Editor's Note: This is Part IV of a twelve part television script graciously given to us by our own member John Comeaux. I hope you enjoy it and will look forward to each subsequent installment.

Author's preface: This episode occurs about two years after the episode "Pen Pals" and is a sequel to it. Thus, it fits in about the fourth season. That's all you need to know to enjoy the story.

Scene: SHUTTLE BAY

Picard, Geordi, Worf, and attending personnel are loading equipment into the shuttle.

PICARD - Mr. La Forge, report, please.

GEORDI - The planet is still stable, Captain. That's not to say that it won't start breaking up sometime in the future, but for the near term at least, you're on solid ground.

PICARD - Thank you.

GEORDI - Something else, Captain. The planet's core of dilithium crystal is incredibly dense, and highly polarized. We've never encountered such a large deposit in a single place. I can't begin to predict what the effect will be to the ship sensors, navigation systems, whatever.

PICARD - Then we should keep in close contact. Mr. Worf, what do you have for us?

WORF - (Handing him four wrist bands) These wrist bands function just as the communicator and locator. They will be "on" the whole time. The signal will be relayed by the shuttle to the Enterprise.

PICARD - Excellent, Mr. Worf. Are we all ready, then?

KITSMAN - (From inside the shuttle) What are you stalling for, Picard? Get in and let's go.

Picard starts to get into the shuttle, when Troi enters the Bay.

TROI - Captain!

PICARD - Yes Counselor.

TROI - We've been monitoring the planet's news media. Data's friend Sarjenka is missing.

Scene: SHUTTLE ORBITING DREMA FOUR

Picard, Kitsman, Crusher are passengers. Ensign Ford is piloting, with Data as co-pilot. Crusher is applying make-up for the mask to Picard. She is already wearing hers. They are listening to a news report from the planet.

RADIO VOICE - No one has seen young Sarjenka or her older brother Senkar in the past month. The police, the media, the Combi Assembly and the curious are all looking for her. It is believed she has gone into hiding because of speculation that she, and she alone, is the key to understanding Drema Four's near self-destruction two years ago. Scientists are still puzzling over the singing stone left in her hands after the planet's restoration. In other news, the General Secretary has lifted the curfew over the Capital city today, since the protesting has abated.

Data shuts off the speaker.

KITSMAN - What a mess. When we make First Contact, I hope we can straighten some of it out.

PICARD - Kitsman, you are so sure that we are going to make First Contact with the Dremans.

KITSMAN - (Sarcastically) That's right. Let's give credit where credit is due. You beat us all to it, two years ago. A little unusual, perhaps. A shocking lack of protocol. A lame excuse for beaming down. Blatant disregard for regulations...

PICARD - Ambassador, you are once again beating a dead issue. As for First Contact, I have not made the decision yet to go that far. I am not buying the assumption that our visit was the sole cause of the turmoil on the planet. Protest marches happen to many civilizations for valid reasons, not all of which have to do with extra-terrestrials.

KITSMAN - You have buried your head in the sand. These people have let their religious emotions run rampant. I fully expect to see a Holy War in progress.

PICARD - Now there's an oxymoron I haven't heard in a long time. "Holy War" indeed. I don't think these people are so primitive as to allow it to go that far.

KITSMAN - We'll see.

DATA - Captain, may I ask you a personal question?

PICARD - Of Course.

DATA - Do you believe in a god?

PICARD - Whew. For a minute I thought you were going to get serious.

Data cocks his head and then realizes that it was a little joke.

PICARD - Although I've not seen God, I've seen things in this universe that I just couldn't explain any other way except that they are "acts of God."

DATA - Are you referring to miracles?

PICARD - I mean events which were miraculous. They defeat all my attempts to rationalize them. And some of these things were very positive. Others, ...(Shakes his head)... Others were quite destructive.

Data ponders this a while, then turns to Crusher.

DATA - Doctor, may I ask you a personal question?

CRUSHER - Somehow I know that I would be next. When Jack died, I went through a long period of self-examination. I was searching for faith in God, in something constant. I found a strength in myself that I didn't know was there. The need to take care of Wesley certainly helped. Dr. Sennard and I have discussed the issue of God quite a bit... but ...

DATA - ...Her feelings are not yours?

KITSMAN - Well I'll tell you what I think. Rubbish. Superstition and bigotry. The main cause of wars and hatred among people. And when you die, Pphhtt. It's all over.

PICARD - And what about you, Mr. Data? If you can be so direct in asking the questions, what have you decided about faith?

DATA - My research on the subject of God is extensive. The concept of God seems to be almost universal among the intelligent life forms. Beings we have encountered such as the "Q" certainly fill many of the attributes of a god: immortal, invincible. But the lack of compassion in "Q" is noticeable. Still, I have not found an entity that completes the picture of what "God" is supposed to be. I cannot even theorize one.

KITSMAN - Every race makes God in its own image, Data. Perhaps yours is a supercomputer at the center of the galaxy.

DATA - No computing elements have been detected at the galaxy's center, Ambassador. And if any were, the interference from ....

KITSMAN - Never mind.

- to be continued