Epilogue
to book III of "String Theory - Evolution"
A few days later the storm of the past days had cleared away and the crew returned to their normal duties. Chakotay, seeing all of his officers back on the bridge at their respective stations and gratefully praising his ancestors for that, had just ordered the computer to switch all command codes back to Kathryn Janeway, when the doors hissed open and there she was – standing there with a smile on her face and silently watching the busy activity in the very heart of her ship.
At that moment he was pulled out of staring at her by Harry calling out "Captain on the bridge!" and together with the others he snapped to attention.
Kathryn Janeway took a moment to enjoy a glance around the room and rested her eyes upon each individual crewman for an instant. Although the doctor had explained what had happened to her, her intuition told her that he hadn't mentioned the full amount of her stay at sickbay. Tuvok, inscrutable as always, nodded to her, Paris and Kim beaming as if the whole crew had just given them their holodeck rations of a full year. But then this feeling about her sickness was confirmed when finally reaching her first officer's eyes. Behind his smile she saw a sorrow like he had just returned from the edge of death – having stared behind the veil and not being able to forget what he had seen.
His gaze, short as it had lasted, was enough to tell Kathryn more about the true nature of her recent absence from the bridge and for a quick second she realized deep down in her heart the same feeling of loss and grief that showed on the face of Chakotay. She couldn't tell why and she would never know, because the moment was gone and the sorrow in Chakotay's eyes gave way to a warm smile when he said on behalf of the crew, "Good to have you back – Captain." Her own smile faded, and, with a feeling that her life had lain in their hands before, she said, "Thank you. To all of you."
The captain sat down in her chair and during a short pause she listened to the comforting humming of the ship's engine, before issuing her first order back on duty. "Mr. Paris, resume course home!"