Chapter Seven

Applause.

What the hell?

Janeway heard someone clapping. She turned around. Where am I? There didn't seem to be any dimensions, there was no depth or width to this place. There was only an expanse of nothingness. Where's my ship? Where are Chakotay and Tuvok and Seven? She turned around again. The applause continued, but she couldn't find the source. Finally, she looked straight up.

"Well done, Kathy. A pity it ended with Voyager crashing into South Dakota, but I do believe you were up to this challenge and surpassed it. I am impressed," said Q. For once, he wasn't wearing a Starfleet captain's uniform. He was dressed in full Q judge regalia.

Janeway sighed with impatience as Q floated down and stood eye to eye with her. "Where am I, Q? What is this place, and where are my ship and my crew?" She took a step forward. "What was all this about, anyway?"

"Oh, Kathy, don't blame me. I didn't get you into this. If you want to get really technical, your parents got you into this, since without them you wouldn't exist. Or, you could have avoided this whole mess by not destroying the array, back at the beginning of your trek. You could even have just agreed to have my baby, and I would have sent you home."

Janeway glared. "Q. What is going on?"

"Oh. That." Q took a step back, and was suddenly seated in a giant chair that Janeway swore hadn't been there a second before. "You see, Kathy, in about two seconds Voyager's viewscreen is going to explode. You and your redoubtable first officer are both in front of it, you remember, and you're both about to be killed." Q shrugged. "I'm not a big fan of that eventuality, but I can't just make you get out of the way. You have to do that yourself."

Janeway raised an eyebrow. "So you're giving me pre-emptive notice of my death?" she asked.

Q looked at her with a withering expression. "Kathy, all I've done the last few days is give you pre-emptive notice of your death. You actually died because I did, in one timeline. But that was a necessary sacrifice." He stood. "It has been quite interesting, watching the two timelines diverge, then converge, then diverge again. It seems only fair, since you and your crew had to give your lives to set this all in motion, that you receive a little reward now." He stared at her. "You have to get out of the way of the explosion that is about to occur on your bridge… but I'm going to tell you how."

Janeway looked at him inquisitively. "What was all this about, Q? Really. Was it about the Federation and the Borg, or was it about Voyager and her crew, or her captain… what? Why did you even get involved in the first place?"

Q just shook his head at her. "Because we can, Kathy. Because I like you, and the continuum likes you, and we all find the Borg so boring." He paused. "I once told Jean-Luc that humanity would always, always, be tested and be accused of being an inferior species. I've never tested you like I tested Jean-Luc. I never had to, you always found yourself in situations that served just as well. This, Kathy, was a test of humanity. If you survived, you passed." He looked at her. "Humanity has survived, although your individual survival is still in question, so I suppose it's not over yet."

"Q… I don't understand."

Q sighed. "All right, Kathy, let me put it this way. There was only one way for you and your crew to survive all this and get home." He looked at her. "The only way for you to get home alive was for you to die. Amazing, isn't it. You, quite literally, turned death into a fighting chance to live."

Janeway looked at him with something akin to understanding. "Because if my crew hadn't attacked the hub the first time, the Borg would have assimilated Earth. So there would have been no home to go home to."

"By dying, Kathy, you created a timeline where the Queen went back in time, and in that new timeline – this timeline – it was possible for you to get home alive. Your deaths in the other timeline were the only way to defeat the Borg and get your crew home in this timeline." Q laughed. "Amazing how these things work themselves out."

"Q?" she asked. "Did that other timeline ever happen? Did it even exist? Or was it destroyed when we changed this timeline?"

Q grinned. "Does it matter?" he asked. "You made the decision to give your life to save others, and you would have, if the Queen from the future hadn't arrived. You saw that firsthand. I told you I wanted to see how the Queen dealt with defeat, and it turns out she doesn't deal with it very well. I watched, both times. She did manage to change the timeline, although I'm sure she's not pleased with the result. You and your crew made the decision to give your lives for the people of the Federation, and you did. Because you died…" he shrugged. "You live."

Janeway shook her head. "I hate temporal paradoxes," she muttered.

"I know," Q gloated. "That's why it was the perfect test, and I didn't even have to invent it. Just fiddle a little." He shrugged. "If, in the end, my involvement allowed for the survival of humanity, well, we all have to make sacrifices." His chair began to rise. "Remember, Kathy, you haven't passed yet. Grab Chuckles and dive to the left." He looked down. "This is the second time now, Kathy, where you should have died. Maybe you should do something about that regret before fate decides to collect on what you owe." Then he was gone.

Janeway found herself staring at the main viewscreen, Voyager hurtling forward across the plains. Without conscious thought, she grabbed Chakotay with both arms and heaved them both down and to the left, sending them sprawling across the deck. She flung her arms over her head as Chakotay turned towards her, and then there was a dull roar and an explosion. She felt intense heat, followed by wind that howled into the bridge, and Chakotay threw himself over her.

When it was over, he helped her to her feet. The viewscreen was gone – a gaping hole in the bridge where it had once been. Looking out, she saw plains and hills in the distance. A blue sky. Clouds. She stumbled over to the captain's chair and fell into it. Beside her, Chakotay took his seat at her left.

Above them, Seven staggered to her feet, assisted by Tuvok. They stood at the bar above Janeway and Chakotay, and all four looked out of the bridge, through the gaping hole in the ship. The wind blew lightly into the bridge, a cool and welcome pressure on her face. She reached over and grabbed Chakotay's hand. "We did it," she whispered. "We got them home."

Tuvok and Seven made there way down to face them. "Captain… thank you," said Seven. Janeway released Chakotay's hand and stood. She hugged the former drone, whispering a few words in her ear before releasing her. She stared into the eyes of this woman, who just a few years ago had been nothing more than an automaton. Now she was a woman, her humanity and individuality restored.

Janeway then turned to Tuvok. "Tuvok, I'm going to hug you now," she said, smiling. He nodded stoically and she hugged him. If she didn't know better, she would have sworn he was hugging her back. Their ordeal was over, she realized. Soon he would be restored to his wife and his children. She tightened her grip on him, tears threatening.

Finally, she turned to Chakotay. She looked up at him, grinning crookedly, emotion brimming in her face. "We did it," she whispered raggedly.

"Yes," he said back. "We did." Extending her arms, she fell into his embrace, wrapping her arms around him, clinging to him, letting his strength and confidence reinvigorate her. They were home. Both were lit by the light peering in through the gap in the bridge. Her hair glowed in the sunlight.

She released him, reluctantly, when she heard the sound of a transporter. A woman appeared on the bridge, slim with red-blond hair. She wore the black and grey of a Starfleet uniform, so unlike their own black and red uniforms, but yet, so similar. Janeway recognized her instantly as she took a step forward. "Captain Janeway, I'm Lieutenant Lisa Neeley, tactical officer of the Hood. Welcome home."

Janeway smiled. "The Hood." she said with a smile. "It seems time does have a sense of irony. You recovered my crew?"

Neeley cocked at her head at Janeway's comment, but nodded. "Yes ma'am. We recovered all your shuttlecraft and escape pods. Your crew is fine." She reached out her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Captain. I'm not sure what you did, or how the Borg were involved, but I'm sure we're all better off." Janeway gripped Neeley's hand gratefully. "We'll have our engineering teams evaluate Voyager in the next few days and see if the ship is salvageable, but that's not something you should worry about right now. We'll bring you up to the Hood and reunite you with your crew if you like, and then there are people in San Francisco who very much want to welcome you back to Earth."

Janeway looked up, but shook her head slowly after a second. "Lieutenant, I'll join you in a little bit. Right now, I want to spend some time on my bridge, thanking my ship. I have… much to reflect on."

Neeley nodded. "As you wish." She turned, conversed with Tuvok and Seven for a few seconds, and then the three of them beamed up to the Hood. Janeway turned to Chakotay.

"Come with me," she whispered. She led him to the front of the bridge, in front of the conn, and brought him down to sit with her in the sunlight. "I realized something, as we crashed here on Earth," she said. "I found my personal logs, aboard that other Voyager, from after most of the crew died. I realized that there was one thing I regretted when I died then, and if I'd died today, I would have died still regretting it." She sighed. "In the end, Tuvok was right, I made the decision I had to make," she reached out and took his hand again, "but I regretted it then and have ever since."

Chakotay tightened his grip on her hands. "What do you regret, Kathryn?" he asked.

She shook her head, looking out over the plains, then turned back. "I want to tell you a story, Chakotay. It's about a woman, a leader, who was lost in a wood. She had known peace, once when she was young, but when she was made leader that peace was lost to her. Fate saw fit to give her a guide, a warrior who stayed by her side and helped her stay on the proper path. He gave her the strength she needed to always do what was right, even when it was hard. The leader had no promises she could offer the warrior, except that someday she would get them both out of the wood. One day, with him by her side, and with his strength guiding her, she took a leap of faith and, at the end of it, found herself home, back in the place where she had began."

She looked up at him and held up her hand. He laced his fingers through hers, tightening his grip. "After it was done, the leader was thankful for all that the warrior had done for her, for the faith he had shown in her, and for his wisdom which tempered her own rage. She looked back on their path with greater clarity, and recognized that it had been necessary for her to save her people and herself."

"Finally, she turned to her guide, her warrior, and asked if maybe, now that the journey had ended, if he could help her find the peace that she still missed in her heart." Janeway looked at Chakotay. "All that happened had to happen, Chakotay. I would do it again. Now my life is my own again and I hope that, maybe, you'll help me find the peace in my heart that I once helped you find in yours," she whispered. "No more regrets."

Chakotay released the grip on her hand and gathered her up in his arms. "Of course, Kathryn." They looked out from their bridge onto ground that belonged to Earth. Chakotay murmured to her, "Now we can choose our own path, instead of living the life that fate decided for us."

Janeway let him cradle her head under his, ensconcing herself in his arms. She just looked out onto the planet that had been her only goal for the last seven years, held by the man who had helped keep her on the path that had led them back here, and let all her worries go.

Hours later, Janeway and Chakotay were sitting on the grass under the shade produced by Voyager. They spoke very little, preferring to spend their time appreciating what it meant to be on Earth. There was much they would have to do in the days and hours to come and right now, in this place, they had found their peace.

Looking across the plains, they saw two figures walking towards them. Slowly, they resolved wearing the grey-on-black Starfleet uniforms, and Janeway recognized them both. She stood, and reached over to help Chakotay stand.

The one wearing a red shirt under his jacket spoke first. "Captain Janeway, Commander Chakotay, I'm Captain Robert DeSoto of the USS Hood. I believe you have already met my tactical officer, Lieutenant Neeley." He extended his hand to her, and she shook it.

Janeway looked up to catch his eyes. "Thank you, Captain. For more than just rescuing my crew. You and your crew made it possible for Voyager to get home," she said. DeSoto looked at her oddly.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I can't tell you," Janeway smiled broadly. "Temporal prime directive." She released DeSoto's hand and winked at him. "Ask me again sometime," she said. DeSoto raised his eyebrows, but he nodded. Then he looked up towards the sky.

"Here comes your crew, Captain," he said, raising a finger to point up towards the drifting clouds.

From them descended a shuttlecraft. Janeway recognized it instantly – there was only one Delta Flyer – and it set down next to Voyager. From it emerged men and women she knew. Harry Kim. Rose Jenkins. Tal Celes. Mike Ayala. Jenny Delaney. Kashimuro Nozawa. Then other shuttlecraft started descending from the sky, and men and women started appearing via transporter. Kyoto. Baxter. Gerron. Molina. Baytart. Jor. Gilmore. McKenzie. Lang. Dalby. Dozens more. DeSoto grinned as they closed around their captain and he and Neeley took a few steps back.

Janeway found herself in a whirlwind of people, excited, ecstatic, and enthusiastic. She had never hugged her crew, with a few notable exceptions, but now she found herself giving them away freely. Beside her Chakotay lifted Naomi Wildman off the ground and pointed up at Voyager, the ship still lodged in the ground, and then down at the earth. "You were born there, Naomi," he said. "But you were always coming here. Now you too have a chance to do what you want with your life."

Naomi clutched his neck. "Commander?" she asked. "What if I want to go back on Voyager?" Chakotay smiled, said nothing, and just held the girl for a little longer. Icheb joined them and Janeway hugged him too.

He told her about the Queen, how he and Harry had separated her from the collective, and Janeway smiled at him. "If it were up to me, Icheb," she said, "I would make you a full crewman right now. Maybe even an ensign." She laughed. "Who needs the academy, anyway?"

There was one man here who she didn't immediately recognize as a member of her crew, but she thought he was familiar anyway. When he saw her, he immediately made his way over and extended his hand. "Captain Janeway, I don't know if you remember me, but…"

Janeway cut him off. "Jake Sisko, Commander Sisko's son. We met seven years ago, when Voyager was docked at Deep Space Nine before leaving for the Badlands." She smiled. "What can I do for you, Jake? And how'd you get here, anyway?"

He grinned. "Voyager's return wasn't exactly quiet, Captain. Between your frantic distress call, the second battle of Wolf 359, the dramatic explosion of a Borg cube over Earth, and Voyager blazing through the sky over Chicago, your return has been very well documented. I think every news service has picked up on the story by now and it's one hell of a story." He grinned. "I'm a writer, ma'am, and I work for the FNS. Since my father's in the service, and we had met before you left…"

"You used your connections to be first on the scene," Janeway said. Jake laughed.

"Yes ma'am. I hope you don't mind."

"I remember you, Mr. Sisko. In fact I was thinking of you and your father just the other day. Promise to use discretion about what should become public knowledge and what shouldn't, and you've got an exclusive on Voyager's crew," Janeway said, smiling at the young man she had met seven years earlier just before Voyager had been snatched away.

"Thank you, ma'am!" Jake grinned. "I'll leave you alone and go mingle" He shook her hand and faded into the crowd of crewmen.

Behind her, the Doctor came forward. She embraced him, too, and promised him that even though Voyager was home, and he might not be her Doctor anymore, that she'd always be there if he needed her. Then she asked him if he might want to have coffee and brunch in San Francisco the next time they were both there. He smiled happily and thanked her. Janeway let him go, and watched as he wandered over to Seven, who was conversing with Tuvok. When he neared them, Seven excused herself and turned to him. Janeway watched with a smile as they wandered off in the general direction of the hills in the distance, talking.

Finally, two more people came up to her. Tom Paris didn't even give her a chance to say no, he just lifted her off the ground and spun her around once before putting her down. "Thank you, Captain. For everything," he said. From beside her, a gurgle drew her attention, and she turned to B'Elanna, standing next to him. In her arms, she held a tiny little girl. Next to her, Tom reached over and grabbed a tiny finger. "Captain, meet the newest daughter of Voyager. Miral Kathryn Paris." She barely noticed as Chakotay wrapped an arm around her from behind as she too reached in to hold the tiny hand of her newest crewmember.

"Hello there," she said. "Welcome home."