=/\=

Natalie woke the next morning to the sound of pounding on the hotel room door. Her mother was already up and dressed and quickly answered it. Natalie rolled over onto her side, her back facing the door, so whoever it was wouldn't see what a mess she looked.

"Good morning, Admiral," Natalie heard her mother greet.

"Good morning, Kathryn," a gruff male voice replied. "Sleep well?"

"Oh, just fine," Janeway replied pleasantly. "We didn't get to sleep until late, like most people, I'm sure. But the beds were comfortable." Janeway offered the admiral a seat at the oak wood table near the window. Natalie rolled over again, so she wouldn't be tempted to open her eyes and be spotted.

"Is your husband in?" the admiral inquired. Natalie still couldn't recognize the voice.

"Chakotay went to get some breakfast," Janeway replied. "He'll be back soon."

"I see the young one is still asleep," the admiral observed.

Natalie heard Janeway chuckle. "Oh, she could sleep through a warp core overload." Natalie smiled to herself. Natalie heard the door unlock and footsteps come in. She tried to look as asleep-like as possible, but she was getting a little restless. She hoped one of her parents would try waking her up soon.

Natalie was in luck. She could feel her father bend over her and gently shake her shoulder.

"Baby Jane, wake up," Chakotay whispered. Natalie's eyes fluttered.

"What time is it?" she moaned.

"Hey Admiral," she groaned, swinging her feet over the bed and stumbling to the bathroom.

"Good morning, Natalie," he greeted. The next ten minutes of conversation were oblivious to Natalie as she showered and dressed. When she came out of the bathroom, she was her regular awake self, though she still felt very tired from only have seven hours of sleep.

"Isn't it a bit early to be up?" she asked. "It's only 9:30 in the morning. We had to have gone to bed at, like, one in the morning."

Admiral Paris nodded. "Yes, but we have a busy day today. Lot's of meetings today and we have a lunch with the Federation News Service and a dinner with the Federation Council."

"Wow," Natalie said.

"Tomorrow," Janeway added, "we are having breakfast with the Vedek Assembly. Lunch is with ambassadors from the Klingon High Council. I believe dinner is with the leading professors from the Vulcan Science Academy". She was impressed. It seemed the Jim might have been wrong about the Alpha Quadrant forgetting them. It seemed like everyone wanted a piece of the Voyager action. Of course, with all the big names that were circling around Voyager, Natalie wondered what kind of reasons the Vedek Assembly or the professors from the Vulcan Science Academy had for coming all this way to meet them. Natalie was worried her life was going to turn into a huge celebrity game and she would spend her life living down the Voyager name.

=/\=

Lunch wasn't nearly as busy as Naomi had imagined. She entered the huge banquet hall with her mother, stepfather, and brother. The crew of Voyager dressed in their uniforms, so it would be easy to single them out. They had outdated uniforms, so they were easy to spot. Naomi thought there would have been at least fifty journalists there, but it ended up just being the editorial board and some selected journalists.

A banquet was set out with deli entrees and desserts. Seth made a beeline for the starting point. Noah Kim had just gotten in line, and they chatted about Earth.

"So what do you think?" Seth asked.

"It's pretty cool," Noah replied. "Grandma and Grandpa are so nice. They made our rooms personalized and Grandpa said they are ours whenever we want to come over. There are astronomy pictures all over and there's a music stand and a new, handmade clarinet too."

Seth's eyes went wide. "Wow. I don't think I'm getting anything like that."

"Yeah, it's pretty nice," Noah said.

Over on the other end of the room stood Emily. A young woman with the badge of a journalist approached her nervously. She introduced herself as Lee Reimer.

"Hi Lee," Emily replied, sticking out her hand for a handshake. Lee gripped it firmly.

"Hi."

"What can I do for you?" Emily asked.

"I just wanted to ask you some questions, if that's all right?" Lee said.

Emily smiled coyly. "I don't think I have much of a choice. They might throw me out if I don't cooperate." Lee could tell Emily was joking, so she tried to pretend she was comfortable and laughed along.

"I…I really wanted to talk with you specifically because of, um, your experiences, or, well, your relations with the Maquis," Lee said. Emily raised her eyebrows. This was the first time that anyone had asked her about the Maquis since they arrived on Earth.

"Yes? What about them?" Emily asked politely.

"Well, what was it like?" Lee asked. Emily furrowed her brow.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Lee paused for a moment to rethink her question. Her hands were shaking. Emily could see this was a very nervous and inexperienced journalist. It was probably one of her first stories to cover, and with the pressures of writing well on the Voyager topic, the stress must have been incredible.

"I…" Lee paused again. "My father is…was…Maquis." Emily raised her eyebrows again. "He died when I was four. I don't remember very much about him. But we learned about the Maquis in school. They always had a, uh, very nasty way of describing the Maquis. I was just, um, wondering how you dealt with being related to a Maquis. I mean, like, was it a big deal? Because, you know, it was for me."

Emily pondered this for a moment. She waited for Lee to prepare to record the answer. "Our ship was great. We never had the prejudice that I'm sure a lot of children had. Half our ship was Maquis. By the time I was born, we were one big happy family. No teasing. We were a Starfleet crew. Always have been."

"Oh," Lee whispered. Emily thought she looked a little disappointed. Emily guessed that Lee had hoped Emily had dealt with the same things on Voyager so she wouldn't have had to feel alone.

"Well, I guess there were a couple times," Emily said hesitantly. Lee's face brightened. "You know, sometimes there would be little comments made here and there that made some of us uncomfortable." Emily paused. "Do you want to go outside and talk?" Lee nodded and Emily led the way into the gardens.

Naomi spotted Jim from the other side of the banquet hall. Dodging the prospective reporters, Naomi finally reached the other side where Jim stood, alone, sipping his fruit punch.

"Jim!" Naomi called breathlessly. Jim smiled.

"Hey, Naomi," Jim replied. "Enjoying your party?"

Naomi laughed. "Oh, this isn't for me." She looked at all the people talking and mingling. "This is for them. This is for the people who have spent their lives waiting for us to come home. This isn't about me."

"It was a figure of speech, Naomi."

"Oh."

=/\=

Kathryn stood outside, gazing at the Academy lake for the few minutes she had to herself. They were soon interrupted by footsteps. Kathryn turned around and there stood Admiral Paris. Kathryn's face lit up as they hugged. Kathryn and Admiral Paris had very little time to talk with one another because of the conferences and social gatherings that had kept both of them very busy.

"It's so good to see you, Admiral," Kathryn said.

"Yes, yes, it's good to see you too," Admiral Paris replied. He put his arm around Kathryn's shoulder and led her to the railing. "I actually have something to discuss with you." His voice was low, and a bit shaky.

"Uh oh," Kathryn said simply. Admiral Paris tried to smile to show her it wasn't as bad as it sounded, but he wasn't very successful.

Behind them, Natalie ran up, but quickly hid behind one of the pillars outside so Admiral Paris wouldn't see her. Natalie didn't like Admiral Paris very much. He was old and cranky and she had heard too many horror stories from Tom to give Admiral Paris much of a chance. She held her breath as Admiral Paris began to speak.

"Starfleet has denied your request for a new commission to the USS Voyager," Admiral Paris announced. Natalie forced herself not to gasp. Kathryn's eyes went wide.

"Why not?" she demanded. "Voyager is a fine ship. Any captain, even if it wasn't me, would be proud to run that ship."

Admiral Paris nodded in agreement, and continued. "They know this, Kathryn, but they don't understand. They…" Admiral Paris paused here but Kathryn urged him on. "They want to turn Voyager into a museum."

"What?" Kathryn gasped. Natalie was equally shocked, but she was also furious. Not only had she been dragged to Earth, they were turning her home into a museum for the entire quadrant to see. She didn't want people to see where she slept, to see where she ate, to see where she went to school. It wasn't right. Angrily, Natalie stomped back to the party, sullen.

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