Chapter 6 - Choices To Be Made
Jack, Mei-Wan, and Hank stepped out of the Guardian upon the barren world it had stood upon for billions of years. Mei-Wan winced as she put her weight on the injured ankle.
"You okay?" Jack asked, putting his arm around her.
"I think I sprained it," she said as she leaned on Jack for support.
"I think we've got a problem," Hank said, pointing directly ahead of them.
Jack and Mei-Wan turned and saw two figures standing ten feet away.
"I take it he's your husband?" Li-Na Lau asked.
Mei-Wan nodded slowly, surprised to find her sister from the altered timeline still upon the Guardian's world.
Jack's eyes widened when he saw Robin. "Wait a second, she's..."
"It's Robin," Mei-Wan stated.
Robin grinned. "He's kinda cute, Mei."
Jack frowned. "Only kinda?"
"But how are they still here?" Hank asked. "If this all worked shouldn't they be gone?" He shot a glance to Robin and Li-Na. "No offense."
Mei-Wan looked toward the Guardian. "I can only guess, but within a certain distance of the Guardian it may be that time remains unaltered, no matter the changes made to the timeline."
"But how can we be certain we succeeded?" Hank asked.
"EVERYTHING IS AS IT WAS BEFORE," came the booming voice from the large glowing ring.
Mei-Wan shook her head as everyone turned to the Guardian.
"That's a lie," Mei-Wan said. "And you know it."
Silence.
"How can you be certain?" Jack asked.
"Because we read for it ourselves--- Hickok was murdered in 1876." Mei-Wan stared at the time portal for a moment. "This whole thing was engineered from the start. The Guardian could have prevented Jack from going back to the nineteenth century if it had wanted to." She took a step toward the large device. "Couldn't you, Guardian?"
Again, Silence.
Mei-Wan turned to Jack. "Why do you think the Borg never went back to stop Zephram Cochrane again? Why haven't they just gone back to ancient Egypt or fifty thousand years in Earth's past and assimilated humanity?" she asked, her anger growing. "They'd face no resistance at all! We'd never know they'd done it!"
She swung around and pointed at the Guardian. "Why do you think it's called 'the Guardian'? It's not a simple time travel device, Jack. Something like that wouldn't require sentience, but a machine which kept watch over the timeline would."
She looked down a minute then back to the machine. "Or one that actively manipulated the timeline," she whispered.
The Guardian stood silently, only the howling wind blowing through the distant mountains broke the quiet.
"But why?!" Robin insisted. "If I died in your timeline, why bring me here?"
"Where's Ahwi Dasari?" Mei-Wan asked.
"She left right after you did," Li-Na said. "That was about fifteen minutes ago."
"Ahwi would have those answers. She's the one who insisted we bring the two of you along," Mei-Wan said. "The beings doing this aren't out to simply change history in broad ways like stopping the birth of the Federation or preventing the development of warp drive. They're manipulating time to achieve a specific, long range outcome."
"And to do that, they'd need to perform small, subtle changes which can bring about predictable results."
Robin took a deep breath. "That Dasari girl... when she identified herself to this Guardian, she called herself an 'engineer'." She looked at Mei-Wan. "They're engineering time as if it were a vast complex machine."
"And we're all just little cogs in that machine," Hank said with a frown.
However, Jack didn't share Hank's sour mood. "Whoever is at the heart of this isn't infallible. Khalid Dasari didn't know he'd be dead with his daughter left to finish his work."
"He's probably just a low level grunt," Hank said. "He's just as much a pawn in this as we are."
"Is that all we are?" Mei-Wan demanded, turning to the Guardian. "Are we just pieces on a board to be moved around to you?"
Silence.
"We're more than that," Jack said with a bright look in his eyes. "Now we know what it, and whoever is behind it, are up to." He walked several steps toward the Guardian. "It manipulates, but it needs us to act--- to play our parts, our assigned roles. Suppose we refuse?"
"My guess is a member of the Dasari family would step out from behind a curtain to pull us back into line," Hank said.
"And in that moment we can take control of the game." Jack smiled. "Just like I did when I didn't tell Khalid Dasari he had died here in the twenty-fourth century."
"It's not much," Mei-Wan said, her mood lightening a bit. "We'd have no idea what consequences our choices would have."
He met her gaze. "We stay true to ourselves and make our own choices... no matter who or what might tempt us to do otherwise." Jack stepped up to Mei-Wan. "Our choices define who we are, Mei. It's up to us to make the most of them."
She gave Jack a nod. "I think I'm finally beginning to understand that."
Hank Evans stood silent. He didn't understand what Jack and Mei-Wan were getting at. To him it all sounded too much like the wishful thinking of someone who was fighting a loosing battle. Hank knew what that was like and he didn't want any part of it.
However, what Jack said had stirred something within Hank Evans. He couldn't quite figure out what it was just yet, but then, he'd rarely understood idealism. The real world had done everything it could to crush what little of it he once had. Yet, there was a lure to what Jack was saying. Only time would tell if it would be enough to rekindle the last dry bits of driftwood within Hank Evans' soul.
The comm badge in Hank's pocket chirped. He pulled it out. "Evans," he said, not sure what the response would be.
"Hancock here," came the voice of Admiral Christopher Hancock over the communication device. "Since you're back, I assume you found Jack."
"Yes, sir, Admiral," Hank said, shrugging his shoulders. When they'd left there was no one else in orbit, but that had been the other timeline.
"Well, you better get yourselves back up here," Hancock's voice said. "The boys from Temporal Investigations are on their way over and they insist on debriefing all of you."
Jack rolled his eyes. "Let's go hide out in another time."
"Jack," Mei-Wan chided.
"I hate those guys," Jack said. "Temporal Investigators have no sense of humor."
"You ain't kiddin'" Hank agreed.
As the five of them walked toward the captain's yacht, the Guardian sat silently watching as it always had... watching and waiting, until it was again needed to fulfill that for which it had been created.
***
Instead of going to its usual berth on the underside of the primary hull, the yacht Bucephalus entered shuttlebay two on the Chamberlain. Once it came to a rest, Admiral Hancock, followed by a small group of officers approached the craft as its passengers disembarked.
One of those officers with Hancock was Melissa Vargas. Her heart jumped as she caught sight of her captain, the man she had grown to love over the past six months. But her excitement was tempered when she noticed Mei-Wan with her arm around Jack McCall.
"Glad to see you made it back," Christopher Hancock told the group. His eyes narrowed as his attention was drawn to the two women at the back of the group. "Who are your friends, Jack?"
Robin Nelson and Li-Na Lau stood consumed with nervous apprehension.
"Lieutenant Robin Nelson and Ensign Li-Na Lau," Jack told Hancock.
"Exactly where did they come from?"
"That may take some explaining, Admiral," Jack said, still helping Mei-Wan to keep weight off her injured ankle.
A fact that Hancock didn't miss. "Are you okay, Mei-Wan?" he asked.
"I'll be fine."
Jack frowned. "She needs to get to sickbay."
Hancock gave a nod as he tapped his comm badge. "Doctor Preston, please come to Shuttlebay Two."
"I really don't need to see the doctor," Mei-Wan protested. "If I can let it soak for a couple of hours..."
"It's not a suggestion, Lieutenant," Hancock replied with a grin. "I want you all to get checked out before Temporal Investigations gets here." He turned to Jack. "I wish I could keep you from their interrogation, but the favor I called in only bought me so much."
Preston and two nurses came onto the deck and made their way to Mei-Wan, helping her onto an anti-grav gurney.
As the others followed Preston toward the exit, Jack met Melissa's gaze. He couldn't help smiling. Her hair was shorter than he remembered, and for a moment he wondered if that was due to some change in the course of time, but Hank had told him on the trip up that several months had passed since their mission to Folam Six, the mission which had started this journey through the centuries. That was plenty of time for a woman to change her hairstyle.
Melissa returned his happy expression and mouthed the words, "I missed you."
***
Mei-Wan remained silent as Preston finished his exam of her. She kept hoping against hope that her return to her own timeline would also return her body to the way it had been before all of this madness had started.
"You've done a nasty bit of work to that ankle, Lieutenant," the doctor said as he reached for a small bone knitter. "But I should have you as good as new in short order." He glanced over at her while the device repaired her damaged ankle. "You also managed to pick up a case of tuberculosis. I doubt I could find ten physicians alive who've ever encountered that disease. I don't suppose you'd like to explain how you contracted it."
Mei-Wan looked at him. "The admiral said we weren't supposed to discuss anything about where we'd been."
A frown came to Preston's face. "I am a doctor. Patient confidentiality prevents me from discussing your condition with anyone else."
"I don't think Admiral Hancock would consider that a valid exception."
Preston placed the bone knitter back with the other collection of instruments on the table near the biobed Mei-Wan was on. He turned back to her. "Are you aware that you're pregnant?"
Mei-Wan closed her eyes. She fought back the flood of emotions now that she knew her prayers had gone unanswered. "Yes, I know," she got out barely above a whisper.
Preston noticed her reaction. "I take it this wasn't planned."
"That depends on which Mei-Wan you're asking," she said with a sigh.
"The thing about this that troubles me is you're nearly four months into the pregnancy," Preston said. "But when I examined you two months ago, you weren't pregnant."
Mei-Wan's only reply was a nod.
"Have you informed the captain about it?"
She shook her head. "And I'd prefer that you don't tell him."
Preston tried to read her expression for several seconds. "It isn't his?"
For once Mei-Wan was glad for the orders which required her to remain silent. She doubted she could get far into an explanation before being consumed by the anguish she felt. She hadn't even been present when this child had been conceived, yet she felt nothing but love for the man who had fathered it--- a man who might not even exist in her reality.
"I've started you on several supplements," Preston told her. "I'll want to see you again in another week to make sure everything's going well with the baby."
"Baby?" asked a voice behind Preston.
Mei-Wan and the doctor spun about and saw Li-Na being led toward another biobed by a nurse. Preston shot a furious glance at the nurse.
"Mei..." Li-Na began before she was led out of the room by the nurse escorting her.
Preston turned back to Mei-Wan. "I'm sorry about that."
Mei-Wan sat up. "It's okay. I doubt I'll be able to keep it hidden for much longer anyway."
***
Ten minutes later, Mei-Wan stepped into the lobby area of the Chamberlain's main sickbay. The only other person there walked up to her.
"You're pregnant?" Li-Na asked.
Overwhelmed, Mei-Wan stepped back. "Li-Na, I'd rather not discuss it now."
"Is it Todd's child?"
Mei-Wan sat down in one of the chairs in the lobby. "Your sister, the Mei-Wan of your timeline, was pregnant a month before I showed up."
Confused, Li-Na sat down next to her. "How is this possible?"
"I don't know, but the reality I have to deal with is I'm carrying a child I had no part in creating."
"What are you going to do?" Li-Na asked, staring at Mei-Wan.
"I don't know yet."
Li-Na thought a moment. "Are you considering terminating the pregnancy?"
"I said, I don't know," Mei-Wan replied, becoming angry and frustrated.
Li-Na placed her hand on Mei-Wan's. "Please don't do that."
Mei-Wan turned her eyes toward the sister she'd never known. "My options are limited."
"If this is my Mei's baby, it's the only connection I have to her. Please, I've lost everything else. Don't take this from me."
"This is a child, Li-Na," Mei-Wan said. "It isn't some momento to put up on a shelf. It's a flesh and blood human being who will be born in five months time." Mei-Wan saw the pain in Li-Na's eyes. This young woman had been ripped from the only reality she had ever known and been told everyone she'd ever cared about was now gone--- they'd never existed. Mei-Wan could sympathize. She'd gone through much the same when she'd found herself in Li-Na and Robin's timeline. "I'm sorry. I have to consider the responsibility I'll have to this child."
"Then let me carry it," Li-Na said softly.
"What?"
"Let me have the baby," Li-Na said, feeling more sure of herself now that she'd repeated it. "I'll raise it as my own."
"Li-Na, this isn't something you can just..."
"Please." Li-Na looked into her eyes. "Let me do this for my sister. So she can live on through her child."
Mei-Wan closed her eyes as yet another decision loomed large before her. Li-Na's solution would avoid her having to make the choice she most disliked, but she wondered what consequences would come from it and most importantly, if she could accept giving up the last connection she had to Todd Nakano.
So many decisions now seemed far less clear than they had even minutes before. But she knew what she wanted her life to be. If it was to be truly her life, she had to start making her own choices and be willing to face the consequences, good or bad. And as much as she wished there was some part of Todd Nakano she could hold onto, that's all this child would ever be to her: a possession, an object, a talisman of a life which had never been. Todd Nakano and Mei-Wan Lau's child deserved better than that. They deserved better. But it was not within her power to give them the "happily ever after" existence their love might have created. She couldn't even give them their own existence.
All she could do was live her own life the best she could.
***
Jack, Hank, Mei-Wan, Robin, and Li-Na spent the next day and a half being interrogated by agents from Temporal Investigations, during which they weren't allowed to speak to anyone else aboard the Chamberlain. For Jack, they asked detailed questions about his time in the nineteenth century. They seemed most interested in learning about his arguments with John Prange, but when Jack asked for information about Prange's life after he'd left, they told him little.
Mei-Wan's questioners weren't nearly as interested in the nineteenth century as they were the alternate version of the twenty-fourth that she and Hank had found themselves in. While she did her best to remember what she could about the people of that altered timeline, she kept the specifics of her relationship with Todd Nakano from them, especially the pregnancy. And while she told them about the power drain the Chamberlain experienced in orbit of Dalvanax Two, she kept the most important facts about the cause of it to herself. She thought she'd finally figured out what the Ancient Progenitor device was doing buried upon that desert world and she didn't trust Temporal Investigations to put that information to the best use.
There was a right time, place, and most importantly, person, for everything. She already had an idea who that was.
