More Than a Lifetime #1: Delta Wild

Chapter 2

Twelve-year-old Dani Janeway materialized on the pad in Voyager's transporter room. She looked around the room. Thankfully, no one was in there. All of the crew had beamed aboard earlier that day.

'If I'm lucky, I might be able to go the whole trip with out getting caught,' Dani thought as she left the transporter room.

She ventured into the hallway, cautiously looking all around her. To her surprise, she didn't see any crew members in the hallway. She walked on with a little more confidence. Then she stopped. She couldn't wander the hallways forever. She needed a hiding place. She listened. Footsteps. Someone was coming. She would need to find a hiding place fast. She looked around. The there was no where. She couldn't risk going into a room. There could be someone in it. Her eyes scanned the wall she was standing beside, from top to bottom. And there it was. Her salvation-a jeffries tube. She bent down and, with some force, removed the cover. She scurried into the tube. Once she was in, she reached out and picked up the door. She pulled it shut.

Just as the conduit door was being pulled shut, Captain Kathryn Janeway was coming around the corner. Tuvok, Voyager's chief tactical officer, was with her.

"All systems are on-line and operating at peak efficiency," Tuvok reported.

"Thank you, Lt.," the captain said. "Are we ready to disembark?"

"We are." The two stepped into a waiting turbo lift. The doors slid closed and the turbo lift began to move upward.

"Are you ready for this, Lt.?" Janeway asked her second officer. The Vulcan continued to stare straight ahead.

"Please elaborate?"

Janeway sighed and rephrased her question. "Are you prepared to undertake this mission?"

Tuvok looked at his captain. "Yes. I must say that I am very well-prepared."

"What about our crew?" Janeway asked. "Do you think they can handle this?"

"The first voyage of a new ship is always...trying," Tuvok said. "However, I believe we have an exceptional crew and that the transition will be less trying than usual."

Tuvok's assurance that they had a good crew somehow made Kathryn feel better about the first assignment on this new ship.

The turbo lift came to a halt and the doors opened. Kathryn glided onto the bridge.

"Captain on the bridge!" someone announced. The crew members on the bridge stood abruptly at attention.

Kathryn proceeded slowly toward the captain's chair. Her chair. Chakotay was standing in front of his chair, which was positioned beside hers. Kathryn stopped in front of her chair. She turned and looked at the officers, her officers, standing around the bridge.

"At ease," Kathryn said. The officers relaxed and went back to doing what they were doing before she'd arrived. Kathryn looked at her first officer, who remained standing in front of his chair.

"Welcome to the bridge, Captain," Chakotay said with a little grin. Kathryn grinned back at him.

"Thank you, Commander," Kathryn said. Chakotay gestured toward the captain's chair. Kathryn looked at it. She walked over to it and sat down. Chakotay sat down only after she did. 'Chivalry,' Kathryn thought, running her hands over the arms of the chair. A brand new ship. All hers. She looked at her helm officer, Tom Paris, sitting at the pilot's station. He was facing her, awaiting her orders.

"Mr. Paris," Kathryn said, "take us out."

"Aye-aye, Captain," Paris said, swiveling around to face his console. Kathryn watched the view screen intently as the ship slowly moved away from Deep Space Nine.