THE BRIGHT HILLSIDE STARFLEET OFFICERS' MEMORIAL PARK, EARLY 2373

"I finally forgave him, Jean-Luc. I finally forgave Jim Kirk for coming back when you didn't. It was hard. But the others love  him too much, now, for me to hold on to unworthy hatred any longer. You won't believe who he married. Lxwana Troi! And  Deanna worships her stepfather. Its good to know that the person we always turned to now has someone she can turn
 to."

She wished the grave weren't so damned well kept. But Picard had been a Starfleet hero equaled only by the man who brought back his body on Veridian 3, so no cleaning or straightening needed to be done.

"Geordi left the E for Utopia Planitia, and I think either he or Leah Brahms is about to pop the question. Did you know she is  the direct descendant of Doctor Richard Daystrom? That's odd to me. I mean, she doesn't LOOK crazy."

Keep talking, she told herself, and the heartbreak won't eat you alive.

"Worf is now dating--drum roll--a Trill female. I asked him if it was Odan. He just kind of stared at me, and hung up. Ben Sisko, his new CO, sends his condolences, and said he owed you for your tough talk back when he first took on DS9. I didn't tell him how much it all tore you up, being reminded of Wolf 359, and how your tough talk was armor for your deceptively large heart."

She started to shake, and saw her rides, Doctor Kirk and his wife Admiral Saavik, look over in concern. But she gestured that she was all right, and let them continue to say their peace by the graves of Admirals Uhura and McCoy. Pete Kirk had always been Bev's favorite instructor, and she was glad he was there for her, particularly after the fool she'd made of herself, accusing his returned Uncle Jim of Jean-Luc's murder.

"Who else? Oh, Wesley. Wow. He tried to use his power over time to bring you back to life. Something odd happened  afterwords, something he won't talk about. Strangely, he asked if he had any secret sisters. God knows where that one came from. Nyota Uhura was right--that kid is weird. But he's good. He tells me he got that from his father's best friend."

 She was zoning out, on the verge of fainting from pure grief. It was as though she were that great fictional hero of old, and
 the gravestone was a deadly emerald green. Still, she held her ground.

 "As to me, I've taken over Nyota's job in Re-recruitment. I'm good at it, Jean-Luc. Somehow, in getting people who have left Starfleet to come back---I've been finding reasons to keep going, myself. Pete and Viki have been great company. Sometimes, though, I have to get away from them. They've been married for well over sixty years, bonded body and soul. We--barely survived one night of shared dreams. They have Pon Farr and  a gaggle of adopted children. We had lousy, stinking CROISSANTS, JEAN-LUC, WHY....?"

She painfully regained her calm.

"I'm sorry. It takes two to avoid tangoeing, and that was us all over. We never even had the awkwardness of Will and Deanna. What did we have, Jean-Luc? If it wasn't really anything, then why did I accuse the greatest Captain of the 23rd Century of stealing your command in a jealous rage? If it was all nothing---then why do I feel like the devil turned me upside down and emptied out my soul? No answer? Typical! Lets not let a small matter like death interfere with that famous Icy Picard Calm!!! I'll bet your ghost is right here beside me, trying to reason out a way to turn the rules to your advantage. Well, there's no loophole here, Captain. At least Jim and his bunch had the sheer nerve to actually break the rules. They knew : Unfair is unfair. That's why two of theirs came back from death. That's why you and Tasha haven't. Probably if somebody bred healthy clones of you two, you'd tell Yar's spirit that inhabiting the new body would break the Genetic Prime Directive."

She looked down, and her friends prepared to gather the exhausted Doctor up, should she swoon.

"For once, Jean-Luc Picard--just plain break the rules---Come Back To Me."

Before she could complete another word, a person no one would ever describe as weak did indeed faint. Her friends tended to her.

"Husband, how is she?"

"She will be well. But her pace of work set her up for this moment. She needs real rest."

Incredibly, the 118-year-old human lifted Beverly as though she weighed nothing. Saavik checked for onlookers, and found none.

"Poor Beverly. Their lives are so brief. I wish they could be spared such pain."

Seating Crusher in the small transport, Doctor Kirk nodded.

"Maybe she can. Didn't you feel it? When she said 'come back'--her mind touched another's."

Admiral Saavik stared at Picard's tombstone.

"Husband--there is no body in this grave. I fear that 'they' have him yet again."

They drove off, and the mystery man shrugged at his mystery woman.

"No one knows better than us that even 'they' are not invincible, Wife."

Bev awoke, not having heard the older couple's cryptic words, but grateful to be away from her most painful memories of The Great Man, Jean-Luc Picard.

But what had her mind touched?
 
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THE DELTA QUADRANT

"Are you functioning within acceptable parameters?"

The Drone turned to his Queen.

"This is affirmative. A momentary power glitch resulted in the release of irrelevant memories. But the source was random, and will not interfere with this unit's efficient operation again."

Despite his words, Locutus Of Borg was not at all certain of exactly what happened. Returning to his plans for an invasion en masse of The Alpha Quadrant, he didn't know that awakened within his nanoprobes and biochips was the reborn spirit of The Great Man.

And this would make all the difference.

( To be continued in a future edition of Starting Over )