Chapter 5 - Captives Of The Unseen Past
Melissa Vargas stood just outside the security field, taking scans of the mechanized creature which insisted it was her dead friend.
"I can understand your trouble believing my story," it told her from the other side of the energy field. "But it is me."
"I've seen strange things during my time in Starfleet," Melissa said as she tried her best not to look at it. "I've even heard of cases of transfer of consciousness, but you'll have to admit this is clearly on the odd side of things."
"I know," the metal figure said crossing its arms across its chest. "If I could talk to Jack, I'm sure I could convince him I am his wife."
Melissa looked up. The voice was so similar to Mei-Wan's, yet it sounded as if it were coming over a bad intercom. But the emotion and sadness in the vocalization did have a familiarity she fought not to accept.
"Why won't Jack come and see me?" the machine asked, looking at the outer door of the Abdiel's brig as if uttering his name would bring Jack McCall to the entrance.
"The last four months have been hard for him," Melissa said. "And to see..." She didn't want to hurt the feelings of what might be her best friend, imprisoned in a body of cold metal.
The machine looked down at the deck. "To see me like this, you mean?"
Melissa nodded slowly.
The metal figure closed its glowing red eyes. "I can understand. I was just as shocked when I woke up and found myself inside this... this ugly thing."
"There's a little more to it than that," Melissa replied.
"Jack blames himself for what happened to me, doesn't he?"
Melissa looked at the figure inside the cell. "He can't help being who he is. Mei-Wan knew that."
"If you'd let me out of here to talk with him, I could prove to you I am Mei-Wan!"
Melissa closed her tricorder. "If you are her, then you know the reason you're in this brig."
"I know," the mechanical voice responded. "You're worried I'm trying to pass myself off as Jack's wife. That somehow the G'voda learned enough from me to fool even Jack."
"Something like that," Melissa said. "You'll have to admit, escaping from a world we've heard described as a fortress, undetected, would be quite a feat for an archaeologist."
The machine made a sound that resembled a laugh. "I'll try not to take that personally, Melissa," it told her. "Give me a little credit. I was, after all, part of a crew that escaped a Glazyalan prisoner of war camp."
"Mei-Wan McCall is an intelligent, and fairly resourceful woman," Melissa said. "But I doubt escape from the G'voda involved something as simple as getting security codes from a couple of guards."
The machine turned away. "I told you, I was being transferred off Nybiros and I killed the ship's pilot."
"Yet you remember nothing about Admiral McCall," Melissa stated. "You can't tell us what's happened to him?"
"The last time I saw Jeremiah was in the escape pod. The Balthazar had been attacked and we were abandoning ship."
"Where have you been the last four months?"
"I woke up in this body three weeks ago. They were taking me to a facility to finish my construction."
"Why a human form?" Melissa demanded. "Why would the G'voda put the time and effort into giving you a human shape?"
"I don't know."
"Where is your real body?"
"I don't know!"
"Where is Admiral McCall?"
"I told you, I don't know!"
"Where did you buy the set of glasses for your wedding?"
"What?" the machine asked, turning to Melissa.
"It's a simple question," Vargas stated. "Mei-Wan McCall would know where she bought the champagne glasses for her wedding."
The machine's face formed a smile. "It was a little more than a week after we'd escaped. Jack and I had spent the day in San Francisco at the Hickok Museum. On the way to my parents' home, we stopped at a little shop and I insisted on buying them."
Melissa took a breath. "When was the last time you used them?"
"You and I drank from them about two weeks before I left on the Balthazar."
The machine certainly knew all the right answers, about details that an alien species couldn't be expected to think of as important. But Melissa still wasn’t satisfied. She wondered if it was simply that she didn't want to believe her friend had had this done to her.
Melissa Vargas could understand what it felt like to be in a body you hated. It took her most of her life to come to terms with the Vulcan aspects of her own appearance. Living among mostly humans made that even harder. Human children took notice of every small difference and used it to ostracize and belittle. She knew it was part of the species makeup to do so, a holdover from its primate roots.
She wondered if that part of her own humanity was what made her hate the creature--- machine--- thing, standing on the other side of the security field.
She hoped that wasn't it.
She wanted to be better than that.
"Melissa," the machine asked softly. "Could you tell Jack I really need to speak to him? Please?"
After giving a quick nod, Melissa Vargas left the brig.
***
Four hours later, Jack McCall entered the brig... alone.
"Jack!" the mechanical voice said as the door closed behind him.
He forced himself to look at the figure in the cell. Hank had told him less than an hour earlier to think about everything with the same cold logic he would when analyzing a tactical situation. Evans had insisted this was a battle, what it was over, wasn't clear just yet, but he was certain it was a battle the G'voda were fighting.
But Jack McCall could never be logical when it involved Mei-Wan. She meant too much to him, in ways he himself sometimes didn't understand.
He found himself wishing they had brought Akala along. He could have used her counsel to help him sort through how he was feeling.
"So," Jack began. "You say you're Mei-Wan, and somehow your consciousness was transferred into that machine body?"
"Yes, Jack, it's me."
He looked at the glowing red eyes of the metal face he wished he could read. "Part of me wants to believe that, but another part hopes to hell you're lying."
The G'voda construct nodded. "I wish I had escaped before they did this to me, but I wasn't able to. Isn't having me back like this, as bad as it is, better than not having me back at all?"
"If there was some way I could be sure you really are Mei-Wan, then yes, I would agree with that, but frankly I don't know of any way to prove it," Jack said.
"Have Akala search my mind."
"You're willing to submit to that?" Jack asked, a small bit of hope coming to the surface. He couldn't imagine a fraud would be willing to risk exposing itself to such an examination. Akala's telepathic abilities should be able to find any hint of deception on the part of whoever or whatever the being in front of him was.
"We'll be arriving back on the Chamberlain in twenty hours," Jack said. "Please just sit in there and wait until then."
"And when you find out I am your wife, what then Jack? Can you love me like this?"
He turned to the metal figure. "I will always love Mei-Wan, no matter what. If you're her, you know that's true."
Jack left.
"But can we ever have a life together?" the mechanical voice whispered to itself.
***
After they arrived back at the Chamberlain which still orbited Cajma, Hank Evans had a security detail quickly escort the G'voda machine claiming to be Mei-Wan McCall to the brig facilities on the Oceana class starship. Hank issued phaser rifles to the guards for their new guest. Within an hour of securing Brig Section 7-A, Akala Wilmarza entered the room and sat in a chair just a few feet from the defense shield which kept the machine locked away.
"Hello," Akala said warmly, looking for an emotional response.
"Hello, Counselor," the electronic voice replied.
"I understand you claim to be Mei-Wan McCall."
"I am Mei-Wan McCall."
"You don't look like her," the green-skinned M'naran countered.
The mechanical humanoid female approached the field. One of the guards raised his rifle.
"If I did you wouldn't be here and I wouldn't be locked away like this."
"Neither of which proves you are indeed her," Akala said.
"I know that," the machine said. "I may be mechanical, but I'm not stupid."
Akala considered the attempt at humor during a stressful or dire situation a very human trait. Though she suspected a machine could be programmed to simulate it.
She looked intently at the being before her. "Will you allow me to enter your mind?"
The machine sat down in its own chair. "Yes, please do."
Akala gently made her way through the personality across from her. She found memories of living within an organic body, being injured during an escape pod launch, and... a memory of making love to Jack McCall. The remembrances had a clarity she hadn't suspected. It seemed as if there was too much detail. It was certainly more than she usually encountered.
But none of the memories proved who this was. To discover that, Akala would have to dig much deeper.
***
In the main conference room on Deck One, Jack sat with most of the ship's department heads discussing their recent discovery.
"At least we got a G'voda ship," Negev stated with a slight smile. "I'm sure Starfleet Command will be most pleased with that."
Jack turned to Kristen Bishop.
"Kristy, have a crew tear into the G'voda shuttle," Jack ordered their chief engineer. "Find out how their technology works and see if you can find any weaknesses."
Bishop grinned at the chance to examine technology that had made short order of the Borg. "Yes, sir."
"And have someone from engineering do some scans of the..." Jack stopped himself, still uncertain how to feel about the individual they had down in the brig. "Of our guest."
"Shouldn’t that fall to my department, Captain?" asked Kyle Hoffman from the other side of the table.
Jack did his best not to frown at their science officer. "No, Mr. Hoffman. I think Ms. Bishop and her engineers can handle it."
"But..."
"No," Jack said with what he hoped was enough finality that even Kyle Hoffman couldn't miss it.
Hoffman sighed and rolled his eyes, resigned to the decision.
Taylor Preston leaned forward. "If this machine indeed has the consciousness of your wife within it, what do you plan to do, Captain?"
Jack turned to Preston. "I'm not sure I follow, Doctor."
Preston took a deep breath. "I would assume you don't wish to leave her in that state."
Jack's eyes looked down at the table a moment. "If you know of a way to reverse the process, I'd be willing to try."
"I'm sure there has to be some method for doing that, however, it would require we locate her original body."
Jack shook his head. "We have no idea where her body is, or if it still exists."
Preston nodded while Hank Evans watched Jack closely.
"I take it Starfleet isn't big on us entering the Nybiros system?" Hank asked.
"I have been directly ordered not to approach that system on several occasions by Admiral Simmons," Jack said turning to Negev. "And I believe my executive officer has orders to relieve me if I make the attempt."
Negev sat stone-faced, but Jack knew. Melissa Vargas had brought him a copy of the same orders she had received. Jack had to assume Negev got them as well.
Akala entered the conference room and sat in the empty chair next to Melissa. Everyone watched the counselor, waiting for news of what she had found. Jack especially had to know.
"Well?" Jack finally got out. "Is it Mei-Wan?"
"She believes that she is," Akala said.
"What do you think?" Jack pressed.
"Understand, Captain, that I have never made telepathic contact with your wife prior to her leaving the Chamberlain," Akala told him. "I had gotten brief glimpses of her mind when I had talked to her on several occasions, but usually I try blocking those encounters out of my own consciousness. Otherwise normal conversation would be too impossible because of the distraction."
"Okay," Jack said. He was becoming irritated with the qualifications she insisted on giving before answering his question.
"To the best of my ability, and with everything I know about her, I would say there is a very good chance she is Mei-Wan McCall," Akala finally said.
"A good chance? Is that the best you can do?"
"With someone who I have had direct mental contact with in the past, I could be absolutely certain, but that simply isn't the case," she said. "I'm sorry I can't be more definitive, Captain."
Well, there it was. The closest he could come to any sort of objective criteria, and it had given him a strong "maybe."
He closed his eyes and wondered what Hank said aloud.
"Now what the hell do we do with it... I mean her?" Evans asked.
Melissa watched Jack closely as others at the table, most notably Kyle Hoffman and Lak Negev, discussed ways to do an analysis of the G'voda body without harming the consciousness it contained. Doctor Preston jumped in saying he wanted to do a number of psychological profiles to see if they matched the records of tests Mei-Wan had taken over the years. Hank, however, vehemently disagreed with the doctor, saying he was not about to allow one of the G'voda anywhere near the computer systems of the Chamberlain. Preston's tests required the computer to monitor and record the results.
Hoffman and Bishop then argued about ways to allow for the tests while keeping the ship's computers isolated.
Jack didn't seem to notice any part of the discussions boiling up around him. Melissa wondered what in the world he could be thinking. She would have expected him to have opinions on everything being said. But then, she wasn't paying attention to any of it either.
She couldn't imagine how she was going to act the next time she went down to the security section and spoke to the machine which everyone now seemed to believe was Mei-Wan. She saw the anguish on Jack's face and was certain he was wondering the same thing.
***
The mechanical female form with the personality, thoughts, and memories of Mei-Wan McCall sat in the brig staring at the floor. The mind within wondered how much longer the wait would be before the man she loved would come down and set her free. It also wondered if there was any chance of a future between the two of them.
A loud thud disrupted those musings of love and life. The machine's head turned to look toward the energy field blocking exit from the brig.
A young human girl walked into view. The mind within the machine quickly recognized her.
"Ahwi Dasari?"
"Hello machine," Ahwi spat as she stopped a few feet from the energy field. Instead of her usual attire, Ahwi wore a blue and red armored, tight fitting jumpsuit. At several locations on the suit, there were display units, and low on her right thigh was a weapon in a holster.
"How did you get in here? When did you come aboard?" the electronic voice insisted. "Where are the guards?"
Ahwi folded her arms across her chest. "Answer me this, G'voda. How can you have the memories you do and at the same time pretend you can walk into Mei-Wan McCall's life?" she asked. "Knowing Jack McCall, do you really think that's going to happen?"
"As long as Jack believes me, I don’t care what you or anyone else thinks," the machine said, standing.
Ahwi narrowed her eyes. "Then I guess I'll have to make sure he doesn't believe you."
"Why?!" Mei-Wan McCall's voice demanded. "Do you hate me so much you've come here to destroy what little chance of happiness I have left?!"
"You have no idea what this will do to him, do you? You haven't even considered what your presence, and what you're here to accomplish will do to him, have you?" Ahwi shook her head. "But what should I expect from a machine aside from the inescapable narcissism your logic and circuits drive you to?"
"I could never hurt Jack!" the machine cried out.
Ahwi stared at the machine as a scowl tortured her normally beautiful face. "Liar!"
The machine took a step back from the girl and was glad for once the security field was there. "Why has Janus sent you here?!"
"I'm here to stop you from destroying Jack McCall."
***
"The thing I found most surprising was that she seems to doubt her identity about as much as we do," Akala told Jack, Hank, and Melissa. The four of them stood alone in the conference room. The others had left ten minutes earlier.
Akala turned to Jack. "She's most worried she's lost any chance of a life with you, sir. She doubts you could ever accept her as she now is."
Melissa turned to Jack. "You will have to admit, that does sound like something Mei would think."
Jack nodded. "I want to see what Preston comes up with from his personality tests."
"I still think it's a mistake to let her near any computer," Hank stated. "If she gets into the controls for the primary systems..."
"Kristy thinks she can keep things secure," Jack said. "I trust her judgment."
Hank rolled his eyes, frustrated at how often his concerns were being dismissed of late.
"Thank you, Akala," Jack said. "I know how much you dislike rummaging around in someone's mind."
"I just wish I could be more certain."
Jack nodded and picked up a PADD off the table. Melissa and Akala left the conference room together.
"All right, Hank," Jack said, his back to Evans. "You've been dying to tell me something for the last hour."
"Me?"
Jack turned to face him. "You've got that look."
"What look?" Evans asked wide eyed.
"That little smirk at the corner of your mouth," Jack said with a smile. "The one where you seem to think you've got the Galaxy by the balls."
Hank frowned. "Okay, so there is something."
Jack leaned against the edge of the table. "I thought so."
"Look, I know of some guys in the Zeldov system who might be able to help."
"Help? How?"
"They specialize in mental transfer," Hank said. "They also have some great geneticists. If we can give them a sample of Mei's DNA and say a transport buffer record, they could recreate her body and then transfer her mind into the new body."
Jack's eyes were wide. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You're insane!" he said taking the PADD and heading for the door.
Hank grabbed his arm.
"Lieutenant Commander," Jack said through clenched teeth. "You are about five seconds from being locked in your own brig."
"Don't pull rank on me, damn it! Just listen to what I have to say!"
Jack twisted his arm away from Hank. "You crazy son of a bitch! I am not going to follow you to some other godforsaken planet and have someone, who I'm sure is less than reputable in the first place, create some monster!"
"What do you think you have down there in the brig right now, Jack?"
"I don't know, but I didn't create that one!" Jack yelled.
"Don't dismiss this out of hand," Hank pleaded.
"I'm not going to even consider it," Jack said. "We'll find another way."
"Even if what I'm suggesting will bring Mei back to you?" Hank asked, coming a step closer to Jack. "Even if it's the only way to get her back?"
Jack exhaled until all of the air was out of his lungs. He then took in a fresh breath. "No."
Hank began to start in again, but the alert klaxon blared.
Jack spun about and touched the intercom switch on the table. "McCall here!"
Negev's voice came over the speaker. "Security alert, Captain! Deck Twelve!"
"The brig!" Hank shouted as both he and his captain made a run for the door.
