Legal Crapola:
Paramount officially owns the characters I am using in this story. I
am bending them around to fit my desires–even though I know what
they really do act like because I have watched enough episodes to
make my head spin.
(This story is following *Goodbyes: Part One of a Many Part Series*
The stories can be read in any order, but I recommend reading #1
first, you know . . . )
*Hellos*
By Erin Katherine O’Connor
Commander Tuvok of the Federation Science Vessel Janeway
(obviously named after the respective captain) received a sub-space
transmission on stardate 49987.8 from a certain Captain Kathryn
Janeway of a Federation Starship Voyager, who happened to be on
maternity leave. It was a recorded, private message, so he took it
in his ready room. He was curious to see how she was doing.
Tuvok pressed a sequence of buttons on his data padd, then
hailed the Ops officer. “Relay the message through to my office; I
have the transmitter ready.” A green light blinked on his monitor.
“Hello, Tuvok. How’s your life?” Tuvok could see signs of
strain showing on her lovely face. “Mine’s fine, if you take into
account that Kes is dead, Chakotay left me, I’m pregnant with his
child, resigning from Starfleet, and considering suicide. You’re all
I have left. Would you like to go out to dinner? I know a great
place on Bajor.” Tuvok stood immediately after the video screen
clicked off. He walked briskly onto the bridge and told his First
Officer that he had been called away for a few days on account of
personal problems. He would be back by next week. He caught a
transport and did not speak to anyone all the way to Earth.
Kathryn Janeway pulled the curtains taut, then let them fall
back. She was in no mood to be rearranging the house. The empty
house . . . the house Chakotay had picked out.
Kathryn had long since resigned herself to the fact that he was
not coming back. There was only one thing to do, since it was now
obvious that Tuvok was not coming. He hadn’t sent a replying
transmission, nor had he arrived in the past week. Kathryn sighed,
and strode to the kitchen. She raised a slim, pretty, ornate knife
to her breast. Suddenly the computer chimed, “Captain Tuvok is at
the door.”
Kathryn practically shouted for joy, since this had been the one
thing she was waiting for; to say farewell to her best friend before
her suicide.
Tuvok entered through the door, and set his bags down gently
beside it. He walked towards Kathryn, who was setting a knife down
on her kitchen counter. Tuvok raised one eyebrow. She rushed
forward and embraced him. Tuvok stepped backwards once, startled.
He crashed into the door and slumped to the floor, dragging Kathryn
down with him.
He looked up at her, as amused as his Vulcan nature could let
him be. “I believe you are . . . excited to see me, am I correct in
assuming so?”
And Kathryn just laughed. “How are you, Tuvok? I haven’t seen
you in so long! How’s T’Pel and your children?”
Tuvok sighed, picking himself up off the floor. “T’Pel
committed ritual suicide during Pon Farr. The children have all
entered the Vulcan Science Academy. So, I suppose we have similar
situations, do we not?”
Kathryn sat. “I’m sorry about T’Pel, Tuvok, I know that must
have been hard on you and the children.” She sighed. “Chakotay
thought I couldn’t have children, so he left me. He was wrong, but I
know he’s not coming back; he’d be too embarrassed. He filed for
divorce a few days ago. The gossip columns are having a ball with
that. I assume you’d heard before I told you?”
“Yes, I had received notice about Commander . . . excuse me,
Captain Chakotay leaving and divorcing you, but I did not know about
your resignation. What is happening, Kathryn?”
“Oh, that. Starfleet’s just too full of risks. It is . . . was
no place for a wife and mother, like me. Or like I used to be . . .
” She began crying then, and Tuvok scooted closer to her. He picked
her head up off of the sofa and laid it on his lap. He stroked her
long, red hair, and did his best to comfort her.
“You will be all right, Kathryn, I am here now. Shh . . . shh .
. . it is all right . . . ”
When her sobbing ceased, Tuvok sat back a bit, and asked
Kathryn, “Now, we have addressed Chakotay and Starfleet, and left is
Kes and suicide. Would you mind please relating these stories to me,
Kathryn?”
She sat up a bit straighter and told Tuvok about Kes’ fate.
“The away team was in the caves of Yeltek Four, searching for
Tellerium. There was a force-field in the way when we turned a
corner, me and Tom and Kes, and we all fell unconscious. When Tom
and I awoke, we found Kes lying dead by our sides. She was eight;
she just couldn’t handle the strain. We never got the Tellerium.”
Tuvok nodded slowly. “I grieve for Kes, but I am more worried
about you at the moment. Why suicide, Kathryn?”
“Suicide . . . ”
she muttered, then began to laugh, darkly. “Don’t I have enough
reasons? Yet?”
“You would be abandoning so much.”
“There’s nothing left for me here. Nothing at all . . .
Starfleet’s thrill is gone, Chakotay, my love, is gone, my sense of
adventure is gone, Kes, my friend, is gone, everything is gone,
Tuvok. Everything except you. And I didn’t ask you here to talk me
out of this; I just wanted to tell you why. And say goodbye.”
Tuvok let out a slight puff of air, as if exasperated. “But I
would miss you. And even if it isn’t any excitement for you working
for Starfleet, they still need you. When everyone thinks of the most
legendary starship captains, they think of James T. Kirk, Jean-Luc
Picard, Christopher Pike and Kathryn Janeway. Also, think of your
child. You wouldn’t want to take his – or her – life as well, would
you?”
“Well . . . no, I wouldn’t, but if I was to kill myself, I would
be avoiding Chakotay a great humiliation, as well as . . . ”
“No you would not. He would most likely kill himself as well.
It is too early, Kathryn. You still have a long time to live.”
“But . . . ”
“No. I will not let you kill yourself. Instead, I will marry
you.”
Kathryn gaped.
“It seems a logical solution, do you not agree? I need a wife
to keep my reputation and you need a husband to take care of and help
raise your child when you’re off on missions, and to relieve some of
your emotional stress. I know this is rather abrupt, but, Kathryn,
will you marry me?”
She did her best to keep a straight face. “Well . . . what can
I say? You’re right; it is too sudden. Are you sure you want to do
this?”
“Yes, I am. What is your answer?”
“Ummmm . . . we can just . . . try it out for a while, all
right? You know, not really be married, but just live together for a
while? Would that be okay?”
“Certainly.”
And so it was this way that Tuvok would come back into Kathryn
Janeway’s world, though in a much more abrupt way than she had
imagined. He had, in a way, saved her life.
Captain Kathryn Janeway and her fianc
, Tuvok, had their wedding, a big, fancy, official Starfleet blast at
the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington. Since her father had been
killed by cancer a few years back, Kathryn was not ‘given away’.
“Besides,” she said, “It’s not as if I am a possession, a thing to be
transferred from hand to hand.”
She wore a long, white, flowing silk number, a maternity dress.
The Starfleet Newsletter’s gossip column covered the entire thing
from start to finish.
The paper read, “The wedding of Captain Kathryn Janeway of the
Starship Voyager and Captain Tuvok of the Starship Janeway (Lovely
coincedince, isn’t it?) commenced today at 1400 hours at the Space
Needle in Seattle, Washington. The aforementioned bride was wearing,
not the traditional starfleet wedding uniform, but a long, flowing
white gown on the insistance of her Vulcan husband, Tuvok. His
comment was, “It was required to keep in consistency with Vulcan
wedding regulations.” He, may I mention, wore a black tuxedo.
Vulcan? I think not! Seems more like the happy couple kept in touch
with Janeway’s roots instead!
“After Janeway’s husband filed for divorce early this year,
seemingly on the initiative that she couldn’t have children, Janeway
revealed that she was pregnant. The unlucky former husband, whose
name I will not mention on the request of the bride, most certainly
has egg on his face now!
“The pair revealed no plans to end their careers, nor even put
them on hiatus, except for the inevitable absence of Kathryn Janeway
on her maternity leave. Her first Officer, Commander Thomas Eugene
Paris, will take control of her ship during her absence.
“There is no word yet on whether the two plan to have more
children besides the one Janeway is carrying at the moment, and there
is also no word on whether the pair are actually in love, or if the
marriage is one of convenience.
“Janeway’s comment was, ‘I’m sorry, I have to go shove cake in
my husband’s face now.’ There was none from Tuvok, who was busy
becoming the recipient of a handful of chocolate frosting and a glass
of champagne. Hey, did I see a smile from that Vulcan?”
“Kathryn.”
“Yes, Tuvok?”
“I seem to be low on pine nuts and Cardassian pepper. Would you
mind going to the market on the end of the road and picking them up
for me?”
“Oh, sure, of course. I’ll be back in a flash.”
Picking up her coat, Kathryn Janeway walked out the door and
down the street. Actually, waddled is more the word for it. She was
five months pregnant and somewhat off-balance, since she had never
had a child before.
Tuvok pressed the noodles down in the bowl, and added basil. He
barely even knew it when his wife walked out the door.
Kathryn immediately knew something was terribly wrong as soon as
she stepped outside the doors of her home. She felt a pressing,
horribly intense pain in her abdomen, and screamed. She passed out
there on the sidewalk and fell to the cement.
A woman rushed towards her, obviously aware of what was
happening. She shouted, “Someone call 911! Does anyone know her
name? Anyone?”
A man stepped forward. “Kathryn Janeway.”
“What?”
“Her name is Kathryn Janeway. What’s wrong with her?”
“She’s having a miscarrage. It’s extremely painful. We need to
get her to a hospital. Now! Did someone call a shuttlecraft?”
The man rushed into her house, and called up and down the
stairs, “Tuvok!”
A shuttlecraft flew down out of the sky and landed in the
street. Two attendants rushed out and picked up the captain’s limp
body and placed her on a white stretcher.
Meanwhile, Tuvok had run out of the house and walked into the
shuttle. “Kathryn. Is Kathryn all right?”
“No . . . ” she whispered from her position on the stretcher.
“Tuvok, the baby . . . help my baby . . . ”
“Listen, sir, are you coming or not? Because I’m not sure we
have enough room. Do you know her?” The attendant carrying the
stretcher addressed the man who ahd identified Kathryn.
“Yes, of course I know her. I’m the father.”
Kathryn lifted her head, then collapsed back on the stretcher,
exhausted from the effort.
Tuvok spoke, “Let him come. Let us leave! Kathryn requires
assistance.”
Captain Kathryn Janeway had her children, three beautiful girls,
on stardate 50112.3, at the Puyallup, Washington hospital Good
Samaritan. She and the proud father, Tuvok, decided on names
together.
Adaire Cynthia, Athena Marie, and Rachel Lynn.
Adaire Bradley, Athena Farias and Rachel Clevidence had been the
names of Kathryn’s best childhood friends. They had made a pact,
when they were 13, that their girls would definitely be named after
each other.
Adaire had kept her word and named her first child Kathryn
(called Katie), when she was 22, and promptly died after serious
complications and an infection of the womb. Katie had lived.
Athena had four children, Adaire, Ryan, Kathryn and Tom.
Rachel had no children, but married and joined Starfleet. She
was still a lieutenant in Stellar Cartography, serving under Admiral
Paris, where Kathryn Janeway once had been.
Now Kathryn kept her part of the bargain, and, at age 44, named
the first child to appear Adaire Cynthia Janeway.
Kathryn’s labor had been no trouble at all; after twelve hours
of pushing and tugging, squeezing the life out of Tuvok’s hands, and
screaming “Dammit, use the damn fetal transporter damn you!!” in
labor, she was awarded a baby girl.
And another.
And another.
Adaire was perfectly healthy. However, Athena and Rachel were
small, too small for comfort. Rachel was the bigger of the two, and
she had been removed from the womb in a strange manner; pulled out
with her head between her legs; but at least she had been breathing.
Athena was not.
After six terrifying minutes of panicky rushing to the incubator
room, Athena had been laid inside the plastic container with her
mother having no hope of the child living to see her first birthday;
her doctor had informed her of the grim chances of survival in
situations like this. Thankfully, Athena’s tiny lungs started
heaving the moment they came in contact with the artificial oxygen
environment. She would be fragile for her entire life, though, and
would have to undergo numerous physical therapy sessions.
But she would live, thank God, she would live!
Tuvok was very pleased with this outcome, for he had always
wanted to see twins. Now he had three.
Chakotay, however, sat glumly on the chair in his small ready
room, aboard the Starship Legacy. He had just received word that his
former wife had sucessfully given birth to triplets, three girls.
They were said to look just like their mother.
And nothing like their father.
To Be Continued …
There shall be many others if I get positive responses. Please
e-mail comments to me at:
Nils40@worldnet.att.net