The stars once again dazzled beyond the windows in the cold vaccum of space, Voyager delivered to her rightful owners from the hands of the scheming Kazon, led by a vengeful woman who had not lived to be vengeful again. The hum and thrum of the hull welcomed its occupants back as old friends from a short absence; some swore the ship purred to be in safe company once again.
B’Elanna was already hard at work in the Engineering section, seeking to piece back together the mess that the Kazon had made trying to fix what wasn’t broken in the ship’s computer. Ironically enough, most of the damage had not been caused by the Kazon but by Voyager’s own crewmembers in an attempt to retake their ship. While the original attacks had brought on downed secondary systems, it had been Suder’s setting of the overload, with Sara’s assistance and under Tom Paris’s orders, that had caused the most damage. The bridge still reeked from the blown consoles.
The EMH had been restored before returning to Hanan IV; Tom Paris’s first orders to Sara had been to fix that problem, and she had – long enough for him to see to those left behind in the retreat. There was little he could do beyond making the official pronouncement that they were, indeed, dead – but it was a requirement of the Chief Medical Officer to do so.
It was the way of life, that some made it through, and some didn’t. Somehow Sara found that fact even easier to accept, and though she shed tears for Suder they were not tears of sadness but pity. She shared with Tuvok the hope that he had finally, in some way, found the peace that life had so long denied. For Seska, she shed none, though it was hard to watch Chakotay bidding his final, silent farewell to a woman that had betrayed him more than once. He, too, shared in nothing more than regret, and pity as well. Sara felt more from him for Seska than she had from any other member of the crew, except for a fond twist of ‘good riddance’.
She stood before the Captain of Voyager now, the good Starfleet through-and-through woman that was so unwilling to compromise her principles for anything, the woman that had granted Sara more chances than she had ever hoped ot see in her lifetime, and answered her questions thoroughly, confirming what was written on the padd in front of her commanding officer.
“Was it Mr. Suder, or yourself, that carried out the instructions of setting the backup phaser couplings to overload?”
“It was Mr. Suder,” Sara answered promptly, aloud, carrying on the illusion as she did for most of her days that she could not in fact sense what her Captain would ask before it was actually spoken. “Tom Paris piggybacked a signal to the doctor on a Kazon frequency. The message was in turn relayed to us.”
“I see…and you had no part in any of it whatsoever?”
“I shot a Kazon,” Sara answered honestly, no pride in her statement. “Mr. Suder was fired upon after setting the overload sequence, though he had not actually initiated it. A Kazon rose up and shot him in the back, and I shot the Kazon. Mr. Suder managed to hit the button before he died.”
“And then what did you do?” Kathryn Janeway leaned back in her chair, thoughtfully.
“I went back into the Jeffries tubes and made my way to the bridge.”
“Why did you go to the bridge? Was there some…significance in your actions?”
“No, Captain. I didn’t want to go back to sickbay, as Seska had already deactivated the doctor. Suder was dead…there was no where else to go, really, and nothing to do except wait. I decided to do it in the last possible place they’d look – the hatchway leading from the bridge.”
“Did you see what happened?”
Sara swallowed. “The primary phaser couplings failed from Tom and the Talaxian’s attacks. When they tried to switch to backup, those overloaded, just as Tom had planned. Several consoles exploded.”
The Captain’s voice grew softer. “Is that how Seska died?”
“She…” Sara swallowed again. “She didn’t die instantly. It’s what killed her, yes, but not right away. She was knocked unconscious for a few moments, then stumbled into this room, where she…expired.”
“And the baby?”
“Cullah took him, upon giving the order to abandon ship. Tom and the crews from Talaxian ships had already started to beam aboard; they went away relatively unscathed from it all.”
Janeway leaned forward again. “I’ve read the doctor’s report,” she said unnecessarily, since Sara already knew she had. “It seems that the baby did in fact belong to him.”
“Yes…the doctor informed me as soon as he had entered it into the official logs.”
“How was it that you weren’t detected by the Kazon?” Janeway asked curiously.
“The doctor deleted our comm badge histories using a medical emergency code. We could still use them…they just weren’t noticeable if the Kazon tried to find any intruders.” Sara was actually surprised at the question, wondering why the doctor hadn’t included that juicy detail in his own reports.
“How did you manage to avoid…” she bit her tongue. Sara smiled a lopsided, flickering smile, one with traces of amusement.
“Actually, we used a portable thoron generator to scramble the tricorder’s life signs. I knew when they were coming, but I can’t exactly fool a tricorder.” The smile didn’t exactly fade, though it wasn’t prominent.
“Of course,” Janeway returned the smile somewhat, disappointed to see it actually fade before her eyes. She tapped the padd on the desk. “Do you have anything else to add?”
“No, Captain.” Sara shook her head.
Janeway held her clear azure eyes for a moment longer before slapping her console into activity, something she had done immediately upon her return, though she did so with Tuvok in the room and a phaser pointed at it, making sure nothing would cause an instantaneous explosion. “I don’t suppose there’s any point in telling you what you already know, but I’ll say it anyways. I’m entering into your record a citation for bravery, for survival among the harsh conditions and aiding in the re-taking of Voyager from enemy hands.”
“If you’re going to do that for me,” Sara was quiet, “then every member of this crew on that planet deserves more. I certainly don’t.”
She made the statement quietly, matter-of-factness in her tones that suggested humility, though she did not mean it to come out that way. Nevertheless Janeway looked sharply at her. “You most certainly do deserve it. If it weren’t for you and Mr. Suder, Tom and the doctor, we’d still be stuck on Hanan IV without any hope of escape.”
“Tom and Mr. Suder deserve the credit,” Sara insisted. “I didn’t do anything – I repaired the doctor after Seska blew out his circuitry and caused him to go offline…”
“You did more than that, Sara, and you and I both know that.” Janeway stood, and coming around the front of her desk, grasped Sara’s palm gently, dropping something into it. “I was going to give you this next week. But in light of what’s happened…I don’t see any reason to hold it back.”
Sara looked down in her palm, her eyes widening as she realized she held an officer’s bar, the provisional ones worn by the Maquis since being commissioned. Turning it over, running her palm along the smooth surface, she could not believe what she was actually seeing.
The rank of Ensign.
“Sara…” the Captain maintained her hold on Sara’s wrist. Disbelief etched across her features as she met her Captain’s eyes, azure meeting blue-gray, searching quietly throughout the mind inside the head as to whether or not this was some form of a joke, albeit a well-hidden one. Her intentions were sincere.
“Everything about you has been wonderful,” Janeway continued, softly. “Your work, your attention to detail, your studies…you’ve earned this, Sara.”
“I…thank you, Captain.” Sara was, for once, at a loss for words. “I…I guess I don’t know what to say.”
Janeway smiled. “You remind me of Tom Paris when I restored his rank,” she impulsively reached out and wrapped an arm around Sara’s shoulders, pulling her into an embrace, one that the young girl returned. “We had some tough times when you first came on board. But you’ve come past them, at least the majority. While you still haven’t regained your memories yet, I’m confident that it’ll be all right when you do.”
It was a good thing, Sara considered, that it was she who was the telepath, and not the other way around. She would have sensed the quake her statement caused in the not-quite-sixteen-year-old’s heart.
Releasing the teenager she continued quietly. “Instructions have been sent to the replicator in your quarters. You’ll find something waiting there for you. I suggest you return there immediately.”
Sara didn’t have to ask twice what that ‘something’ was. If she spoke, she was afraid she’d choke around the lump in her throat. Nodding instead, she headed to the doors of the ready room.
“And…Ensign,” Captain Janeway’s voice stopped her once more. “Next time you appear on my bridge, I expect you to be properly dressed.”
“Aye Captain.” She smiled the biggest smile since coming on board the Intrepid-class starship.
