Aftermath - (A Voyager/DS9/OC crossover fic)

[Rusty]

New Additions


Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek: Deep Space Nine or Voyager in any way. However the two characters, Lieutenants Rusty Puckett and Diane Schonke are my creation. This takes place after the episode, �What You Leave Behind.� Starfleet Special Forces were my idea, however. Any discrepancies are due to the fact that I haven�t watched Voyager in years.


~ ~ ~ ~


Colonel Kira Nerys had just briefed the new security officer, Lieutenant Rusty Puckett, Starfleet Special Forces, about Promenade security procedures. She wondered what a member of unit that Starfleet claimed did not exist, but had carried out numerous dangerous behind the lines raids against Cardassian and Dominion targets would be doing as a lowly security officer on a space station. But from what she read of the officer sitting at his desk, he seemed to be a fairly capable fellow. His black eyes seemed to radiate a strange blend of confidence and mystery.


�Morning ma�am.� The officer said curtly, �Lieutenant Rusty Puckett, I�m replacing Constable Odo.�


�Yes I�ve heard, lieutenant.� Kira replied, this fellow was slightly mysterious, guarded even. His service record, the declassified part that Starfleet trusted an allied officer with, was certainly eventful. Graduated in the middle of his class at the Academy, graduated and became security officer aboard the USS Agamemnon, joined Starfleet Special Forces when the Agamemnon was badly damaged in the Badlands by the Maquis and as soon as he joined the Starfleet Special Forces Regiment, D Squadron, they were thrown into battle against the Cardassian/Dominion forces.


�The USS Voyager should be docking any moment, ma�am.� Puckett began, subconsciously tapping a small, ridged scar running parallel to his jawline.


�I�d personally like to meet the new personnel being transferred to our station. Lieutenant Harry Kim, Lieutenants Tom and B�Elanna Paris, Lieutenant Diane Schonke���� Kira began. At the mention of the fourth name, Kira noticed Puckett visibly perk up. She was to be their new operations officer, working with Senior Chief Hatcher, newly transferred from the USS Marseille. She read the woman�s service record as well as the other three. Then there was the Cardassian, Glinn Pakar, the Cardassian Self Defense Force liaison officer.


�I�ve got a veritable rogues gallery on my hands,� Kira thought, �A Cardassian officer, two former Maquis, a Starfleet officer who�s turned his life around, and a standard issue �nerd� as Earth slang put it. Benjamin, you were right about command, it�s not all its cracked up to be.�


Kira watched as Pakar joined them, he was a broad shouldered Cardassian, about three centimeters shorter than Puckett, not as tall and thin as much of his race. Kira noted with some amusement that Puckett often referred to him as �Half Pint� a name Pakar detested. She could see after six days the two weren�t going to get along in the least. �I need another raktajino.� Kira mentally groaned.


�Morning Half Pint.� Puckett replied.


�Good morning, lieutenant.� The Cardassian replied stiffly. His entire family had been killed by the Dominon and he had lost two brothers to the Federation during the Dominion War.


~ ~ ~ ~


Captain Kathryn Janeway pinned the second pip on the red material of the collar of the young woman standing before her. �Congratulations, Diane Schonke, I officially promote you to the rank of Lieutenant.�


The former Maquis, a slim, athletically figured woman with short brown hair and rich brown eyes stood before her, with a shy smile, �Interestingly enough, I never thought that leaving the Academy to fight for the Maquis would result in this.�


�You redeemed yourself over the past seven years, Diane. And this promotion and your service record proves it.� Janeway said.


B�Elanna Torres punched her colleague lightly on the arm, �Congratulations Diane.�


�Thanks B�Elanna. I mean, Mrs. Paris.� Diane replied.


�I like the sound of that.� Tom began, when B�Elanna elbowed him in the ribs.

�And I like the sound of Tom Torres better, unless you�d like the sight of an angry, half-Klingon���� B�Elanna began.


Harry Kim joined them, �DS9, the place we heard so much about after we had contact with the Alpha Quadrant, and now we get posted there. Amazing.�


�Congratulations Harry.� Diane remarked, �Lieutenant Kim, I like the sound of that.�


�Well don�t get too friendly, that would be fraternizing with a senior officer.� Harry began.


�Fraternization?� Diane said, with a mock hurt expression, �We�re of equal rank.�


�I�m senior to you.� Harry began.


�By five minutes.� Diane replied.


�I�m still senior.� Harry joked.


Captain Janeway joined them as they walked into the Docking Ring. Chakotay, Paris, B�Elanna, Kim and Schonke fell into step behind her. They stopped in front of an auburn haired Bajoran woman flanked by a Cardassian and a Starfleet officer, a human that Lieutenant Schonke�s eyes instantly flashed with recognition for. He was a lean, compact fellow with close cropped black hair, with small black eyes that seemed to scan everything in the room.


~ ~ ~ ~


Rusty Puckett felt his guard go down when he saw her. Seeing her in that uniform, the black jumpsuit softened by the band of gray, with the red color of command underneath it, wearing the rank of lieutenant was a change. Other than that, she was still the same, her hair cut short above her shoulders, her eyes still that beautiful light brown shade, her skin still retaining that suntanned complexion. It was almost as if his memory had gone back eight years, to when he was twenty-two again.

~ ~ ~ ~


Eight years earlier: �Rusty, I�m sorry I have to do this���� Diane began as she fired the phaser.


It was a good thing the weapon was on stun, otherwise the promising career of one Ensign Rusty Puckett would have ended right there, in the shattered hulk of a seemingly abandoned Cardassian freighter���


~ ~ ~ ~


�Do you know each other Lieutenant?� Kira asked.


�Yes ma�am.� Rusty replied.


�Lieutenant, do you know this man?� Janeway asked.


�Yes ma�am.� Diane replied.


�Hello Rusty, it�s been a long time.� Diane said, her calm fa�ade hiding the emotions within.


�Eight years, five months, and seventeen days.� Rusty replied.


�I can see you two know each other.� Pakar dropped with a dapper grin.


�We do.� Puckett began, rather abruptly.


Kira could see that things had gotten interesting. Her security and ops officers apparently had some sort of history together. And from what she knew about Voyager, she was wearing the lieutenant�s rank insignia for Maquis officers on Voyager. Janeway had written nothing but good things about the two ex-Maquis officers, Torres and Schonke during their time in the Delta Quadrant.

~ ~ ~ ~


�Great, sent to a backwater outpost, given a crappy job, and an encounter with a woman I�ve never been able to get out of my head for over eight years.� Puckett growled, �What more could go wrong���.�


�And speak of the devil.� Puckett growled, not even turning around.


Sitting in the Replimat with a cup of coffee, with milk, six lumps of sugar and a pinch of cinnamon, he sipped at it. �Damn replicators can�t get these things right. How�ve you been over the last eight years Diane?�

�How�d you know it was me?� Diane asked.


Rusty swiveled about, looking right at her, �When you know someone for a long time you recognize them anywhere. The distinctive tread of your footsteps gave you away.�


�I�ve been fine, since we�ve been aboard Voyager I�ve survived the Borg, aliens that steal organs, called Vidiians, and even Q.� Diane began.


�Sounds interesting.� Rusty began.


�So how has it been since���� Diane began, before realizing she had gone up the wrong alley with Rusty just then. She could see she had hurt him, the stun beam he recovered from, the fact that he was fighting against his former best friend wasn�t so easy to recover.


�Look, Rusty, things have changed.� Diane began, awkwardly.


�I can see.� Rusty began, noticing Diane�s Starfleet uniform, something she had abandoned years earlier to fight for the Maquis.


�Do you still���.� Diane began.


����Remember? Yes I do. I�ve thought about it every day for the past eight year.� Rusty replied.


�I had no other choice Rusty?� Diane replied, Rusty could see tears starting to form in her eyes. For all his toughness, the battle hardened soldier knew to pull back.


�I suppose you didn�t. I mean you�d already hurt your family by resigning from the Academy, joining a rogue organization, and then risking imprisonment.� Rusty replied.


�My friends wanted me to kill you. You got too close to us.� Diane replied.


�Thanks for leaving me alive.� Rusty replied dourly.


�What happened when I was reported dead?� Diane replied.


�I felt like some part of me had died.� Rusty began, with no change in his expression, but looking into his eyes, Diane could see years of pain etched into them.


~ ~ ~ ~


Eight years earlier: The USS Agamemnon, a Norway class starship, glided through space and sitting in the Lounge was a young ensign named Rusty Puckett sat alone at a table. The news on the PADD before him was devastating. He knew no one on the USS Voyager, but from the crew compliment of the Maquis raider that an unknown source sent to Voyager and her backup vessel, the Agamemnon, he knew that Diane had been lost in the same Badlands.


Diane, his closest friend at the Academy, his unrequited crush for most of the years they�d known one another. Gone. Those four letters summed up more emotion than he cared to realize.


�Remember son, a Starfleet Officer doesn�t lose emotional control.� Rusty replied, �Thank you Master Chief Puckett.�


Rusty was referring to Master Chief Manfred James Puckett, his father and a veteran of many years in Starfleet and the Cardassian War. The man was a good father, a skilled warrior, and a wise mentor. He wouldn�t want Rusty to pine over the woman that had died in the Badlands, but emotionally he couldn�t help it. He loved Diane for over four years, unrequited, but she saw him only as a good friend. She had left after her boyfriend had been killed in an accidental attack on his homeworld by the Cardassians. She�d joined the Maquis three weeks later.


~ ~ ~ ~


�So you didn�t hate me for turning on the Federation?� Diane asked.


�I hated what you did. But I didn�t hate you personally. I knew you were fighting for a cause you believe in. But it was still wrong. I can�t count the number of times that I worried over every Starfleet intelligence report about Maquis casualties or whenever I targeted Maquis raiders.� Rusty replied.


�Rusty, I want things to start from before all this happened.� Diane replied.


�I do too, but it�s not that easy.� Rusty replied, �Too many years have passed.�


�Rusty I really thought you valued our friendship more than that.� Diane protested.


�I do. I can�t forget what you did. But I can forgive.� Rusty began.


Diane walked up to his chair and wrapped her arms around him. Rusty returned the hug, �It�s good to have you back.�


�It�s good to be back.� Diane replied, �Well I�ve got my family to talk to.�


�What is the relationship between yourself and Lieutenant Schonke?� Pakar asked.


�Why is that your business?� Puckett said, turning on him.


�She�s a close friend of mine.� Rusty replied.


�It seems like you feel more towards her.� Pakar observed.


�Why is it your business, Cardie!� Rusty replied and turned on his heel out of the Replimat.


Actually Pakar knew more about Puckett than Puckett realized. He had read the debriefing about the interrogation of five members of a Starfleet Special Forces unit they had captured trying to blow up a ketracel white facility. The use of the experimental memory extraction unit had worked to an extent. Two prisoners went insane and committed suicide. The other three survived. Two of them were medically discharged to a mental hospital on Regara Prime, this one, Puckett, survived and remained in Starfleet. Notes on the woman he was speaking to earlier appeared in the briefing.


�I saved your life, Lieutenant.� Pakar said to Rusty�s back.


�I saved my own life Half Pint.� Puckett replied coldly.


~ ~ ~ ~


This was just to introduce the new characters, the Voyager/DS9 characters will play a more prominent role in later chapters. Please R&R. And soon to appear Vic Fontaine and more of DS9 staff. I�m building this story around Rusty, Diane, and Pakar largely.

[DemonClassY]

Good use of dialogue.