CHAPTER SIX
"I wish I could explain it all to you," offered Anja. "It would be
extremely difficult to do so, however, without . . . What the heck?
There's no history to alter, just the future!"
"So let's change it. That's what the present is all about, isn't it?" asked Sisko.
"Well, if it wasn't so . . . plain weird, then I might think you'd actually believe me. Plus, what I tell you would have implications for eternity, or until time ends. I wouldn't want anybody from this universe to think that they were, well, merely characters on a TV show."
"TV?"
"Television," Dax chimed in. "An ancient form of entertainment that preceded our holodecks. The humans would watch a story acted out on a glowing panel. It was noninteractive until the early twenty-first century."
"Strange or not, I've probably seen stranger," intoned Sisko, returning to the conversation at hand.
"Well, that's just it. To us, you're a bunch of TV characters," admitted Anja regretfully.
"Good ones too," quipped Frau. "I used to vatch the old 'Star Trek.'"
"Which is that ship," added Hannah, pointing to the Enterprise on the viewscreen. "You're the third series, 'Deep Space Nine.' The second was 'The Next Generation.'"
"Which was based around the lives of the crew of the 'Enterprise-D,'" Anja continued. "And last but not least, 'Voyager,' the crew that got lost in the Delta Quadrant."
"That's ridiculous!" Sisko blurted.
"I told you that you wouldn't believe me."
"You did say that."
"So,
what're you going to do with us now?" wondered Hannah in a quavering voice.
"Lock us up like the crazies we feel like? This is as hard for us
to accept as it is for you, in fact, harder, because you're used to stuff
like temporal anomalies and breaking the laws of physics. To us,
this is just an
awfully vivid dream!"
"But a fun one at that," said Anja.
Frau nodded.
Just then, another ship emerged from the wormhole/time portal and fired an energy web over the Defiant, and almost as an afterthought, the Enterprise. Klaxons sounded the red alert, and Sisko gave a quick string of orders to his crew.
"Our weapons are blocked by the energy net," informed Dax. "We're sitting ducks."
"Oh, dear. I forgot that he was coming," moaned Anja.
"You knew?" Sisko's gaze was immediately upon her.
"Uh . . . oh, this is even harder to explain. I wrote a book, back in my timeline, and we're kind of . . . in it. I know how to get us out of this, if you'll let me open a channel to the captain of that ship. Trust me, Captain. It's the only way, unless you want to be sold to the highest bidder on the Ferengi black market."
Sisko paused for an infinite second, the muscles in his jaw working over the decision. Finally, he assented. "Open a comm channel." Aside, he warned Anja, "Don't try anything stupid."
Yugin's face appeared on the viewscreen, smiling, gloating over the prize fish he had netted. "I see you're ready to surrender, Captain." Then he noticed Anja, Hannah and Frau. "You're here. I suppose I've killed three birds with one stone instead of just two."
"Not quite, Yugin, but I'm willing to make a deal with you," Anja challenged.
"I don't think I could profit more from anything that you could offer me over what I already have."
"That's where you're wrong. You thought that I was a spy, but in truth I'm even more than that. I'm the author of this little adventure. So you would be wise to listen to me. Let the Defiant and the Enterprise go. A much greater opportunity for profit is yet to come. If you allow both of the ships that you have netted to proceed back through the wormhole, I will personally provide you with all the information your greedy heart desires about the immediate future, and also, as a side note, I know how to defeat your little snare, and I know your shield frequency. I created it. You think you can change it? I know what you'll change it to. I come from a universe where you are science fiction, and I am your writer. I know you, better than you know yourself."
Yugin's face, now pale and carefully controlled, abruptly vanished from the viewscreen.
"Did he buy you?" wondered Dax.
The energy net dissipated, and shipwide functions returned to normal. "Stand down from red alert," stated the Captain.
"Hail the Enterprise and tell them that if they want to escape from our attacker, to follow us, and take us back into the wormhole," Anja ordered.
"Who gave you the authority to take over my ship?" Sisko queried, aggravated.
Anja
allowed one eyebrow to quirk upward. "You did."
Lizzie's mouth hung open as she stared out the mess hall windows, which contained, instead of the usual passing-by of stars, a vortex of brilliant orange hues, not unlike those which had transported her to Voyager in the first place. She regained her composure enough to stride up to the counter behind which Neelix busily cooked a lunch of Terandian root stew and Rhasovian pie. "What's going on?" she demanded.
Neelix
didn't even look up as he explained, "Haven't you heard? Mr. Tuvok
has found a way home. Although he can't make his calculations precise
enough to return to the Terran system, he does think that we may emerge
somewhere in the vicinity of Bajor." He glanced up, then did a double
take.
"I don't recognize you."
"I'm not a part of the crew. I was brought to Voyager . . . just about the same way as you're going home."
"That's funny. The Captain never said that we had a visitor. Perhaps she was too caught up in the excitement of finding a way home that she forgot to introduce us. I'm Neelix," he greeted, extending his hand.
"Lizzie," she returned, accepting the handshake. Suddenly, an amount of comprehension dawned on her. "If Q brought me here, and I came here the same way that Voyager's going home . . ." She turned abruptly to leave the mess hall.
"Wait!" said Neelix. "Where are you going?"
"To see Captain Janeway."
"She's awful busy right now," warned Neelix. "You wouldn't want to bother her."
"Oh,
she'll take the time, when she hears what I have to say." With that,
Lizzie set out toward the bridge.
When Lizzie arrived on Deck One, Captain Sisko's face engulfed the viewscreen. "Welcome back to the Alpha Quadrant," he greeted. "Pylon two on ring C is free for docking. I have already notified Starfleet of your arrival."
"Thank you, Captain. If you don't mind, my crew would like to take some shore leave," Janeway requested.
"Of course. Whatever you need. Sisko out."
"Cool," whispered Lizzie, for a moment forgetting why she had come.
"Mister Paris, take us in," she directed, then turned to see Lizzie. "What was that?"
"Oh!" Lizzie jumped, startled into remembrance. "I came to tell you that I had a visit from Q. He's the one who brought me here, and when you were in the vortex, it looked exactly like the one I came through. I thought maybe . . ."
"That Q is responsible for our return to the Alpha Quadrant," Janeway realized. Her brow furrowed. "It doesn't make any sense. He refused to bring us home before. What made him change his mind?"
"I
don't know," Lizzie said. "But we'll find out soon."