[pwaxen@yahoo.com]

This is a standalone story. All you need to know is that Janeway and Seven are involved in a romantic relationship. If you want to know how they got that way read "Element of Truth," "Element of Desire" and "Element of Danger" in that order. If you are not familiar with Star Trek outside of "Voyager," in particular the 'alternate universe' as depicted in the original series and "Deep Space Nine," this story might not make a lot of sense. I've provided a Guide to the Alternate Universe for those who feel the need for background or a refresher.

Disclaimer: The characters of Star Trek: Voyager are the property of Paramount Pictures. This story is written in the spirit of Voyager fandom. No infringement is intended.

Warning: This story depicted two women in love. If this offends you or you are too young or it's just plain illegal on your part of the planet, do not proceed.

Please do not archive, link to or reproduce this story without author's consent.

Element of Reality

by Vaxen (pwaxen@yahoo.com)

Janeway stepped out of her quarters. She scanned the hall in both directions. Despite this precaution, her head was turned away when she heard, "Captain, what are you doing here?" and swiveled to find Seven looking at her appraisingly.

"Nothing."

"I thought you were on duty."

"I am. I just needed to get something from my quarters. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to be somewhere." Without another word she was gone, leaving a slightly bewildered Borg in her wake.

Janeway paused and scanned again outside engineering. Entering, she went directly to a console and began calling up data.

"Can I help you with that, Captain?" B'Elanna offered.

"No, thank you, I'm fine." Her eyes remained focused on the display.

"It would be easier to access that information from this console," B'Elanna suggested.

"What?"

"The maintenance logs you said you were coming to review…"

Janeway gave her a startled look. "Maintenance logs? It will have to wait," she said and started for the door. It opened before she could reach it. She stopped and stood facing herself in the doorway – there were two Captain Janeways – like reflections in a mirror. The Janeway still inside engineering grabbed a phaser from the small arms locker on the wall, pointed it at her double and said, "Don't make me do something you'll regret."

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"Most people call me Admiral, but you can call me Kathryn. Right now I want you to accompany me to the nearest transporter."

"Doesn't look like I have much choice," the captive Janeway noted.

"You could die," she said and twitched the phaser in the direction of the corridor.

Once inside the cargo bay, the Admiral pulled Janeway to the transport console, dividing her attention between her captive and the controls. They were locked out. When the security team that burst into the bay they encountered two Janeways, one holding the other in front of her as a shield.

"Computer," said the woman with the phaser, "this is Captain Janeway. Override transport lock."

"Transport lock released."

"You're not the only one who can give orders around here." she whispered in her double's ear as she dragged her to the platform. She removed a small device from her pocket and spoke into it. "Energize." Both Janeways disappeared.

"Alternate universe?" said Seven, giving Tuvok a skeptical look.

"Its existence was first discovered during a transporter accident aboard the USS Enterprise. Another accident occurred, many years later, on Deep Space Nine station, not long before we left the Alpha Quadrant. Both of the individuals Lieutenant Torres saw were Kathryn Janeway."

"Perhaps one was alien. There are several species with the ability to mimic life forms," Seven suggested.

"However, the ability of the other Janeway to override computer commands tends to support the alternate universe theory."

"But this wasn't like those other incidents," Chakotay interjected as he paced the conference room, "Those where accidents, this appears to have been planned."

"Yes," B'Elanna agreed, "she seemed to know what she was doing and she was looking for something specific. She was surprised when the Captain showed up."

Chakotay stopped pacing. "We'll assume, for the moment, that we are dealing with the alternate universe and that kidnapping was not part of the plan. That woman wanted something and there's a good chance she didn't get it. That increases our chances of getting the Captain back in one piece. Harry, I want you to dig through the historical files. Find out as much as you can about the previous encounters. B'Elanna, analyze sensor readings, transporter logs, anything that might help us find a way to get her back. Seven, review the computer access log. See if you can find out what the duplicate was after. Unless there's something else… Dismissed."

Seven lingered until the others were gone. "I would like to assist Lieutenant Torres in analyzing sensor and transporter data."

"I'm not sure you should be involved at all. If you weren't the best at what you do…"

"Then allow me to do it."

"Seven, I'm very fond of Kathryn, too." He saw a quick flash of fire in her eyes. "Not in that way," he amended. "She is my friend."

"As her friend you should know she deserves nothing less than our best effort."

"Alright, when you finish with the computer logs report to B'Elanna, but you have to promise me you'll take time to regenerate, otherwise you won't be doing her any good."

"Yes, Commander. Thank you."

The surface below her was hard and cold and many of her joints ached from the awkward position in which she had been deposited in an unconscious state. She opened her eyes and blurred shapes slowly resolved into a cell with a barred entrance. Janeway pulled herself upright and ran a hand along one of the metal rods.

"Can't use a force field. Wouldn't want you to set yourself free." The woman who had abducted her appeared around a corner. She no longer wore the uniform of a Starfleet captain, but a dark one, more form fitted.

"Who are you?"

"I told you, the Admiral. I was once a captain, like you, but I promoted myself when fate stranded me in the Delta Quadrant. As the highest ranking representative of the Alliance, I thought it was only proper."

"Where am I?"

"These are my quarters on Voyager."

"My ship?'

"My ship," the Admiral corrected.

"The alternate universe. Deep Space Nine. It was the talk of the officers mess - what it must be like to meet yourself."

"And now you know. Things weren't quite that way on Terok Nor, in my universe. We had standing orders to kill anyone from your side, but the Intendant was so enamored of herself in form of Kira Nerys that she ignored the order and Terok Nor fell to the Terran rebels. She sent me chasing after a band of them. She is responsible for my situation."

"And what has that got to do with me?"

"You mean, why are you here? Just bad timing." The door chimed. "Enter," said the Admiral, turning her back to her prisoner, who had finally regained her feet.

"It worked. What did you find out?" Torres bubbled. She was wearing a uniform similar to the Admirals, if somewhat plainer. Torres looked past the Admiral at the prisoner. "F'klar, she really does look like you."

"You should see your other self," she said with a smile.

"Did you get the information? Where is her Voyager located."

The Admiral's face fell. "The Delta Quadrant and worse, they're farther from the Alpha Quadrant than we are. I did find something we might use." She held up the same small device she had used earlier and plugged it into a computer console. For several minutes, she and Torres scanned the display.

"You're going back?" Torres asked.

"When opportunity knocks, it's only polite to answer. Make arrangements. I'll wait for their night rotation."

"Yes, Admiral." Torres let herself out as a cart heaped with food was being delivered.

"Dinner, Admiral," Kim announced.

"You there," she said motioning toward the woman in ragged clothes that accompanied Kim, "take some of this and serve it to the prisoner."

The servant obediently did as she was told. As she approached the cell, the Captain could see the face and it made her breath catch. It was Seven or what could have been Seven. The brow looked so naked without the implant.

"Seven?" She reached out on impulse to caress the spot. The woman flinched at the contact.

"No, not Seven," the Admiral replied, carefully noting the Captain's reaction. "What is your name?"

"Annika, sir." She bent to set the meal on the floor outside the bars. Kim used the opportunity to grab Annika's bottom. The Captain was angered by the look of painful resignation on Annika's all-too-familiar face and threw herself violently against the bars. Kim jumped back, then to cover his embarrassment, raised a impotent fist as if to strike at her.

"Kim, take Annika and finish setting up. And be good," she said with a twisted grin, "or I'll set the Captain loose on you."

They left and she turned her attention to the Admiral. "You thought maybe we weren't trapped in the Delta Quadrant," the Captain surmised. "You planned to use us to get back to the Alpha Quadrant."

"Very good, Captain. I have a little retribution that needs to be dispensed on the Intendant and I mean to do it personally."

"But there is no Intendant in my universe."

"Doesn't matter. All I need is to get back to Terok Nor, then this little device will put me where I belong. B'Elanna calls it a transport alternator. She's been very useful, knows all of these wonderful things. It's voice activated but only by my voice. Wouldn't do to have the crew running out on me. One has to maintain an advantage if one is to survive. If I'd learned that lesson a little better, I wouldn't be here."

"Did you also collapse the Caretaker's array to save the Ocampa?"

The Admiral barked a sadistic laugh. "I collapsed the array, but not to save any Ocampa. I should eat and your food must be getting cold. We'll chat more later."

The Admiral paused a moment before the regeneration unit, admiring its technology and its occupant, before keying in the sequence that would terminate the cycle. Seven opened her eyes. "Kathryn, is this a dream?" she asked.

"No, my dear, I'm real and I'm here and I need you to come with me, now."

Seven stepped down, took Janeway in her arms and kissed her. Her express turned to rage as she slammed Janeway against a bulkhead and pinioned her there with one arm across the throat. "You are not my Captain," Seven snarled. "Where is she?"

"On the other side of the rainbow," the Admiral quipped. Seven tightened her chokehold. "She's safe, but she won't be for long unless you cooperate."

"What do you want?"

"I want you. You're coming back with me or you'll never see your captain again. Resistance is futile and could be fatal."

Seven released her hold. The Admiral took great pains to straighten her uniform then stretch out her arm in an ushering motion. "To the transporter, if you would please."

Halfway to the transporter, they met Chakotay. He was pleased to see that Janeway was back and began to question her about her return.

"Not tonight," the Admiral said, "right now I want to relax and forget. You'll get a full report in the morning."

"Yes, Commander, in the morning." Seven added. "That way she only has to tell it once and you can all follow."

"Yes, sir," Chakotay replied. "Have a pleasant night."

They walked on unimpeded.

The Captain sat on the only furnishing the cell had to offer and tried not to contemplated why the Admiral had installed a cell in her living quarters.

"She finds it convenient for interrogations," Annika said, as if reading her thoughts. "She says that prisoners in the brig are available to everyone. In a world where knowledge is power, the Admiral knows who and what to control."

"We were trapped in the Delta Quadrant when I ordered the Caretaker's array destroyed to save the Ocampa. The Admiral said she destroyed the array, too. Can you tell me about it?"

Annika sat on the floor, gracefully pulled her legs under her, and leaned against the wall. "I was on a Terran rebel ship being pursued by Voyager when both ships were drawn into the Delta Quadrant. Our ship was heavily damaged. She destroyed the array by accident during her zealous efforts to destroy our ship." She had been staring into nothingness as she spoke. She turned her head to look directly at the prisoner and say, "There is another one, one like me, another Annika on the other side."

"She was Annika. She's now called Seven. She was assimilated by the Borg and lived with them as a drone for a long time before she came to us."

"It's difficult to say which of us is the more unfortunate. Captain Kim will return soon. I should finish my work," she said, yet made no move to leave.

"The Ensign Kim of my universe is very different from the Kim you know. Do you know anything of Tuvok, Chakotay or Tom Paris?"

"Tuvok, the Vulcan?"

"Yes, he's my security officer and a good friend."

"He always claimed that Spock was the victim of his half human origin and responsible for the fall of his race, yet Tuvok was one of the first to join the rebellion when Terok Nor was abandoned by the Alliance. That's where I last saw him. Chakotay was the Captain of our ship. He was the first one the Admiral killed when we surrendered. I haven't seen Tom for a long time. He may be on one of the other ships.

"Other ships?"

"The Admiral believes in the strength of numbers. She gathers allies as she goes -- mostly pirates. Captain Neelix is in command of the fleet. He reports to the Admiral. You don't have a fleet?"

"No."

"How do you survive?"

"We trade. We make friends. We avoid enemies."

"A strange universe and in your universe I am Borg?"

"She certainly is," the Admiral proclaimed, "and the Borg are bad news in any universe. But I've got someone who's going to help us change all that." Behind her was Seven of Nine, surrounded by several guards.

"We should dress the other one like this," Kim said, reaching to stroke Seven's breast. The swift motion of Seven dislocating his wrist was accompanied by the sound of damaged bone and tissue. The guards immediately seized Seven.

"Enough!" the Admiral screamed. Everyone froze. "Kim, will you never learn? Take him to the infirmary and see if you can get that emergency holo thing to fix him up."

"Admiral," one of the guards spoke up, "the EMH is offline. Should I ask Commander Torres to meet us there?"

"I'm afraid B'Elanna won't be meeting anyone. Take him and do the best you can."

The guards removed the howling Kim.

"She's dead," the Admiral answered the question in the Captain's eyes. "B'Elanna was very useful and I'll miss her, but she's knew too much and she was beginning to look to her own future regardless of mine. It's a delicate balance. People are only useful to you so long as they can be controlled."

The Admiral produced a small metal plate, inserted it near the bars and opened the door to the cell. "Lock her up," she ordered. No sooner had the guards finished placing Seven in the cell than the room was rocked by the unmistakable tremors of stabilizer failure. The room's occupant fell against one another and sprawled across the floor and furniture.

"Admiral to the bridge, what's happening."

"We're under attack from the Ocampa."

"I'm on my way." The room cleared, leaving only the Captain, Seven and Annika, who stood, watching the Admiral go, with her hands behind her back in the familiar stance Seven so often assumed. As the door closed, Annika opened her fists. In one was a metal plate, in the other the transport alternator.

With the help of a black jacket from the Admiral's closet, they were able to bully or bluff their way from the Admiral's quarters to a shuttle bay. They put some distance between themselves and the battle before Janeway and Seven deciding to make their escape back to their own universe using the alternator with the shuttle's transporter.

"Come with us," the Captain implored as they prepared the transporter. Annika was hesitant. "Why would you want to stay?"

"Sometimes it's a matter of belonging."

"I don't understand."

"I do," Seven said. She and Annika looked at each other knowingly.

"Take care of her, Seven," said Annika as she ushered them onto the transporter pad. Seven only nodded.

Janeway spoke into the device, "Energize."

"Surprise, Kathryn," the device spoke back at her in a familiar voice. "I was afraid something like this would happen, so I took the precaution of incorporating a dead man switch, assuming the only way you'd get this was over my dead body. I hope you like it here, because you're never going back."

Janeway closed her eyes as she wrapped her fist around the alternator. She felt the unmistakable sensation of transporter dematerialization spread through her body and the faint tingle as she re-materialized. She guessed that a homing beacon within the device was responsible for returning them to the Admiral.

"Captain?"

The voice was not the Admiral's. She opened her eyes and found Chakotay moving to assist her.

"You were expecting the Admiral to come back to our universe?" Janeway repeated.

"We decided there was a good chance she'd be back," Chakotay said with a self-satisfied grin. The senior staff was gathered around the conference table. It was a casual meeting. Mugs of steaming liquid sat on the table before most of the members, including the Captain.

"Computer access logs indicated that after accessing navigation, to find out where we were, the Admiral pulled up personnel records. Maybe she was looking for crew replacements. After that she downloaded our database on Seven of Nine."

"Using all we knew from previous encounters with the alternate universe," B'Elanna continued, "Seven and I were able to incorporate a tracker in her commbadge."

"When the Admiral returned," Seven took up the account, "and I was able to determine that she was indeed counterfeit, I alerted Commander Chakotay."

"Something on the alternate Voyager must have been interfering with the signal. We didn't pick it up until you were on the shuttlecraft. After that, it was a simple matter of transporting you home."

"And there's no place like home." Janeway raised her mug in salute. "If what the Admiral told me is true and their B'Elanna was the only one who knew how the transport alternator worked, we shouldn't be seeing them again. I thank you all for a job well done. It's late and I won't keep you any longer."

The Captain motioned Seven to stay behind. When the others were gone, she walked behind the chair Seven was seated in, tilted the blonde head back gently and kissed her. "You could tell she wasn't me from a kiss?" Janeway asked when their lips finally parted.

"There may have been a physical resemblance, but you were no more alike than Lieutenant Torres and myself."

"Really? I thought you and Annika had a lot in common."

"Did something transpire between the two of you that I am unaware of?"

"No," Janeway replied, smoothing a pale lock with her fingertips. "I hope she made her way to the Ocampa or someplace were she might be safe and happy."

"She will adapt."

"I'm beginning to wonder if my counterpart wasn't smarter than I am. She risked a lot to come back here and get you."

"I think you may be confusing intelligence with recklessness."

Janeway sat in the seat next to Seven and took her hand. "Smart or reckless, she realized your worth and I think we need to do the same. I would like to commission you as a Starfleet officer. It would acknowledge your contribution in a capacity that you already fulfill and when we do make it back to the Alpha Quadrant, it might afford you some degree of protection."

"Aren't you concerned that the crew would see it as preferential treatment."

"Maybe the timing isn't right, but I want you to think about it and I'd like to discuss it with Chakotay."

"As you wish."

Janeway pressed the back of Seven's hand to her lips, then turned it over and did the same to her palm. She moved to the wrist and traced the veins with her tongue. She stopped and held the hand between both of hers. "Stay with me tonight," she whispered.

"As you wish," Seven repeated with a smile.