Episode 05 VS 7 Point 5: Letters Chapter 4, a startrek: voyager fanfic

Letters
Concept by Rick
Edited and compiled by Cybermum
Written by: Voyager Season 7.5 writing staff

From: EMH/ECH U.S.S. Voyager NCC-74656
Router Heading: Starfleet Command; Earth; Mars Relay 23-B
To: Miss Valentina DesRosiers DeLaVarese
FarAway Times and Places 45 Green Flash Way Canal City, Mars 1R83

My Dear Miss DeLaVarese (lovely name, by the way),

In response to your recent advertisement in the cyberzine "Holographic Adventurer," I wish to offer your company the opportunity to purchase a work of stunning creativity and importance. In my travels as the Chief Medical Officer for the Starship Voyager, I have been able to research this story in my downtime hours. It is very close to my heart (so to speak), as you can well imagine.

This holoprogram is designed to educate, edify, and enrich the spirit of humanoid and holographic beings throughout the Alpha Quadrant. It cannot fail to please you and your program users.

If you are interested in obtaining more information about this program prior to making an offer, feel free to contact me in care of U.S.S. Voyager, c/o Pathfinder Project, Starfleet Command, San Francisco, California, 94103-4774-5437, Terra. Thank you for your very kind consideration.

Very truly yours,
Emergency Medical Hologram
U.S.S. Voyager-NCC-74656

Neelix glanced surreptitiously at the PADD B'Elanna was reading. He knew that no one, not even Tom, had any real idea about what she was working on. Speculation ran rampant around the ship.

Jenny Delaney had joked that perhaps B'Elanna was writing a torrid Klingon romance novel. Ensign Vorik had said something about Vulcans not being curious and then mentioned that the Lieutenant had Engineering running stress analysis tests on the warp coil. And Hickman had kidded that maybe all she was doing was developing a new formula for coffee for the Captain.

The complex equations that he saw on her PADD before she tilted it away, proved that B'Elanna definitely was working on something.

"Good morning, Lieutenant."

B'Elanna turned the PADD over as she glanced up at him. "Neelix?"

"I was wondering if you would like a slice of Harast pie. Ayala said it reminded him of banana cream pie. And you are so fond of bananas."

"I'll try it. I'm stuck again."

"Maybe I can help?" Neelix offered as he handed her the plate he was holding.

She stared at it. "Neelix, banana cream pie is yellow. This is bright red."

He shrugged. "The harast fruit is red." He watched as she poked at it then slowly took a bite.

His smile grew at her contented moan. "I'm glad you like it. What are you working on?"

"Hope," she whispered as she took another bite.

"Hope?" She didn't seem inclined to answer anymore questions, so he left. "Hope?" he repeated to himself as he entered his kitchen and looked around.

He picked up the PADD with the evening's menu. He had to start slicing the vegetables soon, but he had something else to do first.

From: Neelix Morale Officer & Ambassador, U.S.S. Voyager NCC-74656
To: Federation President, United Federation of Planets
cc: Admiral Owen Paris Router Heading:
Sector 001, Earth; San Francisco 127984723
Stardate 54382.4

Dear Madam President,

I would like to present myself. I am Neelix of Rinax, a moon of Talax – and Ambassador to the Alpha Quadrant for my people.

I am sure you are asking what reasons would a government that is over seventy-thousand light years from Earth have to send an ambassador so far?

I admit my planet is very far away, but I suspect that in the near future the distance between our homes will become far less significant.

I know Talaxia would welcome the opportunity to meet with a delegation from the United Federation of Planets.

Since I have lived the past six and a third years on the Starship Voyager, I am a logical choice as a mediator between our two worlds. I feel that I understand the rules of both cultures. I have served as Voyager's Ambassador at large for the past 3 years, and am well versed in handling sensitive issues, including the Prime Directive.

I regret that I will not be able to present my credentials in person until, well, I don't know when...But I look forward to meeting with you, and I know Captain Kathryn Janeway will be more than happy to vouch for me.

Neelix stopped writing. Just what was he thinking, he wondered? He could easily be misinterpreting B'Elanna's cryptic words. And why would the Federation President even be interested in the Ambassador from Talaxia? He hadn't been appointed by the Talaxian government-his own government probably didn't even remember who he was.

He stared at the screen, then hit the save button. He would send it.

After dinner.

From: EMH/ECH U.S.S. Voyager NCC-74656
Router Heading: Starfleet Command; Earth;
To: Mr. Rodney L. Perkins
Dreamtime Productions 536 Eucalyptus Lane
Sydney, NSW, Australia 2475-830 Terra

G'Day, Mr. Perkins,

This holoprogram is designed to educate, edify, and enrich the spirit of humanoid and holographic beings throughout the Alpha Quadrant. It cannot fail to please you and your program users.

Very truly yours,
Emergency Medical Hologram
U.S.S. Voyager-NCC-74656

From: Lieutenant Commander Tuvok, Chief of Security,
U.S.S. Voyager NCC-74656
To: T'Meni, daughter of Sek
Router heading: Sector 001; Vulcan; ShiKahr; 209110644
Stardate 54382.5

Greetings T'Meni,

I am Tuvok, son of Sunak and another T'Meni, and father to your father Sek. As your grandfather, the duty lies upon me in equal measure to see to your proper education and upbringing. You are now beginning your seventh year. As I am sure you have been informed, the culmination of this year is the ritual known as the kahs-wan ordeal. It is more than a simple physical endurance; your survival in the desert, alone and unaided, depends as much upon your strength of mind as of body. Your successful completion of this rite of passage is the first step along the path leading to the obligations and responsibilities of a Vulcan adult.

However, it is not to admonish you or to speak of privations and trials to come that I communicate with you today. As you are aware, at the time of your birth I was already no longer on Vulcan. I had vanished years earlier, in a mysterious confluence of events which left most of the denizens of the Alpha Quadrant convinced that we were dead, swept off to a vast distance at which even the marital bond between myself and your grandmother T'Pel was so faint as to be nonexistent. My katra was presumed to have been forever lost. Samok, a disciple of Surok, once asked when we truly cease to exist for those we know and love. Many have erred and assumed the answer lies with physical death and separation, or the cessation of sharing of the flame. But the answer truly can be said to be, as long as we remember the departed, as long as their image remains fresh within our minds, then there is no separation.

My daughter, it is through no choice of my own that I was not present at your birth, that I have missed and continue to miss many important milestones in your young life. We are Vulcan; we do not rail against fate or complain of the gods when life is not to our liking. Cth'ya, we accept what is. Yet at the same time nothing prevents me from telling you that I wish things had been otherwise.

Your father, as well as she who is my wife, keep me informed of your studies. I am pleased to hear of the development of your intellect and of your progress in these and other matters. It appears that you will be well prepared for the challenges of your kahs-wan. I salute you as you near this important occasion.

Live long and prosper, daughter of my house and heart.

Tuvok

Tuvok deactivated the PADD and placed it carefully on the table beside his chair. He steepled his fingers beneath his chin and gazed thoughtfully out of the viewport beside him. He pictured his granddaughter reading her letter. T'Pel had sent him a holo-image of the child. She favoured her grandmother, and Tuvok was pleased by this. Perhaps she would read his letter while visiting with T'Pel; his wife's letters implied there was a closeness between them. He imagined the two of them, sitting in the garden of his home, a Vulcan sunset casting deep rich colours on the stones around them. T'Meni would lean against her grandmother and T'Pel would gently stroke the child's soft cheek. Perhaps she would speak to T'Meni of Tuvok, her grandfather.