PART C

 

Bridge. Now the ship is being hit repeatedly by anti-proton bursts, causing personnel to be rocked and sometimes fall. Tuvok: "Main computer core is failing. Switching to backup processor." Janeway: "Chakotay, are you ready to magnetise the hull?"

Chakotay: "Stand by. I'm having trouble with the alignment module."

Janeway: "Try remodulating the field-" The ship suffers another jolt from the proton bursts. Several bridge crew including Janeway are knocked to the floor. When Janeway gets up she has a large cut across her right cheek. "Chakotay!"
Chakotay: "I've got alignment. Magnetising the hull." The ship seems to be stabilised. "I think it worked."
Janeway: "Let's hope so. I want a full damage report from all decks."

Paris: "Are you alright, Captain?" Janeway: "It's just a scratch." Paris: "It's more than a scratch. You should go-" Janeway snaps: "I'm fine, Lieutenant."

Tuvok: "Damage reports are coming in. The hull breach on deck 15 has widened to include deck 14 section 12 and there are 632 microfractures along the hull's infrastructure. All primary systems are offline. We are running on emergency power only. The antimatter supply has dropped to eighteen per cent and is continuing to fall. Warp coils in both nacelles have fused and are inoperative. Environmental control systems are failing. Fifteen crewmembers have been seriously wounded with plasma burns; twenty-seven experienced other injuries. The Doctor is setting up triage facilities in Sickbay and Holodeck 2. I must also regretfully report that Ensign Wildman's baby did not survive."

The news is grim - the damage, and all those deaths. Janeway: "I want an engineering team to seal those microfractures before they become breaches. Tuvok: "Aye, Captain." Janeway: "Mr Paris, grab a medical tricorder and go assist the Doctor." Paris: "Right." He leaves.

Janeway: "Commander, you have the Bridge. I'm going to talk to Ensign Wildman. Maybe I can help-" She is knocked back by an explosion.

Chakotay: "The magnetic field is collapsing! The hull is depolarising!" Tuvok: "The fire suppression system is out." Computer: "Warning: hull breach on deck 1. Emergency forcefields inoperative." Chakotay leaps to his feet. "Everybody out! Go, go, go!"

As everyone evacuates, he turns to find Janeway still in the captain's chair busy working at the console. "Hurry, Captain!" Janeway: "I'm trying to reroute emergency power to the field emitters." Chakotay: "Captain!" Janeway: "I can seal this breach!"

Part of the Bridge collapses.

Chakotay: "Captain, let's go!"

As Janeway finally goes to leave the Bridge, she looks back and is amazed to see...

herself, Chakotay and the Bridge crew all there, with herself looking at her!

And on another USS Voyager, a ship that is perfectly intact, its Captain stares after her, amazed, as she moves toward then goes "through" the closed doors of the turbolift!

Janeway stands. Chakotay: "Captain?" Janeway: "Ensign Kim, scan the Bridge. I just saw myself cross the Bridge and enter that turbolift. It was very faint, almost like a ghost image, and I looked like hell."

Kim: "Captain, there was a minor spatial fluctuation on the Bridge. But it was only there for a millisecond."

Janeway, via comms: "Bridge to Engineering. How long before we can use the main sensor array?" Torres, coming up to the console where Hogan is working: "Another three hours. We're only halfway through the proton burst procedure." Janeway: "See if you can speed up the process. We need the sensors as soon as possible." Torres: "Understood."

Janeway: "Mr Kim, modify a tricorder to scan for spatial anomalies. Go over every centimetre of this bridge. Examine the sensor logs from our trip through the plasma drift. Look for anything unusual.

Janeway to Chakotay: "I'll be in Sickbay." Chakotay: "Aye, Captain."

"Good, because I think she's going to have an interesting story to tell."

Sickbay. Doctor, holding Wildman's new-born baby: "Good news, Ensign. Our baby is perfectly healthy. There's no sign of any interspecies abnormalities." Wildman: "'Our' baby?" Doctor: "A figure of speech. I am in part responsible for bringing her into the world. You may hold her now." He hands the baby to her mother who greets her: "Hello there." Janeway enters. Wearing a big smile on her face, she goes over to Wildman and the baby. Janeway: "Congratulations, Samantha. She's adorable. Have you thought of a name?" Wildman: "Not yet. I really thought it would be a boy." Janeway: "Let me know as soon as you decide. Stroking the baby's cheek: "I've been making a blanket for her. All that's missing is an initial. Get some rest." Janeway and the Doctor move away. Janeway asks: "How's our other patient doing?" Doctor: "Still unconscious." Kes: "I ran a microcellular scan. We're almost identical in almost every way." Janeway: "Almost?" Doctor: "There's a slight phase shift in their DNA. Do you have any theory about where she came from?" Janeway: "Not yet, but I intend to find out. Can you wake her?" Doctor: "I believe so." Janeway: "Good, because I think she's going to have an interesting story to tell." After the "interesting story": Kes: "I was running through the corridor with my medkit, deck 15, and then suddenly I felt dizzy, and my vision started to blur. After that I don't remember anything, until you woke me up just now." Kes: "You were found unconscious down on deck 15 holding a medkit. Janeway: "We also found this lying next to you. It's a piece of damaged conduit. Our analysis shows it's from Voyager, deck 15, section 29 alpha, bulkhead 052, but there's no damage on deck 15 or anywhere else on this ship." Kes: "There was massive damage to deck 15." Janeway: "The evidence would seem to suggest that you've come from a different ship, a different Voyager. We did find a spatial rift on deck 15. It's possible that it somehow connects us to this other Voyager." Doctor: "If you're right, where is the other ship - a parallel universe, another dimension, another point in time?" Janeway: "I'm not sure. Almost everything about the Voyager Kes described is identical to ours: we've had similar experiences, similar personal histories. We both entered the plasma cloud to avoid the Vidiians, both our engines stalled as we left the cloud which caused both of our antimatter supplies to drain, and then we both decided to keep our engines running by emitting proton bursts. But after that our experiences diverged. We started emitting proton bursts. They didn't." Kes: "Our ship was being damaged by proton bursts. We couldn't figure out where they were coming from." Janeway: "That's more than a coincidence." She taps her combadge. combadge "Janeway to Engineering. B'Elanna, I want you to stop the proton bursts immediately." Torres: "But if we stop now, the power levels-" Janeway: "I'll explain later, Lieutenant." Torres: "Understood." Janeway: "I don't know how, but there's another Voyager out there, and I intend to find it."

USS Voyager, stationary in space.

Janeway, Chakotay, Kim and Torres go over to the science station on the Bridge. Chakotay: "We analysed the sensor logs from our trip through the plasma cloud. We couldn't find anything unusual until we ran a quantum level analysis. Remember that subspace turbulence we hit just before we left the cloud?" Janeway: "Yes." Chakotay: "Well, watch what happens." Kim: "At first we thought it was a sensor aberration but they were in perfect calibration at the time." Torres: "So I ran a multi-spectral analysis on the subspace turbulence. It was more than just turbulence, it was some sort of divergence field, and the moment we passed through it all of our sensor readings doubled - mass, energy output, bio-signatures, everything, every particle of matter on this ship seems to have been duplicated in that instant." Janeway: "So where's the other ship?" Kim: "As strange as it seems, Captain, another Voyager's right here, right now, occupying the same point in space-time that we are." Janeway: "Quantum theorists at Kent State University ran an experiment in which a single particle of matter was duplicated using a divergence of subspace fields, a spatial scission." Chakotay: "If the same forces were at work inside the plasma cloud they may have duplicated every particle of matter on Voyager." Janeway: "Matter, but not antimatter." Kim: "Captain?" Janeway: "In that Kent State experiment they were able to duplicate normal matter, but when they tried to duplicate antimatter particles the experiment failed." Torres: "So the antimatter on the ships wasn't duplicated. Both engines have been trying to draw power from a single source of antimatter." Janeway: "Like Siamese twins linked at the chest, with only one heart." Chakotay: "So what do we do?" Janeway: "I don't know, but whatever it is we're going to have to co-ordinate it with the other ship. Start working on a way to communicate with them." Torres: "Right." Janeway: "The only link we know of is on deck 15, the spatial rift. We're going to need to find a way to send Kes back through safely." Kim: "We could rig a portable phase discriminator. It might protect her from the spatial transition." Janeway: "Get on it."

In Sickbay Wildman asks: "When can I start breastfeeding?" Doctor: "Right away. However, I should forewarn you that her incisors will erupt within three to four weeks. Since your skin lacks the scales of a Ktarian, we'll have to discuss alternatives."

Wildman: "When can I take her home?" Doctor: "In twenty-four hours. I want to observe the infant to make sure there's no more damage to her cell membranes." Kes: "You're welcome to stay the night so that you can be with her." Wildman: "I'd like that."

The baby's cries disturb Kes who tosses and turns, agitated as she recalls events on her ship: "Congratulations, Ensign. It's a girl. ... I've stabilised my imaging array but it could go out at any time." "Doctor, the cell membranes are losing cohesion." "Try remodulating the osmotic pressure." "No effect." "Again!" "Nothing." "My baby, she's going to die, isn't she?" "I'm sorry, Ensign." "...she's going to die, isn't she?"

Doctor: "Kes? Kes! Are you alright?" Kes: "Yes, it's just, the baby's crying, it was like a bad memory." Doctor: "What do you mean? Kes: "On my Voyager, during the delivery there were complications. We performed a foetal transport." Doctor: "The same thing happened here. The transport was successful." Kes: "On my ship the medical systems were heavily damaged. The osmotic pressure therapy didn't work. The baby died."

Doctor: "I'm sorry to hear that. But try to understand it wasn't your fault. The situation was out of your control." Kes: "Doctor, I've, I've got to get back to my ship. They need my help." Doctor: "The Captain's working on it, Kes. In the meantime, try to get some rest. Besides, I'm sure your Voyager is also equipped with a proficient Emergency Medical Hologram."