Captain Janeway and her crew waited tensely for a reply. During the interval, Janeway programmed the viewscreen to show only her, and just from the shoulders up. The officer who answered did not need to have the added shock of a very pregnant Captain, not to mention the other three expectant mothers on the Bridge.
Finally, the UFP symbol appeared on the wide screen. Then, a Lieutenant Commander in a red uniform similar to the ones the Doctor had described five years ago faced them. She smiled tremulously at the Captain.
"Captain Kathryn Janeway?" she asked.
"I am Captain Janeway," she replied with an answering smile.
"I am authorized to inform you that Admiral Owen Paris wishes to speak with you," the other woman said hesitantly.
"Well, then, Commander, put him through," Janeway said with a quick glance at Tom, who seemed remarkably composed.
"Yes, sir."
The UFP symbol reappeared. There was a moment of silence, then Admiral Paris was looking down at her. Janeway was amazed at the way her old mentor had aged. He looked twenty years older than he should.
"Kathryn! How the hell did you get back?" Owen shouted.
Janeway smiled. Now this was the Owen Paris she knew. "Well, sir, it's a long story. Basically, we have managed to adapt a transwarp drive to our engines. We have our Chief Engineer and her staff to thank for our success," Janeway said.
"Ah, yes. You had to replace several of your people with Maquis, didn't you?"
"I don't think of them as replacements, sir. I prefer to say that they are successful transplants," Janeway said with a slightly reproving frown.
"Yes, of course. Kathryn, what aren't you showing me a full view of your Bridge?" the admiral asked. He frowned at her even more.
"I'm sorry, sir. I thought you should only have to deal with one shock at a time. You see, Admiral, we weren't sure how long it would take us to get home. So, many of us have found spouses on Voyager. Almost all of those fifty-seven couples who are married have children. And," Janeway paused to switch Owen's view to a wider spectrum. "Seventeen women, myself included, are seven to five-and-a-half months pregnant," she concluded.
Owen stared at his one-time protégé and the three other women on the Bridge who had turned to show him their protruding stomachs. One dark-haired woman was larger than Annalise had ever been with any of their three children!
"Kathryn, that engineer is going to go into labor any minute now!" he said with some alarm.
Owen heard someone choking just before Janeway replied.
"No, sir. She is going to deliver twins in two months. Admiral Paris, may I present my Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Commander B'Elanna Paris?" Janeway took no little pleasure in introducing father-and-daughter-in-law.
"Paris!" Owen bellowed. His eyes locked with B'Elanna's. She looked intelligent, spirited, and defiant. She was perfect for his son. Then he connected that with the rest of what Kathryn had said. "Twins?!" He looked away from B'Elanna to Tom.
"Yes, sir. It will be our second set," Tom said proudly. He glanced back at his wife, giving her a wicked grin. B'Elanna just looked over his shoulder, her lips twitching.
"Please don't encourage them, sir. They get very caught up in whose fault this set is if they are allowed to talk about it for too long," Janeway said with amusement shining in her eyes.
"Kathryn, I am trying to speak to my son!" Owen shouted at her. Janeway sat up straighter and hid a smile.
"Now, did you say that this will be your second set of twins, Tom?" Owen asked much more quietly.
"Yes. We have two girls, A'Lehsen and S'Ehra, who are four years old," Tom told his father.
Owen looked down at his folded hands for a moment. When he looked up, Janeway thought that she saw tears in his eyes. They did not fall, so she was not sure.
"Thank you, Tom," he said softly.
"Sir?" Tom asked, a puzzled frown in his eyes.
"Your girls are my first granddaughters," Owen said. "Congratulations, son, for both sets of twins. Welcome to the family, Commander," he said to B'Elanna.
B'Elanna stared at him for a few minutes, remembering the talk Janeway had given her the day before her wedding to Tom.
( "B'Elanna, even though you may never need to know this, I would like to tell you about Tom's family," Janeway had said.
"All right," B'Elanna had replied hesitantly.
"Tom has probably told you some of this, but there a few things even he might not know of. I'll start with the basics. Tom has a mother, Annalise, a caring woman who always had room in her heart for one more student who wasn't sure they could make it. He has two sisters, Lizbeth and Jesica, whom I don't know very well. I do know that one is an artist, a very successful one. I believe that the other is a writer. Neither of them chose Starfleet, which may have been one reason Tom's father was so determined to see him succeed. And that brings us to Admiral Owen Paris," Janeway had begun. She had smiled when B'Elanna had stiffened. "Yes, I know you may have gotten some bad impressions of him. He seems hard, demanding, unloving, and uncaring of his son's mental state, doesn't he?"
When B'Elanna had nodded, she had continued. "I first met Owen Paris in my third year at the Academy. At the time, he was a very personable man, intimidating, but kind. He was also extremely proud of his five-year-old son, whom he knew was destined to be a pilot in Starfleet. Then, on my first mission, which Admiral Paris was commanding, something happened that-changed him." Janeway had stopped for a minute at that point. When she had looked at B'Elanna, her eyes had been gray-blue pools of infinite sadness. "Although I hadn't known it at the time, our mission was to infiltrate a Cardassian post in what was supposed to be Federation space." Another pause, then, "The Admiral and I were captured, and he was interrogated for information, which he was completely conditioned against. The longer he held out, the more painful and creative the torture became. I could hear him screaming constantly. It haunts my sleep at night even now, after all these years." Janeway had closed her eyes and shuddered.
Then she had gone on. "We were rescued, but even as early as a day afterward he was-different. He was harder, more withdrawn. He had always been so full of life before, but that was missing. He seemed to have improved after we returned to Earth. I didn't see much of him for many years. I was going through Command school, and then I was away from Earth most of the time. It was after my first mission as a Captain that I noticed his stiffness. This was when he heard about Tom's accident, and yet he had seemed so completely unaffected by it. Then, a couple of years later, I was asked to 'make a man' out of Tom. But after getting to know him, I realize that all he needed was a little guidance in the right direction, a little patience, and some parental love from someone who believed in him. That his own father couldn't see that...B'Elanna, it was then that I realized that something more serious had happened to the Admiral's mental and emotional state in that Cardassian prison than I had originally thought. Unfortunately, we were already out in the Delta Quadrant, and I couldn't do anything to help him heal the rift he had caused between himself and his son. I could only try to be what Tom needed then, to make his father see that he wasn't like everyone thought he was." Janeway had gone quiet, watching B'Elanna closely.
B'Elanna was the one looking down then. When she looked back up she had a few tears running down her cheeks. "Some of my friends were captured by the Cardassians, near the beginning of my time with the Maquis. They were sent back as warnings. After that, every Maquis carried an ingestive poison in case of capture. I understand why you told me this. And you have just given me the perfect wedding gift for Tom," she had said.
The next night, while Tom and B'Elanna were changing for their two-day honeymoon on the holodeck, B'Elanna told her new husband Janeway's story.. When she had finished, Tom had sobbed into her shoulder for a few minutes, saying that he should have realized that something was wrong, should have been more understanding.
B'Elanna had told him that he had been too young and inexperienced to know that anything was psychologically wrong with his father.
In the end, both Tom and B'Elanna had forgiven Owen Paris, and Tom had begun the last stage of his emotional healing.)
These memories flashed through B'Elanna's mind as she stared into an older version of Tom's bright, cerulean blue eyes. "Thank you, sir," she said with a soft smile.
Owen smiled back at her, and B'Elanna suddenly knew where Tom had gotten his amazing smile. "You are very welcome, my dear. Anna will be absolutely thrilled to learn that she has another daughter-and granddaughters! That will make her so happy!" he said. Then he turned his attention back to Janeway. "And you, Kathryn, who has put you into such an awkward position?" he asked sternly.
"Actually, being pregnant isn't all that awkward," Janeway said, not fazed at all. She turned and smiled at Chakotay. "Sir, this is Commander Chakotay, my First Officer, my husband, and the father of my child," she said.
Owen turned his bright gaze on Chakotay. He looked over the man who had married his Kathryn, who was like a third daughter to him. Chakotay had a strong, warrior-like look about him, but underneath the fierce Amerind face was a calm and stoicism that made Owen think that he was more than a match for Kathryn. Yes, he was just what she needed.
"You chose well, Kathryn," Owen said gruffly.
"I thought so, sir," Janeway replied crisply.
Owen shook his head. He had missed Kathryn's sarcastic, brisk comments these last nine years.
"Aren't you going to introduce me to your senior staff, Kathryn?" he asked in an abrupt change of subject. "Starfleet'll want me to give some kind of report, and I can't say that all I did was talk about family."
"Yes, sir. I'm sure that you remember Lieutenant Commander Tuvok, my Security Chief. Directly behind me is our Doctor, an EMH who has essentially turned himself into an LTMH out of necessity. Also, Seven of Nine, the human we de-assimilated five years ago. She and Commander Paris were the key elements of Voyager's transwarp drive. Ambassador Neelix is a Talaxian who joined our journey at the beginning, and who has been very helpful. He is our cook, and he was our guide for the first few years. Lieutenant Kim was our original Chief of Operations. And you know my CONN officer, Lieutenant Tom Paris," Janeway finished.
"Very good. Send the logs you didn't manage to get to us four and a half years ago, your recent logs, and any other pertinent information to us, and the Council will review it all. How long do you think it will take you to reach Earth?" Owen asked.
Janeway did not even need to look toward Tom. He was already tapping away at the CONN.
"It would take us four days at Warp 4, six days at Warp 3, and nine days at Warp 2, Captain," he informed her. "That's the best Voyager can do after the latest jump."
"Thank you, Lieutenant. Commander, what speed can Voyager's hull handle right now?" Janeway asked B'Elanna, who scowled down at her console.
"I would've said Warp 4 if we hadn't stayed in transwarp that extra week. My crews are still repairing the damage. It'll have to be Warp 3, Captain. It should take my people about that long to finish repairing the new hull damage," she said darkly.
"Thank you. Warp 3 it is," Janeway said to Owen and Tom.
"I'll expect you in six days, then, Kathryn. Oh, and don't worry too much about your people's welcome. I don't think that it will be much of a problem," Owen said. He ended the transmission, and the UFP symbol appeared one more time, briefly, before the screen returned to the normal starfield.
Janeway and her crew did not move for several seconds. The admiral's last words had shocked them.
"Did he mean what I thought he meant?" Chakotay asked slowly.
"I think so. Tom?" Janeway asked, needing a second opinion.
"Yes, I think he did. My dad might not have been the best in the last years I knew him, but he always told the truth as he saw it," Tom said. He turned and gave them all a big grin.
Tom turned back and locked in his coordinates. He set the speed at Warp 3. The computer gave him several possible courses, and he chose the one with the least obstacles. Suddenly, he was very eager to get home.
