Path: newsspool2.news.atl.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!elnk-atl-nf1!newsfeed.earthlink.net!newsswing.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.net!prodigy.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!ngpeer.news.aol.com!audrey-m2.news.aol.com!not-for-mail Lines: 679 X-Admin: news@aol.com From: gojirob@aol.comendspam (Rob Morris) Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative Date: 11 Dec 2004 03:21:20 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Subject: REP Voy Holiday Stories, 2/2, PG Message-ID: <20041210222120.00480.00001542@mb-m17.aol.com> Xref: news.earthlink.net alt.startrek.creative:161521 X-Received-Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 19:22:01 PST (newsspool2.news.atl.earthlink.net) Title : Boiled In Their Own Pudding Author : Rob Morris Contact : gogojirob@aol.comendspam (Take the first go off, then the obvious) Archive : www.southroad.com/brightfame Series : Voyager Mid S7 AU : Technically in the TNG-based 'Starting Over' Universe Type : Xmas Story Characters : Mid-S7 Voy Standard crew Relationships : P/T, Limited J/C Time-Setting : December, 2377 Follows ep : Sometime after P/T Marriage Part : 2/2 Rating : PG, for personal conflicts Summary : Its a traditional family Christmas aboard the USS Voyager...it just ---- Boiled In Their Own Pudding by Rob Morris Wesley Crusher greeted her with all courtesy. But no one could fail to notice his sudden furtive looks at Ensign Kim and Naomi Wildman. "Its a pleasure, Captain. Captain Riker says hi." Which Janeway correctly took to mean that Q had removed the blocks on Riker's memory of his trip to Voyager nearly six years ago. "I'll be blunt, Mister Crusher. Can you get us home?" As Barclay had explained, Lieutenant Crusher had received training from the time-walking species known only as The Travellers. He could also walk with others in his temporal tow, including, hopefully, the USS Voyager and its weary crew. "I'll need to look the place over, Captain. But right now I'm starved. I kind of borrowed that method of instant matter transmission from someone I met awhile back. But I don't have his physiology. I'll look the place over as I eat." Seven Of Nine spoke then. "Look the place over? I fail to comprehend why a more certain answer cannot be arrived at. Either you are capable of performing this act or you are not, Lieutenant." Crusher appeared to breathe in before he responded. Perhaps addressing someone who so resembled the cold creatures that had tormented his first Captain bit at him. "Well, there is your temporal transciever, which someone from a plus-fifteen timeline used to send messages of warning. There's the fact that besides sending that same message, Ensign Kim was born in a near-term timeline that crossed with yours, and has experienced yet another timeline, this one subject-minus in nature. I have to know about all those things before I even attempt a jump." Chakotay seemed a bit put off. "Lieutenant, all those trans-temporal events are in our records. Surely you reviewed them before coming here." Crusher seemed well-prepared for this question. "Yes, I did, Commander. But I also have to see their side-effects first-hand. Also, and I hate to say it like this, this ship has gone through an unprecedented amount of null-gain events. What some people call the time-reset button. I might be able to do it. But not right now." Janeway nodded. "Mister Kim, Miss Wildman, please guide the Lieutenant through the minefield of Neelix's culinary offerings. But Mister Crusher? Please eat fast." The young man smiled, and with Naomi and Harry in tow, he proceeded to the galley. When they left, Janeway turned to her first officer. "What were we arguing about yesterday?" He nodded, thoughts of home flooding his brain. "I can't remember either." --------- Naomi had heard of Crusher, whose rise and fall as a boy in Starfleet had some teasingly making comparison to her desire to be useful aboard Voyager. Harry Kim certainly had heard of the former cadet who was already an ensign as he entered the Academy. Despite the lack of mobility aboard Voyager, Kim couldn't help but wonder where that kind of situation would have left him, rank-wise, in the present. Certainly, there would be fewer people making Harry jokes. "Wesley? What was it like, growing up on Enterprise?" The man seemed less grim than having taken a step down, and not being unhappy as a result. "Well, Naomi, it was like knowing that the universe was in good hands. Like the gods were right there, just a lift-ride away." Harry nodded. "And you were one of them. Must have been awesome." Crusher's eyes now looked a bit weary. "I walked with them. I rode alongside them. I think I died with them a couple of times. But I was never one of them. I was a kid with ideas. I was told how smart I was until I did something stupid and cost another man his life, trying to look even smarter." Naomi looked down, then at Wesley. "Maybe the adults around you forgot to let you be a kid. Wasn't Tom's cousin your squad leader?" Harry added in. "Yeah. He's had some choice words to say about Nick Locarno." Wesley shrugged. "I'd probably agree with those words. But in the end, he only spoke. I listened. The only thing I really resent him for is reapplying to the Academy when his absolute ban was lifted. He made a point of snubbing Cadet Hajar, the only other member of our squad left at that point. I later learned Nick tends to leave people behind." Naomi said one last thing before getting up. "You were a kid. Maybe a talented one, but you were still a kid. They tell us not to act like adults until they need something for themselves. Maybe they should have just let you be a talented kid, so that when you had to hang around with them at the Academy, you didn't know how to handle it." Crusher grinned. "Tell me. Do you defuse exploding warp cores, too?" The little girl grinned back. "Nah. Mainly, I just talk too much." Feeling a lot better, she went back to her quarters. Harry nodded at their guest. "Don't tell me you're no miracle-maker, Lieutenant. That was great. But pardon me for saying, you do seem down on yourself." "Harry, its Wesley. And you're right. I guess you could say I'm in mourning." Kim winced. "Who died?" He waved a hand in the air. "Nobody that I can verify. See, a while back, I got pulled away from this reality by a very powerful being. In the course of trying to get home, I met this couple. The guy was me, if I were a lot better at being me. The girl was the kind that if I thought I had a chance, I'dve jumped at it in a heartbeat. They became my best friends. We parted ways, and then they contacted me. They needed their reality, under siege from a nearly satanic power, to be sealed off so it couldn't escape if they failed. I offered to stay and help them more, but they kicked me out. At first I hated them for protecting me. But I realize now, I'm never going to see my friends again. And that kills me inside." Harry gulped a little. "I've heard of situations like that." After he left, Crusher approached Neelix. "I heard you make pancakes. Could I maybe get a stack?" The Talaxian did as he was asked, but asked a question of their visitor. "Tell me, Wesley--just how are you going to break it to them?" Crusher maintained an awkward silence, but did not correct Neelix's implication. An old con artist simply knew. On the Bridge a short time later, Crusher kept to what Jean-Luc Picard had reminded him was the first duty. "I can't get you back. Any of you. I can't transport Voyager. If you get back, it will be as one ship, together. With no help from me." Janeway shook her head. "Wesley, Reg Barclay told us that a Traveller's method of stepping around time once brought the Enterprise-D back from a bizarre galaxy. Voyager is nowhere near the size of a Galaxy-class." Crusher shook his head. "Captain, its not about mass or size or anything physical. Its all of you. Because of all the temporal anomalies you've encountered--and will encounter--basically, none of you are the people you left as. Lieutenant Torres body looks, from a temporal standpoint, like someone split it in two." The Viidians, thought Be'lanna. The surgeon, she realized, must have used chronitons to rapidly mature her separated halves. Crusher continued. "You and Commander Chakotay bear chrono-rad traces I can't even identify, like you were both at ground zero for an anti-time correction." The senior officers took his word on that. "Mister Paris must have residual from his warp 10 trip. His chronal DNA is all over the map. Harry and Naomi aren't even from this reality, and Harry also shows traces of an alt-past timeline. The Doctor's emitter is 29th Century tech. Seven Of Nine reads like she's been chronally resurrected five or more times. There's nothing here for me to lock onto. Reg overstated, in his enthusiasm. Believe me, he's tried everything. He even contacted the Stephenses. But apparently the Caretaker's Array used energies not unlike their magic." As the crew sat in stunned silence, Janeway shook her visitor's hand. "Well, it was a good try, Mister Crusher. Thank You." Wes nodded, then pulled out a PADD. "Some mutual friends of ours asked me to pass this correspondence on. Again, I'm sorry I couldn't help. Now I have to get back before Voyager's time field keeps me here. After all, we wouldn't want to subject you to that, would we?" The officer's self-deprecation was appreciated, but after he truly vanished, Janeway got up. "This holiday just keeps getting better and better. I'll be on the holodeck." ---------------------------------------------- Tuvok finished his treatment in Sickbay. He nodded at the EMH. "You have my thanks, Doctor. I had not foreseen the possibility of this episode, else I would have prepared for it through meditation." The Security Chief had come in, shaking and stuttering. It nearly had the Doctor ready to tell Captain Janeway the harsh truth about Tuvok's long-term illness. "Commander, were you perhaps --pardon my terminology-- upset that Wesley Crusher's method of travel could not bring us back to the Alpha Quadrant?" Tuvok looked away. "It was far more than that, Doctor. As I saw the young man materialize in front of us, I became lost. I entered another place. In it, I sat silently at dinner with my family. My wife was next to me. There were no strange emotions to filter out. No need to set the thermostat in my quarters, for I was on warm, dry Vulcan. When I realized Lieutenant Crusher was incapable of instantly ending our journey, I felt ripped away from all I knew, and incapable of consistent, coherent actions." The EMH nodded. "I really wish those sensations were restricted to you, Tuvok. I myself had made more plans than I can count. I finally understand what all of you went through when that omnivorous leviathan cast his telepathic illusions. For what its worth, I don't think this came directly from your illness." The Vulcan looked at him plaintively. "Have you detected contagion or alien influence?" "No. But I have discovered that we are one and all a group of people a long way from home, and whether through a particular day of the year or a particular young man, we expected far too much and paid the price." Tuvok closed his eyes. "Is hope more than a mere emotion, Doctor? Is it in fact a vital necessity? Is that why so many of our friends gambled and lost that the 25th of December contained joy, in and of itself?" The Doctor kept silent on this question. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Icheb was a bit thrown off. "I found his knowledge of temporal mechanics to be quite comprehensive." Seven continued checking the new astrometrics data collation program as she responded. "I do not criticize his knowledge. I criticize his lack of effort. Crusher made no attempt to bring us home. He merely showed up, talked, ate and left. On that basis, Mister Neelix should be commisioned as a Commander." Icheb looked confused. "But in fact he did. Wesley Crusher attempted to transport me to the Jupiter Station the Doctor visited. He theorized that since I had not dwelled on Voyager quite as long as many here have, I would provide a blueprint as to how the rest of us might attain transit." Seven wondered why the visitor had not spoken of this. "What sort of relative success did he achieve?" Icheb called up a study onscreen. "My integral temporal field is now inextricably linked with that of Voyager. We could not even go back to when I was linked with the collective. On our fifth attempt, Wesley Crusher seemed faint, and I refused to allow another attempt." To the once and future Annika Hansen, this information about Crusher made no more sense than him not trying at all. Why would he put himself into such dire straits for strangers, then earn their wrath by not making his efforts known? Now more than ever, she regretted avoiding the holiday many had chosen to celebrate. It could have explained much. "You were wise to do so." ------------------------------------------------- Harry looked at his two best friends. "I'd still prefer that you don't help me be any more awkward than I already am. But ultimately, I'd rather be an idiot ensign with you two than a hero without you. The rest of that stuff I said we can bring up later. I don't even know what to apologize for, and what to defend. Just don't pull rank when we do, okay?" Be'lanna shrugged. "I never knew it all got to you like that. Then again, I have this tendency to focus on me." Tom shook his head. "Harry, you always seemed like you were better suited to this place than either of us. Also, I guess seeing you get all that bad luck reminded me how easily it could have been me. That makes me nervous, and you may have noticed I that I tend to cover my insecurities by joking. You may be the butt of some jokes--but you're not a joke yourself. Don't ever go there, pal." Be'lanna nodded. "Ever. There's nobody here on this ship who can stand there and call themselves free from stumbling. I probably have one or two more ridge-induced psychotic episodes coming. Maybe even some from the dependable genes of the Torres clan. You'll get your revenge, trust me." As happy as Harry was when he left, the pair that then fell together in bed was even happier. Tom kissed her face all over. "I thought that he'd never leave." She grabbed and kissed him back. "This isn't going to solve our argument, you know." He began to undo her clothes. "Its still a terrific way to work out the associated tension. Talk later. Action now." She began to undo his. "Hey, I've kind of lost track of my birth control. Yours?" "Hey, not to worry. Species barrier, remember? Did you not tell me that your folks were years in trying to have kids? And I've heard the same story about Emissary Keh'lyr and Ambassador Spock. We have room, and I am not stopping when we are this worked up!" She readied herself. "Here's to the species barrier!" It was only in the afterglow, and when an exhausted Tom had fallen asleep, that Be'lanna had a stray thought before joining him in slumber. "Wait. Does the species barrier apply to hybrids?" The answer came months later and was named Miral Paris, born between two quadrants, the happy result of a lousy Christmas. ------------------------------------------------- Samantha said what was on her mind. "I thought we agreed that you wanted to be exposed to all the faiths our families have to offer." Naomi didn't yell, but very firmly shook her head. "No. You agreed. I asked if I couldn't just look them all over. While I was waiting for your answer, you set me up for virtual lessons time. Since then, I've been spending more time on the holodeck than Captain Janeway." Samantha turned, and then turned back, shaking her finger. "Okay. Maybe all this isn't your favorite activity. But I am your mother, and this is for your own good." Naomi sat down. "How? What am I gaining? All I'm seeing is you asking me why I'm not in lessons, doing homework based on those lessons, then getting upset on holidays, and it seems like every single day is someone's holiday." "Well, it is. The calendar is replete with holidays. We try to respect all cultures. We try to teach that to our children." Naomi pulled up her lessons onscreen. "Most of these faiths you don't even celebrate. You or Father. So why do I have to learn them? Why do I have to spend so much free time doing the lessons, Neelix almost didn't recognize me?" Samantha shrugged. "To give you options!" Wildman caught herself, and put a hand to her head. "God, how that sounded. Naomi, I made a promise to your father. But for now, how I carry that out is all my choice. So what do you think would be fair?" Perhaps Naomi really did have something on the ball, for her answer was not the simple one Samantha thought would come. "Two months with no new lessons. Let me digest what I have. Except for really big days like Christmas or Xanegji, no dressing-up. When the new lessons start, only Yeshuite Christianity and Ktar-lare Reformed. That covers both families." Samantha would alter those terms later, but for the most part they were kept as stated. "Anything else?" "Yeah. Mom, don't be so fair to other beliefs that you lose yours and Father's in the process. They're all great. But if you believe one thing, then somebody else is gonna find it offensive. In that case, you just believe and deal with it. I mean, I wouldn't let those jerk-alien kids talk down Neelix, just to be polite." Samantha tried to reassert herself. "Honey, all faiths have validity. As do all points of view." Naomi punched a few buttons on her terminal. "No, they don't. What about people who killed doctors on Earth for doing things they didn't want to happen? What about the Terror War? The faiths have validity, but the points of view didn't." "Naomi, you can't think that way. Your father respects my faith, and I respect his. We both respect all facets of those faiths." The girl smiled. "Gotcha!" Wildman shrugged. "What gotcha?" Another picture was pulled up onscreen. It was that of a Ktarian woman. "Who's she?" Naomi pointed. "That's Father's cousin Etana Jol. She and the Ktara-Nol cult wanted to take over the Federation, starting with the Enterprise. Wesley and his girlfriend stopped them. The Ktara-Nol all believe that Ktarians should rule just about everything-and that people like me just shouldn't exist." Samantha grabbed and held close the daughter who indeed was too smart to easily handle. "You're not always right. Mommy's not perfect. But you have validity. And you have lent that validity to all those who love you. Especially one tired ensign." ------------------------------------------------- To his surprise, Chakotay did not find the Captain on the holodeck. Rather, she was in her quarters, which he buzzed. "Come." He entered, and saw her reading the correspondence PADD Crusher had given her. "Kathryn? Do I still have your confidence to serve as First Officer? The nature of some of our words yesterday force me to ask this." She looked up. "You were right. You gave me this ship. I forgot how much my first command weighed upon me. If you had raised any sort of ruckus, I could not have handled that, let alone mutiny." Rather than return the compliment, Chakotay merely nodded in appreciation, and asked about her statement. "Is this because you're upset Lieutenant Crusher couldn't bring us home?" She shook her head. "I am a little upset with Reg for overselling this. But it was something Crusher said that sticks with me." "The time-field contamination? We should have almost have expected that. Braxton and his bunch warned about that kind of thing." "No, Commander. Its when he said that we're not the people we left as. He meant it to describe our trans-temporal portability. But its literal truth, isn't it? We're not who we left as. We're not even close." Chakotay shrugged. "To which I reply, good. If we hadn't been here, Be'lanna and I might well have died when the Dominion annihilated the Maquis. Tom would be a beach-bum. A lot of you would have also died in the war. I'm sorry for the dead. I mourn them, one and all. But I won't apologize for living." Janeway sighed. "Face it, I've become a dictator and you're held by some as a revolutionary sell-out. We've tried. But every time a chance for home comes by, we get preachy, we get frenetic, we get angry, we get bothered. What we don't get is home." Chakotay nodded. "Some historians say that the Americas before the European colonists came were filled with savages scraping by in horrible places. Others say they were a cluster of paradise-like dwelling areas filed with blissful tribes living in communion with the Earth. I finally asked my grandfather what the Americas were before the Europeans." She seemed half-interested. "What did he say it was?" Chakotay smiled. "Ours. It wasn't all great anymore than it was all bad. But it was ours, and so were our destinies. Kathryn, this ship is ours, and so is this journey. Ours to be brilliant or insipid with, exclusively at our whim. No one else's." She smiled at last. "That really is quite good." He nodded. "Now if I could just figure out how Christmas got ruined, I'd be a regular shaman." Captain Janeway put the PADD away. She would tell her people who it was from another day. "Well, I have that one. A writer may not sit down and say 'Today I will be brilliant'. A living being may not sit down and say, 'Today I will be joyous'. A day and a festive time of year can help. But to expect it as a given? That dishonors us as well as the holiday. Well, no more. Hopefully, next Christmas will be better. But we owe it. Not the other way around." "Kathryn? The letter Crusher gave you?" "Not now, Commander. Through little gestures and big, we have a ship to heal." Chakotay nodded. "Our ship. Commanded by the tyrant and the wimp." Janeway mock-frowned. "Call yourself that again, Mister, and I'll see you in the brig!" ------------------------------------------------- FIVE DAYS LATER Naomi hugged Neelix, and so did Samantha. He understood better than some might have thought. Tom and Be'lanna looked tired, but very contented. Harry was with a date, and while it didn't end in wedded bliss, nor did it end with his drugged kidnapping, so he enjoyed himself. Tuvok spoke with his crewmates, and at least tried to be a part of a celebration of renewal. Seven did as the Doctor had bid her, and kept silent on the illogic of holding one cycle above another. The Doctor felt out of sorts, but his reason for this was no more pronounced than usual. Finally, the Captain raised a glass. "Forgetting for the moment about taking one calendar over another, I say the following words. Here's to the New Year. May she be a damned sight better than the old one, and may we be home again before its done." A very ecumenical Amen traveled the room as midnight struck. And even though the terms of Kathryn's toast were indeed met, those that celebrated the day decided that next Christmas should be a 'small' one. Some rules knew no quadrant. THE END --- Title : The Giving Author : Rob Morris Contact : gogojirob@aol.comendspam (Take the first go off, then the obvious) Archive : www.southroad.com/brightfame Series : VOY AU : No Type : AQ Homefront, X-Mas Short Characters : Mark Relationships : M/J Time-Setting : December, 2375 Follows ep : Message In A Bottle Part : 1/1 Rating : G Summary : True love doesn't always require the truth.... ---- The Giving by Rob Morris The news was good. Though an incredible distance away, Kathryn was alive. The lonely hours and holding out hope against hope had all paid off. But Mark knew her. Knew her fidelity. Knew she would hold on 75 years, if she or anyone could. He couldn't bear the thought of her with another. He couldn't live, though, knowing she was alone. He had to tell her it was alright, except that she would never accept that. The only break in vows that Kathryn Janeway would ever accept would be the one that gave her no choice at all. Mark then knew the lie he had to write, even as the holiday went on around him. "Dear Kathryn. I think you'd like her...." NewMessage: