Marty arrived in Ten Forward with Geordi and Mike right behind him. Tamsin returned, too, after not having found anywhere better to go. "Family dinner, I guess," Dana commented as the five of them sat down together. She noticed and was grateful for Geordi interposing himself between Marty and Tamsin. Dana sat on the other side of Marty with Mike next to her around the small round table.
They mainly ate in silence. Dana finished her stew first, and grabbed her tablet, again jogging it out of sleep mode. The image on the screen had been that of a boy of maybe ten years of age with a bicycle. "Hey," Mike commented, upon seeing the photograph, "I've got that same picture on my PADD."
"What?" asked Marty. He took out his own PADD. "Dana and I just have old family pictures on ours."
Mike retrieved his PADD. "So do I."
"I do, too," Geordi added, taking out his PADD. "Tamsin?"
"Me, too." She got out her PADD.
"Which ones are in common?" asked Dana. "I know Commander Madden and I both have the same because we grew up together, but what about the three of you? Does everyone have the kid with his bike?" They all murmured their assents.
"I've got a redheaded girl holding up, I think it's her doctorate," Tamsin said.
"That's Leonora Digiorno," Marty said. "We should all have her – she wrote the book. What about these folks?"
It was a family of four. The father was Caucasian while the mother was of Asian descent. The daughter seemed to be the elder child. "I got them," Geordi said, asking, "What about the Bat Mitzvah photo?" It was an image of a girl wearing a tallis, standing with what were apparently her parents and younger sister, and a small three-person family who were probably guests. The wife and son in the guest family were exceptionally pale, both with crystal blue eyes.
"That's Lili," Marty said. "Did anyone else look at the appendix to the book? A lot of these pictures are in there, and so is the family tree. That's Alia Shapiro's Bat Mitzvah. Her younger sister, Rebecca, ends up growing up to marry the son in this family of guests. He's Declan Reed, and that's Malcolm Reed."
"I'll have to look more closely," Mike said. "What about these folks? Is this Lili again?"
It was a picture of a youngish very pale woman, holding a newborn child, in front of a restaurant called Reversal, with a man who was probably her husband. "Yes, that's Lili again," Marty explained, "and she's holding her first born, who is your ancestor, Tamsin – that's Joss Beckett. The husband is, well, that guy's the reason we're all here. That's Douglas Jay Hayes Beckett."
"So that's Daddy Doug," Dana commented. "You look a lot like him."
"I guess I do, a bit," Marty allowed. "Hang on; I'll find our branch." He scrolled through the images until he found the one he wanted. "There. That's Doug with Melissa Madden. The older kid is Tommy; the baby is our ancestor, Neil Digiorno-Madden." He paused and looked at the photograph more closely. "You look a lot like Melissa, Dana."
"Huh, I suppose I do."
After they'd finished eating, Guinan came over. "If the rest of you don't mind, I'd like to talk to Commander Madden and Lieutenant Commander MacKenzie here."
Ten Forward was already cleared of the other diners. The rest of the family departed. Once the door had shut, they sat down together. "Well?" asked Marty.
"I know something about it," Guinan claimed.
"About the temporal dislocation?" Dana asked.
"That, yes," confirmed the El-Aurian, "but also about the two of you."
=/\=
Yi'imspi was as gracious as she could be. "I, well, my place is here, in the 21 centimeter radiation band universe. I've got plenty to do here, you see."
"There's no reason why we can't be more … friendly."
"You're just bored. Seriously, I'm an engineer, and we're just not very exciting."
"Don't sell yourself short. You are very exciting," Charlie insisted. "Would you like to see – or, better yet, feel – just how exciting you are to me?" He leered at her.
"Listen to me," the Calafan countered sharply, "I've got no time for this. I'm only in this in order to restore you to power. It's good for you, and a side effect is that it's good for the Federation on my side of the pond. And of course I get my cut. But that's where I draw the line. You get restored, and I'm done. Do you understand? Go back to Porter. She's clearly interested, and can – she's right, you know – she can easily give you an heir. So quit bothering me with this."
"You seem to forget who you're talking to."
"You seem to forget that you live in a hut these days. I'm outta here." She disappeared as he watched, and swore under his breath.
=/\=
"What is it that you know?" Dana asked skeptically.
"See, it's an El-Aurian sense," she explained. "The timeline may be out of kilter, but I just, I know that you're both unhappy in the prime timeline, too."
"Why would we be?" Marty asked. "Is it because Dana here is supposed to be a sports coach?"
"Partly. But you, in particular, I know all about you. I can only guess about Dana here. But it's that you're lonely, Commander."
"I –"
"And I know exactly why. See, I know you're in love with her." Guinan gestured in Dana's direction. "But the law is clear – albeit unjust – and you can't have her. I'm guessing you feel the same way, Dana."
"I don't just feel that in the prime timeline," Dana admitted.
"I didn't wanna say it in front of the others," Guinan explained. "I know it could hurt your careers. But you're both miserable, and it's for no good reason."
"But what are we supposed to do?" asked Dana.
"Fight the law. It was a lousy and kinda shady political compromise. It doesn't really help the people it was supposed to be helping in the first place. You know, the Daranaeans who were interbreeding at younger and younger ages? Yeah, it was supposed to disallow certain forms of child brides. But instead, that law makes it so the hammer comes down particularly hard and unfairly on people just like the two of you."
"I imagine fighting the law would have the potential of killing off both our careers," Marty opined.
"Not necessarily. But you forget that she's a sports coach in the prime timeline. She works for herself or, at least, I think you do, Dana. So unless you wanna fire yourself, then I'd say you wouldn't have so much to lose."
"Am I gonna remember this conversation once the regular timeline is restored?" asked Dana. "Because this is all well and good, but if I forget to do it, this talk is, with all due respect, kinda useless."
"I don't think you'll remember," Guinan speculated. "But I will."
=/\=
In her dream, Yi'imspi, like all Calafans, had good control. She could destabilize one connection and then readily synchronize with another one. Leaving Charlie far behind, she found herself tossed back into the regular pool of dreamers in the shared consciousness. It was millions of Calafans, all streaming together in a loosely-organized crowd. It was both the silver ones from the prime universe – just like her – and the copper-colored ones from the Mirror. Men and a few women leered at her, but she remained noncommittal until she heard a British-accented voice amidst the din. She was instantly connected, a benefit of being a full-blooded Calafan. "Can I help you?" she asked the human woman she found, who was transmitting a dream from the Mirror.
"I, er, I don't think so," replied the woman, Carmen. "I've got someone I'm meeting. I'm afraid that someone isn't you."
"Maybe I know them."
There was something about the Calafan's overly friendly manner and insistence that roused Carmen's suspicions. Pretty much all Calafans were friendly, and particularly to humans, but this seemed like far too much for someone she had only just met. "Can you tell me your name?" Carmen asked, hoping that the deflection would buy her some time. Being human, Carmen did not have the kind of psionic dream state control that Yi'imspi or anyone like her had. Carmen was only connected because of the enormous amount of callidium in the area. Callidium the a natural alloy that amplified dreams and was present, in a measurably amount, in every Calafan's body.
"Sure. I'm Yi'imspi. My name means student of speech or student of communications."
"My name is Carmen, and I haven't got a bloody clue as to what that means."
"What are you doing in the Mirror?"
"I live here," Carmen lied.
"No, you don't,"Yi'imspi replied confidently. "Your radiation band is all wrong. Tell me, Carmen, what the hell you're doing in the wrong universe."
"Why the devil should I tell you anything?"
Yi'imspi had good enough control of the shared dream state that she could change virtually anything about it. So she conjured up a phaser out of thin air. She pointed the weapon at Carmen. "I have my ideas as to what you're doing there, but I'd rather hear it all straight from you. So spill it, Carmen, and tell me what I want to know."
=/\=
"Guinan," Dana asked, "since you can see the differences between this new timeline and the correct one, can you see other things?"
"What kinds of other things?"
"A bit of the future. But," Dana assured the El-Aurian, "I'm not talking about much. I just, I wanna know; if we fight the second cousin incest law, if we'll succeed."
"Dana, that part hasn't happened yet. So I have no idea. But I've got a feeling, all right? Look at yourselves. You're the most unhappily successful people I have ever seen! This is," she gestured a bit vaguely, "your careers on the Enterprise-E are good. I'm sure they are. But you are missing the biggest, most important piece of your own personal puzzles."
Marty glanced down at his PADD, and noticed it was late. "We've kept you too long. I appreciate this; I do! But I think everyone's just tired."
"Commander?" asked Guinan.
"Yes?"
"I don't know exactly what you're working on right now, although I bet it's why we're here in the old Delphic Expanse. But no matter what it is, I bet if you can deliver on it then, law or no law, you can write this ticket yourself."
"I don't know," he said, getting up. Dana got up, too, and put a hand on his arm. He turned and smiled at her a little.
"Don't worry," Guinan said, "I'll be sure to remember to tell you this, too."