brave new world

summary: a collection of snippets/drabbles/whatevers. one minute jan is jumping out of a friend's car and crossing the street, but then it all goes to hell. or technically, deep space nine.

disclaimer: nothing belongs to me, as per usual

so I had this crazy dream the other night after a DS9 marathon and that's how this plot bunny was born. the first few are close together chronologically but after that I'm kind of just writing them in whatever order I feel like. be warned


brave new world: two

They let her out of the infirmary that night. Physically she is fine, they say, and the important thing is that she's comfortable. Jan is tempted to ask how she's supposed to be comfortable some 400 years in the future but figures that will just make them force more counseling sessions on her. So she keeps quiet, although it is quite unlike her to keep her mouth shut. Her reputation has always been one of talking too much and having poor tact.

Julian, the doctor, shows her to her "quarters," which she thinks is a funny word. Jan comments offhandedly that she will never get around to calling it that. He apologizes and explains he cannot stay to show her around further at the moment. Jan is only half listening but apparently it is someone's birthday or something and they are celebrating. Jan thinks sadly that there is nothing for her to celebrate.

Looking around, her first observation is that her room is simple, with a bed and a bathroom and a couch. It has what they say is a replicator. She feels uncomfortable using it, eating the food from it. It's funny because nuked food never bothered Jan but apparently replicated food does, just in principle. She doesn't think it tastes as good as real food, the only kind of food she's ever known. But it makes her bubble tea and and cupcakes, so she eats anyway.

Jan tries to sleep, really she does, but it takes forever. All she can think of is her home, so very far away and even then it's just a planet. The earth she could go and visit is not her home. None of the people who made it her home are even alive! They have been dead for centuries, six feet under for longer than this beloved Federation of the people on this station had even been in existence. The same Federation who says time travel is restricted, controlled, unreliable. There is no way to send her home, they said to her in the infirmary. She feels like she is drowning. How is she supposed to do this? Why her? She realizes everything and everyone she has ever known or loved is gone forever.

Jan she cries herself to sleep for what she knows will not be the last time.

The next day the doctor, Julian, is back to show her the station. He takes her to what he says is the Promenade. It's clear she really is on a space station because when she looks up and sees nothing but cold, dark space and a planet out of the large windows. For a minute Jan is so excited because she's in space! SPACE! How exciting and she can't believe it and then she remembers exactly what it means and Julian notices her slight twitch of a smile turn right back into a frown. Suddenly the idea of space, once something so fascinating to Jan, so alive in the ethos of her culture, terrifies her. Julian looks uncomfortable and shifts his body like he is about to change the subject when something catches Jan's eye.

"What's that?" she asks, pointing at a room with a strange symbol on the wall from which a group of people leave. At first she thinks they are human like her but Jan notices their noses. And suddenly she sees the bumps on a lot of people around her. Vaguely she remembers the redheaded woman, Major Kira, and her nose too. But clearly Jan had been too distracted by the Klingon. Commander Worf, they tell her his name is. All these titles make her head spin.

"A Bajoran temple," Julian answers. "This station is located by their home planet, Bajor. They have their religious services there, they go to pray..."

Her ears practically perk up when she hears the word 'pray.' Her heart just about leaps out of her chest and she has to chase it into the temple to get it back.

"Can...can we go in there?" she asks, voice so quiet he can barely hear her. "I think I might like to pray right now."

Julian looks surprised but takes her over. He doesn't go inside with her though, says it wouldn't be right. When she asks why he says he isn't a believer, he has no gods, and she wonders why not. But it gets brushed aside when she goes into the temple and feels immediately at ease. The Bajorans might not be of the same faith as Jan but the room is all about reverence and peace and that's what is important. She lights a candle and kneels, aware in that moment that she still wears her grandmother's rosary around her neck. Is it okay to pray to one God in the temple of another, she wonders? Hesitating, her fingers linger on the beads before decisively and yet carefully removing them. Maybe it is not but since this is an emergency, it will have to be okay. So that's what she does for the next hour or so... hail mary's, our father's, fatima prayers, glory be's, and hail holy queen's. She doesn't know a thing about where she is but her faith is all she has, so Jan clings to it like a child does its mother.

glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: a world without end. amen.

She forgets all about Julian and Deep Space Nine for a while. It is bliss.

hail, holy queen, mother of mercy. hail our life, our sweetness, and our hope. to you do we cry, poor banished children of eve. to you do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears...


okay so this one was a bit more serious than the first. and if there's any star trek incarnation I'd throw a catholic into, it'd be DS9. it'll be something she struggles with but not an epic part of this, considering it's a collection of oneshots.

also in case anyone is curious Jan lands herself here sometime between seasons 4 and 5. I won't write her into entire episodes but there'll be references to a few notable episodes in each season. hopefully.