“We could clone it! Or ... or re-create her body somehow using the patterns stored in the memory buffers of the transporter! We could—!”

“Robin, I prefer things remain this way!”

Her statement clearly floored Robin Lefler, who visibly staggered from her mother’s words. Calhoun and Burgoyne exchanged surprised looks, and Calhoun stepped forward. He extended an arm toward Lefler, who was looking as if she was having trouble keeping her feet. She wasn’t to be faulted. Granted, she was a Starfleet officer, trained to handle just about everything. But this was really a bit much. “What are you saying, Morgan?” asked Calhoun.

“Captain,” she sighed, “in case you’d forgotten, when you. first met me, I was trying to find ways to end my too-long life. I was bored. Bored beyond imagining. The only thing that’s made my existence bearable in the past months was my being with Robin. Truly, sweetie, you’ve been a rock.”

Robin was just shaking her head. Perhaps she thought that, if she did so sufficient times, this entire insane situation would simply go away.

“Still, the boredom, the day-to-day routine ... it’s weighed heavily on me,” said Morgan. She was strolling around the interior of the holodeck, hands draped behind her back, and if Calhoun hadn’t known otherwise he would have sworn that Morgan Primus was right there with them in the flesh. She spread her arms wide, as if to encompass the entirety of the ship. “But this! This is ... this is amazing!I’m everywhere in the ship, all at once! I have a storehouse of knowledge and information at my fingertips ... virtually speaking. The engines are a part of me, and so is the navigation system, and the weapons and defensive capabilities, and the sensors, and ... it’s ... I can feel the vacuum of space against me, and I move through it like a swimmer through water. I ...” She stopped, searching for words. “For all I thought I knew, for all the understanding I thought I had of the universe ... it’s been nothing. Nothing!It’s like I’ve been living my entire life with a sack over my head. And now that sack is removed, and even though technically I’m dead, I’m more alive than I’ve ever been. I’m ...”

She stopped in front of Robin, and Calhoun could have sworn there were actually tears welling up in Morgan’s eyes. “It’s like I’m in heaven and still with you, all at the same time. This is ... this is a miracle, honey. It’s a miracle. Can’t you celebrate it with me?”

“How?”The word was torn from Robin’s throat, and Morgan stepped back, clearly surprised. “It’s ... perverse! What am I supposed to do, huh?”

“What are yousupposed to do?” Morgan looked perplexed. “Well, for starters, you can be happy for me. ...”

“Happy for you?! You’re dead!I mean,” and her hands flapped about helplessly, “I mean ... you say you aren’t! But you don’t reallyknow that! Not really! You could be a ... a glitch! A weird computer glitch of some sort, that thinksit’s really my mother, but you’re no more her than ... than ... than something really innocuous that I can’t think of right now!”

Morgan made a loud huffing noise, which was an impressive achievement to Calhoun considering he knew she didn’t need to breathe. “Robin, your mother is nota glitch.”

“And what am I supposed to do?!”

“You said that.”

“I knowI did, but I don’t have an answer!” Her voice began to crack, and it seemed as if the stressed lieutenant was speaking as much to herself as she was to the image of Morgan that stood before her. “Don’t you get it? First I mourned you when I was a kid, thinking you were dead. Then I find out you’re not dead, that you’re some sort of eternal being ... except then you die, and I mourn you a secondtime! Except, y’know, ta daa! You’re back a third time, maybe, we think maybe you are, or at least a part of you is, and you have no idea what this is doing to me! It’s tearing me apart,Mother! This isn’t how it’s supposed to work! Someone dies, you mourn them, you move on! That’s how it works! That’s how nature set it up!” And her desperate frustration spilled over into anger. “Oh, but not you, no, no! Not Morgan Primus Lefler Whatever-the-hell-your-name-is-this-week! The laws of nature aren’t laws for you, no! They’re like ... like suggested guidelines that you just get to ignore!”

“Robin,” Calhoun said gently, trying to rein her in. “This isn’t the best—”

For the first time in her life, Robin Lefler completely ignored her captain, so focused was she on the subject of her rage and confusion. “I mean, is this just some sort of big game to you? See how many times and how many ways little Robin can mourn your passing so you can show up again! How am I ever supposed to have any sort of closure? Ever get on with my life? Your loss is this ... this huge, gaping wound in my soul, and you just never get tired of opening it!”

“How dare you!”bellowed Morgan ...

... at which point, every single system in the Excaliburwent dead.

The holodeck plunged into darkness, and from the startled shouts and exclamations on the other side of the holodeck door, it was evident that the lights had gone out in the corridors as well—and, quite possibly, throughout the ship. All the constant hums of machinery which had become second nature to life on the starship now ceased, and suddenly the ground went out from under Calhoun’s feet. In the darkness he heard outcries or gasps of annoyance from the others in the holodeck. Everyone was floating. The artificial gravity was gone along with everything else, and he realized it was only a matter of time before general life support became a problem.

And then, before Calhoun could even bark an order—although, truthfully, he didn’t have the faintest idea what to say given the circumstances—the gravity and all the other systems snapped back on. Calhoun thudded to the floor, as did everyone else around him. He was grateful that the lights were the last things to be restored, so that no one else saw the utterly undignified manner in which he had hit the ground.

An instant later, Morgan snapped back into existence as well, looking utterly chagrined. “Captain, I am so sorry,” she said. “I had no idea the ship was that keyed into my moods. I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, honestly. I would never do that.”

“I believe you,” said Calhoun, dusting himself off as he got back to his feet. “Still, you see the hazard that the current status quo represents.”

“Yes,” Morgan said slowly. “I ... I do. Perhaps you shouldtry to find a way to purge me from the computer system. Reboot everything. It ...” She cast a glance at Robin, but couldn’t sustain eye contact. “It would probably be best for all concerned. I won’t trouble you again.”

Obviously she was waiting for Robin to raise a protest, as she had when the possibility of her mother’s erasure had first been brought up. This time, however, Robin remained stonily silent, staring fixedly at the floor in front of her.

“Morgan, wait!” Calhoun abruptly said. “There’s ... something I need to ask you.”

She raised an eyebrow and remained where she was. “Yes?”

He took a deep breath. “The other day, Moke claimed that he ... saw... Artemis standing over McHenry’s body. That she was talking to him in some manner.”

Soleta’s head whipped around upon hearing this. “I was unaware of that, Captain.”

“It wasn’t a science matter, Soleta, and it was inconclusive at best,” he said, looking at her oddly. “Dr. Selar brought it to my attention. It didn’t occur to me that you needed to be informed.”

“Nevertheless; Captain, it would have been preferable if you—”

“Lieutenant,” Calhoun said sharply, “can this discussion of interdepartmental communication wait until after I’m finished talking to the dead woman?”

Immediately abashed, Soleta said, “Yes, sir. Of course.”