The BLTS Archive - Soliloquies
# 8: Future Imperfect
by Mari (mari1529@my-deja.com)

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Disclaimers:   Troi and Riker, and Starfleet are Paramount's. Emma,
Robbie, Zack and Hannah are mine. Neither of us profit by this.

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I can see him up there. With his daughter.

Ensign Hannah Louise Riker. She's beautiful. She looks just like her
father.

Tall. Dark hair. The same intense ice-blue eyes; I can see them from
here, they're so bright. She carries herself with the same confidence
he has. I can sense the same inexhaustible wellspring of drive and
determination and inner strength in her that boils within him.

She is quite literally her father's daughter. Just by looking at her,
even without ever having met her, I know that the same integrity and
honour characterize her behaviour, that her reasoning is as cogent and
penetrating and acute as her father's. That she will follow in his
footsteps, and exceed his reputation, I have no doubt.

I can see her brothers, Robert and Zachary, the doctor and the
physicist, standing with their mother just off to the side of the
platform, joyfully celebrating their sister's accomplishment. There is
very little of their mother in any of the Riker siblings at first
glance. Robert is a young Will Riker. Zachary is the only one who
resembles her at all, in his build and around the eyes.

I watch the Rikers - Commander, Starfleet, and Ensign - smile at those
offstage. I see the special smile he reserves for his family.

Especially for his wife.

Emma. The beauteous, intelligent, adored Emma.

Also known as Commodore Emma Barton-Riker, head of Starfleet Sciences.
The only person ever to win the Nobel Prize for Science ten times.

Will Riker's angel. The woman who owns his soul. The mother of his
children.

It should have been me.

Oh, I know that I'm the one who walked away. I know that I hurt him.
When I took up with Worf, I simply assumed that I could have my cake
and eat it too; my wild Klingon lover and my Imzadi, my soulmate.

I was wrong.

He ran as far and as fast as he could. And eventually, he moved on.
Found someone else.

When Worf and I separated -- which was largely my fault, I admit; as
Worf said as he left, 'I am weary of competing with ghosts' - I had
Beverly check out the field, see if I could recapture what I had so
carelessly lost.

Beverly did not pull any punches. She raved about Will's Emma, deified
their children. She spoke of his joy, the sense of peace and
contentment that pervaded him. Her message was clear: you cannot
compete. He is not available. Stay away.

I had lost him.

Over the years, I have learned all there is to know about the Rikers.
About Emma. Of the joy she brings to his life. Of the devastation he
felt for that long horrible week seven years ago when her ship was
thought destroyed. Of the relief he felt at her safety.

It is at times like these -- watching Will Riker with his family, his
world -- that I admit the truth of my mother's words.

He can move on, Deanna! He is human, and there is only so much the
human heart will take before it cuts its losses! If you persist in
this course of action, you will lose him forever! His soul will
detach! He will find another, one who will appreciate what he has to
give, and he will NEVER look back!!

She was right.

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The End