Captain Kathryn Janeway opened the door to the bureau and proudly entered the small room. With a sigh, she realized that there would be no accolades or cheers in this silent and empty room. After all how many captains had been flung to the far corners of the galaxy and returned: besides, Picard. She didn't count his brief excursion to the DQ, because that had been Q's fault--and had not lasted seven years. Anyway, she'd topped him several times over in matters Borg. Her smile grew.
"Hello," she called out. The words echoed, but she heard a grunt from the other side of a small glass window. It screeched as it opened and a diminutive older woman with prinz-nez glasses looked at her.
"Whaddya want?"
"I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway of the--" She glanced at the woman's nametag as she talked.
"Starship Voyager. I have your MC22 forms here." Hetty Slashmore thrust a clipboard with a form on it. "Press hard, you're making six copies."
"Six? What are MC22 forms anyway?"
"The MC22 form is the standard Federation request for the ACT89 form. Oh yes, you have two BD on board, you'll also need to do a BD6 and 7 for both." The other woman started to close the window.
"I thought I only had to fill out the KS2?"
The woman laughed, it was very unpleasant. "You are out-of-date. The KS2 was replaces by the HC47 five years ago." The window shut very quickly.
Janeway groaned as she sat down, the pen in her hand as she started to read the form. Name, rank, serial number--that was easy. Maybe this wasn't going to be too...
"Huh?" She snarled. "I don't know all this information." She stood and pounded on the window. Hetty Slashmore opened it slowly, looking very affronted.
"What now?"
"Can I use your computer to pull up the information?"
"Oh, no. It's against the rules. You might get your forms mixed up."
"Huh? Then I'm going to have to return to my ship--"
"You can't leave until you've completed the whole AU."
"That makes no sense," Janeway said as she started toward the door. A click stopped her. She knew before she even tried to open the door that it was locked.
"Regulation 77, paragraph DS: once the NonCON forms..."
"Excuse me," Janeway said angrily, "I'm not doing any NonCON forms..."
"Oh, then you will need to fill out the SM4mm form instead." Ms Slashmore handed Janeway a stack of yellow forms. Janeway's mouth opened at the sight of them.
"What are these for?" Janeway managed to gasp out.
"JC 54."
"Oh, am I supposed to understand these?"
The other woman ignored her and started to close the window, then stopped. "Your mission was PC, so you will also need a VOIL form signed by your CO and a complete ASC scan completed by the ship's MD."
Janeway rubbed her temple hard as she muttered to herself, "I am my CO." She definitely felt the beginnings of a headache coming on. She barely controlled the overwhelming urge to throw all the paper up in the air, pull out her blaster and torch them all.
She imagined--
"Captain?" Someone shook her shoulders. "Captain?" Her eyes opened wide, expecting to see Hetty Slashmore standing there with another three reams of paper." She found herself staring into the bright shining face of Neelix.
"I see you've been reading reports again." He placed the cup of coffee down beside her.
She yawned, then smiled appreciatively at the sight of the coffee. She quickly thanked Neelix and started to take a sip.
"Captain to the bridge," Lieutenant Paris's voice said.
"Janeway here, Lieutenant?"
"A wormhole has just opened up off our port bow. The Pathfinder project worked!" She could hear the growing excitement in the helmsman's voice.
"I'm on my way."
A few minutes later she stepped onto the bridge, just to see one of the most welcome sites.
"There's a message for you, from the Admiralty," Tom said with a smile.
She motioned for him to play it. The older female admiral was one she didn't know, but looked somewhat familiar. "Welcome home, Voyager. We're preparing to transmit recent codes and forms to your ship. Please have them filled out by this time tomorrow. Admiral Slashmore out."
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