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The only thing worse than returning to the Alpha Quadrant, it turns out, is waiting to be allowed to actually return to the Alpha Quadrant.
Well, they’re there, Naomi supposes. But they haven’t actually been allowed to leave Voyager yet, and it’s been almost two days, which feels like a really long time.
Secretly, Naomi is kind of glad.
Or not so secretly, because she did tell Seven so technically it’s not a secret-secret anymore. But Seven had promised that she saw no reason to tell anyone else, and Naomi knows she’ll keep her word.
She also knows that she’s supposed to be happy, but she can’t shake the feeling that she’s about to lose her home forever. Her mom already had a chat with her about how everyone would be moving on - out of Starfleet, or on to different assignments, or whatever else people did when they weren’t stuck on a Starship tens of thousands of lightyears from home - and how she wouldn’t be able to see everyone every day. About how that included her best friends, even. How she and Naomi would be going to live with Naomi’s dad, and how Icheb would be going straight into Starfleet Academy, and Seven… well, all Naomi knows is that Seven isn’t coming with her.
And it’s all a lot, the waiting. The journey back was also a lot of waiting but everyone is so much more on edge, in a way they never were in the Delta Quadrant. Seven wears a frown nonstop now, and Naomi always seems to catch Icheb pacing, or muttering to himself, and it feels like everywhere she turns, she sees someone crying, and people didn’t cry this much when they weren’t home, which feels kind of backward. She’s heard her mom crying at night even, and she feels a little guilty that she couldn’t make herself get up and go check on her, but she also figures that if her mom wanted her to know, she’d say something. Or maybe she just can’t handle her mom telling her about all the things that are going to be so much better now again.
Everyone seems to be feeling big feelings, and she is too, but she thinks she’s feeling the wrong ones, and there’s only so much she can talk to Seven about that because Seven is feeling a whole different set of big feelings. Things Naomi doesn’t have to worry about, her mom said. Naomi doesn’t know what that means, but she’s pretty sure that’s wrong because Seven is her friend, so obviously she’s going to worry.
And she kind of wishes it was all over, because she feels like she’s in what Neelix used to call a pressure cooker and the steam is going to start screaming out any second now. She’s kind of surprised there hasn’t been any actual screaming.
Except, she realizes too late, the waiting was still much better than the moment she freezes mid-gambit, Kadis-kot piece still in her hand, and Captain Janeway’s voice comes out crystal clear over the ship’s speakers, and ruins everything for good.
Seven glances at her, nods towards the orange piece Naomi has clutched in her fingers, and says in what Naomi thinks is probably what passes for gentle with Seven, “It would appear that our game will need to be rescheduled.”