To Stay Where You Are (Part Three)
A sillier Fanfic written by TaTTooGaL™
He was dreaming that he was back in France, before the Final Conquest. Running through woods and forests for no rhyme or reason, splashing in creeks, washing in rainstorms which left behind sparkling drops on the leaves on the trees. Savoring the sunlight like golden honey and the grasses full of life and the trees full of song. Then came a tempestuous whirlwind of fire and dust, sweeping him off his feet and carrying him to places of dark sky and black plains, riding the wilds on the back of a pale horse, and the world was a steady beating pulse of red, black, red, black, red….
Chakotay awoke with a start. For a moment, he felt disoriented- then he suddenly remembered, the memories gushing forth like a fountain of crystal, clear and cleansing. He pushed himself gently into a sitting position and watched her sleep in an euphoria of wonder. She looked so vulnerable and innocent as she slept. So peaceful. His thoughts inevitably drifted to the Intendant and he recalled the lyrics of a song he'd heard so many years ago.
Gone are the days /When I was young and free
The future /I could see
Gone are the days /Of precious love
Leaned on /And relied on
She stirred gently and opened her eyes. She saw him gazing down fondly at her and smiled back. "That was something."
He nodded, as she gently placed her hand on his arm. "I waited too long," she said softly, seemingly lost in thought. "Far too long."
"I've something to tell you," he said abruptly.
She glanced at him with slight alarm at the seriousness in his tone, immediately pushing herself up to face him. "What is it, Chakotay?" she asked. "If you're feeling uncomfortable about-"
"No, no, it's nothing like that at all," Chakotay immediately interjected, wondering how he should start. Gathering his courage and strength, he announced, "I know who stole the dilithium."
Her eyes widened.
Chakotay took a deep breath. "I've also been hiding something from you." Quickly he blurted it out, afraid that he would lose the courage to do so if he delayed. "I'm not Chakotay."
She drew back, stunned. "What?" She gave him a once-over and concluded, "You're not serious."
"But I am!" He grabbed her by the shoulders and she flinched backwards as if repulsed by him. "Please! Listen. I'm not Chakotay, but I am also him, in a sense. I'm from- how would you put it? - An alternate universe." He glanced at her non-comprehending look and continued desperately, "I'm on a mission to obtain tactical information on you ship, but the point is, we're on your side and I meant no harm to your ship-"
She broke free of his grip, having heard enough. "On my side?" She glared at him angrily. "And I'm supposed to believe that, after… all that you've done to me?" She gestured expansively downwards, and Chakotay felt a flush of guilt.
"I'm sorry about that. It's just that I… I just…" the words caught in his throat, and he turned away, trying to suppress the painful biting memories that were clogging his chest.
I never dreamt that it would be like this
My first love/ The last time
She noticed his discomfort and dropped her defensive stance a little. "Is there a problem?" she asked him gently, placing her hand on his shoulder.
Chakotay shook his head, refusing to glance up at her. "You remind me of someone I knew long ago when I was young."
She gently lifted his chin , and he reluctantly raised his head to face her. She wasn't angry anymore, just sympathetic. "It was me, wasn't it."
He nodded, unable to think of anything else to say.
"And so, I'm dead in your universe?" she prodded gently, unwilling to upset him any further.
"No… much more complicated than that." Strengthened by her understanding, he forged on. "According to your ships' logs, the furthest you know about our universe was from almost a century ago. If I'm right, you have no knowledge of all the recent conflicts at Terok Nor."
"Terok Nor… wasn't that the original Cardassian name of Deep Space Nine?"
"Yes. Unfortunately for us there isn't exactly a Starfleet or even a United Federation of Planets to take it over, and the Bajorans are a lot chummier with the Cardies and friends in our universe than yours." He heaved a sigh. "It's a long story. Are you sure you want to hear it?"
"I've got plenty of time," she told him, settling on the pillows. "I want you to end off with what you're doing here, and what's happened to Chakotay- my Chakotay."
He nodded. "In due time." And in the back of his head, still the lyrics played, haunting him, swimming in a sea of blue so deep it drowned out the sunlight.
I hear a voice, I see you laugh
If only you were here
You see the night and I the day
But someday, we'll walk away
Seven of Nine was working the late shift on the bridge with Tuvok and Paris, who looked plain exhausted, apparently after helping Lt. Torres rewire half the ship in a mad three-hour fit that afternoon. As a matter of fact, everyone on the ship looked more than slightly worn-out, considering that the accumulative mysteries of this one strange asteroid was fraying everyone's nerves. All except Tuvok and Seven herself. Tuvok's Vulcan heritage allowed him to keep his more rampant emotions in check, but Seven had nothing else to maintain her perennially cool composure except a steadiness of mind and an iron discipline wrought of being assimilated for 18 years. Currently she was running three tasks at the same time to make up for the skeleton bridge crew. Every now and then she went back to check the sensor logs to monitor any change whatsoever in the readings.
About 2358 hours she noticed a strange anomaly in the EM emissions in the asteroid. She corresponded her readings with that of the previous few days and isolated the anomaly, which, while faint, showed definite modular pulsation, indicating a message of some sort was being transmitted.
Then she recognized the pattern of the signal.
Her heart gave a slight flutter, and she double-checked her readings. No, there was no mistake. The readings clearly were a calling to arms. She de-encrypted them mentally, working backwards to obtain the time transmission began. If they were lucky, Voyager had ten hours to act before the reinforcements arrived. She tapped on her commbadge.
"Seven of Nine to Janeway. Captain, I believe that we have company coming."
Chakotay finished most of what he could of the warship's recent history in as little time as he could, pausing every now and then to answer her questions as best as he could. When he had finished, he stared silently at her, watching how well she would absorb all this. He had said all there was to say.
"So.." she said at length, "you need our help in your mutiny aboard the ship."
"Yes. You will distract the Intendant while we prepare to strike, and in return, you can have some of the dilithium you need so badly."
She narrowed her eyes. "I think I may have an idea."
He nodded, pleased. "I thought you might."
"But we won't have much time to carry it out.... at most forty-eight hours, according to your timing." She frowned. "It's a very dangerous margin."
"But it is possible."
She got out of the bed to fetch a robe. "We must move as fast as we can."
"To stay where we are," Chakotay added dryly.
She pulled on a gray silken robe and gave him a funny look. "What was that about?" she asked, pulling it tight.
"The Intendant. It was something she said to me once... a long time ago, when she was defending some of her harsher tactics when she first took command. She said we shouldn't work against the tide of events, because it would waste unnecessary energy. But if we went with the flow instead, things would be a lot easier." He sighed. "At first, it seemed so logical to me. Then gradually I began to realize that it was all a false hope. I began to get more and more disillusioned. That was when the Terran rebels contacted me." He gestured. "And so, here I am."
She sat back down on the bed as he went over to pick up his discarded clothes. "You haven't told me much about you and the Intendant."
Chakotay paused, then sighed. "I already told you that we met in France, 2347."
"Go, on," she prodded, "Elaborate. We might just be able to use it to our advantage."
He shut his eyes and sat back down on the bed. He took a deep breath, opened his eyes and started. "In the summer that year, I was visiting a relative in Paris, and I used to frequent a cafe..."
It was June and the flowers in Paris were full bloom. From his vantage on the café's mezzanine on the second floor, he could see far into the distance riots of colors stretching all the way to the Eiffel Tower. Nevertheless, he wasn't really looking at the flowers; instead, he found the girl sitting at the next table far more interesting to look at.
For the past few days he had been patronizing this café and every day she was there, sipping a cup of short black and studying some report intently, never so much as giving him a glance. She was young and pretty, firm-nosed and blue-eyed, her auburn hair curling softly around her shoulders. Every day he sat there and everyday he watched her-for hours on end it seemed-, the summer breeze wafting the sweet scent of flowers across the airy mezzanine.
That was the day they first talked, after a waiter had accidentally-or perhaps not, since both of them had been such regular customers the waiters were probably wising up to what was going on- mixed up their orders. It had started first with short conversations, which grew longer and longer till they finally started meeting outside the café.
Those were golden days, drenched in sunlight like golden honey, roaming the vineyards and the fields with the verdant grass full of life and the birds in perpetual song. They shared their dreams, their wishes, and so much more. Learning to live and love in a world that was already finding itself mired in the darkness of hatred.
Through the summer and the fall
We had each other; that was all
Just she and I together
Like it was meant to be
The came the Final Conquest of Earth led by the insatiable Spock himself, and Terra fell, another ball of dirt and dust in the hands of the Empire. Everything they'd dreamt of, planned together, had been ground with the ashes of humanity. He felt her unconsciously drifting away from himself as she fought, struggled to get that future back. But it was not to be. Everything she'd tried had made the situation worse, sucking her deeper into the web of deceit and debauchery until she had lost herself in the inextricable tangle that would be her eventual undoing.
There was no turning back. No matter how much he'd loved her in the past, she was gone now, slipping slowly away with the tides of a silvery-white moon when he wasn't watching closely enough. Whoever she was now was no longer who she was before.
So many things I'd like to say
But he took you, took you in
So many things I'd like to ask
It's no good, 'cos you're not here
Chakotay shut his eyes, trying to wash out the memories swimming in his head. "It wasn't fair," he told her. "They took everything away from me: my home, my freedom, the girl I loved…" His voice hardened, fanned by a fire burning blood-red in a sea of dusky white. "I joined the rebellion. Not because I believed in humanity and that we stood a chance for freedom-although I do, a little- but because I wanted to hurt them. Hurt them back as much as they hurt me." His strong voice trembled a little, as he continued. "Some days at might I even doubted who was right and who was wrong. She was doing the right thing the wrong way and I was doing the wrong thing the right way. I sometimes felt like I couldn't go on."
She held his arm firmly. "Don't despair," she told him. "Things are always better than they seem."
"I used to think that way," he countered, "until I realized that it was far too optimistic a point of view for the reality I lived in."
Janeway gave him a dry glance. "I'm beginning to doubt who has gone through more hardship- you or her. You always keep sounding like the world's about to end."
"It already has," he remarked, leaning back to the bed. He looked at her. "At least I kept my sanity." The he frowned. "Or did I?"
"There you go, doubting yourself again." Janeway sighed, getting off the bed. "Well, let me assure you on this: from my point of view, you are definitely on the home track. So, unless I'm losing my mind as well, we have forty-eight hours-or less, depending- to set things right."
Her commbadge sounded from across the room. "Hang on," she said. "There may be a problem."
She answered the message from a corner of the room while Chakotay stared out at the bleached white stars from her viewport. When she returned, her face was slightly paler than normal.
"Looks like I'm losing my mind after all," she told him. At his puzzled-and slightly dreading- look, she continued, "We have less than ten hours before we get some highly unwelcome visitors."
Chakotay was unable to sleep. He lay quietly beside the Intendant, watching her curled up in her bed, looking uncharacteristically innocent and carefree. Is this what he saw in her? He wondered of his counterpart. He sighed deeply. He'd talk to her later when she woke up.
As if on cue, Intendant opened one eye and stared at him. "How long more are you going to lie there and not do anything? Go to sleep."
"Can't sleep," he replied. "Too much on my mind."
She glanced at him. "If you're worried about your fate, you are always welcome to remain here after we take over you ship," she told him.
He looked up. "That's the part I'm worried about." He turned to face her. "We have to talk."
Janeway grinned coyly. "If this is some ploy to get me to leave your ship alone, not only is it transparent, it is also extremely lousy." She leaned back luxuriously on the bed. "It's not going to work. I sleep with everybody on board, but I listen to none of them," she told him slyly. She laughed again. "You won't get away with this."
"You listen to none of them?" he asked her. "Not even Tuvok?"
"Tuvok?" she rolled her eyes. "Please." More unpleasant giggling. "At best, he's an irritating little voice which keeps saying 'Carry out the will of the Alliance!' in my ear, At worst, he's a downright plague."
Chakotay grunted. "But the two of you seem pretty close," he noted.
Janeway shook her head. "Typical parallel naivete," she snorted. "You will learn in time, my dear, that looks are always deceiving."
He nodded in agreement. "Yes, I suppose they are. It applies to every one in your reality- yourself included."
Her eyes narrowed. "What was that supposed to mean?"
Chakotay took a deep breath and reminded himself that he was dealing with a potentially dangerous person here. "I mean that you are hiding who you really are," he said. She merely sighed acquiescently and waved her hand, as if to say, how you do go on. Nevertheless, he continued, "That's what it is, isn't it? You hide what you really think under a façade of authority and sexuality, but deep down inside you don't like what you see… every time you look in the mirror." He continued, picking up momentum. "That's why you wanted to find us- to see something you desire yourself to be. You want to be us, but you can't and that's why you're trying to take over our ship. But it doesn't work that way. It… doesn't… work."
She glared at him with undisguised maliciousness. "Don't delude yourself."
But he pressed on inexorably. "You don't have to do this. This whole universe is yours for you to explore. If you don't like remaining in your own universe then come over to ours. After all, you've already made it over. What's to stop you? You're captain of this ship. We're halfway across the galaxy from any other human civilization. You could find and start your own colony on any planet and no one would be the wiser. Just think of it," he cajoled her. "Free from the iron grasp of the Alliance. Home free."
She stared at him a moment longer, then she hit him. Hard.
He blinked. "Shut up," she hissed at him. "I'm doing this for the sake of humanity, not to run away from the Alliance. And you're an absolute pagh to think so." She got of the bed and began pacing, agitated.
"But how can you be so sure you're taking the right path?" Chakotay asked her. "You're doing nothing but binding humankind tighter to the shackles of the Alliance."
She spun on him, angry and red-faced. "Do you think I want this?" she spat hatefully. "Don you think I want to be hated… to be despised, not only by the cronies of the Alliance but my own brethren? Don't you think that I want to escape to another reality too? But I don't. I don't because I believe in what I do, and nothing is going to turn me back." She pointed at him as if damning him to hell. "And you, are in no position to put your judgement on this. How long have you been here, three days? How much do you know of the hardships I've endured to come this far?"
"Come so far in acquiring the Alliance's trust, or sabotaging the efforts of your fellow men?" he asked softly.
For a moment, she said nothing, just staring at him in unmitigated anger, trembling, and for that moment Chakotay feared very much for his life. Then a sudden pounding came at the door. "Intendant!" A panicky, quavering voice which he recognized as Annika's.
The Intendant's anger disappeared behind a mask of cold steel. "Come in."
The door burst open and Annika dashed in, frantic, waving a data pad. "This just came in on the sensors!" She strode to the Intendant and threw her arms around her in fear. "We must leave as fast as possible!"
The Intendant took the pad, gently pushed Annika away and stared at the readouts. Her face paled considerably. "It's them..." she whispered, her voice fraught with a dangerous combination of fear and anger.
"It's who?" asked Chakotay, confused.
"The aberration," she spat, tossing the data pad on the floor. "Those who call themselves The Borg."
The conference room was abuzz with activity and discussion. Around Janeway, faces were filled with amazement, disbelief and wonder. They had been conferencing for two hours and hadn't even come close to finalizing on a battle plan yet. So many questions!
"What if we just storm on board their ship, take over by brute force, grab our dilithium –and our first officer-and leave before the Borg come?" asked Paris.
"Wouldn't work," said Chakotay. "Although we have the advantage of numbers, the Warrior is designed so that in event of a siege or a mutiny, the self-destruct can be activated by any one person. We're all likely to get killed."
"That's crazy!" exclaimed Neelix. "Why would they ever want to commit suicide that way?"
"Die in combat and take their opponents along with them," remarked Torres. "How very Klingon."
"The best way is for you to adhere to our original mutiny plan," said the pseudo-Doctor- or actually, still their same old Doctor with a few memories added, according to Chakotay. "With a few considerations thrown in, of course, for the retrieval of the dilithium and Chakotay. But the key frames will still be the same."
"Which are?" asked Neelix.
"The Voyager will serve as a distraction for the Intendant and her crew while the mutineers sabotage the computer- shields, weapons, auto self-destruct, everything. Then some of your crewmembers can beam over to collect the pertinent objects, while the mutineers seize control of the ship. Then we'd all be happy, and leave."
"But what about the Borg?" asked Kim. "They might follow us."
"Ensign Kesin has found the transmitting module which alerted the Borg to our presence," Tuvok informed him archly. "It has been brought on board for further analysis."
"The transmitter receives pulses from the cloaking units on each dilithium granum, and it is triggered off when it no longer detects part of those pulses. That is only the first half of the problem. A Borg Cube's sensors are powerful enough to detect those pulses from larger distances and can thus trace the carrier of the dilithium. To eliminate this threat we must therefore both disable the transmitter as well as all five hundred cloaking devices," Seven commented. "However, the pulse modulators on all the dilithium stacks are interlinked. I believe that by disabling one, we will be disabling all the rest as well."
Janeway nodded. "Do it," she instructed her firmly.
"There is one more thing," said Chakotay. "For this plan to work, we need an operative from this ship aboard the Warrior," he said. "Someone who can help us coordinate the attack."
"Which basically means someone who is on the rebels side, does it not?" asked Tuvok. "The Voyager requires someone who will willingly work with us as well if we are to function within the confines of the plan."
"Yes," replied Janeway. The room fell silent for a while. "Are there any volunteers?"
"Well…" Paris mused thoughtfully, "I guess it would be interesting to see what's on the other side…."
Janeway smiled wryly. "I knew you'd volunteer yourself for this mission, Ensign."
Paris grinned back. "It's the kind of adventure I live for."
Janeway nodded. "Then let me explain the details of our plan to you."
Tom Paris waited slightly nervously in the transporter room in civilian dress, feelingly slightly awkward yet trying to look as smooth as possible. Don't want them to think that I'll mess up the job, he thought. But it was a strange thing to have to play yourself in an entirely different role. Paris hoped to hell that he didn't screw up too badly.
B'Elanna, who had been standing beside him all this while, gave his hand a gentle squeeze. "Be careful and take care of yourself," she told him.
"I will," he replied much more breezily than he felt.
The transporter shimmered, and Paris materialized on the platform. Paris glanced at Paris and found a strange recognition.
"What a strange sensation," said Paris. "It's almost like having an identical twin."
Paris nodded in agreement.
Paris got off the transporter platform and shook hands with everyone. "It's a Terran standard," he gushed. "Nice to meet all of you." He handed the original Tom Paris a data pad. "This is all the technical and tactical information you need. To know, plus the location of your stolen dilithium, schematics and a load of assorted stuff. If Hairs got the modulation right, the Warrior won't feel a thing about it's shields being down, but you'd better be quick. We don't know how long the shields will stay down before some sort of alarm sounds."
Paris got on the platform and nodded. "Fire away." The transporter activated and he dissolved in the blue column. B'Elanna took a deep breath and nodded to Paris. "I guess it's time for a little orientation on this ship. Follow me."
Tom Paris had never been in such a place. For one thing, the Warrior was a fairly large ship, about the size of a Galaxy-class. But more importantly, it seemed to be teeming with people. Everywhere he went, there were people nodding and smiling at him. How was he to know which of them were on his side? He hoped that the pad he had gotten contained that information.
Row after row of blank gray walls. This ship had to be the most boring, unaesthetic one ever built. At least Borg Cubes, ugly brutes that they were, had some form of variation here and there. This ship seemed to be virtually the same everywhere. No wonder his counterpart had provided him with schematics!
He finally got to his room. When he stepped in, he found a pleasant surprise waiting for him in the form of Lenn Torres. "You must be the alternate Tom!" she exclaimed when she saw him. She ran over and gave him a hearty hug. "Welcome onboard." She grinned. "With both our holographic doctors synched together, we're having a direct channel as to what's happening on your ship. Here, I'll help you with the mission plan." She tugged him to the bed. 'Sit down."
Everything seemed to be going to fast for Paris. He sat down and tried to clear his mind while Torres enthusiastically explained the workings of their mutiny plan to him.
There was a lull in the fast and furious flow of words and Paris found himself staring at a disconcerting blur of orange and black. Confused, he blinked and realized Torres was waving her datapad in front of his face. "Hellooo… anybody home?"
Paris laughed. "Sorry. I got too carried away in my own thoughts."
Torres laughed along with him. "I guess I can't blame you. It's not every day where you get to jump realities. But we have to focus. As of now, we only have-" she checked her chrono- "two and a half hours to prep the equipment before the action starts. I've done a lot of it already, but we still need to do a lot of rewiring of the major systems. We need your help."
"I'm not a technical expert."
"I know. I want you to keep Annika at bay while we mess around with the ship's systems. If it was my Tom, I'd never let that happen… but hey, you're not him, are you?" she joked.
He narrowed his eyes playfully. "How can you be so sure?"
Torres smacked him back good-naturedly, laughing. "Don't play a fool," she chided him. "We don't have much time. Besides," she added cheekily, "if you were my Tom, you'd object at once because you'd never survive the whacking you'd get from me after that."
He had to laugh at that. It was nice to see that Parises and Torreses everywhere were still the same.
A sillier Fanfic written by TaTTooGaL™
He was dreaming that he was back in France, before the Final Conquest. Running through woods and forests for no rhyme or reason, splashing in creeks, washing in rainstorms which left behind sparkling drops on the leaves on the trees. Savoring the sunlight like golden honey and the grasses full of life and the trees full of song. Then came a tempestuous whirlwind of fire and dust, sweeping him off his feet and carrying him to places of dark sky and black plains, riding the wilds on the back of a pale horse, and the world was a steady beating pulse of red, black, red, black, red….
Chakotay awoke with a start. For a moment, he felt disoriented- then he suddenly remembered, the memories gushing forth like a fountain of crystal, clear and cleansing. He pushed himself gently into a sitting position and watched her sleep in an euphoria of wonder. She looked so vulnerable and innocent as she slept. So peaceful. His thoughts inevitably drifted to the Intendant and he recalled the lyrics of a song he'd heard so many years ago.
Gone are the days /When I was young and free
The future /I could see
Gone are the days /Of precious love
Leaned on /And relied on
She stirred gently and opened her eyes. She saw him gazing down fondly at her and smiled back. "That was something."
He nodded, as she gently placed her hand on his arm. "I waited too long," she said softly, seemingly lost in thought. "Far too long."
"I've something to tell you," he said abruptly.
She glanced at him with slight alarm at the seriousness in his tone, immediately pushing herself up to face him. "What is it, Chakotay?" she asked. "If you're feeling uncomfortable about-"
"No, no, it's nothing like that at all," Chakotay immediately interjected, wondering how he should start. Gathering his courage and strength, he announced, "I know who stole the dilithium."
Her eyes widened.
Chakotay took a deep breath. "I've also been hiding something from you." Quickly he blurted it out, afraid that he would lose the courage to do so if he delayed. "I'm not Chakotay."
She drew back, stunned. "What?" She gave him a once-over and concluded, "You're not serious."
"But I am!" He grabbed her by the shoulders and she flinched backwards as if repulsed by him. "Please! Listen. I'm not Chakotay, but I am also him, in a sense. I'm from- how would you put it? - An alternate universe." He glanced at her non-comprehending look and continued desperately, "I'm on a mission to obtain tactical information on you ship, but the point is, we're on your side and I meant no harm to your ship-"
She broke free of his grip, having heard enough. "On my side?" She glared at him angrily. "And I'm supposed to believe that, after… all that you've done to me?" She gestured expansively downwards, and Chakotay felt a flush of guilt.
"I'm sorry about that. It's just that I… I just…" the words caught in his throat, and he turned away, trying to suppress the painful biting memories that were clogging his chest.
I never dreamt that it would be like this
My first love/ The last time
She noticed his discomfort and dropped her defensive stance a little. "Is there a problem?" she asked him gently, placing her hand on his shoulder.
Chakotay shook his head, refusing to glance up at her. "You remind me of someone I knew long ago when I was young."
She gently lifted his chin , and he reluctantly raised his head to face her. She wasn't angry anymore, just sympathetic. "It was me, wasn't it."
He nodded, unable to think of anything else to say.
"And so, I'm dead in your universe?" she prodded gently, unwilling to upset him any further.
"No… much more complicated than that." Strengthened by her understanding, he forged on. "According to your ships' logs, the furthest you know about our universe was from almost a century ago. If I'm right, you have no knowledge of all the recent conflicts at Terok Nor."
"Terok Nor… wasn't that the original Cardassian name of Deep Space Nine?"
"Yes. Unfortunately for us there isn't exactly a Starfleet or even a United Federation of Planets to take it over, and the Bajorans are a lot chummier with the Cardies and friends in our universe than yours." He heaved a sigh. "It's a long story. Are you sure you want to hear it?"
"I've got plenty of time," she told him, settling on the pillows. "I want you to end off with what you're doing here, and what's happened to Chakotay- my Chakotay."
He nodded. "In due time." And in the back of his head, still the lyrics played, haunting him, swimming in a sea of blue so deep it drowned out the sunlight.
I hear a voice, I see you laugh
If only you were here
You see the night and I the day
But someday, we'll walk away
Seven of Nine was working the late shift on the bridge with Tuvok and Paris, who looked plain exhausted, apparently after helping Lt. Torres rewire half the ship in a mad three-hour fit that afternoon. As a matter of fact, everyone on the ship looked more than slightly worn-out, considering that the accumulative mysteries of this one strange asteroid was fraying everyone's nerves. All except Tuvok and Seven herself. Tuvok's Vulcan heritage allowed him to keep his more rampant emotions in check, but Seven had nothing else to maintain her perennially cool composure except a steadiness of mind and an iron discipline wrought of being assimilated for 18 years. Currently she was running three tasks at the same time to make up for the skeleton bridge crew. Every now and then she went back to check the sensor logs to monitor any change whatsoever in the readings.
About 2358 hours she noticed a strange anomaly in the EM emissions in the asteroid. She corresponded her readings with that of the previous few days and isolated the anomaly, which, while faint, showed definite modular pulsation, indicating a message of some sort was being transmitted.
Then she recognized the pattern of the signal.
Her heart gave a slight flutter, and she double-checked her readings. No, there was no mistake. The readings clearly were a calling to arms. She de-encrypted them mentally, working backwards to obtain the time transmission began. If they were lucky, Voyager had ten hours to act before the reinforcements arrived. She tapped on her commbadge.
"Seven of Nine to Janeway. Captain, I believe that we have company coming."
Chakotay finished most of what he could of the warship's recent history in as little time as he could, pausing every now and then to answer her questions as best as he could. When he had finished, he stared silently at her, watching how well she would absorb all this. He had said all there was to say.
"So.." she said at length, "you need our help in your mutiny aboard the ship."
"Yes. You will distract the Intendant while we prepare to strike, and in return, you can have some of the dilithium you need so badly."
She narrowed her eyes. "I think I may have an idea."
He nodded, pleased. "I thought you might."
"But we won't have much time to carry it out.... at most forty-eight hours, according to your timing." She frowned. "It's a very dangerous margin."
"But it is possible."
She got out of the bed to fetch a robe. "We must move as fast as we can."
"To stay where we are," Chakotay added dryly.
She pulled on a gray silken robe and gave him a funny look. "What was that about?" she asked, pulling it tight.
"The Intendant. It was something she said to me once... a long time ago, when she was defending some of her harsher tactics when she first took command. She said we shouldn't work against the tide of events, because it would waste unnecessary energy. But if we went with the flow instead, things would be a lot easier." He sighed. "At first, it seemed so logical to me. Then gradually I began to realize that it was all a false hope. I began to get more and more disillusioned. That was when the Terran rebels contacted me." He gestured. "And so, here I am."
She sat back down on the bed as he went over to pick up his discarded clothes. "You haven't told me much about you and the Intendant."
Chakotay paused, then sighed. "I already told you that we met in France, 2347."
"Go, on," she prodded, "Elaborate. We might just be able to use it to our advantage."
He shut his eyes and sat back down on the bed. He took a deep breath, opened his eyes and started. "In the summer that year, I was visiting a relative in Paris, and I used to frequent a cafe..."
It was June and the flowers in Paris were full bloom. From his vantage on the café's mezzanine on the second floor, he could see far into the distance riots of colors stretching all the way to the Eiffel Tower. Nevertheless, he wasn't really looking at the flowers; instead, he found the girl sitting at the next table far more interesting to look at.
For the past few days he had been patronizing this café and every day she was there, sipping a cup of short black and studying some report intently, never so much as giving him a glance. She was young and pretty, firm-nosed and blue-eyed, her auburn hair curling softly around her shoulders. Every day he sat there and everyday he watched her-for hours on end it seemed-, the summer breeze wafting the sweet scent of flowers across the airy mezzanine.
That was the day they first talked, after a waiter had accidentally-or perhaps not, since both of them had been such regular customers the waiters were probably wising up to what was going on- mixed up their orders. It had started first with short conversations, which grew longer and longer till they finally started meeting outside the café.
Those were golden days, drenched in sunlight like golden honey, roaming the vineyards and the fields with the verdant grass full of life and the birds in perpetual song. They shared their dreams, their wishes, and so much more. Learning to live and love in a world that was already finding itself mired in the darkness of hatred.
Through the summer and the fall
We had each other; that was all
Just she and I together
Like it was meant to be
The came the Final Conquest of Earth led by the insatiable Spock himself, and Terra fell, another ball of dirt and dust in the hands of the Empire. Everything they'd dreamt of, planned together, had been ground with the ashes of humanity. He felt her unconsciously drifting away from himself as she fought, struggled to get that future back. But it was not to be. Everything she'd tried had made the situation worse, sucking her deeper into the web of deceit and debauchery until she had lost herself in the inextricable tangle that would be her eventual undoing.
There was no turning back. No matter how much he'd loved her in the past, she was gone now, slipping slowly away with the tides of a silvery-white moon when he wasn't watching closely enough. Whoever she was now was no longer who she was before.
So many things I'd like to say
But he took you, took you in
So many things I'd like to ask
It's no good, 'cos you're not here
Chakotay shut his eyes, trying to wash out the memories swimming in his head. "It wasn't fair," he told her. "They took everything away from me: my home, my freedom, the girl I loved…" His voice hardened, fanned by a fire burning blood-red in a sea of dusky white. "I joined the rebellion. Not because I believed in humanity and that we stood a chance for freedom-although I do, a little- but because I wanted to hurt them. Hurt them back as much as they hurt me." His strong voice trembled a little, as he continued. "Some days at might I even doubted who was right and who was wrong. She was doing the right thing the wrong way and I was doing the wrong thing the right way. I sometimes felt like I couldn't go on."
She held his arm firmly. "Don't despair," she told him. "Things are always better than they seem."
"I used to think that way," he countered, "until I realized that it was far too optimistic a point of view for the reality I lived in."
Janeway gave him a dry glance. "I'm beginning to doubt who has gone through more hardship- you or her. You always keep sounding like the world's about to end."
"It already has," he remarked, leaning back to the bed. He looked at her. "At least I kept my sanity." The he frowned. "Or did I?"
"There you go, doubting yourself again." Janeway sighed, getting off the bed. "Well, let me assure you on this: from my point of view, you are definitely on the home track. So, unless I'm losing my mind as well, we have forty-eight hours-or less, depending- to set things right."
Her commbadge sounded from across the room. "Hang on," she said. "There may be a problem."
She answered the message from a corner of the room while Chakotay stared out at the bleached white stars from her viewport. When she returned, her face was slightly paler than normal.
"Looks like I'm losing my mind after all," she told him. At his puzzled-and slightly dreading- look, she continued, "We have less than ten hours before we get some highly unwelcome visitors."
Chakotay was unable to sleep. He lay quietly beside the Intendant, watching her curled up in her bed, looking uncharacteristically innocent and carefree. Is this what he saw in her? He wondered of his counterpart. He sighed deeply. He'd talk to her later when she woke up.
As if on cue, Intendant opened one eye and stared at him. "How long more are you going to lie there and not do anything? Go to sleep."
"Can't sleep," he replied. "Too much on my mind."
She glanced at him. "If you're worried about your fate, you are always welcome to remain here after we take over you ship," she told him.
He looked up. "That's the part I'm worried about." He turned to face her. "We have to talk."
Janeway grinned coyly. "If this is some ploy to get me to leave your ship alone, not only is it transparent, it is also extremely lousy." She leaned back luxuriously on the bed. "It's not going to work. I sleep with everybody on board, but I listen to none of them," she told him slyly. She laughed again. "You won't get away with this."
"You listen to none of them?" he asked her. "Not even Tuvok?"
"Tuvok?" she rolled her eyes. "Please." More unpleasant giggling. "At best, he's an irritating little voice which keeps saying 'Carry out the will of the Alliance!' in my ear, At worst, he's a downright plague."
Chakotay grunted. "But the two of you seem pretty close," he noted.
Janeway shook her head. "Typical parallel naivete," she snorted. "You will learn in time, my dear, that looks are always deceiving."
He nodded in agreement. "Yes, I suppose they are. It applies to every one in your reality- yourself included."
Her eyes narrowed. "What was that supposed to mean?"
Chakotay took a deep breath and reminded himself that he was dealing with a potentially dangerous person here. "I mean that you are hiding who you really are," he said. She merely sighed acquiescently and waved her hand, as if to say, how you do go on. Nevertheless, he continued, "That's what it is, isn't it? You hide what you really think under a façade of authority and sexuality, but deep down inside you don't like what you see… every time you look in the mirror." He continued, picking up momentum. "That's why you wanted to find us- to see something you desire yourself to be. You want to be us, but you can't and that's why you're trying to take over our ship. But it doesn't work that way. It… doesn't… work."
She glared at him with undisguised maliciousness. "Don't delude yourself."
But he pressed on inexorably. "You don't have to do this. This whole universe is yours for you to explore. If you don't like remaining in your own universe then come over to ours. After all, you've already made it over. What's to stop you? You're captain of this ship. We're halfway across the galaxy from any other human civilization. You could find and start your own colony on any planet and no one would be the wiser. Just think of it," he cajoled her. "Free from the iron grasp of the Alliance. Home free."
She stared at him a moment longer, then she hit him. Hard.
He blinked. "Shut up," she hissed at him. "I'm doing this for the sake of humanity, not to run away from the Alliance. And you're an absolute pagh to think so." She got of the bed and began pacing, agitated.
"But how can you be so sure you're taking the right path?" Chakotay asked her. "You're doing nothing but binding humankind tighter to the shackles of the Alliance."
She spun on him, angry and red-faced. "Do you think I want this?" she spat hatefully. "Don you think I want to be hated… to be despised, not only by the cronies of the Alliance but my own brethren? Don't you think that I want to escape to another reality too? But I don't. I don't because I believe in what I do, and nothing is going to turn me back." She pointed at him as if damning him to hell. "And you, are in no position to put your judgement on this. How long have you been here, three days? How much do you know of the hardships I've endured to come this far?"
"Come so far in acquiring the Alliance's trust, or sabotaging the efforts of your fellow men?" he asked softly.
For a moment, she said nothing, just staring at him in unmitigated anger, trembling, and for that moment Chakotay feared very much for his life. Then a sudden pounding came at the door. "Intendant!" A panicky, quavering voice which he recognized as Annika's.
The Intendant's anger disappeared behind a mask of cold steel. "Come in."
The door burst open and Annika dashed in, frantic, waving a data pad. "This just came in on the sensors!" She strode to the Intendant and threw her arms around her in fear. "We must leave as fast as possible!"
The Intendant took the pad, gently pushed Annika away and stared at the readouts. Her face paled considerably. "It's them..." she whispered, her voice fraught with a dangerous combination of fear and anger.
"It's who?" asked Chakotay, confused.
"The aberration," she spat, tossing the data pad on the floor. "Those who call themselves The Borg."
The conference room was abuzz with activity and discussion. Around Janeway, faces were filled with amazement, disbelief and wonder. They had been conferencing for two hours and hadn't even come close to finalizing on a battle plan yet. So many questions!
"What if we just storm on board their ship, take over by brute force, grab our dilithium –and our first officer-and leave before the Borg come?" asked Paris.
"Wouldn't work," said Chakotay. "Although we have the advantage of numbers, the Warrior is designed so that in event of a siege or a mutiny, the self-destruct can be activated by any one person. We're all likely to get killed."
"That's crazy!" exclaimed Neelix. "Why would they ever want to commit suicide that way?"
"Die in combat and take their opponents along with them," remarked Torres. "How very Klingon."
"The best way is for you to adhere to our original mutiny plan," said the pseudo-Doctor- or actually, still their same old Doctor with a few memories added, according to Chakotay. "With a few considerations thrown in, of course, for the retrieval of the dilithium and Chakotay. But the key frames will still be the same."
"Which are?" asked Neelix.
"The Voyager will serve as a distraction for the Intendant and her crew while the mutineers sabotage the computer- shields, weapons, auto self-destruct, everything. Then some of your crewmembers can beam over to collect the pertinent objects, while the mutineers seize control of the ship. Then we'd all be happy, and leave."
"But what about the Borg?" asked Kim. "They might follow us."
"Ensign Kesin has found the transmitting module which alerted the Borg to our presence," Tuvok informed him archly. "It has been brought on board for further analysis."
"The transmitter receives pulses from the cloaking units on each dilithium granum, and it is triggered off when it no longer detects part of those pulses. That is only the first half of the problem. A Borg Cube's sensors are powerful enough to detect those pulses from larger distances and can thus trace the carrier of the dilithium. To eliminate this threat we must therefore both disable the transmitter as well as all five hundred cloaking devices," Seven commented. "However, the pulse modulators on all the dilithium stacks are interlinked. I believe that by disabling one, we will be disabling all the rest as well."
Janeway nodded. "Do it," she instructed her firmly.
"There is one more thing," said Chakotay. "For this plan to work, we need an operative from this ship aboard the Warrior," he said. "Someone who can help us coordinate the attack."
"Which basically means someone who is on the rebels side, does it not?" asked Tuvok. "The Voyager requires someone who will willingly work with us as well if we are to function within the confines of the plan."
"Yes," replied Janeway. The room fell silent for a while. "Are there any volunteers?"
"Well…" Paris mused thoughtfully, "I guess it would be interesting to see what's on the other side…."
Janeway smiled wryly. "I knew you'd volunteer yourself for this mission, Ensign."
Paris grinned back. "It's the kind of adventure I live for."
Janeway nodded. "Then let me explain the details of our plan to you."
Tom Paris waited slightly nervously in the transporter room in civilian dress, feelingly slightly awkward yet trying to look as smooth as possible. Don't want them to think that I'll mess up the job, he thought. But it was a strange thing to have to play yourself in an entirely different role. Paris hoped to hell that he didn't screw up too badly.
B'Elanna, who had been standing beside him all this while, gave his hand a gentle squeeze. "Be careful and take care of yourself," she told him.
"I will," he replied much more breezily than he felt.
The transporter shimmered, and Paris materialized on the platform. Paris glanced at Paris and found a strange recognition.
"What a strange sensation," said Paris. "It's almost like having an identical twin."
Paris nodded in agreement.
Paris got off the transporter platform and shook hands with everyone. "It's a Terran standard," he gushed. "Nice to meet all of you." He handed the original Tom Paris a data pad. "This is all the technical and tactical information you need. To know, plus the location of your stolen dilithium, schematics and a load of assorted stuff. If Hairs got the modulation right, the Warrior won't feel a thing about it's shields being down, but you'd better be quick. We don't know how long the shields will stay down before some sort of alarm sounds."
Paris got on the platform and nodded. "Fire away." The transporter activated and he dissolved in the blue column. B'Elanna took a deep breath and nodded to Paris. "I guess it's time for a little orientation on this ship. Follow me."
Tom Paris had never been in such a place. For one thing, the Warrior was a fairly large ship, about the size of a Galaxy-class. But more importantly, it seemed to be teeming with people. Everywhere he went, there were people nodding and smiling at him. How was he to know which of them were on his side? He hoped that the pad he had gotten contained that information.
Row after row of blank gray walls. This ship had to be the most boring, unaesthetic one ever built. At least Borg Cubes, ugly brutes that they were, had some form of variation here and there. This ship seemed to be virtually the same everywhere. No wonder his counterpart had provided him with schematics!
He finally got to his room. When he stepped in, he found a pleasant surprise waiting for him in the form of Lenn Torres. "You must be the alternate Tom!" she exclaimed when she saw him. She ran over and gave him a hearty hug. "Welcome onboard." She grinned. "With both our holographic doctors synched together, we're having a direct channel as to what's happening on your ship. Here, I'll help you with the mission plan." She tugged him to the bed. 'Sit down."
Everything seemed to be going to fast for Paris. He sat down and tried to clear his mind while Torres enthusiastically explained the workings of their mutiny plan to him.
There was a lull in the fast and furious flow of words and Paris found himself staring at a disconcerting blur of orange and black. Confused, he blinked and realized Torres was waving her datapad in front of his face. "Hellooo… anybody home?"
Paris laughed. "Sorry. I got too carried away in my own thoughts."
Torres laughed along with him. "I guess I can't blame you. It's not every day where you get to jump realities. But we have to focus. As of now, we only have-" she checked her chrono- "two and a half hours to prep the equipment before the action starts. I've done a lot of it already, but we still need to do a lot of rewiring of the major systems. We need your help."
"I'm not a technical expert."
"I know. I want you to keep Annika at bay while we mess around with the ship's systems. If it was my Tom, I'd never let that happen… but hey, you're not him, are you?" she joked.
He narrowed his eyes playfully. "How can you be so sure?"
Torres smacked him back good-naturedly, laughing. "Don't play a fool," she chided him. "We don't have much time. Besides," she added cheekily, "if you were my Tom, you'd object at once because you'd never survive the whacking you'd get from me after that."
He had to laugh at that. It was nice to see that Parises and Torreses everywhere were still the same.