Doctor's Appointment

Rahel was in the primary sickbay of the USS Leviathan-B, checking everything over. The Leviathan and the Taurus were both docked at DS9 and the Taurus was seriously damaged, so much so that Starfleet had taken the ship out of commission. The vessel was just waiting for a relief crew to arrive to take it back to Utopia Planetia where it would undergo a major overhaul. The crew of the Taurus had all been re-assigned to the Leviathan and were moving their belongings over to the new ship.

The reason for the transfer was a mystery to most of the crew, normally there would have been a debriefing before being reassigned Rahel thought Captain Taybar might have been able to pull some strings back at Starfleet HQ, but there were also rumours about the data the Marines had collected from the rogue Dominion forces.

She'd just been onboard the USS Taurus and collected all her equipment, samples and medical notes. The new sickbay didn't smell right to her, it was all too new, never been used. It was also much larger than the one of the Taurus, with twice as many beds and five side wards instead of just two.

The Leviathan actually had two sickbays, the main one being located in the saucer section. The second sickbay was situated in the Engineering section, just in front of Engineering. Usually the second bay was on standby, but in an emergency it could be brought online in less than half an hour.

Rahel was busy downloading all her personal files into the medical database when she heard a voice from behind her.

"Doctor Kahfre ?"

Shocked at the sudden interruption, she turned around to see a tall male standing just a few feet away from her. He was about three inches taller than she was, but the most striking feature was the fact that the Lieutenant was bald.

*Where did he come from ?* She asked herself. She'd not sensed him come into the room, which made her edgy.

"I'm sorry if I startled you." He apologised. "I'm Lieutenant Zack Dare. There's not a lot for a helm officer to do whilst we're docked here at Deep Space Nine, so I thought I'd come down here and have my yearly medical if that's OK with you. I should have had it done before I left Earth, but there wasn't time. The runabout was heading for DS9 and I needed to be on it."
"No, problem," She replied with a smile as she led him to one of the biobeds. "Have a seat." She remembered seeing his bio, but not taking a really good look at it. She pulled out her tricorder and began some preliminary scans. "So how long have you been in Starfleet ?"

"About a month…" Zack replied. "….this time. I actually graduated from the academy in 2376 and served on the USS Appalachia until 2380 when my father was killed. I took an extended leave of absence and returned to Starfleet a couple of months ago."

"Five years is some time to be gone," She replied. "Are you happy to be back ?" Her green eyes looked down at her scans and then at him.

"I'm sorry to hear about your father." She replied sincerely. "But five year away from Starfleet . . . Hmmm . . . are you happy to be back ?" Her green eyes looked down at her scans and then back to him with honest curiosity.

"There was something about his death that didn't fit right." Zack explained. "I know he wasn't my real father, but he was the only dad I knew. As I started to find the truth, other things came to light, things that I needed to know, questions I needed answers to. I've still not got all the answers, but I reached a point where my limited resources couldn't get me any further, so I returned home."

"Back to Starfleet !." Rahel remarked.

"I was debriefed for over a month before they would allow me to take up my commission again." Zack stated. "I was due to join the medical vessel the USS Comfort, but at the last minute they decided to chance my orders to join the Taurus. I'm glad to be back at the helm of a starship, but as to being glad to be back in Starfleet that's another matter. Some of the answers I got led right back to the heart of Starfleet. It was good to spend some time with mom again though, she looks just as beautiful as she did the day they adopted me."

Rahel smiled softly. "I miss my parents too . . . and it's interesting . . . I'm adopted as well." Rahel said, she didn't know why, but she had a compulsion to ask. Maybe it was because of what she was learning, she just couldn't help herself. "Where were you adopted from ?"

"Kritarus, from a small Federation adoption centre." Zack stated. "At least that's where I was adopted. From what my parents told me, I was about eighteen months old when they came to the adoption centre, mom couldn't bear children and dad was stationed at the base on Kritarus. They fell in love with me almost immediately, naturally I was a cute infant, I've seen the pictures. I'd been in the adoption centre for over a year before they came, its funny but I actually don't remember meeting many children while I was there."

For a moment Rahel stopped all movement. Could it be possible that he was one of the children ? It was really too much to hope for and yet that photo came back to mind. There was an older baby in the picture. Maybe it was possible. "I was adopted from there . . ." She said, watching his reaction since she still couldn't sense him. His shielding was good, like hers, when she used it.

"Where ?" Zack remarked. "You mean the adoption centre ? When ?"

"Approximately 29 years ago . . ." She said. "I was adopted when I was about six months old."

"Now that you say that, I do remember a couple of girls arriving about two months before I was adopted, they were only babies though, about six to eight months so they were in the nursery. I think they had been injured when they first arrived because they were in the medical centre for about a week. I only saw them a few times, but the one I remember was went they somehow managed to get out of nursery. I was using a learning terminal at the time and suddenly these two kids appeared next to me. They seemed fascinated by the terminal and started to touch the screen. It was only a very simple programme, but the seemed to pick it up very fast."

Rahel's eyes closed of their own volition as the memory came to her. She had dreamed about this . . . Only it hadn't been a dream. It had been a memory . . . And her sister was with her !

"One of the babies had blonde hair and one of the babies had dark hair ?" She asked. She looked at him again carefully almost not believing she was looking at someone who had seen her at the nursery, at the adoption centre.

"I think they were a blonde and a brunette…." Zack said, trying to remember that day. "The blonde had green eyes…just like yours. The other had brown eyes I think. One was adopted soon after that, the blonde girl I think, I left about a month later, I don't know what happened to K… the other girl."

"Do you know her name ?" Rahel asked quickly. "I've been trying to find her. That's my sister ! Those girls were us . . ." There was an almost plea in her voice.

Zack hoped his slip of the tongue hadn't been noticed, but Rahel had picked up on it.

"I'm not sure, but there's something in the back of my mind…." Zack covered. "… the names the nurse used when they found them, Kacey and Rachel I think, something like that. Do you really think that the blonde girl was you ?"

Rahel nodded. "I know it was." She replied with assurance. She knew without a doubt it was her. "I was rescued from a fire. In a lab that was part of a house. The house belonged to one Dr. Helorian Drakara . . . Only, he doesn't exist . . . At least from what I've found. See, the only person I remember is my sister. I'm trying to find out who I really am."

Zack really wanted to help, tell her everything she wanted to know, but that would only put her in danger. It wasn't a coincidence that Zack had been assigned to the Taurus. Rahel was the first one the two girls he'd been able to trace. But he wasn't ready to tell her and he knew that Rahel wasn't ready to hear the whole truth about her 'birth'.

"I'm sorry I don't know where your sister is." Zack lied. "But I do remember hearing the name Drakara, he was one of the Doctor's that my parents took me to when I started to lose my hair."

Rahel put the tricorder down. She went to another procedure and completed it with ease and then stopped as she tried to reign in her emotions before she spoke next.

"But there is no Drakara," Rahel replied. "I already know that from my own search. The was however a Dr. Mikori . . ." As she remembered the photo and thought of his picture and that of the woman that looked just like her that must have been her mother . . . Alice Mikori, she didn't know what to feel. But then she thought of the animal geneticists and she had the overwhelming urge to test her DNA again, which she fought. She promised Logan she wouldn't do it just yet. But had an overwhelming fear she was someone's monster.

"Well he existed to my parents… Wait, Mikori you say…" Zack said. "When my parents sent me to Laconia II, I spent six weeks with the Doctor. He didn't cure my hair loss, but I got to meet his niece Shara Mikori. She was about six and there was something about her, as if we had a connection."

Rahel remembered the picture again, and that Mikori's brother and sister-in-law were in it. She had been pregnant. But that child would have ended up closer to her age now. This child he spoke of was younger . . . Perhaps they had another child, she thought. Maybe their first child didn't survive birth, she thought with a chill.

"I don't know if this makes any difference, but I look exactly like someone from Mikori's family," Rahel said. "Perhaps you and I are part of it somehow." She shuddered inwardly.

"I think her parents were killed soon after she was born, she showed me a picture once. She also said that her uncle was always talking about her mother, although I didn't understand at the time, I think the Doctor had some kind of affair with her. Maybe Shara was some kind of love-child, I do remember he didn't treat her very nice, as if she was some kind of burden to him."

"I'm not surprised." She replied a little more coldly than she had meant to be. Even her green eyes had turned to marble.

Zack looked at Rahel and noticed the emotions in her eyes. Suddenly Rahel had an idea, the photo.

"Take a look at this." Rahel requested, bringing up the image of the group photo Logan had found. Zack walked over to the console and looked at the picture. Since they'd returned, they'd been able to enhance the image a little more. The resemblance was unmistakable between Rahel and her mother.

"That's Shara's mother." Zack stated, pointing at the woman standing beside Rahel's mother. "And that's her uncle standing between them and her father on the other side."

"That's Dr. Bakar Mikori . . . The woman you identified as Shara's mother is his sister-in-law . . . But if you see, almost all the woman in the picture all pregnant," she said. Only this time, she studied Alice. Alice seemed very big for carrying just one child and not having delivered. Suddenly, she realised that her 'sister' really was her sister. She was her twin. Maybe not identical, but they had shared a womb together. "Alice had twins," she said softly, almost without realising she spoke. Suddenly she wondered if she could find Shara Mikori and if Shara would be able to tell her anything. It was a long shot but it was worth a try, wasn't it? she thought. Anything to find her sister . . . her twin sister.

Suddenly Zack stepped back as if he'd been hit with an electric shot. He was silent for a moment, trying to catch his breath. He'd been looked at the image closely and the couple with the baby.

"That's my mother." Zack gasped as he sat back down on the biobed. Rahel could understand exactly how he felt.

"Take a deep breath in slowly and exhale slowly…." She instructed. "….and again." She said, until he seemed to catch his breath again. "I remember when I first looked at the photo. My reaction was somewhat similar. Maybe worse in some ways." She smiled. "But it does seem that we're on the same path, Zack Dare . . ."

"You don't understand…" Zack protested. "That's my mother holding the baby, my adopted mother. And I think the baby could be me."

"Your *adopted* mother ?" She replied, suddenly not understanding herself.

"But why would she be there ? Be in this photo ? Did she work for Gene-Tec ?"

"I don't know who the man beside her is." Zack announced. "But that's definitely my mother, Amanda Dare. When was this taken ?"

"Somewhere around 2354." Rahel replied.

"That's about six months before she married dad." Zack remembered. "Her maiden name was… Scott I think."

"Scott ?" Rahel echoed as she looked at him, a look of complete shock on her face. "My mother is Alice Mikori . . . Her maiden name is Scott . . ."

"Could it be…." Zack suggested. "Could we be related ?, Cousins ?. Mom never mentioned a sister or that she had been married before."

"I could do a blood analysis to see if we're related." She suggested. She promised herself she wouldn't go further than that. "It wouldn't take that long."

"Let's do it." Zack said.

She took a small sample of his blood and a small sample of her own, then took them to one of the pieces of equipment in sickbay. As she ran it through, she waited patiently. Suddenly information began appearing on the console. She looked at the sequences and nodded.

"Computer, verify results on the two samples. Are the two blood donors related ?"

<Results verify donors are related.>

"How closely related ?" Rahel asked.

<Unable to verify> The computer replied.

"What do you mean unable to verify ?" Rahel replied startled.

<Please restate question.>

Exasperated, she looked at the results herself and as she did, she could see why. In some areas they matched for cousins and in other areas they matched as siblings. The computer was having has hard a time with this as she was trying to sort this out.

"Well, at least we do know we're related….." She replied. "And somewhere between cousin and sibling."

"That's quite a shock." Zack remarked. "I came in here for a yearly check-up and I'll walk out with a new family member. It's nice to finally meet you after all these years, where you been ?"

Zack smiled as he said it and looked at Rahel more closely. As he looked, he could see certain things about her that reminded him of his mother. The eyes were the most revealing, the same shade of green.

"You know, now that I look at you, I can see a family resemblance." Zack continued to joke. "And if we're related to each other, then it's possible that we're both related to Shara and your twin sister as well. It might explain why I had such a strong emotion when I met Shara the first time."

"Maybe we could find her," Rahel offered. "You have her name. She could come up in one of the databases . . . For all we know, she's in Starfleet." But suddenly she grew quiet and introspective. "I want to find my sister though . . . But I have no way to find her." She sighed. "We were rescued from a fire just to be separated . . ."

"I have a confession to make." Zack announced. "I do know the name of your sister, or at least her first name, it's Karissa. I've tried to find her, but there are no records of her adoption. All I know is that she was the last child to be adopted from the centre. There's a lot more to this than even I knew, but you're not ready to learn the truth. Our genetic relationship and the involvement of my mother complicates things."

Zack tried to stand up, but his legs were still shaky. Be sat back down on the bed.

"I came here to find you." Zack said. "You were the one I could find, trace through your adoption records. Somewhere deep down, I've been searching for those two little girls, to re-establish the connection I had with them. I never thought my search would lead me to a conspiracy involving my own mother and possibly my father as well."

Rahel took his hand. "If you managed to find me, we can find her somehow . . . And we'll find Shara too." Her fears began creeping back as he mentioned the genetics. She knew what she fears and his words only seemed to confirm her worst fears, and yet, they didn't. They were just ominous . . . pointing to what might be. And she was afraid that she was right. That he meant what her worst fear at the moment was. That she was some genetic experiment . . . Nothing more . . . She pushed the thought aside.

"And we'll beat the conspiracy together. We might have been beatable separated, but something tells me that if we're all together, we're a force to be reckoned with." She smiled gently. What was funny was she believed her words. She didn't know why. Maybe it was because she believed her sister had her same abilities.

"We must have some kind of in-built recognition system and a desire to be together." Zack remarked. "Something that tell us that the person we are with is linked to us. Shara shouldn't be hard to find and she may know something about Karissa. The big question is just how many more of us are there, we know of at least one, the child Telara Mikori was carrying."

"That would stand to reason. Unless the child died, I had dreams of my sister for years. I saw her as she grew. We had a very strong connection for a while." She replied. "At least in sleep." She smiled. "I didn't even think she was real until recently. But it seems more and pieces are falling into place. Now I'm finding out there's more of us . . ." She shook her head. "It makes one wonder what they were doing at Gene-Tec . . . Wait, no . . . I can't think about that right now . . ." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath once again, reigning in her emotions.

Zack could feel her torment and dropped his mental shield a little. He held Rahel's hand and closed his own eyes.

Inside their heads, they were flying through space heading to who knows where. They found themselves looking at the quarters of some Starfleet officer. It was fairly comfortable decorated and from the window they could see the stars and a planet below. Suddenly they heard the sound of a young child crying in the next room and then the soft voice of a mother calming down her child.

The woman sang to the child to calm him and eventually the baby quieted down, but Rahel recognised her instantly as if there was a connection that couldn't be broken. It was Karissa ! It was her sister ! Just as Karissa put her son down on the ground, her daughter crawled up to her and waited in her lap. Karissa smiled and kissed her cheek. Karissa suddenly paused and looked around the room as if sensing a presence. Her dark eyes were scanning the entire room. Rahel still couldn't believe it. It *was* her sister and she was also a Starfleet officer! And she had children . . .

"Who's there ?" Karissa said.

Rahel reached out a hand to touch her sister's face, but as they almost touched, the image faded and they were both back in sickbay.

"I remember that song." Zack remarked. "My mother was always singing it to me, it was a lullaby to send me to sleep."

Rahel nodded in agreement. She also knew the song . . . Did that mean they had mothers that did care about them ? But if that were the case why had she and her sister been left in the lab of the house to burn ? But then again, they were rescued. It didn't say by who really . . . Just that rescuers were there.

Was it possible one of their mother's had pulled them from the blaze before it could take their lives ? But there was still one thing she didn't know . . . Just how she came into being. But she was pretty sure it wasn't through love . . . At least on someone's part. Or maybe at first . . . Maybe things changed. She didn't know . . . So many different things went through her mind. She had seen her sister for the first time in years ! If only she could find her . . .

"That was incredible." She finally replied. "I think our mothers all knew that song . . . That was Karissa singing. It was really her . . ."

"I know." Zack replied. "At least we know she's alive and can sense us. The question is what do we do now ?"

I don't know . . ." She replied, shaking her head. "Just a first name isn't much to go on. But we could feasibly do a search through the Starfleet Database for any Karissa. Karissa's that are the mother of twins under one year of age. It might take some time though."

Then she thought again. "And while we're at it, why don't we find Shara Mikori. You said you felt a connection to her . . ."
"We should be careful about what we do and how we do it." Zack suggested. "If we start doing random searches for Shara and Karissa, we might just alert the wrong people. We should try and keep this to ourselves for now. The less people know, the better."

"Then how can we search ? We need to be able to access the databases, unless you know a way we can do it without making a trail." She said, with a smirk.

"We need access to the Starfleet Intelligence database." Zack suggested. "Most of the information I gathered about you came from an old friend who worked at Starfleet HQ and owned me a favour. But he only had a low level access clearance."

"Say I could get us access," She replied. "Do you think that would yield us enough information to find my sister ? Finding Shara should be easy enough since we have her first and last name, but Karissa might be difficult to find. Of course, I do know what she looks like now . . ."

She was thinking of Logan. She was concerned about getting him into any trouble over this. But she so wanted to find her sister, she wanted the pieces to completely fall into place.

"I agree that Shara should be the one we find." Zack confirmed. "But she's also the closest to Doctor Mikori, so we need to be careful."

"Well, I know enough about Doctor Mikori's status that he's not working legally anywhere." She said, but then again, was he working legally at Gene-Tec. She suddenly couldn't remember. She didn't think so. That was why there was the name Helorian Drakara. "You did say he treated her awful . . . Maybe she resents him now . . . It would be a gamble though . . ." She agreed reluctantly, biting her lower lip.

"But one worth taking ?" Zack suggested.

Rahel thought about it and the more she did the more she nodded. "Yes.." She replied firmly meeting his gaze. "….I think it would be worth it. I can't really say why, but I think we should find her. Do you think it would raise any eyebrows if I searched the Starfleet database for her ?"

"Not if it was a Doctor looking for medical records ?" Zack remarked. "If she's in Starfleet, then she must have an official medical file. But be careful, don't try and gather too much information at one time. I've got a shift on the Bridge in ten minutes, so I'd better get up there. We'll arrange to meet tomorrow and talk some more."

Rahel smiled. "Definitely," she replied. "I'm glad you came in today."

"So am I." Zack said.

Zack stood up slowly, his legs finally holding his weight. He walked out of sickbay and towards the Bridge. He'd come to the Taurus to find Rahel and hope that she would join him in seeking out the truth.

Instead he'd found himself drawn into the conspiracy even deeper. He knew that he was now personally involved in all this and he was more certain than ever that his father had been killed to keep the secret safe. More than anything we wanted to know why his father had died, a desire that had consumed his life for the past five years.

As soon as Rahel filed her report on Zachary Dare, she immediately went to her console and typed in a search for medical records on Shara Mikori. As she waited, she got herself some tea. Before she even sat down, she had a response. As the image of Shara cleared, Rahel almost choked on the tea in her mouth. She checked to make sure the birth-date was a few years before her own. It wasn't her sister . . . but it was her double . . . All Rahel could do was sit there numb.