Trying To Untangle The Gordian Knot - Part 2

Posted on Sun Jan 24th, 2016 @ 1:32am by Captain Li Hawke & Commander Louie Rousseau & Céline Valois
Edited on on Sun Jan 24th, 2016 @ 2:06am

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: XO's Office

* XO’s Office *

Ensign Kozel was just leaving Li’s office to return to his desk when the doors opened. He looked up from the padd he held to greet the young woman who stood there. “May I help you?”

“I need to speak to the Captain,” Celine said. “Is that possible?”

It wasn’t everyday that a civilian appeared wanting to see Li, which made Kozel curious. “What’s this about,if you don’t mind my asking?”

“I, uh...I’d rather only speak to her about it. It’s very personal and I had hoped she could provide me with a direction in which to proceed.”

“I see. She’s actually scheduled to --” The doors to the inner office opened and Li stepped through them.

“Kozel, I’ll be in Intell with…..” She stopped, seeing Celine standing there. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to interrupt. How are you? You’re --

“Celine.” The answer came in the form of a male voice and Louie stepped in through the open doors.

“My Celine, your voice certainly has changed.” Li smiled. “Hello Louie.” She looked from Celine to Louie, then back, her brow furrowed. “It seems I have interrupted something.”

“I had hoped we could still meet,” Celine said, trying to gesture with her eyes that she really needed to speak to Li. With Louie at her back, she hoped the Captain would pick up on what was going on, the entire time pleading in her own head for her plan to work.

She considered the request, then nodded. Something was up and she was curious as to what. The emotions circling in the room were suddenly strong.

“Very well. Kozel, tell Leto and Aros I’ll be delayed. Come on in Celine.” She looked past her to Louie and pointed to a chair. “Wait please.”

“Of course.” Louie sat down and Li turned and led the way back into her office.

“Now then, would you like to tell me why there’s a storm brewing in my outer office?” She motioned Celine to a chair before the desk, then sat in the other beside her.

Celine flopped down and immediately had her face in her own hands, taking a moment. “Captain, I am so sorry,” she began, lifting her head up. “I was actually going to schedule a meeting with you about this, but after speaking with Louie tonight I…” She sighed heavily. “This was the first place I thought of to go.”

“Explain,” Li instructed. “What’s Louie have to do with all this? And what is ‘this’?”

Celine sat up, shaking her head in frustration. “I didn’t want to bring this up to you like this, but I needed your guidance on something very personal. It just so happens that the same personal issue deeply affects Louie as well.” She blew out a breath and started. “Bluntly, I just found out from my parents that I’m a clone. I wanted to speak to you because I’m scared to death that I’ll now be taken into custody, jailed, whatever. And, while that isn’t odd enough, I saw a picture of Louie’s wife in his office.” She swallowed hard as she had to say the words again. “My name is Celine Valois and I am the clone of Louie’s long-dead wife, Celine Valois.”

Li opened her mouth and closed it again. Whatever she’d expected Celine to say, it certainly wasn’t that. Wow was the first thought that popped into her head. “I...uh...wasn’t expecting that.” She stood and reached across the desk to her terminal. After a few tapped-in commands, an image came up on the screen. It was an older version of Celine, this woman appeared to be in her late forties and she was in uniform. Li scanned the information by the picture and wished she was sitting down. “I see.” She returned to her seat and faced Celine. “First things first. Why would anyone want to lock you away or anything else?”

“I don’t know,” Celine replied, almost embarrassed now. “I mean, I just found out that I’m a clone. If it weren’t such a big deal, I’d have thought my parents would have told me before now. So, I assumed the worst--that it may be illegal or something.”

“No, it’s not illegal and no one is going to do anything to you,” Li assured her. “There was even a civilization once encountered out here by Voyager whose genetic pool was running thin and many of the crew voluntarily donated DNA to help restore it. I can see this unsettles you but look at it this way - technically, aren’t twins clones of each other? We have a set of identical twins on this station actually. They look exactly alike but no two people could be more different.”

“Something to think about, I guess,” Celine replied, then added, “but then there’s Louie. The first time he saw me he...kinda’ freaked out, and for good reason. It’s not every day an exact copy of your dead wife comes and visits your classroom. I mean, I’ve told him what I found out, about me being a clone and all, but he seemed a bit weird after.”

“How so?” Li asked. “Granted, I can see how this situation would be extremely surreal for both of you.”

“I don’t know, maybe I’m just jumping the gun on this,” Celine said. “I don’t want to pretend that I’m a mind reader, but what with all of the pictures of his wife around his quarters, and me being there telling him what I’d found out, he just seemed to have a moment…” She paused. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m just reading too much into it. I just don’t want him trying to replace his wife with me. I barely even know him!”

Li nodded. “I understand but perhaps that is better addressed with him? I suspect, though, that he’s not looking at you as if you are her. You two will need to get to know each other for who you are. He’s a wise man, he’ll not confuse the issue of who is who. And now I’m talking like he’s an old man. Technically, I suppose he is, or was, but he’s not an old man now.”

“Well, the primary reason I wanted to see you was because I was scared that being clone meant that I would soon become a pariah or something,” Celine admitted. “I gotta’ be honest, I’m scared and very confused, but after talking to you I’m feeling a bit better. As for Louie, yeah, he and I probably just need to talk it out.”

“Perhaps one of the counselors might be of help here,” Li added. “But being a clone doesn’t mean you aren’t ‘real’ or anything like that. It just means your birth was a little unorthodox. You’re still...well...you.”

With a sigh of relief, Celine smiled. “That means quite a bit to me. Thank you.” She stood. “I’ve probably taken up more of your time than was necessary. And I apologize for interrupting your meeting.”

“They’ll wait.” Li smiled up at Celine. “Good luck. ”We’ll talk soon, alright?”

Celine nodded. “Thank you.” Turning to the door she said over her shoulder, “I’ll take Louie with me. I guess we need to talk sooner or later.”

The doors opened and Louie was still waiting patiently in the lobby area. “Louie,” she said, crossing over to him.

He stood immediately as she approached and looked her over. Seeing she seemed to be in one piece and relatively calm, he relaxed just a little.

“Celine.” He tugged on his shirt, mostly out of nervousness and the fact that he felt a little ill at ease being in the XO’s office out of uniform.

“Listen, we’re going to have to go somewhere to talk,” she said. “And that,” she added a jerk of her head to Li’s office door, “was something I needed to do anyway.” She leaned in closer and whispered, “I was kinda’ freaking out about the whole clone thing, but she has eased my mind.”

A smile finally appeared on Louie’s face. “I”m glad. Trust me, you are among friends and you have nothing to worry about.” He glanced past her to Kozel, then back. “Where would you like to go?”

“All of this worrying has kinda’ made me hungry. Have any ideas on someplace we can eat and have some privacy?”

“Italian food?” Louie suggested. “They have some booths that can be curtained off if that works?”

“I love Italian food,” she said. “Lead on. And before we go, I’m sorry for the way I acted. I am obviously reacting to this whole thing poorly.”

“It’s fine, really,” he answered. “I understand more than anyone.” He offered his arm. “Shall we?”

She looked down at his arm, smiled, and slipped hers through it. “Lead on, sir.”

To Be Continued…

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Celine Valois
Lt. Louie Rousseau
Capt. Li Hawke