Second chap is here :)
LATER IN THE MESS HALL (The crew had left, leaving it empty for their guests)
"So Doctor, you say that you have found some interesting topics in this quadrant?"
"Yes, there are some very interesting bacteria and diseases, and the aliens are simply amazing…"
Tom came up to Beverly and whispered, "now that you have gotten him started, be prepared for a long lecture on the germs of the Delta Quadrant."
"Thanks for the warning, Tom is it?"
"Yep, Tom Paris. Or, if B'Ellana brings out the bat'leth, it will be Tom Torres." Tom gave a sigh and walked away as Beverly listened to the doctor's speech on the Phage and the Vidiians.
Tuvok, Seven of Nine and Data were talking about something logical and Data had challenged Tuvok to a game of Kaltoh. Tom and B'Ellana were talking about their last name and B'Ellana was cursing at him, not too loudly but loud enough for it to hurt Tom's ears. Neelix was working in the kitchen, trying to find something that would please that odd fellow who was not eating anything what will that fellow eat? Why is he so interested in Kaltoh? He doesn't look Vulcan or Borg…
The Captain, Chakotay, Captain Picard and William Riker were in a corner talking about all sorts of things.
"Kath…oops, sorry, forgot you don't like being called that in front of you crew."
"It's all right, call me what you want."
"Even rude, inappropriate, insulting names?" Will asked with a big grin on his face
"Now that's were I draw the line!" The four of them started to laugh, then Neelix came over.
"Sorry to bother you, but Captain?" When both Captain Janeway and Captain Picard turned their heads toward him he realized that he had to be a bit more specific, "Uh…Captain Picard." Everyone smiled at him.
"Yes."
"I was just curious at why that pale man won't eat anything."
"Oh, you mean Data! He is an android, a robot. He doesn't eat anything. Now I hope you don't mind me asking but what species are you?"
"Oh I don't mind at all! I'm a Delta Quadrant species, Talaxian. My name is Neelix."
"Nice to meet you Neelix."
"Now, I'm going to get back to my kitchen"
"He's a chirppy fellow now isn't he." Will commented, "Since when did you put a kitchen in here?"
"He converted the captains dinning room into a kitchen without permission, but I think she's gotten used to it" Chakotay added to the conversation
"I have"
"Aren't you the Marquis Captain that Kathryn was sent out to capture?"
"Yes, he was the Marquis Captain, now he is my first officer."
"Yes, I was the Marquis Captain, now I am her first officer." They answered simultaneously.
"One at a time now" Will teased them.
"I think that's your story, so why don't you explain that one, Chakotay."
"Both of our crews were tossed out into the Delta Quadrant, but my ship was destroyed. So Kathryn offered to meld our crews and make me the first officer with the rank of full commander."
"Amazing, but how were you actually brought to the Delta Quadrant?" Will asked, the first sensible thing that he had said all day Kathryn noted.
"This is your ship so you should tell the story this time Kathryn"
"All right, well we were in the Badlands chasing Chakotay's ship when a beam of some kind caught us. It pulled us some 70,000 light years from Earth. Chakotay's ship had been ahead of us so they had been caught first. That's when our captor started to beam us off the ship one by one. We wound up on some sort of farm, holographic as we discovered. We managed to get a view of the real structure. It was a large laboratory with all of the Marquis flat on their backs in it, Tuvok included. Then we were taken and they tested the Star Fleet portion of us. When we were sent back to our ships we found Ensign Harry Kim and B'Ellana Torres were missing. In the process of finding them we picked up Neelix and managed to make an enemy, the Kazon. After we found our missing people we melded crews. Chakotay became my First Officer, B'Ellana became Chief Engineer, the EMH became the CMO, and Neelix became the Cook, Chief Morale officer and has begun to learn some engineering and security. Tom Paris also became our pilot and our nurse, although he does not like the nurse part. And now we have traveled a total of 35,000 light years in the past seven years."
By that point Beverly and Data at gathered around them and the Enterprise crew had their mouths slightly parted.
"Amazing…" Picard whispered under his breath. Captain Janeway looked around the room a bit and smiled, her crew was looking very proud of themselves as one of the most famous captains in history sat there gaping at their story. Data broke the silence,
"Would you like us to take a message to Star Fleet for you?"
"We've been waiting seven years to get a message home, why not do it now!" Captain Janeway announced.
"Could you possibly take personal letters to our family?" Tom asked
"Of course! And don't forget your friends in those letters." Captain Picard said, everybody broke out grinning.
"Let's get to the bridge and make a ship-wide announcement to the crew, I'll tell them to hurry it up, I don't know how long the wormhole will last."
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ON VOYAGER'S BRIDGE
"Harry, put me through to the entire ship, this is Captain Janeway, Captain Picard has kindly offered to take some letters to friends and family back in the Alpha Quadrant. There is a limit of four letters a crewmember, have them in sent to the Enterprise within the next hour and a half. Janeway out"
"One thing I think we've forgotten about, and I hate to ruin the moment but Q." Captain Picard said.
"Don't worry, you didn't. I don't know what he wants and I almost don't want to know."
There was a flash of white light
"Speak of the devil," Tom Paris commented, Janeway glared at him, he shut up fast.
"Sorry to bother you now, but I can't keep this wormhole up all day. So if you could hurry it up a little bit, I've got some family business to tend to."
"Family?" Captain Picard said, confused.
"My crew is writing letters home, they will be transmitted in one and a half hours so be patient. Just like Voyager's crew has been with you."
"Kathy, do you always have to be so cruel?"
Captain Janeway just sighed and rubbed her forehead a little bit, then there was another flash of light and he was gone.
"What did he mean by family business?" Captain Picard asked
"A few years he decided that he wanted a kid, so he asked me."
"Bad move" Will and Tom both muttered under their breath
"You can guess what my response was, eventually we got him to go off with the female Q and now he has a son."
"Female Q? Son? I don't like the sound of this" Beverly put in
"Trust me, the female is very self-centered, she's worse than Q." B'Ellana said, recalling the female Q ordering her around in engineering.
"Especially when you have to take orders from her, even for half an hour," Tom added, recalling the nickname 'helmboy'
"You left a Q in charge of your ship?!" Will said looking shocked
"Q decided to take me to the continum, if Voyager didn't listen to her we would have never straightened it out."
"So you didn't have a choice," Beverly said.
"For us, it's just another day in the Delta Quadrant," Harry commented
"The Borg, Q, Vidiians, unknown aliens, danger, death around every corner; just the usual." Tom added to Harry's comment.
Will made a fake gag when they said this, Captain Picard kicked him in the shin and he shut up.
"Sorry if we scare some of you with 'The Horrors of the Delta Quadrant'," Captain Janeway said joking around, "I really am trying to get them to stop." She made a mock face at Picard.
"And I thought my day was rough!" Someone commented under their breath. Only Captain Janeway was aware of Tuvok's vain attempts in suppressing his laughter completely.
"If you excuse me for a second, I'm going to go to my ready room to write some letters. Commander you have the bridge, unless Captain Picard would like to take over for a bit?"
"I would be honored to command Voyager"
"Then, you have the bridge captain!"
And with that Captain Janeway went into her ready room to answer Mark's letter, and to write letters to her mother and sister. She also wrote a letter to Admiral Owen Paris, about Tom. She was going to tell him how well he was doing, how responsible he was and that he was beginning to regret things he had said and done, especially to Owen.
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ONE HOUR LATTER
"Captain, everyone has sent their letters to my console. A grand total of, 446 letters!" Harry reported.
"How many people are on board your ship!" Captain Picard gasped
"148, and they are all very eager to get something home to their friends and family to let them know that they were alive." Captain Janeway replied smugly. The Enterprise crew just stood there with their mouths open, again. They were having a hard time taking all of this in.
"Harry, transmit all of the letters into PADD's to be transported to the Enterprise."
"Captain, is it hard to get dilitheum out in the Delta Quadrant?"
"YES!" The senior staff answered simultaneously.
"OK…we have more than enough for a sovereign class vessel, would you like me to transport a few hundred kilotons over here?"
"Hundred kilotons!" B'Ellana was practically glowing.
"Yes."
"Yes?"
"Yes."
"YES! Captain, this is just what we need. We've been running low on it. And we haven't picked up any of it on long-range sensors…"
"I get the point B'Ellana. That would be wonderful Jean-Luc, when can you get it ready?"
"It's sitting in cargo bay 10 waiting for us to dispose of it."
"Cargo bay 10? How big is that ship?"
"24 decks."
"My god." Someone from Voyager said, Captain Janeway thought that it was one of the ensigns assigned to the consoles in back of her (her back was almost always turned toward the back of the bridge so she never remembered who was there) but she couldn't swear on it. Just then who else but Q showed up.
"Harry, get ready to transport…"
"Kathy, why do you always bother with those silly transporters? You can just ask me!" With that he snapped his fingers and all of the letters were downloaded into the Enterprise's computer and all of the dilitheum was in Voyager's storage.
"Now you can say all of your little good-byes, in exactly twenty minutes I am going to send both of you back to your respective places."
"Q, what about our diplomatic mission?" Captain Picard pointed out.
"Oh that little doohickey…I'll send you back to in time so you will be on time. Toodles!" and with that he was gone.
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TWENTY MINUTES LATTER
"Good-bye Jean-Luc, see you…sometime." Captain Janeway said, hugging her friend good-bye.
"Bye Kathryn, hey, you'll be home before you know it." Jean-Luc retorted
She grinned a little "I'll see you when we get back. And if you see my mother she might need a little more than a letter to be convinced that I'm alive."
"I'll say hello to everyone, even Phoebe." They laughed at that, he knew that Captain Janeway and her sister were not exactly best of friends.
Just then there was a flash of light and Janeway was on the bridge; Picard, Beverly, Data and Will were back at their posts on the Enterprise. Then the wormhole began to collapse.
"Harry! Are they going to make it?" The captain asked when the Enterprise began to shake.
"I don't think so captain!" Harry said franticly, "They don't have enough power!"
"Give them some of ours!" The captain ordered.
"How?" Harry said looking very helpless, the captain moved over to Harry's console and punched in a few commands,
"That should just about do it…" the captain said as the image of the massive ship began to straighten out.
"Captain, a message was just transmitted to your ready room." Commander Chakotay reported, the captain gave him a quizzical look,
"From who?" She asked questioningly
"I can't tell, there is too much interference from the wormhole." The captain closed her eyes, remembering the last time she got a message in her ready room. The one that started this entire thing.
"Captain, Q just…how to say it…put us down," Tom Paris reported, "5,000 light years from where the worm hole first appeared." Everyone broke out into a grin, five less years in the Delta Quadrant.
Captain Janeway smiled at the prospect of being home that much sooner, "I'll be in my ready room, you have the bridge commander"
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The captain went to her replecator and immediately ordered 'Coffee…black' then went to her desk to read the message, she took a deep breath and opened the letter,
"Kathryn, thank you for the power. If you hadn't given it to us our structural integrity would've collapsed. I don't think I have ever met a better crew than that before. If you guys can't make it back to the Alpha Quadrant, nobody can. And yes I am including myself in the 'nobody' part. (It looked like someone had just about wrenched the words out of his mouth one at a time.) Your crew is amazing, compared to Voyager the Federation looks anything but diverse. Only you would combine Starfleet, Marquis, Borg, Holograms, Talaxians and God knows whom else into crew. And made it that far and become such an efficient crew, after who knows how many years together my crew has yet to achieve that state. After we, left, Beverly came up to me and said (Mocking her)'Jean-Luc, how come you're never that enjoyable around the crew of the Enterprise?' I had a hell of a time explaining that one to her. It was good talking to you again Kathryn. Good-bye and good luck."
She stared at the screen, simply shocked that Jean-Luc of all people had said freely that her crew was better than his. After a minute a smile began to appear on her face,
"Janeway to Chakotay."
"Chakotay here."
"Can you come to my ready room for a minute, nothing bad this time." She said smiling. Just then the chime rang, "Come" Chakotay came in looking petrified, the captain just smiled and motioned for him to come over behind her,
"The message was a 'thank you' from Jean-Luc, I thought you might want to hear it." She said softly as she played the message over again and thought Today was a good day, a visit from some old friends, letters to home, five less years in this hell hole of a quadrant, and enough dilitheum to power a sovereign ship for six months. I will never think that a day is boring ever again and she just sat there and smiled, as Chakotay had to play the message yet again.
Be a good reader and review the sory….Please? ;)