STAR TREK: A Long Road (Voyager Fix It Quest)

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay! I was feeling really uninspired for some reason. I'm glad you're all enjoying Star Trek so much, and I hope you're having a good New Years Eve Day Party. I am! Also, if you want to make me a very happy dragon check out my woefully unpopular gears of war quest it needs more votes!

"All right, Wacoche," Janeway said. "I think we need to get the Dragon in on this."

"...you have a dragon?" Neelix Jr. asked. "As in scales? Fire? Wings?" He leaned forward. "How advanced is your biotechnology? Or is it one of the native dragons we've found here and there - it seems to be one of the bioforms that repeats itself across the galaxy. A bit like the two leg, two arms bodyplan."

"Not quite that dragon," Janeway said, chuckling.

Neelix Jr. arched an eyebrow, while his uncle frowned at him. "You should know it's rude to ask so many questions at a guest's place," he said, firmly.

Tom blinked. "Neelix, he talks like you."

"He does not!" Neelix exclaimed.

"I knew I got it from somewhere. My father never said more than two words when he could help it," Neelix Junior said, his voice cheerful. "Always said that it kept his enemies guessing. Though, now that I think about it, mother's a bit verbose. Very Talaxian - she has lots of opinions about Haakonians."

"None of which stopped her from marrying one," Neelix muttered.

Lindy snorted, softly, then leaned over and whispered to Janeway. "So, are people in space like...ya know..." She made a vauge gesture. "Mason Dixon?"

"Usually not so bad," Janeway said. "But the Haakonians and the Talaxians have been at war before."

"Ahh," Lindy said, nodding as Janeway stood up.

"Lets split up and get to work," she said. "Now."

Danara Pel looked up from the novella she was reading when the door to Neelix's bar, and saw that Brian Wacoche was walking inside, looking cheerful. Danara sighed. She knew when Brian was looking cheerful, it meant that it was time for them to throw themselves against another impossible tactical challenge. Then she noticed the short, tufted, scaled alien walking along next to him and froze. "Space him!" She said, immediately. "Space him immediately!" She thrust her finger at the menace that Brian seemed to be blithely unaware of.

"...ahhh!" The vile little man said, grinning at Brian. "That Dragon."

Lindy walked beside Captain Janeway, and tried to not look and feel like she was completely and utterly overawed. But everything she had heard only made her feel more like she was a child among giants.

"And then we came here," Janeway said, shaking her head a bit. "I am very curious about what...created this planet."

"Does this mean we're...fake?" Lindy asked, her brow furrowing.

"Oh, no, no, it's most likely some kind of dimensional or temporal manipulation," Janeway said, hurriedly. Which did nothing to settle Lindy's jangling nerves. Janeway put her hand on her shoulder and Lindy felt her nerves jangle for an entirely different reason. "We in the Federation have learned, thanks in part to the sacrifices and struggle of the 20th century, just how much it helps a society to treat everyone as...people. It doesn't matter where or when you're from - what matters is who you are." She nodded and smiled.

"I like that idea," Lindy said. "And I think that the President will."

"Have you met him?" she asked.

"Yeah..." Lindy said, sighing slightly. "After the first of Neelix's little escapades." She bit her lip. "He's been running missions on...on this Earth ever since he crashed, with me the whole time - I just kinda got swept up in it all. And he needed a pilot. Now, half of America thinks I'm some kind of pulp hero." She shook her head slightly. "It's all...it's...was I...how did I get remebered back on the other Earth?"

"As a pioneer and a hero," Janeway said. She looked awkward. "And, uh..." She trailed off. "Well, it's...it's a bit awkward."

Her little badge thing blipped.

"Captain, T'are has managed to contact the United States government and initial meeting places are being determined. You've been invited to the White House, along with Captain Earhart." The voice, Lindy recognized, was the black elf man that Janeway had referred to as Tuvok. Janeway nodded, her expression brightening.

"Well, then, shall we?" she asked.

"Should I change?" Lindy asked, looking down at her borrowed Imperial Security dress whites.

"We can have some clothing whipped up for you, what would you prefer?" Janeway asked, walking with her - leading her towards the 'transporter room' that she had mentioned before.

"Well, uh, sure!" Lindy said, grinning. "It'll have to be a tearing hurry though. Unless you have fancy space sewing machines that are super fast." At Janeway's expression, she snorted. "Must have made every old granny in the...the Federation you called it? Mad as hell. Stealing all their chances to make terrible sweaters."

"They still do, oddly enough," Janeway said. "I once served with a Lieutenant Crusher, and he loved showing everyone his mother's awful sweaters."

"Well, that's a relief," Lindy said, then paused, hesitating as they came to the transporter room, the doors wooshing open. She saw a changing and fitting room nearby, and for a single crazy moment, she thought about asking Janeway for help. But then she shook her head, waved, and then started into the fitting room.

Only afterwards, after she was tugging at the buckles and straps that Neelix had helped with, and swearing under her breath, did Lindy think that she should have just asked for the assist.

The White House looked exactly as Janeway had expected, but...still, it was shocking to step foot into it. She tried to repress her inner historian giddiness, but it was almost impossible to not beam as she looked around herself. Beside her, Earhart was looking fucking delicious in her flight jacket and leggings. "What?" she asked as several secret service agents hurried forward to begin escorting them forward - after a quick pat down.

"It's just I never expected to be in the real White House," Janeway said.

"Never visited it back home?" Lindy asked, then shook her head. "Right, no, that's silly...I mean...you are a captain, I guess you might have been invited."

Are you going to mention that Washington D.C has only been declared safe for human habitation within the past century, and it's mostly wilderness preserve now? Phoebe asked.

Janeway shook her head. "N-Never invited," she said, as the secret servicemen led them up the stairs.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt did several things that shocked Janeway to her core. Phoebe reacted with faint surprise at how shocked Janeway was - which made sense, Phoebe's grasp of history ended shortly after the battle of Waterloo. Janeway stood, gaping, as President Roosevelt smoothly turned from the windows, walked around the desk, and perched himself on the corner, smiling wryly at them.

"Good afternoon," he said.

Janeway tried to cover for her shock. "Mr. President," she said. "I'm Captain Katheryn Janeway, of the Federation starship, the USS Voyager."

"I've heard the basic summery - it sounds like a rather more successful stab at my estimable predecessors League of Nations," Roosevelt said, his eyes dancing with a kind of inner amusement. "And, considering what my high forehead fellows have been telling me, and what we've learned from Mr. Singh and his rather unfortunate territorial ambitions...I think the first question you mean to ask me is..." He gestured down to himself. "The legs?"

"Y-Yeah," Janeway said.

"Oh, right." Lindy said. "I forgot that."

"It happened right after the strange events that placed us in this new and precarious position," Roosevelt said. "A medical miracle. One repeated across many places and many nations, I'm quite sure. It's all fallen a bit into the wayside of things to be concerned about." He patted a pile of paperwork on his desk. "There are several mysteries that are quite pressing, but all of them are hard to focus on when the next Hitler has arrived. Before we even really got a chance to deal with the first." He frowned. "I...I know it's a bit off the topic to ask, but...did we..."

"Yes," Janeway said, smiling despite her shock. "Yes, you absolutely defeated Hitler. He went down as one of the worst dictators in human history."

"And yet, another like him arose in the 1990s?" Roosevelt asked. "A forty year peace isn't exactly what I aim for, but...it's better than the twenty we got. I suppose that's what we must do - double the time of peace each time until..." He spread his hand, as if to encompass the Federation.

"That is roughly the idea," Janeway said. "But, to get to the peace, we need to stop the war. And we have a plan for that..."

"Of course!" Roosevelt said, nodding and standing up. "Shall I call the chiefs of staff together?"


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CURRENT TRUTHS: "Time Amok!"
CURRENT MOMENTUM: 1 (0 for successes, +1 for Janeway's diplomacy ability)

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