A/N Takes place instead of the episode Favorite son.

Chapter 51

Distant Messages

Captain's Log Stardate: 50589.1: It seems that we've been hit with a double dose of good news today. Thanks to Chief O'Brien, Lieutenant Reginald Barclay, some information from the Caretakers database that O'Brien took with him and the use of Starfleet's MIDAS array we've been able to get two way communication with the Alpha Quadrant. They've already sent us a series of letters from our families and in a couple of hours we will be able to have a live link for thirty minutes each day with the Alpha Quadrant. Just by the luck of the draw Tom, myself, Odo, Chakotay, Tuvok, and Seven will share time to talk to our families.

Strangely enough Tom has given me his time slot saying that there was no one back in the Alpha Quadrant that he needed to talk to. The other part of our good news is that Seven and B'Elanna finally deciphered the information from the Stiftung ship that was found during one of the Equinox's missions. It seems that they were using a form of quantum slipstream technology. Their navigational controls were damaged when they came near the Dolac Assimilators designed by their enemies. They assured me that we can use the Defiant as a navigational array that will fly in front of the Ares while we enter into the slipstream. Either way, I've decided that we will only use it sparingly until we reach home since we're not experts in the use of it's technology.

Corridor leading to Astrometrics

"Mr. Chakotay." Ben called out happily as he caught up to his First Officer. "May, I ask who you got a letter from?"

"It's from my little sister Sekaya." Chakotay answered with a frown. "The letter she wrote to me said that she had some troubling news for me."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Ben replied as they stopped at the door to Astrometrics. "Hopefully it won't be anything too bad."

"I hope not either." Chakotay replied as he let out a sigh. "I'll talk to you later, sir." he replied as he walked into Astrometrics and saw his girlfriend working at her console. Giving her a quick kiss, he nodded his head to let her know he was ready. Typing into her controls a beautiful Native American woman with long flowing black hair appeared onscreen and she smiled as she saw the First Officer.

"Hello big brother." Sekaya said as she stared deep into her older brother's eyes. "I see you've done well for yourself." she said looking down at the pips on his uniform.

"I consider it a step up from what I was doing before." Chakotay replied with a warm smile of his own. "You're looking well Sekaya."

"Thank you brother." Sekaya said as her smile waned a bit.

Noticing it, Chakotay wanted to postpone the bad news he was about to receive if only for a minute. "I wanted you to meet someone, Sekaya." he said as he turned to Seven. "This is my girlfriend Seven. Seven this is my stubborn baby sister Sekaya." he properly introduced the two.

Sekaya stared at Seven a long hard minute as if sizing the younger woman up, before a smile appeared on her face. "It is a pleasure to meet you Seven." she said evenly, whatever judgement she had of the woman dying in her throat.

"Like wise." Seven told the woman.

"Chakotay we don't have much time." Sekaya said getting straight to the point. "This is about the Maquis."

"What about them?" Chakotay asked as his heart started to beat a little faster.

"The Cardassians navigated their way through the badlands." Sekaya answered sadly. "I'm sorry Chakotay but a lot of the Maquis are dead now."

After Chakotay heard the news his heart twisted in agony. As Seven tried to reach out to hold him, he stormed out of the room and nearly bumped into Odo as Seven and Sekaya called his name.

"Harumph and people call me rude." Odo mumbled to himself as he walked further into the room. Looking to the screen he saw Sekaya staring at him in wonder. "Are you the one who wished to contact me?" he asked.

"No." Sekaya said as she found her voice, before looking to Seven. "Take care of my brother for me. Make sure you tell him of my great sympathy for his loss."

"I.. I will." Seven replied as she collected herself. Touching a few buttons Sekaya killed the link on her end. Deciding not to ask what their conversation was about, Odo just stared at Seven until she collected herself. "I.. I'm sorry Constable." Seven said as she cleared her throat. "You have an incoming message from a Ferengi who is serving time in a maximum security Federation penal colony."

"A Ferengi?" Odo asked with wide eyes. "This, I've got to see. Put it onscreen." Following his orders, Seven typed into the console and the screen filled with the face of a smiling Ferengi that Odo wished to never see again. "Quark? What the hell have you done this time and more importantly why are you contacting me?"

"Because I need you to help me get out of here." Quark replied.

"It's been my dream for years to put you in jail." Odo countered.

"You don't understand, I'm being held in here under bogus charges." Quark went on. "All I did was act as an escort to get a stranded woman off of a Federation moon."

"I hardly see Starfleet placing you under arrest for your act as a humanitarian." Odo replied gruffly as he turned his back to him. "Goodbye Quark. Don't drop the soap when you're in the sonic showers." the shape-shifter said as he walked out of the room.

"Odo!" Quark shouted in outrage. After a few seconds, he let out a sigh and looked to Seven. "Hi." he said with a toothy smile. "What's your name?"

With a roll of her eyes, Seven cut the communications. After a few moments Tuvok came in and had a brief conversation with his wife before leaving the room. Calling her father into the room, he smiled at her before seeing that her eyes were red and a little puffy.

"Are you all right?" Ben asked as he lightly stroked her cheek.

"I.. am... I am fine father." Seven replied with a forced smile. Interpreting that she was just happy that she was going to see her brother in a few minutes, he let it drop. Before he could talk to his son however, he had to handle some business first. Typing into her console, Admiral Owen Paris' face appeared onscreen.

"Hello Benjamin." Owen greeted with a genuine smile. "I'm happy to see that you're still alive. No offense young lady but when I heard that the Ares disappeared all those years ago, I naturally assumed you had something to do with it."

"Believe me Admiral, we wouldn't be alive right now if it wasn't for my daughter." Ben interjected.

"I see." Owen replied as he sat a little deeper in his chair. "I was talking to Chief O'Brien and he told me that you found members of the Maquis in the Delta Quadrant. Is it true that you made one of them your First Officer?"

"His name is Chakotay." Ben said, trying to control his anger. "And yes I made him my XO and his people have perfectly integrated into my crew and we are all members of a family here."

"There's no need to get worked up, Ben. I understand." Owen said as he heard the passion in the other man's voice. "After Chief O'Brien's testimony, I've talked to the other Admirals and we wanted to offer him and his people full pardons. Tell him I'd like to talk to him for a few minutes on our next transmission."

"I'm sure he'd love to hear what you have to say in that meeting." Sisko said with a genuine smile.

"Good, I also wanted you to know that no criminal charges are going to be filed against you." Owen went on. "When you took the Maquis and some of your crew into the holodeck to test them you were only trying to survive and you were acting in the best interest of your crew."

"I'm very happy to hear that." Sisko said as he blew out a breath of relief. When he had sent Starfleet a letter of what he had done, he feared that when he made it home that he would be placed in jail or kicked out of Starfleet.

"Captain before I go... I wanted to know how my son Tom was doing?"

"That's Lieutenant Tom Paris now." Ben corrected him. "Tom is one of the finest officers, I've ever had serve under me. I couldn't be more proud of him even if he was my own son."

"Would you... would you tell him something for me?" Owen asked, surprised that his son was doing so well.

"Yes." Ben simply replied.

"Could you just tell him that his old man misses him."

Before Ben could reply Owen cut communications. Before he did, Ben could have sworn that he saw a tear in the other man's eyes. Ignoring that fact he gave Seven a look, now was the moment of truth. Her heart skipping a beat, the moment to see her little brother had finally arrived. Calling her sister and step mom to the room, Seven activated the viewer once more and smiled as she saw her brothers face appear on the screen.

"Dad!" Jake shouted as he looked from his father to his big sister. "Seven! I... I can't believe this."

"Well believe it Jake-o." Ben said to his son with a smile. "You're getting big."

"Yeah, a lot has happened in five and a half years." Jake told him as tears started to well up in his eyes. "And I have a big surprise for you that should be here in a few minutes. Hey you're bald now."

"I decided to try something new." Ben replied as he ran a hand over his bald head.

"Speaking of heads, I am glad to see that yours has finally caught up to your body." Seven joked. "I told you when you were a little boy that it would."

"Wait, you finally learned how to tell a joke?" Jake asked through his fit of laughing. "I really have missed a lot."

"Wait... Jake are you in outer space?" Ben asked as he looked in the background and saw stars.

"Yeah... I'm on DS9." Jake told him with a smile.

"Why on Earth would your grandfather bring you to a space station?" Sisko asked in confusion. His father hated being in outer space.

"I'm not here with Grandpa, dad." Jake said as he finally spotted Tabrin and Kira. "But I'll tell you about that when my surprise gets here. Who are those two pretty ladies?" he asked trying to put on the Sisko charm as Ben laughed at him and told him the origins of Tabrin coming from an alternate dimension. "Dad I think you do this to me on purpose." Jake whined. "Every time, I see a beautiful girl with you she's always related to me."

"Thanks for calling me beautiful big bro." Tabrin said with a grin. "But don't you think it's kinda creepy to look at me like that?"

"Oh man." Jake whined again as they laughed at him. "Dad is there something else you need to tell me?"

"Actually there is." Sisko replied with a sigh as he told him about what else happened in the Delta Quadrant and about Kira.

"Let me get this straight." Jake started. "You were trapped in a wormhole for three years, you have a hologram that looks like mom and is serving as your CMO, my baby sister is actually older than me and you got remarried?" Jake asked as he threw his hands up. "Dad what the heck are you guys doing out there?"

"Living complicated lives." Ben admitted. "I hope you're not disappointed that I got married again? Believe me Kira is a good woman." he said as he squeezed his wife's hand.

"Dad... I... I understand that you've been gone for a long time and you thought that mom was dead..."

"Wait, Jake what are you talking about?" Ben asked. "Your mom is dead."

"Then explain to me who this is?" Jake replied as he smiled off screen and moved out of the way.

The woman Ben saw onscreen nearly made his heart explode as it started to beat faster. He immediately wanted to dismiss her and believe that she was somehow Dr. Erin transported to the Alpha Quadrant because she was wearing a science division blue uniform, but looking at her closer she had her hair fixed differently, she had the pips of a full lieutenant on her collar, and had a sparkle in her eyes that the hologram would never have in a million years.

"Jen... Jennifer?" Ben stuttered as he took a step back.

"You're not hallucinating Ben." Jennifer told him with a smile. "It's me." she said as she looked around the room and locked eyes with Seven. "Hello Annika."

"You... you know me?" Seven asked.

"Yes, we met under the worse conditions possible for me." Jennifer told her. "We met on that Borg moon. I used to be the Duchess of the Borg."

"I... I..." Seven stuttered as she looked at the woman hard. She assumed that the other woman hadn't been a drone for long because she didn't have any visible Borg implants on her face or skin in sight. To be honest it left Seven a little envious.

"Who are the rest of you people?" Jennifer asked, cutting Seven off as she looked at Tabrin and Kira.


Not waiting for Chakotay to open his door, after multiple times of ringing his door chime, Seven disengaged the locks and walked into his quarters. Seeing that her father had things to talk over with Kira and Jennifer, she placed a counter on the Astrometrics console that would shut off the communications network when their time together had elapsed, before leaving them alone in favor of finding her boyfriend.

Walking into Chakotay's living room area she saw him sitting on the couch, drinking something stronger then the synthehol he would have on certain occasions.

"That door was locked for a reason you know." Chakotay said with a smile despite the situation.

"Chakotay are you all right?" Seven asked as she got on her knees in front of him and held his hand.

"I'll be fine." Chakotay told her, not meeting her gaze as he went to take another drink, stopping as Seven placed a gentle hand on his cheek. "I'm just... I'm just so tired of death. Especially considering if I were still in the Alpha Quadrant, I'd be dead just like the rest of the Maquis."

Squeezing his hand a little tighter, Seven's heart went out to him because of what happened to his friends and for the fact that she had never seen him so vulnerable before. Putting the alcohol down on the table, Chakotay ran a hand through his hair and let out a sigh.

"What the hell am I going to tell B'Elanna and the others?" Chakotay asked more of himself.

"You must tell them the truth." Seven answered for him, making him look up at her for the first time. "We'll just have to deal with the consequences later."

"Maybe you're..." Chakotay stopped talking as out of the corner of his eye he saw movement. Looking out of the port hole of his room, his eyes widened to the size of saucers at what he saw. "By the Spirits."

Following his line of vision, Seven's eyes also widened as well as she saw a giant Borg cube trying to tractor in a small alien vessel several thousand kilometers from where they were.

'All hands this is Commander Dax.' Dax said over the comline. 'All hands to battle stations.'

"Come on." Chakotay said as he snapped back to himself and stood to his feet, extending his hand for his girlfriend to take. "We have to get to the Bridge."

Taking his offered hand Seven stood to her feet and they ran as one out of the room. They had to make it to the Bridge to figure out what was going on.

A/N I did a lot of research on Jennifer's character and I found out the original idea for her was supposed to be as a science officer. I guess she was off duty in the episode Emissary or the writers and producers didn't see that fact as important since they were going to kill her off anyway. She might have even stepped down as an officer to raise Jake, I don't know but I decided to give her, her old job back in this fic. I hope you guys enjoyed this one, because it's going to pick up in pace in the next few chapters because of the Borg. As far as T'Pol and Tuvok in the previous chapter it's a very far fetched idea, which I'm known for, but all that pent up frustration that she had from her Pon Farr lingered around in that old ship and it created a form of psychic link that stayed behind kind of like a virus which infected Tuvok when Tabrin left him in that jeffries tube that led to the Bridge. It just took to now for it to infect him. Hey, I've seen stranger things in Star Trek episodes.