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 II

of Star Trek: Voyager. I just own the story.

10. Santos VI

Kathryn had been traveling for weeks. She had been trying to get to Santos VI, her destination. This was where she was going to hide out; this was where she was going to stay. It was far away from Chakotay, far away from her daughter, far away from anyone and anything that could deconstruct her house of cards built on an unsteady foundation. She needed to be alone. She needed to forget. She had been traveling on a convoy and as she looked at the Bolian sitting three rows behind her she was sure she had seen him before. She was positive, or maybe she was mistaken. Her memories of the past year were jumbled. So much had happened so fast that she didn’t even know here to begin if she were to describe her adventure to anyone.

They arrived at Betazed, it was one of the stops on the way to Santos VI and the Bolian got off. Kathryn had almost begun to be suspicious of the strange man she had yet to meet, but whom she knew instinctively. She banished the thoughts she had going through her mind and watched the man leave. The universe is a very large place and I’ll probably never see him again. Get a grip Kathryn. So on she continued, and on went her life.

The Bolian had seen the look of recognition in Kathryn Janeway’s eyes. He knew that she recognized him. He had disembarked on Betazed, where Captain Chakotay was supposedly taking a leave. He hoped B’Elanna appreciated it, all his troubles and the favors he had had to pull to appease her troubled mind.

He had first met B’Elanna when they were both a part of the Maquis. She had been on of the most brilliant engineers he had ever worked with. She had saved their butts more times than he could count and for that he owed her. When he had left the Maquis he had told B’Elanna that if she ever needed anything just call him, and finally years later here she was, and here she had called him just as she had promised she would. So he fulfilled his end of the bargain, and perhaps B’Elanna would get her wish, and he could pull one last rabbit out of his hat before he forever retired from the search and salvage business he had built for himself over the years.

/\/\

Chakotay had decided to go to Betazed for his vacation. After the war with the Dominion, he had been granted extended leave. It had been a long time since he had taken any time off, and in Starfleet’s opinion he had redeemed himself as a Federation citizen and as a Captain. So here he was: he had six months, and he intended to enjoy every last one of them. He had rented a house on the farthest west continent on the south side. He had been here already two months and his skin had taken on a healthy bronze color, something he had not been privy to in space, and something he had missed, even if he didn’t want to admit it.

/\/\

B’Elanna looked at Kearstin. She was, it seemed the epitome of her parents. She had Kathryn’s auburn hair and porcelain skin, but the moment you looked into her eyes, you knew who was the father of this delightful child; the daughter of Kathryn Janeway and Chakotay. She knew, and she knew that neither would ever forgive the other for not raising this child themselves.

She called for Tom to come out and help her. She was now nearing her sixth month of pregnancy and had to take care of a few errands before dinnertime. “Tom, can you come and watch Kearstin for a while?”

Tom appeared in the doorway. “Sure B’Elanna, where are you going?”

“Just out.” She approached him, handed him the child and gave him a peck on the cheek. “See ya later. I’ll be home for supper…promise.” She walked out of the house, leaving a rather curious Tom Paris wondering where his wife was headed this late in the afternoon with no explanation of where she was going.

/\/\

B’Elanna had been contacted by her Bolian friend. He had found Chakotay. So B’Elanna traveled to Betazed, she needed to meet him. She had compiled some things for him. She could not come right out and tell him that Kathryn had given birth to his daughter, in fact she could not even tell him Kathryn had a daughter, without suspicions being raised. She could however announce that she had adopted a child, and ask him to come for her baptism. Anything to get him to see this child, for as soon as he did, she knew he would know. She had also finally found some poems; some of them Kathryn had left in the basinet that she had sent with the child, others she had found in her search for the perfect way to prepare Chakotay to meet his destiny.

She reached Betazed and traveled to the location that Zolot; her Bolian friend had marked for her. She approached the small cottage at the edge of the city.
This was it; this was the end of her quest for their happiness and the end of what she could do for them. She had done all she could to help them out, now they would have to help themselves, she just hoped that all she had done was enough to save them. She knocked on the door, and her ghost appeared to talk to her for the first time in much too long. He looked a few years older and a lot rougher, but this was her Chakotay. Life has not been kind to you my friend, but I’m here to change that.

“It’s been far too long Chakotay.”

He looked at his long lost friend. He blinked wondering if his eyes were laying tricks on him. “B’Elanna?” He looked her up and down. She’s pregnant. He reached out and touched her face. “Is it really you? After all these years?”

B’Elanna let a smile touch her face. “Yeah Chakotay, its me.”

Chakotay embraced her in a huge bear hug. B’Elanna was like the daughter he had never had, the daughter he wished he had, the daughter he wished Kathryn had given him. Kathryn, now there was a thought he had pushed aside for a long time out of necessity, not by choice.

B’Elanna got a worried look on her face, and she reached up to touch his face where silent tears fell like raindrops on the pavement on a warm summer’s day. Oh Chakotay.

Chakotay realized what had happened and wiped the tears from hi eyes though the rivers on his cheeks remained. “Have you talked to Kathryn lately?”

B’Elanna knew she needed to tell him something, and the pleading look in his eyes begged for answers, but they were answers she couldn’t give him. “Yes, I have. I don’t know where she is right now. Here,” She handed him the envelope, “consider it a gift.” She turned to leave and decided to tell him, even if it was against her better judgment, hoping that one day Kathryn would
understand her actions. “Tom and I adopted another child after Kathryn’s death.” B’Elanna felt the buried emotions rising again, “we just saw the child alone in the world and, we couldn’t leave her alone. We fell in love. You should stop by and visit the family, Chakotay, Harry turned out great, and Kearstin, that’s the little girl we adopted, is the cutest. Please come by. I’m sure they’d love to meet you, and Tom would love to see you again.”

He could never deny her. “Sure B’Elanna, okay. I’m on leave, so what would you say to mid next week?”

I did it. He’ll come. “We were thinking of making you the new baby’s godfather…and Kathryn the godmother, after all you both did for us on Voyager…” She stopped when she saw the lost look in his eyes. “Anyway, I
better get going. See you next week?”

“Yeah B’Elanna, next week. Thanks for stopping by, opening the lines of communication. I need a kick in the rear sometimes.”

B’Elanna grinned. “And you know I’m always willing to give you that boot right?”

He nodded. She walked out the door. She could see him in a week when everyone’s life would change irrevocably, no doubt for the better. Anything else would be unacceptable, and was not an option. I hope you find peace old man, wherever you are and whatever you end up doing.

TBC in Date With Destiny II - Chapter 11: The Return to Eden

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