Chakotay stood at the viewport as the recording finished its third continuous play.
When Kathryn woke him up at 03:00 hours to give him a log, he was surprised. He asked if it could wait until morning for him to review and she said that it could. As she turned to leave, he asked what was on it and she said a personal log. She told him that it was his to do with as he pleased, to keep it or delete it and with that she was gone.
That piqued his curiosity a little too much and decided that he would listen to it and then deal with it in the morning. At least then he would know what it was about and it would satiate his curiosity. It did that, but after the first hearing it put his thoughts and emotions in a tizzy.
He listened to it again and after the second hearing, he calmed down somewhat. After the third hearing he had made up his mind what to do, what he needed to do.
"Computer what is the time?"
"06:00 hours."
His alarm came on right after.
In the morning he purposely went into the Mess Hall to have breakfast because he wanted to check on the Equinox crew. They didn't have any replicator rations yet and they would be eating all of their meals in the Mess Hall with everyone else and he was a little concerned about that.
He needn't be. Although they were sitting by themselves and there was noticeable space between them and everyone else in the Mess Hall at that time Tom, B'Elanna and Harry were sitting with them.
He came up to them. "Mind if I join you?"
"Go ahead Chakotay." Tom motioned to the seat next to him. The five seemed to be in shock over his casual acknowledgment of the Commander.
"We were just talking about some of the activities that we have here aboard Voyager. Noah just commented on how the party last night seemed to be something that the crew is accustomed to. It looked like we have parties like that all the time."
"Indeed sometimes it seems that's all this crew does during its off hours." Tuvok came up to them and B'Elanna drew up another table and chair for him to sit down on.
"Oh come on Tuvok, what do you want us to do during our off hours? It not as if we could take shore leave or even a tip somewhere."
"I would suggest meditation, it should calm some of your more exasperating impulses."
"Just to let you know that there is a running gag going between Paris and Tuvok, you might want to stay clear of them when they get like this." Harry's eyes twinkled and Marla giggled.
"Yeah, you don't want to get caught in the cross fire when Tuvok attempts to get even with me, although he eventually fails." Tom said in answer to Harry's comments.
"Firstly Ensign, I do not endeavor to get back at you, I merely point out your illogic of your own actions and that is what comes back to you as failure to meet your objectives. Secondly…..." Tuvok began.
"Are they at it again?" Seven of Nine came up with the Doctor.
"Morning Seven." B'Elanna greeted her.
"Good morning Lieutenant, Ensigns, Crewmen, Commander." Seven greeted everyone one at the table. The Senior Officers of Voyager's crew smiled. 'Good morning all' never seemed to make it into Seven's vocabulary.
"Seven, there you are. Try this morning's breakfast. It's a new recipe that I got from Crewman Morrow last night. I don't think that you'll find this 'pungent'" Neelix came up to them, talking a mile a minute.
"We shall see." Seven replied
"Well, try it." Neelix pulled up a chair and waited anxiously for the verdict. Seven put a small piece of breakfast in her mouth and tried it.
"What do you think?" Chakotay asked her. He found that it wasn't half bad.
"It is acceptable, Mr. Neelix."
"High praise." Harry clinked his coffee cup with the Talaxian's tea cup.
"Hey Doc, what are you doing here, you normally don't hang around the Mess Hall." Tom interjected.
"I had just finished giving Seven a physical and she mentioned that she was going to probably meet you in the Mess Hall. After all that has happened, I felt I needed to be around friends for a while.
The Equinox Five looked a little uncomfortable when he made that remark, but after a while, they began to look more confused as the Doc sat beaming at Seven and looking at the rest of the Senior Staff.
"You consider members of the crew, friends?" Morrow asked incredulously.
"But of course. You have friends, why shouldn't I?" The Doctor's trade mark sarcasm was back in full force as he looked pointedly at the rest of the former Equinox Crew
"But you're a……"
"Hologram. Yes I know, thank you for pointing that out to me Mr. Tassoni, I would have never guessed otherwise. I am a valuable member of Captain Janeway's crew and I'd like to think I've earned the right to be considered a friend to everyone sitting here. Captain Janeway has allowed me to expand my program and learn from my experiences and helped me to grow to be much better than I what I was programmed as when I was first activated on this ship."
"She has done that for all of us. I know for myself, Captain Janeway has helped me become an individual after being a drone for more than 18 years. It has not always been easy and once or twice I know that she may have been uncomfortable with my actions and disappointed in some of my decisions, but she has never given up on me nor turned her back on me. And I suspect it is the same for every member of the senior staff at this table, and I know that it will be the same for all of you."
There was a period of silence during which Seven began her breakfast. They were all looking at her with different expressions on their faces as Chakotay noted. The Equinox Five were looking at her with hope on their faces. The rest of the senior officers were looking at her in shock, he included. In that one statement she had given the Equinox Five hope and summed up the power of Captain Janeway's leadership and the strength of Voyager. The people who make up its crew, and the woman who shepherded them all. No one at the table could have said anything better to allay the fears of the former Equinox crewmembers. And it came from the one person who had exasperated them all at one time or the other.
Out of the mouths of babes…..he mused
"Good morning everyone. May I join you?" Kathryn stood at the table as if she had just materialized there. But by the expression on her face, Chakotay knew that she had heard what Seven said and realized the effects of that statement on everyone at the table.
"Captain, it's good to see you. I see you only have a cup of coffee in your hand again. I'm going to get you some breakfast. It's very good today." Neelix hurried away with a big smile on his face.
"Captain," The voices of that greeted her were warm and of welcome but her acceptance into the party presented her a choice. There were two empty chairs. One in front of her where Neelix had just vacated and one at the other side of the table next to Chakotay. Making her decision, she walked around and took the seat next to her First Officer. Neither she nor Chakotay missed the smiles of relief as she did so. Chakotay's smile danced on his face as he looked at her.
"Morning Captain, slept well last night?"
"Not really, I had a report that I was working on until 03:00 hours."
"Well this should help." Neelix put down a pot of coffee as well as breakfast in front of her.
"Compliments of the kitchen. You can take the coffee to the Bridge with you when you go."
"Now then, what were you talking about?"
"We were talking about how our ship can be termed the life of the Delta Quadrant with the amount of parties that we have." Tom responded to Kathryn's question
"Well we do tend to do our fair share of celebrating. But it's important, does wonders for morale." She replied.
"That's what I always say." Neelix chimed in from the other end of the table having taken his original seat.
"True, but given this crew's need for morale boosters and exploration, I wonder if we will get to Earth anytime soon." Seven chimed in.
"We'll get there Seven, of that I have every confidence." Tuvok was the one who answered for the other officers. The others nodded to show their acceptance of what we had said.
The time is 07:15. The com channel above them said softly. The Equinox crew got up.
"We have to be at Deuterium maintenance in 15 mins. Please excuse us Captain."
"Quite" Janeway gave her reply with a small smile. And with that they were gone.
"I hope that they do not have too hard a time fitting in with this crew because of what they have done" Neelix said softly
"If there's one thing I've learnt is that being on Voyager can turn your life around, no matter what you have done. They'll be fine Neelix." Tom said it off handedly, and continued to eat his breakfast.
The rest of the senior staff followed suit and ate in silence each in their own thoughts, but as Kathryn noted the silence wasn't uneasy. It wasn't comfortable as she was used to enjoying with Chakotay and even with Tuvok, it was just there, facilitating both a physical and emotional digestion process.
"Come."
Chakotay entered and placed the PADD on the desk and at once Kathryn knew what was on it. She knew it contained the log entry that she had given him the night before. She stood behind her desk and looked at him dead in the eyes. If judgment was going to be passed, she was going to face like the Captain, like the human that she had always been. Chakotay's eyes never left hers as he said.
"Computer, access Kathryn Janeway's person log on PAD 4765- alpha"
'Accessed"
"Computer delete log authorization Chakotay, one four seven gamma"
"Log deleted"
Kathryn's smile was large and it met Chakotay's.
"Was there anything else Commander?"
"Actually, yes. I had some ideas for the Equinox crew going forward and wanted to discuss it with you."
Chakotay came around to the Computer terminal behind Kathryn's desk. He steadied himself by resting his hand on the back of the Captain's chair just before changing her computer to another screen of information. He didn't need to and Kathryn didn't miss the message that he was conveying with his body.
Sometimes it was easy as that …….Kathryn reflected.
The end
Part16: Family