From bhd@crl.com
Fri May 10 11:07:30 1996
Subject: SSE1: Tremaine and Sullivan
 
 
     More background on Jack Sullivan, for those interested.
 
Scene: Admiral Sullivan's office
Time:  After Lexia returns from the JAVELIN to SSE1
 
 
     "So," said Jack Sullivan, "who goes first? You or me?"
 
     "I think you had better tell your news first, Jack," replied Lexia 
Tremaine. "Once you hear mine, you probably won't be in much of a mood 
to talk." 
 
     Jack thought he knew something of what Lexia wanted to tell him, 
and if he was right about that, then she was probably right about his 
reaction to it. But he clamped down on his suspicions, and swore that he 
would give her the chance to explain before making any comment. 
 
     "Are you sure?" he asked. "This is going to be rather a shock. It 
sure was for me, when I found out." 
 
     "I think so. I know you were surprised and disturbed, but I don't 
sense any anger or other strong negative emotions from you. Of course, 
you could be controlling your emotions; you've grown pretty good at that 
over the years. And I would never delve any deeper than the surface 
unless you asked me to." 
 
     "I know, Lexi," Jack replied. That was one of the things about 
Lexia that Jack admired most. She and her father, Ambassador Andrazhn, 
had extremely high ethical standards regarding the use of telepathy and 
related psionic powers. "I trust you as much as or more than anyone else 
I know. But no, I'm not keeping anything hidden. Except maybe some 
anticipation regarding your news." 
 
     She actually smiled at that. If there was one thing that she had 
learned about Jack Sullivan over the years, it was that she would never 
learn enough to fully understand him. He constantly surprised her by 
revealing facets of himself which had previously been hidden. 
 
     "All right then," she said, "let's hear it. What happened while I 
was gone?" 
 
     She was referring to her trip, along with several of the OBERON's 
crew, into another universe, from which they had just returned. He had 
already heard something about that trip, and the purpose behind it. That 
information, though, was not for public knowledge, nor even official 
Starfleet files. It was held in strict confidence between those 
officers, Admirals Gerber, Marko, and Antares, and himself. Knowledge of 
who and what Stae-faan LuCypher truly was could do inconceivable harm in 
the wrong hands. 
 
     "It's a long story," Sullivan said, leaning back in his chair, "and 
I know from past experience there are parts you, and everyone else, are 
incapable of grasping." 
 
     At Lexia's frown, Jack hastily raised a hand to forestall her 
comment. 
 
     "No, Lexi, it's no fault of yours. It's something the Guardian did, 
I think, to protect everyone from the hazards of paradox." 
 
     "Paradox?" Lexia asked, remembering something Jack had asked her 
about a couple of years ago, just after he had returned from his trip 
through the Guardian of Forever. "Does this have to do with your time 
trip?" 
 
     "Very much so," Jack answered, a wry smile adorning his features. 
"Even then, when I told you where I had gone, I didn't tell you 
everything. You know I found Duncan, and Sara." 
 
     Lexia nodded, not knowing where he was headed, but deciding to let 
him speak, for now. 
 
     "When I first stepped through, I found myself on the VALLEY FORGE 
just as she was arriving at Wolf 359, to join the blockade against the 
Borg. I knew that if anyone saw me in a Commodore's uniform, there would 
be too many questions, so-" 
 
     "Commodore?" Lexia queried, forgetting for a moment her resolve not 
to interrupt. "You were never a Commodore. AJ promoted you right to 
Branch Admiral when you left the OBERON." 
 
     "So the record shows, now," Jack said, shaking his head. "All I can 
say is, when I entered the Guardian for the first time, I was a 
Commodore. And I knew I had to get rid of the uniform, before someone 
saw me. I ducked into an empty meeting room and ordered up a standard 
uniform with Lieutenant Commander's pips from the replicator." 
 
     One thing Jack did not mention, since it would only raise more 
questions which he was not prepared to answer just then, was that when 
he had left Lexia's ship, it had not been the OBERON. It was the USS 
OLYMPIC, prototype of her class, and his first and only ship command. 
 
     "I managed to stay out of sight until the battle was joined, but 
once it had begun, I couldn't sit there and do nothing, I tried to help 
as best I could. I went to Auxiliary Control and did what I could to 
augment our defenses, but I knew, even as I worked, that it was futile. 
Soon enough, the crippling hit came." 
 
     Lexia remembered how the battle had been described, in the accounts 
she had read. Although thirty-nine Starfleet vessels had been either 
destroyed or damaged beyond hope of repair, there were still dozens of 
survivors. Jack himself had been one of the lucky few. 
 
     "I headed straight for Main Engineering," Jack continued. That was 
where his younger self had been during that epic battle. "I got there 
just as the matter stream cut off." 
 
     The younger Sullivan had been splashed by that stream even as he 
had somehow struck the controls which shut it off. Before striking him, 
the stream had vaporized his fiancee, Debbie Bates, and several other 
crew, including the CEO. Or at least, so they had all believed, until 
Debbie had stepped out of the Guardian of Forever and back into Jack's 
life, two years ago. 
 
     "I had to know who had saved me. I even thought, for a moment, that 
the Guardian had sent me back in order to save myself, but before I 
could reach the... my, body, Duncan came in and grabbed me. The younger 
me, I mean." 
 
     "I know what you mean, Jack," Lexia said softly. "Go on."
 
     "He saw me, and I don't know which of us was more surprised. It got 
even weirder when we got the burned body over to the hospital ship and 
left it where Sara would find it. He took me back to his runabout, which 
was docked with the ship, and she was there. Sara was there, waiting for 
us." 
 
     Sara Anderson, the half-sister Lexia had never really gotten to 
know, was D'raan's legitimate child, by his wife Amanda. The parents had 
divorced a few years later, but D'raan had never quite gotten over it. 
His charm and womanizing image were ways for the Ambassador to hide from 
his pain, but he had never truly dealt with it. 
 
     "You mean the older Sara, from the NOVA, Jack?"
 
     "Yes. She and Duncan had both been sent back to the year 2361, two 
years before the battle, and had been hiding from Starfleet since then. 
They came to Wolf specifically to rescue me, Lexi. They knew that they 
were in a unique position to do it, and that I -had- to survive, because 
I -had- survived. Afterward, she came with me on another runabout, while 
Duncan took his, and we headed for Earth." 
 
     Most of this, Lexia already knew or had figured out, from what Jack 
had told her before. Still, hearing the story told in a more linear 
fashion was helping her to understand the strain Jack had been under 
during that journey. She nodded again, encouraging him to continue. 
 
     "I told them how I had gotten there, and they told me their 
stories. Meanwhile, we were headed for that final confrontation with the 
Borg. Duncan had told us that the ENTERPRISE should not have been able 
to fool the cube into going dormant, given what he had seen. There had 
to be another factor, a distraction of some sort, which was not recorded 
in the official histories. He was determined to be that distraction." 
 
     Lexia knew that Duncan had an almost obsessive compulsion about the 
Borg, and that encounter in particular. Jack had told her that his 
friend had been confined, under psychiatric care, at the time of the 
battle, and had always regretted it. A highly regarded commander and 
brilliant tactician, McCauley had distinguished himself years earlier, 
during the height of the Federation/Cardassian War. But in the late part 
of that conflict, he had been captured and subjected to mental and 
emotional torture by the Cardassians, and his recovery took many years. 
He had been utterly convinced, though, that he could have made a 
difference at Wolf 359 and its aftermath. 
 
     A bit of arrogance, to be sure, but no Starship Captain was without 
at least a small taste of it. In any case, she could understand well why 
Duncan had not wanted to waste his second chance to make a difference. 
 
     "We really had nothing to lose, at that point. I was still upset 
over our breakup, and hadn't yet realized all of what was behind it. I 
was ready to die that day, and so were they. As it turned out, Duncan 
did." 
 
     That, too, she knew, but Lexia sensed that there was more to the 
story than that. Jack was about to reveal something which affected him 
deeply and profoundly. 
 
     "We got there, and were careful to stay opposite the ENTERPRISE, so 
that they wouldn't know we were there. The cube was between us the whole 
time. But the Borg knew we were there. They even hailed us, that 
Locutus, he talked to us. 'Resistance is futile,' all that stuff, you 
know?" 
 
     Jack was becoming more agitated as he spoke, and it was very 
obvious in his speech. But even if that had not been a clue, Lexia knew 
him very well by now. She could sense, in a way totally unrelated to her 
psionic gifts, that he was reliving an extremely painful incident. He 
had almost forgotten that she was there. 
 
     "He kept arguing with them, Duncan did, like he was daring them to 
come and get him. They were busy with the ENTERPRISE, though, and who 
could blame them. What were we? Just a pair of tiny little runabouts, 
not even gnats on a tiger. But maybe he got through to them, just a 
little bit, finally. They got him." 
 
     "Got him?" Lexia finally asked, when Jack had been silent for a few 
seconds. "They blew up his runabout?" 
 
     "No." Jack's voice was a almost a whisper now. "They didn't kill 
him. They -got- him. In a tractor beam. They were trying to pull him in, 
to take him and assimilate him. Why they didn't grab us, too, I'll never 
know." 
 
     Lexia listened with growing horror as Jack revealed his darkest 
memories, the events which had changed not only his life, but in effect, 
all of their lives, everyone in the entire galaxy. 
 
     "Communications were still open, so I could still hear Duncan 
shouting his defiance at the Borg. He was entirely convinced that he was 
providing the distraction needed, so that the ENTERPRISE could shut them 
down. But he'd miscalculated the time. They'd taken him too early. 
Eventually, he realized it, but by then, it was too late. He was caught. 
 
     "I knew that if they got him inside, assimilated him, that the Borg 
would win. Because, he knew the history, just like Sara and me. He knew 
how the ENTERPRISE had beaten them. And if they took him, they could 
avoid it. He knew it, too. He started to tell me. 
 
     "'Jack,' he said, 'you can't let them take me! You know what'll 
happen if they do!' And I knew. I couldn't though, I, I mean, how could 
I, could I, stop them... he was my best friend, my blood brother, I, I 
loved him! And he wanted me to, to KILL HIM!" 
 
     Following an impulse beyond conscious thought, Lexia quickly rose 
and ran to Jack's side, putting her arms around him. 
 
     "Jack, Jack," she whispered, soothingly, "it's okay. Calm down. 
It's all over now, long ago. Come back, Jack. Come back to me now." 
 
     Slowly, agonizingly slowly, Sullivan's breathing became easier, 
more relaxed. His eyes once again focused on the present, and the 
shaking which had begun to wrack his frame ceased. 
 
     "Lexi."
 
     "Yes, Jack. I'm here."
 
     "I did it. I killed him. I killed Duncan!"
 
     And though she would never have tried to enter his mind on her own, 
the images and emotions came flooding into her consciousness. It was 
terrifying, and shocking, and yet there was a certain nobility about it, 
too. Jack had killed his friend because he could not let the Borg win. 
Jack Sullivan had made the penultimate sacrifice, all for duty. 
 
     She felt it all, the agony and the horror, the pain and the grief. 
And finally, she knew why Jack had changed since his return. But why, 
why had he decided to tell her this now? When he had calmed down enough, 
she asked him. 
 
     "Because that's not all, Lexi," he answered. "While we were on our 
way to Earth, Sara and I had a long talk, and I realized what had caused 
you and me to break up, why, even, I had been attracted to you in the 
first place. It was because of her." 
 
     Lexia had suspected as much, when she had found out her true 
parentage and her relationship to Sara. They had some strong physical 
resemblance, although her temperament and demeanor differed greatly from 
Sara's. But they were half-sisters, and both were strong, intelligent, 
dedicated women. It was no wonder Jack had fallen for her, if he had 
truly loved Sara. And no wonder, too, why the affair had not worked out. 
He hadn't known it, but he was rebelling against it from the inside, 
since she wasn't Sara. 
 
     "I know you loved her, Jack. I don't hold that against you. And I 
think she loved you, too, even if she couldn't show it." 
 
     "You're right. She told me as much. She couldn't tell me before, 
though, because of Savand." 
 
     Savand of Vulcan had been Sara's betrothed, and the two were linked 
in the traditional Vulcan fashion, until he had died in the same 
confusion which had surrounded the USS NOVA. It had been an arranged 
marriage, as many such were, but she had not minded at the time, and 
they quickly grew to love one another. 
 
     "But she said that, after she had met me, that she knew what true 
love really was. She wanted to be with me, but she couldn't leave him. 
But then we realized, on the way to Earth, that he couldn't stand 
between us any more. We finally were able to love each other the way we 
had always wanted to, but couldn't admit. 
 
     "We made love, there in the runabout. On the way to a battle that 
we thought would end our lives, we had nothing to lose, and everything 
to gain. It was... unlike anything I've ever experienced before." 
 
     Lexia could understand that, certainly. And the feelings she was 
getting from Jack confirmed it: what he had felt with Sara was the same 
thing she felt every time she and Hunter Thorpe made love. It was a 
rightness that neither had ever found elsewhere. 
 
     "I'm sorry I had to take you through all of that, Lexia," Jack 
continued. "But you had to know, in order to understand. A man came to 
see me last week, just before N'jira Klaen and Dan Stone's wedding. He 
said he was my son. Sara's son. And that means that he's also..." 
 
     "My nephew," Lexia concluded. She wasn't sure how to react to the 
news. A shock indeed, as he had warned her, but a sort of pleasant one, 
she thought. More family she had never known she had! First had been 
D'raan and Sara, then just recently Hugh, and now this nephew. "What's 
his name?" 
 
     "Ray. Raymond Duncan Anderson Sullivan. She named him after my 
father and our heroic friend." 
 
     It was fitting, Lexia thought.
 
     Jack seemed to be just about fully recovered now. He asked if he 
could get her anything from the replicator, but she declined. She wanted 
no distractions just now. She knew she would have to deal with this, but 
first, it was time to tell Jack her own shocking news. 
 
-SrAdm. Jack Sullivan
 
Non-RP: Over to you, Judi.
 
Chris, this is part of the setup for Jack's Amber link. One more post, 
after Judi's followup, should do it.