When Kathryn arrived in engineering, she expected to find an alien visitor, a hostile force, a multiphasic creature. The last thing she expected to find was herself. Yet, she found herself staring into her own cold, blue, calculating eyes and cocked her head in astonishment. It wasn't exactly like looking in a mirror. Her double's features were slightly more severe than her own, she thought. Her hair was shorter; she had a few more lines on her face. She did appear to be Kathryn Janeway, but the Captain knew better than to believe it at face value. "Who are you?" she asked.
The other Janeway looked at her as if the answer should be obvious. "I'm you," she replied. The voice was the same. "I know that you've picked up an anomaly, a wormhole that emits chronitons. We encountered the same anomaly in my own timeframe. I was in a shuttle with Tom Paris, investigating the anomaly, when our shuttle was hit by some kind of energy pulse, and I woke up here."
Kathryn was slowly processing her double's words. "Your own timeframe?"
The other Janeway nodded. "As far as I can tell, I'm from a different timeline." She decided that for now it might be best not to mention that she was also from the future.
Harry piped up, "There have been documented instances where anomalies have caused multiple timelines to converge in the same location."
"I remember hearing about that, too, Ensign," replied the Captain.
"All I want is to get back to my own time and my own ship," the other Janeway said.
"First, Captain," Kathryn replied, using the title with a dubious tone, "I'd like to escort you to sickbay so we can confirm your identity."
Her double looked for a moment as if she was about to protest, but then she backed down. "Of course. That's exactly what I would do in your position."
The Captain tapped her comm badge. "Janeway to Tuvok. Meet me in engineering. We have a guest to escort to sickbay."
The other Janeway chuckled slightly. "Surely you don't need a security team to escort me to sickbay?"
"Frankly, I don't know who you are, Captain. You may be telling the truth, or you may be an alien posing as me in order to incapacitate my crew and gain control of my ship. I've learned that in situations like this we can't be too cautious."
The older Kathryn grimaced and replied, "Of course." You don't know how well you're going to learn that lesson, she thought towards her counterpart.
When Tuvok arrived in engineering and saw two Janeways standing there, he looked at his captain in surprise, raising an eyebrow. "Captain?"
"She claims to be me, from another timeline," the Captain replied. "I'd like the Doctor to confirm her identity."
"Of course," said Tuvok, taking their guest gently by the elbow. "Please come with me." Leaving a befuddled Harry Kim and B'Elanna Torres behind them, Tuvok and both Janeways moved towards sickbay.
"How long have you been aboard my ship?" the Captain asked.
"Since yesterday afternoon, as far as I can tell. I'm not sure how long I was unconscious before I woke up in your cargo bay."
"And you've been spying on us that whole time? We picked up the chroniton fields you left all over the ship."
The older Janeway sighed. "I wasn't trying to spy on you. I was trying to gather information about this timeframe, and trying to figure out how to get you to recognize that I was here. I knew of Kes' telepathic abilities, so I sought her out in the airponics bay. I didn't realize that I'd be leaving chroniton fields all over the ship, but I'm glad that I did, because if I hadn't, it would have taken you a lot longer to find me."
The Captain had to accept this explanation as she tried to put herself in her counterpart's situation. Much as she didn't like the idea that they had been watched by an invisible presence, she probably would have done the same thing. When they reached sickbay the Doctor's eyes widened. "Captain," he said dryly, "you didn't tell me you had developed a cloning device."
The Captain's eyes narrowed as she ignored his sarcastic remark. "This woman claims to be me from another timeline. I need you to confirm that, Doctor."
"Very well. This should only take a minute." He sat the second Janeway down on a biobed and ran his tricorder over her. He compared his scans to his database of scans of his own Captain, and a few moments later, he looked up at her. "She is, indeed, a future you, Captain."
"Future?" the Captain asked, looking accusingly at her double. "You didn't mention anything about the future."
"I was trying not to mention it," the older Janeway replied, glaring at the Doctor. "Temporal prime directive."
"I'm sorry, Captain," the Doctor said, looking at the older Captain now. "I didn't realize..."
She brushed his apology aside. "It's all right, Doctor. The damage is done."
"Perhaps the temporal prime directive does not apply in this situation," said Tuvok.
"Why not?" both Janeways asked simultaneously. They stared at each other after speaking in unison; the younger Janeway looked annoyed; the older, simply bemused.
Tuvok turned to the Janeway who was not his captain. "If you are, indeed, from a different timeline, then whatever happens in our future will already be different from the past that you've experienced." He paused. "Have you noticed any significant differences between this universe and your own?"
Janeway cleared her throat and replied awkwardly, "One or two." Her tone made her counterpart study her carefully, wondering just what these differences were. "Even so," she continued, "I think we should probably keep our discussion of the future to a minimum."
The Captain nodded her ascent and then said, "Well, now that we know that you are who you say you are, I guess we need to get started on a way to get you home."
"Bridge to Janeway." It was Chakotay's voice.
Both Janeways tapped their comm badges reflexively, until the elder, realizing her error, nodded to her counterpart, allowing her to reply. "Janeway here."
"We've picked up a probe exiting the anomaly, Captain. It has a Starfleet signature."
...
Voyager's senior staff sat in the briefing room, as Tuvok shared the details of the probe they had detected. He stated that it had a Starfleet signature, appeared to be from Voyager, and was of a configuration he had never seen before.
The older Captain Janeway stood in the corner, observing the proceedings. Her arms crossed over her chest, she anxiously tapped the fingers of one hand on her elbow. She felt on edge, anxious to participate in the discussion, ready to take command. Although she trusted herself and her younger crew, she knew far more about the Delta Quadrant than they did. Her experiences over the past three years had honed her skills far more than the Captain she saw before her. When Tuvok finished describing the probe, she interjected, "It's from my ship. My crew is trying to figure out what happened to me." Her younger counterpart threw her a glare. Was this what the junior officers called the 'Janeway death glare?' she wondered with bemusement. She turned to Tuvok. "It's a multispatial probe. You designed it... or, rather, will design it."
Tuvok raised an eyebrow, and the Captain said, "Is there a way to confirm that?"
"The probe does appear to belong to Voyager, as I have previously stated. However, whether it is from the Voyager this Captain Janeway comes from or not is unknown. This anomaly may lead us to several different versions of Voyager, or just one."
"Can we launch a probe of our own to be sure?" Chakotay asked.
"That may be possible," replied Tuvok.
"The anomaly in my timeframe is much larger," the older Janeway explained. "I'd say it's at least a hundred times the size of what you see here."
"The real question is," said Chakotay, "can we use this probe, or one of our own, to transmit data back to whoever sent it?"
"We might be able to modify this probe with a subspace transmitter," suggested Lieutenant Torres.
The Captain nodded slowly. "We could use it as a subspace relay to transmit through the anomaly. That might be our best chance of making contact with your ship." She gestured to her counterpart.
"I know the design specifications of the multispatial probe," the older Janeway said. "B'Elanna, I can help you install the subspace transmitter."
"Lieutenant Torres, how long do you think this will take?" the Captain asked, ignoring her doppelganger's offer.
"Two hours, maybe three," Torres replied.
"Do it," said the Captain. "Ensign Kim, assist her. And our guest will also be at your disposal." Torres, Kim and the second Janeway nodded, and the meeting was dismissed. The older Janeway walked out with Torres and Kim, heading to engineering, and the rest of the senior staff resumed their posts. The Captain remained in her chair at the head of the table, lost in thought.
"How are you doing?" a gentle voice asked.
She looked up, startled that someone else was still in the room, and found herself looking into the soft brown eyes of her first officer. "I'm fine," she replied.
He chuckled and sat down next to her. "I know you better than that. It must be strange to see another version of yourself... from the future no less."
She nodded. "It is strange. I want so badly to ask her what happened in her timeline... If she could warn us of what dangers are ahead, maybe point us towards a faster way home..."
"I don't think she'd tell you," said Chakotay.
"I know. Temporal prime directive." Janeway dropped her head into her hands with a moan. "I hate time travel."
"Anyway," Chakotay offered, hoping to distract Kathryn from her worries, "what she's experienced might not be relevant to us. Her timeline may be completely different from ours."
"I suppose. But she has to have some knowledge of the Delta Quadrant that we can use." Kathryn had lifted her head from her hands, but her eyes were lost in thought.
Chakotay leaned towards her, trying to get her to look him in the eye. "I don't think that's really what's bothering you," he said.
She met his eyes in surprise; she hadn't realized that he was right until he had said it out loud. "Well, it's one of the things. She just seems so severe and cold. I don't see myself like that."
"You don't know what she's had to go through these past three years. Maybe it's changed her," said Chakotay.
Kathryn looked at him, worry written across her face. "Is that what I'm destined to become?"
"I don't think we're destined to become anything, Kathryn. We may not be able to choose the things that happen to us, but we always have the power to choose how we deal with them. Just because she is the way she is doesn't mean that you''ll be that way."
"But she's me!"
"She's you in a different set of circumstances; a different timeline. She's had different experiences from you, different relationships with people. The two of you may have started out as the same person, but you're not anymore."
Janeway nodded. "I suppose that's true. I can't help but wonder what those experiences are."
"That's what's really bothering you, isn't it?" he asked with a smile. "You just can't stand not knowing something."
She chuckled. "I guess that's it, Commander. Come on, let's get back to work."
...
B'Elanna Torres had beamed the multiphasic probe to engineering, and she stood, hunched over it, trying to open one of its access panels. The older Captain Janeway stood at the end of the probe, peering at Torres' work anxiously. Harry Kim stood a few feet away, still uncomfortable around the woman who looked so much like the Captain he knew.
"Ensign Kim, you can relax," Janeway said, noticing his stiffness out of the corner of her eye.
Harry shifted uncomfortably on his feet. "Sorry, Captain," he said. "I mean, should I call you Captain? Or something else?"
Janeway smiled, putting a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Captain is just fine, Ensign." As she took in the young man, she realized how much her own Harry Kim had matured over the past three years. He had become a capable young man, confident and willing to take command of a situation. He was no longer the green ensign she saw before her. "I guess you didn't expect to have two captains to deal with today," she offered.
For the first time since her arrival, Kim began to relax. "No, ma'am. I'm sorry if I'm behaving awkwardly."
"I'm sure I'd feel strange if I were in your position, Ensign. But, here in the Delta Quadrant, strange is part of the job."
Kim chuckled. "Yes, ma'am."
"I got it!" B'Elanna exclaimed. She had opened the panel, exposing the interior circuitry of the probe.
"Great," said Janeway. "Ensign, hand me that hyper spanner." Kim handed her the tool, and Janeway and Torres went to work modifying the internal circuitry of the probe and installing the subspace transceiver.
"It's strange, Captain," Harry said, trying to make conversation and eliminate the awkwardness he had created, "not that long ago, we didn't think you'd be coming home with us at all. Now there are two of you." He chuckled a little.
Janeway looked up at him strangely, as if she was discovering a clue to a puzzle that she had pondered. "What do you mean, Harry?" she asked, trying not to sound too interested.
Now it was Kim's turn to look puzzled. "We just got you and the Commander back. I mean, the Captain and the Commander... not you."
Torres looked up, studying both of them. "Weren't you and Chakotay stranded on New Earth in your timeline?" she asked.
"We were," Janeway replied cautiously. "But we returned to Voyager after only two months. How long were your Captain and Commander stranded?"
"Over ten months," said Harry. "Almost a year. We tried everything we could to convince Tuvok to contact the Vidiians, but he refused."
"That's where the timelines diverge," Janeway whispered under her breath.
"Captain?" Torres asked.
She shook her head, reaching over the probe to connect part of the transceiver. "Nothing." She paused and looked up at Torres and Kim. "How did you cure your Captain and your Chakotay, then?"
"The S'an Rit," Kim replied.
"Their technology was extremely advanced," said B'Elanna. "More than any other species we've ever encountered. One of their physicians worked with the Doctor and found a cure. Right around that same time, we charted a wormhole that led to an area of space that was relatively close to New Earth. We were able to go back for the Captain and Chakotay without adding more than a couple months to our journey."
Janeway seemed thoughtful. "I see."
B'Elanna studied her carefully. "Is something wrong, Captain?"
She shook her head, picking up the hyper spanner again. "Not at all, Lieutenant."
B'Elanna wasn't convinced, and she was bursting with curiosity, wanting to delve further into this line of questioning, but this woman was still the Captain, and Torres would feel awkward interrogating her. "I just need to connect two more relays," B'Elanna said instead. Leaning over the probe, she finished the delicate procedure and then stood up, closing the probe's casing. "That should do it."
"Good work, Lieutenant," said Janeway.
Torres shrugged. "Thanks for the help." B'Elanna reached for her comm badge and saw Janeway do the same. Torres bowed her head, deferring to the other woman.
Janeway tapped her comm badge. "Janeway to Janeway."
She could hear the exasperation in her double's voice as she answered, "This is the Captain."
"We've finished the modifications to the probe," Janeway reported. "We're ready for launch."
"Do it."
...
"I've been able to identify the location of the second probe," said Seven.
Chakotay stood beside her in astrometrics, looking up at the screen as she showed him the location of the planet whose image the probe had transmitted. "What can you tell me about it?"
"It's in a region of space that Voyager charted about three years ago." She pressed a button on the panel and the display before them changed, showing an image of a barren, brown world. "This is the planet now."
The image puzzled Chakotay. "That doesn't look like the image from the probe."
"No," Seven replied. "Voyager's scans showed evidence that there had been a civilization on the planet approximately three hundred years ago, but changes in the planet's atmosphere make it impossible for it to sustain life now."
Chakotay stared at the image and slowly grasped what Seven was trying to tell him. "Chroniton particles," he murmured. "The probe didn't just go to another location; it went to another timeframe."
"I have come to the same conclusion, Commander."
"What about the other two probes?"
"One seems to be lodged within the anomaly on the other side, and has transmitted no useful data. The other has been deactivated."
"Deactivated? How long ago?"
"Several hours," Seven reported. "It was deactivated shortly after it transmitted the images of Voyager."
"Do we know where that Voyager was?" Chakotay asked.
"We did not receive sufficient data to determine that. However, I do believe that the crucial question is not where the other Voyager is, but when."
The first officer nodded, pondering his options. "We need to find a way to communicate with the other Voyager. Can we launch another probe and use it as a transmitter?"
"Possibly," said Seven. "However, there is no guarantee that another probe would be drawn into the same exit aperture as the first."
Chakotay nodded. "Go down to engineering, and tell B'Elanna what you've found. Work with her and Ensign Kim to find a way to communicate with that other ship."
"Yes, Commander." Seven strode out of astrometrics, leaving a fascinated first officer staring at side by side images of a planet; on the left, the planet appeared dead and cold, on the right, it was alive, vibrant and bustling with activity. It was strange to think that the motion he saw before him had occurred over three hundred years ago.
...
"The probe has been launched, Captain," Torres reported over the comm system.
"On screen." As the bridge crew watched the probe glide towards the anomaly, Janeway exchanged a glance with her first officer. The older Captain Janeway stood off to one side, watching the two of them. Were Chakotay and I ever that obvious? she wondered. She thought not. After all, she and her Chakotay had never experienced the closeness that this couple had.
"The probe is two hundred meters from the anomaly and closing," Harry reported. "A hundred an fifty... A hundred meters... Slowing to ten meters per second. Holding position at fifty meters." This was the closest they could bring the probe to the anomaly without risking its being pulled inside.
"Bridge to engineering. Bring the subspace transceiver online."
A moment passed before Torres replied, "The transceiver is active, Captain."
The Captain exchanged another glance with her first officer before speaking. "This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation starship Voyager to any vessel on the other side of the anomaly. We have modified your probe and equipped it with a subspace transceiver in order to communicate with you. Please respond." Anxiously, they waited.
"No response, Captain," said Kim.
"We do not know how the anomaly will affect our transmission," Tuvok interjected. "It may become distorted, or be difficult to detect in another timeframe."
"My people will figure out how to access it," the older Captain Janeway assured him. "We just need to give them some time."
The younger Janeway turned around in her chair to look at Harry Kim. "Continue transmitting the message on all frequencies," she said. "Inform me immediately if we receive a reply."
"Aye, Captain," said Harry, looking back to his console diligently.
The Captain turned to the older version of herself who still stood unobtrusively behind the tactical station. "Captain," she queried, "would you like to join me for a cup of coffee?"
The older Janeway allowed a small smile to cross her features. "You know I could never turn down a cup of coffee," she replied with a wicked grin, following her counterpart into the ready room.
"Two cups of coffee, black," the Captain ordered, standing in front of her replicator. The mugs of coffee materialized, and she walked over to the couch, inviting her future self to join her. For a moment, they sat in silence, looking at each other. Simultaneously, they raised their cups to their lips and took a sip, eyeing each other over the rims of their mugs. Steely blue eyes met steely blue eyes, both filled with curiosity, wonder and a touch of suspicion.
After a moment, the older Janeway's features softened. "I'm sorry for dropping in so unexpectedly," she said.
"You couldn't have known you would end up here when you went to investigate that anomaly."
"True. But I'm sure that my presence is disorienting for your crew."
The Captain nodded in acknowledgement of this, but said, "They'll adapt." The older Kathryn averted her eyes and chuckled. "What's so funny?" asked the younger Janeway.
"I can't tell you." She paused, looking at her younger self with a grin. "Let's just say that the word 'adapt' will become a common part of your vocabulary." At the questioning glance she received, she paused again, lost in a thought of her own. "Or maybe it won't. Maybe you'll never encounter her."
"Who?"
She shook her head. "Someone who became a part of my crew. But your ship is already on a different course than the one I took. It's been different ever since..." She trailed off.
"Ever since when? You've figured out at what point our timelines diverged, haven't you?"
The older woman smiled woefully. Had she really been this enthusiastic? So filled with wonder and curiosity at every turn? Have the last three years changed me that much? she wondered. "I guess there's no harm in telling you. In my timeline, Tuvok disobeyed my orders and contacted the Vidiians to find a cure to the virus Chakotay and I contracted on New Earth. Voyager returned for us in less than two months."
Slowly, Kathryn realized the implications of this information as she thought back to the second month of their exile. She and Chakotay had gone no further than holding hands by that point. Had Voyager come back for them then, there was no chance that she ever would have entered into a relationship with him. She slowly looked back at her double. "I guess you've learned that that wasn't quite how things happened for me."
The older Captain nodded. "Harry and B'Elanna told me when we were working in engineering that you were stranded there for almost a year."
Narrowing her eyes at her counterpart, Janeway spoke accusingly, "But you must have already known that our timelines were different in some way, since you were spying on Chakotay and me in his quarters the other night."
The older Janeway lowered her gaze. "I had no intention of spying, and I didn't stay after you and Chakotay..." She trailed off uncomfortably, unsure how to complete her sentence.
Kathryn's younger self let it go. She couldn't imagine how uncomfortable she would be if their positions were reversed. "I probably would have done the same thing in your position," she admitted, trying to ease the other woman's awkwardness.
Taking a sip of her coffee, the older Janeway turned to stare out the window. "Do you really think that you can maintain a relationship within the command structure?"
The Captain's eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't think that my relationship with Chakotay is any of your business."
"Think about it, Captain. What are you going to do the next time you have to order him on a dangerous away mission?"
The younger woman's eyes were steely as she faced her doppelganger. "I'll order him to go on the mission. We both knew the risks when we chose this life."
The older Captain sat back against the sofa, her eyes remaining locked on the woman in front of her. "What is going to happen when you disagree about a command decision? Fighting with your first officer when he's your friend is one thing; fighting with him when he's your lover is something else entirely."
"Chakotay and I may disagree on occasion, but we don't fight," Kathryn retorted.
Janeway snorted softly in response, and her expression darkened. "You will," she said under her breath.
The Captain's eyes widened as she heard the furtive statement, and she bristled with anger as she responded. "I thought we weren't discussing the future. What happened to the Temporal Prime Directive?"
"I'm just trying to help you think this through, Captain. You don't know what you're about to face. I do."
"My timeline is already different from yours," Kathryn argued, infuriated. "You don't know what I'm going to face any more than I do."
The older Janeway gritted her teeth. Was I ever this naive? she thought. "I have a pretty good idea."
"With all due respect, Captain," Kathryn replied in a tight voice, trying to control her temper, "my ship is on a different course from yours. Some of the races and obstacles we'll encounter will undoubtedly be the same as what you've experienced, but your future will not be mine. I am not you, and you have no right to tell me how to live my life."
The older Janeway stood, and her younger self saw something flicker in her eyes and then die. "I'm trying to help you, Captain," she said. "I'm sorry that you can't see that." She turned on her heel and walked out of the ready room, leaving her younger counterpart sitting on the sofa while her coffee grew cold.
...
Arms folded across his chest, Chakotay paced back and forth across the ready room. It had been over two days since Kathryn had gone missing and nearly twenty-four hours since they had lost contact with their probe. So far, B'Elanna, Seven and Harry hadn't been able to figure out a way to be certain that a second probe would find its way to the same exit aperture. They couldn't afford to waste their valuable resources, so Torres, Kim and Seven of Nine continued to search for a solution. Chakotay refused to believe that the Captain was dead. There had been no traces of cellular residue in the shuttle, which would have been detected had she been vaporized. People do not disappear into thin air, he thought. She's out there, somewhere. We just have to find her.
"Seven of Nine to Commander Chakotay," came the former drone's voice over the comm.
"Chakotay here," he replied, tapping his communicator.
"Our probe has been reactivated, Commander. I suggest you report to the bridge."
"On my way." Chakotay hurried out of the ready room and onto the bridge. "Report," he ordered as he took his seat. Kim, Paris and Tuvok were at their stations, and Seven stood at the console behind the command chairs.
"We have been continuously scanning for the probe's ion signature," Tuvok explained. "It has just been detected."
"Are we receiving telemetry from the probe?" Chakotay asked.
"Negative," replied Seven.
"Are we receiving any transmissions?"
"Negative," replied Tuvok.
Chakotay drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair, his mind racing. He had ordered his team to find a way to communicate with the other Voyager. It was possible that the other Voyager had somehow detected them, had made the same attempt and had succeeded. He whirled in his chair, facing Harry. "Ensign Kim, modify the quantum signature of our subspace transceiver. Set it to a rotating frequency."
"Aye, sir," said Kim, pressing controls on his console to make the necessary modifications.
"You believe that if there is another Voyager on the other side of the anomaly, that they may be trying to communicate with us," observed Tuvok.
"I hope so," the Commander replied. "But if our probe has traveled through time as well as space, picking up a subspace transmission might not be that simple."
"Your premise is logical, Commander."
Chakotay didn't reply to Tuvok's comment; he was too engrossed in his own console, trying to pick up any subspace frequency or unusual communication that he could. Finally, Harry spoke excitedly. "I think I've got something, Commander."
"Let's hear it, Ensign."
The transmission was garbled and laced with static; at first it was hard to make out whether the voice was even human, let alone male or female. Gradually, Harry adjusted the signal, and the clarity of the voice grew. It was definitely human, and very familiar. "This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation starship Voyager to any vessel on the other side of the anomaly. We have modified your probe and equipped it with a subspace transceiver in order to communicate with you. Please respond."
"Match the subspace frequency and quantum signature of their transmission," Chakotay ordered.
"Frequency open, Commander," Kim informed him.
"Captain, it's good to hear your voice." He waited as Kim sent the transmission, expecting an immediate reply, but none came. He glanced back at Harry.
"I'm transmitting, Commander, but I'm not receiving any reply." Chakotay stared at the screen in front of him. Come on, Kathryn, he thought. Where are you?