Legacies 2
Author: Jamelia and Julia17
Epilogue
Space, vast and impersonal, as far as eyes-or sensors-can reach. As the two who have formed a new family embark upon a personal ritual to strengthen the bonds between them, they are unaware that their starship, no more than a mere speck in the vastness, is not the only object following the same heading towards Sector 0-0-0.
Light deforms so slightly around the invisible gravitic anomaly that it could barely be detected by the most sophisticated means possible. If it were, it would register as a "glitch" in the systems of the vessel doing the tracking-barely enough to raise suspicions . . .
Within the anomaly, light glows a sickly greenish hue. The voices of the beings are silent. They have no need to communicate in words, for they are linked in a far more intimate way.
They are the eyes, ears, and hands of one who never forgets anything, especially a defeat. One who desires above all things to conquer the crew of Voyager-particularly its captain.
No reprieves this time. No escape.
Fin.
Note: *d'k tahg* and *mek'leth* refer to two kinds of Klingon dagger.
Afterword
As we mentioned in the introductory note to this episode, the Paris and Torres marriage actually began in "Lineage," not in "Drive." In "Lineage," B'Elanna at last revealed to her husband a critical secret that had blighted her entire life, threatening to ruin both her marriage and her ability to become a loving parent. She needed to come to terms with her abandonment by her father; with Tom's love and support, she did. Tom's stepping up and becoming a responsible husband in that episode was something we didn't want to lose.
Prior to "Lineage," B'Elanna Torres and Tom Paris often didn't act like a couple that had a future together. B'Elanna still pushed Tom away whenever he threatened to get close, while Tom seemed to prefer going off with Harry, developing and playing games on the holodeck to spending time with his alleged girlfriend. After "Lineage," however, the two actually behaved like a committed couple. While not seeing them exchange their wedding vows in "Drive" was disappointing, in a sense, we did see them marry in "Lineage." Tom pledged his love to his bride in even more personal and powerful terms than we saw his Demon-planet counterpart do in "Course: Oblivion," during Voyager's fifth season (presumably in the same setting and words the "real" Paris and Torres did).
B'Elanna's questioning of her Klingon heritage in "Lineage" had bothered many of us, too. Hadn't she finally laid that to rest at the end of "Barge of the Dead"? Well, she did, in part, at least. B'Elanna understood she had been rejecting her mother's attempts to help her appreciate Klingon culture, and that her mother had, indeed, always loved her. B'Elanna certainly appeared to accept her Klingon traits better afterwards. However, it does not necessarily follow that B'Elanna would want her own child going through what she herself went through. The rejection she suffered from her father was a terrible blow to B'Elanna's self- esteem. Learning to accept her mother's love didn't mean she didn't want to spare her daughter the pain of losing her father's. She wasn't giving Tom much credit, it's true, but until then, his behavior as a boyfriend had given her ample cause to worry about how much he'd be there as a parent to any child, perhaps, not only one who was as visibly Klingon as she herself.
Human (and, presumably, Klingon) development does not necessarily proceed in a straight line, like making a frontal assault when climbing a mountain. Especially when it comes to emotional development, it's a bit more like a spiral-a winding road encircles a mountain, where previous stages are revisited and the lessons learned and relearned until true independence has been reached.
The two year old learns to make autonomous choices through the power of the simple word, "No," using it even when the child would be happier saying, "Yes." In adolescence, young people strike out on their own, making choices that can make a parent turn pale with fear. Young adults make independent choices for themselves, becoming young parents guiding their children on how to make choices. Ultimately, mature adults may have to make difficult choices for their parents who have lost the ability to act independently.
At each step, we confront similar issues. Events as devastating as abandonment by a parent, which B'Elanna experienced, can and will have an affect on every succeeding stage. B'Elanna's appearing to "backslide" in "Lineage," therefore, is something which could almost be expected to happen. Tom's commitment to B'Elanna and their daughter was a very welcome development.
That doesn't mean that everything that occurred in "Lineage" was okay with us. If it were, we would have included it upon the list of 7.5 canon episodes and would have gone on to write something else. We felt that B'Elanna went pretty far, for starters. We also wanted to see Tom confront some things about his own past which Voyager never showed him do. This segment of Season 7.5 provided us with the opportunity to do just that. We weren't about to let the chance slip by us, the way it did TPTB.
J & J