When Worlds Collide
Chapter Ten
Briefing Room
Captain Janeway and B'Elanna Torres got to the briefing room to find the rest of the senior staff – with the notable exceptions of Lieutenant Paris and the Doctor – already present and looking at them in curiosity. Only Tuvok looked unconcerned – but Janeway knew her Vulcans. Tuvok would be just as curious as everyone else.
"Good afternoon," Janeway said moving to sit at the head of the table in her usual place. B'Elanna took her normal place as well. "I know your all wondering why I have asked to speak to you all and why Lieutenant Paris and the Doctor are not here. That will become clear in a moment.
"Now what I am about to tell you concerns a past incident that is deeply personal to Mr Paris. I am only speaking of it now because he has given me permission to do so and because it now has a direct bearing on him. You see Tom Paris is a hybrid."
"What," Commander Chakotay exclaimed exchanging astonished looks with Harry, Neelix and Seven. Tuvok was composed but he could tell that the Vulcan was surprised. B'Elanna though looked unmoved – she'd clearly already know. "A Human/Taelon hybrid?" he asked.
"To be exact Tom is three quarters Human and one quarter Taelon," B'Elanna said. "But he wasn't always a hybrid."
"What do you mean," Seven of Nine asked.
"Let me explain," Janeway said drawing attention back to her. "It started eleven years ago during the last days of the Federation/Cardassian Boarder Wars."
Calmly she explained everything. How a green young ensign named Tom Paris had gone to Risa on vacation after graduating from Starfleet Academy. How he'd been seduced and kidnapped by a Cardassian spy and taken to Karus Rusal's research base. She explained about the Taelon ship that had gone down in Cardassian space – how DNA had been taken by the Cardassians before the Taelon survivor died, how Rusal had come into possession of that DNA and discovered it to be compatible with Human DNA. She explained how Rusal had injected that DNA into Tom just to see what would happen. She explained how Tom had begun to change into a hybrid – how he'd eventually used his forming shaqarava to kill Rusal and escape. The pursuit by Gul Yurad and Tom's rescue by the Taelon cruiser Da'shi'ri. How Tom had been turned back into a Human by the Taelons, how they'd been forced to leave some Taelon DNA in him just dormant and how the Da'shi'ri had intercepted the Al-Batani just to return Tom to his father. She explained a little about the emotional aftermath, the depression that Tom had suffered for nearly two years afterwards.
Then she described what had happened here today – how the alien flu bug that Tom had picked up on the Galaki homeworld had latched onto the dormant Taelon DNA. How a few hours ago now the virus had become active bringing some of the Taelon DNA with it. How the virus had swiftly been neutralised by Tom's immune system whose antibodies unfortunately also adapted to neutralise the chemical elements in Tom's blood that kept his Taelon DNA dormant. How Tom had rapidly changed back into a hybrid albeit a hybrid who was largely Human.
All in all it took about twelve minutes to explain it all. When she was done the other members of the senior staff were silent not sure what to think. Janeway noticed that Chakotay, Harry, Neelix and even Seven looked angry at what the Cardassians had done to Tom all those years ago. Tuvok looked calm but Janeway wouldn't like to speculate what emotions churned beneath his Vulcan calm.
"So now Tom's a hybrid again," Harry Kim stated.
"Yes," B'Elanna replied. "Neither of us are happy about it but we cannot do anything about it. A hybrid will be coming over to Voyager probably tomorrow to help Tom learn how to control the powers he now has – especially the shaqarava."
"Cannot the Taelons turn Mr Paris back into a Human again like they did the first time?" Tuvok asked.
"I'm afraid not," Janeway replied. "The antibodies that destroyed the flu virus would immediately detect the chemicals and identify them as an invading force and immediately neutralise them. The exact same mechanism that prevents Humans getting the same disease twice would work against any attempt made to suppress the remaining Taelon DNA."
"We can't the Taelons remove the DNA altogether?" Harry asked.
"It's not that simple. Taelon DNA is nothing like ours or any other humanoids. Its as much and organised energy pattern as anything else. The Taelons were able to remove almost all of it when Tom was taken aboard the Da'shi'ri. The only part left behind was that part that contained genes that had already to tightly interwoven themselves with Tom's Human DNA. Any attempt to remove them would have run too much of a risk of shattering his DNA structure. The only thing the Taelons could do was suppress the genes in question. Now even that option is closed to them."
"How is Tom taking all this," Neelix asked.
"Not too badly," B'Elanna admitted. "At the moment he's still somewhat stunned by at all, and completely exhausted from the sudden change – I mean he went from a full Human to a hybrid in less than an hour. He's resigned to being a hybrid for the rest of his life as well. One thing is for sure were all going to have to be here for him if he needs us. And I suspect that he's going to need us a lot in coming days and weeks."
Their were nods all around in response to B'Elanna's comments. They'd be here for Tom Paris when he needed them. They were his friends and B'Elanna's friends as well. They would need whatever support that they could provide for there were bound to be rough patches ahead for them.
"Bridge to Captain Janeway," a voice said over the intercom. Janeway tapped her combadge.
"Janeway here."
"Captain our sensors are picking a small subspace distortion."
"Of what kind?"
"Unknown. It looks similar to a cloaking device – we're only detecting it because of the Borg sensors and even those are having great difficulty locking onto it."
"How many contacts?"
"Just one. Whatever it is its very small. Possibly a probe." Janeway looked at her senior staff.
"Stations," she ordered and they scrambled to their feet heading for the doors. Janeway then spoke into her combadge again. "We'll be right out," she said.
*****
The Jaridian probe sneaked into the Taelon controlled Ya'sa'ra system with great care. The last thing the Empire wanted was to alert the Taelon Defence Force as to what the target of their first great assault of the second Taelon war was going to be now that the Empire had finished dealing with the annoying insurrectionist distraction in several dozen sectors on the far side of the Empire. So the probe approached with a level of caution unusual for Jaridians.
Quickly it began to move about its mission to survey enemy defences and deployments prior to the arrival of the fleet which was waiting deep in Delkari controlled space waiting for the order to go. The probe noted the number and type of warships in the system – there were at least forty large warships that it could detect and one mothership, which was sticking close to a large orbital station. The orbital space of Ya'sa'ra was packed with a large number of defence platforms each one mounting a heavy Taelon disruptor cannon and protected by strong shields. All in all it was exactly the firepower that the Delkari had told them to expect protecting Ya'sa'ra – though the presence of the mothership had not been anticipated, not that one mothership was a cause for real concern despite its heavy weapons.
Data mismatch. The probe was picking up a non-Taelon signature docked to the orbital station. One ship definitely not Taelon in construction, design or origin. Quickly the probe scanned the vessel and compared its image to its databanks. The unknown vessel belonged to United Federation of Planets and conformed to the design of a Intrepid-class starship. Its presence had not been expected as all current intelligence showed that the Federation did not possess either transwarp or interdimensional technology. But it would not be a problem the probes AI knew. Intrepid-class Federation ships were well armed and very manoeuvrable – but this one was on its own without any support ships.
Tactical alert the probe was picking up a pair of Taelon cruisers coming its way on what was probably a patrol route. Soon enough they would be close enough for their sensors to detect it even with its cloaking device engaged and it would take but one shot from their weapons to destroy the probe.
Tactical subroutines indicated that its primary mission objective to scout the system had been completed – so the probe turned in space and began to accelerate away from the system – it would wait until it was in the shadow of one of the outer planets before going into ID space as it couldn't use its ID drive and its cloak at the same time. Quickly the probe activated its subspace communications array and sent a transmission to the fleet hiding the transmission with quantum interference – to the Taelons the transmission would simply look like an increase in background radiation. This way even if it were spotted now the fleet would know Ya'sa'ra's defences.
*****
Voyager
"The distortion has vanished from our sensors captain," Seven of Nine reported.
"Any idea what the distortion was," Janeway asked.
"Negative. Though from the size and the way it moved around I expect that it was a cloaked survey probe."
"Captain the Taelon cruiser dispatched to Federation space has just come out of ID space," Harry Kim reported. "They're moving into dock with the orbital station." The incoming signal chirp sounded. "The cruiser is hailing us. It's Admiral Paris he wants to talk to you."
"I'll take it in my ready room," she told Harry standing up. She would have to tell the admiral just what had just happened to his son and that was best done in private. "Chakotay you have the bridge." Chakotay nodded as Janeway headed into her ready room.
Janeway entered her ready room a few seconds later, walked around her desk and turned the terminal on just as she sat down. Admiral Owen Paris appeared on the small screen – he looked a little older than when Janeway had last seen him. There were new lines on his face – the product of worry for his son and the stress and strain of the Dominion war.
"Admiral it is good to see you again," she said calmly wondering how to broach the topic of Tom being a hybrid again with his father.
"Captain," Owen Paris acknowledged. "It is good to see you too." He paid close attention to her face. "Come on Kathryn out with whatever it is you have to tell me."
"No fooling you is there," she said jokingly.
"No. I've known you to long. Ever since you were a green ensign reporting to me for duty. So out with it. I know that you have something to tell me so what is it?"
"It's about Tom."
"What about him," the admiral demanded leaning closer. "Has something happened?"
"Something like that," she replied. "Before you ask he's alive and all right. It's just…"
Quickly she explained everything that had happened – telling him exactly what she had told her senior staff – though she left the bit with Rusal and the Cardassians out of it since Owen Paris already knew that bit. Idly she remembered how he'd reacted when the Taelons had told him – fortunately the cease fire had been signed by both sides by that point otherwise he would have taken the Al-Batani across the boarder into Cardassian space gone to that research base and destroyed it – he'd been so angry at what the Cardassians had done to his son.
As she spoke the admiral's face reflected a variety of different emotions. Shock, surprise, and concern amongst others. When she finished speaking the admiral was quiet for several moments deep in thought. Finally he spoke up.
"We'll be docking with the orbital station in a few minutes," he said at last. "I'll come aboard Voyager as soon as I am able to after we have docked. Paris out." The admiral disappeared from the screen then. Janeway considered what to do now. After a moment she decided that she would join the Taelon welcoming committee. But first she needed to find out which airlock the Shutari was going to dock at. She tapped her combadge and hailed Ops.
"Harry hail the station and get me General Kincaid."
"Aye captain."
*****
Shutari
Admiral Owen Paris stood waiting for the cruiser to dock with concealed impatience. He wanted to get the formal greetings from the Taelons over and done with as quickly as possible so he could go aboard Voyager and see his son for the first time in seven years. There was also the fact now that Tom needed him now that he'd found himself a hybrid again – he hadn't always been there when Tom needed him in the past much to his own sorrow – but he was determined to be there this time. Tom was going to need all the support he could get for quiet some time while he came to terms with what had happened to him and learned to control the powers and abilities that he now had as a result of becoming a hybrid.
The rest of the science and diplomacy team stood around him but he paid them little attention though he did make a point of noting their reactions to being here. Ambassador Vales was egar to get down to the work of negotiating with the Taelons, Dr Brahms, Gorak, Lt Comdr LaForge and Lt Barclay looked egar to get to work adapting the Taelons ID technology to work on Voyager, T'vren had the typical Vulcan calm look but he knew that the Vulcan would be just as egar as his fellow engineers and scientists to get his hands dirty helping adapt the ID technology.
A faint shiver ran through the cruisers bioslurry deck as they finally docked with the orbital station. A moment or two later Captain Ramirez joined them and led them to a seemingly blank section of wall. The hybrid made a gesture and the wall glowed and vanished revealing the interior of one of the stations docking arms.
"This way," he said leading them into the docking arm corridor.
A couple of moments later they were exiting the docking arm stepping into one of the stations reception areas. Where a welcoming committee composed of General Kincaid, Da'an and Captain Janeway was waiting for them. As soon as they were all in the reception area Da'an stepped forward.
"Welcome to Ya'sa'ra," he said politely making the Taelon greeting gesture. "I am Da'an and I am a senior member of the Synod and in their name I welcome you."
"We are pleased to be here Da'an," Ambassador Vales said stepping forward automatically taking the diplomatic lead and mimicking the Taelon greeting gesture with as much grace as he could manage. It had helped that Captain Ramirez had briefed them on Taelon gestures during their flight and what they meant, he also told them not to offer to shake hands with either the Taelons or his fellow hybrids since they didn't like that kind of physical hand to hand contact for the same sort of reasons that the Vulcans disliked physical contact with non-telepaths. "I am Ambassador Justin Vales. It is the hope of the Federation Council that we can establish a good relationship between our peoples."
"That is our hope as well ambassador," Da'an replied. "I can see that we will have much to talk about."
At that moment before anyone could say anything else an alarm began sounding throughout the station.
"What's that," Vales demanded.
"A call to battle stations," Liam replied speaking for the first time. "We're under attack." Quickly he waved up a datastream already suspecting what it was he was going to see.
"Attack!" Captain Janeway exclaimed. "By whom?" Liam looked straight at Da'an who blushed blue in alarm as Liam telepathically showed him what he saw on the datastream.
"The Jaridians have come," Liam said softly.