Chapter 1
I was woken out of my sleep by a soft voice whispering my name.
"Kerry." I was at my mother's side in an instant.
"Computer, lights!" I commanded before turning back to my mother. The harsh glare of the sickbay lights made me squint.
"What is it, Mama?" My mother's face was pale, as it had been for so many years, and her eyes were wide with fear and pain.
"Kerry, honey...I love you." I gasped. I had read the books, seen the movies. I knew what happened when a patient as close to death as my mother told their families they loved them. This was it. This was the end. Suddenly, without warning, the various monitors and equipment surrounding the biobed began to whine.
"Computer-activate-Emergency-Medical-Hologram!" I yelled quickly, surprised at how steady my voice sounded. I had given the Doctor the night off, with the promise that I would activate him immediately if anything happened. Well, now was the time. The Doctor appeared out of nowhere and quickly began to work.
"She's going into shock!" I fought down a sob. The Doctor did not like hysterics in his sickbay. If I lost it now, I would have to leave, and there was no way in hell I was leaving now.
"Be a good girl." A slow smile turned up the corners of my mother's mouth. "You're the captain now."
"No, Mama, no, don't think like that!" I whispered. "You're going to be fine...just fine." It didn't convince me and I knew it hadn't convinced my mother either.
"Love...you." Slowly my mother's eyes began to close, and I felt overwhelmingly powerless to stop the disease that was taking over. The Doctor straightened up, looking somber.
"She's gone. I'm sorry." But I would have none of it. Letting loose a wild cry of heartbreak and sadness, I fled.
The Sickbay doors opened at my approach, and I ran out into the corridor.
And straight into my best friends. Naomi Wildman and Miral Paris have been my best friends since we were babies. Even though Naomi's a year and a half older than Miral and I, the three of us have stuck together like glue for as long as anyone can remember. One look at my face, and they knew what was wrong.
"Oh, Kerry, I'm so sorry." Naomi said, gathering me in a tight hug. Miral joined in, and before long we were all a hugging, crying mess. See, my mother wasn't just my mother. She was the captain of our ship, Voyager. Voyager had been lost in the Delta Quadrant for over twenty years now. Many of the crewmembers had been killed in various alien attacks, including several Borg attacks that nearly destroyed the ship altogether. Others simply got older. A spaceship isn't the best place to grow a little older, even if is galaxy-class. Most of the crew died before their time. Even Tuvok and Seven of Nine succumbed to death eventually. Through it all, my mother was the one who held it all together. She tried to hide that she was getting sicker and sicker herself. Her body wasn't in the best condition, especially after having a child. A couple of years ago, the Doctor banned her from coffee, because he thought it wasn't helping her any, and in fact might have been accelerating the progression of the disease. He took all the coffee recipes out of the replicators, and ordered Neelix and the kitchen staff not to make anything remotely resembling coffee. He finally relented when my mom threatened to reprogram him, and she looked like she might actually do it. Neelix died shortly after that, by the way. That was really hard for Naomi.
So there I was, with my two best friends, crying as I had never cried before. Somehow, we made it to the turbolift and got onto the bridge. Within an hour, we had assembled the entire crew-even the Doctor-and, shedding still more tears, told them what had happened. Everybody was devastated, but not shocked. We all knew that this was going to happen. We'd known it for years. It was only a matter of time.
All at once, reality sunk in. There were no adults left. The oldest crewmember was now eighteen years old. We were alone. Miral broke the silence.
"I nominate Kerry as captain." I gaped at her. Then slowly, hands went up and voices began ringing out.
"I second that!"
"Me too!" A lump rose in my throat. I had never quite realized how much we all cared about each other. Naomi waved a hand to quiet down the crowd.
"Then its official. We now have a new Captain Janeway." A shiver went down my back and suddenly it all came back to me. Why we were all here in the first place.
"Please." I said, my voice shaking. "Don't call me Captain Janeway. That was my mother. Not me." I flinched a little at the use of the word was. In the past, no longer existing.
"Alright then." Miral said, hardly missing a beat. "Captain Kerry." I smiled in spite of myself. Captain Kerry-I liked it.
A/N: I know, I know, really sucky first chapter, but I think its going to get better. I'm already thinking about writing a short one-shot about Kerry walking in on the Doctor to find him watching 21st century medical shows! Yeah, so school's crazy so I should have the next chapter up sometime in the next week or so but I'm not promising anything. Read and review please!