She has been in this same state of a coma like trance since she received the
news of the flagship Enterprise's destruction.
My mother is Deanna Troi Travix daughter to the first house of Betazed and heir
to the fifth. My father Glenn walks in and takes her hand. He whispers words to
calm her soul but I can see they fall on deaf ears.

I have always known he was not my biological father but he was the man who
raised me and loved me. I often wondered about the man whom I never met, the man
who helped give me life. I was told he was very special, a man of many talents
and I wondered why he would not or could not love me. For I was his only link to
the woman who he lost his heart to.If this is what loving some one brings then
I hope to never feel it's cold touch.

We attended the memorial services for the senior officers lost on board the
Enterprise. Captain Riker's father and brother were there they refused to look
our way. I am only partially empathic but I could sense their hate for my mother
from across the room. It was almost as if they blamed her.

I never forgot the speech made from Captain Riker's final goodbye message,
" Life holds no meaning unless there is truth. When one half is missing the
other remains damaged until the two can once again be together."

A very simple message but it made my mother cry. It was the first time since she
had heard the news that she showed any outward emotion. She continued to cry till
her tears ran dry, then she started to whisper, " I'm sorry Imzadi."

It was her mantra,the only three words she would say till the day she died, two
days ago. Some say she died of a broken heart, others want to believe it was
simply her brain refused to work any longer. I now believe that my true father's
death killed her just as their seperation killed him. His body may have died on
board his ship but my grandmother once told me that his soul died the day my
mother left to marry Glenn Travix.

I stand over their grave on Betazed. THe falls in the background almost drown
out the sound of my sobs. I bend to place flowers on the grave my parents rest
in. The tombstone reads, "Here lies love asunder." I think back to a few months
before to Captain Riker's farewell message and pray that he is whole again that
their deaths will bring their lost souls back to one another.

End