The Third Nature -Book One of the Triad

Voyager fantasies by Lt Taya 17 Janeway

strangers in the forest

Five hours later she was on the planet's surface with Chakotay, tricorder in hand. Neelix was right; the planet was beautiful. Voyager had settled down in the midst of a vast plain, near the edge of a thickly wooded area which signified the beginnings of a forest. She and Chakotay skirted that forest, seeking fruits and berries which might be worthwhile harvesting. The smells of the forest surrounded her, rich and deep, full of life and promise. Tall slender trees rose hundreds of meters into the air, filtering the golden sunlight down in calico patches on the forest floor, shifting and dancing. The undergrowth wasn't thick, composed mainly of shrubs and ferns, and a few brightly colored flowers.

But there was more than that to this place, thought Janeway, as she strode through the forest with Chakotay by her side. Every time she gazed at the peaceful tableau around her, she somehow could sense a darkness. It wasn't darkness the color of black night; rather, she sensed a dim, gray light, soft and peaceful, shining down on striped marble floors. She didn't know what was triggering these sensations; her scientific side was considering the possibility that some unknown pheromone was releasing some suppressed memory within.

Finally she stopped in her stride and faced Chakotay. "Commander, I know this is going to sound slightly unusual, but do you notice anything odd about this place?"

"Odd? How so?"

"Like there is a darkness within it. Not a malevolent kind of darkness, but rather, a mild kind of darkness, a grayness-"

"- which is like a peace so languid it seems almost like ennui?" he completed for her.

She nodded. So he was feeling it too. "I've never felt like this before."

"Neither have I. Not even in any of my Vision Quests. This is something different. It feels…" he lifted his shoulders in a frustrated shrug. "Years ago we had a shrine in my neighborhood, which was rumored to be sanctified by the blood of the innocent. It had an… aura which was something like this. When I grew slightly older, I'd passed that aura off as a combination of imagination and suggestion. But now I'm not so sure."

"There's something wrong here," said Janeway with certainty. But what?

Then she heard it.

Singing.

It was the captivating, lilting voice of a young boy, definitely not someone from Voyager . He sang in a strange, alien tongue. Janeway and Chakotay looked at each other in surprise. Apart from the five away team members, no one else was supposed to be in the planet's surface. Wasting no time, she headed for the source of that voice. Chakotay followed.

Pushing aside a palm frond with her palm, she nearly ran into a young boy no more than twelve. The singer. His brown eyes widened as he saw Janeway, and he backed away.

"Wait," said Janeway kindly. "I'm not going to hurt you."

The child scrutinized her for a moment. He was a skinny boy, dressed in a mixture of white cotton fabrics, most likely homespun, and tanned leather hides. He had a small pouch slug across his chest and a curving silver sickle hanging from it. A few small twigs protruded from the pouch; the tangy pungent smell it was giving off smelt… divine, for the want of a better word. He had rumpled brown hair and chestnut eyes to match. He pulled back as Janeway took his skinny hand in hers and stopped him from running off. He tensed, then relaxed as he realized Janeway meant him no harm. Eventually their curiosities got the better of each other.

"Who are you?" she asked him.

"Who are you?" he asked back.

"I asked you the question first. There are no civilizations on this planet. Where did you come from?"

"Our daer. No one can find them because we bewitch our villages, and Myriam's the best spellcaster in this portion of the galaxy. No one can get past her charms and find us. Not even you." said the boy. "It's to keep the other Mage out. So they can't find us." The boy took on a distant, faraway look. "Are you from here?" he asked.

Janeway shook her head.

"From a nearby planet in the system?"

Janeway shook her head.

"From within the Preeminence?"

Janeway shook her head slowly, not understanding what he meant. "Who or what is the Preeminence?"

The boy stared at her. "You don't know about the Preeminence?"

"No."

His mouth dropped open and the child couldn't speak for a while. Then he asked:

"Are you Mage?"

"No."

"Half Mage?"

"No."

"Any relation to any Mage at all?"

"I'm afraid not."

The boy chewed his lip slowly, thinking. "You must come from very far away, then. Do you lead others, traveler?"

"I'm the captain of a ship," said Janeway cautiously, wondering if this constituted a breach of the Prime Directive since she had no idea who or what he was.

"A ship… a small ship, of people like you? Explorers? Scientists?"

"Yes."

"Not people driven by greed or fear?"

"I hope not." Janeway shared a bemused glance with Chakotay, who has thus far remained silent. She kept wondering if this child was part of an illusion, if she was seeing and imagining things. If that was the case then she should get herself to Sickbay as fast as possible.

But if he was real, and there was really this bewitched village he spoke of that could baffle her own sensitive instrumentation, she didn't know what she should do. Initiate first contact? What if they were pre-warp? Could she attribute every strange thing that she did to magic?

The boy scrutinized them briefly, then shrugged. "You don't seem like the type." His eyes seemed to be dancing with some kind of suppressed fire as he looked at them. "Maybe Myriam was right about the Auguries after all!" His gaze started from the level of Janeway's neck, then traveled downwards, and came to rest at her waist level. He reached out for the tricorder, and Janeway tensed.

"I won't damage it," the child promised, and he took the tricorder. He turned the object over in his hand and examined it. "This is a scanning device of some sort?"

Janeway nodded wordlessly, thankful that whatever situation they boy came from, at least he was slightly acquainted with technology. Dozens of questions burned in her throat, but somehow she sensed that she still would have to wait a while more before she could get answers. So she let the child toy with the tricorder for a while. Chakotay leaned over to her and whispered patiently in her ear, "Captain, we should return to Voyager."

Janeway held her hand up, dismissing it.

"It's very nice," said the child as he handed it back to her. Then he cast a wary glance over his shoulder, skittish. "You wouldn't mind if I tried something on you, would you?"

Janeway walked a fine line between caution and curiosity. "Depends on what that something is."

"It wouldn't hurt a bit." The boy licked his lips, nervous. "I'm not supposed to be doing it, but…" he glanced over his shoulder again- "I don't think Nayrn will pick this up, it's only a very small spell." He turned back to Janeway and she could see him trying to suppress his skittishness. "Come on, let's make it fast."

Chakotay gave her a warning glance, but she waved his concerns aside and nodded to the child.

Moving quickly and deftly, the boy reached into his pouch and drew out a small silver ring with a clear ruby-red gem set into it. He sang a few words in an alien tongue and ran the ring a few inches from Janeway's face, as if scanning her with a medical tricorder. Or a metal detector.

Sure enough, the jewel on the ring began to glow with a faint, reddish light.

The boy's expression lit up as he saw the glowing jewel. "See? You are Mage! I knew it!"

"Mage?" Janeway looked confused. "As in, a magician? I wasn't aware of that."

"That just means you haven't been trained," said the boy eagerly. "The Ring never lies. You have the ability to Cast…" he suddenly looked uncomfortable again. "Please don't tell Myriam I did that, okay?"

The situation was spinning too fast for Janeway to grasp. "Myriam?"

"She's the leader of the daer, you must meet her, you have to." The boy suddenly smiled with a dazzling radiance, emanating hope and excitement that was nearly palpable. "You probably won't understand much of it now, being from a place so far away you don't even know of the Preeminence, let alone learn how to Cast… but we have a set of Auguries, ancient texts, which foresaw such like you coming. The Emissary who would help us win the war!"

"War," said Janeway, suddenly feeling incredibly exhausted. I must be asleep. That was the only explanation she could think of for this.

"Will you come with me?" asked the boy. "Just to meet Myriam, nothing more. I'm sure she can explain this situation to you a lot better. I'm a lousy storyteller."

Oh, what the hell. Janeway looked at Chakotay, who shrugged deferentially. "Alright, we'll come."

The boy grinned, the started to bolt towards his village. But then he paused as another thought struck him and he turned back. "I'm sorry! I was so excited by meeting you that I haven't introduced myself!" He extended his skinny hand. "I'm Josh."

Janeway returned with a firm handshake. "I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway."

The boy's eyes grew like round saucers at the mention of her name. Part of Janeway wondered if he'd heard of her before. So maybe they were a post warp society after all… "Incredible!" he exclaimed. "Looks like the Healer was right after all!" And with that he began tearing through the woods at a ludicrous speed.  Janeway cast a glance at Chakotay, then shrugged and followed Josh to whatever awaited them.

Josh slowed his pace down considerably after his initial dash, electing to walk beside Janeway and Chakotay, bouncing up and down in childish excitement. He kept peppering her with questions, and Janeway ended up recounting to him, more or less, what got Voyager stranded in the Delta Quadrant, and key points on what had happened in between.

All this while Chakotay kept silent. She wished he would help her along with the incessant questions, but he elected to let her continue the conversation with the child. Finally his silence got the better of the Josh's curiosity, and the angled his head to glance at Chakotay. He did so for a long, long while, slowly scrutinizing every inch of massive bulk, down to the tattoo on his forehead. And he studied the tattoo for a very long time. Finally, curiosity got the better of him. "The markings on you forehead… are they family markings?" he asked Chakotay.

"As a matter of fact, they are," he replied to the boy benignly.

"So he's yours?" Josh asked Janeway.

The question caught Janeway by surprise. "I beg your pardon?"

"The family markings… Is he yours?" he repeated. "Is he honor-bound to you?"

"Honor-bound?" Janeway wasn't sure if she understood what the boy was asking, so instead she decided to explain her relationship with Chakotay more fully. "He's the first officer of my ship, and he reports- works under- me. We're good friends. I guess he's honor-bound to accept my opinions and courses of action, if you want to put it that way. He's loyal to me." She looked at Chakotay to see how he was handling her explanation of his situation, but the man made no move to contradict or agree with her.

Josh shook his head, reminding himself that he was dealing with complete strangers. "No, I mean to ask if he belonged to you. If he's supposed to serve you when you become Mage."

Janeway was shocked. She stopped mid-stride to glare at the boy, wondering how he could ever insinuate such a thing. "I do not own men! Whatever gave you that impression-" She stopped herself in time. Of course. It must be part of their culture, where men were probably indentured to women. More cautiously, she asked, "Do the Mage do this? Own men?"

"Of course," replied Josh in a matter-of-fact voice. "Eminences' boys are given away to Mage girls the moment they're born. Every woman owns a man, and when the time comes they must join. It's part of the honor code." He angled a curious glance at Janeway. "I don't suppose your people do the same?" When Janeway shook her head he smiled in amazement. "You are really different. How do you… pair men and women, then?"

"It's by mutual choice. When two people… have a shared understanding and want to spend the rest of their lives together, they get married and stay together. That's how we do it."

"You mean it's not decided the day you're born?"

"Of course not. Marriage is a serious affair; it's a commitment that my people don't treat lightly. We have to choose the right person we want to marry, and we are only old enough to decide after a while. So, no, we're not betrothed to our spouses when we are born."

"And the men? Do they have an equal say in who they want to stay with?" Josh's eyes danced.

"Yes. Do you mean that they don't have that opportunity where you come from?"

"No. I myself was chosen to serve a girl when I grew old enough."

"But will you be happy with her?" Janeway's brow creased at the thought of this sweet young child having to suffer a life of misery because of some flawed, bigoted sexist rule.

He smiled shyly. "I… kind of like her, actually. She's nice. I wouldn't mind serving her when she comes of age." Josh's smile grew wider. "But everyone getting to choose who they want to live with- that's perfect!" He did a small, excited vertical jump on the spot, a motion which was endearingly child-like in manner. "Men as equal to women… That sounds like everything we've been fighting for." He nudged Janeway. "So… are the two of you married, then?"

Janeway laughed. "I'm afraid not."

The boy wrinkled his nose for a moment. "Pity." Then his expression lit up again. "The daer is just up ahead. You might even be able to see it from here… Race you there!" Then he sped away in the direction of the daer. Feeling like a small child again, Janeway grabbed Chakotay's wrist and ran after him.

The daer was beautiful.

The first thing Janeway noticed when she stepped out of the glade of woods surrounding the daer was the grayish white light permeating the entire space. A giant clearing had been constructed in the center of the daer, and a open-roofed circular structure of arched marble pillars and gray granite slabs had been constructed on it. The ambient light streamed through the hole in the top of the structure's dome. A huge slab of white marble had been laid on the floor, the center carved out to accommodate for a fire. Slender tendrils of creeping plants entwined themselves around the pillars, softening its harsh appearance. On the periphery of central structure were numerous other stone houses, all circular or ovoid in shape. Higher up, on the trees, were other residences. There had to be at least a hundred and fifty in this village.

The people came buzzing out of their abodes as Josh yelled excitedly, "They're here! They're here! The ones Myriam spoke of- the Emissaries!"

Mage thronged the central dome, mostly witches in their twenties, young girls with their eyes wide open. Compared to Josh's scruffy appearance, all these females were impeccably neat, dressed in suits of supple hides or shimmering witchsilk. Some reached their hands out to touch Janeway's shoulders in awe, others just bowed their heads in supplication. Janeway found the constant push of warm bodies, the groping hands and the murmurs of amazement disconcerting at the beginning, but she forced herself to relax, telling herself that his was a race not inured as yet to meeting new species. So anyone with technology slightly higher than theirs was considered godly. It was perfectly understandable. At least they weren't overtly xenophobic.

Tiptoeing to be seem in the inexorable crush of bodies, Josh gestured and yelled, "That's the war room over there- Myriam will have an audience with you- just you- in there!" He prodded her in the direction of the room. Then he tugged on Chakotay's arm. "I'll take care of him, show him the men's dorm… anything."

Janeway firmly shook her head once. "He's coming with me," she said crisply.

"I'm afraid not. Men aren't allowed to cross the threshold line." Josh's eyes grew imploring. "Please?"

More pushing and shoving, more hands reaching for her face. "I'm sorry… but this one is going to be the first." She set her jaw, resolute.

Josh looked like he was about to argue back, then he shrugged. "Alright then. But this once and ONLY this once, okay?"

Janeway's only response was to tug on Chakotay's hand and pull him away from the clamoring crowds, towards the war room.

Josh watched them enter, then made a headlong dash to the Healer's office.