Chapter12: Burning Fate

The way time travel affected mewasn't all that great.

The way Spock explained it was,"Your body has gone forward and back through time. You progressed and digressedwithin a short period of time. If humans were meant for time travel that theKinatchi constantly achieve, then it's likely we would have destroyed ourselveslong ago."

This meant I had to stay confined inSickbay while McCoy tried to figure out someway to let me out of his sight formore then ten minutes.

Oh the joy of sitting in the placewhere Pavel had died, while millions of memories threw themselves against thebarriers of my mind like a tidal wave. The kind of tidal wave that destroys halfthe planet.

I stared at the ceiling, conversingsilently with Mic and Elvira, contemplating what action we should take. Ipressed my palms against my eyes. McCoy looked at me, worried I was havinganother attack.

"Just a headache." I told himmiserably.

I can feel it too. That's morethan a headache. More like a migraine.Elvira said. Since when was she adoctor?

"You want something for it?" Heasked. The person he was currently patching up was actually Becky. The idiotfell and broke her arm. Scotty had insisted on carrying her down, just in caseshe would try for a big detour. A.K.A. not go at all.

"Yeah sure. Can't you give me asedative? I want to sleep for a while." I said truthfully. Sleeping was the onlyway I could really see Pavel again. I missed him so much. Now I always eatbefore I sleep, hoping he'll appear in my dreams that night.

You'll see him again.

When?I asked, knowing shecouldn't answer.

"I can give you one but it's kind ofrisky. Don't know how it'll react, or if it'll send you into one of thoseseizures."

I gave him the same puppy dog eyesChekov always gave me when he wanted me to do something insane.

"Fine. But someone will have towatch and make sure nothing happens."

"I will." Becky said. Raising hergood arm above her head like a little kid who wanted to volunteer for agame.

We shall sit watch to. We willcatch you if you fall through the void.Mic said, projecting the thoughtaround the room, similar to what betazoids do with emotions.

McCoy gave me the shot and I was outlike a birthday candle.

'I miss you.' I whispered to were on the Bridge, all alone, the entire crew just gone.

'I know.' He gave me a lopsidedgrin. 'The only thing I want in heawen I can't have. You're the only missingangel.'

I laughed at his intentionally badpick up lines, thinking, Back in the old days; me and Becky would've laughed inhis face so hard our faces would've turned purple, would've told him that we hadsomething to do every night he asked, would've refused to go on so much as adate with him. And we would be completely happy with that. I wasn't so sure anymore, what I wanted.

'You're wery quiet.' He told me,worry clear in his voice. 'Normally you have wery much to tell me.' He pushedhair away from my face, and made me look him right in the eyes.

'I can't do this forever you know.'I told him softly.

'Vhat vould zhat be?'

My lip trembled, tears threateningto fall in a frenzied storm of grief. ' I'm dreaming. I know I am. And everytime I wake up, I think for a second that were still alive. Then I remember…Iremember that you're not just on a recon mission. You're not just up on theBridge waiting for me. You're not in you're room reading a book. You're you're not coming back. No matter how much those Kinatchi think they can fixit.'

'You're wrong. I vill come back. AndI will see you again.' He said firmly.

We were silent for a long minuet andthen I asked, "Can you tell me any good Russian bed time stories?'

He grinned. 'Of course. So therevere these odd creatures zhat looked like grape jelly and…

I woke up some time latethe next day, and wasn't surprised to see Elvira looking at me with questioningeyes.

That was him wasn'tit?

I hesitated for a meremoment.Yes. He was. Iemphasized the 'was.'

She said nothing. Were as heremotions were normally unperceivable behind a brick wall in her mind, now Icould clearly feel the sorrow she felt for me.

I know what we need to fix.Mic stated, a small kitten like creature with webbed feet and sleek whitefeathers.

I glanced at her.

What do we need todo?

She gave us the plan, a complex ideathat probably took days to think up.

When no one was looking I sneakedout of Sickbay. I ran to my room, changing from the sickbay gown into somethingmore bad ass. Okay, so maybe our Starfleet uniforms weren't really bad ass but Idon't exactly have any black leather. I strapped a phaser on my belt; along withsomethrowing knives I borrowed (took)from Becky's room.

Are you ready to fix this?Elvira asked, now a doe.

Never. But lets do this. I replied, just longing to see Pavel again andtell him I was sorry. Don't even know why I was sorry, but I was.

The room seemed to spin and then there we were. In a giant building inthe big city of Shikahr once more, a place that we visited not so long ago butfelt like forever.

Not to far away I saw the likes of T'Shan,along with Becky's father and little Becky, only about ten at thetime.

Do they know we're here?I asked.

They see us, yes. Elviraturned into a much less noticeable bird and flew up to the rafters.

Whatis it we need to do?I asked.

We are going to go back to Burning Fate's base and kill their are not coming with us though. You are going to stay here and find anopportune chance to kill T'Shan.Mic also changed into a bird.

When will you return?

We won't. Once the time line isfixed things will go back to normal.

Howmuch time can you give me? I hopedI could just kill her and get it over with so I could return to myloverboy*.

I walked toward them trying to look incredibly important. When I reachedthem I said in a steely voice, "Ambassador Korff, would you mind letting meborrow T'Shan for a moment?"

"Sure, go ahead."

T'Shan didn't know me so she held the façade of being a normalVulcan.

"Are you in Starfleet?" Becky asked, tugging on the hem of myuniform.

I smiled at her withoutthinking.

"Yes."

"I want to be in Starfleet one day" She said happily.

"What are you going to be?" I asked her, still aware that T'Shan stoodoff to the side.

"I'm not sure. I like science class but I already know all thatstuff."

"Why don't you do engineering then? That's still has lots of science butthen you get to fix things."

Her eyes lit up with anticipation. "Wow I never thought of that!Thanks!"

"No problem. I'll see you in space then?" I grinned. I would mostdefinitely.

"You bet!" She beamed.

"You wished to speak?"T'Shan said blankly, once I had steered her into a noise- proofroom.

"Yes." And with that Ipulled out my phaser and fired. It missed by a foot as she scrambledaway.

She then zigzaggedacross the room toward me. I fired out of anger and grief each time, and Imissed every time.

T'Shan unsheathed thatsame dagger from a hiding spot in her boot and tried desperately to fend off myattack. She cut a jagged line across my face, and in return I did the same. Darkgreen blood trickled from the wound. She hissed and threw me to the ground withimmense strength, enough force to make my ribs crack and scream inprotest.

I rolled away when shetried to throw random objects at me. This is almost comical.I mused, thinkingof old cartoons featuring a dueling cat and mouse. It wasn't even close tohumorous when she managed to knock me down with some weird item I can't evenrecognize.

She grabbed me by theneck and held me up easily and snarled, "Any last words you murderessscum?"

"Yeah." I gasped,reaching for my belt. "I'll see you in hell." I stabbed her two centimeterslower then that would have killed a Vulcan. That was the only difference betweenthe Vulcan's and Romulans; their hearts were two centimeters lower then aVulcan's. If I hadn't known that she probably would have survived.

She made no sound asshe fell to floor, bleeding to death. With her last breath she whispered, "Ishall meet my burning fate…" She died right were she had fallen.

Then I felt an oddpulling sensation. What? I thought that they were going to kill—

I was back on theship. I was standing in auxiliary control next to Kirk and Becky.

I noticed bleaklybefore collapsing that Becky was wearing red.

"Jenny?" Becky criedout. I gasped for air, the way I had fallen made my ribs catch on fire, likesomeone was stabbing me with a with a white hot chunk of metal and pressing itthere.

I was welcomed withcomplete darkness as I passed out.

'What happened?' I asked Elvira inmy dreams. I'm not sure if that was really her.

'It's me.'

Micala was there as well, the samewolf she was when we had found her.

'T'Shan. She was the leader. Whenyou killed her things changed dramatically where we were.' She shook her furryhead.

'Itwas chaos. We managed to destroy the entire force of Burning Fate, to make surethis wouldn't reform. It was… quite a task.' Elvira said.

'But wait. Becky wasn't a scienceofficer.'

Mic chuckled, an odd sound comingfrom a wolf. It sounded like a smoker hacking up a lung.

'Only by your own doing. You talkedher into it about 8 years ago'.

'Is Pavel…?'

Elvira smiled at me happily. 'I hopeyou invite me to the wedding if you have one.'

I laughed, almost jumping for joy,something impossible in my floating space dreams.

'He's waiting for you to wake up, soget on with it.'

"Pavel!" I screamed. I hugged him fiercely, tears streaming down myface.

He didn't know how to react other then hugging me back.

"Vhy do you seem so… distressed?"I still hadn't let him go. Peoplewere beginning to gather around us.

"I thought I would never see you again! I am so sorry… sosorry."

"I vas never gone. And vhy are you sorry?"

I stared into his eyes. "Because I never told you I lovedyou."

His eyes sparkled. "I love you too." He said. I wasn't an empathy butanyone could have been able to feel the love that emanated from us. For a longmoment we just stared into the others' eyes, waiting for the someone to make amove.

"Just kiss already!" McCoy barked.

I could hear Becky laughing uncontrollably as he kissed me, wonderingwhat she would say if we had kids. She'd probably die of extreme laughter anddisbelief.

I guess word somehow got to my mother that I was getting married. I'mguessing that either Pavel's parents called her or Pavel himselfdid.

Either way she berated me for not telling her in person, not waiting tilI was older to get married. I had to remind her that in Starfleet I could dietomorrow. We weren't going to wait if that was almost entirely to likely. Shealso yelled at me because I never introduced her to Pavel. So Idid.

She couldn't stand him.

Don't know why but she flat out wouldn't talk to him after he said, "Izee you do not get your looks from your mozher."

I thought it was funny but hey that's just me.

Anyway it probably wasn't the best idea to go dress shopping with Beckyof all people.

"Ihatedresses." She moaned. "With apassion."

"Then I guess your shit out of luck when you get married." I said,scrolling through the list of dresses the computer could create.

She snorted. "I amnever evergetting married."

"Whatever. You need to pick out your dress to though. You're gonna be aBride's maid."

"But I'm doing the music!" She whined.

"You can do both. You'll just stand next to me and playcello."

Have you ever played cello with a dress on? No? Well it's really annoying."

"Then pick out a mermaid dress. That should help."

She argued that she didn't want to be a mermaid. Dammit man, she's anengineer not a fish!

I laughed at her and her major attitude toward this entirething.

"Oooh I like this one." I toldher. I made the image larger so she could see it.

"It's okay but I wouldn't be caught dead in it."

The replicator whirred into action and created the pretty dress in aninstant.

"Ya think he'll like it?" I asked Becky after I put it on. It was whitewith a simple yet intricate design that flowed softly around the seams and atrain that followed behind me.

She was busy looking at the PADD with information about the dress on didn't even look up.

"Most defiantly." Becky finally glanced at me. "It was designed by aRussian."

I laughed hysterically. "All right. Your turn smart ass."

Becky grimaced, seeming terrified by the prospect.

"And remember, what you pick is what Johnna, Shyana, and Uhura have towear as well so nothing ugly. Or some outrageous color." Shyana was a friend Imet in the fixed reality. Since Becky wasn't a science officer, Shyana had takenher place. I had gotten to know her very well. I had many new memories of thecorrected world that I had yet to think about.

"Awwww. What about red?"

I thought for a moment. "I guess so, but if one of you dies I blameyou.

She ended up picking out a simple red mermaid style, which she deemedwould be less annoying when she played her cello.

"Put it on."

"Come on. Seriously?" She whined again.

"Nope, just kidding. Make sure you get everyone else's stuff too and makesure Pavel doesn't see any of it."

"Nothing?"

"Not even a speck of confetti." I told her seriously. I had the entirewedding to plan, and only Becky and her mom were helping me with it. Becky's momwas one of those people who wants to help everyone with everything. Even iftheir in space about three light years away.

"I gotta fly; my shift starts soon." When I left her in her room, she wasstill muttering about what a stupid concept marriage was.

On the bridge was of course my loverboy. I was a minute or two early sowe talked for a while.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

I shrugged. "My ribs are still kinda sore but I'll live. Andyou?"

"Just vondering if ve have a planned date for zhe vedding."

"Tomorrow."

He blinked at me. "Okay. I have much to do then." He started going overthings in his head. "Many t'ings to do." He said. He poked Sulu. "You're my bestman, okay?"

Sulu stared. "Me?" He squeaked, something he had never donebefore.

I laughed to myself.

"All right Pavel. You better get ready. See you at the alter." I kissedhim goodbye, grinning when Kirk sighed behind me.

Now he can add me to the list of girls on the ship he's never dated! Betme and Becky are ones on it.

I hummed at my station, content with my lot in life.I'm gettingmarriedI sung in my head gleefully.

McCoy stepped on the Bridge and stood next to Kirk. "You ready for this,Jim? It's been a while since you've married two people and I doubt they'dforgive you if you messed up."

"Never, ever, Captain." I said cheerfully.

"Anyway, I need to borrow your Navigator."

"What for?" I asked, already switching power from my consol over toSulu.

"Physical."

I grimaced. "Again?"

"Just to make sure your healing right."

" 'Kay let's go."

I was surprised that there were no problems, no sign that I ever had orwill have any more of those weird seizures. I was glad, but truthfully I wouldreally miss Elvira and Mic. They couldn't stay for long.

We are like the Guardian of Forever. There is no way we can stay. Wehave much work to do to keep our planet safe, never mind yours.Mic hadexplained the day before.

Butthen why did you help us?I had asked her.

Burning Fate was on a collision course with our planet long beforeyours. You only came along for the ride.