Author's Chapter Notes:
Disclaimer: the regular folks belong to Paramount. The kids should belong to them, too.
My name is Edward Kolopak Janeway. I am eight years old. I live on the Starship Voyager with my mom and dad, my little brother and sister, and all the other people in the crew.
I was born on the ship, just like most of the other kids here. I think living on a starship is pretty neat. We've got holodecks, and a big play area in the cargo hold. I like to go to the observation lounge and look at the stars. Mom tells me that someday, we'll get back to Earth and I'll see stuff like the sun and grass and trees.
Some of the kids ask me what it's like to have the captain for my mom. That's a hard question. I know she's busy a lot. Dad says she's got a big job, and that she has to get all of us back home. People treat her kind of different, too, like sometimes they'll get really quiet when she walks in a room.
But to me, she's just Mom. She jokes with me, and we do science puzzles together. When we have breakfast, she lets me put some of her coffee in my milk. Dad doesn't think coffee's good for me, so when I do that, he frowns at Mom in a way that makes his tattoo all crinkly. Mom just smiles.
Most of the time, things are pretty quiet. But sometimes, things can get really scary, like the time my Dad was missing.
It was the day we were going on our big camping trip. Dad made a holodeck program of a place that he said he camped at when he was a little boy.
I was in the astrometrics lab, and Seven of Nine was showing me some stuff about the nebula that Voyager was studying. Dad came in and sat down next to me.
"I'm sorry, Paka (that's his nickname for me), we have to delay our trip a day. That nebula is emitting energy we need for the ship, and I have to take a shuttle in there and try to collect some of it." He rubbed my head and got up. "I'll see you tonight."
After he left, I went up to the observation deck, and watched until I could see his shuttle leave the ship and go into the nebula. While I was watching, Mom called me on the comm badge. (She set up a special channel so I could talk to her or Dad without the whole ship hearing us.)
"Hello there ... what are you up to?"
"Watching Dad's shuttle leave."
"Ah. Does M'baath know you're on the observation deck?"
"No ..." M'baath takes care of us, and I'm supposed to let her know where I'm going. Though I don't know why Mom has that rule anyway, the computer always knows where I am.
"Mom, did Dad have to go? This messes up our camping trip."
"I know, honey, and I'm sorry. But he has to do his job. That reminds me, I'm going to have to stay on the bridge this evening, so you and Thomas are going to have dinner with the Parises. Tallie is going to spend the night with M'baath."
That was great! Tommy Paris is my best friend. We have a lot of fun together, except for the time we got in trouble for playing in the Jeffries tube. His mom is my godmother, so that kind of makes us brothers, even though I'm not Klingon.
We had a lot of fun at dinner, Tommy's dad, Lt. Tom, joked with us, saying he'd teach us to play pool, but we weren't tall enough to reach the table. Aunt B'Elanna said the only pool table she knew about was in Sandrine's, and she didn't think we should be in a bar - even if it was a holodeck one.
Just then, Mom's voice came over the com badge. "All senior officers to the bridge."
Both Lt. .Tom and Aunt B'Elanna had to leave in a hurry, so they called Lt. Nicoletti to come stay with us for a while. We asked her if she could take us to Sandrine's, but she said she couldn't run the program, and besides, we were to young to be in a bar.
So Tommy and I played, but after a while, I was began to get tired , and Thomas fell asleep on the couch. I was getting kind of worried about Dad, since he wasn't back yet.
So I was real glad to see Mom when she came to get us. But then I saw the look on her face, and I got really scared. When we got back to our quarters, she put Thomas to bed, and then we sat down on the couch. "I have something to tell you. Your dad's run into some trouble. "
He got the energy the ship needed, and was coming home when he reported that a ship was firing at him. His comm system went dead, and Voyager couldn't reach him.
I started to cry. "Mom, is Dad going to be OK?"
She pulled me into her lap and hugged me like she did when I was little. "Shhh, now. Your dad is the bravest man I know. I'm sure he'll be fine. We're going to find him."
We talked for a little while, and she explained that the nebula was messing up the ship's sensors, so they couldn't find Dad's shuttle or the ship that was shooting at him. But Aunt B'Elanna and Harry were working on making the sensors better.
Then she made me put my pajamas on and get ready for bed. She tucked me in, and listened to my prayers just like Dad usually does. "Think good thoughts," she said.
Guess I did sleep for a little while, but I woke up again thinking about Dad. I got up and went out into the living room. Mom was sitting on the couch, looking out the window. "Can't sleep either?" she said. I gave her a hug, and she pulled me into her lap and put a blanket around us.
"Mom, I'm scared. "
"I know, I'm a little scared, too. But I really feel like your Dad's going to be OK."
"Why?"
She was kind of quiet for a minute, like she didn't know what to say. "It's kind of hard to explain. Dad and I are really close, maybe closer than most married people. Maybe it's because we work together. But I just have this feeling that I would know if something really bad happened to him."
"Do you?"
She shook her head. "Nope, don't feel anything like that at all." She kissed me. "Now, I need you to keep thinking good thoughts for your dad. Deal?"
"Deal." I sat in her lap for a while, but I guess I fell asleep. When I woke up, Mom was sitting next to my bed.
"Morning, sleepyhead," she said. "Why don't you go out and have breakfast while I talk to Thomas for a few minutes?"
"Is Dad back?" Mom just shook her head.
Breakfast was kind of weird. Thomas was crying when Mom brought him out of our room, so she let him sit on her lap while she drank coffee. She looked really tired, and we didn't talk much. I didn't even ask for coffee in my milk.
Afterwards, Mom went to the bridge, and I went to the holodeck and played with Molly, my dog. Actually, Molly is Mom's dog. Dad programmed it to look like the setter she had back on Earth. But she doesn't play with her too often, I think it makes her sad. I asked Mom once if I could borrow the doctor's holo-emitter so Molly could walk around the ship with me. She said no, the doctor needed to move around more than Molly did.
"While I was there, Mom called. "Good news! We just heard from your Dad. He's OK."
"Great! Is he back yet?"
"No, son, not yet. But we're working on that right now. Keep thinking good thoughts."
It wasn't long before Tommy came running into the holodeck. "Guess what? My dad's going to take a shuttle and get your dad back. Mom just told me!"
We decided to go to the observation deck to see. We got there in time to see a shuttle head into the nebula. "That's Dad!" Tommy said.
Then nothing happened for a long time. We were getting bored, but we didn't want to leave.
Then, all at once, things started to really happen. We saw a shuttle zoom out of the nebula, and it was being chased by a bigger ship that was firing on it. We heard the ZAP! as Voyager's phasers fired at the big ship. It fired back and the ship started to rock.
"It hit us!" Tommy yelled.
Lots of lights flashed as Voyager and the other ship kept shooting at each other. Off toward the side, I could see something else come out of the nebula. It was moving kind of slowly, but it looked like a shuttle.
Then the shuttle disappeared. "Bet they got it with a transporter beam," Tommy said.
Then we heard a big WOOSH! and saw a streak of light head toward the big ship. "Torpedo! " I yelled.
The torpedo hit the ship, and it started to light up the sky, when Voyager jumped to warp speed. It happened so fast that Tommy and I fell down. We stayed there, laughing. "Wow! Did you see that?" Tommy said. "I've never seen a torpedo hit a ship before."
Just then, Mom called. "Paka, report to sickbay. Your father wants to see you."
I ran into the sickbay. The doctor hates that, and he gave me a mean look, but I didn't care. Dad was sitting on a biobed, and Mom was standing behind him with her hands on his shoulders. I was so happy to see him that I jumped on the biobed and hugged him.
"Hey, pal, I'm glad to see you," he said.
"Dad, I was so scared. I've been thinking good thoughts for you ... we saw your shuttle come out and the torpedoes hit, and ....
"Whoa, hold it." Mom said. "Let's let the doctor finish checking him out. Then you can tell us all about it when we get back to quarters."
After dinner that night, Mom insisted that I get ready for bed, along with the little kids. "But I'm not sleepy."
"That's because you got some sleep last night," she said. "Your father and I didn't."
So I got ready, and they tucked me in and said goodnight. I tried to go to sleep, but there was something I needed to ask Dad.
They were in the living room, and Dad was giving Mom one of those long kisses; just like the ones in those sappy holonovels she likes. They're always doing stuff like that. Dad saw me, and he didn't look happy. "Paka, go to bed. We have a camping trip to plan for."
That's what I wanted to know, but I had one more thing to ask.
"Dad, can we go to Sandrine's and play pool sometime?"
"NO!" he yelled. "Absolutely not!"
"Sandrine's?" Mom said, "Where did you get that ... never mind. I know where you got that idea, and I'm going to have a talk with him in the morning. Now, Edward ... go to bed!"
Uh, oh ... .she doesn't call me by my real name unless I'm in trouble. So I went to bed. It's OK, though. Tommy said he found his dad's program disc. Maybe during the next big staff meeting...
-fin-