
“I’ll try to remember that.”
The glint in her eyes made Wesley doubt her sincerity. As they approached the woods fringing the
grassy plain which had been the object of most of their geology survey, Wes decided Domarus had been
an interesting place for this field work. His satisfied judgment rested partly on the fact that it hadn’t been
just an academic exercise. Their performances would of course be evaluated by Data and Troi, and
added to their Academy entrance application files. But the information they’d gathered would also
enlarge the scanty file on a world which had been visited just once before, eighty years earlier.
The science vessel U.S.S.Jonathan Levy , one of the most active exploration ships of its time, had done
that original survey, but hadn’t had the time to log more than a cursory orbital scan, including the
geological and biological basics and the conclusion that Domarus Four hosted no sentient life forms, just
lots of plants and smaller animals. Wes and his team hadn’t found anything to contradict those reports,
but it was fun just the same to do some adult work with minimal supervision.
Though he couldn’t be certain, Wes had a feeling more and more these days that his time aboard the
Enterprise was drawing to a close. Was it only three years ago that he’d failed the Starfleet Academy
entrance exam? It seemed like a lot longer. As a scared fifteen-year-old, he’d been devastated by a
failure. He believed he’d let down his mother, the captain, his friends, the entire ship—until Captain
Picard had found him moping in the observation lounge and stunned him with a startling confession: “If it
helps you to know this,” Picard had said to him, “I failed my first time . . . and you may not tell anyone!”
Picard had also told him that a person’s successes and failures could only be measured from within, not
by anyone else but himself. Not an easy lesson to learn, but Wesley Crusher thought lately that he was
finally beginning to understand it.
For reasons Wesley never quite understood, Picard had designated him an acting ensign, giving him
access to experiences no Starfleet cadet could possibly have sitting in an earthbound classroom. Then,
through a combination of natural talents and several tons of hard work, he’d achieved a field commission,
earning his red ensign’s uniform. He was a real starship officer.
After all that, he found it hard to imagine not being a member of theEnterprise crew. Would entering
Starfleet Academy feel like a step backward? Maybe. But if he ever wanted to be even half the captain
that Picard was, he knew he needed what the Academy had to offer, the theoretical foundation that
would give perspective to practical experiences like this away-team mission.
Hiking over a grassy knoll, Wes and Gina entered a forest of towering, slender trees with golden leaves.
En route, they found Ken Kolker hunched over like a stocky forest gnome, clipping and collecting some
last-minute flora samples. All his classmates knew Ken as the most perpetually serious
seventeen-year-old aboard theEnterprise , his moods often as dark as his close-cropped hair. As Wes
gestured toward the clearing where the shuttle and their supervising officers waited, Ken fell into step.
But Gina stopped short.“Dammit.”
Wes stopped, too, his hands on his hips and his mouth pinched into an expression of long-suffering
impatience. “What did you forget to do now?”
“That stupid seismic testing rig—I forgot to shut it down,” she said, already backing away. “I’ll go back
for it—I’ll run—I’ll—”