Letters Home

Voyager has been in the Delta Quadrant for just over ten years now. They have been in contact with Starfleet via Pathfinder for four years, thanks to Reg Barclay. These are the letters members of the senior staff wrote to their families.

Usual disclaimers apply; I just can't be bothered writing one at the moment.

Dear Dad,

That's sort of uncomfortable for me to say; Dad. I never thought I would actually know you in my adult years, but I couldn't write 'Dear John' because that would sound really weird, so Dad it is.

Last time I spoke to you was over three years ago, when I was pregnant. Before that, it was when I was 12 and we went on that camping trip with Uncle Carl and my cousins.

Well, a lot has happened since we last spoke. I wasn't really planning on writing you, but once Captain Janeway had told us she was writing a letter home, she suggested we all do the same: one letter to any member of our family, any length at all. I wanted to write Mom, but I had an experience over four years ago which suggested to me that she was dead.

Anyway, the last time we spoke, I was pregnant with Miral. She is as stubborn as her mother, and as cheeky as her father, with an impeccable sense of timing… not.

Just over three years ago, Kathryn, the Captain, had gotten herself into another fight with the Borg, fuelled on by her future self. The whole 'future self' thing is something we're forbidden to discuss under the Temporal Prime Directive, but to cut a long story short, Admiral Janeway convinced Captain Janeway to fly into a Borg-infested nebula and pick a fight with the Borg Queen.

Typical Kathryn couldn't resist a fight with the Queen and, after much deliberation, went to fight face-to-face with her. At that time; which Voyager was in the middle of the fight, destroying one of the Borg's transwarp hubs, Captain Janeway was on the Bridge watching as the Admiral destroyed the Borg from the inside; I was in Sickbay.

Being Chief Engineer, my job was to be down in Engineering, fixing whatever system had decided to fail at that particular moment or pump the shields full with more power or something like that. But no, Miral decided to follow the lead of her parents – cheeky and stubborn.

While the Borg were self-destructing around us, I was in labour.

After a very painful, but thankfully not very long, labour, I was sitting in Sickbay, my new daughter in my arms and my husband by my side, after he left his station on the Bridge, which happened to be after Miral was born.

You'll probably notice we named her after her maternal grandmother, and that's because she's the one person I didn't make peace with, the one person that won't meet my baby girl.

Well, we were still stuck in the Delta Quadrant, but our arch enemy, the Borg, had been destroyed. However, we were, and still are, faced with a long journey home. It has now been narrowed down to ten to fifteen years, at the most.

Tom and I were settling in well with Miral. Kathryn tried to make us take parental leave for almost a month, but after a few days I was bored and ended up back on duty.

Now, three years later, Tom and I are still as happy as we were when Miral was born. We have three beautiful children; three year old Miral, 18 month old Imogen Marie and our youngest, six month old Ryan Edward Paris.

Every now and then, Kathryn, my best friend among other things, mentions what she wrote in her letter. She told her mother that she could see Tom and I, many years from now, surrounded by our numerous grown children children, of which one will be named after his father and one incorporating my maiden name – Torres, and grandchildren, if not great grandchildren!

But, I can believe that. I have always wanted a large family – growing up as an only child was hard on me, and I don't want to wish that on my children. It was hard enough for me to come to terms with my Klingon heritage on my own, but now that Tom has helped me, we can together, when the kids are older, help them see the benefits of being one quarter Klingon.

Dad, I know I have never really fit in anywhere, that's why I joined the Maquis, but I have finally found my true home – Voyager. Don't get mad when I say this, by Tom and I feel the same.

It wouldn't kill us if we never reached home.

I have never in my life felt as at home like I do here, where I have my own family and my extended family together. The crew have grown so close that Kathryn and Chakotay, who finally admitted their feelings for each other and married, are the parents of everyone, not only their twin daughters, Taya Elizabeth and Kimberley Hope; our 'family' grows bigger every year, as most people have accepted our fate and adopted our tone; and have therefore begun to pair off and create families of their own.

In a year at most we will probably need a day care and schooling program to care for the amount of children we have produced while everyone is on duty or needs down time.

But, who am I to complain, I have two beautiful daughters and a gorgeous son, and in about five years I will probably have another three kids on top of Miral, Immy and Ryan!

I hope you can forgive me for the way I have acted towards you in the past, but when we do reach the Alpha Quadrant, I would like my kids to know their Mommy's Daddy, if that makes sense.

If you wouldn't mind, I would like you to try to contact Admiral Owen Paris at Starfleet Command, he's Tom's father, so you can get to know some of my family while you wait for us, but I would understand it if you didn't.

Dad, I will see you when we come in closer range to Earth and home, but please remember what I asked you.

From in the middle of the crowded Paris nursery, ­USS Voyager, Delta Quadrant,

Your daughter,

B'Elanna

John Torres placed the padd with his daughters' letter on the coffee table, pausing to reflect on her words.

She was normally hot-headed, but motherhood had obviously changed that, and her quick temper wasn't as predominant, though she was still stubborn.

John sighed. Even though he really didn't know her, he still missed his half-Klingon daughter. Looking around his living room, he saw the pictures of the rest of his family lighting up the atmosphere. His new family.

John had remarried not long after the Cardassians began to terrorise the Alpha Quadrant, and his new wife Scarlet had given him two new children since then.

He wondered how B'Elanna would react to his family – her step-family. 12 year old Alyssa Noelle had her heart set on entering Starfleet, while her 8 year old brother Jacob Brian was more of the artistic type.

The quietness of the house surprised him, though a quick glance at the nearest chronometer told him that Scarlet, Alyssa and Jacob would be home soon. He had to put the letter with the others before they found it; only Scarlet knew that he had been previously married, but she didn't know about his oldest daughter.

He really did miss her, but at least she's happy with her own family, he thought, as his own walked through the door.

Scarlet noticed the look on his face as she greeted him. "Honey, what's wrong?"

John sighed, knowing it was time to come clean to them. "Scarlet, you know about Miral, right…"

It was going to be a very long night.