• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Kathryn smiled as she saw him approach, and then suddenly he realized that he, too, had a sarong wrapped around him. It was then that he knew he was dreaming, and sorrow, sweet and haunting in its gentle melancholy, wrapped him.

The poignant sound of a flute reached his ears. He turned toward the sound, not at all surprised to see Blue Water Boy playing on the grassy shoreline of this tranquil lake. Chakotay’s childhood friend was fifteen, the age he had been the last time Chakotay had seen him. The age at which he would forever be emblazoned on Chakotay’s memory. Unlike Sekaya, Chakotay had been denied the privilege of seeing Blue Water Dreamer, the adult man. He wondered what that man had been like. Sekaya had told him a little, but her story was deeply personal, and she had not gone into detail.

He was therefore surprised when the boy morphed into a man. His hair was not as long and had more than a few silver strands entwined in the glossy black. Blue Water Dreamer was of average height and build, shorter and less muscular than Chakotay. There were wrinkles around his dark eyes, but those eyes were every bit as untroubled and clear as Chakotay remembered; as untroubled and clear as the lake before them.

A dream? Chakotay wondered.

Or a vision?

“They’re the same thing,” said a voice. Chakotay turned to see himself. A deep shudder went through him. Was it he? Or was it the Changeling, a being he had known as Arak Katal the Barjoran and Andrew Ellis, the priggish first officer?

The other Chakotay knew what he was thinking. “I’m you, don’t worry,” he said reassuringly, and Chakotay believed himself. He looked again at the figure standing before him, clad in the standard Starfleet uniform, the number of pips on his collar marking him as a captain. He looked down at himself, seeing bronze skin and a colorful wrap around his loins.

Which am I?

“They’re both you” came Kathryn’s voice. She, too, had a twin now, a short-haired, no-nonsense woman clad in the formal dress uniform of a Starfleet admiral. Chakotay glanced from one to the other, knowing he cherished both the woman and the admiral.

“You keep trying to compartmentalize us.” He knew this voice, too, and turned from Kathryn’s warm smile to see Sekaya sitting next to Blue Water Dreamer. He was still playing his flute, the music a score to the drama that was unfolding in Chakotay’s dream/vision. Chakotay’s heart hurt as he beheld his sister and his childhood friend. They looked good, sitting side by side. If only Fate had permitted them to be together.

“Not fate,” growled his other Self, dark eyes flashing, arms folded across his uniformed chest. “Moset. Moset killed him.” And suddenly that other Self split in two, and Chakotay now looked at a Maquis captain. The Starfleet Self was now calm and cool, in control. The Maquis blazed with fury, with a burning desire for vengeance.

And still Blue Water Dreamer played, calm and peaceful, as the drama of the Chakotays unfolded. Three of them there were now; his cultural Self, his Starfleet Self, and the Maquis. Traditionalist, adventurer, rebel. He was all of these. Janeway, too, was more than one aspect of her personality. They were all Changelings, in their way, transforming from one to the other as the need surfaced.

Even Blue Water Dreamer had made the transition from boy to man in Chakotay’s mind. And that was a transition he had never witnessed.

Chakotay’s mind drifted, oddly at this moment, to his friend Kaz. Was this how it was to be a joined Trill? To have all these aspects at play in your mind at one time? It was amazing to him that Trill didn’t all go mad.

As the thought struck him, pain shot through his head and he groaned aloud. He brought his hand to his temple, and his questing fingers found not short, almost spiky hair and skin but hard nubbins of technology.

We are the Borg. Prepare to be assimilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile.

Even as the chilling voice of thousands speaking in perfect harmony