summary:

TITLE: The Queen of The Lost Worlds AUTHOR: halfofone
RATING: R CODE: T/7
FEEDBACK: Constructive feedback welcome.
SUMMARY: Same characters, different universe. Very different. And perhaps the characters are not all that similar either ...
NOTES: A very unexpected encounter throws the crew and passengers of the yuQmey chIl SoS'a' into a strange adventure.
ARCHIVING: If you want ... I would quite like to know where.

disclaimer:

TPTB are Paramount/Viacom. In a perfect world I would own Star Trek but it's not and I don't.
TPTB are many. In a perfect world I would be one of them but it's not and I'm not. No infringement of copyright/trade marks or other intellectual property is intended. This story was written for fun and not profit.

warnings:

Warning: This story includes same sex relationships between women. If you are offended by this or it is illegal where you live or you are underage then please read no further.

Full warnings, credits and disclaimers can be found in the contents page and chapter 1.

text:

Previously...

"I'm not jealous Lanna. I worry about you. You need someone apart from a bloody parrot."

"Maybe but I don't need Annika Hansen. Okay I think we'll go with the ion storms. They don't look too bad."

Annika leaned against the wall outside the bridge and tried not to cry or even care. B'Elanna Torres was right. She would be gone soon and this would be over. She would be okay again. But right this second it hurt more than anything she had ever experienced.

Part 5a

Annika awoke from an unhappy fitful sleep to the sound of the emergency alarm. At least she assumed it must be because it was such godawful noise. Then almost immediately there came a loud banging on her door. She became aware of the ship trembling and creaking.

"Ani! Wake up!" The banging started again.

"Okay! Coming." Annika half fell out of bed and staggered to the door to unlock it. As the door opened she started screaming. A bulky figure in a full black spacesuit stood on the other side. The identity of the wearer was hidden by reflective dark glass in the helmet.

"For Kahless' sake stop yowling, It's only me," said the spacesuit crabbily.

"B'Elanna?" Annika panted anxiously. The Captain was revealed looking none too happy as her face mask slid aside.

"Yes. Now put this on!"

The figure thrust a large spacesuit at the surprised human.

"What?"

"Just do it quickly. I need you on the bridge."

"In a spacesuit..." Annika was finding it hard to understand.

"Don't argue. Just get dressed and hurry." Annika took the suit and laid it on the bed. She started to take off her pajamas. B'Elanna turned around to give the human some privacy.

"The ion storms are a lot worse than we thought and the Queen's taking damage. There are some small cracks appearing in her hull. There's just a slight possibility of a breach - hence the spacesuits as a precaution. Tom and I have to go outside on the hull to patch the cracks before they leak."

"Outside!" Annika squeaked.

"We'll cut the warp engines, then Tom and I will get out there and fix her up while you helm the ship."

"Me!" Annika squeaked, even higher than before.

"Would you stop squealing? You're going to damage my eardrums. It won't be difficult and it shouldn't take more than an hour. You just fly her in a straight line like you did yesterday, unless there's an obstacle and then you avoid the obstacle, like you did yesterday. You'll be fine."

Annika swallowed her protest and the little scream that would have accompanied it. She stayed silent for a few moments and concentrated on her struggle with the giant spacesuit.

Hearing the sounds of struggle, B'Elanna impatiently turned to see the blonde hopping on one leg. She was struck by how truly attractive Annika Hansen was. Wearing only a light t-shirt and pants, with her hair down and no make-up, for once the woman was totally unaware of her appearance and she was just as beautiful.

"Aren't you ready yet?" the captain asked brusquely, trying to hide the completely unexpected attraction.

"I don't know how to put this on," Annika replied miserably, feeling she had failed the first test already.

"I'll help."

After a few moments of them both writhing, tugging, exchanging terse instructions and curses, Annika found herself imprisoned in the clumsy suit. It was enormous. The leggings hung in billowing folds on her legs and she had to keep pulling up the sleeves so that her hands stayed in the gloves. When she turned, it felt as though the suit followed a second later.

"It belongs to one of my brothers - Anton. He's the smallest but still a lot bigger than you." There was a suspicion of a laugh in B'Elanna's voice and Annika glared at her.

"Put your helmet on," was the only response. "It's safer."

Annika wedged the helmet on and felt some pressure on the back of her neck as B'Elanna activated the pressurised seals. Silence. Even the loud creaking of the ship faded to a muffled moaning. She could see B'Elanna tapping something on the left side of her helmet. Annika lifted her left arm, hitched up the sleeve to get her hand back in the glove which had escaped several inches away and tried to feel for some kind of control on the side of her helmet. There seemed to be a button. She pressed it and her face mask flew open.

"The comm control is on the other side," B'Elanna said in a voice that was not too patient. "And don't forget to close the mask. You need to be careful with that if we lose hull integrity."

Annika complied with the instructions without argument but before she turned on the suit communicator she allowed herself some quality cursing about the obviously demented designer of this so-called safety garment.

Finally ready and fully encased, Annika - loosely accompanied by her spacesuit - found herself following the captain to the bridge. Her progress was less than graceful due to the constant necessity of holding up the leggings to stop them pooling around her ankles. Walking was more of a wading action anyway since her boots were at least 4 sizes too large.

On the bridge, Tom was engaged in some quality invective too as he tried and failed to catch Arkoo. The parrot was taking short flights around the room staying just out of the reach of the spacesuited human lumbering ungracefully after him.

"Haven't you got him in that box yet?" B'Elanna said impatiently. "Here let me. Come here you damned nuisance" she cried as she lunged for the feathered one. The parrot squawked defiance and flew to land on the nav comp.

"Okay well, you'll just have to take your chances then!" snarled the irrascible captain. "We don't have time for this. Just don't cry to me if you're eviscerated by a vacuum."

"Loser," yelled the parrot, crazily rocking from side to side.

B'Elanna ignored it. "Come on Tom. We'd better get on. Some of those cracks are getting a little too big."

"Doesn't the ship maintain a structural integrity field around the skin?" Annika inquired nervously.

"That's a bit new-fangled for The Queen" said B'Elanna. Her voice sounded a little regretful and she added protectively "But she has a triple-skin reinforced hull."

"Which is breaching..." Tom inserted nastily.

B'Elanna was obviously annoyed by this disloyalty to her beloved Queen but she didn't choose to retaliate. "Yeah, well let's get out there and fix it before we all die a lonely death or perhaps you'd rather stay here and carp."

She turned to Annika. "Cut the warp engines on my signal. Keep her steady at half-impulse until we get back. Watch the sensors and look out for any really big ion waves. If you see one coming, turn the Queen into it, let her ride it out and then resume the previous course."

"What! I have no idea what you are talking about. I can't do this..." Inside the stifling confines of her helmet Annika felt herself starting to panic.

B'Elanna opened her own face mask and took Annika's hand. She lifted her hand to press the button that opened the blonde's mask also. Dark eyes stared steadily into frightened blue.

"Yes you do Ani. You can do this. Hey you beat the simulator yesterday. You're a natural."

"B'Elanna, we spent twenty minutes on it. What happens if I get it wrong..."

"Well...Tom and I probably die." Annika paled even further and swayed unsteadily. B'Elanna held her hands tighter and said quickly, "But nothing like that is going to happen because you will be great. I trust you and we're probably safer with you than Tom. He likes to ride the wave a little too much." B'Elanna winked confidently. "Just don't trip over your feet." She gestured at the overly large boots on the unfortunate blonde's feet.

Figting off tears, Annika sniffled "You gave me this suit deliberately to embarrass me, didn't you?."

B'Elanna simply grinned. Annika awkwardly threw her arms around the smaller woman and hugged her as best she could. "Don't you dare die on me, 'cause I am going to get you back B'Elanna Torres."

"I'm so scared," mocked the eldest daughter of the house of Torres. A loud creak from the Queen put an end to the ribbing. Annika let go of the captain.

"Come on Tom."

Tom looked disappointed.

"Don't I get a hug from the pilot."

Annika blew him a kiss and B'Elanna rolled her eyes.

"By the way Ani, I'm clipping you in..." said the captain as she attached a tether on the side of Annika's suit to a point on the helm, "...just in case we lose gravity."

Ignoring the shocked expression on Annika's face and the beginning of the inevitable protest, B'Elanna gave the blonde one last smile and then closed her mask. Tom followed suit. They waved cheerfully to the now very nervous blonde and departed as quickly as their heavy suits allowed. As they left the parrot bawled "Throw the sinners overboard. Throw them overboard. Let the deep black void have their souls."

Annika nearly broke and went after them until she heard Tom's voice over the internal communications speaker in her helmet.

"Wow that bird really knows how to bear a grudge!"

"He doesn't like to be chased for sure." B'Elanna replied. "Ani can you hear us?"

Annika smiled despite her fear. B'Elanna's voice seemed to bounce round her helmet, leaving her ears ringing.

"Yes Captain. Loud and painfully clearly."

"Are you saying I'm shouting?" her leader queried at a more moderate volume.

"Fine now."

"Okay. We're at the airlock. Cut warp engines now."

Annika eased two sliders smoothly backwards. The warp engine output fell to zero, the deflector field shrank to nothing and the schematic representing the warp bubble that surrounded the ship collapsed to a point on the monitor in front of her.

"We've left warp," she reported. Her voice trembled despite her best efforts to control it.

"Good. Inner airlock door is open. We're in the airlock. Inner door closed. Outer door opening. We're going outside."

A few seconds passed and Annika tried to ignore the overwhelming need to talk to fill the silence. She concentrated on studying the various outputs from the sensors, looking for ion wave patterns. It was hard given the prevailing high levels of ion distortions that were buffeting 'The Queen'. She focused on applying the filters in a sequence designed to identify patterns hidden within the background noise assaulting the sensors from all directions.

"I'm in position," said Tom suddenly. Annika nearly jumped out of her skin. "Now secure."

"I'm nearly there too," B'Elanna responded.

Something caught Annika's eye. She took a sharp breath. B'Elanna caught it immediately.

"Ani what's wrong?"

"Something's coming."

"An ion wave?"

"No. I don't think so. It's faster. It's coming straight for us. It's massive! Some kind of huge sub-space distortion."

"Can we outrun it?"

"No it's moving at warp four point six."

"We have to go to warp then."

"You won't have time to get inside. The radiation... you'll fry."

"Turn into it. Tom and I will secure ourselves and take shelter."

"Kahless B'Elanna! Hurry!" Annika yelled. "Twelve seconds to impact."

Annika's hands flew over the helm controls. Like a fly drowning in treacle, The Queen slowly turned to face the oncoming onslaught. Tears streaming down her face, Annika watched the wall of light and energy filling the forward view screen until nothing else was visible. The light seemed to fill the whole of the bridge. Arkoo was squawking and shrieking. Annika fell to her knees and hid her face. And then nothing.

Part 5b

Arkoo whistled and shrieked, "Damn your eyes."

Annika slumped forward on to her knees and dimly wondered where the helm had gone. She could hear voices.

"What the hell is that thing?" a strange voice exclaimed.

"That's a parrot," Annika mumbled automatically. "His name is Arkoo. He's rude. And he bites."

"Are you alright?" a woman's voice was asking. Annika wasn't sure. She pushed herself up on her hands and tried to look around. Her eyes were still aching from the light and bright spots of orange and red whirled in her vision. She wasn't on the bridge of the yuQmey chIl SoS'a'. That much was certain. It seemed to be a large room with brightly lit wall panels. She was on some kind of platform. Fear washed through her - maybe this was the afterlife though it didn't look much like Stovokor or Paradise as she had imagined them. Then she remembered what had happened.

"B'Elanna, Tom" she mumbled and tried to stand but tripped, entangled in a loose fold of her space suit. She found herself back on her knees. A pair of arms went round her, steadying her and the voice said.

"Don't try to stand. We will look after you. Doctor can you get here quicker. They don't look good."

Annika's vision was clearing. Assisted now by at least two pair of hands, she managed to lurch to her feet and stay upright.

A woman was standing in front of her, dressed in a red and black uniform that Annika didn't recognise but she did recognise the woman.

"Hello. I'm..."

"Senator Janeway!" Annika exclaimed.

The woman looked a little puzzled. "...Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager."

A tall dark man was standing next to Janeway. He was dressed in the same uniform.

"You are human. Then this is the Alpha quadrant" he stated earnestly.

Annika peered at him and would have fallen backwards if it hadn't been for the hands holding her up.

"Chakotay! What! What is going on? Where am I? I'm dead. I know it. I'm dead! But why are you dead as well? It doesn't make any sense. And why is she here?"

Janeway and Chakotay glanced at each other.

"It's okay. You're safe..." Chakotay said reassuringly.

"...and you are certainly not dead. I think we can be reasonable reassured of that by the amount of noise you're making" asserted a balding man who had just entered the room. She didn't recognise him which was oddly more reassuring than anything else that had happened thus far. He was wearing a blue variation of the same unfamiliar uniform and carrying a small box which he proceeded to hold up and wave along the length of her body. "She's fine," he pronounced. He stepped past her and knelt down. Annika twisted her head to try and see what he was looking at. Out of the corner of her helmet she could just make out a leg lying on the floor.

"B'Elanna" she whispered.

The bald man spoke again. "This one's bad. Severe radiation burns and numerous impact injuries. We need to get her to sick-bay. This one too. Also very badly burnt. I have to say that space-walking in an ion storm does not seem like a very good idea."

Annika had managed to turn around by this time and could see the fallen bodies of her two companions. She had grasped that the bald man was some kind of medic and that B'Elanna and Tom were not dead. The knowledge gave her strength and something to fight for.

"Are they going to be alright?" she demanded trying to clutch the medic's arm.

"If you let me get on with my job then... yes I see no reason why not." The man disengaged her hand from his arm and addressed Janeway. "Captain I have to get them to sick-bay. Tom can treat the lady in the very baggy suit. She needs treatment for minor contusions and poor tailoring. Even Mr Paris should be able to cope."

The bald man smirked at his own sarcasm and tapped the shiny badge he was wearing on his chest. "Two to transport to sickbay." An instant later the two bodies of her friends vanished into thin air together with the smirking medic. Annika screamed.

"What have you done to them?"

"It's okay" soothed Janeway. "We have just transported them to sick-bay. They'll be fine. The EMH knows what he is doing or so he tells me." The small red-head smiled winningly and Annika relaxed a little though she knew she must be dreaming or hallucinating. Maybe she had bumped her head.

"Why don't you take off your helmet,"Janeway suggested. "It might be a little easier for you and I'd like to ask you some questions..."

"Captain!" said a strong voice, interrupting. A tall blonde woman entered the room dressed in a tight figure-hugging bodysuit and heels that Annika would have been proud to own. The blonde seemed sort of familiar too. Annika peered at her through her, now totally misted-up, face mask.

"Seven," said Janeway. "Have we contacted the Federation?"

"No we have not. I have detected a problem Captain."

"A problem?" said the smaller woman who was still smiling. "We're here in the Alpha quadrant Seven after eight years. I'm sure any kind of problem is surmountable."

"It is the Alpha quadrant Captain," said the tall blonde slowly. Her mannered delivery had slowed even further and although the voice was not very emotional, Annika could detect some trepidation or hesitancy. The speaker clearly had bad news. The two crew members who had been supporting Annika at last managed to free the helmet and were lifting it off her head as the tall blonde said slowly. "It is the Alpha quadrant but it is not our universe. There is no Federation."

Silence.

Shaking her hair out slowly Annika lifted her confused eyes to gaze into the face of the blonde woman and found herself looking into the face of Annika Hansen.

Annika screamed again and began to struggle. The surprised crewmen supporting her, dropped their hands and stepped back. This was unfortunate as Annika then tried to step back too and promptly fell over as her huge boots tangled with her ankles and she landed on her backside on the floor.

Seven of Nine raised her occular implant and her blue eyes widened as she stared down into the equally blue eyes of her doppelganger, who was now sitting on the floor of the transporter pad trying to escape from the deadly embrace of her voluminous space-suit.

"Not our universe," repeated Janeway as she too gazed at the figure on the floor.

"Not our universe!" screamed Arkoo who had taken refuge on a a small ledge jutting from the ceiling of the transporter chamber.

The Captain of the Starship Voyager closed her eyes and murmured in a disappointment soaked voice.

"I feel a headache coming on. Multiple Universes. Worse than time travel and you know how much I enjoy that concept."

The tall blonde said nothing. She clasped her hands behind her back. Chakotay also stayed quiet though he hunted for answers in the faces of his companions, taking in Janeway's rigidly impassive glare and the terror of the blonde stranger with Seven's face.

It was at this moment that Tom Paris breezed into the transporter bay and looked around.

"I'm thinking this is not a good time," he said cautiously, acknowledging the expressions on the faces around him that ran the gamut of emotions from ghastly to grim by way of gloomy.

"You could say that Mr Paris." Janeway was looking very pained. She pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to release the building pressure.

"Sorry Captain. The Doc sent me down to look at one our visitors."

Tom glanced down at the transporter pad and grinned. "Seven what are you doing down there?" Then he remembered seeing Seven as he came in. His head whipped back to take in the statuesque Seven of Nine still standing alongside him, with her hands clasped behind her back, and then back again to take in the prone figure of the blonde, shivering on the floor of the transporter pad. His gaze fluttered wildly back and forth.

"What the bloody hell? Sorry Captain!"

Janeway shrugged. "I think 'What the bloody hell?' sums it up nicely."

"Tom," whimpered Annika. "Please tell me it's you."

"Well it's certainly me," said the pilot. "Question is, who are you?"

Annika sank her head in her arms and began to sob quietly.

"It's alright Ms Hansen. It is Ms Hansen isn't it?" Janeway said comfortingly. "I think that you will be fine. We appear to be the ones in the wrong place. I'm sure you're quite safe."

The captain's communicator chirruped.

"Captain, EMH here." Even over the communicator, the doctor's shock and disbelief were clearly audible. "Are you aware of what's going on? These people I have in my sick-bay... they appear to be Tom and B'Elanna."

Kathryn Janeway closed her eyes. It was going to be that kind of day. Voyager's Tom Paris's was now looking totally confused. The Captain's explanation was terse.

"Right quadrant, wrong universe. And the first people we seem to be meeting are ourselves. Seven has a theory I hope which I am looking forward to hearing..."

"On the contrary I have no adequate theory about our predicament," corrected the steely blonde. "Yet." she added, responding to Janeway's obvious disappointment.

Janeway sighed. "Sounds like we will be seeing doubles of ourselves for a while yet Doctor. I'll come and visit your new patients soon. Look after them, Captain out."

"But Captain...another Tom Paris," wailed the EMH before the comm link could be cut.

"Captain out" Janeway reiterated firmly.

Recovering swiftly, inured after years of such shocks (you can't devolve to a lizard and then fornicate with the captain without developing a sense of fatalism and the recovery characteristics of a velocity disk) Tom gave a friendly smile to the stunned refugee who was still sitting on the transporter pad. Annika did not return the smile. She was not used to time travel, alternate universes, traversing the galaxy, being pursued by homicidal hordes or waking up to meet copies of yourself.

"Let me take you up to sick-bay Ms Hansen and get you checked out. And then I would like to meet my double - you can introduce me: he's a handsome guy I bet - but first I'll help you out of that erm...costume." Tom winked.

Amused despite the migraine inducing situtation, Janeway rolled her eyes at the pilot. She turned her attention to their unexpected guest, bending to take her hand. "I'd like speak to you again Ms Hansen as soon as you're feeling more settled. I'll ask the Doctor to let me know when you're up to it. In the meantime I expect you'll want to see your friends,"

Janeway was warm, sympathetic and genuine. She squeezed the blonde's hand gently. Annika immediately felt safer. She soon saw the other side of the Captain Janeway.

"Chakotay. I want to see you and all the other senior crew in my ready room in thirty minutes. I want answers, theories or even just your best guess. How did this happen, and how do we get back. And would one of you please catch that damned parrot before it makes a mess on my ship?"

Janeway departed briskly, Chakotay trailing behind her, leaving Tom, Seven and Annika and the two obviously junior crew members in the transporter room. Annika was glad that Chakotay had left - his presence made her feel guilty for some reason even apart from the general weirdness of her new situation.

"It's okay," said Tom to the security crew. "I'll take care of her."

"Sir? The Captain..."

"...will blame me if anything goes wrong" Tom asserted.

"Sir. We will accompany you to sickbay as we were ordered," said the ensign stubbornly.

"You were also ordered to catch the parrot and he looks feisty and cunning." As if agreeing with the argument, Arkoo clambered higher up the wall and hung there, swaying and watching the humans suspiciously. Tom grinned.

"I think your skills are needed here ensign. I'm sure I can manage to walk Ms Hansen to sick bay now that we've freed her from the clutches of that... er... suit."

"I will accompany Lieutenant Paris and Miss Hansen also," said Seven. "I am returning to Astrometrics. It is on the way," she explained in answer to the small lift of Tom's eyebrow. The security men seemed a little more relaxed when Seven volunteered and they both retired to the back of the transporter pad to try and capture the errant Arkoo.

Seven peered curiously at the huge space-suit lying crumpled on the deck of the transporter pad. "Do you normally wear this garment when you are travelling?" Seven asked her counterpart.

"No. It was an emergency. A loan." Annika said tightly, feeling foolish though the questioner did not seem to be mocking her. "Can I see my friends now please?"

"Sure." Tom prodded the huge boots lying on the transported pad with his toe. "Wow! Those must belong to a very big guy."

"Captain Torres' brother."

"B'Elanna Torres?"

Annika nodded.

"So it really is her in sick bay."

Annika nodded again before asking "You know B'Elanna? In your world I mean."

"I'll say." Tom smiled broadly. "I'm married to her."

"Married!" Annika yelped and shook her head in shocked disbelief. Tom didn't pick up on her genuine astonishment. He summoned the turbo-lift. "Yes we're married and we have a daughter." He continued to chatter, trying to put the frightened stranger at ease, observing "You know you have bare feet. I can fit you for some shoes in sickbay if you like." He changed the subject again, "So your Tom and B'Elanna are not married yet?"

Annika was saved from having to think of a tactful answer to either question by the arrival of the turbolift.

"Sickbay." Tom instructed the lift. "I never knew she had a brother," he mused lightly, still surprised that Lanna had never mentioned a brother.

"She has four, and two sisters as well I think."

"What? I don't think she can be the same B'Elanna Torres."

"Well she's not really. I mean none of us are the same exactly," Annika hesitated but since neither Tom nor Seven seemed to disagree, she continued, "I know Seven looks like me. That's not my name but Janeway calls you that, right?" Seven nodded in confirmation. "It's a strange kind of name and you have those metal decorations on your face? I mean... you're not Annika Hansen."

"I am or at least I was," Seven countered calmly. "My birth name was Annika Hansen. I was taken by the Borg when I was a child and given the designation Seven of Nine. I do not remember being Annika Hansen."

Seven did not appear to be upset at this recollection. Annika on the other hand was appalled which was indicated by her high-pitched squeal. "Taken! What happened to Mom and Dad?"

The turbolift doors opened and they turned into the corridor. Annika didn't really notice their surroundings. She was too curious and overwhelmed by her double's strange life. Seven was explaining her parent's history and for the first time she seemed a little more emotional, almost irritated. "They were scientists studying the Borg. They became careless and we were captured and assimilated by the collective. I believe my father is dead now. My mother's whereabouts are unknown."

"Oh," said Annika, not really understanding and not sure if she should feel sad or not - they weren't her parents after all - and Seven had recounted the story very stoically.

"I don't think I've ever heard of the Borg. Are they a pirate species of some sort?"

"Not exactly," Tom replied.

They stopped by the doors to sickbay.

"I will leave you here," said Seven, "though I should like to come back and talk further. Our encounter is intriguing and there are a number of inconsistencies in my knowledge about our current circumstance which you may be able to help me with."

Annika looked around. "You mean me? Help you! I would love to be able to but I have no idea what has happened to you and I probably won't understand your technology. It seem to be more advanced than ours."

Seven looked a little disappointed for some reason. "You have no interest in science."

"Yes I do... I did... but... I'm not very talented or so my parents tell me. But I'm happy to try and help if I can."

The ex-Borg inclined her head. She didn't exactly smile but to Annika she seemed friendly. "I will leave you to rest. I will return in four hours."

The overawed human version smiled her farewell as best she could. Annika felt oddly lonely again. "This is a big ship isn't it?"she stated as she watched Seven disappear around the bend of the long broad corridor.

Tom shrugged and disagreed easily "Not very. Not when you've been on it for eight years."

"It's funny," Annika exclaimed suddenly. "You're like our Tom but somehow you're not. Older perhaps though I'm not sure exactly. Not yet anyway."

Tom grinned at her then, looking exactly like her Tom except for the uniform. "Tell me when you work it out. I love to talk about myself"

"I will." She smiled more cheerfully.

The doors into sickbay opened and Annika could see the bald medic she had encountered earlier, leaning over a bed which had someone lying on it. Her shock at the extraordinary circumstances had now faded enough into the background to allow her anxiety about what had happened to her friends to rise up full-force: apart from her own mixed up feelings for B'Elanna, she had also become very fond of Tom. She tried to put aside her dread. They needed her now even if it was only to take back news of their deaths to their families, to report their courage so that it could be recorded in the family annals. A good death was important to both Klingons and Humans.

The EMH looked up and started at the sight of Annika Hansen.

"Seven?"

"Annika" she said, forcing a smile. "See, no metal bits."

She moved nearer the bed but could make nothing out. The occupant was completely hidden inside a full body length enclosure. A second enclosure rested on the neighbouring bed.

"Are they dead?" she asked making herself accept the possibility.

"No, of course not!" said the doctor. "They are recovering well. The burning was extensive and had we arrived later then they would certainly have both died. Probably within minutes."

"Will their injuries permit... Will I have to kill either of them?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"The rite of passage!"

"What are you talking about?" said Tom. The EMH was gasping unnecessarily for air.

"Any citizen of the empire can demand the rite of passage if they believe that their lives will be unworthy. And since I'm the only person here who knows them, it would fall to me to perform the rite."

The EMH was outraged. "There will be no euthanasia or mercy killing or whatever ghastly euphemism you like to use in my sickbay."

It was clear that there were going to be more differences with these intruders in her universe than she had realised. The two men were clearly coming to the same conclusion. Both were looking much less sympathetic. Annika made one last effort to explain.

"I don't think you understand. It would not be my choice. They are my friends, in a way, and it is their choice that I must respect."

Lucky me, she added in her head. Annika felt sick at the prospect - wealthy young humans were not normally in the position where they were the only people around who could send a friend to Stovokor. However it was the sacred duty of a friend and an honour. She would have no choice if either one asked it of her.

The EMH was staring at her with an expression of total distaste. "I am happy to say that such an eventuality is unlikely. They will both make a full recovery."

Annika's smile lit up the room. If either of the Voyager crew had had any doubts about her feelings for the two injured companions, the doubts would not have survived that moment. They both relaxed.

"How many months will they be like that?" she asked.

"Months?" said the EMH. "Our new and hopefully improved Ms Torres should be stomping about in approximately 3 hours and 23 minutes, while, daunting as it may seem, the other Mr Paris will be fully mobile again in 3 hours and 42 minutes." He raised his eyebrow in a comic sneer. " I can hardly wait."

"That's impossible," Annika breathed.

The EMH smiled at her obvious wonder and said with a flourish "Then I shall perform the impossible and I hope that the Captain will be impressed at last. Though I fear the impossible is what she has come to expect. No more and no less. Has Mr Paris treated your injuries?"

Annika shook her head. "I'm fine doctor. Some minor cuts and a few bruises. They'll be gone in a week."

"They'll be gone in a minute. Mr Paris, I hope you did not intend allowing your patient to wander about untreated for much longer. It is my reputation that is at stake."

"On it Doc. Your reputation is safe with me."

Tom approached her with what looked like a glowing torch. He brought it close to an abrasion on her hand. Her skin began to tickle and itch. So much that she would have pulled it away if Tom had not been hanging on to her tightly. A second later, he was moving on to the next small cut further up her arm. Annika stared at the skin on her hand. The cut had disappeared leaving no sign it had ever existed. After ten minutes of this treatment not a mark remained on her.

Tom smiled at her obvious confusion and amazement. "An artist," he said surveying his handiwork. The EMH snorted scornfully as he was poring over the panel of lights on the side of one of the treatment centres. "And now for shoes," said Tom. "Choose a design from the pattern buffer while I measure your feet. I'm afraid there isn't much choice." Tom was using the small medical device to study her feet that Annika had seen the doctor use when examining her earlier.

"Nothing beats a medical tricorder for taking accurate measurements for fittings." The EMH snorted again. Tom took no notice. "Have you chosen anything yet."

Annika stopped paging through the padd. "They're fairly terrible."

"That's Starfleet. Home of the sensible shoe."

She pointed. "Okay those are least like what my great grandmother would wear."

Annika followed Tom over to a hollow in the wall. He punched some buttons into a control panel, fed in a few numbers. The hollow space lit up and in front of Annika's astonished gaze a pair of fairly plain shoes appeared from thin air.

"How by Feklir's white beard do you do that?"

"Replicators are similar technology to the transporter. Only instead of dismantling and storing a few human patterns in the buffer and then immediately transferring them elsewhere, inanimate objects are deconstructed into patterns and held permanently by the computer. They are then re-created on demand in conjunction with whatever parameters you supply. Food, water, clothing, anything really."

"That's amazing. I'd really like to have one of these at home - only with a better choice of clothes of course."

Annika tried on the shoes and grimaced. Tom raised an inquisitorial eyebrow.

"Don't they fit?"

"Perfectly. So I have no excuse to change them."

Tom smiled at the assumed petulance in her voice.

"What happened to The Queen?" Annika asked suddenly and seriously.

"The Queen?"

"Our ship."

"We caught it in a tractor beam and attached her to our rear docking bay. It was a little too large to take inside the shuttle bay. Harry scanned it and reported that it is repairable."

"Harry?"

"Yes. Harry Kim. Do you know him?."

"No, I don't think so." But Annika wanted to hug the unknown saviour. She knew how much B'Elanna Torres loved her ship and had not been looking forward to telling her it was destroyed.

Annika was thinking again. "You transferred Tom and B'Elanna to sickbay using your transporter technology. Is that how you rescued us from the Queen?"

"Absolutely correct," Tom said admiring her powers of deduction. "We snatched every lifeform aboard just before the energy wave hit you. Hence the parrot."

"Thank you," Annika said simply and turned her most devastating smile on him. "You saved our lives. We are in your debt. By Kahless' sacred oath, our families will do everything to repay that debt."

"No need," said Tom, slightly embarrassed and breathless now that the full Hansen charm had been turned on him. "You owe us nothing."

Annika frowned. "Are you refusing a blood promise? That's not very polite."

"A blood promise!" uttered a familiar and not very friendly voice behind them. "That's very Klingon."

Annika turned around to gaze into a pair of cynical brown eyes.

"B'Elanna..." muttered Annika, studying the image of the woman for whom she had recently developed such a strong crush. She was overwhelmed for what felt like the hundredth time that day. She tried to collect herself. "I'm...I'm Annika."

"Yes I heard. Annika Hansen. Two ice-princesses. I'm sure the male crew are going to be delighted." The speaker's tone made it quite clear that she didn't share any pleasure in the thought of another Annika Hansen on board.

Annika flinched and tried not to sigh. Well at least one thing remained constant. B'Elanna Torres didn't like Annika Hansen in either universe.

TBC