Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

‘Encrypted message. Unknown caller.’ 

Those were the words that were flashing on the comm screen of the Bauhaus, the beaten-up old rust-bucket of a ship that felt more like home to Phoebe Tendi than anywhere else in the galaxy.

Who could be sending her encrypted messages, though? Phoebe just wasn’t that important. The only possibility that flashed across her mind was that it might be Katie, but then Katie had never encrypted their communications before. Why would she start now? Who else could it be, though?

Cautiously, Phoebe said, “On screen.”

The viewscreen abruptly switched to showing the interior of the Presidential Office on Earth, which gave Phoebe a nasty jolt. At first she thought the computer was on the blink again and was showing her some transmission from official Terran newsfeeds. Perhaps one of that asshole dictator’s interminable, super-boring speeches to the adoring (or, more accurately, completely cowed) populace of the Terran Union that regularly got sent out across a broad spectrum of subspace channels. As if his fascist propaganda was fooling anyone outside the Terran Union. 

He was sitting authoritatively behind the expansive wooden desk that featured in all his official pronouncements, decked out in full Starforce dress uniform, with a chestful of unearned medals. Who called their daughter they had barely spoken to for years all got up like that? 

Her dickhead of a father, that’s who.

“Phoebe,” he said sternly, and then tried to soften it with a smile. “I’m glad to see you’re looking well.”

Phoebe didn’t smile back. What did he want from her? They hadn’t quite completely cut contact in the way he and Katie had done. Kind of weird, that. Who, knowing Phoebe and her sister as teenagers, would have imagined it would be that way round? That Katie would be the one to cut him off completely, while Phoebe had yet to break that final tie. 

Even so, relations between Phoebe and the Dickhead were arctic at best. For the last few years, they had only exchanged super-brief, chilly messages on birthdays and holidays, mainly because Ma kept badgering Phoebe to keep in contact with him, although why exactly Ma had been trying to force a relationship between them when she herself had divorced his sorry ass, Phoebe didn’t have a clue. Anyway, ever since he had led a fucking coup against Earth a year and a half ago, Phoebe had not tried to contact him and thankfully Ma had let it go. Phoebe didn’t care if she never spoke to him again. She’d never actually bothered to block his comms, though. If she’d thought about it she’d have realised she’d never be able to stop a military dictator getting hold of her if he tried, but she’d also never have imagined that he would want to contact her. She was mildly surprised he remembered she existed. 

“Daddy,” she said in a cold voice she was pretty proud of. She sounded almost like Katie in one of her particularly prissy snits. 

“It’s been far too long since we’ve spoken Pheebs,” he said with his smooth smile. “I’ve missed you, little monster.”

Oh no. He didn’t get to use childhood nicknames as if nothing had happened. How could he think she’d just meekly accept his call as if they had some sort of normal father-daughter relationship? 

When she spoke, her voice was acid. “Yeah, don’t apologise, I understand. You’ve been kind of busy, haven’t you? Establishing a totalitarian dictatorship takes a bit of organising, I imagine. I guess you don’t get much in the way of evenings and weekends.”

He was abruptly stern again. “It isn’t a dictatorship, Phoebe. You misunderstand entirely. Temporary emergency measures are in place to prevent an imminent Changeling attack, and to provide a defence against dangerous subversive elements from within the Union.”

A decade ago, Phoebe would have let rip at him. It was all such utter bullshit and she was offended that he seemed to think she might be dumb enough to buy that. For the past year she’d been going about using Toziv’s last name (not that they were married or anything stuffy like that) because she was too ashamed to call herself a Janeway. He’d done that. Her dickhead father. He was the one who made her feel like an imposter and a fraud among her avant-garde friends, who all rightly condemned the coup as the most shocking violation of Federation values that had ever been committed. When she saw his smoothly smiling face as he addressed cheering rent-a-crowds in San Francisco she felt like throwing up. When she’d first heard the rumours of what they were doing to unjoined protesters on Trill she had thrown up, and Toziv had had to hold her all night and reassure her that she was not responsible for this monster’s actions, that she was her own person, that the fact that she shared half her DNA with him meant nothing.

So it took every particle of her not-very-well-developed self-control to stop herself launching into a furious, profanity-filled diatribe. But something was stopping her simply blasting him as she desperately wanted to. He had called her for a reason. What was it?

“I’m not going to help you contact Katie, if that’s what you’re after.” 

Surprisingly, he waved this off airily. “I have washed my hands of your sister. She has betrayed me one too many times. She was never as strong as I thought she was, allowing herself to be so easily manipulated by that traitor, Riker. It’s tragic, but I can’t keep giving her chances when she insists on abasing herself at his feet. Besides, I know you never got along with her. If I did want to contact her, I have more reliable means of doing so.”

Jeez, thanks, Dad, Phoebe thought. Completely dismissing her as unreliable at the same time as showing her that he knew precisely nothing about her. If he’d been paying the slightest attention, he’d have known that she and Katie had long ago made up their childhood differences. They were still super-different, and Katie’s work and Phoebe’s itinerant lifestyle meant they couldn’t meet as often as they’d like, but when they did, they actually had a blast together. It turned out that Katie was an absolute sucker for over-the-top holodeck simulations and whenever Phoebe stopped at DS9 they always spent a day or two embroiled in some kind of dumb hologame. Katie let loose in there, and Phoebe had never laughed so much as when Katie and her friends Dax and Kira had got themselves all dressed up as medieval princesses, complete with ridiculous tall hats and veils. So, although they were only in sporadic contact, Phoebe and Katie were tight, thank you very much.

“So why are you contacting me, then?” Phoebe asked, not quite managing to conceal her belligerence.  

“I understand why you’re angry with me, Phoebe.”

Do you? Can you have any idea how much I despise you? Phoebe didn’t say any of it out loud. Just stared at the screen and waited for him to continue. 

“I never gave you the attention you deserved when you were younger. I was always too focused on your sister. I was a fool — thinking that because you weren’t cut out for Starfleet, you didn’t need as much of my time as Katie did. I want to make it up to you.”

Did he actually think that she cared about all that childhood stuff? That she could somehow not see that he had become a fucking dictator? That she might be willing to patch things up with a man who had brought the Federation to its knees?

She opened her mouth to make it clear, once and for all, that she did not want any sort of relationship with him in the future, but he talked over her. As he always had.

“I want you to come home to Earth, Phoebe. Let’s try to make things right between us. I’m sure your mother would like to see you too. It’s unfortunate that our marriage fell apart, but I’m still very fond of her, and I know she misses you.”

Your marriage fell apart because you were busy banging your subordinate officer while treating both your daughters like shit. Again, Phoebe reined it in. Her brain was racing. What was this really about?

He was continuing to talk, seemingly not noticing that she hadn’t said anything for ages. “Alynna would like to meet you. She never had children, but always wanted them. I’m sure you would be great friends. And we live in a rather splendid home in San Francisco. Not the old farmhouse. I could have a studio fitted out for you in the Presidential Residence.”

Ah. So that was it. He wanted to play happy families. Project the image of the dependable, caring family man. It didn’t look good to have a failed marriage, a mistress and one estranged daughter who had very publicly opposed him by bringing a whole Cardassian space station through a wormhole to face off against his fleet (go Katie!). Then again, he was probably a bit old to be starting a new family with Nechayev, so he was reeling in his one remaining daughter to parade in front of the cameras of his propaganda machine. What an absolute dickhead. 

“You would have to leave that Orion boyfriend behind, of course, at least for now. Perhaps later when Orion joins the Union and we improve the pirate-robber optics a little…”

Speciesist asshole. Phoebe almost laughed. As if she would give up Toziv, the sweetest, gentlest man she had ever met, who had supported and loved her for over ten years, to live as some pampered pet in her father’s gilded cage. He didn’t have a fucking clue about her, did he?

Yet some instinct was still holding her back from letting rip. There was something here. Something important… 

And then it hit her. Her father was the head of the Terran Union, one of the two main threats to the survival of the Deep Space Federation. He was asking her to live with him. To sit at his dinner table, and listen to him ramble on and stroke his ego. She would overhear things. Conversations between him and Nechayev. She could show up at Starfleet HQ unannounced with a saccharine smile and a home-cooked lunch (better learn how to cook) and play the devoted daughter he’d always wanted.

And. She. Would. Hear. Things. 

The Dickhead was still listing off the material luxuries he could tempt her with and she let him run on, her mind whirling. When he finally paused for breath (he had always loved the sound of his own voice), Phoebe suppressed an almost visceral urge to retch, and smiled at him. 

“I’ll have to think about it, Daddy,” she said sweetly. “It’s been a long time and I think there have been some misunderstandings between us we’ll need to clear up. But I would like to make things right between us.”

Chapter Text

“She wants to be a spy?! She’s mad! Stark raving insane!” Kathryn waved an arm about rather wildly to emphasise her point, almost clouting Will, who was sitting next to her on the couch.

Toziv nodded sadly. He was sitting across from Kathryn and Will on their other couch, with his hands dangling between his knees. “I had a similar reaction. But she’s completely determined.” He was a soulful-looking man, leaner than most Orions, with emerald skin and thick, forest-green hair that he wore long to his shoulders. “I don’t think anything you or I will say will turn her back.”

“It’s far too dangerous. She’ll be watched constantly. She’ll never be able to leave Earth. Not unless my father’s regime falls.”

“She hopes she can feed you information that will bring that about quickly.” His eyes were large and sad. He looked as if he were about to cry.

“Surely they’ll suspect that? All her communications will be monitored,” Will put in.. As he spoke he placed a reassuring hand on Kathryn’s knee. Her stomach clenched. She couldn’t allow this. Her little sister couldn’t put herself in such a position. Yet, after all, Kathryn had very little say in the matter. As Toziv said, if Phoebe had decided to do something, nothing would stop her.

“That’s why she sent me to tell you,” Toziv continued. “She’s sure your father thinks you and she are completely estranged and she didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that you’re actually close to each other by coming to DS9 herself.” Most people still referred to the twin stations of DS9 and DS10 as simply ‘DS9’, although technically DS10 had become the tactical centre of Deep Space Federation operations ever since Kathryn had brought it through a wormhole to join its sister station during the Battle of Deep Space Nine a year ago. While DS9 had retained its eclectic mix of species and nationalities and had become more clearly a Bajoran-operated station, DS10 was owned and operated solely by the Federation as the temporary capital of the Federation’s government-in-exile. 

“Well, that was probably wise,” said Will, “but how does she plan to send us this information? Not that I approve of this dangerous plan, of course,” he added hastily, glancing at Kathryn.

“She says you’ll probably have access to technology that will allow her to make secret subspace transmissions. That’s also why she sent me here. So I can bring whatever communication device you think most suitable back with me. After that we’ll stage a huge row to make it appear as if we’ve split up, and she’ll go to Earth to spy on Janeway’s regime.”

“Oh Toziv.” Kathryn’s heart tugged at her. The poor man looked completely miserable.

“We won't really be split up of course. It’s just that your father wouldn’t exactly welcome me with open arms.”

“Speciesist bigot,” Kathryn bit out. 

“That’s exactly what Phoebe says,” Toziv said with a wan smile. “Well, almost exactly. Her language is a bit more colourful. Anyway, that’s the plan. Do you have the kind of technology that would allow that sort of covert communication?”

Kathryn exchanged a look with Will and saw his face become grim. He was thinking about her own undercover intelligence work, she was sure: the work for which she’d been training for the past year. A whole gruelling year, while Garak drilled her, Jadzia and Julian mercilessly in the holosuites, all under the remote direction of Justin Tighe, who would never leave his bed again after Obsidian Order poison had nearly destroyed his nervous system. Even so, bed bound though Tighe might be, he was nevertheless a hard task-master. Since his poisoning, he had become all the more single-minded in his determination to beat the Cardassian alliance, force the Dominion back into the Gamma Quadrant and reclaim Earth for the legitimate Deep Space Federation by ousting her father’s regime. It was a tall order, and he had been unrelenting in training his small intelligence unit to have them ready for field work. They were fortunate to have Garak on their side — at least to the extent that they could possibly trust him to be their ally, which they were well aware would only stretch as far as the Federation’s interests aligned with those of a free Cardassia. It was the unspoken elephant in the room whenever Garak let them in on one of his little secrets — as much as he was teaching them, there must be much more he was concealing. 

Will’s thoughts seemed to have run in a similar direction to hers. “I expect Mr Garak will be able to supply us with a suitable device.” His voice was uncharacteristically hard and cold. He was not happy that Kathryn had taken on this new intelligence role. He could technically have stopped her — as head of Starfleet Military he could have vetoed her assignment. That he hadn’t meant that he was trying his best to rein in his natural over-protectiveness towards her, and she loved him all the more for that, because she could see it worried him terribly that she would soon be sent into dangerous intelligence-gathering situations. She scooted a little closer to him on the couch and hugged his arm, partly appreciatively, and partly to reassure him. He grasped her hand and squeezed back hard. 

Toziv breathed out a sigh of relief. “That’s good! When do you think you could get it for me? Phoebe wants to leave for Earth as soon as possible.”

“You can’t mean you’re actually going along with this, Toziv?” said Kathryn, uncomfortably aware of her own hypocrisy in being grateful that Will wasn’t trying to block her intelligence work, while herself wanting to do that very thing to Phoebe. The thing was, Phoebe wasn’t trained! She wasn’t even Starfleet. This simply wasn’t where her expertise lay. 

Toziv smiled sadly again. “She’s got her mind set on it and we Orion men are used to doing what our women-folk want. I know it’s dangerous; I’ve voiced my objections, but it’s her decision ultimately, and I’ll support her with that.”

Kathryn subsided a little, a complex and unpleasant mixture of guilt and anguish mixing in her stomach. She shouldn’t have to be told that by Toziv, and yet… it was far too dangerous to send her little sister off into the lion’s den.

“She knew you’d object.” Toziv withdrew a data chip from his pocket. “So she sent this message. She doesn’t want you to contact her directly in case her comms are now being monitored.”

Kathryn rose, taking the data chip from Toziv and inserting it into the comm system. A moment later, Phoebe’s face appeared on the screen, flushed with eagerness and excitement. Oh Phoebe, this wasn’t a game.

“Hey sis!” said Phoebe, speaking rapidly. “I hope Toziv has explained it all to you. So... I know exactly what you’re going to say. This isn’t a game, I don’t have the training, I’m not even in Starfleet, blah, blah, blah. I know, I know that. But don’t you see? That’s what makes it perfect! Daddy knows that. He thinks I’m dumb as a box of Cordry rocks and totally useless. He won’t suspect me for a moment! I’ll be in a position nobody other than you could get themselves into, and honestly, I think even Daddy would suspect trickery if you claimed to have seen the light and come round to his side after all these years. Which means, I’m literally the only person who could get this close to him. The opportunity is just too huge! I mean, I’ll be able to feed you info on his plans. It’s just… this could be the way we bring down the Terran Union, Katie! And now I know you’re thinking it’s way too dangerous. Well, yes, I know that. Obviously. But it’s my choice to make. You’re not the only one who gets to take crazy risks doing the right thing. I love the Federation, and just because I’m not in Starfleet doesn’t mean I can’t fight for what I believe in. Don’t you try to take that from me, Katie.” She brandished a finger at the screen, partly serious, partly self-mocking. 

“Anyway, I don’t think Daddy would actually try to kill me or something dramatic like that even if I was discovered. Seriously the rewards are sooo worth the risks. So, yes, my mind is made up on this, so the best thing you can do is give Toziv the best undercover tech you’ve got so the chances of me being discovered are slim.” Phoebe ran down at last and stared into the camera. She dropped her slightly flippant attitude for a moment and spoke more slowly and quietly. “Seriously, Katie. I want to do this. I have to. It’s for all of us. So all the Alpha Quadrant can live in peace, so me and Toziv are free to continue roaming the galaxy, so Mandy and Amy and Jimmy get to live in the Federation when they grow up and not the Terran Union. Let’s you and me reclaim the name Janeway from that asshole dictator who somehow fathered us, and make sure people remember the brilliant physicist and the girl who infiltrated the Terran Union and brought it down from within! I know we can do it.”

She looked away from the camera for a moment and then back again and her eyes were slightly filmy. “I know we can do it,” she repeated. “Love you sis. Hopefully next time you hear from me I’ll be comfortably ensconced in Daddy’s fancy new ‘Presidential Residence’.” She screwed up her face. “Ewwww, he’s such an absolute prat. Anyway… yes… that’s it. See you on the other side.”

With that the screen went dark and was replaced with the Federation flag. Kathryn sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. She was silent for several seconds before looking into Toziv’s anxious green eyes. 

“Well, what can I say to that? I don’t like it one bit, but I suppose I’d better ask Garak or Tighe to get us a covert comms device.”

Will thumped two glasses of synthale down on the small table and pushed one of them across to Toziv. He hiked up his leg to sit down in the slightly cramped space on the upper floor of Quark’s. 

“How are you holding up?” he asked. 

Toziv gave him that rather sad smile. “Thanks for the drink. I’m alright. I’m not exactly thrilled about all this, but it’s what Phoebe feels she needs to do, so I’ll come to terms with it. It’s not forever. I hope.”

“Best not mention specifics here. Can’t be sure who might be listening in. Maybe don’t mention your girlfriend by name.”

“Oh… yeah. I hadn’t thought about that. I don’t think I’d be very good at keeping things undercover.”

“Good job it’s not you then isn’t it?,” said Will, trying to lighten the mood, but it fell a bit flat. 

Toziv smiled weakly. Then he said, in a low voice, pitched only for Will to hear. “It’s not easy, is it? Loving one of Janeway’s daughters?”

Images of Kathryn captured by Romulans on her first Intelligence assignment flashed before Will’s mind. He’d been torturing himself with these imagined scenarios ever since she’d been recruited to their new Intelligence corps, and even more since it had been decided that she should travel to Romulus in a few weeks for her first mission. She hadn’t been briefed yet, so he hadn’t even been able to talk to her about it properly, but he’d been involved in the initial planning decision. He closed his eyes briefly. Hell. How could he possibly let her go there?

“Yeah,” he said, a little hoarsely, “they don’t make it easy on us, do they?”

“Worth it though.”

Kathryn’s radiant smile lighting up her beautiful face when he walked into the room. Her blazingly fierce single-minded intelligence when she was working through some physics problem. Her laughing warmth and joy when she was playing with their kids. Her deep compassion for all the people she cared about. The sultry purr in her voice when she pressed herself up against him and ran her hands over his chest.  “Oh, I’ll drink to that, Toziv.” Will made another effort to lighten his voice. “They might put us through the wringer worrying us sick, but we wouldn’t want them any other way.”

Toziv nodded and contemplated his synthale.

“It’s going to be hard when we’re ‘broken up’. I don’t think I’ll have any problems appearing sad about it. It will be more about convincing myself it isn’t real.”

“What will you do?”

Toziv took a sip of his drink and thought for a moment. “Go back to Orion,” he said decisively.

“You’d be welcome here. We’ve moved most Starfleet personnel to DS10 now, but there’s always room on DS9 for non-Starfleet folks who want to do something to help the Federation…” 

“No,” said Toziv, consideringly. “I’d like to, but I think that would look suspicious. Better I go back home. Help my mother out with my little sisters. D’Vana and D’Erika are quite a handful now they're teenagers. My mother is Mistress of the Winter Constellations, what with Grandmama being so ill, and she doesn’t have so much time for the girls. Just have to hope she doesn’t try to marry me off,” he said with a slightly forced laugh.

Will shifted uncomfortably. “Uh… does that mean… sorry if this is an indelicate question, but are your family in the Orion Syndicate?”

Toziv shrugged matter-of-factly. “Yup. Never appealed to me. That’s why I became an artist. But family is family, you know. I’m not too keen on the girls getting into the family business, so maybe if I’m there I can encourage their other interests. D’Vana’s always loved science so much. Maybe I can take her off Orion for a bit on the Bauhaus, show her some black holes or something.”

“That sounds like a good plan. Good luck with everything, Toziv. If you ever need anything, you know you can get in touch.”

“Thanks. Best I don’t contact you again, though, after I leave here. Don’t want Janeway’s people to catch on that there’s a closer relationship between us than they thought.”

Will nodded and raised his glass to clink against Toziv’s. Toziv gave him another small smile and sighed, mirroring Will's slightly melancholy mood. 

Toziv was right. It sure wasn’t easy loving one of the Janeway sisters.