7_
Stardate 57935.5
December 7, 2380
She read the report over and over again. Kathryn gave a sigh. So many new worlds to see and so little time to visit them all. The explorer in her was excited at the view of the space that laid ahead of them, but she had promised to bring this crew home as fast as possible.
Seven had given her the map of the nearby Beta Quadrant. This was space where no Starfleet ship had gone before. Even the Romulans have never mapped these regions of the Beta Quadrant.
She was imagining the faces of the Romulans when the Voyager knocks on their backdoor with so much new cartographic material.
She smiled and longed for her coffee cup, just when there was a chime on the door.
"Come in," she said.
The Doctor came in with a concerned look on his face.
"Captain, you are working to long without a break again. It's lunch time. You should eat something," he said exhortative.
"I'm not hungry."
"Captain, the ship cannot work properly when its captain is overworked and starved."
"I will eat something here."
"I cannot accept this. I don't want to feed you intravenous in sickbay."
"OK, I will go to the mess hall. Do you want to come with me?"
"I insist on it."
Kathryn gave the Doctor a surrendering look and deactivated her computer terminal. She took another sip of coffee and walked to the door accompanied by the Doctor. As she walked past Harry Kim's console, she saw a little smile on the face of the young Ensign. Obviously it was him who had informed the Doctor about her lack of eating. She will have to talk to Harry about this later, she thought smiling.
When they stood in the turbolift and the doors had shut, Kathryn held up a hand to prevent the Doctor from continuing his sermon.
"OK, Doctor, I know I haven't ever cared much about my health, but I promise I will improve," she said honestly. "But now let's change the subject. What have you planned for our Christmas party?"
The mood of the Doctor lightened a bit.
"Well, it shall be a surprise …" he said with a gleam in his holographic eyes. "But as you are the captain, I will introduce you to my plans. I have prepared a lot of Christmas songs from different cultures from Earth. Lieutenant Torres helped me to change my appearance for every song according to the countries the song comes from."
He sounded very proud as he said, "I have also written a song for Seven and me. It shall be a part of my Christmas present for her. We will sing it together."
"I'm looking forward to hear it," Kathryn said as the turbolift doors opened to deck 2.
"May I ask what you are going to give Commander Chakotay?"
Kathryn bended nearer to the Doctor so that nobody else could hear her.
"Seven had the great idea to have a picnic among the stars."
"We had one a week ago. It was very romantic. I had programmed the holodeck so that a shooting star appeared right above us. Seven liked it very much."
"I don't mean a picnic on the holodeck, Doctor," she said grinning.
"Are you going to take a shuttle?"
"Mmh," Kathryn nodded. "Just Chakotay and me amongst the first stars of the Beta Quadrant."
They had reached the doors of the mess hall. Kathryn now even felt a bit hungry.
"Bon appétit, Captain," the Doctor said smiling satisfied.
"Thank you, Doctor."
She smiled back at him as she entered the mess hall and the sweet smell of pancakes reached her nose.