I don't own Star Trek Voyager.
Set a course…for home.
As she stepped out of her Ready Room after mentally dealing with her demons, Janeway did her best to maintain her commanding and confident facade despite how she had fought with her inner voice where she wondered if there was even a chance of getting everyone home; they'd lost their only chance with the Caretaker's array being destroyed at the behest of the entity who'd dragged them here in the place.
A part of Janeway, the part of her which was the primal, darkness of humanity that all humans still possessed despite the last few centuries of peaceful conditioning of living within the Federation, had been scornful.
Why the hell should they care about the Ocampa to that degree?
Yes, the tiny, telepathic people who lived only almost a decade were helpless against the Kazon should they ever break through the barriers the Caretaker had set up, but it was the entity's own fault in the first place. Janeway reflected on that loud argument between Kes and Toskin, the Ocampan elder who'd met them in the hydroponic garden in the city, and she had finally understood enough about what was going on thanks to Kes's impassioned speech of how the Ocampan people had become so dependent on the entity who'd never appeared in any way to them that they had lost so much of their culture and how they had stopped using the full potential of their telepathic abilities.
Indeed, while the Caretaker had shown an interest and a level of care towards the Ocampa, he had ignored the fact he had been holding them back. Janeway had no doubt in her head at all that there had to be others in the city who were just as bitter. But Janeway had to admit to herself her spiteful thought towards the Ocampa's plight was more down to what the Caretaker had done to them and so many others.
For months now the entity had been kidnapping ships from all parts of the quadrant, subjecting the crews to a genetic and medical examination to see if it could mate with them and some of them had died as a result of an illness. It wasn't until she had pointed out the flaws in the Caretaker's 'quest' and how he was essentially holding the Ocampa back.
But truth be told Janeway had been torn.
On the one hand, she believed the whole mess was none of their business - Voyager's crew under her command, and Chakotay's Maquis crew - they had been dragged here against their will, forced to endure a nasty medical examination, and forced to fight against a hostile race. But on the other, the Ocampa didn't deserve to be enslaved by the Kazon, their city plundered or destroyed. In any case, she didn't know if the array was capable of being understood by their best experts, and it had been heavily damaged during the battle between Voyager and the Kazon.
Would the process have even worked? They'd never know now.
Destroying the Array had been one of the hardest things she'd had to do.
At the same time, she didn't want the Ocampans to die, or be enslaved and used as fodder by the Kazon, so right now they had to find a different way of getting back to the Federation, to the Alpha Quadrant.
Home.
The same home the Caretaker had yanked them away from without even a thought or consideration in his desperation.
But now, she didn't know and couldn't know if they could return home. But she had to try to get everyone home.
Taking a deep breath and turning to Tuvok, who nodded; both of them had spoken about this, about addressing the entire crew of her ship, Janeway started off her speech, eyeing Chakotay's engineer who had subtle Klingon ridges. B'Elanna Torres wearing an operation gold uniform, "We're alone in an uncharted part of the galaxy. We have already made some friends here," she paused as she pointedly looked towards Kes and Neelix - she was still not entirely sure about their relationship, to say nothing of how the Talaxian had essentially lied and used them to get to her on the Ocampan planet, "and some enemies. We have no idea of the dangers we're going to face, but one thing is clear. Both crews are going to have to work together if we're to survive," she said pointedly as she looked towards Harry Kim and one of Chakotay's Maquis crew.
The two men exchanged a look.
She wasn't exaggerating; aside from the Borg, their knowledge of who and what actually lived in the Delta Quadrant was limited. Without Starfleet as a safety net, they were on their own. They had to work together with everyone's unique skills pulling them through.
Janeway watched the two men for a moment, seeing that there was genuinely no hostility there between them, which meant they had either become friends and she hadn't realised it, or they were waiting to see what the other man was like. "That's why," she resumed her speech, walking over to stand next to her new first officer - Aaron's death was still a blow, and there was a lot she didn't know about Chakotay, but one look at him told her that the big Indian ex-Starfleet officer who'd joined the Maquis was a force to be reckoned with; she had the impression of him as a strong ally, and a terrifying enemy, who was cunning.
And yet…
"Commander Chakotay and I have agreed that this should be one crew. A Starfleet crew," Janeway carried on, not giving herself the luxury of letting her mind drift off like that; she might not trust Chakotay fully right now, and she knew Tuvok was in the same position she was, but at the same time she needed to make it clear to everyone on the bridge, and around the ship who were listening.
They had to know they were one ship. One crew. She had no intention of letting division bleed through, not now on their first day trying to return home. "And as the only Starfleet vessel assigned to the Delta Quadrant, we'll continue to follow our directive to seek out new worlds and explore space," Janeway allowed herself a little secret, showing everyone clearly that her passions lay in exploring space and it was the prime reason she had joined Starfleet in the first place despite her family being in the organisation for a long time.
Janeway's expression became more business-like, but the passion for seeing what was out there remained, "But our primary goal is clear. Even at maximum speeds, it would take seventy-five years to reach the Federation, but I'm not willing to settle for that. There's another entity like the Caretaker out there somewhere who has the ability to get us there a lot faster. We'll be looking for her, and we'll be looking for wormholes, spatial rifts, or new technologies to help us. Somewhere along this journey, we'll find a way back. Mister Paris," Janeway looked down at her new pilot, "set a course for home."
Tom Paris - Janeway hoped that with his new second chance at life, he would excel - turned and inputted the command into the helm console. "Aye, Captain."
As Voyager shot off into warp, Janeway let out a breath as the entire Delta Quadrant - the Delta Quadrant - opened up. As far as she was concerned, they would find a way home; there were all kinds of technologies in the Alpha Quadrant, and a few years ago Commander Sisko discovered the Bajoran wormhole linking the Alpha and Gamma Quadrant's together. Was there something similar here?
They would find out.
As they travelled through space, Janeway knew one day they would find a way home.
Out there was some wormhole, spatial rift, or some other kind of phenomenon which could help them, or there was some new propulsion technology that was capable of slicing their journey time into little bits.
They just needed to find it.
As her grandmother once said, "If you want something badly, you merely need to find it."
Now it was time to prove her point.