=/\=
San Francisco weather can be iffy. September is a month in which the temperature and humidity generally are reasonably tolerable, but scheduling an outdoor wedding and reception for that month is a bit scary. As it turned out, on the appointed day the weather turned out to be beautiful, sunny and pleasant, but with high enough humidity so that the Fluidians among the guests would not feel particularly parched during the festivities. Of course, no one needed to worry about the humidity, nor the idiosyncratic weather of the Northern California coast. The wedding would not take place in San Francisco.
Since the groom was the Federation Council Representative from Accordia, a world in the process of being terraformed into a place where people who originated on many worlds in the galaxy might find a place to call home, and the bride was famous (one might even say infamous) because she was one of the crew of Voyager, Seven and Axum knew they could not avoid intensive media coverage of the day. Starfleet Security could easily control the onslaught, however, if the ceremony and reception were held on Voyager, which was currently in orbit around Earth and manned with a skeleton crew, with Lieutenant Commander Scott Rollins in charge of the conn and Lieutenant Tricia Jenkins as his second while Captain Janeway was on "extended leave" at Starfleet Command.
As Kathryn Janeway was still its captain of record, she would have the honor and privilege of officiating. Once the wedding festivities were over, Lieutenant Commander Thomas E. Paris, Voyager's current (and final) Flight Controller, was to fly the vessel to its final resting place on the Presidio, where the newly married couple and their guests would disembark directly onto the planet's surface. Voyager's last (as well as its first) captain had finally given in to the desires of the Admiralty. The wedding was the last "Voyager Crew" function to take place on the soon-to-be retired vessel. The ship would be transformed into a museum honoring its epic journey through the Delta Quadrant, which introduced the Federation to the Fluidians, helped the Borg of Unimatrix Zero break free of the Borg Queen, and led to their Alliance with the Federation.
Holoemitters were already being installed throughout the ship so that significant events in its history could be displayed where they actually happened. Every person who had ever served on the ship or its Maquis counterpart, the Val Jean, were to be portrayed, even those like Kurt Bandera and Veronica Stadi, who had been part of the crew for mere days or months before their lives were lost in the Delta Quadrant.
But first, one last celebration would mark the journey's end.
The day before the actual event, the wedding party transported up to Voyager to rehearse the ceremony, followed by a traditional rehearsal dinner. Once the walk-through was over, but while everyone was waiting for the dinner to begin, Mezoti asked Captain Janeway," Do you mind if I tour the ship one last time? I know I'll be too busy tomorrow."
"Of course, Mezoti. Since I'm still the captain, I'll be your guide. We should ask permission from Seven so she knows where you are, don't you think?"
"I'm sure she'll say yes."
The captain's bemused smile graced her face. "I'm sure she will, too, but let's ask her anyway."
Their first stop was on the bridge, where Lieutenant Jenkins currently held the conn. After poking their heads into the captain's ready room and saying hello to Commander Rollins, the pair strolled through the conference room before taking the turbolift down to Deck 5, to visit Sickbay. No one was there when the doors opened, but as soon as they actually entered, the EMH on duty shimmered into existence. "Please state the nature of the medical . . . why Captain! Hello! There isn't anything the matter, is there?" Although the holographic physician's words oozed sympathy, the glitter in his eyes as he rapidly glanced from the captain to Mezoti and back suggested he was hoping something was wrong so he could perform his primary function.
"No, nothing's wrong. We're just visiting. My friend Mezoti hasn't been on the ship for a couple of years. We're taking a nostalgic pilgrimage of sorts through the ships tonight. You do know about the wedding tomorrow?"
"Of course. Your Dr. Mark has provided me with a long list of appropriate analgesic preparations to combat any form of overindulgence which might affect the guests, catalogued according to species. As if I didn't know them all already . . ." He rolled his eyes and grimaced dramatically.
"You don't look like the Doctor I remember," Mezoti stated matter-of-factly.
"You're right. I'm not from the same series. I'm a Mark II."
"This is the version that was operational when our Doctor Mark Zimmerman traveled through the Hirogen Array to the Prometheus," Captain Janeway informed Mezoti.
"Yes, our programs saved that ship from the Romulans," he said proudly. "Unfortunately, that was too late to save the lives of its crew. However, that's when Starfleet found out Voyager hadn't been lost with all hands. You weren't on Voyager then, were you, Miss Mezoti?"
"No, that was long before Icheb and I came on board. But we heard all about it from The Doctor. Dr. Mark, I mean." Mezoti turned away from him and walked slowly towards a particular biobed at one side of the room. She brushed her hand gently against its surface. "This was the biobed I sat on when Ensign Paris used his tricorder to examine me for the first time." She stepped away and approached a space near a bank of monitors. "This is where Six of Six was lying in a little biobed, after the Doctor treated her so she could breathe." As she returned to where the captain and the EMH were standing, she sighed. "It all looks the same in some ways, but it's different now, isn't it? Doctor . . . what should I call you? I can't call you Doctor Mark Zimmerman."
"You know, I've never had an actual name of my own. Maybe I should choose Dr. Lazarus. My program series had been declared obsolete by Starfleet, you see, as had the Mark III's. But after your Doctor came to the Alpha Quadrant and cured our mutual creator, Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, he decided to upgrade our programs so we wouldn't all end up working on waste transfer barges or in irradiated mining colonies. Some other ships are equipped with II's like me, and others have Mark III's or IV's. Thanks to Dr. Mark, we're all improved versions, although none of us has been able to expand his programming as far as your Doctor's. Yet. Not that I'll admit that to him if he chooses to visit a ship-bound EMH program while he's on board."
"I'm sure he will at some point, Doctor. I predict he won't be able to keep away." The captain leaned over and stage-whispered, "You know how curious he is."
Mezoti giggled, and the EMH Mark II nodded sagely, "He is that. And he's not above lording it over his 'successors,' as he likes to call us, either."
"Will you be here if he visits after the ship lands?" Mezoti asked.
"As a matter of fact, I will. I'm to be a permanent member of the museum staff. You never know when someone might become injured or ill while visiting a museum. I'll be here to dispense first aid or even initial triage, should anything serious occur. One advantage I'll have which your EMH didn't have when he first was activated is the capability of going almost anywhere on the ship. Everywhere visitors have access will be equipped with holoemitters. Once Dr. Mark's mobile emitter can be produced en masse, of course, I won't need anything like that. I'll be footloose and fancy free myself!" The EMH looked like he was about to skip happily, but he pulled himself together before embarrassing himself.
"Well, we'd better be going, Mezoti. Thank you for this little visit, Doctor."
"Before you go, Captain, I have something I'd like to show you. Many of the exhibits will be available to view in Sickbay. Since holoemitters were available here, the programmers have already installed them. Mezoti, would you like to view one of these scenarios?"
"I'd like that, Doctor," Mezoti replied.
"Computer, display Exhibit Sickbay-53507 - begin at hour 1307."
The lights in Sickbay dimmed very slightly, to the level they were always set in order to conserve energy while the ship was traveling in the Delta Quadrant. At the surgical bay in the far end, an EMH Mark I was bent over a motionless form, with Ensign Wildman standing nearby to assist. Several other figures had materialized in the area of the bay which Mezoti had visited minutes before. A much younger version of the former Borg girl was perched on the biobed she'd just touched, while Seven of Nine, Icheb, Azan and Rebi stood close by. A crib-sized biobed had appeared where Mezoti had indicated it should be. The image of Ensign Paris was bent over Mezoti's hand, saying, "OK, Five, let's see how well your wrist tubules work." After a few seconds he smiled up at her. "Ah, good. Seven, we've gotten a good size sample from Five here. Your wrist tubules work about as well as Seven's and Second's do. I'd better be careful around you. You might accidentally stick me!"
Mezoti's image asked, ""Will you take samples from Six of Six, too?"
"We're going to let her gain strength before doing any more tests on the baby," the field medic holocharacter replied.
Mezoti, the captain, and the EMH watched and listened to the scenario play out for a few more minutes before Captain Janeway ordered, "Computer, freeze program. Mezoti, they'll need us in the Mess Hall for dinner very soon. We have to go now."
"Oh," Mezoti murmured. "But does this mean people will see me in the displays, too?"
"Of course, Mezoti. You were part of this crew. All the members of the crew will be seen in at least one of the exhibits."
"But Captain, I was never a member of Voyager's crew. Not really."
"Neither was Naomi, but she's in a dozen exhibits, at the very least! You lived here during our journey. We couldn't leave you out, any more than we could little Aimee Gilmore."
Mezoti couldn't stop smiling as they said good-bye to the EMH and walked towards the turbolift. Eagerly, she asked, "Can we visit Cargo Bay Two before we go up to dinner?"
"Let me see if we have time." After checking with Tom Paris, who confirmed they were still at least fifteen minutes away from the serving of the first course, Captain Janeway acceded to Mezoti's request. They traveled down to Cargo Bay Two, not up to the Mess Hall.
=/\=
Captain Janeway led Mezoti into the cavernous storage compartment. Their steps literally echoed within the empty chamber. The only piece of equipment still in place was the computer console, on which Seven once checked Mezoti's information about where and when Icheb was captured by the Borg. She'd compared Mezoti's story with what Icheb's father Leucon had told her and discovered Leucon's had been a lie.
"It looks so different without anything in here," Mezoti said softly.
"All the regeneration cubicles are in use elsewhere. Everything else was cleared out to make it easier for the museum to display different events that occurred here. Holoemitters haven't been installed in here yet, but when they are, you'll see all of Neelix's storage boxes and the bank of regeneration cubicles you used when you lived on Voyager, if you ask to see something that happened when you lived here."
Mezoti nodded her head and looked away from the captain, murmuring, "I dreamed of this place when I was on Wysanti. I missed it so much. Borg Central. Home."
Captain Janeway looked down at the decking beneath her feet. After a deep intake of breath, without looking up at the girl she was addressing, she quietly asked, "Mezoti, are you angry with me for encouraging you to stay on Wysanti with Azan and Rebi?"
Mezoti turned back to the captain and studied her closely as the captain raised her eyes to gaze at her again. Mezoti detected a degree of regret in the captain's voice, and for a second, she considered answering with an untruth. That would be unworthy of both of them, though. Only the truth would do. Mezoti glanced back towards the wall where the regeneration cubicles once were positioned. "Sometimes I was, Captain. After the emotional inhibitor chip was removed from my cortical node, and I wasn't so afraid, I understood how you influenced me into making the decision I did. I did get angry, but mostly I was . . . I was sad because of what I'd lost." She sighed and looked in the captain's direction again. "I know you did it because you thought children like me didn't belong on Voyager. You had to keep Naomi and Aimee, because they had mothers, and you knew Mazani and Arebi wanted me to stay with them, too, along with their grandsons. I didn't understand then - and I don't think Seven did, either - that I had a mother I loved on Voyager, and a brother who was very hurt when I chose to leave. Did Icheb ever tell you I almost changed my mind. I almost decided to stay, even when we were in the transporter room and about to leave?"
The captain shook her head.
"Well, I almost did. Icheb and I were communicating subvocally after I told him he could come with us, and he said his home was here on Voyager. I was afraid I was making a mistake leaving even then. But if I didn't make that mistake, when the Borg Resistance survivors began to come to Wysanti for medical care, who would have told the planetary leaders what they were really asking? Azan and Rebi weren't . . . well, they didn't read Borg alphanumerics very well, and they were almost never around. They've grown up a lot and understand more than they did then, but I don't know if they could have helped the survivors the way I did."
"General Korok told me how much you did for his people."
"I was glad to help them. It made me feel better about where I was, but it's strange. I also understood that even though I wasn't totally Borg anymore, in some ways I always will be part Borg. And I needed to be with others like me. Does that make any sense?"
"It does, Mezoti." The captain took Mezoti's hands in hers. "I must confess, once we'd returned safely to the Alpha Quadrant, knowing I'd left you there bothered me tremendously. Bad things did happen to us on Voyager during those last months, but I think you'd have been able to survive as long as you were with Seven and Icheb. And I could see how much Icheb missed you. My conscience bothered me a lot, because I knew I'd caused him pain."
Mezoti lifted one eyebrow in unconscious imitation of her mother and her friend Cadet Verit. She said, "I'm sure you're going to make an even better admiral than you are a captain. You can be very persuasive. You know how to get people to do things they don't even realize they don't want to do. I've heard admirals have to do that all the time."
The captain chuckled, but her face still bore a very serious expression as she said, "As long as the people I sway have outcomes as happy as yours, Mezoti, I won't mind."
Before Mezoti could say more, the captain's combadge sounded, interrupting their conversation. :::Captain, dinner is ready to be served. We can't start until the two of you are here.:::
"Let Seven and Axum know we're on our way, Chakotay."
Mezoti groaned. "I was hoping we'd have a chance to visit Astrometrics and Engineering, too."
"We can resume our tour after dinner. Perhaps we can entice Seven and B'Elanna to come along to reminisce with us."
"I'd like that."
As they walked out of Borg Central, Mezoti was glad Captain Janeway had offered to take her on this tour. They'd said things they'd needed to say. Mezoti was happy to learn she would be remembered for her part in Voyager's travels, too, courtesy of some of the museum's exhibits. At least one would show her in Borg Central. She could barely wait to see what moment or moments they would choose to show. Perhaps it would be totally dark, with a single battery-powered lamp lighting their faces, while Neelix told the story of the haunt on Deck 12. The "haunt" might even make a guest appearance. After all, he'd been a resident of Voyager for several months. Surely he should be represented as part of the "crew," too.
=/\=