Like Father, Like Son (A Coda to Pathfinder)
Ann B. Harding

Voyager, Starfleet and Tom and Owen Paris are all owned by Paramount Pictures. I just
borrowed them for this little tale.

Summery: A look at pair of logs.

Note: Stardates are approximate

Like Father, Like Son
Admiral Owen Paris
Person Log Stardate 53514.9

I talked to my son today. I was finally able to tell him a some things I should have told
him long ago. He didn't reply, but I know he heard me. At least that is what Kathryn Janeway
said.

It is funny how things turn out sometime. When Kathryn Janeway first suggested that
Tom be the one to help her track down the missing Maquis ship, I'd hoped she would be able
to act as a bridge of sorts between my son and I.. I though she might be able to help us to
re-establish contact and maybe even some kind of relationship. I never thought it would happen
the way it did She was literally acting as a go between at that moment. I don't know if it was
because Tom did not think we should waste time and bandwidth for personal reasons, if he
thought that only the captain should speak, or if he was simply to stunned to speak. I longed to
hear Tom's voice reply, but Kathryn's "He heard you Admiral" was more then an acceptable
consolation.

There was a time when I thought that he would never hear what I longed to tell him. He
was gone, as so were my hopes of repairing our damaged relationship. Then came the reports of
of the Prometheus' EMH encounter with it's.... his Voyager counterpart. It was the first
evidence we had that Voyager had not been destroyed in the Badlands. Until then point the only
hope that the Voyager families had was the lack of wreckage. Some had even hoped that
Voyager that maybe the crew had been captured by the Cardassians. I didn't though. I would
have rather Tom and the others be dead then in hands of those butchers. Not that I wanted my
son to be dead, but I been a prisoner Cardassians, and it was not something I would have wished
on my worst enemy, let alone my youngest child.

When I heard of the encounter between the two holograms, there was new hope.. An
energy being pulling Voyager to the other side of the galaxy in an effort to find a suitable mate
was not something that was on Starfleet's list of likely explanations. True, we had lost a some
ships without a trace of wreckage, some Federation cargo ships, the Equinox, one of Starfleet's
nova-class starship but I never really thought of anything other then the ship's destructions.

The other side of the galaxy.... Things like that were almost unheard of - at least in this
day and age. It was almost like something out of the days Kirk and Spock. But it had
happened. Tom, Kathryn Janeway, Tuvok and many others were still alive. There had been a
number of deaths, many when during when Voyager had been dragged to the other side of
galaxy, but all in all there had been very few deaths. But Tom was alive. At first that was all
that matter. My son was alive. True, there was almost no hope of them reaching Federation
space within the next few decades. There was almost no hope of my ever seeing him again, but
he was alive.

I also learned how well he had adjusted to his life in the Delta Quadrant. Chief of Flight
Operations, Chief Flight instructor. He was a valuable part of the Voyager's Senior Staff. He
had the respect of his captain. It was everything I had ever wanted of him, everything I knew he
was capable of and more. And there had one job I never would have considered for him. .
Medical Assistant and Field Medic. In fact the EMH seemed to quite enamored with him. And if
the hologram's reports were any indication Janeway was as well.

I told him how proud I was in a letter that was transmitted though the same array Voyager
had used to send the EMH, but to this day, I do not know if he ever received it. The array was
destroyed a short time after we sent the messages, and Starfleet was never able to confirm if
Voyager had received the message to go to that array, never mind all of the message that were
sent though the array. Even if he got the message, I don't know if he would have even read it.
Our last encounter is not one I care to remember. The things I said to him. The things we said to
each other. That was why it was so important to let him know that I was proud of him, and more
importantly that I missed him. That he has home in here the Alpha Quadrant.



Personal Log Ensign Tom Paris
Stardate 53514.9

I heard my father's voice today.

I still am not sure I believe it. Not only did I hear his voice, but something else happened
today. Across 35,000 light years, with the method of the transmission collapsing, he asked
Janeway to tell me he missed me.. Me... the one he said had disgraced the Paris name. The one
he was so ashamed of. That he missed was surprising enough.... but the next words were even
more of shock. "And that I am proud of him."

He was proud me. He missed me. He was proud of me.

I wanted to reply, but I couldn't find the words. I was literally speechless. Not like when
Captain Janeway gave my field commission all those years ago, and I replied I didn't know what
to say. At the time I didn't, but at least I had enough wits left to make that stupid joke. This
time though, when I heard that voice over the speakers, I really was speechless. I couldn't say
anything. It was all I could do to remember to breathe.

A part of me didn't want to say anythng, for fear it would the spell. Maybe this was all
some sort of dream or hallucination. It certainly would not have been the the first something like
that had happened on this ship. The voices on the loudspeakers could have been just the next in
a long line of shattered dreams?

He was proud of me. My father was proud of me. A small part of me wondered if he
would be so proud when he learned about what happened a year ago, but right then it didn't
matter. For a short time, my father had been proud of me. And if I had earned his pride once, I
could and would earn it again.

He missed me. I never thought I would hear him say that. Not after what happened the
last time we saw each other. I thought that he didn't really care what happened to me, or where I
was. Though to be honest I didn't really care what happened to me either.

The really strange thing is that I had all ready been thinking about my relationship with
my father recently. After B'Elanna near-death experience, her journey to Gethor and her
"reunion" with her mother on the Barge of the Dead she needed to talk to someone. I think she
knew that I would understand better then anyone what she was going through. After all, my
relationship with my father is very similar to her relationship with her mother. When she said
that she had been thinking about how some of her the events in her childhood might not have
been as bad as she remembered, it got me thinking about my own memories. Were they really
as bad as I thought?

Not to long ago, I don't know how I would have answered that, but I know now that the
answer is no. I do have some good memories of times with my father, and not just when he was
letting me fly old shuttles, or reading me old Jules Verne stories - though those are still some of
my favorites. He wasn't always yelling at me to do better, although it may have felt like it at the
time.

This is not to say we didn't have our problems. We did, especially as I got older, and
began resisting all of his plans for me. He thought command was where I belonged, and all I
wanted to do was fly. To him flying had been a means to an end, a way climb through the ranks.
To me flying was the end. He never understood that.

When I lost that letter my father had sent through the array, B'Elanna told me to just
believe that he was trying to reach out to me. I told her would, but even then I didn't believe it.
Not really. I was so sure he still hated me. Now, I wonder if he ever did. . Maybe he really had
been trying to reach out to me.

Just about everyone on Voyager has asked how I am, and what is more fustrating is most
them seem to think I should be able to tell them How can I tell anyone what I am feeling, when
I am not sure what my feelings are. Funny though, the ones I most would be likely to confide in,
Harry, B'Elanna, Neelix, even the Doc haven't. They seem to know I am not gable to reply, at
least not right away. I still need time. It is all so strange... The words I heard this afternoon are
ones I have longed my whole life to hear.

When the Captain asked me to make a toast, I gave a very superficial one, but at the
time, I wasn't sure what else to say... so I fell back on some old friends, humor and
sidestepping. I focused on the real hero in all of this, the man who made it possible for me to
hear those words...

I heard my father's voice today. He told me he was proud of me. He told me he missed
me. And in a indirect way he told me I have a home in the Alpha Quadrant.