Title: Colony Author: Jemima Contact: jemimap@crosswinds.net Series: VOY Part: 18/20 Rating: PG Codes: crew, J/C Date: November 2000 Disclaimer: Copyright has expired on the works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson quoted herein. Certain of the names below have been trademarked by Paramount; be assured I am not conducting trade with them. ***** Part 18 ***** There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe, And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law. While the Admiral hugged his son, Harry and Hildegaard introduced themselves. "It's an honor to meet you, Ensign Kim. You're a hero back here, you know." "Me? I'm not even a Lieutenant." "What's she like, your Captain?" "Indescribable, Hildegaard - she's indescribable." The Admiral had finished hugging and was now huffing and puffing. "Good work, son. What sort of drive did you put in this thing?" He assumed this was a test flight for some new slipstream drive Voyager's Captain had wisely ordered them to keep secret. "Have a seat, Dad," Tom answered. When the Admiral was seated and Hildegaard positioned protectively beside the chair, Tom continued speaking. "There's nothing in the Delta Flyer but a standard-issue warp drive. We...found...a transwarp-capable ship on the border of the Beta Quadrant. The Captain invites you to visit it. Your ships, however, will have to stay here." Admiral Paris was silent. "Don't worry, we won't leave the sector," his son added. The Admiral hailed the other ships and told them to hold their positions. "Ok, so show me." Tom sat down at the - unique, Hildegaard thought - controls of the Delta Flyer, turned her about and headed back into the asteroid belt. The Admiral watched in fascination as one asteroid grew larger and larger, until it took on planetary proportions. Hildegaard cursed the worthless Terran sensor grid that had missed a potential enemy the size of the moon. The illusion of a barren planetoid was dispelled by the opening before them. For a moment Hildegaard lost his bearings, as the moon's horizon disappeared and the viewscreen was filled with an impossibly large black wall, and then a small opening revealing a cavern the size of a spacestation, bathed in yellow light. Once the Delta Flyer was safely docked beside Voyager, Tom and Harry escorted their guests through transparent passageways towards a glassed-in room overlooking the docks. Along the way, the Admiral noticed a network of laboratories staffed with humanoids, some in Starfleet uniforms. He recognized the EMH and the former Borg drone known as Seven of Nine. Hildegaard glanced around the central chamber, which was dominated by a triangular console. Much of the glass was obscured by semi-transparent images of the solar system, its asteroid belt, Earth, and various starfields. The Admiral's attention, however, was fixed on the redhead at the console. She seemed taller than he remembered. She turned to her guests and said, "Admiral Paris, welcome to Toleighanomir." "Kathryn, it's good to see you again," he replied, but his eyes asked, what is this place? "Let me show you around." ***** "We came across a humanoid civilization which extended far into the Beta Quadrant. They were warp-capable, peaceful explorers like ourselves." "But?" the Admiral prompted her. He knew things in the Delta Quadrant were never quite so simple. "But then a war started. Voyager was caught in a surprise attack against the Leigus Union. She was crippled, without dilithium, in a slowly decaying orbit around a dying planet. On a mission to retrieve dilithium from the besieged Leigan homeworld, we found this ship. "Two of my officers and I accidentally became embroiled in the workings of Toleighanomir. We appear to be essential to its operation. Our current mission is the transport of the population of that devastated Leigan world to a new, less poisonous, planet." The Admiral offered the displaced Leigi their choice of Federation colony planets. "I'm afraid, Owen, that the captain of Toleighanomir is unimpressed with the Federation's past treatment of colonists and colony worlds." Tom, tagging along on the tour, grinned. Hildegaard recalled that the Admiral's son was once a Maquis himself - had he been the one to poison the Leigan captain's mind against the Federation? Janeway continued, "Also, the Leigi would prefer not to colonize a heavily inhabited area like the Alpha Quadrant. We plan to find a few suitable worlds in Andromeda." Hildegaard gasped. The Admiral's jaw dropped. "I will have to go along for this trip. It seems to me, Owen, that I ought to visit our galactic neighbor as a representative of the United Federation of Planets. But if you prefer, I could hand Voyager and my resignation over to you, in which case I would kindly request safe passage through Federation space for this Leigan vessel." "And what if I agree? What sort of a fleet will you want to bring along? That's quite a spacedock you have out there." "Just Voyager. To tell you the truth, Owen, I don't think another crew could take the strain. Mine is a deep space crew - they've seen the Void and come through it in one piece. Can you say the same of any other Starfleet crew?" "We're a bunch of hillbillies by comparison." "I didn't say it. But we won't be turning around to deliver the homesick." "You have a point - I'll run it by Starfleet. They'll approve if I have anything to say about it." ***** Baby lips will laugh me down; my latest rival brings thee rest. Baby fingers, waxen touches, press me from the mother's breast. Neither the Admiral nor his ersatz bodyguard was prepared for the sight that met their eyes as they stepped out of the turbolift. It hadn't occurred to them that the moon might be hollow. As their guests gaped, Janeway drew Tom aside and whispered in his ear. Tom smiled and nodded; Janeway touched his arm - she still does that, Owen noted - and started up the mountainside. Soon she turned aside and waited at the doorway of a low building for the rest of the party to catch up. They followed her inside, through a corridor into a large central room, where several young Leigan women were cooing over equally many babies. Tom strode through the crowd and took a wee bundle from one of the girls. He cuddled the baby, turning her so that her grandfather could see her face. The elder Paris noticed the faint ridges on the infant's forehead and the ring on Tom's finger almost at once - his eyes widened in surprise. "Your granddaughter," the visiting Lieutenant heard Tom Paris say softly, but he was more interested in another scene. One of the native girls - can a hollow asteroid have natives? Hildegaard wondered - had approached Kathryn T. Janeway with a similar bundle. The Captain of Voyager touched the tiny cheek, but waved the girl away before the Admiral noticed. "Where is my daughter-in-law? Come to think of it, I haven't seen any of your Maquis crew, Kathryn." "You've seen me, Dad," Tom teased him, then started to say, "B'Elanna can't be parted from the engines--" Janeway silenced him with a look and took over his explanation. "I regret to inform you that my Maquis crewmembers resigned their commissions before we entered Federation space. They also renounced their Federation citizenship and were granted amnesty by the Leigan government. As we have no extradition treaty in place with the Leigus Union--" "I understand, Kathryn. I am duly impressed with your diplomatic acumen," the Admiral replied, chuckling softly. ***** After leaving Toleighanomir, the Admiral spent a week pushing the desired arrangements through Starfleet. Perhaps it helped that most of the Admiralty barely believed his story. Also, not even Admiral Necheyev was particularly interested in prosecuting Janeway behind closed doors. They would have remanded her to the Leigi whatever the verdict, since no one was willing to give up a new galaxy for Necheyev's little vendetta against the Maquis. Starfleet merely insisted on monitoring the crew as they took their long-awaited shore leave on Earth and other Federation planets. Admiral Paris read these reports with great interest, and saw much more in them than met the eye. A Federation shuttlecraft made for an old Maquis hideout on Bajor. Bajoran Intelligence sent back blurry photos of two men Starfleet Intelligence identified as Dalby and Ayala, still listed in the registry as members of Voyager's crew. From there, vague rumors spread throughout the demilitarized zone, promising 'a galaxy without Cardassians' to all displaced and oppressed colonists. A full pardon was granted to Thomas Eugene Paris, in absentia, at a hastily convened session of the New Zealand parole board. Speaking of which, no interesting news had yet come from the Altassa penal colony on the Federation side of the demilitarized zone, to which Starfleet, after the Dominion war, had insisted all the Cardassians' Maquis prisoners be sent. In return, the Cardassians had demanded extraordinarily high security for the facility, the ability to inspect it without notice, and finally, that the Federation put its Maquis prisoners there as well, though many of the latter were decorated Starfleet officers serving their time in low-security facilities like the one in New Zealand. Back then he had been one of the few to protest that a prison full of Maquis was an accident waiting to happen. Now Admiral Paris considered alerting Altassa, but quickly dismissed the thought - their security was so high that there was no real way to tighten it, especially against a ship only slightly smaller than Altassa itself, one that no sensor could detect. He awaited news from that quarter. Kathryn, he heard, had spent three weeks with her family in Indiana, bringing a Leigan girl and her baby in tow. Afterwards, Gretchen and Phoebe Janeway could not always be accounted for. Tuvok was at home on Vulcan; his wife T'Pel resigned her university position unexpectedly. A Ktarian with an unpronounceable name likewise resigned and left a Federation space station for parts unknown. Several unidentified persons in Starfleet uniform made a scene in a Paris nightclub, which they had insisted on referring to as "Sandrine's." They evaded the local constables. An Intrepid-class ship was brought into Utopia Planetia under sealed orders for a rapid refit. Diplomatic relations were established with representatives of the Leigus Union, listed as a civilization of the Beta Quadrant recently encountered by one of Starfleet's deep space vessels - the report failed to mention which one. One report amused him immensely: A man resembling Admiral Paris' lost son had been seen entering the Paris family home in San Francisco. Also spotted at the time were an unidentified Klingon woman and her child. Starfleet Intelligence was watching his house guests carefully as they toured the countryside. They were suspected in the Sandrine's incident, though there was little evidence. When he finished chuckling, he reflected on the larger pattern. His son had not come to Earth until Kathryn had left - was it some sort of security precaution? And one person never appeared, no matter how carefully the Admiral read between the lines. *****