Tara and Jayson were doing their rounds in a primarily industrial section of the station when they received a report of an exceedingly foul odor coming from a Jeffries tube.
"On our way," Jayson said.
"Do we really have to respond to every minor complaint like that?" Tara asked plaintively. Her pregnancy was starting to take a toll on her endurance.
"Safety protocols," Jayson replied. "Anything out of the ordinary like that could indicate a problem with the station's systems, or an intruder. You never know what might be the problem."
A few minutes later they reached the location where a maintenance worker had reported the problem. Jayson showed Tara how to set the tricorder to scan the closed hatch.
"This is odd...the tricorder is picking up a large volume of decaying organic matter...it's a dead body!" Tara said with alarm.
"Stand back," Jayson said as he opened the Jeffries tube. Immediately after he removed the hatch a charred body fell out into the corridor. The body was roughly pear-shaped and covered with what looked like it might have been green fur at some point.
"Tricorder indicates that this being died of massive electrical shock," Tara said.
"Leave that to Dr. Cherrin; he's the only one officially allowed to perform an inquest," Jayson said. "Sandoval to Engineering--we need a Level 5 force field between Frames 1126 and 1128, full biological response. Also three to beam directly to sickbay on my mark."
"We have to contain the area whenever we find an unknown species. There's no telling what kind of diseases this entity was carrying when it died. Engineering will do a sweep and de-con the area. Just in case, we need to report to Sickbay as well for de-con."
"I see," Tara said as Jayson commed Sickbay.
Moments later, the two Security officers and the dead body beamed out.
As soon as Jayson, Tara, and the dead body appeared in Sickbay two technicians hoisted the corpse onto a biobed for examination, while Dr. Cherrin examined Jayson and Tara with a medical tricorder.
"Hmmm...it looks as though you two are lucky. No serious contamination. Fortunately the decomposers present on the station are the same as those on Earth. Still, you'll want to get a shower and recycle those uniforms before leaving here. Now, let's see about the baby...
Cherrin fine-tuned the tricorder to read the still-developing fetus. "The baby seems fine... looks like she's going to be about 4 kilograms at birth. That's strange..."
Tara was immediately alarmed. "What is it?" she asked, looking at him with worry.
"The father of your baby was Malaysian, correct?"
"Correct..." she replied, still not quite understanding where this was going.
"Okay, I suspected as much. Some of these sequences look very familiar..." Cherrin adjusted his tricorder. Immediately the instrument sounded an alert. "This instrument must be malfunctioning. Computer, cross-reference DNA of Tara Carmichael's unborn child with Starfleet personnel database."
<Working. Cross-reference complete. 50% of genome consistent with that of Petty Officer Second Class Jayson Sandoval, currently assigned to Starbase 901. 50% of genome is consistent with that of Warrant Officer Tara Carmichael, currently assigned to Starbase 901.>
It took her mind a couple of seconds to process what she'd heard. "Wait a moment... Are you telling me that Mr. Sandoval here has the same DNA as my child? That he could pass as her father?!" she asked astounded.
"I'm saying that as far as the DNA is concerned, Sandoval is your baby's father," Cherrin clarified.
"Wait a minute--the father of this baby was born four centuries ago in another universe! I didn't meet Tara until a few days ago! Even if we--" Jayson paused with embarrassment for a moment "--did do something together, it wouldn't have been nearly long enough for the baby to reach this stage of development!"
"Obviously!" Tara agreed. She took a deep breath. "This is unbelieveable..." she said as she tried to recover from the shock. "I think I need to sit down a moment..."
Cherrin took a deep breath. "The DNA doesn't lie. It's entirely possible that Jayson Sandoval is the alternate of Ron Sandoval in this timeline and universe. It wouldn't be the first time we've seen such a thing happen. In fact, it happened just a few months ago as a result of the same anomaly that brought you here."
"Vince Kelly," Jayson said with disgust. "The man's troublemaking has outlived him!"
"I read the file," Tara said, as she sat down on a bio bed, trying to keep her own head from swimming too much. Then she looked up at Dr. Cherrin and Jayson. "So what does this mean now?" she asked.
"Whatever you choose it to mean," Cherrin said. "Mr. Sandoval denies paternity, and you deny that he is the father, but genetically speaking he is the father of your little girl. You'll have to work that out for yourselves. Legally he's in no way responsible unless he chooses to be," Cherrin said.
"Thank you, Doctor," Tara replied, taking another deep breath shaking her head, still trying to settle her own mind.
"I'll leave you two alone to discuss this, and begin the autopsy on our friend," Cherrin said as he left for the surgical theatre.
Jayson was quiet for a moment. "I... don't know what to say," he said.
"I don't know what to say either," Tara replied as she looked down to the floor and then up at him. "I certainly had no idea that this would happen... I mean, I knew you... you looked like my child's father... But never did I think you had the same DNA... I suppose surprises happen everyday..." She tried to smirk, but failed. Her green eyes only hinted at how troubled she was.
"Well, you know what they say, we all look alike," Jayson joked nervously. "I wish I knew what to do. Part of me wants to take responsibility, but I barely know you!"
"I... I don't know if there is an easy solution to this..." she began. "I mean, I don't want our working relationship damaged because of this and if you don't want to take responsibility you don't have to... Believe me, I wouldn't try to force you," she said. "And no, you all don't all look alike," said with a smirk, "Perhaps you and Ron though..." Their eyes met and held for a moment.
"That was just a very old, very tasteless joke," Jayson said. "But I do want to help, however I can," he replied evenly, returning her look.
"I could always use good friends," she replied. "Should your desire to take on a larger role with the baby come into play we can see where it goes... Are you all right with this?" she asked. "I mean, this has been quite a bomb the good Doctor dropped on us."
"I suppose, although I do want to play a larger role. I can tell you that right now. It's going to be rather difficult to explain things to her otherwise," he said.
She laughed softly. "When I go to tell her my life, that in itself will be quite difficult to explain... "
"We'll come to that when the time comes."
"At least it will be some time away," she replied. "So what about us?" she asked curiously. "Will you have any trouble working with me, now that I'm carrying your child?" She smirked.
"That depends. I'm still trying to process this for myself," Jayson laughed nervously. "I mean, I like you, but this is rather sudden..."
With a good natured laugh, she looked at him. "I understand," she replied. "Believe me, this is rather sudden for me as well... I think we both have things we'll need to process."
"What comes to mind first for you?"
"That I am faced with a man that looks exactly like my child's father, and he ends up having her father's DNA... and..." her cheeks tinted. "When I'mwith you I'm very comfortable with you... There's something between us... And yet I'm not sure if... " She smiled softly and looked down unable to finish her thought.
"Maybe I'm more like Ron than either of us bargained for."
She met his dark eyes, her cheeks still tinted a light pink. "Perhaps..." she replied. "So far it seems so... But you are different from him as well... If for no other reason than because you were allowed to lead a different life..." she said. "A better one..." she replied as she looked away again.
"Well, from what I've read the 20th century was no picnic for anyone no matter who you were," Jayson replied. "He can't be faulted for that. And those Taelons of yours sound like pure bastards! If they ever come here after you, they'll get a bit of a shock when they meet the Federation!" Jayson replied, bravado replacing his nervous uncertainty.
They won't look for me..." Tara replied. "Zo'or won't want me that badly. He'd be too afraid of what he'd encounter in another dimension. The Taelons have had a few encounters of their own, not all of which were nice," she replied. "But there were good Taelons, you know... Ta'al was good. He's the one that saw to it that my CVI was modified. He was like family to me... It devastated me when he died," she said. "And before I came here I was working for another Taelon named Na'ar, and he was another good Taelon... So there were a few good ones in the bunch. Just the ones like Zo'or make people like us cringe and do what we did."
"Good and bad everywhere," Jayson nodded. "Until just a few years ago both the Klingons and Romulans were mortal enemies of the Federation; now they're joining us in Starfleet! And humanity still has its own share of bastards to offer. I guess that's good for us or we'd be out of business, eh?"
She laughed again. "That we would!" she replied.
"Well, let's get deconned and back out there," Jayson said. "We're all that stands between the darkness and the light, after all!"
"All right," she replied, "But when this shift is over, I'm putting my feet up for a good two hours! My ankles are sure to be swollen like sausages!" she smirked. "And do we ever get to find out what that thing was we found?"
"Yes, Dr. Cherrin will send Security a report. More than likely it's just an unclassified alien. We don't usually get many storybook creatures aboard the station!"
"It did look like a storybook creature, didn't it?"
"Just a little bit...hard to tell with all those burns, but I could have sworn I saw a picture of it someplace..." Jayson thought aloud.
Tara thought about it and her CVI brought up a memory, but she quickly dismissed it. "Well, let's get back to work," she said.
They went to separate shower stalls and went through the decontamination process just in case alien microbes had infested them. No more was said about either the creature or Dr. Cherrin's revelation for the rest of the watch.