Chapter 1 || Contents || Chapter 3

So much for tighter security measures.

Janeway instantly smacked her combadge and barked, "Security to the Captain's quarters! Intruder alert!" She kept a sharp eye on the other woman - herself? - while she carefully backed up, trying to remember exactly where the door to the outer room was located behind her. Her hail went unacknowledged. She tried again. "Janeway to Tuvok! Please respond!"

The other Janeway took a tentative step forward, her hands raised in a gesture of supplication. "Please, don't be afraid. I won't hurt you."

"Who are you?" Janeway demanded, her voice low, threatened. She backed up another step and finally found the doorway. With a clumsy twist that reminded her she wasn't in the best of health, she darted for the door to the corridor. It refused to open. She slapped her palm on the control panel. Still the door remained firmly shut. "Computer, open the door!"

"Unable to comply," the computer lilted gently back at her.

Janeway persisted, still facing the intruder as she said, "I order you to open the door!"

"Unable to comply," the computer repeated.

But something was wrong. The computer didn't sound quite right. The soft voice was not melodious enough, not as soothing. In fact, it sounded flat.

"Explain," she commanded tersely. She didn't like being backed into a corner, her only escape cut off by a malfunctioning computer.

"The door seal can only be broken by Captain Janeway."

"I am Captain Janeway! Identify my voice and open the door!" she spat. What was going on?

"Voice unidentified. Cannot comply."

Suddenly the duplicate moved slowly forward, appearing like a ghost out of the bedroom, her hands still raised, her face wearing the "we come in peace, please trust us," expression that Janeway recognized immediately as her own. "Please, stay calm. I can explain this." Then, in a nominally louder voice, she said, "Computer, identify this voice pattern."

"Voice pattern Janeway, Captain Kathryn, confirmed."

"Display voice pattern on my personal terminal," she commanded next. Janeway watched her with an eerie sensation of staring in a mirror - a warped mirror.

The computer activated the terminal sitting on the desk to Janeway's right. She gave it a hasty glance, then returned her gaze to - to who? Herself? Her unknown twin sister? To a mighty damn good clone? "Who are you?" she again demanded.

"Please, look at the terminal," the other said, then requested, "Computer, overlay the voice print of my guest on top on my voice print. Display them both."

It was a curious request. Janeway couldn't stop herself from glancing at the screen again. What she saw halted her trepidation and made her take a longer look.

The second voice pattern, hers, overlaid the other Captain Janeway's. Except the match wasn't perfect. The entire pattern was just a tiny bit out of sync, a little off key, as Harry Kim might say. She stared at it in astonishment. "The waves are the same, but the band width is different."

"I know," the other said. She moved further into the room now that Janeway was no longer acting like a caged tiger ready to spring. Her step was deliberate but slow, as if she ached from some accident.

Janeway took a step to the side, determined to keep her distance. "Yet you look like me," she protested mundanely. Her heartbeat slowed and the panic ebbed as she glanced around the room, trying to understand. "These are my quarters. You're wearing my robe. But the computer tells me I'm not me, but that you are." She took a good look at the other woman and realized that everything wasn't quite the same between the two. Specifically, this captain was wearing her pink satin robe, lightly belted to loosely drape across her shoulders. Her hair was down, as if she was preparing to go to bed. Janeway was still in her Starfleet uniform, her hair pulled back in the typical bun to keep it out of her face.

"I'll explain." The captain stopped several paces away and just stood in an unthreatening pose, her hands hanging limply at her sides, her hair falling over her right shoulder. "This may be hard to understand, but what I tell you is the truth. You're in a parallel universe, one that's close to yours and very similar, but with differences. Obvious differences."

"A parallel universe?" Janeway questioned cautiously. "With another Voyager and another Kathryn Janeway?" She shook her head, not ready to believe quite yet. "How do I know we're not on my ship and you're not a holographic projection?"

The captain raised an eyebrow. "I didn't expect you to accept it right away. But take a look around. See if there are any discrepancies between this room and yours."

Janeway reluctantly moved her eyes from the other woman and let them wander about the room. Everything appeared the same; the couch, the chairs, the flowers in the rose-hued vase, the plant in the corner, the dull shaded carpet....

"The carpet is blue," Janeway blurted, her eyes cast down in amazement.

The other captain glanced down as well. "Yes, it is."

"Mine's gray," Janeway slowly explained, and she finally met the other woman's gaze. If this was some sort of conspiracy or even a computer glitch, what would be the point of completely recarpeting her quarters just to mislead her? She found herself at least willing to listen to this double. "What other differences are there?" Janeway demanded.

As an answer, she said, "Computer, what's the date?"

"Stardate 49624.21"

Janeway balked and had to put her hand against the bulkhead for support. It was a moment before she was able to shake her head. "No, it's 49621.21," she insisted in a whisper.

"It is in your universe. In this one, it's three days later."

Janeway's mind whirled with the possibilities. Her survival instincts wanted her to yell, Send me back, now! but her scientific nature was momentarily stronger. "How is that possible? In a true parallel universe it should be the same time as in mine. Have I time traveled without knowing it?"

"No." She shook her head and her hair tumbled off her shoulder. She gave a half angry, half ironic laugh. "Look on it as a cruel twist of the universe, a game that somebody, or something, is playing with us. Whatever it is, it has given me a few minutes to convince you to change events in your world, events that could have drastic consequences, and you a few days to implement the changes." Her gaze grew steadier, pinning Janeway against the wall. "And you have to do something!" she insisted. "I wasn't fast enough! Everything depends on you!" Her voice grew desperate and urgent at the last, and she took several quick steps towards Janeway.

But she stopped suddenly. Pain clouded her face, and she closed her eyes while she tried to ride out the affliction. Her face grew a sickly white in the dimmed lights of the cabin.

Before she could stop herself, Janeway's humane tendencies took action. In a heartbeat she was at the other captain's side, supporting her and helping her to the nearest seat, the couch under the windows. She caught a glimpse of the stars streaking past outside the ship, and she blinked in surprise; the streaks were bright yellow, not the blurred washed out blues and reds that she always associated with warp speed. But she could tell by the thrum and vibration under her feet that Voyager - if she was indeed on another USS Voyager - traveled at warp five, maybe warp six.

The two women sat and the captain sighed heavily, yanking Janeway's attention back inside the ship. "Are you ill?" Janeway asked sharply.

When she could speak, she said in a tremulous voice, "It was a... a hemorrhage."

"A bad one?"

"Yes. I was in my ready room when it happened. I was too proud to show any weakness in front of the crew - Nobody came, and I lost consciousness."

"Yet you survived," Janeway pointed out redundantly.

"I was lucky." She punctuated each word with a sharp staccato inflection as if to pound it into Janeway's brain. "If Commander Chakotay hadn't found me when he did, I would be dead."

Janeway shook her head, trying to grasp what she was being told. "But I don't understand. Surely you had warnings. If you weren't feeling well...."

A low chuckle came to Janeway's ears. "As you well know, the Janeways have their allotment of pride, and Kathryn has maybe more than her share." She leaned back against the couch, careful not to jar herself needlessly. Once settled, she pushed her hair back and took a deep breath.

Janeway closed her eyes against the other's appeal for sympathy. She rose, resolved. "I'm sorry, I can't help you. You need a doctor, not someone from an alternate universe. Send me back. Now."

The captain cocked an eyebrow in irony. "The Janeways are stubborn, too."

"Send me back!"

"I can't," she explained firmly. "I don't control the shifting. It's not up to me or you or anybody. And I only have a few minutes to tell you -"

"Don't give me that!" Janeway felt the panic start to claw at her again, and she clamped tightly on her fear, knowing that through fear she would completely loose control of the situation. But her anger gave her courage. She gave it free reign, and glared at the other captain. "I'm in your universe. How did I get here if you didn't bring me? There was no anomaly, no black hole, no transporter malfunction, no known interruption in the space/time continuum. I don't like being manipulated." Her voice rose on a wave of helpless fury. "You brought me here - send me back!"

The other captain stared steadily at her out of coldly determined eyes. "As I just explained, I am not in control of any -"

"That is not acceptable!"

"You have no choice!" The captain sat up and scowled at Janeway. "If you don't listen to me, your ship will be destroyed, and it will be your fault!"

Janeway paused. A threat to her ship was always sufficient to stop her heartbeat altogether. "What do you mean?"

"Will you listen?"

"Don't play games with me!" she scorned. "Tell me what you mean."

"Captain, sit down, please. Staring up at you is making my stomach hurt." The other Janeway hung her head, suddenly tired.

It was obvious that she was going to learn nothing until she did as the captain asked. Calmly, a firm grip on her temper, Janeway sat primly next to the captain on the couch. She leaned back and crossed her legs in a further show of good will. She looked at the captain and raised her eyebrow inquiringly.

"Thank you." The captain swallowed, collecting her thoughts.

"What about my ship?" Janeway asked impatiently.

"You're heading for a nebula, to collect gasses for Lieutenant Torres."

Janeway gave a guarded nod. "Yes. For proposed photon torpedo tests. But how do you -"

"The Caligrans sent you there," she interrupted as if she hadn't heard Janeway's protestations. "You have to stop your ship before it comes in range of the nebula."

"Stop my ship?" Janeway said caustically. "Just like that - because you tell me to - " She stopped herself, knowing that temper tantrums would glean little information. She crossed her arms to help clamp down on her temper. She tried again. "Would you care to elaborate? Are you suggesting that the Caligrans somehow -"

The captain leaned forward to fix Janeway's gaze with hers. "What did you purchase from the station at Caligra III?"

Janeway gave her a look of annoyance at being asked questions rather than given answers. But she complied. "Supplies. Food stuffs. Medical equipment. Several dozen containers for the gasses we planned to collect at the nebula. We also installed a new stabilizer for the sensor array. Minor repairs."

"Did it take longer than you expected?"

Janeway paused. "I guess it did, but it wasn't an unacceptable amount of time. The repairs were slow, but thorough," she argued.

The captain leaned back. "They detained Voyager for as long as they could," she suggested accusingly. "Certainly long enough to sneak a Kazon assassin aboard right under your nose."

"Kazon assassin!" Janeway sat up stiffly, as if she planned to jump up and run at any moment. "How do you know about that?"

The captain gave her a knowing glance. "Kazon wear boots with spikes in the soles."

Understanding dawned on Janeway like a blow to her head. In sickening realization her eyes moved to her stomach covered by the smooth black uniform. As if on cue, she felt a twinge, and she placed a warm, comforting hand on the aching area. She lifted her eyes again to the other Kathryn Janeway. "I know all about Kazon boots," she said softly.

Her eyes were bright with her knowledge. "I know. I knew right at the first when you ran for the door to the corridor. You were too slow."

Janeway took a deep breath to clear her mind and glanced out across the empty room. "So what you're suggesting is that everything that's happened to me also happened to you. And what has happened to you in the last three days will eventually happen to me -" Further understanding stopped her voice as the information clicked into place. The other Janeway had hemorrhaged because of a Kazon assassin's well placed kick to her midsection.

The captain's brow furrowed in sympathy. "Prepare yourself for it. It hurts. A lot." She also allowed her gaze to wash over the room so she wouldn't have to meet Janeway's look of horrified comprehension. "I wished I had been given the same advice. But I was too busy being angry with the Caligrans. I missed the warning entirely." Her voice was heavy with regret.

Fear, anger, and disbelief vied for Janeway's attention, but she refused to conjecture without more information. "You're not telling me everything you know," she accused quietly.

Relief washed over the captain like a rain shower. "I needed to convince you to trust me before I told much more." She clasped her hands in her lap, thinking. "I'll start with the Caligran's duplicity. It's not a well known fact. They don't support the Kazon's warring culture. But they feel it's best to cultivate allies where they can. They play all factions in the quadrant against each other, leaving no evidence behind to incriminate themselves. We've since discovered that they're very good at this form of espionage. They helped hide the young Kazon on my ship, just as they did on yours." She stopped.

"That's not all," Janeway prompted. "I can see by your expression - you have more to tell."

The captain issued a small smile as she took in Janeway's words. "Odd, isn't it? To know what I'm thinking, just like I know what you're thinking."

"Go on," Janeway encouraged, though she gave a shrug and a nod. It was odd. Damned odd.

The captain tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "There's a lot more to tell. And it's worse than you think. The Vidiians are waiting for you in the nebula."

"What!"

"I told you the Caligrans play the entire quadrant like a symphony. If they can work with the Kazon factions, why not the Vidiians?"

"But that's preposterous!" Janeway protested in amazement. "Nobody works with the Vidiians. One contact and you're lucky to come away with all your organs intact."

"That's what I thought. But the Vidiians are willing to make deals with the species that are willing to deliver or inform on other species. It's quite a political game they have going. The Vidiians leave the Caligrans alone, and the Caligrans send everybody they can get their hands on to the Vidiians."

"But surely the Caligrans know the Vidiians will eventually turn on them as well. They're a desperate people who will take desperate measures to ensure their survival."

The captain rubbed a tired hand across her face. "I suppose that will happen eventually. But it's a big quadrant, Captain. There are a lot of victims more easily attainable than the Caligrans. The Caligrans can be fierce fighters when they want to be. They are just as willing as the Vidiians to destroy an entire race if it means their own survival, and they have the weapons technology to do it."

"True." Janeway could hardly deny that. She had toured several munitions plants during their stay on the planet, and watched a demonstration of both planetary and ground defensive capabilities. She had been duly impressed. The Caligrans were prepared to defend themselves for long periods of time if necessary. With a sigh she leaned thoughtfully into the couch. However, her desire to hear more of the captain's story returned her thoughts to the Vidiians. "Did this happen to you?" she asked after a time. "Were the Vidiians waiting for your ship?"

The captain glanced up. "I mentioned that I wasn't fast enough. The Janeway before me gave me certain information, but the events and time tables are slightly different in each universe. I wasn't prepared for that."

"Excuse me - The Janeway before you?"

The captain smiled her ghost smile again, leaving Janeway with an eerie feeling of sadness. "This is all one long play that repeats itself over and over again. I wasn't the first Kathryn Janeway that this happened to. And you are probably not the last."

Not the last? This had all happened before? Janeway scooted back a foot on the couch, distancing herself from what the other woman was telling her. "How many have there been?" she queried.

The captain turned a bleak expression on Janeway. "Twenty-nine."

"Twenty-nine!" She wasn't sure how she felt about having so many other selves populating the facets of the universe. It was a powerful blow to her sense of uniqueness.

"They're all a little different," the captain said to alleviate what she knew Janeway was feeling. "The first Janeways actually had few traits in common with you or me."

"That's intriguing," Janeway blurted, interested despite her aversions. "Rather like an evolution that leads to us."

"Or a deterioration that leads from them. That's probably what the first Kathryn Janeway would claim. She was far more egotistical than we are now, far more vindictive, far more willing to kill."

"What happened to her?"

"She was destroyed, along with her ship."

"Destroyed? How?"

The captain sighed. "According to my informant, and we agreed that the information was quite likely inaccurate at this late point in the shiftings, that first Janeway had practically declared martial law on her ship. She was extremely dictatorial and insisted that she was the only one who could command. She didn't listen to her officers, refused to accept anything less than blind obedience. Her crew mutinied, and they killed her. Unfortunately, it was what the Kazon were waiting for. They attacked and destroyed Voyager."

Janeway was quiet as she absorbed this information. She tried to imagine the scenario, and had more success than she wished. "I would never declare martial law," she said. "Just as Chakotay would never allow a mutiny on his ship."

The captain shrugged. "Remember, it was a different universe. Maybe there was no Chakotay. Maybe he had also been killed. Who knows? After thirty shifts, the information is garbled at best, and more likely lost forever."

Janeway collapsed against the back of the couch in astonishment. "Is that possible? That a parallel universe can be so different?"

"Apparently. The shifting had reached number fourteen before Voyager originated in the Alpha Quadrant. Until then, they were from the Beta Quadrant. The Federation was called The United Space Administration. Voyager looked more like a spatula than a sleek fighting ship. It was the Kazon who attacked instead of the Vidiians. The contrasts go on and on...." Her voice drifted away and she stared out the window, lost in the blur of warped space.

Janeway brought her gaze back inside the ship when she asked, "What else do you know?"

The captain forced her eyes to focus on Janeway again. "Our predecessor managed to destroy herself for the first seven shiftings. Hardly an admirable record." She grunted a harsh laugh that lacked any trace of humor. "After that, we started listening to each other. We've managed to reduce the deaths at the outcome by a great many. I suppose we should be proud of such progress."

Reduce the deaths? Janeway suddenly laid a hand on the captain's wrist, the first physical contact between the two. "Tell me, what happened to your ship?" she gently asked.

She cleared her throat and fixed her eyes on the carpet. "When I arrived back from my shift, I changed our course immediately. My shift had occurred a few hours earlier than most, and I was convinced I could change the pattern, perhaps even stop it, if I used the extra time correctly. I was in my ready room, going over possible actions... I thought I had time to plan, that we could strike back and beat the Vidiians at their own game, that that was the goal we needed to reach to stop the shiftings altogether." She turned her despairing gaze again on the stars outside her window. "I was wrong."

"What happened?" Janeway couldn't quite keep the dread from creeping into her voice.

"We were caught in a Vidiian ambush two light years from the nebula," she explained prosaically, her eyes half closed, as if she had born so much pain that she was immune to any reminders from this additional retelling. "I was called to the Bridge when the ships appeared on short range sensors - the long range sensors had been sabotaged by the Caligrans and were useless, though we weren't aware of that until it was too late. I stood up and made it as far as the front of my desk. Then the hemorrhage started. I thought I had at least another hour before it would happen, but - " She stopped with a helpless gesture, her face distorted in a war of emotions, her indifference gone now. She raised a hand to cover the display, and her fingers shook. The captain tried several times to continue the story, but her throat tightened and the words would not come. Finally she forced them out in pure determination, her voice husky and low. "When I... I didn't answer the... the hail, Chakotay came looking for me. I was... unconscious... when he found me. He took me to Sickbay, and left Tuvok in command." She paused, cleared her throat, then went on a little stronger. "At the same time, the Vidiians attacked, their phasers all targeted on the Bridge. Their information was very accurate. They broke through the shields in moments and the Bridge was taking direct hits. The Bridge crew evacuated in time, all except - " She stopped again and this time couldn't control the sob that tore through her. The tears previously restrained flowed down her cheeks. She covered her eyes, refusing to look at Janeway. "Lieutenant Tuvok was killed."

Janeway felt herself go numb. Her breath caught in her throat. "I'm so sorry," was all she could say.

The captain stared dumbly up at the ceiling, her tears unchecked. But she bit her lip fiercely until she regained enough control to speak. Her words were ragged. "I can't even give my condolences to T'Pel. She may never know that her husband died because his captain was too secure in her abilities to command to know when to run. All we had to do was go to warp one and leave the area. A simple course diversion. But I was so certain of my solution." She forced her gaze on Janeway, the skin gaunt across her cheekbones. "And now Tuvok's dead. I lost my best friend, my adviser, and I can never forgive myself."

Janeway didn't know what to say, could think of nothing that might comfort the grieving captain. Her mind was mercifully blank in the aftermath of the other woman's tragedy.

The blankness slowly gave way to shock as she lethargically realized it was more than that. The entire room seemed dim, dimmer than before when the lights were down so low. Janeway jerked her head to stare at the other captain. The woman was definitely growing fainter, darker around the edges, less distinct. The shift! Janeway thought. It's happening now! She experienced a moment of paralyzing panic. It was too soon!

The captain realized what was happening a second after Janeway. Suddenly she seized Janeway's hands in a grip that was so tight it hurt, yet Janeway did not attempt to break away. In grave desperation she leaned close and said, "Listen to me! There's one more thing - don't turn away from him! Don't be a fool - like I was."

The sensation of holding hands was fading. Janeway squeezed tight, trying to hang on. "Who? Turn away from who?" she demanded in a frenzy. "Tuvok? The Vidiian commander?"

The captain was disappearing. Only a shadow remained. Janeway could no longer feel her hands. She felt like she was falling, or as if somebody had grabbed her from behind and was pulling....

"No," came the answer, reduced to a distant whisper. "Chakotay."

Then she was gone.

Chapter 1 || Contents || Chapter 3