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

12. The End of the Journey

Kathryn had been out among the stars, looking for Chakotay for nearly a year now. She had dodged Jem H’dar ships, she had ignored Starfleet hails; Kathryn Janeway had gone beyond reason in her search. She had gone beyond the boundaries set out by Starfleet, by the Romulans, by every faction who had inhabited the Alpha Quadrant all in search for Chakotay, but she had
yet to find him. She had lost all her allies, she had used up her connections at Starfleet. She was beyond the point where she could return. She felt as if she
were living and entry in the Hanson’s journals, but she knew she needed to find him, she knew she had to resolve what was going on between them, what had been going on between them since the day they met. She had to bring this journey to and end once and for all.

/\/\

Chakotay had gone on a final vision quest today. It had been nearly six months since Harry’s suicide. He had seen in his quest an image that had eluded him for far too many years. For today the lizard peeked out from its hiding spot beneath the rock and made its presence known. He realized something very important. She had always been with him, through everything. She had been his strength, and she was the rock he leaned on, she was the life force which aided him. She was his savior.

/\/\

Tom and B’Elanna look at their six month old daughter. It seemed she had grown up too fast. She was getting bigger it seemed by the minute, and she looked more like Kathryn Janeway every day. They looked into the blue depths of her eyes and saw a wisdom beyond her years. She looked troubled and, when they looked really deeply into the sightless eyes of Kathryn Paris, they saw an old soul who had been reborn, and almost had to wonder if Kathryn Janeway had met her fate and been killed and this was her resurrection. But then Tom thought logically and knew they were imposing her personality upon their daughter in their intense need to see their former Captain again.

I hope wherever you are Kathryn, you’ve found what you were looking for.

/\/\

Chakotay was finally free. He had finally found some sort of peace in the knowledge that she was with him, and this gave him the strength to carry on. This gave him the willpower to face each day. This gave him the sense of love he had needed for so long.

Kathryn wherever you are, I hope you’ve found happiness.

His hopes and prayers went on for a good four months after the day he made his first vision quest, his voyager of discovery, and then it ended. Starfleet it
seemed had finally found an agent that counteracted tetra cell white, and had managed to introduce in into the Jem H’dar population. The war was over, and peace once again reigned over the Federation colonies, but not before a horrific conflict, comparable to Wolf three-five-nine, but now it was over. Chakotay heard over sub-space that his home world, Dorvan V had finally been freed of Cardassian rule, and he was finally able to go home.

Six days from the first transmission announcing the end of the Dominion/Cardassian alliance, and the end of the war, Chakotay was discharged from Section 31, but he knew for him it was never over. On his
communiqué relinquishing him, he had a second message.

It read:

“You are free for now, but you belong to us. Pray we never have to face a war like this again, for a man whose soul is owned by another can never truly be free."

The message mysteriously disappeared after that day, and he just hoped beyond hopes that he could someday forget the past, forget the horror, and finally live the storybook like he had always dreamed he would one day have.

/\/\

After fourteen months of searching, bribing, begging and god knows what else, Kathryn Janeway had finally tracked down the location of Chakotay, now Captain Chakotay. She had searched for him for so long. She had prayed to find him for so many years that now that she had finally found him she was unsure of what to do. She knew he was part of a covert faction within the federation known as Section 31.

She suspected it was much like the league Justin had at one time been a part of. The best of the best, brought out to save the federation, and to fight the
evils of the world. She had gotten a communiqué while en route that there had been more than one casualty of the war before it had ended. Much like the battle of Wolf three-five-nine, this was had ended in a bloody upheaval.

She had heard the rumors and the details of the clash. The Jem H’dar were ruthless in their attacks for they were unafraid of death and of destruction and
would fight until the end. Her fear had been that Chakotay would be killed in the Second bloodiest and most horrific clash of human history. That after all
of her searching and fighting and yearning to find him, he would be lost to circumstances beyond either of their control.

All throughout the long haul she had seen the she-wolf in her dreams, in her quests, in her waking hours and she knew that he was alive, that he was as
safe as one could be during times of war. Then one day, the dreams ended and for three days she did not see any sign of the wolf. She thought for sure he was dead, and she saw the lizard cry out in pain. The symbolic gesture was almost too much for her, but the scientist in Kathryn needed to know.

As it turned out…it was not Chakotay that had been lost to battle, it was Harry. She grieved for her protégé, but sent out a thanks that she would once
again be able to reunite with her lost love.

And so her quest continued…

/\/\

Tom started noticing the subtle difference in his daughter’s behavior. She had not made a sound in nearly a month. She never cried out, and lately he could not get her to eat. She had been taken to doctor after doctor and they had found nothing physically wrong with her, aside from the blindness diagnosed in her at birth. He told B’Elanna of his concerns, and she agreed something had to be done.

And so they worried…

/\/\

Chakotay slowly made his way back to Earth. He had been back to Dorvan V, but it was no longer home, it was but a memory; a memory of days past and of times wasted and long gone. No, home was now earth, with Kathryn.

And so he searched…

So the cycle of life continued, and so they went on.

TBC in Chapter 13. A Journey Fulfilled

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