EARTH, EARLY 2372

Geordi couldn't believe his ears. A peaceful dinner with his family, ruined by an odd comment.

"Son, we all loved her. But once and for all, you must let this obsession go!"

To his mind, he hadn't even raised the possibility of finding Captain Silva LaForge alive.

"Daddy's right, Geordi. This is unhealthy. This is even worse than the times you would....."

Geordi loved his sister. But the sound of her quickly aligning herself with their father raised many a childhood issue.

"Son---you are weeks away from burying Captain Picard. Now, shouldn't that tell you that death comes, even for the very best of us? The USS Hera is gone!"

All he had said--ALL he had said, was :

"When The Enterprise-E launches, one of our first scans will be in the Hera's last known vicinity. I hope to find----"

That was all he was permitted to say, before the shouting started. He reminded himself that he was going to say something along the lines of hull fragments or ion trails, not survivors.

"Geordi, someday you'll be a Captain like Mom was. Maybe you're just afraid that the same thing will happen to you, and you can't handle it. This is just like when you were a little---"

Their blood pressure was way up, and their hearing was almost turned off. So Geordi raised the stakes very high, along with his voice.

"SHUT UP, the both of you!!"

Shock now settled over their faces. Sabra was the first to react.

"See here, little---"

"Shut up Sabra. I am not little anything, anymore. By the way—next time Dad speaks--just nod. It'll save time."

Doctor LaForge glared hard at his son.

"Geordi, just because you can't accept that your mother is...."

"Dead, Dad? Of course she's dead. The Hera is gone, and all I might find is a commbadge fragment--and that might tell me nothing at all. But you know what? I hold out--I Dare To Hold Out--a one-tenth of one-percent hope--that I might find it all. That I might find Mom alive, and well. I'm a scientist. An Engineer. I know the universe is cold, and unforgiving. I still hear Beverly Crusher's howls of grief as they brought Captain Picard's body back. Then there's Tasha--my friends lost to The Tarchanean virus---Wolf 359. Yet I still hold that hope, not because its healthy, but because it is unhealthy. It is literally too soon for me to just eschew all denial. Dad--Sis--I need that denial. Just a little."

Sabra was still upset.

"Do you deny that you carried on and risked your life and maybe your career just because you held on to Mom for too long?"

Geordi had the best answer possible.

"Do you two deny that you sought to shield yourselves from the pain of hoping by accepting that she was gone too soon? Make no mistake--hope is painful. Its much easier to accept the grim facts. I think that my mother is dead. I also think that she might not be, despite all logic and talk of moving on. You are afraid to hope. Don't tell me that you're not. Because I hadn't even intimated that Mom was alive when you both jumped me. I was talking hull fragments. You were talking miracles, and it tore your hearts out."

Edward looked up at his son, only half-ready to concede.

"I'm--not ready to mourn her, Geordi. So I bypassed straight into acceptance. But isn't that where I'll end up, anyway?"

Sabra felt 11 years old.

"Geordi--we're sorry we jumped. But all puns aside, Daddy is right. People don't just come back from the dead."

Geordi's comm-pack beeped. He answered it.

"Well, of course, sir. I'll be glad to help with your investigation. Just pick me up here in three hours. Thank You."

Edward asked the obvious.

"Son, who was that?"

Geordi smiled a canary-cat special.

"That? That---was Captain Kirk."