Title: My Life Again
Author: Zappy Zaps
Summary: (sequel to 'Only Here') Tom Paris thought that there would be
nothing in the world worse than having to live his life again, he was
wrong.
Category: Angst
Pairing: P, P/T All
Disclaimer: The Voyager characters and Universe belongs to Paramount (ruler
of all things Star Trek).
Author's Note: I started this story long ago. I'm hoping that by posting
it I'll build up the enthusiasm to finish it off. I have other (possibly
better) stories in the works and this one is in the way. I don't like to
leave stories incomplete so, here we are.Enjoy.
Chapter 1
Security teams swept each deck of the Federation Starship Voyager looking for any signs that their invaders were still on boards. They rounded each bend anticipating an attack but were fortunate enough that none came. At the end of their rounds the head of security contacted the Captain.
"Tuvok to Janeway, all intruders have vacated the ship."
"Acknowledged," Janeway said as she continued working at the Ops station. "Report to the bridge and put your security teams on alert. Janeway out." Half the bridge officers were missing; some injured and others were needed in other areas of the ship, among them were Commander Chakotay and Lt. Paris, or so they thought.
Commander Chakotay had been sent to sickbay as he had been injured and after the initial action had subsided, Mr. Paris had also been called to Sickbay to assist the Doctor and Kes in treating the injured.
The attack had been swift and precise. The alien beings had taken out key areas of Voyager's systems leaving the crew almost defenceless, almost. Voyager had been boarded and the aliens crept through the temporarily darkened corridors, attacking and performing tests on crewmembers that happened to cross their paths. Nobody knew what the invaders were looking for but they didn't seem to find it with anybody they had tested.
Unfortunately for the Voyager crew, the aliens were impervious to their sensors thus armed security parties had to search every corner of the ship looking for the intruders. Even after main power was restored the beings remained on board, attacking and testing members of the crew as they went.
Finally after tense hours, it was over. The alien ships had cloaked and left, seemingly fed up with their search.
"Bridge to Engineering, status." Janeway ordered.
B'Elanna responded, "We still have some power conduits to replace so warp drive has been compromised. Paris shouldn't take it past warp five for now." B'Elanna assumed that helmboy would be at the conn but was incorrect. Janeway didn't have time to correct her she was still securing other ship's systems.
"Understood," Janeway out.
"Doctor to the Bridge, please turn to the emergency medical channel."
Janeway absently turned on the viewscreen to said channel and a view of Sickbay was shown. There were crewmembers busily moving back and forth trying to aid the Doctor and Kes.
"What is it, Doctor?" Janeway asked hoping that he wasn't about to make another complaint.
"I need more help in here. Kes and I are swamped," the hologram informed her. "Was Mr. Paris sidetracked on his way down here?"
"Tom should already be with you," Kathryn said. Before the Doctor could comment Janeway tapped her commbadge. "Janeway to Paris." She waited for a response but there was nothing. "Computer what's the location of Lt. Paris?"
'Lieutenant Paris is not on board.'
That was not the response Janeway had expected. "How did he get off the ship?" Janeway asked the computer.
'Unknown,'
"He's a magician too, wonderful." The Doctor mumbled to himself. Janeway glared at him and proceeded to asked the computer how long Tom had been missing for.
'thirty-eight minutes' the female voice replied.
"Thirty-eight?" Janeway said to herself as she re-doubled her efforts to figure out what had happened to Paris. "Doctor, I'll assign some science officers to help you once some of the repairs are finished." She was about to close the channel when she remember something. "And Doctor, tell Chakotay that he's needed in forward navigation."
"Commander Chakotay isn't here. I haven't seen him at all today," the Doctor informed.
"Janeway to Chakotay," there was no response. "Computer, what's the location of Commander Chakotay?" The computer told her that she wasn't onboard. Again Janeway asked how long he'd been missing and the computer told her forty-six minutes.
Light-years away on an unnamed ship, Commander Chakotay was slowly making his way across the cell to his unconscious companion. His hands were bound behind his back and his feet were bound as well making his movement awkward and slow. After a few minutes he was at the other man's side trying to rouse him.
"Come on Paris, this is no time to take a nap," Chakotay said but Tom didn't move. Chakotay had been unconscious for an unknown amount of time and had recently woken.
"He'll wake soon," a strangely hollow voice said from a speaker near the ceiling of the cell.
"Who are you and why have you brought us here?" Chakotay demanded.
"We were intrigued by your kind and felt like taking a few samples."
Chakotay heard Tom moan next to him as he started to regain consciousness. "What have you done to him?"
"Don't worry he'll be fine." The voice faded until there was only silence.
"Ow," Tom groaned as he turned onto his back.
"Are you okay, Paris?" Chakotay asked.
"I've been better." Tom tried to raise himself into a sitting position but there was a pain in his gut that hindered his attempt.
"Take it easy," Chakotay said.
"Why do I hurt so much?" Tom asked. He was disoriented and nauseous.
"I don't know. They haven't been very forthcoming with information."
"I think I'm going to be sick," Tom mumbled and Chakotay gave him a little space. Fortunately, Tom managed to hold back and simply rolled over. He mumbled something to himself.
"What'd you say?" Chakotay asked, hoping that it was some piece of information that might help them.
"I said, I knew I should have stayed in bed this morning," Tom said.
Outside the cell and across the hallway was a drab grey room filled with medical equipment. The room was impeccably tidy and clean. The medical staff wore white garmets that covered every part of them except their yellow eyes. The bright white light illuminated every corner of the room leaving no shadow on the cold floor.
In the back of the room lay a large machine. Dials, buttons and levers littered the surface of the machine allowing the user to make minute adjustments. On one side of it there was a transparent barrier giving a restricted view of the interior. A yellowish liquid filled the interior with one small form suspended inside.
Two people gazed inside the chamber, marvelling at their own brilliance. Science had finally achieved what only nature had been able to do before, of course they've made a few modifications.
"Congratulations," one said to the other. "We've done it."
Inside the chamber a child was growing, a human child. And if they had their way, it would remain in their for the rest of it's life, all eighteen months of it.
"Got it yet?" He asked while trying to strain his neck to get a better look.
"Hold still," Tom ordered. He and Chakotay were back to back, Tom trying to untie Chakotay's wrists. Their captors hadn't used cuffs or restraints, just plain old string. "I've almost got it." Just then Chakotay felt the rope loosen. He removed the rest of the rope from his wrists and rubbed the skin were the rope had begun to chafe. He then helped Tom out of his own ties.
"They could have tied it a little tighter," Tom mumbled as he looked at his wrists. The skin was bruised and his hands were an unnatural shade of purple. "I'll never play the violin again," he said in mock horror. Chakotay, who had already untied the ropes at his ankles, gave Tom an irritated look.
"Give me a hand," Chakotay said as he went to what he thought was the exit.
Tom quickly untied his feet and stood up. As soon as he did so the world began to spin and he leaned heavily on the wall trying to remain upright. "Paris?" Chakotay saw that the younger man was having trouble walking and was getting more worried about his health.
"I'm okay," Tom said as he stumbled towards him as if drunk.
Chakotay helped him sit down next to the exit. "We have to get you some help."
"No shit," Tom said as a wave of nausea passed.
"You've done this before. How do I get these doors to open up?" Chakotay asked.
"I don't know. Use a key," Tom suggested, feeling too sick to say anything more.
Chakotay exhaled deeply trying to quell his irritation. Even after over two years in the Delta Quadrant with him, Tom Paris could still irritate the first officer to no end. It's not particularly what he says that gets to him, it's how he says it. "Tom, this isn't a good time to make jokes." He looked to where Tom had been sitting and found that the man had lost consciousness. "Not now," Chakotay said as he moved towards the lieutenant. "Tom!" he called his name hoping to wake him. Shaking him slightly did the trick and Tom's eyes opened slowly.
His vision was practically non-existent. There was a giant blur in front of him but he couldn't tell what it was. It was making funny noises that he couldn't decipher and he didn't care to. At the moment he felt far too ill to care about anything.
"Tom, listen to me. You have to concentrate," Chakotay told him. "I need your help." Admitting that he needed Tom's help was far easier to do than Chakotay would have anticipated. "We have to get out of here and contact Voyager."
The words started to make sense so Tom responded. "Voyager?"
"Yes, we need to contact them. They can help us."
His vision was becoming darker. The shadows became larger and larger until he saw nothing but darkness. The words faded as his consciousness faded as well.
"Tom," Chakotay saw that Tom was going to pass out again. "Paris, stay awake!" With his hands at the side of Tom's face he held the man's wavering gaze on him. "You hear me! Stay awake, that's an order!"
"Stop yelling at me," Tom mumbled and moved out of Chakotay's grasp. "The door?"
"Is still locked. How do I open it?" Chakotay asked evenly.
"I don't know."
"You've done this before. How did you do it?" Chakotay's patience was wearing thin.
With supreme effort, Tom was able to focus his vision for a short moment and look at the doors. They were dark grey, the same colour as the rest of the cell. But they were perfectly flush with the wall. There was no ridge, no frame, just a slight outline. There was no door there. He had to make Chakotay understand but his strength was deserting him.
He raised his hand and pointed to the door. Chakotay followed his gaze and in the short moment that he had looked away Tom fell to the side, knocking his head on the hard floor. The crack resounded through the small enclosure and Chakotay quickly moved to Tom's side.
"Tom." Tom's eyes were still open but Chakotay wasn't sure if he could see anything. "Tom are you alright?"
"Not. door," he whispered.
"I don't understand. How do I open it?" Chakotay shifted Tom into a more comfortable position.
Despite his efforts, Tom could no longer remain awake and he passed out leaving Chakotay alone in the cell, but not for long. The Commander checked Tom's pulse and found that it was steady, if a little fast.
Suddenly He felt two pairs of hands on him, pulling him off the floor. They were dressed in all white, hiding everything but their eyes. Two of them restrained the commander while a third one went to Tom.
He knelt next to the fallen officer and scanned him with a device. Looking back at his two colleagues he shook his head and turned off the scanning device. They began to lead Chakotay out of the room but he resisted.
"What's wrong with him? What did you do?" He demanded of them.
"I'm sorry." The voice was soft and Chakotay found that the person he thought was a man was actually a woman.
"Please help him," Chakotay pleaded but she shook her head and walked passed him. It's not that she couldn't but she wouldn't. The fate of their two samples didn't matter to her or anyone else. They just needed them for this one experiment.
Only forty minutes later, Tom woke, feeling as sick as he had been before but this time he had a headache as well. On the plus side, his vision was better, still blurry but at least he could tell where the floor ended and the wall began. He crawled over to what looked like the door but it wasn't.
After several minutes of intense concentration Tom succeeded in his task. The door vanished. It wasn't actually a door; it was a force-field with a holographic projection in it. If it had been a real door there would have been some sort of ridge or frame to it so when the doors opened, there was some place for the sliding panels to move into, which meant the doors had to be thinner than that walls so they couldn't be flush with the walls. It couldn't have been a door on hinges either since there were no hinges or frame, thus the only 'logical' conclusion was that there wasn't a door there at all. "Human can be logical sometimes, Tuvok," Tom mumbled to himself.
Gingerly standing up and swallowing to keep the contents of his stomach down Tom peered out into the corridor. Their were no guards. The hall was completely empty. The only other opening that he could see with his limited vision was directly across the hall. That seemed like a good place to start but first..
What was left of the senior staff were in a meeting reporting to the Captain the state of Voyager's systems and the search for their two missing crewmembers. Repairs were complete but they didn't have much of a trail to follow to find their missing officers, as Ensign Kim was reporting.
"Sensors have only found a faint trails through subspace but it's dissipating quickly. It might be from the ship or ships that attacked us but it's impossible to know for certain."
Janeway looked at the assembled officers hoping that somebody else had more to add but that was all. "Tell the helm to follow the course and keep the sensors continuously scanning for phase discrepancies. If they're using a cloak to hide themselves then the sensors should be able to find a slight flux."
Voyager jumped to warp following the faint trail, their only hope of finding the chief helmsman and executive officer.
The lights faded to nothing and only a few backup lights provided illumination throughout the ship. On the Medical Deck the staff looked around in confusion. They attempted to contact the bridge for a report but found that communications were also out. They didn't worry though -they had no reason to.
Chakotay was strapped into a chair and unable to move. He was thankful for the power outage though because just before it happened one of the medical personnel was about to stick a fairly long probe into his neck. With the power out they had to put all experiments on hold.
"How is the child?" The chief medical officer asked.
"The back-up generator is sufficient to run the basic functions of the chamber but I don't think it's powerful enough to run the stasis function."
"He's waking?" the Doctor rushed over to the chamber and looked inside at the rapidly growing child. The human features were defined more clearly and he even had some hair.
Chakotay was listening carefully to what was being said. He wondered why they had a child in a suspension chamber but he wasn't in the best position to ask questions.
In the darkness Chakotay thought he saw a form move from behind one console to another, trying to stay low. Could that be Tom? The last time he had seen the lieutenant, he was unconscious on the floor of their cell.
Despite continued efforts Chakotay couldn't see who was lurking in the shadows. The medical staff was too concerned with the child in the chamber to notice anything else.
Chakotay was startled when he felt someone undoing his bindings. "Tom?"
"Shhh! Just another sec.."
Chakotay was soon free of his bindings. "Did you cause the power to go out?" Chakotay whispered.
"Yeah, that was my handiwork," Tom said, the fatigue clear in his voice. "Time to make like a banana-"
" -don't finish that," Chakotay said. He was hardly in the mood for a bad joke. "We need to find a way to get off this ship." Chakotay and Tom where hiding behind a large console planning their next move.
"He's absolutely precious," one woman whispered as she placed her hand against the barrier. The little boy inside was waking since the stasis field had failed. His eyes opened slightly and the people looking at him caught a glimpse of his blue eyes. He looked to be about three to four months old due to the accelerated growth stages they had added to his genetic coding.
"I suggest you keep your feelings strictly professional," One of the senior doctors suggested. "We only want to observe him. Once we get him back in stasis we can begin."
"We have to help that child before we leave," Tom said and started to move but Chakotay held him back with a hand on his shoulder. "We can't just leave him here."
Chakotay was still unsure of whether they should but the decision was quickly made for them. The ship rocked violently and several objects were knocked to the floor. Sirens started and a synthesized voice indicated that there was an imminent hull breach.
Medical staff started to leave but the CMO remained behind hoping to save his project. He pressed several keys but the process of shutting down the chamber took time and he had none to spare.
"We have to go," One of the Doctors yelled to his colleague as a conduit ruptured above them. He couldn't wait any longer and left the room not even noticing the two men who were crouched nearby. Tom peeked over the top of the console just in time to see the CMO turn and start running for the door.
The room was now empty with the exception of the two Voyager crewmen. They quickly got up and headed to the chamber where the locks were being disengaged.
Chakotay's commbadge chirped and Captain Janeway's voice was heard.
"Janeway to Chakotay,"
"I'm here Captain, so is Paris."
"Standby for transport," she said.
"Do you have three lifesigns?" Chakotay asked.
"No, only two," they heard Harry say. The chamber must be made of a special material that scattered the transporter beam.
"Captain, wait! We just need another two minutes," Tom said.
"There are micro-fractures forming on that deck we have to get you out now,"
Tom didn't respond as he watched the chamber drain and the child be deposited at the bottom, crying. "Just a few more seconds!"
"Captain the hulls starting to buckle on that deck," Harry reported.
"Keep a transporter lock on them, as soon as the hull starts to breach, get them out."
"Aye, Captain."
"Come on," Tom coaxed the chamber to work faster as he took off his tunic. Finally the chamber unlocked and the cover opened. Tom disconnected the tube, that acted as an umbilical cord, from the machine, the doctor could disconnect it from the child when they got back. He picked up the screaming child and wrapped him in this tunic.
"Three to beam up," Chakotay said and Ensign Kim engaged the transporter. They vanished in the blue light just as a massive hole in the hull opened sucking out the atmosphere from that deck and anything else that wasn't securely fastened to the floor.
In Sickbay they materialized. The doctor and Kes were standing by to help them. Tom felt his illness creeping up on his and carefully handed the crying child to Commander Chakotay. Tom stumbled to the wall and would have fallen to the ground if the Doctor hadn't caught him and helped him to the biobed.
"Doctor what about him?" Chakotay referred to the crying child in his arms.
"Kes!" The Doctor called. She handed the Doc a hypospray, which he promptly used on Tom. Kes then took the child from Chakotay and lay him carefully on the biobed so that she could scan him with a tricorder.
Captain Janeway walked into Sickbay about fifteen minutes later. The first thing to greet her ears was the sound of a crying baby. Chakotay was holding the wailing child and gave the Captain look that pleaded with her to help him.
She reached out and Chakotay gave her the little boy. She cradled him easily but the child didn't quiet at all. "Doctor, how's Tom?" she asked.
"He'll be fine in a few days, a little dizzy and tired but he'll recover if there are not complications."
"Complications?"
"Mr. Paris was genetically sampled. It's wasn't a very pleasant process and they caused more damage than was necessary but the treatment I've prescribed will facilitate the healing process," the Doctor said as he approached the Captain. He gazed at the crying child with fascination.
"Why not just use the regenerator?" Chakotay asked, looking to Tom's still form.
Kes fielded this question. "The damage was deep in his chest cavity and to get to it would require surgery which would be more detrimental to his recovery."
"Very good, Kes." The Doctor praised her. "The dizziness and nausea he experienced was a result of the anaesthetics and drugs they used on him." The doctor placed his instruments on the correct trays. "He'll make a full recovery," The Doctor concluded.
Janeway nodded and then turned her attention to the child that was still in her arms. He had tufts of blonde hair and blue eyes. His little features were scrunched up as he continued to cry.
"Doctor, is the child alright?" Janeway asked.
The Doctor took his first good look at the baby since his arrival on the ship. He had been busy working on Tom and left Kes to tend to the baby's needs.
"There is nothing medically wrong with him," The Doc said scanning him with a tricorder. He noticed a small feature that he had only found in on two other people on the ship. The baby's blood type was 'O' negative.
"Doctor?" Chakotay asked seeing the Doc's expression.
"Maybe it's just a coincidence," The Doctor said and he preformed another quick test while the others watched. The results were displayed on the main diagnostic console. The genetic structure of the child was almost identical to Tom's. There were a few minor changes to genes that are not expressed but everything else was identical.
The Doctor turned to Janeway, Chakotay and Kes to give them his findings. "The child's genetic structure is almost identical to Mr. Paris."
"How is that possible?" Chakotay asked, having trouble grasping the situation.
"The genetic sampling that they performed on Mr. Paris must have been to create a duplicate of him and not just to study a sample of his genome," The doctor inferred.
"But they were on that ship for less than a day," Janeway said.
"I don't know what type of process they used but they managed to duplicate Mr. Paris in a very short amount of time."
There was a long silence as the occupants of sickbay shifted their gaze from the grown man, lying on the biobed unconscious to the child wailing in Kathryn's arms. "You said that his genetic structure is almost identical to Tom's," Janeway said, emphasizing the almost.
"Some of the genetic material that is not expressed has been altered but I don't know the purpose of these alterations," The Doctor said.
"Look into it," Janeway said as she handed the baby to Kes. Janeway looked at Tom on the biobed and hoped that he would be better soon. He's already been through enough in his life.
Janeway left sickbay while the Doctor went to look at the main diagnostic console and the genomes it displayed. Commander Chakotay had turned to leave when Kes called him.
"Commander!" he turned to face her. "How do I make him stop crying?" She asked desperately. She had never taken care of a child so young before.
"I don't know." Chaktoay said looking thoughtfully at the child. He glanced at Tom. "I'll send Ensign Kim to help you. He knows Tom better than anybody here."
Ensign Kim arrived a few minutes later and found that Sickaby was nearly silent. From what the Commander had told him Harry expected to hear the child crying from down the hall. Instead it was quiet. He saw Kes sitting in a chair with the child in her arms and quietly walked over thinking that the baby may have fallen asleep.
Kes smiled at Harry looking rather proud of herself. "He's not asleep," Kes informed him. She looked down at the child who was looking around curiously, the faces above him becoming engrained in his memory.
"He's so small," Harry said with a smile. He held out his finger and a chubby little hand grabbed onto it. "Pretty good grip too." Harry slipped his finger out of the child's hand and went over to Tom. From what he could decipher, Tom's bio-signs were stable.
"Harry, could you hold him for a while? I just need a break."
"Sure," Harry took the child from her. The child protested at first but once settled into Harry's arms his cries quieted. Harry sat down in the chair that Kes had occupied only a few moments before. It was positioned so that He could see Tom on the biobed.
It was about twenty minutes later when Harry noticed that Tom was beginning to stir. He called Kes and the Doctor and they came immediately.
Tom woke and was first greeted with a headache but as he regained his bearings the pain faded. He sat up quickly, fearing that he might still be on that alien vessel.
"Tom, you're safe. You're back on Voyager," Kes assured him and Tom relaxed slightly. He closed his eyes and calmed himself.
"You'll be pleased to know that you'll make a full recovery," the Doctor stated.
Tom sighed and ran a hand over his face. "I'm in here far too often."
"I have to agree," the Doctor mumbled as he closed his tricorder.
"How do you feel Tom?" Harry asked as he stepped closer, the infant still in his arms.
"I've been better," Tom grumbled as he recalled the events that caused this visit to sickbay. He looked around sickbay.
"Tom what is it?" Kes asked. Tom's gazed fixed on the child Harry was carrying. He was fast asleep.
"Is he alright?" Tom asked. Harry wasn't sure how to respond. Should he tell Tom about how this child was created? Was Tom ready to here that he had a twin? "What's wrong with him?" Tom asked when nobody answered his question.
"He's perfectly healthy," Harry said as he went closer to his friend. Tom had always been able to tell when Harry was lying. This time he wasn't lying but it was clearly evident that he was leaving something out.
"Would you like to hold him?" Kes asked.
Tom shook his head. "I don't want to wake him. I don't think he'd please if his nap was interrupted." Tom gently caressed the top of the baby's head. "Have you given him a name yet?" Tom asked and once again his question was met with silence and nobody would look him in the eye.
The child was asleep in the crib and Tom was alone with him in the main part of sickbay. The Doctor requested that Tom stay over night for observation but Tom was suspicious as to why. Usually the Doctor was as eager for him to leave as Tom was but not this time. Tom looked back at the crib and guessed that it had something to do with the infant.
He scanned himself and the child with a tricorder and didn't notice anything out of order. He looked at the typical results and leaned against the console. What was he overlooking? Tom inputted a command for the computer to look more closely at the results. What he didn't have the computer do was compare the results, not until later anyway.
"Mr. Paris what are you doing?" The doctor asked more in exasperation that in anger. Can't leave Tom alone for an hour without him sticking his nose where it didn't belong.
"I'm discovering for myself what nobody else would tell me," Tom said as he looked at the console's display. The Doctor took a look as well and saw that the computer was still compiling that data of a detailed genetic scan. He grabbed Tom by the arm and led him back to the biobed before the computer could display the results.
"You could have asked."
"I already did. You didn't tell me before. I hoping that there's a reason that you kept me in the dark." Tom pulled his arm from the Doctor's grasp.
The Doctor decided that there was no point in keeping Tom in the dark any longer. He would find for himself sooner or later. "When you were on the alien ship, they genetically sampled you and used the genetic matter to create," The Doctor gestured to the crib where the tot slumbered.
"He's my duplicate, my twin?" Tom asked and the Doctor nodded. The Doctor was surprised to find that Tom didn't seem all that disturbed.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. What about him?" Tom nodded in the direction of the crib.
"Ninety-nine point eight three of the his genetic material is identical to yours however there were some alterations done to his genetic code. I don't yet know the purpose but I'm still looking into it."
Tom nodded and looked at the child in the crib. He walked quietly over and looked down at his little duplicate. He was glad he hadn't left his.twin, with those monsters but what would they do now? Who would take care of him? The Doctor rested a hand on Tom shoulder knowing that there must be a hurricane of thoughts and concerns in his mind.
"I need some sleep," Tom said as he turned to go to a biobed. Just then the baby woke and started crying loudly. "We weren't that loud," Tom said thinking that they had woke the baby.
The Doctor picked up the child and patted his back. "He won't be sleeping through the night for a while." The Doctor walked to Tom and handed the child to him. "Until then, good luck."
"Wait, what am I supposed to do?" Tom asked as he cradled the screaming child.
The Doctor shrugged. "Try something. Besides, nobody knows you better than you," the Doc said as he walked away.
"Great," Tom said unenthusiastically as he looked down at the crying child.
The baby gurgled happily as Tom amused him with tickles and funny faces. Tom was temporarily off duty. It had taken Tom less than five minutes to stop his little twin's crying last night and the Doctor decided that if Tom was so good with him then he should stay and take care of him for the time being.
Tom picked up his little self and noted that the child seemed to be bigger than he had been the previous day. "Hey Doc, I think he's getting bigger," Tom said with a slight note of confusion in his voice. They still hadn't named the child.
"It's well documented, Mr. Paris, that children grow," the doctor said dryly and without facing Tom. Tom briefly rolled his eyes before walking over to the Doctor.
"Just scan him," Tom said and so the Doctor did and indeed the baby had grown significantly. Tom saw the look on the Doctor's face and knew he had been right. "I told you so," Tom said. He looked at the baby and asked, "Didn't I tell him so?" The little boy only smiled and squirmed in his arms and Tom decided to take it as his agreement. "Why's he growing so quickly?" Tom asked the Doctor who was already investigating his hunch.
"It has something to do with his genetic alterations," The Doctor told him. "I'll now more when I've instigated this properly.
Further investigation supported the Doctor's hypothesis but he had discovered more and presented his findings to the senior staff. They were assembled in the conference room while the Doctor explained to the senior officers the state of the baby's health.
"They've manipulated genes that were usually not expressed and used it to accelerated his growth and development," The Doctor explained simply. "Unfortunately the daily caloric intake of an infant is not enough to sustain this rate of growth and I've needed to give him several injection of nutrients."
"Can his growth be slowed?" Captain Janeway asked.
"It's possible but there's more to it than that," the Doctor said. Everyone in the room knew that he had some more astonishing news and prepared themselves. "The child's also has precursors for memory engrams."
Only Tom understood what the Doctor had told them. "Engrams from where?" Tom asked, already suspecting the worst.
"Doctor," Janeway interrupted. "What do you mean by precursor for memory engrams?" the Captain asked knowing the others were as confused as she.
"Engram precursors are common in animals with many instincts. It helps them adapt better when they are growing. Humanoids however, have very few inherited precursors. Mr. Paris's duplicate has these precursors and as he grows the precursors will become memory engrams."
"Whose?" Tom asked anxiously. The suspense was unbearable.
"Yours, Tom. His precursors will become every memory you had up to two days ago." There was silence in the room. They were all shocked that the child would end up having Tom's memories but Tom was not shocked it was more like angered.
"Can you eliminate the precursors?" Tom asked.
The Doctor sighed. "Some but not all," the Doctor broke the news to him gently. "I can also slow his growth but that will requires several treatments and it has to be done or I'm afraid the child won't live a very long life. I'll need permission from his next of kin for the engram procedure."
"I guess that's me," Tom mumbled. He moved his gazed upwards from the tabletop. "Do it."
"Belay that, Doctor," Janeway interrupted.
"Captain," Tom was about to protested but Janeway addressed the rest of the group.
"Dismissed." After a brief pause the officers stood and left, all except Paris and Janeway.
"Tom, are you sure you want to have the procedure done to him?" Janeway asked.
Despite the complexity of the situation, Tom was absolutely sure of his answer, "Yes."
Kathryn looked briefly away from Tom unable to fathom why he was doing this. "There are risks to letting the Doctor do this," Janeway warned.
"I know that, but we all know the outcome if he doesn't do it," Tom countered. They stared at each other for several seconds. Janeway wasn't convinced and Tom could see it in her eyes.
"Captain, I made a lot of mistakes and I've been through things that I'd rather forget, I don't want my. my brother to go through the same thing."
"It won't be the same Tom, he won't be you."
"I hope your right but I don't want to risk it."
"I don't think this is your choice, Tom." Janeway said.
"Well it sure-as-hell isn't your choice," Tom said sternly.
Tom insolence was grating on her nerves but she still couldn't understand his motives.
"Captain, most days I hate myself. I can't look in the mirror without remembering everything that I've done and it makes me sick. It's not fair to him because if he has my memories I won't be able take care of him like I should. I can't take care of someone who's going to be exactly like me -made the same choices and the same mistakes."
Kathryn could tell that Tom's heart was aching over this.
"I'll hate him," Tom said in all honesty, "because I'll know he's me, in everyway that counts."
End Part 1
So..what did you think? Please let me know. Comments and constructive criticism to zappyzaps@hotmail.com or leave a message.
Chapter 1
Security teams swept each deck of the Federation Starship Voyager looking for any signs that their invaders were still on boards. They rounded each bend anticipating an attack but were fortunate enough that none came. At the end of their rounds the head of security contacted the Captain.
"Tuvok to Janeway, all intruders have vacated the ship."
"Acknowledged," Janeway said as she continued working at the Ops station. "Report to the bridge and put your security teams on alert. Janeway out." Half the bridge officers were missing; some injured and others were needed in other areas of the ship, among them were Commander Chakotay and Lt. Paris, or so they thought.
Commander Chakotay had been sent to sickbay as he had been injured and after the initial action had subsided, Mr. Paris had also been called to Sickbay to assist the Doctor and Kes in treating the injured.
The attack had been swift and precise. The alien beings had taken out key areas of Voyager's systems leaving the crew almost defenceless, almost. Voyager had been boarded and the aliens crept through the temporarily darkened corridors, attacking and performing tests on crewmembers that happened to cross their paths. Nobody knew what the invaders were looking for but they didn't seem to find it with anybody they had tested.
Unfortunately for the Voyager crew, the aliens were impervious to their sensors thus armed security parties had to search every corner of the ship looking for the intruders. Even after main power was restored the beings remained on board, attacking and testing members of the crew as they went.
Finally after tense hours, it was over. The alien ships had cloaked and left, seemingly fed up with their search.
"Bridge to Engineering, status." Janeway ordered.
B'Elanna responded, "We still have some power conduits to replace so warp drive has been compromised. Paris shouldn't take it past warp five for now." B'Elanna assumed that helmboy would be at the conn but was incorrect. Janeway didn't have time to correct her she was still securing other ship's systems.
"Understood," Janeway out.
"Doctor to the Bridge, please turn to the emergency medical channel."
Janeway absently turned on the viewscreen to said channel and a view of Sickbay was shown. There were crewmembers busily moving back and forth trying to aid the Doctor and Kes.
"What is it, Doctor?" Janeway asked hoping that he wasn't about to make another complaint.
"I need more help in here. Kes and I are swamped," the hologram informed her. "Was Mr. Paris sidetracked on his way down here?"
"Tom should already be with you," Kathryn said. Before the Doctor could comment Janeway tapped her commbadge. "Janeway to Paris." She waited for a response but there was nothing. "Computer what's the location of Lt. Paris?"
'Lieutenant Paris is not on board.'
That was not the response Janeway had expected. "How did he get off the ship?" Janeway asked the computer.
'Unknown,'
"He's a magician too, wonderful." The Doctor mumbled to himself. Janeway glared at him and proceeded to asked the computer how long Tom had been missing for.
'thirty-eight minutes' the female voice replied.
"Thirty-eight?" Janeway said to herself as she re-doubled her efforts to figure out what had happened to Paris. "Doctor, I'll assign some science officers to help you once some of the repairs are finished." She was about to close the channel when she remember something. "And Doctor, tell Chakotay that he's needed in forward navigation."
"Commander Chakotay isn't here. I haven't seen him at all today," the Doctor informed.
"Janeway to Chakotay," there was no response. "Computer, what's the location of Commander Chakotay?" The computer told her that she wasn't onboard. Again Janeway asked how long he'd been missing and the computer told her forty-six minutes.
Light-years away on an unnamed ship, Commander Chakotay was slowly making his way across the cell to his unconscious companion. His hands were bound behind his back and his feet were bound as well making his movement awkward and slow. After a few minutes he was at the other man's side trying to rouse him.
"Come on Paris, this is no time to take a nap," Chakotay said but Tom didn't move. Chakotay had been unconscious for an unknown amount of time and had recently woken.
"He'll wake soon," a strangely hollow voice said from a speaker near the ceiling of the cell.
"Who are you and why have you brought us here?" Chakotay demanded.
"We were intrigued by your kind and felt like taking a few samples."
Chakotay heard Tom moan next to him as he started to regain consciousness. "What have you done to him?"
"Don't worry he'll be fine." The voice faded until there was only silence.
"Ow," Tom groaned as he turned onto his back.
"Are you okay, Paris?" Chakotay asked.
"I've been better." Tom tried to raise himself into a sitting position but there was a pain in his gut that hindered his attempt.
"Take it easy," Chakotay said.
"Why do I hurt so much?" Tom asked. He was disoriented and nauseous.
"I don't know. They haven't been very forthcoming with information."
"I think I'm going to be sick," Tom mumbled and Chakotay gave him a little space. Fortunately, Tom managed to hold back and simply rolled over. He mumbled something to himself.
"What'd you say?" Chakotay asked, hoping that it was some piece of information that might help them.
"I said, I knew I should have stayed in bed this morning," Tom said.
Outside the cell and across the hallway was a drab grey room filled with medical equipment. The room was impeccably tidy and clean. The medical staff wore white garmets that covered every part of them except their yellow eyes. The bright white light illuminated every corner of the room leaving no shadow on the cold floor.
In the back of the room lay a large machine. Dials, buttons and levers littered the surface of the machine allowing the user to make minute adjustments. On one side of it there was a transparent barrier giving a restricted view of the interior. A yellowish liquid filled the interior with one small form suspended inside.
Two people gazed inside the chamber, marvelling at their own brilliance. Science had finally achieved what only nature had been able to do before, of course they've made a few modifications.
"Congratulations," one said to the other. "We've done it."
Inside the chamber a child was growing, a human child. And if they had their way, it would remain in their for the rest of it's life, all eighteen months of it.
"Got it yet?" He asked while trying to strain his neck to get a better look.
"Hold still," Tom ordered. He and Chakotay were back to back, Tom trying to untie Chakotay's wrists. Their captors hadn't used cuffs or restraints, just plain old string. "I've almost got it." Just then Chakotay felt the rope loosen. He removed the rest of the rope from his wrists and rubbed the skin were the rope had begun to chafe. He then helped Tom out of his own ties.
"They could have tied it a little tighter," Tom mumbled as he looked at his wrists. The skin was bruised and his hands were an unnatural shade of purple. "I'll never play the violin again," he said in mock horror. Chakotay, who had already untied the ropes at his ankles, gave Tom an irritated look.
"Give me a hand," Chakotay said as he went to what he thought was the exit.
Tom quickly untied his feet and stood up. As soon as he did so the world began to spin and he leaned heavily on the wall trying to remain upright. "Paris?" Chakotay saw that the younger man was having trouble walking and was getting more worried about his health.
"I'm okay," Tom said as he stumbled towards him as if drunk.
Chakotay helped him sit down next to the exit. "We have to get you some help."
"No shit," Tom said as a wave of nausea passed.
"You've done this before. How do I get these doors to open up?" Chakotay asked.
"I don't know. Use a key," Tom suggested, feeling too sick to say anything more.
Chakotay exhaled deeply trying to quell his irritation. Even after over two years in the Delta Quadrant with him, Tom Paris could still irritate the first officer to no end. It's not particularly what he says that gets to him, it's how he says it. "Tom, this isn't a good time to make jokes." He looked to where Tom had been sitting and found that the man had lost consciousness. "Not now," Chakotay said as he moved towards the lieutenant. "Tom!" he called his name hoping to wake him. Shaking him slightly did the trick and Tom's eyes opened slowly.
His vision was practically non-existent. There was a giant blur in front of him but he couldn't tell what it was. It was making funny noises that he couldn't decipher and he didn't care to. At the moment he felt far too ill to care about anything.
"Tom, listen to me. You have to concentrate," Chakotay told him. "I need your help." Admitting that he needed Tom's help was far easier to do than Chakotay would have anticipated. "We have to get out of here and contact Voyager."
The words started to make sense so Tom responded. "Voyager?"
"Yes, we need to contact them. They can help us."
His vision was becoming darker. The shadows became larger and larger until he saw nothing but darkness. The words faded as his consciousness faded as well.
"Tom," Chakotay saw that Tom was going to pass out again. "Paris, stay awake!" With his hands at the side of Tom's face he held the man's wavering gaze on him. "You hear me! Stay awake, that's an order!"
"Stop yelling at me," Tom mumbled and moved out of Chakotay's grasp. "The door?"
"Is still locked. How do I open it?" Chakotay asked evenly.
"I don't know."
"You've done this before. How did you do it?" Chakotay's patience was wearing thin.
With supreme effort, Tom was able to focus his vision for a short moment and look at the doors. They were dark grey, the same colour as the rest of the cell. But they were perfectly flush with the wall. There was no ridge, no frame, just a slight outline. There was no door there. He had to make Chakotay understand but his strength was deserting him.
He raised his hand and pointed to the door. Chakotay followed his gaze and in the short moment that he had looked away Tom fell to the side, knocking his head on the hard floor. The crack resounded through the small enclosure and Chakotay quickly moved to Tom's side.
"Tom." Tom's eyes were still open but Chakotay wasn't sure if he could see anything. "Tom are you alright?"
"Not. door," he whispered.
"I don't understand. How do I open it?" Chakotay shifted Tom into a more comfortable position.
Despite his efforts, Tom could no longer remain awake and he passed out leaving Chakotay alone in the cell, but not for long. The Commander checked Tom's pulse and found that it was steady, if a little fast.
Suddenly He felt two pairs of hands on him, pulling him off the floor. They were dressed in all white, hiding everything but their eyes. Two of them restrained the commander while a third one went to Tom.
He knelt next to the fallen officer and scanned him with a device. Looking back at his two colleagues he shook his head and turned off the scanning device. They began to lead Chakotay out of the room but he resisted.
"What's wrong with him? What did you do?" He demanded of them.
"I'm sorry." The voice was soft and Chakotay found that the person he thought was a man was actually a woman.
"Please help him," Chakotay pleaded but she shook her head and walked passed him. It's not that she couldn't but she wouldn't. The fate of their two samples didn't matter to her or anyone else. They just needed them for this one experiment.
Only forty minutes later, Tom woke, feeling as sick as he had been before but this time he had a headache as well. On the plus side, his vision was better, still blurry but at least he could tell where the floor ended and the wall began. He crawled over to what looked like the door but it wasn't.
After several minutes of intense concentration Tom succeeded in his task. The door vanished. It wasn't actually a door; it was a force-field with a holographic projection in it. If it had been a real door there would have been some sort of ridge or frame to it so when the doors opened, there was some place for the sliding panels to move into, which meant the doors had to be thinner than that walls so they couldn't be flush with the walls. It couldn't have been a door on hinges either since there were no hinges or frame, thus the only 'logical' conclusion was that there wasn't a door there at all. "Human can be logical sometimes, Tuvok," Tom mumbled to himself.
Gingerly standing up and swallowing to keep the contents of his stomach down Tom peered out into the corridor. Their were no guards. The hall was completely empty. The only other opening that he could see with his limited vision was directly across the hall. That seemed like a good place to start but first..
What was left of the senior staff were in a meeting reporting to the Captain the state of Voyager's systems and the search for their two missing crewmembers. Repairs were complete but they didn't have much of a trail to follow to find their missing officers, as Ensign Kim was reporting.
"Sensors have only found a faint trails through subspace but it's dissipating quickly. It might be from the ship or ships that attacked us but it's impossible to know for certain."
Janeway looked at the assembled officers hoping that somebody else had more to add but that was all. "Tell the helm to follow the course and keep the sensors continuously scanning for phase discrepancies. If they're using a cloak to hide themselves then the sensors should be able to find a slight flux."
Voyager jumped to warp following the faint trail, their only hope of finding the chief helmsman and executive officer.
The lights faded to nothing and only a few backup lights provided illumination throughout the ship. On the Medical Deck the staff looked around in confusion. They attempted to contact the bridge for a report but found that communications were also out. They didn't worry though -they had no reason to.
Chakotay was strapped into a chair and unable to move. He was thankful for the power outage though because just before it happened one of the medical personnel was about to stick a fairly long probe into his neck. With the power out they had to put all experiments on hold.
"How is the child?" The chief medical officer asked.
"The back-up generator is sufficient to run the basic functions of the chamber but I don't think it's powerful enough to run the stasis function."
"He's waking?" the Doctor rushed over to the chamber and looked inside at the rapidly growing child. The human features were defined more clearly and he even had some hair.
Chakotay was listening carefully to what was being said. He wondered why they had a child in a suspension chamber but he wasn't in the best position to ask questions.
In the darkness Chakotay thought he saw a form move from behind one console to another, trying to stay low. Could that be Tom? The last time he had seen the lieutenant, he was unconscious on the floor of their cell.
Despite continued efforts Chakotay couldn't see who was lurking in the shadows. The medical staff was too concerned with the child in the chamber to notice anything else.
Chakotay was startled when he felt someone undoing his bindings. "Tom?"
"Shhh! Just another sec.."
Chakotay was soon free of his bindings. "Did you cause the power to go out?" Chakotay whispered.
"Yeah, that was my handiwork," Tom said, the fatigue clear in his voice. "Time to make like a banana-"
" -don't finish that," Chakotay said. He was hardly in the mood for a bad joke. "We need to find a way to get off this ship." Chakotay and Tom where hiding behind a large console planning their next move.
"He's absolutely precious," one woman whispered as she placed her hand against the barrier. The little boy inside was waking since the stasis field had failed. His eyes opened slightly and the people looking at him caught a glimpse of his blue eyes. He looked to be about three to four months old due to the accelerated growth stages they had added to his genetic coding.
"I suggest you keep your feelings strictly professional," One of the senior doctors suggested. "We only want to observe him. Once we get him back in stasis we can begin."
"We have to help that child before we leave," Tom said and started to move but Chakotay held him back with a hand on his shoulder. "We can't just leave him here."
Chakotay was still unsure of whether they should but the decision was quickly made for them. The ship rocked violently and several objects were knocked to the floor. Sirens started and a synthesized voice indicated that there was an imminent hull breach.
Medical staff started to leave but the CMO remained behind hoping to save his project. He pressed several keys but the process of shutting down the chamber took time and he had none to spare.
"We have to go," One of the Doctors yelled to his colleague as a conduit ruptured above them. He couldn't wait any longer and left the room not even noticing the two men who were crouched nearby. Tom peeked over the top of the console just in time to see the CMO turn and start running for the door.
The room was now empty with the exception of the two Voyager crewmen. They quickly got up and headed to the chamber where the locks were being disengaged.
Chakotay's commbadge chirped and Captain Janeway's voice was heard.
"Janeway to Chakotay,"
"I'm here Captain, so is Paris."
"Standby for transport," she said.
"Do you have three lifesigns?" Chakotay asked.
"No, only two," they heard Harry say. The chamber must be made of a special material that scattered the transporter beam.
"Captain, wait! We just need another two minutes," Tom said.
"There are micro-fractures forming on that deck we have to get you out now,"
Tom didn't respond as he watched the chamber drain and the child be deposited at the bottom, crying. "Just a few more seconds!"
"Captain the hulls starting to buckle on that deck," Harry reported.
"Keep a transporter lock on them, as soon as the hull starts to breach, get them out."
"Aye, Captain."
"Come on," Tom coaxed the chamber to work faster as he took off his tunic. Finally the chamber unlocked and the cover opened. Tom disconnected the tube, that acted as an umbilical cord, from the machine, the doctor could disconnect it from the child when they got back. He picked up the screaming child and wrapped him in this tunic.
"Three to beam up," Chakotay said and Ensign Kim engaged the transporter. They vanished in the blue light just as a massive hole in the hull opened sucking out the atmosphere from that deck and anything else that wasn't securely fastened to the floor.
In Sickbay they materialized. The doctor and Kes were standing by to help them. Tom felt his illness creeping up on his and carefully handed the crying child to Commander Chakotay. Tom stumbled to the wall and would have fallen to the ground if the Doctor hadn't caught him and helped him to the biobed.
"Doctor what about him?" Chakotay referred to the crying child in his arms.
"Kes!" The Doctor called. She handed the Doc a hypospray, which he promptly used on Tom. Kes then took the child from Chakotay and lay him carefully on the biobed so that she could scan him with a tricorder.
Captain Janeway walked into Sickbay about fifteen minutes later. The first thing to greet her ears was the sound of a crying baby. Chakotay was holding the wailing child and gave the Captain look that pleaded with her to help him.
She reached out and Chakotay gave her the little boy. She cradled him easily but the child didn't quiet at all. "Doctor, how's Tom?" she asked.
"He'll be fine in a few days, a little dizzy and tired but he'll recover if there are not complications."
"Complications?"
"Mr. Paris was genetically sampled. It's wasn't a very pleasant process and they caused more damage than was necessary but the treatment I've prescribed will facilitate the healing process," the Doctor said as he approached the Captain. He gazed at the crying child with fascination.
"Why not just use the regenerator?" Chakotay asked, looking to Tom's still form.
Kes fielded this question. "The damage was deep in his chest cavity and to get to it would require surgery which would be more detrimental to his recovery."
"Very good, Kes." The Doctor praised her. "The dizziness and nausea he experienced was a result of the anaesthetics and drugs they used on him." The doctor placed his instruments on the correct trays. "He'll make a full recovery," The Doctor concluded.
Janeway nodded and then turned her attention to the child that was still in her arms. He had tufts of blonde hair and blue eyes. His little features were scrunched up as he continued to cry.
"Doctor, is the child alright?" Janeway asked.
The Doctor took his first good look at the baby since his arrival on the ship. He had been busy working on Tom and left Kes to tend to the baby's needs.
"There is nothing medically wrong with him," The Doc said scanning him with a tricorder. He noticed a small feature that he had only found in on two other people on the ship. The baby's blood type was 'O' negative.
"Doctor?" Chakotay asked seeing the Doc's expression.
"Maybe it's just a coincidence," The Doctor said and he preformed another quick test while the others watched. The results were displayed on the main diagnostic console. The genetic structure of the child was almost identical to Tom's. There were a few minor changes to genes that are not expressed but everything else was identical.
The Doctor turned to Janeway, Chakotay and Kes to give them his findings. "The child's genetic structure is almost identical to Mr. Paris."
"How is that possible?" Chakotay asked, having trouble grasping the situation.
"The genetic sampling that they performed on Mr. Paris must have been to create a duplicate of him and not just to study a sample of his genome," The doctor inferred.
"But they were on that ship for less than a day," Janeway said.
"I don't know what type of process they used but they managed to duplicate Mr. Paris in a very short amount of time."
There was a long silence as the occupants of sickbay shifted their gaze from the grown man, lying on the biobed unconscious to the child wailing in Kathryn's arms. "You said that his genetic structure is almost identical to Tom's," Janeway said, emphasizing the almost.
"Some of the genetic material that is not expressed has been altered but I don't know the purpose of these alterations," The Doctor said.
"Look into it," Janeway said as she handed the baby to Kes. Janeway looked at Tom on the biobed and hoped that he would be better soon. He's already been through enough in his life.
Janeway left sickbay while the Doctor went to look at the main diagnostic console and the genomes it displayed. Commander Chakotay had turned to leave when Kes called him.
"Commander!" he turned to face her. "How do I make him stop crying?" She asked desperately. She had never taken care of a child so young before.
"I don't know." Chaktoay said looking thoughtfully at the child. He glanced at Tom. "I'll send Ensign Kim to help you. He knows Tom better than anybody here."
Ensign Kim arrived a few minutes later and found that Sickaby was nearly silent. From what the Commander had told him Harry expected to hear the child crying from down the hall. Instead it was quiet. He saw Kes sitting in a chair with the child in her arms and quietly walked over thinking that the baby may have fallen asleep.
Kes smiled at Harry looking rather proud of herself. "He's not asleep," Kes informed him. She looked down at the child who was looking around curiously, the faces above him becoming engrained in his memory.
"He's so small," Harry said with a smile. He held out his finger and a chubby little hand grabbed onto it. "Pretty good grip too." Harry slipped his finger out of the child's hand and went over to Tom. From what he could decipher, Tom's bio-signs were stable.
"Harry, could you hold him for a while? I just need a break."
"Sure," Harry took the child from her. The child protested at first but once settled into Harry's arms his cries quieted. Harry sat down in the chair that Kes had occupied only a few moments before. It was positioned so that He could see Tom on the biobed.
It was about twenty minutes later when Harry noticed that Tom was beginning to stir. He called Kes and the Doctor and they came immediately.
Tom woke and was first greeted with a headache but as he regained his bearings the pain faded. He sat up quickly, fearing that he might still be on that alien vessel.
"Tom, you're safe. You're back on Voyager," Kes assured him and Tom relaxed slightly. He closed his eyes and calmed himself.
"You'll be pleased to know that you'll make a full recovery," the Doctor stated.
Tom sighed and ran a hand over his face. "I'm in here far too often."
"I have to agree," the Doctor mumbled as he closed his tricorder.
"How do you feel Tom?" Harry asked as he stepped closer, the infant still in his arms.
"I've been better," Tom grumbled as he recalled the events that caused this visit to sickbay. He looked around sickbay.
"Tom what is it?" Kes asked. Tom's gazed fixed on the child Harry was carrying. He was fast asleep.
"Is he alright?" Tom asked. Harry wasn't sure how to respond. Should he tell Tom about how this child was created? Was Tom ready to here that he had a twin? "What's wrong with him?" Tom asked when nobody answered his question.
"He's perfectly healthy," Harry said as he went closer to his friend. Tom had always been able to tell when Harry was lying. This time he wasn't lying but it was clearly evident that he was leaving something out.
"Would you like to hold him?" Kes asked.
Tom shook his head. "I don't want to wake him. I don't think he'd please if his nap was interrupted." Tom gently caressed the top of the baby's head. "Have you given him a name yet?" Tom asked and once again his question was met with silence and nobody would look him in the eye.
The child was asleep in the crib and Tom was alone with him in the main part of sickbay. The Doctor requested that Tom stay over night for observation but Tom was suspicious as to why. Usually the Doctor was as eager for him to leave as Tom was but not this time. Tom looked back at the crib and guessed that it had something to do with the infant.
He scanned himself and the child with a tricorder and didn't notice anything out of order. He looked at the typical results and leaned against the console. What was he overlooking? Tom inputted a command for the computer to look more closely at the results. What he didn't have the computer do was compare the results, not until later anyway.
"Mr. Paris what are you doing?" The doctor asked more in exasperation that in anger. Can't leave Tom alone for an hour without him sticking his nose where it didn't belong.
"I'm discovering for myself what nobody else would tell me," Tom said as he looked at the console's display. The Doctor took a look as well and saw that the computer was still compiling that data of a detailed genetic scan. He grabbed Tom by the arm and led him back to the biobed before the computer could display the results.
"You could have asked."
"I already did. You didn't tell me before. I hoping that there's a reason that you kept me in the dark." Tom pulled his arm from the Doctor's grasp.
The Doctor decided that there was no point in keeping Tom in the dark any longer. He would find for himself sooner or later. "When you were on the alien ship, they genetically sampled you and used the genetic matter to create," The Doctor gestured to the crib where the tot slumbered.
"He's my duplicate, my twin?" Tom asked and the Doctor nodded. The Doctor was surprised to find that Tom didn't seem all that disturbed.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. What about him?" Tom nodded in the direction of the crib.
"Ninety-nine point eight three of the his genetic material is identical to yours however there were some alterations done to his genetic code. I don't yet know the purpose but I'm still looking into it."
Tom nodded and looked at the child in the crib. He walked quietly over and looked down at his little duplicate. He was glad he hadn't left his.twin, with those monsters but what would they do now? Who would take care of him? The Doctor rested a hand on Tom shoulder knowing that there must be a hurricane of thoughts and concerns in his mind.
"I need some sleep," Tom said as he turned to go to a biobed. Just then the baby woke and started crying loudly. "We weren't that loud," Tom said thinking that they had woke the baby.
The Doctor picked up the child and patted his back. "He won't be sleeping through the night for a while." The Doctor walked to Tom and handed the child to him. "Until then, good luck."
"Wait, what am I supposed to do?" Tom asked as he cradled the screaming child.
The Doctor shrugged. "Try something. Besides, nobody knows you better than you," the Doc said as he walked away.
"Great," Tom said unenthusiastically as he looked down at the crying child.
The baby gurgled happily as Tom amused him with tickles and funny faces. Tom was temporarily off duty. It had taken Tom less than five minutes to stop his little twin's crying last night and the Doctor decided that if Tom was so good with him then he should stay and take care of him for the time being.
Tom picked up his little self and noted that the child seemed to be bigger than he had been the previous day. "Hey Doc, I think he's getting bigger," Tom said with a slight note of confusion in his voice. They still hadn't named the child.
"It's well documented, Mr. Paris, that children grow," the doctor said dryly and without facing Tom. Tom briefly rolled his eyes before walking over to the Doctor.
"Just scan him," Tom said and so the Doctor did and indeed the baby had grown significantly. Tom saw the look on the Doctor's face and knew he had been right. "I told you so," Tom said. He looked at the baby and asked, "Didn't I tell him so?" The little boy only smiled and squirmed in his arms and Tom decided to take it as his agreement. "Why's he growing so quickly?" Tom asked the Doctor who was already investigating his hunch.
"It has something to do with his genetic alterations," The Doctor told him. "I'll now more when I've instigated this properly.
Further investigation supported the Doctor's hypothesis but he had discovered more and presented his findings to the senior staff. They were assembled in the conference room while the Doctor explained to the senior officers the state of the baby's health.
"They've manipulated genes that were usually not expressed and used it to accelerated his growth and development," The Doctor explained simply. "Unfortunately the daily caloric intake of an infant is not enough to sustain this rate of growth and I've needed to give him several injection of nutrients."
"Can his growth be slowed?" Captain Janeway asked.
"It's possible but there's more to it than that," the Doctor said. Everyone in the room knew that he had some more astonishing news and prepared themselves. "The child's also has precursors for memory engrams."
Only Tom understood what the Doctor had told them. "Engrams from where?" Tom asked, already suspecting the worst.
"Doctor," Janeway interrupted. "What do you mean by precursor for memory engrams?" the Captain asked knowing the others were as confused as she.
"Engram precursors are common in animals with many instincts. It helps them adapt better when they are growing. Humanoids however, have very few inherited precursors. Mr. Paris's duplicate has these precursors and as he grows the precursors will become memory engrams."
"Whose?" Tom asked anxiously. The suspense was unbearable.
"Yours, Tom. His precursors will become every memory you had up to two days ago." There was silence in the room. They were all shocked that the child would end up having Tom's memories but Tom was not shocked it was more like angered.
"Can you eliminate the precursors?" Tom asked.
The Doctor sighed. "Some but not all," the Doctor broke the news to him gently. "I can also slow his growth but that will requires several treatments and it has to be done or I'm afraid the child won't live a very long life. I'll need permission from his next of kin for the engram procedure."
"I guess that's me," Tom mumbled. He moved his gazed upwards from the tabletop. "Do it."
"Belay that, Doctor," Janeway interrupted.
"Captain," Tom was about to protested but Janeway addressed the rest of the group.
"Dismissed." After a brief pause the officers stood and left, all except Paris and Janeway.
"Tom, are you sure you want to have the procedure done to him?" Janeway asked.
Despite the complexity of the situation, Tom was absolutely sure of his answer, "Yes."
Kathryn looked briefly away from Tom unable to fathom why he was doing this. "There are risks to letting the Doctor do this," Janeway warned.
"I know that, but we all know the outcome if he doesn't do it," Tom countered. They stared at each other for several seconds. Janeway wasn't convinced and Tom could see it in her eyes.
"Captain, I made a lot of mistakes and I've been through things that I'd rather forget, I don't want my. my brother to go through the same thing."
"It won't be the same Tom, he won't be you."
"I hope your right but I don't want to risk it."
"I don't think this is your choice, Tom." Janeway said.
"Well it sure-as-hell isn't your choice," Tom said sternly.
Tom insolence was grating on her nerves but she still couldn't understand his motives.
"Captain, most days I hate myself. I can't look in the mirror without remembering everything that I've done and it makes me sick. It's not fair to him because if he has my memories I won't be able take care of him like I should. I can't take care of someone who's going to be exactly like me -made the same choices and the same mistakes."
Kathryn could tell that Tom's heart was aching over this.
"I'll hate him," Tom said in all honesty, "because I'll know he's me, in everyway that counts."
End Part 1
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