Chakotay felt an unexpected torrent of nostalgia overwhelm him as he stepped into the dim interior of the Delta Flyer, he hadn't realised how many memories were focused around its cabin; crash landings, encounters with Borg, playing poker with a clueless Neelix and a jovial Tom, blurting out a marriage proposal to Seven after a particularly stressful away mission… Where had all the time gone? He wondered, a hint of a saddened smile flickering across his lips as he pushed away thoughts of the past always lurking at the back of his mind and focused for now on the present. The cabin had undergone many subtle changes since he'd last been on board, new control panels were embedded into the old consoles, their cornucopia of glowing buttons just one small sign of how far things had moved forward in the thirty some years since the Voyager crew had designed and built the ship from scratch. Slowly he headed towards the pilot seat, sinking into it with a heavy sigh, the sound of which was overtaken by a loud creak that made him smirk. Obviously the geniuses at Starfleet Engineering had neglected to replace the seats during the Flyer's extensive refit, Tom would be livid if he knew, it had been a long standing joke that Tom had spent more time designing the seats, to be perfect for napping of course, than any other detail of the ship!

"She's changed a great deal since you last commanded her Chakotay." Admiral Janeway's voice resonating behind him made him jump, "Tritanium armour plating in addition to the isometric shielding, enhanced warp engines, multi-phasic torpedoes, and of course the neural interface for flying…"

Chakotay let her words wash over him without paying full attention, instead reaching underneath the console and smiling at what he found there, an old scorch mark from a phaser. The day it had happened felt like yesterday, he and Seven had been on a trade mission with a species who, unbeknownst to them, had a visceral hatred of the Borg, former or not. One on-board fire fight and a quick getaway later, he'd impulsively proposed to a guilt-ridden Seven. He still grinned like a teenager at the thought of the passionate make-out session they'd had afterwards under this very console. They'd been banned from going on away missions alone together after that, the Captain citing as her reasoning their habit of becoming "unprofessionally distracted" and "risking diplomatic incidents". "I would argue nothing's changed much, I still trust the Flyer to get me there in one piece." Chakotay replied to the Admiral as she finally fell silent and looked at him questioningly.

"It will still be a hard journey…" The Admiral murmured tersely, "Did the Doctor give you the inoculations?"

"Yes, with reservations. Even with no details of my mission he was still pretty against it, but I talked him round." Chakotay answered distractedly as he began to prepare the Flyer's systems for flight.

"Anyone in their right mind would be against this…" Janeway muttered under her breath, but Chakotay heard her anyway and twisted around to face her, his expression stonily calm.

"Anyone in their right mind would've settled their crew on some M-Class planet in the Delta Quadrant rather than set out on a perilous odyssey back to the Alpha Quadrant." He reminded her wryly, sighing as she continued to look uncertain, "Look Kathryn, you've done as I asked, just leave now if you feel uncomfortable and don't look back."

Janeway bit her lip as she stepped back from him, heaving a sigh as her hand clenched nervously around the console. "It was my idea, remember. I know all the things that could go wrong." She pointed out, more sharply than she'd intended. "I wouldn't be your friend, or respecting the memories of Seven and Freya, if I wasn't worried."

Despite flinching at her use of his wife and daughter's names to dissuade him from saving them, Chakotay put his hand over hers with magnanimous understanding. "Trust that I want this to work, I need this to work more than anything in my life, do you understand that?"

Janeway gave a slow deliberate nod as she retreated to the Flyer's still open door and climbed out. "Godspeed Commander." She murmured in reply and as her final goodbye.

You've been cleared to leave orbit Commander." A space-traffic controller informed Chakotay as he flew the Flyer through the last of Earth's thick, candy floss like, white clouds.

"Thank you Lieutenant." Chakotay responded, already dialling in the co-ordinates of the Klingon moon where the key to his mission could be found.

"Travel safely." The lieutenant replied politely before the comm. link clicked off.

Chakotay pondered his words as the Flyer pulled free from Earth's atmosphere and soared into the star sprinkled void of space above. Safety. The Voyager crew had always been promised a better life, safety, happiness, if they managed to get back to Earth, but were such feelings really dependent on a place? As he looked down at the silently spinning blue and green speckled marble of a planet down below with mixed emotions, he couldn't help but think back to the day when Voyager had finally reached its promised haven…

Balancing a glass of celebratory champagne in one hand and a stack of PADDs in the other, Chakotay walked into his quarters with tired steps, he'd been foolish to assume that their arrival back home would mean relaxation, Starfleet wanted every file on their journey sent to them before Voyager's landing gear even touched Earth's soil, and to be honest all the excitement was emotionally draining…

He paused as his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting and saw Freya curled up on the sofa nearest the room's large viewport, hugging her knees tight against her chest as she stared fixatedly out at the planet they were rapidly heading towards, Earth. "Freya honey?" he asked in surprise, "I thought you'd be celebrating with your friends in the Mess Hall."

She jumped slightly at the unexpected sound of his voice and whipped her head around to face him. "I don't really feel like it today, parties can get a little boring after a few days of them." She answered quietly.

Chakotay smiled at her teasingly, "I never thought I'd hear a fourteen year old say that." He remarked with a chuckle as he came closer. She only summoned the weakest of smiles at the comment and as he read her expression he knew something was wrong. Her face was guarded, her jaw tensely set, but really it was her eyes that revealed something to him, they had that pinched, deep thinking and anxious look, so reminiscent of Seven at her most uncertain and vulnerable, that his heart clenched in worry and sympathy. "What's wrong angel?" he asked softly.

Freya stiffened. "Nothing." She retorted sulkily, even as she twisted her tawny hair fretfully in her fingers.

Chakotay sighed as he sat down next to her on the sofa. "Nothing must be pretty bad." He commented knowingly as he gently put his arm around her shoulders

He got a momentarily withering glare in reply to that before she gave in and cuddled into his side, not too proud to take reassurance she so desperately needed. "What's going to happen to us now Papa?" she asked after a few silent minutes.

"Well…" Chakotay pondered for a second, "It'll be like the Captain explained, we'll get down there, the adults will be debriefed, then there'll be some more parties I assume…"

"I meant in the long term Papa." Freya interrupted sharply, "What if they attack you for being a Maquis? They used to hunt you down…"

"Freya…" Chakotay cut her off seriously and clasped her face, "I don't want you worrying about that, the Maquis were granted an amnesty before you were even born and anyway, if I do face anything I'll deal with it myself, okay? We'll just buy a house somewhere and get settled in…"

Tears brimmed at Freya's eyes now, "I don't know if I want to get settled in! I've always lived here!" she burst out suddenly, "Wh…What if…I don't like it…" she choked out, rubbing at her streaming eyes in frustration.

Chakotay stroked her hair and hugged her close, "You probably won't like it straight away, nobody likes change at first, that's normal. But I can promise you that if you give it a chance to be home, it will be. Earth and the Federation will give you so many more opportunities that you never would've had here, you just need to explore them."

Freya sniffed loudly. "What you're saying is that I'll need to adapt?" she murmured wryly.

Chakotay swallowed the lump that sprang into his throat. "Yes, that's in essence what I'm saying."

She nodded against his chest as she sighed, before abruptly asking, "Papa, are you sad?"

"About what?" Chakotay queried, glancing worriedly down at her.

Freya gulped hard then elaborated in a whisper, "About Mama not being here?"

She could feel his chest tightening with grief under her cheek as he answered, "I'm always sad about her not being with us, I loved her…deeply, and still do. Yes, it's sad that she can't see what she worked her whole liberated life to reach but…" He stopped, stroking her hair again, "You know, your Mama told me more than once that she'd didn't care much about Earth for its own sake, she'd never lived there even as a child, it was "irrelevant" to her, but do you know what else she said?"

"What?" Freya asked in eager curiosity, "Why did she work so hard to help Voyager if she found Earth irrelevant?"

Chakotay smiled fondly at the memory, "She said, "It is not seeing Earth that will please me, in fact I will most likely be afraid, I draw pleasure from the thought of seeing the crew, my Collective, reach their goal, and seeing their happiness, that will make me happy.""

"I think that's how I feel too Papa, is that okay?" Freya murmured softly.

"Anything you feel is okay honey." He replied thickly as he kissed her forehead.

Admiral Janeway gulped down the last dregs of cold coffee and decided to drag herself away from her office, Mark would be worried sick and it was too late to fret about Chakotay now anyway, several years too late. Maybe if she'd discouraged that relationship even more strongly, held firm…

"Admiral." The sound of the Doctor's voice directly behind her almost made her yelp in shock before she wheeled angrily around.

"Doctor, what are you doing here at this time of night?" she asked shrilly.

"I could ask you the same thing, except I know your reason, you're worried about Chakotay." The hologram pressed.

"Why…Why would I be worried about him?" she responded shakily.

"Because he's doing something dangerous. I spoke to Starfleet Intelligence; they've never signed him up for any mission, much less a covert one. He severed his links with Starfleet as soon as Voyager was decommissioned." The Doctor replied coldly. "What is he doing? He isn't a well man Admiral, he should be taking it easy, not chasing some farfetched…" He stopped when he saw the tears dripping down Janeway's face. "Admiral?" he asked, shocked.

"Oh Doctor, I think I've made a terrible mistake…"