Over the course of three years, Beverly's life twisted and turned in unexpected ways.

It started with the loss of Voyager and its captain, one Kathryn Janeway that was, quite simply, the love of Beverly's life. Only months later, the Enterprise was destroyed, and Beverly's level of self-loathing for not taking a position aboard Voyager increased. (How could she justify staying for the sake of the Enterprise, when only four months later, that very ship lay gutted and burned on an alien planet?) After that, on the newest Enterprise, she had the pleasure of actually witnessing first contact on Earth's past, and even as she smiled, watching the Vulcan ship land, she thought about how much Kathryn would have loved to be there, or even to hear about it.

And then… then, the impossible happened.

Just over three years after Voyager was lost, after the crew had been declared dead, after the memorials and the condolences… Word spread of the most astounding thing.

Voyager has survived. The ship was lost, yes, but lost in space, rather than lost to existence.

If Beverly hadn't been sitting when the news came (delivered by a smiling Picard as an 'after-thought' during a senior staff briefing), she would have been driven to her knees. She barely felt Deanna reaching out to her at what must have been the strongest wave of emotion she'd ever felt.

Relief, fear, love, despair, it all blasted through Beverly with the force of a warp core breach, and her head spun.

Kathryn was alive.