Three
It was scary and surreal. How she could reclaim the past. How her partner’s death had seemed to be mended by the universe.
But that was a lie.
History hadn’t been reversed, there was no reunion which could ever come.
Jeri was lost. So were her children.
She hadn’t yet looked to see how her children had fared following her premature death, Kate’s death.
Her heart hadn’t yet accepted their loss, although it pined everyday for her lost lover’s.
There was a truth which someone knew, an explanation for why her world was spinning both forwards and backwards.
Kathryn Janeway had never been a character created by a production studio, not unless that studio had metaphysical, or alien origins.
Or maybe she was still stuck in a dream.
These thoughts and more scurried frantically through her agitated mind.
She found no stillness in sleep. But laying in Seven’s arms, she found rest.
Seven’s body was warm, it was firm. She had more muscle than Jeri, and also some unexpected surprises.
Taking inspiration from humanity’s interest in body modification, particularly those modifications involving metals, the young woman had pierced her own nipples.
She wore two, simple, surgical steel barbells, and their effect against the pink and blossom of her breasts was hypnotising.
Kathryn had spent a long time pondering them, touching them.
She wondered why Jeri had never considered nipple piercings before, but knew she would have probably have objected to them herself.
How things had changed since the 20th century...
She lived on a spaceship, her colleagues included a hologram and several aliens, and she had a half-robot girlfriend, with pierced nipples.
Squinting into the darkness of the captain’s quarters she shared with the sleeping blonde, Kathryn tried to see signs of a delusion.
A hospital monitor, a man or a woman with a syringe, or a clipboard.
But there were no ghosts to be found in the darkness.
No tell-tale signs that she was still in the hospital bed she had evidentially died in.
Her daughter was right to have wept for her.
Kate’s last memories were of a distressed Danielle shouting at her to get into the car.
Closing her eyes to conceal tears of guilt, Kathryn could admit to herself now that she had wanted to die.
She recognised the severity of her condition, and had given up. That was until her three children and ex-husband had conspired to take her to the emergency room, but by that time, her body was too weak to begin recovery.
Her final days were spent being cared for by the gentle voices of nurses and her adult daughter’s ministrations.
Her lips began to quiver and unwilling to continue this emotional line of thought, the Captain slowly untangled herself from Seven’s soft hold, checked the time (it was still three hours until the start of alpha shift), and crept silently into the bathroom.
---
“You are the Captain of the USS Voyager, registry number NCC-74656. Launched in the year 2371 from Deep Space Nine in the Bajor Sector of the alpha quadrant, approximately 63 light years from Earth.
Our ship was stranded and there is still over thirty thousand light years between our current location in the delta quadrant and Earth.
Crewmember Seven of Nine and Ensign Harry Kim have identified an uninhabited M-class planet of archaeological interest.
A solar system featuring a lone planet, larger than earth, with two moons, orbiting a star greater than Earth’s sun.
Voyager will arrive there in two days. The crew have already, perhaps prematurely, labelled it ‘Creation Planet’...”
“... Well, it is beautiful, Tuvok, a blue-amethyst orb... It is similar to what Earth could have been without the industrial revolution”
The Vulcan security chief kept a respectful silence, and Kathryn smiled, “I know you disagree”
It had been Tuvok who had been compelled to remind the mentally fatigued captain of her legitimacy and of Voyager’s unique new mission, but now the Captain could see hesitancy in her old friend instead.
“... I understand the instinct to reflect upon circumstances which ‘Could have been’... Especially now that all of our knowledge about the universe and history has been put into doubt...”
Stood together before the closed door of her ready room, Kathryn turned incredulously to look at her friend.
His tone and expression appeared to portray sadness.
“... I know it doesn’t seem very logical, Tuvok” she offered kindly.
“On the contrary, Captain, it is precisely the Doctor’s and other’s rational analyses of the information before us which could be described as... Startling...”
Making no attempt to stop the corner of her mouth smiling at his emotive choice of descriptive words, Kathryn reminded the shaken Vulcan, “As I once informed Mr Kim, this is space; Weird is part of the job”
She reached out to hold Tuvok’s sleeve and smiled bright and with encouragement and appreciation for his concern for her, “Let’s all prepare to be startled some more.”
---
They had been here before. When they had discovered the 37s and Janeway had given her stranded crew the option of staying on the distant planet with its small human population.
Standing before the bulk of them in Voyager’s main cargo bay, Kathryn took a moment to acknowledge her position.
This amazing crew still regarded her as their captain, and their silent attention and ready expressions meant they were willing to engage in yet another escapade on her orders.
Though this time, the random exploration of a planet was indeed personal. She smiled secretly as she remembered how Seven had once pointed out this most irritating of qualities, implying they may never arrive at Earth for the amount of detours Janeway led her crew upon.
But Seven was in astrometrics right now and Kathryn raised her chin to address the community she so cared for.
White lights illuminated her crisp, command uniform, and her auburn hair shined as she spoke with elegance, and confidence.
Chakotay stood close by with his hands clasped behind his back and listened.
“Science is recognising evidence, and knowing when to change your theory in accordance to what is rational, logical...
In a few days we may discover that this planet is not what we believe it to be.
We may delve again into Voyager’s database and find evidence of tampering.
And my memories of a life as Kate may prove yet to be false.
But in light of there being no evidence to the contrary, logic dictates -”
She caught Tuvok’s critical eye and continued, “That once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth...”
She took a long pause, considering the weight of those historic words. An unsteady silence followed, Kim then elbowed Tom and taking the liberty of remarking to the bay at large, announced “Plus, Mr Paris gets to land the ship, and we all know how much you love doing that, Tom”
“That’s right! I mean it’s worth visiting this place just to go to blue alert, no matter what my wife from a previous life might think”
“Exactly!” Kim exclaimed and the Doctor rolled his eyes at the interruption as B'Elanna side-glanced.
Janeway grinned with the rest of her crew as she saw an excitement and interest like she hadn’t seen before.
This mission wasn’t about science, it was about them.
It was about the history of man, and on this mission, her crew would be explorers, looking for answers the old-fashioned way; digging.
She took this opportunity to turn to Chakotay, who had trained in archaeology on Earth and whom she had therefore entrusted with leading the efforts on the planet to discover clues to existence.
The first officer stepped forwards with all trace of the arrogant Robert Beltran long-ago vanquished into history. A crewman handed him a padd and he began to read from a crew manifest, “Away teams and shore leaves, please step forward.”