They were all out there.

Each one of them.

Kass, Karr, Lydia, Ben, Boggles, Susan, Eric, Blip and Katherine all stood there, that dreary, almost rainy day. Katherine had sort of chiseled the letters J-E-N-N-A in a rock as a makeshift grave, and they all stood there silently, in Katherine's backyard, paying respects. You could cut the sadness there with a knife.

Finally:

"Should someone say something?"

"I guess so."

Everyone sorta looked around. Who was going to speak? Finally, Susan sort of stepped forward.

"I wrote a poem, if anyone would like to hear it," she offered. Katherine and Blip were both visibly disturbed, but like that stopped her. She cleared her throat and read:

A year ago an experiment started

that brought a very special person into our lives

She was always there for each one of us

There when we needed her most

I never thought that life

could be taken away so quickly

But she showed me that, too

The night she kept mine from being blown away.

Eric nodded sadly out of politeness, the norns looked more confused then usual, and Katherine and Blip winced. Not a lot of people appreciate Susan's poems.

Susan glared at Katherine and Blip. "Okay, then, what have you got to say?"

Katherine nodded. "All I can say is -- I don't care *what* she thought, me an' Blip did the right thing when we did genetic work. Jenna deserved a life."

"Can you hold on a minute?" asked Boggles. Not waiting for an answer, he ran inside very quickly and returned with Jenna's walking stick and a sheet of paper. "She told me that she wrote this a long time ago," Boggles started, "but I wasn't s'posa tell anyone 'cause she said it'd make everyone real sad. And stuff."

"Well, what on Earth --"

"Read it, Boggles!"

Boggles carefully read:

"If Boggles is reading this to you, I'm probably dead. I told him to keep this for me, because I knew I'd throw anyone else into a depression if they heard about this letter.

"I want you to know that I'm most likely okay. I'm sitting up in Silicon Heaven right now, looking down on you all and watching. So be good.

"Each one of you is very special to me. Kass is a very brave person; I could never recover like she did. Boggles is a very loyal person, considering what he's been through with his father. Ben can be a bit strong-headed at times, but he's really very sweet. Lydia's a beautiful girl, and I wish her all the love in the world. Susan, well, *I* always liked her poems, anyway. Eric doesn't seemed to be hindered by the fact that other people might know more then him, he just keeps going. Blip has very good intentions, but deep down, he can be just like his creator. Katherine, all though I may not agree with her scientific method, I think she's learned a lesson or two since when I first met her. And Karr, my baby, is the best thing I could ever possibly want.

"I know it's tradition for humans to specify who they want to have their things. I only have one possession, my old walking stick. I remember the day Katherine found that stick out in the desert, and insisted I use it. That stick has a lot of history to it, and I want Karr to have it. I want that to serve as a reminder of his mother, the first norn on Earth, ever."

Boggles blinked a little, then handed Karr the walking stick. Karr thumped it against the ground a couple of times, and then hung his head. "Reminder, she says. I'll never forget mom, I promise."

-----

It was later, much later. Katherine sat alone, in her room, playing with a GameBoy. Her gaze kept shifting away from her game, however. It kept wandering to the small, black machine in the corner. You know as well as I do what the machine was; the HoloDeck.

That machine. It wasn't as big as a pizza you'd find in the grocer's freezer. All it really was was a thick, black disc. Katherine finally switched off her GameBoy and slinked toward it. She glared, as if that would help. Oooh, that machine. It had made her life awful three times over. That one single invention had caused her to be committed, had caused several deaths and resurrections INCLUDING her own, family problems, school problems ...

... and now this.

Boy, that was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Katherine raised her hand and smacked the HoloDeck away from her. "Damn machine!" she shouted, in a rage.

But that wasn't enough. Katherine was *mad*, and wasn't going to take the torture that the HoloDeck had offered any more. She wanted revenge, she wanted it quick, she wanted it *now*, and she wanted it to hurt. Leaping toward the device, she raised her foot. One stomp, and it would all be over. No more HoloDeck, no more torture, no more norns, no more life lessons, no more asylum, no more death, no more waking up in the middle of the night, no more Disney, no more hootch, no more Arlington Stone, no more norns at family reunions, no more norns sneaking off to school, *no more*. One stomp would do it.

Katherine stopped right there. She couldn't do it.

As much as she wanted to, as much as she *hated* the HoloDeck right now, as mad as she was, she couldn't bring herself to do it.

She was still Katherine.

And Katherine could never destroy a machine.

Especially her own.

Katherine breathed heavily for a moment, trying to calm down. She couldn't believe what she almost did.

Throwing her arms in the air, she hurried out of her room, and out the front door. There was an old tree in her front yard, and she felt the need to sit under it. She just sat there, taking in the night air for a moment.

"Katherine?"

Oh, good, a familiar voice.

"Hello, Blip."

Blip floated around to Katherine's side of the tree.

"Fancy meeting you here?"

"It's our front yard, Blip, not a piano bar."

"Pardon me for trying to be slick."

"Like it's ever worked before."

Fireflies began to dance around in the night air. Stars were starting to poke out.

"Hey, Katherine?"

"Yes, Blip?"

"Jenna was a part of our experiment, right?"

Katherine sighed. "Yes, very much so."

"If she was just an experiment, why do I feel so bad that she's dead?"

Had Blip been looking, he would have noticed a small smile coming out of Katherine. "Poor Blip. You know, no matter how close to human I think I got you, there's always some little quirk that keeps reminding me what you really are."

"You don't have to rub it in, you know.."

"Right, right. Let me guess -- guilty and depressed?"

"Wow, I'd guess that's right. How'd you know?"

Katherine stared for a moment.

"Oh, right," Blip realized, "you made me."

"Anyway, I'd guess that you feel guilty because you were the one who lead Jenna down there in the first place."

"Well, I sorta figured it was my fault..."

"No!" Katherine interrupted, "It's not. You didn't know she was going to jump like that, and you didn't make her. Anyway, I'd guess you probably feel depressed because Jenna turned out to be more then an experiment," Katherine explained. "She was like a, uh, friend I guess."

"I thought we weren't supposed to make friends with our experiments?"

"Well, we did. You know, I'm beginning to think that's not such a bad thing. I mean, let's face it, we learned something."

Blip was puzzled. "What?"

"Actually, I don't know what it is at all," shrugged Katherine. "Jenna said in her note that we, or rather *I* learned something, and I feel like I learned something, but I don't know what."

"Hunh. Well, it beats me."

Katherine and Blip were quiet for a while, before Blip nudged himself under Katherine's arm. Katherine, taking the cue, hugged him.

-----

Nightfall had come, and everyone was asleep.

Everyone but Lydia. She was nudging her dad.

"Dad? Daad?"

A snork in the general direction of Karr rose up.

"What?! Who!? Oh, Lyddie. What'cha need?"

"Dad," she began slowly, "where's Gramma?"

Karr blinked sluggishly, part way because he was thinking and part way because he was sleepy. "She's in Silicon Heaven, where all good norns go when they die."

"Where's that?"

Oh, more hard questions. "Up there, somewhere." Karr pointed upwards.

"Oh." Lydia looked very sad for a moment. Then: "Dad, did Gramma want to die?"

"Oh, Lyddie, no!" He hugged her close. "Gramma didn't want to die all. But she didn't want Susan to die either, so she tried to save her. She was trying to be brave, Lyddie. Besides, Gramma was very old, and the Shee decided it was time for her to come to Silicon Heaven."

"The Shee took her?"

"Well, yes."

"I thought you said they were nice!"

"They are, Lyddie. They knew Gramma would be happier where she is now then back here on Earth with us. Do you remember how Gramma's knees would hurt, and how she'd have trouble remembering things?"