He was woken by a cry.

Meandering through waves of unconsciousness he heard her. The cry punctured through each layer as his mind slowly shifted. The sound of the cry heightened, until he felt himself floating to a place just beneath consciousness. Dark, but filtering through were flecks of purple and blue, the weight upon his eyes was lifting, the noise softening, and then it came again.

The piercing cry was desperate, and altogether not adult.

A child, no a baby.

Realisation quickly turned darkness into shocking colour, and thrown from sleep Chakotay sat up. He threw his covers aside and looked around his room. The noise was so loud he could only conclude in his confused mind, that the child was somewhere here. Whatever sense it didn't make was overturned by the desperation of the child. He walked around his bedroom, then into the bathroom and his office - but he saw nothing, and with each step the sound began to fade. Shaking his head he dropped himself on his bed and quickly felt the disorientation of waking so quickly. Returning to bed he covered himself and stared at the ceiling, waiting, and hoping that he'd go to sleep quickly.

He hadn't closed his eyes for longer than a few seconds before he heard the child again. The cry had changed slightly, it was less desperate, more impatient and grumpy. He turned himself towards the sound, to face the wall that separated him from Kathryn. Through the wall he imagined his sleeping captain, completely oblivious to all that he was currently hearing and experiencing. Refocusing his thoughts towards her he heard the baby quieten. Eventually the sound disappeared completely, and he closed his eyes thinking that this was the most vivid dream he had ever experienced.

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Colour, sound, beauty, were all lures that brought every natural explorer to seek out and understand the world around them. Whatever was considered different, unusual or uncommon was a source of discovery and investigation.

Today their source of discovery was the alluring Partekba wave.

It had been just a whisper overheard in a bar, at a nearby space station that had alerted Tom Paris to the phenomenon. Two bar flies had been discussing their friend's recent journey to the phenomenon.

"Ah Partkeba, she revealed that my cousin would give birth to a son, and that if my sister applied herself she would receive high honours at Cardekta Science Academy."

"And? Did your cousin have a son Braata?" he asked.

"Well she did after I told her what Lyndek said, oh and after he proposed," Braata laughed.

"Yeah well, that was bound to happen, hardly a prediction of the future."

"You know why it's called the Partkeba wave? It's from an old myth from my homeworld. There was a young child called Partkeba who kept wandering off from his parents. Every time his parents would look for him they found him sitting beside the lake just staring into it." Braata leaned in closer. "You know what he was doing?"

"No, but I have a feeling you're going to keep me at this dump till you tell me," Ragnek leaned towards the bartender, "another drink would you Miss?"

"He was talking to himself," Braata answered.

Ragnek replied by taking a gulp of the drink he was just handed, and Braata continued. "Except he wasn't talking to himself, but another version of himself."

"Rubbish!" Ragnek spat.

"No, it's true. Well in the myth it was. His parents saw in the lake a reflection of their son repeating their sons words back like an echo. Only it wasn't a reflection, it was out of sync. That's why they named the wave after Partkeba. They say the wave allows you to see another version of yourself, a glimpse into another possibility."

Ragnek pushed his glass towards Braata. "Braata, save your chips. You don't need to visit the Partkeba wave like that moron Khurta. You want to meet yourself? I'll reveal a truth to you - in any reality you're an idiot."

Tom didn't get to hear the rest of the story. After Ragnek's brutal reveal, Braata decided to smash a glass into his face, and they were both promptly removed by the station's security staff. He did however pick up a padd Braata had left behind. The padd contained footage of the Partkeba wave, and if Tom Paris could be in love with a spacial phenomenon, than he was in love with Partkeba.

He transmitted the footage to Voyager before handing the padd into security, and for the past two days they had been riding along the long winding wave of the phenomenon.

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"Chakotay I've never seen anything like it before. The wave looks like it's been lifted from the ocean and held in space. Did you see how it appeared to crash, and then pull back into itself? Absolutely incredible."

Not hearing a response, Kathryn turned towards Chakotay. He was rubbing his hand against his head and his focus seemed to be somewhere else entirely.

"Am I keeping you awake Commander?" Janeway asked, leaning over the console between them.

Chakotay's efforts to stifle his yawn had been to no avail. He looked around to check if anyone else had noticed, but was pleased to see no one but his captain had noticed his slip up.

"Sorry Captain, I guess I didn't sleep very well last night."

"Oh? Nothing troubling you I hope."

"No, at least I don't think so. I just had the strangest dream. I kept hearing a baby cry."

"A baby?" Kathryn asked.

"She was crying, quite loudly at first. So I must have gotten up and looked around my quarters, but I couldn't see a child so I went back to bed. The strange thing is, that just as I closed my eyes I heard the baby cry again. I guess I was still dreaming, it was just so… real. I honestly felt like there was a baby in the room with me."

Kathryn leaned closer and examined Chakotay's expression. He seemed thoroughly confused by the whole experience, and she had no answers for him. She wondered on the significance of dreaming about a baby, but wasn't sure if the bridge was really the place to get into the issue. Then another thought occurred to her… "Chakotay, how did you know the baby was a girl?"

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"You called the child a she," Kathryn replied.

Chakotay had to think about it for a moment. He tried to remember the sound of the child, how instinctively he got out of bed to search her out. "I don't know. Something about the cry felt familiar somehow. Like I knew her, and I wanted to calm her. It's strange I know, but it felt so real."

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Evening could not come quick enough.

While everyone around him was busy studying the Partkeba wave, Chakotay was suffering with a persistent headache. He had thought about going to the doctor for an analgesic, but he wasn't keen to leave his quarters. Although he was extremely tired, he wasn't ready to sleep yet. Leaning against the replicator he requested a herbal tea. Picking it up, he sniffed the tea but couldn't smell anything. Putting it back in the replicator he instead asked for a chai blend. It wasn't something he would usually order, but he found the warmth of the cinnamon and nutmeg comforting.

He took the tea and sat on his arm chair over looking the Partkeba wave. In spite of his headache he found the gentle glow of the wave comforting. It stretched the entire length of the sector. Kathryn was right. It did look like a wave from the ocean, but it contained a myriad of colours. And while it looked stilted, with only the appearance of some movement, the movement was an illusion created by it's frequent change in colour.

Oranges and browns.

Chakotay saw the reflection of the wave's colour on his window, and it made it appear like the wave was expanding - it was hypnotic. He put down his tea and walked closer to the window. Leaning against it, he saw the colours change again. Purple and blue, tiny flecks of purple and blue.

Purple, and blue… he ran over the colours in his mind.

Chakotay stepped back. Within the wave was something else, something familiar. He no longer found it comforting. He recycled his tea and headed to his bedroom. The pain in his head was demanding his attention again. He rubbed his temples and got into bed. Chakotay looked above him and saw the light from the Partkeba wave reflect on the ceiling.

Purple, and blue, and he fell asleep watching it change.

With each flash of colour he could hear his own voice saying words he had no memory of saying. A joke, an observance, a request, a comment about Kathryn's hair. He tried to hear them all clearly, but his movements felt heavy, his mind sunk under layers of sleep. It was cool here, and dark, and the tangle of pain that had attached itself to his temples was being stilled, and slowly unwinding.

At least until he heard her cry again.

His eyes flew open. There was no meandering through layers of sleep this time. Now the baby's cries were even more prominent, and he felt his breath quicken as he looked around his room in search of her. This time he didn't have to look far. Next to the wall he shared with Kathryn was a bassinet. He wasn't sure how his legs managed to walk him towards it, but stumbling a little, he had a look inside. The baby looked up at him for a moment, and began to settle down. She had the smallest amount of dark brown hair, with the most startling blue eyes, and Chakotay couldn't help but reach out to her. Sensing him reach for her, the baby smiled, before she and her bassinet promptly disappeared. Chakotay looked from one side of the room to the other. He raced to pick up his tricorder to scan the area, but found nothing.

She was here, and then she was gone. What kind of bizarre dream is this?

"Chakotay to bridge."

"Ensign Kim here sir, what can I do for you?"

"Ensign, I need you to scan my quarters for any life form that isn't me."

"Ah, yes sir. Do you need a security detail?"

"No ensign, I think I can handle a baby."

"A baby?"

Chakotay sighed and rubbed the side of his head. "It's not urgent Harry. I saw something earlier and I just need you to check if there's anything to it. If you don't find anything then don't worry about it."

"Yes sir, will do - goodnight."

"Goodnight Harry."

Chakotay went to the replicator again, this time for camomile tea. He changed the tint on his windows so he could no longer see the reflection of the Partkeba wave, and headed to bed.

Chakotay closed his eyes. There were no purples or blues, or oranges this time. He sunk quickly in his sleep, and found himself in a place so familiar. He heard the sounds of insects and birds, and felt the gentle breeze of an afternoon coming to a close. When he looked down he saw a woman in a red dress, smiling beside a garden. He knew her, but he couldn't clearly identify her. He asked her what she was looking at, and she looked at him and then dipped her head away, laughing at some private joke he didn't understand. She ran her fingers along the vines she had been tending, and then reached an arm towards him, which he happily took.

"You my love, I'm looking at you."

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To be continued