Epilogue

Fourteen months had passed since a battalion of Federation Marines stormed Voyager thanks to the efforts of Lieutenant Commander B'Elanna Torres. Fortunately, the assault was bloodless save for a few recalcitrant crewmen who suffered bruises and a few broken bones while resisting under the influence of Benzedrine. Once the holodeck program was overridden and disabled, the three hijackers were quickly located and arrested. The ship returned to Deep Space Nine under tow where it now lay in dry dock undergoing extensive repairs to remedy the damage the ship had received during its one year in space off the Veridian system.

It was now 0220 hours and a bleary-eyed and over-worked Starfleet Commander Tom Paris sat in his favorite black leather recliner holding his one-year-old son, Michael Owen Paris, in his lap. 'Daddy' had just finished singing Mikey a lullaby, 'Hush Little Baby.' Tom liked to sing this one to his son because it would promise him anything if he would just go to sleep. Tonight had been one of those nights and finally the latest addition to the Paris/Torres family was asleep.

B'Elanna had long put their daughter, Miral, to bed. Today was a school day and at age five the Paris/Torres rule for her was to be bed by 2000 hours, in pajamas with teeth brushed and hands and face washed. Miral used to complain but had given up on that long ago because Mom was the Rock of Gibraltar. But Daddy was a sucker and Miral knew she was her father's princess. Despite a complaining Mom, she occasionally got to stay up until 2100.

Sleepy herself after a long day working on an engine overhaul, Torres had grabbed two glasses of red wine from the kitchen and strode across the living room of their provided quarters, twenty floors up in the field-grade area of the Federation apartment complex. She set the glasses down on an end table and gently took a dead-to-the-world Michael from her beaming husband. "I'll feed him later. You did a nice job tonight, Sweetheart."

"Thanks." Tom waved a hand and looked at his PADD, going over the endless stream of messages that only a Starship First Officer would have. But he enjoyed that position with Captain Chakotay as his ship's captain. The two had been through a lot over the years, more recently the one year on a holodeck that nearly propelled them into Nexus. Thank God for B'Elanna. She came through. He was so fortunate to have married her.

His wife returned now wearing burgundy silk pajamas and jumped into his lap to play with his thinning blonde hair. "You are losing some ground up there, helmboy. Maybe you should see Doc Joe for some implants." She laughed because she loved him just as he was.

"Maybe. Honey, did you see the messages from Vice Admiral Janeway? Not the one about her promotion party this Friday night but about Soran? And the Duras sisters?"

B'Elanna nodded. "I did but didn't want to read them. They brought back some memories I would just rather forget about. I tend to put bad news in a mental file with the Delta Quadrant experience. The file marked 'hell.'"

He grunted. "Not all of it was that way. Although I have to admit that seven years of nearly dying everyday was something I do not want to experience again. But if it wasn't for the Caretaker we never would have met again and got married. But I know how you feel. After all, I was there with you." He squeezed her hand and she nuzzled his neck.

"I'm so glad you were, Sweetheart. Go ahead, Tom. Tell me about Soran and those two. You will keep bugging me until you do."

She knew him so well. "Okay. After so many legal battles, Soran was finally let out of prison and given a ship. An old freighter called 'Maid of the Stars.' Captain Denise Moretti towed it behind the USS Fortitude and then slingshot him into The Ribbon. He got what he wanted. And about eighty others went in with him, one a very skilled pilot who had lost it years ago when his family was killed in an accident. All of them were troubled people who had lost family or friends and just could not cope with reality anymore. Some were suicidal and destined for the mental colony. I wish to God they would close that place."

"Me too. But they'll be crushed!" B'Elanna looked horrified.

"Maybe. Maybe not." Tom shrugged his shoulders. "Nexus has stabilized and looks to be undertaking a self-repair. We know so little about this anomaly. In the meantime, Starfleet has put warning beacons around it and a patrol goes by periodically. We just don't know."

Tom's wife hugged him and then handed her husband some wine. They clinked glasses and drank. "He was desperate. Soran. So desperate." Suddenly she just hugged her husband hard. "Tom, I don't know if I can cope without you. If something were to happen…."

Voyager's First Officer stroked his wife's hair and ran his finger along her lips. "Shhhh. It's okay. Nothing is going to happen right now. No mission for eight months at least. Just me pushing a mountain of paper and you working on engines. Oh, I should not forget the Duras sisters. Admiral Janeway courtesy-copied a diplomatic note from Federation Ambassador Consigliore about them. They were extradited to Q'onoS two days ago. If they survive the Arena, they will have their honor restored."

Torres said nothing. The Arena was a place she never wanted to experience, participant or observer.

Now her husband turned her face to his so they were close enough to look into each other's eyes and taste their breath. He lightly kissed her lips and she responded. "I knew you could do it, B'Ella. I knew you would figure out the Flyer was the only thing you could trust. I knew it could not be me; I mean you love me and I know that. But I was so drugged that I did not know who I was half the time. I had to get you into that ship. And you went to it not because of me but because you knew what it means to us. It just grabbed you and took you to it. We built it. I proposed to you inside. You accepted there. We honeymooned in it. If anything would jog your memory, it was her. You trusted her above anything alive. Because she is us. And that ship allowed you to get to the one person who would tell you the absolute truth. Vice Admiral Janeway. She always took care of us, just like the Delta Flyer does. She did it again."

"There was ALICE, Tom. Not the best memory of our ship. I nearly lost you then."

"Yeah. But who opened my mind? Who was my alarm clock?"

She laughed. "Tick tock, BRINNNNNNG! Umm…Tom, Kathryn Janeway is very special. Like family. I mean, she is…like my older sister. I can't say it any other way." She sniffed and drank some wine.

"Yeah. You are right about that." He sipped some wine as well and thought of his parents, his father-in-law John Torres, and his own sisters and their families. It was so good to have seen them even for a week while undergoing physicals. "So what do you think about watching a holomovie? I can make some popcorn. The jalapeño kind you like."

B'Elanna moaned. She was relaxed and feeling so warm now. "Sounds good, Honey. We're both off tomorrow. What do you have in mind?" Now she snuggled deeper into her husband with her head resting upon his chest. His arms closed around her. She finished her wine, put her glass down, and purred like a cat.

"Well, there is this 2016 recently-restored film called 'Smoke and Mirrors.' Also known as 'El Hombre de las Mil Caras.' It is about a secret agent named Francisco Paesa who was working for the Spanish government and spying on Basque terrorists. But he gets framed and has to leave the country. He later comes home, totally broke and with his life in turmoil. When all looks bleak he gets some financial help from a crooked, former police commissioner if he will safeguard embezzled money, about twelve million dollars American. He uses trickery and illusion to actually steal that money and take revenge on the Spanish government. So it is actually about coming home, sort of like us. And it is much better to watch than I can describe it, B'Elanna. What do you say, Bea? Honey?"

He looked at his wife. She was sound asleep.