Souvenir
Endgame Redux
A Star Trek: Voyager fanfiction
by
CanonAntithesis
Summary: Sequel to "It Felt Like Home". Please read it first; otherwise, this won't make much sense. There was a souvenir, after all. Yet another real reason for why Admiral Janeway came back to save Voyager.
Disclaimer: No copyright infringement is intended. This fanfiction is based upon the UPN television series Star Trek: Voyager. All characters and situations other than my own are the sole property of Paramount.
Prologue
"I've come to bring Voyager home."
Admiral Janeway came blasting out of the future to change her own past and the results of her actions would have long reaching consequences for all.
Chapter 1
"Fresh coffee...," Admiral Janeway practically purred as she preceded Captain Janeway into her ready room. "Do you mind?" She walked over and picked up a cup, turning to the captain before she started to pour.
Kathryn had to admit, if only to herself, that she'd held many conversations with herself over the past seven years, but this was taking it a little overboard.
"No, go ahead." Kathryn knew not to walk too close to the pungent aroma of her favorite beverage. Instead, she proceeded to the observation window while the admiral poured herself a cup.
Chell must have left the carafe and cups there for her. Neelix was more observant. She hadn't been able to stomach coffee for over two weeks now. Neelix would have realized that her tastes had changed. Crewman Chell, in his bid to take over as ship's Chief Cook and Bottle Washer, had been going to extremes of late to try to impress her.
Admiral Janeway lifted the cup to her nose before taking a sip. "Hmmm. This is the real thing, isn't it? Not one of Neelix's 'even-better-than-coffee' substitutes."
"I wouldn't know," Kathryn replied cooly.
"Oh, that's right," intoned the admiral smoothly, "I had forgotten." The older woman contemplated her younger counterpart while sipping the warm beverage.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kathryn waited for her to elaborate, but instead the admiral completely changed the subject.
"All right, then. Let's talk about the past." She placed her cup on the coffee table and joined Kathryn on the upper level. "Three days ago, you detected elevated neutrino emissions in a nebula in grid 986. You thought it might be a way home. You were right." She leaned on the railing and looked down at the captain. "I've come to tell you to take Voyager back to that nebula."
"It was crawling with Borg," Kathryn replied incredulously.
"I've brought technology that'll get us past them."
Kathryn rolled her eyes at that outrageous statement.
"Oh, I don't blame you for being skeptical," the admiral continued, "but if you can't trust yourself, who can you trust?"
"For the sake of argument, let's say I believe everything you're telling me. The future you come from sounds pretty good. Voyager's home, I'm an admiral, there are ways to defend against the Borg."
"So, why would you want to tamper with such a rosy timeline?" the admiral asked the question she knew the captain wanted to ask. "To answer that I'd have to tell you more than you want to know, but suffice it to say, if you don't do what I'm suggesting it's going to take you another sixteen years to get this ship home, and there are going to be casualties along the way." She paused and allowed the hint of a smile to grace her lips. "I know exactly what you're thinking."
"You've also become a telepath?"
"I used to be you, remember? You're asking yourself, is she really who she says she is, or is this some sort of deception? For all you know, I could be a member of Species 8472 in disguise."
The older version of Kathryn Janeway sat down on the sofa, stretching her arms out as if she hadn't a care in the world.
"Have your people examine my shuttle. Tell them to take a close look at the weapons systems and the armor technology. In the meantime, the Doctor can confirm my identity."
####
"My scans indicate the two of you are genetically identical. However, the methylation patterns have changed which suggests a change in her diet or environment. From these data I believe she has lived on earth for at least the past ten years." He then turned to the captain with a smug smile on his face. "Congratulations, Captain. You made it home. Furthermore, I have been able to determine, using the ratio of Carbon-14 to Carbon-12 in her bones, that the admiral is you, approximately twenty-six years from now."
The doctor showed Captain Janeway a side-by-side comparison of the two women's DNA on the monitor. Their nucleotide sequences were identical.
The admiral sat on a biobed closest to the sickbay doors. Therefore, she was the first to notice when they opened and a handsome, youthful Tom Paris entered the room. Admiral Janeway was taken aback at his resemblance to …
"Hello, Tom." The older woman couldn't hide the longing in her voice.
####
Voyager's chief flight controller was dumbstruck and only managed a slight nod in the admiral's direction.
Tom had been on the bridge when the admiral's shuttle arrived, but he hadn't been prepared for seeing her in person. He also wasn't prepared for how she was looking at him. He thought he and the captain had finally managed to put Quarra behind them. In fact, they had been completely ignoring each other for almost two months now. He had been so wrapped up in B'Elanna's false labor scares that he thought he was finally moving on.
However, the way she looked at him made him feel decidedly uncomfortable. Her gaze was more reminiscent of loss than desire. It was as if she hadn't seen him in a long time, as if he didn't exist anymore in her timeline. It was unsettling.
####
Captain Janeway and the doctor joined them and Tom turned away from the Admiral to deliver his report directly to the captain.
"The technology aboard the Admiral's ship is really sexy," Tom told her.
Realizing how inappropriate his word choice was, Tom quickly looked down at his PADD, which allowed him to concentrate on the technical information he needed to convey and not to stare at either of the Kathryn Janeways in front of him.
He continued, "Much of it appears to have been designed to defend against the Borg."
Ignoring Tom's colorful language, Janeway asked, "Could we install these systems on Voyager?"
"The stealth technology is incompatible, but Seven and I believe we can adapt the armor and weapons."
"Well, Captain?" Admiral Janeway was barely containing a smirk.
The captain looked directly at Tom, ignoring her older self. "Do it."
####
With newly installed ablative armor and transphasic torpedoes from the future, Voyager blasted into the Borg nebula with the intention of going home. What they found, had Captain Janeway overriding the admiral's orders.
They found a Borg transwarp hub. This hub connected to thousands of exit points in all four quadrants. Captain Janeway decided it wouldn't be honorable to just escape back home when she felt they had a chance to deal some real damage to their most powerful enemy.
"I want to know why you didn't tell me about the existence of that hub before we went in there."
The admiral didn't intimidate easily. She casually strolled to the ready room sofa before answering.
"Because I remember how stubborn and self-righteous I used to be. I figured you might try to do something stupid."
"We have an opportunity to deal a crippling blow to the Borg. It could save millions of lives." Kathryn's passion shone through in her voice.
The admiral's voice, in comparison, was hard and biting. "Seven years ago, when you stranded this ship in the Delta Quadrant, you chose to put the lives of strangers ahead of the lives of your crew. You can't make the same mistake again."
"You got Voyager home, which means I will too. If it takes a few more years then that's…"
"The birth of your son will rip this crew apart."
Kathryn's hand automatically came to rest on her belly as her mind focused on only one of the items the admiral had just revealed. This mass of cells within her would be her son. A boy with crystal blue eyes and ...
She quickly removed her hand before asking indignantly, "What are you talking about?" Kathryn was trying to sound as sanctimonious as she could muster.
"Kathryn, please. We've already established that we are the same person. I'm not from an alternate timeline or a mirror universe. I know you're pregnant; you know you're pregnant; and the Doctor knows. I believe that about covers it at this point, am I right? So, let's not pretend, not here, not between the two of us. It's absurd."
Kathryn stood up taller before replying a little sadly, "Well, I won't be for long. I have an appointment with the Doctor tomorrow morning. I've decided to terminate."
The admiral seemed unfazed. "I noticed how you avoided the coffee when we first met. That was one of the most difficult parts of that first trimester." She chuckled to herself. "I could handle throwing up every morning, but it was the betrayal of my favorite beverage that nearly did me in. But don't worry, the nausea will pass in a few weeks."
The younger Janeway returned her hand to her stomach to quell the sudden return of said nausea. Just the mention of coffee seemed to be affecting her. She had already been sick twice this morning before her shift. She didn't need this … affliction … to cause her to neglect her duties.
"Didn't you hear me?" Captain Janeway said in her best command voice, but she wasn't able to sustain it. "I'm not going to have this baby. I … can't," Kathryn's voice cracked slightly at the admission. "I can't be a mother and the captain at the same time." Kathryn joined the admiral on the lower level and walked right up to her. It was very gratifying to be able to face someone eye to eye. She felt like she spent most of her life looking up.
The admiral seemed unaffected by the captain's pronouncement. "But you will, Kathryn. And he will be a beautiful little boy, wild blonde hair that sticks out in all directions and bright blue eyes that shine like a supernova." The older woman's eye seemed to glaze over slightly as if she picturing him in her mind. "Curious like his mother; adventurous like his father..."
"Stop it!" Kathryn sounded stressed and emotional. "Stop telling me things that haven't happened yet." Then, realizing what she said, she amended, "That aren't going to happen. And besides," she paused dramatically, "how could this baby's birth rip the ship apart, as you claim? How could we be held responsible for what happened when we didn't even know who we were? We thought we were different people on that planet."
Admiral Janeway was the polar opposite of Kathryn. She was unperturbed and collected when she noted, "I'm sure you'll agree that Voyager's crew is the finest in Starfleet."
This non sequitur caught Kathryn completely off guard and she wasn't sure if she was expected to respond or not. "Of course they are," she mumbled.
"Then I'm sure you will agree that they all, to the person, have a rudimentary understanding of human biology."
"What are you talking about?" Was she really going to turn into this vague old woman?
"It's been four months since you were rescued from Quarra."
Even now, after 26 years, the admiral couldn't hide the disdain from her voice when she said the word, rescued. There was still a small part of her that longed for those carefree days on that faraway planet.
Admiral Janeway continued, "You're still in your first trimester now, Kathryn. They'll all know that your son isn't the result of a 50 week pregnancy. They'll all be able to determine immediately that he wasn't conceived on an alien planet where no one could remember their own identities … that he was actually conceived here on Voyager when everyone knew exactly who they really were."
"Oh, God…"
TBC
Author's Notes:
Wow, I haven't published anything in three years. In fact I wasn't sure I remembered how to even upload a file, but here we go. I started this a long time ago and I'm hoping that uploading it will spur me into finishing it.
Reviews make me write faster.
And here's how it starts, the next segment of the saga of Tom and Kathryn.
FYI… I calculated the stardates between the end of Workforce and the beginning of Endgame using one of those handy-dandy online stardate calculators. It was approximately 4 months.
Gosh, is this thing sappy or what?
Please review and tell me how you feel about it.
