OUTSIDE EARTH'S SOLAR SYSTEM, EARLY JANUARY, 2372Miles went to the back of the Runabout, there to check on the guest.
"Can I get you anything?"
The guest shrugged.
"Well, I'd like to have the name of your Major Kira's veterinarian. Tell them to double up on her distemper shots."
Miles nodded.
"Oddly, most folks in Starfleet understand what you did. But the Major--well, she operates by a different standard. She took your presence as an affront. I'm sorry she punched you."
"Thank you, Miles. For everything. Bad as this is, I know that you did everything you could to get me this waiver. Thank The Emissary, as well."
"Er--I'll thank him as Commander Sisko. This Emissary business—makes him a tad uncomfortable."
"Aren't we all? Uncomfortable, I mean?"
"Look, if you'd just tell them where Chak--"
She grew arch in her tone.
"No names, alright? This day is about Jean-Luc Picard--no one else. I'm once a traitor. That's enough for me."
Miles nodded again.
"Water, at least?"
She smiled at her friend.
"Molly has me full up. But thanks."
"Always for a friend."
He sat back down, up front. Although Keiko could in theory pilot the craft, she was glad to see her husband retake the controls from automatic.
"You want I should go and see her?"
Miles shook his head.
"In a few minutes, maybe longer. She's feeling claustrophobic, and I can't blame her. Blast Security for demanding that she ride with people she cares for, trussed up like a turkey before roasting!"
Molly asked a question.
"Why DOES she have to ride like that? She's our friend and we love her, right?"
Keiko took this one.
"Honey, we told you. She made a choice that made a lot of people angry. A choice that was against the law. If she wanted to come with us—this is how it had to be."
Molly was still confused.
"Well, are they gonna arrest the mean man who killed Captain Picard? Doctor Beverly was on the Trans-Vid, saying he should be."
Miles turned and looked at Molly, his features a bit harsher than he would have liked.
"Molly, Doctor Crusher is in pain. She loved Captain Picard better than anyone else. Losing him has made her a little crazy. Captain Kirk did not kill Captain Picard. Remember our friend Doctor Pete? Well, Captain Kirk is his Uncle."
The little girl's mouth dropped.
"Ohhhh. Then Captain Kirk couldn't have done it, cause Doctor Pete and Admiral Saaviki are nice people. Poor Doctor Beverly. Somebody should tell her that."
Keiko nodded.
"People have tried, honey. Til they were blue in the face."
Keiko remembered her brief conversation with Beverly Crusher. She was still getting the ice out of her soul from that talk. Was there something more than grief going on? The person she saw was not just consumed by rage--but made from it.
With their approach past Wolf 359, Keiko left an awestruck Miles and a sleeping Molly to talk again with their guest.
"Need to use the refresher?"
"I can wait. Keiko, will you open the viewport?"
"You sure?"
"A lot of the folks I run around with feel that this is where Starfleet got weak in the knees. I want to see it."
The heavens were littered with silvery scrap, left behind to mark the passing of an armada, all lost to a single Borg Cube. At this moment, the exile felt as though no one with a soul could pass here and be unaffected. She herself was starting to cry.
"Close it--and I'll take that refresher trip now. You know, something, Keiko? I'm glad it was you two that did this. You were the realest people I ever met, on the D."
The trip was quick, and Keiko sadly but thoroughly reset the manacles, when it was done.
They reached Earth, and San Francisco. They were met not by their friends, but by the last man to see Jean-Luc Picard alive.
"You would be Chief and Mrs. O'Brien. I'm---"
Keiko raised a hand.
"We know who you are, Captain Kirk. Its a pleasure, sir."
Miles chimed in.
"Not to mention an honor. But where are the others?"
Kirk looked like a man who was hiding something.
"They're all--composing themselves--prior to the service."
Miles and Keiko both understood his unspoken words to mean that they were one and all lecturing Beverly on the fine art of not making a spectacle of Picard's funeral. Molly looked up at the returned hero.
"If you're Doctor Pete's Uncle, then how come it is he looks older than you?"
With a permissive nod from Keiko, Jim scooped up the little one.
"Now that---is a long story, kiddo. Maybe before you go back, I'll tell you all about it. Kay?"
Molly smiled.
"Kay?"
Kirk turned to Miles.
"Mister O'Brien--may I have the key to the prisoner's manacles?"
"Er, of course, sir."
Putting Molly down, James Kirk entered the runabout and emerged in the company of an unbound Ro Laren. While grateful, she shook her head.
"Captain, Starfleet Security virtually demanded that I go to the service, bound as I was. You could be court-martialed for this."
Captain Kirk smiled.
"Terrific! I'm way out of practice. A good court-martial is just what I need to clear my brains. By the way, everybody--its Jim."
Miles shook his head.
"Not in this lifetime, sir."
Keiko nodded.
"Its hard to be from Earth and not feel a sense of awe about you, Captain."
Ro threw in.
"You'd have to be from a backwater not to have heard the name at least once--and always in a heated discussion."
Molly gestured to be picked back up.
"I'll call you Jim!"
Happier than they would be later, all entered the small transport.
At The Bright Hillside Memorial grounds, Ro Laren disembarked, and saw Will, Deanna and Geordi. She stood frozen as they in turn saw her. Kirk's whispered voice roused her.
"Go to them, Ro. Trust me when I say--friends don't live forever. While you are all still here--be friends."
First Geordi, looking so strange with his transitional Visor. Then Will, whom she would always care for. Deanna, who was the patient voice of a thousand angry moments. All saw her, and all in turn hugged the woman who would end this day by traveling to a cell in a penal colony. The woman who had betrayed them, yes, but whose loyalty and devotion to her Captain made the loss of her freedom well worth the chance to say goodbye at his funeral.
And as she held each one, except for a Beverly who seemed to be under Worf and Data's guard, Ro Laren saw something in their eyes she thought certain she would never see. The one other thing that validated almost everything else on this sad, sad day.
She saw forgiveness.