Star Trek Voyager characters are the property of Paramount Pictures
THE LOST YEARS
(R)
PROLOGUE
Dressed in a shimmering pink leotard with a matching tutu and ballet slippers, a pretty little girl of three years lay fast asleep on a soft mat in a holographic gym. She had long silky black hair that fell loose over her thin shoulders, and her skin was a distinctive shade of olive.
The doors to the room slid open and Kathryn Janeway came in. She too was dressed as a ballerina, wearing a white leotard, pink tutu and matching ballet shoes, and in each hand she carried a wafer cone generously topped with vanilla ice-cream. One was decorated with strawberry sauce and the other with coffee.
"Here we are, Miss Melissa May," Kathryn said, crossing the room. "One vanilla and strawberry ice-cream for you and one vanilla and..."
She stopped talking when she saw that the child was fast asleep. Quietly, she made her way over to the child and knelt beside her. For a long moment Kathryn just gazed fondly at the sleeping little girl. She looked so peaceful when she slept, so content...so beautiful.
"Computer," Kathryn said as softly as she could. "Transport the ice-cream cones from my hands to the recycler and recycle."
Almost instantly the ice-creams vanished. Kathryn then reached out and brushed a stray strand of hair away from the child's rosy cheek. How much she loved this little girl she would never have been able to quantify. She loved her more than she had thought it possible to love. And there was no doubt in her mind that this child was a miracle. All the odds had been against her existence, but exist she did, and her existence had been many years in the making. The story of her life began not with her conception, but a decade before when two crews, one Starfleet and the other Maquis, had found themselves stranded at the other side of the galaxy. It was then that her father and her mother had met for the first time, and was then that began the journey that would change all their lives forever.
As she watched the child sleep, Kathryn found herself thinking about that journey and the love she had found along the way. At times it was a love that had raised her higher than the highest mountain, but at other times had cast her so low that she had felt lost in a cold pit of darkness. There had been times when she had lacked the strength to go on, when all she had wanted to do was curl up in the blackness and go to sleep. But in those moments of black despair, love had lifted her up and carried her towards the light. It was a love she was thankful for every day, and the journey one she would never forget.
END OF PROLOGUE