Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek Voyager, it belongs to Paramount.
Author's note: This is set after "Endgame" but before Voyager reaches Earth. No flames please, they'll only be used to make brownies. Thank you!
Acceptable losses
Captain Kathryn Janeway gazed out the large windows of her ready room at the familiar stars that were streaking by.
In less then an hour, Voyager would arrive at earth and her debriefing would begin.
She would also need to take on the duty that all captains dreaded, having to tell families that their loved ones where never coming home.
Moving over to her desk she picked up a pad and began to read from it.
It was the names of all the people they had lost over a seven year period.
As she read each name, tears began to gather in the bottoms of her eyes and she impatiently blinked them away.
"Don't be stupid, Kathryn. There was no way you could have gotten them all home," her mind scolded.
It was true but Janeway still wished that, somehow, she could have done it.
Phrases they had used in Command Training lectures floated into her head.
Phrases like "For the good of the ship, noble sacrifices, the good of the many outweigh the needs of the few", or her favorite, "Acceptable losses".
They had tried to teach them that some times you lost people, some times bad things happened. All that mattered was that you saved most of your crew.
But sitting in her ready room, reviewing the names of the honored dead, Janeway knew the truth.
There was no such thing as an acceptable loss.
Fin.