Emotional Response

TNG ERA; Sa/Am

By T’Ryl

Rating: G
Summary: Sarek finds just how emotionally stirring a holodeck program can be.

AN: another short set in TNG: Sarek. As always trek owns trek.

My heart skips a beat as I pause at the open door of the holodeck, which was filled with children's laughter. A familar voice from within had halted my forward progress. I know she is not truly there. It is merely a series of well-positioned light arrays that make up the projection which now defines her. Her hair is a deep milk hue with just a touch of silver, as it was in her prime. Those rose-colored lips have not breathed in life-giving air in... I sigh as even my memories escape me here.

I had been walking to my assigned suite with the android known as Data, when a particular laugh captured my attention. It was she who had been my wife for seventy-eight years of my life. The gentle warm smile, which defined her, adorned her face. She was in her element, moulding young minds.

"Amanda.” The single word escaped my lips before I could squash it. Our eyes met, though on her part there was no recognition. I, after all, am now a withered, frail old man, and she merely a holographic image of her professional self. Logic failed me as I reached out as if to stroke her ruby cheek with my boney paired fingers.

Data pulls me back to reality as he tells me, "Amanda Grayson, the only human teacher to be awarded three separate lifetime achievement awards for teaching." Information, I know so well.

"She is...was my wife," I reply as I watch her turn back to her students. I carefully leave out what a Vulcan should not admit. I loved her.