Distant Shores - Marco Palmieri [176]
Casting her gaze around the room, Janeway couldn’t tell from the scene on the floating viewscreen whether or not her friends would make it through the collapsing conduit before the cube, dispatched by the Queen, destroyed Voyager. Insuring Voyager’s safety wasn’t her fight anymore, though. Captain Janeway would see it through. Admiral Janeway’s last fight was personal. Now, where was that creature and his damnable matrix!
She had to give the alien credit. He’d promised he’d come back when she was dying, and he’d made good on his promise. That didn’t mean she’d agreed to cooperate when he decided to pay her a call. Kathryn Janeway was nothing if not stubborn.
“Show yourself! I demand that you show yourself!” she shouted, coughed, choking on the debris polluting the air. “You tried this once before-pretending to be my father was clever. This time you almost had me by convincing me that my life was over, but now I know what you’re up to and there’s no way in hell you’re going to feed off my energy!”
A figure seemingly walked through a wall, materializing before her. Seska didn’t appear happy.
Though intellectually she knew this creature before her wasn’t Seska, part of her wished that the alien had taken another form. At least last time, Janeway’s father had come to show her a way into the next life-if there was such a thing. She’d always dismissed the hope of an afterlife as a longing felt by those unwilling to accept reality; now, facing death, she understood why so many clung to such a belief. “Nice to see you again,” Janeway said, her voice edged in sarcasm. “But don’t take it personally if I don’t invite you to stay.”
“Don’t be impulsive, Kathryn. Are you certain that indeed, I am what you believe me to be?” Seska said. “Perhaps I’m merely here to escort you to an everlasting existence as another glorious life-form- ” She arched an eyebrow. “- or to damnation.”
Janeway snorted. “Don’t believe in it. Hell is a fairy story.”
“Your belief or lack thereof doesn’t change reality. If you knew what your afterlife offered you!” Seska crouched down beside Janeway and whispered in her ear, “Dwelling eternally in a moment of the most promise, of wholeness, of happiness…”
Janeway squeezed a groan of pain back into her throat; there was nothing merciful about Borg assimilation. That damnable explosion seemed to be taking an eternity.
“Oh, Kathryn,” Seska said softly, cocking her head and impassively studying Janeway’s suffering. “Always taking the hard way, out of some misguided nobility or bravery. Had you been less stubborn, we might have had time to visit your Academy days, your first love…”
“Save the sentimentality for someone who buys it,” Janeway said, coughing. “I still don’t believe it.”
“Sometimes you simply have to trust what you can’t see. It’s called faith, Kathryn-I hope you don’t mind me calling you that. I feel like we’ve been through so much together that we’ve moved past the whole Starfleet hierarchical structure, don’t you think?” Seska leaned back against the pillar Janeway had slouched against, crossed her arms across her chest, and looked placidly at her. “Time’s running out, though. You’ll have to decide if you want to take what I’m offering-an afterlife, serenity, a chance to be part of the fabric of the universe forever, or- “
“Or what?”
“Or you take your chances.”
She looked up at her, the full weight of the last few weeks at last bearing down on her-the anniversary celebration of Voyager’s return, the undercover operation involving Miral Paris and the Klingons, the confrontation with Harry before she journeyed to the past, meeting her younger self and changing the course of history…
Exhaustion overtook her. Accepting Seska’s or the alien’s invitation to travel into whatever place there might be beyond this-a matrix, heaven or hell-was mighty tempting. It couldn’t be worse than how she felt now. And yet there was a skepticism that prevented her from embracing the illusion, as alluring as it might be. Still. It couldn’t be worse than this, she thought, surveying the disintegrating