Title: Counterparts
Stardate: 6104:0344
Author: Ensign Yonatan Levi, Flight Ops Officer
Time: After "Building Bridges, part 3"
Scene: The Alternate Relly


Accompanying the Lieutenant to the ceremonial dinner being held on other Relly was something Yoni wasn't really trained for. Four years in the academy, with all the Diplomatic Situations courses that he participated at could never make him ready to the real event he had witnessed. The simulations, great as they were, could not make a person really ready to a first conversation with a new alien.

Only this time, it wasn't aliens, it was them or rather a parallel version of who they were.

Shocked to realize that his counterpart on the other Relly was actually a trill female, who didn't attend the senior staff's dinner for obvious reasons, Yoni tried to figure away to evade the formal meeting without raising suspicion.

He was troubled to realize that this wasn't going to be easy, for two reasons: first, their uniforms were different from the ones they had just met, which would raise questions when the security guards of this ship find him sneaking around without any escort; and second was because Lieutenant Edwards was watching him all the time. Ever since they'd entered the large hall the Lieutenant didn't stop for a second glaring towards him, staring at him from the corner of sight, making sure the young officer didn't do anything stupid that would risk this entire delegation. Enough mistakes had been made by him, and Edwards started to question the nature of this young street cat.

Unwilling to give Edwards the benefit of doubt at the same time, Yoni stayed away from any major gathering in the room, answering questions only when was addressed and making sure to count each word he said in order not to make any embarrassment to his side. At some stage, after realizing that this formal dinner was going nowhere for him, he started to plan his escape, or more exactly, the way he should approach the Lieutenant with his plee to leave the room and go search for the Trill female officer known as Alerna Tel, the flight operations officer of this ship.

This was the moment when the little voice in his head woke up, and made a fine suggestion. At this point, Yoni didn't reall mind the source of this voice. As much as he was concerned, it was part of his consciousness that woke after the little incidence in the transporter beam. There, he found a little comfort in the new ideas that popped up suddenly and occasionally. Therefore, instead of rejecting them immediately he started to embrace some of them.

"Lieutenant, here you are!" Yoni paced toward Edwards, who was in the middle of a conversation with one of the crew members of the alternative Relly.

Edwards turned toward him quickly and replied with tense in his voice, "Yes Ensign, what is it?"

"I was wondering, sir," Yoni tried to keep his mood calm, to focus on the words he was saying, "is the dinner officially over? Are we dismissed?"

"As far as I know, Ensign, the official part of the dinner is over. However, personnel who have duty to attend to are dismissed. Would you like to return to the ship?" Edwards continued with the same tone, signalling Yoni that he didn't like to be disturbed.

"Not quite sir. I've noticed that some of the crew are taking tour of this new Relentless, escorted by their counterparts. I would like your permission to do the same."

As expected, the Lieutenant shook his head. "Unlikely that I will let you do the same. Instead of taking tours of this ship you should go back to our ship. It's not too late and you can start interviewing your department. Besides I li..."

"Sir, where is the Commander?" Yoni cut him roughly. For the first time, Edwards went silent. This worked to the advantage of Yoni.


=/\= A few moments later on Deck 11 =/\=

Alerna Tel was a young, attractive joined Trill. She had a cheerful smile and a great sense of humor. Add to that her amazing figure, it was not surprising that people found her quite amazing. Leading her own way of independent life, she was more than naturally charismatic and a leader.

To Yoni's surprise, sneaking out from the dinner was actually the hard part, and the ship personnel were glad to lend him a hand and telling him where he could find his other self - in her office. Since he wasn't alien to the ship design, he knew exactly how to get there. Yes, the Flight Ops Officer's office was at the exactly same location as his.

Yoni caught her making the daily report for the Flight Ops department. Apparently, one of the shuttle pilots managed to buckle one the shuttles' nacelle and neglected to report that. She wasn't about to skip it, and if there was anything she couldn't stand more it arrogant pilots acting irresponsibly, thinking the Flight Ops department exist only to serve them and do as they please and nothing more, while they were allowed to do whatever they want with the shuttles. Well, they were wrong - those were HER shuttles, and if anyone breaks something then they should repair it, and not let her Chief work all night long on fixing their damage while the pilots were taking their beauty sleep.

It had happened once before and Alerna had reported it to the ship's Chief Helms Officer, who was naturally the shuttle pilots' superior. He ignored her plee, so when it got to the First Officer's desk it became ugly and the young pilot got disciplined. By delivering that exact message to the ship's Conn Officer, Alerna hoped this time he will take her complaints more seriously - that was, if he wished to avoid the first officer's office again.

"It works!" She threw with a smile. "Now these pilots actually check carefully the shuttle before taking it for a spin, to make sure no fellow pilot left any mark to blame them for it."

"I've been aboard only a couple of days," said Yoni, standing at the end of the room, his hands crossed. "So far my only success was standing against my Chief and missing my first shift on the bridge."

She chuckled, "Oh is that so? Well, just take it easy... I wasn't exactly the best example myself on the beginning. It took a great change to make me mingle."

Yoni was surprised and rose an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"I needed to know how to make things right without giving up my independence. Superior officers have the haste to intervene in every step you make as a junior officer. They always stick their nose in..."

"Well, experience talks..."

"Yeah, but who says they're right? As much as I'm concerned, they can be middle-class officers who got promoted over time and usually prefer to play it safe... if I have something I believe in, something I want to do different - why should I be spoiled by lesser officers - as experienced as they are? If I want to try something new and learn the lesson on my own, it's my right."

"So what did you do?"

"Me and the Chief of Operations have an agreement. I have my own autonomy, my own independence, and he just supervises. As long as I bring results and respect his authority he keeps his nose outside."

"What about his deputy?"

"Who, Charles? The boy is even younger then me... he just got promoted from Mission Operations Officer to the Chief's Assistant. A bridge geek. I don't even count him. My CO is the Chief Ops and this what the Chain of Command determines. Charles doesn't even know how to make a flight schedule. So what can he teach me about Flight Ops?"

"I wonder where all that confidence comes from... today was maybe the first time I managed to overcome my superior."

"Maybe that's because yours is a kid considered compared to those usually found on starships. I read your logs. You can runrings arounds that Edwards, even with all his fancy attitude."

"He speaks from experience."

"Which is limited to what? His two years as a commissioned officer? He should be serving on at least three different ships before giving lectures to junior officers."

"You sound like you have tons of it. But this is your first post, and you have been doing it for a little more than a year."

"I'm joined, you know that, don't you?"

"Well, guessed so by the name..."

"That's what made the change..."

"Now, you mean you got joined after joining this crew?"

"Hell yeah. Before that I was the most scared lady around... barely stood for my own, barely tried anything. The Chief Ops rode on my back every time, and only my Chief got me out of it only because he had a word with him. Now, looking back to those times, I think he only felt sorry for me."

"And the symbiont inside you brought you lifetimes' experience, gave you courage, wisdom, the ability to make a stand."

"You know, it's funny. The first argument with my Chief Ops after I got joined was when he decided to punish one of my men without even telling me. That's how much I was worth to him. Before I became one with dozen of other hosts from before, I would simply ask him to ask my opinion next time he did so. But this time I played a dirty trick and went over his head to the First Officer. He backed me up, and when me and the Chief Ops got in private, before he even opened his mouth I simply told him to watch it because with all due respect to him as my superior, there is a chain of command, and next time he does something like that, I will pull nasty tricks from my pocket that he wouldn't even dare to imagine. Guess the idea of me being joined really got him intimidated."

"Like a voice in you head, giving you new directions you never considered before, showing you other paths... making you stronger."

"Exactly!"

Yoni dropped his arms all of a sudden and approached forward.

"That's the deal," he said, "a voice in my head that keeps echoing there...one that doesn't let me track it... like it has a mind of its own. I don't know where it came from, is it me or something else - or how do I get it out of me."

"Why should you want to get it out? Even if the voice is not yours - does it try to hurt you?" Alerna rose from her seat and circled her desk, this time it was her turn to cross her arms.

"Well, no. But I would like to think I'm not losing my mind, at least not so early."

"Then you should ask yourself when did it start?" Yoni tried his best to remember back. He knew it started only today, after he woke up in sickbay, he remembered the alien next to him, the nurse... and the first time he heard the voice in his head. Before that was the unpleasant presence of the alien with him in the transporter beam, and before that...

"The alien..." Yoni mumbled.

Alerna said nothing, daring not to disturb him at this moment.

"The voice is the presence of the alien caught with me in the transporter beam! That's how it started."

"Looks to me you have a companionship inside you - like me. It gave me strength - if you are my parallel self then this voice, this alien, should be the symbiont's counterpart.

"You are going too far, aren't you? It could just be me, just my imagination. Things like that have happened before."

"Yes, it's a possibility. But you know what have I learned after being on this crazy inter-dimensional trip? That anything is possible - especially the things that make you surprised."

"Right."

"And no matter how weird your story is - it's something you should check out. Something you shouldn't ignore so far. After all - we are explorers..."


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Ensign Yonatan Levi
Operations Officer
USS Relentless
NCC-11966
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