A Line I Crossed (Part 3)
Another Voyager fanfic by TaTTooGaL™ (Lt Taya 17 Janeway)
The Minorca slowed from warp as she prepared to dock with the Delta Flyer. Seated at the helm controls, Tighe deftly maneuvered the small shuttle into position to latch on to the larger ship. Kim kept hailing the ship, but there was no response. "I think their communications system is fried," said Kim nervously. The exterior of the ship bore a single dark slash, like a burnt scar; it was ominously dark and silent.
"I'm picking up two lifeforms within," Tighe informed him as she scanned the ship.
Kim seemed to relax slightly in relief. "That means they're both alright." The shuttle settled with a satisfying click. "Listen," he told her, "I'll cycle the airlocks from here. Grab a medikit and get into the Delta Flyer."
Tighe nodded and scrambled for the rear of the shuttle. She picked up the big medikit from the supplies cupboard and waited patiently outside the airlock. She heard the soft, faint whine as Harry remotely activated the Delta Flyer's airlock, then the Minorca's airlock cycle began. The whine reached a crescendo, and fell silent as the Minorca's airlock door swung inwards. The resulting makeshift corridor between the two ships was dark: power had gone out on the Delta Flyer. Taking a deep breath, she crossed the threshold into the darkness.
It was being plunged back into her nightmare. Tighe gasped and backed against the cold wall of the Delta Flyer. She was hallucinating again: her mother lay on the floor of the shuttle, grievously injured, fighting for breath, and the Enterprise was too far away to help-
"Who in the world are you?" demanded a wiry, thin man attending to her mother, and in shock Tighe realized that she didn't know who he was. What was he doing in her dream? Tighe shook her head violently, trying to clear it, trying to wake up.
Her mother tried to push herself up into a sitting position, to get a better look at her. Tighe realized suddenly that everything was wrong, she was wearing the wrong uniform, she wasn't bleeding, and she was actually gazing at Tighe with frank curiosity. "Mom?" she whispered.
Her mother's eyes widened in confusion. "I beg your pardon?"
The thin man pushed her down gently. "Captain…"
It was impossible. Whatever she was seeing- there had to be some mistake somewhere. Tighe scrunched up further on the bulkhead, feeling the coldness of the metal penetrate right through to her bones. The thin man approached her, asking more questions which her mind couldn't process. In panic, she cried out. "Harry!"
Kim burst from the airlock door anxiously, afraid that she'd found some unthinkable phenomena on the Delta Flyer. Hs expression relaxed when he saw the occupants of the ship. "Tom! You okay?"
The thin man shrugged. "More or less." As Kim crouched beside the small woman on the floor, Tom -or whoever he was- placed a warning hand on his shoulder. "Careful, Harry- the captain's sustained some pretty severe internal injuries. Don't touch her."
The captain angled a look at Tighe. "Who's she?"
Kim turned to look at Tighe. "Oh, that's Lieutenant Amanda Tighe. She's the science officer of the Enterprise-F." His eyes lit up in excitement. "They've come to take us home!"
"Home…" whispered the captain. She glanced back at Tighe. "Is that so?"
Tighe couldn't speak. Kim turned to her. "Is there something wrong?" he asked, concerned.
She nodded. "My mother…" she gestured helplessly to the form lying on the floor. "Captain Tighe."
Kim seemed to catch on with what she was saying. "Our captain? No, this is Captain Janeway." He spoke slowly and kindly, as if to a frightened child. "It's just another hallucination."
Tighe closed her eyes, trying to find that inner center of peace within her. "No… Janeway… before she married my father."
Kim blinked in confusion for a moment. "What do you mean?" He thought it over, then his eyes widened in shock. "Damn! The discrepancies… I see it now!" He asked Tighe cautiously, "An alternate universe?"
"Maybe," she conceded, trying to calm her voice and think in a rational manner.
Janeway tried to sit up, her clear blue eyes widening. "Tighe?" she whispered. Then she was seized by a fit of coughing, and she leaned back on the deck.
"Whatever this is, we can sort it out later," said Tom, heading in Tighe's direction. "First things first… may I have this?" He took the medikit from Tighe's trembling hands.
Kim sank onto the floor of the Delta Flyer. "I knew it. It was just too good to be true…"
Tighe heard a console alert beeping in the distance. "The Enterprise has arrived," she exclaimed abruptly, before she burst out of the Delta Flyer and back to the shuttle Minorca, wanting nothing but to leave this nightmare behind.
******
Dr. Julian Bashir was taking stock of the vast inventory on the Starship Enterprise. As one of the bastions of Starfleet's frontline defense, the ship boasted one of the most extensive facilities, so much so that it required two qualified doctors to run it instead of one. Dr. Bashir was the junior officer, having been transferred over to the Enterprise-E after his graduation from Starfleet Academy with top honors.
Dr. Beverly Crusher, on the other hand, had been a long-standing officer of the ship, one of the original crew who had actually served under Captain Picard as well. She was a beautiful, statuesque woman, but Bashir knew how much darkness there was beneath that chiseled exterior. Her life had been touched by tragedy- first her husband had died in the line of duty; then her close friend Jean-Luc Picard, then Jadzia Dax, then Kathryn Tighe. In their heyday the three of them had earned the nickname of the Three Witches: the captain, the science officer and the doctor. Bashir knew what it was like to lose a close friend; even the joy of sharing his life with Ezri couldn't entirely erase the sadness caused by Jadzia's death. He could hardly imagine how Dr. Crusher managed to survive the torment. For one whose profession was dedicated to the saving of lives, it was ironic that she couldn't save the lives of those who were closest around her.
The past few days seemed to have cheered her up, however. Captain Riker apparently was a good friend of hers, and she was eager to meet him again. Now that the Enterprise was hovering above the Delta Flyer, she was definitely in a good mood. He looked up across Sickbay where she prepped a biobed for emergency use, humming a sprightly ditty from some twentieth century Terran musical.
The double doors to Sickbay slid open, and Captain Data stepped in, followed by Commander Chakotay from the Voyager. Bashir was curious; why were they here? Didn't they have a lot of other things to do?
Data addressed Crusher. "The captain of the Voyager was hurt in the plasma storm; we're beaming her over to this ship for further treatment." He paused. "Be prepared for a surprise."
Bashir frowned and stowed the inventory list, heading over to them trio of people. "Is there something wrong?" he asked.
Data nodded. "We got the wrong ship."
"The wrong ship?" Bashir was momentarily confused, then his mind kicked into high gear. "Like alternate universes, you mean?"
Chakotay nodded. "As he said, be prepared for a surprise."
The air before them shimmered with the blue sparkle of the Enterprise's transporter beam. When the four figures had materialized in Sickbay, Bashir realized that surprise might have been an understatement when compared to the astonishment he felt. For he recognized all four of them.
Lieutenant Amanda Tighe: daughter of Justin and Kathryn Tighe, current science officer of the Enterprise.
Ensign Harry Kim: tactical officer of the starship Voyager, graduated from Starfleet Academy in the same year as Dr. Crusher's son.
Tom Paris: Helmsman Alena Paris' uncle, rehabilitated from a Federation penal colony and currently employed as a ski instructor on Earth.
Captain Kathryn Tighe: Former captain of the USS Enterprise-F NCC 1701-F, mother to Amanda Tighe and deceased for half a year.
Bashir blinked. None of it made any sense to him.
Crusher drew in a sharp breath. "Captain?" she asked, her voice unbelieving.
Paris laid Captain Tighe out on a biobed. "She had severe internal injuries," he told Crusher. "I don't know how much repairs the regenerator of yours did, but I think you'd better have a look at her."
Chakotay took Tighe's hand. "Captain, are you alright?"
She smiled wanly up at him, squeezing his hand for reassurance. "I'll be fine, Chakotay. I must admit, though, that I'm slightly confused. Care to fill me in on who these people are?"
"You have every right to be confused," Bashir told her. "You've been dead for six months."
Her blue eyes widened as Dr. Crusher closed the regenerative arc over her, but she drolly replied, "Really. I hadn't noticed."
"We now believe that the starship Enterprise has crossed over into an alternate dimension, Doctor," Data informed him. "One in which Captain Tighe- or should I say Janeway?- did not take command of the Enterprise-E, but instead took command of the Voyager."
"And everything's different," said Chakotay.
Dr. Crusher faced them, her professional demeanor slipping slightly. "One in which she didn't die…"
"Yet," corrected Data. "Our ship is nearly six years ahead in time."
Tighe- or was it Janeway now?- pushed herself upright as the regeneration cycle ended and the arc slid back to its customary place. If she was feeling discomfort at the frank discussion of her purported death she didn't show it. "So, if you're from an alternate timeline… there is no breaking of the temporal Prime Directive, is there?"
Data shook his head. "However, our engineers tell us that we may be trapped here indefinitely until they can ascertain as to why we crossed the dimensional barrier and entered yours."
Chakotay nodded in agreement. "In the meantime Data and I thought it would be helpful if we organized a conference between our two crews to work out exactly where our two timelines split. It may turn up some useful clues."
Bashir addressed Lieutenant Tighe, who seemed to be slightly paler than normal. "Are you alright?"
Tighe nodded, smoothing her uniform down. "I'll live, thanks." She cast a glance at Janeway, who didn't return it. "I'll be fine," she added softly.
Data gestured to the entrance of Sickbay. "This way to the conference room, please."
******
Well the whole truth,
Is like the story of a wave unfurled
But I held the evil of the world
So I stopped the tide
Froze it up from inside
******
The conference room of the Enterprise was large, but it certainly wasn't large enough to seat nearly twenty people. As a result, Tuvok, Seven, LaForge and Reskin chose to stand, while the rest crammed around the long oval table, listening as Data addressed them.
"We have thus far ascertained that the origin of the split between our two timelines took place on [insert date here]. In my universe, the scheduled test flight of the shuttle prototype IIx1a was postponed, and as a result then-Lieutenant Tighe and Admiral Janeway did not die, but went on to spearhead Starfleet's offensive on the Cardassians in 2365. Admiral Janeway played a key role in the bringing down of the Cardassians, including the famous Battle of Terok Nor where the said space station was utterly decimated by Federation forces.
"In 2373 the starship Borogrove was doing a survey on the Bajoran wormhole when its commander, Benjamin Sisko, was contacted by the wormhole entities known as the Prophets. Following that encounter, the Federation worked together with the Bajoran provisional government to set up a small base to monitor traffic in and out of the wormhole, manned by twenty personnel, both Bajoran and human."
"Which no doubt was unable to do a thing against invading Dominion forces later," observed Seven.
"Correctly deduced," replied Data. "In the meantime, Captain Kathryn Tighe took her first command of the science ship, the USS Bonestell, which was assigned to assist Dr. Tolian Soran in his Nexus project. When the true machinations behind his motives became apparent, the Enterprise-D was dispatched to prevent the success of his plans. In the ensuing battle with the Duras sisters, both the Bonestell and the Enterprise were seriously damaged. Rather than allow Soran to succeed, Captain Jean-Luc Picard evacuated his crew to the Bonestell and collided with Soran's construct on the ground.
"The Bonestell managed to make her way to the nearest Starbase, but was too badly damaged and had to be salvaged. The surviving crewmembers of the two ships were given new assignments, mostly to Starfleet's newly commissioned starships, the USS Voyager, and later, the Enterprise-E. Captain Riker accepted command of the USS Voyager, which was lost on its maiden voyage, and Captain Tighe accepted command of the newest Enterprise, with her husband serving as the security chief under her.
"Three years ago the USS Voyager managed to send its first transmission back to the Alpha Quadrant, requesting for help. Although Starfleet has been unable to send a reply to the ship, it still transmits periodic updates of its logs. A year ago Starfleet Command assigned the Enterprise the mission of contacting the Voyager utilizing the wormhole technology the Quantum Sciences Symposium has been working on for eight years. Six months ago on a salvage mission the Enterprise was attacked by a Jem'Hadar ship, and Captain Tighe was killed in the process. One month later Lieutenant Commander Tighe succumbed to the Altarian fever. Five months later the Enterprise found the Voyager and attempted to traverse the distance between the two. Apparently we were unsuccessful."
Seated beside Janeway, Chakotay gave her a concerned glance as she drew a sharp, frustrated breath. He put his hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "Everything alright?" She nodded silently, and he decided to leave her alone for the time being.
Denbri, the ex-officer of the Tal Shiar, frowned as she absorbed all the information. "Let me see. Because Lieutenant Tighe and Admiral Janeway did not die in a shuttle crash, the whole universe changed and the Dominion War got extended by what, six years, at least? Strange that such a small event could lead to such a catastrophic change. But it's got nothing to do with our situation, does it?"
"I don't think it was a small event," said Janeway tersely, and Chakotay gripped her hand.
"Begging your pardon, Captain, but I was speaking more on universal terms than personal terms," replied Denbri crisply, folding her fingers together. "It may seem like a life-shattering experience to you, but it seems improbable that an event which only involved a few people directly would go on to affect billions of others indirectly."
Janeway tensed, but said nothing.
"But so many other things changed," said Ezri, quickly changing the topic. "What about the Borg incident of 2373? If not for Captain Tighe's insight the Borg may never have been defeated."
"You're forgetting that Captain Picard would still have been around," LaForge chided her.
"Indeed," commented Seven. "Captain Picard managed to vanquish the Borg Queen in that incident." She angled her head towards Data. "I believe you were involved as well."
"No doubt due in part to the Borg Queen's fascination with me," Data observed dryly. Seven smiled at that- an unusual thing, if any.
"One can hardly imagine what one's life would be like otherwise," remarked the Doctor. "On another ship, serving with another crew…"
"Yeah," Paris said. "I mean, a ski instructor… sheesh!" He took Torres' hand. "Can you imagine? We'd be seventy thousand light years apart…"
"Look," said Tighe somewhat snappishly, "all you've got is a change in occupation and girlfriend. I never even existed." She shot a look at Janeway, who insistently avoided looking and her. She sighed and her sigh contained a world of hurt and frustration. Kim, sitting beside her, put a shoulder around hers in commiseration.
Denbri surveyed the melancholy room around her and wanted to throw her hands up in exasperation. "Listen to the whole lot of you! All bemoaning the differences between our two timelines as if it was the most important thing in the universe, when none of it really matters. What's relevant is how we can get back to our own timeline and lead the lives we already have, and this isn't helping us any at all."
"She's right," said Crusher heavily. "There's no point in dwelling on all these… differences forever. We should focus on our mission."
"Perhaps if our two ships worked together as one we might be able to seek a solution to the problem faster," suggested LaForge.
Torres nodded in agreement. "We have some experience with wormhole technology- maybe we'll be able to help you."
Data cast an inquisitive glance at Janeway, who gestured wordlessly. Go ahead, by all means.
"I then declare this meeting closed," said Data.