Chapter Text
Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager found herself in a most awkward position. Standing in the Ha’van Premmisnister office completely naked. The Ha’van’s most powerful political fugure didn’t blink an eyelid, nor did it stare. Hante simply pointed to an open door as if it had expected this event. Even on Earth, elevated rank still had its privileges. In this case, a private bathroom attached to your office. Rushing into the space, Kathryn found a very good facsimile of her Starfleet uniform waiting, along with the four golden pips, proving her supposition. Hante manipulated this entire situation.
Returning to the office fully dressed, Captain Kathryn Janeway didn’t get a chance to demand answers. Hante stood with a small device in its hand, beckoning the alien woman to stand beside itself. Nodding, Kathryn wondered that she’d never seen the androgenises of Hante when compared to other modern Ha’van’s she’d encountered on her trade mission. The question must have been her expression, as the politician laughed. Or at least, made a sound that assumed the same enjoyment of a situation.
“If you would indulge me,” the Ha’van’s nodded its head in a gesture of supplication. It was a cultural trait the Captain observed rarely in Heyath and its scientist. “Have patience’s, Progenitor Kate Janeway, and all will be explained.”
Nodding her head in agreement, the pair were enveloped in a bubble as Hante pressed the device. “As you have correctly concluded,” it explained as the energy field shimmered into existence around them, signifying time travel, “the Ha’van’s now reproduce sexually, where once we, I believe your word was, budded.”
“Yes.” Ideas and theories were falling into place for the Captain. However, Kate Janeway wanted to scream. Taking in a deep, calming breath, she placed the woman solidly behind the Officer. The mother and partner would bide her time before demanding to know where, and possibly when, her daughter and Tom had appeared.
“Our society owe you and Tom Paris much. You are known as the Progenitors. An honorary title amongst our people. If they uncovered you were in my office,” Hante bowed its head in diffidence. Sweeping a hand out, their original camp site appeared through the flickering veil. “We are surrounded by a temporal bubble. I may release you from it, if you wish, so you might explore this time in your past.”
Nodding, Kathryn took a step forward, leaving the Ha’van’s within its own time. The aeroshuttle had disappeared, the area appeared abandoned but the rest of the site looked as if she and Tom had left only days ago. The plaintive cries of Deffer dragged at the new mother’s heart. Calling the animal, it came. So excited to see part of its pack, Deffer jumped into Kathryn’s outstretched arms. Hugging the shaggy half dog, half cat shaped animal to her breast, the mother wanted to cry. Halina should have been encased in her arms, Tom’s arm around her shoulder, watching his family and offering protection.
“Do you wish to bring the Hagerit with us on our journey through time?” Hante asked, curious as to the emotion this woman displayed.
Unable to answer, tears valiantly constrained, although one or two make it into Deffer’s shaggy coat, Captain Janeway stepped back into the time bubble with the animal securely in her embrace. “It won’t change the time line?” she asked.
“No.” The scene outside moved forwarded, as if a drama on a view screen. Hante remarked, “they are extinct. When it was found the progenitors kept a Hagerit, many were taken from this world as pets. They do not bud in captivity, nor are they found anywhere else within the Ha’van Starpire.”
Unable to form the words, Kathryn watched the play before her with Deffer securely in her arms. Time moved forward at an alarming rate. Day and night passing in the blink of an eye. Wind swept sand over their camp, winter destroyed much of their progress without maintenance. As the years passed, little was left of the site. Finally, Hovath and his crew returned to their camp with a larger team. It became an alcohological dig.
“We first extracted your DNA from the blankets,” Hante explained. “It was then, along with the strange incident with Hovath’s first encounter that excited our scientist. They knew you had abandoned the camp a century before and could not account for the difference in time. We discovered chroniton particles but did not understand their importance for many centuries. As a species, the Ha’van had only started to explore the space surrounding our home world. Then,” once again the scene charged forward before the bubble lifted from the planet’s surface and travelled through three planetary systems. Coming to rest in a massive city, the bubble deposited them in the hospital room Kathryn knew intimately. “You were discovered in one of our cities and brought to this facility. It enabled our scientist to continue their research in genetic conversion by observing the Progenitor’s.”
“How,” the Captain pointed to the obviously asexual Ha’van’s. While it appeared Hante was a throwback to an earlier time in its history, the other individuals she’d met on the trade mission displayed gender differences.
Once again, making that laughing sound, Hante explained. “Each procreated, many times after you disappeared. Time travel was not possible in this era. Before the bud would have separated, they were genetically enhanced and removed from their parent. Half received the equivalent of female genes, the other half, male. We had to learn to care for our helpless young, but had some knowledge of how the Progenitors tended for their daughter. Unfortunately, it took many generations to take effect within the general population. There were complications. Although many became either male or female, reproducing as the Progenitors did, occasionally children were hermaphrodites. Our civilisation did not develop the same bonding rituals as you and Tom Paris.”
“What is the make-up of your family groups?” the Scientist requested. Kathryn Janeway had to ignore the ache in her heart. It seemed she and Tom had affected this culture, breaking the Prime Directive. Yet, they’d had no choice in the matter.
“Mostly, we take our likeness from you and Tom Paris,” Hante stated. “Pairs usually mate for life. Some form groups of more than two, those are more susceptible to failure in the long term because they centre around a hermaphrodite. Our laws in relation to the children are very strict, their welfare paramount. Progenitor Tom taught our civilization this. He cared for both his mate and child in the immediate post birth phase. The male always receives care of the young, if the bond mates end the relationship. Of course, there are those who are relics of the past and still bud.”
“We call them throwbacks,” Kathryn informed. “When the genetic engineering fails, even many generations later, it is not unusual to return to your true and natural form.”
“Then,” Hante smiled sadly, “there are an even smaller group that are unable to create progeny by any method.”
An idea suddenly formed in the Captain’s mind. “You are sterile?” Kathryn enquired of Hante in a soft voice.
“Yes,” The Premminister agreed as they were deposited back into its office. “Those few who are created in each generation are given the most difficult positions within the government. We have loyalties to no group and are designed to make decisions based on the needs of the many.”
Raising an eyebrow, Captain Kathryn Janeway knew she should be angry. This culture had taken Tom and herself by force. They’d placed them in a position of reliance on each other, almost forcing their relationship to become intimate and ending in the creation of a new life. It was that very event which brought about radical change in their civilization.
“By my calculations,” the maths suddenly made sense to the Federation Starship Captain, “you are three hundred years more advanced than Voyager!”
“We have mastered a form of temporal/spatial travel that no longer requires dilithum as a power source. The signature of our previous warp capabilities was designed to attract your vessel to our home world,” Hante confessed.
“You lured us here?” the Captain demanded. Kathryn Janeway now had incontrovertible proof. “You have made us break our prime directive. Tom and I have interfered with the natural progression of a species, even if it is against our will.”
“I absolve you from this,” Hante responded, as if a politician could take away the Captain’s feeling of responsibility or guilt. “I can have our scientist explain the temporal inconsistency causing this time loop if you wish. Or,” it watched carefully, assessing Kathryn Janeway’s expression, “is it enough to know, in this case, the result preceded the event.”
“I had to explain that to Tom once,” Kathryn recalled. Suddenly the question Kate had been ignoring burst fourth. “Where are Tom and my daughter? For that matter, where is my ship and crew?” the Captain added.
“When you did not reach your rendezvous on time, Voyager followed your shuttle’s warp trail to the temporal rift we opened three days ago,” Hante stated. “They proceeded into Ha’van’s main system and I spoke with Commander Chakotay less that one of your days ago. We have assured them you will be returned shortly as our negotiations are finally concluding to the satisfaction of all parties. He chose to follow his own agender and attempt to locate your missing shuttle.”
“We gave your civilization the ability for genetic diversity,” Captain Janeway muttered, finally understanding the subtle undercurrents during the first negotiations. It seemed she and Tom had been missing less than ninety hours in this time, enough for Chakotay to become worried, especially if he couldn’t find any evidence of human life signs on the Ha’van home world. “Now you’re giving us the dilithum and deuterium we requested of you. If you can transport through time, if your technology has advanced to such a level, will you not help us get back to the Alpha quadrant?”
“Like you,” Hante seemed saddened, “we have our own Prime Directive. I suggest you do not waste this opportunity, Progenitor. As I understand from your shuttle’s data banks, a Captain is forced to lived their life alone. You have been given a rare opening to be a leader, a mate and a parent. One, I will never enjoy. I envy you, Kate Janeway.”
“Where is my shuttle?” the Captain asked, ignoring the fluttering around her heart. She’d have to think about Hante’s words later.
“Where it should be. We have taken care of it all these centuries,” Hante smirked, “for the time when it would be needed once again. The director of the Progenitor’s museum will be disappointed to lose such an article.”
“Thank you,” Kate sighed, understanding little would be achieve by fighting an individual as determined as herself. “Now, could you take me to my partner and daughter, please.”
“Halina,” once again that sad expression covered Hante features as it explained, “should not have made the jump. We did not expect Tom Paris’s devotion to his offspring.”
“Your telling me,” Kate became enraged, “you expected us to leave our daughter to be experiment on as we were?”
“Halina,” Hante stood to its towering height, which did little to calm the enraged woman before her, “was never meant to be. As you jumped into the future, the child should have ceased to exist.”
Suddenly understanding, Kathryn Janeway had never been more furious. Hante knew how lonely a position of power could be. Unable to have a child itself, it had given her to chance, while bring advancement to its people. Yet, the Premminister refused to feel guilty for its decision which placed their celebrated progenitors in a moral quandary. There was no way in hell she’d give up Tom after almost a year and a half as his partner, mate and wife in all but name. They even had a child and possibly… Swallowing hard, the Captain had to wonder if this that been Hante’s plan all along.
“You can’t see into the future,” the Kathryn Janeway came to the sudden conclusion. “That’s the limitation of your technology. You’ve lost Tom and Halina. Voyager won’t leave until I have all my crew accounted for, especially my partner and daughter.”
“I would expect nothing less,” Hante smiled, reaching into a pocket and producing the Captain’s comm badge. “After loading the dilithum and other supplies, one of our vessels will escort you to a world where your crew can experience shore leave while we await the arrival of Tom and Halina. The scientists tell me it will not be more than a month.”
“It better not be,” the Captain and woman agreed on this point. Breasts aching, Kathryn realised it was time to feed her daughter. Her breaking heart would have to be concealed for the moment.
“Premminister,” the call interrupted. “The Progenitor’s shuttle has disappeared from the museum. We believe Progenitor Tom Paris has arrived in our time line.”
Tapping the badge on hearing this, Janeway fortified herself with a deep breath. It all came back in a second, her duty and training. “Captain to Voyager.”
“Chakotay here,” the First Officer’s relieved tone issued from the Captain’s comm badge.
“Mr. Paris will soon contact you from Galileo,” Kathryn stated. “Please collect the shuttle before returning to the Ha’van’s home world. Janeway out.”