STAR TREK: A Long Road (Voyager Fix It Quest)

"...something...weird is going on," Seska forced out, through clenched teeth. She knew it...it was just because she was on this Starfleet battleship, surrounded by these pajama wearing anomaly lickers - sticking their nose into every single hole and waiting for the universe to bite them. If she had been on her own ship, well, she'd...

Have died?

...she'd have hidden in the vents! That's what she'd have done. She ignored the way her heart rushed and her face flushed - bizarrely red, stupid Bajoran skin! - and her body felt like it wanted to curl up on the ground and hide at the idea of getting into another vent. She wasn't scared of vents. That's absurd. Vents were good, they had saved her life!

The door wooshed open and Neelix stepped in, looking like...well, like Neelix. Taller than her by a head, broad shouldered, muscular, slight tummy, affable uncle vibes. He smiled at her with concern, stepping in. "What's wrong?" he asked.

She turned to face him, her brow furrowing. "What's...wrong?" she asked.

He nodded, looking her up and down. "You look like you didn't sleep so great - are you coming down with something?"

What the... Seska opened her mouth, then closed it, then pointed at herself. "Y...You don't...see anything strange about me right now? Nothing at all? Nothing a little strange for a Gral?"

"What's a Gral?" Neelix asked, sounding baffled.

"It's what I am! Gral Seska!"

"I thought you were just...Seska? Wait, is Gral your family name?" Neelix asked, curiously.

Seska was completely baffled now. "What? No! We use Federate customs on this ship, Federate customs is surname last, and I don't have a surname!"

"I..." Neelix shook his head, then held up his finger. "Maybe you should just tell me what, precisely, is wrong. You're not in the underground anymore, Seska, you can just be honest with me." He chuckled.

"Underground?" Seska asked.

"That's what your fellow Maquis said, you were in the Bajoran Underground, right?" Neelix asked.

Seska remained perfectly still, her heart hammering in her chest.

He thinks I'm a Bajoran, she thought. A chirrup came from the hamper where she kept her clothing. She stepped over, opened it, and almost screamed as she saw that rather than her Cardassian Union Navy uniform, she was looking down at black and gold - the color of a Starfleet Ops division uniform. A combadge was settled right there, ontop of the pile. Her hand shook as she picked it up - and it felt warm and well worn, the edges smoothed by a lot of touching. It chirruped and Captain Wacoche came over the line.

"Seska? Are you okay?" he asked. "We expected you to already be here - you're usually riding our butts for being late."

Seska gulped, then looked at Neelix, who was still looking concerned.

"F-From back when we...were Maquis?" she asked, hesitantly.

Wacoche chuckled. "If I had a piece of latinum for every time I had to keep a civvy member from shooting you with a stunner, I'd have been able to go out more often." He paused. "Seska, are you all right? You sound terrible."

Oh powers, she thought. Am I in another universe? What if they...if...if I'm Bajoran, and they're Maquis, I...they'd hate Cardassians. They'd hate Cardassians a lot.

In a single flashing moment, she remembered literally every single security brief she had gotten on the Maquis - the colonies they had sacked, the Cardassian civilians they had murdered, the planets they had seeded with toxins. She gulped, slowly, and then glanced, hunched shouldered at Neelix.

"I'm fine!" she said. "Be there soon." She tapped the combadge off, then realized she was blushing. "Get out, I need to change!"

"Of course, of course!"

"Hey Seska!"

"Good morning Seska!"

"Miss Seska."

The people nodding to her were all familiar Voyager crew that she had seen many a time as she had walked through the corridors of the ship, but their nods and the timber of their voices were different. Seska wondered why her belly felt like it was stuffed full of still living gagh, like the kind she had bought cheap while on shore leave during her time in the Academy, since Klingon food was still cheaper to import than home grown stuff.

"So, mind if I stick my nose in where it doesn't belong?" Neelix asked, cheerfully.

"Yes," Seska snapped as they came to the turbolift. The door opened and...

Tom Paris grinned at her. "Hey S-"

The door shut again as Seska slammed the reject button on the console so hard that the plastic creaked.

Neelix shot her a single raised eyebrow, even as her heart hammered. The next tube that opened was unoccupied and she stepped into it, ignoring Neelix's silent question as the tube whirred off. It started to zoom through the ship - heading for the transporter room. Seska's hand hovered near the controls.

Did it always take this long to get places on this ship?

Did Neelix suspect her?

She knew that Voyager didn't have the OOIS, but it had...Starfleet Intelligence, right? There had to be an IntSec officer on this battleship. What if they used the doctor to apply truth drugs? What if they used fast penta? What if they tortured her!? They could do a lot to someone and keep them alive, that holodeck could be used to recreate her worst nightmares, she-

"So, excited to go down to this new planet?" Neelix asked. "It's got some very interesting biologicals - and possible dilithium crystal loads."

Seska wanted to scream.

---
CURRENT TRUTHS: "I'm a Bajoran..."
CURRENT MOMENTUM: None

[ ] Cram the scream down and play it cool - maybe once the away mission is over, you can sneak away to figure this out
[ ] Reroute to medbay, force the doctor to scan you, at gunpoint if needed
[ ] Reroute to shuttle bay and escape, get off this ship before they catch you and kill you because you're a Cardassian
[ ] Ask Neelix about...stuff (try and subtly learn if there are any differences between you're Bajoran.)
[ ] Tell Neelix you're not Bajoran and are a Cardassian
[ ] Write In (anything insufficently paranoid may be disallowed)