Six hours later, Kathryn Janeway stepped off the turbo-lift and made her way to the Holodeck of "Voyager". Chakotay was waiting for her and was holding what appeared to be a gold short skirt, black hose, and black boots in his hands. "Okay, Chakotay," Janeway began, "What's this all about?" He smiled. "First, you'll need to get into costume." He handed the dress to Janeway and she held it up by the shoulders.
It was a mini-dress, only thigh-length. The black collar was low cut and over the left breast was a variation of the "arrowhead" symbol of Starfleet that had become standardized in the mid-23rd Century. Captain stripes were on the cuffs. "Lovely, if a bit revealing," she commented. He held out the boots and hose to her. The boots were synthetic leather and knee-high. The hose stretched up to the panty-line.
"Mid-23rd Century 'Great Expansion' period Starfleet uniform option for females." Janeway nodded. "Yes, I saw one in the Fleet Museum on a display mannequin. Hard to believe women chose this as a uniform." Chakotay shrugged. "Well, you have to remember the times. They were a lot more open with their sexuality back then." He paused. "You object to wearing it?" Janeway smiled and took the boots, and entered a nearby lavatory.
Minutes later, she emerged. Chakotay had to admit, despite their non-sexual friendship, the sight of Kathryn Janeway in the mini-dress and boots was quite appealing. "What do you think?" she asked. "Impressive," he said, trying to be nonchalant. She looked down at herself. "I think I could have pulled this off a hundred years ago." He smiled. "Ready?" he said, laying his fingers on the control panel of the Holodeck. "Wait," she exclaimed, "You still haven't explained what this has to do with what we talked about." He smiled again. "You'll see." He pressed the buttons. "Computer, run Chakotay-1701." He motioned for her to enter. Janeway walked forward and the Holodeck doors slid open and she saw what looked like an old style turbo-lift. She stepped in.
As the Holodeck doors closed behind her, they disappeared as a turbo-lift wall replaced them. Suddenly the lift began to move upwards with a low hum and Janeway saw deck-lights moving past the opaque panel on the wall. She was just about to think this type of lift was very familiar to her, when the door opened onto the bridge of a starship. Janeway then knew why it seemed so familiar to her. It was a "Constitution"-class.
Stepping out of the lift, she looked around the circular bridge. It was nearly identical to the bridge of the USS Potemkin NCC-1657, which was in the Fleet Museum. She had visited it as a cadet. She looked to her right and saw a dark-skinned woman with high coiffed hair manning the Communications station. Beyond her…a Vulcan. He stood intently gazing into an old-style sensor readout hood. Except for being lighter skinned, seeing a Vulcan on the bridge of the old ship reminded her of Tuvok.
At the Helm/Navigation station, two young men sat monitoring the ship's progress and status. She smiled lightly as she considered the same function was controlled alone by Tom Paris. To her immediate left was the Engineering Station. A middle-aged man with dark hair was monitoring warp field read-outs. He called out to the Captain, whose back was to Janeway, as he sat in the command chair just on the other side of a railing from her. "Warp Five an' holdin', Cap'n" came a thick Scottish brogue. All of the bridge crew wore uniforms of the mid-23rd Century color-coded to the Old Standard, with the women in mini-skirts like Janeway's.
She then began to move around the railing to see the Captain of the vessel. When he came into view, she saw a remarkably handsome man, she immediately recognized. He had brown hair, hazel eyes, with a firm jaw-line and light, appealing smile on his face. His build was attractive, with solid but without perturbing muscles under his uniform top.
"James T. Kirk," she said, startling herself for speaking out loud. He turned to her and smiled broadly. "Captain Janeway," he acknowledged with a nod. Kirk then turned to the Vulcan, whom Janeway remembered was Spock, later Ambassador Spock. "How long to Starbase Five, Spock?" he asked. "Sixteen hours, four minutes, thirty-seven seconds, sir." Kirk smiled a clever smile at Janeway and then back to Spock semi-seriously. "You sure about that ETA?" The Vulcan seemed affronted and raised a single eyebrow. "My calculations are accurate, sir." Kirk smiled at him and then to Janeway. "I'm sure they are, Spock, I'm sure they are." He stood up and walked over to her.
"Captain, care to join me in the Rec Room for some coffee?" Janeway stood stunned for a moment. There were few Starfleet officers, especially Terran ones, that didn't idolize Kirk and read about every mission he had gone on, to his very last one onboard the "Enterprise-B" where he disappeared. "Uh, yes," she stammered. Kirk nodded and politely extended his hand towards the turbo-lift. She moved, almost in a daze, towards it. "Spock, you have the conn," Kirk called and they entered the lift.