"Captain's Log, Stardate...Earthdate, December 25, 2375..." Kathryn Janeway sat back in her ready room chair and sighed. "Computer, delete that last log entry." A short beep told her that the computer had executed the command. She was about to make another try at it when the door beeper sounded. "Come." she said. The door slid open and Janeway's First Officer, Commander Chakotay entered the room. "What can I do for you?" asked Janeway.
"Just thought I would remind you that the party is about to start." replied Chakotay.
"Oh, the Christmas party." Janeway sighed, "I've decided not to go."
"Why?" Chakotay asked with concern in his voice. "Tom and B'Elanna have spent weeks planning it and Neelix has gone all out to make us a Christmas dinner."
"I'm aware of that." Janeway said sternly. "I'm just not up to a party right now. Give everyone my regards and wish them a Merry Christmas for me."
"Are you sure about this?" asked Chakotay. The following silence gave him his answer. "I could stay here with you. Try to cheer you up."
"Oh no." Janeway replied and tried to put on a happier face. "You go and have a good time, I'll be fine."
"Okay, but we'll all be there in the Mess Hall if you change your mind." Chakotay withdrew from the room.
"Hmmm." Janeway moaned to herself and rested her head on her arms.
"Feeling a little sorry for yourself, Kathy?" a new voice boomed.
"What the hell?" Janeway shouted and jumped up. Quickly she saw the familiar figure, dressed in a Starfleet uniform, standing before her. "Q!" she shouted. "What are you doing here?"
"Well I was in the neighborhood." the omnipotent entity replied. "So I thought I would drop in." He paused and studied her face. "I must say that you don't look your best today."
"I'm in no mood for games."
"Games?" Q asked innocently, "Who said anything about games?"
"Then why are you here?" Janeway asked as she circled around her desk and came face-to-face with Q.
"I'm here to help you."
"Help me? How?"
"I'm here to bring a little, what do you call it, Christmas cheer into your life." Q said with a big grin on his face.
"You've got your work cut out for you." Janeway said as she folded her arms. "Christmas cheer is something I am severely lacking at the present."
"Let me guess." Q said as he stroked his chin with his left hand. "You're depressed because this holiday reminds you of the family you still have back home. How much you miss them."
"True." Janeway replied. "But it's much more than that. I think of my crew, all of them stuck here in the Delta Quadrant, while their families back home are all celebrating Christmas, or Hanukkah, or whatever holiday their cultures celebrate. Mostly I have accepted that we are more than half a century away from home, but this time of year it all comes back to me."
"So what you are saying is that sometimes you wish things could be changed. You wish that Voyager had never ended up in the Delta Quadrant." Q said slowly.
"Yes! That's it!" Janeway shouted. "Sometimes I wish it had never happened!"
"Consider it done." Q said and then vanished in a flash of light.
"Wait I..." Janeway began before she noticed that her uniform had been altered. Where there used to be command red at the top, there was now grey. The inside part of her uniform, which used to be grey, was now red. Janeway was puzzling this over when Voyager was suddenly rocked, as if fired upon.
"Red Alert! All hands to battle stations!" A voice shouted over the intercom.
OOOOOOOOOO
The bridge was different. Not in equipment, but in personnel. The big shock Janeway received was seeing her original First Officer, Commander Cavit, and her original pilot, a Betazoid named Stadi, alive and well. Both had been killed when the Caretaker had grabbed Voyager and pulled her into the Delta Quadrant, yet here they both were, is if nothing had happened. Looking around, Janeway saw that a Lieutenant named Rollins was manning the Tactical station. The only familiar face on the bridge was Harry Kim, who was manning his usual station at Operations. All the bridge crew were wearing the same grey topped uniforms as Janeway and their faces were grim. "Report." Janeway said, forcing herself into action.
"Two Jem'Hadar fighters took us by surprise." Rollins replied from tactical. "Returning fire." On the view screen, Janeway saw two vicious looking ships approaching Voyager. Suddenly there were flashes as two photon torpedoes launched out from Voyager and connected with the lead Jem'Hadar ship. There was an explosion of metal and fire and the ship was gone. "The other ship is withdrawing." Rollins called out.
"Stand down from Red Alert!" Janeway barked. "But maintain battle readiness."
"Six months of front line action." Cavit grumbled. "Where will it end?"
"I don't know." replied Janeway. "However we must be ready for additional attacks. You have the bridge. Mr. Kim!"
"Yes ma'am." Kim replied from his station.
"Come into the ready room for minute. There is something we need to discuss." Janeway quickly turned and entered the ready room. She sat at her desk and waited as Kim approached and stood before her. "Harry." Janeway said after a few seconds. "Do you remember the first mission Voyager undertook when you first reported on board?'
"I sure do." Kim said and then continued. "Our mission was to locate a Maquis ship that had disappeared in the Badlands."
"What happened next?" asked Janeway.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me. I asked you what happened next?"
"Well nothing." Kim replied, shifting uneasily. "We searched for six days, until Starfleet called off the search. We never did find out what happened to that ship."
"Thank you." Janeway said slowly. "That will be all."
"Right." Kim said and turned to leave, then he stopped and asked with concern. "If I may, why did you want this information from me?" His eyes grew wide. "You don't think I'm a Changeling, do you?"
"A Ch..." Janeway broke off and then continued. "Just testing to be sure. Don't worry about it, off you go." She watched as Kim left the room. Quickly Janeway turned on her computer and dove into the ship's logs of the past few years. After the unsuccessful mission to find the Maquis ship, Voyager had been given a deep space assignment, which she conducted for the next two years. However, once the Dominion War started, Voyager had been quickly reassigned to front line duty, where she had been ever since. Janeway paused for thought, recently, in the reality she knew, Voyager had briefly gotten back in touch with the Alpha Quadrant, thanks to a network of relays built by a race called the Hirogen. It was through that relay that the crew learned that the Cardassian Empire had joined a Gamma Quadrant based power called the Dominion, giving the Dominion a considerable presence in the Alpha Quadrant. Soon after, the Federation found itself in a bloody war with the Dominion. Now all the events of the last half hour were starting to come together. If Voyager hadn't been thrown into the Delta Quadrant, they probably would have gotten assigned to the front lines. Suddenly another thought struck Janeway. Chakotay, Torres, and Tuvok! If Voyager hadn't ended up in the Delta Quadrant, that meant...
"Yes." Q said as he suddenly appeared in front of Janeway's desk. "Chakotay, Torres, and Tuvok were left trapped in the Delta Quadrant. Soon they were killed by the Kazon. The Kazon then went on to capture the Caretaker's Array and successfully conquer the Ocampa Homeworld."
"No." Janeway said as she felt her stomach lurch.
"That's not all." Q said grimly. "Many Ocampa females, including your friend Kes, were shipped off world to become playthings to the Kazon Maje's."
"I don't want to hear this."
"But you must." Q persisted. "Neelix still aimlessly wanders the Delta Quadrant, having no where to call home. As for Seven of Nine, well she is still very much part of the Borg Collective, which is still locked in a war with Species 8472. Not a pretty sight."
"But..." Janeway began and then realized something. "What about Tom Paris? He was on board Voyager before we were taken to the Delta Quadrant. Why isn't he here?"
"Now that's a shame what happened to him." Q said. "He felt he had let you down when you didn't find the Maquis ship. He decided to leave Voyager and strike out on his own. Sadly, however, he never quite fit in to life in the Federation, or anywhere else in this part of the galaxy. Six months after leaving Voyager, Tom Paris was killed in a bar fight on Toros Seven."
"I never realized." Janeway said slowly.
"Exactly." replied Q. "Voyager ending up in the Delta Quadrant played a significant role in re-shaping the lives of all these individuals. Since that never happened now, their lives and destinies all took a different path. Sadly, none of them had happy endings."
"Okay Q, you've made your point. Now I..."
"Not quite yet." interrupted Q. "This little drama has not played out to it's conclusion. There is still a little more for you to see." Then he vanished.
"Wait." Janeway called, but Q was gone.
OOOOOOOOOO
Frustrated, Janeway decided to take a tour of the ship, just to let off some steam. Finally she ended up outside of Sickbay. Taking a deep breath, she entered and found the bio-beds filled with patients, victims of the recent battle with the Jem'Hadar. "Captain." a voice called. Janeway turned to see a man approaching her. It took her a minute to realized that this was Dr. Fitzgerald, who was the original doctor assigned to Voyager, until he too was killed when the ship had been taken into the Delta Quadrant. In this time line, of course, he was still alive.
"I've come for the latest casualty report." Janeway said as she quickly regained her composure.
"Seven dead, twelve injured, one severely." Fitzgerald replied grimly. "This damned war! I need help here. Computer, activate Emergency Medical Hologram."
"Please state the nature of the medical emergency." The familiar form of the Doctor said as he appeared next to Janeway.
"I'm swamped with patients here. Get to work." Fitzgerald barked.
"Very well." The Doctor replied and went right to work. As she watched him, Janeway realized that this wasn't the Doctor she knew. This Doctor had never known friendship, had never fallen in love, had never sung opera. This Doctor was just another EMH program, nothing more.
"Anything else I can do for you, Captain?" Fitzgerald asked, snapping Janeway out of her thoughts.
"No." Janeway replied as she turned to leave. "Keep me posted on the condition of your patients."
"Of course." Fitzgerald muttered under his breath. "So we can send them back out to die in this carnage." Janeway heard every word of it, but she didn't reply.
OOOOOOOOOO
Several hours later, Janeway was laying in her quarters. Although the day's events had exhausted her, sleep was far from coming. Suddenly her comm badge beeped. "Janeway here." she replied, slapping it.
"Sorry to disturb you, Captain." Cavit's voice came through. "But we have just received new orders from Starfleet. We are to rendezvous with the Ninth Fleet in the Baroc Sector. Apparently the Dominion is running a supply line through there. Our mission is to destroy it."
"Very well, set a course at once. I'll be there in a little while."
"Right, Cavit out." the channel closed.
"Now what happens?" Janeway asked herself just before Voyager shook again.
"Red Alert! All hands to battle stations!"
OOOOOOOOOO
"Report!" Janeway shouted as she stormed onto the bridge.
"Jem'Hadar fighters on an intercept course." Rollins replied from tactical. He looked up. "This time it's a whole fleet of them."
"On screen." Janeway commanded and soon she was treated to a fleet of Jem'Hadar fighters bearing down on Voyager like a swarm of angry hornets.
"Evasive!" she barked.
"Trying." Stadi replied from the helm. "They are matching our maneuvers, I can't shake them." Voyager then shuddered again as another salvo of Jem'Hadar fire struck her.
"Shields down to eighty-five percent!" shouted Rollins.
"Return fire." Janeway commanded and watched as Voyager once again unleashed her photon torpedoes. They struck one of the front Jem'Hadar ships, destroying it. The Jem'Hadar quickly returned fire. Voyager shuddered again.
"Damage to..." Harry Kim began, but got no farther as his panel exploded right in his face. Thrown across the bridge, Kim came to rest near the entrance to the bridge. A bridge officer, Burke, quickly went over to check on Kim.
"Well?" asked Janeway.
"He's dead." Burke replied, shaking his head.
"No I can't..." Janeway began and then stopped. Chakotay, Tuvok, Torres, Paris, and now Harry Kim was gone as well. "Why did I want this?" Janeway asked.
"Captain?" Cavit asked with a puzzled look on his face. He got no further as a huge lurch shook the ship. Voyager had just been hit simultaneously by three salvos of Jem'Hadar fire. Panels exploded all over the bridge, killing both Stadi and Rollins in the process. Janeway was hurled to the floor.
"Engineering to bridge, come in bridge!" a voice shouted over Janeway's comm badge.
"Janeway here." she replied weakly after she tapped it.
"This is Lieutenant Carey. Everyone down here, except me, is dead. The warp core has been damaged beyond repair. We are looking at a breach in the next sixty seconds!"
"Eject the core." Janeway said, her voice a little stronger now.
"I've tried. The ejector system is off-line. Captain, there is no way to stop it. I can't..." his voice faded out as the comm system went down.
"Then don't." Janeway said as the ship lurched again. Cavit was hurled across the bridge and his head hit a railing with an audible crack. He slumped to the deck and did not rise again. All her friends were dead, and now Voyager itself was dying. The shaking grew worse and worse, Janeway closed her eyes and calmly waited for the end, which now was only seconds away. But the end never came, the shaking stopped. Janeway opened her eyes and saw that everything around her was frozen in place almost like a holodeck program would be frozen when someone gave the freeze program command.
"Hello again." Q said, standing over Janeway. "Come at a bad time, have I?"
"Very funny." Janeway groaned as she pulled herself to her feet.
"I think you know what happens next. Voyager is destroyed, all hands lost."
"I get the point." Janeway said as she looked around the frozen half-destroyed bridge. "So this is what would have happened to Voyager if it hadn't been taken into the Delta Quadrant."
"You got it." Q replied. "Aside from the death of your friends and the loss of your ship, think of all the people you helped in the few years you have been in the Delta Quadrant. If you had never been there, what would have become of them? Death, disease, famine, you name it. These poor people would have continued to suffer. Some probably would have died out altogether." Q paused to give Janeway room to think. "So what's it going to be?"
"Put things back the way they were. Where there's life, there's hope."
"You only had to ask." Q said and everything vanished in a bright flash of light.
OOOOOOOOOO
Janeway opened her eyes quickly and looked around. She was back in her ready room, at her desk. A quick check showed her uniform was once again command red. "Am I back?"
"Yes you are." Q said as he appeared opposite her. "Everything is back the way it was."
"Thank you." Janeway said. "You made me realize ..."
"Oh please." Q said as he raised a hand in front of her. "Let's not get mushy now." He vanished again, with Janeway's laughter echoing in his ears.
OOOOOOOOOO
Down in the Mess Hall, the Christmas party was in full swing. Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres had stolen some moments under the mistletoe, Harry Kim was over in corner, chatting with the Delaney twins, and even Seven of Nine seemed to be having a good time, the Doctor present at her side. Chakotay watched as Neelix strode over to where Ensign Samantha Wildman and her daughter, Naomi, were standing. Naomi giggled as Neelix lifted her onto his shoulders. All in all it was a great party. Chakotay was about to help himself to another glass of eggnog, when the doors opened and Captain Janeway entered the room. Quickly Chakotay walked over to her. "Captain." he said. "I thought you weren't coming."
"I changed my mind." Janeway replied, and then raised her voice for all to hear. "Merry Christmas everyone!" The crew quickly replied the same.
"Have some eggnog." Chakotay said as he handed Janeway a glass. "So what changed your mind. I'm curious."
"Let's just say an old friend made me see things more clearly."
"I beg you pardon?"
"I'll explain later. Let's have some fun."
"I thought you would never ask." Chakotay replied.
All through the day the party continued, presents were exchanged, carols were sung, Neelix's Christmas dinner was a huge success, with even Seven and the Doctor joining in. Later on, Janeway noticed a Christmas card sitting on a nearby table, one that hadn't been there a moment before. Quickly she picked it up and saw it was addressed to her. The card inside depicted Voyager against the vastness of the cosmos. Janeway opened the card and smiled at the message that was written inside:
Kathy:
No person is poor who has friends.
Signed, Q
"Can I have everyone's attention please?" Tom Paris, who had gotten up onto one of the tables, asked. His voice had a slight slur on it, obviously from too much eggnog. "As Master of Ceremonies, I think it is only fitting that we close things out with a singing of Auld Lang Syne. So raise your glasses!" B'Elanna then passed out sheets with the lyrics of the song. So the crew launched into the classic holiday tune. As she looked around, Janeway saw Seven of Nine had a puzzled look on her face, with the Doctor showing her the lyrics. Finally Seven slowly began to sing along with the rest of the crew. As she continued to scan the room, Janeway thought, for an instant, she saw Q, his female mate, and their young son, singing along with the rest of the crew. Janeway blinked and when she looked again, they were gone. Smiling, Janeway rejoined the rest of the crew and it seemed the music of Auld Lang Syne penetrated the hulls of Voyager and echoed out into the glittering stars of space.