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"And good morning to you too, Captain," said B'Elanna. Janeway realized that all the good humor she'd arrived on the bridge with this morning had evaporated like morning mist under an unkind sun.

"Good morning. Status," she repeated.

"During the night, we've been able to recover still more dark matter. I don't want to jinx anything, but this is starting to become almost routine."

"Sounds like we're due for a little routine after what we've been through. By the way, don't worry that Khala's not there. She'll show up later. If you need her, report to me and I'll determine priority."

"I see." B'Elanna's voice was warm with humor. Janeway felt a pang. You'll see soon enough, B'Elanna.

Khala lay in Kim's arms. What ought to have been a moment of languid joy was instead transformed into a heavy sorrow. He tried to burn mis moment into his memory: the gentle weight of her head on his chest, the fall of her blue hair, the exquisite softness of her skin.

"What are we going to do?" she said, breaking the silence.

"What we have to do. We have to find a way to get you home."

"But Harry, it's not home anymore." Khala shifted her weight and folded her hands across his chest, peering into his eyes from only inches away. "I belong here. With you."

"Apparently your cellular structure disagrees with you."

"Your doctor is so clever. I'm certain he can find something...." Her voice trailed off. They gazed at one another, acknowledging the inevitable even as they tried to deny it

Khala sighed and sat up. "I can't stand this. I have to do something."

"Khala, you're not sorry, are you?"

She looked at him, and a smile spread softly across her face. "Oh, no, Harry. No, I'm glad. But it's awful, isn't it, to be together when we know we're going to have to part?"

Harry knew exactly what she meant It was bittersweet, lying in the dim light together when they knew it was not a real beginning but only the beginning of the end. He, too, desperately needed distraction, needed to feel useful. Harry, too, rose, pulled Khala to him, and kissed her.

"Come on," he said, cupping her face with his hands. "I think we can both fit in the sonic shower if we try."

"I am going to give Harry such a hard time," Torres chuckled as she ran a diagnostic on the warp core.

"You are exacting revenge upon Ensign Kim for his teasing of you and Ensign Paris, when you began your romantic union," stated Seven.

"Precisely."

"Revenge is irrelevant."

"Seven, you've come a long way since you left the collective," said Torres, glancing over at Seven and grinning, "But you still have a lot to-" She broke off in midsentence. Every morning since this whole crazy thing began, she had started her shift with a routine diagnostic on the status of the warp core and the small universe housed within. Every morning, she had found that the bubble was holding stable.

Not this morning.

"What is it?" asked Telek, stepping beside her and looking at the readings.

"I-don't know," B'Elanna managed. "It seems to be fine one minute,-then-there. Look at that"

Seven did not say anything, nor did she move to join Torres and R'Mor. But Torres knew her well enough to know that she was calling up the same thing on her console.

The small warp-shell bubble they had created, the mini-universe that was safely holding all the dark matter they had gathered up to this point, fluctuated. Torres thought her heart would stop.

"The shell is weakening somehow," said R'Mor.

"How much dark matter is inside now?" asked Khala. B'Elanna was surprised. She hadn't even heard the woman enter. Khala was lucky. B'Elanna's teasing mood had evaporated.

"Eight point five four grams," stated Seven.

"That doesn't seem like a lot," said Khala, frowning. "Seven, you had mentioned something about an at-

tempt to create a stable warp-bubble universe aboard the Enterprise. What happened to it?"

"Dr. Beverly Crusher was inadvertently trapped inside," said Seven. "When