Strange New Worlds 2016 (31 page)

Enlightened to the timeless power that had been passed to him, Jake Sisko absentmindedly
ran his fingers along the stitching of the weathered baseball as he stared at the
blank page. Finally, he used the antiquated ink pen to write the words:

Past Prologue: The Dreamer and the Dream

By

Jake Sisko

As the light from the setting sun washed over the house that he’d built with his own
hands in Kendra Province, Jake thought about the title and how much the words meant
to the people on Deep Space 9 and in every corner of the universe. He thought about
how much the words meant to his family and how he thought he’d never write again.

Then the final words he had been searching for came to him: “I dedicate this novel
to my father, who’s coming home.”

The figure behind Jake Sisko treaded lightly as he approached. The writer smiled to
himself as he depressed the button on the ancient ink pen that bore the inscription:
INCREDIBLE TALES 740 BROADWAY
.

“I can hear you, Jonathan.”

The seven-year-old giggled at being discovered, then rushed up alongside his big brother.
“Grandpa says dinner is ready and Mister Odo is arguing with Uncle Quark for trying
to sell root beers from the fridge again.” The little boy stood on his toes as he
tried to look over his brother’s shoulder. “Mom says not to bother you when you’re
in here, but you’ve been in here forever! Is it finished yet? You promised you would
read it to me first. What’s it about?”

Jake placed the cover page with the rest of the completed manuscript and turned to
look at his brother. The ancient Bajoran rune on his face that rejected dermal regeneration
was barely visible now, a whisper of what once was. It made him smile.

“It’s about the future.”

S
TAR
T
REK
:

V
OYAGER
®

T
HE
L
AST
R
EFUGE

Roger McCoy

T
HE ORCHID IN THE VASE
at the edge of the bed was dying. Still, against all odds, it had managed to outlive
its owner.

Tuvok could not deny that he felt a connection with orchids. They had played a large
role in his life, ranging from his own prize-winning orchid breeding many years ago
to the unlikely but temporary merging of himself and Neelix due to an accident involving
a symbiogenetic orchid and a transporter. But these orchids held special meaning to
Tuvok: The late Lon Suder, with whom he had spent so many hours working, had grown
this crossbreed from various orchids
Voyager
had encountered on her journey through the Delta Quadrant. More than that, he had
proposed to name it the Tuvok orchid.

While the orchid was struggling, it was a miracle it was still alive at all. Tuvok
and most of the crew of
Voyager
had spent weeks exiled to Hanon IV during the Kazon possession of the ship. Though
it was true that Suder had been trapped on
Voyager
with the Kazon, Tuvok couldn’t imagine that he had much time to tend to flowers while
trying to remain alive and retake the vessel.

And yet the purplish leaves were only now shriveling despite the minimal attention
it must have received. Perhaps Suder had succeeded in creating an orchid that had
an unusual resilience. It seemed appropriate if he had done so. Unusual resilience
had allowed most of
Voyager
’s crew to survive the exile, to say nothing of Suder, who had survived crawling through
corridors and evading the Kazon for weeks . . . at least until his heroic sacrifice
that allowed the crew to retake
Voyager
.

It was a tragic irony. Suder had reveled in violence. Only after many months of work
together had Suder taken control of his violent nature, only to be forced to resort
to violence again in order to survive. In the end Suder had both lived and died by
the sword despite his efforts otherwise.

Tuvok had taken it upon himself to clean out Suder’s quarters after his passing. The
Vulcan considered discarding the dying orchid, but something impelled him to hold
on to it. Perhaps he could revive it or breed a new generation. Tuvok reached out
to lift the pot when an unexpected voice called out to him.

“Hello, Tuvok.”

Tuvok clutched the pot as he turned to see the late Lon Suder’s face on the viewscreen
of his desk computer.

“If you’re seeing this, it means that I’m dead.”
Suder spoke with the calm logic of a Vulcan, but his face contorted slightly as he
thought.
“Well, I hope I’m not dead, but if you’re seeing this, then it seems likely I didn’t
survive. I’m glad you managed to make it back to
Voyager
. Slightly disappointed that I’m not there to greet you, but after surviving this
much I suppose I can’t complain.

“If I’m dead, then I assume the Kazon killed me, but I suppose it’s just as possible
that you were forced to kill me while trying to keep my worse nature under control.”
Suder’s face was pensive as he considered this possibility.
“I hope not, but if that’s the case, then know that I understand and I forgive you.
I can never thank you enough for all of the help you gave me.”
His eyes glistened as he took a moment to strengthen his composure.

“But that’s not why I recorded this. Think of this message as a deathbed confession.
I suppose it’s better that you find out this way so I don’t have to see your disappointment
in me.”
Suder nodded knowingly.
“You try to hide it, but I see it. When I make a mistake. When my worse nature reveals
itself. Anyway, it’s time I just admitted what you may have already figured out from
our sessions together.

“I’m the one who tried to kill Captain Janeway.”

More than sixteen months before Tuvok would see the message from Crewman Suder, Chakotay
sat by the viewport in Janeway’s ready room while he looked over a padd displaying
current crew assignments. “I think we should give Ayala some more responsibility,”
he said. “He’s a good man, and he can handle it.”

Janeway looked up from her own padd and leaned back in her chair. “He tried to attack
Tuvok when you first arrived on
Voyager
,” she said with skepticism.

“
I
wanted to attack Tuvok.” He quickly held up a hand in apology to Tuvok, who stood
near the captain’s desk. “No offense, Tuvok, but we had just found out you were planning
to turn us over to Starfleet.”

“No offense taken.”

“Well, I still feel we need to be cautious.” She set the padd on her desk. “I don’t
want to generalize, but a few of the former Maquis have displayed a very aggressive
nature. I think we need to be sure that’s under control before we place any more in
key positions.”

Chakotay was taken aback. “Is that still a concern? We’ve served together for months.”

“Please don’t misunderstand me, Chakotay. Most of the Maquis are doing a wonderful
job integrating. There are just a few who are proving . . . problematic.” Janeway
flipped through personnel reports. “We’ve already had to reassign Seska from sciences
after that time she nearly punched Ensign Wildman.”

“To be fair, the way I heard it Wildman was asking for it.”

Janeway raised her head. Chakotay felt scolded by her gaze. It didn’t help that Ensign
Wildman was generally very affable. “She had been making insinuations about the Maquis
crew,” he added in explanation.

“That’s not the point.” Janeway was in her stern captain mode. “We don’t come out
swinging every time someone says a cruel word.”

Chakotay started to open his mouth to say something, but he caught himself. His instinct
was to protect his crew, but he knew it was better to concede in this case. “Fair
point.”

“That said, we may have to start shuffling around some of the other Maquis.” Janeway
picked her padd back up and started indicating crew members. “Many aren’t doing well
in their assignments. Crewman Chell is proving unreliable. And he’s hardly the only
one.”

Tuvok chimed in, “Some are far more concerning. I have heard that Crewman Jarvin was
speaking of mutiny when he first arrived on
Voyager
.”

“Yes, but it was all talk,” Chakotay said, feeling more and more defensive. “They’ve
become accustomed to working together since then.”

“You’ll have to excuse me if I find that cold comfort,” Janeway quipped.

Chakotay sighed. He stood and began to pace to burn off some nervous energy, but he
stopped quickly once he had gathered his thoughts. “Listen, Captain, with all due
respect, this is a difficult situation, and you don’t understand all of the backgrounds
involved. We’re going to have a hard time integrating my people if you don’t trust
my judgment about them.”

“But that’s exactly the problem,” Janeway said, leaning back with a hand on her temple
as if fighting a headache. “I’ve said this before: They aren’t
your
people anymore. They’re
our
people. We need to find some way to make them feel like a unit before this comes
apart at the seams.”

Chakotay sat in silence, his lips clenched together, as he all but literally bit his
tongue. Janeway softened as she saw his discomfort. “I’m sorry, Chakotay, I know I’m
not saying anything you don’t already know. We’re on the same side here.” She rubbed
a hand on her cheek. “I think I need another cup of coffee.”

Janeway inclined her head to the replicator across the room and called out, “Coffee,
black.” A whir filled the replicator as the drink materialized. “Commander, would
you mind grabbing that for me?”

“Not at all.” Despite his general discomfort, Chakotay was happy to offer this small
kindness. “I’d like to see if we can give Dalby a little more responsibility too,”
he continued as he walked to the replicator. “Maybe on the gamma shift. He’s shown
some good initiative.”

“Perhaps a bit too much initiative,” Tuvok retorted.

Chakotay was growing weary of having to defend so many of the former Maquis. He carefully
considered his response as he took the coffee mug, but he halted when he glanced at
its contents.

“Chakotay?” Janeway’s voice pitched in concern.

“Captain, I think someone’s playing a joke on you.”

“I’m sorry?”

Chakotay lifted the mug out of the replicator and turned to face the captain. “I think
this is about as far as you can get from having black coffee.” The cup was overflowing
with what appeared to be powdered nondairy creamer, but there wasn’t a drop of coffee
to be found.

Janeway leaned forward in her chair and squinted in confusion. “What in the world?”

The whirling light pattern of a Starfleet transporter swirled over the mug in Chakotay’s
hand. A small purple disk came into existence. By the time gravity took its hold on
the disk, a dozen small protrusions had flicked out of the sides and began spewing
sparks in a 360-degree arc. Chakotay noted that the sparks resembled fireworks as
he found himself shoved across the room by Tuvok’s lightning-quick Vulcan reflexes.
He was hurled backward, losing his grip on the mug. A thin cloud of white powder formed
in the air as the creamer flew out in all directions.

Tuvok shoved Chakotay, shouting, “Computer, emergency fire suppression.” He had predicted
a danger that the ship’s computer hadn’t. A force field formed around the sparkler,
catching Tuvok and a small portion of the creamer cloud. It didn’t catch much, but
the powder that was inside the field ignited into a ball of purple flame, which flared
against the edge of the force field.

With Tuvok enveloped inside.

Tuvok’s face and arms burned in the purple flames. The force field limited the spread
of the flames, but how much damage would they do before they burned out?

“Computer, override fire suppression!” Janeway shouted, removing a wall panel to grab
a handheld fire extinguisher, but the purplish flame burning Tuvok was dying quickly.

Chakotay tapped his combadge. “Medical emergency in the captain’s ready room.”

A huff came over the comm system.
“I’d be happy to come help, but I don’t believe I have that—”

Before the Emergency Medical Hologram could even finish complaining, Janeway was already
calling out, “Janeway to transporter room, beam Lieutenant Tuvok directly to sickbay.”

The transporter beam took Tuvok away in mere seconds, leaving the unscathed but shaken
Chakotay standing with his captain amidst the sparks and debris in the ready room.

“Okay, I didn’t really ‘try to kill’ the captain. I hoped she would escape unharmed.
I think I did anyway.”
Suder’s face contorted as he bit the inside of his lower lip.
“My goal wasn’t to kill or even injure the captain, or Commander Chakotay, and certainly
not you. Frankly, I didn’t even know who else would be there when the coffee order
would trigger the replicator malfunction or the beam-in. I can’t say I had given it
much thought beforehand.”
Suder’s guilt showed in his expression, something that a mere six months ago would’ve
been unimaginable.