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She raised a hand to interrupt him. “Of course you haven’t, Sean. I’m the one who owes you an apology.” For an instant, she looked unsure of herself. “I was unspeakably rude to you down there, and in front of Captain Picard no less. I just wasn’t expecting to see you there. I was nervous, and you caught me off guard, and then asking about Vulcan-Well, rock-climbing on Vulcan was not my finest moment. So I treated you badly in my clumsy efforts to save face and impress the captain.”

Hawk was relieved, though a little surprised. Linda had always been unflappable at the Academy. He reminded himself that it had been a number of years since he’d seen her, and he’d changed significantly in that time. Although they had remained in sporadic contact, there were undoubtedly things he had missed. Who knew how she might have changed over time?

She saw the look in his eye and sighed. “There comes a time when you run face-first into your own limitations. For me, it was Vulcan’s Forge. The heat, the high gravity, the thin air, the electrical storms, and the most treacherous terrain I’ve ever seen. There was an accident. I fell and was badly injured. The woman I was climbing with was killed.”

Addison looked away, as though afraid she had revealed too much. They had been friends once, but Hawk sensed her hesitancy, the distance that had grown between them.

He leaned back, sorry he’d pressed the matter. “I’m very sorry.”

She smiled sadly. “Don’t be. I’ve learned to live with it. But things like that change a person, you know?”

In fact, he didn’t. He’d spent most of his Starfleet career sitting in a shipyard playing nursemaid to an uncompleted starship. It was stupid to be jealous of what must have been a terrible experience, but Hawk felt his life had been sheltered and boring by comparison.

A server brought over a steaming teacup and placed it in front of Hawk.

While he was distracted with his tea, Linda glanced down at the padd, a general side-view schematic of the Enterprise displayed on its screen. “What are you working on?” She reached over, put a slender fingertip on a corner of the device, and slid it around so she could see. She sipped her coffee and studied the display. “Engineering schematics?” She tilted her head and ran her finger down the spine of the ship in a slow, sensual, sweeping motion. “The Enterprise is such a beautiful ship. The lines are so graceful, beauty through function. Not like the Samson. Miranda-class ships are so angular and clumsy, mismatched twenty-third-century parts all jammed together in ways that shouldn’t work. I don’t like them at all.”

He frowned. “It’s not right to speak ill of the dead, even dead ships.”

She looked at him, surprised by the sharpness in his voice. “Of course, you’re right. It’s just hard for me to believe it’s gone. I was on board the Samson just hours ago, and everything was fine. It just isn’t real.”

He shook his head and glanced out the window at the nebula. Beautiful or not, it was hard to look at it the same way now, knowing how deadly it had become. The loss of the Samson, the helplessness of watching her disappear and not being able to do anything, weighed on him. Perhaps his attachment to the Enterprise-E made the loss of any ship more difficult.

Linda reached over and tugged at his cuff. “Hey, let’s not get all maudlin. Things keep going wrong, but this should still be a happy occasion.” She raised her coffee cup in a salute. “To old friends.”

Hawk nodded and sipped his tea.

“Show me what you’re working on?” Linda slid the padd in front of her and began paging through the schematics. “It looks interesting.” Her voice was light, almost flirtatious.

Hawk struggled to throw off his melancholy. The loss of the Samson and her crew had been a tragedy, but it was only a taste of what was to come. For now, he had a few moments of peace, and he should take advantage of them as best he could.

He was happy to see Linda. She was an old friend, and he should