The Third Nature -Book One of the Triad
Voyager fantasies by Taya 17 Janeway @ Nimgil
what things seem to be
Engineering was silent save for the low thrumming emanating from the warp core. Chakotay watched the swirling of the suffuse patterns of light within the great machine. The core's glow seemed more ...red today, somehow. His gaze then fell on the elaborate mechanical construct B'Elanna had attached to it: a sleek silver machine with a fiery glowing heart, ringing the base of the warp core within the banister boundaries. He felt a small smile beginning to crease his face. It had taken B'Elanna and her engineers the better part of a month, but they'd finally managed to complete the enhancer for the warp core, which would synchronize it with the energies from Fire Sphere, so that they could have finer control over the matter/antimatter ratio and core perfomance- a first, for Ashkari ships. Both Myriam and the captain had been rather pleased. The captain, in particular, seemed to take a great deal of pride in B'Elanna's progress. The half-Klingon engineer just seemed to flourish in this new environment.
In fact, it wasn't just B'Elanna who was beginning to enjoy the stay in this strange universe; the rest of the crew also seemed to be benefiting from the experience. Despite the fact that they were waging a major war against an oppressive force, the place seemed to have a strange... liveliness to it that refreshed them. Crew morale was higher than it had been for a long time. Chakotay himself had felt the change in spirit ever since they'd arrived here, although he didn't quite know why. Perhaps it was the friendliness and warmth of the people they had met here, or the knowledge that they were helping a society free itself from the shackles of oppression. Or a mixture of both.
It could also quite possibly be just... magic.
Bryanna watched him from across the large central chamber. "You're smiling. Why?"
He looked up at the child. She was perched on the edge of the banisters, studying the new attachment to the warp core. Of late, Bryanna seemed to have taken on a great interest about Voyager and her crew. The child had always seemed rather aloof from the rest of the children of her age in the Daer-on-Naiad; Chakotay had taken a fondness to this sweet, soft-spoken child, and often let her come aboard Voyager to have a look at the ship's technology. Chakotay let his smile crease his face further. "It's a secret."
The child gazed frankly at him, her blue-eyed stare seeming to bore into his mind. "You can tell me. I keep secrets well." Her tone took a darker shade; Chakotay knew why: she had to be thinking of the secrets she was keeping for the dead children she often played with. Inwardly he sighed: her gift of being able to see the dead was more like a curse, cutting her off from the rest of the living world and plunging her into a darker one. He decided to grant her request.
"I'm just thinking of how much happier my friends and I seem to have become since we've come here," he said. "It's almost like some kind of magical power that's lifting everyone's spirits."
"But that's good, isn't it?" asked Bryanna. "If everyone seems happier."
"Not necessarily," said Chakotay dryly, recalling the time the entire crew had been bewitched into a state of false bliss by an alien organism so that they could become its next meal. "Sometimes what things seem to be isn't a reflection of what they really are." Bryanna looked silently down at the floor, and Chakotay continued, "Like you, for example."
The child's head whipped back up. "Me? How?"
"On the surface, you seem to be strange, but after getting to know you better people start to realize how special you really are." He smiled at the girl.
"When people say you're special, it's just really a nice way of saying you're strange," said Bryanna darkly, scuffing the toe of her boot against the banister railing.
"Then I guess we're all strange in our own ways," said Chakotay.
Bryanna was silent for a while longer, then she said softly, "Calista is special."
Chakotay paused, remembering abruptly that Bryanna's twin sister was the operative Myriam had planted in Licknok Moor. A brilliant- and risky- move: the Empress would have little reason to suspect that a mere child would be an Ashkari spy, but the entire operation hung upon a thread. One slip, and the whole thing could be exposed, with fatal consequences. "You're worried about her."
A dark emotion flashed across Bryanna's face for a brief moment. "She's my sister! I won't allow anyone to hurt her. She's safe. I know she is."
Chakotay said nothing, wondering if he should tell her about the suspected spy in Myriam's inner circle. Perhaps she already knew. Perhaps that was why she was being so moody: she was afraid for her sister. Afraid that their spy would spill the beans. He walked towards her and put his arm around her shoulders. "I'm sure she'll be alright," he said, trying his best to comfort the child.
Bryanna shrugged his arm off her shoulders and stood up. "She is," she said stubbornly, and walked out of Engineering, her boots making louder noises on the carpet than they should have been.
Chakotay sighed as the doors slid shut after the girl's departure. Despite the general good cheer, he wished that times were better.