Star Trek Voyager characters are the property of Paramount Pictures
Hearts Astray
Chapter 28
A MONTH LATER
In Chakotay's quarters on Voyager, Kathryn carefully put his belongings into a box. He didn't have much, as he'd come to Voyager with nothing and had collected little over the years, but what he did have she wanted to keep safe. For 4 months Voyager had been left exactly as it was on their return, so every crewmember would have ample time to pick up their belongings, but in a couple of days work was to begin on Voyager that would turn her into a museum. This meant Kathryn had to collect together Chakotay's personal things, even though she'd have rathered him do it himself as he'd planned to when he got back from Trebus, or strangers would do it instead. If Starfleet Command knew Chakotay was on his way home, then perhaps they would have extended the grace period, but they didn't know as Kathryn hadn't told them. Only her mother, sister, B'Elanna, Tom, Harry, and The Doctor knew. If word got out that Chakotay was making his way home, then his enemies, Cardassian and otherwise, would hunt for him. Tuvok she would have told, only he was still on Vulcan, and Seven she would have told too, only she was now back in space. The ex-drone had recently joined Starfleet, being welcomed in as a Lieutenant due to her experience and knowledge, and immediately she'd volunteered herself for a short-range exploration mission. Kathryn could not trust anyone else with the information. There were undercover agents in Starfleet, even at the highest levels, and she would not risk Chakotay's safety by trusting the wrong person. Although his message had been a ray of light in a void of darkness, a ray that had lit up her life, until he was actually home, she would still be lost in this twilight of uncertainty.
But as she knew he was on his way home, she had changed her mind about making their marriage and her pregnancy public. It was now impossible to hide her pregnancy from close family and friends, as her bump was considerable, but at work she was managing to conceal it by wearing a padded bra-top and jacket, and in public a long coat and scarf did the trick. She was wearing such a coat now, a long but lightweight one of pastel blue that flowed to her feet, and a matching scarf was draped around her neck. Some unkind reports in the media had commented on her weight soaring Voyager's return, one article going as far as to make picture comparisons of her changing weight over the years, but Kathryn found the whole thing amusing rather than upsetting. The reporters clearly had nothing better to do! But the less time she spent at work, or in public, the better. So, as soon as Mission Mousetrap was over, this being the name of the operation to trap The Atoners using Borka, she was going to take a temporary leave of absence. Then, when Chakotay was home and their marriage was public, she was going to take maternity leave. Because of his abduction, Chakotay's teaching post at the Academy had been given to someone else until the next academic year, so Chakotay would be off work too. This meant they could finally be together without any professional demands on their time. After all the years of hardwork, sacrifice and denial, this was something they both needed.
Mission Mousetrap, which everyone agreed was the only way to catch The Atoners, was scheduled to take place this weekend. Borka was going to fly to his homeworld, pretend to breakdown enroute, and send out a distress call. Hopefully The Atoners would intercept it and capture him. Unknown to them, he would be wearing a prototype device under his skin that would send out a homing signal capable of penetrating security and cloaking shields. This signal would be received by cloaked Starfleet ships and from it they would be able to pinpoint the exact location of The Atoners. As soon as they did, they'd surround the ship and disable their cloak. This plan was not risk free, many things could go wrong from the homing device not working to The Atoners not being an alone crew, but the odds of success were in their favor. For too long the investigation team had been relying on information given by the double agent, information that had led them to believe The Atoners were at least five crews strong, but Kathryn and B'Elanna had disregarded all information from the double agent that could not be corroborated by independent evidence and drawn their own conclusions. This was that the Atoners were an alone crew on an alone ship who happened to be very clever. There was also a chance, of course, that The Atoners would not fall for the bait. But Kathryn was confident they would. Before abandoning his Maquis crew for Chakotay's more principled one, Borka had belonged to a crew that had committed atrocities against civilians, so he would be very high on The Atoners "much wanted" list. They would not be able to resist the temptation to bite.
When all Chakotay's things were neatly packed away, Kathryn had the box transported to her apartment. Then, before leaving the ship that had been her home for seven years, she visited her quarters. They were empty now, as she had collected her things the day after Chakotay had left for Trebus, and tears of nostalgia filled her eyes as she looked around. The Voyager years had been difficult and dangerous ones, but also the most incredible of her life. Even though she was glad to be home, and was looking forward to the future, a part of her would always miss Voyager.
Suddenly, as Kathryn walked towards her former bedroom, she heard someone call her name. The voice was faint, like a whisper in the wind, but it definitely called her name. Kathryn glanced around the room but there was no one and nothing to see. Dismissing the incident as a trick of the mind, she resumed her walk to her bedroom. But, just as she reached the door, the voice called her again. It was louder this time, urgent, and Kathryn looked around again. But again there was nothing to see, nothing but empty quarters. Then, in the corner of her eye, she saw a green light. She turned towards it and saw a pale green orb by the window. It was flickering, pulsating, and growing bigger and brighter. Kathryn hurried over to her temperamental replicator, which had survived dismantling by their getting home, and manually replilcated a tricorder and phaser. For once, the replicator did as it was bid and Kathryn quickly picked up the produced items. But when she scanned the orb with the tricorder, it picked up no anomalous readings. It was as though the orb wasn't there. Then the voice spoke again. It was coming from the orb and Kathryn shivered when she realized the voice was her own.
"Kathryn," it cried. "If you can hear me, phaser the orb."
Kathryn stepped closer to the phenomenon. "I can hear you. Can you hear me?"
"Yes. We can always here you. We are your shadows, trapped in a shadow Voyager. You must help us. You must phaser the orb. It's the connection point between our two dimensions. Phaser it and open the portal. It must be opened."
"How are you our shadows?" Kathryn asked. "How and when were you created?"
"When the anomaly struck Voyager for the last time and sent you into temporal chaos. The strike caused a shadow Voyager, a Voyager that should only have been a brief glitch in the space-time continuum, but until you help us we'll continue to exist. You must help us. We must cease to exist. There is no color on this Voyager and no existence outside it. Our lives are hell and you must help end our misery. Please help us. Only you can help us."
"How?"
"Open the portal and I'll tell you. Please. We've worked our butts off to find a way to do it. All you have to do is fire at the orb with your phaser and keep firing to keep the portal open."
"Ok. Stand by."
With that, she raised up her arm, aimed the phaser at the orb, and fired steadily. As she did, the orb grew bigger and bigger until it transformed into what looked like a mirror. Through the mirror, in shades of gray, Kathryn could see herself, Chakotay, Tuvok and The Doctor. Chakotay and Tuvok were firing at the portal and The Doctor was taking readings.
"Hi," the gray Kathryn smiled. "At last we come face to face. But there's no time for small talk. We don't know how long we can sustain the portal. So, I'll explain things as quickly as I can. As I said, this shadow Voyager was created when the anomaly struck. From the start everything was shades of gray, everything except me. That's because you and I were one. I experienced everything you experienced in that out of time experience. Like you I was in a state of temporal chaos but there was nothing our Doctor could do to help me. His treatments had no effect whatsoever. It was like I didn't exist in this dimension and yet was a part of it. But then, without his help, I came into temporal alignment. I don't remember any of this, I was unconscious, but am telling you what I've been told. I remained unconscious for two days. As my body adjusted to our time-frame, I lost more and more color until I was as gray as everyone else. Then I woke up. At that very second, sounds filled the air, all kinds of sounds, the sound of life in another dimension. And outside our windows scenes from all your lives flashed before us. We could see you, we could hear you, but we couldn't communicate with you. It took us a while to piece together what was happening, because the images and sounds were so chaotic, but we realized you'd got Voyager home and were coming out of stasis after getting home too early. How long you were in stasis, we don't know, as that time didn't happen for us. We can only exist in the present. It took us a long time to work out what we are, and we're still only theorizing, but we believe we continue to exist because something is keeping us existing. That something is my baby. Everyone and everything is gray here, except my baby."
She held up a photoscan of the baby and, sure enough, in the middle of gray was a colorful fetus in a colorful sac.
"We can only conclude she is not really my baby but yours. She's trapped in this dimension by my womb and we're trapped in this existence by her. When she is where she's supposed to be, which is with you, we believe we will cease to exist. But there's only one way of liberating her and us, and that's by transporting her into you. The Doctor has everything ready and can do it now. We don't know for sure that it will work, because we don't know if our technology can have any effect in your world, but for you to be able to see us and hear us, the portal must be acting as the conduit we hoped it would. If it can transmit sound and light then we hope it can transmit a transporter beam. You must help us. You must help your daughter."
Kathryn's head was spinning with all this information but she tried to take it all in, tried to focus.
"I know all this is a lot to grasp," Gray Kathryn went on, "and I know your womb is pretty crowded already, but you must help us and help us now. If you don't, and we can't connect with you again, we'll be trapped in this hell forever. For weeks we've been trying to figure out a way to reach you, but the only place we can is here, at the point where the anomaly struck you. We've waited weeks for you to return to Voyager and you can't let us down now. Please. Please help us and your daughter."
"Ok," Kathryn found herself saying. "Let's do it."
Gray Kathryn smiled, infinite joy and relief in her eyes. "Thank you. I knew you'd come through for us.
The Doctor spoke now. "The transplant will take only a few seconds. There are risks involved, to you and to your existing babies, but they are minimal. The biggest risk is to the incoming fetus. For the transplant to be successful, the placenta must successfully attach. The best position will be determined automatically. Once the procedure is complete, you must see a doctor, which will no doubt be me, immediately."
Gray Kathryn questioned. "Do you understand all this and give us your consent to proceed?"
"Yes," Kathryn answered.
"Then let's get on with it," her counterpart replied. "Doctor..."
The Doctor fiddled with something that Kathryn couldn't see, then he spoke. "Transplant will initiate in 20 seconds."
"If we're right," Gray Kathryn said, "when it's done, we and this portal should disappear. So goodbye, Kathryn. And congratulations. You did it, you got us home."
A gray beam suddenly shot out of the portal and Kathryn gasped as a sharp pain shot through her abdomen. The jolt made her drop the phaser, but the portal was already gone. There was nothing to see before her but a window looking out at a silver wall. For a while, Kathryn stared at where the portal had been, trying to absorb what had happened. It all felt surreal, like a dream, but it could not have been a dream as her abdomen was throbbing and her bump felt bigger. But was there really another baby inside her? A baby girl? Were her triplets now quadruplets? It seemed too good to be true! Still not quite believing it, she scanned herself with the tricorder. But it was true. There were now four lifesigns inside her. Joy, immense joy, filled Kathryn's heart, but she reigned it in. Until The Doctor confirmed it, until he said all was well, she would not accept it as fact. So, she turned off the tricorder and hit her commbadge.
"Janeway to The Doctor."
The Doctor immediately responded. "Doctor here."
"I need to see you right away."
"Is it a medical emergency?"
"Yes."
"Then I'll beam you right in. Where are you?"
"In my quarters on Voyager."
"Acknowledged. Standby for transport."
The connection terminated and Kathryn waited for the promised transport. It seemed a long time in coming, an eternity, but at last a blue beam engulfed her and she felt the familiar tingle of transportation.
When Kathryn rematerialized, she found herself in The Doctor's surgery at Starfleet Headquarters. It was spacious, sunny, and equipped with all the latest medical technology. In one corner of the room was The Doctor's desk, and in another, beneath a long window, was a white biobed. The Doctor was standing by it but left it when he saw her.
"Welcome, Admiral," he said. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, I hope," she answered. "But I think I'm carrying an extra passenger and I need you to check things out."
"If by an extra passenger you mean another baby," The Doctor said, "that's impossible. There's no way there's a fourth baby. We're long passed the days of surprise hidden babies. You're having three and only three."
"If what I think just happened really happened then I'm not anymore."
"Why? What's happened? Was it something on Voyager?"
"Yes. It's a long story, but the short version is I encountered, or at least I think I encountered, shadows of ourselves from a shadow Voyager. My counterpart told me this Voyager was created when the anomaly struck us the last time. It should only have existed briefly, should only have been a temporary glitch in the space-time continuum, but for some reason it continued to exist. She said this reason was her pregnancy, that she was somehow pregnant with my baby. As long as my baby remained inside her, trapped inside their dimension, their existence would continue. So, their doctor, your counterpart, performed a fetal transplant through a portal and when it was done they all disappeared."
"Incredible," The Doctor exclaimed. "After seven years of the bizarre on Voyager, nothing should surprise me anymore, but I'll admit, I'm surprised."
"If it wasn't for my bigger bump and the pain in my abdomen, I would think I had hallucinated it all."
At the mention of pain, The Doctor's professionalism kicked in. "Let me take your coat, Admiral. Then I'll examine you."
He helped Kathryn take off her coat and scarf, and then helped her onto the biobed.
"What kind of pain are you feeling?"
"A throbbing."
"When did it start?"
"When the transplant took place."
Now that Kathryn was on the biobed, The Doctor picked up his tricorder. "Ok, let's see what's going on."
Quickly, but thoroughly, he scanned her.
"Exactly as you say," he declared. "There is an extra passenger. She...I mean it...arrived by fetal transport a few minutes ago."
Kathryn's heart leapt for joy, but again she subdued it. There were still a lot of questions.
"It's ok, Doctor, you can say she. I know it's a girl. But is she mine? Is she Chakotay's?"
"Yes. And not only is she yours and Chakotay's, but she's half identical to the triplets...same egg, different sperm. She's at exactly the same stage of development too."
Happy tears filled Kathryn's eyes. "Then it's true? I'm really having quadruplets?"
"So it seems. But you'd better hope there are no more shadow Voyagers with more pregnant yous or you could end up with sextuplets."
"Yes," Kathryn laughed. "But you know what? I don't think I'd mind."
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Say that again when they're all crying in the middle of the night."
"Is she ok...the baby?"
"She's absolutely fine. The transplant was a complete success. The pain you're feeling is due to the sudden stretching of your womb and is treatable in seconds." He picked up a silver gadget and hovered it over her bump. "Has it gone?"
"Yes," Kathryn answered. "Thank you."
"You're most welcome."
"There's one more thing," Kathryn said. "Could you do a video scan? I need to see she has color."
The Doctor frowned. "Why wouldn't she have color?"
"Because everything on that Voyager was gray. She wasn't, which helped them figure things out, but I need to know she's fully with us, that she's fully real."
"Very well. I'll do the scan now."
The Doctor switched on a monitor close by, a monitor Kathryn could see from the biobed, and then he scanned her bump with a gold device. As he did, a colorful image of her womb appeared on the screen and Kathryn was absolutely delighted to see four colorful babies there.
"As you can see," The Doctor said, "they all have color."
"Which one is her?"
The Doctor pointed to a baby that was, on close study, a little bigger than the others. "This one."
Kathryn smiled as the baby moved playfully in her sac. "She's amazing. They're all amazing."
"They are."
"Will she look like the boys?"
"Yes and no," he answered.
"Can you be more specific?"
"I thought you didn't want specifics."
"I've changed my mind. I'd like to know what they will look like. Not a projection, but just basic things like the color eyes they'll have and the color hair. I'm guessing brown and black, or brown and brown, but with their genetic pool, who can tell?"
"Me," The Doctor teased. "And you're three quarters right. The boys will have brown eyes and black hair. As for our little lady, she'll have brown eyes and red hair."
"Really?" Kathryn smiled. "Red hair?"
"As red as rubies. Chakotay clearly has a redhead in the family."
"He does. One of his great grandmothers on his father's side was white with red hair. He told me once."
"Well then, there you go."
The scan's focus switched to another baby now and Kathryn watched this one with as much joy. "I can't wait for him to get back," she said. "He's missing so much. He might faint when I tell him I'm having quads, but he'll be thrilled too. And he'll be a wonderful father. The best."
"These babies certainly are lucky in their parentage," The Doctor said. "But four babies are a lot for any woman to carry. The strain on the body is considerable. At your age it is more. We'll need to increase the number of your routine checks and we'll have to reduce our goal delivery time by at least three weeks. For your sake, and for the babies, it may even become necessary to transfer one or two of them to an artificial womb."
"If we have to, we have to," Kathryn replied philosophically. "But I'm confident we'll all make it."
"So am I," The Doctor smiled. "You're doing really well and have a strong constitution. In fact, you're carrying better than many woman half your age."
"Must be all the exercise I got on Voyager," Kathryn joked.
"Well, it's certainly not all the coffee you've drunk."
Kathryn laughed. "No, definitely not the coffee. But you're mean, Doctor, mentioning the word. You make me want one. In fact, I must have one. Decaff, of course."
"I suppose that's my cue to get you one," he said.
"Yes...after you've saved this scan."
The Doctor sighed and pressed a button on the device. "Scan saved." He then switched off the monitor. "Now, what coffee do you want, Admiral? The usual or has pregnancy changed your taste?"
"Still black, no sugar. Always black, no sugar."
"Then one black coffee, no sugar, coming right up."
He turned in the direction of the replicator, which was by his desk, but as he did Kathryn made another request.
"Oh, could you add a slice of lemon? They're something pregnancy has definitely given me a taste for."
"A slice of lemon, certainly. Anything else?"
"A sandwich, I think. Ham salad. Oh, and could I have a slice of cake too? Golden sponge with cream and strawberry jam...no, make that raspberry jam."
"My surgery is hardly a cafe, Admiral," he declared. "But there's a superb one for medical officers and friends just down the corridor. Shall we go there? They have cream cakes galore."
"Sounds great," Kathryn smiled. "Let's go."
The Doctor helped her off the bed and then helped her put on her coat and scarf.
"How do I look?" she asked when they were done. "Has Ruby made me look pregnant?"
"Not quite," he smiled. "You cover up well. But you won't be able to for much longer. Your bump is going to bloom."
"I know. I'm just hoping Chakotay will be home in the next couple of weeks."
"Any more messages from him?"
"None. But you know what they say, no news is good news!"
"Let's hope so." He held out his arm to her. "Shall we go?"
Kathryn linked her arm with his. "Let's go."
The Doctor then escorted her to the door and they left the room.
END OF CHAPTER 28
