Distant Shores - Marco Palmieri [174]
And the lights… winked… out.
Sickbay was about as dark as they could make it, all except the lights of the biobeds. She wanted it that way. Sickbay was never silent, but that was all right. The sounds-the amplified beat of Chakotay’s heart, the soft rustle of fabric as Paris changed position-were… comforting. That’s the way she wanted things for now.
Janeway huddled on a biobed, blanket over her shoulders, and a mug in her right hand. The coffee was black, fragrant, and piping hot. Feathers of steam caressed her cheeks, dewing into tears.
Her mind skipped over the reports: the Nimtra in stasis; the Falnari killing them without knowing, and vice versa. Voyager would help. Something would work itself out. Figuring a common language for starters… things would work out.
One particular job, right now. She fingered the padd. She couldn’t see it well, though if she held it at a certain angle, it caught the light.
Marla Gilmore’s voice in her head: Listen, there’s just one more thing. My nephew…
Janeway’s eyes drifted to the alcove and the darkness there that was, mercifully perhaps, too complete. All she saw was a suggestion of a form. The drape of a cloth.
How to describe a woman she’d willfully ignored to a boy she didn’t know? Janeway’s lips twitched into a ghost of a smile. Use your brain, girl. You just do.
So Janeway thumbed the padd to life, licked her lips and began to speak.
Da Capo al Fine
Part II
Heather Jarman
“You wish,” Kathryn Janeway said in a low, guttural voice, staggering toward Seska. “But I don’t believe in ghosts or ghouls and consequently, I know this knife wound isn’t real.” White bursts flashed before her eyes; she paused, nausea overtaking her stomach.
“That’s the feeling of your life draining away,” Seska said, backing away from her. “A vague sense of disorientation, distance between your mind and your physical body. Your brain is working frantically to pump endorphins into your body to silence the nerve endings that are sending panicked messages of pain… lots of it. Soon, mercifully enough, you’ll lose consciousness and you’ll simply slip away. Too bad-I would have liked your death to last longer, but I’ll take what fun I can get.”
“You… aren’t… real,” Janeway said, willing her mind to believe what she knew had to be the truth. Seska wasn’t here at this place in time. She wasn’t aboard Voyager when we left Deep Space 9 for the Badlands. Inhaling sharply, her heart rate accelerated and nausea twisted her stomach. A wave of dizziness capsized her concentration; she dropped down, burying her head between her knees. We haven’t even left for the Badlands… or have we? How else would she know Seska? Janeway felt the same throbbing headache she associated with-temporal disturbances. Is that what this is? she thought, wondering if at last she had an explanation for the strange, surreal dreams and experiences she’d had today. Am I stuck in some time loop? With what mental strength she had left, she willed her thoughts into some semblance of order, ignoring Seska’s taunts.
No explanation made sense, save her absolute conviction that none of her present circumstances were real. And yet the pain… she couldn’t cognitively dismiss it. Her temples and neck throbbed with a threatening migraine. She raised blood-smeared hands to her temples, touched her neck, felt the cold metal protruding from between the cords of her throat. The Cardassian had knifed her! She cried out, panic swamping her. Calm, Kathryn, Calm.
Cautiously, she touched her neck again, felt the metal. Far away, a chorus of modulated voices chattered, their tones devoid of emotion or inflection.
… unable to comply… proceed to corridor one-six-seven…
The voices drew closer, became louder.
The Borg.
Janeway pinched her eyes tight together, scrunched up her face, and pressed her hands to her cheeks, pushing away the voices. This isn’t real.
Oh yes it is, came Seska’s voice in her mind, and it was then she realized that the quiet yet persistent demands, in all her dreams or hallucinations or temporal travels, had been Seska’s whispers.