interconnected and maybe a second if I come up with another idea (I originally wrote them as one big
story, then changed my mind). I enjoyed writing this part and the next part will be a Sliders
crossover!
Disclaimers: Paramount owns Star Trek: Voyager.
Coming Home
By Sambrea
A year had passed since the USS Voyager's rather unexpected landing on Luna.
Kathryn Janeway, former captain of Voyager, looked up from her gardening
as she heard hoofbeats
come up behind her, stopping a second later.
She stood up and turned the rest of the way around.
Chakotay, her former first officer, was sitting on the horse, looking down at her.
"What's up?" Kathryn asked wiping her hands on the overalls she was wearing.
She was hoping nothing had happened. It was two months after the fateful
day that Phoebe was
born.
Chakotay jumped down off Midnight, his horse. "I'm not busy right now,
and I was wondering if you
wanted to go for a ride."
"Sure. Let me go tell Be'lanna. She's watching Phoebe and Elizabeth right now."
Kathryn quickly walked into the house, told Be'lanna, changed into a
clean pair of overalls and
exited the house.
Chakotay in the meantime, got Kathryn's horse, Sunshine, and waited for her.
A few minutes later they left, taking one of the longer trails that
they had cleared when they started
the farm.
The farm was going well. They had given a lot of trained horses away,
only getting a small fee in
return that depended on what the buyer did for a living: food, coupons
for artwork, wooden furniture,
etc.
Tom and Be'lanna got half of it since they were partners in the business
and also since Kathryn and
Chakotay didn't need everything that came their way.
Kathryn looked up at the clear blue sky, reveling in its beauty as they rode.
She turned to Chakotay to find him already looking at her. She took Chakotay's hand.
"Beautiful day isn't it," he said.
"Yeah. It can't get much better than this."
They kept riding, and a few minutes later as they came over a ridge,
they heard a roar nearby that
was much too loud to be a shuttlecraft landing.
It lasted only a moment but it got their attention and aroused their curiosity.
After a couple moments of trotting toward the sound they spotted its source.
"Damn," Chakotay said as they rounded the final bend.
"Damn," Kathryn echoed. "Is that what it looks like?"
Chakotay nodded and started galloping toward the ship crash-landed in the field.
It was about three times the size of Voyager, but clearly Federation in design.
As they got closer, Kathryn couldn't see any obvious way in, so she
turned to Chakotay. "Take
Sunshine and go home. Get Tom and come back in the shuttlecraft. We
may have an easier time
getting inside with it, through a shuttlebay or something. Also call
Memory and tell them about this if
they don't already know. We might need people for searching the ship.
I'll stay here and look for a
way in, and in case someone comes out."
Chakotay nodded and grinned as Kathryn got off Sunshine. "Ok, Captain.
I'll be back in a few
minutes."
Kathryn shook her head, smiling at his use of 'Captain'.
++++++++++
Ten minutes later, when Chakotay returned with the Phoenix, Kathryn
hadn't found any ways inside
with her own two eyes.
Chakotay pushed the button for the transporter and watched out the corner
of his eye as Kathryn
materialized and then sat down at the science station.
Kathryn had already slipped back into command mode.
"Have you found a way in?"
"Yes there is a shuttlebay near our current position. Unfortunately,
it's doors are closed," Chakotay
said.
"Can we cut through it with the phasers?"
"I think so, It might take a minute though."
"Go ahead and start. It doesn't look like there's anyone in there."
A few minutes later, they had cut a large enough hole in the doors to put the Phoenix through.
It was basically empty, so Tom set the Phoenix down near the exit.
Kathryn, Chakotay and Tom left the Phoenix a minute later. "I'm surprised
no one's out here to meet
us. Surely someone realizes we just cut a hole in their shuttlebay."
Kathryn led the way to the door, tricorder in one hand. The door swished
open in front of her,
Kathryn walked through and stopped a few feet from it, giving enough
room for Chakotay and Tom
to move through it.
Kathryn looked around, and saw a computer panel on the wall opposite
her. She walked over to it,
and looked for a map of the ship. When she found one, she copied in
into the tricorder in her hand.
From there it was only a couple of minutes walk to the bridge.
They didn't pass a lot of people on the way and the ones they did see
were in too big a hurry to do
more than glance at them.
When the doors opened to admit them onto the bridge, Kathryn exited
the turbolift first, with the
other two following close behind.
What they found was chaos. The bridge was in shambles, debris lying all over the place.
"Well there goes our chance of getting home," Tom whispered, receiving a glare from Kathryn.
As they stood there, people around them started realizing the threesome didn't belong there.
A few minutes later, all activity stopped.
"Kathryn, are you so sure about this was a good idea?" Chakotay asked in a stage whisper.
"Actually I'm starting to have my doubts."
A man who was standing in the middle of the bridge tapped his comnbadge.
"Captain, I think you
should come out here. We have visitors."
A moment later, a door opened to their right and out came the Captain.
She was Vulcan in every
sense of the word: stiff, impersonal, unreadable, etc. She walked over
to where they were standing
and looked them over. "I am Sel'nar, Captain of the USS Star Dreamer,
and official representative
of the United Federation of Planets to the Delta Quadrant. Behind me
is my First Officer, James
Fredrickson. You would be?"
"I'm Kathryn Janeway, former Captain of the USS Voyager, now resident
of Luna, the planet on
which you crashed. Behind me is my former First Officer, now my husband,
Chakotay, and another
of my former crew members, Tom Paris. "
Sel'nar raised an eyebrow, then waited a moment as her crew stopped
whispering. "I have heard of
you. How did you get in the Delta Quadrant?"
Kathryn told a quick version of what had happened, with Chakotay and
Tom helping to remember
everything that had happened.
"How long has your crew been in the Delta Quadrant?" Kathryn asked as they finished the story.
"About 5 years. We started at the Bajoran Wormhole and have been exploring ever since."
"If you get your ship fixed, I'm sure we can give you our charts from our travels."
"That would be greatly appreciated Captain," Sel'nar said, pausing for
a moment. "I'm sure we'd be
able to find some room for your people on our ship."
Kathryn looked at Chakotay and Tom. Chakotay shrugged. Kathryn turned
back to Sel'nar. "I don't
think so. We've made a home here. We're not going to pick up everything
and move on, at least not
now. We would be grateful if you could take some notes back to the
Alpha Quadrant with you,
though."
"I'm sure we can arrange something. We're not going to be heading back
to the Alpha Quadrant for
a few more years, but we've been setting up a network of planets and
stations that are willing to pass
messages back and forth. Any message will eventually get home."
"Can we send our own messages through this network?"
Sel'nar nodded. "We'll send word on."
"How did it happen that your ship crashed here?"
"We've been having trouble with our systems. Anywhere from navigation
to sensors to
communications to life support. The final product was us crashing here."
"Captain there's a shuttlecraft approaching," a crewperson working at helm said.
Friends of yours?" Sel'nar asked.
"More than likely," Kathryn said. "you can tell them they can come in through the shuttlebay."
Sel'nar looked at Kathryn hard, raising an eyebrow. "The shuttlebay doors are closed."
Kathryn heard a snicker behind her and assumed it was Tom. She turned
to Tom and said: "All right,
Tom. Do you want to explain why there's a hole in their shuttlebay
doors?"
"We, um, needed to find a way in, so we punched a hole in your shuttlebay
door with our shuttlecraft
phasers," Tom said sheepishly.
"Why didn't you just transport in?" said the man standing just behind Sel'nar.
"We would have but we didn't know what was going on in here, and we
didn't want to just jump in
with our eyes closed. We'd be glad to help you fix it though. I think
we have enough supplies from
when we dismantled Voyager to patch it."
"How long have you been here?"
"About a year."
"How did you get on the ship so fast?"
"You landed in our backyard. We just happened to be riding nearby."
"Riding?"
"We've started domesticating some of the horse-like animals that live
on this planet. They're quite
like the ones on Earth."
"Would you like a tour of the ship?"
Kathryn smiled. "I would like nothing better. Tom, why don't you stay
here and see if you can't help
with the repairs. Tuvok and whoever came with him will probably arrive
in a few minutes. Chakotay,
would you like to come with?"
Chakotay grinned I was wondering if you were going to ask me," he said taking her hand.
Chapter 2
The next day, Tom and James Fredrickson took the Phoenix and set up
the next link in the network
above Luna.
The relay station only took about half a day to put in place. It had
already been assembled long
before it had been brought to Luna and only needed to be programmed.
A day later, Sel'nar sent the first official message from Luna to the Alpha Quadrant.
"We've been getting answers about a month after sending them, so I wouldn't
expect an answer right
away. There's a relay station on this side of the Bajoran Wormhole,
to make the journey that much
faster. Each station on the network is on or near an inhabited planet
whose peoples are advanced
enough to maintain and repair them," Sel'nar said after they sent the
message.
"Thank you. I think everyone has messages to record now, especially me."
"May I ask you a question?"
"Of course."
"Did you ever encounter the Borg?"
Kathryn nodded. "Yes, as a matter of fact we did. About two to three
years ago," and proceeded to
explain what unfolded, from the first sighting of a "dead" drone to
Kes's "death" and flinging of
Voyager past Borg space. "We also picked up a Borg, Seven of Nine.
Originally her name was
Annika, but she's decided to stay with Seven as her name."
"Interesting. I've been curious about something. How did you decide on the name Luna?"
"If you take the time, you'll notice there are 7 moons circling this
planet. It only seemed reasonable to
name it after them."
Sel'nar nodded. "That is reasonable."
Sel'nar stood up from her seat. "I have things to see to, Captain, so
I must take my leave from you. I
have seen to it that the crew roster is in the hands of your Mr. Tuvok.
Your welcome to do more
looking around, but feel free to do what you want."
Kathryn stood also. "Thank you. I think I'll go compose a letter of my own."
Chapter 3
Two weeks later, the repairs were complete. Sel'nar had allowed the
inhabitants of Luna full access
to the holodecks of the Star Dreamer, which many had used gratefully.
It was obvious that some of the families wanted to stay on Luna and
none of the original inhabitants
had any problems with that.
All of the former Voyager officer were invited to be on the bridge for
the liftoff: Kathryn, Chakotay,
Tuvok, Tom, Be'lanna, the EMH, Harry and Seven. The flight was just
going to be a test of the
systems.
They brought Elizabeth and Phoebe with them, as it was not known how long the flight would take.
Kathryn and Be'lanna handed over the girls to the daycare center caretakers.
Despite all the effort to repair the ship, the flight didn't last more than 5 minutes.
It was obvious almost at once that there were things they hadn't been
able to detect that were
damaged.
The warp engines wouldn't work more than a few seconds.
Be'lanna, a few former engineers from the Voyager crew, and the engineering
team from the Star
Dreamer tried for a half an hour to get them to work, but eventually
gave up, realizing it was
impossible to fix them. "I don't think they would have lasted much
longer even if you hadn't crashed.
They're just too overtaxed. That's the same thing that happened to
Voyager," Be'lanna would
eventually say at a conference.
Kathryn turned to the STAR DREAMER side of the table. "You of course
are welcome on Luna
and everything we have to offer. There are a couple of large continents
that are habitable but empty.
They should be able to house everyone on your ship there."
Sel'nar nodded. "Thank you, Captain. There's one problem. How do we
get everyone off the Star
Dreamer? I have no wish to crash it again and I doubt anyone's going
to agree to it."
Tom cleared his throat. "I think I have a solution for that, Captain.
It may take a while, but what if we
use the transporters on the Star Dreamer and the shuttles we'd be able
to get everyone off. Then we
could just dismantle it or leave it floating in space."
"Thank you Mr. Paris. I'll take that into consideration," Sel'nar said,
nodding to him. "If that's all,
let's head back to Luna," she waited a moment for someone to speak
up, but the room remained
silent. "Dismissed."
++++++++++
It took two weeks for everyone to settle down on Luna. As Kathryn had
mentioned there were two
large continents made available to the Star Dreamer crew. It only took
one week to move everything
and everyone off it and then to decide where everyone was to live.
In the middle of the second week a message arrived from the Alpha Quadrant.
It was from Captain Benjamin Sisko and the bridge crew of Deep Space
Nine (Kira, Worf, Dax,
O'Brian, and Bashier, plus Quark and Sisko's son Jake). In all reality
they were on the Promenade,
which was filled completely with people.
Sisko yelled out a moment later. "1...2...3" and the crowd yelled out
"Welcome home!!!" and started
clapping and cheering, shaking the station with all the noise.
After several minutes of continued cheering, the crowd died down and
Sisko continued. "All right, so
your actually not here, but we deemed your finding a way to communicate
regularly with the Alpha
Quadrant enough for a celebration...and we need a celebration around
here."
Kathryn looked at Chakotay at that, perplexed. He just shrugged.
"I've already sent word on to Earth along with all the personal messages
we received. You should be
receiving a message from them in less than a week.
"Along with this message you should receive a few files with an updated
history of what has
happened since you left the Alpha Quadrant six years ago.
"As you may already know, the Maquis are no more. A couple years ago,
when your Doctor came
through the alien network, the Federation declared the Maquis serving
under you Federation citizens.
Also, on the request of Admiral Paris, Tom is a free man."
Tom whooped when he heard the news, almost drowning out Chakotay and
Kathryn's celebration
when they heard the news that Chakotay was now a Federation citizen.
There were hugs all around the small room as Kathryn, Chakotay, Tom
and Be'lanna heard the news
(after all only Kathryn is actually Star Fleet).
As the message continued, people stepped out of the crowd with messages
of their own either for the
whole crew, individuals or couples, but there wasn't anything for them.
++++++++++
A week later, two messages from the Alpha Quadrant arrived.
The first was from the President of the Federation, and other than a
welcome was filled with boring
business.
The second was from Phoebe and Kathryn's mother, despite the fact that
Kathryn had yet to send a
message to them.
"We couldn't believe the news when we heard Kathryn," her mother said.
"It's been so many years
since we've heard news bout you. I hope this message finds you in good
health.
"We're doing good, so you know. I hope to hear from you soon."
The message ended and Kathryn turned off the viewer.
"is that your mother?" Be'lanna asked, coming into the room to sit next
to her. "The girls are down
for a nap, so I heard the message."
Kathryn nodded. "I'll send a message tonight when Chakotay can make
it with me. I don't think they
ever expected me to get married to a former fugitive."
"Well, you might never have if you guys hadn't spent four months on that planet together."
"That's true. We worked out a lot of our differences there. We got close
there too, though we
decided to keep quiet about it after you guys returned for us."
"That must have been hard. I can't imagine having to put aside my feelings for Tom for 3 years."
"Well, think of it this way. I had to make life or death decisions every
day. If we had continued with
what we started on New Earth, it probably would have affected the decisions
I made later on. I
would have been afraid to put Chakotay in a dangerous situation, for
instance."
Be'lanna nodded. "That makes sense. There were some pretty dangerous
situations we got into. Do
you ever regret any of the decisions you've made?"
Kathryn though for a moment. "Sometimes after someone died, or after
we destroyed the Caretaker
array and something or someone reminded me of that. Sometimes I'd cry
for those friends lost or left
behind in the Alpha Quadrant...a lot of the time I'd go to the holodeck,
load a peaceful field or
something and just sit...One of the first things you learn in command
school is that the Captain of the
ship is always separate from the rest of the crew...It's completely
true...Some days I felt like I
needed someone who had been or was going through the same things I
was. I felt that talking to
Chakotay just wasn't enough. After all, he had never been a Starfleet
captain. If we had been in the
Alpha Quadrant I would have been able to talk to my mother or someone
else. But out here...there
really isn't anyone."
"Kathryn, no one expected you to stick to that. Our situation was so...unique.
For goodness sakes
we weren't even sure you would want to rejoin us after New Earth. Even
before that, we could see
there was something more than friendship between you two. It would
have been perfectly fine with us
if you had told us to give you guys the antidote and head back home!
We might not have liked it a
lot, but we would have done it anyways."
"You know, to tell you the truth, neither of us wanted to leave, but we both felt it was our duty."
"What if it happened last year when we were still on Voyager?"
Kathryn thought for a moment. "I'm not completely sure, but we might have just stayed."
Chakotay and Tom came in, each giving a kiss to their respective wives.
"So what's up?" Tom asked.
"Nothing much really. A message from my mother came through," Kathryn said.
"That's something," Chakotay said.
"I want to send her a message, but I figured I'd wait for you to come in before making it."
"Thank you for thinking of me."
Chakotay and Tom sat down. It took only 15 minutes to make the message.
Kathryn turned off the recorder. "Thanks guys for supporthing me to make this message."
"Well, thank you. If your mother does contact my father after hearing
what you said about me, I think
he'll be extremely surprised. After all, he never expected anything
good to come of me."
"Have you sent him a message yet?"
Tom shook his head. "I don't want to. It would be better to have him
contact me first. I haven't
talked to him or heard from him in years. If he wants to contact me,
that's fine, and if he doesn't,
that's fine too."
Kathryn nodded and reached over and sent the message on its way.
The End
Author's note: This is by no means the end. It just signifies the end
of this section. The next part of
the series comes right after this. I should have the next section done
by the end of June 1999.