My heart is filling with warmth. The rose has finally bloomed, and it is even more beautiful than I imagined it. The woman my son loves has finally opened the door to her heart to him. He may have strayed towards another woman in a fit of a mid-life crisis for a while, but that hardly matters now. He has accepted her love with all that he is.
I know intimacy well, as I have shared that experience with my beloved Tananka, his mother. Normally, I would never eavesdrop on any sexual encounter my son has. It's just as intrusive and impolite for a spirit to watch that as it is for one amongst the living. But in this instance, I had to be sure it was really happening with her, and for the right reason. And I was not disappointed in the least. Even as a spirit, it is difficult to describe moments like these without sounding crass and perverted, but, here goes!
It started out as a quiet dinner date between my son, the new captain of the USS Voyager, and the woman, a Starfleet admiral. Since it was not a short trip for her from Earth to Proxima Station, where the ship was undergoing maintenance repairs, he knew something was on her mind. One conversation led to another, until they finally admitted their romantic interest in one another. No longer under the bindings of protocol, they were free to explore a possible relationship, but only if she would allow it.
When she let her beautiful, long auburn hair come undone, I knew she had made her choice. Once their lips met, the spark of desire and longing ignited into a burning fire. For the next few hours, their world existed only with them in the captain's quarters and in each other's arms.
Feeding an insatiable hunger for love, they took their time making eight years' worth of private fantasies a reality. Every kiss, every touch, every breath, every sound, every move was savored. The shivers of anticipation as they undressed, the release of tension in their embrace, the steady build of pleasure as they explored one another, the intoxicating melting of hearts and souls as they bonded, and their cries toward the heavens as they became one.
As the old saying goes, home is where the heart is. And now, they have come home. Not in the way they came home when Voyager triumphantly returned to the Alpha Quadrant. Not in the way they came home when they saw their families and friends for the first time in years. No, they have come home by finding what they needed in each other. I now pray to the Sky Spirits to allow their love to endure any and all obstacles of life that will surely test them and their commitment.
Chakotay, Kathryn Janeway, welcome home, my children.