Disclaimer: CBS/Paramount still owns Star Trek and all the characters established on the various shows. The original characters and story are mine, and I'm still not making any money.
Author's note: I apologize again for the delay, I'm still just getting back to my normal routine after my recent loss, thank you for your patience! FYI about Ezri's switch to the command track, the idea isn't mine, I blatantly stole it from the series of Pocket Books set after the DS9 series finale.
The group took their time saying their goodbyes, as they went to the transporter room. Neelix and Brax stepped onto the transporter platform first. Captain Chakotay went to the controls and keyed in the appropriate sequence and the two Talaxians dematerialized. Neelix and Brax, once they returned to their ship, were leaving the area immediately. The Talaxians on the ship had it in readiness, and Neelix wanted to make his attempt to use the Borg Transwarp conduit to return to the Delta Quadrant while both Voyager and Lindbergh were in the area, just in case.
Naomi and Icheb stepped onto the platform next, and once again, Chakotay's deft fingers pushed the sequence sending them back to Lindbergh. After greeting the transporter operator on the Lindbergh, they made their way to Icheb's quarters, careful to maintain an appropriate distance. They had arranged their schedules so that neither had a duty shift the next day. They were scheduled to spend three uninterrupted hours in the holodeck, but they hadn't yet decided what program they would be running. When they entered Icheb's quarters, he went to the replicator and ordered a glass of ice water for each of them. They were full from their meal and had consumed enough wine and he wanted to make sure they were well hydrated in case they decided to run a holoprogram which was physically strenuous. She was already seated on the couch when he joined here, handing her the glass, and sitting next to her. "So have you given any thought to what program we are going to run tomorrow?"
"Are you kidding me? We can decide on the program later, I want information on the Captain, and I want it now."
Icheb looked down into Naomi's face and seeing a look of determination, he knew the subject of the holoprogram would have to wait. "Yes ma'am. What would you like to know first?"
"How did she go from being a counselor to the command track?"
"Well, you know she is a joined Trill, right?"
"I do, remember my first day on Lindbergh? I was in the Mess Hall telling about how my Dad reacted to learning about Voyager being lost in the Delta Quadrant, and I found out her previous host had served on DS9 with my Dad."
"Well, you may not know, she had no intention of being joined, it was an accident."
Naomi muttered under her breath, "Some accident."
"She was on the ship which was carrying the Dax symbiont back to Trill after the death of the previous host. Anyway, the symbiont began to have problems which could only be solved by joining to a Trill host immediately. As you can probably guess, Ezri Tigan was the only Trill on board, so she was joined to the Dax symbiont."
"Don't Trill initiates have to go through years of training and preparation prior to joining?"
"Usually they do, but in the Captain's case, it was a matter of some urgency, either lose the symbiont or find it a host, any host, immediately."
"Okay, so she ends up with a symbiont she wasn't prepared for, right? Was she a counselor at the time of the joining?"
"Right, anyway, by the time they got to the Trill home world, she and Dax were interdependent. They couldn't remove the symbiont without killing her. The symbiosis commission did a few medical scans to make sure she was doing well, not showing any signs of rejection, but there wasn't much else they could do.
"She found when she returned to her ship, she didn't really fit into the crew the same way she had before the joining. She took a leave of absence and went to look up an old friend of the previous two Dax hosts, Benjamin Sisko. He talked her into coming with him to Deep Space Nine and joining the crew there. She was given a promotion from an Assistant Counselor to a full Counselor.
"Because of the unorthodox manner in which she was given the symbiont, she was more susceptible to its influences than someone who had been through all the preparation which most Trill initiates complete.
"She found she had such a vast array of experiences and knowledge, she was eager and able to expand her activities. Being a counselor was no longer all she wanted to do within Starfleet. After the Dominion War was over, she was able to pursue her new interests and switched over to the Command Track."
"So, she switched careers, alright. Now, how did she meet her husband, I assume he was on Deep Space Nine, wait…we're going to DS9 to pick him up, right?"
"Correct."
"Has he been there all this time?"
"He has, they met there when they were both stationed there, and their relationship started either right before or after the end of the Dominion War. I'm not sure which."
Naomi asked, "What about their ranks?"
Icheb smiled, "I was a bit vague on Voyager because everyone was enjoying your reaction, sorry about that. When they began their relationship, and when they married, they were of equal rank, working on the same station, and had no prior relationship, I speak here of the Dax symbiont as well as Ezri, before arriving on DS9."
Naomi acted annoyed, "That's just great, letting me make an idiot of myself, thanks a heap."
"Hey, we were with family. They've seen both of us make bigger fools of ourselves before." Icheb was smiling broadly.
Naomi returned his smile, "True, very true. Now, about the holoprogram, what shall we do?"
"I have a new program which Tom Paris gave me. It's his latest holonovel and hasn't been published yet."