Disclaimer: Trek own all except my characters of convenience.

Summary: Edward Janeway. His life, his love and his death.

Rating: (PG)

A/N: The opening paragraph is re-word of one of the most beautiful phrases ever to be put down on paper. From Nicholas Sparks's "The Notebook". I hope I did it justice.

Please note this is a work in progress. It has not been beta'd so all mistakes are mine :) Yay!

Untitled (for now)

By Major_Ryan

"I used to write in my younger days. Nothing special or extraordinary. Nothing anyone would deem worthy of mention. My ideas were familiar, and could easily be told by anyone who felt inclined. But in many ways, I've been authoring one of the most beautiful stories I could ever had imagined. A narrative for my generations, and for myself, a great accomplishment."

I suppose this is where I tell you we have to go back a few years. Eleven, give or take a few months. I was a fresh ensign, stationed on the Mars colony. It was my dream assignment, handed to me in the worst possible way.

You see, I wasn't originally posted for an off planet job. My roommate, got the position through sheer determination, not to mention out scoring me on the Academy Extension course. I was devastated at first, but ever the pleasing diplomat, I wished him well and took an assistant position offered to me at Headquarters.

Richard Hendricks was his name, but we called him Dick. I met Dick on orientation when we were both fumbling and trying to find our formal class. If you could imagine both of us, eyes glued to the campus console, running late and facing disciplinary action on our first day. After much confusion and sweating we made it to class, just as his name rung out in the roll call.

There was so much to take in, that I couldn't key in data fast enough. Out Formal instructor gave the class information on uniform collection and necessary campus protocols, enough information to have our heads spinning for a year. His aid stood beside him and passed out Padd after Padd, there had to be at least 20 tucked under his arm. I remember leaning over to Dick and telling him that if this is what was like on the first day, then we were going to need aids of our own.

Nevertheless, as luck would have it we were assigned the same campus quarters. It was a small room with matching work consoles and beds. I was surprised to find a replicator fixed to the far wall, usually first year recruits had to make do with the campus mess. I immediately thought we were miss-assigned or had the wrong room, but Dick assured me it was ours.

I queried him about it and he told me he pulled in a favor from his brother. His older brother was a fifth year cadet, serving under the admiral who oversaw the campus housing as well as the Earth history curriculum.

Apparently he was one of the toughest instructors at Starfleet, but Dick's brother, Thomas requested his tutelage, cause of his involvement with the Friendship One project. Dick said Thomas had been obsessed with it since he heard about it in grade school and he wanted to be the first one to find the lost probe. We joked about how beneficial it was to have connections, even if it came from a pompous older brother who's social life revolved around an archaic messenger of good will.

Over break, we talked a little more about our backgrounds and he told me he grew up on the outskirts of Iowa. His parents were engineers and supplied cropping equipment to the surrounding states. A pleasant introduction to tinkering with mechanics, but restricting in many ways. His brother had left the family home a few years back, which had piked Dick's initial interest in someday joining. It was against their parents wishes. They had hoped their sons would follow the family career, but I guess the pull of Starfleet was just too tempting and as Dick reminded his parents, they still had their sister and younger brother. They could take over the supplying, should their parents wish to retire in the next few years.

I couldn't agree more, about leaving. A good portion of our class mates were lured into a life of travel beyond the stars, the unknown. Who wants to be tied down to agricultural life, when you could be exploring the galaxy.

I was fortunate to have full support from my parents, even though they weren't Starfleet aficionado's themselves, they knew enough about it to give me their blessing. After all, it was a Janeway tradition.

I often heard long tales of the Janeway's over the years. Their accomplishments and acts of heroism.

It was rumored that a Fred Janeway, a medical officer assigned to the El-Aurian's home world, was transported aboard the SS Lakul. As the story goes the ship disappeared, only to return years later. I sometimes wondered about what happened, the fine details were lost overtime and even my sister Margret, had difficulty in recapping on occasions.

And of course there was my uncle Harry, or Noddy as my father called him. Federation's head ambassador to the Cardassian Union. He was brutally murdered when the Cardassian strike force occupied Bajor in 2319. His loss was my first experience in dealing with death and it was difficult for me, as a young child to understand that he was never coming back.

When I decided to enroll, I thought his death might hinder my chances in winning my parents over, but they reassured me that, his death couldn't have been foreseen. As stubborn as my uncle was, he wasn't foolhardy and believed he could prevent the occupation diplomatically and therefore save lives.

Looking back, my fathers words helped me in more ways then I could ever imagine and as we made our way to afternoon class, Dick uttered three words that had summed it all up.

It's Crunch Time.