***
Written By
Michael Gray
***
Please Note-
As with all of the material presented in
the Star Trek: Dark Horizon story, this installment
falls generally within the PG-13 category.
***
***
Chapter 1 - You May See A Stranger
Mei-Wan McCall felt a chill from the cool air touching her bare skin. She yanked the sheet over to cover herself. The dark haired man lying only a foot away forced his eyes open. His features, a mixture of European and Asian genes, confirmed what his voice had brought to her attention just a moment before: he wasn't Jack McCall.
"Are you okay?"
She pulled the sheet tighter around herself. "Where am I?"
"Uh, the same place you were when we came to bed, Mei." He propped himself up on one arm, trying to keep from falling back into the soft bed. "How much did you drink?"
"Drink?" She looked around the bedroom. It was so much like her and Jack's quarters, but something wasn't right. She couldn't figure it out. Thinking was too much like trying to swim through cold mud. She wondered if she had lost her sanity, or worse. "How did I get here?"
"After the party we..." His face formed into a smile. He reached to touch her shoulder, but she pulled back as far she could, nearly falling off the edge of the bed.
This was too much for Mei-Wan. She was in bed with a man she had never seen before and as much as she tried, she couldn't get her mind to think straight. She closed her eyes and forced herself to focus. Whoever he was, he didn't seem to be a threat to her at the moment. She'd have to trust he'd remain that way.
The last thing she remembered before waking was running up the hill on Folam Six just as a set of quantum torpedoes struck the G'voda time machine. She'd watched her husband, Jack McCall, disappear in a blast of energy and then... nothing. The next thing she knew, she was in bed with this man, his arm around her, and the warmth of his body helping her to fall asleep. She had assumed he was Jack. That was until she heard his voice.
Something had changed reality. The G'voda device must have played a part in it. But that theory didn't help her immediate problem and very practical problem.
She had to figure out where she was.
"What party?" she asked.
The man next to her frowned. "The New Year's Party." He watched as she appeared lost in thought. "You know that thing you celebrate when December changes to January." He tilted his head and smiled.
She found it hard not to smile back. Something about this handsome man made her want to trust him. His eyes looked at her with deep compassion and what she believed might be love.
"You feeling sick again?" he asked.
Aside from the mental disorientation she was trying to get a handle on, Mei-Wan realized she didn't feel at all well physically. Her stomach ached and her head felt like it might burst. It did feel like being drunk, but she hadn't had anything to drink since before she'd been captured by the G'voda more than nine months before. "Yeah, I am feeling bad."
"Maybe you should go see Preston."
Mei-Wan stood from the bed, trying to pull the sheet along with her, but found it difficult. "Maybe I should."
Whatever had changed, at least Doctor Preston was still aboard. She decided, based on the look of the bedroom, she was on an Oceana class starship, but she couldn't tell if it was the Chamberlain.
Now that the fog in her mind had cleared a little she was convinced the timeline had changed somehow. Nothing else could explain where she was. Mei-Wan now wished she had taken the upper level course in temporal mechanics at the Academy instead of being satisfied with only the required, basic class. It might have given her some sense of what to do.
She decided the only thing she could do at the moment was to get out of the quarters she was in and find Jack. If the G'voda device was responsible, she hoped he'd have an idea of how to get out of this.
She gave up on using the sheet and let it fall to the bed. Her modesty was the least of her concerns at the moment. "Where are my clothes?"
He sat up. "In the other room where you left them."
Mei-Wan turned and walked out of the bedroom. The man she left in the bed inhaled and stood up.
"Damn," he said as he followed.
Mei-Wan switched a light on and discovered the floor plan was a mirror image of the one she had expected. Everything else was almost exactly the same as in her and Jack's quarters. One difference which caught her eye immediately was the collection of photos scattered throughout the room--- all of her. It gave Mei-Wan the impression of walking into a shrine, but it was unsettling to see herself as the object of such devotion.
Whoever this man was, Mei-Wan was obviously important to him.
She noticed her underwear lying on the floor in front of a couch. She quickly picked up the garment and put it on.
The man from the bedroom walked in still naked. "Are you mad at me?"
"No," she said as she found her bra. "I just need to go." She didn't figure it would help to tell him she thought she was from another timeline. She didn't have any answers for the questions he was sure to have.
He frowned. "Was the sex that bad?"
"What?" she asked with wide eyes. Mei-Wan suddenly realized that was part of the strangeness that had been bothering her. Her body did feel as if she'd had sex recently. Because she had no memory of it, she hadn't been able to place it, but now she was certain.
"You seemed to really enjoy it at the time." He walked up to her cautiously. "Did I do something wrong?"
Mei-Wan grabbed her uniform pants off a chair and pulled them onto her legs. "No. You didn't do anything wrong." She wanted to ask him his name, but she got the impression that would only raise the questions she was hurrying to avoid.
Todd.
She stopped. For some reason that name flashed through her mind. If she had jumped timelines she shouldn't know anything about who he was, least of all his name. But then she shouldn't have felt as if she'd had sex recently either. None of it made any sense to her.
She turned to him as she picked up her shirt. "Todd, I just need to get to my quarters, okay?" She hoped they weren't married, but the absence of any ring on her own finger made her think it was a safe bet.
His eyes narrowed. "Does this have anything to do with what your sister talked to you about at the party?"
Sister?! She didn't have a sister.
"I'm really getting tired of her meddling in our life, Mei." He stared at her with a frustrated look on his face. "You have to finally tell her it's going to end. I think I've been more than patient with all of this."
Mei-Wan pulled her uniform jacket on and fastened it. "Can we talk about this later?"
"It's always later."
"Look, I'll go see Preston and find out what's wrong, okay?"
He walked up to her. Mei-Wan tried to appear normal, but having a naked man she didn't know approach her was more than a little distressing. She kept telling herself she'd be out of the room in a few seconds.
Just a few seconds more...
"Mei, I love you." He took her hand in his. "You know that, don't you?"
She saw it in his eyes. He did love her, or at least the person he thought he was talking to. For now she'd have to play the part of who he expected her to be. "I know."
He smiled and leaned toward her. Mei-Wan fought the urge to pull away as best as she could.
Just a few seconds more, she told herself again as their lips touched.
The sensation of his mouth gently touching hers tore through the fog Mei-Wan's mind had been in.
Instead of the awkwardness she'd expected from herself, she relaxed as he put his arms around her. Something about being embraced by him felt so agreeable, like being wrapped in a blanket in front of a raging fire.
After nearly a minute, she gently nudged him away. "I need to go."
He nodded. "You think you'll feel well enough to still go tomorrow morning?"
Mei-Wan wasn't certain what the right answer was or what it was she was supposed to be doing in the morning, so she decided to give a non-answer. "How about I see how I'm feeling then?"
He put his hands on her shoulders. "Just make sure you're okay."
"I will."
"I'm really tired," he said, yawning. "I'm gonna get back to bed."
She absently watched his bare bottom while he returned to the bedroom. Whatever I'm like in this timeline, I sure have the sense to pick out a good looking man, she concluded as she bit her lower lip with a grin.
"What the hell am I doing?" Mei-Wan chided herself in a whisper. She rushed out the door and into the corridor.
She made her way down the curving hallway to a turbolift and entered it. But she realized she had no idea where she was going. The display on the interior indicated she was indeed on the Chamberlain and on Deck Five. She needed information.
"Computer, lock turbolift doors."
"Doors locked," the computer replied. "Destination?"
"What is the current location of Captain Jack McCall?"
"There is no officer with that name currently aboard."
Mei-Wan took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She hadn't expected that response. How could Jack not be aboard? "Who is the commanding officer of this ship?"
"Captain Larissa James. Serial number..."
"Stop." Things had changed more than she had suspected. Larissa James shouldn't be alive. She had died more than twenty years ago. She and Jack had been...
"Tell me where Mei-Wan McCall's quarters are located."
"There is no officer by that name currently..."
"What?" She looked into the reflective surface of the display and saw she had the same face, but her hair was much shorter. She smiled. She'd only worn her hair at this length when she'd been at the Academy. She'd believed it made her look too young, so she had let it grow long after graduation, thinking people would take her more seriously.
Then it hit her. She had just been in bed with a man other than Jack McCall. That probably meant she wasn't married.
"Okay, 'Lau' then."
"Ensign Li-Na Lau's quarters are located on Deck Eleven, section D5. Lieutenant Mei-Wan Lau's quarters are on Deck Ten, section C1."
Li-Na... the sister Todd had mentioned.
If she wasn't careful she could become overwhelmed with the differences of the reality she found herself in. Right now, however, she needed answers, not more questions.
There was one other possibility. He had been on the surface when the torpedoes hit.
"Computer, location of Hank Evans?" She didn't breathe as she waited the moment for the computer to respond. She needed at least one break.
"Hank Evans is currently located in the security office on Deck Twelve."
"Deck Twelve," she ordered with a smile.
Mei-Wan considered what she'd say once she got there. She just hoped he was the Hank Evans she remembered running up a hill with her less than an hour before.
***
Mei-Wan walked up to the door of the security office and hesitated. She had to introduce herself without giving away too much just in case he had no memory of Folam Six. She inhaled and touched the control for the door chime.
Nothing.
She hit the button again.
A few seconds later the door opened and Hank Evans stood in uniform staring at her. He sure looked enough like the rugged sixty year old she knew.
He watched her closely as if looking for something in her expression. "Can I help you, Lieutenant?"
"Yes, uh, I was wondering if you had ever met a man named Jack McCall."
Hank grinned and looked up and down the corridor to make sure they were alone. "If you mean the man we were both with on Folam Six about an hour ago, yeah, I know him."
Mei-Wan relaxed and smiled. "I was beginning to wonder if I was going insane."
He waved her in. "We shouldn't talk out here."
Mei-Wan followed Hank into the security office and sat down in a chair across from the desk.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Actually, no. But that's the least of my worries."
"Yeah, I was more than a little surprised to find myself sitting here going over personnel reports just after those torpedoes detonated." Hank sat down at the desk and activated the display panel on it. "I couldn't find you until I remembered your maiden name." He looked up at her. "Who's Todd Nakano?"
"How do you know about him?"
"Well, when I checked your location the computer said you were in his quarters."
At least she knew his full name now. "I woke up in bed with him."
Hank smiled and raised an eyebrow. "Too bad I didn't have that kind of luck with a woman."
Mei-Wan frowned. "Believe me, it wasn't fun."
"I don't know," Hank said, leaning forward. "I thought I detected the smell of sex in the air when I opened the door."
"The smell of sex?" she blurted out.
"Yeah. You know that smell of two people's sweat combined and..."
Mei-Wan rolled her eyes. "I don’t remember anything like that happening." That much was true, but his lurid observation confirmed how her body felt.
Hank pulled his uniform sleeve up. On his forearm there was a long jagged scar. "Just like I don't remember this ever happening."
Mei-Wan stared at the old wound. "This isn't how things were explained in my temporal mechanics class. We should either be the people of this timeline or the people we remember being, not a combination of the two."
"Well, it's been a long time since I took that course and the primary thing I remember was being told not to make changes in time."
"We didn't." Mei-Wan leaned back in her chair. "The G'voda are responsible for all of this."
"That's the funny thing," Hank said. "There's no record of the G'voda, the beings escaping Hel'yra, or that creature which killed everything on Cajma. If this was their plan, I'd say the G'voda aren’t very good at manipulating time."
"Maybe when we destroyed the device it stopped that ship we saw entering the time portal." Mei-Wan grasped for any possibility. She was just glad to be having this conversation with someone other than herself. "Jack isn't the captain of this ship."
"I know." Hank went back to the display. "So far, I haven't been able to find any record of him. We are in the Kel-j'na Region, so I can't get a direct link to Starfleet's data network, but since he's a Starfleet officer..."
"Maybe he isn't here." Mei-Wan looked down at her hands. They felt strange without the wedding ring she'd worn for the last two years. "What about Melissa?"
"I checked. She's assigned to the U.S.S. Carter Winston, a Sovereign class starship currently on a deep space exploratory mission in the Beta Quadrant."
"Is Jack on that ship?"
"No, not even as a civilian."
Mei-Wan closed her eyes and rubbed them. "Okay, if what we remember on Folam didn't happen where are we?"
"In orbit of Dalvanax Two, bringing the new Federation Ambassador."
Hank glanced at the display again. "The rest of the crew is hit and miss. Negev is still the first officer, but your boyfriend Nakano is the operations officer. Bishop, Akala, and Melissa aren't here, but Preston is."
"Okay." Mei-Wan turned to him, frustrated. They could spend months going through the list of the entire crew trying to figure out who was the same and who wasn't. "Hank, how do we get back to where we belong?"
He leaned back in his chair. "I haven't a damn clue. I'm a tactical officer, Mei. You're the scientist."
"I'm an archaeologist. We need a physicist."
He shook his head. "We need a miracle."
"That doesn't really help us much, Hank." She stared at display on his desk. "We need to find someone here we can trust."
Hank's eyes widened. "That is the last thing we should do."
"I don't see that we have much choice."
Hank touched a control on the display. After a moment, he swung the unit around to face her. "After I figured out this was some sort of time change thing I looked for this."
Mei-Wan leaned forward to get a better look at the display. "Presidential Order Concerning Temporal Incursions," she read. "I assume this has something to do with our current situation."
"You could say that." He turned the display back to himself. "Along with a lot of other things, this orders that anyone who is suspected of having come from another timeline be immediately handed over to the custody of Temporal Investigations for interrogation and study." Hank looked at her. "The same order was signed in the world we know. The basic idea is that someone from another timeline might want to do the very thing we're after--- to change things back to the way they remember reality. People here aren't likely to be excited with the prospect of us erasing them from existence."
Mei-Wan closed her eyes. She hadn't considered that perspective. Now she was glad she hadn't told Todd who she really was.
"We let these people know who we are and we'll spend the rest of our lives in a bunker in some hidden location." Hank leaned forward and rested his arms on the desk. "We can't let that happen if we're to have any chance of finding Jack or reversing what the G'voda did."
"Okay. I understand that now." She tried to think of other options, but with the way she was feeling her mind wasn't cooperating.
"Well, we're not likely to find classified information about time travel in the computer without setting off someone's alarm bells off."
"Which leaves us to find someone with the scientific background we need." But Mei-Wan knew that only brought them back to the original problem of not being able to tell anyone who they were.
The door chime sounded.
Without thinking, years of habit took over and Hank looked over at the entrance. "Come in." The moment after he'd said it, he knew it had been a mistake.
The doors to the security office opened and a man wearing a science division shirt walked in. He smiled wide when Mei-Wan turned to him.
"Just the two people I was looking for," a very human Duncan Zachary said.
