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as they passed. Some had served with her before, while others had joined her when she took command of Voyager. She prided herself on knowing them all on sight-home planets, previous assignments, personal details like marriages and children. But she wouldn’t make the mistake of getting too attached: starship crews were always in flux. Command frequently made transfers based on factors ranging from merit, individual request, skills training, and need to punishment and demotion. Janeway wasn’t yet senior enough in her captaincy to have all her requests honored, but she had gained some clout, evidenced recently by a plum assignment to the Intrepid-class’s newest vessel-She paused, narrowing her eyes. Wait…

Ahead of her, she saw, in profile, an unfamiliar Bajoran woman wearing the gold uniform of security and engineering. Her brown hair was pulled tightly back against her skull and twisted into a knot at the base of her head. Dark, arched eyebrows punctuated a severe face-high, angular cheekbones, thin lips, downturned slightly. She studied the Bajoran for a brief second before the woman disappeared around the corner.

I know her… Janeway mused, the realization disturbing her. The disquieting feeling crept back into her consciousness. She shivered and realization struck.

I know you.

Janeway walked briskly after the Bajoran woman, colliding with an unsuspecting crewman as she turned the corner. Muttering a monosyllabic apology, eyes drilled forward, she continued her single-minded pursuit. A flash of dark hair ahead led her onward. The corridor’s twists and turns led her into an area of the ship she didn’t recognize. For a long moment she imagined that she must be lost, though how that was possible in her ship she couldn’t fathom. Voyager might be newly under her command, but she prided herself on knowing every square meter of its corridors. This is ridiculous, Kathryn, she thought. You’re chasing apparitions. She pivoted on her heel, pointed in the general direction of the turbolift to the bridge, and took a step forward-Smack!

Janeway stepped back, startled, “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you- “

Before her eyes, the Bajoran in a Starfleet uniform morphed into a Cardassian woman, hair flowing down around her shoulders.

“- Seska,” the name a sibilant hiss from Janeway’s lips. “What the hell- “

“Think of me as an envoy. And before you ask why me and not someone nice like your father or Justin… let’s just say you’re your best self with your enemies, and leave it at that.”

Janeway placed balled fists on her hips. “Nothing you say or do matters an iota to me.”

A self-congratulatory grin split Seska’s face, and she laughed. “You’re so predictable.”

Janeway’s impulses warred between knocking down the traitor’s obvious gloating a few notches with a swift punch, or ignoring the woman entirely. I’m not going to give her the pleasure, she thought. She pinched her lips into a tight line and turned to leave, shoulders squared. She couldn’t resist an aside as she stepped past Seska, saying offhandedly, “Besides, you’re dead.”

A searing pain burned through the right side of her rib cage; Janeway grunted, and clutched her side with her hands, feeling blurts of liquid warmth erupting against her palms. Wide-eyed, she stared at the bloodstained blade in her attacker’s hand.

“And so are you, Captain,” Seska said with a sneer.

Inhale…

Command Code

Robert Greenberger

This tale takes place shortly after “Caretaker,” the pilot episode of Star Trek: Voyager.

Robert Greenberger

Robert Greenberger has been writing about and for Star Trek since he was in junior high school. Since then, he has moved from the ranks of fandom into the professional realm, editing DC Comics’ Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation comics. His proudest achievement was the award-winning graphic novel Debt of Honor. He made his fiction debut with the collaborative novel ST: TNG: Doomsday World and has since gone on to write several other collaborations and solo efforts. Most recently, he wrote Star Trek: A Time to Love and Star Trek: A Time to Hate. Beyond Star