=/\=
Since Icheb was not one of the happy engineers who were rejoicing at their arrival "home," he was free to observe those few who, like himself, were more ambivalent. Escaping the clutches of the Borg was a great relief, of course, but many knew they had a trial of another sort in the offing. For some, enduring a trial might be a quite literal outcome. While Marla Gilmore had been excused from Engineering so she could stay with her little daughter during the plunge through the hub, James Morrow and Brian Sofin of the Equinox Five had been assigned to serve in Engineering. They were huddled in a corner behind the warp core, observing the party atmosphere. It wasn't surprising to Icheb their expressions were funereal at best. Of all of the returnees, the Equinox Five were the least likely to be pleased by what was to come.
Those who had been Maquis were also more subdued than Voyager's original Starfleet crew. The ones within Icheb's immediate field of vision seemed relieved the trip home was over, but they weren't jumping up and down in excitement. Icheb couldn't tell if Tabor and his long-time girlfriend Olandra Jor were embracing in celebration or consolation. After exchanging a very brief, sweet kiss, they leaned back enough to gaze deeply into each other's eyes. Icheb had to look away. He'd only seen a look this intense on a few occasions, when B'Elanna and Tom were the ones doing the hugging, kissing, and gazing. Icheb suspected Olandra and Tabor were experiencing a mix of happiness, relief, and apprehension. From what he recalled when he'd spent time with the couple, particularly the time they hiked Tabor's Bajoran Trail program on the holodeck, Icheb had a hunch they'd be able to face almost anything, as long as they were allowed to do it together.
Icheb noticed Lieutenant Chapman approach the couple. Olandra saw the Starfleet officer almost as soon as Icheb did. When she took a step back and dropped her arms from Tabor's neck, the Bajoran engineer looked around and saw Chapman. "Sorry for this unseemly public display of affection, Lieutenant," he apologized, dropping his arms from her as well.
"No apology necessary under these circumstances," Chapman assured them, smiling broadly. "If I was as close to anyone as the two of you are to each other, I'd be hugging and kissing her myself!" He cleared his throat and added, with great sincerity, "I want you to know that everyone in the Engineering Division will fight for our crewmates who were in the Maquis. We've already discussed this. We want to make sure you get the same accolades and rewards the rest of us may receive from Starfleet. We know we couldn't have made it all the way home without you."
As Chapman shook hands warmly with Tabor and Jor, Icheb glanced behind the warp core to see if anyone was saying anything to Sofin and Morrow, but neither one was within Icheb's visual range anymore. As he bent to his right, thinking they'd simply stepped behind the glowing blue column of the core, his view was obstructed by Lieutenant Chapman's head as the lieutenant drew near to him. "Cadet, I want to thank you for all your services to Engineering during this engagement. I'll be letting the captain, Lieutenant Torres, and Seven know of your exemplary work here. I'll bet those Academy instructors won't know what hit them when you land in their classrooms! You could probably give some of them lessons!"
"Thank you, sir," Icheb replied, a little embarrassed by the lieutenant's effusive praise. "Are there any diagnostics you want me to run while I'm still here? I can start by checking out the shield and armor area I was monitoring at my station . . . "
Chapman chuckled. "No, Cadet. Thanks for the offer, but that can wait. I was contacted by Seven a few minutes ago. She asked that I send you up to Sickbay . . ."
"She wasn't injured, was she?" Icheb interrupted, suddenly feeling extremely uneasy because he knew so little about what happened to those on the bridge during what had to be a wild ride through the hub.
"No, nothing like that. I think Seven wants you with her when she meets the newest member of the crew."
"Has Lieutenant Torres had her baby?"
"I understand she has. Go on up there and meet her. And if we do need you to help out with anything down here, don't worry, I'll know where to find you. Dismissed."
Icheb didn't know where the impulse came from, but he took Lieutenant Chapman's right hand and shook it enthusiastically. A grinning Lieutenant Chapman put his other hand over Icheb's to return the gesture before saying, "Now, scoot!"
=/\=
As Icheb exited the turbolift and approached Sickbay, he encountered several crewmates from other departments who were celebrating in the corridors, too. The ship must have come through the fight fairly well. If not, everyone would be off repairing damage to critical systems to enable Voyager travel on to Earth. He wondered how far they needed to travel before reaching their ultimate destination. As Seven had pointed out when they'd first discovered the wormholes, the Alpha Quadrant was very large. If they were only at the edge of what was considered the Alpha Quadrant's boundaries, their journey still might take months. What if they'd exited near the borders of the Romulan Empire? Or inside territory claimed by one of several other races who weren't friendly with the Federation? Their unexpected emergence into what others claimed was their space could still trigger another battle or two, unless Voyager had exited closer to Earth.
He'd gotten that far in his ruminations when the Sickbay doors swished open. Several members of the crew were sitting on biobeds or being examined by the EMH and his secondary field medic staff, since Mr. Paris was obviously otherwise occupied. The Doctor looked up from his examination of Ensign Mucahey's arm to see who had entered and recited, as if by rote, "If you're a walking wounded casualty and need triage, see Ensign Wildman or Crewman Lessing. If you're volunteering your services to assist with triage, please pick up a medical tricorder and stand near Mr. Lessing. If you're here to exult over our victory over the Borg, please take your celebrations outside in the corridor. I'm too busy here for a party atmosphere."
"Actually, I was told Seven asked me to come here to meet B'Elanna and Tom's baby."
The Doctor sniffed and inclined his head to the rear of the Sickbay. "All visitors to the rear. And make it brief. Lieutenant Torres needs her rest - not that she's likely to get much in here, thanks to all the clamor."
When Icheb came near the biobed occupied by B'Elanna, he stopped and viewed the tableau before him. The new mother was gazing at her husband with a sweet grin on her lips. Tom was standing next to where B'Elanna was lying, holding their daughter, and gazing even more raptly at the little one's face than Tabor had just been looking at his girlfriend. If Tom had been at the helm during the birth, as Freddie had indicated, this might be the first time the new father beheld his daughter. Icheb felt like an interloper. When he took a step backward, however, he drew the chief engineer's attention. "Tom, we have a visitor."
Tom's head swiveled towards Icheb and said dreamily, "Come meet our little girl."
Tom held the baby so that Icheb could see her better. She looked a lot like her mother, although her forehead ridges were softer. Icheb didn't know whether this was because she was only a quarter Klingon, or if all newborn Klingons had softer features which needed time to mature into the ones usually seen in the adults. The baby was awake and looked in his direction. Icheb got the feeling that, as young as she was, she was able to see him fairly well. From his social relationship training, Icheb knew the most appropriate thing to say. Fortunately, it was the absolute truth: "She's beautiful."
"Yes, yes, she is," Tom said proudly, while B'Elanna chuckled softly.
Icheb turned to B'Elanna, saying, a bit slyly, "I think you have competition for the affections of your husband, Lieutenant Torres."
She laughed out loud at that comment. "Oh, I'm prepared for that. I don't mind sharing him with our daughter. He had to suffer through all those nights of false labor pains, too. Not that he had it as bad as I did."
Tom grinned as he made eye contact with his wife for a few seconds before gazing back down on their baby again. "It was worth it, wasn't it?"
"Yes. It was," she replied softly.
Icheb was going to step away then, to allow the family their private time, but the doors to Sickbay slid open behind him. He turned around to see Seven walk through, followed closely by Commander Chakotay. When the Doctor began his spiel, he hadn't gotten past "If you . . ." before the commander waved him to silence.
Icheb began to move aside to permit the couple to approach the family group, but Seven put her hand on Icheb's shoulder and held him in place.
Chakotay announced, "We can't stay long, but we did want to meet the newest member of our crew before things got crazier on the bridge than they already are."
"What designation have you decided upon giving your daughter?" Seven asked politely
Icheb couldn't resist. "Not Octavia, I suppose?"
Tom laughed. "No, not this time. We'll keep it in mind for the future. We'd like you all to meet Miral Torres Paris. Miral was B'Elanna's mother's name."
Since he'd found out that the maternal grandmother had died a couple of years ago, at the time B'Elanna herself had a near death experience, Icheb knew this wasn't something to joke about. He nodded slightly.
"Are you going to hyphenate her last name?" Chakotay inquired.
B'Elanna answered, "No, Torres will be her middle name. It's simpler that way. I don't think anyone will forget she's my daughter as time goes on. Not if she takes after me."
"And I'm going to love every minute of it," Tom declared. "So who's at the helm now, since you're here, Commander?"
"Since we're so close to Earth, I decided Jenkins could handle it."
"So close? How close are we?" Icheb asked.
"About a light year," the commander replied.
Icheb was too stunned to say anything more, but Seven squeezed his shoulder, whether to comfort him or herself, he couldn't tell. They'd arrived right on the doorstep of the central planet of the Federation! He felt a touch of panic as he realized he would be losing his home even sooner than he'd thought possible.
Whether their discussion would have continued any longer, Icheb didn't know. Their visit was cut short by the EMH at his most imperious. "Visiting hours for the crew are over, if you please. Let the family continue their bonding experience without further outside interference!"
They all turned to leave, as ordered. Icheb walked with Seven out into the corridor, where several crew members were celebrating. He was glad to see the commander had stepped away from them and had approached Crewman Lessing instead. Icheb didn't hear the verbal exchange between the two, but just before the doors to Sickbay closed to obscure his view, Icheb saw the commander clap his hand on Noah's shoulder. The Sciences officer smiled weakly in return. Maquis commander to Equinox Five crewman, both with uncertain futures, were taking a moment to comfort each other.
=/\=
Icheb finally learned what had happened in the Trans-Warp Hub later that night from Naomi, when he arrived in the Mess Hall and saw her sitting in the corner, all by herself. Once Icheb had set his tray down on the table and taken a seat next to her, she informed him, "Mom is still working in Sickbay with the Doctor. We were lucky. There are only a few minor injuries to the crew, she told me, but the Doctor asked her to stay a little longer to keep a close eye on a couple of patients. She thinks he wanted to contact Starfleet Medical about his status."
"I was in Sickbay for a short while today. I didn't notice anyone lying down while the medics worked on them. I'm glad the injuries weren't serious. While I was there I met Tom and B'Elanna's baby. Have you seen her yet?"
Naomi smiled. "I did. She's really cute. I went there to ask Mom if I should wait for her to be free before coming to the Mess Hall for dinner. Tom called me over to introduce me. He's a very proud dad." Icheb nodded agreement, but before he could say anything else, his companion sighed. "I hope my father will be just as proud as that when he meets me for the first time."
"I'm sure he will be, Naomi. He's been waiting years to meet you. That's even longer than B'Elanna was pregnant."
She giggled nervously. "My mom was pregnant with me for over a year, you know. But you're right. He's known about me for three and a half years. I bet he'll be shocked that we're actually here so soon."
Icheb ate a few more forkfuls of his food before asking the question he hoped his friend could answer. "Naomi, since you always seem to know all the gossip, how did we get here, so close to Earth? I was too busy at my post in Engineering to know how everything went. And then I was called back to work on repairs to the shields until now.
"Well, you know Admiral Janeway's ship from the future was equipped with a form of stealth shielding that wasn't compatible with Voyager's systems. She used it when she went through the hub to accomplish her part of the mission. I don't know what her mission was, exactly. A diversion, maybe?" Naomi looked expectantly at Icheb, practically begging him to tell her anything he knew. Why she suspected he had information she did not, he had no idea, but he wasn't about to tell her what he did know.
After Icheb shrugged his shoulders, she continued, "Well, I'm sure you knew about all the Borg vessels firing on us. You must have felt that in Engineering." He nodded his head as he chewed a bite of his casserole. "The transphasic torpedoes worked just as well as they did the first time we used them on the Borg. We were able to fly inside the hub. Seven had identified the best conduits to use to get closest to Earth, but it wasn't easy getting to one. There was a lot of fighting, and Voyager began to run out of the torpedoes. Eventually, we only had one left."
"I was at my duty station when Lieutenant Chapman announced the last one had been launched. Something must have happened before that, though, because the ship wasn't hit by weapons fire for a little while before that last one was sent off."
"Oh, that's when we were inside the Borg sphere."
Icheb stared at her in shock. "We were inside a Borg vessel?"
"Yup. Everything was timed just right. When the Borg ship came out into normal space, Tuvok fired the last torpedo from inside, and blew the sphere open. There was a fleet of Starfleet ships waiting, ready to defend Earth from the Borg, but they didn't need to do anything. Voyager was the only intact ship they faced. And you know what the captain said to Admiral Paris, when we were hailed by Starfleet Command? She said, 'Sorry to surprise you. Next time, we'll call ahead.'" Despite the chatty, casual way she described this to Icheb, Naomi's laughter had a slightly hysterical edge. She wasn't as blasé about all this as she was letting on to Icheb.
"Well, I hope there never is a 'next time,' don't you?" Icheb said, smiling in a way he hoped was encouraging.
"Oh, I hope not, too." Naomi sighed then. "I was hoping someone would say the admiral's little ship came out of the hub before ours, but no one's said anything about her. If we hadn't been in the corridor when she walked to the shuttle bay to get to her ship, I wouldn't have known she'd left when she did. The official visual logs don't even show that she was ever on the ship at all. Some logs are damaged in spots. I haven't seen her in any of the ones I've looked at so far. "
"Naomi, you haven't been hacking into the official logs, have you?"
"Sure. Mezoti showed me how to do it. How else do you think I found out about being inside the sphere and all? You know my mom wouldn't have told me about that."
=/\=