AU Star Trek universe without powers. Bart is a Bajoran engineer and Jaime is Trill doctor. Bart and Jamie have just been transfered aboard the USS Astraea and quickly find out that not everything is as peaceful as it seems.
A/N: Hey there! So, just a few notes I want to give to you before you start reading this story.
1) I am labeling this fic an AU because (although it takes place in the Star Trek Universe during the Deep Space Nine timeline) I won't be bringing in any characters from the actual show. All of them will be modified DC characters, the majority of them having appeared in Young Justice.
2) Bajoran's are a deeply spiritual alien species who worship transdimensional entities that they call "The Prophets". Bajorans are humanoid in appearance and have characteristic ridges down the bridge of their nose (I think it looks rather cute). They show their faith by wearing silver earrings on their right ear. Most notably the Bajoran home world had been under the tyrannical rule of another alien species called the Cardassians (very similar to what Bart went through when Earth was under Reach control). They achieved independence about ten years before this fic takes place, and there is still quite a lot of tension between the two peoples.
3) Trills are a symbiotic species that have evolved together on the same planet. Most of the planet's inhabitants are humanoid and distinguishable by the spotted patterns over their bodies. Their symbionts are sentient bug-like creatures that are capable of surviving many centuries if blended with a proper host. Their personalities become intertwined and once blended they cannot be separated unless one of them is dead.
4) If you have any comments or critiques on my writing/characterization please don't hesitate to tell me as I would love to hear it! This fic was betad by the lovely yoru nekozawa sensei! Story image by the wonderful TestChambers! Thanks for reading my fic!
Chapter 1
Jaime watched as the younger Bajoran exited sick bay, his arm held in a loose sling until the bones could finish knitting back together. He sighed wistfully, wishing that he knew what to do.
A knowing voice drifted over to him from the other doorway. "Why don't you talk to him?"
It seemed as though Dr. Beecher had been listening to their exchange. The darker woman smiled kindly, her loose lab coat shifting over her Starfleet uniform as she picked up a data pads left for her on the counter.
"I was just talking to him," the young Trill replied, slowly starting to put away the equipment he had used to repair Ensign Allen's arm.
They had talked quite a bit as Jaime had run the hyper spanner over the Bajoran's fractured radius, joking as Jaime admonished him for being so reckless. Ensign Allen had insisted that he was being careful; the rock that had hit him had been a glitch in the holodeck's program.
Jaime had a hard time believing this. Khaji Da agreed; his symbiont believed that the young Bajoran lacked focus, and Jaime had to reluctantly agree with that assessment. Ensign Allen always seemed to be on hyper mode, jumping from one idea to the next, barely stopping to take a breath. It was what made him such a great engineer. It was also one of the things that appealed to Jaime. He admired the young man's energy.
"You know what I mean," Dr. Beecher said, looking at him with a touch of motherly impatience.
"Talk to him outside of sickbay. Hold on," she said and went back into her office for a quick moment to look something up, popping her head back through the entryway a minute later. "He gets off of work at 18:00 hours. Why don't you try to talk to him then?"
Jaime worried his lower lip, a little concerned. "Are you sure? What if Bajorans aren't interested in same-sex relations?"
"You won't know until you talk to him," she reasoned, walking back towards him. "But I don't think it will be a problem. So far as I know, Bajorans don't much care about the person's gender as much as their beliefs."
Jaime smiled tentatively. "Thanks Dr. Beecher."
"Oh please, honey, all of my friends call me Karen," she said and touched his shoulder lightly, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
"Karen, thanks," Jaime said, his smile relaxing into a genuine grin.
"No problem," she replied before going back to work.
"Besides," she quipped over her shoulder, "you two looked cute together."
Jaime blushed and finished putting away the supplies, mentally noting the time and how many more hours it would be until 18:00.
"How's the arm doing?"
Bart looked up to see the same young Trill who had treated his arm earlier standing at his table with a tray of food in hand.
Bart smiled glad to see him again. "Much better, thanks to you!" He said enthusiastically before waving at Jaime to take a seat.
"You're welcome to join me," he said, "I don't often get company."
"Really?" Jaime asked surprised as he set his tray on the table and sat down. "I find that hard to believe," he said.
Bart shrugged. "I think it has something to do with the Bajaron Provisional Government being at odds with the Federation right now."
Jaime frowned, amazed that people in this day and age would be so narrow-minded.
Bart shrugged again and dug into the salad in front of him. "So sorry I have to ask, but I didn't catch your name earlier."
Jaime gave him a half smile and replied, "It's Jaime Khaji Da."
"Khaji Da is your symbiont's name?" Bart asked, genuinely interested. He had only met one Trill before and they hadn't been blended with a symbiont.
Jaime nodded, starting on his meal as well; a human dish that the replicator called 'mac and cheese'. Jaime had heard a few of his human crew members swear by it, so he decided to try it. After taking a bite he decided it was delicious and delved in with renewed vigor.
"What's it like being blended?" Bart asked.
Jaime swallowed his food before responding. "It was weird at first. I mean you have to go through special training to be selected as a host, but even so. Nothing can truly prepare you for being blended with a whole other being."
Bart nodded, fascinated. He wasn't sure if he could have gone through with it and said as much.
Jaime chuckled, encouraged by Bart's interest. "It's considered a great honor amongst my people to apply for the training. But even then, not everyone wants to. The idea of changing yourself permanently to become a host is daunting to say the least."
"How many hosts has Khaji Da been through?" Bart was slowly making his way through his salad as he listened.
It was a rare occurrence that Bart listened more than he spoke. His silence showed just how interested he was in Jaime's symbiotic relationship.
"Not too many," Jaime said, idly scratching one of the many spots on his temple.
Most off-world symbionts had been through at least six of seven hosts in this day and age. Jaime Khaji Da was an exception to this occurrence.
"Jaime is Khaji Da's third host."
"Have you ever been a woman?"
"Nope, not yet. All of the previous hosts were males."
"How about partners? I heard that blended Trills were forbidden from interacting with people from their previous lives."
Jaime smiled sadly. "The first Khaji Da, Dan, had a family and kids. The kids all have grandkids of their own now. I check on them every so often when the memories overwhelm me, but I try to stay in the present. The second Kaji Da, Ted, had a male partner and no kids. He still lives on Trill… I do my best to stay away from him as well…"
Jaime trailed away, the pain in his voice evident. Some pieces of him, those parts of Khaji Da left over from his time in Dan and Ted, longed for the presence of family and comfort. At times when his feelings from those pieces became too much, he reminded himself that they weren't his family and they would no longer provide the comfort he sought. It was a bitter awakening, but one he needed to remain in the present.
For now, Jaime contented himself by changing the subject (not to say he wasn't flattered in Bart's interest, but he needed something else to think about) by gesturing to the data pad next to Bart's plate.
"What're you working on?" he asked.
Bart's attention shifted to the data pad that had been abandoned when Jaime sat down.
"Ah, I was looking over the logs from my holodeck accident earlier to see if there was a glitch in the system."
"Any luck?" Jaime asked.
"None so far," Bart said, a tinge of frustration creeping into his voice. He was pretty good with code. In fact, some would call him a genius with it. But the problem he was looking for continued to elude him. He vaguely wondered if he should just give up and call it human error even though he was sure that rock hadn't been there two seconds before the accident.
Jaime felt for the young Bajoran. "Can I take a look at it?"
"You know Federation code?" Bart asked incredulously, raising a questioning eyebrow.
"My former host, Ted, was an engineer. I might be able to provide a fresh pair of eyes."
"By all means," Bart said, handing the data pad over to Jaime.
Jaime quickly scanned its contents. He could see that coding had advanced a bit since Ted's heyday, but he recognized most of it. There was one section, however, that he had no clue about.
"What's this section for?" he asked, turning the data pad towards Bart and pointing it out.
"Ah this is for the new holoprojector systems installed aboard the newer Intrepid class starships," Bart explained, scanning over the page of code Jaime had pointed to.
"It's supposed to handle the holoprograms when they switch from holo-supported areas to the ships corridors. It was a mechanism designed after the Voyager incident ten years ago. But this area here," he pointed to a place halfway down the page, "is all messed up. Those lines of code shouldn't be there…"
Bart chewed his lip thoughtfully before looking back up at Jaime. "Thanks!" he said, smiling. "Seems as though a fresh pair of eyes is just what I needed."
Jaime smiled back, blushing a little. Although his tone was wry when he said, "Any time you need a program to be dumbed down a little you let me know."
Bart chuckled good-naturedly and started stacking up his tray. "Sorry to dine and dash," he said, a note of true regret in his voice, "but I need to show this to Lieutenant West before he clocks out."
"I understand," Jaime said, "It was nice talking to you."
"Same!" Bart said, flashing his usual enthusiastic grin, "We should totally do this again sometime!"
Jaime smiled as the young Bajoran headed off to return his tray, happy with how well their first casual interaction had gone.
"Lieutenant West!"
Wally West rolled his eyes upwards as if praying for peace before turning to greet the hyper active young man shouting his name down the corridor.
"What is it Ensign Allen?" Wally asked tiredly, not sure he was in the mood to deal with the energetic man so late in the day.
"I've found a problem with the ships holoprogram code," Bart explained slowly, trying not to overwhelm his exhausted superior officer. "Look at this paragraph of code here. It's completely scrambled."
Wally took the data pad from his underling and scanned over the section of code he had pointed out. Scrambled was an understatement.
Wally sighed, knowing that the problem was an urgent one. With the coding so messed up there was no telling what could happen when the crew started to use the ship's holodecks, let alone the other holosytems located throughout the ship. The ensign in front of him was proof enough of this. But all of his experts in coding were on the morning or afternoon shifts and had clocked out for the day. Wally himself had been about to head to the mess hall for a late dinner before crawling into bed.
"I'll take the ship's holosystems offline until we can fix this tomorrow morning," he said, trying to suppress a yawn and failing.
Hitting the combadge on his chest he said, "West to engineering."
A voice replied, "Go ahead, sir."
"I need you to shutdown the ship's holosystems until further notice. There's a problem with some of the base coding."
"Right away, sir."
"West out."
Wally handed the data pad back to Bart and said, "I expect to see you here bright and early to help fix this."
Bart just smiled and said in a cheery voice, "Of course, sir!" before he bounded away towards the crew quarters.
Wally sighed once again and headed towards the mess, rubbing his temples. That kid made him feel old.
The next morning found Bart in the medical bay being treated by Jaime once again.
"Hold still," Jaime said, trying to finish the repairs to Bart's radial bone.
"Sorry," he said, although continued to fidget with his other hand, "I just want to get to work on those holoprogram codes."
Jaime smiled a little at the Bajoran's never ending enthusiasm but said sternly, "You fidgeting only makes the process longer." Although, truth be told, he didn't mind the extra time spent in the Bajoran's presence.
Bart took a deep breath, willing himself to calm down. He started to count the seconds in-between each inhale and exhale like the ship's counselor, the Betazoid M'gann M'orzz, had taught him. One, two, three, four, five, six, exhale. One, two, three, four, five, six, inhale. Bart continued this pattern for several minutes and was only broken out of his meditative state when Jaime announced that he was finished.
"Done," he said, not noticing that Bart was unusually still, having been consumed in his own work. "You should be able to use it now, just go easy on it for another day or so."
"Thanks Jaime!" Bart said excitedly. Jaime had told him to call him by his host name when he entered sickbay that morning.
"I'll see you later!" he called as he exited sickbay.
"I look forward to it!" Jaime called back before the automated door shut behind the young Bajoran.
From her office, Dr. Beecher watched with a smug smile on her face.
"There, that should do it," Bart said to an engrossed Wally.
The two of them had been working on the recoding all morning, standing around the large control consol in the center of the engineering section.
Wally nodded without looking up, doing a final check of his own. "Yeah, it looks good, but we should still do a test run before opening them back up to the ship's general population."
"We're going to need to reinstate the system to get accurate readings," Bart commented, starting to initiate holodeck one.
Wally thought for a moment before saying, "It might be better if one of us goes down to the holodeck to check on the readings there."
"I'll go," Bart said enthusiastically, "Standing still for so long is making me cramp up."
Wally smiled a little. "Very good, Ensign Allen. Report back when you're in position."
About ten minutes later Bart arrived at holodeck one. Tapping his combadge he said, "Ensign Allen to Lieutenant West."
Wally's voice came back over the intercom. "Go ahead, Ensign."
"I've arrived at holodeck one, sir."
"Alright," Wally said and tapped a few buttons on the control panel, "everything should be operational on your end."
Bart looked over his panel, which had begun to flash. "Looks good from here, sir. I'll start up one of my programs to make sure it's working correctly."
"What kind of program is it?"
"It's the rock climbing program I was using yesterday, " Bart replied, smiling to himself as he input the program. "Climbing in the Janzita Mountains during spring. It's really lovely. You should come with me sometime, sir."
"Thanks but I'll have to pass," Wally said good naturedly, "Rock climbing has never really been my thing. Now, if it was a beach program I might take you up on that offer."
"I'll remember that, sir," Bart said, continuing to monitor the code scrolling past on his monitor. "Everything looks like it's working according to specs."
"I've the same readings here, Ensign."
"Alright, I'm heading in to take a closer look," Bart said and entered the holodeck.
Bart stepped into a field of green. Warm breezes passed over him as he looked out on a deep valley filled with flowers and trees. A river ran rampant through the center, cutting a swath through the beautiful landscape. Although Bart knew that it was all an illusion (the holodeck was not large enough to encompass the whole valley), he stared at the landscape feeling a small sense of longing. It had been so long since he'd seen the green-tinged sky of Bajor and basked under the rays of its sun. It felt good to have this slice of home here for him.
A voice over his com broke him from his revere. "Keep a look out for anything out of the ordinary. We don't want you getting injured like yesterday."
"Aye aye Lieutenant," Bart said and started to climb up the rock face to get a better look at the valley.
He had barely climbed his full length when he felt the rock shift underneath him. A large chunk of the mountain flickered and disappeared. 'Oh shit,' Bart thought and pushed himself off the rock face, but it was too late. Rock rushed in to fill the gap, quickly becoming an avalanche.
A large chunk of rock hit Bart in the shoulder. He felt agonizing ripping and crunching as the bones and tendons broke. Screaming in pain, he stumbled backwards, towards the doors.
'This shouldn't be happening,' he though dazedly. The holodecks had safety features. Sure, sometimes they'd let you get a broken bone or two, but nothing like this; nothing life threatening.
Once he had gotten to the doors, he quickly realized something else was wrong with the holodeck. The doors would not open. Using his uninjured hand, Bart pounded the control panel to no avail. Frantically he hit the combadge on his chest.
"Emergency beam out, holodeck one!" he shouted. There was no answer. Bart looked on in abject terror as the rocks crowded around him, pushing and crushing him up against the archway doors.
Meanwhile, back in engineering, Wally was frantically trying to get Bart out of there.
"Allen! Allen!" he shouted before giving up on the com. His fingers moved restlessly around the control panel, trying to open the doors to the holodeck. The controls would not respond. Cursing, he slammed his hand down in anger.
Jabbing at his combadge he yelled, "Emergency beam out, holodeck one!"
A moment later a frantic voice came back to him, "The transporters seem to be malfunctioning, sir! I can't lock onto the signal in holodeck one!"
Cursing again, Wally started running towards the holodecks. He jabbed his combadge and called for an emergency evacuation team.
"Right away, sir." Stated Lieutenant Kent, the chief of security.
Slightly more calmly, Wally called for a medical team to meet them outside holodeck one.
"We're on our way," was the clipped reply before Dr. Beecher too signed out.
Wally just hoped that they would get there in time.
A/N Afterwards: I hope that this chapter wasn't too confusing. I'm trying to work on the way I do dialogue. In any event, please follow if you are interested in reading more and know that reviews help inspire me to write a little faster! Thanks again for reading my fic! :)
Fun fact: Bajorans are vegetarians.