Kathryn and Chakotay made their way back to the bridge once all the transmissions where done. The pair made a quick detour, however, stopping so that Janeway could add another pip to her collar and for Chakotay to change his rank bar, electing to keep the provisional bars given to them seven years prior. Once that task was completed they made their way back to the bridge, hand in hand, slowly tearing down the wall of protocols that Kathryn had so carefully put up between them. Upon entering the bridge the pair smiled, Chakotay's grin grew broader when Kathryn didn't disentangle her hand from his, fortunately for them Tom wasn't there.
"Before the final transmission ended Admiral Paris sent us the plans for, well, a memorial of sorts, in Voyagers honour. A museum, actually. Since they found out that we wouldn't be returning, Starfleet's been working to be able to send us the final plans for it," she noted, referring to the padd in her free hand. "Voyager is to be re-created, with holo-emitters of the crew at our usual stations, inclusive of Baby Miral," Janeway noted. "I'll make sure you all have a copy of their plans," Janeway smiled at the staff on the bridge.
Tuvok nodded slightly as Janeway finished her speech. "I will be interested to see that, Admiral," the Vulcan noted, being the first to see the extra pip on the former captain's collar.
This, naturally, drew the attention of the rest of the bridge crew, who eyed their Captain's, and Commander's, collars.
Harry was the first to speak up. "Congratulations Admiral, Captain," Lieutenant Loyal stated with his boyish grin.
"Thank you, Harry," Chakotay gave, eyeing the crew, who'd had a long day. Looking towards the 'lift he noted that the next shift was ready to take their turn manning the bridge.
"Alpha shift, go home," Janeway said, dismissing the senior staff. She and Chakotay watched the rotation occur before, they too, left the bridge, her hand still firmly held in his.
After exiting the turbolift, on deck two, Chakotay's hand slid from the small of Kathryn's back to settle around her waist. "Admiral Janeway," he said, "it sounds good, Kath," the Captain stated with a smile.
"It does, too bad that I have every intention of doing away with ranks once we're settled. Presuming the crew agrees," she gave, shrugging as they stopped outside her quarters.
"Dinner tomorrow, Kath, no getting out of it, Admiral," Chakotay stated with a wink.
"Is that an order, Captain?"
"You bet it is, Kath," he responded. "Just one question, about these protocols of yours. There's no Starfleet out here, and we're not going back…" he trailed off, watching her intently.
Janeway temporarily got lost in the intensity of Chakotay's gaze before she shook her head to drag herself back to reality. "You have a very valid point, Comm… Captain," she faltered. "B'Elanna told me the same thing, and I think that it would only be fair to myself, and to the rest of the crew, I few dismissed those protocols as unnecessary, perhaps even a hindrance to us, as we try to survive on our new world," she gave as an answer.
Chakotay gave the woman a lopsided grin. "Good night, Kath, see you tomorrow," he noted as an answer.
"Night Chakotay," was her response before she slipped into her quarters, where she got ready for bed and promptly fell asleep.
The crew wasn't ready to start prepping the planet for colonization for several more days after the ship achieved orbit around their new home. Many crewmembers thought that this may have been due to reluctance on the Admirals part to ground her first, and last, command. By the time they where ready to start preparations the entire ship had heard about Janeway's and Chakotay's promotions. Many congratulations where offered to the slowly developing couple as they enlisted Harry's help in preparing a farewell dinner, to be held in time to say good-bye to their space faring days, at least temporarily.
The crew had been split into teams, based on their shifts, to go down to the surface and work on the construction that was necessary. The 'captain' for each shift being in charge of supervising the work and reporting progress back to the Admiral and Captain. Delta Shift was the first group to go down, Gamma took the next shift, with Alpha next, and finally Beta. This set-up allowed each team one full shift between bridge duty and their planet side work. Within each team there where sub-teams, like what was present on the ship. The engineering crew became one team, their leads reported to B'Elanna. Security was another team, their lead reporting to Tuvok, and so on. Even Naomi Wildman got into helping, though she stayed close to Neelix, helping him stockpile and prepare foodstuffs for their new life. If she wasn't with Neelix while on the planet she stuck near Lieutenant Wildman, who was always available to her daughter.
There was a certain amount of trepidation amongst the crew, trepidation mixed with a level of anxiousness and excitement. They where excited at the prospect of a new life, planet side, though none had lived on a planet in seven years, or, in Naomi and Miral's cases, they'd never lived on a planet.
It was expected that the planet side preparations would take several weeks to complete. Preparations on Voyager where expected to take equally as long. The crew's replicator rations where marginally increased, to allow crewmembers to replicate necessary items. Along with those changes Neelix had elected to spend half of his day on the planet, carefully tending to the garden he and Naomi had started from seeds and plants cultivated in Hydroponics.
B'Elanna, one ready to return to work, busied herself with tinkering with the Doctor's holo-emitters so that they had a longer range. She had proudly reported at the last staff meeting that she should be able to boost their range by about twenty percent, without affecting the Doc's holo-matrix. The Doctor, of course, was pleased with this information. After B'Elanna gave that report Neelix noted that the garden was well on its way to full productivity, with young Miss Wildman's help, of course.
Tuvok made note that a perimeter around the to be colony had been secured, just in case. All in all things where running as smoothly as could be expected, with only a few minor glitches getting in the way.
By the end of their third week orbiting the planet shelters where built and ready for use. They where upscale homes, each set up to be permanent residents. They'd also found a long-term way to purify and transport water into the little village from the nearby river that flowed out into the ocean. B'Elanna had also set up the spare holo-emitters in the 'sickbay' on the planet. Eventually everything required to keep the Doc up and running would be transferred planet side.
The crew was unconcerned with a means of communication, as it would be a small colony, they would worry about it when the need arose. The senior staff continued going over what needed to be done, which included the issue of schooling for the children. All agreed that this was a good idea, the only question pertained as to who would educate the children. They didn't get any further, their thoughts where interrupted by the klaxon sounding in their ears, or so it seemed.
"Intruder Alert! All hands to battle stations! Security to… umm… deck two, not the tur… the bridge!" came the frantic voice of the ensign manning the bridge, though he hadn't finished by the time the senior staff had arrived. At the same time that the senior staff stepped onto the bridge the turbolift doors opened, the crews phasers drawn on the intruder.