Kathryn had spent most of the night walking the decks, deep in thought. This ship didn't seem all that different from her own. The crew interacted in much the same way; they seemed to have the same positions, the same histories... In fact, the only discernible difference between this Voyager and her own was the relationship between its commanding officers. This was something she had pondered for much of the night; what could have led her, three years ago, to begin a relationship with Chakotay? One of the things that had puzzled her about the conversation she had witnessed was their easy willingness to talk about New Earth. They talked about it almost as if... almost as if they had just been there.
This idea gave her pause. Perhaps that was where this timeline had broken off from hers. Perhaps, in this timeframe, Tuvok had obeyed her orders, leaving this captain and first officer stranded on the planet for a much longer time period. Mentally, she did the calculations. If they had just been rescued from New Earth, that meant that this Kathryn and Chakotay had been stranded there for nearly a year. She closed her eyes, thinking back, trying to imagine what she would have done at that time. If she and Chakotay had already been in a relationship when Voyager had returned for them; if they had been in a relationship that had already lasted almost a year, would she give it up to return to their command structure? Would she have asked him to give it up? She didn't know. From where she stood now, it seemed impossible that she would have ever allowed herself to be involved with a subordinate... especially in a situation as complicated as Voyager's was. But that was now, with three years of life in the Delta Quadrant behind her and with the foreknowledge of all the hostilities this crew was about to face; of all the times she would see him nearly killed in action; all the times that he would stand by her bedside as she woke up in sickbay; all the times that they would argue bitterly over the right course of action. Three years ago, what would she have done? Opening her eyes, she sighed. There was no way for her to answer that question now, and she had to accept that there might have been a set of circumstances under which she would have allowed the relationship to occur and to continue.
Resuming her walk, she cleared her head. In turn with her thoughts about the command team's romance, alternated her questions about how she was going to get out of here and back to her own ship. The first thing she had to do, she knew, was get this crew to acknowledge her presence. Unable to affect the physical space around her, she knew that wasn't going to be easy. Perhaps Tuvok would be able to sense her presence somehow, or... Kes! In this time, Kes should still be on Voyager, unless that was another deviation from her own timeline. But she was willing to bet that Kes was here. She set off at a jog, wondering where Kes might be at this hour. Her quarters? The mess hall? Janeway smiled. The airponics bay. That was where Kes had come to spend a good portion of her time. If she was on this Voyager, chances were good that she would be there.
When Kathryn stepped through the door of the airponics bay, she inhaled the sweet aroma of flowers, mixed with the pungent scent of herbs. She looked around, and couldn't help but smile. Airponics had never quite been the same after Kes had left the ship, and the elfin woman's presence was something that she missed greatly on those few occasions that she allowed herself the indulgence of memory. As she stood in airponics now, memories of Kes and her time on Voyager flooded her thoughts. Suddenly, Janeway heard a melodious voice from the corner.
"Hello?" the voice called softly, its tones soothing by nature. "Is anyone there?"
Janeway's breath caught in her throat as Kes emerged from behind a shelf of plants, looking around with large, curious eyes. Kathryn had been unprepared for the effect that the sight of the younger woman would have on her, and unexpected tears came to her eyes as she stared at her friend whom she had not seen in three years. "I'm here, Kes," she said softly. "Can you see me?"
The Ocampan woman glanced around and then returned to her gardening. "That's strange," she murmured. "I could have sworn that someone else came into the room." She carefully tended her plants, pruning them and watering them.
Janeway walked up behind her, trying to touch the woman's shoulders, but as usual, her hands felt as though they were touching nothing but air. "Someone did come into the room, Kes. It's Captain Janeway. Can you hear me?"
Kes froze, her attention drawn away from her plants once more, and looked around the room. She turned so that her face was only inches from Janeway's, but she still appeared to see right through her. Seeing no one, she tapped her comm badge. "Kes to the bridge."
"Tuvok here," came the reply. "Are you all right, Kes?"
"Yes, Tuvok, I'm fine. I was wondering if you could tell me something. Are there any life signs in the airponics bay with me?"
There was a pause as someone on the bridge scanned the bay, and Tuvok's reply came back, "Negative. There is only one life sign in the airponics bay: yours."
"Thank you," Kes replied. "Sorry to bother you. Kes out." The link severed, Kes shook her head, admonishing herself. "I must be more exhausted than I thought," she said, turning to exit the bay. Janeway stayed with her as she walked, finally running out in front of her and forcing her to walk directly through her as Neelix had earlier. At this, Kes stopped, looking around the corridor in confusion. She tapped her comm badge again. "Kes to Commander Tuvok."
"Tuvok here."
"Sir, I need to speak to you right away." Kes picked up her pace as she hurried through the corridors to the bridge, with Janeway at her heels. When they arrived on the bridge, Tuvok escorted Kes into the briefing room and Janeway followed.
"What is wrong, Kes?" the Vulcan asked.
"There's an intruder aboard," she said breathlessly.
"An intruder? Where did you see an intruder?"
Kes shook her head. "I didn't see anyone, exactly. I sensed a presence in the airponics bay. At first I thought it was just in my mind, or that I was just overtired, but then I sensed it again in the corridor. I'm sure I wasn't imagining it."
"What can you tell me about this presence?" asked Tuvok.
Kes began to pace back and forth across the briefing room. "I don't know. When I was the in the airponics bay, I thought I heard someone enter, but when I looked around no one was there. That's when I asked you to scan for life signs."
"Curious," said Tuvok. "If there was a presence in the room with you, it did not appear on our sensors." He paused, studying Kes carefully. "Could you sense the presence's intentions? Were they malevolent?"
"I don't think so," Kes replied as she stopped pacing. "At least, I didn't sense any malice."
"Can you show me the exact location in the corridor where you felt the presence?"
"I think so," Kes replied. Tuvok nodded to her, and he followed her out the door, Janeway's invisible form close on their heels. She smiled. This was more like it.
...
It was warm, and safe in the bed that Chakotay had built for them, his arms wrapped securely around her, her face nestled into his neck. She felt protected and at ease, as if life were simple and decisions clear... For one brief moment, she realized that she'd never had to take any of the tragedies of her life seriously...
Janeway slowly opened her eyes, thinking that she had been dreaming. This was not New Earth. She was back on Voyager, and things were neither simple nor clear any longer. But then she became aware of the warm body next to her, of the protective arms that still held her in the exact position in which she'd fallen asleep, and she sighed with contentment. For the first time since their return from New Earth three weeks ago, Chakotay's presence in her bed was not a dream. She glanced at the chronometer. 0436. They had about an hour before they had to report to the bridge, which probably meant she should wake him.
She smiled to herself. A year ago, she would have thought that waking up with Chakotay in bed next to her on Voyager would be impossible. But here they were. Sometimes she felt like she had to stretch her mind to wrap it around this idea, but as much as she respected and adhered to Starfleet protocols and ideals, she had never been the type to play things completely by the book. Their circumstances in the Delta Quadrant had forced her to bend a lot of rules, although had they never been stranded on New Earth, she was sure that this would not have been one of them. Yet, things had happened the way that they had, and she couldn't change that now. She had meant what she said the day before; she didn't want to go back to the way things had been. It would be like trying to erase a part of herself, and a part of him. She knew she could do it if she had to, but she didn't think she could bear to watch him do the same. What would it do to him, to try to eradicate his feelings for her? What would it do to them? She felt Chakotay shift beside her and pull her closer to him, his morning erection pushing into her belly. "Chakotay," she whispered, "we have to get up."
"I'm already up," he murmured, grasping her from behind and pulling her into his hardness.
She chuckled. "I meant it's time to get out of bed."
He slowly opened his eyes, his face only inches from her own, and pulled her into a deep kiss. When he broke from the kiss, he released his tight hold on her body and lay there, looking deeply into her eyes. He reached over and brushed a stray tendril of hair out of her face. "I love waking up next to you, Kathryn," he said softly.
Her eyes widened and she felt herself draw in a shaky breath. It was not so much his words as his tone that affected her. It was infinitely gentle, yet passionate; strong, yet loving; protective, reverent, and laced with the smallest tinge of fear. She knew he could see how deeply she'd been affected by his statement from the way that he looked back at her with compassion and love. She reached out and traced his tattoo with her fingers, cupping his cheek in her hand. "You can use the shower first, if you want. I'll make us some breakfast."
He grinned at her. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather I made breakfast?"
She swatted his arm, gave him a quick kiss and rolled out of bed. "I think I can handle toast and eggs, thank you very much."
"Whatever you say," he replied, raising an eyebrow and heading for the sonic shower.
They were in the middle of their breakfast, which Kathryn had actually managed not to ruin, when they heard Tuvok's voice over the comm system, "Bridge to Captain Janeway."
"Janeway here," she replied, hitting her comm badge.
"We are picking up some anomalous readings. Please report to the bridge."
"I'm on my way." She looked ruefully at Chakotay and then at their half eaten breakfast.
He shrugged. "Duty calls." She nodded, and he followed her out the door as they walked swiftly to the bridge.
When they arrived, she went over to Tuvok's station to look at his readings, and Chakotay sat down in his chair, observing the readings on his own console. "Report," she ordered.
"We have picked up a spatial distortion approximately thirty thousand kilometers off the port bough," Tuvok explained. "We are reading high levels of neutrinos and chroniton particles."
"Chronitons?" Janeway was immediately suspicious. She hadn't had much experience with time travel, and she wasn't about to start now. She turned to the view screen and walked down to the lower level of the bridge. "On screen," she ordered. On the screen in front of them appeared a tiny white dot. It was barely visible to their eyes.
"Magnify," ordered Chakotay. As Tuvok increased the magnification of the image, they could see that the white dot was some sort of vortex in space.
"Is it a wormhole?" Janeway asked, suddenly feeling hopeful.
"It does share many of a wormhole's properties," Tuvok replied. "But the chroniton particles it emits indicate that it is in a state of temporal flux."
"Captain, I suggest we launch a probe," said Chakotay, standing from his chair.
"Do it," she replied. "Let's find out where this wormhole leads. And when." She crossed to the Captain's chair and sat down.
Unbeknownst to the bridge crew, another Kathryn Janeway was standing on the bridge, just behind Tuvok's station, observing his readings. She had little doubt that this was the same anomaly that she had encountered in her own timeframe; the one that had brought her here. The fact that it had appeared in this timeline as well, albeit much smaller, suggested that there was a way for her to get back. But she still had to get this crew to recognize her presence. Tuvok had run scans of the corridors where Kes had seen her, but so far had come up with nothing. She had to get him to run an interphasic scan. But how?
"Captain, there is one other thing you should know," Tuvok said.
"What is it?" she asked, turning in her chair to look at Tuvok.
"Last night, Kes reported sensing a presence with her in the airponics bay."
This brought the Captain to her feet again. "A presence? What kind of presence?"
"Unknown. I scanned the area where she reported sensing the presence, but my scans turned up nothing. While the appearance of this anomaly may just be a coincidence, there also may be some connection between it and the presence that Kes sensed."
"Run a multiphasic scan of the whole ship," the Captain ordered. She sat back down in her chair and turned to Chakotay. "Thoughts?" she asked softly.
"If we do have an intruder on board, maybe they came through the wormhole," he suggested. "If the wormhole is in a state of temporal flux, maybe we should scan the ship for chroniton particles as well."
She nodded. "Do it."
From behind Tuvok's station, the older Captain Janeway smiled. Leave it to Chakotay to come up with the right idea at the right time. A few minutes later, Chakotay said, "I'm picking up several chroniton fields scattered around the ship."
Tuvok concurred, "My scans have picked up the same phenomenon, Captain."
"Where?" she asked.
"Cargo bay two, the mess hall, the airponics bay..." Chakotay paused and then added, "My quarters."
Janeway's eyes snapped up to his, and they exchanged an unreadable glance. She tapped the comm panel. "Senior staff, report to the briefing room."
When everyone was assembled, Tuvok set one of the display panels to show a schematic of the ship, highlighting each location where a chroniton field had appeared. "When did these fields first appear?" the Captain asked.
"They seem to have appeared at varying times," Tuvok said. "The first one to appear is the chroniton field in cargo bay two. Our sensors indicate that it appeared at approximately 1730 hours yesterday. The one in the mess hall appeared shortly after that, then the one on the bridge, and the one in Commander Chakotay's quarters at approximately 1900. The chroniton field in the airponics bay appeared at approximately 0400, right around the time that Kes says she felt a presence in the room."
Janeway looked around the table at her senior staff. "Any idea where these chroniton fields might have come from?"
"They could be related to the anomaly somehow," B'Elanna suggested. "Perhaps we've somehow intersected it over the past several hours."
"Wouldn't we have been able to detect that?" asked Tom.
"Not if the anomaly is in a state of temporal flux. We may have been close to it without being able to detect it, if it was somehow out of sync with our own timeframe," Torres replied.
Kes spoke up, "But that doesn't explain the presence I felt in the corridor or in the airponics bay."
"It is logical to assume that since the appearance of the chroniton field in the airponics bay coincides with the time that Kes felt a presence there, they are connected," said Tuvok, moving away from the screen and taking his seat.
"I remember reading something at the Academy about chroniton fields appearing like this on the Enterprise," said Harry. "I think that it had something to do with two of their officers being out phase with the rest of the ship."
"It is possible that someone came aboard Voyager from the wormhole," reasoned Chakotay. "Perhaps we can't see them because they're out of phase with our timeframe."
Janeway locked eyes with him, sharing her thoughts with him without a single word. Whoever that person was had been in his quarters during their dinner last night, or at least it seemed that way. Aloud she said, "An alien presence that is invisible to us? I don't like the idea of being spied on."
From the corner of the briefing room, the elder Janeway chuckled. Oh ,Kathryn, if you only knew, she mused. Will you like it less or more when you discover that the person spying on you was yourself?
"Ensign Kim and Lieutenant Torres, let's see if we can prove this hypothesis. Work on a way to make our alien guest visible to us. Use our databanks to research what happened on the Enterprise and find out how they got their missing crewmen back. Commander Chakotay, keep monitoring the chroniton fields. Let me know as soon as a new one appears."
"Aye, Captain," he replied.
"Dismissed." They all left the briefing room and returned to their stations; Tuvok, Kim and Torres heading to engineering to begin work on their problem.
As soon as Chakotay sat down in his chair and examined his console, he turned to the Captain, seated next to him. "Captain, a new chroniton field just appeared in the briefing room."
She looked at him, her eyes wide. They were definitely being watched by someone. The question was, who, and what did they want?
...
Chakotay stood in the astrometrics lab, arms crossed over his chest, watching the array of probes spread out over the anomaly.
"The probes are transmitting," B'Elanna informed him. They had launched three probes to the general area where the Captain had disappeared. They could only hope that one of them would find the same exit aperture that had taken her.
"On screen," Chakotay ordered. The transmissions of the probes appeared in three different boxes on the screen above them.
"The probes have all entered the anomaly," Seven reported. "We are receiving telemetry." The three of them watched as the probes transmitted images from the interior of the anomaly. There was little to see but a bright white light. Suddenly, one of the boxes went black.
"What happened?" Chakotay asked.
"The probe has entered an exit aperture," Seven reported. "It is still transmitting, but we are not receiving any telemetry from it at this time." Another box went black as another probe was sucked into the anomaly.
"We're receiving telemetry from the first probe that went in," said B'Elanna. Anxiously, Chakotay looked up at the screen. The blank box had become once again filled with light. "It looks like it's in the same anomaly, just on the other side," B'Elanna said. "The probe is still moving. We'll have to wait until it gets further away."
Just as the third box on the screen went black, they began to receive telemetry from the second probe they had launched. They could see that it was gradually moving away from the anomaly's exit aperture, and although it was the same bright white phenomenon that they had witnessed from their bridge, it appeared to be significantly smaller wherever, or whenever, the probe was. As the probe continued to transmit data, Chakotay, Torres and Seven could see a planet nearby. The probe began to scan the planet and transmit data.
"The planet has approximately three million life forms. The probe is detecting warp signatures, so their technology must be at least moderately advanced," said Seven.
"Do you know this planet, Seven?" Chakotay asked.
"I will cross reference the data from the probe with the Borg database as well as our own star charts," Seven replied.
"Chakotay!" B'Elanna said sharply, interrupting Seven and gesturing to the location on the screen where the third probe had just begun to transmit data.
He whipped his head around to look up at the screen and gasped. There, in front of them was an even smaller version of the anomaly they had seen, and, in the distance, beyond the glowing, white specter, a clear picture of the starship Voyager.
...
"I think this will work," Torres said, looking up at Harry with a satisfied expression.
Harry smiled at her in congratulations and excitement. "Kim to Janeway."
"Janeway here."
"Captain, we think that if we flood the ship with anyon particles, we should be able to bring whoever is watching us back into our own space-time," said Harry.
Janeway's characteristic response came back, "Do it."
Harry and B'Elanna shared a grin as Torres turned to the panel beside them. "The anyon emitter is ready to go," she said.
"Ok," replied Harry nervously. "Engaging anyon emitter." It was a moment before they noticed anything unusual, but as the anyon particles began to flood the ship, they saw a figure begin to appear in front of them. Harry thought that the figure looked somehow familiar, but he could quite place it in his mind.
"Increase the emissions by ten percent," Torres ordered.
Harry hit a few buttons on his console, and saw the figure in front of them begin to congeal. He noticed the short stature and the auburn hair first. Then, the characteristic red Starfleet uniform, and finally the piercing blue eyes. Harry suddenly was speechless as he found himself looking into the face of Captain Janeway... At least, she appeared to be Captain Janeway. Dumbfounded, he stood there, staring.
"Good work, Ensign," said the Captain with a smile. It looked like her, and it sounded like her, but Harry was confused. The Captain was on the bridge. He had seen her less than two hours ago. Who was this impostor?
Torres tapped her comm badge. "Captain," she said, "I think you better get down here."