A/N: Voyager, her crew, and any other little odds and ends I borrowed from the Star Trek Universe belong to Paramount/Viacom. I'm just adding my own two cents (and more!). A'Lehsen and S'Ehra, Annalise, Omaga, and all other characters which were NOT mentioned in any Star Trek episode come from my fertile imagination. They may be used only with my permission.
Lieutenant Commander B'Elanna Paris looked up in surprise when Captain Janeway's voice came over the ship-wide comm. 'Damn,' she thought. There had been no mention of an announcement at this morning's briefing, as far as she knew. But then, she had dozed off for a few minutes during Tuvok's report. B'Elanna had made a mental note to go to Sickbay after this shift because the last time she had done something like that...
The Captain's rather shaken voice interrupted her thoughts. "Senior officers to the briefing room, now. I am calling a Priority One meeting. Janeway out."
B'Elanna glanced at Lieutenant Susan Nicoletti, who had been giving her a report on the hull status after Voyager's transwarp jump the day before. It was not good.
"I'll be back in a while, Susan. You're in charge until then," B'Elanna said.
"Yes, sir," Nicoletti said with a nod. Her dark gray eyes were troubled.
B'Elanna left Engineering and got onto the nearest turbolift. "Bridge," she said. The 'lift began to rise. It stopped on Deck 4, and her husband, Lieutenant Tom Paris, entered. They smiled at each other.
"Before you can ask, I dropped A'Lehsen and S'Ehra off at the Stuarts'. Alna has daycare duty this shift," Tom said, referring to their three-and-a-half-year-old twin daughters.
Over the last few years, many of Voyager's crew had gotten married. Tom and B'Elanna had been the first couple, and others had begun to follow their example, including the Captain and Commander Chakotay. Most of them had one or two children by this time, so shifts had been rearranged and daycare had been started. It was run by volunteers who received rewards like extra replicator rations, holodeck time, and shifts off.
"That's good. Alna knows how to handle them if they start to make mischief. Ivan, on the other hand..." B'Elanna said with a sigh.
"You know he tries, but he's so used to Gretchen's mild temperament that our girls are a little too much for him," Tom said in defense of his fellow pilot and father, although he privately agreed with his wife.
B'Elanna grinned. "Just wait until she's old enough to walk. He'll be just as useless with her as he is with A'Lehsen and S'Ehra," she said knowingly. "He could definitely take some lessons from you."
"In what?" Tom asked suggestively.
B'Elanna's smile widened. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe this..." she said.
They exchanged a kiss that they wished could last longer. Luckily, they broke apart just before the 'lift doors opened.
The tension on the Bridge suggested that everyone here knew what was going on, at least partly. Tom and B'Elanna walked quickly across to the briefing room. Janeway, Chakotay, and Lieutenant Commander Tuvok were already there. Their faces were blank yet held a hint of tension, which indicated that something big had happened.
The Parises took their usual places around the horse-shoe shaped table. B'Elanna leaned back in her chair and let out a sigh under her breath. Her responsibilities as Chief Engineer and the mother of two toddlers must have been making her more tired than they normally did. At least, she thought that might be the reason.
B'Elanna's thoughts drifted to her two precious daughters. When she had found out after her marriage to Tom that she was pregnant with twins, she had been so worried about motherhood. What if she turned out like her mother? How could she help her children accept their Klingon heritage when she was not sure that she had fully done so herself?
As soon as those two small bundles had been placed in her arms, her worries had evaporated. She knew that she and Tom would be able to raise them well. Together, they could do anything.
A'Lehsen and S'Ehra had been born simultaneously. Like Samantha Wildman, B'Elanna had not been able to give birth naturally. She had been too small, so the Doctor had transported both girls out before the labor had gone too far. B'Elanna had only had to deliver the afterbirth.
B'Elanna was sometimes amazed at the girls' combinations of looks and personalities. A'Lehsen and S'Ehra were identical. They each had raven-black hair, blue eyes, dark complexions, and faint forehead ridges. There were a few differences, of course. A'Lehsen's ridges were slightly more pronounced, and S'Ehra's eyes were more violet than blue. They had inherited her quick temper and Tom's wonderful smile.
The two girls took turns being the leader in games and mischief. A'Lehsen appeared to enjoy and seek leadership more, though. S'Ehra was the thinker, the problem solver, while A'Lehsen made their decisions. B'Elanna privately hoped that A'Lehsen would enter Starfleet Academy as a potential command officer and that S'Ehra would choose Tactical or Engineering. However, no matter what dreams B'Elanna and Tom had for their bright daughters, they both agreed not to push them. They would allow A'Lehsen and S'Ehra to find their own paths in life. The lack of that freedom had nearly destroyed them at one point or another before coming on Voyager, and they weren't about to inflict that kind of pain on their children.
The entrance of Lieutenant Harry Kim, the Doctor, Neelix, and Seven of Nine interrupted her thoughts. After the latest arrivals were seated, the Captain stood up and cleared her throat. She and the other on-duty Bridge officers wore strained expressions. What did they know?
All eyes turned to Janeway, who cleared her throat again. She leaned forward and began to speak. "As you know, that last transwarp jump brought us into the Beta Quadrant. There has been some speculation as to how close to Federation territory we are. Since the Romulans did not share their starcharts of the area with Starfleet, we had only basic calculations to rely on. Even Seven could not tell us much. The Borg took a different route to the Alpha Quadrant, and the data from assimilated Romulans did not include starcharts. well, we have encountered something that changes our current status. Tuvok, if you would," she said, nodding to the Vulcan.
Tuvok rose as the Captain sat down. He walked over to the wall console. the touch of a button brought up a subspace signal pattern. "We picked up this signal an hour and six minutes ago. I have pinpointed its origin. It is a probe four point seven light years away from our present location. The signal is-"
"Romulan!" B'Elanna finished for him with a hiss of disgust. She had a Klingon's very natural distrust and dislike of that particular species, even if she did not like it. After Khitomer, no one really blamed them for that attitude. The Federation kept them behind the Neutral Zone as much as possible.
"Indeed," was Tuvok's only comment. He continued, "We have copied the starcharts. We are now aware of our exact coordinates, as well as those of Romulus and, thus, the Federation and Earth."
"Harry, Seven, I want you to use those charts to plot a course around Romulan space. We don't need a confrontation with them. B'Elanna, when will the hull be repaired?" Janeway asked.
"I can give you ninety-percent integrity in a week. I could give you more if I had permission to use more replicator rations," B'Elanna said with a small, stern frown. "But we won't be able to maintain the transwarp field for more than a month at a time. I warned you last time, but you insisted on staying in that extra month..."
Janeway nodded with a wry smile. "You told me that four months in transwarp would do a lot of damage to Voyager's hull and secondary systems, but we were so close to the Beta Quadrant. I wanted to shave another fifteen years off of the trip. And it looks like it worked," she said.
"Yes, it sure does," Chakotay said with a grin.
"When the hull is patched, we can start for home..." B'Elanna let her voice fade.
Everyone was quiet. They had all learned to think of Voyager as home. Now that they were so near their goal, the thought of being back on Earth was so strange. It would seem odd to be anywhere but the ship for longer than a few days of shore leave.
Janeway was the first to break the silence. "All right, I will expect each of you to inform your staffs. Doc, you can tell the scientists."
"Yes, Captain," they all chorused.
"Fine. Are there any questions?"
"What will happen to the ex-Maquis members?" Tom asked.
"And Tom?" B'Elanna and Harry asked in unison.
Janeway shrugged. "I can't know the future. However, what we learned four years ago leads me to believe that Starfleet may decide to ignore the fact that my crew has ex-Maquis members in it. They may make their decision from your files since coming to Voyager. That goes for Tom, as well. I really can't say."
Everyone, except Tuvok and Seven, nodded solemnly. They had all known the answer to those two questions, but they had had to be asked.
"All right, then. Dismissed," Janeway said.
They all left the briefing room. The Bridge crew gave them odd looks, but no one said anything. Tuvok, Chakotay, and Janeway resumed their posts, and the rest piled into the turbolift. Decks were called out. Harry and Seven got off at three, Tom and Neelix at four.
When B'Elanna and the Doctor were alone, she said, "Doc, I need to see you after I finish my shift."
"Is something wrong, Commander?" the Doctor asked with some concern.
"Not really, I just think I should come in for a check up."
The Doctor looked at her but decided not to comment. B'Elanna never came in for a check up voluntarily. However, he just nodded and said, "All right."
The lift doors opened at Deck 6, and B'Elanna got off.