Disclaimer: All characters, vessels, science, and the original plot belong to Paramount with the exception of Sarah Janeway, the new parts of the plot, and anything else that I made up.
Author's Note: I can't believe how long it's been: over a year since I updated this story. Wow. I am so sorry. That being said, this update is definitely not my best work, but I wanted to get something out for you to read. You guys are the greatest and I figured I'd kept you waiting long enough. I'm going to do some serious re-working of this story to hopefully create better plotlines and characters and make it easier to update sooner. Thanks for staying with me.
Enjoy!
Anomaly
'Prime Factors'
Sarah sat eating breakfast with her mother and Tuvok in the Mess Hall. From where their table was positioned, she could see and hear a lively conversation taking place between B'Elanna, Seska, Tom, and Harry, a few tables away.
"What?" B'Elanna innocently asked Seska.
"I've seen that look before. Ensign Murphy had better watch out," Seska replied knowingly.
"I happen to know that Murphy is seeing one of the Delaney sisters."
"Not since Harry and Tom Paris made their move."
"Harry? And the Delaney sisters? Ha, he would've told me."
Seska shrugged. "I guess there are some things he keeps to himself."
Skeptically, B'Elanna turned to face Harry at the table behind them. "Harry? Is it true about you and the Delaney sisters?"
"Is what true?" he asked.
"Come on, Harry, there aren't any secrets on a ship this small," Seska teased, resting her head on one hand.
Harry turned to Tom, exasperated. "What've you been telling people?"
"Well, we did take that trip to Venice with them," Tom replied, smiling.
"The holodeck? You gotta be kidding. That lasted all of fifteen minutes!"
"Yeah, you know, I've been meaning to ask you," Tom said, looking both curious and amused. "What happened when you and Jenny Delaney disappeared in that gondola?"
"Nothing," Harry replied insistently.
"Harry, we're your friends. You can tell us," B'Elanna coaxed.
"Nothing. We talked, and then…I fell over the side."
Seska and B'Elanna burst into laughter while Tom winced.
"You 'fell out' of the gondola?" Seska asked, still laughing.
Tom looked highly amused. "I think maybe Harry wasn't quite prepared for how voracious Jenny Delaney can be."
Sarah smiled to see everyone having a good time. When she looked up, she saw that her mother was also watching the friendly banter with a smile on her face.
"I think it's finally beginning to happen," Kathryn Janeway said. "Both crews getting along."
Her daughter nodded happily and dunked some more pieces of peach, pineapple, and banana into her strawberry yogurt before popping them in her mouth.
"That kind of bonding should improve performance and maximize efficiency," Tuvok replied, sitting off to Sarah's right.
The little girl felt a grin spread across her face while her mother tried to hide her own smile behind her coffee cup. "Yes, I'm sure it will," the captain said.
A comm signal sounded. "Bridge to Captain Janeway," came Chakotay's voice.
"Go ahead," she replied.
"Captain, we're receiving a distress call in one of the lower subspace bands."
"I'm on my way."
Sarah quickly drained her glass of milk and followed her mother, Tuvok, and the other senior officers out of the mess hall.
When the turbolift stopped at the bridge, she scurried out behind the senior officers and took her place on the ledge beside the captain's chair.
Her mother strode up to Chakotay. "Report, Commander."
He turned to face her as he replied, "The subspace distress signal is coming from a vessel bearing 125 mark 21, distance: 200,000 kilometers."
"Captain, sensors indicate five lifeforms aboard," Harry Kim reported from the Ops station.
On the opposite side of the bridge, Tuvok added, "The vessel is altering its course to intercept us."
From her vantage point, Sarah could see a small grey alien spacecraft with four glowing arms on the viewscreen. Dozens of scenarios that would warrant a distress call raced through her head and she idly wondered if something would happen that would make her abilities resurface.
"Go to yellow alert and slow to impulse. Hail them, Mr. Kim," her mother was ordering.
"Aye captain."
"This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager. What is the nature of your emergency?"
Not one of the scenarios she imagined could have prepared her for what happened next.
A very relaxed-looking man with grayish hair and an odd hairpiece made up of multiple, thin loops of something now filled the screen. "We have no emergency," he replied with an easy smile.
Is this a trap?, Sarah wondered.
"But you're sending out a distress call," Kathryn replied.
"Yes, we are."
"Why?"
"Because you are in distress."
Kathryn turned and exchanged a puzzled look with her first officer.
The alien man smiled again. "I am Gathorel Labin of the planet Sikaris. Please, let us welcome you to our system, show you the hospitality of our people."
Still somewhat confused, the captain began, "That's very kind of you…"
"If I could come aboard your ship," he interrupted. "I have gifts for you, and a proposal I hope you will find irresistible."
The offer still had everyone thrown a little off-guard after meeting so many Delta Quadrant species that had opened relations by firing at them.
After several seconds, Kathryn replied, "Mr. Tuvok, make the necessary arrangements to receive our guest." The tactical officer nodded and stepped into the turbolift as she smiled at their soon-to-be guest.
Several minutes later, Sarah, her mother, Tuvok, and the Sikarian man were gathered in the Mess Hall where Neelix and Kes were working in the kitchen. Sarah sniffed the air in anticipation. Whatever the man had in the container he was carrying, it smelled delicious.
"Mr. Labin, it really isn't necessary to go to all this trouble," Kathryn said.
"Please. Call me Gath. And I promise you I would like nothing better than to prepare a few of our newest delicacies for you. Ah, this will be perfect." He removed two plates from the container he had.
Sarah pushed a chair from one of the tables up to counter next to her mother and stood on the seat so she could see what was going on.
"Ah, Captain, I'm serving lunch in less that two hours," Neelix spoke up hesitantly, eyeing their guest.
"We won't be long, Neelix. This is Mr.— This is Gath," she said with a smile. "He's from Sikaris."
Neelix's face lit up with recognition. "Oooh! Sikaris!"
"Do you know the planet?" Kathryn rested her elbows on the counter.
"Er, only stories about their incredible hospitality."
Gath proffered a plate containing greens, some kind of orange vegetables, and pieces of some kind of meat. Kathryn, Sarah, Kes, and Neelix all helped themselves to a little of everything.
Her mouth watering at the delicious smells the food items were creating, Sarah nibbled off small pieces of everything. The orange vegetable, which somewhat resembled a small potato, had a spicy-sweet flavor that she was surprised to find she liked. The asparagus look-alike was deliciously crunchy with a liquid core that tasted a little like cauliflower. The meat was tender and dark and had been cooked in something comparable to butter. Satisfied that everything was as delicious as it smelled, she finished off everything she had taken.
"Tell me, how do you know about us?" Kathryn was asking.
"Our people are very well traveled. Some of them have brought back stories about the ship of aliens from another part of the galaxy—people lost and alone, struggling to find their way home again.
"This is wonderful," her mother said as she sampled some of the offerings.
"I agree," Sarah piped up.
Gath smiled at the two of them. "It must be especially difficult for a young child to be so far from home."
"It can be," she admitted.
"Well, after hearing these stories, I decided to come and meet you and offer you respite."
"Respite?" Tuvok asked, speaking up for the first time.
"A vacation, if you will," their guest replied. "Get away from the confines of the ship, enjoy the beauty of our landscape, meet and talk with interesting learned people."
Sarah felt herself tense in anticipation and she realized with a jolt that she hadn't set foot off of Voyager in about a month.
"And the crew would certainly welcome a little shore leave, captain," Kes spoke up in her soft voice.
Yes, we would, Sarah thought, trying to keep a grin off her face.
"And I hear the Sikarians have a huge variety of edible plants. If we could collect some seeds, we'd expand our selection significantly."
Say yes, say yes, say yes, say yes, say yes, the young girl chanted under her breath. Say yes!
Kathryn assumed a half-serious look as she turned to Tuvok. "Sounds like all this would 'increase performance and maximize efficiency', don't you think, Mr. Tuvok?"
"Indeed," came his reply.
"Well, Gath, looks like you're getting visitors. We'll set a course and follow you in."
"Yes!" This time, Sarah couldn't keep herself from shouting it out loud and grinning ear-to-ear.
Kathryn, Kes, Neelix, and Gath all chuckled appreciatively and Kathryn gave her daughter a hug.
"I could not be happier," Gath replied, his face as happy as Sarah's.
Sarah could hardly believe her eyes when they finally beamed down. The public area that Gath led them to was made entirely of a beautiful white stone that had an instant calming effect. There were sets of steps made of white and light brown stone leading to various levels, a glowing circular platform in the center of the area, a few curved stone benches, and some sculptures made of metal and draped with cloth. Voyager'screwmembers wandered in out of the place, talking and laughing with Sikarians.
Sarah stood with her mother, Gath, and a Sikarian woman at a stall that offered fabric.
"If you see anything you like, just let me know," Gath said happily.
As Sarah ran her fingers over a particular piece of cloth, her mother examined a length of a different type of fabric.
"What is this material? It's so delicate," Kathryn asked, surprised.
"Exquisite, isn't it?" Gath replied, clearly delighted. "It's the latest import from Dedestris. It's spun from the petals of a flower that blooms only in moonlight. Shall I have a dress made for you?"
The captain seemed a little overwhelmed by his generosity. "It's lovely but, no, thank you."
"Is it so hard for you to accept a gift?"
She wavered. "Well…all right, but something small. Maybe a scarf?"
"What a curious people you are. Tell me, would it help if I said that you could have an entire wardrobe made from these beautiful fabrics and that it would give all of us pleasure to create it for you?"
Sarah rubbed a length of gossamer fabric between her fingers. It was beautiful, made up of shades of blue fading into white, and so light it almost appeared to float. It had an incredibly silky texture that felt wonderful against her skin.
"I…I wouldn't mind having a dress made of this—if it's not too much trouble," she spoke up, somewhat hesitantly, holding out her selection. She also wasn't used to people being so generous.
Gath smiled widely at her. "It would be no trouble at all! We would so much enjoy making a beautiful dress for a beautiful little girl." He winked at her.
Sarah blushed a little at his compliment and shyly smiled back.
"Now if we could just get your mother to accept such a gift from us." He looked at the captain in a semi-teasing manner.
Kathryn looked at Gath, and then at her daughter. "Let's…start with the scarf," she said with a smile.
"As you like. Which cloth do you prefer?" To Sarah, he added, "Go with Ihrea here and she'll take your measurements for that dress."
Beaming like it was Christmas and her birthday at once, Sarah, replied with an enthusiastic, "Ok!" and followed the Sikarian woman out of the central area.
"Be good," Kathryn called after her daughter.
"I will!" she called back. She let herself skip along. It had been so long since she stood on the firm ground of a planet, she found it hard to get used to the fact that the surface beneath her feet wouldn't suddenly shift as they were attacked or the engines failed.
"Here we are," Ihrea said with a smile as they ducked through a doorway. Inside was even more fabric and other materials for making clothes. Sarah barely had time to register the dizzying array of cloth, ribbon, decorative accents, and changing stalls with shimmery curtains for doors, before she was surrounded by a group of women.
"Oh, how sweet!"
"She's adorable!"
"Look at her little uniform!"
"What a gorgeous little girl!"
"Where did she come from, Ihrea?"
"Give her some room, ladies," Ihrea laughed, making shooing motions. She placed her hands on the child's shoulders and introduced her. "This is Sarah Janeway, the daughter of Captain Janeway of the starship Voyager."
"The lost ship?"
"The one that's years away from home?"
"That must be so difficult for someone so young!"
Sarah was really blushing at this point. She couldn't see why they were making such a big fuss over her.
"The reason she's here," Ihrea interjected. "Is to get measured for a dress."
"Oh, how wonderful!"
"I'll get the measuring devices!"
Before she knew it, she was standing on a raised platform in the middle of the room and all the women were taking various measurements of her and asking lots of questions.
"Is it hard to live on starship and be so far from home?"
"Sometimes, but I have my mother and I have lots of friends on the crew."
"What do you think: sleeveless, short sleeves, or long sleeves?"
"Short, please."
"What do you think of Sikaris so far?"
"It's wonderful!"
"Which type of dress do you like best?" One woman held up a portable computer that displayed several samples.
Sarah considered her choices. After a minute or so of thought, she pointed. "I think that one."
"An excellent choice!"
"Are there other children on the ship?"
"No, just me."
"That must get lonely at times."
She hadn't considered it before, being generally more comfortable around adults. "I guess it does, sometimes…"
Ihrea looked thoughtful for a minute, and then announced. "We have all the measurements we need now. You can head back to your mother, if you like."
"Thank you very much," Sarah replied, stepping down from the platform. "I really appreciate your generosity."
A chorus of "You're welcome!" and "It's no trouble—we're happy to do it!" followed her out the door. She still had no idea why they had made such big deal over her, but she had to admit it was sort of nice.
Kathryn looked over the fabric selection as she waited for Sarah to return. There were many nice patterns and textures, but she continually found herself being drawn back to the first fabric she had looked at. It was diaphanous and colored a soft blend of brown and grey. "Oh, I think this one," she finally told their host.
Gath shocked her by placing a hand on her arm and sliding it up to her shoulder in a too-familiar manner. "When I see you wearing that scarf, my pleasure will be greater than yours."
She felt herself tense up, but tried to remove herself diplomatically. "Well, I should get back. But with your permission, I'd like to start organizing teams to gather plants and seeds."
With his free hand, Gath gestured to another man standing behind him. "This is my associate, Jaret Otel. You may contact him to make any necessary arrangements."
Jaret was much younger than Gath, with medium brown hair and dark brown eyes. "We'll be glad to assist you in any way, captain," he said helpfully, smiling.
"I'll find my officers and we'll return to the ship," Kathryn said as smiled in acknowledgement to Jaret. She tried not to squirm away from Gath's touch, much as he was making her uncomfortable.
"Tonight we are having a celebration here. I hope you and your officers will be my guests." Gath still had a hand on her shoulder, as if he wouldn't let her leave unless she agreed.
With exaggerated excitement, she replied, "We'd be delighted." He finally let go of her shoulder and let her move away.
"It's settled then. We'll see you tonight."
She half-faked a smile and nodded, still uneasy, as he and Jaret headed out of the common area.
Sarah had come around the corner in time to see Gath slide his hand up her mother's arm and onto her shoulder. She stood where she was, partially hidden, eyes wide in surprise, as she watched him practically hold her where she was. They talked for a minute, her mother looking rather uncomfortable, until they agreed on something and Gath finally let go. Her mother backed away from the fabric stall as their host and his companion moved off.
She counted silently to twenty before she approached her mother, not wanting her to think that she had been spying. "Hi mama!" she said with all the enthusiasm she could muster.
"Sarah!" Kathryn's face lit up and every trace of the discomfort she had felt disappeared. She gathered her daughter in her arms and hugged her close. "How did it go?"
"Great!"
"Good, good…"
"Mama, is something wrong? You look distracted."
Kathryn smiled at her. "No, everything's fine. We've been invited to be guests at a Sikarian celebration tonight." She set her daughter gently on the ground and took her hand. "Let's gather up the rest of the crew so we can work some things out before the celebration."
Back on board Voyager, they had a very serious discussion.
"No, you can't," Sarah was insisting.
"Sarah, it's not a big deal."
"No one else is going to do it."
"How do you know?"
"I've talked to everyone that's going down. You'll stick out if you do."
Kathryn sighed and held up the brown striped shirt and jumper-style dress her daughter had picked out for her. "I still think it would be better to wear my uniform."
Sarah rolled her eyes. "Mama, that's all you've been wearing for the past month. This is a party. Dress down a little."
The captain looked at her reflection in the mirror a while longer before she gave in. "All right, all right…because you insist."
Her daughter smiled. "Thank you!"
With a laugh and a shake of her head, Kathryn headed off to change her outfit.
Right before they were to beam back down, she made a quick log entry. "Captain's log, stardate 48642.5. The crew is enjoying an evening on Sikaris. They are discovering, to their delight, that reports of this species' hospitality have not been exaggerated."
Sarah stood at the doorway of their quarters, impatient. "Come on, mama. Everyone else already left!"
"All right, all right, I'm coming." But she couldn't help but smile. She had been afraid her daughter was becoming too used to being on a starship and she was glad to see her so enthusiastic about going planet-side.
Upon returning to the Sikarian public area, the two of them were greeted by Ihrea and Gath.
"It's so good to see you again! We have a wonderful evening planned for you," Gath said. Turning to Sarah, he added, "And we have a surprise for you, young lady. Ihrea?"
The Sikarian woman smiled. "Your dress is finished."
Sarah felt a delighted smile break over her face. "Really? Already?"
Ihrea nodded. "Come with me—you can wear it now, if you like."
She nodded, excited, and followed her back to the dress shop.
Kathryn and Gath made small talk for a minute or two before Ihrea reappeared, hiding Sarah behind her. "Here she is," she announced.
Sarah shyly stepped out from behind the Sikarian seamstress. Her mother gasped and Gath applauded.
The dress was about ankle-length, with soft layers of the blue-white material making up the skirt. The top half was fitted and had nearly transparent short sleeves. A row of small, blue-white gems dotted the waist. In addition, the Sikarians had given her a pair of white slip-on shoes, not unlike her ballet flats. Someone had pulled her hair into a higher ponytail than usual and made it into dozens of strands of ringlet curls, all secured by a round, glittering silver comb.
"Sarah, you look gorgeous!" Kathryn exclaimed.
Sarah grinned shyly and twirled in place, making the skirt billow out and float. She felt like a fairy princess. I'm glad I accepted.
Suddenly, Sarah heard running feet and loud, laughing voices. Voices that seemed familiar, yet distant… She turned and stopped, startled.
A group of around twenty-five Sikarian children came running into view, joking, laughing and tossing a ball back and forth. The group was made up of both boys and girls, ranging in age from about five to nine, and they were dressed in what appeared to be play clothes.
With a start, she realized it had also been a month since she had seen other children.
The group stopped when they spotted her, then came running over. They were all trying to noisily introduce themselves at once when Ihrea called for quiet.
"Sarah, I felt badly when you told me there were no other children on board your ship. These children are all from nearby families that I know. They're going to play in the sports field, and you're welcome to join them." She smiled and brought a small pile of clothes from behind her back. "We made you a set of play clothes, too."
Sarah couldn't think for a minute. "I…I…don't know…" It had been a month since she'd been around someone her own age, and she'd never really been one for sports. She felt awkward.
Kathryn gave her daughter a gentle nudge towards the group of kids. "Go ahead Sarah. Sounds like fun." Leaning in, she whispered, "And it'll be good for you."
She looked up at her mother, and then back at the kids, and then at Ihrea, who was still smiling and holding out the play clothes.
"Ok…" she finally said, still with some trepidation as she accepted the clothes from Ihrea.
The effect of that one word was explosive. The group of children started yelling happily, her mother called out to her to be careful and to behave herself, and a little girl who was probably just a year older than Sarah darted forward and grabbed her hand and started pulling her away from the center. "Oh, good!" she said in a loud happy voice. "We always have one less girl on our team. Now we'll be even! I'm Eiris, and I'm five revolutions old. What's your name? How old are you? Do you really live on a starship all the time? Is it weird? Is your mother really the captain? What do you do for fun if you're stuck on a ship?"
Sarah found herself a little overwhelmed as the group hurried out of the city towards the country where the sports field was located. Eiris was firing questions at her without giving her any time to respond and at the same time she was practically dragging her along by the wrist. She knew it was normal behavior for a kid, but she wasn't used to it at all.
"Um, I'm Sarah," she replied when Eiris stopped to take a breath. "I'm four, and yes, I really live on a starship all the time. I don't think it's weird anymore. I'm used to it now. My mother is really the captain. There's lots to do on Voyager: read, use the Holodeck, draw, visit my friends, stuff like that."
"That sounds really cool," another child spoke up from behind her. She turned to see that it was a boy with messy, curly tan hair. "I'm Rathan, and I'm five too."
She smiled at him.
By now, they had reached the sports field. It was a huge, well-cared-for rectangular field bordered by several dozen tiny silver posts strung with thin white rope. Immediately, the group of children ran screaming onto it and began tossing a ball back and forth.
Sarah stood at the edge of the field uncertainly, holding her little bundle of play clothes. Rathan paused as he was about to join the others.
"What are you waiting for?"
"Um…Where do I change my clothes? And, uh, how do you play this?"
"Oh, sorry." He smiled and pointed to a little grey building on the far side of the field. "You can change there and when you come back I can show you."
"Thank you, Rathan!" she called over her shoulder.
It took her only two minutes to make use of the small, simple, but functional facilities and rejoin the others. When she arrived, they had begun to divide themselves into two teams. Eiris and Rathan quickly claimed her for theirs and began filling her in on the object and the rules, speaking in such a rush that Sarah had to really pay attention to make sure she got everything.
When Eiris finally finished and breathlessly asked, "Got it?", Sarah had to answer her honestly.
"Maybe," she replied without much certainty.
"Great! You're going to love this! It's so much fun!" Eiris squealed. "READY!" she yelled.
The game explosively began. Uheiss, as it was called, was an incredibly fast-paced and fairly complicated sport that, as best as Sarah could describe it, resembled a combination of Earth soccer, basketball, tag, and croquet. Some of the more interesting rules included the fact that before a team could score, the ball had to be rolled through a tunnel made by all the team members' legs and the fact that the four goals on each side were not allowed to be guarded but a player could run over at the last second to stop the other team from scoring.
Sarah began playing, still confused and afraid to do something wrong that would cost her team points, and at first hung back quite a bit. But after she was the only one to spot a cleverly sneaky attempt by the other team to score in one of the goals and subsequently dove to block it, succeeded, and came up covered in dirt and plant matter and heard her team cheering wildly for her, she shook off all her inhibitions and played her heart out. She raced around the field with the others, blocking, scoring, passing, tagging, and occasionally screaming out of sheer happiness.
When the game finally ended a few hours later, Sarah collapsed on the ground out of utter exhaustion with the rest of the children. She was filthy, sore, worn out, breathless…and giddy. She hadn't had that much fun with others in a long, long time, and it had nothing to do with her team's narrow victory.
"Wow, that was fun," Sarah gasped from where she lay spread-eagled. She pulled her sleeveless top away from body and let it go several times, trying to cool herself off.
From a few feet away, Eiris responded with a giggle. "I know!! Hey, the stars are coming out. Can you stay for a while?"
"Sure!" she quickly replied.
Some of the group left for their respective homes, but about half stayed to look at the stars. They 'oohed' and 'ahhed' over their brightness and pointed out constellations to one another.
"It's so different from Earth's night sky," Sarah mused aloud.
Rathan rolled onto his side and propped himself up on one elbow so he could see her. "That's your home planet?"
"Mmmhmm. 70,000 lightyears from here."
He paused for a second before he asked cautiously, "What's it like?"
Sarah turned her face towards him. "Earth?"
"Yeah."
She faced the heavens above once more and tucked her arms behind her head. What's Earth like?, she thought to herself. How do you describe a totally alien planet to someone? Then she realized Earth wasn't merely a planet—it had been her home, a place where she'd lived for four whole years.
So she told him. She told him of the enormous oceans, the deep forests, the scorching deserts, the freezing tundras. She told him of the incredible variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and cultural heritages of Earth's citizens. Things that had seemed commonplace when she was still on Earth took on new significance out in the Delta Quadrant. She did her best to paint vivid word pictures for her newfound Sikarian friends. They hung on her every word, and, as she talked, she found herself not just describing things but recalling her favorite memories. She caught her voice catching once or twice as she related some of her favorites.
Am I homesick?, she silently asked herself in surprise. I thought Voyager was my home now…
By the time she started running out of things to say, only Eiris, Rathan, herself, and three other children remained of the large group that had been there earlier.
"Wow, it's really late," Sarah said in surprise as she stood up and futilely attempted to brush some of the dirt from her shorts. "I'd better get back. My mother's going to be wondering where I am."
"I'm glad you could play with us!" Eiris called as she headed off towards her home with the three others. "Goodbye! Good luck on getting back to Earth!"
Sarah waved them off and then turned to Rathan. "I guess you'll be heading home too."
"Well…" he replied slowly. "I was…I was, uh, kinda thinking…I could maybe walk you back to the center."
"Sure," Sarah smiled. "If you want to."
He nodded quickly. "I do want to."
"Ok then. Let's go."
Sarah and Rathan slowly made their way back to the center, walking along the pathways in near darkness that were occasionally softly lit by the glow of light orbs on poles. They talked a little more. Sarah learned that Rathan had two older brothers and a baby sister and that he lived with not only his siblings and his parents, but also both sets of grandparents. She learned that Uheiss was his second-favorite activity, next to painting. She learned that he loved mathematics and history and that he was learning to play a musical instrument. She told him about her own lessons in piano and they chatted about music the rest of the way to the center.
They were on a pathway and just around the corner from the center when Rathan reached out and grabbed her arm. Surprised, Sarah came to a stop and looked at him. "Is something wrong?"
"Nooo…" he replied haltingly.
"What is it?"
"Will you be back?"
"I really don't know. I know we all want to stay for a few days, but if something happens we might leave sooner. And besides, we have a long way to go."
Rathan nodded and looked at his feet for a moment. He looked back up and blurted out, "I really like you, Sarah."
Before she could formulate a response to this, he did something totally unexpected.
He added in a half-whisper, "Just in case you're leaving," and suddenly leaned in and planted a gentle kiss on her cheek.
Just as quickly, he took off running back the way they had come.
Sarah stood there, stunned, for a minute. Slowly her fingers crept up to where he had kissed her, and then she laughed. Boys were the same on every planet. She tucked her rolled-up dress more securely under her arm and rounded the corner to the town center.
Kathryn had been sitting on an outdoor couch, chatting with Gath, ever since Sarah had gone off to play with the Sikarian children.
"And tomorrow night you must let me take you to the theatre," Gath was insisting.
She was about to reply when she realized how dark it was. "Oh my, I've lost all track of time. The rest of crew is gone. My daughter and I are the last ones here. I should go find her—"
Gath gently grabbed her arm as she went to get up. "She'll be fine, I promise." After a pause, he added, "I hope your having lost track of the time is because you're enjoying yourself."
"I am," Kathryn answered honestly.
Gath leaned in closer. They looked into the depths of each other's eyes as their lips moved to close the distance between them.
As Sarah came around the corner, she was greeted by the sight of her mother only inches from kissing Gath.
A hot, unfamiliar, unpleasant feeling came over her body as she watched the two of them move closer and closer, seemingly in slow motion. Just before she thought she would explode, Harry and a young Sikarian woman came rushing in, interrupting the couple. Harry was shouting excitedly about something and Kathryn and Gath, disappointed as they looked, were trying to get him to slow down and speak coherently.
The burning feeling slowly drained from her body, and as it did so she became aware of a hard, cold, heavy object in her hand. Confused, she opened her palm and found that she was clutching a large rock from the in-wall decorative rock garden to her left. She merely looked at it for a moment before she thrust it back, horrified. I was going to throw a rock at them! What's wrong with me?!?
Her heart pounded heavily in her chest and she leaned against the wall, panting a little, trying to still her shaking limbs. Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it…
When she thought she'd calmed herself sufficiently, she began to make her way, slowly, towards her mother and Harry and the two Sikarians. She came within range of them in time to hear Gath say: "—our technology. Once it's out of our control, it might fall into the hands of those who would abuse it, and our canon of laws strictly forbids that."
"But we wouldn't abuse it! Don't you see what it would mean to us?" Harry practically yelled.
"Please, don't make it more difficult for me. I don't enjoy denying you this, but our canon of laws has determined our entire system of values," Gath replied calmly. "To break one of its precepts would undermine everything we believe in. I'm sorry, but there can be no exceptions to the law."
Her mother and Harry looked incredibly disappointed. "Mama?" she asked softly.
Kathryn looked up. "Sarah."
"What's going on?"
"Come on sweetie. It's past your bedtime." She stood up and gestured towards the edge of the center, slipping her arm delicately around her small daughter's shoulders.
Sarah didn't ask again.
Instead, she woke from a sound sleep and, once her mother left for a briefing, proceeded to eavesdrop on the crewmembers, trying to discern what could have agitated the entire ship so quickly. From bits and pieces, she learned that the Sikarians had some sort of amazing technology that could cut Voyager's journey home in half, but their laws wouldn't allow them to share it with the crew.
So it was all she could to do to assume a countenance of youthful ignorance while she played among the Sikarian children in the afternoon and when Gath came to their quarters in the evening to have dinner with her and her mother.
Of course, Kathryn knew that she knew. She could see it in her eyes. But she didn't seem upset.
They were halfway through dessert before the subject was broached.
"Exquisite. What did you say you call it?" Gath asked, delighted.
"Pecan pie," Kathryn smiled.
"I must have the recipe."
"I'd be happy to share it with you." She glanced at her daughter for a moment before continuing. "Gath, I want you to know I understand your reluctance to share your technology with us. We have similar restrictions. But I wondered, would it make any difference if I gave you my word that we would destroy the trajectory matrix as soon as we'd used it?"
"I know this will upset you, but I can't."
"I understand and, frankly, I suspected as much. But I have a proposal which might allow you to obey your laws and still give us what we want. Surely you could use the trajector to send us? Forty thousand light years would mean a great deal to us. And in return, we're prepared to offer you something you might enjoy."
"Oh?"
"A full library of the Federation's finest literature."
"Literature."
"Centuries of stories, new stories from diverse cultures, stories that fire the imagination." Kathryn's voice rose a little in excitement.
"You certainly know how to tempt me, captain," Gath said quietly, and he reached out and cupped her chin in his hand. Sarah felt a strange feeling creep over her again, and she quickly stared at her pie and pretended she hadn't seen. "It's certainly possible. I'll have to meet with the other Magistrates to discuss it. No one has ever made a request like that. In the meantime, I'd like to enjoy every bite of this, how did you call it?"
"Pecan pie." Her mother smiled at him, a smile Sarah had never seen before. One that made her uneasy.
"I'm going to finish my pie in my room," she said quickly, and she hurried away from the table.
Kathryn half-watched her daughter go, torn between her only child, who was clearly uncomfortable, and the first romance she had known in years. She didn't want to be selfish, but didn't she deserve happiness too? Stabbing her fork into another piece of pie, she resolved to sit down and have a heart-to-heart talk with Sarah at the first available opportunity.
Gath stayed for several hours, and his behavior seemed to indicate that he wouldn't have minded staying several more. However, Kathryn knew how fast things were moving and how confusing it must be for her four-year-old, and she sent Gath on his way right around the girl's bedtime.
After she accompanied him to the transporter room, she slowly made her way back to her quarters, trying to rehearse what to say to an upset and confused little girl who happened to be incredibly intelligent and gifted. Should she try to appeal to that adult-like intelligence, or try to soothe the four-year-old emotions?
Too soon, she was standing in front of the bedroom they shared, still at a loss for words. Guess I'll just wing it…
She poked her head into the room. "Sarah?" she inquired softly.
But the room was empty.
A PADD sat blinking on her daughter's bed, and Kathryn picked it up. "Spending the night at Kes'. –Sarah"
With a sigh, the captain sank down on her own bed, head in her hands. A vacation that was supposed to recharge everyone, de-stress them, provide a chance for everyone to just be themselves and forget their problems had instead started a heated debate and was draining her in a dozen different ways.
Sarah felt a guilty stomachache starting and she tried her best to ignore it. She hated lying to her mother, but she just wanted to be away from everyone and everything right now. She wanted to just…not think. With the great food on Sikaris, the Mess Hall closed early. She was curled up under one of the tables by the window, relishing the dark and quiet. She tried to keep visions of her mother with Gath out of her head.
I'm being so stupid. She's a grown-up, she's allowed… But she's my mom! No, I'm being selfish…And anyways, I was kissed too. But I didn't start it, and he's five! I used to like Gath too, but something about him just…I don't know, something's not right…I'm probably just being selfish. Why am I not like other four-year-olds? That would make this so much easier…
She drifted off to sleep, still arguing with herself.
She awoke to a conversation a few tables away. Apparently no one realized that she was in the room, because, as she listened, she realized Harry, Tom, B'Elanna, and Seska were talking about an illicitly acquired Sikarian trajector matrix, and possibly going behind the Magistrate's back to use the technology to get home. Apparently Harry had met with his friend Eudana the night before, and Jaret had given him the matrix and proposed that the two of them complete the transaction of literature-for-trajector.
"I don't know what to do," Harry was saying. "I know we'd all like to get that much closer to home, but I don't think Captain Janeway is going to go for getting the technology like that."
"Maybe she will," B'Elanna argued. "After all, it's a Sikarian who's making the offer."
"But it's not above board. The captain is only going to deal with an official representative," Tom countered.
So true, Sarah thought. A comm signal sounded, and she could hear "Bridge to Ensign Kim. The Captain can see you now."
"Just tell her everything you know. Let her take it from there," Tom added to Harry.
"Right…"
"I'll walk you part way. I have some things to take care of."
Sarah heard them leave, and then B'Elanna's sigh. "Somehow, I have a bad feeling about this. It's just not going to work out."
Seska paused a moment before she replied quietly, "Don't you think that's up to us?"
"What does that mean?"
"It means that we can sit here and let someone make the decision for us, or we can take matters into our own hands. We've been offered the grand prize. All we have to do is step up and claim it."
The little girl's skin tingled as she realized what Seska meant. B'Elanna realized it as well. "Take the technology, without permission?"
"Since when do you talk like that?," The Bajoran chided. "Do you think permission is more important than getting us half way home? The captain is so infatuated with the Sikarian Magistrate she can't think straight." Sarah experienced a weird sensation of indignation and validation with that statement. "We can't trust that she's going to make the best decision for all of us," Seska continued. "If we do this, we'll need to use Engineering to configure the matrix. It would be a lot easier if we knew we could count on you."
"Seska, I am a senior officer now. I have responsibilities."
"And the main responsibility for everyone on this ship is to try to find a way home. Captain Janeway made that clear from the beginning. That's our primary mission. Just think about it, that's all."
She heard Seska leave, leaving B'Elanna and herself to do some serious soul-searching.
Kathryn tried to quiet her mind as she beamed to Sikaris later that day, but the situation with her daughter and the situation Ensign Kim had brought to her attention were difficult to ignore. She would hopefully clear up one after taking to Gath, but the other…
Gath met her at the transport site with a huge smile and a hug, and they began to walk together.
"Have you spoken with the other Magistrates about using the trajector?" she asked him after some small talk had been exhausted.
"Actually, I haven't. Some of them are traveling now but I assure you I will do it." They passed a merchant peddling his metal wares. The man attempted to show them to Gath who waved the man off dismissively. "Eh, I've already seen those."
Janeway cleared her throat. "It's becoming a matter of some urgency."
"Oh? Why is that?"
She tried to be diplomatic and polite. "We've imposed on you for far too long."
"Not true! We welcome you for as long as you can stay." He placed a hand on her shoulder and added meaningfully, "And I hope that's a very long time indeed."
"My crew is eager to continue our journey. Once they realized the trajector might bring us 40,000 light years closer to home…"
"Why are you so consumed with this desire to get home? I find it difficult to understand."
"Home is home," She said, trying to figure out how someone could not understand that. "It's where we belong."
"Couldn't you create a new home here, with us? Can you imagine a more delightful place to live, where you could pass your time extracting pleasure from every moment." He softly kissed her hand, rather intimately for someone she'd know for only a few days. "I promise you, you and I have many such moments to explore."
"Yes, but for how long?" She gently pulled her hand back. "I've seen how quickly you get tired of your pleasures. All that interests you is what's new and unexplored. After a day or two it becomes commonplace. We prefer permanence—the reward of relationships that endure and grow deeper with the passing of time."
"You would lose those notions if you stayed with us."
Kathryn sighed, feeling everything falling apart. "You may be right. And that's why we have to leave."
Gath stepped back, clearly irritated. "We have offered you nothing but hospitality. Is this how you repay us, with an attack on our beliefs?"
She tried to remain diplomatic. "I'm sorry. I was just trying to illustrate the differences between us."
"I don't enjoy being judged like this. It's very upsetting, and not at all pleasurable."
Diplomacy went out the window. It was her turn to be irritated. "That's all you really care about, isn't it? Your pleasure. All your hospitality, your graciousness, it was never about giving us pleasure, it's all been to gratify yourselves. We're nothing more than the latest novelty."
"You're hostile and vicious. You would infect the joyousness of our lives. You must leave immediately."
"You never had any intention of helping us, did you?"
"Of course I did. I did everything in my power to persuade you to stay here."
She shook her head in disbelief and disgust that she'd almost kissed him. She tapped her commbadge. "Janeway to Voyager. One to beam up."
Upon her return to the bridge, she hurried over to Chakotay. "Cancel all shore leave and recall the away teams. We've been asked to leave."
"Aye, captain." He moved away to obey, and Tuvok approached her.
"I assume that means Gath will not be assisting us."
She tried to hide her disappointment and frustration. "I don't think he ever had any intention of helping us. He just strung us along."
"Are you considering Jaret's offer?"
She turned to face her friend, her voice cracking a little despite her best efforts. "Oh, I wish I could…but I can't."
When Seska, Torres, and Carey entered the transporter room ready to make the trade illicitly, they had no idea there was a fourth person, watching them silently.
"With shore leave cancelled, are we able to get to the surface undetected?" B'Elanna asked.
"We'll have to override the security lock-out but that shouldn't be a problem," Seska replied, nervously clutching the downloaded Federation library chips.
Carey's forehead creased in frustration. "It's not accepting my security code."
"Re-initialize the lock-out buffers."
"I did. It's not working. Someone's altered the security subroutine."
"Why would anyone do that?"
Seska shook her head and stepped from behind the console. "Never mind. Beam me down."
"Are you crazy?" B'Elanna was incredulous. "Security will find you out before you get there."
Suddenly Sarah Janeway stepped from the shadows and stood in front of Seska. "I heard everything." She crossed her arms.
"Look…" Seska began uncomfortably. "Don't you want to go home?"
Carey and Torres looked at each other. A four-year-old girl was really no threat, but neither seemed to want to restrain her.
Sarah held her hand out for the box of chips. The three officers looked at each other. "I'll make the trade," she added.
"What?" B'Elanna looked at her in shock.
She couldn't believe she was succumbing to her dark side. "I don't like Gath," she replied simply.
The three looked at each other a moment longer before Seska handed her the box. At that same moment, Tuvok entered the transporter room and everyone froze.
"I altered the security subroutines. Any attempt to override the lock out would have alerted me to your presence here," he calmly explained. He looked pointedly at Sarah, with the box of chips halfway in her hand from Seska's. He stepped to console and overrode the lockout, and then stepped back to where they stood. "Is this Voyager's library which you intended to trade for the trajector technology?"
"Yes," Seska admitted with reluctance.
Sarah made a move as though to give it to him, but changed her mind and held it close to her body.
He raised one eyebrow at her. "When I attempted to download it, I noticed it had already been accessed."
"You were going to download it?" B'Elanna was surprised.
Noting that Sarah had no intention of letting go of the box, he tipped his head in acquiescence and ushered her onto the transporter pad. "The captain's daughter and I will make the exchange. Return to your stations. Do what you can to prepare the ship for the matrix. Energize."
Tuvok allowed her to make the actual exchange. She had no idea why, but he did. She also had no idea how he was explaining the fact that she was on the planet's surface, but she didn't care. A scarily strong force pulsed through her body as she passed the box to Jaret and accepted the trajector matrix in return, knowing that what she was doing would punish Gath. The fact that it would probably also punish her mother was something she found herself shockingly not caring about. A pit of noxious anger was bubbling in the pit of her stomach and this trade was the only way to cure it.
The second they returned to the ship, Tuvok took the matrix and sent her to her quarters, with strict instructions to keep quiet about what had just happened and to stay put. She was more than happy to oblige, for the pit in her stomach, instead of dissipating in her act of rebellion, was growing and making her nauseas.
She sat silently on her bed, trying to sort out the super-intelligent side chastising her for being childish, and the little-girl-side that just wanted to have her mom to herself.
Sometimes she hated being essentially two people.
The red alert klaxon sounding and the ship shaking violently tipped her off that the trajector matrix hadn't worked, and she headed for her mother's ready room. Maybe a confession would do what revenge hadn't.
"I take full responsibility for what happened," B'Elanna was explaining to Captain Janeway. "There were others involved, but I was the senior officer and the culpability is mine."
Sarah entered just then, not bothering to use the door signal. Her mother made a motion to shoo her back out, but just then Tuvok interrupted with, "Lieutenant Torres is not precisely correct, captain. She was not the senior officer involved…I was."
"You?" Kathryn whispered.
"Tuvok's not exactly right either, mama…" Sarah added, eyes tearing. "I'm the one who actually made the exchange."
Kathryn stared at the three in front of her, shocked and barely concealing her anger. She shook her head and glowered at her daughter and pointed to the door. "Go back to our quarters. I'll deal with you later."
Sarah obeyed quickly and fearfully. When the door swished shut behind her, Kathryn then turned to Tuvok. "And I will deal with you shortly." She turned to B'Elanna. "I don't have the luxury of throwing you in the brig for the rest of this voyage. I need you. I need every person on this ship. But I want you to know how very deeply you have disappointed me. If there are any further transgressions, even a minor one, you will no longer be an officer on this crew. Is that clear?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Dismissed."
When B'Elanna had gone, she returned her gaze to Tuvok, trying to comprehend the situation. She rubbed her neck in frustration. "I don't even know where to start."
"While I did allow your daughter to make the actual exchange, I was the adult and senior officer present and I accept all responsibility. It was I who gave her permission."
"Let's leave her out of this for now." She closed her eyes, exhausted and uncomprehending.
When she could finally look at him again, she added, "I want you to explain to me how you, of all people, could be involved in this."
"It is quite simple, captain. You have made it clear on many occasions that your highest goal for the crew is to get them home, but in this instance your standards would not allow you to violate Sikarian law. Someone had to spare you the ethical dilemma. I was the logical choice, and so I chose to act."
She realized the gravity of what he was saying. "You did it for me because you knew I couldn't."
"I accept the consequences of my actions. I expect to lose my commission, and to be court-martialed when we return to Federation Space."
She shook her head. "You are one of my most valued officers, and you are my friend. It is vital that you understand me here. I need you, but I also need to know that I can count on you. You are my counsel, the one I turn to when I need my moral compass checked." She found the anger she was trying to keep buried was creeping into her voice. "We have forged this relationship for years, and I depend on it!" With effort, she spoke more softly. "I realize you made a sacrifice for me but it's not one I would've allowed you to make. You can use logic to justify almost anything. That's its power, and its flaw. From now on, bring your logic to me. Don't act on it behind my back."
Tuvok nodded slowly. "You have my word. My logic was not in error, but I was."
She couldn't face him any longer. She turned away and quietly replied, "Dismissed."
Kathryn put off returning to her quarters as long as she could, but eventually she had to go back and confront her daughter. She found Sarah sitting on her bed, white-faced and anxious. Without preamble, she told her flatly, "No replicator rations or holodeck time for a week. Is that perfectly clear?"
Sarah nodded quickly and repeatedly.
"How could you, Sarah? You went behind my back, knowing perfectly well that what you were doing was wrong." She ignored her daughter's tears. "Not only did you go behind my back, but you had to have known how dangerous that secretive little deal was. The fact that Tuvok was with you shouldn't have made a difference. What were you thinking?!" Her daughter's shoulders started to shake, and she softened her voice. "What I really want to know is…why?"
A sound squeaked out from Sarah's whimpers.
"What?"
"Gath."
She stared at her little girl. "What?"
Sarah started to cry harder. "I…di-didn't like how...he l-looked at you. It was s-stupid, I kn-know. I'm s-s-sorry!"
"Oh, Sarah…" Kathryn sat next to her. "So what you did was to get back at Gath?"
She could barely make out a "Yes" in the midst of the sobs. She hugged her daughter to her side and whispered, "Why didn't you say something sooner?"
"I di-didn't know how-ow! And I wanted you to be ha-happy!"
"This is partly my fault," she murmured into Sarah's hair. "I was so caught up with him, I didn't stop to think how it must be affecting you. And I am so sorry about that. I'm so sorry. I forget sometimes you're still just a little girl…" Tears began to leak from her own eyes. "I am so sorry. It will never happen again, I promise you that."
"And I won't g-go behind your back again, I p-promise."
"Ok…ok…" She hugged Sarah even tighter and prayed they could both learn from and move past the disastrous last few days.
Author's Note: Like I said, definitely not my best work, but you guys deserved an update. Hopefully I can get things figured out and come up with an awesome new chapter much more quickly than this.