The wardroom, minutes later . . .
"Um, Mister Ki . . .?"
"What?"
"What are you doing?" Douglas Tremblay asked.
To the surprise of the visitors from Enterprise, the head of a young boy – looking not more than a couple years older than Marissa Flores in Jean-Luc Picard's eyes – peeked out from an open hatchway in the deck near the main dining table. He was dressed in a simple white jumpsuit with an armband bearing Chinese characters wrapped around his left bicep. "I'm doing diagnostics on the central control relays, Captain. They run through the decks here. Now, if you'll kindly excuse me, I don't want to be interrupted. We need to get this ship back in operating order before we can even hope to get back to our universe." And with that, he ducked once more out of sight.
The visitors from Enterprise were all gaping save for Selar, who had arched an eyebrow in curiosity. "How old is he?" Picard then asked their hosts.
"He turned fourteen on the eighth of September."
People turned to see a girl of about the same age sitting at the table. Dressed in a very elegant yukata, she had electric blue hair centre-parted on her head and tied off in two stringy ponytails at her temples, they held in place by twin sets of red ball barrettes. Blue eyes twinkled from a very cute face. And a red earring shaped like a fat Arabic number "9" hung from her left ear. On seeing her, Troi blinked before her breath caught in her throat as her empathic senses nearly overloaded on picking up the incredible power this child seemed to project from her very soul. As she staggered, Worf and Riker both moved to support her. "Deanna!" the first officer cried out as Crusher and Selar both drew their medical tricorders and began to administer first aide.
Immediately, the young girl got off her chair and walked over, placing her fingertips on the empath's forehead. The ends of the fingers glowed slightly, causing Troi to gasp in surprise before she blinked, and then she immediately straightened herself as she stared at the younger woman before her. "Deanna, what's wrong?" Riker asked before he stared in curiosity at Morokuzu Ryōko. "What did you do to her?"
"Your beloved focused her empathy too much on me and sensed the dragon within my soul, Lord Commander," Ryōko stated as her blue eyes sparked with amusement. "I just used a little of my dragon's power to help her better focus. After all, she serves as your lord captain's spiritual strategist. It would not be right to see her injured because of the nature of my being, seeing that you are willing to assist us in our current predicament." She then gazed on Troi. "There are others like me aboard this ship, Lady Commander. Look for these." She tapped her earring in emphasis.
The visitors from Enterprise were quick to perk on sensing that this young girl seemed to know a lot more about them than she logically should given her quick recognition of the rank insignia on their collars. "Deanna, are you alright?" Crusher asked.
"Yes, I'm fine, Beverly," Troi responded. "I'm not sure what she did, but it certainly helped." As the others from Enterprise gazed at her, she added, "In a way, she almost feels the same as Kevin Uxbridge did to me when we went to Delta Rana IV." She then stared at the younger girl. "You wouldn't be immortal, would you?"
"Actually, no. But I have lived seventeen prior lives before my current one."
Silence.
"How do you know that?" Barclay asked.
A smile. "My magatama, good lieutenant." She tapped her earring. "Within it was placed the soul – or a copy of same; I know not which – of Zhūgě Liàng, the first chancellor of Shǔ Hàn in the third century C.E. on Earth." A shrug. "That is the reason that my birth name, 'Morokuzu Ryōko,' was given to me. The hànzì that went into 'Zhūgě Liàng' form three of the kanji of my birth name, with the addition of the '-ko' kanji for my given name as I am a woman."
More silence.
"The Romance of the Three Kingdoms . . . "
Eyes locked on Riker. "Number One?" Picard asked.
The commander grimaced. "It's an ancient novel that was based on the events of one of the most traumatic times of China's history, Captain; the fall of the Latter Hàn Dynasty into three competing governments around the time Miss Morokuzu indicated. Shǔ Hàn was one." He indicated Ryōko. "Zhūgě Liàng was a master strategist serving the founder of that particular government she mentioned: Liú Bèi, the Zhāoliè Emperor; he also served as the first chancellor as Miss Morokuzu just said. An incredibly wise man who was an inventor, as was his wife, Huáng Yuèyīng. He created a repeating version of the crossbow, landmines and even the wheelbarrow. Or so the legends about him state."
"What about me?"
Heads turned over as the young man who was inside the maintenance hatch peeked out again. As the visitors from Enterprise gaped – though some were quick to see his own red magatama earring – Ryōko smiled. "Tsukihana here – in his first life – was my wife, Huáng Yuèyīng. 'Ki Tsukihana' is the direct Japanese native reading of that name." She then winked at Troi, grinning. "Fortunately, he doesn't have a dragon inside him as I possess Fúlóng inside me."
"'Fúlóng?'" Worf asked.
"That was actually Chancellor Zhūgě's nickname, Commander Worf," Padre Vincent Klein answered. "If Commander Riker doesn't remember this, it means 'hidden dragon.' And while she may not be as powerful as the other tōshi who are spiritually bonded to dragons like Fúlóng, she can be quite the handful if someone tries to threaten her directly. And, of course, if young Tsukihana doesn't have one of his remarkable inventions close at hand to obliterate whoever would dare threaten his girlfriend."
The Klingon took that in, and then he gazed at Ryōko. "You are a warrior."
"In a sense of the term, yes," she stated. "However, as I'm sure you are aware, Master Worf, warriors don't always have to be physical when dealing with enemies."
A nod. "Indeed."
"Can you explain how your boyfriend is able to work on this ship's systems, miss?" La Forge asked after taking a quick glance with his VISOR into the maintenance tunnel where Tsukihana was busy doing a scan of the circuits in one terminal link.
"He would be qualified to work on them as he actually built this ship."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
And then . . .
"What?" Picard gasped.
"Your society is THAT advanced?" Barclay asked.
"Actually, we simply had no choice but to become that advanced," Reverend Vincent answered. "While we're waiting for young Tsukihana to finish his work, let's sit down and have some snacks and drinks while we explain our situation to you."
"That sounds like a good idea, Padre," Captain Leclerc said. "Miss Negishi!" he called out.
A grey-eyed girl with shaggy raven hair in naval combat dress peeked out from the serving window on the aft bulkhead. "Sandwiches and salads are five minutes away, Captain," Negishi Chihiro announced. "We can prepare coffee and tea for everyone now."
"Please do so," the infantry officer stated.
"Yes, sir!"
An hour later . . .
"So because of alien races who are interested in your Earth – especially the race whose agents kidnapped Mister Ki and his friend, not to mention the other race who challenged your people in this 'tag race' with your director's brother over a year ago in your time period – your governments, while still respecting each other's sovereign rights, elected to adopt the ships Mister Ki and Miss Hakaru had built into an 'Earth Defence Force' that's still effectively in the formulation stage," Picard recapped.
"That's correct, Captain Picard," Vincent Klein replied. Everyone was enjoying sandwiches – including pure vegetarian confections created for Selar and T'Thelaih Mason; even if she was a follower of the ways of the late Master Sybok, the Marine captain did adhere to standard Vulcan dietary principles – and either tea or coffee (with a tall glass of prune juice for Worf) at the main dining table. "Much that it would have been more proper and right for us to develop the basic technology that makes ships like Haida and her sisters possible on our own, Fate had other things in mind."
"Fortunately, everyone does realise that the instant you get past the line of the thermosphere, you pretty much hang up the nationalities at the door," Alice Klein then stated. "And all the nations who have battleships assigned to their defence forces or navies – not to mention the nations awaiting the construction of the new Type Two destroyers and Type Three frigates that are being built by the Avalonians as we speak – do accept that any sort of national rivalries on the surface have no place in the E.D.F."
"Such as what's happening right now in the Middle East in our dimension," Kevin Leclerc mused. "The current government of Tunisia looks like it's about to finally collapse. Fortunately for us, there's no Type One battleship that's part of the Tunisian Armed Forces, but thanks to the size of their population, they'll be given a Type Two when she's finally completed in the next couple months." He then looked towards the still-open hatchway. "What's the name of the Type Two for Tunisia?" he called out.
"Tunisian Forces Starship Qarṭāj!" Tsukihana replied.
Picard perked. "Named in honour of Carthage?"
"Why not?" Reverend Alice asked. "Political ideologies are volatile things to deal with, Captain. When they were choosing the names for the Type One ships, Director Moroboshi, Mister Ki and Miss Hakaru elected to choose either famous ships for those nations who had strong or old naval traditions – Haida, Arizona, Hood, Bismarck and the like – or either a prominent physical feature, city name or famous citizen who was not affiliated to any specific political faction from the country in question."
"Like what?" Mason asked.
"The Syrian Naval Starship Madīnatul Yāsmīn takes her name from a nickname of the city of Damascus, 'the city of jasmine,' Captain Mason," Reverend Vincent then explained. "The Iranian Islamic Republic Starship Firdawsī takes her name from a famous poet; he was the writer of the Šāhnāmeh, the Book of Kings. The Egyptian Naval Starship An Nīl was named after the River Nile, which was the effective natural core of their civilisation. It just goes on and on. Seeing how careful and how respectful Director Moroboshi, Mister Ki and Miss Hakaru were in their original choices for the Type One battleships, all the parties now joining in for Phase Two of the Earth Defence Force's expansion entrusted them to make the right choices for the destroyers to come into commission over the next couple of years. And by then, sixty-seven percent of the nations on Earth will have some sort of representation in the Earth Defence Force. The other thirty-three percent – plus all the people who have battleships and destroyers in service or coming into service – will be able to commission one of the Type Three frigates by the end of next year."
The visitors from Enterprise took a moment to absorb that. "That could be the catalyst that could bring your Earth together like ours was," Crusher noted.
"Maybe, Doctor," Haida's ship's chaplain stated. "But most likely, what will happen is that the individual nations will retain their nominal independence and full control in internal and international affairs, while delegating all the necessary extraterrestrial matters to the United Nations and its subordinate authorities such as the Earth Defence Force. They already do that with the Special Committee on Alien Activities, which has been Earth's primary agency for dealing with aliens since 1947, when the first known contact with non-Terrans happened in the Roswell Incident." He then crossed his arms. "There is also precedence in our universe. A powerful interstellar union to the outspin and spinward of us – the Royal Kingdoms of Yehisril – are ruled by a council of sixteen crown princes even if there is the position of Lord Protector as administrative head-of-state for the whole entity." He smirked. "The Yehisrites tried the united empire approach for over a thousand years, but they grew tired of the corruption and put the entire old imperial family to the sword about two centuries ago."
Worf perked. "They are warriors?"
"Yes, Commander. From what I've heard, they fight as well with swords as they do with long rifles. I think they'd find your race quite fascinating."
"If they don't end up killing each other along the way," Troi deadpanned, instantly sensing that the chaplain had slipped slightly.
Laughter filled the room. "I honestly hope you didn't mean that as an insult, Commander," Naoko stated as she stared askance at the counsellor.
"I do not consider it an insult, Lieutenant," Worf stated. "My people can be quite . . . " He paused before nodding. "'Hot-headed,' I believe would be the best term to describe it." He sat back as all his Terran shipmates and Captain Mason stared wide-eyed at him. "We are a race of hunters. We will always be a race of hunters. As I once told the captain a couple years ago, I am not a merry man!" As the others from the Enterprise save Selar laughed as they remembered that incident with Q and the rogue archaeologist Elaine Vash four years ago, he added, "I would believe, given the great diversity of your own universe . . . " – their hosts had shown them a local galactic map of their dimension's Earth; the Starfleet personnel had been totally surprised that humanoid life had actually arisen on Neptune of all planets in their host's home universe – " . . . the Yehisrites view themselves in a similar manner."
"They do. But then again, their home planet is not just home to a humanoid race of sentients, but a dozen other sentient races, including a race of spirit-dragons, a race of tigers, a race of serpents and several other animal forms," Ryōko stated before sipping her tea. "Is that the same way on your homeworld, Master Worf?"
A shake of the head. "No."
"That would be one incredible planet to explore," Reginald Barclay noted.
"Well, maybe once we figure out a way to get home, you might take advantage of that and reciprocate a visit to our dimension," Reverend Vincent stated.
Picard nodded. "That actually might be a possibility. We actually have records of encounters with parallel dimensions in our history, especially with what we call the 'mirror universe,' where the equivalent of the United Federation of Planets actually took the form of a conquering Terran Empire." He shook his head on remembering reading the logs of the original starship Enterprise and her crew's encounter with their counterparts of the I.S.S. Enterprise in 2267. "We'll have to consider it."
"It'll make exploration effectively limitless," La Forge noted.
"But there will be greater risk in that regard," Barclay warned.
"Not to mention the fact that it is known that interdimensional travellers will be forced home after a set period of time," Naoko added.
"That was proven in your universe?" Selar asked.
"Yes, Healer," Haida's Elder Mother replied. "My own race's creators, in the early stages of the Age of Gisan'cha twenty-two thousand years ago, learned that they could not remain in another universe for more than one standard solar year." The visitors from Enterprise had been given the explanation about the Avalonians, which had shocked them just as much as learning of an Earth from the early Twenty-first Century C.E. possessing warp-capable starships and interacting with neighbouring alien races. Much to Troi's confusion, Picard had been personally quite rattled by those revelations, though she was quick to see him moving to keep his reaction masked from the view of others (though she no doubt suspected that Naoko and Ryōko would have sensed it right away).
"By what measurement?" Barclay wondered.
"It actually depends on the planet of your birth, Lieutenant."
"Ah!"
"So if all else fails, all we have to do is wait a year before being sent back home automatically," Leclerc mused before sipping his coffee.
"Hopefully avoiding being phased into the heart of a sun along the way," Mason wryly warned. "That would really ruin someone's day."
"Oui. Good point."
"Well, I certainly would say these people have got off to an incredible start."
Eyes locked on William Riker. "What made you say that, Will?" Troi asked.
He indicated Takanashi Naoko with a smile. "Look how fast they accepted an alien race to live amongst them, Deanna? Especially given that they're a race of inducted sentients! Don't you remember all the trouble we had with Data and Lal?"
Nods around the table; Troi was quick to sense that their hosts knew of both Enterprise's android operations officer and his late daughter. "I assume these two you speak of are also inducted sentients?" Naoko asked with perfectly-masked innocence.
"Yes, but Commander Data and his late daughter are androids, not fully-organic bioroids like yourself and your crewmates, Lieutenant," Selar answered.
"What happened to his child?" Reverend Vincent asked.
Naoko was quick to sense a gloom of sadness fall over their visitor's hearts; even Selar felt profound regret over what had happened to Lal, even if said incident had happened five years before in their timeline. "She suffered a massive cascade failure of her positronic net," La Forge said as he felt a tear roll down his cheek. "Try as Data might to repair it, it just overwhelmed her at the end."
"Is the Young Mistress Lal's body still intact?" Ryōko then asked.
Everyone from the Enterprise perked on hearing that. "What did Data do with Lal's body?" Troi then asked as people looked on La Forge.
"The body itself is in storage in his laboratory," the chief engineer stated. "But please, Counsellor; don't tell him I said that to you."
"I'm sure he wouldn't mind," Crusher stated.
The chief engineer winced. "Actually, maybe he will."
"What do you mean, Geordi?" Barclay asked.
A sigh. "Well, after that accident with you on the holodeck, Doctor, he decided he had no choice but to use the emotion chip Doctor Soong built for him."
The officers of Haida were quick to sense the looks of shock and surprise that crossed their visitors' faces on hearing that. "But wasn't that chip corrupted when Lore stole it from the doctor and used it himself?" Crusher demanded.
"Yeah, it was, but Data felt he had no choice! Look what he did to you, Doc?" La Forge stated. "That was just his attempt at emulating humour!"
"Is Master Data threatened by this?" Ryōko cut in.
Another sigh. "I can't say."
"You should have consulted with us first, Geordi!" Crusher stated.
"What was I supposed to do? He's my friend!"
"Couldn't Tsukihana or Ayami look at him?"
Eyes locked on Vincent Klein. "I doubt Tsukihana will be able to assist in that regard as he tends to gravitate to things that can be used to break other things," Ryōko stated. "But I believe Ayami-onēsan could assist in this case." She tapped a control on the table. "Shokatsuryō to Jun'iku! Onē-san, are you busy right now?"
"Not really," Hakaru Ayami called up from the main computer room. "Why?"
"Would you come to the wardroom, please? There's something we need to ask you."
"Coming up!"
Surprised by the sudden unspoken offer just made by their hosts, the Enterprise personnel exchanged looks, and then Picard smiled before tapping his communicator. "Picard to Enterprise," he called out. "Commander Data, can you be relieved at this time?"
"Affirmative, sir," the android called back . . .
Ten minutes later . . .
"Well, it doesn't look too bad, but it'll go crazy sooner or later."
"A most intriguing supposition, Miss Hakaru. What is the evidence you possess?"
Ayami smirked. "Well, believe it or not, looking at your central matrix, Master Data, reminds me of the central control computer of the Sagussan dockyard Tsukihana and I found at Den'sha Two, then later used to built this ship and her sisters," she explained, and then she gazed on the others in the room. "His central mind was built on interconnected mesonium crystals instead of positronic relays as what Master Data here has, but the basic scientific principles of inducted sentience as discovered on Sagussa ages ago seem to have found a counterpart in what his creator used to build him and this chip."
"'Mesonium?'" La Forge asked.
"Chemical symbol Ms, atomic number 181," the ponytailed caramel-haired teenager with the deep blue eyes explained as she passed a scanner over the open cranial port on the right side of Data's temple. William Riker and Worf had returned to the Federation starship to ensure a senior command presence there while the operations officer was spending time aboard Haida. "You probably can detect atoms of the stuff in the regenerative enzymes in the Avalonians aboard the ship with your scanners." Like the Canadian military personnel, all the tōshi aboard Haida had been forewarned about not revealing their knowledge of the Federation's universe. "It's the only atom in my universe that seems to be perfectly conductive with the souls of all sentient beings. Then again, that's what the Seekers probably intended when they made that stuff."
"Who are the Seekers?" Troi asked.
"They're believed to be the first sentient race of our universe, Lady Deanna," Ryōko explained, making the counsellor blush on her being called "lady" by the reborn chancellor of Shǔ Hàn and current middle school student/Buddhist temple maiden. "A race of omnipotents, but they disappeared over three billion years ago. They scattered what are known as 'power jewels' – all made of a mixture of different types of mesonium compounds – over all the known life-bearing worlds across the Universe. Each of them were specifically programmed to bestow almost god-like power on a worthy host who has to be an orphaned female of a sentient species who has endured physical or emotional hardship while growing up. The 'Jewel Warrior' – as they are called – for Earth was Dean Raeburn. A major in the Canadian Army's air cavalry corps during the Second World War; she would later command a team of metahumans in the defence of North America against Axis metahumans who were used to strike far from the front lines."
"Air cavalry?" T'Thelaih Mason then asked before shaking her head. "There was no such formation in the Canadian military in our universe's history, not like the United States Army possessed in the wake of the introduction of helicopters. It was the Royal Canadian Air Force that performed tactical air functions for the Army."
"Not exactly true, Captain Mason," Data stated. During the time he had stood as officer of the watch on Enterprise while the away team was aboard Haida, he had reviewed all the known historical databanks about that country's military. "During World War Two, the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery formed three airborne observation post squadrons – Numbers 664, 665 and 666 – with the Royal Canadian Air Force to serve as forward airborne artillery observation units in support of the First Canadian Army. After the Korean War, the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps formed Number 1 Helicopter Transport Platoon in 1964. That unit was transformed into 450 Heavy Transport Helicopter Squadron four years later upon the organisational unification of the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force into the Canadian Armed Forces." He then glanced at Captain Jessica Miller, who had come to the wardroom shortly after the android had beamed over from Enterprise for a coffee break. "I would assume that in your reality, Captain Miller, the air cavalry service was a more offensive arm."
"You're right about that, Commander," the fighter pilot said before sipping her coffee. "They first started out as aero reconnaissance battalions of the Canadian Corps in World War One, then were made their own corps in 1920. They actually helped get the R.C.A.F. started, but then the big fighting between the Air Force and the Air Cavalry Corps started up over who would be the government regulators of civilian air services in Canada. World War Two finally came along and the Air Cavalry got hold of a really nasty little ground attack aircraft called the Sopwith Canada So-48 Camel II; Tommy Sopwith came over to Canada after World War One to restart his company in Ontario after his old company in Britain went bankrupt. The Camel II could also double as a day fighter if need be; it was built for long range and carrying heavy munitions loads. They used it as a tank buster; a combat regiment back then flew four attack squadrons of sixteen planes each, plus a reconnaissance squadron of sixteen Pup IIs – the scout version of the Camel II – and a support squadron of C-47 Dakotas for transport support to the ground brigade the regiment was attached to." She nodded to Ryōko. "Major Raeburn served with the senior unit of the Canadian Air Cavalry Corps, the 10th Saskatchewan Cavalry Regiment, until she was called off after Pearl Harbour to form the War Hawks, the military metahuman unit Ryōko here talked about."
"They got reduced to nil strength or converted back to ground armoured or infantry regiments after Unification," Kevin Leclerc added. "But when the Avalonians all came to Earth in February, they proposed restoring them to their traditional role as Army close air support. So right now, they're moving to take over everything that's vertical while pure air scouts like Jessica here handle everything that's horizontal or flying from this big beast we were given thanks to the girl trying to unscramble your central processor, Commander. Not to mention her friend in the tube under our feet."
A sudden laugh exploded from Data on hearing that. As everyone gaped at him, Ayumi gazed on her scanner. "Well, your chip took that easy. How do you feel?"
Data blinked, and then he looked confused. "That was . . . funny?" He then paused as he ran through what he had just heard, and then he nodded. "Sublime, but still quite funny." He gazed on Leclerc. "Merci, Capitaine. I do appreciate the experience."
He grinned. "De rien, Capitaine de corvette."
"Now, try to think of something in the past that you know was a joke but couldn't appreciate the humour at the time," Ayami then advised.
Data considered that, and then his body began to quake before laughter escaped him. "Oh, my!" he breathed out. "Oh, my! I get it now! I GET IT!"
"What, Data? What?" La Forge asked.
More laughter, and then the android gazed on his best friend. "When you said to Commander Riker, 'The clown can stay . . . but the Ferengi in the gorilla suit has to go!'" Even more laughter before he stopped, and then he blinked. "Oh, my . . .!"
"When did I say that?" the chief engineer demanded.
"The Farpoint mission!" Data then stated before laughing again. "We were on the bridge! You told a joke . . . and that was the punch line! Don't you remember it?"
La Forge blinked, and then he grinned. "Oh, I remember now!"
"That was eight years ago!" Crusher stated; she and Selar were now standing behind Ayami, monitoring the situation with their own tricorders.
"Well, at least a joke fondly remembered even after that length of time is much better than a joke that could never be properly appreciated," Reverend Vincent said.
Chuckles from many of the others in the room. "How is he?" Troi asked.
"Well, his relays are taking the new emotional input, but there's not much in the way of a sort of self-discipline buffer to prevent the input from overloading all his synapses," Ayami stated. "Master Data, when were you first activated full-time?"
"Twenty-three thirty-eight," he replied, a look of confusion on his face.
"And this is now 2371, which means you've been active for thirty-three years," Ayami stated, shaking her head. "You know, I can admire a man like Doctor Soong for creating someone as wonderful as you, but I wonder if he really thought out the idea of giving you an emotion chip after you lived a life of that amount of time without it!"
"How dare he . . .?"
Everyone jolted on hearing that angry hiss. "Data . . .?" Troi gasped.
"ENOUGH!"
The android gasped before he found his vision filled with the angry face and glowing golden dragon-slit eyes of one Morokuzu Ryōko. "Be calm, young child of the magic of metal!" she snarled in a booming voice that made the other visitors – even Worf and Selar – from Enterprise take a cautious step clear while the people from Haida remained calm; they either knew or had witnessed dragon-possessed tōshi run loose beforehand, so seeing Fúlóng seize control of the young temple maiden didn't make them blink. And there was their knowledge of the Noukiite free warrior known as "She Who Speaks to Dragons." "Even if he did not comprehend what you had endured from the day of your full awakening to the day he perished in your arms, Master Data, Noonian Soong is still your sire and loved you with every fibre of his being! But because he was human, he was capable of making mistakes! As he did by not taking into account that your brother was woken when he summoned you to the third world of Terlina! Remember, you owe him your EXISTENCE, child!" And with that, her eyes returned to their normal blue before she smiled, and then walked away from them, leaving behind a gaping android.
Ayumu returned to scanning Data's positronic relays. "Well, that didn't overload him, either," she calmly stated. "You okay, Commander?"
Data blinked, and then he asked, "What was that?"
"An entity almost as powerful if not as powerful as Q himself," Troi answered.
"It would be advised to not anger someone of her nature," Selar added.
He considered that, and then nodded. "I will keep that in mind, Doctor."
"Wise decision," Ayumu advised.
"Kōmei-dono, what has upset you so . . .?"
People turned . . .
"Hiromi-onēsama! What are you doing out of bed?" Naoko demanded.
A groan. "Naoko-chan, please! Not so loud!"
. . . to see a teenage woman in jeans and a red T-shirt with the image of a jackrabbit on it slowly walk into the wardroom, holding an ice pack over the left side of her head. Beside her was a girl the same age, also in stylish clothes, though she had glasses over her eyes and her hair was a lovely shade of caramel, styled long into twin ponytails with ball barrettes holding them in place; her companion had chocolate brown hair cut in a shaggy taper. Their eyes were different as well: the one with glasses had eyes the shade of a green field while her companion's eyes matched her hair. "And what on Earth are you doing out of bed, young lady?" Reverend Vincent asked as he walked over to assist Koro Sonami help Moroboshi Hiromi into her chair, which the reborn emperor did with a groan. "Aren't you supposed to be in a meditative trance?"
"Much that I could stand a little while more in such a trance, good Padre, Sick Bay gets boring after a bit!" Hiromi hissed. "Not to mention the fact that now that she is in a new body and resting after tre'cha, I just learned the Lady Michelle snores!"
The people from Enterprise blinked. "'In a new body?'" Troi asked.
"There was no choice," Sonami explained. "The damage to her nerves was too great; even if she could recover from the electrical shock, she would've been paralysed for life." A shrug. "Unfortunately, Cooper-sensei doesn't have the DNA-neutral gene-recombinant therapy drug necessary to help Anderson-taii recover that way, so . . . "
"Body-swap," Miller stated.
"Holy . . .!"
Eyes locked on Geordi La Forge. "You mean to say that you could actually shift a person's very soul into another body like that?" the chief engineer demanded.
"Of course," Naoko stated. "How do you think Ryōko-onēsama, Ayami-onēsama, Sonami-onēsama and Hiromi-onēsama became Avalonians themselves?"
Silence.
"The impact on your society . . . "
"May be profound, Doctor," Reverend Alice Klein cut Beverly Crusher off. "But even the most religiously and socially conservative people on Earth are willing to let it go given how the Avalonians were treated by the Niphentaxians."
"Besides, the Avalonians can interbreed with Terrans, so the whole human race is about to take a massive quantum leap genetically into the future," Kevin Leclerc added. "There'll be the nay-sayers, of course; there're nay-sayers to anything that happens where people say humanity will benefit from it. It's the nature of being human."
"And even if we aren't exactly 'human' in the Terran sense, we're human enough in spirit and soul to be accepted as same," Hiromi added before she gazed on Jean-Luc Picard. "A thousand humble pardons for our intruding on your universe so suddenly, Lord Captain. I pray our presence here is not disrupting a vital mission."
Picard smiled as he walked over, hand out. "Be assured, Director Moroboshi, as of this time, you are our mission." He grasped her offered hand, and then he shook Sonami's hand. "On behalf of the United Federation of Planets, I'd like to welcome you all to our universe. And I hope we can help get you back home soon."
"For that, good sir, you have our most profound thanks," Hiromi stated.
"So who were you back then?" La Forge asked.
"What do you mean, Commander?" Sonami wondered.
As Troi tried not to grin on noting that slip-up, La Forge pointed to his ear in emphasis. "In the Three Kingdoms period of China?"
Hiromi and Sonami blinked, and then they laughed. "Ah, you've been told about that, I see!" the reborn emperor stated, and then waved to her cousin. "My most lovely cousin here was a true hero of the land at the time, Lord Commander: Master Liú Bèi, Lord Xuándé; later, the Zhāoliè Emperor of Shǔ Hàn. These days, she is the president of the student council of Seito High School, the Lady Koro Sonami." As Sonami giggled in embarrassment at her cousin's words, Hiromi then added, "Who, in her first life, felt forced to assume the title of Emperor of Shǔ Hàn when the son of the then-late Master Cáo Cāo, Lord Mèngdé, decided to depose my own child from the Dragon Throne and declare himself the Wèi Emperor of a new dynasty."
"Then you were Liú Hóng, the Xiàolíng Emperor of the Latter Hàn Dynasty?"
A nod. "The same. And whatever is wrong with you, good sir?" Hiromi asked as she stared in confusion – Deanna Troi was quick to sense it was false, though it was remarkably well-disguised – at the android now at Ayami's tender mercies.
"An android experiencing emotion for the first time since his activation thirty-three years ago, My Emperor," Ayami helpfully explained.
A nod. "I assume you are moving to aid the good commander in mastering his new abilities, Bunjaku-dono?" Hiromi then asked, a knowing grin crossing her face.
"But of course, Majesty!"
"Then do not let me stop you."
Laughter filled the wardroom . . .
To be continued . . .
WRITER'S NOTES:
1) The incident with Kevin Uxbridge that Troi recalled at the start of this part was depicted in the TNG third-season episode "The Survivors." For those who don't remember that episode, Uxbridge was a Douwd, an immortal being who – after his human wife and the colonists on Delta Rana IV were wiped out by a race known as the Husnock – unleashed his power to wipe out the Husnock to the very last being. To ensure he could not be sensed for what he really was, Uxbridge used his power to overwhelm Troi's empathic senses when the Enterprise came to investigate.
2) Translations: VISOR – an acronym meaning "Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement"; De rien – Literally "of nothing," this is one way of saying "You're welcome" in French; Capitaine de corvette – Corvette Captain, the French translation of the rank of lieutenant commander.
3) Negishi Chihiro is a background character from Ojōsama Express.
4) Worf was introduced to prune juice – which he judged a warrior's drink – in the TNG third-season episode "Yesterday's Enterprise." Ironically, I was inspired by that and intend to play that concept up with the Yehisrites – whom I based a lot on the Klingons – in future stores in Twenty Years Later; I will have Varanko (who first appeared in The Senior Year story "Ancient Ties") discover cod liver oil and accept such quite positively.
5) The incident with Q and Vash (whom I give the given name Elaine) was depicted in the TNG fourth-season episode "Qpid."
6) The concept of multiple sentient species being alive and active on Yehisril – as well as interacting with each other – was first introduced in The Senior Year side-story "The Ones Left Behind."
7) The chemical composition of mesonium (meson) was also mentioned in my Harry Potter story The Icemaidens and the Philosopher's Stone. The concept of the Jewel Warriors was introduced in my story Wanderers. Major Dean Raeburn is a character I created that I've mentioned from time to time in my works; she appears in The Thunderbolt's Tears. The concept of the Royal Canadian Corps of Air Cavalry (RCCAC) is my invention. The idea of Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith (1888-1989) actually moving to Canada in the wake of the collapse of his own company in Britain after World War Two is, of course, fictional. The story behind the three combined Royal Canadian Artillery/Royal Canadian Air Force squadrons – James Doohan, who played Scotty in the original Star Trek, was a member of 666 Air Observation Post Squadron during World War Two – and Number 1 Helicopter Transport Platoon RCASC/450 Heavy Transport Helicopter Squadron is, however, quite real.
8) Data finally encountered his late father, Noonian Soong, in the TNG fourth-season episode "Brothers." It was here that Data would have received the emotion chip that his father had prepared for him, but such was stolen by his brother Lore in that episode and would not be recovered until the seventh-season opening episode "Descent, Part II."
