"Well, I was born in a place called Alaska, one of the few places on Earth where we managed to preserve lots of original wilderness."

"What's it like, this Alaska?"

Riker sat down on the pillows. "Cold, and bigger than life-everything, the mountains, the valleys, icebergs and glaciers, plenty of wide-open s.p.a.ces."

"Those favorite things of yours-they're from Alaska?"

"Yes. We've got these great animals that roam the oceans. They're called whales. Lots of different kinds. Many of them were hunted to extinction, but some kinds were saved and over the years, they repopulated the seas. When I was growing up, there were as many of those whales as there had been hundreds of years before. You could stand on a cliff and diswatch them swim by for hours." Riker paused in fond reflection, 191 thinking how he would love to stand on that cliff again.

"I had a favorite kind-called an orca. A beautiful animal. When I was a boy, I collected little sculptures of orcas. Some of them were really old."

"Do they remind you of home?"

"Yes." He handed the doll back to her and watched as she balanced it on the stone again, gazing at it as if it could somehow restore all the innocence stolen away by time and circ.u.mstance.

"This is the oldest doll I had. My father said it was my mother's when she was a girl. She died soon after I was born."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I never knew her, so when I miss her, I'm not really missing her ... I'm missing the idea of having one mother."

"Who took care of you when you were a child?"

"My father's friends. Glin, Durren ... I never felt unloved. It's as if I had lots of mothers and fathers. Just sometimes..." She sighed.

"Sometimes I wanted just one of each." Mori stroked the doll's cheek with her fingertip. "She's been through a lot. Sometimes I think it would be easier to give her away, or leave her somewhere ... or just break her."

"Keep her," Riker said softly.

The moonlight was bright enough to cast shadows, including a shadow of two figures embracing on a breezy bluff, high over the cleft in which the Stone City was cradled. Though more of comfort than pa.s.sion, it was still an embrace of lovers, as Jaminaw tenderly stroked Glin's cheek and whiskers. But his voice was apprehensive. "What should we do?" They sat on a flat rock, their heads together. "This could be the best chance we'll ever have to come to reasonable terms with the government."

"But reason is not enough for Lessandra."

Glin scowled. "Lessandra is only one person-was "She still leads the biggest faction. Say by some miracle-by the Hidden Hand-we actually reached a compromise and then we couldn't all agree ... it could split the Sojourners. It could destroy us."

"Lessandra's path is going to destroy us sooner or later anyway. Only her way will also kill us."

Jaminaw sighed. "Why can't she and the others see that we don't live in a world where absolutes apply anymore. They want to go back to the old times, but these aren't the old times, and they can't ever be that way-that innocent-again."

"Are you writing all this in your journal?"

"Of course. You know I write everything in there.

Maybe someday I'll publish the story of the Sojourners."

Glin sat up straight and placed her hands on her hips. She frowned harshly at her companion.

"Why is everything "maybe someday' with you, Jaminaw?"

Her sudden anger shocked him. "What do you mean?"

"You know."

"I don't."

"You talk-you don't do. his Jaminaw spread his hands plaintively. "How many publishers do you see up here?"

"You always twist what I say. I don't mean this second on this mountain. For once in your life, commit yourself to something and work toward it."

"And set myself up for disappointment when I can't make the impossible happen? You know what Mother World told us-it's not the destination that counts, it's the journey."

"I don't know if I believe that anymore,"

she stated. "If you don't steer during the journey, you might never reach any destination. The destination does count for something. It must."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying if we want to even have a someday, we might have to do something about it today. his "What should we do?" he repeated. The pliancy in his voice made it clear he would do whatever she decided.

"W, what should I do?" The pet.i.te fourteenyear-old girl with s.h.a.ggy dark hair whispered through clenched teeth to Ensign Crusher, who stood three heads taller and three feet behind her.

A brigade of Lilliputian Starfleet officers stood between them, complete with phasers, tricorders, and miniature uniforms. Including Wes and the girl fronting the group, there were eight youngsters ranging in age from ten to Wesley's sixteen. Seven were human, one a Vulcan.

"Wessssleeeeeee, was she hissed again.

"Gina, you're the captain," he whispered back, trying his best to master Captain Picard's trick of sounding both stern and rea.s.suring at the same time.

"You have to figure this out yourself-and you can do it."

Gina shifted her attention back to the slavering pack of canines blocking the forest path. Standing in dappled patches of sunlight on moist, moss-covered ground, the dozen animals looked almost cute. They were barely a foot tall at the shoulder, with stocky bodies, short legs, large triangular ears, and b.u.t.tonnosed snouts.

Adorable-except for saber-teeth, eyes like green fire, and horns covered with blood as if the pack had just gored some poor beast to death. Add to that the deep snarls rumbling up from their throats, and they weren't so cute after all.

The Vulcan girl tapped Gina on the shoulder.

"Would it be logical to offer them food?"

Gina blinked as she tried to make some sense of the situation. "Food, food, food ... Do we have any food? And what do these things like? What if we start a feeding frenzy? What if they want more and we don't have more? Oh, why doesn't my chief engineer get that d.a.m.n transporter fixed?" She hammered her fist onto the emblem communicator pinned to her chest. "Enterprise? Enterprise! Come in or you're all fired!"

"Captain," Wesley reminded her, "our communications system hasn't worked for two days."

She turned her head slowly and glared at him.

"Let's feed Crusher to the dogs."

T'Jai, the Vulcan, bit her lip and pointed. "Captain, look out!" Gina faced front again just in time to see three vicious blurs of fur and fangs hurling themselves through the air directly at her throat. In a panic, she flung her arms up to protect her face and fell back, knocking everyone else down like a row of dominoes.

At the same moment, the forest and the dog pack winked out of existence, and the children were left 196 piled on the floor of the bare holodeck, with Wesley at the bottom. "Poetic justice,"

Gina sneered at him as they untangled themselves and got to their feet. Then she felt something paw at her ankle. She glanced down, saw one of the little animals there, and let out a shriek that sent the dog skittering across the deck. It dropped down into play position, wriggled in glee, woofed twice, and then disappeared like the rest of its computer-generated pack mates and their forest home.

The holodeck entrance slid open and the exercise programmer marched in, chortling to himself. Commander Data and Amba.s.sador Undrun were right behind him.

"That's all for today," he said. "Did you enjoy being the captain, Gina?"

The girl pulled her hair in front of her face. "It wasn't fair, Lieutenant Berga."

"Why not, Captain?"

"Because Wesley didn't provide me with the advice I needed on what to do about those awful little beasts."

"I couldn't," Wes protested. "I helped program the simulation."

"Then you were perfect for telling me what to do."

"That wasn't the point of the simulation," Wesley said defensively. "Ensign Crusher is right,"

Berga said.

"What was the point?" Gina wanted to know.

"Perhaps I shall ask Commander Data to answer," said Berga, "since he is an experienced away team member."

The children looked at the android for enlightenment.

"The purpose of the simulation is to train you to a.s.similate what you observe with what you know, as quickly as possible. I believe the expression is to "think with your feet."" He looked dismayed when the human children burst into giggles.

"You mean "think on your feet," Commander,"

Wesley offered. Data smiled. "Of course. For instance, Gina, you wasted valuable time asking an ineligible partic.i.p.ant to share his cla.s.sified knowledge with you."

"You mean Wesley," Gina said.

"Correct. And you forgot that Science Officer Kolker had visited this planet before and knew about the behavior patterns of the canines."

"Darn it," Gina moaned, then glared accusingly at her science officer, a burly thirteen-year-old. "Why didn't you tell me what you knew? I'm not supposed to have to ask all the time."

"I forgot I knew," the boy said sheepishly.

Lieutenant Berga clapped his hands. "That is all for today. When we meet tomorrow, be ready to a.n.a.lyze today's exercise. Off you go." The children hurried out of the holodeck.

"Lieutenant Berga," Wesley said, "what were those things, anyway? were they real?"

Berga chuckled. "No, no-I made them up."

Obviously pleased with the results, he couldn't help laughing a bit more. "By the way, Wesley, you did quite well as my a.s.sistant."

"Thank you, sir."

"But tomorrow, it is back to being a student, my friend:"

Wes grinned. "I figured this was too good to last.

I didn't even escape a day's homework."

"Ensign." Amba.s.sador Undrun, who had observed the exercise with Berga, stepped forward.

"Didn't I see you a.s.signed to the bridge, too?" "Yes, sir."

"Officer, student, teacher-in-training, all wrapped into one?" "Why not? A lot of the older kids on the ship-if they're interested in being starship crew members later on-get to combine practical experience with cla.s.sroom learning."

Undrun shook his head in genuine wonder. "So much freedom and flexibility. Not at all like our education system on Noxor when I was a boy.

Consider yourself lucky."

"What's Noxoran school like?" Wesley asked.

"We had masters who guided us very strictly-lots of learning by rote, spitting back facts, replicating results produced by generations of students before us on the same tests and exercises." He exhaled a sad sigh. "We learned quickly that the best way to advance and win the favor of the masters was to do exactly what was expected."

Wesley regarded the amba.s.sador with sympathy.

"What if you didn't?" "We would be punished,"

Undrun said, mouth pursed with unpleasant memories.

Berga shivered at the thought of running Enterprise cla.s.ses along Noxoran lines.

"Discipline is needed, yes, but so is creative challenge."

"The only time we were permitted to exercise individuality was in self-defense contests."

Undrun glanced up at the faces around him, taking note of eyebrows raised at the concept of bantam beings like Noxorans, known more for intellect than brawn, engaging in formal martial arts compet.i.tion. He took their nonverbal response in stride.

"Don't let our stature deceive you, gentlemen.

Noxoran defense techniques can be quite effective even against opponents of considerably greater size and strength."

"Well, Mr. Amba.s.sador," Berga said, "feel free to visit any of our cla.s.ses while you're aboard."

"Thank you, Lieutenant. If time permits.

At any rate, thank you, and you"-he nodded toward Data com"...for showing me this holodeck simulation.