Sara stood almost at the edge of the shadow that Voyager cast over the ground, staring around her at the sunny blue skies, the grasses waving in the breeze, the craggy, shallow cliffs that loomed in the distance, dusty earth swirled about by eddies and currents of Voyager’s mere presence.
It had been so long since she had seen something of this nature that she had almost forgotten.
She had not been allowed shore leave on Sikaris, back in the very beginning of the adventure, instead using the time to perform the overhauls requested of her by B’Elanna. And Seska’s whole mess had prevented their return, of course. With the situation on the Banean planet, no one had dared beam down even after Tom Paris had been cleared of the awful charges placed before him. And she had not been selected nor bothered to volunteer for any away missions, fearing with the various species in the area that she would be the first target.
“Pretty, isn’t it.” A voice came from behind her.
She spun to face Amelia Earhart, short and dusty, standing alongside her navigator. What was his name again…Noonan. That was it. She nodded showing no surprise at the intrusion, looking upwards at the puffy white clouds drifting through the sky that was only a shade lighter than her eyes. They came closer.
“My god, Frank,” Earhart’s eyes widened, a smile spreading over her features as she stared at Sara. “She’s beautiful. Look at her.”
“I’m looking, Amelia,” he answered her. Sara looked from pilot to navigator, at their jubilant eyes, feeling their happiness, and wondered just what the hell was going on.
“I think we’re scarin’ her,” Noonan continued. Earhart lost no time in covering the rest of the distance to the young girl, and knelt down to get a better look.
“Oh Frank she’s not scared. Look at her eyes,” the pilot of the past motioned, cupping Sara’s cheek. She grasped Sara’s hands warmly and fawned attention over her. “Isn’t she just the cutest thing you’ve ever seen? Look at those blue eyes.”
Sara had been described as many things in her life.
“She’s sure a quiet one. Cat got your tongue?” Noonan asked, a smile on his face.
“I – I – No,” Sara finally managed, looking down at Earhart, who held her hands firmly but gently within her own.
“How old are you?” Earhart asked.
“Fifteen,” Sara answered promptly.
“You’re small for fifteen,” she commented. “Are your parents here? On the ship with you?”
“No.”
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know.” It was the truth. “Back where we came from I suppose. But I think they’re dead.”
There was silence while they exchanged a look. Being a telepath rarely made things easier. It was almost good to know that that was the way it would be now as well.
“Frank and I want to ask you something,” Sara kept silent, letting Earhart say her piece. “We’ve all decided to stay here, on the planet. And we were wondering…would you like to come and stay with us?”
Calmly, Sara blinked at her. “You don’t want someone like me.”
Earhart looked worried. “What do you mean, someone like you?”
Sara sighed. The time for lies would have to be over soon anyway. “I can read your mind.”
“What…you mean, like ESP?” Noonan smiled as though she’d said the silliest thing.
“Yes, and that’s not all.” Sara looked around, and then lifted a small rock the size of a human fist from its sanctuary on the hillside. She floated it to Earhart and hovered it in mid-air by the woman’s head before dropping it to the ground. Noonan’s eyes popped.
“That’s…that’s the creepiest thing I ever saw.” He almost backed away, but Earhart motioned to him to keep quiet.
“Is this something that everyone can do, or just you?” she asked.
“Just me,” Sara said, somewhat bitterly.
“If you can tell what we’re thinkin’, why don’t you chime in?” Noonan asked suspiciously.
“Because it’s rude,” she told him simply, shrugging.
“Something tells me not everyone likes this little talent of yours,” the pilot touched Sara’s nose with the tip of her finger, smiling.
“No one does.” She muttered.
“Seems to me, they’d want you around more because of it,” Earhart was thoughtful now.
Sara said nothing.
“Did you go to the cities?” Noonan asked gently.
Sara stared at them. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Because…they needed people here.” She mumbled.
“They have some wonderful schools. There’s kids there, children, people you could play with. We’d take good care of you, really we would. We’d like you to come and live with us. What do you say?”
The full weight of what they were asking hit her faster and harder than she had expected it would. She shielded her eyes and took deep breaths of the fresh air, carrying the scent of dirt and flowers and grass, felt the warmth of the sun on her gray uniform and shoulders, and stretched her hand out to feel the wind against her fingers with the wonder of a child.
“Pardon me for asking,” she finally said to the two people from the past carefully, “but you’ve only just made the decision to stay here yourselves. You’ll need time to adjust to everything that’s happened. What would you be wanting me for?”
“Well…why not?” Amelia shrugged. “You’re smart, you’re cute…in fact, you’re absolutely beautiful. And what you said you could do…reading our minds…it only makes you more special to us.
“I know what it means to be different, trust me.” Earhart assured her. “When you do what I did, or what I set out to do…you have to accept being different.”
They…they understood, Sara realized, the shock widening her eyes. They understood, and they accepted her.
Tears filled her eyes. The past few months hadn’t been easy on anyone, and they’d been especially hard on her if she chose to admit it to anyone, which she didn’t. She looked at her small hands, encased in the larger, calloused ones of the pilot, and fought the urge to sniffle.
“Oh Frank, she’s crying,” Earhart was sad as she took Sara into an embrace. “We didn’t mean to upset you, honey.”
Sara truly cried for the first time in a very long time, leaning on the woman. Hot tears streaked down her cheeks, and sobs wrenched through her small body. Noonan reached out and awkwardly stroked her hair, looking uncomfortable but sympathetic nonetheless.
She hadn’t felt loved in so long she’d almost forgotten what it did feel like.
Almost.
“Shhh…” Earhart crooned to the small girl. “It’s all right sweetheart. It’s all right…”
“No…you don’t understand,” Sara couldn’t stop the tears that coursed her cheeks as she looked at them. “No one’s ever really…wanted me…before. Not that I can remember…”
“You poor thing,” Amelia caressed Sara’s wet cheeks, reached up and took down the crown of braids that wound around her head, cradling the back of her neck and pulling her to her chest. “It’s ok. Honest it is, sweetheart. Honest…the doctor told us you couldn’t remember what happened to you. I’m so sorry. To have to live with something like this…”
It subsided after 10 minutes, the wracking grief that encased her heart at everything she felt finally cracking her resolve, Sara drawing back and wiping wet cheeks. Noonan took his own handkerchief from his pocket and held her around the shoulders securely, finishing the job for her.
“You’re very kind,” the teenager told them, after she was able to speak and had stopped hiccuping and gasping for every indrawn breath to her lungs. She wiped her eyes again. “But Voyager is my home,” she said.
“And you don’t want to stay here?” There was hope in her eyes, Sara noted. Hope that she might change her mind.
Sara looked around at it all: the mountains, the grass, the trees. In the distance she could see the city lights and towers that she had been told about, heard descriptions by listening to others.
“You are kind to offer. Please don’t think that I think otherwise. But I’ve had no one really, not since I was 13. I don’t remember anything before that. I should, I know I should. The doctor even says I should. But somehow, for some reason, I don’t.
“I had to start over then…and I’m tired of starting over. I don’t know how many times I have left to do it in my life. But I know that if I’m given the choice, honestly, I won’t. I…can’t.”
Sadly, tearfully herself, Amelia leaned down once more to the girl that seemed so childlike and yet so brave before her. “It’s all right, sweetheart. We understand. We just wanted you to know…that if you wanted to stay…we’d want you.”
They didn’t understand, not really…and it would have taken her longer than the time she had to explain it to them. Sara almost cried again. Lone tears streaked her cheeks, which she wiped at, smiling through them. A real smile, one of appreciation and happiness, not the half-flickering shadows that usually chased across her face. Amelia stroked her face affectionately, smiling maternally, and Noonan rubbed her back with the caress of a father doing so to his child.
“I’d better be getting back. Voyager’s set to leave soon,” Sara gulped, looking for the last time at the two people she’d never known until the day before, and yet wanted her with them more than those she’d known for years.
“Okay,” Earhart didn’t let go of her. “God you’re so cute. You make me wish I’d had kids sooner.”
“I’ll miss you,” Sara said honestly.
“We’ll miss you too, honey,” Noonan squatted down. “You go on now. Don’t want the ship leavin’ without you.”
He said it with a smile on his face. Earhart reached to her jacket and took off her wings, the gold-tipped wings that had A. EARHART embossed underneath on a gold bar, and handed them to Sara. “Take these…to remember us by.”
“I – I can’t,” she tried to give them back, but Amelia wouldn’t hear of it.
“When you feel like no one cares,” she whispered to Sara, “you take these out, and remember that someone does.”
Sara bit her lip. She would not cry again. She hugged Earhart willingly, allowed the woman to clasp her tightly to her chest and drop a kiss on the top of her head. Turning she did the same to Noonan, though he was surprised at the gesture he returned it.
“Now go on,” he commanded her in a grumbly voice. Looking up she was surprised to see water gathering in his eyes.
She turned and walked away from the two, down the path, when she was a short distance away turning and waving, then running back for one more embrace.
“Go on, Sara,” Amelia commanded, gently but firmly, giving her one last squeeze.
Sara ran all the way to Voyager.
********************
When Captain Janeway stepped from the turbolift, Tuvok’s voice was the first to be heard.
“Captain on the bridge.”
Her eyes filtered over the crew standing in front of her, a stark contrast to the emptiness of the cargo bay minutes before. Chakotay behind her, expectant as always. Harry Kim at Ops, a small smile on his face. Tom Paris at the helm wearing an expectant expression, awaiting her orders for a course away from the planet. Tuvok’s impassive demeanor greeted her from the tactical station, dark hands resting on the edge. Along the back wall junior officers, their uniforms impeccable, acknowledged her presence with nothing more than respect in their eyes, admiration on their faces. B’Elanna stood at the Engineering console, arms crossed over her chest, a normal posture that Kathryn Janeway had come to recognize. She looked down beside her where a young Acting Ensign stood calmly, arms behind her back, a flickering smile spreading and changing her features before they molded back to the usual blank state, azure-blue eyes staring at her Captain, dazzling in themselves under the lights of the bridge and against the gray of her adopted uniform.
She knew of Earhart's offer to adopt the girl. She knew that she and Noonan had been taken with her the first time they saw her emerge sweaty and grubby from a jefferies tube. She had not mentioned it to Chakotay, not wanting nor needing to see his reaction. Despite how the girl had been treated, her choice had apparently been made.
An inward sigh of relief, and a course was ordered.
People turned to their stations and duties, the silence of the bridge replaced by the normal hum and activity of everyday work. Voyager lifted from the planet, the swirls of dust darkening the air, the metallic-gray obelisk of the saucer disappearing through the clouds, the scenery of planetside giving way to darkness of space and mass of stars on the viewscreen.
