A/N: I don't own "Star Trek: Voyager."
Megan Delaney hadn't seen Voyager's crew so divided since it had first become stranded. She entered the mess hall to find the crew watching a shouting match that Neelix was trying futilely to break up, at one of the back tables. Tabor was swearing at Chel in a Bajoran language, while Ilsa Lang and Sue Nicoletti hissed angry accusations at each other.
Lang jerked her head at Tabor and said to Sue, "I don't know what he's saying but I agree with it!"
While Megan stared at poor Neelix trying his damndest to calm the officers down, Crewman Mar Javin came up next to her and muttered, "At least the divide between Starfleet and Maquis is gone."
Megan glanced at the elderly black Trill science officer, struggling to think of a response. She finally came up with, "I think I'll take dinner in my quarters."
She took a container of Alferian hair pasta back to the quarters she shared with her twin, bringing enough for the two of them just in case Jenny wanted some. Megan was disappointed, but not altogether surprised, to find Jenny in dismal spirits. She was stretched across the sofa, her green uniform jacket opened, working at something on a PADD.
Jenny's dark brown eyes flicked to Megan, before returning to her work. "Hi."
Megan flashed a weak smile in response. "Hey, I brought back some Alferian hair pasta, if you want some." She shrugged out of her gold uniform jacket. "Might be interesting to try our own condiments this time. I've often wondered what a Philly cheese-steak version of this stuff would taste like."
"Hmm." Jenny continued typing.
Folding up her black and gold jacket, Megan glanced at Jenny's PADD. "Ooo, T'Mon, Extrospecter! Reading or writing?"
T'Mon, Extrospecter was a popular Vulcan mystery series, or had been when Voyager had departed DS9. Realizing they weren't going to get the rest of the series installments any time soon, some members of the Voyager crew had chosen to continue it for themselves and each other, witting their own fan-installments and sometimes even holding writing contests. Jenny was one of the group's most devoted writers.
"Writing, or trying to."
"Sorry," Megan began.
"No, I don't mean you." Jenny sighed, and shifted to a sitting position. "It's hard to concentrate, knowing what's going on back in reality."
Megan nodded. "It's ugly, but we'll get through-"
"Will you stop saying that?" Jenny snapped. "Chakotay doesn't even believe it when he says it to us anymore."
"If the Borg try going back on their end of the bargain-"
"Which they obviously will."
Megan stood her ground. "Look, Jenny. The Enterprise defeated a Borg invasion twice, by itself. We have an Intrepid-Class ship, we can get out of this Borg swamp if they decide to turn on us."
"At what cost, Megan? Picard was saving the Alpha Quadrant when he fought the Borg. We're allying with those monsters, just for our own supposed safety! Which we won't have when they get what they want and decide to assimilate us all!"
"What should we be doing then, letting them assimilate us now? Or trying to get out of here and stay uninvolved so Species 8472 can kill us instead?"
Jenny threw up a hand. "What proof do you have that they want to kill us, besides Tinkerbell's ESP conversations?"
Megan stared at her twin, before setting the container of hair pasta on the coffee table. "I don't know, why don't you ask Harry? I just got back from seeing him in Sickbay. He was awake. And crying."
"So you're pissed at the aliens. But how do you know they attacked him on purpose? How do you know the alien wasn't just startled when the away team just beamed into that place? They essentially walked into a war zone." Jenny stopped short of adding, You'd know a bit about war zones. She ran a hand through her dark curls. "I can't believe any of the Maquis would actually be on-board with this! I'd have thought you guys of all people would be speaking up for the innocent, everyone the Borg assimilated!"
Megan tried to respond but Jenny cut her off.
"Sam was crying in the science lab earlier today, because she's so scared of seeing Naomi get assimilated. And Vorik? I've never seen a Vulcan so close to tears. You know his aunt was assimilated at Wolf 359."
"And they think Species 8472 isn't capable of any of that?" Megan countered. "You think everyone supporting Captain Janeway on this just doesn't care about the Borg's crimes? The fact that we have these horrible experiences with the Borg is exactly why some of us feel safer working with them, we've done it before, we know what we're in for. Those fluidic space-mollusks are from another damn dimension! And Kes said they want to annihilate everything!"
"Chh. And if there's one person we can trust on this, it's the three-year-old who spent her life underground, plays with fire and boiled Tuvok's blood."
"You know what," Megan bit her lip, and her hands came up. "You might be right, okay? There is a good fifty-percent chance Species 8472 never had any bad intentions, they bumped Harry on accident, and they're super-heroes who could defeat the Borg for us. There is an equal chance that the complete opposite is true. That's a risk some of us aren't willing to take. Even Captain Janeway knows when to put her Earthling optimism on the self."
"That Earthling optimism is what inspired me to request a transfer to Voyager so I could find my Maquis sister," Jenny reminded her. "You've grown so sour since you left Earth."
"No, I've grown pragmatic." Megan stared at her sister, knowing Jenny could read the subtext. I had to become pragmatic. If I'd gone by my emotions after the Cardassians killed Avi, I'd be as dead as my husband. "We made all kinds of horrible choices in the Maquis. Captain Janeway won a lot of us over by showing she's capable of doing the same. You think I enjoyed blowing up Cardassians, knowing each one of them was leaving behind a grieving wife or husband or child? For god's sake, just ask the Doctor! He has to make life and death decisions all the time. I'm surprised his program hasn't snapped from the guilt."
"Holograms don't feel 'guilt,'" Jenny sighed.
Megan folded her arms. "Say that again Jenny, and this time, listen to yourself. Starfleet officer."
Jenny let her PADD drop onto the table and left the couch. "I'm gonna take a shower. You don't have to save any Alferian hairs for me."
Megan grimaced as her twin left the room. "I'm going to anyway."
"Fine," Jenny's voice echoed flatly from the sonic shower.
Megan ordered some Philly cheese steak sauce from the replicator and began mixing her Alferian hair into it. "You don't have to agree with what anyone believes," Megan said. "Just make some effort to understand why they believe it."
After a moment, her sister called from the sonic shower, with a lighter tone, "You and Commander Chakotay, get a room."
Megan gave a short, eye-rolling laugh. "It's Chaplain." She took her pasta to the sofa. "I like dorks, remember?"
A/N: Guess what country I live in.
My town has been pleasantly quiet these past few days, and most of my friends pleasantly civil. But the Internet has enough doom-and-gloom and political flames to inspire this pointless fic.
Every election people joke dryly about "the lesser of two evils," but this is the first time I have ever seen that phrase play out so literally. This was the ugliest election I've experienced in my lifetime so far, and I hope ever will.
In the meantime, fight the bad guys, not each other.