Midnight Vultures

Posted on Sat Apr 29th, 2023 @ 5:31am by Captain Luka Mahone
Edited on on Thu May 4th, 2023 @ 2:08pm

2,003 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Pressure
Location: Captain Mahone's Cabin, Haumea Colony
Timeline: MD 01 : 0013 Hrs

It was a late night for the Captain. Between Haechi's howls at the Xaprean moon and Noodle's midnight zoomies, Luka spent the wee hours under the soft lamplight rifling through recently unearthed reports. He had to call in favors, which he was sure would raise a flag or two, but the mere mention of alternate realities touching down on the planet, whether related or not, was cause for precaution.

Did he anticipate coming face to face with someone who claimed to be his sister, but from a time and place of war and strife?

No.

But there she was, and if the tests that had been run were accurate, she was exactly who she said she was. Which was a conflict for Luka. A major one.

A green notification popped up on the console he was reading from. His frown deepened, but tapped the notification and sat back. As he smoothed his hair out, the ever-familiar face of Asahi Kita appeared on the screen.

But, there was something different, and Luka narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?" The sound of Luka's voice had a young malamute sitting down next to him for pets.

Pets that were absolutely given, while he watched the person with his friend's face open and close his mouth a few times before stating, "What kind of dumb question is that?"

"I’m not playing this game with you." Luka leaned forward, ready to hit the button again.

"Wait!" Despite his better judgment, Asahi's voice stopped him. He watched the other's arms waving frantically. "Wait wait wait!"

Luka sat back, sighing. "Give me one good reason I shouldn’t report you straight to Admiral Minawara."

"Beeeecause I got your package?"

Package? He narrowed his eyes. He did not remember sending a package. Making a mental note to talk to Davna later, the side of Luka's mouth twitched. "… Try again."

"Awww, you’re giving me another-" Luka leaned forward again. "OKAY WAIT WAIT! I… just needed to see your face."

Luka let the air hang awkwardly, another note to talk to Cornelius about the movements of the Dominion and potentially awful spies. "I’m hanging up now."

"Oh come on! You know who I am!"

His finger hesitated over the prompt to end the call, a pang of guilt nagging at the back of his mind. There was something about whoever was on the other end of the screen that had Luka curious. The what if's played in his mind on rotation.

What if...

Luka sat back, expression hardening. Even if this was not Asahi, whoever this was knew what happened to Asahi, and if Luka could get answers, now was the time to do it. "Not when you’re about to spout actual emotions like that." He snorted. "For all I know, you’re a poorly morphed Changeling."

"Why are you so goddamn paranoid?" Came the immediate, predictable Asahi snap. At least they knew that much about him. "Why would I be a Changeling?"

"The same reason I had to convince someone that the Daucin were not the next Tribble outbreak." Luka let the sentence out between his deep sigh.

"What the fuck’s a Daucin?" The silence that held between the pair lasted for another beat before 'Asahi's' eyes widened with realization. "It was me you told, wasn’t it?"

Luka's lips twitched into a small smile of amusement. And perhaps victory. "Yes. Yes it was."

He saw hands go up in the air. And a defeated look on 'Asahi's' face. "Alright. Alright! I’ll come clean. Just don’t hang up." Pause. "And don’t tell the Admiral. Not yet. I’m not sure what the fuck’s going on yet and I don’t wanna mess it up for this Asahi."

"This Asahi-" Questions were rife in Luka's mind, but that pang of guilt churned his stomach. He might have gotten himself in trouble for not reporting it, but the implications of Asahi never returning again had him pause. "You’re from another reality." That was, if this imposter was telling the truth.

"You don’t sound the least bit surprised." He could hear the deadpan, but also the slight hint of relief in 'Asahi's' voice.

Luka shrugged. "At this point? Why would I be?"

"I guess you’ve seen a lot as a Captain, huh?"

A lot, what an understatement. "Yep."

'Asahi' flinched. "But this is probably gonna still get reported?"

"I’ll think about it." He would have to at some point. Nevermind the fact that 'Asahi' seemed to have access to channels and methods that Luka thought were previously decommissioned along with the ships that went with it. "But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to want some conversation. And a why this is on some channel I didn’t even think was active."

"It’s not, apparently. But someone’s fiddling with the Viking’s old server space or something."

It would be a quick look to see if someone had access to the Viking, or decided to reboot the systems for an investigation into some old thread that led who knew where. "Or it’s something you re-activated knowing full well no one was looking."

'Asahi's' shoulders tensed. "I didn’t."

Luka did not have time to play games. Not when he had investigations of his own to deal with. Maybe he should have just reported this to the Admiral. "Why are we communicating on a line that my Marine Commanding Officer is going to find and inevitably ask about?"

"He won’t find it." There was that knowing nod. "I have ways."

Luka scoffed. "Or my other friend in Intel who is no doubt going to look for things a Marine Commanding Officer isn’t going to look for?"

And there were the Bajoran swears. "Shit, when did you get so many-" 'Asahi' shook his head. "Look, I just wanted to see your face, okay? Can’t that be it?"

"No. Because you calling me from his console means that he's not where he's supposed to be, which means he's in trouble. Or the Vesta and Esquimalt are and I'm about to have to make some more calls-" Calls he was taking too long to make. Maybe this 'Asahi' was stalling and the next thing Luka would know is that there would be no more from the Admiral. No more from Martin...

And certainly no more from his Asahi.

"I'm not lying!" There was a frantic panic in 'Asahi's' voice that had Luka hesitating. "And … I can't go into detail. I know this looks shitty. But I have some idea of where he is. Or at least, some idea of where I hope he is."

"Can't go into-" Luka rolled his eyes, making a note to talk to one of the doctors on staff to make sure his eyes were going to stay in his head if he kept it up. "Is this some goddamn time travel thing again?"

"Again? What did this Asahi get himself into?"

Luka would have responded, if it were not for the feathered lizard stomping around in the background, following after Hojo in some poor attempt at predatory stalking. "What is that back there?"

"Back where?" 'Asahi' looked behind him, making a dismissive wave, before turning back with a half-hearted smile. "Hologram."

"That hologram is looking at Hojo like he's lunch."

"Who's Hojo?"

"I'm calling the Admiral."

"NO WAIT STOP! Hold on!" And with that declaration, 'Asahi' leapt atop the back of the 'hologram,' sending them both to the ground and out of Luka's view. A few hisses and colorful vocabulary words later, 'Asahi' returned, uniform and hair a mess, with a tail whipping madly behind him. "Look, I'm Asahi. Not your Asahi, no. But I am an Asahi. Who knew a Luka."

"Who I'm sure you're eager to get back to." The sentence came out before Luka realized how petty and empty it sounded. Maybe there were some feelings he was still holding onto, but this 'Asahi,' whoever he was, did not need to know about it.

"Who-" 'Asahi' looked down, clearing his throat. "-was vaporized while we were escaping Jem'Hadar in some cockamamie alternate reality."

Luka had a distinct memory of the mission they were on, the Klingons he had to ally himself with to get out of the situation, and the shuttle that his Asahi was on when it was shot down. Whoever this was had done his research. "Don't play with my heart strings."

"I'm not! I swear. I know I can't exactly prove anything to you, but I was misplaced to the future, they said they'd send me back and…" 'Asahi trailed off, looking back at the sounds of hissing and a dog whine.

"And what?"

"They missed. They sent me back too far -" 'Asahi' disappeared from view again. "BELLIE NO!"

"So what the hell can you tell me about why you're here now?"

'Asahi' returned, but this time holding a large, feathered tail. "I don't honestly fucking know. But if I'm found out, it could delay me in bringing your Asahi back home."

"Isn't that convenient?" He was sure there was a book he could write about the number of times people thought they could use his emotions and good nature to get what they wanted. But this was beyond a breech of security. Whether he wanted to or not, he would have to tell someone. Yoshi was not an unreasonable man. An 'Asahi' with a dinosaur (that was sillily-named) was more likely to be an actual Asahi than a Changeling with poor research habits.

But his face gave it away; he was not convinced, and 'Asahi' could tell. "Okay. I know this looks bad."

"Looks bad?"

"It is bad. I get it." The tail disappeared from view, but Luka could hear the sound of a door opening, and heard more hissing. Another dinosaur? Whoever was trying to zap him back was really bad at their job. "But please, please believe me. I really just… wanted to see you. And talk to you. It sounds weird, but I… We… Things were gonna happen. And then they didn’t."

"Things?"

Suddenly, 'Asahi's' voice turned curt and he frowned. "Well I’m not telling you."

Ah, there it was. The trademarked emotional constipation that Asahi was known for. Maybe he was telling the truth. "… Okay now I’m beginning to believe you."

"Now? NOW!?" 'Asahi's' arms were flung into the air and he made a noise. "God I hate you so much. You’re nothing like him."

Like him? Luka's eyes rolled again. "Don’t-" He held a hand up. "Sure. Okay. So if all you wanted to do was see my face and talk to me, you’ve done both of these things. I’m hanging up so I can talk to the Admiral-"

"God please. Please don’t." 'Asahi's' voice cracked, and he seemed to all but forget that there were dinosaurs in the room. "I swear I’m telling you the truth. Please. I want to get back to whenever they’re trying to zap me too, and he’s probably trying to get back here."

Not the Asahi he knew. The Asahi he knew ran away from all his problems and was 'destined to be alone,' as per Asahi's brooding and 'woe-is-me' nature. "I don’t know about that. But whatever. Let me think about it."

"Thank you. I’m sure you’re busy doing - Captain stuff." 'Asahi' winked, before his eyes darted from the console and to the side. "GUYS PLEASE LEAVE THE POOR DOG ALONE!"

As the call cut out, Luka sat alone in silence. There was a lot for him to think about, but it was something to sleep on.

If he could get any sleep after that.

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