Chapter Ten - Best ChoicesWhile the ship had not been badly damaged, there was still the matter of the interrupted systems check, prior to entering what was widely presumed to be the very heart of Borg space. Captain Janeway, in fact, had openly wondered why they hadn't encountered anything remotely Borg, this close in. The answer would forever change the journey of the USS Voyager. But this was yet to come.
Certain matters were dispensed with, rather quickly.
"So, to you two, I offer my most heartfelt apologies. I betrayed your secret on two occasions. I like to think that I'm more than just the sum of my programming. Occasions like these tend to slap me back to reality, in rather a hard way."
Will and Penny, whose wounds had been fully treated the first day, nodded at the EMH.
"Tom explained to Will and me, Doctor, how your subroutines got messed up by Seska's presence. Kind of like we got messed up by our mistake. Without realizing it, we let it make us think we hated each other--when the exact opposite was the problem."
Will shrugged.
"There's no hard feelings. Captain Janeway and Judy kept our secret. But now we have to decide how to tell our folks. No more secrets, though. That was Doctor Smith's way of doing things."
Since the fate of the comatose Smith was still up in the air, the EMH was glad to have someone else say his name.
"My advice is to tell them. If any brother and sister ever had a good excuse for losing perspective, its you two. Plus, here on Voyager--why, you have so many other potential partners, its a sure bet that your mistake won't be repeated. Please--don't repeat it. I mean that. My counseling subroutines just aren't up to the task."
There were mild chuckles--just not from the Doctor. He got up as they left, to check on the formerly possessed crewmembers.
Harry Kim, on the verge of being released, lay back with a very frustrated look on his face. Being taken over by Jonas was obviously not going to aid him in his ongoing battle for self-esteem. A glare from Penny Robinson hadn't helped, either.
Despite massive and multiple assurances that she was just fine, Kes still spent every waking moment in meditation. The price she had paid for saving her friends, and indeed her universe, was going to haunt her in very short order. Other things would haunt her even sooner.
Tuvok had been working on a project, while in Sickbay. A compromise when dealing with the workaholic Vulcan was always a wise move. Linked by PADD to Astrometrics, he was studying the universe the Robinsons had come from. Janeway had quietly instructed him to nail down its exact vibrational frequency in its relative time period, with the hope that the Space Family could one day return to their native realm, should Voyager finally reach the safe haven of the Alpha Quadrant.
"Mister Kim? Could I prevail upon you to have a look at these readings?"
Literally having nothing better to do, Harry walked over to the Security Chief's bio-bed.
"What readings, sir?"
Tuvok pointed.
"These short-spurt pulses. They appear artificial in nature."
Harry did a quick check, finding largely what he expected.
"They are. They're likely video broadcasts, possibly from the Earth native to the Robinsons' universe. They bounced all over the galaxy, some said. Heh. Maybe its some of Kirk and Picard's old adventures."
As Kim lay back down, Tuvok felt an unease, and ordered the computer to decipher these possible broadcast signals. It would prove a pivotal choice.
Back in what was soon to be their assigned cabin, Judy Robinson and Don West were having the fight of their lives.
"Judy, honey--I had to stop him."
Judy shook her head.
"At that point, Don, he was no threat to anyone except himself. You should have been there with me. I nearly died. So did our baby. Poor Doctor Winchester fell apart, when at first the reattachment didn't take."
Don was apologetic, but also couldn't let part of what she said go unchallenged.
"No threat? Judy, this is Zachary Smith we're talking about. Be it an invasion force in three months, or an ambush on an away mission in six, he would have been back, more vicious than ever. I mean, he shot Penny for no reason!"
Judy sat down, and again shook her head.
"What he did, I'm well aware of. But he's irrelevant, Don. Completely and wholly irrelevant. That Doctor Smith is a villain and a liar isn't even worth disputing. We're talking about you. Future husband and father, off playing space cowboy instead of tending to home and hearth. How am I supposed to look at that?"
Don was hard-pressed, both by her point and by his own pride. For her, though, he managed not to be displaced by either.
"I did the right thing, Judy. I did it for the wrong reason, and at the wrong time. But this cowboy saw the most dangerous badman he knew getting away. God help me, but that triggered something. I was thinking of you, and about us. Not wisely, or well, but I was. I saw the baby, in Smith's arms, at gunpoint.
Not today, or tomorrow, but maybe years from
now. Please forgive me. But also please don't tell me why I did what I did. And don't tell me I didn't want to be by your side. Cause' that's just not true."She stopped. Judy saw her strong man, scared and not a little scarred by it all, same as everyone else was. She put her head on his shoulder.
"I'm scared. Of this baby. Of being married. Of losing you, if you were my husband."
It hadn't been the loudest argument of their young lives together. But it had been the most telling.
In an access corridor near Engineering, Be'lanna Torres stared dumbfounded at Tom Paris. His question was, to her, quite beyond belief.
"Would you mind too terribly much repeating that?"
Paris felt a bit put off, and not without cause.
"It was a simple question."
"It was a massively unfair, very dishonest question. I'm surprised at you, Tom. Normally, you don't go that cheap."
Paris turned around, breathed in, and only when he thought he had regained himself did he accede to Torres' demand.
"Repeating my question: From what you've seen of me--from how you know me--do you think that what happened between me and my sister has affected my life, overall?"
Be'lanna nodded rather emphatically.
"Yes, without a doubt. Next question?"
Tom narrowed his gaze.
"Hunh? You just answered the most important question I ever asked you in two seconds flat. How about some consideration, here?"
In some respects, Be'lanna had been waiting for this moment since she first learned of Tom's secret.
"Tom, there's nothing to consider. De Nada. Zip. Zilch. You suffered the very worst family trauma possible, leavened only by a genuine affection and no use of force. Of course you've been affected! You were affected by Caldik Prime. By your cousin Nick getting away with murder, practically. By botching your first and only Maquis mission. By being trusted by no one here. By earning the trust of every single crewmember. By arguing with Neelix over Kes. By bonding with Neelix. When those two poor kids came on board, fearing for their souls and their sanity over a simple kiss, you were affected, and how dare you pretend like its possible that you weren't affected!"
Her logic and common sense almost had Paris, but pride of place demanded he try another tack.
"What about you? What were you affected by?"
Torres shrugged.
"Me? I'm affected by everything. You want claims of invulnerability, talk to my mother's family."
Smiling lightly, Paris took her hand.
"You really don't look that much like Sadie. You're one hell of a lot stronger, and you'd never claim that you couldn't do without me. Promise me something?"
"Depends on what I'm promising."
He let her hand go, and looked her in the eye.
"Whatever does or doesn't happen between us, if the day should come that we're home, and I decide to see my sister again, to talk things out..."
She stopped him.
"I'll be right there by your side, Starfleet. Come what may. With a few choice words for my dopple."
They got back to work, with nothing but a hypothetical future confrontation decided. But in a warp-capable ship, wheels were turning, and not merely in Tom's holo-garage.
Back in her rebuilt quarters at long last, Kes began trying to wean herself off of the constant meditation she'd engaged in since her near-discorporation. She deliberately shifted to other, harsher subjects in her nervous mind. If she could not survive life outside of a meditative state, she was done for, anyway.
Dead silence from Will Robinson combined with an earful from his angry parents told Kes that her lack of patience had sorely cost her on all fronts, in that case. Instead of being an eager young man's first time, she would likely be remembered as a *bimbo*-one of Tom's words, never applied to her-who offered only criticism and no guidance.
It was one of the reasons Occampans didn't really mate with outsiders. By alien standards, they were a greatly impatient species. But when a woman at five--which was one third of Will Robinson's age, would soon be facing the final arc towards death, grabbing the experience truly meant something. Still, with the Robinsons now staying on board, Will's glare might have to be addressed. But at least the catastrophe Tom foresaw between the younger Robinson children would definitely be averted.
Before she could start her next set of thoughts, their very embodiment rang her door chime. After her permission was given, the door opened.
"Please--please don't hate me."
She could have spoken to Neelix about the hate his soul had harbored for her, providing an in for the vicious Seska. Kes almost wanted to say that after the harassment campaign a being using his body had waged against her, she might have trouble even looking at him again. But she was impatient, and so skipped to the part she knew she would arrive at, in any event.
"Everything that I have, everything that I now am, and everything I might ever do or become, I owe to you. That fact creates more than a debt, more than mere affection, and infinitely more than any bad spell can ever hope to undo."
In her heart, she felt free, and she felt this freedom reflected in his heart, as well. He left, not confused or angry, but joyful, as she had known him. He said some fateful words, not their last, but perhaps their best.
"I know that I'm a clown. But you've treated me like a man, and I'll always love you for it."
There were tears after he was gone. The door chime rang again. It was Harry Kim.
"I--just thought that maybe you and I could talk to Will and Penny--together."
Kes smiled. No, that was *not* what she and Harry were going to do together. After all, why should her future alter-timeline daughter have all the fun?
Put bluntly, Harry Kim then had the only real sex he had during Voyager's entire journey that did not end in some manner of disaster.
In her ready room, the Captain heard a startling theory from her First Officer.
"What do you mean, they weren't ghosts?"
Chakotay pointed to some on-screen sensor readings, taken once the holodeck had been recovered from the saboteurs.
"These images are of Seska, Neelix, Harry, Kes, and Tuvok. Heavy, heavy chroniton displacement."
"From the portals, I'd assume."
Chakotay shook his head.
"Too localized. It took me a while to discern what might have been going on. In short, our ghosts were probably the people themselves, taken through time, just before physical death claimed them. When they had served their purpose, the Pagh Wraiths, being non-linear as the Prophets are, turned their servants back to their fates."
Janeway rubbed her head.
"I almost like the ghost explanation better. By the way--what exactly makes the Pagh Wraiths evil and the Prophets good?"
"Well, to hear the Bajorans I've known tell it, the Pagh Wraiths don't like to share reality with we lesser beings. The Prophets are more co-existence oriented."
Kathryn felt a bit confused.
"Kind of a utilitarian view of faith, for a Bajoran."
Chakotay raised an open palm.
"No, that was just my take on what they said to me. I mean, there's any number of ways to view that sort of statement."
The Captain got up to help plan the party to welcome the Robinsons to their crew.
"I guess there's more than one way to skin a spirit!"
In the Sickbay that was now clear except for the comatose Smith, The EMH received a welcome visitor.
"Robot! I'm glad to see you about. I have some fascinating theories on the original purpose of your core holo-matrix."
The mechanoid shook its torso.
"That, Doctor, will have to wait for later. I am here solely to ascertain your opinions on the long-term health of Doctor Smith."
Knowing that this was more threat assessment than true concern, the EMH gave what he thought would be grim but welcome news.
"Zachary Smith is dying."
Robot gave a non-response response.
"Indeed."
The EMH held up a clear container. Floating in its viscous liquid was what looked like a child's marble, made all of flesh.
"This tumor was the result of a carefully and deliberately induced trauma. It may have been created by means of needles and toxins, pumped directly into the brain. It was the source of Doctor Smith's switchable personalities. But what his 'friends' that gave him this never told him was the price involved. You see, whether benign or otherwise, tumors are not stable things, and they tend to grow and/or build up fluid materials around them. I beamed it out, of course. But the damage is done. He has five years, at most. In cryo-stasis, he'll at least keep from degenerating further."
Robot rolled over, and looked at Doctor Smith, lying in temporary bio-stasis.
"You can do nothing for him?"
The EMH placed a hand on Robot's upper front torso plate.
"No. Where that tumor came from is still one of the least understood areas of the brain. Right now, the separate engrams of the clownish Doctor Smith and the saboteur are re-merging, willy-nilly. Imagine a storm that's been building for years. That, and not the tumor itself, is the untreatable part."
Robot extended his arm, and rested his pincer on Smith's chest.
"He was a creature of wish machines, plant beings, evolving androids, aliens of varied intent, weapons that should never have been picked up, and of doors never meant to be opened. I do not think that I can bring myself to miss him, Doctor. But I will miss those times."
As Robot left Sickbay, his words gave something very like a chill to a hologram that rarely felt such things. For they felt as prophetic and pandemic as they were to prove, for two different crews.
The next morning, as the welcome celebration approached, John and Maureen Robinson sat in their cabin, thinking over and over again about a visit their younger children had paid them, late the previous night. Will's opening words seemed likely to stay with them forever.
"Mom--Dad--we betrayed you."
After a seeming eternity that felt more like eternity than seeming, John spoke.
"Darling, are we good parents?"
Maureen seemed offended by the question, but chose to merely answer it, instead of challenging it.
"Yes. John, this didn't happen because of a lack of direction or discipline or love or any one thing or group of things that parents are able to provide."
There was desperation in her man's eyes. They weren't Vulcans, but this meant that she too felt that exact same desperation.
"Okay. Then are Will and Penny good kids?"
Now, Maureen did challenge him.
"No, John. They're evil and vile, vain and selfish little hellspawn who've brought us nothing but misery. I saw this coming a MILE AWAY!!"
John clutched at his head.
"I had that coming, I know. But how do we handle this? This isn't alien possession, or one of Smith's schemes. This is just--our lives. How do we know that this is the only time that this has occurred? My God. How do we even know for sure how far this has gone?"
Maureen looked down at the floor.
"We know. I asked the Doctor about Penny. His scans were complete enough to tell that she's still..she's still. On all fronts, so to speak. John, I felt like a character out of Orwell, asking such things."
John shrugged.
"What choice do we have, if the technology's available to check on such things? My worry is, how do we keep Will under control?"
Maureen looked back at him.
"You mean, how do we keep Will and Penny under control, don't you?"
John now looked puzzled.
"Of course not. We'll just teach her anew how to say no, and remind her why it has to be said, especially in this case. Will's a boy, though. Male hormones are easy negaters of common sense and decency."
Maureen let his statement sit for a full minute before answering it with both barrels.
"That, John Robinson, is the single most ignorant statement I've ever heard you make!"
He turned on his heels, and looked dumbfounded that she should challenge him so very often on something so painful.
"Ignorant? How dare you call me ignorant? I am struggling with a family nightmare of unimaginable proportions. All I pointed out was a commonly known fact of biology, and you move to tear my throat out!"
Maureen stood up from the bed, and tried to regain her calm. But her anchor was adrift, as well, and he showed no signs of finding purchase in the mud below them.
"John, you pointed out a common fallacy. One I can't believe that you, as a scientist, subscribe to. Maybe teenaged boys and men are *on* 24 hours a day, so to speak. But maybe that means you also know how to deal with all that. For girls and women, the only real difference is, that when the feelings strike, they don't let you go. Or maybe that statement was just as ignorant. But to argue that Penny is a sexual tabula rasa til tapped on the shoulder by an interested male is ridiculous. I was her age. I wasn't interested in sex because all the boys around me were rich, intelligent, athletic scholars with a strong poetic license. I was just plain interested. Darling, women are. It doesn't come out the same way, but we are. And it drives us just as insane."
John was more than a bit thrown off, and so sat back down on the bed.
"I was taught growing up that sex was something men tricked women into, and that marriage was the payback trick. I thought sure I'd left all that behind. Darling, I'm not PC. Those thoughts just never entered me."
She sat beside him, an arm around the man she hadn't meant to educate in quite that manner.
"Who wants you to be PC? You know, I remember before PC came in vogue, certain Bunker-ish types were spouting a lot of hate talk, quite casually and publicly. PC, for all its flaws, resulted from what those other loudmouths called 'honesty'. Well, there's honesty that helps, and there's honesty that's just rudeness with a new label. Then there's honesty that hurts, even when its all true and forthright. That, John Robinson, is what we're up against."
He closed his eyes, and tried to imagine that his children had only come by last night to say good night. He failed.
"Should they have told us? Would we be better off not knowing, and let this one incident pass into dust?"
Maureen Robinson strained for an answer.
"No. We raised them too well to keep something like that forever. And if they learned anything from Doctor Smith's poor example, its the price of lying. John, tell me there was remorse in their eyes."
He didn't need to think about that.
"There was. Remorse like I've never seen it before. Not up close, anyway."
Feeling her way towards a radical solution, Maureen kept asking questions.
"And did they try to justify that kiss, or explain it away?"
With his anchor now a little more firmly dug in, John thought he too saw the light.
"No. They told us of the how and when. They didn't even attempt the why. I don't think even they know. Maureen--do they know? That they're not related by blood? That could explain this."
This was a thought she had brushed across before.
"If they were to find out, outside of us telling them, they'd demand to know it all, and they would not have been so repentant. I know the ways in which they get angry. Remember when we gave Will all that homework?"
He did.
"Yeah. After that creature made us all vanish, he was still upset that we felt that schooling was so important. So he completed all remaining seven grades within one year, including triple-checking his own work! Took us months to figure out he did it to get back at us. Penny's even subtler about it, if that's possible. You're right, when they're really angry--it always starts with a show. A bang, not a whimper."
Maureen now moved towards her possible solution.
"They kept their secret, and we've kept secrets from them. All of us afraid of the others' reactions. Well, given this kiss, I'm no more inclined to tell them they're not related by birth. Separating them is out, if that would even work. Spanking I always kept in reserve for them punching each other, and that doesn't apply here. I almost wish it did."
She smiled, and then laughed, in spite of the situation.
"Penny--don't touch your little brother!"
So sorely in need of any laughter that he felt sick inside, John gave up and joined in.
"Will, get off your sister!"
But the smiles and the laughs quickly faded. Reality was more sobering in some instances than others. John looked into his wife's eyes.
"What the hell do we do?"
Maureen breathed in. This was going to go down hard.
"We are dealing with two good kids in a situation that will now never be repeated, who told us when they didn't have to. They are profoundly remorseful and regretful of their actions. We both knew on some level that their interest in the other sex would be a problem, eventually. They know what they did is wrong, and why it is wrong, and have promised that it will never happen again. They endured several months of lonely pain, thinking that they hated each other. In my parents' day, the very oddest and most untoward circumstances demanded the one solution that today's society overlooks, for the stigmas attached to it by overuse."
John's head turned so quickly, his neck muscles actually popped, slightly.
"You're not suggesting that we do that, are you? Could that work?"
Maureen nodded, and so they called for their children. Looking nervous but relieved at the knowledge it was soon to be over, Will and Penny entered. From this day's events, they would learn that their parents were still people, and people make mistakes. Sometimes, even brilliant people make the biggest mistakes of all. In the long run, this one was to prove disastrous for the Robinson family.
Perhaps in a nod to the less strident forms of PC, John stood by Penny, and Maureen by Will. Since he was both father and CO, Maureen let John say what she had thought of.
His voice, she hoped, would reassure her as well."Three little words: It Never Happened. We won't talk of it, speculate on the whys and wherefores, or anything like that. You made a mistake, but people make mistakes. No punishment is going to task you any harder than you have yourselves. No lecture could make you any more aware. It won't happen again, because it never happened to begin with. Okay?"
There was a family hug, and then departure. Once drowning in what to do in the face of the unthinkable, John and Maureen were together in bed within five minutes. A stunned, speechless Will and Penny each made for the holodecks that had been allotted for them, earlier by Tom and Be'lanna. Tied up in repairs, the crew had been too busy to use their virtual getaways. Not long before the party, they emerged, at roughly the same time. They obeyed their parents' wishes, as much as they could.
"So what happened?"
Will still had a best friend, so he told her rather bluntly.
"Same scenario. But I was with almost all of them, this time. I may have gone overboard on their stats. Part of me wanted to get even for last time's screwup. But they did--what I said to do. They were cute, and pretty. What about you?"
Penny shook her head.
"He was everything I could have wanted. The computer knew my potential preferences, and so customized him quicker than I could blink.
I had my own stat and performance overages, I guess. Hard to say."She began to cry.
"Impossible to say. Because he wasn't real. He was lines of force, and light, and motion, and I don't do paintings!"
Will closed his eyes, and spoke in agreement.
"I might as well have been alone in my room. All I feel is a little less tense. Penny, I had them line up by the side of the pool for inspection! Tell me when that's gonna happen with any real girls?"
She tried to find a single ray of hope for them both.
"We're part of Voyager now. There's other people. Some near to our age. You'll have your inspection line, Will."
"And you'll have a guy who wants to make a painting of you."
She thought back.
"Didn't that already happen to us, back on that shopping-mall planet?"
Their young lives, odd and rough, would find only a geometric progression of the same. But together they would endure, as they had from the beginning.
-------------------------------------------
The party came, and it was grand, as these things go. Accumulated debris from the ship, The Jupiter 2, and the shuttles had been carefully recycled by the recalibrated replicators. Used for utensils and plates, this freed up the 'true' replicator ration limits for food and drink. With the old ghosts, or whatever they were, put to rest, and with a new crew joining theirs, Captain Kathryn Janeway felt she had the right to splurge. Wounds physical and otherwise were healing right before her eyes. Sensors had been placed on widest possible scan, and non-crew decks not in use were sealed off or otherwise encoded against easy sabotage. And though something would indeed mar the festivities, it would not be for a lack of preparedness.
At Janeway's urging, Chakotay walked over to see Tom Paris.
"Tom, I am sorry. I normally treat secrets, especially personal ones, as just that. I suppose I could explain it somehow. But I have to wonder if any of that would help."
Paris nodded.
"It wouldn't. But sometimes, Commander, I forget how people react to my..to that aspect of my past. I forget how I reacted, the morning after. Maybe your reaction tells me more than ever that I did the right thing in telling my father. OCC may happen. But it should never be regarded as anything but a family disaster."
To which Chakotay could only reply, "Amen."
Belanna tried and failed to referee a deep, grim argument between Don and Judy.
"Charlotte is a wonderful name, Major!"
"The answer is still No, Doctor!"
"But I want to name her after the Doctor who saved me from Smith!"
"But I will not have my daughter named after a MASH character who was not created by Hooker, Altman or Gelbart!"
Torres snuck in.
"How about another name derivative? Like say--Carla?"
Judy and her man both looked at the Engineer in disgust.
"A 'Cheers' character?"
Torres walked off, and stuck by Paris, whose pop-culture references she at least occasionally understood.
Trying to make peace with the two they'd literally kicked out of bed, Harry Kim and Kes heard a tale beyond belief.
"...so Dad says, there's enough water for a week, if we conserve. But theeennnn..."
Penny picked up.
"We hear bad operatic singing. And the sounds of running water."
Kes tried.
"Smith had found a waterfall?"
Harry tried.
"Smith had a recording of a waterfall?"
Will shook his head, five years' distance giving him the ability to smile about the then-grim situation.
"Nope. He was taking a long, hot shower. Used up every last drop."
Harry looked stunned. Kes rolled her eyes, then looked at Penny.
"After all that, you chose to strangle Seska?"
Harry added in.
"And he was going to try and join up with the Kazon?"
In the distance, a call was heard.
*Tuvok To Captain*
Departing for what she intended to be a brief period, Janeway left for the Bridge. Yet not long after, another call was heard.
*Janeway to Chakotay*
His stomach full and his apologies to Paris given, Chakotay left as well. Maureen and John Robinson endured a sing-along from the remaining Voyager crew.
"And Here's To You, Mrs. Robinson; Jesus Loves You More Than You Will Know; Wo-Wo-Wo; God Bless You Please, Mrs. Robinson; Heaven Holds A Place For Those Who Pray--hey-hey-hey;"
"John?"
"Yes, dear?"
"Did you put them up to this?"
"No, of course not. I know how you hate this song."
"Why does everyone assume that we've never heard it before?"
Finally, the amateurs stepped aside, and former Broadway star Judy stepped in. Her angelic voice sang the song of another angel, or more precisely, a Carpenter.
"We've Only Just Begun; To Live; White Lace And Promises; A Kiss For Luck And We're On Our Way; Sharing Horizons That Are New To Us; Watching The Signs Along The Way...."
*Robinsons To Bridge. Sorry, people. But this is urgent.*
Equally annoyed and intrigued, the Space Family, with Kim, Torres and Paris in tow, went to join their new Captain. The Robot rolled out to the middle of the room.
"Is anyone familiar with 'The Beer Barrel Polka'?"
When Neelix and The Doctor joined in, many found an excuse to leave.
On the Bridge, the images taken from the transmissions of the Robinsons' native Earth played once more. They were heartbreakers
"The fifth anniversary of the Jupiter 2's loss had former NASA chief Cochrane pleading with Congress to restore the discredited space agency to life.."
"President Putin used this occasion to remind Russians of MIR's fiery crash and how even the Americans, with fewer infrastructure problems, have sensibly turned their funds away from pointless space exploration, after the disaster that befell Jupiter 2 and its brave family..."
"....yet the EU Communications Chief stated again that it was enough of a bother keeping broadcast satellites in orbit. She used the tragic example of the highly-touted colonial ship, The Jupiter 2, and its family of geniuses."
Sometimes, they were direct. Sometimes, they merely hinted at it. Sometimes--it was even a reference in a situation comedy or talk show. But for all regions of the world, the broadcasts' message became brutally clear, about the true cost of losing the Jupiter 2.
Judy pointed at the screen, her finger shaking."Earth has cancelled all its space programs--because of us!"
John Robinson stared at the same screen, but disputed his daughter's assessment.
"No, honey. Not because of us. We were just the excuse. Persuading the people of Earth that space exploration and travel, let alone colonization, were worthwhile goals was always a close fight. I pity them, back home. They've turned inward yet again. Maybe for the final time."
Don West quickly showed that he was no more sympathetic towards these reports than he was towards Zachary Smith.
"Its the call-in culture. A few narrow yahoos on the radio and TV state an opinion, and everybody else nods along, just so they won't look stupid. They probably told everyone how much money got wasted on our failed project. Remember? When Will got sent back by accident, those punks joked that we were all just skeletons, floating in space! I wash my hands of them. Its their own graves they're digging, within a few hundred years."
Maureen just sadly shook her head as she spoke.
"But the Earth was our home. Its people, flawed and difficult though they are, are still the people we began this mission for. Can we do nothing for them?"
Judy had sat down, still a bit overwhelmed by this revelation.
"I don't see what we could do. Even if we went back, we'd still be lost in our own Delta Quadrant. Without any miracles, even Voyager is seventy years out, and the Jupiter 2 doesn't have warp drive."
John raised an opened palm, and gave what he thought to be the final answer.
"We can't help them, except to help Voyager get back to their Earth and its environs as quickly as possible. From there, we stand a much better chance of ever seeing our world again. Perhaps we'll even be able to reach back to the time period we emerged from, and help our Earth before its too late. But we didn't force them to give up the best dream of humankind. They made their choice, based on what they thought was best for them. We have to do the same, if for no other reason than we simply have no way back."
Penny saw her little brother staring at the screen. His look was one she knew well, that of an idea forming. She also knew his ideas well enough to understand that they could easily turn the tide. But he wasn't speaking out, and she could only guess why.
Will saw her, and remembered the mistake they had made. A mistake whose repetition life on Voyager seemed to make a dim possibility. A mistake that life on the cramped spaces and through the long nights of the Jupiter 2 seemed to make a grim likelihood. But he shut that part of his brain off, as she had already. He was Will Robinson, boy genius, and if he had a solution, he was bound by several ideals to at least offer it up.
"Sir, I think you're wrong. We can go back. Those video signals are too recent, relative to our time. They can't be originating from the Delta Quadrant."
Until now, the Voyager crew had remained silent, out of respect for the shock they had delivered to the Robinsons. But Tom Paris felt obliged to correct Will.
"Will, I checked those scans every way there was to check them. So did Tuvok and Harry. One of us could have gotten it wrong, but not all three of us. The Jupiter 2 emerged from the equivalent to the Delta Quadrant in your universe."
Will actually appreciated Paris' approach, which was to question but not dismiss his theory. Too often aboard the Jupiter 2, he had seen his parents overlook his words because of some familial situation. The Voyager crew might end up being like family to them, if they indeed stayed. But not actually being blood relations would provide much needed breathing space.
"I'm not saying that isn't where you found us, Tom. But those television signals are only months old, by our local time. They just can't have gone out that far, that fast."
Tom's scans were not faulty. Yet neither was Will's science. After a moment, Penny felt she had developed a scenario that might allow for both.
"Rifts are unstable by definition. Even this one will close up in a few months. Maybe sooner. So who's to say that the one rift isn't made from several different anomalies?"
Captain Janeway began to look over the scans, although she would soon turn them back to those for whom such studies were both duty and prerogative.
"We've encountered so many anomalies out here, I'm beginning to think that they're normalities. Riding through regular or warp space is the oddity. Ok, people. I think we may just have seen the birth of a notion. A notion that might allow the Jupiter 2 the option of returning to its Alpha Quadrant--"
She smiled.
"--And us the option of returning to ours."
Each Robinson left the Bridge in turn. If any one looked more or less taken aback by this possibility, they did not show it at this time. But Major West stayed, for just a moment, and looked at the helm and navigation console, his lip quivering just a bit. His shot at operating that console, and of piloting the Voyager, now seemed a bit more
remote."Damn."
Hearing this and perhaps understanding to an extent, Captain Janeway offered up an observation.
"I wouldn't worry just yet, Major. So far, these 'miracle return' junctures we've found have had all the reliability and usability of the holodeck in an ion storm."
Looking up from the first of a series of new scans, Paris offered up some further sarcasm.
"Or really, in any given situation."
Sensing in the chuckles and bemusement an in-joke he was not to be a party to, Don entered the turbolift. He did wonder anew why the people of this world had so closely modeled their space exploration arm after a fictional show more than three hundred years old. Yes, he'd heard the references to Vulcans and Klingons, and seen the physical differences. Then he remembered just how zealous some of the Trek fans in his own world had been.
"Must be like a religion, here."
Alternate timelines and universes, West could accept easily enough. But places where fiction was reality? He was still some years off from that.
Catching up with the only real family he'd ever called his, West got there just in time to hear John make a momentous announcement.
"There'll be no playing around this time. No hurt feelings, and no ego. Everybody except Doctor Smith gets a vote. If Kathryn and Chakotay can actually get us back to our universe and the part of our space we belong in, do we want to leave Voyager? There's still a lot of risk involved in our journey, even as it stood before we came here. I have mixed feelings about our Earth's choice to end its space programs. Aboard Voyager, the safety, well-being and comfort of this family has guarantees we never dreamed of. Yet if we reach Alpha Centauri in our universe, we can offer humanity back the stars it spurned, and thought were beyond its reach. I'm sorry to say that I find both arguments equally compelling. Kids--if you felt excluded before, then don't feel it now. Because all our voices need to be heard, whatever choice we ultimately make. Let nothing go unsaid. And I do mean nothing."
The discussion began on a surprisingly self-centered note. Judy had another point to make though, and this seemed the best way to go about it.
"Here, I can dry my hair. I can get it cut. I can dye it like an anime' character's, and generally not have to worry about it. Now, magnify that petty concern by all the comfort it alone brings about. Magnify those by the clarity and presence of mind simple comforts do tend to bring about. Magnify all that by the grief I wouldn't spread around when annoyed--and I do spread it around. Don. Penny. Will. The baby. You've all felt it, and you didn't have parental authority to shake me back to reality. Give us all the means to at last stand down between crises. I for one can't guarantee that news of our survival, or even our success in reaching Alpha Centauri will have one iota of effect on people's opinions, back home. The space program has never been a priority to them. So we need to look out for our priorities."
Will actually raised his hand, perhaps fearful that an accusation of rudeness could sidetrack this vital debate.
"If I'm in a bad mood aboard the Jupiter 2, I can't really show it. There's too much to do when a planetfall or crisis is imminent, and nothing to do when we're just traveling. I can't let either situation be thrown off just because I didn't like Penny's joke about me, or because Don cut me off at dinner. Everybody's congratulated me and Penny on how we've stopped fighting. Well, we'd like to fight. Argue like we used to. But we can't. None of us can. We all live and work within twenty feet of one another. On Voyager, we'll have room. Distance. So if I raise my voice when I don't like something Dad or Mom says, it's bad--but it wouldn't be a disaster in the making."
Don West was next.
"Somebody once said that hell is other people. Well, much as I love everybody here, hell is you people. And its me, too. There are over one hundred crew on Voyager. I can talk to Tom about piloting. I can ask Chakotay about his people's beliefs. I can even go back and ask John about his fishing stories, when that gets old. We need a bigger circle, period."
Maureen surprised herself.
"I never thought I'd use the holodeck. But just last night, I programmed it to perform the play 'Jesus Christ, Superstar'. I actually got to hear 'Day By Day'--while onstage. Entertainment may not be a very moral reason for choosing this life. But I swear that I felt lighter, afterwards. I never thought that just having something to do would change my outlook so dramatically."
Penny felt she had something to add.
"We will, as part of this ship, see things we could never have dreamed of back home. Flying within range of supernovas. Seeing the Magellanic Cloud in detail. Catching up to Halley's Comet before it ever reaches Earth. Seeing worlds and peoples before their Genesis and after their Apocalypse. The stars, all close enough to see individually. Maybe even one day seeing an Alpha Centauri that's been colonized for centuries!"
On some level, John knew that his family was expecting him to play devil's advocate. He did not fail them.
"There is no doubt in my mind but that we would all be a lot better off and a lot more comfortable if we stayed here on Voyager. It seems like the embodiment of the ideals of the golden age of science fiction. That optimistic era that said 'we made it'. Well, for that time to happen, someone has to do the heavy lifting. Make the sacrifices. The people of Earth broke faith with us. We can't let them do that unchallenged."
The vote was put off, til the verdict came from the Voyager senior staff on getting back through the portal. But after John's words, all knew what their vote would be.
When a few hours had passed, they were called back to The Bridge. Captain Janeway had mixed news for the two crews.
"The good news is--we can send you back where you belong. Voyager can in a sense, open and widen that portion of the portal leading back to your Alpha Quadrant. We can possibly even place you within very rough striking distance of Alpha Centauri. But once we do that, the portal's stability will come to a screeching halt. In short, it will be of no use to us."
Maureen looked at her man, and then her family, and spoke.
"Then I guess we're headed back to your Earth, Kathryn. Because we won't let you waste this chance on us."
John agreed.
"Besides, we'll have access to even better technology, once we get there. We might still find our way home."
Chakotay pointed at the main viewer, which displayed the various scans in an overlay.
"John, trust me. Our charity is not so great that we would just give up on a real chance to get home. But Voyager has the technology and infrastructure to widen this portal for you. Jupiter 2 simply cannot return the favor. Nor can we ourselves go through before it collapses on either side. Once propped open--the door will close forever once the stop is pulled."
Will walked up, nearer to the screen.
"But its remained open all month. I don't think its configuration has changed in all that time."
Tom saw the nervousness in his young friend. Perhaps he even sensed his fear of the unspoken situation they shared.
"Problem is, pal, that these portals redefine temperamental. Its remained stable, simply put, because nothing destabilized it. This action is gonna do just that."
Harry looked at Penny, and perhaps his words now had a subtext of apology for his past impatience.
"We here on Voyager have the luxury of waiting. I know I have to get used to it. It can drive you crazy, make you wonder why you even tried. But we have the means of helping you. If it means we have to wait a while longer, well then, most attempts we make on our own behalf go nowhere. Maybe doing something good for someone else will even fool the fates long enough for this to work."
Tuvok raised a point.
"Captain, the Jupiter 2 is not in optimal condition. May I suggest undoing some of its more obvious damage, before the Robinsons leave our company?"
Janeway smiled.
"Far too conservative a plan, Mister Tuvok. In fact, with our guests' permission, we are going to take the next week and give the Jupiter 2 the old once-over. Upgrades, replacement parts--the works."
John shook his head.
"Kathryn, you've spoken of a temporal Prime Directive. I'm fairly certain it must have a trans-temporal corollary."
Be'lanna Torres looked over a PADD, and answered for her Captain.
"The Captain had Tom and me come up with a list of things we could do to help upgrade the Jupiter 2, if you originally had decided not to stay. None of these things violate the Prime Directive any worse than we already have, just by bringing you aboard. The only question is--what happens to Smith?"
Don raised his hand, grimacing a bit.
"Put him in a cryo-tube, but he comes with us. I'll be damned before I'll dump Smith off on anyone, particularly people I like. But keep the tube out of sight of peeping aliens. He's made his last deal."
Judy seconded this, for reasons of her own.
"The baby will need a play area, and eventually her own room. Doctor Smith's old room should do nicely."
Chakotay nodded as almost all of them walked towards the Bridge doors.
"I think you'll all be surprised by what we have in mind."
Penny remained behind. Will saw this, and stayed as well. He shrugged at her.
"I guess now we'll add babysitting to our list of chores."
A bit depressed at the passing of a dream, she nodded.
"Let's go ask Ensign Wildman if we can practice on little Naomi."
She walked past him, muttering as she went.
"After all, its not like I'll ever be a mother."
Will now felt it as well. They had agreed to go home. But the thing which their parents said never happened now weighed heavy on their minds once again. That incident--and the mind-snapping loneliness that had caused it--would not be so easy to hold back, as the years passed.
But for now, the reconstruction of the Jupiter 2 awaited their input.
Surreptitiously, Captain Janeway distributed a number via PADD to her crew in the shuttlebay.
*04/04/2063*
Simply put, they would be allowed to rebuild the Jupiter 2 with any technology prior to Zephram Cochrane's beyond-revolutionary invention of the warp drive. All tech up to that point had merely been derivative of tech not much different than that available at the end of the 20th Century, in both worlds.
Tuvok pointed at the Jupiter 2's front windows.
"Sensors indicate long-term stress, Captain. This glass was well tempered. Yet years of various assaults and planetfalls have begun a series of micro-fracture cascades. Full replacement is recommended."
Janeway looked them over, as well, then said something surprising.
"Transparent aluminum. Every last piece of glass."
Chakotay walked over. He glanced at the Robinsons and Major West, kept behind a sound-proofed viewport, so as to at least diminish any further temporal exposure. While likely somewhat moot, the court-martial Janeway imagined answering to would have to at least concede that she had kept something back from their visitors.
"Captain, transparent aluminum was invented in 1986, in our world. The Jupiter 2 launched in 1997, in theirs. If transparent aluminum had been available there, I think they would have used it."
Janeway shook her head.
"Mister Paris?"
Tom answered.
"Commander, the invention of transparent aluminum was speeded up by temporal interference, on the part of seven rather famous Starfleet officers. The ones from that show we watched? Captain Scott was an inventive sort--and they kinda needed those whales."
Janeway picked up.
"Also, science and technology broadcasts we picked up indicated a circa 2005 breakthrough for that tech. That's the way we have to think, people. Our friends want to go back, and we want to make that possible."
With both her stated thinking and her implicit thinking now clear, the Voyager crew began to look over the sturdy but more primitive ship in earnest. Torres studied a hammered-down sheet of metal one meter away from the entrance ramp.
"Tom--what would you say to replacing this metal with olduvaium? Discovered in 2050, in the Olduvai Pit in Africa, it later revolutionized space-capable doming material
forever. We replicate it for temporary colonization material even to this day. It was a Maquis standby, when avoiding--well, us."Paris raised a finger.
"Problem. Olduvaium is plenty tough, but if it somehow gets dented, it requires a molecular re-shifter. That's 2140."
Be'lanna looked a bit sheepish, but recovered quickly.
"Ok. That was pointless. How about Menelikite? Ethiopia's first big 21st Century export, three times tougher than this titanium alloy, and requires no more than a decent hammer and an elbow."
Tom nodded.
"That's good. But Menelikite is a bear to get fitted. We'd be another week tearing out the old structure."
Torres was ready to pound him with a hammer, til an equally strong bit of genius struck her. She grinned.
"No. It won't require that at all."
Chakotay and Tuvok were on the lower deck of the Jupiter 2. The former Maquis leader recalled first meeting the spy who would have, under ideal circumstances, turned him in.
"You didn't come empty-handed. You preyed upon our desperation for supplies."
"I see where you are leading, Commander. But do we have that kind of leeway, within the Captain's parameters?"
Chakotay saw the door, with its distinct radiation hazard markings.
"The concept was developed during their native time period. Its application, though, really pushes us up to the limit. 2058."
Tuvok nodded.
"The Jupiter 2 did not launch in 2058."
While they debated perhaps the most radical change to the Jupiter 2, Harry Kim merely wandered the upper deck's living area and said a few telling words.
"Everyone needs privacy and living space."
Jotting down some notes, Kim hoped that this would help Penny to forgive his asking her to leave that night, a few weeks back.
The Voyager crew came back with their initial recommendations. John looked at the plans. Outwardly and in its minor systems, the Jupiter 2 would not change all that much. But in the things that made it run and go, the fundamentals were about to shift.
"Kathryn, these engine specifications. Is this size-scale correct?"
Janeway knew that this would catch his eye.
"Absolutely, John. Any reason for asking?"
Having called his wife over, John looked at her, got a nod, and then looked back at the Captain.
"Because Maureen had made a suggestion about any extra room we might get from your generosity. Penny? Will? The engine room is going the way of the wind. How would you two feel about having full quarters, down in there? You've shown us that you can keep up with your tasks, and we'll need the room upstairs, for obvious reasons."
The thought of any extra space had the two smiling quickly. Yet Chakotay, Janeway, Paris and Torres all knew why this might not be a good idea. More, they knew that John and Maureen were quite aware of this, as well. This was someone else's family. Her style of command and personality aside, Janeway felt that line was sacrosanct. But with the health, well-being and future happiness of two good kids at stake, Kathryn felt that she now had no choice but to confront Maureen Robinson in private.
Torres spoke on their timetable.
"Captain, Commander, Doctors. I now feel that we can have these repairs and upgrades done within one hour."
Tuvok raised an eyebrow.
"That, Lieutenant, would be a most remarkable achievement. Yet I cannot see how it might be done."
Be'lanna pointed at the Jupiter 2 in the distance.
"Their ship is not constructed with the same technology or with the same super-dense materials as ours. I believe that, using the Jupiter 2 itself as a source of recyclable matter, we can format the replicators to recreate the ship, according to our specs."
Janeway pointed at Kim, Paris and Torres.
"If that's possible, I want it to happen. You three are our best on transporter-based technology. In the meantime, I'd like to speak to you, Maureen. I just wanted to settle a certain matter between us."
Doctor Robinson nodded her head.
"I thought that you might, Kathryn."
As the two female leaders left for a talk that would come to haunt them both, Maureen's extended family made some last-minute additions to the plans for Jupiter 2. Will pointed to the transparent aluminum windows.
"Make them one-way view. No more aliens waving hello to us, then disappearing. After Doctor Smith, we don't need any more headgames."
Don pointed to a largely-unused service crawlspace, once used to hide by a certain reluctant stowaway.
"No joke. Can we stash Smith's cryo-tube in there?"
Judy looked at the overall hull.
"Be'lanna, I know you can't give us energy shields. But how about an electrical charge that's just enough to pulverize micro-meteors and shunt dust away?"
Penny's idea dealt with one of their most commonly encountered scenarios.
"A small scrub-sink in each room would help us save water, and allow for long days when the shower unit is out."
In one form or another, each idea was found to be doable, and integrated into the upgrade plans. Not so easily done with was the battle of wills between Kathryn and Maureen.
Once in Janeway's office, the Captain made her opinion plain.
"People have accused me of going too far in pursuit of my goals and agenda. Usually, I feel they're off base. But here and now, Maureen, I am crossing the line, and exceeding my authority, common courtesy, and good sense. Because the decisions you and John are making are going to have disastrous consequences for Will and Penny. If the Doctor's program hadn't been compromised, I wouldn't know about their kiss. But I do, and so I must act upon that information. Don't put them on the same floor, mostly alone. Its a bad idea that could easily get worse."
Maureen did not seem as upset as one might expect of a mother whose judgement had been severely questioned by a relative stranger.
"Are you saying that they're untrustworthy, Kathryn?"
Janeway waved her hand.
"No! They're good kids. But they've already turned to one another in a nearly carnal manner. And their teenaged bouts with loneliness are nothing compared to what they'll face as adults. What happens to those two when the words brother and sister come to mean less than the words man and woman?"
Maureen looked down, and said some disturbing words.
"What usually happens between an interested man and woman. Its all but inevitable, I suppose. But I'll never treat it as such. I'll never surrender in my heart and spirit to such an ugly occurrence. I am their mother."
Kathryn nodded.
"And a mother acts at all times to keep her children on the right path."
Maureen closed her eyes.
"She also acts to make sure they are not miserable. The day will come that I'll notice Penny's putting on weight, for no apparent reason. But they love each other, dearly. I rather doubt it will all be abusive. John can't handle that reality. I must. I don't have the luxury of putting the success of the mission apart from my desire to see my children happy. Both must occur, whatever it takes. That is who I am, and that is what I have chosen to do."
Kathryn tried one last time.
"I want to hear you say it."
Maureen didn't hesitate.
"I am sacrificing the health, happiness, well-being and comfort of my two youngest children for the sake of the future of my planet. In order to get us to our Alpha Centauri, I will let them become decried as freaks and lepers, all for answering the same call that every other human being feels. Not merely sex--but the right to not be alone. And if I had to, I would even give up being with my husband, to demonstrate my resolve. Thank God I'll never have to--but the mission trumps everything but my babies' lives. So long as they are alive, though, I can't let their eventual means of survival stand in the way of giving my people the stars."
Only having explained herself out of courtesy to begin with, Maureen rose to go. But she looked at Kathryn without anger.
"Except for the discretion you and Chakotay must demonstrate, Kathryn, you are living my childhood dream. Don't think I don't envy you. And continue that discretion. I think you're right. Your crew might see things the wrong way. Well, I'd better offer up my two cents on the upgrade. Will I see you later?"
Kathryn nodded, yet certain of Maureen's words echoed within her.
"Count on it."
Five minutes later, the Captain made a momentous call to her lover and First Officer.
In Sickbay, the Doctor finished customizing a late 21st-Century cryo-tube for Zachary Smith. As he did this, Robot reviewed his findings on the automaton's probable origins.
"I was a storytelling holo-matrix, then?"
The EMH transported the silver-suited body of a sad but dangerous man directly into cryo-stasis, then nodded.
"That's my best guess. You were interactive, and meant to keep the toddling Penny and infant Will company, on the trip from what Mister Kim believes was the Alpha Centauri native to your universe. In effect, your ship was meant to take those two back home."
The Robot's lights seemed to dim, then light up, then dim again.
"Then caring for those two is what I was meant to do, after all. Doctor, can my holo-matrix be altered to again project illusions?"
The EMH quite happily turned away from Smith, for just about the last time. The deliberately-induced psyche-altering tumor made a hologram once threatened with personality 'customization' queasy, to say the least.
"Even using 20th-Century tech, holograms were possible. It shouldn't be any trouble awakening it in a basic matrix advanced as yours. Why? Looking to fool some future enemies?"
"No, Doctor. But perhaps I would like to be a storyteller once more. For a new generation of Robinson children."
The EMH did what was asked of him, and then loaded a test program into Robot.
"Now, this one is part of a satiric series favored by both Mister Paris in our world and Major West in yours. It seems this lone human and these two robots are subjected to endless selections of bad professional movies and so-called fan fiction dramatizations. Part of a cruel mind experiment."
"I am aware of this series, Doctor. But beware the sharp tongue of the golden one. He only thinks he's funny."
The Doctor stared as the projection played.
"What's with the giant turtle?"
Chakotay met his Captain on the one-time conspiracy center that was Holodeck Four. Janeway was laying one more ghost to rest.
"I felt that I had to be cruel. To offset an even greater cruelty, done to two lives. The instant I was done with that harshest possible choice, other options came to me. We could have had you cloned, before the separation. Gotten your engrams a holo-matrix, like that used by the Moriarty simulation on Enterprise. I even thought about contacting the Vidiian Doctor our EMH became friends with. My choice would have still caused the end of your life as you knew it, though. I offer no excuses, and no defense. For what I did, I merely ask for your forgiveness. *She did what she had to* seems as weak an explanation right now as *they were only following orders*. I hope that somehow, in whatever manner you still exist, you find it in you to forgive me."
But the Tuvix hologram was not interactive, so Captain Janeway ordered it off, and turned to Chakotay. In her eyes, so lovely to him, he somehow saw her sad message.
"Again, Kathryn? What excuse is it this time? Loyalty to a man who surely thinks you're dead? My loyalty? Or maybe you now believe that we were both exposed to xenite gas, down on New Earth."
She looked down.
"You're aware of the Robinsons decision, vis-a-vis Will and Penny's indiscretion?"
Chakotay sighed, thinking upon another subject he'd just as soon avoid.
"Yes. John and I had a talk, to make certain there were no lingering hard feelings. He and Maureen have an oddly flexible philosophy on such matters. But while I was happy to hear that, I could not ever agree with anything that says 'it never happened'. Two incidents at Wounded Knee spring to mind."
Janeway got to her point.
"I can't openly be with my First Officer. And I can not keep pretending that something that obviously is happening isn't. Both in her absolute devotion to her mission, and in the misstep I'm almost certain will consume her children's relationship, Maureen has shown me what I must do--and what I can't allow myself to do, any longer."
When she said no more, Chakotay then said the very last words in this stage of their relationship.
"I have ancestors from all over the Earth. One was Powhatan. After his daughter's intervention saved Captain Smith, Powhatan asked about the late Queen Elizabeth, for whom the English named their colony. He asked if Elizabeth had one husband or many, being so very powerful a woman. Smith told him that she had been married only to her kingdom and its destiny."
Chakotay moved to walk away as he completed his words.
"Powhatan said that if this was true, then she must have been a very lonely woman."
In more ways than there were to count, the two parted company at that moment.
---------
As the final transporter/replicator settings were made, the Robinsons unloaded the Jupiter 2 of any materials they didn't want recycled. Judy and Don however, placed a load of a different kind upon the minds of Maureen and John. When Maureen simply couldn't speak, John almost roared his response.
"What do you mean you're not getting married? You are still having a baby together, aren't you?"
Don did not want another confrontation with his CO, so Judy took his hand, and held another over her stomach.
"Dad, we'll marry when we reach Alpha Centauri. But we're not ready now."
Maureen found her voice.
"You were ready enough to become parents!"
Careful to keep his temper in check, Don nodded at Maureen, who did not have John's tendency to mix his dual roles.
"You two are a pair. You're the best parents I've ever known. But parenthood and marriage and success aren't bound together. I want to marry your daughter. But if she's my wife, and she or I die while we're out in space, we certainly can't keep the body for too long. I couldn't live knowing my wife's body was floating in the void, or was on a planet that we might never see again."
Judy shrugged.
"Our daughter will know she's loved, and that she has something to look forward to. The structure will all be there. Despite what happened with us and Tom and Be'lanna, we won't be looking around--even if we could. But you two have shown me that those two words are sacred. If there's any trepidation in our hearts, then I want to give those fears time to go away. They will. And when they do, we will be the first newlyweds on the first Earth colony in human history."
Maureen looked at her husband. Two barely-workable family choices in one week would surely test their patience. Yet unlike Penny and Will, this in no way could be taken as their choice to make. Added to that, a repeat of their wrongheaded demand about the baby's life might easily have the younger couple asking Janeway for asylum again. Since Kathryn had made clear that she didn't approve of the official denial choice in the one case, she might well be more open in this second request. The younger Doctor Robinson and Major West were vital to their renewed mission.
Maureen bristled inside, but John found a way to bring home the ramifications of what their daughter and friend were telling them.
"All right. It is your life. But you'll have to clear all this with your brother and sister."
The look on Judy's face told that she was clearly not expecting this answer.
"The kids? Why? What does my choice in my life have to do with them?"
Don shrugged in frustration.
"John, you're not making any sense!"
Maureen's eyes indicated she knew where her husband was taking this, so he let her take over.
"Oh, he's making perfect sense, Don. That is, if you really think about it. We've already made Penny and Will aware that they will have to add all KP to their duties. Also, they'll have to divide basic systems maintenance between them, as well. John and I will have to take over astrogation, probability calculations, not to mention handling most watches on monitor."
Judy shook her head.
"You just reassigned almost everything we do on the ship! How could the kids agree to those terms?"
In a gesture made as deliberately gentle as he could muster, John placed his opened palm on his baby's stomach, where her own baby lay, growing.
"Because those two--young adults--seem to understand better than you two just what it is we're getting into. They'll have recreation. I'm suspending their set schedules on homework, owing to how long our journey is apt to be. I asked Tom Paris to set up a small R+D station on the lower deck, so they can putter around. Will says he has some ideas about micro-robots to do the terraforming, once we reach our destination. I expect that Penny will keep him from overstating the possibilities on his theory, plus she spoke of developing some force shields more varied than the ones we've used. You two are about to have your days and night consumed whole. That child--or children, down the road--will demand and they will get more of your time than you actually have to give."
Maureen finished the confused younger couple off with a few simple words.
"Welcome to our world."
Neither Don nor Judy changed their minds about either the baby or their marriage plans. They were, however, a lot quieter than they had ever been before.
When the hour finally arrived, all of Voyager's senior staff watched as Be'lanna, Harry and Tom deftly handled the modified controls. Their own shuttles would not be able to benefit from this change, at least not directly. Their materials and engines were simply too complicated. But Jupiter 2, despite the legally questionable enhancements it had been given, was still not as advanced as even the original Phoenix.
"Torres here. I have the frame."
"Kim here. I have the decks and the engine."
"Paris here. I have the systems and the living quarters. Ladies and gents--we have a ship."
The Robinsons ran out to see their restored home. Don West couldn't resist quoting yet another piece of pop culture.
"Atomic batteries to power--turbines to speed."
Tuvok shook his head at hearing this.
"That, Major West, is wholly inaccurate."
Already inside, Penny and her brother stared in awe at their new quarters downstairs. The flimsy sliding doors had been replaced with ones that had handles and locks.
"Which one do you want?"
Will shrugged.
"I dunno. They've been carved exactly the same. Hey--is that our own wash area in between them?"
Penny checked it. She smiled.
"With a nice, sturdy lock!"
Will knocked on the inside of one of the doors.
"Harry wasn't kidding about those molecular sound bafflers. That alone is going to help. We both--ya know, snore."
Penny knew well that he wasn't referring to snoring, but something far more private.
"People snore, Will. It may be one of the only ways we have of getting through these years. And it will be years."
Rather than talk of it any further, Will moved for the elevator back to the upper deck.
"At least we like the company we have."
Alone and planning out her quarters' arrangement, Penny chuckled to herself.
"Just when did he grow up?"
She quickly pushed one probable answer out of her mind.
While a still-stunned Don and Judy marveled at their quarters which had once been four different rooms on the upper deck, Maureen and John thanked Janeway and Chakotay for an unbelievable gift.
"By 2058, fusion engines became this small?"
Chakotay pointed at the device, now located on the upper decks.
"Well, we did allow for the 21st-Century folks having an unlimited budget. But its legitimate, otherwise."
Kathryn took the hands of both Robinsons.
"Maureen told me that I was living your dream. Well, you are living mine. To be among the first. To redefine the word, pioneer. Just consider these tweaks and upgrades payment for that reminder of where we came from."
While the EMH and Robot secured Smith in his hiding place, Don and Judy ran up to Tom and Be'lanna. Judy pointed back at the room.
"Tom, there's something wrong. We have one of those R+D stations in our quarters."
Torres smiled.
"New parents need distractions, too."
While the personal belongings were beamed back aboard and placed in their rooms, Robot asked his new friend one last question.
"How often should we release Doctor Smith, Doctor?"
The EMH did a quick scan.
"I'd say once every six months. Why?"
The Robot pulled out his nightstick again.
"Oh--no reason."
A series of small personal gifts were exchanged. In an odd way, the sexual swapping done by the various couples had released and not roiled up tensions. Tom Paris was given Robot's older, clunkier battery pack. Judy was given a carefully and precisely replicated hubcap from the holo-car she'd tinkered with. Don received a library of digitized TV themes and 'oldies'. Penny received a diary module equivalent to 2060, capable of massive journal recording.
Be'lanna joked when Judy gave her files on something called 'Playgirl'. She said that the men depicted would *give most male Klingons endowment neurosis.*Chakotay got a most interesting gift from John. A Native American warrior who was a fiction in Chakotay's universe was quite real in John's. A late 19th Century tintype depicted this man standing with his white half-brother, a Texas lawman thought dead more than once. Keeping with this theme, Chakotay presented John with a pipe offered to a heroic Spanish nobleman by a tribe he had saved from corrupt clergy. Will requested and was given a model of the venerable Phoenix itself. He seemed almost upset as he took it, but a glare from his parents had him thanking Captain Janeway, and everyone else. Still, he seemed oddly sad.
Neelix and Tuvok, having interacted less with the Robinsons because of their ordeal, hung back and were quiet. The Talaxian broke the silence, as expected, but for once his words were deadly serious.
"Mister Vulcan, I know its not your way. But Tuvix has been on my mind. A lot. Could we maybe discuss him? At at time convenient for you, of course."
Tuvok surprised himself with his next words.
"We will talk of Tuvix, Mister Neelix. It seems only fitting that his existence should not pass without comment."
Securing the model he seemed glad to be rid of aboard Jupiter 2, Will turned and was almost shocked to see Kes. She looked apologetic.
"Remember me? As I am right now, I mean."
They hugged, and Will momentarily forgot whatever secret burden he had. He looked up at her, smiling.
"I do have a photographic memory, you know."
She handed him an envelope.
"Remember me. As I am right now."
Will checked the envelope's contents. It was nothing obscene, despite a certain lack of wardrobe. But Kes imagined that, as she aged and died--if she was lucky--her image would continue to ease the burden of a young man in a tight social corner. She considered that a small victory, and thanks for dealing with her impatience. Will hid them very, very well.
But if the photos' exact content meant little to an Occampan not prone to private modesty, the photo of a very clothed woman given to Kathryn Janeway by Maureen Robinson meant absolutely everything to the Captain of Voyager.
"To Maureen--a trainer and a mentor and a dear friend, truly a teacher's teacher, Love---"
Janeway practically gasped the name.
"Christa McAuliffe."
She looked at her friend.
"Maureen, I cannot accept this. This is an irreplaceable treasure."
Maureen seemed to have the same sad look as her son.
"Just please accept it, Kathryn. You'll come to understand why I gave it up. But not now."
Harry Kim's goodbye to Penny was not quite as tender, and Kim noticed this quickly.
"Penny--I'm the ship's fool, all right? Is saying that enough to maybe have you forgive me?"
Penny looked almost tearful.
"Right now, I think that you're a better person than any of us, Harry. I have to go. Good luck."
Surely it was having to leave the relatively easier life of Voyager that had her down, thought Harry. What else could it be?
With the last goodbyes said and the Jupiter 2 loaded, Janeway and her crew made for The Bridge. The more primitive ship was out of the shuttlebay in moments.
"The rift, Mister Tuvok?"
"Opening further, Captain."
"Stability, Harry?"
"Long as we keep our modified tractor beam on, it remains open, Captain."
"Tom, their vector of approach?"
"Don knows his ship, Ma'am. No doubt."
"Mister Chakotay, their position in the other universe?"
"Captain, the 40 Eridinai star is visible. No Vulcan, though. Estimate they have fifteen years before they reach Alpha Centauri."
Be'lanna Torres, a slightly angry look on her face, entered the Bridge at that moment.
"Captain, we have to pull them back. Immediately!"
Janeway stood up.
"We can't. Our tractor beam is holding the rift open, and they're already through."
Torres watched the screen, and saw the rift's natural collapse begin. It was over. She looked at Janeway.
"Captain--we've been robbed. And not by Smith, Seska, or anyone we'd expect."
---------------------------------
NEAR THE 40 ERIDINAI STAR, EARTH DATE 2002, OTHER UNIVERSE
Will handed the model of the Phoenix to his father.
"I love and respect you, sir. But if you ever ask me to do something like that, ever again, I'll say no right to your face. Excuse me, now. I have to do some chores. This place doesn't feel clean."
Penny looked at the model with disgust, and almost with contempt.
"This is against everything you've ever taught us. I went along because I thought maybe you were under someone else's control. Now, I wish you had been."
Going to join her brother in whatever chores
there were, Penny took time to glare at her parents and older sister. Judy sat down."So when do we start analyzing it?"
Maureen bit her lip before speaking.
"Planetside only. Far away from the Jupiter 2. Very far away. You, young lady, don't touch it until after you've delivered."
Don was already in his and Judy's quarters, having learned of the model's true nature after launch, and declaring the whole thing worthy of Smith. John shook his head.
"Who are we now, Maureen? Kathryn and her crew gave us every hospitality. But I had to do this, right? I had to secure the future of our journey, and of our home planet. Didn't I?"
Maureen put her arms around him.
"Who are we, John? We are good people who just made a highly immoral choice for some very good reasons. We'll just have to live with yet another set of unintended consequences, that's all."
The model was secured again, as the Jupiter 2 resumed its historic journey, under the watchful eye of a friendly mechanoid who loved his family well, warts and all. Robot briefly viewed Smith's cryo-chamber.
"No. I still don't miss him."
He put the stasis chamber back in its hiding place, and hoped for the best to befall the Space Family Robinson.
--------------------------------------
MAIN UNIVERSE, VOYAGER
"They took what?"
Torres showed the records.
"While I shut down the computers' lockout protocols to find any other surprises left by Seska, they set up that 'request' Will made for The Phoenix. Captain, it was a working model! They stole the secret of warp drive from us."
The crew's reaction was swift, and predictable.
"Most unlike them."
"Not them."
"Those nice people?"
"I thought they were our friends."
Janeway raised an open palm.
"They are our friends. And we cannot resent them for what they did. Because mark my words, our days of turning away opportunities to get home just ended with that theft. If we have to become thieves ourselves to see home again, then that is what we will do. They did what I would do."
"Kathryn, surely we're not going to suddenly abandon..."
Janeway began the new chapter in her relationship with her First Officer with a few chilling words.
"Discussion ended, Mister Chakotay. Let's just call it all one more bitter lesson our friends taught us."
Kim broke this grim line of thought.
"Captain--I'm detecting a dozen more rifts in this region of space. All highly unstable. More readings--debris fields. From destroyed Borg Cubes?"
Kes felt a distinct chill at Janeway's next words, which would prove the turning point in Voyager's long journey home.
"What's opening those rifts? And what could so effectively decimate a Borg Cube?"
As a new adventure signaled a new era, the feelings of camaraderie towards and partial betrayal by the Robinsons were put aside.
But the two crews would meet again.
--------