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

11. The Long and Winding Road

Kathryn was running again. She felt horrible leaving them like that: no answers, no explanations. She had finally met some of her crew. She had found what had been two of her most valued crewmembers and she had
left them, but where she was going…no one could follow. What she was doing…no one could know. This was her quest, and her trip…her discovery.

Chakotay had been stationed now for 30 months. He counted the days until he could seek out his soulmate. Until he could find her again, until they could
finally at least try to make it work. He had spent many a day crying in his quarters. The man who had been the Maquis rebel, the man who had fought the Cardassians, the man who had helped Kathryn Janeway bring Voyager home and finally…the member of Section 31, brought to his knees by the love of a woman.

Harry watched mesmerized as Chakotay let out the trials, the troubles and the pain of a lifetime. During their time together on this station they had shared many memories, talked of lost ones, of loved ones and of days gone by. Harry had come home, hoping to finally live a normal life, finally fall in love, have children, make lieutenant. Instead he had been thrown into the middle of a war zone, without thought, without reason and not by any choice of his own. His life had never been so hard and he had never felt so alone.

/\/\

Tom drove the shuttle as fast as was humanly possible. They had been vacationing on Mars. B’Elanna wasn’t due for another three weeks; the doctor had assured her she had no chance of delivering in the next week. How wrong he had been. “It’s okay B’Elanna, we’re almost there.”

Tom had more than just the fear of delivering his child, his premature daughter by himself. There was also the possibility that their fears of genetic flaws would come true. They had both been assured numerous times, by numerous physicians that everything looked fine. But even in today’s day and age when hunger and disease had all but disappeared, they still didn’t know ‘everything’ and nothing was ‘for sure’.

B’Elanna gritted her teeth against the pain. Then she felt a strange sensation. “Oh god Tom, I need…”

Tom spun around to see B’Elanna panting on the bed in the back of the shuttle. “What B’Elanna?” Deep down he knew. She was going to have this baby here, without any help. He just thanked god he had had medic training way back when. “It’s okay B’Elanna, don’t worry, everything will be alright.” He rushed to the back to check her progress. Damn she’s fully dilated.

“Tom, it’s too early. She not due for another three weeks.”

He looked up into her frightened eyes. “I know honey, but you’re ready. Kathryn’s coming whether we like it or not. Now with the next contraction I need you to bear down. I need you to push. I need you to help me bring Kathryn into the world.”

As Tom focused on the task at hand he gave one more prayer, begged one more time for everything to go well, and for this baby girl to be okay.

B’Elanna hurt all over. This was the hardest work she had ever done. She bore down with all her might. She continued over the next hour with Tom’s constant encouragement and hope. “I can see her, B’Elanna. The head’s crowning. We can have her with the next contraction.” He watched as his wife struggled through the labor and before he knew it, he was a father for
the second time. He cut the cord and watched as Kathryn opened her eyes. She had a soft blond-red down on her head. He knew it wasn’t possible, but if he didn’t know any better he’d swear this was Kathryn’s daughter, except for the faint Klingon ridges that adorned her forehead. Kathryn opened her eyes and looked back at him, blue meeting blue.

What beautiful eyes, just like Kathryn Janeway. He looked down at her checking for flaws, any flaws that might be hidden from view. He saw nothing visible. He put the baby on the cot beside her mother and pulled out his tricorders. Everything seemed to be okay.

He picked the child back up, and brought her to B’Elanna.

“Tom? Is everything okay? She isn’t crying.”

He smiled at his wife. “It’s okay honey. It looks like she’s gonna do justice to her namesake.” He handed his child, little Kathryn Paris to his wife.

B’Elanna picked up little Kathryn Paris ever so gently. She looked down at the child in her arms as baby Kate opened her eyes. B’Elanna moved her hand in front of the baby’s eyes moving to touch the soft baby down on her head, but something wasn’t right. She moved her hand in front of the child’s face again, with unmoving blue orbs staring back at her.

“Tom, something isn’t right with her.” B’Elanna was getting hysterical. All her fears from the past months coming to the forefront of her mind and her memories. “Tom, quick, come here.”

The urgency in his wife’s voice brought him back to her in a hurry. “B’Elanna, what’s wrong? I check her out, she’s fine…”

B’Elanna handed the infant back to her father. “No Tom, look.” She waved a hand in front of the baby’s eyes once more.

Tom looked hard at the child. He took another instrument out and measured the reflexes in the baby’s eyes. He looked into his wife’s hopeful brown eyes.
“My god B’Elanna, Kathryn…she’s blind.”

/\/\

Harry had had his fill. He had watched too much death and destruction for one so young. He had asked to be taken out of Section 31, he had asked for time off. He had been told that the assignments they were taking were top secret. No one left. No one got out of assignments. They didn’t care if you mother had died. He told them that he had to see his friends that they would be worried sick about him. They had told him it was impossible, they needed him, he was a large asset to them. He was a communications and tactical
specialist, which was good. He was an amazing holoprogrammer, which was better. No they had told him they couldn’t let him go.

So Harry planned and practiced, the only one he shared his plan with was Chakotay. He had at one time looked to Chakotay as a father figure, now he looked to him as a valued friend and more of a brother. He had shared his escape plans. Chakotay had given him his blessing and had said his goodbyes, in case he did make it. In case he did earn his freedom. He sent with Harry a message to Kathryn Janeway.

Chakotay, when he had heard of Harry’s plan had spent hours creating an intimate letter to his love, his one and only. It said I love you, it said I need you, it said nothing will ever keep us apart and one day he would make it back to her. He would love her and cherish her the way he had always dreamed it would be. He said many things, and he hoped and prayed that one
day she would receive is letter and finally know the depth of his emotions for her.

So Harry left. He went on his escape, he tried to fulfill his dreams of freedom. He had made four escape attempts, each time he had failed. He had decided to give up and come back. He tried to live in peace and for six months adapted…or so it seemed. Chakotay knew better. He had taught Harry about vision quests and how to contact his animal guide. His guide was a small
brown mouse, and Chakotay had watched it solemnly for the years they had been in this horrible place. It had begun looking sickly and he knew what Harry was going to do. He knew in the end it was the only was he would
reach peace and resolution. So six months after his escape attempts had ended, Chakotay felt the pain of the small animal as it entered the next stage. The next morning he found Harry hanged in his cell. The pressures of the past
three years too much. Harry had succumbed, and he hoped, wherever he was he was finally free…

So we wanted ‘round this desert
And wind up following the wrong gods hom
But the flock cries out for another
And they keep answering that bell
And one more starry-eyed messiah
Meets a violent farewell –
Learn to be still (3)

Chakotay had seen it coming and his songs had been a premonition…learn to be still.

/\/\

Kathryn had spent the last year following her star. Wishing she could find him, knowing that some day she would. She had brought with her one book, one novel that would serve as her guiding light. As her instruction manual to life and to self-discovery. She had lost herself over the years, lost sight of who she was, and who she wanted to be. She knew as odd as it sounded that she was in much the same predicament the Doctor had been in when she had stolen his memories. She had taken something from him that had not been
hers to take, and now, all these years later she finally understood. For she had something stolen from her that no one, but no one had a right to take. Someone had stolen her livelihood. Someone had forever silenced her faith. She had with her ‘La Vita Nuova.’ The new life, that’s what she searched.

In that book which is my memory
On the first page of the chapter that is the day when
I first met you
Appear the words, ‘Here begins a new life.’ (5)

Only in her case it wasn’t anew life she required but the one which had been taken, and with that life would come love and the final realization that what she had always needed for completion had always been right in front of her. And it was true, you never knew what you had, until it was taken away and the voices of reason and rhyme were forever silenced.

I’ve been treated so wrong,
I’ve been treated so long
As if I’m becoming untouchable

Untouchable and lost forever more.

TBC in Chapter 12. The End of the Journey

[Main Page] [Fanfic Main Page] [Date With Destiny Main Page]