Deep Space Nine
The Forgiven
by Roger Timothy Rehberg Jr.
(rehberg@ns.sympatico.ca)

The Forgiven

Gary Mitchell said nothing as the sounds grew louder. At first he could not make out what they were saying, but then they cleared. Someone or something was attempting to communicate. The words provoked something else. It was a feeling. He suddenly felt an undeniable urge to finally leave this place. The message was calling him away from Delta Vega and back into space. With a wave of his hand, the fake Kirk, the fake sun, the fake water and the fake beach were all gone and he now stood amongst the rising dust winds of the barren planet where he had lived for the past eighty years.

Doctor Bashir quickened his pace along the Promenade as he made his way towards Quark's to meet Chief Obrien for a game of darts. He was late, and he knew that Miles would be a bit cranky, but he hoped showing up late was better than not showing up at all. He was trying to squeeze by the numerous people from the recently arrived ships when a face caught his attention. At first he could not remember where he had saw it, but then his biologically engineered mind told him.

It was a face from a medical journal he had studied back at the Academy, but it was a case that occurred approximately eighty years before. The man he was looking at was the former Lieutenant Gary Mitchell. A man who had been physically and mentally altered because of an encounter with a mysterious phenomena near the edge of the galaxy. He had been changed to such a degree that he had developed abilities unlike any human before him. This included mental telepathy and other powers of the mind that humankind had not yet evolved to accommodate. He was essentially a god.

Bashir was speechless, but he knew better than to second-guess even his own memories. It was Gary Mitchell, and without another thought, Bashir turned around and headed in the direction of OPS. Only seconds later, a disgruntled looking Chief Obrien marched along the same route but for a much different reason.

Doctor Bashir stood at the entranceway to Captain Sisko's office before being welcomed in and taking a seat. Bashir glanced across the Captain's desk and noticed he was busy dealing with the current war with the Dominion, but he knew something needed to be said.

"What brings you here on your day off Doctor?" Sisko seemed to welcome the break from the bleak business of combat. He sat back in his seat to hear the words from the station's physician.

"Well sir, I don't know if this is really a problem, but I have to admit something does seem a bit strange..."

"What is it?"

"Well I was headed to Quark's and along the Promenade I noticed an individual I remembered seeing from an Academy textbook. This man is supposed to be dead. He was supposed to have died eighty years ago, but I just saw him on the Promenade not looking older than thirty-five."

"Hmmm... I have to admit that does sound interesting... But why was he important enough to be in a medical textbook?"

"His name is Gary Mitchell, and he was an officer aboard the original U.S.S Enterprise. The Enterprise encountered a strange barrier near the edge of the galaxy that mutated Mitchell and gave him enhanced ESP and psychokinetic powers. He later tried to kill Captain Kirk and crew and was presumed killed on planet Delta Vega."

"Obviously only a presumption... He's here now..." Sisko arose from his seat and moved to the other side of his desk. "Whatever happened to him, has kept him young all these years..."

"Are you going to arrest him sir?"

"I'll tell Odo to bring him in... I want to talk to this man personally and find out why he's here..."

Captain Sisko approached Constable Odo outside the Security Chief's office. He peeked through the glass doors and could see Gary Mitchell sitting with his back towards him. Suddenly his head slowly turned around and he looked to the Captain with those glowing white eyes. For several seconds the two of them were locked, almost in a trance-like fashion until Odo's words finally broke it.

"Captain?"

Sisko finally turned away from the window. "Any trouble bringing him in?"

"None... I never had the opportunity to leave my office... He came to me..."

"To you?"

"He said he knew you wanted to talk with him..."

Sisko turned back to the window and took another glance before entering. Odo moved to his seat behind his desk while the Captain remained standing above Mitchell. Mitchell smiled and then opened his mouth to speak. "Captain, you wished to see me?"

"Yes, Mr. Mitchell I did..."

"Well then, perhaps I can answer your questions... Yes, I am Gary Mitchell..."

Sisko could feel Mitchell reading the thoughts from his mind and he did not appreciate it. "Stop it!" Sisko's raised voice startled Odo who wasn't sure what had happened, but the Constable remained quiet.

"Captain? Stop what?"

"Stop reading my mind!"

"I'm sorry, it's been a long time since I've talked with anyone, anyone real at least..."

"Why are you on Deep Space Nine?"

"I don't know really... Something called me here..."

"Called you here?"

"I don't know how to explain it... I've been on Delta Vega for the past eighty years, living in a prison I constructed for myself. I decided after what had happened between Jim and I that I could never leave. Humanity was not ready for what I had become... I was not ready, and I couldn't trust myself. Besides, I didn't deserve to leave because of the things I had done..."

Mitchell turned away. Eighty years later and the whole situation still bothered him. Even with all of his powers and abilities, Gary Mitchell couldn't hide his pain. He rose his head to look to Sisko again. "Anyway, to answer your question... Something from this place has telepathically communicated with me... I don't know who or what it is, but it has brought me here..."

Sisko rubbed his chin. "Perhaps this is something we should investigate. For safety sake, maybe you should remain here..."

"Unless you plan on charging me with the crimes I committed Captain, I need to do this alone..."

Sisko paused and looked to Odo who would not offer any suggestions. This was not a station matter. This was something that had taken place many years ago and most that were involved were dead, including Kirk himself. What could he do, he asked himself? "There will be no charges... It was a long time ago and I think you've lived with your pain long enough... What I am concerned about however, are your powers... Before..."

"You should have no worries, Captain. I've lived with these powers for what seems to me to be an eternity. I have mastered them and I will cause no harm. Please believe me..."

Sisko took a deep breath to ponder the thought. "All right, but I want you gone in one week..."

"Thank you..."

Sisko could tell that Odo was bothered by the decision, but he never gave the Constable the time to argue with him. He immediately turned and departed, and although he was already second-guessing himself, another voice was telling him to let Mitchell go, and to do as he wished. He first thought it might be Mitchell himself trying to manipulate his mind, but he realized it was not and whether it was his conscious or something else, he was going to let it be.

Mitchell walked along the upper level on the Promenade staring out at the stars. He stopped to watch the spectacular view before him. He heard no voices now, not since leaving the surface of Delta Vega, and he was beginning to question his sanity. Had the powers that he once considered a disease finally pushed his mind too far? The only voices he now heard were the ones of the many people around him. He tried to ignore them, but it was talking much of his power to block them out.

He looked back to the darkness and the wormhole suddenly opened and its dark blue gases stretched out towards the station. The amazing sight captivated Mitchell, and he suddenly realized that it was not something or someone from the station calling him, but something from inside the wormhole. Suddenly he heard the same voice that had called him on Delta Vega. This time it was one word. "Come..."

Sisko turned around in his seat to notice Mitchell standing outside his office doors. He opened the doors, and Mitchell slowly entered to stand before the Captain. His face was completely calm and emotionless. Sisko knew that he had some kind of goal to fulfill but was not sure what it was. Without any special powers of his own, he also knew that Mitchell was here for one reason, he needed him.

"What can I do for you Mr. Mitchell..."

"Please Captain, I would prefer you call me Gary..."

"Very well..."

"Earlier you offered me some assistance, and well, I need your help..."

"Help for what exactly?" Sisko almost didn't want to know.

"I need a shuttlecraft..."

"A shuttlecraft? For what purpose?"

"I was wrong when I told you that it was something from Deep Space Nine calling me... It's the wormhole... Whatever creatures exist within it, they are the ones calling me..."

"You're certain it's the wormhole." Sisko rose from his seat and moved to the window at the rear of his office.

"Completely..."

"Do you know for what purpose?"

"All I know for sure Captain, is that is has something to do with not only my destiny, but yours as well..."

"My destiny?" Sisko's head quickly swung around, and a confused expression crossed his face.

"I can't explain it... They told me it has something to do with the Emissary... I knew this before I came here Captain, and that is why I assumed the voices originated on the station. I didn't want to alarm you earlier, and that's why I didn't tell you..."

Sisko looked back to the stars. Could he trust Mitchell, he asked himself? What kind of role could Mitchell play in his own future? The only thing he knew for sure, was that to not listen to the Prophets was to invite danger and possible disaster. It is danger not caused by the Prophets themselves, but their ability at predicting it was something Sisko knew to not ignore. Sisko turned to Mitchell, but his visitor already knew what he was going to say.

The shuttle was shaking violently and Mitchell was unable to stabilize it. He knew that it would not be long before it would literally tear apart. Perhaps it wouldn't be that bad, he told himself. Maybe the pain would finally be over. Seconds later however, he was gone and he found himself in a place that he could only describe as nothingness. There were no objects around him of any sort, just a bright white fog-like substance. There was also no sound to be heard, not even a whisper. Suddenly he detected a voice. It was Jim Kirk.

He was on the bridge of the Enterprise and around him were representations of Spock, McCoy and Kirk who had moved in front of him. "The Mitchell has come... The motions need to be set..."

"Are you the Prophets?" Mitchell asked the question but he already knew it to be them.

"He has lived a long time with his pain... He needs to be free of it..."

The Prophet who took the body of Spock then moved forward. "The changes to his body have effected his mental stability... This was not originally conceived..."

McCoy now spoke. "He can still complete the task... His pain will be gone and the Sisko will still have existed..."

The Prophet who had taken Jim Kirk's form almost seemed to have his facial expressions, thought Mitchell. He waited while the others spoke until finally speaking himself. "The changes to the Mitchell's body were necessary. Without the changes his existence would have ceased."

"What are you talking about? What had happened to me, whatever it was, occurred because of the barrier near the galaxy's edge..." Mitchell was confused. What exactly was going on?

"The Mitchell does not understand... He is completely unaware..." The McCoy was shaking his head but Kirk spoke up.

"The barrier was us... Is us... The changes you experienced because of it were because of us..."

"But why? Why would you do this to me? Why would you give me this disease that has made me murder!" Mitchell was angry now and very upset. His voice had raised dramatically. "I tried to kill my friend... My best friend..."

The unemotional figures around him waited several seconds before speaking once again. "It was necessary... Your life would have expired before the Emissary's discovery... The discovery of us... With this discovery we called you here to fulfill destinies..." It was Kirk who was talking and for a moment Mitchell thought it really was him.

"Whose destinies?"

"Your destiny, the destiny of the Sisko and the destiny of the Kirk..."

"But, but how? Why?"

"The Kirk must live so the Sisko can live... You must maintain the Kirk's existence."

"Jim has been dead for several years now... I don't understand..."

Suddenly on the viewer before them was the massive planet killer vessel that had once been slicing through the galaxy's solar systems. Captain Kirk had destroyed the craft that had been termed the "Doomsday device" but for some strange reason the Prophets were showing it to him. "Why are you showing me this?"

Spock stepped forward. "Save the Kirk so that the Sisko may fulfill his destiny."

"But Jim lived!"

"Without the Kirk, there will be no Federation... With no Federation there will be no Sisko..."

Suddenly Mitchell was back on the shuttle and still within the wormhole. The moving vessel then emerged into normal space but Deep Space Nine was nowhere to be found. Mitchell slowed the shuttle. "Computer, locate Deep Space Nine..."

"Deep Space Nine is not within scanner range..."

"Not within scanner range... Computer scan planet Bajor..."

Mitchell looked down at the information upon the screen below his fingers and was quickly beginning to realize what was going on. "They've sent me into the past..."

He sat back within his seat to ponder the possibility. He deemed it was approximately eighty years earlier from the date he came from. What purpose would the Prophets have in doing this, he asked himself?

He then remembered the Enterprise and the massive Doomsday machine that had once threatened the galaxy. The Prophets must have had a reason for showing him this. He then looked at the date, the exact date, and realized that it was on this day that Kirk destroyed that machine. He told himself that there had to be some kind of connection.

"Computer, set a course for solar system L-374 in the Dante System and engage at best possible speed..."

The shuttlecraft jumped to warp speed and headed in the direction of a classic battle. Mitchell tried to calm his mind to use his enhanced mental abilities. Perhaps he could sense what was going on, or somehow retrieve a feeling or a message from the Prophets who could tell him what he had to do. All he could hear however was silence. It was complete and utter silence.

Suddenly through the darkness of his closed eyes he could see Jim. Jim was aboard the U.S.S Constellation and was preparing to maneuver the massive starship down the center of the Doomsday machine. He could also see the Enterprise's Chief Engineer frantically trying to repair his ship's damaged transporter to beam his Captain to safety. The Constellation had already begun its fatal journey, but Jim was still aboard. Finally, even with Chief Engineer Scott's best help, nothing could be done. The alien device was destroyed, but Captain James T. Kirk was dead.

Mitchell opened his eyes, and whether it was by his own power or that of the Prophets, he had witnessed what was to come. It was an outcome that contradicted what he remembered, what he knew to be fact. Gary Mitchell finally realized that if his friend was to die with the Constellation, then he would have to interfere, and perhaps all along this was how it was supposed to be. He understood now that his destiny was to save James Kirk from death so that he may one day preserve the Federation, so that Benjamin Sisko may be born and become the leader of a great war and an Emissary of an entire race of people.

Scotty desperately tried to repair the damage the transporter had been inflicted with. Even though he was known as the "Miracle Worker" by the rest of the crew he just did not know how he was going to pull this one off. Spock was in command of the Enterprise and was calling for him, but he had no time to report. He had overloaded relays and burned out fuses to attend to or Captain Kirk would die within the gullet of the massive and deadly planet killer, which was preparing to swallow the USS Constellation.

Scotty's hands were pulling and twisting as he tried to somehow rig the system to work, even if only momentarily, but he knew that there was just no way he could do it. Every time he tried to bypass one routine, another would fail. There was just no way. Unbeknownst to the Chief Engineer things were occurring deep within the Enterprise's transporter system. Relays were suddenly reactivated, fuses suddenly were not burned out anymore and power was coming from a source other than the ship itself. Scotty continued to make adjustments that he himself was beginning to believe were in vain, until noticing that a routine was active and could support the transporter.

He didn't know how exactly this came to be, but he had little time to figure out how it occurred. He jumped back down from the Jefferies tube and to the Enterprise deck floor. He told the transporter chief to try once again to beam the Captain off the Constellation. If this did not work, Scotty knew that Kirk was dead. He could hear Sulu counting down as the Constellation entered the planet killer's domain, but he then heard something great. Kirk was alive. The transporter had worked.

Hours had passed, and after a brief celebration following the planet killer's destruction, Scotty returned to the Jefferies tube. He drank a bit too much Scotch, but he needed to know how that transporter worked. He managed to climb backup into the tube to examine the relays, wires and switches he had tried to repair earlier. He looked closely to the power routine that somehow became active only hours before, and to his surprise, it was inactive again. The fuses were burned out and the relays useless. He had to ask himself if he was drunk, but finally came to the conclusion that although something strange had indeed occurred, Captain Kirk was alive, and he would gladly leave it at that.

It was now late at night aboard the Enterprise. All essential personnel had turned themselves in for the night, and this included Captain Kirk. It had been a long day, but much had been accomplished. Although it saddened him greatly that his good friend Matt Decker had died, the planet killer had been stopped, and literally trillions of lives had been saved. Kirk smiled as he rested his head upon the pillow realizing that it was just another day at the office. His attention then went to his friend who had sacrificed his life to prove a theory, which ultimately led to the machine's destruction.

It was not very long before he fell fast asleep. He was completely exhausted from the days events, and he had barely managed to stay at the celebration long enough to watch Scotty show off his ability to consume great amounts of alcohol and still be able to only talk of the Enterprise's engines and how he would improve them. Kirk dreamt of Matt, his friend and their time at the Academy, the fun they had, and the sight of Matt when he learned his wife had just given birth to a baby boy that they named Wil. Then however another image appeared.

It was Gary Mitchell, another lost friend. Gary was standing there atop a high grassy hill, and behind him was the bright blue sky filled with puffy white clouds. Kirk slowly walked towards him. Gary wore the same Lieutenant uniform he had been in the last time they had seen each other, but his eyes, his eyes were normal. The bright, crystal like glow they had emitted when he was transformed by his encounter near the galaxy's boundary was gone. It was the Gary he always wanted to remember.

"Gary..."

A smile appeared across Gary Mitchell's face. "Hello Jim... It's been a long time..."

"Your eyes..."

"I know Jim... That's why I'm here... I came here to ask for your forgiveness... I've lived with the pain of hurting you for a long time, and I've come here to say that I'm sorry... I'm sorry for everything..." Gary's smile was gone, and now only an emotion of shame crossed his un-aged face.

"I forgave you a long time ago Gary... I know it wasn't your fault... It wasn't any of our fault..."

"I know Jim, but I tried to hurt you... Dammit, I tried to kill you... Even though the person I became was different, it was still me... It was still Gary Mitchell at the soul... Only after years of living with this power have I finally been able to control it. I can now suppress it, and not let it consume me... I now realize that it was a gift... A gift I am going to use... I just needed to tell you I was sorry Jim... You've done more for me than anyone I ever knew, and I owe you my life on many occasions. Maybe now, I repaid you just a bit... Goodbye Jim..."

A confused expression appeared across Kirk's face. "You? You saved me from the planet killer?"

Mitchell said nothing and turned and walked away. As he moved his body began to slowly vanish until he was no more. Kirk awoke in his bed as if he had just experienced a nightmare and quickly sat up. He asked himself if it really was just all a dream or if perhaps somehow, someway, Gary really was talking to him. Either way, Kirk knew it was no nightmare, and he felt better than before he went to sleep. Maybe he really had reconciled with his old friend.

Gary Mitchell's shuttle approached the wormhole, and he slowed his speed to gaze at the swirling blue gases as they spread out into space near its entrance. "It is time..." said a voice in his head. Mitchell entered the coordinates into the shuttle's helm and it moved forward into the wormhole. The shuttle vanished and the wormhole closed behind him. There was another destiny to yet fulfill.

The End