I do not own star trek voyager or its characters.
This story is rated "T" for language. It's not too bad, but just to be safe . . .
--
This is a short story about why the Admiral Janeway from Endgame gave up coffee.
--
It's all my fault. Why did I send her? She wasn't needed. One of the Delaney sisters could have easily, and they wouldn't have died from the shock. Damn Borg nanoprobes! Damn Borg technology! Damn the entire Borg collective. If Seven hadn't had Borg technology, she would have lived and her child would have gotten a chance to live. Damn! Damn! Damn!
Captain Kathryn Janeway could not stop thinking about the away mission--which had happened only a few days earlier--and Seven's death. Seven's death caused two more--literally and figuratively. She had been two months pregnant and well aware of it--she saw the Doctor every week, so how wouldn't she know? She hadn't told anyone, not even her husband, even though the Doctor urged her to. The Doctor told the Captain that Seven had began talking about statistics and observations about how men--especially the father-to-be--reacted to the knowledge and how the mother-to-be started being treated like she couldn't lift a finger without the treat of overexerting themselves. Seven had known that she overworked herself already and knew her husband was aware of that as well. So she had told the Doctor that the "combines risk of restraint is too great."
So now Seven and her daughter were dead. The entire crew had taken that hard, which was sort of ironic because if she had died a few years earlier, the majority of the crew wouldn't have shed a tear. Naomi Wildman had taken it the hardest--next to Chakotay and the Captain. Even B'Elanna cried at Seven's funneral.
Seven's death impacted Chakotay most of all. Seven had died in his arms, weakly telling him she'd be all right. When she died, a part of him died with her. He was no longer the smiling faced first officer Kathryn Janeway had spent ten years on Voyager with. Now he was a severly depressed man that sulked about the ship completing his duties and was unaproachable off duty.
So Captain Janeway contiuned her line of thought until she could take it no longer. She was tired and she was going to get some sleep. Nothing was going on--nothing major outside the ship, anyway--and hse needed to silence her thoughts. She stood up, turned to Lieutenant Kim and gave him the bridge. Then she headed toward the turbolift and entered. She ordered it to go and she waited for it to arrive. When it opened, she walked to her quarters, entered the code, entered and collapsed onto her bed in full uniform.
--
Captain Janeway was in the mess hall, surronded by giant coffee cups. She could smell the coffee--her favotire kind, black--and reached out to grab them. The coffee danced around her, not letting her have any. Finally, she gave up on tring to get the coffee from the gigantic coffee cups and walked over to the replicator.
"Coffee, black," she ordered and a cup appeared. She reached for it and was about to drink when she looked down. Inside the cup was Seven of Nine and she was drowning. Janeway dumped the coffee out put it was too late--Seven was dead. Janeway stared at her coffee cup and was prepared to break it when she felt something burning hot on her legs. She looked down and saw that the mess hall was flooding with coffee and quickly he level was rising. Soon, Janeway got to the point where she could no longer breath. She took one last breath then tried to swim to the exit.
The doors would not open. Try as she might, they wouldn't budge. Captain Janeway paniced to try to open them while she slowly lost consciousness in the pool of burning hot coffee.
--
Captain Janeway woke up startled. She decided against sleep, stood up, and exited her quarters. She was heading for the mess hall. She entered and walked over to Chell behind the counter.
"Captain," he said. "Would you like some coffee?" He had a cup of coffee in his hands. Janeway looked at the coffee and saw Seven drowning in it. It was then when she made her decision.
"No thanks, Chell. I've given it up cold turkey." At that, everyone in the room turned to look at Captain Janeway. The Doctor--who was watching Naomi Wildman and his goddaughter eat lunch and join their conversation--got up and walked over to the captain.
"Captain, if you'll come with me to Sickbay for some scans--" he began but was cut off.
"Doctor, I'm fine. I just realized what a killer coffee is."
END
