Deeper Into The Fantasy
Part II: Great Mistakes
"A television program!" Captain Janeway sighed. All her beliefs, all her knowledge, all her feelings…were just a part of someone's story? It sounded all too unbelievable to her. But still, the human male standing in front of her seemed to know every major event that had happened to Voyager, and he had to have come from somewhere.
Dave nodded. "Yep. Even quite popular."
"He could be right," Harry mused out loud.
Janeway laid her questioning eyes on him. "Ensign?"
"I detected a subspace anomaly on deck seven in the same moment he appeared there, and the Federation database holds information about the same kind of anomalies, which have sent objects to our dimension from other dimensions before," Harry explained, eyeing their guest with curiosity. Harry was, after all, one of those people that didn't really believe in impossibility. Not anymore. He had believed in purely the physical world, having to see it to believe it, but now the young ensign couldn't be sure anymore. From endless mysteries of his home planet to the Q continuum, the universe was full evidence of something more.
Dave turned his attention back to Janeway, and threw her the famous I-told- you-so look. He was still surprised about Harry's calmness, although he had noted that thing about him several times before while watching the show. They should've shown more episodes dealing with Harry Kim, Dave thought. He would've liked to understand the guy better.
"Before you start making plans about sending him back to his own reality," the Doctor said, "I want to point out that the shifting between two realities is still a very unknown subject, and in that case, I advise you to act in precaution. He may seem to be fine now, but because there are so many things left outside of what we call a "full medical exam," I want to keep eye on his medical condition for a week. Remember, we found him unconscious." The Doctor received a nod of agreement from Harry and the Captain, which matched the look in their eyes.
Dave smiled and let out a sigh; he couldn't help it. He loved these guys because their first thought was that something weird had happened around here, not that he was crazy. And they were the first ones to ever take him seriously. He could get used to this.
Janeway smiled back, and at this point she started to get and idea of what to do. "Kes, would you escort our guest to his quarters, give him a little tour and show him how to use his replicator?"
"Of course." Kes nodded and smiled once again at Dave, who was more than eager to see the rest of the legendary ship. It was true that he was cute on some level, but it was somehow a certainty that those feelings were to disappear because she had much stronger ones towards Neelix. She decided to keep her slight attraction towards their guest a secret, especially from Neelix; admitting that the stranger was cute to Neelix would just make him jealous.
"And Mr. Kim, I want you to investigate for a way to get him safely back to his own reality."
"Do I have to go back?" That one came from Dave. Now, when his dreams were finally here, how could he let them get away? He already hated the thought about going back to Chicago. The cold city wasn't his idea of home. To be honest, he had no idea of what a real home was all about. And it was all because of his damn lonely childhood, with no one close to him. And here everyone was close to each other. That was what he preferred, and it was what he wanted.
Janeway was startled. Had she just met another person without a real home? This sure complicated everything. Of course, she couldn't just throw him out of her ship because it'd be totally cruel since he had done nothing wrong -- at least yet -- and she doesn't even have a permission to do so, not that she'd want to. But he is, after all, a person they know nothing about besides what he was telling them, and from experience she knew she couldn't trust foreigners, no matter how truthful they seemed. This wasn't a simple decision to make, and Janeway was afraid that she'd have to grant him his wish. Troubles, troubles. Part of this job. I know, she said to herself silently.
"Don't you want to?" she asked in disbelief. Oh no, please be joking, she thought with exasperation, despite her previous thoughts, her mind creating sentences her mouth would never speak due to her Starfleet rank and her position as a captain of a lost starship and two very different crews. She had countless times wished that she had never gotten into this quadrant, that her job would be as easy as the other Starfleet captains' jobs were. Sometimes she cursed the Caretaker, but whenever she did, she also was overwhelmed with guilt for being so selfish. If they hadn't gotten here, Ocampas probably wouldn't even exist anymore. She couldn't turn her back on her on her crew or anybody else, not now, not ever, though she wished she sometimes could.
"Well…no, I don't," he admitted sheepishly. Dave glanced at Kes, and was somehow surprised at how patient she was. The girl was still smiling.
Janeway sighed. With what Dave has just said, she had just gained another job: thinking, which she wished sometimes to be in lack of. She couldn't violate the prime directive, because this Dave seemed to know a lot of 24th century. But in other hand, he didn't belong here, and Janeway didn't even know his history or if he really was some sort of spy or what he said he was.
"I'll have to think about that."
With that, she exited the sickbay, and Harry followed. After an awkward moment of silence, Kes led Dave out of sickbay and started the tour, Kes giggling at Dave's facial expressions and comments, and Dave adapting to thought of this heaven as a home. Heaven, despite the nagging feeling in a one small corner of Dave's mind.
Harry's shift was finally over. He had a small conversation with the crewman taking his place on the console, and then left the bridge. He stole a quick glance at the conn, where Tom was still working, and stepped into the turbolift. He was still thinking about that weird subspace anomaly when the whole turbolift started shaking.
"Bridge." He gave a new command to the computer, but the turbolift didn't change its course. Oh damn. He tried the manual way, but the computer didn't follow. The turbolift's speed was rising, along with his fear of what exactly was going to happen when it didn't stop, and then it suddenly did. The doors opened, and Harry saw that he was on deck 12. He informed B'Elanna about the malfunction, and headed back to the bridge. They could probably use his help over there.
B'Elanna immediately ran to one of the engine room's computer consoles. While running, she yelled some commands to her staff, and glanced at the console. "Damned!" she whispered as she took a deep breath. It had happened again. "Well at least this time no one's dead," she told herself. The whole situation was something similar to what had happened almost two years ago: some subspace "bubbles" had appeared in Voyager, leaving corpses there. But these bubbles didn't leave any corpses, just that human male and now a Klingon targ.
"Torres to Janeway."
"Janeway here," she informed with a concerned tone of voice.
"Captain, you remember when Harry died for the first time?" It wasn't a joke, Harry had died more than once, and B'Elanna was happy that she hadn't lost her first friend aboard Voyager for forever in those times. Although she'd hate to admit it, she had the Doctor to thank for that.
"Are suggesting that something similar is happening right now?" Captain asked.
B'Elanna took a deep breath, and answered the question that was in some level a bit too right. "Yes."
Janeway grinned, and shook her head once. "Sometimes you just read my mind, B'Elanna," she stated cheerfully, and rose from her commanding chair. Then, she gave almost exact same orders to her crew as she had at that time they had lost Ensign Kim for the second time.
But something was wrong, it didn't work. Her communicator had been used so much lately that Janeway found herself twice thinking about the poor battery inside it and its work tasks. Of course, she blamed herself after that, not thinking about battery until she had a situation here, which could grow to be a threatening one. And then it drove her to thinking about batteries' rights, which after she stopped herself almost instantly from thinking. A little more thinking, and the Doctor would tell her she's insane.
Her crew informed her many times of a different object's appearances, a part of them they could recognize, and the other part…? They left the ship's computer to decide if it existed yet or not, and if not, they named them. Captain had a hard time keeping herself serious when the crew started talking sometimes about a tikacat, sometimes a 'treephden'.
Part II: Great Mistakes
"A television program!" Captain Janeway sighed. All her beliefs, all her knowledge, all her feelings…were just a part of someone's story? It sounded all too unbelievable to her. But still, the human male standing in front of her seemed to know every major event that had happened to Voyager, and he had to have come from somewhere.
Dave nodded. "Yep. Even quite popular."
"He could be right," Harry mused out loud.
Janeway laid her questioning eyes on him. "Ensign?"
"I detected a subspace anomaly on deck seven in the same moment he appeared there, and the Federation database holds information about the same kind of anomalies, which have sent objects to our dimension from other dimensions before," Harry explained, eyeing their guest with curiosity. Harry was, after all, one of those people that didn't really believe in impossibility. Not anymore. He had believed in purely the physical world, having to see it to believe it, but now the young ensign couldn't be sure anymore. From endless mysteries of his home planet to the Q continuum, the universe was full evidence of something more.
Dave turned his attention back to Janeway, and threw her the famous I-told- you-so look. He was still surprised about Harry's calmness, although he had noted that thing about him several times before while watching the show. They should've shown more episodes dealing with Harry Kim, Dave thought. He would've liked to understand the guy better.
"Before you start making plans about sending him back to his own reality," the Doctor said, "I want to point out that the shifting between two realities is still a very unknown subject, and in that case, I advise you to act in precaution. He may seem to be fine now, but because there are so many things left outside of what we call a "full medical exam," I want to keep eye on his medical condition for a week. Remember, we found him unconscious." The Doctor received a nod of agreement from Harry and the Captain, which matched the look in their eyes.
Dave smiled and let out a sigh; he couldn't help it. He loved these guys because their first thought was that something weird had happened around here, not that he was crazy. And they were the first ones to ever take him seriously. He could get used to this.
Janeway smiled back, and at this point she started to get and idea of what to do. "Kes, would you escort our guest to his quarters, give him a little tour and show him how to use his replicator?"
"Of course." Kes nodded and smiled once again at Dave, who was more than eager to see the rest of the legendary ship. It was true that he was cute on some level, but it was somehow a certainty that those feelings were to disappear because she had much stronger ones towards Neelix. She decided to keep her slight attraction towards their guest a secret, especially from Neelix; admitting that the stranger was cute to Neelix would just make him jealous.
"And Mr. Kim, I want you to investigate for a way to get him safely back to his own reality."
"Do I have to go back?" That one came from Dave. Now, when his dreams were finally here, how could he let them get away? He already hated the thought about going back to Chicago. The cold city wasn't his idea of home. To be honest, he had no idea of what a real home was all about. And it was all because of his damn lonely childhood, with no one close to him. And here everyone was close to each other. That was what he preferred, and it was what he wanted.
Janeway was startled. Had she just met another person without a real home? This sure complicated everything. Of course, she couldn't just throw him out of her ship because it'd be totally cruel since he had done nothing wrong -- at least yet -- and she doesn't even have a permission to do so, not that she'd want to. But he is, after all, a person they know nothing about besides what he was telling them, and from experience she knew she couldn't trust foreigners, no matter how truthful they seemed. This wasn't a simple decision to make, and Janeway was afraid that she'd have to grant him his wish. Troubles, troubles. Part of this job. I know, she said to herself silently.
"Don't you want to?" she asked in disbelief. Oh no, please be joking, she thought with exasperation, despite her previous thoughts, her mind creating sentences her mouth would never speak due to her Starfleet rank and her position as a captain of a lost starship and two very different crews. She had countless times wished that she had never gotten into this quadrant, that her job would be as easy as the other Starfleet captains' jobs were. Sometimes she cursed the Caretaker, but whenever she did, she also was overwhelmed with guilt for being so selfish. If they hadn't gotten here, Ocampas probably wouldn't even exist anymore. She couldn't turn her back on her on her crew or anybody else, not now, not ever, though she wished she sometimes could.
"Well…no, I don't," he admitted sheepishly. Dave glanced at Kes, and was somehow surprised at how patient she was. The girl was still smiling.
Janeway sighed. With what Dave has just said, she had just gained another job: thinking, which she wished sometimes to be in lack of. She couldn't violate the prime directive, because this Dave seemed to know a lot of 24th century. But in other hand, he didn't belong here, and Janeway didn't even know his history or if he really was some sort of spy or what he said he was.
"I'll have to think about that."
With that, she exited the sickbay, and Harry followed. After an awkward moment of silence, Kes led Dave out of sickbay and started the tour, Kes giggling at Dave's facial expressions and comments, and Dave adapting to thought of this heaven as a home. Heaven, despite the nagging feeling in a one small corner of Dave's mind.
Harry's shift was finally over. He had a small conversation with the crewman taking his place on the console, and then left the bridge. He stole a quick glance at the conn, where Tom was still working, and stepped into the turbolift. He was still thinking about that weird subspace anomaly when the whole turbolift started shaking.
"Bridge." He gave a new command to the computer, but the turbolift didn't change its course. Oh damn. He tried the manual way, but the computer didn't follow. The turbolift's speed was rising, along with his fear of what exactly was going to happen when it didn't stop, and then it suddenly did. The doors opened, and Harry saw that he was on deck 12. He informed B'Elanna about the malfunction, and headed back to the bridge. They could probably use his help over there.
B'Elanna immediately ran to one of the engine room's computer consoles. While running, she yelled some commands to her staff, and glanced at the console. "Damned!" she whispered as she took a deep breath. It had happened again. "Well at least this time no one's dead," she told herself. The whole situation was something similar to what had happened almost two years ago: some subspace "bubbles" had appeared in Voyager, leaving corpses there. But these bubbles didn't leave any corpses, just that human male and now a Klingon targ.
"Torres to Janeway."
"Janeway here," she informed with a concerned tone of voice.
"Captain, you remember when Harry died for the first time?" It wasn't a joke, Harry had died more than once, and B'Elanna was happy that she hadn't lost her first friend aboard Voyager for forever in those times. Although she'd hate to admit it, she had the Doctor to thank for that.
"Are suggesting that something similar is happening right now?" Captain asked.
B'Elanna took a deep breath, and answered the question that was in some level a bit too right. "Yes."
Janeway grinned, and shook her head once. "Sometimes you just read my mind, B'Elanna," she stated cheerfully, and rose from her commanding chair. Then, she gave almost exact same orders to her crew as she had at that time they had lost Ensign Kim for the second time.
But something was wrong, it didn't work. Her communicator had been used so much lately that Janeway found herself twice thinking about the poor battery inside it and its work tasks. Of course, she blamed herself after that, not thinking about battery until she had a situation here, which could grow to be a threatening one. And then it drove her to thinking about batteries' rights, which after she stopped herself almost instantly from thinking. A little more thinking, and the Doctor would tell her she's insane.
Her crew informed her many times of a different object's appearances, a part of them they could recognize, and the other part…? They left the ship's computer to decide if it existed yet or not, and if not, they named them. Captain had a hard time keeping herself serious when the crew started talking sometimes about a tikacat, sometimes a 'treephden'.
