Summary: Voyager is still on its journey home, and the ship is now populated with families. When Tom and B'Elanna's youngest daughter disappears, the crew is reminded of the dangers and the importance of having children on board. Disclaimer: All characters are the property of Paramount. This piece of fan fiction was created purely for entertainment purposes and no one made any money from it. No infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended.
- - - - -
A tired smile spread across Tom Paris' face when he turned and saw the ensign who was relieving his post emerge from the turbolift. After briefly explaining that they were soon to break orbit around the planet whose inhabitants they'd been trading with the past two days, he bid the captain farewell and exited the Bridge. He immediately dropped to the floor of the turbolift, and began stretching various muscles, attempting to relieve the tension in his neck and back. His long eight-hour shift was finally over, and all he wanted to do was retreat to his quarters and sleep until the next one began. But he couldn't have that luxury for another few minutes yet.
"Computer, locate Annie Paris."
"Annie Paris is in Education."
"Engineering", he spoke clearly, thinking that he would have just enough time to meet up with B'Elanna, so they could go to Education together. If he wasn't on duty, Tom always walked his youngest daughter Annie to their quarters after school, even though each child was fitted with a communicator so they couldn't get lost in Voyager's vast repetitive corridors.
He couldn't help humming a little, despite his overwhelming fatigue, as the lift progressed on its path. He'd swapped duty shifts with Ensign Lester the day before, so that he could spend the whole day and night with his family.
When the doors slid open, he found himself staring into his wife's face.
"Oh, what a nice surprise, commander," she said raising her eyebrow and smiling in amusement, "did you come to make sure I wouldn't get lost?"
"Oh, ha, ha B'Elanna," he said, his face breaking into a smile.
He took her hand and pulled her into the lift. "Deck 5." He relieved her of her computer and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling him towards her and kissing the top of her head. "I missed you today," he whispered.
"Don't you miss me every day?"
"Of course, but today – thinking about all the time we don't spend together and…"
"Shhh, don't let it worry you too much. We have all day tomorrow together – and I have a surprise for you", she said secretively.
"What is it?"
"Ah, uh. Not until later." The doors opened on the deck containing the rather hastily constructed education rooms, and a bunch of children running towards the turbolift.
The couple quickly got out of their way, and walked against the flow of people towards their youngest daughter's room. Over the buzz of the crowd she heard her son utter to a friend "You're right. Nothing really exciting ever happens on this floating piece of junk anymore."
B'Elanna's caught the eye of her son in the crowd and called out "make sure you're in our quarters by eighteen hundred hours Pahron!"
Two girls walking behind him began mimicking her as they crammed into the lift, and Tom saw his son's face turn a deep shade of crimson and embarrassment burn in his eyes.
They walked into the open doorway and saw Samantha Wildman helping some of the youngest cadets cram their cards and padds into their satchels.
"Lieutenant!"
She looked up from a satchel and her face broke into a tired smile. "If I never see other broken padd again it'll be too soon. How are you both?"
"Tired," they replied in unison, and glanced at each other.
"Goes without saying, doesn't it." Then she finished helping the young boy and watched him run into the arms of Megan Delaney.
"Sam, is Annie ready?" B'Elanna asked, wanting to speed up their chat.
"Oh, she was right here… Annie!" She called, going into the back room. "Annie your parents are here!"
She reappeared seconds later. "That's funny, she was standing right there when I turned to help James and I turned back when you called me…"
"Annie!" Tom called. "Annie J'Olynn Paris whenever you are hiding come out right now. Mummy and Daddy and tired and we want to go home."
When the little girl did not appear, Tom said, "She must have gone on one of her 'expeditions' again. Computer, locate Annie Paris."
"Annie Paris is not on Voyager." Tom felt his blood run cold and his face flush hot. All three officers stare blankly at one another.
"Computer, locate Annie Paris," B'Elanna tried, squeezing her eyes shut and reaching for Tom's hand.
"Annie Paris is not on Voyager." This time the words seemed to drive daggers into their hearts.
"Computer, locate Miral Paris."
"Miral Paris is in her quarters."
"Paris to Miral."
"Yes Dad?"
"Miri, is Annie with you?"
"Annie? No she told me you were walking her today."
"I was, but she's not here. If you hear of her contact me immediately, all right?"
"Sure thing", came back a confused voice.
"Well she must be here somewhere! How could she leave? Her communicator is malfunctioning - that's all. We'll find her," Tom exclaimed, suddenly brighter.
"Computer what is the last known location for Annie Paris?"
"Annie Paris' last known location was Education. Deck 5. Room 3."
"Paris to Janeway."
"Go ahead, Tom."
"We've misplaced Annie. The computer is saying she's not on board – her communicator must have broken down."
"Okay. I'll launch a search party and go deck by deck. Don't worry Tom, we'll find her. Janeway out."
"We'll start here and work our way back to our quarters. Perhaps she thought she'd try and find it herself."
"Perhaps…" Tom pulled B'Elanna quickly through the corridors towards their quarters.
- - - - -
Hours later, Tom and B'Elanna finally collapsed in their quarters. Neither could continue the search after a strenuous eight-hour shift preceding the afternoon's events. By now, everyone on board knew about and had been looking for Annie. It was Harry who convinced them to get some sleep, while others continued through the night. Miral heard her parents return and ran from her room and flung herself into her mother's arms. "Oh where is she, where is she? Why haven't they found her?"
Pahron wandered in from his room and sat on the end of the couch. "So everyone's little darling finally escaped. For once she's going to get it!" "Pahron how dare you say that!" The teenager shrugged and wandered back into his room.
"It's late. Go to bed, Miri. Don't get worked up over it, yet. She'll be okay," Tom said, trying to keep his voice as steady as possible.
"All right." She kissed both her parents and disappeared into her room. Tom pulled B'Elanna up and dragged her to their room. "Once we get some sleep, we'll be able to think clearly."
Neither bothered to change, and the moment their heads touched the pillows, they were asleep.
- - - - -
Tom woke a couple of hours later and momentarily forgot that his daughter was not asleep in the next room. When he did remember it impacted hard in his stomach, he broke out in a cold sweat and he felt sick. Wherever she was, she was alone and must be frightened. Knowing he'd never sleep now, but not wanting to disturb his wife, he was reduced to thinking. Remembering. Evaluating. His family was the most important thing to him in the whole universe.
Miral was the second child to be born on Voyager, almost thirteen years ago. The moment he held the child in his arms changed his world forever. In an instant his priorities restructured themselves around this tiny baby, who sported his blue eyes, tanned skin and a Klingon brow less defined than her mother's.
Pahron had the characteristic brow of his mother's heritage also, but his skin was much lighter, and his hair was sandy brown, like his father's. Pahron had been a pleasant surprise, arriving just twenty months after Miral.
But his youngest was his favourite, though he tried to hide the fact. Daddy's little girl. He loved all his children equally, but it was to six-year old Annie that he felt most connected with. Her dazzling earth-sky blue eyes were the first things you noticed about her, and they shone out from her perfect fair skin. Her dark brown hair was almost always done in two plaits, each running along her head on either side and trailing to her shoulders. But her adoring face was not what drew her into the hearts of the crew. She was a real personality. She was always smiling, always happy and incredibly bright. Always taking flowers to sickbay or striking up conversations with the crew. Annie was Voyager's darling. His darling. His Annie.
"Tom, I'm really scared." B'Elanna's voice broke the dark silence and sliced through his thoughts. Realising she was now awake, he moved to a more comfortable position beside her.
"I know, I know, I think…"
"No, don't think. Listen. Lieutenant Wildman said she was talking to Annie, turned around to James and turned back a second later when we arrived.
"Yes."
"Well if Annie had disappeared while her back was turned, wouldn't we have seen her leaving the room?"
"I guess we could have missed…"
"And we were in the first turbolift to arrive, and Pahron was in the first one to leave. Someone would have seen her in that hallway."
"But if she just…"
"But nothing, Tom! Something is wrong here. Really wrong. One moment Annie was in Education and the next moment, she was nowhere. All the records and scans confirm it. Annie is not on this ship."
"Paris to Chakotay."
"Go ahead Tom," replied a sleepy Chakotay after a second's silence.
"We need to hold a meeting of the senior officers immediately. It's about Annie – B'Elanna has a few theories."
"Now?"
"Yes, now. If not sooner."
- - - - -
Almost all the senior officers were assembled around the table when Harry burst in, out of breath and waving a padd.
"Captain. I've just picked up something way out of the ordinary in the records." He ran to the viewscreen in the wall and tapped in a few instructions.
"These are the ship's energy read outs at the time of Annie's disappearance." A horizontal line appeared on the screen, hardly changing at all over the course of the few minutes they were analysing.
"Nothing much there, correct? That's what we found when we went through the records. But I had an idea while I was searching engineering. I'd begun detailed scans of that deck on differing energy frequencies and at very low voltages, but it took some time. Eventually I picked up this." He played the minute of recording he was referring to. The horizontal line suddenly dipped to a dramatic point and return to flat line within a nanosecond. The fell silent and Tom squeezed B'Elanna's hand beneath the table.
"It's not an energy surge, it's a displacement of energy. It's a form of transport that works similarly to our transporter beam, but with no evidence of it being activated. The technology appears to work by removing energy and quickly filling the space it occupies again, which combined with the speed at which it operates, keeps the energy output readings constant. The readouts register it as energy being transferred, not a disruption in the overall energy output." The room was silent, this technology had not been witnessed anywhere before, and everyone knew the delicacy of the situation.
"So, Harry. In your opinion, where has Annie been transported to?" The Captain finally inquired.
"Well, that's the thing. There's no way of tracking it – it leaves no signature." The faces in the room stared blankly at one another.
B'Elanna stood up shakily. "Are you saying she could be anywhere in the galaxy?"
"No. Not exactly. That seems to be the single flaw of the device. As each human differs in height, weight and bone density, it takes differing amounts of energy to transfer each person. For this process to work it has to be accurate, and whoever transported her must have known her exact energy outputs at that moment in time. She must have had some sort of device implanted in her that was sending a message back to the technology, giving those exact readings."
"This sounds awfully well planned. Whoever did it has obviously done it before."
"That's not all. The exact second that Annie disappears from the ship's records, was the exact second we broke orbit around Rinoma."
"Captain to the Bridge. Turn the ship around and head back to the planet Rinoma immediately. Maximum Warp."
"Yes Ma'am."
"I took Annie off the ship when we first arrived," Tom commented sternly. "As everyone was getting off for some real fresh air, I wanted to show her the fields of flowers and… the magician!"
"What about him?"
"A man showed her something in the main square. I couldn't see very well because of the crowds, but it was nothing more than an old disappearing ball trick. One of those ancient ones where you had to select the cup the stone was beneath."
"What's so strange about a magic trick?"
"Well that's just it. Nothing. But for the fact that when she selected a cup, he took her hand in both of his before upturning the cup and I thought I saw her flinch when he did it. We walked away I asked her what had made her jump but she didn't know what I was talking about."
"They were a very strange race of people. They wanted almost nothing in return for their goods. They wanted us to talk a lot about ourselves and said all they wanted was for us to mention their warm hospitality to anyone we encountered."
"How could we have been so stupid!" Tom roared suddenly, standing up and storming towards the door. "They wanted payment for their goods, all right. The payment they require is something no race would hand over. One of its crew members." He disappeared through the door and B'Elanna ran to catch up with him. "Tom!" she called.
He spun around, anger and fear evident in his troubled eyes and he pointed his finger towards B'Elanna.
"If they have touched one hair on her head I will kill every last one of them with my own hands."
"Tom', she repeated, but softer, in an effort to calm him down.
"What?" he yelled at her, knowing his was directing his anger at an innocent party, but unable to control his feeling of guilt. He threw his fist into the wall beside him before stepping into the turbolift, leaving B'Elanna alone in the corridor.
- - - - -
Tom paced up and down the Bridge as Voyager sped quickly towards Rinoma.
"As soon as we are in communications range, open a channel. Tom, Tuvok, prepare to beam down to the surface with me as soon as possible."
"Captain, I'm opening a channel now", Lieutenant Kim reported.
Rycek turned in his chair to face the viewscreen.
"I am Captain Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager. I demand to know the extent of your planet's role in the disappearance of Annie Paris who visited…"
She stopped when she saw a giant smile spreading across the interstellar relations officer's face.
"Are you under the impression that this is some kind of joke?"
"Not at all", Rycek said, the smile fading a little, "Annie is doing just fine. Interesting little creature, isn't she?"
"What gives you the right to kidnap her from her home! Why would you do such a horrible thing!" Tom yelled.
"Please, calm down. Annie is being well looked after. We would never want any harm to come to one of our specimens."
"Specimens! What gives you the right to study her?"
"We were not so much studying her as studying you. Your race has never been seen in these parts and my recruiter said that Annie had an unusual genetic composition and would expand our knowledge bank a great deal. But you returning to collect her tells us more about your species than we could ever learn from a few tests. When you are ready, report to me at the coordinates I'm sending you now and you are more than welcome to take her home."
Tuvok, Janeway and Paris exited the Bridge immediately and headed for the transporter room.
- - - - -
When they beamed down to the surface, the first thing Tom saw when he materialised was Rycek holding a triangular shaped key.
Ignoring Janeway's shouts to calm down he ran through the corridor. He looked briefly at the string of strange alien characters on every door he passed, until a set of them matched those on the key he held tightly in his hand. He thrust the key into the lock, jiggling it desperately before he heard a solid click and pushed against it.
The light from the corridor fell on a small figure sitting quietly by the barred window.
"Annie?" he almost whispered.
"Daddy!" She jumped up and ran to him. He enclosed his arms around her and cried desperate tears of relief.
"Did they hurt you? Did they touch you? You must have been so afraid, are you all right?"
She was fairly dirty and her braids were messy, but she looked unharmed.
"I'm fine Daddy. But I don't understand what happened… I was on Voyager and then I wasn't, but they didn't hurt me. And I wasn't scared."
He released her a little from his grip and looked into her face. "You weren't?"
"I knew you'd come back for me."
He pulled her to him and stood up.
"I knew Harry and Annika would work out what had happened, and I knew the Captain wouldn't leave me here. And I knew you'd find me." Captain Janeway appeared in the doorway with Rycek.
"She's okay, Captain. She's fine."
"Just out of curiosity Rycek, what happens to all the "specimens" whose species choose not to return or cannot figure out what happened to one of their crew?" Janeway asked.
"Well if they are not claimed within fifty revolutions, they live out a long and happy life on Rinoma."
Janeway shook her head and when Tom carried Annie out of her cell and they returned to where Voyager's transporter could function she uttered, "Three to beam up", wanting to escape that wretched planet as soon as possible.
- - - - -
The little girl had fallen asleep on her father's shoulder, and only snuffled quietly when he lifted her off him and laid her gently on her bed. The Doctor's medical examination had exhausted the last of her strength. He pulled the blankets tightly around her and smoothed her hair with a trembling hand. He had almost lost her. His family was his universe – how he have kept on going if it was torn apart?
He stood just looking at the child, wondering how such a flawed man could create something so perfect. It was only when B'Elanna drew beside him and placed her hand on his arm, that he clicked out of his trance and didn't resist as she tugged him towards the door.
She enveloped him in a tight hug, which he responded to by burying his face in her hair, attempting to hold back tears. Eventually he pulled back, wiping his brow with one hand.
"Hurtling through unknown regions of the Delta Quadrant isn't any kind of place for children", he managed slowly, when out of earshot of any of the children's rooms. "Naomi was one thing, but what were we thinking? What was the Captain thinking in agreeing with our request?"
"She was thinking of us, Tom. And she was thinking of Voyager's future. Someone may need to pilot this thing in thirty to forty years." B'Elanna climbed into the bed and settled herself beneath the blankets.
"I know." He sat on the edge of the bed and began to remove items of clothing. "I know but I couldn't protect her today. Even if I was there, I couldn't have stopped what happened. That scares me a lot. I wasn't in control… I feel like I failed her."
B'Elanna squeezed his shoulder and he lay down beside her, arranging the blankets and hugging her tightly against him. "I don't know if I'd be strong enough to go on without you or Annie or Pahron or Miral", he whispered into her ear.
"We can't protect them from everything, Tom. And we'd send ourselves as well as them crazy if we tried too. Children grow up - they become independent - and we're not going to be able to keep them from experiencing life. We have to love every minute we spend with them, encourage them not be afraid to live their lives… and we must be prepared for the consequences of that."
He nodded in the semi-darkness and kissed her forehead.
"I'm still going to watch them every second for the rest of their lives. Hey, didn't you have a surprise for me?"
"Oh?"
"Two days ago… before all this… you said you had a surprise for me."
"Ah… I don't think its such a good idea anymore."
"Why?"
"I just don't. Forget about it. I'll bring it up again in a few months."
"B'Elanna…"
"Well… I'd arranged with the Captain for you and I to take a week off… Chakotay and Annika were going to have the kids stay with them. But since you never want to let any of them out of your sight ever again, I don't really see how we can…"
"You know what?"
"Yes. I think this could be good for me."
"Oh really."
"Yeah, well I'm sure Miral and Pahron won't want me following them to their friends' quarters… and I don't want to sit around feeling worried and depressed for weeks - for Annie's sake at least. She doesn't seem to think it was that big a deal. So, when can we take our leave"
B'Elanna smiled. "It started the minute you finished your Bridge shift two days ago."
- - - - -
EPILOGUE - Three months later
"Tom!" a voice called
Paris stopped immediately and turned around at the sound. "Yes, Captain?"
"I wanted to talk to you about Annie."
"I'm sorry captain is she making a nuisance of herself again? I asked her to…"
Janeway shook her head and raised her hand to silence him. "We should be encouraging that curiosity in her. It is how she will learn about Voyager as she grows up."
Tom smiled at her comment, knowing she was slightly sarcastic. Annie was always able to seek out the Captain and proceeded to fire question after question at her.
"Your best qualities Tom, are your ability to learn new skills and your devotion to people", the Captain continued, "B'Elanna's is her inner strength and perseverance. I find it quite amazing."
"Find what amazing, ma'am?"
"That Annie could have inherited all of those, and that they are obvious now, at just six years of age."
Tom smiled – it wasn't just him. Janeway had seen it too. Evidence that they had made the right decision in turning Voyager into a generational ship. Although Annie Paris knew no other world outside the ship, she valued and wanted to experience everything in her universe.
- - - - -
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