"I'm sorry Lieutenant," he heard the voice say, "your mother's condition was too far gone.," could this actually be happening? "We did everything we could. Nothing worked. The virus, had spread throughout her body. Nothing could be done." The voice just kept on spouting words of remorse, & appologies. All Lt. Jeph Fairchild could do was look at his feet & think about that he was now truly alone.

"It's OK. You did everything you could." he said without looking up. Out of the cornor of his eye, he saw the voice's RED uniform. 'Command division? On a medical Starbase? "I understand, she'd been sick." Alone.

"Sir,..." the voice paused, "have you made any memorial arrangements?"

"No. No time..." he looked out the port. Not sure how much time passed, but he just stared at the LaGrange just outside. 'God, she's beautiful' he thought. Alone. "besides, I'm the only one left. She was only.. 55." 55! dead at 55. At a time when Human females lived to be over 100, his mother had been striked down by some kind of mysterious virus. A Command Officer on StarBase 416. He looked up for the first time. Her face.. somewhat familiar... "Dell?"

"I didn't think you'd reconize me" the voice said. The voice was Jeph's academy sweetheart, Dellia Watson. He could see that she was a Lieutenantt.

"Oh, it's so good to see you! Last I heard, you were stationed with Admiral Baer back on Terra?! What are you doing out here?"

"Well, I came to retrieve something of the admiral's." she replied rather coldly, telling Jeph not to ask about it.

"Could you make the memorial arrangements?" he asked her, gazing into her deep blue eyes. God she was goregous.

"I'd be happy to." she said as she turned and left. A few minutes later, she reappeared, "1500, deck 68, transporter room 10."

"Thanks, will you come. Please? My Mom always liked you."

"Sure. See ya there!" At 1500 he arrived as scheduled at transporter room 10, they watched as the transporter cheif transported Jeph's mom's tube out into the vastness of space. Then thru the ports, they watched as the phaser banks dissintigrated the tube. A religious leader said something which Jeph didn't seem to catch, but it made Dellia cry. They walked out of the room, and into the hallway together..hand in hand.

He kept trying to remember why they had split up. "Dell, I'm leaving in 1 hour. I have to report to the Captain of the LaGrange. We're shipping out tomorrow."

"I know," she replied.

'How does she know?!' he thought. "Well, you wanna grab something to eat?"

"No, sorry, I have to get going. I have to be back on terra by Friday. We're heading out in 2 hours," she answered.

"Oh, I see. Well..." he paused. Took a deep long look at her. He reached down, and kissed her. "Can I call you sometime?"

"You know subspace is only for emergencies. Regular transmissions take weeks to go through. Besides... I might get transferred here in a few weeks."

"Really? Where to?"

"The LaGrange."

He choked on the cola hitting the back of his throat. "Really?" he sputtered. She just nodded and smiled. "Well, what an interesting development." He remembered. She had dumped him like a crate of isolinear chips. Why was she now coming onto him? Or was it his imagination?

"Keep in touch Jeph," she said as she stood on her tiptoes to kiss him. "Good luck on your mission."

"Thanks." he mumbled. His mind full of questions. His mom. The virus. Dellia. And why wasn't he picking up Dellia's thought waves? And why do Starbase have such gross food? At 1600 he reported to the bridge for briefing. On his way to his quarters, he was given a tour. As he passed the rec room, he thought he saw a Cardassion playing pool. "Nah!"