Six months later Chakotay and Seven announced their engagement. Although she smiled and laughed Kathryn felt as if she was dying inside. She even agreed to do their wedding ceremony, it was fitting that she should preside over the wedding of the man she loved and the women he loved.
Four days to the wedding and the bridge crew were excited everyone was talking about it. 'Captain I'm picking up a signal on long range sensors….. it looks federation' yelled Harry excitedly. The crew all turned around to him. 'Give me the coordinates Harry' yelled Tom 'We have to check this out'. Kathryn hoped that this wasn't a false hope, the best thing she could imagine now was getting way from this wedding to be on her own.
'It's an M class planet. I'm picking up just 5 lifesigns. They are humanoid.' Harry read the information from his screen you could hear the disappointment in his voice. He had hoped that it was a way home. 'Open communications' ordered the captain. Harry nodded that it was open. 'This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the federation ship Voyager. Can you read me?' a little voice answered. 'Hello do you have a doctor?' it was obviously a child's voice. Kathryn relaxed and answered 'of course we do who needs a doctor?'. 'My mommy she's really sick and Serena and Mark are gone looking for food and the baby is crying and my mommy won't wake up' the child was crying now, she sounded terrified. 'Ok sweetie we are going to transport you onto our ship get the baby and go over to your mom and we'll transport you to out sick bay' Kathryn ordered her gently. 'Ok I will' the little girl answered and the crew could hear her picking up the baby and walking away. 'Ensign Kim Beam them to sickbay. I'll meet them there' ordered Kathryn. 'Aye Captain'
Kathryn hurried to sick bay and when she arrived she found the doctor working on the child's mother. The little girl was sitting on the ground crying. Kathryn walked over the her and took the baby out of her arms. It was a little boy obviously bajorn, about 8 months old. 'Hi my name is Kathryn we were talking before' she knelt down to the child's level. The girl was about 9 years old and human. 'My name's Nixi' she said relaxing a little. 'Well Nixi why don't we let the doctor use his medicine to make your mommy better. You can come with me and we can get something to eat.' The captain asked standing up. 'Will my mommy be ok?' Nixi asked. Kathryn looked over to the doctor. He didn't look that hopeful. 'We'll have to wait and see Nixi but the doctor will call us as soon as he knows anything. Ok?' she asked. 'Ok' Nixi agreed holding out her hand o the captain.
They made a strange sight the captain of a starship holding a baby and accompanied by a little girl with long black hair. When they reached the mess hall Kathryn brought the children over to the replicator and asked Nixi what she wanted. She replicated a suitable formula for the little boy and realised she still didn't know his name. 'Nixi' she asked 'What's the baby's name? 'Chuckles' she replied 'Can I have some mushroom soup? Please Kathryn and some bread rolls with butter?' 'Of course' the captain replied, thinking how comfortable the child was with adults.
As they finished their meal Seven approached 'Captain may I speak with you a moment' she asked in her usual manner, ignoring the children. Nixi stared at her with interest 'What planet are you from?' she inquired with the directness that only a child can have. ' I come form earth' replied Seven coldly and turning back to the captain. 'Then why do you have metal bits in you?' Nixi was not letting this subject go. 'Because' Seven started to become annoyed ' I used to be a Borg drone. Now be silent while I speak to the captain'. Nixi stared at Seven for the whole time she was talking to the captain about Astrometrics. When Seven left Nixi asked Kathryn an awkward question. 'Why was that lady so rude I was only asking a question and she got mad?' 'Well' said the captain thinking about how she should say this 'Seven isn't used to children' 'Well I don't like her. I like you better' with that she gave the captain a big hug. Well at least someone likes me better, thought the captain as she brought the children to her quarters. They could both do with a bath and a nap then she could check how Nixi's mother was.
Two hours later they were both sound asleep. Kathryn put the computer to alert her if they woke up and ran down to Sickbay to check on the women. When she reached their she heard arguing. 'You I don't care what is going on I am not staying here on a Starfleet ship' the woman continued 'I'll be arrested and now may I remind you of patient confidentiality. I'm maquis and we are not exactly welcome' the doctor was shouting 'I told you the Maquis have been disbanded'. 'Like I'm going to believe you? I'm not dumb' the woman was staring at the doctor through narrowed eyes. Kathyrn stood there watching not entirely sure what to do. The doctor caught sight of her after a while 'Aah captain can you please tell this women that the Maquis are no more'. Kathyrn wasn't sure what to say this women was obviously a member of the Maquis and B'lanna had told her once that if a Maquis was caught they denied everything and often tried to escape violently. 'You are not going to believe me but we have some ex-maquis in our crew so I'll have one of them come and talk to you' . 'I am not going to talk to traitors of the cause' the women responded passionately. 'Ok so. Doctor call me when she is well enough to be returned to the planet' with this Kathryn walked out of the room. She knew this was going to be a hard week.
In his quarters Chakotay sat alone. He was supposed to be clearing space for his bride to be's regeneration unit but he couldn't seem to make himself. In four days time he was going to be married again and already he was having doubts. This wedding was so different to his last. Isis and he had not been in love but they had been close and they knew the marriage was just until the baby was born. Phoenix he hadn't thought of her in so long, not since he told Kathryn. No, he thought, shaking his head he had yelled it at her in anger and pain. Since then they hadn't really talked, but properly maybe that was the reason that he said yes when Seven proposed and maybe because he was getting older next year he would be 46. he wanted more children, not that they could replace Phoenix but they might ease the pain slightly. He stood up, he needed to talk to Kathryn.
He walked quickly down the corridor to her quarters. He rung the bell and waited for her to answer impatiently. He rang again and called her name. He could hear something at the other side of the door a voice muffled by the door. 'Sorry I don't know how to open the door you'll have to wait until Kathryn gets back'. 'Who are you?' he asked surprised to hear someone else in the captains quarters. 'I'm Nixi' she replied cheerfully. 'Nixi what?' he inquired he was curious about this girl. 'Well my full name is Phoenix B'lanna Fernandez but everyone calls me Nixi. What's yours?'. Chakotay almost fell over when he heard her name he ran away as quickly as he could this was some kind of sick joke……
When Kathryn got back to her quarters Chuckles was still sound asleep but Nixi was sitting in a chair looking at a book. she jumped up when she saw Kathryn coming in. 'Someone came to the door while you were out but I didn't know how to open it so I talked to them through but when I told him my name he went away. That was kinda rude wasn't it?' Nixi was jumping around as she recounted this story to Kathryn. 'It's ok I'm sure whoever it was they'll call back now why don't you sit down while I make some call just for a minute' Kathryn hit her comm. Badge and called B'lanna. 'Torres here' 'B'lanna I need you to do me a favour' 'sure captain what is it?' there's a women in sickbay who is a member of the maquis and won't believe that they have been disbanded will you speak with her?' 'sure captain. I'll report back later on' 'thanks B'lanna'. 'There Nixi I'm all done why don't we go and wake up chuckles and then we can go to the bridge for a while' Kathryn called. 'What's a bridge Kathryn?' Nixi replied 'I've never been on a starship before'
The captain was exhausted she had taken Nixi and Chuckles to see the entire ship but somehow she didn't think that chuckles had really appreciated it. All she wanted to do now was go to bed but she had to go back down to sickbay and check on this mystery women. She left the two kids in Harry's capable hands and went on her own. When she reached the doors of sickbay she listened carefully at the door she couldn't hear any shouting this time at least. She walked in. B'lanna was hugging the stranger crying. She jumped up when Kathryn cam in. 'This is Isis Captain' she said introducing them. 'As in Chakotay's Isis' she asked feeling kind of faint. 'God it's been a long time since I was called that' Isis said laughing. 'So Nixi is….' Kathryn was trying to make sense of all of this. 'Nixi is Chakotay and my daughter' said Isis 'So you've been looking after my little girl while I've been in here.' 'Yes ' Kathryn replied 'And Chuckles'. 'Who the hell is Chuckles?' exclaimed B'lanna. 'Chuckles is Serena and Mark's son named of course for Chakotay but we shortened it to his old nickname' explained Isis. 'He'll hate you. He hated that nick name so much!' said B'lanna laughing 'Can I be the one to tell him?'
