By Alex Voy
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer:
Paramount owns the characters, Voyager and the images. No infringement of copyright is intended. I make no profit from them, just enjoy writing about them.
Chapter 2
They spent the morning trying to find the moment when Janeway and Paris had transported to the planet. It was not easy. They had narrowed the probable time span down to less than ten minutes, but trying to pinpoint a nanosecond or less in the computer records was proving very difficult. Kim wrote several programmes to help narrow the search, but by lunch time, they seemed to have made little progress. After sandwiches and coffee from the replicator, Janeway suggested Paris should go to engineering to see how B'Elanna Torres was getting on with their combadges. Janeway herself remained in the briefing room to assist Harry Kim.
Torres was still working on one of the badges when Paris arrived in engineering.
"Can you tell what's wrong with it?" he asked, leaning over her shoulder to watch as she manipulated the magnified circuit tester on a computer view screen.
"Oh, yes. I can tell exactly what's wrong: it has reversed polarity circuitry. It could never be made to work on board this ship."
"That sounds like an endorsement of Harry's theory."
"It is. There is one more test I would like to try on it though. If we put the badge within the warp drive containment field, we might just get the components to function even though the badge itself won't work as a communicator."
"What would that achieve?" Paris was puzzled.
"Nothing," Torres admitted with a smile, "but it would prove I can do it. Do you want to help?"
Paris wondered why he had allowed himself to be persuaded as he climbed into a protective suit and walked clumsily into the containment field, carrying his useless combadge. He placed it on the floor and retired behind the safety barrier while Torres released the warp core conduit valves, flooding the containment area with gammatron particles. Paris retrieved the badge when Torres shut down the valves. He was struggling to extract his left arm from the protective suit, when he felt a hand slide along his ribs and a lithe female body pressed against his back. Surprised, he turned and almost fell back over the chair behind him.
"Seska!" Horrified, Paris struggled to remove her hands from inside the suit, but she only pressed harder against him, nuzzling his neck with her lips.
"Don't fight it, Paris. You know you like it really." She began to peel the suit down his body and he freed his arm at last and grabbed her wrists, pushing her violently away.
Seska stepped back, puzzled. "What's wrong? Anyone would think you don't like me."
"I'm sorry." Paris made a visible effort to control his emotion. "You surprised me, that's all."
Seska smiled and pouted her lips.
"Are you telling me we don't have a ... personal relationship in your universe?"
"No, we certainly don't." Paris realised how hostile he must sound and tried to soften the denial with a strained smile.
Seska stared at him in silence, then turned to leave the room.
"Maybe we can do something about that while you're here." She spoke over her shoulder as she went out through the door and Paris sat hurriedly on the bench, aware that he was suddenly claustrophobic in the small suiting up room. He hurriedly removed the suit and returned to B'Elanna Torres in the main engineering section.
"Are you OK?" B'Elanna looked at him with concern. "Maybe you should report to sickbay. If you've been exposed to gammatron particles ..."
"No, I'm fine; really, no exposure. Well not to gammatron particles anyway." He leaned over the bench to look at his badge. "Did you have any success with it?"
"I think some of the circuitry might be functional now, but I'm afraid it will never be compatible with our systems." She handed the badge to him and Paris hesitated.
"B'Elanna, tell me about Seska."
"Seska?" Torres laughed. "What about her? Has she been bothering you?"
The expression on Paris's face was answer enough.
"I see that she has. You don't want to take too much notice of that. She's been saying all morning that she was going to compare you with 'her' Paris. She was just amusing herself at your expense."
Paris returned to the briefing room to find Janeway alone, going through the previous five weeks of the ship's log.
"Ensign Kim has gone to his console on the bridge to try out a new idea to find the moment of impact for the two universes." Janeway indicated the computer viewscreen she was studying. "This is quite fascinating. Until thirty seven days ago, as far as I can remember, everything was happening here exactly as it did on our own ship. And then, suddenly the log records incidents and decisions that never happened on our Voyager. Strange to think that none of the terrible things that happened to us have occurred here."
"Well, maybe that's about to change, Captain."
"What do you mean?" Janeway looked up at him sharply.
"I met an old friend in engineering." Paris sat in the chair next to Janeway. "Seska."
"That's not really surprising. She is an engineering officer and she has done nothing here in the past five weeks that she did on board our Voyager."
"Maybe not, but don't you think we should warn these people about her?"
"I'm not sure we should interfere in what happens on this ship, Tom."
"Captain, she's a Cardassian agent and if she hasn't yet betrayed this ship to the Kazon, its only because she hasn't had the opportunity. I think we should warn the captain of this ship about what happened on board our own Voyager."
Janeway stood up and looked thoughtfully at Paris. "We can't do that."
"I don't understand."
"Have you forgotten the Prime Directive, Tom?"
"But that can't apply here. It directs us not to interfere with alien cultures. These people aren't aliens, they are as human as we are."
"They are from another universe; you can't get much more alien than that."
"But, Captain ... "
"No, listen to me Tom. If we warn the captain of this ship about the future and she acts on our warning, we will be the cause of changing that future. We will have interfered in the destiny of this ship in a way that directly contravenes the Prime Directive."
"If we don't and I'm right about Seska, she might succeed on this ship. She could give Federation technology to the Kazon, and the Captain too. You know she's been working to get rid of you so she can manipulate Chakotay to get us back to the Alpha Quadrant more quickly by Maquis methods. You're the Kazon's greatest enemy, Captain. Seska knows her best chance of getting rid of you is by using them to do her dirty work. If this Captain Janeway dies, then almost certainly so do you. You're her mirror image and one can hardly survive without the other."
"I'm aware of that. It doesn't alter the fact that we must not interfere."
"You're willing to stake your life, and hers on the Prime Directive?"
"I have to." Janeway stood directly in front of Paris and turned her most commanding gaze on him. "And I need your assurance that you will not contravene the Prime Directive and warn Captain Janeway of what happened on our ship."
"Captain ....."
"I'm giving you a direct order, Lieutenant. Do I have your assurance?"
"You have it, Captain." Paris turned away, still convinced Janeway was wrong, but unable to produce an argument strong enough to alter her decision.
That evening, Voyager's Janeway invited her two guests to join her, together with her senior officers for dinner. Paris sat between Kes and B'Elanna Torres and watched the two Janeways comparing memories and experiences like old school friends. Fascinated by the interaction between them, it was a while before he noticed the decidedly unfriendly expression on the face of his own mirror image who sat directly across the table from him. He thought perhaps Seska was the cause of that hostile look and wondered what she could have said to evoke such a reaction in the other Paris.
Later, in Janeway's quarters, Paris sat drinking mineral water while she paced up and down the room, questioning his reactions to the evening's conversation.
"I must admit I found it fascinating to listen to you and the other Captain Janeway reminiscing about old times." Paris wondered why she seemed so agitated after what he assumed had been a very successful evening for her.
"Reminiscing? It was more like a fencing duel, probing each other's defences, searching for the least sign of weakness." Janeway suddenly stopped pacing and stood with her back towards him, arms tightly folded. "She's going to put me into cryostasis."
"She told you that?" Paris was shocked at the idea.
"No, she didn't tell me. But I know that's what she will do if we are unable to get back to our own universe."
"Captain, you can't know that."
"She has no choice, Tom." Janeway turned to face him. "I know she will do it, because it is what I would do in her position."
"I don't believe that."
"Think about it. Oh, don't worry; there will always be a place for you here, just as there was on board our own ship. But have you ever heard of a ship with two Captains?"
Paris saw the dilemma with terrible clarity.
"There has to be another way of dealing with this situation."
Janeway shook her head.
"She can't afford to take the risk. My only hope is somehow to get back to our own ship." She sat beside him, staring into a dark and fearful future. "I'm not sure how I could deal with waking up alone more than seventy years from now: everyone I'd ever known long dead, everything changed." She gave an unsteady laugh, "Besides, who would want to employ a starship captain who was seventy years out of date?"
"It won't come to that." Paris put his hand on Janeway's forearm. "Besides, not everyone you know would be dead. I don't think I would fit in too well with this crew: I guess stasis would probably be my best option. You would wake up to find at least one familiar face still around."
"You're forgetting your own theory, Tom. If everyone we know on this ship was dead, there would be no waking up. We would die with our mirror images."
"I didn't forget. I believe their captain will find a way home to Earth long before seventy years."
Janeway looked away, moved by his declaration of faith and loyalty.
"I couldn't ask that of you." She stood up and began pacing again. "We just have to find a way back to our own ship."
"I think you've been avoiding me, Lieutenant."
Paris stopped instantly and tried to disengage his arm.
"Maybe if you didn't sneak up on me from behind, I wouldn't have to." He gave up the losing struggle to free his arm and continued walking towards the mess hall. It was an effort to hide the revulsion he felt toward Seska and he was not sure how successful he was being.
"Tell me what happened between us on your ship." She suddenly stopped walking and Paris felt the casual grip on his arm charged with steel.
"Seska, I don't want to argue with you. Please let go of my arm."
"Why?" Her voice was still low and husky, with a teasing quality. "Don't you like it?" She began to caress his neck and Paris jerked away as though she had stung him. Seska narrowed her eyes. "You're afraid of me. Now why would that be, I wonder? I suppose I should be offended, but I'm not. In fact," she pressed close against him, "I find it quite alluring."
Paris leaned away from her and took both of her wrists in his hands.
"Just leave me alone, Seska. I don't want any trouble on this ship." He felt a hand on his shoulder and he was spun round to face the angry features of his double.
"You'll have more trouble than you can handle friend, if you lay a finger on Seska again."
"Look, you don't understand ..."
"I understand more than you think. Just stay away from her, do you understand?"
"Alright, alright." Paris put up his hands in a conciliatory gesture and turned away from the mess hall doorway. Suddenly, coffee with Janeway and Kim was all the breakfast he wanted.
Paris arrived in the briefing room to find Janeway alone but a lot more optimistic than she had been the previous evening.
"Harry's gone to the central processor. He thinks he may have found something significant in the transporter log." She pointed to some figures on the view screen. "He was unable to pinpoint the moment of collision from the main computer log, but he did find an unidentified power surge in the transporter log within the time frame we've been searching. It may just be a malfunction, but he's trying to track it down."
"You think the transporter could have recorded the collision while the main computer missed it?" Paris was doubtful.
"Harry believes it is possible. He thinks that the bio neural circuits might not have been affected, in the same way that the humans on board the ship noticed nothing at the time. Our presence here though, is proof that transporters are susceptible to the collisions."
Harry Kim returned to the briefing room a few minutes later with a broad grin on his face.
"I think I've found it, Captain." He turned the view screen and entered some data. "I've never seen anything like it before." He pointed to a line on the graph simulation. "This is the transporter system power measurement. You can see how it rises and falls according to the rate of use and the computer's estimation of its needs. And then, suddenly, it stops. Just briefly, for a fraction of a nanosecond there is nothing and then the line resumes again from where it was before."
"And you think that is the moment we transported down to the planet?" Janeway studied the screen intently.
Kim smiled broadly. "I think we can easily prove the theory. If you have found the point in the ship's log where events on your Voyager and ours began to diverge, all I have to do is search the transporter log at that time for another power break."
"I've got to within an hour of the divergence in the ship's log, but I will need some help with the computer log to get any closer." Janeway smiled at Kim. "Good job, Harry."
They spent the rest of the morning working on the computer log and by early afternoon, Harry Kim had returned to the central processor with new data to test his theory. Once they were alone, Paris decided to broach the subject that had been uppermost in his mind all day.
"I had another brush with Seska this morning."
Janeway looked up at him sharply.
"I want you to stay away from Seska while we're on this ship."
"Believe me, Captain, I want to keep as far away from her as I can. It's not easy on a ship this size. She seems determined to make trouble just as she did on our ship."
"But the difference is that she seems to get on very well with your mirror image. There was no animosity between Paris and Seska on this ship until you arrived." Janeway looked at him sternly. "You must not be the cause of any change on this ship. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, Captain." Paris realised it was useless to argue with her. He would have to be more careful where Seska was concerned. He just had to hope that Kim would find a way for them to return to their own ship before she caused any more trouble
.
Kim worked with the central processor for the rest of the day and Janeway and Paris finally left the briefing room to eat dinner in the mess hall. Despite Neelix' best efforts at persuasion, Janeway only picked at her food before retiring early to her quarters after checking that Kim still had no results from his efforts. Paris remained in the mess hall for a while, drinking coffee until he saw Seska enter the room with Torres. Seska's eyes bored into him as he quickly left the mess hall with a polite smile and nod to Torres.
Paris returned to his quarters and was in the shower when the computer signalled someone at his door. Thinking Janeway must have some news from Kim, he called out to open the door and turned off the shower.
"I'm in the shower, Captain, I won't be a moment." He had his face in the towel when he felt a body pressed against his back and a pair of hands began to explore his chest.
"I don't expect your captain would do this, Paris." Seska's voice whispered huskily into his ear and Paris wrenched himself violently from her, wrapping the towel around his body as he backed away.
"You don't need to worry, my Paris is on watch on the bridge right now. Your captain is asleep and we have the whole night ahead of us."
Paris's breathing was laboured with conflicting emotions of anger at the intrusion and fear of the consequences of offending Seska. He said nothing and began to edge round her towards the door when Janeway's voice sounded over the comlink.
"Janeway to visiting Paris. Report to the briefing room, Mr. Paris."
"On my way, Captain." Paris pushed roughly past Seska and began to dress hurriedly. "I don't know why your captain wants to see me, but when I return to my quarters, I won't be alone. So I think it would be a good idea if you were no longer here when I get back."
Seska glowered at his retreating back as Paris went out through the doorway into the corridor.
The atmosphere in the briefing room was very different. There was an air of suppressed excitement that was almost tangible. Harry Kim was bent over the viewscreen, both Janeways looking intently at the screen as he gave a running commentary on what Paris recognized was the simulation programme of the collision between the two universes.
One of the Janeways glanced over her shoulder at Paris.
"Harry believes he can predict when the next collision will take place."
Kim looked up at Paris, his eyes gleaming with the excitement of discovery.
"In six days time, you could be back on board your own ship." He grinned and pointed to the screen. "I rewrote the programme with the addition of some new data from the transporter log and there you see the result."
"I thought you needed three collisions before you could predict the next one?" The visiting Janeway said thoughtfully, still watching the screen.
"I did. But once I had the two power breaks recorded, it occurred to me that we had no reason to believe there had only been two collisions: for all we knew, they could have been happening daily. So I set the computer to search the transporter log for any other similar breaks. That's what took so long in the computer room: it wasn't easy for the computer to find such a small time span, but it was worth the wait. There was one other power break nine days before you arrived here. With that information, it was quite simple for the computer to predict the day of the next collision. It'll take a little longer to work out the precise nanosecond, but I should have it by tomorrow morning."
The two Janeways congratulated Kim on his success and left for a celebratory nightcap in the Captain's quarters. Paris stayed in the briefing room and helped Kim to gather up his equipment.
"Harry, how do you get on with Seska?"
"Oh, OK I guess. She doesn't mix very much with Starfleet people." He looked up with a rueful smile. "To tell you the truth, she scares me a little. I don't think I'd like to cross her."
"No, neither would I."
They parted in the corridor outside the briefing room and Paris hesitated after wishing Kim goodnight. He looked towards the turbolift that led to his own quarters and then very deliberately turned in the opposite direction.
Tuvok looked up from his view screen when Paris entered his office in Security.
"You don't seem surprised to see me." Paris looked down at Tuvok's impassive face.
"Vulcans do not show surprise, Lieutenant: I was expecting you." He indicated the viewscreen and Paris saw the trace from his security implant stationary in Tuvok's office.
"I need to talk to you in confidence, Tuvok." The Vulcan looked at him silently, without expression. "There is something I have to tell you, but before I do, I want your word that you won't tell anyone else."
"I am unable to give that assurance. If what you have to say concerns the security of this ship or its crew, I will almost certainly have to inform my captain."
"Then I can't tell you." Paris sat uninvited on the chair across from Tuvok's desk. "Just by being here, I'm breaking the spirit of a promise, if not the actual words. Tuvok, this is a matter of life and death. This has to be just between us."
"Is this a security matter?"
"Yes."
"Then I repeat, that I have to inform my captain."
"You don't understand, Tuvok: it concerns the Prime Directive."
"You are right, I do not understand. What relevance can the Prime Directive have here?"
"I don't think it is relevant, but my captain disagrees. And both captains think alike."
"You are asking me to disobey both the Prime Directive and my captain?" Tuvok was beginning to look mildly astonished.
"If you don't, you may not have a captain to disobey."
Tuvok frowned.
"If you have information relevant to the safety of the captain of this ship, it is your duty to inform me."
"Even though I might be violating the Prime Directive in doing so?"
Tuvok looked at Paris in silence while he considered the problem.
"I consider the safety of my ship and my captain to be paramount."
"Then we are in agreement."
Silence.
"Tuvok, we have to work together on this. I give you the information; you act on it and both your ship and your captain are safe. No one else need ever know. If you tell your captain, she might refuse to allow you to act if she believes it would violate the Prime Directive."
"I still do not see how the Prime Directive can be relevant in these circumstances."
"It concerns what happened on board our Voyager during the past five weeks. It seems as though my captain and I are acting as some kind of catalyst and events here are beginning to follow what has already happened to us."
"You say that my captain is in danger, yet your captain seems to have survived whatever happened on your ship."
"Are you willing to gamble that your captain could survive a Cardassian agent selling you all out to the Kazon?"
Tuvok looked at Paris in silence for several seconds, then:
"I give you my word that I will take whatever security measures I feel to be necessary to ensure the safety of this ship and its captain. I see no necessity to inform her of these measures at this time. However, if some time in the future I consider my precautions to be inadequate, I reserve the right to inform her of our conversation."
"I guess that will have to do." Paris leaned across the desk towards Tuvok and told him the barest details of Seska's behaviour on his own ship during the previous five weeks.
Tuvok listened in silence and then said:
"I do not see the relevance of what happened on your ship. Seska and Paris have a good relationship here. She is no longer involved with Commander Chakotay and is unlikely to involve him in a plot to usurp Captain Janeway. I also have difficulty believing she is a Cardassian agent. It is most unlikely that the Doctor has failed to discover her altered physiology. I do not believe what happened to you will be repeated here."
"I think it has already started." Paris told of his recent encounters with Seska and his own mirror image. "She's out to cause trouble between me and your Paris. We suspect our Seska had been in secret contact with the Kazon for some time before she was exposed as a traitor to Voyager. Even if you don't think anything is going to happen, can't you at least keep her under surveillance? If Harry Kim's theory is correct, my captain and I will only be here for a few more days. Maybe you're right, and things really are different here. If that's true, once we're gone, things should get back to how they were."
Tuvok sat alone in his office after Paris had left and considered his course of action. He sat in complete silence for more than half an hour while he considered the options open to him, then turned to his computer screen and called up diagrams of the ship's structure, paying particular attention to the areas around Captain Janeway's quarters, Seska's quarters, engineering, the bridge and the captain's ready room. It was well into the ship's night time when he turned off the computer terminal and went to a store room, where he removed almost twenty miniature surveillance recorders. The rest of the night, he spent installing them around the ship and linking them to the computer. By the time the morning watch reported for duty, Tuvok had both visual and audio surveillance of all key areas of the ship.
During the morning watch, while Captain Janeway was on the bridge, Tuvok spent almost an hour in her quarters. When he left, he was satisfied the life support system and environmental controls were in perfect order and had not been tampered with. As an added precaution, he had also swept the rooms for surveillance devices. He spent rather less time in Seska's quarters, where he left another surveillance recorder of his own.
Back in Security, Tuvok announced a security alert exercise and set his teams to patrol the ship in certain designated areas, which he would personally change at short notice. If the security teams noticed how often they came across Ensign Seska during the exercise, none saw fit to comment on the fact. Finally content that he had covered all conceivable eventualities, Tuvok retired to his quarters for a short nap before reporting for his next watch on the bridge.
During the next few days, Paris spent most of his time assisting Tuvok with his security 'exercises'. Both Janeways had been happy to give their permission for an unexpectedly available officer to use his knowledge and expertise to try to outwit the security precautions. In a series of alerts and infiltrations to supposedly secure areas of the ship and computer systems, Paris tested Tuvok's ingenuity to the limit. Both captains were slightly puzzled by the sudden and unexpected alliance, but also pleased with the results. Tuvok's Janeway was made aware of several potentially dangerous areas of vulnerability in her ship, while Paris's captain felt relieved that he was being kept fully occupied and with no opportunity to further antagonise Seska.
Once Harry Kim had computed the exact moment of the next collision, the two captains became more relaxed and spent a lot of time together, both in the ready room and around the ship. They dined together several times during the six days and the crew became accustomed to seeing them even on the bridge, where the visiting Janeway was scrupulous in maintaining her status as a visitor.
Early on the last evening before Kim's estimated time of collision, the two captains were inspecting the transporter room to be used by Janeway and Paris the following day. Paris completed a penetration exercise on the computer which had allowed him to access and lock up the ship's environmental controls from a terminal he had discovered in a storage locker. Surprised that Tuvok had not detected his location or stopped his programme with a security lockout, Paris made his way back to Security, intent on the scathingly humorous remarks he would make to the Vulcan.
The outer Security room was empty and unlocked and Paris frowned uneasily at the uncharacteristic lapse by Tuvok. The door to the Vulcan's office was locked and Paris's unease increased to alarm as he asked the computer: "Location of Lieutenant Tuvok?"
"Lieutenant Tuvok is in Security."
A sudden smile crossed his face as he realised this must be Tuvok's last exercise; an unannounced challenge to test his response and ingenuity rather than Voyager's security systems. Well, if Tuvok wanted to play games, Paris was more than willing to join in. He examined the lock on Tuvok's door and tried one of the higher security codes he had learned during the previous few days. To his amazement, the door opened immediately. Suspecting a trap, Paris entered the room warily after first wedging the door open with a fire extinguisher. He had no wish to be trapped in a locked security area.
The room appeared to be unoccupied and the first thing Paris noticed was an open weapons locker with an empty slot in a rack of compression rifles. He moved forward to examine the buckled doors of the locker and saw Tuvok's body huddled behind his desk.
Tuvok was deeply unconscious, but breathing steadily. A phaser burn had ploughed a furrow through the hair above his left ear.
"Computer, security alert!" Paris grabbed a phaser and was racing for the door as he spoke. He punched his combadge and ran to the turbolift. "Paris to Janeway! Security alert. Come in, captain." There was no response to his hail and he felt the first intimations of real fear. "Computer, location of Ensign Seska?"
"Unable to locate Ensign Seska." The computer's matter of fact statement was even more chilling than the lack of response from either Janeway.
"Location of Captain Janeways?" Paris had no idea which deck to ask for.
"Both Captain Janeways are in transporter room two."
As the turbolift carried him to deck four, Paris called for sick bay to attend to Tuvok and a security team to meet him outside the transporter room. He arrived to find the corridor empty: it would take a few minutes for the security team to assemble and get down to him. Paris was not sure he had a few minutes. He pressed the opening pad of the transporter room door and stood to one side, half expecting a compression blast from within.
"Come in Tom: we've been expecting you." Seska's voice was silky amusement.
Paris entered the room and heard the door hiss shut behind him, then the unmistakable click of the security locks engaging. Seska must have programmed the door to lock behind him. Voyager's captain was standing directly facing him, with Seska partially obscured behind her, the compression rifle aimed steadily at her captain's back. His own captain was slumped untidily against the transporter platform. An unsightly purple bruise covered her cheekbone and she moved feebly with the lack of coordination Paris knew to be a symptom of concussion.
"Put down the phaser and kick it to me." Seska stepped a little to one side of her captain without changing the aim of the gun. Paris obeyed in silence, never taking his eyes from Seska. She smiled and picked up the phaser, stuffing it into her belt beside the one she had presumably used on Tuvok. "Now come and stand beside Captain Janeway: slowly."
As he moved forward, Paris looked at Janeway and realised she was not wearing her combadge: neither were Seska and his own captain. Presumably, the two Janeways' badges were somewhere in the room, while Seska had destroyed or disabled her own. The computer had been unable to locate Seska without the homing device in her badge, whereas it had found the two captains' signal in the transporter room. Presumably, she had initiated some kind of dampening field to mask their life signs and by removing the badges, Seska had ensured that neither she nor her prisoners could be transported away from outside the room. Paris wondered if she knew about the security implants he and his captain carried. He hoped not: she might be crazy enough to remove or destroy them without surgical instruments. They could after all be used to achieve a transporter lock just as easily as a combadge. He hoped Chakotay wouldn't think of that too soon. He had a feeling the captain of Voyager's life expectancy would be measured in seconds if he and his captain suddenly vanished from the room.
"Go and sit beside her." Seska stepped back and indicated the visiting Janeway who by now had given up her unsuccessful attempts to stand and was watching them with glazed, unfocussed eyes. Paris ignored the temptation to go to her and sat as far away as he could on the other side of Voyager's captain. If he saw an opening, he intended to tackle Seska, but he wanted plenty of room for manoeuvre.
Seska smiled and aimed the rifle carefully at each of her captives, ending with Paris.
"So, Paris. Tell me what happened on your Voyager."
"If I do, will you hit me with the rifle too?" It was a guess, but he was pretty sure that was what had happened to his captain. Seska was certainly the type to punish the bearer of bad news.
"Tell me!" Seska glared and raised her weapon threateningly.
Paris shrugged.
"We found out you are Cardassian." He smiled insolently, hoping to goad her into approaching too close so she could hit him with the rifle. Seska stepped forward threateningly, then lowered the gun and gave a tight smile.
"Nice try, Paris. Your Seska may have been stupid, but I'm not."
"What do you hope to gain from this, Seska?" Voyager's captain interrupted.
"A new captain!" Seska snapped, turning the rifle towards her. "Either with your cooperation or without it, this ship is going to be run differently from now on. You've been on a power trip ever since we came to the Delta Quadrant. Twice you've put the wishes of aliens above our own necessity to get home. Your high and mighty principles have stranded us here. You refuse to make peace with the Kazon and you've had me watched and followed by security for days, just on their say so." She indicated Paris and his captain.
"I think you've become paranoid, Seska." Voyager's captain was puzzled. "We have been running security exercises recently, but I can assure you they had nothing to do with you."
"So what are these, then?" Seska threw down three of Tuvok's surveillance recorders. "I found two in my quarters and one in engineering above my station."
Paris closed his eyes for a moment then looked straight at Seska.
"Those were my doing. Tuvok and I set it all up. Neither captain knew anything about it."
"You expect me to believe that?" Seska laughed.
"What have you been doing on my ship?" The captain's voice was low and hoarse, her eyes filled with anger and bewildered accusation when Paris reluctantly met her gaze.
"We were trying to protect you." His voice was so low as to be almost inaudible.
"Protect me? From what? My own crew?" Voyager's captain asked in a voice tight with anger. Paris couldn't face her and stared miserably at the floor. He knew that any apology was totally inadequate for the situation he had created.
"Oh, very good." Seska sneered at them, "Deny it all you want, but this ship is about to have a new captain." She leaned forward and pointed the rifle directly into her captain's face. "Two Janeways are just too many. Either you formally agree to step down and hand over command to Chakotay, or I blow both your heads off."
"Commander Chakotay would never agree to become captain in these circumstances." Janeway's voice was steady, her face pale as she stared into the muzzle of the rifle.
Seska gazed at her with wild, unfocussed eyes and then took a step backwards.
"I think you could be right, Captain."
Paris's limbs felt as though they were made of lead and he could only move in slow motion as he watched Seska's finger tighten on the trigger. He saw a blurr of movement to his right and he lurched forward in a desperate attempt to grab the rifle. Seska gave a hoarse cry of surprise and staggered backwards, firing the weapon as she went. Paris felt the blast sear the air above his head, while Seska tried desperately to free herself from the tangle of his captain's legs. Janeway gave a violent twist to the scissor grip and Seska fell heavily, firing the rifle as she went down. Paris was already falling on top of her when the blast hit him. He felt the white heat envelope his whole body in a searing burst of agony which faded slowly to a distant, merciful blackness.
Paris opened his eyes to see Janeway looking down at him. He blinked and Kes was there as well, standing beside her. His voice seemed reluctant to work, as though his throat had rusted up.
"Captain Janeway?" It was more like a croak than a question.
"She's fine." Janeway's expression was unreadable. "We both are."
The Doctor appeared beside Kes and ran a tricorder over Paris's body.
"You were very fortunate, Lieutenant. It is not often that I have the opportunity to treat a live victim of a compression shooting. The more usual result is an autopsy. However, you did only receive a glancing charge and thanks to the fast response of the two captains, who transported you here almost immediately, I am pleased to be able to pronounce you cured. I would prefer to keep you here under observation for a couple of days, but I understand you have a pressing engagement tomorrow morning. You are therefore discharged from sickbay and placed in the medical custody of your captain."
"Medical custody?" Paris sat up on the couch and looked quizzically at Janeway.
"I have accepted full responsibility for all your actions on this ship. You disobeyed a direct order and violated the Prime Directive. Your actions almost cost the life of this ship's captain and have resulted in a member of the crew being confined in the brig or stasis for the remainder of the mission. Captain Janeway has left any disciplinary decisions with me as you are technically under my command. You are therefore relieved of all duties and may consider yourself in my custody until we return to our own ship."
"I see." Paris looked for some vestige of comfort in Janeway's face, but saw only disappointment and regret. "And when we get back to our own Voyager?"
"I will have to review your position on the ship. I must have complete trust in my officers. I took the risk when I invited you to join Voyager's crew because I believed you deserved a second chance, but out here in the Delta Quadrant, where one mistake can cost so much, I can't afford to make allowances. Either I trust my officers or we go under. I'm sorry."
"I understand." Paris's guilt and misery were clearly etched on his face. "There are quite a few things to be sorry about, but what I regret most is letting you down. You believed in me and I betrayed your trust. I apologise for that most of all."
"You should save your apologies for the captain of this ship. I think she deserves an explanation of your conduct."
Janeway remained by the couch and watched him leave the sick bay, staring blindly with troubled eyes as the door closed behind him.
"Captain?" She turned to see Kes standing beside her. "You won't really expel him from the crew?"
"If you heard what I said, then you know why I may have to."
"But that's so unfair. You've forgiven others who disobeyed you: B'Elanna, Tuvok, even Chakotay have all done things that were terribly wrong yet you didn't punish them like this. Tom only did what he thought was right."
"Well, he was wrong. He had his second chance and now he must face the consequences of his actions."
Kes stared at her with great blue eyes that seemed to fill her face.
"They said that you and Captain Janeway were two of the same person, but you're not. I'm glad you're not my captain." She turned and walked away, leaving Janeway staring after her in a confusion of anger and hurt bewilderment.
Paris stood outside the captain's ready room and took a deep breath before pressing the entry pad. When the door hissed open, the captain was standing at a window, watching the stars streak past as Voyager swept through space at near maximum speed. She turned and regarded Paris with a steady gaze that he found difficult to meet.
"Mr. Paris. How are you feeling?"
"Fine, thank you, Captain."
"You were fortunate to survive a point blank hit from a compression rifle." She folded her arms and watched his discomfort.
Paris cleared his throat.
"I've come to apologise for what I did."
"To which of your actions do you refer?"
"All of them, I guess. Just about everything I did was wrong."
"Not quite everything." Janeway said gently. Paris looked up and saw a compassion he felt was undeserved. "You tried to stop Seska in the transporter room. What you did there was foolhardy and brave, but not wrong."
"Then it was the only thing that wasn't; and it was my captain who saved you, not me."
Janeway smiled.
"She used the same trick you did on the Kazon ship: pretended to be more seriously hurt than she was and then waited for her chance to take Seska by surprise." The smile was replaced by a frown as she added: "Seska's plight is the one thing I do hold you responsible for. Tuvok is as much to blame, but between you, a life has almost certainly been destroyed. The doctor is going to give a medical opinion on Seska's condition, but he gives little hope that she will ever again be a trustworthy member of this crew. She was always a volatile character who found it particularly difficult to adapt to Starfleet protocols. By harassing her the way you did, you and Tuvok tipped her over the edge of madness."
"I guess we were both wrong. I can only say that I'm sorry for what happened."
"Maybe it wasn't your fault anyway." Janeway turned back to the window. "If you really are from a parallel universe, maybe you were meant to come here and change things so they became the same as on your ship. Maybe you've just put things back the way they should have been if the universes had never collided."
Paris considered the idea and shook his head.
"I don't think I could handle the thought of changing an entire universe. But maybe you could put in a word about that with my captain." He smiled ruefully. "She doesn't exactly see me in a favourable light right now."
Janeway turned to face him and said: "I can't intervene between you and your commanding officer, Mr. Paris."
"No. I guess you can't. Thank you for being so ... understanding, Captain."
Janeway nodded and watched Paris until the door hissed shut behind him, then returned to her thoughts and the streaking stars beyond the window.
Outside the ready room, Paris passed across the rear of the bridge and had almost reached the turbolift, when a tall figure suddenly left a sensor console and stepped in front of him. Paris sighed and looked calmly into the eyes of his double.
"I didn't like you from the moment you came on board this ship." Voyager's Paris spoke in a low voice that was tight with rage. "But this is all for Seska." He hit Paris with a controlled punch to the face that had a whole week of angry frustration behind it. Paris fell heavily across the console and then slid to the floor. He got up with great care and leaned weakly against the wall, aware that his recovery from the compression charge was not as complete as he had assumed. He saw the other Paris draw back his fist for another punch and then Harry Kim was between them, talking urgently and quietly to his double, trying desperately to calm the almost tangible anger
.
None of them heard the hiss of an opening door.
"What's going on here?" Janeway's voice was harsh and at its most commanding. Harry Kim jerked to attention and swallowed nervously, while the injured Paris straightened up from the wall and put a hand to his bleeding mouth.
"Nothing, Captain. I fell against the console. A dizzy spell; I guess I should have taken more notice of what the doctor said." His voice was thick and he swayed visibly on his feet. Janeway was not fooled by the explanation but she could see he was in serious need of medical attention. She also knew that the last thing she needed just then was resentment amongst her officers.
"Very well. Ensign Kim, take Lieutenant Paris to the sick bay. Mr. Paris, a word if you please." She turned and went back to her ready room with an unrepentant Paris following obediently behind.
The doctor clucked with irritation when he saw Paris's latest injuries, and was inclined to restrain him in sick bay for observation when he heard of the 'dizzy spell'. Kes, a little more intuitive than the holographic doctor, realized there was more to the story than they had been told and quizzed Paris while she treated his damaged mouth.
"I'll never understand why men have to settle their differences by fighting. Even Neelix and you.... Well, I just don't understand. At least you didn't hit him back. You didn't did you?" She looked anxiously down at him and Paris shook his head.
"I didn't even have the strength to stand up. But no; I couldn't have hit him. Seska obviously meant a lot to him. And after what I'd done to her, I guess he had every right to come after me."
The sick bay doors opened and Paris saw his captain approaching the couch. Until that moment, he had believed things couldn't possibly get any worse.
"Would you excuse us for a moment, please Kes?" Janeway watched in silence as Kes retreated to the doctor's office.
"Captain, if you'll just let me explain.."
Janeway held up her hand.
"I met Harry Kim on my way here. He is a very poor liar." She stopped speaking for a moment as though at a loss for words and then sighed almost wearily. "I was coming to tell you that I have reconsidered my earlier decision. We don't know what is going to happen when we step on that transporter platform tomorrow. We could end up anywhere, in this universe or the next, or even nowhere at all. As far as we know, nobody has ever done what we are going to attempt. Wherever we go, it will be together. I wouldn't like us to be ... at odds with each other. There will be no disciplinary action if we return to our own ship. None of your actions here will be recorded in the log, as they never happened in our universe." Paris tried to interrupt, but Janeway continued. "I hope you've learned something here, Lieutenant. But I tell you now that if you ever disobey an order, or break your word to me again, there will be no question whatever of another chance. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, Captain."
Janeway nodded and abruptly left the sick bay. Kes was back at Paris's couch almost immediately.
"I suppose she's going to punish you even more now, for something that wasn't your fault." She glared at the door where Janeway had just left. To her amazement, Paris laughed and kissed her, wincing as he remembered his injured mouth
.
"I really should have kissed the captain, but she might have changed her mind again if I had. Besides, I'm not quite that brave."
"You mean, she's not going to expel you from her ship?"
"No." He became suddenly serious. "I think she's afraid we're not going to get back."
"We'll never know, if you get back or not?" Kes' eyes seemed to fill her entire face.
"We'll get back."
The transporter room seemed almost overcrowded the following morning as Janeway and Paris prepared for their journey. Harry Kim was rechecking the computer programme he had written to ensure the timing of the transporter was set to exactly the right moment.
"What coordinates should I set, Captain?"
"To return here to Voyager."
"Transporter set to automatic energise in two minutes."
Janeway and Paris shook hands with Voyager's officers and finally Paris faced the captain for the last time.
"Good luck, Tom." Her grip was firm and she smiled encouragement as he stepped onto the platform. He turned back to see the two Janeways, their hands clasped in a wordless farewell and then his own captain was beside him on the next pad, still staring across the room at her double. He felt the tingling sensation of the transporter, the room darkened briefly and when the light returned, there was only an amazed crewman standing by the control panel.
Janeway stepped down from the platform and they heard Chakotay's voice over the comlink.
"Bridge to transporter room. We are reading an unauthorised energy surge from the transporter." His voice checked with disbelief. "We are also reading two life forms with Starfleet combadges. Captain, is that you down there?"
Janeway pressed her badge and smiled at Paris.
"It is, Commander: and I can't tell you how glad we are that it's the left hand badge that is working." There was a stunned silence from the bridge and Janeway added: "It's a long story. But I can tell you, it feels very good to be back on board Voyager again."
Two days later Janeway was in her ready room, gazing out of the window at the streaking stars when Chakotay entered with some reports. She accepted the padd absently and thanked him, but her thoughts were obviously elsewhere.
"Captain?"
"Yes, Commander." She turned reluctantly to face him.
"I've been thinking: about the parallel universe."
Janeway smiled.
"You may not be surprised to hear that I have also been thinking about it."
"It's kind of eerie to think there's another Chakotay out there, doing exactly what I'm doing. It's made me wonder: what happens if he does something stupid? Gets himself captured by the Kazon; killed even. What happens to me?"
"I wondered about that at first. But after I'd been there for a while, I realised it doesn't matter. We don't influence our mirror images; we are them and they are us. The other Chakotay won't do anything you won't do, just as you won't do anything he isn't already doing at the same moment. We don't need to worry about what they are doing, because we already know: they are doing what we are doing."
"You mean that right now, the other Chakotay is having this conversation with his captain?"
"If the two universes are truly parallel again, yes, I believe he is."
"It takes some getting used to."
Janeway turned back to the window again. Her reply was almost wistful.
"I have the advantage over you that I have faced my alter ego. I know she's out there, trying to get her ship home just like we are."
"Do you think she'll succeed?"
"I believe she will, Chakotay." She turned and smiled confidently at him. "I really believe she will."
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