The orbit of Cardassia Prime itself was littered with the same weapons platforms that had brought the Federation Alliance fleet to such grief at Chin'toka. Chief O'Brien had worked his engineering magic to make the platforms think their powerplant was a Federation vessel. Yet these were powered from the planet's surface rather than a moon. It was time to put some heads together.

Legate Terellian, in command of the Cardassian fleet, was locked out. Yet he had technical specifications such as their communications frequencies. Voyager, in her run-ins with the Borg, had been experienced in targeting linked systems. "What do you mean, you have a drone aboard?!" Sisko told Janeway.

"She has been liberated from the Collective, as much an individual as you or I!" It was an arduous ongoing process, but Janeway was not about to concede that point. Ben and Kathryn both knew when someone couldn't be intimidated. "She's served with distinction, against Borg and versus other hazards."

"Captain? Some doubted the first Ferengi in Starfleet…" O'Brien pointed out. Including the first Klingon in Starfleet, which Miles wasn't about to remind Worf of. "…I'd give this ex-drone the same benefit of the doubt."

B'Elanna Torres, Voyager's chief engineer, was carrying a very young infant. She was a working mother, understanding the critical nature of the duty that called. After all, she'd encouraged Tom to leave her side in sickbay when desperately needed at the helm.

Her assistant was somewhat familiar to O'Brien; Carey had also served aboard the Enterprise-D a few years ago. "Joe, I hear your boys are doing well. Michael, that's a proper Irish name. Most of Starfleet hears 'Michael Collins' and thinks the hero of 1960's space exploration…" Harry Kim was one. He remembered the huge production at the Academy for the 400th anniversary of Apollo 11; Collins had orbited Luna while Armstrong and Aldrin landed. He'd still been proud to be part of something so huge, and on his return he saw that much of Humanity was proud of it, not just the Americans.

"…I think of the hero of 1920's Irish independence." Carey and O'Brien said almost in unison.

"You see, I also married a woman from elsewhere on Earth, with one kid's name drawn from my family and one from hers." With luck, he'd be seeing Abhaya and Devraj along with Michael in a couple weeks. Miles was also looking forward to a family reunion. Keiko, Molly and Kirayoshi had gone back home as the Dominion War escalated, and Keiko had been under stress joining him at his posting even before that.

"B'Elanna, I'm speaking from personal experience here, not using your husband's name was much more of an incident four and half centuries ago. I'm quite happy with how a lot of things have changed." Earhart had never said anything untoward about interracial marriage but had been surprised at the complete normalcy of that, interspecies relationships, and/or same-sex pairings. The first marriage performed on Voyager had been for a lesbian couple. The sister of one of those women, like Carey, was a former shipmate of O'Brien's.

They soon developed a pulse that caused a cascade reaction in the orbital platforms. Martok had a simple announcement. "QAPLA!" Worf eagerly seconded the motion, the Voyager engineer lightly, but she was obviously particularly exhausted even compared to the battered battlefleet.

Jem'Hadar weapons were firing, but towards the planet rather than its orbit. They were massacring the Cardassians! Ross and Sisko weren't about to let that happen. Martok and Vetal were glad to take advantage of the enemy being distracted. Either way, this seemed related to the defection of the Cardassian fleet.

Something made the guns stop. "This was bad, but it could've been a lot worse. Martok, I'll take you up on that celebratory bloodwine," Sisko said, and Ross concurred.

"I'd extend the invitation to Voyager's command crew." The latter accepted once Worf explained this would not be a boring state dinner in any way, shape or form.

Torres read the barrel. "2309, isn't that the good stuff?"

"It certainly is!"

"Well, I certainly need a drink." She clinked her cup with Worf's before downing it in one fluid motion.

"You're more Klingon than you think sometimes," Tom said. He was entirely Human but had a very experienced liver, which was being put to the test. After being disgraced from Starfleet, he'd wandered around looking for a fight and someone to pay his bar tab. The Maquis provided both, for which the Federation provided him a year and a half in jail. He'd been paroled to help look for his old comrades. Looking at his wife and son, he felt better about his term becoming four and a half years, and after that half decade he was no longer that sort of man anyway. Neither Janeway nor Torres would've tolerated the old him.

His relief declined. Janeway explained while sipping from her own mug. "Acting Ensign Earhart is soured on drink, because her father and one of her friends drank too much." Her navigator Fred Noonan had confessed his love when he was afraid the booze was about to kill him, and they'd parted ways – him settling with the other abductees, and the 1930's adventurer in her heading off to the frontier of the 2370's.

A light went on in Sisko's head. "Amelia Earhart! Thought I recognized you from the history books. So you really were abducted by aliens. As if this day can't get any more dramatic." He explained to Martok. "She's a famous civilian pilot from pre-warp Earth, from before Humanity broke the sound barrier let alone the light barrier."

The Coca-Cola Neelix brought her did not keep the bloodwine from flowing. Ironically, them coming home or at least close to it took him further away from his. Yet he'd insisted on staying aboard. Voyager had already traveled far away from his region of the Delta Quadrant, so leaving would've left him without his new home.

"To John Paris the battleborn!"

Tom lifted a refilled cup. "Hey B'Elanna, our baby's not a day old and already has a cool nickname!"

"Commander Chakotay, you have a daughter, are you a married man?"

"No…"

"Congratulations." Martok's tempestuous marriage to Sirella was well known to Worf. While rough sex was a well known feature of Klingon culture, they or at least their chancellor seemed to approach the whole of marriage as combat.

"Yet while I'm legally a bachelor, I have felt married in spirit to Kathryn for years now."

"A worthy woman, after all, Kahless had Lukara. So you are deciding to lead by example." Gretchen Sekaya hadn't exactly been a decision but that was not Martok's concern.

"We're making it official once we get back to Federashun space. I think I'm authorized to say you're invited."

"It is a good thing you are not getting married tonight!"

"Did a head of government make a joke about whiskey dick?" Tom asked of Harry.

Martok confirmed his intent. "Bloodwine cocks are without honor!" he said.

"What do you do with a drunken sailor? Throw him in the hole with the captain's daughter!" Tom was starting to slur his words as well.

"Is the girl that irritating?"

"It's a euphemism for the lash, back when Earth ships employed such harsh discipline."

O'Brien and Carey knew a drinking song or two as well. This Mountain Dew packed a far stronger punch than 152 milligrams of caffeine per liter. Yet Martok going on about a river running with blood was a bit much with Cardassia Prime actually so stained. So Miles and Joe changed their tune. … the Angelus bells o'er the Liffey swells rang out in the foggy dew …

Elim Garak's exile from his beloved Cardassia had ended in dramatic fashion, but the planet was in a sorry state. He would be a natural choice to lead it back to glory, perhaps by the underhanded intelligence methods he knew so well, but it would be a long road getting from there to here. The losses were intensely personal. His mother, his father's housekeeper, was amongst the Dominion's victims. Corat Damar too had been a Cardassian patriot, belatedly realizing that meant resisting the Founders rather than cooperating with them, dying in the raid on Dominion headquarters.

Skrain Dukat had always been out for himself, his power and his lust for Bajoran women, while holding his subjects in contempt. One of his victims had been Kira Nerys' mother Meru. Finding him was very high on the victors' minds. "He is an honorless petaQ even compared to other honorless petaQs. May he and Winn both suffer in Grethor," Worf said to complete agreement.

Colonel Kira herself had survived another guerilla engagement on the ground to see her beloved Bajor again. Since Cardassia had tried and failed to conquer Bajor, to some extent she felt the Cardassians had gotten a taste of their own medicine, but she was still appalled by the scale of their slaughter at the hands of the Jem'Hadar.

Some had been unaware, some propagandized or beaten into line. Still, Cardassia had better not be a threat to peace again. Sisko felt Earth history offered hope. In the planet's second world war, Germany and Japan had been ruled by murderous militarists, but had become massive success stories being rebuilt after defeat.

Odo, the station's security chief, was the same shapeshifting species as the Founders of the Dominion, but settled on the solids' side. He came back with his highest-profile prisoner yet, his negotiation with another of his kind a smashing success.

Soon the Alliance fleet was ready to trek back to Deep Space 9. Ben was keeping his word to come back to his pregnant wife – and his already-born son. Jake was a writer with no interest in joining Starfleet, but had worked as a war reporter. There had been a short war with the Klingons due to Dominion manipulation. He'd been on the front lines at one point, seeing the field hospital while exposed to fire, and his words on fear were recognizable to the combat veterans. Some words from Earth's 2nd world war still rang true. Everyone's scared in their first action, if they say otherwise, they're a goddamn liar. The real hero was someone who fought despite being scared. It took some longer than others, but they still came through and didn't let it overcome their duty. "Hot tip, Jake, you want to be by Upper Pylon 2."