Star Trek: Season 8 - The Perfect Reflection

[moyer777]

Lorna stared at Margon for a brief moment.

It was dim where Margon lay.  The light from the porthole streamed down upon the blue liquid surrounding his body causing it shine with a sickening reflection.  A small device attached to Dr. Margon's wrist began to pulse rhythmically.  The red flashing light caused light to dance on the surrounding hull plating.  Surely the Dr. wouldn't have planted explosives on his body would he?  "I'm not waiting around to find out" she said and ran.

On the bridge an officer at the Science station heard a proximity alert beep from his panel.  His fingers rushed over the panel to check the alarm.  As he was about to announce his findings, he stopped himself.  The alarm had quit as quickly as it had started. 

"Just some more debris  caught in the shield parameter" he thought to himself.

This had been happening frequently what with the battle that had gone on.  The shields either pushed the debris away or it simply vaporized upon impact.

The small cloaked ship buddied up to the Tiberius and turned off it's systems except life support and the transporter room.
Three sensor dampening pods materialized in a triangle around the body of Margon and the familiar sound of the transporter echoed through the room.  A slender cloaked figure appeared and bent down next to the body.

"Oh, now what have you done?, I leave you alone for any amount of time and just can't handle yourself.  What happened?"  He knew the lifeless corpse wouldn't answer.  The reality hit him and for a moment he caught himself feeling sadness. 

"Stop it" he muttered to himself.  "I have no time to feel." He looked down at the Dr.

"You taught me that."

He laid his hand on the back of Margon, clicked his communication device and said.  "Two to beam over"

The response echoed through the chamber "Yes Captain Brex, right away sir"

Brex shook his head.  He wanted to feel.  Sociopaths don't feel, they use.  "Like father, like son" he mused as he dematerialized leaving only the blue blood pooled on the floor.

[Meds]

Joint Post by Rico & Hawkeyemeds

The one eye watched as Margon vanished in a blue transport glow, the
blood shot optical turned up to the ceiling and he waited to hear the
outcome of the young girls mission.

Lorna looked down at the dead bodies of her fellow mutineers, they all
had phaser marks across their bodies except for one, who had obviously
died from loss of blood from their severed arm. She wiped the blood
with her torn shirt sleeve from her hands and let it drop to the turbo lift floor, it
landed in a puddle of the congealing blood and slowly turned dark.
It took less than ten seconds for the lift to reach the bridge, and it
took less than two seconds for the door to open. Admiral Talbot spun
round his face solid and unmoved, he raised his hand quickly and the
crew behind him jumped up, their phasers un-holstered and pointing to
the exiting assassin.
Phaser fire left the turbo lift and it was complimented with equal
fire from the bridge crew. The bridge section lit up in a beautiful
orange glow silhouetting the people as if ghosts in a beautiful flame.

[Jen]

Joint post written by Jen, Startrekfanatic 5 and Sheppard

Reese gripped a phaser in each of his gloved hands as he strode with determination down the hall toward Doctor Peterson's quarters.  A brigade of lower decks crewmen marched closely behind him—they were zealous—he was calculating—as a group, no one could stop them. The deck plates rumbled as the approaching storm neared Peterson's quarters.  Standing near the physician's door, armed to the tooth, were two of the Admirals personal guards. Before the sentinels could react, the henchman raised his weapons to chest height and fired. The individuals assigned to protect Sevryll, fell where they stood in smoking, groaning heaps.  Reese stepped over the bodyguards and headed through the door, leaving the dying men to the ravenous mob.

The door whisked open to reveal a small, dimly lit room. From where he stood in the entry the henchman could clearly see his target, and she was currently preoccupied by a mind meld. David Reese aimed a single phaser at Sevryll and slowly squeezed a shot from the weapon. The room was instantly ablaze with the glow of a crimson energy beam. His blast had found it's mark and the Vulcan crumpled to the floor.

"No!" Peters bellowed as he pushed Quinn aside just in time for a second pulse to burn it's way through the man's chest. The force of the blast threw the mercenary against the wall with a thwack. Nathan flicked a shocked expression upon his lifeless friend... The wound Peters suffered was devastatingly large. It was painfully obvious that he had lost his friend...again. The agony of that realization poured over him suddenly, causing him to feel lightheaded.  He looked up at the murderer that fired the fatal shot—his stunned gaze met only by a hard glare. Nathan shifted his gray-green eyes to the Vulcan laying at his feet—she was still breathing, but only just. Without a moment's hesitation, Quinn knelt and took Sevryll into his arms. The phaser trained on the captain was jabbed forward as Reese accented his threat, " I don't know who you are, but your associations with these traitors has condemned you." Quinn could sense the henchman's thoughts and knew the instant Reese's brain sent the message to his finger to pull the trigger. A heartbeat later, the energy beam passed through the particles of light that churned within the transporter beam. In the end, the agent that rejected her Queen had unwittingly aided the Cooperative. The shield modulation codes that Aria plucked from Sevryll's mind during their recent contact, enabled the Cooperative to steal Nathan Quinn from the Empire's mighty flag ship, and save him from certain death.

[Meds]

The figure on the deck under the bridge danced with an imaginary
partner to the sounds of phaser fire on the bridge above. Drifting
from side to side he whispered in the imaginary ear.

"You dance beautifully, do you come here
often.............no.........oh that's a shame....... I hear the
parties upstairs just blow the roof off ha ha ha ha........"

Dancing around the corridors dropping every now and again to let his
invisible partner take the lead he stopped at a control panel.

"Computer. Set self destruct sequence 01, 01, 05 dash 14."

The computer replied as the man danced from toe to toe.

"Command sequence can only be operated by Command"

Dancing a quick step to his left and then finishing with a delicate waltz he lifted his hand and let the imaginary partner drift to her seat

"Thank you ma'am i need to teach this thing a dance or two. Computer I am Sir Joseph of D'Callan I am higher than command, I am higher than any Emperor... I am higher than all the gods in the universe"

As he twirled around and left himself in a Arabesque position the computer responded

"This request can only be activated by Admiral Talbot"

D'Callan held his hands aloft with his leg outstretched and sang out to a old theatrical tune.

"THAAAAT MUSSSST MEANNNN THAT TALLLLLBOT IS STILL HEREEEE"

Jumping up he bowed to the computer and put his finger into his open eye socket, he cleared some seeping fluid and tasted it.

"Hmmmm nutmeg"

He drifted off back to where he had been hiding and decided to see what the party was like on the bridge. He held his hand up as if holding a tray of drinks and began offering the imaginary party guests glasses as he headed to the turbo lift door. It opened and he stood in.

"Going up......and away"

[wraith1701]

Aboard the bridge of the NegVar, KoraQ silently watched the static-hazed feed from the kamikaze ship's bridge monitor.

A Klingon warrior stood over the dead Terran called K'Tan, his hands wrapped around the handle of an old and battered batleth.  With a mighty tug, he yanked the bladed weapon from the Terran's back, then turned to face the viewscreen.  As the warrior opened his mouth to speak, the image filled with static, then winked out to be replaced by an external view of Aria's flagship and the kamikaze vessel speeding towards it.

As Worf, KoraQ, and K'Lara looked on in stunned silence, the kamikaze altered course, passing within a fraction of a kellicam of Aria's vessel,  and then plunged towards the outer atmosphere of the planet Teross.

As the horrifying reality of the situation sunk in, KoraQ felt his heart stop in his chest. 

Once the device activated, a chain reaction would release a wave of thalaron radiation that would wash over the entire planet.  All organic matter on the world would be ruthlessly consumed, converted into an inert, ash-like substance.  The once verdant world would be reduced to a lifeless, ash-covered rock.  And with an entire planet's bio-mass fueling it, there was no way of knowing how far outward the scouring wave of death would expand. 

The entire system could be at risk.

KoraQ's head snapped around to address the communication's officer.  "Broadcast to the entire Alliance fleet!  Reverse course and evacuate the system; maximum warp!"

As the officer carried out his command, the Admiral closed his eyes and wearily lowered his head.  KoraQ contemplated the engine of destruction that his Alliance had created, and the effect it would soon have on the primitive natives on the planet below.  A hoarse, choked sob shook his chest.

Kahless forgive us; what have we done?

[Rico]

As the blue skinned man climbed the last few rungs of the access ladder he found his mind drifting back to only a short time ago.  The pretty blond woman's face appeared in his thoughts and he couldn't help but smile as he reached for his phaser.

"Marie, have you heard what's going on?  The ship has an all-out mutiny on it's hands.  I mean I wanted Talbot out of the way, but not like this."  The Andorian officer said as he turned to the woman he loved.

"Yeah, I'm very much aware.  I barely got out of engineering.  D'Callan and Reese have worked the crew up into a frenzy.  Turned them all into a bunch of alien haters."  Marie Barton said as she moved closer to Zremm.

"Well, you know who will be next on that witch hunt.  Marie, are you ok?  You look tired?  Is something wrong?"  Zremm said as he pulled Marie close to him.

"I didn't want this to be the time to tell you, but I'm pregnant.  You're going to be someone's father."  The young woman told Zremm as she hugged him tight.

"What?  By the stars - I didn't think that could happen between us.  That changes everything!"  Zremm said as he quickly pulled away, his mind racing as he grabbed his phaser off the desk near them.

"Ch'Fras, what are you going to do?  Where are you going?"  Marie said in a panic.

"I'm not letting this ship turn into some madman's anti-alien playground.  Our child will be half-Andorian and I'll die before I let someone hurt them or you for being with me.  Even if it mean saving that pointy-eared Admiral's ass."  Zremm said as he tucked his phaser on to his belt and quickly kissed a stunned Marie goodbye.

"Get your mind in the game, Zremm."  The lanky Andorian muttered to himself as he reached the emergency access hatch to the bridge.  After unlocking the hatch, Zremm pushed it open with one hand and quickly climbed through.  Blasts of phaser fire from across the bridge caught his eye as looked over the scene.  He saw a group taking cover in the turbolift as they jumped out and tried to hit the bridge crew.  A few crewmen were down, but Zremm saw Talbot down behind his command chair along with the OPS officer.  Everyone seemed to be too busy to notice Zremm quickly slip on to the bridge.  In one quick motion, Zremm shot off a couple of phaser bursts towards the turbolift as he did a quick roll, coming up behind Talbot.

"Nice of you to join the party, Mr. Zremm.  But, I have to say I'm a bit surprised to see you on this side of the bridge."  Talbot said as he shot off a quick burst from his own phaser and gave the Andorian a wry grin.

"I don't like you Talbot - probably never will.  But this isn't the answer."  Zremm said as he took up a position to the right of Talbot and shot his own weapon toward the lift.

"I'm thinking Marie had something to do with your change of heart - and maybe the baby?"  Talbot said as Zremm gave him a stunned look.

"You knew?  How??"  Zremm said quietly.

"I didn't know for certain, but I suspected.  Being half-Romulan has it's advantages.  If we get out of this Zremm, I won't stand in the way.  I know she's in love with you.  Just took awhile for an old soldier to admit it to myself.  But let's talk later.  Right now we have a little mutiny to deal with."  Talbot said as he yelled out and snapped off several more bursts from his weapon, one of them catching the arm of one of the mutineers in the turbolift.  Zremm just smiled as he moved to cover the Admiral with his own weapon and found a new found respect for his commander.

[X]

The spiraling particles of the Cooperative transporters materialized the wayward captain and his injured companion. It had taken a wide beam transport to breach the distortion field generated by the planet. Cooperative drones moved quickly to the side of the two as their queen made her quiet approach. Captain Quinn cradled the near still form of the woman that shared the name and appearance of one of his most valued friends.

Green blood oozed from the terrible wound of the Vulcan that she had been offered perfection. Perfection that Sevryll rejected. It was a fatal wound to even Empire technology, but it was easily within the ability of the Cooperative to repair. As her children moved to attend the dying woman, a thought from their Queen halted them. She had rejected the gifts that Aria would have showered her with. She had rejected the Cooperative and those that would have protected her. By her own actions, Sevryll had even rejected the help that was in Aria's power to grant.

"She is dying," Aria said softly to Quinn, who wore the pain of the pending loss on his face. Her satin smooth voice purred in his ear as she touched his shoulder softly. "Nathan, we need to tend to your infection. There is nothing that you can do to save her. You must be cured before we can return you home."

Gold hued injection tubules slithered snake-like from Aria's delicate wrist while she comforted the grieving man. Without waiting for permission, they struck into the soft yielding flesh of Nathan's neck and intimately linked the two. She gave from herself to cure him even as she took a part of him into her. Ecstatic sensations flowed between them as they both traveled on a current produced by the pleasure and passions of an entire race.

Aria felt his power and it was intoxicating. With but another thought, she could pull him, body and soul, into the web of unity that was the Cooperative, but she did not allow that thought. She could not take him. He was not for her. She had promised to return him home, but she could not ... she would not allow herself to lose him entirely.

In an endless moment of pleasure fueled passion, Aria's power and adaptations purged the Captain of his infection. Billions of her nanoprobes raced though his body and destroyed the invaders to it before returning back to her.

Aria smiled softly to him when all of her machines returned and carried with them a part of him.  Her tender voice whispered softly in his ear, allowing the heat of her breath to dance over the flesh of his cheek and neck. "My attendants will make sure her final moments are peaceful. She refuses our aid, but we will not allow her to suffer. It is the least that we could do."

"That's not good enough.", Quinn said. "In your mind, I've seen what your people are capable of. Are you going to let her die simply because of spite? Show me that they are wrong about you. Help her."

"She, of her own free will, rejected us. She does not want our help Nathan." Aria continued to whisper against him. "I do not do this lightly, but for you, I will stabilize her and bring her with us. That is the most that I can do for her and you."

Nathan nodded slowly. It wasn't exactly what he wanted, but it was better than nothing. If she came back with him, he trusted that his people would be able to help her.

Aria smiled to her guest as she touched her hand to the phaser charred wound that marred the perfect Vulcan skin. The soft blue radiance of the Queen's bioneural energy pulsed between her hand the injured flesh and seeped into Sevryll's shallowly breathing body. Aria would not heal her completely, but she would give her the strength to survive until Quinn's people could attend to her. She would heal her to the point where she would be within the means of Federation technology to survive.

As the light faded between them, Aria rose and offered a small smile to the Captain. Aria nodded to Spring, as she materialized beside her. "My attendant is here. We are leaving now."

With a thought, most of her fleet evacuated to safety with the planetary inhabitants they managed to save from the cascading energy wave. The advanced metaphasic shielding of her own ship would protect it from the Alliance doomsday weapon as she attended to other matters. The planet might be reduced to ashes, but some of them would survive with the Cooperative and the Alliance would have to pay for their transgressions against a Cooperative world.

With another thought, her mind took direct control of the transporter systems. From Nathan's earlier contact, she had managed to learn the layout of his vessel and the location of its medical bay. Aria opened her mind to the power of the Cooperative and its links to her. That power added to her nacene legacy allowed her to simply move them from her ship to the one that Nathan was intimately familiar with. Technology aided what genetics had given her and the Queen of the Cooperative, for a brief moment pulled those two points in the multiverse together.

In a flash of golden light, the four moved from one reality to the next.

[X]

Joint post by Meds and Jen

ACT III

The hallucinations brought on by stress and fatigue, prompted the Chief Medical Officer to insist that Nurse Caine find an available space on the Sickbay floor, and take a nap. Susan didn't believe she would be capable of sleeping.  But sleep came quickly to the exhausted head nurse, and she awoke an hour later to the buzzing of her fellow staff members as they worked around her. She felt incredibly groggy and it took a few seconds for her to realize where she was. It came slowly to Susan as she turned toward Doctor Drett's office... the feelings of loss began to grip her heart once more, at the thought of her friend lying dead behind the door. The nurse pushed herself up and slowly stood. The deck had forced a kink in her back and she groaned as she stretched her stiff muscles. Her hair spilled gently over her shoulders as she bent at her waist—first to the left and then the right.  As Susan slowly straightened, she noticed some of her colleagues  watching her as they worked. They were worried that she was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and she knew they were probably right. Susan attempted to smile for the nurses and med techs. They returned it, yet their expressions looked just as forced as her own. It faded with the  thought of Joseph... she hadn't seen him since he discharged himself from sickbay at the start of the attack. She drew a deep breath, before moving to aid a patient who had just arrived. It felt good to help someone else—concentrating on their pain somehow dulled her own. Soon after she pressed a hypo spray into her patient, a whirring sound began to resonate in the center of sickbay where the faint features of three individuals flashed before them.

As Quinn, Sevryll and Aria materialized in Main Sickbay, they could hear the doctors and nurses moving about them—frantically working to save lives. Nathan was unsure of the Arabella's present circumstances, but it was obvious the situation was grim. With the wounded Vulcan still in his arms the Captain shouted a fretful inquiry above the din, "Where's Doctor Peterson!?"
 
The haggard Betazoid physician heard the voice of the Captain and turned in surprise to see Captain Quinn shuffling past him. His heart leapt in his chest, for Nathan had been missing for over twelve hours and his sudden emergence was unexpected to say the least. Casey dropped what he was doing and rushed toward him, "Captain!"
 
"Doctor, this woman needs immediate attention!" Peterson was astonished to discover that the injured woman Nathan referred to, was Sevryll. A baffled expression washed over his face but he quickly recovered and called for the nearest table to be cleared for the new patient.
 
"Casey, this is not the Commander," uttered Quinn in a whisper.

Doctor Peterson looked up from his tricorder, "that would explain the twins she's carrying."  He removed the insignia from his lab coat and tossed the combadge to Quinn before preparing a hypo and pressing it to the woman's neck. "It's good to have you back Captain....but you should probably let Commander Sevryll know where you are."
 
"Thank you, Casey...it's good to be back. What happened here?" He asked as he gazed about Sickbay.
 
The First Officer's Mirror counterpart moaned as Casey carefully pulled the burned fabric from the wound on her chest. Doctor Peterson shook his head when he saw the extent of the damage and looked up at Quinn, "The Borg attacked right after you disappeared. We've managed to get them off the ship, but now we're dealing with infected crewmen.

"Then the Borg are no longer a threat..." inquired Nathan.

"Oh, they're still a problem. From what little I know, they've taken a defensive position near a spatial anomaly we have recently detected."
 
The Captain glanced to the stone-faced Cooperative Queen as he fixed the combadge to his chest. A melodic chime followed as the device responded to his touch, "Captain Quinn to Commander Sevryll."
 
Aria left Nathan's side to wade curiously about the floor of the medical bay. As she sauntered nonchalantly through the writhing patients, she sliced through the subconscious thoughts of the crew, in search of her mother and father.  They were very close...she could feel them... but it had been so long since she had heard their voices and she was having trouble locating them in the chaos of the Arabella. Aria soon stepped into a void of thoughts and found herself in the doorway of a makeshift morgue.  Her eyes scanned the area—apart from the lifeless forms that filled the former office, the room was vacant.

"There is unity even in silence," whispered the Queen. Aria paused at the table nearest the door and gazed down at the blue covering that veiled a feminine form.  The Vulcanoid inquisitively lifted the corner of a sheet and gazed down at the face of a Trill female. Curious, Aria casually moved her fingertips over the young woman's cold, ashen face before pressing them to her temples. There was no activity, but remnants of information and memories could still be obtained. The woman was once a doctor and by the chaos Aria witnessed about her, she knew the staff required her aid. The body convulsed at the Cooperative Queen's touch then relaxed as Aria's attention was drawn away by a distinctive presence in the next room. She dropped the sheet and turned to see a blue-haired, golden-eyed alien enter Sickbay.
 
Commander Sevryll, still clad in her Terossick guise, had stepped into the bustling atmosphere of the medical ward. The Borg's attack had mysteriously stopped  and the Arabella was taking the opportunity to make more repairs to their weapons systems. Aside from repairs their highest priority was the nanite infection that had rapidly spread among the Arabella's crew. Lieutenant Commander James was left in command of the bridge, and she had come to offer her help, as Chief Science Officer, to the medical staff.  Sevryll's amber eyes scanned the room in search of Doctor Peterson before coming to rest on a familiar face.  Her brows rose in disbelief as Nathan Quinn pitched his gaze toward her.

[X]

Joint post by Jen and Just X

Aria Sairyn James, Queen of the Cooperative stood motionlessly as the all too familiar woman entered the room. A lifetime of longing washed over her as she hesitantly moved closer. For all the power that she had— for all the worlds she had conquered in the name of peace, she had never gotten over losing her parents. It was the wound that hurt her the most.

"Mother?" She questioned—the rawness of her emotions tinting her words. "Do you recognize me?"

The Queen cautiously drew closer to the odd appearing woman. While Sevryll's visage was something that Aria had not expected, the presence of the woman made Aria feel as if she had finally come home.

The Arabella's executive officer lifted a blue Terossick brow at Aria's peculiar inquiry. Sevryll had a thousand questions of her own for Captain Quinn, but she hadn't seen Aria since the battle began and the tone of the young woman's query concerned her.  "Of course. Are you well daughter?"

Commander Sevryll glanced to Quinn, who had cleared his throat. "This is not Ensign James," he turned his head from the Cooperative Queen to his First Officer as he attempted to frame the information he would divulge next. He noted the way Aria searched her mother's alien eyes for a hint of remembrance. The confidence the young woman exuded in the rift, had waned slightly and he sensed a desperate need for her mother's recognition. This was somewhat troubling to him. He would be briefed on the ship's status soon enough, right now he needed to explain where he had been and mediate this potentially volatile first introduction of the Cooperative Queen. He gestured to Doctor Peterson's office and the three stepped within the privacy of four transparent walls. Nathan nodded in thanks to the CMO as Casey worked the floor.

He then perched himself on the edge of Peterson's desk, "Aria came with me through the rift—that's where I have been—a parallel universe ravaged by the Borg and split by various warring factions. Many of us have doubles there, one of which I brought back with me; a Vulcan who shares your name and appearance." He pointed toward Doctor Peterson, who was working just beyond the office door. The physician's back was too them, and momentarily blocked their view of his patient. Nurse Caine approached Casey and he turned to accept a PADD from her, revealing the woman laying motionless before him. Commander Sevryll lifted both brows as she stared in wonder. If she hadn't currently worn the alterations from her recent away mission, she would have described the doctor's newest patient as a reflection. Nathan pushed himself off the desk and stepped towards Sevryll—the Commander thought he looked fatigued and she detected a note of sadness in his tone.  "I know it's a lot to take in, but there's more." He paused a moment before inclining his head toward the Cooperative Queen, "This woman is your biological daughter, not the binary clone you know as "Aria"."

[Jen]

Joint post by Jen and Just X

Sevryll was puzzled by the revelation, for Aeric had told her that Aria was erased by a shift in the timeline. Numerous temporal deviations had altered her personal history. In one such experience, Aria was conceived and raised by Sevryll and Aeric James. When time shifted again, Sevryll made unique life-altering decisions and those choices ultimately expunged her eldest daughter. How did their daughter end up in an alternate universe? It was confusing even to Sevryll's scientific mind. She examined the young woman's face, and saw in her eyes the misery that Nathan noticed.

Aria sensed her mother's question and took a slow breath, "father was born in the Nexus. That singular event allowed only one of him to be born in all the multiverse. As his daughter, I am also unique. My recessive Nacene genes allowed me to survive the temporal anomaly by shifting me to another reality." She paused a moment—her jaw working as she formed the next sentenced, "I hear that father has create a duplicate of me. Should I call her a twin or a mistake?" Aria did not wait for an answer. She moved closer to her mother—Sevryll took a step back.  The young woman paused a moment before her emotive tone coated the next statement. "It's good to see you again—I've missed my family terribly." Then without warning, the smile faded, "however, I did not expect to be replaced."

Commander Sevryll was unsure of how to respond to the statements steeped in acidity. She observed the twenty-year-old's quivering lip and narrowed dark eyes. Separation from family had obviously negatively affected her. Sevryll replied cautiously, "Aria is not a mistake, but the result of your father's hope to regain a small portion of the daughter who was lost to us.  I do not recall having any other children... but I have come to know you through the clone and have learned to call her 'daughter' as well. Be at peace—I welcome you home, Aria." The elder woman raised her hand and parted her fingers in the traditional Vulcan greeting.

Aria smiled, "I too have worked hard in rebuilding the family I lost." She turned her eyes to her own abdomen and rested her hand upon it then nodded softly before returned Sevryll's greeting. "Thank you mother, but my stay here will not be long. My people need me and I would be a poor queen to abandon them. Yet I am... gratified... to know that you and father are alive. You mentioned other children. How many more siblings do I have in this reality?"

With another quirk of an eyebrow, the Commander noted Aria's reference to herself as "Queen", but did not ask the woman to expound. Instead she replied with a minute hint of pride, "you have a four-year-old brother and sister. Your father has an adopted daughter...a child of the timeline you disappeared from. You may know her as your great aunt, Elizabeth." As far as Sevryll knew, the children were in Dennis's care. The hologram programmed to protect them, had sent the Commander a false report in order to prevent their mother from being distracted from her duties as Acting Captain. Dennis intended to notify Sevryll that her son had been taken by Borg intruders, but the proper moment for that revelation had yet presented itself. The hologram felt the weight of his failure and feared not only for N'Vall's welfare, but that of his mother's as well. Immediately following his forced retreat into the ship's computer, the sentinel dispatched the Arabella's only other hologram to collect the surviving child. Several hours had passed since then, and M'rynn was safely in Rory's care. But the Commander would have to be told the truth soon. The truce with the Borg was only temporary, and Dennis was concerned that Sevryll would destroy the sphere and with it, her only son.

[X]

Small beads of sweat glistened off the brow of Commander James as he sat in the captain's chair of the Arabella. His head throbbed from the constant use of his ability in attempt to slow the progress of the Borg infection. He was impressed at the talents of the crew and how well they worked to save the ship, but he had no intention of letting the ship that he had help to create fall on her first mission.

"Status of nanotech repair system?," Aeric asked Rory via the open communications channel.

It had been Rory's job to reprogram the Aurora's nanorepair systems with the Arabella's schematics and increase the quantity. She had even managed to succeed in that task to some degree. The Arabella was designed to one day be upgraded with the technology, but the ship's computers were not programmed with ability to control and direct the machines. She would have to direct the operations from the Aurora's computers and then it would only be of limited use. They would be able to combat the Borg infections of the ship, but they would not be able to make any repairs.

"We should be able to flush the ship of Borg infection with the next hour." Rory replied without pausing in her work. "We have reached 30% of the necessary yield to begin the process."

"Thank you Ro-," Aeric paused in mid sentence as he felt a brief shimmer in reality. Nothing that he could sense had changed. It could only mean that something had recently arrived from outside of it. Taking a deep breath, Aeric returned his focus to the problem at hand. "Thank you Rory, notify me when you are ready to proceed."

[Jen]

Her first breath arrived as a painful wheeze drawn through chattering teeth.  Her second breath came as a sharp gasp, quickly followed by violent cough.  She opened her eyes and her pupils were instantly stabbed by fingers of light. The woman blinked as tears of pain spilled over her checks.  Her muscles were stiff and they complained as she awkwardly pulled at the thin sheet that covered her body. She lay there trembling in silence for a protracted moment, while each of her senses gradually returned. Before long, a feeling of deep despair assailed her with a sudden awareness.

She was... alone.

Ryla's mouth fell open as a silent sob escaped her lungs—she was no longer joined—Drett was gone. The sorrow was unlike anything she had ever felt. The tears that had formed at the advent of her coughing, now flowed from an overwhelming grief.  With the sheet still wrapped about her, the Trill rose from the morgue table and moved her unsteady feet to the floor.  She took an uncertain step and dropped as her legs failed under her weight.  The force of Ryla's fall overturned her table before she collided the floor.

The cold, unyielding deck offered no compassion as the Trill pulled herself into a fetal position and hoarsely wept.

[Jen]

A sudden crash stole Susan's attention from the patient she tended. The sound seemed to have come from inside the make-shift morgue. Nurse Caine hesitated a moment, fearful that her hallucinations had return. She flicked her gaze to Nurse Tobin and received an unspoken message of reassurance, but the muffled sobs that followed the initial sound prompted Susan to leave her patient and investigate. Sickbay soon echoed with Caine's shout for help. Tessa Tobin was the first to answer the call and step through the door in time to see Susan Caine kneeling beside a frightened and confused Ryla Drett.

"How is this possible? She was dead! Peterson even did an autopsy!" shouted Tobin.

Ryla's sobs became more frenzied. Susan fired a glare at Tessa that told her she had said too much. Without a word she turned her attention back to the Trill, "Shooosh...." Caine pulled the sheet around the young doctor and glanced back to Tobin, "Find her something to wear... we need to get her out of here." She wearily glanced to the other bodies lining the walls and wondered if anyone else would be rejoining the living. What she didn't know was that the Cooperative Queen had resurrected Ryla, and only Ryla. The vast number of genetic characteristics that Aria assimilated and blended with her own, included the altered genes of a race called the Kobali—a species from the Delta Quadrant who possessed the ability to reanimate the dead. Ryla was alive, but Drett had been utterly destroyed by the blast to the Trill's midsection and remnants of the symbiont, who had been apart of her life for ten years, had been removed during the autopsy.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobali

[Meds]

Taking the surgical gown from Tobin she placed it over the shivering patient, lifting her up Susan was surprised at how light Ryla was. Walking out of the makeshift morgue Ryla buried her head into Susan's shoulder and her sobs muffled into her uniform. Dr Peterson looked up from his patient "Details Susan?"

Susan gently walked up the Dr and showed the face of Ryla, her breathing gentle but slow. "Pulse is 61 bpm Its too crowded here Dr, I don't think people should see Ryla like this".

Peterson lifted a hypo spray off the table and gave Ryla a shot in her neck. The busy CMO ignored the feelings of shock and remained completely professional  "Take her to your quarters, let her rest and monitor her condition. Come back when you can but if in doubt do not leave her."

Leaving sickbay she quickened her pace as several of the crewmen took quick glances but no one saw that it was the once dead brave Doctor huddled in the nurses arms.
Once inside the turbo lift she had time to wipe the tear soaked wet hair from her pale face, Ryla's eyes glanced up at the smiling face, and a small movement etched form the corner of her mouth. The door swooshed open and D'Callan ran in.

"G'day Sue, taking your work home with ya"

Susan dipped her arms so Joseph could see who she was carrying. He looked at her face and then back at Susan.

"How? I. . . . "

Susan shook her head "I don't know, I'm taking her to my quarters, she'll be safe there till all this dies down an bit"

D'Callan placed his phaser into his holster and put a reassuring hand on Susan's shoulder and gave her a wink. The lift door opened again and he disappeared into the steam, the door closed and Susan felt an air of warmth breeze over her at the thought of the security chiefs touch. It wasn't long before she reached her quarters and had Ryla tucked up into her bed, the hypo spray had done its job and she slept peacefully. Walking to the replicater she ordered a hot chocolate before taking a seat next to her friend

[X]

Confusion raced through the thoughts of Ensign James as she made her way towards sickbay. Her entire world spun with each measured step. She had no problems feeling the mental invitation sent to her and it had shocked her to the core. Every decision that she had made had, without warning, been put into question. She was only five decks from coming face to face with a past that she had never expected to encounter.

Somehow her original body had survived temporal dissolution and now she had come home. Her very identity had come into question on the eve of one of the Arabella's most trying battle.

"Sickbay," the young woman, still in her alien disguise said when she boarded the turbolift. "Let's see just exactly what I've been up to during these missing years."

Aria had no doubts on her own life. She knew who she was. She was the daughter of two Federation officers and a member of Arabella crew. She was a binary clone, but she also knew what that meant.

The form that she wore was a combination of the genes of her mother and father. In that respect, she was no different from any naturally conceived child. In fact, the only difference was that almost every single one of the gene pairs that her parents contributed to her were chosen to produce return her to her original form.

Almost every gene.

Her new form did not have the recessive gene that granted her father's temporal abilities. She possessed the fully active gene and the immunity to temporal changes that the gene allowed.

She was unique. She was an improvement over her previous form and she knew it.

Binary Clone.

She knew what the words meant more than anyone. It was a polite way of saying gene engineered perfection.

Every child born to two parents were by definition a binary clone of their parents. She wore the distinction because her circumstances had not offered the luxury of being carried to term and birthed by her mother.

She felt the probing thoughts of her other self as the turbolift grew closer. The very presence of this other might have caused doubts in others, but she was a James. She was the flesh and blood daughter of Aeric James and Sevryll of Vulcan. She had not been born in some non-existent timeline. Her parents knew her and remembered her rebirth.

There was simply nothing that this other self could say that would put her identity to question.


At least she hoped that there wasn't.


Aria wore her bravery as a mask and inside she fought to hold on to everything that made her unique. She could not afford to dwell on the reactions of her parents to this intruder to their lives. She could not afford herself to think that she was just a copy.