Fools Rush In by Teal
Chapter Eight
Julian sat alone in the conference room, waiting for the others to arrive. He held his head in his hands, wondering how he would explain it all to them.
Within moments, the door opened and Ezri, Kira and Worf entered and sat down, quietly waiting for Julian to begin. He felt the weight of the situation on him, and found it difficult to raise his head.
"Doctor?" Kira asked, wondering what he had brought them all here for.
Julian looked up dazedly. "I'm sorry. Excuse me. I have a lot to tell you, and I'm afraid I don't know where to begin."
Ezri grinned," Sounds serious." Then, noticing the look upon Julian's face, her smile faded. "Go ahead, Julian, just tell us."
He smiled at them all reluctanly. "I have made a terrible mistake."
Everyone seemed to be holding their breath, and then Worf spoke what was on all their minds. "Jadzia."
"Yes. Jadzia." He paused, really not knowing how to continue.
"Look, Doctor, just get it out, then we can go from there." Kira said, as usual taking charge.
"Right. Okay then. I made a terrible error. You see, I wanted Jadzia to be back, just as much as the rest of you. So, even though things didn't add up, scientifically, I didn't spend much time trying to find out why. How she could be alive didn't seem to matter as much as the fact that she was alive. I suppose I was hoping for some sort of miraculous answer. But, that's not to be now."
He got up and walked over to the head of the table, and turned his attention to the large computer screen behind him on the wall. After tapping a few buttons, two medical scans appeared.
"You see these? These are medical scans of Jadzia. One the day before her death, and one taken just a few hours ago in sick bay."
"They look identical to me," said Ezri.
"Yes, well, that was the problem for me too. They did look identical, in every way, except one. Here." He pointed to a list of numerical readings over in the corner. "I didn't even think to look here very carefully, the first several sequence of numbers are identical, so I didn't go beyond them, down to the thousands. I didn't go beyond them, that is, until today."
He turned and faced them. "These numbers represent Jadzia's quantum signature. Everyone of us has their own unique signature. "
Julian saw Worf grimace, and he knew that Worf knew where he was going with this. "They are almost identical to the numerical sequence of the Jadzia in sick bay. Almost." He tapped a couple more buttons, bringing up a diagram, showing two horizontal, parallel lines, edging up and down on a graph. "As you can see, they are almost parallel. The dips and jumps are nearly identical. But here," her pointed at one area, "in this spot, that is where they don't match up. And then again, here."
He turned again, facing them all. "The Jadzia in sick bay, is not our Jadzia. She is from another quantum reality." Until he said it aloud, he hadn't realized how bizarre it would sound.
"So, she's from a different time than we are?" Asked Kira, clearly confused.
"No, it isn't as if she has jumped from one time to the next, back and forth, or anything like that. Our time lines are parallel. They run along at the same pace. An infinite number of them, actually. You see, for any event there are any number of outcomes, all relying on how we react to the event. The choices we make, you see, guides our own reality. But, there is a theory that says that all possibilities that can happen, well, DO happen."
They listened on in stunned silence, until Kira said, "Is there any proof of any of this, really, Julian?"
Worf, who had kept quiet up until then, spoke. "I experienced something similar to what the Doctor is saying. Although, when I experienced it, I had traveled through what called a Quantum Fissure. And we destroyed the fissure." He paused for a moment, his fists pushing against the table. "How did this happen?" His voice was accusatory, and angry.
"Well, I questioned Jadzia on that at much as I could. She is, as you can imagine, a little stunned. It seems that in her reality they are still in the War with the Cardassians. Even though the Founders had fallen, the Cardassians had no intention of giving up. And with the previous help of the founders, they had built up quite a substantial fleet of ships." Julian sat back down at the conference table.
"Deep Space Nine intercepted a communication about the Cardassians transporting some of their more prominent officials back to Cardassia. They had been hiding on other venues and, in order to keep the troops motivated, were to return to the home world, thus leading them on to victory.
"Now, during the war, Star Fleet discovered some technology that the Jem Hadar had been working on, transporting onto ships even when their shields had been raised. It was incomplete, and they were missing several important components. Star Fleet worked for several months, manipulating the technology to work on Cardassian shields. It had been tested several times in simulations and with live test subjects, so Star Fleet felt it was safe to use.
"This would allow Star Fleet ships to leave their shields in tact and to transport through an enemies shields as well, during battle. It would change the direction of the war, and give a dramatic edge to the allies.
"So, when the Defiant went out to intercept the transport ship, they had no doubt they would be able to over power the Cardassian vessel and recover the diplomats, throwing a huge wrench into the Cardassian war effort. What they didn't know, was that the ship would be under attack by a rouge Bajoran vessel.
"When they arrived at the site, the battle was well underway. Colonel Kira was able to talk the Bajoran's down, and began to prepare to board the Cardassian ship." He looked at Kira as she shifted uncomfortably in her chair. She was no doubt feeling the uneasiness he felt when contemplating other Julians running around.
"What she remembers is preparing to transport over to the ship. Then, in the middle of transporting, she could hear something about another ship firing on the Cardassian ship, then there was a blinding white light all about her, a flash, and when she awoke she was on the same named Cardassian ship in a holding cell."
"She thought that she and the others that had transported aboard had been captured, but as time went on she realized she was alone. It was not long after she was transferred to the Cardassian prison."
"The conclusion I drew is, that in the middle of transport, the Bajoran ship fired onto the Cardassian vessel, and a high amount of disruptive energy went through everyone who were transporting through the shields. At that precise moment, they were all thrown into a quantum flux, leaving their own time lines. Jadzia entered ours. "
"So, she's stuck here, isn't she?" asked Ezri, quietly.
"I don't see how we can ever replicate what happened to her. So, in effect, yes, she is going to have to stay here."