Star Trek Voyager characters are the property of Paramount Pictures.
Another story from the vaults :)
LEGACY
Beneath a snowing sky, wrapped up in a black dufflecoat, Kathryn Janeway walked through tall trees to the spot, beneath an ancient oak, where her grandparents were buried. A marble stone marked their grave, a gleaming black stone that stood upright in the ground, and Kathryn tenderly cleared away the dusting snow before placing a bunch of beautiful flowers in the grave's golden vase. The flowers were roses, roses of ruby red, and they were given in honor of a special anniversary. For today, exactly a hundred years to the hour, they were married.
Married beneath this tree.
A tree they had always loved.
A tree that had brought them together.
A tree they would now sleep beneath forever.
Kathryn looked up at the tree, its mighty black boughs covered with snow, and thought back to the years of her youth. To that magical time when she and her sister had played in these grounds and listened to their grandparents stories as they sat around a winter fire eating roast chestnuts. She had always loved their stories, they had such fascinating ones to tell, and she could hear them tell them now. But her favorite, of many favorites, was their tale of how they had declared their love to each other. One autumn day, as they were strolling through these woods, laughing and talking as they did, the heavens had suddenly opened and rained down upon them. Seeking shelter, they had dashed for the canopy of this tree, and her grandfather, in true chivalric fashion, had taken off his jacket and offered it to her grandmother. But she, not wanting him to go without it for her sake, and refused it. He had insisted, so had she, and before they knew it they were arguing.
Arguing then kissing. For both, in their own defence, had declared their love for the other:
"You sure are a stubborn woman," he had said. "Can't you see I mean well?"
"Can't you see that I do? It's your jacket, your right."
"Yes...to do with what I want. And I want you to have it."
"As you've made quite clear. But I want you to keep it just as much."
"I can't believe that."
"Can't believe what?"
"That you want me to keep it as much as I want you to have it."
"Why not?"
"Because I love you."
"I love you..."
And so the words were spoken. And so they got together.
Together, never to part. A love that had stood the test of time. A love that still lived on. It ran through her veins, forever a part of her being, and it would live on for years to come in her child.
In the gorgeous little boy beside her. A little boy with black hair, blue eyes, and a dimpled smile. His name was Edward Kolopak, called so after his grandfather, just like she had been named after her grandmother...
"Is it really true," the little lad asked, boots on his feet and a hat on his head, "that Great Grandma Janeway's last words were 'Oh, I would die for a coffee!'?"
"No," his mother laughed. "No one knows what her last words were. But whatever they were, your great grandfather heard them."
"He must have been sad when she died."
"Very. But it wasn't long before they were together again, and now are forever."
"I hope I get to meet them in Heaven."
"I'm sure you will...or maybe before."
The little boy frowned. "How do you mean?"
"Well, let's just say your great grandparents had many time travel adventures. Who knows when they might show up? They told me lots of stories, lots and lots, and one of them was about us."
"Really? About us?"
"That's right. Would you like to hear it?"
"Oh, I would, I would!"
Kathryn smiled, kissed his red nose, and then got to her feet. "Then I'll tell it to you as we walk home."
And so he heard it.
Heard it as they left the grave for home.
Home that was a house across a nearby bridge.
A house, designed and built by love, that soon would be a century old.
THE END