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Hoang smiled sheepishly, and Studdard’s mouth opened and closed. “Uh, we’d heard that, too,” the security officer finally said.

Picard smiled. “Enjoy it.”

In a soft voice, Hoang said, “We will, sir, thank you.”

The lift doors closed and took Picard the rest of the way to the bridge. It did the captain’s heart proud to see the young people under his command finding happiness amidst all the tragedy they’d gone through of late.

Nodding to Data in the command chair, Picard proceeded to the ready room. His many decades of service, which included more than a fair share of diplomatic experience, made it easy for Picard to put on his game face, as it were, presenting a pleasant affect for the benefit of his audience.

Go was waiting in one of the ready room’s guest chairs, engrossed in one of her padds. Several other padds sat on the other guest chair.

Looking up, she said, “Thank you for coming, Captain.”

“Not at all.” Picard moved over to the replicator. “I did, after all, promise to be available to you at any time. May I get you anything?”

Shaking her head, Go said, “No thank you.”

“Tea, Earl Grey, hot.”

The replicator glowed and the steaming beverage materialized before Picard with a soft hum. Gingerly holding the hot ceramic cup by its handle, Picard took his seat opposite Go. “How can I be of service?”

“I’ve been going over the personnel movements on the Enterprise over the past year. There’ve been over a score of transfer requests and resignations, all of whom are from junior officers in the top tenth percentile on their evaluation reports. In the meantime, your replacement crew have all been officers who generally scored considerably lower on their evaluation reports before arriving here.”

Picard tried to keep his voice even. “There were only two resignations.”

“Yes, Lieutenants Peart and Perim both resigned their commissions after Tezwa. Both of them were top-flight officers, and both of them squandered good careers by quitting Starfleet. I have to wonder what happened to make them want to go.”

“I believe, Captain,” Picard said tightly, the pleasant affect now struggling to maintain itself, “that a casual perusal of the Federation News Service reports on Tezwa would provide some enlightenment in that regard. After what they’d been through, the lieutenants wanted to begin their lives anew away from Starfleet.” What’s noteworthy, Picard thought, is that they were the only ones to resign.

“Very well, but what about Crain, Nybakken, Johanssen, Bdgralsik, Kawasaki—”

Now the pleasant affect was shattered, and Picard interrupted in a more imperious tone than it was perhaps politic to use with the head of an inspection tour. “Lieutenant Bdgralsik and Ensign Kawasaki did not transfer. Neither did Ensign Malak, nor did Lieutenant Hsu.”

Go regarded Picard with a maddeningly placid expression. “It isn’t whether or not they transferred, Captain—it’s that they asked in the first place. And then there are the replacements: Ensign Fillion, who washed out of special ops training; Ensign Hoang, who has had several notations by counselors regarding poor socialization in her file; Technician Nafir, a disciplinary problem; Chief Petschauer, who has more reprimands than this ship has decks; Ensign Studdard, whose jacket indicates that he’ll never advance in security; Lieu—”

“Yes, enough, Captain.” Picard sighed, paused to take a sip of his tea. The beverage burned his tongue, which only added to his irritation. He set the cup back down on his desk. “I am aware that there were several—defections, for lack of a better term, following the incident at Rashanar. However, I believe that we can both agree that such is to be expected after the Enterprise endured such a public—” He hesitated.

Showing the most emotion since he met her, Go smirked slightly. “Humiliation?”

“That is one word for it, I suppose.” Picard thought about Hoang and Studdard, both on Go’s list of “substandard” officers, both of whom had performed excellently at Delta Sigma IV. He recalled glowing reports from both La Forge and Vale following