Subject: NEW VOY Endgame [challenge response] 1/1 Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2000 12:32:51 -0500 From: Lorelei Organization: - Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative Title: Endgame Author: Lorelei Contact: bint@iname.com Date: 11 August 2000 Series: VOY Part: 1/1 Rating: G Codes: challenge resp. Summary: response to the "write your own series ending" challenge! Thanks to REM for the title. ENDGAME by Lorelei The Newhart Ending Kathryn Janeway's eyes snapped open and she sat up abruptly. Her balding husband stirred, then looked up at her with concern. "You all right, honey?" he asked. She rubbed her forehead and flopped back down on the bed. "Oh, man," she said, "I just had the craziest dream..." *** The Gilligan Ending "Captain, Starfleet Command is hailing us!" Harry announced. Janeway jumped to her feet. "On screen!" Admiral Paris' friendly blue eyes gazed at her, bigger than life. "Voyager! Welcome to Sector 001!" The bridge crew, unable to contain itself, jumped to its feet as one and began to cheer and hug. Janeway, holding back tears of joy, replied, "It's very good to be home, Ad-" Voyager suddenly rocked and shuddered, spilling celebrating crewmen everywhere. The friendly admiral vanished from the screen. "Report!" snapped the captain, falling into her chair. "Captain, we seem to have encountered a subspace anomaly," Harry shouted over the confusion. "It looks like... Oh, no." "Ensign!" Harry swallowed hard. "Um, Captain, I think we're being pulled into a wormhole." "All engines, full reverse!" she ordered. But it was too late; they'd lost helm control and could only watch on the viewscreen the shimmering time-space fluctuation of the wormhole's interior. "Well, let's ride it out," she groused. "Captain, I am picking up the end of the wormhole," Harry announced. "Location?" "Trying to get a read on that right now. There appear to be several ships just beyond the end." Without warning, Voyager emerged from the wormhole into deep, black space, only to be instantly surrounded by a dozen ships of disturbingly familiar design. "They're hailing us," Harry sobbed. "So, Voyager, we meet again," sneered the snake-haired Maj from the viewscreen. Janeway wasted no time in activating the self-destruct. *** The Seinfeld Ending The judge frowned sternly at the Voyager officers, looking solemn but anxious in their dress uniforms. "The charges against you and your crew are serious," the judge began. "In our sector we have strict laws against interference by outsiders. We wish to direct the course of our own scientific advancement, settle our own disputes, have relations only with members of our own species." He looked pointedly at Harry, who squirmed uncomfortably. "In essence, we object to the clumsy attempts of 'good Samaritans' who, in rendering their 'helpful' services, only succeed in setting our society's development and autonomy back by several decades. "Because while in our space you are subject to our laws, it is the opinion of this court that your ship be impounded and you be retained in our penitentiary for rehab until such time as you can demonstrate a willingness and ability to adhere to local laws. "Court is dismissed." Paris leaned over to whisper in Janeway's ear. "Bummer! If only we'd had some kind of directive from Starfleet to follow in the first place, this wouldn't have happened." *** The Cheers Ending Janeway sat alone on the darkened bridge, reflecting on the events of the past weeks. Voyager had returned to the Alpha Quadrant somewhat uneventfully, thanks to the very useful information on new warp technologies they'd received through Barclay. Tom and B'Elanna had finalized their wedding plans and planned to leave Starfleet for humbler pursuits on a distant colony. Harry had already signed on to a mission with another ship, and could not stop grinning as his fingers constantly touched the new pip on his collar. Tuvok, too, had agreed to a new command posting, after a long sabbatical with his family. And Chakotay - well, he had been vague about his plans so far, but it seemed likely that he would ask to stay with Voyager out of habit more than anything else. She had gone to visit Mark, a bittersweet experience. He hadn't married in her absence, but he also didn't need or want her anymore. He was happily occupied with his writing, his friends, his home, and while they agreed to stay in touch, the old feelings were no longer there. Just a deep affection, nothing more. She sighed in the semi-dark. So this is what her life came down to? After their years of sacrifice, she was proud of the successes of her crew. But she herself was alone, and didn't foresee that changing. Duty would always come before happiness. She rubbed the arm of her captain's chair absently, reassured by its soft, familiar texture. The lift door opened, and Chakotay entered. She looked up and watched him as he walked over to seat himself next to her as he had so many times over the years. She smiled sadly. "What are you thinking about?" he asked. "Just reflecting on my life," she answered. "Feeling happy for everyone who finally has what they wanted, and feeling sorry for myself because I'm all alone." "You're not alone, you know," he said. "You still have the one you love the most, who knows your every thought and mood, who has been through wonderful and tragic times with you. She is your best friend, your closest confidante. You need each other and you'll always be together." He smiled and patted her shoulder gently, then left the room. Janeway stared at the blank viewscreen for a moment, then smiled to herself. As she headed for the lift door, she paused to gaze across the bridge. "Good night, Voyager. I'll see you tomorrow," she said. *** The Next Generation Ending Janeway found herself in a courtroom filled with the dregs of galactic society, and a very imperious Q dressed in ornate golden robes. "Q! Why am I here?" "My dear Kate, don't tell me you haven't figured it out yet! When our esteemed colleague, Captain Picard, failed to conclusively prove that humanity was worth saving, the burden of proof then passed on to you. You've been on trial for the last seven years!" Janeway tossed her hair. "Q, surely by now you've noticed that humans are extraordinary creatures, filled with curiosity and ingenuity and goodness. The universe is here to explore and to learn from, and human beings have always been at the forefront in that quest!" Q waved his hand in a careless gesture, and Janeway's soliloquy was silenced. "I'm not convinced, and I'm growing tired of this game," he announced. He snapped his fingers, and Janeway, and the courtroom, and Voyager, and Earth, and the Federation, were gone. Another Q appeared. "I don't know why you didn't just do that in the first place," he grumbled. Q shrugged. "I don't know either. I guess I just have a weakness for cute bipedal species. Come on, let's go see what we can do with that big empty area in the Alpha Quadrant. I feel like redecorating." *** The Hitchhiker Ending In a galaxy far, far away, sometime in the future: "Tandoori branch fry?" asked the man in fluent Zvrkztian. "Leola root stew!" answered his wife. They laughed. However, unbeknownst to the cheery couple, a freak wormhole opened up just then and carried the wife's Zvrkztian words far across space and time, to the mess hall of a silvery ship in an obscure corner of a nonessential galaxy somewhere in the past. The three words whispered across the ears of a spotted yellow man, who, after having agonized for weeks about how to feed 150 hungry crew members, had been nearly on the verge of suggesting that they resort to replicated food for their meals. By an amazing coincidence, the ship had recently filled its cargo bay with something called leola root, and this divine inspiration was too full of flavorful promise to ignore. Six painful leola-filled years later, just as the crew had completed knotting a rope with which to string up the spotted yellow man, he gasped that it was all a misunderstanding, that the idea had actually come to him from afar. A quick check of ship's logs revealed a spatial and temporal distortion at the correct time and location, and the spotted yellow man lived to invent new and even more horrible casseroles. The silvery ship, of course, could not let such a purposely cruel and evil suggestion go unanswered. It traveled at its highest speeds across the universe until it finally arrived in the sector identified as the source of the offending recipe. The crazed captain ordered full spreads of photon torpedoes as the ship dived screaming towards the first planet it saw, where due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire ship was accidentally swallowed by a small dog. -- Lorelei - bint@iname.com