"Our next selections are martial rather than marital," the Doctor said. "It speaks of sailing ships of the early 1800's" A favorite subject of Tom's but not of his father. "While the technology is much changed – you do not want to know what passed for practicing medicine in those days – the spirit is similar."

"Safe and sound at home again, let the waters roar, Jack. Long we've tossed on the rolling main, now we're safe ashore, Jack. Don't forget your old shipmate…" Tom joined in eagerly without butchering it too badly.

Music had been a significant part of their nonholographic entertainment. When the middle watch was on, and the time went slow, boy, who could choose a rousing stave, who like Jack or Joe, boy? Tom had explained that in modern terms, that watch was in the middle of the night shift, from 0000 to 0400. Edward Davis explained that stave was the English English spelling for what Americans called a musical staff. However, Harry had not carried his clarinet to the captain's chair.

The next one dated to the American Civil War rather than the Napoleonic Wars. "When Johnny comes marching home again, hurrah, hurrah. We'll give him a hearty welcome then, hurrah, hurrah. The men will cheer, the boys will shout, the ladies they will all come out, we'll all feel gay when Johnny comes marching home."

"I like the sound of that."

"Meant something different in 1863, Sarah," Tom pointed out as quietly as he could manage. Her wife Sofia, another marriage performed in this room, had a sister Maria who was also gay and also in Starfleet. That family reunion had been almost as quick – Maria served aboard the Enterprise-E, which had been near Earth. His father had been glad to have Sovereign-class firepower available, but really, it added to the ambiance of their homecoming.

Maria, like Mr. and Mrs. Kim, was attending a relative's music recital. She, like many of the other Starfleet personnel here, were wearing civvies to avoid giving the false impression of being one of the 144.

The exception was the Pathfinder Project - they had worked tirelessly from Earth to communicate with their comrades across the galaxy. Commander Harkins, Lieutenant Barclay and Commander Troi were here with Admiral Paris to view the triumph. Tom, from what he knew of Betazoids, was close to saying something about how Deanna would look different at her own wedding, but thought better of it. Seven years earlier he might've blurted that out.

Deanna had not been assigned to the project, but Barclay was still desperately in need of a counselor, leaning on his old colleague from the Enterprise. "Ah, Reg, I see you're still a genius and still have issues," Maria said. "But a nonholographic woman is something new for you."

"Er, meet Hope, Commander Harkins' sister-in-law. I was unwilling and unable to get very far from work, but I'm quite happy I got this far." He neglected to mention that Hope had given him another chance after he'd been fooled by Leosa, really a spy for some Ferengi.

"Wait, how's the EMH here then?"

"Mobile emitter, a device we found in the third year of our travels which freed me from the confines of sickbay and the holodeck, but we have only one, and it can only support one hologram." He wisely omitted the temporal origin of the device.

Sofia and Sarah had a daughter Sandy. The Doctor was quite justifiably proud of his work in combining the DNA of both mothers, now a reasonably common procedure, but not one expected of him. No one had expected him to function with no organic MD's for seven years. Another baby born in the biobeds here, conceived conventionally, also had parents amused by abusing alliteration. Hannah Harper had a son Hamish.

"Maria, your sister's a keeper," Sarah said.

"Yeah, I've spent an inordinate amount of time running Holodeck Program 334," Sofia added. We needed the holodecks to keep from going nuts," especially some other programs for those of us who didn't have significant others aboard "but I do look forward to stepping on a real pitch again."

"You in Torino, me in Merseyside." Like Ensign Wildman, Ensign Davis had heard from Alpha Quadrant loved ones that the celebrations were infectious. The old church bell will peal with joy, hurrah, to welcome home our darling boy, hurrah.

They had not too strenuously argued against a superior's low opinion of the sport. Chakotay noted that in boxing, when a man was laid out, usually he'd actually been contacted. The first officer was mystified that Annika was unimpressed with one of her ancestors being the 22nd century champ Buttercup Hansen. The Doctor, not wanting to clean up after gratuitous violence, would agree with Alighieri, Davis and the 24th-century Hansen.

Tuvok asked the captain of Odyssey, "Has your vessel employed the Intrepid class landing sequence?"

"No."

"Lieutenant Paris will promptly be conducting a demonstration on the grounds of Starfleet Academy."

No less than President Zife would be attending said demonstration. The fireworks over the Golden Gate Bridge were nothing after dodging innumerable Delta Quadrant weapons. Zife practically stood in Voyager's wake as Tom brought her down. Politicians. Well, he had done something right during the Dominion War, though Starfleet and the Klingon Defense Force had done the heavy lifting. "Congratulations to all of you … but, I hear, especially Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay, and Lieutenants Paris and Torres."

While Janeway was composing a diplomatic response, Tom answered. "Thank you, sir – I'm never going to forget my daughter's birthday, that's for sure."

"I'll hold you to that," B'Elanna said.

"Good to see another Bolian face," Crewman Chell said, though not to that face.

Janeway finally got to her official reply. "You're welcome, Mister President, but I can't help but think of those who didn't make it. I only take relief in there not being more." This is why they took a shortcut home that wouldn't be advertised to the Federation brass.

The surviving crew didn't need to be told to snap to attention for their fallen comrades. "Lyndsay Ballard…" Harry in particular bowed his head to wipe a tear. "J. Bartlett, Kurt Bendera, Darcy Bennett, Joseph Carey, Aaron Cavit, Claudia Craig, Frank Darwin, Pete Durst, Laurie Fitzgerald," Kathryn's own voice broke particularly hard here. "Terrence Hogan, Alexander Honigsberg, Ahni Jetal, Michael Jonas, Juliet Jurot, Marie Kaplan, Timothy Lang, J. Lyman, David Martin, L. McGarry, S. Seaborn, Veronica Stadi, Lon Suder, Gina Thompson, Marika Wilkarah, Charles Young, T. Ziegler"

"I also want to read a happier list. Naomi Wildman, Edward Kolopak Janeway, Hamish Harper, Sandra Alighieri-Miller, Francois Delaney-Richard, Marie Delaney-Richard, Annika Kim, Miral Paris. Even amidst loss, we lived and loved, a facet of our perseverance in unimaginable circumstances. At the outset of our journey, we feared it would be our children or even our grandchildren who would bring Voyager home. It is with great relief I stand here before I'm old and gray."

"We shall all remember this all our lives. The Federation at large may not know exactly what we did the last seven years, but they'll remember this triumph. We merry few, we band of brothers and sisters – and some of us grew beyond that. Dismissed."