This
is a story about an alternate universe. I started it a long time ago, but never
finished it, until I found it again last week. It’s about someone who has been
gone for a long time and I thought might have a better side than what we
usually saw. I don’t want to give too much away and ruin the surprise! Just
read and see how you like it. –Myranya.
Disclaimer:
Star Trek, and Voyager, belong to Paramount. I just play here!
ALTERNATE CHOICES
Chapter 1, here.
Chakotay couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right.
They had hit a spatial anomaly about an hour ago, and it seemed as if some
turbulence and some very minor damage was all it had done to the ship. But in
all his years in space he had learned to not only trust the readings on the
panel in front of him, but also his gut feeling. It had proven right more than
once.
"Is there any sign of the
anomaly, Mr. Tuvok?" he asked.
"Negative," the Vulcan
answered. "It does appear to have been an isolated event."
Chakotay knew the Vulcan would find
the 'gut feeling' illogical, but
obviously Tuvok had worked with humans long enough not to comment on the fact
that this was the third time in the last ten minutes the First Officer had
asked about an anomaly long passed. Or at least, not to comment out loud;
Chakotay caught the look the Vulcan gave him after answering his question.
Five minutes later Chakotay stopped
himself from asking the same question again. Maybe he was imagining things.
Instead, he tried to focus on the crew reports on the small console between the
command chairs.
The other chair was empty now.
Captain Janeway was off duty, in her quarters, probably, or on the holodeck in
one of her holo novels. Chakotay wished she was here. In this otherwise quiet
stretch of space the bridge was manned by mainly younger officers, who did not
have the experience in space it took to develop that gut feeling, and if they
did feel it, they would likely as not be embarrassed to admit it with the
Vulcan there. But nothing that had happened so far was serious enough to call
the Captain to the bridge.
He turned back to his console, only
to be interrupted moments later by Tuvok's report.
"Commander, sensors are
picking up a vessel. Identification as of yet unknown. They are travelling in
the same direction, but at a somewhat slower speed."
"Range?" Chakotay asked.
"We can just barely pick it up
on long-range sensors. I expect to be able to make an identification within the
next three minutes," Tuvok answered the next question before Chakotay had
a chance to ask it. Maybe after all this time even they were starting to work
well together, Chakotay thought.
The minutes passed slowly -more
vessels they had encountered had turned out to be hostile than friendly and
apparently this vessel was able to travel at almost their speed. Finally, Tuvok
spoke up again.
"Commander?"
Chakotay immediately turned around
in his seat, giving the Vulcan his full attention. Anything that caused Tuvok
to let so much of his surprise sound through in his voice, had to be something
big.
"Yes, Tuvok?"
"It is a Federation ship.
Intrepid Class. I can not say for certain until we get closer, but I think it
is Voyager."
Chakotay stood and turned toward
the Vulcan. "Is there any chance this vessel is an image, or reflection,
of ourselves?" Way back, at the beginning of their journey, they had run
into a time-delayed image of themselves.
"Negative, sir. It is
definitely a real vessel, and it is also fully in our space-time
continuum." They had also, once, discovered an anomaly had copied them,
the other ship being slightly out of phase with themselves. "In
fact," the Vulcan continued, "They have just scanned us as well.
Scanning frequencies confirm, the ship is definitely Voyager."
Chakotay acknowledged. Then he
called the Captain. "Chakotay to Janeway."
"Janeway here. Go ahead,
Commander," she replied immediately.
"Captain, I think you better
come to the bridge," Chakotay told her.
Moments later Janeway entered the
bridge.
"What do you have?" she
started to ask, then looked at the viewscreen where Ensign Chell, who manned
the Ops station this shift, had just managed to get the first visual on maximum
magnification. The image was blurry at this magnification, but there was no
doubt the vessel on the screen was Voyager.
"Another projection?"
Janeway asked.
"Negative, Captain. It is
real, and it is here," Chakotay answered.
"Have they seen us?"
"They have scanned us, but
they have not hailed us yet," the First Officer said.
"Well," Janeway said as
she sat down. "Then we will. Open a channel, Mr. Chell."
Chapter 2, there.
On the other Voyager, Tuvok had the
con when the vessel had appeared on long-range sensors. Although the sensors
had the same range all around the ship, it was usual to scan further ahead than
behind. Still, they were far from flying without 'looking over their shoulder'
as Lt. Paris had once put it, so it was not long after the first Voyager had
spotted them that they, too, became aware of it.
Tuvok raised an eyebrow as the
computer gave him the identification on the other vessel, and ran a swift check
to be sure the sensors and the identification program were running correctly.
As both diagnostics showed everything was in working order, he called the
Captain.
In Sandrine's bar, Janeway had been
playing a game of pool with B’Elanna when Tuvok's call came in. It was one of
those rare moments when the rest of the bar was empty, except of course from
the various holographic regulars, and Sandrine herself.
"Bridge to Janeway."
"Janeway here, go ahead,"
the Captain responded. Tuvok could hear the sounds of Sandrine's in the background, but he saw no logical reason to
keep this information confidential. Another fifteen minutes and anyone looking
out of a viewport could see the other vessel.
"Captain, scanners have picked
up another vessel, and it appears to be us."
"Us?" Janeway asked.
"Yes, Captain," Tuvok
replied. "The other vessel is Voyager."
"I'll be right there,"
the Captain said. “Did you call Chakotay?” Tuvok could pick out the various
emotions in the Captain's voice, even though he seldom showed any in his own.
Puzzlement, curiousity, and as always a briskness that showed she was ready for
anything.
“Not yet, I will do so presently,”
Tuvok replied, and he did.
Moments later, the turbolift doors
opened. Janeway and Chakotay entered the bridge. The viewscreen held an image
that was unmistakably Voyager.
"Status, Mr. Tuvok," the
Captain said as she sat down in her chair.
"The other Voyager has spotted
us and scanned us, but they have not... Correction, Captain. They are hailing
us," Tuvok reported.
Janeway exchanged one glance with
her First Officer, who gave a small shrug -obviously he had no idea either what
or where the other ship might be coming from.
"Open a channel," Janeway
told the Vulcan.
Chapter 3, together.
On the first Voyager, Captain
Janeway blinked for a moment as she saw herself on the viewscreen. She had
spoken to herself, or to a slightly out of phase version of herself, once
before, but that one time had not been enough to take away the feeling that
whatever it was that caused this to happen was just really... weird.
She hesitated for a moment before
launching in the usual greeting. "Captain Katherine Janeway of the
Federation Starship Voyager -but then I guess you know that," she added.
The other Janeway obviously had no
more experience talking to herself. She took a moment before she nodded and
answered, "Correct."
"From your reaction I take it
you have no more idea what caused...," Janeway looked from her own bridge
back to the viewscreen and the other Voyager, "...this, any more than we
do."
Her counterpart shook her head.
"Until our scanners picked you up, we had no idea there were two of
us."
"Same here," Janeway
answered. "Whatever it is, perhaps we can work together and find
out."
"A good idea," the second
Janeway agreed. "You are welcome on this ship, although I don't know that
it makes much difference."
"Agreed," Janeway said.
"We will beam over in ten minutes."
She looked around. "Chakotay,
Tuvok, you're with me. B'Elanna, have you been monitoring our recent...
meeting?"
"Aye, Captain. Carey alerted
me as soon as he picked up on the other Voyager," B'Elanna's voice
answered.
"Any ideas?" Janeway
asked.
"None as of yet, we're working
on it,” the Chief Engineer told her.
"Tell Carey to keep on it, and
meet me in the transporter room. I'ld like you to come with me to the other
ship. Oh, and we should set our combadges to a modified frequence so we know we
will be talking to members of our own crew unless we specify differently."
"Aye, Captain," B'Elanna
acknowledged.
"Paris to the bridge,"
Janeway ordered next. She waited for the Lieutenant to arrive, briefed him in a
few words, and left him the con. Then she took the turbolift with Tuvok and
Chakotay.
-0-
Not much later they were on the other
Voyager. They entered the conference room, where the full senior staff had
already assembled. Janeway noticed Chakotay and B'Elanna looked slightly uneasy
at seeing their counterparts. Of course, Tuvok didn't show any outward signs
that anything out of the ordinary was happening. Neither of them did.
The four of them sat down at the
conference table, and the other Captain took the word. It was her ship, after
all.
"We seem to have two ships
here, and the best we can come up with is that somehow, we have crossed over
into a paralel universe," she said. "Not the alternate universe that
Admiral Kirk, and not long before we left the Alpha Quadrant some members of
Deep Space Nine, crossed to, but one which split off after we were already in
this quadrant."
Captain Janeway nodded, agreeing
with her counterpart.
"What we have to find out is
when we split, and when one of us crossed over in the other ship's
universe," her counterpart continued. "Once we know that, we will
likely find a way to each go back to our own universe."
"Can we not stay together and
combine our resources?" B'Elanna asked.
Tuvok -Tuvok from her own Voyager-
answered. "While it might seem like a good idea to combine our resources
and continue home together, that isn't possible. Even if we find we split just
hours before we met, the very fact that there are two ships now means there was
a split at some point, and staying with both ships and crews in one universe
will almost certainly create paradoxes."
The other Tuvok continued as smooth
as Janeway had seen twins do. But then, they were closer than twins, they were
the same person.
"Apart from that, it would
likely be impossible to cross back a long time from now, so we -or you- would
be stuck here."
Janeway knew of the parallel
universe theory. While each decision made, no matter how small, held the
potential for an alternate timeline to be created, only those decisions that
would, either immediately or at some much later time, lead to substantial
changes in the universe as a whole would cause a split of timelines.
Theoretically, one person picking a
flower far enough back in time could change the entire timeline. Theoretically;
Starfleet had travelled through time as well as found evidence of other races
doing so several times, and found that while some changes had indeed changed
their present, many small decisions melted back into the main timeline,
unnoticed by most people.
Whatever decision had been made
here, and whatever its consequences would be, she thought the split was likely
to be recent. The ship looked the same, they were in almost the same location,
and looking at the senior staff of both crews, few other changes had occurred.
Then again, a split might occur
years before the actual change was to happen. If someone’s child would make an
important invention in one universe, the split in the universes might occur on
the night the child’s (potential) mother either decides to marry the father, or
slap his face and walk out of his life. The universes would run almost
identical for many years, but the point the decision that set it all in motion
would be the point the alternate timeline was created.
Janeway turned her attention back
on to the matter at hand. Her ship had encountered the anomaly a little while
back, the other Voyager had not encountered anything out of the ordinary for
many days. Had that been where the crossover had taken place? It seemed likely,
but was in no way certain. Space was full of anomalies and a slight difference
in course and speed could well allow for one ship hitting the turbulence and
the other ship missing it by many miles.
The things they needed to find out
was when the crossover had occurred, when the split had occurred -it might help
them pinpoint the time and cause of crossover- and a way to get back. If it had
been them crossing over, she had little experience with alternate timelines and
for all they knew the other ship had crossed over in the last anomaly they
encountered.
It was quickly decided both
B'Elanna's would go to Engineering, searching for records, and tell-tale
difference in records, from there. Some of them would reconvene on the bridge,
and compare records sent up from the departments of both ships. Various records
were easier compiled on specific equipment in the various departments, but the
bridge, with its many different consoles, would be the best place to put it all
together.
She saw Chakotay agreed with her,
and she was not surprised when he offered to go to the science labs and gather
those reports which were quicker called up there.
As that was arranged, she and her
counterpart of the other Voyager agreed to break up the meeting in the
conference room.
Chapter 4, you?!?
B'Elanna left with her counterpart
to go to Engineering. Janeway and Tuvok joined their counterparts and the rest
of the senior crew on the bridge of the second Voyager, and Chakotay proceeded
to the science labs.
Chakotay had volunteered to go down
to the labs not only because it made sense someone should gather some reports
on the specialised lab computers, but also because he wanted to get a better
feel of the ship. He still felt uneasy, and had the feeling there was something
more, or perhaps something in this other universe specifically pertained to him
in some way. The other Chakotay did not seem to share his feelings -at least
not that he could discern.
He had called down to the labs from
the conference room, explaining what had happened and what he would need. Jenny
Delaney had answered him, and told him she would immediately start gathering
the reports. He met her at the door.
She looked uneasy as he came in.
She knew he was really not from this ship, and normally she would show a guest
around, but he came from Voyager and knew the ship as well as she did.
Chakotay noticed and let her lead
the way. This wasn't his ship, after all. Or well, it was, in a way, too,
but... Aaargh! This was so confusing, how were they going to find out what
happened if just thinking about it was so twisted?
He didn't let any of this show to
the young Delaney sister. Idly he wondered where her sister was -they never did
seem to be very far apart.
Jenny walked over one of the
consoles and proceeded to call up all stellar cartography information on the
sector of space they had just passed through. Of course, the anomaly they had
just encountered would be the place to start. Chakotay looked over the lists of
readings and graphics as Jenny walked across the room and called up another
sensor log on the panel there.
Just as Chakotay studied a
complicated graph showing on the panel in front of him, someone entered and
walked up to him. Concentrating on the readings, he took a moment before
pausing the screen and turning to
acknowledge the newly arrived Lieutenant. He turned and froze. He was
looking at Seska.
“What are you doing here?" he
demanded, his voice low and flat.
Seska blinked. "What do
you...," she started to say. Then it dawned on her. All color drained from
her Bajoran features as she stared at him. Her eyes darted to Jenny Delaney,
who fortunately was still bend over her work on the other side of the lab. She
had to try twice before she found her voice.
"You know," she managed.
Chakotay took a breath, about to
blurt out he knew damn well she was a Cardassian, but he stopped as she reached
out to grab his arm, stopped herself and pulled back, all the while shifting
her eyes from him to Jenny Delaney, to the door and back. She looked ready to
bolt out of there, but her feet were frozen on the spot.
Chakotay considered -she was here,
which meant that somehow this Seska, at least, had not betrayed the Voyager in
the way the Seska on his ship had done. Still, she was Seska, and a Cardassian.
Seska had taken the hand with which
she had reached out, and was now gripping the edge of the console, knuckles
white from the strain. She flicked her eyes at Jenny again, then looked up at
Chakotay. He had never seen her this uneasy, not even when they had confronted
her -her counterpart, he corrected himself- with her true identity on his own
ship. Of course, at that time she had had warning that it might be coming.
"Please," she mouthed.
Chakotay turned to look at Jenny.
She had been concentrating deeply on her work, not hearing anything. The lab
was filled with little bleeps, the soft buzz of machinery at work, and they had
been keeping their voices down.
"Jenny?" he asked. He
heard Seska hold her breath. "Would you mind getting me a level-three
diagnostics kit from Engineering?"
Jenny looked at him in surprise -he
could as easily have called someone from Engineering to come and bring one in, let
alone that she understood what he would need one for, but she did not question
his order.
"Yes, sir," she said and
left, perhaps with the slightest hesitation as she went out the door.
As the door closed Seska let go of
the breath she had been holding.
"How? How did you know?"
she asked, still speaking softly as if afraid to be heard.
"On my Voyager, you -your
counterpart- stole a replicator, betrayed Voyager, went over to the
Kazon...," he trailed off, not wanting to elaborate any further. Damn it,
he had thought he had finally got rid of her for good when she had died, almost
a year ago.
"I wouldn't...," she
started. "Well, not anymore," she amended. "We talked about it,
me and Jonas and... a few others, soon after we got here. We didn't trust the
Kazon to be content with a few small pieces of technology. Jonas didn't agree
-but he acted on his own when he handed the replicator and almost the whole
ship over to the Kazon." Seska spoke quickly, keeping half an eye on the
door.
"But you are still an Obsidian
Order spy, and from your reaction I take it no one here knows about that,"
Chakotay told her.
Seska shook her head.
"No," she said softly. Then she tossed her head, frustration starting
to come up past the shock of being exposed. She had done her hair in a long
braid instead of the bun she used to wear when she was still on the Voyager
Chakotay knew, and her braid swung as she pushed away from the panel, turned,
and walked a few steps through the lab.
"Dammit, I knew it couldn't
last forever, but I didn't...," She trailed off and turned to Chakotay
again. "Can we talk some place else? I know you won't... But give me a
chance to explain." She looked at the door again. "Please?"
Chakotay studied Seska. He didn't
trust her -she was the same person at least up until the point where this
timeline had split off. But he had already taken a chance when he sent Jenny
away; if she wanted to try something she could have done so. He didn't think it
would hurt to hear her out. He shrugged.
"Alright."
"The secondary labs will be
empty at this time," Seska said, quickly walking over to the door.
In the corridor she slowed down,
Chakotay followed her, and they went in.
This lab was smaller and had a
small table in the middle with four chairs around it -it was where the science
officers held their own briefings and meetings.
They sat down without a word.
Chakotay looked at Seska. "Well?"
Chapter 5, explanations.
Seska knew Chakotay didn't trust
her. She didn't think anything she would say would stop him from telling the
Captain about her, but she had to try. She took one more deep breath and
started out.
"You know I am a Cardassian,
then you know I was assigned to spy on the Maquis. After being pulled to this
Quadrant I wasn't sure what to do. Those first weeks I was torn between joining
with the Maquis in taking control of Voyager...," She saw Chakotay
frowning. "Oh, we talked about it, we talked about it on your Voyager too,
right after we came on board, and you know it. That must've been before the split,
still.”
Chakotay nodded.
"Then there was the Kazon.
Jonas and I were approached by one of the Nistrim when we were collecting
supplies. We talked about it, the two of us, and...," She hesitated.
"Who else isn't important, this was two years ago and apart from Jonas, we
all agreed they couldn't be trusted."
"You didn't stop him?"
Chakotay asked.
"He surprised me as much as
anyone. The only thing I knew when the Kazon turned up with a replicator was
that it was likely one of us who had discussed it -but I didn’t know who. I
couldn't even be sure there wasn't someone else who had gotten the idea on his
own," Seska said.
She noticed Chakotay looking at her
closely.
"Coming on Voyager was also a
great opportunity to learn everything about the latest Federation Starship,"
she continued. "Yeah, there was the treaty, but treaties often end up
getting broken, and the Order would have been very interested if we had found a
way home then."
"Would have been?"
Chakotay asked. "You kept your cover until now."
"I won't ever go back to
Cardassia," Seska said.
She saw Chakotay look at her
sceptically.
"Well, at first that is what I
intended, gather information not just about the Maquis but about Voyager as
well. But over time... Well, the way we are stuck here we have to work together
more than ever, more even than in the Maquis. The two crews got to working
together in a way Cardassian crews never could have," Seska continued.
"I made friends here. We are trained not to get emotionally involved, of
course -not for real- but nothing they taught me could prepare me for being
thrown to the other side of the Galaxy. And...," she trailed off.
Chakotay noticed her hesitation.
"You're not telling me everything."
"Well, I also...," she
broke off and looked at the table. "You know how back in the Alpha
Quadrant..."
She had relaxed when they had sat
down at the table and she'd started to tell her story, but now she was as
nervous as she had been in the main lab.
Slowly, Chakotay began to realise
what she couldn't say.
"You are in love. With... my
counterpart."
Seska nodded. "Yes. We are...
quite close."
Chakotay didn't know whether he was
feeling stunned, angry, or disgusted. Strictly speaking, she hadn't been lying
to him, or well, she had, but that was a long time ago.
"You never would have
told," he snapped.
She shook her head in frustration.
"Look, what was I supposed to do? Just say 'hi, I've been lying to you all
this time and I am really a Cardie spy'? Dammit, we are 70,000 lightyears from
home, and I was just plain damn scared. Scared of what would happen, afraid to
loose...," she had been yelling, but suddenly she broke off again.
Chakotay studied her. He was still
angry, but he was starting to believe she was telling the truth. She had never
been a very good actor, not the Seska he had known.
"How long did you think you
could keep this up?" he asked.
"I don't know.. I had hoped...
I knew it couldn't last forever. If I ever got hurt the Doctor would be on to
me right away. But I had thought... I definitely hadn't expected this. I know I
can't ask you not to tell."
Chakotay looked at her. "I
will not."
Seska blinked.
"You will," he added.
"If you want to have any chance to be trusted again on this ship, it will
have to come from you."
He got up and walked out of the
lab, leaving her behind. He knew he was taking a risk, but he had seen some
things in Seska he had liked, long ago in the Alpha Quadrant. Since then, he
had often thought all of it had been a lie, but she had come after him. Not
just after Voyager, but after him. And on this ship she had not sold out to the
Kazon, had apparently even made it to Lieutenant. He would not leave this ship
without making sure his counterpart and the Captain knew who Seska was, but he
could afford to give her a chance to be the one to tell.
Chapter 6, a confession.
Chakotay had left the lab, leaving
Seska to stare at the door for a few long moments. Then she got up and went to
look for Chakotay.
She hadn't known what to do; call
Chakotay on the comlink while he was likely to be with some of the officers
from the other ship, or go find him and risk running into them, too. In the end
she knew she had to face him. She would take the risk and go look for him.
She was lucky -he had just left the
bridge on his way to Engineering, and she caught up with him just as he left
the turbolift.
"Chakotay?" she called.
Chakotay looked around and smiled
at her. "Seska."
As she made no move to follow him
into Engineering he turned and stopped.
"Is something wrong?" he
asked.
Seska took a deep breath. "We
have to talk."
Chakotay was puzzled for a moment.
"Now?" he asked. But at the same time he noticed how tense she was,
and it was not like her to come up with silly and frivolous things, especially
not during a crisis. On a night out at Sandrine's or the holodeck was something
else entirely. But whatever was the matter this time, it had to be serious.
“Okay," he said, and walked
over to her.
Seska quickly led the way to one of
the observation ports on the deck. She sat down and motioned for Chakotay to do
the same.
Chakotay looked concerned. He had
no idea what was wrong, but he did not say anything, giving her time to speak.
Seska looked at him and gathered
herself. "Chakotay, I... I am not who you think I am."
"What do you mean?"
Chakotay asked.
Seska made herself look at him as
she answered. "Loriya Ruvek, undercover agent in the Obsidian Order."
Chakotay stared at her in stunned
disbelief.
"I'm a Cardassian,
Chakotay."
Chakotay slowly shook his head.
"You can’t be."
"Believe it," Seska said
softly.
Slowly, Chakotay realised she was
telling the truth. "Why are you telling me?" he asked.
"The other Voyager -the other
Chakotay... They know," she took a deep breath. "I didn't know how to
tell you, I am sorry."
Chakotay felt anger boil up inside
him. “So you told me. If they had not come, would you have told me or would you
have kept your secret until we were back in the Alpha Quadrant, when you could
go home, taking all your carefully collected intelligence with you?” he asked
coldly.
“No! I wouldn’t have gone back!”
Seska replied forcefully. Then she faltered, and continued more softly. “That
is what I planned at first, to remain undercover and return. But I decided a
long time ago I could not do that anymore.”
She shook her head slowly and
swallowed before continuing. “I don’t know if I would have told you. I was
afraid, of losing the friends I made, and afraid of losing you. But I can not
go back to Cardassia and the Order, whatever happens.”
Chakotay studied her, unknowingly
much like his counterpart had done earlier. He wanted to believe her, he wanted
to believe her with all his heart. But he was also First Officer of Voyager,
and responsible for the safety of the ship. Here in the Delta Quadrant, and
after they returned home.
“You lied to me all this time, why
should I believe you now?” he asked flatly.
Seska sighed. Chakotay watched her
as she looked down at the small table and her hands, with which she fiddled.
Was she acting or not?
“I could tell you that even in the
Alpha Quadrant you caught my interest, but I don’t know how to make you believe
that. And I would still have gone back to the Order, turned you and the rest of
the Maquis over to them, I can’t deny that. But here… I will try to explain,”
she said as she finally spoke again.
“Undercover work is always a lonely
job, we are prepared for that. We pretend to make friends, we even pretend to
be more than that, but in the end we know what we do may get our assumed
friends captured or even killed. And Order is always there. I make my reports,
sent them to my superior, and they would call me on it if there was ever any
doubt about my loyalty. Last of all, Cardassia is also right there. Even if it
may be years before we can socialise with other Cardassians again, I always
knew the mission would end and I could go back home, be myself again among
those few friends and family members that I still had after joining the Order.”
She paused, but Chakotay just
looked at her, waiting for her to continue.
“Then we came here,” she went on.
“And nothing, nothing in my training or my own past could have prepared me for
that. At first I saw it as a great opportunity, just like you said. Instead of
only collecting intelligence about the Maquis, I could learn about the latest
Federation Starship as well. But when a number of ways to return home had
failed, I realised I was stuck here as much as anyone. And there was no more
Order looking over my shoulder, no more Cardassia to return to. The Maquis and
the Federation crews learned to work together, even if there were a few
glitches at first, and I found I was no longer pretending but was making
friends for real.”
“When did you come to that
conclusion?” Chakotay asked.
Again, Seska shook her head. “It
wasn’t like that. I didn’t wake up one morning and decided I was not going back
to Cardassia. It just happened. I would be coming off duty and I would realise
I had completely forgotten to make a coded copy of some specs I had seen during
my shift. I would be sitting at Sandrine’s with B’Elanna and I would find I was
more interested in hearing the funny story about Neelix’s last brew than in
listening to any technical talk. I think it was about seven, eight months ago
when I finally sat down and deleted all my coded files and log entries, but I
had not added any new ones for some time before that. The only thing I never
forgot was to alter the Doc’s files so I was never asked to report for any
routine check-ups.”
“Can those files be recovered?”
Chakotay asked next.
“No,” Seska replied. “I would be
extremely surprised if even Harry and Tuvok could recover any of the content, I
made sure of that. They may still be able to find there was a large number of
files deleted, but that is all.”
“Convenient,” Chakotay remarked.
“If you really wanted to prove your innocence, at some point or time, would you
not have kept the files? So you could prove you did not add any later on?”
“I had thought of that. But with
them, Harry and Tuvok could have learned the full code I used. And some files,
especially the earlier ones, included other things I did not want the
Federation or the Maquis to know. You did not tell Captain Janeway every detail
about the Maquis bases and operations.”
“I didn’t have to, thanks to
Tuvok,” Chakotay pointed out, irritated. Even now, he still didn’t like to
think of that.
“You know things he didn’t. Did you
tell those to the Captain?” Seska shot back.
“No,” Chakotay had to admit.
“Well then,” Seska said. “Look,
Cardassia is still my home planet. I may not want to go back but I can’t give
the Order’s secrets away, please don’t ask that of me.”
Chakotay was silent for a long
time. Her explanation did make sense. He was extremely glad Captain Janeway had
never asked him to divulge any more information about the Maquis, for if she
had, he would have found himself in a difficult position. Would Seska, trained
as a spy as she had just admitted, truly have the same qualms about giving
intelligence or betraying her own? He wasn’t sure. He also considered the rest
of her confessions. Looking back, he thought he could see small changes in her
behaviour. She had become more relaxed, and a lot closer to him as well as, he
thought, her friends, over the past year or so. Not that that was definite
proof, many of the crew had taken a long time to adjust to their life in the
Delta Quadrant. But it was something. He made up his mind.
“I believe you,” he said.
“Thank you,” Seska breathed. She
reached out as if to hug him, then pulled back and put her hand on his arm
instead.
“We will have to inform the
Captain,” Chakotay said. Then he realised something he had almost missed. “And
the rest of the staff. If you are here and you are not on the other Voyager,
then the universes may have split because of something you did or didn’t do.”
Chapter 7, more confessions and how
a small scan can make a big difference.
Seska started. She, too, had almost
forgotten about the reason she had been exposed. It was bad enough she would
have to repeat her explanations to Captain Janeway, to B’Elanna, and to all the
others. She really, really did not want to learn in more detail what her
counterpart had done to betray Voyager –what she had done, in a way. But
Chakotay was right. It might be the key to their current predicament.
She bit her lip as she nodded.
They got up and she followed
Chakotay to the bridge. She tried to think of what she had done recently that
could have caused one of the ships to slip to the other universe. She had been
on duty at a science station, that is why she had been sent over to assist the
other Chakotay in the lab in the first place. Before she knew what he would
know about her. No! Her thoughts drifted off again, what had she been doing?
Perhaps if she remembered, they could figure out how they had slipped over and
how they could return without learning everything about her own counterpart.
She had ran off most of the standard scans they always did when entering an
anomaly, and… She shook her head as the turbolift stopped at the bridge.
Of course, the other Captain was
there too. Seska tried to stay behind Chakotay, but Janeway’s counterpart
spotted her at once.
“Seska?!” she said, shock in her
voice. The other Tuvok and Kim whirled around at her voice, and Seska gave up
trying to hang back.
“Captain,” she said, to her own
Captain, trying her best to make her voice sound steady. “Can we see you in
your readyroom please. Just you?”
“Of course,” Captain Janeway said,
looking puzzled.
“Captain, she is,” Tuvok, or better
Tuvok’s counterpart, started to say, but Chakotay’s counterpart held up his
hand, and he stopped.
Seska breathed a sigh of relief.
She had to restrain herself not to run into the readyroom. When the door closed
behind them, she was shaking.
Captain Janeway sat down and
offered Seska and Chakotay a seat as well.
“What is this all about?” Captain
Janeway asked, once they were seated.
Taking a deep breath, Seska started
her confession all over again. Eventually, she looked up at the Captain,
waiting for what she would say.
Captain Janeway did not speak
immediately. She looked at Seska, then eventually addressed not her but
Chakotay.
“Do you believe her?” she asked.
“Yes,” Chakotay replied. “But you
know I may not be completely impartial in my judgement.”
“I am aware of that,” Captain
Janeway said. “But I still think your opinion is valuable.”
Finally, she turned to Seska. “I
must confirm those things I can –I will have Tuvok and Kim check the computer
logs, and you will report to sickbay and have the Doctor perform any tests he
deems appropriate- but provided those things check out, I am willing to believe
you.”
“Thank you, Captain,” Seska
replied. She had held her breath when the Captain had been silent for so long,
then addressed Chakotay, but now she could breathe again.
“I assume you realise this also
means you may be the reason our universes have split,” Captain Janeway
remarked.
“Yes, Captain,” Seska replied.
“Chakotay thought of that. I tried to think of what I did earlier today, but,
well, it did not take us long to get here and I was… I could not concentrate.”
“You will have to try regardless.
Go over everything you did, especially while we were in or near the anomaly,
and compare notes with the other Voyager,” Captain Janeway ordered.
“Yes, Captain,” Seska acknowledged.
Then she realised that meant she would have to work with the other Voyager’s
crew, and she hesitated.
Chakotay caught on. “Work with my
counterpart,” he suggested, and Captain Janeway nodded her consent.
Seska acknowledged, relieved.
She received a lot of stares as she
came out of the Readyroom, but no one said anything. Chakotay followed her. He
beckoned Chakotay from the other Voyager, who joined her in the turbolift. Her
own Chakotay remained on the bridge.
“So you did tell,” the other
Chakotay said when the doors closed.
“Yes,” Seska nodded. “Thank you for
giving me that opportunity.”
Chakotay merely nodded.
“Did the others tell anyone, just
now on the bridge?” Seska asked.
Chakotay shook his head, and Seska
sighed. Of course, they would learn soon enough, but the worse was over.
They arrived at the science labs
once again. Jenny Delaney was still there.
“There you are, Sir, I did not know
where you had gone,” she said.
“It doesn’t matter, Jenny,”
Chakotay said.
Jenny looked bewildered, then
nodded when she saw no one was going to explain.
Seska went to the science console,
while Chakotay set up a relay to his own ship.
Bit by bit, Seska reconstructed the
scans she had done. She had started with the regulars: visual scan, infra-red,
tachyon, chronitron, magnetic, normal space and subspace, on several
frequencies. Chakotay quickly confirmed that his Voyager had done the same.
They had still been inside the
anomaly when she was done with the standard array. She remembered now, she had
run a series of biomedical scans through the main reflector dish. Quickly she
called up the logs and showed them to Chakotay, who relayed them to his ship.
It seemed that the other Voyager
had also met a living nebula, for they too had used a series of biomedical
scans. But just as Seska tried to think, and failed, of any other scans she had
used, Chakotay spoke up.
“I think we got something,” he
said.
“Where?” Seska asked. She walked
over to his console, then suddenly stopped, keeping her distance as she
realised he might not appreciate her stepping in too close.
Chakotay pointed. “That neural scan
right there, you used a different frequency than our Voyager did.”
Seska frowned. It was only a small
discrepancy, but it was the only one she could see. And it was true that inside
an anomaly, small things could set off a larger reaction.
“That could be it,” she said.
Chapter 8, problem solved?
Of course, both Voyagers had
stopped when they met. Going slow, with all scanners now running on full, it
took them about two hours to return to the anomaly. During that time, Seska
reported to Sickbay on Captain Janeway’s orders. The Doctor was surprised to
see her, and understandably annoyed when he learned she had avoided his
check-ups for as long as she had been
aboard. But to her great relief, he was more interested in her blood samples
than in questioning her loyalties. He would have to restore her Cardassian
physique at some point in time, being altered for too long could cause
complications and she had been a Bajoran five years already, but there was no
time for that now and the Doctor did not insist it should be done immediately.
Nor did he try to keep her in Sickbay when Chakotay –her Chakotay, she knew-
called her they had arrived at the anomaly and called her to the bridge.
She stepped out of the turbolift
and looked around. Relieved, she saw the officers from the other Voyager had
returned to their own vessel. She walked towards the science station. She saw
Kim and Tuvok glance at her, and she knew Captain Janeway had told them.
Likely, they had already started to look for traces of her files. But no one stopped
her.
“As far as we can determine, we are
in the same position as we were when Seska performed the neural scan, Captain,”
Tuvok announced after a brief while.
“Run the same scan again,
Lieutenant,’ Captain Janeway told Seska.
“Yes, Captain,” she replied, and
she tapped in the necessary commands.
“I’m picking up some kind of
fluctuation in the anomaly,” Harry called from his station at Ops. “I think we
can get through.”
“Very good,” Captain Janeway
replied. “Paris, one quarter impulse, take it slow. Tuvok, hail the other
Voyager.”
“Aye, Captain,” Tom acknowledged.
“Channel open,” Tuvok replied, and
the familiar bridge appeared on the viewscreen.
“Captain, I think we have it. If
so… then this is goodbye. Good luck on your journey,” Captain Janeway said.
“The same to you,” her counterpart
replied.
“Janeway out,” the Captain said
with a nod, and the starfield with the strange anomaly appeared again. Seska
watched with the rest of the crew as they slowly moved forward. Suddenly,
though there was no discernible change in the ships flight, the other Voyager
was gone from the viewscreen and the sensors.
“It appears we have crossed over,”
Tuvok announced.
“Resume our course,” Captain
Janeway replied. “Paris, you have the con.”
She got up from her chair. “Seska, Chakotay,
Tuvok, in my Readyroom if you would.”
Seska quickly left her station and
followed the Captain. She did not feel quite as apprehensive anymore, but she
was still nervous under the Vulcan’s cool scrutiny and her Captain’s stare.
“Tuvok has confirmed a large number
of files was deleted from your personal console,” Captain Janeway said. “Your story seems to check out. Now the
other crew has told me some of the things your counterpart did.”
The Captain paused, and Seska held
her breath, again.
“It was not pleasant. But I will
not condemn you for what you did not do, no matter how close you might have
come. You keep your rank and your station and I expect you to carry out your
duties as before,” the Captain continued.
“Thank you, Captain,” Seska said sincerely.
She felt immensely relieved. She did not kid herself into thinking the Captain
and Tuvok –and Chakotay, too- would not be keeping an eye on her, but this was
better than she had dared hope for. She vowed the Captain would not regret her
decision.
“There is one matter of practical
nature,” Captain Janeway continued. “What do you want us to call you? Do you
want to go on as Seska, or would you rather we used your real name?”
Seska blinked. She had run over a
dozen scenarios in her head, thinking of what would happen if she told, or if
they found out, but she never considered this. “Seska, I think,” she said.
“That is who I have been, here.”
“Good,” Captain Janeway replied.
“Report to the Doctor first thing tomorrow morning, and you will resume your duties
when he clears you. Dismissed.”
Epilogue.
Seska sat in the mess hall staring
out the porthole. She could see her recently restored Cardassian features
reflected in the window pane. It still looked strange to see her own face again
after so long.
She wondered about the other Seska.
Had she really been that close to betraying Voyager, betraying Chakotay? One
alternate choice, okay, one very bad alternate choice, and it had all
gone downhill from there. Once the replicator deal had gone wrong, would she
have been able to stay on the ship instead of beaming to the Kazon? She
certainly would not have been able to gain Chakotay's trust again -or anyone
else's, for that matter- if she had been found out at that time. It was going
to take a long time even now, no matter what Captain Janeway had said.
She heard the door open. She did
not turn when she saw B'Elanna walk up to her table in the reflection of the
glass. As B'Elanna came to her table and looked down at her, she turned and
looked up.
After a while B'Elanna spoke.
"So that is what you really look like."
"I'm sorry, B'Elanna,"
Seska said. "I lied to you -to everyone."
“I can’t say nothing has changed,”
B’Elanna replied. “But… you did not betray us.”
She paused, and Seska, not knowing
what to say, remained silent.
“We’re playing a game of pool
against the guys from Security in a few minutes, do you want to come?” B’Elanna
asked.
For a moment, Seska looked at her,
startled, trying to see if B’Elanna was serious. The half-klingon woman met her
gaze without speaking, but neither did she look away. Breaking into a smile,
Seska got up.
“You bet,” she said, and followed
B’Elanna out of the mess hall.
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