Disclaimer: I don't own the ship, the characters or anything at all.
Chapter 8 – Strange meeting
Cassie sped out the other end of the rift with a sigh of relief, as she did so the rift closed behind her. The shuttle had come out undamaged, Cassie noted relieved that she had made it. Now all she had to do was complete the next and last part of her mission – convincing her younger self.
"Computer locate Voyager," she said.
"USS Voyager is 5,000 km port," the monotonous voice replied.
Cassie smiled to herself, there was still a long way to go before she was safe and her mission complete, but now that she was finally here she was filled with confidence. To be on Voyager again, to know her mother was alive and only a few rooms away was comforting to say the least. It would take all her restraint not to try to get a glimpse of her mother; she knew that any such action would end in discovery and contamination of the timeline. This she could not afford to do.
She cloaked the shuttle, and steered as close to Voyager as she dared, fearing her shuttle may be discovered followed by her own discovery. She stopped the shuttle, and stood up. Cassie strode to the back of the shuttle took a deep breath and ordered the computer to locate her younger self.
"Cassandra Janeway is in Corridor beta 3, deck 6" the computer stated.
Cassie sighed, so she was already on her way to the bridge. Cassie ordered the computer to beam her into the turbo lift that she knew her younger self would use in only seconds time. The computer complied and Cassie dematerialised in the turbo lift.
No sooner had Cassie dematerialised did the doors swish open to reveal her younger self. Cassie grabbed her by the arm and pulled her inside, an aghast look washing over her face.
"Who the hell are you?" she asked, angrily snatching back her arm.
Cassie could have laughed as the doors swished shut and the turbo lift moved onto the bridge.
"Halt turbo lift" she exclaimed.
"Computer belay that command," her younger self ordered, obviously frightened.
"Please this is important," Cassie said, pleadingly.
"Computer halt turbo lift," her younger self ordered slowly, eyeing Cassie as though she were a dangerous criminal.
"I think you know who I am," Cassie stated, as her younger self nodded her reply.
"I need you to listen to me. Something bad is going to happen and if you let it happen you'll have to live the life I've had to live for the past three years," she said.
"Go on."
"Mom, your mom, is going to tell you she's found a way to get Voyager home when you get to the bridge," Cassie said.
Her younger self's eyes widened in amazement, "We're going home. I never thought that would happen."
"I know, I was you three years ago remember. I also know how terrified you will be about going to Earth, and if you don't do as I tell you, you'll be going alone," Cassie said, quietly, sadly.
Cassie managed to regain her composure, fighting back the tears that threatened to overflow; she couldn't afford to cry, not now.
"What's going to happen?" her younger self asked, curiously, but also out of fear.
"The Captain will die," Cassie stated simply, as though detached from the situation.
Her younger self on the other hand was not detached from the situation. She stood staring disbelievingly at her.
After a few seconds she spoke, "She can't die, she can't, she's so strong. She promised me she wouldn't ever leave me, she promised!"
Her eyes spoke of what she could not, the anguish, the loneliness, the fear and overall the loss. Her voice was a mere cry of despair.
"Are you here to save her?" the young girl asked, hopeful.
"No…" there was a deathly pause as they stared at one another fear in the younger girls eyes. Cassie wondered if this girl in front of her, what had been she only three years ago could carry out her mission. She had forgotten her dependency on her mother, the closeness they shared. In the years since her death she had lost all that, and had been unwilling to remember lest the memories bring her more pain and regret than she could bare. She was stronger because of the events that had yet to make this young woman, had yet to scar her life as they had already done her own.
"You are," she said after a moment of silence, she believed she could do it; she had to believe she could do it.
"Me" the younger girl squeaked.
Cassie nodded, seeing the inner turmoil in her younger self, the tears that she was holding back glimmering in her eyes.
"I know what she means to you, she's more than a mother. I know you can come through for her," Cassie said, hoping the reassurance would provide some comfort.
The young girl nodded, the tears in her eyes dissipating into a firm determination, she had fought for her mother before although not with such fierce odds, when it came to the crunch she knew she could do it.
Cassie smiled, "She'll be trapped under a bulkhead where essentially she will die. However, you have the ability to push her out the way moments before the bulkhead falls. She will be stood inches from her chair just in front of you, you have to push her to the left," she instructed.
Her younger self nodded trying to remember the details, "I can't just tell her then?"
"No, that would distort the timeline too greatly" Cassie explained.
"Okay, what about you though where will you go? How did you get here?" she asked, concerned for her older counterpart.
" Q helped me. I'll go back to my shuttle," Cassie said not wishing to elaborate.
"To die," her younger self said, seemingly shocked at the sacrifice she was willing to make for this mission for her own happiness, although it would be her happiness too. She hated time travel it gave her a headache not to mention got her very confused. She wasn't in the least surprised Q had had something to do with this, except that he never helped people, well, not usually.
"It's worth it, if you succeed, and you will, you wont have to suffer the loss of the central person in your life. I know how much it would hurt, how it would destroy you," Cassie said, reflectively.
Her younger self nodded, she was lost for words. She was having a hard time believing she would turn into the young woman before her, so singly driven, so desperate, so hardened and so alone.
"Well, I should be going" Cassie said, suddenly hugging her younger self, which had to be one of the weirdest experiences of her short life.
Her younger self withdrew and smiled, she felt remorse although she barely knew this woman. It was the strangest thing, this woman was her but she was different.
"One last thing, tell her you love her," Cassie said, tears in her eyes. The younger Cassie nodded.
"Computer beam me aboard," Cassie said, tapping her commbadge. She materialised, leaving her younger self, alone in the turbo lift.
FIN
Please review, what do you think of the story so far? What would you like to see happen next?
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