NEW HORIZONS (G)
Walking through the empty corridors of the starship was a woman with blond hairs and blue eyes, with a piercing gaze, and some artificial components around her left eye and on her right hand, easily recognizable as Borg technology. The ex-Borg, as she was Seven of Nine, former Tertiary Adjunct to Unimatrix Zero-One, was in her command uniform, the four pips of Captain on her right collar and the new combadge of Starfleet pinned on her left breast.
She was going to be the new Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. Voyager (NCC-74656-B) and, although she didn’t want to admit it even to herself, she was a little terrified by the prospect. Her first command had been the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701-G) and she was grateful to have been the Captain of a starship called Enterprise (the flagship, no less), but she had found herself more comfortable with her past and herself when had asked Starfleet Command to let her have the new Voyager.
The request had come naturally after Seven had found out about the sudden death of Kathryn Janeway, reasons unknown, while the Enterprise was on a diplomatic mission on the other side of the Beta Quadrant and not able to return in time for the funerals held at San Francisco, with a statue to remember the dead Admiral. After receiving the communiqué from Starfleet and contacting some of her former crew members from the days spent aboard Voyager, the Enterprise had received permission to return as soon as possible to Earth, so that its Captain could pay her respect to her former commanding officer.
Once arrived in orbit, Seven had been beamed directly to Starfleet HQ and, after the briefest of briefings, the ex Borg had left to pay her respects to her oldest and closest friend while her executive officer, Raffi Musiker, had finished talking about their latest mission. After that, Seven had asked for a few days off, during which she had grieved and talked with ex-crew members as Samantha Wildman, her daughter Naomi (now also in Starfleet, in the operations division), Tuvok and so on.
When the days had passed and the time arrived, she had requested Starfleet Command to be transferred from the Enterprise to the new Voyager. Nobody, at the higher spheres of command, had dared to ask her why she was ready to give up the Enterprise for the newly commissioned Pathfinder-class starship, since it was well known what Janeway and Voyager itself had meant for the woman, so the transfer was granted pretty quickly and without much of problems. About whom was going to take command of the Enterprise, no one knew anything yet, but some of the officer posted aboard the Constitution II-class had asked to be transferred aboard the new Voyager too, as was the case of one Ensign Jack Crusher, who’d become the new conn officer of the science vessel.
Alongside him, Sidney La Forge had been granted the same privilege (but she’d become the new Ops Manager, while her sister, Alandra, one of the engineers under the supervision of B’Elanna Torres); whilst other key positions still needed to be filled, as XO Seven accepted the application of one Tom Paris, with the rank of full Commander, and as CMO the old EMH Mark I, by all of them known as ‘the Doctor’, whose program had been rendered better by its once creator, Doctor Zimmerman, and integrated fully with its portable emitter.
But on this day, Seven needed to walk alone through the corridors of the starship, to acquaint herself with the ship and to grieve one last time, before leading the new Voyager on deep space missions and explorations, reflecting on her past, present and future. How much she was missing Janeway! But the woman was no longer there to help her, to guide her through what she was experiencing… but, if that had been the case, Seven of Nine wouldn't have found herself walking through the almost empty corridors of the freshly commissioned Voyager at all.
Her combadge chirped, distracting her from her thoughts, and she answered: «Seven of Nine here.»
«Captain,» the voice of her new XO, Commander Tom Paris, came clear through the speaker, «there’s an incoming transmission from Admiral Tuvok on Starbase 380. He wants to speak with you.»
«Very well, Commander. I’ll take it from my ready room. Inform Admiral Tuvok I’ll be there in a few moments.» With that, Seven interrupted the comm line and took the nearest turbolift, ordering the computer to her office attached to the bridge.
A few minutes later, she was talking with her former colleague from their days in the Delta Quadrant aboard Voyager, a Vulcan in his 200s with a command red uniform and the rank of a Vice Admiral on his chest. Years back, after the accident with the shape-shifters, the death of Captain Shaw and the mystery around the person of Jack Crusher, it had been Tuvok presenting the then-Commander Seven of Nine the last words of Liam Shaw about his XO and the suggestion to promote her to the rank of Captain, even if the two of them didn’t always see eye to eye.
Now, the Vice Admiral was about to assign the very first mission to the Pathfinder-class Voyager and her crew. If the man had belonged to any species other than Vulcans, one could almost think that he was regretting not being able to embark with them, since he had been a very close friend with the now late Kathryn Janeway. But, since he was a Vulcan, his face didn’t show anything more than his usual composure, while he was talking with Seven.
«The last officers and crew-members will be waiting for your arrival at Deep Space 9, Captain,» the Vulcan was saying and it wasn’t escaping him the irony of the situation, although he wasn’t showing it. Almost 40 years back, when the original Voyager was sent in the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker, the Intrepid-class starship under the command of Captain Janeway had been docked at Deep Space 9, since the starbase was near the Badlands, the region of space in which the Val Jean, the Maquis ship where the Vulcan had been infiltrated, had apparently lost itself.
«From there, your orders are to take Voyager through the Bajoran wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant and upgrade the charts about the Hur’q star system, since after the first exploration led by Commander Vaughn and the U.S.S. Defiant the Federation was no longer able to send starships in that region.»
«It will be done, Admiral.» Both of them were short on words, something that the two had always appreciated in the other. Even with the loss that they were facing, of a person who had been important for both, neither seemed able to be particularly talkative, even if Seven had been improving since their return from the Delta Quadrant more than 30 years earlier.
«The Admiral would’ve been proud of you, Seven,» added Tuvok, always wearing his serious expression, «and I’m sure she would have appreciated your decision to be transferred aboard the new Voyager.»
«It was the only decision I could take,» was the simple answer from Seven, «the only logical decision. Voyager… always was my home. When I heard about Admiral Janeway and the new Voyager, all I could think was that the only way I could honour her was taking command of this ship.»
Tuvok simply nodded once, before bidding farewell: «Good luck, out there, Captain.»
«Thank you, Admiral.»
The connection severed, Seven of Nine looked out of her ready room’s window, at Utopia Planitia ShipYards, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips. She was sure Kathryn Janeway would’ve been proud of her, but the fact she hadn’t been able to be right by the Admiral’s side in her last moments still hurt.
Echoing through all the starship, perceivable only by a bunch of people, a few words: the trial never ends. Believing she had imagined the faint whisper in the ship's recycled air, Voyager's new captain finally headed for the bridge and the mission ahead. At the helm of the ship, onto the Bridge, Lieutenant JG Jack Crusher looked around him, a little puzzled, sure to have heard someone whispering in his ears, but since no one was near enough to his station or himself to have whispered anything to him, he returned his attention to his console, checking the last things before their departure.
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