A/N: Another short but sweet.


Admiral Owen Paris sat behind his desk at Starfleet HQ reviewing the recent communications between the Gamma and Beta Quadrants. Since the war had ended four years ago, Starfleet had made a priority of hunting down the renegade Vorta and placing them on a very strictly quarantined planet in the Gamma Quadrant. Changelings were taken to their homeworld and unceremoniously dropped off to rejoin their Great Link. That world, too, endured strict quarantine. Patrol ships were assigned to make sure no changeling attempted to escape. The Federation did not want to take any chances with the former rulers of the Dominion.

Starfleet had pulled all of its admirals out of the Academy when the war had begun. Every man and woman had been needed then. Owen felt more useful at HQ than he had at the Academy, so he had stayed.

Suddenly Owen's aide, Lieutenant Commander Jennifer Omaga, came rushing into his office clutching a padd in her right hand, looking for all the world like the Hounds of Hell were chasing her. Since she had been about to leave for the day, and her face was pale and her brown eyes wide, Owen knew that whatever had happened must be important.

"Admiral, you won't believe it! I still can't, and I've read it five times! It's so amazing, so unbelievable!" she said, not pausing to for a breath.

"Calm down, Commander, and tell me what has happened," Owen said sternly. He held out his hand for the padd.

"I'm sorry, sir," she said quickly. She handed it to him.

Owen read, "'From Captain Kathryn Janeway-' Kathryn? What the hell?" He looked up at his aide, who just grinned down at him. "'From Captain Kathryn Janeway of the USS Voyager to Starfleet Command: We're home.' Am I reading these coordinates correctly, Commander?"

"Yes, Admiral, you are. I had them verified before I brought this to you. That means that they are now in our side of the Neutral Zone."

Owen felt the sting of tears at the back of his eyes, but he did not give into them. "Omaga, take the coordinates and open a channel with Voyager, please. Inform Captain Janeway that I would like to speak with her," he said in a husky voice.

"Yes, sir."

Owen heard her walk quickly across the room. The door swished open and then closed. he just sat there with his eyes glued to that padd.