Disclaimers apply as usual.
A/N: Conclusion of Parallax. I will starting reposting Hanging in the Balance tomorrow.
"Captain," B'Elanna said, once their shuttle was well on its way towards the rupture. "I want to apologize for losing my temper, in your ready room. I think, maybe, you were hitting a little too close to home, you know?" She glanced at the older woman to see her blue eyes upon her, listening in compassion. "I respect Chakotay, but he's wrong, I'm not officer material and we both know it. The truth is I quit the Academy because I knew I couldn't make it in Starfleet. And believe me, no one was sorry to see me go."
Kathryn remembered the conversation they had in her ready room a few hours before, about why she had quit the Academy. B'Elanna had stormed out of the room before the Captain could tell her what she had learned reading through her files. "Professor Chapman was," she stated simply.
B'Elanna glanced at her. "What?"
"He put a letter in your permanent file, stating that if you should ever reapply, he would support you," Kathryn answered. "He thought you were one of the most promising cadets he ever taught."
B'Elanna looked surprised. "I fought with him almost everyday. I was always questioning his methods, his assumptions, and he was always slapping me down like some upstart kid. I was surprised that he didn't help me pack my bags."
Kathryn smiled. "Some professors like students who challenge their assumptions, B'Elanna," she paused briefly, thinking about a conversation she had with Sarah Barrett when the young woman had come on board. In fact, I like officer's who…test the waters. It's one of the reasons I chose you, Sarah. It was a reason that she was choosing B'Elanna now. "So do some captains," she said, gently, with a warm smile. "Professor Chapman wasn't alone; many of your teachers thought you had the potential to be an outstanding officer. You had more friends at the Academy than you realized."
The Captain's console beeping ended their little heart to heart. "We're fifteen kilometers from the rupture," Kathryn said. "Start charging the dekyon beam."
"Dekyon beam online," B'Elanna reported as the tiny shuttle was rocked by a spatial distortion. Both B'Elanna and Kathryn were tossed about, but were not harmed. "Shields down to sixty-two percent," the younger woman stated after the jolting stopped.
"Increase speed," Kathryn ordered. "We have to get to that rupture before these spatial distortions tear us apart." The shuttle glided closer to the rupture. "Let's open this hole in the ice a little wider. Initiate the dekyon beam."
As B'Elanna did so the tiny shuttle was tossed about again, only this time it lasted longer and was more violent. Voyager started sending a report over the comline that the spatial distortions were increasing and that their hull was losing intregity.
"We've widened the opening by sixty-five percent, but I'd like another five for safety," Kathryn told B'Elanna.
"We're losing power," B'Elanna responded, while trying to grip her console. "I don't think we're going to get anymore Captain."
Suddenly the jolting stopped. Both women held their breaths for a moment, before Kathryn spoke up, "Let's get back to Voyager." But even as the shuttle started back towards the ship, Kathryn saw that they were going to have a problem. Instead of one Voyager there were now two, flying in close proximity with each other.
"Well this is a problem," B'Elanna said, voicing both women's opinion.
"One of them is a temporal reflection," Kathryn mused, looking at her console. "But which one? I'm getting identical readings from both ships."
"Captain, the rupture's closing again," B'Elanna told her. "If Voyager doesn't get through it within the next five minutes, we'll never get out."
"That means we have one chance to pick the correct ship."
"Simple choice," B'Elanna said. "Port or starboard?"
"Starboard."
"Port."
They glanced at each other when they realized that they didn't agree on which ship was really theirs. "The port ship is more likely to be the real one, it's closer to the rupture," B'Elanna argued. "That means," she rasped out as the ship shook again, "that their holding position closer to the rupture, waiting for us to dock before they head out."
"No," Kathryn debated, as the shaking stopped. "It maybe closer to the rupture but it's facing the wrong direction. The starboard ship is facing away from us. That means they must be trying to give us easy access to the shuttlebay."
"There has to be some way to tell them apart besides which direction their facing!"
"The starboard ship's thrusters are at standby, they're holding position. But the port ship is moving towards the rupture."
B'Elanna reached for the controls. "Then I was right, it is the port ship. They're heading out." Kathryn grabbed her by the arm, not forcefully, but gently and pulled her hand away from the console, stopping her from setting in a course for the port ship.
"Don't you see? Voyager did move towards the rupture, twenty minutes ago when we first discovered it. That's why the port ship is moving toward it now. It's a time delayed reflection of what we did before." Kathryn moved back into her seat and set a course for the starboard ship. "The starboard ship's the real one, they're waiting for us."
As the shuttle began to move towards the ship, B'Elanna glanced at her briefly. "If you're wrong, we're going to have a long time to debate it." Kathryn guided the shuttle into the bay and B'Elanna felt herself holding her breath as she announced they were ready to dock.
"Alright, cut the thrusters. Let's see what happens," Kathryn said. B'Elanna did as she was ordered and the shuttle glided in and landed on the shuttlebay floor with a small thud. Both Kathryn and B'Elanna let out a little sigh of relief. "Feels like a real ship to me. Let's get back to the bridge."
"They've landed sir," Harry Kim announced.
"Mister Paris, get us out of here," Chakotay ordered, feeling much better now that both the Captain and B'Elanna were safely back on board Voyager. It had been a little harrowing watching and waiting for them to get back, especially with the spatial distortions getting worse and causing more and more damage with each hit.
The doors to the turbolift hissed opened and he heard Janeway's voice carry over the back of the bridge. "Commander Chakotay, report."
"We're almost to the rupture," he told her as she joined him in the command station. "Mister Paris is about to impress us with his flying skills."
"The rupture's collapsing," Kim reported. "It's down to one hundred and ten meters wide."
"That's too narrow," B'Elanna said. "We're not going to make it."
Janeway was not about to accept defeat. She moved towards the conn, eyes looking determinedly ahead. "In command school they taught us always to remember that maneuvering a starship is a very delicate process. But I've learned sometimes you just have to punch your way through. Mister Paris, full impulse power."
The young pilot did as he was told and the ship began to move, but not without hitting a lot of turbulence along the way. Shields were failing, the hull integrity was failing, Paris was losing power, Kim was trying to restore it, and officers and crewmen were falling all over the bridge, trying to grab onto rails and chairs, or whatever they could to keep themselves standing. One nearly landed on top of Barrett who had stumbled backwards into her chair. It only got worse as Voyager moved towards the rupture that was collapsing more and more by the second but just like Janeway had instructed, Tom Paris punched the ship through the rupture, with a little more turbulence, and back into normal space.
Voyager still shook a little as it cleared the event horizon, but they were out, as Tuvok calmly proclaimed.
"Sometimes you just have to punch your way through," Paris quoted her, looking up at her with an impish grin. "I'll have to remember that one."
With a little grin of her own she ordered him to set a course. "I want to be at least one hundred kilometers away from the singularity before we begin repairs."
"Mama?"
She turned her attention towards the ready room doors and saw the children standing there, not hurt, thankfully, but looking rather confused. Michael's hair was mussed and she could only imagine what kind of ride they just had. She did not however want to think about what her ready room looked like with all the toys now strewn about. "What is it honey?"
"Is it time to go home yet? I've had enough adventure for one day."
Me too, Kathryn thought with amusement; me too.
"There they are—your staff," Chakotay announced to her as they entered Main Engineering the next day. Janeway had approved the promotion of B'Elanna to chief engineer the very night that they had escaped the quantum singularity. She had to admit however, that she was nervous, and didn't fully understand why the Captain wanted her to do this, especially if it was solely based on what she had done the past day, and what a few professors had said about her departing the Academy.
Glancing about the room she decided that she was just going to have to prove to Janeway that she really was up to the challenge, and even more so if the woman had set her up to fail. "I'll try not to break any of their noses."
Chakotay smiled at her humor. "First order of the day: the Captain wants the warp drive back online by thirteen hundred hours."
"Thirteen hundred hours? That's impossible."
"Well then, maybe you need to go break a few noses, or at least…bend a few," Chakotay replied. They shared a chuckle before he left, with a simple, "Lieutenant," as his departing words. He only glanced over his shoulder once ascending the stairs to join Janeway, who was standing on the second level, hand on the railing, looking down as B'Elanna got her people moving and then went to make peace with Joe Carey. Sarah Barrett was also standing near by, and he chuckled at the apprehensive look on her face. Apparently she was thinking a few broken noses were going to pop up as well.
Chakotay moved towards the two women and stopped when he came almost shoulder to shoulder with Janeway. "Checking up on your new chief engineer?"
"Observing," Janeway replied.
"And?"
"Two crew members have already filed complaints about her promotion," Barrett replied, but then she surprised Chakotay, she grinned at him. "But, I think everything is going to work out just fine. If you'll excuse me, Commander, Captain, I have an appointment to attend to."
Chakotay startled by her sudden vote of confidence in B'Elanna, watched as she left. Janeway's voice brought him back. "She earned a lot of people's respect yesterday, Chakotay, including mine. She maybe in for a rough adjustment, but I think B'Elanna's going to make a fine addition to this crew," she paused briefly, and then looked at him, with a smile, "our crew."
"Can I ask you a question, off the record?" They moved towards the stairs, descending them to go down to the lower level. "If things had happened differently, and we were on the Maquis ship and not Voyager would you have served under me?"
Her grin was coy and he knew he was not going to get a straight answer. "One of the nice things about being Captain is that you can keep some things to yourself."
Tal Celes anxiously sat in an empty briefing room. Counselor Barrett had requested that she meet with her and the Captain here. But that had been all she had said, and Tal had spent the past three hours fretting about this meeting. She had even reported to the meeting early, perhaps a bit too early, since both Barrett and Janeway had not made an appearance yet. And that was not helping her nerves any. She just wanted to get this done and over with.
When the doors to the briefing room slid open and the Captain walked in with Counselor Barrett behind her, Tal immediately jumped to her feet and assumed a rigid position. Janeway seemed amused by this and told the young woman to relax. The soft tone of her voice didn't help Tal to relax even as she adjust her position to an at east stance.
"Crewman Celes, why don't you have a seat," Janeway instructed while her and Barrett took seats at the table.
Tal glanced at the table that usually was reserved for the senior officers. She didn't believe she deserved to sit in those chairs, after all she was barely junior officer material, which was why she was a crewman. "I'd rather stand, ma'am," she said, politely, still giving the chairs a funny look.
"Alright, if that's what you wish," Janeway responded, settling into her chair. "It seems, Crewman Celes, that you're in the wrong position on this ship. And, given our circumstances, I need everyone to be in the position that best fits their talents." She saw a dejected look running through the young bajoran's eyes. "I'm sure you try your hardest, crewman, however, I think I have something you'd be more...suited for than working on Starfleet algoritums."
Tal had known this was coming sooner or later. "I understand, ma'am. Just what job do you think I'm suited for?" Boot shiner, PADD deliverer.
"What would say to becoming a nanny?"
The question took her completely off guard and she blinked her eyes several times before she finally stammered, "A nanny?"
A smile spread across Janeway's face. "Yes, a nanny. In case you were not aware I'm need in a little bit of childcare. If I don't find someone to take care of my children while I'm on duty, well, then I'm afraid they might just very well destroy my ship, if not drive me insane first. You were wonderful with them yesterday in the mess hall. Believe me, Ava doesn't fall asleep in just anyone's lap."
"I'm honored that you would even consider me for this Captain," Tal said, "but, I'm not sure I'm the perfect person to be watching your kids. I can...be a bit absent minded at times."
Janeway didn't seem bothered by this. "Counselor Barrett looked up your service record. You were a nanny during your Academy days and the family you worked for thought highly of you. But, I can't force you to do this, that isn't my nature. This has to be your decision Tal."
In the end there was really only one decision she could make; Tal Celes became the Janeway children's nanny. With a smile, the Captain thanked her and told her that she would start her new duties in the morning. Tal nodded her head before being dismissed and with a sigh of relief stepped into the turbo lift on deck one. She had enjoyed her short time with the children yesterday, but she understood it was going to be a difficult job, but one that she was, hopefully ready for. Janeway had put a lot of trust in her and she was not about to let the Captain down.