This is a 'What-if' story, a possible scenario for when Voyager returns home. I wrote it when 'Way of the Warrior' was shown on DS9, and it seemed the political situation in the Alpha Quadrant was seriously deteriorating. It includes several characters I introduced in other stories, and it may help to read 'Unexpected Meetings' (Voyager) and 'Major Changes' (DS9) first, but as with Star Trek episodes it can stand alone.

As always, Star Trek and its characters belong to Paramount, I just write about them. :)

The latest update here is a major fix in formatting, which was really rather horrible. I've written several new stories and finally figured out how to upload a file and not lose half the formatting, so I'm slowly working my way through the older stories and fixing them. Sorry, no new content in this story!

Home, or not?

Chapter 1

Janeway was sitting in her ready room, drinking a cup of coffee. As she went over the reports they had gotten from varied sources over the last few months, she recalled the time when they had been so low on energy they had to ration replicator use. That was more than 25 years ago. And now, almost home, she wondered whether it had all been worth it.

The reports they received from vessels they'd met, recently, had spoken of major trouble in their part of the quadrant. Officially, the only trouble was a war between the Federation and the Cardassians, but traders had spoken of conflict involving the Klingons, the Romulans and several smaller groups, amongst them the Maquis. Janeway had no idea whether that was the same group which had formed when the former Federation/Cardassian treaty had taken effect.

Starfleet had been very uncommunicative. They'd been in subspace range for several weeks, but all Starfleet had really done was advice her that a vessel would be headed their way to escort them to Earth, 'to protect them against the Cardassians'.

*Are they worried about the Cardassians, or is it us they don't trust?* Janeway wondered. She'd never thought Starfleet would be especially happy about the Maquis crew, and every time it looked as if they might get home soon she'd felt a bit of apprehension at having to face Starfleet Command, but she'd had good hopes to talk her crew and herself out of any serious trouble, the way things were when she left. Now, she wasn't so sure anymore.

"Bridge to Janeway." The call interrupted her thoughts. She tapped her combadge.

"Janeway here."

"The USS Harrier has just come into sensor range, Captain. They are hailing us."

"I'm on my way." Janeway switched off the computer screen, and went to the bridge. She took a moment to look around the bridge, taking it all in. So here they were, making contact with a Federation vessel after all this time. She saw them again at the beginning of their journey; Harry Kim, who'd been almost the same age his son was, now. His and B'Elanna's; they'd hit it off from the start, and had been the first ones to get married on the ship. B'Elanna would be in Engineering -she preferred the hands-on engineering over the bridge duty, although there were a number of younger crew members in Engineering who could've done the dirty work if she would've wanted them to. Tuvok, the only one of the bridge crew who had hardly visibly aged. Paris, older and wiser but never loosing all his quirks. Leena was at the Science station.

*Starfleet's going to be really happy with her, too.*

Chakotay was not on the bridge, but Kim informed her he'd called him, as well.

Janeway took her chair from Paris, who'd had the con, and as Paris took over from Ensign Rollins, who was also born and raised on Voyager, Chakotay arrived. He took his chair. Janeway looked at Tuvok.

"Hail them, Mr. Tuvok."

"Aye, captain. Hailing frequencies open."

"On screen." The viewscreen resolved into an unfamiliar bridge.

"This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of USS Voyager."

A man in a somewhat changed but still recognisable Starfleet uniform answered them. "Captain Parker, USS Harrier. We're glad to see you made it back."

Janeway felt the excitement come through in her voice. "We're glad to be back." Still, through all the excitement she felt about seeing other humans, another Starfleet vessel, she also noticed some things that worried her. The small bridge, the darker lightening, it didn't _feel_ like any Federation vessel she'd known before.

They exchanged greetings, set a time for rendez-vous, and invited Parker and his senior staff over for a meeting and dinner that evening. Still, Janeway felt mostly relief when they closed the com channel.

"I got the impression they weren't too glad to see us," Chakotay remarked. Janeway nodded slowly.

"Do we have a visual yet on the Harrier?" she asked Kim.

"Any moment now, Captain," he answered.

And indeed, a few moments later the main viewer showed the approaching ship. For a long moment everyone just watched the viewscreen in silence. The ship on the viewer did not look like most Starfleet vessels had looked when they left. Those vessels, though armed, had been science and exploration vessels. What appeared on their viewscreen now could never be mistaken for anything but a warship. Tuvok read the specifics to her, but she didn't hear the details.

"What has happened here?" she asked.

"What has happened here?" Tanita asked. Janeway looked at her daughter. Only 14 years old, she had of course not been on the bridge as the Harrier approached, but born and raised on the ship, much of her education had been centered on Starfleet, the Federation, and shipboard duties. Unlike a Galaxy Class starship, built to carry families, posessing a full complement of educational facilities, on Voyager they had to improvise and make do with what they got. Many times that had meant self-study under the eye of an older student or getting hands-on education in the science, medical, or any other department even at Tanita's age.

Out here by themselves, life on Voyager hadn't always been easy, and Tanita had seen as much as any Starfleet ensign out of the Academy, perhaps more. Still, Janeway didn't know what to say. She herself wasn't sure what had happened, or whether perhaps once they got further into Federation space the tension would lessen, and all this display of strength and power was just a show along the border.

"What do you mean?" she asked, hoping to stall.

"This ship, the perimeter defenses, this isn't like the Federation is supposed to be."

"The perimeter defenses?", Janeway echoed. She had only learned about the heavily armed scanning beacons placed along the border shortly before, and she hadn't included those details into the information released to the crew. "Wait a minute, have you been monitoring bridge transmissions?"

Tanita looked down. "Well, I was done with my homework, and we haven't been able to do anything on any of the duty stations since coming into range of the Federation border...," she trailed off. She barely flicked her eyes to her father before catching herself.

Janeway noticed, though, and looked at Chakotay. "Don't tell me you showed her."

Chakotay looked at her and shrugged a little. "I didn't exactly show her. I let her watch once, while opening a link." He had the grace to sound embarrassed, but his eyes shone with pride in how quickly Tanita had picked up.

Janeway couldn't help but smile, either. After a few moments she became serious again. She and Chakotay told Tanita what they had observed so far. They had usually been open with her, not keeping back when their situation had been dangerous or difficult. Perhaps, Janeway admitted to herself, because Tanita had always caught on when something had been amiss.

"Don't tell anyone though, we are still not sure what things will look like when we get to Earth," she warned.

 Tanita nodded. "Aye, mom." She wouldn't tell; as a daughter of the two most senior officers on the ship she had learned to keep confidences.