Disclaimer: I am not making any money of this fic, nor do I own Star Trek: Voyager, Deep Space Nine, The Next Generation or the original series, or anything else I make references to. If you saw the character on any show, then it is not mine. The same goes for ships, planets, cultures, et cetera. This story will depict a loving relationship between two women and there are no apologies to be made over this. The Shashan people are mine, completely, as is Jessica.
Author's Notes: This is an alternative reality piece, so events in all series Star Trek have been changed, just to warn off any people thinking they see inconsistencies with the show. Specific instance which is especially noted: The USS Voyager left in pursuit of the renegade Maquis ship one year later than noted in the series (2372 instead of '71), but stardates will remain the same to maintain continuity within the series. Any references to B'Elanna's past will ignore the inconsistencies between "Faces", "Extreme Risk" and "Lineage" sending "Lineage" events back in time to when B'Elanna was six years old, giving her that extra year with her father that was supplied by "Extreme Risk." This prologue is set in Voyager's first season, between the episodes 5 ("The Cloud") and 6 ("Eye of the Needle").
Genre: Action-Adventure, Drama
Rating: M
Codes: K/7, T/7
Feedback: Please
Extra Disclaiming Note: All chapter titles are NOT owned by me and are owned, respectively, by the bands who wrote/played them and their record companies.
Home, Prologue 2
Everyone sat silently for a moment. B'Elanna sat hunched over Jessica's body, her head buried in her chest, rocking slightly. She balled one fist into Jessica's short hair and her other in the soft material of the dead girl's shirt until her knuckles turned white. She shook violently, then threw her head back and released a keening sound somewhere between a howl and a scream.
At the sound, the newborn baby in Kathryn's arms began crying, adding her own scream to B'Elanna's. Her face scrunched up and her cries echoed through the bridge. For a moment, that was the only sound on the bridge, then B'Elanna turned angrily to her and yelled, "Shut up!" Kathryn was shocked that the young woman would take her anger out on a baby, but even more surprised when the baby complied.
The baby looked at B'Elanna with her huge brown eyes and said clearly, "Bel, ma deh?" B'Elanna's expression softened.
"Yes, she's dead." Kathryn felt the brush of the little mind again, this time a feeling of pain, 'alone' and the color white. There was a questioning feeling behind it all and Kathryn struggled not to answer it.
"She can speak?" Kathryn asked, begging anyone to confirm what she just heard.
"At about the level of a human toddler," Harry supplied. "They learn to speak through the telepathic bond with their mother. She'll be crawling before the end of this week."
"Fast development?"
"In the first two months," he answered. Kathryn looked at the baby, impressed.
"Why does she want to join her mind with mine?"
Harry smiled sadly. "That, I can't tell you. Jessica picked a security officer for her dazhanal, as it's called. She told me it was because she liked her strength." Harry looked at the baby, sadly. "Her zhanal was Natasha Yarr, who died in the line of duty not long after Jessica was born. She said she didn't want her children to bond with soldiers or Starfleet personnel, because she didn't want them to ever go through the pain of that loss. Many adults don't survive the death of their zhanal and children are almost always destroyed by it. Jessica survived because her best friend took Tasha's place."
B'Elanna was growing ever more agitated throughout all of this and finally, she exploded. "You've died before," she called to the still warm corpse, shaking Jessica's shoulders, "And you came back! Well come back, now, damnit! You will not die, you can't. Damnit, damnit, damnit!" She pounded Jessica's chest with the last curse so hard that it seemed Kathryn heard a cracking sound.
But she didn't have long to think about it as Jessica's eyes flew open and she began flailing wildly, trying to roll onto her side. B'Elanna helped her and was rewarded with a lap full of regurgitated blood. Jessica retched until the black and red stream stopped, then rolled back against Harry, pushing B'Elanna away in disgust. She coughed out the last of the blood and gasped, staring at Torres.
"I could hear your scream all the way into the next life," Jessica hiccupped. "It could wake the dead." B'Elanna laughed through the tears streaming down her face, then shook Jessica.
"Don't you ever scare me like that again!"
"I think you broke my chest," Jessica responded. "Doesn't anyone just know CPR? Must it always be violent?" B'Elanna hugged her, cursing. Then she swiftly seemed embarrassed by the display of affection and stood, walking to the previously forgotten padd.
"I've never seen anyone survive losing that much blood," Kathryn told Jessica as she sat up weakly.
"Yeah, well, just call me phoenix-girl." She made a face and seemed to think about what she said. "Except that my death wasn't clean. And there was no fire." She shrugged with both her shoulders and eyebrows.
"What about the—" Kathryn began.
"We absorb the placenta back into our system after birth." She began to stand and Harry helped her up. Janeway started to protest, but Jessica waved her away. "My family has given birth on the battlefield only to pass the child to a nursemaid and take victory from the enemy. My four times great-aunt did it with only one arm."
Kathryn snorted with laughter. "Are you serious?"
"Eh, believe what you want. It's one of the Klingon-reminiscent stories I was raised on in deference to my Callayna."
"Who?"
"I'll explain later. Now, I have to retake my ship." Jessica stood and walked over to her backpack.
"You're in no condition to wage a war, especially alone." Kathryn frowned at the impudent girl. Jessica looked over her shoulder at the captain, from her undignified position, squatting in front of her backpack, rifling through it.
"Does that mean you're volunteering to help?"
"Absolutely not. I will not endanger the lives of my crew and besides, since you studied at the Academy, I'm certain you know the Prime Directive." Jessica laughed lightly, and then gave Janeway a quirky look.
"Just remember what you just said. Such a pity." Jessica picked up the backpack. "I know that you have a nudity taboo, therefore is there anywhere that I can change?" Kathryn indicated her Captain's Ready Room. B'Elanna handed Janeway her report. She took it and looked down, skimming it.
"It'll take months to repair all this," Kathryn said, looking up at B'Elanna.
"Yep. And you just ignored an offer for help," she said, not sounding pleased.
"What?" Kathryn asked, lowering her brows. B'Elanna crossed her arms and rested her weight on her left leg, leaning slightly.
"Even if it wasn't part of her culture, Jessica's own personal code won't allow her to permit someone to fight with her unless she can compensate them. And I don't mean monetarily."
"Are you saying that I should order my crew to—?"
"No, I'm saying that you should let us decide whether or not we want to help. I'm willing to go with her. I have a feeling about that ship," B'Elanna said, nodding her head towards the viewscreen. Kathryn followed her gaze with her head and then turned back to B'Elanna. "She's going to need the help of an Engineer to get it back."
"Get it back? That ship?" Kathryn looked at it again.
"Yeah. I recognize the design. Jessica sketched it out a couple times, saying that her fleet had been working on it for seven years. That she'd captain it when it was built, if she was home."
"Captain? She's fourteen years old!"
"Right. And in her culture, that means she's old enough to be married, have children and fight to the death for queen and country. Actually, she was old enough for the last one when she turned ten and the first two at thirteen."
"It sounds like children run her planet." Kathryn said, incredulously.
"You have no idea." B'Elanna unfolded her arms and walked away.
"Now, what does that mean?" Kathryn looked from B'Elanna to Chakotay, to Harry, not receiving any answers. She sighed. "What do you think, Commander? Should we help her?" Chakotay looked at Kathryn and it was obvious from his expression that he was still angry with Jessica.
"I don't trust her." Just then, Jessica made her entrance. Kathryn's jaw dropped at the sight. She stood, dressed throat to toe in black leather. Her outfit exposed her cleavage, arms, stomach and only a webwork of straps covered her legs below the leather shorts. Leather boots seemed attached to the leather straps on her calves. A black silk half-cape covered her back and hooked into her belt to prevent it from flapping loosely.
"I used your replicator to make a washbowl with water in it so I could clean up. I recycled it, but I can try to compensate you for the energy drain if I survive."
"Don't worry about it," Janeway said flatly, still stunned by what was standing in front of her. Jessica held her backpack loosely at her side and seemed at a momentary loss for what to do.
"Well, you look the part," Chakotay remarked derisively.
"And what part is that?" She asked, sounding tired.
"Full of sex and violence. Isn't that all you are?" Jessica's eyes darkened and she stepped forward. Kathryn decided that she had had enough of Chakotay's hateful comments.
"Commander, I'm confused. When Tuvok infiltrated your ship you forgave him, saying 'at least it was in the line of duty.' Why is it different for her?" Chakotay looked surprised.
"Because she was the only person I ever trusted implicitly," He answered quietly. "It's against everything she believes in to lie, therefore I never expected it. And she professed to be my friend. To believe in us." Jessica dropped her backpack and the anger in her eyes was unmistakable, coloring them black.
"Lie? I never lied!" She stormed down the bridge toward him. "Think carefully about everything I said and name once, one time that I lied!"
"You said that you believed in our cause!" Though his voice didn't rise but a few decibels, the fury, the hurt behind it was obvious.
"I did! I didn't lie about that, or anything else. I believed in what the Maquis stood for, if I didn't agree with their methods, I did agree that they weren't given much choice. You have no idea how close I was to becoming Maquis, if it wasn't for what I believed in. And I believed in Starfleet."
"Then why did you take that mission?" It was close to a yell.
"I had no choice! It was that or be court-marshaled for insubordination."
"And of course, you had a wonderful career to watch out for, you couldn't mar your perfect record."
"Perfect record? I was one demerit from being expulsed from the academy! I challenged everyone from instructor to Admiral! Another court martial wasn't my real fear. It was disappointing my captain. A captain, that I was to find out later, wasn't even in possession of his own mind! The niece of my cousin Morina was in control of him. Petty politics and pointless games." Jessica walked back to the empty turbo shaft. "All to try to destroy me."
"And who are you?" Chakotay asked.
"If you don't know by now, then I'm sorry I gave up my career to save you."
"Gave it up?" B'Elanna asked, walking quietly over to stand behind the trembling girl.
"I resigned my commission, because I felt that Starfleet was turning into something that I couldn't live with, hunting citizens just trying to live in their homes. Paranoia is beginning to rise and war is coming. I couldn't stay anymore. I was born twenty years too late."
"What do you mean, war is coming?" This had caught the captain's attention more than anything else. Jessica's eyes glazed over and there was something suddenly otherworldly about her voice as she answered.
"Sea Of Blood and snakes will strike with Death, ripping allies from each other by their emblems, bringing enemies into focus and losing sight of reality." She sagged and Kathryn stared at her, wondering if she was insane. But the looks on Harry, Chakotay and B'Elanna's faces made her think twice. They looked at her as though she could actually see the future. Kathryn had heard that truly precognitive individuals, unless it was a racial talent, often sounded insane or even went insane from their visions.
Jessica smiled, continuing. "But Snakes will strike their own, the Sea of Blood will dry, infected by an innocent, then in a wash of loss, all will be clean." Chakotay looked at his captain for her response. She raised her eyebrows at him. Jessica awoke with a start from the visions, looking confused and disoriented. Then her eyes turned to Chakotay. She stormed up to him.
They stood there for a moment, neither one moving, both with barely contained fury boiling under the surface. Jessica broke the silence.
"Hit me."
"What?"
"Hit me. Beat me, scream, yell, whatever. But get it off your chest and quit letting it poison you." Chakotay stood still and stoic, not even giving her an indication that he was hearing her or feeling anything. She swung at him. Like a dam held back for too long, he exploded. He grabbed her wrist and backhanded her onto the deck. She let her head hang as she lifted herself up to her hands and knees. "Feel better?" Janeway was shocked to see Chakotay hit a little girl.
Chakotay looked thoughtful. "Actually, I do." She looked up at him and offered her arm.
"Good. Then are you with me?" He took her wrist and pulled her up. He nodded once. She smiled tightly and he returned it. She walked over to her pile of weapons and began arming herself. The deadly blades slipped, unseen, into her outfit perfectly.
"I'm going, too." B'Elanna announced. Jessica looked at her and smiled.
"Glad to hear it. You know that there always seem to be too many parts when I try to fix something."
"I remember that," Harry said. "I'm coming, too." Jessica stood and walked to him.
"No. You stay here and look after Mary-Jane."
"I'm not a cadet anymore—"
"No. And I'm not an infatuated ten year-old. But I'd still be distracted if you came along. I'd be so worried about watching your ass, I wouldn't watch my own."
"Captain!" Harry said, turning to Janeway for help.
"It's her mission, Ensign. And I agree that you shouldn't go." She handed Mary-Jane to Harry, who looked at her and frowned. The baby matched his expression and after a minute of frowning at each other, he laughed. He looked up at Jessica.
"So how's Pam?" It was a simple question, but Jessica reacted as though she had been hit by a sledge hammer. Her hand went to her mouth and her eyes filled with tears. "Oh, no. What happened?"
"He, that bastard, that, that monster who stole my ship, he-he," she took a shaky breath. "He killed my eldest, Harry. My little girl. She wasn't even four, yet. Her birthday was next month." She looked up at him, horror in her eyes. "He cut off her head. In front of my eyes, he killed her. My..." She choked back a sob and Harry put a hand on her shoulder. She jerked away and went cold. "That's why you're not coming. He's a cold-blooded killer and I'm not putting you in the middle of that. What would your mother think?"
"Hey," Harry said, a tone of warning in his voice. "Don't bring my mother into this." Jessica looked at B'Elanna and Chakotay.
"I met his mother once. Very sweet and quiet. I had no doubt that she'd kill me if I put her little boy into danger," Jessica informed them. B'Elanna grinned at Harry, a smile full of the promise that she would tease him unmercifully. Harry sighed and took the cloth that Jessica was offering him "Wrap the baby in it."
Kathryn looked at her first officer and chief engineer, preparing to fight for the girl in front of them. She realized that she couldn't let her officers go alone, just the three of them.
"Mr. Tuvok, you have the bridge." Janeway never took her eyes off Jessica. "I'm going, too." Jessica looked at her, surprised.
"What about the Prime Directive, captain?"
"You asked for help, did you not?"
"Yes."
"And you are a space-faring race with warp capabilities?" Janeway continued.
"A little higher than warp, but yeah," Jessica answered. Kathryn was surprised. After being more advanced than virtually every species they had encountered in the Delta Quadrant, she had forgotten that there were species more advanced than her own. Given the crude way that Jessica spoke, she had just assumed...
"Then I'm not in violation with the Prime Directive." The captain's decision made Jessica smile.
"Captain," Tuvok spoke up. "May I remind you that the captain is not to leave the ship without a security escort? Given the circumstances, I believe that no one but myself is qualified enough to accompany you on this mission."
"All right, Tuvok. You can come along," Kathryn said, smiling at her old friend.
"Well, in that case, mind if I tag along, too, ma'am?" Tom Paris stood, looking eager.
"Fine. Mr. Kim, I do believe that means you have the bridge," Janeway said, turning to the startled Ensign.
"Me?" Harry asked. Janeway realized that he had yet to be given the bridge to command.
"Yes, Ensign, you. Unless you don't feel ready—"
"No, ma'am. I'm ready."
"It'll do you some good," Tom said. Harry smiled at Tom.
"Then away we go," Jessica announced and headed for the turbolift. Kathryn led the way for the rest of the team to follow.
…
Captain Janeway finished her speech and looked over at the transporter controls to see Jessica curled up on top, asleep. It was the third time she had fallen asleep while Kathryn was talking. She wondered if that was supposed to be an insult. She hefted the dartgun in her hands and glared at it. Jessica had told them that phased energy devices would not work on the Aurora, which was the name of her ship. So they were all carrying non-lethal weapons in place of phasers.
Except for Jessica, whose arsenal was concealed all over her body so well that Janeway could only see the hilts of her breast dagger and D'k tagh knife, which was strapped to her right thigh. Occasionally she caught glimpses of the sword down Jessica's back, but they were only when the girl was walking directly in front of her.
Deck four was no longer flooded with radiation, thanks to B'Elanna's team of engineers, so they were standing in an actual transporter room. Kathryn adjusted the straps of the ammo belts that made an X across her chest and took the place of her normal Starfleet-issue belt at her waist. Exactly one hundred sedative-loaded darts were strapped to her body, to be added to the five in her gun. She couldn't see why she needed this much ammunition, but Jessica had assured her that it was 'better safe than decapitated.'
She had to agree.
"Move out." She ordered and immediately, Jessica sprung up and off the control panel, trotting to the transporter pad. The six of them stood in a circle, backs facing each other as the transporter dematerialized them on a timer.
To be continued…