Posted by Lieutenant Siennadye Nox (Counselor) in Alt. Universe: Starfleet Command - Operation Bedlam

Posted by Captain Johann Dvorak (CO) in Alt. Universe: Starfleet Command - Operation Bedlam

Posted by Lieutenant Siennadye Nox (Counselor) in Alt. Universe: Starfleet Command - Operation Bedlam

SNIP

What did a woman do when she was transported to another universe there and stranded? Star Fleet had many options for the XO of the Europa. She could have gone on to be an Executive Officer or Captain her own ship on the edge of space. She could have worked with Star Fleet Intelligence on their missions regarding alternate realities. She could work at Headquarters in any department she wished. She could have quit and worked on her own investigation though resources would be slim at best for such an endeavor. And she could have joined Johann Dvorak on the Korolev as a Junior officer since he already had an XO. For all that Star Fleet offered, it took her some time to decide which option she wished to take.

For her, it was not an option to take a position lower on the food chain, nor work with the man who her counterpart was married to. She figured he was going through enough without having that daily reminder of loss. She didn’t want to give up the fight to get back to her universe and her friends there either, so captaining her own ship while intriguing, was not enough for her. Sienna knew her alternate universe counterpart was probably devastated to be separated from her husband. She had to find a way to get the two of them switched back.

Thus, she asked for a position in charge of all alternate reality missions within Star Fleet. They didn’t give her that seat but they did give her his right hand position. Admiral Sokov was the Vulcan Star Fleet Admiral in charge of that section of Star Fleet Intelligence. Today, she walked through headquarters to meet with several key Federation members and after several discussions, had gotten no where on a particular matter her team was investigating. Frustrated, she reviewed her PaDD, making notes as she went.

“Captain Nox!” A voice rang out.

Sienna turned her head though her feet kept moving forward and BAM! Right into another person.

Nox

He hadn’t been looking forward, so he stopped abruptly when he felt himself collide into someone. “Sorry,” he said reflexively as he turned to look at whoever it was that seemed oddly familiar.

Then he actually saw her.

It wasn’t actually her, it was someone else who just looked exactly like her. Someone who was exactly like her, up until a particular moment in 2384, when she took one path, and this woman in front of him took another.

He knew right away it wasn’t his wife. It wasn’t intellectual; he just knew. He couldn’t actually think. It all felt wrong. Then it felt worse, because she was familiar even though she wasn’t his wife. He missed her image–he didn’t have “sight” anymore– and was glad to see it again. Bumping into this woman was the closest he had come to touching his wife in five years. He very much wanted to touch his wife, but this was not her.

His eyelids widened involuntarily.

– Johann Dvorak, CO Korolev

“OH my!” The word slipped out as Sienna moved to catch herself and the other person she had run into. She dropped her PaDD and grabbed whatever part of the person she could reach easily. It turned out that her right hand grabbed his left shoulder and her left onto his right arm.

Johann froze. It made him an excellent set of improvised handrails. The situation reminded him of the last time he and his wife danced; it was also a large, crowded, noisy room. All he had to do is twist his right hand slightly and they could waltz. Were he prepared for this set of events, he might have done that just as a joke. But he couldn’t even fully process what was happening.

His voice caused her to pause as her mind realized just who she had run into. How could she not know the voice of her closest friend, a man who apparently, under the right circumstances, she felt connected to enough to marry? She turned her face to see the man she had spent the last few years avoiding as she worked to return his wife to him. The problem was, she could see it. They had always had an intense connection that had allowed a strong telepathic link between her and this man. Their friendship had been so good on the Europa. Now she looked in his face and saw what she had seen the first time she had seen this alternate version of her friend. He was as handsome and charming and funny as her friend. Had she ever entertained the notion of an intimate relationship, she could see how she might have made the choice. Now, inches away from his face, she could see it and as it had before, it unnerved her. “Uh… oh. No. Joha…I mean Captain Dvorak. I should have watched where I was going. My apologies.”

Johann blinked once. He started feeling light headed. His mouth moved, as if he was about to say something, but no sound actually came out of it. He could smell her. She smelt like his wife. He didn’t actually register anything she had been saying. The words might as well have been in Klingon, backwards.

AWKWARD Her brain screamed at her internally. As she realized she had not immediately extricate herself from him. She pressed her lips together and moved to do just that. “How is the USS Korolev getting on these days?” Sienna asked as a way to move herself away from the personal and on to the professional.

Nox

As she moved away, his arms collapsed, untangling the two of them effortlessly. For a moment, he was visibly deflated. Then the basic pseudo-military training of Starfleet kicked in, and he managed to pull himself into an upright posture. It was then that he finally was aware enough of what had just happened that he could get navigate this situation with basic competence. Or that’s what he thought.

“We…” he said somewhat quietly, and stopped himself from continuing for a moment. While nobody except whoever it was who called out to Captain Nox was actually paying any attention to their melodrama, he was very aware that they were in a room full of strange people. Officers trying to get work done.

We don’t have to talk, he thought. Did he really mean it? He wanted to talk to his wife. This was mostly the same woman, right? It was not the same woman. He wanted her his wife. Now. But not here.

– Johann Dvorak, CO Korolev