EPILOGUE

Mars, Stardate 50915.5

Now, he was on his way to Bradbury City with Lieutenant Commander Ranul Keru, in a shuttlecraft. It had been three days since the Enterprise-E had returned to McKinley Station, following its excursion into Earth’s past, where the crew had fought the Borg and helped Zefram Cochrane make humanity’s first warp-powered flight. During his time on McKinley, Picard had met with engineers, dealt with the well-being of his surviving crewmembers, and spent an interminable amount of time being debriefed by Starfleet’s higher echelons—both from Starfleet Command and Starfleet Intelligence. He had even had to endure a protracted grilling by a pair of officers from the Federation Department of Temporal Investigations. Picard understood that Agent Dulmer and his junior partner, Lucsly, had genuine concerns about the inadvertent creation of temporal anomalies; after all, such effects could be every bit as dangerous to history’s fragile tapestry as an incursion by the Borg. Still, their painstaking, exacting lines of questioning had sometimes tempted him to lose his temper.

But for all of his frustrations and problems, Picard knew that his own agonies did not cut as deeply as those carried by Keru.

The shuttle flight had been awkward and uncomfortable, and though both men tried to discuss topics unrelated to the grim reality of Hawk’s death, the lapses into silence came often. It was during one of those interludes when Keru spoke, his eyes on the red-and-ocher world before them on the viewscreen.

“I don’t blame you, Captain.” He hesitated, and added more softly, “Well, I’m trying not to.”

“I can see where you might, Ranul,” Picard said quietly. “I was responsible for the specific mission that cost Sean his life.”

“He volunteered, though. It was his own choice. His last great adventure.” Keru shifted in his seat, as if uncomfortable. “I’m not sure I want to face Commander Worf any time soon, however.”

Picard had expected this. “You know that Worf only did what he had to do. If there had been any way—”

“But there was a way,” Keru said, interrupting. “You’re proof of that. They were able to recover you after you were assimilated. And that was after quite some time. Hawk had just been . . . infected. He could have . . . he might have been saved.”

Picard kept quiet. Any response he could give would only deepen the pain. He concentrated instead on the consoles, his fingers tapping in coordinates as Mars loomed larger in front of them.

“I’ve thought a lot about it the last few days . . . about leaving the Enterprise,” Keru said. “On the one hand, I think it holds too many bad memories. I wonder how I’d respond to you. How I’d feel if Worf came back aboard. How I’ll feel when I’m walking those corridors, entering the mess hall or holodecks, even our quarters. All those things will remind me of him. Of losing him.”

“I’m sure that if Deanna were here, she’d probably counsel you that the pain will grow less every day,” Picard said.

“Yeah, she said something similar to that, along with quite a bit of other . . . crap.” Keru turned to look at Picard, his eyes wet with tears. “You know, when you’ve lost the person you love most in life, the pain doesn’t ever feel like it’s going to go away. It’s not going to be okay. You’re never going to hold them in your arms again, never going to laugh at their stupid jokes, never going to quarrel over something trivial . . . they’re never . . . just never there again.”

Picard felt his own eyes well up with tears as he regarded his officer, and found himself again unable to respond.

Keru sniffed, and wiped his eyes. “I know you’ve lost family, and officers who’ve served under you. We’ve all lost people in our lives. Death is inevitable. We’re supposed to realize that, we’re supposed to celebrate the lives of those we’ve lost, we’re supposed to take comfort in some place beyond death—Heaven, Sto-Vo-Kor, Valhalla, whatever. But there’s no comfort for those still alive other than their own continued existence. And I’d give up years of my life to have more time with Sean.

“I always dreamed I would find someone I could love as much as Sean. I’ve forgotten so many of my dreams in life, but he . . . he was real. And he was mine. And I was his.”

Keru turned away from Picard, wiping at his cheek again. Picard closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again and began procedures for entry into the Martian atmosphere.

Leaving the shuttle docked beside one of the peripheral pressure domes, Picard shouldered a small duffel bag, and he and Keru entered Bradbury City through a tube-shaped extrusion of the municipal forcefield. Mindful of their awkwardness in the low Martian gravity, the two men made their way through a series of airlocks and settlement streets before entering an area of the city that seemed older and more antiquated than anything else they had seen here thus far. Picard noticed several people using archaic technology, and the modern, redundant interplexed forcefields— through which the salmon-tinged sky could be seen—gave way to older atmospheric domes composed of semi-opaque nanoplastic membranes; Picard noted that these antique pressure domes were of the same design as those used by the first Martian settlers more than two centuries earlier.

Picard followed Keru, who knew his way quite well, no doubt from past visits. They eventually found themselves walking along a broad, pebbled walkway. As they moved forward, surrounding them from the sides and above was a trellis, entwined with brilliant blue and red vines and creepers. Multiple forms of flowering plants, their forms elongated by the light Martian gravity, peeked through in strategic places, purple and white and green splashes amongst the bright primary colors of the vines. The scent of growing things reminded Picard of his family’s vineyards in Labarre, France, which his late brother Robert had tended for so many years.

Passing the trellis, Keru and Picard continued on the walkway as it wended through a lush green lawn, similar to those the captain was used to seeing on Earth. Ahead of them was a multilevel house with transparent-walled hothouses and attached arboretums. Picard saw more examples of lush plant life through the walls.

A stocky man with reddish, gray-streaked hair emerged from the greenhouse to their left, carrying a three-pronged digging device in one hand, and a well-worn leather bag in the other. He puttered for a little bit, adjusting something in the bag, then noticed the two men standing there.

“Ranul!” he said, dropping his bag to the ground. He trotted over and heartily shook the Trill’s hand, then gathered him in for a hug. Breaking away, he turned to look at Picard.

“Rhyst, this is Captain Jean-Luc Picard,” Keru said, gesturing toward his superior officer. “Captain Picard, this is Rhyst Hawk.”

Picard noticed that the elder man’s smile dimmed considerably, but the handshake was firm and polite. Rhyst had a strong grip, and Picard imagined him to be only a few years his senior. “Welcome to Mars, Captain Picard,” he said.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir. I only wish I could visit under different circumstances.”

“Yes, well, uh, come on up to the house,” Rhyst said, looking distracted. “It can get a wee bit hot out here around the nurseries. I think we’ve got some cool juice of some sort to offer you.”

Picard and Keru followed Rhyst inside. The interior of the house was decorated eclectically, with knickknacks sharing wall space with shelves full of old books. While Rhyst went off to get the drinks, Picard perused one of the shelves. He was pleased to find volumes dating back to the 20th and 21st centuries—he saw works by Hesterman, TormÈ, and Zabel. A leather-bound copy of The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury—the colony’s namesake—was displayed proudly beside a dog-eared biography of Lieutenant John Mark Kelly, the leader of an early ill-fated Mars mission. It was rare to find books this old now; the few paper products to survive the Third World War had long since deteriorated, and today’s books were almost exclusively produced on padds.

“Here you are. Some fresh tangerine-moova juice,” said Rhyst, appearing in the entryway and holding out two glasses of cool, pink liquid. A woman appeared in the doorway behind Rhyst, and—upon seeing Keru—let out a slight yelp and rushed to hug him.

Picard sipped the drink the older man had offered him, as Keru smoothed the hair of the woman who was now clutching him. Eventually, they broke away from each other, and Keru introduced Picard to Camille Hawk. She gestured toward the bookshelf.

“One of my weaknesses,” she said, her eyes moist. “Old books.”

“I was marveling at the collection,” Picard said. “I have a few ancient books of my own, but I doubt I could even fill one of your shelves.”

“Well, I’d always been told that you were quite the archaeologist,” she responded, smiling slightly. “Each to their own form of preserving the past, eh?”

“Yes,” he agreed, returning her smile.

Camille moved over to one bookshelf and opened a leather-bound volume she found there. She held it out to Picard. He saw that it was a 1911 copy of Peter and Wendy by James M. Barrie, and remembered his own mother reading the story of Peter Pan to him when he was a child.

“This was one of Sean’s favorite books growing up,” Camille said. “Even before he read any of my books, he loved this one.”

“I think that’s where he got his love for pirate stories,” said Keru.

Rhyst gestured toward another room. “Why don’t we sit in the living room?”

They moved to the living room, which featured a Napoleonic decor. Camille made herself comfortable in an easy chair, while Picard and Rhyst sat on a low divan, and Keru in another nearby chair. Camille placed the old book on the coffee table, its pages open to an illustration of a lonely and wounded Peter Pan standing atop Marooner’s Rock in the rising water. Picard read the quote beneath it: “To Die will be an Awfully Big Adventure.”

I hope that’s true, he thought.

Picard set the bag he’d been carrying onto the plushly carpeted floor, near his feet. His eyebrows scrunched together slightly as he composed himself to speak. He knew that nothing could take the pain out of his first words.

“I’m very sorry about Sean.”

Rhyst put his drink down on the coffee table before him, and stared at Picard coolly. “Yes, well, we got a message to that effect from you, or from one of your assistants. Got one from Starfleet, too. And from Ranul, of course. It’s been a difficult few days. Sean’s brothers, Darey and Jason, are on their way back home to join us in a . . . celebration of Sean’s life.”

Camille leaned forward, looking at Picard. “Please don’t think us insensitive or uncaring, Captain, but we’ve raised our sons to believe that life is to be lived and savored. vored. It’s uncertain when or how any of us may be lost to this life—and we simply don’t know what lies in the next—so we have tried to instill in our boys the importance of joy and love, adventure and passion.”

“You instilled those values well,” Picard said.

“We heard yesterday from the Yorktown ’s Captain Kentrav,” Camille said. “He was Sean’s first commanding officer. We’ve been touched by how Starfleet has reached out to us.” She paused for a moment, looking at Keru, then Rhyst, then back at Picard. “Does this sort of . . . personal attention happen with every family that loses a son or daughter in Starfleet?”

“Unfortunately, no,” said Picard, sighing. “Resources and assignments do not always allow for it.”

“Then why are you here?” asked Rhyst.

Picard pulled up the bag from the floor and unfastened the opening. He retrieved several items from it, placing them on the table next to the book. “I wanted to bring you Sean’s personal effects. Sometimes it takes months for this type of material to be sent back to the families.”

Rhyst leaned forward, his eyes locking with Picard’s. “But you could have sent it with Ranul. Why are you here?”

“I suppose I wanted to see where Sean had come from. What had shaped him before he entered Starfleet.”

“I was never as supportive as I could have been of his choice to join Starfleet,” said Rhyst. “I guess I always thought he did it just to escape the boredom of the Martian suburbs. All of the boys have had . . . wanderlust. But Sean was always a smart one— uncannily smart. Maybe Starfleet was a good fit.”

“It was the best fit for him. He was an excellent officer,” Picard said soberly.

“To tell you the truth, I’ve always resented Starfleet a bit. It’s always been so Earth-driven. I’m a Martian, and I’ve always felt as though Earth treated Mars as if it was just a province. My ancestors fought and died to be free of the Earth consortium, but what have we become since the War of Martian Independence? A garage for Earth’s starships.”

“Hmmm,” Picard grunted, not sure how to respond.

For a moment, the four of them sat quietly. Finally, Keru broke the silence. “Camille, why don’t we get something more to drink in the kitchen?”

Keru stood, holding his hand out to help the older woman up. She put her arm around his waist lovingly, and the two exited the room. Keru looked back once, catching Picard’s eye, before they were out of sight.

He’s going to leave the Enterprise, Picard thought. Maybe not right away, but he will leave. Picard couldn’t say he blamed Keru for making that decision.

And then he was alone, with Rhyst.

Rhyst sniffed, and turned toward Picard. “Can you tell me what good came from Sean joining Starfleet?” He held up his hand, motioning Picard to be quiet for a moment. “I don’t mean in the abstract. Starfleet has hundreds of thousands of cadets joining its ranks each year, thousands of officers, hundreds of captains. My son sacrificed his life for that organization. Why him? What did it accomplish?”

Picard took no offense at the older man’s pointed questions. They were the same imponderables with which he himself had to grapple each and every time he lost a member of his crew.

“Your son was not just one of a thousand officers to me, sir. He was a valued member of my crew, and one whom I trusted with my life. And he accomplished some truly great things.”

Picard hesitated for a moment. He knew he would have to edit any reference to Section 31 from the story he was about to tell. But Hawk’s father deserved to hear about his son’s finest hour: the mission in the Chiaros system.

“About six months ago, your son went above and beyond the call of duty to defend his ship, its crew, and his own principles. And he did it without a moment’s hesitation or doubt . . .”