Gretchen and Phoebe had begun to accept the fact that what they were seeing were, somehow, flashes of actual events and not some dream or hallucination.
Suddenly around them the ready room faded to gray and was replaced with the browns and tans of Hanon IV. They watched as Kathryn struggled to summon the energy needed to keep her crew alive and functioning; herself as well. Gretchen's heart ached for her daughter. She knew that to Kathryn, no fate could be worse. A captain without a ship. Gretchen couldn't believe that they could have come so far only to be stranded...without transportation, without hope.
But as always, Kathryn rallied. Although petite and lithe, the crew's leader carried within her the resolve of a giant. And she knew that she could find any strength she lacked in her first officer. His calm demeanor and adaptability filled the gaps in Kathryn�s existence. But it was Kathryn's presence, her commanding strength of character that kept her crew alert and at the ready, able to react quickly when Voyager miraculously reappeared, setting down on the barren plain. The two watching women nearly wept with joy as Kathryn led her jubilant crew back into their home--for that was truly how the crew now saw the ship.
Minutes later, Phoebe trotted down the corridor towards where she somehow knew Kathryn's quarters were, anxious to see how her sister was faring. As she entered the cabin, though, she suddenly found herself exiting onto a beach boardwalk. Phoebe quickly turned back to the corridor she had just left, but found instead her mother, blinking in the bright glaring sunlight. Both wheeled about abruptly at the sound of a familiar voice.
"Well, Kathryn, you got us home."
"Right place, wrong time."
Gretchen gasped. "Earth? When? How? But....I don't understand."
"Listen, Mother," Phoebe murmured quietly. "The how doesn't matter....".
The two women spent most of the day shadowing Kathryn and Chakotay, watching as the command team matched wits with Henry Starling, desperate to undo the damage he had unwittingly done to the future.
With a start, Gretchen and Phoebe found themselves back on the bridge of Voyager listening in horror as Kathryn issued orders to Ensign Kim and entered the turbolift. She was racing to manually launch the torpedo she hoped would stop Starling and the time machine if all else failed. Moments later, the lift opened and Chakotay strode quickly onto the bridge. Ensign Kim quickly apprised him of the situation. Gretchen saw a momentary shadow of worry flicker in his deep sienna eyes, but he forced himself to attend to duty.
Gretchen shot a look at the tall bronzed man who was now fully focused on the task at hand. "Well, if you're not going to stop her, at least I can be there with her if something goes wrong," she muttered. Immediately she found herself next to Kathryn watching as the woman finished manually loading the coordinates into the computer.
Chakotay turned purposefully to the screen and ordered Starling to stop. When his request was ignored, he took a deep breath and ordered his captain to fire.
Kathryn took a deep breath and yanked down on the firing mechanism. The force of the charge threw her backwards onto the floor, blackening her face and hands and knocking her unconscious. Gretchen gasp and rushed to her fallen daughter, tears choking her. Just as she saw Kathryn stir, the corridor door slid open and the doctor strode in, medical equipment in hand. Soon this crisis too had passed, but Gretchen was left shaken by the enormity of the responsibilities on the slender shoulders of her eldest daughter.
Back on the bridge, Phoebe shook her head in wonderment. "All this talk of temporal mechanics and alternate timelines makes my head hurt. I never really understood why Sis had all that homework. Somehow she always had the same excitement about quantum mechanics as I did about Degas and Monet."
Gretchen smiled at her younger daughter. "Your sister always seemed to have a calling when it came to academics. But I'm glad she took her studies seriously. My God, Phoebe, don't you see? Kathryn has never really been apart from us. The decisions she has had to make here in the Delta quadrant are affecting the whole of our existence....our very timeline has been affected by our Katie's actions. Your father tried to explain it to me many times, but it never seemed as real as it has today."
Phoebe nodded and reached out to touch her mother but suddenly found herself grabbing for a handhold to counter the roll and pitch of the small shuttlecraft. Her heart leapt to her throat as she stared in horror at the surface of a planet racing towards them through the front viewscreen. She threw her arms around her mother in preparation for the certainly fatal crash but instead of hearing tearing metal, heard Chakotay�s voice.
"One, two, three, four....Breathe, dammit, breathe! Don't you die on me, Kathryn."
Mother and daughter opened their eyes and found the two of them standing in a cave. Nearby though, was a sight that sent their hearts plummeting. Chakotay knelt over a too silent form, willing the small body back to life.
Again and again he forced air into Kathryn's lungs and compressed her chest, the silence only punctuated by his rhythmic counting and ragged sobs.
Gretchen and Phoebe clutched each other, tears dropping from their faces to the dusty floor beneath them. "Oh no, Mother, I can�t believe this is real. This can't be how it ends. Somehow...". Phoebe shook her head vehemently. This wouldn't be how it would end. Chakotay would save her....the ship would find them....something.
Chakotay, emotionally spent, suddenly broke down. Clutching Kathryn to his chest, his tears fell on her face as he pressed his cheek against her auburn tresses. The ones he so longed to be able to stroke. The woman he so wanted to love...
Suddenly his communicator crackled to life. Within minutes help arrived and soon after, Kathryn had vanquished the alien who had held her mind captive. Shaken but alive, she grasped Chakotay's hand and stood up. She found herself a bit unsteady on her feet and accepted the strong arm that slipped around her waist, gratefully holding on to him as well.
Phoebe grinned. "If she didn't have so doggone much Janeway stubbornness, she'd be to see what�s plain as the nose on her face. Mom, Kathryn's in love! And I think Chakotay loves her, too!"
Gretchen chuckled and hugged her youngest. "They are a lot alike...both stubborn, pigheaded, idealistic...the perfect couple...both on duty and off." More seriously, she sighed. "I think Kathryn feels wed to duty, though, and probably still feels tied to Mark. I wish there was a way to let her know it's all right to move on....that Mark finally did."
Phoebe opened her mouth to answer but her words were lost in a blinding flash. But this time shift was different. The air in the ready room had the faintly acid taste of recycled air and she could smell the last traces of Kathryn's earlier cup of coffee. It was more real...more immediate...more... present.
Gretchen looked about the room where the meeting had just adjourned and nodded, agreeing with her daughter's silent assessment. "I think we're in Voyager's present. This is what's happening to them right now." Their attention was drawn back to the two figures standing at the end of the conference table.
"You were awfully quiet, said the Captain.
"That's because I didn't want them to hear what I have to say," started Commander Chakotay. Just beneath the surface the two women sensed anger ready to boil over.
The discussion quickly turned into a disagreement. Neither was fighting fairly. Both threw in personal jabs.
"I know you, Kathryn. Sometimes you just don't know...when to step back."
She countered. "Do you trust me, Chakotay?"
He shook his head, dismissing her argument. "This isn't about trust..."
"Oh, but it is. Yesterday you said I wasn't alone. That we'd make the decision together," she accused.
The disagreement had become an argument which quickly spiraled out of emotional control, ending with Kathryn pulling rank and dismissing Chakotay, and him leaving without a word or look back.
Phoebe threw up her hands in disgust. "Oh for goodness sake! Those two are so hardheaded...they're absolutely impossible!"
They followed Kathryn moments later as she exited the room and strode onto the bridge. She stood, feet apart, fists on her hips and nodded curtly to Kim who opened a hailing frequency to the Borg cube in front of them. Phoebe also noted that despite the recent disagreement over this very situation, Commander Chakotay stood near her side, providing both the Borg and Voyager's crew with a united front.
Without warning, in the middle of a sentence, Captain Kathryn Janeway was whisked away by the Borg transporter beam. The First Officer allowed a sharp intake of breath then immediately took command.
"Scan the cube for the Captain. B'Elanna, see what we can do about breaking out of this tractor beam. Helm, stay ready to get us out of here as soon as we retrieve the Captain."
Moments later the bridge watched in horror as two entire planets were laid to waste by the newly encountered 8472. As they stood transfixed by the unparalleled destruction before them, the cube with their captain aboard and Voyager in tow sped away from that sector of space.
After taking care of the immediate business at hand, Chakotay sank into Kathryn's vacant seat. Gretchen standing nearby heard him murmur, too low for his crew to hear. "Kathryn, hang on. You�re not alone."
End of Lindy's part.