Ad Astra :: Star Trek Fanfiction Archive ^{Beam me up, Scotty.}

"Good luck honey," Sam said, hugging Naomi while Chakotay used his override code to grant the little girl access to the Captain's living quarters.

Hearing the metallic swish of the doors, Kathryn scowled through the darkness of the room. "Go away Chakotay," she scolded.

"It's Naomi, not Chakotay. I have something to show you Auntie Captain."

"Sorry sweety," Kathryn apologised. "Computer, lights at fifteen percent."

As the room became a little more illuminated and easier to navigate, Naomi reached the couch and put her special project on Kathryn's lap while she scrambled up on to the comfortable seat. She tapped Kathryn's leg and smiled as she lifted her onto her lap wrapping her arms around the child.

"What have you made?" Kathryn asked while she admired the thin handmade book with several pages of blue paper in various shades stapled together and a child's handwriting, with an adult's script underneath each word.

"I made a picture album for you. To cheer you up. Mummy and Uncle Chakotay helped me with the staples, glue and words, the rest of the crew helped too, they let me use some of their holoimages.

Lifting up the front cover Naomi looked up at Kathryn and waited for her silent approval to begin.

*

"The first time I read a book all by myself Chell asked everyone what their favourite book was."

Kathryn smiled at the educational progression of the little girl. "I don't think there was anyone on the ship who wasn't proud of you that day sweety."

"Chell told me that this picture is special to him because you all used replicator rations to make copies of the books you love the most to show me."

*

"Sulu," Kathryn muttered.

"Tuvok let me use this. He told me that it was taken by Sandrine on the holodeck after he got better and that in the picture Mr Sulu is a hologram version of someone he once served with."

"I let them both beat me at pool that night."

"That is so unlike you," Naomi said, exaggerating ever so slightly at the ship's resident pool shark.

*

"My mummy took this."

"It looks like the Fair Haven holo-novel."

Naomi nodded her head. "It is Fair Haven but it's an old version that Uncle Tom didn't like when he finished making it."

"Tom has always being a perfectionist."

*

"What were Chakotay and Harry doing?" Kathryn asked, smiling softly at their playfulness.

"Uncle Tom took this after Uncle Chakotay and Uncle Harry had finished playing a video game."

"A video game?"

"He told me that they were popular in the twentieth and twenty-first century."

"Only your Uncle Tom could know something like that."

*

Kathryn couldn't help the chuckle that escaped upon seeing a picture of her chief engineer strangling the EMH.

"Gerron took this at a luau on the holodeck. He said that Auntie Bel and the doctor play fighting was fun to watch."

"There is only B'Elanna who would try to strangle a hologram," Kathryn mused.

*

"This is the one I took," Naomi declared proudly as she turned the page.

Kathryn smiled at the funny face Chakotay was making. "He's a bit daft sometimes," she said wistfully.

"He let me take this the last time he babysat for mummy."

"Let me guess Nomi Ni, you were being a grumpy guts that night," Kathryn teased.

"Yes. I didn't want to go to sleep."

Kathryn chuckled at the honest admission of the bedtime behaviour typical of a four year old.

*

"Some people never truly grow up," Kathryn said, as she stared at the picture of her Helmsman covered from head to toe in mud.

"Auntie Bel took this in the transporter room after Uncle Tom and the away team beamed back after a mission to an M-Class planet."

*

Kathryn couldn't help the tears that escaped as she was reminded of happier and freer times with her First Officer and best friend. "Who took this one?"

"Uncle Harry said he took it while he was on duty because we were in a quiet part of space and that everyone on duty on the bridge that day was telling jokes."

"Yes we were, actually that shift was a lot of fun and very relaxed. It made a nice change to the usual red alerts and unprovoked attacks."

*

"Because Seven didn't like any of the pictures she was in, she let me have this one. I'm not sure how she put them together like this though."

Realising that the former Borg drone still wasn't comfortable with her appearance, Kathryn said, "She took a lot of pictures last Prixin and always said no whenever someone offered to take her picture. She only agreed to have a picture taken with the doctor."

Glancing up from the book, Naomi asked, "Do you think she'll ever like the way she looks?"

"One day she will," Kathryn said hopefully of her protégée. “It'll take time for her.”

*

"My favourite picture is next," Naomi stated proudly as she turned the page to reveal a holoimage of her and Kathryn together.

"Uncle Chakotay took this the first time I played on the holodeck with Flotter."

A faint smile ghosted across Kathryn's lips. "I remember," she said quietly, "The three of us had a lot of fun that day."

Closing the book, Naomi looked up at Kathryn, frowning as the tears were rolling freely down the woman's cheeks. "Don't cry Auntie Captain. Our life in the Delta Quadrant isn't always bad." Unsure of what to do the child tapped her comm badge and said, "Naomi to everyone, I need a little help."

Holding the little girl closer to her as she continued to cry, Kathryn whispered, "Thank you sweety, this is the one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me."