The accident on the surface was caused by a remnant of an ancient and tragic era. Two species once shared this world. One of energy and one of matter.
The physical beings you call the Koinonians destroyed themselves in unending, bitter wars.
The surviving life forms on this world will not tolerate any further suffering as a result of that dishonourable past. So, they have made this possible. They have made me possible.
PICARD:
I appreciate your motives, but his mother is dead. He must learn to live with that.
MARLA:
I will be every bit his mother.
PICARD: But not his mother. Picard to Lieutenant Worf.
WORF [OC]:
Go ahead, Captain.
PICARD:
Will you escort Ensign Crusher to the Aster quarters?
WORF [OC]:
Yes, sir.
PICARD:
Picard out.
MARLA:
Your philosophy is curious, Captain.
What is so noble about sorrow?
I can provide him an existence where he will feel no pain, no anguish.
PICARD:
It is at the heart of our nature to feel pain and joy. It is an essential part of what makes us what we are.
MARLA: He is alone now in your world. A child, alone. How can you know he won't be happier with me?
PICARD:
For a brief moment in time, he surely would be. Any of us in his place would be.
TROI:
What would Jeremy do for friends in your world?
MARLA:
He will have any friends he needs.
TROI:
And will you provide for his education, his health, his growth, a career, a wife?
PICARD:
Yes, it's quite an undertaking you're proposing, isn't it?
MARLA:
It is our duty to make him happy again.
PICARD:
Do you honestly believe he would be happy in this total fiction which you wish to create?
What reason would he have to live?
What you're offering him is a memory, something to cherish, not to live in.
It is part of our life cycle that we accept the death of those we love.
Jeremy must come to terms with his grief. He must not cover it or hide away from it.
You see, we are mortal. Our time in this universe is finite.
That is one of the truths that all human must learn.
WESLEY:
Acting Ensign Crusher reporting as ordered, sir.
PICARD:
Yes. Come in, Wesley. Please stay, Lieutenant. Jeremy, Wesley's father died on a Starfleet mission when he was younger than you are.
TROI:
Wes, your mother told me you were finding it difficult to talk to Jeremy. Why is that?
WESLEY:
I don't know. I just didn't want to think about it any more. All this has reminded me so much of that day.
PICARD:
The day I told you your father had been killed.
As I recall, Wesley, you took it very well.
WESLEY: My parents taught me about the dangers of Starfleet missions. I knew what could happen.
PICARD:
So you were prepared?
WESLEY:
No, I wasn't prepared at all.
How could anyone be prepared to hear that a parent is never coming home again?
I tried to be what everybody expected of me.
Brave and mature.
PICARD:
Wesley, are you saying that you didn't want anybody to see what you were really feeling? What were you really feeling?
WESLEY:
Like somebody had kicked me in the head.
PICARD: Somebody?
TROI: Go on. You've wanted to tell him for a long time.
WESLEY:
I was angry at you.
PICARD:
Why angry? Why were you angry at me, Wesley?
Were you angry at me because I was the one who told you your father was dead?
WESLEY: No.
PICARD: Then why?
WESLEY:
Because you led the mission.
You came home and my father didn't.
TROI:
How long were you angry with the Captain, Wes?
WESLEY:
For a long time. But not any more, sir. Not even a little.
TROI:
So, Jeremy, you must be very angry at Lieutenant Worf.
He was in charge of your mother's mission, just as Captain Picard was in command when Wesley's father was killed.
Isn't that right?
Worf came back. Your mother didn't.
(Finally, Jeremy cries)
JEREMY:
Why? Why weren't you the one who died? Why did it have to be her?
TROI:
He can't answer that. None of us can.
PICARD:
Lieutenant Worf also lost his parents.
WORF:
They were killed in battle when I was six.
When I was alone, humans helped me. Let me help you.
The Marla Aster I knew and honoured is not in this room.
Nor does she await you on the planet. Now she lives only here
And here. (in their hearts)
Join me in the R'uustai, the Bonding. You will become part of my family now and for all time. We will be brothers.
(Marla goes up to Jeremy, then walks away. She and the house illusion vanish. All is as it should be again)