Chapter Thirteen
U.S.S Voyager
Two Days Later
Doctor Leah Brahms crawled through the Jeffries tube leading to one of Voyager's main power junctions they had to reconfigure it to accept the power matrix for the interdimensional drive. They'd finally managed to adapt the Taelon technology enough to integrate it with Federation technology though it still required considerable modifications to be made to Voyager's power systems. Which were easy to make at the moment since they were repairing and rerouting them anyway after the damage Voyager had taken in the battle with the Jaridians.
"Why couldn't you design a space where you could walk upright," Tadoshi's voice said from behind Leah. The hybrid engineer/scientist was accompanying Leah and B'Elanna Torres to the power junction to help reconfigure the magnetic wave-guides in the plasma conduits linked to the distribution node they were going to.
"I don't know," Leah admitted. "We always just design these tubes to be just that access tubes for ships functions that run through every deck and section of the ship terminating ultimately in the space between the outer and inner hulls. Space is always at a premium on a starship so the Jeffries tubes are designed to take up as little space as possible."
"Do your ships have something similar to Jeffries tubes," B'Elanna asked Tadoshi curiously.
"Yes we do though they're not as narrow or low as this thing. In our access corridors most people can at least stand upright though it does get somewhat tight in places and can get somewhat dusty since their not used that often. Since our ships are living beings they are able to repair and in effect regrow any damage they take. Only certain things like the main drives both conventional and interdimensional require us to actually physically repair and maintain them. Everything else is done almost entirely by the ship or a buildings organic systems."
"Have the Taelons always used organic based technology," Leah asked. "Or did they once go through a phase of using mechanical ships like ours."
"The Taelons have always used organic technology to my knowledge," Tadoshi replied. "In ten million years of history I've seen no evidence of them ever using anything different. The Taelons are skilled bioengineers and long ago developed the ability to program organic matter to grow into any form they want and to do so quickly."
"Wouldn't there be archaeological evidence on their homeworld of them using non-organic technology in the past?" B'Elanna asked.
"Possibly so but there is no way to know. The Jaridians destroyed the Taelon homeworld nearly fourteen hundred years ago. The planetary crust was basically obliterated by massive orbital bombardment. Taelon is now just a burnt lifeless cinder in a star system near the centre of the Meruva galaxy the radioactive remains of its atmosphere slowly bleeding out into space." Neither B'Elanna nor Leah knew quiet what to say at that. What did one say when told about such a thing even though the thing in question had happened more than a millennium ago? So they changed the topic.
"Tadoshi what is this Commonality thing that we keep hearing about," Leah asked as they came to the end of this particular tube and stood up before descending the narrow ladder to the deck below and the next Jeffries tube that would terminate at their destination.
"The Commonality is a form of telepathic web that links the minds and souls of the entire Taelon race," Tadoshi replied as he descended the ladder. "It's the foundation for their entire society."
"So its kind of like the Borg Collective?" B'Elanna asked starting down.
"In some ways. It is the foundation of the Taelons sentience and it was from observing the Taelons that the race that became the first Borg first got the idea for a collective consciousness. But that is where the similarities end. The Commonality is much more spiritually orientated than the Borg Collective. Taelons can be as individual in their personalities as Humans or any other race are. The Commonality just binds them all together on a mental spiritual level."
"Interesting," Leah commented as they started along the Jeffries tube. "Are you part of this Commonality?"
"I can access it if that's what you mean. But no I don't exist as part of the Commonality like the Taelons do. None of my kind does though we could be part of the Commonality all the time if we wanted to be. But we prefer not to be. It's not that were afraid of the Commonality or anything its just were much more comfortable being on our own than in sharing ourselves with every Taelon or every other of our kind."
"So in that respect your much closer to us than you are to the Taelons," B'Elanna commented.
"Yes. You will find lieutenant that in many ways my kind are no different to Humans. Our thought processes can be little different so can our reactions it depends on the situation. In one situation we might think and respond like a Human would in another we'll think and respond as a Taelon would and sometimes we'll think and act in away completely different to either. But most of the time we do think more like Humans than Taelons though we have an easier time than a full Human would understanding the way Taelons sometimes view things."
"Do your two different natures sometimes clash," B'Elanna asked in genuine curiosity. "I know that my Human and Klingon halves are sometimes completely at odds with each other." Tadoshi laughed.
"I can identify with that," he agreed. "I've been in situations where the Human in me wants to react in a certain way and the Taelon in me wants to react in a completely different way. Such situations though rare can be somewhat difficult."
"Tell me about it," B'Elanna agreed with a smile. They came to the end of the Jeffries tube at that moment. Since she was leading she opened the access panel into a small room with three large removable wall panels. Behind those immediately to the left and right was a large EPS power conduit, behind the panel immediately ahead was the junction node where half a dozen smaller EPS conduits branched off from the main conduit to provide power to the bridge and upper three decks of the saucer section.
Quickly they piled out of the Jeffries tube and set about their work. They'd already reconfigured three of these things with four more to go after this one so Leah, B'Elanna and Tadoshi all knew what they had to do so the quickly set about work.
Ten minutes into reconfiguring the primary magnetic wave-guide to stand up to the strain the entire EPS system would be under coping with the new propulsion system B'Elanna began to feel momentarily dizzy. Turning off her laser driver she paused and took a deep breath to try and push the dizziness away. She was familiar with this – it happened quiet a lot since the two different sides of her metabolism did clash at times for no apparent reason – she'd long ago developed breathing techniques based loosely on Terran yoga breathing principles to deal with it.
"Lieutenant are you alright," Leah asked eyeing the Klingon/Human engineer in concern. Tadoshi also stopped what he was doing and turned to look at B'Elanna in concern. A look at her showed that something wasn't quiet right.
"Yes," B'Elanna replied. "Metabolic clash it happens frequently," she explained as the dizziness faded away momentarily only to abruptly flare up again and she wobbled noticeably and would have collapsed to her knees if Leah hadn't caught her. "But its not normally this bad," B'Elanna admitted.
"Perhaps you should go to sickbay maybe that holographic healer of yours could help," Tadoshi said looking straight at her.
"I'm fine," B'Elanna said stubbornly only to grown as another wave of disorientating dizziness rippled through her. "On the other hand you may be right," she admitted. "You two carry on here I'll go see the Doctor and join you back here or at one of the other four junctions we have left to do after this one."
"Are you sure you want to go alone," Tadoshi asked.
"I'll be fine," B'Elanna assured the hybrid. "No need to baby me."
"And why not," Tadoshi asked jokingly. "After all at eighty-nine I'm old enough to be your grandfather." B'Elanna laughed before moving away from Leah and disappearing back into the Jeffries tube. Leah meanwhile looked at Tadoshi.
"You're eighty-nine years old," she exclaimed in shock.
"Yes. One thing you should learn about my kind Leah is that we age only slowly. I can expect to live anywhere from three hundred to four hundred years. We age normally until our mid-thirities and then we physically seem to stop aging. We only start aging again in the last decade or two of our lives."
"Interesting so many of the first hybrids are still alive."
"Most are yes," Tadoshi agreed. "Though some have joined the Void through injury or illness and some have died in battle with our enemies. Come we better get back to work."
B'Elanna Torres staggered out of the Jeffries tube into one of Voyager's corridors and began to move to the nearest turbolift clutching at the bulkhead for support against the dizziness being caused by the most vicious metabolic clash she'd ever experienced. Idly she wondered if it had something to do with that Taelon bonding/joining thing she and Tom had done two days ago – but if it did have something to do with that then why hadn't it shown up earlier.
"Lieutenant are you alright," a familiar voice said from behind her. B'Elanna paused and turned to see Seven of Nine looking at her in concern. After a moment B'Elanna decided to swallow her pride and ask the ex-Borg drone for some help.
"Not really Seven," she admitted. "I'm feeling dizzy for some reason. I'm trying to get to sickbay but it's slow going. Can you help me get there?"
"Of course," Seven responded coming up to stand beside her and taking B'Elanna's right arm and slinging it across her shoulders. B'Elanna gratefully shifted some of her weight onto Seven and they started towards sickbay.
*****
Ya'sa'ra City
Admiral Owen Paris stood on the sidelines watching his son practice the use of some of his new abilities. Tom was currently sitting cross-legged on the floor of a room whose only feature was a large pedestal, a set of blocks on the floor below the pedestal and a diagram on the wall depicting a simple looking pyramid on top of the pedestal. According to Rhys Jordan the hybrid teaching Tom how to use his hybrid abilities the object of the exercise was to construct the pyramid on the pedestal without physically touching any of the blocks.
So it was that slowly and surely the blocks were lifting one by one off the floor and moved onto the pedestal to assemble the pyramid. The blocks were being moved not through any technological means but just by telekinesis – an ability normally dormant in full Humans since the part of the Human mind where such abilities were located wasn't due to evolve properly for another million years or so, but that wasn't dormant in Human/Taelon hybrids even those that were more Human than Taelon like Tom was.
Owen watched silently so as not to break Tom's concentration as he slowly moved the blocks through sheer mental power nothing more. Rhys was also present along with a certain Vulcan security officer who'd been curious and asked to be able to attend the session. Tom and Rhys had allowed it and now Tuvok was watching as well as the blocks were slowly but surely piled in order on the pedestal. Tom's eyes were closed as he was doing this and his face was a mask of concentration as he carefully moved the pieces.
Finally the final piece of the pyramid was lifted off the ground and slowly drifted through the air to settle on the top of the pyramid.
From his position Owen saw a small smile light Rhys' lips.
"Well done," the older hybrid said to Tom as the latter opened his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief.
"That was hard," Tom said standing up.
"It always is at first," Rhys replied. "But with practice it gets easier and easier. Soon you won't need to close your eyes or concentrate really hard to move the training blocks or any other small to medium sized object."
To make his point Rhys made a hand gesture and an opening appeared in the bioslurry wall revealing a small cupboard. Abruptly every single block lifted off the pedestal and flew through the air to stack themselves neatly inside the cupboard. Tom watched impressed by the complete lack of effort Rhys had demonstrated doing that. He could only hope that he would be able to do the same soon.
"That is all for today," Rhys said as he closed the cupboard and keyed a command into a holographic console that appeared in the air beside him. The pedestal rippled seemed to turn fluid and flowed down to vanish into the floor as if it had never been. "You are progressing through the basic training program quiet nicely," Rhys continued. "We only have a few more things to cover. Until tomorrow." Rhys made the familiar Taelon greeting/leave-taking salute before making a door appear in the walls and leaving the room.
Both Tuvok and Owen moved up to Tom as soon as Rhys left the room.
"An impressive display lieutenant," Tuvok said in complement. "I believe that we will all be surprised by what you will be able to do with a little more practice."
"Yeah me included," Tom agreed. "Thanks for the vote of confidence Tuvok."
"I am merely stating a fact," Tuvok responded with typical Vulcan snobbishness. "Now please excuse me I have some duties to attend to." Tuvok nodded towards Owen. "With your leave admiral?"
"Yes commander go," Owen said. Tuvok nodded and also left the room. Owen meanwhile looked over at his son. Things were still somewhat awkward between them but weren't as awkward as they had once been. Seven years of forced separation was enough to put their previous disputes into perspective.
Before he could say anything a strange look abruptly came across Tom's face. A look that was hard to describe.
"Tom is something wrong," Owen asked in concern. Tom didn't answer immediately but almost seemed to look inside himself. Then a look of concern appeared on his face.
"Something's wrong with B'Elanna," he said. "She's gone to sickbay on Voyager. I have to get up there."
"Then let us go. I think there nearest transporter is this way."
*****
Voyager Sickbay Ten Minutes Later
The Doctor smiled slightly as he saw the results of the bioscan he'd just run on Lieutenant Torres to determine what was causing her dizziness. Yet he was also confused. He'd treated Lieutenant Torres for minor electrical burns and a broken rib after the battle with the Jaridian fleet and their had been no sign of what he was reading now.
"Well Doctor," B'Elanna asked. "What's causing this?"
"You're electrolyte levels are low. You skipped breakfast again this morning didn't you."
"Guilty as charged," B'Elanna admitted. "But I've skipped breakfast before and it's never had this effect on me before. Why's it affecting me now?"
Before the Doctor could reply the sickbay doors opened and Lieutenant Paris came through followed by his father Admiral Paris. Tom immediately marched up to his wife's bedside.
"Are you alright," he asked and at such close proximity B'Elanna couldn't help but feel his concern for her through the telepathic link between them. "I felt that something was wrong down on the planet," he explained for the Doctors benefit.
"I'm fine. Just a dizzy spell," B'Elanna reassuringly and deeply touched that Tom had dashed up here the moment he had sensed that something was wrong. In his place she would no doubt do the same – even if she had to fight her way through a fleet of warships to get to him. "In fact the Doctor was about to tell me what caused it. Weren't you?"
"Yes," the Doctor replied. "B'Elanna skipping breakfast is quiet common but she shouldn't do it now of all times."
"Meaning," B'Elanna and Tom inadvertently asked together before both blushing. Owen Paris hid a chuckle – he had a feeling such things were bound to occur from time to time as a result of that telepathic link that now existed between his son and his daughter in law. The Doctor didn't bat an eye.
"Meaning that you shouldn't skip meals lieutenant not in the condition your now in," the Doctor said before smiling theatrically. "You're pregnant." B'Elanna gasped and exchanged a shocked look with her husband. Pregnant! How could she be pregnant? She'd only gone through her normal menstrual cycle a week ago? She shouldn't be able to get pregnant yet.
"This is a joke right," B'Elanna asked. "I mean I'm to early to be…"
"Ordinarily yes," the Doctor replied. "But I can assure you that this is no joke." To prove it he showed all three of them the bioreadings displayed on his tricorder. "The embryo is about two weeks old however here's where it gets interesting. According to my scan the embryo was only conceived forty-eight hours ago. The child is growing at an unusually accelerated rate – at its current rate of growth the child will be born in approximately three months. The accelerated growth is putting greater stress on your system than normal. But it is not critical you'll just have to eat more often and not skip meals for any reason."
"How did this happen," Tom wanted to know. "I mean we haven't…" The realisation dawned on both him and B'Elanna at the same time. The joining/bonding thing they'd done two days ago had caused this as well as creating the mental bond between them. It would fit and if the developing child had Taelon DNA in it as well as Human and Klingon DNA then it could explain the unusual growth rate.
"Lieutenant," the Doctor prompted. Tom quickly explained a little bit about the joining though he knew very little about it. Joining was just another new instinct he had as a result of becoming part Taelon. "That might explain how this happened," the Doctor agreed. "I will have to speak to Mit'gai and try and find out a little bit more about this joining thing." He looked straight at Tom and B'Elanna. "The question is what do you wish to do now. As the child grows the strain it will put on B'Elanna's system will increase. Maybe to a dangerous degree. Do you want to go through with the pregnancy or would you like me to terminate it now."
"We'll go through with it," B'Elanna said knowing instantly what her husband's feelings on this matter were, she shared them. "We've always wanted a family," she continued gently taking her husbands hand. This time there was no advertent sharing since Tom knew how to block that from happening now. "It's come a bit sooner than we thought it would," she went on. "But we'll take the risk."
"Very well then. I believe congratulations are in order." Out of the corner of his eyes Tom noticed a smile abruptly cross his fathers face – a strange almost goofy smile. I think it's just occurred to him that he's going to be a grandfather, he thought, God me a father who would have thought it. But then who would have thought I would ever get married? Who would have thought that I'd end up a hybrid again? Certainly not me. But thinking about it though I didn't want the last part I wouldn't change any of it. Not now that I've gotten used to it all. I wonder how the rest of the crew will react when they hear about it through the grapevine?