Through the Looking Glass

Through the Looking Glass
The shimmering mist of metreon gases was finally thinning. Beyond, lay a field of stars. Captain
Kathryn Janeway exhaled a long breath of relief. After weeks behind a curtain of multi-colored
fog, the argent glow of a thousand suns was its own kind of homecoming.
She patted her helmsman's shoulder. "You did it, Tom."
That murmur of praise sparked echoing cheers from the Bridge crew. Harry Kim clapped his
hands vigorously, hero worship for his colleague clearly etched across his youthful features.
Chakotay's emphatic, "well done," caused Lt. Paris to smile a little wider.
Janeway stepped back from the helm. Paris deserved his moment in the spotlight, and she had no
desire to diminish his glory. She settled in the command chair, and closed her eyes for a
heartbeat or two.
From entrance to exit, it had taken forty-one days to be free of the Labyrinth.
Seems more like forty-one years. Plasma clouds, pre-nebula gases, and ion storms…oh, my. Only
you can't just click your heels three times and say, "There's no place like home."
Her eyes felt desert dry as they opened. They'd all been burning the midnight oil on this one.
Yesterday she and Chakotay had logged over eighteen hours on the Bridge. Voyager's passage
out from the starship graveyard had been far more difficult than the journey in.
Which, when you think about it old girl, makes sense when dealing with a labyrinth.
"Pick your star, Tom," she offered him a proud smile. "Get us back on course for the Alpha
Quadrant."
The words had only escaped her lips when sensor alarms sounded. Beneath her, Janeway could
feel the ship shiver.
"Our warp drive is offline," Tuvok called out from behind her.
Chakotay's dark eyes intersected with hers before he contacted Engineering. "B'Elanna, report!"
"The warp core initiated a spontaneous shutdown." Torres sounded as though she were speaking
from inside a conduit. "We're trying to restart."
"Do better than try." Chakotay moved swiftly to one of the Bridge consoles. "Can we do a
manual restart?"
The viewscreen's display of pristine stars faded in and out of focus. Janeway's pulse quickened as
adrenaline shot into her system. As if from some child's dream, space seemed to tear open.
"Subspace fracture," Ensign Kim supplied her with more data. ""We're in some kind of