Author's Note: The main characters are a married couple: Commander Kehdza Beregi, a genderfluid Trill, and their wife, Master Chief Petty Officer Dalera Beregi, a religious Betazoid-Bajoran. In case any of you couldn't tell from the title, this story is about the Beregis living on Voyager and celebrating their loving, open marriage by falling in love with several of the commanding officers onboard. There is no cheating in this story; there is communication, respect, honesty, and genuine love shared between each character.
Relationships: OC/OC
Word Count: 3,326
"Uh, excuse me, ma'am?"
Turning towards the voice behind their shoulder, Kehdza found herself looking up at a young man with sandy blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and tanned skin. Her hands rested lightly on her hips as she raised an eyebrow and replied, "Yes?"
The man smiled and it was almost charming. "I'm Tom Paris. I'm looking for the captain. Is she in her ready room?"
"Yes. Right in there."
Tom followed the direction of Kehdza's finger. "Thanks." His smile was almost menacingly flirtatious when he turned his attention back to them. "You're a Trill, aren't you?" he said, eyes trailing the line of spots along Kehdza's face and neck.
Kehdza pursed their lips, curious as to where Mr. Paris' line of questioning was headed. "Well, you certainly don't have any problems with your vision, do you, Mr. Paris?"
"I don't have any problems with anything of mine. But maybe you'd like to find that out for yourself."
Rather than dignify him with a response, Kehdza crossed their arms over their chest and turned so their back faced Mr. Paris and his nervous-looking Ensign companion. They smirked when they heard the doors of Janeway's ready room slide open and shut. It seemed that the Captain's warning had been necessary after all.
When Paris, Janeway, and the Ensign exited the ready room several minutes later, Kehdza watched silently as both men were introduced to their new positions.
"Ensign Kim, this is your station." Janeway's voice trailed down from the rear of the bridge. "Would you like to take over?"
"Yes, ma'am," the Ensign answered enthusiastically.
Kehdza turned their head in time to see the Captain wink in Kim's direction. "It's not crunch time yet, Mister Kim. I'll let you know when." Upon facing forward again, Kehdza didn't fail to notice the obvious glance Mr. Paris had aimed in their direction.
Sitting at the conn, Lieutenants Stadi and Cavit began preparing for departure. As Janeway directed the ship out of space-dock, she moved to take her seat in the Captain's chair and Kehdza followed, resting in the spot to Janeway's right and reveling in Mr. Paris' shocked expression.
Once the ship was cruising easily through space, Janeway turned and flashed Kehdza a smile that made their heart flutter in their chest. "I didn't get a chance to ask earlier - how did Dalera settle in?"
"Oh, she's fine, Captain. She's delighted to be onboard such a beautiful ship. We both are."
"And I'm delighted to have you both." Janeway leaned a few more inches to the right and said, "Now then. How are the first minutes of your first voyage as second in command treating you?"
Swallowing the urge to make a sarcastic comment, Kehdza's expression turned serious. "I couldn't have asked for a better crew, ship, or captain to serve. Thank you."
"Oh, don't thank me, Commander. Thank yourself. You earned this position. Don't forget that."
The comm badge on Kehdza's chest beeped and a female voice filtered through. "Chief Beregi to Commander Beregi."
"Commander Beregi here."
"I could really use your help in Astrometrics, Commander." The Chief's words were slightly rushed and Kehdza could sense that something was off about her request, but didn't vocalize it.
"I'll be right over. Beregi out." Smoothing out the wrinkles in their uniform, Kehdza stood and started for the lift. "Lieutenant Cavit, you're second in command until I return."
"Yes, Commander."
Even with her back turned, Kehdza would recognize Chief Dalera Beregi in a heartbeat. Upon calling her name, Dalera's head whipped around and her impossibly large eyes focused on them. The pale blue and yellow lights of the display screen shone brilliantly in her obsidian eyes and tiny shadows spilled across the ridges in her nose, leaving crisscrossing lines over her nose and cheeks. The wedding chain draped across her left ear shone pale blue and then silver as she stepped away from the display and towards the doorway.
In the same way, Dalera would know Kehdza, the exact placement of each spot along their throat, the way the non-shaved half of their hair shone like icy auburn in the lights of the display, and the powerful love radiating from their mind. Despite being only half Betazoid, Dalera could still feel every single emotion that filtered through her spouse's mind, even when they were hundreds of meters apart. The joy that gripped Kehdza's heart at seeing her again gripped Dalera's as well, and her face broke into a grin as they approached each other.
"Is something wrong?" asked Kehdza.
Dalera's response came in the form of a chaste kiss pressed to their lips. "I gave Xavier another station to work at for the next ten minutes," she said softly, wrapping her arms around Kehdza's torso and pulling them closer. "It's just us."
"I don't have to tell you how inappropriate you're acting right now."
Dalera smiled and shook her head. "No, but you're going to."
"Hmph! Shows what you know!"
The fingers of Kehdza's left hand curled around the base of their wife's neck while their right hand rested comfortably against the base of her ribcage. Their tongue pressed gently against Dalera's lips, then slipped past them when Dalera opened her mouth. She sighed and tangled a hand in Kehdza's hair, tugging on a few strands.
Kehdza pulled back suddenly, their mouth tingling. "Imzadi," they breathed, "now isn't the best time."
"I know."
The pair stumbled backward a few paces until Dalera's back smacked against a wall. She gasped and was quickly silenced by Kehdza's mouth on hers again. Their knee slipped between hers, her hands grasped firmly at their shoulders. A blissful minute later, Dalera pushed gently against Kehdza's chest.
"Time to go," she whispered.
Kehdza guided her wife's head so it was tilted down and pressed their foreheads together. "Tease."
"You love it."
Kehdza hummed in agreement. They separated with a kiss and a peck on the bridge of Dalera's nose. Kehdza hurried into the hallway, ponytail swaying, and Dalera braced herself against a console, her heart pounding and adrenaline pumping through her veins.
A light fixture had detached itself from the ceiling and swung overhead, casting wild shadows across the room. Dalera groaned and rolled onto her stomach, immediately regretting the movement when a wave of nausea overwhelmed her and sent her head spinning. Something sparked and crackled in the corner of the lab, and for a moment Dalera feared the display had caught on fire. She pulled the fire extinguisher from the wall anyways and extinguished the sparks, then collapsed with a yelp.
She swatted at her comm badge as if inebriated. "Chief Beregi to Ensign Xavier, do you copy?" She repeated herself when she was answered with silence. "Xavier, do you copy?"
It was then that Dalera noticed the hissing of the lab doors. Through the dim lighting and smoke that had gathered, she could see something splayed across the floor that kept the doors from closing completely. It was a long something, shrouded in shadow and utterly lifeless. Long appendages attached to its top and bottom half jerked unnaturally each time the doors closed on the thing and slid open again.
The smoke cleared as Dalera reached the doors. The detached light swung in her direction and illuminated the object - a person, facedown and unconscious. Bracing her hands against the edge of both doors, Dalera kept the doors from closing on their body as she moved to stand above them. Then she spread her legend braced the doors open with her feet, leaving her hands free to pull the person out of the doorway and into the hallway. Bile rose up in her throat when she noticed blood streaked across the carpet.
Dalera threw herself into the hallway, narrowly avoiding trampling on the body before she thudded against the opposite wall. She pressed a hand against her temple as if to push away the headache hammering at the inside of her skull. She knelt and gently pushed the body onto its side, and choked back a scream when she found herself staring into the unblinking eyes of Ensign Xavier.
"Chief Beregi to Sick Bay! I have a casualty! Repeat, I have a casualty!" When her cries for help remained unanswered, Dalera swallowed her fear and bile, and checked the Ensign's pulse. "Sick bay, I have a dead body outside the Astrometrics Lab!" she sobbed. She swatted at her comm badge over and over again, calling for Sick Bay, Security, the Bridge, anyone who could help, but the lines were dead.
Scrambling to her feet, Dalera was suddenly struck by a wave of fear and pain in the direction of the Bridge. Kehdza was calling out to her, whether intentionally or not she couldn't be sure. "Chief Beregi to Commander Beregi, do you copy?" she said, hoping against hope that her spouse was alright. "Commander, do you copy?"
A muffled voice came through the line for a split second before the connection was cut off with a pop. Dalera tried to reactivate the line half a dozen times before accepting that it was useless. She averted her eyes from Xavier's dead body as she reentered the Astrometrics Lab. The display was still lit, although there were a few cracks and burn marks in the bottom corner from where the sparks had almost erupted into a fire, but something about the image blinking down at her seemed off. Dalera squinted and looked closer at the star map on display, eyeing the blinking yellow dot that showed Voyager's position.
"That's not right," she murmured. "That can't be right." She ran her hands over one of the consoles, sure that there was just a glitch in the system, but nothing she did to correct the error changed the ship's position. Dalera fell to her knees, winded. "Prophets be with us," she said, staring in disbelief at the statement blinking on the screen, informing her that Voyager was floating 70,000 light years away from home in the Delta Quadrant.
The Emergency Medical Hologram had barely started treating Dalera for her concussion when a sheet of light swept across her vision, seemingly a transport beam if the foreign surroundings that appeared after the light disappeared were anything to go by. Dalera materialized on her feet and greatly off-balance; she wobbled and fell to one side, crashing into a fellow crewmate. They helped her regain her balance, offered to help her walk if need be, but Dalera waved them off with a "thank you" before stumbling onwards. The only thing that mattered in that moment was finding Kehdza.
Exiting from the concentration of trees that Dalera and several other crew members had found themselves in, her eyes fell on the white painted Earth home and autumn leaves from Earth trees scattered across the grass. The sound of a horse whinnying seemed to come from the other end of the house. Had they been transported to Earth somehow? But how could that be if Voyager was mysteriously stranded in the Delta Quadrant?
Dalera strode forward with new purpose, her pounding headache and nausea considerably lessened thanks to the EMH's hypospray, and her mind set on discovering exactly what was going on, if her spouse was alright, if her captain was injured. As she rounded the right corner of the house, Dalera spotted another group of people in Starfleet uniforms. She squinted as she approached them, trying to pick out a familiar face.
"Dalera!"
Kehdza's voice sounded from within the crowd and their face appeared a moment later as they burst into sight, pushing people aside. Dalera raced towards them and Kehdza followed suit. Their embrace was a tangled mess of limbs and hair, Kehdza's ponytail flying into her wife's face and Dalera's arms wrapped tightly around their shoulders, leaving their arms squished between their bodies.
"Are you alright?"
"Forget about me!" Kehdza said. "What about you?"
"I'm fine. I-I just was worried about you."
Grasping their wife's face in their hands and tilting it down, Kehdza pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. They were still standing on their toes when Dalera pulled them into another hug. The last time she had seen a dead body was five years ago on her first deep space mission and she hadn't needed to worry about Kehdza then because they were on Earth, safe and sound and being promoted. This time was different.
"Where's Kathryn?" asked Dalera once she had released her spouse.
"I haven't seen her yet, but she's bound to be here. Most of the crew is here, from what I've seen."
Indeed, Kathryn and the entire crew of Voyager had been transported to the Earth-reminiscent mystery location. Those of the crew who hadn't lost their tricorders in the chaos had scanned their surroundings and found that they'd been moved barely more than a hundred kilometers from their original position. Kehdza explained to Dalera and anyone else who hadn't been on the bridge what had happened: that Voyager had entered the Badlands to follow the Maquis trail, they'd been scanned by an unknown tetryon beam and shortly after, overwhelmed by a displacement wave. When everyone came to, half the bridge crew were dead and they were in the Delta Quadrant, parked in front of an "array" with the empty Maquis ship parked nearby.
As Kehdza finished the story, a young man dressed in command red came bounding into view from behind the house. He was tall and thin with dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, and a tricorder in hand. His eyes grew wide and settled on something behind Dalera: another young man, about three inches shorter than the first man, with dark hair and a gold uniform.
"Harry!" exclaimed the blonde.
"Tom?"
The two men embraced, laughing, but quickly pulled away. Tom Paris, as Kehdza had introduced him to the others, explained that the Captain had sent him to search the space surrounding the house for other Voyager crew. He had previously come across several pastures, each housing horses, cows, or pigs, a barn, and a cornfield.
Kehdza and Dalera returned with Paris and Kim to the front of the house where Captain Janeway was waiting. Her face lit up with relief upon spotting the Beregis alive and well, as well as seeing young Ensign Kim again.
"The crew's scattered around this farm, Captain," said Paris, "but they're all accounted for."
Janeway nodded. "Move around. Scan the area. See if you can find anything that might be a holographic generator."
Dalera frowned, looking between the Captain and her spouse. "A hologram?"
"Yes, I think so."
A middle-aged human woman stepped into view then, her hair gray and twisted into a bun at the back of her head. She wore a red and white checkered dress with a white apron tied around her waist. "Have some nice fresh corn on the cob," she said in a distinctly cheery and American Southern accent, displaying the tray of corn in her hands. "Fresh corn on the cob. Corn on the cob, corn on the cob."
Janeway leaned forward, a kind but curious smile tugging at the corners fo her mouth. "Can you tell me why we're here?"
The woman smiled in return. "Oh, we don't mean you any harm. I'm sorry if we put you out. Why don't you just put your feet up and get comfortable while you wait?"
"Wait for what?" asked Kehdza.
The woman asked and turned away, clearly bored with them. "Isn't anybody hungry?" She hurried to another group of crew members, offering them her corn. "Come on now, make yourselves at home. I'm sorry if we put you out!"
Janeway turned to Dalera then. "Could you sense anything from her?" she asked.
"I'm only half Betazoid, Captain. My abilities aren't as finely tuned-"
"But you can still feel things. What did you feel?"
Dalera frowned, closed her eyes and focused. "I think… Yes, she's hiding something. And she's anxious. That feeling's very strong." Her eyes fluttered open when the strain was too much and she could no longer search the stranger's thoughts. "That's all I can get right now. I'm sorry."
"Don't be. That's the most information I've gotten out of this mess since it began." The comm badge on Janeway's chest relayed the voice of Tom Paris. "Janeway here." But instead of a response, there was silence on Tom's end of the communique. "Paris? Paris!" Janeway gestured to the Beregis, then to several of the other crew that had gathered nearby. "All of you, with me!"
Janeway led the group to a nearby barn, following the scans on her tricorder that showed two human life signs in that area. The barn doors were already open, so the group stepped inside to investigate with Janeway and the Commander at the front, leaving Dalera and the others just behind them. The doors closed on their own once everyone had come inside. At the far end of the barn stood the human woman who had offered everyone corn, but instead of food, she held a pitchfork. Several other armed humans stood beside her, their expressions grim.
"Very well," grumbled the corn woman. "Since no one seems to care for any corn, we'll have to proceed ahead of schedule."
The far wall of the barn disintegrated, showing instead a long, silver and white room reminiscent of a hospital. The walls were lined with hospital beds and a handful were occupied, the first three displaying two men, one with brown skin and the other with dark black skin and pointed ears, likely a Vulcan, and a woman whose forehead ridge implied that she was at least part Klingon. They were all unconscious and a strange device hovered above them, a needle several feet long stretching from the device and into each person's abdomen.
Kehdza and Dalera reached for each other, their hands tightly intertwined. The pitchfork wielding humans disappeared in a flash of light, but before any of the Starfleet crew could investigate further another flash of light burned itself into everyone's retinas. Dalera was momentarily aware of an alien presence, the same one she had felt from the woman who had offered her corn. Something cold and sharp pierced the base of her neck and Dalera turned to attack, but her vision had turned blurry almost immediately and she lost her balance. She thudded against a wall, then fell hard on her rear. Her eyes fluttered as the urge to sleep suddenly overwhelmed her.
The next thing Dalera could remember was waking up, naked with a sheet draped over her body and something cool pressed against her back and legs. An almost gun-like device seemed to float above her and from the barrel, a needle began to extend and point towards her stomach. A panicked sound came from somewhere in the back of her throat as she tried, to no avail, to move away from the needle. It pierced her stomach smoothly and quickly, and her scream caught in her throat.
Hundreds of nearby minds cried out in terror. One mind shot through the fear and confusion, Dalera's name a mantra in their subconscious, and Dalera reached out to them on instinct. Their minds touched momentarily, fear giving way to relief, and then were ripped apart as they were both overcome by unconsciousness.