Chapter 7 - Fools Give You Reasons, Wise Men Never Try
2 February 2379…
It had been two weeks since they had left the Dalvanax system and Mei-Wan was becoming increasingly frustrated with her research. She had gone through every available record back to the 2063 First Contact event between Earth and the Vulcans and had found nothing which could be the cause of the alteration in the timeline. She knew the records on Earth prior to that were sketchy at best due to the Third World War and the poor record keeping used by human society.
It was unlikely the cause could be a major event otherwise the alteration would have been far greater than what she and Hank Evans were experiencing. And small, personal events would be near impossible to catch because that kind of detailed record keeping didn't exist prior to the twenty-first century.
She still held out hope the change occurred on some other world such as Vulcan or Tellar, but that's all it was: a hope.
***
Mei-Wan strolled down a corridor on Deck Twelve on her way to see Hank Evans for their daily meeting, and then afterward, assuming there was nothing new, she'd have dinner with Todd. However, she was troubled by his request for them to have dinner in his quarters. She had managed to avoid dealing with the issue of their lack of sex now for the entire time she had been here in this reality. This was the first time he had asked for them to meet in his quarters and she expected they'd at least have to talk about it.
She smiled as she neared the security section. She knew she wouldn't go through with it, but for a moment she entertained the idea of making love to Todd. When she'd first arrived, she'd gotten more than a good look at his body and had found herself curious.
Curious? she thought. He's not some artifact to be studied! Admit it Mei-Wan, you were turned on by his body.
She laughed at her own objective attitude. It was one of things she had come to realize she did a lot to avoid an emotional entanglement with something or someone. It was a habit she was determined to break.
She had lived so much of her life afraid of so many things, but mainly herself and her own passions. She'd hidden in her work, missing so many opportunities and experiences.
Again her mind focused on Todd. But these weren't her own imaginings.
It's happening again!
She stopped and steadied herself against the bulkhead. These memory flashes usually lasted only a minute or so and she'd avoided anyone finding out about them as of yet. This was the first time one had happened in a corridor of the ship.
She didn't care anymore. She had grown so tired of this masquerade Hank had insisted they play that she almost hoped someone would find her struggling to keep from falling.
She let go and didn't fight the experience this time as it flooded into her mind. Every sensation burst into her consciousness. While it had the feel of a memory, it lacked one important quality: she had no idea where it was leading. Because of that, she found it exciting.
She "remembered" Todd's hand brushing gently over the skin on her back and her own breathing becoming deeper and more rapid. He was kissing her neck, his breath caressing her skin with its warmth.
I love you, Mei, he'd said.
Make love to me, please... make love to me, she'd whimpered as if begging for a moment more of life.
She felt his skin against hers; their bodies entwined in a vigorous embrace, every muscle joining the explosive dance they fell hungrily into. His hands seemed everywhere at once as he pulled them closer together.
She cried out.
The memory faded away as quickly as it had come.
Mei-Wan looked up and down the corridor, hoping she hadn't actually screamed and if she had that no one had been there to hear it. Looking every direction, she saw no one.
She tried to walk, but found it almost impossible. Her legs trembled beneath her. She steadied herself and took a number of deep breaths. She'd hate to have to call sickbay for something like this. There'd be no way to explain it to Doctor Preston.
But soon enough, her strength returned and she took several tentative steps until she was sure of her legs functioning properly. She decided before the next memory flash struck her she needed to find a place to sit down.
***
"You okay?" Hank Evans asked as Mei-Wan nearly ran to a seat in his office.
She fell into the chair and let herself finally relax. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just another flash of her memories."
Hank smiled. "Must have been a good one."
She gave him a quick glance. "Why do you say that?"
He chuckled. "You look like you just had sex with someone."
Mei-Wan closed her eyes. That's all she needed was Hank and his less than savory mind running in overdrive. "How about you just give me your usual report of 'nothing new' so I can get out of here?"
"I'm afraid that's not possible. I came across a lot of information today."
She sat up in the chair, starting to recover from her memory incident. "Let's hear it."
Hank sat down at his desk and activated the comm display. "Since I've got full access to the Federation database now, I decided to do a complete search through all citizens on member worlds, colonies, and territories." He paused a moment. "Not only is there no one named Jack McCall, but his father, Jeremiah, doesn't exist either."
Mei-Wan closed her eyes. She had been afraid this might be the case after she'd found no record of Jeremiah in any of the historical accounts of the last war with the Cardassians. It followed if Jack's father didn't exist that he wouldn't either. "What about his mother?"
"She's living on New Bedford Colony, she's a school teacher, but married to someone named Joseph Haskell. He runs a small commercial spaceport there." Hank touched a couple of controls. "They have two daughters, ages thirty-three and twenty-nine."
"Couldn't you find anything on the McCall family?"
"I found several other families with the name, but from what I can remember about Jack's family, they appear to have simply been erased."
That was at least something, despite how bad it sounded. Mei-Wan now had some connection to the change in time. It had eliminated Jack's family history. Now, if she could remember what little she had been told about his family, she might be able to find the change, but it could be something as simple as an event keeping two of his ancestors from meeting. How could she find a negative like that?
"You having any luck on your end?" Hank asked.
She shook her head. "I'm beginning to doubt I will find anything. The records are getting poorer as I go farther back."
Hank switched the display off and leaned back in his chair. "I think we've come to the point where it's time for us to make a decision, Mei."
She had a good idea what it was he was going to say.
He continued. "If we don't know where and when the change occurred there's no way we can reverse it."
"I know that, Hank."
"Look, this isn't easy for me either. Jack is my friend. In a lot of ways he's the only family I have, sad as that is."
Mei-Wan watched him get lost in his own thoughts. She wondered what was going on in his mind, but decided it was probably best to leave him to himself. She knew she didn't want to share with him what was in her own heart.
"I've got the computer doing a full out search right now, but aside from a coincidental match here or there, I'm not hopeful it'll turn up anything." He looked directly at her. "I think we need to accept that this timeline, the way it is now, is the world we're going to be living out the rest of our lives in."
No! She didn't want to give up, despite how bleak things looked. But she knew that was just her way to avoid a decision. It had been her method of dealing with all her difficulties in life.
After nearly a minute, she turned to Hank. "You were going to retire back in our reality. You still going to do that?"
Hank grinned. "Well, I really don't think I fit in any better in Starfleet here than I did there."
She tried to smile, but found it impossible to.
"I'll probably go back to the life I had in the Kel-j'na Region," he said. "Assuming my asteroid is where it was in our timeline." He thought a moment. "You're welcome to join me. With your knowledge of archaeology we'd make a hell of a lot of money."
She considered his offer for almost a second, but her heart pulled another direction.
Hank saw it. "But I guess you've got a reason to stay, don't you?"
"I think I'm falling in love with Todd Nakano," she whispered.
"That's good," he said with a wide smile. "You should stay and marry him then."
But Mei-Wan didn't feel there was anything to celebrate. Finally through all the possibilities, one reality hit her as hard as a collision with a steel wall. "But what about Jack?"
"He never existed, Mei." The words came out hard. "But there's one positive side to this. Whatever change occurred has resulted in the G'voda not being around, or at least off hiding somewhere and the deaths on Cajma and the other worlds attacked by those beings from Hel'yra haven't occurred. I think if Jack knew his life had been sacrificed to prevent all that death and pain, he'd say it was worth it."
She couldn't stop the tears any longer. "You're probably right." She wiped the dampness from her cheeks. "But I'm going to miss him so very much."
Hank walked over to where she was seated and put his arm around her. "Me too, kid. Me too."
***
Mei-Wan made her way to Todd's quarters, but decided to take her time. She wanted to make sure of what was going through her mind. She wanted to believe there was something they had missed. She had even taken a detour to her own quarters to change into a cute red dress so she might have another distraction to avoid the truth.
Her husband, Jack McCall, didn't exist. That was the way things were. No amount of hoping would change that simple fact.
She had cried for a while in Hank's office for Jack, but they had both known this was a possibility from the moment they learned Larissa James was the captain of the Chamberlain. Jack would have been happy about Larissa being alive here. Her death had always been a terrible hole in his soul. Mei-Wan hoped wherever he was now, at least that would allow him some small portion of peace.
Where does someone go if they cease to exist? her scientist's mind wondered. She frowned. That's it, Mei. Start distancing yourself from your pain again. You're so damn good at it.
She walked into Todd's quarters.
"What's wrong?" he asked immediately.
She cursed herself for not taking more time or even better, calling off the evening's date.
"Uh... nothing."
"Come on, Mei. I know you better than that." He put his arms around her.
He had changed out of his uniform as well, wearing a pair of dark slacks and a golden sweatshirt. She felt the warmth of his body through the material of her dress. And right now having him close like this felt so wonderful.
But she had to tell him something before he started digging and she found it difficult to not just reveal the truth. "Someone I used to know... they died."
He nodded. "An old boyfriend?"
She almost laughed. A boyfriend? "Something like that, yeah."
"Would you rather we postpone tonight?"
God, he is so damn considerate! she thought. Mei-Wan Lau, you were so lucky to find this man. She looked up at Todd's soothing eyes. And now I'm the lucky one.
"No," she said. "I'd rather not be alone."
"I've got our supper waiting if you'd like to eat," he said with an almost excited grin.
She hesitated for a moment, wondering if he was up to something, but let it pass. "Sure. I'm starved."
Todd let her walk over to the table by herself. A moment later, she knew why.
"Oh my god..."
There were no plates of food on the table, only a small box opened with a large diamond affixed to a golden ring.
She couldn't help smiling. "Todd… oh my god."
He was smiling as well. "I got tired of waiting and thought maybe it was time for me to take charge of the situation."
She slowly walked up to the table and the ring which sat gleaming brightly from the light above. "It's beautiful."
Todd had the most satisfied look of his life on his face. He had managed to impress her. "I was kind of hoping you'd like it."
"I love it," she whispered.
But as she reached for the ring, he quickly moved and took it in his hand. "Hold up, Mei. There's a little bit of procedure which has to be followed at a moment like this."
He took her hand and led her over to the couch.
"Todd, what are you doing?" she asked, knowing full well what he was up to.
They both sat down and he took her left hand in his. "I've always told you when your heart knows what it wants, there isn't a force in the Universe which can get in the way," he said with more sincerity than Mei-Wan had ever heard in a human voice. He slid the ring slowly onto her finger. "Don't fight what you know both our hearts want, Mei."
The large clear jewel sparkled with points of light bright as the stars in the night sky.
"Mei-Wan Lau, will you marry me?"
***
There are some worlds in this Universe for which the words "barren" and "desolate" don't even begin to describe the full measure of their absence of life, either plant, animal, or bacteria. Some have the appearance of the mythical places of the dead and suffering. Some aren't even that pleasant.
Upon one such carcinogenic world stood a figure wearing red and blue body armor, her dark hair hanging like some ink soaked mop left to dry on a humid day. An electronic display on her forearm filled her face with a red glow and her mind with the worries of one who was running out of time.
Ahwi Dasari chuckled. "It would figure, here in this place, I'd be the one running out of time."
Directly ahead of her, not twenty feet away, stood a large ring, or so it appeared it had once been. Now it was misshapen as if it had endured some energy beyond comprehension. But it had endured and it would continue to do so for eons into the future.
It could not help but do so. The large ring structure had too much work to do protecting both the future and the past.
"Guardian," Ahwi called to it. "Prepare to receive new instructions."
"I exist but to serve," it bellowed with an Olympian voice across the plateau it stood upon.
"Yeah, whatever," Ahwi murmured.
"As do we," said a voice from behind the young woman.
Ahwi spun about and frowned at a group of three figures walking toward her. "And what are you doing here?"
"We seek an explanation, Engineer," one of the creatures covered in bluish-white fur said. "We sent Jack McCall to the Folam system to stop the G'voda."
"And they were stopped, Kalastia," Ahwi addressed the being. "So what's to explain?"
The three Vedala whispered amongst themselves for a moment. "Perhaps since you are only an Engineer Fifth Class you are unaware of the changes in the timeline which have occurred."
"I'm not an idiot," Ahwi said becoming angry. "I know full well what's happened."
"Then you have the answer to the reason for our inquiry."
Ahwi chortled. "And since when have we had to explain ourselves to the Vedala?"
"You misunderstand. This is not a demand; merely a request."
"Then I won't have to report it back to my superiors," she said, glaring directly into Kalastia's warm eyes.
"While we do serve your kind, that service is not blind, young one."
That was getting uncomfortably close to defiance. Too close for Ahwi's tastes. She knew better than to confront the Vedala directly. They could kill her in a heartbeat. They knew it and she knew it. Sure there'd be some very nasty retribution afterward, but none of that would prevent her from being a permanent smudge of goo on this already wretched planet.
She relaxed a bit. "Look, like you said, I'm a Fifth Class. I just do what they tell me. I get about as much explanation as you do. Sometimes less."
"How unfortunate for you," Kalastia said, unable to resist taking a last dig at Ahwi.
"Yeah, I know it sucks," she said, the Vedala's subtle attitude lost upon her teenaged mind. "Is there something else I can do for you? I am kind of in a hurry."
"We are troubled by the progression of events and the nature of the actions of the Volmvas. We believed you might have some pre-knowledge of the direction this conflict will take."
Ahwi considered a smart-ass comeback, but thought better of it when she noticed the fear in the eyes of all three Vedala. She hated having to deal with such creatures. While they were useful at times, their unpredictable nature made working with them time consuming and a major pain in the ass. Humans were so much easier… usually.
However, in this case her supervisors had calculated one bit of information this particular Vedala could be placated with. "The only thing I can tell you is you will have the opportunity to face Syronus again, Kalastia."
The Vedala's eyes widened. "In battle or face to face?"
"I'm afraid that's up to you."
"Then face to face is what I wish." The Vedala began to turn to leave, but stopped. A wave of concern came over its complex mind. "Then what we have feared is coming?"
Ahwi's brow raised. "Are you really that surprised? You knew if they were ever released it was one of the few options available."
"Yes." Kalastia nodded and then stood a little taller. "And we will do it as willingly as those we once served, and in honor of them."
Ahwi watched the Vedala walk away. She felt sad for the creatures. In one sense they were pathetic. Despite all their power, they had never once lived their own lives or known who they were.
But perhaps it was better for them. Knowing who she was had made Ahwi's life nothing but a living hell. Sometimes, as she would fall asleep, her mind drifted to happier times when she knew far less about the Universe and herself.
