Star Trek Next Gen Ficlet: Double Trouble
Title: Double Trouble
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Cmdr Will Riker, Lt Will Riker.
Rating: G
Word Count: 427
Spoilers: Second Chances.
Summary: When Will Riker meets another version of himself, they don’t exactly hit it off.
Written For: Challenge 309: Amnesty at fan_flashworks, using Challenge 15: Double.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Star Trek: TNG, or the characters.
Riker’s first instinct is to be suspicious; the other man looks exactly like him, albeit grubbier, with wilder hair and a less well cared for beard. Nevertheless, it can’t be him, despite the fact that the other man insists he IS Will Riker. Two people cannot both be the same person, unless one of them is a clone; it goes against all the known laws of science, plus Riker has never had a twin, so this other version of himself is obviously an impostor of some kind, maybe a shapeshifter, which means he can’t be trusted.
The away team can’t just leave him behind though, impostor or not they have to take him back with them to the Enterprise, if only to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Finding out the truth, that the other Will Riker had been produced when the original transported off Nervala IV during the evacuation of the research base there, only makes the situation more awkward. Both men are indeed Will Riker. The transporter beam had been split, one signal arriving safely back on the Potemkin, the other being reflected back to its starting point by the planet’s disruption field.
For the past eight years they’ve lived completely different lives, the original rising rapidly through the Star Fleet ranks while his other self struggled to survive, isolated and alone, not knowing if he would ever be rescued, or if the captain and crew of the Potemkin simply assumed he’d been lost.
It should give them a lot to talk about, but instead they butt heads almost from the first moment. Both men are competitive, and strong-willed to the point of obstinacy, too much alike to get along easily. Perhaps they see qualities in each other that they dislike in themselves, but whatever the reason, they can’t be in the same room without either arguing or trying to out-do each other in some way.
It takes Commander Riker saving Lt. Riker’s life for the two versions to finally start seeing eye-to-eye; they are, after all, basically the same person. Their lives simply diverged eight years ago, and now they must do so again, with Lt. Riker taking up a new assignment on another ship, because having two Will Rikers serving aboard the Enterprise would only cause confusion among the rest of the crew.
It’s a strange parting; perhaps they’ll meet again sometime. As Commander Riker watches his other self depart, he can’t help wondering if it’s possible to miss oneself. In different circumstances, maybe the two of him could have been friends.
The End
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Cmdr Will Riker, Lt Will Riker.
Rating: G
Word Count: 427
Spoilers: Second Chances.
Summary: When Will Riker meets another version of himself, they don’t exactly hit it off.
Written For: Challenge 309: Amnesty at fan_flashworks, using Challenge 15: Double.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Star Trek: TNG, or the characters.
Riker’s first instinct is to be suspicious; the other man looks exactly like him, albeit grubbier, with wilder hair and a less well cared for beard. Nevertheless, it can’t be him, despite the fact that the other man insists he IS Will Riker. Two people cannot both be the same person, unless one of them is a clone; it goes against all the known laws of science, plus Riker has never had a twin, so this other version of himself is obviously an impostor of some kind, maybe a shapeshifter, which means he can’t be trusted.
The away team can’t just leave him behind though, impostor or not they have to take him back with them to the Enterprise, if only to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Finding out the truth, that the other Will Riker had been produced when the original transported off Nervala IV during the evacuation of the research base there, only makes the situation more awkward. Both men are indeed Will Riker. The transporter beam had been split, one signal arriving safely back on the Potemkin, the other being reflected back to its starting point by the planet’s disruption field.
For the past eight years they’ve lived completely different lives, the original rising rapidly through the Star Fleet ranks while his other self struggled to survive, isolated and alone, not knowing if he would ever be rescued, or if the captain and crew of the Potemkin simply assumed he’d been lost.
It should give them a lot to talk about, but instead they butt heads almost from the first moment. Both men are competitive, and strong-willed to the point of obstinacy, too much alike to get along easily. Perhaps they see qualities in each other that they dislike in themselves, but whatever the reason, they can’t be in the same room without either arguing or trying to out-do each other in some way.
It takes Commander Riker saving Lt. Riker’s life for the two versions to finally start seeing eye-to-eye; they are, after all, basically the same person. Their lives simply diverged eight years ago, and now they must do so again, with Lt. Riker taking up a new assignment on another ship, because having two Will Rikers serving aboard the Enterprise would only cause confusion among the rest of the crew.
It’s a strange parting; perhaps they’ll meet again sometime. As Commander Riker watches his other self depart, he can’t help wondering if it’s possible to miss oneself. In different circumstances, maybe the two of him could have been friends.
The End