Chapter Four

Janeway was headed back to astrometrics. Repairs on the warp engines were top priority and going smoothly with B'Elanna's guidance – Voyager couldn't perform the slingshot to the future without them working near optimal levels – so most of the crew was working round-the-clock to get the drive running. However, a few were working on the calculations for the slingshot itself. Hopefully, if all went well, they would be done both for the trip to the future, and hopefully for the trip back to the present, shortly before the engines were ready.

Nevertheless, Janeway was headed to check on Seven's progress. Seven had recruited several members of the crew to assist in the calculations and Janeway was curious to see how the process was going. Not to mention more than a little desperate. If Seven can't figure out how to make this work, it's all over for Starfleet. For home.

She slipped through the doors to the astrometrics lab and glanced around. Seven was working at her normal station. Next to her was Harry, who was very good with this kind of spatial mathematics, as he'd proven with their failed quantum slipstream experiment – there had been no right answer, back then, and she didn't hold their failure against him. On the other side of the lab was Icheb, pouring over data. Next to him was… Mortimer Harren? What is he doing here? The answer came to her quickly: despite everything, Harren was very, very good with mathematical equations. This was a project that would appeal to him. And it gets him out of B'Elanna's hair. Maybe he and Seven will bond over this existential calculus and we'll transfer him to astrometrics.

"Oh. Good afternoon, Captain," Harry said, looking up as he heard the doors swish closed behind her as she entered.

"Hello, Harry. How is it progressing?" she asked. In the corner of her eye, she saw Harren surreptitiously glance at her, and then just as surreptitiously turn back to his console, placing his back towards her. She almost laughed. Well, as long as he's getting the work done.

"We are progressing with high efficiency. The calculations will be finished in approximately 2.5 hours, Captain," said Seven, taking only a second to glance over at her captain. Janeway's eyebrows rose.

"That's a good two hours ahead of your previous estimate, Seven. What changed?"

"Crewman Harren volunteered to assist us when he heard we were calculating a slingshot trajectory. He has an interest in temporal warp mechanics." Seven turned back to her calculations. "Once we have completed the slingshot calculations, we will divert our resources to repairing the warp engines. Your presence is unnecessary."

Janeway's eyebrows rose higher. "Unnecessary, is it? Well, I suppose so. I'll leave you people to your work." She grinned. "Good job, Crewman Harren. I'll have to put you up for a promotion." As she turned and exited the lab, she saw him spin around, a shocked and frightened look on his face. She barely managed to hold back her laughter until after the doors slid closed.

Janeway spent the next four hours being B'Elanna's hands in engineering. Her chief engineer currently lacked the physical mobility to get to the places where the work really needed to be done, and Janeway's engineering skills made her an ideal choice to help B'Elanna. Moreover, anyone else would also have been subject to B'Elanna's wrath when she said something that went completely over their heads, but as captain Janeway was not on the top of B'Elanna's list for "people she'd like to yell at." Besides, Janeway usually knew what B'Elanna was talking about.

Eventually, most of the work was finished and Janeway was headed back to the bridge. By Icheb and Seven's estimates, they had six, maybe seven hours before the Queen began her invasion. That meant, assuming they got back from the future just minutes after they left the present, that would give them just a few hours to get to the hub and put whatever they manage to scrounge from the future to good use. They desperately needed to find something in the future to make the ship faster. I feel like Henry Starling, headed to the future in the hopes I can find something I can understand and use in the present. Janeway thought. I bet Captain Braxton must really hate me right now. I hope the temporal police don't show up and tell me I have to let the Borg assimilate humanity. She snorted at the ridiculousness of the thought. I think I'd shoot them.

"Captain!" exclaimed someone from behind her. She turned. It was Harry, who jogged up to catch her. "When do we leave, ma'am?" he asked.

"As soon as I get to the bridge, Mr. Kim. We have no time to lose, and I intend to make sure that every second we have available is put to good use." They entered the turbolift, which proceeded to head up to the bridge.

"What do you think we'll find in the future, Captain?" he asked as the lift rose.

"To be honest, Mr. Kim, I haven't the slightest idea. We'll just have to figure out where and when we are after the slingshot and work our way forward from there. We're looking for anything useful that will help us stop the Queen."

"I was thinking about what you said about the temporal prime directive," Harry said. "I was wondering what exactly you meant by it."

"Harry, in our sickbay we've got the Borg queen from fifteen years in our future. She's come back in time to stop us from destroying her transwarp hub – and for the time being, she's succeeded, because we can't destroy the hub in time to save the Federation. But when she did that, she opened up all kinds of doors into possibilities that none of us had considered." Janeway shrugged. "I don't know what we'll find, Harry. But the temporal prime directive went out the window when the Queen decided to play games with the timeline. Now it's up to us to do what we can to make sure she doesn't create a timeline where everyone in the galaxy wears cybernetic implants." Janeway stopped. "I expect we'll find the Borg transwarp hub, with whatever damage we did to it, and a Borg collective which has been shattered by some other unknown outside force. We just need to find out what we need to come back and stop the Queen, once and for all. Right now, Harry, everything else is secondary." The turbolift doors slid open and Janeway marched out.

"Mr. Paris, do you have the data from astrometrics for the slingshot jump?" she asked, settling into her captain's chair behind Tom and next to Chakotay.

"Yes ma'am. We're rearing and ready to go," he said. One of his fingers tapped excitedly on the keyboard. "I've always wanted to try this," he said.

"Well then, Mr. Paris. Do it," she ordered. She reached over and patted Chakotay's shoulder. "Only one captain in the history of Starfleet has ever pulled this little stunt, Chakotay, and Starfleet Command swore they'd court-martial anyone else who ever tried," she whispered. Her crooked grin sharply contrasted the content of her words.

Chakotay grinned back. "We'll talk them out of it when we get back. I think they'll forgive us when we tell them that they had a choice between assimilation and a minor violation of the temporal prime directive."

"Warp 9, we're entering the star's gravitational well," Paris commented from the helm. The bridge began to shake.

"Have you ever read the ship's motto?" Janeway asked. She reached over and her hand had found Chakotay's, letting his strength seep into her through the skin.

"Alfred Tennyson. I don't have it memorized, sorry Captain."

"For I dipt in to the future, far as human eye could see; Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be," she quoted to him. "Oddly appropriate, don't you think?" The ship began to shake a little bit more. "Steady as she goes, Mr. Paris. If Jim Kirk could pull off a slingshot in a 23rd century Klingon Bird of Prey, then you can do it with Starfleet's finest engines." Tom didn't bother to respond.

Chakotay tightened his grip on her fingers, regaining her attention as the star loomed closer on the viewscreen. "For a captain who swore she would never get involved in any temporal paradoxes, you sure have got a knack for them," he said.

She grinned. "True." Voyager's fate was in the hands of the calculations which Seven, Harry, and Harren had done, B'Elanna's engines, and Tom's piloting. Voyager rocketed towards the star, surrounded by the nebula in which they had spent the last few days hiding, and shimmered as they fell out of synch with time.

The crew around her began to recover from the timewarp. The maneuver was exceptionally disconcerting, and all around the bridge the officers struggled to regain their composure. "When are we?" asked Janeway, shaking off the last of the effects. She turned back towards Harry, who was buried in his console, struggling to make sense of the data. She stood up and walked over to ops to join him.

"I'm not exactly sure, ma'am. At least fourteen years. No more than eighteen. That's all I can give you right now," Harry finally said. Janeway turned away. "Wait, Captain… there's something else here on short range sensors. The nebula is making it difficult to see anything, this soup is so thick… but there's definitely some free object in orbit around one of the planetoids in this system. It wasn't there before the slingshot."

"Can we get it on viewer? Tom, put us in orbit along with that object. I have a feeling whatever it is will be important and could tell us quite a lot about where we are and what has happened in the last twelve to eighteen years." Tom acknowledged the orders, and Voyager swung into orbit. "Harry, can we get a visual yet?" Janeway asked as she turned back to face the main viewer.

"Just a second ma'am. I think… yes! I think I've got visual. Hold on, I'm going to try to put it on the viewscreen." The image was staticy at first and Janeway wasn't sure what she was looking at. But as the image resolved just a little bit, her heart stopped. Then Harry managed to clean it up, and everyone recognized it.

Hanging on the viewer, just barely managed to keep orbit, was a wreck that bore the name USS Voyager, NCC-74656. For a few long seconds, everyone was silent. Janeway stood slowly, and finally turned away from the viewer to face Harry. "Lifesigns?" she whispered.

"None." Harry's voice was soft and pained.

"What's her status?" asked Janeway, her voice regaining some of the assertiveness it had lost when she first saw the crippled, dead Voyager that belonged to this future.

Tuvok spoke first. "The other Voyager has only minimal power to maneuvering thrusters. I believe all of her energy reserves are being devoted to the maintenance of her computer core. I am attempting to access it." Tuvok paused. "Many of the files appear to be corrupted. I do not wish to attempt a data transfer with a remote link, as we may destabilize the files. We should go aboard and interface with the computer directly." Janeway looked up. What are we going to find over there? The fate of another Voyager? Our own fate, if the Queen hadn't taken it upon herself to change the timeline? Janeway didn't really want to know what was over on the other Voyager, a ship that had been created by actions that she had been resolved to take, but had never taken because of the untimely arrival of the Queen. In the end, though, it was still her ship. Her crew. Her responsibility.

"Tuvok, you're going to come with me. Have Seven meet us in the transporter room. The three of us will salvage what we can and find out…" her voice choked for a second, but she forced herself to finish the sentence. "Find out what happened to her." She nodded once. "All right. We're here. Lets get to work."

Janeway, Seven, and Tuvok assembled in the transporter room. Behind the panel was Lieutenant Nicoletti, who was checking the controls. Before them stood Chakotay and Torres. "Captain, we've managed to stabilize the other Voyager's power supply. Life support is functional and the computer core is no longer in danger of permanent failure. You'll have free reign of the ship, but…" B'Elanna paused. "The shuttlebay was completely destroyed. There's nothing left of it. There's a hull breach on Deck 15 that stretches all way along the underbelly of the ship, and the deck is completely open to space. There are subsequent breaches on other decks. I wouldn't go down any lower than Deck 12, just to be safe."

"All right, B'Elanna. What is intact over there?" Janeway asked.

"Most of the primary hull is intact without serious damage. But Captain, you won't be able to go to any of the crew quarters on Deck 2, including yours. They're completely open to space." Janeway winced. "There's not a whole lot else I can tell you from here, Captain. You just need to watch out for other damage. The nebula is still wreaking havoc with our sensors."

Janeway nodded. "Noted," she said. "Ok Tuvok, Seven, ready to go?" Tuvok nodded and stepped on the transporter pad. Seven glanced at him, then the Captain, and then followed. Janeway turned to follow them both and Chakotay stopped her with a hand on her arm. "Yes, Commander?"

"Be careful over there, Captain. Remember – that isn't our Voyager. What happened to them isn't going to happen to us," he said. His voice was serious, and she could feel the concern emanating from him. She nodded and stepped on the transporter pad.

"Energize, Ms. Nicoletti," Janeway ordered. Nicoletti rested her fingers on the transporter console, and then slid them upwards to initiate the transport. The classic blue light of a transporter beam surrounded each of the away team.

When the typical tingling sensation that accompanied transport faded, Janeway found herself and her companions in a room identical to the one she had left. But there was damage here – the transporter controls were blown to pieces. Two of the six transporter pads had sunken into the floor. The back of the room and the transporter circuitry looked like someone had taken a plasma torch and hosed them down. Janeway took a deep breath. "Come on," she said quietly. Tuvok lead the way into the corridor. The walls were blackened with energy scars and the hallway black. The only light came from their standard-issue flashlights.

They decided that their first course of action should be to find out which parts of the ship were habitable, and which, like Deck 2 and Deck 15, were open to space. Since they had beamed into the transporter room, the three of them slowly made their way down a deck to get to sickbay. Tuvok tried multiple access panels, but none were working, and neither were the sickbay doors. Seven forced the door open, and they went inside.

Sickbay was a mess, but someone had cleaned it up since the ship had taken the majority of the damage. It was cleaner than the transporter room had been, but battle damage scarred the walls. The primary access panels were completely destroyed, Janeway noticed, having overloaded while the ship was in combat. The Doctor's office was relatively undamaged, though. Tuvok went through each room, checking consoles, and then departed sickbay to examine the rest of the ship. Seven and Janeway ended up back in the Doctor's office.

"Seven, can you access the main computer from here?" Janeway asked. Seven walked and leaned down over the small computer that sat on the desk. She pressed a couple buttons, and it came back to life. "It seems power is returning to the damaged systems, at least…" Janeway said. Seven continued working the console as Janeway returned to the main room of sickbay and tried to access the EMH. She shook her head in disgust as the holo-projectors fizzled out. "This isn't going to work," she muttered.

She turned back to the office when Seven called her name. "Captain, I believe I have accessed the main computer. This Voyager did attack the transwarp hub and was not intercepted by the Queen's sphere. I am attempting to access the memory files for the period immediately prior to this Voyager's attack on the transwarp hub and anything that occurred after that stardate." She turned. "There has been no activity on board this vessel, computer or otherwise, for fifteen years, six months, and twelve days. I believe the Doctor initiated final shutdown," Seven said flatly. "It appears that Voyager survived the attack on the hub intact, but crippled, and her main systems gave out shortly thereafter."

"How many…" Janeway stopped. She tried again. "How many people survived the attack on the hub?" she asked. Seven stopped and looked up at Janeway.

"Five. They died when the ship's life support gave out. Without a shuttlebay, and with secondary and tertiary power offline, there was no way to abandon the ship. Even if they had, it is unlikely an escape pod would be able to navigate out of the nebula," she said flatly.

"Do you know who, Seven?" Janeway asked. Seven turned her head and moved back to the computer. She attempted to access the data, but eventually stood back up.

"I am unable to determine. However, if we were able to find and activate the Doctor's program, he would be able to tell us. His final log entry reports that he buried the last of the surviving crew before deactivating his program."

Janeway looked away. She nodded. "Very well, Seven. Let's find Tuvok and then go back to our Voyager to analyze the data we have here," she said. Her combadge beeped. She tapped it. "Janeway here."

"This is Tuvok, Captain. I require your assistance in the morgue." A sinking feeling flooded through Janeway. She glanced at Seven, whose emotionless visage was little comfort, then lead them towards the exit.

Janeway and Seven entered slowly. The morgue was never pleasant even in the best of times on Voyager, but this room had an odorless stench of death. On their Voyager it was usually empty. Here, it was a tomb. Tuvok stood next to one of the chambers. He looked up as they entered. "There are… five corpses here, Captain. The Doctor's mobile emitter is in the sixth chamber." Tuvok's usually stoic demeanor was even more so than usual.

"He buried himself?" Janeway said quietly, torn between horror and a terrible sympathy. She found herself unable to speak, and knelt down on the floor of the morgue as tears threatened to overwhelm her. Tuvok knelt down next to her, and placed his hand on her arm. Oh my God, what have I done?

"Captain." Tuvok's voice penetrated her sorrow and self-loathing. "Captain, you must not let this overwhelm you," he whispered. "The crew needs you, now, more than ever. We did what we had to do to ensure the survival of the Federation, and our sacrifices were not in vain." Janeway looked up at him and said nothing. Then together, they rose to their feet.

"What do we do about the Doctor?" asked Seven. "He is not dead, his program is stable. We should retrieve him from the stasis chambers." Janeway glanced at Tuvok, who looked uncomfortable. He buried himself in the morgue with his dead comrades. He locked himself in the morgue and deactivated himself. How do I justify retrieving him?

"Seven… I'm not sure it's right to retrieve him," she finally said.

Seven looked at her. "Captain… the Doctor has all the answers. He knows what happened to this ship and the crew. He will be able to tell us how Voyager defeated the hub in his past, what weaknesses it has, and how the Borg managed to find and cripple Voyager and her crew as they did. That information may not be in the computer logs. We need him if our mission is to succeed." Janeway looked away. Seven was right, of course, the Doctor would be an invaluable resource. But somehow, standing here in her ship's morgue, with the ghosts of her dead crew and the bodies of five of the finest men and women Starfleet had ever known, she just couldn't bring herself to disturb the dead. Her dead. Janeway slowly, tiredly, exited the morgue. Behind her, Tuvok followed, concerned.

Left alone, Seven looked at each of the stasis chambers. Finally, she stood, and opened the first. Inside was Harry, dressed in his operations uniform. On his collar, he wore lieutenant's pips. She did not take much time to contemplate his countenance, but she fervently hoped that Harry had received his pips when was alive to feel pride in the accomplishment. Seven had never understood his obsession with rank. He didn't need the pips… but she was grateful, looking down, that he wore them now.

The second chamber contained Ensign Jenkins. Seven had never known Rose Jenkins, but she had been a friend to many, including Harry and Tom. She had been the night shift pilot, and a very good pilot. She'd grown up on the Enterprise, and had always said being on Voyager wasn't much different although they never held "Captain Janeway Day." She always insisted that it was a tragedy they didn't. She attended the child's science project when the Borg children had been on board, and had made instant friends of the children. She said the crew of the Enterprise had always made her feel at home and loved, and that it was her chance to do the same for someone else.

The third chamber held another crewman Seven had not known well, Tal Celes. The Bajoran had served under her in astrometrics, and had been woefully underskilled for the position. Seven regarded Tal's lifeless face, and her control over her emotions slipped. Her face fell, regarding this woman who had served her, but a woman she had never bothered to know. Guilt rose up inside her, mourning the death of a woman who had always been friendly, if inept and timid. She closed the chamber slowly.

In the next chamber Seven found Kathryn Janeway, and she lost the control she held so closely, and a few tears slipped down her face. This woman was alive, as were all of them were alive, but she was staring at the corpse of a woman who had given her everything – her life, her individuality, and a chance to make something of them both. Seven quickly closed the last chamber, unable to look upon her captain any longer. She stopped, and leaned up against the wall of the morgue, struggling with her humanity. These people are alive. These people are alive. These people are alive.

In the last chamber Seven found Naomi Wildman.

In her grief, sobbing in the corner of the morgue, Seven did not hear the sixth chamber open of it's own volition, activated automatically by her activity in the morgue. Nor did she recognize the distinctive sound of a hologram being activated, or the sound made as it closed it's own chamber and sealed Naomi's body back into her tomb. But she looked up when it knelt beside her.

The Doctor looked at her, wide-eyed. He appeared to be conflicted about what to say – he had never expected to be activated again, but had made sure that he would be if anyone violated these graves. The woman sobbing over Naomi was one who was dead, one he had mourned sorrowfully, but she was too real to be an illusion. And holograms did not hallucinate.

"Come on," he finally said, and reached for her hand.

They emerged from the morgue and slowly made their way to sickbay. The Doctor supported Seven's weight, helping her along. Her tears had stopped, but her shock remained, and he was astonished at the strength of her grief. Together, they slid through the sickbay doors, still locked open from when Seven had forced them earlier, and he placed her on one of the beds. From the table he took a hypospray and it hissed as he pressed it against her neck. It had been fifteen years since he'd last stepped in this sickbay, but time passed quickly when you were deactivated. He turned on the sickbay lights.

Two people rushed out of his office when he did. Tuvok had his hand on his phaser, and Captain Janeway charged forward, and stopped when she recognized him. "Doctor?" She glanced at Seven, now lying asleep on the biobed. "Did she activate you?"

"Yes and no. She… looked into the burial chambers in the morgue. I programmed myself to activate if they were ever tampered with." He looked down on her sleeping face. "She was… overwhelmed by some of what she found," he said quietly. Janeway looked away, and was about to ask, but he cut in first. "Captain… not to sound rude, but what are you doing here? You…" He winced. "Your body is one of those in the morgue," he said.

Janeway grimaced. "We're from the past, Doctor. The Borg Queen traveled back in time to prevent Voyager's attack on the transwarp hub. We came to the future to find out why, and to find anything we could use to counter the damage she did to the timeline," she said. The Doctor nodded slowly. Janeway turned to Tuvok. "I don't think he's any threat, Tuvok. Why don't you make your way to the main computer core and download whatever you can back to Voyager." Tuvok looked uncomfortably from her to the Doctor, then nodded reluctantly and left. She turned back to the EMH.

"Captain… in this timeline, the attack on the transwarp hub was successful. Afterwards, the five survivors, stranded aboard a dying Voyager with no way to escape, worked to construct a message beacon to send a message to Starfleet Command and warn them of the Borg threat. That was more than fifteen years ago." He looked at her. "After that, Captain, the survivors lived aboard Voyager, trying to get the thrusters working again, to enhance escape pod sensors and engines, anything to get out of the nebula. Eventually, their time ran out." He looked away. "Before life support failed, I injected each with a hypospray to ensure that they wouldn't wake up before the air gave out. Then Captain Janeway…. you… and I worked to transfer all emergency power to the computer system to ensure that the ship's memory files would survive and that Voyager's orbit would not decay. After that…" The Doctor's voice trailed off.

Janeway nodded. "Doctor, I have to know. Who survived the attack?"

The future EMH looked away. "You did, for one. As did Ensign Kim. You two were the only senior officers who lived, although Ensign Jenkins and Crewman Celes also lived through the attack on the hub. The last survivor…" The Doctor looked down. "Naomi Wildman was the fifth survivor."

Janeway gasped, and her hand covered her mouth. She turned away. Not Naomi. Oh, please… I sent Icheb to his death for the "betterment of all" and Naomi survived our suicide, only to die a slow death along with Voyager. Her 'home.' "Oh, Doctor," she whispered. She lifted herself onto one of the empty biobeds. "That's who Seven found, isn't it," she said.

"She found all five of you. Naomi was the last," the Doctor said. He sat beside her. "If it's any consolation, Captain, we think the message got through to Starfleet. The Federation knew the Borg were coming, and we sent them all the data we had on the threat. Voyager's crew might have died, but we gave the Federation a chance to fight back and defeat the Borg. If we hadn't been here, if we hadn't done what we did, there would surely have been no Alpha Quadrant to go home to, Captain."

"I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to know you better, Doctor. I promised I would, but then all this happened and…" he interrupted her.

"Captain, we spent more time together on this ship than I ever could have hoped after the attack, and I consider you a true friend and the bravest woman I've ever known. I'm sorry I never told you that, before you died," he said. "But then, there are a lot of things I regret never doing." He paused. "Come here, Captain. There's something you should see." The two of them walked over to his office, and he let her sit in his chair. He tapped a few buttons, and a screen came up and demanded a password. "These are your personal logs, Captain. The computer core was damaged, and all your old logs were lost about two weeks after the attack. You started this file after that happened. I thought you might like to read some of them. They're all text, not audio."

Janeway smiled mournfully, wiping tracks from her earlier tears from her face. "What's the password?" she asked.

The Doctor shrugged. "I don't know, exactly. I once asked my Captain the same question, after a few weeks aboard. She told me it was the only thing she still truly regretted." He looked at her solemnly. "I never asked again after that." He turned to leave and go check on Seven, but as he left the office, he looked back at her. "I know it wasn't the hub, Captain. Despite everything, she never regretted that. And you shouldn't either." With that, he exited the office.

Tuvok returned and entered the office before she could ponder it. She looked up at him. "I've found and downloaded the computer core, Captain. Our mission here is finished. There is nothing else aboard worth salvaging." He turned and looked back at the Doctor, who was watching over Seven. "Is he going to be coming with us?" he asked. Janeway shrugged.

"I don't know. I'll ask him when we leave," she said. She looked up at her oldest friend. "Tuvok, have I ever made a decision that I should look back on and regret?" she asked. "You told me that judgments should themselves be judged by the information you had when you made the choice. Have I made any decisions in the last seven years I should regret?"

Tuvok looked at her steadily. "You have never made a decision you should regret, Captain. Something always kept you from making decisions that you knew to be in error." He paused. "There is one choice you made that was not a mistake, but you regret it regardless. That too, can be a true regret." He stood and turned to leave. "I will return to Voyager and inform the crew that we have finished our task in this system. I will study the sensor data and try to determine our next course of action." He tapped his combadge. "Tuvok to Voyager, one to beam up." He dematerialized.

Janeway turned back to the computer on the desk that held all her thoughts from the weeks after her ship had been destroyed and her crew killed. She found it hard to believe that she had never regretted the decision to attack the hub. She stared hard at the computer, thinking about what her last regret could be. Suddenly, it struck her like a thunderbolt, as she thought about what her life would have been like on this Voyager, with five helpless crewmen and only the knowledge that they had done what they had to do to sustain them. And Tuvok's last remark. One choice that was not wrong but that I regret anyway. Something I regret even now.

She felt her eyes prick with tears and she knew. Her hands dropped and she entered in eight digits, and watched sadly as the screen came to life.

The Doctor sat patiently at Seven's bedside, waiting for her to awaken from the emotion-induced slumber that had her lying on the biobed. The Captain sat in his office, looking sad but lacking the desperation and guilt that had plagued her when he had come in, and he knew that she would be all right, eventually. Next to him, Seven stirred and regained his focus. She too, would be all right. Nevertheless, there were things he needed to tell her, things he needed to do, before she returned to her Voyager.

He would not be going with her. He had already decided that when he learned who they were. They were not his crew, and she was not his Seven. His Voyager was long dead and his place was here, protecting and guarding the end of their journey, here in this nebula that would have to suffice for home.

Seven's eyes were now open. "Hello," he said. She sat up.

"You are the Doctor from this Voyager," she said. He nodded. "You activated when I viewed the bodies in the morgue." He nodded again. He'd forgotten how brusque she could be. Then again, he supposed it was understandable, considering the circumstances. "You know who we are and why we are here?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. "Now sit, Seven. I will not be coming back to Voyager with you – if nothing else, it would not be fair to my alternate self. I belong here. But there are things you need to hear," he said. "I saw you mourning Naomi. You should know that she mourned you, too. She spent days crying over you, and her mother, Commander Chakotay, and everyone who had died. If not for Ensign Jenkins and Crewman Celes, I'm not sure she would have ever pulled out of her depression, but she did eventually. They knew that they would all die eventually, Seven. There was no way to get off the ship, and even if we had, there was no place to go. Captain Janeway once asked her if she wished she had left Voyager when the Captain had asked her to, but she shook her head and said that her place was here, as it had always been. It was her home, and there was no where else she wanted to be." He smiled. "She was… is… a remarkable girl, Seven. When you return to your ship, make sure you give her a hug. And tell her you love her, Seven. Use the words. I know that you do – I knew before, but I saw your love in the morgue. Tell her."

She looked up and nodded. The emotion that had bubbled to the surface earlier had submerged again, but he could see it lingering in her eyes. "I will, Doctor. I promise."

He sighed and looked down. "Seven… before all this happened, I said a lot of things that I never intended to say when I believed my program would be decompiled. There was no time afterwards for us to ever discuss it." The uncomfortable look which had plagued Seven the last few days returned to her face. The Doctor saw it and smiled. "I know it makes you uncomfortable, Seven. That's part of romance, especially when it's one sided." He sighed. "It was wrong of me to say all of those things when I thought I was going to die. They were things I should have said, to everyone, long before. Things my friends deserved to know. Before I got a chance to fix the mistakes I had made, Voyager was here and most of them were dead." He stopped and looked at her. "Seven, I don't know if I ever had a chance for a relationship with you. It was something I always believed beyond me, and I still think it was. But I should have asked. Suddenly you were dead and all the chances were gone and I wished for a chance to tell you." He laughed. "Well, I have it now, and to you, my confession of love is still a recent memory."

Seven sat up and looked at him. He continued, "Seven. I don't know if I loved you. I was infatuated with you, and I would have liked a chance to pursue our friendship as something more. I did not even try, and I forever looked back on what could have been. I may just be a hologram, but I'm a hologram who mourned your death for a very long time. I don't know if my counterpart will ever ask you this. But if he does… don't dismiss him out of hand. Please."

Seven was silent for a long second. Then she said, "Doctor, I never thought of you as a potential romantic partner. You were a hologram and I believed it was not a serious possibility. I always assumed that procreation was the intended result of romantic relationships; something I have since learned is… not always the case. It was never something I considered and perhaps I should have. After your… confession… I did not know how, or if, I should react." She touched his arm. "I will consider you in that light in the future, Doctor. And I will tell Naomi that I love her."

He smiled. "Thank you, Seven. That is all that I could ever ask."

When they beamed back to their Voyager, Commander Chakotay was waiting. He wore a look of concern. "Are you all right, Kathryn?" he asked. She nodded, but the transporter room doors slid open before she had a chance to speak. Naomi Wildman rocketed through the doors.

"Captain! Seven!" Janeway looked down on the little girl, Voyager's prodigal daughter, and she smiled happily. She watched in astonishment as Seven knelt down and engulfed the little girl in a hug.

"I love you, Naomi Wildman," she said quietly. Janeway had never heard so much emotion in her voice before. She watched them silently, swearing once again that she would not let her Voyager meet the same end that the one she had just departed did. I've got to get them home.

In front of her, Naomi grinned up at Seven."I know, Seven," Naomi said, reaching up to wrap her arms around Seven's neck. "I love you too. Now, you're late for our game of kadis-kot. Crewman Celes and Icheb are waiting in my quarters to play. We've been waiting for you, we knew you were coming back from the other Voyager soon." Janeway could have sworn Seven was about to start to laugh, but the former drone just allowed herself to be dragged from the transporter room by the little half-Katarian bundle of energy. "Bye Captain!" Naomi said happily on the way out. From the transporter controls, Nicoletti did laugh, following behind.

Janeway watched and let herself be helped down off the transporter pad by her first officer. "What did you find over there?" he asked.

"A future that would have been. A future that will never be," she said firmly. "Come on. We're going to find a way to stop the Queen. She has a lot to answer for." She looked over at him, touching his arm lightly with her hand. "Chakotay, over on that ship I almost lost myself to my grief. I made a decision that you and Tuvok and the crew supported, and on that ship I faced the consequences of that decision. My ship was in ruins and my whole crew was dead, and it was because of a decision that I made."

Chakotay looked at her. "You're the captain, Kathryn. You took the Kobayashi Maru – The no-win scenario. On one side, it was the death of your crew. On the other, it was the death of the Federation." He gripped her arm. "The greatest test of an officer is the Kobayashi Maru. There's a reason it's the final test at the Academy. We're going to beat it, this time, because the Queen couldn't handle losing."

"There's something we have in common," muttered Janeway.