Epilogue
The star ship voyager. That's were to begin. Intrepid class starship. A smaller and sleeker design. Captained by Kathryn Janeway. Its mission was in the badlands. To retrieve Janeway's chief of security. When the ship did not return to base, search parties were immediately sent out. When they did not find any sign of the missing ship families were immediately notified. Five years later Starfleet received a message saying that the ship thought dead was instead lost in the delta quadrant. The news spread like wildfire through the quadrant. Six months later messages from the long dead were sent home. A year and a half later the missing ship finally returned home. This is the story of what happened to that ship's captain, after voyager.
Chapter 1
Her hair practically matching the color of the late fall leaves, dressed in a long black leggings with a dark green long sleeved top, and a long tan trench coat, Kathryn Janeway was walking a twisting path, following a river. But she was not the same Kathryn Janeway who had returned from the delta quadrant exuberant and triumphant. She had changed.
Her blue-green-gray eyes scanned the mountains. The famous Colorado Mountains, she was close enough to pick out the shapes of indivual trees. The cold gray steel color of the ancient peaks matched her eyes perfectly. The river turned away and the path turned onto a concrete sidewalk. A few people walked past her.
Kathryn let out a small sigh. Of all the places for here to end up in the galaxy, this was one of the least likely. Just like the delta quadrant. After this thought she almost smiled. Kathryn hadn't smiled much lately. She mused about how she ended up here. It had probly started with the wedding. She felt a sudden pang of sadness. Witch one? Probly Harry's. Kathryn could still remember the first time she saw him. The memory still brought a ghost of a smile to her lips. The moment his girl friend Libby had heard of his return, she had waited at the transporter station and when she saw him asked him to marry her. They eloped a week later.
Shortly after this Chacotay and Seven anocced their engagement. Anthore pang of sorrow struck Kathryn at this memory. She remembered their wedding day. All of voyagers crew had been there and at sevens insistence, Naomi Wildman had been the flower girl. Tuvok gave seven away. Kathryn, herself, had been sevens maid of honor. Kathryn remembered seven walking down the alile. Dressed in pure white, a vision. Chacotay had stood at the alter looking incredibly handsome and happy. As soon as they were pronounced married every one had surged forward to congratulate them. With practiced ease, Kathryn had navigated her way through the crowd to wish them the best of luck, and tell them they were going to be very happy together. Then Kathryn left. She left them behind. She took a year leave. Then she packed up and moved to a small town called Heritage Colorado. Kathryn's home was now a small house at the corner of Roslyn and Yates. Kathryn closed her eyes to savor the memory. Later in life she look back on this and think of it as the best desion she ever made. BAM!! Kathryn stumbled and fell back ward. She opened her eyes to discover what she had run into. As it turned out it was a man. He was getting to his feet, as he did Kathryn studied him. He was about 5 foot nine, with a slim muscular build. He had dark hair now liberally streaked with gray. Just then Kathryn realized that he was holding his hand out to help her up. "Oh, thank you." She said, slightly flustered. Kathryn looked into his eyes and noticed that they were the purest, brightest, green she had ever seen.
"I'm sorry for walking into you, I suppose my mind was just in other places." She said apologizing.
"Oh it's my fault. I should have been watching were I was going." He said. She noticed that he had a very strong Irish accent. Then he stuck out his hand. "My name is Finn O'Reily." Kathryn took his hand. It was warm and comforting, somehow. She said
"Mine's Kate." For some reason she didn't want to tell him her name quite yet. "Well, Kate would you care to acominate me for a cup of coffee?" Finn asked her. Kathryn didn't even need to hesitate. She missed coffee desprateitly.
"I would love to," she said picking up the book he had dropped. She noticed it was a book of DaVince sketches.
Soon they had arrived at a small neat building. Kathryn looked at the sign. "Common Grounds." She entered behind Finn and found herself in a dark well furnished room. On one side there was a long counter displaying cookies and muffins the strong aroma of coffee drifted through the air. It appeared to be almost empty. There was a woman behind the counter.
"May I introduce you to Tracy." Said Finn, "tracy owns common grounds." Kathryn said hi to Tracy.
Tracy smiled at her then turned to Finn and asked
"What'll have Finn?" The smiled boyishly at him.
" The same thing I've had for the last nine years. Coffee, black."
Kathryn looked at him. She hand never met anther person who took their coffee black. Tracy was now looking at her.
"What do you want?" she asked. Kathryn blushed.
"The same." She answered sheepishly. Tracy rolled her eyes and handed them their coffee.
"I suppose I should introduce you to the other people who come in here." Finn said turning and leaning against the counter.
" There would be more if Tracy didn't scare them all away." Said a disembodied voice from the coron table.
"Kate let me introduce you to Derek." said Finn nodding in his direction. "And his friend nick. Both go to the heritage collage." Continued Finn. Both Derek and nick waved from the table. "Next, Lisa." said Finn. At the sound of her own name Lisa looked up. She was sitting in the darkest corer. Near the bookshelves. She was just visible. She was wearing black turtleneck, black jeans, and sunglasses. Lisa was also reading a dark blue book.
"Hello." She greeted Kathryn a feathery, misty voice.
"how is it that she can read when she's sitting in the corror with sun glasses on?" whispered Kathryn to Finn. He shook his head.
" we think she's spying on us." He murmured in her ear. Kathryn could feel the hair on her arms rise. He turned back to the counter. "And there's Mr. Simons." Kathryn could make out the shape of an old man hunched over a newspaper.
"Been coming in sense my mother opened the shop." Said Tracy. " By way finn since you were at a board meeting yesterday I saved the news paper." She said. Finn thanked her. Tracy turned back to her coffee. Finn walked over to a window booth. He pushed out a chair for Kathryn, and then took a seat for himself. He looked at the front page of the paper and nearly chocked on his coffee. Finn stared at the front page, and then read aloud, "Kathryn Janeway declared missing last night." The small coffee house went silent. Kathryn could feel her face drain of color. " I think these one thing Finn neglected to mention. We all have a very, er, strong passion for anything voyager." Said Tracy. Kathryn looked at Finn, feeling her heart rate increase rapidly. He nodded.
"And in Finn's case he has a crush on captain Janeway." Said Derek sniggering. Finn couched loudly into his hand. It sounded suspically like
"Seven of nine". Kathryn couldn't help but smile. Finn turned to her. "What about you? Do you like voyager?" he asked her. Kathryn smiled at him. "It's my favorite subject." Finn smiled at her. For once, in six months, Kathryn Janeway felt very happy. Two weeks later she was still going.