What happened in the office of Sterndeck...

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 7291

James Chen's Vixen Janeway laughs a mirthless, rueful laugh and sadly shakes her shaggy head.

It had fallen down upon her pointed ears. The entirety of the blame lay on her shoulders.

Colonel Probe had been halfway consolatory in his message outlining what had brought about the final souring of relations between the Voyager and the Military. It still was a "nasty gram" as Chen had called it....but the AI had at least not attacked her on that....touchy point.

How a breach in military etiquette avalanched into a near fatal disaster.....

"I trust that this will not go beyond this room," she says softly, looking around at those seated at the table.

"You don't need to do this, Kathryn." Jame Chen's Human Janeway says. "It's too soon and...."

"I haven't recovered fully yet from my travails?" her furry counterpart sighs. "Sister, if I can't say it to these....analogs who I are exactly like us.....up to a moment in time....then who can I tell it to....besides you....James Chen....and the few others? When will I ever be able to tell it?"

Her analog was a sister of sorts....closer to her in spirit than even her real sister back in her home universe. It had soon followed that the vixen and the human had soon come to love one another as sisters. The same thing had happened throughout the ship with many others (the Torreses were a prime exception...but that was their problem...)

Her Chen , she had found, was a man who could be trusted with even the most secretive and delicate of secrets. This was due in large to the fact that Chen had garnered from his strange background a wealth of personal information about her and many of the Voyager....and many of the Federation's darker secrets. Chen knew all, and had made it a policy to not reveal anything not already known by the crew....so as to not lead to embarrassing situations.

The other analogs had told her that their Chen was the same way....and the Vixen believed them.

"It started when I saw the Military administering administrative punishment to a private who'd been found drunken while on duty," James Chen's Furry Janeway recounts.

".....for failing in your duties this Court of Inquiry has found you negligent in you duties to the Military," the Judge Advocate General of the base said solemnly to the gathered audience. "Having been tried by this court and found guilty, you are hereby sentenced to administrative punishment. Twenty lashes. Proceed."

The private, already stretched out between two poles so as to spread his arms and legs so that they would not be in the way of the whip, cries out in agony as a burly sergeant lets loose with the bullwhip. Red welts appear where the whip lands....

Human Janeway, noticing her furry counterpart is staring into space and shivering....silently and quickly leads the vixen off out of the sight of prying eyes.

The vixen was still in a bit of therapy with her ship's doctor....as well as using a spirit animal guide to recover from her ordeals...the emotional hurts laid upon her while under the grinding thumb of the psychotic bald Captain Janeway (would be goddess of the multiverse).

Human Janeway silently curses, partly to the Military for having such a brutal display that would cause her sister to suffer a flashback to the punishment that Baldy had laid upon her (the vixen) as punishment for disobedience .

The whole of it had been more than a little painful and had left it's mark...in more ways than one.

With a few more months of quiet, secretive therapy, the vixen would be healed...and nobody on the crew beyond a few would need know.

It wouldn't do for the crew to know that their Captain was less than 100 percent, emotionally.

"Oh my god," Scott's Vixen Janeway whispers quietly. The emotional scars that she had suffered from the ministrations of Baldy had been exactly the same....and she had a feeling where this was going.

Fortune seemed to smile upon them, and nobody noticed the vixen and the human missing. Vixen Janeay hastily wiped away tears and composed herself. After a session of talk with her sister, the fox morph was able to compose herself enough for an upcoming meeting with the base commander.

Unfortunatly they overheard some officers happily discussing what the masses of unmanned ships around the Voyager were actually for. Shocked questions lead to the full story....and emotions overflowed in both the Janeways.

Both saw visions of the same spirit that had caused the mad bald analog Janeway here. They thought that the Miltary was out for conquest. They had heard rumors, but had held off final judgment until this moment. They had arranged this meeting to have those questions answered. Usually calmer and clearer minded, both Janeways were seeing visions....their better judgment clouded by their sessions with being assimilated by a crazed Borg Collective (human Janeway) or by sessions with Baldy (furry Janeway).

The Military had the same ability to "pop" into even the most secure sections of Federation space and wreck havoc as Baldy had.

No.....it was time for harsh words....and hopefully that would be able to stop the madness before it was unleashed!

"....as you may guess we were kind of.....drunk on our righteous cause," James' Human Janeway sighed. "Under different circumstances we would have seen the stupidity of it all....and been able to not to jump to conclusions."

"Ack, when you're pushed so far as you had been....something like that was bound to happen," Scott's Vixen Janeway sighs. All nod, and the story continues.

The aide to the base commander said that the commander wasn't ready for them yet, but the man's protests only fueled an already volatile situation. The Commander had received some horrible news and wished to not be disturbed for a while.

The man had been polite, but firm. However, the Janeways had thought it was just a delaying tactic or something, and had barged into the office anyway.

Later, in retrospect, both Janeways knew that this was a horrible thing to do.

Later, it registered that Sterndeck had been silently looking at an old fashioned photograph of a young man who was obviously related to him.

The letter stating: "We regretfully inform you....", was a sure indicator of the depth of Sterndeck's loss.

The tears should have tipped them off immediately.

It hadn't.

Angry demands were made by the Janeways.

Sterndeck had just sat there, looking up at them with an incredulous look....then had become visibly enraged by what had just happened. Turning a deep crimson in rage, Sterndeck had quickly wiped away the tears and had bellowed at the Janeways....with an IMPRESSIVE level of volume!

"GET THE F*** OUT OF MY OFFICE!!" Sterndeck bellowed.

Before the Janeways could saw or do anything else, the Aide of the Base....along with a dozen angered officers...."escorted" (under arms) the Janeways back to their ship....along with a warning to NEVER darken the office of Sterndeck again.

The incident, in part, had spread throughout the Military Base. Relations soured further due to incidents (one being were despite warnings by veterans of Terra's strange environs about succubi.....the Star Fleeters would have gotten their ticket punched if a Military chaplain hadn't thrown holy sacramental water on the beautiful demon). The Star Fleeters had awoken, more than angry about not being able to do.....something....but for the life of them....they didn't remember just what! All they knew was that the Military goons had prevented....something that they really wanted to do from happening. Despite protests from the Military chaplain, the Star Fleeters had not believed what had happened.

"Oh...but it could have happened on that world," Scott's Human Janeway shivers. She had read some of what had gone on in the story text game, and now the reality was making her.....stomach hurt as the permutations of what it all meant dawned on her.

The others nod grimly.

"Attempts to appolize....to stem the wounds were ignored," James Chen's Human Janeway sighs. "Written apologies were returned torn to shreds. Sterndeck was angry....and was going to be a long time in forgiving us for barging in like we did. The rest you know.

The discussion soon turns as to what had happened to bring the two ships together (almost lethally), and it's going on for a while when Scott Chen suddenly swears to himself in shock.

"Did your 'escort' say anything about them coming back to take you back to the Alpha Quadrant?" Scott Chen asked, excitedly.

Scott Chen's Janeways' jaws drop in surprise...and delight as they remember reading something about that. The others look at Scott blankly....

"No," James' Furry Janeway finally says. "They basicaly left us with an impression that they never wanted to speak with us again."

The dweller's of Scott's Voyagers tell what they read within a plot summary about what was happening on Terra Prime....and about how the Military wanted to let the Voyager "cool down" before finally helping them get home.

"They are going to take you back to Terra Prime's Alpha Quadrant....since Terra Prime IS that universe's version of Earth....and then pop you back into Star Fleet's reality!" Scott said to their thunderstruck counterparts.

"But...how?" James' Human Janeway asks....flustered. "After all that....and HOW?"

"They tapped into your computers and withdrew the same timewarp formula that you used to get here," Scott's Furry Janeway smiled. "They were able to get the bead on this universe...and they're able to use the coordinates to be able to home in on here....and with a bit of interpolation...."

"They can home in on our Alpha Quadrant," James Chen whispered. "In a manner similar to Baldy."

"Just thank whatever Powers you believe in that they aren't out for conquest like Baldy," Scott Chen says quietly.

All nod, thankful for that little slice of lightness.

  1. Nobody seems really surprise when an urgent message is piped in through their combadges about a Military ship approaching....wanting to talk about returning the Voyager home.

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MSG (Finishing off some loose ends....)

2/4/2000 8:07:22 AM

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