From srmarykath@aol.com Mon Jan 11 17:50:48 1999
TITLE: Earth Angel
AUTHOR: Sr. Mary Kathryn (SrMaryKath@aol.com)
SERIES: Voyager
RATING: Bad taste
CODES: J
SUMMARY: They are home. Janeway is dead.
~:~:~:~:~
Disclaimers: In the end no one will care who owned them.
~:~:~:~:~
Earth Angel
By: Sr. Mary Kathryn
For a few moments everyone just gazed at the vision on the view screen. From
their perspective, it was no larger than a child's marble. It was blue with
swirls of white. And it was right in front of them. A tear ran down
Chakotay's cheek as he reached across the console and ran a hand down the metal
box that had replaced the captain's chair.
"We're home, Kathryn."
Tom Paris grimaced. He could hardly stand it when Chakotay talked to her. It
was almost as if he half expected her to answer back. And today, Paris really
wished she could. It was a shame Captain Kathryn Janeway hadn't lived to see
the crew return to earth.
Fortunately for Janeway, Paris supposed --- he had other ideas on the matter
--- Chakotay had seen to it that she was still with them after all these years.
In a coffin. Which he dragged around. All the time. Every morning the
bridge crew would watch the turbolift doors, and there would be Chakotay, a
little bent over at the shoulder dragging that coffin all the way out of the
turbolift and over to where the captain's chair used to be.
If there was a meeting of the senior officers, Chakotay just sort of propped
the coffin up at the end of the oval table. In the mess hall --- well, Tom
didn't even want to go there any more.
And then there was Harry Kim. Every three or four days he had broken
Chakotay's sobbing on the bridge with yet another bright idea about how to
revive Janeway. At that point, Tuvok always had to strain to be heard over
Chakotay's wails as he reminded Harry just how long Kathryn Janeway had been
dead and that even if they did revive her, it probably wouldn't be pretty.
Then Chakotay, who was usually on his knees hugging Kathryn's coffin by the
time Tuvok had finished with the logistics of it all, had to be transported to
sickbay for a tranquilizer or two. Once the Doc had commented that it would
have been cheaper if Chakotay had died instead of Janeway and informed everyone
that it cost a whole lot more replicator rations to replicate Chakotay's
tranquilizers than it had for Janeway's coffee.
And then, Tom remembered and smiled, there was that day ten or fifteen years
ago when right out of thin air two men materialized. The crew had watched in
astonishment as one went over to the coffin, then turned to the other and said,
'she's dead Jim.' Chakotay had just about had a cow when this Jim guy had
informed him that he had to take Kathryn with him. Kathryn Janeway was long
overdue to tell a story or two at the captain's table, Jim had informed
Chakotay.
There'd been quite a battle, but when the two men finally decided to
dematerialize, Chakotay still had Janeway right beside him, although the coffin
did have a dent or two. But B'Elanna assured Chakotay that she could just run
a tricorder or two over that metal box and it would be just like new.
Without Janeway around getting knocked over the head all the time, the Doc had
had a lot more free time on his hands, but B'Elanna couldn't even begin to
count the number of nights she'd stayed up fixing the coffin after Chakotay had
scuffed it against a corridor wall or knocked it into a console. Once, when he
was working on a ladder between the fifth and sixth decks, he'd dropped it all
the way to the bottom. That had been a real mess. But it wasn't nearly as bad
as the time the transporter had been offline and he'd gotten the coffin stuck
in a jeffries tube.
But, Tom thought and grinned as he waited for Starfleet's docking confirmation,
that was all behind him now. It was behind all of them now. Kathryn Janeway
had finally gotten what she wanted. She was home. The rest of them could go
on with their lives now. Although, Paris reasoned, a hint of sadness in his
eye as he listened to Chakotay tell the captain their plans for their first
night back on earth, going on with their lives was probably going to be harder
for some of them than it was for others. But then, Tom figured those were just
the breaks.
The End
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