Star Trek: Voyager® Distant Shores by Marco Palmieri

Author:Marco Palmieri
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2005-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Her eyes narrowed playfully. “Really, Chakotay, if you’re bucking to be stranded in the Delta Quadrant, there are easier ways to go about it.”

They shared a laugh as Seven of Nine caught his eye, raising her glass to him from across the room. As he acknowledged her in kind, Janeway continued.

“Is it true that Seven is the one who ruined the ‘surprise’ part of this party for you?”

“It is,” he replied.

“I think I’m a pretty tolerant person,” she went on, “especially where Seven is concerned, but I might just have to throw her in the brig for this.”

“Stand down red alert,” he said. “She honestly didn’t mean to. She was preparing her weekly efficiency report…”

“Always one of my personal favorites,” the captain interjected without missing a beat.

“…and felt it was necessary to highlight the fact that Neelix had gone over his replicator rations by almost 69% in the last three days,” he continued.

“And because she’s Borg, she simply couldn’t regenerate until she got to the bottom of it?” Janeway asked.

“I think she felt awful about it, in her own way,” Chakotay offered. “You should have seen Neelix trying to convince her to drop the subject when she confronted him in my presence. I put two and two together and managed to get us both out of the mess hall before Neelix resorted to whacking her over the head with a frying pan. I had to explain to her what a surprise party is, which led to a fairly lengthy conversation about human celebration rituals.”

“A model of inefficiency?” Janeway supposed.

“I think her exact words were ‘The date of one’s birth is irrelevant.’”

“Are you sure it wasn’t ‘Birthday parties are futile’?” she asked.

“You might be right,” he smiled in reply.

Across the room, the faint tinkling of a spoon tapping gently against a glass ended further discussion. Turning toward the sound, they joined the others in giving their full attention to Neelix.

“My friends, I would like to propose a toast,” he began as the group dutifully began to raise their glasses in preparation. “We’ve all enjoyed a lot of laughter over the past few hours at our guest of honor’s expense. But I think I’d be remiss if I didn’t also point out how important he is too all of us. I owe him my life…”

“So do I,” Tom called out, trying to keep the moment light. Most of the crew chuckled appropriately. It was fairly common knowledge that Chakotay had taken Tom under his personal “protection” at the start of their journey, when several of the Maquis still begrudged Tom’s presence on board. Tom had briefly been a member of Chakotay’s Maquis cell, which had landed him in prison. Helping Captain Janeway track them down as part of his “rehabilitation” was a betrayal that some had not been quick to forget.

When the laughter died down, Neelix continued forcefully, “As do many of us. I ask you now to raise your glasses in celebration of the fact that many… many, years ago…”

Chakotay rolled his eyes, but couldn’t help smiling a little.

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