“Captain, long-range scans have detected what appears to be a wormhole.” Harry could barely keep the excitement out of his voice. “It’s 10.3 light years from our present position. On our current heading we will pass within 2 light years of it.”

“Is it stable, Ensign?”

“It has been in scanning range for only a few minutes but so far it appears stable.”

Kathryn glanced at Chakotay looking for his opinion. At his slight nod, she spoke.

“Tom, adjust our heading to bring us within 1,000,000 kilometers of that wormhole. Warp 7.”

Three days later, Voyager was holding position half a million kilometers from the mouth of the wormhole.  All scans had indicated that it was stable but there were a few readings that concerned Kathryn. The wormhole led in the general direction Voyager wanted to go but fell short, or rather long, of reaching to the Alpha Quadrant. Its actual exit point was on the far side of Federation space about half way between the edge of the galaxy and areas explored by the Federation. Scans indicated an M class planet was less than half a light year from the exit point with no evidence of space faring inhabitants. If Voyager successfully traversed the wormhole, it would still take them about five years to reach Earth. The planet offered them a safe haven to repair any damage resulting from the journey through the wormhole. The Senior Staff had discussed the risks and benefits for hours; it all came down to one thing. Were the risks worth knowing the journey would only be five more years? B'Elanna had prepared a communications buoy with a recorded message that would activate itself at the next communications window with the Pathfinder Project. The message contained all the information they had assembled on the wormhole and its current exit point. All that was needed was for the final order to launch the buoy and send Voyager into the wormhole.

Kathryn sat in her ready room. She had decided hours ago that the benefits far outweighed the risks.  The questions had all been asked and answered, checked and double-checked, all except one. Did she want to go the Earth? What was best for her crew? Sitting and knowing that in less than five years, she would return to Earth and probably be forced to turn nearly one-third of her crew over to Starfleet Security was not the welcome home she had envisioned. The questions Starfleet had been asking had increasingly been focusing on the Maquis and their reliability and loyalty to her and Starfleet. She believed from those questions that the Maquis would be arrested and tried as anticipated by her original orders. Was it in their best interest to return to the Alpha Quadrant? She knew she would have five years to convince Starfleet and the Federation Council to change their minds about the Maquis. She did not look forward to a return to Earth unless she could accomplish that. She stood finally and looked out the viewport on the stars of the Delta Quadrant one last time, then turned to take her station on the Bridge. She hoped five years were enough.

“Ensign Kim, launch the communications buoy.”

“Aye, Captain.”

“Mr. Paris, status?”

“Course for the wormhole calculated and ready to engage, ma’am.”

“Engage at three-quarters impulse and take us in, Mr. Paris.”

“Aye, Captain.”

The aliens stirred from their slumber. Something was different; something was wrong. They had long drowsed contentedly waiting for the people of their chosen planet (called Bajor by its inhabitants) to develop the knowledge and technology to communicate with them. They had occasionally enjoyed listening in on a neighboring community and their communications with the people of Bajor but had grown bored after their neighbors had identified The Sisko as their emissary and brought him to their realm. The aliens had slumbered only briefly as the stars count time when they were disturbed. Now they reacted and closed the access to their chosen planet trapping an intruder within their realm. The reaction to strike out and destroy that which had disturbed their peace was quickly overridden by curiosity about the intruder. Closer examination showed that there were many individual creatures on the intruder so they took the opportunity to learn about them. In turn they asked each individual on the intruder, “Where were you the happiest?”

One man had thoughts of a woman and two young boys playing on a swing set in a park among other children. The boys’ laughter rang out as the man pushed them higher and higher on the swing. The only times the man’s eyes left the boys were when he focused on a woman seated on a cloth under a nearby tree taking food from a basket. The man had memories of other activities but they all involved the woman and usually included the boys.

A tall man remembered a squalling infant held up by a pair of hands for his inspection and the face of a woman weary from her efforts. The emotions were buried deeply within his mind but the pride and joy, and relief, were still evident to the aliens.

A woman remembered a green planet lush with plants and a rushing river with sandy beaches. The violent storms were almost as welcome in her memories as the rows of tiny plants she tended. Mingled with the memories was guilt that she had been happy on that planet and a refusal to admit even to herself that she had been happy there.

A child’s only memories were of her life on the intruder and that jumble of happy memories was overshadowed only occasionally by encounters with a reality that to most children were merely imagination. She saw images of computers and displays and works stations mingled with fantasy characters.

Another woman recalled her passion for her work and her loyalty and friendship with an older man but it was overshadowed by the image of a tall fair skinned younger man and their frequent arguments followed by apologies and expressions of love. This woman had very few happy memories so the joy she found with this man was all the more cherished.

Another man remembered a few days with a young woman, secret meetings, and passionate nights mixed with images of a huge ship breaking into smaller ship. The memories were seldom recalled because of the pain of their parting and her absence. These images were superimposed on other encounters and brief periods of happiness, but those others were never as intense or enduring as the older memories.

A woman remembered an existence as part of a group and felt comfort in belonging, and another earlier existence but not as part of the group and felt nothing. Other memories of laughing with her parents were there but were buried and denied. The aliens were concerned that her soul had died while her body continued.

A young man remembered his time with a woman who had a fiery temper and passions to match. His thoughts were of their time away from the intruder – on a cold rocky snow-covered hillside – drifting alone in environmental suits -- together in a small ship maneuvering through an asteroid belt. The small ship’s antics were later matched by the antics of its two passengers.

Another man remembered working with his hands to create a home, his only reward a smile from a woman. A terrible storm held one of his favorite memories of the woman; she was in his arms for only far too few minutes, but the memory lingered intensely. Other memories were of his life on the intruder with the woman and the peace he had found there even though she was not in his arms.

A young woman remembered the grief of a baby’s death and the joy when the baby was returned to her miraculously. The child’s first steps, antics and aspirations were the highpoints of her life. Lurking in the background of those memories were images of a man who should be there to share the memories.

And so it went as the aliens explored the happiest moments of each person’s life. Every memory included other people but some of those people were not on the intruder. For so many those memories were linked to some of the person’s saddest moments: the death of a loved one or their absence. Some looked forward to returning to the place where those memories had taken place and others looked back longingly knowing they could never return for their journey on the intruder was taking them farther and farther from the person in the memories. Only a few were truly happiest on the intruder and they looked with mixed feelings to the end of their journey.

The aliens pondered what they should do with the intruder. They recognized the inhabitants of the intruder as being like The Sisko so asked his advice and that of their neighboring community. The Sisko requested they not destroy the intruder and his community agreed. This ship would come to the place of the aliens only once. After long discussions, the aliens finally decided to open the sealed end of their realm into their neighbors’ realm and release the intruder there. Their neighbors agreed to send the intruder back to the world of The Sisko.

The aliens however could not allow ‘their’ people to continue with their lives when happiness was not at the end of each person’s journey. Before they opened their realm for the intruder to leave, they made some adjustments. Several people were allowed to live the dreams of those places and times in their past in the area of space the intruder had just left. The body of the one whose life held no happiness because her soul had died long ago was eased gently from her living death. Two had been truly happy only on this journey together and held no hope for a life together of the intruder so the aliens decided to keep them in their realm in an area created for them alone. Their companions on the intruder would never know but their lives together would be long and peaceful. A final act erased from the computer all records of the alien’s realm and the intruder’s journey through it. When all was completed, the intruder was released to the other community and sent back to The Sisko’s people.

Tuvok woke slowly. As he climbed to his feet to stand at his station, he noticed other members of the bridge crew doing the same at their stations. When he realized that he was the highest-ranking officer on the bridge, he turned his station over to an ensign and asked for reports. Four hours later, Tuvok was in the ready room trying to make sense of those reports. Voyager had come out of the wormhole, but not where they had expected. Voyager had exited from the Bajoran wormhole near Deep Space 9 with her warp and impulse engines offline. It had only taken a few minutes to arrange for a tow to a docking port at the station. Now Tuvok had to face Starfleet Command with the most confused report in Voyager’s files.

Voyager should have been at least 5,000 light years from Deep Space 9 nearer the edge of the galaxy. All records of Voyager’s journey through the wormhole had been erased.

Forty members of Voyager’s crew, including Harry Kim and Neelix, were in stasis and could not be awakened. All they could determine so far was that they were dreaming. One member of the crew, Seven of Nine, was dead. Dr. Bashir at DS9 could not determine a cause of death much less a time of death. These confused and incomplete reports were far easier to explain than the condition of the crew.  Tuvok had no idea how he would explain the absence of Voyager’s captain and first officer to Starfleet Command. He still had not been able to come up with an explanation for the crew of Voyager. All he knew was that their communicators were on their chairs on the bridge when Voyager exited the wormhole.

The wormhole aliens hoped they had chosen wisely for the inhabitants of the intruder. One they had gently eased from life. Others could never return to their greatest happiness so they were sleeping and dreaming lives they might have led if they had made different choices. Happiness was a state of mind, so they were now happy. Most had happiness in their future or were returning to the places and people where they had found happiness in the past so they had remained with the intruder. Only two would never find happiness in the world they approached but they had found happiness on a world they once shared. They could not return to that world but they could create a new one with the help of the aliens. Once the newest inhabitants of the wormhole had been assured that the intruder had been sent to The Sisko’s people they settled into their new lives. The Sisko enjoyed watching them learn their way around their new home. One of their first projects was building a boat to take a sail down an unexplored river.