Chapter 13

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen. My name is Gaile Winters and I welcome you all to a very special interview. Tonight I am in the home of Kathryn Janeway, Captain of the U.S.S. Voyager to interview five members of the intrepid crew! Two from the original pure Starfleet crew, two members of what was once the Marquis and of course their Captain! With me tonight are Samantha Wildman, Tomas Eugene Paris, Mike Ayala, B'Elanna Torres – Paris and Kathryn Janeway herself. " When she turned away from the camera and towards the five sitting with her she saw looks of amusement on all their faces before Kathryn spoke up.

"Tom, when exactly did you do a mutiny?" Muffled laughter could be heard coming from them all as Tom just shrugged his shoulders before turning to Gaile.

"That is something I would like to know as well?" He was grinning as he raised a questioning eyebrow at her.

"Mutiny?" Came from the surprised reporter which had the five people with her promptly breaking out into loud laughter.

Kathryn was the first to catch her breath and explain. "Well if we take you by your word Sam and I are the two original Starfleet members here, Mike and B'Elanna were originally part of the Marquis ship and Tom was really neither so you just said he is the Captain."

Gaile Winters had been doing these kind of interviews for over ten years but this was the first time one of her guests had actually managed to make her speechless and that less then two minutes into the interview! "Oh... I can already see this group won't be easy." Taking a deep breath to order her thoughts she attempted to get control of the interview back. "Well, I apologise if I gave the wrong impression. Anyway, you have now been home for just about six weeks and this is the first interview any member of your crew has given. So first of all how are you all?"

Kathryn now looked at her crew members and after receiving a nod from them answered the question. "I think I can speak for the entire crew if I say... we are all delighted to be home at last."

"Over one hundred and forty thousand light years in seven years. That must be a new record!" Tom joked which had them all chuckling.

Gaile was now ready to start the interview properly so took the initiative, "Well, I have a few question for Mike and Sam if I may?" There were groans coming now from the two people in question so she waited till they looked at her before continuing. "How would you describe each member of the Voyager senior staff in one sentence?"

"Oh god, now we are done for!" B'Elanna groaned which had everyone laughing.

Still chuckling Sam turned back to Gaile. "With whom do you want us to start?"

"Ensign Harry Kim?"

"A green Ensign who became a man!" Sam shot back straight away.

"Oh, yes he was green wasn't he?" Came from a chuckling Mike.

Tom also commented with, "Perfect description for him." before he turned to Kathryn. "Do you remember how he was the first time you met him? What was it you said then? At ease, Ensign..."

"Before you sprain something!" Kathryn finished for him with the amusement clear in her voice which had everyone else practically howling in laughter.

It took a minute before everyone calmed down but once they did Gaile spoke up again. "What about Seven of Nine?"

Mike answered this time. "A former Borg drone who searched for and recovered her individuality."

Sam chimed in straight after him. "Sevens fights with a certain Captain were the stuff of legends!"

"Hey!" Came from Kathryn in an offended tone.

"Oh come off it Kathryn! You have to admit especially in that first year the fights you had with her were rather explosive!" Tom now told at her.

Janeway wasn't going to take that laying down and promptly started defending Seven and herself. "We weren't that bad!"

"Yes, you were!" Four voices now chimed as one.

B'Elanna took up the conversation next. "Every time you two were at it the rest of us could only hide behind one or the other bulkhead!"

"It's not as if you never fought with her yourself Lanna!" Kathryn shot back at her, which a blushing B'Elanna had to admit was true.

Laughter rang out again in the room so Gaile asked for the next person on her list. "The holographic doctor?"

"Oh, he is a harder one." Came now from Sam who thought for a minute before turning to the others. "The Doctor has changed so much, such a pain at the start but now I couldn't imagine the journey without him."

"How about..." Came now from Mike who continued once he saw that he had every ones attention. "A hologram who became a person?"

"Fits, but doesn't quite describe him either though it will do." B'Elanna now chimed in.

"So, you believe he is sentient?" Came the important question from Gaile now.

There was firm nodding all around before Janeway spoke up again. "When he was first activated no one ever imagined how much he would change. Kes was the first to encourage him to evolve and the one who knocked our heads together when we weren't willing to give him that chance." At Gailes incredulous look in her direction she admitted with a smile. "Yes, even mine."

Gaile knew that the question of his sentience would be fought over at a Starfleet hearing sometime in the future so didn't want to get into it too much which meant she moved on to the next person. "Lieutenant Commander Tuvok?"

"A Vulcan whose logic never failed." Came now from Mike which had Kathryn snorting. Surprised he turned to her and asked, "Was that wrong?"

"Let's just say that his logic wasn't wrong but he was." A smirking Captain answered him.

"Do I dare ask what this is about?" Came now from Gaile which had Kathryn just shaking her head, she wasn't willing to answer that. "Okay, how about the first officer, Chakotay then?"

"A commander whose loyalty could never be questioned." Came now from Sam who had thrown a worried look at Kathryn, who just nodded at her, before answering.

"Would you agree with that sentiment Captain?"

"Yes, I would." Kathryn answered firmly but quietly.

Gaile just looked at her for a minute before continuing. "There are speculations about whether or not he will be allowed to stay in Starfleet after he attacked you. How do you feel about that?"

Janeway sighed and thought for a minute before stating firmly. "At the time he was ill and didn't know what he was doing. He was treated for that and returned to his duties shortly after, there were no more incidents."

"Do you think he should be offered to become a commanding officer of his own ship?"

The answer came without any hesitation. "I haven't spoken to him since our return so do not know what he has planned for himself, but if that is what he would like to do I will certainly give him my full support. He has proven himself over the years on more then one occasion and I firmly believe that he is ready."

The other four in the room had been looking at her quietly with worried expressions on their faces and now stepped in before this could become uncomfortable for their Captain. "Who would you like to know about next?" Came from B'Elanna.

Gaile hadn't been ready to leave this line of questioning but she saw the determined expressions B'Elanna and the others were giving her so she gracefully gave in. "How about Mister Paris here?"

The answer to this one came from Sam, with her expression telling Tom that she was sorry. "An outcast who was given a new life."

"I was the first of the Captains personal reclamation projects." Came the comment from Tom which had Kathryn looking at him incredulously.

"Reclamation projects?" Gaile now asked curiously.

He looked at Kathryn in amusement before starting to explain. "There was more then one person who struggled with being on the ship. Seven of course is the most obvious example and probably the one person our Captain is the most proud of..."

Kathryn though just shock her head at that and interrupted him with a firmly spoken, "I'm proud of every single member of the crew."

Tom though continued as if he never heard her. "Then there were people like Mortimer Harron, who for a long time was without any friends on board. People had been trying to befriend him but he was never interested till the day that the Captain stepped in. You know of course about that away mission which has been described in several reports already. But even afterwards she didn't stop, every week like clockwork she went down to find him. He could hide from the rest of the crew but never from her! She always found him and dragged him into a discussion and soon it wasn't unusual to find them in the mess hall or even down on deck fifteen in what seemed at first arguments but they were actually discussions on topics over half the crew was completely lost in. She surprised him though as she not only kept up with him but usually also won!"

"He kept me sharp!" Kathryn now threw in with a grin though she was blushing.

"There are many more examples just like Harron we could go on and on about this topic." B'Elanna threw in here.

Tom had one last comment to make though. "At least her other reclamation projects weren't as... explosive as Seven!"

Kathryn now had enough and countered with, "At least I didn't have to bust any but you out of prison more then once!" Which had Mike, B'Elanna and Sam in hysterics.

"More then once...?" Came the question from Gaile.

There was a triumphant gleam in Kathryns eyes when she realised that Tom was now quiet. "First time was of course the Penal colony here on Earth. Then in our first year out there he got accused of murdering a professor and got sentenced to continually relieve the murder..."

Now Tom started vehemently protesting. "I was innocent of that! You yourself helped proof it!"

But Kathryn was undeterred. "In our third year you got not only yourself but also poor Harry thrown into prison after being convicted of a terrorist crime and got an implant which nearly drove the two of you mad!"

Tom again interrupted. "Again you found proof that it wasn't us who did it!"

"But couldn't get the conviction overturned so had to bust you two out of that prison!" Kathryn now threw back at him. "And then in our fifth year you broke the prime directive and I myself had to not only demote you but throw you into the brig!"

"You threw the book at me!"

"You deserved it!"

"True enough." Tom admitted quietly and then started smirking. "Though you didn't have to do that you know? You punished me much better afterwards."

A questioningly raised eyebrow was his answer to that so he explained. "Before our time on the ship I could always hide from my friends or any people I disappointed, that wasn't an option on Voyager. So I had to face them but worst of all I had to face you! For months afterwards every time I turned around when on duty there you were in your nice big Captains chair, looking at me with this look of complete and utter disappointment! That more then anything else kept me in line."

Kathryns was determined not to laugh so her answer to this was completely dry. "Well, now I know for next time!"

"There better not be a next time! Both of you were unbearable during that entire episode!" Came now from B'Elanna before she turned her attention to Kathryn alone. "And anyway about that prison break of yours... Harry will forever worship you for that one alone."

Kathryns lips twitched and as soon as she looked over to Tom the two of them started laughing while everyone else looked on in amusement.

"It is quite clear you are close." Came the comment from Gaile.

Kathryn looked at her and then back at Tom with a fond look. "Comic relief!"

Which Tom promptly protested with a loud "Hey!"

A shake of her head was his answer. "Let me explain Tom. While we all became more then a crew in time especially in the beginning that was not so and there was a lot of tension." Which had all her crew members nodding their heads in complete agreement. "It would have been a very lonely seven years if you had not been with us."

That one did make Tom give her a surprised look. "What do you mean?"

"Because it was you who helped me bridge the gap between being the Captain and being what the crew needed." She explained now. "There has always been a certain distance between Captain and the rest of the crew. In that first year you were the only person who couldn't have cared less what rank I carry. Sure there were certain barriers even you wouldn't cross, and if you had you would have ended up in the brig anyway if you had tried, but you were the only person who would treat me like a human being instead of just the Captain at that point in time."

"What about Commander Chakotay and Tuvok?" Came now from B'Elanna.

"The Commanders and I had our own problems in that time. Need I remind you of that so called Alliance with the Kazon that was insisted on? I was against it from the beginning but they convinced me to try." Kathryn now asked with a pointedly raised eyebrow.

Tom snorted. "And we nearly died because of that."

"Do me a favour Captain?" Sam asked and elaborated at her questioning look she received. "Never listen to their diplomatic advice again."

Kathryn snorted. "Oh don't worry I haven't done that in a long time. Or we would probably still be stuck in the Void as Tuvok so helpfully admitted just before our return. I learned my lesson in that point with the Kazon. Oh sure they tried but it went in one ear and out the other every time something like that came up again."

Gaile had been listening intently and now spoke up. "Sounds like you don't trust your most senior officers Captain."

"I trust both of them with my life." Kathryn now stated. "Together the Commanders and I make a good team and it has saved our lives and the ship more then once. But I also know their strengths and weaknesses well enough by now just as they do mine. Diplomacy is a point I am stronger in then them for example. If in a tight spot ask Commander Tuvok for advice on a tactical situation and Commander Chakotay is more of a mix between us while also having some more unconventional methods at times. We balance each other out and it worked for us."

"And the weaknesses?" Gaile asked.

A smirk answered her. "This is a live feed to several million or even more people. You never know who watches so I am keeping that between my senior officers and myself."

Gaile was determined to get them back on topic now so asked about the next person. "To get back to the original questions. How would you describe Lieutenant Torres here?"

Mike answered this one. "A Klingon who was given a second chance."

Tom was smirking at that and quickly gave his own comment. "God, she had a temper at first!"

That had everyone laughing while B'Elanna was glaring at her husband. "Traitor!" She told him.

"Just telling the truth!" Tom quickly defended himself.

"Careful Tom, she still has that temper it's just better controlled now." A chuckling Kathryn threw in.

Gaile could now see that B'Elanna indeed still had that temper so, before she had a violent Klingon on her hands, quickly moved onto the last person on her list. "And what about Captain Janeway?"

There were now four smirks directed at Kathryn who couldn't help but groan. "Oh god, here it comes."

It did come but from a person she didn't expect. "A determined Captain who set a course for Earth and never stopped believing that we would get here." Tom said quietly but in a very firm voice, which had a surprised Kathryn lift her eyes to her crew to see soft smiles on all their faces directed at her.

"About that... how did you all react at first to her abduction?" Came the question they had all dreaded.

"With determination." Mike answered and at the questioning eyebrow explained further. "As Naomi Wildman said while we were still in the Delta Quadrant, the Captain would never have willingly left one of us behind. We had never any doubt that we would get her back or die trying." Beside him Tom, B'Elanna and Sam were nodding emphatically.

Gaile now turned towards Kathryn who had tensed. " I know it can't be easy for you to talk about what happened but how did you feel when you realised that your rescue was immediate?"

The answer came swiftly in a very dry voice, which had everyone wincing. "Not much I was fighting with the Queen so I was just a bit busy at the time... trying to stay alive."

"Okay, that was a dumb question and god that crew is protective..." Gaile could see that the other four people were now glaring at her so quickly changed tactics. "What were your first thoughts when you woke up in Voyagers sickbay after being rescued?"

"I was asking myself if I was dreaming." Came the deadpan reply before Kathryn continued with a smile. "The last thing I expected was to find my mother sitting beside me or to be nearly smothered by her and my sister Phoebe." It wasn't quite the truth of course but she wasn't willing to say anything at all about the cortical node which she still had in her possession nor about what had happened with Chakotay.

"You are a close family." Gaile stated now.

Kathryn had to think for a minute on how best to answer. "We didn't use to be. Phoebe and I were like cat and mouse growing up and to this day she is still the one person who can make me mad the quickest, Mom always had to play peace maker which she didn't appreciate. My getting lost in the Delta Quadrant brought our relationships to a completely new level. We are more understanding of each other and communicate much better then ever before though they are still getting used to the fact that I brought a much larger family unit home with me then they ever expected. As Phoebe told me just a couple days ago she guessed that we were close but our home is now constantly filled with people which not even I expected. The crew and I are still adjusting to being here while our families have to adjust to the fact that the family just got a lot bigger. It's not every day that a family extends by well over one hundred people and that in addition each of them has their own relatives and friends."

B'Elanna couldn't help but snort now. "Isn't that the truth! I still wake up in the middle of the night panicking because I can't feel the hum of the warp core and wanting to go to engineering to fix my ship."

"Your ship?" Came now from Kathryn with a pointed look in her eyes. "Let me tell you something B'Elanna and I will only say this once. Voyager is mine and has always been mine! It has been since before you ever laid your eyes on it never mind being Chief of Engineering."

B'Elanna wasn't going to let that stand. "You mean those two measly weeks you were in command before getting lost? You made a pretty strong statement so you better have more then that or she is mine!"

"Then I win easily and anyway I never lost the ship I always knew where it was." Kathryn now stated with a smirk which had the others quietly laughing. "Two years before Voyager first got commissioned Admiral Patterson showed me the blueprints for her... and I promptly fell in love."

Tom piped up next with a disbelieving... "You fell in love with blueprints?"

Kathryn nodded before explaining further. "He quickly arranged for me to be reassigned to Planetia Utopia and I was there for every step of the build. In fact by the end of it the engineers there couldn't wait to be rid of me. I drove them mad on a daily basis with new ideas and concepts for the ship, most of which were implemented and even B'Elanna here admitted more then once how much she loved them."

At the end of her little speech she was smirking at B'Elanna in a big way who only scowled at her before reluctantly admitting. "Alright, you win."

"What was that?" Kathryn needled her now.

B'Elanna knew exactly what Kathryn wanted and already knew she wouldn't live this down any time soon, if not Kathryn then Tom would know to use this but she did give Kathryn what she wanted. "You win! Voyager is yours, she belongs to you not me."

The look on her face as she said it now cracked everyone in the room up and it took a minute before Gaile spoke up again. "And that is even more correct considering that even by law the ship belongs to the Captain."

"What do you mean?" Came from Mike in a confused tone. "I thought by law it belongs to Starfleet and the Federation."

Kathryn just shock her head at them. "Not any more, after we first managed to get in contact Starfleet had a little dilemma about that. The ship had been declared destroyed with all hands lost fourteen months before that after all. When they found out we were still alive they found that they couldn't just put her back on active duty as we were too far away to take many if any official missions. After a couple months of arguing about it they in the end agreed to just transfer the ship to my ownership. Though it is a good thing that they never told me while we were still in the Delta Quadrant or I may have just ended up telling Tom to have fun at the helm."

Gaile could see by the surprised reactions of the four Voyager crew members that they had no idea but now wanted to get back to their prior topic. "Kathryn, how did you react to the messages your crew send to the Alpha Quadrant in their bid to get permission to free you?"

A tiny smirk was now on Kathryns face. "It took me two days but I hunted everyone down to thank them personally with a hug."

"You call that a hug?" Came from Sam. "My back still hurts from the squeezing you gave me!

The reply came swiftly. "You deserved it!"

Sam had always been good at sarcasm and it now came out in full force. "Well thanks for breaking my back then!"

Kathryn didn't let her win this one and gave Sam her biggest smile just to return with a large dose of her own sarcasm a... "You are welcome!"

"Which reminds me!" B'Elanna piped up with now. "I had a very interesting conversation with your mother this morning Kathryn. She swore to me that you are one of the best cooks she knows..."

Sam and Mike were staring at Kathryn in shock with the latter getting his voice back first. "What? That can't be right!"

But Sam wasn't far behind. "You are kidding me! She burned replicator food!"

Meanwhile Tom was very smug. "I knew that would come out sometime."

Three heads whipped around to him and snapped at the same time. "You knew?"

Tom rocked back in his seat at their accusing glares but still managed to grin. "Of course I knew! Have you already forgotten what I said about my father earlier? He has known her a long time and has always loved her food."

Mike and Sam were now staring at him in disbelieve while B'Elanna couldn't help sputtering. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"For one it wasn't my secret to tell and two... I feared not being able to get any more of it. Her food is to die for!" He admitted now with a very sheepish grin.

Kathryn was grinning madly at that. "He came to me in our first week and practically begged for some samples and has done so ever since about once or twice a week."

"Who else knew?" B'Elanna now demanded to know.

"Tuvok, as one of my oldest friends, of course knew from the start and Seven found out about a year ago."

"The two most tight lipped people on board when it comes to their dealings with you... No wonder we never found out." B'Elanna groaned now.

"Why did Chakotay always regale us with stories of your burned dinners? Did he lie to us all this time?" Mike demanded to know next.

"Of course he didn't lie, he just didn't know any better." Came the answer from a smirking Kathryn. "And before you say anything I never outright lied about it either because none of you actually came to ask me about it."

B'Elanna couldn't help her curiosity now. "But Chakotay had the expression that the burned food was because of your dismal skills at cooking! How? And more importantly why?"

"The first time it happened was an actual replicator malfunction." Kathryn admitted now before continuing with a grin. "I didn't realise at first how fast that little accident went round the scuttlebutt but it seemed to make me less of a larger then life person to the crew so I just let it continue. I didn't particularly enjoy the thought of being treated as a rank instead of a human being for the rest of my life and having a so obvious fault seemed to make me less 'godlike' for you all. Only problem I did have with it was that deliberately burning the food took so much effort."

"It took effort?" Spluttered Sam now.

Kathryn raised her right eyebrow at Sam before answering with a smirk. "Of course it did! I had to burn the food or make it inedible without making it obvious. Chakotay did have fun at checking out my replicator most of the time to make sure that there wasn't a malfunction. There wasn't I made sure of that, I'm after all the better engineer then him."

B'Elanna now had a suspicion and promptly voiced it. "That can't be all there is to it...? Admit it! You hate cooking!"

Kathryn laughed out loud before the answer came with a slightly sheepish grin to the amusement of everyone. "Guilty as charged!"

Meanwhile Gaile was impressed with how the interview had gone so far but knew that their time was nearly up so wanted to wrap this up. While the rest of the interview had not been planned she knew what her producers wanted for the ending so quickly thought of a way to bring that topic up."You were out there for a long time under very unusual circumstances from the start. Merging the two crews can't have been easy, especially so far away from home. What brought the crews together for each of you?"

Janeway perked up at this question. "Oh that is something I would love to know as well."

Sam spoke up first. "For us Starfleet crew there was no question we followed our orders so I let the others answer this."

Tom was next. "I also can not add much to this topic."

B'Elanna and Mike looked at each other in understanding before the latter spoke up slightly sheepish. "When I saw the Captain really lose her temper?" Which had the one in question raise her eyebrows in disbelieve while Tom and Sam laughed.

"What happened?" Gaile asked curiously and with the amusement clear in her voice.

After a quick look at B'Elanna Mike quickly started explaining. "Well to start with we had been running low on Dillithium and our scanners had showed some on a seemingly abandoned planet. Commander Chakotay took an away team down to search for it, the group split up for a wider search area when Neelix detected a life form of some kind. When the team got to him he had collapsed and couldn't breath. He was beamed back to Voyager where we found out that his lungs had been removed!"

Gailes eyebrows rose here and in a shocked voice she asked. "Removed? How?"

B'Elanna took this part of the explanation over. "At that point we didn't know. So Captain Janeway took another team down to search the area where it had happened. Meanwhile our Doctor kept Neelix alive with holographic lungs which meant for Neelix that he couldn't move an inch and he was trapped on a biobed in sickbay."

Gaile stared at them in disbelieve now so Kathryn decided to help them explain."It took us a while but we found an area which our scanners had not showed us behind a form of holographic wall. Very sophisticated, we may never have found it if not for the attack on Neelix. Behind that wall we found containers full with humanoid organs and then also detected two more life signs which we then followed. They escaped for a time on their ship but we beamed back to our ship quickly and followed them to a hollow asteroid where we captured them."

B'Elanna now made a comment which had them all grinning at each other. "How we captured them is another story which would take too long to explain though to make it clear from the start the Vidiians are far more advanced medically then anything we have here in the Alpha Quadrant. As you all know Neelix is still alive so to clear up confusion they showed us in the end how to modify one lung from our then resident Ocampa Kes which saved his life. The doctor transplanted one of them to him and he has had no problem with it since."

Mike was the first to turn back to the reporter."Neelix wasn't either Starfleet or Marquis but after we captured them I was witness to the Captains... discussion with them."

"I heard about that. It's one of the legends within the crew." Sam interjected quickly.

Janeway had by now realised what exactly Mike was trying to say and groaned loudly which had her four crew members grinning madly at her.

Mike quickly explained further. "I had rarely seen anyone that mad before... or since come to think about it. Now you should know that most Marquis hadn't been impressed with the merging of the crews and some were in fact downright angry at that point. Mumblings of a mutiny from our site were common. Yes our ship had been destroyed by our Captain to save hers but he then agreed to serve under this seemingly waif of a woman. We weren't impressed."

Janeway narrowed her eyes at that and glared at him. "Did you just make a joke about my size?"

Torres also spoke up. "I'm the same size you know?" She then looked at him just as menacingly.

"Well you two aren't exactly tall..." Tom Paris spoke up here, then trailed off and gulped in fear when first his Captain then his wife turned their attention (and glares!) to him. "Never mind!"

"Back on topic please? What happened?"

Janeway at this point buried her head in her hands and groaned again while her crew grinned wildly. "She demanded the return of the lungs but the two Vidiians we had captured couldn't do that as they had already transplanted them into one of them. That's when she really got angry, it was a sight to behold! But I can't seem to remember her exact words now..." Mike trailed off.

Sam spoke up next. "While I wasn't there it did go down the scuttlebutt. Not sure how accurate it is but I try and quote. 'Your culture may have found a way to ignore the moral implications of what you are doing, but I have no such luxury. I don't have the freedom to kill you to save another. My culture finds that to be a reprehensible and entirely unacceptable act. If we were closer to home I would lock you up, I'd turn you over to my authorities for trial. But I don't even have that ability here, and I am not prepared to carry you forever in our brig. So I see no other alternative, but to let you go.' Of course our journey didn't exactly take forever but that wasn't the point she was trying to make to them."

"What horrible people." Now came from the shocked Gail.

Mike quietly picked up where Sam had left off. "It wasn't all she told them. By that point in time the Captain had the two Vidiians, and quite a few of the security force including myself, completely terrified of her but she wasn't quite finished with them. She then proceeded to tell them a message for their people and threatened them to within an inch of their lives! And here I can quote: 'If I ever encounter your kind again, I will do whatever is necessary to protect my people from this harvesting of yours. Any aggressive actions against this ship and its crew will be met by the deadliest force. Is that clear?' The look on her face that day... she was serious. And to be completely honest, Captain... I wouldn't have been surprised if you had jumped down their throats to kill them yourself right there and then."

Janeways face said it all. "Don't think it didn't go through my mind." She muttered darkly.

"They certainly made it easy to tempt us." Came from B'Elanna and an understanding look passed between the five Voyagers.

"Anyway that sealed it for us." Mike let them know.

Gaile was confused. "I'm afraid I don't understand."

B'Elanna quickly explained. "Those words made it clear to all of us, whether Marquis or Starfleet, that our Captain saw us as one crew and would also protect and treat each and everyone of us as such. That more then anything else earned her our loyalty."

"I never knew, would have been good to know in that first year." Came from their touched Captain.

Gaile quickly jumped on that. "When did it become clear to you that the two crews had truly merged?"

Kathryn didn't have to think about that. "Months after that incident and about a year into our journey, after we found some rust of all things in the Delta Quadrant."

"Rust?" Came the slightly disbelieving question.

All five Voyagers now had smiles on their faces and their eyes were unfocused as they remembered what happened. "You are right Kathryn, that really proved it for us as well." Sam spoke up softly.

Gaile looked in confusion at them before Kathryn took pity on her. "We were as confused then as you are now. Rust was certainly the last thing we expected to find and when we followed the trail we found a pick – up truck of all things."

They could all see the confusion on Gailes face was now getting bigger so they turned collectively to Tom who explained further. "It is an old Earth auto mobile from the twentieth century or to be more exact from the year nineteen thirty – six."

B'Elanna interjected here. "We brought it on board to investigate further where Tom here promptly gave us all heart attacks by actually starting that thing!"

There was a grin on Toms face when he answered. "Well I had to find out if it actually worked!"

Kathryn took over before it could turn into an argument. "Anyway, we soon discovered an odd signal which our sensors had not picked up on before we beamed the car on board. When I asked Ensign Kim why he had not reported it, he told me that he had not detected it as the signal didn't travel at the speed of light. It was actually an old Earth distress call named an SOS. We quickly decided to follow the trail but the planet it came from was a Class L which was charged with trinimbic interference and made communications on the surface and the use of our transporters impossible. So instead I decided that we should land the ship."

Tom spoke up again. "Which I of course had never done before that." Tom and Kathryn were now openly grinning at each other.

"You certainly did a good job and have gained more experience with it since!"

"Well I am not Chakotay." Tom regretted that particular comment the moment he said it as Kathryn promptly brought her Captains mask back up. Those who didn't know her wouldn't see a difference but for those who did the difference was clear as day.

B'Elanna, Mike and Sam meanwhile exchanged telling looks then Mike quickly brought them back on topic. "Anyway when we investigated the planet we found some old stasis chambers with humans in it."

There were knowing grins on all their faces now as they looked at a shocked Gaile. Quietly Kathryn explained more. "We were of course shocked it was the first time we had seen other humans since we were pulled from the Alpha Quadrant. There were all together eight humans still alive though their life signs were weak. One of whom is quite well known even in the society of today. A woman by the name of Amelia Earhart."

"The legendary pilot?" Came the next question quite breathlessly.

They all grinned at her before Sam spoke up. "Indeed. As the rumours in the twentieth century already said she was indeed kidnapped by aliens, to be more exact the Briori who brought her and hundreds of others to their world in the Delta Quadrant to be their slaves. After a while the humans which had been brought out of stasis revolted and killed their 'masters' during which their ship and most of their technology was destroyed. They could not return so instead the surviving people build their own civilisation out there on that planet. Their descendants are still there today."

"At the time of course we didn't know that so we brought Amelia and the other seven survivors out of stasis. To say the least they didn't believe us when we tried telling them what had happened to them and in fact took our away team hostage for a while." Tom now told her.

"How did you get out of that?"

Four grins were now directed towards Kathryn who huffed. "I managed to get Amelia to listen to me long enough to get her curious..."

"Curious about what?"

At that question she grinned. "What else but Voyager? There was after all seven hundred thousand metric tonnes of a Starship on that planet – more then enough proof in my opinion. But when we came out of the area the stasis chambers were in, we found another of our away teams which was under attack. We all quickly dove for cover and defended ourselves while protecting the civilians with us. I managed to double back and come at the attackers from behind at which point both sites realised that we were all humans."

"They came from the human settlement?"

Sam spoke up this time. "Yes. They had been alerted as we had disturbed one of their sacred sites. Their shock must have been as great as ours at discovering Amelia and the others with her alive. We were invited to see their cities and I must admit that they were truly beautiful. Thousands of light years from here is another world which had humans evolve just like us here on Earth. It was... a humbling experience."

"What about that experience showed you that you had truly merged into one crew?"

"They invited us to stay with them – permanently." Kathryn now answered quietly.

"We all had a choice to make that day. Stay and build a new life or continue on our journey into the unknown to try and make it home." Sam added just as quietly.

And Mike rounded it off. "The Captain left the choice up to us fully knowing that if too many wanted to stay she risked stranding the rest of the crew and herself on that planet too."

"How many of your crew were left behind on that planet?"

A small proud smile was now on Kathryns lips. "None. They all decided to continue on our journey."

Stunned Gaile could only stare at the five of them so Kathryn continued. "We lost eighty – two members of the crew on our journey, over sixty of which died when the Caretaker originally pulled us to the Delta Quadrant. That number does include the people who died on the Marquis ship before ever setting foot on Voyager, we had to leave their remains behind but that does not mean that they are forgotten nor will they ever be."

"Can you tell us some of their names?"

Obediently Kathryn started naming them. "Lt Commander Cavit, Lt Stadi,..."

As Kathryn named all their dead, her crew members could only listen in stunned silence though they did realise that Seska and her ilk were not named which relieved them all.

Meanwhile on the Vid – screens of billions of viewers, the millions Kathryn had mentioned was a complete understatement, all around the Alpha Quadrant they could not see the Captain and her crew any more. While Kathryn spoke each name a holoimage of the crew member in question was shown. It were not official pictures but images taken when they had been happy with their friends and loved ones. Whether that was on board Voyager for those who died there or earlier images Kathryn had managed to get one image for each person they had lost.