The Third Nature -Book One of the Triad
Voyager fantasies by Lt Taya 17 Janeway
the magic is real
"Magic?" was all B'Elanna Torres could think to say.
The senior crew of Voyager were gathered in the briefing room. The briefing room's muted earth tones complemented the dark infrastructure in the room, providing a contrast to the green designs on the long oval metallic table and the prismatic primary colors of their shoulder pads. Janeway was standing at the head of the table as usual, addressing the crew. Behind her, the backdrop of the forest provided a refreshing difference to the usual inky void of space.
Janeway studied the faces of her crew. They were fine officers, all of them, willing to accept any form of spatial anomaly, no matter how twisted, how absurd. But not a simple touch of magic.
Initially she'd been just as wary and just as disbelieving as they had been about magic, convinced that it actually been some form of hoax. She thought she had an explanation for everything.
That had been until Kes arrived, of course. Now she would have to enlist her help in helping her crew believe that fairies were real.
"Magic," she affirmed to Torres, ignoring the disbelieving looks from the rest of the crew. Kim looked downright skeptical, eyebrow raised, probably wondering if his captain had lost her mind. Janeway smiled cryptically to herself, realizing that this was probably how she looked to Myriam and Josh when she first heard about their powers. It was time to play the trump.
"Maybe it would make it easier for you to accept if I enlisted the help of someone I met to explain the situation." She gestured in the vague direction of the viewscreen, and as if on cue, a blue glow appeared beside her, coalescing into the form of Kes.
The shocked reaction in the room couldn't have been stronger if someone had dropped a trilithium bomb into their midst. Neelix rose to his feet, eyes wide. "Kes!"
The tiny Ocampan smiled at them in the gentle, demure manner that she had, and waited for the excitement in the room to subside a little, aware that this crew hadn't seen her- the real her- for three years. The joy of the reunion, however, was restrained by a note of caution. "It's been a long time."
Paris gestured to the forest outside. "What are you doing here?"
Kes' smile widened. "That was precisely the question I asked Captain Janeway when I first saw her. You're not in our original universe anymore. This place is different."
"It has magic," said Chakotay, eliciting more disbelieving stares from the rest of the crew.
"An alternate universe… where people use magic?" asked Kim skeptically. "How does that work?"
"Everyone knows that the universe we come from only has eleven dimensions," began Janeway mildly.
"More or less. It has been hypothesized that there might be one or two more undetected as yet, but the figure is around there," said Kim.
"This one has eighteen."
"Whoa. Damn." Kim's eyes widened and he locked eyes with Seven. "That's way off."
"And this has been proven?" asked Seven, still skeptical. In the room, she was the one who had the least interaction with Kes, and she tended not to trust in the sincerity of this young woman. And her Borg upbringing had left her with a critically analytical mind that was prone to suspicion and disbelief until solidly scientifically proven.
"Many times," Kes assured her.
"To the inhabitants of this world, magic is actually a highly complex science," said Janeway. She nodded in deference to Kes. "Kes can probably explain it much better to you."
Still smiling cryptically, Kes called up a glowing spatial diagram in the air with a small wave of her hand. It was the typical ball-model of the universe's eleven dimensions, the first thing introduced to students at higher quantum mechanics classes. "This is the model of the universe as we know it," she began. "Eleven dimensions, three in the physical world, one in the temporal fabric, and the rest curled up in various degrees and housed within the primary four." She waited for the nods of agreement from the crew before continuing. "Now this is the model of this universe." Translucent concentric spheres appeared, encompassing the whole model, each larger than the previous one. "Seven extra dimensions."
"All of them are prevalent in every aspect of this universe, similar to the first three…" said Kim.
"A twentieth century scientist of yours once postulated an ether which pervaded the entire universe. This is the closest you'll ever get to it. Each of these dimensions interact with the physical particles in this world in different ways. They create the forces of chaos and entropy."
"But those forces exist in our universe as well," Paris pointed out. "Where does that put us?"
Kes shook her head. "Consider each universe as a template, and these structures like puppet masters, controlling its behavior on whim. Our two universes can be seen as identical templates, with the same kind of particles, but different puppet masters, one with eleven dimensions and one with eighteen. The ways some things are controlled in these two universes are different. In ours entropic and chaotic forces are controlled by seventh-order and higher dimensions. Here they are controlled by those eleventh-order and higher. Of course, having more dimensions means that there are more ways to pull the strings. Which means you can do some things here which are impossible to achieve in our original universe."
"Including magic," commented Torres.
"Yes. We can interact with these forces as well as myriad others to manipulate the physical matter in this universe in any way we wish just as long as we know how to tug the strings correctly. My… transportation into this room is one of them. It took me half a year to master that trick. There are countless others."
Like mass telepathy, said Janeway, projecting into everyone's thoughts.
Everyone in the room sat up.
"I wasn't aware that you had telepathic powers, Captain," observed Tuvok.
"Neither did I," conceded Janeway with a smile. "But apparently I do."
Kim was fascinated. "I wonder how many more of us have suppressed talents such as these?" He looked ready to try sending thoughts of his own.
"You all do," said Kes, "but in varying degrees. Everyone is born bonded to the world in some way or another. As long as you can interact with the world in the first four dimensions, you can interact with the world in all the rest as well."
"This is fascinating," said Torres, intrigued. "Voyager will be staying on this planet for a couple of weeks. Maybe you could teach us a couple of spells."
Janeway cast a glance as Chakotay as she next spoke. "Which brings us to another point."
"The war," said Kes softly. "I belong to a group of rebels- the fighting force of the House of Ashkar, who wish to overthrow the current malevolent rule of the Empress. We call ourselves the Panizhe, and this daer- the one in the woods nearby- are its headquarters." She paused. "Here's where the interesting part comes in. The Mage in this sector have a set of ancient prophecies that they call the Auguries. There are many versions and interpretations available of these sets of Auguries, but our favored theory is one in which a group of Emissaries intervene in the war and turn the tide, bringing forth a new Empress and a new Empire." Kes folded her fingers together. "We now think its you."
There was sudden silence in the briefing room as the crew considered this.
"The war may stretch anywhere from a few weeks to a few months," Janeway told them. "We are not obliged to fulfil this prophecy, but these people have as good as sent us a distress call, which we are decreed to reply to. However, I will not proceed without full unconditional support from my crew." She gazed around the room. "If anyone has any objections as to this course of action, please raise them now."
The crew glanced at each other in concern.
Paris shrugged. "Well, we're here anyway. I don't see why not."
Murmurs of agreement rippled through the rest of the room. Kes' expression lit up with a smile. "Then we will feast tonight in the daer. You're all invited."