The Bester of Both Worlds, chapter 4
Captain Pavel Chekov felt it quite ironic that in all his years in Starfleet he had to do without any special abilities like the majority of his fellow humans, but now, in the twilight of his years in Starfleet, he was suddenly given the gift of telepathy. He had often wondered what it would be like to be able to read minds like Miranda Jones. Mental telepathy would have come in handy on many occasions, such as the time his former captain was ordered into the Romulan neutral zone to swipe the cloaking device or when Spock forgot to put his visor on when the Medusan ambassador was linking up with the first officer's mind. Now he realized that there were some disadvantages with the gift as well as advantages. Whoever this Bester person was, it was obvious that he wasn't liked, to put it mildly. Through his many years as a Starfleet officer, he often thought how incredible it was that humanity had made it into space; more so in this reality. Most of the other races the Enterprise crew had encountered had some sort of advantage over humankind. As he waited for Clare to regain consciousness, having learned from their doctor Franklin that she had also sustained a hairline skull fracture, he was learning from the woman named Talia Winters that this universe had more human telepaths than in his own, and that psi cops were deemed necessary to control and manage their activities. Pavel thought that that was akin to slavery, being that once the psi cops found out that someone had telepathic ability, they were forced to join the psi corps or go to jail or take strong harmful drugs to curtail their natural abilities for the rest of their lives. He didn't like that one little bit. There was one somewhat amusing aspect to this. Spock would only rate a "P-5" on their esper scale. He learned that Bester and people like him were rated much higher. Talia asked him who Spock was and he explained that he was once one of his commanding officers and that he was not human. Chekov found out that non-humans were exempt from the Earth laws for telepathy. In a way, he was glad about that, but he also found it a little strange.
Londo had been given some ointment for his rash. Curious about the alien Chekov mentioned, he inquired as to what they looked like and what they were called. When the captain explained that they were extremely intelligent, had pointed ears and upswept eyebrows and green blood, he was astonished. Chekov had just described the race that his species had wiped out on their planet. Chekov still had a shocked look on his face when Commander Ivanova stepped into the room.
When Susan Ivanova first heard of the man who looked like Bester but wasn't, she thought that Garibaldi was playing some sort of unfunny joke on her at her expense. She was still wary as she walked into the med lab; not looking forward to meeting the man who looked like the one who, to her, represented all that was unsavory and evil in this universe. She could tell almost immediately that this person who called himself Captain Chekov was not the monster that she knew. She saw that he was picking up on her trepidation when it came to meeting him. He spoke Russian to her in her mind, putting an end to her speculation that this was a joke. She knew that Bester did not speak the language.
***
Roberta materialized on the dead world, relieved that the aftershocks from the earthquake had subsided. The planet had a slightly stronger gravity than Earth, and, at first, she found it was hard to walk around. It felt as if she was wading through thick mud. She looked around, realizing that it might be a long time before she was given another assignment on another planet. In all her young years, she never dreamed that she would actually be on an alien world. The Guardian had stopped smoldering and there were alien ruins from a long dead civilization that could be seen as far as the eye could see. After turning over a few fallen rocks, she located the dropped and damaged communicator. Picking it up carefully, she spoke into her own wrist communications device and dematerialized. She reappeared in Seven's apartment/headquarters and he adjusted the controls for the year 1974, took the small device from her hand, and wished her luck at locating Offenhouse. He smiled and told her that he found that the seventies sucked like an Electrolux, and were not nearly as fun as the sixties. She marveled at the period costume he had replicated for her. She was wearing a pink pantsuit with a white shirt with wide pointed collars that extended to her shoulders. The pants were bell bottoms. Her head was adorned with a lovely Gypsy-like scarf. She was also given a suede overcoat with faux sheepskin lining and a pair of gloves to match, being that she would be materializing in cold weather in the month of February. She closed her eyes as she was ushered into the safe-like enclosure with the time transporter, not wanting to see the blue swirling mist that was transporting her into the next decade.
***
When it was discovered that Alfred Bester had sobered up, he was released from jail. He did not know what he should do next, being that he was totally unfamiliar with his surroundings. Before he left the jail, he saw a calendar hanging on the wall. He was not too surprised to find that he was in the twentieth century. However, he wondered how he could have been transported to this time period. Suddenly, he saw a young woman approach him as quickly as the icy streets of downtown Kiev would allow.
"Captain Chekov, boy am I glad to see you! How did you get here? I thought that your transportation was destroyed!"
Bester frowned, not having the slightest idea who she was and why she was addressing him by a different name. He suddenly wished he had his telepathic abilities back, but wishing was not going to make it so. He saw that she was looking him over with curiosity at the strange black uniform he was still wearing.
"Young lady, I haven't a clue as to who you are, and my name isn't Chekov. I'm Alfred Bester."
Rather nonplussed, Roberta apologized and left him standing there, suddenly feeling just a little bit frightened. There was something not quite right about the way he was looking at her, so she decided it was best to get as far away from him as possible. She considered that everyone probably had a double in this world, and she had just met Chekov's evil twin. She did not know how right she was.
