A/N: I wrote this a long time ago so go easy. All of the characters belong to Paramount I'm just borrowing them for a little while. Koatie, E.T. Paris, and Elizabeth Paris belong to me. Please enjoy and Review – The
STAR Trek: Voyager
Lost and Found
"Captain's Log Star-date 57090.8, Voyager is badly in need of supplies. Seven, Tom, and The Doctor have been working over time in sick bay because of so many reports of illness due to under nourishment and lethargic behavior. The crew has been surviving on wharley soup, which is basically water and a tar-like substance that is supposedly edible."
"Wharley soup again?" Tom complained as he took the bowl handed to him by Neelix.
"We've had this stuff for the last three weeks straight" Harry finished.
"I'm sorry gentlemen but this stuff has most of the nutrients that we need. Besides there is nothing else left." Neelix defended.
"Most of the nutrients is an overstatement." added Tom.
"I think this stuff has desiccated my taste buds. It has a taste that even an Acturan Dung Worm wouldn't eat." said Harry sitting down.
"Yeah mine too." said Tom chiming in.
"Don't tell Neelix but I wouldn't feed this to my dog back home!" exclaimed Harry.
"Oh I don't know Harry I wouldn't mind feeding this to some of those thugs back in jail, but you're right it would be considerd cruelty to animals." Tom agreed.
"I still can't imagine you in jail. You just don't look the type." Harry remarked shaking his head.
"Oh, what should I look like?"
"I don't know. A muscle bound motor cycle thug."
"Oh really? That actually was a rare species in the slammer."
"You should at least have a scar or something." Harry comented.
"Captain. We are approaching an M-class planet bearing point zero two nine-one." informed Lieutenant-Commander Tuvok over the comm.
"Thank you," she responded coming out of her ready room. "Are there any life signs?"
"There appears to be a population on the planet. They are appear space acclimated." The science officer announced.
"Captain. They seem to have a large vegetation and the scans show that the food is edible. The atmosphere is acceptable by human standards. They're hailing us." The science officer continued.
A large head appeared on the view-screen. The face looked mostly humanoid except for a small mound of excess skin right under the mouth. Captain Janeway had a sudden urge to yell 'Turn on the windsheild wipers' but she decided against it. Behind him in the shadows was a woman that Captain Janeway could have sworn was human. She couldn't have been much older than Voyager's Chief Engineer. She wore a pair of black slacks and a grayish-purple tee shirt both looked like the remnants of a star fleet uniform. Her hair was back in combs except a strand that fell down in her face that she blew at uselessly.
"I am Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Star Ship Voyager. How may I help you?" Janeway replied.
"I am Commander Koatie of the Kandoine people, I welcome you to this region of space and seek your alliance and friendship." The enormous face said kindly. The woman then came up and whispered something to him and left. "Lieutenant Elizabeth, just informed me that she believes that you are from her home and says it is good to see people from the Alpha-Quadrant again."
"Thank you. Is there a time that we can meet and talk of an alliance?" Janeway answered.
"Yes if you can beam down to the planet in about an hour for introductions."
"We'll see you then."
"Yes the Lieutenant will meet you there. End transmission." The screen faded to the startlingly familiar star-scape with a planet that looked too much like earth. Janeway decided to call a quick officers meeting before they met them down on the planet. Besides she still had to assemble an away team.
At the officers meeting everyone was anxiously waiting for it to start. The news of real food had spread like gorkian slime. The Captain stood signaling the start of the meeting. "Ladies and Gentlemen as you have probably heard, we have arranged to make contact with the representatives of a new race in about a half an hour. Now we need to assemble an away team immediately and as you well know we are in desperate need of food supplies which is our primary goal of this contact."
"I'll say!" Paris muttered.
All of a sudden the crew felt a gentle impact as they simaultaniously heard a large 'thump' followed by a long, drawn-out squeal.
"What the hec was that?" Janeway asked aloud.
"I don't know but it sounded like a bug hitting a windshield." Tom said stiffling a laugh.
"Janeway to bridge, Did we hit something?" Janeway asked irritated at the interuption.
"Yes sir, I mean ma'am, I mean Captain. There seems to be a giant slug floating in outerspace and we made a brief contact with it." Said the voice of a startled ensign.
She heard slight chuckles from everyone around the table. Tom and Harry were visibly shaking trying not to burst out laughing. Janewy figured that she could think about the giant slug later right now her stomach told her that her primary concern was to feed it and it didn't like the idea of having Slugo on the menu wasn't too apealing.
"They have offered alliance and I wish to know your input." Janeway continued.
"Captain. I believe that for security reasons we should try to learn more about them before we sign a treaty."
"Thank you Mr. Tuvok. I assumed you would bring that up." Janeway countered.
"Is it true that there is a human female down there. Is that true?" Mr. Paris inquired.
"We are not sure Mr. Paris. When we beam down, Neelix, Tuvok, Torres your with me." The captain answered, "This meeting will have to be continued when we return. Dismissed." The Captain stood and walked to the transporter room. Be' Lanna and the other two were in step behind her. She was eager to meet this new race and had high hopes in making an alliance in the Delta-Quadrant.
Be' Lanna was excited. She could possibly get some new technology out of this trip and from what the scanners showed she wouldn't have to worry about the Prime Directive getting in the way. What puzzled her though was the odds that they would find what looked like a Starfleet officer out here in the Delta-Quadrant. Sure she could have been sling-shot out of the Alpha Quadrant like the Voyager. They had destroyed the caretaker's equipment so she would have had to have been out here longer than them or she met up with the caretakers companion, which was unlikely. Only one ship had been listed as missing in the six years before they had left. The ship was the "Iris" with a crew of 200. What could have happened to the rest of them? The Officer couldn't have been much older than Be' Lanna meaning she couldn't have been on anything past twelve years before now.
"Captain" the lieutenant stood at attention as the team materialized.
"As you were" Janeway said with a wave of her hand.
"I thought you might like to know that in this culture strict religious policies state that people are not to be called by their last names except during ceremonies. That includes your own people. They consider it a deep insult." The unknown officer said. Then the man they had seen on the viewscreen only an hour earlier approached them.
"Captain Kathryn, come there is a banquet awaiting you. This is Lieutenant- Commander Liz whom I assume you have already met." Charles said.
"I was just getting to that part." Liz muttered to herself.
"This way." Charles inferred pointing to a small group of people. The Captain and the away team followed him as he worked his way through the crowd. She and her crew sat on one side of the table along with the lieutenant and a human looking boy about eight years old. Charles and four others sat on the other side. "Please dig in." he said inviting the crew to eat. Janeway gingerly took a spoonful on some green substance and tasted it. It was rather good. After this example the rest of the away team started trying different dishes. After everyone had finished their dinner Koatie stood, "Now it is time to share introductions over a cup of cope."
The lieutenant leaned over and whispered, "Cope is sort of like a strong cup of strong coffee."
"Oh good." Janeway said truly delighted.
As what appeared to be servants passed out large cups the rest of the aliens stood.
"Captain, allow me to introduce my Senior Officers, Lieutenant Zan, Lieutenant Dargo, Ensign Aron, and Ensign John."
"Nice to meet you. I am Captain Kathryn, and these are three of my Senior Officers, Lieutenant-Commander Be' Lanna, Lieutenant-Commander Tuvok, and our ship's counselor Neelix." She said pointing to each officer. Charles nodded. Janeway then thought it a good time to bring up the subject of alliance, "You mentioned speaking about alliance."
"Our culture dictates that we do not talk about business until twenty-four hours after we have been formally introduced to ensure that everyone is well rested. I'll have Lieutenant Liz get you a replicae and explain how to operate it."
"Very well" the captain said trying to hide her disappointment. "It is late, we really must be going." Then Liz got up and walked up to a cabinet that stood along one wall and retrieved a devise that looked like a portable replicator, then returned. She then walked over to Be' Lanna.
"I assume you are the chief engineer from our conversation."
"How did you guess?" Neelix inquired.
"I just had a very interesting conversation with her."
"So how do you work this thing."
"To tell you the truth, it is exactly like one of our portable replicators."
"Really?"
"Right down to the wire."
"Wow."
"I know, I thought the same thing."
"Thanks."
When the team returned to the transportor room Chakotay met them there. He was anxious to find out what had happened.
Tom and Seven had just returned from looking for dilitheum, they had just hit the mother-load on an asteroid. Tom was walking with Harry on his way to drop off Naomi Wildmen who had come along on the expidition. She was fast asleep on Tom's shoulder.
"You know Tom you'd make a good father. I mean, look at you with Naomi." Harry said for no particular reason.
"I don't know. I've always wanted a kid but I'm afraid I wouldn't be very good with my own kid. And anyway I've always had a fear of being like my father. Besides Be' Lanna hates the idea of having kids." Tom replied disregarding the subject.
"Rumor has it that the aliens gave us a powered replicator to make dinner." Harry said, seeing that Tom didn't really like the topic. It probably reminded Tom of his wife, that had been lost two years before Voyager set out. She had just found out that she was with child when she was sent on the Iris without Tom.
"Oh really! That means we might actually get something edible for dinner." Tom said extremely pleased to be off the previous subject.
Over breakfast Tom and Be' Lanna discuss the away mission.
"You know I could really use this Liz in Engineering. She is at least as good as I am and I could actually get along with her."
"That's a first." Tom said under his breath.
"She has a son that's eight years old. The kid already flies better than anyone on the planet." Be 'Lanna said ignoring Tom's snide remark.
"Wow it look's like I may have someone to train on the Delta Flyer." Tom said.
"She says that the one major problem with these people is that they have too many customs."
"ALL SENIOR OFFICERS TO THE CAPTAINS READY ROOM AT 0-800 HOURS." Tom's commbadge blasted.
"Jeeze they give you a lot of warning don't they? It's 758 now." Tom complained as he got up from the table.
Liz smiled to herself as she decided to get up and pack. She knew it was going to get her hopes up if she packed but she didn't care. She would be happy to get off this rock. The inhabitants were nice enough but it was a pain in the butt trying not to completely interfere with their culture. She had chosen to stay secluded and only go into town when her presence was requested or she needed something, which wasn't very often. She figured that since she was a Starfleet officer she could at least hitch a ride on Voyager for the exchange of knowledge.
On a sudden impulse she pulled out her hollopicture of her husband Tom Paris. He had been in prison for committing perjury, about leading a mission in which three of his best friends had been killed due to a miscalculation on his part. He had been in jail for the last 3 months that she had been on Earth and still had a few more years to serve, but at least she could visit him and talk to him, and most of all she could touch him. If she caught a ride on this ship she could at least look up the most current picture or create a hologram of Tom for their son, whom she had named Edward Thomas Paris in honor of Tom and her own father. She always called him E.T. for short she never really felt like explaining to him what exactly his nickname meant. Most people wouldn't appreciate it anyway considering the term "extra terrestrial" had no real significance in this technologically advanced age, although Tom would.
E.T. was playing idly with his toys on the floor. "Go start putting your stuff in your trunk, honey, there is a good chance we'll get on our way home." She said kindly to her son.
"Okay Mommy. Will they have a holodeck like the last ship?" E.T. asked innocently.
"Yes honey, now get going." E.T. went into his room and started to pack.
Liz thought of the of the conversation she had had with Be 'Lana the night before. She couldn't wait to be in an engine room again. Liz had a feeling that Be 'Lana and her would become good friends. They had so much in common. I have to get back to work. Liz thought to herself. First she had to talk to Koatie and thank him for his hospitality. Then she had to ask Captain Janeway about staying on the ship. On top of that she had to finish packing and help close a deal about food for the Voyager. From what the chief engineer had said they hadn't had a real meal for over three weeks. Liz remembered what that was like.
"Beep, Beep" Her computer sounded.
"Yes" she answered.
"Lieutenant-Commander, You had requested to speak with me." Captain Janeway responded.
"Thank you for speaking with me so soon. Being that I'm a Starfleet officer I assumed that I could get a ride home with you guys. Am I correct?" Liz asked, hiding the sheer glee of getting off the planet from her voice perfectly.
"Your assumption is correct. We can make the arrangements now if you like."
"That would be great. I'm already packed. If you would be willing I would like to transport my son up with my belongings first because I still have some things to down here." Liz replied
"That will be fine. If you would just give us the coordinates of your luggage and son, a time that they can be beamed up, and your full name and rank and your sons full name for the records we'll be happy to assist."
"I'm sending the coordinates and the time now and I am Lieutenant-Commander Elizabeth Susan Paris, and my son's name is Edward Thomas Paris but he likes to be called E.T.. I am the former Chief Engineer on the Iris" Liz answered in a formal tone.
"I thought they registered an explosion inside the wormhole the Iris disappeared into and that there was no life signs afterward?"
"Yes, there was an explosion but it wasn't us. At least not at that point. The reason they didn't register any life signs was because the explosion forced us out the side of the wormhole and we ended up out here. Later on when I happened to be out exploring a deserted ship with a few other crewmen the Iris suffered a warp core breach and blew up without warning. The only survivors were those of us on the deserted ship. The few that were left including myself, my son, and two others lived out of a type 2 class shuttle until we crash landed on Candoa. The other two died of injuries sustained during the crash. We were the lucky ones." Liz said. Janeway thought Liz sounded removed from the last part of the conversation. Janeway hated opening old wounds but she had to ask one more question about the woman's personal life, if she didn't it would drive her insane and that would not be good.
"Out of curiosity are you related to a Tom Paris." Janeway prodded guiltily.
"Yes. Why do you know him or something?" Liz said still sounding a little removed.
"You might say that." Janeway said deciding to let it surprise both of them, "I would like you to be a part of the negotiation committee."
"Okay. Not a problem, I'll just meet them down here." Liz said coming back to reality a little bit.
All of the senior staff of Voyager had assembled in the conference lounge except for Tom. They had all settled into their seats and Captain Janeway stood signaling the start of the conference. Janeway had arranged for Tom to be delayed so she could let everyone else in on the secret identity of Liz.
"I would like to begin by revealing to all of you present that the woman down on that planet happens to be a family relation of our very own Mr. Paris. Her full name being Elizabeth Susan Paris. Now I would like to request that you not tell Tom so it can be a surprise, but I thought everyone else should know. I trust that you feel that he deserves a pick-me-up as much as any of us, possibly more because of all his help and time in sickbay and think that you will all keep this secret until he finally meets her face to face." Janeway confided.
A few moments after she had concluded the door slid open. Tom walked in and slumped into the nearest open seat. He mumbled an apologia about being late, but that it had been unavoidable. Janeway replied, "It's okay the Doctor has already informed me of the circumstances of which you were detained."
"As you have probably herd the Starfleet officer on the planet has requested transfer to Voyager. I have accepted her request if there is any problems with this speak now or forever hold your peace." Janeway announced. She looked each crew member one by one silently implying that they should say their opinion. Each one of them nodded. Be 'Lana said that she would only agree if Liz was assigned to engineering. This condition was easily met. "Alight then I want Mr. Chakotay, Mr. Paris, Mr. Tuvok, and Ms. Torres to go down and negotiate and remember we are willing to give them almost anything. The lieutenant will be joining you. Mr. Kim I want you to come with me to pick up the little boy when he arrives." The meeting continued and that was settled. Janeway noticed that Tom looked like he was having a hard time concentrating on anything other than not falling asleep. He looked terrible, like he was about to pass out from exhaustion and lose his lunch at the same time. What really worried her was that he hadn't made a smart allelic remark the whole meeting and that was unusual because he usually did that to cheer everyone up including himself when they were down even through these last few weeks. She wondered if sending him on this mission was a mistake then again she had to admit that they all looked terrible and extremely depressed. She also hoped that seeing a family relation would help cheer him up. She decided she would suggest that he stop by sickbay and have the doctor take a look at him before he went down to the planet. At the end of the meeting she stopped tom at the door. "Tom I want you to have the doctor look at you before you go down. You do have a few hours before you are required down on the planet."
"Okay" he said in a way that would be best described by the old Earth metaphor "spaced out".
Harry was waiting for Tom to come out when it occurred to him that Tom's wife's name had also been Elizabeth Susan Paris. He realized after thinking about it that the little boy be about the right age too. If Be 'Lana was correct the kid eight years old. The timing computed flawlessly. Harry then realized that it would be in the best interests of Tom's health if he told Be 'Lana before Liz was transferred up here. Somehow Harry had to convince Tom to tell Be 'Lanna with out spilling the beans. At that moment Tom walked up. "Hey, Tom I was thinking, you should tell Be 'Lana about Liz."
"What brought this up." Tom replied.
"Nothing in particular, I knew you've been wanting to and thought you might just need a shove. Besides you looked like you could use some wait taken of your shoulders and this would be considered a lot of wait." Harry said quickly.
"When should I do it?" asked Tom not in a argumentative mood at the moment.
"Someone once told me 'there's no time like the present.'" Harry quoted. Tom smiled a little bit instantly recognizing his own words.
"That was a wise person." He said indicating he recognized the saying. After they got out of the turbolift Tom headed toward Be 'Lana's quarters. When he came to the door he hit the chime.
"Come." Be 'Lana's voice drifted through the door.
"I need to tell you something." He said looking genuinely innocent in a way that made a person feel like they can't possibly refuse the other person anything.
After explaining that he had been married up until about two years before Captain Janeway had gotten him out of jail. He went on to say that she had been assigned to the Iris only a day after he found out that he was going to be a father. When he had finished he looked up at Be 'Lana clearly in pain and barely stopping the tears that were welling up in his eyes from spilling over.
She looked at him and kindly asked "Why didn't you tell me this before?" even though what she was thinking was Why did you get into a relationship if you were married? It wasn't that she was that mad. She couldn't be considering she knew how painful losing a loved one could be. What she didn't know was that the Iris had supposedly exploded in a wormhole like the one they had traveled through to get to the Delta Quadrant, the only thing she knew was that it had been filed missing. She didn't know the previous information because she had been trying to stay alive as a member of the Maquis.
Tom regained complete control and answered knowing what she was actually wanting to ask, "The prison told me she was dead. They didn't go into any detail of what happened. It took a long time me to accept that and talk about it. But I knew she would want me to be happy."
Be' Lana was about to tell him that Liz might not be dead but then reconsidered it. She was a little upset that her new friend turned out to be Tom's wife but she would work around it. Be 'Lana preferred to judge a friendship on the person themselves and not who their connected to. Besides, She thought to herself looks like we had more in common then I thought. Be 'Lana was of course very upset about the fact that this would be the end of her intimate relationship with Tom but she was happy for him. And look at it this way, at least I didn't end it with a fight. She thought to herself. She couldn't wait to see the look on his face when he saw someone whom he'd previously thought was a ghost.
Liz folded the last thing and placed it neatly in her own trunk. The thing she had just put away was the silk nightgown that Tom had given her the night they took him off to New Zealand. She had always treasured it greatly. She had been lucky that the mission that she had been on when the ship blew up was one that had a seventy-two hour flight one way and she had packed some of her belongings. After closing the lid she easily lifted the trunk and carried it to the beam-out site.
Liz then helped E.T. drag his trunk to the appointed site. It was definitely very heavy. How a little boy could accumulate so much junk in so little time she would never be able to figure out. She had a feeling that it was genetic because his could be the same way. She had arranged for Voyager to do a swap, the luggage and E.T. for the away team. She waved to her son as the whine of the transpoter beam sounded. He dematerialized and in his place four different people materialized. Two of the people materialized in front of her she recognized from the night before. One person she had never seen before and the fourth she thought she would never see again.
To Koatie it looked like one of the crewmen from Voyager had become suddenly struck by Klutzism. He also noticed that Liz looked like she was going to faint. This is not good Koatie thought to himself. If these negotiations do not go well they might not get the desperately needed Wharley soup that they had detected on the vessel.
Tom became aware of his new surroundings after materializing like usual. The first thing he saw was the ghost of his wife. This startled so completely that he went an extremely pale white and started to feel shock tugging at his consciousness. Tom was a firm believer that ghosts exist, at the very least in a person's mind, this is because he had turned himself in for perjury because of ghosts haunting him. He took a step back and stumbled over a rock. He wanted to run forward and embrace the ghost but his body was telling him that ghosts are not good and that he should run in the opposite direction. It was because of this inner conflict that to an onlooker it would appear that he had become extremly clumsy. Then a thought struck him, he found it odd that the ghost had just lost the color from its face as well and looked as surprised to see him as he was to see it. Be 'Lana and Chakotay rushed to his side as the alien that had been watching and Tuvok rushed to the ghost's side. This also struck him to be odd.
"He looks like saw a ghost." Chakotay said to Be 'Lana as they tried to help Tom to his feet.
"He has! In his minds eye at least. Liz is his wife whom he had been told was dead." Be 'Lana said trying to make Tom concentrate on her instead of what his mind interpreted as a ghost.
About ten feet away Tovok was trying to get Liz to do the same thing. Liz managed to recover a lot faster than Tom. This was probably because to her Tom wasn't dead just as good as it, where as to Tom Liz was just plain dead.
"But . . .But . . .your . . . dead." Tom managed to sputter this was quite amazing because he had only seconds earlier gone into shock.
"No. Tom I managed to save the ship. If I were dead would I be talking to you?" Liz said calmly now that she had regained control.
"Yes, your a ghost. Brunno and the others talked to me." Tom said convinced that she was dead.
"I know. But you couldn't see them during daylight and no one else could see them. Other people can see me. Right Be 'Lana?" Liz answered.
"I can see her Tom." Be 'Lana said reassuringly. After this demonstration Tom's brain kicked in. Liz could have easily saved the ship under most circumstances. She did have a point about the fact that Be 'Lana could see her and he realized that it really was her.
"That means it's really you. That also means that little boy that was just transported up to the ship is . . ." Tom said barely audible.
"Your son. Yes Tom." Liz reassured.
Tom got up and ran towards her while she ran towards him. They met in the middle hugging each other so tight that it was a miracle that either one could breath.
Charles sighed with visible relief when they hugged and kissed each other frantically. He was happy that they could finally get on with the negotiations because he was having a hard time keeping his shape.
"Okay it's time to get back to work." Liz said still in Tom's arms after what seemed like an eternity of embracement. She of course didn't want to get to work and she was sure that it wasn't hidden in her voice. The group did need to get down to trading considering both parties had what the other parties wanted. Voyager was carrying an essential substance for the Kandoines and Kandoa held the desperately needed food of the crew. "Commander if you would please start the negotiations by making a request."
"On behalf of the Voyager crew we are requesting enough fruit and vegetables to get us at very least to the next M-Class planet. Name your price."
"We will give you enough food and supplies to last you and your crew through the next five M-Class planets for your full supply of Wharley soup mix." Koatie countered.
"You actually want that stuff. Heck if we weren't in such a need of food I say you can take it for free." Tom said.
"If you wouldn't mind we would like to talk this over." Chakotay said.
"What is there to talk about? That way if we ever run low on supplies we won't have to put up with that dreadful soup again." Tom said feeling almost giddy.
"Tom has a point Chakotay. One serving of that stuff is bad enough. If they like it I say give it to them. Although how they could possibly like it I can't possibly fathom. What's the harm in giving them that stuff." Be 'Lana backed Tom up.
"It is the most logical trade giving each party what they want. I do not see the conflict of opinions." Tuvok said sensibly.
"I feel the same way as the rest of you but it just doesn't seem right giving them a third of what their giving us and we're giving them something they don't really need." Chakotay explained.
"Trust me they need the Wharley soup more than we need real food. With out it they become very sick. Their natural supply is running low and what we can give them will last them for another century. Besides they have the opposite problem with fruit and vegetables. It is a fair trade if that is what your worried about." Liz said from somewhere nestled inside of Tom's arms. Be 'Lana was starting to think they would need an antigraviton-pulsor ray to separate these two. She couldn't blame them though. If was suddenly reunited with someone she hadn't seen in eight years that she had loved she wouldn't let the person out of her grasp for another eight years.
They turned back to Koatie and Chakotay said "We'll take it." At this statement Koatie shook with joy.
"We will have workers start harvesting right away." Koatie said.
"We will start beaming down our supply of Wharley soup right away." Chakotay assured. He then tapped his commbadge. "Chakotay to transporter room two."
"Transporter room two ready and waiting." Came Harry's voice through the commbadge.
"Five to beam-up"
"Yes, sir." Harry responded.
Soon they all heard the sound of the transporter and then they were back on the ship. As they stepped down from the platform Be 'Lana asked Liz, "When you said they would get very sick what did you mean?"
"They would melt into a blue-green slop and start to boil." Liz answered remarkably calmly.
"Oh. Sorry I asked." Be 'Lana replied in disgust.
"Is that . . .?" Harry asked Tom referring to Liz curiously.
"Yes. Harry this my wife Liz. Liz this is Harry Kim a friend of mine. Harry is the chief of ops." Tom said proudly.
"It is a pleasure to meet you ." Liz said kindly.
"The pleasure is all mine." Harry said in return,
Just then the door slid open and in it's place stood Captain Janeway. "Captain Janeway, this is my wife Liz. Although I think you two have already met." Tom once again introduced Liz with great pride.
"When you told me you were related you didn't say that you were married." Janeway said jokingly
"When you said you knew of Tom you didn't say he was on the ship." Liz said.
A moment later a shy looking E.T. appeared at the door. E.T. of course ran straight to Liz who picked him up easily and hugged him. "Mommy, why does that man looks like that picture you showed me of Daddy?" said.
"That is because he is Daddy. Tom meet your son Edward Thomas Paris. E.T." She said.
"He looks just like a miniature you." Harry said teasingly.
"Yeah it sure looks like you've got your good looks from me." Tom said.
"Here go see your father." Liz said handing E.T. over to Tom. He took him so gently that he wouldn't have woke out of a sound sleep.
Having E.T. in his arms felt so natural that Tom wasn't sure what to do when it came time to put him down. "Hey, E.T. call home." Tom said as he looked up at Liz.
"Yeah E.T. call home." She replied.
"I love you Daddy." E.T. said.
"I love you too." Tom said.
"Holodeck one is open if you two want to go and play." Captain Janeway said. At this moment Seven walked into the room.
E.T. looked at Liz expectantly. "Please Mommy."
Then Tom said "Yeah please Mommy."
"Only if I can come."
"YEAH" The two of them cried.
"Ensign Paris, is this woman your mother?"
Startled Tom turned around to see Seven of Nine Standing in the doorway. "No Seven this my wife Liz. Liz this Seven of Nine a rehabilitated borg." He said.
Seven gave Tom a quizzical look and said "Sometimes humans completely baffle me. When did you get married?"
"About eleven years ago." Tom replied.
"Oh. I believe Congratulations is the right term." Seven said.
"On what?"
"Finding each other." Seven said.
Later that year Tom arrives at his quarters with E.T. at his side. He unlocks the door and takes E.T. in and puts him to bed. He goes into his own bedroom to find Liz reading in bed. "I love parenting but boy is it exhausting I don't know ho you did it for eight years all on your own. I think I would collapse. I feel sorry for my parents." He said as he slipped into bed.
"Just think if you had two to deal with." Liz said slyly.
"What is that supposed to mean? It doesn't mean what I think it means does it?" Tom said knowing that Liz was up to something. Liz only nodded. Tom grabbed her gently and kissed her.
IN AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE
"Captain's Log Stardate 57098.1. Life is good we are back on track toward the Alpha quadrant. It was too bad that we did not have someone who understood their customs otherwise I think we could have made a deal. The crew is healthy and working at peak efficiency." Captain Janeway finished recording her log and looked out the window to stare into space. She always wondered what happened in alternate universes but there was no way to tell.
IN YET ANOTHER UNIVERSE
On Earth in North Carolina Tom says "Honey I'm home. How was your day?"
"Hi honey, Good I finally figured out how to create faster than light travel. How was your day." Liz said holding her back.
"Fine. How's Edward doing?" Tom said rubbing Liz's bloated stomach.
"He's been dancing a lot. My back is killing me." Liz said.
"It all be over soon honey."