Disclaimer: Star Trek and all its characters belong to Paramount Pictures. Carrie belongs to author Stephen King but the words are mine. The characters of the Four Orders (FO*) are entirely my own.

Requested Story by T-Rex-1000

Part Two:

AU/Multiple Star Trek Shows/Carrie: Having become part of 24th century, Carrie White is enlisted in the clandestine organization Section 31 to help protect the Federation from a looming threat that has the power to change Starfleet's future forever.

Chapter 24

Stardate 46853.5 (08.11.2369)

Carrie had been waiting for her contact for over a month now. The professor had informed her that Lt. Deville would be coming within the month but he was late. She called again to confirm but as she found out even the Professor did not know the reason for the delay. He told her to wait for him as he would come eventually. There could be many reasons why he was not on time.

Carrie was looking forward towards meeting him. Last time she met him they were both on the Enterprise. But there they did not meet per say. They only saw each other briefly. It was then that she had tried to access his mind and found with surprise that she couldn't. It was a very frustrating feeling.

Of course, it got more frustrating when she discovered that reading alien minds is very complicated and messy. She understood that knowing about the species helped in dissecting their thoughts and feelings. That is one of the reasons why she borrowed that book from Mr. Garak. It was the only way to understand the chaos she sensed in his mind.

The irony however was that in Cardassian mysteries the culprit is known from the start and the idea was to unravel who lied about what. She had read before books with mysteries and secrets but she had never seen such an incredible web of webs of lies. That explain a bit the chaos in Garak's mind. The man's lies had layers upon layers. It was like several hundred onions living under the same roof and unravelling everything would probably take her several life times. Still, it was a fascinating read, and she enjoyed it very much.

The sudden commotion next door brought her back to the station. It sounded like people running around in terror and elation. It was a weird contradiction of sounds. She went out to see what is going on. The sight was not pretty. People seemed to be pursued by weird beings.

She stopped one of the Starfleet officers and asked. "What's happening?" His explanation could be taken out of some science fiction magazines she had read as a child. It would appear that people's imagination was running amok. Characters from stories, nightmare and hopeful, cheerful imagination have started to materialize. And as usual command had no clue as to why that is.

The only positive thing was that her imagination was not taking shape otherwise people would be screaming a great deal more. She wondered as to why that is and attributed it to her blocking all mental influences. Although, wish energy is not exactly attuned to mental power but if people believed it so then it was so.

Of course, her mental powers could have been used to locate the source of this disturbance but it was best for her not to lower her defenses as her imagination will turn people's nightmares into pure terror. Still, she can use her perception.

In her corridor, there was nothing that could be responsible for this situation. Thus, Carrie decided to venture more to the Ops section of the station. There she sensed a presence. It was making gigantic attempts to break through her walls but she pushed it away. And then the presence appeared in the form of a baseball player. On the back of the shirt was the name but it did not ring any bells to her as she has always found that baseball is one of the most boring games ever invented alongside golf (and all its variants), pétanque, curling, and other annoying things.

The baseball player seemed a bit timid and out of place but Carrie was certain he was the source of all this trouble aboard. When he noticed Carrie and they crossed their eyes, the uncertainty vanished. Buck Bokai, for that was the name on the back of the baseball shirt, stood surprised. Apparently, Carrie was one of the few unaffected by the current situation.

"Your mental prowess is impressive for a human." Bokai observed but continued to probe her defenses.

"Keep your yahoo away from my mind otherwise you will get burnt." Carrie replied frustrated with the continuous effort to access her mind.

This statement seemed to work as Bokai backed away involuntarily. "No need to become aggressive. We are simply conducting…"

"Conduct it elsewhere. Not all species respond the same way. And sometimes, you can fall on something you would wish you'd never encountered but it would be too late."

"We are simply curious. Just like you."

"Well, if the humans had less restraint in that area, life would have been better. Let's hope your species is evolved enough to know where to draw the line of curiosity."

Her aggressive posture told Bokai everything he needed to know about her. He did not have the same experience with the others. But this one was definitely and infinitely more dangerous. He did sense the power in her and quickly understood that provoking her further is not in his best interest.

And yet he sensed something familiar. It was not her per say. It was perhaps a being she had encountered. Bokai probed just a bit more to confirm his suspicion. And he was right. It was the being the humans called the Pan. His species had a different name for him. But if the Pan had accepted her then she was part of the divine ones and that was a being that his species would never even dream of antagonizing.

"My apologies, divine one!" Bokai said and bowed to the ground. Despite her powerful defenses, he still had managed to sense the Pan. The Pan's power and influence was immense and remained long after first contact. Weird, even, the divine ones can have their minds probed. Still, he attributed that to the fact that the divine one was surprised of his attempt. He pushed his mind probing back. "It will not happen again."

Carrie was a bit surprised of the turn of events. She wondered what the devils possessed this one to call her a divine one but that was currently irrelevant. She intended to use this to her advantage.

"Apology accepted."

Bokai acknowledged with a courteous bow though it was clear he had not expected this development. Apparently, Carrie deduced this was not something the divine ones did often.

"You are interested in the Humans?"

"We followed them through the space hole. We were intrigued by the concept of imagination as we do not have it."

Carrie tended not to be surprised of anything anymore in this crazy century but having no imagination that was a new one. Of course, most species preferred the practical side of life rather the nonsense that humans brought with them, but still being deprived of daydreams and imagination as a whole was not a healthy way of spending your existence.

"I can't pretend to know about your species but having an imagination, at least for the humans, is an essential part of their existence. Imagination drives change and progress. It is a thought that supersedes the restraints, the rules of the existing society. And if you don't imagine something beyond it then a species would remain stuck at their current level of development forever."

Bokai had to admit that the divine one's explanation was somewhat different from that of Commander Sisko. It was expressed in a more direct but practical way. Ironically, it would appear that her species and his were not so different after all. They did not use the same concept for driving change in one's society but it was similar. Humans apparently used it for everything in life not just practical change for the species and it seemed that it fulfilled them in so many other ways.

And that was making them worth knowing, and perhaps in the future, they would make first contact the proper way. For now, he had a lot to share back home. Bokai bowed again to the divine one and thanked her for her candor.

"Safe travels," Carrie wished before Bokai vanished out of sight.

It was an interesting and weird encounter. She pondered over the divine part. The alien called her that after further probing her defenses. And while she held the assault, the alien still reached something important enough to change its behavior. Reached or touched, a thought echoes in her mind. Touch the divine…her thoughts dwelled in the only, at least for humans being that could be considered divine, and one she had been in contact – the Pan.

"Damn," Apparently, that annoyance had affected others with its presence that was now somewhat beneficial for her.

The station gradually came to peace after Command figured out how to end their predicament with the wishing situation. Most people seemed relieved while others still etched for the wonders they had experienced.

There was a lesson for everyone here and none more pertinent that the proverb – 'Be careful what you are wishing for'. It is something Carrie noticed the good doctor Bashir took very much at heart. She learnt he had wished for a more romantically oriented towards him Jadzia Dax and while he did get her, he did not want her as she was not real.

'Real is overrated.' Carrie thought while having dinner at the Klingon restaurant. She had a fresh bow of gagh drenched in targ blood. Ironically, as she came to think of it, her imagination would have sprung Bashir and Garak in some weird competition for her heart. 'A girl is allowed to dream!'.

She finished her dinner and went for a walk on the Promenade. She peeked at Quark's. It was the usual hustle but that did not tempt her to enter. She needed peace and quiet, and walking provided just that. Speaking of Quark, he had made several advances but she had politely ignored him. That did not seem to deter him even in the slightest. Apparently, all Ferengi had the same success with the more independent thinking females.

She had often pondered how their civilization came to be so successful without females at the helm. She suspected that despite their cultural barbarism females had quite the finger in their success. Their males were so easily manipulated.

Night approaching, Carrie returned to her quarters. It was an exhausting but interesting day. She still had some of that Cardassian book to finish. By the end of it, it was really getting interesting to see how all the webs of lies converged around the truth of the original culprit's guilt, secrets and double crossing moves that had led to his arrest, and of course, the deductions of the prosecutor.

Cardassian judicial system was also a fascinating read for her as the trial starts with the fact that you are already guilty, and the prosecutor's job is to determine the webs of lies, secrets and motives that had led to your rightful arrest and the sentencing you were about to receive. It was completely opposite of the human system where you are innocent until proven guilty. The main difference between them being that the Cardassian system was rarely wrong while the human is most of the time wrong. There was a lesson here to be learnt too.

She enjoyed the time when Garak opposed one of Bashir's theories on lies. It came from the story where a boy had cried wolf twice in a row leading to the statement that a lie is always exposed by the truth while Garak suggested that the boy shouldn't have told the same lie twice, which made much more logic.

The next morning, Carrie woke up suddenly with the feeling of being watched. Through her eyelids, she noticed the absence of light in her quarters, which was normal as it was early in the morning. But there was also a silhouette at the foot of her bed sitting on one of the armchairs.

"Good morning, Agent White,"

Carrie recognized immediately the melodic voice. It was of the person she had been waiting on for the past 3 months.

"We have much to discuss."

To be continued…

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Lordheaven