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summahsunlight · 4 years

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This Way Became My Journey, Ch. 23

While the computer was running its diagnostic on the alien device, B'Elanna Torres had snuck away to the mess hall to grab a ration pack for lunch. Well maybe she hadn't really snuck away; Captain Janeway had after all given her permission to take a small break. But it sure felt like sneaking away, with Michael breathing down her neck wanting to know every little thing that came up about the device. Snatching a ration pack up she went to join a Bajoran, by the name of Seska, who was sitting at a table in the middle of the room.

"I didn't think Janeway was ever going to let you leave the bridge," Seska drawled with that sly grin of hers as B'Elanna took a seat.

B'Elanna shrugged her shoulders. "I think she felt bad that her kid was watching over everything I did. Anyways I don't have a lot of time. I need to get back up there to finish working on that device that Chakotay brought back from the planetoid."

"If you ask me this is a waste of time," Seska replied, pushing her empty ration pack to the side. "We shouldn't be chasing after any aliens that like to harvest organs. It could end up getting us all killed."

"Neelix could die if we don't track them down," B'Elanna said, slightly shocked by her friend's cold tone.

It was Seska's turn to shrug her tiny shoulders. "The Doctor has kept him alive this long; that's better than most people can say if they had just had their lungs stolen."

"And what if it was Chakotay that had been attacked? Or Harry? Would you feel the same way?"

"Of course. Neelix should be counting his blessings while the rest of us get to the real work of finding dilithium to help the power shortage," Seska answered, her dark eyes studying B'Elanna's face. "You don't actually agree with Janeway's decision to go chasing after these aliens do you?"

B'Elanna averted her eyes. "To tell you the truth, I think it's rather noble."

Seska scoffed. "One noble deed doesn't make up for her selfish decision to strand us here."

The hatred for Janeway that was laced in Seska's voice was not lost on B'Elanna and the young Klingon woman suddenly found that she was not hungry anymore. Pushing the tray away from her, she looked her friend, or someone she had once regarded as a friend, in the eye. "Seska, I know it hasn't been easy the past month, adjusting to life on a Starfleet ship, but believe me when I say that Captain Janeway has the best intentions of this entire crew at heart."

"You didn't think that way a month ago," Seska pointed out.

B'Elanna shook her head. "No, I didn't. But the past few weeks I've worked closely with her and my opinion has changed. If we had used the array to get home, there would have been people back in the Alpha Quadrant who thought her decision to sacrifice the Ocampa selfish. Either way, she couldn't win."

Seska got up from the table angrily. "You're starting to sound like all those delusional Starfleet idiots."

The Chief Engineer watched as the Bajoran left the table and stalked out of the mess hall. B'Elanna wasn't sure why Seska was having the hardest adjustment out of them all. Perhaps she felt like she had been slighted by Janeway when she wasn't given a higher rank, after all, she was Chakotay's former lover. And then there was B'Elanna's promotion to chief engineer. It was never spoken between the two, but B'Elanna knew that Seska was jealous of her friend's promotion and the trust that Janeway put in her. She also knew that Seska wasn't too keen on all time the B'Elanna had taken to hanging out with Harry Kim in the mess hall or for a stroll on the holodeck. But Harry had been the only one nice to her, on the Starfleet side that is, for their first few days, and she was grateful for that.

It wasn't her fault that she was sliding into fit with the crew and Seska was struggling. She just needs to make friends outside of the Maquis, that's all.

B'Elanna decided that the next time Harry joined her for dinner she was going to ask Seska to join them. She was sure that Harry would be friendly and make an attempt to befriend Seska no matter how unreceptive Seska seemed.

Speaking of Harry, B'Elanna was sure that Janeway had given him a fifteen minute break to eat something as well. Maybe she had missed him when she had first come in the room. Glancing around she soon found that it had been easy to miss him. He was seated at a corner table with Sarah Barrett. B'Elanna instantly felt…jealousy.

She was shocked by this, at first. There was nothing romantically going on between her and Harry so she shouldn't be bothered if there was something between him and the counselor. But then she remembered Elle Platt, back from her Academy days. Elle had the same dark, coffee brown hair as Sarah, same enticing sapphire eyes. B'Elanna had thought Elle had been her friend and had told her about her crush on one of their classmates. They never spoke of it again, until B'Elanna had seen Elle with her crush, cuddling on the lawn one warm afternoon. Elle later told her some story about wanting to keep B'Elanna safe because she only would have been hurt, that her crush never would have dated a half Klingon.

B'Elanna, who had always resented human girls, with their silky locks of hair, and smooth foreheads, had shortly left the Academy after that. So was it this fact that Sarah looked so much like Elle that she was jealous of the time she spent with Harry? And if she ever did want to be more than Harry's friend, how could she compete with the perfection that Sarah was?

She was shocked at this realization. Being more than Harry's friend? He was Starfleet, a nice guy, but still Starfleet. Well what's so wrong with that? They had been through so much together on the Ocampa home world, she had connected with him in a way that she had yet to connect to anyone else on the ship, with maybe the exception of Chakotay. And that's when her emotions switched to jealousy to downright anger.

Sarah could have any man she wanted on this ship, with the bat of her pretty little eyelashes, why was she with Harry? Good, even Tom Paris was eating out of the palm of her hand and she had taken the one guy that B'Elanna actually felt…feelings towards. It figures the one nice guy on this ship—

"Seat taken?"

B'Elanna glanced up to see Tom Paris. She shook her head. "No."

He sat down and dropped his ration pack tray in front of him. His grayish eyes looked up to see what she was looking at and he frowned.

This peaked her curiosity even more. Was Tom's feelings about Sarah more than just wanting a date? B'Elanna suddenly didn't feel so bad that she was not the only one who was jealous on this ship. "Something wrong with the view?" she teased.

Tom only frowned more as Harry and Sarah got up and left the mess hall together, laughing about something. "No, nothing's wrong with the view."

"If I didn't know you any better Paris, I'd say you were jealous," she continued teasing getting up from the table and going to recycle her tray. It was time to get back to working on the alien device and the diagnostic. She would have to push thoughts of Harry aside until further notice.

However, the thoughts of Harry and Sarah eating lunch together, sharing a laugh, just would not escape her no matter how hard she tried to get her work done. Michael Janeway was still standing over her shoulder, soaking in every last bit of information that the computer was coming up with. If that kept up he could his mother the report and B'Elanna could return to engineering where her real work was.

Mindlessly drumming her fingers on the console she noticed Tuvok raise an eyebrow. "Does that form of activity make the computer scan faster?" the Vulcan questioned her.

"No, but it keeps me occupied while we wait." The doors of the bridge swishing open brought her attention about and Paris strode back onto the bridge, no trace of the frown he had worn in the mess hall. How can he let it go so easily? Oh, that's right, he's a pig. He probably has another love interest lined up behind Sarah and the Delaney sisters.

The computer beeping brought her attention about. "Captain," she called out, getting Janeway's attention. "We've completed our diagnostic on the alien device."

Janeway strode over to join the group, which was an odd mix when you really thought about it; a Vulcan, a five year old human boy, and a half Klingon. "What have you got?"

"It appears to be more than a weapon," B'Elanna reported. "It's also a very sophisticated medical scanner and surgical instrument."

"From what we can tell," Tuvok said, handing the device to Janeway, "it uses a neural resonator to stun the victim while a quantum imaging scanner begins a microcellular analysis of the entire body.

"The amount of information this thing can gather puts a tricorder to shame," B'Elanna continued. "You fire this at someone you learn everything about their anatomy, right down to their DNA sequencing."

Janeway turned the device over in her hands. "So we're dealing with aliens who've developed a technology specifically designed for extracting organs from other beings. The question is…why?" Chakotay demanded her attention and she mindlessly put the device down onto the science console.

"The alien ship has dropped out of warp," the first officer reported. "It's approaching a large asteroid."

The captain went to stand on the command station next to Lieutenant Barrett while Tuvok took his own station. "On screen."

"It's entered the asteroid captain," Paris reported.

"Hold position."

There were very little options that Janeway had at this moment. She could either take the ship into the asteroid if it was wide enough or she could try to flush the aliens out some how. But that could take hours, and Neelix didn't have hours. Even though the Doctor had come up with a solution for the time being, no one really knew how long he could survive using holographic lungs, not to mention that if ship's system ever went down and the emitters went off line, Neelix would die.

"MICHAEL!"

The shear volume of Lieutenant Barrett's voice startled everyone on that bridge and all eyes snapped about looking for the child.

The boy was standing at the door to the ready room and immediately Janeway could see that he had the alien device clutched in his little hands. The captain had moved the baby into the ready room so she could comfortably nap and she had no doubt that her son was about to test the device out on his baby sister. How could I be so careless with something that dangerous around? She hadn't even seen Michael move from his spot near the science station, for that matter, neither had B'Elanna. Michael was terribly clever, a trait that Janeway knew had been inherited from her; he could easily slip away from baby sitters, his mother, etc.

So how had Sarah seen it?

Michael looked sheepishly up at his mother. "I just wanted to see Ava's DNA."

His mother gestured that he give her the device back and he complied.

"Sit there," Janeway instructed, pointing to her chair.

Chakotay cleared his throat while the boy did as he was told. "Uh, Captain, we've determined the asteroid is man made."

Fascinating. What's even more fascinating that Sarah knew Michael had that device; another question for another time, perhaps.

"I think I've located where the alien ship entered the asteroid, Captain," Paris was saying bringing their attention about to the situation at hand. "There's an open crater on the limb of the asteroid."

"Let's see it," Chakotay ordered and the viewscreen changed from the image of the asteroid to the opening that Paris had found.

Janeway crossed her arms over her chest. "How large is that crater, Mister Paris?"

"Two hundred meters in diameter."

"Captain," Tuvok cautioned. "May I suggest that you consider carefully what you're about to do?"

"How do you know what I'm about to do?" Janeway asked, raising an eyebrow and glancing at Tuvok.

"I could describe you in detail the psychological observations I have made of you over the past four years," Tuvok answered, calmly. "Which lead me to conclude that you are about to take this ship into the asteroid, but suffice it to say, I know you quite well."

"One of these days, I'm going to surprise you Tuvok," she replied, with a wry grin. "But not today."

Janeway moved back into the command station and briefly looked at her counselor. "I've already consider other options. If Neelix has any chance of surviving, we have to act fast. Red Alert. Mister Paris lay in a course. Mister Tuvok maximum shields, phasers at the ready."

The Captain turned about in the command station and looked hotly at Michael, "And you stay right there and don't touch anything."

"Yes ma'am."

Voyager glided into the asteroid while Janeway made her way down the command steps to stand next to Chakotay and behind Paris. Her eyes watched the screen intently as the cavern's walls began to narrow.

"Captain," Paris said. "I'm reducing power to the aft-thrusters only. This passageway is getting a little too narrow for my taste."

"Use your discretion Mister Paris," Janeway replied, turning towards Tuvok. "Any sign of the alien ship, Commander?"

"We're still following the ion trail," Tuvok answered, "but electromagnetic interference is limiting our sensor range. I'm only able to scan five hundred meters a head of us."

Chakotay asked the next question. "Are there any indications we're being scanned or probed Mister Kim."

"Not yet."

"Sick bay to Bridge. May I enlist the services of Counselor Barrett please?"

Janeway glanced up at the lieutenant. Was it her imagination or did the Doctor sound anxious? "Certainly Doctor, she's on her way, Janeway out." For a moment the women made eye contact. "You heard the Doctor, he needs your help, we're just going to have to handle first contact without you."

#star trek voyager fanfiction #kathryn janeway #chakotay #janeway x chakotay #tom paris #sarah barrett (oc)#tom paris x ofc #harry kim #b'elanna torres #kes #neelix #tuvok #the doctor (emh)#this way became my journey

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joyful-voyager · 6 years

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Kiss #19: For Luck

@jhelenoftrek asked for this one. I had some time on my lunch break so I gave it a whirl. Enjoy.

Kiss # 19 – For Luck

I don't know how I let myself get talked into these things.

Actually, that's not true. I know exactly how I let myself get talked into these things, or at least this particular thing. Phoebe is family, after all. So when my only sibling called this morning in a panic because she has a gallery opening in Greenwich Village this evening and no one to watch the kids, I agreed to replace the babysitter in a heartbeat.

“Are you sure?" she asked, but I could see the gratitude in eyes and hear it in her voice. “Liam's almost old enough to take care of it, but it would be the first time for him and —"

“No worries, Pheebs,” I said. “I'll beam to Bloomington at 1700 hours. Five o'clock. It'll take me about ten minutes to walk up from the kiosk. Just leave something for me to feed them."

She sighed in relief. “Okay. That's perfect. Thanks, Kathryn. We'll be home as soon as we can."

I waved my hand vaguely at the screen. “No problem. Tomorrow is Saturday. I can stay over if you need me to."

“We'll try to be home early so you don't need to."

“It's not a problem either way. Anything I should know?"

My sister cocked her head to one side, thinking. “Liam's got basketball until 6:30 but he can walk home on his own. He eats like a horse these days so I'll leave an extra pizza just for him. Katie and Finn will probably drop on you by 8:00. Just put them to bed and then you and Liam can spend the rest of the night talking shop."

I smiled. The fourteen-year-old son of Phoebe's husband Seamus, Liam O'Leary had been bitten at a young age by the Starfleet bug – at about the same time, in fact, that his bachelor father had met and married Phoebe Janeway, sister of the infamous Captain who'd stranded her ship and crew halfway across the galaxy.

“That sounds just fine, Pheebs,” I said. “Any rules for the babysitter?"

She narrowed her eyes at me. “No booze and no boys."

I sat back in my chair and howled.

And that's how I got myself talked into beaming from San Francisco to Bloomington, Indiana, on a fine Friday night…after ten straight hours of meetings about the Brolelia refugee situation, each one more contentious than the last.

By the time I finally got back to my office after the last meeting, I was tired, hungry, and already on the verge of being late. I'd hoped to go home to change clothes and grab a cup of coffee at least, but there was no time to spare. I dashed across the quad, through the lobby of my building, and into the lift. “Fourth floor,” I ordered. “And make it quick!"

The lift ride took twice as long as usual, or at least it seemed that way. When the doors finally parted I sprang through –

And collided with someone tall and solid and very familiar.

“Oof!" he gasped and steadied me on my feet. “Slow down, Admiral!"

“Chakotay?" I looked up and caught his delighted smile, which was contagious. I gave him a brief hug. I hadn’t seen him in three months, but it felt much longer. “What are you doing here? I thought you were still on leave!"

He shrugged. “I was. But then I got bored and anxious for my next assignment, so I came back."

“Next assignment?" I stepped back and took him in, all six feet of him, clad in a brand-new gray-and-maroon Captain's uniform. He looked good. Very good.

He nodded. “I met with Admirals Paris and Senek this morning. We worked out a few possibilities. But I wanted to talk to you first." He gestured back down the hall toward my office. “I was afraid I'd missed you. Do you have some time for me? I really need your opinion on something. We could go back to your office, or…” He took a deep breath. “I was wondering if you’d like to have dinner with me, Kathryn.”

My shoulders slumped. Suddenly I wanted nothing more than to spend the evening with this man, my best friend and closest confidant, whom I hadn't seen since he'd broken up with his much-younger girlfriend after the debriefings and simply left the planet, and who looked damn good in his new uniform. But I had a prior commitment.

“I'm afraid now is not a good time," I said.

He took a hasty step away from me, the smile fading from his face. “I'm sorry, Kathryn, I had hoped -- ”

I placed a hand in the middle of his chest to stop whatever he was about to say. “No, you misunderstand. I have to be in Bloomington in about two minutes to babysit my niece and nephews. But I'm free all weekend if you want to stop over and talk."

His smile was back in a heartbeat. “I'd like that. Call me in the morning?"

“Of course." I headed down the hall toward my office to grab a PADD and a few other things I needed. He followed along in my wake, as I'd known he would. “Where are you staying?"

“With Harry for the weekend. Then I'm going to start looking for something more permanent here."

I nearly bumped into the doorframe of my own office, I was so surprised. “Here?"

He nodded happily. “All the assignments Paris and Senek and I came up with are based right here on Earth."

I stared up at him. “I assumed you'd go back into space, now that you've gotten your promotion. You could have a ship!"

“Why would I want to go back out? I've seen enough of the galaxy for several lifetimes, Kathryn. I'm sure I'll get the itch again eventually, but for now?" He gave me a look I hadn't seen since long before Seven and Jaffen ever entered our lives. “I don't need a ship when everything I want is right here."

I am not ashamed to say that my knees went weak, just for a second.

“Okay, then,” I blustered, ducked his gaze, and darted into my office. “I'll just call you at Harry's, then, shall I?"

He leaned against the doorframe. “First thing in the morning. I'll be waiting."

I grabbed a few random items from my desk and shoved them in a bag. “First thing. Excuse me."

With a gallant gesture, he ushered me from my office. He had taken the bag from me and shepherded me into the lift before I realized he meant to walk me all the way to the transporter kiosk. “Chakotay, I can manage this myself. I'm sure you have somewhere to be.”

“Not really."

“Don't you have plans with Harry?"

“He has a date. Actually, he told me to make myself scarce this evening. I was hoping that I would…” He cleared his throat. “But it’s not a problem. I'll find something to do."

I frowned. “You could call Tom and B'Elanna."

“I could." He shifted my bag higher on his shoulder. “How old are Phoebe's kids, again?" he asked as we crossed the quad, a little too nonchalantly.

“The twins are almost four. Holy terrors, both of them. And Seamus's son Liam is fourteen now. Taller than I am. Thinking about Starfleet Academy!"

Chakotay chuckled. “I can't imagine why."

I smacked him playfully on the arm. When he caught my fingers and folded my hand in his, I didn't know what to say.

When we got to the transporter kiosk, he handed over my bag. I gave the coordinates to the transporter tech and started to step up to the pad, but Chakotay stopped me with a gentle hand on my elbow. I turned back to him and, to my utter surprise, he leaned down and kissed my cheek.

It was all I could do not to raise my fingertips and press them to the place his lips had touched. “What was that for?" I asked.

“For…for luck,” he said, smiling. “I've seen those kids, you know. They're quite a handful. You'll need all the luck you can get."

“Well, thank you. I think,” I said, and stepped up to the pad.

Something made me stop the tech before she could send me to Bloomington, though. “Chakotay? Why don't you come with me tonight?"

He grinned and leapt up beside me. “I thought you'd never ask."

We stared at each other for a moment, then we both started to laugh. Something had been decided, something settled at last.

We were sprawled on the sofa with a bottle of wine when Phoebe and Seamus got home from New York, and I realized I’d obliterated the rules about booze and boys with a tricobalt device.

It was worth it.

###

#janeway x chakotay #I would totally write more of these if anyone wants to send me a number...#it's great practice #and breaks up my boring afternoons at work!

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i-heart-camsten · 7 years

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My Thoughts on JMo’s OuaT Departure.....

Thoughts about Jennifer Morrison's exit from OuaT.... as pondered on by me, a simple fan of the show, a lover of CaptainSwan, a fan of JMo's since House, a fan of Once since the start.

How am I dealing with this? One half of my OTP is exiting, while the other half has a contract to stay aboard, should the show renew. I wish I could say I was more upset than I am. The news flowed through me like icicles through my veins, but in the end, I was calm.

Did the musical spawn this unnerving calm? Possibly. If the show had ended forever with last night's final number, I would have cried, laughed and nodded, because it felt right. CaptainSwan is my muse, my strength, my belief in true love, and last night was their moment in time to face their happy beginnings, together.

Do I wish JMo had held the announcement of her departure just a little longer? Yeah, I really do. With the finale next week, and the promise that our stories would be wrapped up in a satisfactory manner, I really wish I didn't know that the last time I'd lay eyes on Emma Swan would be at 9:59pm next Sunday. I wish I was going into the episode without this knowledge in my heart. I wish for nothing more than CaptainSwan to ride off into the sunset together, be it upon ship or upon beetle, and to be able to draw my own conclusions about their futures. I wish I didn't know that the last time Killian reaches for Emma, will be the last time. I wish I didn't know that the last time Killian kisses Emma, it will be the last time. I wish to all that is holy that I didn't know the last time I see them together will be the last time. That knowledge could have come after I made my peace with whatever character departure we're given. I feel like I'll be watching next week for nothing more than those last moments and it will take away from the episode, but then that's my own problem and no one else's.

Do I bear any ill will towards JMo for her departure? Oh, hell no. She has spent six years catering to us, her fans. She brought to life a character that inspired me to write again after a long period of silence. Only a few actresses have managed to bring characters into my life that have become my muses, and for that I will always, always be grateful. I love Emma, desperately, completely, even as crazy as she often makes me. Without Jennifer driving that character, I know in my heart I would never have connected as deeply. That said, we all have to move on at some point in our lives to something greater. She is an actress, a producer, an everything. She lives by her trade; the best years of a person's life fly by quickly and they are in short demand. She needs to be out there, spreading her wings now instead of being trapped in one role, no matter how much she may love the character. The fact that we, as her fans, are devastated by her departure says more about her than it does us. We are her fans whether she is Emma Swan or a character we've not yet met. We need to be her strength in her life choices, a solid voice of confidence behind her telling her that we will always be there to support her, no matter what characters she leaves behind. She isn't leaving us, she's simply moving on to something different, and it is up to us to follow her on this journey. She has made an impact on my life with Emma Swan, and as such, she will always have my loyalty, just as my muses that came before her will always have the same.

How am I holding up? Hey, thanks for asking, I'm in tears, my heart's broken, but that's okay. Just as I patched my heart back together after losing Crichton and Aeryn, I've never faltered in my support of Claudia Black. Just as I've patched my heart back together after losing Rose and Ten, I've never missed a thing Billie Piper has done. Just as I've patched my heart together after saying goodbye to Jo and Zane, I watch a show I positively hate just to be there for Erica Cerra. I've said goodbye to Tom and B'Elanna, Riker and Troi, Connor and Abby, and I always knew that one day I'd say goodbye to Emma and Killian. But you know what? I have two awesome CaptainSwan tattoos to remind me that they existed, thanks to Jen and Colin. I have a pirate puppy called Killian who is very much aptly named. I have dozens of fics that I've written, tens of thousands of words, because the actors inspired me to step into their character's souls. I have new friends and new fans, thanks to their characters. I think I came out of this with more than the actors have in the end.

If we get a Season 7 renewal, will I watch? Yeah, I will. I'm not strong enough to turn my back on Rumple and Regina. Not to mention Hook. I could never turn my back on Killian. So if there is a renewal, I'll still be there watching. Maybe without the same abject love I have for the show now, but I will still be there to the end. One person does not make a show, she makes a character in an ensemble. I love all the actors and actresses and will support them through what I expect will be our final season, if the chance should arise.

Do I want to say anything to JMo with regards to this? Yep, I do. I want to tell her that she's making the right choice. I want her to know that this fan will always be there to support her. I want her to say goodbye to Emma Swan proudly, and bring the next character to life with just as much pride and confidence as she did our girl. I want her to know that I've loved Emma since the day she blew out her birthday candle, and I want her to know that I will grieve the loss of the character profoundly, but just as she moves on, so will I. This is not the end of the world, but the start of a new one. Above all else, I want her to know that.

Do I have anything to say to the other fans out there grieving? Yep, one thing, anyway. Keep your negativity to yourself. She doesn't owe you a minute more of her life than for what she was contracted. She doesn't owe Emma a minute more of her time now that season 6 has wrapped. She doesn't owe anyone anything. We are the ones that owe her - so any bullshit you want to sling? Sling it in another direction. Our girl is making big changes, and she is going to fly high. I know this fandom has the maturity to stand behind her and cheer her on. I know each and every one of us wishes her the absolute best. I know there are tears in our eyes and pain in our hearts as we say goodbye to Emma, and that is the time to smile and rejoice in Jennifer. It is on us to help her let Emma go, without guilt and without sorrow. We will be rewarded a thousand times over in her characters to come if we only stand tall today and show her our support.

Fly high, Jennifer. I cannot wait to enjoy the next beautiful, powerful character you bring into my life. I bid you good luck, best wishes, and above all, the greatest of love.

Tearfully yours,

A fan. A writer. A CSer. A Hooker. An Ugly Duckling. A Oncer For Life.

#jennifermorrison #onceuponatime #captainswan #emmaswan #brokenheart #texty text

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delwin47 · 8 years

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Fanfic (ST:Voy), Reckonings

One more early Voyager fic from me -- Happy Voyager Anniversary, everyone and thank you to @alphaflyer @rikerssexblouse and @pg1890 for joining the fun!

Summary: Voyager's first three days stuck in the Delta Quadrant: two crews, one ship and, of course, Tom Paris.

Originally posted on FFN and AO3

Reckonings

Stardate 48321.46: 12 hours after the destruction of the Caretaker's array...

He might as well paint a giant red X on his back.

After all, an X, no matter how large and how red, couldn't possibly be as conspicuous as the uniform in his hands.

Starfleet command red. The Paris legacy. And now the unmistakeable sign of Tom Paris's treachery to the three dozen or so Maquis with whom he will apparently be sharing Voyager's fifteen decks for the immediate future.

Sliding the silky material through his fingers, Tom's expression twists into a humorless grin.

He's so very screwed.

Mustn't forget to add to those Maquis a crew of over a hundred Starfleet personnel all of whom think that he is the worst sort of disgrace to that same uniform...

...except the Captain.

The captain who put him back behind the helm of a starship.

Tom's fingers twitch as he mentally runs through the series of banks and turns, twists and dives that he guided Voyager through as they battled the Kazon less than twelve hours before. Whoever developed that bio-neural circuitry knew their stuff: Voyager responded to his commands like no other Starfleet ship he'd ever piloted.

And her captain evidently makes command decisions like no other captain Tom has ever encountered – and he's known a few. Who but Kathryn Janeway would hand over her ship to a paroled convict with a more than checkered service record?

Tom shakes his head in bemusement as he pulls on first the uniform pants and then the shirt. At least he'll provide a subject upon which Voyager's crew and their Maquis...guests? passengers? prisoners? can agree – everyone (except the Captain) hates Thomas Eugene Paris.

As he pins the communicator to his shirt, it promptly chirps to life :Kim to Paris:

"Paris here," Tom responds. "What can I do for you, Harry?" And he can't help smiling to himself: make that 'except the Captain and Ensign Harry Kim'.

:Do you have an hour or so? I'm in the middle of trying to figure out how to adapt the navigational systems to our...current coordinates and I could use a second pair of eyes:

All crises having passed for the moment, Tom has nothing if not time. Answering Harry in the affirmative, he slips on his boots, does a quick check in the mirror (the empty gray collar still pulls his attention like the gap from a missing tooth) and heads out the door – eyes straight ahead, mouth firmly and wisely set shut.

As it turns out, the corridors of Voyager are next to empty. Tom passes two or three of the Voyager crew but not a single Maquis. Come to think of it, he isn't sure what happened to Chakotay, Torres and the others once Janeway cleared her bridge – he and Harry were busy trying to find a relatively safe section of space into which to move Voyager. Are the Maquis now confined to quarters? Or the brig?

Having spent more than his fair share of time in starship brigs, Tom feels a brief flash of sympathy for the possible fate of the Val Jean's crew, but mostly he's glad to be spared becoming walking target practice, at least for the moment. When the doors of his destination slide open, he exhales heavily.

"Tom!" Harry turns to greet him, pausing in his work at the sole terminal in the room to do so. "Thanks for coming down."

"No problem." Tom glances around the gridded room appreciatively. "They made them bigger."

Harry follows his gaze and frowns. "The holodecks?"

Tom nods, estimating. "It looks like they increased both the area and the height. That gives some interesting extra potential for programs with multiple participants."

"Are you a holo-programmer?" Harry sounds surprised.

Tom considers that as he walks to join the younger man at the terminal. "Only as a hobby," he clarifies. "And 'was', not 'am'. I haven't been in a holodeck or holosuite since...for a couple of years."

Harry glances over, obviously trying to decide which tack to take in navigating the hazardous topic of Tom's recent history. "Well, now you are," he tries with only somewhat forced cheer. Then, with a grimace, "And we're all certainly going to need some new entertainment over the next seventy years so you'd better brush off those programming skills."

There are any number of questionable assumptions built into Harry's comment, but Tom chooses to address one of the less personal ones. "Given the circumstances, Harry, I'm pretty sure Janeway's not likely to authorize the use of energy for holodeck entertainment."

Harry shrugs. "The holodecks are on a separate grid from the rest of the ship. Their energy is incompatible with the main systems." He turns back to the computer. "That's actually why I'm working down here: it's more energy efficient to run simulations through the holodecks than through the main computer."

Despite everything, Tom chuckles. "So we may all starve out here, but even unofficial crew might be able to score holodeck privileges? Hell, maybe I'll invite Chakotay and his gang down to play some Velocity."

"Now that may be more difficult."

Which is interesting in itself, but even more interesting is the tone in which Harry drops his hint – the tone of someone with a nugget of information that he is all too eager to share. The straight-as-an-arrow Ensign Harry Kim is, Tom surmises, a first rate gossip hound.

Given that this particular nugget is one in which he has a personal interest, Tom has no problem biting. "And why is that?"

As expected, Kim pauses in his work and gives Tom his full attention. "Well, according to B'Elanna..."

"When were you talking to Torres?" No, not 'Torres'. 'B'Elanna'. When had that happened?

"The Captain ordered us both back down to Sickbay so that the Emergency Medical Hologram could make sure that virus or whatever it was that the Caretaker put into our systems was completely cleared out," Harry explains offhandedly, clearly impatient to get back to his point. "Anyway, B'Elanna said that all of the Maquis had been packed into various crew quarters and confined there."

Which is good news for Tom as evidently the lack of Maquis roaming the corridors this morning wasn't just a coincidence. But he finds himself backtracking through Harry's statement. "So are you okay? With the virus, I mean?"

Harry shrugs again, unconcerned. "Oh yeah. The EMH fixed that right up." Then he looks at Tom more directly. "By the way, I never did thank you for coming after me – or us – down there. We were in pretty bad shape before you found us. You probably saved our lives."

Tom scratches at the back of his neck. "You and Torres are both pretty stubborn. I'm sure you would have clawed your way out of there eventually."

Harry just grins. "So there's that, plus the Ferengi thing on DS9, not to mention your...help on the bridge yesterday – that's at least three I owe you, Paris."

The tone is light and casual: this is part of the script, the usual back-and-forth between crewmates who are used to putting their lives in each other's hands on a regular basis.

But it brings Tom up short. Because he and Harry are not, in fact, crewmates. And he disqualified himself from this sort of banter more than two years ago. Which no one seems to have any trouble remembering – except Harry.

Speaking of owing someone...

"Hey, Tom?" Harry glances over at him quizzically. "You okay?"

Tom blinks away his train of thought and turns back to his friend. "Yeah, Harry." Then he grins and briefly clasps the younger man's shoulder. "I'm fine." He turns his attention to the console. "Weren't you looking for my help with something?"

They spend the next hour working out how to compensate for the Delta Quadrant's lack of Federation navigational infrastructure until Harry is due to report back to the bridge. Once they part outside the holodeck, Tom begins to make his way back to his quarters, passing through still quiet and nearly empty corridors.

So at least he is running good there.

Stardate 48324.2: 36 hours after the destruction of the array...

So much for running good – though it was nice while it lasted.

Tom walks through the doors of the mess hall to find it – as expected – crawling with a dozen or so leather-clad Maquis.

An attempt to replicate breakfast in his quarters an hour earlier had been frustrated by an inactive replicator and a cheerful explanation from the computer that all meals were to be taken in the mess hall in order to maximize power conservation and centralize ration distribution. His brief musing on whether that would include the Maquis was answered by playing back an obviously hastily composed message from Harry which strongly suggested that Tom might want to wait until the ensign's shift break to head down to the mess hall for a meal.

Maquis included then.

Tom had taken a moment to wonder exactly how the negotiations on that one had gone down. Most likely Chakotay had pledged the good behavior of his crew – a pledge, no doubt, made in good faith and one that would be largely effective.

With the notable exception of behavior toward a certain ex-Maquis-turned-rat.

Having sent back a quick note declining Harry's well-intentioned but ultimately futile offer – Tom couldn't exactly hide behind the younger man for the next seventy years – Tom had made the decision to head directly into the line of fire.

His entrance immediately draws the attention of every person in the room, including the two Starfleet security officers who have clearly been stationed there to maintain order.

Neither of them looks exactly glad to see him.

Tom nods in their direction anyway but doesn't bother to wait for their acknowledgment. Feigning unconcern, he grabs a tray and makes his request of the replicator before moving to an open table where his back will be to the replicator and the door but he'll maintain a clear view of the full room and its occupants.

His attention ostensibly on his food, Tom takes a census of his fellow diners. Henley and Jonas occupy one table with two other Maquis whom he doesn't recognize. At the sight of him, Henley looks somewhat obscenely like a cat who's just been presented with an unexpected bowl of milk – or perhaps more accurately with a mouse with which to play. On the other side of the room, Chell's blue head glows as he whispers animatedly to the fellow Bolian seated across from him, his pointing finger and equally pointed gaze leaving little doubt as to the subject of his commentary. At a third table, Ken Dalby sits alone, tray pushed away. Slouched against the back of his chair, his arms are folded tightly to his chest and his calculating eyes are locked on Tom.

The other half dozen Maquis are unknown to Tom, evidently having joined Chakotay's crew after his own precipitous departure. But, based on the glares they are aiming in his direction, that's not affecting their ability to take Tom's betrayal personally.

Thirteen.

And all of them with very little left to lose.

A glance over at the gold-uniformed Starfleet officers confirms that help from that corner will be slow to arrive at best. Both men have subtly turned their shoulders, suggesting that it might well take an extra few seconds for them to notice any trouble starting in the direction of Voyager's observer.

And Tom well knows that a lot can happen in a few seconds.

He scans the room once more for potential sources of aid...like whom? Unless Harry cuts out in the middle of his bridge shift for a snack of ration bars... Chakotay, maybe? Tom did save the guy's life and, whatever else one might say about the man, one couldn't really doubt his sense of honor. Torres? An odd twist in his gut reminds him just how thoroughly he's burned that bridge.

"Tom Paris?"

He jumps violently at the soft voice. Little good it does keeping a view of the room before him if he misses the entrance of someone from behind. Twisting around, he identifies the voice's owner and hastily stands to cover the severity of his reaction. "That's me, yes." And then, regaining his composure, he adds, "It's Kes, right?"

The young woman nods, smiling and, despite the roomful of Maquis, Tom feels some of the tightness in his back and shoulders ease.

Motioning with the food tray in her hands, she asks, "May I join you?"

Tom nods, indicating the other chair and going so far as to pull it out for her. Kes sits, her back now to the room. Looking over her shoulder, Tom doesn't fail to notice that the security officers are once again on full alert: Tom Paris might be an easy victim to sacrifice but the elfin newcomer who has somewhat unwisely chosen to join him evidently is not.

Although, as Tom surveys the rest of the mess hall, the officers' renewed attention may be unneeded. The Maquis have turned back to their meals and the tension in the air has abated. He finds himself unsurprised that Kes seems to have called out the better angels of the freedom fighters' natures.

She might as well be an angel herself, with that air of innocence and kindness that seems to emanate from her. 'Unearthly' might be a fair descriptor and perhaps appropriate for a species that only lives nine years.

"I've been looking for the chance to thank you," Kes begins, interrupting his thoughts.

"To thank me?"

"For helping to rescue me." At what must be his somewhat blank look, she clarifies, "From Jabin."

"Ah." He has somehow almost forgotten about finding her beaten and half-starved in the Kazon encampment – had that only been two days ago? The holographic doctor did its work well and quickly in healing her. Not quite so innocent, then, and that kindness is more hard won than he was giving her credit for. "That wasn't our intent in going down to the surface," Tom explains honestly, then adds, "but I'm certainly happy to have helped."

Kes smiles warmly and, without thought, Tom smiles back. It's such an easy, natural interaction, without calculation. When did that become so unusual?

They both take a bite or two of their meals and Kes's gaze moves to the mess hall's expansive viewports. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" she comments, indicating the starscape outside those ports. "And it's so amazing to be traveling through open space like this."

Having spent far too much of the last year landlocked, Tom can agree with that sentiment wholeheartedly. "You've never been off-planet before, have you?"

"No." Kes's eyes are still on the stars. "Neelix told me stories – about his ship and all the different systems and planets – all the different species." She gives a self-deprecating shrug. "They seemed like fairy tales at the time."

"And now you're going to live that fairy tale," Tom points out to her. "You and Neelix can travel to all of those places."

"That's true," she agrees, taking another bite of food. "Still," and she looks back out at the stars, "I can't help but wonder what it would be like to see it all from this ship – to be a member of a starship crew." She turns back to him with another enchanting smile. "It must be a wonderful life."

Tom chokes a little on a bite of food that seems to have gotten caught in his throat. At the sound, Henley glances back in his direction, likely hoping to witness his untimely demise courtesy of a ration bar. Jonas says something to draw her attention back and she joins in her tablemates' laughter. To the side of the room, the two security officers are chatting quietly with each other. For the moment, Tom Paris is forgotten.

Which is about the best that he can hope for.

"Yeah," he agrees roughly. And his own eyes turn to the starscape. "It must be."

Stardate 48326.94: 60 hours after the destruction of the array...

Two quadrants away from Earth and San Francisco, but "Hurry up and wait" is still evidently the unofficial Starfleet motto for those lacking in rank insignia.

How many times during their first weeks at the Academy did Tom and his cohorts sprint in order to arrive at designated place X at appointed time Y only to spend the next half hour cooling their heels and waiting on someone higher up in the Starfleet pecking order?

Of course, at that point, 'someone' could have been just about anyone in uniform: it was pretty much impossible to get lower in the food chain than a freshly arrived Academy cadet.

Well, pretty much impossible unless you happened to be Thomas Eugene Paris. Seems like he's managed to accomplish that feat quite neatly.

Across the bridge at the tactical station, the lieutenant on duty – Andrews, maybe? – hasn't stopped glaring at him since Tom walked onto the bridge.

Perhaps 'rushed' more than 'walked'. Old habits die hard and one wouldn't want to be late when summoned by the captain of the ship to her ready room. Particularly when that captain put the helm of that ship in one's hands three days before. Even more particularly when one hasn't heard a word from that captain since finally, reluctantly turning that helm back over to someone whose gray collar wasn't bare.

Not that he blames her for the lack of communication. Right now Kathryn Janeway has bigger issues to deal with than the ex-Starfleet-lieutenant, ex-Maquis-pilot, current-convict-on-probation who happens to be an observer on her ship.

Like what to do with the three dozen not-so-ex Maquis who also happen to be residing on that ship.

Andrews hasn't let up his glower, and Tom begins to wonder if he's managed to do something to piss off the guy personally, beyond the usual 'cashiered out of Starfleet and convicted felon' stuff. Doesn't he have a station he's supposed to be monitoring anyway?

"Lieutenant?" comes Harry's voice from behind Tom at ops. "Could you confirm that the energy signature in grid forty seven is just a pocket of ambient radiation? My reading is unclear."

At which Andrews finally looks back down at his board. The corner of Tom's mouth twitches upward into something between a smirk and a grin, but he resists the urge to look back at Harry, instead mentally adding to his tally of what he owes the younger man.

Tom's actually been doing a good bit of mental calculating in the last couple of days – and not with good results. The inescapable conclusion of his ruminations has been that Voyager needs the Maquis. Without them, she simply will not have the manpower she needs to function sustainably, not to mention to begin a journey home.

And, if he's being honest, Tom knows that most of the Val Jean's crew are good people with talents that could serve Voyager well. Hell, Torres by herself would probably cut the length of the journey back to the Alpha Quadrant in half if given a crack at the engines. A captain would be foolish not to utilize those talents and foolish Kathryn Janeway is not.

Which is not good news for Tom Paris.

The Captain will not ask him to leave, he knows that. For one, he's his father's son, and secondly, it is by her request that Tom is on Voyager and in the Delta Quadrant to begin with. The combination of loyalty and slight guilt will ensure him a bunk and rations. But, if his existence is going to be limited to draining Voyager's resources and staying one step ahead of a Maquis lynch mob, he might as well still be in that penal colony in New Zealand.

From the conn, Culhane calls over to where Tuvok sits in the captain's chair: "Sir, I have the results of the navigational surveys that you asked me to run."

Without meaning to, Tom looks over at the ensign and Voyager's helm. Had it been for an hour, maybe two that he had occupied Culhane's seat?

The chance to fly again had been an unexpected and incredible gift; even more so had been the act of faith which had put him at the conn – the particular type of faith that a captain must have in her crew and that Tom thought he had forfeited forever.

Tom's eyes move again to the helm, so tantalizingly close.

Yet still absolutely out of his reach.

He may have raced like a new cadet to answer Janeway's summons, but the news awaiting him in the ready room can only be bad.

Despite that, he'll take the opportunity to thank her for giving him one more chance to fly a starship and to feel – if only for that short time – like a member of a crew again. For that, she has his endless gratitude.

The ready room door slides open, and Chakotay walks out, distracted and thoughtful. He glances Tom's way, but his look is without acknowledgment and inscrutable. He continues without pause to the turbolift and exits the bridge without a word.

Drawing on years of practice, Tom tries to school his own features back to impassivity as he steps up to the ready room door and sounds the chime. But, even though he refuses to glance back at the helm one more time, there is a tightness to his jaw that he can't ease as the door opens before him and he steps through.

Time to be cut loose again.

#star trek voyager #fanfic #delwin47 fanfic

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chronotrek · 7 years

Text

754. [VOY] Endgame

SCORE:

(4/5 stars)

It's been 33 years since Voyager was stranded in the Delta Quadrant, and the 10th anniversary of their return home to Earth. At the reunion, everyone catches up on what they've been up to since the return home. Harry, now a captain, meets Naomi Wildman's daughter, who he hasn't seen since she was a baby. He's been away for four years on a deep space assignment and missed the last few. Tom's got a paunch and is balding and is a published holonovelist. The Doctor arrives with brand new wife in tow, and has finally picked a name: Joe. Barclay has been adopted as part of the crew thanks to his efforts in helping get them home. B'Elanna Torres is a Federation liaison to Qo'noS. Notably absent from the reunion are Tom and B'Elanna's daughter, who is on a secret mission assigned by Janeway; Tuvok, who has suffered from a form of Vulcan dementia for many years; and Seven and Chakotay, both deceased.

After the reunion, Janeway pays Tuvok a visit because she's going to be going on a trip and she doesn't know that she'll ever be returning. He thinks she is an imposter, because Janeway always visits on Sundays and today is Thursday, but returns to frantically scribbling notes on the floor. Janeway gently strokes his head and kisses it before leaving him a gift on his nightstand: a framed TV Guide Voyager cast photo. She requests a house call from Doctor "Joe" who believes something is up because she's always tried to get out of routine physicals, but she just wants to get it out of the way before she goes on her trip. She asks him about an experimental drug he's been working on to protect against tachyon radiation, and orders him to give her some. He's apprehensive but an order is an order, especially when it's "classified."

Janeway has traveled to meet with a Klingon named Korath. Ensign Miral Paris, the absent daughter of the reunion, has been assigned to negotiate with him for a certain piece of technology in exchange for getting a seat on the Klingon High Council, which B'Elanna as Federation liaison was able to help procure. Janeway meets Korath (hey, it's Vaughn Armstrong playing yet another Klingon!) and he tries to alter the deal, asking for advanced shielding technology he saw on her shuttle. She demands he honor the original arrangement, and he kicks her out of his cave. She returns apparently hat in hand to agree to the new terms, but uses it as a ruse to get near the device she wants from him so she can slap a transponder on it and abscond. The Klingons try to pursue her vessel but it has advanced ablative armor deployed and she's able to get away.

Of course, that's not the end of things. She's met by the Rhode Island, Captain Harry Kim's ship, and he says he's taking her into custody. On the Rhode Island, he says this is being kept within the Voyager family and he'd prefer to keep it that way but he wants to stop her from doing what Barclay said she's doing. But she's known him a long time and is able to pull on his heart strings to get him to agree to let her go and attempt her plan. She outfits the device onto the shuttle and is ready to activate a temporal rift when the Klingons catch up with her. She calls back the Rhode Island to help hold them off while she passes through the rift...

Meanwhile, in Voyager's present day, B'Elanna has been dealing with several false labors and is about ready to tear the Doctor's head off over it. Harry's started a delivery betting pool. Chakotay and Seven have started dating, with Seven undergoing the procedure to prevent her cortical node from killing her for falling in love. She's also taking pointers from Neelix who's still in contact with them in his new job as Federation Ambassador to the Delta Quadrant. Neelix is thinking of asking Dexa to marry him. Tuvok loses a game of kal-toh to Icheb, which disturbs him and he has the Doctor check on his neurodegenerative condition. The Doctor does notice a decline and ups his dosage, advising him to let Janeway know. Tuvok will tell Janeway only if and when it impacts his job performance.

Voyager detects a nebula nearby that appears to be a wormhole hub. Harry gets his hopes up that one of them might point to the Alpha Quadrant. They set a course, but upon entering the nebula they have a near-collision with a Borg cube. Janeway has them leave as fast as they can, while the Borg Queen (played this time by Alice Krige, reprising her role from First Contact) observes from a distance and allows them to retreat unharmed. Harry wants to go back and is devising a strategy to evade or fight the Borg in order to get home, but Janeway puts an end to that and says the risk is too great.

A temporal rift opens near Voyager, and Admiral Janeway's shuttle comes through. She immediately barks orders to them to close the rift behind her, and Captain Janeway hesitantly follows them, but wants to know what her future self is doing here. "I've come to bring Voyager home," she says, on a transmission intercepted by the Borg Queen herself. Janeway is apprehensive of the Admiral, but has the Doctor verify that she is who she says she is. The Admiral has a plan for them to reverse course and head back into the nebula. Her shuttlecraft is carrying advanced technology that can be modified for Voyager that will allow them to kick some Borg ass and get through to return home.

The Queen comes to Seven that night as she regenerates and warns her that she knows about their plan and will destroy them if they come back to her nebula, punctuating the point by causing a low-energy surge in Seven's cortical node, knocking her out of her alcove. The Admiral says they shouldn't pay the threat any heed, as she has decades of experience fighting the Queen. With modifications to the ship complete (advanced shielding, ablative armor, and transphasic torpedoes that can kill a cube in one or two hits) they re-enter the nebula and easily fight off a few cubes before finding the source of the wormhole readings.

It's not just a few wormholes. It's one of the Borg's six transwarp hubs, from which they can deploy ships nearly anywhere in the galaxy in a matter of minutes. Janeway is angered that the Admiral did not tell her this is what it was, and the Admiral deliberately kept it from her because she knew Janeway would rather destroy the hub than get home. Janeway orders them back out of the nebula overriding the Admiral's demands. Janeway wants them to devise a plan to destroy the hub, because doing so could save millions of lives. They discuss tactics, but the Admiral grows impatient, because she's had years to consider these options and they don't pan out. The Queen directly controls the hubs from the Borg unicomplex, and any attack they launch would be almost immediately countered. They can't go through it and then destroy it, because the only thing at the other end is an exit. While they discuss things she's had years to ponder, the Queen is analyzing their new technology and developing countermeasures.

In a private conversation between the two, the Admiral accuses Janeway of making the same mistake she made seven years ago by putting the hypothetical lives of strangers above that of her own crew. Janeway seems to think Voyager comes out pretty well considering they eventually make it home, but she hasn't been told what they lost. Seven of Nine will die three years from now, and her death will utterly destroy Chakotay. He'll never be the same again, and he'll die after returning home. Tuvok has his neural degeneration. The cure lies in the Alpha Quadrant, melding with a family member, but if they wait another sixteen years to get home, it will be too progressed to treat. Altogether Janeway will lose 22 crewmembers before getting them home. That is what she is sacrificing by not going through the hub as it presents itself.

Janeway speaks to the senior staff and puts the decision in their hands. Seven years ago she made a unilateral decision stranding them here and it is not fair to make the same choice now without their agreement. But the crew, one by one, are willing to make that sacrifice. Tuvok is fully willing to sacrifice his mental health to strike such a blow against the Borg. Seven would gladly die in 3 years time to atone for her Borg atrocities by crippling them. In fact, she attempts to break up with Chakotay to spare him the grief her death would cause, but he won't have it. The future is not set in his mind, and any relationship has risks, ones he is fully willing to take. Harry points out that nobody wants to get home more than he does, and he is willing to put that on hold to hit the Borg where it hurts.

The Admiral remembers the idealism that she had lost over the years as she has her first cup of coffee in a long time, and realizes that this is the more important fight. Still, Janeway thinks there's got to be a way for the both of them to get what they want. The Admiral has an idea in mind that she once discounted for being too risky, but she thinks it's worth it now. Janeway injects her with a hypospray, the contents of which are unknown to the viewer, and the Admiral takes her shuttle out and into the transwarp hub.

As they prepare to assault the hub, Torres is in sickbay. It's a genuine labor this time. Tom wants to stay in sickbay for the birth of his daughter, but he's needed at the helm. B'Elanna makes him go. She'll be okay. The Admiral goes all the way to the Borg unicomplex, where she broadcasts an image of herself into the mind of the Borg Queen. She tells the Queen that Janeway plans to destroy the hub, a plan the Queen knows about and is unconcerned regarding its success. Even so, with Voyager's modifications, they'll do a lot of damage in the attempt and the Admiral is offering a path to avoid that. She'll give the Queen information on how to adapt to all of the modifications if she agrees to tractor Voyager kicking and screaming into the Alpha Quadrant. The Queen doesn't believe she'd betray them, but the Admiral says she's saving them from themselves. She's seeking to ensure the welfare of her collective.

Of course, the Queen has simply been buying time to triangulate the Admiral's signal, and finds her cloaked vessel easily. She beams the Admiral directly to her chambers and assimilates her... just as the Admiral wanted. Janeway injected her with a pathogen that is cutting the Queen off from the collective and causing all sorts of havoc within the collective. As the Queen begins falling apart, unable to control the adaptations of the transwarp hub, Voyager enters and begins launching multiple torpedoes to detonate several conduit apertures, causing a cascading failure to destroy the hub. The Queen watches as she loses the network, but finds a sphere that can still hear her thoughts and orders it to pursue Voyager. She reasons if they kill Janeway before she makes it home, her future version will never exist to infect her. (Which is silly, this future version of Janeway has already ensured her timeline's erasure, but don't tell the Queen that.) It's the last command she issues before collapsing lifeless on the ground, causing the unicomplex itself to be destroyed along with the Admiral.

Voyager is attacked by the sphere and allows itself to be tractored inside the vessel to shield itself from the cascading shockwave they're fleeing. An aperture opens a light-year from Earth, and Admiral Paris assembles all ships in the area to convene on it to fight back whatever Borg invasion is about to happen. But as the sphere emerges from the aperture, it explodes from the inside, Voyager emerging from the debris. Tom is called away from the helm to greet his newborn daughter, and Chakotay takes the pilot's seat as Janeway orders him to set a course for home. It ends rather abruptly at that point. The producers explained that they had already gone over the events of Voyager returning home in the beginning of the episode, but that's less fulfilling considering that future never happened now. I would have preferred a little less "All Good Things"-style future postulating and a little more proper homecoming celebration.

NITPICKS

I suppose this is more a retroactive nitpick for the episode "Natural Law," but Seven and Chakotay's relationship was even less set up than Troi and Worf's. They missed a perfect opportunity to start having them develop feelings for each other while among the Ventu. You can point to the holodeck Chakotay romance, but that counts as romantic development as much as Worf being married to Troi in a parallel universe.

It's not clear how Voyager was able to survive to get tractored into the sphere. I can extrapolate that they stood down to put the Borg at ease, but I wouldn't think the Borg would take any chances and would have boarded the ship anyway, and since they had the technology assimilated from Admiral Janeway's knowledge, they wouldn't need to assimilate Voyager's crew, just destroy them.

FAVORITE QUOTES

Lana: Joe has a real flair for romantic gestures. Paris: Joe? Doctor: I decided I couldn't get married without a name. Paris: It took you thirty three years to come up with Joe?

Tuvok: You're an impostor. Janeway: No, Tuvok. It's me. Tuvok: Admiral Janeway visits on Sunday. Today is Thursday. Logic dictates that you are not who you claim to be.

Paris: Can't you induce? Doctor: I wouldn't recommend it. Paris: If this keeps happening, we'll never get any sleep. Doctor: You think it's bad now?

Kim: Where's your sense of adventure? Paris: I left it in that nebula and I'm not going back for it. Kim: Don't you want to find a way home? Paris: I am home, Harry.

Queen: You've always been my favorite, Seven. In spite of their obvious imperfections. I know how much you care for the Voyager crew. So I've left them alone. Imagine how you'd feel if I were forced to assimilate them. Seven: Voyager is no threat to the Collective. We simply want to return to the Alpha Quadrant. Queen: I've no objection to that. But if you try to enter my nebula again, I'll destroy you.

Admiral: Am I the only one experiencing deja vu here? Janeway: What are you talking about? Admiral: Seven years ago you had the chance to use the Caretaker's array to get Voyager home. Instead, you destroyed it. Janeway: I did what I knew was right. Admiral: You chose to put the lives of strangers ahead of the lives of your crew. You can't make the same mistake again. Janeway: You got Voyager home, which means I will too. If it takes a few more years then that's— Admiral: Seven of Nine is going to die.

Admiral: Must be something you assimilated. Queen: What have you done? Admiral: I thought we didn't need words to understand each other. Queen: You've infected us with an neurolytic pathogen. Admiral: Just enough to bring chaos to order.

Janeway: Set a course for home.

#star trek #voyager #voy #chronotrek #chronological #review #endgame #series finale #borg #transwarp hub #reginald barclay #dwight schultz #borg queen #alice krige #time travel

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summahsunlight · 4 years

Text

This Way Became My Journey, Ch. 19

"Tuvok to Janeway."

The Vulcan's steady, strong voice cut through her slumber. Kathryn opened her eyes and immediately realized that sleeping on the chaise lounge had been a big mistake; her neck was aching terribly. Sitting up, she rubbed her eyes, and pressed her combadge. "Go ahead, Tuvok."

"The modifications are complete. We're ready to proceed into Rupor space on your orders, Captain."

Was it morning already? She felt like she had just laid down and had gotten no sleep at all. Stretching her neck, she told him, "I'm on my way. Hold our position until I get there."

"Understood, Captain. Tuvok out."

Kathryn climbed off of the chaise lounge and went into the bathroom to splash some cold water on her face. There would be no time for a shower today; a fresh uniform change, fixing of hair and makeup was all she had time for today. But being a mother she was used to not being able to shower in the morning. Speaking of the children, where are they? Kathryn peeked into the mirror, which gave her a clear view of the living room. Ava had moved from the chaise lounge sometime in the night and was now sprawled out on the sofa. Kathryn had no doubt that Michael was still sleeping peacefully in his room.

That won't last for long; I better take advantage of it.

She quickly slipped out of the rumpled uniform that she had slept in, pulled on a fresh one, and shook her hair out, reaching for her brush. As she did so she heard the doors to the living room swish open and she smiled. "Morning, Tal."

The young Bajoran's face appeared in the mirror, watching as Janeway did her hair. "Good morning, Captain. Are the children still in bed?" A frustrated cry from the sofa indicated that Ava was no longer asleep. "I'll get her, Captain. Keep getting ready."

Kathryn watched in the mirror as Tal picked Ava off of the sofa and went to the dining area, picking out some ration pack that was suitable for children. After we retrieve Chakotay and Sarah, those damn replicators are getting fixed. Pinning the last bit of hair back into her bun, Kathryn touched up her make up, splashed on some perfume that had been her husband's favorite, and went out into the living room. A sleepy-eyed Michael had joined Tal and Ava at the table, and both children were looking at the ration packs pensively. Tal was telling them, quite animatedly, to just pretend that the ration packs were in fact, the best thing they had ever tasted before.

"The best thing Ava's ever tasted is that goopy cereal Mama gives her," Michael said, moving his fork about the dehydrated food. "I don't think this game is going to work, Tal."

"Oh come on," Tal interjected. "I did it this morning."

Michael looked up at his mother, pleading in his eyes. "Mama, do I really have to eat this?"

"I'm afraid honey, until the replicators are fixed, you do," Kathryn replied, leaning down to kiss the top of his dark hair. "I'll see you later."

She ruffled Ava's hair on the way out of the quarters and proceeded to the turbo lift. In a few short hours the nightmare of the past two days could be all over, she didn't know why that wasn't making her feel any better. Perhaps she was afraid of what they were going to find once they got back to that planetoid. Ensign Kim's long range sensor reports indicated that it was Class L, not the best place to try and survive for a few days while waiting to be rescued.

When the doors to the bridge swished open, Kvati, the engineer that had been assigned to lead the team modifying Voyager's shields greeted her, " Good morning, Captain Janeway, like we promised the modifications are complete. Voyager should be able to pass through Rupor space undetected for several hours."

Kathryn nodded her head in appreciation as she made her way to the command station. "Mister Paris, how far are we from the planetoid we tracked the shuttle too?"

"If we travel at warp six we could be there in two hours," Tom answered, sounding much more rested than the night before. "If we travel any faster than that we risk interfering with the shield modifications and being detected by our friends."

The Captain set her jaw. Two hours, it could all be over in two hours. "Mister Paris, set a course for the planetoid, warp six."

"Aye, Captain."

Harry Kim had been in engineering, helping B'Elanna maintain the constant change of shield variances to keep them hidden from the Rupor, when Captain Janeway had summoned him to the transporter room. Grabbing a tricorder and a phaser before he left, he told B'Elanna to wish them luck. She had responded that Klingons don't believe in luck, but offered it to him anyways.

He found Janeway already standing on the transporter pad, her own tricorder and phaser in her belt, Tuvok was standing with her. Harry bounded up onto the transporter pad, on the other side of the Captain, and she gave the transporter chief a small nod of her head. Soon he felt the familiar sensation of being broken down to the very last atom in his body. It tingled; he always had loved how it made him feel, like he was free to go anywhere he pleased.

A rocky and barren landscape soon materialized before him. Harry looked about, reaching for his tricorder and pulling it out of his belt. Opening it up he noticed a deep path cut through the rock and his tricorder was picking up traces of plasma and other alloys that were common in Starfleet vessels and shuttlecrafts. He swallowed, they had transported directly to the crash sight. "Captain, I'm not picking up any life signs," he said softly, his dark eyes searching the face of his commanding officer. Her deep blue eyes were conveying a deep sorrow, one that Harry had not seen in her before. She was on the verge of tears, he was sure of it, and he felt a strong urge to comfort her. But there were no comforting words, for he was in just as much pain.

"It's quite possible, Captain, that Commander Chakotay and Counselor Barrett abandoned the shuttle to look for supplies and a place to set up camp," Tuvok reasoned, breaking the silence. "We should have Voyager do a planet wide sweep for human life signs."

Janeway's only response was a curt nod of her head. She motioned for Harry to follow her while Tuvok made the arrangements with Voyager to scan the area for Chakotay and Sarah.

Harry walked a few meters with her before they came across the shuttle, crumpled against the cavern's walls. His heart sank at the sight. What are the chances that anyone could survive a crash like this?

Janeway was picking her way through the open hatch, stepping over debris, scanning the area. Harry watched as her eyes took in the charred inner cabin, the smell of burnt plasma lingering in the chilled air. Suddenly she stopped and leaned down, brushing aside some ash to pick something up. When she straightened her form Harry could clearly see what she held in the palm of her hand; two Starfleet issued combadges. The sound of Tuvok approaching, his boots walking across the stone ground could be heard echoing off the walls, while Janeway ran her fingers absentmindedly over the two mangled badges.

"Voyager is scanning the area now, Captain," Tuvok stated, his eyes falling on the badges. The silence lingered, awkwardly, between the three officers.

And suddenly, Janeway's fingers closed in around the combadges, her eyes snapping up to meet Tuvok's. There was fire burning in them, Harry realized, the trace of the pain and sadness gone, replaced with a fury that was nothing like he had ever seen. "Get another team down here to search the area. Harry and I are going to go through this mess and see if we can piece together what, exactly happened."

With a nod of his head, Tuvok disappeared from the shuttle.

"Let's get to it, Ensign," Janeway said, turning about, venturing deeper into the destroyed shuttle.

Harry found that he had yet to learn how to bury his emotions like Janeway could and focus on the task at hand. His mind kept wandering to Sarah, how she had been becoming his friend, and now was added to the list of losses that Voyager had endured in just the three short weeks that they had been stranded out in the Delta Quadrant. Was this something that Janeway had learned over time, how to bury emotions? Was it the outcome of years in Starfleet? Or was it just a personality trait? Either way, Harry wished that he had the ability.

"Odd," Janeway's voice brought him out of his ponderings. He ventured into the shuttle to where she was standing, scanning the walls with her tricorder. "These conduits didn't explode because of the crash; they exploded because someone fired a Starfleet issued phaser at them to apparently catch the cabin on fire."

"So, the combadges were accidentally left behind?"

Janeway shook her head. "No, I think the combadges were left there as a ruse, to make the Rupor think the occupants in the shuttle had perished." She leaned down and started to scan the area where she had found the two badges. "Normally, there would be traces of human DNA, but I'm not picking any up where the badges where, meaning that Chakotay and Sarah weren't there when the conduits exploded."

Harry, feeling a new sense of hope, began to scan the rest of the cabin. Maybe the Commander and Counselor had survived this crash after all. Then his tricorder beeped, and he frowned, turning about to Janeway. "Captain, I think you should see this."

She picked her way through the ash towards him and began to scan the area that Harry was standing in front. With a frown she tapped her combadge. "Janeway to sickbay. Doctor, I'm sending up a piece of debris of the crash sight. I want you to confirm that it has either Commander Chakotay's or Counselor Barrett's DNA on it."

"Understood Captain," the Doctor's voice came over the comline. "I'll be ready for it."

Janeway took her tricorder and placed it on the piece of charred conduit that Harry had been scanning. She tapped her combadge again. "Voyager, lock onto my tricorder and beam it, along with the piece of conduit, directly to sickbay."

Harry heard someone answer, but his eyes were transfixed on the piece of conduit that disappeared in the transporter beam. It wouldn't take the Doctor long to determine if the traces of blood he had found on the debris were Chakotay's or Sarah's, and that would confirm, without a doubt that the Commander and Counselor had died in the crash, or been hunted down later. He felt something like a burning hatred swelling in his heart. The Rupor had murdered two officers, in cold blood. He didn't care if they had violated the aliens' twisted sense of authority. If Chakotay had been given the chance he surely would have retreated from Rupor space.

But the Commander apparently had not been given the chance. Him and Sarah had been shot down, tearing a path through thick rock until their shuttle came to a crumpled stop. If they had managed to even survive that crash, the Rupor must have gone after them, to finish the job. It didn't seem like them to just leave well enough alone.

Had their last few moments been terrifying? Painful? Or had they gone quickly? Harry prayed for the latter. He hated to think of his fellow officers, one whom he considered a friend, suffering a gruesome death.

"Tuvok to Janeway, Captain we've found something, it appears to be boot tracks leading up the mountain. Permission to continue?"

"Permission granted," Janeway answered, motioning for Harry to leave the shuttle with her. "Ensign Kim and I are transporting back to Voyager. Keep me informed, Commander, on your progress. Janeway out."

"The traces of blood on the conduit definitely belong to Counselor Barrett," the Doctor informed Janeway upon her return to Voyager. "But I can't tell you if she died in that shuttle or not."

Janeway rubbed her temples for a moment. "We didn't find any other traces of DNA, just one area with her blood. It could mean that they managed to get out of the shuttle before the conduits blew, or they made it look like the conduits had blown so the Rupor wouldn't come after them. Everything is up in the air right now Doctor."

"I wish I had more to tell you Captain."

The woman let out a frustrated sigh. It had been nearly thirty minutes since she had transported back to Voyager. She had heard nothing from Tuvok and the rescue team down on the planet's surface, and the Doctor's news wasn't what she had hoped to hear. "I'm going to assume that they're alive until otherwise notified, Doctor. I want you to be ready for causalities; who knows what kind of state we're going to find them in. The shuttle was a mess and after being stranded on a barren planet for two days their conditions may not be the best."

"Aye Captain," the Doctor replied. "I'll be ready."

"I'll be on the bridge," Janeway stated, making a quick exit out of sickbay and heading for the turbo lift. As she made her way to the safe, warm confines of the bridge, she had no way of knowing that her officers were fighting, at that moment, for their very lives.

The game of cat and mouse had been going on since Sarah had shaken him awake at dusk the previous day. Apparently their friends hadn't fallen for the destruction he had inflicted on the cabin to make it look like it had exploded in the crash. Chakotay had been forced to leave everything, but a tricorder, a canteen of water, and a blanket for Sarah, behind, and the two had left the tiny cave they had sought to seek shelter in. Now they were being stalked like prey, through the rocky terrain.

Chakotay hadn't actually seen the aliens, but he knew that they were there, the tricorder kept warning them of the life forms approaching. And every hour they seemed to gain on them. Sarah was loosing strength minute by minute, if she had even had any to begin with. For him, hypothermia had set in late that night as they braved the high winds at the peak of the mountain. Even the sunlight of the next day was doing very little to warm him up. If they didn't find a place to take shelter in that night, he was certain that they both were going to die out here. It didn't matter if Voyager was coming for them or not, they wouldn't survive long enough to see their crewmates.

"Chakotay, please," Sarah pleaded. "I need to stop. The pain…it hurts."

He shook his head, stubborn, determined to carry onward, even if his own legs were starting to give out. "We can't stop. Just grit your teeth and bear it. I promise, once we're back on Voyager I'll give you light duty shifts, but until then, just keep moving."

There was a tiny groan of protest, but she didn't say anything else. She probably didn't have the strength too. Since abandoning the shuttle the night before she had taken no medication to quell the pain or to stall the infection, both were running rampant through her body and here he was dragging her around over rough ground. I'm not making my case for First Officer of the Year, here, Chakotay thought with mild amusement, if there could be anything amusing about their current situation.

Sarah suddenly stumbled, taking Chakotay with her. "I…can't…Chakotay. I just can't…"

He felt a great weight tugging at his arm as Sarah sank to the ground. He was pulled down to his knees. For a moment he sat there, watching her as she stared up at the sky that was extremely reminiscent of her eyes.

"My father always made us lay out on cliffs to watch the clouds and stars when we were little. He liked to drag us on camping trip after camping trip; I hated every moment of it," she suddenly muttered. "Funny how the last thing I'm going to do is watch the sky."

Chakotay leaned over her and grasped onto her shoulders. "Don't you do this to me now! You're not through just yet, not if I have anything to say about it!"

She shook her head. "What's the point, Chakotay? Those aliens are only going to kill us. Let's consider it doing them a favor by dying before they get the chance."

"You are not going to die! Not when we've come this far!" Chakotay sucked in a large breath of air and tried to pull her back to her feet, but she was dead weight and he had very little strength left. With a huff he fell back onto his behind, the canteen rolling away from him, the tricorder smashing against the rock. He watched as Sarah's thick eyelashes soon closed over her eyes. It would only be a matter of time before she gave out, and he knew, that he wasn't going to be far behind her.

#star trek voyager #star trek voyager fanfiction #kathryn janeway #chakotay #janeway x chakotay #tom paris #sarah barrett (oc)#tom paris x ofc #harry kim #b'elanna torres #tuvok #neelix #kes #the doctor (emh)#this way became my journey

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summahsunlight · 4 years

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This Way Became My Journey, Ch. 18

The Karvaian Prime Minister, Ayrel, was a tall, lanky man with pale skin, deep nasal ridges, and long, jet black hair, tied back at the nape of his neck. He wore long crimson robes made out of a material that looked like cotton, but felt like silk to the touch. Kathryn Janeway couldn't help but notice that his large presence also made the spaces usually occupied by Commander Chakotay and Counselor Barrett seem non existent.

When they had emerged from Rupor space, Janeway had ordered to rendezvous with a Karvaian vessel that would bring the Prime Minister to her so they could meet. It had taken Voyager three hours to meet up with the slower Karvaian vessel. She had skipped the pleasantries when Ayrel had transported to Voyager and brought him to the briefing room, where the senior staff, or what remained of them, were gathered at the table.

"Is it your custom, Captain, to have this many people present for a treaty negotiation?" Ayrel asked her, his black eyes scanning the room.

"Sometimes," Janeway answered, simply. "But we're not here to discuss the treaty, we're here to discuss the Rupor, and you know that." She gestured toward an empty seat. "Please, why don't you have a seat Prime Minister."

Cautiously Ayrel took his seat at the opposite end of Janeway. "To be honest with you Captain, I'm not sure I'm going to be much help. My people have sworn off dealing with the Rupor; they are ruthless warriors who will stop at nothing to keep outsiders out. So, we stay out of their space and they stay out of ours."

Janeway raised an eyebrow in a gesture that was eerily Tuvok. "You mean to tell me that you've known about the Rupor and what they are capable of?"

A look of guilt washed over the Prime Minister's face. "Well, yes, I suppose."

"And you failed to tell me or my diplomatic party the dangers of crossing out of Karvaian space?" Janeway questioned, her voice laced with controlled anger. "We tracked our shuttle to the surface of a planetoid. Unfortunately, the Rupor swarmed us and we had to retreat back into...friendlier space. My officers, if they aren't dead already, are not going to survive much longer out there, which means we have to act fast."

"I'm truly sorry about your loss-,"

"I don't think you quite understand, Prime Minister," Janeway interrupted. "It's not my people's way to leave officers behind. And I want you to know that I will exhaust every last possibility to rescue them. Your help would be greatly appreciated."

Ayrel looked around the group, noticing the same determined look in their eyes. He had never encountered such devotion and loyalty in the Delta Quadrant, and it prompted him to divulge a bit of information to their leader. "Several years ago one of our transport vessels had to alter course to avoid an ion storm, it lead them into Rupor space. They took refuge in a nebula until they came up with a way to modify their shields so the Rupor could not detect them. In effect it cloaked them. I would be willing to have my engineers beam over and help your people make the same modifications to Voyager."

A smile spread across Janeway's face. "Thank you Prime Minister, that would be wonderful."

Ayrel gave her a small nod of his head. "I'll send a team over right away. Hopefully you can be underway by morning."

By morning? Janeway thought, miserably. She had hoped to be underway a lot sooner than that.

"Is there anyway we could have the modifications done before then?" Tuvok asked. "Captain Janeway was correct when she said our people have very little time. We would like to be on our way as quickly as possible."

"Commander Tuvok's right," Harry Kim spoke up. "The sooner we get the modifications up and running, the sooner we can head back to the planetoid and find our missing people."

"I can pull people off of repairs if I have too," B'Elanna Torres said, "if it means the modifications can be done faster."

"We could also do them in route to the planetoid," Tom Paris suggested. "If we travel at maximum warp we could be back there by twenty three hundred hours."

Chakotay, I wish you were here to see them working together like this, Janeway mused, with a sense of pride running through her veins at her how her senior officers were sticking up for each other and working together.

The Prime Minister looked her gravely in her eyes. "I'm afraid, Captain Janeway, that tomorrow morning is the best I can offer you. The modifications are extremely complex; they have to be since you are trying to hide from the Rupor." His dark eyes became sad, "I'm sorry, I know that this must be difficult for you and your crew."

More than you know, Janeway thought, coldly. "Well then, let's not waste anymore time here because time is precious right now. Tuvok, escort the Prime Minister back to the transporter room and await the engineering team. B'Elanna, get your people ready to make the modifications. Harry, I want you to help B'Elanna; Tom, set a course back to Rupor space and come to an all stop just outside their borders. I want to be close by when those modifications come online. Dismissed."

She watched as the senior staff and the Prime Minister left the table, leaving the room and leaving her alone with her thoughts. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she could feel a headache forming behind her right temple. Tomorrow morning seemed so far away. And the prospect of what they could find on that planetoid frightened her.

"Paris to Janeway, we're ready to get underway ma'am."

Opening her eyes and standing up, Janeway pushed the chair away from the table and tapped her combadge. "Understood, I'm on my way." With one last look around the briefing room, she stepped out onto the bridge and called in a crisp command voice, "engage Mister Paris."

When Chakotay returned to "camp" around midday from his trek up the mountain to find water, he was surprised to find two things. One being that Sarah had developed a fever, despite his attempts to stall the infection's progress, the other thing being the sensors were blaring.

"They've been doing that for about five minutes," Sarah muttered. "If I was able to get up I would have checked them."

He had not even realized that the sensors had survived the crash. They're probably the only thing on this shuttle that did survive the crash, Chakotay thought. If he had known they were semi-operational, he may have been able to calibrate them to send another signal to Voyager. It had nearly been two days and they had heard nothing from Janeway or the others. Putting the storage containers of water down, he went to check what the problem was.

"Is it Voyager?"

"No," he swallowed. "An alien ship has just entered orbit, same warp signature as the one that shot us down. I think our friends have found us."

It felt like it was an eternity that she stood outside the Captain's quarters, nervously holding onto a PADD, contemplating whether or not she should reach out and press the chime. B'Elanna Torres wrung her fingers anxiously about the edges of the PADD and then with a deep breath reached out and pressed the chime. After several seconds, and no response from Janeway, she wondered if the Captain was even in her quarters. But she was sure that she had seen the woman leave the bridge hours before to relieve Tal Celes from baby-sitting duties.

B'Elanna reached out again and pressed the chime. From inside the quarters she heard a slumber filled call come back allowing her access to the room. Great, I woke her up, B'Elanna thought as the doors to the Captain's quarters swished open. The older woman looked confused to see her there and raised an eyebrow. "Lieutenant Torres?"

The PADD that the young woman had been holding onto was suddenly thrust into Janeway's hands. "I thought you'd like to see the latest report on the modifications to our shields."

Janeway took the PADD from her and pretended to be reading it over, but in reality was watching as B'Elanna anxiously took in the room, her dark eyes studying every last detail. Setting the PADD away from her face, she said, softly, "You didn't come here to just drop off a PADD; what can I do for you B'Elanna?"

B'Elanna's dark eyes snapped to her face. "I… how did you know?"

The Captain smiled and placed the PADD down onto the coffee table. "I've been in Starfleet long enough B'Elanna, but perhaps, call it mother's intuition."

"Mother's intuition?"

"A lot of people don't realize that being a captain and being a mother are quite similar," Janeway replied, with a gentle smile. "A captain is required to be the guiding force of their crew; a mother is…by nature the guiding force for her children. In that sense a captain always knows when there is something pressing her crew, just a like a mother knows that something is bothering her children. Now, what can I do for you B'Elanna?" she repeated.

It was at that moment that B'Elanna realized how human Kathryn Janeway appeared. When she had been forced to live on Voyager she had thought of Janeway as nothing but a self-centered, emotionless, Starfleet captain, hell bent on her principles. But right now, with her hair matted from sleeping probably on the chaise lounge where the baby now slept, her blue eyes reflecting exhaustion and worry, and her brow furrowed in concern for B'Elanna, the young Klingon was suddenly aware that she had perhaps misjudged Janeway. "I guess…I guess there are some things that I needed cleared up; you were the most…logical person to come too." Damn, now I sound like the Vulcan.

"I guess that depends on what you want cleared up," the older woman replied.

"Is it true?" B'Elanna questioned, "That you have no intention of going back to that planetoid to look for Chakotay and Barrett?"

A dark look came over Janeway's face. "Where did you hear that?" she asked, in a seething tone.

"That's the rumor going around the ship," B'Elanna replied, then added, for good measure, "ma'am."

"I don't know what you've been told, Lieutenant, but I am completely committed to getting my people back," Janeway responded, with an edge to her voice. "As a senior officer, you should realize that."

"I…you're right, I'm sorry for disturbing you ma'am," B'Elanna said, stepping back towards the door to leave.

An apologetic look came over Janeway's face. "No, B'Elanna, wait, I'm the one who's sorry; for a lot of things. It's been a long couple of days and I'm afraid that my mood is reflecting that."

"If you ask me," B'Elanna said, before leaving, "you shouldn't have to apologize; information was kept from you and now two officers are missing. You've held it together longer than I could have, and quite possibly a lot of other people as well…I should be getting back to those shields, good night Captain."

"Good night, B'Elanna," Janeway whispered watching her chief engineer leave hurriedly through the doors and disappear down the corridor.

"Paris to Janeway."

Janeway tapped her combadge. "Go ahead Mister Paris."

"You wanted to be informed when we reached the Rupor's borders, we're there ma'am," Paris responded, his voice drowning in exhaustion. The entire crew had been putting in double, even triple shifts in order to get the repairs and necessary modifications to the shields done. Tom had been sitting at the helm for nearly twenty four hours.

"Understood, hold our position here, and Tom…," Janeway ordered, "get some rest."

"Yes ma'am, Paris out."

Rubbing her eyes, Janeway decided it was probably best to heed her own advice. Snuggling up onto the chaise lounge with Ava, she reached out and pulled the baby close to her, closed her eyes, and drifted back into a fret filled sleep.

"I don't know how much further I can walk, Chakotay," Sarah mumbled from his side.

They had abandoned the shuttle what felt like hours ago and started the long trek up the mountain so they could make an even longer trek down the other side. But they had been forced to abandon the shuttle. The aliens that had shot them down had entered the system again, no doubt wanting to finish off the job. Chakotay had tried, to the best of his abilities, and using some old Maquis tricks, to make it look like they had died in the crash. Of course, if Voyager did indeed come looking for them, they would also think that they were dead.

We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, Chakotay thought as he steered Sarah into a cave, lugging the little equipment that he had managed to salvage from the shuttle, with them. Helping the young counselor down to the rocky ground, he shrugged off the med kit and pulled out the tricorder, running the hand scanner over her body. "Your fever's up and it looks like the infection is spreading. We'll make camp here tonight; there isn't much daylight left we won't be able to keep going once the sun goes down. Hopefully our friends took the bait and have left."

"In other words, my fever is the least of our problems," Sarah muttered, exhaustion clearly written on her face. Chakotay immediately felt guilty, perhaps he had pushed her too hard, she was after all seriously injured, on top of fighting an infection, and he had made her hike up a rocky mountain. He could almost here the holographic doctor's protests back on Voyager.

He gave her one of the blankets. "Let's hope it's our only problem."

"They aren't coming for us," she whispered, her eyes beginning to slip shut.

"Who? The aliens?"

"No, Voyager."

"Don't say that, Lieutenant, let's keep a little optimism here," Chakotay said. "That's an order," he added, as an afterthought.

Her eyes snapped open and looked at him, the sharpness long ago dulled out by the infection and fever. "I was taught at the Academy that sometimes, optimism is a lost cause, that as a counselor its best to dish out the reality."

"Well, what do those Academy professors know, any how?"

When there was no response from her Chakotay glanced to his right to see that she had drifted off to sleep. Its for the best, he mused, realizing that she was not going to fight the infection while babbling to him, she needed to sleep, to conserve what little strength she had left while they waited to be rescued. Voyager, where are you? That thought had haunted him since they had started their trek up the mountain, to get away from the aliens. He had thought Janeway would have been here by now, not letting some hostile race stand in her way. Had Voyager suffered the same fate as them? Was the starship nothing but a pile of debris in the middle of space, blown apart by a race that seemed intent on killing everyone that entered their system?

He rubbed a hand over his face, listening to the sounds of Sarah's labored breathing. His first away mission as Voyager's first officer was one disaster after another. Who knew that they would be fighting for their lives on some barren planet, seventy thousand light years from home, when they had originally set out on some diplomatic mission for Janeway? Certainly not him; after all diplomatic missions were usually peaceful missions.

Of course, nothing seemed to go according to plan out here the Delta Quadrant. Chakotay should have expected a mishap here and there. Is this what your life has come to Chakotay? Getting stranded on a barren planet with a dying woman is just a mishap? Was he so used to tragedy that a situation like this barely fazed him? He wondered when that had happened. Had it been when his father died? The suffering he had endured with the Maquis? Being stranded in the Delta Quadrant away from his family and friends? The shuttle crash? The list seemed to go on and on and he couldn't pinpoint the moment that he had turned his emotions off so tragedies were nothing but mishaps.

In the waning light of day he began to drift off to sleep, unaware that the tricorder was beeping a warning near by.

#star trek voyager #star trek voyager fanfiction #kathryn janeway #chakotay #tom paris #sarah barrett (oc)#harry kim #b'elanna torres #tuvok #neelix #kes #the doctor (emh)#janeway x chakotay #tom paris x ofc #this way became my journey

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summahsunlight · 5 years

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This Way Became My Journey, CH. 12

Pairings: Janeway/Chakotay, Paris/OFC

Characters: Kathryn Janeway, Chakotay, Tom Paris, Sarah Barrett (OC), Harry Kim, B’Elanna Torres, Kes, Neelix, the Doctor

Chapters 1-10 / Chapter 11

A/N: Here is the next chapter! I hope you like it :)

Captain's Log, Stardate 48439.7

As we maintain a course back to the Alpha Quadrant, we're conducting what would be routine maintenance to the ship; routine that is if we had access to a starbase

"Engine efficiency is down another fourteen percent," Tom Paris reported later that afternoon at the senior officer's briefing, or the ones that had been hastily thrown together. They were still without a chief engineer and a chief medical officer. Tom moved slightly back to his seat, looking over his data on his PADD. Sitting down next to Sarah Barrett he remarked, "If we don't get more power to the warp drive, we're all going to have to get out and push."

"What about alternative energy sources?" Janeway asked. She looked at Harry, remembering the report he had issued to her last night, that had been sitting in her stack on her desk that morning, about his idea. She had unfortunately not been able to read through it thanks to Ava making a mess of her ready room. The broken vase had taken nearly an hour to clean up because she had to crawl along the floor to find all the tiny pieces. "Ensign," she said pushing memories of the regretful morning from her mind, "have you had any luck getting power from the holodeck reactors?"

He shook his head. "Not yet. We tried hooking them to the power grid and we ended up blowing out half the relays. The holodeck's energy matrix just isn't compatible with the other power systems."

"Captain," Chakotay said, getting her attention. "If we relocate all security personnel to deck seven we can shut down power on deck nine and reroute it to propulsion."

Tuvok looked intrigued. "That would be inconvenient, but acceptable."

"Fine," Janeway said, picking up a PADD. "Let's move onto the personnel situation."

She was about to say more when Neelix and Kes burst into the room, Neelix apologizing that they were late. Janeway and the rest of the senior officers seemed surprised to see them there. "Mister Neelix, this is a briefing for the senior officers," Janeway told them.

"Well I am the senior Talaxian on board and Kes is the senior Ocampa," He replied. "And I do know more about this region of space than any other member of the crew."

For a moment Janeway met Barrett's eyes. The young woman raised her eyebrows in response as if to say that Neelix was right.

"We have some excellent suggestions, Captain," Kes added, noticing the looks passing between Janeway and Barrett.

Janeway nodded. "Very well; you're welcome to join us, this time."

Tom got up and offered Kes his chair and went to stand with Neelix.

As Kes got settled, Janeway voiced, "To be honest, we could use some excellent suggestions right about now." She placed the PADD with the personnel needs onto the table.

"I've been thinking," Kes told her. "That you could convert one of your lower decks into a hydroponics bay; you'd be able to grow your own food. I understand that the replicators went down earlier today and that the emergency rations won't hold out much longer."

Janeway had to admit it sounded like an excellent idea, and since she was sick of peanut butter and jelly, the only thing she had left besides the emergency rations, she decided it was worth a shot.

"What about cargo bay two," Harry suggested, tacking onto what Kes was saying. "It was designed for organic storage, and it already has adjustable environmental controls."

Janeway was sold on the idea now, smiling at Kes, she said, "When can you start?"

"Me?"

"It's your idea, your project," Janeway told her.

Kes felt a smile form on her face, pleased that she had been able to offer some help to these people. "Right away," she told Janeway. Neelix went to babble on the things he could to with vegetables and how something called Feragoit goulash was known across twelve star systems. Janeway had learned to take everything that Neelix said with a little grain of salt however.

Smiling she went back to the PADD she had placed on the table earlier. "Okay, onto the personnel problem." She scrolled down the list on her PADD. "We've managed to find a replacement for the transporter room chief, but we still need an astrogation plotter, chief engineer, medical support staff…" she paused and let out a small, frustrated sigh. Being stranded out here was beginning to sink in fully with her and she realized that she had a lot of work ahead.

Chakotay was handing her a PADD, informing her that he had given her a list of Maquis that he thought would make good officers. Janeway scrolled down the list, each name registering in her mind, but no face, that is until she came across B'Elanna Torres name. Barrett had mentioned to her the other day that Torres was "volatile" and just recently she had struck Lieutenant Carey, breaking his nose. "B'Elanna Torres, wasn't she the one who was involved in that incident with Mister Carey?" she asked Chakotay.

"That's right," he said, looking accusingly at Sarah.

"Just what job do you think she's suited for?" Janeway asked.

"Chief Engineer," he replied.

Janeway studied him for a moment. "You're serious?"

"Very."

Deciding that this issue was not going to be solved at the present time she placed the PADD he handed her down onto the table. "Regarding sickbay, we still need a chief medical officer."

"What about that electronic man?" Neelix questioned.

"It is an emergency medical hologram and its abilities are limited," Tuvok answered him. "It can only operate in the confines of sickbay."

"Not to mention its lousy bedside manner," Tom quipped to which Neelix nodded his head in agreement.

"Well couldn't you work with…him, Counselor," Neelix said, looking at Sarah.

Barrett gave him a bemused look. "It's a hologram, Mister Neelix, not a person. I can't put him through therapy to improve his compassion. He is what he is." She looked at Janeway then, "Although, maybe we should look into his programming to see if we can improve on it just a bit. I heard that Ava was terrified of him the other day."

Terrified wasn't the word that Janeway would have used, recalling how she had taken the baby down to sickbay to have the Doctor check up on the double ear infection. While the infection was all but gone, his cold tone and mechanical like way of dealing with people had caused Ava to go into hysterics.

"That still doesn't help us when the power runs out," Kim was pointing out, bringing Janeway's attention about to the meeting at hand.

"What if someone trained alongside the Doctor, as a field medic?" Chakotay offered.

"Good idea," Janeway said, with maybe a bit too much enthusiasm in her voice to make him feel better for her lack of trust in B'Elanna. Stealing a glance at Tom, she said, "Lieutenant I understand that you studied biochemistry at the Academy."

Tom looked worried. "Only two semesters," he told her.

"Close enough, you just volunteered to be field medic," Janeway told him, amused by the look on his face. "Report to sickbay as soon as we're finished here."

"But Captain," Tom started to protest as the ship shook violently. Somehow the senior staff managed to get to their feet and make their way out onto the bridge towards their stations.

Janeway gripped tightly to the railing at conn, screaming, "Report!"

Seska was manning the engineering console. "We're running into some kind of spatial distortions."

"Mister Tuvok!"

"The distortions are emanating from a highly localized disturbance in the space time continuum. Distance, twenty thousand kilometers off the port bow!"

"All stop!"

As soon as the ship came to a stop, the jolting stopped. Janeway let out a small sigh of relief and moved away from tactical which she had scrambled too when she asked Tuvok for his report. "On screen," she ordered and an image appeared on the view screen. Looking at the mass of blue and purple before she glanced at her personal screen, going over the readings it was giving. She had never personally seen this type of anomaly before, but she was pretty sure she knew what was out there. "If I'm not mistaken, we're looking at a type four quantum singularity."

"Captain," Tuvok said, "I'm receiving an audio transmission from inside the singularity."

"On speakers," Janeway ordered and the cabin was filled with a garbled message.

"I think I found the source of the transmission," Kim announced from ops. The image on the view screen magnified and the distorted image of a ship could be made out.

Janeway turned slightly in her chair and looked over her shoulder at Neelix and Kes who were standing at the rail behind her. "Does it look like any ship you're familiar with?"

Neelix squinted his eyes trying to make it out. "No, nothing I recognize. But then again, it's so hard to make out."

The Captain stood and moved towards conn. "They maybe trapped in the event horizon. Open a channel," she ordered Tuvok. When he signaled to her that it was open she began to speak again. "This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Starship Voyager to the vessel near the quantum singularity. Do you need help?" While she waited for a response she heard Neelix telling Kes that a singularity was a star that had collapsed in on itself, and that the event horizon was a very powerful engery field surrounding it. She wasn't surprised that he next went into some story that he had encountered one before. She didn't hear the rest of the story though, because Tuvok was speaking to her.

"No response to our hail Captain."

"Can we tractor the vessel out?"

"No, the subspace interference is too heavy," Harry replied as Neelix made his way down the steps into the command station.

"Captain," the Talaxian said. "We're less than three light years from Ilidaria. They have sophisticated technology, they might be able to help, and they're quite friendly… most of the time."

Janeway shook her head at his suggestion. "No. It looks like its being pulled into the singularity. We have to get it out of the event horizon." She was startled to hear Chakotay contact Torres down in engineering, peering around Neelix at her new first officer she wondered if he realized just what he was doing.

"I was thinking we could remodulate a tractor beam to match the subspace interference, it might be enough to cut through the event horizon," Torres' voice interrupted her thoughts.

"A subspace tractor beam?"

"Exactly."

"When can you have it ready?" Chakotay asked her, growing more aware that Janeway was not happy with him.

"Two maybe three hours."

"Get right on it, use whatever people you need," Chakotay told her.

Janeway pressed her lips together briefly before speaking, "Mister Carey what do you think?" The tension that passed between the two was not lost on the people nearest them, being Neelix who was sandwiched in between, and Sarah who was standing to the right of Janeway.

"With the right field modulation it might work. But we'll need more power to the emitter array," Carey's voice said over the comline.

"Very well," Janeway replied, glancing up at the ceiling momentarily. "You're in charge Mister Carey, report to me when the tractor beam is ready."

"Aye, Captain."

Janeway told Tom to hold their position and with one look at Neelix, which told the Talaxian to step aside, she moved towards Chakotay and dropped her voice into a tone that she often found herself using when she was frustrated with Michael. "I'd like to see you in private."

As she stepped off of the bridge into her ready room, Chakotay following behind her it became apparent to everyone that the tensions between Starfleet and Maquis were not solely restricted to Engineering.

"Michael take your sister and go sit out on the bridge for a moment," Kathryn ordered the children in perhaps too hostile of a voice, but she was not in the best of moods. She went to stand on the upper level of her ready room and waited for the children to leave.

"Mama, why did the ship move like that?" Michael asked her instead of moving. "It ruined the block house I was building."

Kathryn crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes. She was not in the mood to argue with him, not when she had a bone to pick with her first officer. Michael knew that look all too well and the little boy eagerly took Ava by the hand, and proceeded down the steps of the upper level of the ready room, past Chakotay who was standing by the desk, and out onto the bridge.

When the door hissed shut behind the children, Kathryn glared at her new first officer. "We have a problem and I think it's time that we discuss this."

"Captain I appreciate your concerns about Torres, but I promise you-," Chakotay started to say, but she interrupted him.

"You don't understand Commander," Kathryn said, "This isn't about Torres, my problem is with you."

"Me?"

"Let me be blunt," Kathryn said, losing her patience. "What you tried to do just now was out of line."

"In what way?" he asked.

"When you decided to call Torres in Engineering," Kathryn snapped.

"I've worked with her. I know what she's capable of," Chakotay responded, feeling himself losing his own cool. "We needed an answer right away and I knew she could give us one."

"Carey is the senior officer in Engineering," Kathryn retorted.

"If you look at it that way, none of my people will ever have seniority," Chakotay argued.

Kathryn moved off the upper level of her ready room towards him. "That's the problem right there. They're not your people. You're treating the Maquis on this ship as if they're still your crew."

"I'm doing everything that I can to integrate them into your crew, but frankly, you're not making it easy for me, Captain."

"I can't make it easy Commander. Surely you can understand that. They don't have the discipline, they don't have the training."

"But some of them have the ability, like B'Elanna Torres!" he responded.

Kathryn moved away from him, towards her desk, but didn't sit down. "The Starfleet officers on this ship have worked all their lives to earn their commissions. How am I supposed to ask them to accept a Maquis as a superior officer just because circumstances have forced us together?"

"You're asking them to accept me," he told her.

"You're qualified. You're a graduate of the Academy and you have command experience," she argued.

"Permission to speak freely."

"Go ahead."

His eyes became dark. "I have no intention of being your token Maquis officer."

She was taken aback by the darkness of his eyes and his words. "Show me another Maquis candidate and I'll consider him."

"B'Elanna Torres."

"Who cannot control herself and could not make it through the Academy."

"She's the best engineer I've ever known!" he yelled, turning about to leave. "She could teach at the Academy!" He stopped before he got to the door and turned about to look at Kathryn. "You're right Captain, I do consider these my people because nobody on this ship will look out for them like I will. And I'm telling you, you're going to have to give them more authority if you want their loyalty."

"Theirs…or yours, Commander?"

"I'm trying to help you," he answered her. "I'm sorry that you don't see that. I strongly recommend that you get to know Torres before you chose a new Chief Engineer. Permission to leave."

"Dismissed," she whispered, watching as he stormed out of her ready room and back onto the bridge. Raising her eyes to the ceiling she studied it intensely for a few moments, what she wouldn't give to be able to go back in time and stop this all from happening. Trying to explain to High Command why they had suddenly disappeared for several days with no communication with Starfleet was looking a lot more pleasant then what she was facing right now; a seventy five year journey with two crews that just could not get a long.

Stop with the self-pity, Kathryn, she chided herself. Circumstances were what they were, and she was going to have to make the best of it. With a defeated sigh, she sat herself down behind her desk and called up B'Elanna Torres personnel file, perhaps she should take Chakotay's advice after all and get to know the woman better.

"Computer, activate the emergency medical holographic program," Kes commanded as she stepped into sickbay.

The hologram appeared before her, stating, "Please state the nature of the medical emergency."

"Actually, there is no emergency," Kes replied. "I'm creating a hydroponics bay; I was told you could provide me with some nitrogenated soil samples."

The Doctor didn't look too pleased. "That's it?" Her apologetic look told him the answer that he sought. "And so it begins. The trivial of medicine is my domain now; every runny nose, stubbed toe, pimple on a cheek becomes my responsibility."

"You are the only doctor we have," Kes pointed out to him while he prepared her samples.

"I'm not just a doctor!" He exclaimed, turning to look at her. "I've been designed with information from two thousand medical reference sources and the experience of forty seven individual medical officers! I am the embodiment of modern medicine." After the egotistical rant the hologram turned back to the shelf. "How much dirt do you need?"

"Four samples will be enough," Kes answered.

The Doctor sighed, frustrated and collected the samples for her. "Now I know how Hippocrates felt when the King needed him to trim a hangnail." He placed the three samples he had managed to carry from the shelf into a portable storage unit.

"You're very sensitive aren't you?"

"As a medical practitioner I require a certain sensitivity to properly address a patient."

"I'm talking about you as a person," Kes replied, gently.

The Doctor turned around, standing by the shelf once more, looking at Kes. "I am merely a hologram."

Kes was looking at him, studying his appearance intently. "Doctor, has your program altered your appearance since I came to sickbay?"

"No. Why?"

She moved towards him and joined him at the self. "When I first came in your head was at the same height as this cabinet. But now you look at least ten centimeters shorter."

He looked at her, concerned, and then went to sit at the desk, typing in a few keys on his console. "I've just run a diagnostic on my image processor. It shows that I've been reduced in height by ten point four centimeters." He tapped his combadge. "Sickbay to operations."

"This is Kim."

"The holographic projector in here is malfunctioning," the Doctor told him. "Can you send a repair crew down right away."

"We're a little busy right now, we'll get to it as soon as we can."

"It's just that-,"

"Kim out."

Dejected at being cut off, the hologram looked down at the desk before glancing up at Kes. "Well, it seems like a very busy day in operations."

"I'm sorry I bothered you," Kes said, turning to go, gathering up her samples.

"No trouble at all, just turn off the program before you leave."

Before she left though, she looked back at him one last time. "What's your name?"

"What purpose would a name serve a hologram?"

"I just wanted to know what to call you besides Doctor," she replied.

"I guess they never thought I'd be around long enough to need one," the Doctor said. "What's your name?"

"Kes."

The hologram smiled. "Well, Kes, I'm glad that I could help you today."

With a warm smile, she said, "Computer end program." As the hologram disappeared, she took the samples and proceeded to cargo bay two where she was going to begin her project of creating a hydroponics bay to help a crew that had helped her so much in the past several days.

With a troubled expression, Sarah Barrett stepped out of the turbolift onto the bridge just as Joe Carey's voice came over the comlink that they were ready to proceed with the tractor beam. Janeway was making her way across the back of the bridge towards tactical and where Sarah was standing. She had a hard, determined look on her face, and Sarah could see that she was tense. The information that the young woman was going to give her was not going to make present matters any better, either.

"Captain, can I speak to you for a moment?" the young counselor asked her, stepping into her path. Janeway shook her head and went to move around Sarah, but the counselor stepped in her way again. "Ma'am, it's very important."

Gently Janeway placed her arms onto Sarah's shoulders and moved her out of the way. "I'm sorry, Counselor, it's going to have to wait. We're about to attempt using the subspace tractor beam to free that trapped ship. I promise once this is all over I'll speak to you." Moving past Sarah, she pointed at Tuvok, "Mister Tuvok, lock onto that ship."

"Engaging tractor beam." A blue energy beam shot forth form the front of Voyager and locked onto the ship in the middle of the singularity. "It's working," Tuvok reported. "The beam is penetrating the event horizon."

Kathryn felt very little relief at this news, but when she heard Harry Kim contact engineering to check their power levels because he was reading massive fluctuations, she lost what little feeling of relief that she had possessed. Suddenly the ship lurched and she was thrown against the railing lining the back of the bridge. Immediately her leg began to throb in the area that had smacked against the rail, sending a wave of pain coursing through her veins.

"We're being pulled towards the singularity!" Tom Paris reported, anxiously, as he was thrown across his console.

"What's going on?" Chakotay asked Kim.

"Power to the tractor beam is down eighty percent. The gravimetric force of the singularity is pulling us in!"

Kathryn wasn't sure how she did it, with the ship shaking violently, and her leg throbbing in intense pain, but she managed to stumble to conn, clutching at the railing. "Impulse engines full reverse! Disengage the tractor beam!"

"I can't shut it down!" B'Elanna Torres said over the comlink. "The relays are locked!"

"I'm picking up hull stress all over the ship. If we keep the engines at full reverse it will pull the ship apart," Harry said.

"Cut the engines."

"We're moving forward again!"

"Engineering, get that tractor beam off line!"

Joe Carey's voice could be heard next over the comline. "Captain I can shut it down, but I'll have to get in there and physically cut the main power feed."

Kathryn didn't care how he did, not at this point. "Do it," she ordered him. The ship continued to shake for several seconds while they all held their breaths. Finally, after what felt like hours to Kathryn, the motion stopped and Tuvok was reporting that the tractor beam had been disengaged. Closing her eyes she let out a small breath of relief. "Move us to a safe distance, Mister Paris."

"Are we abandoning the rescue attempt?" Chakotay asked her as she joined him in the command station.

"No, but we're going to need help," Kathryn replied, and then ordered Tom to lay in a course for the Illdaria system. Glancing at Chakotay, she said, "Have Mister Neelix report to the bridge, it appears we're going to follow his suggestion after all." The first officer nodded his head and left the bridge. It was then that Kathryn noticed Sarah standing there and recalled that the young woman had something urgent to speak to her about before they had made the rescue attempt. "I suppose now is as good as any a time, Sarah, to talk. What can I do for you?"

"Engineering brought something to my attention, and they weren't exactly sure how to approach you," Sarah replied. "They found an object lodged inside a conduit on deck eleven."

Kathryn gave her a puzzled look even as a toy action figure was produced in Sarah's hand. Instantly the Captain recognized the toy as her son's. Visibly she kept her cool, but inside her head was swarming with emotions. It suddenly dawned on her that the children had never come back into the ready room after she had forced them to leave so she could speak to Chakotay alone. Kathryn had not even noticed that they were missing she had been so preoccupied. She cursed herself for being so careless. Snatching the toy out of her counselor's hand she wrung her fingers around it. "You didn't happen to find the culprit did you?"

Sarah shook her head. "No ma'am. I searched the deck myself, but found nothing."

"Computer, locate Michael and Ava Janeway."

"Michael and Ava Janeway are in the mess hall."

Wonderful, Kathryn thought. Who knows what they've gotten into there. We've only got two replicators left; I wouldn't be surprised if they've blown them out. "Mister Tuvok, you have the bridge," she ordered, storming up the steps and into the turbo lift. The day was seemingly getting worse and worse, if that was entirely possibly. She wasn't sure how much longer her mental being was going to hold up with if there were anymore broken computers, shattered vases, combadges tossed about, and toys lodged into power conduits. She was already in a fragile state as it was.

The doors to the lift opened and she proceeded to the mess hall. Briefly she wondered how many kilometers she had logged roaming the ship looking for the children the past few days. I need to put a homing beacon on them, she thought with mild amusement as the doors to the mess hall swished open.

Kathryn had expected to find Michael tinkering around in some conduit. However, the two children were seated at a table with another crewman; Ava snuggled up into the woman's lap, and from where Kathryn was standing, appeared to be sound asleep. The Captain reasoned that it was probably the baby's nap time and she felt miserable about forgetting them for a good two to three hours. Michael was savoring a hot fudge sundae and Kathryn prayed he had used one of her replicator rations to get the ice cream instead of the crewman who had suddenly been deemed baby-sitter.

"Captain!" the young crewman suddenly saw the older woman standing there and jumped to her feet. Ava stirred slightly, but didn't wake up. "I didn't notice you come in!" The crewman was a bajoran female, who had dark hair and eyes, and by Kathryn's estimate couldn't have been out of the Academy that long.

"It's alright, Crewman," Kathryn responded, with a tired tone to her voice. "I was actually looking for these two trouble makers. Sorry to inconvenience you, I should be keeping a better eye on them."

"It wasn't an inconvenience, ma'am," the young woman replied. "I found them roaming around on deck eleven and thought that they'd like to get some ice cream. They looked a little bored, ma'am."

Kathryn felt a smile lace her face. "I guess being cooped up in my ready room everyday isn't exactly the most interesting place for a five year old and a one year old. But you still shouldn't have felt obligated to take care of them. After all, it's not one of your duties to watch the Captain's children."

"Believe me Captain, I'm better suited for this than all those Starfleet algorithms," the young woman said, absentmindedly, and then her eyes gaped when she realized what had just left her mouth. "I mean…I've always enjoyed being around children, ma'am."

"It seems that children like being around you too, crewman, I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't know your name," Kathryn said, wishing that she had taken the time to go over more of the personnel files that had were scattered throughout her quarters so she could get to know her crew better.

"Tal Celes," the girl replied.

Kathryn held her arms out. "Well, thank you again Crewman Celes," she replied, standing there with her arms open. The young woman looked confused and Kathryn didn't know why but she just warmed her heart. "I think I can take it from here."

Realizing that the woman wanted her baby back, Celes snapped to attention and placed the sleeping Ava into her arms. Gesturing for Michael to come with her, Kathryn thanked the young woman again, and as she left, perhaps had found a solution to her childcare woes. But the first thing she had to do was to speak to Michael about wandering off and playing in a power conduit.

Kathryn waited until they were inside the lift the doors had firmly shut, and they were on their way back to deck one before speaking to her son. "There's something we need to talk about. You have to understand, Michael, that this ship, it isn't like our house back in San Francisco, and you can't just roam around it as you please."

"I wasn't roaming around, I knew exactly where I wanted to go," Michael replied with a huff.

"Michael, you could get hurt," Kathryn chided. "Someone in Engineering found one of your toys in a power conduit on deck eleven. Honey, you could have blown the conduit, getting yourself and Ava seriously hurt."

"I just wanted to see how it worked, Ava was the one who got the toy stuck in there," Michael told her. "You don't need to worry."

But that's all she found herself doing, especially now that circumstances had made her life as a mother much more difficult. They faced the prospect of all kind of dangers, threats that could harm herself or her children. What else was she to do but worry about them?

#star trek voyager #star trek voyager fanfiction #kathryn janeway #chakotay #janeway x chakotay #tom paris #sarah barrett (oc)#tom paris x ofc #harry kim #b'elanna torres #neelix #kes #the doctor (emh)

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summahsunlight · 5 years

Text

This Way Became My Journey, CH.11

Word Count: 3192

Pairings: Janeway/Chakotay, Paris/OFC

Characters: Kathryn Janeway, Chakotay, Tom Paris, Sarah Barrett (OC), Harry Kim, B’Elanna Torres, Kes, Neelix, the Doctor

A/N: Here is the next chapter! I hope you like it :)

One week after Voyager is taken from the Alpha Quadrant...

It wasn't even eight in the morning yet and Lieutenant Joe Carey already found himself with a bloody nose in sickbay. It wasn't exactly the way he had pictured his day starting. Already their new first officer was glaring at him hotly. "She's out of her mind!" Carey shouted attempting to sit up. The holographic doctor shoved him back down onto the biobed which caused the man to scream in pain.

Tuvok looked at the man with the same calm and emotionless demeanor that he held with everybody. "You will explain what happened, Mister Carey," Tuvok ordered as the doors to sickbay opened and Sarah Barrett made her way across the cabin towards the group.

Carey did not look pleased to see her there. "What I get hit in the nose and I'm the one who needs the shrink?"

"Lieutenant Barrett is here by my request," Chakotay said. "Maybe with her help we can figure out a way for you all to get along down there."

"Your nose is broken in three places," the Doctor informed the fuming Carey. "Try not to move while I fix it." He walked away but immediately Carey was sitting up again.

Sarah stepped closer to the biobed. "Why did she hit you Lietuenant?"

He sighed, angrily. "We were having a disagreement about the power grid. She wanted to realign the lateral plasma conduit. I told her that would cause an overload," He answered her, wiping the blood a way from his nose with a cloth. "As usual she wouldn't listen. So I told her to step aside and let me handle it. She pushed me a way from the console…and I pushed her back," he became defensive when he saw the accusing look in Barrett's blue eyes. "The next thing I knew I was on the deck with blood pouring down my face!"

She should have hit you harder, Barrett thought.

"Then what happened?" she heard Chakotay ask.

He scoffed. "She said sorry, maybe you should go to sickbay."

The Doctor had returned with his tools to fix the broken nose and forced Carey to lay back down again. "At least she gave you some good advice." Barrett rolled her eyes to the notice of no one while Carey gasped out in pain at being forced back down onto the bed. "Now," the Doctor ordered, "hold still."

Chakotay made eye contact with Tuvok and turned to go. "Don't worry," he assured the Vulcan. "I'll handle this."

Barrett glanced behind her to see the other two men leaving. As she sprinted after them she heard Carey scream, "You keep that woman out my engines and everything will be fine!"

She wasn't so sure she felt comfortable with Chakotay handling this. "Commander," she called, forcing Chakotay and Tuvok to halt their progress. "What did you mean when you said you would handle this?" she asked him, folding her arms across her chest. "B'Elanna has commited a serious offense in Starfleet protocol. Are you up to date on the proper punishment for this?"

Chakotay glared at her. He knew she was only trying to help but her getting involved everything was beginning to wear on his nerves. "She isn't Starfleet, she's Maquis."

"When you agreed to join forces with us, I was under the impression that you were joining us as a Starfleet crew," she mocked him. "Torres should be thrown in the brig for the remainder of the trip for hitting a fellow officer, a senior officer at that."

"Carey is not Chief Engineer," Chakotay pointed out to her.

"He is the most qualified person down there right now to act as a senior officer," she snapped back.

"Counselor Barrett is correct sir," Tuvok intervened. "Miss Torres would be court martial for this offense if we were in Federation space."

Chakotay felt his temper rising. "But we're not in Federation space, and even if we were, my people wouldn't be on this ship."

"You have to stop thinking of them as your people, Commander," Barrett retorted, hotly. "Or the Starfleet members of this crew are going to think you're playing favorites." She put her hands on her hips. "Why did you call me down here anyways if you weren't going to listen to me?"

"To tell you the truth Counselor, I'm sick of listening to you," Chakotay snapped. "Now if the two of you don't mind, I will handle B'Elanna." He turned to go, but Barrett stopped him.

"And the Captain?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'll tell her when I'm ready," Chakotay said, disappearing into a turbo lift.

Barrett glanced at Tuvok. "This isn't the first complaint that I've received about Torres," she said thoughtfully. "Captain Janeway should know about it."

"Indeed, as chief of security I will be the one to inform her," Tuvok said. "In the meantime, I would like you to pay another visit to Ms. Torres."

The young counselor nodded her head. "Yes sir, I don't know how much good it's going to do though."

Tuvok raised an eyebrow for a moment before responding, "One can only hope for the best."

Kathryn Janeway hurried along the corridor to get to the turbo lift. She was already late reporting to the bridge that morning, thanks to Michael somehow rewiring her door and locking the family in their quarters until Kathryn had been able to fix it, by that time she was more than twenty minutes behind schedule. Ava had then pushed her back another five minutes more because the child refused to get her shoes on.

After an extensive battle with her one year old, Kathryn had just been ready to step out the door when Michael threw a tantrum that the toy he wanted to bring to the ready room with him that morning was missing. She had torn the quarters apart looking for the toy, only to realize ten minutes later that it had been left behind in their apartment in San Francisco. Now that she was almost an hour late, she didn't have the time to completely calm Michael down before she grabbed the bag of things she had packed the night before, and dragged the child out of the quarters, sobbing along the way about some toy that he had perhaps only played with once and Kathryn had thought he had cared less about.

The crew walking the corridors did all they could to move out of her way so she could walk past them. She must have been a sight, carrying a one year old, and a bag slung over her shoulder, dragging a crying five year old behind her. Not the text book picture of a Starfleet captain, that was for sure. However, she was so flustered at that moment, she didn't really care what she looked like and what the crew thought of her.

"That was my favorite toy, Mama," Michael sobbed as they stepped into the turbo lift. "How could you forget it?"

Of course this is my fault, Kathryn thought, biting hard down onto her lip so she wouldn't lose it. "Deck one," she said, not bothering to answer him. She had learned a long time ago that it was better to ignore his tantrums then to indulge him. The lift started moving rapidly to her relief. As the lift came to a stop and the doors swished open, she heard something fall to the floor with a thump. Glancing down she saw her combadge skip out of the lift and into the corridor. Ava was giggling wildly.

Closing her eyes and saying a silent prayer, she stepped out of the lift and towards the spot where Ava had tossed her combadge. Leaning down proved to be difficult but she wasn't going to let a bag and a baby stop her. However, Michael was going to prove to be harder, since he wouldn't release her hand so she could pick the combadge up. She pulled on it several times before turning to look at him, sternly. "Let go of Mama's hand so I can pick up my combadge, Michael."

The little boy shook his head. "I don't wanna."

Kathryn ran her tongue over her lips and decided it was pointless to fight with him in this state. Managing to balance Ava onto her thigh, she wiggled her other hand free and scooped the combadge up. With a feeling of triumph, Kathryn proceeded into her ready room, dropped the bag onto the floor by her desk, plopped Ava down into her desk chair, and used her hand to pry Michael's grasp off her other. The boy wasn't too happy about that and started to cry even louder than before, standing in the middle of the ready room, stomping his feet.

"That will get you nowhere," Kathryn told him, moving towards her replicator. "Coffee black," she ordered, and a metallic cup materialized before her eyes, steaming hot. She took the mug and was about to savor it's bitter taste when she turned around to see Ava crawl up onto her desk, and push her personal computer off of it onto the floor. The computer broke apart.

"Uh-oh," Ava cooed, looking at the broken computer with innocent blue eyes.

The broken computer was the last straw. Kathryn scooped Ava up off the desk, went to place her down on the upper level and turned to Michael, who was sniffling in the middle of the lower level, the broken computer had taken his attention away from the toy that he missed and ceased his sobs. "Do you two think you can play over here quietly while I try to get some work done?" the mother snapped at the two children. "I'm already behind as it is because I spent the whole morning looking for your toy Michael!"

Michael rubbed his nose on his sleeve. "I'm sorry, Mama."

"Now, the bag is over there, it has things to keep you occupied," Kathryn said, gesturing towards the shoulder bag she had left near her desk. "I suggest that you go through it and find something to do while I work."

"Okay."

With a frustrated sigh Kathryn fell into her chair and reached for the stack of PADDs on her desk, not even bothering to pick up the broken computer, it was after all useless to her now.

She heard Michael shuffling about in the bag and satisfied that he was finding something to keep himself busy, she settled into reading the first report in the stack. It was one problem after another it seemed, simple things that could have been dealt with if they had access to a starbase, however, things were not the case in their situation and they were scrambling to find answers. The hardest being the power supply. It had slowly started to decay the other day and if this report was any indication then replicators were going to go off line at some point and who knew how long they could all survive on emergency rations.

The personnel situation wasn't looking too good either. They had lost their chief engineer and chief medical officer, along with the first officer and chief helmsman when they had been flung into the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker. Even though she had found replacements for first officer and conn, she wasn't sure if she was going to be lucky enough to find as qualified a candidate as Chakotay or Tom Paris. The Maquis just didn't have the discipline and some of the Starfleet officers didn't have the experience.

Not to mention she had her own personal needs. The children needed a childcare provider while she was on duty, them staying in the ready room was already proving to not be working out. She also had to take into consideration that Michael needed schooling, he was after all five years old and would be going into kindergarten, if they were back on Earth, in the fall. But who on this ship really had the time to devote entirely to baby-sitting and teaching her kids? And who would be willing? It wasn't as if their duties entailed baby-sitting their commanding officer's children.

Finished with the first PADD, Kathryn placed it in a separate pile and began on the second one. The door chimed and she placed the PADD back into the stack, calling out, "Come in."

Tuvok strode into the room with the same stoic look upon his face. "Captain, may I have a moment of your time?"

"Certainly Tuvok, what can I do for you?"

"There was an incident down in Engineering this morning," Tuvok reported, not that it was going to be surprising to Kathryn. Engineering had been a disaster since they had started on their journey home, especially since there was not a senior officer down there. "Miss Torres struck Lieutenant Carey, breaking his nose in three places. Commander Chakotay has asked to deal with it, despite what I think. However, I will be making a full note of it in my security log. I also thought it important for you to know."

Kathryn pressed her knuckles to her mouth for a moment, letting the news set in. "Is Counselor Barrett aware of this new development?"

"Commander Chakotay asked that she not be involved in this," Tuvok stated.

The Captain shook her head. "At this point, I really don't care what Commander Chakotay thinks. I understand his wanting to look out for his people, however, Counselor Barrett is the best person to deal with this matter. Have her report to B'Elanna's quarters. I want her to sit down and talk to her."

"Understood Captain," Tuvok said, before leaving the ready room.

The shattering of glass caused Kathryn's head to spin about and look at the upper level of her ready room. Ava was standing on the sofa, looking down on the floor at what had been a vase of flowers. Now it lay in fragments on the floor. Maybe when Sarah's done with B'Elanna, Kathryn thought, she can stop my daughter's sudden fascination with breaking things.

Sarah Barrett pressed the door chime outside of B'Elanna Torres' quarters and waited to be admitted. After several seconds of standing there, nothing happened, so she pressed the button again. And again she was let in. "Computer confirm that B'Elanna Torres is in her quarters."

"That is affirmative."

Sarah frowned, Chakotay must have given her the heads up that I was coming eventually. Typing in her security access code, the doors slid open and she was facing a very seething looking B'Elanna.

"I didn't want you coming in," the Klingon hissed at her. "I guess you can't take a hint."

"Sorry, Captain's orders," Sarah replied, stepping into the room. "Apparently we're supposed to have a little chat about what happened down in Engineering this morning. I've already been to speak with Lieutenant Carey and several others who were in Engineering when the…incident occurred. The only side of the story I haven't heard is yours."

B'Elanna blinked for a moment, staring at the young woman. Chakotay had not wanted to hear her side of the story, lashing out at her that he had made it one lousy day for him. Like it hasn't been lousy for me, she lamented. She didn't mean to lose her temper; she had told Harry Kim that much when they had been on Ocampa, but it happened, and usually she felt remorse later for it happening. However, she couldn't say she felt sorry for Joe Carey. He had been pushing her buttons since the moment she joined the Engineering staff. "My side of the story? Is that a captain's order as well?"

"Not exactly, but if I'm to work out the problems, then I need to know both sides of the story," Sarah responded to her, crossing her arms over her chest. "You can either make this easier for me and for your self, or you can make it difficult by giving me attitude. It's your choice in the end, but I strongly recommend you cooperate."

"What's there to tell, I hit him because he's an idiot," B'Elanna snapped.

"That sounds like a perfectly good reason to hit someone," Sarah snapped back just as sarcastically. "Let me be blunt Miss Torres, we've been down this road several times already and our journey home isn't even a week old yet. Quite frankly I'm getting sick of this trip. It seems that no matter what I say to you, you don't listen to me."

B'Elanna scoffed. "I don't have to listen to some Starfleet brat tell me how to control my temper."

"You're right, you don't have too, but on the flip side, you shouldn't have too," Sarah replied.

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that you should have a hold on your temper at this stage in the game," the Counselor shot back. "Hitting a fellow officer is not going to get you brownie points with the Captain."

B'Elanna didn't dare to tell her that she could care less what Captain Janeway thought of her. "So what do you plan on doing with me, Counselor? I hear the Vulcan wants to court martial me."

"I don't want to court martial you, although, if we were home now, this wouldn't even be an issue," Sarah replied. "However if you want to get back to work, I strongly suggest that you try to make amends with Lieutenant Carey. It's a long trip to be holding a grudge against someone and it's also a long trip to be cooped up in here, don't you think?"

Chakotay had told her the same thing, but hearing it coming out of the mouth of the counselor, it suddenly hit B'Elanna that these people weren't kidding her when they said they were going to seriously considering either confining to her quarters or to the brig. Perhaps it was time to start listening to them, because being stuck with Joe Carey breathing down her neck when she knew she was the better engineer, was far better than spending seventy-five years in a cell. "Chakotay wants me to do the same thing, but I don't think either you understand what an incredibly pompous…man Carey can be. It's not going to be easy."

Sarah turned about to leave, glancing over her shoulder, "No, but it's the hard things that we have to go through that make us better people." As she stepped out into the corridor she fully faced B'Elanna, "Maybe Lieutenant Carey will see you in a different light if you swallow your pride and call a truce."

"A truce? Between Starfleet and Maquis?"

A small laced Sarah's face. "Stranger things have happened before."

B'Elanna stared at the door long after Sarah let them room, then setting her jaw she stepped out of her quarters and proceeded to Engineering, perhaps the counselor was right, and apologizing was the right course of action to take, it was, at least worth the shot, even if in the end it didn't have the results that many were hoping, at least she would have the satisfaction of knowing she had at least tried.

#star trek voyager #star trek voyager fanfiction #kathryn janeway #chakotay #janeway x chakotay #tom paris #sarah barrett (oc)#tom paris x ofc #tuvok #harry kim #b'elanna torres #neelix #kes #the doctor (emh)#this way became my journey

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