Okay, so I realized that I forgot my disclaimer. I don't own Hetalia or Star Trek. If I did, I would probably be writing actual books instead of fanfiction.
Wow, so I know it's been forever. I had this little thing called life take over. Sadly, fanfiction is not one of my priorities… So these updates are going to be really slow.
Enjoy the chapter, though!
"So, we've found our mysteriously augmented Mr. Beilschmidt, have we?" the only holographic crewmember mused as he caught up with Captain Janeway in the corridor. Janeway paused in her quick strides for a moment, glancing sideways as the Doctor drew alongside. The EMH was carrying a large medical case, and was looking much more interested in the proceedings than usual.
"Yes, fortunately," the Captain replied in a heartfelt tone, resuming her previous pace. "That was good work with the neurozine, Doctor."
"Well, you know me. Saving lives, rescuing Voyager, stopping intruders; all in a day's work!" The Doctor waved a careless hand, looking incredibly smug. Janeway bit back a smile as the two rounded the corner and stopped in front of the brig's doors
"Yes. Hopefully you can tell us a little more about Mr. Beilschmidt." Janeway pressed the control pad on the side of the entrance, keying the doors to open. "We'd like to find out what he really is so we can figure out how to deal with this situation." The Doctor cheerfully hummed a confirmation, clearly eager to have a new subject to study.
Tuvok glanced up from his station behind the security console as the two entered the Brig's rather cramped confines. "Captain."
"Mr. Tuvok." Janeway paused in front of the cell's shimmering force field, looking warily at still blue-uniformed figure within. "How is our guest?"
Tuvok blinked impassively, following his Captain's gaze. Beilschmidt lay prone on the cell's wide bench. The man's sharp features were barely softened in this unconscious state. A fierce look still furrowed his brow, his shaggy white hair falling ever so slightly across his forehead. It was now, up close, that Janeway realized how young he was. Beilschmidt couldn't be much older than Harry Kim.
"He has not stirred," Tuvok answered. "I have had no issues."
"Of course he hasn't moved," the Doctor scoffed. The EMH shook his head in exasperation, rolling his eyes. "I calibrated the amount of neurozine to account for augmented physiology." The Doctor pointedly raised an eyebrow at Tuvok, who merely raised one in return. "He should stay unconscious for another hour, minimum."
"Which is why, I presume, that you are now here to examine Mr. Beilschmidt?" Tuvok finished for him.
"Precisely."
"Very well." With a few precise commands, Tuvok deactivated the force field, keeping an unconscious hand on his holstered phaser as he did so. Heaving a small huff, the Doctor stepped over the metal barrier that stuck up from the floorplates. He straightened up and adjusted his grip on his medical case as the energy field sprung back into existence behind him.
The Doctor set the medical case down on the floor and unlatched it. He pulled the standard tricorder out of the dark gray foam supporting the other tools and flipped it open, humming softly to himself.
"Now, Mr. Beilschmidt," the Doctor addressed the currently unconscious young man, "let's see what you have to say for yourself, shall we?" Behind him, Janeway sighed and crossed her arms. Shifting with impatience, she stared up at the ceiling with the air of someone that had been through this many times before. Tuvok's countenance changed to one of Vulcan amusement.
Still humming to himself, the Doctor gently moved the tricorder through the air along the length of Beilschmidt's body. For a few seconds, the only sounds heard in the Brig were the whirring of the medical equipment and the EMH's faint rendition of "You Are My Sunshine."
"Increased density of muscle fibers…" the Doctor muttered as he checked the readings coming from the tricorder. "Oxygen processing rates are at… 50% above normal humans. Mmhmm… Heart is very efficient." The motions stopped, keeping the tricorder above Beilschmidt's forehead. The Doctor pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Much higher level of synaptic activity. Particularly in the limbic system." The Doctor paused and set down the tricorder in favor of another, more specialized device. He turned on the triangular sensor, running a quick blue sensory bar over his patient's face before reexamining it.
"That's fascinating." The EMH's voice was in slight awe. "There is almost a complete lack of glucocorticoids in the hippocampus. And that section, along with the basal ganglia, appears to have its own specialized network of hyper-neurons."
"It's been a while since I took Human Anatomy and Physiology, Doctor." Janeway's tone was dry. "Care to enlighten me?" The Doctor nodded absentmindedly, already readying a hypospray.
"The limbic system contains the memory processing center of the human brain." The Doctor explained airily, checking the sample container on the hypospray. He looked appreciatively at the unconscious man. "Mr. Beilschmidt must have near perfect memory. Probably remembers practically everything that has ever happened to him."
The hypospray made its usual hissing sound as the Doctor pressed it to Beilschmidt's neck. The small cylinder quickly filled up with the dark red of human blood. The man twitched slightly, giving the EMH a moments pause, but there appeared to be no other reaction. The Doctor plucked out the sample and peered at it for a moment, shaking it gently. Shrugging, he carefully set it back in his medical case before reclaiming his tricorder.
"So, Captain," the EMH rose to his feet and turned to face Janeway. "Mr. Beilschmidt appears to be in perfect health, aside from an old fracture in his left ankle that is a few months healed. He does in fact share many similarities with the past records of Noonien Singh's Augments from the 22nd century. Albeit on a much more refined and sophisticated level. Although…" the Doctor frowned, turning and scanning Beilschmidt again. He paused, looking a bit bemused at the readings he was receiving.
"Doctor?" Tuvok inquired.
The hologram sat back beside the subject and studied him again. "Normally…" he started hesitantly. "When a living subject is produced as the result of genetic engineering through DNA resequencing, as Singh's Augments were, there are key signs -traces of the tampering in the genetic level. However," the Doctor checked his medical equipment again. "I see no such tampering in any of these readings."
Janeway shifted, drumming her fingers on her hip. "Could it just be a malfunction in your equipment?"
"It's possible, but unlikely," the Doctor started. "I recalibrated the"-
A small exhale of breath was the only signal anyone in the room had before a pair of red eyes snapped open.
The Doctor drew back involuntarily, but Beilschmidt was already moving. The hologram didn't flinch as one pale hand wrapped itself around his throat and slammed him into the cell wall, the other pinning the hand that held the still humming tricorder safely out of reach. Tuvok's hand immediately went for his phaser, fully prepared to deactivate the force field and take the hostile intruder down. That movement was halted a moment later as he realized: any phaser beam on a sufficiently powerful level to knock the augmented human unconscious would most likely completely destroy the EMH's program. Janeway had also involuntarily taken a step forward at Beilschmidt's lightning-quick movement, but upon glancing at her Security Officer, had come to the same conclusion and stopped.
The Doctor, for his part, was trying to not to look too taken startled at the sudden change in events and carefully studying his attackers face. The unfocused cast of the albino's stark red eyes and the quiet hitched breathing told him that Beilschmidt was most likely acting on pure instinct and not on a rationalized decision. It was no surprise to him, of course. Beilschmidt was clearly a military man.
A few tense seconds trickled by. The Doctor didn't move, and merely raised an eyebrow as the albino's eyes slowly cleared. Realization flashed over the man's features. Beilschmidt's breathing dropped back to fairly normal levels and he cocked his head, staring at the unamused EMH with a narrowed gaze.
"Oh." The man's tone was low, and a distinctly Germanic accent colored his words. "You're one of those verdammt Geister."
"Hardly." The Doctor's voice was dry. "I am a hologram. Now, release me, please."
Beilschmidt hesitated, glancing to the right out of the corner of his eye. Tuvok's hand was still on his phaser, but neither of the two officers outside the cell had made any further motion towards them. His lips tightened, but he carefully let go of the hologram's throat and wrist. The Doctor didn't say a word, and just checked his tricorder for damage in annoyance as the albino took a step back. Janeway relaxed a fraction and gave the EMH a meaningful look. The Doctor gathered the rest of his equipment in his case and huffily stepped back over the barrier as Tuvok momentarily dropped the shield. The albino didn't move through all of this, and simply looked on warily; seemingly ready to leap into action again at any moment.
Janeway breathed an undetectable sigh of relief as soon as the Doctor was back outside the force field. She took in the younger man as he too relaxed a hair and studied the cell he was in, rubbing the back of his neck in a pained fashion. Beilschmidt rolled his shoulders, wincing ever so slightly. It was a very… human movement. The man still kept the fierce air of a practiced fighter around his presence, but the clear discomfort with the situation plus his youthful looks made him appear less threatening that he had already shown himself to be. Janeway didn't miss the quick, keen glances that the albino was casting about, nor the still-tense set of his body.
There was another factor that distracted Janeway from her current thoughts.
"Doctor, do you have the standard universal translating matrix built into your program?" the Captain inquired. Beilschmidt, keeping a careful distance between himself and the force field, fixed the rest of them with a suspicious glance, as if puzzled by the context.
"Of course," the Doctor answered. "That was German, one of the original dialects on Earth. Mr. Beilschmidt seems to have mistaken me for the supernatural." Here the Doctor gave the Augment a withering glare. Beilschmidt looked unimpressed and grumbled something incomprehensible under his breath. "He assumed I was a ghost."
"Mr. Kim said that this had occurred before, on the holodeck," Tuvok added in anticipation of his Captain's next question. "The universal translator seems to not be working in this regard." Janeway frowned, nodding.
We'll have Seven and B'lanna run another diagnostic of that system. The arrival of our… guest may have damaged it more than we thought."
"Hey, don't blame me because your high and mighty technology isn't working." The attention in the room switched back the white-haired man as he spoke up. Beilschmidt crossed his arms, scowling at all of them. "If you hadn't brought me here, nothing would have happened."
Janeway crossed her arms in a similar fashion, looking him coolly in the eye. "I assure you, Mr. Beilschmidt, that we had nothing to do with your sudden appearance," Janeway replied.
Beilschmidt snorted in disbelief. "I'm sure. So who the hell are you people?"
The Captain drew herself up unconsciously at his scathing tone, diplomatic to the core. "I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager." She half-turned and gestured to Tuvok, who was standing behind the brig's control console. "This is my Chief of Security, Commander Tuvok." Tuvok inclined his head. Janeway nodded towards the still-irritated hologram officer. "And the Doctor, our ship's chief medical officer."
"Charmed," muttered the Doctor.
"Likewise," Beilschmidt grumbled back, to the surprise of the EMH. Janeway did her best not to show the small smile that quirked up at the corner of her lips.
The Doctor grumbled huffily to himself and caught a tighter grip on his medkit. "If you don't mind, Captain, I'll head back to sickbay to finish my analysis. Call again next time you need a hostile intruder examined."
Janeway gravely nodded her consent, determined to keep a straight face. "Very well, Doctor. I'll expect that report." At the dismissal, the EMH nodded back and stalked out of the Brig with a stiff posture, the double doors closing decisively behind him. Beilschmidt watched him go with narrow eyes.
"So," the albino man glanced around the room. He tapped a cautious finger on the force field, making a face when it buzzed at the contact. "The starship Voyager. That's some nice technology you have here." His tone dripped with hostility. "It certainly would have helped a lot with the war effort." Beilschmidt made eye contact with Janeway, his red eyes burning with held back anger and suspicion.
Janeway narrowed her eyes in response, mulling that over. She understood the implications that statement gave. Was it possible that this man actually was from the 1940's? She took a shallow breath, deciding it would be best to just dive in.
"Since we appear to have different ideas of the time zone, would you care to tell me what year you believe it currently is?" the Captain challenged.
The confined human, who had been buzzing with a contained energy, became completely still. Suspicion and a hint of confusion filtered through his aggressive stance. His eyes flickered away from Janeway for a moment to an impassive Tuvok before returning to meet her gaze once more.
"…1947," Beilschmidt stated slowly. "It's 1947."
Janeway stiffened. She inspected the albino as closely as possible, using her years of diplomacy as guidance in searching for any signs of falsehood the man gave off. To her trepidation, she found none, which meant he was either an excellent liar- or he was telling the truth. She frowned, tapping her leg in concentration as she processed that. Janeway decided to take the leap.
"Do you mean to suggest that you are from 400 hundred years in the past?"
Complete empty silence reigned throughout the room. The albino man had become even stiller, if that were possible. A look of shock froze his features. After the pause had spread to an uncomfortable length, with both Starfleet officers closely watching Beilschmidt's reaction, the man swallowed and spoke.
"Come again?" His voice had become soft and hoarse, a thread of desperation trickling into the end of his query.
A quick sideways consultation with Tuvok confirmed Janeway's conclusion. Either Beilschmidt was the best actor in the history of humankind, or he was completely thrown by that particular piece of information. Janeway locked her arms behind her back, appraising Beilschmidt in a different light.
"The year is 2376." The Captain chose her words carefully, not entirely sure what to tell this man. On one hand, he appeared to be a lost human out of his own time, but there was also the unanswered augmented factor in play. "Our ship is part of Starfleet, a branch of the United Federation of Planets based from Earth. I'm afraid you're a rather long way from home."
Beilschmidt recoiled half a pace as though physically struck. His posture, which had been military straight, gradually changed to something more akin as a cornered animal, his eyes flitting from side to side. The others in the room tensed as well, caution dictating that they be prepared for anything to happen.
Almost immediately, the man stilled and his gaze turned inwards. He blankly stared at the floor, the turmoil behind his eyes fading into deep contemplation.
Finally, the albino heaved a faint sigh.
"I believe you." The human sounded suddenly exhausted.
"Just like that?" Tuvok inquired, a disbelieving eyebrow raised. Beilschmidt nodded absently, apparently not noticing the refined Vulcan skepticism.
"It… it just fits." He glanced up, red eyes suddenly seeming much older. "We're nowhere near Earth right now, are we?" Janeway shook her head, suspicion overtaking her once more.
"As it so happens, we are not." Janeway crossed her arms, bringing a new edge to her posture. "But if you happen to be from Earth in the 1940's, then how can you explain your… augmented physiology?"
At that, a new set of walls slammed up over the man's emotions, making him more withdrawn than before. The look he gave Janeway was deeply calculating.
"What do you mean by 'augmented physiology'?" he asked stiffly.
"The super human strength for one," Janeway replied just as coolly. She deliberately left out the unspoken incident, deciding against offending her Security Chief. "I believe our Doctor mentioned higher oxygen processing and brain activity along with the physical enhancements."
A faint snarl grew on Beilschmidt's face, barely breaking through the wall he had put up. "You examined me?!"
Janeway met his violated gaze with raised hands, attempting to placate him.
"I am sorry if you feel as though we intruded on your personal privacy, but consider this. You appeared on my ship as an intruder, and took hostile action against my crew." Janeway lowered her arms and lifted her chin, determinedly fixing him with her gaze. "I did what I believed necessary to protect my people."
Beilschmidt's fury slowly cooled, like oil being burned off the face of water. He blew a breath out through his nose and gave her a curt nod. While the anger in his eyes didn't completely fade, understanding creeped in to join the other conflicting emotions.
"I don't know why I am the way I am," he said flatly. "I was born like this." His shoulders rose in a shrug. "It's something I live with."
The albino took a shallow breath. His focus on Janeway sharpened for a moment, the intensity of his gaze reminding the Captain of a Betazoid ambassador she had once met. His eyes, though red instead of black, had the same feeling of staring into your soul and pulling out all your secrets.
Beilschmidt seemed to like what he saw, for he relaxed a minute degree, his stance returning fully upright.
"I… will not harm your crew." The man glanced off to where Tuvok stood, brow furrowed. Tuvok met his gaze with the same sharpness and depth, a look Janeway recognized as the Vulcan version of an unspoken challenge. Beilschmidt huffed, a quiet sound that Janeway was taken aback to recognize as a laugh. A glint of teeth was seen as the corner of the albino's mouth pulled up in a wry grin.
"Since it looks like I'm stuck here, I may as well get along with you Yanks." The air of watchfulness had vanished around the young man, lightening the mood considerably.
"I know that you lot obviously have no reason to trust me yet, but that's okay." Beilschmidt glanced around his cell. Sitting back down on the bench, he folded his arms behind his head, eyes slotted lazily. "It's looks like I'm not going anywhere."
Yaaaay, I updated. Whew. Hopefully the next one is quicker- and longer.
Thanks for reading. You... eleven people following this story. Love you guys.