Chapter Text
December 2304
Bellingham, WA
“Your nephew’s case is a complicated one.”
Words Maya had heard before, directed at herself instead of her ward. Fourteen years ago she was half-Augment for a wild world trying to learn how to live in modern society, and she had a case worker who didn’t know what to do with her. For the past four years, it was her nephew’s turn to face the same challenges. Enzo carried in his DNA the infamous legacy of genetic engineering. He was wildly intelligent and did most of his academic work as advanced independent study, but in spite of spending his years on earth playing catch up he still lagged in social skills and had a defiant personality. She had been naive to hope that he could at least make it through his first semester of high school without incident.
“I really shouldn’t be saying this.” The principal leaned forward and gave Maya a pointed look. “But I have wondered if maybe Enzo would be better off being homeschooled.”
Maya had been too full of anxious, frenetic energy to focus during this meeting, but those words came like a slap in the face. She gripped the arms of her chair tightly and clenched her jaw but tried to remain calm.
“I know he has trouble behaving appropriately, but hiding him away isn’t going to help him.”
“That’s not what I was suggesting..”
“Isn’t it, though?” Maya raised her voice. She found it harder to remain calm. “Because I know what it’s like to have people try to sweep you under the rug like a dirty little secret, and I’ve lived through the hostility this planet feels toward us.”
“Miss Noonien-Singh….” The principal spoke with firm authority, like she was addressing a student.
“My name is Maya.” Maya spoke just as firmly. This was not an invitation to be on a familiar first-name basis. This was a demonstration of her distaste for her father’s legacy.
“Maya. The purpose of this meeting is not to discuss your own difficulties.”
“Why not when they’re perfectly relevant?” She paused to take a deep breath. Her blood ran hot and she had to fight the urge to shout. “He had a hard start to life and is trying to find his place on a planet that constantly reminds him of how different he is. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for him to not be perfectly well-adjusted.”
“At the same time, I think it would be irresponsible to ignore the fact that his challenges may not be the result of his environment.”
“No…” This was more than a slap in the face. This was an outright attack that gripped something primal deep inside her and twisted this small middle-aged woman into a menacing threat. Maya stood up and held her hands in front of her. “I can’t have this conversation alone. I’m sorry. We’ll reschedule when I can have Saavik accompany me.” Her partner’s grounded Vulcan logic was exactly what she needed.
“Maya…”
“I’m sorry. I need space…goodbye.”
The principal called her name two more times, but Maya ignored her as she walked at a clipped pace down the hall and out into the crisp, cold air.
In the late afternoon, the sun hung low in the horizon, hazy behind a veil of low, misty clouds that made it feel as though night was creeping on sooner than it had any right to. Maya closed her eyes and tried to forget about how poorly the meeting had gone and instead tried to focus on her surroundings: the cold, damp air, the first few drops of rain falling on her head. It would probably be raining in full force on the bicycle ride home, and while she could have managed a transport home instead, Maya still preferred people-powered modes of transit: a holdover from spending most her life on a primitive planet, and it would help clear her head. Even in bad weather.
She heard the swirling sound of a person materializing from transport and opened her eyes. A tall man in a gray uniform now stood in front of her.
“Maya Noonien-Singh,” He began: stern, all business. Maya stepped back. She had never seen this man before. He had no reason to know her name. “I’m Agent Carmack from the Department of Temporal Investigations.. We need to talk.”
Maya inched back further. “What does the DTI want with me?” She wasn’t Starfleet, she had never traveled through time, and the fact that she couldn’t guess why this man was here made her feel all the more panicked.
“We’re in need of assistance. Something no one else can provide. If you can come with me to a more secure location…”
“Forget it.” Maya pushed past him and rushed toward her bike, and while she tried to make her escape, the man flipped open his communicator.
“Two to beam up.”
The next thing Maya knew she materialized on a transporter pad in an unknown location. She studied her surroundings in shock before she lunged at Carmack. It took all her self-control not to not lay her hands on him.
“You tricked me!” She shouted.
Carmack remained calm. “Technically I abducted you. Now that you’re here, will you listen to my offer?”
“I don’t have a choice, do I?”
“I already know what your answer will be, so not exactly. All I ask is that you listen, and I’ll have you sent straight back.”
“Fine.”
Carmack led Maya down the hall and into an office. The architectural style reminded her of Starfleet Headquarters, which led her to believe she was in San Francisco, but with the windowless interior she had little confidence to back that hypothesis. Carmack sat down at the desk and gestured to the chair across from him, and Maya perched on her seat with her spine rigid and her eyes wide and alert.
“I’d rather not waste time on small talk and pleasantries…”
“Didn’t think wasting time made much difference to you.”
“It makes a difference, “Carmack explained, “In that it wears on my patiences. As do little quips about time, I’ve heard them all before.” He took a little breath and leaned back in his seat. “We have reason to suspect that antagonistic temporal agents will attempt to interfere with the launch of the Botany Bay.”
“And the fact that I exist proves that they didn’t succeed.” Maya moved to get out of her seat, but Carmack’s stern look made her freeze.
“They didn’t succeed because you were there to stop them.”
Maya looked away and blinked. Carmack’s statement–conveniently–could neither be confirmed nor denied. “Why me?”
“At the height of the Eugenics Wars in the 1990s, much of Earth began to implement a caste system based on genetics. You would be part of a privileged class and have access and rights our own agents would not.”
Maya still wasn’t convinced, but she wasn’t ready to bolt out the door and find her own way home just yet. She looked away and scratched the back of her neck. “And I suppose there’s a reason it has to be me and not La’an or one of her other ancestors?”
“Too much genetic drift. We’re talking about a time where a person’s genome was their entire reputation and checked at every turn.”
Maya leaned back and took a deep breath, trying to process everything she had been told. “While I have an obvious interest in seeing my father survive long enough to meet my mother, I’m not sure how this would be important enough to impact the future.”
Carmack sighed and shook his head. “To be honest, neither do we. What we can be sure about is if this event is attracting so much attention, if it doesn’t go forward as planned it’s bound to result in a weakened Earth, and possibly a weakened federation. My own hypothesis is that if the Augment world leaders meet a brutal, violent end rather than quietly disappear they could be made into martyrs and the resulting fighting and power void might lead to extended world wars.” He paused to reach under his desk and produced a small black device which he set on the desk in front of Maya. “I’d prefer not to have that hypothesis tested.”
Maya stared at the device and tried to get a sense of grounding as her thoughts raced. Her father against all odds had survived for centuries lost in space. She had gone from subsistence living on a primitive planet to living in a world with technology that seemed magical. She had been sent by a god-like being into an evil parallel universe. This, however, was a step too far. She shook her head and looked back up at Carmack. “I’m sorry. I don’t think I can do this.”
“Take this anyway.” He slid the device closer to her. “For when you make up your mind. It will take you where you need to be and shield you from temporal disturbances.”
When. Not if.
Maya paused, still staring at the device, before she took it and slipped it into the pocket of her leather jacket.
“We can send you straight home,” Carmack continued. “It looked like the weather was about to turn back there.”
“Actually, I’d rather go back to the school and bike home.” Maya’s hand was still in her pocket, curled around the device. “I need the time to sort through my thoughts, even in the rain.”
Carmack nodded. “Whatever you need.”
Maya materialized outside the school, and just as Carmack had predicted, the rain had begun in full force and the clouds darkened the sky against the setting sun. After taking a deep breath to brace herself, Maya got on her bike and began the long journey home through the dark and the rain. She was soaked by the time she arrived at home and stepped through the door, but at least her leather jacket helped to keep her upper body dry.
Inside the air was warm and hot; Maya conceded to let Saavik set the environmental controls to her preferences while she visited, and coming in from the elements she welcomed the change. Enzo was still out at a friend's home practicing with his band (talented as they were, Maya was grateful to not have a group of young musicians practicing in her home) and so she didn’t hesitate to start stripping out of her wet clothes. Saavik sat on the couch reaching from a PADD and lifted an eyebrow as she watched her partner enter. Her belly swelled, a visual reminder that soon Saavik would soon be returning to Vulcan to have her child.
“Did your meeting have a satisfactory outcome?” she asked
“Absolutely not.” Maya began to let down her soaking hair. Dark waves streaked with gray fell to her shoulders. Only a year ago her first gray strands began to grow in, something else she could thank her father for. When she was young his hair turned from black to silver in a space of a year. “I had to end it early before I lost my temper. I rescheduled it, though, and I need you there. I could use a logical perspective.” She sat beside Saavik and held her hand to let Saavik’s calming presence soothe her mind.
With her mind so troubled, Maya was ready for the day to be over. She retired for the night early, before Enzo returned home. As usual, Saavik laid beside her to enjoy physical closeness with her human partner until she fell asleep. Feeling Saavik’s pregnant belly only gave her one more thing to worry about. Maya would not be going to Vulcan with her. Tural, Saavik’s bondmate insisted on raising his child on Vulcan, and with his well-known distaste for Saavik’s human partner, Maya doubted if she would ever meet her lover’s child.
She couldn’t calm her mind, and after a few minutes of shifting around and trying to drift off, she had to accept that sleep wasn’t going to happen now. “This isn’t going to happen.” she said as she sat up. “I need some air.”
Maya got dressed quickly, grabbed her jacket on the way out, and slipped out into the night air. The rain had stopped, but the air was still damp and heavy. As she began to make her way around the block, she shoved her hands into her pockets. The device Carmack gave her was still inside.