He watched her carefully, but her expression remained serene, smiling down at the chaos in the streets. “No, I think what happened is she finally had a chance to see me for who I really am, a chance to see that she could rely on me. I think we both realized we’re a good team.”
“So it’s serious between you two?”
“Serious as they come,” Jayme agreed.
“Titus will diewhen he hears about this,” Bobbie Ray laughed. Now he couldn’t wait to get back to the Academy to spread the word that Jayme–the woman who never took no for an answer–had finally bagged her quarry.
Jayme didn’t see Moll at all the final day of the Izad Revolution, as it was being called. Moll called late, from on board the ship, and told Jayme that she was calling from guest quarters, where she was planning to stay overnight. Jayme wished it would be reasonable to ask to beam up, too, but she was in her nightie and practically in bed already.
“I met an old friend of yours,” Moll added.
Jayme was feeling slightly left out of all this talk of what Commander Data had said or how Captain Picard had talked to Moll over lunch for almost half an hour about the Rahm‑Izad ruins. Jayme would give her right arm to meet these quasi‑mythical people she’d heard about for years. But they had agreed that “Ensign Enor” was the better choice to interface with Starfleet, while the more personable Jayme dealt with the Izad.
“You mean Nev Reoh?” Jayme asked, remembering their old quadmate had gotten duty last winter on the Enterprise.
“No, I did see him, but I meant someone else.”
Jayme thought for a moment. “Who else do I know on the Enterprise?”
“Guinan, the bartender.”
Jayme had to laugh. “That’s right! The night I was tracking Elma. I bet I didn’t make much of an impression on her.”
“Actually, I think she figured you out immediately.” Moll Enor ducked her head to smile, shy as always. “She congratulated me on knowing a good thing when I ran into it.”
“Thanks,” Jayme said, feeling mollified and more than a little flattered. Moll Enor was talking about herin Ten‑Forward.
“Do you want to come up to the ship tomorrow morning?” Moll asked casually.
“Do I!” Jayme gave her a look. “You knowI do.”
“Tomorrow then, 0800, be at the beam‑down point.” Moll Enor hesitated, looking closely at Jayme’s face. “I have a surprise for you.”
Moll could tell Jayme was bursting with joy to finally be on the Enterprise. One of her great‑great aunts had served on the Enterprise‑B, the Excelsior‑class starship, and a third cousin had served on the Enterprise‑C briefly, just before the ship disappeared under the command of Captain Rachel Garrett. But Jayme had told her that no Miranda had had a permanent post on board the Starfleet flagship since then. Moll had felt guilty being on the Enterprise, knowing how much it would mean to Jayme–who really deserved all of the credit for the negotiations.
“Titus is so lucky, getting a field assignment on the Enterprise,” Jayme said soon after she beamed up. “Too bad he isn’t here yet. And we have to stop by and say hi to Nev Reoh.”
“He’s down in the geophysics lab,” Moll agreed. She gestured toward Jayme’s bodysuit–an acid‑green swirled through with white streaks. When she moved, it made Moll’s eyes cross. “Nice outfit.”
Jayme shrugged, glancing at Moll’s plain black coverall. “You know me–I don’t want anyone to forget me.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
Moll Enor gave Jayme the grand tour, introducing her to the officers they encountered along the way, and making a special trip to sick bay to let the premed student meet Dr. Beverly Crusher.
Jayme shook the doctor’s hand so hard that Crusher winced as she pulled it away. But she smiled, and said, “Don’t worry about starting late, Jayme. Tyler Brannigan was number one in my graduating class from Starfleet Medical, and he decided he wanted to go into medicine in his lastyear at the Academy. He said he had to cram three years of premed into a solid year and a half of study.”
“That’s what I’m doing now,” Jayme admitted.
“Welcome to the world of medicine,” Crusher told her. “You’ll never get another good night’s sleep.”
Jayme was radiant by the time Moll took her to deck sixteen, through a door into one of the spacious crew quarters. Since they were on the bottom of the saucer section, the long wall slanted inward, providing a startling view of the brown and red planet of Rahm‑Izad.
“Ohh . . .” Jayme breathed in admiration. “Is this where you stayed last night?” Without waiting for an answer, she wandered into the adjoining room and bounced down on the bed. “Does everyone get such a big place to live, or is this just the guest suite?”
“These are my quarters,” Moll Enor told her.
It took a moment for her meaning to sink in. “You were offered a post on the Enterprise?”
“Yes, Captain Picard told me last night.”
Jayme made an inarticulate sound, rushing over to hug her. But her voice broke as she said, “Nobody deserves it more than you.”
Moll kissed her and hugged her back. They were both thinking of having to part, but leave it to Jayme to put that aside, knowing how important this was to her.
“When do you go?” Jayme asked.
“We leave tonight.” At Jayme’s silence, she hurried on, a catch in her own voice, “There’s no need for me to go back to the Academy. I can have my things sent on.” When Jayme was still silent, she added, “We both knew I would be leaving on assignment once I graduated.”
“Yes, but, the Enterprise. . .” Jayme said. “You’ll be at all ends of the Alpha Quadrant.”
Moll Enor cleared her throat. “I trust you to track me down no matter where I go.”
They both grinned at that, then they hugged each other again. Moll felt so reassured by that simple contact, by knowing how much Jayme truly loved her. She hadn’t realized how long she had relied on her best friend to always be there for her. Now they were partners.
“Maybe some day I’ll get a post on the Enterprise, too,” Jayme said valiantly, wiping her eyes. “But I have years of school ahead.”
“We both have a lot of hard work to do.” Moll pulled back, giving Jayme a shake. “But this isn’t the end for us. We’re just beginning. You remember that.”
Chapter Ten
Summer, 2371
MOLL ENOR SERVED ONE SHIFT every other day at the third aft station on the bridge, known as mission ops. All the new ensigns who were on the command track served their required years at mission ops or assisting the operations manager.
Ensign Enor slid into the seat, smiling as she relieved Ensign Dontorn, serving his second year on board the Enterprise. Mission Ops duty was mostly a matter of watching the computer activity of specific research projects, taking care of unforeseen situations that didn’t fall within the parameters of the preprogrammed decision‑making software.
Seated at ops was Lieutenant Meg’han instead of Commander Data. Moll never needed to refer primary mission conflicts to ops when Data was on duty. He would see the need before she was capable of registering what was happening, and it was eerie the way the primary routing would change under her fingers, with the lower‑priority tasks failing neatly into a line for her to deal with at a more human speed.
The other ensigns often talked about how superfluous they felt under Data’s command, knowing that he didn’t need their assistance. But Moll privately considered it a comfort to know things were under control no matter what she did. Assisting ops was also somewhat better than her occasional posting at the environmental systems station, which was usually left staffed.
“Sir!” Lieutenant Meg’han announced. “I’m receiving a distress call. It’s from the Federation Observatory at the Amargosa solar system.”