Disclaimer: James Proudstar Dani Moonstar and all related X-Force
	characters, events are the property of Marvel Comics.. 
	Takes place around issue #75.  Inspired by the Star Trek/X-MEN crossover.

	ST: Voyager, Commander Chakotay. Torres, Janeway,  the crew, and all related
	characters, concepts, themes, belong to Paramount	
	This is a sort of future story as James Proudstar meets up with a ‘probable
	‘descendant’ in the 24th century	
	
		“Objects in the Mirror ” by Karen Galarneault
	
		Texas, Present Day
	
	X-Force’s cross-country roadtrip had finally reached  a snag. With a  little	
	downtime on their hands, Tabitha came up with an idea. She insisted they 
	attend a New Age alternative culture festival.. She’d go on about how it was
	‘The Place to Be’; one huge jamboree of music and entertainment rolled into
	one event. The highlight of the festivities would be the ‘Colossal Man’, a
	construct of metal and steel girders, set ablaze in a pyrotechnic display.
	With no other plan in mind, her teammates agreed to attend.	

	Upon their arrival,  they mingled with the by turns ecletic and bizarre crowd.  
	Bobby, Dani and Tabitha chose to go dancing while listening to a live band.
	Jimmy  and Terry went to set up the campsite.  
	
	Afterwards, Jimmy wandered off aimlessly, before joining a circle of
	drummers. He sat down, cross-legged and took deep, calming breaths,
	as he prepared for something he hadn’t done in a  while.
	
	Truth to tell, this was something he hadn’t done since he’d joined X-Force.
	He’d always taken pride in his Apache  heritage, it was something singular 
	about him which was set apart from his status as a mutant. 
	Finding a calm center, he let himself over to a time-honored meditation 
	technique used by his ancestors.. He had a lot to think about.
	
	He achieved about twenty minutes of this when he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder.
	
	“Hey, James, am I bothering you?” 

	“No, Dani. I heard you coming about twenty yards away. Most people’s footsteps
	are so loud, but yours are like a whisper.” James replied, turning around 
	to face her.
		
	“Is that a bad thing?” Dani asked, brushing back a lock of black hair that 
	had fallen across her eyes.
	
	“Actually, its a pleasant surprise,” James replied.

	“Look,  you and I don’t have a lot of history together, but if you want to talk
	about that whole near-death experience. I do have some talents in that area.”

	“You were once a Valkayrie from Norse mythology?” James asked suddenly.
	
	“That was during my time with the New Mutants. Even so, how could I forget.?
	 Even being apart from Asgard, I’m still touched by the magic. 
	I’m not complaining, it did help save your life.”

	“I remember,” Jimmy grinned, breaking the tense atmosphere that had
	suddenly sprung up between. them. He shifted to maker  room for her in the circle.
	“You remember the time we went to Asgard? Didn’t Siryn make some
	comment about how a full-blooded Cheyenne became a Valkayrie?” James asked.

	“Just one of life’s little wrinkled ironies,” Dani said, sitting down beside him.
 				
	“I’m sorry if I seem distant, it’s not personal.” Ever since I discovered who
	was really behind the Mesa Verde massacre, I’ve done a lot of soul-searching.
	I’ve spent so many years carrying around guilt and anger, that I don’t know
	what I should feel now. What if I forget what they were like? It’s living that
	worries me, “ Jimmy whispered.
	
	 While they’d set up the campsite, he’d told Theresa he no longer wanted to let
	anger dominate his personality. She’d asked who he now wanted to be, but
	he hadn’t been able to give her, or more importantly, himself, a satisfactory
	answer. He shook his head, turning his attention back to Dani.
	“I’m sorry. You were saying, Dani?” he asked.
	
	Dani realized that he needed time to sort through his thoughts, so she acted
	like they’d just picked up where they’d left off.
	“A long time ago I learned that I could create illusions drawn from other 
	people’s psyches. I’ve always used it offensively, but I can use it to find the
	memories you think you’ve lost. If you’re okay with that,” Dani explained,
	
	“I am. Go ahead, Dani.,” he replied, as he closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.
	“Go ahead.”

	“Everything you’ve ever experienced lies deep within your mind, 
	only time obscures the details. Close your eyes and think of something 
	pleasant from your childhood.
	“Okay, James open your eyes now,” Dani instructed

	flashback	
	
	Suddenly the distractions from the celebrants faded away and James Proudstar
	found himself standing in front of his family’s  home on the reservation. 
	His family’s familiar faces stared back at him as if he’d never been away. 
	The house,  a single-story log dwelling set somewhat apart from the	
	rest of the reservation. where’d he, and his brother,  John, 
	had grown up. 
	A porch extended out from the main building, where their grandfather
	would stay for hours, spinning tales to the boys that left them wide-eyed
	in spellbound wonder. 

	“You’re home, son!” his mother shouted, rushing towards him, her arms
	coming about to hug her youngest son.
	
	“Did you really think you could forget us, runt?”  John, teased.

	“This is incredible, Dani. This feels real,” he thought aloud, wondering if his
	teammate could hear him.

	“Who’s Dani?” John asked curiously. “New girlfriend?”

	“Mom, Dad. Grandpa....John?”  James rattled off the oh so familiar names, 
	ignoring the light-hearted jibe. He never quite learned to sort out his romantic
	life, even back then. 
	Now, a classic example was his relationship, or lack of one with
        his teammate, Siryn, and the ill-starred one with Risque.  He’d fallen for her,
        she had fallen for him, however, it didn’t stop Risque from using him. 
	
	“Same old, Jimmy, so damn serious.” John teased, snapping him
	out of his thoughts of romantic relationships.
	
	“We’re your family, little brother. We’re bonded by blood and spirit.
	In my life, I let my rage blind me to the things that were important,, friendship
	and family. Don’t make the same mistake I did.  Don’t live your life as if you 
	are at war,” John Proudstar, dead these past twenty years, gently instructed.

	“Warpath?” What kind of name is that for such a compassionate soul? 
	Though life is often difficult, remember we walk with you everyday, James.
	Flesh is empheral, your spirit is eternal,” his mother gently lectured..

	“Right on, Mom,” John said.

	“I miss you so much, I wish you were all still alive,” James sighed.

	“We’ll be together again. Until that time, follow your heart, son,” his mother said.
	
	“I love you all,” James exclaimed.
	
	“We know, runt, we know.” John said, as the four vanished, waving goodbye.
	
		__
	“They were there, as real as I could hope to remember,” James said, amazed
	at how real, how vivid, the experience had been. “Thank you, Dani.”
	
	“You’re welcome, especially if it helped you.”
		______
	Delta Quadrant, 24th century
	
	A silver shuttle cleared Voyager’s docking bay, slingshot from the far larger
	craft. Tovok executed a vector that intersected the edge of the dark matter
	nebulae.  Before assigning a pilot to this mission, Commander Chakotay indicated
	clearly, he didn’t want to risk deflection of ion particles off the larger ship’s
	shields, or off the shuttle’s.
	
	The shuttle’s two passengers maintained a comfortable silence, interrupted
	only by systems checks.
	
	“I am taking us in,” Tovok announced. 

	“Acknowledged,” Chakotay replied.
	
	“Nervous, Commander?” Tovok asked, with typical Vulcan emotionless inflection,
	turning to face the other man.

	“I guess I’m just used to the panoramic display of ‘normal’ space, entering
	a void makes me a little ‘jumpy,” Chakotay replied. wiping sweat from his brow,
	a droplet of it trickled down his forehead, bringing the eagle-shaped tattoo
	on his upper right temple into stark relief.
	
	“We’re in,” Tovok stated, turning back to his console. “We have visual readings.”
		
	“Let’s see it, display on main viewer,” Chakotay ordered the on-board computer.
	
	Superimposed on the screen they saw an inky cloud, the  
	spatial phenomena they’d been sent to investigate. 
	The image showed confined areas of gravity spread throughout
	a spiral galaxy. 
	
	Pinpricks of light indicated the presence of  stars,  suddenly became blotted out 
	by an inky blanket of galactic dust. Watching it slowly rotate, 
	Commander Chakotay found it rather mesmerizing. “It’s sort of beautiful,”
	he thought.
	
	“The dark matter is practically impossible to track with the shuttle’s sensors
	without a source of stabilized electrical charges to lock onto,” Tovok stated,
	snapping Chakotay out of his meandering thoughts.
				
	“Dark matter influences the general area gravitationally, but is not seen	
	directly. It’s associated with the missing mass problem “ Chakotay replied.
	
	“The patterns are indicative of standard galaxy formation, typically spirals.
    	However, these voids are rather disconcerting. These types of spatial
	phenomena of dark, but not necessarily empty regions of space..”

	“Show up where ever the hell they please,” Chakotay snapped,  irritated
	with Tovok’s Vulcan emotionless calm, pretending not to notice the
	Commander’s distracted state of mind, an easy task for the Vulcan security 
	officer.	
	All the reaction he got of Tovok was the raising of one black eyebrow.
        “Figures,” Chakotay thought.
		
	Turning his attention back to the control consoles, Choktay’s eyes
	widened in surprise, “Tovok, there’s something wrong with the energy
	readings on the shuttle’s engines. It seems we’re being drained of power.
	Could it have something to do with the dark-matter?” 
			__
	“Let me see,“ Tovok replied, checking the readouts on his own
	console. He turned around in his chair to face Chakotay.
	“You are correct, Commander. Commander?” he trailed off.
	
        Chakotay ran his fingers over the console attempting to compensate for
	the steady drain on the shuttles power relays,  however, no matter what
	he tried, the faster it went.  Suddenly, sparks burst from the console
	
	as exploded. “What the hell?” he muttered, before he was thrown from his 
	chair, to land spread-eagled on the metal floor of the shuttle’s cockpit 
	He didn’t appear to be breathing. 

	Tovok activated the communications array, and
        contacted Voyager,
        He alerted the bridge crew that he was aborting the 
        mission and returning to the ship.
	He tacked on the additional message 
	that Commander Choktay would require immediate medical attention.
	
	Receiving acknowledgment to the message, Tovok assumed 
	manual helm control from the computer and turned the shuttle around to
	rendezvous with Voyager.
	___	
	Voyager’s MedLab
	
	“Any change,?” Captain Janeway asked, stepping into the examination room,
	where the emergency holographic doctor program was already running.
			
	“I’m afraid not, Captain. I’ve run  a battery of medical tests and 
	there’s no accounting for it, the Commander is in a coma.,” he replied,	
	straightening up from leaning over the patient on the biobed.

	“Care to elaborate?” 
	
	“Whatever effect exposure to the dark matter, Lt. Tovok has sustained
	no ill effect. It may have something to do with Vulcan physiology, but I’m not
	ruling that out.,” as for the Commander...”
	
	A momentary silence hung in the air of the Medlab before the Doctor spoke again.
	
	“I’m afraid he’s in a state of sustained unconsciousness, perhaps he was more
	susceptible...” 

	“In other words, you have no idea, or are you saying that something out in
	the nebulae was trying to communicate, and Chakotay was more responsive...
	responsive.... Janeway, interrupted, with a touch more concern for Chakotay 
	as a friend than as a fellow officer.
	
	“I’d say it’s a pretty approximate hypothesis, Captain. Unfortunately that’s all 
	we have to go on. I’ll apply a cortical stimulator to monitor his neural pathways. 
	If past experience is reliable, the Commander has been known to undertake 
	‘vision quests’,  They’re not what I would term ‘medically logical’, but they’ve
	often been preceded by stages of unconsciousness.  This may be just another  
	out-of-body experience.”
		
	“Thank you, Doctor. Keep me posted.” Captain Janeway exited the medical
	lab with Voyager’s electronic doors sliding shut behind her retreating form with
	a soft whoosh.
	
	The holographic doctor leaned over his patient once more, cortical stimulator
	in hand. He locked it firmly onto Chakotay’s neck, turning his head to the side.
	“You’d better come out of this, Commander.”
	______
	Outside

      Captain Janeway leaned up against the cool metal walls outside Medlab running 
      hand through her thick auburn hair, taking a moment to reflect on Voyager’s
     mission and subsequent fate ever since they’d been stranded in the Delta Quadrant.
		
	“Whenever things go wrong on this ship, they tend to come in batches.,
	three seems  to be the magic number. Not that I’m superstitious by 
	nature, a little Chakotay goes a long, and I’ve learned to suspend a little disbelief
	since arriving in this godforsaken region of space. I’ve always considered 
	myself all Starfleet captain, a little bit of a scientist second.
	Past experience  taught me that a little of Chakotay’s belief in Apache
	mysticism is real.”
    	
	A little had rubbed off on her, she just hoped that he’d come out 
	of his coma sooner rather than later.  Janeway crossed her arms, expectantly 
	but not nervously waiting for the “third ‘child of trouble.”
	___	  	
	Meanwhile

	Lt. B’Elanna Torres stood at the foot of the biobed, staring down at her
	friend and commanding officer.  Taking her eyes off him for a moment, she glared
	in fury at the Apache Medicine Wheel she’d insisted the Doctor hang above him.
           			
	The Medicine Wheel is the circle of life (Sometimes referred
	to as the Sacred Hoop) starting with birth and continuing through our lives
	until death, when we have gone full circle.” she recited, just as Chakotay
	had once explained it to her. He’d been concerned about her temper 
	interfering with her work. 
	
	“The has four Directions, each direction offering its own lessons, color and
	animal guide. There are two paths shown which cross in the center, at which
	point is the heart. The Path from East to West is the path of the spirits,
        (the Blue Road, the path from South to North is the Physical Walk.” B’Elanna
	continued.

	He told her that the Circle had healing power. She hadn’t mentioned it then,
	but a little of  what he’d said struck in chord in her. Now that her friend 
	and her commanding officer himself was near  death, she truly wished  
	that the Wheel really did have healing power.
            
           “I just hope your faith in this mysticism isn’t misplaced, Chakotay. You’d
          better not die on me, or I’ll break your neck myself,” she muttered, as she
          brought up a hand to wipe away tears she refused to let anyone but him or
          Lt. Tom Perris see.         
	
	__
	Elsewhere
	
	“Grandfather?” Chakotay asked, expecting the familiar figure that had always
	appeared to greet him when he embarked on a vision quest. Then again, maybe
	this was a dream, the distinction between the two often treaded a fine line.
		
	A tall, broad-shouldered figure was waiting for him at the cave mouth, the same
	tattoo mark on Chakotay’s upper right temple, a eagle’s outstretched wings also
	marked the other’s face. Instead of an old man, he encountered someone about
	at least a decade younger than himself.  
	Given the fluidity of motion of these visions, this took a lot  of getting used to.
	
	“The shift between places happens in the blink of an eye here, “ Chakotay 
	remarked.
	
	“Thanks for the tip,” James replied.
		
	“Didn’t you know that? I thought you were my spirit-guide,” Chakotay said.
	
	“Maybe we’re each others” James laughed.
            James thought back to the last ‘spirit guide’ he’d had, Dani’s psionic illusions
	notwithstanding. He’d left the team after their battle with Selene. 
	
	He remembered how it how played out: 
        The mysterious woman named, Risque, had nursed him back 
        to health after
        he’d been injured during X-Force’s battle with Selene and the other
        Externals.
        He’d  traced a hunch to its source, and discovered that Selene was
	responsible for the deaths of the Externals.
	

	Risque had rescued him at the last minute. 

	He’ fallen for her.  He thought he’d found someone he cared about, someone 
        who understood him. They’d spent a few months together in Florida, 
        In the end he’d realized she was using him because she owed a favor to a 
	garage troll/mechanic in Detroit named Sledge. 
	Sledge was a hoarded of a odd collection of technology, including an portal 
	to another dimension. He could get you anything and anyone for a price. 
	James had agreed to enter another dimension, retrieve Sledge’s friend, in return 
	for the address of the only other survivor of Mesa Verde, Michael Whitecloud.
	
	When he and Siryn eventually caught up with Whitecloud, the lid had been blown
	wide open on what really happened almost twenty years ago on his tribe’s
	reservation, They’d killing had been the result of a  massive cover-up who wanted
	to prevent Whitecloud from exposing their operation.
	
	“You know, there’s an uncanny resemblance between us, “ James remarked,
	giving the stranger a close inspection that took in everything, including the
	raven-black hair, the tattoo on the right temple, the musculature, the same
	nose, eyes, and mouth,  and chin. In an odd way, he resembled himself,
	except about a decade older.

	“If you say so,” James replied, jolted out of his trip down memory lane.
	That didn’t matter now, he could let the past go, what mattered was the
	present and the future.
	
	Chakotay stuck his hand out waiting for the other to return the gesture, in a 
	back corner of his mind, he wanted to ascertain the other’s solidity in this
	place that had no predetermined boundaries in space or time.

	“Commander Chakotay. USS. starship Voyager,” he greeted.
	
	“James Proudstar. They shook hands then broke off.  “So we’re here, now what.
	When I embarked on this , uh, journey I didn’t exactly get a map from my tour
	guide,” James answered.
		
	“Spirit guide,” Chakotay grinned.As a spirit guide, his conversations with the old
	man were roundabout, was probably the best way to describe them, he never
	came right out and stated what he was trying to get at. 
	The whole point was to lead Chakotay to make the right conclusions.
	
	For his part, James Proudstar, in other place and time known as Warpath, took
	the stranger’s word at face value.  This was unfamiliar territory he was
	transgressing here,  and this person seemed to know at least a few tricks of the
	place. 	
	
	“Yeah. So where are we going?” James asked.
	
	“To the place where my spirit lives,” Chakotay replied, remembering that had
	always the response his grandfather gave when he asked that question.
	“Follow,” he added, striding towards the cave entrance, as Jimmy accompanied
	him.
	*******
	James found himself standing at the entrance to a cave system, similar to the
	one he and his brother had explored as children. Made of limestone they looked
	eerily alike, the caves riddled with exits, entrances, and hidden nooks and
	crannies throughout the caves. They’d pretended to be explorers taking enough
	lanterns, food and gear to avoid getting lost. It was a way to get out of doing
	chores, and more importantly, learn tracking and survival skills. Lessons which
	were expanded upon by their grandfather, who insisted they ask questions,
	but who urge to figure out the answers on their own. James thought back
	to those days, “Clever , grouchy, old man”
	____	
	James and Chakotay found themselves inside the cave system.
	Trudging alongside the other man, James asked the question he’d been
	balancing on a knife’s edge.  
	“How is it you know so much about this place?”
	
	“Been here, done that.,” Chakotay replied.
	“Mind if I ask you a personal question?” he asked, as he ducked
	to avoid cracking his head on a tier of low-hanging stalactites. 

	“Fire away.” James replied.

	“You look Apache, if I’m not mistaken. Have you heard of vision quests?”
             Chakotay asked.

	“Yes.” James replied, watching where he put his feet the better to	
	avoid slipping into pitted cracks in the cave floor.

	“What made you decide to journey into sidereal experiences? Chakotay
	asked, by way of making conversation.

	“It’s a long story,” James replied, shrugging off the question.
	“I think there’s an exit up ahead.
	
	“Looks that way, Chakotay replied, referring to a shaft of daylight coming through
	a crack. “Long stories are usually the best kind.  Go on.”
	
	“It has to do with the death of everyone and everything I ever cared about,”
	James muttered.
	
	“I thought it might be something like that,” Chakotay replied.
	
	“Their deaths were ordered because someone called Stryfe, or at least his
	goon, Edwin Martynec wanted to prevent a friend of mine from exposing their
	operation. Whitecloud died before he could reveal most of the details to me,”
	James said bitterly.
	
	“Tough break, kid,” Chakotay replied, in shared commiseration. “By the way,
	you were right, there is an exit up ahead, but we’ll have to climb over a pile
	of rubble to get through it.”

	“Not a problem, “ James replied, distracted from his painful memories.

	Finding hand and footholds in the rock, they both clambered over the 
	obstacle, then scrambled through to reach the other side.
	
	******
        Encounter 

	Outside the caves, their first sight was a cascading waterfall spilling over a 
	mountainside in an enclosed valley. The waterfall thrummed in the eerie silence
	loud as the beating of their hearts.
	
	“Nice place,” James commented, as they drew nearer the center.
	“You can say that again,” Chakotay agreed.
	
	In the center stood two objects, one very alien, the other more mundane.
	The first, a sparkling cylinder standing about three meters high, the second,
	an enclosed square on top of a platform.
	
	“What do you make of that? James asked, pointing towards the first object.

	“I’d say it’s some sort of alien transporter technology,” Chakotay replied,
	giving the object a through inspection. “That may be what we’re looking for.”

	As if someone had heard him, the cylinder began glowing, its hexagonal
	planes glittering with prismatic lights. It forced both men to cover their
	eyes to prevent going blind. This was especially difficult for James, 
        who was endowed with enhanced senses,  was a liability.
	
	As the light subsided, James peeked out through his fingers,. and saw two
	figures emerging from inside the cylinder. At first, they couldn’t hold
	a three-dimensional shape. The aliens, if that’s what they were, didn’t have one.
	Mostly black in coloring, they tried on shape after shape. Once the light
	from the cylinder faded, the aliens’ bodies swallowed  up the light. The aliens
	eventually assumed a vaguely humanoid form. As their lineaments grew sharper,
	James could have sworn for a second there they looked like the former
	members of the Hellions. “Nah, that couldn’t be,” James  thought.
	
	Chakotay thought they resembled his former cremates with the Maqui,
	the organizatione he’d been with before joining Voyager.
		
	Having finished their shape-changing, the aliens went over to a mounted platform
	hidden behind the transporter.
	__
	Both men felt drawn to the platform objects.  Chakotay could have sworn he’d
	been here before. Deja vu not withstanding, he recognized a boxing ring.
	Given the fluidity of movement, it was as if an invisible hand picked them up and
	plunked them down inside two identical rings.
	Beyond the rings, a tier of spectator stands sprung into view.
	
	“Guess we’re just going to have to play along,” Chakotay said.
	
	“Are there any special rules? James shouted over a sudden surge of heat, noise
	and light.
	
	“You’ve never done this before?” Chakotay shouted back.
	
	“No.” James replied.

	“Okay, no blows below the belt, no hitting while they’re down, otherwise,
	you block to defend, jab to attack,”  Chakotay  trailed off, sizing up his opponent.
	not surprised to find padded leather gloves on.

	“I know that much,” James interrupted, doing the same thing , the alien was
	taller, heavier, wider in the breadth of shoulders, although it was difficult to tell
	beneath the black robes.
	
	“Don’t look him in the eyes.”  Suiting action to words, Chakotay made that
	mistake himself, and found himself swaying on his feet, like his surrounding were
	spinning out of control/ He felt he was staring into an bottomless canyon, the
	same way he’d felt when he’d been out exploring the dark matter nebula.	
	
	“Hey, you okay?” James asked, snapping him out of his disoriented  state.
		
	“Uh, yeah. Bob, weave, feint to both sides, Chakotay trailed off.

	James only partially heard the advice as it impinged on his consciounsness, 
	“Concentrate, adjust the rhythm of your attacks, so your opponent has no way
	of anticipating your true speed,” I guess that’s it.”

	“Only one way to find out,” James agreed, momentarily 
        off balance.
	****
	The alien came at him, fists clenched, arms windmilling.
        They would have connected if James hadn't ducked
        a split second beforre. Remembering Chakotay's advice.
        he darted to the side, matching the rhythm of his
        movements to those of his opponent. Pivoting on his
        heels, James punched the alien in the chest, sending it
        several paces back to rebound off the ropes.
        Shuffling to the left, James landed a series of uppercut
       jabs to the alien's face and neck. About five minutes
       later, he recieved a blow that knocked him off his
       feet. Dizzily rising to his feet, James realized he was
       going to have to pull out all the stops.

       *****
       Meanwhile, Chakotay faced off against his opponent in
       the other ring. He didn't have James' enhanced senses,
       or other abilities, but he wasn't going to let that 
       bother him. What he did have was training, practice  
       against holographic opponents, and sparring fights from
       his days at Starfleet Academy.
       
     The alien manuvered into position, fists flailing.
       
      Chakotay landed several solid blows to the thing's
      sternum The alien returned the favor, knocking him
      off his feet, but not enough to keep him there.
      "Hope the kid's doing better than I am," Chakotay thought,
      not daring to glance over and risk losing his concentration.
      A blow to his left cheek sent Chakotay to the floor 
      again. "Isn't this where I came in?" was his last
      consicous thought before sucumbing to an inky blackness.
      **
      James, on the opposite side, also found himself lying on
      the mat, staring up at the alien's depthless eyes, he
      drifted. 
     ******
      Chakotay drifted. Everything he'd seen while in the spirit
      caves and in that alien landscape; the young man he'd
      met there, were indelibly imprinted in his mind. Trying
      to get up, he discovered that he couldn't because he'd
      been strapped to a biobed in Medlab. He looked up to
      find an Apache Medicine Wheel hanging over him.
     
      "Oh, good. You're back," The Doctor remarked.

      "I guess I am," Chakotay agreed.     
 
     ______________________




	

    Afterwards

	“Welcome back to the land of the living, Chakotay,” Torres greeted, plunking
	down in a chair across from him in the mess hall.

   “I thought you didn’t believe me when I told you about vision 
    quests and medicine wheels,” Chakotay greeted, stirring a 
    straw in his coffee.

   “I didn’t. I’m an engineer. I have to deal with rock-solid facts, 
    not mystical mumbo-jumbo,” she said, plunking her own cup 
    down with a thud.

     “It’s not mumbo-jumbo. I think I met one of my ancestors,” 
       he said, ignoring her angry stare.

  “So, you, okay now?” she asked, her half-human, half-Klingon 
   brow ridges furrowing even more than usual. 
	
  “Yeah, I’m fine. The Doctor gave me a clean bill of health, so I’m ready to
   go back to active duty,’ he replied with a nonchalant shrug.
			
  “Don’t ever tell anyone this, but I believed in it enough, to convince the Doctor,
   that,....” B’Elanna trailed off.
	
  “Even in a sub-conscious state, my ‘soul’ for lack of a better word, was still
  trying to help the crew,” Chakotay finished.

 “You didn’t  meet your grandfather this time around?”  B’Elanna asked.
	
 “This time my spirit guide was much younger,” he said, leaning back in the chair.
			
  “What was his name?” 

 “James Proudstar.”
		
 “You’re kidding? That’s a family name. So what, you Chakotay Proudstar?”
             
  “Was he? Torres asked, a flicker of interest in her brown eyes.
	
  “He had the same tattoo,” tapping his hand to his right temple, ‘right here,
  the kind I wear in memory of my father,“ Chakotay said, leaning back in his
  chair and crossed  his arms over his chest. “Same tribe different vintage.	
  “Said that, in his time frame, he’s the last survivor of his tribe.”

  “What happened to his tribe?” B’Elanna asked, her curiosity sparked.

  “They were all killed as part of some giant cover-up.” 
		
   “What time period?” 

   “Late 20th century.”
	
   “Maybe you have more ancestors than you thought,” B’Elanna said.
		
   “Well,  I think here on Voyager, I’ve got a new tribe, 
    a new family.

  “Yeah, you know how Captain Janeway is always going on about how everyone 
  on Voyager’s is one big happy family,” B’Elanna answered, her temper flaring.
	
  “Don’t you think so?” Chakotay asked, raising one black eyebrow,
  knowing B’Elanna as well as he did, he knew that these flashes of temper,
  however frequent, were always brief.
	
  “I do, I just don’t want to let on that I do, okay?” B’Elanna griped, then smiled.
	
   “Okay. Buy you dinner? It’ll make Neelix happy,” Chakotay said, 
   reassuring B’Elanna that he was back to his regular self.
	
 “I will if you’re buying,” she laughed, as they stood up from the table
 and headed for the mess hall serving counter.
	___
 Present Day
	
 “Well?” Dani asked, and amused ring to her voice, seeming to imply more than
 that single word encompassed, breaking James out of his lingering trance state.
	
 “You’ll never guess where I’ve been,” James stated.

 “You shouldn’t keep me in suspense. I take it you didn’t see your brother, or
 your family this time. I know this might not come out right, but, James, I am glad
 you were finally able to put all that guilty about your family’s massacre 
  behind you, “ Dani said.

 “They say the truth will set you free. Whoever came up with that never imagined
 how much the truth can hurt. True, I finally found out that Stryfe was behind the
 Camp Verde Massacre, that it wasn’t my fault for quitting the Hellions, but that
 doesn’t make it any less painful,“ James replied.

   “I saw some of what you saw, I haven’t used that aspect of my 
    power, lately, so I can’t be completely sure,” Dani replied.	
    
 “I think I went to the future, and I’m not talking 
    Hollywood Just what kind of psychic projections did you 
    pull out of my head, Dani?”
	
        “I think I met one of my descendants. He’s a starship 
         commander by the name of Chakotay on a ship called 
        Voyager,” James explained.
  
       "Sounds good so far," Dani said.

  "They're from the 24th centur, trapped lightyears from
   Earth someplace called the Delta Quadrant. They're trying
   to get back home."

   "Well, if that's a true vision of the future, you'll have
    to live long enough to have descendants,' Dani smiled.

   "Thank you, Dani. You know, I've been so obessesed
    with the way my family died, I forgot the way they lived
    is much more important, and so is living my own life,"
    James remarked, smiling in response to hers.

   "That's always a good thing to remember," Dani replied,
    standing up.

   "Come on. Let's find the others before they get into too
   much trouble," James said, as they both walked off towards
   the campsite.