Epilogue: Confederation Day

Confederation Square, in front of the Federation Embassy, New Earth, 4 months after Departure Day (1120)

Drew Powell, his mother Alyssa Ogawa Powell, and Harry Kim took their reserved seats in the third row of the reviewing stand reserved for the Federation guests. Harry had spoken with him before they left Odyssey to transport to the surface. "Drew, do you realize how lucky you are? This is a day that will be cited in every history book about the Delta Quadrant, from this day on. Even in the Alpha Quadrant. Today, representatives from eighteen worlds in this part of the Delta Quadrant are meeting to sign the charter that will form the 'Delta Quadrant Confederation of Worlds.' The only way different worlds have ever been associated together in this sector before was if one world subjugated another. It's never been a voluntary and peaceful joining together to achieve a common good. This is all new for them, and it's pretty neat that they've taken to the idea so quickly."

"Do you think they'll make today a holiday, like Federation Day at home?"

"I wouldn't be at all surprised, Drew," his mother Alyssa said with a smile. "I'm not surprised you thought of it, either."

"I like school and all, but I really like holidays!" Drew enthused.

A few minutes after the three had settled in their seats, Drew saw his friends Luis and Raul Ayala, their stepsister Lajen, and their new mother Kajee Narel climb up the stairs. Raul shouted up to him, and the family took their seats in the row in front of Drew. Their father, Federation Security Chief Ayala, was one of the dignitaries who would be recognized during the speeches. He had to sit in a special section of seats at the side of the main stage.

"How are you feeling, Narel?"

"I'm fine, Alyssa. I just get tired pretty easily. Lajen and the boys have been great, though. They clean up after supper every night. I don't even have to remind them."

"That's because Lajen gets on us if we try to sneak off before we finish," Raul said in a stage whisper. His new sister poked him with her elbow, and Raul groaned theatrically, like she'd kicked him in the stomach. Everyone laughed.

Drew hid his sigh the best that he could. He was a little envious of his friends. They already had three children in their family, and now there was going to be a new baby. Drew knew that babies were a lot of work, but he'd like to have a brother or sister someday to share things with. Since his own dad was dead, though, the chances weren't too good, unless his mom found somebody she liked as much as Lieutenant Ayala liked Narel.

Drew could tell how much Narel and Mr. Ayala cared about each other. Their bodies gave off a special glow whenever they were together. He could see it through his VISOR. The first time he noticed it, he asked Captain La Forge about it, since he'd worn a VISOR for many years and knew about such things. Captain La Forge said, "Bodies give off that glow when people are attracted to one another, Drew. All sorts of physical changes happen that people with ordinary vision don't see too much of. They see when people blush, because the blood rushes to the surface of the skin and makes it darker, but that also happens sometimes when people are embarrassed. When it's romantic, though, you see it when the two people are together. After it happens enough, you know what's going on.

"I remember seeing it happen with your mom and dad, when we were all on the Enterprise together. I still had my VISOR then. Maybe I knew before they did that they were going to end up together. And when you were born, I could see emotional changes, too. It's a little different with parents and children, but it's still special to see."

Drew looked around the crowd, trying to see if he could pick up that "romantic glow" on anyone else. The only couple he could see that seemed to have it was that Dr. Krazel Lem, who was sitting with Dr. Reyn's daughter Malini. Drew had met her yesterday when she came to visit the Odyssey's Sickbay. She told Drew she was going to be working with Dr. Pel and Dr. Lem in their laboratory on New Earth, looking for ways to help people who had side effects from the Antiphagia. Drew liked her. She was very nice. Malini was a special guest today because her father was the one who made the big breakthrough that let the Vidiians cure the Phage. Drew was glad to see that Dr. Lem seemed to be as happy around Malini as she was to be around him. That glow, Captain La Forge said, was a big tip-off.

Drew peeked over at his mother. She was talking with Harry. Drew wished he saw that glow come over his mom and Harry, because Harry was really great. He'd make a great dad. He couldn't really see much - maybe a little bit? Well, maybe it would happen someday. Captain La Forge said it didn't always happen right away.

Suddenly there was a blare of music. It wasn't quite like the music he was used to, but it was pretty cool. That meant the ceremony and the speeches were about to begin. Drew was pretty sure the speeches were going to be boring. Raul and Luis had both told him that speeches on big, historical days like this usually were. Drew wasn't too sure how they'd know that, because he didn't think they'd been to any more big historical days than Drew had. But in Drew's experience, most grown-up speeches were pretty boring, so they were probably right.

In the VIP Section

"How are you doing?" Daeja Thev asked her friend. "Feeling up to a day of pomp and circumstance?"

"I'm fine with the pomp and circumstance. I'll take a nicely choreographed spectacle any day if it means the speeches are cut to a minimum," Captain Kathryn Janeway replied.

"I guess it could have been worse. The Romulans could have insisted on coming instead of going into a funk and refusing when you invited them at the last minute," Geordi La Forge said, from his seat on the other side of Dae.

Dae laughed. "True. I think they wanted to have another reason to complain about us. I certainly wasn't looking forward to having to deal with them, too, on our grand Ambassador Diaza's Big Day."

Kathryn groaned. "Please, just hearing his name is bad enough. I'm not looking forward to having to sit here and listen to him pontificate. Dae, was he always as bad as this?"

"He was actually an excellent diplomat for most of his career. He was considered an expert at First Contact situations. Made his reputation on them, in fact." Dae's antennae drooped downward. "It all changed during the Cardassian conflicts and the Dominion War. His opinion of Starfleet got worse and worse. It's deteriorated even more for every parsec we've traveled into the Delta Quadrant." Dae's antennae waved as she leaned towards Kathryn and Chakotay and whispered, "He's always had quite an ego - not exactly unusual for Andorians, I must admit, but he's gotten so full of himself over the course of his mission! I doubt President M'Renn would have appointed him if she could have predicted how poor an impression he would make on everyone. It's a miracle we've come to this day at all, frankly. "

Kathryn whispered back, "I think you've had more to do with it than he has."

"Nice of you to say. We have a good staff, I must say!" Dae's antennae moved again, with a bit of the lilt that Kathryn liked to see. So many times leading up to this event, Dae had been very stressed out by all the tasks the Governor had handed over to her. Kathryn hoped he was doing more than just the social diplomatic events; but somehow, she doubted it. Kathryn feared Diaza had left all the behind-the scenes negotiations and arrangements to her friend. The faded blue shade of Dae's skin was a dead giveaway.

Once the music started, the entire audience respectfully took to their feet. A parade of dignitaries filed down the center aisle, with a flag bearer leading each delegation. Another member held up a sign with the name of the world or species they represented, with their own script on top, in Vidiian directly beneath, and in Federation Standard printed along the bottom.

"Why are you laughing?" Dae asked her.

"Oh, you know about that big sporting event on my home world called the Olympics, Dae, with an opening ceremony that looks a lot like this one. When we were traveling home to the Alpha Quadrant, our crew had our own 'Olympics.' It's taken me back." Kathryn looked into her husband's eyes and took Chakotay by the hand. He squeezed it lightly. She knew he remembered, too; when he'd had his own "Olympian moment," winning them the right to travel through alien space with the help of a snake named Kukulcan.

The first world's representatives to enter were the Ocampa, given pride of place because Kes of Ocampa had provided the impetus for the colonization of New Earth. Afterwards, in an order which Dae readily admitted she didn't understand either, were representatives of the Myleans, the Rukani, the Seth'Riani, the Nechani, the Haakonians, the Talaxians, the Ocampa from the Qizal-Corana space station, the Boirii, the Sharlaneans, the Linzarans, the D'kanari, the Ventians, the Krowtonan Guards, the Barvee, and the Tak-Tak. Last, but certainly not least, the Vidiians paced down the aisle, with Trabe Prime Governor Gluret prominently positioned next to President Chimeral Dop. Although the Trabe were not being considered as a separate "world" for the purposes of the Confederation, since they had agreed to be subjects of the Vidiian Sodality, Gluret had been given the honor of being one of the original signatories of the provisional constitution of the body. The Trabe settlers were extremely pleased when this was announced.

A platform had been erected in front of the façade of the official Federation Embassy building (completely finished now, and with all the draperies hung, Dae had assured Kathryn). A large table was prominently displayed in the center, surrounded by chairs where the main delegates who were signing the document were to sit. A podium was positioned on both ends of the platform for the speeches which would inevitably take place before and after the signing of the combined "Treaty of Peaceful Intentions/Agreement to Form the Delta Quadrant Confederation of Worlds."

After everyone had filed in, Kathryn noticed more people coming down the aisle who were not holding a sign or flag in front of them, although two of them seemed to be holding something at their sides that might be a sign and a flag. They were apparently more members of the Ocampan delegation, coming late to the show. Rather than coming all the way to the stage, this group walked to the far left, standing politely in a row right in front of the stands where Dae, Kathryn, Chakotay, and Geordi were sitting.

"Is that them?" Dae asked curiously.

"Yes. Don't you recognize the one they call 'Boothby'?"

"Oh, my! He looks just like him, doesn't he?"

"Yes, he certainly does," Kathryn replied. "Sounds like him, too."

Boothby apparently heard them. He nudged the Ocampan woman next to him. They both bowed their heads towards Kathryn and Dae before turning back to the proceedings.

At that moment, Federation Ambassador and Interim Colony Governor Shuba Diaza was welcoming everyone to the festivities. As he droned on and on, the crowd became visibly restive. Even the diplomats on stage were leaning towards each other, apparently grumbling their discontent. Finally, Diaza introduced Kes of the Ocampa, who was slated as the next to speak.

Kes stepped up to the podium and cleared her throat. "I cannot tell you how happy I am to appear before you on this happy day. I do have a few short remarks to make. I wish to express the sincere gratitude of the Ocampan people to the Vidiian Sodality, especially President Chimeral Dop, for allowing us to settle on this lovely world." She paused briefly to allow for the very enthusiastic applause issuing from the audience. "I also must thank my good friend, Captain Kathryn Janeway, and all of the representatives of Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets in the Alpha Quadrant, for their part in bringing about a new day for everyone in this sector."

There was more applause. Ambassador Diaza nodded nobly, but the expression on his face was rather grim. Clearly, he noted the fact that while a Starfleet captain's name had been mentioned by Kes, his had not.

"Finally, I would like to introduce you to some people that many of you do not know, or if you do, you don't know some important facts about them. Please, Boothby and Valeria, step up to the podium so that everyone can see you."

Smooth, Kathryn thought. Kes really has found her niche as a diplomat.

Boothby marched up to the platform and ascended the stairs, followed closely by Valeria. He took Kes by the hand and kissed it with quite a flair while Valeria made a deep curtsy to her.

"I think Valeria must have done a little more research," Chakotay said with a smile. Kathryn had to laugh, but that did not distract her from noticing Boothby's twenty or so companions had moved out after him, forming a long line in the empty space in front of the stage.

Boothby and Valeria stood on either side of Kes. Diaza stood behind them, visibly seething, when Boothby began to speak. In the gravely tones Kathryn remembered so well from her days at the Academy, even though the sounds were not produced by the same vocal chords, he said, "Thank you, Kes, for that wonderful introduction. Let me introduce myself. Although I am called Boothby by the Ocampa, and 'Theby Booth' by Vidiians who know me, my true name is quite unpronounceable in the dry air of New Earth. A few of you are aware of my true identity, and that of my fellow Fluidians, who are standing before the stage."

The Federation Ambassador's eyes turned to dinner plates; his antennae stood so stiffly erect that Kathryn thought they must give him pain. Even Dae, who was aware of what was about to happen, had drawn in her breath while her antennae were wavering in what Kathryn knew to be the sign of a very nervous Andorian. There was a noticeable stirring in the crowd. Kathryn couldn't see Harry Kim from where she was sitting, but she hoped he had managed not to faint.

Boothby continued calmly, as if he made speeches in public every day. "I know some of you know who Fluidians are. I hesitate to use that Borg alphanumeric name for us, but in the interests of clarity, I will confirm that they designated us as Species 8472. Our first encounter with the Federation and Starfleet was less smooth than Ambassador Diaza probably believes he could have accomplished. Looking back, we should have handled that First Contact much better ourselves. Lieutenant Commander Harry Kim, I know you're out there, and truly, we do apologize for attacking you the way we did. At any rate, the Second Contact went much better. Captain Janeway, her first officer Mr. Chakotay, and the crew of the first Voyager showed us that maybe we didn't have to fear you folks after all. They assured us you never intended to invade our space; you only wanted to defend yourselves from the threat that the Borg had insisted we were. We learned the Borg were your enemies just as much as they were ours."

Valeria leant forward and added, "There's a saying back on Earth that 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.' We agree."

"Yes, indeed, Valeria," Boothby added quickly, to prevent Diaza from interrupting. "However, the purpose of this organization is to keep people from becoming enemies in the first place; or, if they have not been able to avoid doing that, to find a diplomatic solution to their differences so all can live peacefully with each other. That's an even better goal, in our opinion. So, after maintaining 'surveillance' on the denizens of non-Fluidic space for many years now, we've decided we want to join this little party. We want to live in peace with you, too. "

Cheers erupted from the crowd. President Dop, who had been briefed about what was about to happen, had a genuine smile on his face. Most of the other representatives must also have been told to expect a surprise, although Kathryn was not sure they had been told all the details. Ambassador Diaza was visibly preening. Kathryn found herself hoping that he'd really prepared himself for this mission, since he had known the Fluidians were involved from the very beginning. Her friend, Kathryn knew, thought he had not perused all the briefing material as thoroughly as Dae had.

"Now, there's this little thing you should all know about us," Boothby added. "Right now, we look like Ocampa. A few more of us have been working on Vidiia, looking like Vidiians. You see, we can change the way we look rather radically, and we have done it because we don't like to scare you. But now we have to stop pretending we're somebody we're not. Don't 'freak out' - nice turn of phrase, by the way, Paris - but we're going to show you people who never saw a Fluidian before what we look like back home."

Except for Boothby, all of the Fluidians, including Valeria, transformed into their true shape.

Fluidians are formidable enough, with their dense musculature, tripled legs, and sinewy bodies, but the fact that they tower over everyone, even Lieutenant Chayfin, created quite an uproar. Several people screamed; others collapsed in a faint. Even Ambassador Diaza seemed to be paralyzed. It was apparent that, as Dae suspected, he had not bothered to view the holographic renderings of the species that Voyager's crew had supplied Starfleet. Well before the clamor had ended, the Fluidians transformed themselves back into a bipedal form which most resembled the Ocampa, the body type most had been assuming for some time. There was, however one key difference.

"Settle down, folks, settle down," Boothby called out. "We mean you no harm." Once the crowd had quieted, he continued, "We'll give you all a chance to get used to us a little at a time. As a matter of fact, many of us have started to get used to the bipedal life, rather than the tripedal. It's a lot easier for us to sit and eat lunch with you if we look a bit more like you, for one thing. I've got to tell you, I've never been comfortable in one of your chairs when I've got my third leg showing." That remark actually drew a laugh from the audience. "I've even gotten pretty used to seeing myself in a mirror looking like this, but we've decided we need to show our real skin tones to you from now on."

Boothby, who had not changed his appearance at all up to this point, now changed his skin color to its native purplish blue, the same tone his fellow Fluidians now displayed. "We're going to 'go natural' with our skin color so you can recognize a Fluidian on sight. We're not hiding who we are from you anymore. Can you people work with us on this, the way Captain Janeway and her crew were willing to, the second time we met them?"

Murmurs of agreement swept through the delegations as well as the audience, to the great relief of Janeway, La Forge, and the other Starfleet personnel from Voyager, Odyssey and Pioneer who were present. All of them had been briefed that the Fluidians planned this disclosure. Someone in the crowd started to clap. Kathryn thought it might have been Tom Paris, as the sound came from where he and B'Elanna were sitting with Captain Jixtan. Whoever did begin it did everyone a favor. Once the Federation and Starfleet people picked up on it, the rest of the crowd caught on and followed suit.

By this time, the Federation Ambassador had completely lost patience with this disruption to his carefully planned (by Daeja Thev) presentation. Regaining his equilibrium, Diaza slammed his gavel on the podium and said, "This has been a most interesting exhibition, but we have a program to follow, and we must get back to it. Now, for our next speaker . . ."

Diaza was not allowed to finish. Boothby interrupted him with, "Oh, one more thing. We'd like to apply to enter this Confederation you're all planning here, but only on one condition."

Another chorus of cheers and clapping swept through the entire crowd, this time not prompted by those from the Alpha Quadrant. None of them had been briefed to expect anything other than the "big reveal" of the Fluidian identity. President Dop took the opportunity to walk to the opposite podium on the stage. He calmly proclaimed in a very loud voice, "We would love to have you with us! What is your condition, people of Fluidic Space?"

Boothby muscled Diaza out of the way again and declared, "That you tell the Federation to get rid of this %(&*)%$* Diaza as ambassador and appoint someone who knows how to run an embassy! Like Daeja Thev over there! She's got a head on her shoulders! She knows when to listen to a body instead of mouthing rude insults to everyone like this Diaza person!"

"Daeja Thev! Please come to the podium so we can all see you!" President Dop waved her over towards him. Kathryn and Geordi pushed Dae to her feet. The dazed Andorian walked slowly towards the stage. She picked her way onto the platform while her erstwhile superior was pushed away from the podium by a crowd of delegates. All of them were showing their preference by shouting encouragement to Dae in eighteen different languages.

The applause erupting from the audience was deafening as one of the Fluidians standing before the stage lifted a sign with "Fluidia" printed upon it in three scripts, while another lifted a flag patterned with wavy lines in two shades of blue.

Kathryn and Geordi looked at each other and tried not to smile. Neither succeeded.

In the Federation Reviewing Stand

In the section where the Starfleet and Federation personnel were sitting, Drew sat back in his seat in surprise.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Alyssa asked.

"The Universal Translator. It had trouble translating that word that old Boothby just said."

"I know. With all of the cheering, I didn't catch the word it finally used."

Next to her, Harry Kim was laughing hysterically. Drew decided that maybe Harry had heard that delayed translation, too.

"Mom, I think Boothby just called Ambassador Diaza a nincompoop!"

End

Writing Credits:

Christina: Part 1-Act II, Scene 3

Part 2-Act II, scenes 1, 3, 5, 7; Act III, scene 4, 5, 6; Act IV, scene 4, 6

Janet: Part 1-Act I, Scene 3; Act II, scene 1, 2; Act III, scenes 1-5; Act IV, scenes 1, 2, 4, 5

Part 2-Act I, scene 1, 4; Act III, scenes 1- 3; Act IV, scene 7; Epilogue

Penny: Part 1-Previously on VVS 7.5, Prologue to Part 1, Act I, scenes 2, 4; Act IV, scene 3, Epilogue

Part 2-Prologue to Part 2; Act I, scenes 2, 3; Act II, scenes 2, 4, 6; Act IV, scene 1, 2, 3, 5

Penny & Janet (co-writers): Part 1-Act I, scene 1

Next up: A series of interludes. The first: "Dear Dr. Zimmerman…"