Title: Colony Author: Jemima Contact: jemimap@crosswinds.net Series: VOY Part: 20/20 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 20 ***** Larger constellations burning, mellow moons and happy skies, Breadths of tropic shade and palms in cluster, knots of Paradise. A moon took up orbit around Deep Space Nine. Secrecy was not an issue here in the no-man's-land near the wormhole - weird things appeared in the sky over Bajor all the time, and no one in the more civilized reaches of space paid much attention. An Intrepid-class starship had parked among the motley assortment of ships on the docking ring the day before. Careful observers could make out a faint V, G and R on her refurbished, but not repainted, hull. Starfleet regulations required that the registry number be clearly marked and lit on all vessels, but fortunately no one attended much to regulations out here, either. Weird people appeared at Quark's, and if they seemed inclined to spend seven years' back pay in one night, the Ferengi wasn't going to question their behavior. But he couldn't resist asking one pair in particular, "Haven't I seen you two in here before?" Tom Paris and Harry Kim looked up from their drinks. They had assumed civilian attire would be enough of a disguise here - not that it mattered much at this point. "Yeah, you tried to sell my friend here some Lobi crystals," the pilot said. "That was eight years ago now," Harry added. "Weren't you lost in the Delta Quadrant?" The officers looked at one another. "Maybe." "What's she like, your Captain?" "See for yourself," Tom answered, nodding towards the promenade, "but bring coffee." Quark ducked behind the bar and emerged with a tray. He scurried after Janeway and Tuvok - Harry could hear him begging the Captain for her autograph, "for my nephew Nog in Starfleet, who lost his leg in the war." "I wonder how much he'll charge Nog for it," Tom reflected aloud. ***** Tom disappeared before his companion's eyes. "Hello to you, too, B'Elanna," Harry muttered. The suddenly solitary officer raised his glass, said, "To the Alpha Quadrant," and downed the drink in one gulp. Then he stood up, glancing around Quark's one last time, and went to inform Captain Janeway that Toleighanomir had arrived. A young man trailed Harry. After months of investigating mysterious appearances and disappearances connected with the Intrepid-class starship now docked at DS9, not even Thomas Eugene Paris vanishing before his very eyes could surprise him. What was one more missing Maquis convict, considering the rumors now flowing out of Altassa Penal Colony? Nor was Paris the only long-time resident of the Delta Quadrant recently spotted here in the Alpha Quadrant. The young journalist sensed that time was running out. When the redheaded woman had shaken Quark and dismissed Kim and Tuvok, he approached her. "Captain Janeway?" Civilian duds could not disguise that death glare. Even if he hadn't been on this story for months, he would have known her now - the woman who had stared down the Borg. Often. "Excuse me?" she said icily. "Jake Sisko," he introduced himself, holding out his hand. "It's an honor to meet you, ma'am." She stepped the glare down a few notches and shook his hand. He noted something odd about her palm and filed the information away for later consideration. "I knew your father," she said wistfully. So many had died while she was away. The Alpha Quadrant wasn't what it used to be. "I'm a reporter for the Federation News Service, Captain. I'd like to tell your story." "What story would that be?" she asked. "The whole quadrant wants to know where you've been, but I'm curious about where you're going." She smiled and an answer danced in her eyes, but it chilled him somehow. For the first time in his career, Jake worried that he had uncovered more than he wanted to know. "How far are you willing to go for a story?" "Seventy thousand lightyears," he answered, guessing that Voyager was going back. "Deep Space Nine isn't exactly on the way to the Delta Quadrant, Jake." She was toying with him. He replied in kind, "DS9 isn't on the way to anywhere but Cardassia Prime, and I somehow doubt you're taking the surviving Maquis to the heart of the Cardassian Empire." Her eyes narrowed at the thought that Sisko's boy knew what her husband was up to better than she did herself. She upped his bid: "Three million lightyears." Andromeda, he realized, turning pale. He didn't hesitate, though. "I'm in." "Voyager departs in twenty minutes." ***** Not in vain the distance beacons. Forward, forward let us range, Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change. They tooled around the galactic rim in Voyager for a couple of weeks, enjoying the view, casing anomalies and sampling the thinning interstellar dust at the edge of the Milky Way. Chakotay, again her First Officer - though Ayala had assumed his more mundane duties - wrapped an arm around Captain Janeway as she gazed out her ready-room viewport. "It's beautiful," she said. He glanced out the window at the still-distant spiral galaxy that was their destination, then back at her. There was no comparison. "You're beautiful," he said, leaning down to kiss her. She proffered only a cheek - she was on duty, after all. He chuckled at her protocols, knowing she'd be back aboard *his* ship in a few hours. "I met your reporter," he teased. "'Ship's historian'," she corrected him, frowning. "I told him not to bother the senior staff." "He said he was looking for 'the hero of Leigus Prime'. The Leigi brought him to me." "Now that you've met my historian, maybe it's time I met your Maquis." She felt him stiffen suddenly. He was definitely up to something, but asking outright would get her nowhere - when he got protective there was no budging him. She might have to put Jake on the story. For the moment, she let him off the hook. "It's time." They returned to the bridge, and she gave the order to dock Voyager inside Toleighanomir. ***** Kathryn and Chakotay strode up the mountainside towards his control room. B'Elanna was already there, having made her final tour of inspection - all of Voyager's systems had to be shut down for the space-folding jump because of the possible adverse effects of anti-neutrinos. Now she was helping Jake Sisko configure the comm system for the inaugural broadcast of the Toleighanomir News Service. Jake also had his own equipment set up to record his report, though the FNS would have to wait quite some time for this scoop. Jake was interviewing Tom Paris, mainly to test the system, when Chakotay and Janeway entered the control room. He thanked Tom quickly and began the official audio broadcast to the Leigi: "The Captain and Science Officer have just arrived on the bridge..." Chakotay did his best to ignore the soft chatter of the TNS while Kathryn and B'Elanna laid in a course for Andromeda. His duties as captain were mainly administrative - he was in essence the president of a planet whose population numbered in the millions - except for this particular duty of engaging the engines. He was lowering his hand to the console, with a bit of ceremony for the benefit of the press, when a scroll appeared in the air over his head. It fell to the triangular tabletop with a soft thud. Janeway picked it up and unrolled it; Chakotay read over her shoulder. "It's in Leigan," he said, and called Ovin over from his station at one of the viewscreens. Ovin studied the writing, puzzlement evident on his face. "I don't understand," he said. "Can you read it?" "Yes, of course. It is a formal complaint lodged by...the Q Continuum. Most of it is standard legal language, but the offense listed is unusual: impersonation of an omnipotent being. It says that if you do it again, the punishment will be five to ten million years' incarceration, and not on Decron III." Janeway glared at Chakotay and Torres. "Would one of you care to explain this?" Her husband obliged her. "As the Captain of a Leigan colony ship, I am obliged by the Code of Colonization to give aid and comfort to any humanoid colonists I come across. That includes setting free those unjustly incarcerated." In a nondescript city far across the inner surface, a crowd of Maquis listening to the TNS broadcast cheered his words. "Are you saying you freed the Maquis to start another guerrilla war against the Cardassians?" "No, Kathryn, they won't be fighting any more wars. They're all here, with us." "Is that supposed to reassure me?" She tried to sound angry, but a little grin was pulling at the corner of her mouth. When the others smiled in relief, she gave up the pretense of anger and admitted, "I wish I could have seen you two playing god--" "Excuse me, sirs," Ovin interrupted quietly, "but there's an addendum to the complaint. The Q congratulate you on 'moving up in the food chain', and they also warn you that there are more menacing things than the Borg out there." "We'll just have to find that our for ourselves," Kathryn said, getting the last word yet again. Skipping the ceremony this time, Chakotay lowered his hand, and touched the future. The End. ***** Credits: "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" [TOS] (the ship) "The Chase" [TNG] (seeding oceans with DNA) "Prime Factors" [VOY] (the space-folding drive) "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" (the destruction of Praxis)