Chapter Text
Rendezvous in Sector 21503
By Christina and Rocky with jamelia
Prologue
Megan Delaney sipped a cup of whatever tea variety had been in the urn and stared at the plate of pasta, covered with an unknown purplish sauce, sitting in front of her.
"Do we know what it is?" B'Elanna asked, as she placed her own plate on the table and sat across from Megan.
"Cold leftovers. Neelix hasn't been able to open up the kitchen yet," Megan replied. "If we're lucky, we'll run out of leftovers soon and have to eat ration bars."
B'Elanna chuckled as she took a tentative mouthful. "This isn't that bad. At least it doesn't have leola root in it."
"True," Megan responded. "No leola root is always a plus. It's just that most of Neelix's cooking is better warm--and it doesn't improve on repetition. Don't you agree?"
"An excellent observation, Ensign Delaney," B'Elanna agreed with a laugh.
"So, have you been able to get any rest since our exit from slipstream? I know Commander Tuvok claims to be able to go two weeks without sleeping in an emergency. I never heard that was true of Klingons!"
"I did. I cuddled up with Miral for a few hours," B'Elanna replied. "Have you encountered any more problems with your systems while I was off duty?"
Megan shook her head. "No, unless you count another power fluctuation in Astrometrics. That's still happening occasionally, but it's no worse than it was after a regular length jump. Using those power storage modules was a great idea. It's too bad we didn't think of them before!"
B'Elanna sighed. "By this time, fluctuations like that shouldn't be happening. We've been out of the slipstream for over 24 hours. The primary systems should all be working well by now. I'll check into it right away." She started to rise.
Megan held up a hand. "Hold on. Joe came by and took care of it already. The secondary screens and more exotic Borg-type monitoring systems aren't up yet, but we should be fine for the time being. Your team took care of all the priorities, B'Elanna. Joe told me the ship can make it up to warp three if we have to, shields and weapons are all at fifty percent or greater strength, and I was able to confirm that we came out of the slipstream exactly where--and when--we wanted to be. Even with that little swing to keep us a farther away from Romulan space, we're less than fourteen hundred light years away from home now."
"I made sure of all that before I let Tom put me to bed," B'Elanna said, lifting another forkful of food up to her mouth. "Wait. That didn't come out right."
Megan giggled. "It doesn't matter how he got you into bed--or what you did there! The important thing is, we're almost home. While you were asleep, we were able to get the FTL transmission system up briefly, and the captain heard from Admiral Hayes. He gave us coordinates for our last jump! We'll be exiting the corridor just a short distance from Deep Space Nine. He told the captain he plans to order the Enterprise to escort us from there! The flagship of the fleet!"
"Very nice," B'Elanna said, when she'd finished chewing. "So FTL isn't working now?"
"No, but Harry says he's going to make getting it back up a priority." Megan took the last sip of her tea and leaned back in her chair. "Have you thought about what you'll do when we return home?"
B'Elanna glanced at Megan in confusion at the sudden change in subject. "Some," she said slowly. "I heard through my cousin that Utopia Planitia might be interested in me. I suppose they'll want me to explain all the Borg and other alien tech we've added to the ship." She took another forkful of pasta and chewed carefully. "What about you?"
"I haven't decided yet what I want to do. Jenny's determined to go to command school."
"Good for her." B'Elanna glanced around the full Mess Hall. "Starfleet has said remarkably little about the Maquis. I guess I'm just hoping we're just not tossed in jail."
"You'd think they'd have said something...anything by now," Megan agreed.
"Yes." B'Elanna raised her head. "By the way, you still have some stuff stored on Deck Eleven. You planning on packing it up anytime soon?"
"Soon," Megan said sheepishly. "I have no idea where I'm going to put it when I get home. I suppose I should go through it and throw out most of it." Megan seriously doubted she'd throw that much away, in all honesty. It was all stuff she had collected over their eight years in the Delta Quadrant. "What about you? As I recall, one of those storage lockers belongs to your family. How much has Tom bought for Miral?"
"Too much. Between Tom and the rest of the crew, we have accumulated more things than can fit comfortably in our quarters. I believe you and Jenny are among the guilty who have contributed to the clutter," she added accusingly, softened by a grin.
Megan smiled. "Hey...it was all for Miral."
B'Elanna smiled softly, almost to herself at first. "You know what Miral did yesterday, just before we..."
Whatever B'Elanna was about to say was lost in the din when everyone in the Mess Hall started clapping and whistling as Harry Kim walked through the doors. His good buddy Tom Paris followed close behind, gesturing with his arms as if he was presenting royalty to the peasantry. B'Elanna shook her head and chuckled to herself as Harry bowed to acknowledge the cheers from the crowd, but B'Elanna could see that her friend was clearly moved by the acclaim from his peers. In fact, he was blushing.
"B'Elanna, I think Harry has tears of joy in his eyes!" Megan said.
"I wouldn't be surprised. No one on this ship wants to get home more desperately than Harry Kim. You know that, Megan."
There was more. When the cheers threatened to die away, Tom, ever the showman, announced, "All hail, Harry Kim! He's done such a bang-up job with this jump, Captain Janeway has named him as coordinator of the next jump, too. The last jump. The one that will take us home!"
Megan and B'Elanna clapped and cheered along with the rest of the Mess Hall occupants. When B'Elanna stole a glance at her companion, she could see Harry wasn't the only one affected by this announcement. Tears were running down Megan's cheeks, and B'Elanna felt a little misty-eyed herself. The future might be uncertain for her and many of her crew mates, but getting home--finally--still sounded pretty good to B'Elanna Torres.