuttlecraft corridors?”

He kissed me again and the weirdness was gone. “I vaguely recall something of the sort,” he said.

“Maybe I should remind you,” I teased. But, somehow, I couldn’t help wondering if maybe he’d been a little bit right.

I’m pretty sure Data never expected to have five teenagers sprawled across his bed, eating pizza, but we’d all decided that was the best place to be, and, as Wes pointed out, it wasn’t like he was using it to sleep, or anything. I’d picked three pizzas from the place the hotel concierge recommended, and we’d all attacked them – my thin-crust pepperoni, T’vek’s preferred plomeek with Rigellian pippali sauce, and a mushroom and olive for contrast.

“I cannot believe you are eating that,” Dana said of T’vek’s choice. “I can feel the heat from here.”

“Lips that touch pippali are not touching mine,” I sing-songed.

“Ugh! TMI,” Josh said.

“You’re just jealous.”

“Data, have you tried this foul…substance…that T’vek thinks is food?” I asked, bringing our host into the conversation. “I’d love to hear your reaction.”

Wes said, “I’ll try it if you will,” and reached for a slice.

“Um,” said Dana, “I really don’t think you want to do that.”

Wesley shrugged. “It’s just spice; how bad can it be?”

“On the Scoville scale,” Data informed us, setting aside the padd he’d been working on, and coming over to the group, “Rigellian pippali has a rating in excess of two million.”

“What’s the Scoville scale?”

“It measures the heat equivalency of the capsaicin in peppers,” I said. “It goes from normal bell peppers, which have a rating of basically nothing to ‘I think I just saw the insides of my own nostrils’ hot. Traditional pippali, from Earth, is pretty mild but has a nice bite, but that stuff,” and I gestured to T’vek’s pizza, “that stuff could kill you.” I looked at him and asked, “How do you even still have taste buds?”

“I’m special,” he grinned, taking another slice of pizza and biting into it pointedly. “Sure you don’t want some.”

“I would cut my tongue out with a rusty spoon, first,” I said.

“Fear, Zoe? Really?”

“Enlightened self-interest,” I said.

But Wes was making good on his pledge to try it, as was Data. The former began coughing and spluttering almost immediately. The latter merely raised an eyebrow, “I do not believe this is typical Rigellian pippali,” he said.

“No,” T’vek admitted. “It’s extra-hot.”

“Wesley, are you alright?” Data was suddenly extremely attentive, and Wes was turning shades of red I really hadn’t thought were possible. “Do you require assistance?”

I bounced off the bed and moved to the replicator. “Milk, Terran cow, cold,” I ordered, and brought the glass to Wes as soon as it shimmered into solidity. “Drink this; it’ll help,” I said.

He grabbed the glass from my hand and started chugging…but it took half of it before he could breathe normally again. “Wow,” he said. “Add that to the list of things I’m never doing again.”

“Are you alright, Wesley?”

“Yeah, Data. I’m fine.” He glanced at me. “Thanks, Zo’.”

I shrugged, “I learned the same way you just did that water only spreads the fire. But…we did warn you. I mean…I’m evil, Wes…but I’m never mean, you know?”

He grinned a bit sheepishly. “It’s fine,” he said. “I’m fine. Hey, Data, do you know if Commander Riker has been introduced to this stuff.”

Data flashed Wes a look. “I do not advise that you attempt to find out.”

“Yeah, okay.”

We put the remnants of the pizza aside and started the vid we’d obtained. “Get ready to be scared,” I said. “Classic 20th-century horror.”

“Which one is this?” T’vek asked.

“My favorite: A Nightmare on Elm Street. It’s about a serial killer who kills teenagers by invading their dreams, only if you die in your dream, you really die. It’s awesome.”

By the time the vid had ended, Dana, Wes and Josh had all fallen asleep, the boys having moved to the other bed in Data’s room so they could spread out more. Dana was on the bed next to me, and T’vek had taken all the cushions off the sofa in the main room and piled them between the beds.

My friends apparently didn’t have bladders. Slipping off the bed, I padded to the bathroom, closing the door and locking it, and, just because I felt weird being not only in Data’s hotel room, but with all my friends outside the door, turning on the exhaust fan, as well. I lingered as long as I dared, finally returning to the darkened bedroom. I could see Data sitting at the desk, in the main area of the suite, back at work on…something…and I couldn’t help watching him for a minute.

Either android hearing was much better than I realized, or he caught a reflection of my movement. He turned around, and asked softly, “Is everything alright, Zoe?”

“I’m good,” I said. “Should I wake everyone so we can get out of your hair?”

“I believe it would be more beneficial for you all to remain here,” he said, “rather than disrupt your sleep cycles.”

“Thanks for letting us take over your room.”

“I enjoyed participating in a typical teenage ritual. I believe there is another aspect of it that has not yet been completed, however.”

“Oh?”

“As the ‘responsible adult’ present, I believe it is my duty to ensure that you all get a good night’s sleep.”

“You’re telling me to go back to bed.” It wasn’t a question.

“Indeed,” he said.

I grinned at that. “Good night, Data.”

Chapter 18: Turning for Home

Disclaimer: Star Trek: The Next Generation, the U.S.S. Enterprise, Lt. Commander Data, and anything else recognizable belong to Paramount. Zoe and her mother belong to me. This takes place during the first four seasons of TNG.

Turning for Home

Our last day on Serenity Five began oddly, as we’d all crashed in Data’s hotel room the night before, but once we were done with breakfast and back to the amusement park, things were approaching normalcy. We were met at the gates by a little bird-like man whose name was not actually Fezziwig, though that was the closest any of us came to it.

He led us into the control room for the rides, showing us how everything could be run by one person, though the optimum was one per ride. Almost immediately, Wes began asking technical questions. “What kind of anti-grav generator do you use on the mag-coaster,” was his first. His second was “how come there isn’t a global kill switch?”

“Kill switch?” I whispered to T’vek.

“Think of it as a master override,” he said softly, “in case of a serious fault.”

Fezziwig’s hearing was, apparently, almost as good as our teacher’s. “Oh! Yes! There is a master override.” He gestured to a large red button mounted on the wall right near the door. “We’ve never had to use it, but we test the system once a month, just in case.” Once he started talking, he kept going, and eventually his chattering began to sound like birds to me. I set my padd to record everything, and tuned out most of the conversation, though I enjoyed seeing the mechanics of the rides.

After our tour, we all had lunch together, and then we were turned loose in the park again, but this time, the five of us kids dispersed – Josh and Dana had a shared interest in one of the anti-grav swingsets, and T’vek and I were anxious to find out if the “Pirates of the Mutara Nebula” ride was really the ultimate make-out experience it was purported to be. (It was.) Meanwhile, Wesley had struck up a conversation with one Fezziwig’s assistants, and had been invited to actually run a couple of the rides, and kept insisting he really wanted to do that, so we let him.

By the time the park had closed, we were all pleasantly tired, and buzzing with ideas for the presentation we’d have to make once we were back on the Enterprise.

All too soon, we were back on the runabout for the three-day journey home, but this time there were no complaints of boredom. In fact, we all followed Wes’s lead, and actually completed the homework assignments we’d received from our other teachers. Doing so in a group was, if not exactly fun, at least more interesting than sitting in my mother’s quarters or on my bed, and we even managed a couple of lively debates about the material.

“Please,” I said, as we were all working on essays about MacBeth, the guy is a patsy. Lady MacBeth is the true power in the play. ”

“Lady MacBeth is creepy,” Dana objected. Blood and gore were really not her favorite things. “She keeps talking about wanting to smash babies.”

“So, she can’t be powerful and crazy?” I asked. “But, you know,” I said, dropping my voice to dramatic stage whisper, “there’s a theory that both MacBeth and Lady MacBeth are actually innocent of murder.”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Wesley said. “They’re walking around half the play with actual blood on their hands. MacBeth is no innocent.”

“Oh, no,” I said. “I didn’t mean to imply that MacBeth was pure or anything. I mean, he was a warrior, a soldier. Of course he killed people. But killing people in battle isn’t the same as murder. I’m just saying MacBeth has a murder mystery wrapped up inside it, if you know where to look.”

“I don’t follow,” Josh said, “What about the dagger, and hammering poor Banquo about where he’s going all the time?”

I glanced around at each of my friends, though my look to T’vek was the shortest. He was smirking, and that smirk represented a valiant attempt not to laugh. “C’mon, Zo’,” he said, once my gaze had moved beyond him, “Tell them where you’re going with this.”

I shrugged. “It’s not so difficult to see,” I said. “Consider who else is around.”

“MacDuff?” Wesley asked. “You can’t believe that MacDuff is really responsible for all the murders.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “No, Wes,” I said, in the sort of voice one might use to talk a crazy person off a ledge, “MacDuff was just a red herring. No…I think the real murder is Lady MacBeth’s father.”

Data had assigned my mother to pilot the runabout for the first leg of our trip; and joined our conversation at that point. “Pardon the interruption,” he began. “I have made a study of Shakespeare’s work, and I am unfamiliar with any credible theory pointing to Lady MacBeth’s father as a possible murderer.”

At that point T’vek did burst out laughing, and I smiled at my friends and our teacher, “Gotcha!” I sang. “Data, have you read any James Thurber? Look up ‘The MacBeth Murder Mystery.'”

His answer was a head-tilt, followed by a classic, “Ah! James Thurber, author and humorist. I will let you know my thoughts after I analyze the story.”

The look I gave him was a sort of non-verbal touche’, and then I turned to my friends. “Seriously, it’s worth reading. And Ms. Hemery will never expect us to be familiar with it. Thurber’s kind of…ancient history.”

“How do you know about it then?” Dana asked.

I just grinned. “Theatre brat, remember?”

The next day and a half went by fairly quickly. The five of us had come to a tacit understanding that we wanted to surprise Data with our presentation, so while we discussed some of it in whispers, when he was busy in the cockpit, we mainly started doing our own sections of the work.

In the middle of the second night of our return voyage, I woke up from a nightmare and desperately needed to be somewhere with bright light, so I slipped out of my bunk and padded out to the main room. My mother and Dana were still asleep, and I was fairly certain T’vek, his father, and the other boys were, as well.

Data heard me coming. “Is everything all right?” he asked.

“Sorry to bother you,” I said softly. “Had a nightmare. Needed light. And tea. Is that okay?”

“Of course, Zoe.” There was a pause, during which I walked over to the replicator. “Do you wish to join me in the cockpit, as you did before?”

“Only if I won’t distract you.”

“You will not,” he said. “I enjoyed our last conversation.”

That made me smile. “Me, too.” I gestured toward the replicator, “Do you want anything?”

His return smile was a bit awkward, as was the cadence when he answered, “I will have…what you are having.”

“Right,” I joked. “Two pan-galactic gargle-blasters coming up.”

“I am not familiar with that nomenclature.”

I shook my head. “No, you wouldn’t be. It’s a reference to a truly ancient piece of science fiction. Reference Douglas Adams.” I faced the replicator and requested tea, licorice root and hyssop, hot, with honey. I handed one of the mugs to him, and followed him back to the cockpit. “Do you dream, Data?” I asked after I was seated in empty co-pilot’s chair.

“I do not require sleep,” he told me honestly. “As such, I do not know whether or not I am capable of dreaming.”

“You must have a lot of spare time to fill. It must be nice not to ever feel bored or lonely.”

“While it is true that I cannot ‘feel lonely,'” he said, surprising me with his candor. “It is also true that I prefer to share my time with others when I can. However,” and now he was teasing me, a little, “I have sometimes found myself wishing there were more hours in a day, if only because I have to disengage from personal projects to report to my duty station.”

I sipped from the mug I’d been cradling. “Am I one of them? One of your personal projects? Our Saturday Sessions, I mean.”

“Zoe…”

“Data…” I mimicked his tone. “It’s okay if I am, you know. I was just being nosy.”

“We seem to share that trait, though I prefer to call it ‘curiosity.'”

I laughed softly. “Yeah, I guess we do. As well as a tendency to surprise people. You especially. First music theory, then midnight tea, and even a slumber party. You’d be an awesome father.”

“Thank you.” His voice was softer when he said it. “Not many would agree with you.”

“You sound like you’re speaking from experience.”

He met my eyes, and said simply, “I am.”

My own eyes widened. “See, told you I was nosy,” I said, trying to relieve the sudden tension.

“Your query was not unreasonable,” he said.

“Will you tell me, or would you rather I just went to bed now?”

I knew enough about Data, at that point, to understand that he rarely had to ‘think things through’ before responding. Or at least, he rarely had to do so in any perceptible fashion. So when he was quiet for more than thirty seconds, I drained my mug and started to leave. His voice stopped me, “Her name was Lal,” he told me, in a tone not much louder than a whisper. “She was my daughter.”

His use of was made it obvious that something horrible had happened. “Tell me?” I asked, a bit shyly, but he was already talking, so I just returned to my seat and listened as he told me about her creation, her awakening into sentience, and then her acquisition of emotions. On my teachers – no, my friend’s – behalf, my eyes got teary when he spoke of her death (though he called it ‘deactivation’) and I found myself clenching my fist in anger as he talked about Admiral Haftel’s attempt to take her away from him.

I wanted to make it better, I wanted to wave a wand and bring her back for him. I wanted…a lot of things, really. I didn’t have any words to offer, so I got up and crossed the small space between our chairs. “I’m going to do something you might find a little inappropriate, Data. You can yell at me later.”

His eyes darted back and forth in birdlike confusion, but I’d made my decision. I leaned over his chair and hugged him. “You were an awesome father,” I said, turning my earlier supposition into fact. “Never doubt that.”

He met my embrace awkwardly, held it for a moment, then lowered his arms. “You should get some rest, Zoe,” he said. “I suspect that late night tea and conversation with you may become a habit.”

“Oh, I hope so.” I said, grinning. “G’night, Data.” I returned both our mugs to the replicator and hit the recycle button, then returned to my bunk. This time when I went to sleep, my dreams were peaceful ones.

Chapter 19: Back in the Saddle

Disclaimer: Paramount owns Star Trek: the Next Generation and all the canon characters and settings. Zoe, T’vek, and their classmates are mine. I’m just playing in the Trek sandbox.

Back in the Saddle…

The first Saturday after we’d been back on the Enterprise after the trip to Serenity Five, I woke up to a message alert chiming on the com system in the quarters I shared with my mother. “Mom?” I called. “Are you here?” But I remembered fairly quickly that she was making up shifts she’d traded in order to accompany my friends and me on our field trip. “Computer,” I said to the air, “play message, please?”

The computer complied, and I heard Data’s voice reminding me that we would be having music theory that morning, but that we would be meeting in his quarters, as there were visiting diplomats using most of the conference rooms. The computer also told me I had twenty minutes to get ready. I jumped out of bed, recorded a note for my mother reminding her of where I was, and also sent a note to T’vek, asking if we were meeting later. I dressed in one of my oldest, softest t-shirts, leftover from a community theater production of Annie I’d been in when I was ten, and the jeans I’d worn the day before. Shoes took too long, so I slid into flip-flops, hid my messy hair under an old gray watch-cap I’d snagged from my dad once, stuck my padd into the back pocket of the gig bag that held my cello, and left.

I was in the turbo-lift before I realized that I hadn’t eaten and that I had no idea where I was going. “Computer, location of Commander Data’s quarters?” I asked, and when it responded, I gave my destination: “Deck two.”

Wesley Crusher was in the corridor when I stepped out of the ‘lift. “Interesting outfit,” he observed.

I shrugged, “I was late. It was easy.”

He started to brush by me into the lift, but I called out, “Hey, Wes, wait?”

“Sure…why?”

“I have a music lesson with Data, and I’ve never been to his quarters before. Which way do I go?” I knew I could have asked the computer, but…maybe it was time to embrace new friends.

“I thought you two usually met on the bridge level?”

“We do,” I said. “Data’s message said there were diplomats or something. You’d know more than I do.” I hesitated, then added, “I wanted to ask you something anyway.”

“I’ll walk you to Data’s, if you want,” he offered. “And we can talk…I wanted to ask you something, too.”

“Um…okay.” I said. “You first?”

We turned down the corridor, and followed the curve around. “It’s Annette’s birthday in a few days. I know you’re her friend. I want to get her something, but I’m not sure what…”

“She loves earrings,” I informed him. “Prefers silver to gold, favorite stone is opal. But, Wes…if you don’t mind me saying so, what she really wants is…you.”

His eyes grew wide – really wide. “You mean – ”

“No!” I said, “Not want want. Just…she can’t tell if you like her as a friend or a girlfriend. And don’t you dare tell her I told you that.”

“I won’t,” he said. “So, I should ask her out…? But we’ve been out.”

“You’ve been on one date, and you shared a table with T’vek and me. Ask her someplace and go alone. Tell her you want to go steady. No, wait, don’t say that…nobody says that any more. Just…tell her you wanna be official. I mean…if you do. Do you?”

He blushed, which was kind of adorable in a cute-puppy-little-brother kind of way. “Yeah,” he said, “I do.”

“Then tell her.”

He stopped in front of a door and gestured to it. “We’re here,” he said. “Thanks Zoe.” He started to leave then paused. “You said you wanted to ask me something.”

“It’s awkward. More awkward standing here, actually. Hey, do you think it’s weird, me having a music lesson in his quarters?” I shrugged then moved on without waiting for him to respond. “Sessions with Data last two hours, if you don’t have an elsewhere you have to be, meet me here after, and I’ll help you pick out something for Annette, and ask you then? Don’t worry, it’s nothing nefarious.”

He grinned. “Okay,” he said. “And thanks.”

He left and I reached for the door signal, but the door slid open before I could activate it, and Geordi LaForge stepped out still chatting with Data about something. “Hi,” I said, rather lamely.

“Oh, sorry, Zoe – it is Zoe, right?” Geordi said, teasing. “Almost didn’t recognize you with the hat.”

“It gives me magical stealth abilities” I said too-brightly. “Not easy when you’re carrying an instrument nearly as big as you are. If you and Data are busy, I can leave, but he didn’t say anything about rescheduling…”

He smiled at me. “Naah, he’s been waiting for you to show up. Play well.”

“Thanks,” I said.

He stepped aside so I could move my cello through the door, and walked down the corridor. I, on the other hand, hesitated, suddenly feeling really out of place. “Zoe,” Data said, coming toward me from where he’d been sitting behind a seriously impressive-looking computer station. “Please come in.”

I moved enough for the door to close behind me. “Hi,” I said after a few beats. “Sorry. I just…Data, is it okay for me to be here? Alone in a room with you?”

He seemed completely unaware of any potential awkwardness. “We are typically alone in a room at this time on Saturday mornings,” he said gently. “I do not understand the dilemma. Please sit down and unpack your cello while you explain?”

He gestured to where chairs had been set up in our usual configuration.

I went and unpacked at the same time that I said, “Yeah, we’re usually alone, but we’re not usually here. I mean, this is where you live.” What I couldn’t explain was that in seeing his art, his shelves of keepsakes, even his bed as he didn’t seem to have a separate bedroom, I suddenly felt like I’d leveled up to a degree of intimacy that bordered on inappropriate.

Data cocked his head, the way he often did when he was confused by something, though I’d noticed he’d been doing it less and less. “I do not understand.”

I stared at him for a long moment. “You have a fifteen-year-old girl alone in your quarters and you don’t think that’s weird?”

“Should it be?” he countered. “As we have established you are both my student and my friend. Increasing your understanding of musical theory is a joint project for which we have a standing appointment. The only element that has changed since our last session together is the location, and that is only because our usual meeting place is being otherwise used.”

My own head-tilt was really not meant as mockery. “Really?” I asked.

“Really,” he said mildly. “However, if you are uncomfortable being here, we can reschedule.”

I thought about it for a minute. On the one hand, it would be less awkward, on the other the only one who was perceiving awkwardness was me, on yet another hand (apparently I was Beeblebroxian today), his quarters themselves were not unwelcoming. I allowed myself a moment to daydream of being curled on his couch with a book while he worked on…something. Finally, I said, “No. No, I’m here now, and I’ve already wasted enough of your time dithering. You had me playing with the acoustic differences of different bow positions, last time…”

The hours I spent with Data weren’t meant to be lessons in technique, only in theory, and yet we always ended up playing after, or during, the math-and-physics portion of the class, because I always learned better from a hands-on approach. (He called it ‘practical,’ of course.) On this particular Saturday he cut the theory part of theory short. “I wish to make a proposal,” he said, tapping something into the digital music stand in front of me.

Those stands were great devices – a music stand with built-in padds for displaying sheet music, but that you could still annotate with a stylus. No page turning. No pencil marks all over your hands. And better yet? You never had to worry about having enough light. I set my cello on its side on the floor, and studied the music he’d called up. “This is a quartet,” I said.

“Yes,” he agreed. “My quartet has been practicing it with the intent of performing it in Ten-Forward in the coming weeks, however, Lieutenant Gutierrez lacks the thorough grounding in the fundamentals that the piece requires.”

I nodded, “It’s a tricky piece. Dad conducted the Perihelion Quartet playing it a few years ago. You want me to understudy your cellist?”

“No,” Data said. “I want you to replace him.”

“Have you considered asking Seth instead? He has way more real-world performance experience than I do.”

“That is true,” Data agreed. “But Lieutenant Starker does not have the available time needed to learn the piece. As well, I do not believe he will be able to attain the necessary level of ‘meshy-ness’ required to perform as part of a quartet.” He used my word; that was never good.

“And I can?” I asked. “You really believe I can?”

“I have heard you play many more difficult passages with competence and skill that belie your youth. As well, while your performance experience may be limited, you yourself have pointed out that you grew up ‘eating, sleeping, and breathing music and theater.'”

“I hate it when you use my own words against me.” I groused. “But since we still have some time, we may as well try the piece and see what levels of suckitude I actually sink to.”

To his credit, Data didn’t comment on that. Instead, he just picked up his violin, and began to play.

(=A=)

We were still playing an hour and a half later when his door chime sounded again, and Wes’s voice piped over the speaker, “Data? It’s Wes and T’vek. Is Zoe still with you?”

“One moment,” he called. “We have gone over our scheduled time,” he said softly to me. “I am sorry for keeping you.”

“You didn’t,” I said. “I mean, yeah, we went over time, but that’s the most challenging thing I’ve played in forever. I’d forgotten how much fun it is, to attack something new.”

“Is Lieutenant Starker not challenging you?”

“Not musically, anyway.” I answered him without thinking, as I zipped my cello back into its soft, black, bag.

“Zoe, please elaborate.” Suddenly his tone was deadly serious.

I shook my head. “It’s nothing, really…but anyway, you asked if he was challenging me, and the answer to that question is no, he’s not, but it’s not like I have any other options. There aren’t any other cello teachers on the ship. May I go now? The guys are waiting…”

As if on cue the door chime sounded again. This time, Data called out “Enter.” And T’vek and Wes came in. Before they could say anything, though, he continued, “Zoe, If Lieutenant Starker has done anything to make you feel uncomfortable, you can tell me.”

I nodded, “I know, Data. I promise I will, okay?” He nodded, and then I looked past him to T’vek and Wes. “Sorry to make you wait. We kind of got caught up in the music. It was awesome.”

“Wes said we have a shopping date?” T’vek came to take my cello from me, ever-chivalrous.

“Mmhmm. Annette’s birthday. But can we grab lunch first? I skipped breakfast in order to be here on time, and music may soothe the savage breast, but it doesn’t do a whole lot for a growly stomach.”

“I could eat,” T’vek agreed amiably. “Wes?”

“I guess.” He glanced over at Data, and then back at me.

I rolled my eyes at Wes and refrained – barely – from pointing out that he worked with the man. “Data, do you want to be our adult escort into Ten-Forward, or have you had enough teenaged company for one day?”

“I would be delighted to accompany you,” he answered. “If only to ensure that you do not miss another meal. However, you would be well advised to stop by your quarters and change to something more appropriate, as well as…”

“…drop off my cello. Yeah. I know. Twenty minutes?” I asked. “T’vek and I will meet you both there…but…um…can we declare a moratorium on talking about anything to do with warp propulsion, starship mechanics, or anything remotely similar? Otherwise, I’m bringing a book and will rudely read in all your faces.”

“We will endeavor to keep the conversation inclusive,” Data agreed for all of them. “Twenty minutes.”

T’vek and I left, and even though he was still carrying my cello, he also caught my hand with his free one. “Why did you do that?” he asked, as we entered my door.

“Invite Data? Because we were in his quarters, and it would have been rude not to. And because I need a buffer if I’m with both you and Wes. Wait here, I’ll go change.” I went into my bedroom, leaving him in the living room with my cello. “I’m sorry. I know we’ve barely had any time alone together since getting back to the ship.”

“It’s alright,” he said. “There’s always time. Besides, you’re happiest when you’re doing something artsy. I like seeing you happy.” He was quiet for a moment, and I returned from changing into a different shirt (solid, turtleneck, purple) and real shoes. I ruffled his hair as I passed him, intending to update the note for my mother. “You sound like you’re warming up to Crusher.”

“The only person I want to warm up to is you,” I said. “But you and Dana can’t be my only friends, and it makes sense to cultivate other…resources.”

“I thought you said you weren’t nefarious?”

“I also said I was often devious.”

We both laughed at that, and then he kissed me. “I like devious,” he said softly. “C’mon, we’ll be late.”

We didn’t run…exactly.

(=A=)

After lunch, we thanked Data for his time and company, and the three of us went to the replication center to ‘shop’ for Annette’s earrings.

“You don’t have to come,” I told my boyfriend. “We’re hanging out later, aren’t we?”

“I’ve got nothing pressing to do,” he said. “Unless my parents decide they need me.” And of course, that jinxed it, and his mother called him home. “Later,” he said, sighing. “Promise.” We stole another couple of kisses before he left.

“Okay, let’s go shopping,” I said to Wes. “Do you have any other plans for Annette’s birthday? Because I have an idea, if you’re interested.”

“Sure,” he said.

“I think, instead of just turning in a report and computer simulations to Data, we should actually execute our amusement park ideas on the holodeck, and invite our friends and families to experience them.”

We were looking at jewelry at that point, and I watched as Wes’s face was transformed by a slow smile. “That,” he said, “would be fantastic. We could even ask Ms. Phelps if we could combine it with our presentations for Speech and do a whole marketing campaign.”

I grinned, “I was thinking the same thing. We could also make a video trailer and send it to select people as an invitation. But the project’s due in four days, and we’ll need at least three more to program it, won’t we. Assuming we even can?” I leaned over the display we were both browsing, and tapped two buttons. “Those. You should get Annette those. You should also make sure you take her on the Ferris wheel.”

“We didn’t design a Ferris wheel.”

“We should add one.”

“Why?”

“If you have to ask, you shouldn’t be getting a girl earrings.”

Chapter 20: Conversations in Three-Quarter Time

Disclaimer: Paramount owns Star Trek: the Next Generation and all the canon characters and settings. Zoe, T’vek, and their classmates are mine. I’m just playing in the Trek sandbox.

Conversations in ¾ Time

“So we’re all agreed, then?” T’vek asked. He, Wes, Dana, Josh and I were in the living area of the family quarters Wes and his mother shared. Most of our group meetings had taken place in the quarters I shared with my mother, but she had been on a weird shift rotation ever since we’d all returned from our field trip, and the last thing she needed was a pack of pesky teenagers taking over her living room. “We’re going with a Steampunk Halloween theme and putting our rides in the context of a carnival?”

“I’m all for it,” I said, “and not just because it was my idea. But I think we might need a little help with the actual holodeck programming parts of our plan.”

Dana added, “Not to mention some extra time. Zoe, you should be the one to ask Data for that. You’re the favorite.”

I nearly choked on the cranberry juice I was drinking. “Favorite? Me? Hardly. Besides, Wes sees him on the bridge every day…” I turned to him. “So you should ask him. You’re not just teacher and student; you’re friends…and colleagues.”

“I’m pretty sure Data has you in the ‘friend’ category, too, Zoe,” Wes said. “Besides, I think it would be better if I’m the one who consults our holodeck consultant.”

“Holodeck consultant?” Josh asked. “You mean your mom, don’t you? She’s programmed some pretty awesome set designs…”

But Wes was already shaking his head. “Nope,” he said. “I mean Lt. Barclay.”

“Barclay?” Dana queried. “Isn’t he the one you nicknamed ‘Broccoli’?”

“Oh, god, I’ve heard of him,” I said. “Shy, nervous, prematurely balding, habitually late…”

“He’s also the best holodeck programmer on the ship,” Wesley pronounced in a tone that allowed no argument. “Well, except for Geordi and Data, but we can’t ask them.”

“I vote for Zoe talking to Data about time, and Wes consulting Barclay, then,” T’vek suggested.

“I agree,” Dana said. “Meanwhile Josh and I will work on the graphics for the video invitation.”

T’vek grinned, “And I,” he said, “will complete the draft of our report, but I think Zoe should do the final proof-reading of the part that gets our English grade.”

“Dana’s a better writer than I am,” I said, by way of a protest.

“But you have a way of using language that makes everything sound fresh and interesting,” my best friend countered.

“I knew you only loved me for my knowledge of slang and pop-culture,” I quipped to my friends, and we all burst out laughing. After a bit, I added, “I have quartet rehearsal with Data and the rest of his group tonight; I’ll ask him then.”

“And I’ll be in engineering tomorrow, so I can talk to Barclay.”

“And on that note,” Josh said, “I’m out of here. Dana, you’re still coming over for dinner, right?”

Dana blushed, but confirmed “I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”

“We should probably all go. I need to check in with my mother and grab my cello. Wes, thank your mom for letting us take over her living space?”

“Sure,” he said. “Honestly, she’s just happy I’m spending time with people my own age.”

I shot him a rueful grin, but didn’t admit that we shared the tendency to gravitate toward adults rather than our actual peers. It was the typical curse of the only child. I turned off my padd and stood up to go. “T’vek, wanna walk me home?”

“As if you have to ask,” he said. He, too got up, and we left the Crusher quarters together. Outside their door, he caught hold of my hand. “Your mother is on night watch tonight, isn’t she?” he asked.

“Mmhmm.”

“So, if I were to stop by about…oh, say…nine?”

“I might be available…and alone…” I said coyly. “Assuming rehearsal is really only two hours. Your parents won’t mind, though?”

“As long as I’m home by midnight, they’re cool,” he said.

I grinned. “Nine, then.” We continued walking down the corridor, and into the turbo-lift, hand in hand. At my door, we shared a kiss. “See you later, Tev.”

“Bye, Zoe.”

(=A=)

I was happy to find my mother both home and awake when I entered our quarters. She’d been working a lot of late shifts since our return from Serenity Five. I knew it was payback for some of the shift juggling, but even so, I missed her working a nice, predictable day shift. “Hey,” I greeted her, grinning. “Want to have dinner with your favorite daughter?”

She smiled back at me over the top of the padd she was reading. “I could be persuaded to take you to the lounge for dinner if you want,” she offered.

I shook my head. “Tempting as that sounds, I think I’d better eat here tonight. Remember I told you Data invited me to take over the cello part in his string quartet?” She nodded and I continued. “Well, there’s a rehearsal tonight and I don’t want to have to race back to grab my cello.”

“You’ve been spending a lot of time with him,” my mother observed.

“Have I?” I asked. “We’ve only been back for a week, but except for rehearsal being added to the schedule, I see him about as much as I did before: three days a week for class and Saturday mornings for music.”

“If you say so,” my mother said. She set the padd aside and moved toward the replicator unit on the far wall. “Fettucini with pesto?” she asked.

“Sure.”

“Zoe, honey, I don’t want you to feel like there’s something wrong with your friendship with Commander Data. I just worry that you’re taking too much of his time.”

“I kind of worry that, too,” I confessed. “He keeps assuring me I’m not.” I began to set the table without being asked. “I spend a lot of time with T’vek, too,” I pointed out. “Are you concerned about that, as well?”

“Actually, yes,” she admitted. “But in a different way. The two of you seem so intense when you’re together.”

“Intense?” I asked. “Us?”

“Mmhmm. He’s a nice boy, and I trust you both, but Zoe, you’re very young.”

“Mom,” I interrupted. “You make it sound like I’m eight years old.”

“I know you’re not eight,” she said, setting steaming bowls of pasta on the table, and then directing the machine to dispense beverages. “But fifteen is a difficult age. You’re not a child, but you’re not quite a grown woman, and even though the ship is safe, all of you young people are unsupervised a lot…”

“I’ll be sixteen in three months,” I pointed out. “And you don’t have to worry. T’vek and I aren’t doing anything we aren’t ready for.” I sat down at the table with her, but my unspoken ‘yet’ was hanging over the entire meal.

(=A=)

Unlike my music theory lesson of a few days before, the quartet rehearsal took place in the multi-purpose room most often configured as a theater. I was a little nervous, but a video chat with my father had helped calm my nerves a bit, as did the knowledge that Data would never have asked me to join his group if he didn’t think I was good enough. He introduced me to everyone, and then we actually began to work through the music, first playing each piece straight through, then going over each section, agreeing on bow positions, and fine-tuning tricky passages.

After our two-hour session was over, the viola player, Lt. Commander Cressida (“Call me ‘Cress'”) Parish, flashed me an approving look, and said, “I have to admit, Zoe, when Data said he was bringing in his protégé, I was a little concerned, but you impressed me tonight.”

“Um…thanks, I guess. Data’s theory tutorial is helping my playing more than my formal lessons with Seth.” I mused aloud, adding, “For that matter, it’s been helping my voice lessons go more smoothly, too.”

Her smile softened. “You must be pretty special, to have attracted Data’s attention.”

I glanced across the room to where Data and the second violinist, Lt. Dennis Rai, were still in discussion about the right way to play a particular passage. “He’s pretty special too, I guess.” I said softly. Then I grinned. “My boyfriend says he likes it when we go out right after a music lesson because I’m always jazzed after doing ‘something artsy.'”

“Sounds like a smart boy. Who is he?”

“His name is T’vek Mairaj, and he’s also pretty special.”

She just smiled in that knowing way that adults often do when confronted by teenagers. Then she picked up her instrument case, and left the room. Dennis followed her soon after, and I moved to zip my cello back into its gig-bag. I had a hard case, of course, but the lighter, fabric, bag was easier when navigating corridors and turbo-lifts. Data came over to me as I was finishing.

“You played well tonight,” he said. “You seem to mesh well with the rest of the quartet. Are you comfortable with continuing as our cellist?”

“I’d like that,” I answered, standing up. “Cress called me your protégé before she left. Is that a bad thing?”

He seemed to analyze the word. “An appropriate, if not altogether accurate term. Do you object to it?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know…do you?” My padd, which I’d stuck in the back pocket of my gig bag, chimed a reminder of the time. “Aww, crap.”

“Is there a problem?”

I sighed. “Only that T’vek and I have a sort-of date at nine, and I’m going to be late and haven’t asked you…” I stopped. “Never mind.”

Data raised his eyebrows at me. “Have I not made it clear that your questions are always welcome, Zoe?”

“Yes, but…”

“Ah,” he said, in an apparent flash of understanding. “You do not wish to be late for your assignation with T’vek.”

“Assignation? Seriously? That makes it sound kind of…dirty.”

“I did not mean it that way.”

“I know.”

“Come, I will escort you back to your quarters via a somewhat shorter route than you are likely to know.”

“Much less awkward than trying to run with this thing.”

“Agreed.” He headed out the door, carrying his violin, which he’d replaced in its case while we’d been talking. “And you can ask your question while we walk.”

“It’s two questions now,” I said, following him into the corridor. “The first one is on behalf of the entire math tutorial. We wanted to ask if we could delay presentation of our project to next Friday.”

“Are you having difficulties with the assignment?”

“Me personally, or the group collectively?”

“I meant the group, but if you are having trouble with the work – ”

“I’m not,” I was quick to correct him. “I mean, I’m not likely to stop grumbling about it any time soon, because I am never going to like math – sorry, but it’s true – and I probably have to work harder than everyone else, but the challenge isn’t going to kill me or anything. Anyway, I meant the group. And no, we’re not having difficulties, exactly.”

He was leading me down corridors I didn’t recognize, turning left where I’d have thought going right made more sense – note to self, ask for a map of the ship – but seemed to still be paying attention. Nevertheless, he didn’t respond until we’d entered a turbo-lift and he’d told the computer where to send it. “Why do you require more time?”

“We chose to broaden the scope of our assignment. Our English teacher agreed that if we created marketing materials for our virtual amusement park, we could get extra credit – God, we sound like a bunch of nerdy over-achievers – and we want to present our report in a more…” I stopped, because he was staring at me as if I’d grown a second head. “What?”

“You typically use a much more casual mode of speech, even in class. Why are you not doing so now?”

“How is it that you can tell when I’m changing my speech patterns – I was attempting to be professional, by the way – but you don’t understand why I felt weird when you moved my theory lesson to your quarters?”

“Do you wish me to answer that?”

“Not really,” I muttered. “Although in a roundabout way you kind of did. Anyway, we’d like to give our presentation a bit more pizzazz, and to do that we need extra time, and please don’t ask me to elaborate, because we want to surprise you, and that is not an easy thing to accomplish.” I paused, since the turbo-lift seemed to be taking a while. “Where, exactly, does your shorter route take us?”

“We will be crossing the bridge and taking the lift on that side,” Data told me matter-of-factly.

“Excuse me, I think I went deaf a little. Did you just say the bridge? Isn’t that the place people like me are allowed only pretty much never?”

It was Data’s turn to be surprised. “You have really never seen the Enterprise bridge?”

“Hello, have you met me? The girl who goes out of her way to not understand rank hierarchies and thinks uniforms are barely one step above mixing plaids and stripes on the Giant List of Fashion Don’ts?” But I knew he was being serious, so I added, in a much softer tone. “Don’t rat me out to my friends, but I might be a lot more interested than I let on, and I vaguely remember there being a tour about a week before I started in your tutorial, except I didn’t go.”

“I will not ‘rat you out,’ but perhaps the next time a tour is offered you should avail yourself of the opportunity. If we were not trying to save time I would invite you to observe for a while.”

“Is that even allowed?”

“If an officer invites you, yes.” The lift doors opened, and there we were, and suddenly I couldn’t move, not because I cared about the consoles and controls, but because the view on the main screen was just fantastic. “Zoe, in order to cross the bridge, you must first exit the turbo-lift.” He took my cello from me. “Follow me, please.”

I wanted to stay and look at the view on the huge screen forever, but at the same time, seeing people doing their jobs brought me back to reality. “Sorry,” I said. I followed him across the back – back? – section of the bridge, which really reminded me of just a modified cockpit – only bigger – and into the lift on the opposite side. Once the door closed, he gave the deck order, and I just stared at him. “You see that view every day?” I asked.

“Not precisely that view,” he corrected. “But essentially, yes.”

“How do you ever get anything done?”

“I have assigned duties I am required to complete. The relative aesthetic qualities of the view do not impact that.”

“Data?”

“Yes, Zoe?”

“That question, you weren’t supposed to answer.”

“Ah.”

“Sorry.” I waited a beat. “May I have my cello back now?”

He set it down, holding it steady until I’d looped my arm through one of the straps. “May I assume that you found something of merit in your brief visit to the bridge?”

“Maybe.” I admitted. “Please don’t be offended, but most of the time when I’m with you, I forget you’re an officer, and just see my tutor, or a fellow musician…or a friend.” I wasn’t entirely sure why that made him smile, but the expression spread slowly across his face.

“I am not offended,” he said mildly.

The lift doors opened and I realized we were in the junction closest to my mother’s quarters. “Wait, how did we get here?”

“I told you that it would be a route you were unlikely to know.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you have an annoying tendency to be right all the time?”

“Yes,” he said. “Quite often, in fact.”

I rolled my eyes at him, and was about to make another snarky comment, but then we were at my door, where T’vek was slouched against the bulkhead, waiting. “Hey,” I said. “Sorry I’m late.”

“Actually,” T’vek said, “you’re not. Hello, Data.”

“Greetings,” he said, as if it was a default response. For all I knew, it was. He met my eyes, and said, “Thank you for the conversation.” Then he added, “I will see you both in class tomorrow.” He turned and walked away at a brisk pace.

I thrust my cello into T’vek’s arms, and went after him. “Data, wait.” He stopped and turned expectantly. “Do we get the extra time?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. “One week from Friday. I will look forward to being…surprised.”

Chapter 1: Ask Him

Disclaimer: Star Trek: The Next Generation, the U.S.S. Enterprise, Lt. Commander Data, and anything else recognizable belong to Paramount. Zoe and her mother belong to me. This takes place during the first four seasons of TNG.

ASK HIM

“Ask him.” My mother leaned back in her chair, cradling her coffee mug between both hands and just watched me. She wouldn’t speak again until I had. I think it was a negotiation tactic she learned at the Academy. Or maybe it was just parental thing. Either way, I knew I’d cave before she did.

I returned her gaze, noting that her chestnut hair was pulled into a single braid that fell between her shoulders. Her face was thinner than mine, more heart-shaped than oval, so even though we both had the same medium-thick eyebrows arching over brown eyes, and the same full lips, she could get away with pulling her hair back while I couldn’t. We were sitting at a table in the Ten-Forward lounge aboard the Enterprise. My father had disappeared again, this time to conduct the Capital City Orchestra on Centaurus, but it wasn’t like he’d ever really been a constant in my life. Mostly, I’d lived with my grandmother, but three months before my mother had suddenly decided it was time for some mother-daughter bonding, and brought me here to live with her. School had only recently started, and the teacher in charge of the high school aged students wanted me to do some stupid accelerated math tutorial thing, so instead of our usual dinner in our quarters, we were here, discussing it in public. It was my mother’s way of defusing the bratty behavior that had become habitual for me since she’d dragged me away from home. “Isn’t that sort of your job?” I asked her. “Arranging my education, and all?”

“If it was really a question of arranging, then yes, it would be,” my mother answered in her best rational voice, the one she used when she was being more Lt. Harris than Mom. “But Zoe,” she continued, “Ms. Phelps has already stated that Commander Data has offered his tutorial services to any student who asks, and I’m concerned that you’re avoiding interaction with the officers and crew.” She took a sip of her coffee, and went on, the way parents can when they have you trapped. “I know you’re not thrilled about being here, but if you’d come out of your shell and stop being so shy you’d find that everyone on this ship has something pretty interesting to offer. Most fifteen-year-olds don’t get the opportunity to have their math classes taught by ranking officers.”

“I’m not shy,” I protested, focusing on that part of my mother’s mini-lecture. “I’m just very selective about who I talk to.” I sought refuge in a bite of chocolate mousse. “And anyway, I’m pretty sure Ms. Phelps made a mistake. I’m abysmal at math.”

“Abysmal?” The corner of my mother’s mouth quirked up in a slight smile. “Surely you’re a little better than that. Your test scores have always been excellent.”

I shrugged. “Maybe I just test well. Mom, I hate math. The last thing I want is a teacher who’s literally made of it.”

Her smile grew broader. “You do have a way with words, Kidlet.” She took another sip from her mug, then set it down on the table, and placed her hands palm-down on either side of it. She wasn’t intentionally showing off her perfect manicure, but I couldn’t help noticing, and thinking about how ugly my own fingers looked. I put my fork down, and folded my hands in my lap, waiting for her to finish. “I know you’re not thrilled about being on the ship, and I do realize that math isn’t your favorite subject, but you need to realize that I want the best for you. In just a few years you’ll be going off to college, or the Academy – ”

I interrupted with an ill-contained snort. “I am SO not Starfleet material, Mom. College, yes. The Academy, never. Anyway, I’m going to M-SOMATA, like Dad.”

” – and then you can make your own decisions. Until then, you’re stuck with me, Kiddo, and I think you should follow your teacher’s suggestion and take this tutorial with Commander Data, and in order to do that, you need to ask him.”

I sighed, clenching my fingers into fists under the table then releasing them. “I’ll do the tutorial,” I said, “but can’t you ask him? I mean, you see him every day – you report directly to him – and I’ve only ever said hello once.” I was whining, and I hated it, but I really didn’t want to go up to any officer and ask for math help, and especially not the only android in the ‘fleet. I mean. Commander Data was the epitome of “proper” and I was decidedly…not.

“Zoe…” My mother was still smiling, but her tone held that warning note. The one that meant if I didn’t agree to her wishes she’d move to phase two. Nevertheless, I whined a little more.

“Mo-om. Please?”

But she was ready for me. “Zoe Lauren Harris, you are fifteen, not five. I love you, but you need to do this on your own,” she said. And once she’d used my middle name, I knew there was no chance of winning.

“Alright,” I said. “I’ll do it. Is an intra-ship communication acceptable, or do I need to replicate stationery and use actual ink?” I’d moved from whiney to snarky, but that was normal for me. I lifted a hand to push a stray piece of my own chocolate-brown hair back behind my ear, then returned it to my lap.

“Intra-ship text may be fine with your friends, but it’s not appropriate with senior officers,” my mother decreed. “Commander Data’s actually very nice, Zoe. Really. And you know, he’s a musician, too.”

Carrot. Stick. My mother knew me too well. I’d do almost anything that involved hanging out with other musicians. “Okay, okay,” I said. “I’ll ask him. But when I fry his circuits with my complete and total stupidity, I reserve the right to say, ‘I told you so’.”

Chapter 2: Blind Date?

Disclaimer: Star Trek: The Next Generation, the U.S.S. Enterprise, Lt. Commander Data, and anything else recognizable belong to Paramount. Zoe and her mother belong to me. This takes place during the first four seasons of TNG.

BLIND DATE?

“You set me up on a blind date?” I asked my mother incredulously. “For breakfast? Even for you, Mom that’s kind of pushing it.”

“Having Wesley Crusher take you to the teen brunch in Ten-Forward is hardly a blind date, Zoe,” my mother responded, not looking up from her padd. “You’re too young to be dating, actually.”

I rolled my eyes, knowing she couldn’t see me. Easy for her to be calm – she’d had her morning coffee already, and was currently – if I guessed correctly – catching up on news, first from around the ship, then other ships, then outside the ‘fleet. “You might’ve at least asked me if I wanted to go,” I grumped.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me,” she said off-handedly. How did she always know? “And if I had asked would you have agreed to go?”

“Well, no,” I admitted. I slouched into the other chair at the table in our quarters, which weren’t all that bad, really. I mean, they were bigger than the average hotel suite and the art was personal, at least. “But Wesley?”

“What’s wrong with Wesley?”

I stared at my mother for a long moment before answering. “Nothing, exactly, it’s just…”

“Yes?” The word might have been neutral, but the tone in which she uttered it was decidedly…not.

“He’s kind of a dweeb,” I said. “All he wants to do is suck up to the engineering crew and get the Captain to notice him.”

“He has goals, Zoe. Just because they differ from yours – ”

“Mom, you so don’t get it. Wanting to be in Starfleet – I get that. I mean, I wouldn’t do it if you begged, but I understand it. Wesley though…he just doesn’t. Do. Anything. Else. He doesn’t read, he doesn’t keep up with holo-vids, he doesn’t pay attention to music or art or even politics…”

My mother set down her padd. “No,” she said, in calm agreement. Maybe too calm. “He doesn’t do anything else. He’s extremely focused, which is admirable in someone so young, and I know you’re not without focus yourself, Ms. M-SOMATA. Nice shirt, by the way.”

I looked down at the faded sweatshirt from my father’s alma mater, and it’s dusty red planet surrounded by stylized comedy and tragedy masks, music notes, and a paintbrush and planet. The back bore the name of the school: Martian School of Music and The Arts. I knew it was a little too casual for the ship, but it was comfortable, and it smelled like home. “Okay, Mom,” I said, toying with the glass of juice she’d set out for me. “Focus good, and all that, but…”

“But he’s a nice boy doing a favor for a friend of his mother, and you might pause a moment to consider the notion that you might be good for each other,” my mother pointed out.

“How so?”

“You’re right about him not having any other interests. Beverly – that’s Dr. Crusher to you, Kiddo – is concerned about that as much as I’m concerned that you’re passing up opportunities because you’re afraid of success.”

“I’m not afraid of anything,” I said. It would have been more effective if my voice hadn’t caught in the middle, though. “Well, not most things.”

“Only new people, new situations, prospective tutors, and spiders.”

“That’s only four things,” I said, in my best I’m-making-a-point-even-if-it’s-silly tone. “There are way more things than that that don’t scare me. And spiders are evil.”

My mother laughed. “Fair enough,” she said. “How about a deal, then?”

“A deal?”

“Mmhm. Go with Wesley and the other kids to the teen brunch. Stay for the concert that the wind ensemble is giving – Commander Data’s part of it – and you can kill two birds with one stone…”

I peered closely at my mother. “And what do I get if I do this?”

“Skating with your favorite mother in the holo-deck one night this week.”

Again my mother was proving how well she knew me. Ice skating was one of our only mother-daughter activities from when I was little, and even though I was really, really clumsy at it, I always had fun. “I guess that would be okay,” I said. “If…”

“If…?”

“If you promise me I will never, ever have to wear one of those hideous gray jumpsuits. They’re a bigger fashion don’t than wearing real leather on Vulcan, and no one looks good in them.”

My mother laughed. “I promise,” she said.

I stopped playing with my juice glass at that point, and lifted the glass to drain it, setting it down just as the annunciator chimed. My not-a-date had arrived. I smoothed my hair and went to the door, “See you later, Mom,” I said, stepping into the corridor.

Wesley, thankfully, was not wearing a jumpsuit today, either, just a really bulky cinnamon colored sweater. “Hi,” he said, grinning at me.

I forced a not-quite-sunny smile, “Hi,” I said. “I’m really sorry our mothers forced you into this.”

“I didn’t mind.”

“Oh…good. So, do these ‘teen brunches’ happen often?”

He started walking, and I fell into step beside him, listening. “About once a month. Ms. Phelps and Counselor Troi started them because they were concerned that the older kids didn’t socialize enough. Different people from the crew come and talk to us about hobbies and interests, and if they’re part of a musical group or the theater club they sometimes perform.”

“There’s a theater club?” I asked with more enthusiasm than was really necessary. “Really? Is it adults-only or can anyone join?”

“Oh, if there are parts for kids or teenagers, they let us know during school. Josh has been in a couple of plays, I think.”

“Do you ever participate?”

“I don’t have much time, really. I’m usually working on science or math, or helping out in engineering, when they let me.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at this. He was trying to be nice, after all, and even a dweeb was better company than no one. Finally, we got to Ten-Forward, where several tables had been clustered closer together than I remembered from previous visits.

“Josh, Dana, T’vek – come meet Zoe.” Wesley called to a trio of kids who seemed to be about our age.

Josh was tall, and handsome verging on pretty. No surprise that he was into performing. Dana was about the same height as me, thinner, and blonde, but her hair was pulled into a lazy pony-tail and her grin was truly friendly. T’vek looked Vulcan, but not, and while his greeting was reserved, I thought I saw a glimmer of something in his dark eyes. “Hi,” I said to the group.

We all stood around looking sheepish, not sure what to say. Finally, Dana broke the ice. “Zoe, I’m so glad there’s another girl in our class. The boys are nice, and all, but…”

I laughed. “But they don’t know the difference between trendy and tragic when it comes to important things like clothing and shoes?”

“Exactly,” she said. “So, I heard your father is an orchestra conductor…do you know a lot of famous musicians?”

I found myself answering her questions without thinking about it, explaining that I rarely got to meet many of the guest artists Dad worked with, though I’d often begged for the chance. Before I knew it, we were all sitting down, and the other couple of tables filled with teens both younger and a bit older than the five of us. Just as we were being presented with food, the open chair at our table was filled by none other than the man I was tasked with meeting later.

“Data,” Dana said, grinning at him. “This is Zoe Harris. She’s new.”

I looked across the table and slightly up, and found myself staring into the most amazing yellow eyes I’d ever seen. Okay, the only yellow eyes I’d ever seen, but still…

He paused for the merest fraction of a second before speaking. “Welcome to the Enterprise, Miss Harris. Are you adapting satisfactorily?”

I hesitated for a much more noticeable length of time. Was I supposed to call him by rank or by name, or…well…Dana had used his name… “I’m getting a little more comfortable, I guess,” I said, avoiding the issue entirely. “It’s different actually living here, instead of just visiting.”

“Zoe’s dad is a conductor, Data. Did you know?” Dana asked.

“Lieutenant Harris has mentioned as much,” he answered her, then added in my direction. “She also said that you have inherited your father’s love of music.”

“I play cello, a little,” I admitted. “I like acting better, though.”

From there the conversation got easier, as Josh had heard the magic word, and jumped in about the theater club. We ate breakfast – all but Data – and chatted, until finally the adults rose and moved toward a small stage beyond the tables. They played a few songs for us – I noticed that the oboe player was a bit off – and then we were left to mingle a bit longer. This was when I finally faced the task my mother had set.

Data was standing with Wesley when I approached after making plans to meet Dana later, and I got all nervous again when they both stopped talking. “I’m sorry to interrupt,” I said, following my favorite rule: when in doubt, be polite. “Commander Data, could I have a minute of your time, please?”

Wesley, dweeb or not, seemed to sense my awkwardness, and stepped away. “I’ll wait and walk back with you,” he said, and I nodded.

“Is something wrong, Miss Harris?” Data asked.

I couldn’t help wrinkling my nose. “Could you just call me Zoe?” I asked. “When people call me ‘Miss Harris’ I always think I’m in trouble, or something.”

“As you wish,” he answered. “If you will call me Data, as the other young people do.”

“It’s a deal,” I said, and the phrase kicked me back into gear. “Ms. Phelps mentioned to my mother that you offer a math tutorial to students who ask, and I promised Mom I would. I’m pretty sure it’s a mistake, because I’m an epic failure with anything beyond basic arithmetic, but I already tried arguing with Mom, and I lost, so if there’s room in your class, may I join…please?”

He tilted his head slightly, as if trying to determine what species I really was, then said. “I have experienced your mother’s persuasive discussion style, Zoe. She is a formidable opponent in debate. Ms. Phelps informed me of your test scores, and they would imply that you are not an ‘epic failure’.” He managed to make the quotation marks around my phrase audible. “I would be pleased to include you in the tutorial,” he continued. “We meet at ten-hundred hours, three days a week. I will send this week’s assignment to your terminal.”

“Thank you,” I said, “I’ll try not to scare you with my utter lack of computational skills.”

He opened his mouth to say something – probably to tell me he couldn’t be scared – but then his name was being called, and he moved to leave, saying only, “Excuse me, Zoe. I will see you in class.”

I waited for him to exit before re-joining Wesley. “What was that about?” he asked.

“Math class,” I grumbled. “I was ‘strongly encouraged’ to ask to join his tutorial.”

“That’s great!” Wesley said. “Data’s an amazing teacher, really. Really patient. And it’ll be nice having another student.”

“Oh, yes, I’m sure it’ll be fabulous,” I snarked,

He frowned slightly. “You don’t want to be in our class?”

I was forced to confess, “I hate math.”

The walk back to the turbo-lift, and then back to my mother’s quarters was mostly silent.

Chapter 3: First Day Jitters

Disclaimer: Star Trek: The Next Generation, the U.S.S. Enterprise, Lt. Commander Data, and anything else recognizable belong to Paramount. Zoe and her mother belong to me. This takes place during the first four seasons of TNG.

FIRST DAY JITTERS

“Rise and shine, Kiddo!” my mother’s voice sing-songed too close to my ear. I’d have thrown a pillow at her but both of mine were under my head. I settled for rolling over and ignoring her, which didn’t work, of course. She simply snuck her hand under the covers and tickled the bottom of my foot. “Come on, Sleepyhead. Even your powerful will cannot keep the day from starting.”

I snatched my foot away, and sat up in what I desperately wished was a smooth motion, but probably was more of a desperate leap away from her oval-tipped, manicured fingers. “Leave my feet alone,” I grumbled.

But she was laughing. “Tickling a child’s feet is a mother’s right and very special privilege,” my mother said, from her position at the foot of my bed. “Besides, it’s the one way I’ve been guaranteed to wake you, since you were a baby.”

“Okay, fine,” I said in my grumpiest morning voice. “But I’m not going to smile, and I’m only going to eat breakfast because I don’t think I can face the first day of Data’s math tutorial on an empty stomach.”

“That’s Commander Data, to you, Zoe,” my mother corrected.

“Actually, he said to just use his name, ‘as the other young people do’.” I imitated his intonation and caught my mother trying not to grin. I waited a beat for the mood to shift, then began, “Mom?”

“Zoe?” She used my same, serious tone.

“What if I really am abysmal?”

“You’re not,” she assured. “But you will miss your first class if you don’t get dressed. Fifteen minutes to breakfast.” She left the room, and the door slid shut behind her.

I closed my eyes for a long moment, gathering myself together, then zipped through my usual morning machine. I would have preferred a water shower, but sonic ones were faster, at least. For clothing, I chose black, and lots of it, adding an old fisherman’s cap I’d stolen from my father as a finishing touch. Like him, I was a hat person.

Breakfast was quiet. My mother used the time before her shift to check messages and read news bulletins, and I put earphones on and listened to music while I had coffee and oatmeal, which are two things that are almost decent when replicated. Finally our door-annunciator signaled Dana’s arrival – we’d agreed to walk to class together, and I tossed a good-bye toward my mother, grabbed my padd, and left.

“Nice hat,” my new friend told me as we sauntered toward the turbo-lift.

“It’s a security thing. I really don’t like math, and I really don’t want to be in this class, I thought the hat would help.” I paused, then added. “It’s my father’s. I guess I kind of…miss him.”

“That’s understandable,” Dana assured. “All of it, actually. But Data’s not scary in class, really.” She waited a moment then asked, “Is the all-black outfit a security thing, too?”

“Power color,” I said. “I will be a social and mathematical ninja today.” We arrived at the lift, and stepped inside, only to find Josh and Wes already there. “Or not,” I muttered under my breath.

The boys seemed to sense my first-day jitters, or were to wrapped up in their discussion to notice and react, and we were out of the lift and heading toward the suite of rooms reserved for school use within moments. T’vek was already there when we arrived, as was Data.

“Hey, T, Data,” Josh breezed into the room, pushing past Dana and me. “I get to sit near the new girl.”

Dana and I exchanged annoyed looks and followed Josh into the room, leaving Wesley to be last. As we did so, Data stood up.

“The ‘new girl’ has a name, Josh. Please use it,” he said. Again, I could hear the quotation marks in his inflection. I supposed it was just something to get used to. “Welcome Zoe. Seating in this class is fairly informal.”

I took a look at the room, and noticed that it was essentially a conference room, with an oblong table. There were three seats on each of the long sides, and a seventh seat where Data had been sitting. Wes and T’vek took the first two chairs on the farthest side, with Dana and Josh taking the first and third on the side nearest the door. “It’s all good,” I said, taking the seat between them.

“Did you receive the assignments I sent last night?” Data asked.

“Yes, but your note said I had the week to catch up?” I made it a question, and frowned when my voice shook a little. I wasn’t usually nervous.

“That is correct. Please see me after class or contact me if you have any trouble.”

“Sure,” I said. “I mean, yes, I’ll do that.”

The next two hours passed more quickly than I expected, although I didn’t speak up much. I tend to prefer to observe before jumping into groups, and I was accustomed to math classes with twenty or thirty students, and having to raise hands in order to speak. Data’s tutorial was really more like a seminar, with everyone jumping in to discuss the problems he posed, until each of us understood the concepts. If math had been like this at home, I might not have hated it.

I don’t know if a human teacher would have picked up on my near-silence during that first hour, or if Data simply had some sort of sub-routine running that tallied how many times he heard each of us speak, but after we had a ten minute break to stretch, and class resumed, he turned to me and asked me to work through a proof he’d assigned earlier in the session.

“Data, don’t put her on the spot like that on her first day,” Wesley said, before I could answer.

I shot him a quick grin of thanks, but then turned back to our teacher, “No, it’s fine.” I hesitated a minute, then slowly gave the answer I’d come up with, even though my mouth dried up a little.

“Your method was unorthodox, but the result is correct. Which of you can demonstrate a more direct route to the solution?”

Josh jumped on the question, spitting out the answer without even consulting his padd, and I have to admit, I was impressed. He grinned at me, and whispered, “It’s easier when you know the result you need to get.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that, though I tried to hide it. The rest of the class went even faster, but I didn’t speak up again, nor was I called on, and I have to admit I was relieved. Data sent new assignments to our padds from his terminal, reminding us that were free to contact him with questions, and then we were free to go.

“Zoe, do you want to come to lunch?” Wes asked before I could ask Dana the same question. I stared at her, and she shrugged helplessly. “I usually go with Data, because I have helm duty right after, and we’re allowed in Ten-Forward during day-shift if we’re with an adult.”

“Dana and I had made plans,” I said. We hadn’t, actually, but we seemed to click, and Wes was just so eager. I waited a long moment for her to confirm that, and when she didn’t, I added, “So maybe we should all go?”

“Dana’s father doesn’t let her go to Ten-Forward,” Josh offered, when my new friend still didn’t speak up.

I shot Dana a questioning look, and she answered with a nod, then said softly, “It’s true. I can’t go. You should though, really.”

I was torn. On the one hand, I knew the right thing to do was to stay. On the other…well…it’s not every day you get to eat lunch with line officers, even if they come with heaping side of annoying classmate. On yet another hand – the existence of which, had I been speaking, would have proven my severe lack of math skills – I was curious. I knew Commander Data’s official bio, but nothing about him as a person.

Dana obviously sensed my inner debate. “It’s fine, Zoe. We’ll catch up later, okay? Josh and I need to finish our presentation for English, anyway.” She flashed a smile and suggested, “Let’s plan on lunch together tomorrow, and you can tell me all about today.”

I smiled back, and uttered one room, and said, “Sure, no problem,” then gathered up my padd before Wesley could offer to carry it for me. Josh and Dana went on their way, I was about to leave the room myself, but T’vek was in my path, where he’d stopped to read something on his padd. One of my grandmother’s frequent reminders to never stop dead in doorways crossed my mind and, I stepped aside, while Wesley asked our instructor a question.

“Data, is Commander LaForge going to be at lunch today? I wanted to ask him a question about one of my assignments.”

I didn’t know who Commander LaForge was but I did know that this lunch was sounding more like a geek convention. “Wes, maybe I should come with you another time,” I said. “If you have questions about work, I don’t want to be in the way.”

“You won’t be,” Wesley said. “Will she, Data?”

“Mr. Crusher is correct,” Data said, emphasizing the title as if it was a sort of admonishment, before continuing in what seemed to be his customary soft-spoken, but still decisive, manner. “You will not be in the way. You are welcome to join us for lunch, as long as your mother does not have any objections.”

“She doesn’t,” I said, though in truth, I had no idea if she would, but didn’t people always say it was easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission? Time to test that theory. “She really doesn’t.”

“Then let us go,” Data said, and with that, we did.

Chapter 4: Pythonesque

Disclaimer: Star Trek: The Next Generation, the U.S.S. Enterprise, Lt. Commander Data, and anything else recognizable belong to Paramount. Zoe and her mother belong to me. This takes place during the first four seasons of TNG.

PYTHONESQUE

“You’re Lieutenant Harris’s daughter, aren’t you?” Geordi LaForge asked me as I took a seat at the table he was holding for all of us in Ten-Forward. I ended up opposite Data, and between Geordi and Wesley. “You may not remember, but we met several years ago. You were visiting at Christmas -”

“- and you let me ride the lift in engineering up and down til I was nauseous. I remember wishing all of my mother’s friends were as cool as you, sir.”

He chuckled at that, and said, “I’m not ‘sir’ to you – just Geordi. And you’re…” he trailed off, clearly not remembering my name.

“This is Zoe,” Data supplied helpfully. “She joined my math tutorial this morning, and held her own, despite a warning to expect her to be ‘abysmal’.”

I couldn’t help but grin at being teased by my teacher on the first day, but I resisted the urge to respond as I would have had the remark come from Wesley or anyone else my age. Instead I said, in a tone that was only half self-deprecating, “Give me time.”

We ordered food after that, and the conversation remained light as we ate. Well, as most of us ate. Data hadn’t ordered, and I had to wonder if he felt at all out of place as we all chewed and swallowed our way through an hour. Leaning toward Wesley, I asked in what I thought was a soft whisper, “Does Data ever eat?”

My classmate opened his mouth to answer, but Data beat him to it. “I do not require sustenance,” he stated matter-of-factly, “though I sometimes do eat in order to experience a new food, or when required for diplomatic reasons.”

“Diplomatic, like, if you’re at an official dinner?” I asked. “I guess that makes sense,” I went on, not waiting for a response, but sort of musing over my chicken Caesar salad, “I mean, if you’re in the middle of negotiating an arms treaty or passing initial judgment over whether a planet should join the Federation, it’s probably easier to just eat what you’re given, rather than spend time explaining why you’re not tasting anything.”

“This is especially true within societies where shared meals are the equivalent of a state meeting,” he confirmed, but he added after a beat. “Zoe, I understand that curiosity is normal, and I am willing to answer any question, but if you desire information about me in the future, please ask me directly.”

I had the good grace to feel sheepish, and it was evident in my quiet, “Sorry, Data.”

He offered me a single nod of acknowledgement then addressed Wesley, reminding him, “You wished to ask Commander LaForge about your deflector project. I would like to hear your proposal as well.”

The boy-wonder launched into a convoluted explanation involving magnets, propulsion, deflector shields, and warp energy, and while I recognized the individual words they were using, the concepts were so far beyond what I knew – or wanted to know – about ship operations that my salad became incredibly fascinating, and when it was gone, I spent time watching Data’s facial expressions until my eyes glazed over.

I was jolted from my lunch-table coma by the feeling of someone’s hands resting on my shoulder, and a woman’s voice observing, “Nice hat.”

Glancing behind me, and slightly upwards, I found myself looking into the dark eyes and serene smile of the woman I’d glimpsed behind the bar when I’d been here several nights before with my mother. “Yours, too,” I said, though honestly, I wouldn’t have been caught dead in the disc-and-hood contraption this woman was wearing.

“I’m Guinan,” she said.

“I’m Zoe,” I responded. Around us, Data, Geordi and Wesley were still absorbed in their discussion of Wes’s project. “And yes,” I added, since everyone seemed to want to confirm it, “Lieutenant Harris is my mother. Are you the…bartender?”

“Among other things,” was her cryptic answer. I was about to ask her what things, but she pointedly cleared her throat, and in response, my three table-mates stopped their conversation. “Gentlemen,” she began, in a soft but confident voice, “When you invite a woman to lunch – even a young woman – you are obligated to include her in the conversation.”

“Oh, God, Zoe, I’m sorry – I just started talking about my project and completely forgot you were here.”

“Gee, thanks, Wes,” I snarked. “Just what every girl wants to hear.”

Geordi glanced up at Guinan, then back at me. “Sorry, Zoe. Wes just gets so excited about his ideas that his enthusiasm is contagious.”

“I, too, apologize for neglecting you, Zoe,” Data added.

“Um, it’s okay, really,” I said, suddenly embarrassed by all the attention. “I should go, anyway. I have advanced lit and a music lesson this afternoon.” I waited for Guinan to move from behind my chair, and pushed it back. “Thanks for rescuing me,” I said to her, and gave her a sincere smile.

“Any time,” she said, moving away. “Come say hello next time you’re here.”

I stood up, while promising I would do as she asked. “Thanks for inviting me, Wesley,” I said. “It was sweet of you, really.”

“I really am sorry,” he said.

“I know. It’s cool.” I was all of two steps from the table when Data called my name. “Yes?” I asked.

“Do not hesitate to contact me if you require assistance with the make-up work I assigned for class.”

“No,” I said, “I won’t.” Inspiration hit me then, and I offered him my best innocent grin. “Data, you said you’d answer any question?”

“That is correct.”

“Okay. What’s the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?” It was a line I’d learned from my father – a bit from an ancient twentieth century comedy show. I wasn’t expecting Data to take the question seriously, and I certainly wasn’t expecting the question he asked in response.

“An African or European swallow?”

I chose that moment to make a hasty retreat, holding my laughter until I’d reached the relative safety of the corridor. The befuddled looks on both Wesley and Geordi’s faces was well worth the effort.

Chapter 5: Best Laid Plans

Disclaimer: Star Trek: The Next Generation, the U.S.S. Enterprise, Lt. Commander Data, and anything else recognizable belong to Paramount. Zoe and her mother belong to me. This takes place during the first four seasons of TNG.

Best Laid Plans

Three months into my new life aboard the Enterprise, I had finally settled into a routine. Three mornings a week, I met my friend Dana in the corridor between her quarters and mine, and we rode the lift to our math tutorial together. Most mornings, the boys – Josh, T’vek and Wesley, would be in the lift already, but sometimes we’d leave a little earlier and arrive enough ahead of them to have time to chat a bit before class.

Our tutorial met in a conference room one deck down from the bridge, and not on the deck where the rest of “school” took place, but even though I complained about it to my mother – loudly and often – that math and I didn’t get along, the truth is, once I got used to Commander Data’s perpetual calm, and discovered that he had an encyclopedic knowledge of twentieth century comedy – something my father had gotten me hooked on when I was really little – I began to enjoy the class. Well, except for the times that Wesley cornered me afterward to ask me out. It had happened often enough to become annoying, and while I knew I could ask my mother, she was good friends with his mother, and it would have been messy, so I tended to let it go.

Over the last few weeks, I’d even initiated a private game with Data – sneaking Monty Python references into our discussions whenever possible, just to see if he’d react. Most of the time, he left his responses in the comments on returned, graded assignments, but once in a while he would answer with the next line in the sequence. Dana and the boys were often perplexed by our exchanges, but then, we were all perplexed by some of the exchanges Data had with Wesley. Even T’vek, who aspired to a career in propulsion engineering, confessed once that he didn’t understand half of what they were talking about.

Needless to say, I was caught off-guard when it was T’vek, and not Dana, who was waiting at the usual pre-class rendezvous point. “Are you lost?” I asked, only half-kidding. I knew by now that T’vek was half Vulcan and half Betazoid – a combination that gave him inky black eyes, and the ability to charm almost every girl aboard the ship who was over the age of twelve, except that he was too nice a guy to actually do it.

He made a show of looking around, “Deck twelve, intersection C-7,” he said, offering me a grin. “Apparently not.”

“Okay,” I began, skepticism heavy in my tone. “Are you here to convince me to do your English essay for you? Because Dana already warned me that you’d asked her, and – ”

“Do you really think I’d go a deck and a half out of my way just for an essay?” he asked, cutting me off. “I need your help with something bigger.”

“My help?” I asked, feeling somewhat stupid. “Sorry, I haven’t had enough caffeine or sugar yet today. Could you be more specific?”

“I’m getting to it,” he assured, as he took off in the opposite direction that Dana and I generally walked. He stopped when he realized I hadn’t moved to follow. “What?”

“You’re going the wrong way.”

“Not really. It is a longer route, but I’ve estimated the time needed to convince you that offering your assistance would be logical, and we will still make it to class on time.”

I rolled my eyes at that. T’vek was half Vulcan, but his usual personality was all Betazoid – warm, light, and full of emotion and humor. “Okay, spill.”

“Your father is conducting the Capitol City Orchestra of Centaurus,” he said with a note of expectation in his voice. No doubt he’d planned that.

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

He ignored my sarcasm, and continued. “The Orchestra has announced their upcoming tour, and will be playing a series of concerts on Serenity Five in six weeks. I believe our math class should attend.”

I blinked at him. “I didn’t know you were into that kind of music,” I said.

“I am not…particularly,” he admitted. “But Serenity Five is also home to the sector’s only amusement part where every gravity coaster is mathematically designed to induce the optimum combination of fear and pleasure.”

“I’ve read about it,” I admitted in return. “Small problem: the Enterprise isn’t scheduled to be anywhere near the Serenity system.”

“That’s where you come in,” T’vek said. “We will be close enough to travel there by shuttle, but the park alone isn’t enough reason to request a pilot, chaperones, and hotel vouchers. If, however, we are all escorting our dear friend Zoe to visit her father…” He let the sentence trail off.

“I don’t know,” I said, deadpan. “I’m not sure if I appreciate being used for my connections.”

“C’mon, Zoe. Even I know you’re not exactly in love with shipboard life.”

“I haven’t complained about it in over a week,” I protested, though I had to add, “in public.”

“Our parents talk,” he revealed. “Will you ask your father if he can arrange tickets?”

I had to think it over. And I also had to ask, “The chaperones would be our parents, right? Who is the pilot likely to be? Some ensign barely older than we are?”

“No. The last time we went anywhere, Commander Data took us. He designed math problems about skiing and ice skating and stuff…but it wasn’t too bad, really.” He waited thirty seconds in silence, then asked, “Will you ask your father, Zoe? If I don’t have your answer in five point seven seconds, we may be late for class.”

“Start walking,” I said, because we’d been talking in the corridor for a while. “I’ll answer by the time we get there. How many days is it to Serenity Five? And what do you need my father to provide? Just tickets?”

“Two out, three back,” T’vek informed me. I was going to ask why the return trip was longer, but I realized it had to do with the ship’s planned route. “He’d need to arrange seats for us, and promise some sort of educational advantage. Perhaps a tour of the concert hall and a question-and-answer session with some of the musicians.”

“You’ve been planning this for a while, haven’t you?”

“Only since last session, really.” He paused and turned to face me, giving me his best grin. “I work fast.”

We entered the lift, and I remained silent, listening to the hum as it traversed the ship, and thinking about being in a shuttle for five days. Upside: Data would probably be there. Downside, at least one of our parents would, as well. Other downside: Wesley Crusher would be there, too.

Our classmates were already inside the conference room when we arrived a few seconds later, and when we walked in, we were left no option but to sit together in the two remaining open seats. As I settled into my chair, and he settled into his, T’vek arched an eyebrow at me and I realized how I could use the situation to my advantage.

“T’vek? The question I promised to answer?” I said, in a too-sweet, too-coy tone designed to make him worry. “The answer is ‘yes’.”

Across the table, Wes’s expression soured a little, but I didn’t have time to worry about it, because Commander Data arrived at that point, and class began.

Chapter 6: Ask Him Again

Disclaimer: Star Trek: The Next Generation, the U.S.S. Enterprise, Lt. Commander Data, and anything else recognizable belong to Paramount. Zoe and her mother belong to me. This takes place during the first four seasons of TNG.

ASK HIM (AGAIN)

“It’s done,” I said to T’vek as he left his family’s quarters one morning. This time, I was waiting for him, and had asked Josh to make sure he and Wes went to class without them.

To his credit, the half-Vulcan/half-Betazoid boy knew exactly what I meant. “Your father agreed,” he asked, but it was really more a confirmation than a question.

“Maestro Harris is delighted to have the advanced mathematics tutorial students from U. S. S. Enterprise attend the Centaurian Capitol City Orchestra’s first concert on Serenity Five,” I said, in a fake upper-crust accent. I earned a flash of smile, and continued in my normal voice, “He’ll arrange for us to tour the concert hall, meet some of the musicians, and attend a pre-concert lecture. There may be an after-party, but it’ll be optional. Well, optional for everyone except me.”

“Because the Maestro’s daughter has to make an appearance?” He was teasing me a little, but I didn’t mind.

“Oh, absolutely. You know, I should make you go with me. You sort of owe me now.”

“Do I?”

“You do,” I said. “You know you do.”

“Can’t fault your logic,” he agreed amiably. “And it would annoy Crusher.”

“There is that.”

“Of course we still have to convince Data,” he added. “And we can’t do that standing around the corridor. Hand me your padd.”

I arched an eyebrow at him. “Carrying my books? Are you being sexist or chivalrous?” This time, I was teasing.

“Chivalrous, always, Zoe. And this will also annoy Crusher.”

I handed over my padd, and he tucked both his and mine under his arm. Together, we walked down the corridor to the nearest lift, chatting along the way. By the time we met our classmates at the conference room door I was almost – almost – thinking that T’vek might be potential date material even if annoying Wesley wasn’t part of the bargain.

T’vek and I had agreed on the way to class that I should be the one to ask Data about the our little field trip, so after an intense lesson that nearly had Wes and T’vek shouting at each other over the correct method of answering a problem – Wesley made an intuitive leap and couldn’t explain the steps, while T’vek took longer, but was able to break it down – I asked our tutor if he had a moment to answer a question after class.

“Are you having difficulties with this material, Zoe?” he asked, with enough inflection that from anyone else I’d have assumed it was concern. He’d waited for the room to be empty.

“No more than ever,” I replied in a teasing tone. “My main difficulty is just the general not-wanting-to-be-here thing. That’s kind of what I wanted to ask about.”

“You wish to re-visit the requirement that you attend this tutorial?” he asked.

“No! I mean…math is never going to be my favorite subject, but you do make it sort of…tolerable.” The reality was that even though I still protested loudly, I liked the class and the teacher. “Look, don’t tell my mother this, but I pretty much only bit – um – complain about this class because I don’t want her to think she’s won.”

“I understand,” Data said. “It is a matter of pride.”

“Sort of,” I agreed, adding, “It’s a mother-daughter thing.”

“Ah.” He uttered the little monosyllable that meant he didn’t really understand but accepted that he would never understand, and since it clearly wasn’t relevant we should move on. At least, that’s how I interpreted it. “Then you had another reason for asking to see me after class?”

“Yes,” I said. I activated my padd, called up the text of my father’s formal invitation – I’d asked him to send it – and handed the device to Data. “My father’s orchestra will be in the neighborhood,” I said. “He thought the class might like to attend.”

Data took a fraction of a second to read the information and returned my padd. “Serenity Five is home to an amusement park of some notoriety,” he said.

“So I’ve heard.”

“T’vek suggested this excursion.” It wasn’t a question. It wasn’t a question in any possible way that ‘question’ could be defined.

“He did,” I confirmed. “But he also said you might be willing to allow a visit to the park if there was a way to make it an assignment, or if it had cultural value…and the invitation from my father is legit.”

“Legit…ah, legitimate.” He paused, and his eyes did that waking-REM thing that always meant he was searching for information. “I will require your father’s contact information. I will also require permission from your mother and the parents of your classmates, as well as two volunteer chaperones. If everything can be arranged we will make the trip.”

I tried not to go all girly, and I did manage not to bounce in delight – mainly because I was sitting down – but there might have been the tiniest element of a giddy shriek in my “Thank you!”

“You are welcome,” he said in his typically calm way. He rose from his chair. “You are also going to be late for your music lesson, if you do not go eat lunch.”

“Speaking of my music lesson,” I said, rising from my own chair. “My father added a condition of his own to this trip. He said I need to have a music theory course to apply to the M-SOMATA, and the ship’s school doesn’t offer one.”

“Your music teacher does not teach theory?”

“I have two music teachers. Lt. Caldwell gives voice lessons, but she doesn’t have time for anything else, and Lt. Starker is my cello teacher. Seth’s great with technique, but says he’s not that great at theory himself, and he doesn’t have time either. He recommended a holodeck program, but it’s not on the list of rec programs that kids are allowed to access. The system said to see the ship’s operations officer or second officer…which, I think, are both…you?” I still wasn’t all that great with ranks and hierarchies.

Data nodded once. “Correct, Zoe. The program in question is a university level music theory course, and is part of the continuing education menu.”

“So, I didn’t do anything wrong? It’s just locked because it’s a for-credit college course?”

“Essentially, yes.”

“Fabulous,” I said, in a tone that clearly expressed how very un-fabulous I thought this was. “Thanks, anyway, Data.” I moved toward the door, but he said my name, and I stopped, and turned back.

“Contact me tomorrow. I will have a solution for you.”

“I didn’t mean to put you to any trouble.”

“It is no trouble,” he said in the matter-of-fact way that meant it really wasn’t.

“Thanks, Data,” was all I could say.

I returned to my quarters to have lunch, and made it to my music lesson in time after all…barely.

Chapter 7: String Theory

Disclaimer: Star Trek: The Next Generation, the U.S.S. Enterprise, Lt. Commander Data, and anything else recognizable belong to Paramount. Zoe and her mother belong to me. This takes place during the first four seasons of TNG.

STRING THEORY

It wasn’t my alarm that woke me the next morning, but the incessant chiming of the com-system telling me I had three new messages. It wasn’t a school day – we kept to a typical five days on, two days off schedule, even if our Starfleet parents didn’t – but Dana and I and a couple of the girls from our literature class often got together to hang out in her quarters and talk about boys or watch video entertainment, and sometimes all the teenagers would share holodeck time for games or virtual adventures.

Josh was completely in love with a pirate-themed game, and had even taken to wearing a bandanna and eye-patch to math class, until Dana had asked if he needed counseling for an apparent delusion. We both knew that Josh had a massive crush on Counselor Troi, so this embarrassed him on several levels. Score points to the girls!

I was about to call Dana and tell her I was opting for extra time in bed and the company of a trashy novel, when I remembered my conversation with Commander Data from the day before. He’d said to contact him. “Computer, time please?” I called out and was informed that it was ten-thirty. Not horribly late then. “Play messages in the order received.”

“Zoe, can’t do the pirate thing til I finish that essay. And no, I am not asking for help,” came T’Vek’s smooth tones. “But if you were to offer…?” He let the question trail off, and then added that he thought he’d be done around fifteen-hundred hours.

The second message was from my father, confirming that he and Data had spoken, and the third was from Data himself, asking me to bring my cello to one of the conference rooms on an upper deck where civilians weren’t generally allowed, at eleven-hundred hours. He’d thought to mention that I was to use his name if anyone questioned my presence there, but I barely heard that part of the message, because I now realized I had less than half an hour to get ready.

I told the computer to delete the messages as I was looking for something to wear. I knew this meeting would have to do with the ‘solution’ to my music theory class that had been promised, and I was suddenly nervous. The solution, of course, would be to wear something completely bad-ass, but since I hadn’t planned any such outfit, I settled for the outfit that has been the default mode of dress for teenagers for centuries: a t-shirt (mine was from music camp the year before, and bore the quote, “If music be the food of life, play on!”) and jeans. I also twisted my hair into two braids. It made me look like some weird futuristic take on Anne of Green Gables, but it kept it out of my way.

My cello and I made it to the conference room with two minutes to spare.

“Ah, Zoe, you are here,” came Data’s greeting as I entered the room. “Lt. Starker suggested that you would benefit most from a ‘hands on’ approach, so I have brought my violin.”

“You want me to play with you?” I asked. “In order to learn theory?”

“Research shows that the more senses humans involve in the learning process, the more retention they are likely to have,” Data explained. “We will begin with abstract theory, and move on to application. Please be seated.”

I collapsed into the nearest chair, wondering what I’d gotten myself into. “Data?” I began, feeling even awkward than when I’d first asked about the math class.

“Zoe?” Apparently I wasn’t the only person who mimicked other people’s tones.

“Are you sure you have time for this? I kind of thought you’d just fix it so I could use the holo-program, or modify it for a less advanced student, or…something. I really didn’t mean to be a bother.”

“It is no bother,” he said in the matter-of-fact tone that was usual for him. He turned one of the table-top terminals to face my chair, and sat where he could see it also. “Computer, begin lesson one.”

Using the computer program, as a guide, Data spent the better part of an hour quizzing me on musical theory. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to figure out how much I already knew, or just trying to torture me – it was an even bet either way by the end – but eventually he called up a piece of music, and lifted his violin from the table. “Shall we play?”

It wasn’t a difficult piece, just a folk song arranged as a duet for cello and violin, but playing with Data was difficult, and I found myself faltering.

“Is this piece too challenging, Zoe?” he asked, with as much concern as he ever showed. “Lt. Starker assured me you were an accomplished musician.”

“It’s not the piece.” I said. “It’s me. Or…I think it’s us. There’s a distinct lack of…” I searched for a word, fumbled and finally came up with “…meshy-ness.”

“Meshy-ness?” He seemed as if he were tasting the word and finding it unpalatable. “You are implying a lack of connection?”

“Kind of, yeah.” I said. “But it’s probably mostly me. Dad says I play by instinct, too much. Seth makes me sing the line I’m supposed to play, so I can feel the timing better.”

“Ah.” Data said. I’d come to learn that the monosyllable was the android equivalent of the lightbulb-in-your-head moments that humans…maybe all organic beings…have. “This is often the case when I am playing with new partners, Zoe, and it is not ‘mostly you.’ We are equally at fault. Your ‘instinctive playing’ means that you are not adhering strictly to the timing marked in the music. As an android, I default to strict time.”

I smiled then. “I’m not sure it’s just because you’re an android. I mean, the first few times I played duets with Seth we weren’t in synch at all.”

“How did you resolve the issue?”

“Breathing.”

“Breathing?” Data asked.

“We would sort of take an exaggerated inhalation breath at the beginning of the piece, and any place – ” I pointed to the music ” – like here – where there are natural breaks, we’d do the same thing. Breathing together helps you play together.” I paused a moment, and then, feeling both sheepish and really rude I asked, “Um. DO you breathe?”

“I do not require inhalation and exhalation of air in order to function,” Data answered calmly, as if I wasn’t some kid prying into the details of his anatomy. “However, my speech functions do require breath, just as yours do. Let us attempt the piece again, your way.”

It took a few times, and I had to really try not to laugh, not at Data, but because the situation seemed so absurd, but eventually we did manage to find some sort of cohesion, and by the end of our two-hour lesson, I was high on music.

As if an internal alarm had sounded inside his head – and maybe it had – Data stopped the lesson at that point. “I must return to duty, Zoe,” he told me. “If this time is acceptable to you, weekly meetings would be advisable.”

He was asking me to give up my lazy weekend mornings, but I found that I couldn’t even make a perfunctory objection. “If it’s really not an imposition,” I said, “I’d like that.”

“It is really not,” he assured, as he got up to leave.

“Data wait – ” he turned, and waited. “When you play with other new musical partners…how do you find…”

” ‘Meshy-ness’?” he supplied.

“Um. Yeah. I mean, yes.”

“We often employ the use of a metronome. I will see you in class, Zoe.”

I nodded, and muttered an embarrassed, “Thanks,” as I loosened my bow. Once I had packed my cello and the padd with the lesson we’d covered, I hightailed it to the nearest ‘lift, nearly whacking an older bald guy in the chest with my instrument as I entered. “Um, sorry,” I said, adding a hasty, “sir” when I realized that I was in a turbo-lift with Captain Picard.

He merely nodded, then seemed to focus for a moment on my t-shirt, just as the ‘lift stopped on one of the officers’ decks. “Play on,” he said, half-reading the quotation. “Indeed.” And then he was gone.

My mother was still on duty when I got back to our quarters, so I called Dana on the com-system and asked her to come hang out while I had lunch. “You would not believe how I spent my morning,” I began, once she’d arrived.

She took in my outfit and braided hair and sat cross-legged on the couch. “Let me just tell Josh that we’re not gonna have time to play pirates today,” she said.

And she was right.

Chapter 8: Friends and Lovers

Disclaimer: Star Trek: The Next Generation, the U.S.S. Enterprise, Lt. Commander Data, and anything else recognizable belong to Paramount. Zoe and her mother belong to me. This takes place during the first four seasons of TNG, although I’m bending time a bit with this chapter, as Jenna definitely doesn’t appear til Season Four, and in my head this story is more late Season Two/early Season Three.

Friends and Lovers

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I was shrieking at my mother, and I knew I shouldn’t be, but I couldn’t help it. “You cannot be one of our chaperones. You just can’t.” It was a week before our math tutorial’s planned ‘field trip’ to Serenity Five, and we’d just learned which of our parents had volunteered to accompany us. “You hate being on tour with Dad.”

My mother set her coffee mug on the table with the sort of care that meant she was trying not to yell back at me. “We are not going ‘on tour’ with your father, Zoe. We are going on a school field trip – one, I recently discovered, that you were instrumental in arranging.”

“Why does that mean you have to go? It isn’t enough that you dragged me away from my whole life and stuck me here with all these people who are perfect and nice all the time? Now you have to horn in on my activities, too?”

“You knew that two parents had to accompany the group, Zoe. T’vek’s father had already volunteered. Commander Data requested one of the mothers for the second chaperone. Only three of you have mothers living aboard the ship, and Doctor Crusher can’t take time away right now.” She paused, looking at me with far less anger than I expected. “I’d hoped you might see it as a chance to spend time together without my duties interfering.”

I wanted to stay mad at her, but if I’d argued that point she’d only have reminded me of my tendency to complain about her job. “I hate it when you’re right,” I grumped.

“Does this mean you’ll refrain from whining about your mother being on your trip?”

“I’ll consider it,” I said. “At least once we leave. Until then, no promises. Although…”

She tilted her head at me in that I-know-you’re-about-to-try-to-get-away-with-something way that all mothers have. “Yes?”

“Orchestra concerts are dressy occasions…and I haven’t had a new outfit in forever.” I said in my best too-casual voice.

“It always comes back to clothes. You know you have the right to use the replicator from time to time.”

“Replicator clothes are wrong, Mom. They’re all stretchy and shiny in the wrong places and…they’re just wrong. Besides, you know I like vintage.”

“And I suppose you’ve already done the research and discovered at least three boutiques within a reasonable distance of our hotel?”

“Four,” I said. “One specializes in shoes.”

“Shoes, too?” My mother let her voice drip with melodramatic world-weariness.

“Mom, please. It’s all about the shoes.” I glanced at the chronometer display on her desk, and gulped down the rest of my pineapple juice. “Gotta go meet Data for my theory lesson. He really doesn’t like it when I’m late.” And I grabbed my cello, and escaped into the corridor.

“Hi, Data. Sorry I’m late,” I breezed as I entered the conference room where we usually met for my lesson. “I’ve been practicing the Bach piece, but I’m having a problem hearing the chor -” I stopped mid-word as I realized that Data wasn’t the only person in the room. A blonde woman with lieutenant junior grade’s pips on her collar and a clarinet in her hand was sitting in the chair the android usually used. “Did I miss a message rescheduling this lesson?”

“You did not,” he assured me. “Zoe, this is Jenna D’Sora. Jenna, this is Zoe. I believe you will benefit from playing with her.”

“You’re the cello prodigy Data’s always talking about?” the woman said, her tone just this side of patronizing. “I expected someone older.”

“I’m working on it,” I said, focusing on the fastener of my gig bag. I kept my eyes averted while I pulled my bow out of its pocket, and then removed my cello from the main case. “Do you work with Data?” I asked, trying my best not to sound catty or jealous, and mentally scolding myself for being hurt. He’s just your teacher, Zoe, that’s all. But I couldn’t help the slightly snide remark that slipped out, “He’s never mentioned you.” Never mind that Data never mentioned anything that wasn’t relevant to the lesson at hand, unless he was specifically asked.

Data was either unaware of the tension between me and the lieutenant, or was choosing to ignore it. “Jenna is a member of the security department,” he explained. “We also play in the same chamber ensemble, but she often has difficulties finding cohesion with the group. I believe a smaller ensemble would help her learn to attain your – ”

“Meshy-ness?” I asked, offering him a real smile.

“Exactly,” he said.

Jenna added, in a tone that was a blend of sweetness and ice, “We’re also dating.”

I sat down and waited as Data drew out his violin, tweaked the tuning, and played an open A. The coolest thing about playing music with him was that we never needed a pitch-meter or piano in order to tune. He was always on key, and I have an excellent ear.. My own instrument was just a hair sharp, so I adjusted until I was matching his pitch.

“You will need to transpose to Concert A, Jenna,” he reminded his…girlfriend, but she merely nodded.

The three of us played together for about an hour, and we did manage to find some cohesion after a bit, though she balked at using my breath-matching method, even after the metronome didn’t work. “You’re anticipating,” I observed, when she came in early for the third time.

“Excuse me?”

“I do it sometimes, still, too. You’re either not actually counting the measure, or you’re so concerned about coming in late that you’re anticipating the beat and coming in early.”

“Data…?” she turned to him for validation.

“Zoe is correct, Jenna. You are making your entrance early.” He turned it into a teaching moment. “How do you correct your anticipation, Zoe?”

“Tapping your foot works. It’s…amateurish, but it helps you feel the beat. And you can stop once you’ve learned the correct timing. Otherwise…count each fraction of a beat…like when you learn basic rhythm in school? Not just, one-two-three-four, but one-ee-and-a, two-ee-and-a…like that.”

“Thanks,” she said grudgingly. “I’ll try that.” There was a beep, and she got up to go. “I’m due back on duty,” she said, packing her clarinet into its case. “Data..?”

“Zoe’s lesson is typically two hours long,” he stated. “We cover theory as well as application.”

“Oh, well…I’ll see you for dinner?”

“As you wish,” he replied.

She brushed a kiss across his cheek and left the room, though she paused to throw me a frosty glare before the doors closed behind her.

“Data, if you need to go, we can discuss my theory homework next week,” I offered lamely, feeling suddenly awkward.

“I do not,” he said, “need to go. I have scheduled the customary two-hour block of time. Shall we continue?”

I shrugged. “I guess.”

“Perhaps I should have informed you that Jenna would be joining us,” he observed, as he put down the violin, and reached for a padd.

I set my cello on its side, and reached for my own device. “Whatever. Can you please just check my work? I kind of got caught up in playing the Bach instead of analyzing it the way you wanted.”

If he noticed the change in my attitude, Data didn’t say anything. Instead, he patiently worked through my analysis of the harmonics of the Bach prelude in question, having me play some of the sections I’d been fuzzy on, and demonstrating one particularly complicated passage on his violin. Even so, we finished before the second hour was up, and I began to pack my things.

“We have enough time for another piece,” Data pointed out.

“That’s okay,” I said. “I don’t think your girlfriend realized how much time you’d been spending with me, and I’m certain she’s not thrilled about it.”

“She did not say anything,” he observed.

“She didn’t have to,” I said. “Is she going to be joining us next week?”

“We will be en route to Serenity Five at this time next week, Zoe.”

“When we get back, then?”

“Her presence here was beneficial to you both. Is there a problem?”

“Not exactly.” My cello was back in its bag, and I let it rest on the floor, crossing my hands over the scroll. “Studying theory with you…playing music with you…it’s more like spending time with a friend than taking a class. You don’t treat me like a kid. You treat me just like any other musician. Having Jenna here…kind of forced me to remember that I’m just your student.”

I don’t know what possessed me to tell him all that, but he seemed to take it in, process it, and form a response, all in the space of a breath or two. “Zoe, you are correct. You are my student. However, unless I am mistaken, that does not preclude you from also being my friend. I would be pleased to be counted among yours.”

I couldn’t help the cheesy grin I knew was spreading across my face. “Thanks, Data.” I said. I moved toward the door, but stopped to add, “Would you please tell Jenna I’m sorry I was rude to her?”

He tilted his head slightly. “If you are sincere in your wish to apologize, our wind ensemble is playing in Ten-Forward at twenty-hundred hours. If your schoolwork is complete, and your mother approves, I would appreciate your attendance.” He waited a beat, then added in a tone I swear held a hint of teasing, “As a friend.”

I laughed. “I’ll ask her,” I said. And then I really did have to get going.

Chapter 9: A Little Night Music

Disclaimer: Star Trek: The Next Generation, the U.S.S. Enterprise, Lt. Commander Data, and anything else recognizable belong to Paramount. Zoe and her mother belong to me. This takes place during the first four seasons of TNG, although I’m bending time a bit with this chapter, as Jenna definitely doesn’t appear til Season Four, and in my head this story is more late Season Two/early Season Three. Also? this chapter is a bit longer than I usually post…

A Little Night Music

“Hey, T’vek, you busy tonight?” I breezed over the com-channel, flashing a too-sweet grin at the screen.

My half-Vulcan/half -Betazoid male-friend-of-interest arched an eyebrow at me. “That depends, Zoe. Will you proofread my English essay before we engage in whatever nefarious activity you have concocted.”

“Nefarious?” I pretended to be shocked and insulted. “Nefarious. I’m never nefarious.” I waited a beat. “I am sometimes devious, but that’s a trait you likely appreciate since you share it…”

“Zoe…”

“Yes, I will proof your essay, although I should point out that the computer system includes spell-check and grammar-check functions.”

“But the computer does not have your…unique…turn of phrase.”

“T’vek…”

“What is it that you wish me to do?”

“Data has invited me to attend a concert of his woodwind ensemble this evening in Ten-Forward. I couldn’t possibly go without a suitable escort.”

“I’ll go, but I’m giving up a rousing game of tri-d chess with my father, so you’ll owe me a favor.”

It was my turn to arch a brow at him, two, actually. “You mean, aside from proofing your paper?”

“Mmhmm.” No one under the age of thirty should have been able to put that much seduction into a couple syllables of non-verbal noise.

“Name it.” I didn’t quite make those words a dare. Not really.

“The favor is that I don’t want you to invite any of our other classmates to join us. I will go with you only if it’s an actual date.”

I couldn’t help blushing, and not only because I’d had no intention of asking our other friends. “If it’s a date, there’d better be chocolate involved.”

“You drive a hard bargain, Zoe.”

“I learned from the best. Pick me up fifteen minutes before?”

“I will see you then.”

T’vek was nothing, if not prompt. He signaled at our door at precisely fifteen minutes before the hour, and offered me a replicated sunflower when I invited him in. “For you, m’lady,” he said, an insouciant grin on his face.

“Did you use telepathy on me?” I accused half in jest, “Because sunflowers are my favorite.”

“I’m not actually that good at telepathy,” he confessed while I stuck the flower in a quickly-replicated bud vase. “If we were touching, I could sense your surface thoughts, and I’m a bit of an empath, but when it comes to either Vulcan or Betazoid mental skills – ”

“You got kinda screwed?” I asked, smiling.

“Pretty much.”

“Did you get the Vulcan ears, at least?” I asked, staring at the shaggy black hair that he wore pretty long, especially by starship standards.

“You can look for yourself,” he said, and tilted his head toward me.

Suddenly nervous, I shook my head. “Maybe later. Don’t wanna be late.”

“We won’t be,” he assured. “But we need to leave now.”

We left, and we weren’t late, but the whole time we were in the turbolift, my eyes kept straying to where the tips of his ears would be.

Ten-Forward was arranged for an informal concert, when we arrived, with rows of tables pushed close together, forming a half circle facing a small stage. Chairs and music stands were waiting, but there was no sign of Data or Jenna, or any of the other musicians.

“T’vek! Zoe! Over here!” Wesley Crusher’s voice hailed us from across the room. “I saved seats for you both.”

“Please tell me he has a date?” I whispered to T’vek.

“He’s with that blonde girl from our lit class. Anna? Annette? Something like that.”

I gave T’vek a look that clearly conveyed my assumption that he knew the girl’s name, and was just trying to show how uninterested in her he was. “Annette. She’s…mostly harmless, I guess.”

We wove through the people and tables, and joined our classmates. “Thanks for saving seats,” T’vek said, and I was glad he spoke, because I’d have sounded much grumpier.

“It’s no problem,” Annette said. “Zoe, I’m so glad you’re here. Are those new boots?”

“I finally broke down and used the replicator,” I confessed, adding, “I like your earrings.” It was true. I mean, they were tiny pearl studs, and way too prim-and-proper for me, but they suited Annette perfectly, and I suspected they were real.

“Thank you,” she said.

I heard T’vek and Wes exchanging whatever passed for greetings among guys, as I settled into my chair. Our table was round, and Annette and I were side by side, with Wes next to her and T’vek on my other side. Cozy enough, but not ideal for our first real date. A server came by, and T’vek whispered, “Do you trust me?” into my ear.

“To order dessert?” I asked. “Absolutely.”

I heard him say something about frozen hot chocolate with two straws and two spoons, but then the lights dimmed a bit, and the musicians walked out. Jenna, I noticed, had changed to civilian attire, though Data was still in uniform. Idly, I wondered if he even owned normal clothes.

I don’t know if the wind ensemble had improved since the teen brunch months before, or if I’d merely not been paying attention then – but I do know that our dessert was served mid-way through their first number, a swing piece that relied on heavy syncopation.

The chocolate was creamy and cold, part drink, part spoonable dessert, and I was glad T’vek had assumed I wouldn’t mind sharing, because it would have been far too rich to eat on my own. Our hands kept brushing against each other as each of us scooped spoonfuls, and I found myself caught between staring at him and focusing on the music.

After about forty minutes, there was a break, and Annette and I excused ourselves to the restroom. “You and T’vek make a cute couple,” she said, as we waited in line because even on state-of-the-art starships there are never enough stalls in the women’s restroom.

“Do we?” I asked, feeling my face go hot. “We’re good friends, but…”

“But it’s your first real date?” she asked. “Same for me and Wes, but you and T’vek seem better matched.”

“What do you mean?” I asked the other girl.

She looked at her shoes for a long moment, before meeting my eyes and explaining. “I’m not in that special math tutorial. I don’t have Starfleet ambitions. And he has bridge duty.”

“Oh, Annette…” Suddenly, she wasn’t just some girl from my lit class, but an actual person. “First, even though Wes is a little…single-minded, he’s really an okay guy. And second? Just because he wants to be an officer doesn’t mean he can’t have friends who have completely separate interests. I mean…T’vek doesn’t play any musical instruments, and performing is all I’ve ever wanted to do, but we’re still here together.”

She went into a stall, then, and a bit later it was my turn, but she was waiting for me in the corridor, and we walked back to our tables together. “Thanks for the pep-talk, Zoe,” she said before we rejoined our dates.

“No problem,” I said, smiling at her. “Look, Dana and I are getting together tomorrow night to work on that essay together. You should join us.”

“Thanks,” she said. “I might.”

We took our seats just in time for the second half of the concert, which was more classical fare, and less swing and jazz. At the end, Data set his clarinet aside, and reached under his seat, for his violin. “My fellow musicians have agreed to a slight departure from our usual format this evening,” he said. “This piece was originally written for the cello, and is from the third movement of Bach’s Concerto in D. It is most often transposed into the key of C Major,” he explained, “so that it can be played on a single string of a violin. The rest of our ensemble will be providing harmony.”

As Data began to play the Bach’s ‘Air on a G String,’ I reached for T’vek’s hand. “I love this piece,” I whispered in his ear.

T’vek’s response was to drape his arm around my shoulders, leaning close to whisper back, “Can you play it, on your cello?”

“Not yet,” I responded. We were both quiet for the rest of the piece, but his arm stayed comfortably around me.

After the lights had been turned back up, and the applause had faded to nothing, all four of us moved as a group to thank Data and the other musicians for their performance. The android was gracious, thanking all of us for coming. Wesley made a point of introducing him to Annette, and the three of them chatted softly for a while.

“Zoe, I want you to meet someone,” T’vek murmured in my ear.

“Give me a sec? I have to do something first.”

He moved slightly away from me, and I approached Jenna. “Hi,” I said softly.

“Zoe.” Her tone was cool, but not actually rude.

“I enjoyed your performance,” I said politely. “But I also wanted to apologize for being rude to you…before.”

She softened, and even smiled. “I wasn’t exactly nice to you, either,” she admitted. “And I’m supposed to be the adult here. Shall we start over?”

I nodded. “I’d like that.” I stuck out my hand, “Lieutenant D’Sora? I’m Zoe Harris, one of Data’s students. It’s nice to meet you.”

Her smile widened, “Nice to meet you, Zoe. Call me Jenna.”

Another officer called her away at that moment, but that wasn’t an issue, because T’vek had returned to my side. “What was that about?” he asked, directly in my ear.

“I’ll explain later,” I said. “There was someone you wanted me to meet?”

“Yes.” He led me through the mingling concert-goers to one of the musicians who had remained on the stage, and was packing her instrument. “Mother…”

The flautist looked up, her Vulcan features softer than most, with a warmth in her expression that truly surprised me. “Stevek,” she greeted, and I made a mental note to ask my friend about his name. “I am pleased that you attended this evening.”

“I always come when you’re playing,” he pointed out. “Mother, this is Zoe Harris. She’s in the math tutorial with Data, and is studying music theory with him. Zoe, this is my mother, Lt. Commander T’rella Mairaj.”

“My son speaks of you often,” she said, nodding politely at me. “I am pleased to finally meet you.” The corners of her mouth turned up in the merest hint of a smile. “Perhaps when you children return from Serenity Five you and your mother will join us for a meal.”

“I’d like that,” I said. “And I’m sure my mother would, too. It’s nice to meet you.”

T’vek spoke up then, saving me from figuring out what else to say, “Mother, Zoe and I were going to go look at the fish in the aquarium before returning to quarters. Is that acceptable?”

“One hundred hours,” was all the woman said, but I got the feeling there was an undertone I wasn’t really perceiving.

To my credit, I held my tongue until we had arrived at room that the science department had turned into an aquarium. Once we were inside the space, which was lit by watery blue light at this time of the ship’s night, I couldn’t wait to ask, “Stevek? How do you get T’vek out of Stevek?”

He grinned his roguish grin at me, and captured my hand. “Stevek’s my real name…my mother insisted on a Vulcan one. T’vek is a character in a series of Betazoid holo-novels about a pirate who sails the Opal Sea. I liked the name, and it was close enough to my own.” He rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand, and lowered his voice. “Besides, apostrophes are cool.”

I had to laugh at that. “So they are,” I agreed. “Makes me wish I used an umlaut or…something.” I meant it to be flippant, but my voice caught on the last word, mainly because T’vek was staring intently into my face. “What?”

“Are you in love with Commander Data?” he asked.

I blinked at him. “No. He’s helping with music. I admire him, and we’re…we’re becoming friends, I guess. And he seems to get me.” I paused, using my free hand to do what I’d been thinking about all evening: brush his hair back and see that yes, he did have Vulcan points to his ears. “Not as much as you get me, though,” I added softly.

“Good.”

“Good?”

“Mmhmm. Cuz it means I can do this.”

And he kissed me.

Chapter 10: A MotherDaughter Thing

Disclaimer: Star Trek: The Next Generation, the U.S.S. Enterprise, Lt. Commander Data, and anything else recognizable belong to Paramount. Zoe and her mother belong to me. This takes place during the first four seasons of TNG.

A Mother-Daughter Thing

“Good morning, Sunshine!” my mother sing-songed into almost directly into my sleep-addled brain. When you were up until two in the morning, after a full day of music lessons, a concert, and your first kiss from a boy you really like, a doorway eight feet away totally counts as ‘almost.’ “Rise and shine! Up and at ’em!”

“You are evil, and have no soul,” I grumbled as good-naturedly as I could, mustering just enough strength to fire a throw-pillow at the woman who was exuding obnoxious perkiness. I missed, and she laughed, lobbing it back toward my bed.

“So, I’ve been told,” she agreed amiably. “Listen, daughter-of-mine, I have the day off. Get up, hit the shower, and let’s go have a mother-daughter breakfast in Ten-Forward and then get pre-field-trip mani-pedis.

That actually got me to sit up. “The really long kind, with the hot stones?” I asked, shoving my tangled hair out of my face.

“Yep.”

“Can I get black nail polish?”

“They’re your hands,” she agreed. She probably knew I wouldn’t really have my nails painted black. Well, not my finger nails. “Though personally, I think a rich purple would be much more interesting.”

“Mmm.” I pretended to think it over. “Give me fifteen minutes?”

Approximately twenty-three minutes later we were back in Ten-Forward, where the tables had been restored to their more common configuration, at the same table where I’d been ordered to request admission to Commander Data’s math tutorial, except this time, we both had coffee. Okay, mom’s was black and brewed double-strong, while mine was a frothy mix of coffee and steamed chocolate milk, but still…

“You were out pretty late last night, kiddo,” mom observed.

“I was in by curfew.”

“Yes. Yes, you were. Thank you for that. Was it a good date? I noticed a flower on your nightstand.”

“I heard someone at this table fed T’vek the information that sunflowers were a personal favorite,” I shot back, hiding my blush behind my coffee mug. “But yeah…it was good. The dessert was nice. The music was nice. The kissing was nice.” I was kind of hoping she wouldn’t pick up on that last part.

“Kissing?”

So much for hope. “Yeah, you know, after the concert and all the booze we totally made out. Even got yelled at for sucking face in a turbo-lift.”

For a second, she almost believed me. Almost. “Nice try, Zoe.”

I shrugged. “You woke me up before I was ready. I deserved a little payback.” I sipped more of my mocha, then put the mug back on the table, and fiddled with the spinach and mushroom omelet that was rapidly cooling on my plate. “He’s a good kisser, actually,” I said softly.

“He was respectful?”

“He was nice. It was…nice.”

“Just nice?”

“Really nice,” I said. “Even kind of awesome.” I waited a bit, then asked, “Are you okay with this? I mean, you’re not going to go all over-protective and declare I’m not allowed to date til I’m thirty, are you? I mean, we’re locked on a hermetically-sealed starship, and it’s not like there are rabbles to be roused, or anything.”

My mother proved just how cool she could be. “I like T’vek,” she said. “I think you’re a little young for anything serious, but your teen years are meant for experimentation. As long as your schoolwork doesn’t suffer, and you keep me informed of where you’re going and what you’re up to, you can date.”

“No list of rules?”

“Do we need to go through all that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe?”

“Fine.” She thought a minute. “No unsupervised time with him in our quarters. If he’s visiting, I want you to have other friends around. No late nights if you have classes the next day. No ‘sucking face’ in turbo-lifts – this is still a starship, after all – and if things get serious, I’d like you to talk to me, but I know I can’t force it.”

“Serious? How serious?”

“Zoe…” Why was it that everyone in my life had their own way of making my name convey a thousand things?

“Is this the bit where you tell me what happens when two people of compatible species and genders get up close and personal without taking precautions? Because I’ve been through all the mandatory sex-ed classes, and we had The Talk when I was eleven.”

My mother gave me her best mock-scowl. “I’ll spare you the tab-A slot-B discussion,” she said. “And just remind you that things that seemed gross when you were ten probably won’t anymore.” She studied her mostly-eaten grapefruit with sudden intensity before adding in a softer tone, “Don’t be in a rush to grow up, Zoe. You can always go forward, but you can’t go back.”

I held back the snarky comment I would have made any other day, and said instead, “I know this, Mom, really. I can’t promise I won’t do anything stupid, but I promise to try not to give you a reason to worry. Okay?”

That sentence earned me a rueful grin. “Worry has been part of the deal since the day you were born, Zoificus. It’s what parents do.”

I smiled. “‘Zoificus…’ I think I like that. Makes me sound like a goddess or something. Oh, before I forget, T’vek introduced me to his mother last night – did you know she plays the flute? – and she said – T’rella, I mean – that we should all get together for ‘a meal’ when we’re back from Serenity Five.”

“Sounds like a lovely idea,” my mother said. “Now, finish up, so we can hit the spa before alpha shift goes off-duty.”

A couple of hours later, I was sprawled on my bed, dressed casually in an old M-SOMATA tee shirt I’d stolen from my father, and a really comfy pair of sweatpants. Annette and Dana were due to arrive for an informal lit essay write-in and I had a feeling at least one of them would demand details about what happened after the concert last night.

I wasn’t wrong.

“Details, Zoe, details,” Dana said by way of a greeting as she breezed into the main room of the quarters I shared with my mother. “Annette said T’vek had his arm around you all night?”

Annette followed Dana into the room, looking a bit sheepish. “Sorry,” she said. “She badgered me the whole way here in the ‘lift.”

I just grinned. “Just wait til you and Josh finally get together,” I teased. “See how patient I am. And honestly, you might ask Annette what it’s like to date the ship’s official wunderkind.”

Dana turned to the other girl. “You and Wesley Crusher?” she asked.

Annette blushed, but on her the pink was pretty instead of just awkward looking – at least, to me. “He’s brought me to a few ship’s functions.”

I led my friends over to the table in the center of the room. My padd was already there, along with a tray of fruit juices and different snacks. “Last night wasn’t the first time?” I asked. “I had the impression it was.”

“It was, and it wasn’t.”

“First real date?” I asked, and Dana was nodding knowledgably. I slid into a chair. “He seemed to really pay attention to you.”

Annette grinned, “He did, but…I’m surprised you even noticed. You were ‘paying attention’ to a certain shaggy-haired fellow.”

It was my turn for blushing again. “Yeah, well…”

“And you two disappeared right after the concert. One minute we were all talking to Data, the next minute, you’d gone.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “Where exactly did you go.”

“Gee, officer,” I quipped. “It was late; it was dark; we’d had chocolate.” I smiled sweetly at her. “He swore he was of legal age.”

“Chocolate?” Dana asked. “He gave you chocolate?”

“Yes. Well, no. He sort of…we shared a frozen hot chocolate during the concert, is all.”

“Mmhmm.” Dana could do a skeptical tone as well as any of us. “And after the event in question, Ms. Harris?”

“We went to the aquarium and looked at the Turkalian jelly-fish, and talked a while, and he kissed me, and then we spent a few minutes playing with the singing rays in the tide pool exhibit.”

Annette and Dana shared a significant look, before the former said, “Told you they made out. I knew it was destined as soon as Wes pointed out they were sharing a single dessert.”

“People share dessert all the time,” I felt compelled to say. “Besides, have you tasted that frozen hot chocolate? You’d die from the richness of it if you tried to eat the whole thing yourself.”

But my friends didn’t care about that. What they cared about was made explicit by Dana’s next barrage of questions, “So, is he a good kisser? Was there tongue? Did you get to see his ears? Did you kiss him back?”

“Yes, not the first time, yes, and of course,” I said, answering the questions in order. “And yes, he held my hand all the way home, and yes, he kissed me good night at my door, and yes, we’ll probably be disgustingly lovey-dovey during the entire field trip just to annoy you.” The last bit was meant in jest, but then I realized. “Or actually, maybe not, because we’ll each have a parent there.”

Annette and Dana shared another look, before Annette suggested, “Maybe we should actually work on our essays now.”

“Good idea,” I said.

We actually did work in companionable silence for the next two hours or so, reading bits of our work to each other, and helping to smooth each others’ writing. When each of us was satisfied with what we’d come up with, and our work was saved to our padds, Dana glanced up at Annette. “You never told us,” she said softly. “If Wes was any good at kissing.”

Annette wouldn’t meet either of our eyes for a long time. “I don’t know,” she said. “I like him. He keeps inviting me to things, and we did come close to a kiss last night…but it hasn’t happened.”

Dana and I were at a loss for what to say, until I suggested, “Try chocolate, and a trip to the aquarium.”

Annette smiled at that. “I might,” she said. “I just might.”

After my friends had gone, I got the notification that said T’vek had sent me his essay, which I’d promised to proofread. He’s actually a better writer than I am when he wants to be, but I made a couple of phrasing suggestions before sending it back. I got a text message in reply. Thanks, he’d written. And thanks for last night. My mother says she approves. See you tomorrow.

I grinned to myself, then went to my mother’s bedroom. She was engrossed in a novel, but put her padd aside so we could chat. “Sit,” she said, patting the edge of her bed.

I sat. “Were you listening to us earlier?” I asked.

“Not really,” she assured, reaching to brush my hair away from my face. “Mostly, I was just pleased that you have girl friends, Zoe. I never did, when I was your age.”

“Really?” I asked. I’m not sure why that surprised me.

“Really,” my mother said. “Most of my friends were boys, and most of my friends are men even now.”

“Is that why you and Dad separated? Because he couldn’t deal with you having male friends?”

“Maybe a little,” my mother agreed. “But having a long-distance relationship, even with video communications and faster-than-light travel is still taxing, and we have wildly different interests. We grew apart, and realized that if we wanted to remain friends, we couldn’t stay married to each other.” She paused, took a breath, then asked, “You know it has nothing to do with you, don’t you?”

I did, actually. “Yeah. I know that. Part of me kind of wishes we all lived together at Grandma’s farm on Centaurus, but most of the time I’m aware enough to notice that you’re both happier now then you were when we were always waiting for you to come home.” I waited a beat, then added, this time in a teasing tone. “But I still have zero interest in Starfleet, so don’t think that just because I’m not grumbling about being here anymore that I’m not itching to leave.”

Yet again, my mother surprised me. “I still think,” she said, “you haven’t really given it a chance. Not everyone ends up serving on ships.” I wrinkled my nose, but she continued. “Nevertheless, it’s pretty obvious that you’re going to have to figure out a path that’s uniquely yours. I can’t wait to see where it leads.”

I smiled, and hugged my mother. “Me either,” I agreed. “I’m going to bed now.”

“‘Night, Zoe.”

I paused in the doorway. “What? I’ve been demoted from Zoificus?” But then I shook my head. “‘Night, Mom.”