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After his tour with Reg was over, Icheb transported back up to Voyager and found an envelope resting on his bunk, with "For Icheb, to be opened after Voyager reaches Earth orbit" written on the front in ink. He opened it and read it immediately. Once he'd finished, he realized why the letter had been handwritten: the one who wrote it hadn't wanted any evidence of what she had to say left in the ship's computer. She'd had no way to know this precaution would be unnecessary by the time Icheb received it.

54980.1 (or thereabouts-I'm still a little fuzzy about current stardates)

My dear Icheb,

If you're reading this, you must have gotten home safely through the hub. Or, at the very least, your Voyager took a different path than mine did all of those years ago, in my (hopefully) extinguished timeline. Too many of my people died in the sixteen years we slogged through the Delta Quadrant in our quest to reach the place you are now. Twenty-two of you lost your lives, needlessly, as far as I'm concerned. If I'd chosen to go through the hub in my own Voyager, I believe all of you would have survived.

Since I became the Sacrificial Lamb myself, I can tell you that I did it for my entire crew, but there were some "special cases."

In my timeline, Seven and Chakotay married. They had no children together. Seven's assimilation had put paid to that possibility. She didn't know this until after the marriage, when she discovered she was unable to carry a child to term. (Nanoprobes can be vicious little things. You should be glad you're a young man. They don't interfere with the production of sperm.) She'd adopted you before her marriage, however, so she assured me she was content because she already had a son. Chakotay never went through a formal process to adopt you; but as far as anyone knew, the three of you constituted a very happy family.

Three years after the marriage, Seven was mortally wounded during what we'd expected would be a routine away mission. She died in her husband's arms. Chakotay was never the same after he lost her. While I'm sure he cared about you, he seemed unable to show it. For thirteen years, I watched him turn into a shell of the vital man I'd encountered on the Caretaker's station. How I felt about losing the Seven I'd pushed, pulled, and harried into individuality is too painful for me to describe. I won't even try.

After this, I became much more of a mentor to you, since the one who had taken you as her son and her widower were both absent, in spirit, if not in body. Yes, you graduated from the Academy as one of the most distinguished "Distant Learner" cadets Starfleet ever enrolled. If you had been in the Alpha Quadrant and on campus at that time, you would have delivered the class valedictory speech.

Not quite two years after you attained the rank of ensign, we again encountered the Borg. Three massive cubes were on our tail. Any moment they would catch us. Every one of us would have been assimilated. You stepped forward and gave a speech very much like the one you gave me the other day in the Ready Room, about how your new and improved version of the pathogen your parents had inserted into your DNA could protect us. How you were born to do this; and this time, you were offering yourself up as the Sacrificial Lamb because you wanted to be, not because anyone else had thrust you into the role without your knowledge or permission.

I let you go. All three cubes were destroyed. Afterwards, as we proceeded on our path homeward, we found several debris fields which we determined were what remained of other Borg vessels that had also been destroyed through the transmittal of the pathogen via their vinicula, just as you'd postulated. The effects did not travel to any Borg ships far distant from Voyager's position when you made your sacrifice, however. The Queen must have recognized the danger quickly enough to contain her losses. The Borg Queen and her Collective continued to exist, frustrated by what had occurred, but still very much a threat to the entire galaxy.

We made it home eventually, surviving several more battles with the Borg before doing so. Many of the papers you wrote for Tuvok when you were his student contained ideas we utilized to develop our defenses. We only discovered this material after your death. Once Tuvok's deterioration had progressed to the point where I had to name Lieutenant Ayala as Chief of Security, we discovered your coursework in Tuvok's files. He was already suffering the effects of this serious illness as of the time I chose to visit your Voyager. That's why your captain was so surprised by the progress of your "tinkering." Tuvok had forgotten to tell her what you'd showed him. In my time stream, I also never found out about your experiments until you volunteered your life to save us.

There was one special friend who was devastated by your loss. Tom had just set up the betting pool about when Samantha would allow her daughter's engagement to be announced when the Borg cubes discovered us. Before you made your offer to me, you cleared it with Naomi. She was a Distant Learner cadet herself by that point, close to graduation, and she understood you were doing it to save her as much as anyone. "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one," and all that. She was the "one" in a way, too. Naomi was proud of you, but it took her a very long time to move on. She didn't find her life partner until after our return to the Alpha Quadrant - not that she had much choice on Voyager.

By the time I left "my time" to visit the past, to right what I considered my wrongs, Naomi's sons Icheb and Mason had a little sister, Sabrina. They all knew about their "Uncle Icheb," who sacrificed his life so that Naomi could become their mother. I don't know what will happen between the two of you now. Perhaps nothing, since you're back in the Alpha Quadrant and will have no lack of potential partners to choose from.

But, thanks in no small part to you, the young officer with a big heart and even greater courage, Admiral Kathryn Janeway became the authority on beating the Borg. When you made that pretty speech to the two Kathryn Janeways in the Ready Room, I remembered something you'd left out this time, something you'd said when you insisted you could destroy the Borg vessels who were after us. When I asked you what affect this serum might have on other cubes (much like your captain asked of you), you replied, "It depends on where it's delivered - and to whom." I never forgot that. For years, I mulled over your response; and eventually, I came to the conclusion that the best place to deliver it would be to the Borg Queen herself. I can't tell you for certain I finally succeeded. I hope I did, and that the Borg are no more. Whether I achieved my goal or not, if you're reading this, you're in a position to help the authority on beating the Borg in your timeline - your Captain Janeway - do just that, if she must continue my work.

My very dear boy, I'm glad I got to see you "alive and kicking" once again. Since your life is going to proceed in a very different fashion for you than it did for my Icheb, I decided I might as well tell you what I wouldn't and couldn't say in "Borg Central" that day. The Icheb's history I've just related is fiction now, the tragic account of another young man's life and death; something that might have been. You have your own path to travel and your own love to find. I hope you have a very long and happy life - and one free of the Collective forever. Take care, Icheb.

Best wishes always,

Kathryn Janeway (version 1)

Once he finished reading the letter, Icheb walked slowly to Borg Central, where the computer told him she was presently located. He might not have gone to her right away if she'd had any company, but Seven was alone, working on her computer console. When he entered Cargo Bay Two, she looked up from her task. From the way her brow crinkled, his face must have shown an emotional reaction to what he'd just read. She shut down the console as he approached. Without further preamble, he waved the letter at Seven. "Did you know about this?"

He handed her the pages and impatiently waited while she read, at a far slower rate than usual. While the fact it was handwritten might have made it a little harder for her to decipher, Icheb doubted that was the reason for her deliberate pace. Seven tapped the letter with her finger a few times after she was finished and finally replied to his question. "I knew some of this. The admiral told me about Chakotay and me when she was trying to convince Captain Janeway to go through the hub. She thought I would intervene on my own behalf. I refused." She hesitated before raising her eyes to his and adding, in a much softer tone of voice, "She failed to share any details about what happened to her Icheb."

"Do you think knowing this is why the captain eventually gave in?"

"To preserve our lives? It may have contributed to her decision," Seven acknowledged. "Knowing your serum had successfully destroyed the three cubes in the admiral's time stream was undoubtedly another. The stealth technology must also have been a factor. The captain expressed disappointment to me when I told her Voyager's current systems were incompatible with that particular technology, and that it could not be installed to hide our entire vessel. Since the technology was able to disguise Admiral Janeway's ship, however, Captain Janeway knew the probability of success was much greater than any attempt we could have made previously, using Voyager's complement of shuttles. After the admiral demanded to be the one to attack the Queen's Unicomplex, I'm sure it was an opportunity too tempting for her to resist."

"How much do you know about the admiral's attack, Seven?"

"Not the ultimate outcome, of course. Only she and the Queen herself experienced that. From the way so many Borg vessels were exploding around us, even those which Commander Tuvok had yet to target with transphasic torpedoes, I'm quite certain the admiral did manage to infect the Borg Queen with your serum. We know the Trans-Warp Hub and its connecting conduits have collapsed for as far as our sensors can reach. How far the destruction may extend beyond our current technology's ability to discern is as yet unknown."

"Naomi said the admiral's little ship 'disappeared' before it entered the hub."

"She planned to utilize its stealth ability to hide her presence long enough to penetrate the Unicomplex. The captain warned her the Queen would probably discover her sooner, rather than later, but the admiral said she would worry about that when it happened. This letter seems to confirm she intended for the Queen to be the one to assimilate her."

Icheb nodded. "Yes, if she did, that would account for such widespread destruction. Do you think the admiral always knew she would give up her life if she came back to this time?"

"I suspect she hoped we would be able to get Voyager to the Alpha Quadrant safely without having to make that particular sacrifice. By the time she left us, however, I believe she actually anticipated having a final confrontation with her nemesis and had accepted her fate. She no longer had the means to return to her own time stream, even if it still existed; it's clear there's no room for a second Kathryn Janeway in this one."

"Do we know the Borg are no more?"

Seven shrugged her shoulders. "No. That remains to be seen."

"Captain Janeway may yet need to become the 'author of the book on how to beat the Borg' in this timeline," Icheb sighed.

"Perhaps. And if she does, both of us must be in a position to support her in that endeavor. Who else knows as much about the Collective as the two of us?"

"Mezoti," Icheb replied quietly.

Seven nodded in response as a shadow crossed her face. Icheb needed no other confirmation that his Norcadi sister was still in Seven's thoughts, as she was in his.

Seven handed the letter back to Icheb. "I would save this. It's a precious document, a part of your history - even if it's a history we hope you'll never experience in this timeline. How do you feel about her revelations concerning the other Icheb?"

He refolded the letter and slipped it back into its envelope as he contemplated his reply. She hadn't needed to tell him to save it; he knew he always would, if only as a memento of the remarkable person who'd written it. After giving Seven's question due consideration, however, Icheb said, "I knew Naomi and I became very close in the admiral's timeline because of an offhand comment she made in this cargo bay - not even a week ago. So much has happened, it's hard to believe how little time has passed since her visit. I don't plan to share this information with anyone else, especially Naomi. About the rest . . . I guess I'm glad she answered my questions. That Icheb graduated from the Academy with high honors, even without the chance to attend any classes in person. I know the rank he'd achieved at the time of his death. I'd prefer not to think about the rest. None of these deaths will happen now. I hope not, anyway."

She put her arms around him then. Wordlessly, they comforted each other, mourning for the people who had been them, in a way, but not them - or they hoped would not be them.

As he walked back to the quarters he shared with Freddie, Icheb reviewed everything he'd learned about a future which had been eradicated through the admiral's sacrifice. While he'd learned a lot from the letter, it hadn't explicitly revealed all he might wish to know about why she came, or, more importantly, why she chose this particular point in time to arrive. The admiral could have returned to Voyager much earlier in the journey. If she had, she could have led them to the nebula with the Trans-Warp Hub, and thus to the Alpha Quadrant, even sooner than they'd discovered it. If she'd arrived before Voyager had been ordered to retrieve Friendship One, she might have prevented Joe Carey's death through her foreknowledge of Verin's duplicity. Perhaps they would never have discovered the Talaxian colony, and Neelix would still have been aboard. Icheb couldn't really be sorry about that aspect, since the Talaxian appeared deliriously happy with Dexa and Brax, but Icheb did miss him.

Icheb now accepted that Tuvok's medical condition was the reason he'd lost to Icheb in the Kal-toh match, which had taken place a mere few days before the initial encounter with the hub. If Tuvok needed treatment, the sooner they returned to the Alpha Quadrant, the better. And if she'd arrived earlier, the relationship between Seven and Chakotay might never have even started. Icheb started to think about how nice it would have been if she'd come before Mezoti left Voyager. Then he refused to deliberate on this any further. The ship was still quite far from the nebula at that point. If she'd come that early, the Federation Temporal Police probably would have stopped her from interfering. In fact, maybe she did come earlier, in an altered timeline which none of them knew about because Captain Braxton had stepped in and changed everything back to the way it had been. Icheb smiled briefly as this occurred to him.

It wasn't until Icheb had reached his quarters and stretched out on his bunk that it hit him. While Seven and Chakotay had become serious about each other, their relationship was still very new. The Alpha Quadrant offered other options for love they didn't have while traveling on Voyager.

What if Captain Janeway had formed a strong attachment to Commander Chakotay very early in their journey, as the ship's rumor mill insisted? Voyager's proximity to the Trans-Warp Hub might not have been the only reason the admiral timed her visit the way she did. Had she suspected her second in command's and Seven's relationship might never come to full fruition if it were to be disrupted now? If Voyager skipped those dangerous sixteen years, the lives of more than twenty crew members would be spared - Seven's and Icheb's included. Chakotay might never become the "shell of the man she once knew." Was saving him from pain, from this bleakness of soul which had ruined his later life, her true motivation?

All of this could be different for the admiral's younger counterpart. Once Chakotay ceased to be under her command, the protocol of a captain foregoing a personal relationship with her first officer would no longer apply. If it existed, Captain Janeway could express her love for Chakotay if she wished, and he for her - if he were free.

Ah, but there's the rub, as Shakespeare might have put it. Chakotay was very involved with Seven at this point. Icheb had no expectation at all that this would change.

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