arrival . ota

[chaotica]

Hugh Cambridge is partway through an analysis of an artifact - an old one, part of an extended paper that he'd never finished - when the transition comes.

At first, he assumes the ship's entered some sort of anomaly, and he turns away from the viewport (the stars have shifted, how odd), his hand moving to his combadge. A quick touch, and he starts, "Cambridge to -"

This isn't Voyager. In fact, this is the Ten-Forward of a Galaxy Class starship, unless he misses his mark. Populated with a few handfuls of people, some out of uniform, some in uniform, but those in are wearing the style that was in use twenty years earlier. Cambridge's uniform has shoulders of a grey-purple, and the turtleneck inside is medical/science blue. His combadge is thinner and sleeker.

"- Oh, bugger," finishes Cambridge. It's an illusion or it's time travel - neither of those bodes well.

Comments

[chaotica]

The first and most notable response is Cambridge's head thudding down on the table, forehead first.

The second, a gusty sigh.

"Well," he says, slightly muffled, "I'm shocked your relationship with - B'elanna Torres lasted that long before either of you learned to express emotions like adults."

No, he's staying facedown.

Everything sucks, Tom. Everything sucks.

[captainproton]

Wow. Tom thought that only happened in cartoons. "Hey we express emotions like adults!" Tom protested, even though the man was completely right. They were both children. Which one of them was more juvenile was open to discussion.

"But, it uh, sounds like you know me pretty well. Um...don't you have to breathe at some point?"

[chaotica]

Cambridge lifts his head.

"I wouldn't suffocate myself just to be dramatic," he points out. "Haven't you ever fallen asleep with your head down? A former-underachiever, like you?"

Like, in class, for instance.

He's being a bit unkind. It's more of his disorientation talking than any actual ire that he bears for Tom Paris.

He waves his hand, indicating that he takes it back. "Yes, I'm from the future. Blah, blah, Voyager returns to the Alpha Quadrant, no I won't tell you how, I'm inclined also not to tell you the future of your relationship, the overwhelming majority of your colleagues survive, most remain in Starfleet, eventually Voyager takes on new crewmembers, a theorized transwarp drive is stabilized, and we all set on our merry way back to the Delta Quadrant. You strongly disliked me at first, grew to reluctantly tolerate me, and more recently have decided that I'm more friend than colleague. I enjoy Captain Proton. Any questions?"

[captainproton]

"Wow. You really know where to thrust the knife don't you? I can see why I didn't like you at first." Tom winced inwardly. "I don't know how I am in the future, but I hope that's not all you think of me." Although, he'd really deserve it if it was. It wasn't like it was completely out of character for people to think that.

"Wait. We come back....and then we get sent back to the Delta Quadrant? That's just mildly screwed up, don't you think?" Tom stopped, looking at Cambridge for a minute. "You enjoy Captain Proton." He stated, repeating the man. "Really?"

[chaotica]

"Mm," Cambridge confirms. "I stepped into the role of Chaotica."

Yeah. He did. This is completely true. And there's a little bit of a smile fighting at the corners of his mouth. He isn't going to tell the whole story.

[captainproton]

Tom took a minute to mentally undress Cambridge and put him in Chaotica's sweeping cape and widow's peak. And promptly burst out laughing. "Wow. That's so much more entertaining and quite disturbing than I had initially thought. Well, that does paint an interesting picture on our relationship. So what you're telling me is in your spare time you enjoy making me suffer? Got a little bit of a sadistic tendency, don't you Counselor?"

[chaotica]

"Call it a hobby."

He lets the smirk break through.

"Any other members of the crew become victim to the vagaries of a vaguely-omnipotent entity?" he asks, airily.

[captainproton]

"I'm starting to think you probably fit in perfectly on Voyager." Tom remarked. Cambridge had just right the attitude, and probably a bit too much of it. Voyager after all was made up of Starfleet misfits.

"Seven and B'Elanna were also kidnapped by a certain letter of the alphabet.You must know B'Elanna if you know me. I always assumed Seven would stay on board..." After all, they were family. Perhaps more so than her aunt.

[chaotica]

It makes his heart stop, for a fraction of a second. He hadn't actually considered it, before this moment, but of course if Q's reach goes into the past, it goes into times when Seven was actually with the crew of Voyager.

"Ah," he says, slowly. "Seven." Forces himself to ask: "From your time, as well?"

[captainproton]

"Seven's actually from pretty early on. It hasn't been that long since she got her implants removed." And boy does it show.

And Cambridge? Tom isn't that dumb. And he's got street smarts. And Cambridge is rather obvious.

"So...you know Seven, and you ask about Seven but not B'Elanna. Whats up with you and our Drone? Don't tell me you got her into counselling too?" Tom raised both of his eyebrows, trying to imagine those conversations. "Please tell me you recorded them for posterity. "

[chaotica]

"I already mentioned B'Elanna," says Cambridge, airily, "when I first sat down."

It would be an obvious deflection if he didn't answer the question, but he's having a hard time focusing on that. Seven from even earlier? She's, frankly, not even the person that he began a relationship with, not yet. This Seven may not even be grieved if she learned of the death of her aunt, and the significance of that event cannot be understated.

In other words, Cambridge has no idea how to proceed right now.

"Seven did have counseling," he says, "under a series of circumstances that are none of your business, and should not be disrespected." It's a harsher tone than before.

[captainproton]

There was no mistaking the harshness and tightly controlled anger in his voice. Seven and this guy had a history. Which....was interesting considering he was pretty sure Seven had the emotional maturity of a five year old. Huh. Maybe that's why she was in counseling. Wasn't a bad idea actually, now that he was thinking about it.

"You're right. My mistake. Seven's gone through a lot and right now she needs every one of her friends. So...you should probably know, Seven got turned into a twelve year old recently. And she didn't have her implants. It was a little traumatic."

[chaotica]

He shouldn't take it out on Tom. Just because this, shockingly, actually feels worse than Seven choosing Axum instead.

Must be that this is unexpected. It's an entirely new and different way of losing someone. Cambridge really has to stop running into creative situations. He'd really rather keep it simple, and fail to involve any Qs or Omegas entirely.

He sighs. He can't be Seven's counselor right now. First and foremost, because he doubts his own objectivity. But, then, he also doubts she'd be comfortable with him. He even doubts his ability to be her friend, because they never were. It was a relationship of respect and connection, but it was always moving towards something other than friendship.

"I don't doubt it," he says. "She never had the opportunity for a childhood." He frowns, suddenly. "Memories intact? Like the incident on - mmmm." Stopping himself from saying anything further.

[captainproton]

Tom couldn't help it. The guy was unintentionally hilarious. Of course he was just trying to stop himself from screwing with the time line, which was to be applauded, but it was still funny. Damn funny. He laughed.

"Sorry--yes, memories intact. Happened to a fair amount of the people on board here. And not just those displaced."

Tom paused, wanting to ask something, but not sure if Cambridge would answer. "Can you answer something for me? When I was back on Voyager, B'Elanna was pregnant. Now....she's not." And he was kind of panicking. And a little crushed. He had gotten used to the idea and was looking forward to having a daughter. It was like parental whiplash. "We have a daughter right? Where you're from?"

[chaotica]

He doesn't take offense at the laughter. Perhaps the first hint that his ego, though enormous, isn't fragile.

A hint of a smile, at that question. He thinks of all the things he can't tell Paris about this: the strife with his mother, the pursuing Klingons, Miral's kidnapping. The splintering of the friendship between Harry and Tom. And, the fact that, above all, Miral has brought joy into the lives of her parents.

"Yes," he says. "You have a daughter."

[captainproton]

Tom let out what felt like an enormous sigh of relief. He was so worried, had even confessed to Dr. Crusher his concern about the pregnancy and time travel and what if he got back and he had no daughter?! Or if the time travel and chronoton particles would have some unknown effect? Klingon-human conception was difficult enough without adding time travel.

"Thank goodness. Thanks. She's alright? As far as you know we haven't screwed anything up, with the whole time travel paradox thing?" Yes Tom, that was a very scientificly put together sentence right there.

[chaotica]

He shrugs, palms held outward. "If you ever experienced this adventure in my timeline," says Cambridge, "you didn't return with any memory of it. I wasn't joking: you really didn't like me, and it wasn't just following Chakotay's lead."

Part of it was, no doubt, but Cambridge was sure he gave the first officer enough reasons to dislike him completely apart from that.

[captainproton]

"Alright, I gotta know. What could you have done to make me hate you that much? I mean, you're kind of cranky, not exactly the ideal counselor at all, but I like to think I'm not totally close minded. And if something really was going on between you and Seven, well that takes a certain kind of person. So what is it? Did you hit me over the head or something? Tell me I deserved to be in prison and should go back? ....Side with my father?"

Then something occurred to Tom. "Hey, you didn't declare me unfit for duty did you?"

[chaotica]

Cambridge blows out a breath. "Well, let's see," he says. He's going to avoid anything specific about Tom's mental state, then and now. "It begins with Chakotay, of course. He instantly disliked me, for several reasons. I insulted the ship, first of all, and then I defied his expectations, which he seemed to take personally. Of course, what he picked on was that my uniform was wrinkled. Then, you were the one who had to handle all of the personnel complaints I accumulated in my first several months, which were numerous. I imagine that was quite the annoyance."

Tom may notice that now, while Cambridge's uniform isn't exactly pressed or sharp-creased, it's not really wrinkled either.

"When I declared you unfit for duty, it was much later, and it all wrapped up in a few days." Cambridge waves a hand, dismissing that, as though it were hardly relevant.

[captainproton]

Tom's head felt like it exploded. Like Chaotica had finally blasted it with his death ray in his Fortress of Doom.

"Wait. Wait. Wait." Tom put a hand up, trying to process all the junk that was now going through his mind. He put his hands over his eyes for a minute or two, before looking back up at Chaotica Cambridge.

"Well, Chakotay does have a bit of a point. Is that your compromise?" Tom waved a finger at the man's uniform. "Cause it doesn't exactly scream 'I want to be here and I'm a competent Starfleet officer who takes pride in his work, or in his ship'. Also, Conn officers don't handle personnel complaints, so the fact that I do means I'm not Voyagers pilot, I'm her first officer. Which....is interesting and I'll go back to that later. What I find most interesting about that last statement is that you alone accumulated a lot of complaints. Why were you still assigned to Voyager? What did you blackmail someone?"

He took a deep breath and continued. "And what do you mean you declared me unfit for duty and it was wrapped up in a few days?"

[chaotica]

He rolls his eyes at the remark about his uniform. And of course Tom would pick on the last one. And on the fact that he wasn't the pilot anymore.

"Actually," says Cambridge, "I still don't know why I was transferred to Voyager." Once he found out Eden was attached to the project, he was pretty sure why, but he never had actually asked her outright. At first, that was because he wasn't sure he wanted it at all. Later, it was because he didn't want to go. Finally, it was because he lost the chance. "At the time, I would have been quite happy remaining where I was. Hardly matters now."

[captainproton]

Tom wasn't sure how he felt about being first officer instead of Conn. He always thought of himself as a pilot at heart, but if it was Voyager, maybe it was different. He loved that ship, and everyone on it.

And now Paris was beginning to see why Cambridge pissed him off so much. That eye roll, right there. Wasn't he supposed to be the angry, misguided authority pushing one? And this guy, well, he was past his youth and turbulent teenage phase.

"That's some attitude you got. I'm beginning to see why we didn't get along--and why you're still wearing Lieutenant pips. I'll tell you this. I don't like your uniform, and I'm really starting not to like your attitude. But Captain Janeway gave me a second chance and I'll give you one. Captain Picard however, is not likely too. You're on the Enterprise now, and I don't see him letting you do much as you are right now. So if you want to do something besides look at the stars in Ten Forward, I would at least make sure your shoes aren't scuffed. Pressing your uniform wouldn't hurt either."

Tom and Picard weren't exactly on the best of terms, so this was something he understand personally. And if he was eventually going to be first officer of Voyager, well, maybe he needed to shape up too.

"And you still didn't answer my question. Why was I declared unfit for duty?"

[chaotica]

Well, that was quick. Cambridge's eyebrows rise, betraying surprise, but also a fair amount of intrigue, as well. He honestly hadn't expected that a Tom Paris a few years before his tenure as First Officer would have this in him. He didn't expect that Tom would want to have this in him. But, then, perhaps he should have; Paris and his father wouldn't have clashed so thoroughly if they didn't have much in common.

Spoken like someone who's having difficulties himself, he thinks, but he doesn't push it.

He breathes in. "What, exactly, do you expect me to say? You deserved to be taken off duty. It ended extremely well. The circumstances involved a lot of things I'm simply not willing to tell you." Period. His eyes are level, and his tone is serious, not flippant, for once. He leans a little forward, and lowers his voice. "And make no mistake: I have no intention whatsoever of spending time in Captain Picard's presence before Wolf 359."

[captainproton]

Cambridge wasn't wrong. If he had met Tom even a year or two earlier, he might not have had that in him, much less wanted it. But this Tom was starting to realize he wanted more in life, and what he was capable of. This Tom was expecting a daughter, had settled down with B'Elanna, and was putting his past behind him. What this Tom Paris was going to do was probably have a panic attack in a few hours when he realized how much he sounded like his father.

"Alright, fine. I'll take that. But, you might not have too much of a choice in the matter. What are you going to do? Ask to be transported to Earth? As far as I know they're keeping us all in the same place, easier to keep us organized. You might just have to ride it out with the rest of us."

[chaotica]

Cambridge's hand clenches into a fist. He presses his knuckles hard against the surface of the table, letting the slight pain bring him back to the present.

"Let me guess," he says, flatly. "You were in the Academy, at the time. You had a bit of a scare when Earth had a near-miss. Life went on. Something like that?"