By:AW

Published in Unicorn Press. Editor: Nancy Border & Pat
Hayden.

You can buy it from Unicorn Press @
http://members.aol.com/UnicrnPrs/press.htm

Disclaimer: You know it, I know it, I don’t own idea
of Star Trek: Voyager. I just own the story.

Date With Destiny I

3. Destiny Dismantled I

Kathryn was standing by the transporter pad waiting for the admiral. Waiting for the man who would test them and who would finally release them top the world, the world they had once known intimately and would know again. She had confined everyone else to their quarters so she had Harry stand by at the transporter controls. “Well everyone, this is it. Harry energize.”

She watched as they Admiral materialized on the transporter pad. An Admiral. Someone higher in rank than her. It felt good to give herself up to someone else’s authority for a little while. “Admiral Paris…it’s been a while.”

The Admiral looked at the woman before him. She had been his protégé, she had guts and gusto, and honestly he was glad to see her. “Yes it has Captain. Too long I’m afraid.”

Kathryn looked up and saw that lieutenant Arnold was with him. He had a blood tester. The lieutenant spoke up. “Ma’am. Could I take a sample please? I need to run the test.” Kathryn walked up to him and watched as a sample of blood was extracted from her arm. She watched as he looked at it for a good thirty seconds and nothing happened. Then he placed and agent in the blood and waited another thirty seconds. Nothing. “She checks out sir.”

The admiral broke into a smile. “Well, one down 140 to go. Lieutenant, please check her senior staff and then get a start on the rest of the crew. Could we please have an updated crew manifest? I know there have been some changes since you left.” Janeway handed him a padd with the crew manifest on it. “Always ready, Captain I should have expected nothing less.”

She just sat back and watched as the lieutenant tested the rest of her senior staff. It took twenty minutes, but eventually he gave a nod at the admiral.
“Well Kathryn, looks like you all check out. Ready to go home?” Kathryn grinned and stepped onto the transporter pad. “Ensign entergize.”

She felt the familiar tingle she had associated with the transporter beam, and closed her eyes and gave herself to the familiar feeling. When she opened her
eyes, she was on earth. She was back where she belonged, or at least where she thought she belonged. She was happy to be home.

Tom had beamed down with the Captain and with his father. His father had yet to spare him a glance. Tom wondered if the Admiral even remembered that Tom was his son. He supposed some day; maybe he would get the
chance to make amends, to prove that he had done something productive on Voyager. And one day, years from now…Admiral Paris would receive his letter from the Delta Quadrant, and maybe once believe that his son had done something right with his life.

He felt a hand touch his arm. He turned around and saw B’Elanna sitting there. “B’Elanna.”

“Was that your father Tom?” Tom all of a sudden bowed his head in a shameful gesture and looked like a little kid who had stolen a candy bar. “Yeah that was him B’Elanna, one of the great men of our time.” She
heard the bitter note in his voice. He was hurting. He deserved at least an explanation for the letter.

“Tom, we need to talk.”

He spun around and looked at her eyes blazing. “No we don’t B’Elanna. It’s over. I let him down; he hates me. And why wouldn’t he? I messed up, and besides he had protégés like the great Kathryn Janeway to fill the void I left. So let’s just get over it, and get on with our lives. As far as I’m concerned I don’t have a father.”

B’Elanna knew he would be mad at her for concealing this. For holding things back from him, for lying to him. All she could do was hope he would get over it, and soon, because she had something important she needed to tell him. Something she couldn’t really deal with on her own. Oh Tom, please forgive me.

The Captain was following Admiral Paris through the courtyards of Starfleet Command. This was something she’d been dreaming of for years now, back to the starting point. She had accomplished her mission, but the problem was somewhere along the line, the Maquis traitors had become family. They had become fine officers and to some lovers, marriage partners, soul mates. She only hoped that the beaurocrats in Starfleet could see the reasoning and the goodness and would give these good people a chance, for everyone’s sake. After six years of working to meld the crews, of working to get them home…she wasn’t ready to give up without a fight, and she suspected neither were they.

“So Captain. Am I understanding you correctly when I hear that you integrated them Maquis prisoners into your crew?”

Okay so we’re getting right down to business. She recalled for some reason at that point New Earth and her Angry Warrior’s speech. The woman’s war party was too weak to defend itself from all its enemies. So he joined her and from that point on her needs would come first. For some reason it was oddly appropriate. “Admiral. We were stuck seventy thousand light years from the Alpha Quadrant. Half my crew was killed in the initial journey. The way I saw it, I didn’t have enough people left at this point to run my ship. Many of the crew had Starfleet training. For instance, Commander Chakotay was a Starfleet Commander when he resigned from Starfleet for his own reasons.”

“Captain. That does not chance the fact that these are traitors to the federation, and you’ve picked a bad moment to return with a shipload full of Maquis. The war with the Dominion is at full force and most of the Maquis are being detained, that is all the ones who weren’t murdered in the initial attacks.”

“I’m aware of that Admiral, but…”

“Look Captain, I think we should wait until we get to headquarters to discuss this. I see many of your senior staff are in fact Maquis.”

“Were Admiral. They were Maquis. As far as I’m concerned, they’re as Starfleet as anyone.”

Admiral Paris looked into her steely gray eyes. It had been over fifteen years since he had been her teacher, but she had and would always have that
determination. He had known and worked with her father it was a Janeway trait. Strong, admirable and headed for success. Unfortunately along with that came the stubbornness and pigheadedness…he was afraid that in this battle they would lose a fine Captain, and he also realized that she was set up for a fight. They would crucify her. He already knew that she was going to be the sacrificial lamb. They needed to blame someone and it was going to be her. He could not protect her this time. When he looked at the situation, he supposed he would have made the same decision in her shoes…done anything he could to get his crew home. At the same time she had broken, or had
let them break more rules and protocols than was acceptable, and she would be punished for that. Problem was with a woman like Kathryn Janeway he was afraid it would be the death of her, it would be her destruction, and there was not a thing he could do about it.

TBC in Chapter 4: Destiny Dismantled II

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