Awakening

"Urgh." My head is pounding.

"Don't try to move. You were seriously injured."

"Where am I?"

"Voyager's Sickbay."

I can hear electronic beeping sounds coming from beside me, and… a tricorder?

'Is this a prank?'

"This is pretty elaborate. You even got Robert Picardo to act for this." I say wincing.

"I am the Emergency Medical Holographic program. Not Robert Picardo."

"No, this can't be real. If it was, you could turn off the force field keeping your photons inside you and I could just…" I reach toward him. "reach through you." And I can.

"Are you feeling alright?" He had disabled the force field giving him simulated mass so I could see it was real.

"Oh…" I remember now. "Rob, couldn't you have given me some warning? I feel awkward now." I rub my face, feeling my slight ridges on my forehead and pulling my hair behind my pointier than normal ears.

The Doctor puts on a worried face as I continue saying strange things.

"Perhaps I should run another neural scan, just to make sure."

"There's no need, Mr. Zimmerson. I'm perfectly alright. I get up suddenly and feel woozy but try to fight through it. The Klingon in me is strong. But I get pushed down by the Doctor.

I knead my eyebrows together, frustrated by the Doctor with no bedside manner.

"I said I'm fine."

"And I said one more test."

Suddenly, I seize up in pain, my head exploding a million times a second.

"AGH!"

"What's wrong?" He asks calmly, scanning me with that stupid tricorder thing.

"Screw you, ROBBB!"

I black out.

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Waking up, I remember my life. Rather, lives. Both of them. One on Earth. One on Vulcan. One where I read fictional stories and lived in the real world. The other where I lived in the real world and was also in the fictional story. Man, this is so freaky.

Opening my eyes, the bright light of the sickbay welcomes me.

Moving slightly, I can feel that my muscles are packed with so much more power. And after a moment, I can feel how ridiculous my mind's abilities have become.

'Klingon/Vulcan hybrid for the win. I knew it was worth it.' I think, remembering the times I got in trouble for hurting others. 'Well, let's just keep my emotions in check like a good little pointy-eared.'

"Welcome back, Ensign Elikae. You gave me quite a scare. Especially when you didn't wake for a number of weeks, no matter what I tried. It appeared as though you were undergoing a complete neurological collapse. But I was surprised when you started to recover. How are you feeling? Fine, I hope?"

"Yeah, Doc. I'm fine. What happened." I know what happened. But I can't say it.

"Well, quite a lot. I suppose to bring you up to speed, you should be apprised of everything that happened since I was first activated. Firstly, we were taken to the Delta Quadrant by an entity known as the Caretaker. He took you all away, searching for a viable mate. He wanted someone to carry on his mission of caring for the Ocampa." Kes walks up.

"Hello. What's your name?" I ask.

"My name is Kes, what's yours?" She says gently.

"Elikae, nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you as well. I'm happy to see you're awake. Doctor, I finished taking inventory, as you requested."

"Good. I've placed some more reading material on my desk, you can read it at your leisure, as always."

"Alright. If you need me, I'll be in the Hydroponics bay."

"Hydroponics? Since when did we have that on the ship?"

"Like I've said, a lot has happened."

As Kes start walking away, I say, "Kes, when I'm better, I'd like to take a look at your hydroponics. I'm good at a lot of things, plants included."

"That can wait until you're completely healed. Until then, no leaving the sick bay."

"Fine. But you better do your job well, Doctor. I want to be out of here in no time."

"Naturally, now lay back." He pushes me forcefully.

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"Looks like there is no residual damage. How are you feeling?"

"You ask me that a lot."

"The tricorder can't tell me everything, Ensign."

"I feel just as good as I did two days ago. Can I leave now?"

He sighs. "Alright. I can't find any problem with you roaming the ship now, but if you feel pain or even slight discomfort, come here immediately.

"I understand." I stand up. "Oh, I want to visit Hydroponics, where is that?"

"Kes converted Cargo Bay 2 into Hydroponics."

"Ah, resourceful. Thanks, Doc." I jog quickly to the door. "Oh, off or on?" I ask him.

"Please deactivate me. Thank you."

"Computer, deactivate EMH."

With a whirring sound and a cool effect, he disappears from reality, safely stored in the computer.

I walk to the elevator, only to find Chi coming out of it.

"Chi! I'm free!" I laugh.

"Good. I'm happy for you. I just got off my duty shift, and I wanted to check on you."

"Thanks, Chi. I was going to check out the Hydroponics Bay, wanna come?"

"Sure. I've only visited once. I think the plants should have grown by now."

"Great. Let's go."

--------------------

"Hi, Kes." I say as I enter what was once the cargo bay.

"Elikae, how are you?"

"Really good. Oh, Morosian Potatoes and Alganian Leeks. Good to put together. You must have salvaged them from emergency rations? You're really good at this."

"Thank you, but I just read a bit about them and thought they would grow well together."

"Do you want some help? The Doctor said no duty shift or hard work, but I'm sturdy enough to do some work in here."

"If you think it's alright, I could use some help harvesting these Kinnises."

"Kinnises? Are they from this quadrant?"

"That's right. According to the crew, it tastes like corn. It's good in Neelix's stew."

"Sounds good. I'm always up for new food."

"The rest of the crew doesn't seem to share your sentiment."

"The rest of the crew doesn't have a Klingon's stomach." I smile.

She laughs lightly while handing Chi and me a small cutting tool. It works by emitting a small, focused laser. It has a short effective range, but I can think of a dozen ways to upgrade it without even thinking. I smile even more at my intelligence.

'This new life is a good one.'

------------------------

"Ow." I say almost emotionlessly as I accidentally burned my finger with the laser.

"Are you alright?" Kes asks.

"Yeah, nothing major." I shake my hand and pause for a moment.

In my vision, there is a notification.

A notification!

[You have found one of your abilities. Regeneration [A] Lvl 1.]

With this, the small mark and pain fades instantly. A thought crosses my mind.

'So, I have to awaken the abilities to use them?'

"Kes, I heard that the Ocampans have mental abilities?"

"That's right. Most of us have telepathic abilities. Although, ancient records state that we were once capable of much more. I've been interested in learning more about what my kind is capable of."

"You know, Vulcans also have mental abilities. Most are capable of mind-melding through intense practice. And the Priestesses of Amonak can move things at a distance."

"Really? That sounds interesting."

"Yeah, it does. So?"

"So what?" She pauses her harvesting.

"Do you want to practice together? I can teach you what I know of mental discipline, and we can both practice our abilities."

"That sounds wonderful. Can we do it regularly? Once a week, maybe?"

"That sounds good. Wanna start tonight?"

"Sure. I was planning on stopping once I delivered these Kinnises to Neelix."

"Chi, wanna come? It would be good to learn at least how to mind-meld."

"Are you sure we should do it without supervision? Perhaps we could request Lieutenant Tuvok to assist us?"

"Well, I can't say that's not a bad idea. He definitely knows more than we do about it." I think for a moment while continuing to harvest the plants.

'If we bring him in to teach us, he would certainly be of help to us. But that also runs the risk of exposing more than I mean to. I don't want people to know I'm some aberration from another universe capable of bending reality to my whims.'

"I guess we can have him teach us."

Chi looks at me, almost like he's expecting me to say something else.

"That's all of them." I change the subject.

"Alright, all we need to do now is carry these to the Mess Hall."

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"Ah, welcome, welcome, hello my sweet."

'Looks like someone's in love.'

"Hey, Neelix. How are you?"

"I'm great, simply wonderful. And you? I've been meaning to check up on you, given that I'm the newly appointed morale officer. But I've been just so busy with my other duties and checking on everyone else, I have somehow managed to exclude you! I can only say I'm sorry."

"It's perfectly alright, Neelix. I've been fine. I have Chi if I need to talk to anyone."

"Of course, Ellie, anytime. We're friends."

"Good, that's good." He instantly lightens up from the slight depressive mood he was just in. "I must say, it is quite a change seeing you up and around. I remember seeing you in the Sick Bay when I was visiting Kes."

He stirs something in a pot before throwing some leaves into a mixture in a pan over an open flame. It instantly flares up.

"Woah!" He expertly places a lid over it to tame the flames.

"Hahaha, nothing like a bit of spicy cooking."

"Fatal is more like it." An ensign from behind the counter says. "I had to go to sick bay after last night's dinner. I couldn't sleep the whole night and then I had to go to my shift in Engineering."

"I'm terribly sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" He looks genuinely disturbed.

'Neelix is nice. The crew who disrespects his cooking doesn't deserve it at all.'

"Hey." I say just loud enough to get the attention of everyone.

Sticking my finger into the giant pot simmering on the stove, I feel slight pain before it's healed almost instantly.

I lick the concoction and find the problem.

"Computer, 1 mg of C6MgTi."

"Computing atomic structure. Calculations completed."

With this comes a whirring sound and tiny glass bottle of what I just made appears.

Dumping it into the stew along with a few Kinnises, I taste it again.

"Perfect. Try this."

I serve a bowl of it to the Ensign, and he hesitantly takes a bite.

He quirks an eyebrow at me, then stares at the bowl, which has mysteriously emptied itself in front of the group.

"That's amazing. Isn't this the same thing you made yesterday? It tastes divine. What did you put in it?"

"Special seasoning. Counteracts the bad flavors in the Leola Root."

"As I understand, I haven't served you any food yet, have you taken a look at the food I've provided for the ship?" Neelix was dumbfounded how I knew what it was, despite being in sick bay for the past two days, and unconscious the rest of the time.

"Uh, yeah."

'Screw you, intuition, you're making me look suspicious.'

[You have found one of your abilities. Intuition [S] Lvl 1.]

"Anyway, Computer. Save that compound as Neelix's Seasoning 1."

A short few beeps confirms that it saved it.

"Kes, wanna go to your quarters or mine?"