"Voyager, you are cleared to dock. Welcome back." Lieutenant Brilgar, one of Odo's top deputies, was on comms. Much of the regular crew in Ops was amongst those returning.
"Good to be back in Federation space."
Kira issued a sharp correction. "Bajoran space with Federation administration."
"Still friendly territory."
Then Tom broke into song. Safe and sound at home again, let the waters roar, Jack.
Many of his comrades picked up the tune. Some were more tuneful than others, namely The Doctor, Seven, and Sofia Alighieri. Long we've tossed on the rolling main, now we're safe ashore, Jack. Don't forget your old shipmate… They never would, of course.
When the middle watch was on, and the time went slow, boy, who could choose a rousing stave, who like Jack or Joe, boy? Music had been much of their nonholographic entertainment. Tom's enthusiasm for seafaring was one of the ways he irritated his father, and Ensign Paris explained that stood for 0000 to 0400, now in the middle of the night shift. Harry hadn't carried his clarinet to the captain's chair, however. Edward Davis, a blueshirt out of Liverpool, explained 'stave' was the English English spelling for what Americans called a musical staff.
Few had been recommended for decorations before going to the Academy. Seven, along with several members of the engineering crews of Voyager and Defiant, successfully adapted a new weapon to a new threat. Sisko, Ross and most any other Starfleet member on the Cardassian front gladly ignored the possibility of any Temporal Prime Directive violations.
Fewer still had been mentioned in dispatches at four years old. Head Cook Neelix and Captain's Assistant Naomi Wildman kept the bridge crew well supplied with coffee, enabling us to channel more energy against the enemy. Janeway had tolerated two exceptions to her usual order. Her open mug would've taken – or caused – too much damage in battle, so she let Naomi hand it to her in a closed cup. She always took it black, but this time felt the calories in cream and sugar were a necessity. 82 years ago, when the Enterprise-B unexpectedly went into action, Chekov had forestalled panic by keeping civilians busy doing something useful.
Jake got the picture Ben had steered him towards. Samantha and Naomi Wildman had been first through the airlock and Greskrendtregk the station resident closest to it. "Naomi is growing very fast. We've got a smart daughter eager to learn more, and people eager to teach her because she's so well liked. She's even Captain Janeway's assistant," Samantha said.
"She's going places, I'm glad those places are now Earth and Ktaria. This all was the best news I'd ever gotten."
Janeway had a few words. "These were the travels of the starship Voyager, our ongoing mission was to return home without compromising ourselves and our values, to still explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, to return from where no Alpha Quadrant species has come back from before. One undiscovered country from which none return has now been explored. Discovery has been a part of Starfleet's mission since before the Federation. We have seen further from the shoulders of giants. The Federation is built on the principle of a better future by cooperation, which still held true 70,000 light years from home."
"After five years of arduous service marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, we have accomplished our new mission. The officers and crew can soon return to their homes – their homes on Earth or elsewhere in the Federation – though Voyager had became our new home. Wherever you go, you will take with you the satisfaction of duty faithfully performed. With admiration of your devotion to the Federation, Starfleet, and your fellow crew, we shall soon bid farewell, but not yet."
"We met many Delta Quadrant races such as the Talaxians, Mr. Neelix's people." Someone from Starfleet Command told Janeway she'd broken Kirk's record for number of first contacts. "We also found some of our own who had been abducted to the quadrant."
"Other people abducted alongside me took back the planet we'd been taken to. The leader of that settlement offered to let the Voyager crew stay, and Captain Janeway passed that offer along. Not a single person abandoned ship. From the beginning, Janeway was someone to follow, and Earth somewhere to follow her to," Earhart said, her ending drawing cheers that were indistinct because they came from so many directions at once.
Those who had played the Henry V holonovel felt nearly 800 year old words about a nearly millennia old battle ring true. He which hath no stomach to this fight, let him depart; his passport shall be made, and crowns for convoy put into his purse. We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us.
"With her, it has been a pleasure to work with one of my heroes," Janeway said. Likewise, Tom felt teaching Amelia to fly was like teaching Robin Hood to shoot, very good for the ego, and B'Elanna said flyboys didn't need any help in that department.
"I've been glad to see a lot of what I've seen, but most recently I was happy to report to the helm with Mr. Paris having personal business in sickbay. I've come to feel as at home with a 2370's yoke as a 1930's one." The manual steering column was not just an ancient affectation; it allowed for particularly precise control.
Another woman stepped forward, this one in blue rather than red. "Captain Janeway was instrumental in guiding me back to Humanity after over a decade as a drone. The Doctor was instrumental in surgically removing my Borg instruments."
"Was that a joke? You are becoming more Human," Harry whispered.
She tapped her eyepiece. "This had been essential to my functioning, but once such time had passed, I had grown accustomed to it along with my crewmates, and I feel it makes adequate ornamentation."
"Thank you, Seven."
Once Neelix had soothed Naomi's fears about 'the Borg lady', Seven had become a friend akin to a big sister or aunt, and endeavored to be a positive influence on the girl. He had also calmed the adults, morale officer being one of the many hats he wore. Starfleet Command had thought their mission was too short to call for a counselor, and the Doctor's virtues did not include soothing bedside manner.
"A ship's crew is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, and fights as a team. Yet the individual hero stuff isn't quite bullshit. On multiple occasions, the ship was saved by one or a few remaining crewmembers." This had included the captain herself about two and half years ago. "Sometimes we had a holographic hero." This was not without precedent. The Enterprise-D had sometimes been saved by android immunity to certain Human threats, and the A as well as the NX-01 by Vulcans' greater resilience.
"I feel we had the best team – the people, their spirit, our equipment. I almost pitied the poor bastards we were up against." The Kazon made Klingons look even-tempered and made Pakleds look smart, the Borg Collective was an assemblage of victims. "Even those not directly confronting the enemy were key to the mission, and remained at their posts just the same. We were constantly on the advance, constantly pressing on towards home. The smaller the crew, the greater the share of honor."
"Voyager managed to avoid casualties back in the Alpha Quadrant, but here's to those we lost in the Delta. I only take relief in there not being more." This is why they took a shortcut home that wouldn't be advertised to the Federation brass.
The surviving crew didn't need to be told to snap to attention for their fallen comrades. "Lyndsay Ballard…" Harry in particular bowed his head to wipe a tear. "J. Bartlett, Kurt Bendera, Darcy Bennett, Aaron Cavit, Claudia Craig, Frank Darwin, Pete Durst, Laurie Fitzgerald," Kathryn's own voice broke particularly hard here. "Terrence Hogan, Alexander Honigsberg, Ahni Jetal, Michael Jonas, Marie Kaplan, Timothy Lang, J. Lyman, David Martin, L. McGarry, S. Seaborn, Veronica Stadi, Lon Suder, Gina Thompson, Marika Wilkarah, Charles Young, T. Ziegler"
"I also want to read a happier list. Naomi Wildman, Gretchen Sekaya Janeway, Hamish Harper, Sandra Alighieri-Miller, Francine Delaney-Richard, Charles Delaney-Richard, Annika Kim, John Paris. Even amidst loss, we lived and loved, a facet of our perseverance in unimaginable circumstances. At the outset of our journey, we feared it would be our children or even our grandchildren who would bring Voyager home. It is with great relief I stand here, and before I'm old and gray."
"We shall all remember this all our lives. The Federation at large may not know exactly what we did the last five years, but they'll remember this triumph. We merry few, we band of brothers and sisters – and some of us grew beyond that. Dismissed."
There were a couple Ferengi over by Upper Pylon 1, probably relatives of Defiant's helmsman. Apparently Quark, that scam artist bartender, was still around, and he was competing with Jake to dress most dramatically. The other one had a total smokeshow on his arm, the sort of woman Tom would've made a total idiot of himself with years ago. "My son was gone for days rather than years but I still wanted to see him right away."
"Apparently you see very well, what a catch she is."
"Leeta didn't marry Rom for his latinum, because he had none," Quark interjected.
"Lita? Isn't that the Bajoran currency?" Tom said.
"I suppose it makes as much sense as a Human female named Penny," Kasidy answered. She, Captain Sisko's wife, was a civilian captain.
One command division ensign approached Ensign Paris and loudly declared that being an admiral's child could be a bunch of targshit sometimes. "No comment," Tom answered.
The Dominion leader signed a surrender that included surrendering herself. Her species had been infected with a disease for which Odo held the cure, and he'd take it back to the Gamma Quadrant. Like Garak, he'd stay with his people. Colonel Kira seemed to especially dislike that. The entirety of Dominion forces would vacate the Alpha Quadrant. Borders between the Alpha Quadrant powers would revert to their pre-war status.
Admiral Ross also channeled one of the top American generals of World War II in his words. "Today the guns are silent. A great tragedy has ended… we have known the bitterness of defeat and the exultation of triumph, and from both we have learned there can be no going back. We must move forward to preserve in peace what we've won in war."
The first step of the political business concluded, attention turned to personal business. Many of the Voyager crew were relieved the defeat of the Dominion took some of the media spotlight off of them. However, they were still interviewed by an elderly gray skinned female who'd they'd seen before on UFP 7. "You've got a lot of promise in this line of work," she said to Sisko's son.
"I really want to be a novelist, writing war reports was a product of circumstance."
"Sisko also performed my wedding, though not as a Starfleet captain, as the Emissary of the Prophets," Rom pointed out.
"The what now?" Chakotay asked.
"The Bajorans think Captain Sisko is a major figure in their religion. I've gone along with him going along with it," Admiral Ross explained. William was a soldier, not a diplomat or a holy man, but at least understood that offending the Bajorans over that would've carried major blowback. He and Sisko were evidently the kind of officers the Federation had needed.
"I knew we had a lot of catching up to do on the news," Chakotay said.
Next morning, the station seemed awfully empty. A new arrival said "Where is everybody!? Computer, locate Benjamin Sisko."
