If I Knew You Then: Part 4

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own anything having to do with Star Trek. And I was so hopeful, too.

Summary: It's an AU story, and since this is Part 4, so it probably follows Parts 1-3. You should probably read those if you want this to make any sense. The whole series is inspired by a line in Day of Honor, as I've explained in the summary sections of the previous three parts. Unlike those three installments, though, this one doesn't take place over a year or three; rather, it is the events of Caretaker, the first episode of Voyager, as they would have happened if they happened in my alternate universe where Paris and Torres had met while they were both at Starfleet Academy. And I hate to disappoint, but this is the final segment of this four-part series. If I ever switch back to writing Trek fanfiction (I'm currently hooked on NCIS and have a different pen name for those stories), maybe I'll write a fifth section, but for now, this is it. I hope it comes to a somewhat satisfying conclusion for you (but that is several chapters away, so let's go with suspension of disbelief for now and pretend it'll last forever...)

A/N: Sorry the first chapter is so short. The second one is a bit long, so I guess that makes up for it.

Captain Kathryn Janeway, the soon-to-be captain of the USS Voyager, ran her hand against the back of the ready room chair, not quite ready to sit in it yet. My chair, she told herself, it's my chair, on my ship… The thought almost made her giddy, almost as much so as when she had been given her first command. But that time, it wasn't a brand new ship, and I wasn't the inaugural captain of it. She still couldn't believe her luck.

She sighed as she resigned herself to the work that still had to be done, and sat in that very official looking chair for the first time. Very nice, she thought appreciatively, running her hands along the arm rests. This I could get used to.

She was still smiling as she brought up her messages on the monitor in front of her, but as she began to read, the smile began to falter. "Damn it," she muttered.

Almost a year ago, knowing that Voyager wouldn't be ready for launch for quite some time, Lt. Tuvok, her chief of security and one of her closest friends, had taken an assignment infiltrating one of the Maquis cells that Starfleet had been trying unsuccessfully to keep an eye on. That cell, under the command of former Starfleet Lt. Commander Chakotay, was known for attracting former Starfleet officers and people similarly trained, and it showed in their tactics and movements. They were ruthless, but even more frightening to Starfleet command and the Cardassians, they were careful to the point of near-paranoia. Nobody knew where they hid, nobody knew when they were going to strike next; their crew manifests were even somewhat of a mystery. It had taken them awhile, but they had finally gotten Tuvok in and accepted by Chakotay. Over the last few months, the information he had gotten them proved invaluable; one report of an upcoming raid resulted in the capture of three Maquis crewmembers—one of which was a former Starfleet pilot—after they took off with medical supplies from Deep Space Four. He had also gotten them somewhat-complete crew manifests and background information, which Starfleet Intelligence was using to try to figure out how Chakotay attracted his crew members and how they could stop him in the future.

In the seven months Tuvok had been with Chakotay's cell, he had never missed an update, was never late on getting information through the channels to the proper people at Starfleet Intelligence—until now. He had missed the primary contact time, and then missed the two backups that were set up in case he was ever unable to contact his handlers when he was supposed to. For all intents and purposes, Tuvok was off the grid, and nobody knew where he was or how he was. Best case scenario, he was being watched too closely by Chakotay to get a message out. Worst case, they had discovered who he really worked for and killed him. Janeway sincerely hoped for the former.

With a heavy sigh, she turned off the monitor and leaned back in her chair as she tried to think of her options. Voyager was going to be the most advanced ship in the fleet when she was done—new warp drive system, bioneural gel packs that improved processing speed, some of the best weaponry that Starfleet had to offer—but she wasn't done. If Janeway had her way, she would take the ship out of drydock that afternoon and head for the Badlands to find her friend, but as of the last engineering update she had come across, she wouldn't go far without a warp drive. She knew there had to be a way to get to him; she just wished she knew what it was.